Mission 9: Part 1

After a hasty retreat back to Atlantis Base, the Nova Rangers sat in the main briefing room of the Command Tower watching the holographic maps. Both alien and UN forces were pulling back from their respective battlegrounds across the world while the strange energy phenomenon of the Xeno towers continued to stay active. Whatever was going on, it seemed like those strange bubbles were posing a threat to both the humans and the aliens alike.

The Rangers had barely had time to drop their heavy combat gear but still wore their BDUs which were dirty with grime, smoke, and sweat from the battle in Russia. From a side room, the door swished open and a grim faced General Caldwell emerged causing the Rangers to quickly stand up to attention. The older commander waved them off and approached the head of the table followed by Dr. Beckett.

"Rangers… welcome home," Caldwell began as he eyed the holographic maps displayed, "We called you back because there seems to be a sort of developing situation. Based on the data that was collected from Lieutenant Catalano, it seems Dr. Beckett's original hypothesis was partially correct. The Xenos were in fact using devices on those towers to fold space-time and create wormholes. That was how they slipped past the orbital defenses and were landing huge numbers of ground troops."

Erin drummed her fingers on the table and gave a relieved sigh while studying the maps, "Well lucky for us something backfired on the Xenos. They caught a lot of our forces by surprise in their first wave."

Caldwell grimaced and paced around the room, "I'm afraid the situation isn't as rosy as you think Lieutenant Reilly. The enemy ground forces have fallen back for now but they've still landed a significant force which can go into hiding or cause more problems behind our lines."

"I feel like there's more bad news still coming General. Am I right?" Martin noted as he crossed his arms pensively.

Caldwell exhaled deeply and turned to Lucy prompting her to speak. Dr. Beckett cleared her throat and changed the holographic displays with her dataslate. "You're right Captain. At the moment the situation is changing and it looks like a greater threat is coming from these subspace emitter towers that the Xenos have set up."

"Does it have to do with that weird energy bubble we came across?" Bharata asked.

"Precisely," Dr. Beckett nodded displaying schematics of the device, "Based on the data we collected, it looks like critical design flaws in the Xeno towers have caused malfunctions and destabilized the very fabric of space-time. If understood your description of the events correctly, it would seem that the people and places caught within these subspace bubbles are trapped in a sort of loop, phasing in and out of reality."

Erik rubbed his temples, "Okay… this is really weird. I kinda recall all that theory of relatively stuff from science classes in school, so is that what we're up against? Relativity has gone bonkers?"

"Well, it's a bit of an over-simplication but… yes," Lucy admitted with a shrug.

"About the people in the bubble, why was everything blurring in and out of focus though?" Ella asked curiously.

"I imagine what you're seeing is a parallax effect. The appearance of objects is displaced based on the different points of view outside the energy bubble."

"I don't suppose this could get any worse… could it?" Bharata asked hesitantly.

Lucy sighed and displayed the world map with the locations of the unstable bubbles, "As we speak, it appears those subspace bubbles are continuing to grow. If left unchecked, it's possible that they might swallow up whole cities or countries. If that happens… well, who knows?"

Everyone sat in a stunned but grim silence until Martin cleared his throat, "Okay… so what are we supposed to do about it? Is there a way to reverse the effects or shut off those towers?"

"The only way we can even hope to deactivate those towers is to get through the Parallax bubble first," Lucy said solemnly, "Doing that that is where the challenge lies."

She paced around the room in deep thought before she stopped and shook her head to herself, "Hmm... no. I don't know about that."

"You've got an idea?" Erin asked hopefully, "Because the rest of us don't know the first thing about quantum physics or string theory."

Dr. Beckett set her datapad down on the table and looked to Caldwell, "General... I think I might have an idea, but it's a long-shot."

"I'm all ears Doctor," Caldwell offered while extending his hands outward.

Lucy nodded and looked to the Rangers, "Everyone, I was thinking it might be possible to combat the Parallax bubble with something similar. With Ella's help, I might just be able to create a sort of Parallax inhibitor which will temporarily shield us from the unstable particles. We can cross into the bubble and try to disable the emitter tower. I could program something to cause a chain reaction in the others and maybe shut them down for good."

Everyone sat in silence for a moment thinking it over before Caldwell put his hands down, "Do it. Dr. Beckett, get on that protective device. Once you're done, I want you to suit up and head back to Kursk with the Rangers to stop that disaster from spreading more."

"Wait! General... you want me to go to the battlefield?" the scientist balked in shock.

Caldwell rose from his chair, "You're the only one who will be able to maintain that inhibitor and disable those towers. The Rangers will be there to protect you every step of the way. As for you Rangers, get ready to return to the battle line. I'll keep the STARs on standby in case things get hairy out there. Dismissed."

The Nova Rangers exchanged uneasy expressions while Lucy sat looking sick to her stomach. Being responsible for more world saving tech and entering a warzone was not how she wanted to start her week. It was times like this she wished she'd just keep her bright ideas to herself.

During his downtime in waiting for Dr. Beckett to craft her anti-parallax device, Erik Dobermann took a short walk through the infirmary of the base to check in on the wounded UNAF troops that had been transported there for immediate care. Based on some of the reports that he had glimpsed, there had been heavy fighting across the world and there were sure to have been numerous military and civilian casualties as well. For a moment, he wondered if the sister bases of Atlantis were just as busy rendering aid. Like Atlantis, there were two other floating city outposts: Garuda Base in the Indian Ocean and Midway Base in the Pacific.

As he entered the busy but sterile infirmary, the Blue Ranger passed by some doctors and nurses that were buy tending to injured soldiers and a few civilians that were lying in beds or hooked up to IVs. In a way, hospitals and infirmaries always felt strange to him. He was a combat medic and used to seeing gruesome injuries in the heat of battle. He was used to being short of the right medical equipment or having to improvise ways to help wounded people. Here in a clinical setting, things just felt too "quiet" and sterile... not that it was a bad thing. The doctors and nurses here were doing the exact same thing he was trained to do, which was to save lives. The environment though was just something he still couldn't quite get used to.

While he continued to walk down a row of patient beds, he spotted Trooper Garcia, the STAR who had been injured during the recent battle alongside the Rangers in Kursk. The young man was sitting up in bed trying to flex his shoulder which had been patched up with fresh bandages. To Erik's surprise, he also found Captain Jeffery Austin at Garcia's bedside speaking a few words of encouragement to his subordinate before clapping the man on the other shoulder and turning to leave.

Austin stopped when he saw Erik before slowly approaching, "Lieutenant Dobermann, I'm a little surprised to see you here."

"I was about to say the same thing to you too sir," Erik replied carefully.

The two men began to walk down the rest of the aisle and out the other side of the infirmary. While they did, Austin snorted mildly, "You weren't expecting me to come check up on my trooper?"

Erik remained quiet as Austin waved it off, "We STARs do have a mean streak but we're not completely heartless either. We do take care of our own."

"Of course sir," Erik nodded dutifully, "I never doubted that."

Austin glanced at the big German medic for a long moment before giving a slight nod himself, "Lieutenant… thank you for tending to Garcia's injury out there in Kursk. I appreciate your doing that."

"Just doing my job sir," Erik said in a neutral tone, "We're all on the same side."

Captain Austin curled his lip in amusement, "Your tone doesn't sound completely convincing."

Erik frowned to himself as they continued walking down the hallways of the base, "Sir… with respect, if we are on the same side then I don't understand why you and your men are so antagonizing our team. We're all veteran soldiers here who have beaten the enemy before so there's no need for the hazing."

Austin stopped nearby one of the windows overlooking the ocean and fixed the medic with a firm look, "No Lieutenant. You don't understand. We act this way because we need to let everyone know that we're the best damn soldiers on this entire planet. Part of that comes from believing that to be true. The STARs need to believe that it's true in order to be effective."

"It sounds more like you guys might have a chip on your shoulder," Erik noted causing Austin to growl and turn away toward the window.

"You're wrong again Lieutenant. The men of my unit do know a thing or two about having our pride bruised."

Erik listened while Captain Austin continued to look out over the blue ocean with a hard gaze, "During the first Xeno invasion, you remember how fierce the fighting across the world was, don't you?"

Erik remained silent while Austin spoke, "Many of the world's leading powers… America, Russia, China… we took on the brunt of the fighting and we suffered for it too. We hated to do it, but it had to be done. So many lives lost and so much of our strength destroyed."

Erik nodded, "That's why the UNAF was established. With everybody around the world pitching in to help now, our resources and strength are shared."

"You're missing my point," Austin said with an edge in his voice, "Before those damned Xenos came the United States of America had been at the very top of its game. We were the strongest country on the face of the Earth."

"Arguably you still are," Erik pointed out but Captain Austin shook his head.

"No. Not when we've ceded away part of our strength and sovereignty to a world government. I know we had to do that out of pure necessity but I know for a fact that many of us still hate the fact that we had to do it at all. Letting the UN have a greater say and dictating some of the way we do things... it's sickening. I'm sure if you asked your own Captain Sterling, he'd agree with me. He wouldn't ever say it out loud but I'm willing to bet that he shares many of those personal feelings too."

Erik pondered the words before looking to Captain Austin, "There's probably some truth in what you say, but the fact is we're still at war and we're stuck in this situation together. We have a mutual enemy that needs to be driven from this solar system first and foremost."

"That's still the primary objective Lieutenant," Austin agreed, "But part of my own personal mission is to restore my country's pride and prestige and no one is going to get in the way of that… not the Xenos or any of you either."

The STAR captain took a breath and steeled his features before giving a curt nod and walking off down the hall, "Lieutenant."

Erik watched the man depart and disappear into the crowd of base personnel going about their work. For a moment, he couldn't help but feel a mixture of pity and confusion at Captain Austin's sentiments. While Erik couldn't fully relate, he had to admit there was still some legitimacy to Austin's feelings about the state of the world. While part of him wanted to go and prod Martin's thoughts on the subject, he decided it was probably best to just let sleeping dogs lie and preserve the harmony that had already been built up by their squad. Besides, they had enough problems to worry about at the moment.

Meanwhile, above planet Earth a small task force of Xeno Machina warships maneuvered about to occupy the attention of the orbital defenses and the remains of the Terran fleet. The Xeno ships stayed well out of range and took no aggressive actions, instead opting to distract the humans and keep them off balance. Occasionally, one of the orbital guns would fire but because of the interference from the growing time-space bubbles on the surface, they could not achieve targeting locks and the shots went wide.

On the bridge of one of the alien frigates, the Xeno field commander Vivisectus stood watching the spectacle unfold. The fearsome warrior restlessly moved his shoulders which folded back a pair of long blades resembling the shape of a praying mantis's arms. While humanoid, the biomechanical horror sported dark colored armor with sharp edges and freakish serrated mantis-like claws that had been surgically grafted onto his arms as secondary appendages. He slowly closed his mechanically enhanced eyes before he received a transmission from Warmaster Hellspont on the moon.

The robotic human-mantis hybrid opened his eyes and looked to his viewscreen, "Warmaster. I am here."

Vivisectus what is the current situation above the planet?" Hellspont asked.

The warrior glanced to several glints of light around the blue planet noting the reflection of the sun off the hulls of the Terran ships and the orbital guns, "We are keeping the enemy fleet busy as you requested. We've had no trouble up to now."

"Good," Hellspont replied, "Prepare to order your ships back to the moon. You however will stay and take a drop pod down to Earth. We may be in need of you on the surface."

The mantis tilted his head slightly in a mixture of curiosity and amusement, "What would you have me do Warmaster?"

"We've intercepted some human radio transmissions and think they mean to reverse the effects of our broken transmitter towers. I want you to go down there and prepare to intervene."

Vivisectus frowned, "Why not let the humans work? If they have a way to stop those subspace bubbles, it will benefit our side as well."

Hellspont chuckled, "I'm counting on it. If the humans have a means to stabilize those bubbles, then they'll be able to repair the towers and allow us to continue the invasion. I want you to capture any human devices or technology that might be helpful in that goal."

The mantis warrior turned and gestured to some of the other Xenos on the bridge, "I will do as you ask Warmaster. Vivisectus out."

A/N:
The scientific concept of Parallax is primarily used to help astronomers measure distances from Earth to some other stars using trigonometry. I think it's thematically appropriate for issues of altered relativity and some of the "space" themes of this series overall, but hopefully some of you also caught the other hidden meaning in the chapter title, especially as it relates to differing perceptions of other people and/or countries.