Power Rangers SPD: Aftershock
A.N: The first chapter. I try to keep everything true to canon. I really have nothing to say here. See you at the bottom!
Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers or anything related to them, and so on.
Supreme Commander Birdie sometimes hated his job. At times, the job had its perks, mainly near total command of all S.P.D. forces or personnel. However, it was the times like these that he really wished he had taken an easier job.
What seemed like a million things had spiralled out of his control, starting with minor technical issues, to massive requests for assistance or reinforcements. There was a riot on one of the many planets S.P.D. held a presence, a bombing, kidnapping and even small-scale battles.
As well, Birdie needed a new Chief of Technology. Heck, he had needed one long before, when the previous Chief had retired. Given the importance of the position, he had called meetings with other heads to discuss the empty position. Birdie had called for applicants, and over a hundred application forms were filed towards his desk. He never realised how much sleep could be lost when going through such forms. While Dr. Manx had never filed a form, his brief, though disastrous stay at Earth's S.P.D. Base had convinced him that she would best fill the role, with good reason.
Despite being a so-called 'backwater' Base, as coined by many other Commanders, it was far more advanced than most other S.P.D. Bases he had been to. From what Cruger had told him, most, if not all, the upgrades to the systems had been done by Dr. Manx. It didn't help that she was a native of Sphinx, and most Sphinx natives were known for their technological extravagance. The only Sphinx natives that were with S.P.D. were both stationed at Earth.
Apart from the debacle about the empty position, Birdie had yet another problem on his 'hands'. The outpost that S.P.D. had on the Alpha Centuri system had sent a static filled request for help. The only thing that could be heard clearly through the static was the explosions. Birdie had sent a scout ship to the outpost over three hours ago, and it should have returned over an hour ago. The combination of these things and factors was taking their toll on Birdie, and he wished for a day of peace and quiet.
The only thing that had done something to relieve some of his headache was that the siege of Earth was over. It took some weight off his shoulders, as the reinforcements he was preparing to send to Earth could be diverted to other stations needing help. S.P.D. was spread out too thinly, and regular requests for help were not unusual.
Just as he was finished writing out and sending the next orders for the ship captains, he received an alert from his secretary. Touching the button, he questioned his secretary. "Yes?"
"Supreme Commander, Patrol Group Alpha reports that they have found the scout ship. The captain of the scout ship has a report for you," came the sectary's response over the intercom.
"Send him over," ordered Birdie. He was anxious to see the report, and hoped that the captain had something good. He really wasn't in the mood for more bad news. He gave a sigh and leaned back in his chair, awaiting the inevitable.
The mud course was often the most hated part of the morning training. Especially for the B-Squad Rangers, all but one shared a love/hate relationship with the dirty path, if it could be called as such. On one hand, considering it was right after rather tiring obstacle course, the run was even more tiring than it would have been. On the other hand, completion of the run signified the end of their daily morning torment, and left them free for about half an hour to clean up.
On this particular day, the four B-Squad Rangers ran to the finish. Rather, one ran to the finish and the other three stumbled or dragged themselves to the end. It seemed that despite having ran the course many times before didn't make it easier anytime. Sky Tate, being the first to finish and to date the only one who could stand the exhausting run from start to finish stood and watched the rest of the Squad come in. He took a long drink from his water bottle, sweat streaming off him by the litre.
Elizabeth 'Z' Delgado was the second one to come in, followed by Sydney Drew who was clinging onto Bridge Carson's arm as the two came in. As soon as he was on clean grass, Bridge collapsed, panting. He caught his water bottle as Sky tossed it towards him, and promptly poured half of its contents over himself. "Give me a monster, Krybot attack any day," Bridge panted. "Just don't make me do that again!"
"You're not the only one," agreed Syd, slumping down on one of the benches. Only Sky and Z were standing, though Z was bent over, hands on her dirtied knees, panting and letting sweat drip off.
"Wooh, that was really something, wasn't it?" Z gasped out.
"Whatever, Z. I'm just glad it's over, now I can finally go and clean up. I hate the mud," Syd grumbled, as Bridge picked himself up and followed Sky and Z back into the Delta Command Base, towering over the other structures in the city.
"Is that all?" Birdie asked.
"Unfortunately, yes sir. The Troobians are most likely moving by now, and the outpost is at best a great deal of scrap metal lying around," reported the captain of the scout ship.
Birdie sighed. He had another problem. "Thank you, captain. Get some rest, you and your crew. You've been through a great deal."
"Thank you sir. And sir? The leader of the Troobians gave me a message to give to you."
"Very good. You're dismissed captain." The captain gave Birdie a salute, then walked out of the office, leaving the recording of the message on Birdie's desk. Birdie looked at the disc with both anger and sorrow. The anger came from partly that the message was most likely just there to mock S.P.D. and sorrow because he knew there would be something really bad happening once he activated the disc.
Reluctantly, Birdie inserted the disc into the holoprojector built into his desk, and watched. The first thing that showed up was an image. The creature was wearing the classic Troobian 'crown'; a skull-shaped helmet that covered the creature's entire face. Like Grumm, twin horns protruded from the helmet, though in this case they were bent backwards, twisting and turning to form a twisted version of a braid. It wore skeletal armour that covered it completely. Its clawed hands clutched at a pike, and it stared straight at Birdie.
"If you happen to as fortunate as to be listening to this message, then know this," the creature hissed, its eyes glowing red. "S.P.D. you have long been a thorn in my side. Know this: I am Maligntcious, Troobian Overlord, and next to the throne of the Troobian Empire. I sow devastation wherever I go, as you would have learnt from Epsilon Gamma. Earth is next. You may have defeated Grumm and Omni, but this is where it ends. Tell the base at Earth that their time is running short. They have but a few more days before the iron fist of the Empire crashes down upon them!" The creature, Malignticous let out a long maniacal laugh before the recording cut short.
All Birdie could feel was anger. It was typical arrogance of the Troobians to tell let their enemies know what they were doing. Of course, then there was the problem of the Troobians habitually attacking somewhere else without warning, often on the other side of the universe. Given the problems, Birdie decided that the threat towards Earth was real, given its recent past with the Troobians, and obviously, someone was riled up about it.
Pressing in a few buttons, he called up a conference with the captains of the assembled fleet. Within seconds, Birdie's large screen mounted on the left wall of his office turned on, and divided into twenty even sections, each showing the face of a captain. Birdie turned to face the screen.
"Gentlemen and women, I have called you for a purpose," began Birdie.
"What is it?" asked one of the captains. He was a human, and the appointed leader of the fleet that was assembled.
"Your previous orders have been scrapped. We have a new threat coming in, a second wave of Troobians," revealed Birdie.
"And this is different how?" asked a female Aquitian.
"This fleet is apparently lead by an Overlord, and is headed for Earth, to avenge the loss of Grumm and Omni. You all know that the victory at Earth has raised morale across the galaxy. If we lose Earth, confidence in us, and the confidence of all officers, cadets and everyone serving at S.P.D. will fall dramatically. You need to head to Earth and stop this fleet. That is all. Captain Richards, you have command over this fleet. Do whatever is necessary to stop the Troobians, and capture their Overlord. It might throw the Troobians into disarray long enough for us to recover from our recent losses. Good luck people. Birdie out." With that, Birdie cut the connection, and the screen turned blank.
The Supreme Commander walked over to the large window, where he could see the outlines of the twenty ships of the fleet he had sent to Earth. He watched as one by one, they turned and left towards Earth at the fastest speed possible. Deep down, Birdie knew it was the last time he would see many of them, and he hoped that what he had done could be justified.
Anubis 'Doggie' Cruger jerked up with a start. He took a look around, and after a while, sighed and slumped his shoulders. He hated nightmares. He checked to make sure that Isinia, his long lost wife was still asleep. She was.
As quietly as possible, Cruger slipped on his uniform, and proceeded out the room. Lately, he had been, somewhat slack, getting up a great deal later than usual, and leaving the Command Centre earlier. Kat had been handling all the 'minor issues' as she had put it, as well as repairing all the Zords and damaged equipment.
Cruger reached the Command Centre, and walked inside. Already, the Command Centre was a buzz of activity. Despite not having Troobians overhead, they still had to deal with occasional thefts and other crimes committed by the non-human population of Newtech City.
There were cadets manning the various stations, and occasionally passing reports back and forth. Cruger walked past saluting cadets, and sat down at his desk, situated a rather lengthy distance from the entrance. There were already several reports requiring his attention, and he was about to start on them when the doors hissed open.
Cruger looked up, and saw who entered. He watched as Kat entered, and gave the feline scientist a smile as she crossed the floor towards him. "Morning Kat," he greeted as she reached his desk. His smile disappeared as he saw the tired look in Kat's eyes. "You've been up all night again, haven't you?"
"Morning sir. You'll be glad to hear that all repairs to the Base have been completed, and it's back to full functionality," Kat reported, ignoring her superior's question. The Delta Command Base had suffered damage, especially from Broodwing's first attack, which had led to a gigantic hole in the Command Base. Guards were patrolling the area virtually every minute, until recently.
"Good hear. However, you have to stop working all night, Kat. You've been working non-stop ever since the siege ended, and you look like you're about to drop anytime. Get some rest," Cruger urged.
"I can rest tonight Doggie," answered Kat. Doggie sighed.
"You better have Kat. We can't have you dropping dead at our feet yet, can we?" he asked.
"Sure Doggie. I got to get back to the lab. I'll see you later," Kat said as she turned around and left in the direction of her lab. No sooner than she had left, did a cadet turn around.
"Commander!"
Cruger turned his chair to face the cadet. "Yes?" he asked.
"Sensors have picked up a rather large fleet moving towards Earth. They're hailing us as well," reported the cadet.
"Very well. Put to my screen." The cadet nodded and did so. The screen turned on, and showed the face of a human male with short cropped brown hair.
"Commander Cruger, pleased to meet you," started the human. "I am Captain Richards. I'm afraid that we bring bad news."
"What is it captain?" asked Cruger. He was getting a bad feeling about this. Richards sighed before starting up again.
"Twenty two hours ago, an S.P.D. Outpost at Epsilon Gamma was obliterated. The attackers were later identified as a Troobian raiding fleet, led by a Troobian Overlord. The Overlord is headed for Earth, with the intentions of destroying this Base. There are some finer details that are better discussed in person, perhaps with a few of your senior staff or officers?"
"Of course. How much longer until we can expect you here?" asked Cruger.
"At our current speed, I'll be there no later than 0845 hours," answered Richards.
"Very well Captain. I look forward to our meeting."
With the screen winking off, Cruger glanced at the clock on the wall. It read 8:40 am. He pressed the button that opened the intercom, and prepared to speak.
Syd used a towel to dry her now flawless golden hair, which was previously little more than a muddy mass upon her head. A vigorous shower, followed by intensive cleaning had removed all offending streaks of mud from her hair. She flopped down on the couch next to Bridge, who was unsurprisingly eating toast. "How can you eat now, Bridge?" asked Syd.
"Well, people eat when they are hungry don't they?" said Bridge before pausing. "But wait, how do people know that they are hungry? I mean, we all know the feeling, that we want food, but what tells us that we need food? And Syd, buttery toast," at this point, Bridge automatically wiggled the fingers of his right hand "can be eaten at any time," Bridge rambled, answering her question in the process.
Syd rolled her eyes, and glanced over at where Sky and Z were sitting. Z was leaning back, resting her head against the end of the couch with her eyes closed, whilst Sky was reading the S.P.D. Handbook. Again.
A sudden buzz of excitement rippled through the room. There was sound akin to a stampede as all of the cadets in the room rushed towards the large glass window that offered a fantastic view of the city. Syd craned her head in their general direction to see what the fuss was all about. Bridge too had stopped eating, and was now looking through the window at the wondrous sight in front of them.
Syd hopped off the couch and headed over to the window. Bridge, following her lead, vaulted over the couch and ran to the window. Sky looked up from the rather thick volume he was holding, and frowned as he saw two of his team-mates head over to the window, and got up himself. His movement stirred Z, who opened her eyes and sat up straight, and glanced at Sky. "What's going on?" she asked. Sky shrugged.
"Come on, let's see what's this all about," Sky said as he headed over, Z on his heels. Reaching the window, a few cadets parted before him, allowing him to get rather close to the window. His jaw almost dropped at the sight in front, or rather, above him.
High above Earth, well above its protective atmosphere, were the silhouettes of twenty S.P.D. Navy vessels. The clear, cloudless sky over Newtech City only added to the majesty of mighty warships over Earth. Sky had never thought about seeing an S.P.D. warship before. The Delta Command Base kept a few shuttles, but they were miniscule compared to the vessels in orbit. The ships resembled the Astro Megaship, in its circular design, but on a much larger scale. However, the body was elongated, forming more of an oval than a circle. Many of the ships were scattered throughout the galaxy, and rarely were anymore than five present at any system at any given time. At this point, the intercom hissed, and Cruger's amplified voice came over.
"B-Squad Rangers and Dr. Manx, report to the Shuttle Bay," came Cruger's disembodied voice. The four instantly stopped their staring at the ships and ran for the Shuttle Bay, the holes they left in the crowd filling up again.
The Shuttle Bay was one of the main features of the Delta Command Base. Like virtually everything in the Base, it had been long ago modified by Kat to be more efficient. The four Rangers ran down the three escalators, and to where Cruger and Kat were already waiting on the spotless floor, only recently cleaned by a pair of misbehaving cadets.
Cruger and Kat stood in front of one of the two landing slots, watching a dot in the distance approaching. "Commander Cruger sir!" Sky announced as the four walked the rest of the distance in a more orderly fashion. Cruger turned around, and noted their dishevelled appearance, a side effect of their sprint from the Rec Room to the Shuttle Bay. "Clean up officers!" barked Cruger. After a moment of confusion, and a few looks around, pandemonium ensued as the four tried to smooth out wrinkles in shirts, straighten collars and the like. Kat looked amused, whilst looking completely perfect herself, with not a strand of hair out of place, which was rather hard to justify given the scientist's wild mane of hair.
The sound of approaching engines caused all of them to look at the rapidly approaching shuttle. The shuttle transmitted the clearance code, before proceeding towards the Bay. Instinctively, the B-Squad Rangers step back and form a straight line, Sky at one end, Syd at the other. A blast of wind whipped through the Bay as the Shuttle pilot brought the shuttle down to one of the landing slots. The shuttle hissed as smaller thrusters manoeuvred the craft to a perfect landing.
The rear ramp slid down, and the door opened to reveal a rather average looking human officer, with the S.P.D. Badge pinned to his left breast. The shoulder of the man held a single star, signifying his importance; the man was a captain, and held a great deal of power.
"Commander Cruger, pleased to meet you," Captain Richards greeted with a smile as he approached the group, a hand extended.
Cruger shook the offered hand. "An honour to meet you, Captain Richards," replied Cruger.
"Just call me Richards," laughed the captain. He took a look around at the five other people present. "This must be the legendary B-Squad," he stated, looking at the line of Rangers.
"Yes they are," Cruger answered. As the captain stepped in front of them, all four instantly saluted.
"Very disciplined Cruger. I can see why they are the stuff of legends," said Richards.
"They are the best team of Rangers we have," Cruger told him, as he walked past and strolled over to Kat, standing further away from the Rangers. " And this is Doctor Katherine Manx, our top scientist and Chief of Technology," Cruger said as Richards offered Kat a hand.
"A pleasure to meet you," greeted Kat as she took his hand. However, Richards lifted her hand up and placed a kiss on it. Colour rose to Kat's cheeks as he did so.
"The pleasure's all mine, Dr. Manx," replied Richards, letting go of Kat's hand. "We better start the briefing. It's preferable that we hold it somewhere private, as some of the things we'll be discussing is not exactly pleasant normal dinnertime conversation."
"We can use Kat's lab," said Cruger. "It should be private enough, and it has some features that the Command Centre doesn't."
"Very well. Let's go." With that, the group turned and left the Shuttle Bay, headed to Kat's lab.
Meanwhile, far away from Earth, a small fleet of warships accelerated through the frontier of space, moving in perfect formation. Onboard the lead vessel, in the room that served as the bridge, a bright light flashed and disappeared just as fast.
Sitting on the throne was Malignticous, holding a rather small weapon. Two metres away from him lay the vaporised remains of one of his many second in commands. He growled as he slid the miniature weapon back into a slit on his skeletal armour. He hated 'Are-we-there-yet' questions, and hated the people who asked the dreaded question even more. In fact, he hated every variation of the blasted question. He leaned back, and waited until the time his little fleet would reach and blow Earth to little pieces. He checked their course, and set up a countdown until they reached Earth.
180:00. And counting down.
A.N: Ah, the feeling of a new chapter posted. Don't you just love that feeling? Of course, the feeling of another review is just as good, so leave a comment please! And any constructive criticism is also appreciated. I'm trying to add a bit of everything in here, from a great deal of action to some relatively minor angst. Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Oh yes, if you have any name suggestions for a sequel to 'Serene Reflection', feel free to leave a PM (by the way, there'll be little reflecting in the sequel). See you next time!
