I do not own thunderbirds...My muses are on over time with this story. And yes I'm still working on when the little rock turns to dust. I just have I little bit of writer block.
The rescue felt wrong from the start.
Scott in Thunderbird One hovered over the spot where he had seen Thunderbird Four submerge into the ocean. Virgil and John were nearby in Thunderbird Two trying to make contract with their missing red headed brother. They hadn't heard anything for the last thirty minutes.
Gordon frowned at the communication box in Thunderbird Four and began to wonder why one of his three older brothers hadn't tried to contact him yet. He then saw the tourist sub that had sent the call. It was lying on the bottom of the ocean.
"Coral Waves, this is international rescue, come in Coral Waves"
There was only radio silence.
Gordon tried another frequency but failed to hail the sub's crew. Gordon then decided to do a heat reading and found nothing on the sub. Not one heat reading. That made no sense to the aquanaut. The captain of the sub said they had at least five hours of oxygen.
Then something shook Thunderbird Four.
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Rachael Leigh Bell was looking at her screens in her sub call Ignis Unda. She was satisfied that the systems were moving smoothly. Her plans for the day were simple. Meet her contact in New Zealand at twelve hundred hours, New Zealand standard time (NZST). However, something she had learnt long ago was that nothing goes to plan. Something had brought her attention to the radio. The voice wasn't familiar to her. She was about to switch frequencies when she realised it was someone calling for help.
She quickly got the computer to pick up the signal and hopefully pin point it's location. Then something else caught her eye. Whoever was calling for help was going to get into more trouble. She then quickly switched off the auto pilot and steered towards the direction where help was needed.
What she wasn't prepared for was seeing the yellow submarine being targeted. In fact she wasn't expecting to see the sub from International Rescue at all. This was going to be hard to explain why she was going to be late. She would have to come up with a story about her sub having problems later.
That at least sounded more reasonable and less difficult to explain.
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Gordon glared at the small black sub that had caused half of his systems to fail on Thunderbird Four. Gordon could only watch as the black sub was preparing to fire once more. And what made it worst he couldn't fire back.
The missile systems where down.
Gordon closed his eyes. Then he heard an explosion which rocked his sub once more. The red head opened his eyes and saw a slivery blue sub that look like a small jet plane but with really short wings.
"That was close" A female voice said over the radio.
Gordon was going to say something until he heard his three older brothers over the radio.
"Gordon are you alright…come on answer me?" John's voice was a mixture of both concern and fear.
"Gordo this isn't funny…your scaring us now" Virgil said with worried in his tone.
"Gordon I swear to god if your alive I'll make sure you do check lists for the rest of your sorry days!" Scott shouted obviously scared.
"Half of Thunderbird Four systems are down" Gordon started.
"Don't forget the part that you walked into a trap and there are five more enemy subs coming this way" the female voice said.
"Ok who are you?...and why are you on this frequency?" Scott asked.
"Thunderbird Four can you move?" the female asked choosing ignore the question and wanting to get down to business.
"Negative" Gordon replied.
Racheal looked over the screens to her left. She could see how close the subs she had now dubbed as the enemy and to make it worst the yellow sub couldn't move which meant she had to tow the sub up before any more harm could be done to it. She looked at her screens to the right of her looking for the points to shot her magnetic clamps.
"Gordon what does she mean by walking into a trap?" John asked.
"The sub was empty….not one life sign" Gordon said before feeling a sudden pulling motion "Whoa…what are you doing?"
"Towing you to the surface…you can't move and I highly doubt your colleagues would want you to be a sitting duck…or in this case a sitting fish."
"Guys I've just pick up on the five frequencies …they are coming in fast" John said.
Racheal quickly set the sub to track the five enemy subs that were heading their had to come up with a plan and fast. She looked up how far they were to the surface.
"Thunderbird Four how close to the surface do you need to be for one of your craft to pick you up?"
"Ten metres"
"Ten?"
"Is that going to be a problem?"
"We're 100 metres now….the enemy craft are now a fifty metres and closing….I might be able to do both…it's going to be a rough ride" Racheal said thinking out loud.
"Both?" Virgil, Scott, John and Gordon said in unison.
"Tow and if I have to….fight" Racheal said
"Fight? Gordon what the hell is going on down there?" Scott asked.
"I'll explain later. Right now you'll need to worry about getting your colleague and the sub out ASAP" Racheal said.
Gordon read the instrument that told him how far to the surface he was.
"Eighty metres, seventy five, seventy" Gordon's thoughts stoped as his sub rocked again.
"Here they are" Racheal thought to herself then something hit the side of the sub causing her to narrow her eyes "they scratch the sub…now they die."
Gordon could only watch helplessly as a missile hit the Ignis Unda on the side just after it had taken down two of the five black subs that had surrounded them.
The warning sounds fill the cock pit of Racheal's sub. She quickly turned the ear piercing sound off as she glanced at the status that popped up on the screens to the right.
It wasn't good.
She needed to take down the other three subs and fast. She had her next target in sight and prepared to fire once more.
Gordon looked over the status of his sub and tried to reboot the system. He looked up just in time to see the third sub explode. Then Gordon heard the sound he wanted to hear the most. His sub was back on line and ready to go.
Racheal gave a sigh of relief when she heard confirmation that Thunderbird Four had successfully rebooted after she had taken down the fourth sub. She had just brought in the tow line when the fifth sub had started to attack the other side of her already damaged sub. Racheal smiled. She had learnt long ago not leave anything to chance. She knew her sub like the back of her hand.
Racheal after all was the one who designed it.
With one push of the button the sub's side missile launched and hit the target. She then decided to scan for more of these black subs.
There were none.
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John looked over at the computer screen and had seen that the unknown female had managed to bring down the five subs. He was getting worried as he saw how slow the sub had become. Virgil could see the frown across the blonde's face.
"What is it?"
"I think the friendly sub must have taken some damage. It slowed down quite a bit." John replied.
"She could also be taking some precaution?"
However that thought went out of the window when they saw the damage on one side of thunderbird Four.
Scott was relived to see the small yellow sub surface. He then frowned at the damage on the left side.
"Thunderbird Four to Thunderbird One can you heard me?" Scott asked.
"Loud and clear" Gordon replied then let out a sigh.
"Are you ok?"
"I'm ok though it looks like I've got some work ahead of me"
"What about the other" Scott stoped as he saw the silvery blue sub emerge from the ocean.
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Racheal sighed as she allowed her sub to bob up and down with the waves before slowly standing up. She ran a diagnostic check while she carefully opened the side hatch. She had to bite back a curse. The enemy subs had manage to do damage not only first of the three layers but the second layer of the hull as well. She had already guessed there were at least two weeks' worth of work on the one side alone.
"Iginis Unda come in Iginis Unda"
Racheal went to her radio "this is Iginis Unda"
"This is Thunderbird Two will you need assistance?"
Racheal turned her attention to the diagnostic report and it didn't looked good. And as the Iginis Unda was proving its point. The lights flickered throughout the tiny sub before all the systems shut down.
"No. No. NO….don't give up yet" Racheal whispered as she flicked a few switches and nothing happened.
Her plan for the day was simple. She was meant to meet her contact today in New Zealand.
That wasn't going to happen.
I hope you like this chapter. I would also like to thank my beta. who is also is having little rock turns to dust withdrawals. please review.