Mission 9: Part 2
Lucy Beckett gripped the edges of her seat as the small UNAF airship hit some air turbulence and jostled about for a few moments. In no time, the transport ship steadied itself and continued jetting along while its engines settled back into their normal droning roar. Ella Catalano grinned as she caught the scientist's discomfort and patted her shoulder as she walked in the cabin of the aircraft, "Everything okay Dr. B? You look a little tense."
"Sorry... I've never really cared much for flying," Lucy muttered as she idly fumbled with some of the straps of the flak vest she was now wearing for the mission.
Erin took a seat on a bench nearby and gave an encouraging smile, "Really? I would have thought you'd be more uncomfortable heading to the battle line with the rest of us."
Admittedly, the Yellow Ranger was also correct. Dr. Beckett was scared to death about the possibility of entering a warzone for the first time in her life. She didn't belong there and she didn't know the first thing about combat either. Her body armor felt uncomfortable and awkward and she had no idea how the other Rangers all made it look so easy.
"All right, cut the chatter and listen up everyone," Martin called as he walked back into the transport's hold, "There's a lot riding on this mission so let's review. We're returning to Kursk via aircraft as those Parallax bubbles are causing too much interference for our teleporters. We'll be dropped roughly half a mile from the anomaly and we'll make a break for that damaged tower."
Erik nodded in agreement, "Once Dr. Beckett activates the Parallax inhibitor, we should have just enough time to make it to the tower so that she can reprogram the alien device. Bharata, you'll be in charge of carrying the inhibitor and keeping us safe. Ella and Erin, you two will be there to assist Dr. Beckett with any other technical help she'll need. Everyone got it?"
"Yes sir!" the three younger Rangers replied smartly to the squad's second in command.
Martin took a glance out the windows and looked below to see thick banks of gray low hanging strata clouds masking the Russian landscape. No doubt there was going to be fog which would make things a little more difficult once on the ground. "Good. ETA is in approximately fifteen minutes from now. Until then, I want all of you to strap in, double check your gear, and focus on the mission. We're only going to get one shot at this so we have to make it count, right Luce?"
"Sure," she replied in nervous trepidation while adjusting her glasses, "No pressure or anything... right?"
Once the transport landed, the Rangers and Dr. Beckett quickly piled out and grabbed their gear before their ride lifted back off into the skies. The horizon was dark with low hanging fog mixing with the smoke that remained from the fierce battle over the little strategic city of Kursk. Erin immediately pulled out a scanner and pointed the team in the direction of the Parallax bubble while Bharata took point and Lucy stuck to the center of their formation for safety. Ella kept a sharp lookout at the rear and spoke quietly over the team comm line, "Stay sharp everyone. There might be Xenos still lurking around here."
To their relief, no resistance was encountered while the team moved ever closer to the city limits. Finally, they came upon what they were looking for. The eerie Parallax bubble had grown significantly since they last encountered it and the anomaly swirled with energy particles giving the appearance of an opaque clouded marble, or one with a miasma filled haze within. Everyone stopped before they hesitantly approached the massive shimmering bubble of glowing light. Up close, the phenomenon had grown in size and spread out over the entire region. The Parallax bubble had grown several stories high and seemed to just keep expanding horizontally across the whole landscape. Erin halted and lowered her hand scanner with a gaping mouth, "Oh wow… this is bad news. Do you really think that device Dr. Beckett cooked up is going to be able to protect us?"
"There's only one way to find out," Bharata answered as he gestured to the Nova Morpher on his wrist.
The other Rangers activated their morphers and donned their battle suits before turning to Dr. Beckett. Martin looked to his old friend with a hint of tension in his voice, "Lucy? You ready to go?"
"Here goes nothing," she nodded as she pulled out a small device that looked to be the size of a bread toaster. After hitting a few switches on the side, a little dish extended outward and began to give off a subspace signal of its own. The Rangers held their breath and watched as Lucy held her device forward while beginning to walk into the anomaly. The five Nova Rangers huddled around, flanking her like bodyguards and all of them watched in stunned silence as they noticed another strange phenomenon. The altered subspace particles emitted by the inhibitor pushed aside the Parallax bubble and formed a short of faint glowing protective shell around them. Once inside the strange swirling Parallax, the Rangers continued to see the world normally while everything around them fluctuated slightly in a foggy dreamlike haze.
"Wow… this is too freaky," Ella remarked as Lucy handed off the inhibitor to Bharata while Erik set his stopwatch.
"Okay. Let's get a move on," the Blue Ranger suggested. "We're not going to have a whole lot of time to get to that transmitter tower."
The small group pushed on through the quiet eerie landscape and occasionally stared at the sight of civilians, soldiers, or Xenos that were caught in the bubble who remained fixed in place, blinking in and out of existence. Though no one openly vocalized it, the experience was truly unnerving. After a time, the Rangers finally cut through the last of the temporal fog and returned to the location of the transmitter tower.
"All right, showtime!" Erik sighed in relief as Lucy and Ella hurried over to plug in and disable the Xeno machine.
While Bharata stood nearby them and watched over the device shielding the Rangers from the Parallax, Martin, Erik, and Erin stood guard.
Several long minutes passed and only the sound of clicking keyboards were heard until Martin glanced at his own watch, "Girls? How's it going over there? We're running up against the limits of our time."
"Hang on everyone… I've almost got it," Lucy replied furiously working while Ella double checked the computer coding, "Before I disable everything, I'm going to try and use the device to send back as many Xenos to the moon as I can. We might as well use their own subspace technology against them."
While she said that, Bharata glanced down and saw the protective device that he was holding start to short out. The protective field around the Rangers slowly began to retract while the Parallax closed in, "Uh Dr. B? If you're going to try that, you might want to do it soon. The inhibitor is starting to crap out."
Ella cast a fearful glance around as she saw her fellow Rangers withdraw back around the tower and huddle up near them, "Any time now Doc."
"Just a little longer…" Lucy said through gritted teeth while she worked.
The Parallax continued to creep ever closer while Erin took a deep breath and tried to hide behind Bharata. Even the normally stoic Red Ranger felt his stomach drop and his voice betrayed a hint of fear as the Parallax nearly wore away the last of their protective force field, "I'm kinda freakin' out here Luce…"
"Got it!" she smiled as she punched in the last command codes and braced herself. The Nova Rangers held their collective breaths and watched while the light at the top of the miniature tower changed colors again to a cool blue and began to radiate out against the encroaching Parallax anomaly. To their relief, the new field of energy particles spread out and began to dissolve the cloudy miasma of the Parallax bubble. While the Rangers were still a bit too far to notice, the adjustments that Dr. Beckett had made to the tower caused all the Xeno soldiers within the bubble to be sent back to their point of origin on the moon where the first dimensional fold had taken place. All the human soldiers and civilians within the bubble remained unharmed and suddenly found themselves free of the distortion.
"All right! Way to go Dr. B!" Erin cheered while the others breathed a sigh of relief. Once the time-space bubble had completely evaporated, the colored bulb at the top of the tower blew out and fried the electronics of the remaining structure.
"Rangers! You did it!" General Caldwell's voice came in over the radio, "We're picking up similar signals from the alien towers around the rest of the world. The Parallax is subsiding and the Xeno's subspace network is falling apart."
"I can't believe it worked myself," Lucy gasped as she fell to her knees and tried to catch her breath.
Erik knelt down and put a calming hand on Lucy's shoulder, "Easy does it Doc. Just take deep breaths."
"Uh guys... we're not out of the woods just yet," Ella remarked as she looked upward and saw several large objects fall from the skies and land nearby. The miniature comets slammed into the earth with a thundering boom and kicked up a wave of dirt and smoke before they were revealed to be Xeno Machina drop pods. As the hatches opened, several Eidolon soldiers emerged along with a pack of fearsome quadrupedal beasts. The biomechanical creatures resembled large attack dogs except they were constructed from a gruesome fusion of machines and organic parts. The monsters possessed unusually large jaws filled with razor sharp teeth and lacked any sort of eyes or facial features. In a way, it was as if their entire head was one big toothy maw ready to shred its prey.
The alien soldiers and their gruesome attack animals grouped around a biomechanical humanoid with metallic praying mantis-like pincers attached to its shoulders. It was a safe bet this was a Xeno field commander who had come to challenge the Rangers. The warrior laughed and gently petted one of the freakish beasts, "Beautiful aren't they? Lord Hellspont personally commissioned the creation of these Reaver creatures for us... natural hunters and killers."
"I think we'd be doing them a favor if we put them down instead," Bharata retorted, "Who are you and what do you want?"
The intimidating Xeno commander slowly turned his attention back to the Rangers, "I am Commander Vivisectus. You've disabled our transmitter towers. I want to know how."
"Forget it bug face," Erik called back defiantly, "You guys already screwed things up enough. Why don't you and your slobbering mutts get off our rock and take a hike?"
"You will submit to us... one way or another," the Xeno scoffed as he waved his troops and Reavers forward. The Rangers immediately reacted by drawing their pistols and forming a defensive formation.
"Stay back and take cover Lucy. We'll keep you safe!" Martin called as he turned back to the incoming enemy forces.
The monstrous creatures began to swarm forward like a pack of ravenous attack dogs. Their freakishly large mouths gaped open while their sharp mechanical teeth gnashed furiously. The gruesome quadrupeds surged over the rocky terrain, unconcerned as they met a disciplined volley of blaster shots from the other Rangers. After blowing a few more of the freakish dogs away, the Rangers activated their force shields and swapped weapons for their Nova Strikers instead.
The charging Xeno forces met the Rangers and a fierce melee erupted on the field. Erin and Erik carved through several more Reavers with their vibroblades as the snarling monstrosities leapt at them. Meanwhile, Bharata and Ella both clashed against several foot soldiers, dodging and somersaulting past attacks and beating them back with their own martial arts moves.
"Keep it up! Stand your ground Rangers!" Martin shouted as he roundhouse kicked aside an Eidolon and sidestepped a Reaver's vicious bite. Before he could raise his energy blade up, he was cut off when he heard a muffled scream coming from behind their line. He whirled around and his eyes went wide in horror as he saw the Xeno field commander Vivisectus standing near the trasmitter tower gripping Lucy by the neck.
"Martin! Help!" she exclaimed before the Xeno tightened his grip and silenced her. Lucy yelped in pain and feebly struggled to escape but the Xeno was far too strong.
"That's enough out of you girlie," the monster snorted while the Red Ranger furiously leveled his vibrosword.
"Let her go Xeno! If you hurt her, I swear to God I'll…"
"You'll what?" Vivisectus taunted as he put one of his mantis blades to Lucy's throat, "She's important... isn't she Ranger? If I had to guess, she's the one responsible for everything that's happened here."
He glanced down at her datapad and cables before looking back to the Ranger with a sly smile. The Ranger hesitated and tried to keep his blade leveled, "I'm not going to say this again you freak. Let. Her. Go."
"You're lucky that she's useful to us," the Xeno laughed as he clamped down again on Lucy's neck, "Otherwise, I'd slit her throat right now and delight in the death rattles."
Lucy gave another whimper before a loud buzzing sound came from the skies. Everyone on the battlefield paused a moment to stare as a Xeno Machina shuttlecraft descended quickly from overhead. To everyone's surprise, one of the shuttle's laser turrets began to lay down a blistering hail of fire causing the other Rangers to disengage and dive for safety to avoid being hit. Although the five Rangers were thrown off balance, the indiscriminate fire wiped out the last of the alien combatants and fortunately cleared the way. In the confusion of the alien shuttle's landing, Vivisectus shouted and fired several whirling blades from his wrist which hit the ground around Martin and exploded, throwing the Rangers backwards.
"Help!" Lucy cried out before she was hauled roughly into the Xeno shuttle. Vivisectus smirked and gave a wave to the Rangers who were picking themselves up off the ground with stunned expressions.
"This isn't over yet Rangers. I'm going to borrow your scientist for a little while but I can't promise I'll return her in one piece."
The alien shuttle craft fired its jets and quickly took off into the sky with its captive. The five Nova Rangers staggered for a moment from the blinding dust cloud that resulted before watching in horror as the Xeno commander made his escape with their friend. The Red Ranger pulled his pistol and hopelessly fired several blaster shots at the aircraft to no avail.
"Get back here you cowardly son of a bitch!" he shouted in a blind fury, "I'm coming for you! Do you hear me? I'm going to..."
He stopped as Erik stepped in and forcefully restrained him, "Sir... Martin... calm down and think for a moment, okay? We'll get her back."
The younger rangers watched in surprise and horror as the big German Ranger struggled for a few more moments to settle their enraged commander. Erin looked grimly to the others and then to the ruins of the battlefield before reaching for her comm, "Lieutenant Reilly to Atlantis Base... General Caldwell? We have a little bit of a situation."
A/N:
Phew! And just when you thought our heroes were going to pull things off. Now that the weird science is out of the way, we can get to a classic rescue mission scenario. I've got two more chapters left in this little plot arc so you can expect one more double post in the near future followed by a shippy breather plot to change gears afterwards. Stand by!