Before the dawn of the space age, people always believed there was a moon. That was until we launched the first man into Low Earth Orbit. The moment humanity got beyond the atmosphere we saw it, a giant ship, spherical in shape aligned with the moon. But beyond the ship was nothing more than the glow of the stars. It was on this day Earth changed completely, the new race was classified as the Tenshi and attempts of communication continued for years blocked only by the lack of understanding of their language. We discovered some of their race on the surface blending in with the humans attempting learning the culture and this peace continued for years. But behind closed doors, the governments for many countries gathered together in a joint operation to take out this ship, viewing it to be a threat to Earth’s safety. They slowly built up an orbital facility classified as ES1 hidden within the wreckage of the previous attempts to get a human into orbit. The day then came when Earth declared war on the Tenshi and sent out assault teams in shuttles to board and take over the Tenshi command ship underestimating their firepower. From then on, every attempt get a man into space was thwarted in one form or another as Tenshi landing parties invaded the surface. ES1 continued to develop the first combat fighter in preparation of a second attempt of taking out the Tenshi command ship. The Tenshi also developed a new weapon that would send all the debris crashing down to the surface. To stop this from happening, a team of 50 trained pilots were gathered on Earth and split between 10 rockets with less than 24 hours before the planet would be destroyed. This was when my story begun.

“Ignition,” the first and last word I heard from the radio when my head jerked back into the seat. I was on my way to complete my dream, I was going into space. Moments later, reality set back in as missiles flew by taking out the rockets with my fellow comrades in them and while some missiles rained down towards mission control. The intense shocks from the explosions almost tore our rocket apart while we felt the intense vibrations inside the shuttle. From that moment on we were never able to reestablish communications with the surface. Assuming the worst I continued to fly the rocket based on the crash course training I received. Next to me was my copilot John and behind me the radio operator Joe, next to Joe was Josh who was the tactician for this mission. On the other side of me was Jessie who had blood all over his console. Both he and John felt the intense vibrations the most and as I looked over the John, he was just unconscious Jessie was less fortunate. Behind me was Joe and Josh attempting to get in contact with Mission Control or any of the remaining rockets. We managed to get into contact with two others both of which still had complete crews as we quickly reached Low Earth Orbit. From there we broke off from the main engines allow our shuttles more control around the debris of the previous missions to space.

Soon after we broke off from the rockets Tenshi ships appeared on the radar and were quickly coming towards us. We franticly cut power to everything but life support and radar. On the radar we saw two dots disappear in the cluster of Tenshi fighters and knowing the shuttles weren’t equipped with weapons or defenses knew what those two dots were. We continued coasting towards the station as the last crew running with only life support and radar to avoid detection from the enemy sensors and using maneuvering thrusters to avoid enemy patrols. To them we were hoping to be just another wrecked ship floating around among the rest. We drifted around for a couple of hours until we arrived at the large debris cluster that was created for the protection of ES1 so that it wouldn’t be seen on radar. As we finally reached out first objective we reengaged the engines begun maneuvering towards the station. It was then that a Tenshi patrol came around from the other side of the cluster and begun to attack our shuttle. As we quickly escaped into the debris we lost our stabilizers leaving us with no control of the shuttle. With the loss of control we begun hitting the debris as the shuttle slowly fell apart leaving us with only one option, to get to ES1 using space suits instead. The only problem was that John was still knocked out the rest of had no idea what we should do with him as we put on our suits. The decision was quickly made as the shuttle collided with another piece of wreckage and the glass gave out letting out all the oxygen taking John with it. The rest of use left the shuttle and started floating towards the station hoping to have enough air in the tanks.

We arrived at the station not too long after with little air left in the tanks, but we weren’t out of the dark yet. We quickly discovered why the Tenshi were patrolling around the debris cluster, they had discovered the station taking out all the crew with it. In order for them to stop the attack they shut down the station including life support. We quickly worked to restore power before the last of the oxygen was depleted from our tanks. We managed to get lights and life support working before it was time to prepare for the next part of our mission. Though for a battleground, the station was quite clean, there were no signs of any battles that may have occurred. Not a single scratch was found on the walls nor were there any dead bodies, it appeared as if the station was just abandoned before the enemy arrived. Because of this, the three of us begun to question whether or not these new spacecraft they developed were actually built and functional and with the clock ticking down on our mission, now was not the time for additional problems. There were only a few hours remaining until the enemy firing sequence would begin and the Earth would be destroyed. We made our way towards the hanger were they constructed and outfitted these combat vessels.

When we arrived at the hanger, but unable to gain entry as the station had been put into lockdown during the raid sealing of the hanger to keep the fighters a secret. In order to open the door, it would have to be cut through using a blow torch taking hours. However you could also force your way through using explosives. However the use of explosives would also damage other parts of the station creating oxygen leaks larger than the life support system could handle leaving about 15 minutes until it would become a vacuum. Unfortunately, this was the only viable option so we went through with it taking cover around the corner. We could tell when the explosives went off as the station shook violently from the sudden and extreme force experienced. When we turned back around the corner, we realized how much larger the blast actually was and had less than 10 minutes before the remaining oxygen would be depleted. Running out of time, we quickly pushed forward to the hanger.

What we saw next came as a big surprise, most of the ships in the hanger were incomplete missing either the external armor, control systems and some were even missing weapons. Given more time, we might have been able to combine the ships into more complete ones, but that would take days and with our limited knowledge, they would be even less efficient then they are now. We looked through the 20 or so fighters getting an idea on the condition of their subsystems to choose the best ones. Assuming we would never be under attack, all we would need are flight, navigation and combat systems but the likelihood of such a scenario occurring was slim. Being the tactician, Josh made sure to choose a fighter with a navigation and radar system so that he would be capable of directing use towards our entry point while avoiding as many enemy fighters as possible. As Joe was not a very good pilot, he took the fighter that was outfitted with the most armor which came at the cost of most of the other systems. Since I was trained in maneuvering around enemy fire, I took the fighter with the least amount of armor making it one of the lightest fighters available.

Performing our final systems check, another explosion went off in the distance, this time much larger than the one we caused before. Realizing we were out of time, we aborted the final check and engaged engines. Next thing we knew, we were flying away from the station through the surrounding debris cluster as a flash of light came from behind signaling the destruction of ES1. Unfortunately, this flash also attracted the attention of the Tenshi drawing the command ship towards us. In a way this was an advantage for us as we wouldn’t have to travel as far in our incomplete fighters however, it also meant that they would be on high alert searching for the source of the explosion though it appeared that they hadn’t spotted us. With all the missing components, our fighters weren’t as noisy on radar unlike the shuttles. Unfortunately we weren’t entirely invisible as the command ship begun launching its fighters by the hundreds. Although their numbers were overwhelming, they weren’t as strong as we thought as our guns would rip through them as if they were paper. They made up for it in firepower though as one giant laser fired from one of their ships just barely missing and obliterating a piece of debris next to me. 

The battle continued on as we pushed our way towards the command ship avoiding as many of their shots as possible. Fortunately, we were equipped with reactive plates so we wouldn’t be instantly destroyed though the heat produced would damage our systems one after the other while slowly shaving off the plates layer by layer. As their number grew it became a greater challenge to push our way towards the command ship. It was then that we made the dreaded choice to go to plan B. This involved Joe taking his armored fighter and attracting as much attention possible to draw their fighters away from the main group. By the time he was out of communication range he managed to take half of their fighter force along, though I never learned of his fate. Only Josh and I remained as we pushed our way to the command ship destroying their fighters as we entered its hanger. We exited our fighters and headed towards the reactor on foot.

We continued on foot towards the largest power reading on the ship assuming it to be the reactor. But while we were expecting resistance, we had yet to run into anyone else onboard. It appeared as if the ship was running on its own. But we knew that wasn’t the case as we met some of their kind on the surface. It was moments after I though this that I saw it, the flutter of a wing just around the corner. Preparing for the worst, Josh and I pulled out our pistols as we rounded the corner when we saw the Tenshi with its big white wings and humanoid shape, however it showed no signs of putting up a fight so we continued onward. We started to question why the government viewed them as a threat after seeing no signs of hostility from it even during a time of war. The next group of Tenshi we ran into were part of the security patrols around the ship. While we were on the run we managed to make it to the reactor room, however we needed to hold them off long enough for me to set the reactor for overload. We managed to seal off the first door to hold them off temporarily but Josh knew it wouldn’t be long enough. In order to make the mission a success he said he would hold them at the first door and told me to continue. When I made it to the reactor, I quickly broke through the password using the hacking tool we developed on Earth to crack any countermeasures their computers may have.

The reactor is seconds away from blowing so I am sending this transmission in hopes that we will not be forgotten and I just wanted to say I…