SSV Celestial Phoenix
Deep Space Near Nen Dural System
11 February 3297
Lieutenant Ava Bahr checked the seals on her flight suit one final time. A voice in her head told her she’s heard stories of pilots broke the seals by checking too many times. The thought brought a smile to her face. It did nothing, however, to still her pounding heart that was more a ball of nerves than anything else.
She sat in the cockpit of her Starhawk, waiting for the final jump to the Nen Dural System. They had gone over the plans countless times. Once they emerged from the wormhole in the Druthagon capital system, they were to immediately launch all fighters. Then, it was the simple goal of reducing the enemy’s forces to zero before they could do the same to the combined Hyperion and Stariek navy.
This final thought brought a smirk to her face. She supposed she would never call herself a pilot of the Hyperion Empire, no matter how much they tried to force the integration. First and foremost, she was a Stariekian. Nothing they did could change that.
The transmission cut off. The ship jolted, a sensation all of them had become familiar with over the last few weeks of near continuous wormhole transitions. This one, however, was quickly followed by a rumble as the ship was hit by something. Ava gritted her teeth as her fighter turned in place. Tracks underneath moved her into the launch bay. A clank resonated through her feet as the door shut behind her. Taken from NovelFire, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Immediately, she cranked her throttle to the max, feeling the familiar roar of the engines to either side behind her. Though he wasn’t there, by force of habit she felt the calm Ethan always emanated flow through her. She did her best to channel it through the link to her squadron, hoping it would help them be at ease. With a thought, the hook holding her in place released. The Starhawk rocketed forward, followed quickly by one to either side of her, Vance on her right and Tajik on her left. In front, the void of space rapidly approached. She could make out nearly half the planet of Druthagon, its atmosphere brown from millennia of spewing the pollutants of mining into the air. Just as she cleared the egress, an explosion erupted from the side of the Celestial Phoenix. The blast buffeted her, nearly throwing her off course. Her starboard wing came within meters of scraping the side of the carrier. She barely recovered, careful to not overcorrect and careen into the Phoenix. Turning away, she pushed her throttle to head towards the fray. Ava checked the tactical overlay in the corner of her vision and saw the dot for Alpha Four was indeed missing. Worse, the swarm of dots representing the Druthagar fighters was larger than she expected. Much larger. Vance and Tajik answered affirmatively before moving to either side of her. She led them, as well as a dozen other fighters that fell in behind them, into the thick of the free-for-all raging before them. Taking a deep breath, she hoped she would make it back to the Phoenix. An alarm blared warning her of a hostile lock on. She pushed her Starhawk into a tight spiral downward. Her CAM showed the position of the missile chasing her down, slowly getting closer with each passing second. With a thought, ECM burst from the back of her vessel, clogging the missile’s sensors. A well-timed burst of speed put enough distance between her and resulting explosion for her to come out unscathed. She pushed her fighter to pursue the fleeing enemy. Beyond it was the scrum that slowly developed. Beams of light lashed out, some connecting with ships and others disappearing into the void. Brief flashes showed where fighters on either side exploded. Ava refocused her attention on the fighter she was chasing down. With a thought, she slotted in behind it and lined up the targeting reticle. With a quiet beep, it turned green. Her neutron cannons fired. The beams tracked the Druthagar fighter before connecting with its engines and tearing through its midsection. It exploded with a quick fireball much like the others. She flew through it, letting her shields absorb the smaller particles before emerging on the other side and taking the momentary reprieve to assess the battlefield. The transmission abruptly ended. There was no response. A continuous chatter of the other squadrons, each requesting aid at different parts of the battlefield, continued in the back of her mind. Yells of pain and horror—some cut short and others lingering—came through. But no response from Vance. She slammed her hand against the side of her fighter with a scream. Pain radiated through each finger. She resisted the urge to yell again, fighting back tears—tears of both fright and grief. She brought her Starhawk around, turning to the next closest Druthagar fighter and letting loose a missile. It corkscrewed, dodging around whatever minimal ECM it had, before slamming into its engines and exploding. A few seconds later, the ship was nothing more than debris. Then, a message came through a private link to her CAM. The sender was Ethan.