It didn't take them very long to find the Starship Phoenix, thanks to the coordinates that Sasha had given them, though Ratchet was immediately impressed by the ship the moment they all laid eyes on it. The Phoenix was a little bit longer than Angela's starship, though as they looked at it Ratchet could tell that it was definitely designed to carry troops to wherever they were needed and was built to do war with whoever threatened the galaxy. He wasn't saying that their own starship wasn't up to par with the military ship in front of them, but thanks to the improvements that Sunset, Starlight, and Angela made to the ship half a year ago it was almost as imposing as the Phoenix.
Clank, having been given the code to use so that the Phoenix knew that they were friendlies, managed to get them the access that Sasha had promised them, allowing them to enter the dock and see the inside of the ship. Ratchet could tell that Angela was looking around and taking notes about what she saw, maybe so they could improve their own ship further or help improve the Phoenix.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard the Phoenix," Sasha said from her communicator screen, just as they climbed out of their ship and helped the feral Qwark out as well.
"I must say, this is an impressive ship," Ratchet commented, though he had to wonder where they would put Qwark, as it would be a mistake to keep him on the Hyperion... where he might find Sunset while she was still meditating and upset her.
"Isn't she?" Sasha proudly replied, indicating that she was definitely pleased with the ship that she currently commanded, "The Phoenix is the pride of the Galactic Fleet. She's equipped with the latest technology. Holodeck training suite, auto vendors for armor and weapons, virtual firing range, starfighter upgrade system... even a Gadgetron VG9000 game system!"
"A VG9000?" Ratchet said, though it was clear that, while he was interested in the system, he knew that they needed to be focused on the task of finding Dr. Nefarious and bringing this war to an end.
"Of course," Sasha said easily, though her mood seemed to sour when she noticed something appear on one of her screens, "Wait, hold on a moment, it appears that there's a starship in the vicinity of the Phoenix, which the President has declared as restricted until Dr. Nefarious has been defeated."
"Wait!" Starlight said, opening her own tablet and rapidly selecting some keys, to which she sent Sasha a small message over the screen that she was using to talk with her, "Is this the same code that the starship has?"
Ratchet nearly slapped himself for realizing that he had gotten caught up in learning about the ship they were standing in, which had caused him to forget that their starship had been following them to this exact location the entire time. Sunset was still on their ship, caught in the middle of her meditation with the Cores, and it would have been horrible if the ship had been attacked while she was still aboard.
"...you have a starship?" Sasha deadpanned, though it was clear that they should have told her about it the moment she invited them aboard the Phoenix when they were on Florana, "Why am I surprised that you have a ship of your own... fine, whatever, I'll roll with it. I'll have to tell the President about this ship, the Starship Hyperion apparently, and see if we can't give it a place to dock until the war is over."
Sasha then took a deep breath and collected her thoughts, which Ratchet was sure had been scattered when she noticed the ship coming into the area around her own ship, before opening her eyes again to tell them the rest of whatever she had planned on telling them.
"We had prepared a custom living area for Qwark, so he wouldn't get in your way, but I can see that he's not exactly welcome aboard your ship." Sasha finally said, swiping something across her screen, to which Starlight's tablet beeped, "Come meet me on the bridge when you're ready."
The connection cut away and the screen went dark, though the four of them knew that they should have told Sasha about the Hyperion and not have her find out about it this way. Starlight sighed in the end and escorted Qwark to the area that had apparently been built for them and the feral captain, though that meant that it would be all his whenever he regained his memories... if he regained his memories. The others followed her to the room, just so they could see what Sasha had created for them in the short amount of time that they had given her, though they had to admit that the room was impressive in its own right. Once Qwark was in his cage, and they were done with their visit to the room, the group walked back the way they came and took the nearby elevator that would take them to the bridge, where they hoped to find Sasha and, maybe, cool off whatever anger she had towards them.
What they found, however, was Sasha staring at the screen at the front of the ship and shouting at the soldiers that happened to be stationed in the bridge with her.
"We're losing the signal!" Sasha barked out, pointing to another of the soldiers as she kept her eyes on the screen, and whoever she had been speaking to while the group had been busy with Qwark, "Try boosting the power!"
"Wait, is that the President?" Ratchet commented, pointing at the image of the President that phased onto the screen and out again, though he could see what Sasha was trying to do.
"They came out of nowhere-" the President was saying, though the signal kept cutting off despite Sasha's best attempts to keep it connected, "Tyrrhanoid invasion force... Presidential Compound has been breached... cannot hold out much longer here-"
"Mr. President!" Sasha called out, her anger at Ratchet and his family being replaced with a growing concern for the President and his safety, "Dad! Are you there?"
Before anyone could say anything another signal claimed the connection that Sasha was trying to make with her father, to which Ratchet and his family got their first look at who they suspected was Dr. Nefarious, who happened to be a blue robot that was accompanied by what appeared to be a butler in the lower right hand corner of the screen.
"Robotic citizens of the Solana Galaxy!" the blue robot began, to which they all discovered that the butler robot was apparently using some sort of robotic sign language, "The hour of your liberation is at hand! Too long have we robots suffered under the bigotry, the stupidity, the squishiness and foul stench of organic life forms! Soon all robots will bask in the liberty and equality of my benevolent, iron-fisted rule! And, as for you filthy organic life forms...you can look forward to being disintegrated!"
That was followed by some maniacal laughter and the camera that was recording the broadcast crashing to the floor, though neither of the robots seemed concerned about the fallen device.
"That's all for now." the blue robot said, before the broadcast was cut off, though whether it was him or someone else that cut it off Ratchet was unable to tell.
"Plot a course for Marcadia!" Sasha shouted at the soldiers around her, clearly more concerned for her father than anything else, which allowed her to forget how angry she had previously been, "Maximum speed. Prepare the dropship for planetary assault! We're going in..."
"We'll meet you there," Ratchet said, though he quickly made sure that they were out of the bridge before Sasha had a chance to remember that she was pissed off at them.
Once they made it back to their ship they quickly took it back to their starship, docked inside their own hanger, and made their way to the bridge, where they found Sunset waiting for them. Instead of asking how her meditation went, which Ratchet assumed had gone well due to the fact that she wasn't pissed or anything, they merely set their course for Marcadia and took off once more.
When they arrived at Marcadia, and flew down to the planet's surface, they discovered that they would have to fight through the city itself before they could reach the Presidential Compound. As they landed Starlight checked her tablet to see if she had any messages from Mr. Gadget, though she sighed in disappointment when she found that there were none. She had sent him the plans for the third RYNO weapon, the RY3NO as she called it, and had hoped that one could be made for their first official attack on the Tyhrranoids, but she would stick with the weapons that they had at the moment and hope that the weapon would be in her hooves before long.
Ratchet and Angela were equipped in the same manner as before, though they had taken some time to shower before their starship arrived outside Marcadia, so they were ready for whatever was waiting for them. Sunset, on the other hand, merely jumped out of the ship and walked up the path that was resting before them, though she elected to not bother with her armor anymore. She did, however, take a moment to see what weapons the vendor had for sale, just so she could see what her sister had designed while she had been busy meditating with the Cores they had recovered. She discovered three new weapons were available, in addition to the ones that her family already had; the Infector, the Suck Cannon, and the Spitting Hydra.
Once they were all done browsing the vendor, and Ratchet, Angela, and Starlight had picked up their new weapons, the group walked forward and followed the path until they came to the first group of enemies that were attacking the city. They found several of the small Tyhrranoids waiting in front of them, which were easily removable with a few blasts of a N60 Storm, before they found a pair of slightly bigger foes standing before a corner they needed to use. Starlight snapped up a shield as their enemies used their weapons to attack them, though once they stopped she and the others returned fire and cut them down where they stood. They then followed the pathway around the corner, where they came to an area that had at least ten enemies that were either trying to tear the place apart or were just plain bored at the moment.
It didn't take them long to tear the Tyhrranoids a new one, not with the assortment of weapons that they had at the moment, so they were free to advance without much delay. When they reached the next area of the city a drop ship came in and dropped off one of the battle mechs that their enemies had built, which had its lasers pointed at them as they stopped walking, though before it could turn its weapons on Sunset ignited her magic and crushed the mech where it was standing.
Ratchet had known, ever since they discovered that Sunset could even use magic, that both of his sisters were powerful when it came to their magical abilities, though seeing something like a mech being crushed like that made him thankful that they were on his side.
With the mech out of the way the group advanced down the only path that was available to them, where they used their weapons to blast any and all Tyhrranoids that happened to cross them, though Ratchet did notice that the bridge had been taken out during the assault. Another ship flew in as they approached the bridge and dropped off another mech, which was quickly destroyed when Starlight used her shield to reflect its attack back at it. She and Sunset then grabbed the third mech, that was standing on the other side of the bridge, and tore it in half before crushing the pieces, opening the way forward once more.
They then walked across the magical bridge that Starlight summoned, so that they wouldn't have to jump over it, and attacked the Tyhrranoids that were stationed on the other side of the bridge, though once they had been taken care of they followed the path until it brought them to a lone Ranger.
"Nice shooting Sir, Ma'am's!" the robot said as they approached, though it was clear that he was both praising them for their skills and thankful to see them, "A second wave of Tyhrranoids just landed! They're attacking the compound from the other side. We could sure use your help!"
Ratchet quickly confirmed that they were there to help and followed the Ranger to the drop ship that was waiting to pick them up, though once they were all aboard the ship sealed its doors and headed to the compound. Everyone, excluding Sunset, spent a few seconds restoring their ammunition thanks to the on board ammo synthesizer, allowing them to restock whenever they needed it. Ratchet then told Sunset that she should take to the skies when they arrived and focus her efforts on taking out the enemy drop ships before they could deposit additional enemies for them to fight, allowing the rest of them to focus on the enemies attacking the compound.
The plan, however simple it was, actually proved to be effective, as the moment they landed Sunset took to the air and flew around the battleground, tearing any drop ship that she found out of the sky with her magic. Some of the Tyhrranoids managed to survive the impact of their ship being destroyed and crashing to the ground, though they were quickly put in their place thanks to Ratchet and the others. Before they knew it the first wave of attackers was over, to which they swiftly restocked any ammunition they had spent before they walked off the ship and started the assault on whatever was coming next.
After that it was a simple matter to repeat what they did on every wave of attackers after the first one, to which Ratchet watched as Sunset tore the ships out of the sky and made sure that enemy reinforcements never arrived in large numbers. Eventually the Tyhrranoids got the message and stopped sending in more troops for Sunset to destroy, which led to the President leaving the compound to thank them for the assistance.
"Agent Clank!" the President said, shaking Clank's hand for a moment before facing the entire group, "Wow, you're even more impressive in person than you are on the holovid. And I must say, I've never seen a butler fight like you do, son. And where would I be if I didn't take a moment to thank Android 18 as well? You definitely live up to what your maker designed you to be, though I must also thank you for keeping Agent Clank safe as well."
"Just doing our job, sir," Clank commented, noticing that the President didn't bother to thank Sunset, which he guessed was normal considering that the man actually believed that she was her character from the show.
"Sasha's told me a lot about you, though." the President said, pointing at Ratchet for a moment, so that they knew who he was speaking to, "Don't get any ideas, kid. She is way out of your league."
"That won't be a problem Mister President," Ratchet replied, wrapping one of his arms around Angela for a moment, "I've already got a girlfriend, and she'd be real upset if I started seeing someone else... not that I would date someone else at the moment."
The President almost seemed surprised that Ratchet had a girlfriend, again it was all thanks to the fact that he believed that they were their characters from the show, before he shook his head and turned back to Clank.
"The city's laser shield went down during the attack, and we are defenseless without it," the President said, which actually explained more than he actually knew, "I sent out a repairman to fix it, but he disappeared."
"Then we'll restore power to it," Angela said, to which the group saluted the President before they climbed back into the ship and headed for their next destination.
Getting to the defense center wasn't as hard as they originally thought, though when they stepped off the ship they found a gadget, produced by Gadgetron, that was called a Refractor, which basically took in lasers and fired them out again. It was similar to Starlight's shields in some regard, though she hadn't learned how to actually bounce the lasers off of her magic without hurting someone. Ratchet took the gadget in hand and led the way through the defense center, to which the rest of the group simply removed any and all obstacles that might hinder the process of restoring the city's shielding.
Every time Ratchet successfully opened the door that was blocking their path a small group of Tyhrranoids would charge out and attack them, leaving the rest of the group to take care of them with their hand held weapons. Occasionally a mech would appear in their path, to which either Sunset would crush it with her magic, Starlight would blow it up, or Angela, who had no magic, would put a well placed shot in a section of it and watch it explode. Eventually they came to an area that apparently had some sort of bridge for them to cross, though they removed the mech that was standing on the other side before they even bothered to cross, where they came to a room that had a little spider drone walking around.
Ratchet easily figured out that all he needed to do was use the gadget to direct the laser at the floor, to which the little spider would follow it until it was lined up with the socket on the other side of the wall, opening the door for them yet again. This time they removed a large amount of the smaller Tyhrranoids as they approached the next puzzle, which they had to turn a bolt crank to move a small platform before Ratchet could correctly reconnect the laser and open the door. He then quickly pieced together the next puzzle, made sure that the lasers were connected in the fight places, before the door in front of them opened and forced them to take out the rest of the enemies that had invaded the building.
When they rounded the corner, and came to the end of the building, they found their old friend Al standing in front of the console that connected to the city's defenses... though it appeared that there was a video game hooked up to the grid.
"Ah, silence at last," Al commented, pressing a few keys for a few seconds, "Now I can finally concentrate."
"What the?" Ratchet said, looking at the vid-comic, which had the symbol for Captain Qwark on the side, before turning to Al again, "Are you playing a Qwark vid-comic on the city's laser defense grid?"
"Impressive, isn't it?" Al replied, never taking his eyes off the screen as he bragged to them, though it was clear that he had no idea who he was talking to at the moment, "I simply bypassed the security server with a 626 hex matrix adapter, and reprogrammed the graphic subprocessor."
"Though it appears you have a feedback loop in the induction coils of your DB3 signal processor." Angela commented, taking a look at something and discovering the flaw herself, though she knew that Clank and the others were nodding in agreement.
"Impossible! I ran a recursive checksum on the signal matrix!" Al said, tapping some keys before something came to mind, "Though, judging as to why you are all here, that can only mean that Marcadia is under attack... and the recursive checksum wasn't told to take into account the power drain of an active bombardment... Give me just a moment..."
And just like that the power grid was back on, which meant that the city's defenses were as well, though before they departed Angela snatched the vid-comic from Al, promising to treat it gently until they were able to return it. Her reasoning was that this might actually help restore Qwark's missing memories, which they were still sure was a terrible idea considering what had occurred back in Bogon. Still, the President wanted Qwark to spearhead the assault against Dr. Nefarious, so they simply decided that they would roll with what the President wanted and hoped that something good came from what they were doing.
All they needed to do now was return to the Phoenix and see if the vid-comic would help Qwark... though Ratchet only wished that they could leave him in his monkey state so they wouldn't have to deal with whatever idiot plans he might come up with in the future.