Foreword: Current Events

	It was extremely ironic that the danger to the Solar
System had come from the Sun, light and life source of the
many planets and satellites of the Milky Way. Earth had
aligned itself with an unconquerable evil and had been
swallowed by Metallia's uncompromising hunger in the
process. Slowly, slowly, ever so slowly, the tendrils of
darkness began wrapping the world in a loving death grip,
merely the barest traces of shadow. The first attack had
been a complete surprise, as well as a crushing blow:
Uranus, strongest among the planets of the Silver Alliance,
had fallen first. Their princess had been captured, along
with her lover-Neptune's ruler. The neighboring planet had
gone next, and Saturn's destruction had followed rather
suddenly, close on its heels. The planet's young princess
was also in Earth's custody-and Metallia's. The previously
bright and beautiful rings of Saturn had been darkened in
the planet's tragic downfall. Then fell the Inner Planets:
Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and finally Mercury. It seemed that
Metallia had wished to move from the edge of the system
inwards until she reached the great burning gas ball from
which she had arrived. There were, however, no princesses
captured this time around, for they had all been on the
Moon as handmaidens to the Princess Selena of that satellite.

	But the Moon, center point of the Silver Alliance, was
no safe haven. It too, fell, and Queen Selenity was whisked
away to the deepest and most secret dungeons within Elysion-
no one knew whether or not she had seen the young Outer
royalty there. Her daughter, along with her four guardians,
disappeared just when victory against them seemed
unavoidable. And even as their people lay bloodied, dying,
and beaten, it seemed as if the sun shone for a brief instant
from behind gloomy gray clouds. They were the only hope left
for the future, these five young women. Each of them were
every inch a princess with the purest blue blood of their
planets running through their veins-not that either of these
two characteristics would help them...for Selena, Mina, Lita,
Rei, and Ami had been unable to escape to the only protected
planet left in the Solar System: Pluto. It would have been
pointless to teleport with what was left over of their
precious energy to some dark and blooded planet overrun
with youma and other evidence of Metallia's triumphs.

	Instead, the leader of the guard, the Princess of Venus,
had chosen a nearby planet...a planet whose mere mention would
leave a vile, bitter taste in their mouths, for the planet had
been the key to Metallia's escape. The beautiful blue and green
globe, perfectly suspended in the twinkling darkness of space-a
natural black compared to Metallia's, a sphere that had lost
its four generals overthrowing and destroying the rightful
monarchy of the seven planets and one satellite, an orb with an
environment formed by nature and reality rather than magic and
crystal..a place called Earth: Terra.
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