PROLOGUE I was running through Alta base trying to reach my ship in time to go out to kick some Krell butt. The sirens were blaring above me as I put my helmet on, Crater running beside me. We reached the runway and climbed into our ships. I flipped on my ship and tested my boosters and weapons. “All clear, Crater,” I said to my wingmate. “Same here, Nix,” Crater said, “The coordinates are 100-213-034.” He sent them to me and I set them as my coordinates and took off with Crater following me. I hit G-3 trying to reach the dogfight battle above us. I looked up to see one of our ships plummeting to the ground in a fiery mass, it hit the ground in an explosion. Scud, I thought, dodging out of the way. I found a lone Krell ship and fired. It exploded and fell to the earth. Shields must have been down already. I slowed down to a dogfight speed. “Shields must have been down already,” Crater said, reading my mind. I nodded my head even though he couldn’t see me. Suddenly two Krell were on his tail and I swooped to get behind him and fire. Crater swerved dodging a shot, then two others “A little help here!” Crater yelled at me. “I’m trying!” I yelled back at him. The Krell were getting better these days. They kept dodging my destructors. I fired my lightlance, hit one, then swung it into a piece of space junk. There was a firing behind me as another Krell showed up and joined the fight. “I am going to have to use my IMP!” I yelled at him dodging another shot. “Copy that,” he said, suddenly juking the ships to get behind me, I got between the two, barely missing collision with them, then fired my IMP and turned to blast one as Crater blasted the other. “Whoo hoo!” I said, doing a spin move to get beside Crater. He gave me a fake fist bump through the glass and chuckled. “We’re good!” he said, reigniting his shields. “Sunset Flight, this is Fly Flight 2. Callsign: Meter We need help up here quick!” The radio sounded fuzzy and scratched. We flew up to the main battle and spotted three Krell heading for Alta under the range of the AA guns. Me and Crater both spotted them. “None of them look like bombers,” I said focusing on them, “Lets go take them down,” I added, spinning and hitting overburn.
CONTINUED PROLOGUE “What’s the plan?” Crater asked, following me. “Just shoot them down?” “How about we surprise them?” I suggested. “You go behind them and take down their shields, then fly out of there to reignite as I shoot, then come in and shoot too,” I explained, nodding at the plan, and how amazing it was. “You could have just said wide IMP,” Crater chuckled. “But that does not sound as cool,” I joked, “Well let's go!” I added as I took off and Crater separated from me and went a wide loop ahead of the Krell and zoomed into them and hit his IMP then took off missing their shots. I hit overburn again And shot down one then lightlanced another, Crater entered and shot down the last. That was awesome! I thought as the G forces hit me and the Grav-cap engaged, I slowed down and Crater came up behind me. “Honestly Nix, We are amazing,” he said, “Scudding amazing actually,” he added, making me laugh. “Oh yeah,” I chuckled. We turned around and headed back to the battle, we were winning and the Krell seemed to be evacuating. Yeah! Go and run back to your mommy! I thought. Me and Crater turned around and landed in a smooth screech, I hopped out and high fived Crater. We put our helmets on our ships letting the ground crew take care of them. “So how many kills is that Nix? Number 2?” Crater asked nuging my elbow, I chuckled, “More like 32,” I said as I stretched my fingers, they were cramped from doing amazing up there. We both went to the mess hall to grab some food before bed. I went to sit with my friend and he went to sit with some boys. “You did awesome!” I heard from behind me, I spun around and laughed when I saw Amari. “Heh thanks,” I said sitting down exhausted, I started to eat my bacon as Amari sat down in front of me and started to eat, “How is your flight doing?” I asked, trying to make conversation. “Oh well we only lost 3 cadets,” Amari said looking at her plate, Oh scud, that is not what I was thinking to talk about. “Oh I’m sorry Amari, I didn’t think sorry,” I said putting my hand on hers. “It's ok, I mean you and Crater are the only ones left in your flight,” She said, still keeping her gaze on her plate. It was true, Sunset flight had lost so many in a battle that the Admiral forced us into, all the flights had lost cadets that day. I had lost four of my flight, Send, Nat, AM, and Rock, then two backed out terrified of what would happen in the next battle. And after that another backed out from injury in a fight. Then the next fight, with only me Crater and Fin left in our flight, Fin died in a crash with two Krell, killing himself and the Krell. I shook my head, So many died, so many of my friends died. I only have Amari and Crater left, I thought fighting back tears, I was fine, our flight was the best yet, though it was not much of a flight, just me and Crater. I looked at Amari who had finally looked at me with teary eyes. “I’m sorry Nix,” Amari said, putting her hand on mine as I did for her. I shrugged pretending that I didn’t care, that I was past that, That I was OK. But I wasn’t.
