SunTzu woke up in Anniten's hotel room, more precisely in her queensize bed, the blonde princess still sound asleep besides him.
The two of them hadn't talked about what had happened yesterday night anymore, or the status of their relationship, but had settled the whole thing in the horizontal, relieving their stress and anger about the last night and day with the other.
SunTzu smiled as he watched her peacefully sleeping. What she missed in experience she made up in endurance and she sure had pushed him to the maximum of his stamina this night.
Unsatiable little minx.
SunTzu sat up straight, which provoked her to move and she smiled joyfully before she opened her eyes.
The pilot leaned down and kissed her head, which made Anniten lay her arms around him and with closed eyes lay down on his lap.
"Good Morning." SunTzu said in a low voice.
"Good Morning. Boyfriend." Anniten answered.
"I'm glad we could settle this now." SunTzu replied and Anniten began to giggle.
"Since it's so so important for you. Kriff, I don't even want to know how many bitches were over you yesterday. It's only logical to cuff you."
"Cuff me?" SunTzu asked in fake shock and Anniten sat up, with the help of her arms and then cupped his face.
"Yes, cuff you. I'll make sure to be the last woman you'll be with." She locked eyes with him and then, with a grin on her face, leaned in to kiss his lips intimately.
The couple spent the whole day together in Coruscant, just the two of them. SunTzu could see that Anniten made sure he understood that she was serious about him now with the way she acted and with how close she stayed. He greatly enjoyed the day on Coruscant with his girlfriend.
It was early evening and they were just about to head out for dinner when SunTzu's phone rang, it was Ada.
"Ada?"
"SunTzu, how fast can you be in my office?"
"I can come right over? What's up?"
"You haven't heard yet? It's even on the holo news by now."
"Let me check."
SunTzu turned on the holo projector while Anniten came out of the bathroom in a beautiful long black dress and was putting her jewelry on.
SunTzu turned on a news channel and his eyes widened when he saw what they were broadcasting.
Scenes of a large fleet moving towards a planet and the special bulletin caption read that parts of the Southern Expansion Region had been occupied by the enemy. Even Vandelhelm and Woostri had been conquered by the enemy, equipped with a mixture of Ex-Imperial and CIS-warmachines.
For a moment SunTzu just looked at the screen, sitting on the bed.
"I guess you saw it." Ada came on again.
"I'll be right over, AICA is on Earth but I'll leave directly after our meeting."
He hung up and took another glance at the broadcast.
Anniten had sat down behind him and laid her arms around him.
"You have to go, right?"
"Unfortunately."
Her head slumped on his back.
"Can you please stay here. Please stay here with me."
He took her hand gave it a gentle kiss.
"I'm an Officer of the Galactic Alliance, I have to fulfill my duty."
"But can't you do that from here? What difference can a single person make there? Why can't you stay? Let me talk with your superiors, I bet I can make you an attaché or something for Linta. And we can stay together."
SunTzu fell silent for a moment.
And then he turned around, laid his fingers gently on her face and kissed her tenderly.
"I'm sorry. I have to go."
He got up and got ready to leave, while Anniten stayed behind on the bed.
As he was almost out of the door she stopped him and made him turn around.
A long and passionate kiss followed.
"I'll be waiting for you. Please contact me as often as you can."
"Will do."
"Take care, okay?"
SunTzu nodded and they kissed again.
He took a cab over to the Palace and met with Ada. Within two hours he was on the next flight to Earth.
From the shuttle to Earth, along with writing with Anniten all the time, he also contacted Ami and Hotaru and while the former already knew he was on his way, the second told him that she had also expected him already.
Taskforce Sol would leave by dawn for the Expansion Region as well, as the Ninth and the Third had requested every help they could get, both Fleets had suffered heavy losses in the last enemy offensive.
When the shuttle landed he was surprised to see Ami waiting personally at Haneda's space terminal for him. They greeted each other heartily and SunTzu made a joke that he hadn't expected it to see her again so soon, before he apologized for not coming to the table yesterday night.
Of course Ami understood but she couldn't also help but to state that Minako probably wouldn't become a friend of his girlfriend anymore.
On the drive to the Palace Ami told him the latest news about the Taskforce.
The plan was that the Ninth under General Keyan Farlander would act as Hammer for the Third Fleet under Bel Iblis.
As small flotilla Taskforce Sol was to slip through the enemy lines and act as Quick Reaction Force for the Ninth Fleet afterwards.
The three Corvettes and the Far Side would make way in the morning, while the two Space Galleons would leave Earth afterwards and would be used as Transports for Supplies and Groundtroops, mostly Spec Forces from Corulag and Anaxes, to the Frontline.
Ami and SunTzu arrived at the entrance to the military base, traffic was pretty heavy already. A clear indicator that the Taskforce would move out.
After a few minutes and showing their IDs, while the car got checked by a sniffer dog, they passed the gate checkpoint.
"I know you probably wanna leave immediately but maybe having dinner first wouldn't be the worst idea. Who knows when you get a decent meal the next time."
SunTzu looked at Ami and thought about her suggestion. And then he nodded.
"You're right my friend. As far as I know the ground crew is also still busy with AICA so I guess I can have at least a decent meal before I step off."
The two friends went to the mess hall and had dinner.
They just had sat down with their meal when Makoto called Ami on her cell phone. The tall brunette was on her way home from a date with her husband and would soon make her way to the base as well, overseeing the boarding of the three Commando Teams she commanded. After she had hung up, Motoki joined SunTzu and Ami at the table. As head of the Royal Guard he would stay at Crystal Tokyo and guard the Kingdom with most of the Royal Guard while another part of the Guard would also ship out with the Far Side. For him and the Guard the night would be less stressful than for the Expeditionary Forces so he was in a great mood and he and SunTzu catched up with each other.
After dinner Ami and SunTzu said their goodbyes and told each other to take care before they parted. Ami went to her office in the rooms of the Intelligence Service and SunTzu made his way to the air base.
He arrived at AICA's hangar and entered.
The ground crew around their head Karlena were busy servicing the A-Wing.
SunTzu greeted everybody and AICA, in her own incomparable ways, greeted him with a flippant remark about him having forgotten her. After a little word skirmish and petting her frame SunTzu focused on talking with Karlena.
The ground crew was eager to get back into the fight as well and all snubs, AICA included, would be good to go.
Karlena also lead SunTzu know that Hotaru and the Voyager would arrive back from a last test flight soon.
"Might want to greet the girls while we finish AICA up." She said and SunTzu nodded.
The pilot got out of the hangar and walked over to the Flight Center.
To his surprise the pilots of Terra Squadron were already there. They were surprised but happy to see him and he shared some good old fashioned shit talking between pilots over a cup of coffee with Odegana and the other Terras.
SunTzu went outside for a cigarette afterwards and listened to the familiar sound of the Voyager coming in, just as he took his last drag.
He extinguished the cigarette in the ashtray in front of the Flight Center and walked back to the hangars.
The Voyager was coming in in formation with the one-seater Recon Y-Wing of the Taskforce and SunTzu smiled.
He greeted his three friends after they had exited their two starfighters.
A tired looking but happily smiling Hotaru hugged him while Michiru and Haruka came over.
"You know Mate, since your on Earth that often you could just stay again."
SunTzu smiled and took a glance to the side at that remark while Michiru got in line to supersede Hotaru's hug.
"You know how I feel about this. Plus it's easier for me to meet with my girl on Coruscant."
Michiru embraced him and her mouth leaned next to SunTzu's ear.
"Don't be mad. It's actually her way to tell you to come back."
SunTzu's lips curled up although he knew that and Michiru made way for Haruka.
"Anyways. I heard you guys are stepping off in the morning, so I'm glad I got to see you before it."
Haruka and SunTzu grabbed each other's hand and shook it before they pulled in for a hug.
"What about you?" Haruka asked as she leaned in.
"I'm just saying bye to you guys and then I'm off to the Expansion Region as well."
"No stop in Coruscant before? Seeing the girlfriend before battle?" A curios Michiru asked.
"I already said goodbye to her before heading out to get AICA. She isn't too fond of it and worries but you know how it is."
"So you guys are still a thing?"
SunTzu let out a single laughter.
"I guess Minako told you how last night went but yeah, probably more than before."
The girls smiled at him.
"Glad to hear. Although Minako didn't seem to be too fond of her."
"Yeah, their first encounter had a bit of bad timing. But I'm sure Anniten will get over it. Is Minako back already?"
"Yeah, they came today, all of them. Everyone is coming along on the Far Side, even Rei."
SunTzu looked at Haruka, that was interesting, and the blonde noticed SunTzu's surprised face.
"Sailor Mars is back."
SunTzu nodded and his lips curled up for the blink of an eye.
"That's good." And after a moment he continued. "Anyways, I got a war to win. Rear Admiral Delpins Fleet Group is waiting for me."
They got together for a group hug and SunTzu ruffled Hotaru's ever growing hair.
"You guys take care out there. Don't make me come over to save you." He winked at them and headed off.
In the hangar he thanked the ground crew and after receiving a motherly advice from Karlena to take good care out there and gentle dab on his cheek from the Devaronian, he boarded AICA.
The Royal Family, the Head of Court, Earth's Senator to the Galaxy and her boyfriend, and nowadays protector as well, and the First of the Senshi were on the large balcony the Royal Quarters possessed off and looked at the glowing moon, waiting for their okay to board the Far Side.
"Feels strange that all of us head out again." Rei stated, she and Yuichiro still weren't feeling too well from yesterday night and they had slept most of the day, even now still looking forward to board the Gladiator and get to their quarter to rest some more.
Suddenly a black arrow-head something rocketed past by and headed towards the City of Tokyo in the near distance.
"The First Knight is already on his way out to the frontline I presume." Usagi answered as she watched AICA head for the Tokyo Tower, probably for a little bit of showing off before SunTzu would head out to battle again.
Everybody's gaze followed the A-Wing, except for Rei's, who stared stoically to the front, as well as Minako's, who in turn was observing Rei's reaction to SunTzu heading into battle once more.
AICA and SunTzu probably had broken a few speed records when they had jumped through the Deep Core. Luckily for them they weren't pulled out from enemy forces as they rushed down the Rimma.
SunTzu met with the Forces of the female Corellian Fleet Officer Genna Delpin at their staging area.
The Rear Admiral had a formidable Fleet-group under her command, made up of her upgraded Corellian-made Strident-Class Star Defender and a sister ship, two MC90B Mk. 2 Star Cruisers and a Victory-Class Star Destroyer. Along with smaller ships, amongst others a Majestic Cruiser, two Corona-Frigates and a Corellian Destroyer, there were twenty Capital Ships under the Corellian's command.
SunTzu, now acting solely under his callsign Warlord was invited to land on the flagship.
He even briefly met with the Rear Admiral in her command center and she gave him insight on the plan.
The fleet-group would jump further down the Rimma and into the Vandelhelm System, which was roughly cut in half from a asteroid field called the Vandelhelm Cloud, with the system's name giving planet located behind the asteroid field.
SunTzu had just enough downtime to call Anniten, take a nap and get some quick chow before he was back in the cockpit.
Of course a three course menu and eight hours in a comfortable bed would have been great, not to mention to go on a date with his girlfriend, seduce Anniten by every trick in the book and then fuck her senseless, but being honest with himself, this here was really where he belonged, here in AICA's cockpit.
The fleet was already in hyperspace and AICA was good to go.
Along SunTzu, Black Moon Squadron, the famous E-Wing-Squadron, which had been formed in the Vong War, would deploy from the fleet's flagship, the Virtue of Drall. The thirteen starfighters would lead the fleet into battle and attack the first wave of enemy snubs and bombers, before the whole wing of Corellian HLAF-500 attack fighters which formed the rest of the Virtue's complement would escort the fleet's bombers for their first strike.
The plan was to strike fast and merciless, as more enemy troops were expected and the Alliance wanted to get into a defensive position before the enemy could.
"All systems green. I'm ready." AICA announced.
"Dito. Let's take back Vandelhelm. And then Woostri right afterwards."
"You sound pretty motivated, Boss."
"I am Darling. I am. This is were I need to be. In your cockpit, taking the battle to the enemy."
"Right on, right on. We're dropping out of hyperspace in ten, nine, eight…"
SunTzu closed his eyes and took a deep breather. He still wasn't feeling the Force much lately but it would be enough for the battle.
"…seven, six, five, four…"
Eyes still closed his grip around AICA's controls tightened.
"…three, two, one! We're out!"
A hitch ran through the whole Star Defender as they fell back into real space and SunTzu exhaled and opened his eyes again, activating the repulsors of his snub fast as lightning.
AICA lifted off and glided towards the nearby hangar gate.
Even before they passed it, SunTzu gave energy into the thrusters.
As soon as AICA had passed the shield, parting space and the ship's atmosphere, he gave full throttle and announced his start.
"Warlord is out and about."
Behind the modified A-Wing every second an E-Wing followed and gave full thrust on it's three engines as well.
AICA's sensors picked up the enemy fleet. A dozen Cruisers and Destroyers, Republican Clone Wars Equipment in form of three Venators, five Acclamators, three Arquitens-Class Light Cruisers and a Pelta-Frigate.
A sizeable force and enough to conquer most systems out here, but no match for the Fleet Group they had brought, although the Venators' and Acclamators' complements would probably make sure that the snubs and antifighter-gunners had enough to do. AICA could even list from where the ships came, an old Imperial Reserve Fleet which had been moved from the Rim into the Deep Core.
Have to give the enemy kudos, while he keeps us busy in the North, he smuggles ships out in the South of the Deep Core.
The Venators immediately churned out their fighters and while Black Moon Squadron formed around AICA a whole wing , meaning three squadrons, and therefore thirty six, V-Wings were rushing towards the thirteen Galactic Alliance fighters.
"We got incoming, Black Moon. Whole wing of snubs."
"Copy Warlord, we got them on the screens." The Squadron Leader replied.
"AICA, let's say hi in a proper way. Multi-locks."
Within a few seconds AICA locked on twelve of the enemy fighters and after all of them were locked on a buzzing sound began to play in SunTzu's helmet, notifying him of the lock.
"Missiles away!" SunTzu announced and two multi-lock-missiles left AICA's warhead launchers and rocketed towards the wall of V-Wings coming closer. After a moment the missiles split into six smaller pieces each and each piece headed on for it's individual target.
Eight of the missiles found their target and blew six fighters to stardust and severely damaged two more.
"I opened them up for you Black Moon." SunTzu announced over the comms.
"Roger that. Moons, let's show Warlord what we can do. Black Moon Leader, torpedo away!"
Twelve torpedoes, one from each of the E-Wings, rushed towards the remaining V-Wings and took out nine more V-Wings, making the enemy finally break up their formation. Both fighter forces were just seconds away from each other.
"Looks like we broke their formation. Now, let's give them a proper brawl." Black Moon Leader announced and the thirteen GA fighters and the remaining V-Wings began individual dogfights with each other.
Even with still superior numbers the old Clone Wars Era starfighters weren't a match for the more modern starfighters of the elite squadron and SunTzu and within a few minutes it was over and the whole wing of V-Wings had been turned to debris.
In the meantime the Capital Ships had began to trade shots as well and maneuvered towards each other.
Just as the last V-Wing exploded more starfighters from each side came in and the snub brawl continued, now just at a larger scale.
Although they flew outdated ships the pilot-flown starfighters of the enemy fleet were more dangerous than the Tie-Droids, which made up most of the enemy fighters.
He wouldn't openly talk about it, as there were people dying here but the competition pilot against pilot made the battle way more appealing to SunTzu than just downing droids.
The Corellian starfighters, squadrons of X- and A-Wings, as well as a squadron consisting of B-Wings modified for heavy fighter duty, made sure the enemy snubs and bombers were busy while the allied bombers and attack fighters pounced onto the enemy capital ships, supported by long range fire from their own fleet.
SunTzu just had shot down a skilled Headhunter-pilot, good thing that he knew how the modern Z-95s maneuvered, when Black Moon came in again.
"Black Moon, regroup. One of the Arquitens at the flanks of the enemy formation is exposed."
The dozen E-Wings formed again.
"Warlord to Black Moon, I'll join you guys. I'll bring down the Arquiten's shields and you guys have clear way for a torpedo strike."
The snubs accelerated towards the light cruiser and when AICA was in optimum range, SunTzu shot two EMP-torpedoes and then peeled off. The torpedoes hit the 325 meter long ship perfectly on it's shield generators and immediately knocked out the shields.
Seconds later Black Moon Squadron came in and fired a volley of twenty four torpedoes, two from each fighter.
Eight torpedoes hit the bridge and blew it apart, while the other torpedoes did massive damage to the rest of the ship.
For a moment the lights in the ship went out and it became completely still before it broke apart and the two parts drifted away from each other.
"That went as smooth as the surface of a neutron star." One of the pilots from Black Moon came in.
"Copy, Black Moon Seven. And now back to a little bit of dogfighting." Black Moon Leader replied and the squadron split up into pairs again and went back into dogfights, as did SunTzu.
Using the now open flank, the Corellian Destroyer and the Majestic-Clas dashed up and fell into the side of the enemy, first raking an Acclamator and after it's destruction moved behind the enemy formation, opening fire on one of the Venators. All the while SunTzu and Black Squadron, as well as the other GFFA fighter craft, slowly but steadily thinned out the enemy's fighter force.
After approximately one hour it was over, Admiral Delpin's Fleet Group only had suffered minor losses, a few starfighters, a damaged corvette, and, unfortunately one of the Corona-Frigates. The numbers still spoke clearly for the GA and everybody knew, that not even winning a battle was certain these times anymore, so although they had lost comrades the rest of the fleet was still kind of relieved that the casualties had rather been small.
After the enemy fleet was destroyed the liberation of Vandelhelm was quite an easy job for the snub pilots. They escorted troop transports and gunships through the asteroid field and then gave air support.
Since the asteroid field was pretty dense only smaller ships could safely pass and so both enemy and Galactic Alliance only had smaller vehicles, support platforms and infantry in combat. After gaining air superiority the battle was over fast.
SunTzu draw two conclusions about the battle.
First, they had been lucky. If the enemy would have hidden fighters in the asteroid field they would have gotten into a lot of trouble.
The second one was, that Taskforce Sol would have been perfect supporting the liberation.
After getting back on the Virtue of Drall, SunTzu First called Anniten. The young woman had been worried she said and seemed relieved to hear from him.
"When are you coming back?" She had asked him and he couldn't tell.
"A few more days. Maybe a week." He had told her, not knowing how long it would take here exactly, he just hoped he would be done before his upcoming birthday. Not because he had a problem to spent his birthday in battle but for Anniten, as she had told him she wanted to make the day very special to him before he had left Coruscant.
It were things like that, which made SunTzu miss her already.
After his call with Anniten he remembered his thoughts about Sol on the way back from Vandelhelm and he decided to call his favorite blunette up. Just to make sure they got through the Core in one piece.
"SunTzu, I should be the one keeping an eye on you but it feels the other way around right now. We just arrived at our concentration area and met with parts of the Ninth."
"Good to hear you made it through the Core safely. I just got back from liberating Vandelhelm."
"Vandelhelm is free again? That's great news. Listen, I will join a briefing between the leadership now, we'll talk later."
"Sure, good hunting out there."
"Dito. Take care."
SunTzu smiled, things were going way better and more smooth than he had expected.
He began to joyfully whistle as he left his assigned quarters and headed for the mess hall.
The next day SunTzu had gotten new orders, along with one of the remaining Corona Frigates, it's onboard complement of X-Wings and a Corellian Gunship the German was sent to scout in front of the fleet group, while the remaining ships defended the liberated system and waited for further reinforcements.
Somehow SunTzu had a bad feeling about the mission but this only emphasized his urge to go.
Four hours later SunTzu knew why he had a bad feeling.
Their patrol, the ships had been near Ord Vaug, had run into a single old Lucrehulk-Class Battleship.
AICA, who wasn't packing more than half a dozen regular concussion missiles, and the other ships read that the weapons of the huge warship were too much for the small patrol to handle but what was even worse was the fact that it had been retrofitted as Interdictor.
As soon as the droids noticed the Galactic Alliance ship the gravity well generator had sprung to life, prohibiting their jump back to the rest of their force.
They had contacted the fleet group but the Admiral had reported that they apparently had also sprung into a trap as enemy forces, old CIS-Ships as well, had sprung into the Vandelhelm System and were attacking now.
So while SunTzu and the sixteen X-Wings, four of them recon craft, flew in formation around the two capital ships, waiting for an attack of the enemy's starfighters, the Corona-Frigate and the Gunship tried to keep it's distance from the much larger Lucrehulk.
Nonetheless the Lucrehulk was steadily coming closer and soon would be in a distance where it could attack.
SunTzu's mind was already racing, questioning himself how he would get everybody safe out of this situation and it didn't get any better when the Lucrehulk released a cloud of Vulture Droids.
"AICA, i hate parts of your kinsfolk." SunTzu stated as he turned his A-Wing into an Immelmann, trying to intercept the old starfighters.
"Me too Darling, me too."
"Any word about reinforcements?"
"Nope. It seems our comrades are pretty busy as well."
"Fan-fucking-tastic. Then it's on us."
"Business as usual, Darling."
SunTzu nodded once and then accelerated AICA and aimed for the closest Vulture Droid.
The X-Wings and AICA were able to keep the droids away from the two capital ships. But it wouldn't help, those were droid ships they wouldn't stop chasing them before they were destroyed.
SunTzu cursed in the cockpit after just having destroyed another Vulture, if AICA would have had full armament with her they would have had a chance, he was sure.
And then it happened.
Out of the direction they were fleeing towards, another ship dropped out of hyperspace.
It was a Separatist Carrier and immediately more Vulture Droids embarked from it.
SunTzu began to curse even more, even in German now. Thinks seemed very dire and he couldn't think of any way out at all anymore.
But he would die fighting he swore to himself as he headed for the CIS Carrier.
With his last pair of rockets he might could destroy it's hangar.
SunTzu swallowed hard as AICA reported fourty starfighters shooting towards them and SunTzu wasn't sure if even he and AICA could push through that mass of snubs.
I wish I wouldn't have lost my connection to the Force that much. Now would be the perfect time for a little burst of additional energy…
Suddenly the cloud of Vulture Droids was hit by dozens of missiles, destroying three thirds of it immediately.
Where did those missiles come from?
"Greetings SunTzu, looks like you guys need help."
"Saber Rider?!"
"Affirmative. We heard that the South needed some help as well so we moved all the way down here. And then we heard about your precarious situation."
"You're saving the day guys! Now we have a chance here!" SunTzu joyfully yelled out as he pounced into the remaining Vultures."
"I'm a bit disappointed partner, before you would have bested them alone." Colt mocked SunTzu friendly.
"Guess I'm getting old my friend."
"Too bad, and I thought I really found a challenger in you."
"Colt, would you please cut the chatter and focus on fighting? We got a Lucrehulk to take out." April scolded the Cowboy playfully.
"Excuse me April, I got carried away." Ramrod's main cannon extended from its place above the cockpit. "Now let's produce some more scrap metal!"
With Ramrod and the Star Sheriffs as help the battle was turned and solely owing to the arrival of the special unit of the Sixth Fleet there were no casualties on the Galactic Alliance's side, except some damage on a few of the X-Wings and the Corvette.
"The Virtue of Drall reports they won their battle as well. We're ordered back."
"Sounds great, I need to get you loaded up to the brim with with ammo."
"Wait, there's more. We'll rendezvous and then get going to liberate everything west of Vandelhelm."
"That's some good news. I can't fucking wait to kick the enemy out of the Expansion Region."
Within hours SunTzu was back in the battle. This time in the air on some scorching desert planet, reminding him a lot of the planets in the New Frontier and even Colt had commented he just felt right at home here as well.
SunTzu was on his way back to friendly lines after bombing an enemy camp and was flying low into the sunset, towards the descending sun on the horizon.
He called up Anniten and almost immediately she picked up.
"SunTzu! How are you Baby?"
"Doing fine, kicking the enemy's butt through the whole Expansion Region. How are you?"
"I'm okay I guess. But I miss you. When will you be back?"
"I'll just got some more business to handle here but if things stay like that I should be home in around a week I guess. Just like I thought to be."
A small pause followed.
"That's pretty long. But I will wait for you as long as I have to. And when you're finally back I'll make sure that you never want to leave again."
"Looking forward to it. Listen, I'm still in the cockpit, I'll call you later again."
"Okay, take care."
"Will do. Feel kissed Babe."
That said he hung up and accelerated a bit more as the sinking sun colored the sky in an beautiful orange.
Life was good again.