[center][h3][color=00FFFF]ASTRA[/color][/h3][/center]
[b][i][color=00FFFF]Earlier, Edwards AFB...[/color][/i][/b]

The air force base was a swarm of activity. Oficially, the cause was the X-37 spaceplane that landed on the runway thirty minutes ago. Half of the personnel though was not members of the Airforce, as idnetified by a rather [i]corporate[/i] shoulder patches on their overalls. The Strke Enterprises crew was swarming over one of the hangars, with the doors slammed shut and any window blanketed over. Over the last two hours, trucks were arriving with equipment for something even most of the air force base was not informed about. What many found strange was that some of the flatbed trucks ony carried one crate, and yet seemed to sag quite a lot under it, suggesting a big weight was being carried.

Inside, the answer to that lied, or rater, stood still. Alex was watching as techs were assembling the re-purposed Titanius Mk III suit-up system. The re-fit included upgrading of the hydraulics suite so the arms would even be able to handle the extra weight. In front of her was the reason - the modules of the ASTRA suit. Alex smiled, recalling her father's words about, as he put it, her 'graduation gift'. The general thought behind the suit was very Starke, but if one comapred the ASTRA to the Titanius, it would be like comparing a steamroller to a hammer.

She had only seen the suit today for the first time as well. Alex could not help but think it funny that she, someone who was pretending to be this petite, lanky girl, was to fly a suit of armor more rough and brutal looking than the Warmachine. The press was going to go bonkers the first time they would catch her on film without the helmet on...

"We're ready, ma'am." one of the techs called out, and Alex nodded, stepping onto the platform. Activating the until-now dormant protocols, her skin shifted back to its natural silver, with golden stripes akin to printed circuits running along. The arms strained under the weight a bit, but eventually craned on every module of the suit. The modules lit up as soona s they came into contact with her or one another, power coursing through them for the first time outside of a laboratory.

To Alex, it felt as though she was finally alive, her powerplant finally needing to output more than 5% of it's designed power. [color=00ffff]"All modules reporting power and self diagnostic is in the green."[/color] Alex reported. She wished Dad could be here, but the Avengers were holding him in preparation for what was to come later today. At least she wasn't alone here for her big moment. [color=00FFFF]"I'm ready, colonel Rhodes. You said you had some space garbage you needed to de-orbit?"[/color]

'Unca James' smiled at her, nodding. "It's time you learned how to play proper catch. We have a failing suveillance satellite on polar orbit. Control will upload orbital data to your suit. Your mission is to intercept the satelite and ascertain it's state. If you can, perform a repair, but the satellite is from the cold-war era and thus, repair mission is not economically viable. If it is nto salvageable, you are to dismount the data storage module and bring it back to the base after altering the satelite's orbit to burn up in the atmosphere over the Pacific." Alex nodded in understanding, making a note that Colonel rhodes knew the best games. How many uncles would elt their nieces go to space to fiddle with multimillion dollar pieces of military technology?

The door of the hangar finally opened and Alex put on the helmet, downloading the navigational data from the suit into her own memory. Of course, there were only three men in the world privy to her true nature, so Control uploaded the info into the suit first. Only Thomas, James, and to their neverending dismay, Nikolai Fury knew the truth behind her.

"STARKE-3, EDW Control. You are clear for takeoff. Good hunting."

[color=00ffff]"EDW Control, STARKE-3. 10-4, keep the lights on."[/color] Alex responded over the radio and linked into the multifield generators. Selecting a gravitational field, she gently lifted off of the pavement, having much greater control and stealthiness than Titanius or Warmachine who relied on repulsor based flight. Once she cleared the specified altitude though, she too switched the generators from projecting a gravity field into repulsor propulsion, giving herself much greater acceleration.

She shot upwards with an excited 'yeehaw', following a trajectory that would take her on approach to the faulty satellite. Soon the air around her started ionizing, as her suit battled the resistance of the atmosphere. The heavy defensive capabilities of the ASTRA suit were bought with abysmal aerodynamic properties, relying on power alone to keep it in flight and on course. Alex however linked into the chest generator, setting it to project a cone shaped, vectored repulsor field in fornt of her, essentially creating an aerodynamic shround in front of herself like the payload fairings on the common rockets. With that, her speed increased an order of magnitude and soon enough the sky started to turn from blue to black.

[color=00ffff]"STARKE-2, STARKE-3. I have visual on the target. I can see damage, likely solar wind and micrometeorites. Proceeding to have a closer look."[/color] She reported down.

"Three, two. Can you give us video?" came Rhodey's question from the ground. Acknowledging, Alex opened a channel through the Iridium constellation and started streaming what she saw to the base.

[color=00ffff]"Damage is not severe, but the section that housed the RTGs had been blown off, looks like a micrometeorite at work. The satelite lost power. Primary objective is a failure, proceeding with secondary objective."[/color] she reported, raising her hand and launching a tractor beam, pulling the satellite to her. Reachign around, she unplugged the drives and stored them in one of the armor's compartments, then she turned around and fired a low power repulsor blast at the satellite in a precisely calculated moment, slwoing it down enough to enter the atmosphere on a desired de-orbit. [color=00ffff]"Complete."[/color]

"Roger that, return to base."

turning around herself, Alex watched the Earth as she flown over it. It was so serene and beautiful. She could see the antarctica below her, before passing over China, the Arctic and then back to over the USA. When she was nearing her descent point, she manuvered aorund and engaged the repulsors again, coming virtually to a halt over the base and letting the gravity take a grip of her.

She started falling straight down at tremendous speed, slamming onto the atmosphere like a bag of bricks. Her excitememnt escalated into mad laughter as fire exploded around her and the armor's surface turned black with scorch marks.

[b][i][color=00FFFF]Present time, Avengers tower...[/color][/i][/b]

One short stop at Edwards to offload the data droves and ehr her ear chewed out by Rhodey for 'attracting attention with her flaming atmospheric cannonball in a flamboyant manner only an offspring of Thomas Starke would be capable of', Alex was on her way to the Tower. She wanted to take the armor, but the techs insisted on running a detailed diagnostic after her maiden space flight, and so she had to lower herself to taking a military truck and then the subway.

Mirage was already waiting for her at the reception, arms folded on the chest and foot tapping in annoyed inpatience. [color=00ffff]"I know, I know, I'm going." [/color]Alex grunted as she hurried to the elevator, inputting her security code and selecting the floor where the meeting was to take place, wondering what band of misfits would she become a part of.