18 Years Ago...
Niral, or 'Aly', as people who knew her generally took to calling her, ran through the dank, dark corridor of the ship, her long, platinum blonde hair whipping in her face. Her and her team had been captured. Well, she liked to think of it as her team, in actuality, the team leader was Karal. Of course, Aly had no way to tell if he was nearby, or even if they were still keeping him alive.
They. The Demalors, or 'Space Demons' as some of the more superstitious groups in the galaxy had taken to calling them. Reptilian Humanoids from Demalas four. Years ago, it had been thought that they'd been wiped out during their last campaign. Apparently, not so as you would notice. In fact, now they were out, trying to wage war on the entire universe, and Aly and her team was all that stood in the way.
She rounded the corner, having to pull back as Pariahs moved past. Pariahs, the Demalor armies' foot soldiers. Generally, the slimey, almost reptilian creatures in dull, metallic body armour, armed with combat rifles that had razor sharp swords mounted under the barrel, would be led by some creature of the Demalors making.
Then again, what would be the logic of that on their own ship? What kind of species would need to use superior soldiers on their own ship? Certainly not the Demalors; any of their troops even thought about deserting, the superiors would know it and use the implants in the soldier's brains to release a nerve toxin that would kill them in seconds.
As Aly went to continue moving, she heard a sound from behind her. She turned, finding herself facing down the barrel of a Pariah's gun. It said nothing, the clicking sound inherent in Pariahs overriding any attempt at speech. She couldn't even see any of it's face, barring the blood red eyes with slits for pupils. She watched as they narrowed. Right before the sound of a blaster impacting armour and then scales before the Pariah slumped to the floor, revealing a tall, blue haired figure, maybe a year or two older than the eighteen year old Aly, stood there holding a Pariah's rifle.
He paused for a second before tossing her the rifle, picking up the rifle of the Pariah he'd just killed. He stood back up, standing about half a foot taller than her. He was wearing the same uniform as Aly; black trousers and boots, with a light grey shirt visible at the collar beneath a blue jacket, as opposed to her pink one. Emblazoned on the jacket was a number 3 on the left breast and a gold, six pointed star emblem on the right breast, identical to her own jacket, except hers had a number 1 on it instead of a number 3.
"Ready to get out of here Aly?" He asked, his sombre expression unfaltering.
"Are you kidding me, Boran?" She said, looking the man stood in front of her "Where are the others?"
"Pelak and Marey are already on the ship, ready to get out of here." Boran said, raising his right wrist and the rectangular, silver and black device on it to the side of his mouth "Karal, you can stop searching now. I've found her."
"Good." Came Karal's voice through the device "Tell her that I want words when we've got out of here. I've been flying around for the last ten minutes looking for her!"
"Got a chance to test that little toy you picked up on Porasche then?" Aly cut in.
"If by toy you mean the battlizer, then yes, I've got to test it." Karal's voice came through, the irritation he was feeling evident by it's tone "ETA at the ship?"
"Two minutes." Boran said as they turned the corner, adding at the sight in front of them "Better make that three."
Stood in front of the two young people were a group of Pariahs, about twelve of them. Aly and Boran looked at each other for a moment before tossing the rifles they were carrying aside and raising their right arms, with the devices on them, to their chests.
"Ready?" Boran said, being met with a nod from Aly before they both pushed their right arms out from its position in front of their chest then bringing them back to press the buttons on the silver and black devices, both of them calling in unison "It's morphin' time!"
As they finished speaking, both of them brought their arms sharply to their sides, their bodies, barring their heads, being enveloped in different coloured lights, blue in Boran's case and pink in Aly's, with the same star symbol that had been on their jackets being in the centre of their chests.
The light covering Aly was the first to dissipate, revealing a bodysuit with the symbol on it, featuring a pink upper body with a pink skirt attached, a white belt with a rectangular silver buckle with the numeral 'I' in the centre of it, along with black legs. On her hands were white gloves with a pink band about an inch down from the tops of them, along with solid pink boots and a white holster on her waist, a black blaster like weapon with silver accents in it. After a moment, a pink helmet appeared on her head, featuring a silver mouthpiece with a stylised mouth on it and a black diamond shaped visor with a gold outline around it.
As her transformation completed, the blue light enveloping Biral dissipated, leaving him in a bodysuit practically identical to Aly's, minus the skirt with the pink elements replaced with blue ones, while the silver belt buckle featured the numeral 'III' in the centre of it. A second later, a blue helmet appeared on his head, with the same stylised silver mouthpiece on it as was on Aly's helmet, while the gold trimmed visor was in the shape of an oval instead of a diamond.
"Corona one, Pink Ranger!" Aly spoke first, bringing her left arm across her chest, her hand beside her head with the thumb up.
"Corona three, Blue Ranger!" Biral said, bringing his own arm across with three fingers up by the time it was beside his head.
The Pariahs didn't react to their opponents morphs, instead charging at the two rangers. As a pair of Pariahs came into striking distance of Aly, she dropped down, spinning her left leg round, taking the two Pariahs down before coming back up with an upper cut to the face of another Pariah as it got in range.
Meanwhile beside her, Biral was finding himself slowly surrounded by a group of Pariahs. Aly knew he was smirking under his helmet; he always was in these situations; he thrived under pressure. As the group around Biral grew to seven of them, he pulled the black blaster with silver accents from his belt.
"Corona Defender, sabre mode!" He said, pressing a control, with barrel of the blaster folding up before separating into a cross guard, a blue beam of energy about a metre long extending out before solidifying into a silver blade.
Biral spun on the spot, slashing all seven of the Pariahs around him as he did, taking them to the ground. As he did, he pressed a button on the side of the weapon, the blade turning back into blue energy before dissipating as the weapon converted back into the black blaster. As it finished converting, he aimed the weapon at one of the final two Pariahs as Aly pulled her own weapon, both of them firing on the last two opponents, taking them down.
"Never get tired of that." Biral said, putting his Defender back in its holster and Aly did the same "Come on, let's keep moving."
Biral continued to lead her through the ship, turning several corners, trying to avoid patrols as much as possible. After about ten minutes, they reached a large, open space. In the centre of it, sat a large, dark grey ship, around thirty meters long, the cylindrical shape thinning around the centre of the ship, before widening back to the original width at the front, ending in a slightly curved cone shape at the front.
As they began running towards the craft, they caught sight of the two figures underneath it; one wore a yellow suit, identical to Aly's, only with an upside down triangular visor as opposed to a diamond shaped one and, though it was not visible from the distance, the belt showcasing a 'II' symbol on the belt. The other, wearing a black version of Biral's suit, though one with an upside down parallelogram shaped visor as opposed to an oval one, and an, unseen from their current position, an 'IV' symbol on the belt. The pair were both holding their Corona Defenders, the figure in yellow using hers in blaster mode while the one in black used his in sabre mode, both defending against a group of Pariahs.
"Pelak, Marey, heads up!" Biral yelled, pulling his Defender out and firing on the Pariahs attacking the two Rangers by the ship "Where's Karal?"
"We thought he was with you." Marey, the young woman in the yellow Ranger suit, said, firing on a pair of Pariahs as Aly got level with her, going back to back with her "You don't think he's-"
"No, he's not." Aly said "This is my big brother we're talking about, remember? If I managed to avoid getting myself killed, then so will he."
As if in response to the comment, a large blast of red energy hit the Pariahs in front of Aly, seconds before a figure in a red version of Biral and Pelak's suits landed, red energy dissipating from around him as he did. The only differences on the suit was the 'V' symbol on his belt and the sideways hourglass shaped visor on his helmet. As he landed, he spun on the spot, a red beam of energy being emitted from his left glove as he did, elongating in a thin stream, before solidifying into a silver bladed, red handled sword, in a similar style to a rapier.
"Corona sabre!" He said, holding the sword with both hands, the blade being held across his body before he charged at a pair of the Pariahs, slashing across both of them, taking them to the floor with an almost deafening slice sound before he turned to the others "All of you, run!"
"We are not leaving you behind!" Marey yelled at him, grabbing his arm and beginning to try and pull him away from the fight.
"Someone needs to keep them busy so you guys can escape!" Karal yelled back.
"And someone will." Came a cool voice from the ship.
The five rangers turned to face the figure there. He wore a green bodysuit with a black bottom half, green boots and white gloves, a gold buckle with an 'X' symbol on the white belt, a gold and silver, long barrelled pistol, similar in design to the Corona Defenders, barring the hand guard on the handle, in the holster on it. He wore a gold breast plate, the sharp gold shoulder pads protruding slightly over his shoulders, a silver version of the star symbol on the other Ranger's suits in the centre of the breast plate. His green helmet, with the same style mouthpiece as on the others' suits, featured a gold trimmed 'X' shaped visor. He pulled the pistol from his belt, a green beam coming from the end of it before being replaced with a silver blade.
"Kale, you're in no condition to be doing this." Karal said "You've just woke up after being in a medically induced coma for the last 3 years and-"
"And they need a leader!" Kale retorted "Now, go! I'll buy you some time!"
"There's no time to argue about this!" Pelak spoke up "Now, which of you is staying?"
Kale and Karal looked at each other for a moment. After a second, Kale nodded to Biral and Pelak, both of whom were stood behind Karal. They nodded back, grabbing the red Ranger by his arms and dragging him up the ramp into the ship, Aly and Marey following, holding their Defenders up as they backed up the ramp, providing Kale with covering fire for as long as they could.
Once they were on the ship, Aly hit a control by the entrance, beginning to raise the ramp. She wasn't at all comfortable with leaving Kale to the Demalors, but she knew that someone had to stay behind and he had the best chances of getting out of there, especially being as intelligent as he was.
As the ship began to raise up, Aly saw a Pariah raise its rifle at her, firing a charged blast, taking her to the floor of the cruiser as the ramp finished raising, the readouts on her visor disappearing as her morph collapsed. The last thing she saw before she passed out from the impact was Marey stood above her, the sound of her saying something to Aly sounding distant.
...Power Rangers: Corona Force...
Present Day
Aly slowly came too, the large, cylindrical unit she was in opening. She stepped outside the device, looking at it. It was one of the stasis tubes on the cruiser, one that looked fairly heavily damaged. She looked at the other tubes, seeing each of the other five tubes all even more heavily damaged, the glass on a couple of them shattered, all of them having the glass cracked in places.
She moved towards the exit of the med bay, stopping by the medical desk; the small blue light on it was flashing, signalling a holo message. She pressed the control on the message box, a shimmering blue light being emitted from it before the image of Biral appeared, stood in his Ranger costume, minus the helmet. He looked a good three or four years older than when she'd last seen him, his face covered in cuts and bruises.
"Aly, if you're hearing this message, it means that what we're currently attempting has failed, and that, well, we're dead." The hologram said, the expression on his face sombre "Pelak's already been killed, during a Corona Runner crash."
The hologram paused, apparently waiting for the reaction that Biral knew all too well Aly would go through. And he was right…. Had been right. She was reeling. Normally, when it came to flying the Corona Runners, the personal flying craft the rangers used, capable of converting to a motorcycle like configuration, Pelak had been the best of them.
"I know this must be a shock to you, but you need to keep listening, Aly." The Biral hologram said "The Demalors have been striking more and more boldly. A number of worlds have fallen, and now, projections show they're headed to the Milky Way galaxy. When we saw this, we plot a course for the planet where the final stand was most likely to occur; Earth, in the Sol system. Unfortunately, we came under heavy fire and the stasis tubes were damaged. It took everything we had to prevent the one you were in from failing and killing you. Unfortunately, the stress also impacted the morphers; while they still function, they're unstable now. We need an external power source to stabilise them."
Aly stood there, shocked. They'd practically given up their powers, their best defence against the Demalors, to save her. And the hologram wasn't done yet.
"After that, we kept the course as straight as we could, but there was nothing left we could do." The hologram said "The landing gear was virtually destroyed, so we had to change our course to a collision course, with the ocean. There's roughly a 90% chance that we'll be practically eviscerated on impact. So, here's your mission; find a power source that can stabilise the morphers and, if we're no longer around to do so, recruit a team of replacements for us to stop the Demalors. We all know you can do this, we have faith. And remember, try to blend in with the youth; they're where your team will be coming from. Provided the auto-repair system has done it's job, you can use the teleporter to teleport to a location of your choosing and, if it comes to it, there have been past Rangers here; you can use the systems to re-vitalise their zords for your team's use. Good luck."
With those last words, the hologram disappeared. Aly was left alone. Left alone to complete the mission and save the universe.
….
So, here's the opening. Yes, the team colours are deliberately evoking images of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers; don't forget, these powers are from the same era. Indeed, the zords they'll be re-vitalising will be based upon the Mighty Morphin Rangers, though I won't say they're going to be directly ripping them.
What I will say is I'm opening it to a vote; which zords do you guys want to see being revitalised and remodelled into this team's zords; the Dinozords, Thunderzords or Ninja zords? Whichever ones they are, they're revitalising into the Corona zords, and yes, I know what each of the zords for each Ranger will be in each scenario. So, let me know via reviews or message which zords you want to become the corona zords. R&R, please, no flames.