Nemean Expanse, Planet Charybdos
Underground Cavern, 18:00 hours

The giant alien hydra reared one of its heads back and spewed a gout of fire from its mouth into the cavern. Aaron gasped in fear and grabbed Sera to get her clear as the other Rangers began to scramble for the door to the buried Acropolis. "Come on Princess! Hurry!"

As the fire began to pour into the cavern and hit the waters, it gave rise to clouds of obscuring steam. The Black Knight Kharon was cut off by the wall of flames and steam causing him to weigh his options. He looked to his siter Sage for a long moment before he fired his suit's jump jets and began to fly off in an escape. Sage shouted a desperate plea into the air, "Ash! Wait! Come back!"

Skyler grabbed the Yellow Ranger and pulled her toward safety with the other, "Come on luv. Now's not the time! Let's get out of here!"

Amid some of the fires in the cavern, the gravely wounded Nessus lay in his ruined armor grasping impotently to the air where his comrade had escaped to, "Damn you Kharon... you're going to pay for this!"

Meanwhile, the Odyssey Rangers piled into the entry hatch of an old starship and Geordi fumbled at a control panel on the wall to shut the door. They had bought themselves a few minutes of safety and stared in wonder as the sun globe that Sera held began to react with the ship, seemingly bringing it to life. Despite the Acropolis being an old ship, it was surprisingly advanced in its technology and the wide corridors of the ancient carrier had an aesthetically pleasing design in its placement of the lights and control panels. The group felt the ship rumble again and moved quickly to find the path to the ship's bridge. When they found it, they saw that it was wide and well lit with a panoramic forward view. Several control stations stood nearby a central chair where a round pedestal sat beside it. Sera followed the pull of her artifact and approached before hesitantly placing the globe onto the pedestal. Upon doing so, the entire ship powered on and slowly came to life like an ancient giant waking up from centuries of slumber.

"Incredible..." Geordi remarked as he marveled at a control panel while Skyler immediately went to the helm control.

"You're telling me! I think I want this ship now."

Qua'lia gently slapped her friend upside the head while Rin gestured to the command chair, "Well Sera? What do you say? Give it a try?"

The princess hesitantly sat down on the chair and placed one hand on the arm rest with the other on the sun globe. She took a deep breath and focused on gathering all her courage and determination. This was what this journey had been leading up to and now she had finally recovered the ancient weapon of her people. She had vowed she would use this power for good and to restore peace, but right now there was a different battle to fight. It was one of survival. As if the ship read her mind, the Acropolis carrier began to move and ascend from where it was buried. The Rangers watched in awe as the massive starship burst from the underground cavern near the waterfall and began to hover several meters off the ground. Rubble, dirt, and moss sloughed off the hull of the ancient ship as it rose again in glory. The appearance of the vessel surprised the hydra and Scylla watched with curiosity to see if it posed a threat.

As she tried to orient herself with the helm controls, Skyler looked around the area and spotted her freighter parked some distance away, "Hey! We've got to pick up my ship before it gets smashed. Does this thing have tractor beams or something?"

"I'm more curious about the other hangers of this ship," Aaron remarked causing Sage to blanch.

"Wait... you're not talking about the zords, are you?"

Rin gave an eager grin and interjected, "Awesome! Let's do it!"

"We're going to need time to power up the Acropolis and get out of here," Aaron reasoned, "We need to protect the ship until then."

Qua'lia nodded in agreement, "He's right. We don't have a lot of time. Let's get moving!"

Back in orbit, the turbulent waves of gravity and stellar radiation continued to increase from the core of Iaptetus Rift. By now, the surrounding regions of space around the nebula were growing increasingly dangerous for spacefaring vessels. Now there was a threat of onboard systems shorting out as well as getting sucked into the gravity well. Despite the conditions, the Alliance cruiser Odyssey held firm as it maintained its orbit and continued firing on some of the enemy transports. One of the smaller enemy ships took a torpedo hit and exploded while the others scrambled to take evasive action and escape to the other side of the planet. In the middle of the fight, the Odyssey was buffeted not by enemy fire but by the interstellar storm and the crew could already feel their starship shaking.

One of the bridge officers called out a report, "Captain, more enemy contacts inbound. Three escort destroyers are moving to intercept us."

Amira chimed in with a concerned look of her own as she monitored the environment, "Turbulence from the nebula is increasing toward dangerous levels. We're running out of time Dominic."

Under normal circumstances, Raines would be confident in ordering a direct counterattack, but because they had to cover the Rangers below, they had to fight more defensively and buy extra time. Captain Raines nodded, "All right crew. Hold fast and prepare to take defensive maneuvers. We'll stall those destroyers as long as we possibly can. Hawa?"

The ship's First Officer gave a wave from her station, "I've got the Rangers on the line, sir!"

"Rangers? Lt. Russo? What's going on down there?" Dominic asked while keeping a tense eye on the approaching destroyers.

A slightly distorted reply came in over the comms, "We're on our way back to the ship, Captain. We've got the Acropolis free but we're dealing with a little bit of a roadblock here."

Raines frowned, "What kind of roadblock?"

"Oh… well, something along the lines of a giant 5 headed dragon spitting fire. No big deal. We'll call back soon," Aaron answered quickly as the channel was cut.

Captain Raines blinked and shared a bemused look with Hawa before turning back to the storm ahead of them in space, "Okay… first thing's first. Full power to shields. All forward batteries fire at will."

While a starship battle began to rage above the planet, the great Acropolis carrier hovered low over the tropical forests of Charybdos and moved off to safety while the 5 individual Odyssey zords deployed out of their holding bays and tangled with the monstrous Scylla. The Rangers were learning the controls of the zords on the fly, but with the aid of their suits' powers, piloting the zords seemed intuitive enough for now. The alien hydra gave a roar as the Pink Ranger's dragon zord clashed with it first and locked claws in a fierce grapple. Qua'lia growled and struggled at her controls to match Scylla while Geordi wheeled his centaur zord around the flank and strafed the enemy with an energy bow weapon. From above, Sage piloted her yellow Swan zord in a wide circle and dive bombed the hydra with her own projectile attacks. The combined energy bolts glanced off the thick armored hide of the alien titan and only enraged it further driving it to shove off the Pink dragon zord.

Qua'lia grunted as her zord toppled over in a prone position and became vulnerable to the monster. Before she could fear the worst, she got help from Rin and Aaron who attacked Scylla from the sides and covered her. Rin rammed her swordfish zord into the legs of the hydra while Aaron's lion zord used its teeth to grab the neck of one serpentine head. The Green Ranger pumped a fist excitedly, "Hell yeah! We got him now!"

Unfortunately, she spoke too soon as Scylla thrashed about furiously and knocked its offenders off with its brute strength. Just as the other zords recovered and regrouped, the Rangers gave a startled cry as the hydra reared back and fired searing jets of fire from its five heads. The jet of fiery energy blasted the zords down and tore up the tropical forests around them setting large fires in the process. Sage swooped around in an evasive arc as one of the hydra heads tried to hit her with a jet of fire in the air, "Crap! What are we going to do now? The zords aren't strong enough to take that monster down!"

"Maybe... but all together they might stand a chance," Geordi reasoned as he watched Scylla continue its rampage, "Haven't Rangers of the past put their zords together to form a greater Megazord formation?"

"If it worked for beating the cyclops, then I'm all for it here," Aaron replied finding a separate set of controls on his console, "Let's do it!"

The other Rangers followed suit and activated their secondary controls and watched in awed wonder as the zords momentarily went on autopilot to fuse together into a greater weapon. The blue centaur zord anchored itself to the ground and converted to leg structures as the pink dragon locked itself in to form a torso. Once they were secure, the red lion and green swordfish converted into arms and fused themselves to the torso while the yellow swan glided down and transformed as well. In mere moments, the swan locked in to form the Megazord's head and shoulder guards. Once the Megazord had fully assembled itself, the Rangers gave small cheers and high fives in celebration within their now combined cockpit, "All right, Odyssey Megazord, online!"

Scylla shrieked again and stormed forward while spitting fire. The Odyssey Megazord pushed through it and brought a heavy armored fist around to strike a great blow against the hydra. As the titanic beast recoiled, it tried to counterattack with another serpentine head but the Megazord grabbed its neck and punched that one aside too. In the near distance, Sera and Skyler watched the battle unfolding from the bridge of the Acropolis while the tractor beam finished pulling Skyler's freighter into a spare hangar bay. The princess watched the giant robot grappling in a back and forth tussle with the monster with wide eyes, "Incredible! Do you think that will be enough for the Rangers to defeat that thing?"

"There's no such thing as overkill Your Highness," Skyler said as she familiarized herself with the helm controls, "Now I just have to figure out how to maneuver this bloody thing. Do we have any weapon systems, Princess?"

"I... don't know. Probably?" Sera admitted as she continued to use her globe to control some of the other major systems, "If we do, I don't know how to bring them online just yet."

Skyler gripped the controls, "Right then... I think I still know one way we can help out."

Across the battlefield, the tropical forests rumbled and the trees shook while the Odyssey Megazord traded blows with the hydra. As the megazrod batted one of the heads away, Scylla used another head to coil around the robot's arm and restrain it. The two remaining heads lashed out, one head butting the Megazord while the other tried to bite into its with its teeth. The Megazord rumbled from the hits and the Odyssey Rangers were jolted within their cockpit amid the growing precariousness of the situation. Despite the peril, the Rangers struggled on and tried to break free.

"We're pinned in this thing's teeth!" Qua'lia shouted, "We need more power!"

Rin shook her head with a dire tone in her voice, "I don't think we'll have much to spare. These zords have been sitting dormant for hundreds of years. The best we can manage is half strength right now."

"Then we'll need to find a way to finish this quickly," Sage called, "The longer we keep slugging it out, the worse it'll get."

Aaron nodded pumping his controls forcefully to take a new action, "Agreed. That's why I think we should duck right now!"

The others Rangers turned and blinked in surprise before they realized what he was looking at. The large Acropolis carrier ship barrelled forward at a sharp angle and rammed its forward bow into the giant hydra. Scylla cried out in pain as the Odyssey Megazord moved it into the path of the Acropolis and the monster was run over. The hydra fell over and writhed from the collision as the Megazord took the opportunity to regroup. The Red Ranger cheered and gave a thumbs up, "Nice! Thanks for the assist! Now let's slay this dragon."

Geordi fiddled with the control panels and pulled up weapon systems of the Megazord. He selected an option and entered the command, "All right, I think I've got something here. Let's see what the Solar Splitter can do."

Scylla recovered to its feet and backed off a moment as a beam of bright light from some distant star poured down on the battlefield and materialized into a giant glaive weapon for the Megazord. The Odyssey Megazord gripped its new polearm and took a ready stance as the bladed head began to buzz with glowing energy. Qua'lia smiled grimly under her visor, "Okay, I think we can put this to good use."

Scylla charged forward and lashed out but the Megazord met its charge and made a counter slice movement with its polearm. The giant glaive cleaved off a head of the hydra causing the others to convulse in pain. The serpentine heads twisted and writhed around to strike, but the Megazord again parried aside its enemy's attack and hacked off another head. The wounded Scylla recoiled and reared back for one final attack of desperation. Its three heads combined to blow a powerful gout of fire at the Megazord as the Rangers brought their glaive around for a finishing attack of their own. The Megazord hacked down with a full powered slash that seared the air. The rippling force of the slash carried through and split the stream of fire before striking Scylla as well. The ground around the titanic monster shattered as the high powered attack cleanly bisected the ferocious beast.

The Megazord straightened up and the Rangers gave a jubilant cheer as the dying monster gave one last gurgling cry before splitting apart and exploding into a great towering fireball. Sage pumped and fist and threw an arm around Geordi's neck to give him a side hug, "Way to go Geo! Good call!"

As the fires subsided, a call came in from the Acropolis and the Rangers could hear that it was from Skyler, "Well done Rangers. That was more exciting than any holo-vid movie I've ever seen."

"Well I don't feel like putting on an encore performance right now," Aaron said, "We're running out of time. I think we should pack it in and get back upstairs to join the Odyssey."

No one argued the point as the Odyssey Megazord quickly disassembled and the zords returned to their respective bays on the carrier ship. Once everyone was loaded and on the way to the bridge, Sera took one last look to the ruined temple and the fires around them. Skyler called out from the helm, "I think I've figured out the basics of this console. We're ready to go to orbit when you are, Princess."

"Make it so," Sera nodded to Skyler before she reached for another control on her chair. As the Acropolis fired its drive engines and began to ascend higher into the skies of Charybdos, Sera smiled as she opened a channel to their friends waiting above, "Acropolis to the Odyssey? Hang on just a little longer. We're on our way."

The Odyssey rattled as its shields took a glancing hit from one of the enemy destroyers. The Alliance cruiser changed course again splitting its fire and strafing its enemies to keep them off balance. The evasive maneuvers of the Odyssey seemed to pay off as the increasing gravity well of the nebula set in and snared two of the U'shan vessels that were positioned further out. Captain Raines watched the enemy formation grow disorganized as the third destroyer was now partially cut off. He gave a quick gesture to his Tactical officer and called out decisively, "Now's our chance! Target their engines. Forward torpedoes fire!"

The Odyssey veered by in a passing attack and unloaded a barrage of proton torpedoes from its forward launchers. The searing energy based warheads streaked forward and scored several direct hits as they struck the enemy destroyer full on. Amid a cloud of ruined steel, the damaged U'shan escort destroyer listed and billowed a gout of fire. As it limped forward with its mangled bow, the ship took further damage from the dangerous stellar storm and waves of gravity which swept over the region from the nebula's core. The crippled destroyer's lights flickered as its now compromised shields gave out and the superstructure of the hull was violently shredded apart. The dying ship exploded and split into three chunks. Its remains started to drift toward the Rift while the other two enemy destroyers abruptly changed course and made desperate attempts to break away from the pull of the stellar vortex. At the periphery of the storm, the Odyssey was rattled and its hull was stressed as it pushed its engines hard to break away from the pull as well.

From her station, Amira called out with sudden excitement, Captain! We have a visual on the Rangers. Look!"

The bridge crew watched the viewscreen and they spotted a new starship emerging from the atmosphere of the planet below. The light of the stars glinted off the white steel of the large bulky spacecraft. While the look of the Acropolis was a little antiquated compared to modern starship design, it still projected great power and served as a tribute to the reliable longevity of the classical way that spaceships were made. Its engines flared and it broke away from the airspace of Charybdos, changing course on an approach vector toward the Odyssey.

"Incredible! They actually did it!" Hawa cheered excitedly admiring their new allied ship, "She's a beauty!"

"Acropolis to the Odyssey," came the voice of Princess Sera, "Everyone is safe and accounted for. Captain, I think we should get out of here."

Raines grinned and relaxed slightly in his chair, "I couldn't agree more, Your Highness."

He turned to the rest of his crew that was present, "Full power to the main drive engines. Signal the Acropolis to follow our current course heading."

As the storm around the nebula continued to rage further and grow in severity, the Odyssey and the Acropolis fired their sublight engines and roared away from their precarious position near the Iapetus Rift. As they sped away, they could see the remaining ships of the small U'shan flotilla struggling against the storm that they were caught in. From her viewport, Sage watched the planet Charybdos behind them growing more distant with each passing moment. She remained silent wearing a solemn expression before she felt Qua'lia put a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Sage? Are you okay?"

The Yellow Ranger nodded slowly, "I… yeah. I was just thinking about Ash. I know he's probably still down somewhere on the planet. I just couldn't help but feel a little concerned. If the other enemy ships get wrecked, he'll probably be stranded there."

Qua'lia gave an understanding look, "At least he'd be safe for now and wouldn't be able to hurt anyone."

"Are you sure about that?" Rin asked coming over to join her female comrades, "I mean, no offense Sage… your brother might have some good intentions, but his plan is still crazy. It kinda makes him sound like a megalomaniac."

Sage shook her head, "It's okay. I don't blame you for saying that and I kinda agree with you… it's just, he's still family. I hate the thought of leaving him behind right now."

That was when she felt Aaron's hand pat her gently on the back to comfort her, "Ash has shown us that he's a survivor. If anything, he's resourceful enough and I'm sure he'll be okay for now. Maybe when the rest of this mess is taken care of, we can come back for him."

"You mean that? You guys would do that for me?" she asked.

The other Rangers all gave their friend nods and voiced their quiet agreement. The Red Ranger's expression darkened and he looked to the rest of the team, "For now, we have more pressing matters to deal with. If what Ash said was true, then all our allies and Starbase Elysium are in danger. We have to get back home as soon as we can."

From the helm of the Acropolis, Skyler turned and gave a thumbs up toward Sera who sat at the command chair with her sun globe, "I've laid in a course and powered the main warp engines. We're ready to fly whenever you are."

The princess of Arcadia looked to the Rangers and gave them a tired grateful smile before they spread out and went to man some of the other bridge consoles. As they settled in, she looked on ahead to see that the ocean of stars before them was wide open. "All right. Let's stop that enemy fleet and turn the tide of this war."

While the stellar storm around the nebula raged, the Odyssey and the Acropolis pulled away from the Charybdos system and powered their warp engines. In a flash, the two starships began racing back toward Elysium. They knew it would be a long sprint and that they didn't have much time. For now, the Rangers and their friends could only pray that there would still be a home port left to return to.