That was one well needed beer but it showed it's effect after one pint already. Michiru fell asleep on the bed and the two pilots sat on the floor talking. Haruka told SunTzu their story from when their Guardian Powers awoke till they discovered the Hyperlane to Coruscant, drinking the rest of the beer and another sixpack. Somewhen around 3am Earth Time they both fell asleep too, leaning against the bed.
Somewhen around 5 am Michiru woke them both up and SunTzu left for his room.
At 7 he had to get up and get ready, because they had a debrief at 8.
He met up with the girls and they left.
The debrief was exactly as eventful and exciting as the whole mission had been and 45 minutes later they left the mission center again, good thing that they were off duty today so Haruka and SunTzu went back to bed while Michiru went to have breakfast with Setsuna and Hotaru.
The Far Side hung over Coruscant and at noon a Shuttle carrying the royal couple and the inner Senshi, escorted by two of the Headhunters left for the planet, more specifically the rebuild Imperial Palace, Seat of the Government of the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances.
The two pilots met for lunch and Michiru joined them.
„Look who finally made it out of bed. And straight to lunch. We're living our best lives aren't we?" She said with a smile then leaned over and kissed Haruka.
„SunTzu, Setsuna gives her regards."
No, I don't think she does.
"She strongly implies that you should train with her this afternoon. She thinks your lacking in Close Combat. Oh and by the way you two, the Royal Couple is at the Imperial Palace, looks like our trip is not over yet."
They finished the meal wondering where they'd go next.
SunTzu was back in his room and wanted to finally enjoy some free time doing sweet nothing when it banged on the door. He opened and found Setsuna, transformed waiting there with an impatient look on her face.
"Time to train Lieutenant. You have a minute to get ready."
He was about to protest but he was pretty sure she'd fuck him up anyway so it would be better to at least do it where there were mats.
He changed into sport clothes and followed her into the training room.
"Don't worry, I know you had a hard week, so today we gonna train fighting together not against each other. Would you please get one of the training sticks from the wall?" She ordered him. At least this won't pain as much as last time.
They trained for several hours and started with basic combat stances up to the point where one defended and the other striked out. Not bad for the first time but damn she had endurance.
They both were completely drenched in sweat but he had to admit she made fighting with her orb look like art. Her combat style was so flowing that it reminded one on dancing.
Like stated, the dark haired ones here where the real danger.
She said goodbye tight-lipped as always and told him, that they'll train together again tomorrow and then left.
He left also and he was completely busted when he stepped out the shower.
He checked his phone and saw he was ordered to participate in a briefing in half a hour, so he changed into an uniform and left again.
No rest for the weary.
He got into the mission center early and settled next to Marvin who already was there. They talked for a while and Marvin made a few jokes if he would ever fly straight forward again and SunTzu said, that he won't even park forward anymore.
Bit by bit the others trickled in.
The other pilots settled down around them and Pluto and Saturn settled behind Uranus and Neptune who in turn were sitting behind Marvin and SunTzu.
The last to enter where Uranus and the King.
The briefing was short but pregnant. A big gang of slavers was terrorizing some planets in the colonies near Doldrums. The Slavers didn't have a base but operated with a Dungeon Ship, which made them very flexible and hard to catch. All of the GA's Fourth Fleet Assets, the Core Fleet, were busy somewhere and TF Sol was the only available unit up to the Imperial Remnant or Corellia. TF Sol was on it's next Search & Destroy time officially for the GA. The Far Star was about to set course in the next hour and arrive in the Area of Operations within four hours.
Looks like there was a new sheriff in town.
After the boredom of last week a bit of action wouldn't be too bad and this time hopefully without any asteroid fields.
Marvin did a briefing for the TF's Fighter Element in the follow up of the main briefing and told the Pilots about their roles. The Voyager and AICA were about to strike first and fast against any enemy fighters while Marvin and the Headhunters would close off the battlefield so that nobody got away. The Companion would take the Fighter Screening duty around the Far Side. So far, so easy.
The pilots left the mission center to get ready. At the hangar SunTzu instructed AICA who answered enthusiastically. The ground crew informed him that the Voyager and AICA had been outfitted with enhanced Multi-Lock-Missiles, two each as they were very spare. The Missile could lock on to four targets at once and the main missile would eject four smaller warheads heading for the locked targets. Someone would be in for a nasty surprise.
They still had two hours left after all the preparations had been done. The ship was the exact opposite to last week, it was loud, stressful and everywhere were people running around.
The waiting time was the worst. The three wingmen decided to not wait at their fighters and headed for the cafeteria, having a coffee and a small snack, killing time somehow.
SunTzu thought that maybe he should have slept more but the coffee worked wonders.
One and a half hour later the three of them were about to get in their cockpits, standing in front of their ships.
"This waiting is killing me. But at least we get back into doing something senseful and exciting. We fly the new formation we trained, right?" Haruka told.
"Yup, I'll be slight behind and under keeping it clear and my eyes open. I got ya."
"Same. Can't wait to test out this new missiles."
"Yeah, they won't like that." SunTzu said
"Alright, see you at the debriefing then. May the moonlight light your way." Haruka told him.
"May the moonlight light your way. And may the force be with you." He replied and nodded, doing a variant of fist bumps with Haruka and then he and Michiru hugged.
He walked over to the cockpit entrance of AICA when he saw, that Saturn was talking to the Starfighter.
"I see your going to battle again Kiddo."
"Hi. Yeah. Me, Chibi-Moon and Pluto are on Gunship Three with Sailor Venus and more medics. We're going in to secure the Slaves. I'd rather be on the first Gunship with the Special Forces doing the first entry." She said, a bit disappointed.
"It will be dangerous enough out there. Do me a favor and take care, will ya?"
She looked at him for a moment and then a hint of a smile appeared at her face.
"Sure. AICA just told me you'll take good care that space will be safe."
SunTzu smiled and nodded.
"That's our job. See you later. And don't do stupid things." He told her.
"You sound like Mom, you know that?" She giggled, waved and walked over to Sailor Venus and Sailor Pluto that were instructing a group of Medics.
He made himself comfortable in the cockpit and started to do some Jedi Meditation Methods, this time he wanted to be ready from the start.
A few minutes later he could feel a strong, fiery energy, but not force related walk up to the ship. He opened his eyes again and Sailor Mars came up to AICA.
She stepped up the steps to the cockpit and her face popped up next to his.
"Hi, do I disturb you?" She asked.
"Hey, no. I was just meditating and not sleeping if you thought so." He answered with a smile.
"As a Shinto Priestess I know the difference of course." She said, sporting a smile too.
"You're going in, too?" He asked her.
"Second Shuttle with Jupiter, Mercury and Team 1. Helping to mop up the resistance."
"I see. We'll make sure the coast is clear for the Lartys, okay?"
"Just do your TopGun Thing as always." She replied.
"It's actually way more like Hot Shots, but please don't tell anybody. I got a reputation to loose." He joked.
"You take care out there, okay?" She honestly told him.
"Always. And I got the girls looking out for me too." He pointed onto the Voyager.
"Hey Rei?" He said with a serious voice and Sailor Mars looked back at him. "Take care out there too. Don't do anything I would do"
She giggled.
"Don't worry, I will. Grandpa didn't raise a fool, you know. I leave doing stupid stuff to you, TopGun."
They both shared another smile and she left.
Wait. Did she just showed genuine concern over him?
A starfighter further an intrigued Michiru was smiling under her helmet from what she just observed. It looked like her new coworker was already settling in well.
A few minutes later the Taskforce fell out of Hyperspace somewhere near Doldrums and AICA and the Voyager immediately launched out the Hangar, followed by Terra Squadron.
"Back to the always so entertaining game of Search the Bad Guys?" SunTzu asked the girls over radio.
"Looks like it. Well at least we have experience in scanning for things now."
A hour later they were still patrolling space, waiting for anything going on. He was tired, he was annoyed and this seemed completely senseless. Just like the whole last week. At least Pluto had made sure that he sweated his hangover out earlier on. But therefor now he felt his whole body aching.
"Goddamit, this sucks. For one week I haven't done anything else yet." SunTzu complained vocally.
"What's wrong Fritz? I thought you Germans were always so neat and don't complain about work." Haruka mocked him, laughing.
"Oh don't get me started, Jerry!"
"Are you tired or didn't you tolerate the beer yesterday? How ungerman of you." She went on. When bored, annoy the wingman, the classic.
He sighed and then set on a monologue.
"You know… My flagship's Captain is a cat, my reigning sovereign has a teenage daughter that makes her look like an underage mom and my starfighter has a kink for cyber crime. But yet, the worst thing that there is here, is that my wingman is half British. And The Galaxy thinks the Jedi Order was a bunch of weird individuals!"
Silence.
After a few moments Michiru's loud laughter came over the radio.
"Joli." She commented in French.
Twenty minutes later, Stinger Jordan came in over the tactical radio channel.
The Slavers were attacking in a nearby system and sent over the coordinates for an immediate jump to hyperspace.
Thank the force for that timing.
They jumped into hyperspace leading the Taskforce on and fell out of Hyperspace two minutes later, with the rest of the fleet following close.
The small slaver fleet was attacking a big passenger ship, probably with hundreds of lifeforms on board.
On the bridge of the Far Side, Endymion and Artemis assessed the situation.
"We read 20 snubs, the dungeon ship, a Kiltrin-Class frigate , a gunship and two other frigates. One of them a Nebulon-B2, this one could be dangerous even for the Far Star." Artemis explained the enemy strength to his king.
"Artemis, let our starfighters attack the enemies' fighters and concentrate our fire on the nearest frigate." The King ordered.
"Ladies we're going in. SunTzu fall back behind us. Shields up and target computers on. Michiru, as soon as you got locks, tell me. Same goes for you SunTzu." Haruka instructed them.
They pushed out and head for the cloud of fighters soaring around the Civilian vessel.
Except for a near Interceptor IV Frigate that shifted direction to the Far Side nobody seem to take notice of them now.
Time to change that.
Michiru and AICA almost simultaneously got a lock on four fighters each. An acoustical signal notified the pilots of the Lock-on they also saw in their helmet displays.
"Fire!" Haruka yelled.
"Missile away!" SunTzu and Michiru reported simultaneously. Each fighter started a missile that flew for about an kilometer and then split up in four smaller Missiles rushing towards their targets.
All eight of them found a target in the cloud of fighters and explosions were visible around the Passenger Ship.
In the meantime the Far Side opened fire on the Interceptor Frigate. After a few seconds the Shields of the smaller ship flickered and finally gave up. Not even ten seconds later it's remains were spitting out fire, crew members and debris into the void of space.
The Frigate managed to shot a salvo of three torpedoes towards the Far Side but all three were intercepted by the Far Side's Point Defence weapons.
The enemy fighters formed up and rushed toward the Voyager and AICA.
"Let's break off and make them split!" Haruka said and they broke their small formation and veered into a different direction each. Making way for four Z-95s and an A-Wing, shooting another barrage of six rockets at the enemy formation. Another five downed enemy fighters and a double kill for Marvin later, the numerical odds between the StarFighters was even. The enemy learned a bloody lesson dissolved it's formation trying to score in close dog fighting now.
A Skipray Blastboat rushed as fast as it could behind the Voyager. The old but heavy armored ship couldn't get a lock for it's rockets against the Voyager's Jammers and opted for laser fire instead.
A volley lighted up the Voyager's shield.
"Oh, I can do that too." Michiru said and answered with a volley of laser fire from her rear turret. The Blastboat's Shields held but it started jinking and dove into the blind angle of the Aggressor but couldn't get a straight shot against the Tie anymore as Haruka was flying evasive maneuvers.
The Gunship stopped its jinking and came up again.
"Oh Baby, that was stupid." Michiru said and lighted the enemie's shield up with the rear ion cannon. After three shots that burned through the Skipray's shield she switched back to Lasers and ended the whole thing with a salvo into the Skipray's Cockpit. The second shot vaporized the pilot, the fourth finally made the Blastboat explode.
"Why did you make them think they had any kind of chance and just didn't outmaneuver them?" Michiru asked her Pilot.
"I thought I'd get you an easy kill too my love." The Pilot said and shrugged.
Michiru smiled and shook her head. Typical Haruka, always playing with the enemy.
Meanwhile SunTzu had a dance with a old battered X-Wing sporting a faded Rebel Alliance Paintjob. The pilot was good and they were dogfighting close for quite some time now, waiting for an opening in the other's Defence now. The X-Wing stayed so close that he couldn't make use AICA's rotatable cannons either.
Doing another round of barrel rolls around each other, SunTzu took a deep breather and opened himself for the force. And boom, it suddenly became so clear. He could foresee what the X-Wing was about to do next. It was risky but SunTzu pulled out all the thrust and abruptly stopped, the X-Wing's lower X-Foils already scratching his shield. As the X-Wing overshot him, his hands danced over the the cannon controls and started firing, following the other fighters course. It took a few shots till the aft Shields broke down but the next shot cut off two of the foils and burned the lower thrusters of the X-Wing. The X-Wings spiral became wider as he spun away and another laser salvo made the X-Wing explode in a fiery ball of fire.
That was five for today. Hello Ace-Status.
But first of all now, where the hell were his wingmen. He took a quick glance at his radar and turned into a Immelmann Maneuver.
Elsewhere a angry Nebulon-B2 was throwing everything it had against the Far Side, making the Shields of the Gladiator light up all over it.
"All turrets target the shield generator. Fire on my mark!" Artemis announced.
"Front Shields down to 50 Percent Captain!" The Officer in charge of the Shields informed his Skipper.
Artemis looked over to the Ship Weapons Lieutenant, who nodded.
"Fire!"
Twelve Turbolaser turrets opened fire at the same spot on the Nebulon-B2 Frigate and the ate their way through the Frigates Shields and hammered into its shield generator. The enemy Frigate put all her remaining energy in the engines and turned around. This didn't save her Shield Generator but the Dungeon Ship came to it's help and hammered into the Far Side's weakened frontal Shields with it's quad Turbolasers.
"Disengage, put extra energy in the frontal Shields!" Artemis ordered. He couldn't simply destroy the 150 Meter long Dungeon ship, which was built after Mandalorian designs, because of the possible Slaves on board.
"Ion Torpedoes?" He asked Endymion and Endymion answered.
"Ion Torpedoes."
Artemis turned around and instructed the Bridge Crew.
"Launchers load Ion-Torpedoes. Turbo-Lasers attack the Dungeon ships engines as soon as possible. Don't let this ship get away. Raid Parties to Standby for Boarding." The plain white haired Officer ordered.
SunTzu linked up with the Voyager again when a VCX Freighter bristling with laser turrets shot past them, some of the shots landing way to close for comfort.
"Looks like this guy is angry with us" Michiru stated.
"Why people always get so mad when we show up to their parties?" Haruka commented.
"He's a big fella. I guess we tag team him with our new toys"
"Roger, let's bring some distance between us. Stay with me."
They sped up and flew a turn away from the Freighter. After bringing some distance in between them, they turned around again, as the Freighter also did. The ships were now racing towards each other, what the CEC Freighter didn't know, was that the two fighters shooting towards him had a nasty surprise for him.
As soon as they got a lock, the two Starfighters shot their remaining Multi-Lock-Missiles and while the two Starfighters veered away again eight warheads were racing towards the Gunship now. Four were needed to shut down the Shields, two didn't hit, one destroyed a turret but the last one crashed trough the cockpit panel and exploded somewhere in the middle of the ship, ripping it apart from the inside.
"Bloody 'ell. I like these doodahs!" Haruka announced over the radio, cheering.
"Michiru, could you be so kind and translate what Haruka just said?"
"Negative. Pilot Tenou seems to speak in foreign tongues."
"Shut up you two!" Haruka complained!
The rest of the Fighters were quickly disabled from Terra Squadron with the help of the companion. Two enemy fighter bombers endured a bad surprise when they tried to attack the gladiator from below and found the Companion, with it's Anti-Fighter-Lasers waiting.
A full salvo of Ion-Torpedoes made the Kiltirin hang motionless next to Far Side who already had her in tractor beams working on her and the Laser turrets facing towards her neutralized through aimed shots of her own Turbo-Lasers.
The Nebulon-B2 was still on the run but the last shots of the Far Side before turning in on the Dungeon Ship messed up her engines pretty well too.
Artemis ordered the whole force of Fighters to finish the whole thing.
All seven fighters formed and formation and flew on a course towards the Frigate so they would face the complete port side.
"Okay People, listen." Marvin came in over the tactical frequency. "We target the ship's connecting spar with force. It's more durable than the one's on the regular Neb-B but I'm pretty sure it will work. I'll transmit the target."
Seven starfighter with Marvin's red A-Wing in the middle of its formation launched fourteen missiles at once, each finding its target in the middle part of the Frigate. With big secondary the Capital Ship broke in two a few seconds after the impacts and the two halves, each still rocked by secondary explosions slowly drifted apart.
The Boarding Teams got their order to lift off and the first one to go was the single Gamma Class Assault Shuttle, that the Far Side housed. Specifically built for boarding operations, it was meant to cling onto the enemy ship, the troops inside then sliced their way through the fuselage and entered.
Special Forces Team 3 was specifically trained for this and Team 2 was also on board to support them. Made up of former US Marines, from special Units, Team 2 had hundreds of hours of boarding experience too, if only on sea based vessels.
After fighting their way in and seizing the small hangar the Kiltrin possessed the other team supported by three Senshi as well as team of medics, lead by Pluto and Venus would be brought in. After that the regular troops of the Taskforce were on standby for additional support.
While the fighters took point and swarmed the Kiltirin the Gamma slowly left the big hangar opening in the middle of the Far Side. Marvin and Odegana escorted the ship to the top of the Dungeon ship's front section.
The Gamma Class docked and within a minute the first of Terra's Soldiers were inside the Kiltirin.
Good luck in there boys, SunTzu wished them.
Eleven minutes later and some fierce gunfights later, the Commandos radioed in that the Hangar had been seized. Immediately the first Larty shot out the Far Side and took course.
"I'll escort." SunTzu radioed through and took the starboard position of the Gunship. He gave a quick salute to the pilot and they steered over to the enemy Capital ship.
He made AICA visible hover in front of the Hangar, able to immediately push inside and engage. He saw Team 1 and the Senshi dismount and the girls even turned around to greet him, with Jupiter giving a quick two finger salute. After they left the Hangar he made room for the Larty to exit again and flew over to the Far Side again, to escort the LAAT/i carrying the Medic Troop over.
He did the same as before and saw Saturn happily waving at them when he and AICA veered off.
Meanwhile the first two teams advanced in the ship, soon supported by the Senshi and Team 1. The loss of the rest of the fleet broke the slaver's morale and after the first attempts to defend they almost showed no resistance anymore with most of the Slavers just capitulating.
More troops were still flowing in, just in case.
Artemis informed the Taskforce that a medical Frigate to take care of the enslaved hostages was on it's way along with a RASP Detachment to take care of the arrested Slavers.
"I heard Kessel is nice this time of year." Haruka told over the radio.
"I don't even know if that's enough of a punishment for those fuckheads. They're slavers after all. Might just drop them out a airlock." SunTzu replied with a serious voice.
"That's… not very Jedi of you." Haruka replied surprised.
"I'm not a Jedi. I'm only a soldier and pilot and try to project some peace over this crazy Galaxy. Don't tell that to my Jedi Overseer tho."
Two hours later RASP and the Medical Frigate showed up and they took the Case.
The Starfighters were the last to land, just after the last flight of the Gunships lifted down.
They had zero casualties, except a non harmful knife wound and some bruises. The start of the fight inside the Dungeon Ship was pretty heavy but the agressiveness and speed of the Commandos overwhelmed the enemy completely.
Around 300 enslaved sentient lifeforms were on board the Kiltirin and the medical detachment gave first aid to the most dire cases before a bigger medical team from the GA Frigate took over.
All in all it was a flawless victory. Almost too easy.
The Starfighter Pilots met in the middle of the Hangar when everybody was back and cheered. Hands were shaken and shoulders patted. Haruka gave SunTzu a firm handshake going over into a hug and both congratulated each other to being Ace in one Mission. Michiru followed with a hug.
A pleased sounding King announced the end of the mission and congratulated everybody to the success.
Although they all were tired and exhausted the next stop was the cafeteria, it was time to celebrate. And the cafeteria's staff always had a secret stash of good stuff stashed away for moments like this.
Almost too easy. But rather celebrate now, than regret later. This was just the beginning.
Deep down he knew there was something big coming up.