[AN: I have to remind everyone that the Star Fighters will be tailored after real fighter jets… I want readers to be able to visualise this vehicles and people for deep immersion]
The guards outside led Orion through the corridor and into the hangar.
Rows of unused or faulty starfighters waited in silence, their hulls reflecting the hangar lights.
His eyes went straight to one ship.
An F-22 Raptor.
It was the fastest fighter available here, even if it wasn't the fastest in the galaxy.
Orion turned to the engineer in charge.
"I need an electronic manual for this fighter," he said. "It's been years since I flew one of these."
He glanced at the ship again.
"I am used to flying my corvette," he added. "But that's gone now, isn't it?"
The engineer studied him for a few seconds, then walked away without a word.
He returned shortly with a datapad and handed it over.
"Here. Everything we have on the Raptor," the engineer said. "Please take your time."
Orion nodded and began swiping through the information.
As he read, one finger drifted toward the dataport on the pad.
Thin black tendrils slid out from his skin and slipped inside.
{Downloading F-22 Raptor Starfighter Data…}
{Downloading…}
{1%… 2%… 5%… 10%… 15%… 25%… 40%… 65%… 99%…}
{Download Complete}
{Configuring Piloting into Combat Module…}
{Configuration Complete}
{Piloting Optimization…}
{Optimization Complete}
Orion smiled.
He didn't hand the datapad back right away.
Instead, he spent a few more minutes actually reading the basics, double-checking layouts and controls.
When he was done, he returned the datapad to the engineer.
The man blinked.
"You're done already?"
"Yes," Orion said. "Just needed a refresher."
He waved casually and headed toward the fighter.
"Wait. What about your pilot suit?" a support staff member called out.
"Don't need it," Orion replied.
He climbed into the cockpit and sealed it shut.
After securing himself in the seat, he glanced over the control panel.
There was no visible connection port, but that didn't bother him.
He placed both hands on the digital controls and used one of his abilities.
{Tech Interface}
The screen glitched for less than a millisecond and then his HUD came online.
{Combat Module Activated}
{Targeting System Connected}
Orion slipped on his tactical headset and powered up the starfighter.
He ran a quick check of his starfighter's systems.
"You're clear for take-off," a voice said over the channel.
"Roger that," Orion muttered.
The Raptor surged forward and launched out of Atlas's hangar.
***
The moment he entered open space, Orion felt it.
"Hahahahahaha!" he laughed, unable to stop himself.
He tried to put the feeling into words, but none fit.
There was nothing like this… not even close.
It was intoxicating.
For the first time in his life, he felt truly free.
{Heat Signatures Detected}
{Human: 187}
{Non-Human: 89,500}
{Chrysalith Swarm Pods Confirmed}
{Targeting Enemies}
Red markers filled his HUD almost blocking out his vision.
Orion's smile widened as he pressed the fire button.
***
Orion loved this feeling of flying in space, he couldn't stop himself from roaming the battlefield.
He didn't even know when he flew out of the fleet formation until Alara's voice boomed through his radio.
"Mr. Kord you are moving out of the formation." She warned but that didn't slow Orion down on bit.
Instead, he focused on the pods ahead of him.
{Target Locked}
The moment the first shots left the Raptor's guns, he pushed the throttle harder and dove straight into the chaos.
Some Chrysalith pods streaked past him like living meteors slamming into the shields of the larger ships.
Others burst apart under heavy fire.
Orion slipped between them, his fighter rolling sideways as a pod tore through the space where his cockpit had been a second earlier.
He yanked the controls and killed the thrust.
The Raptor flipped end over end, spinning backward through space.
A pod rushed straight at him, unable to adjust in time.
Orion fired.
The pod exploded into fragments of organic mist, the shockwave rolling past his shields.
He slammed the engines back on and shot forward again, weaving between two Helix corvettes that were already taking heavy hits.
More pods launched out of several bioships instantly making up for the pods destroyed.
However, Orion wasn't discouraged, in fact his only response was "Perfect."
He twisted the Raptor into a tight corkscrew, rotating along its forward axis while drifting sideways.
A bioship shot pods after him trying to chase him and predict his path, but his movements were erratic.
The Raptor slid under a destroyer's hull so close that Orion could see scorched armour plates rushing past his canopy.
He pulled up hard, cutting across the destroyer's nose and into open space again.
The pods followed.
That was the mistake.
Orion snapped the fighter into a sudden vertical climb, then cut power again. The Raptor stalled for a split second.
The pods overshot him.
He rolled, locked targets, and fired everything he had.
Lasers carved through space and the cluster of pods vanished in overlapping explosions.
"Beautiful," Orion said softly.
A warning flashed.
{Proximity Alert}
A bioship tentacle lashed out, thick and fast, trying to grab him mid-flight as he got too close.
Orion didn't dodge he just flew straight at it.
At the last second, he rolled sideways and skimmed along the tentacle's surface, so close that organic matter scraped against his shields.
As he passed, he fired point-blank down its length.
The tentacle ruptured and recoiled, spraying debris into space.
Orion laughed again, excited as hell.
He dove through a cloud of wreckage, letting fragments hide his retreat because he knew better than to get closer.
He glanced back and saw another tentacle reach out to take back the debris.
Ignoring that he turned back to focus on the target Alara gave him.
Pods burst out from behind a cargo ship, his target, but thankfully he was already close enough.
He killed inertial dampening for half a second.
The sudden freedom nearly ripped him from the seat.
The Raptor snapped into a wild lateral slide, drifting sideways at impossible angles. Orion used the momentum, rotating the fighter while still moving in one direction.
He fired while sideways.
Then upside down.
Then backward.
Pods detonated one after another, unable to track him properly.
Helix fighters nearby struggled to keep up, their pilots doing their best just to stay alive.
Orion passed them like a ghost while a swarm of pods tried to box him in.
Orion grinned.
He pointed the Raptor straight toward the centre of the trap and hit full burn.
At the last moment, he pulled straight up and fired a burst straight down.
The pods collided with each other in their rush to follow, exploding in a violent chain reaction.
The blast wave hurled the Raptor forward.
Orion rode it.
His HUD updated rapidly.
{Confirmed Kills: 47}
{Confirmed Kills: 52}
{Confirmed Kills: 56}
Orion rolled his shoulders and tightened his grip.
"Come on then."
He plunged straight through the fleet line, threading gaps so narrow most pilots would never dare try.