Out Run The Stars

1,000 words

"What the…?" Phoenix Bryan groaned as his blanket was pulled away from him. He opened his eyes to see his commanding officer standing above him. "What do you want this early?"

"You have a mission," The CO said. "It's time to get up and earn your place here. Some of the other operatives are already disgruntled that you jumped the line."

Phoenix battled against his heavy eyelids. "I didn't jump the line. My mother happens to be president and put me in this role."

"You can explain that to your fellow agents," The CO sighed. "For now, you need to be up and ready to roll in five minutes."

After she stomped out of the bunker, Phoenix lifted himself out of the bed. A quick look in the mirror showed that he was just as pale as he ever was. "Well, mother, I hope you're happy. I'm awake before the sun has risen." He opened the curtains and was blinded by the sun.

There was a dossier on the desk. He picked it up and read it over. A gang was planning a heist of a space ship that was being housed near a U.S. satellite. Phoenix yawned as he looked over the details of the plot.

"Bryan, what are you waiting for?" Ginger Logan stuck her head in the door. "We aren't coming in here to carry you."

The other operatives in the mission formed a semi-circle. Each looked at Phoenix with contempt as he joined them. "So, I think we should head out in our pods but go in the opposite direction of the ship. The White Alien gang won't be expecting that, so we can catch them off guard."

"That's the worst idea I've heard since you were put in this squad," One of his peers sneered.

Ginger looked at him and sighed. "I'll go with you. The rest of the crew will go on the planned route."

"Logan, you know I'm right about this. Why are you splitting us up?"

"The C.O. put me in charge of this mission, and while I think you're wrong, it's not a horrible idea for us to split up."

Phoenix sulked as he entered the pod. Ginger climbed into the pilot's seat. As they blasted off, his heart dropped to his stomach and the breath left his body. "You could've been nicer to me back there."

"And you could admit that you're a spoiled rich boy," Ginger shot. "Some of us have worked hard to become spies."
Before he could answer, the gang's vehicle appeared. They had their guns aimed in the direction the others had gone. Phoenix punched in commands on the computer in front of him. "I've put the cloak on us. That should buy us some time when we start firing."

The rival ship moved at a glacial pace. Gunners hung out the window, they had hoods on to disguise themselves. One of them noticed an asteroid hurtling towards them, and fired.

Phoenix took the opportunity to let off a shot of his own. It was direct hit. The gang's ship rocked back and forth. A gunner was tossed from the ship, his pals tried to bring him back in but he was pulled him away.

The other gunners turned their weapons towards the pod that had come racing from the other side of the satellite. Within seconds, there were cannons and machine laser guns being shot at the pod.

Phoenix and Ginger watched in horror as their fellow operatives disappeared from sight. She turned to him and sighed, "This is why you should have waited to shoot. Now we lost people."

"We had to do something," he punched in the same code and another shot flew at the gang's ship. It rocked their ship again.

"What are you doing?" Ginger asked. A laser cannonball crashed into their pod and threw them off course. "You are going to get us killed."

Undeterred, Phoenix blasted off another shot. This one ripped a hole in the middle of the gang's ship. It began to rip apart before exploding.

"That was epic!" He said with awe in his voice. Suddenly the weight of what happened hit him. "What happens now? I mean we stopped the heist but we don't know what was in the space ship that they wanted."

"That's not our business."

"It should be though. We need to know what's in there because other nefarious entities will be after it."

Ginger entered her orders and the pod moved. They circled around the satellite and landed by the other ship. They climbed out of their pod and moved towards the ship. Ginger sighed, "We are going to get killed for doing this."

"My mom will clear us," Phoenix shrugged. He opened the door to the ship. The interior was bathed in green light. "What the hell?"

They stepped into the ship. The walls were covered with computers, many of them humming. Phoenix spun to the center of the ship. His eyes grew bigger.

In the center of the ship was a tube. Within the tube was the body of President Craig Houston, who had gone missing the year before. Phoenix finally managed to ask, "What is he doing here? He was killed last year, it's how my mother took the presidency."

"His body was never found. But what would the White Aliens want with him?"

"The self-destruct sequence has been started," A robotic voice warned from above. The cabin became pressurized with air. Phoenix and Ginger began to run. He felt the warmth of a fireball that consumed the space ship.

When he got to the pod, he turned to find that Ginger wasn't with him. He turned to see her falling into the fire.

He punched in the commands for the pod to take him back to the base. There were questions to be answered, but his mission was complete at least.

When he landed, he called his mother to brief her on what had happened.