The resources for your game come from one of two places - the RTP, for all the default resources shipped with the engine, and your game's Audio/Graphics folders, for those resources you add.
When you start a new project, your folder structure is set up, and the things that change from one game to another - the database and maps - are put into the appropriate folders. Everything else - all the resources you use - come from the RTP. These are NOT copied into your folders - since they come as a package, the idea is that when you compress your game, you tell it to either include or exclude the RTP resources (including means your compressed game will be much bigger, but everything is included that's needed to run the game; excluding gives you a smaller compressed file, but whoever plays your game will have to download the RTP to ensure they have access to those resources).
What you might be able to do is locate the RTP on your computer, and copy the entire Audio/Graphics folders, then paste them into your own project. Then you can edit the Game.ini file, and on the line where it says RTP=..., remove whatever comes after the =. That will stop it looking for the RTP each time you load your game, but will ensure the resources are still there. That way, you can store your project on your flash drive and use it on a computer that has Ace but not the RTP.
Then you can either remove those resources from the folders when you're ready to release the game, and decide whether you want to compress with or without the RTP. You will need to change that Game.ini line back to what it was. Removing those resources may get a little tricky if you've added a lot of your own stuff, so you may want to name your own resources in a way that makes it clear they're not RTP.
