Chapter 3

Warning sirens blared throughout the space station as another volley of explosions rocked the structure. Everyone present in the main dome struggled to stay on their feet, "Can we return fire?" Taylor asked her fellow Air Force officers, "or raise the shields at least."

"This isn't Star Trek Taylor," Chris snapped in response, "this is a scientific research station, it's not designed for combat."

"Tell that to whatever's shooting at us," Taylor groaned, "we must have something to fight back with." Out the corner of her eye, she spotted Jazz reach under her console. Moments later a couple of blasters were thrown in her direction, "I'm liking you more with each passing minute Miss Sharma," the former yellow ranger grinned.

"How did you know where the backup weapons were stored?" General Harkness asked whilst shooting the young intern a sharp glare.

Jazz shrugged, "I have eyes, it's not like your officers kept it a secret where they were hidden," the explosions suddenly stopped but the strange craft was still looming ominously overhead. The Scotswoman looked closely at her monitor, "Something's opening on that thing," she shuffled backwards, "I think it's going to fire again."

Everyone braced for impact, but nothing happened apart from a few gentle rattles on the dome that sounded almost like rain, "Well, that was an anticlimax," Chris slowly relaxed and stood up straight. His relief as short lived as a different alarm started blaring, "What now?" he groaned.

"It's the intruder alarm," General Harkness frowned, "but that's not possible, I haven't seen anything leave that ship."

Something caught Taylor's eye, a ventilation grate nearby started rattling and several small brown objects, no bigger than marbles, tumbled out. With a flash the marbles broke and a dozen creatures burst into the room. They were predominately black with orange and yellow blots all over. In one hand as a small silver hatchet and in the other, a small blinking orb. Taylor's eyes widened and she grabbed the two people nearest to her, Jazz and General Harkness, "Get down," she cried.

The few of the creatures threw their orbs which exploded on impact with anything solid, be it metal or organic. Four or five powerful blasts shook the dome and bodies flew everywhere. Consoles sparked, debris flew everywhere and the base was soon filling with smoke. When Taylor dared to look, she spotted three of the chosen Rangers on the floor, clearly killed in the initial explosion. Mark and Adrienne were stirring, the larger man shielding his girlfriends trembling form.

Other members of the scientific team were also down although Doctor Neuer appeared to be moving. One side of face had taken the full force of an explosion, the sight of his burned flesh churned the former yellow ranger's stomach. Finally she spotted Chris, her long time friend in the Force. He was flat on his back, his glassy eyes staring blankly at the roof. She crawled over and checked his pulse, "Is he…" General Harkness coughed, barely able to raise his voice.

Taylor hung her head for a few second before snapping her head towards the attacking grunts. With a barely human snarl, she fired several rounds from her blaster, each one finding its target. Her attack seemed to stir Mark into action, the first recipient of the Avian Waves used his new strength to good use, almost decapitating two of the monsters with a stiff clothesline attack. Close behind him was Adrienne, dropping two more with a combination of kicks and punches. Even the General grabbed a blaster that had tumbled onto the ground, finishing off the last couple with a series of blasts.

As the grunts fell silent, the few survivors took a moment to look at each other. The adrenaline was fading and Taylor could feel her hand shaking, "Situation report," she said shakily but no one replied, "someone, situation report," she repeated with a little more conviction.

Mark and Adrienne jogged over to the nearest console, "Invaders in every sector," the blonde haired woman called out, "the initial attack has taken out sectors six through eight," a blip from the computer interrupted her, "sector two's gone now, the rest won't be far behind."

"The shuttle's still docked," Mark added, "but that's the only bit of good news, everything's failing. I reckon we have minutes before the station either breaks apart or falls out of orbit."

"Great", Taylor sighed, "can you put out an abandon ship call, direct as many people towards the shuttle as we can."

A frown crossed Adrienne's face, "That can't be right," she smacked the keys a little harder, "the computer is only registering six lifesigns." Taylor's eyes quickly scanned the room, that was everyone in the room, "but this station had nearly a hundred people."

"My God," General Harkness rubbed his head, "what could've done this?"

Taylor wasn't sure but she thought Doctor Neuer was muttering something, it sounds like he was saying Vyglass over and over again. Her immediate concern was Jazz, the young woman looked physically fine but Taylor knew she wasn't doing well. She was sitting on the floor with her knees against her chest staring blankly at Chris's body. The former yellow ranger slowly knelt down next to Jazz, "This is some terrible dream," she stuttered out, "tell me that I'm dreaming Major?"

"I wish I could," Taylor replied softly, "you're in shock and that's understandable but if we're going to escape, we need all hands on deck." Jazz's gaze kept flicking to the bodies around the room, "There will be time to mourn and process," she added, "inside I'm falling apart too, Chris was one of my best friends. Trust me, the best way to honour their loss is to kick the asses of those responsible," that drew a small snort of laughter from Jazz. Taylor stood up and offered her hand, "And I think you've earned the right to call me Taylor," Jazz accepted the gesture and slowly got to her feet.

"Do you know if there's any more weapons laying around Jazz?" Adrienne asked. A frown crossed her boyfriends face, "How many times do I have to tell you, loosen up a little," she added, nudging him in the ribs.

"I can't even count the number of protocols she's breached, civilians aren't supposed to handle weapons," Mark pouted.

Jazz handed a couple of blasters over the Air Force pair, "Perhaps you should've been subtle when checking on your last weapons review then," she added in Mark's direction.

The latest Ranger blustered for a moment, unable to properly form a sentence. Suddenly the Avian Waves machine began to fire into life, saving his blushes, "is it meant to do that?" she asked.

Jazz clambered over to the controls, "It's overloading," she replied, "I might be able to shut it down but it will take time."

"Time you don't have," Doctor Neuer crawled over, using the console to drag himself into a seated position, "you all need to get away as quickly as you can." He raised his hand shakily, "Don't bother to persuade me to come with you, I know that I am dying and I am willing to accept my fate if it helps you all escape."

"Thank you Doctor," Taylor replied, "Lieutenant Atkins, lead the way," she called out.

"Take the case," Doctor Neuer said to Jazz, "I am sorry that I was not always kind to you," he coughed deeply whilst reaching into his tattered lab coat, "this is everything I have on the Vyglass and Project Jet Force, finish what I have started."

Jazz took the USB drive and pushed it into her back pocket, "Thank you Doctor Neuer," she smiled before Taylor practically dragged her out the room.

The small group made their way down the corridor, with Mark and Adrienne leading the way. Taylor stayed close to Jazz, who was clutching the silver case like her life depended on it. As they passed through the bulkhead separating the main dome from the link corridor, General Harkness slammed his hand to lock the door behind him, "That should buy us some time," he commented.

An unearthly shriek bounced off the narrow walls, "That sounds close," Jazz said, stumbling over her words.

"We're not far away," Taylor began, "that case needs to get back to Earth, even if it's the only thing that successfully gets back to the shuttle."

"You don't even know what's in here," Jazz replied, "we never got around to showing you." Taylor had a fair idea, most likely it was the morphers for the potential team of Rangers, "They're useless though," the Scot continued, "without being bonded to the Avian Waves."

"We'll think of something," Taylor stated firmly, "the Ranger family is extensive, someone will be able to help us."

"That's the second time you've mentioned other Power Rangers," Jazz asked.

Before Taylor could respond, Mark called out from the head of the group, "Less chatter, you'll draw their attention."

The words of the Lieutenant proved to be almost prophetic. Just as they reached a junction between the main corridor, one of the black and orange creatures jumped out from the side route. In its hand, another explosive charge was blinking ominously. Without hesitation, Adrienne kicking the creature in the stomach, knocking it back into the corridor.

Seconds later the charge blew, shattering the connection between the two corridors. The main route stayed in place but the link corridor and associated sector were blasted out into space. Unfortunately, Adrienne was too close to the rip in the station and the explosive decompression dragged her out into space.

Whilst the others were dragged towards the breach, fortunately the stations systems were still functioning and the bulkhead door slammed shut, sealing the hole. This was no comfort to Mark, who dashed over to the now closed door, "Adrienne," he cried, "we need to go after her."

"We can't," General Harkness called back, "even if we could get to the spacesuits there would be nothing let to save." He paused for a moment before adding, "She's already been out there too long," he let out a deep sigh, "I'm sorry."

Mark slammed his hand against the door, his enhanced strength causing it to buckle. He was about to storm off, no doubt to seek vengeance on Adrienne's killers, when Taylor stopped him, "Don't take another step Lieutenant," she called, "you might not have a morpher yet but you're a Power Ranger. You'll get your chance against those grunts, right now you need to help me get Jazz and the General to safety."

There was a long uncomfortable silence before Mark pointed down the corridor, "We're nearly there," he stated blankly and led the way towards the shuttle docking area.

Less than a minute later the quartet jumped through the airlock, "Get that door closed," General Harkness said to Mark and Taylor, "have either of you flown a shuttle before?"

"Nope", Taylor shook her head as she jumped into the left hand seat in the cockpit, "doesn't look much different from any other aircraft so how hard can it be?" She watched carefully as Mark slowly lowered himself into the right hand seat, "Are you going to be alright to fly?" she asked.

"Yeah," he let out a deep sigh, "but maybe you should take the controls, for now at least Major," Taylor nodded in acknowledgement.

The former yellow Ranger fired up the shuttle and slowly manoeuvred it away from the disintegrating space station. She spotted the strange craft slowly turn and for a moment, she thought it was coming their way. To her relief, it continued turning and went back through the wormhole.

The shuttle was rocked by a shockwave, forcing Taylor to take evasive action, "Are we under attack?" she called into the back.

"It was the station," Jazz replied, "I think it's gone." A couple of moments later, she added, "What's that heading towards Earth?" Taylor could just see what Jazz was referring to, four beams of light streaking towards Earth, specifically the Southwest area of the United States, "The energy looks the same as the Avian Waves," the Scot continued, "Doctor Neuer must've failed to shut his machine down."

"Or it fired automatically when the station broke apart," General Harkness added, "either way, we'd better hope the Waves hit somewhere remote, there's no telling what those powers could do in the wrong hands." Taylor groaned, as if the total destruction of the space station and the loss of dozens of men and women wasn't enough to worry about.

Far below, down on Earth the waves didn't strike in a deserted area. Instead, they streaked towards a moderate sized city sitting in the middle of the Arizona desert. Sitting behind the bleachers at the city's local High School, a lone raven haired female was struck with the blue wave. On the University of Arizona's campus, another student was hit with the yellow wave. In the garden of a large house, a blonde haired woman was struck down by a white wave. Finally, a man with shoulder length brown hair was hit with the black wave as he exited a bar. Each of them cried out before they passed out from the pain, none of them knowing what hit them and what powers it would grant them.