"Give it up, Mother. You can't break my defense."
"There is one thing you forgot, Sailor Saturn."
The Silence Glaive and the Garnet Rod clashed against each other again.
"And what would that be?"
"That because you're my daughter I still would have mercy with you."
With a swift sweep of her boot, using her height to her advantage, Eternal Sailor Pluto kicked Eternal Sailor Saturn's legs. The later didn't fall but tumbled back, now completely being in the defence as Sailor Pluto immediately tried to hit her with her weapon again.
Saturn clenched her teeth together under the strength of Pluto's blows.
Suddenly someone stepped up next to them and the sound of an activating lightsaber was to be heard and a purple light came in.
"You two forgot about me."
Saturn and Pluto took a step away from each other, took a glance at SunTzu, his glowing weapon at the ready and then locked eyes for a moment.
In synchronicity both whirled their weapons around before they pounced at SunTzu.
The Guardian of Guardians used the Force, somehow it was so easy to channel it's power when Pluto and Saturn were around and he parried the attacks, at first with only one hand on the blade, moving it swiftly. But that wasn't for long as the aggressiveness of the two Senshi's attack made him move backwards and he began to grab his sword with two hands.
Moves almost too fast for the eye to see were done by the opponents, as the two women centimeter by centimeter forced SunTzu back, that was until he used a Force Push to catapult himself back as both Senshi were attacking at once. Now their weapons clashed and to Sailor Pluto's surprise, Sailor Saturn pushed a follow up attack onto her adoptive mother, bringing her into defensive.
"You…"
"That is for earlier!"
Setsuna had to put all her strength into her defensive as now SunTzu attacked her as well and she had to withstand the blows of both weapons with the Garnet Rod.
"That's my girl." SunTzu commented Saturn's change of target with an evil grin.
"Fine… you both wanted it." Energy flowed into the Garnet Orb.
"Dead Scream." She hushed and the attack pushed out from her weapon.
While SunTzu jumped out of the way, Sailor Saturn took the brunt and used the Silence Glaive to withstand it, although it brought her to her knees.
And immediately was attacked by SunTzu from the side, barely being able to raise the back part of heir glaive up to parry it, while she still withstood the ball of energy that Sailor Pluto had shot at her.
"For real? You fucking backstab me like that?"
And then a loud sigh was heard and both SunTzu and Hotaru immediately stopped their fighting and looked at Setsuna who now was standing straight, Garnet Rod upright next to her. And she didn't seem to be amused at all.
"Can we for once have a training fight without one of you two cursing like a seafarer?"
Hotaru was up again and both she and SunTzu looked at Setsuna, eyes wide open, knowing they were in trouble.
"Setsuna, Baby, it just escaped Hotaru in the heat of battle."
Hotaru nodded enthusiastically at SunTzu's words.
"Which is not an excuse that every single time one of you curses while we fight. And just for the record, Mister, it didn't use to be like that before she trained with you. Not even when she trained with Haruka." Came the answer, an accusing finger pointed at him.
"I don't think it's because of me." SunTzu said, his voice sheepish, and his gaze looking to the side.
"I said what I said."
With that she huffed, turned around on her boot's high heel and stormed out of the room.
Hotaru and SunTzu were silently observing it.
"Okay, what in God's fucking name was that?"
"Woah… you know Mom is right. I would swear less without you."
SunTzu's gaze slowly wandered over to Hotaru and as it reached her she burst into laughter.
"Just kidding. You see… Mom was immensely concerned about us on Norah. And this still haunts her, that's why she's a bit irritable."
SunTzu about it for a moment.
"What do you think about that we three spent some time on a nice restaurant on Thyferra before we move out from here again? Let her know, that we're good."
"Good idea."
"Great, I'll tell her."
"Give her a bit space to cool down first."
"Fine." SunTzu looked at Hotaru for a moment before he spoke again. "In the meantime, what about continuing training?"
"Bring it. And for the record, you're so fucking dead for that thing right now."
"We'll see about that, kiddo."
Both shared a wry grin as they walked away from each other to get into a combat stance.
SunTzu headed straight for the empty chair next to Setsuna in the officer's casino, steaming tea in front of her table, after he and Hotaru had another training session were she beat him after a quit long fight.
She was reading a book and looked up from it, there was guilt in her glance as she put the book away and she immediately straighted up.
SunTzu sat down and while still in motion Setsuna's hand moved up to his cheek.
"I didn't mean to be so mean. I, I was just…"
"You were afraid that something could happen to me or Hotaru last mission and it still bugs you. This is the last thing you have to apologize for, especially with your history."
"Hotaru told you?"
SunTzu nodded before he replied. "Listen, I'm sorry…" The hand on his cheek moved to his mouth and stopped him from talking.
"No. I am sorry, there was no reason to be so harsh. It's my fault. I really should control my fear. This Galaxy is more important than my feelings."
As Setsuna closed her eyes and her head slumped down she heard the moving of the chair, the standing up of her lover and then she felt an arm around her and a soft kiss on her forehead.
"And you're more important than this Galaxy to me, so don't apologize. I understand, no, I love that you worry about us."
A small, harried laughter escaped Setsuna's mouth. "Deep down I know that the two of you take care of each other and yourselves and that it's necessary that you do these things. But this time, both of you, deep behind enemy lines and with the secrecy of your mission? It was a bit much for me, especially since I had quite some time on my hands."
"Hey, it's okay. I would have gone crazy if I would have been in your situation."
Setsuna could force a smile.
"Thank you for your understanding."
"Thank you for worrying."
A kiss followed and as it ended SunTzu spoke again.
"By the way, Hotaru and me trained a bit more and we didn't curse even once."
"What's up, Pinkie? You said you wanted to see me urgently."
"You're not going to believe that Brain! Get in here." Chibiusa made room for Hotaru to enter the Royal Quarters, apparently she was alone.
As soon as Hotaru was inside, Chibiusa more or less dragged her into her bedroom.
"Sit down, I'll have to show you something."
That said Chibiusa went to her small desk where she worked from and retrieved a data pad. She turned it on and handed it to Hotaru, who now had sat down on Chibiusa's bed, grabbing the large unicorn plush toy on it, Chibiusa's favorite stuffed animal, and putting it on her lap.
"What's that?" Hotaru asked and began to read. It was data, consisting of Intelligence Agency reports.
As she read, Hotaru's began to knit her eyebrows.
"Woah, that would mean that the enemy has been spying on us almost directly from the crossing of the Rimma and Corellian Spine."
Chibiusa nodded enthusiastically before she spoke. "But you know what? Nobody gives a fuck. They sent some recon ships out and after they couldn't sense anything living nor droids they left the area again. So Galactic Intelligence discarded. Nobody even thought about any alternatives of that station being manned."
"How did you get into possession of that then?"
"Remember that I kind of did an internship with Ami while on Norah? I shifted through her data which was deemed dispensable. I tried to talk with her about it, but she just sighed and told me that she would contact Coruscant about it as soon as she found the possibility to divert anyone to check it."
Hotaru knew that with all the irregular warfare going on in the Galaxy, along with the regular warfare, every Intelligence Agency Inside the Galactic Alliance was overburdened with work. And that meant that something which had been checked by ships which never found a sign of enemy activity would rather be discarded completely than being looked at again.
"But what can you do against it, it is what it is."
"Not me, us. This is the perfect moment to finally bring Wicked Mistress back into play."
"You really want to…"
"Yes, we are going there and we'll check out that system."
"Do you really think it's a good idea?"
"Of course! Maybe Intelligence was right and there is nothing and if not, we'll find out where and report it for the Navy to take care of it. All we need is AICA, trust me on getting everything else prepared."
For a moment Hotaru looked at Chibiusa but then she nodded.
"Let me know when you intend to get going."
A few hours later, Hotaru found SunTzu at the shooting range in one of the lower decks of the Eternal, he had told her earlier via text message, that he was at the range.
The shooting range inside the ship was rather big, with the possibility to shoot at targets two hundred meters away, it had been made possible to be so big as the Eternal carried way less troops than regular Proclamator-Class Star Frigates and therefore had space on it.
The pilot was marveling at a target someone had used.
Hotaru took a glance at it, someone had hit the bullseye and the immediately surrounding area for what seems to have been a full magazine.
"Quite good shooting. Congrats on that."
"Oh, that wasn't me, that was your mother. She told me she wanted to try out my new upper and then shot like that with the first mag over two hundred meters. Even some of the Commandos were watching."
"Yeah, Mum is an amazing shot, but she always told me it's because she trained so much. By the way, where is she?"
"She already left again. She did her Ice Queen thing, came, took a look at my shooting, asked if she can try my gun as well, more or less hit bulls eye thirty times in rapid succession, made sure gun and chamber were empty and left again, only saying that for 14,5 inches the rifle was shooting decently."
Hotaru looked at SunTzu who seemed like he had seen an angel. He continued as he saw her glance.
"I suppose she went back to your quarters, her shift in the med bay starts soon."
"I need to talk to her. And SunTzu, you mind if I borrow AICA for a little trip with Chibiusa?"
SunTzu was back at marveling at the target.
"Yeah, no. Take her at your leisure."
"Thanks." Hotaru nodded and suppressed a smile, that had been way easier than expected. "I'll see you later."
"Sure."
Hotaru turned around and left the range again, with SunTzu glancing back and forth the target and where it sat two hundred meters away.
"Hey Hotaru." SunTzu came in as Hotaru was already a few meters away, making her turn around. "Tell your mom, I love her. And take care flying."
Hotaru had to grin. "Sure."
A few minutes later, Hotaru arrived at her mother's and her own quarters.
Setsuna was at the dining table, drinking a tea.
"Hey Mom."
"Hello, dear. I thought you were here but you weren't."
"I was actually looking for you. I went to the range but you were already gone."
"Was SunTzu still there?"
"He was. He's utterly marveled by your shooting."
Setsuna smiled gently. "Good. I observed him, as I wanted to see how good his shooting lately is. He's a good shooter but not as good as I am." Her smile grew. "But I think I can leave him on his own on the field."
"Last mission is still on your mind."
"I'll try to be better, seeing that he can handle his own, even on elite troop standards, helped. Although it's not bad to let him know, that there's benefits having me around."
Setsuna looked at Hotaru, something was on her mind, as mother she immediately noticed it.
"What's the matter?"
"About worrying with us…"
Setsuna's glance got skeptical. "What are you going to do, Hotaru?"
"There is something we, me and Chibiusa, want to check out."
"Let me guess, since I know the both of you, it's probably deep behind enemy lines."
"Actually no. Chibiusa could get her hands on hints that the enemy is using one or more old abandoned space stations for Intelligence gathering near Yag'Dhul. Nobody else but us seems to be interested in checking it out."
"We can talk with Ami-Chan, she'll put Galactic Intelligence on it."
"Mom, Intelligence already discarded it. But I think Chibiusa is onto something."
"So you and Chibiusa, the Heiress of Crystal Tokyo, take a trip alone through space. Far away from the fleet, risking to get caught in an ambush for something that's not worth to be checked by Galactic Intelligence?"
"I… I think I can sense it. There is something, and we should check it out!"
"Even better, you two run willingly into danger then?"
Setsuna sighed and fell silent as she saw the pleading gaze of Hotaru. She rubbed her temple and sighed even louder before she spoke again.
"Fine… I said I have to worry less. And I really should before I start fighting with you and SunTzu again because of my concerns. Just promise me that you'll take care. Of yourself and Chibiusa."
"Chibiusa has my back also. And we'll have AICA. If something should come up you'll guys will know."
"Please tell me at least you don't take her in secret."
"Of course not, I asked SunTzu and he allowed me to take her."
Austere eyes met the teenager.
"Does he know where you're going?"
"Errr…"
"Thought so." Setsuna closed her eyes briefly and swallowed her next sentence before she replied with another one. "You do know that he wouldn't let you go otherwise."
"He probably would go on his own."
"You're a smartass, just like your Papa, you know that?"
Hotaru shrugged her shoulders.
"I also got raised on the believe that protecting others is the most important thing to do. Also, language, Mom."
Setsuna stared at Hotaru before she responded to her sentence.
"You know, it was easier when you hadn't been a juvenile yet."
Hotaru's answer to that was a disarming smile.
The Taskforce along with some other ships from its last mission were still floating in space above Thyferra, the fleet protecting Thyferra and the busy space traffic moving a few kilometers away from them. Replenishment ships refueled and rearmed the capital ships while shuttles and transports brought in supplies and ammos onboard the ships.
Within one hour after talking with her mother, Hotaru was sitting in AICA's front seat and went through the start-up checklist as Chibiusa, wearing a fitting, pink pilot suit, a gift to her 18th birthday from her flying friends, appeared next to AICA.
"We good to go?"
Hotaru paused her doing and looked at Chibiusa, who climbed up the steps in AICA's frame.
"In principle, yes. But the traffic around here is pretty dense, I think it would get noticed if we just go dark and jump to Hyperspace.
Chibiusa dropped into the backseat and her mimic showed that she was thinking hard.
"Hah!" A yell came from the backseat as Hotaru had just continued her work. "I got it." While Hotaru turned around and AICA fine tuned her audio sensors towards the pink-haired teenager.
"AICA patch me through to flight command." Chibiusa ordered the AI and within a moment the officer on duty nervously asked what the number three of the Kingdom had called in for.
"Listen, Lieutenant Meiou will showcase me the stealth capabilities of AICA. This is an official order from me, the Heiress of Crystal Tokyo. Do you understand me?"
"Affirmative your Majesty. We'll immediately arrange everything, give me a minute."
Chibiusa, knowing that Hotaru was still looking at her shrugged nonchalantly. "You guys know that I get shit done when I let the Princess hang out."
Fifty-five seconds after Chibiusa's order, Hotaru got the permission to take off. But that wasn't everything she received, a few moments before, AICA had forwarded a text message from Setsuna to her, telling she wished them luck and if anything would go wrong she would be there in a moment although she hoped that Chibiusa and Hotaru really had this and she needed to trust them.
"AICA, anything on the sensors?"
The A-Wing and the two Senshi just had entered a system neighboring Yag'Dhul, its two Planetoids and extinct sun so unimportant that the system only had an alpha-numerical name. The only thing in the last few centuries worth mentioning were the two old Republican listening posts which had been built shortly after the Stark Hyperspace War.
These stations had been abandoned in the Clone Wars and not even under the militarization of Galactic Empire someone found them important enough to reactivate them again.
The Galactic Alliance had briefly scanned the stations, both laying close to asteroid fields, the debris of the former fourth object in the system, but couldn't find any indications that the stations were used again or any sign of life or droids onboard the stations.
"Sorry girls, I read absolutely nothing."
"I know the enemy is here. I can feel it."
"Premonition?"
"I… yeah, it feels so real. I just know that the enemy is here. Can't you feel anything?"
Hotaru closed her eyes under her pilot helmet and reached out with her senses. It took a moment but there was something, only a vague hunch but there was something dark, evil, twisted out there.
"There is something." She said, her voice uncertain because she couldn't grab it. Maybe it had just been a space-based predatory life form, hunting in the system.
Chibiusa leaned forward and donned off one of her pilot gloves.
"This means we have to do it like that."
A hand appeared at Hotaru's side and the Senshi of Rebirth immediately understood and took off on of her gloves as well.
Hands intertwined and both began to relax, their powers empowering each other and their abilities.
"I found it."
"I found it."
Both stated at the same time and Hotaru grasped AICA's joystick with her free hand.
"AICA, I'll steer you, you do the rest." Hotaru, eyes still closed, told the AI.
Carefully both ship and pilot maneuvered, Hotaru lead AICA towards one of the two stations, a rather small oval, only a few floors tall and maybe 150 meters in diameter. The station was pitch black on the outside.
"I have located the hangar, it's offline but I can get us inside." AICA came on and Hotaru nodded and pulled her hand off the joystick.
She activated her visor and the integrated visual sensor which gave her sight in the void as well as an IR-sensor. But everything was could outside of the station.
"Chibiusa, when we land you have to activate your suit and use your face-mask."
AICA landed, all her lights on, including the small spotlights on her landing gear, elucidating the absolute darkness around her at least for a few meters.
"AICA, is there any way you can hack yourself in the system of this station?" Hotaru asked the AI after AICA had sat down.
"There's no signal coming in, I could try through the lines though but I'd need a connection to the station."
Hotaru took a look back at Chibiusa to make sure she had her mask on and face sealed, before she activated her own helmet and mask.
As soon as she was done, she opened the canopy and unfastened her seatbelt.
She jumped out the cockpit, reaching high into the air as there was no artificial gravity activated, and had to use her arms to move maneuver herself to the ground, where she activated a magnet inside her boots to stay on the ground. While landing, standing up, she checked if her sidearm was there. The compact pistol from Earth would work in space, although with a tad bit of muzzle velocity behind the bullet. Hotaru scanned the surroundings, using her optical sensors, thinking about if it would have been better to have brought a blaster instead. She decided to rest the case, at least she had something to shoot with, as she had finished the quick scan of the area around AICA and slowly, due to the magnets of her boots clinging to the floor, marched to a small hatch at AICA's fuselage, right under where the A-Wing's wings protruded from.
AICA opened it and Hotaru grabbed the small link that was stored inside.
Hanging on a cable, ten meters long at maximum, the link could be used to connect AICA and her supercomputer to systems she couldn't enter, or infiltrate, wireless.
Hotaru began to pull the cable and then partly deactivated the magnets of her boots to more easily move toward the walls of the hangar where she expected one of the uplinks to the systems of the station.
"Something is off." Chibiusa came in in Hotaru's headset and under her helmet the raven-haired nodded. Something definitely was here, this strange feeling that made the hairs in Hotaru's neck stand up wasn't just the sensation of a dark, abandoned, old space station in the nowhere.
"Hey, I can't see you anymore!" Chibiusa came in again, fear evident in her voice.
Hotaru thought about to explain to Chibiusa how to turn on the vision enhancement optics on her helmet but she knew that before she would have done so, Chibiusa would already have gotten out of the cockpit.
It did surprise Hotaru a bit though as a hoot of Chibiusa came in before Hotaru even had turned around to let her helmet light make her visible.
"Chibiusa?!" Hotaru called Chibiusa over the radio.
"S-sorry! I jumped out of the cockpit but had forgotten about the missing gravity. But I got this, I know how to move in zero gravity, I've done this before. Hey, I see your light!"
A few seconds later, Chibiusa basically swimming through the air, glided towards Hotaru. Hotaru wound the cable around her wrist and held out her hands which Chibiusa then grabbed. Hotaru pulled Chibiusa to the ground and activated the magnets of the pink-haired's boots over the keys on a control panel on the pilot-harness Chibiusa was wearing.
"Now you can jump a few meters but won't fly away."
Chibiusa nodded and then looked around, she couldn't see much, so Hotaru showed her how to turn on the lights on her helmet.
"Hold on to me." Hotaru ordered her best friend and together they began to move towards the walls of the hangar again.
Within a few moments they were standing in front of the Durasteel-walls and Hotaru began to slowly move up from there.
After another few seconds more she found a tightly closed blast door, which seemed to connect the hangar to the rest of the station. On top of that she finally scried what she was searching for.
Untying the cable from her wrist and making sure it was long enough, she connected the plug into the relais close to the door.
"I'm in. Damn… this is some old stuff." AICA came in. "Hold on, this will take a moment."
Hotaru and Chibiusa held their breath, hoping that AICA would succeed to at least bring some gravity and light into this station. Sure, they could transform and fight even in space, but with very limited light and especially no gravity, this was rather difficult. And both were sure that they needed to be on their toes here.
Something was out there.
"Got it!"
Dimmed light came on and the two Senshi could feel how the gravity pulled them to floor now.
"I only got the most basic systems running, emergency lightning, basic gravity and one of three atmospheric generators. The stations reactor isn't in best shape." AICA came in again as the station's life support systems sprung to life.
"That's enough. Thank you AICA. We'll check out the station. Keep up your sensors and be ready for a quick retreat." Hotaru replied to the AI.
"Affirmative."
AICA was visible in the low light now and both girls could see how she extended her self-defense blaster under her cockpit.
"I'll try to gain access to more of the station's systems."
Chibiusa looked at Hotaru, both still their helmets on.
"I think it's time to change into something more fitting for fighting."
Hotaru nodded and in the same moment both raised their arms.
"Moon Crisis, Make Up!"
"Saturn Planet Power, Make Up!"
"Meiou?"
"Lieutenant Colonel, it's Captain SunTzu for you."
"Thank you Maria. Patch him through."
Setsuna was sitting at her desk, going through the thankfully scant patient data of the med bay. She had her mobile phone on unreachable except for Hotaru and Chibiusa. And although she had retreated into work to not worry too much, it still wasn't easy to keep her mind off of what her daughter and the Princess were doing.
"Darling?"
"Hey beautiful. I just called to see if you're alright. It seems my text messages don't come through."
"Yeah… I'm quite busy here so I turned my phone off." Setsuna glanced at her mobile phone, hoping that AICA or Hotaru wouldn't call right now, she hated to lie to SunTzu but he probably would hijack the Starstruck and race after the two girls if he knew what they were doing. It really wasn't easy to let the two youngest do their thing and trust them fully. "Listen, I'll see to get done here as soon as I can and you'll be the first to know and we'll do something really nice."
"Uhm… yeah, sure. Just let me know. I'll take an example in you and will see to work through my paperwork too. That's actually something I really should do. Just let me know, when you're done then."
"I will. And SunTzu?"
"Yes?"
"I love you."
"I love you too. See you later."
"Yes, later then."
Setsuna hung up the phone and let out a silent sigh. She really hoped the girls would be back soon. And she definitely needed at least a dinner date with SunTzu to calm down after this.
Sailor Saturn didn't like that at all. It was not that she was afraid but something made her nervous, something lurking here somewhere. At least she could fight like she was used to now that the station had gravity again. Nevertheless, she and Chibiusa had also packed their pistols on their fukus.
The emergency light left the scenery still eerie, at the main corridors of the station, a lamp was hanging every few meters, the bulbs only illuminating a small diameter around them, some didn't work at all, so some parts of the corridors were still pitch black.
"I sense that we need to go further… AHHH!" Chibiusa yelled out mid sentence as a panel of the ceiling feel down right behind her.
Hotaru had turned around immediately, Silence Glaive ready to strike. For a moment her astute eyes searched around to find any thing moving but there was nothing, except a freaked out Chibiusa.
After scanning the area Hotaru's eyes fell on Chibiusa who still was in a motion of being paralyzed.
"Chibiusa, are you okay?"
"I-I'm good." The pink-haired girl moved again. "Mind if I stay close?"
Hotaru shook her head enthusiastically and as she turned around she waited a moment until she could feel Chibiusa behind her. Later began to hold onto the backside of Hotaru's fuku and they moved further into the space station, with Hotaru carefully and thoroughly scanning what was in front of them and Chibiusa nervously eyeing their back every few steps.
Some of the corridors were completely dark and they had to use Sailor Chibi Moon's Pink Moon Stick as light, Chibi Moon had to materialize it on purpose.
In some corridors the pipes with the oxygen was broken too and white fog streamed out of the broken lines.
"This fucking place gives me the creeps." Chibiusa commented as they came past a crossing, where the compressed oxygen wafted out from the dark, making her look in that direction.
"AICA? Are we close to the command center of this thing now?" Hotaru didn't reply but rather activated her Sailor Communicator hoping they would reach the command center soon, and hopefully they could get some cameras to work there, this place was creepy even for her.
"Just up ahead, two crossings. I tried to get more systems to work but almost everything is broken beyond even trying to get access to it."
Hotaru looked down the hallway, after a few meters it became pitch black, no light was working there anymore.
"Are you sure we should go that way? Is there not another entrance? Maybe one with light?"
Hotaru moved her head back to Chibiusa with the slightest of moves, she had to be fearless for her best friend now.
"We got the Pink Moon Stick to light us the way. C'mon, let's see if we can find anything about the enemy spying on us here."
"Uhm… Hotaru? This bad feeling is getting worse." The two girls now were completely surrounded by the dark, except for the small pink glow of Chibiusa's weapon.
They almost had reached the door, Hotaru could already make it out a dozen meters or so in front of them, but something was off there, was a strange black mass to both sides of the door, from the floor to the ceiling.
Chibi Moon didn't care much for looking to the front, Saturn and her Glaive had that, instead she still kept on looking back. She just had done so, the feeling that something was lurking around here was even worse now, she even felt being watched from something.
It was so frightening that her mind had begun to play tricks on her, she thought had just seen a movement while looking back and it urged her to look back again.
Her eyes began to widen in shock and the color left her skin, there definitely was moving something. A leg like the one from a spider.
"Hotaru."
The raven-haired Senshi didn't listen, as she was completely occupied with staring into the multiple pairs, trios, quartets and more of glowing red eyes glancing at her from the black mass in front of the door of the command center.
As the first daimon dropped down from the ceiling behind Chibiusa and the first two in front of Hotaru stretched out their pointy spider legs, making a clicking noise on the floor, both teenagers said the same thing.
"Fuck."
AICA was still trying to get more access to the station but almost everything was broken, although she was tracing a usage of power from the core to something which just had activated at the moment.
And also her sensors began to sense lifeforms other than Hotaru and Chibiusa. Dozens of them, and the girls were right in the middle of them.
"Hotaru, I detect lifeforms all around you two."
Oh, you don't say…
Hotaru wasn't able to answer AICA as she was busy cutting down sleek, sharpened extremities from the daimons pouring in from the front.
Behind her the sounds of two pistols shooting came in. Chibiusa had immediately fixed the Pink Moon Stick in her Fukus ribbon and drawn Hotaru's pistol as well.
"Nineteen." Was all that Saturn had said, telling Chibi Moon how many bullets there were inside the pistol before she began to defend them from the front.
"It seems we're uninvited guests here."
"As always. We should get the fuck out of here, Saturn."
In that moment and although they wouldn't get much information that way, Hotaru realized that with that amount of enemies here, SunTzu's lesson from Norah was more than feasible for the situation on this station as well. At least they would stop the spying here.
"Silence Wall!" The wall of energy that Sailor Saturn created cut legs off and enemies apart and gave the two Senshi finally room to maneuver. Moving in perfect timing to each other, Chibi Moon shot down two creatures in blocking their way as Sailor Saturn let the Silence Wall perish and followed her best friend a step apart.
"Good idea, I'm down to the last two bullets."
"AICA?"
"Finally! Didn't you hear me? Are you okay?"
"Sorry, we've been kinda busy. We're on our way back to you, be ready to lift off immediately."
"Affirmative. I can also guide you if you don't remember the way back."
"Hey, I heard that!"
At least nine more daimons of various size were chasing the girls and just as they had run back half the way, AICA made sure to give Chibi Moon notes when to take a turn, another group of daimons came straight out of one of the dark and foggy corridors.
"Keep running!" Hotaru commanded as she stopped the nearest creature from striking Chibiusa with her weapon.
Three seconds and three swift cuts with the Glaive later she was back at following Chibiusa.
Behind them more and more complete dark creatures of chaos, souls bound to these twisted bodies by Chaos's will, waved down the corridors.
After what felt like forever, although it didn't even take two minutes the girls arrived at the hangar again.
"Get into the cockpit!" Hotaru yelled at Chibiusa after they had made a few meters into the hangar. The Senshi of Death stopped and turned around, Glaive at the ready.
"Taru?!" Chibiusa screamed out as she noticed that Hotaru had stopped.
"Go!" Hotaru's cold tone made sure she wasn't putting up with anything else and so Chibiusa ran straight further towards AICA.
Hotaru stretched her neck out as the first daimons came into sight and then looked briefly back to AICA. "As soon as Chibi Moon is on board begin to hover."
That said she turned around and swirled the Silence Glaive around to let the incoming Daimons know how good she was with her weapon and the most forward being monsters even stopped for a moment.
It was one from the second row who pounced forward first and within a second it was cleanly decapitated.
The others attacked but Hotaru stood her ground, or more, sliced anything that came close down as it was nothing, the only indication that she was actually using her powers at a high level was the purple glow of her eyes.
After the first few redeemed enemies the Senshi of Death and Rebirth went into the offensive and even managed to briefly create space and time to breathe while more Daimons came in from what seemed every direction. But this small break was all that Eternal Sailor Saturn needed.
Again SunTzu's words rang in her ears as she closed her eyes to concentrate and channel her powers.
Energy flowed into the Silence Glaive and as the first Daimons rushed towards Sailor Saturn, deformed extremities raised to strike at her she opened her eyes and spoke.
"Death Reborn Revolution."
The attack rushed through the Daimons in front of her, obliterating them and making the other incoming Daimons stop in sheer terror.
But the Daimons hadn't been Hotaru's real target and immediately after she casted the attack she turned around and began to run towards AICA.
As Sailor Saturn's attack reached the reactor core of the space station, bringing him to a critical point and starting a chain reaction, she already had reached AICA.
Hotaru jumped into the cockpit and AICA, whose sensors were picking up what was happening, on top of immediately understanding what Sailor Saturn was up to, already was turning around and accelerating.
The cockpit closed and just had sealed when the A-Wing broke through the weak atmospheric shield of the hangar which was working now. As Hotaru fastened her seatbelt AICA gave everything she had in both the engines and the rear shields.
Seconds later the station exploded in a blue blaze of light, almost swallowing the starfighter. AICA shot out of the shockwave and rocketed forward to get away from it, while inside both Hotaru and Chibiusa were churned heavily.
And then everything was silent again and AICA decelerated to a regular tempo.
"Yes! Team Wicked Mistress prevails again!" Chibiusa began to cheer and even Hotaru, who now had her fingers on AICA's controls couldn't help but to smile.
Twenty minutes later they landed back on the Eternal, detransformed and acting like nothing at all had happened.
The three females had decided that Chibiusa, with AICA switching herself on with the bit of data she could collect, would report to Ami.
Setsuna, who had asked Flight Control to tell her when AICA was on her way back was waiting for them.
She smiled warm and happy when she saw that apart from a tired looking Hotaru, they all seemed to be okay.
As the girls got out she hugged both of them.
"You had a nice training flight?"
"Yes, Mom." Hotaru smiled tired. "But it was kind of enduring. I think I should get some rest."
"And I'll need to get back to helping Ami-Chan with her work." Chibiusa said, seemingly in a sudden hurry.
As the two girls strolled past Setsuna she pulled out her cell phone.
"I'm done. Give me one hour to get ready. I really need some quality time now, so you better book a table and a room on Thyferra."
She smiled again as she put away her mobile phone and then began to follow the two girls.