Via Pacifica: Planet Laguna
Central Command Bunker, 16:45 hours

As the light faded, the morphed Odyssey Rangers surged forward with their xiphos short swords drawn and they charged the alien commander before them. With a surprising show of calmness, Nessus stood his ground and extended his arms, activating some of his suit's new weapon attachments. Two large caliber blaster muzzles extended down past his forearms and rotated out before locking into place. Nessus took hold of the new grips which had deployed giving the weapon the appearance of two large tonfas which doubled as heavy laser cannons. He raised his forearms in a defensive posture and met the Rangers' charge, easily deflecting their swords aside with his heavy armor and forearm mounted guns.

The four Rangers spread out and attacked again from multiple sides but the U'shan commander stopped their assaults with his two weapons. As he parried aside a passing thrust from Aaron, Nessus raised his guard and used his other tonfa blaster to block a kick from Sage. He grunted from the impact and shoved back with equal force causing the Yellow Ranger to somersault backwards, "You're going to have to hit me harder than that. All of you!"

Nessus whirled around in place and lashed out with his tonfas forcing all the Rangers who circled him to jump clear and offer more room. The alien snorted, "Oh? There's no reason to run away from me. I can come to you too."

Nessus quickly fired his boots which had been equipped with small thrusters and it allowed him to surge forward with great speed. He dropped his shoulder and slammed into Qua'lia knocking the Pink Ranger aside before raising his tonfas again, "I've got you now!"

Both Red and Yellow Rangers responded by quickly grabbing the alien's arms before struggling to restrain him. Nessus scoffed again as he lashed his arms and used the power of his armor to easily throw Aaron and Sage away, "New toys weren't the only improvement to my suit. Now I'm faster, stronger, and more protected than ever before!"

"Let's see how well you're protected then!" Geordi called from behind as he activated his Sagittarian Striker bowgun and fired a powerful hail of blue laser fire. The beams struck Nessus in the back of his shoulder and he grunted as he staggered forward a few steps. Amid the resulting cloud of smoke and sparks, the Rangers looked on in surprise to see the damage was negligible before Nessus converted a tonfa into a forearm cannon.

"Oh that's right Blue Ranger. I'm also better armed too!" Nessus laughed as he opened fire and blasted Geordi backward with an equally powerful beam of laser fire. The U'shan commander activated his other cannon and began firing powerful bursts of plasma around the platform causing the other Rangers to scramble and evade the bolts. As the Rangers dove for cover behind some pylon structures, they were forced to duck as a rain of fire came down on them from the enemy troops positioned above. Sage called her Cygnus Slicer and hurled the boomerang blade into the air, cutting apart several platforms and taking out the Dragoon snipers who were harassing them. The victory was short lived because no sooner did she catch the returning energy blade, the Rangers were pinned down by a withering hail of fire from Nessus.

"We've got to do something!" Qua'lia called as Aaron and Geordi returned fire with their blasters to try and slow down the advancing enemy commander, "This isn't good!"

"I know!" the Red Ranger shouted back through clenched teeth, "Just give me a minute to think... and hope that our friends are having better luck in the silo."

Meanwhile on the other side of the complex, Rin, Keith, and Thor dove clear as their own alien foe curled up into an armored ball of spiked steel and rolled toward them like a cannonball. As the alien cleared a path, it burst from its protective sphere and lashed its spiked tail out. The startled Rangers and Thor again recoiled and jumped backwards to keep clear of harm. Thor was the first one to jump up on a crate and unload with his laser rifle, "That's it, I've have had enough of you scale face!"

"Please, my friends call me Razorhide," the armored lizard grinned as he raised his forearm shields and deflected laser bolts everywhere.

One of the deflected bolts struck near the feet of Rin and despite her being morphed, she turned in annoyance to her crewmate, "Hey, watch it! Hold your fire, Thor! There are live warheads stored in this room!"

"How else are we going to stop that thing?" Keith asked as he took a quick note of his fully functioning Chrome Ranger suit. His shiny metallic armor was fully formed over his suit and his large shoulder pauldron now bore the mark of the GSA. Unlike the prior U'shan build, Keith also noticed the helmet was redesigned to match the other Odyssey Rangers and the internal HUD systems were more updated and functional.

"Don't forget, we have weapons of our own," the Green Ranger answered as she activated her Delphinus Defender bident and the weapon formed in her hand, "Let's make some designer boots out of him!"

Keith followed suit and called on his own mace weapon while Rin charged forward in an aggressive attack. She thrust her weapon forward but Razorhide curled up again and deflected the bident with his armor. She sidestepped his next tail swipe and brought her weapon around in a slashing arc, but that too was stopped and batted aside by the lizard's arm shields. He lashed out and swung them like oversized boxing gloves at her and the petite Green Ranger was barely able to raise her guard in time to block with her polearm, though the force drove her back several feet.

Before Razorhide could swing another fist, he felt his arm being caught by Thor from behind. Despite not wearing any Ranger suit or powered armor, the fearless Caltarian grappled his opponent and tried to protect his ally but the enemy gave a forceful shove and threw the security officer off of him. Just then, there was a loud clang and a shockwave as Keith rushed up from behind and struck the alien enemy from behind with his mace. There was a cloud of sparks as Keith struck again and Razorhide grunted, now realizing the flanged mace was actually doing some damage to the protective plating on his back.

"You've had your fun Chrome Ranger," the alien snorted as he batted Keith aside with his spiked tail. Rin shouted and rushed in to help, trying to thrust at Razorhide's more vulnerable inner torso, but he grabbed her bident and swung her around so she collided with Keith. "And so have you!"

The two Rangers stumbled as they ran into each other and tried to regroup, but the alien curled himself into an armored ball and rammed right into them like a rolling buzzsaw. As the three Alliance comrades lay stunned on the ground, they glanced over and saw one of the missiles in the silo shudder and move before it was transported onto another automated track and carried away. Thor shook his head out, "What was that?"

"That would be a cruise missile launching," Razorhide grinned sadistically, "My guess is Commander Nessus must be in the mood for some target practice right now."

A minute later, the missile was ferried onto a launch track and then aimed skyward toward the hollowed out mountain above. The missile fired its thrusters on a small launchpad and streaked upwards as the electromagnetic tracks held it, then propelled the projectile upward at great speed. In the bunker's command room, the other startled Odyssey Rangers watched in horror as an interstellar missile was launched and roared past them on its ascent.

Sage gasped, "What the heck was that thing? That couldn't have been a..."

"Cruise missile? Yes, Yellow Ranger. Yes it was," Nessus laughed as he paused to watch the projectile fly by on its course up the mountain, "If I were you, I would pray that the missile doesn't hit your ship. With some of the speeds those things reach, I imagine it could easily sink a destroyer... even with its shields up."

The Rangers didn't have another moment to ponder the thought as Nessus opened fire again with his arm cannons and blasted apart the rocks that the Rangers were hiding behind. Back in the missile storage chambers, Rin and Keith lay stunned on the floor while Razorhide loomed over them. The alien hefted his heavy shield arms in a threatening way and grinned, "This is it Rangers. Your fleet is doomed and so are you. I'm going to pound you into pulp and..."

"Hey, ugly! Heads up!" came Thor's voice as he rolled over on his side and hurled a pair of armed lightning grenades. Razorhide looked up in shock and raised his forearms just in time to shield himself as the charges detonated, but the alien's shields weren't as effective as he hoped either. The thunderclap sent the enemy staggering back while the cloud of electrical discharge enveloped him in searing light. Razorhide roared in pain as the electricity was conducted through his heavy armor, jolting him and blowing out critical systems in his powered armor. Razorhide fell to one knee, convulsing in pain from the burns and the electric shock, all while buying the Rangers an opportunity to regroup.

Rin hefted her bident and shook the stars from her eyes, "All right... now's our chance, but we have to get through this guy's armor first."

"I think I can help with that," Keith answered as he picked himself up and hefted his mace. Inside his helmet's HUD, he could see schematics for an improvement that Dr. Farbanti had installed in his weapon, "Stand back."

He turned the grip and flipped a switch causing the flanged mace head to detach while still being connected to the shaft via an energy chain. His mace had effectively been converted into a flail for ranged combat. Keith began to walk forward swinging his flail and gaining momentum for it. As Razorhide shook off the shock of the lightning grenades, he was suddenly pummeled when the Chrome Ranger lashed out and struck him with the flail. The sounds of ringing steel echoed as chunks of armor broke off the alien's suit leaving it more and more vulnerable from each strike. Keith pressed his attack and struck at the enemy's forearms, battering the large shields aside and chipping away the edges until it finally allowed Rin her chance to strike at the alien's soft underside.

The Green Ranger swept in and lanced the enemy in the shoulder before pulling back and slashing Razorhide back with a charged slash of the spearhead. Amid the sparks and the smoke which erupted from the suit, the wounded alien was thrown backwards onto an empty loading bay for the missiles. He choked out, "No! You can't do this to me!"

"I hate to tell you, but we already did," Thor grunted as he went over to a control panel and activated it, "See you in orbit, sucker."

Razorhide gave one last scream of impotent fury before the platform he lay on quickly swept him away to the launchpad, thinking he was the next loaded missile.

Back in the launch control platform, Commander Nessus was tossing the other Odyssey Rangers around like rag dolls. Despite their best efforts, the Rangers didn't seem able to land a solid hit on their enemy as he deflected their blaster fire and batted aside their attacks. Nessus fired another cannonade which forced Geordi and Sage to take cover while he used his other arm to block a combined strike from Aaron and Qua'lia. Their Leonine Longsword and Draco Daggers bit into his armor and lodged just deep enough to cause their weapons to get caught. Nessus growled in annoyance from the damage as he swung his arm and tossed them aside. Once free, he blasted the ground in front of the Rangers to throw them back further.

Geordi and Sage hurried over to help up their stunned comrades as they skidded to a stop on the ground. Sage pulled Aaron to his knees with a quick tug, "Are you okay?"

"I'll be better if we can find a way to knock Nessus on his ass," the Red Ranger groused as the enemy commander advanced at a leisurely pace to taunt them.

"Give it up Rangers. You can't stop me. Your powers will give out long before mine and..."

He paused as the launcher activated again and he turned to see what was going on, "That's strange. I didn't order another missile to be launched yet."

Everyone watched curiously as the electric rails charged again and began to launch another projectile upwards. Moments later, everyone heard a furious scream before witnessing a smaller figure be rocketed upwards. No sooner had the figure in mangled power armor cleared the platform, it was obliterated in a cloud of fire and shrapnel which rained down from above. Nessus blinked in shock while the Rangers gasped.

"Was that... an Imperial warrior?" Qua'lia asked with a dumbfounded tone.

"I think you're right," Geordi answered, "Was being the operative word."

Just then, the chamber doors opened again with Rin, Keith, and Thor stepping through. Sage hurried over and greeted her fellow female Ranger, "Rin! Thank goodness you're okay."

"Nice weapon," Geordi added as he also greeted Keith with a nod and pointed out the energy flail mode. The Chrome Ranger grinned.

"Thanks. It seems like we have a perfect tool to shred heavy armor now... and I see another walking tin can over there."

Nessus growled as he heard a desperate radio call suddenly in come in over his comms from his allies in space, "Commander, the fleet is being overwhelmed. We need you to evacuate to a safe location so we can retreat."

Nessus growled and finally tucked his weapons away, "Very well. Prepare the contingency plan. I'll withdraw shortly."

He turned to the Rangers and fired his jet boots to take off into the air, "Consider yourselves lucky Rangers. You may have a won a small victory here, but I'll make sure all of you pay for it. Just wait and see."

He turned and rocketed off into the air of the hollowed-out mountain to make his escape. Keith growled and gripped his mace, "Hey! He's getting away!"

"Let him go," Aaron answered calmly as he radioed the Odyssey, "Lt. Russo to the Odyssey. We've secured the missile launcher. What's going on up there Captain? We saw a projectile launched just a few minutes ago."

"We're trying to figure that out too," Raines answered back. Upon seeing a missile launch from the surface of the planet, the allied ships began to scramble but they didn't expect what happened next, "It seems like we got a little unexpected help."

Before the missile could clear Laguna's atmosphere, the mysterious scout ship that had appeared on sensors swooped in and opened fire on the missile, destroying it completely. "Don't worry about us up here. The U'shan fleet is falling back and beginning to retreat. I think we've won the battle."

"I wouldn't be too sure of that Captain," came a familiar voice as it cut in over the comm line. To everyone's surprise, it was Commander Kharon, also known as Lt. Ash Dael: Sage's older brother. Sage gasped when she heard his voice on the comms.

"Ash? Is that you? I... what are you doing here?"

Ash flew his stealth shuttle and angled it back down into the planet's atmosphere, "Forgive me for hacking your comm line Captain Raines. I'm here on important business."

"Says a traitor to the Alliance. You've got thirty seconds to explain yourself or I'm going to order one of our fighter squadrons there to take you out," Raines warned in a stern tone.

Ash snorted, "You still misunderstand Captain. I'm here to save the Alliance... and the U'shan Empire, but that requires our entry into Imperial space. I need your help, and if that means I can help my sister too, then all the better."

Sage felt herself getting lightheaded, "Ash... this is crazy. Whatever is going on, just stop this already! Give yourself up and let us help you. Please come home!"

"Not yet Sage. You know the Alliance itself can't be trusted so I have to do this my own way," he answered in a surprisingly gentle tone, "You know the option is still open. You could come with me."

"Part of me wishes I could, but I can't... Sage answered with a conflicted voice, "My duty is to the Rangers, and to doing things the right way. Please Ash..."

There was a long pause before his voice replied, "I've detected that the Imperial forces have activated a large battle droid on the surface... most likely to destroy the missile launcher in case of their defeat. I suggest you deal with it accordingly."

The line cut out as he turned his stealth craft around and withdrew from the field. Before leaving, he transmitted the signal beacon of where the U'shan war machine was now rising to deny the enemy their prize. Captain Raines scowled and glanced at the space battle which was now winding down over Laguna before he heard Sera speak up over the comm line, "Captain Raines? We're picking up the same signal here. Are you thinking the same thing I am?"

Raines nodded grimly and kept his eyes on the planet, "Yes, Your Highness. Deploy the Odyssey Megazord."