Withdrawal

Posted on Thu Nov 24th, 2022 @ 12:33am by Kyarah Moreau & Spencer Gustaffson

1,340 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: The Invasion
Location: Training Ground Bravo, GPF Australian Facility
Timeline: November 16th 2050, 0950 Hours

Spencer barely nodded at Damien, watching the Phoenix Ranger warily. He didn't like how abruptly the whistle had been blown - or how easily they'd been overwhelmed. "Right. I'll catch up with you as soon as I can." He looked at the Phoenix Ranger. "And as for you... as long as I live, this isn't over." He saw the Silver Ranger when the Phoenix did and turned with a growl toward the new ranger and directing her, silently, to move back, away from the Kaldore.

"Well said," The Phoenix Ranger said, watching the Red, Pink and Green Rangers retreat, looking Blue in the face before looking to the Silver one he could see advancing. "Looks like you've still got one friend, Blue. Rescue your people. I won't stop you. We've got what we want here."

He didn't wait for a response before slowly beginning to walk off towards a site where there was a rapidly approaching Kaldore drop ship. He paused, turning back for a moment. "Next time we meet, I'm not going easy on any of you," he said as the ship landed, slowly walking up the ramp, turning to face them as it began taking off and nodding as it began to speed away into the sky. . .

---

"That can go both ways, guy," grumbled Kyarah reflexively, slacking from the ready posture she assumed upon the Blue Ranger's silent constraint of her approach. In the back of her mind, she didn't feel nearly as defiant. So much was transpiring, and there remained more questions than answers despite her efforts to absorb the situation. Of no help to her confidence was that someone under her command had been subdued.

Spencer stayed in his suited form, looking at the new Silver ranger. Obviously, she was part of the B Team - it seemed that for all that the GPF said the Rangers were illegal, they sure had a lot of them. He gestured toward Kensington and the rest of the team, looking around. "Going through them isn't an option. We have to retreat. Red will keep the others going. You and I need to go to ground - and we should try to find Orange." At this point, there was nothing for it - time to rip the band-aid off. Silver wasn't the only Ranger, she was going to be part of a team, and there were more Rangers than she knew about. "We get Kensington and the rest of your team to medical quarters."

Kyarah caught the approach of her exercise squad mates, likely attracted by the Kaldore retreat.

"I don't suppose either of you are the Orange Ranger?"

"I wish," grumbled the petite felinoid female. "Would've been nice to have something other than a glorified flashlight to use against those drones," she quipped as she knelt at Kensington and field assessed him.

"He okay?" the stout human male asked.

"I think so," the felinoid replied after a moment. Vitals are good, no obvious injuries. Can you carry him, Aata?"

"Yeah. Give me a hand getting him up, though. Don't want to create any new injuries."

As the pair coordinated slinging Kensington over Aata, the latter mused, "I hope that scout is okay."

"We'll keep an eye out," said Kyarah. "But for now, Blue's right. No one benefits from staying here. You guys good to move to safety?"

The conscious Bravo team survivors uttered affirmation.

The snort from Spencer at the mention of their practice guns being glorified flashlights would be unmistakable; obviously he'd been part of Alpha team. It seemed that most of this team was less concerned about the law, and more about respecting the people who'd just given them a fighting chance - the Rangers. But a handful of Cadets like this wasn't going to be anything more than the first step in saving the world. "Yeah, that thing was good as a club, not much else. Anyone good enough for scout duty is probably smart enough to follow us."

He looked at them as they moved, not removing his helmet yet. Still, any of the team who'd seen him at HQ would probably have a vague idea of who he was (even if they didn't know his name). He wondered for a moment if he'd need to change back to eat, or if he would need to sleep. There had never been a need to morph for an extended time yet. "I don't know this base very well. My squad was based out of Angel Grove. We need to get to a radio facility and an armory - in that order. See if we can get a coded signal out to Command, so that at least someone on Earth can mobilize. Then, we get the biggest, nastiest guns we can - and we point them at any of the K forces we can."

He sighed. "And we need to find Red and the others somewhere too."

"I can get us to where we need to be as far as the base is concerned," Kyarah said, reflexively stepping into a lead position. "Blue, can you watch our flank?"

Spencer nodded - he'd already identified that he was in fact part of Alpha Team; but then again, the whole team had been Rangers. Anyone that put two and two together would realize just who they were. Not that there was any time to deal with the legality of that now. He slipped back toward the flank of the group, making sure to keep everyone in sight, and then fell in for a march. "Yes. Let's move out."

It faintly occurred to Kyarah that her impending familiarity in traversing the base might give her away as Bravo's missing scout, but she was more concerned with keeping Kensington their only casualty. She refrained from volunteering the source of her familiarity, however, instead brandishing her Solar Blaster.

"Just in case," she concisely explained of offering it to the felinoid cadet.

Obviously Silver had been some part of the other team. A little mental math and looking around at the team as he marched with his Solar Claws at the ready made it pretty obvious she had to be the 'missing' scout. He was glad they hadn't moved forward when the attack happened, or else there would have been an embarrassing moment of hesitation as both she and the team tried to conceal their identities. He didn't care right now - all that mattered was getting a report out, getting information back, and finding some way to rendezvous with the others. He looked toward the other cadets - they looked slightly scared, but at least having two Rangers with them made them defiant. That was good. Maybe they'd be able to fight back as a group and build a Resistance. He wanted to get the Silver ranger alone and have a talk with her; there were things he didn't want to say with an audience around. On the other hand, right this second, he had a different idea. "We should pick up any other survivors we find, make sure they don't get kidnapped or killed by that scum. Plus, the more of us there are when we raid the armory, the more force we can bring to the table as a guerilla unit when we move out to find Red and the rest of the Rangers."

"Let's see if we have a welcoming committee first," said Kyarah, approaching one of the access hatches for the base. It yielded after a few seconds of her making inputs in the access panel, revealing a long corridor barren apart from pulses of crimson illumination from paralleling strobe strips. Despite receiving no response to her call during the melee, the base's personnel had clearly become aware of trouble. The question was whether it was discerned or imposed. If it was the latter, was the source was still present?

She didn't see anything despite her visor automatically adjusting for the low light, yet still led the group in, her gauntlet blaster at the ready.

 

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