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Chapter 63 – Heroes Of Our Time
The Aegis Rangers had gathered together, with Kay and Rensa searching their friends out as per Zhane's advice and had received the expected message summoning the seven of them to the Command Centre that was Karone's Inner Sanctum shortly thereafter, arriving at exactly the same time as Justin who gave the Rangers, Mercy specifically a warm yet reserved wave in greeting before the eight of them entered the Inner Sanctum in tense silence as any circumstances that would see them gathered here would naturally mean that there was no time for idle chatter.
The sight of an emissary of the people of Furrous, the same supposedly almost extinct race that had produced Goldar appearing before them in the full regalia of their station via a holographic transmission garnered an immediate and instinctive reaction from many of those present, only Aslaug and Rensa being unconcerned as they simply lacked the context to understand the strangeness or importance of the sight whilst many of their friends were simply left in various degrees of disbelief though Mercy and Justin found themselves stiffening and braced for whatever may come instinctively.
"Rangers" Karone's voice cut through the tension and the Aegis Rangers saw, taking notice for the first time that she was flanked by Billy, Zhane and Justin "This is Aye-Anor, emissary of the people of Furrous; his people have contacted us seeking aid"
"Indeed" the primal and bestial, yet still refined and clearly intelligent alien rumbled "Pirates and raiders are, even at this moment using the weapons of the Dark Empire to rampage through my city, cutting down any who oppose them as they search for relics to deliver to the Great Enemy….We lack the warriors to defend ourselves, we are being overwhelmed"
"Just hold on" Mercy broke her silence, deep brown eyes filled with fiery and unflinching determination as her hands balled into fists "Help is on the way….we'll be there as soon as we can, just have all of your people who can't fight retreat to somewhere safe" those members of Mission Control had been present for the pre-recorded message from Aye-Anor prior to this transmission, all of them except Justin found themselves suddenly unable to meet one another's gaze as they were shown beyond all doubt what calibre of heroes their Rangers were.
"I thank you, there are no words-" before Aye-Anor could fully begin to abase himself before those who came to his aid the entire holographic image flickered and lost cohesion for several moments and the sound of weapons being unleashed filled the air. When the clarity of the translucent image was restored all present were treated to the sight of Aye-Anor letting our a fierce, throaty roar before donning an ornate headpiece of some glistening metal, its' surface set with gemstones and a broad, fan-like array of wide and rigid iridescent feathers reaching upwards from its' surface before he drew a large, equally ornate halberd with a curved blade
"Aye-Anor, what's happening?" Zhane demanded
"The attackers have breached the Conclave" the alien growled "I am no great warrior….But I will not stand idle; Rangers, I pray we meet on the field of battle before it is too late" and then, with no further discussion to be had the transmission ended and a single moment of icy, unspeakable dread hung in the air before Mercy shattered the silence with her urgency
"We have to help them!"
"We will" Karone assured them "But getting to Furrous is not so easy….Billy?"
"Teleporting to the planet would normally require a relic from the planet though Aye-Anor provided us with something equivalent to an access code before you arrived, Justin look at this for me" the former Blue Power Ranger's voice was a frantic mumble yet Justin complied without comment, his own voice dropping to a similar hushed and hurried series of barely discernable technical jargon until finally he spoke aloud
"Okay, I can reconfigure our teleportation gate to get the Rangers there but it'll take me a lot longer than that to get enough power running through it to send the Zords, we haven't done anywhere near enough testing for this to be safe and I'm worried about overworking something vital….We're also going to need to connect to the Dark Empire's network"
"How long is that going to take?" Mercy asked, stomach plummeting as Justin looked away before giving his answer
"Half an hour, at least"
"They're not warriors" Aslaug breathed out "They'll be gone by then"
"They might not be predisposed to fighting but the people of Furrous can certainly defend themselves if needs be" Tempestus assured her, more than aware of Goldar and other, far less famous warriors like him that had found their way into mercenary companies across the galaxy.
"Kay can you get us there?" Mercy asked hopefully
"Not without knowing where the planet is and not if they've protected their entire atmosphere enough to hide from the Empire" the Green Ranger answered sadly, clearly disappointed by their own limitations.
"What about a ship?" Panthera demanded "What's the fastest vessel we have?"
"Not fast enough" Zhane answered with a shake of the head "And it would still need to have its' own short range teleporters reconfigured to get you onto the planets' surface so it's a moot point" that answer silenced all dissent and left the Aegis Rangers momentarily numb until Marigold, ever the optimist, ever the believer in the abilities of her allies placed a hand on Mercy's shoulder from behind whilst locking eyes with Karone
"So what do we do?"
"Justin, Billy….work on that teleporter; half that prep-time, I don't care how you do it and you have access to anyone and anything on this base to make it happen" Karone nodded in their direction and the two Blue Rangers turned scientists understood that they were dismissed "Zhane, scramble the fighters we have and prepare for Empire attacks should connecting to their teleportation grid give us away….Charlie, you and I will try and re-establish contact with Furrous and will offer strategic advice, we've both dealt with our fair share of raiders"
"And us?" Mercy asked, shifting her weight as the inaction become utterly unbearable to her
"Be ready for deployment at a moments' notice" at that the Red Aegis Ranger nodded and turned to her team-mates, giving the order she had been waiting for from the moment it had become clear that there were people whose lives depended on them
"Rangers!" her voice thundered out in act of defiance against her circumstances and limitations "It's Morphin' time!
Aye-Anor was no warrior this much was true, but what was also true and could not be overlooked was the fact that he was of Furrous and a people who had hidden their entire home-world and continued existence from the Dark Empire for generations rather than admit defeat could not and would not allow themselves to be defeated by the Great Enemies' pawns without resistance.
Pure defiance flowed through his veins and it would stain the floors of the Conclave before he allowed a single invader to pass him.
His defiance and fury at the violation of his homes' sanctity was unleashed without hesitation on the first attackers to enter his field of vision; mechanical automatons used by the pirates to bolster their numbers without having to further divide their takings that anyone born on Earth would have recognised as some poorly cobbled together, yet frightening looking unions of the Quantrons that Astronema had once commanded and the Machine Empires' Cog units. Each machine appeared a roughly humanoid mechanical skeleton with the brass coloured armour plate covering its' face removed to reveal the mechanical skull and working of its' laser weapon beneath, each machine sported the bulky armour of a Quantron over their chest and at least one arm and carried the large, doubled-ended and curved blades that the machines were known for whilst a rudimentary cape made of the hexagonal panels of resilient ablative armour that Cogs were covered with hung from their shoulders giving each machine the appearance of some robotic sentry only for that image to be undercut by the sparks that issued from them with each faltering, erratic movement.
They had come for Aye-Anor as the shaman, elder and politician made his way into the vast atrium of the Conclave; an open expanse carved into the stone face of the meteor-carved canyon that his city was built in, ancient and expansive the atrium was often filled with politicians and representatives of each of the clans, guilds and colony-nations of Furrous yet now it was eerily silent save for the echoing of metallic footsteps whilst the near total darkness was illuminated only by the flickering glow of censures, torches and braziers that reflected from the metallic and jewel encrusted statues of ancient leaders, mages and philosophers along with the mechanical hides of the attacking robots.
Aye-Anor was no warrior, but his people knew magic well and the air around him crackled as he roared
"YOU WILL GO FURTHER!" with that he slammed the base of the halberd he carried into the marble floor and though the weapon felt unfamiliar and unwelcome in his grip the torrent of arcane energy that he summoned was one he was well acquainted with, howling winds tore and screamed through the air and motes of dust and other minute detritus were sent hurtling towards the robots; they transformed as they did so and became jagged spears and burning comet-like projectiles that tore through a dozen or more of the automatons before finally the wizened old alien sagged forwards, his halberd serving as a cane to hold him upright as he wheezed and gasped for breath whilst the remaining machines advanced relentlessly towards him.
"NO FURTHER!" Aye-Anor repeated before leaving the nearest machine sparking and flailing before collapsing to the ground with its' metallic form glowing and molten as he sucked in a painful lungful of air and unleashed a torrent of red hot flames that seemed to swirl and condense into a dense fist sized mass that burst through the chest of the jerry-rigged automaton.
His attempt at a heroic last stand as a lone warrior was brought to a swift and unceremonious halt however as the remaining robots, a dozen of the things paused and shared glances, silently calculating and re-evaluating their approach before turning back towards their target at which point some unseen signal passed between them as they reached consensus and their optics began to glow a fiery red as their laser weapons were primed. Aye-Anor was old and his body was gradually beginning to fail him, his twin hearts thundering in his chest as he forced as much magical power into his limbs as he could muster so that he could leap and flip away from the incoming firestorm of lasers that seared and scorched the air until finally he was brought crashing to the ground with a dull thud and a yowl of pain being torn from him as his arm and shoulder were struck by a pair of lasers, leaving bloody, ragged and blackened wounds in their wake and his weapon clattering to the ground several feet away; he dragged himself into a kneeling crouch and struggled to overcome the sheer agony that coursed through his body but found himself simply unable to continue as his limbs burned, shuddered and finally collapsed as he tried to stand.
The machines ceased their barrage, likely to conserve power and resumed their advance with their bladed weapons at the ready until one of their number loomed menacingly over him and hefted their curved glaive overhead; Aye-Anor looked away, not having the heart to see the killing blow as it came.
The flashes of multicoloured light illuminated the darkness and the sound of metal on metal filled the air.
"You have fought well Elder" the voice, low and gruff was music to the aliens' ears and as he rose his head once again he found himself awestruck as he gazed upon what could only be a Power Ranger for the first time with his own eyes.
The Yellow Ranger was tall and powerfully built, even by the standards of Furrous, clad in sunlight yellow armour whose helmet bore an angular and styled impression of some beast with a mane and tusk, its' jaws forming her visor and the mismatched and cobbled together robots could not stand against her as she wielded her axe with graceful ease despite its' size. Four of the robots singled her out and were laid low within moments, the first one lumbering towards her whilst another aimed its' lasers and fired; Aslaug parried the laser with the flat of her axe and redirected the bolts of light into the skull of the machine charging her before decapitating the one that had fired with a single ferocious swing. Two more quickly followed and were felled equally quickly, the Yellow Ranger blocking a slashing attack from the glaive of the first with the blade of her axe before effortlessly swinging the haft of the weapon up into the machines' cranium and as it staggered back letting out a roar of exertion and cleaving it roughly in half at the waist in a cascade of oil, coolant and other fluids; from there the towering young woman turned her attention to wards the final robot and carried her momentum into a spinning sidestep to avoid its' attack whilst in the same motion grabbing the cape of hexagonal armour plates that hung from its' shoulders and dragging the automaton to the ground, its' attempt to fire its' lasers being rendered utterly ineffective as it fell and a moment later the thing lay sparking and motionless with the Power Ranger's axe embedded in its' face.
The sound of weapons firing echoed off the walls again and Aye-Anor turned to see another Power Ranger, this one wearing white and gold armour, with twin tail-coat like adornments and additional armour of a glossy black colour and whose helmet resembled the snarling maw of a different apex predator; in her hands this young woman, smaller and more slender than the Yellow Ranger carried a pair of oversized pistols and one of the four robots to engage her already lay on the ground twitching with several holes blasted into its' chassis. The remaining trio rushed at her and found themselves deactivated in short order as the machine in the centre prepared to fire its' optic lasers only to be shot in the leg and shoulder and sent careening so that its' attack blasted through the cranium of the machine on Marigold's right and from there the Gold Ranger rushed forwards to launch her own offensive, Buster Pistols vanishing from her hands in twin showers of glowing golden embers as she grappled with the final undamaged robot, crushing its' knee with a powerful kick before tearing its' Glaive from its' gasp and ending the combat with a pair of wide, arcing slashes that cleaved through the two machines' that still functioned after which she threw the weapon aside.
The Blue Ranger was male, as far as Aye-Anor could tell and the visor of his helmet was more sleek and streamlined though the beast it depicted was no less ferocious and the final four machines found themselves utterly outmatched and outclassed by the fluidity of his movements and were unable to hit him; Tempestus's staff lashed out in blindly fast sweeps and strikes that crumpled metallic endoskeletons and left armour misshapen to the point that it locked joints in place, harassing and corralling the quartet of scavenged and poorly made automatons until finally with some unseen signal passing between them they fired their lasers in perfect unison only for the Blue Ranger to expertly avoid the attacks, causing the machines to shoot one another in the face and fall to the ground in smoking and ruined heaps.
"Elder" Aye-Anor found his focus brought back to his immediate surrounding as the Yellow Ranger knelt before him, her axe vanishing on some silent command "Can you stand….we'll get you to safety"
"I can stand….But allow me to commune" as he spoke Aye-Anor used his magic to reach out and sense the feelings and thoughts of his people, using the nauseating sea of terror, grief and rage to form a map of sorts and estimate the location of those who sought to defile his home.
"Do not burden yourselves with me" he ground through clenched fangs, forcing himself to stand and clutching his wounded arm to his body "Attacking the Conclave was only ever a distraction….they seek our relics, go" Aslaug turned to Tempestus and Marigold who nodded in silent agreement to some unspoken suggestion and the Yellow Ranger quickly turned back to Aye-Anor
"Tell us where"
The city that the pirates who had allied themselves with the Dark Empire had attacked was built in the valley at the vase of a vast canyon, its' depth putting one in mind of some vast oceanic trench with ancient temples and skyscrapers whose architecture was vastly different from anything seen on any world the Rangers had visited thus far standing side by side whilst the walls and cliff-faces of canyon, easily a hundred miles apart from one another were lined with stairways carved into the stone and an endless series of lifts and bridges allowing access to a web of caves both natural and artificially made which in turn led to vast swathes of the city that were hidden from outside view and would finally lead, if one spent more than day travelling in any given direction to underground reservoirs or endless expanses of farmland at the edges of the cities' limits.
The central cluster of the city featured a long defunct space port from a time before Furrous had hidden itself from the galaxy and it was hear that a particularly fierce and intense battle raged.
"PUSH THEM BACK!" a primal, guttural roar demanded; the speaker was a ranking member of the cities' guards, a guild of protectors whose daily concerns were things such as festivals and parties that grew too lively around the kind of taverns that were ubiquitous to every culture in the galaxy and the occasional thief, the protectors had not seen combat and hostility like that which had come to their city in generations and were it not for the magical abilities that many of them possessed they would have been entirely overwhelmed by now. As the Commander gave her orders she raised her shield to cover her face, a lightweight frame of the same golden metal as the limited armour worn with her black robes with the majority of the shield being comprised of a shimmering field of blue and purple light that deflected and absorbed the incoming barrage of lasers and plasma with ease until the attack was halted by a guard at her side unleashing a concussive blast of air that held their aggressors at bay, for a moment at least.
The initial wave of mechanical foes led by a handful of well armed and armoured rogues had clearly not been the entirety of the pirates' forces as their ship; a sleek and rounded thing several times the size of an average home and with an appearance not unlike some kind of stylised beetle was surrounded by the City Guard only for a fresh wave of fighters to spill from within, carrying heavier and more esoteric weapons from the Dark Empire's armoury with even more horrific effects; an example of which was given an instant later as the Guard Commander watched several of her subordinates suffer terrible ends when one of their attackers hefted a bulky weapon whose barrel was formed of a dozen or more whirring components surrounded by a four pronged claw like protrusion that unleashed a stream of acid green light that engulfed several of the guards and left nothing but charred bone in its' wake. It was at this moment that the Commander allowed her shield arm to fall limp at her side, fiery red eyes wide in shock as it became clear that they were utterly overpowered and that there was nothing they could do but delay the inevitable and as a pair of pirates came hurtling towards the defensive perimeter the guards had set up on heavily personalised and weaponised jet-bikes she prepared to meet her end with dignity.
Then the Power Rangers arrived.
Their presence was announced by three streaks of coloured light tearing through the air at frightening speed before coalescing and forming into armoured warriors with a rush of displaced air. The Pink Ranger materialised in a crouch directly beside the Guard Commander with a pair of curved blades manifesting in her clawed hands before being promptly hurled into one of the oncoming jet-bikes which exploded in a blossoming fireball upon impact; there was no trace of the vehicles' rider but the weapon came hurtling through the air with enough force to make her flinch yet the Pink Aegis Ranger caught it single handed with seemingly no effort at all.
The Green Ranger was even more frightening, their teleportation bringing them directly into the path of the remaining jet-bike which was sent skidding and careening out of the way as its' rider quickly realised that they were no longer in a dominant position; from their the Green Ranger braced themselves and held their hands at their side with coruscating and crackling arcs of emerald green light gathering in the space between their palms before finally being unleashed into the attackers, tearing through anything the sought to use as cover with ease and hurling their bodies aside as though they were weightless in a display of force that would be terrible to behold under any circumstances but was made all the more so by the Green Ranger's armour, especially their helmet which resembled the jaws of some reptilian monster spewing a jet of obsidian flames.
The Black Ranger however was by far the most dangerous of the three, the smallest of the Power Rangers to come to the City Guards' aid teleported directly into the midst of the pirates, wielding a pair daggers and leaping from one alien marauder to the next with unrestrained fury, tearing through his opponents' defences with unsettling ease until finally those that remained simply turned and fled towards their ship.
"Bring that ship down!" the Pink Ranger demanded furiously of her team-mates as the relatively small vessel began to rise from the ground, several of those who were retreating towards it leaping and throwing themselves into opening hatches whilst several more were simply left behind as they were unable to reach it in time; the Commander of the City Guard found the idea of attacking a retreating enemy unconscionable and was almost ready to question the Rangers and ask if such relentless ferocity were needed.
Then she saw the ships' weapons.
"Bring it down!" the Pink Ranger repeated as a series of turrets on the underside of the spaceship began aiming whilst the craft itself continued to rise into the air
"I can't fire safely" the Green Ranger admitted with some annoyance "We're still in a city, I'll hit the buildings behind it"
"I can bring it down" the Black Ranger's voice was a quiet murmur that was at odds with everything else about them that the City Guard of Furrous had seen thus far, though that mild confusion was nothing in comparison to what followed. The Black Ranger's armour was engulfed in an almost tangible darkness that washed over it from seemingly nowhere and yet everywhere at once and when the darkness subsided his armour had changed, white portion of his torso becoming fiery red, his helmet becoming even more fearsome visage whilst he now sported massive bladed weapons on his arms and a propulsion system on his back.
The Black Ranger took to the air with a single bound the moment his Battleizer was activated.
The Commander of the City Guard was left watching in stunned silence, vaguely aware of many of her subordinates stood around her doing the same as Rensa tore through the air like some monstrous, bladed comet and struck the side of the pirates' spaceship with a cacophony of metallic screeching; tearing though the rear quarters of the vessel, a series of explosions ripping though its' hull marking his progress until finally he burst from its' prow and the craft began to fall towards the ground once again in a barely controlled crash as its' propulsion systems flickered and finally guttered out.
The impact was deafening and as the now ruined spaceship struck the ground it sent a web of cracks and fractures outwards in all directions along with a wave of dust and detritus carried by a rushing wind that struck with concussive force. The Commander of the Guard covered her face with her shield and was still forced to brace herself in order to keep from being flung to the ground as more than one of her subordinates were yet as the dust settled she saw that the three Aegis Rangers that had come to their aid were striding closer utterly unaffected, though the Black Ranger's armour had returned to its' previous form
It was awe-inspiring, yet still deeply unsettling to behold to those unaccustomed to such violence.
"The pirates have been immobilised, their weapons were destroyed and they're all unconscious….they can face whatever punishments you choose to give them" the Pink Ranger declared, standing a single pace ahead of the Green and Black Rangers to identify herself as some sort of acting commander "Have someone collect them and get your injured to safety, we'll take care of the other pirates" that this was delivered as a single statement of fact without room for interpretation left the Commander frozen and numb for a moment before she managed to force herself to speak
"Many of their forces were machines, led by one or two living fighters….their are other City Guard Cadres attending to them" fiery red eyes become concerned "But their leader….their leader seeks our ancient relics, they will be heading towards the Silent Catacombs"
"Understood" the Pink Ranger nodded, feline tail swishing behind her as she raised a hand to her helmet and opened a communications channel "Mercy, I've got a location on their leader-"
"Silent Catacombs" a new voice, presumably that of another Ranger answered "I'm already on it"
The Silent Catacombs were a sacred site, one of the most revered on all of Furrous; a network of caves that had been expanded with both magic and simple hard work over the course of several centuries where, outside of specific festivals few were allowed to venture and only the most noteworthy of the planets' populace were interred. Vast statues carved from some shimmering black crystal lit the way as some magical light shone from within them, the pulsating glow reflecting against sarcophagi that held the remains of rulers, scholars and ancient warriors from times when the world still had need of them.
More importantly however, the Silent Catacombs held the relics that those honoured individuals had cherished in life and it was those relics that a lone thief sought out as she stood before an enormous stone slab decorated with intricate artwork and carvings depicting the saga of the warrior entombed behind it.
"You can't possibly be worth what the Empire is paying for this" the leader of the pirates chuckled as she stared at the barrier between herself and payment before producing a hefty demolitions charge. Her name was Canis and she was a descendent of the people of Sirius, though the generation ship her family fled their world aboard had been far less fortunate than that which had carried Commander Anubis Cruger of Project Lightspeed. Tall and slender much of her lean and powerful form was hidden beneath the kind of garb that space pirates all across the galaxy seemed to favour, sweeping tail-coats and high collared; all of it in deep black satin and rich crimson with ornate and asymmetrical golden armour laid over it though its' practicality never quite matched its' opulence. Her face was canine in appearance as to be expected, with fierce yellow eyes focused and pointed ears pricked whilst the scales that adorned her muzzle were a deep, dark brown that was almost black and decorated with naturally occurring patterns of burnt orange. At her hip hung an ancestral sword, though unlike Anubis Cruger the blade Canis carried was not inherited and had simply been stolen from its' rightful owner whilst the generation ship it commanded authority of had been destroyed before her birth, jewels were missing from the weapons' hilt and its' blade had been broken and replaced with that of a cutlass at some point in the past.
Yet none of that mattered as she primed the explosive and prepared to make good on her promises to Lord Zedd.
"DAMN IT!" a pained snarl escaped her, followed by an impulsive bark as a stream of fiery red light lanced through the air and the explosive fell from her grasp, Canis clutched her left arm to herself and saw that fresh blood was already spilling over the neatly torn edges of her golden armour and without hesitation she whipped around, drawing her sword as the streak of light seemed to ricochet off of the walls before coming to a halt and coalescing into the form of a lone warrior clutching a sword of her own.
The Red Aegis Ranger
"So you're why the pay was so good" Canis spat, Mercy wasted no time arguments however and simply pointed her sword at the pirate
"You've already lost, your robots are being pushed back your people are captured and your ship was destroyed….Stand down and nobody else has to get hurt" Canis merely let out a low growl and shifted her weight as she prepared to charge.
A moment later the Silent Catacombs were filled with the sound of clashing blades.
Mercy realised within moments that she was at a severe advantage in her Morphed state as she launched a series of impossibly fast slashing attacks that left her opponent sliding backwards and wincing in pain with the blade of their cutlass begging to crack and warp under the forces it was subjected to as she tried to defend herself. The Red Ranger's moment of complacency was punished however as the pirate leader reached into a hidden pocket within her ornate clothing with her injured hand and threw a series of fingernail sized metallic spheres onto the ground at Mercy's feet which promptly exploded, crackling electricity coursing over her armour and causing her vision to be stolen as her visor flickered and her vision was filled with the thick smoke produced by the detonations
"Crap" Mercy hissed under her breath, switching her visors' display to a thermal sensor with a mere thought just in time to see the glowing silhouette of Canis leaping towards her with her cutlass held overhead for a downward slash at her skull; Mercy stepped aside yet the fraction of a second it took for Canis to land and reorient herself were enough for her to draw a pistol from another hidden pocket and open fire, the weapon unleashing a series of searing bolts of light that pushed the Red Ranger back even as she blocked and parried with the flat of her rapidly failing katana
"Definitely an Empire weapon" Mercy muttered to herself as her sword finally shattered under the onslaught, though Canis's fortune ran out a moment later as her pistol fell silent with its' ammunition spent and instead she charged; her eyes narrowing and ears slicked back as she readied her cutlass for a slash to the Ranger's gut.
Mercy's response was a spinning heel kick that sent the alien sailing back through the air to land in a crumpled heap, armour collapsing under the force of the blow and her weapon falling from her grasp.
"Last chance to stand down" Mercy barked, voice filled with a commanding authority that would have silenced and quelled all but the most hardy of enemies, unfortunately Canis was one such enemy and as the canine pirate dragged herself to her feet gasping for breath she reached into the folds of her extravagant clothing once again to produce yet another of the trinkets that the Dark Empire had provided her with
A mutagenic grenade
"I see you know what this is….Now this is your last chance to stand down Ranger" Canis sneered as she held the device aloft, relishing the way that the Red Ranger came to a sudden halt with shock and panic radiating from every ounce of her body language at the sight of the weapon; Canis was not entirely certain of what the device in her hands was capable of but knew that a powerful weapon. Mercy for her part simply focused, using every scrap of willpower and determination at her disposal to harness the power that flowed through her until the edges of reality around her seemed to blur and become indistinct and the entire surface of her armour began to glow a deep crimson whilst her left arm and hand burned and throbbed, with waves of pulsing energy emanating from where her Morpher sat, or more accurately the Battleizer attached to it.
And then the moment ended
"DAMN YOU!" Canis screamed in pain as a flash of golden light ripped through her arm, tearing a sizeable chunk of flesh from the elbow and leaving the limb hanging limp with the mutagenic grenade clattering to the floor with an echoing impact; the alien was too busy howling in pain to make any effort to reclaim the dropped weapon and Mercy soon realised what had happened as her team-mates came rushing towards her, Marigold in the lead with her Buster Pistols in hand and the City Guard trailing behind them.
"Target neutralised" Tempestus announced to the local security forces as he restrained the pirate, taking care not to do any more damage to her already grievously wounded arm, there was nothing to be gained from needless force or cruelty after all.
"Get that grenade locked away somewhere safe" Panthera demanded, handing the projectile Canis had been armed with to the armoured warriors that had followed the Rangers, each of them handling it with care and open fear and revulsion.
"Are you harmed?" Aslaug's voice broke Mercy out of her daze and forced her to focus on the present moment, she had been so close the finally activating her Battleizer and reaching a higher Morphed State that she had been able to physically feel the power roiling and surging within her and then the moment had been taken, snatched from her at the last possible moment.
Yet Mercy merely nodded
"Yeah….Yeah I'm fine" even without seeing her face Aslaug knew that something was amiss but was denied the opportunity to push the issue as a representative of the people of Furrous stepped forward and stooped into a low bow as they addressed the Red Ranger.
"The people of Furrous thank you for your services….you have made an ally this day" the reared up to their full, impressive height "It is customary for our people to celebrate after a victory, would you join us?"
"I don't-"
"Mercy" Marigold's voice sounded through the comms, a private channel that only the Rangers could hear "Furrous was never part of the Alliance….was never actually formally discovered or contacted by Earth at all; I'm just saying that we are effectively making First Contact with an alien race here….And when are we next gonna be able to relax?" Mercy considered her options for a moment, her mild annoyance at the Gold Ranger being quickly dismissed as childish and selfish before finally giving the alien before her an answer
"We would be honoured"
The Draco-Ocidendum was a lifeless husk and Carnifex knew that he would soon be as dead as the corridors of his was fearsome warship.
The butchering of his Knightly household, serfs, subjects and the other assorted crew of his vessel had been an epiphany and catharsis, a single act of violence that forced the saurian Acheron hybrid to undergo a spiritual metamorphosis of sorts and finally, truly become the sort of warrior that Lord Zedd had commanded them to be, unbound from honour, tradition, compassion or mercy yet at the same time the massacre had taken a terrible toll. Whilst Carnifex considered himself to be spiritually free, physically his situation was becoming more and more bleak with each passing day; without crews to maintain them several key areas and functions of the Draco-Ocidendum went unattended and without slaves and subjects working endlessly in the ships' production facilities important materials went unmade. There was only so much that could be done by a skeleton crew of Putties and even those warbling automatons had been steadily whittled down as they were crushed in behemoth machinery, melted by failing propulsion systems or felled by any number of other ignoble deaths.
Carnifex himself sat in his throne, staring out at the deathly silence of his darkened Command Bridge; vacant eyes barely registering the corpses that still lay there as his breath misted in front of him, the dark and the cold were products of the ships' AI attempting to regulate and maintain what it could, keeping itself functional by offering up parts of itself. The draconian warlord was sure that death would come for him soon and that he would die alone and without redemption in the cold void of space without a proper warriors' ending and that thought filled him with more regret than any of the lives he had taken ever would.
The lonely and foreboding silence was broken by a signal from one of the few terminals that remained functional, one that announced that there was an incoming transmission.
"My Lord" Carnifex slumped into a weak and feeble facsimile of a bow as he accepted the incoming communication and was entirely unsurprised to see that the holographic emitters had been deactivated in the ships' current state yet he remained bowed as the rasping snarl of his master filled the air, uncertain as to whether or not Lord Zedd could see him
"Carnifex; I promised you one final chance to have your failures forgotten, now that chance has come"
"I am yours to command my Lord" Lord Zedd gave no response to that, clearly seeing the declaration as such a self evident truth that it required no comment and instead simply continued as he had intended
"The world of Furrous, it was believed to be destroyed when its' people could not be brought under the Empires' rule before even my father's reign….It has been revealed to me, by tearing the information from a descendent of one of the few to flee the world that the galaxy was misled, they were instead hiding like cowards and their world is now entirely within my territory, yet not within my control"
"I will have the world brought-"
"You will be silent!" Lord Zedd boomed, cutting the interruption short "I have no use for the planet itself at this time, let them live in fear and know that I can claim them at any time I choose….No, there is a certain artefact of importance to me entombed on Furrous, one that I believe may prove vital in the war against the Alliance. The world can only be found by those carrying relics made by the natives, I gave such relics to several groups of pirates and other scum; I never expected them to succeed in retrieving it, merely to find its' precise location, they succeeded in this much and each and every one of the relics they carried was fitted with a tracking device of my own making….You might not carry a relic, but you can instead follow the signal of those tracking beacons; I trust you're capable of overcoming whatever shields a planet of cowards are hiding behind?"
"I am my Lord" Carnifex assured him, privately amused that the legendary warrior Goldar had come from such a people before rising to his feet and returning to his throne and entering several commands in silence before being unable to suppress a wince of pain as cable slid from the arms of the seat and worked into his own cybernetic arms, allowing the Captain of the Draco-Ocidendum to take control of the entirety of the vessel with his own mind, a feat that would cause indescribable pain in the ships' current condition
"Bring me the artefact" Lord Zedd demanded, an amused edge colouring his words as he added "Return to Acheron with it in person and all will be forgiven, your position and honour will be restored"
"Thank you my Lord" Carnifex answered simply, remaining composed even as his sanity threatened to shatter under the agony of a thousand burning pokers being forced into it and every nerve being scraped with glass as he superseded the ships' own AI and began to the mammoth task of plotting a course and sending the Draco-Ocidendum out to hunt the enemies of the Empire with nothing but his own willpower.
The same unshakeable will that would see him through the coming battle.
Author's Notes:
So two chapters and 1/3 of the way through this arc and things are heating up….Oh come on, you didn't really think that some random space pirates were gonna be the big bad?
Also, at the time of writing (18/12/2020) I just saw the first poster for Zenkaiger today and Oof….Kinda glad I don't really care about PR/Sentai at this point, because that show is clearly just not a Sentai series; whether or not it's good is unimportant, it just is not part of the same lineage as the other shows no matter how much its' creators claim otherwise.
That being said, let's summarise shall we?:
Of course Mercy recognised Aye-Anor as the same species as Goldar, but also of course she promised to help anyway.
So Billy just casually mentioning that he has a way to technically cheat the planets' magical shielding/camouflage should have been seen as foreshadowing.
Cogs and Quantrons were definitely left lying around on several planets after their respective owners were defeated and I feel like pirates and mercenaries would be snapping them up….Also the idea for the cobbled together versions we saw here was loosely based on the Necrons from Warhammer 40k.
I'll admit I was tempted to throw in a "You shall not pass".
Sorry but no, he's an old wizard who has literally never seen combat; he got a couple good hits in and then he got folded.
The grunt-beatings were fun to write as always, Aslaug is a juggernaut, Mari is a gunslinger but she can also fight and Tempestus is just smooth with it.
A little layout for the city, that will become important later.
I wrote most of the Panthera/Kay/Rensa scene from the perspective of the local defenders just because I felt like it would be interesting to see how people who've never seen and maybe never even heard of a Power Ranger before reacting to them and here's the thing….We know the Rangers are the good guys, but to an outsider they're casually violent demi-gods that favour using melee weapons and the way I wrote the scene was once again inspired by Warhammer 40k, specifically the reactions Imperial citizens have to Space Marines.
The pirates' reaction was just as reasonable as the City Guards', one Power Ranger you can probably bring down with massed gunfire but three? Nah, just run.
….Rensa proving everyone else's fears and suspicions right by how easily he brought down a spaceship on his own.
And now we get a little teaser of what Lord Zedd actually wants.
A member of the same species of Cruger, because why not….Also in my head she's more like a doberman.
One day a villain will do the smart thing and take the offer to surrender.
Let's be honest if Canis knew what the Mutagenic Grenade would do to her she wouldn't have taken it….But it makes a good plot device for later.
Mercy was so close to having that Battleizer….It'll be worth it when it finally happens, I promise.
But now the Rangers are gonna be on Furrous when Carnifex arrives, fun times.
I'm sorry but in a franchise as rooted in teamwork as Power Rangers is you don't get to turn on your own people the way Carnifex did and not suffer for it.
The utter disregard Lord Zedd has for his people is staggering.
Of course Lord Zedd has plans within plans, the pirates were just sent to give Carnifex a location….the question is, with no people, only a few Putties and little if any firepower left in his ships' current state what is he actually gonna do when he gets there?
Thank you to Blue Legends for their review on the last chapter.
I know you're a fan of Goldar, so I guessed you'd appreciate this arc.
As always thank you to everyone that reads this, with a special thanks to those of you that follow, favourite and review
