Via Pacifica: Cydonia System
A.N.S. Odyssey, 11:00 hours

Operation Breakwater

The next morning, the Odyssey raced through warpspace with the Albion and the Acropolis toward their destination of Cydonia. As they dropped out of warp near the planet, the Rangers surveyed the situation from the Odyssey's bridge. Before them was a small reddish brown planet with patches of snow and ice. In many ways, the cold rocky terrain reminded the Terran crewmen aboard of the planet Mars back in their own home solar system.

Aaron looked up from the tactical monitors and gave his report to the captain, "Sir, we have multiple enemy contacts. Seven troop transport ships and three escort frigates."

"It must be the first wave of the invasion force," Hawa chimed in nearby, "Those frigates would be suicidal to stand and fight."

Captain Raines nodded grimly from his command chair, "Agreed. Let's scatter them and evacuate the people before the enemy calls in some capital ships. Lt. Russo, have forward beam cannons target the lead frigate and open fire."

The Odyssey took the lead of the formation and fired several concentrated plasma beams at the first enemy frigate within sight. The beams rocked the U'shan vessels shields before the last one punched through and opened up a gaping hole in the port side of its hull. The surprised enemy ships broke formation and quickly took evasive action fleeing from the more powerful trio of coalition ships coming through.

"We've wounded one of them and the rest are bugging out," Hawa announced with an encouraged smile, "Should we pursue?"

Raines shook his head, "No. Let's get moving and start getting the civilians below to safety. They should be holed up in the fortified colony of Bastion. Tiah?"

From the Engineering station, the blonde petty officer from Mirinoi looked over in concern, "Captain, sending our people down might be risky right now. I'm picking up a large number of enemy troops on the ground laying siege to the colony."

"Understood. Rangers, we'll need you to clear the way for our evac units," Raines answered looking to them on the bridge, "Get going and prepare to beam down first."

"We're on it. Let's go everyone," the Red Ranger called as he gathered his teammates and rushed to the transporters.

Meanwhile down below on the surface of the planet, a number of U'shan Dragoons were already engaged in a firefight with the Cydonian colonists who had hunkered down into the well-protected citadel known as the Bastion. Although the colonists were outgunned and out-manned, they enjoyed the advantage of hiding in a small fortress built atop a tall rocky mesa. The nearby mining town and facilities had already been evacuated and all the other civilians had taken refuge in the walled fortress town waiting for help. For now at least, it looked like they were keeping the Imperials at bay... until the arrival of two new leaders.

Commander Nessus arrived and surveyed the siege line from a distance while he was accompanied by a mercenary warrior in Imperial employ. The large dark skinned alien wore a suit of heavy powered armor with hydraulic jackhammer weapons attached to the arms while the nose of the warrior's helmet was equipped with a large conical drill. Nessus crossed his arms in bored amusement as he watched the Dragoons probe the rocky defenses of the Bastion. "It looks like the mining people are well entrenched. I hope that's not a problem for you Tekton."

The mercenary laughed and powered on his drill and jackhammers, "No Commander. Those earthworks won't last five minutes if I get a crack at it."

Nessus checked his chronometer and sighed, "Well... make it quick. I've got word that Alliance forces have entered the system. No doubt they're going to be here soon."

"Hmm... I could use an extra bonus money for this job. There's a good bounty out for those Rangers," Tekton noted as he advanced forward toward the siege line.

Nessus shook his head, "Leave the Rangers to me. If you must fight them, then don't mess around. Destroying the Bastion's forward defenses is your priority."

The mercenary grumbled and continued on until he reached the edge of the siege line where the advance Dragoons were taking cover in the shallow ditch. Tekton plodded forward to the first of the rocky fortifications and didn't flinch at all as the fire of the colonists' weaker laser rifles pelted him and deflected harmlessly off his armor. Once he reached the base of the Bastion's first line walls, Tekton drilled into the rocky wall with his nose attachment. Even as the colonists rained down fire on him, Tekton calmly removed the drill, then used his jackhammer arm weapons to batter the weakened spot on the wall. The fortifications shook and rumbled as large cracks began to form and spread along the length of the wall. A few of the defenders who were manning the wall gave frightened cries and fled their positions moments before Bastion's first line of earthwork defenses collapsed to rubble.

Tekton gave a satisfied snort to himself and continued forward toward the secondary wall. Once he breached the inner wall, the civilians inside would be fair game. As he led a group of Dragoons forward, they were stopped as several figures were beamed down in front of them. As the light faded, the enemy troops saw a group of armed GSA security officers standing in their way led by the six Odyssey Rangers.

"That's far enough needle nose," Qua'lia called out as the Alliance marines led by Thor raised their own rifles from behind her.

"And just who are you jokers supposed to be?" Tekton asked in annoyance.

Aaron smiled and brandished his morpher with the others, "What do you say we introduce ourselves? Everyone? Odyssey Morphers, lock in!"

"Stellar Shift!" answered the others as the U'shan were blinded by a bright flash of colored light.

The six Rangers burst from the nimbus of light and leapt forward to pounce on the enemy while their GSA allies opened fire. The Dragoons were caught completely flat footed as several of them were struck by Alliance fire or bowled over by the Rangers. Aaron and Keith moved first to clear a path through the enemy troops. As Aaron used martial arts to batter several Dragoons into submission, Keith called his mace to his hand and immediately activated its secondary mode. The Chrome Ranger flicked his wrist and lashed out with several deft swings to sweep aside the enemy troops with his energy flail.

Nearby, Tekton activated his weapons with a growl and raised his arms to meet the counterattack from his other foes. He parried an attack from Sage as she leapt by with a slash from her xiphos short sword before he spun around to meet Rin and Geordi as they pulled their blaster pistols and opened fire. Tekton shielded himself from the bolts with his jackhammers before plunging them into the ground.

"You'd better back off Rangers because you're on very shaky ground!" he said before activating his weapons and causing the earth to rumble.

Fissures and cracks opened up in a wave which sprayed rocks and gravel everywhere. The Green and Blue Rangers tumbled away to get clear but still fell over from the rumbling ground while Qua'lia leapt high into the air calling her Draco Daggers to her hands. As the Pink Odyssey Ranger landed in front of the alien, he gave a derisive snort, "You think I'm scared of those little kitchen knives? My jackhammers are three times bigger!"

"You should be scared," Qua'lia answered as she surprised him with a flurry of vicious slashes and thrusts, "Because these knives are a lot faster than you too!"

Tekton grunted as he was driven back by the multiple dagger strikes. Had he been wearing lighter armor, he would be in trouble because she was right. His armor was too slow and cumbersome to fight her swift weapons at such close range. The Pink Ranger kicked him back again and damaged the suit with a well placed slash cutting power to his hydraulic jackhammers. The injured mercenary recoiled and flew back from another strike as the other Rangers now regrouped around Qua'lia to help her.

"Idiot," came a familiar voice as several powerful energy blasts struck the ground in front of the Rangers. Tekton looked up in a daze and saw Nessus approach with his energy cannons drawn, "You ruined your weapons. Fall back now and we'll continue the attack later."

When the smoke and debris cleared from the air, the Odyssey Rangers saw Tekton retreating back to the siege line with Nessus. They had halted the attack for now, but it was only a matter of time before they'd strike again. Thor waved his rifle angrily and shouted after them, "Come back here and fight, you cowards! We're not through with you yet!"

"I think we are Thor," Qua'lia corrected him with a short tone as she recalled her daggers, "Our job here is to get the people to safety. Not pick fights."

Rin and Geordi exchanged puzzled looks before Aaron cleared his throat and radioed the ship, "Russo to Odyssey, The Imperial assault has been driven back for now. I can't say for how long, but we should be clear to start evacuation of the colonists."

"Acknowledged Lieutenant. Start organizing the people and stand by. We'll be underway shortly," Hawa answered from the other end of the comms.

By now, some of the defenders of the Bastion were coming out of hiding to greet the Rangers. Geordi scratched his head, "So... what now?"

Keith gave a wry chuckle and dusted off his Ranger suit, "What else? We go introduce ourselves."

As the colony began to be evacuated, Princess Sera watched the progress from the bridge of the refurbished Acropolis. She knew that a small force of enemy invaders had been driven off for now, but it was certain more would be come in time. She knew the Rangers were coordinating the rescue of the colonists on the ground while Captains Raines and Regan were keeping the skies clear of any enemy reinforcements. She wished she could help more, only she wasn't sure what else she could do at the moment. Her parents had become uneasy again when she volunteered for this new mission and that weighed on her mind. She was happy to lend the extra space of the Acropolis for the refugees but there was little else for her to do. The Rangers didn't need her to send out the zords and she didn't know how much else she would be able to contribute from orbit. She didn't have the experience of those like Captains Raines and Regan when it came to naval battle tactics or coordinating efforts from space. She was still essentially just a civilian leader... a politician heading a warship of her own and making it up as she went along.

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted when one of the comm officers spoke up, "Princess Sera? There's a message coming in for you from Elysium. It's on a private channel."

"I'll take it in my quarters. Thank you," she said stepping off into a side room to take the private call. She sat down at an access terminal and was surprised to see the faces of her mother and father, the king and queen of Arcadia. "Father? Mother? What's going on? What are you doing here?"

"We wanted to ask you the same thing," King Telesto said levelly, "You left the starbase so quickly and without telling us more about this mission. You have to understand that we were worried."

"Everything is fine for now," Sera sighed patiently, "We're orbiting the planet of Cydonia and we're working to transport up the rest of the colonists there. There's concern that the Empire might be attacking the planet soon."

The queen grimaced, "We know you're serious about trying to help your Ranger friends dear, but we just wish there was another, less dangerous way to do it."

"I don't think we should be having this argument again right now," Sera insisted, "You know the Rangers might need me here. Besides, what kind of future ruler would I be if I didn't learn to be strong and lead by example? Isn't that something you taught me?"

"Of course, but this is a little different," her father said, "You're our only child. What if something happened to you on one of your missions? Your Ranger friends and those in the GSA have been exceptional guardians, but only they can do so much too. Think of your people if something terrible happened to you."

"Until everyone is safe and we have our homeworld back, I guess it's a chance I'll have to take," she said stubbornly, "I have to find my own way to serve the greater good of our people."

The queen sighed, "Sera... we think there is a way you can serve, but away from the front line. Your father and I have been discussing it and we want to talk to you about it when you return. Will you promise to come back home soon and just listen to us?"

Sera grimaced slightly before giving a nod. They were her parents and she loved them. She owed them that much, "Of course Mother. I promise I'll be careful. Until then... we have work to do here."

She cut the transmission and sat back in her chair with a deep sigh. She didn't know what was so important that her parents wanted to discuss, but it was probably best to take it one step at a time. She got up from her chair and began walking for the door, hoping she could find some way to help out and stay busy.

On the surface of Cydonia, the Odyssey Rangers and several other crewmen from the Odyssey and the Albion were busy coordinating groups of colonists to be beamed up or lifted back to the ships via transport craft. The large walled settlement had let in their Alliance rescuers and were now coming out into the narrow stone carved streets carrying anything and everything they could on their backs. Many of the miners and commoners were dressed in very warm modest robes and shabby cloaks due to the very cool temperature of the planet. Only now were the Rangers (save for Geordi) beginning to feel the chill in the air as they hadn't prepared for the environment in their rush to get down here. Amid the crowds of people being herded on the narrow streets, Thor pushed through and passed by a makeshift landing pad where people were being beamed up in groups. The Caltarian saw a pair of Alliance marines doing their best to keep order while Aaron was cursing loudly in frustration about some other logistical issue that had come up on the ship.

Thor continued on, passing a few more miners and a transport shuttle take off from a crowded plaza before he spotted the person he was looking for. He saw Qua'lia directing traffic and radio in for another shuttle from the Albion. Once clear, he crossed the plaza and approached the Pink Ranger, "Qua'lia... there you are."

"I'm a little busy right now Thor. What is it?" she asked as she checked a few items off a datapad in her hand.

Thor paused a moment, suddenly unsure of how to answer, "Oh... well... I suppose I just wanted to make sure everything was okay."

"Everything is fine here," she answered, "I've got another shuttle coming in eight minutes and..."

"No. I meant between... err... us. You seemed like you were upset at me," he said, "Or that you still are."

Qua'lia stopped and blinked at him in surprise, "Thor, I... I'm not sure this is the right time or place..."

"Why not? We're friends aren't we?" he said, "If there's a problem, then it's going to affect the way we operate in the field and I want to make things right. If I said something that upset you... then, I'm sorry... for whatever it was."

"You don't even know?" she asked incredulously, "The other night, you said I was being selfish for my reasons to leave home and join the GSA. No more selfish than you wanting to go and have a chance to fight others to the death. If you haven't noticed, I'm a Ranger now. I've put my neck on the line for millions of people throughout this entire campaign!"

"I know I probably could have phrased it better," Thor admitted, "I didn't mean any offense. I was simply making an observation."

"It felt like you were judging me," she frowned.

"No more than I felt you were judging my people's ways," Thor answered with a slight defensive edge in his voice, "Just because we have different mindsets about being useful to others means I'm wrong either."

Qua'lia paused and relented a little bit, "I... suppose you have a point there too. So... I'm sorry about that too. But I did mean what I said about there being other things worth living for too."

He blinked with a puzzled expression causing the Pink Ranger to shake her head with a sigh, "Just keep thinking about it. We've got a lot to do right now and this probably isn't the best time for that conversation."

"Oh? Right. Okay." Thor said in confusion as he turned to walk off and get back to his own work, "I suppose we'll talk later."