Just a few days after Ami's birthday, as usually the most calm of all the Senshi's birthdays, the Head of Royal Intelligence along with the Commander of Crystal Tokyo's Commandos, Team 1 and 5 set out to start and support an insurgency in enemy occupied territory. Along with Balalaika's company, now part of Taskforce Sol as Independent assault company and on the Chandrilean Pearl, it's crew eager to earn even more money, was used as meaning of transportation, with friendly support of the Smuggler's Alliance. Somehow Talon Karrde and the other leaders of the Smuggler's Alliance had managed to keep a path open for it's members, even into Chaos-controlled territory, but after all, even Chaos needed civilian, at least half way legal, transportation to keep his allies supplied and happy.
Another part of the Taskforce, centered around the Far Side, which hadn't flown back to Earth at all, but only had been replenished at Thyferra, with it's crew and complement having had R&R on the planet, and the Starstruck, carrying Terra Squadron and AICA and also Sailor Mars, Sailor Pluto and Sailor Saturn as well as SunTzu, and the Moon's Bounty, carrying relief goods, had set sail to the Inner Rim System of Janara, located close to Thyferra and the Rimma Trade Route.
The only inhabited planet of the system was Janara III. The native population of the planet had been killed in a genocide in the reign of the Galactic Empire but with the waves of refugees in the Yuuzhan Vong War needing space to settle the planet was repopulated by races of all origins.
The population had dwindled somewhat after the war and now a few thousand people, mostly farmers, lived on the planet, often alone on farms or within small settlements.
It seemed that the peace on the planet, its most prominent features the rolling hills and grassy plains, making it perfect for livestock farming, wouldn't even last for 10 years as units under the Command of the Herald of Chaos had already been seen scouting the planet.
The GA's High Command had deemed the planet too unimportant for a large scale attack but nevertheless it was estimated that the planet would be attacked and annexed. Due to the close proximity to Chaos's territory it had been concluded that the population of the planet was to be evacuated rather than having units torn into long-lasting fights.
While the horrible memories of Rago still lingered in everybody's mind, the sent personnel of Taskforce Sol didn't waste anytime beginning with the evacuation. The Far Side already had deployed teams of soldiers to establish landing zones for transports and shuttles, distribute food and housing for the waiting evacuees and also inform the outlying farmers about the evacuation.
An attack through the rogue Yuuzhan Vong domain was highly unlikely but still the horrors of the war were fresh to the inhabitants of the planet and so over 95% of the population agreed with the evacuation.
The larger farms with livestock would be evacuated by assigned transport ships as the animals were to be evacuated as well, the War already had an effect on the Galactic Economy and the last thing Coruscant wanted was another famine crisis in the Galaxy, so every thing of value, animals and harvest was worth saving too, especially since Galactic Senator Hino was the one in charge.
Immediately after arriving in the system, AICA, piloted by Hotaru transported Rei to the planet and before she even thought about to meet with the system's government, the Senator of Sol visited one of the largest evacuation sites.
As usual Rei was very kind to the waiting evacuees, giving them hope and reliance to be back soon, but who knew her saw that her smile wasn't as big as usual and that she showed signs of stress.
Apart from the memories of Rago, and the fear and pain these memories still induced, the anger that another innocent system was about to be attacked, she also worried about her grandfather. Lately he had become more fragile when it came to his health and right now he was fighting a heavy case of the flu. Yuichiro had stayed back at the Shrine to take care of him along with Phobos and Deimos. This current mission wasn't easy for Rei but she knew about the necessity of it. And if she knew anything then how important it was to evacuate this planet.
Rago had taught the Taskforce some lessons and now the evacuation sites were also built with defensives emplacements around, machine guns, automatic grenade launchers and heavy blasters were on the lower scale, the T6Bs of the Taskforce and the Mercury's revenge, stationed at the official star port of the planet, were the lower end of defensive measures.
And this time the Spy Alliance and Rei as Head of the Committee of Displaced Persons and Refugees had made sure there were enough transports for individuals, and livestock.
Before Senator Hino and First Lieutant Meiou had arrived at the main settlement of the planet, capital would have been too much of a word for the town, the first transports arrived at the evacuation sites.
Around the same time, Setsuna, with SunTzu on her coat-tails as JTAC, arrived at the town, Janara III Prime, as well, beginning with the preparations to evacuate the only real hospital on the planet as well as the other social services, a planet full of former, and soon again, refugees of war sure had it's share of orphans and disabled individuals.
Twenty one hours later SunTzu was at the small spaceport in the outskirts of Janara III Prime, managing the incoming space traffic when the communications officer on deck on the Far Side came in.
"Captain, there's a ship out here that wants to talk directly to you."
"Be advised Lieutenant, I'm on duty to instruct incoming ships on the planet's starport, I don't have time to talk to ships in space, we're on a NEO here and not to have a nice, friendly chat with a raggedy captain of a rust bucket of container freighter." Probably a fan wanted to talk to him.
"Sir, that ship… It's the Millennium Falcon."
SunTzu's eyes widened drastically. "Patch him through."
"SunTzu!" It almost immediately came out of the German's headset, this time on a headband over a cap and not mounted on a helmet.
"Sir, it's a pleasure. How can I help you?"
"Help me? No, son. We're here to help you."
"I heard Senator Hino is the boss here, always glad to help a beautiful woman." SunTzu's eyes widened again, that had been Lando Calrissian.
"Hey SunTzu, on it as always? Glad to hear a familiar voice." SunTzu began to smile, that had been Captain Reynolds.
"Alright guys, give the man a break. Listen SunTzu, we have quite the big amount of respectable transport jockeys here, ready to load up half to planet so get all the caranaks in a row."
"Copy Falcon, let me just check in with Flight Command, the smaller ships are a blessing to get some people away from the more rural places."
While ship after ship landed on the planet, Setsuna was still organizing the evacuation of the hospital, some of the patients were barely in the condition to be relocated and there were some measures needed to stabilize them.
Setsuna, her team and the doctors and nursing staff of the local hospital worked tiredlessly to do so and prepare the rest of the hospital for evacuation, a hospital frigate was on its way from Thyferra.
Rei and her staff were working around the clock as well, managing the evacuation, keeping contact with Coruscant and Corellia and Rei also stayed being the shining light she was for the refugees. Only a selected few knew that she was working tiredlessly to have her mind taken off from her grandfather.
Another day later most of the evacuation, including the evacuation of the hospital, was almost completed.
Just in time for the first enemy reconnaissance flights. Probe ships and reconnaissance droids entered the system but disappeared before they could be intercepted by the A-Wings of the Taskforce.
SunTzu was on the Far Side, having a quick bite with Setsuna before both would go back to their work. Setsuna had decided to bring the most serious cases from the planet onto the medbay of the Gladiator-Class and take care of them herself in the well-equipped medical department.
SunTzu would catch a flight to the surface afterwards, continuing his work to instruct the incoming traffic.
"Have you seen the girls?" The emerald-haired asked her lover looking up from her plate of Horitaki, Greek salad with chicken, her words giving away a bit of curiosity with a hint of concern. "I hope they at least take some breaks from time to time."
"Rei is working like a maniac as far as I know. And when it comes to Hotaru…"
"When Rei is working nonstop, Hotaru isn't taking any real breaks either. She looks up to Rei too much for this."
"Maybe we're done here tomorrow. Last report i heard was that already 66% of the population have been evacuated. We can't leave soon enough if you ask me. And then all of us can take a break."
"Those girls better do than or I'll force it on them as chief medical officer."
Sitting in one of the Larties on the way back to the planet, SunTzu had a look at the general development of the operation.
Some smaller camps had already been closed down and left off of personnel as there had been no more evacuees left. The rate of people that wanted to stay behind was under five percent according to official data, something that SunTzu acknowledged with a nod while reading. He knew what would happen to this people when the Taskforce had left, and he knew that the system was not important enough for the GA to spare units to either secure it or conquer it back in the foreseeable future. Deep down SunTzu also caught himself thinking about that every individual not falling into the Herald's grasp would also mean one less enemy, as cynical as it was. But he couldn't shake this thought, what if it was that enemy which would kill one of the Senshi, Hotaru, Setsuna?
Damn, he needed a cigarette as soon as he got out of this gunship.
First Lieutant Knopf, the military adjutant for Rei, suppressed a yawn. Knopf was from Austria and this was just his second assignment with the Taskforce, although his vita was flawless and he had been a liaison officer to the NATO since ever he had gotten his commission from the Bundesheer. He had applied for the Taskforce as Liaison Officer a few months earlier and was then deployed as liaison for the Foreign Service and the Office of the Senator. He looked up from the data pad with the latest numbers of evacuees already sent off the planet and looked at the two women at the desk in the other side of the office room inside the government building in Janara Prime. These two, meaning the Senator and First Lieutenant Meiou, seemed to never sleep, or take a break longer than thirty minutes. Everytime he had went to take a break or catch some hours of sleep the Senator was working and whenever came back, she had been working too. And Lieutenant Meiou was always at her side, standing guard, in her unnerving way, that scythe in her hands.
"Looks like things are running smoother and way faster than expected." Rei's lips showed the hint of a smile as she said that, not even looking up from her datapad, Hotaru didn't even nod.
Suddenly the holo-projector in the middle of the room began to blink and ring. This was strange as it was used only for communication with the Far Side and there wasn't any calls planned right now.
SunTzu followed the events over the radio, a freighter, a rather small one apparently had gotten into trouble. Everything on the way to the planet had been okay but now the ship, earmarked for a larger farmstead a few hundred kilometers away from the capital was coming in too fast. And it didn't response anymore.
The bridge of the Far Side was glued to the projection of the small freighter rushing towards the planet. Maybe there had been an emergency on board, a hull breach or something and the ship was now propelling towards the surface of the small planet. It would go down close to the farmstead it was supposed to land, although with that velocity it had right now, it would not leave much more than a crater. At least it wasn't leaking radiation or had any explosives or hazardous materials on board, so much the scanners had showed.
Captain Mancini grinded his teeth, while he would have understood if some ships would break he hadn't thought that one of them would crash. And something still felt odd about that ship.
The optical sensors and cameras of the Far Side broadcasted the approach and a murmuration went through the room when the ship suddenly slowed down and landed normally.
The cameras catched how the entrance hatch opened and the ramp was let down to the ground.
Rei and Hotaru were watching the broadcast, it had hurt Rei immensely when she thought about a ship's crew dying in the evacuation but both of them were up from their chairs inside the office before the ship even had slowed down. They had felt it, something odd, immensely evil and dark, making the hairs in their necks stand up, which was something very rare for the seasoned Senshi.
Rei couldn't tell it to Hotaru but she had wished that the younger Senshi would stay back in the Capital, as the Senshi of Passion had an assumption what just had landed on the planet, yes, even if Sailor Saturn was stronger than here, but Rei knew the look in the face of her younger Senshi Sister, the determination to end this thing that seemed so evil.
SunTzu had felt it too and a cold shower, immense fear, had shot through him, making him even nauseous. A young Private had to ask him three times if he was okay before he could answer.
And in that moment he already had seen AICA shot towards where this feeling equaling a dark abyss full of despair had come from.
"Keep flying AICA. There's nothing TopGun can do against this… thing."
But I will make that bitch burn…
On the bridge of the Far Side sounds of shock were heard when the bridge crew saw what streamed out of the transport ship.
The family of the farmstead nearby had closed in, an older man, maybe in his late fifties, apparently the father, had lead the group of people, apparently his wife, son, the son's wife and two children. Suddenly they had to fight for their life as Deimons, more grotesque than usual, these ones with tentacles instead arms and even larger claws on their feet bursted out of the starship.
The two men tried to defend themselves and their families with some old-fashioned blaster rifles while the children and women tried to run away, but the Deimons made quick work of them, cutting them down.
In bewilderment Captain Mancini and the rest of the bridge crew observed how the rest of the family was killed in gruesome ways, apparently these Daimons were not here to harvest souls but just to kill.
Captain Mancini got on the radio, straight to the tactical channel, asking which unit was available when Rei answered from AICA's backseat mere seconds away from the farmstead.
"All units stand down. This is a job for the Senshi."
AICA rushed in to the compound and just before she touched down Hotaru and Rei exchanged a look and a nod. Hotaru opened the cockpit, AICA didn't even touch down and both jumped out.
Rei's hands immediately engulfed in flames and Hotaru got into a fighting stance while the Daimons turned to what they fought would be their next prey.
At the same moment both Senshi pushed forward, Sailor Saturn cutting with her Glaive through limbs, bodies and heads of the Daimons, while Sailor Mars used her fire to kill the enemy.
More and more of enemies now pushed towards the two Senshi but the combined power of the two Raven-haired women made short work of anything throwing itself at them.
Suddenly there was an eerie howl coming from inside the ship. Both the Senshi sensed the darkness, an absolutely evil wickedness streaming out from the inside of the small transport ship.
And then Hotaru cut down an enemy and for a moment turned to Rei. "I have to destroy this thing inside that ship!"
Hotaru couldn't say why, but she knew, that inside was something close to the ultimate evil and it needed to be taken out, immediately.
Before Rei could keep her from running away, another Daimon attacked her and she had to shift her gaze back to warding off the attack and counterattacking her enemy.
Hotaru sprinted past Daimons, cutting them down on the move and finally jumped over the last enemy between her and the ship, using the Silence Glaive to high jump while at the same time impaling the enemy's head with it.
She landed standing up, Glaive firmly in her arms and before any other of the vessels could react she ran inside the starship.
The ramp of the Sullustan starship ended directly in the storage room and what Hotaru saw there gave even her, one of the most strongest beings in the Galaxy, a shiver as she stopped a few meters in front of it. A naked woman, pale like chalk, with long blonde hair standing in the middle of the cargo bay, naked. Herr mouth was a grimace of hundreds of tiny needle-like teeth and her limbs ended in tentacles. But the most frightening part of that being were her eyes, dark like space itself.
Abeloth.
Releasing a cry of havoc, Sailor Saturn charged.
Rei was furious, she had seen the remains of one of the children and unleashed a fiery barrage of fire in all directions as she then transformed in Galactic Sailor Mars. Vision red with fury she burned or rather melted down the last Daimons.
She took a deep breather as she looked at the inferno around her, some patches of grass still burning.
And then it stung into her very depths of her soul. Hotaru.
"AICA, more energy into the engines. And let's hope we're not too late yet."
With a loud bang Hotaru cannoned into one the walls of the starship, loosing the grip on the Silent Glaive as she became unconscious.
But before Abeloth could continue her attack on the Senshi of Death and Rebirth a giant fireball hit the middle between her and Hotaru, centimeters away from one of Abeloth's tentacle arms.
"You fucked with the wrong little sister, you freak."
Abeloth stopped in her motion and looked at Rei, head tilted sideways.
"I remember you, Woman."
"Bad Bitch from Tokyo, yeah that's me. And this time I'll fry you, you monster."
SunTzu literally jumped out of AICA and hit the floor running, ignoring the aftermath of the inferno around him and heading straight for the ramp into the other starship.
The closer he came the more he could feel her. She frightened him, a fear so bad that his heart felt like it began to freeze, a fear that wanted to make him stop dead in his tracks and cower down. But he knew he couldn't, not with what was at stake. He had given in his fear and anxiety after meeting Abeloth the first time, he wouldn't do now.
SunTzu didn't slow down, he kept running, there was no need to hide his coming, she would know.
And of course she knew, and as SunTzu appeared on the ramp, immediately starting to fire at her with his 416C in full auto but to no avail as Abeloth just used the Force to block the bullets. Fast as lighting she desisted from what she was doing, to her feet lay a barely conscious Rei and Abeloth probably was about to give her the rest, and rocketed towards him, raising her tentacles to strike at him.
SunTzu's knowing that the hadn't had any time to reload did the only thing left and threw his rifle at the entity.
It didn't hit as Abeloth used the Force to stop the rifle midway but it succeeded in making her stop as something else caught her eye. Something was dangling from the stock of the weapon.
SunTzu already had began to turn the other corner, a trace of a smile on his lips, when the flashbang he had fixed on the telescopic stock of his rifle exploded, a mere few centimeters away from her face.
Most powerful Force-Creature in the universe or not, the flashbang gave SunTzu a few seconds as Abeloth's real senses were overloaded with sensations. He ran to Rei, yanked her up and threw her over his shoulder, all in fluid motion, before he ran over to Hotaru and grabbed her by the waist. The girl couldn't fully open her eyes and she felt like a truck had run her over twice but she somehow managed to grab and hold onto the Silence Glaive.
As soon as SunTzu had both Senshi he ran back to the ship's ramp, his velocity a mixture of adrenaline and the Force.
SunTzu knew Abeloth would be behind in a few seconds but maybe it was enough to at dump the two women in AICA's cockpit and to at least save them.
He was already seeing the outside again when he heard moving behind him, apparently Abeloth had recovered.
Just a few seconds more…
SunTzu had run before, using the Force, faster than he had expected he could but this time, it was pure despair and he definitely had never run that fast.
But it was to no purpose, SunTzu had just made a few steps with the ground, greenish grass and brown earth, just like at home, when he a tentacle pulled violently at his leg and made him fall down. While falling he could see that it were still more than thirty meters to AICA. And they were between her and Abeloth, which meant she couldn't use her blaster without risk to help them.
At least he somehow managed to fall first and let the girls fall onto him to cushion their fall. It knocked the air out of his legs and Rei's kneecap hitting his chin made him see stars.
Get up, you have to bring yourself between the girls and save them!
So close, he had been. He almost had managed to get away and now it was so hard to get up and shield the girls. SunTzu knew he had failed.
And then something appeared in front of him. A black boot, long and with high heels.
And the fear, the panic and the feeling of having lost inside, crushing him just a millisecond before made room for hope, thankfulness and the love he felt for this woman. And here he had thought he had been the Guardian of Guardians.
"Chronos Typhoon!"
Mom's angry…
He didn't know how she had made it here but SunTzu was more than happy to see Sailor Pluto here and her arrival had brought him back in the here and now.
Immediately he got up, grabbed the two groaning women, both trying to get up as well and together they ran over to AICA.
Within a second after the loud explosion of Setsuna's attack, completely destroying the ramp of the starship they just had been in, Setsuna was next to the trio and helped them to rush towards AICA.
"AICA!" SunTzu shouted but AICA already knew what was going on and had already activated her repulsors.
As they run, Setsuna suddenly stopped again and turned around, already casting another Chronos Typhoon. Pluto had heard something and her attack impacted just after she had made out, tentacles coming out from the smoking debris of the ramp and the entrance.
This time she hit the landing skit of the ship and the power of the attack destroyed it, making the ship crash down to the ground, burying the entrance under it.
In a matter of seconds, SunTzu had helped Rei, she had a pretty bad black eye he noticed now as well as cuts in her face and lips, and Hotaru in the backseat before he swung himself into the front seat.
When Setsuna jumped onto him a few moments later AICA was already taking off.
The A-Wing climbed as fast as it could, closing her canopy as she did so, SunTzu had ordered her to do so.
"AICA… you got any nukes on board?" That was Rei from the backseat, wiping blood from her lips, smoke rising up from her head. Close next to her Hotaru held on side of her face, to shield at least one eye from the light of the day, enlarging her headache, looking at her with the unshielded eye.
"We have to end this thing!"
"Negative." AICA accelerated as she said that.
"Then call the Far Side, we need an Orbital Bombardment on this position right now."
"Negative. The Far Side is not in position anymore. Several enemy cruisers have entered the system and Command decided to withdraw."
"What?! No! We have…"
"Rei… it's over." Setsuna shook her head sitting on SunTzu's lap. "There's too many enemy ships. At least the evacuation was a success." And then the older Senshi turned around, leaned in and put a hand on Rei's face.
"Are you injured?" Rei slowly shook her head and after a motherly nod turned to her adoptive daughter, Hotaru just nodded and Setsuna kissed the tips of her fingers and gently put them on Hotaru's forehead.
"I'm glad you two are unharmed." There was the hint of a soft smile on Sailor Pluto's face.
But then she turned back to SunTzu and her soft features immediately vanished. SunTzu looked tired, he was and there was still that uneasiness that Abeloth triggered in him but that didn't hinder Sailor Pluto to grab him by the collar of his combat shirt.
"And you… next time you do something so stupid tell me before so I don't have to teleport in a haste to somewhere limiting my powers."
SunTzu was afraid she would slap him but instead she grabbed harder and pulled him into a kiss.
Suddenly two dark-green-colored A-Wings appeared on AICA's flanks.
"We're here to escort you to the rest of the fleet, currently falling back to jump point cresh and then going to Hyperspace." One of the pilots of the two spacecraft from Styx Squadron came in.
SunTzu took one hand around Setsuna to help position her right while the other one grabbed AICA's joystick.
"Copy, Styx. Let's get the hell out of Dodge."
SunTzu felt relief, at least they had all come out alive. And this time they had pretty much saved the planet's population. This sure had been worth the loss of his favorite rifle. But Abeloth would pay for it and as his gaze wandered over the mirrors and he could see the faces of the three women in AICA's cockpit he noticed he wasn't the only one who had something personal going on with Abeloth.