_(Killian Military Base, two weeks after Prom Night Incident)_
Luna stood posture erect, eyes scanning the wall of monitors in front of her, watching the energy levels ebb and flow as the energy transportation system hummed away on standby. Her tense demeanor was a habit formed over ten years of military service climbing the ladder to her current position.
"_Never let them see you sweat,_" she thought to herself with a stern look on her face, arms crossed, foot tapping anxiously on the floor. A shrill squeak echoed through the room as the door to the lab opened and Luna heard the familiar tone of Ultima's black pumps hitting the linoleum floor as she rounded the bend.
"How are things looking Montgomery?" Luna turned to eye her assistant, who was dressed in a formal U.N.S.A. uniform in preparation for the presentation, her sailor's cap resting gently on her neatly pressed blonde hair that flowed freely over her ears behind her shoulders. Ultima wore a long-sleeve V-neck double-breasted coat with three gold buttons, a pencil skirt, and a red tie to tie the outfit together.
"Yes Commander, energy levels on both ends are holding steady, all of the top brass has gathered in the demonstration hall," Ultima stated, although Luna noticed that her voice did not have its normal cheery edge, and her eyes were darting about more than usual, her usual carefree demeanor appeared somewhat restrained, almost self-conscious, which Luna had thought to be an impossible disposition for Ultima.
"Speak freely lieutenant, is something bothering you?" Luna asked as she shuffled up her notes and walked to a nearby mirror to double-check her outfit.
"Well ma'am, it's about the test, I know that we have done all we can to prepare, but there are just so many variables involved with the live test that it has me worried," Ultima said as she absent-mindedly brushed her blonde hair out of her eyes and tucked it behind her right ear. "I know we are under a timeline to produce results for continued funding but..." Ultima voice trailed off slowly.
"Exactly," Luna retorted flatly as she gingerly placed her sailor's cap on top of her short black hair, pulling at her bangs to find the right orientation that conveyed "professional badass". "Ultima, everyone in this lab is being tasked to do the impossible, today we have the chance to actually achieve it, plenty of parties don't want us to succeed, but there is no guaranteeing we'll have another opportunity like this. Any failures or problems fall on _me_, so you don't need to worry." Luna smiled at Ultima through the mirror, applying some makeup to cover up the bags under her eyes from the many recent over-nighters and readjusted her belt further up her waist.
Luna's outfit consisted of a Commander-level U.N.S.A. long sleeve side-button down jacket that extended down to her upper thigh, three buttons pushing out over her perky DDD bust, under which she wore standard navy-blue dress pants. The popped jacket collar rigidly stood up all the way to her lower cheek bones and was open in the front to reveal her slender neck encircled by the white collar of her button-down dress shirt underneath.
"Besides, you've already done all the hard work re-aligning the energy matrix. That incident at Killian high school actually produced just the breakthrough we needed and now we get to reap the benefits," said Luna as she turned away from the mirror, notes in one hand and strode proudly past Ultima, placing a reassuring yet firm hand on her shoulder. "Remember, I'm doing this for all of us, so have a little faith in your commander," she said cheerfully as she locked eyes with Ultima.
"Y-Yes ma'am," Ultima fought back the objections in her mind under the fire of Luna's steely glare and put on her more normal (albeit forced) smile, body still uncomfortably fidgeting from side to side.
"And tighten up that posture lieutenant, all eyes are going to be on us for the next twenty minutes, let's show them what we're made of!" Luna walked past Ultima to head out the door to the conference hall for the demonstration.
"Yes Ma'am!" Ultima fell in line walking slightly behind and to the left of Luna as the two exited the room. Unknown to both, a subtle warning appeared on the screen reading, "_warning external intruder detected,_" on the console but it was dismissed just as quickly as it appeared.
The conference hall room was spacious with a twenty-foot-high ceiling, lighting from the crown molding illuminating the few tables placed towards the front of the room where a slightly elevated stage sat, a singular podium atop it.
As Luna walked in followed by Ultima, she quickly eyed the fifteen VIPs consisting mainly of top brass from the various branches of the military as well a few key political donors and scientists. Senator Richmond's face had a stern expression on it, being a representative of Arizona, he had a lot of pressure to assure his constituents that the growth research taking place in his state would not cause further outbreaks affecting civilians.
Among the top brass was General Hightower, a big mover in the Army branch that had been working on using the energy for super-soldiers as far back as Luna could remember. There were also a few professors that had various positions in the energy research programs developing storage crystals and collaborating with Doc Hudson on the initial ingestible super soldier pills.
General Bill Riggs, also from the army stood out to her immediately, who gave the usual professional smile that attempted to gloss over the pair's past romantic relationship when they were in military school. Luna averted her eyes and walked to the front of the room to place her notes on the podium and survey the rest of the setup.
Behind and slightly to the right on the podium on a lower level was a table with a large monitor serving as the main control station for the demonstration where Sergeant Alexander Dunn was standing, methodically typing away, a stern expression on his face.
"_I hope Ultima's apprehension hasn't spread to him too, dammit of all the days... I need everyone fully invested in this, or it's like we've already failed."_ Luna turned sharply to look down and address Alexander with a booming "Dunn!"
"Yes Ma'...uh Commander!" Alexander stiffened reflexively to address his superior, eyes averting just in time from Luna's belt-accentuated hourglass figure to maintain propriety.
"How is communication with the Luxembourg?" Luna put one hand on her hip, glaring downward, eyebrow raised high enough to destroy any suspicion that she was at all in a playful mood today.
"Crystal clear ma'am, Luxembourg is reporting their energy levels are holding steady, and orbital coordinates are well within tolerance. We should get the go-ahead for frequency synchronization any minute now." Alexander self-consciously adjusted his blonde locks peeking out from under his cap as he surveyed the multiple superior officers that had gathered in the room while he was indisposed.
"Good, as soon as you get permission, get it started, we don't want any delays holding us up!" Luna snapped as she did a zero-degree turn on her heels to walk over to the far side of the stage where the matter transporter was set up.
