Disclaimer: I don't own the BLoSC series or the movie. Enjoy.
Chapter 4
Infiltration
A large man-made artificial space station orbits around the blue and green planet known as Capital Planet.
This particular spacecraft was designed to withstand long period of time while providing a base for launch pads, docking arrangements and sending out Rangers to space to fight crime and villainy as they are the peacekeepers and law-enforcers in the entire galaxy.
That's the main purpose of Star Command Space Station, keeping the galaxy safe from harm.
But somewhere miles away, a violet colored cargo ship piloted by two Hornets drove through the Asteroid Belt. Inside the cargo ship, Desmond was standing between the two pilots and watched the incoming image of the main base of the Space Rangers.
Knowing that his master expected good results from this mission, he doesn't want to fail. She created him to fulfill his purpose to serve his master and all of her ideals. This exercise will prove his worth as her ultimate warrior. He signals the pilots to stop at the end of the Asteroid Belt area and proceeded to the side hatch door.
He launched himself out into space and headed straight for Star Command at full speed.
Once near, his sensors indicated several attack satellites from different areas. Those types of machines would automatically attack anything not permitted to enter the base's space area. Just one zapped from their laser weaponry and he'll be blown into pieces.
But this little matter doesn't bother him. Fear is not an option. He has a mission to complete and he will accomplished it by any means necessary. After all, his master anticipated their line of defenses. Desmond activated a cloaking device that conceals his entire body, camouflaging his body to match the distortion of space. A coat of different codes shielded him from the enemy's scanners, disrupting their processing of identifying him as a threat.
Desmond passed through the floating machines, some patrol ships and landed himself on Star Command unnoticed.
He scanned around the white smooth surface and located the air lock ventilation hatch. He walked silently towards it and ripped the hatched door open with ease. Discarded the door out to space with the flick of his wrist and crawled inside the narrow shaft.
He wonders if he should obtain the schematics design of the enemy's base but since it's not part of his mission, he will just take note of the area. Maybe presenting it as a present for his master.
There is a small opening up ahead. He crawled up to the grilled window and peered down to check for any Rangers nearby.
Below him, a sandy haired ranger was patrolling around the hallway.
Swiftly, Desmond opened the vent entry without making a sound and landed behind the ranger. The moment the ranger turned around, Desmond generated electricity from its clawed servo and landed on the ranger's chest, electrocuting him to unconsciousness.
Infiltration..Successful..
Scanning around for a broom closet unit near by, he quickly deposit the stunned ranger inside it. He advance through the dimmed long corridor, silently walk passed the Commander's office. He heard voices coming from the other end, he activated his magnetic boots and jumped up on the ceiling like a spider while activating the cloaking device.
A navy blue haired female Ranger appeared. She was wearing the standard Star Command space suits, with light blue skin, dark red lips and a gold lasso holsters by her hips.
"Parameters in the B section wing is secured. No sign of any intruders" said the ranger, talking through her communication system from her green wrist glove.
Once the ranger is gone to the other side of the corridor, Desmond lands on the floor and ran to where the ranger first appeared and made a sharp left turn.
He could see the elevator to the Mission Control room up ahead but it was guarded by a lone Star Command Robot officer. He popped out a metal marble from the palm of his servo and hurled it towards the oblivious robot.
The marble landed near the guard's foot and releases a high pitch galacto-hertz, enough to jam the robot's circuitry and permanently shut down its system as it falls down into a pile of metal junk. He thought that the elevator is probably wired to allow authorized personnel to enter, Desmond detached the security guard's head and went inside the elevator. A scanner cable popped out from the console and Desmond brought the disembodied head for it to scan its facial features.
"…Star Command Security Guard Unit XJ51…you are clear to proceed to Mission Control…."
He could feel the elevator vibrating as it ascends towards his target area. Arriving at the top of the floor level, he exited the elevator and scout around for any Star Command Officers or their little green friends.
The control room is empty, not a living soul in sight. He walks towards a nearby monitor, fit for a small staff member.
His first priority was to edit out the footage from the surveillance cameras. Desmond inserted a repeated scene of the vacant corridors in the data recording security systems with few clicks and hacked codes.
That way, no one will know that he was actually here as he began to search for the files that his master needed. Once he saw it, a wire cable came out from his right palm and jacked into the monitor.
He needs to do it quickly.
Any moment now, someone will come in to the room and spot him. In worst case scenario, he has no choice but to fight his way out of here. Which his master doesn't want because he recalled her saying something to do with his outer appearance and paint job. She made it highly clear that the work done to him was like a masterpiece to her and he felt pride swelling in his chassis.
He looked up at the monitor, showing the loading bar stating of thirty five percent. Left on aware in one of the security cameras, a hulking form of a human with a Commander gold chassis was running through the halls heading straight to the Mission Control room.
Fifteen minutes ago…
Inside the private quarters of Star Command's leader, Commander Nebula walks anxiously around his messy office, treading on some papers in his way. His footsteps were so loud that it could be heard outside in the hallways.
He can't help it.
The new ranger that he recruited, Buzz Lightyear, was the greatest addition anyone has ever seen in the entire history of Star Command recruitment. The boy can work harder than others, offering to help the dreaded paper works and arresting criminal scums left and right.
But last month, Lightyear went AWOL on him and flew off to space somewhere. With his absence, the crime rates have increased. It's like the CRIMINALS all around the GALAXY have gone BONKERS with high alcoholic drinks. The paper load even piled up in his office like a stacks of mountains.
He heard the rest of the story from the Senior Rangers and the judge from the Capital Planet court hall.
Commander Nebula sympathize with the recruit. It's not easy to follow the laws and the justice system but they are there for a reason.
This has gone long enough.
He should sent out trackers to retrieve him. But for now, his main concern is with his staff.
The LGM's are not doing great at the moment. Most of them sleep in their stations and reports of malfunctioned devices in the science bay have increased when one of them forget to use their tools.
Those little guys get spooked easily when someone accidentally dropped their pen to the floor. Must be the exhaustion from overworking. He should give those guys a break once in a while.
All these recent activities are effecting everyone's state of mind and not only from Lightyear's absence, it also has something to do with the report file wrapped in a slight burnt envelope in his hand.
I got a bad feeling about this, he thought.
Just a few days ago, one of his Senior Space Ranger team went through hell to get this. They discover some findings related to the recent incidents. Leading them to a lone planet somewhere in the Delta Quadrant.
According to them, numerous criminals always gather there. From what they have seen, a large hangar located between two huge rock formations, where cargo goes in and out from that area. They went in there to investigate while looking for more information.
He didn't have the time to check the contents from the envelope because the mission requests keeps piling up on his desk, coming from all space stations. Stacks of papers are occupying his work space and it drives him mad sometimes.
Being stuck here in his office has also taken away most of his sleeping hours. The stress and restlessness taking its toll out of him. He was about to sit on the floor when his desk, a furniture-type robot, appeared before him and eject a seat.
Once he sat on it, too tired to think of the other reports that lays on the desk, he pushed them off falling to the floor and opened the envelope.
Several items were removed and placed on the desk.
Majority are pictures and a two-page document. Scattering the pictures around, his suspicions were correct. They must have captured these pictures as evidence before they were discovered by the thugs and engage in combat.
They wouldn't have made it back alive if he hadn't ordered them to retreat immediately. It was a close call, but they were able to get this concrete evidence before they escaped with minimal injuries.
Some pictures are about criminal thugs carrying suspicious cargoes to their ships and weaponry selling. It was further confirm from few captured criminals who confessed about the weapon retrieval from that planet. All of them violated the law about interplanetary weapon smuggling.
These confiscated weapons were like something that no one has never seen before.
Not even the weapon specialists in Capital Planet can produce these. But whenever they tried to break it down to see what's it made of, it exploded immediately. They stated that it was programmed to self-destruct if tampered with and none of us can used it in our forces because it has a fingerprint scan, only accessible to the criminals who bought them and the creator itself.
Something was printed out from his desk, he grabbed it and read the paper silently.
And it gets worse. According to one of the intelligence officers, they were able to trace the communication link to one planet that made his heart froze for a moment.
Planet Z.
"Blast it!" he crumpled the paper in his hand, "I knew that no good bucket head was behind all this."
Irritated, he threw the crumpled paper to the corner of his office. He massaged his temples to get rid of the incoming headache. Being frustrated about it won't help with the current situation.
I should get a shut eye for once and make myself some coffee.
He walked out of the office in a slight sluggish manner. Walking along the pristine white long corridor heading to the break room when he felt something.
His Ranger senses are tingling, telling him that there's something going on at the base. He knows that there are people on duty patrolling at this time but he couldn't shake the feeling away.
He sighed, "Might as well investigate it."
No longer feeling any fatigue, the determined Commander Nebula jogged down the path of the long white corridor.
His ranger intuition spikes high as he nears the elevator area to the Mission Control. When he arrives, he skidded to a stop and took a step back. Before him lies a broken down robot guard without its head.
He was right to trust his gut feeling.
An intruder has infiltrated Star Command. But the security sensors didn't detect anything.
He logged in through his communication system while preparing himself for a battle.
"This is Commander Nebula. Requesting all rangers nearby to head for the Mission Control room. ASAP!"
Commander Nebula readied his laser set to fire as he entered the elevator. Not wanting to let the intruder know that he was coming, Nebula opened the elevators emergency hatch above and pull himself up.
He located the ladders on the side of the wall and climbed up to the top quickly. Once there, he silently opened the emergency small door to the control room and rolled over to one of the monitors and peak out his head.
A familiar silhouette of a certain Evil Emperor's robot army was standing in front on one of the LGM's monitor station.
A Hornet? Nebula thought to himself. But this one is different. The light from the monitors shows the intruder's true colors. Literally. Instead of the usual yellow and black exterior, the intruder was dark blue in color. From afar, he could see the screen's loading bar to sixty eighth percent till completion.
Whatever it is downloading, I have to stopped it no matter what. He jumped out from his hiding spot and aimed his laser at the robot.
"Hold it right there, whoever you are!"
It turns its head around and faced him, the glow from its visor turned bloody red.
"Alright, you piece of metal junk, who the heck are you?! and how did you by passed the security systems?!" Nebula said angrily.
The intruder gave a mock bow to the Commander.
"Greetings: Commander Nebula, " It said with a deep masculine voice, "Designation: Desmond. Inquiry of intrusion: your defense systems are weak. Recommendation: applying stronger security next time." Desmond said impassively.
Commander Nebula turned red-face in anger, he didn't like the insult coming from the robot.
"There won't be a next time once I send you to the scrap field!"
With no time to waste, Commander Nebula launched himself at the intruder with a flying kick. Desmond blocked it with his foreman, disconnecting his cable from the monitor. That action made Desmond angry as he tried to slash the commander with its clawed servos. But Nebula had a different plan as he jumped back and charged at him and threw a punch to its face, making him stumbled back a bit.
Nebula felt a tinged of pain from his covered gauntlet but that won't stopped him from letting the intruder to recover. Not giving his opponent the chance, he charged at Desmond.
Checking his systems are intact, Desmond recovered from the impact and brought up his clawed servos up catching the Commander's fists in each hand.
Both of them were having a power struggle before Desmond brought up his metal knee up to the Commander's stomach. The blow caused Nebula to hunch over in pain and Desmond threw him to the side.
Nebula got back his momentum and landed on fours on the ground before he flipped backwards once to avoid the intruder's assault, as the ground where Desmond buried his fist created a small crater of damage.
He didn't have time to respond when the intruder quickly rocketed towards him. Nebula dodged the charge and he re-positions his laser but the robot disappeared, out of sight.
Is he at my back, the side or front? He can't tell. The adrenaline rush of the fight made him tensed.
Suddenly, a blast came from the left side, hitting directly both of his gauntlets. Nebula winced and swallowed a painful yelp and looked at the perpetrator, as smoke coming out from its blaster. The heat from the damaged gauntlets slightly burned his skin, Nebula removed and dropped them with a thud to the floor as he face to face with the robot.
The commander and the intruder faced off in the middle of the monitor stations like in a cowboy showdown waiting for the chance to attack. Commander Nebula needed a distraction, knowing that his rangers are on the way, he needs to give them time to arrive here. Desmond was first to attack as he activates his blasters and unleashed numerous blasts of energy at the Commander.
Nebula dodged all with series of maneuvers, the years that he trained his body to endure any kind of situations pays off. But Desmond had other plans as he aims his blaster to a nearby monitor and exploded close to the commander that threw him of balance.
Seeing the opportunity to attack, Desmond activates his rocket boosters and blasted off towards his target.
Nebula feeling dazed from the blast tried to get his blurry vision to normal but he didn't notice the incoming approach of the intruder to him. Desmond pull back his right servo and performed a right hook punch underneath the Commander's chin, launching him slightly higher in the air as he flew across the room, hitting his back on the wall and fell to the floor.
Commander Nebula sat up and coughed out a little, putting his bruised right hand over his chest. He looked up at Desmond who didn't made a move towards him.
"So…" Nebula heaved, "Zurg is the one who put you up to this?" He asked.
"Negative. Restatement: He is not my master" Desmond respond.
"Wait, you're not one of Zurg's cronies?" he was baffled at the intruder's statement.
"Correct." Desmond replied.
If he's not one of Zurg's, then who in the world created this contraption? Nebula thought.
Desmond walks over to the Commander. Nebula was preparing for the worst but what he didn't expect that the robot put out his opened servo at him, summoning a ball of electricity and fired.
Nebula felt a static shock, coursing through his body.
In agony, Commander Nebula struggled to get a glimpse on Desmond walking over to the monitor system and his entire vision turned dark.
With the Commander out of commission, Desmond can finally finish the download.
But just in case, he walks to the elevator entrance and seal it with his blaster, melting the sides. Satisfied, he returned back to the same monitor, hijacked it and the loading bar starts at seventy six percent.
He was slightly interested about the files that his master requested. Maybe he could ask if given the opportunity of the reward for his hard work.
"….100% completion…"
"Mission: Complete." Desmond said
And in the nick of time as the elevator alerted him that it arrives and he could hear the pounding sounds on the metal door. Muffled voices were heard behind it.
"Commander! Back up has arrived!"
"It's no use! The doors won't budged."
"Use your lasers to melt the doorway!"
Smoke emerges from the slit of the elevator doors.
That would be his cue to escape but not before he leave a present for the rangers. Desmond inserted again his cable to the monitor and a flash of purple ghost over the screen then return to normal.
Returning back his cable to the servo, he fired his blaster at the glass dome above and create a hole big enough for his size as he sky- rocketed up to the ceiling and escape to the darkness of space. The elevator door exploded and three senior rangers came out with their lasers but what greeted them was a gaping hole that sucks everything to space including the papers and office supplies.
Their unconscious commander is almost floating in the air, heading towards the direction where all the materials were being sent out to space.
"Tobias! Secure the Commander! Bronx, I need you to activate the emergency breach protocol!" said the navy blue hair female ranger urgently, trying to hold on the doors tightly while preparing her lasso.
"I'm on it!" said the spunky yellow reptilian ranger, who jumped in the air and used his tail to grab hold on the commander's leg. The female use her lasso to latched onto her teammates' arm and pulled them both to the ground. While the brown haired ranger went to the control system and typing in the emergency codes.
ATTENTION! IMMEDIATE BREACH PROTOCOL IS IN ACTION!
Bronx watched as metal extended across the glass dome, successfully blocking the hole.
Once everything is settled and the repair drones were assessing the damages, the team of three were checking on their commander. Tobias took the initiative to check on Nebula's pulse.
"Status report?" Bronx said.
Tobias smiled cheerfully.
"The commander is alright! Though he suffered slight first degree burns on both his arms but he'll make it." Tobias replied
The blue haired ranger sighed in relief.
"That's good news. Alright, gents. We need to get the commander to MedBay. Who knows what other injuries on him that we missed." she said.
"Roger, Captain Luna!" Bronx and Tobias responded together as they carefully carried the commander to the elevator while she investigate the security systems from one of the LGM's monitor station. On the screen, it displayed no signs of the intruder entering the base yet she thinks that majority of the video were edited out by the same intruder. But the footage from the Mission control did show the intruder engaging the commander in combat.
This is the first time that she saw this kind of model.
"What on earth are you?" she whispered to herself.
Sipping on her cocoa cup, Zyra sat on the metal red bench at the viewing deck on the Z tower. She doesn't mind going out here in her polka dot pajamas in the middle of the night. It's not like someone would scold her for it. Well, maybe her father would if he finds out that she sneaked out from her room, past her bed time. But she is not alone.
Brain Pod 99 was walking or she could say nervously driving around the viewing deck because of his wheeled machine body.
"This is not good. This is not good." 99 muttered anxiously.
"Relax, he'll be here."
Her creation is one of a kind plus Desmond knows that she will be waiting for him, making it more difficult for him to accomplish the mission in such a short time.
"That's not what I'm worried about. The Emperor will have my head if he knows that I allowed you to stay up late. Why can't we just set the mission tomorrow but NO, we have to do it immediately after the battle simulation at the testing area."
Zyra shrugged, "Wouldn't this be a great opportunity to test his infiltration skills at the dead of the night while rangers sleeps in their metal cots? Think about it. This is for research purposes."
"Yes. There's that point but what about the – "
"Shh!" Zyra shushed him with her little finger, "He's here." She could hear the sounds of an approaching ship.
Bursting through the clouds, the cargo ship smoothly landed on the deck and the side door opened, a mini ramp popped out. Heavy sounds echoed inside the ship and Desmond emerged first, two Hornets followed suit.
Desmond knelt down before her.
"Mission Status: Achieved."
"That's great news to hear."
She really can't wait to decode those files. But she paused for a moment. Zyra looked at Desmond curiously.
"Did you spoke just now?"
He raised his head and nodded vaguely, unsure if he did a proper response to his creator.
"Since when did I install a voice module in your system?" she wondered.
Especially his speech patterns. It reminds her of a certain robot in another cartoon. But that doesn't matter right now.
"Actually, Milady Zyra," 99 said ," it was part of your list of programs."
99 pulled out the schematics plans from his compartment and point at item number twelve with his mechanical hand. She squints at the messy hand writing portion.
No. 12 – he must have a deep distinguishable male voice to accent his killer features.
Oh yeah, right. She did wrote that at one point during the process. Must be from the lack of sleep and thought that she doddle on the random paper out of boredom, ideas about other characteristic features to add on the bipedal creation.
Zyra slapped her forehead a little. I'm such an idiot. I should be more aware about this more carefully. Who knows what other mistakes she made would lead to her doom.
She noticed that Desmond is still in a kneeling position. She remembered installing mini sub files on the loyalty program including a small portion of knighthood.
At least all of her programs were working and not malfunctioning. Thank goodness that she didn't need to be chained again to her work table for reprogramming. But she still needs to polish her IT skills, maybe another extra lessons once Brain Pod 32 returns.
"Anyways, we will discuss about that in the morning, "Zyra said, "Desmond, report to Science Bay 4 for recharge. You deserved it."
Her robot companion bowed his head and rise from his kneeling position, walking towards the elevator along with two Hornets escorting him.
"Finally. Now, we can take the secret route to your room. That way, no one will know that you left the room at all." said 99.
Zyra sighed, "Alright, you mother hen. Lead the way."
She couldn't wait for morning to come. There are things that needs to be done.
Author's Note: To be honest, I'm not good at writing action scenes but I managed to pull it off for this chapter. If anyone asks why Nebula didn't used his pegged leg weapon, that's because he needs to stand still in order to use it (I notice it from the series) but with Desmond's continuous barrage, his only option is to dodge and run.
Thanks again for all of your continuing support for this fanfic. Tune in on the next chapter of Purple Flame.