March 9th, 2063 - 19:36 NZDT
Kayo runs down the corridor of the Tracy Villa. She's just left her and Alan's shared room and has spotted the exact people she needs right at the end of the corridor, just about to go down the stairs into the lounge.
"Marion! Scott!" Kayo calls and runs over to the pair.
It's Alan's 19th birthday in a couple of days and Kayo had taken it upon herself to organize something for him. From their teen years, Kayo knew that Alan is very into racing and planned to take him to an event in Britain. However, she has failed to inform Scott about her and Alan having time off to facilitate it. Her reasoning being they haven't crossed paths recently as Scott is always in Jeff's office working on Tracy Enterprises or on missions and Kayo had been either spending time with Marion, Ridley or Alan or at a GDF base tracking down The Hood and The Mechanic.
"What's wrong, Kayo?" Scott asks as Kayo comes to a stop in front of him.
"I need time off along with Alan," Kayo states and gets out a bar of Jacques Torres Chocolate casually and starts to eat.
"I'm sorry, Kayo," Scott sighs, "But that isn't possible. We've been very busy recently and you know the period of March to April is particularly bad."
"But... I've organized something for Alan's birthday," Kayo says, "I can't just cancel it."
"Well, I'll cancel it then," Scott responds and goes to walk off when Marion grabs his hand and pulls him back.
"I think we should let them," Marion argues.
"Marion..." Scott trails.
"I know, I know," Marion smiles, "But you have me and Ridley now. It's not just five brothers and Kayo anymore. We can handle a couple days."
Scott glances at Kayo then back to Marion, who's putting her best 'I'm innocent' expression and he sighs. "Fine," he sighs, "You can leave in two days and have the following two days after off, but that's it!"
"Thank you! Thank you, Scott," Kayo smiles and hugs the man she sees as her older brother.
"It's fine," Scott says and returns the hug and watches Marion grin in the corner of his eye. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to sort out some more documents." With that, Scott makes his way back over to the villa, leaving Marion and Kayo alone.
"Thanks, Marion," Kayo smiles.
"Anything to keep the girls have their way around here," Marion jokes and Kayo laughs, "Enjoy yourselves."
Kayo nods and walks off back along the beach towards the south side of the island. Marion watches Kayo leave and only looks away when her commlink starts to beep.
"International Rescue. We have a situation," Ridley says.
5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Thunderbirds are Go!
In the lounge, Scott, Marion, Virgil, Gordon and Brains gather taking their respective seats. On the holo-screen, John and Ridley display a hologram of a cargo plane.
"The plane's gliding, but losing altitude," John states.
"There are four in need of evacuation – two pilots, one child," Ridley explains and indicates their location on the plane.
"That's only three. Who's the fourth?" Virgil asks.
"John, you want to tell him?" Ridley asks.
"I pulled up the plane's flight's information. It's transporting a rare giant panda in the cargo bay," John answers.
"Okay, four to save. One's a panda," Scott muses, "Gordon can go with Virgil and help with the evacuation. Marion, you can fly ahead and assess the situation. See you in the sky."
"Yes!" Gordon exclaims, "I've always wanted to see a Giant Panda up close!"
"That's n-not likely to happen," Brains states.
"You're crushing my dreams, Brains," Gordon complains.
"B-But it's in a sealed environmentally-c-controlled container—" Brains continues.
"La, la, la, la, la, I can't hear you," Gordon replies, acting like a child as he rushes down to the passenger bay.
7
Thunderbird 7 pulls out from a hanger underneath Thunderbird 1 to allow Marion to get inside.
6
A crane comes down and lifts Thunderbird 7 onto a platform.
5
Scott and Virgil descend and get suited up.
4
The pod equipment is loaded into Module 2.
3
Gordon boards Thunderbird 2 via the passenger elevator.
2
Thunderbird 2 taxis down the main runway and comes to a halt allowing the ramp to raise.
1
Thunderbird 1 comes to a stop as the swimming pool above starts to retract.
Thunderbirds are Go!
March 9th, 2063 - 09:51 SAST
Ridley works on re-establishing communications with the plane. When they first got the mayday call through their channels, when Ridley went to go and respond, she received no signal. With the help of EOS, they mess around with the comm connection to try and produce a frequency amplifier to connect with the cockpit. On the side, Ridley has the passenger details on the screen to her right and makes note of the pilot's name. Suddenly, the signal connection goes from red to green and the comm unit crackles into life. Two holograms appear in front of her; the pilot and the co-pilot.
"Captain Simons, this is Thunderbird 5. How you holding up?" Ridley asks while John monitors the flight in the background. Currently, he's picking up weird traces of lighting in the area.
"We're steady, but still losing altitude," the pilot says.
"I can't get out flight controls working again!" the co-pilot exclaims as he continues to try.
"Any idea what we're dealing with here?" Simons asks.
"John?" Ridley asks.
"They appear to be highly-charged plasma bolts with a wide dispersal pattern," John states, "Your plane's their only target for a hundred miles. Help is on the way."
"Don't worry, Mr Panda," they hear the child say in the background, "International Rescue's coming."
"B-Brains to Thunderbird 5," Brains calls, "I'm detecting low-f-frequency waves over the Atlantic and Indian Oceans."
"I see it too, Brains," John notes, "The strikes are increasing."
"They appear to be p-positively-charged plasma bolts," Brains explains, "Highly unusual and far more d-dangerous than regular negatively-charged lightning."
"But where are they coming from?" Ridley wonders.
"Hmm," Brains thinks, "The source would n-need to be somewhere in the upper exosphere."
John nods and does a scan on the holo-screen in front of him and raises the search area to the Earth's orbit. "A Solar Collector."
"Should we send Thunderbird 3 to investigate?" Brains asks but FAB 1's logo appears on the station and Ridley shakes her head just an alert comes onto the screen.
"We don't have to. Lady Penelope's already on board, and Thunderbird 3 is needed somewhere else, get Alan and Kayo suited up," Ridley replies. Brains nods and ends the transmission. Ridley then calls Penelope.
"Ridley, to what do I owe the pleasure?" Penelope smiles.
"Penelope, you need to shut down that Collector," Ridley states sternly and Parker approaches Penelope from behind and taps her on the shoulder and gestures behind her, "It's causing huge plasma bolts down on Earth."
"Our operation is one hundred percent safe! That's a promise," the manager smiles but turns in anger as a certain Kinnear taps her on the shoulder, "What is it Kinnear?"
"When we pushed the station to full power, the transmission beam destabilised," Kinnear says sheepishly.
"So, we are causing the plasma bolts," Penelope glares and turns to the manager again, "Ms Edmonds, do you have anything to say for yourself?"
"Uh..." Edmonds trails and clutches onto the clipboard in her hands, "This... um... is not part of my presentation."
March 9th, 2063 - 10:18 SAST
The plasma bolts continue striking down as Thunderbird 7 arrives on the scene. The plane veers off to the north as electricity fizzes around it. Marion has to shield her eyes as a bolt lands right next to her. She gets Thunderbird 7 pulled up alongside the plane and loads the schematics that Thunderbird 5 has sent her while keeping an eye on the plasma bolts. Due to the transmission beam becoming destabilized the firing of the plasma bolts are totally random. There is no way for Brains to calculate where the next bolt will move. Marion does a brief flyby of the plane, finding it a lot easier than the one she performed on Fireflash on her first mission.
"This don't look good," Marion muses, "Scott, I can't get in close without causing further damage to the plane. What's your ETA?"
"Now," Scott replies and pulls up on the other side of the plane to were Thunderbird 7 is. Shortly after, Thunderbird 2 arrives and goes directly below the plane.
"Thunderbird 7 to Air Terranian Cargo. We're sending up an evacuation tube. Stand by," Marion states, "Ready Virgil?"
"F-A-B," Virgil smiles and positions Thunderbird 2's cockpit below the back of the plane and fires an emergency evacuation tube from the top of the hatch where the passenger elevator comes up through. It automatically locks onto the emergency exit at the back of the plane. "Tube attached. Hang on Captain, we'll get you out of there."
"I'll head above and try to protect you guys from these plasma bolts," Marion announces and raises Thunderbird 7's altitude to above the plane. She moves her small craft to the front of the plane so it protects the cockpit from getting hit again. If they can somehow prevent the plane getting struck again, the pilot and co-pilot might just be able to re-gain altitude which would give more time for the evacuation to have.
"Same here," Scott states, "Virgil will need as much protect as he can get." Thunderbird 1 comes round from the right-hand side of the plane and positions his slightly larger Thunderbird over the rear of the plane over the cargo hold where the panda is. It is just as well he does as a plasma bolt suddenly comes out of nowhere and strikes Thunderbird 1, causing the engines to stall. "Ah! Thunderbird 1's been hit."
"Same here," Marion says as her controls start to spark with electricity, "We're going down!" The decrease in height drags Thunderbird 2 out from underneath the cargo plane into a vulnerable position. It doesn't take long for the green goliath to also gets hit by a bolt.
"We're all going down!" Virgil states.
"No-one panic," Scott says and gets out of his seat, "That bolt must have overloaded our circuit-breakers. We'll try rebooting." He carefully walks to the back of the cargo hold in Thunderbird 1 and opens a control panel. He gets to work rebooting Thunderbird 1's systems.
"Good thinking, Scott," Marion says presses a button on the left arm of her chair. The chair reclines backwards until Marion is lying down. A control unit appears on the ceiling behind where her chair was previously upright. She presses a red button on the side of the panel and her chair rolls backwards until she comes to a control unit. Like Scott, she starts to reboot her systems.
"Gordon, flip the switch!" Virgil orders.
"No problem," Gordon replies and undoes his seatbelt, getting up,"Just like when your hairdryer blows a fuse at Tracy Island."
"Wh— What do you mean my hairdryer!" Virgil stutters.
"Oops!" Gordon laughs, "Did I say that out loud?"
"You know have much one of those cost, right?" Virgil fires back.
"No, because I didn't ask," Gordon says and removes a couple of panels.
"Wow," Marion muses, "Who knew boys where so particular about their hair?"
"Since you tried to pull it out," Scott mutters, not knowing he isn't on mute.
"SCOTT!" Marion yells.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Gordon smirks, "Back up a few seconds. This is a story I'd love to hear!"
"Gordon," Virgil interjects, "As much as I agree with you, this is neither the time nor place."
"Thank you, Virgil," Marion sighs.
"Who said I wouldn't bring it up later?" Virgil smiles.
"Grrrrrrrr!" Marion growls.
"Ouch, Scott," Gordon chuckles, "Look like Marion is gonna pull some hair out now!"
"Gordon, you bastard!" Scott replies. Gordon and Virgil laugh, and Gordon flips a switch over.
"And flip," Gordon announces.
"Power restored," Scott sighs and sits back down in his seat.
"Same here!" Marion grumbles.
"Getting back to the point," Virgil sighs, "We can't keep taking blasts like that!"
"We'll fly Thunderbirds 1 and 7 overhead and take the hit of the plasma charges if they get close like before," Marion explains, "You guys focus on the evacuation."
"Uh... was the ocean that close before?" Gordon asks as he returns to his seat.
"No... It wasn't," Marion grits and fires a cable onto the plane and starts to pull up allowing the plane to regain altitude, "Scott Carpenter, focus on those plasma beams."
"F-A-B," Scott sighs.
"Oooh!" Gordon smirks, "Full name alert! Someone's in trouble."
"Thunderbird 5 to Thunderbird 1, Lady Penelope is going to reset the Collector," John calls.
"Good. Let's hope it works," Scott states. He brings up a hologram of the plane once again as he flies back into position over the rear. A targeting computer is brought up as he starts looking for a lock on the plane. A grey circle indicates where Thunderbird 7's cable is attached and he works on finding a position similar to Marion's. His computer goes green, "Firing tow-line."
"This should buy us some time for the evacuation," Marion says and watches as another plasma bolt strikes Thunderbird 1. The combined lifting of both Thunderbirds 1 and 7 allow the plane to level off in altitude and away from the ocean surface. This allows Virgil to stabilize Thunderbird 2 and get ready to start the evacuation process.
"Ah! Shields are down to fifty percent!" Scott complains, "These plasma bolts are seriously cramping our style."
"Gordon has flight control," Virgil says and turns to Gordon, "Try to keep us in the air!"
"Relax," Gordon smirks as Virgil makes his way into the evacuation tube, "If more plasma bolts hit, I'll use your hairdryer trick again."
"One time. One time that happened!" Virgil growls. He exits the cockpit for a moment and enters the module to get his exo-suit on. Once secure, along with his helmet, he checks his oxygen levels using the monitor from his wrist communicator. Confident he has sufficient levels, he goes back into the cockpit and opens the roof hatch. The passenger elevator lifts him into the evacuation tube allowing him to climb over to the exit door on the cargo plane. "I'm at the top Captain Simons. Can you open the door?"
"Negative. The automated lock is not responding," Simons replies.
"That's okay. I'll let myself in," Virgil mutters. He uses his exo-suit to pound the door until it gives in. Virgil then makes his way through the cargo hold. He passes the large crate where the panada is located in, but his first priority is the passengers. Running past it, Virgil makes it to the cockpit of the plane and barges open the door. "Okay, everyone, time to slide!" All three unbuckle themselves from their seats and make their way carefully to the back of the cargo hold where the evacuation tube is. The child, a young girl, looks at Simons, presumably her mother, with a nervous expression. Simons smiles and holds onto her.
"Hold onto me, Emma. You're doing great," Simons says and takes a seat at the edge of the chute, placing Emma on her lap, "Ready?" With a slight nod from Emma, the pair go down the slide together.
"Whoo-hoo!" Emma exclaims as they disappear from sight. On the other side, Gordon has left Thunderbird 2 on autopilot and positioned himself at the very bottom of the chute. The passenger elevator has retracted once again allowing Simons and Emma to go flying right into the cockpit of Thunderbird 2. Gordon catches the pair and guides them over to the passenger seats and straps them in.
"Here I go," the co-pilot mumbles and goes after the mother and child, "Whoa!"
Similar to Simons and Emma, Gordon is there to make sure that he makes it inside Thunderbird 2 safely. He guides the co-pilot over to another passenger seat.
"Welcome aboard," Gordon smiles.
"What about Mr Panda?" Emma asks.
"Where's Kayo when you need her," Gordon mumbles before turning to Emma, "Virgil's getting him now."
March 9th, 2063 - 10:24 SAST
Virgil is indeed getting him now. He's left the emergency exit and walked back over to the huge environmental crate, where the panda is located.
"Okay, Mr Panda, let's get out of here," Virgil mutters and goes towards the container, only for him to be thrown off his feet by the plane shaking. "Gordon!"
Gordon rushes back to the controls of Thunderbird 2. "Uh-oh!" he strains as he tries to keep it steady. However, the blasts from the the plasma bolts are getting worse and worse. He struggles to keep Thunderbird 2 in the air, let alone steady.
"Argh!" Marion cries, "This is becoming too much!"
"Plasma charge incoming. Break off!" Scott yells. Ahead, their is a particularly large plasma bolt that suddenly charges down causing everyone to veer off to the right in order to get around it. From the window in the cockpit, Gordon looks up at the evacuation tube and notices it's beginning to strain under the extra distance between the plane and Thunderbird 2.
"Virgil, we're losing the slide!" Gordon shouts as watches as the slide begins to split in the centre.
"I'm on my way," Virgil says. He's since managed to get back to his feet and has been pushing the container along the ground towards the back of the plane. Upon hearing Gordon's call, he stops pushing the container and makes a dash for the emergency exit door. He heads through the hatch and down the slide only for his eyes to widen in surprise to see the size of the split. "Woah!" Virgil tries to put the brakes on, but that is almost impossible to do in an evacuation tube. He resorts to reaching out using both arms of his exo-suit allowing him to grab onto the other side of the tube with the claw. Virgil strains under the pressure of being pulled apart from the two sides of the tube. Suddenly, the slide goes out from underneath him, and he is left hanging in mid-air between the two sections of the tube. Luckily, Virgil doesn't panic and reacts quickly in firing a grapple over to the side that is connect to the plane as he is forced to watch of the section that was attached to Thunderbird 2 fly off in the wind.
"Scott! A little help!" Virgil calls as he struggles to pull himself up.
"I'm jetting down now. Try not to move," Scott states and jumps out of Thunderbird 1's cargo hold with a jetpack and helmet on. He flies down and immediately aims for under the plane. If one of those plasm bolts hit is jetpack, let alone him, he'd be dead for sure. Going along the length of the cargo hold, he soon reaches Virgil's position. He is just in time as Virgil is starting to lose grip on the tube. Scott approaches and grabs onto Virgil. "Ready? Step!"
"Got it! Thanks for the boost," Virgil grunts as he jumps back inside the tube and makes his way back to the panda.
"Any time," Scott smiles before making his way back to Thunderbird 1 and out of the plasma blots' way.
"Uh, Virgil... with the chute gone, I can't reattach Thunderbird 2," Gordon mutters as he flies Thunderbird 2 away from the plane. Now no longer attached, the manoeuvrability for Gordon has greatly increased.
"Marion, how long can you keep this plane up?" Virgil asks.
"A few minutes... tops," Marion responds.
"Don't worry, Mr Panda. We'll find another way out," Virgil mutters, "Thunderbird 1, what's our status?"
"My shields are almost toast," Scott says, "Marion?"
"Down to nineteen percent," Marion sighs, "We need to finish this evacuation now."
"I have an idea," Virgil states, "Gordon, can you lower Thunderbird 2's module directly behind the plane?"
"Er... I think so," Gordon says as he dodges another plasma bolt.
"Do it. I'm moving the panda crate to the back," Virgil says and he starts moving the container.
"Virgil, there's no escape hatch at the back of that plane," Scott calls.
"Not yet there isn't," Virgil says with a smirk and brings the container to a stop. He switches on his plasma cutter that is on his shoulder and starts to cut away at the back of the plane. With the plane inevitably hitting the ocean, what happens to it now isn't a great concern. In moments, Virgil has made his way completely around the tail wing. The wind picks it up and it soon comes flying off the back creating a massive gap at the back of the plane, barely missing the approaching Thunderbird 2. Gordon takes this as his que to fly Thunderbird 2 up and drops the module.
"This is Thunderbird 2, I'm lowering the module," Gordon announces.
"Break off!" Marion interjects, "More charges incoming." Gordon moves out of the way just in time before a bolt fire's just where Thunderbird 2 was, "Keep trying, Gordon. Whatever Penelope's up to let's hope it works fast."
Gordon makes several more attempts to try and get Thunderbird 2 into position, but they all fail.
"Gordon, we need to act now!" Marion says, "I don't know how much longer I can keep this up." A few seconds later, one by one, the plasma bolts come to a complete stop. Soon they all disappear without a trace, much to the relief of everyone.
"Hey, I think the plasma bolts have stopped!" Gordon states.
"Good," Scott says, "Then lets finish this evac."
"Gordon, bring Thunderbird 2 into position. Let's get this panda crate loaded," Virgil orders and watches as Gordon lines the module up with the open hole it the back of the plane. The module door the lowers revealing the inside. "There. That should do it. You Ready?Here we go."
"Virg, we're almost at the water," Marion says, "Not to rush you or anything!"
"Got it!" Virgil cries as he gets the container onto the module door. He goes to cross himself, but the plane suddenly pulls apart from the module taking Virgil with it. Virgil goes sliding back into the plane with a grunt and manages to flip himself over and look back at Thunderbird 2. Acting on instinct, he fires a grapple from his exo-suit, and it attaches to the module. He then retracts it and gets himself to safety and starts to push the crate into the hold of the module. "Release the plane and pull out. Repeat: pull out!"
"F-A-B," Marion replies releases her town line along with Scott.
"Gordon, close the cargo module. Let's get out of here," Virgil orders and Gordon acknowledges by flying away in Thunderbird 2, just in time before the plane crashes into the ocean below them.
"Wow! I'm in Thunderbird 2," the co-pilot says in awe and Virgil walks over to Emma and crouches down in front of her.
"The panda's doing just fine. I heard him munching on bamboo," Virgil smiles politely.
"Aw!" Gordon mumbles from his seat in Virgil's usual seat and he flies Thunderbird 2 towards the USA to drop the panada and the crew off.
"Thank you for saving him," Emma smiles.
"You're welcome. We love having satisfied customers," Virgil says and turns back to face Gordon.
"Yeah. Furry or otherwise," Gordon sighs as Virgil makes his back over to his seat. Virgil coughs deliberately as Gordon stares into space. Gordon lets go off the controls reluctantly and sighs again.
"Thank you," Virgil smirks.
"Can I go and see Mr Panda now?" Gordon groans and even Emma laughs at his antics.
"I think he'll like you," Emma says.
"Really?" Gordon says before coughing to collect himself, "Yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, that's cool."
"Oh, Gordon," Marion chuckles over the com, "You're such a child sometimes."
"Well, at least I don't try and pull people's hair out," Gordon scoffs, "That's a childish thing to do."
"GORDON!"