Mission 3: Part 2

Erin Reilly sat back on a stone slab and tiredly blew aside a strand of her brunette hair while she toggled through her datapad. It had been a couple hours since the Rangers had found themselves trapped in the underground compound and walled off by the built-in Adventi force fields. After several unsuccessful tries, Ella had determined that being underground and the electromagnetic interference from the energy barriers were distorting their distress signals and the team was unable to contact Atlantis Base.

At the moment, the Pink Ranger made herself busy on her laptop trying to navigate her way through the alien operating system of the compound where she plugged in. Erin had given her a translation program to help, but it was still running a bit slow. For the time being, all the team could do was wait and hope that Lucy or General Caldwell would send help.

Meanwhile, the trapped Xeno in the other room had backed away and stalked off to the far corner of the antechamber, being unusually quiet. Deciding to take a break, Martin walked over to where Erik was busy tending to the injured Green Ranger and giving him a pain killer. Bharata was propped up on some rucksacks and had a sterile dressing on his side over an energy weapon scorch. The Red Ranger knelt down and handed the younger Ranger his canteen of water before turning to his XO, "How is he Erik?"

The Blue Ranger wiped his brow, "Well, I stabilized the wound for now. Bara's lucky it was just a glancing blow and his flak vest helped reduce the damage. He should be okay, but he should really be treated back at the base."

"I'm sorry I got hit sir. I'm holding everyone down right now," Bharata sighed glumly.

Martin shook his head and put a surprisingly steadying hand on the younger Ranger's shoulder. "Don't apologize Bara. Just hang in there okay? I promise I'll do everything I can for you guys."

Bharata was taken aback by the Red Ranger's unusual show of open concern before nodding, "Yes sir. Thank you."

Across the room, Erin didn't pay much mind as she sorted through a few more pages of alien script and ambled over to another console in the wall. She gave a curious frown as she studied the glyphs and tried interfacing her datapad with it. As the new reams of information began to show up on her screen, her eyes went wide as she struggled to keep up. If she was seeing this right, she couldn't believe what she had found. "Everyone… I think I found something!"

"Is it a way out of here?" Erik asked curiously as he and Martin came to join her.

Erin shook her head, "No, but this could be just as big. I was tapping in to some of these systems and I think I found a huge backed up repository of Adventi data. I think Dr. Guzman may have been right. A few survivors from their ship must have set up a little base here and preserved what they could."

Martin stared at the cryptic alien script and frowned, "Do you understand what any of this says?"

The Yellow Ranger bit her lip, "Only bits and pieces. It looks like there's all sorts of stuff here. Some of it looks historical, there might be some journal entries and science notes, and it looks like there might even be some technical engineering manuals. I'm sure Dr. Beckett would have a field day with this stuff."

Erin's exuberance and excitement was cut short as the compound's lights flickered and turned to an ominous reddish color. Ella gave an alarmed shout from her own corner of the room and looked up from her laptop which was interfaced with a nearby wall panel. "Uh… guys? I think we have a pretty big problem!"

The others rushed over and gathered around the Pink Ranger. Erik put a hand on her shoulder and tried to peek at the monitors, "What's wrong Ella?"

The Pink Ranger took a moment to steady her breathing, "If I'm reading this right, it looks like another entity has patched in and interfaced with the compound's systems. It's activated a slow self destruct sequence for the outpost.

A fearful silence fell over the room as the Rangers exchanged worried looks. Finally, Erin cleared her throat, "Are you kidding me? Who triggered that thing?"

Erik whirled around and spotted the trapped Xeno scout hiding in the far corner of the other room. As he neared the door, he saw a portable cable jack connecting the biomechanical monster to a console in the other room. Erik growled and drew his pistol, "You! You stupid bastard! Do you realize what you've done?"

The Xeno glanced over and chuckled in its dark raspy voice, "I'm setting us all free Rangers. My orders were to find and destroy this place. If I can wipe it out along the enemies of the Xeno Machina, then that's even better."

Martin clenched his fist and felt his stomach drop. His team was now trapped behind force fields with the entire place rigged to blow. With a grim look, he turned to the girls, "How much time do we have left?"

Erin glanced at the console and sucked in some air. "If I'm reading this right, we've got no more than ten minutes."

Martin nodded, "Okay, our primary objective is getting out of here. Ella, do you think you can bring down the barriers in time?"

The Pink Ranger stopped to do some mental calculations, "I don't think I have time to gain manual control, but I may be able to disable the systems. If I create a condensed data surge, it might temporarily disrupt the force field emitters. The problem is, I'm going to need to draw as much computing power from our field equipment as I can."

"Wait… what about the Adventi datalogs that I'm downloading right now?" Erin protested in horror, "We can't risk losing all that precious information!"

The Red Ranger grimaced, "It's not going to do us any good if we all get vaporized here. I'm sorry Erin."

"But sir…"

Martin fixed her with a hard look, "That's an order Lieutenant."

Erin growled in frustration before nodding her head and relenting. She knew it was the right thing to do, but she still hated the idea of losing all that data… valuable information that could help humanity even more in their struggle. She reluctantly handed over her computing devices to Ella letting the Pink Ranger hook them together and finish her work.

Soon enough, everything was ready and Erik moved to secure his patient. Bharata gave a tired but grim smile as he gripped his gear, "I hope this plan works. I already thought getting shot was the worst of my problems today."

Once they were set, everyone got in position to carry out their escape plan.

"Erik, get ready to pull Bharata out of here!" Martin shouted as he kept his blaster pistol trained on the Xeno, "Ella, once you drop the barrier, I want you and Erin to start running too."

"What about you sir?" the Pink Ranger asked in concern.

Martin morphed and turned his head toward the Blue and Green Rangers, "We don't have time. I'll be right behind you guys."

As he hoisted the injured Bharata up, Erik nodded and gave a thumbs up, prompting Ella to hit the keyboard and disable the barriers. Everyone held their breath for a moment as the energy force fields flickered and then dissipated. In the ensuing moments, a storm of activity resulted. Erik made a break for the exit while carrying his ally as Ella sprung from the console and grabbed her gear to make an escape.

The freakish Xeno scout sprung from the other room and tackled the morphed Red Ranger, even after taking a few direct hits from Martin's blaster fire. While they tangled against each other, Erin rushed to recover her own computer pad in hopes that she could upload a little more data. Amid the flashing lights of the compound, Erin saw the self destruct timer tick under three minutes and she hesitated to plug her datapad back in.

Across the room, she saw heard the Xeno Machina creature shriek as Martin rolled over on the ground and wounded it again with his Nova Striker energy blade. Before he could get another cut in, the monster clamped back down on his weapon arm and pinned it to the floor. The Ranger turned his head and shouted, "Erin! What are you waiting for? Get out of here! Now!"

The Yellow Ranger hesitated again and looked at her datapad before making up her mind and turning to help her comrade instead. To the Xeno's surprise, Erin grabbed her own Nova Striker and ignited it mid-charge while morphing herself. In a flash, she plowed into the surprised Xeno, leading with her shoulder and driving it into a nearby stone wall. Before the alien had any more time to react, Erin swiftly drove the searing energy blade straight into its torso and pinned it to the wall. The Xeno gave a horrible gurgling cry as its own oily blood spilled from its wound. With another howl, the alien thrashed and tried reaching up grab Erin, but the furious Yellow Ranger swiftly pulled her blade free and whirled around, decapitating it in a powerful finishing slash.

As the Xeno's eight biomechanical eyes went dim and its body slumped to the ground, Erin took a deep breath and deactivated her blade. She turned and extended a hand to help her commander to his feet. "Are you okay sir?"

Martin nodded and gave an impressed nod, "Thanks for the save Erin. That was a great job just now."

The Yellow Ranger smiled and gave a sheepish shrug, "Thank you sir. I'm just returning the favor from Paris. Now what do you say we get out of here?"

The two Rangers turned and sprinted down the rocky tunnel and out of the complex. As they emerged into the light of the early evening sun, they kept running to join their friends who had stopped and waited a good hundred fifty meters away. No sooner had the team been reunited, a deep rumble was heard and the five dove to the sand as a large explosion rocked the landscape. A small shockwave swept out along the ground and an enormous geyser of rocks and sand burst up from the surface of the desert followed by a big fireball.

A thick haze of smoke hung over the air as a rain of sand and rocky debris fell down on the prone Rangers while they rolled over on the ground. Once they comprehended the magnitude of that explosion, realization and relief set in that they were glad to be alive. While Erik and Ella sputtered from the clearing air, Dr. Beckett's worried voice came crackling in over their comms, "Nova Squad... Martin... anyone... this is Atlantis Base. Please respond."

As she was still morphed and protected by her helmet, Erin was the first to answer while laying back on the sand in relief, "We're here Dr. Beckett. Everyone is okay."

"What happened? Lucy asked in concern, "We completely lost radio and sensor contact with you for several hours. Now we picked up a massive power surge on your location. General Caldwell was about to send a platoon of Marines after you."

"It's a long story Luce," Martin cut in as he rose to his feet and surveyed the blasted terrain. "We had a little run in with the Xeno and got trapped by some force fields here. We'll need emergency transport home and a medical team ready at the base. Bharata is going to need some help here."

Dr. Beckett paused a moment before nodding behind her control panels, "Understood Captain. Stand by for emergency beam out."

As the transmission cut out, Erin glumly looked over to Ella who was doing a quick check of her computer gear that she brought along. She sat up and sighed toward her female comrade, "So do you have everything?"

The Pink Ranger nodded and gave a small smile, "I do, and then some. I've got a little something you might find interesting."

Erin blinked in surprise before tilting her head, "Really? What?"

Ella grinned and held up a data stick before offering it to the Yellow Ranger, "I managed to recover some of the new data that was stored in the compound's archives. I'd be a pretty bad tech if I didn't back up my own files, right?"

Erin took the data stick in shock before she burst into an overjoyed smile. The Yellow Ranger threw her arms around her friend and gave her a big hug while she laughed, "Ella Catalano, if I wasn't wearing this Ranger helmet, I'd kiss you right now."

Ella gave a kind hearted shrug, "Don't sweat it amica, (friend) I know you were upset about having to sacrifice your own data pad to the cause so I did the best I could."

Before any more words could be exchanged between the five, they were engulfed in a beam of light from above which locked on to their Nova morphers. In another flash, the Rangers were instantly transported away leaving the great smoldering crater in the deserts of Mexicali behind them.

After having been debriefed that evening, Erin Reilly sat by herself in the mess hall of the base early the next morning. She was dressed down in her civilian clothes, sipping a cup of tea and holding a data slate with the information that Ella had recovered for her. As much as she wanted to start looking at all the data, she refrained from doing so. Instead, her mind was elsewhere thinking about the poor innocent scientists who had been killed by that Xeno scout and how her team had narrowly escaped that death trap in the Adventi outpost.

The mess hall was still fairly empty and quiet at this hour, perhaps too quiet that she didn't even hear the person who walked up to join her at her table. "Mind if I join you Lieutenant Reilly?"

Erin looked up in surprise to see the kindly face of General Caldwell approach. In his hands were a cup of coffee and a large cinnamon bagel.

"Oh... sir! Of course!" Erin exclaimed scrambling to her feet and giving a quick salute.

"At ease Erin, it's too early in the morning and I'm much too tired to salute right now," the older officer chuckled while sitting down.

Erin nodded and sat back down, "Sir... I didn't expect you'd be up this early."

"Ah well... no rest for the wicked when you're the base commander I suppose," Caldwell shrugged while eating his breakfast, "I'm just as surprised. I thought I had given you and your team a week off after your ordeal. I didn't think you'd be at work."

Erin sheepishly shrugged "To be honest, I wasn't getting anything done. I had a lot on my mind."

Caldwell regarded her curiously and took a sip of coffee, waiting patiently for her to continue. Finally Erin relented, "Sir... I was thinking about what a disappointment it was that the Adventi outpost was destroyed and all that information was lost, along with a bunch of researchers."

"It was unfortunate, but there is some good that came out of it," Caldwell nodded, "Nova Squad survived and you recovered some of the alien records there."

"That's just it," Erin mumbled as she chewed her lip, "The events in the outpost have made me question myself a little. General... compared to the other members of my team, I sometimes feel like a weak link. I'm not as good as the other four when it comes to all the things that have to do with direct combat or being a soldier."

"Lieutenant, you're selling yourself a little short don't you think?" Caldwell answered patiently, "If you weren't exceptional, you wouldn't be here as part of the squadron."

Erin balled her fists and stared into her mug of tea, "Maybe so, but yesterday, I almost let the researcher side of me get the better of the soldier side of me. I know it's awful for me to say this... but for a minute back there... a very selfish minute, the only thing I could think about saving that data when I learned the place was going to blow. I didn't care about anything else and for a moment, I was willing to let the rest of the mission go to hell... to let my teammates down."

"Except you didn't," Caldwell replied while calmly taking another sip of coffee, "You did the right thing by sacrificing your own equipment to help disable the force fields, and you came to the aid of your friends when they needed you. Captain Sterling had praised you in his report saying that you had saved him and handled yourself exceptionally well in that battle too."

Erin stopped in surprise before gripping her mug, "Really? I guess you're right... I did do pretty well, didn't I?"

"I'd say you're going to be just fine Lieutenant," Caldwell nodded as he finished his bagel.

With that, Erin gathered her things and quickly rose to her feet. "Thank you for the wise words General... now, if it's okay with you I've got something important to do and it'll require the rest of the team... well, excluding Bharata for now."

"Oh? I thought I told the team to rest and recuperate."

"We are," Erin smiled, "Once the rest of my squad wakes up, I was going to see about organizing a little game of Solar Frisbee in the West End. I think I kinda owe them that one."

"Very well Lieutenant. See to it," Caldwell nodded as he gave a casual salute and watched her hurry out of the mess hall. As he turned back toward the large bright windows which filtered the morning light in, the general decided to take his time finishing his breakfast. The soldier side of him knew that it was time to get to work, but the selfish civilian side of him won out. Sometimes it was better to just stop and enjoy the feeling of a peaceful leisurely breakfast while admiring the sight of the rising sun.

A/N: Sorry for the delay everyone. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving holiday with your families!