New Assignment

Posted on Fri Feb 11th, 2022 @ 6:26pm by Kilena Keithron & Damien McGinnis

2,053 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: The Invasion
Location: Commandant's Office
Timeline: November 13th 08:30 2050

Damien walked towards the doors to the Commandant's office. He hated this walk; it usually entailed him being in some kind of trouble. Unfortunately, given he'd been summoned to the office, that was almost definitely the case.

He tucked his forefinger into the collar of his grey uniform jacket, the red piping of the undershirt he wore showing for a moment as he attempted to make the tight collar a little less so.

As he reached the door, he paused. He couldn't have been asked to come just him, could he? Was he actually in some kind of trouble?

Kilena had only just had enough time to shower and change into a fresh uniform from her night patrol before she needed to be in front of the commandants office. Kilena offered a half wave as she tried to cover a huge yawn that escaping. “Morning.”

"Hot date last night?" He quipped in response, a smirk forming on his face "Or was it just a late night study session?"

The pink ranger had wanted to be nice but there he was testing her so early in the morning when she had not slept since the three hours she had, had the previous afternoon. “Patrol. I was nabbed for a last minute patrol as no one else was available.” She said wishing it was the other two. Not that he would know if she was out on a hot date but she was going to tell him why at the very least.

"You should have come grabbed me. Could have got me out of my hell of an evening." He grimaced "Did you know that sometimes when someone says she wants to study, she actually wants to study? I showed up at her quarters with a bottle of wine and flowers and she wanted to work on her astrophysics."

“Why would I have grabbed you? We are independent?” She asked not at all going down the line of him telling her about the bad date he had been on. It would teach him to have a culture shock to alleviate some of his charm.

"I thought we were meant to be a team." He replied, his face dropping slightly "Rangers together, all that jazz..."

“Yes but we are also officers. The commander thought it would be better to separate us a little.” Kilena said with a shrug. It suited her fine last night to go out on patrol with someone else. Had been nice and quiet neither of them had spoken much about anything.

"And I'm sure that brilliant idea will play out so well if the bad guys decide to attack." He replied sarcastically, shaking his head "Previous ranger teams have had an advantage on that score. They usually have a team of five, not two."

“What we do need time away from each other? We snip and cannot agree on anything.” She reminded him with a shake of her head as she took a seat. She was tired and really needed some sleep.

"Yes, we definitely do need time away from each other. God, it'd be like being married to my tenth grade lab partner. Carly Shelby. Cute but a total teacher's pet." He noted, grimacing "What's taking the boss man so long? I want to get out of here and grab a bite to eat."

“I am pretty sure we will never be getting married.” Kilena quickly mumbled as the door opened to the commandants office. “At least you have that as an option.” Kilena muttered wishing she had, had sleep let alone an option to leave for food.

"At least I have... What?" Damien asked, confused as they stepped through the door, not letting anyone get a word in edge ways as he spoke up "Boss man, would you- Actually let's pretend I wasn't about to ask that incredibly problematic question."

Kilena raised an eyebrow confused as she waited for someone to speak sensibly. She needed sleep and food after a very boring patrol.

"I'm going to pretend that you weren't about to embarrass everyone here, McGinnis." The man in his fifties wearing a red and blue trimmed uniform sat behind the desk spoke "Both of you, sit down."

Damien grimaced as he replied. It wasn't a request. It was an order, and given his habit of ending up in the dog house with the commandant, he wasn't about to say no to it.

"So, anything the two of you want to tell me?" The Commandant asked, looking between them "Keithron, you're the more sensible of the two of you. Anything interesting happen involving the two of you recently?"

"Nothing major Commandant. We have not killed each other despite you seem to want to pair us all the time," The woman asked looking straight ahead. "We seem to keep being in the right place at the right time to stop little miss dominatrix but apart from that." She shrugged. "Was there something specific you needed to know Sir? It is just I am tired I was out on patrol last night."

"Just needed a hunch confirmed, Cadet. You did so sufficiently." The Commandant said, looking between them "You know why the Ranger program was disbanded following SPD's merge into the GPF? It was deemed reckless and irresponsible to put recruits who were little more than children into the most dangerous of situations. As someone who once was one of those recruits, I objected, strongly. However, I can not allow the pair of you to run around unchecked."

"Unchecked?" Damien objected "Now it's my turn to object vehemently! Sir, we've done nothing but good since we got those crystals, and we've done it without a full team of Rangers backing us. No numbers one, two, three, four or five on the sides of our suits! If we've not been performing to your standards of Power Rangers, well, maybe you should try getting out there. Oh, that's right, you can't! We can because we've got those crystals. Meanwhile, those old Delta morphers are sat in the museum gathering dust behind a glass case."

"You about done, Cadet?" The Commandant questioned, cocking an eyebrow.

"Yes sir." Damien grimaced as he responded.

"Good." The Commandant replied, looking to Kilena "Do you agree with your team mate, Cadet?"

"Well, I guess he confirmed your hunch huh?" Kilena rolled her eyes at the man as she looked at Damien. "He did not know." She murmured shaking her head as she flicked her wrist and Morpher and crystal appeared.

"What?" Damien asked, looking between them "But he... But you said-"

"I said what it would take to get a hot head like you to sing like a canary." The Commandant said with a wry grin "It's a personality trait that seems to attract the red spandex. I mean, technically, it's not spandex, it's a self-assembling nano-fiber formed with an inter-cellular shape memory alloy. But unlike some people, I can appreciate how those not educated in such things would fail to make the distinction."

Kilena just shook her head at turned back to the commandant. "So what happens now? Are we chucked out?" The woman said simply as she flicked her wrist and the morpher and crystal disappeared again.

"No, you're not." The Commandant replied "Officially, the regulations stand. No GPF sanctioned Power Ranger team can exist. Frankly, no Alliance sanctioned team can exist. A group with that much power at the beck and call of any given governing body would adversely shift the balance of power in the galaxy, and that is how wars start."

"I mean, we're already at war, sir." Damien said, standing up "You weren't out there when the Imperium attacked. You were back here, in an office, sitting pretty, while people were fighting and dying to prevent the Imperium from causing the very shift you're talking about."

"I agree with you." The Commandant nodded.

"It's not just that, sir, it's-" Damien began raising his voice before pausing "Wait, you agree with me?"

Kilena was as surprised that anyone agreed with the red ranger let alone the commandant so she sat quietly waiting to see how this played out.

"Yes, I do." The Commandant nodded his agreement once again "There will always be threats that necessitate individuals like the Power Rangers. But making them part of a chain of command invites scrutiny of a kind that does not help them perform their role sufficiently. Not only that, but making them part of that chain of command is how you end up with incidents like the one in 2025 with the SPD A-Squad. They were taken and turned because of their role within the chain of command and the ability it gave them to infiltrate. That is something that can't be allowed. However, what you choose to do in your civilian lives is entirely up to you. Do we understand each other?"

"I think so, but someone needs to spell it out so I'm clear." Damien said, taking his seat once more, looking to Kilena "Is he saying he wants us to be some kind of off the books Power Ranger A-Team kind of deal?"

"You might want to compare yourself to A-Team but I will never be like them," Kilena muttered. She knew all about A-Team and how they were still in max security and would be for the rest of their lives. "But off the books is what he is requesting," Kilena said dumbing it down for him.

"Not A-Squad, A-Team." Damien corrected "It's an old earth TV show. Me and my Dad used to watch reruns on Saturday mornings."

"I preferred the Liam Neeson movie." The Commandant noted "However, I understand what you mean. The A-Team was about a group of soldiers of fortune, operating outside of any chain or command instead working for the greater good."

"That answers whether we are sacked but that does not cover what do we do now." The pink ranger wondered letting out a long yawn. She shook her head standing up going to where the water cooler was grabbing a mug. "I've been up a long time. I need to stay awake,"

"Grab a coffee, cadet." The Commandant said "Officially, I don't know about the two of you. I cannot and will not sanction your activities. However, unofficially, we need you. There's an expedition to Mirinoi, where one of the crystal signals emanated. I'm ordering the pair of you to accompany the dig team, as security. "

Kilena made a face and whispered under her breath to her deities about lack of sleep before sitting back down. “I will when we get out of here. Just tell me I am not piloting?” She was 100% sure she could not do that on lack of sleep as well as keep Damien in check.

"No, you'll be in the transport section of the carrier." The Commandant noted "Plenty of time to sleep then. To maintain appearances, cadet teams Alpha, Bravo and Delta will all be accompanying the expedition to sites one, two and three respectively. Preliminary samples suggest three is the most likely location of another crystal, and if the Imperium attack, I want the Rangers not far away."

“Can I asked a question? Would it change the alliance’s mind in banning rangers if the other side had them?” Kilena asked the older man.

"Possibly." The Commandant conceded "But unless the Imperium decide to make their own Psycho Rangers, I can't see that happening. As far as we know, that research was lost decades ago. Which is definitely a good thing..."

The sentiment lingered in the air for a moment like a haze of poison smog. Anyone who'd heard of the Power Rangers had heard of a few things. Morphers. Zords. Lord Zedd. Dark Specter. And the Psycho Rangers. Faster than Rangers. Smarter than Rangers. Stronger than Rangers. But pure, uncompromising evil.

"On that note, I'll let the two of you go." The Commandant nodded "McGinnis, stay out of trouble. Keithron... Make sure he actually does."

"Hey!" Damien objected, pausing as he rolled his eyes "Fine, you're probably right, sir..."

"I know I am." The Commandant said "Dismissed."

Kilena did not need to say anything as she already knew she would fail the mission to keep him out of trouble. It was going to be a long day.

 

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