A little while later, the Rangers were all assembled on the Red Galleon, with the mysterious new Silver Ranger sitting on a chair in the middle of the room. It had taken a bit of discussion, but when they weighed up the pros and cons of figuring out who the mysterious stranger was in the middle of the street, against figuring it out on the Galleon, they had eventually decided it was probably safest to take him to their command ship. After all, as Jake pointed out, all too quickly and enthusiastically, if they didn't like his answers, they could always throw him overboard somewhere over the ocean with little fear. He obviously had no intention of really doing so, but of course, the Silver Ranger didn't know that.
He had already shown he was not someone to take lightly. It wasn't like just anyone could face down a whole legion of X-borgs single-handed and walk away virtually unscathed. Hell, it wasn't like many could face down a whole platoon of X-borgs and walk away ALIVE! He had now left around half a dozen such battlefields the winner. It was only some convincing from the Rangers that had convinced him to go quietly with them, and even then they had made sure they took his morpher from him and he was always watched by at least two of them.
He was a tall guy, taller than all of them, and very solidly built, with messy, greasy, wild blonde hair and grey eyes. He had a grey shirt that was frayed at the sleeves, a significant way from his wrists, just above the elbow suggesting that at one time it HAD been a full-length shirt, that was matted in dirt, sweat and grime. He was wearing dirty grey trousers of a hard-wearing material.
The Silver Ranger sat, watching them discussing matters, his morpher hanging from Noah's belt. The Blue Ranger was standing just far enough from him, with at least one other Ranger between him and the stranger at all times, that they were ready in case he made a lunge for it. He could understand why they had insisted he was unarmed before they let him onto the Red Galleon. After a while, Troy, the one in red, who he assumed to be the leader by the way the others acted around him, started to approach him.
"Noah's got your morpher." He told him.
"Morpher?" The stranger replied. Troy just clenched his jaw in frustration, uncertain as to whether the stranger was just playing dumb, or genuinely didn't know what he was talking about. All things considered, he was taking no chances this wasn't some form of trap.
"He's taking it to have a look at it, and see what it can do." Troy told him as he took a seat himself. "In the meantime, who are you?"
The stranger stared at him coldly, and seemed to tense up as he heard the question. He said something that none of them understood.
"Excuse me?" Troy asked. The Silver Ranger repeated what he had said, leaving none of them any the wiser. Tensou flew into view.
"I think I can be of help." He responded. He landed on a nearby table and looked to the Silver Ranger, before saying something none of them understood. The stranger seemed to respond, his head snapping around as he heard this. He said something in response.
"You know what he's saying?" Jake asked.
"He's speaking Andresean." Tensou explained. "It's a mining world in the same quadrant as KO 35..."
"So...he's not playing us?" Noah asked.
"He is." Gia responded. "He spoke English when I ran into him. I bet he understands us just fine."
Tensou looked back to him, saying something in Andresean, to which the stranger eventually responded. He looked to the others.
"His name is Orion." Tensou told them. They weren't really in a position to doubt him; the one word he had said a few times that they recognised was 'Orion', which apparently was his name. "He said he's a miner from Andresea."
"A miner?" Jake responded, pointing to the morpher, which Noah was inspecting. "That doesn't look much like a pick axe to me."
Orion said something in Andresean, but Troy had heard enough. He clapped his hands, bringing Orion's attention his way.
"We know you understand us." He stated. "Now, I can have Tensou question you, or you can just answer our questions."
"I am Orion." Orion told him. "I'm a miner."
"We got that part already." Jake scoffed. "How did you get here? How did you get that morpher?"
"Morpher?" Orion asked again. Jake made a move like he was about to hit Orion, but Noah stopped him.
"This thing." Noah explained, showing him his morpher. "It's called a morpher."
Orion just nodded in understanding, but didn't say anything else. Troy just looked irritated, and leant forward.
"We can do this the easy way, or the..."
"Can...can I suggest something?" Emma said as she came closer, brushing her hand on Troy's shoulder. He looked to her for a moment, before gesturing to her to continue. His girlfriend had pretty good instincts when it came to people, and he was starting to get the feeling that Orion wasn't exactly scared of him or the other Rangers.
Emma approached him, and knelt down before him, giving him a bright smile.
"Tensou said you're Andresean?" She asked him. "You're from a planet called Andresea?"
"That's right." He responded. She placed a hand on his left forearm and started to stroke it.
"We haven't heard of it. None of us have ever left Earth." She informed him. "What's it like there?"
"Dead." He answered bluntly. Emma just looked around, seeing that the others were at a loss to know what to make of it either. "That is to say...there are no other Andresean people. They were wiped out. I was the only one left."
"I'm...I'm sorry to hear that." Emma answered as she listened to him. Orion looked into her eyes, and something in him relented. Even though he had no real reason to believe these Rangers were about to treat him with anything other than suspicion, he felt like he could believe in her.
"I was a miner, some time ago." He explained. "I'm not sure how you measure time here as opposed to on my planet, so I can't tell you exactly how long ago."
"My scans of his genetics suggest he's around 23 Earth years old." Tensou told her.
"He's not much older than us." Gia stated. Jake just sighed and approached.
"Alright, so you're an alien. What gives?" He asked. "How did you get here?"
"I flew in a space ship." Orion replied, with absolutely no hint of sarcasm in his tone. Jake didn't look like he was in the mood to be mocked.
"The Free Joker?" Gia asked him, remembering the name from the ship that Nasada had salvaged from the streets of Paris. Orion just nodded.
"So why are you here?" Troy asked him. Orion just looked to him, not blinking once as he answered.
"I'm here to wipe the Armada from the face of the universe!" He responded. "Every last one of them!"
"You said Andresea was destroyed." Gia recalled. "They did it didn't they? The Armada, they attacked your planet."
"They didn't attack my planet, they destroyed it!" Orion snapped, his hands tensing into fists so tight that his knuckles started to turn pure white. "They wiped out every man, woman and child on the face of that planet! Everyone I ever knew!"
"My God." Emma murmured, hearing this. Jake seemed less convinced, crossing his arms.
"And I guess they just forgot about you?" He asked. "That seems convenient."
Orion shifted in his seat, like he was about to spring forward and attack, but seeing the others getting ready to intercept, he thought better of it.
"There was nothing convenient about having to bury everyone I ever knew by myself!" He responded. "There was nothing convenient about spending weeks working night and day just to bury the dead!"
"So what happened to you?" Jake asked. "You looked like you could handle yourself in a fight, why didn't you stop them?"
"I didn't have the power!" Orion yelled. "Our military was overwhelmed! The only reason I survived the bombardment was because I was in the mine at the time! I was buried under tons of rock for days! By the time I finally managed to dig myself out, everyone was gone!"
"Andresea was hit by The Armada approximately three Earth years ago." Tensou confirmed. "I was sure everyone was wiped out. Everyone was."
"So if everyone on Andresea was killed, answer this." Jake stated. "How did you survive? How did you get here?"
"It wasn't easy." Orion answered. "For a long time, I had to learn to fend for myself. I had to learn how to fish and how to hunt to eat. The only thing that kept me going was my anger, the thought that one day I'd get to do to the Armada what they did to my family, to my friends! There was only one problem, with no ship, and no way to contact anyone that had a ship, I had no way of getting off the planet. Then one day, I saw a ship landing."
"An Armada ship?" Jake asked. Orion just shook his head.
"I thought so at first, but it was the ship your authorities found." He told them. "It was the Free Joker. It was the ship that had been commandeered by a pirate called Lafitte."
"Lafitte?" Emma asked. The Rangers just looked around each other.
"You've heard of him?" He asked.
"We've met." Troy answered. "So, how do you know him?"
"He's the one that got me off Andresea." He stated. "He's the one that gave me a purpose."
His mind drifted back to some time ago, back when he was still on what was left of his home world. The Armada didn't come to Andresea after the purge, indeed, no one did! The usual supply ships had either heard that Andresea had been destroyed, or they had been destroyed themselves. The bombardments had left pretty much anything short of the most basic hand tools that didn't require a power source inoperable. Any ships he could find were either destroyed completely, or had been so badly damaged that without parts he would need to get from another world would never fly. Either way, it meant that Orion was facing a bleak, lonely existence on his own for the rest of his days. He was sitting in his shelter, a rough affair he had built against the side of a cliff on the day he heard something that filled him as much with dread as it did hope. It was the sound of engines.
He grabbed a home-made spear as he set off running to follow it. He could see that it was an Armada fighter, and more than that, it wasn't like the others that had attacked his home. It was painted red, with a strange emblem on the side. He followed it as it started to descend towards the planet's surface. He could hardly believe his luck. If the ship landed, all he would have to do was take the crew by surprise, and he'd finally be able to get off his home planet and his journey of vengeance could begin.
He tracked the ship over a ridge, all the way back to what had been his home village, finding it landing in the central square, on the ruins of what had at one time been the monument dedicated to those who had lost their lives in mining accidents. Orion gripped his spear tightly as the rear hatch opened, and he prepared to strike. As two men stepped out of the ship though, he looked puzzled. These men didn't look like any Armada troops he had ever seen. In fact, they looked human. One of them was dressed very ostentatiously, in a bright red great-coat, with a long feather boa that reached almost to his ankles, over a green flannel shirt, and canvas trousers, with black leather boots. On top of his head, he had a huge, floppy hat, with a massive plume coming from it. He was wearing a collection of large, fancy rings that looked like they were worth more than the combined wealth of the whole planet before the invasion. Lafitte looked around as he arrived.
"You can always rely on the Elite Guard to leave a considerable mess." Lafitte sighed, looking around. "Are you sure about this?"
"Andresea was well known for its rich mineral deposits." The man next to him stated. He was a little less flamboyant in his dress sense, opting instead for a black waist coat and white shirt, over blue canvas trousers with black leather boots. He was wearing a shoulder harness, which carried a couple of hand blasters. He had spiky, slightly unkempt black hair, and whie he didn't wear anything like as much jewellery as Lafitte, he too had some precious rings and necklaces, keeping his money close so to speak. He bent down, and swept aside some rocks, before picking up a large, clear, uncut crystal the size of a softball. "Look at that. This crystal could power a whole fleet of fighters for a month, and it was just lying in the middle of the street!"
"And thanks to The Armada, we don't even have anyone to try and take it from." Lafitte responded with a smile. "I'll go and get Kolo. You see what you can turn up. This is a nice little score you uncovered here Marv."
Lafitte went to retrieve his other henchman as Marv, started to get to work, looking around the wreckage for anything of value. Orion moved closer, keeping himself out of sight. He was sickened to see the man sifting through the wreckage of people's homes. These men were vultures, scavengers picking the bones of what was left of his home planet. Rage burned through him as he came close. He leapt into the air, driving his spear for Marv's exposed back, finding only nothing as the spear was driven into the ground. He was kicked in the side of the face, and sent sprawling. By the time he turned back, Marv had a blaster trained on him.
"Next time you want to sneak up on someone, you might want to try doing it from upwind." Marv taunted him. "You're a little ripe there boy. Still, I guess the lesson is a little pointless. It's not like you'll get another chance to..."
Orion interrupted him by throwing a handful of sand in his face, blinding him as he scrambled to his feet, and kicked the blaster from his hand. He tackled him to the ground, at which the two men wrestled, struggling to get into position to finish the other off. The whole thing ended when Orion was grabbed from behind, and thrown several feet, landing in a heap on the ground. The hulking form of Kolo cast a dark shadow over him as the gorilla let out a low growl. Lafitte stood by Marv as he got up.
"I thought you said the planet was deserted." Lafitte stated.
"I thought it was." Marv responded, picking up his blaster. "Don't worry, it soon will be." Lafitte held up a hand, gesturing to him to stand down as he looked to Orion, considering him for a moment. He smiled.
"You took a big chance taking on Marv like that." Lafitte told him. "I've seen Marv take on a whole platoon of X-borgs and walk away unscathed."
"The Armada already destroyed everything!" He roared. "I won't let you desecrate what's left to plunder my world! I don't care what happens to me, I won't let you or any of the Armada...!"
"Armada?" Lafitte chuckled, looking to Marv and shaking his head, before looking back to him. "Do we look like Armada to you?"
"We're pirates kid!" Marv told him. "You see that ship? We...liberated it from an Armada crew months ago!"
"I don't care who you are!" Orion told him. Lafitte just smiled.
"I've a feeling you're about to." Lafitte told him. "You want to get back at The Armada right?"
"I'd give anything to..."
"A simple yes will suffice." Lafitte told him. "Why don't you join my crew?"
"Captain?" Marv asked.
"You gave Marv here a pretty good run for his money, it's been a long time since I've seen that." Lafitte told him. "I'm guessing you've had a lot of time to practice out here...not many distractions?"
"I am no pirate!" Orion told him.
"Well, I don't think you've thought that through." Lafitte told him. "You see, we are pirates, which means we attack and plunder the wealthiest ships. In this sector, that means The Armada. If you want to kill Armada, then come with us and you'll get your chance."
He stood up and panned his hand around the wasteland that had been his home.
"Or we could just leave you here to your dreams of getting back at The Armada, it's up to you. It really does make no difference to me." Lafitte told him. Orion looked around, and could only think of the time he had been here already. He was no pirate, he had no intention of becoming a pirate, but if he turned Lafitte down, there was no guarantee there would ever be another ship coming through this section of the galaxy. He would once again be stranded with no way to leave. From the look on Lafitte's face, it seemed like his silence spoke volumes. He had already made his decision.
"Then help us load up as many of these crystals as we can carry." Lafitte told him. Orion stood up as Marv started his search. He grabbed him, shoving him roughly, at which the other pirate pulled his pistol. He pointed to a patch of ground.
"That's a graveyard. I buried the dead there myself." He told him. "Take as much as you can carry from anywhere else, but don't disturb the graves."
"Why the change of heart?" Lafitte asked. Orion just looked to the graveyard and sighed.
"I suppose the crystals aren't doing them any good now." Orion replied as he started to gather some up. Lafitte just smiled.
"I think I'm going to like him." He stated.
"I don't trust him." Marv snorted. "This is a mistake."
"Perhaps." Lafitte told him. "But it isn't every day I come across someone that can fight like him."
Back in the command centre, Orion looked to the Rangers as he concluded this chapter of his story.
"So, I joined his crew." Orion told them. "If it wasn't for him, I'd still have been stranded on Andresea."
"So you became a pirate." Jake asked. "So how come you didn't arrive with Lafitte?"
"Yeah, why did Lafitte have another ship?" Troy asked him. "And how did you get your morpher?"
"It's a long story." Orion told him.
"Trust me, we've got time." Troy answered as he leant forward. "We're not going anywhere."