Captain Scarlet

Atomaton

Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to the characters and vehicles that are featured in Captain Scarlet, but I do own the rights to any characters and locations that I have made up myself. I've based this tale off of the classic TV series by the legendary Gerry Anderson. I hope you enjoy it. It's my first Captain Scarlet fiction so I hope it's a good one.

The Distinctive, Shiny, red Spectrum Saloon car arrived at the cargo bay where the truck, carrying the Atomaton element was stored. Captain Blue required the car from a nearby Spectrum outpost which was only a few miles away from the base. Captain Scarlet opened the passenger door and stepped out of the car, leaving Captain Blue behind the wheel.

"what do you expect to find in there?" he asked Scarlet, as the young captain examined the cargo hangar.

The hangar was huge. So huge that, it the interior seemed to go on and on for miles. There were five, different assorted trucks in the cargo bay, all huge in size and fully manned by their designated drivers. Scarlet saw a huge group of maintenance workers who were all crowded around one particular truck. Scarlet observed the truck and the group, realising that it was the truck that they had arrived to escort to Juarez Base.

The truck was big, perhaps the average size of an American truck. Attached to it was a round, slender, metallic shaped container that was supported on a flatbed and two sets of small caterpillar tracks. The front of the truck has a set of caterpillar tracks as well but they were much longer to the ones supporting the trailer. The cab section was red with a yellow stripe streaking across the cab and the trailer. The trailer itself was a pale whitish colour. Scarlet knew that the colour was meant to reflect radiation blasts from the outside elements.

He turned back to Blue and answered the blonde captain's question.

"I expect to find the driver and not a Mysteron agent." He said.

"And what about Captain Black?" Blue asked.

"Hopefully him too." Scarlet answered instantly. "Wait here?"

Scarlet made his way into the hangar and walked up to the group of workers. The workers were alerted to his arrival and immediately stopped their work. Scarlet looked at them all with a straight face for a few moments and then began to speak.

"Who is the driver to the containing the Atomaton?"

"I am." Came the voice of John Monday, who emerged from the crowd. "You are Captain Scarlet I presume?"

Suddenly, Scarlet began to feel strange as he looked at John. He felt a bad vibe from the man, a feeling that he hadn't experienced in a long time. To hide his feelings, he displayed a smile and began to talk to John Monday.

"Yes I am." He grinned. "I just came here to let you know that I will be escorting you to Juarez Base tomorrow. The Mysterons have threatened to destroy Juarez with the element so we cant let truck go unguarded."

"But if these Mysterons want to destroy Juarez then why are we going there anyway?" John asked, trying to confuse the Spectrum officer.

Scarlet thought the question over for a few moments in order to find an answer. It was a good question and there to answer it, there would've had to be a change of plans. A trick to stop The Mysterons.

Captain Blue started up the motors as Scarlet returned to the car. As soon as he closed the door, the red saloon car headed back towards the main control room.

"We need to talk to Colonel White straight away." He said to Blue. "We need to escort the Atom to a safer location."

"I don't understand?" Blue asked.

"The Atomaton can't go to Juarez Base." Scarlet explained. "Escorting it there is what The Mysterons want. At any point of the journey, they could over power us with their powers and succeed in destroying the base. We need to make this difficult for them."

Colonel White had received Scarlet's report and agreed with his suggestion to move the truck to another location. The question was where? He sat at his rotating, white desk and gazed at the screen behind him. Sitting at the desk with him wad Captain Grey who had knowledge of underground hangars out in the desert. They both agreed that taking the truck to one of the underground hangers would be a good idea. However there was one slight problem. They couldn't find one.

"Ok then Captain." Colonel white said, pointing to the two main locations. "Here is Juarez and here is Armadillo. Now there is a 7 mile gap between the two bases. Is there any chance of an underground base existing between those two bases?"

"There's a chance." Grey replied. "But they are usually located under sand dunes. The sand dunes have been given code names on the map. Lieutenant, locate any nearby sand dune within the 7 mile radius?"

Lieutenant Green punched up the command. The screen zoomed in to reveal the sand dunes and their designated code names. One was located 5 miles from Juarez.

"There." Grey pointed out at the map. "There's one. Area 56-H."

Colonel White radioed Scarlet and to give him the co-ordinates. After he did that, he turned back to Captain Grey and told him to get permission to use the underground bunker because he was the only authorised member who could gain access to one easily.

Their plan was set, but The Mysterons had other plans with the truck. Juarez was dead in their sights.