Disclaimer: Not mine
Ashley Hammond/Astro Yellow: Yay, you can drive! I can't. Moving on... You think Cathan's Phantom? Really? Okay, then... Since we have that little psychic connection that all good A/A writers have, I'll say that if what I think you think is wrong with Ashley probably is what's actually wrong with Ashley. I know, I'm evil. :looks evil: But I didn't plan on doing it, I just got too lazy to finish their sparring match, because I wanted to get to the part that was actually important, which was Cathan and Aria. Or was it? Maybe I just wanted to distract you from what was important, which was really Ashley. Or maybe nothing was important, and I'm just trying to distract you more, so when you see something important, you won't know what it is! I'll stop now. :P
Juzblue: Maybe. And I updated sort of soon. :P
Jenny: Okay, let's go through this slowly. I can make Zhane cry at some point in the story. Didn't I make him cry in Twist of Fate, though? I don't remember. If I did, it was when Karone got taken again... Onto the next big long paragraph. Aria does know who Cathan is. Cathan is his given name, he just doesn't tell people that, like Aria and Ravenna. You took that line the wrong way. Yes, Cathan is the one who Andros thinks is dead, and yes, you should totally write JOIN ads for the military. And I slip in little hints because it's fun to be evil, and even more fun when people guess, because then I get to lie to them, or give them hints that aren't really real. In Twist of Fate, I think AH/AY figured out who they were in Chapter 3 or something like that, and it was really fun saying that they were dead for another fifteen chapters. And I think this is a long enough response, don't you:P
NinjaStorm4Life: I AM writing a sequel. This is the sequel. :)
Piper xox Leo: Of course I'll keep going. I'm not THAT mean, to leave everyone hanging just when you find out something interesting. Okay, I am, but we'll not go there. : )
Melissa: Not yet it's not. Gimme a few more days. :P
DizneeDol: Thanks, and this is sort of soon!
jrm13/germ13/demon child from hell: STOP CHANGING YOUR PEN NAME! first of all. Isn't three times in eighteen hours a bit extreme? Second, if you don't like the story, I could make them all porn stars, like in yours. Third, fanfiction is one word, none has one n at the beginning, and how has no a. Fourth, where exactly did you see the story where they both died and their son commited suicide? Just like you just said, in your head. Fifth, stop singing. You are really bad at it. Sixth, what do you mean you hated the relationship between Andros and Ashley? You cried at the end.
the-power-of-love: Here's more. :P
Chapter 9: Sudden Impact
The Megaship
"Rangers, report to the bridge." If Deca's urgent alert hadn't been enough to alarm the rangers, the sudden shuddering of the Astro Megaship was.
"Dammit, someone's shooting at us," Aria said, quite calmly, as she and Gabriel lost their balance on the rocking ship and were thrown several feet forward, landing hard against the bulkhead.
"You sound worried," Gabriel muttered under his breath as he followed his sister in sprinting the last few yards to the bridge, before the next round of shots could be fired. The bridge was empty with the exception of Cathan, who had taken the center seat in an attempt to evade the attack.
"Samael?" Aria asked. Cathan nodded wordlessly, relinquishing the seat to her, taking the one to her left. "Deca, where's everyone else?" she asked, her fingers flying over the controls. The Megaship had already taken heavy damage in the last minute, and the power was starting to fade.
"Justin, Andros, and the children are unaccounted for," Deca replied after a pause. "Ashley is on her way."
"Times like this make having babies onboard seem like a really stupid idea," Aria remarked. "Manual control, Deca."
The AI surrendered the controls to her, neither Gabriel nor Cathan bothering to voice their many doubts.
"Gabriel, sheilds," Aria ordered. "Cathan, monitor the engine."
Both obeyed her commands without a word. "Sheilds failing," Gabriel announced a moment later.
"The engine is being drained quickly," Cathan informed them.
"It only needs to last a little longer," Aria said, not taking her eyes off the viewing screen. She'd been firing the Megalasers constantly for the last three minutes, and the effects were beginning to show as Samael's ship began taking defensive action.
"It won't last," Gabriel warned. "His ship is too heavily armored. Once his sheilds are down, you've got another couple layers to go... sheilds down."
"His or ours?"
"Ours."
The lights flickered, and the image on the viewing screen snapped off, their situation becoming much more dire. Now, not only were they trapped in a losing battle, they were flying blindly as well.
"Oh, shit," Aria muttered. She continued firing blindly, in an attempt to damage Samael's ship as much as she could. "Get the image back! I don't care what you divert power from."
"The Megalasers have been shot down," Deca announced.
"I've got it!" Gabriel shouted, the viewing screen bursting back to life just in time for them to see Samael's ship vanish from their sight. "What the hell was that?"
"He's cloaked his ship," Aria said. "He's taunting us."
"Is there any way to tell what direction we'll be hit from?" Gabriel asked, feeling the fear build in his stomach.
"We're not going to be hit." Aria's head was bent forward over the console, but she spared him a glance as she spoke. In the split second that their eyes met, Gabriel recognized the determind glint in her eye.
"Aria-" was all he had time to say, before the Megaship plunged down.
She'd turned off the vertical thrusters, Cathan realized, as the lights went out. His hands tightened on the armrests, as though it would somehow keep him from falling.
"Why did the lights just go out?" Gabriel demanded, sounding as though he was about to be sick. The Megaship was careening downward through space, and the feeling that accompanied it was not pleasant.
"I needed something to power the cloaking device," Aria replied, unfazed. "Don't worry, I'll turn them back on in a second."
She did, but as the lights flared back to life, Gabriel decided that he might have liked it better in the dark. He started to close his eyes, when he saw something flash across the viewing screen.
"What was that?"
"R-13," Aria said, after a brief pause. "Or maybe XR-25."
"A planet?" he asked, alarmed.
"Yes."
"Aria, we're caught in the gravitational pull," he said. "We're going to crash."
"No we're not," Aria said calmly. "Not for another thirty seconds. Is Samael following us?"
"I can't tell," Gabriel said. "Now, do something!"
"Aria," Cathan said. "Twenty-five seconds to impact."
She rolled her eyes as the planet loomed large in front of them, although she couldn't really blame them for panicking. They'd already passed through the atmosphere, and the ground was coming up fast.
Instinctively, she knew that they were still being followed, and a sudden thought flashed through her mind. Even considering it was reckless, but then, so was she.
The Megaship would take even more damage, but she knew that Samael's heavier ship would emerge in far worse condition.
"We're going to land hard," Aria said. Praying that the engine wouldn't stall, she diverted every last ounce of power that could be diverted. "Hold onto something."
Ten seconds before the Megaship would have crashed into the hard, rocky surface, the vertical thrusters fired back to life. There wasn't enough power left to re-exit the atmosphere, but that wasn't what she'd had in mind. They were already caught in a battle, and hand to hand combat was much preferable to sitting in a ship firing blindly.
Attempting a smooth landing was also out of the question with the engines failing at the speed that they were, and she released the navigation controls completely, reaching instead for a different control.
The Megaship slammed hard into the surface, and they were plunged into pitch blackness yet again. In the utter silence that followed their crash landing, they realized that they couldn't feel the ground beneath their feet.