Mission 28: Part 3

Embers and smoke drifted upward through the skies as Martin Sterling descended from the air in his Ranger battlesuit. He coasted toward the ground in a controlled fall using his suit's jet thruster and looked up to see the rest of his Ranger team were joining him in midair. As the aerial battle over Chicago was winding down in favor of the UNAF forces, the other Nova Rangers had morphed and jumped from the Sky zord to join in with the ground battle below. With Julian remote controlling the zord and steering it home, the other Rangers fired their own jet thrusters and formed up with Martin before touching down on the city streets.

Once on the ground, the Rangers drew their blaster pistols and took cover behind an overturned bus to regroup. From their vantage point, they could see several of the surrounding buildings had been scorched with flames and blaster fire while the paved streets were torn up in places punctuated with fallen concrete debris. Despite knowing they were somewhere in the downtown area it was hard to tell with the tall buildings surrounding them. Bharata did a quick scan and turned to the Red Ranger, "Any idea where we are sir?"

Martin took a moment to gather his bearings and recall his own mental map of his hometown, "This looks like River North, an entertainment district. Michigan Avenue shouldn't be far. We can take that road south over the river into the heart of downtown and secure the city center. Follow me."

As they moved, Lucy's voice cam in over the comm link, "Rangers, I've isolated a biosignature for the Xeno ground commander. Telemetry returns show an Omega Trooper is occupying City Hall with a well entrenched force. Please advance with caution."

"Understood. Thanks Dr. B," Jake answered as he prepped his Fusion Striker in rifle mode and kept a sharp eye out for danger.

Upon reaching the main thoroughfare leading north-south, the Rangers halted in surprise as they came across a UNAF ground force pushing south. It was a mixed company of American tanks and Canadian infantry.

"Hey there! Can we get a lift?" Ella called out waving a cheerful hand as the tanks paused and the Canadians stopped to look at the Rangers up close in real life.

A middle aged man in a tanker's helmet hopped out of his vehicle and revealed himself to be a Major in the US Army. "Hey! Reinforcements! Who'd have thought they'd send us Power Rangers?"

He extended a friendly hand and gave a nod, "Major Tom Winters, 105th Cavalry Regiment from Wisconsin."

Martin shook his hand first with a relieved grin, "I'll be damned. Captain Martin Sterling of... well, here. Thanks for the help neighbors. We're headed south into the Main Loop. Think we can hitch a ride?"

Winters gave a nod and got the unit moving again as the Rangers climbed aboard a tank and continued to roll down the ravaged city streets. Major Winters kept a sharp lookout while they continued on, "We saw the enemy birds go down earlier and have been clearing streets one by one. There's a whole other allied division following behind and pushing to retake the city from the north."

"Looks like the fighting's been fierce," Erin commented as she looked around and eyed some of the bombed out shops going down what was previously a popular commercial strip.

Winters nodded, "Seems like enemy positions across the river are heavily contested. We were called up to reinforce another unit which stalled out in their push. Sounds like they took a lot of casualties."

As the unit pushed on across the bridges leading over the river, they came across a fierce skirmish raging along the edges of Millennium Park. Xeno battle drones took up positions behind trees and modern art sculptures which were strewn about the large public park and they were engaged in a firefight with UNAF soldiers. As the Canadians sprung into action and began joining in the frontline, Winters motioned toward his own men and called, "Here's our stop! Let's bring that armor forward and drive the Xenos back!"

He stopped and turned to the Rangers, "Are you guys going to be okay on your own against that field commander?"

The six activated their force shields from their morphers as Martin gave a thumbs up, "Don't worry. I know the way. We'll cut off the command head. You guys just keep doing a good job and pushing further south."

The six parted from the main allied column and split off into the ruined heart of the downtown area. After sprinting several blocks, they halted a few blocks from City Hall which was being occupied by enemy forces. Battle drones stood guard over the approaches while an Omega Trooper coordinated the movements of the battle. From such a distance, it was hard to make out, but it looked like the Xeno had several spindly structures protruding out from its back.

The Red Ranger turned to his two scouts and gave a nod, "Bara? Jake? Think you can clear us a path?"

"With pleasure sir," Jake grinned as he readied his long rifle and scrambled up some ruined concrete slabs to get the high ground.

Bharata activated the stealth feature on his morpher and faded out into a camouflage mode before moving forward to infiltrate deeper and get behind the enemy line. Once the Green Ranger had taken up his position, he quietly radioed Jake, "Have at it Massey."

Jake took aim and fired taking out one of the sentries while the rest of the team advanced forward. As other Xenos moved to respond, they were thrown off guard when Baharata suddenly appeared out of nowhere and dropped his cloaking device on the other side of the field. The Green Ranger drew his Disruptor Staff and swiftly took out enemies from behind with lightning fast speed and agility. Between being caught in the open by a sniper and the Green martial artist, the guards didn't stand a chance and were quickly routed.

"Nice job you two," Ella praised them as the team regrouped and made a beeline for their target. As they reached the edge of the damaged City Hall, Erik glanced around, "Whoah... looks like the Xenos did a number on this place."

"They'd probably be doing us a favor if they took out some of our corrupt local politicians too," Martin joked grimly before turning to confront the last Omega Trooper who stood in their way. The Xeno field commander bore a distinct resemblance to a sort of armored humanoid arachnid. Its spindly appendages from its back flexed as the warrior turned its head and clicked its mandibles together menacingly. "Come into my parlor said the spider to the Nova Rangers... I hope you don't mind some of the redecorating we've been doing here."

Erin recoiled in disgust from the biomechanical arachnid warrior, "Ugh... gross."

"I think you've got a twisted sense of artistic design," Erik retorted to the alien as he called his panzerfaust mace. "Who the hell are you?"

"They call me Tarantulus," the alien answered in a raspy scratchy voice, "You may have driven off the first wave from the air but resistance is useless Rangers. The mothership is already on its way to Earth and more of my kind will just keep coming. The Overlord and the Warmaster will make sure of it."

"Then let them come because we're taking this place back for the humans," Erin called back defiantly.

Tarantulus began to laugh before he tensed for a battle, "You Terrans really chose the wrong species to try and fight against."

"No. You chose the wrong city to invade," Martin snarled as he leveled his pistol without waiting and fired a pair of plasma bolts.

Tarantulus hissed in fury as the bolts struck him and he flew backwards to the ground. Before the Rangers could react, the Omega Trooper used its appendages to quickly scuttle along the ground and move to escape. The Rangers gave chase and followed the alien warrior into a wide open plaza behind City Hall and next to a courthouse before he scrambled up the Picasso statue of Daley Plaza and reared up with a menacing hiss. As the Rangers entered the plaza and approached, they were shocked by the sight of several terrified civilians who had been herded to one side of the square and seemingly cordoned off by an invisible rope.

The Rangers charged forward again and were suddenly surprised by seemingly invisible obstacles like the ones affecting the trapped civilians. Erik, Ella, and Jake tripped and fell to the ground while Martin, Erin, and Bharata struggled against seemingly invisible bonds which restrained them.

"What the hell is going on?" Bharata growled as he writhed and thrashed against the restraints.

"Foolish humans, you've fallen into my web," Tarantulus laughed as he reveled the stealthy trap he had laid beforehand. At his command, a latticed web of faint but resilient energy strands began to glow and show themselves strewn across the plaza to trap intruders.

Tarantulus laughed again as he connected to the web and sent a powerful surge of energy through the network. The Nova Rangers cried out as they were shocked and stunned by the powerful attack before dropping to the ground as the webbing evaporated.

"So much for the Nova Rangers," Tarantulus sniffed in contempt as he approached with a sneer, "You six were the ones who defeated so many of my brethren? You were really the ones who raided our own base and lived to tell about it? I'm finding that hard to believe."

The Xeno loomed over the stunned form of Jake and eyed him curiously with his multiple optical sensors, "Now... what shall I do with you Rangers? I imagine I can take you prisoner and deliver you to the Warmaster. No doubt, he would promote me directly to the rank of General for this."

the Xeno opened its spinnerets and began to release more webbing to quickly tie the Silver Ranger up in a secure bundle from the shoulders down. It then turned to Ella and scrabbled over toward her, "Then again... I could snack on one or two of you as well. I'm sure the Warmaster won't mind... and you do look especially scrumptious."

As Tarantulus flexed its mandibles, Erik was spurred to action and began to shake free of his stunned paralysis. The enraged German gripped his mace and threw himself hard against the arachnid warrior in a clumsy shoulder tackle, "You stay away from her you Schweinhund!" (pig-dog)

Tarantulus growled and struggled against the Blue Ranger while Erin rolled over slowly and drew her Nova Striker blade to cut Jake free. As soon as he threw Erik off, Tarantulus reared back its legs and revealed there were small openings for projectile weapons which it fired. Tarantulus sprayed a hail of energy bolts across the plaza forcing the Rangers to dive out of the way for cover.

As Tarantulus moved, he sprayed gouts of web at nearby buildings to swing onto them and get into better firing positions from the walls. They fought a running battle across the plaza with the Rangers returning fire from their pistols while on the move. While the others took more aggressive firing positions, Martin moved off to protect the trapped civilians with his energy shield while Erik quickly pulled an energy blade to cut them free of the special webbing. Jake gave a wave to his teammates and leveled his rifle in its special fire mode, "All right... I think it's time we washed this spider out!"

The Silver Ranger fired a spray of ricochet blaster bolts which pinned Tarantulus against a wall and kept him from moving for the moment. The arachnid warrior surprised everyone by leaping to the ground and landing amidst the Rangers before swatting them aside with a spinning leg attack. As Erin fell over, Tarantulus pounced on her and tried to bite at her with his mandibles but the Yellow Ranger countered with a backswing from her energy blade.

Tarantulus hissed and recoiled as the blade raked his mouth and damaged his face resulting in a cloud of hot oil spraying everywhere. As the monstrous warrior hobbled sideways, Ella pulled her whip and covered her friend by striking the alien and few times and then tying up a couple of its legs to hinder its movement. Tarantulus thrashed back and tried to break free before drove him back with a few more pokes of his crackling energy staff.

Ella rushed to one side of the outdoor sculpture and tied her end of the whip to it in order to anchor Tarantulus in place while Martin came to square up against the Xeno. The Red Ranger called his Nova Magnum and blasted the alien back with a well placed shot in the knees before loading a power cell into the magazine barrel. "This is it you eight legged freak. You're not going to harm anyone else today."

Tarantulus wheezed and tried to rise as the Red Ranger leveled his weapon and fired a finishing shot. The arachnid's multiple eyes went wide as a volley of six powerful red colored bolts of super-heated plasma spiraled toward him and struck with the force of a horizontal tornado. Tarantulus shrieked as he was vaporized in a massive explosion which rocked the plaza and left a large fiery crater in the pavement. The Red Ranger gave a nod of satisfaction before giving the pistol a quick twirl and holstering it. "Nice work everyone. That was a good team effort to take that sucker down."

Erik took a breather and looked around as a few UNAF troops made their way to the center of the city to join them. It looked like they had been successful as well in their battle. "It looks like the worst is over now. Sir? Shall we greet the troops?"

Martin looked about the ruined plaza for a moment before walking over to a fallen object. "One moment Erik. Old Glory comes first."

The Red Ranger bent down and picked up a fallen American flag which had been hanging in the plaza. It was dirty, singed, and tattered in a few places but he gave a gentle smile and raised it back up to where it originally hung. He gave the flag a few waves so that it could catch the wind and light encouraging the American troops who were present to give a cheer. It had been a hard fought victory and despite not having the same attachment to the stars and stripes, the other Rangers couldn't help but get caught up in the moment and give a cheer too. As the flag continued to wave, the cheers only grew louder and continued to echo across the liberated streets of the battle scarred city.

Meanwhile, in the upper atmosphere, Warmaster Hellspont watched the progress of the battles in North America from the bridge of his own warship. As he waited by the radar returns, two of his officers came to make their reports to him. The first biomechanical warrior paused and nodded, "Warmaster. The invasion forces have been driven back on the surface of the cities. It seems the Terrans found a way to down the carriers with a combination of overloading the shields and using nuclear warheads."

Hellspont smiled and waved it off, "No matter. Those are all acceptable losses. The important thing is, we've spread the Terran defense forces thin and caused them to exert a lot of effort in the defense."

"Those cities are not the objective?" the second Xeno officer asked.

Hellspont turned to his subordinate, "Did you manage to trace the movements of the Rangers and the other reinforcements from the orbital relays?"

The officer nodded, "Yes Warmaster. We believe we've traced the signals to the Terran base that they call Atlantis."

The Warmaster turned and folded his hands, "Very good. Gather the rest of our advance forces. We regroup and make for Atlantis. We're going to strike at one of the primary arteries of the UNAF and strike a final blow against the Nova Rangers.

The Xeno bridge officers nodded again and turned to their consoles as the Xeno warships changed course. Warmaster Hellspont smiled to himself and began to count down to himself. It was only a matter of time before the mothership would reach the Earth's orbit and he hoped he could offer the flaming ruins of the Rangers' precious Atlantis Base as the first major trophy to the Overlord.

Early that evening, the exhausted Rangers sat resting in the remains of a ruined bar and grill overlooking the lake. Handfuls of other allied soldiers also lounged around including an infantry squad of the Canadian Army and a group of US Marines. A couple engineers had managed to restore some power to the bombed out bar allowing for some of the neon novelty signs to light the room. Erik and Erin raided the fridge and helped themselves to a couple beer bottles that had survived the battle while Jake and Bharata struck up a conversation with the Canadians over some cigarettes.

As he stood by the open doorway looking outside, Martin watched as the dark skies began to clear slowly. His attention was pulled away as Ella came over and placed a hand on his shoulder, "Martin? Everything okay?"

"Yeah... sorry Ella. I was just lost in thought. The battle here looks to be over for now but the thought of the mothership coming still worries me."

Ella nodded quietly but gave a hopeful smile, "Listen... let's just be happy with what we've been able to do today, hmm? We've liberated your hometown and drove out the aliens without too much collateral damage. I'm assuming your family is okay?"

"I messaged them earlier," the Red Ranger nodded, "My parents are in the western suburbs and they weren't touched by the attack, thank God."

"See? Little things to be thankful for," Ella added with a supportive expression, "And a chance to look forward to good things to come tomorrow too."

Martin smiled faintly, "You know Ella, it's funny. Chrissy was always reminding me to look forward and to think ahead to the future when the war is over. I guess now is as good a time as any since the Xenos are making a full scale push to end the war one way or another."

"You thought about a future with her, didn't you?" she asked knowing the topic they were treading on was a sensitive one but he gave a calm nod.

"I did. But it also made me think about how you guys, the rest of the team would factor into that future. Christina might be gone, but if I'm honest with myself, I can't imagine a future without you Rangers either. That's why I especially appreciate all of you coming to help today. It meant a lot... so thank you."

Ella smiled and watched the evening skies begin to clear, "Martin? You mentioned you had been looking ahead toward the future and it's funny because I was doing the same thing recently. Umm... Erik and I had been talking and we kinda agreed on maybe trying to start up a relationship if and when things settle down. We know there are fraternization rules in place and we don't want to get in trouble. We're just..."

"Looking for permission from the CO?" Martin smiled in genuine amusement.

"It seemed important and we just wanted you to know," she said hesitantly.

The Red Ranger chuckled, "I'm actually not surprised. Now it makes sense why Erik got so fired up in the Xeno battle earlier today."

"So you're okay with all that?"

At that moment, Erin gave a cheer as she managed to get the jukebox in the bar working again. Another round of cheers filled the place as music began to play a jazzy blues tune performed by Eric Clapton, one that was all too familiar to a local like Martin... a song fittingly titled, "Sweet Home Chicago."

He smiled and a gave a small wink before holding out a hand, "Of course I'm okay with it, but let's just give him a little bit of a hard time right now. Join me for a dance?"

Ella laughed and joined the Red Ranger on the main floor of the bar for a dance along with a couple other male and female soldiers who had been relaxing with them. Erin nudged Erik and pointed to the floor causing the Blue Ranger to simply roll his eyes with a laugh before toasting with his beer. Admittedly, it was a little bit of a strange sight. Here were a group of men and women tired and dirty from a hard day of fighting alien invaders. They had been around fear, death, and hardship and were taking a moment of respite in a bombed out city restaurant. Despite all that, there was light, music, and laughter tonight.

For now the Xeno threat had been turned back and the weary soldiers and survivors of the battle in Chicago wanted to enjoy the little moment of victory and peace where they could take it. No doubt the battle would only get worse in the days to come, but right now it was good to feel at home and most importantly alive with friends and family all around to celebrate.

A/N:
The 105th Cavalry Regiment is in fact a real life Army National Guard unit from Wisconsin, so hats off to those guys.

We've got two more major battles coming up and the end of the series in sight. Hang in there everyone, we're gonna be in for a bumpy ride. Thanks for reading!