It was a quiet afternoon when they landed the midday sun resting at its peak in the sky, Alex stepped out of the gunship wearing a pair of camo cargo shorts, a pale blue T-shirt and dark brown hiking boots, as far as any of the locals or prying eyes watching them from the security feed inside the base, they'd look like just a couple of teens out for a hike.

Pausing at the end of the entrance ramp Alex shook his head slightly then dumped a bottle of water Vanessa had given him over his head scrubbing his fingers through his hair and across his scalp to wash away the last of the Dorito dust caught inside before passing the bottle back to a similarly dressed Akira, she mimicked his action while shooting a small glare back to their pilot, Vanessa rolled her eyes leaning back against her ship wearing a pair to tight work out pants and tank top, a sleek pair of black sunglasses resting across the bridge of her nose.

Alex glanced down at his digital watch examining the time. "How long do we have to stay here?" He called back to Vanessa, the Latino girl stepped down up from her place on her ship's entrance ramp, dipping her shades down slightly as she glanced up at the sun above before checking her watch.

"We should be good to go in another five to ten minutes, it'll give enough time for a few more of the locals and tourists to show up and spread out around the park." The more people that were out on the trail with them, the less likely they could be spotted and identified by the Plumbers inside the main base.

"How far off are we from this back entrance you mentioned?" Akira inquired, the less time they were out in the open even while blending in with a crowd of hikers if they were made, there'd be questions about why they suddenly decided to take a trip halfway across the country for a hike that just so happened to be slap bang on top of an old plumber base.

"Not far, the entrance is a little way up the trail from where we'll come out of the forest just off to the side towards one of the old picnic areas." Vanessa explained. She knew most of the trails connecting to the entrance off by heart, she'd mapped out the quickest routes and camera blind spots across the mountain for when she'd sneak off of base during her downtime back when she'd been posted here, speaking of which she suddenly had a craving for a slice of that apple pie Lucile's sold a few miles down the road. 'Maybe if we have time once we're done here' It could be her version of a sorry after what happened back in the cargo hold.

"And you're sure it still works; I mean it's been over a year since you were last here they could have sealed it off between now and then?" Alex questioned, not that he was doubting his friend, but even if the base was understaffed, you'd think they'd have compensated for that by sealing off most of the auxiliary entrances.

"Then we'll rip out the panel and climb down the shaft into the base." Vanessa countered with a small roll of her eyes. "Fissure just chill, your overthinking this shit, that things been there since before the three of us were conceived, if they didn't shut it after all the crap that's happened between then and now, odds are it's still going to be there today."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Alex shook his head lightly. "I guess I'm just used to doing this all alone." Even back at Beacon had the Psycho rangers not pulled that stunt back in forever fall, he probably never would have told the others about himself until a lot further down the line."

Vanessa's lips twitched down slightly "Hey, you've stuck your neck out for us more than a few times, just this once trust us to do the same for you" Alex nodded back to her in response, a moment later the alarm on her watch blared to life signaling it was time to make their move. "Time to move." she said deactivating her watch, Alex and Akira rose from their spots to join her as they moved through the thick brush towards the direction of the hiking trail.

Pausing at the treeline near the foot of a large hill, the three watched a few joggers and a family of five with a stroller pass by, a moment later a large group of around a dozen people about to cross paths with one another, began to close in from both sides of the trail, Vanessa flicked her head in the direction of the group heading to the right further up the trail before stepping out onto the trail behind them, using the group crossing to hide their emergence they spread out a little along the trail, Alex and Akira walking side by side together creating the picture of a young couple out on a hike.

While Vanessa moved ahead of them shifting into a steady jog, it might have seemed simple, but it'd be more than enough to convince anyone watching the trails from inside the base that they were just another group of tourists, reaching the crest of the hill ahead Vanessa steered off to the right off the main path and down one of the side trails.

Alex and Akira shifted to the right side of the path as they walked, "Hey hold up a minute" Akira called out, playing it up a bit in the event they were close enough to any of the cameras to be picked up on audio.

Pausing just after the trail Akira pulled a small tourist map from her back pocket unfolding it in front of her she nudged Alex and gestured to the map, while they waited for a few moments giving time for Vanessa to pull ahead of them, it lessened the chance of someone who might be watching catching on that they were part of the same group.

Alex glanced between the map and the signposts a few meters down the path ahead of them, after a moment Akira tugged on his arm directing him back towards the side trail "We'll head down this way, should shave a few minutes off our walk." Taking his hand and pulling him back and down the slope onto the trail, flashing him a pair of doe eyes, she gave his arm a quick pull, tugging him close and drawing a startled gasp from the Omni ranger, twirling so her back met his chest and pulling his arm down to rest on her stomach with a playful laugh as they walked, Alex, being careful to ensure his hand didn't shift while they moved.

Akira dipped her head down chuckling lightly, as if that was something she had to worry about, after all, it was pretty obvious he only had eyes for one girl right now, unfortunately, she was quite literally a world away. Nudging his shoulder slightly in response, Alex eased up a little as they continued down the trail. They stayed like that as they made their way further off the beaten track, the sound of idle chatter from passersby fading the longer they went, after a few minutes, Akira released him focusing her gaze back on the trail ahead.

"We should be far enough out of camera range now." Akira noted slipping out of the embrace and moving to walk beside him, rounding the edge of the trail; the two caught sight of Vanessa sitting back against one of the wooden benches in the middle of a dilapidated rest area, two equally rotten and moss-covered benches beside her, flanked by a row of trashcans, a rather large beehive having formed around the rim of the farthest one.

"Well, you two took your time getting here." Vanessa noted.

"Not all of us know the camera positions as well as you do" Akira replied, grimacing at the smell of an old trashcan as she passed "Had to play it up a bit there, or we might have looked suspicious."

"No offence but you were probably just wasting your time." Vanessa shrugged with a playful roll of the eyes "Even if any of the cameras this far out of the main complex still work, odds are no one's watching." Akira shook her head dismissively, whether someone was watching or not, even the smallest chance of them being discovered was still a chance and something they wanted to avoid at all costs.

"It's still a Plumber base and it still has a security detail that will try and take us into custody if we're found breaking in." Akira was quick to remind her friend.

"Not for the first time, either" Alex threw his own two cents into the conversation, glancing around the old picnic ground in a mix of silent curiously and concern, if this was the state of the area surrounding the entrance then he didn't want to think about what condition the actual thing might have been, don't get him wrong, Plumbers tech, in general, was built to last but even it had its limits, especially a piece of machinery that -if what V said about this section of the base was true- had gone at least a decade without any proper maintenance. "So where exactly is this back entrance, you mentioned."

"You're looking at it." Vanessa said, climbing back to her feet, she gave a mocking bow before throwing one hand out towards the solitary Outhouse nestled away at the back of the picnic area, Alex and Akira blinked once, then twice, then a third time for good measure before as one they turned back to Vanessa with a look of shock and disgust.

"An outhouse!?" they questioned simultaneously.

"Yep" Vanessa replied popping the 'P' for emphasis, while her companion's gaze slowly slid back towards the structure. Of all the things they might have expected a tunnel into the base disguised as an old mineshaft, a hidden door in the side of a bolder, hell even just a hatch and ladder hidden under a rock, but no, of all the things it could have been it had to be a dingy old outhouse, and that was putting it mildly.

The outhouse for lack of better terms was a piece of crap, no pun intended, with its creaking wooden panels, crooked frame, a door barely hanging on by the last screw in its hinge and a small swarm of flies buzzing around its rusted tin roof, hell the only reason it probably hadn't already collapsed in on itself was because of its large frame.

Vanessa pulled open the door, the final screw giving way sending it clattering down onto the grass beside her, stepping inside she turned back towards the others, resting a hand on her hip she tapped her foot impatiently "Well, you coming?!" she demanded.

Alex and Akira shared a glance, the former letting out a long sigh 'The things I do for you guys.' he thought with a small shudder and a shake of the head "Come on, the sooner we do this the sooner it'll be over" he said dragging a whimpering Akira along behind him.

The inside was bigger than they initially inspected though just as disgusting and unkempt as the outside with a single high tank toilet and a flusher chain inside, with quite possibly the largest toadstool any of them had ever seen making its home inside the toilet bowl. Akira cringed hugging herself tightly in disgust as she tried her best not to brush up or touch anything while they were inside, Alex stood off to the side staring back out through the doorway stoically, though even he shuffled a little closer to the center of the outhouse and away from the wall where a layer of grime and several unidentified 'stains' spotted its surface.

"Ugh, you're both such babies" Vanessa scoffed, reaching up she pulled down on the flusher chain, though instead of a flush, a low rumbling of gear greeted their ears, followed by a loud metallic shriek that made all occupants wince before the floor began to shift, making the whole structure shudder.

"V?" Alex asked nervously glancing around at the crumbling outhouse around them, getting ready to shield the others should the whole thing start to come down on top of them.

"Give it a minute." Was her reply.

True to her word after a moment the wooden floor of the Outhouse began to sink down into the earth below, Akira let out a small sigh of relief as the wooden walls that once surrounded them were quickly replaced by solid sheet metal as they descended down into the tunnel below, their way marked by several small flashing green marker that granted them a brief moment of light as they went. "Oh, thank god we're out of there."

"It wasn't that bad." Vanessa rolled her eyes.

"Yes, it was" Akira and Alex answered simultaneously.

"Whatever" Vanessa sighed, a moment of silence passing over the three friends as they continued their descent further down into the base "This should take us down to one of the service tunnels on sub-level four, we'll have to make the rest of the way on our own once we stop." Vanessa began to explain.

"Any Security?" Alex asked, the last thing they needed was to run into a patrol down here.

Vanessa shook her head "Nah, as long as we stick to the service tunnels we can avoid all that bullshit." The main patrols would be around the upper levels and the opp-center, while any of the cameras would be keeping watch over the main hallways, none of which they intended to set foot in just yet. Drawing her badge Vanessa pulled up the floor plans for the base a trio of Blue, Red and Purple dots scrunched together showing their position. "Once we stop, we need to follow the tunnel to our right, there's a ladder system connecting each of the levels every 300 meters or so, that'll be our ticket down."

"You lead we'll follow." Akira replied, she and Alex drew their own badges and synced them with Vanessa's, a copy of her map flashing up on their own before disappearing into red particles. A moment later the elevator rumbled to a halt in front of a large steel door a single rusted red lever located at the very center, Vanessa stepped forward gripping the handle with both hands and giving it a solid tug.

The handle creaked but refused to budge, Vanessa furrowed her brow gritting her teeth she gave it another tug the lever barely moved an inch, the metal crying out in protest. "Vamos pedazo de mierda" she growled.

"You need me to-" Alex tried to offer only to be interrupted by the olive-skinned girl.

"I got it." She waved him off, planting her foot against the adjacent wall for some added leverage and pulled once more. "This thing just takes a little-" The metal groaned one final time before giving way allowing Vanessa to pull the lever back fully " -elbow grease." The heavy metal door creaked open revealing a near pitch-black hallway, barely illuminated by a line of dull neon green lights lining the joint between the ceiling and walls.

Fixing their badges to their belts the three teens stepped out into the hallway, the red lenses of the badges coming to light projecting a beam of crimson light that cut through the darkness. "Come on." Vanessa said gesturing right down the tunnel with her head, as she went.

Alex and Akira followed close behind, despite Vanessa's reassurance of the lack of security in said tunnels their eyes moved to and from the ceiling and ventilation ducts attached to the walls, just about anywhere that might be used to house a surveillance device, motion detector or a dozen other things used in the base to clue the staff inside about any uninvited guests.

Though the longer they walked the more it became obvious Vanessa hadn't been exaggerating about the state of the old Plumber base, from the flickering lights to rust building up at the edge of the wall panels it was clear the base had seen better days, it was sad in a way, seeing a piece of plumber history going out this way, a shell of its former glory left behind while the rest of them moved forward.

"Here we go" Vanessa noted the light from her badge glinting off the chrome ladder at a slight bend in the tunnel connecting to an opening in the ceiling and floor that lead down further into the base and their objective. Pausing at the edge of the ladder she turned her head towards Alex "You remember those codes the Magister gave you."

"Don't worry it's all up here." Alex said tapping the side of his head for emphasis.

'Better be, or we'll have come all this way for nothing' Vanessa nodded back to him planting her feet on the edge of the ladder she loosened her grip and slid down into the darkness below a low thump echoing back up through the opening as she landed, a moment latter Vanessa called up to them "All clear down here!" Alex gestured for Akira to follow as he glanced back down the way they came from the service tunnel one last time before joining them.

The air whipped past his head as he slid down the trip lasted less than a minute with a flash of green light as they passed through the service tunnel for sub-level five, before coming to a halt on the sixth and final level. Hopping off the ladder Akira and Vanessa waiting for him the latter of which was standing by one of the sleek automatic doors leading into the base her own badge in hand, displaying a series of camera feeds for their level.

"All right we made it, so where to from here." Akira asked drawing her own badge from her pants pocket and displaying the layout for their current level, she held it out to Alex, and his eyes immediately locked on the bay door registered 'HB425', glancing towards their positions shown on the map he could see there were only a few hallways standing between them and it.

"HB425" He said pointing towards the aforementioned storage bay on the plans.

Akira nodded and turned to address Vanessa "V any chance you can give us a peek inside."

"No can do." She said scrolling through the various camera feeds on her badge, she had eyes on bays HB423, and HB424 but no matter how much she looked there was nothing on 425, no cameras, no sensors, hell she couldn't even find the technical layout for the room itself, it was as if the whole bay was one big blank spot for Security. "I'm not getting anything on the security layout for this level, whatever's in there they don't want anyone digging too deep."

Akira furrowed her brow in response, well that wasn't suspicious at all now was it... just what were they down here looking for? Or maybe better yet, what were the plumbers trying to hide?

"What about here, how are things looking on the other side" Alex tilted his head towards the door between them.

"Not too bad for the most part." Vanessa hummed in acknowledgement "From the looks of things the majority of the floor is deserted." She'd seen a few technicians doing their rounds but other than that they were mostly clear barring the cameras themselves that is "The automated systems still going, they got just about the whole floor covered, no blind spots from what I can tell." She furrowed her brow in frustration, nothing would ever be easy for them would it?

"Hang on, I think I have an idea." Alex moved beside Vanessa glancing over her shoulder down at the holographic display below as Vanessa began digging deeper into the setting for the SL6 Cameras, and after a moment his eyes settled on the database file. Digging into the records it took him a few minutes to pull up a separate video feed from the day before the time stamp in the bottom right-hand corner showed the time stamps on both feeds were accurate, barring the date itself. "I should be able to rig the cameras covering our route to the storage bay to run a repeat of yesterday's footage."

"Not bad." Akira remarked pocketing her badge she moved to join her friend as she worked.

"Yeah, but we'll be on a time limit though." The longer they let the footage run the higher the chance was of someone noticing a discrepancy between the two, and skeleton crew or not once they figured out what was going on they'd sound the alarm.

"How long can you give us." Alex asked.

"A couple minutes at the most, leave it any longer than someone going to notice something up." Vanessa replied.

"We can work with that." Akira replied.

Vanessa nodded and began work on isolating a section of recording to cover the next five minutes, she slowly began integrating the recording with the live feed being sent back to the command center by the cameras, she watched the change as it went through the timestamps on each camera lining the hallways towards their objective began to tick back by one day, a smaller screen below that showing her the actual footage from inside the base.

Nodding to herself she looked back to the others "Once the doors open, we go right and then straight until we hit our second left, turn there then head straight down the hall and right once more at the crossroad from there the doors should be straight ahead, understood." She relayed back to her companions receiving a set of nods in silent acknowledgement, glancing back down to the camera feed on her badge to check if the hallway was clear. Vanessa deactivated the screen and since the timer on her watch "Let's move."

Swiping her hand over the console, the sleek doors slid open Vanessa took the lead once more as they exited out into the main hallway the door sliding shut behind them, turning right the trio moved as one down the hallway '4:32' she counted off in her head as the passed the first turn off their heads moving on a swivel in search of any plumber personal that might have been drawn in by their movements.

Vanesa hugged the wall covering the second turn off glancing down the corridor she spotted two technicians approaching the crossroads in the hallway 'Turn left, turn left.' she silently begged, and to her relief, they turned left heading down the adjacent hall to their own, glancing down at her watch her eyes narrowed '2:20' not good, but still more than enough time.

They rounded the bend and pushed on slowing their pace slightly as they turned right at the crossroads, pushing on ahead down the hallway towards their objective eventually the trio arrived at a solitary unmarked door, Akira drew her badge from her back pocket pulling up the floor plans once more for confirmation, there three markers sat right outside.

"This is it, you're up Alex" She whispered to her comrades.

Vanessa glanced down at her watch the hold-up and subsequent sneaking they'd had to do after the crossroads had cost them, '1:06' she read off the face gritting her teeth lightly "Hurry up then, we've got just over a minute" Vanessa hissed back at them.

"Working on it." He hissed back at them stepping towards the console attached to the wall and began inputting the beginning of the security door override.

"You catch that Flugel tournament last night?" A voice echoed from around the bend further down the hall to their left, followed by another far scratchy feminine tone.

"Nah, I had the larva last night, took 'em to that Blitz'n Chips place on Traxium."

"Crap, that's Monrow and Or'veil, they spot us we're screwed" Vanessa whispered under her breath, Akira's head snapped in the direction of the conversation her widening in panic.

"Lucky them,"

"They definitely seemed to think so, I'll admit it's a little pricy, but they've been pretty good in school over the last month, so I figured I'd treat them."

"Hurry the fuck up" Vanessa snapped back at him as the two voices grew closer a set of heavy footfalls following them.

Alex growled in frustration, his pace quickening his fingers dancing across the keyboard in front of him, a few seconds later he slammed his fingers down on the accept key. The console screen in front of him flashed green and the door in front of them began to slide open, Vanessa and Akira moved for the narrow opening slipping through ahead of him Alex glanced down the hall spotting a pair of shadows forming on the wall just past the corner, flashing his hand over the display, the screen flashed red and the door began to close Alex slipping through the gap behind the others.

Alex almost doubled over panting in relief "Okay... that was too close."

Vanessa let out a tired laugh cocking her brow towards the Omni ranger "Yah think?"

Akira couldn't help but laugh, swiftly followed by Alex and Vanessa, both of whom were grateful for the moment of levity following their close call out in the hallway.

After taking a few moments their laughter began to fade and their curiosity turned towards the room around them, a set of three consoles lined the walls in front of a steel shutter resting closed in front of them, and a series of blinking monitors were bolted to the ceiling above them each displaying a what appeared to be a technical readout, displaying power fluctuations, fuel levels and... Repair progress, an outline of a ship was displayed on the console below which sat a green bar at 87.6%.

"Not exactly what I was expecting." Akira muttered as they approached the closest console, running her fingers across the surface she glanced down at her hand finding a thin layer of dust clinging to her fingertips "Doesn't look like anyone been in here for a while." she noted.

"That's better for us in the long run." That meant there was little chance of anyone just walking in at one point and discovering them, either way, they were here now and that's all that mattered, stepping towards the main console Alex stared up at the shutter in front of him before looking down at the controls. Brushing away some dust from one of the screens he began typing away at the controls initiating the boot-up sequence for the console, the screen in front of him flashed to life.

X-X-X-X

Power system: Online

System Reboot: In Progress

...

...

...

...

System Initialization: Complete

Awaiting Security Authorization Code

X-X-X-X

Alex tapped his finger against the desk for a moment, running through each segment of the security code the magister had provided him inside of his head before he started typing. 'AR0R4-H4GEX-151FR' After inputting the last digit Alex read and re-read over his work once and then a second time just to be certain, he didn't want to find out what might happen if he put in the wrong code.

Pressing enter he waited for its response.

X-X-X-X

...

...

Security Authorization Code: Accepted

Welcome: Magister Tennyson

X-X-X-X

The console gave off an electronic hum the screens beside the first flashing to life one after another, the bootup code sequence flashing across them swiftly followed by thousands upon thousands of lines of text flashed across their surface, a low mechanical whine echoed through the room, and as one the shutters shielding their view of the room behind began to open, beyond which lay what appeared to be a large cargo hanger stretching almost 80ft long, 60ft wide and 50ft tall, the overhead lights flickering to life one after the other bathing the deserted cargo bay in artificial light.

A series of large metal containers lined the walls below them, with a catwalk connected to the platform through the side door leading out of the now identified control room, that broke off in two directions one followed along the wall of the cargo hanger on their side while the other stretched across the open hanger to connect to another catwalk on the opposite side of the wall a set of stairs resting against the back of each wall allowing access to the levels on both sides.

Though none of this garnered the three teens' attention, no their eyes remained focused on the craft resting in the center of the cargo bay.

It was a large T-shaped craft with a set of dual engines running horizontally across the rear of the ship beside the main thrusters, the ship itself was a dark cobalt grey with Carolina blue linings running along the side and top of the hull, while at the very front of the ship a series of segmented green hexagonal panels separated by a series of steel struts that formed the cockpits bridge canopy, engraved in each strut and the plating surrounding the canopy were series of hieroglyphs, resting above and below the canopy were what appeared to be two halves of a retractable blast shield, a small pair of fins jutting out from the chin of the craft the tips sporting a similar flare of Carolina blue as the rest of the starship.

"Holy shit" Vanessa muttered under her breath.

Akira stepped forward staring down at the ship in open awe, her eyes gliding across its surface studying its design before comparing it to the warship and civilian vessels she'd seen in the past, none of which matched up with the ship starship in front of them. "I don't recognize the design, have you guys seen anything like that before?" She asked.

"Not that I've ever seen." Alex replied eyeing the vessel curiously. While on the inside he was overjoyed by the sight of the craft, but there was just one problem "It's a lot bigger than what I was expecting." Alex noted a frustrated sigh leaving him not only would it be difficult to sneak this thing out of there, but in no way did they have anywhere they could keep it in the meantime.

"Yeah" Akira couldn't help but agree. "We're not getting that thing out of here without being noticed." The second they tried not only would the whole base be put on alert but a ship this size suddenly appeared out of nowhere inside of earth's atmosphere would cause a chain reaction back at base, they wouldn't make it far before a group of fighters came to intercept them and attempt to either board or shoot them down.

Vanessa grits her teeth "Please tell me we didn't just waste our time coming down here."

"I wouldn't say that." Akira said moving to take a seat at the console in front of them. "We might not be able to take the ship now but that doesn't mean we can't come back for it later." Typing away at the controls she quickly found and pulled up the missing structural layout for the cargo bay on the monitors above them, highlighting not only the bay itself but a separate section of maintenance tunnels and air vents leading back up to the surface. "This whole section of the base isn't on the layouts and is practically sealed off from the rest of the main complex, and judging by the amount of dust and cobwebs, it's pretty clear no one comes down here anymore." She gestured back towards the console for emphasis.

"Okay." Alex said nodding along with Akira's words, Vanessa glanced down at the console and then the monitors above a small knowing smirk spreading across her features. "I'm starting to see where you're going with this."

"We got down here through one of the old service lifts, for the main complex." Akira input a quick command into the console before leaning back in her chair Akira pointed up to the console's overhead, and two highlighted blue dots appeared at the farthest point on the tunnel layout accompanied by another three red dots far closer to the base. " Those two are the access points that are still accessible for this area of the base, they lead up and into the forest by the highway." More importantly, they were far past the perimeter cameras, meaning if they could get one of them open, they'd have a way to come and go into the hangar as they pleased.

"I'll check them out." Vanessa said.

"Hold on a second." Akira called back pulling her shoulder bag around to her front she unzipped it and reached inside pulling out a small metallic grey cube and passing it over her shoulder to Vanessa the Olive-skinned girl Accepted the cube with a smirk.

Twisting the cube in her hand it began to shift, the upper two corners slid together and elongated into the bulky but unmistakable shape of a weapon's barrel, while the bottom left corner moved to the center and slid back to the rear of the barrel and elongated itself into a stock, the final corner separated in two, one-piece sliding towards the front and taking on a more cylindrical shape that curled up along the side of the barrel before locking into place, while the final piece slid back and arced over on top of the barrel forming a red oval sight for its user. "I doubt they just forgot to seal those access points, so we don't know if any wildlife might have found their way down here between now and then, better safe than sorry."

Vanessa shouldered her Fully formed A280-Blaster Rifle, peering down the sight she smirked and then punched her friend's shoulder lightly. "You always come prepared, that's what I like about you, Takagi." Leaning past Akira Vanessa flashed her badge over the console's interface, stepping back from the console she brought up her map for the base, a new section having been added to the holographic display. "Be back in ten you two." Pocketing the badge, she moved towards the side door pushing the hatch open and out onto the catwalk, nodding to them back through the observation window back towards the others as she jogged off down the catwalk to the opposite side of the bay.

Alex turned his attention back towards the starship, eyeing the outer hull carefully he couldn't see any of the obvious entrances like a cargo ramp or gangway though, given the ship's size an access panel or ladder could easily be hidden among the bulk of the ship, he glanced up at the monitor above displaying the damage assessment for the ship once more, he nodded to himself slowly, while the damage to the outer hull was mostly superficial the left auxiliary thruster seemed to have taken a decent beating.

How this ship found its way down to earth and eventually came to rest underneath Mount Rushmore, it was all too clear it wasn't by choice. Alex hummed lightly, before patting Akira's chair drawing the glasses-wearing girls' attention "I'm gonna head down and see if I can find a way onboard." He wanted to boot up the ship's main computer and run a quick diagnostics on its internal systems, so they had a decent idea of what they'd be working with.

"Alright but be careful we don't exactly know what it's like in there, the whole thing could be a mess." Akira replied, turning back towards the console she swiped through the security system for the room and typed in a quick command, the bulkheads in the door behind her slid into place sealing it shut. "Just in case." While the chance of anyone coming down here given the state of the room when they found it was minimum, taking a few steps the minimize the chance of someone just walking in on them wouldn't hurt. "V and I will come to join you once she's back, if you find anything gets in contact with us over comms."

"Understood" Alex replied, turning the Omni ranger made his way across the control room pushing the side door open he stepped out onto the catwalk, moving with haste he rounded the railing and began his descent down the stairs towards the lower levels, it took him only a few minutes to reach the bottom and step out onto the cargo bay floor he couldn't help but feel like an ant in comparison to the starship in front of him, walking the edge of the ship his eyes roamed over the sleek surface of its hull.

At that moment a strange sense of familiarity washed over him and the longer he stared at the starship the more that feeling, within him, grew until eventually, he raised his arm to reach out and touch the ship, only to stop after noticing his Morpher had formed around his forearm, Alex stepped back staring down at his arm curiously, he defiantly hadn't summoned it.

"Wait a minute "Alex muttered to himself, narrowing his eyes he stared down at the face plate on the dial, it was almost unnoticeable in the light but the hourglass symbol was glowing, glancing up at the ship Alex took a step closer to the hull, the glow reacting in kind and growing brighter, an idea quickly coming to mind -probably a bad idea given his track record, but it was worth a shot- Alex reached out with his gauntlet covered hand the light at the center of his morpher growing brighter by the second.

As his fingers brushed against the side of the ship blue light pulsed across its hull.

~/~/~

Alex found himself standing on the bridge of an unknown starship, no, his ship, bent over the command console jumping between one screen to the next as a series of blaster bolts shot past the side of the canopy and into the reaches of space, what looked to be the planet Saturn off to the right, the ship shuddered violently forcing him to grip the console tightly or risk being thrown across the bridge as one of the energy bolts hit home seconds later an alert flashed up across the console holographic display in a language he had never laid eyes on before... yet could somehow understand without issue.

"Lord Noral, the rear deflector shields have been compromised the left booster has been disabled." An almost regal voice called out, no, wait it was talking to him, but who was Noral?

"I can see that Cogman" He felt himself reply, although it wasn't his voice it was far older and scratchier than his own and even the words themselves while they came through as plain English in his ears, there was an echo to them, another reply, another language that sounded so similar yet so foreign at the same time. "What is the state of Lady Zur'ess."

"She is awake though the power to the medical bay has failed." The voice of Cogman replied " My lord I strongly suggest you and the lady abandon ship there is an escape shuttle prepped and ready for you in the lower bay."

He shook his head, they had come too far, lost too many to abandon their mission now... wait, mission what mission?" Divert auxiliary power to the rear shield and prep the light fold engine." he ordered as he loaded the desired co-ordinates into the navigation computer, an all too familiar planet flashing up before his eyes, while it had been centuries since he and his brother had set foot upon its surface, its importance was far from forgotten.

Wait, is that... Earth?

"My lord, with the damage sustained to the engines attempting to light-fold even the shorts distance could be-"

"Just do it Cogman!"

"Verry well, sir." The familiar hum of the ship's light fold engine greeted his ears, as did the ferocity of their adversary's attack on their vessel, as the engines reached their peak the ship lurched forward, with the stars turning to streaks of light across the void of space and planets into a dark blur as their ship darted off into the blackness of space, their pursuers left far behind, they had esca-

An explosion rocked the bridge throwing him into the air, his flight carrying him over the command console and the railing on the other side, the last thing he saw before the darkness claimed him was the floor of the control deck, fast approaching.

~/~/~

Alex jumped back his eyes clenched shut arms thrusting up on instinct to shield him from an impact that never came. Sucking in one panicked breath after another Alex cracked an eye open "What the hell?" he muttered glancing around his surroundings he found himself back inside the hanger, taking a few calming breaths Alex turned his gaze back towards the ship and then down towards his hand once more, the glow that once encompassed his Morpher having vanished.

The hiss of pressurized air echoed through the chamber, Alex's head snapped to the side he watched silently as a section of the ship's hull split into four sections and began to fold back into the ship, a series of sleek hexagonal platforms hovered out of the opening gliding through the air in an arc they approached one another in groups of three before slotting together almost seamlessly to form a set of rudimentary stairs leading up into the opening.

Summoning his long sword into his free hand, backing up slightly Alex slowly edged towards the hovering staircase, bringing his blade to bear he stepped in front of the first step, starting up into the interior of the ship half expecting something to leap out at him like a scene from one of those old horror movies, instead a long empty hall illuminated by a series of neon white lights greeted him.

Alex let out a small breath and began lowering his swor- "Alex!" The young man let out a startled yelp his head snapping up towards the control room above, Akira stared down at him from the catwalk her eyes darting between him and the opening in front of him "What the hell just happened, the controls just picked up one heck of power surge going through the ship!?" she called down to him.

"I don't know!?." Tearing his gaze away from his friend Alex looked back towards the hallway stretching far inside the ship. "You better get down here!" Akira didn't need to be told twice, darting back into the control room to grab her bag then she was back out onto the catwalk leaping down one set of stairs after another, digging into her pack she pulled out a small sphere made up of segmented grey metal.

Pressing down on the top of the sphere, the segmented plates began to fold back on each other, like the cube the lower half of the sphere slid backwards and folded down into her palm, forming a pistol grip while the upper half of the sphere folded in on itself as it slid back and locked into place atop the grip before the plates began to twist into a corkscrew and fused together to form the barrel of her weapon.

Rounding the last of the stairs Akira gripped her newly formed CDEF Blaster Pistol in hand as soon as her sneakers touched the concrete her weapon was raised, her aim locked on the opening of the ship, shuffling to the right of the opening Akira slowly moved forward to stand beside Alex.

"Did you open this?" She asked glancing at her friend out of the corner of her eye.

"I don't think so" Alex gave a small shake of the head in response "All I did was touch the hull, and there was this weird light show and flashes of... something..." he trailed off.

"What do you want to do?" Akira inquired.

Alex glanced at his friend out of the corner of his eyes, then back to the ship opening "We came this far" he said glancing down to one of the hexagonal panels in front of him, he raised his foot and slowly stepped down on its surface, the panel bobbed lightly under his weight before righting itself, taking a breath Alex continued on one foot after another climbing the makeshift staircase towards the entrance, sighing to herself Akira began to follow after him hopping between one panel to the next until they both stood in the entryway.

They lingered in the hallways for a few moments to see if the entrance might close up behind them once they passed, but to their relief that didn't seem to be the case, their walk through the ship was quiet the only sound being their own footsteps echoing down the empty halls. "Something's got to be in here" Alex whispered as they passed what appeared to be an open elevator shaft connecting to the upper and lower decks of the ship "That door didn't just open on its own."

Akira hummed lightly "It could have been part of an automated system, this whole ship is pretty messed up so I wouldn't be surprised if some of the subroutines have been corrupted, for all we know when you interacted with the hull it might have mistaken you as one of its crew trapped outside." Akira surmised, ducking under a few fallen cables the two arrived at what appeared to be a crossroads, the three hallways ahead of them each sealed by a heavy metal door.

"Maybe." Alex nudged his head towards the door to the left, and what looked to be a control panel jutting out from the wall its interface giving off a dull red glow "If that's the case we should get to the bridge before it realizes we're not who it thinks we are" He didn't want to find out what would happen if whatever might be controlling the ship figured out they weren't members of its crew.

As they approached the console Akira drew her badge to attempt to access the door controls, only for the glow across its interface to suddenly flash blue, the door beside them rumbling open. "Akira" Alex called out the Blue haired girl moved to stand behind him aiming her blaster pistol over his left shoulder, while Alex's grip tightened around his sword as he prepared to face whatever might have been on the other side of the door when it opened, at least...it attempted to, before getting jammed halfway a moment of struggling and a metallic screech later the door slid open fully, revealing yet another empty hall.

The two stood there gripping their weapons tightly, waiting, what for they didn't know, perhaps a squad of security droids to come marching through the opening, maybe the ship to go on lockdown, instead they were faced with only the silence of the derelict vessel. After a few seconds of tense silence, the door slid closed once more the interface switching back to a dull red.

The two slowly lowered their weapons "The hell?" Alex muttered in confusion, maybe the damage to its systems was more severe than they thought, and while doors opening and closing on their own might not seem like that big of an issue, it could be a clue to a greater mechanical issue further down the line, the last thing they needed was for the ship to seal its bulkheads all of a sudden because of some system error.

Akira sighed and made her way back over to the console, pulling up her badge once more she attempted to interface with the controls once more, pulling up the holographic display, the holographic screen flashed a second later printing out a small message 'Error: System Incompatible' that signal sentence both frustrated and piqued the blue-haired girl's interest, their badges were designed to be able to interface with almost all known forms of technology across the known universe, for this ship to be outside of its ability left only two options.

The first option was that the crafts system was too heavily damaged during what looked to be its last battle, corrupting the code for its operating systems and leaving them unable to form a connection with their badges. As for the second and in her opinion the most likely of the two options given what they'd seen so far was that it came from beyond their charted sectors of space, something not entirely out of the realm of possibility, it would certainly explain why it had been locked up down here, the plumbers must have been trying to study it in order to understand where it came from and how it reached earth.

Either way, it meant their badges would be useless moving forward, it wasn't that bad, once they reached the bridge and had the ship under their control they wouldn't need to worry about hacking open the doors, but for now, they had only one option. "We're going to have to pry this thing open" Akira sighed.

"I've got it." His sword dissipated into particles as Alex stepped forward, there seemed to be just enough of a gap between the seems that he might be able to slip his fingers betwe- the control panel display turned blue once more, the door sliding open in front of them. "What the..." Alex stopped, Akira stopped, the glasses-wearing girl looking back over her shoulder towards the console and then slowly back to her friend, she had to test something.

"Hey, step back for a minute." She called out to him, Alex glanced at her curiously but seeing no reason to argue did as she asked, and the door slid closed "Now step forward." Akira added, Alex complied, and the door opened once more, she was right. "It's responding to you."

"Me?" Alex breathed, that didn't make any sense, how could the ship be responding to him he hadn't set foot on or even seen the ship until today, then again, his eyes trailed down to his Morpher recalling the blue glow that had enveloped the faceplate as he laid his hand on the ship, it might not be him at all "I don't think so." Taking a step back Alex allowed the door to close once more, then held out his gauntlet clade arm, watching as the door slid open.

"Your Morpher" Akira whispered realization dawning upon her "Maybe that whole thing about recognizing a member of its crew wasn't too far off after all?"

"This was 'his' ship." Alex muttered in understanding, this was the ship his predecessor and his companion had used to try to warn them of the coming invasion before the incursions had caught up to them. After he abandoned the ship, it must have been left drifting in space or had crashed down on earth -the latter probably, given it was here and not in incursion hands- until the plumbers found it.

"And now it's yours." Akira replied.

Alex looked down at his Morpher his face reflected back at him in the hourglass, he nodded slowly "Let's get to the bridge." Stepping through the doorway Akira followed behind, the sleek metal door closing behind them, thanks to their newfound discovery traversing the ship became far easier than they'd imagined, any security doors that barred their way either opened for them on their own or had they been too damaged to operate were pried open.

It wasn't long before the two found themselves standing before a much larger metallic door, its frame was dented with a thick layer of what looked to be soot staining its surface. The hall surrounding showed signs of an explosion, several panels having been ripped from the wall their shards scattered across the floor, the opening exposing the ship's inner workings with wires hanging freely from the opening.

"Looks like this is the last one" Akira noted, stepping towards the console, she gave it a once over and like a few of the ones they'd run into before found it completely inoperable the covering cracked open revealing the circuitry and wiring beneath "Alex" she called back over her shoulder to him.

"On it" the Omni ranger replied, stepping towards the door he summoned his long sword and brought it to bear, pressing the tip of the blade towards the seam in the door his hand slid back towards the pommel and slowly began to press down, his sword held and slipped into the seam of the door, planting his feet and gripping the base of the blade he slowly began to tilt the sword upwards, the door shuddered slightly as the upper section began to rise, every inch was a battle but one worth fighting as they soon had enough space for Akira move forward and brace the upper section of the door.

Alex drew his sword back and for a moment holding the weight of the door settled on Akira, the blue-haired girl grit her teeth and spread her stance slightly to give her better leverage to push back against the door, it lasted only a few seconds as Alex stepped forward to take his place beside her relieving some of the strain on her body "Ready?" he asked receiving a nod from his friend in response "One, Two, Three!" together they pushed up with all their might and accompanied by the screech of metal and grinding of gears the upper section slowly rose up into the ceiling "Go!" Alex signaled, Akira let go of the door and vaulted through the opening.

Landing on the other side she quickly clambered back to her feet and moved to brace the door for her friend "Now you" she said a small sheen of sweat forming on her brow as once more the weight of the door bared down on her, acting quickly Alex dove through the opening rolling to a halt behind Akira, the blue-haired girl released the door allowing it to slam back down back into place.

Wiping her hands off on her pants, with a tired sigh Akira turned back to face the room they'd entered, judging by the polarized canopy at the opposite end it was safe to say this was the bridge, the room was divided into two levels the upper where they stood sporting a large command table flanked by two smaller consoles, the area below holding another four that ran around the edge of the room with a mix of monitors and control panels lining the walls above them, at the very center lay what looked to be the captain's chair a set of monitors hanging down from the ceiling above with a miniature control console curling around in front of the chair.

Alex coughed lightly, a cloud of dust having been kicked up into the air after the door closed, the air was as stale as the room was dark and yet despite the lack of light he recognized it, all the same, the two stepped forward Akira moving towards one of the side consoles and Alex the command table and began to interact with the controls "Damn it" Akira whispered as line after line of what looked to be hieroglyphs flashed up on her screen, without their badges to translate it she was lost on how to move forward. "I've never seen this language before; I can't make heads or tails of any of-"

A gentle glow washed over her back illuminating the console in front of her, Akira turned back to Alex finding the young man seamlessly typing away at the holographic display on the command table, unbothered by the Alien language "How are you doing that?" she asked moving to stand beside him she examined the display finding the same hieroglyphs as her own console.

"I honestly couldn't tell you." Alex replied, as two more holographic screens flashed to life in front of him "I don't know how but when I look at this, I somehow don't know it but do at the same time." He pinched his brow shaking his head lightly "It's giving me a hell of a headache, but I think I can manage."

"Where are you now?" Akira asked.

"Diagnostics, from what I'm seeing here the ship's been dormant for around five years now so it's going to take some time for everything to come online, though a few of the baser functions should be powering on right about-"The lights overhead flickered to life, the consoles across the upper and lower sections of the bridge began to boot up one after another, the vents in the four corners of the room opened once more a gentle breeze beginning to spread through the room, a low hum greeting their ears as the ship slowly came back to life. "-now" He whispered, the command table in front of the flashed to life a cloud of particles forming in the air in front of them quickly taking the form of the starship, sections of the ship were highlighted in red a box of text appearing beside them to list off the damage.

"Anything you can do about that?" Akira gestured to the Alien text helplessly.

"Gimmie a minute" Alex typed away at the holographic screen for a second before glancing back up at the screens around him "Okay I think that did it." The text across the monitors flickered out of existence for a moment before reappearing once more, now in perfect English "There we go." he smiled.

"Well, that's convenient" Akira thanked her eyes dancing across the ship readout for the ship, from what she could see here the ship's primary functions all seemed to be running well, but the ship's power levels were a bit shaky on some of the lower decks though that was an easy fix given enough time, the biggest issue she could see was the damage to the outer hull and rear booster.

She paused a little further down the readout at the mention of an onboard AI "Hey check this out, the ship has an onboard AI."

"What's its status." Alex asked curiously, leaning over slightly to take a glance at the technical layout himself.

"Functional but deactivated" She looked to Alex, tilting her head towards the screen "Should we wake them up?"

Alex hummed in thought for a moment before slowly nodding "Fine, but isolate him to this terminal, if he turns out to be hostile the last thing we need is him taking control of the ship."

"Alright" Akira replied typing away at her own screen the holographic display in front of them flickered lightly before going blank the particles breaking apart into the air in front of them, they hovered and pulsed in the air in front of them like the dying embers of a campfire before slowly arcing back towards one another. The majority of the particles flowed together to form a single orb of what looked to be data, while the remaining particles formed a pair of rings that surrounded the orb forming an X, it bobbed and hovered before them a dull white light shining at its center.

The two teens stared at the orb for a moment as it hovered and twitched in the air in front of them, it tilted slightly to the side slowly rotating from side to side as if it was studying them, and then a moment later there was a voice.

"Children?" It seemed to ask itself, its tone was soft yet held a sense of regalness you'd find in higher society "What is this? How did you get-... no, no it matters not, this planet, it is Earth correct?"

"Earth?" Akira asked, the fact it apparently had an interest in their planet was a little concerning but given it was technically trapped here, for the time being, she didn't really feel all that against answering its question. "Yeah, this is earth."

"Then there is still hope" The AI almost seemed to whisper "Listen to me well both of you, a grave threat approaches this world, the forward line in the andromeda system has been broken an armada of over ten-thousand-star ships have set their sights upon this wor-"

"Wait, wait what do you mean the andromeda line was broken, are you... are you talking about the Incursions?" Alex asked.

"You know of the Incursions, then does that mean the invasion has already begun?" The AI asked his tone filled with dread.

"No, no" Akira was quick to reassure the Artificial Intelligence "The Invasion failed the incursions are gone, they have been for a while." And she doubted they'd be coming back anytime too, not with the thrashing they'd received soon after at the battle of New Dawn.

"Over... how long has it been?" He asked.

"Five years" Alex supplied, a heavy silence falling over the room as the light of the orb dimmed slightly.

"Five years..." It trailed off, he had been dormant for so long... He knew his lord would never abandon him despite being a mere construct of Lady Tyrel's design he had always been treated fairly by all members of their crew, for him to have been left here this long after the battle had ended could only mean one thing "So he is dead then..." Though that in itself raised another question.

The orb tilted up towards them once more "How did you gain entry to this vessel? Only one of The Chosen Thirteen may even hope to step foot aboard, yet here you are."

Alex and Akira shared a glance, the young man then slowly raised his left arm into view of the AI revealing his morpher, the orb stilled studying his arm intently for a few seconds "I see, though its design may have been augmented that is Lord Noral's Catalyst" The AI paused for a moment it's light dimming once more "The last I recall of him was after I engaged our LightFold Engines, the ship was struck by an enemy craft and I was disabled... how did he die."

Alex's eyes hardened recalling the final moments of his predecessor after he'd been teleported to the crash site by his soon-to-be Morpher. "I don't know what happened after that but, his escape pod crashed down on earth in the woods outside of my home city Bellwood" Alex began to explain " He was injured in the crash and did something to his morpher that brought me to him, I managed to pull him from the wreckage but he wasn't doing good, I tried to help him but there was nothing I could do... he died just after passing it on to me."

The orb hovered in place for a moment seemingly processing this information before its light returned to normal once more "Then this ship and all that it holds now belongs to, my Lord."

Alex blinked "Just like that, you don't even know who I am."

"You were the one summoned to his side in his final moments, you were the one deemed worthy by the Masters of the grid to serve as it and the people's champion, you are the torchbearer who carries on this great line." The AI went on to explain "Had there been any reason for doubt, my lord, this power would have abandoned you long ago, so now I must ask to what end did you seek this vessel out."

Akira stepped forward "We need your ship so that we can give aid to another world." She began to explain "The upper brass of the Plumber, the peacekeepers for our world and most of the known universe refuse to give their support, Alex convinced me and a few others to join him on a mission back to that world and we need this ship to do it."

The orb turned to regard Alex once more. "Then you will have my aid in this endeavor, Lord Alexander. Though I regret to inform you this ship has seen better days, it will take some time to return it to fighting shape once more." The AI informed him.

Akira cupped her chin in thought "Hmmm, Ben could probably knock repairs on the physical damage out in a few days with Upgrade and Jury-Rigg, though installing the generator and integrating our own tech into the system might take a couple of weeks." She paused glancing up at the orb of sentient data hovering over the console "The plans for the ship itself would be a big help... sorry what do we call you?" she asked while restoring the command terminal back to its original network.

"I am Cogman Ma'am and if the designs for this ship are needed then you shall have them." Cogman replied "Give me a moment and I shall have them ready for you" A second later Cogman's form vanished from sight.

Akira looked at Alex offering him a reassuring smile "It's a start if nothing else" she said.

"We still don't know how many others might be willing to get on board with this plan of ours." Alex replied somewhat forlornly "With the time between the fall of Beacon and now, even with the Professor backing us on Remnants condition there's going to be more than a few people who'll still think it's a lost cause."

Akira rested a hand on her friend's shoulders "Then it'll be our job to convince them."

Alex smiled back at her before turning his attention back to the console in front of him "We'll need to check in with Owen and Isaac though while we put together a list, I still don't what Isaac said about Hokestar." He might not have been as bad as Argit, but he still didn't believe he wouldn't try and pull a fast one on them if it benefitted him in some way. "Last thing we need is for that whole generator thing to be a fluke and for us to be left high and dry."

"Actually, Isaac texted me earlier about an update on the generator." Akira spoke up opening his bag once more she pulled out her phone opening up her conversation with Owen and held it out to Alex "They already managed to get in contact with Hoekstra, he was oddly willing to help and gave them the location and keys to the site where the generator is being held." Akira informed him much to Alex's surprise, taking the phone in hand he read over the texts between them as Akira went on "They're going to check it out and make sure the generator's there, they'll be checking in again once they're done."

Alex shook his head lightly in disbelief that the gambol with Hokestar might have actually come through for them, still, if the generator was there then they had their way to Remnant, all that was left to do now would be to install it in the ship, and put a crew together for an expedition into unknown space, a task made all the more difficult by those in the upper brass who'd no doubt be keeping a close eye on them.

The upper brass might be willing to overlook what was happening, but he was sure as hell there were just as many Plumbers who weren't, the trick now, was getting them on board with this crazy plan of theirs.


AN: They have a ship, they have the generator, and now all that's left to do is assemble a team, fortunately, there are more than a few plumbers who'd be more than willing to lend a hand in putting this threat down for good, as for our friends back on remnant we'll be checking in with them soon enough.