Talking Space

Posted on Thu Mar 24th, 2022 @ 1:50am by Damien McGinnis & Kilena Keithron & Spencer Gustaffson

2,139 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: The Invasion
Location: Transport Shuttle Three
Timeline: 1830 Hours, November 14th 2050

The awkward silence of the shuttle was slowly becoming unbearable for the pink ranger as she sat at the shuttle controls. She kept glancing back to see if their passengers were asleep but fortunately this time they were asleep just leaving the pink, red and now blue ranger awake and thinking about what was happening on earth and what they could be walking into. It took the pink ranger another ten minutes before she could no longer bare the silence before she spoke up and confronted it.

“So are we going to talk about the elephant in the room?” She wondered for a moment before wondering if she had gotten the earth expression wrong.

"Which one's that?" Damien asked, leaning against the wall, shaking his head slightly as he smirked inside his helmet "The fact that we're all sat here in multi coloured spandex? Or maybe the fact we totally bullshitted this guy about that fact. Sorry for that, by the way."

Spencer shrugged at the comment about them lying, though it had irked him. Still, that wasn't what he wanted to talk about. The possibility that other people had powers like this and were using them to Earth's detriment, that's what was on his mind. "It's understandable - things are on a need-to-know basis. I didn't need to know, and I wasn't cleared to know. We'll have to report in and hope I get cleared to know it and use it. I wouldn't want to have to stand before a Court of Inquiry about something I did when it was life-or-death."

The newly minted (and newly-transformed) Blue Ranger looked at the long-range readings. It was obvious he wasn't telling everything about how he felt, but his professionalism came first. They were part of a military organization, after all; that fact meant they weren't allowed to know everything. "Right now, the priority has to be getting to Earth, reporting in, and getting our assignment against this enemy from Command."

With that thought in mind, he turned to the two other Rangers. "Do you expect they'll keep us together as a unit, or deployed separately with squads as special weapons ops?"

“And here lies where we give you some truths and some very brutal facts on why we are not known around command. We are illegal to the alliance. Officially, they do know about the two of us and now three of us. They cannot and will not sanction our activities.” Kilena said wishing she could see his eyes and reaction properly. She knew that she was looking at the general direction but it was not the same.

Spencer was glad for the face-concealing helmet right now, because the look of shock and befuddlement on his face was rather unbecoming. “That makes no sense, Power Rangers have saved the world before. If we’re the new set of Rangers, then... it makes sense to use these suits as weapons platforms. Plus, I didn’t sign up to the Patrol to be a criminal. I just don’t understand why these suits would be illegal. Especially if we can help people with them. But if Command says they’re illegal, then as soon as we get to Earth, I say we turn the equipment in and apologize - explain that we used it in self-defense when we were attacked. It might mean a demerit, or some time in a cell, but I doubt the Court or Command would find us guilty of anything serious if it was for self-defense.”

"When SPD was reformed into the GPF back in 2030, the higher ups deemed Power Rangers a dangerous force to maintaining the peace." Damien spoke up, shaking his head "In their eyes, we and people like us promote more collateral damage than is necessary, and there's an argument for that. Take a look at the news.

He pressed a control, bringing up the holographic image of a red headed woman in a business suit.

Angel Grove has come under attack by Imperium forces. Leading the charge is… Wait, let me confirm that. Yes. Leading the charge is what appears to be the Red Power Ranger." The woman spoke "We currently don’t know how he was able to travel from Mirinoi to Earth so quickly, or why his position in terms of which side he supports has shifted so suddenly, but reports indicate that he and a woman are leading the attack and they are not taking prisoners. Their motivations are currently unknown in this conflict, and the GPF will not issue an official statement-"

Damien shut off the hologram, slamming his fist down on the console, the glass interface breaking.

"They think we're dangerous, and you know what? This guy proves it!" He said, his voice incensed "As long as they've got their own Ranger running around acting as a walking WMD, Command will never give us the green light. I hate to say it, but operating within the Chain of Command is pretty much a no go."

The pink ranger paled as she was watched the other ranger on the screen doing something she would never dream of. "Not in the slightest," Kilena said with a sigh as she went to rub her face but hit her visor. "Why did we come out morphed for. Would have been way easier to go as officers."

Spencer nodded seriously about Kilena's comment. "That much is true, but, uh, I don't actually know how to revert to normal currently."

The new blue ranger turned to Damian and sighed.

"We'll cover that off once we're not on a transport and likely to be found out over it." Damien nodded "Which to be fair is why we came out morphed. The fact that we disappeared as the Rangers showed up is suspicious. If we re-appeared as they vanished, more suspicious. If we then disappeared again when they re-appeared, well, you see where I'm going with this."

Kilena shrugged. She was not convinced at all but she was going to listen to him and respect what he wanted to do as leader. She was impressed that he was showing some type of leadership.

"Just say power down and hit your morpher and it will disappear." She said pointing to where he needed to hit.

Spencer nodded and looked over the morpher in more detail. It was an incredibly compact, advanced, device. And, if his guess was much to go on (it usually was), it was a weapon in itself. He preferred getting up close and personal, but preference be damned if it amounted to bringing a knife to a gunfight. This power felt right to him. It felt like he'd been chasing something all his life, and now finally, he'd begun to find it. "Ah, thank you. But... we're all in the Patrol, right? They know us at Command, and we're not big troublemakers, so I guess, I just think they would either look on it with more leniency or even acceptance. Because if we're using these weapons, it's for the same reason we picked up a weapon in the first place - to protect the Earth."

"The commandant knows about the two of us, but he stressed that that's off the record." Damien said, sighing as he added "I'm pretty sure I was right to infer that in the event we're outted, we're on our own. I don't really want to put it to the test. Unless a prison cell sounds appealing to you?"

Spencer shook his head at Damien's question. "If I wanted to be a criminal, I wouldn't have joined the Patrol; and I wouldn't have volunteered for OEM back in the Bay. All I've ever looked for in my life is the power to help people. I can't believe that they'd throw all that out the window."

"Well they did, 20 years ago." Damien replied sardonically "When the Alliance Council re-organised SPD into the GPF, they decided that the risk of having individuals strong enough to face armies who could potentially go rogue, as had happened, was too great. Once again, just look at him. He proves the point."

“The universe is not the same the last time the universe had rangers.” Kilena said softly as she shook her head as the visible frustration in the room.

Spencer sighed. "Fine. So we either end up getting ourselves killed by being underpowered, or we're criminals. Thanks, I hate it. And yes, what happened with Alpha Squad was bad; but it's stupid to give up on a project like this because they had a couple people go bad. Regardless, we need to stop that guy. I'm guessing that these -", the blue ranger gestured to the crystal locked into his morpher, "- are the key to the whole thing. So if we get his version of this away from him somehow, we can unmorph him. Figure that has to be the target when we hit dirt, am I right?"

The blue ranger looked between the other two, waiting for their responses. Whether or not the two had ever planned out a fight before, he didn't know. But if the enemy had a weapon, one which could be overwhelming if it wasn't removed from them, then the only goal of any fight had to be to separate the weapon from the wielder.

"Sounds like a hell of a design flaw if it's that easy." Damien said, looking down at his own morpher "That said, I haven't got a better idea. So, here's the plan. When we get down there, we need to expect some of their drones to be running interference. To start with, I want the two of you to keep them off me so I can get in close with the other Red Ranger. I'm hoping the suit differences will confuse them enough they might shoot the wrong one. Turn their numbers to our advantage. As soon as I'm in close enough, you two flank and we'll separate him from whatever the source of his powers is."

"I think we have to be dead to separate." The woman in the small group whispered.

Spencer looked at her and shrugged in response to the idea that they would need to kill this other Ranger. "So be it, then. He's hurting and killing innocents. That can't be accepted - Ranger or not, it's our job to protect people. If we can't stop him without killing him, then we have to put him out of our misery for good."

"No. We kill him, we're no better." Damien said, grimacing inside his helmet "There has to be another way to power him down. What if, I don't know, we just destroy his crystal? That should do it right?"

“I do not think it will be that simple.” Kilena started but stopped and shrugged.

Spencer shook his head at the first part of Damien's comment. At least he had his helmet on, and therefore they couldn't see the distasteful expression on his face. "That's a silly concept, being better just because you don't take lives. We're in the Patrol, even if we're conspiring to act as criminals. We have the legal authority - and an assigned duty - to protect the people of Earth against just such attacks. Obviously, if we can grab the crystal and throw him in a cell, great. But if we need to take him down, you need to be ready to do it."

"We're not killing anyone unless we have no choice. It might be silly to try to be better by refusing to kill, but it's what separates us and them." Damien replied, his fist clenching "If it comes to the point where we have to kill him... I'll do it. I'm the senior Officer here, it's my job to get my hands dirty. No one else's."

“You cannot make that promise. It might not be your choice.” Kilena said shaking her head at the pair. Neither of them were part of the universe, they saw it all as simply Earth whilst she was thinking of the universe. Maybe it was where the differences in them was coming from.

Spencer nodded. Whether he was focused on Earth or not, it didn't matter. His job was simple up until now, and he'd tried to do the best he could. He was capable when it came to being a soldier. "We'll make whatever choices we need once we're there. Our priority has to be keeping innocent people safe, then defeating the attackers."

"Let's just focus on one step at a time." Kilena reminded with a nod as she turned herself around to turn the auto pilot off and focus on getting them to earth. She might not agree with a lot of things but she was going to do the right thing.

 

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