A Cosmic Mystery

C4 - Contact

ID Input -- Russell, Maxwell T.

Affiliation -- TAF Delta, Terrus

Location -- Starship FoxTail, Chrona Asteroid Field

Status -- Alive, Determined

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Time for battle.

We were under attack by a squad of Kleiss hiding in the asteroid field. There wasn't much time to react, but we were gonna be prepared anyway.

I grabbed my helmet from inside of my ship and got suited up. Our suits were incredibly easy to put on-- they had to be, considering all the missions that we'd have to respond to under such short notice.

I hopped in and turned the power on. I started the thrusters and looked around me-- the rest of my squad was ready and so was Alpha and Beta, who had recently arrived on Starship FoxTail.

"Thrusters are functional," I said. "Wings are functional. Everything else looks good."

I pressed the button to close the cockpit hatch, and it quickly shut itself.

Ricardo, the commander of Beta Squad, opened the main channel between us squad leaders. 

"Transmitting on a secure channel. Is everyone receiving this?" he said.

"Loud and clear," I said.

"I read you," said Jacob, the leader of Alpha Squad.

"Communications are functional," said Ricardo. 

"Alrighty then, ready for lift-off. All units: Engage!"

We took off and sped down the runway. Flying out of FoxTail, we got into formation with squad leaders on the sides and everyone else in the middle. 

It was a little difficult to avoid the asteroids, but the radar helped plenty. We flew in the direction of the hidden Kleiss, which was on the port side of our mothership. 

"Everyone ready?" I said.

"You bet!" shouted Xavier.

Everyone agreed.

"Good, 'cause here they come!"

The Kleiss came out of hiding and flew up (from our perspective), turned around, and dove straight at us. 

Jacob shouted, "Break formation and engage the enemy!"

I went left, Jacob went up, and Ricardo went right. Everyone else went with their respective commanders.

A Kleiss started following me as soon as I broke off and started firing. I dodged left, taking minimal damage. 

I pulled up into a vertical loop and ended up behind it. I fired and blew its wing off. It spun out of control and smashed into an asteroid in a fiery mess.

One down.

I looked behind me and saw that Kate had taken one out as well. There were 8 enemy ships total, and we had taken out two already. 

I heard Edmond say, "I could use some help here, Max!"

I turned around towards the enemy that was on Ed's tail and fired. It dodged my attack and broke the chase. But now it was headed straight at me!

I banked to the right just in time-- had I waited any longer, we would've crashed into each other. 

Ed said, "I guess I should be thankful."