Vector and his group of fighters flew low over the terrain, heading towards North Yoshin City at full speed. The city was visible on the horizon as a large cloud of black smoke, with hundreds of black specks swarming around it.
"Arm all weapons, and set reactors to combat output." Vector said. As he spoke, he activated his ship’s shields, an advantage the Stilettos did not have. Soon, waves of imperial fighters were screaming towards the Yoshin defenders. The entire group opened fire, the monochromatic lances of their lasers lancing from the cannons on their wings. Vector, looking at his radar, rolled his fighter left, and broke away from the main group.
"Break and attack!" Vector yelled into his comm mouthpiece.
Soon, a Razorback, the main fighter of the empire, was tailing him. Jerking the control stick back, he pulled his fighter into a tight loop, bringing the Razorback into his blast cone. He pulled the trigger on the stick, and his fighter’s four laser cannons opened fire, filling the sky between the two ships with a deadly curtain of light. Smoke poured out of the engine of the imperial ship, and it listed sideways. The canopy popped off as the pilot had activated the ejection system. Before the seat could launch, however, Vector targeted the fighter again, and opened fire. The offending ship exploded in a brilliant yellow fireball, flaming debris raining down onto the city below. Vector pulled his ship into another loop, opening fire into a formation of Aurora fighters. Two of them exploded, and the other three activated their cloaking systems. Even though the fighters were invisible to the naked eye, Vector still managed to kill all three of them. He reached down, and grabbed the throttle of the Rapier class fighter, and shoved at all the way to a setting marked AB, or Afterburner. He pointed the nose of the fighter to the ground, and shrieked towards it. At the last moment, he yanked back hard on the stick, leveling himself nearly a meter off the ground. Ahead of him was a group of Viper class walkers. Opening fire with his cannons, he vaporized all but one. The last one, which had been disarmed, its single cannon sheared off by flying debris, was running at its full speed away from the city. Vector targeted it with a missile, and pushed the launch button as soon as Merlin’s voice stated ‘Target Locked.’ He pulled up, flying through the explosion his missile created. He spotted another group of fighters, and turned towards them, firing…


Richter sat in his command chair, sipping a drink. He looked at a monitor on the armrest, and smiled.
"Ensign, give me a battle report." Richter said, "I want to know if we are crushing them."
"Sir! We have sustained minimal losses sir, and we seem to have destroyed the defenses for the capital city." The ensign said.
"Good."
"But we have two flights of fighters sir. One led by a Rapier class fighter, the other led by an Aurora class."
Richter nearly choked.
"What? That can’t be! If there are Terrans here… Vector… Ensign, give me the status of the pilot Lorel Girad." Richter said, angrily.
"She is reported as dead, sir. Killed in action when the winged yoshi attacked us." The officer said.
Richter thought for a moment, and had a stroke of genius.
"Ensign, give the order to capture that Aurora starfighter. I want the pilot alive and unharmed. You understand me?" Richter said.
"Yes sir!" the ensign said.
"Good. Because if she is killed, I will have your head on a platter."