Mission 13: Part 3

As the light of the transporter beam faded, Martin found himself on the deck of a large US aircraft carrier. Amid the bustle and activity of the flight deck, he could see the skies were dark and the waters of the Persian Gulf were churning and choppy. Naval deck crews scrambled about servicing some fighter planes and doing checks on the undersides of the aircraft. After taking a look around he turned and spotted a sharp-eyed middle aged man in a flight suit approach him. As he neared, Martin saw the man's badge showed him to be Colonel in the US Air Force so he saluted. "Captain Martin Sterling, US Air Force, reporting for duty, sir."

The Colonel returned the salute and nodded with a smile, "At ease Captain. Welcome aboard the Endeavor. I'm Col. Joshua Hale. Follow me."

The two men walked off the flight deck and down a stairwell to go below decks to the pilots' ready rooms. The older Colonel led the way and made idle conversation, "We were told that the Xenos have a jamming field around Dubai making it impossible for UNAF reinforcements to get through by teleporter."

"Yes sir," Martin answered, "I insisted on trying to rejoin my team so General Caldwell suggested I do the next best thing."

Hale nodded, "Well, it'll be a special honor to have a real life Ranger join my fighter squadron. I think you'll like the Red Griffins. Have you flown any combat sorties?"

"No sir. Not officially. I've logged many flight hours flying Kestral and Pegasus fighters but I'm eager to prove myself."

"Glad to hear it Captain," Hale said as they walked into the pilots' locker room, "You can suit up here. We won't waste time so a Tactics briefing will be in an hour. The sooner we can launch and retake Dubai, the better. Oh, and be sure to look presentable. This ship's commander, Captain Monroe will also be sitting in on this meeting."

"Yes sir. Understood," Martin nodded before he was left alone in the room. He took a deep breath and opened one of the spare lockers where a flight suit and a pilot's helmet hung on the rack.

"Erik... everyone... just hang on a little longer. I'll be there soon."

The booming sounds of explosions echoed across the city of Dubai as the monorail sped back into the city proper. From their elevated track, the Nova Rangers watched as people on the city streets fled in panic while cars and trucks tried to make their own desperate escape from the invading alien forces. Up above, fire rained from the night skies as Xeno Strigons screamed by overhead while the ominous wail of the enemy dropships named Banshees descended from the skies. Within the train car, the Rangers morphed and prepared for the worst as they continued further down the tracks.

"This is bad," Ella remarked as she fiddled with her morpher, "I can't get a signal and reach Martin. All I'm getting is static!"

Erin nodded and gave a grim look to Erik, "I haven't had much luck either. I got a short garbled message out to Atlantis Base, but my signal faded. My guess is that enemy carrier is jamming all of our signals. The only way we're going to call in more reinforcements is by knocking that thing out of the skies."

"And the UAE air forces have been wiped out already. Damn!" Erik growled as he thought furiously about their next move.

Bharata put a hand on the blaster pistol at his side, "What are your orders, sir?"

As the monorail slowed, Erik took one more look at the chaos outside before turning to the team, "Okay everyone. We gather as many civilians as we can on this train and get them to safety within the Palm Island base."

The others nodded in agreement and charged out of the train car as it came to a stop. They rushed out and entered a plaza while an enemy airstrike hit an office building above. Concrete and glass rained down in a deadly hail forcing the Rangers to halt and momentarily take cover. When they looked up again, they found themselves at the entrance of a large building that stretched a great distance lengthwise before seeing something else very unusual. Panicked civilians and tourists came pouring out of the place wearing winter coats and cold weather clothes.

"What the heck?" Bharata exclaimed while glancing at a sensor inside his helmet, "What's with the coats? It's still like 95 degrees out here."

An explosion burst from the far side of the building as Erin turned and glanced at a sign, "Huh… World's Longest Indoor Ski Slopes. Go figure."

"Let's get a move on people! There might be wounded in there!" Erik called as he led the Rangers inside.

After barging past the main lobby and atrium, the Rangers found themselves in a colossal room with snow on the ground and chilled air swirling about. More frightened civilians came running toward them and Ella pointed them for the exit, "Everyone, board the train waiting outside! We're going to get you folks to safety!"

Amid the clamor and commotion, the Rangers came across a mixed platoon of Eidolon soldiers and battle drones stumbling down a snowy incline trying to shoot the place up and capture civilians. Both forces skidded to a halt in surprise before Erik fumbled for his blaster, "Look out!"

The Xenos opened fire and the Rangers dove away, scrambling for cover while firing back at the approaching enemy. As the four huddled up behind the base of a ski lift, they found themselves pinned down by the enemy.

"They're going to flank us!" Ella called in desperation while she and Bharata fired a few blaster shots in reply, "What's the plan?"

"Do we focus on the enemy or do clear out the civies?" Bharata shouted as he spotted a few injured tourists straggling behind and trying to escape.

Another blast rocked the building adding an extra danger that the structure might start collapsing around them in some spots. Erik watched in a daze as Erin crouched beside him, shouting her own questions amid the confusion and din of battle, "Erik! Hey! This place might cave in. What's the plan?"

Erik took several breaths while feeling very overwhelmed. So many things were happening at once and everyone was shouting something different in his face. In a typical battlefield situation, Erik was used to focusing more on helping the injured while others would cover him or worry about the tactics and environment. Now he was thrust into an unprecedented large scale battle and found himself struggling to come up with a plan. He had led the team here and now the situation was devolving all around them. Erik's protective instincts as a father and a medic were kicking in and he began to feel a twinge of fear about making the wrong call or issuing orders that would get his teammates hurt, or even worse… killed.

Erin saw him hesitate and decided to try something different. She put a steadying hand on his shoulder and looked him in the eye through their visors, "Sir, we don't have much time. Maybe we should tackle these problems in order?"

Erik looked to Erin and blinked a moment before nodding slowly in gratitude. That moment's pause and gesture of reassurance went a long way toward getting his brain back into gear. The Blue Ranger surveyed the battlefield and called the team together with a loud voice, "Okay, listen up squad! We're going to make a break for those civilians and retreat with them. Erin and Ella, you two cover us. Once Bara and I get to the tourists, we'll fall back and get the hell out of here! Ready Bara?"

The Green Ranger drew his vibro blade and gave a thumbs up while Ella took Erik's blaster to dual wield, "We're with you Erik!"

The Blue Ranger gave another nod to Erin before bursting from cover to draw the attention of the enemy attackers. Both male Rangers charged across the slippery snow dodging enemy blaster fire and using the shield mode of their morphers while Erin and Ella did their best to cover them. Upon reaching the last group of pinned civilians, Bharata held his shield and blade up to deflect enemy fire while Erik bent down to examine a female skier whose leg had been lightly injured by shrapnel from an explosion. The civilians could only gape in fear and awe, "Are we going to die here?"

From the sound of their accent, he guessed they were probably Danish or maybe from somewhere in northern Germany.

"Not if I can help it," Erik said while quickly adjusting the leg of the injured skier. She looked to be a young blonde woman who whimpered and moaned a few more words in Danish. Erik smiled and scooped her up in his arms, before speaking a few reassuring words back in German, hoping she'd recognize a few words in the similar tongue, "Hang on. I'll get you to safety and fix your leg."

He turned to the civilians and nodded before radioing his team, "Rangers! Let's fall back and get to the train!"

"Music to my ears," Erin called as she gunned down a battle droid and activated her shield, "Let's go Ella!"

The Pink Ranger followed suit and continued to fall back behind Erin and Bharata while continuing to fire the two guns in her hands. Turning her aim upward, she fired at a raised ski lift cable causing one of the heavy metal carts to come crashing down on some of the alien attackers. As the Rangers and civilians made their escape from the indoor ski slopes, Erin turned to her female comrade with a laugh, "Nice shooting there Rambo. You almost looked like you were having too much fun there."

Ella gave her a mild elbow in reply while the Rangers rushed out of the building and back across the plaza toward the waiting monorail. They could see it was already packed with frightened people. As the Rangers directed the last of the tourists onto the platform, they were halted by a powerful barrage of enemy fire which sawed through the sidewalk and sprayed a cloud of concrete and gravel all over them.

The Rangers looked over to see a fresh wave of Xenos approaching led by what looked to be a fearsome walking tank of a commander. Decimus stomped forward and blew out a menacing jet of flames from his shoulder mounted flamethrower before turning his wrists and launching a rocket at Nova Squad. The projectile whistled by and struck a train equipment shed blowing it to pieces.

"Whoah..." Bharata gulped in dread while Decimus reloaded his chain gun.

"Get to the train!" Erik shouted as he led the rest of the civilians to safety while carrying the injured woman.

Erin and Ella fired a few blaster shots at Decimus only to see the bolts deflect harmlessly off his heavy armor. Ella turned and started to run while giving a huff, "If only we could call Dr. Beckett. The Prism Cannon would come in pretty handy about now."

Decimus took aim and fired another rocket from his shoulder launcher but Bharata moved to cover the girls with his force shield. The Green Ranger staggered as the projectile struck the shield and exploded, throwing him hard to the turf. From his position on the other end of the battle line, Taldyr watched in curiosity as the Green Nova Ranger tumbled to the ground in a heap before his two female comrades turned and rushed over to help him back up. The Ranger was still stunned, but his fellow Rangers didn't leave him behind either.

The Xeno soldier couldn't quite understand why the Ranger would put himself in harm's way to shield his allies in their retreat, or why the others didn't abandon him either. Helping to protect comrades and taking selfless actions for one another were all but unheard of in the alien ranks. Of course they would work and maneuver together when fighting an enemy, but regard for the safety of other comrades in the unit was always thought of as meaningless. If an Eidolon or drone was stupid or careless enough to get killed, then so be it.

His attention was brought back to focus as his commander gave a digitized grunt and turned away in anger after seeing the Rangers escape on the monorail with a trainload of civilians. "They got away! Taldyr, take a unit and secure this area. We'll keep searching for those Terran super-weapons and tear this whole city apart if we have to."

"Yes Commander," Taldyr replied with a reluctant nod before gathering a team together and getting back to work.

As the monorail made its escape from the growing fires and carnage of the city, the escaping civilians watched as alien fighters continued to buzz around the skyscrapers of Dubai while the enemy carrier loomed in the distance. Women huddled on the benches with frightened children while several other men slumped over with shell-shocked looks on their scraped, soot covered faces. Inside the packed train, Erik removed his Ranger helmet and pulled a First-Aid kit from a train compartment and began to do some improvised triage on hurt civilians.

For now, they'd be safe and he hoped that he could get these people to the Palm Islands base for protection. He could gather his thoughts again and put his skills to work focusing on something he was good at: treating wounded people. As they continued to speed along, the other Rangers watched in awe as Erik seemed to come into his own barking out orders on how to use and distribute their medical supplies. While the other Rangers hurried to assist, Erik cast a quick look over to Erin who knelt down beside him and helped to steady the bloody leg of the Danish girl they saved. While Erik cleaned the wound and bandaged it, he spoke quietly, "Erin, about what happened back there at the slopes… thank you."

The Yellow Rangers smiled and nodded as the train sped over the beaches, "Just doing my job, sir. Don't mention it."

Giving one more tired nod, Erik got another bandage and ointment before moving to help a man who had been burned in the arm from an explosion, "Erin, keep trying to contact Atlantis Base. When we get back to the zord hangers, you can give me a status report then."

The Yellow Ranger grimaced as she watched the city continuing to be invaded, "You don't think the Xenos know about the Mecha-zords… do you? That this might be the reason they're here?"

"First things first," Erik replied echoing her words, "We'll handle these problems one thing at a time."

Back on the USS Endeavor, Martin sat in a large briefing room with the commanders of several other fighter squadrons and marine units. At the head of the room, the ship's commander Captain Monroe, went over the plan while standing in front of a display screen. He removed his cap from his short brown and gray hair while fixing his blue eyes on the room, "At eighteen hundred local, a Xeno strike carrier broke through our planet's defense line and launched a direct attack on the city of Dubai. The UAE defenses were caught off guard and overrun leaving the city at the enemy's mercy. The UNAF has a top secret research facility just off the coast and it's critical that we not let the Xenos near the base. We've been tasked with launching a direct counterattack on the enemy forces to retake control of the city."

Captain Monroe paced the room as the display changed to a closer view of the region, "The Endeavor will launch a wing of fighters to retake the skies over Dubai and knock out the enemy carrier there. The Xeno ship has a jamming field around the area making it difficult to communicate or transport help into the city. Destroying that signal tower on their ship will be the first priority of the pilots flying our heavy Firebirds. Kestral and Pegasus fighter squadrons will assist in the attack while providing air cover for our troop transports close behind. That second wave will come in low and work to recapture points on the ground. Good luck gentlemen. We've got a lot of people counting on us. Dismissed."

As the meeting adjourned, Martin rose and began to head toward the hangers to meet with his flight team. He stopped when he ran into Captain Jeff Austin of the STARs and the two men exchanged a surprised look. "Jeff… I wasn't expecting to see you here."

"I could say the same Captain Sterling," Jeff smirked, "I thought you'd be with your Ranger team, not here in a flight suit."

"My team is trapped behind enemy lines in Dubai," Martin answered as a dark shadow crossed his face, "This was the most direct way I could get there to help them."

Jeff nodded with a look of understanding while keeping his cool expression, "Well, don't sweat it. My team will flush out the Xenos and pull Nova Squad's ass out of the fire again. You sky jockeys just make sure you keep those Xeno fighters off of us, okay?"

"Calling in your favor already huh?" Martin snorted, "I make sure your sorry ass doesn't get blown out of the sky and we'll call it even."

Austin gave a sardonic chuckle before the two men shook hands firmly on it, "I'll hold you to that, sir. Happy hunting."

"You too. Good luck out there Captain," Martin replied before heading out the door into the flight hatch. There was a lot left to do and his mind was fixed on worrying about the safety of his squad. The sooner they could launch off the aircraft carrier, the better.

After returning to the relative safety of the underground Palm Island facility, the small crowd of evacuated civilians were ushered off the monorail and taken to some secure quarters deeper within the base. The tired Nova Rangers were met with a visibly irritated base commander who berated Erik for bringing a crowd of civilians into a secret restricted area, but he relented somewhat when the team pointed out the unusual circumstances. If they didn't get captured or killed by the aliens, where else were the people supposed to go?

Night had set in over the land and the fires from the city continued to glow, punctuated by the occasional boom of an explosion in the distance. From the safety of their bunker leading down into the base, the Rangers took some time to breathe and decompress from the harrowing events of the day. They watched as the Xenos continued to hover and move around the city, apparently searching for something. As the night wore on, the Rangers began to wonder if there was some truth to Erin's speculation after all… that they were looking for the Mecha-zords.

While Ella went to work with Dr. Rizal on his reactor, Erik leaned against the entrance of the Palm Island bunker keeping watch over the city while holding a rifle slung behind his shoulder. The heat of the day had cooled and the moment of relative quiet was welcome while he felt a breeze on his cheek and listened to the waves of the water around him. The Blue Ranger had been so lost in thought, he didn't even hear Bharata and Erin approach.

"Erik, there you are. What are you doing out here?" Erin asked as she carried a small knapsack with her.

He shrugged, "Just thought I'd stand guard for a while. Besides, I figured I'd get some air and clear my head."

"Why don't you clear your head by getting some rest, sir?" Bharata asked while giving his friend a light clap on the shoulder, "Take a break. I'll stand watch for a few hours."

The Blue Ranger grimaced in reluctance before Erin tugged his arm gently, "Come on Dobermann. If you're not going to sleep, do you want to grab a bite to eat?"

She opened up her knapsack and tossed Bharata a package of crackers to snack on while Erik sighed and relented, following her back into one of the quieter corners of the cave bunker that lead into the base.

As they sat down and rested against the cave wall, Erin pulled out a water canteen and large can of barbecue beans, then opened it. She produced two spoons and handed the can off to Erik so they could share. "Sorry. It's not as good as our meal yesterday night, but this was the best I could scrounge up. You'd think in this modern day in age, most of our field rations still wouldn't taste like shit, right?"

Erik smiled and took a bite of the food before handing the can back to Erin, "That's okay. You've done more than enough today. To be honest, I'm glad I picked you as my second in command. You've really done a lot to help me."

"I can't say I really envy your position," Erin said while taking a bite of the food, "I don't think any of us really expected this mission to go to hell in a hand-basket so fast. How are you holding up?"

"Okay I guess," Erik said while taking back the can of beans, "I just keep thinking about earlier today when we were pinned down in that indoor ski slope, you know? Honestly, I kinda froze up back there and I keep beating myself up about it. Caldwell and Martin put a lot of trust in me here and I didn't want to screw up and let them down. The last thing I wanted was to be responsible for making a bad call and getting one of you guys hurt today... and I very well could have."

Erin nodded quietly, "But you didn't... and I guess that makes a lot of sense, given your job and your life experience."

The Blue Ranger raised a confused eyebrow before Erin continued, "It's in your nature to be concerned about others and look after them. You're a medic and a father to a little girl too. I can imagine you hate the thought of being responsible for the injury or death of another if you can avoid, right?"

Erik grimaced and turned the spoon over in his hands, "You know, when you and Ella came into my room arguing a few days ago, something you girls said got me to thinking. It made me think of being a father and the way I am with Sarah... and it made me think of the way I can be toward the rest of our squad sometimes. Part of the reason is because I don't want to be like my father was to me."

Erin remained quiet as Erik went on, "Growing up, my father wasn't around very often and I rarely saw him or talked to him at all. Hell, even today I can't say I know the guy really well but I'd always be wondering about him. Does he wonder abut me too? Is he proud of me? Does he even care? When Martin put me in charge of the squad, I began to think about a lot of those things and it made me think of my dad again too."

"You still love him, don't you?" Erin asked as she handed him the can of food.

"I guess I'd have good reason to hate my father… but I don't," Erik sighed leaning back on the wall and taking a bite of beans, "The thing I'm most worried about right now, is letting this team down and letting Sarah down too... the people I'm responsible for protecting above all else."

Erin smiled gently, "You shouldn't worry or doubt yourself too much Erik. You're a good friend and a good father too. I'm also sure you wouldn't have been chosen to lead the team here if Martin didn't think you were a good Ranger too. It actually reminds me of something he said about leadership when he and I spoke to Dr. Beckett a while back. He said that when you're in command, you can't second guess yourself too much. If you blame yourself for every little thing and let it get to you, that's when you lose your focus and make bad decisions which get people killed."

Erik handed her back the can and nodded in gratitude, "Thanks Erin… for everything. You've given me a lot to think about tonight."

Their warm moment of friendship was suddenly cut short as Bharata called from the lip of the bunker, "Uh guys? I think we've got a problem… a big problem!"

The Blue and Yellow Rangers hurried to their feet and scrambled up to join him to where he pointed out in the distance. To their horror, the three Rangers stared in awe as a large humanoid figure was lowered from the base of the small Xeno strike carrier. The automaton looked to be some sort of giant robot and appeared to be roughly the size of a small skyscraper. Although it was still night, the dark outline and menacing visage of the war machine could be clearly made out in the bright light of the fires below.

"Those aren't one of those titans Caldwell talked about… is it?" Bharata asked with a gaping mouth.

Erik blinked a few times trying to regain the feeling in his trembling legs, "If it is… we'd better hope that Dr. Rizal can get those Mecha-zords up and running really fast."