Prologue

Admiral Kobayashi a short and stocky male, with black hair and a beard with some visible gray hairs on it, the man born and raised in Japan, has ordered every pilot to gather around in the hangar bay, to give us one final speech, as we finish falling and stand at attention, he clear his throat.

"those metalheads have finally arrived in our solar system, and are aiming to destroy planet Earth, the last home we have in our galaxy."

he takes a good at all of our faces while keeping a stoic expression, he then continues talking.

"all of you will mostly die defending, the colony ship Endeavor, the first ever human vessel capable of warp traveling to another galaxy and the target of that ship will be the Andromeda Galaxy."

Admiral Kobayashi then speaks from the heart for the first time ever.

"it was pleasure having exceptionally pilots serving under my command."

he pauses and shouts.

"now go show those aluminum cans, why the space reapers are the elite squadron in all of the milky way galaxy!"

we all shout back proudly in unison.

"sir, yes, sir!"

he shows a slight smile, and shouts

"now go mount your night wings and engage the enemy."

we quickly leave the formation and head towards our night wing star fighters, equipped with two laser turrets on each wing and with manually controlled proton space torpedoes for the co-pilots, as I'm about climb inside the cockpit, I hear the voice of my co-pilot.

"hey Rodriguez, wait for me!"

I respond annoyed.

"This is no time to fool around Schmidt, the enemy is in our solar system and can arrive at any moment."

I turn around to see Private Emilia Schmidt, a five foot four inches, blonde haired and blue eyed, female born in the United States, who is wearing our standard dark black jumpsuit, with the emblem of earth placed in the location where our heart is at, and with our last names stitched on our jumpsuits, on the opposite side, she straightens herself and responds.

"I wasn't fooling around, I went to say goodbye to."

she stops herself from saying anymore, while she blushes with embarrassment, I sigh and asked.

"you went to say goodbye to your boyfriend Johnson huh?"

she nods still embarrassed, I smile slightly and reply

"I'll give you a pass this time."

I look at all of my fellow pilots and continue.

"this is the last time we will all see each other alive after all."

I look back to Schmidt, who is doing the same, while holding a vulnerable and sad expression on her face, I then say confidently.

"don't worry Schmidt, I will make damn sure that we get out alive."

she responds with her spirit slightly raised.

"thank you, I'm glad to have the number one pilot of our squadron as my co-pilot."

I clear my throat.

"as much as I enjoy this little chat, we should really get going."

she extends her arm and holds out her fist, I look at it and think to myself.

"don't overthink it and just go for it."

as I fist bump her she says.

"let's go show those aluminum cans what we are made of."

I reply.

"yeah let's do it."

we enter into our night wing star fighter through the airlock, and make our way through the cramp corridor, towards the cockpit and as I turn on our ship, I run a diagnostics check to make sure that our plasma thrusters are in working condition, our carbon dioxide scrubbers are clean so that we are breathing in clean air, our ammunition and fuel are well stocked, checking that our hyperdrive is up and running just in case we need to emergency jump, also checking that our ship's shield is at one hundred percent, so that we are protected from space debris and projectiles from the enemy, and finally I turn on our intercoms, so we can hear the orders of Admiral Kobayashi while we are in combat. The static of the intercom hisses in our ears, as Admiral Kobayashi voice says.

"the time to take off, has finally arrived pilots."

all of us slowly drive in formation, towards the massive hangar bay door, that is closed, I then take a couple of deep breaths and say to myself.

"please God, look over my sister Maria and my niece Ruby if I don't make it."

Schmidt overhears me and says.

"don't worry Brian, if we our successful, they will arrive at the Andromeda Galaxy safely."

I reply holding back tears.

"thank you."

she asks.

"for what?"

I answer.

"for finally, calling me by my first name."

I wipe my eyes and then we anxiously wait for the command from Admiral Kobayashi to take off, I firmly place my hands on the throttles, while two touch screens open in front of Schmidt, she also keeps her eyes on the radar and her hands ready to take control the ship's proton space torpedoes. Each following minute seems to feel slower and slower than the last one, as we continued to wait for our orders to take off, by now the hangar floor has been cleared from personnel, and then the silence is broken when the alarms starts blaring as the massive hangar bay doors begin to slide open to the vast emptiness of space, and then the intercoms once again hisses as Admiral voice pops in.

"the enemy have jumped out of hyperdrive, and our now orbiting earth so go and give them hell space reapers."

the ship in the hangar bay take off in rows, one after another, until it was our turn to go, and as we exit and enter the darkness of space, I already see, the pilots of other battleships engaging, the our A.I foe, I fly into the fray and start firing my laser turrets, destroying enemy fighters with ease, and as I take down each one, Schmidt whoops with excitement.

"hell yeah Rodriguez!"

as I continue destroying more ships, I hear Admiral Kobayashi over our intercoms say.

"the Endeavor has finally finished warming up it's warp drive and is now ready to make it's jump, so go focus your attention on the objective and make sure that it makes the jump safely, and once you feel like you have cleared enemies near you, remember to make the jump through the wormhole it leaves behind."

I then get reminded that we only get a few minutes to make that jump in the wormhole, before it closes permanently, and then thousands of our battleships, start forming a massive shield around the Endeavor, to protect it from the A.I capital ships, Schmidt interrupts my focus as she yells with excitement.

"hell yeah two hits in one torpedo!"

I then gently slap myself with both hands and think to myself.

"focus Brian, you need to destroy as many enemy fighters as you possibly can."

I keep my momentum going by destroying more enemy fighters, but then our ship suddenly shakes violently, and I feel like something is off, because I can't pull off a simple sideways strafe, I then ask Schmidt.

"what's the damage?"

she answers.

"our right plasma thrusters has been disabled."

I then say under my breath.

"looks like I'm stuck with doing simple maneuvers."

she chuckles lightheartedly

"are you disappointed you can't do your fancy moves?"

I laugh and say with confidence.

"this is nothing, I can fly this thing with just one plasma thruster."

I nervously laugh and think to myself.

"I need to be extra careful when I engage in combats from now on."

she teases me.

"what happened to the, I can fly this thing with just one plasma thruster?"

I ignore her, but she continues with talking with a smug tone.

"Don't worry Rodriguez, I'll carry us to victory, with my torpedo skills."

nonetheless I continue taking down enemies at a less frequent rate than before, but at least things seemed to be looking good on our end, until our ships suddenly shakes violently again, and this time without asking, Schmidt says.

"there is breach, I'll go seal it up with the steel foam, before all of our oxygen gets sucked out."

she quickly stands up from her chair, and runs towards the source of the breach, with haste and then once again our ship shakes vigorously, I then shout at her.

"Schmidt, what is going on!?"

she doesn't answer me, so I once again shout fearing the worst.

"Emilia are you okay!?"

I get up from my seat and quickly run towards her, where I'm met with the sight of Emilia bleeding from her chest as a piece of metal pierced through her jumpsuit, while the breach was not closed, I quickly grab the metal spray can that she is loosely holding onto, and I use it to seal the breach and bring my attention back to Emilia, who is coughing out blood, I grab her hand and take out a sedative that slows down the heart, so that she doesn't bleed out quick, I then say.

"don't worry Emilia, I'm going to put you in cryostasis and have you get the medical attention that you need when we arrive to Andromeda."

she places her bloody hand on my cheeks and says weakly.

"I didn't get to say that I love him."

I try to comfort her as I slowly pick her up with both of my arms.

"you will tell him the moment you arrive, I promise."

I carry her to the back of the ship, and gently put her inside the cryo tube, and as the lid slowly closes by itself, I say to myself.

"I refuse to lose another co-pilot."

after it closes, the intercom hisses once again, I the make a quick dash back to the cockpit and hear Admiral Kobayashi say.

"The Endeavor has successfully made the jump through the wormhole, every pilot, that has shaken off the enemy, you only got a short window before the wormhole closes permanently."

I look through the cockpit window and see the amazing sight of the wormhole that has appeared in the void of space and I think to myself relieved.

"holy shit, it actually worked."

I sit back down and quickly fly towards the wormhole, but then multiple targets start firing at me from behind, I then think to myself.

"damn it, I can't shake them off with just one working plasma thruster."

I turn off the thrusters and turned on the after burners that allow me to reverse, the enemy fighters fly past me, and I use this opportunity to fire at their ships, destroying all of them, I then turn off the afterburners and quickly turn on the plasma thrusters and continue flying towards the wormhole, and as I reach the entrance of the wormhole, a sudden explosion sends me spinning uncontrollably while entering it. After exiting the wormhole, everything that I experienced while traveling through it was nothing but a hazy memory, but since I was still alive, and my ship was not too badly damaged, I made a guess that we managed to escape through, I then return to the chair, where I was thrown off from, so that I can look outside of the cockpit window, hoping that the Endeavor came through safely, I then think to myself excited

"Maria, Ruby, it looks like I'm going to see you much sooner than expected."

but when I look out the window, I don't see the Endeavor, or the Battleships that were escorting it, or even the night wing fighters who managed to make it through in time, I then think to myself as panic begins to sink in.

"no there must be some mistake, they should be right there."

I stare out at the dark void of open space, hoping that at least something will come into view, several hours pass by as I sit patiently in my chair, and then the intercom hisses once again, I grab it without a second thought and begin to broadcast myself.

"this is Lieutenant Brian Rodriguez, can anyone hear me?"

a distorted and unknown language responds to me, I then think to myself.

"what the hell is that, this is not a known human language."

I shrug it off as potential damage that our communications may have sustained during the explosion."

I speak into it again.

"our intercoms might be busted please repeat what you just said."

whoever is on the other side speaks in a unknown language but with less static interference, I then run a quick diagnostics on the ship and see that our communications is running just fine, I stare at the intercom with uneasy feeling.

"if our communications is running smoothly then what the fuck is that speaking to me?"