This predates the version that would eventually be published on Fanfiction.Net. It features the original ending that would have led into an entirely different path from what ended up being the final product… and by “final”, I mean good enough for a year before I decided to go back and tweak it again.
-o-
“Recall all Quadrafighters back to the ship, we have to retreat.”
At the command of the Machine King Aradon, the fledging battlecruiser, along with several Quadrafighters that have survived the encounter with a pirate cruiser just moments ago, slowly turned away from the Wraith planet-killer that was fast approaching their . Because of a ramming attack by one of the pirate fighters, the battlecruiser suffered heavy damage to their main engines and thus was unable to outrun the ship.
In the cockpit of one of the Quadrafighters, Andros looked ahead at the awesome size of the enemy. Their first encounter with this massive object, even at full operating capacity, had nearly resulted in the destruction of their vessel. The other Quadrafighters simply flew around to the side of the battlecruiser, but a couple were looking in the direction of the ship.
“Whatever you do, do not fire.” Andros commanded to the other fighters through the comm, “we don’t have the firepower.”
Much to the surprise of Aradon (and the confusion of his two allies), the Wraith simply passed by the fleet without laying a single shot. In fact, the Wraith did not even bother to slow down. It was as if it did not notice the relatively small (and drastically weakened) Machine fleet. In the tactical station, Aradon watched the main viewer as it displayed the giant spiked vessel pass by them at intense speeds. Fortunately for them, none of the spikes were in the cruiser’s path.
TJ looked on as the Wraith flew towards a blue sphere. “What is that planet over there?” he asked over the comm.
It took a moment before he heard a distorted Aradon over the comm. “It’s a rogue planet,” he said, “No life signs.”
On the one hand, a sigh of relief. On the other hand, another planet was about to be destroyed.
-o-
“I did it, Commander!” Reno informed Carter Grayson with confidence, “I’m in!”
The former Lightspeed Ranger approached the computer console and watched as various satellite pictures (the images were displayed in four shades of green due to Lightspeed’s older satellite systems) were on display in a slideshow. The images showed nothing more than a black mass behind a starfield and close-up images would should various rocky spikes. Carter’s jaw dropped at the next image, which featured a beam of light cutting through a spherical object, most presumably a moon or planet.
Reno looked at the images with astonishment. “Whatever this ‘Wraith’ is, sir,” he said impressively, “it’s one powerful ass kicker.”
Carter didn’t register Reno’s remark. He stared in awe at the bland yet disturbing images of a powerful threat to this planet. He couldn’t find the words to describe the image he saw. After a minute of silence, Carter approached the keyboard typed in “suicide bomb” as his next search term. Reno expected those files to be classified, but to their astonishment, only one file on the suicide bomb was available and this was viewable to all levels. Even the rookie cadets could study these plans.
“Why would Lightspeed keep the Wraith files classified but not the bomb, Reno?” Carter asked.
Reno did not answer for a while, as he was studying the bomb plans. After a moment, he spoke with an ominous tone, “The bomb plans are pretty detailed, sir. I can’t answer your question as to why.”
Carter read some of the bomb details. There was a lot of information here that should be classified but for some reason isn’t. “Reno, make me a copy on CD.” he told his assistant, “I’m bringing some of this to the Rangers.”
-o-
The Space Rangers and Aradon observe the Wraith as it approached a nearby rogue planet, presumably its next target. Left without options on how to stop it, they could do nothing but watch as the Wraith fired several of their pulse weapons at the planet. However, they’ve noticed that the flurry of energy projectiles from the Wraith did not destroy the planet. As they learned before, the Wraith usually destroyed worlds using a super-laser… so why the weapons fire on the planet?
For three straight minutes, they’ve watched the Wraith fire various projectiles at the same rogue planet. Finally, the barrage of projectiles stopped and a blue beam emanated from the Wraith to the rogue world. After several seconds, the planet was consumed in an aura of blinding light and what remained were several asteroids. The Wraith soon veered away from the rumble.
In the tactical room of the battlecruiser, there was silence, save for the background noise of engine humming and computer bleeps. Andros displayed a sense of confusion through his facial expressions, while TJ scratched his head. Aradon stared blankly at the viewer before approaching a console and pressing a few buttons. The viewer showed the Wraith and its barrage on the planet. Another button click and it showed the Wraith using its super laser to destroy the rogue planet. Another button click and it showed the asteroid field.
Turning to his crew, Aradon stared for a moment and spoke softly, “I believe we’ve learned something about our enemy.”
TJ caught on to what the Machine king meant. “The laser isn’t strong enough on its own, so the Wraith uses its weapons to cut the planet down.” TJ noticed nodding heads of the crowd, so he continued, “so we have to figure out how to use that to our advantage.” The nodding heads stopped and now made faces filled with confusion. Silence filled the room until Andros spoke up.
“I have an idea,” he said in a light but serious tone, “but we’re going to need a very important piece of hardware.”
-o-
“Zhane,” Andros spoke through the comm in an empty room, “how’s the repair work going?”
Zhane took a while to answer – probably due to the comm system on the fritz – but sounded cheerful when he did. “We’re almost ready to go. Better shield system, better armor plating.”
“Good,” said Andros, who sounded more serious, “we’re going to need a little extra something.” As he spoke, TJ walked into the room, but the Kerovan did not take notice.
“What do you mean?” Zhane asked confusedly.
Finally noticing the other Ranger, Andros turned to him and asked, “Remember the Serpenterra salvage operation from two years ago?”
“Yeah” was TJ’s only answer.
“Do you know if the laser was found?” Andros asked.
TJ did not understand at first, but soon realized what he was asking. “Last time I checked, it looked to be in one piece,” he explained in a confused tone, “but nobody ever tested it to see if it worked.”
Andros turned back to the comm system, “Zhane, see if you can get the weapon and load onto the shuttle compartment. Use whatever power relays you need.”
There was a moment of silence on the other line. Andros had thought that the signal was lost, but after a while, Zhane answered, “No problem.” As the comm light went off, Andros stood up quickly and turned to TJ, who figured out his friend’s plan of attack.
“What better way to kill a planet-killer,” TJ smugly suggested, “than with Serpenterra? Or rather, its laser?”
-o-
Jason wanted to wait for Thomas to get back, even after Wes said he’ll be a little late. But time is of the essence. He stood in front of a small crowd, consisting of the two Silver Guardians, Carter Grayson, Blue Lightspeed Ranger Chad Lee, and Cole Evans.
“Okay,” he began, “you obviously know about the Mariner Bay incident and its cause of the widespread destruction.”
Everyone nodded in affirmation. Jason continued, “Then you probably also know that there is a second Varox running around with a government-built weapon known as the ‘suicide bomb’ which is a dangerous weapon in the wrong hands.” Jason gestured to Carter, who clicked on a remote towards a video monitor. The monitor flashed open and displayed an image of wasteland as Jason proceeded with his commentary, “Thanks to Carter’s information, we managed to use the scanner to search for the device, which is found here.”
Carter stood and approached the monitor image of the wasteland. “The Varox hunter is hiding in one of these caverns,” he lectured, trying to keep it in a tone as to not sound boring, “but they’re all interconnected with each other, so it could lead to a central hub.”
“That hub,” Jason decreed, “is where we’ll find our bomb.”
Jason pointed to Wes, who stood and approached the console and pressed a few buttons. The wasteland image faded to a schematic of an armored van. “This is an experimental battle van,” Wes began enthusiastically, “it’s got missiles, lasers, mines, armor, rockets, the works.” His tone adopted some seriousness. “We’ll be riding this through the wasteland, in case our friend has some surprises for us.”
“I’ve already made a post to send two squads of troops to meet us as the rendezvous point.” Eric added, “they’ll take a while, but they’ll be there.”
All the rangers voiced their approval except for Cole, who was feeling left out. Noticing the rookie ranger, Jason approached him and laid a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “You’re coming along too, Cole.” he comforted, “We need all the help we can get. Powers or not.”
Cole looked up to the veteran Red Ranger and smiled. “No problem.”
-o-
As the others prepared for battle, Jason made one last attempt to contact Thomas in the Command Center before leaving. Unfortunately, the comm signal could not get through to either Thomas’ cell phone nor his communicator. So Jason took a piece of paper, scribbled some words, and ran out the door after leaving the note on the table.
The note read “Don’t be late bro.”
To be continued…
