4

Angel walks into the cockpit to deliver the good news, "We're good to go, the things will all gather in the hatch, I've rigged it with explosives." She turns her head pointing a finger at her cousin, "After turning the power back on, get out of here. I'll wait for Ryan to send his message and we'll follow. We'll break the glass or something, but we'll make it out."

Ranger nods exiting the ship planting bombs along the way, "Let's go home." She turns the power back instantly getting blinded by the brightness of the ship's lights.

The power is back on, and automatically it starts broadcasting the recorded S.O.S message instantly signalling the multiple ships right behind each other.

The ships bright lights are so blinding it reaches a one-mile radius attracting more of the Arachne-birds towards Team Joey's ship.

Joey looks back one last time as they make a clean break.

"Hey, you're weighing me down. The ship is not right around the corner and we need to hurry." Joey's brother yells frustrated with the weight of feeling like he's carrying Troy's body all by himself.

Joey takes a deep breath, "Sorry." She gets her act together focussing on the team members that are still alive and rushing them to safety.

Ryan sends a second message, "Team Joey has been rescued, I repeat, team Joey has been rescued."

The team at HQ cheers when the teams still going to the planet relay the message.

"All teams! On your way to the planet, please, crash land your jets and turn your power off when you enter this planets orbit. You cannot complete this mission as a solo team, pair up with another team you find because in order to get out of here you have to sacrifice one Jet for the other."

A gun shot echoes in the background.

Ranger skilfully shoots down an unexpected hoard of Arachne-birds that tracked her down. She looks back one more time at the pack of dead aliens, "Blow the sucker up Dee." She leaves through the hatch setting off the multiple fireworks she linked to each other.

Angel smiles when the spiders leave them for the fireworks display Ranger lit up before finally jumping out of the ship, "I love your genius ass Mandy." She mutters to herself.

"The planet is infested with Arachne-birds, real aliens, they are attracted to light, but naturally seek out electricity. They aren't really that intelligent so use the provided fireworks and flash grenades to keep them off you."

Angel taps Ryan's shoulder when the Fireworks are quiet, "Time to blow this joint, we're on the menu."

Everyone listening to the broadcast is shocked when they hear her set off the explosions she rigged into the hatch and passes a gun to Ryan.

"I'm a bad aim."

She rolls her eyes, "These are laser beams, I'd never waste bullets on your ass. We'll use these to cover our escape, the birds will follow the light."

"Team Joey, this is team HQ, what's your status? What is going on out there?" Volks asks trying to get clarity because what they just heard sounds as bad as it looks.

Ryan aims his gun standing in front of Angel protectively, She gives him a confused look staring at his back. Who does he think needs protection?

Angel shoves Ryan out of the way aiming her gun at the only exit in their way keeping Ryan behind her, "Team Joey is most likely on board our ship, only two of us are left here and we're surrounded, but don't worry about us. No member of our team gets left behind, right Captain?"

Ryan rolls his eyes waiting for the delayed explosion to go off.

Once the explosions echoes, they turn on the ships engine ready for take-off.

Ryan leads the way as they follow the trail Ranger left behind. They make it outside and run in the opposite direction while many of the spiders follow the ships signal.

"Over here!" Six yells wearing Angel's suit.

"What happened?" Ryan asks worried.

"I killed one of these things and its blood splattered all over my suit. It's highly acidic so when I told the team they told me to come back and use this box to store it up, Ghost read about it online, it can hold highly acidic things inside it. I need help bagging it."

Ryan helps bag the dead alien, it's much larger when closer, nothing like the birds on Earth, this thing is the size of a fit cow. They head towards the ship ready to go home.

They fly past a ship crash landing while they leave. When the team is within range the Android lady turns on automatically.

"Team Jones what's your status?" The team at HQ is still trying to get the live feed back on for visual confirmation.

The video feed displays Xavier helping Ghost collect samples and store them in the preservation fridges provided. The blood of the Arachne-bird loses its acidity when it comes in contact with air.

Angel smiles at Ghost, "Guess what? I captured a live one." She holds up the small vial with three eggs in the container. "I almost got a large live one, but I didn't see anything to hold any of those things on board."

Ghost smirks holding the vial analysing it with a curious look on his face, "I think we made it to first place." He smiles at Angel who smiles back.

Xavier and Rider smirk, "We took pictures using drones in the sky so that the flash could buy you guys' time. We absolutely outdid ourselves." They hi-five proud of their handy work, wasn't a major thing they did, but it did hoard off some aliens and they got pretty clear pictures with the flash.

Lily walks into the room smiling, "The rescued team will survive, can you take this thing off of auto pilot and hurry us back. I think I'm going to be sick." She covers her mouth feeling like everything around her is spinning.

Xavier smirks, "You're lucky we went on that simulator all day, I feel sorry for all those other teams who don't know that space travel needs people with guts of steal."

Angel slings an arm around Lily's shoulder pecking her cheek, "Thanks for hanging in there buddy."

"Any time." She says still happy she was here for this. Never in a million years would she have ever come up here with her parents always constantly in her ears about what to do, and what to be, this was a once in a lifetime experience and she has had so much fun being scared, excited, in danger, and being a hero.

"Being a doctor in some hospital is no life compared to this." She thinks out loud catching everyone off guard.

Angel and Ranger suffocate her with tight hugs, "You have no idea how happy we are to hear that." They both say at the same time before letting her breathe again.

~

The shuttle lands in the mother ship.

Xavier smiles, "I piloted a real one, this is so cool." He turns around after enjoying his moment, everyone is already outside.

The two teams meet a group of men in black and camera's already waiting.

"Team Jones and Team Joey, well done on being the first teams back, I am Mr Volks, the head of the program." R.R. Volks salutes them with a nod to not take the attention from the teams this is their moment of fame and glory.

"Any word on my two teammates?" Joey asks Lily who nods pointing a finger at the medical team carrying them out of the ship accompanied by a special ops team carrying everything they brought back with them as souvenirs.

Xavier stands behind Angel and stretches holding out the shuttle keys.

"Could you be any more of a show off?" She asks with her arms crossed hiding behind her hair.

Xavier smiles, "You know I can be."

They smile at each other and Lily rolls her eyes, Angel and Xavier have such a hot and cold relationship any moment now they could start trying to kill each other. Literally.