Another story but from 2003

Twelve years ago, alien invaders destroyed Earth. Only one million people survived and were transported onto our space station including myself. Two years after that I was on a reconassince mission with my squadron called the Talon squadron. It was normal at first but the aliens came and shot all of my comrades down. I survived but lived with those 11 deaths resting on me. I didn’t have enough time to tell them all to retreat before they were killed. When I got back, my girlfriend Alison O’Connor and her brother Dave were there to comfort me. Dave formed a new squadron for me and called it the Striker squadron. This squadron stands as the most elite squadron. We loose a few people from time to time but we have new recruits before we know it. Over the years we have tried to find the alien homeworld. We found out were it was one night last month and everyone went out to a bar to celebrate. Even the doctors were out celebrating including my girlfriend, Alison. After that I have no clue what we did except I woke up the next day being severely tired. Since then we have been planning our attack against the alien homeworld. Now it’s our turn to destroy their homeworld as they did ours.

I am Kel Dill. I am 25 years old and 6 feet 3 inches. My training has made me very strong and very dangerous to my enemies because I was trained in martial arts. My girlfriend/fiancé, Alison O’Connor, is also tall and 25. She is trained as a doctor. Her brother Dave O’Connor is short but tall enough to fit in his starfighter. Dave is 21 years old and he has been trained with similar skills as me but not that extensively.

“Dave!” I yell in the Striker squadron-landing bay inside of the space station, “Where are you?”

“Kel! Up here!” Dave yells back.

I glance up to see Dave and 4 of our newest recruits. Apparently he’s preparing them for the raid against the alien homeworld.

“Hey! What’s up? The flight desk says that you need me for something?”

“Yah, about that Kel, um, I don’t need you but I think Alison does.”

“Okay. See you later at dinner in the mess hall.”

“Peace bro!”

Since I met Alison, Dave and I have been like brothers. Of course I’m the big brother since I am older.

I walk down the 15foot wide hallway to Alison’s house, punch in the security code and walk in. Alison was lying down on her bed asleep. I went over to her and gently woke her up.

“Kel?” Alison said, “Are you sure you will be home in time for our wedding?”

“Allie I will come home on time, you know that.”

“And you will make sure Dave comes home too, right?”

“I will do my best to watch over him.”

“Can you tell me the plan for destroying the enemy’s homeworld again?”

“Alright. We leave tonight because of the long lightspeed jump to the enemy’s planet. By the time we get there it will be morning and the station will jump to the edge of their solar system. The bombers will fly to their planet, drop several nukes with drills on them, and fly out while the other squadrons of fighters escort the bombers. The nukes will drill through the surface and into the core. Once in the core, BOOM!! The planet is space dust.”

“How do you guys get out?”

“We jump back into lightspeed to the space station before the nukes explode.”

“Good.”

“Go back to sleep. I will wake you before I leave.”

“Okay.”

I left the room leaving Alison in her room sleeping. Two hours later I knew I would have to say goodbye to her.

The two hours passed very fast after eating dinner and then preflighting my fighter. I went back to Alison’s house but I didn’t wake her, I kissed her and left without a sound. I went to the squadron bay and went right to my fighter because while I had gone to see Alison my squadron had been preflighting their fighters.

We were told to immediately launch into space and jump into hyperspace were we go faster than the speed of light. The travel was fine but sleeping was cramped because we were in the little fighters. By the time we came out of hyperspace everyone was ready for battle.

We came out of hyperspace taking the enemy by surprise. Their fighters scrambled to get straight but we came at them with everything we had. By the time the last fighter squadron came in the first wave of enemies were destroyed. The bombers went in towards the planet and dropped their nukes. Then the second wave of enemies came from the other side of the planet. We had fifteen minutes to run out of there but that wasn’t going to happen. So far we plowed our way through them but the worst had finally come to haunt me.

“Help! Help! I can’t shake this bogie!” screams Dave over the communications channel.

I had no other choice but to ram the bogie because it was all over the place. I couldn’t take a shot without hitting Dave’s cockpit.

“This is going to hurt!” I say over the communications channel and I ram the fighter causing it to spin out of control.

“Kel! You alright?”

“Damaged the hull though but my engines are fine. We must leave NOW!”

“Kel I can’t do that.”

“Why?”

“I promised Alison to keep you alive.”

“I did the same thing.”

“Yah but this promise is different.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because you are going to be a father.”

“Yah right after Alison and I get married.”

“She is pregnant.”

“WHAT? Why didn’t she tell me?”

“Well my guess is that she didn’t want you to worry to much about her and not worry about yourself.”

“Oh. That explains everything.”

“Yah, well if I don’t make it out I’ll be seeing you in the other world.” And with that there was a streak of stars and I lost communication with Dave and everyone else. I don’t know what happened but I knew that Dave wouldn’t leave until the nukes went off.

It was a short trip but I was crying most of the way home because I knew Dave was dead and also that I knew Alison was going to have my baby. I landed in the Striker squadron-landing bay and saw six fighters but none bore the numbers of Dave’s. I parked my fighter in its assigned spot and jumped out of it. I ran to Alison’s room to say that I was back and give her the news about Dave.

I got there, punched in her security code and walked in.

“Kel!” Alison said as she hugged me.

“Alison why didn’t you tell me?” I question her.

“I knew that you would be killed if I told you.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that it would distract you and where is Dave?”

“Ah… Dave …ah… he’s…he’s…”

“Commander Kel!” bursts the radio in my pocket.

“Yes?” I reply.

“We have a crippled fighter saying you are a friend of his and is requesting permission to land. Is this true?”

“Yes. Bring him in.”

Minutes that seemed like hours passed and Dave, our crippled fighter pilot, landed in the squadron bay. Alison and I greeted Dave and Alison scolded him. Dave told me why I left. He had rigged my fighter to leave five minutes before the nukes were set to go off. Five minutes after I left the nukes went off causing all fighters except Dave’s to be destroyed. Dave was far enough away from the explosion to escape but it caused his fighter to be crippled by the shockwave of the explosion. He was only allowed to make small lightspeed jumps to get to the space station.

I suggested that we all should go to bed since tomorrow was the big day for Alison and me. I woke up to the sound of metallic bells. I got up and took a shower. I then looked at my watch. 9:49 a.m. One more hour until the big event. I knew Alison wouldn’t be home. Dave came in and helped me get dressed. One hour later Alison and I kissed for the first time as husband and wife. The war is over and we had avenged our homeworld with our people living on it.