Buzz and his team filed into the Commander's office. He was waiting with a frown on his face.

"All right Team Lightyear, we apparently have a sensitive rescue situation on our hands," the Commander began. He started a projector.

"Ambassador Talnak has just informed us that Ranger Ty Parsec has run into some kind of trouble on Planet Apocrita, located right next door to Lahila," the projector showed a holographic map of the area, with a picture of the Ambassador and another of Ranger Parsec. Talnak had a conspiratorial smile, like he'd just told a saucy joke, while Ty had his usual skeptical expression. The images disappeared, replaced by a simulation of a ship being attacked by satellites while the Commander continued.

"He was caught in some sort of satellite-mine trap and landed on the planet after sending a distress signal. He's been there for six days. The Lahilans are saying they can't do anything because Lahila and Apocrita are mutually aggressive, and they might start a war by showing up," he paused to gather his next words, and to turn off the projector. "Or something like that. They're not very clear."

Booster looked like he was about to speak, but Nebula finished his briefing:

"And they won't say much else about the situation. I've sent their message to your ship, you'll see what I mean. You will receive further details and instructions after the launch. Your mission is to fly out to Lahila, get some more information about Apocrita, and rescue Parsec. Now MOVE OUT!"

With that, the team saluted and left for the launch bay. Short briefings meant they had to hurry up and be there yesterday.


Several days earlier, while the SOS had been on its way from Lahila, Rhyssa found out the hard way that two sentry robots and a veteran Space Ranger didn't count as a small group.

She had followed her target's trail up a hill, suppressing the urge to fly; her wings could scatter the scent, and worse alert him to her presence. The moonlight made her gleaming exoskeleton a liability as well, even with the patchy cloud cover, so again she was on all six. Foliage rustled as she passed, and at one point she stumbled across and caught a creek-spider hatchling (the size of her head! Perfect!) for another light snack. It wasn't that she was starving, but Macrurus had taught her whoever lets a hatchling grow is an idiot. They grew large, and would eat anyone. She crunched away at it, thinking about good places to make a prey-cache. She still wasn't good at making those, among other things, and the older Soldiers always found her places and stole her meals. She looked forward to making one they couldn't find- if she did that, and got rid of an undesirable, they would start taking her on group hunts. As she finished her meal, she could hear the outsider talking to the robots. He was telling them about the earlier fight, and she could tell they were walking her way. She climbed a daisy, and hopped over to a taller one, just in case.

"...and then I welded the hole, so really all we need to do is fix the door, and if possible the communication system," the Ranger finished the story. The trio were once again carrying big armloads, this time back to the safety of the cockpit. They moved slowly due to the added weight, and Ty's growing exhaustion. The group's chatter continued as they went by. Once they had passed, Rhyssa darted to the ground and started following them. They didn't notice she was getting closer... She spread her wings in anticipation... Now!

Rhyssa sprung out at them, slamming a robot to the ground. They tumbled, fighting, and she bit its head, but Ty pounced on her and the other robot clanged over and grabbed her stinger. She whipped it out of its clumsy claw-grip. Rhyssa was forced to abandon the robot beneath her and focus on an angry Ty Parsec. He already had his helmet up, and his grip trapped both pairs of arms. The foreigner couldn't stop her legs from clawing at him, but she couldn't hit anything important from a half-sideways angle. Her wings buzzed wildly, to no avail. If she could just get her claws in the right place..! She tried to sting the clingy piece of meat, but the other robot had the wiry stinger firmly in its grasp this time, and to her dismay was looping it up like a power cord. The nerve of the thing! She finally got one claw in a good spot and kicked. The Ranger let go and grabbed his leg with a yelp. He looked at the wound. There was a slash on his inner leg, running from lower thigh to upper calf. It was more than skin deep, but nothing some stitches and gauze couldn't handle.

Rhyssa took the opportunity to lunge at the robot holding her stinger, and slapped the satellite dish off its head. Before she could do more, Ty shot her shell. She staggered before flying up, flitting through the daisies in search of a good place to charge in.

The laser kept her at bay. She couldn't quite see where he was going to shoot, and had to keep moving. The foreigner couldn't see her very well either, mostly aiming at the hum of her wings or the moonlight reflected off her green shell. The robots had picked themselves up, and each took a laser cannon out of their chest compartment and joined the firefight. The three outsiders had clustered so she couldn't get too close. Leaves and petals went flying as beams hit them. There just has to be an opening! She thought. If I could finish that first one!

Suddenly, one of the daisy tops was blown to pieces. A heavy chunk of it landed on Rhyssa's back, and she was slammed to the ground in a cloud of pollen. Her head was free and she started to move. The wind had been knocked out of her, but she could still get out if she hurried. Her stinger was mostly free. It whipped around menacingly- she hoped it was enough to keep them away.

The foreigner was running towards her, limping slightly. She squirmed her way out from under the piece of flower as fast as she could. A blob of nectar was sticking her wings together. She couldn't get out fast enough, and it was hard to breathe through the pollen. They were going to kill her! Oh, Swarm take me! She thought. Rhyssa freed one arm, then the other, and was busily wedging the second pair loose.

Just as the foreigner was closing in, Rhyssa pulled free and flew... Or tried to. She'd forgotten about the nectar, so her takeoff launched her face-first into another daisy. He tried to jump her while she scrabbled to her feet, and the resulting crash threw him on his back several feet away. Rhyssa dove at him, gleefully aiming for the unarmored chest. His eyes widened in fear. Both robots had been expecting this, and shot her in midair at the same time. She screeched and tumbled to a halt at Ty's boots.


An uncomfortable silence descended on the trio. Everyone was alright, but the insectoid had done its share of damage: Ty had a freely-bleeding wound on his knee, Sentry Ten had a crunched headpiece ("Still operational, sir!" he reassured Ty), and Nine was missing his dish. They searched for it in vain. Then they found it by stepping on it. Well this is wonderful! Thought Ty. At least it can't get much worse. A peal of thunder, followed by heavy downpour, proved him wrong. Oh, haha, universe.

"So, those lasers..." Ty began.

"They're not standard issue sir, but a bunch of us got together and decided to get some. We don't have any built in," Ten explained. "If it's a problem..."

"Keep them! The more the merrier!" the Ranger scoffed. Why wouldn't he let them keep their weapons? None built in, huh? That explains a lot.

Ty had the two Sentries help him restrain the homicidal insectoid. They were skeptical of the idea, but he wasn't going to shoot it while it was helpless, and they couldn't just leave it to freeze in the rain or come after them again. There was only one pair of cuffs, and Ty didn't feel like giving it that much free movement, so they improvised. The limbs and mandibles were easy enough, they just bound them with some duct tape from the repair kit. And a cable. And, just to be sure, some more tape. After some debate, they looped the strangely flexible stinger again. Ty taped it so it couldn't unroll itself, then put the loop over the green monster's head, where it lay like a necklace.

Ty stopped to inspect their handiwork. The wasp-thing wasn't getting loose anytime soon. With some rearranging, the robots were able to carry most of the supplies with them to the cockpit. Ty carried the insectoid. The two robots retrieved the remainder. He arranged everything they'd salvaged (putting the wasp-thing next to the food and oil) before following the instructions in the first aid booklet about treating lacerations. He knew how off the top of his head, but the way his luck had been he decided to do it by the book. Once Ty was done with that he changed into a clean thermal suit. He still reeked of old onions, but the air cleared up a lot when he dried his hair and threw his laundry outside. The stuff in his shampoo was cracking and flaking out of his hair like really bad dandruff. Hooray.

He looked at the green monster. It was starting to wake up already. The creature shifted and squirmed on its side, not yet realizing why it couldn't move. Ty could see a small hole at the top of each body segment. His many (in his opinion, way too many) experiences with bugs had given him a morbid fascination, so he knew the openings were its breathing system. Its legs were creepy, and it had sticky pads between its claws. Interestingly, they only worked pressed flat.

Ty wondered if it could talk. He knew some sentient species couldn't. But if so, what would they even talk about? Somehow, he was sure "I'm Ranger Ty Parsec and I come in peace" wouldn't be very convincing given the circumstances. Assuming it could talk, did it know Basic? What if it didn't?

If he was from Rhizome he'd probably meditate and try to make friends with it... But it tried to eat him, which wasn't exactly the solid foundation of goodwill on which most friendships were formed. He shrugged. He couldn't find anything out until it was awake, so he got up and helped the Sentries work on the communication system.


A/N: The next chapter will have more Team Lightyear. What do Space Rangers do when they're on a long flight anyways?