SPACE RANGERS: RISE OF THE PHANTOM CORE - Vol.
Chapter 1: The Cadet Trials
The artificial sky above Ranger Academy Prime glowed a soft lavender, but the hearts of the cadets
burned like supernovae.
For Kara Myles, this was more than a test. It was her dream. Her father had died fighting for the
Space Rangers. She would not fail.
"Trial 4: Zero-G Combat."
The announcement echoed through the grav-arena. She floated in the dome, armored in sleek
training gear, eyes locked on her opponent-Zeke Aran, a cocky genius with reflexes like lightning.
Outside the dome, a crowd of cadets watched as the trial began. Jets burst, bodies twisted mid-air,
energy staffs clashed. The combat was swift, brutal, beautiful. Kara's training took over. In one
motion, she flipped behind Zeke, tapped his core plate, and disabled his pack.
He spun out of control-and the buzzer rang.
"Trial complete. Victor: Cadet Kara Myles."
Cheers exploded.
Hours later, she stood beside the four other top cadets: Zeke, silent and proud despite his loss; Jun,
a tech wizard; Lira, a calm telepath; and Ryker, a silent brawler with a criminal past.
Commander Silas Reeve, the head of the Space Rangers, faced them.
"You five are now part of something greater," he said. "You've earned the mark. You are Space
Rangers."
As he pinned the insignia on their uniforms, alarms suddenly blared.
"Emergency!" a voice rang through the base. "Unknown vessels attacking Station Orion. Rangers,
prepare for launch!"
No graduation speeches. No time to celebrate.
They were rangers now. And war had just begun.
Chapter 2: Station Orion Under Siege
The rangers' first mission began in chaos. As their starcruiser, the *Sentinel*, approached Station
Orion, plumes of smoke spiraled into the void.
Explosions ripped through the docking bays. Civilian vessels scattered like fireflies under attack.
"This isn't just piracy," Jun muttered, scanning signals. "These attackers are jamming comms and
disabling shields. They know exactly what they're doing."
Kara took command of her squad for the first time. "Ryker, cover the west hangar. Lira, try to
telepathically reach survivors. Zeke, with me."
As they split up, eerie silence overtook the ruined corridors inside Orion. But silence was a trap.
A blast door exploded inward. A new kind of enemy charged-black-armored troops with glowing
eyes and no emblems.
"What the-" Zeke fired, but the soldiers absorbed energy shots like dust.
Kara dodged and sliced through one's armor. No blood. No body. Only shimmering dust.
"They're projections," Lira gasped over comms. "Made of some kind of quantum shadow tech."
The rangers held the line until reinforcements arrived, but the attackers vanished without trace.
Back on the *Sentinel*, Commander Reeve grimly studied a recovered shard of black armor.
"This tech hasn't been seen in over a thousand years," he said. "Not since the Phantom Core."
Chapter 3: Secrets in the Debris
For days, the rangers combed the remains of Station Orion.
Jun discovered a coded signal buried deep in a transmission log-coordinates, and a single
message: *'The Phantom Core is not dead.'*
Commander Reeve frowned. "The Phantom Core was wiped out during the Time Wars. They
shouldn't even exist."
The rangers, against protocol, followed the signal in a stealth vessel.
Their journey led them to a dead sector beyond the maps-an asteroid belt haunted by wreckage of
ancient warships.
There, hidden in the shadow of a broken moon, they found a derelict space station pulsing faintly.
Inside, old logs played holograms of desperate battles. A warning from a long-dead ranger captain:
"If the Core returns, reality will burn."
Zeke discovered a vault of preserved weapons and a strange shard glowing with anti-energy.
"It's not just a signal," Kara said. "It's a trap-or a call for help."
Chapter 4: The Phantom Core Awakens
In the silence of space, the dormant moon suddenly stirred.
Black spires emerged, forming a weaponized fortress. From its heart came a signal, like a heartbeat
across dimensions.
The Phantom Core had awakened.
Back at HQ, panic spread. A rogue moon changing form? Impossible.
The rangers tried to warn the Council. But bureaucracy slowed them.
So they took matters into their own hands.
A stealth strike team. Five rangers. One dying moon.
As they infiltrated the moon-fortress, they discovered memory echoes-remnants of past timelines,
showing them alternate versions of themselves. Some victorious. Some... corrupted.
"This place doesn't just exist in space," Lira said. "It exists in fractured time."
A massive vault at the core held something worse: a child-like figure in stasis. Energy crackled
around it.
"That's not a person," Jun whispered. "That's a time-bomb made from thought."
As alarms blared, the figure opened its eyes. "I am Erax. And the cycle begins again."
Chapter 5: Sabotage at Starbase 7
The rangers fled to Starbase 7, a deep-space fortress designed for emergencies.
But even here, they weren't safe.
Within hours, security systems failed. Power flickered. Artificial gravity reversed.
"We have a mole," Kara declared.
The rangers split to investigate. Jun found corrupted AI code. Lira sensed fear buried deep in the
minds of the crew. Zeke discovered unauthorized access logs. All pointed to one thing:
Someone close to them was working with the Phantom Core.
During a confrontation, Ryker was caught alone with a Core transmitter.
"It's not what it looks like," he growled. "I was trying to trace it-"
But trust shattered. He was confined.
Just as the team fractured, Starbase 7's outer defenses collapsed.
A portal opened outside. Ships from a forgotten timeline poured in.
And Erax spoke again: "All choices lead to ruin. Unless you choose differently."
