"Captain, I read another enemy carrier just dropping in from Hyperspace, bearing 315, 30 klicks out."
The Lieutenant on the sensor station had turned around, headset lifted over his head and directly shouting at Captain Santos.
"Captain Santos, the CO wants to know the ETA for reinforcements."
Captain Santos, third highest officer of Taskforce Sol, closed his eyes for a second, the situation had turned dire in just a few seconds.
"Comms, tell the Admiral we're trying our best to open a corridor for reinforcements and air support. And tell the Starstruck to position herself between us and the planet to help open that corridor."
And then he turned to Commander Jordan.
"Flight Command, as soon as we got any room to breathe, sent the bombers out to destroy the carriers. Let the interceptors clear their path. And get the fighters around the Far Side to support the Starstruck."
And then he turned to comms again.
"Tell the Far Side as soon as those fighters are gone, they are allowed to use multi-warheads to build a shield around them."
AICA's laser cannons made a TIE-Drone explode a few meters above and behind the Voyager.
"Taru-Chan, please stop stealing Mommy's kills."
"Sumimasen Michiru-Mama, I thought you couldn't reach that one."
AICA accelerated and leveled herself with the Voyager.
"Don't you two also find it kind of unfair, that each of those drones counts as a regular kill? I mean, how many of those we already shot down in the last year?"
"Still not enough to not watch out for them, so eyes front Haruka."
"Yes, Ma'am."
"And Hotaru, you and AICA fly up ahead and let Mama do the shooting to the back."
"Yes Ma'am."
AICA accelerated again and surpassed the Voyager, both starfighter heading for the next cloud of enemy snubs.
"Your Majesties, I must insist that you leave immediately."
"Negative Sergeant Major, we and the Senshi will stay and help you."
"I'm not going to let my troops alone in this battle."
"With all due respect your Majesty, this is a suicide mission, we are neither equipped or numerous enough to fight an enemy regiment."
"That's why you need all the help you can get, Rudy."
"Mamoru is right. You will need us."
In that moment, Sailor Venus, who had been a step behind her queen, as she, Mamoru and Rudi were talking, appeared at Usagi's side.
"Usagi, please. We can stay and fight but you have to go. Maybe Hotaru can somehow break through the enemy lines and evacuate you."
"Venus… I will not run away. You heard what Captain Santos and Artemis said. It was a trap all along. And I will not run away while Phyncx kills more of my troops. And we have to safe Makoto and SunTzu."
"Listen, i worry about Makoto as well, like crazy. But you are too important."
"No, all of us are too important . And I'm tired of young people dying for me. I might be not much of use in this battle, but I will do what I need."
A few meters next to them Dish was with Artemis who was getting the latest info in from the space battle, while next to him Kenji talked with Ami as he tried to encrypt the channel the communicator of his wife was tuned in.
"Sergeant Major!" It was one of the Commandos, he just had been contacted by a patrol and all heads turned to him. "They're almost here."
Owen dodged the deadly blade with a jump backwards, that guard was good, very probably a better close quarters combatant than he was. And he was taller with longer limbs, not to mention that he had the deadlier weapons. But Owen wouldn't die here.
He would kill that man, get the explosives, make the work of Phyncx vanish from the face of the Galaxy and then make Phyncx pay for the death of Rhian.
He just had to find a way to overwhelm that tower of man.
Owen dodged another slash and with the determination who had lost something that he cherished in life set on for a counter attack. Putting his whole weight in, he kicked the enemy soldier in the flank which made the man flinch and opened his defenses even more.
A kick against the man's arm followed and the guard almost lost the grip on his knife.
But unfortunately for Owen not his will to fight and a hard punch from the enemy soldier's right hit Owen in the middle of his face, leaving a bleeding cut on his lips and giving the enemy another moment to let his left follow.
Owen staggered and he almost fell down, having to take a knee.
At least the punch had hurt the guard's hand as well and he shook it in pain while Owen needed a moment to check with his tongue that all his teeth were still in place and then spit out a mouthful of blood. He felt like he had been hit by a freight train but a deep, hot-burning anger grew in him, he would revenge his little sister and that meant that he would fell the man that apparently was Aesolian's version of Mike Tyson.
With strength he didn't where it came from he got up again and rushed into the man, not caring for anything including the vibro-knife of the guard.
He jumped into the man and putting all his weight into it he surprised the man and the man fell to the ground.
As he wanted to bring the blade up to cut Owen, the earthling was faster and punched into the man's wrist. The knife was still in the man's hands although he didn't move it.
But Owen wasn't having it, he used one hand trying to keep the man down and used the other to hold up the enemy's wrist.
As soon as it was up he bit into the man's arm right behind the wrist as fast as he could and with a painful scream the guard dropped his blades weapon, which Owen immediately grabbed.
Phyncx's soldier used his other hand, and his superior strength to push Owen away and reached for his throat.
The hand that now gripped around Owen's throat felt like a vise and Owen somehow expected to either his windpipe or neck to snap any moment.
With adrenaline empowered strength the Walisian opted for a last attack and drove the blade into the man's arm, cutting down to the bone.
The guard yelled out as blood began to pour out but Owen wasn't done and rammed the blade into the man's covered throat.
This time the blade penetrated and Owen cut the men's throat almost to the other side.
Through the red haze of the adrenaline he couldn't listen to the gargling noises of the man but as the man was dying the combat high ebbed down and Owen slumped to the floor, where he let out a loud breather before he began to stroke his own throat.
This one had been close.
Makoto and SunTzu looked at each other, both know that they were in trouble now but instead of armed soldiers swarming them, only the gate from the wall behind them closed.
Instead the gate of the tower opened and a row of black-armored figures, almost invisible in the night, except for the red glow of their eyes emerged and swarmed out into a semicircle around the pair. And then a light went on and lighted the area up.
Makoto and SunTzu immediately understood what these things were, they weren't human, those things were Dark Troopers, so either cyborg-like battle droids or exo-skeleton-clad soldiers. Dark Troopers had been an invention of the old Galactic Empire under Palpatine and the project had been destroyed by the Rebels and New Republic, most prominently by Kyle Katarn. It seemed Phyncx's preference for machines had reawakened the terror these machines were. This new generation was around 2 meters in height, completely armored and black-clad and looked like very bulky stormtroopers. Some of them were sporting heavy repeating blasters and aimed at the two Earthlings.
Immediately the two guardians of them closed the distance between them, standing side to side now.
"I see you're quite surprised to see my Dark Troopers. But do you really think I wouldn't have any surprises for you in store?" Phyncx's voice didn't come over loudspeakers this time, Instead he had said it out loud as the General himself walked out of his residence.
General Nawo Phyncx was in great shape for his age, his eyes spoke from intelligence as well as ploy and the grey at the temples didn't make the man old but complimented his natural authority.
One look at him while he walked up to his deadly robotic enforcers, no need for psychic powers to sense it at all, and SunTzu and Makoto had both decided that this man looked as dangerous as he was.
"Get behind me and transform."
"Do you really think I got onto this planet untransformed? I have the Fuku under my clothes."
SunTzu and Makoto exchanged flustered words.
"A battle plan will not help you. Just to let you know SunTzu, you'll get to live. For now. But I will have to break you, and I'm planning to use torture for this. I can't wait to hear your screams."
"Good luck trying, Bastard."
"How infantile to use curse words. Don't worry, you'll shut up after I killed all your friends."
"Oh yeah? They'll kick your whole army's ass if you try."
Phyncx let out laugh.
"Oh I don't think so. All of you are so predictable, of course they followed you. And of course they ran into my traps. Just like you did. And now they all will die."
Above the planet it seemed that for every starfighter of the Taskforce there was a dozen Tie Droids.
The K-Wings and the Tie-Scimitars along with a the Pride of Kataia and the Far Side had destroyed some of the enemy carriers and both were raking an enemy destroyer with turbo-laser and maser fire now but it didn't help much against the myriads of droid fighters the enemy had fielded.
AICA, the EE-Wings as well as some specialists on the Eternal, among them Ryo, tried hard to hack the controls and signals of the droids but yet to no avail.
The way things were right now, there was no way that they could send ground troops down on the planet without them getting swarmed with enemy snubs.
At least they were holding up, Haruka thought as she pulled the Voyager in a sharp turn, trying to break off an enemy formation with Hotaru and AICA attacking from the other side.
She was nervous, she knew that the Neo Queen and the others were in danger on the ground as well now but the enemy completely had closed the way to the planet and most of the Taskforce's fighter had to defend the capital ships from suicide attacks, as the capital ships slowly were running out of anti-fighter-warheads.
They had tried to break through but it took Terra, the Voyager and two-thirds of the Starstruck's defensive missile's to get back to the main force of Sol without loosing the Starstruck.
Well, complaining wouldn't help and the sooner they were done here they could help Kitten and the others on the planet's surface.
The first attack column of Phyncx's home regiment rolled in their demise without most of the vehicle crews not even known what had hit them.
Under the expertise of Serenity's Wolves, the troops of the Taskforce had opted for a very forward defensive and surprised the enemy with an attack before they had even expected scouts.
Some of the tankers were still sitting in their open batches when the first ATGM- and AT-Missiles hit their vehicles.
Four tanks, three scout vehicles and two transports were lost in an instant.
Burning crewmen and soldiers were shot down as were enemies trying to flee from the onslaught.
As soon as the smoke settled, the Wolves and the other soldiers from the Taskforce were gone again and only a distant howl was the only proof of who had just attacked the forces of Chaos.
As successful as the attack had been, it also had used up a lot of ammunition and missiles and the Earthlings now definitely had to switch to Guerilla-tactics to stall the enemy long enough.
Space and air support wasn't available as well, turning the battle pretty much in a last stand but the men and women around their Neo Queen and their King wouldn't go down without a fight.
Owen had granted himself a moment, if only to assess the damage done to his face and wipe the blood off, before he got up again and walked to the storage for the explosives.
He checked what the armory was stocked with, they even had Baradium stored, and the amounts of explosives he found would have been more than enough to not only level the facility but the whole fortress, probably twice.
Apart from the explosives he found everything he needed to create a potent bomb and as he had packed everything, he also got a blaster from the armory, knowing that he probably would run into more opposition on the way to the facility.
Just as he was on his way back outside he wondered about how Makoto and SunTzu were doing.
As only Senshi, Sailor Pluto had taken a stance next to her rulers, even after Sailor Venus had been pleading the young Queen to and Usagi had neglected to teleport out of the danger. Usagi knew that her soldiers would die here, as probably would Makoto and SunTzu if the Senshi wouldn't help. Mars and Mercury were the first to fall in line with the troops, they knew that only a good defense would buy them enough time until reinforcements would come in. And maybe then they could move in force to Phyncx's headquarters and safe their friends. Venus was reluctant but she had understood, it was all about them or us now.
Pluto hated that the King, Princess and the Queen were here, but she would stay here and protect them with her life.
Not that a large part of her was screaming to get to that fortress, not even visible in the distance and get to the man she loved. It wasn't exactly hope but probably Phyncx would wanted SunTzu alive, for the Herald to break him and end this conflict with no chance to stop Chaos. The thought alone, someone making SunTzu hurt even more than he already had suffered sent a surge of anger through her.
As her husband and her Admiral assessed the situation and her Head of Court along with both of their daughters was escorted to the back of the friendly lines, a few hundred meters behind them, it was only Sailor Moon who had seen the small flashing of light in Pluto's eyes immediately understood that although the oldest of the Senshi seemed to be ready to immediately erect a protective barrier around Mamoru and her with her powers, not to mention to break the laws of the Universe itself to save Chibiusa, Sailor Pluto's mind was occupied with something else, the fear of loosing the man she loved, a fear Usagi had felt too often as well already.
"Pluto?"
The twitch in the tall emerald-haired woman proved that Sailor Moon had been right.
"Your Majesty?"
"You have permission to go. Go and save him."
Even for the always so dutiful Sailor Pluto it took a moment but it was the answer that Usagi had expected although not wanted.
"I cannot abandon my post here. I have to make sure you and the King are safe. My personal wantings can't stand in the line of my duty."
Usagi closed her eyes for a moment, of course, Setsuna wouldn't leave unless she was sure the Royals were safe. It wasn't much but it would give her a few minute of headstart when they somehow would survive this. And it would made sure, that no matter what happened Chibiusa was safe.
"Sailor Pluto, I want you to protect the Princess at the back of the defensive positions then. Me and Tuxedo Mask are fine here within the figthing troops."
"Your Majesty? I cannot…"
"You can. And you will. Make sure that Chibiusa is safe. And as soon as the smoke settles you're good to rush to SunTzu's aid."
"I… thank you. Usagi."
Both shared the slightest of smiles, before Setsuna left for the last lines of the defense.
"Pluto's going to protect Chibi Moon i assume?" King Endymion said as he looked up from holo projector with the map of the area after reassessing the defensive plan with Rudy and Artemis.
"Yes." Sailor Moon said. "This means you are back in charge of my security."
She didn't need to say if something would be happening to them, at least Pluto was there to care for Chibiusa.
Back in the last line of defense Kenji finally had found the right frequency of his wife's communicator, just in time as the second assault had begun.
What Kenji hadn't seen was that the attack stopped short in front of the Earthling's lines, the now amassed enemy troops just making sure to drive their enemies together.
SunTzu's anger finally exploded when Phyncx had told Makoto and him that their friends would all die now.
It sent chills down Sailor Jupiter's spine as she saw how SunTzu's eyes began to glow yellow and she could actually feel his anger.
Within a second SunTzu was running towards Phyncx, purple-glowing blade activated and rushed to cross the space between where he had been standing and Phyncx and his black robot guard.
Within seconds the quietness of the night had turned into the ear-hurting cacophony of battle as the armored tips of Phyncx's troops had begun their attack.
Sailor Venus looked around, well at least how far she could.
The night was one factor, although the large moon of Aestolian had lighted it up, but Sailor Mercury had used her Shabon Spray to limit the enemy's use of IR- and optical sensors.
What had happened then was some of the finest display of courage and determination Minako had ever seen. Outnumbered and outgunned the warriors of Taskforce Sol had begun their defensive attack.
Partly running onto enemy vehicles and using explosives to disable them before vanishing in the night again, Wolves and regular troops tried to decimate the enemy and keep their lines intact.
Both Mars and Mercury had gone cosmic, Ami before she had begun to create the mist that now covered the night and Mars after Yuichiro had attacked a repulsor vehicle with thermal detonators from close range and almost had been mowed down, the following outburst of anger was physically aimed at the enemy but vocally at the monk but Venus had to smile, when Rei loved, she did it so wholeheartedly. In a small moment as she was changing IVs, Minako catched herself thinking about that it must be nice to have someone to love so much as well, at least without loosing him.
Now, after most of the anti-tank weapons with long range had been depleted, the raven-haired Senshi of fire had become the strongest weapon of the ground force.
Nevertheless the sheer amount of enemy troops was forcing the Taskforce's troops back into the deeper lines of their defense.
But there was something that Venus, who had been mostly helping with the evacuation and the medical care of the wounded, noticed, now that she was close to her Queen and King in a ditch where the wounded were treated, with the Neo Queen trying her best to assist the medics somehow.
They had been pushed back to their last lines, she even could see Chibiusa and Sailor Pluto, who was occasionally using her attacks, in the flickering light of the muzzle flashes and blaster bolts, but the enemy wasn't closing in anymore.
Something was definitely wrong.
Frederik Menhardt sighed internally, he definitely had seen better days in his work.
Ensign Menhardt's place monitoring the optical sensors overlooking the ground battle inside the Eternal was gruesome, sitting in space, not being able to help their pinned down ground troops, among them their leadership and most of the Senshi.
But so far their troops on the ground had done an amazing job keeping the enemy at bay. Menhardt just hoped that they could open a corridor for reinforcements soon, as there was no way that such a large force was bested by the Taskforce's troops on the ground.
He was just about to inform him about the status of the space battle, when he noticed something on one of the optical sensors, this one was trained on the surroundings of the military base.
In between the heavy vehicle traffic a set of four camouflaged vehicles had turned away from the battle and gone another way.
And now Menhardt understood why, those hadn't been tanks as he and the computer had thought, those were artillery, and they were now getting ready to shoot.
A cold sting shoot through Menhardt's intestines, that was why the enemy wasn't advancing any further, they would finish them from afar.
Immediately the young officer turned to his superior.
"Sir, I got four artillery canons establishing fire readiness!"
"Shit, shit, shit! We have to break through there and help them."
"There's still too many of them!"
"I know, I know…"
Apart from getting tired of fighting the swarms of enemies, Haruka also was immensely worried now. Some of the most important people in her life were down there and she couldn't do dogshit to protect them right now.
"Mama, Papa. Cover me!"
Hotaru broke away left and hurled AICA in direction of the planet.
"Hotaru! Don't you dare…"
"Haruka. She and AICA are the only ones who have a chance to make it."
"Mhm… Fuck! Fine, but keep that canon blasting!"
It was insane, Hotaru put all the energy she could into AICA's engines and the A-Wing hadn't been flown faster ever before without SunTzu strengthening her system with the Force.
Apart from the Voyager, trying to shoot down everything that could pose a threat to AICA, several other snubs understood what Hotaru was about to do and rushed in to help.
Hotaru had tunnel vision as she rocketed past the planet, laser and blaster fire following her and whooshing past her and AICA. She concentrated so much that she didn't even listen to the radio anymore, another enemy carrier had arrived.
Like a bullet SunTzu cannoned into the Dark Troopers, destroying one and another one, trying to cut his way to Phyncx and end the man that had caused him so much pain.
He managed to cut down a third but then the now rushing in robots got too close and numerous and one of them got hold of his arm as he was about to cut down a fourth one and stopped his movement a second machine closed it's robotic hand around his wrist and squeezed until SunTzu dropped his lightsaber.
"Keep him alive, but render him innocuous." The master of the Dark Troopers ordered them.
With easiness the machine that held his arm pulled him around and used the momentum to just fling him away like a piece of puppet.
SunTzu landed hard back first in the closest wall, his last bit of attention before the impact focused on the Force easing it.
Still it was hard enough to knock him unconscious.
"And now, kill that Senshi."
Jupiter hadn't listened to Phyncx because in between the few seconds of SunTzu's charge and him being neutralized as threat by the Dark Troopers, the communicator on her wrist had begun to speak.
Sneaking into the facility had been way easier than Owen had thought, apart from some sensors and cameras, nothing a trained EOD-Specialist couldn't dodge, most of the guards seemed to have moved out to the first ring of the walls of the fortress.
Probably they had found out about the dead soldiers, or they were still MIA for them and now they were expecting an attack from outside.
Too bad, Owen thought as he entered the facility through a gate that had opened for a working droid. He had to sneak his way in between two cameras but that was it.
He moved carefully and noticed that apparently robots were built here.
In the middle of the building he found the storage room, filled with explosive materials like Tibanna-Gas. Apparently those robots were armed but that wouldn't matter much anymore.
The bomb would probably have been enough but with the materials stored here the explosion would be even bigger.
It only took a short time before anything was set up and as soon as Owen was done he rushed outside again, as fast as he could without accidentally setting off an alarm.
The other two should have reached the tower by now and the explosion that would occur here soon would distract the enemy even more, making the path to their revenge even easier.
Within a few moments he was out of the building and already had focused the staircase to the walls, laying in the dark, when he noticed a group of four soldiers, who immediately spotted him and raised their rifles.
Hotaru knew she was too late, when she saw the huge shots of glowing green plasma leave the barrels of the artillery cannons from above. Behind her and although AICA had used her rotatable cannons were still four out of six droid fighters chasing her.
She had been too late and that only fueled the rage, already grown by the anger she could feel some distance away, SunTzu's anger.
The young pilot only had one run to make sure that these guns were destroyed before she had to take care of the droids behind her but she would made sure that one run was enough and after taking care of everything in the sky she would bring death to everything between here and the position where her friends would probably die now.
AICA sensed how Hotaru's reactions, matched only by SunTzu when he was using the Force, had become even faster and finer as Hotaru aligned her and opened fire, spitting red, super-heated death on the position a few meters in front and below them.
And when she was finished four artillery vehicles were molten to slag, secondary explosions rocking them and burning crewers trying to extinguish the flames consuming them, all while AICA pierced back into the sky with full throttle.
"Makoto, Baby… it's over. We came so close to you but they'll get us with artillery now. I wish… I wish I could have seen you a last time."
While the Dark Troopers turned around and began to raise their weapons at Makoto she froze and her eyes went up to the sky.
Minako wheezed, it was surreal, ironic and definitely not fair. They came all the way to this and now, just because they had all fell into a trap, it would be over. A few mere seconds before the artillery strike would end them.
She was standing in the middle of their lines, transformed and while flares, shot up in the night by the enemy, illuminated the area, she decided to take a look around and at everything she would loose in the blink of an eye.
Venus watched as Yuichiro and Rei were apparently arguing over the fact that Yuichiro wanted Rei to cover down, he was kneeling and had his arms around her waist, while Rei, stubborn as always apparently wanted to die upright, shielding Yuichiro.
In this moment Minako noticed that she was finally utterly and completely over Rei and that she adored what Rei and Yuichiro had and were. And that It hurted to have it end like that.
Usagi and Mamoru were holding each other close, a close embrace in the middle of a battle field, a fitting ending for a Love for the millennia.
This might have been the biggest love that ever had been, and for a millisecond Minako felt a sting, the things she would have given to experience love like that.
Next to them were the three Mau, Artemis had changed back into his car form as well and he and Luna had Diana pressed in between them.
The eyes of Sailor Venus and her longtime mentor and friend met, and she understood that he would have wanted her next to them and the Neo Queen in their last moments.
But Minako somehow couldn't do other than look further, something urged her to capture the last moments of all her friends here.
In the back of their lines was Kenji speaking into his radio, telling his wife that he loved her one last time. Sometimes Death was just unfair, if they could have at least have seen Mako-Chan and SunTzu one last time.
The last two person her eyes fell upon were Sailor Pluto, using her Garnet Ball she was erecting a barrier around herself and Chibi-Moon. It wasn't much but if these two survived Chibiusa at least had a wonderful maternal friend left after all the others were were about die here.
It hurted down into the depths of her soul, most of the people she loved would die here and there was nothing she, the First of the Senshi, could do.
I wish I could save all of them…
And that wish sat something in motion, sat something free in her.
Her eyes began to glow, the blue turning into yellow while her tiara vanished and the venus sign on her forehead emitted a bright light, piercing the dark of the night.
Her Sailor Fuku began to change, wings and cape appeared, colors on the outfit changed and she as well transformed into her Cosmic form.
No time for announcements and name dropping as the green balls of light that the plasma cannon shots were already were visibly in the nightly sky, Minako raised a finger and her Love-Me-Chain, but bigger and broader than ever before. And it raced to the sky until in a straight line, at least twenty meters.
From there the chain wounded itself down and the yellow lights wound themselves around the positions of the Earthlings, creating a barrier of light and hearts.
While the first plasma shot hit, it just bounced off and exploded a meter behind the barrier, not doing any harm to it.
The following shots couldn't penetrate as well, nor could their blast and heat waves or the shrapnell. All persons inside were safely embraced by the shield Sailor Venus had created.
Cosmic Sailor Venus's power had saved her friends and now everybody was looking in awe at the blonde reincarnation of the Goddess of Love, showing them what the power of love and friendship could do.
"We got something big incoming!" One of the sensor operators onboard the Pride of Kataia let all units in space know, as a huge Mon Cal cruiser, a MC80B, fell out of space close to the Taskforce.
And it was accompanied by several corvettes and a modified Horizon-Class Star Yacht.
"Mon Adapyne to Taskforce Sol, reinforcements have arrived."
And while the trusty old flagship of the Commander of the Ninth Fleet, Lieutenant General Keyan Farlander, deployed its various starfighter squadrons, a trio of anti-fighter-corvettes already began to clear a path trough the enemy fighters.
"Sol, let's see that we get some ground forces down there, follow in line behind me. Farmboy, you better help clear a path with your X-Wing." A female voice came in from space yacht as the ship swung around towards the Eternal.
Ensign Menhardt couldn't believe his eyes, somehow something bright glowing had formed a shield around his comrades and leadership and had somehow deflected the artillery strike.
All hell had broken loose, the enemy tanks were now shooting at that shield as well and Mistress Nine was having a dogfight with several enemy TIE-Droids at once.
But the craziest thing was that in an instant a huge thunderstorm had formed over the fortress of General Phyncx, it just had formed out of nowhere and now lightning was striking the ground.
For Revenge. For Kenji, Usagi, Ami, Minako, all her soldiers and Commandos, for everyone that had been killed by Phyncx. For not dying without taking as many of the enemy along as she could.
No that wasn't for revenge, it was for the love to her husband and friends, for the chance that they somehow had made it and she needed to defend them. She always would defend them. And they would always overcome their obstacles, no matter how hard it seemed.
A single tear rolled down her cheek.
The clouds and the lighting had appeared as Makoto's eyes began to glow, before her new transformation, actually the lighting was concentrating its impacts around her as Cosmic Sailor Jupiter awakened.
The first Dark Troopers began to shoot at her but the shots were deflected by lighting.
And then Cosmic Sailor Jupiter crossed her arms as she usually did when summoning her lighting attacks but this time the lighting came down from the sky itself, several thunderbolts at once driving into the closest Dark Troopers, making them explode, 30.000 degrees Celsius of temperatur melting them down and destroying them.
Phyncx, not a man who was used to fear, not even when he was with the Herald, felt pure terror overcoming him and he turned around an begun to run inside the tower again as his will to flight sat in.
"Full Alert!" He cawed as he entered the building and closed the door behind him.
While Makoto's thunder and lighting struck down more and more of the Dark Troopers an alarm began to blare and almost instantly after an ear-piercing explosion rocked the fortress.
Owen ran to the cover, blaster bolts were flying left and right close besides him and he hissed in pain when one grazed his upper arm. It had been the arm with whom he was holding the detonator but somehow he managed to keep it in his hands.
While he was running, giving his last after the fight before and now getting shot, he noticed that there suddenly was lightning up in the sky, but he hadn't time to think about.
Every muscle was hurting as he used his hand to swing him on the staircase and while still flying he pressed the detonator.
He landed hard on the stairs, knocking air he didn't know he still had inside his lunges out of them.
His eyes were closed but he could feel it, the explosion, the heat, the shockwave making the whole wall rumble and shooting over him, the sound deafened him but if he wouldn't have had his mouth open to absorb the shockwave, he would have smiled, that bomb had worked. And with that the adrenaline was gone and tiredness overcame him, the last thing before he fell asleep he thought of, was that he hoped that no debris would hit him.
A few dozen meters away the roof of the facility had collapsed and the building itself was collapsing bit by bit as well now.
The group of soldiers who had chased Owen had been hit by the shockwave by surprise in the open, their bodies were more or less mush inside their armor.
SunTzu, his point of impact very visible behind him in the wall opened his eyes again.
That cacophony of chaos around him had awakened him again and when he looked up he saw Sailor Jupiter, no Cosmic Sailor Jupiter as her changed uniform gave away, having become a female Zeus. With her fingers she was directing thunderbolts directly from the dark clouds overhead into the rows of Dark Troopers, while a shield of electricity protected her.
"Makoto!" His still confused mind got finally together as he tried to get up, which only succeeded in the second try.
"Phyncx! He's inside the building!"
A blaster shot from behind landed close to Makoto and both Guardians looked up but before SunTzu could draw his pistol or use the Force to regain his light saber a thunderbolt struck the trooper on the wall behind them.
"Get Phyncx, I'll take care of those motherfuckers!"
SunTzu nodded and took a deep breather, his anger was getting back. Phyncx acted like an officer but he was a coward, relying on traps, deceit and malice.
More troops of Phyncx appeared on the walls but almost as soon as they came, lighting struck out to get them, as Makoto's thunderbolts hit around the court and onto the walls as well now.
SunTzu began to run and while he dodged the remains of the Dark Trooper, a Cosmic Senshi sure was a force of nature, he used the Force to let his light saber fly back into his hands. He struck down one of the last Dark Troopers, while around him the world seemed to entirely getting ripped apart by lighting and thunder and stopped in front of the gate to Phyncx's tower. It was sealed shut.
With a Mon Cal Carrier packed with the best squadrons of the Ninth Fleet, lead by their CO, a legendary snub jockey, a squadron of XJ-Wings with Jedi, the Grand Master of the Jedi Order with both his R2-Unit and XJ-Wing and a trio of corvettes whose gunners were more than eager to shoot down as many drones as they could, the will to victory came back to Taskforce Sol and within a few minutes a corridor to the planet, protected by the Starstruck and the Onyx Kataians was open and the Jade Sabre, flanked by Terra-Squadron and two EE-Wings lead a landing force of several drop- and gunships onto the planet.
The Voyager had rushed to Aesolian's surface by the first chance and now the quartet of two foster mothers, foster daughter and advanced artificial intelligence was clearing the surroundings of the expeditionary forces of Sol from enemy troops and vehicles.
Rei looked up as the Senshi of Death and Rebirth in the black and grey A-Wing of her former boyfriend, afterburners visible, flew another turn and headed for the next enemy vehicle to destroy.
Around her the brave troops of Crystal Tokyo, lead on the frontline by their King himself, using his Tuxedo La Smoking Bomber to actively engage the enemy positions around him as well, with Hulk spewing death from a machine gun on his left and Rudy, using a battle rifle to hit enemies point blank, to his right.
Next to Rei Yuichiro was helping a wounded soldier up and supported him on the way to the gathering place for the wounded where Doc Martens and others were already busy.
And then she felt it, Makoto. She looked back and in the dark night behind them, a huge thunderstorm had suddenly appeared and lighting was crashing down to Earth.
Sailor Pluto took a large breather, apart from using the barrier to guide Chibi Moon she had almost stopped time to get her friends and allies out, but Venus sudden transformation had not only saved all of them but also Pluto from sacrificing herself. Thank the gods she was still alive to save the man she loved.
When she looked up she saw the Neo Queen in the dark coming up to her.
Their gazes interlocked and a single nod from Sailor Moon was all that Sailor Pluto needed.
"Take care, Small Lady. I'll be back." She said softly and then kissed the girl's forehead before she jumped up and ran away.
"Puu?! Where are you going?!"
"She is following the direction of her heart." Chibiusa turned around to see her mother walking over to her, a knowing smile on her lips.
A few minutes later, Minako had checked on her Neo Queen and the princess.
"Thank you Minako. From the bottom of my heart."
Artemis was back in his human form and glanced at Luna and Diana, Luna was still consoling her kitten.
"Ah, you know how it is, Artemis. You save me, i save you. No biggie."
Nevertheless a hug followed and Artemis whispered "I'm so proud of you." into her ear.
"Cosmic Senshi." She shrugged. "Im not even the first."
"I always knew you had it in you, Mina-Chan."
Minako turned around to see Cosmic Sailor Mars walking up to her.
"Thank you, Rei."
Both friends shared a smile.
"What do you say we take poor-man's-samurai and follow Sailor Mom's example and save Makoto and Top Gun?"
"Sailor Mom? Where did Pluto go?"
With her head Mars pointed to the thunderstorm in the distance and as Minako looked at it, she tilted her head for a moment.
"Looks like I'm not the only one who's gone Cosmic."
"Yeah, I can feel it too."
What Rei didn't talk about was that she also was sensing SunTzu. And the immense rage inside him.
"Let's go?" She asked, hoping that they wouldn't come too late, no matter to save the other two or to stop SunTzu from doing something he or she or everyone would regret.
"After you, Senator Hotness."
Minako answered with a wink and Rei took a long breather before they went over to get Yuichiro.
While Makoto kept the base in check, SunTzu tried to open the gate into the tower.
There was no keypad and with every millisecond more anger and rage got into him, until he finally punched activated his light saber and drove it into the door. He tried to cut his way in but soon realized it wouldn't work.
He let out an animalistic howl, barely audible over the thunder.
Setsuna had run, faster than so in a very, very long time. Some distance she had crossed with long jumps into the sky.
She had briefly thought to teleport but that might had costed some strength that she could have needed. She was making way fast anyways, fear of loosing SunTzu, both his life and himself to the dark, urging her.
Pluto had sensed it, even back at their defensive position, SunTzu's rage. And deep down she had to admit she couldn't blame him.
And as bitter as it felt, she was glad that this meant he was still alive, just as Makoto was, having transformed to her Cosmic state as well, the thunderstorm above the now visible fortress being proof.
It didn't take long and she almost had reached the fortress, on her way a large explosion had rocked the fortress as well.
The lighting showed the surroundings of the night very well when they lighted up the sky and she noticed a hand of figures running away from the fortress, most of them wearing lab coats.
Immediately she understood, those were scientists, working for Phyncx and for Chaos, working on his weapons and traps. They were responsible for the death, injury and mutilation of dozens if not hundreds of individuals and not all of them soldiers of Taskforce Sol or the GFFA.
Per se they weren't combatants but Setsuna know first hand that those people were worse than a soldier ever could be, referring on scientific advance while finding ways to hurt people.
And after their escape, they would do so again, even if captured, Sailor Pluto knew how things were running and always had been. Probably the GA would even use them, just as she had seen doing governments on Earth before after conflicts with former enemy scientists. And these people also caused so much pain to the soldiers of the Taskforce, to Makoto, to Usagi and to SunTzu.
Her face and eyes were ice cold as she raised the Garnet Rod.
SunTzu was at the edge of madness, he wanted to get to Phyncx but this gate was in his way. Through the Force he even could feel Phyncx, the man was in real fear and it felt great to sense it.
SunTzu wished nothing more than to be there and for a moment something like light consumed everything around him and when then he somehow found himself in front of Phyncx, the General's mouth open and staring at him in disbelief.
"How did…"
The older man couldn't finish as a hard right immediately sent him falling to the ground.
SunTzu's anger consumed him, a yellow-red burning flame, all that mattered now was revenge, inducing the same pain he had felt because Phyncx on the man himself.
The Guardian of Guardians now understood that it had been his power, and his anger, manifested with the use of the Force which had teleported him here.
"Use your hate, use your anger. Give in to it, see where it brought you."
He knew that voice, way too well. It was his own.
No, it was the voice of the man that was him in this universe. It was the Herald of Chaos.
And what he said sounded damn tempting.
"With your power you can manipulate time. You can kill Phyncx and bring him back to the moment before and kill him again. Go on, go on and kill the man who has caused so much pain for you. And then kill him again and again, until your hunger for revenge is saturated."
One of the scientists had survived the Dead Scream Sailor Pluto had casted onto the fleeing group. She hated these men, they needed to pay for their deeds.
"Please don't, I am of use for your government. I can invent… NO! PLEASE!"
The Garnet Rod smashed the man's head in with just one blow.
And then she felt it, that sensation, way more than she usually did. He had crossed time and space and it hit her, this wasn't her anger alone, she felt his anger as well. His anger had become hers.
A moment later it happened, it almost made her throw up realizing what he just had done. SunTzu had stopped time.
Nobody was allowed to do so, nobody. And the punishment was death, with Sailor Pluto, Daughter of Chronos, being the executioner.
So this was how it felt, to have control over time, it felt so powerful. SunTzu had driven his blade through Phyncx's chest and killed the man but his hunger for revenge wasn't over. He had stopped time and was trying to find a way to turn it back and kill the man again, in a way more antagonizing way.
"Not allowed to fall you are!"
SunTzu had heard this voice before as well, back when he more or less had died on Pantolomin in what felt like ages ago but merely had happened a few months ago.
"Fight the dark, it is tempting but you cannot cross over."
This was that stern voice he had heard back then as well.
"Captain."
"SunTzu".
"Guardian of Guardians."
Lord Vader, Grandmaster Skywalker and that Sith Lord Darth Krayt.
"SunTzu…"
That had been Setsuna. There was anger, there was deep disappointment but most of all there was an immense surge of pain and grief in her call. Why would she be sad if she commanded such power anytime at her will?
And then it hit him.
"Do it! Turn back time and kill him again."
The voice of the Herald was much more quiet now and it faded out in the end, SunTzu also noticed that the other voices tried to reach him as well, but nothing mattered anymore, not revenge, not the Force, not to be death or to be alive, the sensation that he had caused the woman that he loved, with all his being, he had understood that now, so much pain and agony and this amount of anger, paralyzed him.
Gone was the rage, the anger, the need for revenge, what was left was the feeling of guilt. And the will to do anything to make things with her, the Demigoddess that had overtaken his heart, right.
He deactivated his lightsaber and dropped it to the floor before a panic attack took over, making him shake violently.