In comparison to the Jedi, lead by Master Solusar in this official hearing, Galactic Senator Rei Hino of Sol was furious. Hiding her healing black eye under sun glasses her hands gripped the desk in front of her harder and harder. At least her healing powers as Senshi had healed the cuts in her face already although right now she wished the whole Galaxy could see how dangerous this thing, Abeloth, really was. For the second time that thing had mopped the floor with her. And not only with her but with Sailor Saturn as well.
Rei knew how this would end, even though the Chief of State was on their side. And the Supreme Commander probably as well but what difference would that make. The GA wouldn't put up a fleet and reconquer, or destroy, Janara III.
Rei let out a silent sigh, she needed to keep her cool. Of course they had to take out Abeloth but warships were needed on fronts all over the Galaxy and there simply weren't enough available. And withdrawing ships from other places would just mean more ground gained for the enemy.
The loss of Fondor still had effect on the Shadow War and by now everybody in the Galaxy understood that the GA was really fighting for it's continuity and every forsaken system could be used as propaganda for the enemy and lead to more systems abadoning the Galactic Alliance and siding with the enemy.
While Rei was in the Galactic Senate, Artemis and Captain Santos just had left the Fleet Headquarters in another part of the District. As soon as they stepped out of the building they put on their uniform hats again. Both of them looked skeptically.
"I don't think Mancini will be a problem."
"Mancini, although higher in rank, won't be the problem. But I fear SunTzu won't accept it."
"But Sir, the order comes from the Supreme Commander himself."
"Yeah. I just know, SunTzu will decide to not obey orders this time."
"I don't care if it was Vader himself who gave the order. I will not oblige it."
"SunTzu… you know why he gave you this command."
"I don't want any command anymore."
"SunTzu. That man is Darth Vader, very probably the most powerful man in the whole Galaxy."
"I don't care."
"I wasn't finished! And also one of the most wise ones, he exactly knows what he's doing… He sees the potential that you have. That potential that I see whenever I look at you. That potential we need to save this Galaxy."
"That's not fair, Setsuna."
"But it's the truth. You don't have any idea how good of a leader you really are."
SunTzu stayed quiet so Setsuna continued.
"And I'll be there with you. As will Hotaru, Michiru and Haruka. You are not alone."
SunTzu froze in the middle of the room, they stayed at their usual suite on their favorite hotel in Coruscant and their discussion had taken place in the living room.
It took another moment before his shoulders finally slumped down.
"Fine. I'll take command, but this will be an exception. And you better hope that it won't be such a disaster as last time."
It had been roughly a week ago and now the Taskforce had formed up at Coruscant again. While Janara III had been evacuated the rest of the Taskforce had participated in smaller skirmishes in the Rim, or in case of the Balalaika's Desantniks, Ami and Makoto and some of the Wolves, founded and supported a Pro-Galactic-Alliance-Rebellion on a planet which had defected to Chaos's reign.
The Rebellion had been a success but now needed a bit more firepower and so Taskforce Sol would steam to the system and support the rebellion openly with heavy weaponry.
But not all of Taskforce Sol. Lord Vader himself, the Supreme Commander of the Galactic Alliance, together with his son, the Grandmaster of the New Jedi Order, had decided that it was worth another try in letting SunTzu lead forces and grow on his path to becoming the man after which others could gather to save the Galaxy. Of course SunTzu hated the idea, the wounds on his soul from loosing his whole platoon still not healed, if they ever would.
But after their heated conversation Setsuna had finally succeeded in persuading him to take the command. Not that she knew that this time it was way bigger than ever before. SunTzu would lead a Taskforce within the Taskforce, consisting of the Far Side, her complement and the Outers.
Nevertheless Setsuna knew that her beloved boyfriend would excel as leader. And she knew, that he had to do it. For months she had been telling SunTzu that she wanted him at his full potential and now was the perfect moment for it. All he had to do was to overcome his fear and show himself his true potential.
A few days later:
Taskforce Outer Sol, as the unit commanded by SunTzu had been designated, was on its way to the Wild Space, more specific to the planet of Odessen. Reports of a strange signal coming in from the surface of the planet had been reported, and apart from that signal no communication could have been established with the planet.
SunTzu had the Far Side, the Voyager, AICA and Styx Squadron under his command, as well as the four tanks, Rago-Battalion and the other ground components onboard the Far Side when TF Outer Sol fell out of Hyperspace a few thousand kilometers away from Odessen.
Styx, AICA and the Voyager had formed up in a defensive formation around the Far Side, and all ships had their systems up and were ready for combat.
SunTzu was standing on the bridge of the Far Side, right behind the Captain's chair to have a personal view of what was going on. The unit's first and foremost mission was reconnaissance and establishing communication with the planet again.
SunTzu's heart was racing when the blue and white of Hyperspace became the familiar black with yellow dots in the distance with a blue and green planet hanging in front of them.
His fingers were cramped around the back of the Captain's chair like a vise. Outside AICA and the Voyager moved out for some forward reconnaissance.
Captain Mancini, standing next to him, gave SunTzu a side look.
"Are you okay, Captain?"
There was no answer as SunTzu kept staring out of the large bridge window.
"Captain?"
SunTzu wiped away a tear of sweat from his forehead. At least there hadn't been an enemy Star Destroyer waiting for them to wipe them out.
"Fighters, report."
"Nothing." Michiru sitting in her usual gunner seat of the Voyager turned her helmeted head back to Haruka, who was flying, the sound of the fabrics stretching as she turned audible in the cockpit.
"Alright then. Voyager and AICA will begin their recon patrol."
"Bummer… I thought we might get something to shoot. You know, so SunTzu gets some credit as commander which unit has engaged the enemy." Haruka said over the helmet comms which only she and Michiru could hear.
A pair of brown eyes fixed a pair of ruby eyes which were warm and reassuring.
"Don't worry, he got that. And if there would have been a real threat here in space we would know by now." Setsuna said, sitting in the common room of the med bay, a cup of tea in hand, with Maria Santos sitting across her in the room. The calm presence of the older woman visibly relaxed the younger woman, as Maria had fears that there was an ambush just waiting for them to run into. She always had been a little superstitious, maybe that were her Philippine roots, and when it came to the survival rate of his subordinates, SunTzu's statistics were pretty bad.
Meanwhile AICA and the Voyager flew through empty space, between the sun of the system and it's main planet were just a moon and one small asteroid field, near the sun itself.
All of the systems looked well and showed no sign of enemy activity and although nobody said it, the three others were glad it was like that, for the sake of SunTzu alone.
The smaller Taskforce took it's time and made sure it was save and there was nobody lying in ambush, while SunTzu tried to take care to get some backup just in case. Unfortunately, due to now common overstretching of forces, he couldn't manage to get a backup force from the regional commander.
Setsuna, now at his side in the TCC, laid an arm over his shoulder and leaned in to his ear.
"It shows your honor as officer trying to make sure we have some backup but as you can see it seems like we're good on our own here. Even if they drop in with an Interdictor, we'll be gone before it's activated."
SunTzu didn't answer, he only let out air audible while the tension of his back faded a bit and he nodded. A moment later he activated the comms on the map table they were standing at.
"All units, end your reconnaissance missions as planned and RTB after."
The Voyager and AICA were the last ones to return to the Far Side and after a short refreshment break after their four hour recon mission, the flying Outers found themselves in the TCC, next to their fourth member and her boyfriend, their commander for this mission.
"Space seems to be safe so far, I'm still working to get some backup, just in case. On the ground it's different, something seems to jam all our sensors whenever we try to reconnaissance the populated areas of the planet."
"Sounds like you need someone doing a swift but proper aerial reconnaissance." It was Haruka who immediately understood what was needed. Not that SunTzu didn't know either, there had been just something keeping him away from asking her.
"Yeah, we're on it to form a squad out of Styx and you three, so we can do that in force."
"Bah, no need to. We'll go. Expect to have a place for a LZ by afternoon tea."
Michiru side eyed Haruka, typical her.
"The three of us will be more than enough." Hotaru now responded as well but Setsuna turned her gaze to her.
"I heard you have tons of paperwork still left to do. Duties first, young lady, Commander Jordan told me that you're a bit lacking in this department."
"Mom…"
Haruka looked at the two other Outers and then shrugged her shoulders.
"Fine, then it's a little ride out with my girlfriend. I don't mind."
"You're sure?"
"Sounds like you're worried, Fritz. No need to, you're talking to the bloody best pilot in the Taskforce."
SunTzu hesitated but then he nodded. "Fine. But be careful."
"Chill, it's not like there's an enemy army waiting for us down there. We would know that by now."
Twenty minutes later the Voyager left the main hangar of the Far Side and headed towards the green and blue planet, heavy with white clouds too, that Odessen was.
SunTzu was back on the bridge, next to Captain Mancini and watching the departure of the TIE-Aggressor. Something didn't feel right, was that the Force maybe? But the sensor operators had checked the area the Voyager would scout dozens of times, and even though with various scanners jammed, visual and audiovisual sensors didn't show any sign of danger.
As the starfighter swung left and towards the planet, SunTzu briefly massaged the back of his nose. Probably it was just his fear and paranoia. After all, that was the Voyager, with Haruka flying and Michiru in the back.
Haruka flew fast but not at top speed as she descended into the planet's atmosphere. The area she would scout was on the main continent of the planet but far away from the larger cities.
Neither she, nor Michiru or the Far Side had any indications of enemy activities on their sensors. After flying a few circles of the designated landing zone for the Taskforce she flew a square of a few dozen square kilometers on the borders of her search vector.
SunTzu was standing very stiff next to Captain Mancini as the optical sensors of the Far Side covered the Voyagers mission.
The Italian Captain of the Far Side had noticed SunTzu's behavior before already and although he kind of understood it, he knew SunTzu had lost more than enough of his subordinates and friends in this war already, he hoped that SunTzu was living up to the expectations to fulfill this mission.
Meanwhile the Voyager had finished it's initial reconnaissance and Haruka radioed in onto her mission's Commander. "We're done here, looks like it's safe for the ground dwellers to come in. Permission to fly to waypoint Kilo?"
SunTzu hesitated a moment, this waypoint was just a few kilometers out from the base of the local military forces, on the other side, there was no sign of any danger, except the jamming.
If they wanted to attack they already would have…
"Permission granted, Voyager. Be careful, though."
Haruka nodded with a smile, she was a bit afraid, that SunTzu would call them back. As if there was something out there what could compete against her superior flying and her superior spacecraft.
She had flown a few dozen kilometers and had closed in on the base, it wasn't as large as the base on Crystal Tokyo and there was a small rocky mountain growing steep behind it, when suddenly an security alarm went off, almost the same second Michiru yelled out.
"We're locked on!"
"From where?!" Haruka immediately started to jink with the Voyager to make locking on them and especially shooting at them more difficult. If only she knew what was locking on and where the threat came from.
"Sensors can't tell…" Michiru tried to find the threat with her eyes after a split second, the sensors were all jammed, but it was Haruka who saw it. Three small turrets in the mountains, turbolasers or ion cannons.
From Space the Far Side's crew and Sol's soldiers on the bridge of the Far Side and in the TCC watched from an optical sensor how suddenly the Voyager began to fly evasive maneuvers.
Eyes widened and bridge personnel fell silent, immediately SunTzu activated a comms channel to his battle sisters, grabbing the headset of a nearby lieutenant not bothering to put it on, just speaking into the mic. "Haruka, what's going on?!"
And then the cannons in the mountain began to shoot, blue balls of light, they were ion cannons.
Haruka jinked as crazy and could dodge a few seconds of the constant bombardment from three different cannons, probably in a Gatling configuration as the turrets per se shot almost without a break. The Senshi of winds flying and the agility of the Voyager managed to give them a few seconds, seconds in which Michiru grabbed around her seatbelt and got into a crash position.
Haruka flew like a madwoman, defiling the laws of gravity, but it was to no avail, one shot grazed the right wing while Haruka flying a barrel roll and made most of the system on the side of the ship fail. Haruka had to use her whole skill and strength to get her ship to turn straight upward again and just as she had done so, still having hope to get away, a second ion shot hit the back of the Voyager, making the engines and most of the other systems fail.
SunTzu lost the grip around the headset in his hand when it happened a few seconds after the second shot had hit the snub fighter of his best friend.
Haruka tried her best to still maneuver the now unresponsive TIE, flames and fumes were coming out of the engines as the ion shot had overheated the engines and made partly explode.
Somehow, with pure power of will, she managed the get the Voyager, sinking fast and loosing velocity, in a straight position and over an almost dried up stream course. Most of the electronics on board weren't responding anymore but the few that did yelled out alarms. Haruka gritted her teeth, hoping for a wonder as she saw the ground coming closer and closer.
A few meters before crashing both her and Michiru yelled out an "I love you!" before the hull of the Voyager hit the ground.
The Senshi of Wind felt a blunt but also stinging pain on her head and then everything went dark.