The Reluctant Ranger Interlude: Bartran

Fair Warning - This chapter probably conflicts with the edited version that goes live on RR/SB/SH more than any other. Keep that in mind while reading as it is still in line with the Patreon draft.

Commander Bartran had served the Sylan empire for nearly half a galactic rotation.  There were rare few as long lived as he, and his core DNA was incorporated into each subsequent general that was birthed to subjugate a species.  He would never have children of his own, as the capacity to birth or sire was removed from all the generals.  Producing offspring was just asking for a species to rally around the children in a bid for independence. 

He had participated in two such pacifications early on.  His own planet was long since dead, having elected to collapse themselves into a singularity rather than be subjugated.  A pity, but he had come to cherish the role that the Prime Administer granted him.  Maraline was the latest of his charges.  General two hundred and seven that he had personally assisted in the conquest of their chosen planet. 

She was also among the most troublesome. 

Maraline had taken on many of the social traits of her core DNA, and had a strong fascination with the Earthling culture and sought to preserve much of it following the conquest.  He had several talks in private with her about that curiosity.  She often pondered dangerous subjects that bordered on treason. 

Why the Earth needed conquest when they could have instead come as benevolent liberators was a valid question.  The Earth was a prime candidate for such methods, and would have preserved many resources if they followed through.  That did not change their standing orders, however, and Bartran was privy to things that Maraline was not. 

The order to encourage the Ranger phenomena on Earth did not come as a surprise to him.  Ever since they managed to replicate the Progenitors final weapon, the Prime Administrator was entranced with the strange energy source they harnessed.  They used it to power everything from handheld devices to mechanical war machines that towered over cities. 

Worse, their species held off their efforts for decades, even as the Empire expanded around them.  It was only when they managed to kill the general leading their conquest that he took notice, for it had been the first general, and Bartran’s own mentor.  The Sylan turned their full might upon the remnants, bringing everything they had learned to bear against the troublesome world.  The Progenitors fought valiantly, and he came close to death more than once during that long war.  He thought they would finally surrender after their final war mech was destroyed, but the Progenitors opted for oblivion rather than allow their technology to be claimed by the Empire. 

They originally feared it was lost, aside from some scarce scraps of their technology that still held traces of that energy.  Their flagship was currently using that very fragment as a power source, because a curious thing happened on their first attempted conquest, Rangers emerged among the populace. 

That was why the Earth was not given the soft hand, Bartran understood that, but he was not allowed to speak of it.  The Prime Administrator did not want anyone that wasn’t part of his most trusted and loyal to know of it.  He claimed that it was the secret to obtaining their goal, to conquer the entire universe.  All of them. 

Then, they could serve him until the heat death of every reality and beyond. 

Given many of the other universes they had observed were still in their infancy, there were very good odds that he would be serving for a veritable eternity should he not fall to some upstart species.  It was why the Earth was chosen, their technology didn’t pose a threat, so all they had to contend with were a bunch of maladapted Rangers. 

They were still learning how to force Rangers to emerge, and the results were hardly consistent.  That was something he was to investigate, any anomalies that resulted in stronger than average Rangers.  Gold of New York was one such Ranger, and it seemed that the newly emerged Black Ranger may be another of interest. 

As much as he wished to study them, they were considered too risky to be allowed to live for long.  Such power was a threat to their eventual plans for the planet, and they were nearly finished with the planned experiments, the raw data proving beyond promising.  The next stage would need to begin within the year, which meant he needed to start weeding out these pesky anomalies before they endangered the plan. 

He did have one option, but the Prime Administrator was hesitant to deploy it, fearing a corruption of the data, but it wasn’t off the table because that same corruption could also serve as a type of data all its own. 

With Gold visiting the recent additions to the growing Ranger roster, that put two of his targets in the same city.  Maraline had taken an interest in the new Black Ranger even before she was selected.  He wouldn’t pretend to understand her fascination with humanity, or this particular specimen of the species, but the human was marked for death.

He knew Maraline would be cross with him, but she would get over it with time.  It wasn’t like he often returned to worlds long conquered, when that happened it was usually due to something going catastrophically wrong. 

The Commander watched the readouts with rapt attention.  Maraline was asleep, and wouldn’t learn of his operation for hours to come, so he was free to continue uninterrupted.  Two thousand drones were deployed, and one greater mutant.  It wasn’t meant to see action until they began the next phase, but he was given approval for this attempt to exterminate two anomalies by the Prime Administrator himself.  Her objections would be noted and that would be the end of it. 

One thing that the general population of Earth hadn’t figured out was that their automatons weren’t true shock troopers.  They served a very different purpose, the sensor suites hidden within recorded the energy given off by Rangers, as well as helped identify any outliers.  

Currently there were three such outliers on Earth.  Gold was the first to emerge among those, and had survived three attempts to have him killed so far.  An annoyance, but never a true threat to their long term goals on his own.  Even if the attack in progress failed, the data would still be of some use, and thus a success despite the resource expenditure. 

What surprised him was that the Red Ranger was also beginning to show abnormal numbers.  Nothing as egregious as the Black and Gold Rangers, but still above the mark.  Something to pay attention to in future operations should she survive this battle.  Even with the gathered support of her team and Gold, the beast they faced was considerably beyond anything they had deployed so far. 

Creatures such as this were used to great effect against the war mechs of the Progenitors, swarms of them grown on a conquered sub continent and deployed by the hundreds.  The Earth lacked the biomass to support swarms of those levels, but they could still produce several over time, leaving them in stasis until the time was right. 

Losing one on the off chance they removed an anomaly or two was hardly even worth the calculations.  The creature arrived at the site of the battle where the Rangers had gathered and he was prepared to watch the team work together in an attempt to bring it down.  What he hadn’t expected was the Black Ranger to step forward on her own. 

He frowned, his scaled brow scrunching as she leapt into the fray without hesitation, blades in hand.  He doubted she had the necessary equipment to kill the overly large terrestrial centipede, it was far more likely he would watch as their mutant killed the Ranger and then moved on to devour the entire team. 

Black had developed an interesting ability that allowed her to pass through solid matter.  Rangers gaining unique abilities wasn’t unusual.  Their very own Green had the ability to control plant life to an absurd degree.  Such was the nature of the Rangers and their promising power source.  He still wasn’t sure how the initial selection sparked, only that it did and they could take advantage of the process to seed more Rangers into the world. 

The real problem would be if the anomalies weren’t accidental. 

Shaking those thoughts off for later, he turned his focus back to the battle being waged on the streets of Minneapolis.  The Gold Ranger had directed the others to engage the hoard of automatons, and they were doing well enough.  Those machines had only ever killed Rangers on two occasions, one of which was a suicide after their partner was killed by the mutant and once revenge was had, they gave up on their will to live and let it happen. 

He found such things distasteful, but the option was to be considered should Black not be killed in this battle.  Losing Red would devastate her already weakened mental state, even with Maraline’s feeble attempts to cobble it back together.  The only reason he had never suggested such tactics to the Prime Administrator before when dealing with emotional beings was because of his own distaste in the practice. 

His original species saw honor in battle, and it was the feature he carried forward, the last legacy of a dead planet and race. 

Black was extraordinarily nimble thanks to her incorporeal form, and her blades were biting deep into the carapace of the centipede.  It should only take one lucky hit to kill the Ranger, but he was beginning to doubt it would ever come. 

“Perhaps I should prepare to intervene in person,” he murmured when yet another leg was severed. 

“You will do no such thing.” 

He turned, finding Maraline glaring at him, still in her sleeping ware.  Had she woken up because of some alert he was unaware of?  She didn’t hesitate to stalk inside, watching one of the monitors as she did.  It was the one tracking the battle between Black and the mutant. 

“These creatures were not to be deployed yet,” she said with a hiss. 

“Orders from the Prime Administrator,” he answered.  Her head whipped around and her cold facade broke for an instant.  “He wished for data on our anomalies now that two were present in the same city.” 

“I see,” she said.  Her mask was back in place, but her eyes betrayed her.  Worry and fear dancing within them.  He would need to crush that emotion within her, or kill her before it could cause a betrayal.  “Have you learned anything of value?” 

“I believe we have,” he said.  “But won’t know for certain until the battle is decided.” 

She huffed, but continued to watch. 

“I wish to observe in person,” she said after a moment. 

“An unnecessary risk,” he said.  “If anyone will be going to the battlefield, it will be I, and only to finish one of the anomalies off.” 

He knew she was attached to Black, so that would have to suffice as a deterrent.  If he went, she would demand to follow.  So, he would stay, even if a potential kill was available, just to avoid alienating his trainee.  She would need to grow colder if she was going to rule, but he knew those lessons needed to be learned on their own time.  Forcing them never ended well. 

One of the pincers fell to the ground, green fluid pouring from the wound as Black landed safely away from the flailing creature.  He was beginning to accept that she was going to survive, probably even kill a creature that the Progenitors needed war mechs to hold off.  Back at the other portion of the battle, he was monitoring the readings from Red and Green.  Red was abnormally strong, but still within parameters.  Green’s ability was unique, but nothing stood out about her otherwise. 

Gold’s numbers continued to impress, surpassing even Black’s, but she was still coming into her power.  If they ever joined with the White anomaly, or more emerged, they might have something to worry about.  He did not like his chances against a proper team of the enhanced Rangers.  He had seen all the footage from the first and second Progenitor conflict, he knew the odds in a battle against a proper Ranger team. 

If even one more appeared, he would have no choice but to initiate the Endgame and wipe the slate.  The human experiment was valuable, but they had a dozen other planets on the docket to run the same tests on and gather the data that The Prime Administrator wanted.  They could start over at any point, and if they ran out of known races, there was always facilitating rebellions on claimed worlds. 

They had done it before as a test, to learn from the events to better counter them in the future.  Nothing was ever left to chance, not when The Prime Administrator could prevent it. 

Another Pincer fell, and the Centipede was down enough legs that its mobility was effectively crippled.  The battle was all but won, even if he could see that Black was flagging.  The others were similarly weakened, including Gold.  He knew he could win if he went the moment the creature was slain. 

The only worry was how Maraline would take it.  The Commander didn’t want to start fresh with a new General for keeping hold of the Earth, it would be a waste to lose her like that, but he also doubted her dedication to the Sylan cause.  Maraline was willful and headstrong to a fault.  She would rebel, and he would be forced to kill her.  He didn’t want to have to kill her, he’d done it to others, but it always left a bitter taste in his mouth after. 

Black phased through the creature, coming out the other side of it, and proceeded to cut away at a gap in the armor behind the mutant’s head.  The segments behind it fell slack, twitching but no longer under the control of his monster.  The battle was over, and it was just a matter of putting the beast out of its misery. 

It was truly impressive that Black had managed that all on her own.  It defied all expectations, and it made the Commander nervous.  He couldn’t allow such power to continue to grow unchecked.  The automata were all down, and the other Rangers were moving to Black as she assessed how to best finish the dying beast.  He needed to act, and the consequences be damned.

His readings were clear, all six of the combatants were on the verge of collapse, he just needed to step in and they would all fall to his blade.  While Maraline watched her human pet finish off the mutant, he sent a request to The Prime Administrator.  He was sure to include all his concerns about Maraline as well as the risk assessment. 

There were other methods they could use, such as poison or assassinations in their sleep, but that was one stipulation when dealing with Rangers.  They had to die in combat.  Something about their death when in the heat of battle discharged energy in a way that was unique enough that Prime didn’t want superfluous deaths.  They all needed purpose, because living Rangers were more important for the data than dead.

The reply came moments later.

Permission granted, exterminate the anomalies.  Spare the other Rangers if able.  Eliminate Maraline should she turn traitor.  By my command.

Message delivered, he steeled himself for what was likely to come.  He wasn’t looking forward to it, despite the promise of glorious combat.  He knew he would need to face Maraline as well, and for her, he would weep if it came to that.  She was his, and should she turn on the Sylan, he would be the one to put her down. 

As commanded, so be it.