"Schalt' mich ein und schalt' mich aus, die Gefühle müssen raus, ganz egal, was dann passiert, Ich brauch' Liebe"
The artificial, female voice sang inside the cockpit of the sleek, black A-Wing with the dark-grey stripes and soon her pilot joined in singing.
"Die Module spielen verrückt, Mensch, ich bin total verliebt, voll auf Liebe programmiert, mit Gefühlen!"
SunTzu smiled broadly to himself. Here he was, piloting the best starfighter ever made, with the most beautiful woman in the Galaxy eagerly awaiting his return. Fuck Chaos and fuck this war, live was still good.
AICA and SunTzu flew into an asteroid field near the planet of Thrantin, capital planet of the Thrantin OM81-A System, located in the Colonies.
In the middle of the planet debris he landed AICA, who was already on stealth mode, on one of the larger asteroids.
"And now the waiting begins." He commented after he sat his starfighter down.
The rest of the Taskforce was waiting one system away, as decoy it was training with the local defense forces but in truth the Taskforce had been sent here to contact the allied Yuuzhan Vong, or rather the children of Zonama Sekot as that planet was their home again after centuries, apparently there was something important they had to inform the GA about.
As of Chief of State Leia Organa-Solo's request SunTzu would be the one establishing contact, after all AICA was one of the most stealthy starfighters in the arsenal of the Galactic Alliance and apparently the Jedi in their Stealth-X Fighters were needed somewhere else.
"You know what, wake me when something happens." SunTzu had decided after a few minutes of waiting, catching some z's and dreaming about the Goddess that was waiting for him back home on the Eternal sure beat watching some rocks drift in space.
"If I would ever do something like that while on a mission." AICA mocked him as she turned down some of the displays in his HUD to grant her pilot better sleep.
"That's why you're the future and the superior being my dear." SunTzu replied as he made himself comfortable in his pilot seat.
He closed his eyes and could almost immediately doze off, knowing very well that even that AICA only was using passive sensors nothing could get even remotely close before she wouldn't have detected it.
SunTzu got almost a full hour of sleep in before AICA awoke him with a mixture of a quietly played alarm and vibration.
Within a few seconds and a half-suppressed yawn later was fully awake as AICA head lead in more oxygen into the cockpit.
"Situation?"
A few dozen kilometers away, close to the asteroid field it seemed that another, rather small, purple-ish-colored, sleek-shaped, with a transparent, cristaline part on it's topside asteroid had fallen out of Hyperspace. Of course there was more to it and Valak Choka immediately accelerated his Yorik-Et and rushed towards the asteroid field.
The starfighter was almost there when suddenly a Yuuzhan Vong Advanced Scout Ship fell out of Hyperspace and immediately began to fire at and pursuit Valak's ship while discharging half a dozen Coralskippers.
The human logical action would have been to escape but Valak was the son of the last Supreme Commander of the Yuuzhan Vong and escape would have been cowardly.
Six versus one wasn't fair but after all it was death before dishonor for a Yuuzhan Vong.
Within the blink of an eye he threw his personal coralskipper around and now rushed towards his pursuers.
As both sides clashed into each other, only five of the enemy Coralskippers made it past Valak, but even having downed one with his first move made things far from safe for the hunted.
The five remaining enemy fighters split up, one already purchased by Valak's specialized ship, grown from the best Coral that the Yuuzhan Vong on Zonama Sekot had to offer. A few seconds later the odds had gone to four against one but now two of the Coralskippers maneuvered themselves in to get shots on Valak's rear side.
The first almost had almost maneuvered himself into a shooting position when suddenly red laser fire rained down on him and overloaded his dovin basal, finally landing a volley in the cockpit.
A second later the ship broke apart, atmosphere spilling into space, making it freeze.
Just the blink of an eye later the second skip exploded as well after stutter laser fire and a missile hit it and a black A-Wing shot with afterburner on through the cloud of debris.
"Look like you could use some help, buddy." SunTzu commented, mostly to himself, as he headed for the second last enemy while Valak headed for the last one, his ship slightly larger than the other enemy fighter analogues.
Both enemy fighters now tried to flee and rushed back to their carrier which already was spewing hot plasma after Valak and SunTzu.
Valak, enraged by the challenge made short work with the Yorik-Et he was pursuing, ending the life of the squadron leader of the rogue Yuuzhan Vong.
SunTzu on the other side had to abort his chase as the larger scout ship filled the space around AICA with it's fire.
Valak made an attempt to attack the larger ship but his fire was disrupted by the dovin basal of the ship.
The remaining skipper stayed around its mothership which cannon analogous now spew liquid fire at Valak.
A few strafing runs later it became apparent that the two fighters wouldn't get across the dovin basal, it seemed to have been modified and SunTzu was about to make contact with his ally when suddenly another corvette fell out of hyperspace.
Stutter laser and turbolaser fire began rake at the scout ship and soon overloaded the dovin basal.
What followed was half a dozen of concussion missiles and when the corvette analogue finally broke apart, spilling its insides into space, SunTzu finally got his kill on the last remaining fighter.
"Good timing, Starstruck." The Bavarian radioed over to the smallest ship of Taskforce Sol.
"Copy that, SunTzu. You might want to contact our ally, apparently the word of Yuuzhan Vong being around here reached some Bothan ships out here."
After the death of Borsk Fey'lya at the fall of Coruscant in the Yuuzhan Vong War the Bothans had declared a blood feud against every and any Yuuzhan Vong, and even now, a decade later, there were still Bothan fleets out all over the western part of the Galaxy, looking for Yuuzhan Vong to hunt. Even the allied forces and Zonama Sekot had become a target.
"Excellent." SunTzu knew that he needed to immediately find a way to contact the allied Yuuzhan Vong and let him know that they needed to hide, and that with avoiding the word hiding as it wasn't something a proud Yuuzhan Vong Warrior would do.
Hiding in the asteroid field wasn't an option, the Bothans would know about such tricks.
This meant only one thing.
"AICA, do you think you can make contact with our ally?"
"Just a sec, boss."
A few seconds later, she came on again.
"It should work now. I'll do the translation as well."
SunTzu, now flying to the right of the skipper, doing circles around the Starstruck, cleared his throat.
"Allied warrior, there are Bothan ships inbound we have to exchange the information in… a secure place where we cannot be spotted."
"SunTzu?"
"Valak Choka, is that you?"
"Indeed, and I have important information for your people." AICA translated pretty much simultaneously and the raspy voice of the warrior was heard in the back over her voice.
"Listen, as I just said we have to get somewhere to hide. Is there any way that you would accept landing in that corvette."
A few moments of silence made SunTzu worry, that the son of the current leader of the Yuuzhan Vong, their old war master, would completely reject the plan.
After eleven seconds of painful long waiting Choka came in again.
"I cannot land that easy as it's considered impure technology but I guess it's the only chance we have to transform the information. I will need time to land although."
"Fine, just follow me." SunTzu eyebrows both furrowed for a moment but then he took the lead and with another turn both snubs were heading to a course which would lead them inside the hangars of the modified Corellian Corvette.
SunTzu landed and immediately left the cockpit.
Except for two LAAT/is, a few mechanics and service droids and the two AT-MP the hangar of the Starstruck was empty when AICA and Valak's Coralskipper had entered it.
But contrary to AICA the Yuuzhan Vong ship was still hovering above the ground when SunTzu walked up to it.
In that moment the door to the hangar opened and Helios, along with four armed Commandos from Team 4 entered the room.
He stopped next to a slightly nervous SunTzu.
"You know what… I get that it's impure and stuff but he could hurry with landing. What's taking him so long anyways?"
"He probably is praying, apologizing for his gods because he will do something that is unpurified, for him and his ship." Helios replied.
SunTzu gave him the side eye and the young man spoke once again. "I used to be a priest, I know that's what religious individuals do."
SunTzu looked again at Helios but didn't disagree, he had been long enough with Rei to know that some things to please the god take their time.
"I just hope he's done when the Bothans get here or we have a problem."
After over two miserably long minutes Valak finally landed, the canopy wasn't even opened when Helios's communicator sprung to life and Captain Nadrak let him know that the Bothan fleet had arrived in the system.
"SunTzu!" The Yuuzhan Vong equivalent of a smile came over Valak's non-existent lips as he got up and put a tizowyrm in his ears to translate but SunTzu just hectically motioned to the door out of the hangar.
Rather dumbfounded Valak replied something in his language, and not a single word was understood by SunTzu.
He looked at Helios who sighed and then reached into his uniform pant's pocket, pulling out a small earpiece.
"He asked why there is so much hurry."
Dumbfounded SunTzu stared at Helios for a moment before he took the translator.
While SunTzu fought to put the device into his ear Helios already turned to Valak and used overblown words to explain the situation. Apparently the priest of Elysion turned ship officer had effect on Valak as the later, although slowly and reluctantly left his cockpit after a small exchange of words.
"I settled things, he will at least come along to one of the meeting rooms and hide there."
SunTzu nodded in acknowledgment, the young Fleet Lieutenant sure know how to talk to people.
Valak reached the floor of the hangar, he moved strange, partly on tip toes, apparently trying to make as less contact with the metal as he could.
For a moment he even stopped and looked back at his fighter before he closed his eyes and let out a small prayer.
As soon as he was done, Helios nodded to him and mentioned to the door.
"Thank you for your cooperation, Master Choka. SunTzu will lead you to a room where you can talk in private and are safe of prying eyes. We will hide your ship in the meantime."
"Hide my ship?" The towering Warrior turned once more to his ship.
"Valak, there's Bothans snooping around and they are out for Yuuzhan Vong blood. Not to mention that you meant to turn over that information."
"Right, the information." Valak looked back from the ship to SunTzu and then turned around and began to move.
A few moments later SunTzu had reached the door, Valak was still meters away.
SunTzu turned around, Valak was moving like he was walking with socks over wetness again, which made SunTzu roll his eyes. This day had become way longer than he had thought.
"The Starstruck reports that two Bothan Frigates and a Marauder Cruiser, Missile-Configuration, have entered the Thrantin-System."
Artemis, standing in the middle of the bridge of the Eternal looked to the communication officer who just had reported in. Ami, next to him, did the same.
"I hope they have hidden that Yorik-Et properly." She told, partly to Artemis, partly to herself and partly to SunTzu and the crew of the Starstruck, a system away.
"Tell Terra Squadron, the Voyager and… Mistress Nine… to be on standby for an emergency scramble. And tell the Far Side to be ready for a jump as well." Artemis ordered, the information the allied Yuuzhan Vong had was to important, even if it meant to forcefully deny the Bothans to look, or worse, for the Yuuzhan Vong.
Artemis and Ami exchanged a strained look before they both got back to wait for the newest developments.
Somehow SunTzu had managed to bring Valak into one of the meeting rooms onboard the Starstruck and now the Yuuzhan Vong was sitting on a chair, feet crossed under his body on the chair so he wouldn't reach down to the floor.
"Good thing that my companion is a priestess, maybe I can get my ship, and myself, blessed before anybody gets to know I was inside unholy technology. Me, the son of the Warmaster Nas Chokka!"
SunTzu, standing at the table, began to massage his temple.
"Talking about priestesses and companions. Where is yours?"
Who knew Yuuzhan Vong were actually interested in interpersonal relations?
"We separated some time ago. It didn't work out unfortunately."
"I see." The massive humanoid nodded, he seemed to be rather sad about hearing this and for a moment SunTzu was afraid, that there was a Yuuzhan Vong prophecy related to it. "Such is life, sometimes." Valak continued.
Now SunTzu nodded as well. "Indeed. How is Nika Yim?"
"Good, she became an advisor to the great Zonama Sekot himself." Valak fell silent abruptly and paused for a moment.
"It's been some time since I was separated from her. I hope she is all well."
SunTzu couldn't help but produce a sympathetic smile.
"I'm sure she's alright. Let's talk about the information you got for us so you can get back to her as soon as possible."
On the bridge of the Starstruck its Captain, Nadrak, had other problems.
Joined by two IPVs of the security forces of Rantorin, the three Bothan ships were searching for more Yuuzhan Vong ships. Of course the commander of the small flotilla had already contacted the Starstruck and asked what exactly had happened.
And now one of the frigates was even on the way to check out the debris.
Nadrak was hoping that they wouldn't sent a delegation over, especially not a snoopy one, the Coralskipper had just been covered with a textile cover. And the allied Yuuzhan Vong was in the middle of the ship, with no way to secretly escape without the Bothans getting to know
Valak had gotten up and had pulled a small cocoon-like creature from underneath his armor.
He presented it to SunTzu.
"This is the information we met for. I assume your spies have means to access it."
SunTzu gave it a look and then put it firmly into a pocket of his flight suit before he closed it.
Suddenly the door flung open and Helios, one of the Commandos behind him appeared, Nadrak had just informed him what the Bothans had communicated them over the holo.
"The Bothans will come over. I'm pretty sure they'll sent someone over as well. We have to hide you Master Valak Choka."
Helios had just ended his sentence when an alarm began to blare and the lights turned red for a moment. Immediately SunTzu, and with both feet firm on the deck, even Valak, were up.
Exactly as fast, Helios had his communicator out.
"More Yuuzhan Vong!" He let out after a moment and both Valak and SunTzu looked at each other.
"Stay here." SunTzu demanded from the proud alien warrior.
"Negative. I have to fight."
"Master Choka, there's a Bothan Frigate a few dozen meters besides us, it will shoot you down as soon as you leave this ship.
"Think about Nika Yim." SunTzu looked at Valak with sympathy.
It took a moment and Valak visibly wasn't happy with it but he finally gave in.
"For the safety of my mission I will wait here."
SunTzu gave a honorable nod and a moment later he was already on his way spurting to AICA, thinking to himself that he better made sure to get back to his companion in one piece as well.
"Ten seconds until re-entry."
"Copy, Voyager."
"Hotaru, are you sure got this? The Yuuzhan Vong are a different caliber as you know."
"Copy Michiru-Mama."
The blue of Hyperspace became the black of regular Space again as the Voyager and Hotaru's Longprobe fell out of hyperspace, behind them the eight Headhunters of Terra and the Far Side did the same.
"Starstruck, what's the sitch?"
"We got a small flotilla of three Frigate Analogues and a carrier, plenty of skips for you and the others, Captain Tenoh."
"Copy that, I have visuals. Tally Ho!"
While the Far Side steamed towards the Starstruck to form up against one of the bigger ships, Sol's starfighters headed for the first squadron of enemy Yuuzhan Vong Starfighters.
AICA had just left the hangar of the Starstruck and SunTzu steered her in formation to the right of Hotaru's scouting fighter, which was now in the middle.
"Can't keep you out of my sight for a minute." Michiru teased her wingman.
"Hey, at least I already accomplished my mission." And then SunTzu's eyes went wide under his pilot head as he remembered that the data was with him and not on the more safer Starstruck. "Shit."
"He got the data on him." Both Haruka and Michiru both said out loud inside the cockpit of the Voyager at the same time.
"Better make sure it stays that way." Haruka announced and switched to missiles.
One of the Frigate's squadrons, made up of E-Wings, was hit bad and fast decimated by coralskippers, that was at least until half of the enemy ships were hit by warheads, shot from Sol's starfighters.
The rogue Yuuzhan Vong immediately desisted from the Bothans and turned around to face the apparently better opponents.
"We stay in formation and let them come so we can pick them out before with a wall of missiles." Haruka commanded and the nine ships formed up to get ready to shoot another volley of missiles.
"I got another squadron of twelve skips coming in, bearing 048, twenty klicks." AICA came in. This changed the situation as the other Coralskippers came in from the right and the snubs had to move quickly to get a lock.
"The Bothans shot down another one of the first squad. I can take care of the other five."
"Hotaru, that's the Yuuzhan Vong. And you're not flying AICA."
"SunTzu is right, this is suicide! You'll stay in formation."
Hotaru activated her engines.
"You know I got this. I can get them and you can take care of the second squadron."
"Hotaru." SunTzu's voice was strained but when his protégé's Y-Wing moved past him on AICA's left, something dawned in him.
Hotaru was not a kid anymore, that they knew, but she also was not an amateur pilot. Other than that, she was on her way to become a pilot in line of skills with the best in the Galaxy. If they wanted to win this war they had to go all out, even if it meant to take risks. Or allow their loved ones to take risks.
"Back into formation, Lieutenant Meiou!" Haruka's order was cold and charged with authority.
"Haruka… let her go. She can do it." There was honesty and trust in SunTzu's voice.
"She…" Haruka stoped when she felt an arm on her shoulder, Michiru had turned around from her seat and leaned to her. "Let her go, she got this." She said through her helmet. The blonde gritted her teeth and looked to the side.
"Fine… give them hell, little one. All others, turn to bearing 048, I want missiles locks immediately."
"Thank you, Papa." Hotaru came in over a private channel, which only was heard by the three Senshi, AICA and SunTzu
"You better come back in one piece."
"Bet. If something comes up I know you guys got my back no matter what I do."
Under her helmet Haruka nodded, the three of them would all rather die than let something happen to Hotaru. She began to smile, Setsuna would not be amused. But that was SunTzu's problem.
While Hotaru's Longprobe shot away the other eight ships repositioned and AICA was already working on target locks for all eight snubs.
A few eye blinks later, while the warheads shot away SunTzu turned to a monitor on his cockpit's console, AICA's sensors were only partly aligned at the enemy targets, SunTzu didn't had to say a thing, automatically AICA kept an eye on her friend and part-time pilot, ready to immediately inform SunTzu if Hotaru would need help.
But the young woman was far from needing help.
SunTzu, as well as Michiru and Haruka, watched in awe how Hotaru soared through the enemy, taking out the first enemy ship with laser fire and a proton torpedo while still heading towards the enemy. That wasn't flying, that was art, the art of bringing death and destruction to one's enemies, and the Guardian of the Planet of Ruin had mastered this art. The next two skips broke apart as she closed in onto them.
The remaining two tried to corner her but with her aeronautical skills, Jedi-like reflexes and pushing her ship to the absolute maximum, she never came into any real danger.
Having no time, as they wanted to be available when their young one needed help, Haruka and SunTzu brought out their a-game as well, as the other Coralskippers pushed into them.
Knowing by heart how the other would react and move the two ships of them switched between hunter and killer role automatically, effectively shooting down three Coralskippers in less than a minute.
They hadn't been flying that great in a while SunTzu thought as he watched Michiru taking down one skipper that tried to get away with her turret.
But still it was nothing to what Hotaru showed, it was casual how she brought down the last of the five remaining Coralskippers she had went against. Going all out, she truly was an emissary from the abyss of Death.
In the meantime the Bothans had time to re-form and now were attacking in packs, which proved to be very successful.
The two Bothan frigates had already destroyed an enemy frigate and now were raking turbolaser fire at the enemy carrier.
The Starstruck was supporting the Far Side with taking care of the enemy fighters while the larger Gladiator-Class used it's turbo lasers in stutter-fire-mode to overload a frigate analogue's Dovin Basal, it's maser batteries ready to cut through the rock-like body of the biotech-based ship as soon as the Dovin Basal stopped working.
The Bothans had been initially catched on the wrong foot but they were veterans and soon the battle had turned.
The carrier and the frigate analogue that was under the attack from the Earthlings soon were destroyed as most of the Coralskippers.
The last remaining enemy warship sought its salvation in a hasty retreat.
To SunTzu's delight the whole Bothan flotilla decided to chase after the ship, now being in a state of bloodlust and the need for revenge and left the system as well, while the two IPVs from Rantorin went back to their base to rearm.
The nine Terran snubs just had fallen in formation again, when SunTzu swung AICA around and headed for the Starstruck.
"You guys excuse me a sec, I have to say goodbye to someone. Hotaru, that was amazing flying."
SunTzu landed onboard the corvette again and noticed that Helios and Valak were already back in the hangar, the ground crew members were pulling down the cover over Valak's fighter that moment.
The pilot got out of his cockpit and headed over to the Yuuzhan Vong Warrior and the young officer.
"Ah, SunTzu. Great flying as always. Since the Bothans are gone and the Rantorins are RTB we decided it would be the perfect time window for Master Choka's leave."
SunTzu nodded, better now than never.
"Very well then."
He and Valak turned to each other and grabbed each other's lower arm for a warrior's handshake.
"Thank you for the data. And sorry that we had to bring you in here."
"The goal is to purge our enemies and with this information we might get a step further towards it. The goal is more important than the warrior."
"Give my regards to Nika Yim. And have an uneventful flight home."
"See you fellow warrior." Valak looked at Helios and nodded honorably. "Second in Command."
Valak's huge paw hit SunTzu's shoulder in a friendly but still painful way, almost making him fall down, as the Yuuzhan Vong walked away and proceeded to board his ship.
Helios and SunTzu looked on as the Coralskippers shot out of the hangar and then almost immediately left for hyperspace.
"Mission accomplished." SunTzu stated.
"You had that data with you in combat, right?"
"Who cares for details if the mission was a success?"
"Has anyone ever told you that you fit perfectly into the Royal Court?"
"Yeah… I heard that before."
