Chapter 280 - 22 Lunacy of Blue Suns

Jane smiled as she watched a makeshift joint operation. Her uncle's White Unicorn was at the front, followed by a bunch of Turian cruisers and frigates.

She brought another Battleship and two Carriers that her mother gave for support.

Regardless, a shuttle took her to her uncle's flagship, where one of the commanders of Unicorn Corp Marines greeted her.

"My Lord!" The girl saluted her commanding officer.

"At ease. I am Lieutenant Commander David Anderson; I have read your file. Your natural talent will serve us well. For now, we will gather data and then prepare a suit for you." He briefed her; it was short and to the point.

'I think the Unicorn Corp is so far the best choice.' The girl smiled internally; the Commander before her had completely ignored her surname, and that is just icing on the cake.

"Understood, my Lord."

"Good, then follow me."

The pair started walking towards the interior of the hangar; the red-haired girl's eyes ended up on the five machines that Turians maintain.

"...Are those…"

"Turian Raptor M-1. Based on, or more like inspired by, the Emperor's gifted Glasgow. It's their first venture into the mobile suit field.

I say it's not bad. However, it will take them a good decade to get anything decent." David explained as he looked at the slender machines stored next to Imperial Cataphract.

"Even with Prince's assistance?" Jane was surprised for a bit.

"That's why it's only a decade." David chuckled. "An excessive amount of combat data is needed to fine-tune even this one; only then can they work on it.

Even now, the Turian military-industrial complex and its companies are working full steam ahead on technologies based on the Empire's.

They are working on a beam rifle equivalent, then sakuradite joints, neural implants and neural interface, followed by AI developed based on Imperial AI Architecture." The Lieutenant Commander explained as they took a lift to higher levels.

"...Won't that lead to them catching up to us?" Jane looked worried.

"Not at all. In fact, it's what your grandfather wants."

The moment she heard her grandfather being mentioned, she deadpanned.

"Of course, what he wants. It's like his hand can cover all of the damn galaxy." The girl slightly complained.

"We exist to serve Anaheim; that includes you, Jane Anaheim."

"I leave that stuff to my grandfather and my aunts and uncles. Just give me a rifle and a suit."

"Good to know that Battle Empress granddaughter is ready to lay waste to the enemies of the Empire." David joked, making Jane deadpan at him as well.

"What you said."

The pair arrived on the floor that has military quarters; the Commander took her to the armoury and simulation.

To the girl's surprise, she found Turians practising in the sphere simulators.

'That is interesting!'

"Can I join them?" Jane smiled as she looked at the Commander.

"By all means." The man shrugged, like hell he could deny anything, except that he wanted to see how good this girl was.

Her record is mind-boggling when it comes to fighting, mobile suit piloting and Neural Interface interaction; she is natural at taking life. One could say, a real, naturally bred super soldier.

With that said, she strolled over and got into the simulation sphere. She realised that the simulation was based on Raptor M-1 data.

'Let's see how well the Turian Knightmare operates.'

The girl got transported into a battlefield. It was a world that she was not familiar with. Not that it mattered, as she was part of the attacking force.

It seemed the conditions of the battle were simple. Five, well, six now, knightmares are to take out a base from pirates that have beam-based weaponry.

Now, those are dangerous; in other words, the knightmares are not almighty and can be destroyed by regular weaponry.

All the Turian Knightmares have are kinetic barriers, but those are easily overwhelmed by excessive heat generated by the beam rifles.

So it's a truly deadly situation if they are not careful enough.

Jane joined them mid-operation as the enemy base was a makeshift warehouse building. Thankfully, Knightmares were designed with slash harkens, quite an old tech that is still widely used by Knightmares all across the Empire and now the Turian Hierarchy.

The mech climbed the walls and proceeded to roller-skate around on the roof and take out some blue-armoured guys that looked like Turian, Asari, and Imperials. They were using blue beam rifles.

'Huh, interesting, so these are the blue suns.'

Jane joined the fight, opening fire with her Turian rifle. It was an eezo-based weapon with fifty shots before it needed to cool down.

It was more than enough as she opened fire, surprising the Blue Suns and the team of five Turians.

~~~

"Proceed with the left flank!" Garrus instructed his boys as he enjoyed the Raptor quite a bit, rolling through the roof like he was on skates.

At first he was a bit nervous; roller skates, or ice skating, are not a Turian thing. In fact, their planet is warm, warm enough not to have ice caps. Those things only exist on tall mountains…sometimes. So, Turians and ice don't mix.

Thankfully, skating with a knightmare is different; balance isn't an issue, and the built-in computer support helps with it.

So they quickly adjusted and learned how to shoot while moving.

Before long, they were wrecking the blue suns, but then one of them got taken out. And the whole thing started to fall apart.

'They are ex-military, so they know a thing or two about tactics.' Garrus frowned as he tried not to stay in a single place.

Their kinetic barriers are useless against those eezo beam rifles; to counter that, they use high mobility. It works, but at the same time a single mistake will take them out. A single beam strike was enough to melt knightmare leg.

These guys were not targeting Knightmare hands or cockpits but legs. Clearly, they are well aware of how to fight knightmares.

But then a surprise attack followed as a new Raptor Knightmare joined the fight.

Surprising the blue suns and the turians.

"...Who?"

"Apologies, but you guys were having so much fun I nèeded to join the fun." A red-haired girl popped on the screen.

'She looks like an Imperial Teenager. What one of them is doing aboard a warship? Is she related to the Prince?'

For a second, Garrus wondered if she was Trajan's daughter, but then he recalled that the Prince doesn't have kids. So another Imperial royal?

"...Who are you?" Garrus asked, confused for a bit. Not just because they got interrupted; that stuff can happen on the battlefield, but the way she moved the Raptor, almost like dancing on ice with the machine, the legs would split up to dodge the beam before pulling back. The slash harken would launch and spin, creating a makeshift tornado with two lines.

Of course Garrus doesn't know, but Jane has a lot of uncles who are masters of mobile suit combat. Some of them even piloted knightmares, like Suzaku, who taught her how to wield a knightmare.

"Right, sorry about that. Got carried away; you can call me Jane… Shepard."

"Shepard? I see. Well, you have our thanks. Do you want to join the next deployment?" Garrus asked; he wanted to see more, maybe pick up a thing or two.

"Sure, sounds interesting. Besides, from what I understand, we can get deployed together in future." Jane replied; a small smile touched her lips. She was having fun; these machines were primitive, and the chance of getting hit made her excited. Danger can be like a drug for someone who has never been defeated.

~~~

The Asari could not contain what happened in Sanvos; in fact, it was not even called a raid but an invasion. Two fleets destroyed, garrison slaughtered, population abducted.

This incident makes Batarian raids look like a theme park visit in comparison.

So it spread through the galaxy like a viral disease. Everyone knew about Blue Suns.

"See, boys? We are famous now!" Vido, with two Asari in both hands, motioned with his chin at the huge holo TV where footage of their attack on Sanvos was shown.

Though there was nothing about them brainwashing Asari; that would be very bad for the all-woman race, and it would reach Imperial citizens who would get 'certain' ideas about them.

So that part was never mentioned.

"Not bad, right, my Mistress?" Vido winked at the Asari on his right. His new favourite, a Matriarch, those are very strong biotic user and the captain of the Dreadnought that he got his hands on.

"...You want me to praise you for killing thousands of my people?" The Matriarch still had her ego, but any further resistance was pointless, as he turned her into a puppet like his 'Squad' of Asari minions.

"No, don't be stupid. The praise should be at the fact that I needed only a few thousand to beat close to a hundred thousand." He rolled his eyes, dissapointed a bit.

"..."

"You can't try, but you can't hide your thoughts from me, Ishara." Vido's eyes had the lightning rushing around his pupils as he showed his Innovator nature.

"..."

"B-Boss! Check this out! It's everywhere on the news!" One of the Blue Sun's Commandos scrambled into the boss room.

Vido was about to complain, having fun with his Matriarch, but then he saw the news!

[A joint operation between Prince Trajan, the First Imperial Prince, the Turian Hierarchy, and the Asari Republics was announced by the Councillors Tevos and Sparatus.]

"This is a major day for the Citadel Species; the threat of Blue Suns can't be denied. They caused major damage to many favourite tourist destinations of Sanvos.

To fight this new threat, the Patriarch of Palaven and Asari from Thessia, with the help of the First Prince, will launch a joint operation to destroy the Blue Suns."

The announcer Asari spoke from her news studio, showing an image of the Blonde Prince shaking hands with Fedorian, the Palaven's Patriarch and an Asari Matriarch who placed her hand on their handshake.

Behind them there were rows of Turian soldiers, and behind them were—

"Bloody fucking Unicorns! Fuck! Damn! To think they will bother to send literal Elites! What is this!?" Vido jumped out of his seat as he began to pace back and forth, biting his thumb's nail.

"Umm…boss…" The Blue Sun's trooper looked pale.

"Don't boss me, damn it! Tell everyone we are leaving! We are leaving Asari space! Fuck this!"

Ishara had never seen this guy this terrified before.

"Why would the Empire deploy the Emperor's finest outside Imperial space?" One of the Imperials said with a pale expression; forget about the Alien pussy he was terrified for his life!

"It's not that! This is a joint operation between Prince Trajan and the other two races. These sluts were able to persuade that Prince to stop playing with mechs and instead assist them." Vido explained, forehead sweaty; then he looked at Ishara.

"Not bad, you ladies are that good. Congratulations, you made a man who married his Gundam to assist you. Talk about divine 'assets'." The Leader of Blue Suns said 'assets' with heavy sarcasm.

"There is more to us than our bodies, Vido— Aghh!!!" Ishara grabbed her head as she felt like a nail was getting hammered into her skull.

"Not the right word, sweetheart."

"M-Master…" After calling him by his new title. Which is, Master of Asari; his new girls were made to call him 'Master'.

"That's my girl!" The Imperial Renegade praised her as he stopped the torment; then he looked at his boys.

"Pack your things; we are leaving this small colony. Our next destination is Attican Traverse; let's dominate that place before we return for Thessia."

"As you wish, Boss!" The troopers' morale recovered a bit.

The boys calmed down as they began gathering supplies for their trip; unlike Imperial logistics, they needed to gather food and other stuff.

~~~

"It's not hard to follow these morons." Trajan was looking through the Athena Nebula, the home cluster of the Asari. Unlike Batarians, Asari expanded considerably around their home star.

Because of that, it's not hard to track these morons who pillage their way through this nebula.

"We will split into two groups. One will guard the Mass Relay that leads outside of the Athena Nebula, while the other group will be pursuing them through the Asari space."

The Blonde Prince explained his plan to the gathered Turians, Asari and his retinue.

"There are several routes that they can take. They will either try to run away, which leads to encountering the fleet stationed at the mass relay.

Or they can try to hide. However, it doesn't change the fact that they are cornered, and we can stay here for a very long time.

It's only a matter of time until they will surface and try to leave via the mass relay."

"I do hope that we can in some way save the people that they have kidnapped?" One of the Asari asked with a hopeful tone.

"We can try. My marines are trained for boarding ship battles." Trajan nodded at the request. His marines have regular armours for boarding ships, not just the unicorn power armours.

"Wonderful, we will assist in any way we can."

"Take your time, ladies. I am well aware that these barbarians took out two fleets. It will take time for you to recover the lost numbers." The Prince reassured them. He was in no hurry to request their aid. He has more than enough troops and ships to face these renegades.

"Our thanks, Your Highness, but don't underestimate the Asari."

"I won't. I believe that our numbers are more than enough to face these pirates or mercenaries or whatever they call themselves." The blonde Prince scoffed as he didn't have a high opinion of his Vido Santiago.

He read his file and everything he'd achieved. The man lost control in front of a beautiful woman. That is what a reject looks like.

"Understood."

"Good, then let's split up."

Trajan split his retinues in half. He had extra that arrived with Jane.

He left a battleship, one marine carrier and one regular carrier with half of the Turian fleet.

The other half was his White Unicorn flagship, a marine carrier and regular mobile suit carrier with Turians and whatever Asari could muster at a moment's notice.

The all-women race got more patrols in the Athena Nebula than ever before.

They were here to help Trajan find these criminals trying to pillage even more. But that was a mistake, as the Prince knew where he had to go from the very beginning.

He simply followed the reports and used the Star charts.

Before long, there was an Asari colony right before them.

And a makeshift fleet that was ready to run away.

"My Prince!" Trajan's second-in-command noticed the fleet; they were ready for battle.

"I know. Let them run." The blonde Prince leisurely motioned to let them be.

"Understood."

"Let them think that they have the upper hand. Let these common men think that they are smarter than the Anaheim Royal family." Trajan sarcastically commented as he watched the stolen Turian and Asari ships use their FTL to leave the system.

"Now let's follow them and lead to the Mass Relay."

Their fleet turned around and followed after the running pirates.

~~~

Jane grabbed her beam rifle and extra synthetic-ELS protection that morphed into thicker armour pieces, becoming marine-style armour.

"Nice. Let's do this, boys!" She exclaimed happily as she looked at her team. Her team was the Turian group that was assigned to the White Unicorn.

The red-haired girl asked her uncle why it was so specific; all she got from him was that her grandfather himself had instructed this assignment, which confused her a bit.

Still, she will learn a bit more about how the Turian military works, and that is interesting enough.

"Nice. I wasn't expecting beam tech on first deployment," Garrus commented as he inspected the rifle.

"That's because it could be the first and last deployment of this joint operation. So why not?" Jane casually replied as she moved towards the pod.

"We will use marine drop pods which will be launched into the ships. They are designed to pierce through and then stick in until needed for pressure purposes." The Emperor's granddaughter explained.

"Were these used in the Batarian Conquest? I saw the vids, damn." One of the Turians commented.

"Yes. This is the very same ship that did it." She confirmed that.

"Even better. No pressure." Another one said with a nervous tone. They are not even twenty years old but already doing this.

"Calm yourself."

"Indeed, just be yourself." Jane smiled a bit as, a moment later, comms blared through the whole deck.

"Marines! Into your pods!"

"Marines! Into your pods!"

"Marines! Into your pods!"

"That's our queue." The red-haired girl said in an excited tone as the pods opened and she got in. Others followed, getting into their assigned slots.

Once inside, the hatches sealed and holograms powered up, showing the situation and what they would be doing. Trajan himself was explaining, which hyped the marines even more.

"We will position from above before launching the pods into the stolen Asari Dreadnought. Your objective is very simple.

Get rid of the so-called Blue Suns and free the brainwashed Asari."

The Prince showed the hologram projection of the attack.

"Remember, if you face the Asari, as they can be forced to fight, try taking out the commanding Imperial. As they can be using Quantum Brainwaves to control them as puppets." After explaining the details, Trajan wished them good luck.

"Now take care and good luck, for the Empire."

"For the Empire!"

The Turians felt goosebumps; they almost said that. But then they remembered they were only guests on this deployment.

'These guys have zeal.' Garrus nodded as he took a deep breath before closing his eyes for a second, mentally getting ready for a firefight.

Which never came.

~~~

The fleet at the Mass Relay was waiting patiently for the incoming pirate ships, which arrived in just a couple of minutes.

"Get ready for their last stand! Mobile suits and marines into your positions!" The captain of the Excalibur-Class Battleship started to turn to its broadside for maximum damage.

But at that moment something odd was happening.

"Captain! Their ships are accelerating!"

Turian captain popped up on the screen; he looked worried.

At that moment he realised what was happening!

"Those lunatics are preparing for ramming! Mobile suits, launch! Launch all! Followed by Turian and Asari fighters, take out their engines!

Prepare anti-gravity loads!" The captain barked orders, but he realised that the turian and Asari ships don't have those.

"Do whatever you can to decelerate those ships! They could be full of Asari!"

The Turians and Asari captain and their crew realised that! Making them frown and start sweating! This was bad news!

Though what happened next made everyone speechless as the ships blew up!

One ship, two, three one after another, they were made to self-destruct.

Then… the Dreadnought exited FTL and moved forward at ramming speed.

'Shit! Shit! Shit!'

"Blow it up before it reaches us! If that thing rams, it could damage the mass relay!" the captain exclaimed in horror. If the mass relay blows up, it will be like a supernova! It will take the whole solar system with it! That's how much power these relays have.

Sure enough, a huge amount of projectiles rushed at the stolen Asari Dreadnought. Causing its kinetic barriers to drop and then blow up.

The captain sighed in relief; this was a close call. But then more ships followed, making them react once more.

However, moments later three Turian frigates exited FTL from the side and moved towards the relay point.

As the fleet dealt with more suicidal ships, these frigates passed through, got boosted by the relays, and escaped the cluster.

The Imperials, Asari and the Turians were speechless. What they just experienced was pure madness—sacrificing all those ships.

"What did the scanner show? Did those ships have people on board?" The captain sighed as he saluted the blown-up ships and possibly civilians that were on board them.

[They had a minimal amount of crew that was needed to operate the ships. I do not know if they were brainwashed Asari or someone else.] Legion explained, and the AI sounded sad as well.

"Damn them all. Notify the prince. Tell him the Blue Suns have escaped." The captain looked pissed and annoyed at how this had ended.

~~~

"..." Trajan stayed silent as he was listening to the reports from Asari, Turian and his fleet. What he was hearing was pure madness.

'Vido Santiago, you are one piece of a son of a bitch.'

"...Enough."

The very next second, all the reports stopped as he massaged his forehead; he was getting a migraine.

"Do we have leads?" The Prince asked.

"The fleet in Serpent Nebula reported that three Turian vessels arrived and then rushed towards the Relay that leads to Minos Wasteland." Asari captain explained, asking the Turian captain to join, as he has more intel that this cluster is more or less Turian.

"It's a cluster that is mostly Turian-controlled. However, it's far less explored and is considered Outer Citadel Space.

If we are not careful, they will escape further, like Ismir Frontier or Crescent Nebula; those are Attican Traverse."

Trajan leaned into his throne and massaged his temples. This just went from good to bad and then to rock bottom.

"Proceed to chase and scout. I need to make a call." With that said, the call ended with the captains of his joint-operation fleet.

There is one thing Trajan hates more than anything: unfinished projects. This joint operation is a project, a project that he will finish even if it means borrowing a massive fleet.

'You might have escaped the Asari space, you son of a bitch, but this is where I don't need to bother holding back the numbers!'

With that said, he got up and walked out from the bridge to the back and then to the long-distance comm room, where he sat in another Throne.

"Contact my father." Trajan requested while closing his eyes and gathering his thoughts.

[Building a safe network, contacting His Majesty the Emperor]

Trajan didn't like this, but he had a deal with his father. He gave him a squad of his Unicorn Corps; in fact, the Unicorn Corps is tightly connected with G-Force and A.S.P.

In turn, when needed, Trajan can borrow a chunk of his father's fleet when need be; in a sense, he has priority, as they have a deal.

[Connecting…]

Eventually, a hologram of his father in explorer gear manifested before him.

"That's new. You rarely call, son." Marcus looked surprised at his eldest son.

"..."

The blonde Prince sighed as he was a bit annoyed that he needed to do this.

"How is your joint operation? I am impressed that you are our top diplomat now, with all of your actions." Marcus chuckled as he realised that after checking all of the reports.

His eldest son did more than his wife, who is responsible for diplomacy!

"I wouldn't call you if it wasn't urgent. Honestly, I am so pissed off that I am thinking of using my Hephaestion." Trajan complained as he rubbed his eyes.

"...Your Jaeger? That is serious then. What did these Blue Suns do?" Marcus looked surprised to hear that.

"Those bastards loaded ships with people and sent them into our ships; midway, they were made to blow up.

Thankfully, our vessels began to shoot before they could manage to blow up the mass relay and the solar system with it." Just talking about that annoyed the Prince.

"... That's some desperation. Though, it makes sense. This… Vido Santiago is an Imperial. I would be more dissapointed that he gave up, or collapsed under stress." The Emperor praised the enemy, making Trajan grimace.

"Father! Ugh! Now this bastard is loose! In Attican Traverse no less!" The Blonde Prince didn't like the fact that Marcus was praising this renegade.

"Bah. Attican Traverse on the west side of the galaxy is small compared to what we have here." Marcus snorted for a second before getting serious.

"But yes. He brought shame to our kin. He will be brought to Imperial justice. Let me guess, you want to borrow the World of Anaheim fleet?"

"Yes. The portion that you borrowed for my sister should be back by now?" Trajan reasoned after recalling how fleets are spread out.

"Yes, Rannoch is secured and is getting integrated as we speak. The Coloniser and Explorer are in close vicinity; there was no need for excess firepower."

"With two motherships in close vicinity, no kidding." Trajan snorted. That is too much. But at the same time, he was baffled to know how rapidly the Empire is expanding.

Far Rim and that section of the galaxy… It's basically on the other half of the Milky Way from the Empire's homeworld.

"It is what it is. Regardless, you can have those ships. Though do remember that you have other things to do." Marcus gave him the ships that he wanted, but reminded him that he still had a duty to the Empire.

Diplomatic relationships and all that are secondary when it comes to securing the Empire's borders.

"Well aware, father. I will see you soon." With that said, the call ended, and Trajan leaned into his throne, looked at the ceiling of his ship and groaned.

Now that he had called his father. His father will call Leila at some point, and in turn she will call him. Now that will lead to a shit storm.

His mother can be such a huge annoyance.

Reminding him of Mei and Marina's parenting, father calls them 'Asian mothers', though he has no idea what that is supposed to mean.

What does the Ancient continent of his homeworld have to do with anything?

With that said, he left the long-range comm room and walked back to the front bridge.

"My Prince, how was the meeting with His Majesty?" His Second-in-Command asked.

"Well, it went decently. I got my ships and got reminded that I am Prince of the Empire." Trajan joked as he sat down on his throne.

"Anyway, send the report to the council; let them know Blue Suns are gone from Asari space."

"As you wish."

"Don't hide anything. Let them know that Blue Suns are not gone." The Prince instructed in a serious tone.

"Yes, of course."

"Oh, and tell the Shadows to deploy." The Blonde Prince narrowed his eyes. He won't be playing nice anymore!

The second-in-command sharply nodded when he heard that. He walked over to the comms officer and gave the order. The officer paled for a second but understood, and then contacted some shadowy people.

Moments later, a small corvette that was just under White Unicorn started to move; this ship was invisible the whole time. The Turians or Asari never saw it or when it joined the fleet.

Sure enough, they never saw it move, as it disappeared the same way they appeared.

The corvette left the Athena Nebula and moved towards Minos Wasteland.

~~~

Meanwhile, the remaining three Turian Frigates that escaped the blockade were carrying Vido and his gang.

"Hahahaha! We escaped the Empire! I call it fucking victory, boys!" The Boss of Blue Suns was hugging his Asari.

Though the Matriarch could tell that the guy was trembling, he was terrified, shitless.

"...But we lost nearly 90% of our Minions."

Turians are the bulk of their cannon fodder; they need those if they want to return to Athena Nebula and invade Thessia.

"I know; that is why we're going to Invictus. It's a Turian colony with a decent amount of population, enough to gather new assets." Vido said with a smirk, but then he got serious.

"We can't stay here for long. Those bastards won't be long.

Vido wasn't wrong. The moment the Blue Suns arrived and began boarding Turian vessels to add them to their fleet, the invisible corvette arrived, and three small, fighter-like planes left this ship.

These were not simple planes but Knightmares that can transform. Shadows are the only ones that use these, as these machines have a very specific purpose, just like the Shadows themselves.

The knightmares rushed towards the Blue Suns' vessels and dropped the Shadows onto the stolen turian vessels' hulls.

The invisible Imperial suits reacted as their boots stuck to the hull, and they started walking toward a hatch.

Three vessels, three shadows, so one shadow per ship; their task is very simple: eliminate Vido, who brought shame to the Imperial name.

After walking for a bit, they found emergency hatches and used those to enter ships that, at the moment, are on high alert. They boarded other ships with the help of the virus they developed.

These criminals are using the moment, as the Turians or Asari still don't have countermeasures for this virus. But it won't be long, as it's not that complex and not AI-boosted

Regardless, it's good enough for them.

"Huh? Who the… fuuuuuck." A Blue Sun trooper got spaced as the hatch opened, but no one saw who entered the ship.

"Hmm? Jay? Are you fucking stupid? Why did you open the hatch?" Another Blue Sun trooper walked over; he was baffled to hear the emergency hatch open!

But when he got in the room, it was empty; his buddy was gone.

"Did that retard space himself?" The trooper looked confused, but the next moment—

"Ugh?"

Pain washed over him as he looked down and saw a pink beam sticking out from his chest.

"...What…the…" Without even knowing why or who, the trooper died on the spot.

After removing two traitorous Imperials, the shadow moved on to look for the fool who brought embarrassment to his fellow kin.

~~~

More Chapters (Book Three Chapter 32 [50k words] is up!)

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