It was far from having a dinner date with Setsuna but her message at least calmed SunTzu down, and uplifted his spirits, enough that he managed to get some relaxation that evening.
A good night of sleep, exercise and his favorite breakfast made sure he was in a good mood as he made his way over Crystal Tokyo the next day.
SunTzu had the gifts from London with him and after finishing some paper work and double checking the supplies available for his platoon once they would disembark, as well as giving Ami her gift as of course she was on base working, he met up with Hotaru for lunch.
After eating he grabbed into the backpack he brought with him and handed a package in purple gift paper to Hotaru.
She unpacked it and then looked at him with big eyes, she hadn't expected the purple designer table lamp.
"I heard you like lamps kiddo, so I brought you one from London."
"Woah… this is so nice. Thank you SunTzu!" Hotaru was full of joy, the lamp shade had the exact shade of purple her Fuku had.
In that moment Setsuna appeared at the table, wearing her doctor's coat. Another workaholic. And more welcomed company for SunTzu.
"Look Mum, SunTzu got me a new lamp for my room." Setsuna had a motherly, content smile in her face as she eyed up the lamp her adoptive daughter showed her.
"That's a nice souvenir." She turned to SunTzu, still smiling. "Thank you for bringing it to her." She patted Hotaru's head while thanking SunTzu.
"I have a trifle for you as well." SunTzu announced and leaned back down to his backpack, pulling out a small package in a dark green package.
Setsuna's smile vanished in an instant and she swallowed hard.
It took a moment before she grabbed the gift.
"What is it, Mum?" A curious Hotaru asked while Setsuna sat down.
"Open it." Her daughter prompted her with impatience.
"Yes, please." SunTzu chimed in as well now.
Setsuna hesitated for another moment and then opened the box.
Inside was a set of luxurious British teas, sitting neatly in a velour box.
"Niceee." Hotaru commented and then suddenly jumped up from her chair. "Uhm, if you don't mind I'll take care of our plates." She announced and grabbed her and SunTzu's plate and their cutlery and rushed away, leaving both her adoptive mother and SunTzu following her sudden departure with their gazes.
After a moment Setsuna turned back to SunTzu. She cleared her throat in her hand.
"Th-this is a real nice gift. But you know it wouldn't have been necessary."
"And you should know that I like making gifts for people… uhm… close to me."
She looked at him, carefully thinking about what to say but he continued before she spoke again.
"And I wanted to say thank you for yesterday. You have that effect on me that your words always make me feel better and calm me down."
Her cherry red eyes were looking at him but her face was unreadable at first.
"I cannot accept this, I am sorry." And then her voice and face got austere.
"I think it would be better if we two keep a bit of distance to each other for a bit. It's better for both of us." She got up. "Now, if you'd excuse me, I have to hurry a bit so i can get back to my work."
With sad eyes SunTzu's gaze followed her leave.
A moment later Hotaru, who had seen her mother leaving the table while she had waited nearby at the dirty dishes collection point, was back at the table.
"Why did mom leave the table?" She asked and looked back and forth between SunTzu, looking at Setsuna and Setsuna who was in the line at the serving counter, stoically looking at the empty tray in front of her.
"She only has limited time." SunTzu said and got up from his chair. "Thanks for returning the dishes." He handed Hotaru the gift for her mother, which Setsuna had left at the table. "She forgot her tea. See you later Firefly, I got some work to do."
And then he walked off as well.
As SunTzu exited the mess hall, Setsuna sneaked a peek at him. He was walking fast but his head was slightly slumped down.
She was the next in line but she wasn't hungry anymore, telling him off once again had been everything but easy and a small glimpse of sadness appeared in her eyes as she observed him leaving.
If you only knew how sad it is for me that I had to hurt you once more, but I do had to bring this distance in between us because lately I can see how much progress you're making in becoming the man you ought to be and I cannot hold myself back from falling in love with you. And your likeliness to a certain someone isn't making it any easier for me…
SunTzu spent the last day before going back to war with training and preperations. And he treated himself to a nice dinner in his favorite spot nearby his apartment.
On Wednesday morning he was there before the whole platoon had assembled themselves and then gave out the last orders before the platoon took a bus to the Eternal, where the whole Battalion then entered through the middle ship ramp and moved into it's quarters. Except the platoon commander of Delta-Two, who kept his quarter near the bridge. SunTzu was allowed to let the platoon watch the lift off from the observation deck and that made quite the impression on the young soldiers, just as the starfighters did while they rushed through the formation of the five capital ships.
Basically the whole platoon was pretty stoked to learn that that black A-Wing with the charcoal grey stripes was their PL's ship, now flown by his subordinate. They wouldn't have thought that SunTzu's ship was that fast and agile. Hotaru seemed to have known SunTzu and his platoon were watching as she put on quite a show along her two foster parents in the Voyager.
When the Taskforce jumped into Hyperspace the second time, after arriving at the CTE, SunTzu handed the platoon over to Gunny Ortiz and resorted to the Tactical Command Center, curious if he could already find out, where they would head to next.
As he arrived there, Artemis and Luna were at the large map and holo-projector table in the middle. They were standing side to side and he had her arms over her shoulder as both silently talked with brooding faces over the map. Quite a few regions of it were highlighted in black with red spots close by. The black meant the area that was under the control of Chaos and it's forces, the dozens, no hundreds of blinking red spots were either contested systems or ongoing battles.
SunTzu stopped next to them, and Luna shot him a gaze, her eyes showing worries, before she looked back at the map.
"If that isn't our newest platoon leader."
"I hope you don't mind that I don't salute."
"If your salute doesn't mean you reporting back to tell me we won back the whole southwestern Wild Space don't even bother." Artemis stated dryly why he glanced at a part of said area and tried to analyze where a counter attack would make sense.
SunTzu looked over to him and noticed Luna's hand holding his before he turned back to the map as well and came to the same conclusion as Artemis had. Things never had been that dire, apart from systems, even sectors, wholly occupied from the enemy he knew that a few worlds changed sides voluntarily.
If things would go on like that…
"So, we're going South again?"
"We could go any direction and would find use, but Ninth Fleet's situation is the most dire right now. Since the Hand and the Chiss really have switched into war mode and Bothans showed up in the North to fight the Vong as well, things are at least not as critically as they used to be up there."
"Yeah, I heard about that, which is the only good thing I heard about the War lately. Do we have an AO yet?"
"Not yet, but Mamoru and me have a holo meeting scheduled with General Farlander when we drop out at Brentaal."
"South, so we got at least two more days until we deploy. Roger that."
"You're platoon is ready?"
"I trust these men and women to do their job, even if they're without combat experience."
"Glad to hear that. And don't worry, they will get plenty of experience this time."
Both men nodded at each other in acknowledgement and mutual respect.
"Luna." SunTzu said as goodbye to the Head of Court and both nodded at each other, the black-haired woman even managing a small smile.
Twenty minutes later, the battalion just had settled down, SunTzu was back with Gunny Ortiz and told him that they were going south and that the platoon had about two days before going into action.
"Don't worry Sir, they'll be ready." Ortiz told him although both men knew nothing in the Galaxy would have made those young people ready for what they were about to experience.
The stop in Brentaal took longer than expected and since fine tuning the platoon with what was manageable on the Eternal, who had even more space and places to train physically as well as marksman-wise, was going pretty well onboard, SunTzu took the time and luxury to fly his starfighter through the system for a bit.
It had been way too long the German thought as he rocketed AICA out of the Eternal's left hangar and rushed past the Far Side and the Starstruck.
There was nothing close to the feeling you had when you flew a starfighter with the power of a small capital ship worth of engine's capacity through adrenaline-inducing maneuvers.
A minute later Haruka, this time without Michiru on board the Voyager accompanied him and asked him if they wanted to play a bit. And SunTzu sure showed her that he didn't forget how to fly. They ended their game of spatial catch with a race, whoever would come second from a space station above Brentaal IV to the Taskforce would pay the fee they got from space control for their free flying around.
The Voyager was a fast ship, even for an advanced TIE, but lately Hotaru, that little genius in so many things including physics, which had been taught to her by her mother, as well as AICA and Karlena had fine-tuned AICA's engines to the absolutely doable and so SunTzu won, although it was pretty close.
He answered Haruka's cursing tirade with "Don't act like you're going broke now, Bitch.", to which she answered with a friendly "Fuck you, Mate. That was pure luck you bloody wanker."
Back at the Eternal both left their starfighters and hugged each other, it's been a while since they had flown so fast and had such a nice race. Being a good winner SunTzu promised that as soon as they were able to get some in, beers were on him before they left for dinner. In that moment the Taskforce jumped back to Hyperspace and the two friends decided to make a detour to the Control Center first, curious about where they would head to exactly.
The duo arrived at the Control Center where Usagi, Mamoru and Artemis where over the maps once again. Haruka approached them first.
"Oi, don't keep me on the tenterhooks, we're we bashin' next?"
"Greater Javin." Mamoru stated.
"Revenge for Ishde Naha?" Haruka looked at SunTzu next to her. "Oh, I dig that."
What both SunTzu and Haruka didn't know was that it was more than just revenge for Ishde Naha why they there heading down south.
General Igo Phyncx, a former human General of the New Republic and commended veteran of the Yuuzhan Vong War, had openly declared his loyalty to the enemy, the combined free forces opposing Coruscant as he had called them, and had began an offensive a few weeks ago. The attack on Ishde Naha was the mindwork of the skilled strategist. GAIS had concluded that General Phyncx, middle aged, no family, a soldier's officer who had earned his rank in combat, was the commanding officer of all enemy forces in the Southwestern Wild Space and Outer Rim. And under his command the GFFA had lost a lot of ground and even more troops. Phyncx knew very well how to use his assets and the Ninth, taking the brunt of his attacks, as well as the other Alliance's forces in the area had been hit with anything from large fleet attacks with following planetary sieges to special forces-backed incursions in their area of operations. Phyncx's core forces were made up of his former command, all fiercely loyal to him and consisting of a middle-sized fleet of Star Destroyers and equivalents including their ground and fighter complements as well as a battalion of former Spec Force soldiers. Phyncx also was an excellent military researcher in the field of robotics and weapons, which lead to assumptions that he also would rely on combat droids and robots, an assumption emphasized by the use of suicide drones against Isde Naha already.
Apart from his core fleet, Phyncx had control over an armada of pirates, mercenaries and some local forces of worlds who had voluntarily joined the side of Chaos.
The leading officer's of the Taskforce had gotten the info six hours out of Eriadu. The Taskforce would head further west from there and join a fleet group of the Ninth under the command of a Bakuran Rear Admiral, who along with his flagship, a Bakura-Class Destroyer, also had command over half a dozen cruisers and destroyers as well as some smaller ships.
The Taskforce was earmarked for the smaller flashpoints in the Anoat-Subsector where they would be the main assault force while other friendly forces would defend the various important planets in the region like Bespin.
The next five days were quiet, although everyone was ready to go to combat in a minute's notice, from crewman, to foot soldier to starfighter pilot, Taskforce Sol was mostly just patrolling around and following the larger ships.
Over Haruka SunTzu had heard that the Fleet Group was looking for the Phyncx's Core Fleet but it had hid itself after the last raids.
Nevertheless smaller conflicts were reported through the sub sector and so it was decided that the Fleet Group would be broken up, although in close distance to each other to be able to support the other groups if the need should arise.
Taskforce Sol, reinforced by the allied US-American Marines onboard, got the task to intervene to an uprising, very probably supported by the General's forces on a planet called Varonat, namesake of the system it lay in.
Fully combat ready the Taskforce fell into the system, the planet, it's main colors green and yellow from it's planet wide jungles, a few hundred kilometers away, being in the path of a light Corellian Frigate and a Tartan Cruiser of unknown ownership.
Immediately it was tried to establish contact, at least until both ships activated their systems and began to maneuver.
It was nerve-stretching for SunTzu when the Eternal was put to all hands to battle stations but he couldn't participate in the space battle.
He was sitting on a crate in the platoon's quarter, fully equipped, rifle resting between his legs and when after roughly forty minutes the battle-readiness was lifted again he immediately contacted AICA to find out what had happened.
The AI let him know that both enemy ships had tried their luck in running first but the snubs and the Starstruck were faster and after the Starstruck together with longe range missiles from the K-Wings of Triton Squadron had destroyed the Tartan-Cruiser, a corvette-sized ship specially designed for anti-fighter and patrol duty, the rest of the snubs took care of the Frigate.
Fifteen minutes later SunTzu was in a impromptu meeting with Major Andersen, Captain Watanabe and the rest of the officers of Third Battalion.
For now Third and Fourth Battalion as well as the US-Marines, dubbed the Space-Marine Expeditionary Unit by themselves and the Taskforce's personnel now, would stay on the Eternal and Far Side while the Commandos, Scouts and subsequent First Battalion would land in the capital of the planet of Varonat.
The planet was roughly as large as Earth but had less water mess. It was a jungle planet, apart from it's several small oceans and the highest mountains, it was almost entirely covered in thick yellow and green vegetation. Some of the jungles also had a layer of purple slime on the it's ground, especially the more yellow-colored forest in the middle of the planet. Varonat had a hot and humid climate and only housed around 100.000 inhabitants. Roughly half of this inhabitants were made up of Morodin, a huge lizard-slug species, average length 15 meters while the others consisted of settlers from other planets, among them many Ithorians. Only a few thousand settlers used to life on the planet but the need for places for the refugees of the Vong War to find room to life had almost doubled the planet's inhabitants in the last decade. The Morodin weren't repressed anymore and together with the diverse raced settlers the planet for once had become self-subsistent and even could manage to gain a small trade sufficiency with it's import of agricultural goods.
But not everybody was happy about that the Morodin had gained rights and a small but well armed insurgency on the planet fought for the old status quo, where humanoids ruled over Morodins and even hunted them for sport.
And apparently the insurgency was supplied, trained and reinforced by Phyncx's own forces.
Within two more hours, the complete First Battalion of Taskforce Sol was on the planet and had begun to set up first defensive positions around the planet's capital, and largest city, Tropis-on-Varonat.
Hour for hour more troops were shuttled down to the planet and while in the evening hours at that side of the planet, Second Battalion and the heavy weapons of the Combined Arms Regiment took over the safety of the capital from their airborne comrades, Fourth and First Battalion began to establish field bases at other settlements on the planet, while Intelligence and the Commandos began their field work against the insurgency with gathering as much information about them as possible.
Three long days full of bored but anticipated waiting later, Third Battalion was flown to the planet as well, but not on board of drop ships or shuttle but onboard the Eternal as she landed near the market town of Edgefields-on-Varonat.
Different zones of responsibility had been arranged between the four battalions of Taskforce Sol and the US Marines, although both Third Battalion as well as the Marines had their base in and around the now landed Eternal.
For one week all the platoon had been doing was either further training or patrolling around the town nearby, after seven days they were finally allowed to patrol further out.
Human Intelligence, gathered by Ami's department had it, that the enemy had various important installations near the city but none could be found.
So far also only light combat had taken place and of course the occasional finding of an IED in one of the towns.
The platoon was happy to finally get out of the perimeter and they all had the hots to finally win their sporns in combat. Even the Gunny was hot to go outside, as he finally could show that he was one of the best jungle fighters the Taskforce had in it's ranks.
The hot and humid weather, which on the day made you sweat just standing around, the mosquitoes, thank god at least the insect-spray the GFFA procured worked, and the sudden, heavy rain showers once a a day didn't make the platoon any less angry and both platoon leader and platoon sergeant were actually pleased, that the platoon was hungry for a fight and not affected negatively in their morale.
Probably having at least a climated, insect-free place to sleep, onboard the Eternal, as well as fresh cooked meals in the mess were the reasons why the mood didn't tip over.
So seven days after arriving on Varonat, the Second Platoon of Delta Company, of the Third Battalion of Taskforce Sol went into the seemingly endless jungles of Varonat. Just the day after a patrol from the Fourth had run into an enemy ambush and only the superior firepower of the company-sized patrol and it's air support had prevented any major casualties.
And the Gunnery Sergeant hadn't lied back then when he had told the whole platoon, including it's leader, that they would suffer in the jungle.
It was like a steam bell inside the vegetation, even more sticky than outside of the jungle. One had to watch for his steps as mud, roots or other natural obstacles were plenty. They had gotten a small briefing about the poisonous animals and other dangers inside the jungle so everybody also was on the lookout for plate-sized arachnoids, multi-colored snakes and reptiles and sharp-fanged mammals the size of an Orang-Utan.
And of course the possibility of enemies lurking in position to engage oneself. At least their camouflage, Multicam Tropic as it was called, was perfect for the place and SunTzu had to admit that some of the soldiers, a lot of them wearing black or camouflage face paint and having local vegetation or cloths of camo fabric on their helmets as well, really could become one with the jungle. SunTzu's fear to loose one of his soldier's had gotten better, this young women and men were doing a damn fine job.
Three hours after marching off from the staging area in front of the Eternal's main ramp, the platoon had finished searching the jungles near the name-giving edge fields of the town and took a small break within sight of the fields. Some smoked, some took off their helmets, a lot of them hydrated, either over water bladders or Nalgene bottles, while others kept a low profile and scanned for dangers.
"Dios Mio, if these fields were filled with more water, I'd play "Fortunate Son" over my EarPods now."
"As if it wasn't enough already with the vibe. The Marines already call this shithole Space Nam."
"Fitting."
"Dude, I hate the climate on this planet."
"Better than an ice-planet."
"Ice-planet? Fuck that, I don't wanna go to an ice-planet."
"At least a fucking ice planet doesn't has mosquitoes trying to suck you dry like a castle of Transylvanian vampires."
"Use your anti-insect-spray then you dumbass. Shit's working like a charm."
Sergeant Kruger, the squad leader of the second squad walked over to the chatting group of soldiers.
"Hey guys, we're not heading back to the Eternal. Decampment in fifteen, air surveillance showed some signs of people around five klicks east of here." That said the NCO went over to the next group of soldiers, while In the middle of the platoon taking a break, SunTzu and Gunny Ortiz cowered over a map of the area and checked which way would lead them the fastest towards the enemy and in the sky the engines of the Voyager were audible.
After a moment, SunTzu packed the map again and lighted himself a cigarette. He looked to the north where the landed Eternal was visible in the distance, towering over the town, helicopters of the US-Marines and starfighters as well as gunships of Taskforce buzzing around it.
He took a deep drag and shot a small prayer to heaven, hoping that they all would make it back safe and sound to their flagship later on.
The Gunny lead them out into the jungle, stumping his platoon how fast and agile the old warhorse could move through the jungle. They were out for thirty minutes, having made good pace and a few kilometers, when the first blaster bolt shot past them.
Within three seconds the jungle exploded with sound. Animal hadn't waited for any order to shot and his MG3 was one of the first weapons to spit death and fire into the direction the blaster bolt had come from. He shot from the hips while the rest of the platoon either hit the dirt or jumped behind trees to cover themselves.
Along with Animal, Ortiz and a handful others started shooting back.
SunTzu, in the back of the line, pulled Lance Corporal Davies with him behind a tree and grabbed the speaker of her radio.
Thirty seconds after falling under fire, SunTzu was on the line with the Tactical Control Center onboard the Eternal, reporting in that they were TIC, troops in contact, meaning they were in combat, and the platoon was already shifting from the defensive into the offensive.
Two hundred sixty nine seconds after initial contact it was over.
Private First Class Neumann, one of the automatic rifle men, had gotten graced by a blaster bolt, Medic Jones was already on it, and a few of the soldiers of the platoon were either shocked or broadly grinning how close they had gotten to death with how close some of the blaster bolts had been hitting ground or vegetation around them.
SunTzu reported the cease of the combat activities to the headquarters before he gave the speaker back to the scared looking Corporal Davies.
"Next time get to cover, Corporal, don't wanna loose my RTO." He told her in a soft voice her with a tap on the shoulder as he got up and headed to the front of the platoon were the soldiers and Gunny Ortiz slowly moved up to the position of the now dead attackers.
Twenty minutes later a platoon of Force Recon Marines, the special purpose force of the US Marine the Taskforce brought with them and the QRF for their area of operations as well as two Intelligence Operatives had arrived at the scene of the battle. While the Marines reinforced Second Platoon's positions the two Intelligence members began to search the dead insurgents for any information.
Over the crowns of the huge trees above SunTzu and his platoon the sound of AICA and other aerial vehicles, including the US-Helicopters could be heard.
A few minutes later reports over radio, and the distant sounds, of a gunfight between First Platoon, a few kilometers to their east came in. Apparently this AO was filled with enemy troops.
It turned out that the group of eight insurgents had been loaded with lots of explosives and other components to build traps. Only the fast acting of the platoon, especially of Sergeant Ortiz, had spoilt their plans to plant them. These men might had spent months in the jungle, but Ortiz over a decade, he had learned to hunt the hunter in his own jungle since being a young man and with this saved a lot of lives within the Taskforce and his own platoon. After a talk with Ami, who told him what had been going on a few hours later, SunTzu immediately wrote a commendation for the Gunnery Sergeant and passed it further to his superiors within the Battalion.
The AO of Third Battalion wasn't the only one who would see combat the next days. Apparently the enemy now knew they were there and every day the reinforced Taskforce clashed with enemy forces.
For Second Platoon it became the regular day-to-day work that they would be either go out on patrol or search-and-destroy mission various times a day, sometimes at night as well or even take day-long trips out into the green hell of Varonat.
In these few days the platoon could collect a lot of battle experience. Thankfully nobody ever was hurted seriously as the enemy usually tried to withdraw when he got into a firefight with the Taskforce.
The tight vegetation and hilly area might hindered communication over radio so Davies had to improvise a lot to keep the radio connection to the Eternal up, but nevertheless the air support from the various squadrons made the enemy try their best to keep themselves hidden.
Somehow this situation became the norm very fast and nobody even batted an eye anymore when they ran into enemies and had a firefight in the middle of the jungle.
It was the same for the Marines and the Leathernecks dived into their heritage. The FARP which had been placed in front of the Eternal had been dubbed Camp White Feather and a lot of the Venom-Huey-helicopters now played classic 60's and 70's rock over speakers when they brought the soldiers into battle.
The trips into the rainforest were demanding, the battles even more, but at least they kept the insurgents away from the civilians and the number of killed Morodin practically went down to zero. Unfortunately not everything went without casualties and so even the Taskforce and the Marines suffered casualties.
Two weeks on the planet, and SunTzu being glad that none of his soldiers had been killed yet, he was asked to join a meeting of Intelligence Service and the leadership of the military units. He went there together with Gunnery Sergeant Ortiz. The Gunny had made himself a reputation all through the Taskforce as specialist for jungle warfare and tracking by now. Which of course had lead to the point that the platoon was one of the most busiest in the whole Taskforce.
Ami and her subordinates, after having been fortunate enough to had some enemy insurgents, former smugglers who had settled down on the planet decades ago and their offsprings, snatched alive from the battlefield, thanks to the Commandos and Force Recon Marines, had gathered enough Intel to initiate the next phase of the operation to secure the planet.
The whole Operation had been re-dubbed to Operation Kilgore by then.
Apparently the rebels had split up into groups of around fifty men, a few groups each were supplied by field supply posts, usually in valleys to shield them from being spotted from above with the extensive vegetation growing there.
These supply posts usually also had a group of soldiers from General Phyncx's men around to train the insurgents.
Intelligence had made out at least four of them, although from one of them, in the area of operations of Third Battalion only the rough direction was known.
As Ami dropped this part of information, Ortiz and SunTzu looked at each other.
"Guess, our days humping through the jungle aren't over yet."
"Lead the way then, Gunny."
Of course, Second Platoon was one of the units who were ordered to track down the enemy's supply point.
In the morning of the next day, an offensive of the Taskforce and their allies was rolled out and most of the infantry units on the planet, supported by air and artillery units, marched or were flown out to attack the known enemy bases.
Second Platoon was no exception when they grouped around five UH-1Ys Helicopters of the Expeditionary US-Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron, all of them armed with unguided rockets, mini guns or .50 cal machine guns.
Apart from the firepower and the promise to not have to walk so much, the soldiers of Second Platoon also loved the Hueys for the speakers their crews had put inside them.
So, while Jimi Hendrix sung that there are many who feel that life is but a joke, Second Platoon boarded it's helicopters. SunTzu boarded the first in the line of five, it was earmarked for the platoon leader, and together with him and the helo's crew there would be the Gunny, RTO Davies, Meds and Corporal Ramirez and her Fire Team inside the chopper.
SunTzu greeted the door-gunner as he put on his gloves while in from his headset, which was mounted on his helmet, a radio check took place. For a moment he was tempted to ask the door gunner how he was feeling. The thought made him smile, organizing a beamer and showing Apocalypse Now to the platoon as little bit of motivational support sure got everybody a bit hyped up, at least the heli assault scene. The platoon clearly wanted a fight out there and hit the enemy hard. And their platoon leader was keen on it as well.
SunTzu was about to get into the chopper when Major Andersen, Captain Watanabe and Colonel Grill, the Commanding Officer of the Marine Expeditionary Unit, came over and wished SunTzu success for the mission. Reinforcements were on standby if they would need them.
SunTzu saluted the three higher-ranking officers and climbed into the helicopter.
"Don't you love when we're in the limelight, Gunny?" SunTzu said quietly to Ortiz as he sat down next to him and the Gunny just snorted.
The helicopter ride was rather wild, as the Hueys flew in fast and low. SunTzu was sure he could have touched the crowns of some of the taller trees if he would have leaned out of the chopper. But SunTzu loved the ride, it made him miss AICA, and although sitting in the back of a helicopter, where it was loud and everything was shaking, wasn't the same as AICA's comfortable cockpit, being airborne always was wonderful.
They were out three kilometers from their landing zone, a clearing in the neverending jungle, when left of them a black something shot past, just as low as they were and SunTzu leaned from his seat and waved while the Voyager sped upfront to scout the area.
Nobody knew what was waiting for them, so everybody got ready to immediately leave the helicopter and start shooting back when the need arose. Magazines were loaded and weapons cocked.
SunTzu got up from his seat in the helicopter as the chopper sat down.
His feet were the first on the ground, while the other four choppers descended behind them. The Hueys didn't touch the ground at all as the whole platoon of fourty three soldiers jumped out of them, forming a circle around them to secure the landing zone.
It only took a few seconds and the helicopters were descending again, after getting a thumbs up from SunTzu.
SunTzu was kneeling in the middle of the circle as the helicopters ascended again, Davies next to him, and he used her radio to let Command know, that they had reached their landing zone. They would wait five minutes for any enemy reaction and then begin their march into the jungle, searching for the enemy base.
Twenty minutes later they were already deep in the jungle, leading down a trail into a valley, as hills rose up higher and higher from the edges of the valley. To not make for a large target the whole platoon was marching in a single file behind first squad's first fire team, with Gunny Ortiz right behind them, leading the search through the jungle.
Behind SunTzu, Lance Corporal Davies was silently cursing as the topography and the thick vegetation made it next to impossible to establish a connection to the Eternal. Rhian and SunTzu knew what this meant, if they would get into trouble, they weren't be able to call for support and just could get overran in this jungle. To make up for what she thought was a bad move in their first firefight, Davies now tried her best to show SunTzu that she was excelling in her occupation and a very competent soldier.
The forest was dense and although the Gunny and others were able to make out signs of a path through the jungle, the platoon only made way slow.
Every other meters they stopped and listened, SunTzu even sensed out with the Force but the myriads of living beings in the forest didn't make it any easier for him to detect something.
Three hours later they made a small hydration stop and after consulting with every squad leader SunTzu decided, that the gunny and first squad would scout up in front while second and third squad would follow a hundred meters behind.
One more hour later, kneeling next to a huge tree that was at least thirty meters high and five in girth, wiping the sweat from his face while trying to sense anything unusual in the Force, SunTzu began to ask himself if they would find anything at all, as according to the map it was just a few hundred meters until the end of the valley and then they would stand in front of the hill again.
And then it happened, his personal radio, began to sent in, although the gunny's voice was strongly distorted and SunTzu couldn't make out much, other than Ortiz was flustering. A clear indicator that the Sergeant had stumbled onto enemies.
SunTzu was about to ask Ortiz to repeat the message, when Sergeant Kruger from Second Squad came in.
"Two-2 Actual to Delta-Two-Actual. Cap, we got company, squad-sized element of armed foot mobiles, coming down the hill."
The message wasn't over when someone yelled "Incoming!", and the battle begun.
Private Odhi had been the most out in the west placed soldier when what seemed to be a patrol of eight armed humanoids came down the hill. With hand signs the soldiers communicated the sighting back to their squad leader and waited for orders but instead of moving away the patrol walked right towards them.
Odhi, laying in a bush, had put his rifle to the ground and had drawn his pistol as the first guy of the patrol passed him without seeing it.
Odhi aimed at the second guy when the first one suddenly raised his rifle at a sudden movement he had seen in the brushwood in front of him, which had been PFC Neumann shouldering his light machine gun.
The enemy was fast and Neumann couldn't shoot first before the guy started shooting at the weapon's barrel he saw protrude from the wood.
The purple laser bolt didn't hit as it was fired without aiming and hit the floor next to Neumann as he pulled down the trigger and the soldier next to him, Corporal Dunn, yelled "Contact."
The salvo from the machine gun hit the enemy directly in the chest and before he fell down, everyone that had a line of sight opened fire onto the enemy patrol, while these scattered.
From his position in the bush, Odhi shot the second man of the patrol right into the head with his sidearm, a Glock 19 and then immediately shot the guy behind him in the upper body.
"Weapons free, weapons free!" SunTzu shouted as loud as he could through the noise before he got back to his own radio and tried to reach Gunnery Sergeant Ortiz.
Ortiz didn't answer so SunTzu got up and rushed forward, Davies right behind him and Sergeant Sato falling in next to him as well.
Half way through the own lines, the sound of blaster- and gunfire came in from the front as well, followed by explosions and somewhere more distant an alarm began to blare.
Not even having time to curse, SunTzu sprinted further forward, down the trail leading to the end of the valley, sound of combat from the front increasing while decreasing on the west, when a moment later the first soldiers of First Squad moved back to the lines of the platoon, giving cover fire.
SunTzu, Sato and Davies got to cover and did the same and began to cover the soldiers' retreats as well.
More and more soldiers moved back to the rest of the platoon when a closer explosion occurred and a lot of screaming could be heard and a moment later the Gunny dropped next to his platoon leader. He sported a satisfied grin on his face.
"This should give us a moment to breathe. God, I love claymores."
"Gunny, I see you found the enemy."
"Unfortunately, he apparently did the same with us on our western flank."
"I think it was a draw. What's the sitch?"
Gunny Ortiz reloaded his assault rifle while he spoke.
"We found the camp, could see it's entrance through my optics already. And then the shooting started and they began to move up."
"Mission almost accomplished."
"Yeah, unfortunately there's at least a small company coming up from down there."
"We got time to fall back?"
Ortiz suddenly raised his rifle and took a shoot, falling a rebel coming through the brushwood.
"Negative."
"Wonderful." SunTzu grabbed his PTT and radioed to his platoon. "All squads prepare for enemy assault, form a defensive line." And then he turned to Ortiz again. "Comms are fucked. Gunny, let the platoon form a defensive line, let Elrod hammer them down at that trail directly from the twelve. I see if I could get some support up."
While the gunny, followed by Sergeant Sato, started running, SunTzu turned around to Davies who had her radio backpack down and was fine-tuning the mechanisms.
She looked up at SunTzu and shook her head.
"The forest is too thick, Sir." Left and right blaster bolts flew past them, explosions, screams, yelled orders, shots and impacts were filling the air with ear-piercing noise for everyone who wasn't wearing hearing protection.
Rhian looked around and her gaze suddenly fell onto the hill on her left.
"Sir!" She yelled as SunTzu had turned around and shot another salvo in the direction the attackers were coming from, covering the forming of the defensive line.
SunTzu turned around to see Davies motion up the hill.
"Negative, Lance Corporal. That's too dangerous."
"Sir, I swear I can make it. And I probably can see the enemy base in from there as well."
SunTzu closed his eyes and shook his head before he sighed.
"Fine." SunTzu turned to the soldier at the tree next to him. "Blanchet, follow Davies up that fucking hill. Make sure she gets there!"
"Affirmative!" The soldier said and got up, falling in behind Davies who was slinging her backpack back on, while she run the hail of blaster fire which the enemy now shot at the platoon in their covers and positions.
Animal let his machine gun spit death down the trail so much, that the barrel began to glow, which shifted the enemy to stay away from the trail after the first of their groups were literally ripped apart from Animal's German-made medium machine gun.
From the flanks, the lighter Minimis raked into the enemy and the three marksmen of the platoon took aimed pot shots at any target of opportunity, but all of it didn't help, the enemy was gaining ground through his sheer mass. Delta-Two desperately needed support.
A few meters behind the defensive line, SunTzu just had thrown a smoke grenade with an Force-empowered throw to cover Davies's advance up the hill.
Blaster bolts were impacting everywhere around the running woman and her comrade behind her.
But Rhian didn't dropped down this moment, she kept on running. The backpack with the radio was heavy, as was the body armor, those blaster bolts were definitely whizzing past by too close and she knew if her brother Owen would have seen her, the impending being overrun by the enemy would have been the smaller problem, but she kept running on, fighting on. She would save them all, just as Owen was always doing with his work in Explosive Ordnance Disposal. Just like Captain SunTzu had been doing so often before. Like the Senshi had done so often before.
She ran fast, slipped one time and barely managed to stay up but she somehow managed to not crash into the ground and ran further after what felt like half an eternity she reached the foot of the hill and began to ran up.
The young soldier could smell the blaster bolts by now, some were so close that she could feel the ionized air but she didn't back down. Behind her Blanchet dropped to cover as a blaster bolt hit the ground just centimeters away from him and as soon as he was down began to fire in the direction the shot had come from.
Good, this means that at least I don't have to take care that Blanchet makes it up the hill as well!
She had already ran up more than half of the hill, just a few meters further and the vegetation would become less and there was a realistic chance to reach Command.
But she had become a moving target for the dozens of the enemy coming up that valley, sparks from blaster bolts hitting the ground and vegetation around her hit her and parts of the earth that where blasted out of the ground dirtied her face.
Suddenly something hit her hard on the back and she stumbled forward. This time she couldn't keep herself up and fell face forward into the dirt.
Two blaster bolts hit the ground directly next to her but Rhian ousted the thought to just stay lying there and get hit to end it all, the exhaustion, the fear of dying and pain of her body, and instead crawled forward behind the roots of a tipped over tree. She used the roots to catapult herself around.
Glancing up to the sky while shots hit the tree just where she had been a moment before, she made sure it was more openly and less vegetated than down the hill. This could work, she thought as she fleet-footed pulled the backpack from her back, staying ducked in cover.
A small trail of smoke rose from the backpack, it had been a blaster bolt which had sent her to the floor and she prayed to whatever deity was responsible for this part of the Galaxy that the radio still was working.
SunTzu, exchanging shots with the enemy, took a look up the hill where Davies had went after, shooting another salvo and then turning back to cover.
Blanchet was in the cover of a small ridge, blindly firing over it and SunTzu could catch how a blaster bolt hit Davies in the back and sent her in the dirt. But she wasn't down and slid behind a tree into cover, though ass bitch she was.
Rhian turned the radio on, apparently it still worked and she thanked the heavens that her earlier prayer had been heard. She grabbed the speaker phone and yelled into it, as soon as she had raised it, enemy fire still taking her cover.
"Delta-Two to all stations, we are TIC! Repeat, we are TIC and need immediate support! How copy!?"
"Copy, Delta-Two. What's your position."
Rhian grabbed into the admin pouch on her plate carrier and pulled out a map she opened with shaky hands when suddenly another voice came in over radio.
"Rhian, I got your position pinpointed. Give me a sitrep, Mistress 9 is on the way, copy?"
"AICA! I'm on an elevated position on the western hill of the valley. The rest of the platoon is scattered to my east in the valley. We got a company-sized enemy element moving up to our position, while we try to hold up."
Rhion's head popped up over the tree stump, trying to get a picture of the current situation. A shot landed right next to her in the tree and she cowered down back again.
"We received your position, Delta-Two. We have artillery standing by for a fire mission." That was a new voice but Lance Corporal Davies, immediately recognized it. It was Lieutenant Colonel Bernard himself, the CO of all Ground Forces of the Taskforce.
"Negative Command, we're beyond danger close. Artillery support would be too dangerous."
Bernard pressed his lips together, exactly the situation he would have tried to avoid. He turned around to his staff and then bellowed orders.
"Get the QRF going! And get every aircraft we can muster up there."
"Rhion, can you mark your own positions somehow to be visible from up here. At least with sensors?"
"I…" The soldier's mind raced. "Wait, I let the platoon know." She switched channels quickly.
SunTzu emptied his magazine, rolled back into cover and reloaded. Only two magazines left, not to get worried some more but they needed help soon. Suddenly his personal radio sprung to life, the signal coming in was way better now.
"Captain, we got air support on standby but we need to mark the frontline. Can you manage this anyhow?" Lance Corporal Davies came in and SunTzu's first thought was how the hell?
And then he looked up to the tree's crows and got an idea.
"Anyone still got a LAW left?! Anyone?!" He yelled out and a blaster bolt seared the tree bark next to him.
Motherfucker!
He leaned out and let out three shots in short succession, felling one of the attackers. Somehow they had managed to keep a line up and not get overrun by now, probably through sheer amount of outgoing fire but ammo was running out.
A few seconds later one of the soldiers dropped next to him, almost getting hit in the process.
"Fuck… here ya go Cap." It was Pac, Private Choi, and he handed SunTzu the compact rocket launcher the M72A7 LAW was, basically a single tube with a 66mm rocket inside.
"Choi, you're a gift from god!" SunTzu let out as he immediately begun to make the launcher ready to shoot.
"Cover Fire!" SunTzu yelled and as pretty much every gun of the platoon began to shoot he stepped out of his cover behind the tree, aimed up a few dozen meters in the front and pulled the rocket launcher's trigger.
With a whosh the missile left the tube and milliseconds later exploded in the crown of a tree just in front of the frontline. The tree broke apart, and branches and leaves were raining down, making a visible hole into the endless crowns of the trees.
SunTzu was pulled back into cover on his plate carrier by Pac and the young South-Korean began to really ask himself if his platoon leader had lost it from the pressure. Not only had he wasted a precious explosive warhead on the top of a tree but also he was grinning like a lunatic now.
SunTzu patted Choi's shoulder to thank him and leaned out the other direction, towards a soldier who had a grenade launcher underslung on his rifle.
"Dunn, sent a smoke grenade up that tree I just lighted up."
The soldier didn't understood why his officer ordered him to do that but nonetheless he did it.
Pac's eyes widened when he finally understood what SunTzu was on to do. He wasn't a lunatic, he was a genius. Or both.
Twenty seconds later AICA and Hotaru, circling above the area saw a purple stream of smoke go up above Second Platoon's position.
"Position marked, be advised, the platoon is just meters behind the smoke signal. But everything in front of that is a free fire zone."
"Copy that!" Hotaru answered and turned AICA around for an attack run.
AICA's lasers had often saved his life but when the first salvo of red light hit the forest ground and the enemy just twenty meters in front of the platoon's first soldiers, SunTzu began to wonder if her laser fire had always been so beautiful.
Not many enemy soldiers were directly hit but the moral effect was enough. The enemy soldiers mostly scrambled back down the valley, trying to not get hit by flying debris from the trees or by burning branches.
But the lasers were just the beginning, two hundred meters in front of the own troop's line, AICA dropped two SDBs into the jungle and made a hole into the vegetation, thrice as big as SunTzu's rocket did.
Incited by the support fire, Second Platoon began to get out of their covers again and shoot at whichever enemy they could see.
In a matter of a few seconds the battle turned from it being a matter of time until SunTzu and his platoon getting overrun to dealing death to the enemy from above and through the barrel's of the Earthlings.
And AICA only had been the tip of the spear of what was coming in from the sky.
SunTzu never thought that a starfighter engine, not even the Voyager's one, could sound as beautiful as AICA's but when he heard the scramjet of n K-Wing rushing in from behind them, it became a very close call.
The K-Wing directed it's laser turret under his cockpit down to where AICA and Davies had said the enemy's positions begun and began to rain sustained fire down into the jungle. Enemy's that were hit pretty much were vaporized and just like AICA's run the laser fire was just the beginning, after raking the jungle for a few hundred meters, the assault bomber released incendiary bombs and turned the jungle beneath from a green-yellowish into a red-flaming colored one.
Two of the bombs hit the enemy base and ignited the enemy's ammo stored in camouflaged tents.
The resulting explosion made the platoon of Taskforce Sol erupt in jubilation after the last visible enemies were gunned down.
Immediately Meds and other soldiers ran over to the wounded while SunTzu gave orders to strengthen the line and hold the positions before he ran up to check on Lance Corporal Davies. On the way he made sure that Private Blanchet was okay, noticing that Lance Corporal Lopez had the same idea as well.
He nodded at the two soldiers, glad that these two weren't wounded and then finally dropped next to Davies.
"Davies, that was the most insane stunt I have seen in a while. These things are usually my specialty." He smiled at the young woman who answered with a proud smile before she handed him the radio phone speaker. SunTzu immediately called up the platoon and asked for casualties.
While SunTzu waited he could hear the K-Wing was veering away again and a moment later Corporal Ramirez came running to the feet of the hill, SunTzu was on.
"Sir!"
SunTzu looked down to her, a faint smile of disbelief on her lips.
"Sir, we got zero KIA! And no critically wounded! Sergeant Jones is taking care of a few lightly wounded tho!"
SunTzu nodded, that was a fucking miracle but he was beyond happy about that. But it wasn't over yet.
"Tell the platoon to make sure we're not letting our guard down, it's not over yet."
"Sir!" Ramirez nodded and turned around, heading for the Gunny who was talking with Sergeant Sato about something, gesticulating with his hands towards the trail down the jungle. Probably he was thinking the same as SunTzu was.
Above them SunTzu could hear the engines of two Hueys. And not only their engines, they were playing Ride of the Valkyries.
SunTzu was grinning as broadly as a frog's mouth when he got on the radio again.
"Hueys, identify yourself."
"This is Starforce 21, Starforce 22 is on my seven, flight of two Venoms, guns and rockets at the ready and two teams of Force Recon Marines riding in the back, ready to reinforce you."
"Copy, you're cleared for missile and gun run down the enemy's attack vector, standby for directions."
A minute later the Hueys unleashed fire from their missile pods and mini guns down the trail as well, closer to SunTzu's platoon and right onto the now covering down enemy troops, in the middle between their burning support base and SunTzu's platoon who was now more than ever determined to end this fight.
After their attack run the two Hueys began to hover over the area, ready for the okay to let the Force Recon Marines rappel down.
SunTzu gently knocked on Davies's helmet, earning him another happy smile, as he got up and walked back down the hill and towards Gunny Ortiz, directing the defense or rather the waiting for any more enemies to shoot.
SunTzu quickly got an overview from the Sergeant before he changed his magazine to the last full one.
"Second Platoon, on your feet. We'll finish this now. As soon as we can seize the area around the destroyed trees my black beauty of starfighter created for us, some Recon Marines will come join us. These Devil Dogs are fine warriors so I want to greet them properly with a forest full of defeated and killed enemies. For Kingdom and Neo-Queen!"
"For Kingdom and Neo-Queen!" The platoon yelled back the Taskforce's battle cry as one.
And then they stormed forward, towards the already morally beaten enemy, towards the firestorm at the end of the valley, towards death or victory.
Victory it was, and another one with just two minor blaster wounds, along with the four already wounded, making it six wounded soldiers but none of them grave. Sergeant Kruger, the shot had grazed him just under his armpit, even kept on fighting and lead his squad into the final counter assault as soon as Meds had applied a bandage and a Bacta plaster on the wound.
When the Hueys hovered over to the hole in the vegetation and the tree crowns and the Recon Marines rappelled down, they were greeted by a grinning SunTzu.
"Gentlemen, I'm afraid you're too late to the party."
Apart from a handful of prisoners of war, all the enemies were already dead when the reinforcements touched the ground. Operation Kilgore had been a success.
Just as SunTzu was, Gunny Ortiz was more than relieved that they won this battle, it had been close, and even more that there were no casualties. But there was one thing he didn't understand, the last soldier in black stormtrooper armor, one of Phyncx's men, why had he shot himself instead of surrendering?