There was nothing better to Jace then getting the chance to transverse vast alien worlds. To him, it was one of the greatest highlights of his job.
His teammates, on the other hand, made it harder to enjoy.
"If we die I'm not talking to you in the afterlife," Cyrus said as his eyes scanned the metal underworld.
"I don't know why you're so bugged out," Jace said almost absentmindedly, "We've been to a dozen worlds a lot more dangerous than this one."
"I just have a bad feeling," Cyrus muttered. "Like we're moments away from totally screwing things up."
"Dude, your whole life is a bad feeling," He said with a smirk.
Right before bumping into a service droid.
The spider-like machine froze, it's red light ignited the area around them as it activated its scanners.
"Subject 0436 is…" A whirring sound escaped from the inside of the creature. "Biological!"
"Well shit," Jace muttered as he and his fellow teammates watched the machine process their presence.
"Requesting exterminator," The machine blared and carried on.
Jace didn't know exactly what that entailed, but he wasn't too eager to find out.
So the trio ran.
"I told you it was a bad idea," Cyrus exhaled as they ran down the tunnel. "Why would they send three humans to a Machine Empire controlled planet?"
"Because we're the best team the Galactic Alliance has," Jace said.
"Well we aren't going to do any good dead," Jasmine spat.
Despite his well-tuned physic, he was quickly running out of stamina. The last few weeks had been back to back missions and they were finally taxing on him.
Paradise puffed into smoke when he saw the silhouette blocking their freedom.
The machine was plated with a red colored metal that was designed to resemble burning flames. That and the flamethrower attachment on its arm didn't bestow the most confidence in a passive confrontation.
Jasmine sprang into action first. She grabbed Jace by the shoulder and pulled him to the ground moments before a spray of fire ignited the metal tunnel in dancing light.
Jace rolled across the ground and pounced into the air, kicking the machine in the chest and knocking it backward.
The three didn't waste any more time and ran out into the gray air.
"Our ship may be cloaked but we can't waste too much time trying to find it," Jasmine said, "Because eventually, something will notice it."
"Don't worry," Jace said, consulting the map on his holophone, "I got this."
Jace looked up from his phone and froze, he'd been so absorbed in the map that had hadn't noticed the line of Cog soldiers blocking their path.
The silver colored grunts hadn't changed since their invasion of Earth in the late 90's. Their red eyes gleamed emotionlessly through their bronze helmets as they stood like statues.
"I don't think we can handle that many at once," Cyrus muttered. "Maybe we should try to go around them.
"Are you kidding?" Jace asked and held out the device strapped to his wrist. "We have morphers for a reason."
Jasmine shrugged, "He does have a point."
Cyrus groaned, "It's always fighting with you two."
The three soldiers held out their arms and grabbed for the device resting on their wrists.
"It's morphin' time!" Jace exclaimed as he pressed the small button. "Cyber Change!"
In a flash of color, the trio was gone, and three Power Rangers stood in their place. Their armor was similar to standard SPD suits, only with sharper visors and the omission of any badges or other recognizable insignias. Another addition was the inclusion of dusters that hung from their waists. This was both to provide extra protection and to give the team a more distinguishable appearance.
Jace was the Red Ranger, Cyrus was the Green Ranger, and Jasmine was Blue.
One of the Cogs jumped towards the Red Ranger, but a swift upward arc of his knee knocked the grunt down before it could counteract.
"I know how much you like fighting," Green muttered as he dodged to Cogs trying to flank his sides, "But we should probably keep going."
"I'm not 'just fighting'," Red said and swung his combat knife into one of the Cog's chests. "I'm clearing out a path." He kicked another grunt back into the oncoming mob, knocking them down like a mob of dominos. "I'm just having some fun with it."
While distracted by the conversation a Cog snuck up behind Red and stabbed him with one of their electric spears. Sparks erupted from his armor as the charge of energy coursed through him.
He fell to his knees as pain exploded from every nerve in his body. The Cog lifted the spear again, aiming towards the nape of his neck with robotic precision.
But before it could plunge the weapon downward it was knocked away by a series of yellow colored blasts.
"Maybe if you two didn't spend so much time bickering you could actually operate competently," Blue muttered.
"Yeah, yeah," Red said as he got his footing, "Whatever." With temporary damage to his ego, Jace was willing to retreat.
While Jace ran across the alien world, his joints still shaky from the pain, and a map pulled up across his visor, he couldn't help but reflect.
He had spent his entire life dreaming of becoming a Power Ranger, but sometimes things got a bit complicated…
Finally… Jace thought as he watched the small blue dot appear on his map.
"You've got to be kidding me…" The Blue Ranger muttered. A group of Cogs and the exterminator bot from before stood between the trio and their ship.
"How is that even possible?" Green asked, "They were behind us!"
"No time," The Red Ranger muttered and drew his combat knife.
The three clashed with an explosion of sparks. Each of the Rangers used their extensive training to the fullest, parrying and dodging every strike with accuracy and precision.
"The target has been upgraded to threat level three," The machine barked, "Requesting more troops and air support."
While the Red Ranger was blocking the attacks from three Cogs at once the exterminator aimed its flamethrower arm right towards him.
Red looked down the thin barrel and froze. There wasn't any time to escape.
And then the machine found a blade sticking out of its chest. It looked towards the object with an emotion Red could only guess was confusion before exploding with sparks.
The machine fell as frayed wires and oil bled from its gaping wound.
To reveal an Orange Head standing behind it.
The Red Ranger wasn't sure if he should be relieved or terrified.
With the leader destroyed the Cogs fell into chaos, defaulting to sporadic, uncoordinated movements.
The Red Ranger stared down the Orange Head. While originally used by the Troobian empire as deadly mercenaries they had recently fallen into the hands of selective underground gangsters.
In truth, Jace had no idea what it would do.
After a few moments of tense silence, it lowered its blade and fled.
Red's eyes tracked it as it dived into a nearby alley, but as he moved to follow it he heard Jasmine call out. "We have to get to the ship before these Cogs can regroup."
He always hated it when she was right.
They all ran towards the ship, which was still hidden by an invisibility field.
From behind the Rangers, a marching sound intensified. Apparently, reinforcements were arriving.
The Red Ranger activated a switch remotely from his helmet and the street in front of them began to be obscured by a strange shimmering shape.
Every open alley around them began to flood with the silver bodied Cogs. It was as if every grunt on the entire planet was there to capture them.
The shimmering gave way to blue colored metal, and the round shaped Astro Megaship had appeared.
The three Rangers didn't waste any time. While dodging blaster fire they lept unto the open ramp and into the safety of the ship.
As the ramp began to close one of the grunts leaped onto it, trying to get a grip on the smooth metal as the door arched upward. With no remorse or even hesitation, the ship door closed around the waist of the Cog, slicing it in half.
The Cog wasn't quite done yet, and instead pulled itself towards the Rangers, crawling rapidly across the bridge.
With stomp of his foot, the Red Ranger crushed the Cog's head and caused the rest of it to go limp
"Aye,yi,yi,yi!" A voice from inside the ship exclaimed. "That was a close one!"
The Alpha-B unit rushed up to the Rangers as they demorphed. Much like the Megaship, the Alpha-B was a mass produced model made by the Galactic Alliance for military purposes. It was similar in design to that one made famous in Ranger Legend, but this model was slightly sleeker, with a shinier body and a black colored underskin.
With an upward tilt, the Astro Megaship took off.
"We're not safe just yet," Cyrus said and jumped into the pilot seat moments before the ship shook under the siege of several energy blasts.
From the ship's wall mounted monitor the Rangers could see several oncoming, the fork-shaped Quadrafighters closing in.
"You guys might want to take a seat," Cyrus said and he pulled at the ship's controls, turning the ship to its side to dodge more oncoming fire.
Jace slid across the deck and landed hard against one of the terminals. A bruised rib aside, he was still glad that Cyrus had taken the helm.
As the ship left the planet's atmosphere, the blackness of space opened up to the crew of the Astro Megaship and silence fell.
"Looks like we lost them," Cyrus said and leaned back in his seat.
"Good thing," Jace said, rubbing his side. "I don't think I'd have survived if you kept flying like that."
"I told you to sit down," Cyrus spat, but under his harsh tone, he was smiling to himself.
"Would you please hand over the artifact?" Alpha-B asked politely.
"Oh yeah, sorry." He reached into his pocket and pulled out small bronze colored orb.
Alpha took the object excitedly and rushed to secure it in one of the ship's safes. Jace watched with a reserved satisfaction. He couldn't help feeling a bit giddy every time Alpha waddled by.
"Hope it was worth it," Cyrus said as the door closed behind Alpha. "Since the three of us almost died to get that thing."
"Must have been," Jace concluded, "Otherwise they wouldn't have sent us."
Suddenly Jasmine came back into the room. She looked at the two with a pale expression on her face. "Commander Andros needs to speak with us."
"With all of us?" Cyrus asked.
Jasmine didn't even need to nod.
Cyrus switched the ship back to autopilot and the three stepped into the small conference room with holo-display in the middle of the table.
Commander Andros was there, his speckled hair and beard looking more defined under his frown.
"The three of you will not return to base to deliver the artifact," he said with a stern expression.
"Why not?" Cyrus asked.
"Because" Commander Andros said before pausing to better collect his words. "We lost contact with Phantos. The Galactic Alliance thinks it would be safer to relocate to Earth for the time being."
"What?" Cyrus asked with a pale face, " Do they think there was some kind of attack?"
"We're doing everything we can to find out," The Commander replied. "We'll talk more after you come to Earth."
Cyrus leaned so close to the holograph that his breath obscured the illusion. "Can't you at least tell me something? For God's sake, I deserve to know if my family is safe."
Commander Andros did a two finger salute. "May the power protect you."
And the holo-call ended.
A/N: This is purely a prototype for a story that may eventually come to life. If you would like to see these characters and explore this facet of PR world please leave a comment to express your thoughts and opinions
