Saleucami had suffered a lot in the last sixty years, having been site of major battles in the Clone and Vong Wars as well as site of fighting between the Zann Consortium and Jabba the Hutt's forces.

The Earthlings had first met with the Pride of Kataia and it's complement and then the Taskforce as whole had jumped on to Boonta, where the Anakin Solo and Jacen Solo's Fleet Group, the core of the Fifth, reinforced with Hapan ships, had already gathered.

The huge, black Star Destroyer lay in the midst of the fleet, flanked by another ISD-2 and a Hapan Battledragon. The fleet consisted roughly half and half of GA ships and Hapan ones.

Patrolling around them were squadrons of starfighters from both fleet elements, including a squadron made up of XJ-Wings and Chiss Clawcraft.

"It looks like our friends from Earth have arrived, Jacen."

"Copy, Twin Sun Leader. Welcome to Fleet Group Five, Taskforce Sol, you're right on time."

"Thank you Colonel Solo, glad to be here. We brought some friends with us."

The radio chatter between the two Solos, both Colonels in the Armed Forces, and Artemis was friendly and casual.

Artemis introduced Captain Pedaw to Jacen and Jaina and Jacen introduced his number two, Captain Jori Lekauf.

Soon after the leadership of the Fleet Group met on the Anakin Solo to discuss the upcoming attack.

Reconnaissance had been done by the Twin Suns and unmanned vehicles and while the optimal strength of 3:1 for an attack couldn't be achieved when it came to the ratio of capital ships, the firepower of the Solo and the Hapan ships made up for what was around almost a 2:1 ratio against them.

As already briefed, the starfighter ratio was something entirely else, thousands of droid starfighters were stationed on ships around the planet, mostly on the backside of the attacker's entry vector.

Sol's capital ships would stay behind the larger and more powerful ships of the Fleet Group but it's fighter complement would be upfront, with AICA and the Voyager being right behind the Twin Suns, who would be the tip of the spear. Or, fitting for Jaina, rather the tip of the sword, as the whole allied fleet would stay together closely to form a shield against the enemy droid fighters. It was expected that in the beginning of the battle the enemy would try to break through the lines of anti-starfighter-fire and take out as many capital ships as possible and therefore the net of anti-fighter-defense had to be kept working with any means and above any offensive actions.

Nonetheless Saleucami needed to be taken before the enemy could construct more ships at the planet's shipworks. On top of that, Saleucami, although less after its devastation and partial Vong-forming in the Yuuzhan Vong War, was a commercially important planet and trade hub, a recapture of the planet would be a major victory for the GA's morale and propaganda as well.

A few hours after the ending of the meeting the thirty-one capital ships of the Fleet Group jumped into hyperspace towards the Saleucami System. Within two hours they would arrive.

SunTzu was sitting inside AICA's cockpit, the canopy was still open but he was concentrated and focused on the mission already. Knowing that they would have Stisste, the sun of the Saleucami-system in front of their entry vector, he already had his helmet's visor down while he did the preflight-check.

Apart from being one of the snubs leading the whole Fleet Group into battle, AICA was partly also helping the bridge crew keep the moral up.

On behalf of the staff of the Black Annie as well as other ships of the Fifth, Jedi Knight Jacen Solo had asked Artemis if it would be possible to play music again and transmit it to the fleet as they had done so before. A pretty new concept to the Galactic Alliance Fleet, ships and their crews who had worked alongside Taskforce Sol had praised the moral boost of playing music in combat and in breaks, as well as Artemis's radio show.

The Earthlings took the matter as important, so important that another small meeting had been put up on the Eternal to decide what to play.

With one of her remarks Haruka had made the decision which kind of music would entertain the Fifth in combat at the meeting.

She and SunTzu had made a joke that the music should also be able to annoy the enemy and Haruka had nailed it.

"Playing Eurodance is psychological warfare." Earning her not only a lot of laughter, even from the King and his Admiral.

So, Jacen Solo, his ship crews, snub jockeys and soldiers would listen to music from the Nineties, which also made for another good chuckle from the Earthlings about the absurd amount of love the culture of Earth got from the rest of the Galaxy.

SunTzu wasn't caring for what was going on outside his ship in the moment, in a few moments AICA and him would leave the Eternal along the Voyager and form up in front of the fleet with Jaina Solo's and Jagged Fel's squadron. He had switched into the mode of ice cold professional pilot, big ego, to keep the anxiety and stress out.

Pretty much he had been busy since ever Setsuna and Hotaru had left that table in the officer's mess.

Preparing for the mission had filled the days, and parts of the nights, and this not only applied to him but to everybody within Taskforce Sol.

When he wasn't busy or sleeping his mind usually trailed about daydreaming about Setsuna. Unfortunately she was even more busy as him, Minako had told him that the Senshi of Time kind of worked nonstop with Cilghal on an enhanced version of their healing gel and both Jedi Master and Sailor Senshi wanted it to be ready when the ground combat to retake Saleucami would begin.

Next to AICA stood the Voyager and Michiru and Haruka were doing their preflight check as well.

Michiru was sitting in her gunner's seat and had finished her check so she turned around to see if Haruka was done by now as well.

"Just going to check the warhead auto-loader one last time." Haruka said, not looking up from her console when she had heard Michiru behind her turning around.

Michiru nodded and then suddenly turned her head to the frontal cockpit window when something catched her eyes.

A sly smile crept her over face when she saw someone with a white doctor's coat strutting through the hangar.

As always Setsuna made heads turn, even with a strict knee long skirt, white blouse and glasses on.

Setsuna stopped briefly in front of the Voyager, where she looked at Haruka deeply immersed in her work and Michiru close behind her.

She and Michiru shared a smile and Setsuna motioned with her thumb up to ask if they were okay. Michiru answered with a nod and a wink and then motioned to her side, to where AICA was waiting and Setsuna briefly looked at AICA.

Michiru had been the only other person execpt Rei inducted into what had happened between SunTzu and Setsuna, and Setsuna had Michiru swear to keep quiet to anybody else, including Haruka and Hotaru, about it.

Setsuna's gaze felt back at Michiru, who had told her basically the same about her and SunTzu that Rei had done, and Setsuna's eyes rolled in, mostly played, annoyance when the teal-haired wiggled her eyebrows.

Nonetheless Setsuna glanced over at AICA again before she looked at Michiru another time and the later motioned her again to walk over.

Setsuna sighed but then nodded and waved at Michiru who waved back.

Just as Setsuna was out of view Haruka looked up.

"Was there someone?"

"Oh, I was just waving at Karlena. Finish your preflight, Darling."

SunTzu was as absorbed in his pre-flight-checks as Haruka was and he needed a moment to even realize at all that someone had propped up next to the cockpit.

He expected one of the mechanics as one of their ladders was still besides AICA but his eyes grew when he saw Setsuna looking at him.

Although she looked kind of tired she still was a flawless beauty was his first thought, followed by the thought that she always looked cute with glasses on.

"Ready to take on an army of droids?"

"You bet, I'm ready to take on the whole Galaxy." SunTzu replied, only his lower face visible with the visor on but there was a smug grin on it and Setsuna couldn't help but to answer with a whimsical smile as well.

"Self-confident today, aren't we?"

"The most beautiful, gorgeous and amazing woman in the Galaxy spent the night with me lately. How could I be not?"

She smiled again when she shook her head in disbelief.

"Pilots…" She sighed overly dramatic. "Shall I already reserve a bed for you in the med bay?"

"Only if you bed yourself next to me again." His voice showed her that it wasn't meant overly flirty but rather to let her know how much he enjoyed being close to her.

"I'm sorry, if I sounded arrogant. I didn't want to overdue it." He continued. "I'm just..."

"It's all good. Just don't let your ego get yourself get killed out there." There was warmth in her eyes and on the smile on her lips.

"I won't. I still have to win the most beautiful woman in the Galaxy over. I'll try to be back for dinner."

"Knowing the estimations what we go against, I fear, I'll be too busy for dinner."

It took a moment before SunTzu answered.

"Then AICA and me better make sure everyone in the Fleet Group is coming home safe."

"Ma'am, we'll drop into Saleucami in sixty seconds, I have to remove the ladder now." A mechanic appeared next to Setsuna at the bottom of the ladder.

Setsuna and SunTzu after listening to the man turned to each other again.

"Take care out there." She said and then did something which surprised SunTzu.

Setsuna kissed the tips of her fingers and then ran those fingers over his bearded jawline. As she did so she could literally feel how much he enjoyed the touch, nestling his face onto her fingers.

She was further thanked with a beaming smile as she climbed down the ladder and the mechanic immediately removed the ladder.

Around in the hanger, crew members quickly finished their work and starfighter repulsors started and engines roared to life.

"AICA, let's start the show with that song we dedicate to the Lieutenant Colonel."

SunTzu shot her a wide grin again as the canopy began to close.

And when Setsuna heard the first tunes of the song, a song which now would be played on every receiver tuning in in the whole system, she began to laugh.

She shook her head while the canopy closed and a moment later a countdown sounded off over the intercom, letting the hangar know that the fleet would arrive in the Saleucami System in ten seconds.

A last second long glance at the woman he loved and then SunTzu turned to the front and enhanced the grips on his joystick and throttle, ready to make AICA lift up.

The Anakin Solo was the first ship to fall out of hyperspace, not even a blink of an eye later the rest of the Fleet Group followed. Just a few hundred thousand kilometers away hung the burning sun of the system hung.

Hundreds of starfighters formed around the Fleet Group, with Colonels Jaina Solo and Jagged Fel now leading the whole fleet on.

It didn't took long, the fleet hadn't even passed the sun when the enemy reacted. But the enemy's reaction was very different from what everybody had expected.

Instead of the whole enemy fleet, and the thousands of thousands of starfighters, only a few capital ships, the biggest of them a pair of Recusant-Destroyers, and a few squadrons of starfighters headed out to meet them.

After a few minutes it became apparent that the first sent enemy reaction force was apparently the only one to move towards the GA's Forces at all and even that force stopped just a few ten-thousand kilometers in front of Saleucami.

What did happen though was that thousands of droid starfighters swarmed out from the massed fleet behind Saleucami and formed all around the planet, building a loose shield made up of starfighters.

Jaina Solo, proclaimed Sword of the Jedi by her uncle and the New Jedi Order, also one of the best snubfighter pilots in the Galaxy, opened a private comms channel to her twin brother, who was sitting inside a chair on the bridge of the ship named after their demised younger brother, wearing a headset.

"Looks like there won't be any ground offensive soon."

"They know that they have all the time in the Galaxy." I don't see us getting through there if we can't loosen up their ranks."

"Want me and the Twin Suns to check it out upclose?"

"Negative. That's too dangerous, some of those old CIS-snubs are still fast enough to surround you. Stay in formation, I'll sent out a bunch of drones."

Three drones were sent out but only two made it back, as one got too close to the planet and the enemy lines and was immediately swarmed by Tri-Droids, shooting at it.

The Alliance's Fleet Group had stayed put after moving in formation to the third and neighboring planet of Saleucami, an airless rock named Olamenco. From where the fleet had positioned itself it had visual contact to Saleucami and could make out a few of the larger warships in advanced positions.

A few hours had passed and the droid fighters had returned to their carriers, on the rear-facing side of the planet to the Galactic Alliance.

After hours in space waiting, the Starfighters of Jacen's force had been called back to their motherships as well.

But they had been kept in standby nonstop and so SunTzu hadn't left AICA as hadn't Haruka and Michiru. Not even Hotaru, ordered to protect the Pride of Kataia from close by had left her cockpit.

The boredom of waiting was hell for the pilots and when SunTzu checked his chrono it told him that it had become night cycle already.

It looked like a long night with sleeping inside AICA, good thing that she was at least so comfortable.

SunTzu woke up in the middle of the night cycle, the clock on one of AICA's monitors showed it to him.

A few hours of sleep while at standby? In an active war zone? This meant that nothing of actual meaning had happened at all.

And SunTzu was also pretty content that Jacen Solo was intelligent enough to not let the fleet rush massed and blindly onto Saleucami.

"Good early morning, meatbag."

"Morning AICA? What did I miss?"

"Except that the enemy tends to swarm out when something is stupid enough to get close enough? Nothing."

"As I thought. Got any ideas, great artificial intelligence you are?"

"None that wouldn't lead to death and destruction on our side as well."

"Well, at least this means I can take a piss without hurrying now. Open the canopy please."

Still sleep drunken SunTzu climbed out the cockpit and headed to the door closest to the nearest restrooms.

When he came back a few minutes later he could see that most of the other pilots and crew members were resting as well, waiting for orders or for an enemy attack which might never would come, as the enemy just could sit it out at this time being.

He climbed back into his cockpit, AICA was playing music on a low volume, it was the live broadcast from the radio room for the whole Fleet Group.

SunTzu nodded one time, Daft Punk had always been great, even back in the 90s.

To his left two crewmen, one of the oldest and a younger guy, were speaking to each other and SunTzu listened in

The older one's father had been fighting in the Clone Wars as a young man and apparently had seen service over Saleucami as well. The crewer proudly told that his father had served under Generals Kenobi and Skywalker.

And, as that man, shortly before his retirement spoke the name Skywalker and SunTzu remembered something. There was this maneuver that had been named after the General.

If he wasn't before now he was completely awake and pressed the switch to close the canopy.

"AICA, get me a channel to the Voyager."

A few hundred kilometers in front of her brother's fleet group flew Jaina Solo in her Stealth X-Wing, flanked on her right by her fiancé, Jagged Fel.

The Jedi was frustrated, why hadn't she and Jace haven't found a way to reasonably attack Saleucami without causing thousands of casualties yet?

"C'mon Trickster, you know that there's not one hole in their defence. We checked that so many times. Try to get some sleep in."

"Jacen's right, we should head back and get some sleep. Maybe we find a way tomorrow."

Under her pilot helmet and the visor Jaina rolled her eyes. Not that the boys weren't wrong, it was just so damn frustrating.

AICA shot out of the Eternal and a moment later the Voyager followed.

Michiru hadn't even been completely awake when Haruka had lifted off, but SunTzu's sudden flash of genius was too good to not give it a try.

"Alright, you guys persuaded me. Twin Sun Leader, RTB."

Jaina just had veered off back to the fleet when her comm on another channel sprung to life.

"Colonel? This is Callsign SunTzu from Taskforce Sol checking in. I have an idea how to loosen up the blockade, but we need your brother's help as well."

"This better be good."

"Oh it is, remember the maneuver named after your grandfather?"

It took a moment and not even the Sword of the Jedi was able to hide her dumbfoundness.

"Sithspawn… it's worth a try! Wait one, SunTzu."

Jaina switched back channels to her brother.

Setting up everything only took a few minutes, meanwhile the Voyager, AICA and the two snubs of Jaina and Jagged had formed up.

"You guys sure that you wanna come along? The Voyager and AICA are two of the fastest and most stealthiest snubs there are."

"Sure thing, our ships have been personally tuned by me and my father. We definitely are able to keep up with you."

"Fine, switching to stealth mode then."

After SunTzu announced that they'll go into stealth mode, Jaina switched channels for another time, while her X-Wing's foils closed.

"Anakin Solo, Full Moon Flight, going dark."

Now it was up to the speed of their fighters to survive.

The four starfighters made a micro jump towards the planet and immediately as they fell out of Hyperspace near the planet of Saleucami, the enemy Capital ships immediately began to disembark squadrons after squadrons of starfighers.

Faster than probably all of them had flown in formation ever before the ships broke left and began to round the planet, passing the first enemy ships and formations.

As all of their energy was in their engines, one shot could have been fatal already and it was particularly dangerous for Jagged as him, Haruka and Michiru hadn't had the Force to warn them from impending danger but the two women at least had their Senshi presentiment of danger.

After they had rounded a quarter of the planet, the first enemy ships opened fire.

AICA did what she could to jam all enemy sensors and transmissions to keep them safe while the ships closed in on the bug enemy formation behind the planet.

All four pilots, and the weapons operator in the Voyager, gritted their teeth while they rushed further, knuckles on their hands beginning to come white because they had their controls gripped so strong.

They passed the backside of the planet, enemy ships, starfighters and fire everywhere around them and Jaina released two Shadow Bombs, special proton torpedoes without propulsion, meant to be steered by Jedi with use of the Force on their targets.

If he would have had time SunTzu would have admired her strength in the Force to do two so complicated tasks at once but he simply could only concentrate on flying.

A moment later the bombs exploded, one in the middle of an enemy bomber squadron, the explosion starting a chain reaction and destroying several of the slower ships, and one on a carrier who hadn't had his shields up, damaging it severely.

"Okay, now they're really angry." Was all the brunette Jedi-Knight could press out before the quartet shot out of the enemy entrapment and continued to round the planet, hundreds of fighters now were on their tail like swarms of angry hornets.

"AICA, send the signal." SunTzu ordered AICA and on the ship to his left, Jaina used the Force to let him know that they were on their way back, an armada of fighter droids behind them.

Not even a minute after dropping out of Hyperspace the four starfighers had rounded Saleucami, with a few dozen full squadrons of fighters as well as some corvettes in hot pursuit.

And the enemy was angry, shooting everything they had at them, behind them.

Michiru had stopped counting how many warheads and missiles were chasing behind them as she tried her best to stay calm with the amount of enemy war machines behind them.

They veered off and now shot away from the planet when suddenly in the distance two dozen warships fell out of hyperspace, surrounded by hundreds of starfighters and all of them began to shoot their arsenal of warheads, missiles and torpedoes in the direction the four snubs were coming from.

"Right timing, Jacen." Jaina announced while she pressed the button to do a micro jump into Hyperspace in the same moment, the other three fighters did. AICA had calculated the jump while SunTzu took care of flying and they fell out of Hyperspace again not even a second later, right behind the warships of Jacen Solo's Fleet Group.

Behind them all the torpedoes and missiles found their targets in the cloud of enemy starfighters who had been chasing the four GA snubs from behind the planet.

Meanwhile a second missile volley was already on the way and as the second wave of missiles hit their targets most of the enemy fighters and corvettes had already been destroyed.

And then the capital ships of the Galactic Alliance began to hammer the area with laser fire while the former CIS-Armada began to move away from the planet, their AIs knowing that with most of it's fighters destroyed they didn't stand a chance against the much more modern fleet.

Jacen and Jaina, after SunTzu's idea, had employed a tactic their grandfather had used sixty-one years ago over Muunilinst against CIS-Forces, drawing them out and then letting them run into a wall of missile fire.

Immediately the four starfighers ascended and fell into Immelmanns, heading back to their fleet and into battle.

A few hundred thousand kilometers away, the Pride of Kataia had started her gravity well reactors to prevent the enemy from fleeing.

It was time to end the blockade around Saleucami.

The enemy still had more starfighters but for the Fifth Fleet Group things were more than even now.

Using their technological advantage and the quality of their pilots and crews the enemy soon was destroyed until the last ship, securing a route to land on the planet to free it once again from the reign of battle droids.

Among the snubs on Taskforce Sol especially the Onyx Kataians sowed chaos and destruction amidst the enemy fighters. It was their first real space battle as part of the Taskforce and they wanted to prove themselves, which they more than thoroughly did.

Their outstanding perfomance also spurred the other squadrons of the Taskforce, especially Terra to not fall behind them.

The other ships in the Fleet Group did their part as well, the Anakin Solo solemnly took out a Lucrehulk in Carrier-Configuration within a matter of minutes.

The Far Side and the Eternal took care of a trio of Munificent-Frigates formed up in a wedge-formation and the last one, the one in the middle was destroyed while both Taskforce Ships broadsided it simultaneously.

Bomber-squadrons chased the old ex-CIS-warships that tried to flee the place while at another place a quartet of Hapan Battledragons pumped ion- and turbolaser-fire into an enemy formation without a second ceasing their bombardment.

Only the fleet's tenders, hospital ships and the Pride of Kataia in their offset position didn't see combat, along with a single squadron of Miy'til starfighters and the single Y-Wing put to protect these ships.

But Hotaru didn't mind too much, seeing progress in the relationship of her mother and SunTzu was worth missing out one single space battle. But if she didn't see them kiss until the next battle, she definitely would ask Chibiusa to intervene before doing another such lame mission.