Mark drew in a ragged breath, laying in a pool of salty water, his last memory was being hit in the chest by something flying through the air, intense flames and then nothing. Gauging his surroundings, he was on the bridge of the Phoenix.
"What happened?" He croaked, pushing himself up into a sitting position. Drawing breath into his lungs was like someone setting them on fire and pounding his chest with a cricket bat.
The sounds of 1-Rover-1 barking happily in the background gave him a sharp headache. Keyop threw a wrench at him, the robotic dog wagged his tail and chewed on it merrily.
"You tell us skipper, the last conversation we had was you joining us on the Phoenix." Jason held out his gloved hand, dripping wet pools forming from his mantle on the floor around him, he pulled Mark to his feet.
"Thanks." He acknowledged the soaking wet Condor, his helmet removed, the condor had a rare worried expression on his face.
"Gave us scare for a while Skipper, we thought…Damn it-" His angular features darkened before resuming their normal unreadable state.
"I'm here, breathing… "He clasped his hand again. Jason nodded abruptly and turned away. He could see he had thought he's disappeared like Prin did.
"Preee….doop…We tracked you…" Keyop filled him in.
"I was hit in the chest by debris, winded. Then nothing. I woke up here. " He explained, trying to grasped the extend of what had unfolded before him. The events flicked through his foggy mind, the magnitude of the destruction of their prime base cut hit him harder than then his sore lungs.
The mystery woman, who must have been a Spectran agent that saved him on the base as the place turned into a fire ball.
Chief nodded, pulling his moustache, wrinkling his forehead. "We found you floating out there on your own- well kind of. It was strange."
"They, did a better job this time...cleaner." He looked at view screen as several missiles hit what was left of the base. His entire body ridged, and entire frame feeling the blow of the missiles like they were directed personally at him, pools of hot anger sloshed inside of him like a deep ocean tsunami rippling the surface looking for it land target.
The wreckage of twisted metal sat on the ocean floor of their former base. Explosions sending shock waves of bubbles towards them.
Jason's stormy grey eyes intensified. "We thought we'd lost you for a minute. That was until we ran a bird scramble to track you, you must have hit your bracelet on something long enough for us to pick up your location."
The Condor shook his head as the ship moved through the ocean away from the base. "We couldn't find the person who was helping you."
"Someone was helping me?"
Dr Nambu appeared equally confused. "I gather you must have hit the water unconscious. When the spotlight was on you. We saw someone in a dark blue wetsuit we couldn't identify. The person was gone when Jason reached you. A mystery, but whoever that person was- saved your life."
"Thanks to whoever the person was." He scratched his head trying to remember past being knocked into the diving pool.
He transmuted into birdstyle to get on with the mission. Pushing the nagging thoughts into the recesses of his mind. Drawing his focus to where it should be.
"Where do we go from here chief?" He asked waiting for his orders, steeling himself for what was to come.
Chief Anderson bowed his head. "We have another base, smaller, but useable. We go there. Missiles reached the new Research Centre…. along with two other targets, one of them the robot development centre...We lost our back-up for Zark and a lot more. What's more painful… I think they were our missiles."
The team stood in shock." How…" Keyop started to ask.
"We didn't see them coming at all this time." Mark folded his arms under his mantle solemnly. Standing rock fast in the middle of the ship, deep anger boiling deep inside at the turn in the war.
"I don't know, but Spectra are getting smarter." Chief Anderson's normally calm features twisted in anger. "The shields we have been trying to destroy on the outer planets… General Hess called as you left Mark to inform me Spectra has erected one around Earth."
He turned to big guy in the pilots, seat. "Tiny set the course for the base… we have to work on how we can stop the Spectran advance… the full invasion has begun."
A heavy atmosphere fell over the team like London fog, as they flew out of the ocean to their new base of operations.
If we thought things were hard before…. Now it's far worse. Mark thought as mixed emotions coursed through him.
First, they throw up shields, now they find our home base… and his hope of finding Princess faded by the day as Spectra advanced.
Even in the midst of a disaster she crept into his thoughts. For a brief moment, he felt her shadow fall over him on the base. He had to try harder, he had to go in deeper for intel.
He had to find a way to get some intel, make a contact in their ranks to break ground in his stagnant search for information.
Desperate to find her he had to work out a plan, she had been missing for almost a year in a few weeks…