the Ace's mission

Years in the future, across the stars, a single star ship heads to its destination. Traveling faster than light, it’s headed for a planet in the distance. The star ship is not on a peaceful mission unfortunately. War has stretched across the stars, as several planets have attacked others. The crew of this ship is from earth, with a logo on the side.

The sleek ship was designed to look similar to a stealth bomber of old. The slight change in design allowed it to be much bigger than normal. Being ten times the size of a normal craft, the crew had plenty of room to move around. Inside, besides the standar captain and other necessary personnel, a team of five prepare for combat.

This team has been trained in both fighter craft, and land combat. The first person, the captain of the team, is a male, mid height, and bald. Within the locker room he looks at his crew getting ready with strong eyes. Checking on each person, he watches them close to make sure each one is ready for combat.

The first soldier is their ace, Tanya. She has earned more medals than any other crew here. As she laces up her boots, her mid length black hair, tied in a ponytail, rests behind her. Their uniforms were all black, with a blue trim along the sleeves and button line.

The second person is the ace’s wingman. In this case, wingwoman would fit better, her name was Sarah. Both of them have become the best set of pilots this ship has seen. They have protected each other from various hazards since before they became pilots. She places a hand on Tanya’s shoulder, and give a thumbs up with her other hand. Her short blond hair only goes down to her shoulders.

“Hey!” the third pilot, Daniel, shouts. He stands taller than the others, with his black hair cut extremely short. “If you two are ready, why not get the preflight inspection done?” he chuckles, as his comment was only a joke.

Tanya responds “hey, you’re the one that fell asleep last inspection. Why don’t you pick up the slack and do our job too?” she jokes back. The captain smiles, knowing this was normal amongst the team.

As the final member, Kyle, tightens his boots, he glares over at the others. He may be shorter than the others, but that never gave him trouble. He wasn’t as good a pilot, but he made up for it by having a good pair of eyes. He was the one that would find their targets, even when cloaked.

As they all finish their last preparations, a voice calls over the intercom. “ETA in ten minutes. You guys should get your final preparations ready.'' At the word, all five pilots get in line, standing face to face with their captain.

In an instant, all four put their feet together, and rest their hands behind their back. “Good” the captain calls. “Remember, we may be heading to the target alone, but once we get there this will be a full scale operation. We are the surprise force, we will hit their ships fast and hard. We will only have about five minutes to disable their flag ship before reinforcements arrive. If we don’t disable it before then, it could spell trouble for the whole operation.”

Sarcastically, Daniel responds “only if we don’t get shot down first.'' In response, Tanya elbows his side. “Ow, we all know they’re expecting an attack. Just because they don’t know when it’s going to happen, doesn’t mean they aren’t prepared.”

Sarah sternly responds “and that’s why there’s five of us.” leaning forwards, she looks past Tanya to look at Daniel. “If we split their attention, then we’ll be able to hit em. Remember, you three have an amazing ability of pissing off their gunners.”

“Right.” Tanya continues, as she keeps her head forwards. “We may be the ace’s of the team, but we can’t really do much by ourselves. Without you two knuckleheads, we would've been shot down several times over.”

Kyle sternly announces “we all know that even if any one of us gets shot down, we’ll survive. We’ve been trained in ground combat, as well as air. If we get shot down, all we have to do is hold out till help arrives.”

Finally cutting in, the captina spits “alright, can it everyone.'' In an instant, everyone snaps back to attention. “We need to get everyone ready to head to their ships. Finish your preflight inspections fast. Once we arrive you’ll be launching out immediately. Remember, we move fast this time.”

“Right!” all four call out. Immediately, they all turn around, and head for a door at the end of the locker room. Being the first to reach the door, Tanya opens. Heading through, the second person was Sarah. After Kyle, then Daniel, and lastly the captain. The next room consists of a small hangar of five ships.

Each one identical in every way except the painted on extras. The ships look sleek, almost like a thin arrow head. They were designed more for use in the atmosphere, but were altered to be able to just fly as well in space. Each person heads to their designated ship, Kyle first, then Daniel, the captain, Sarah then Tanya.

The paint on each one was simple grey, with the exception of markings on the side. Each one designated the kill count for each person. A simple picture of the ship, with an X through it. Daniel has eight, Kyle has the captain ten, Sarah eleven, but Tanya has over fifteen. As everyone goes through their inspection, Tanya looks at the marking on her ship. A smirk spreads across her face, as she then picks up a tablet and begins her inspection.

A few minutes go by, and Danel presses a button. Opening the cockpit, he jumps in. Soon after, Kyle does as well. Then Tanya, and Sarah. Lastly, the captain looks around at the others, and finally opens his as well. As they all start pressing buttons, turning knobs, and flipping switches, their crafts begin to come to life.

Over the intercom, the same voice from before calls over “hope you’re ready, ETA in one minute.” each person presses one last button, causing the cockpit to shut, and seal. They all also grab a mask from their right, and put it over their face. After only a second, an electric barrier goes around their heads, acting as a space suit in case of emergencies.

Over the intercom once more “ETA in five… four… three… two… one…” suddenly, the hangar doors in front of them begin to open up. The black void of space lit only by the stars in the distance lay in front of them. “Destination achieved, prepare to launch.”Everyone grabs their controls, as they all focus on the mission. “Mark.” Daniels ship is the first to drop, and launch out. As soon as he’s clear of the hanger, he goes to the left.

The second is Kyles, he follows Daniels lead and heads to the left as well. The third to launch is Tanya. As soon as she’s out, she begins to look around. The target, a destroyer class spaceship, sits off in the distance. Sarah quickly flies out of the hangar, catching up to Tanya. Over Tanya’s intercom, Sarah reports in “i’m on your left, looks like that’s our target.”

“Confirmed” Tanya responds, as she looks down at a display. A hologram version of the ship displays in front of her, showing a small X over the back. “Our targets the engine’s fuel line. It’s usually heavily fortified, that’s why we’ve got piercer missiles in our arsenal.”

As the two continue to fly towards the ship, theirs begin to turn invisible. “Roger that. Shouldn’t be a problem for us, huh. The cloaking system is active, and speed set just below the detection range.”

Reaching to her right, Tanya hovers her hand over a switch. “Prepare to kill the engines again, three two one go.” flipping the switch, her engines begin to turn off. Everything else in her cockpit remains on though. “Kyle, Daniel, captain. Any signs of engagement yet?”

The captain is the first to speak “negative, but I'm farther back than you. We won’t know for sure for a little bit. Just keep the engines quiet, and wait for the opportunity to strike.”

Kyle’s the next to respond “roger that. Me and Daniel are nearing the ship. Nothing to report so far.” looking out her window, the ship remains still. “Wait, I'm seeing something. I can’t tell what it is, but it’s cloaked.”

Responding to the comment, the captain commands “tell us as soon as you know what it is.” inspecting the ship, Tanya looks for any traces of anomalies. Off in the distance, the only thing visible is their target. “Wait…” she states out loud, looking closer. “That’s not right, hey captain.” she spits in a near panic.

“Yeah, I noticed too.” he states, concerned with filling his voice. “This is supposed to be an asteroid belt. Where are all the asteroids? It's barren. Empty.” Everyone looks out their windows, as their radars all show only one ship. “See anything yet?”

Across the intercom, tatic spreads. A second later, Kyle's voice pops up “yeah, but you’re not going to like it.” Everyone begins to worry, as he continues “I was wondering how many ships I was seeing. It didn’t make any sense because it looked like it was almost an entire armanada. But i was wrong.”

A worried chuckle comes across, as he then lets out al ong sigh. “When you reminded me there were supposed to be asteroids here, that’s when I realised. There’s not an armada. Remember last week we were told about a secret weapon they were working on? Yeah, i think we found it.”

Crackling from the intercom causes the other voices to become static. “He- can yo- -er. He-.” the coms cut to static, as no voice comes from them. Starting to worry, Tanya peers out her window with distress.

Quickly moving, she reaches down to her coms and begins turning an ob. “Come on, come on. There should be something.” as she continues turning the knob, a whirring sound comes from it. Flipping a few switches, she continues to change the frequency of her coms.

*whir* “test co-” *Whir* stopping, she gets wide eyed. Turning the knob back quickly, she stops it where the voice came from. “-all systems nominal, exciting test now.” as the words come over, something begins to appear in the distance.

On the other side of their target, a huge ship begins to materialize. Over a hundred times bigger than their target, the ship looked to be near the size of a small moon. Getting wide eyed, she looks over at her wingman. Sarah peers out her cockpit, as both move just close enough to see each other.

Even from a distance, Tanya could tell Sarah was trembling. Neither them, nore anyone had ever seen a ship that big. How was one that size even possible? And the coms, why were they out? So many questions, and no way of finding the answer. “Well” the coms light up once more. “Looks like we have some unwanted guests, should we check the firepower of this ship?”

Getting wide eyed, Tanya immediately pulls her ship away from Sarah. Noticing her movements, Sarah panics. Following her lead, Sarah follows, unaware of what was going on. *Kaboom* just off to Tanya’s left, a small ball of fire appears, then suddenly fades.

“Shit!” Tanya yells, knowing nobody could hear her. “Move!” she shouts, pushing her controls forwards. Her ship lurches forward, quickly increasing int’s speed. “I didn’t even see the shot, what’s going on?” she mutters, keeping her eyes open.

This time, she sees a dull grey light come from the ship. In an instant, it moves past her, and continues. Looking behind her she watches as their main ship explodes. The damage causes the ship to be split in two, as the crew, and supplies of the ship spill into the vacuum of space.

Turning her attention back to the main ship, she reaches over. Hitting a few switches, her weapons begin to power down. Her speed increases, as her craft hurdles towards their original target. “I only got one shot at this, please Sarah, I'm going to need your help. Just stay on me.”

As if reading her mind, Sarah repeats Tanya’s maneuvers. Staying just behind her, the two quickly race towards their target. Watching the giant ship closely, Tanya looks for the source of the attack. “My eyesight isn’t as good as his, but i the closer i get, the easier it’s going to be.”

Seeing a sudden flash, another grey light stretches past Tanya. “Shit!” she shouts, as it just barely misses her. Looking back once more, she sees the blast hit the remains of their ship. Returning her focus, Tanya begins to sweat. “Alright, they must be trying to make sure we can’t warn others. This is not good.”

“Wait.” she begins to think out loud. “No, they must be trying to make sure we don’t warn others. From the way they sounded, they weren’t expecting this attack.” chuckling out of distress, Tanaya shakes her head. “Doesn’t matter, when the rest of the fleet shows up, they're all dead. We’ve got to do something.”

As she watches the ships, she and Sarah begin to approach them. Reaching back over to the switches from before, she goes to turn them. “Alright, once i get in range, we’ll-” *boom* a small explosion rocks their target. Looking closely, she realises the hangar has been busted open. With a smirk, she mutters “looks like we aren’t the only one with this plan.”

Returning her arm to the controls, she begins to focus. Flying directly into the opening, she quickly slows down. Spinning her craft to face the out, she thrusts the controls forwards once more. Her engines burn, as she slows down and stops, mere inches from the hangars opposite the wall.

Sarah’s ship flies in as well, though much slower. As both of their ships' landing gears begin to
descend, two more ships fly in simultaneously. As each of the four land, they look around before jumping out. With the opening of the hangar, the vacuum pulls various containers, and personel out into space.

“Come on, close damn it.” as she spits this, two pieces of metal slam down, where the doors used to be. “Yes! Emergence seal for the win.” quickly hitting the latch on her ship, the cockpit opens up. Jumping up, she looks over at Sarah. Giving her a thumbs up, she smiles “we made it!”

Giving a half smile back, Sarah nods. “For now, yeah.” looking over at the other two ships, Kyle jumps out of his. From the other ship, the captain slowly stands up. “Oh no, daniel” Sarah mutters, covering her mouth. Taking in a deep breath, she refocus. “Alright, they won’t fire on their own ship, so we have time.” getting serious, she shouts loud enough for the others to hear, “what's the plan?”

Slowly looking at each of his members, the captain begins to think. After a couple of seconds, he shouts “Kyle! You and I are going to take this ship. Tanya and Sarah, I need you two try and find the jamming device. Once you do, destroy it then warn the incoming fleet. Give the outside hell!”

“R. Roger!” Sarah calls. It was obvious to Tanya from this distance, that she wasn’t fully happy with the decision. Then again, Tanya wasn’t either. As Sarah slowly dropped back into her cockpit, Tanya proceeded to do the same.

As the windows close, Tanya takes one last look at the captain. The look on his face was of defeat. He, just like the others, knew that they weren’t going to survive this.setting herself back up in her ship, she waits for the captain and Kyle to move. They jump out of their ships, then move over to the door opposite the hangar.

“This plan sucks'' Tanya spits, as her ship begins to come back to life. While hers does, Sarah’s does as well. Keeping her ship in the same position, Sarah’s ship lifts off the ground slightly. Moving slowly, it moves to the back of the hangar, and turns around.

“It’d be easier if we all just fought together, but no. he has to go on a suicide mission. What the hell is his plan anyways?” Tanya shakes her head, as her ship lifts off the ground. Grabbing hold of the controls, she presses a button. A missile flies out from her ship, hitting the steel wall that closed moments ago.

*BOOM* The explosion causes the wall to rip open, revealing the vacuum of space once more. Pushing her controls forwards, Tanya’s ship flies out of the newly opened hole. Following close behind her, Sarah’s ship exits the hangar as well. Turning upwards, Tanya immediately hits a button to her right.

“This better work.” she spits, as the display of the ship from before, switches to the bigger one. Flying above their original target, they both head for the bigger ship. Pushing her ship's limits, she flies towards the top of the smaller ship.

Flying above it, she curves with the ship, getting to the top of it. As she flies above it, the larger ship looms over her. “That thing is too big…” she thinks out loud. Passing over the ship, she looks at it. “There’s not much here, is there something i could-” cutting herself off, she sees a small dome like structure on the ship.

Producing an evil grin, she mutters “oh yea, the life support…” immediately, she pulls the trigger on her controls. Her ship's lasers come to life, as rays of heat shoot from the tip of her ship. *boom* hitting the dome a few times, she then uses her thumb to hit the top of the joystick. A missile from under her ship drops, and launches towards the dome.

*BOOOM* the missle explodes, jetising some debris into the air. “Yes!” she shouts, as she passes over it. Looking over her shoulder, she notices the life support still mostly intact “shit!” she yells, realising it’s still active. *BOOOM* Another explosion destroys the rest of the life support.

As metal jetsons into the void of space, Tanya turns back forwards. “Thanks Sarah” she smiles. “The others should be able to take it from here. Their masks will let them survives without life support.” as Tanya continues towards the big ship, she hits her controls panel one more time.

The bigger ship appears on her radar, and zooms into the side she’s on. Becoming distorted, the image turns to static while trying to display something. “Damn, that’s one powerful jammer.” she spits, looking at it. Looking around the ship, she scans every part of it. “In order for a jammer to be that powerful, it needs to be on the outside of the ship. The generator wouldn’t have to be, but the device itself..” letting her voice trail off, she notices a few oddities on the ship.

First is an antenna sticking out. The tower seems to be as tall as a normal radio tower. The second thing she noticed was a hexagonal structure sticking out of the side. The size appeared to be that of a large building. The last thing though, wasn’t that big. “If Kyle hadn’t given me some pointers, I don't think I would have noticed that.” she mutters, looking at the device.

What appeared was a few rings, rotating in different directions, to create a sort of ball. Within the object was electricity, sparking in all directions, but contained by the rings. “Which one.” she thinks, looking at all three devices. Her eyes begin to intensify, as her focus grows. “One at a time.”

Heading for the tower first, she pulls the trigger. Her ship launches lasers at the tower, speeding quickly towards it. *boom* hitting the tower, her lasters cause small explosions throughout the tower. Continuing to head towards it, she doesn’t let up, firing laser after laser. *boom* *boom* *boom* The explosions continue to shake her ship slightly as she gets closer and closer.

Nearing the tower, she jerks the controls. Her ship turns at a right angle, to the right of the tower. Her ship continues to sail towards the tower, as her thrusters pick up and push her away. Appearing to slide, her ship moves towards the target, barely missing the tower. *boom* *boom* Sarah’s shots ring out, as she too hits the tower with her lasers.

*Crack* the tower breaks, as it begins to drift away from the ship. Clicking a few buttons on her side, Tanya looks dead ahead at the hexagonal structure. A small display pops up, reading ‘bunker missile armed’ in red letters. Without hesitation, she uses her thumb to hit the top of her joystick again.

A missle drops, and launches out of her ship. The second it does, Tanya pulls up. Almost reading her mind, Sarah also launches a missile out towards the structure. Pulling away from the ship, they both watch as their missiles crash into the structure. Not exploding, the missles burrow into it, ripping metal as it flies.

*BOOOOM* an explosion completely destroyed the entire structure, throwing metal all over the place. “Two down!” she shouts, as she smiles at it. A sense of unease comes over her. “Somethings not right though… why aren’t they attacking?”

Looking around, she looks for any sign of life. Confirming her suspicions, a metal door begins to open up. From her angle, it was hard to see exactly inside the ship, but it was obviously a hangar. Ships begin pouring out of the hangar, hundreds of them, and begin scattering all over the place.

Beginning to panic, she shifts her focus ahead of her. “Tanya?” a voice crackles over the intercom. “Tanya you there?” it was Sarah, the coms were coming through again. “Hey, can you hear me?”

“Yes!” Tanya responds, panicly. “Yes i hear you!” looking up, she watches as the ships continue to pour out of the hangar. “Looks like coms are back up.” a bright flash comes from off in the distance. Looking over, Tanya see’s other ships begin to appear.

Dropping out of hyperspace, more and more ships show up. “Looks like the fleet’s here.” Tanya states. “That’s a problem-” a flash comes from the ship. With a quick glimpse, Tanya see’s the light coming from the electric device. *BOOOM* turning back around Tanya see’s one of the new allied ships explode. As it splits in two, debrie begins to spill into space.

“Sarah! I need you to use one of your missiles on that electric… thing” stammering over her words, she flies closer to the ship. “Take it out, it looks like that’s their weapon. If we do that, we should-” *Boom* a small explosion rocks her ship. Behind her, her ship shows signs of taking a hit.

“I’m on it!” Sarah shouts back, as she breaks away from Tanya. Tanya begins to weave back and forth, as the ships that came from the hangar begin shooting at her. As she doges, left and right, more and more ships approach her. “Damn it!” Sarahs’ voice comes over the intercom. “Heh…” she chuckles.

Continuing to dodge the laser, Tanya begins to sweat. “Well, that’s not good.” shaking her head, Tanya begins to mindlessly avoid the attacks. “Guess this is our limit then. *sigh* uhh. My engines are shot. I only have enough thrust for one more maneuver. I’m sorry…”

Tears flow down Tanya’s eyes as she flies away from the ship. *boom* her ship takes another hit *boom* and another. Both hits together cause her ship’s engines to die. She begins to tumble through the vacuum of space, as she drifts farther and farther away. With watery eyes,as she watches Sarahs’ ship.

The missle she had ready, stays connected to her ship, as it begins to come to life. Pulling her ship forwards, the missle detaches, and heads for the weapon. Her ship begins to spin out of control, as he heads for the hangar. *boom* The explosion, while big, didn’t affect Tanya’s ship due to the distance.

On the other hand, the explosion propels Sarah’s ship towards the hangar. Flying into the hangar, Tanya barely gets a glimpse, as Sarah’s last missile launches into the hangar. The explosion rips the entire hangar apart, throwing debrei into space.

Sarah’s ship gets thrown back, and propelled away as the hangar begins to collapse in on itself. “Shit!'' Tanya shouts, as he begins moving the controls. Everything, all the lights, switches, and knobs are all dead. No light comes from her ship as she drifts towards her allies.

“Hey tanya?” *cough* “That hurts damn it.” the captain's voice comes over the intercom. “I’m hit… i don’t think i… who am i kidding, i knew i wasn’t going to make it. Kyle’s hit too. Though this isn’t as bad, he’s working on something. *cough* *cough* Hey, listen. If you somehow get out of here. Find my little girl and tell her… daddy loves her…”

The intercom fades,leaving Tanya alone with the silence within her ship. As she gazes out the window, looking at the smaller ship, she can’t help but feel hopeless. The engines begin to come to life, as the ship turns. Moving towards the bigger ship, the engines push to full. From this distance, Tanya couldn’t hear anything, but watching the ship collide into the bigger one was slightly satisfying.

While the ship continues pushing into the larger one, the weapons all come to life. Lasers begin shooting in all directions. None of the shots were aimed, but with the size of the ship nearly all of them were hitting. Digging deeper into the larger ship, the other continues driving into it.

Explosions begin to rip across the entire thing, as Tanya watches on. Once the entire ship is engulfed in the bigger one, debree begins pouring out of the hole. Seemingly out of nowhere, the entire ship episodes all at once. The resulting explosion causes the massive ship to ri down the middle. As metal flies through space, the core of the massive ship becomes visible.

What looked like an hourglass, the center was the generator for the entire ship's power. Keeping an eye on it, Tanaya watches as the entire fleet shows up open fires on the core. After only a few seconds, the entire thing stops. The resulting explosion of the reactor going critical rips the ship into several parts.

Closing her eyes, Tanya pushes her back against her seat. Tears roll down her eyes as she spits “it’s over… I should be happy because we beat such a large ship. The number of losses weren’t much, but they were friends… i will never forget you.”

Her ship continues to drift as a larger allied ship moves in front of it. Opening its hanger, Tanya’s ship slowly glides into it. After she gets out, she heads to the captain's quarters. Keeping her debriefing short, she explains all that happened in little detail. Their mission was a success, but sometimes the emotional cost is too much. After this mission, she retired, leaving the military. She never married, but she lived a happy life, peaceful life thereafter.