The Rebel Faction

"Yep.... we need to take out a relay dish on one of our sensor outposts in order to approuch the base undetected... but it seems the defense fleet found a way to move the asteroids closer to the outpost... clever really." Lavality was impressed, she knew some of her subordinates where creative, but this took the cake.

She motioned to a Reten fighter that had been prepped with four torpedos. "Need you to take the co-pilots seat and monitor their transmissions and also sensors," she said and made her way toward the fighter.

Up in the conning tower two officers looked at each other when they received word that Lavality was going out in a fighter. The officers looked at each other nerviously, making a note not to inform her when she can take off.

"We only have three minutes, so lets hurry." Lavality told Asri as she climbed up the ladder and into the fighter.

As the canopy began to close; Lavality was already guiding the fighter onto the launch ramp. "Engines check... weapons check... cloaking drives... online," Lavality said as the fighter suddenly cloaked on the launch ramp.

In the conning tower the flight officer was throwing a hissy fit. "How the hell am I suppose to guide her out if she cloaks her damn fighter!!!" he shouted.

"I recommend you put that helmet thats under your seat on." She said and waited several seconds before pulling the throttle back. Flame shot out of the fighters engine as he flew down the launch ramp and out into space.

She spun the fighter around a few times before heading into the asteriod belt. "Keep track of the defense fleet; if they make a mention that something else is in the asteroid belt let me know." She said to Asri as she piloted the cloaked fighter through the asteroid belt.

As she approuched the outpost she realized that the opening was 'very' small, in fact, it was to small. "Umm.... hmmm...." she pondered what to do as her fighter floated there. "Any idea's?" She asked her co-pilot as she looked behind her.

Lavality turned back toward the instrument panel and blinked. Now why didn't I think of that.... she mumbled to herself and activated one of the torpedos.

From her right wing a plume of smoke ejected out of the torpedo tubes holder as a torpedo flew out and into an asteroid that was directly ahead of her; she quickly spun the fighter around and flew off a short distance just as the torpedo blew the asteroid apart.

When the explosion occuried the outposts point defense systems came online and began to blast apart small chunks of the asteroid generated from the explosion; while the PDS was occupied Lavality slipped the fighter into the outpost. She activated the fighters targetting computer and began to systematically take out the relays defense's defense turrets.

On a display clock the time changed to one minute, then began to count down from fifty nine seconds to fifty eight.

She realized that she had no time left and spun the fighter around. She ran her hand across the control panel and sycronized the launch system, a second the last three torpedos fired out of their respectful tubes.

One of the torpedos exploded when one of two remaining turrets came about and fired on it; the second torpedo impacted an exhaust port on the outpost, but the last found it's mark and destroyed the relay dish.

"Our mission is done here..." Lavality said just as warning light came online. "Uh oh...." she said just as her fighter decloaked.

No sooner had Asri finished her sentence did Lavality hit the afterburners and pulled the fighter around and out through the opening they had made; behind her ten fighters from the outpost had launched and were now chasing them. She dove under asteroids, clearing them by mere inches.

Behind her the chasing fighters gave the asteroids a wide berth as they cleared them; no doubt some of the pilots were wondering who was piloting the fighter they were chasing.

"Got a warning light in the weapons control now..." Lavality said as weapons control went offline, causing the fighters four laser cannons to go offline due to lack of energy. "Looks like when I fired those for torps something must've tripped on one of the power regulation nodes..." She said, although more to herself than to Asri.

Behind her the fighters had gotten close enough to open up on her; she watched as lasers flew past her fighter, in response she dove and rocketed over and under several asteroids in an effort to lose her pursuers.

"I hope you didn't have a heavy lunch.... hang on!" She said when she suddenly engaged the fighters afterburners a second time. She sped toward an asteroid, the onboard AI suddenly voiced warning - "Collision Alert!" it said without emotion. This alert sounded several more times before Lavality punched the reverseburners which caused the fighter to stop suddenly.

Two of her pursuers flew past her, one clipped the asteroid and spiraled wildly; another managed to avoid the asteroid with a mere fraction of an inche to spare. Behind her six of her pursuers decided that it wasn't worth the risk to chase her and peeled off, but the last two fighters felt otherwise and continued toward her. She once again punched it and flew past the asteroid.

"Star Nova! Open all the hanger bay doors!" Lavality ordered over the comm. line.

As her fighter flew over an asteroid; her two pursuers kept after her. One fired off a missile that rocketed into an asteroid and blew it apart, sending small peices of the roid pinging off the fighters armor. "Idiot...." Lavality said as the command ship came into view.

Again she hit the afterburners and then flew out of the asteroid field - she now knew her pursuers had a clear line of sight of her and no sooner had she thought that has they opened fire again.

On the communicatios panel Lavality relayed a text order to the Star Novas gunners; and just a few seconds later turbo laser fire and flak shells began to fly past them and toward the two fighters behind.

Lavality flew past the fire and straight into the hanger bay; she hit the air breaks just as one of her pursuers flew past her and slammed into the far wall. The other fighter tried to pull up but smashed against the hanger bay doors.

In the conning tower the flight officer looked on in disbelief. "My... hanger bay....." he said and slumped to the floor. "The paint job that took me a week to complete...." he sulked.