Ranger Morph

"Ranger technology" is one of the oldest technical defence technologies and was developed soon after the invention of the Primary Field. To understand this we have to go waaaaay back in time.

The development of the XLPFE Barrier

In the beginning there were Rockets.

Then someone decided that they wasted a lot of energy, and that there must be a better way to defeat gravity. They came up with the Fluid Gravatron. This device was basically a huge spinning wheel or drum (like a flywheel) filled with chambers and a very high speed pump in the middle. As the wheel rotates, water (or some other heavy fluid) is allowed to pool on the outside of the drum due to centripetal force. Normally the action equals the reaction, and we just get a useless whirlpool.

But in a Fluid Gravatron, a pump removes the water from one end of the wheel, through the hub, and deposits it 180 degrees onto the other side of the wheel in less time than it would take for the water to itself make the journey on the outside of the drum. The time difference is known as the Mass Differential, and is the basis for the modern (ancient) flying saucer spacecraft. The higher this differential the greater is the force exerted on the shaft of the wheel in whatever direction the water exists on the outside of the drum (i.e. the heavier side). If this force is positioned to be against gravity and is sufficient to equal that of the force produced by gravity on the machine's  (and it's prospective payload's) own mass, then the machine and payload becomes weightless.. hence "Fluid Gravatron". When built into a "flying saucer", a fluid gravatron operates very similarly to a conventional helicopter in practice and has the same ability except it can travel anywhere in space. And at incredible speeds. But enough ancient history. 

A considerable time later, and long after fluid gravatrons had been pretty much perfected and were in extensive use (as they still are!!), research teams began to work on precise physical and dimensional modelling of the fluid gravatron at a molecular level, in the hope that it may enable further refinements. What they found however is that it was possible to not only model it but completely replace it - i.e. the physical effect could be mimicked merely by the simulation as a definition of a point in space - and there was no need to actually build the machine at all. The effect could be created merely by modulation of matter to mimic the actions of the machine rather than having to actually move the matter in reality.

And so invented was the Electronic Gravatron (EGG). When activated, it simply appeared as an almost clear sphere of energy - a force field - the centre of which was based at the coordinates given. The size of the sphere itself could also be altered. The system was totally balanced and needed very little energy to work - less than 100 watts can very easily provide mega newtons of force in any direction. It revolutionised everything, and created the basis for just about every "anti gravity" technology we see today. The only snag (as far as actual speed of space travel was concerned) was that for physics reasons the "electronic gravatron"  field could not exert force in space if it itself is travelling more than twice the speed of light. - unlike it's much earlier mechanical cousin which can continue to provide thrust at blinding speeds. Anyway back to Rangers..

The first "EGGS" consisted of nothing more than spherical chambers in which a field would be materialised, and the chamber bolted to the structure of a craft and used as it's "engine". Soon it was discovered that it was possible to enclose a craft WITHIN the EGG, in which case the advantage was that the contents inside were totally protected from inertial forces, in fact - protected against almost anything. Any force (and most energy) directed towards the sphere from outside was reflected in the OPPOSITE direction of the initial force, i.e. it was REFLECTED by the field, not TRANSMITTED through it as would be the case with regular matter. So invented was the traditional "Force Field" - i.e. simply an EGG materialised around the OUTSIDE of a craft instead of INSIDE it. The field nowadays is known as a "Primary Field". Its natural shape is always a sphere of variable diameter.

It was very boring to build everyone's craft in the shape of a sphere so it wasn't long until ways were found to alter the shape of the field. This was done simply by using other fields with coordinates very close to - but not the same as - the main field. These other fields are "secondary fields" and there is a whole world of mathematics which are used to define the shape, size and effect, etc.

Problem is that as soon as this was done, one advantage of the original EGG was compromised - that of it's incredible power efficiency. Use of secondary fields to bend a primary field into the non symmetrical shape of, say, a small space craft required considerable power. For example to create a shaped primary field around a car (as opposed to an unshaped sperical one) would take almost 100kW, instead of the 100w of the pure sphere model. Still, 100kW is nothing to most craft engineers who were still used to dealing with fluid gravatron machines (which sapped up megawatts), so nobody complained, they just worked ways around the problem by installing bigger power supplies! Such systems were called "unbalanced primary fields" and nowadays are rarely used for propulsion rather they are used mostly for defence.

And the worlds were a good and happy place. That is until somebody decided that they wanted to form a force field around THEMSELVES.

Now the research teams had a new challenge. How would it be possible to form a PF around a human being - allowing full movement - and yet still providing all the benefits such a field could provide in terms of defence and agility to move? The power alone required would be huge, and the computing power massive - required to not only match - but anticipate a person's movements so that the field could be altered BEFORE they actually moved! It was all too hard and years were spent pulling hair out and using up to ten million secondary fields to try and alter one primary field to match the shape of a human, and allow it to move.

Eventually it was (of course) a rather young student who suggested the idea of doing away with the primary field altogether, and instead simply use billions of the secondary fields (i.e. primary fields so small that they were only several thousand atoms wide) all "tied together" in some sort of "fabric" which the human could wear. And so were the very beginnings of the first Power Ranger!

It was discovered that by building a fabric of these fields - each one defined as a fixed distance from the next, and by reversing the polarity of each consecutive field in the two dimensional plane, it was possible to create a virtually impregnable yet totally flexible and wearable barrier which could easily be placed on someone as clothing and be "self defining", i.e. as long as the fabric itself formed a closed system (much the same as the original sphere) it could move wherever it's contents moved - and yet have all the defence benefits as if the wearer was wearing a primary field that had been "wrapped" around their body. The real payoff came in the power consumption. Because the system remained balanced, it consumes very little power - much the same as a single field would consume. The problems of powering our Ranger had also now been solved, and the only problem remaining was what to do with the bloated team of senior physicists on million dollar grants, who had just been totally upstaged by one of their third year students who had single handedly succeeded in what they had failed to do for over 30 years.

The resulting invention became known as the "Cross Linked Poly Field Exofabric", or XLPFE Barrier - the precursor to the modern day Power Ranger Suit - and was aptly demonstrated by it's inventor (it is said) at a University dinner where said physicists had gathered to toast their continued big headedness. There wasn't much left of the venue, and the papers the next day were quick to print large, ominous and mysterious photos of the "Mysterious Power Ranger from the Kitchen Cupboard" covered in a totally grey suit and having no trouble smashing himself through most of the heritage listed building's supporting structure in an almost uncontrollable display.

The development of the Morph

The XLPFE (and it's more recent cousin, M2A) suit is not, in itself, a "morph". It is merely a physical, wearable and extremely hard force field, which can also act as a force motor to propel (or repel) the occupant of the suit. By the nature of it's construction there was never any reason to "put it on" or wear it, as it is always formed around the body of the wearer by electronic means. Early versions were powered by a radiated energy field usually consisting of Posanten particles - a transmission technology used at the time to enable high power, focused transmissions over the electromagnetic spectrum safely.

One of the early challenges in developing XLPFE was to design a system that could accurately define in space the position of every point of the wearer's exterior frame before the suit was materialised around them. To solve this they worked on defining a well known phenomenon called "living entity aura", or put simply the faint energy aura that exists around the outside to any living being. The theory was that this "aura" could itself be used to help define the frame position. The idea came from a parallel technology that was being worked on at the same time - teleportation.

Long the stuff of dreams, by this time Teleportation had finally reached it's early stages of actually working however there was a sticky problem - no living being had ever successfully been "teleported", i.e. a teleport would kill any living thing that was relocated as part of the process. Known as "Type 1 Teleportation", this system used a complex series of computer processes and field generations to "slice up" the molecular construction of matter, define it as a pattern, and reconstruct it elsewhere. Type 1 technology was fairly advanced at that stage - it was being used for transport of freight over short and medium haul (the idea of a "freighter" had all but disappeared) and also was being used to create ordered matter constructs in it's own right from nothing other than pure energy - a process known as "rezzing". It was only a matter (sic) of time until our Ranger team (as it had become known by now) began to experiment with this technology and find ways in which it could be used to enhance the Ranger experience.

Just to explain further. Teleportation today comes in one of four technologies or forms. They are;

Type 1 : The disassembly and reassembly of matter using energy conversion, developed in the early days. Cannot transport living matter.

Type 2 : The transport of a complete living being through six dim (six dimensional) space. Commonly known as "thought teleport", this method was for a long time widely practiced by mystics, magicians and ninja masters. It is purely a physical / mental event and need not involve any more than use of a subject's brain functions.. and a lot of experience / practice.  It uses very little energy and in every way is considered as "part of our universe", with many of God's beings being endowed with it much like birds are endowed with the skill to fly through the air.

Problem with Type 2 is that it is very slow and distance based. The basic formula everyone remembers is "millisecond to the mile", i.e. if a person teleported using type 2 over 100 miles it would take them around 100mS to do it. That's fine for terrestrial travel, but once you start playing with the emptiness of space those milliseconds quickly turn into hours - and it can be virtually impossible to maintain concentration over Type 2 teleport lasting any longer than 1 second. More recently it has been refined by inclusion of complex technical systems for navigation.

The limitations of Type 2 are many and well known and it is generally limited to species designed for and capable of doing it. Humans can be taught to teleport however it is definitely not a normal function for them, and less than 1% of any human population would ever be able to perfect it beyond teleporting themselves a few feet or into the adjacent room.

Type 3 : DAT (Data Adjacent Time) teleport. This system is a more recent development capable of moving living entities in space in zero time, using six dim mechanics. As it stands it is useless for teleport of matter - it can only move what is essentially a thought entity or "life force", not the body itself. Again it is quite energy efficient but it requires an almost impossibly huge amount of computer speed and power to perform, and the theories behind it remained theories for many thousands of years before equipment of sufficient power were developed to perform the  mathematical calculations needed to make it work in "zero time" (the physical equivalent in time to "absolute zero" in temperature / movement of atomic structure in space).  DAT is extremely, extremely complicated, and is probably the epitome of a physicists' dreams to understand. Certainly no one person could ever understand it in it's entirety. You could fill a room with engineers each having a specialist area in the science but still not be able to understand it.

Type 4 : More commonly known as "Flash" teleportation. This (as you can imagine) is basically a combination of Type 1 and Type 3 above. The Type 1 moves the matter, the Type 3 moves the life force, and getting them to talk to each other and operate both at the same time makes understanding Type 3 (on its own) look like a Sunday afternoon picnic.

Flash teleportation is a relatively recent (i.e. less than 100 years) development and equipment capable of performing it has only been on the market for the past 50 years or so. As imagined it pretty much has all the advantages that everyone has been looking for since the search started for a workable teleporting system. It can teleport any item, living or otherwise, anywhere (and I mean ANYWHERE, anywhere a communications link can be established in any dimension), in a fixed time of less than 3mSec.

Problem is it uses unimaginable (and until recently, ungenerateable) power levels, and unbelievably complex equipment to make it work. Until very recently this equipment filled whole pavilions. However now that the technology has finally come of age the art of miniaturisation is seeing Flash Teleportation implemented almost everywhere, using equipment small enough to house in the palm of a hand - or for that matter, a power morpher.

As with all issues involving teleportation one of the biggest challenges is not the teleport itself, but controlling it - i.e. source and destination.

Anyway back to our Ranger Morph.

For historical purposes we can broadly group all Rangers into one of the following categories;

1.)	Vintage Power Ranger.
These were the first "experimental" projects and were never really designed as anything more than demonstrators. They were rarely used (if ever) in combat, as at this stage there were no villains which demanded this approach. Most used only XLPFE technology and did not go as far as incorporating Type 1 Teleport. There was no "mutual understanding" function.

2.)	Classic Power Ranger.
A vast majority of Ranger teams (past and present) fall into this category. Basically XLPFE + Type 1 Teleport. Contrary to the classification here, no "Classic Ranger" can actually teleport themselves from one point to another. The teleport technology is used in creating the Ranger Morph (as described below), not as a transport device. Examples include just about any Ranger team that does not teleport such as the Masked Rider or the PR Light Speed Rescue set. They also include various levels of "Mutual Understanding" - a Six Dim function necessary for advanced control of both Ranger attack and Zord operation.

3.)	Modified Classic Ranger.
Quite a few "classics" have been modified to include full teleport facilities over the years. An example is Zordon's Dino set. They are Classic rangers underneath (very old ones at that) however by adding some relatively modern "command centre" technology, they have been given powers far exceeding their original design. One of these is the ability to move about using Flash (Type 4) Teleportation. The technology is all "Centrally based" meaning that if the central base is damaged or destroyed, so are the Rangers. It's a very maintenance and engineering heavy method to run a Ranger team, but against certain villains (equally as old) - it's a winner every time.

4.)	Ninja Ranger.
The Ninja Ranger occupies a class of it's own not because it necessarily employs different technology, but in most cases the development took place "remote" and very separated to that of other teams and projects - often carried out by very advanced races with otherwise limited technological background. Ninja teams were the first to incorporate true Six Dim Mechanics into their abilities and this was done specifically to combat the villains that these Rangers were fighting who were usually equally as intelligent and challenging - totally opposite to those being worn down by the classic rangers in other far flung parts of the galaxy. Thought process (Dim 5) is a key element in Ninja Ranger operation, and there is a far greater emphasis on control than in other Ranger incarnations. Having the right subject is crucial in this Ranger type, and potential subjects can train for years beforehand. Ninja Ranger teams tend to be older than others both in subject age and project age. Moving around is usually done using Type 2 Teleport - yet another reason why mind control and mental ability is crucial. Centrally controlled facilities such as a "commend centre" are rare in this type.

5.)	"New Generation" Ranger.
As with all things "new" it's a bit difficult to pinpoint an exact time in history when development of the current "new generation" Rangers started. Basically these Ranger teams are characterised by a new combined effort between many previously autonomous and distant Meledon research teams to come up with ways of solving some of the long standing problems that have plagued the Classic and Ninja forms. The result has been that 'Ranger technology" now operates more as a "market" than a bureaucracy or religion, and qualifying Ranger mentors can literally "buy off the shelf" brand new Ranger team packages. The difference between "New generation" and the previous forms are characterised by;

a.)	Totally self contained Ranger form - no need for any external power source or control, although both are still able to be used. And integrated into the design if needed. Destruction of any "command centre" will not result in the Ranger powers being destroyed;

b.)	Clever use of the latest "Flash Teleportation" technology to give Rangers many functions previously impossible, amongst them very advanced movement and teleportation techniques including the now famous "TeleJump", which needs no training of the Ranger to use, and no coordinate calculations.

c.)	Very easy set up, with advanced Mutual Understanding functions.

d.)	Totally flexible appearance - Ranger forms can be changed, modified and redesigned at will, even away from the traditional "figure hugging" XLPFE suit design. Invisibility (of both the entire ranger and / or just the XLPFE Suit or parts of it) is now a possibility and regularly in use, known as "Standby Mode".

e.)	Advanced Six Dim Mechanics and Multi Dim Mechanics abilities to match that of the latest illusionary technology being used by more and more villains.
A good example of a "New Generation" team is the recently released Storm set.

So lets look first at our Classic Power Ranger Technology. An old formula once read:

XLPFE + TYPE 1 = Power Ranger

Basically it was the marriage of these two technologies which led to the Classic power Ranger. The XLPFE Suit was the defence and powering "engine", and all of the amazing things the Rangers can do are the result of very clever use of Type 1 Teleportation.

Type 1 (you will remember) can only be used for inanimate objects. Well that's not quite true.. Type 1 should more aptly be named "Matter Converter". It can take existing matter and modify it into something similar but different WITHOUT moving it. And this is the essence of the Ranger Morph, and why a Power Ranger is oh SOO much more than just a guy in a field suit.

The first experiments on living terrans to deliberately alter their bodies with Type 1 began long before XLPFE was thought about. But the development of the Ranger Suit meant that there were new found ways to define the position and ability of the human body. It wasn't long until various less - popular "quacky" engineers began to wonder what would happen to humans if their insides were surgically - deliberately - altered using Type 1 to generate a vastly superior being in strength and resilience.

They began with skeleton and frame. While the existing terran frame was already very strong and robust the first Ranger "morphs" were functions to alter, or in some cases even completely replace the skeleton of the affected Ranger under their XLPFE suit. This resulted in amazing abilities and was a forerunner of things to come.

The "Vintage Ranger" was developed using these technical methods over a period of about 30 years. The result was the classic Ranger "Morph", where in addition to the formation of the XLPFE fields around the Ranger, the subjects' body was radically altered using Type 1 Teleportation to create an amazingly agile and powerful biological machine within a living being. Systems were developed to feed additional energy into the "machine", such that eventually the body's own energy system became miniscule in comparison and stands all but deactivated in our Classic ranger.

When you think about it, the possibilities were endless.. and extremely dangerous. Dozens of early Rangers lost their lives as this immature technology began to be pushed to its limits. The most dangerous of all risks was the dreaded "forced release", where for some reason during a "power down" sequence (i.e. the return of the morphed ranger from their altered state back to their previous state) sections of the Rangers' body remained morphed while others did not. This often happened in combat as power systems failed, and the early mortality rate amongst Rangers was sickening - as were the results of post mortems.

The most common cause of death was asphyxiation caused by the inability of the body's own breathing and circulatory systems to restart when the various matter constructs within their body either changed back out of sequence or just didn't change back at all, leaving clumps of steel (etc) in the way of various otherwise vital organs inside. Other reports tell of Rangers suffering from complete loss of their entire skin as the XLPFE field broke down, dying an agonizing death hours later with their distraught team mates powerless to do anything other than scream in agony and say goodbye to their friend as he lay dying in the name of Rangerdom.

No doubt about it.. a Ranger Morph was (and still is) probably the most dangerous and drastic thing that can happen to a biological being. However today the chance of survival is greatly increased by a huge number of safeguards and interlocks between the various systems to ensure that in the event of a forced release the Ranger returns to something resembling a living being instead of mince meat.

Upon activation of their morpher, the Classic ranger undergoes the following changes in a process that takes about 3 seconds. A controlled release is the reverse of this process.

1.)	The field system begins to ionise the atmosphere around the subject and establishes the location of the "life force aura". This data is logged by the XLPFE system;

2.)	Any clothing or long hair on the Ranger's body is teleported off them using Type 1 and a "snapshot" of the condition is stored. The methods vary, some store the matter within the morpher, others send it back to a command centre. Most Ranger teams don't wear clothes at all when they morph, meaning for many classic rangers this step is skipped;

3.)	The XLPFE Construct is materialised around the body. It is ALWAYS a completely enclosed structure. No part of the body must be left uncovered by the field otherwise the balance is not preserved and a forced release will result.

4.)	The T1 systems get to work. The machinery to do this is almost always located in the morpher but (until recently) powered externally. They convert the Ranger's body materials into it's designed morphed form, leaving the active "life force" within it untouched and unmoved. The Ranger is almost always temporarily unconscious while this happens.

5.)	The Ranger's life support is established. Systems to support the Ranger's need for nutrients and energy aswell as waste removal from the blood stream etc are materialised within the body, in some cases taking the place of existing organs and powered by the Ranger system.

6.)	The morph enters it's final phase - the test phase - where each independent system is matched and linked together to the control system, and consciousness is re-established.

7.)	The morph is complete, and the ionised aura releases. Voila, Power Ranger.

In an uncontrolled or "forced" release these steps are not carried out in reverse order. Usually the XLPFE field collapses before the T1 system gets a chance to change the Ranger's innards back to normal. With the position reference lost (i.e. the XLPFE suit), the T1 controls have virtually no chance of ensuring the various organs and parts are removed / replaced from the right spots. Even a few micrometres off location is enough to kill a Ranger instantly. In some cases sections are not changed back at all, and in others even worse happens - two matter constructs literally materialise on top of each other.

One important aspect regarding Rangers is that by definition of the physical laws surrounding primary fields, there must not be any physical matter between the XLPFE frame and anything the Ranger is coming into contact with -otherwise the system cannot accurately determine and pass onto the Ranger the "sense of touch". Also the ability of the field to repel / reflect any blow (either someone / something hitting them, or them hitting something else) is greatly diminished.

This is the reason why Rangers never - EVER - should place matters of clothing (etc) on their morphed form, and you very rarely see such foolishness and never in battle. The XLPFE suit must remain in constant and permanent contact with the entire Ranger's external "life aura", otherwise the thousands of internal operating systems will lose their positioning reference - usually with catastrophic results.

END OF PART 1