Via Pacifica: Olympian Sector
Arcadian System, 18:00 hours
Meanwhile above the planet, the Odyssey engaged in a heated space battle with several U'shan vessels consisting of three frigates and a cruiser. Despite being outnumbered and outclassed by the enemy cruiser, the Alliance vessel still managed to hold its own in the fight with its powerful shields and weapon systems. The Odyssey weathered a barrage of energy cannon fire before maneuvering about and replying with a volley of proton torpedoes and plasma beams.
The concentrated beams of energy punched through the shields of one enemy frigate and weakened the defenses of another before the torpedoes impacted their targets. One of the U'shan ships erupted into a brilliant fireball while secondary explosions tore through the hull of the other frigate and severely crippled it. From the Odyssey's bridge, Commander Raines gave a nod to the substitute Tactical officer and braced himself as the ship took another jarring hit, "Good shooting Ensign Leryne. Hawa, where are we on the evac?"
"Ambassador Soult is safely aboard and we've got most of our landing parties," she answered as she furiously worked her console directing the chaos on the comm lines.
"What about Captain Broca and Lt. Russo's team? Where are they?"
A garbled message came through as Hawa patched it though to Dominic, "Lt. Russo, sir."
"Aaron? What the hell is going on down there? We're not picking up your biosigns on the surface and we can't find the captain either."
His question was answered as Aaron called back over the other end of the comms with a slightly distorted voice, "Captain Broca is dead, sir. We've been cut off and the royal palace is crawling with U'shan troops."
A long silence filled the air as the entire bridge crew's hearts stopped when they heard the fate of their captain while Dominic struggled to keep his calm, "What about the Royal Family?"
"The king and queen have been captured sir," Aaron replied breathlessly, "My team and I still have the princess and we're escaping in an underground passageway."
"Can you reach some kind of opening on the surface so we can beam you up?"
"We'll try Commander," the younger Lieutenant answered, "We have to shake some pursuers. Stand by."
The ship rocked again as Dominic gritted his teeth. This was not the way he wanted his first official command to start. He was now the acting captain of the ship and stuck in a tough spot. He didn't want to leave some of their crew behind along with the last remaining leader of the Arcadian government, but he knew the Odyssey could not hold out indefinitely in a battle against so many enemy warships either. He decided to take a gamble and turned to his bridge officers. "Have the transporters try to get a lock on our people and stand by warp drive. We'll give our people as much time as we possibly can for them to save the princess. Reroute all reserve power to keep our shields intact."
As the Odyssey's plasma beam cannons ripped apart another U'shan corvette, the next wave of enemy warships advanced, ready for their chance to take down the only major threat left in Arcadia's orbit.
Underneath the ground level of Arcadia's royal palace, Princess Serafina Telesto led her new Alliance friends down a wide subterranean passageway that spiraled downwards into some deep chambers. Along some of the walls of the massive circular stairwell were cascading waterfalls which were illuminated by some of the dim light crystals which lit the path. As they hurried down the spiral stairway, Geordi couldn't help but gawk at the intricate and ancient architecture of the place, from the large Corinthian style pillars to some of the rustic arches, "This is incredible. How did the original builders engineer all this?"
"We can worry about that later," Sage interrupted as she grabbed his arm and pulled him along, "Come on. I'm sure the blue skins aren't far behind!"
While the team followed Sera down the passageway, Qua'lia kept her nose and her ears alert hoping that her keen natural senses could help locate a way out. Meanwhile, Katrin followed close by Aaron and gripped her commander's sleeve after glancing down into the seemingly endless abyss below them. "Sorry sir... it's just... that's a long way down."
He gave her a small nod of understanding and continued on with an edge of nervous tension in his own voice, "Just hang on and don't look down Crewman. We've got enough to worry about as it is right now."
Finally, they came to a final platform that led into the rock face of the underground cavern. It became a hallway that led toward the entrance of a large vault with heavy doors. The six of them hurried down the hall and stopped in front of the door behind Sera as she hesitated. "I... sorry, I've never actually been down here. This might be the room containing those old guardian relics I had told you about the other day."
"How are we going to get in?" Sage asked, "That door looks like it weighs a ton."
Sera reached out with a grim smile and touched the seal on the door bearing the ancient crest of her royal family, "Like I said, there's technology on this door that will open for members of the royal line."
When her hand touched the metallic seal, the door began to light up as the special devices upon it began to scan Sera's hand and her skin. To some casual observer, it may have almost looked like some sort of magic spell being cast when in fact the device was scanning Sera's bio signs and checking her DNA to see that she was indeed of royal lineage.
To the group's amazement, the gates unlocked and the doors began to grind open allowing passage into the special vault. After the Alliance crew picked up crystal lights from along the wall to act as makeshift torches, Sera took a deep breath and nodded before leading the way forward. The six delved into the vault until they came upon the central chamber which was filled along the side walls with all manner of gold coins, gems, artifacts, armor, and sculptures. Sera paused a moment to look around in wonder at the treasures before everyone's eyes locked on to the large centerpiece of the collection.
At the far end of the room was a large magnificent astrolabe sculpted out of gold and silver. Along the edges of the three dimensional instrument, ancient intricate script was engraved onto the rings representing the orbital planes of different celestial bodies. At the heart of the artifact was a glowing golden sphere that floated in the center and gave off a warm soothing light. Surrounding this "sun" were five crystalline spheres which slowly orbited on their paths and rotated on their axis. Each small globe looked to be the size of a fist and contained what appeared to be swirling energy that glowed with distinctive colors of red, blue, green, yellow, and pink.
As the subject of astronomy was her personal specialty, Sage's eyes lit up as she walked toward the astrolabe, her voice barely containing childlike glee, "Oh wow... this is incredible!"
After Aaron and Qua'lia moved some objects around the entryway to form a makeshift barricade, they joined the others in staring at the super sized astrolabe. While the others stood engrossed by the artifact, Katrin took a moment to rummage through the other treasures and admire some of the gems and jewelry scattered about. She tried a green gemstone bracelet on and admired it for a minute, "Oh yeah... I like this."
Qua'lia ignored her and asked Sage, "Can you make sense of this thing Ensign?"
Sage gave a thoughtful look, "If I had to guess... this isn't a model of a star system. Rather, it looks like a network of stars. Each of these colored globes might be some of the brightest stars in the galaxy and this is device could be showing their relative movements to Arcadia at the center."
At that moment, Geordi spoke up as he rummaged around a stone pedestal nearby. There were five wrist mounted devices that looked like they had been fused to an armored gauntlet. "Hey everyone! Look at this! These could be part of those guardians' old morphing devices. Even stranger... it looks like this old tech might have some signs of Adventi influence."
Aaron turned and examined one of the devices in curiosity. The people of planet Earth were more than familiar with the technology of the mysterious race of traveling nomads called the Adventi. It was because of them that Earth had been able to leap ahead in their technological development and reach the stars, but not before fighting a terrible war with a race of cyborg invaders a few hundred years ago. It was during that desperate time that the people of Earth used the technology to create their first team of superhuman defenders: the Nova Rangers. Even to this day, the names of those heroes had been immortalized in the history books and museums as some of the planet's greatest champions.
Geordi pointed to an empty circular slot in the wrist morphers, "See this? It looks like some kind of socket to insert an object. Maybe a power source?"
As Sera stepped closer and reached out to touch the astrolabe, she felt an odd sort of psychic tingling as the colored spheres resonated and began to vibrate. Sage kept her eyes fixed on the stars, "Remarkable... what is happening?"
Everyone watched in silent wonder as the glowing sun at the center of the astrolabe disengaged and floated over Sera's hand. As she took the orb, the other colored stars released from their orbits and began to float toward each of the other Alliance crewmen there. The five of them reached out and each took one of the floating spheres: Red to Aaron, Blue to Geordi, Green with Katrin, Yellow to Sage, and Pink to Qua'lia. Each of the crewmen felt a buzzing power resonate in their hands matching Sera's star before they settled down again to a soft glow and shrunk down to the size of large marbles.
"Fascinating," Geordi murmured as he continued to examine the devices and the blue glowing sphere in his hand.
"You don't suppose these things are choosing us... do you?" Qua'lia asked cautiously.
"Or maybe Sera was," Sage guessed, "It seems like she's holding the master key thing right there."
Sera held her own golden ball of light with a frown to herself, "I assure you I have no idea what's going on or why these things are happening either."
Katrin came over and handed each of her comrades a gauntlet, "Think about it you guys... maybe we could become Power Rangers too, just like the heroes of our own planets. How cool would that be?"
Her question was answered as the heavy doors to the vault were blown open and the pursuing U'shan invaders entered led by Commander Nessus in his metallic white battlesuit. His Dragoon escorts in their gunmetal gray carapace armor fanned out and leveled their rifles menacingly as he called out, "There's no escape Princess! Give yourself up and tell the Alliance scum to surrender their weapons! No one else has to die here."
Sera stared down Nessus and gathered her courage as she felt her own frustrations and outrage building inside of her. She brandished the laser pistol that Qua'lia haven given to her while trying to speak in a brave voice, "No! You invaded my home and took my family from me! You had every intention to kill people and ruin lives today. I'm not going to let you bring the same misery to other worlds! Not if I can help it!"
"Your planet is overrun and your royal guards have fallen," Nessus answered sternly.
"Not all of them," Aaron called out as he gripped the glowing sphere and his antiquated wrist morpher, "Everyone? Let's do this for the princess and for Captain Broca!"
His fellow crewmen joined him as they all stepped forward and slotted the spheres in the sockets of their morphers. As they did, the technology of the ancient morphers powered on and erupted into prismatic light which filled the room. The Dragoons stood by in momentary confusion before Nessus shouted, "Fire! Kill them!"
As a volley of plasma bolts rang out, they were completely neutralized by a seeming forcefield of energy which protected the five Alliance comrades and transformed them into a new team of Power Rangers. When the light faded in the chamber, everyone stared at the new heroes standing together. Each of the Rangers were encased in suits of sleek form fitting metallic armor with a futuristic look and emblazoned with their respective colors. Along certain points of the armored space suits were glowing vents of energy which hummed with ambient power. At the centerpiece of each Ranger's chest armor was a diamond crystalline shield which seemed to house a swirling sphere of light matching the energy globes in their wrist morphers.
"Wow! This can't be magic, can it?" Sage asked in awe as she admired her new yellow Ranger suit.
"My guess? Self assembling nanites and a flexible metallic polymer alloy," her Eltarian comrade in blue intoned.
"I don't believe it... we're actually Power Rangers," Qua'lia exclaimed in wonder thinking about how she was now the first of her own race to take on the mantle of a Power Ranger.
"Not just any Rangers... Odyssey Rangers!" Katrin chimed in as she joined the others in feeling incredible power surge through their bodies.
Aaron smiled and stepped forward to meet the invaders clad in his metallic red suit, "Odyssey Rangers, huh? Yeah... I like it. Come on gang! Let's show these thugs what we can do!"
Sera took cover as the Dragoons and Nessus opened fire on the advancing Rangers. To their surprise, the Rangers surged ahead with superhuman speed and agility, dodging the blaster bolts and closing the distance in heartbeats. Before the Dragoons could react, the Rangers all used their momentum and pounced on the troopers using what they had learned in their own hand to hand training when they enlisted.
Commander Nessus watched in shock as the hapless Dragoons were pummeled and battered with rapid kicks and punches while a couple were even thrown clear across the room. Amid the violent tussle, Katrin used the assistance of her helmet's sensors to notice a small sidearm at her own belt. She reached down and pulled out a short sword of Arcadian design that looked like an old Greek xiphos blade from Earth. Unlike the ancient sword, this was more of an advanced vibro blade with a thin line of energy around the edges. She used it to slash aside a Dragoon and called out, "Hey! Check it out! Extra weapons!"
The other Rangers immediately followed suit with Aaron and Qua'lia pulling their own swords while Sage and Geordi decided to try something different and reconfigure them into blaster pistols. Once the other Dragoons were defeated, they opened fire on Nessus and the commander staggered as the shields of his battlesuit absorbed the shots.
"Your little tricks won't save you!" he shouted as he returned fire with his own wrist guns as the Yellow and Blue Rangers tumbled away to safety. The attack distracted Nessus just enough for the Pink and and Green Rangers to sweep in from the flank and viciously slash at his sides with their blades. The Commander reeled again as his shields began to overload. They finally failed when Aaron made an overhead leap and slashed Nessus full on followed by a hard side snap kick to the chest.
The Odyssey Rangers regrouped and configured their sidearms into blaster mode before forming a firing line and letting loose with a volley of shots. Although his heavy armor still protected him, Nessus was thrown back against a pillar causing the heavy stone structure to collapse on him in a cloud of dust and smoke. Sage pumped her fist triumphantly, "All right! We got em! Let's finish him off!"
Aaron took one look at the weakened ceiling shook his head calling for his team to withdraw, "No. Let's get out of here. Their leader is already down and we don't want to be here if the ceiling goes too."
As the new Rangers gathered around Princess Sera, she continued to hold her golden glowing sun globe while wearing a look of uncertainty, "We'll have to get back to the surface but our way out might be cut off if there are more U'shan."
As she silently began to say a little prayer to herself wishing and hoping for a way to escape, the Rangers watched in awe as the globe began to activate again with its strange psychic energy, this time growing brighter. Its mysterious radiance engulfed them all and seemingly converted everyone into energy particles that swept back up the underground passageways to make their escape. As if she had created a self made transporter beam, Sera's sun globe swept them up away from the palace, into the atmosphere and directed them toward the embattled Odyssey which was still in orbit fighting its desperate battle against the U'shan invaders.
As she nervously stood at her post in the ship's transporter room, Petty Officer Tiah blinked in surprise when she saw brilliant streams of golden light appear in the middle of the room and not on the platform. At first she worried that the U'shan somehow broke through the Odyssey's shields and were beaming aboard soldiers, but her heart stopped when the figures rematerialized and she recognized them as her missing crewmates who had now demorphed as the powers of their ancient morphers sputtered and gave out.
The ship shook again and the Rangers along with Sera all fell over to their knees in surprise. Tiah rushed over and helped Aaron up to this feet while gripping her friend's forearm, "Lieutenant? What's going on? How did you... and with the princess... and..."
"It's a long story T. We'll explain later," he gasped in relief seeing that the rest of his team was all okay, "If everyone's accounted for, let's radio the bridge and get the hell out of here."
Tiah gave a stunned look at the disheveled Rangers and the princess before she reached for her comm, "Bridge, this is the transporter room. You're not going to believe this..."
While the Odyssey veered clear of some aggressive passes by the U'shan warships, it sprayed streams of railgun fire to ward off smaller U'shan fighters while it continued to trade blows with a larger enemy cruiser nearby. The Alliance ship's beam cannons and proton torpedoes hammered the enemy cruiser's shields causing them to buckle but not before a few more enemy vessels closed in and focused fire to pummel the Odyssey right back. Despite the shields holding, the Odyssey was still jolted hard as it sustained significant damage from the sheer concentrated force of the sustained U'shan cannon fire.
The ship shook violently as warning klaxons began to sound and a few electrical conduits on the bridge erupted in showers of sparks. A few screens at an engineering station blew out throwing a crewman back and severely injuring her while the helmsman Ensign Keogh was flung headfirst into his console and pitched sideways on the deck. A couple other crewmen rushed to their wounded comrades' aid while Commander Raines jumped up to personally replace the injured helmsman at his post, "Report!"
The Tactical officer called out in alarm, "Sir, our shields are failing! I'm reading major damage along Decks 4, 7, and 8. We have two minor hull breeches on our port bow with multiple casualties reported. I think the U'shan are trying to target our power grid and knock us out cold."
Dominic gritted his teeth and steered the cruiser to come about on full sub-light engines, "Transfer any and all reserve power to the shields! Hawa, do you have our people?"
The Communications officer called back, "I have no idea how, but Lt. Russo's team just beamed aboard with the princess!"
Dominic exhaled in relief and gave called out to his Engineering division, "All right, whoever is in charge down there, power the engines and take us to warp! We're getting out of here!"
As the wounded Odyssey veered clear of her enemies, the Alliance cruiser's engine nacelles flared to life and propelled the ship into warp drive. From the bridge of the U'shan command vessel Akula, Captain Cepheus watched the retreat of the enemy ship with a calm expression.
"Sir, the Alliance cruiser has gone to warp. She looks to be damaged. Shall we send any of our ships to pursue?" asked one of the other bridge officers.
Cepheus shook his head, "No. Let them go. We still have what we want."
He glanced over to the other side of his wide viewscreen where he could see the invasion winding down over Arcadia. The U'shan had struck like lightning and the planet was now in their possession along with its two monarchs. Of course, they had not counted on the interference of the GSA. Despite having lost a small number of ships and soldiers along with the escape of the princess, those were minor setbacks. While he imagined that Commander Nessus would ultimately take some responsibility for that part, the U'shan had still accomplished their main objective. Arcadia was under their control and with it was a prime source of valuable quadrium ore and a perfect staging ground for future Imperial expansion into other star systems. For now, they would wait for orders from their ruling Exarchs and let their enemies make the next move.
A/N:
And so concludes the introductory plot to this series. Hopefully you're enjoying the story so far and another big thank you goes to all who have been reading and showing support thus far. I'll be setting up the next major plot line in the following two chapters as Sera and the crew of the Odyssey look for a safe harbor and some new allies to help them in their struggle along with understanding these newly discovered powers.