"Hey, next to that Mediator… that's the Errant Venture!"
"And that Impstar on our left is the Elegos A'kla!
"It's like the Avengers of the bloody Galactic Alliance!"
"Oida! They even have one of those new Galactic-Class-Carriers here!"
"That's actually the Dodonna. I've been stationed at her with Master Horn a few months ago. A splendid warship."
As the Royal Shuttle, filled with the Neo-Queen, her spouse and the non-flying Senshi made it's way through the fleet, the four starfighters of Alask, SunTzu and the three Senshi escorted it, with the pilots marveling about the size and quality of the assembled capital ships. Nebula-Class and Republic Star Defenders, Star Destroyers, Rejuvenators, Proficients, KDY and various MonCal Cruisers, a mixed fleet of CEC Designs straight from the Five Worlds and dozen of Frigates, Corvettes and other ships.
All in all there were over sixty warships assembled here, but everybody knew that the enemy had way more ships available at Fondor than assembled here. The High Command of the Alliance's Navy had thus emphasized on Carrier Groups and squadrons of starfighters to bring the fight to the enemy capital ships and take them out before the own capital ships could get overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
As the small formation landed in one of the multiple hangars on the massive blue Starfigher Carrier, SunTzu could sense that there were far more Jedi involved in this mission than just Master Cilghal, who had traveled inside the Royal Shuttle as well, Alask and him.
When the Royals, the Galactic Senator and Rear Admiral Artemis, escorted by Sailor Venus and Sailor Uranus, met with Fleet Admiral Ackbar, they were also joined by Master Cilghal and the number two of the New Jedi Order Grandmaster Saba Sebatyne.
As his leadership was welcomed by the Leadership of the fleet they were assigned too, SunTzu found himself in the hangar. He was taking a look at a B-Wing in the powerful strategic bomber variant. Soon he came into conversation with the pilot of the bomber, a pilot of the famous and long-standing Nova-Squadron, shortly after joined by more pilots including some Jedi.
Among them also were the members of the Wild Knights, an unconventional starfighter squadron formed of Jedi Knights, under the command of Master Sebatyne.
From her son, Tesar, SunTzu learned more about the composition of the fleet, apparently Vader and the rest of the troops in the northern half of the Galaxy had put so much pressure on the enemy that Coruscant had even been willing to let it's shiniest toys participate in the mission to liberate Fondor. Not only was the Dodonna here but it also carried a full squadron of the new ETA-5 Interceptors, the successor to the Clone Wars's ETA-2 and also the A-Wing. SunTzu couldn't wait to see them in action and test if they could beat AICA.
One hour later the five starships were on their way back to the Eternal and the pilots recognized that some more ships had joined the Fleet. An old Venator-class Star Destroyer, escorted by two MandalMotors Crusader-class Corvettes, had taken position close to the group of the fleet that Taskforce Sol formed, with the Pride of Kataia and the Far Side next to each other and behind the Eternal, with Sol's two Star Galleons and the Starstruck in between the larger ships.
Her face had the usual stoic look on it as Lieutenant Colonel Dr. Setsuna Meiou followed the briefing, executed by King Endymion and Artemis.
Knewing that the man you loved was the key to win this war and had to do his part was the one thing, but your soulmate doing a recon mission on one of the most fortified enemy planets, alone and without any chance of backup if things would go down south, was something different. Especially given his shit eating grin of superiority as he had heard the plan, getting told that he and AICA were the only ones able to do that mission sure fed his ego. She sighed internally, this time Haruka and Michiru wouldn't be around to help him. Or to make him think about doing something stupid.
In that moment Alask and Hotaru both held up their hands.
"We volunteer to join the Major."
"Denied!"
"Denied!"
Both Setsuna and SunTzu yelled out simultaneously and Artemis motioned to the two of them, determined and severe look on their face, as he looked at Hotaru and Alask.
"AICA and me go alone." SunTzu stated and Artemis nodded at each other. Hotaru didn't say anything more, exactly what she had expected, but well, it had been worth a try.
SunTzu suddenly could feel Setsuna's hand around his and she leaned in slightly.
"Be careful out there." She whispered and gently squeezed his hand.
"As long as you're waiting here, I'll always come back." He whispered back.
Next to them Haruka rolled her eyes only to be met with an angry stare from Michiru.
"Last chance."
"I'm telling you again, go back to the pilots' room and standby."
"Ugh, fine. But you know how good my eyes are."
"Almost as fine as AICA's sensors. Almost."
SunTzu watched with a smile and shook his head while Hotaru moved away from AICA. After not being allowed to fly alongside SunTzu she had then asked to fly along on the backseat of AICA. SunTzu very well knew how dangerous his mission was, so of course he had again declined her request.
His smile soon made way for a busy look on his face.
He felt honored to be chosen, and he knew, only he and AICA were fit for this mission, a pre-attack-reconnaissance-run in the Fondor System, but he also knew that he had to be fully concentrated on this mission. AICA would drop out right next to an asteroid field in full stealth mode and then fly through the field to get into range that AICA's optical and passive sensors could pick up the enemy fleet's strength. All this while SunTzu also had to concentrate himself enough in the Force to shadow his presence if Abeloth was still on Fondor.
"We're ready." AICA announced a few moments later and SunTzu nodded, as he pressed the button to close the canopy. After the canopy was closed SunTzu pulled out his mobile phone from his pilot suit. A last look at his screensaver, a picture of him and Setsuna, embracing each other in front of a bed of flowers in the Courtyard. Hotaru had taken the picture of the two of them a few weeks ago.
"Bis gleich." He said with a low voice and then turned off his phone and put it back into his flight suit. He took a deep breather before he looked into the cockpit's mirrors, it seemed that everything was clear and he looked to the front, at his two, a few meters away, were Karlena and two of her mechanics.
SunTzu, activated the engines, saluted the three individuals and the three of them saluted back.
Within twenty seconds AICA was out of the hangar.
SunTzu's mouth was dry and the usual fresh, climatized air in AICA had somewhat become muggy since ever he had dropped out of Hyperspace.
Them dropping out of Hyperspace had been a piece of art, with AICA once again proving her skills, capabilities and programming as well learning. They had fallen into Realspace not even fifty meters away from the first of the rocks of the asteroid field in which they would sneak towards the planet. The tiniest of miscalculations had meant an untimely end for both of them but AICA had found an entry point even closer to the asteroid field than it had been ordered, minimizing their chance of detection. Flying in such complete stealth also meant that SunTzu had to minimize the shield activity to not radiate energy emissions.
Slowly, face showing the toll of both concentrating in the Force to not get detected plus concentrating on not dying because of crashing in an asteroid, he steered AICA towards Fondor and it's orbital shipyards. He was sweating under his pilot helmet and flight suit but so far it seemed they had not been detected, neither by the enemy ships nor by the deadly Force Deity which could wait in this system.
As they had moved through most of the asteroid field the AI and her pilot could soon spot the first enemy ships.
"Shit… that's a whole lotta firepower." SunTzu cursed as he saw a group of Victory-, Procursator-, Imperial- and Tector-Class Star Destroyers posted around a larger Allegiance-Class Star Destroyer. He quickly counted and made out the formation to be thirteen ships strong. This fleet alone could wreck havoc in most systems in the Galaxy, even the better defended ones but SunTzu's sweating got worse, and the sweat on his back cold, when his eyes wandered over to the orbital shipyards, a few ten thousand kilometers away from the planet. Next to an Altor-Class Replenishment Ship, a huge 4,6 km long Fleet Tender was an even bigger Assertor-Class Super Star Destroyer, swarmed by smaller ships up to ISDs.
Fondor might had lost its Golan Stations but the defense of the planet was even stronger than when the planet was in the hands of the GA and guarded by Bel Iblis's fleet.
SunTzu swallowed hard to moisturize his dry throat, it was pretty much known that the enemy would have had a shit ton of powerful capital ships over Fondor and therefore the GA was trying to hit hard with the offensive going out from starfighters but it wasn't that this amount of capital ships didn't have thousands of starfighters as well. Not to mention the docked and partly mothballed 2nd Reserve Fleet on the side of the planet facing away from SunTzu, with all the Daimons under the command of Chaos the enemy would have made use of them as well.
So far this mission had proven that the enemy had the superior quantity of capital ships over Fondor, SunTzu's mission, although he couldn't find a way to safely round the planet. He was almost ready to carefully leave the asteroid field again and jump back.
And then something catched SunTzu's eye. AICA, who had her optical sensors on maximum zoom, showed him an image of the fleet around the Altor and the Assertor, but a few kilometers in the back, the dockyards began and it seemed that several ships back there weren't part of the fleet in the front but rather guarding something specific there.
SunTzu moved the camera, it was a touchscreen and tried to focus on the ships and dockyard in the back, if only he could zoom in a bit more.
"Any guess what these ships are guarding?" It took a moment as AICA processed the data.
"Nope. If the ships are guarding it in between them it's a few hundred meters big."
"Then it's at least no SSD. But for something rather small it's pretty heavily guarded."
"I'll put that into our report."
"Hm… you had any signs of ships of the Reserve Fleet?"
"That's a nope as well." And then after a moment AICA came in again. "I know what you're thinking. But if I put my sensors on active we'll light up on their sensors like a christmas tree."
"Which means, if we're about to do something stupid, we should go full stupid." SunTzu replied while his eyes were glued at the shipyard.
"SunTzu, you are aware that there's an DSD in that Allegiance's fleet group."
"Which apparently isn't working right now. How long do we have?"
"Sixty, maybe ninety seconds."
"AICA, as soon as I accelerate I want you to put as much power as possible in the engines."
"You're aware that we're needed in combat pretty soon again? The whole chain of command will rip you a new one if you burn out my engines. And Karlena and the ground crew will be straight up following."
"Alright, my new found voice of reason. Give as much energy on the thrusters as it's possible without risking to blow them out, we're still going to be faster than anybody else out here."
"I hope so…" SunTzu was already accelerating and heading straight for the end of the asteroid field when AICA replied. "So much for a warmup." She commented as she diverted most of her energy in her thrusters and most of the rest into her shields and sensors.
And within seconds the enemy fleet activated their systems as well, target computers tracking and trying to lock in on AICA and SunTzu, combat alert blaring through ships and space stations, fighter pilots being called to their fighters.
And SunTzu headed straight towards the enemy.
An alarm was ringing inside the cockpit and warning lights were flashing but SunTzu paid them no mind, all they had now was speed and unless they had an exact copy of the Millennium Falcon.
SunTzu rushed past the first four Tie-Interceptors which had been on patrol and rushed past the fleet group around the Allegiance-Class.
Laser-, Ion-Cannon- and Turbolaser-fire whooshed past the A-Wing, SunTzu was profoundly sweating but fortunately he was too busy concentrating on not getting shot down and getting closer to the shipyards, to think about that he wasn't concentrating to mask his presence in the Force anymore.
"Twenty seconds." AICA warned, at least her artificial female voice was calm. "And I'm getting readings from the docks of the Reserve Fleet."
"They're still there?" SunTzu asked through gritted teeth as he barely dodged half a squadron of TIE-Droids flying at him in formation.
"Afraid not."
SunTzu swallowed the "Great" he was about to say down with a half-gasp as an ion-shot came so close it reflected on the cockpit canopy.
Just a few kilometers more…
"We're ready to jump, just let me know."
SunTzu began to form a ferocious grin, she was the best but not yet. While behind and around them most of the ships in the system tried somehow to intercept them and dozens of Starfighters were rushing in behind them, and also from the dockyards and even the reserve shipyard, SunTzu wanted to find out what was being built in such secrecy over Fondor.
AICA had become speed, the flames on her engine visible for dozens of kilometers in space and they passed ship after ship, miraculously not getting shot down although space was filled with almost everything the enemy could shoot at them including homing missiles as they moved past the tanker and the fleet around it.
If it wouldn't have been for AICA being able to take care of countermeasures on her own and SunTzu's flying skills they would have been reduced to atoms already.
"Ten seconds."
AICA announced and while a few meters behind them a concussion missile exploded after having been distracted by one of AICA's countermeasure drones.
Almost there…
SunTzu already moved his head to get a glimpse at the dockyard but he couldn't get a clear view yet. Meanwhile a VSD-2 which was guarding the suspicious dock as the most outlying ship rotated its turrets to shoot at AICA.
"Five!"
And then SunTzu finally got a glimpse of what was there. It was a giant robot, probably one of the Renegade Units he had seen while fighting alongside the Star Sheriffs and the Sixth Fleet, but this one was way bigger.
But SunTzu only had two seconds to take a look at it before everything around him went blue and white and AICA jumped into Hyperspace, three seconds before the minute was over, a double turbolaser shot from the Victory hitting the exact place in space where they had been just the blink of an eye before. And five seconds later the Dominator Star Destoyer's Gravity Well Generators, which was stationed in the System, sprung to life and prohibited every ship in proximity to Fondor to jump to Hyperspace.
"Wooohhh! Did you see that! Who has the fastest ship in the universe? Fick dich Chaos! Und fick dich Abeloth!"
SunTzu yelled out the adrenaline as they dropped out of Hyperspace a few dozen kilometers away from their own fleet. AICA already was transferring the data she had stored on the reconnaissance mission.
And then he added more quiet and composed. "Now, let's never say a word to Setsuna about this and how close it was. Can we do that?"
"And here I thought your will to survive stopped working… I'll stay silent." AICA didn't mention that whoever would watch the recordings and scan data of the mission would very much see how close to dying they just had come, but SunTzu had a high and she didn't want to blow it.
"Awesome… now put some music on."
Two minutes later, SunTzu was giddily singing in the cockpit, AICA had joined him, but now had stopped the music.
"We got the Admiral on the radio." She announced and cut the music.
SunTzu fell quiet, straightened up and cleared his voice.
"Put him through."
In a moment the holographic portrait of the MonCalamarian became visible at the front of the cockpit.
"Admiral Ackbar, Sir!" SunTzu greeted the Fleet Officer.
"Outstanding job, Major. We have more data than we had hoped for. You very likely saved some lives with your close reconnaissance. Although i see it was risky." His words sounded nasal, as it was typical for MonCalamarians.
"I couldn't have done it without my ship, Sir."
"Ah yes, the AI-controlled A-Wing. Good job as well."
"Thank you Admiral."
"I have been informed that you even delivered data of what seems to be a secret project of the enemy. Our experts are already on it. We will strike soon, so for now get back to your mothership and be ready to deploy in short notice again."
"Aye Aye, Admiral." Ackbar's face disappeared as the Eternal came into view in the distance.
"Good, I need to stretch out after this. And remember AICA, no word to Setsuna. And now… put the music back on! Die Module spielen verrückt,…"
"…Mensch, ich bin total verliebt!"
"C'mon, spill the tea!"
"Haruka, Mate, you wouldn't believe it. And now excuse me I really need to get a shower."
"What? Fuck off, bloody will ya. What's waiting there for us? Was enough to do it on a solo effort, at least tell me what you saw!"
SunTzu sighed and stopped on his way out the hangar to turn around to his best friend, a step behind him.
"Apart from a huge armada of ships they're building what seems to be a larger Renegade-Unit. AICA has all the data. And I'm pretty sure our blue-haired super genius is already over them as well. And now excuse me."
Haruka didn't say anything more as she headed straight for AICA.
SunTzu had just come out of the shower, a towel around his waist and using another to dry his hair, thinking about if either a nap now or food first would be the best option. Given the size of the fleet here and the state of things, he probably only had two, maybe three hours, left before they would attack the enemy. That Renegade-Unit had looked rather close to being finished, so SunTzu had no problem with attacking as soon as possible. But before that he had to make sure that he had taken care of his basic needs. And he needed to have a last briefing with Alask. And on top of that he needed to get a good luck kiss from the goddess his girlfriend was.
Suddenly the door to his quarters opened and Setsuna entered, closing the door behind her. At least one thing had just gotten taken care of, SunTzu thought and then he saw the stoic look on Setsuna's face, eyes piercing right into him, as she mustered him.
With a mix of joy and being amazed with the goddess sitting across of him, SunTzu observed Setsuna stealing fries from his plate.
"What?" She asked innocently after letting another French fry disappear in her mouth, proceeding to lick her fingertips to get off the salt of the fry.
She just had fucked him as if she would hate him but SunTzu couldn't help to just think about that he never ever, not even if he was the Ruler of Earth himself in the Universe he was coming from, would find a woman matching up to her. Or maybe right now just because she had fucked him in anger-fueled passion because of his dangerous action in the recon mission before.
"Did you learn your lesson?"
A smile appearing on his lips as he thought about it another time that sometimes it really seemed she could read his mind.
And then she suddenly straightened up.
"Are you rested enough for the battle?"
With a warm smile her partner nodded.
"You should get some more rest as well. I'm pretty sure as soon as we step foot on Fondor work won't stop for you."
"If… we have survivors on Fondor I'll gladly be in the medbay nonstop for the next few days."
He fell silent and nodded once more.
"All personnel report to your stations within fifteen minutes." A voice suddenly came in over the Eternal's intercom, making Setsuna and SunTzu exchange a look, quickly followed by her grabbing another fry from his plate, quickly as lighting.
"Better hurry."
SunTzu smiled at Setsuna, which was followed by her smiling at him. Fondor might be the biggest battle of the Shadow War yet but he knew he had someone to come back too. And he damn sure would do everything to do so in the upcoming battle.