A few days later SunTzu, his leg burn was fully healed with the help of Bacta, they had needed the new Bacta-Kolto-Mix though, was back in his quarters but still wasn't back to duty, as he had told Setsuna he still needed more time. Nonetheless he spent most of his time in the hangar with AICA and Hotaru.
The Taskforce was back in space, patrolling space from the Greater Javin on they had travelled up to Grid L-17 of the official Galactic Map.
Apart from interacting with Hotaru, SunTzu kept himself mostly to himself only.
He was quiet these days, brooding over why things were constantly becoming worse. Even thoughts of leaving again had shot into his mind but right now he knew he couldn't make a difference alone, the Shadow War had gotten too big for this.
His friends often observed him unseen by him and were worrying, his humor and the airiness in his ways were gone.
Except for when he took care of his protégé, Michiru suspected that it just had become so natural for him to take care of her as SunTzu's ways with Hotaru hadn't changed at all. Of course this didn't need any mention about whom it would affect.
Two days later the Royals and the Senshi had been invited to make a visit to the planet of Kataia in the Juvex Sector.
The planet even had sent his own Corellian Corvette to pick them up, leaving the Taskforce able to still patrol.
Artemis and Luna, as well as the Royal Knights stayed back onboard the capital ships while all the Senshi and Mamoru boarded the ship.
SunTzu was still under secret but close surveillance from Master Cilghal, of course the Jedi Master wanted to make sure that the sorrow and the rage wouldn't turn him to the dark. Not that she had to confess that there was way more sorrow and pain and anger these days.
He had spent hours silently in the hangar just sitting in or besides AICA and talking to no one, sometimes just staring out the hangar's gate into the void.
It was one of these times, SunTzu was sitting on AICA's wing, staring into space while the guilt and the grief were eating away on his heart when suddenly Yuichiro appeared in front of AICA.
And he had a damn serious look on his face.
The Corellian Corvette, an official ship of the goverment of Kataia, had left an air lock of the Eternal with all ten Sailor Senshi and King Endymion.
Kataia was a rather rich system in the Juvex Sector, it's wealth brought by minerals and rare earths mined from the many asteroids and planetoids of the system. The planet had relatively late become part of the New Republic as it had a pro-Imperial stance until late in the Galactic Civil War.
Nevertheless the planet now had been under a democratic leadership for more than ten years and was on the same charta as all other GA planets.
At least up until a few months ago where it declared it's independence from the Alliance. The Neo Queen so planed to talk about a possible rejoining today with the goverment.
The Corellian Corvette, A CR90 called the Kataian Ambassador, fell out of hyperspace two systems away from Kataia, into an uninhabited system which contained no bigger planets but was occupied by an Immobilizer-418-Cruiser with his gravity well generators running.
The Immobilizer-418 pretty much was the smaller sibling of the Interdictor- or Dominator-Class-Star Destroyers. Built on the same chassis as the Enforcer- and Vindicator-Class Cruisers, all three of them being the same dagger-shaped hull the Empire preferred so much, the six hundred meter long ship had four gravity well generators onboard with characteristically domes on the frame of the cruiser. Although stripped from most of the weaponry and transport abilities of the other classes on the same chassis, it still was more than a match for a Corvette.
The Senshi had been brought into a meeting room with a huge oval table in the middle and had been placed on the table for the trip that would take around twenty minutes.
It was Rei who first felt something wrong was up, moments before they were pulled out of hyperspace.
"I have a very bad feeling about this." She told the others, earning nervous looks, when the vibration of their abrupt return to real space made their way through the ship.
Haruka was up in a second, standing in front of the droid who was serving them.
"What was that?" She asked the old protocol droid.
"It seems we left Hyperspace." The droid responded sheepishly, as it really didn't know what was going on as well.
Makoto was up next, trying to open the door to the corridors of the ship, only to find the pad controlling it didn't respond to commands any more. Ami was behind her and both shared a glance at each other and then draw their self defense blasters from inside their uniform jackets.
Everybody else was up now and the other Outers and Minako had posted themselves around the Royal Family to protect them.
"Usagi?" Rei looked at their leader and the blonde nodded before she put a hand on her chest, the rest of the women doing the same.
"Moon Crystal Power, Make Up!"
SunTzu stared at Yuichiro, not sure what to answer. He definitely not had the mindset necessary for taking over a combat mission inside AICA back yet.
But on the other side, all the Senshi missing was definitely an emergency and usually Artemis knew what he was doing when he immediately had sent Yuichiro to the hangar to get SunTzu.
"I don't know if I'm able to fight again yet, Yuichiro."
"Then better make up your mind fast."
And then the Japanese turned around and left for the bridge again.
SunTzu let out a big sigh and jumped down from AICA's wing.
"AICA, analyze whatever is going on, I'll be back soon." SunTzu ordered his ship before he began to follow Yuichiro.
As soon as they all had transformed, Sailor Mercury had handed her blaster over to Tuxedo Mask and had pulled out her Mercury Computer, along with a small cable.
Jupiter ripped the cover of the door control away with her immense strength and Ami plugged her computer in.
Sailor Mars had begun to meditate, while Sailor Neptune had drawn her mirror. Within a few seconds both had come to the same conclusion.
"It's a trap." Neptune announced after both psychics locked eyes to confirm each others perceptions.
Not even ten seconds later the door opened and a concussion grenade flew in, only to be immediately kicked out by Sailor Uranus. The grenade barely made it out before the door closed again and the loud bang and the flash were even visible trough the closing door.
"I still got it." Uranus commented while the Sailor Senshi, sans Mercury, busy hacking the ship, moved up to either stop an assault at the door or to shield the Royals.
Pluto and Saturn placed the princess behind them, their weapons at the ready, while Venus and Tuxedo Mask shielded the Neo Queen, a small nod letting Venus know that the King would help her shield the Queen.
The door opened again and another pair of concussion grenades flew inside, but this time not only Uranus but also Jupiter had been waiting for it and kicked them out again.
"This gets kinda stall." Sailor Uranus commented over the bang of the grenades.
"Got the control over the doors!" Sailor Mercury suddenly yelled and Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Uranus shot each other a glance, both standing at a side of the door, beginning to smile.
"Open up!" Both told Mercury at the same time.
Yuichiro and SunTzu arrived at the bridge, the mood there was more than subdued and even Artemis seemed to be nervous.
He was standing next to the consoles of the communication officers, Luna was at his side, even she had seemed to lost her cool. Captain Santos and Nadrak were connected via Holo and just like the Mau waited for news from the Kataian Ambassador or directly from the Senshi.
"Anything new?" Yuichiro asked as he and SunTzu arrived next to the console.
"SunTzu. I'm glad you came." Luna said but SunTzu just shot her a shy nod.
Artemis was about to say that they hadn't heard anything new, except that the Kataian Ambassador turned off his communication and dropped out of hyperspace too early, when suddenly Sailor Mercury came in over radio.
Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Uranus stormed out of the door as soon as Sailor Mercury had opened it over her computer and took advantage of the still lingering effect of the stun grenade.
Jupiter went out the left side and kicked the first of the Kataian Troopers that had lined up to storm the room in the shin and than used his going down to turn him around and grab him so he could be used as shield. Holding the struggling soldier in front of her she began to shoot the other troopers in the unprotected parts of their bodies.
Uranus stormed out the right, pounced onto the first enemy and shot him in the chin before with one fluid motion she rolled the dead enemy away, brought out her space sword and attacked the next enemy, going in close so the other Kataians couldn't shoot her without risking to shoot their comrades.
Sailor Mars and Sailor Neptune followed within a second and while Mars threw Fire Souls at the Kataians, who were completely surprised by the sudden counter attack, Neptune reflected blaster bolts with her deep aqua mirror, using the enemies' own shots to take them out in a way a Jedi would be proud of.
It was over in just a few seconds, the guy Jupiter had used as shield had gotten a few shots into his body armor and was still trying to free himself before Jupiter used her hands to break his neck and then dropped him.
"Next time, we take one of our ships." Jupiter stated while the other Senshi scanned for more enemies.
While the Senshi took out the attacking force, Ami had gotten control over some systems of the ship including the long-range-communication system and some sensors of the Corvette.
She quickly assessed the situation.
The Immobilizer had pulled them out of Hyperspace and it's gravity well generators were still working, making sure that even if they could make it to the bridge, they couldn't retreat to hyperspace. And the running generators also made sure that no ship could make it to their position.
There were also some enemy starfighters out there, swarming around the Immobilizer, ready to attack in a moments notice.
Mercury could also confirm that the Kataian Ambassador and the Immobilizer, named the Pride of Kataia, were definitely both allied to each other and that everything had been set up to trap them.
"Tuxedo Mask!" She made the King come over to the her while she listened to the incoming radio chatter.
The enemy hadn't expected a counter-attack and was now reorganizing his plans after the complete loss of his assault force.
Tuxedo Mask listened in for a moment before he turned to Sailor Venus.
"Venus, we establish a security perimeter around this room." His gaze turned to Ami.
"Try to let the Taskforce know what's up. Let's hope this ship and it's crew are important enough for them to not blast it out of space."
He turned around and before he walked back to his wife and daughter.
"Eternal, this is Sailor Mercury, come in."
Artemis grabbed a headset and held it against his ear before he spoke in the mouthpiece.
"Mercury, the rabbit on the moon pounded rice cake, how copy?"
"Eternal, the rice cake is sticky."
"Sailor Mercury, thank the moonlight. What's the situation?"
"We are Status Mulan, but everyone is unharmed so far. It was a trap. We're holding our position inside the Kataian Ambassador but there's an Immobilizer-418 preventing our escape. Hold on, I'm trying to sent our exact location."
A explosion was audible over the radio but a moment later the Lieutenant at the comms station gave a thumbs up to Artemis, Sailor Mercury had transferred their location.
"Another assault. They also try to cut me out of the ship's systems. I'll try to contact you later again." With that Sailor Mercury cut the transmission.
Mercury hurried to help the others and as soon as she was out the door she casted Mercury Bubbles Blast into the corridor to shield the defensive positions of the other Senshi.
Inside the conference room Sailor Chibi Moon just had rejected Sailor Pluto's offer to teleport her to safety. If they would stay, she would too.
It was Sailor Moon who actually defended her daughter's decision, they all could use their combined powers to teleport away but one didn't need to be Ami to come to the conclusion what the enemy's real goal was. And what really was going on on Kataia.
"We can't reach them. And getting there by sublight engines takes too long."
Artemis said after studying the map-data of the Senshi's location Sailor Mercury had sent them.
Suddenly an artificial, female voice came in over the intercom.
"There is a way, Admiral." It was AICA, and for a moment Artemis and most of the bridge were caught by surprise. Only SunTzu could wrench a wry smile from himself, of course she kept her electronic ears open to everywhere after being told to find out what was going on. Good that Ami had made sure AICA had full access to the Eternal's data.
"And what would that be, AICA?" Artemis asked after a moment.
"If we time and calculate it perfectly we can use the mass shadow of one the larger planetoids to get pulled out of Hyperspace in that system."
Artemis shook his head.
"That is very theoretically and way too dangerous. One millisecond too long and you'll end up getting atomized in that Planetoid. No one would take that risk."
"I do know someone. And I'm willing to take that risk as well. For Rei. And for my friends." Yuichiro took the word and then turned to SunTzu.
"You and AICA can do that, right SunTzu?"
SunTzu tired gaze shot up and fixed Yuichiro. But SunTzu didn't say anything.
"Your call, Boss." AICA chimed in.
All eyes were on SunTzu who had turned his gaze back to the floor.
I'm not ready to fight again… I'm afraid I'll just make it worse… or loose myself…
Yuichiro turned fully around to SunTzu and laid a hand on his shoulder.
"C'mon man, we have to save the girls and Mamoru."
SunTzu closed his eyes, Yuichiro was right but what if something would happen to someone? SunTzu couldn't afford loosing one more person in his life. The thought alone paralyzed him and made his blood freeze.
"I know you can pull that."
"Captain, if someone can get there now, it's you and your starfighter."
SunTzu knew he had a decision to take. And he knew there was only one right one to take. It was hard, harder than ever before, he had been given the count by the enemy but if he wouldn't act, he could loose everyone he loved. Staying here and suffering would have been the easier way than getting up and saving his friends. But being paralyzed by the pain wouldn't bring anyone back.
"Fine." He took the headset from Artemis.
"AICA, you have ten minutes to calculate a course. And please calculate one that won't get us killed."
On board the Pride of Kataia a man in his early sixties, wearing a black uniform, the uniform of the Forces of Chaos directly under command of the Herald, snapped out orders to the female Captain and her bridge crew, dressed in the traditional navy blue uniforms of the Kataian Navy. The black-clad officer, his ranks gave him away as colonel, had four storm troopers in black armor, although regulars and not death troopers, standing threateningly in espalier behind him.
The man had thrown nothing but a tantrum since ever he had heard that the whole platoon of troopers onboard the Ambassador had been neutralized by the Sailor Senshi.
The Kataia had a complement of two platoons of the black-armored stormtroopers onboard and Colonel Dir, that was the name of the officer of Chaos's forces, now ordered three thirds of it to use the Pride's assault shuttle, they had to press themselves inside, and assault those pesky harlots in skirts.
The Captain and the First Officer of the Pride had just exchanged bemused glances whenever the colonel had started screaming again. At least they weren't sacrificing their own men. They just hoped that this mad man wouldn't sacrifice the whole Ambassador just to defeat these female warriors and the leadership of Earth.
"They got me out of the communication system." Sailor Mercury announced. "Last thing I got, was that they shuttling more storm troopers over. Sounded like the bridge was quite nervous." She couldn't forbore a small smile as she activated her Senshi Communication Device.
"Sailor Pluto, where are you?"
Sailors Pluto, Saturn and Chibi Moon, had begun to use a maintenance shaft to make their way unseen through the corvette, slowly moving through it to get through the ship unseen. Of course her father and Sailor Pluto had been against it, that Sailor Chibi Moon wanted to come along but she insisted on it. If Hotaru and Setsuna would take that risky task, she would do so as well.
Neptune, Uranus and the Inners had kept their defensive position and were anticipating the next assault.
The women had taken the blasters of the killed assault team and now were waiting in covers, distrustfully eying out from corners of the corridor.
"Are you really sure, you're wanting to tag along? There's a pretty high chance we will die."
Yuichiro on AICA's back seat finished putting on his flight helmet. "AICA?"
"He's totally exaggerating. With my nav computer and his Jedi-like reflexes we can pull that off."
That's mutiny…
"See, SunTzu. AICA thinks it's not that dangerous."
"After all my nav computer was partially programmed by the Keeper of Space and Time and if Setsuna doesn't know about the hazards that these sorts of travel bring with them, then who would?"
Like i said… mutiny...
"3…2…1… Now!"
SunTzu changed the course while outside the lights of Hyperspace were still visible as AICA announced their drop back to real space.
A second later they would have crashed into the planetoid below them. Only the sweat under SunTzu's helmet gave away how close it really had been. And Yuichiro's tightened grip around his seat, but none of them dared to say a word.
AICA was flying in complete stealth mode and SunTzu used stored navigational data to make course for the Kataian Ambassador.
It only took a few seconds until his trained eyes made out the Corellian Corvette, and also another ship leaving from the Corvette.
Once again, AICA's black and grey color and the now darkened canopy shielded them from being visible from the front and a few more seconds later SunTzu could make out, that the ship which had just left the Corvette had been an Assault Transport. And he could make out that the transport was on its way back to the cruiser in a few klicks of distance.
"Looks like the enemy brought in reinforcements, we better hurry. I'll dock at the Corvette's airlock. Get ready for immediate contact."
Yuichiro nodded and made sure both the sword he had brought along and his blaster were ready to be immediately drawn.
As SunTzu carefully to not be seen steered AICA closer to the Corvette, Yuichiro closed his eyes and began to concentrate.
"They're coming. Yuichiro and SunTzu are coming." Sailor Mars, posted in the cover of a corridor turning next to Sailor Neptune suddenly spoke to the others.
"The airlock on this rust bucket is in the middle part, we should inform Pluto and the others, they should be near there by now."
Sailor Uranus said and Sailor Neptune nodded and activated her communicator.
SunTzu, AICA and Yuichiro were lucky, meant as transport for VIPs the Kataian Ambassador wasn't as armed as other CR90s and somehow they could really make it to the airlock on the downside of the midship and dock there.
"AICA, as soon as we're gone, hide somewhere."
"Aye, Aye, Captain." The AI answered and thirty seconds later, as the first of the TIE's near the Pride of Kataia and sensors onboard all the ships tried to find what that just had been that docked at the Ambassador.
In the ship's central maintenance shaft, three Sailor Senshi, moving ducked down through the low shaft, felt a small vibration coming from almost directly underneath them, SunTzu and Yuichiro had arrived.
"What do we do, Mum?"
Sailor Pluto thought about it for a second, they could brief the newcomers and use their Sailor Communicators to keep up contact with the other Senshi.
"We leave here and make contact with them."
SunTzu and Yuichiro had not even been one minute on board, they had climbed up a ladder into one of the main floors, both had their firearm and their sword at the ready. They rounded a corridor and suddenly looked into the blade of the Silence Glaive.
Immediately Sailor Saturn lowered her weapon.
"See, I told you it's them."
"We still have to keep our guard up, Sailor Saturn." Sailor Pluto stepped forward.
"Where's the rest?" Yuichiro asked, looking around excitedly. "Is everyone alright?"
Setsuna nodded and then activated her communicator. "We met Kumada-San and the Captain."
"Copy." Came the short answer back from Sailor Mercury.
Meanwhile SunTzu and the two younger Senshi had instinctively began to cover their surroundings.
"What's the plan? Why are you guys not with the rest?" SunTzu asked over his shoulder while he covered towards the front of the ship.
"We were out to sneak to the bridge and capture it."
In that moment the sound of blaster fire erupted from their back and everyone turned around.
"That's the second assault force." Pluto stated, her face showing a bit of concern.
"Yeah, we saw their shuttle leave." SunTzu replied.
"I have an idea. We split up, one group attacks the rear of the attacking force…" SunTzu didn't finish his sentence.
"… and the other attacks the bridge. Good idea." Setsuna did.
"Good, let's go and kick some ass, Saturn!" Chibi Moon and Sailor Saturn nodded at each other.
"Mind if I join them?" Yuichiro asked, eager to leave and instead of answering SunTzu looked at Setsuna.
"Take care that they will not get hurt." She told Yuichiro and the priest moved off behind the two young Senshi.
For a moment the Guardian of Space and Time and the Guardian of Guardians followed the three other's departure before Pluto turned to SunTzu.
"Shall we?"
"These ones are different!" Sailor Neptune yelled over the sound of blaster fire.
"And those bloody blasters don't penetrate their ammo." Haruka chimed in.
"That's the stormtrooper armor. Aim for places where they aren't armored." Sailor Jupiter answered and shot one of the attackers in his throat, felling him down.
"Or just use your powers!" Sailor Mars shouted before she emblazed one of the troopers with a Burning Mandala.
Sailor Pluto and SunTzu carefully moved towards the bridge, moving to cover each other. They just had rounded a corner and moved on the main corridor to the bridge now when suddenly a door on the right front opened and one of the black-clad stormtroopers walked out, followed by another one.
The two soldiers immediately aimed their weapons and before Pluto, who was a step in the front, could react, SunTzu had pulled her behind him and covered her with his body.
He barely could activate and bring up his lightsaber before the first bolt came flying and was barely, way more out of luck than out of skill, warded off by his light saber.
SunTzu brought up his trusted Glock as well but before he could pull the trigger he heard "Dead Scream" pressed through gritted teeth behind him and the blink of an eye later the two troopers exploded in dark-purple colored energy, ripping the stormtroopers apart.
And then SunTzu was pushed hard against the wall.
"STULTUS! Why in Chrono's name did you do that? You were almost killed!" Her head was in his face and he could she her eyes glistering with anger.
"Because… because I wanted to protect you."
"I am more powerful than you. I could just have erected a barrier but no…"
"That doesn't mean that I don't want to protect you, Setsuna."
"Protect me!? It takes another godsdamn Senshi to kill me!" She was beyond furious, didn't he understand that he could have died, making him the third man she lost that she had… No! This goddamn troublemaker!
She was so angry with him, had he even had listened to her the last time they had spoken?
"You don't understand, Sets…"
"NO! You don't understand. I don't need your protection! Not in this way!"
And with that she struck a nerve in him. He had lost pretty much everything except his duty to protect the Senshi. And so far it has been the only thing which he hadn't failed in a sense.
"Oh yeah, then why the hell I'm still here then!? As apparently the only thing I'm good at is protecting the Senshi? And now you want to take this away from me as well!"
"Really… you're the one to raise your voice now?! After doing such a stupid thing?"
"Stupid thing?! You know what, I don't need that! I just did my job. And now I'm gonna seize that bridge of this fucking ship. And find a way to save everyone. Stay here and be irritated that it was me who protected you all you want."
That said he squeezed himself past her and weapons at the ready continued his way to the bridge.
For a moment Setsuna's face turned red in anger, there were at least two things she was more than inclined to do right now. And then she closed her eyes and silently counted to ten. No, she couldn't let him get to her like that, that would just confirm her fears how much she had really fallen for him already…
She took a deep breather and tightened her grip around the Garnet Rod, before she followed him. Not that his stupid arrogance would get him killed now.
The Senshi back at their position were still engaged in fierce fighting with the Stormtroopers when the trio of Chibi Moon, Saturn and Yuichiro pounced onto the Stormtroopers from behind. Chibi Moon stayed back and armed herself with a blaster from one of the fallen as Sailor Saturn with the Silence Glaive and Yuichiro with one of his Katana's tore through the black armored soldiers, cutting right through their ranks with ferocity.
"Let's help them from here!" Tuxedo Mask proposed while he transformed into his armor to pull his sword as well.
Under the suppressive fire from Jupiter and Neptune as well as Mars's attacks, he and Uranus stormed forward as well, starting a counterattack based on velocity and surprise with their swords.
The enemy had been completely taken by surprise by the attack from the back and it was over soon. The stormtroopers' armor might withheld weaker blaster shots but the bladed weapons of the Earthlings had no problems cutting down the enemy.
As soon as it was over, Yuichiro and Rei embraced and shared a passionate kiss and Usagi immediately ran to her daughter to make sure she was okay, all while the three Outers and Jupiter swarmed out to guard the area and check on the felled enemies for any remaining opposition.
"Where are the other two?" Mercury asked and Chibiusa answered.
"Puu and SunTzu went to capture the bridge together."
"If those two open up the way then we should make sure it stays open." Jupiter told the others before she reloaded the blaster in her hand.
SunTzu and Pluto, now moving up even more carefully, soon had finished their way to the bridge.
Although both were not talking to each other, and still angered with one another, they were moving up perfectly in union, with one covering and the other moving up.
Now both were on each side of the blast door leading to the bridge.
"Stand back, I am going to blast away the door." Sailor Pluto announced but SunTzu held up a hand. He put his light saber back on his belt, readied his pistol and pressed a button on the door control.
Without any problems the door glided open and SunTzu earned rolling eyes for his smug grin before the duo stormed the bridge.
To their surprise the crew apparently wasn't expecting an attack at all and nobody even stood guard.
"Okay everyone, consider this ship's bridge seized and now everyone move to that corner!" SunTzu pointed with his pistol into a corner of the bridge while the bridge crew, five people totally shocked looked up from their seats but then got up and moved to the corner.
SunTzu's gun was one point but the ice-cold glare of that dark-haired beauty behind him was the thing that really struck terror in their hearts.
All five of them stood together in the corner in a matter of seconds.
"Uh, uh, uh." SunTzu said and pointed his gun at one of the individuals. Trying to not correlate that to the fact that Setsuna was around and somehow made his connection to the Force better, he could sense that one of the bridge crew members was secretly trying to draw his blaster.
The man was shocked to learn that SunTzu knew and then threw away his gun in defeat.
"Anyone else has a blaster? Better drop it now! You don't want to be a hero, heroes don't live long. Trust me, I saw enough of them die."
Sailor Pluto had ended the inspection of the bridge, looking for anyone hiding, while SunTzu had taken care of the overwhelmed crew. She activated her communicator.
"Pluto here, the bridge is under our control."
Sailor Neptune, Uranus, Venus and Jupiter were on their way to the bridge as well. Sailor Mercury had gained complete access over the ship's system again and had unlocked the blast doors as well as taken out the security systems of the corvette.
The four Senshi just had stumbled onto the remains of two stormtroopers near the bridge.
"That was Pluto."
"Bloody Hell. Looks like she's not in a mood to fuck around today."
And then said Senshi's voice came in over their communicators. And although she had good news Michiru and Haruka recognized that she seemed to be angered.
A few minutes later, the four Senshi arrived at the bridge where SunTzu and Sailor Pluto kept the bridge crew in check.
Both forcefully avoided to look at the other, having their backs pretty much turned at each other. It was clear as day that they were angered with one another.
"Everything under control?" Michiru asked as she walked up to them.
"Of course, I surprised them. Although everything I ever do is wrong. At least that's the opinion of a certain someone."
"Phsaw…" Setsuna turned her face even further away from SunTzu.
"Uhhh… I sense a lot of unsolved sexual tension in the air." Sailor Venus whispered to Sailor Jupiter standing at the door.
King Endymion and Sailor Mercury went to the bridge as well, while the other Senshi took control of the other parts of the ship and the captured crew members were put on lockdown in their quarters.
After taking over the bridge and especially killing the assault teams, the mostly crewers weren't exactly eager to put up resistance.
They had control over the ship and with Endymion, Mercury and the three flying Outers someone who could steer the ship so all that was left, was to figure out how to shut down the gravity well generators of the Pride of Kataia and loose Cruiser's Tie-complement. The Pride was the mothership of the Onyx Kataians, a squadron of modernized TIE-Avengers, who made themselves a name in both the Yuuzhan Vong and Swarm Wars. The TIE-Avengers were some of the best Tie-models ever built, exceeding the flight characteristics of an X-Wing. And they also had missiles launchers, which meant it wouldn't be a problem for the twelve TIEs to destroy the engines of the Kataian Ambassador.
Sailor Mercury had kept herself quiet in the discussion what to do next, keeping herself occupied with her pocket super computer.
"I have an idea!" She shouted over the others suddenly. "But I'll need AICA."
Mercury began to explain her plan, together with AICA as relay she could program a virus and sent it over to the Immobilizer-Cruiser and shut down several parts of it. But the Tie-Avengers were still a threat.
"Does AICA need to be docked to sent over the virus?"
"No."
"Then I'll divert the Ties."
All heads turned to SunTzu.
"I dunno mate, that's a dozen Avengers. Even for you and AICA it's just too much of opposition."
Before SunTzu could answer the door the bridge door opened and Sailor Pluto stormed out.
Sailor Neptune was the first one to turn back to SunTzu.
"Haruka is right, that's really risky, even for you."
SunTzu looked at Setsuna until the door closed before he turned to Michiru.
"I'm here to protect you. That's exactly what I will be doing."
Twenty minutes later, SunTzu had made his way to AICA, back at the airlock again. Sailor Mercury estimated that they had a maximum of sixty seconds until the Pride of Kataia's Gravity Well Generators would work again. That was still enough to get their engines shot by the Ties, even if they could make the jump in thirty seconds the Ties were still a threat.
SunTzu climbed down the ladder to the airlock and climbed into AICA, who had switched into single-seater configuration.
He was humming and quietly singing while he sat down and strapped himself in.
"What's love got to do, got to do with it." He sang while he put on his helmet, still angered from his argument with Setsuna earlier and trying to calm himself down.
"Ready?" He asked AICA.
"Ready, when you are."
"Let's ride."
AICA undocked and SunTzu flew her around the corvette.
He would show Setsuna now how good he was at protecting them. Risky or not, the only who could protect them now was him. Of course the Force-Vision and Setsuna both had made clear that he should not loose himself in his anger and lust for his revenge, but the pain sure could fuel the rage. And he sure as hell wouldn't let anyone harm his friends, he would make sure none of the enemy snubs came close enough.
On the other side, there was something, he guessed it was the Force itself, but something urged him to not seek battle, it told him to keep cool and seek the conversation. It sounded crazy there was whole elite squadron of starfighters against him and he and AICA were the only one between them and his friends.
And while he flew past the Corellian Corvette he concentrated himself and steadied his breathing.
"Ami, we're off."
"Ten seconds until transmission." She replied from bridge.
"Copy." AICA confirmed and SunTzu steered her towards the enemy.
"AICA, can you open a com channel to those Ties?"
"I don't know if teasing them would be a good idea."
"Oh don't worry, this time I'm trying something else."
A second later AICA came back on. "Channel is open."
SunTzu's throat had become dry so he swallowed before he spoke.
"Onyx Kataians, this is Callsign SunTzu from Taskforce Sol, Galactic Federation of Free Alliance's Navy, do you copy?"
It took a moment but then a deep, male voice answered.
"Callsign SunTzu, this is Onyx Leader, deactivate your systems and surrender."
SunTzu looked at his displays, AICA showed him that Ami was sending the virus over, just a few seconds more and they would be able to jump away.
"Unfortunately I cannot do this."
"Then we are authorized to engage you, SunTzu."
It took a moment before an answer came and SunTzu could sense, somehow that there was conflict in the other pilot.
"Interrogative, SunTzu. Taskforce Sol is from Earth, isn't that right."
SunTzu had stopped AICA halfway between the Ties and the Corvette. He knew AICA was ready to lock on the Ties, who all kept back behind their leader, who now was hanging motionless in space as well.
"Affirmative Onyx Leader."
"Say, do you know a Captain Marvin Lewis? We used to fly together in the Swarm War."
SunTzu closed his eyes.
"Captain Lewis was part of our Taskforce."
"Was?"
"He was killed in action at the beginning of the War."
For a moment everything went silent, behind the TIE-Avengers the gravity well generators and engines of the Immobilizer stopped their work and AICA locked on targets.
"Disengage, AICA." SunTzu ordered her.
"I'm sorry to hear that."
"I am sorry too, Onyx Leader. He was my squadron leader."
Another moment of silence on the comm channel while inside SunTzu's cockpit, Ami announced that they were getting ready to jump and that he should do the same.
On the other side, Onyx Leader's cockpit a myriad of voices urged him to give the attack order.
"AICA, sent Onyx Leader the location where we got out from Hyperspace. But do it in a way only he knows."
Then SunTzu turned on his radio again.
"Onyx Leader, why we don't settle this like gentlemen?"
The pause that followed now was longer than the ones before. And SunTzu felt the conflict that was weighing on the other pilot. He was urged to attack, to follow his orders but yet something held him back. As if he wasn't behind his commander.
"I accept the challenge. Approach on twelve?"
"Approach on twelve."
"Good, but whatever you do, don't run away. Like your comrades."
The way Onyx Leader said the words run away, let SunTzu know that the other pilot had gotten the message.
"And go!" Onyx Leader shouted and put all energy in his engines.
"AICA, activate all ECM-Measures. All power into the engines."
SunTzu rocketed his ship forwards as well, he only needed a few seconds more to stall this and then they all could jump away.
Sailor Pluto had retreated into one of the lateral rooms, where a small window showed the outside. Eyes squinted she had observed how SunTzu flew past the Corvette and then had stopped in space before he now rocketed towards the enemy. And just as he began to accelerate the space outside of the round reinforced transparisteel window morphed into blue and white colors.
On the bridge of the Kataian Ambassador the Senshi began to cheer while Endymion leaned back on the helmsman's seat, taking a deep breather.
A few seconds later the Ambassador fell out of Hyperspace right in front of the ships of Taskforce Sol.
It was Sailor Neptune who looked up from the sensor station a few seconds later and then glanced out the window, looking for something.
"Where are SunTzu and AICA?"