Mission 25: Part 1
Beads of sweat ran down the neck of Lieutenant Erin Reilly as she made her way through the thick brush of the Amazon Jungle. A thin steamy mist hung in the air as the sounds of colorful birds rang out from the treetop canopy above. Despite wearing a combat helmet, Erin blew aside a strand of lose brown hair and slapped at her sweaty neck where a fly had been buzzing. In travel brochures and television nature shows, the Amazon was always portrayed as some beautiful and majestic oasis of life and greenery. In some ways it was, but in others it was a hot, uncomfortable, bug infested place for soldiers tramping through.
Nearby, Erik and Ella tiredly flanked her in silence as they waded though the bushes and followed behind the rest of the squad. As she shifted the weight of her pack, Erin grumbled and wished she was back at Atlantis Base rather than trudging through the wilderness of Northern Brazil on a training exercise with other UNAF forces.
Local South American units were providing instruction to other special forces of the UNAF in jungle warfare just in case they were ever called upon to assist against an alien attack in those environments. So far, the only enemies the Nova Rangers had been worried about fighting were fatigue, dehydration, and jungle spiders as big as your fist. Then again, there was also the unit of black clad STAR troopers who were also present at the right flank of the Rangers while they carried out their scouting patrol. Perhaps it wasn't fair to call the STARs enemies per say. The two teams had fought side by side on several occasions now and developed a sort of working relationship. It was an unspoken one of grudging respect and mutual rivalry with each other.
They continued on for a way before the local scouts called a halt. Martin called for Jake and Bharata to spread out and join him on standing watch while the rest of the patrol stopped to take a short rest. Erin sat down on a rock and took out a canteen of water, eager to take a refreshing drink. As she sipped some cool water, she looked over to where Ella had already plopped down by a large tree and called Erik over to examine a heat rash on her leg. The Yellow Ranger smirked to herself as Erik began to apply some ointment to Ella's condition and show her some extra attention. Maybe it wasn't planned on Ella's part, but the Pink Ranger didn't seem eager on wasting the opportunity either.
Moments later, Erin heard her name called and saw Jake standing watch nearby. He was smoking a cigarette and idly cradling his sniper rifle in his arms, "Hey Lieutenant, I don't suppose you've got some Irish Whiskey in that canteen of yours, do you?"
"Nice try Jake. Even if I did, I wouldn't share it with you," she teased back gently. She stopped to survey the campsite and saw the STAR troopers relaxing in some shade. Off to the side, their leader Captain Jeffery Austin sat cleaning out his rifle. Erin got up off her rock and ambled over to sit down near the leader of their rivals.
He looked up slowly as she took a seat and offered her canteen to share with him, "Have some water sir. Don't want to cramp up out here, right?"
Austin scrutinized the canteen for a moment causing her to sigh, "Relax sir. I didn't put poison in it or anything."
"You aren't flirting with me or something, are you Lieutenant? You know I'm a married man."
The Yellow Ranger suppressed another grumble and took back the canteen, "No Captain. I'm just trying to be nice here. If you're not thirsty, then that's fine too. You can just say so."
Austin looked at her and went back to his cleaning, "You didn't want to sit with your team?"
Erin shrugged, "I guess I thought I'd just try coming over here and being friendly for a change."
"You know the way we are with Nova Squad, right?" Austin said, "We tend to just keep things professional and competitive between each other and it's worked out fine. That's how we like it."
"Maybe, but it doesn't necessarily have to be that way either," Erin argued, "We're not like the Xenos and you don't have to fight us too. We're both on the same side and we've been working together more. Don't you think we should be trying to build some bridges? Maybe work a little on becoming friends?"
Austin snorted, "Listen, that whole mushy friendship, family, group hug stuff might work for you Rangers but it's not the way we STARs do things."
Erin frowned again in mild annoyance, whether it was the jungle heat or Captain Austin's dismissive attitude, she couldn't be sure. "If you're saying you think we're soft, you couldn't be more wrong. Our team has faced down its fair share of world ending Xenos several times over."
Austin continued wiping his weapon, "True enough, but you keep forgetting your team has all those special gizmos and power suits to back you up. Without them, I'm willing to bet things might be a bit harder for you."
Erin grew even more incensed, "Just you wait Captain. I'll prove you wrong. My whole team will prove you wrong."
She turned on her heel and stormed off muttering to herself while slipping in a few Gaelic curse words under her breath, "What a humongous jackass. Thinks he and his men are God's gift to this green earth..."
Her rambling was cut short as an emergency transmission came in over her morpher. It was from Atlantis Base and sent by General Caldwell. Their base commander's voice sounded on the other end, "Rangers, stand by for enemy contacts. Telemetry has just picked up a massive wave of enemy drop pods heading in the general direction of the Amazon region. The pods should be landing all over the area in minutes."
Everyone in the campsite stared in shock and scrambled to reorganize. Amid the chaos, Martin radioed back, "General, what the heck is going on? Why is there an invasion force headed here of all places?"
"My guess? The aliens want to use the thick jungle as cover so they can drop a lot of troops and set up a staging ground for future attacks."
Lucy's voice cut in from her station at Ops, "Martin, I'm transmitting the entry vectors of the pods. Hopefully you and the other UNAF forces there will be able to ambush them."
The Rangers exchanged grim looks while Captain Austin slapped a fresh power cartridge into his energy rifle. "I say we give them a proper welcome. What about you guys?"
The Red Ranger nodded and turned to Bharata, "Bara, you know the most about fighting on this terrain. I want you on point. Jake, cover our rear."
The mixed unit moved forward and continued to make their way through the jungle while the lead scouts followed the map points sent from Atlantis Base to track the pods. As they pushed on and neared one of the points, Bharata grimaced, "Stay close everyone. There are going to be concentrated landings in the area. If the shooting starts, it'll be really easy to get cut off."
Erin took several deep breaths and mulled over Bara's warning as they spread out and took some cover behind large clumps of trees. Moments later, the skies lit up and the allies could hear the screaming whistling sounds of large projectiles coming from the air. They looked up to see a cloud of large objects crash through the canopy of the rainforest and strike the ground with great force. The Xeno drop pods landed in a series of thunderous booms which echoed through the jungle and sent clouds of tree branches, dirt, and vegetation spraying everywhere. Much to the humans' dismay, the drop pods crashed all around their position seeming to come from all sides. Perhaps their reentry points were thrown a little off course or maybe Atlantis Base's info was just an estimate, but the sheer number and locations of the pods surprised everyone present.
As the smoke and debris cleared, Martin wiped some dirt from his face and helped Ella to her feet as he gave a call to his other comrades, "Is everyone okay?"
Erin was about to call out and reply when she heard Austin's voice yell out in alarm, "Everyone, the pods are live! Contact!"
The large Xeno drop pods popped open and swarms of clone soldiers quickly poured out to secure the ground, but they weren't expecting some resistance in the area yet. Captain Austin and the STARs opened fire first and dropped several aliens while more continued to pour out and flood the area.
"Oh crap!" Erin gasped as she primed her weapon and began to fire from the brush. The whole scene quickly devolved into utter chaos.
The sounds of shouting and weapons fire echoed in the woods while jungle steam and smoke hung in the air. The Yellow Ranger ducked behind a tree as an alien blaster bolt struck the trunk and took off a large chunk of the wood. Energy weapons fire and blaster bolts erupted from all over shredding trees and bushes as the humans scrambled to get clear of the drop zone and reorganize. They had been unexpectedly surrounded and were now forced into a backpedaling skirmish. As Erin kept her head low and fumbled blindly to try and find one of her friends in the chaos, she thought back to some history books she had read and wondered if this was anything like the long wars which had once been fought in Vietnam.
As she pushed past a bush and fired at some distant clone soldiers in the mist, she spotted Captain Austin and one of the Brazilian scouts taking cover behind a fallen tree. She moved to join them but fell face first to the ground as the top of a nearby tree exploded into a cloud of splinters and wooden shrapnel. The surprise treeburst caught her allies off guard and they stopped to take cover for a minute. That moment allowed some of the enemy to close in an put them in a tighter crossfire.
Erin scrambled to her feet and saw a Xeno bolt strike the Brazilian soldier full in the torso killing him outright. As their ally dropped to ground with a large smoking scorch mark on his chest, another bolt from the side clipped Captain Austin in the thigh.
The wounded STAR trooper gave a grunt of pain as he fell to his side and pulled a grenade from his belt. Without missing a beat, he armed it and hurled the explosive into the brush where the offending fire was coming from. Seconds later, the grenade detonated killing the alien snipers in the resulting explosion. Erin reached for her morpher and instantly went Supernova in a yellow flash as she rushed forward to help her ally on the ground.
The Yellow Ranger pulled her plasma pistol and fired a few covering shots into the bushes to keep the aliens away before she knelt down beside the fallen STAR, "You okay Captain? Let's get out of here."
This time Austin didn't protest and he hooked his arm over her shoulder as she helped him up. She fired her jetpack and began making rapid leaps to get away since the thick forests prevented open flight there, "Hold on!"
Without wasting another moment, Erin jetted away with Captain Austin in tow and they made a quick escape deeper into the thick foreboding Amazon Rainforest. They didn't know where they were going, but as long as they got clear of the aliens and the weapons fire, they could figure the rest out later. While she made flying leaps, Erin looked about and used the sensors in her helmet to try and scan the surroundings for safe areas. Much to her dismay, it looked like alien drop pods were everywhere scattered through the forest. She and her wounded comrade made several course changes and detours to avoid enemy detection before they found a relatively quiet corner of the jungle to rest in.
In a decision to conserve power and her own strength, Erin powered down and helped to assist Captain Austin as they hobbled through the thick vegetation. Finally, they came upon a large stream and followed it to a wide rocky area around a tall waterfall. Having decided it would offer some much needed water and temporary protection, they decided to take refuge nearby the large surrounding rocks. Erin grunted tiredly as she helped drag Captain Austin toward the water and set him down on the ground.
He gave a look to her and made a mildly teasing snort, "You look like a complete mess Lieutenant. Don't tell me you're exhausted already."
Erin growled a little and filled up her canteen before coming over with a medkit from her gear, "If that's the way you want to thank me for saving your smug ass, then you're very welcome... sir."
She dug into the medkit and pulled some items before examining the blaster wound on Austin's leg. Although she had been trained in first-aid like all soldiers, she wished Erik was around to help on this one. He'd probably have a fit watching her sloppy application of treatment, but oh well.
"How's the leg? Do you still have feeling in it?"
Austin grunted as he poured some water on it to start cleaning the wound a little, "Yeah... hurts just a little, but I've been hit worse before."
Erin poured some peroxide on the injury, perhaps a little too much and almost laughed watching the STAR suck in a breath from the sharp sting. After applying some disinfectant and painkilling gel, she wrapped the wound up in a bandage. It wasn't perfect, but it would do. "Until we get back to base, I'm afraid that's the best we can do for now Captain."
Austin nodded and tested his leg. It didn't hurt as bad now, but it was still too weak to put his full weight on. "Right. Thanks Lieutenant Reilly. This dressing you put on isn't half bad for just a Communications Officer."
A Communications Officer you're really going to owe a lot after this one," she reminded him as she reached for her morpher and tried to radio for help. Erin to Nova Squad, please respond."
Nothing but static as a response. She tried again, "Erin to Nova Squad, come in. Martin? Erik? Ella? Is anyone there?"
She paused and frowned at her morpher. Something was very wrong here. As thick as the jungle was, there was no reason her transmission wouldn't be able to go through to her teammates. Either something had happened to them, or their signals were being jammed.
Austin fixed her with a serious look, "What's wrong? Why aren't they responding?"
Erin ignored him and tried calling Atlantis Base instead, "This is Erin Reilly to Atlantis Base, please respond. General Caldwell? Dr. Beckett? Can you hear me?"
Again she was met with static on the other end. She repeated her message and boosted the signal strength before a faint garbled transmission came back. If she had to guess, it was Dr. Beckett.
"Erin... are you? Rangers... cut off...jamming signals...wait... your position."
The Yellow Ranger took several breaths, "We're being jammed? Is everyone okay? You want us to wait here?"
"Yes... team okay... can't transporter lock... position... rescue party... nineteen hours."
Erin shook her head tiredly and tried to make sense of the garbled radio message, "Understood Dr. B. I'll wait here and send out a signal every two hours to check in. Reilly out."
As she put down the morpher, she took off her helmet and stripped down to her duty tank top to cool off in the heat. It was late afternoon and evening was approaching. At the very least the night would offer some cooler temperature and some cover from detection. It was doubtful the Xenos would even want to go tramping around the jungle blindly in the middle of the dark night. "Well... it looks like we're stuck for now. I'm guessing our friends will send a search party to track us down and help in nineteen hours?"
Captain Austin checked his watch and gave a sigh before prepping his rifle again, "All right then. I guess we'll have to make the most of it and stand our ground here."
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," Erin said as she began clearing a campsite and spreading out some emergency field rations, "I guess even in this day and age with teleporters and hoverships, we've still gotta do some things the old fashioned way."
Austin shifted his weight on the ground and tried to get up, "Let me help out Lieutenant. I'm not a complete cripple after all."
She halted him and put a firm hand on his shoulder, "You're not going anywhere, sir. You need to rest and recover. I'll take care of this stuff. You can... I don't know, guard the campsite. If any Xenos show up, you can shoot them in the face. That's pretty much the only thing you STARs are trained to do correctly, right?"
"Given the circumstances, I'll let that one slide," he grumbled as he settled back on the ground. "Kinda ironic huh? I'll bet you're going to keep trying to make friends with me even here, aren't you?"
The Yellow Ranger gathered some dry kindling and worked to set up a fire pit with rocks, "Sure. Even if it kills you."
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," he echoed in mild sarcasm.
Despite the bad situation they were currently in right now, Erin couldn't help but take in the absurdity of it all and laugh at the dark humor. Besides, maybe in nineteen hours she'd ether have a new friend or she'd do the Xenos a favor and give them one less STAR to worry about.
A/N:
Hey there everyone, I'm back. I just needed a couple weeks off to recharge and experiment with some new stories that aren't related to PR just so I don't get bored or stuck in a creative rut. I'll still be posting those other story chapters here and there but as far as this fic goes, it's time to get back to action. :)