Live Fire Exercise
Posted on Wed Sep 7th, 2022 @ 11:15pm by Damien McGinnis & Kilena Keithron & Spencer Gustaffson & Ellie Evans & Kyarah Moreau
Edited on on Mon Nov 28th, 2022 @ 2:11pm
4,648 words; about a 23 minute read
Mission:
The Invasion
Location: Training Ground Bravo, GPF Australian Facility
Timeline: November 16th 2050, 0930 Hours
Damien ducked through the flaming debris strewn across the simulated battleground of the training ground. It was a mockup of Newtech City, with various pieces of old SPD equipment used as set dressing. His grey GPF combat uniform was wired up with several sensors all over it, designed to pick up any time the laser beams of the opposing team registered a hit on him. He pressed two fingers to his left ear as he held the pistol in his right hand up slightly.
"Okay, I know how the guy leading the other team thinks. He'll try to close down as quickly as possible. Our job is to stop that," he said. "Blue, take point. Pink you and green are going to move up the left flank, while I move up the right. All of us will converge in the middle, make a three-pronged pincer movement to take them all down at once. It's a four-on-four match up but they'll be coming down the middle. Any questions?"
“Can we change the plan? And let’s not call us our colours hmm? Not a private line,” Kilena said, looking pale as she wished she was still in bed recovering. Something was telling her that they needed to change the plan, but she could not explain what.
Spencer nodded at Kilena, agreeing with her completely. This was almost the kind of fight he lived for. The hunter's instinct came out in him. As charming as it was as an idea that he should charge up the middle like a parody of Rambo, this wasn't the movies or a kid's TV show - he'd be tagged instantly. "Keithron's right, McGinnis—on both counts. We're four-on-four, we simply don't have the force to make a tri-assault. We can't cover them like that. They'd take me first from comfortable cover, then pop you, and then Evans and Keithron would be overwhelmed. Plus, I think you're overbalancing to the left because you're worried Keithron's going to get injured again—unless it's an ancient bias, which would be irksome. We don't go them, we draw them to us. Keithron and you in the left tower—" he gestured to a high spot overlooking a square, "Evans and I on right. We stay in cover, keep to tight calls only, all fire stays below the eyeline, no danger of friendly fire and real practical upshot, they can't hit back. If they come up the tower, opposite team can call it and we'll have the entrance covered. If they do attempt a breach, we'll just open the door and hit them while they're at it."
He looked at Damien. "You may think otherwise, but being consistently offensive only works in social situations, not combat."
“I have been cleared for duty,” Kilena said testily as she looked at them all. “I’m tired but not weak.”
"I'm overbalancing to the left because the guy we're up against always overbalances to the right," Damien noted. "He'll send three of his team down the right flank, while he goes off on the left. We're too focused on the other three to notice him and he tags us from behind. He's used that trick every exercise since we were first year cadets. So, we let him think his tactic is working, then beat him at his own game."
He paused for a moment, before continuing.
"Oh, and for the record, Kilena and Ellie are going up the left flank because that way they've both got back up." He continued, "You're going down the middle because I've seen how handy you are in a pinch, and I'm going up the right flank to catch the other three of his team. You and me are bait. Kilena and Ellie get the job done while they're busy with us. Unless, of course, some outdated bias is why you're suggesting your approach? You may think otherwise, but sometimes being offensive does work in combat. You want evidence? Read a Spider-Man comic sometime."
Kilena rolled her eyes. She had a bad feeling about all of this but if he was going to pull that card who was she to judge. "Let him lead. I was warning of my bad feeling which we all know hasn't failed us since this all started," Kilena hissed adjusting her uniform.
"Seriously...what's with all the superhero references...?" Ellie sighed, perched next to her. This wasn't going well from her perspective; she wasn't trained for all this running and shooting. Put her in a kitchen and she could competently whip up a meal for a whole squad of cadets. Probably. But being out in the field? Hardly her first choice. "Does he know that I haven't hit anything yet?"
"Well, you see, superhero references are... Just kind of fun really." Damien laughed, before there was a loud crash as an explosion rocked the area. "Holy shit! Did I miss the part where this is a live fire exercise?"
"Damien, what the hell man!" Michael's voice came through the communication line. "This is not a live fire exercise!"
"We thought it was you..." Damien replied, before a number of drones teleported in in front of the group. "Shit. Bravo team, converge on our position. We've got hostiles! I repeat, we have got hostiles."
He cut the comm line, tossing aside the laser he had for the exercise before twisting his right wrist, his morpher appearing on it as he raised it, taking shots at the drones.
"We need to get rid of these guys fast!" he yelled as he dived forward, rolling under a punch from a drone as he swept his left leg under its legs, taking it to the ground before he punched down with his right hand, firing the blaster on his wrist as he did. "By the time the other team gets here, we need to be ready for evac."
Another explosion shook the area, kicking dirt and ash up in the air. The cloud of ash and dust began to obscure vision.
"Guys?" he yelled. "Where are you?"
"If only you hadn't cut your line," muttered a within earshot Kyarah of what she perceived as a tactical faux pas now that she'd confirmed that McGinnis wasn't down or his headset damaged. The eruption of combat allowed her to leverage her standing as the only fully commissioned officer on her team into a promotion from participant-observer to lead, though that didn't really change their fundamental plan of using her scouting experience to maneuver the rest of Bravo onto Alpha. Neither team possessed live weapons, so in the interest of ensuring that the rendezvous Alpha lead called for wouldn't lead everyone to their demise, she'd advanced to a nearby vantage point to survey the situation. The obfuscation from the exploded debris wasn't much of a hindrance for her; an ocular implant wirelessly linked with her wristation gave her an augmented, high-definition picture of the literal dust-up.
"These guys again?" she grumbled of recognizing the Imperium drones. To herself, she mused, What do they want this time? And where's security? Her initial assessment had Alpha team at 5-to-1 odds, and the drones' more assured movement suggested that unlike the cadets, they were equipped to cope with low visibility. Some had been subdued, though not enough to repel being gradually hemmed in.
The lack of response from facility security hinted at an even larger enemy force, yet at least one team was in immediate, if undefined danger. Just like two days prior, the downsides of all her options didn't highlight any as a better play than another. . .
Well, almost all of her options.
Kyarah toggled her headset. "Bravo team, stand fast. Hostiles are Imperium drones, we are outnumber—"
Both her wristation and a subconscious sensation alerted her to an attack from behind, which she instinctively threw a heel at and put eyes on only after hitting full extension. Sure enough, a drone was stumbling away for its balance. . .
Spencer had just about accepted that he was going to get tagged first when he heard - and felt - the explosion. It reminded him of the bomb that had hit their ship on the way back to Earth. That wasn't a pleasant association. Then the two team leads started calling back-and-forth that this wasn't a live-fire exercise. They were right; it wasn't an exercise anymore. The laser weapon in his hands was now pointless, except as a club or a blunted; so he gripped it by the barrel. "Mcginnis! Imperium drones on our 10! Bravo Squad is on the other side of this cloud."
He looked at the other man, his opinion having changed; against other cadets, he'd be defensive, take up places, and shoot from safety. But this could put others in danger. This could get someone hurt, like it had already once gotten Kilena hurt. That wasn't acceptable, and he was suddenly acutely aware of the weight of the morphing device on his wrist. "Call it, Commander. Do we go in?"
"Bravo team are all but unarmed. We're the only shot they've got," Damien said, taking a couple more pot shots as he spin-kicked a drone in the chest. "I'm calling it. It's payback time. Or, to put it another way..."
He twisted his left wrist, his crystal appearing in his hand as he slammed it into his morpher, cocking the device. He spun round, punching a drone in the gut.
"It's morphin' time..." He smirked as he pulled the trigger, a blast of red energy firing into the drone, Damien spinning round as his suit appeared on him while the solar weapon in sabre mode materialised in his left hand in time for him to slash another drone across the chest, his helmet appearing as he called, "Red ranger power!"
Kilena looked at Damien. "I told you I had a bad feeling." She hissed annoyed as she kicked a drone away from her and pulled out her crystal slamming it into the morpher relieved as the power filled her and revealed the pink ranger. There was no coming back from this now that rangers had been revealed more.
"Okay, so going forward, we trust your gut," Damien remarked as he took a slash at a drone, pressing two fingers of his right hand to the side of his helmet. "McGinnis to Commander, we have engaged the enemy. Request immediate evac. They've got us pinned down out here!"
Spencer didn't need to be told twice—the blue crystal appeared in a flash and was brought home into the morpher. The man's eyes narrowed as he charged into the drones, slamming one of the green-highlighted ones with the butt of his rifle and crouched under another shot, pulling the lever on the side of the device strapped to his arm as he brought it low to the ground. In an instant, he felt like some power had overtaken his body, the power of stars and galaxies, and like he'd had something pulled over him which had formed his new Ranger suit. It was only the fourth time he'd put it on, but it made him feel invincible. He looked up at them and smirked behind his helmet, using his low stance and sweeping the legs of the drone nearest him, and drawing the paired weapons at his hips, which he quickly snapped into its shape as a pair of claws. "Cue the weapon."
The Blue Ranger then drove one of those sets of brutal claws into the neck of another alien invader and called out, "Always trust the lady, Red! She's smarter than both of us!" A moment later, he leapt and kicked into the twitching enemy's chest in a gravity-defying stunt that saw him backflip through the air and land crouched with the rest of the Rangers. "Red wanted me to take center before - these guys have nothing on Bravo team. Think you can cover me, Pink?"
It was strange, the change that overtook him when he was morphed. In a normal conflict, he was cautious to a fault, unwilling to lose ground or push too hard. He had skills, no question—but he was rarely willing to boast about them or risk anyone's safety—he was all too aware of their mortality. And yet with this outfit on, he felt invincible, like there was some mythic beast inside him, pushing him to take greater risks, and to give every fight his all.
Initially doing her best to duck, cover and hide, Ellie hadn't moved at first. She'd barely even heard Damien's call to unite. It was only when the flash of pink nearby signaling Kilena's morph that she caught on.
"You can do this..." she whispered to herself, panting heavily as she stared at the morpher on her wrist. To this point she'd been terrified of what it meant to be a Ranger. But at the same time, that first moment she had felt the power surge through her had been something else. It had given her courage, and a reason to stand up. "Green Ranger power!" she gasped, not as confidently as she would have liked. But as the power pulsed through her, she found that spark of bravery once again.
"Hey Blue! On your six!" Ellie called, darting in behind the Blue Ranger, whose name she hadn't even clocked yet, and dispatching a drone with a slash of her new blade.
Some people would have called the situation the Rangers found themselves in 'hopelessly outnumbered.' For Spencer at that particular moment though, it felt more like a target-rich environment. Behind the helmet his expression was serious, but there was a joy in his expression and his movements, a controlled wildness, like a caged beast that had been set free. When the Green Ranger (whose name he'd heard spoken once but didn't remember) warned him of one of the aliens behind him, he nodded. "Sounds good, Green! Let's stay back-to-back and cut a path to Bravo Team!"
In response, a blast of crimson energy struck the ground between them. From the smoke, a figure in a red and black ranger suit brandishing a shield with a sword sheathed in it charged in, clutching the unconscious form of Michael by the scruff of his neck. He looked around at the rangers, shaking his head.
“I hoped for more of a challenge,” he mocked. “Four of you won’t even make me break a sweat…”
“Let. Him. Go." Damien growled, his eyes narrowing in his helmet.
“Or what?” the other red ranger asked.
“Or I’ll make you…” Damien replied simply. “All of you, get to the rest of Bravo team. This one’s mine."
He didn’t wait for the protests before charging in, his sword brandished. The metal of his blade crashed against the other ranger’s shield. The ranger tossed Michael aside, reaching for the sword handle. As he did, Damien raised his morpher, the other ranger knocking his arm aside as he pulled the trigger, the red energy bolt from it narrowly missing Spencer’s head.
“You’re no threat, red ranger,” the other ranger spoke. “Surrender your crystals and we leave in peace.”
“How about you surrender yours…” Damien scowled inside his helmet. “And while you’re at it, how about you tell me who you are…”
“All in good time, red ranger.” The other ranger replied, punching Damien in the gut before bringing his shield down on the back of Damien’s neck, Damien’s sword clattering away “If you’ll excuse me…”
The other ranger leapt away, landing between Spencer, Ellie and Kilena. He looked between the three of them for a moment, before turning on Spencer.
“They can go help your leader. You think you’re the strong one,” he growled. “Show me…”
In a single motion, the other red ranger pulled his sword, slamming it into the ground and creating an explosion of crimson lightning, a large crack appearing between himself and Spencer and the other two rangers. He turned back to the blue ranger, re-sheathing his sword. As he did, he slammed his shield into Spencer’s gut, staggering the blue ranger.
Spencer getting staggered at all was an unusual sight. For it to happen while suited was even stranger, so he only had a split-second of time to think before he had to focus on breathing, rather than on hitting back. Still, in his momentary desperation and a need to grab something to stay on his feet, the Blue Ranger managed to grab the edge of the enemy's shield and roll with it, wrenching it away from his opponent, and throwing it into the crack in the floor behind him. He'd already figured out that his own weapons (and the others') appeared from (seemingly) nowhere when he morphed. That meant they had to be connected to the suit somehow, the power that ran it. That meant the shield he'd just removed would probably return to this fake red ranger in good time; or - with his luck - evil time. But as soon as he regained his footing, he decided to try and get the other guy the way he did Damien. After all, he understood his own anger; he wanted to see if the other guy knew how to handle his own. "Nah. You and the real Red just 'think.' I know."
He sheathed the claw-weapons, because this had to be done the right way. It had to be done with bare hands - or as close to it as possible. He recognized a proud fighter when he saw one; one like himself. So he decided to follow an old lesson in combat - if they think you're crude, go technical; if they think you're technical, go crude. And for all his strength, Spencer was always a technical fighter. So to catch this alien bastard off guard, he charged in with a shoulder tackle. He knew he'd be dodged, but he had to get a feel for the other man's real speed. If he could, he'd drop and spin to go for a sweep, but that was (as far as Spencer could tell) probably wishful thinking.
The ranger waited for Spencer to be almost on top of him before sidestepping him with grace befitting a ballet dancer, moving out of Spencer's range and stretching out his left arm, his shield being drawn to him as he stepped right, letting the shield pass him and hit Spencer in the back of the neck before being summoned back to its owner once more. The ranger walked towards him slowly.
"You can't win. At best, you might fight to a stalemate. For a time. But eventually, genetics will win out," the ranger spoke. "Kaldore are stronger than Humans. Faster than Humans. Smarter than Humans. Anything you can do, I can do better."
Kyarah was experiencing Kaldore physical superiority firsthand. She'd held her own against the drone that tried to ambush her for a time, but without a means to breach its armor, it endured until two others helped it pressure her into close quarters futility. Caught in a sleeper hold, her efforts to break it failed on account of the inflicting drone's greater strength and mass.
All wasn't lost, however. Resisting the hold put her in the perfect position to utilize the morpher that materialized on her right arm. The silver solar crystal manifested in her left hand shortly afterward and a split second after mating the two, the struggling GPC scout again sought escape. . .as the Silver Ranger. And it ended with her captor crashing to the ground, its former victim having used her newfound strength to pry apart the hold and positional technique to shift its user's base into a throw.
Kyarah then faced its colleagues. A quick jab-hook combination after a defensive side-step stunned one, its stumbling away despite her hitting helmet confirming that she now wielded enough force to ring the drones' bell through their armor. Given the prior necessity to target joints and openings to phase them beforehand, a well of relief heightened her adrenaline rush.
The last drone charged, and while she could've also tried to halt it in its tracks, she instead—for reasons she wasn't fully grounded in—advanced into a backward arch in conjunction with falling to her knees, allowing her to slide beneath the drone's kick. Her subsequent tumbling kip-up created more separation in addition to restoring her vertical base. Despite turning to reengage, the drone was disoriented by the unorthodox evasion choice, leaving it flat-footed against Kyarah shuffling a side kick into its belly. She then leapt a roundhouse kick into the side of its head, sending both of them to the ground hard. But whereas she promptly bounced back into standing, the drone rolled off dazedly.
"Still like your odds, huh?" she queried of a recovered and again-charging drone. "Let's fix that." Intent on concluding this particular skirmish, she aimed her morpher's barrel at her would-be attacker and fired. The resultant energy bolt's impact into its chest impelled a maladroit imitation of her earlier kick dodge, the athletic tumble replaced by the drone folding back into a broken, ineffectual heap of itself.
"I bet he's really fun at parties..." Ellie muttered, moving to Damien's side and trying to help him up. "What's the plan? Some sort of super-powered up team laser cannon? That's what Rangers are meant to do, right?"
"We do not have that," Kilena commented not seeing the woman who stabbed her this time. There would be no time for revenge this time. "My species are just as strong... you want to try me?" Kilena said bravely. She was not going to be taken advantage of again.
Spencer waved at Kilena with a smirk behind his helmet, indicating that she should find her own fun—this guy had laid down a challenge—let him learn. Instead of being hit across the back of the neck, he leapt up suddenly, grabbing the edge of the shield as it flew toward its wielder, almost surfing on it as he leapt off, aiming to knee the Kaldore Ranger in the face as he flew past. "Big talk from a fool who likes hiding behind a shield after calling me out." As the Blue Ranger hit the ground, he went into a quick tumble and turned fully around to face his enemy. There was an almost wolfish ferocity in Spencer's movements. "Well? C'mon, wimp. Get out from behind that thing. Show me just how much of a waste of my time you really are." Spencer's stance was loose and looked like he could easily be hit. But anyone who'd seen him fight would know—he was watching the Phoenix Ranger closely, and every word out of his mouth had one goal—get his opponent angry, put him off-balance. There was little doubt in Spencer's mind that in a straight fight, the Kaldore was mostly correct. But one thing always won over simple genetics, and that was technique. Both technique in fighting and in manipulation mattered now; anything that would shift the balance in his favor. So getting the man angry was his first choice. After that, of course, came the simple cheap shots (which were meant to do the same); and when all that was done, starting to strike the real blows.
"We're going to take this son of a bitch down..." Damien said as he climbed to his feet, looking over to Michael for a moment, pressing two fingers to his ear "Team, we need to keep the red ranger wannabe busy so bravo team can evac with their leader. Between the four of us, we might have a chance to do that. Spence, no offence buddy but your trash talk doesn't even seem to be fazing him. So start hitting him. Hard as you can. Might have to take a couple of hits in the process but you can do it. Kilena, you're injured. Maintain distance and lay down suppressing fire. The shield doesn't come away from him, but maybe we can keep it focused away from Spencer. Ellie, your job is to keep the drones from backing him up. The fight stops being him against several of us, we lose. I'll keep attacking between the drones and him, try to help both groups keep him off balance. Shame that guy from before didn't decide to show up, we could use the back up here..."
Spencer had come to much the same conclusion as Damien - the guy was actually a dedicated warrior. That made the fight worth having. He darted in and did exactly as ordered—hit the Phoenix Ranger, hard. The force of his fist would have been enough to crack a human's rib—but it might not have, given the Ranger armor and the Kaldore's natural resilience. Still, there was no question but that he'd feel it.
The Phoenix Ranger staggered for a moment. Only a moment. Then, he slammed his sword into the ground, the earth beginning to shake as red lightning flew around. In front of him, a massive chasm opened. He looked around, locking his sights on Damien.
"Three choices. Fight me. Save the boy. Get your team out," he called. "No time for more than one."
The ground continued to shake as Damien looked around for a moment. Finally, he stamped his foot in frustration.
"Kilena, Ellie, evac." He said sombrely, "Spencer, I'm sorry. I can't risk the whole team. We both know this is the call you'd make."
The drones she'd stumbled upon defeated, a still-morphed Kyarah started for the main melee upon feeling the ground quake, which now featured her armored nemesis from two days ago. It was a stretch to say she knew she'd find him amongst the fracas, but she certainly wasn't surprised, and her initial impulse was to leverage the element of surprise. Yet she quickly realized that she couldn't get a clear shot. And as her training reasserted itself, she noticed other details that reinforced the value of maintaining a pace conducive to thorough assessment. Like the presence of other Power Rangers. Or the massive rifts in the ground she knew weren't there during her initial surveillance. And was that Kensington on the ground?
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, turning and looking at the few people slumped on the floor, including the Cadet he'd picked up before, turning to one of the Drones. "Alert the Arbiter. Tell him we have the Humans. Then tell my Father we have the Earth."
END
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