Mission 14: Part 2

The whitewashed houses of Tadjoura burned and black smoke billowed into the skies as Eidolon soldiers and Xeno Machina battle drones marched through the town. While the aliens advanced, they destroyed or killed everything they came across and burned a path toward the coastal shipyards. It was there that they hoped to raid the ship containers and take on some much needed supplies. As they blazed their way through, Lieutenant Taldyr watched quietly as a few remaining citizens of the town fled in terror of the alien attack. Nearby, the mechanized Commander Decimus stomped through the paved road and sawed a car in half with a chainsaw like attachment on one of his arms. After doing so, he swiveled 45 degrees sideways and set fire to another house with a flamethrower weapon on his other arm.

"Commander, we're nearing the shipyards. Shall we push on?" the Eidolon leader asked.

Decimus snarled in his digitized voice, "Have the main group here continue to the shipyards. I want you to take a detachment of soldiers and come with me."

"Where are we going?" Taldyr asked in puzzlement.

Decimus pointed his fearsome robotic fingers up the coastline toward some hills at the northeast end of the town, "The humans are taking refuge in some of those bunkers. We are going to send a message to the Nova Rangers and the rest of the Terran military."

Taldyr stopped and frowned, "You intend to attack the civilian shelters? Why? They pose no threat to us, nor do they have any strategic value."

Decimus stomped forward and loomed over the clone soldier menacingly, "Our forces suffered a great loss in the deserts of Dubai. We will cause the Terrans just as much loss of life and resources as we have. I want our enemies to pay a steep price for their victory."

"Commander, slaughtering the civilians would be a waste," Taldyr protested, "They could be assimilated or made into slaves instead."

Decimus growled and leveled one of his weapons on the Eidolon, "This is your last warning Lieutenant. Do as I say and do not question my orders again. Is that understood?"

Taldyr stared down his commander and remained stone faced to hide his growing resentment before putting his helmet back on, "Perfectly Commander."

As the alien commanders split off from the main attacking forces, the Nova Rangers quickly made their way back into the embattled town of Tadjoura. As they surveyed the destruction around them, Bharata did a quick scan with his portable sensors, "It looks like the Xenos are headed toward the shipping yards. Supply raid maybe?"

"That would be a safe bet," Erin agreed, "If Caldwell was right about these guys then that means their transports shouldn't be too far either."

With her own scanner, Ella pulled up a map of the region, "We still have a problem though. Our Comm Sat. station is still down. If they're being jammed, we won't be able to call in any backup either."

Martin grimaced and tried to figure out which objectives came first: the listening post, the enemy transports, or the Xenos attacking the town right now. After a long moment, he made up his mind, "All right. The civilians come first. We don't have time for the relay station. Bara, I want you and Jake to locate the Xeno dropships. Take out their pickets and disable as many of their craft as you can."

The two younger Rangers gave a quick salute as Lucy radioed in, "I'll scan the area for the residual enemy engine trails. I'll guide those two the rest of the way."

Martin nodded, "Okay. The rest of us are going to intercept the enemy. Let's move out!"

With their new objectives set, the Ranger team split up and went to work to try and save the burning coastal town before it was too late.

After picking up on the fading energy signatures of the alien transports, Lucy sent Bharata and Jake the data they needed and guided them through some of the jungle brush until they came to a large clearing. They stopped and remained silent as they spied several Xeno transport ships sitting idle with only a few Eidolon sentries. The alien guards looked bored and didn't seem to be paying close attention which allowed the two rangers to creep in a little closer. As he moved silently through the jungle vegetation, Bharata smiled and sized up the battlefield in front of him. He was in his element now and just needed a few moments to plan a deadly ambush of his own right now.

Jake stealthily moved beside him and crouched low while readying his sniper rifle. Having been also placed in his element, the young Corporal slipped back into his old military training. He spoke in a faint whisper, "What's the plan, sir?"

Bharata reached for his morpher and replied quietly, "I count about eight guards. I'll go in first and draw their attention. When I make my move, start taking them out."

"Can do Lieutenant," Jake grinned as he placed an unlit cigarette in his mouth and readied his sniper scope, "How are you going to get close enough to strike?"

"Watch and learn my friend," Bharata smiled as he quietly activated his morpher, "Energize."

No sooner did he morph into the Green Nova Ranger, Bharata activated the stealth feature Julian had built into his morpher. Jake watched in astonishment as the image of the Green Ranger rippled for a moment and seemingly became invisible. The Corporal smiled as he saw an invisible figure move forward and rustle some ferns. "Blimey... that's some brilliant stuff right there."

Jake waited patiently and began lining up targets with his scope waiting for Bharata to make his move. He idly chewed the end of the cigarette and zoomed out of his scope a moment to see everything in front of him. As he did, he saw a rippling form in the air grab an Eidolon from behind and cut him down with a vibroblade. In the clearing, Bharata whirled around and pulled his blaster pistol as his stealth mode faded away. He saw one of the other clone soldiers reach for a blaster staff but a sharp crack in the air was heard and a shower of sparks erupted from the helmet of the Xeno. It collapsed into a lifeless heap before another crack of sniper fire was heard and struck a third Xeno soldier in the throat. Bharata saw a momentary spray of bluish colored blood before the alien trooper feebly reached for its throat and dropped dead.

The Green Ranger grinned and gripped his weapons. He was falling behind in the score and if Jake wanted to make a game of it, Bharata would oblige. Soon enough, the two Rangers cleared out the last five enemies and tied each other with four kills each. Bharata walked back out into the clearing and holstered his weapons while Jake emerged from the brush, now smoking a lit cigarette and discharging the spent armor piercing shells from his gun.

"Nice shooting there Massey," Bharata smiled as he gave his teammate a fist-bump, "You're pretty quick on the draw there."

"Thank you sir. I'm a little out of practice, but it's nice to know my aim hasn't gotten too rusty," Jake replied as he reached into his backpack. He pulled a small stick of C4 explosives and gestured to the alien transports, "Shall we?"

Bharata grimaced and retrieved his own, "We weren't planning on a demolition mission so we don't have a lot of this stuff to go around. Let's blow the ones we can and sabotage the others if we have time. Our teammates are going to need us."

Jake nodded in understanding and headed toward the entry hatch to one of the transports while carrying his explosives, "Sounds like a plan. Let's get to work."

Meanwhile, the other Rangers hurried back into the besieged town of Tadjoura and followed the trail of smoldering destruction until it led them to the Xeno raiding force. As the four Nova Rangers approached the shipyards, they saw a large number of clone soldiers and battle drones breaking into the large ship containers and pillaging things like metal and electronic equipment. Erik looked around and noted there weren't any civilians to be seen, "That's odd. Have all the civilians escaped?"

"There's group of safety bunkers set up on the other side of town Lieutenant Dobermann," Lucy answered over the comm, "I'm guessing the people have taken shelter there."

Erin cracked her knuckles in anticipation of battle, "Great! Then that means we can really cut loose here. Only thing is... where's the enemy commander? I don't see any here."

"You don't think a field commander is back with the transport ships, do you?" Ella asked in concern.

"We'll worry about that later," Martin answered while reaching for his morpher, "If Bara and Jake haven't radioed a distress call, then we'll take that as a good sign. Everyone?"

The others pulled their morphers in unison and activated them causing the Xeno invaders to stop and turn in panic, "Energize!"

The raiders froze in dread as four Nova Rangers emerged from shimmering lights colored red, blue, yellow, and pink. They were suddenly set upon by a blur of their human enemies who charged into their ranks. Ella sprinted forward using her morpher's shield mode to deflect incoming blaster fire before springing high in the air with a graceful twirling somersault. As she passed overhead, she pulled her blaster in midair and returned fire easily taking down several drones.

Nearby, Erin tumbled into the fray and knocked aside several Eidolons with a cartwheel and sweeping kick. As the enemies tried to counter with jabs from their staff weapons, the Yellow Ranger swept her other arm around and blocked with her own morpher's shield. Once she had turned the attacks aside, she swiftly pulled her own vibroblade and cut three of the clones down with one fierce counter slash.

Across the path, Erik bullrushed a heavier battle drone into a ship container and used his shield mode offensively to momentarily pin his foe. Using his enhanced speed and strength, he hooked an arm under the drone's leg and lifted it up. He twirled his enemy for a moment and hurled it into another group of Eidolons who were coming around a corner to attack the girls.

"Strike!" Ella cheered giving the Blue Ranger a thumbs up while standing over the downed troopers.

Atop a nearby shipping container, Martin fended off a few Eidolon spearmen with his vibroblade. The Red Ranger deflected their thrusts and punched or kicked them aside before flipping off the container and whirling back around to pull his blaster. He fired a few shots and dropped the remaining attackers before turning back to his own team. "Looks like we've got a party now."

The four Rangers huddled up and found themselves surrounded on all sides by more incoming Xeno troops. Ella glanced about and scratched her chin, "Huh... I don't remember inviting all these guys."

Before the Nova Rangers could reply to her quip, several enemy troops went flying from behind as a Nova Striker materialized from nowhere and cut several foes down. The clone troops and drones turned in surprise just in time to see the Green Ranger materialize from his cloaking mode and fire an overcharged blaster shot which blew away another pocket of them. Bharata rolled through and took up a spot with his team, "Sorry we're late. We got a little held up blowing the Xeno escape ships."

Erin raised a confused eyebrow, "Uh Bara? You said we. Where is Jake?"

"Coming to save the day!" the Corporal called out from atop a nearby shipping container. "It's time to crash this party!"

All the Rangers and the Xenos stopped to stare at him in astonishment as he boldly announced his presence on the battlefield. He gave his new comrades a wink and a smile, "Don't worry everyone. I'll handle these wankers."

Jake pulled his own Nova Morpher and activated it with a flourish, "Super Silver Nova Blast!"

Everyone was blinded for a moment by a bright flash as Jake disappeared in a nimbus of light and emerged in a futuristic silver battle suit with the same design as the other Rangers. It's shining silver color reflected the light above and like the other Rangers, neon light glowed along the edges of the armored suit. In Jake's case, his suit was accented with a golden color.

"Whoah! Look at that!" Erik exclaimed in surprise as Jake took a moment to admire his own suit.

"All right... I can get used to this," the Silver Nova Ranger grinned as a struck a pose and took advantage of everyone's shock.

Back in Atlantis Base Ops, Lucy almost fell out of her seat at the sight of the newest Ranger, "No way... I can't believe it actually worked!"

Jake was snapped back to reality as he heard the Red Ranger's voice cut in over the comm, "Quit screwing around Corporal! Get to it!"

"Right!" Jake answered as he got oriented to the new sensors within his visor helmet. He could already feel much stronger and powerful than he ever had, no doubt from the effects of the battle suit he wore. He took a great leap forward into a mob of Xeno soldiers and called on his own special weapon. "Fusion Striker, blade mode!"

A wrist mounted weapon which almost resembled a sword bayonet formed around his morpher and lit up like the Rangers' Nova Strikers. Two ruined battle drones went flying backwards in a cloud of sparks as Jake tumbled past and swiftly hacked through a few more.

A group of Eidolon clone troopers thrust their staff weapons at him, but Jake easily parried them aside and sliced the tips of them clean off. As the Silver Nova Ranger leapt backwards to give himself space, he saw a new readout inside his visor with new suggested tactics. "All right, let's give this a go. Fusion Striker, rifle mode!"

The blade quickly retracted and reconfigured into a large wrist mounted gun. He quickly locked on and gunned several of the Xeno troopers down in a spray of blaster fire. The other Rangers could only stare in amazement as Jake plowed forward into the remaining enemies and used his momentum to run up the side of a shipping container. As the Silver Ranger outmaneuvered his opponents, he reconfigured his weapon one more time and fired a different type of laser blast which ricocheted off the ground and other shipping containers. Having effectively put the alien mob in a crossfire, the ranger whirled back around and overcharged his weapon for a final pulse. The singular shot mowed down all the Xenos at once and cleared the way to show the Nova Rangers standing in awe.

Before Jake could say anything else, his suit faded reverting him back to his original form. The other Ranger hurried over and crowded around to congratulate the spectacular display. Ella pumped a fist and gave him a high five, "Wow! That was amazing! You really took it to them!"

"Tell me about it!" Bharata exclaimed in wonderment, "Those weapons are way overpowered."

Jake frowned in confusion and reached for his comm, "What exactly just happened Dr. Beckett? My suit powered down all by itself just now. Is that normal?"

Everyone waited for a moment as Lucy went over a screen full of new data back at her station before she replied, "I'm... uncertain Corporal. I need more time to go over this data, but if I had to guess, your prototype morpher still has a few bugs. The weapon systems are running at peak performance, but there are issues with your battle suit's stability. I'm guessing those shlock UN engineers who designed it prioritized your offensive power over things like defenses or holding your Ranger form for extended periods of time."

"So until you can work out the bugs, Jake is on a time limit each instance he morphs?" Erin asked.

"That's my working theory... yes," Lucy answered with a hesitant tone.

Martin gave an approving nod toward the newest Ranger, "Well... for what it's worth, you did good back there Jake. Well done."

Jake blinked in surprise before giving an appreciative salute, "I... uh... thank you Captain."

As the moment passed, Erik put a friendly arm over the younger Ranger, "Now then... Super Silver Nova Blast? That morphing call and the posing was a bit over the top, don't you think?"

Jake shrugged sheepishly, "Err, sorry. I was just spouting stuff off the top of my head. I'm guessing Energize is the magic word?"

Before the others could tease him any more, General Caldwell radioed in with an unusually grave tone in his voice, "Nova Rangers, stand to! The battle's not over yet. We're picking up more distress signals. It's coming from... oh God..."

Martin glanced at his team and answered, "What is it General? What's wrong?"

Caldwell hesitated, "This may have been a diversion. A company of Xenos have moved north east... they're attacking the civilian safety shelters!"

The six Nova Rangers exchanged a shocked look in silence before taking off to their new objective. They could only hope that they wouldn't be too late... but the odds of that at the moment were not looking good at all.