EIGHTH // JEDI TEMPLE // CORUSCANT

The child cocked its head as it was scanned. "We are not attempting to deceive you. You are the ones attempting to hide." One of the humanoids walked towards Eighth who returned a step towards it in kind. "I have, as your kind would say-" A memory was accessed, one that had been taken from the mind of a human long ago. "-come in peace."

The child stopped and looked around the assembled beings before them. "We understand that you and the ships currently in orbit have come here from at least one other reality. We arrived here first, against our will. Yet, this planet is rich in resources. Allow us to hold our claim, and we can part ways in peace and never need to see one another again." There was clacking in the distance as block forms moved around around the temple.

---

MILITARY DOCKS // CORUSCANT SURFACE

The more advanced of the ship's sensors would detect several growing power spikes at various spots of concentrated Replicator activity all across the planet. What would be more alarming, however, was the sudden activation of several ship reactors. Various different sizes and classes, none of them with any discernable life signs. Their close proximity and the large cluster of Replicators in the area would make it hard to determine a true number. However, while they still seemed to be powering up a group of 21 smaller ships shot off into the air at speeds that would have killed any organic being.

They were barely larger than a starfighter, however they were coated in Replicator blocks forming a missile. As they broke orbit they broke formation, splitting into seven groups of three.

One squadron for each vessel in orbit, their scanners running at full power trying to gather as much information from the assembled ships as possible.

“Contacts on Dredas. Long range. Moving in fast. 3 contacts on suspected intercept” Came she should onto the CIC, clips showing on screens and closing at an increasing pace from the planet. “Only just broke high altitude and orbit, we only just saw them” The Officer clarified and broadcast the track across all the main screens. “Bearing 116 off standard”

“Battle stations! Comm, Defensive screen, Vipers, Raptor pickets out, get me a track for gunnery” Col Tye shouted, “Get the Commander now” Looking to Lt geta to get on the comm and inform the Commander of the situation. “Get me a screen up now CAG, I want tubes hot now!” The col paced as he walked through the CIC calling out orders to commands and directing the ship.

“Launch… Launch .. Launch. Next being loaded now” Came a call down the speakers of the CIC, the image showing the tubes launching and electromagnetic catapults firing Vipers out, as the elevators loaded Raptors to the lifts. “Raptors out in 2 minutes, Missile packs 3 loaded” The CAG relied on the CIC Line as the room sprang to life. As she paced the Col was glad they had opened some space to freely operate their fighters, Paranoid was not wrong if they were out to get you.

…

“Set condition 1 throughout the ship. All hands to Battle stations. Damage control crews to stations, this is NOT A DRILL. Ladies and Gentlemen let's show these bastards what Warspite can do!” The Call came across all the speakers over the ship to every main compartment and main corridor,

“Looks like they have brought our timetable forward, if you can get your shuttles out, try but we are taking priority now for the hangers. You can stay here or join us in the CIC and see what Battlestar can do.” Striding over to the Marine on the phone. “Report, Sit rep.” call to the Marine who jumped to attention on the phone.

“Three unknown contacts incoming Maam. Col Tye is Launching Viper screen now Commander to intercept.” The Marine reported sharply with a quick pace and snapped to rapidly inform the pertinent information.

“Tell Col Tye im on my way Marine, Good job.” The Commander strode out with Major Kraken who looked at the room. “Follow, or stay with Lana Six Lon, or shuttles. You can do one and hangar bay is currently running fighter ops.” The Major was entirely business and snapped to following his Commanders at 3 paces without even pausing to question his orders. It might not be the best impression of social niceties but they had to get down to business of fighting the replicators as the entire ship thrummed with additional power and noises, reactors coming to full and charging everything from guns to launch tubes.

…

Outside the Vipers fired out into the void and began to form a loose line of fighters spanning out to intercept. More Vipers shot from the launch tubes as the hanger bay sprang to life and became a hive of meaningful chaos and well practised routines. “All hands. All Hands. Col Tye has the Con, Follow as ordered until further orders” The Speakers crackled out again and the battle stations alarms kept repeating every minute or so. Each to ensure no one was going to think the current situation was a drill.

The Commander did not even look back as she headed to her CIC, work was to be done, and the Allies could decide what they wanted to do, that was their choice and she would not make it for them. She strode with a purpose and direction of someone who knew every single part of her old, battered but proud Battlestar and fastest routes to almost any part of the ship down the corridors busy with crew moving rapidly to perform their duties or gearing up in fire and void suits.

,,,

Outside the line of Vipers were racing in a line to intercept away from Warspite and others were sitting back as part of the reserve force, ready to tackle flankers or reinforce their weak points. “Rapter 16, to. command. To all Vipers. Weapons are hot, engage at opportunity.” The clear order came over to all the interceptors. Multiple copy came in from the aircraft and the Warspite confirming the orders.

The warspite was ready for war.

The Rangers watched the child deliver the ultimatum. Jack stepped forward. "Nice offer, kid. But that involves us leaving a lo of civilians at your mercy, along with this timeline. We're not prepared to let you unleash Paradox Energy by altering what's supposed to happen. He took out a badge "So, as duly deputized representatives of Time Force and servants of Vector Prime, guardian of time and space. We order you and your Replicator band to cease any and all activity and return forthwith to your timeline of origin. Come quietly and nobody needs to get hurt" He said. "If not..." He put the badge back on his belt before drawing his Morpher, along with the other rangers following suit. "There's gonna be trouble." The other 5 took position behind Jack, all except Asami who was still up on the veranda, ready to take a shot with her blaster the moment things went south.



Trypticon had sat idle, not particularly caring about this "Teamwork" stuff, when suddenly his sensors seemed to come to life, strange energy spikes from the surface... Probably nothing, just those creatures moving about... Then they started moving. Heading for orbit. The other ships seemed to come to life. Battle? Was Battle upon them finally? A rumbled laughter seemed to echo through the decks of the ship. Hearing the laughter, Full-Tilt down in the engine room laughed along with him. "THE MASTER AWAKENS!!! THE MASTER AWAKENS!!!" He roared with the glee of a schoolboy on a snow day. "MAN THE CANNONS AND LOAD THE MISSILES, THE MASTER JOINS THE BATTLE!!!!" He giddily cried, transforming into the form of a 1969 Ford Mustang and charging through the halls. Wipe-Out watched his partner practically dancing through the ship towards the fire control systems. He let out a sigh as he put his Mop in the corner and slowly began walking towards his designated battle station. Finally reaching the controls of the main Heavy Laser Batteries, Full-Tilt changed back into Bot-Mode and took control of them. "LET THE MASTERS WRATH FALL UPON ALL UNWORTHY OF HIS GLORY!!!" The Decepticon cultist yelled with glee, before Astro-Megaship slowly turned towards the planet. the immense guns slowly whirred to life. Originally designed to deal with Cybertronian ships, the Heavy Warp Cannon batteries would start firing wildly into the incoming swarm. Full-Tilt was not one for checking his fire and would no doubt be coming close to hitting some of the allied fighters moving to engage.

Meanwhile, Wipe-Out had reached the Ion Cannon sub-cannons, before patching a call through to Raekar. "Hey, Captain. Full-Tilt's being... Well, he's being Full-Tilt. Wanna give the others some warning? Or not... I don't care..." He sighed before carefully picking his targets with the Ion Cannons and beginning to put out well placed cannon-fire, trying to place his shots to drive them into the main cannons wild field of fire.

In the meantime, a hatch opened on the top of the Astro-Megaship and Trysorcerer and Tyrannosaurlock marched out onto the top hull, each letting out a roar of excitement as their magnetized feet kept them attached to the hull. Acting as surrogate guns, Trysorcerer's spikes began firing as missiles, while Tyranosaurlock began firing at ships that came close with its laser vision and snapping with its powerful jaws at any that came into close contact.



Raekar had gotten up along with the other deligates as soon as the meeting had been somewhat cut short. She then got the call from Wipe-Out. "Thanks." She replied to her wrist communicator, before approaching the Warspite crew "My gunners are insane cultists who just want to see things explode. Can you give your captain my heartfelt apologies for any friendly fire that might occur, in the meantime need to get to my Zord." She said with as close to a smile as a bird could get, before setting off at a run down the hallway towards the flight deck. Seeing all of the pilots already scrambling hard and taking up most of the room. But she still waited her turn to get access to the flight deck.

Inside the Flight Deck, Wizardactyl looked out into space as the ship maneuvered into optimal launch position. It let out a shriek of excitement and fapped its wings gently, waiting its turn to fly into battle.

In the space above Coruscant, another hole between realities opened, right as hostility looked like they were about to begin. Reinforcements should have been heartening, but if any sane person were to look at what came out of that portal, they had every right to be confused, concerned, alarmed, or all three. Looking to be made out of piles of red painted scrap, sporting flags adorned with an (inhuman) skulls and crossbones, bristling with haphazard collections of ordnance, and tipped with 4 massive quarter km long blades of all things, the ship likely did not inspire confidence. Neither did the way that several machines on the outside of it exploded almost immediately after ‘touching down’ in real space, sending the ship slowly tumbling through the void.

If nothing else, perhaps it would act as chaff for the replicator ships/missiles, as it had arrived close to the atmosphere of the planet, and thus between them and many of their ‘targets’

Still, despite seeming dead in the water, the ship was not blind to what was coming. Or at least, some things on it weren't. Atop the raised bridge, inside a dome of glass, within dozens of cages and sat on bird patches, a plethora of little red creatures who were 80% head, 20% leg turned their massive, singular, crosshair pupiled eyes (that took up all of their face that wasn't spiky toothed mouth) towards the incoming fighter/missiles, and started chirping. Rather than doing so in any kind of panic as one might expect however, they were all, more or less, doing so in rhythm, making sounds that, if you thought about it for a moment, were almost the same as the beeps of a radar instrument.

In a response to the chirping of the rangefinder squigs, because that was what they where, a pint sized green creature with long nose and longer ears, wearing a bandana on its head, a raggedy waistcoat and pants too big for it bolted upright from where it’d slept through the interdimensional journey here. This creature, a gretchin, looked very alarmed as it followed the gaze of the rangefinder squigs, then confused when it couldn't see anything with the naked eye, before finally pulling a spyglass out of it’s waistcoat and using that to take a look instead. Placing it to its eye it extended the spyglass to zoomed in, instinctively using the chirps to get the a bearing and zoom level right, and then yelped in alarm as it got a good look at the incoming replicator vessels.

It tossed aside the spyglass, and then grabbed an even smaller creature that had kept napping through the alarms, one known as a snotling. It yelled at this unfortunate fellow in their shared crude but efficient language, before physically stuffing it inside a slot in a pipe in the wall. Then it closed a hatch over it, and pulled one of dozens of levers attached to the pipe. This prompted the sound of a wumf of air, and then the hatch opened back up and the little green creature was gone.

As for where it had gone, well, it had gone hurtling through the ship’s internal pneumatic pipe system at an entirely unsafe speed for a living being to be traveling at before coming to a thudding stop, right on its fortunately rather thick noggin. Before it could fully recover, another hatch slid open, it was hauled out of the pipe and slapped into an interrogation chair where one of the grechin running this messaging room demanded it hand over its message.

A few moments later the gretchin scampered out the tube room, and then with a great deal of cunning sneakiness and dexterity, flitted in between the legs of a whole host of greenskins who were all much much larger than it. These orks were filling the corridor and then the room it was headed for, and all of them were hooting and howling as they tried to get a view of a pair of even larger orks currently in the middle of fighting. Cutlasses flashed and clashed till one of the orks (who had a lovely tricorn hat, badass longcoat, and stripy black and white pantaloons on) grabbed a double barreled handgun the size of a human HMG from a holster on a massive ornate chair sat and promptly blasted his foe in the gut with it.

“Any other git wanna talk to da complaint’s department bout me deal with dat der glowy human git?” the victorious ork asked with an accent thick as two piratical ones glued together, waving the gun (his ‘complaint department’) around, silencing the other orks with his authority. That left the gretchin the perfect theater to pipe up “Kaptin, Kaptin! Message from da crows nest!”

“Spit it out then ya git” the Kaptin of the ship replied as he sheathed his cutlass and kicked the body of his attempted usurper off of the dias that hosted the massive ornate chair overlooking the rest of the ship’s bridge he’d gotten the gun from in the first place.

“Shiny missile-fings off starboard Kaptin!” the gretchin reported as it ran up and then pointed through the bridge’s windows in the direction it’d been told the hostiles where.

“See boyz, we just got here, and there’s already a fight ready!” the Kaptin declared jovially as he pulled out a much bigger and financier spyglass than the gretchin up top had used, and used it to follow this gretchin’s pointing.

He found nothing.

A lesser ork Kaptin might have immediately stomped the messenger, but this Kaptin furrowed his brow, muttering “ships.. Turning... Which means…” before correcting his view for his vessel's drifting rotation and the time it would have taken the message to arrive and finding the incoming missiles that way, grunting “der day are” in satisfaction when he did.

He put the spyglass down, grabbed a speaking tube, and bellowed into it “rise and shine boyz! Da shiny bug fings we’ze here ta stomp have sent us a warmup, so limber up ladz, get on yor gunz and shood tem outa da sky!” and finishing it up with a classic cry of “waaaaaargh!” as his command to echo throughout the ship via its only ship wide audio communication system they had (getting messages out from the Kaptin the most important thing after all).

In response to this call, numerous orks and gretchin collectively piled into the two large turret batteries the ship had, punching, kicking and biting each other inorder get ahead and be the one who got to man the actual firing controls. There where, at least, plenty lot of those, as the ship didn’t really have main cannons, and instead had masses of smaller ballistic guns (and indeed sometimes racks of actual small arms ww1 aa guns style) all attached to their own individual small mounts on the larger turrets, giving dozens of orkoids a chance to have a go shooting at there target, and increasing the odds that at least some of them aimed true.

Behind them, gretchin and snottlings started running about, hauling ammo for the guns, while below them, beast snagga boyz kicked their spurs and got a mass of bull sized boar shaped squigs to start trotting, turning the turrets around to face their foe via pure muscle power.

A few moments later, the sound of gunfire started echoing through the ships superstructure as its gunners started to spray the closest target without much concern as to if they were in range at all, much to the delight of the Kaptin and his krew. Dampening that delight for the Kaptin though was his mind wheeling back to that whole ‘the ship is drifting’ thing.

As a result, he then followed up his command by additionally yelling: “Mr Nailbrain! Whot’z you done to me ship that’s got it all driftin and tings!” before pausing, thinking some more, and adding “and why’s da da shimmery field-fing not on! We’z be sitting squigeons here!” when he noticed that the tell tale haze of the ship’s void shields hadn’t wrapped itself around the ship.

Mr Nailbrain, the first mate and ship’s head Mek (read engineer) of course, could not answer directly, but a few moments later another grot burst onto the bridge to report that “Mr Nailbrain sayz da warp’s gone!”

“Gone!? Wotz do ya mean gone?” the Kaptin barked, causing the gretchin to cower and reply rapidly “thaz wot they said he saids Kaptin! Hez tried to turn them shields on when wez got here, case of ambush, and den boom, bunch of bits of em of exploded coz da power didn’t have nowhere to go! Den he testad da warp drive as well and nuffin. No warp. It jus gone!”

The Kaptin boggled at this absurd possibility for a moment, before shaking his head and put that in the ‘future me problems’ category. For now, he barked more orders to respond to this: “listen up boyz. We ain’t got no shields an no warp drive, so batten down da hatches coz dis fight’s bout to get messy. Bonez, get ya Painboys ready for a lotta patients. Mista Nailbrian, work on da warp missing ting later, an get ready ta do damage control! Rest of youz gits, keep shootings make sure we don’t gets hit in da first place!”

Then he slammed down the speaking tube, grabbed the ship's steering wheel (as in an actual steering wheel, made of wood and with spokes and everything) and finally stabilized his vessel, preparing it for evasive maneuvers. Not that da Eskape Plan was any good at those. Mostly it just went forward real good, be it towards or away from the enemy.

EIGHTH // JEDI TEMPLE // CORUSCANT

There was a whining whirring noise outside the balcony of the archives with the rumble of thunder, or perhaps engines in the distance. A smile crossed the face of Eighth. "No." Chittering and clanking of various bug forms could be heard outside the room as the bug forms began to swarm. "You have already been warned to stop interfering-" There was a roar of engines as two ETA Actis-2 fighters appeared at the balcony, Replicators within the cockpit while others swarmed walking around outside the craft. Without any further warning, and with no seeming regard for the human-form replicator in the room. The two starfighters started firing wildly into the archives.

---

MOI AWAY TEAM // WARSPITE // CORUSCANT ORBIT

One minute they were talking super-weapons and plans of mass destruction, the next second they were talking about ship exchanges and boxing tournaments. The second after that? Alarms were blaring, and officers were jumping out of their seats and running about to their duty stations. Carolina turned to the two agents who were with her. "North, South go help with damage control. I'm going to head to the CIC to liaise with the Director to see if we can deal with this swiftly."

"Got it."

"Already on it."

The two twins just looked at each other, nodded and then ran in two different directions. Meanwhile, Carolina followed the flow of traffic in the command staff towards the command centre of the ship, which she had to admit made a lot of tactical sense being that it was buried deep within the ship's structure. Rather than on the outside of the vessel, which practically gave your enemies a target.

She stayed at the back of the room now, merely observing.

---

Mother of Invention // High Coruscant Orbit

With advanced sensors, and a little more distance from the planet Director Church smiled as he saw the ships rising into orbit. Their position gave them a clearer line of fire, as well as the time to notice the vessels split into designated attack groups—three for each vessel in their rag-tag fleet, all except the late show. "FILSS" The automated voice sounded from around the bridge.

"Yes, Director?"

"Firing control for the MAC gun to my terminal-"

"Yes, Director."

"-Captain!"

Captain Burnes looked up from her position on the bridge's lower deck.

"Sir?"

"Fire at will."

"Yes sir."

The ship roared to life as the turrets were brought online, their targets still out of range however tracking and calculations for intercept had already begun being calculated. He could hear the whirr and clunk as missile pods and bays opened. Three longswords roared passed the glass of the bridge. He pulled up a holographic display of the theatre of combat, watching the blips rapidly approaching. Pulling his view away from the rest of the fleet, he couldn't worry about their battles just yet.

A message tracked across the screen. [ALPHA: TARGETS MOVING FAST. NO CLEAR MAC SHOT, LONGSWORDS WILL HAVE A MINIMAL WINDOW OF INTERCEPT BEFORE THEY BLOW STRAIGHT PASSED]

The Director nodded. "Understood."

It was time to see what these Replicators were made of.

---

KUUN-LAN // MID CORUSCANT ORBIT

"Priority alert!" Rhys turned around from the viewport as Eadwine spoke. Already there was scrambling throughout the bridge. He walked over to the display. Red blips spread across the map. "Incoming fighters, appear to be breaking into seven distinct groups. Accelerating rapidly."

"Launch Acolytes."

"Already forming a defensive screen-"

"Intercept?"

The senior analyst shook her head. "They're moving too fast. I advise setting a defensive line, allowing them to come into our line of fire." Rhys nodded his approval.

"Do we have any Hive Frigates available?"

"Two on standby."

Rhys nodded. "Excellent, launch both them and sentinel drones. I want a full shield around the Command-ship. Have Hives launch and deploy drones."

On the outside of the vessel, over a dozen drones spewed loose from the ship's hangar. The drones moved a set distance from the Kuun-lan, once they were in position, beams of energy lanced out from drone to another. Creating a solid line, when four drones linked up the space was filled with bright energy creating a shield.

"Scans indicate the enemy vessels are composed of a terrestrial fighter, our data packet from the Republic indicates it is something called a V-Wing-" The hologram updated to show the original frame compared to what it was now. "-each fighter appears to have several layers of these Replicator blocks. This will likely make them highly resilient to weapons fire."

Rhys nodded. "Relay this information to the fleet, prepare for combat."

The moment Jack saw that smile, he knew things were going south. "READY!" He called.

"READY" The others yelled in unison, presenting their morphers. Asami, jumped down, firing her blaster at the child. The Replicators were banking on the idea that their bodies were immune to energy weapons, but hadn't taken into account the weapons power source being literal magic. A load of nanites splashed across the floor behind him as he looked down in confusion at the hole in his chest. Asami landing with a roll and her morpher in hand. "READY!" As the ETA-2's flew up to the window and fired in, the shots seemed to miraculously go wide, large explosions forming around the rangers.



In a bright flash of their colours, they each began to change into their morphed forms.

"TEMPUS KNIGHT RED, SPIRIT OF THE FENRIR!" "TEMPUS KNIGHT BLACK, SPIRIT OF THE TANK!" "TEMPUS KNIGHT PINK, SPIRIT OF THE KHEPRI!" "TEMPUS KNIGHT YELLOW, SPIRIT OF THE ROC!" "TEMPUS KNIGHT BLUE, SPIRIT OF THE HYDRA!" "TEMPUS KNIGHT WHITE, SPIRIT OF THE SPHINX!" "TEMPUS KNIGHT GOLD, MASTER OF THE MAGISAURUS!"

Jumping in the air, the 7 struck their own unique poses

"WE ARE" They all summoned their weapons and took a step forward. "THE POWER RANGERS!" They roared in perfect unison, large plumes of smoke in their assigned colours appearing behind each Ranger, before an explosion ripped through those colours as if to puncuate their transformation.

Their transformation sequence finished, the rangers scattered as a new volley of cannonfire from the fighters ripped through the archive. Jack and Kai both charging Eight. Jack's with a sword in one hand and his blaster in the other, Kai had summoned a knights lance and a shield. While Phil, Jay and Mele attacked the fighters, a Mace in Phil's hand, Jay summoning a pair of knives and Mele a pair of Tonfa's. Asami and Michelle jumped atop the book cases, Asami drawing a large laser cannon while Michelle had a staff.

Jack attacked Eight low with the sword, going for the legs. Ducking down, he swept the sword, only for the nanites to temporarily part around the legs to allow the sword to swing effortlessly and ineffectively through the now air. But Jack had presented his back for Kai to jump and use as a stepping stone to leap off and behind Eight, rolling with his shield on the floor, before getting back up and using the momentum to thrust the lance straight into Eight's back. Eight, not being limited by such minutia as skeleton or skin, simply created a second front out of his back with the nanites running up his body from the floor, grabbing the lance mid thrust.

As the fight between Red, Gold and Eight unfolded. Jay was hit by cannon fire, flipping him onto his back, sparks flying from the hit area and him letting out a scream of pain, while Phil and Mele both jumped onto the fighters, Phil smashing the laser cannons on one side with his mace, before smashing the other side as well, only for the nanites to quickly repair and realign the cannons "HEY, THAT'S NOT FAIR!" Mele yelled, smashing the cannons with her Tonfa, before watching them be repaired just as quickly.

"Enemies tend not fight fight fair. Phil responded. He then jumped as he saw Asami take aim with her cannon and fire. The cannon hit did seem to knock a couple of the nanites off of the ETA-2s, but the rest of it remained intact, before both fighters began firing at Asami. Michelle threw herself in front of Asami, her staff twirling and a magical barrier appearing. deflecting the blasts into the ceiling and parts of it beginning to collapse

Meanwhile, Jay had finally got back to his feet and ran towards the edge of the building and jumping, both daggers out and pointed down as he drove them both through the heavy armour and into one of the wings, raking them down the side, before pulling them out. Looking down, he could see the nanites beginning to flow up the side of the building. "Um, guys, i think we've got company!" As if to puntuate that remark, he saw Jack being thrown clear across the room behind him, before Kai slid, both feet firmly on the floor, shield out in front with the Lance dug into the floor to keep him stable.

"Kid's a lot stronger than we thought!" Kai growled. "Put 'em together?!"

"PUT 'EM TOGETHER!" Jack grunted, getting back to his feet. He thrust his sword out front. "RANGERS TO ME!" At that point, Michelle twirled her staff, a pair of brilliant white chains burst from the temples floor and wrapped around Eight's wrists. He attempted to disengage the trapped nanites, but for some reason he couldn't. Some unknown factor was interfering in his ability to control the nanites. He watched helplessly as the rangers jumped together into the middle of the archives, before putting all of their weapons together into some kind of large cannon that they all held, pointed straight at him.

"TEMPUS CANNON FIRE!" They all yelled together, the weapons feeding all of their energy into the tip, before a rainbow coloured wave of energy lanced straight out and towards Eight. Eight quickly sent an order and the Eta-2's smashed through what remained of the walls from their cannonfire and straight into the oncoming path of the blast, the energy blast ripped through both, before continuing towards Eight, who quickly uploaded his consciousness back into the main hive-mind before the childs body was destroyed in the ensuing blast. The 7 Rangers celebrations were almost immediately ended by the approaching wave of revenge. walls of nanites swarming from every which way.

"Trypticon, we need to teleport out, now!" Jack yelled into his communicator. As the crashing waves of nanites came down upon them, the 7 disappeared into balls of their associated colour of light and shot up through the ceiling and back towards space.

Forced to quickly close up the meeting as alarm klaxons went off, the trio of Manticoran officers were sent racing back to their pinnace and redlining it from the battestar back to the Corvus, which - to CTN Hammond's pleasure - was gently coming to a starboard turn to place itself broadside-on to whatever was about to hit their fleet. A quick zip into the underslung hangers and the three piled out. The Captain and CDR Lancaster made their way to the bridge, while Major York rushed for the barracks to ensure her Marines were at their stations and ready to repel any boarders.

In three minutes after arriving at the armoury, Hammond and Lancaster were in their combat skinsuit - EVA suits designed to protect crew and officers in case the hull was punctured and environmental systems failed - and took the first lift they could to the CIC.

"Mr Stebbins!" Hammond barked as he arrived on the bridge, helmet in the crook of his arm. "Report!"

The Gunnery officer vacated the Captain's chair, his helmet's visor still up. "Sir, multiple unidentified contacts, bearing 098 relative. Came onto Tactical's scopes about five minutes ago; they're making a beeline for the fleet."

"Number? Type? Range?" Hammond rapidly fired off as he resumed his seat.

"Well in excess of 20+ hostiles," Stebbins replied, returning to his gunnery station. "Range 30 million kilometers and closing. Both large and missile-sized; I.D. matches database entries your friend's battlestar provided us - they're those damned 'Replicators', or whatever they are."

"Thank you for that last comment, Stebbins." Hammond chided, checking the tactical feed tied in from his ship's sensors. "And your colourful description has been noted. Increase speed to combat power and have the decks roll out the guns. I want a range calculation on the largest signatures we can see and hit; prep countermeasure missiles and batteries to swat at the small bastards as they close."

"Aye, sir!" Stebbins replied, starting to input commands into his panel.

"And mind what you target and hit, Gunnery." Lancaster cautioned from her seat, fumbling with her helmet as she began to mag-lock it in place. "We've got allied interceptors and LACs in the combat area; we really don't want to have the 'Warspite' scream at us for a careless blue-on-blue."

“Report. Dredas contacts are jumping. they might have a ECM or EW countermeasures” The officer on the control was calmer than they should be as they tried to adjust and bring the incoming targets back into full focus. “The vector remains the same.” The screens showed a slight flicker but the same tracks had been clearly marked with projected estimated points at the Warspites Hangar bays, FTL Drive and the forward weapons stations believed to be main targets and fire lines being rapidly mapped and sent to gunnery.

“Main batteries have solutions if required Com” Came another officer who was directing the battery to assigned arcs. The entire ship unlike others relied on humans and so far more than the others and systems where far less automated and interlinked deliberately.

“Sirs, Maams and … Officers.” an unsure Marine who was assigned to both keep them from getting lost, but also answer questions alongside other duties. “CIC is one of the most protected parts of Ship bar primary magazines and FTL drives. Warspite was the oldest Battlestar in service, only survivor of her class and most decorated also in the first Cylon war. She was bound for museum status before the … Cylon War returned.” The pause was a painful one, a hard pill to swallow how they had failed. “As you can see, we are extensively designed to withstand attack by cyber warfare, Hard lines, isolated systems, and auxiliary control centres to name but a few of the designs of the Mercury class exemplifying redundancy. Though updated over time at her heart the Mercury class has seen service for over 50 years proudly.” The Marine stopped leaving them room to ask any questions, deciding that content was needed about their ship. They did not bad mouth the ship, the ship was their home and much as one of them as the crew, somehow they felt the ship was a warrior queen in her own right and respected it so.

“This is Viper Lead. confirm. We are going to try guns. They are fast and accurate. Multiple Viper per target, layer the formation. “ The pilot's voice came in on the intercom as news of Dredas interference, one thing to work on later! The aircraft were just speeding right at them, ignoring all signs of such an obvious move, who could even survive that speed? It would be lethal to even a Cylon raider?

“Copy. Viper lead. LOS mode may work, use laser for missiles.” Came the CAG who was feeling the pressure. Her pilots where the frontline and ones who would be the ones who had to deal with first contact.

The damage Control board flashed Red lights and along one of the outer sections, where warning of an initial damper , gravity and lights failed. “Its G17, Portside again Com, never been right since we Took a nuke escaping caprica system. Teams moving to repair.”

“Get crews on it. Nothing too important there, we will not lose combat capacity.” The Commander sighed, her old ship was an old Lady but she sure chose the worst times to show her age too. 50 plus years of Service had been hard on the ship, the first Cylon war she Had been at fore front and even with full yard refits that hard life was not something that was forgotten. “Allied Band message.”

This is Battlestar Warspite. We have interceptors in the air. We are broadcasting IFF. It never hurt to tell everyone, the last thing they needed was to lose valuable aircraft and pilots before the real fight had begun.

Meanwhile in space after a much too tense wait, closing with the enemy to keep themselves a decent distance to work with but also not wanting to get too close to the enemy aircraft for good reasons. Lucky for the Viper pilots they made no attempt to evade like the Cylons did.

“1 Tango down, 2 are damaged but carrying on” Came the alarmed voice on the Commas as the Vipers turned on their length and fired engines to maximum pursuit velocity. The seeming lighter aircraft where tougher than Cylons that was for sure, their armour had taken punishing fire, damaged, slower but still fast to be closing the fire window and to be able to fly even after the Vipers concentrated heavy cannon fire. “Viper 32 .We gonna need AP rounds next time CAG. These Toasters have tough shells” One called into the CIC.

“Laser on.” Came in over the CIC speakers and the radio chatter from the fighters as there was very little they could do now but trust their fighter screen. “. Viper Lead. Window closes in 19 seconds. Lock lasers. Fire when Target confirmed. All aircraft.”

“Fox fire” Came the call and multiple missiles for good measure streaked to each target as the Vipers used their advanced manoeuvring and skill to keep the Lasers Locked on and drop at least one of the missiles to top attack and hopefully disable the “Pilot” whatever it was also.

Missiles streaked into the void as the countdown of speed vs fuel and velocity played out in the vast space of nothingness so alien to human survival. The Replicators seemed to give off no signs they had any life support at all, even Cylon raiders had to have some kind of .. whatever that was inside of them. “Fox Closing. evade wreckage.” The command was swift as they instantly formed a wide space for the expected stream of wreckage and misc space debris percent dancing around any threats; they would have to rely on the reserve wing if they failed.

“HIT. HIT.” came a call into the ship's command, “2 times Tango hit by multiple Fox LOS.” The first had been thoroughly destroyed but one that the shared data said might have once been a Galactic Republic heavy bomber or shuttle pattern was not willing to quit despite most of the systems down and slowly to the point it could barely keep a straight line and most of all anything was gone more hole than hull plates. “Raptor engaged. Fox free.” Came a crisper voice than the Vipers comms channel. Its shoulder mounted pods sent a pair of larger, faster missiles to kill the last Tango. They never made ships defensive missile or gun range but the Replicators were a very different style of enemy than they were used to.

“That's a Kill. Three Tango. Down.” Came through the speakers into the CIC as visible tension dropped but the level of potential action was not dropped, there could be more, or different attacks, they had to be ready.

“I want leads back for decontamination and debriefing, Two take over CAP. We need to work out new tactics and best loadouts. We beat them, but we need to be better.” Commander De Rio said into the phone. As she saw the physical cylon fighters removed from the plot, vectors and pilot lists were crossed out by china markers and manually updated with current leaders. Compared to other ships the Warspites operations probably seemed beyond archaic but to them, all this technology just worked and there was method to madness; this was the last remaining known of its sister ships even the most advanced had fallen to attack from the rear airlock.

“I appreciate your tour was a little unconventional, but I hope we have shown we can handle ourselves.” The Commander spoke now to any who had stayed back, most had headed to their ships as was their responsibility and where most comfortable and that was understandable.

Of course the Galactic Old Lady was never going to be forgotten. “Com. We are sending a zero G weld and repair team to G17. Estimate 1 hour to restore systems, on site reports likely stress fracture from the nuke hit In the damper harness.” Damage Control Reported, this old ship kept them on their toes and always was something that needed to be looked at.

“Also electrical crew, we might have tripped a breaker on G16 Main Bulkhead.”

“Copy Damage Control. The old Lady takes some care in her golden Years.” Commander de Rio gave the main Plot a tap and a salute to the ship. It was not a live thing, but it felt it to the crew and they had long grown too superstitious about it to ignore it.

“Dat’s it. Dat’s it. Come on ya gits!” Kaptin Bluddflagg bellowed as the replicator fighters got closer, closer, and then broke into a “Waaaaaargh!” as they got into actual firing range. The already thunderous sound of the ship’s guns echoing through its hull went into overdrive as orks and gretching squeezed or hammered triggers harder, which against all logic did actually increase the fire rate/power of their turrets, at last where it didn’t cause critical overloads, overheats, or ammo detonations.

Shells, bullets, bolts, dumbfire rockets and even the odd laser flew fourth into the void, most of them going wide, but a few actually managed to scratch the fighters. But only scratched, lightly softening up but not actually taking out any of the foes. Those things were tough as they were fast, it seemed, which would have made this way more of a fight than their size would have indicated.

Would being the key word there, as rather than engage, the fighters that had gotten close enough to actually take orkish fire simply continued onwards towards their original targets, either disinterested in, or perhaps even incapable of, changing targets.

The cry of “Waaargh” that had been going on since the start of the brief engagement window property pestered out into a bewildered “whaaaaaat?” as the orks became very confused at being ignored. Being denied a good fight was bound to cause an upset in the boys, so their Kaptin was quick to get ahead of their bellyaching by bellowing “Dy ain’t getting away from a stomping dat easy” as he turned the ship around so they could go after the fighters.

It was a rather slow turn unfortunately, as orkish ships were not known for their turning circles, which gave the kaptin a little bit of time to survey the space around the planet they’d been dumped besides, one hand on the wheel, the other scanning the skies with his spyglass.

There certainly seemed to be a diverse array of ships out there currently about to come under attack, but one that stood out was the one surrounding itself in a bright cream energy shield. Given that he’d just been told theirs would not work, that was rather confounding, but given that he trusted his first mate’s word, that could only mean that “day got non warppy shield stuff”

Something they very much needed to loot, in the captain’s mind. Speaking of looting, that same ship seemed to have sent a number of tiny ships towards a debris field of sorts, one filled with a fair number of small (in the orks mind anyway) ships.

“Hmmf, if dey fink dey is gonna get all da loots, day got another ting commmin” he grunted, mostly to himself. He certainly wouldn't be having none of that, because if there was one thing freebootas liked more than scrapping it was plundering

“Alright lads, we’z gonna take a wee bit of a detour to get some lootin in while we scrapping” he announced as he halted his turn after the fighters a tad early and angled them so they’d pass by the debris field on the way to the shielded ship. Then he flicked open a large hatch on his steering wheel, exposing an equally large red button, and without hesitation, slammed a fist into it. Doing so prompted a massive warhorn to go off, prompting raucous cries of delight down in the engine room as barrels of nitro were hoisted up and poured into ports on the engines, causing the incoherent array of them out the back of the ship to burn blue as the ship blazed forwards, accompanied by chants of “ere we go! ere we go! ere we go!”

As it raced towards the debris field more orders came barkin down from on high, prompting a number of ork lootaboy, a pair of flash gits, and a single mekboy to herd a whole pile of tool belt wearing gretchin into strange contraptions, before promptly sealing both themselves and the gretchin inside. A few seconds after that the ship got as close to the debris field as it was going to get, at which point there came the command of “fire!” from the Kaptain, and the ship promptly launched a volley of torpedoes at the already disabled vessels.

Naturally, these torpedoes contained not explosive , or not many anyway, but instead those same orks and gretchin who when roaring/screaming through space before slamming into the side of one of the vindicator class ships, into which the greenskins flooded. Well, except for one unfortunate lot who’s boarding torpedo sailed onwards into the void thanks to the wonders of orkish accuracy.

Those that made it were there to loot and plunder, and specifically there to figure out what was worth stealing wholesale by the time Da Eskape Plan wheeled back around to pick them up. Said ship would not be stopping to loot while there was fighting going on, and it instead continued onwards, its captain smoothly sending it to go careening towards where the Kuun-lan and the trio of fighters headed for it were about to clash, intending to do a rather close flyby, guns blazing, of that battle.

With any luck for the orks, they’d arrive in time to get some scrapping in.

With any luck for the Kuun-lan, said scrapping would not involve too many friendly fire incidents from the accuracy impaired orks.

The three Replicator craft tore past the defensive line of acolytes, their gattling guns spinning rounds into the void, replicator blocks chipped and broke off however the armour on the craft proved too much for the twelve acolytes to take on. As the acolytes turned to give chase, it was clear that they didn't possess the means to keep up with the far faster craft.

Rhys grimaced. At this point, even missiles would struggle to catch up with them, and with the speed they were going there was no guarantee of a lock. "I need a squadron of Super-Acolytes launching now-"

Eadwine turned away from the console, as she barked his command down to the lower decks. "-frigates can engage at will. Start tracking on the turrets if you can-"

A fiery explosion on the screen destroyed one of the fighters as the drones from both hive frigates tore it to pieces, just as the Da Eskape Plan shifted course and came straight towards the Kuun-Lans combat theatre. They couldn't worry about it now, there had to be some level of competence in the crew or they wouldn't have been chosen. The joy in the command centre was short-lived, however, as the engine housing from the 'destroyed' fighter seemingly turned. Then drove itself directly into one of the frigates. "-Get me a status on that ship!"

Rhys had fought threw the Beast wars, and he knew the danger of a boarded ship.

As Wizardactyl finally got its turn to launch, it galavanted (Not the most gracefully, to be told) it finally launched into space into the hail of blasterfire. Replicator craft immediately turning their targets to analyze this new machine with different some energy than the others around it, energy that they had sensed down on the planet. Wizardactyl stopped, fluttered in the middle of space and let out a shriek that could be heard around it even through the vacuum. Opening its mouth wide, a large beam of laser lanced through space, smashing one of the Replicator craft into bits.

Aboard the Astro Megaship, the Rangers rushed to the bridge, helmets in hand as they looked at the battle raging outside through the monitor. "What the heck?" Kai asked, pressing the comms. "RAEKAR, IS THAT MY WIZARDACTYL? There better not be a scratch on it when you get back!" He then saw Wizardactyl tuck its wings in torpedo itself straight through one of the larger ones. "Oh! Damn!!!" He mouthed, knowing he'd be buffing that one out later. "I only tried to kill you 12 times and this is how you repay me? I'm going for 13!"

"I dunno, mom. I'm with Kai on this one. Don't mess with a mans Zord." Jack also said over the comms. At that point, the ship rocked as one latched onto the side of the ship.

"And while you are griping, i'm out here actually fighting." Came the response from Raekar.

"And now they're right here. Alright, let's get out there and help." Jack called to the others. Bring 'em together?" The others nodded, before they ran to the center of the room.



"I NEED MAGISAURUS MEGAZORD POWER! NOW!!!"

Outside of the ship, the others would get a bit of a lightshow as 6 large beasts made out of pure light from the specific coloured rangers would leap from the ship, all beginning to form together. The Black Rhino-Tank forming into the core body of the Zord, the Red Fenrir forming into one of the arms with the tail forming into an immense Cutlass, while the White Sphinx formed into the other arm with the head forming a shield, Khepri and the Hydra formed up and became the legs of the Megazord, before finally the Roc flew in and slotted into the back to form large wings.



Meawhile, the Wizardactyl was pulled towards the Megaship, Raekar seeing what was happening, and teleporting out, disappearing into a ball of white light before reappearing on the bridge. Meanwhile, The 3 Magisaurus Zords formed together with Tyrannosaurlock as the main body and left arm, Trysorcerer as the right arm and shield, then finally, the Wizardactyl forming into the head and shield plate on the chest plate



The pair of megazords flourished their weapons in the air, before launching themselves towards the surrounding Replicators.