Summary: In which shit goes sideways...

A Trap is Sprung…

May 2099

As soon as it appeared the GDF base's defences was down Colonel Scarlet's unit made their move, they didn't want to give the soldiers on the base time to react to the fact that their outer defences were down.

Scarlet also wanted to avoid hurting, or worse killing the GDF officers, in the process of taking Kennedy into custody, most of these people were only following orders, and had no idea that their commander had gone off the deep end.

They went in hard and fast, while having a recording of President Ronalds, ordering all GDF forces to stand down and surrender to the command of Spectrum, playing across the loudspeakers of the Rhinos and Hummingbirds that were now surrounding the base, startling the troops on guard on the bases perimeter, which made them easy to subdue.

Things were going smoothly, the GDF troops were cooperating with the Spectrum forces Scarlet had brought with him, which also included Skybase Captain's Navy, Copper, Grey, Ochre, Magenta and Amber, but he felt uneasy, as well as a little sick, it was almost too easy…

Scarlet had been just looking at one of the inactive anti air missile batteries, when it suddenly came alive and shot one of the hummingbirds out of the sky.

Scarlet swore loudly as one of the Rhinos shot out the offending battery, one for it to be blown up by one of the ground gate defences.

Realising that someone or something had undone Mahogany and Turquoise's handiwork, Scarlet ordered the remaining Rhino's and Hummingbirds to retreat, while taking out as many of the bases defences as they could, while Scarlet, and the rest of the Skybase officers, moved themselves and the petrified GDF troops further into the shelter of the base itself, some of the defences had been turned onto the people on the ground and it wasn't discriminating against Spectrum or GDF personnel.

"What's happening!?!" The GDF Lieutenant, that had been in charge of the base's outer defences, exclaimed, as Scarlet shoved the man into the shelter of the administration building. "No one is manning those guns, how are they firing on their own?"

"What you do mean how?" Ochre snapped. "Can't they be controlled remotely?"

"Only the anti-vehicle weapons can be controlled remotely," the Lieutenant fired back. "The anti-personnel weapons can only be shut down remotely, to actually be able to fire them there needs to be a person at the controls, and your people removed them!"

Scarlet stared at the officer, with a sinking feeling in his stomach, he was getting a nasty flashback about the time the Mysterons took over the Proteus, not that any of the officers with him were in Spectrum at the time, in fact most of the officers would have probably still been in nappies, if they were even born in the first place, "Are there any such weapons inside the buildings of the base itself?" He asked the officer.

"No-no, they are only situated around the perimeter of the base," the Lieutenant replied. "Internal security is handled by portable batteries and GDF personnel."

"Do those portable batteries have any remote control option?" Scarlet snarled.

"To move around and fire," the Lieutenant answered. "But an officer has to be in control of the remote nearby to do so."

"Damn it!" Scarlet snarled, as he turned to the other officers, "Alright listen up, it is safe to assume Rose was correct in her assumption that there was an outside force meddling with the GDF, and that they have taken over every defence system that has some from of automation in this base."

"Oh great," Amber muttered. "That makes our job so much easier, think they have turned Kennedy as well?"

"Almost had to," Copper agreed. "The guy was an idiot, but I never thought he was that stupid."

"Hey, why are you talking about out CO as if he's dead?" One of the GDF sergeant's shouted.

"Because if we are correct, the real Colonel Kennedy is dead," Scarlet answered. "And the man that is currently in charge is an imposter…"

While that wasn't exactly a lie, it wasn't the fully the truth either, but Scarlet didn't have time to explain the Mysterons to the petrified GDF personnel.

"I can't raise Skybase," Magenta, who was in charge of the operations communications, reported, suddenly. "Or get ahold of Mahogany or Turquoise, I'm pretty sure they are jamming communications."

"Well we are going to have to hope that one of the hummingbirds or Rhinos, escaped the initial attack to raise the alarm," Scarlet replied. "In the meantime, we need to find Kennedy and put a stop to him," he looked at the GDF Lieutenant. "I want your people to stay close and try to not get killed."

As they started to move further into the building things went quiet outside.

"They've stopped shooting," Navy commented.

"Why don't I think that was a good thing?" Grey muttered.

Scarlet moved closer to a window, just in time to see a Hummingbird take off and start shoot at seemingly nothing.

Scarlet face went pale as he pushed off the wall and started herding the people with him deeper into the building, "They have replicated our vehicles," he shouted.

Just as the front of the building exploded.

0o0o0

Aaron Tracy had been flying Thunderbird Shadow in full stealth mode above the GDF base, when Spectrum made their move on the base.

He had actually hanging out there, since the reports started coming in that the GDF was attacking Bereznik, monitoring the base's movements, while Spectrum put together their plan of attack.

And in that time he noticed that most of the base's personnel and equipment had been deployed in the unauthorised attack on Bereznik, and that only a skeleton crew of security remained.

Security, Aaron noted, that had been mostly rounded up in Spectrum's initial push to secure the base.

The was only a few life signs in two other locations in the base, about five in the area of the base, that the map Aaron had of the place, that was supposed to house the base's security offices, and about another five in the general area of the base's command centre.

It appeared that Spectrum had everything in hand, and he was about to make his report to Thunderbird 5, when the base defences suddenly opened fire on Spectrum.

Aaron watched in silent horror as all three of Spectrum's Hummingbirds and two of the three Rhinos were completely destroyed in seconds.

Thankfully the officers on the ground had quickly retreated into the shelter of the buildings, and the only people that had appeared to be killed had been the people in the Hummingbirds and Rhinos, and the third badly damaged Rhino was making a very hasty retreat.

It only took whoever was in charge of the base's weapons a few moments to realise that their targets had taken cover and ceased fire.

But that was when things got weird…

An eerie green glow started to spread over the wreckages of the Hummingbirds, Rhinos and the base's damaged defences, and in a moment that gave Aaron horrific flashbacks to hearing his sister, brother-in-law and Briar's account of his big brother's death, he watched the Mysterons rebuild the vehicles and weapons that had just been destroyed.

The realisation that the Mysterons may have been behind Kennedy's mutiny, was suddenly put on the back burner when one of the newly rebuilt Hummingbirds suddenly opened fire on him.

Aaron blinked in shock as he dodged the Hummingbirds fire, and checked Shadow's stealth status, only to find that it hadn't failed.

So how did the Mysteronized Hummingbird know where he was?

It was a mystery to solved later, first things first, he needed to lose the Hummingbird, and get a message to Five, the other Hummingbirds had gone after the damaged Rhino, and the Mysteronized Rhino's had opened fire on the base's buildings obviously going after the remaining officers on the ground, "Thunderbird Shadow to Thunderbird Five, I'm under attack," he said, into the comm. "Repeat, I'm under attack, come back."

But when his call was met with nothing but silence, he knew that he was been blocked by the Mysterons, "Okay, you alien bastards," he growled softly. "If you think you're going to kill me, like you did Kallen and Dianne, you have another thing coming," he flipped some switches on Shadow's control board. "Let's see how you handle this."

As a politically neutral organisation, for the most part, International Rescue, didn't kit out the Thunderbird, Hatchling and Stork vessels with what one would call traditional weapons, but that didn't mean that the vessels were completely defenceless, the very nature of some of the rescue equipment that they used meant with a bit of inventiveness they could come up with ways to defend themselves, heck, Four and FAB 1 literally carried missiles…

But when it came to defending themselves against the Mysterons they had a few more tricks up their sleeves, several of which they hadn't shared with Spectrum…

Including the weapon he was preparing to use on the Mysteron Hummingbird, the early prototype of which had been what had killed the Mysteron the had taken over his brother's body.

When Brains, John and Alan started their research into the Mysterons and their technology, they pretty quickly discovered that the Mysterons admitted a certain signal frequency with everything that they did and theorised that if one disrupted that frequency that they could theoretically disrupt them, it would be a theory that would not be confirmed until Kallen's death, but it didn't stop Jeff from having test defence systems installed on the Thunderbirds, Hatchlings, Storks and every major property owned by Tracy's and their extended family in 2070.

After Kallen's death, with the information provided by Spectrum, Brains and Fermat had managed to refine the defence system, to the the point that a fireable missile version, that didn't require the Mysterons getting up close and personal to their craft and homes to work, had been created.

Thunderbirds One and Shadow, as well as FAB 1, had been fitted out with the launchers for these missiles, but the missiles had never been tested in a real life situation… until today.

Aaron turned Shadow to face the Hummingbird, got a target lock and fired one of the six experimental missiles he carried on Shadow at it, the Hummingbird reacted as if it had been attacked by a normal missile not realising that the missile only had to detonate within fifty meters of its target to be effective…

And effective it was, the Hummingbird dropped like a stone within moments of the missile detonating nearby the the aircraft, Aaron hoped that there were no innocent bystanders standing where the helicopter crashed…

Now Aaron faced a dilemma, he could just simply run and get out of the Mysterons jamming and raise the alarm, dooming the crew of the last surviving Rhino and the Spectrum team pinned down in the base, while Spectrum and the GDF came up with a rescue plan, or he could make use of the experimental missiles he carried and buy the Rhino and the Spectrum team more time, maybe even take out what was jamming communications as well, but that could mean that he was giving up his only chance to escape.

In the end, Aaron's decision was a no brainer, he started by shooting down the two hummingbirds that in the middle of the process of trying to destroy the final non Mysteronized Rhino, then he turned his attention to the two Mysteronized Rhino's firing a missile each at them, stopping them in their tracks, then he fired a fifth missile into the base's communications array, keeping the last one in reserve just in case.

Shadows comm's hissed and cracked, as the Mysterons jamming fell apart, "Thunderbird Five to Thunderbird Shadow," Briar called, as a small holo image of his upper body appeared on Shadow's dashboard. "What is happening over there Aaron?"

"Our friends from Mars happened that's what," Aaron replied darkly. "Tell Brains and Matt that their little invention, for putting them down actually works, and you better give Spectrum a call and let them know that their people are probably going to need to get some reinforcements on the ground pretty quickly, because I don't know how much time, if any, I brought them."

Aaron didn't have to look at the image of his cousin to know that he was staring at the screen in shock, "Holy shit," Briar muttered, as he ran his hand through his hair. "Putting that call through to Spectrum now…"

0o0o0

Captain Mahogany watched, from his not so well hidden hiding spot, as the Mysteronized Captain Johnson walked into the GDF base's security centre, "Come out from wherever you are hiding Mahogany," she sneered, as a pair of green glowing rings passed over the computer consoles in the room. "And I will make sure that your and the earthman that is with you, deaths are as painless as possible."

"Now, why don't I believe that?" Turquoise hissed, from his position behind Mahogany.

"You should know that your handiwork with the security system has been reversed," Johnson continued. "Scarlet is unwittingly leading your colleagues into a trap as we speak," Mahogany could hear the vile glee in her voice as she told them this. "Just know nobody is going to be leaving this base alive, and that includes the International Rescue interloper who thinks he's hidden."

Mahogany felt his face pale, of course his Father and Uncle John would send someone to observe and possibly assist in a situation like this, Timothy Rigby was his brother-in-law after all.

But what scared Mahogany the most about what the Mysteron said was that they knew his little brother was there, that Shadow's stealth had failed to protect him.

He had to get a warning to Aaron somehow, he also had to identify the flaw the allowed the Mysterons to be able to detect him, so Brains and Matt could find away to counter it.

An explosion rocked the side of the building, "You hear that?" Johnson crowed, as she walked past the desk where he and Turquoise was hiding. "That's the sound of your friends dying."

Mahogany exploded out of his hiding place shooting Johnson in the leg and shoulder, he didn't want to kill this bitch yet - he needed answers.

To his utter shock, the Mysteron laughed, at her position, and the hairs on the back of his back his neck stood up, "Watch your back, Turquoise," he snapped. "I think they have already killed the guards that were meant to be in here."

Gunshots rang out from the direction of the door, confirming Mahogany's fears, as he and Turquoise dived for cover, and the now Mysteronized guards entered the room.

The fire fight between the Spectrum officers on the Mysteron agents lasted for several minutes until the sounds of explosions suddenly stopped coming from the outside of the building, in which the Mysteron appeared to stop and look confused for a moment, when a loud crackling sound suddenly came from the computer consoles of the security centre moments before they exploded…

Notes: Hey, I finally figured out how IR's Mysteron defence system actually works and weaponised it…