THE Global Defence Force really did live up to its name by having bases located in every corner and practically every country of the Earth. Secret bases were built in the most obscure of places as well. One such base was known simply as The Nest and it was located deep in the middle of Saltflats of Botswana in Africa. The reason it was called The Nest was very simple. The aircraft that were being developed there would be named after animals. The first to be developed would be a new top of the range stealth fighter called the Falcons. Colonel Jennings had decided on this following the success of the Cheetah cars that were issued to Hayley and now Amanda with the potential of more being produced.

The Falcons were top secret. So secret in fact that very few people knew about them. Following two infiltrations of the GDF by The Chameleon, Colonel Jennings had decided she wasn't going to leave anything to chance. Not even Captain Liberty, Hayley or Amanda knew about it, and she intended for it to stay that way. The less who knew about it, the less likely it would be that someone like The Hood would find out and what to know more about it. The plan was a good one - but even these measures wouldn't be enough as she would later discover.

The night was dark. The Moon was shining, illuminating parts of The Nest. Guards stood in towers with searchlights monitoring the exterior of the base, looking for any signs of anyone trying to get close. Being in such an open area, it would be impossible for anyone to not be seen. Or so they thought.

It was about quarter past two in the morning when the ground started to shake as a rumbling sound could be heard. Everything was vibrating and the personnel were swiftly alerted to the situation.

"What the devil's going on?" demanded the Base Commander.

"Earth tremors coming from under the base, sir!" said a controller.

"Whereabouts?"

"Epicenter is right under the Designer Building!"

The commander grabbed his radio. "Code Red! I repeat - Code Red! Security, get over to the Designer Building!"

The rumbling intensified for a few seconds before subsiding. The building where the tremors were detected had been shaking the most. A group of two trucks and a jeep raced over with several security men in them. They stopped close to the building and dismounted before forming a perimeter around the outside. Three were given a battering ram in case it was required.

"Get inside!" said the Head of Security. "We need to check for casualties!"

The men tried to get the main door to open. However, they found it jammed tight. "It's stuck, sir!" called one of the soldiers.

"Then ram it!" ordered the Head of Security.

The three soldiers with the battering ram readied themselves and charged towards the door. But as they approached, the rumbling started again. The building was weakened and pieces of the wall began to break off and fall to the ground.

"EVERYONE GET BACK!" the Head of Security bellowed. "IT'S GONNA FALL!"

But soon the tremors began to subside again, this time it was gradual like it had been when first starting up which was strange. Once they'd gone completely, the door was charged and rammed open. Heading inside, the security team cautiously made their way through the collapsed rooms inside the building.

"It's taken a hammering, chief," said one of the soldiers.

"It certainly has," the Head of Security replied. "Watch your step, people. If you think something's gonna fall on your head, take cover."

"Chief!" a soldier said over the radio. "You'd better come look at this!"

"Where are you, Shaw?" asked the Head of Security.

"Drawings Archives."

The chief and several others made their way to the store room where all the drawings that the base's many designers drew up were kept. And got one massive shock when they arrived.

"Holy…!" exclaimed the Head of Security as he stared at the large hole in the floor.


5!

4!

3!

2!

1!

"Thunderbirds Are Go!"


"CONVICTS IN SPACE"

COLONEL Jennings sipped the whiskey in her glass and twiddled her fingers behind her back uneasily. The intercom on her desk buzzed. "Yes?"

"International Rescue to see you, Colonel," said a male voice over the intercom.

"Send them in."

The doors opened and Kayo walked in. "Colonel."

"Miss Kyrano. Glad you could come," said Colonel Jennings as she put the whiskey bottle back in its drawer.

"Something's up," Kayo remarked. "Must be bad if you've called me."

"Bad is putting it lightly," said Colonel Jennings. "Reason I've called you is because I want very few to know about what I'm going to show you. Even my top Captains are in the dark about it."

Kayo was confused and intrigued at the same time. It wasn't like Colonel Jennings to share things with her that her most trusted GDF personnel weren't informed of.

Colonel Jennings pressed some buttons to make sure the room was secure and no listening devices could be used. Past mistakes with spies of The Hood had told her not to take any chances. She then brought up a hologram of what Kayo looked like a research base. "This is The Nest. Our top secret research, design and development centre for where we are creating new vehicles for the GDF."

"The Flyers past their prime?" asked Kayo.

"They're good for what they do," said Colonel Jennings. "Good for transportation and have good weapons. But they're large and easy to spot. Easy targets. Our fighters on the other hand are passed their best and are going to be decommissioned as soon as the new fighters are fully tested."

"New fighters?"

Colonel Jennings showed her a holographic blueprint of a very smart and sleek looking fighter jet. "This is one of the vehicles being developed right now. It's called The Falcon."

"Naming your vehicles after animals then?" Kayo remarked, thinking of the Cheetah cars.

"Yes," said Colonel Jennings. "However…we've hit major trouble. Last night my commander there reported an earthquake with the epicentre coming from the main building where the designs are made and kept. When the team went to investigate, they found a hole in the floor." She then showed Kayo a photo of the hole inside the building."

"Gosh," Kayo said. "Some machine has done that."

"Indeed," said Colonel Jennings. "My crew there checked to see if anything had been taken. A number of top secret designs have been taken. Five in fact. One of which is for the Falcon. I know this is a tall order for you, Miss Kyrano, but we need those plans back before they can be either sold on the black market, or worse, used by our enemies against us."

"You think The Cabal might be behind this?" Kayo asked.

"Something like that must have been made by Techno," said Colonel Jennings. "That's my prediction that it is them. However, we can't prove it's them unless you can find them."

"Is this why you called me here?" said Kayo. "Because you think it's The Cabal?"

"That and that I don't want many to know about the vehicles being developed there," said Colonel Jennings. "Given recent events, the less people know about certain things, the better."

"I understand," said Kayo. "I've no doubt security has doubled or so since the discovery?"

"That is correct," said Colonel Jennings. "The commander has all radar and outer perimeter patrols covering the salt-flats watching for anything that might be coming near the base. That tunnel must lead somewhere, and I'm sure you have some ground-penetrating sonar that could trace where it goes?"

"Thunderbird Shadow doesn't, but Thunderbird 5 does," said Kayo. "I'll see if John can help me scan the tunnel whilst I move around in stealth-mode."

"And that way The Nest won't know you're around," said Colonel Jennings. "If you can pull this off, Kyrano, it'd be a huge help for us all."

Kayo nodded. "I'll do my best, Colonel," she promised and turned to leave the office.


Thunderbird Shadow crossed the Atlantic Ocean to Africa and crossed Namibia and into Botswana. It was already invisible to radar, but Kayo knew she could risk any visual contact being made so she switched on the optical camouflage. Soon The Nest came into view and Kayo soon sighted the building where the machine had tunnelled into. "Okay, Thunderbird 5, I'm approaching the base," Kayo said. "Is that sonar ready for me?"

"Sonar is prepped and ready, Kayo," John answered. "Although I wish I knew what it was you wanted it for?"

"I just need to know where this tunnel leads to, John," said Kayo. "Then the GDF and I can take down whoever is behind this."

"If it's The Cabal, you'd better go in with all the back-up you'll need," said John.

"Most likely," said Kayo. "This kind of thing has Techno written all over it. Okay, I'm over the building now. Starting deep search sonar."

As Thunderbird Shadow moved silently and invisible above the unsuspecting personnel of The Nest, sonar waves fired from underneath its nose penetrated the ground, revealing the tunnel from the building. It went down about one-hundred and eighty metres before levelling out and heading directly North of the base.

"How's it looking, Thunderbird Shadow?" asked John.

"Working like a treat, Thunderbird 5," Kayo answered. "The tunnel heads North. I'm going to follow it and see where it leads to."


Thunderbird Shadow continued onwards with Kayo's eyes switching from where she was going to the holographic image that was being created with each sonar wave. For the next three minutes she continued on without anything of interest to see. The tunnel was straight and true. But then, Kayo got a very big surprise.

"Hold on a minute!" Thunderbird Shadow stopped and began to hover as Kayo stared at the image to make sure she wasn't dreaming. "Are you seeing this, John?"

"Yeah!" John replied. "There's a vehicle down there!"

Sure enough, the holographic image of some kind of tunnelling machine could be seen sitting stationary inside the tunnel. Heat-signatures of life-signs could be seen both inside and outside of it.

"It's completely stationary!" Kayo said. "Why would that be?"

"Maybe they're waiting for things to cool down in case people are searching the area where they might have come in?" suggested John.

"No, I don't think so," said Kayo. "Look at the two outside of it. Looks like they're working on it."

"Perhaps its broken down then?" said John.

"That would be my guess," said Kayo. "This is good."

"It is?"

"Yes," said Kayo. "Because it means they haven't gotten away with it. I can alert Colonel Jennings to send her forces to the entrance to the tunnel once I locate it."

"You keep following the tunnel," said John. "I can see the map you're making. I'll watch the machine and tell you if it starts moving."

"F-A-B."


Thunderbird Shadow continued to scan and follow the tunnel for another thirty miles before coming to the edge of the salt-flats. It was here out in the middle of nowhere that another hole was located hidden amongst some trees. As Kayo circled above, she saw vehicle tracks leading to an opening another mile further on. They must have come in by aircraft, she thought to herself.

Just then, John spoke up. "Kayo, the machine's on the move. It's headed your way!"

"ETA to my location?"

"At present speed, I'd say thirty minutes," said John.

"A mile a minute. That is quick," said Kayo. She changed frequencies. "Colonel Jennings, what's your teams' ETA?"

"They're en-route and should be with you in around forty minutes," said Colonel Jennings.

"That might be too long," said Kayo. "Thunderbird 5, do you see any other aircraft in the area?"

John checked the area with his scanners. "Negative," he said. "No, wait! Something's just come up. It looks like a transportation Helijet."

"Big enough to carry that machine?" asked Kayo.

"I'd say so, yes," said John. "They must have been standing by, waiting to perform an extraction."

"Damn it," cursed Colonel Jennings. "If they take off before we get there, you'll have to track them for us."

But Kayo wasn't in the mood for doing any chasing. "That won't be necessary, Colonel," she said. "They'll be waiting for you."


The ground began to rumble as the Tunnelling Machine reached the end of the tunnel and emerged out into the open. It was a roundish shape with eight sets of crawler tracks on extendable legs, four on the bottom and four on the top. It was originally painted red but was now a dirty brown colour due to the dirt from the ground it had been digging through. It turned on the spot and headed back down the path it had forged through the trees earlier before coming to a clearing. It then stopped and three men in black combat-like suits with balaclavas exited the vehicle. They looked up at the sky.

"Where's the Goddamn Helijet?!" asked one in a strong Australian accent.

"Man, chill, he'll be here," said the second man in a Texan accent.

"Yeah," added the third man in a British accent. "Nobody's out here, dude. We're in the clear."

The hum of an aircraft engine made them look up to the North. Then the large transport Helijet appeared above the treetops.

"You see?' said the Texan thief. "What did I tell ya?"

The Helijet was manoeuvring, ready to come in and land in the clearing. The landing was just being lowered when a small missile shot out from the right and slammed into its starboard engine. There was a small explosion which destroyed the engine and the thieves could do nothing but watch in alarm as it began to drop down towards the ground. It crashed into the trees and knocked some over before slamming hard into the ground and then bursting into flames as its crew of two frantically tried to escape.

"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!" bellowed the Australian thief as they ran towards the Helijet to help their comrades.

As the crew emerged from the smoke, something invisible landed on top of the pilot, knocking him to the ground, and then the navigator was grabbed and thrown towards the three thieves. The Australian one ducked and avoided getting hit but the other two weren't so lucky. All three went down in a heap.

The Australian picked up the machine-gun from his side and began pointing it in all directions. "WHERE ARE YOU?!" he bellowed. "SHOW YOURSELF!"

WHACK! The thief got hit from behind and he fell to the floor. He quickly recovered, looking around for the attacker who was nowhere to be seen. He let out a bellow of rage and began shooting the weapon around in a big circle in the hopes of striking and taking them out. When he stopped, he listened and looked around with heavy breathing. He then saw his comrades trying to get up.

"What the hell are you doing, man?!" exclaimed the Texan thief.

"What does it look like, idiot?!" snapped the Australian thief. "Trying to kill whoever's behind this!" Then he looked up at the tunnelling machine and noticed the door was still open. "WHO LEFT THE DOOR OPEN?!" he bellowed and ran towards it. He ran inside and began searching for something. Then he let out a scream of rage. "NO! WHO'S GOT THE PLANS?!"

Nobody answered. Then when he turned back around to confront his comrades, he froze at the sight of them all lying unconscious on the ground with the burning Helijet smouldering in the background.

"Looking for these?"

The thief turned sharply towards the voice and looked up to see a woman in a black stealth suit sitting in a nearby tree. She was holding the plans that had been stolen in her right hand. "Who the hell are you?!" the thief demanded. "How did you find us?!"

"You left a pretty easy trail to follow with that machine of yours," said Kayo. "As for who I am - I'm the one who's gonna keep you here until the GDF takes you away."

"NO!" the thief roared, pulling up the machine-gun. "NOBODY ARRESTS ME! NEVER!" He then started to shoot again.

Kayo leapt out of the tree as it was ripped apart by the bullets from the machine-gun. She disappeared thanks to the stealthiest of her suit and the thief quickly lost sight of her. Then his magazine ran out. He hastily began to try and change it, only to be drop-kicked by Kayo who reappeared once more after he lay winded on the floor. She pinned him down with her knee and restrained him with tip-ties.

"GET OFF ME!" the thief shrieked as he tried to pull his hands free.

"I don't think so," Kayo replied. She reached for the balaclava to pull it off. "You're finished." She then pulled it off, and then froze solid when she saw the man's face. It was a face she never expected to see again. "Whaaaaaaaaaaat?!" she gasped in a hoarse voice. "J-J-Johnny CUBA?!"