Lunar Eclipse: Prolog

Commissioner Kamishirasawa, Keine Kamishirasawa, sipped at her tea. The room she was in, was darkened, as she preferred, when alone.  It was an open secret that the Kamishirasawa line had youkai traits, but even given the new unity in the wake of the Lunar Empire's declarations, it was not politic to remind people of her nature.

However, her office was closed, most of the floor empty.  Only a few brave or foolish souls working overtime were left. Like her, they stared at multiple screens, physical security keys lying on their desk looking like ancient tablets of authority. Sometimes even a few sheets of physical paper were scattered on the surface.

Here was where history was decided, where truth and story and secret swap their clothes.  Whole cities were hidden and created every week, the layers of conspiracy and misrecording carefully nurtured into a thicket of deception.

After all the New Earth Government was, by Law, a democracy.

The 'Rule of Law' and the 'Will of the People' were their highest principles, and therefore in the War, their greatest weaknesses.  For what were society, wealth, justice, and peace, but each a madness of the crowd? And the Moon ruled Madness.  The traitors had weakened the Moon's power significantly, but they were no more trustworthy then their former masters, and while the Moon might not care what their wayward daughters had done on Earth, the Kamishirasawa remembered the disasters they had arranged.

Right now, Kamishirasawa was skimming Greater California's Minerstry of Transportation's last few Monthly Reports. It had the proper conclusions, and showed the requisite priority shifts, but the security level 2H version of the report did indeed seem to be missing a number of expenditures that should have  been there at that clearance level and topic. With them missing the expenditures at the 3C level were obvious.

The team had recommended that this should be quietly mentioned to Dyson Lmt. They had quietly bribed the Minister after all and would rebuke her also quietly.  If done right her superiors should never have to acknowledge the mistake.  This would in turn strengthen the Dyson groups anti-war sentiments, and therefore strengthen the resolve of their opponents.

Kamishirasawa ultimately decided that she approved, though they were pushing against safe limits of infighting in the California Ministry and might have to cull the ranks a bit soon.

Looking at the view-screen that showed the gibbous moon, she sighed, she had to stop giving herself busy work, just because she didn't want to think about it, didn't the signs weren't there. Even the time of the month was right.  Unregistered migratory souls were on the rise, and geothaumic energy production was almost 10% higher than expected.  Cases of Lunacy, the oldest and most obvious of the Moon's subtle warfare were on the rise. Even the Hakurei Group were moving, and they always delayed as long as they could. The last time they went to war, Makai returned to being named Mars because no citizens of the Makai Theocracy remained alive. It was time to plan for the next Monthly Audit, and this was going to be a big one.

Still, why was Tsukiyomi being so obvious? It had to mean there was something they thought they could gain now, before NGE responded. All that power, all these jabs and feints and preparations, pulled resources from the Colonies. Which was where the War had been fought so far.