Contact, it was going to happen one day. Looking out the window of the portable quarters that would be her home in the Human Defense Force. She glanced at a manual not today, today we fly. Stepping out of her quarters the light from the nearby star felt warm and welcoming.

The craft looked like an oval angling out toward the two stubby wings at the back. By the line of four craft stood the flight lead and two other nuggets. "Jenson you'll be element lead and Petrov will follow your lead since you two seem to work well together."

The flight seemed to have flashed by, one moment they were taking off, next Petrov and her were practicing flying in formation and then she was exiting the cockpit and heading to the building just across the flight line to discuss the flight. PD was approaching and she began to grin as the manual laid out the steps before punching. 

Lying in bed later that night looking up at the roof she imagined her arms floating as gravity no longer pushed them down. Soon Amanda.

Today was the big day, called Punch Day, they would leave the atmosphere of Planet 19A in zone 1 and fly in space for the first time. Skipping toward the flight line she was first there. Turning around everyone was right behind her. 

Her arms started to lift as pushed downward to counter the weightlessness of space. Up ahead was a group of asteroids in orbit around the planet. "Jenson your flight is first. Approach the asteroids first using your instruments only.  On some planets you will not able see outside the cockpit." Just ease yourself toward it this isn't a race. Petrov already was looking at the instrument panel in her craft. Both Petrov and her souls were meant for space, but Petrov maybe trusted her instruments a little more. "Your drifting girl" It was just a fraction of a meter, but what mattered was that she was off her set course.

Wait, where are the other two? Looking up and to her left they were still there; it was just that the asteroids between the two elements blocked sensors. Letting out a breath she looked down again and monitored the position of her charge and the asteroids to her left. "You okay you looked panicked for a moment?" Okay, the asteroids blocked you on my sensor, so I looked up. "Roger"

You can call me Anna, we're not on duty Amanda. Want to hang out tonight, maybe watch a movie?

So, this was the moment her and Petrov made their friendship official. Yes, I'd like to hang out and watch a movie tonight. Do you have one in mind?

War of the Worlds

Any reason why? That wasn't what I was thinking.

I've never seen it and want to.

Ok, I'll bring the popcorn.

If only some of the stuff they talked about that night stayed hypothetical.  It would start with a fight in the orbit of Planet 19A. A single ship had showed up destroyed a satellite and broadcast its intent to occupy the planet through force.  And now they were being sent to fight in space.

As they were leaving the planet surface, her flight lead called over the radio "Jenson this is your show now, you've got it. I'm having a technical problem and have to return planet side, your flight lead." Great now I'm responsible for two people's life and making decisions on how the flight operates. Focus he said you can do this.

The problem was it wasn't just the two ships under her command she had to keep track of; but also, the rough position of three other flights which made up her wing. She could feel her legs start to lift. The position of those three flights was displayed on a screen to her right. At least someone had thought about the ergonomics and placed the screen at the base of the panel to her front. 

Petrov, Hernandez follow me, we're going to use those asteroids up ahead to try and come in from behind, it also looked like one of her wing's other flights had the same idea. The first flashes of flame from the two flights that were meeting the wing shaped enemy craft head on began to shine. 

Coming around from behind it degenerated from formations of space superiority fighters facing off to a jumbled mess. She broke left after the first alien craft she saw, with Petrov and Hernandez following her in.

 The first craft was easy, the second seemed to know someone was lining up a shot on it. It was at that moment disaster struck. "Ah Jenson I have a problem; I'm smoking out of my port wing."  

Can you still fight?

Affirmative but landing planet side may be "fun".

Just focus on the fight in front of you. You should be fine if life support, weapons and propulsion are still functional.

The alien craft had slipped away while she had been distracted. "I got you" Petrov had bagged herself a kill. The craft had been trying to line up a shot on her. Focus, find the next target.

She focused on another fighter, lining up a burst from her single nose mounted canon. The craft started trailing smoke but wouldn't give up the fight. She fired again and it burst apart. There was no cockpit, were these craft being remotely piloted? That would explain why they charged head on with no apparent tactics.

Looking for a third target that's when she realized that this would be a costly victory. The remains of multiple human fighters were drifting among the wreckage of alien craft.  Lining up on her next target it turned away and started to head back to the main alien ship. She fired and it burst apart also. Don't think about it, you only have one shell left and no idea where to aim it. The colony needs you; Anna needs you, wait why Anna? "Hello anyone, there?" 

I'm here, just wondering if I could take out ship. Let's return planet side. "Good, thought you were going to do something reckless."

It turned out things were not as bad for Hernandez as feared. The nose mounted thrusters normally used in space, helped him complete a controlled landing even though his port side flaps weren't responding to control imputes. 

You weren't considering a one-way mission, were you?

Um, what gives you that idea Anna?

Just that you continued to fly to the alien ship after that last drone was destroyed. 

I have a confession to make, one of the things I thought about was you.

I'm flattered, but I can make new friends, but I'm glad I stopped you from doing something that wasn't completely thought out.

Just why did their conversations foreshadow the future? Here they were discussing the plan for taking out a drone carrier over a desert planet. It had turned out their colony wasn't the only one attacked. "Jenson you have been promoted to flight lead effective immediately."  

They had arrived in the system, her flight and two others including Petrov's who was also now a flight lead. The catch was this was a one-way trip, the modified craft which normally didn't come with a FTL drive could only carry enough power for one jump calculation. The plan ended up being slightly better, but that was because she knew to ration ammo on the way in. They still didn't know where to aim on the drone carrier. The plan called for an attack on all known drone carriers to prevent them from being able to back each other up.

Strangely the carrier didn't deploy any drones as they approached. Could this be the one that had attacked planet 19A and had no drones to defend itself? The three flights approached, and the alien craft began emitting defensive fire. 

As they began to dodge fire to two craft were hit and broke off. Closing in she began searching for somewhere to aim. One the back was what looked like nozzles for some type of thruster of which there were five. She lined up and fired. Little flashes peppered the back of the craft. "I'm sorry" who was that?

Jenson you'll have to finish the job. Jackson's flight is gone, I've lost one of mine and two others are out of ammo. My canon is jammed. You know if the air is breathable down there?

I've got enough ammo for one more pass and then I guess I'll follow you down. There were a pair of openings that could be vision ports for the ship's bridge since they were on the upper front of the ships wedge shaped nose. She fired into both potential vision ports.

The defensive fire was reducing in volume for some reason. Have I caused a chain reaction with the engine attack?  Focus how are your subsystems? The only thing that wasn't showing a caution was her life support, but that would change soon enough.

The landing was easy as there was no cross wind and best of all the air was breathable. Now they had just to get a message out for someone to come pick them up. That would be tomorrow's problem. They were safe and needed to rest. Darkness was upon them, and it didn't make sense to wander around in the Dark. 

As the hours past they took turns standing watch as the other slept. As the sun appeared on the horizon it revealed a human like figure heading in their direction. Clutching her sidearm Amanda slowly approached the figure.

Glad to see a friendly face, we saw the fight from the planet surface, the ship just appeared. And we didn't know what it intended. Come; we can help you call home.