Power Rangers SPD: Fire Squad

Evil connections

Charlie had woke up early the next morning and got herself ready for the day. Boom had mentioned last night that he had something to show her. Maybe it was that pistol device he was working on. Whatever it was, Charlie was intrigued to know more.

"Boom," Charlie greeted Boom as she approached his work station in the SPD laboratory.

"Morning, Charlie," Boom greeted, "I can call you Charlie right?"

"Fine by me. You said you had something to show me?" Charlie asked.

Boom nodded, "Yep. Let me get it real quick."

Boom dug around his work station and pulled out the pistol he had been tinkering with.

"Put on the finishing touches just a little bit ago," Boom began, "Tranquilizer pistol. Gas-powered, bolt-operated, effective range up to thirty yards. One magazine contains eight darts, filled with a diluted dendrotoxin agent capable of rendering a target unconscious for four to six hours at a time depending on the dosage."

Boom held up the tranquilizer gun out to Charlie, and Charlie took it in hand. She got her grip around the handle, then aimed it forward outside of anyone's direct path. Seemed to be a fairly balanced weapon, hopefully it could hold up in the field.

"Got a good feel to it," Charlie remarked, "But I thought dendrotoxins were lethal."

"They are, but only in high enough doses," Boom mentioned, "That's why Dr Manx diluted the substance enough so that shouldn't be a problem. We can take targets alive with this."

"Hmm, sounds pretty badass," Charlie remarked, pulling the bolt on the back of the pistol, "Reminds me of the Lightspeed rescue blaster."

"That was the template for the design." Boom said. Charlie was already starting to like this guy, he certainly knew his craft.

Charlie lowered the pistol and turned back towards Boom.

"Boom, thank you for this," Charlie said, "This is really gonna help us on future assignments."

"Hey, don't thank me," Boom said, "I just helped put them together. Supreme Commander Cruger requested we have these for our assignments after that... episode on Onyx."

Boom visibly grimaced, and Charlie couldn't blame him. She still thinks Sky was an idiot for just straight-up executing Divatox after revealing a previous ranger villain was in play. Apparently, Cruger thought the same. The message was clear enough through these new tranq pistols; any target connected to Trakena must be taken in alive for questioning.

Charlie sat the gun back down on the table, then turned her attention back towards the evidence.

It was well into the evening by the time they had finished decoding the comms log. Not only was it entirely in Troobian, but it was encrypted as well. Fortunately, the SPD mission reports and Dr Manx and Boom's own cryptography skills had broken through the code and allowed them access into what transmissions the Troobians were making.

Sky arrived not too long after Kat had uncovered the file and helped with the decoding process. He also said that he reestablished contacts in Angel Grove that he would instruct as necessary to assist them. Their task was to connect the dots and see what connection would form between Troobians and Trakena.

Two days after that, after cross-referencing with both TerraVenture and SPD, Sky had instructed everyone into the briefing room. Dr Manx was standing next to the evidence board, looking over the dossier in her possession and then noticed that everyone had arrived and was alert.

"We finished analyzing the names contained within the file," Kat began, "One in particular stands out: Anton Mercer"

Charlie heard that name before, but not in connection with Trakena.

"Mercer is on the board of directors at Hexagon," Kat continued, "His connections go as far back as the Mighty Morphin Rangers."

"Mesagog," Charlie added, " You forgot he's also Mesagog."

"Tommy almost had the motherfucker ten years ago in Reefside," Sky said, "Compromised by friendship."

"According to the Troobian communications log, Mercer was responsible for the shipping of Ranger technology to the M51 Galaxy ," Kat continued further.

"That must've been in preparation for the Dairnager arrival," Bridge said, trying to hide his bitterness, "That kind of technology in evil hands is basically a death sentence."

"And that's where we find a link between Mesagog, Trakena and Master Vike," Kat said, before adding, "Admittedly, this connection to Mesagog comes as a surprise."

" We have a connection " Jack said, " That Dark Spectre guy"

Sky stepped forward once Kat finished speaking, and then addressed the room, saying, "We have kill/capture orders on Mercer. Neutralizing him will not only hurt Vile's supply lines, but effect Trakena as well."

"So, how are we going to get him?" Boom questioned.

"We bait him, and we have the perfect bait to do it with," Kat replied, putting up another picture, "Piggy."

"According to our sources, Piggy is one of Mercer's information couriers. He has a drop with Mercer scheduled for tomorrow night," Sky began, "We'll infiltrate East Newtech. A ghost station has the access point we'll need. From there we'll watch Piggy. Once Mercer shows his face, it's kill or capture."

Charlie thought it was a pretty solid plan. She had done infiltrations like this before, no problem.

"Squad get your gear together and rest up. We leave at 1900 hours tomorrow night."

Sky said.

Afterwards, everyone dispersed from the central table. Charlie started to walk away to take care of her own affairs. She lit up a cigarette, and started to go get her stuff. Out of the corner of her eye, she looked up and saw that Dr Manx was approaching Tate, who himself was still standing by the table and had just taken out a cigarette.