Adrienne awoke with a gasp and was covered in sweat. She breathed heavily as she sat up to get her bearings. Realizing her tank top was drenched she pulled it off as she stood up to change. The nightmare was never-ending. Night after night it was the same one. She was lucky to get more than four hours of sleep each night. She tried to get a nap when time allowed.

She had just pulled her fresh shirt down over her stomach when a violent force rocked the ship sending her to the deck. Her palms hit the deck, barely enough to stop her from slamming her head off it. She rotated her hands to soothe the pain as she stood up. She needed to get to the bridge but getting dressed was a priority.

"What was that?" Cody asked.

"Uzaian battlecruiser," Shawn said looking at the controls. "I think it's the fog. It's so thick we didn't detect the ship."

Adrienne came running in now fully clothed. "What's going on?"

"Uzaian ship just hit us," Shawn said slightly irritated that he had to repeat himself. Adrienne didn't see Kian anywhere in the room as she stumbled around trying not to fall over. She assumed he was on the battle bridge.

The four rangers saw green lasers streak by the portholes, followed by their ship's port side cannons firing.

The Uzaian ship exploded and the ensuing shock wave sent the Galleon slamming into the ground below.

The four rangers emerged from their crashed ship to inspect the damage. Surprisingly, the damage was superficial. The ship could get back in the air once they started up their engines.

"This is annoying," Shawn said looking over the ship.

"Yeah, I don't want to be late for my date," Cody said.

"Ah, that's right," Tomomi said. "You mentioned that before."

Sparks erupted all around them. They turned to see a small band of flathead soldiers and their newest field commander, a purple-skinned alien with red coral wrapping around him and forming a claw at the end of his hand. Metallic tendrils protruded from his chest merging with his left hand.

"We didn't expect to see you here," the commander said. "This will get me a promotion."

Kian leaped from the Galleon and landed in front of the rangers. "You're about to be demoted."

"Did you think of that one just now?" Adrienne asked.

"Of course," Kian said. "Do you think I'd stay up all night thinking of one-liners for every scenario?"

Adrienne didn't respond. She held up her morpher just like the others and morphed. Kian wasted no time going on the offensive as he fired at the flatheads dropping two of them. They charged forward. The rangers spread out breaking up the soldiers into smaller, manageable groups.

"We need to hurry this up," Cody said. "I'm meeting my date at two."

"Two?" Adrienne asked blocking one attack with her saber and shooting another flathead. "It's like nine-thirty."

Cody didn't hear her as he had already sprinted off with several flatheads in pursuit.

Tomomi fought her group on the hillside with Kian nearby slicing and shooting all those around him. He threw in a few kicks too.

Shawn fended off the group surrounding him but was attacked by the field commander who came out from behind one of the flatheads Shawn just shot.

The commander whacked Cody across the chest sending him flying back. He got back to his feet as the commander charged again. He misread the attack thinking he was going high but the commander hit his foot causing Shawn to flip upward. Shawn recovered and kicked the commander in the face before landing on his back. He kicked again sending the commander flying back.

"Did you do that on purpose?" Tomomi asked as the other four regrouped.

"What do you think?"

The four rangers pulled out their keys for their finishing move but the field commander vanished. They looked around but there was no sign of their opponent. They waited for a surprise attack but nothing came.

"He really did run away," Shawn said.

"I'm not complaining," Cody said.

"What do you mean he retreated?" Evon demanded. "Who gave him such orders?"

"Please calm down, my lord," Dreadnaut said.

"Shut your mouth," Evon shot back. He stormed over to his subordinate. "His orders were to overload the Earth's crust at all costs. Not retreat."

"Sir," Cycorg said approaching Evon. "The plan can continue since he is still alive."

"He was just getting away from the rangers so that he could carry out the plan," Obreyan said.

Evon aggressively waved her off. "No. I will not tolerate cowardice. His primary orders are to take out the rangers."

"Do you think that's wise?" Dreadnaut asked.

Evon spun around to face his command crew. "I don't care. Those blasted Rangers are always in my way. Destroying them comes first."

With the ship back in the air, the rangers continued their patrol over Angel Grove. Shawn continued to tinker with the sensors.

"Any idea why our sensors couldn't penetrate the fog?" Kian asked.

"No, the fog wasn't the problem," Shawn said. "Scanning the wreckage of the Uzaian ship, I found its deflector array had been realigned to put out an EM pulse. That's what was scrambling our sensors and that's why we didn't see them until they were right on top of us."

"Okay, so now what?" Tomomi asked. "If all of their ships do that then we won't be able to see them unless we look out the window."

"If I had the tools, I could probably enhance our sensors so that they won't be scrambled like that again."

Kian thought for a moment. "My old high school had a really advanced science lab."

"The stuff I'd need wouldn't be found in some high school's science classroom."

"No, this stuff was something you'd normally see at NASADA but some really rich guy who graduated years ago donated tons of money to the science program. You and I can go there and if we're lucky we'll find what we need."

"I doubt they'll just give it to us," Shawn said.

"We're pirates," Kian said with a slight smile.