Escape To KO-35 For Three

Posted on Sat Nov 26th, 2022 @ 5:55pm by Damien McGinnis & Kilena Keithron & Ellie Evans
Edited on on Mon Nov 28th, 2022 @ 7:09pm

2,463 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: The Invasion
Location: Transport Shuttle 47
Timeline: 0930 Hours November 16th 2050

Damien stood in the back of the training shuttle, watching the rapid disappearance of the training ground in the distance far below. He hated that they'd been forced to leave Spencer and the others behind. Indeed, he'd been half tempted to jump out of the still open rear exit hatch of the shuttle to rejoin the fight, but that wouldn't do anyone any good. Indeed, all it would accomplish is to give the Imperium more hostages and less resistance down the line. It didn't change the bitter taste that was left in his mouth at leaving people behind though.

Kilena glanced over her shoulder several times and realised that no one had closed the hatch door and they were approaching the atmosphere. “Close the hatch Ellie. It’s that button flashing red.” She requested not trusting Damien to not use it as an excuse to run back to the site.

Silently, Ellie walked up to the big open doorway. Amid the whipping, stinging wind rushing around them, she cast a sad look over at Damien before pushing the button in to close up the hatch. For a moment, neither of them moved. She could sense that he likely felt a mixture of emotions around all of what they had just experienced, but it felt like nothing she could say would help. So she left him there and headed back to sit next to Kilena near the front.

"What's...going to happen now?" she asked in a low voice.

"I do not know," Kilena said as she strapped herself into the pilot seat properly as the ship started to shake as they reached the atmosphere and the pressures around the ship changed. "But we are safe and need to do what we are told to get off the planet." She could see hundreds of other ships doing the same.

"You two are getting off the planet." Damien stated as he moved towards the door controls "I'm going back down there to get them out. We'll join you once all of us are safe. Not before."

The pink ranger slammed her hands on the console. She turned she put the shuttle back in autopilot mode - d got to her feet. She slowly approached the other Ranger and looked him dead in the eyes. “Ellie won’t hit you to make you see sense but I will. If you do not sit your ass down i will make it happen we were given direct orders to escape earth. Are you ignoring a direct order?”

"If that's what it takes, yeah, I am." Damien replied simply before slamming his fist against the side of the shuttle "Okay, fine, let's say there's no playing hero here. What do you recommend we do, Pinky?"

“We escape to fight another day. They are looking for us.” Kilena said simply. She could see what would happen if they got one sole ranger. It was what had nearly happened to her. “They won’t hesitate in killing you to get your gem.”

Damien grimaced. He knew she was right, though his pride would never let him admit it. They needed a plan to get Spencer and the others back. Some leader he was turning out to be, he couldn't even come up with that.

"Fine." He relented "You win. What do you suggest we do now?"

“We need to...” The woman stopped to turn back to the console and put it into hyperdrive. Just as she touched the button something bounced across the left side of the shuttle sending making a ding on the hull. “That was close… we need to follow the plan get outta the system and listen to what the Commander said. Just leave the shuttling to me.”

"Can do." Damien replied, adding sheepishly "I'm kind of a terrible pilot. The last time I tried, I crashed the interceptor I was training in. The cargo haulers I do better with, and give me a car, now we're talking."

"Remind me never to get into any kind of moving vehicle with you," Ellie sighed.

"Probably a safe bet." Damien replied with a small sigh "I mean, it'd be even more of a disaster than that fight down there. We should have gone back for them."

Kilena did not answer. She knew that they could not have in time to save themselves but the red ranger was reluctant to listen to reason in regards to that.

It had been hours since the trio had somehow made it off the earth as ordered too by the commandant in a final attempt to save them. Kilena looked back at the woman behind her in the shuttle and offered a small smile. She put the ship into autopilot to KO-35 and turned to the red ranger. “Any word from the others?” She wondered already knowing the reply. The woman rolled her eyes at him when he did not reply. “Do you think they are okay?” She asked darkly thinking on the last few hours.

Damien grimaced as he reflected on her words. Speechless for the first time in he honestly didn’t know how long. No witty retort. No bad pun. Just silence as he looked at the star field visible through the front of the cockpit.

Kilena leant over and touched his hand. “We are going to fix this.” She told him firmly. "Aren't we?"

“How?” He asked, looking down at her hand for a moment before removing his own “You saw them out there. They had us beat. That was before we got split up. They were stronger than us, they were faster than us. We got wrecked out there, and everyone back at that Academy got killed, because I messed up.”

“I was there. None of us was our best but we messed up. We were not prepared.” Kilena reminded him. They were a team after all and Kilena was still injured.

“Yeah, well, I’m meant to be this team’s Quarterback.” He grimaced “I’m supposed to call the plays, I’m supposed to know the plans to go with. I didn’t out there. I miscalculated and Spencer paid for it.”

"I don't really understand football, but I'm pretty sure it's a team game," Ellie offered. As the complete rookie on said team, she wasn't sure whether her opinion was even valid, but she knew enough of the disastrous encounter to know that Damien hadn't really done anything wrong. At least as far as she could see. "You did your best. What else could we have done?"

"Something, anything that meant not leaving Spencer behind!" Damien replied, grimacing "I let him down and I let you guys down."

“You did not let me down.” Kilena turned back to look at him and sighed. They were all on edge and pretty much on the run. “I know we were told to go to KO-35 and the Academy but I think I have a better place for us to hide.”

“Go on?” He asked, cocking an eyebrow at her “What are you thinking here?”

“My home… well my parent's home. It is big enough for us, and no one would think to look there. They don’t know who I am or who any of us are.” She admitted bringing up a holo display of the building. “What do you think?” She wondered.

“You know I grew up on a farm in Kansas right?” He asked, pausing for a minute “What I’m getting at is that place is huge. Like bigger than my Dad’s farm house and barn put together.”

He paced for a moment, thinking it through. On paper she was right. No one would expect an unannounced detour, and certainly, no one would predict a return trip home. However, there was an issue.

Thinking immediately of her parent's home and what might become of them, Ellie bit her lip. She was still getting used to the idea of being a Ranger, and now all of this on top of that was something else. "If it's somewhere safe, I think it's worth it. We need to regroup and recover," she suggested.

“Exactly my rationale,” Kilena said.

“What if we’ve got a tail?” He said, crossing his arms over his chest “We’d be putting your family at risk. I can’t let you do that. Not until we’re sure we aren’t being followed.”

The woman watched the man pacing back and forth as he thought things over. “My family will not be there. They are on Phados on an Archaeological dig.” She shrugged. They were barely home anymore now that she was no longer living there.

“Okay, we’ll lay in a course.” He finally replied “But if things get hairy, we evac immediately. No way am I letting you risk your family’s home just for us to have a hiding place. Deal?”

“Of course Red ranger.” She muttered turning away from him again to change the course ever so slightly. It was not far from the Academy but far enough away for them to be out of harm’s way.

Ellie watched the exchange, still trying to judge the relationship dynamic, and in particular where she fit into it. Damien was clearly set up as the 'leader'; he'd said it often enough now that people probably believed it. Kilena, though, had a bit more of a wisdom about her. From the outside, there was a little tension between them. Like brother and sister, almost. In some ways, that made a lot of sense if they'd known each other that long.

"As I said, if it's safe," she finally said, softly agreeing with their plan. Not that it seemed like they were particularly asking.

"So, are we there yet?" Damien asked, leaning against the bulkhead "I hate long flights."

“Well, I think it this case you might have to adapt,” Kilena said quietly as she focused on the shuttle controls.

"Is it a bad time to mention I get travel sick?" Damien quipped, noting "Yes I know the inertial dampeners will stop that. Just making small talk."

Kilena said nothing in response as the ship lurched a few times in the atmosphere and then settled down as they got below the clouds. She pointed down to where her home was. "We are here." She announced.

Damien looked down at where she was pointing. Even from their altitude, he could make out a gigantic manor, big enough to fit the entire farm he'd grown up on inside at least twice. The grounds were magnificent sprawling meadows, a few trees and a mass of colourful flowers littering the bright green fields.

"I see why you left." He said, shaking his head as he added sarcastically "Must have been awful growing up in such a pokey little house, especially without a proper garden."

Kilena looked at the man stunned for a second, they had been getting somewhere then he became sarcastic. "Bite me," Kilena said simply as she stood up and headed to the back of the shuttle disappearing out the door as it landed.

Walking up alongside Damien, Ellie took a look at the sprawling estate and then back at him. "For the record? It's smaller than where I grew up." And with that, she followed the other young woman out of the door.

"Honestly, Damien..." He grumbled to himself "One day, you'll meet a nice normal girl. Who doesn't wear spandex. Or live in a mansion..."

Ellie leaned over to Kilena. "I thought that would be something most guys would kill for..."

“Mmmhmm” was Kilena’s only response.

Kilena led the way across the garden to the door when a drone came out of nowhere and scanned each person before stopping at Kilena who just stared at it for a moment before the house seemed to let out a breath of air and power up. The defences disarming.

“It is a long story of the house and everything but sort thing is my mum was one of the lawmakers for KO-35 when they returned to being a universal power before she gave it all up to do archelogy for a living.” She shrugged leading the group inside the house. It was a lot more complicated but they did not need to know that.

"So she quit being the mayor to be Lara Croft?" Damien questioned "Actually, that sounds like a hell of a step up career wise..."

"Money isn't everything," Ellie replied, glancing over her shoulder. "Sometimes there's more. Like getting out and seeing the world and all its wonders." She peered around this strange new world. "Even if that world isn't your home."

“It isn’t especially after KO-35 fell. My parents were born just as we returned so they are obsessed with power rangers. My dad was fascinated by the lost Astro Megaship instead he just found our crystals. It would be his life’s greatest achievement if he found it.” The boys knew her parents were obsessed with ranger stuff but the woman didn’t.

"Did he ever get close?" Ellie asked, curious.

“Still looking,” Kilena answered pushing the door open to a kitchen moving straight to the fridge to grab out bottles of water. She knew her parents were not here but she had no idea when they had left in their latest dig.

"It's...it's a nice house." Ellie was reminded of home. On Earth. Which felt like a very very long way away. She did a slow turn, taking all of it in and trying not to cry again. This place felt safe, though, and that was reassuring. She accepted a bottle of water from Kilena and paused as she caught her own reflection in the window. "Heavens, I didn't realise I looked so dreadful. Is there somewhere I can clean up?"

“Thank you,” Kilena said softly realising that they all looked in the same state. “If you go up those stairs. Grab whatever bedroom you want.” She said pointing to the spiral stairs case that was in the corner.

"Question." Damien said, raising a hand "Where's the bathroom? I don't mind not cleaning up right now but I'd rather be polite when it's not my garden..."

"Up the stairs pick a bedroom it'll have a bathroom attached," Kilena told them sitting down on a stall heavily hoping she would be left alone for a few moments to just try and adjust to what had happened recently and the fact she was using her childhood home as a hideaway.

"Okay, well given how bad my sense of direction is, I guess I'll see you in the morning." He said, walking out of the room before walking back in "Nope, that was the garden..."

 

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