Via Pacifica: Olympia Sector
Arcadian System, 10:45 hours

A fierce space battle was already raging above the planet of Arcadia as the small Star League task force battled the Imperial reinforcements led by the menacing battleship named Kraken. Despite the allies defensive formation, the Kraken plowed forward with a fierce barrage of cannon fire hoping to break their line. One of the larger coalition ships held its ground near the center of the line, the heavy Korinthian ship Hoplon under the command of Prince Benedict.

The Hoplon changed course and moved to cover the more vulnerable Acropolis carrier from the Kraken's onslaught. As they came about, Benedict watched from his command station as the Hoplon remained true to Korinthian doctrine of staying in tight disciplined formation while pelting the enemy vessel with a barrage of fire. "Hold position and maintain fire," the prince called, "We'll shield the Acropolis from enemy fire and live up to our namesake."

The crew of the Hoplon began to answer when the Kraken suddenly replied with a torpedo salvo of their own. The hail of bright glowing warheads bombarded the Hoplon and violently rattled it as the blasts impacted against the Korinthians' defenses. Despite the Hoplon's heavy armor and shielding, the hail of torpedoes slammed into the ship and sent shockwaves through it, buckling the shields in several areas. A pair of the warheads scored direct hits on the Hoplon's forward shields near the bridge causing energy surges through several decks.

As a few consoles on the bridge exploded, several ceiling panels were blown out in a cloud of sparks. Everyone on the Hoplon's bridge gave a startled gasp as one of the falling metal panels hit Prince Benedict from above and knocked the prince to the floor. Amid the minor damage to the command deck, several officers rushed over to help their fallen prince as he lay unconscious on the deck, bleeding from a cut on his head. The ship's acting captain immediately assumed command and radioed the Odyssey, "This is Captain Milos of the Hoplon. Requesting fire support from the Odyssey. Prince Benedict has been hurt."

"Acknowledged Hoplon. We're on the way," Hawa answered on the comm as she relayed the message to her own captain.

Moments later, Captain Raines directed the Odyssey to fly in a flanking maneuver to split the Kraken's fire and draw it away from their ally. Even with the divided attention, the Odyssey's shields strained against the incoming fire from the Kraken. As the ship rattled again, Hawa gritted her teeth, "Forward shields are down to thirty five percent. Minor hull damage to decks 7 through 9 starboard side. Captain, we're punching a little bit above our weight class here."

Raines nodded as the Odyssey returned fire against the larger heavier enemy battleship. "Helm, evasive maneuvers. Try to keep us at the edge of the Kraken's firing arcs."

From her station, Tiah spoke up, "Captain? I might have an idea to stall the enemy and keep us from getting pummeled too hard."

"I'm all ears Petty Officer, let's hear it," Raines answered as he ordered a torpedo salvo.

The engineer from Mirinoi wiped some nervous sweat from her brow, "Sir… what if we reconfigure our tractor beams and pull some of the Kraken's cannons off target? It should give us an edge and take some heat off our allies too. I just need two minutes."

Raines smiled and gave a tense nod of approval, "Great idea Tiah. Make it happen, and be quick about it!"

"Aye aye Captain!" she answered as she hastily got to work keying in new commands to her console.

Raines waved his crew on, "Reroute auxiliary power to reinforce our shields! Let's hope the Rangers are having better luck down below."

Meanwhile on the planetside, the newly morphed Rangers charged into battle against the U'shan general as the clock continued to tick down in the foundry. Aaron and Rin led the charge and thrusted with their weapons but their blows were swept aside by the tonfa rifles of Nessus. No sooner had they been parried away, the Yellow and Pink Rangers struck next with their boomerang blade and daggers. Like the others, their attacks were foiled as Nessus raised his personal force shields and used it to deflect their weapon strikes away. He turned his tonfa blasters on them and fired but Sage and Qua'lia tumbled away to get clear of the plasma bolts. As Nessus raked the ground with fire, his shields were struck again from the flank as Geordi leveled his bowgun and unloaded bursts of fire on his enemy.

The cyborg commander turned his guns on the Blue Ranger but one of his tonfas was snared by the energy flail from the Chrome Ranger who attacked from the opposite flank. Keith tugged hard and lowered Nessus's guard enough for Aaron and Rin to strike again with a dual slash but their weapons only did minor damage to the villain's heavy armor and shields. Nessus snarled and used his armored suit's greater strength to pull Keith around toward him, "Nice try Ranger!"

The Chrome Ranger gasped in surprise as he was suddenly pulled by his flail and whipped around to collide with Aaron and Rin. The three Rangers fell over into a heap while Nessus threatened to trample them underfoot. His foot was stopped by Qua'lia and Sage but their attempt to aid their friends backfired as Nessus swept his tonfa around and batted both of the girls aside. As the others recovered, Aaron was first to rise to a crouch and pull his blaster pistol, firing at close range. "Hey, back off, metal head!"

The blaster shots bounced off of the cyborg's shield and weakened it further but Nessus turned his cannons on the Rangers and opened fire, blowing them all backwards in a fiery blast of explosive force. Nessus laughed and strode forward while cocking his weapons, "Pathetic. Looks like you Rangers were all talk."

"Leave them alone!" he heard a female voice shout as he suddenly turned to face Princess Sera. The Princess of Arcadia held her sun globe with an angry expression and the artifact flared to life with furious light as she directed rays of gravity toward her target, "I won't let you harm any more people, blueskin!"

Nessus roared in fury as his limbs were restrained by golden bands of gravity energy. As the psychic energy began to constrict the general with crushing force, Sera used her powers to throw Nessus against the walls and floor of the foundry entrance. Amid the pummeling, Nessus saw his shields wear away along with small fractures starting to form in his armor plating. Sera remained focused on her enemy and continued to try and crush him but Nessus surprised her with one more trick. Although he could not move, he used his booster rockets on his boots to propel him forward in an attempted flying tackle. The princess gasped and tumbled to the ground to avoid the collision but she let up on her attack as well.

Nessus broke free and trained his tonfa guns on her, "You were a fool to risk yourself for those Rangers, princess. Now you're going to pay for that mistake!"

From the ground, the vulnerable Sera watched in wide eyed horror as she faced down the barrels of the blaster rifles. Nessus was never able to take the shot as a barrage of powerful ion disruptor bolts struck him from above. Everyone turned in shock as a new combatant entered the battlefield to assist. In a cloud of smoke, a familiar figure in black powered armor landed nearby and brandished an energy scythe. Ash Dael scoffed, "Still as overconfident as ever Nessus... even with a new body."

The U'shan general recovered his stance and growled as he saw his blaster cannons had been disabled, "Kharon! I've been waiting for you to show your treacherous face! I'll deal with you first and then finish those Ranger pests!"

He jetted forward and swung his tonfas at Ash, but the Black Knight parried him aside and struck a blow along his enemy's side using his scythe. Both generals collided and continued exchanging blows while Sera rushed over to help the stunned Rangers to their feet.

"No way," Qua'lia panted as she picked herself up off the ground and watched Nessus fighting Ash, "I can't believe he's helping us again."

Everyone paused and heard Nessus give a pained cry of fury as Ash slashed him across the torso. Nessus reeled amid a cloud of sparks and shrapnel as his force shield and parts of his chest plating were broken apart. With Sera's help, Nessus now looked like he might be vulnerable.

Geordi shook the stars from his vision, "Whatever the case, I'd be more concerned that our weapons weren't strong enough to break through Nessus's defenses. He's still got a lot of armor."

"Geo's right," Keith mumbled as he gripped his flail and caught his breath, "We've thrown everything we have and it still wasn't enough."

"Maybe not everything," Aaron said as he took up his blade and held it in a defensive stance, "We've thrown everything we have… but we haven't done it together."

It took a moment for it to register with some of the other Rangers before Sage nodded in understanding, "Like what we did against that giant cyclops on Charybdos?"

Rin gave an eager smile and turned toward Sera, "What do you say Princess? You think you can fuse our weapons together once more to help us take this guy down?"

Sera gripped her globe and took a deep breath before answering in the affirmative, "I'll do my best."

The Rangers fanned out around Sera to protect her as she focused her will through the globe and made it shine brighter. Just like in the temple on Charybdos, tendrils of golden light and gravity energy began to radiate out, suffusing each of the Rangers' weapons and drawing them together. One by one, their glowing weapons transfigured themselves and fused together to form the same large blaster cannon that they had used against a greater foe.

As Ash began to grapple with the cyborg enemy, they both turned in surprise watching the six Rangers gather around their even greater weapon and take up spots to aim it. Each of the Rangers braced themselves and leveled the weapon on their enemy as it began to charge. "This is your last chance Nessus," Sera called out, "Don't be a fool!"

"I'll never surrender to you," he shouted back as he struggled against Sage's brother, "Let go of me you traitor!"

"I was a fool not to finish you off before," Ash said as he gripped his opponent's arms and kept him locked in place, "But I'm not going to make that same mistake twice."

Just as the combined cannon charged up completely, Ash let go and dove clear leaving Nessus directly in the center of the Rangers' crosshairs.

"Constellation Cannon. Stars aligned," the six Rangers called as they activated their weapon, "Open fire!"

They pulled the trigger and a powerful burst of light and energy erupted from the cannon. In the split second he had, Nessus tried to raise the remnants of his force shield. The energy beam blasted the force field apart and the cyborg commander gave a howl of surprise and rage. In an instant, the blast punched through his heavily protected suit of powered armor causing secondary explosions to tear through it. The very second that the beam of the Constellation Cannon subsided, Commander Nessus was engulfed in a spectacular fireball and utterly obliterated.

The Odyssey Rangers and their allies all gave relieved sighs as one of their most hated enemy generals was now completely vanquished. Even while the smoke and fire subsided from the blast, flaming debris and scrap metal remains of the cyborg commander rained down on the battlefield. No sooner had they lowered the cannon, Qua'lia pointed toward the foundry in sudden realization, "Everyone! We have to hurry. Nessus said that reactor core is still rigged to blow."

Ash tilted his own head in surprise and glanced over to Sage as she began to stride forward and greet him. He held up a hand to his sister and spoke gently, "Not now Sage. It seems there's still work to do."

The allies all entered the foundry and made their way toward the main control panel where the giant cannon reactor core was being housed. Even the Rangers couldn't help but gawk and marvel at the impressive size of the device. Once the shock wore off, a greater feeling of dread set in as they realized just how destructive it would be if this generator were to go off. Geordi was the first one to the panel and he quickly studied the system configurations on the main console. Rin stirred nervously, "Well Geo... what do you think? Can you make any sense of this thing?"

The Blue Ranger shook his head and pointed to the warning clock which read ten minutes in counting before a reactor meltdown would occur, "I don't know. This kind of tech is a little beyond my knowledge and I don't have enough time to study it."

"Don't worry Geo. I think I know someone who might be able to help," Aaron said as he reached his comm, "Lt. Russo to the Odyssey. Nessus has been destroyed and the reactor has been secured... but we have a little problem."

"What's the issue Lieutenant? We've got our hands a little full up here," Raines answered with a tense edge in his voice as he tried not to get too distracted in the midst of the space battle above.

The Red Ranger winced as Rin grabbed his wrist and interjected, "It looks like Nessus set the reactor to self destruct... and it might blow a huge chunk of the planet up with it."

"WHAT?" Raines shouted in alarm along with half of his bridge crew

"We need someone who might be skilled enough to override it," Aaron said quickly, "Maybe Dr. Farbanti can help us? We have just under ten minutes left before this thing goes supernova, sir."

Captain Raines and Hawa both exchanged a look of stunned silence before he cleared his throat and nodded, "Hawa, get Amira and prepare for transport. Standby Rangers. Help is on the way."

Soon enough, there was a glimmer of light as Amira was transported down to the foundry warehouse where the Rangers stood, all of them powered down once more. She took a few deep breaths and forced her queasiness down under a look of dead seriousness. Amira carried a small engineer tool case and readied the instruments on her bionic forearm, "Rangers. I was told you needed some engineering expertise?"

"In this case, bomb squad is more like it but that works too," Keith quipped darkly as they pointed her to the control panel. Everyone stood back and watched in relative silence as Amira strode forward and quickly went to work. The timer continued to count down as the young woman swiftly scanned schematic diagrams while her fingers flew over the console inputting command codes.

Sage nervously asked Qua'lia, "Any idea what she's going?"

"Not a clue," the Pink Ranger murmured as the clock ticked down to near four minutes.

Back above in the planet's orbit, the Odyssey rattled under a glancing blow as sparks and secondary system consoles blew out around the ship. An officer called over to Raines, "Captain... forward and ventral shields are nearly gone. Plasma relay coils on decks 4 and 5 have been damaged and it's bleeding power from the beam cannons."

Raines growled, realizing that he was running out of time and if he didn't act soon, his ship would start taking severe damage. He looked toward the Engineering station, "Tiah, overcharge our remaining cannons and see if you can't use our tractor beams offensively on the Kraken's guns."

The engineer blinked in surprise, "Captain?"

"Have a little faith in me everyone. Helm, adjust course and engage the Kraken, maneuver pattern Beta-Epsilon-Iota. Guns, target the enemy's weapon grid."

Tiah held her breath and directed the Odyssey's tractor beams to pull on the starboard gun batteries of the Kraken. Several of the enemy turrets twisted off target while others began to shear from the hull under the forceful pull of the beams. While the tractors were rarely ever used in any offensive capacity, a desperate moment like this seemed like it warranted the risk. As the Odyssey adjusted course at a steep angle toward the enemy battleship, it fired its overcharged guns and watched as the beams punched through the Kraken's shields and damaged its weapon control station.

The wounded battleship veered away in surprise and began to retreat from the Alliance cruiser as Hawa called out from her console, "New subspace transmission is coming in from Xerxes himself warning the Imperial fleet to withdraw. He says the planet is going to explode."

"That's the best worst news I've heard all day," Raines retorted sardonically as Tiah called out.

"Captain, I've got your second best-worst news. Weapons are down and several more plasma coils have just been blown out. Minor hull damage and fires reported on 3 more decks. No casualties."

The battered and weary coalition fleet watched in relief as the U'shan vessels disengaged and quickly broke orbit to retreat back into warp space. The crew of the Odyssey let out their collective breaths for a moment before Hawa put on her headset again, "Rangers, the enemy has retreated from Arcadian airspace. Please tell us there's going to be a ground left for us to land on down there."

Back in the foundry, everyone watched tensely as Amira worked to stop the reactor core breach. Seconds continued to tick away as she remained laser focused on her work. She had seen the way the crew of the Odyssey had acquitted themselves in the heat of tense battles and situations and she wanted to be the same type of calm in the eye of the storm. Even as the Odyssey's message came in, everyone remained deathly silent as Amira hurried to beat the clock. By now, less than three minutes remained. She had broken through Nessus's security firewall and now methodically labored to stabilize all the sections of the reactor which had been thrown into disarray.

Without enough time, she had made a few educated guesses about the reactor layout and saw that she now had barely a minute and a half to go. At this point, all she could do was guess and hope that she had covered all the major system paths. Tick-tick-tick.

She laid in the last line of command codes and entered them knowing that when she hit enter, it would either stop the clock, or blow them all to kingdom come. Tick-tick-tick.

Amira's finger hovered over the enter key as the clock went below one minutes at rapid speed with red warning flashes. She closed her eyes and sucked in a breath as she pressed the key waiting for something to happen.

In that second which felt like an eternity, Amira cracked open her eyes from the silent darkness and saw that she was not in fact dead and that that planet of Arcadia was still very much intact. The timer had stopped and all systems had returned to green status indicating safe normal functioning. She was barely able to stand on her feet as she croaked out, "By the gods... I think I did it!"

Princess Sera, the Odyssey Rangers, and even Ash all expressed their relief and joy with a mixture of cheers, giddy laughter, high fives, and hugs. Keith and Qua'lia both caught Amira and steadied her as the Chrome Ranger radioed in, "Come in Odyssey... Dr. Farbanti did it! The reactor is safe and so is everyone else here."

A loud cheer from the ship's crew was heard on the other end of the line as the Rangers all turned to see crowds of native Arcadians arrive to the foundry to see their princess and celebrate their liberation. Sera stood in awe as her people made way and looked on her and the Rangers like some divine saviors of old. The princess was immediately mobbed by her people as they heaped welcomes, praise, and gratitude on her.

While the other Rangers moved to join Sera, Sage stopped short and looked to her brother who was standing apart from the crowd. By now, the Black Knight had returned his weapons and there seemed to be a tacit agreement that the other Star League troopers there would not threaten him either. The Yellow Ranger reached out a hand, "Ash… thank you again for helping us today."

He nodded quietly, "You didn't think I'd let Nessus harm you… did you?"

She shook her head, "No. Of course not. But now that he's dead, I have to ask again… come with me back to the Odyssey. We'll sort things out and I'll make Captain Raines listen. He's a good officer and I'm sure he'll understand if we plead our case."

Despite having his face hidden behind his helmet's visor, Ash lowered his head slightly and shook it, "I'm sorry Sage. You know I can't… not yet anyway. This war will be over soon and I want to go home with you to Mirinoi. You have my promise on that. I just need you to trust me."

He tentatively reached out and touched his sister's cheek, "Go now Sage. Your friends need you and so does the fleet."

She backed away feeling torn and frustrated that she couldn't do much else right now. Before she could speak more, Ash pressed a small remote device at his belt and Sage watched in dismay as her brother transported himself away to his stealth ship hovering nearby as it decloaked. Sage gave another deep sigh as she watched the ship turn and rocket away into the heavens making its escape from Arcadia. As she watched the sun come through and victoriously light up the blue skies above, she felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see that it was Aaron who came to comfort her.

"Your brother did good today Sage. Maybe there's some hope for him after all."

The Yellow Ranger gave a weak smile and shrugged, "I just wish he'd give up this crusade. Think of all the good he could do if he just came home. We could be a family again and he could even help you clear your family name.

Aaron nodded grimly and gave her shoulder a little squeeze, "If there is a cabal of corrupt officials in the GSA, part of me can't blame Ash for going rogue and taking extreme measures. But if we're going to set things right, we have to do it the right way. If we Rangers abandoned our own rules and codes, then we'd be no better than the enemies we've fought up to now. I just pray Ash doesn't do anything he'll really regret in the future."

Sage bit her lip in reluctant agreement, "I know... I just hope it doesn't come to that either."

By now, the cheering crowd began to grow in size and get louder. Amid the joyful celebration, Geordi and Qua'lia came over wearing smiles on their faces as they shared a laugh, "Hey you two, why the long faces? We just saved the world and liberated Arcadia."

The Yellow Ranger smiled warmly and began to chuckle as she shared hugs with Geordi and Qua'lia, "You're right. We should start celebrating, huh?"

Before Aaron could go and join them, he was surprised to see the freighter Lusty Scoundrel arrive and touch down away from the crowd in the nearby industrial yard. It quickly docked and the entry hatch flew open only to have Skyler Orion stride down the gangplank. The smuggler gave a casual swagger and wore a breezy smile as she approached the Red Ranger, "Seems like I'm a little late to the party. I guess we're not doomed after all."

"Skyler? What are you doing here?" he asked in genuine surprise.

She put one hand on her hip and offered a liquor bottle with her other hand as she kept walking, "I came to help evacuate you Rangers... but seeing as how everything is in hand, I'm here to bring the party."

He grinned, "You really came back to help us? That's surprisingly selfless and brave of you. I don't know what to say."

"You can start with thank you," Skyler winked before softening a little more, "Commander Jakende gave us transport pilots warnings that the planet might go up in flames... so, I figured I'd try to give you guys a lift and make a run for it."

He teased her gently, "With no financial reward this time? So you do care about us, don't you?"

Skyler gave a mild huff and shoved the bottle in his hands, "Most of you Rangers anyway. Now come on, let's wish the princess well and celebrate. You can pay me back later by buying my first four rounds at the after-party."

As she was lifted up on people's shoulders and cheered, Princess Sera looked on with a bright smile and waved. The light of the sun was streaming down over her liberated world and she knew that this was the moment she had been waiting for. Despite all the fears, struggles, and uncertainties, she and the Rangers had endured. they had forged alliances and joined people in a common cause. They had survived many dangerous battles, and now they brought hope to their worlds that this conflict would soon be over. It was there and now that Princess Sera knew who she was and what she had to do in the future. This was where she was meant to be and it was good to return to her rightful home once again.

A/N:
Don't worry readers, this was not the last battle or the Finale. We've still got one major showdown left to go and a giant Death Star type cannon to be rid of. After one more breather chapter coming up, I'll try to get to the final battle and finish this series within the month. As always, thanks for sticking around!