Blockade Runners

Posted on Tue May 2nd, 2023 @ 10:40am by Damien McGinnis & Kilena Keithron & Ellie Evans

1,322 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: The Invasion
Location: Space Route 6
Timeline: 2130 Hours, November 17th 2050

Damien sat at the control console of his zord inside the red sphere on it's back. Dotted around the cockpit were various controls and readouts, while a holographic heads up display in front of him gave him information on the vehicle's shields, armour and power flow. The readout at the bottom identified the zord as being the Lion Voyager Zord, while a series of readouts at the side of the display identified the other zords as the Chameleon Voyager Zord and the Eagle Voyager Zord. It also listed the Wolf, Scorpion, Bull, Cobra and Bear Voyager Zords as being on Standby. The Swordfish and Libra Voyager Zords were listed as inactive, while the Phoenix and Draco Voyager Zords had the word 'Unknown' across their readouts in big block capitals. Damien pressed a control in front of him, bringing up visual feeds of Kilena and Ellie.

"Okay, so here's the plan." He said, trying to mask the excitement in his voice "We're going to blast our way through the blockade and try to get back to Earth. Once there, we deal with Imperium forces in orbit and then land and retake the planet. Any questions so far?"

"You say 'deal with' the Imperium..." Ellie replied, still terrified of pressing half the buttons in front of her in the cockpit of the Chameleon Voyager Zord. "I don't know if you realised yet, but there are only three of us, and we've not exactly practiced any of this yet."

"I'm hoping we've got enough firepower to take on the Imperium's blockade." Damien noted, keying in a few commands "Plus, if push comes to shove, I've got a control to enable autonomous operation of the other zords, at least the ones that have been activated. Not sure how well they'll work, but they can provide additional cover."

"If you both stopped speaking and just relaxed for a second it will come naturally," Kilena commented as she closed her eyes and moved a control and the eagle voyager zord glided in front of them before moving back into formation. "The morphing grid should give us the ability to use the zord without needing to spend years learning."

"Well we're about to find out." Damien noted "Approaching first stage of the blockade. Weapons hot on my mark. Mark!"

Laser bolts erupted from the mouth of the Lion Voyager zord, impacting the two forward most vessels shields before a pair of missiles fired from behind the paws passed through the weakened shields, tearing through the Imperium vessels hulls, the large red zord passing between the newly created gaps where the fronts of the cruisers had been. The red zord shook violently as it came under fire from multiple small fighters.

"Yeah, I'm not equipped to handle these things!" Damien yelled, as he pressed a control "Engaging countermeasures. Any support is greatly appreciated."

"You know you're crazy, right?" Ellie called back. "I'll try to draw some of them off you if you want to go after the big ones?" she suggested, arcing the Chameleon Voyager high and over the top of the interceptors going after the red streak ahead of them. A couple of blasts from the front of the green zord blew at least two fighters to pieces, scattering the others.

"Can do. Here goes something!" Damien yelled, jerking his controls and sending his zord into a barrel roll "Kilena, we've got frigates coming in from the left. Ellie, keep those fighters off us. I'm calling in back up."

He pressed the autonomous control panel, beginning to scroll through the options it was giving them. After a second, he settled on what he wanted.

"Deploying Voyager zords three and five; blue wolf and black bull." He said, rolling his eyes inside his helmet "Honestly, one day they'll come up with something original..."

"Not today though," Kilena said as her zord flicked between of the crafts causing a collision between them taking the pair of them out. "Make the bull go right and the wolf left." She demanded as her screen cleared of the explosion that the collision had created in front of her.

"Deploying Bull and Wolf zords as requested." Damien said as he keyed in the commands, the blue and grey wolf leaping from frigate to frigate down the left, tearing pieces of their hull out with its teeth as the Bull charged to the right, battering through a cruiser "Those things sure do pack a punch..."

"Mmmhmmm," Kilena replied not at all sure what she was doing but she really felt like something was guiding her actions like they had on the surface. "Guys... I feel like I did on the surface when we found the zords but I am able to control it a little better." She said knowing there was no need to panic that she was going to zone out this time.

"Not planning to black out again are you?" Damien teased as he jerked his control back, pulling his zord into a steep climb to avoid a decloaking dreadnought "Well there's a stroke of luck. Got any ideas to deal with that thing?"

"I do not know but it got us to where we needed to go last time," Kilena commented as the eagle zord almost screamed in space releasing energy that blaster along the ship.

"Teamwork?" Ellie suggested, banking away from danger and surveying the chaos going on around them. "We could all try hitting it at the same time maybe?"

"As good an idea as any." Damien noted, keying in a few commands "Target all fire on the hangar bay doors. I'm hoping their ships are badly designed enough to keep the fighters close to the reactor, plenty of secondary explosions. Signal when ready."

"I am ready," Kilena commented as she moved the eagle zord around to angle her fire better.

"With you too," Ellie called, taking up position alongside the pink eagle. "Call it, Damien."

"You got it." Damien said "Fire everything we've got."

At the signal, the eagle zord let out the power wave from its beak and Kilena watched with satisfaction as the explosions started a chain reaction like in the old movies she could remember her dad trying to get her to watch as a kid.

"Way to go, Luke Skywalker," Ellie cheered as the explosions ripped through the dreadnought. "Did I get that one right this time?" she asked, smiling out of her cockpit window at the Red Ranger in the neighbouring Zord.

Kilena stayed silent as she surveyed the damage all around them. War was truly messy when you were on the front line even if it was necessary.

"I'll let you have it." Damien said, looking at his read out "Hang on, we've got a problem."

He keyed in a command on his heads up display, bringing up a communications channel, the voice waveform showing on the display.

"Is that some kind of lizard?!"
"It's tearing down the monorail!"

The line cut out. He pressed a control, bringing up an image of a heavy set purple and gold lizard looking monster, wearing red, blue and gold almost Egyptian garb. It was bending down, tearing up what appeared to be the monorail system which stood as high as the monster's knee.

"Didn't we already beat that guy?" Damien asked, shaking his head "Plot an intercept course. We're going in."

“You go for the monster I’ll help the monorail. It’s still active.” Kilena said quietly seeing a train heading towards the gap in the track.

"Shouldn't we stick together? That worked for the big bad ship..." Ellie wondered, looking to Damien for advice.

“Monorail needs something like me. I won’t be long. Do not do anything extreme without me Ellie.” The pink ranger declared grinning.

"Hang on tight, Rangers." Damien finally said, pressing a control to change course "This is red leader. We're going in."

 

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