Jak, Twilight, Starlight, and Cozy spent another hour in the desert, assisting Damas and the Wastelanders in making sure the Marauders were taken care of, that their surrender was genuine and that they weren't lying to them, though sure enough it looked like the ones who made life difficult for their father were being truthful and remained silent as they allowed themselves to be arrested by their enemies, where many would be forced into the Arena and a limited number might be given the chance to embrace being citizens of Spargus, to aid those they had terrorized in the past. Once they were sure that Damas and Sig didn't need help with the Marauders, and it sure looked like neither of them needed them to stick around for a time, the siblings headed back to Spargus and found a message from the pilot of the Air Train, who was being sent back to the Wasteland to pick them up again, as it seemed like something might have happened in Haven and they might be needed for the war effort, which lead to Jak leaving a short message for their father as they returned to the garage and parked the Sand Shark in the spot it usually rested in. With that done they headed outside Spargus and found that the Air Train was resting right off to the side, to the left of the main gate, and Jak found that the pilot was happy to see them again, to which he waited for a couple of seconds, mostly to be sure that they were all aboard his vehicle, before he sealed the door behind them and departed from the Wasteland once more, heading back to Haven so the siblings could tackle whatever problems might be waiting for them this time around. While they did that Twilight called up their Communicator and informed both Samos and Keira that they had found four of the five artifacts for the ruins in Haven Forest, meaning that once they returned to the city one of the things that they would accomplish would be to check out the pillars and discover whatever purpose it might serve, especially since Mar wrote about it long ago, meaning it had to be of some importance, causing the pair to tell them that they would keep searching for the fifth and final artifact that would complete the set.
Once the Air Train landed in the Port an hour later, however, Jak and his sisters climbed out and found that nothing major had changed since they were last in Haven City, as in no new assaults from their enemies and no new bombing runs from the various Blast Bots, so since it looked like Torn might not need them just yet, even though he would likely want to talk with them, the siblings headed for the Door Lock leading to Haven Forest, bypassing the Tainted that were there resting in the terraformed section of the city, but when they walked into their destination they found a new structure resting in the area in front of the Door Lock.
"You know, it looks like we can press the nose, for some reason," Cozy remarked, as the stone item looked like some sort of Precursor head, with closed eyes, a metallic point on top, and a nose that looked moveable, though in that moment she shrugged, as she had no idea what to do with this sort of thing and suspected that either Twilight or Starlight might have an answer as to why this part of the Human sized stone was moveable.
Jak struck the nose and found that the eyes opened, showing a blue light to them, before the energy inside the stone took off and headed away from where they were currently standing, forming an energy ring like those they had taken out back during their first adventure, to which Jak climbed onto his JET-Board and followed the path that was in front of him, even making sure to keep the Eco trail in his line of sight, allowing his sisters to stand there and watch him while they stared at the main pillar of the ruins. While that happened Keira informed them that, based on her now completed research, they were positive that these particular ruins were the oldest known Precursor structure in all of Haven City, save for maybe the Catacombs, but the most important piece of information was that these pillars were supposed to be linked to some sort of planetary observation system, something that made Twilight wonder if they could see the stars with it, and if that was the case they could figure out what the Day Star really was. A few moments later Jak reached what seemed to be the end of this challenge, due to the red ring that appeared near them, and the stone head shattered instantly, which caused one of the five outer pillars to rise out of the water and stop after a few seconds, meaning that there were four more of these stone heads for them to find and four more challenges for Jak to tackle so the other four outer pillars could rise out of the water and form a path to the top of the large central pillar. The second stone head happened to be nearby, on the flatter area near a stone hill, the third structure happened to be on top of a raised rock across from the second head, they found the fourth one resting on a rock in the middle of some water, and the fifth one just so happened to be right on top of the hill they had found the second one near, and when each one became active Jak tackled the challenge in question, completing each of them with ease and shattering each head in the process, allowing the remaining outer pillars to rise out of the water and formed a path leading towards the peak of this area.
With that done Jak and his sisters walked over to where the pillars rested and used them to reach the highest point of this entire forest, though as they made their way up to the top of the main structure the siblings found that each of the outer ones moved up to the next one in line, making it easier on them, before finding a new device at the very top, a telescope of some kind that looked like it was made out of Precursor metal and out of a number of artifacts, something that caused Twilight to withdraw the four artifacts they had recovered so far and let them float around the device.
Approach the Astro-Viewer, time warriors, and behold, the seed of our destruction. a voice said, which they suspected was either another Oracle or might be one of the Precursors themselves, before Jak and his sisters took turns glancing at the eye piece of the telescope, or the Astro-Viewer as the voice called it, where they found that it was locked onto a large vessel that was currently moving through space, one that looked like a living parasite of some kind that happened to have an aura of pure darkness surrounding it, We Precursors built many worlds across the universe, shaping them with Eco into something good... but we were foolish. The Dark Makers were once Precursors, once our friends and allies, but their over exposure to Dark Eco changed them. They began twisting worlds, conquering life, and dark ages ensued across all we had created... now the dark ones have found your world, despite our attempts to hide it from them, and they are coming to claim it for themselves.
"Yeah, but first they'll have to take us down and walk over our dead bodies." Starlight remarked, as all of them knew that whoever their enemies were, be they the Tainted, the KG Robots, or even corrupted Precursors bent on remaking all of creation, would have a hard time bringing her and her siblings down, especially with the powers they possessed, though it was nice to know exactly what was coming towards their planet, a vessel containing what had to be either the full might of the Dark Makers or a fraction of their might.
That is their plan, as foolish as it seems. the Oracle replied, where the group glanced at each other for a few seconds, as it sounded like the Precursors knew that Jak and his sisters happened to be the best hope for this world, which was all thanks to the bits of power that they had been given so far, and the awakening of their true power, but they said nothing as they waited for the Oracle to stop explaining things to all of them, There is but one hope left. You will find a Planetary Defense System hidden deep at the core of the planet, one capable of dealing with the Dark Marker vessel... this is your only chance to save your world, by stopping your enemies before they reach your world. I hope you are more successful than many planets, whose fate has already been closed.
Jak stood there for a few seconds, taking in the fact that their true enemy wasn't Errol or Veger, even though they were all hoping to knock those two around at some point, rather it was a vessel full of corrupted Precursors and their machines, a fact that Samos and the others needed to hear as well, before he jumped down the platforms as he headed for the area of Haven Forest that the Door Lock rested in, leaving Twilight and Starlight to weave some protection spells over this section of the large forest, keeping it safe for when they found the last artifact. Once that was done the siblings headed back into the Tainted's section of Haven City and made their way back to the Naughty Ottsel, as it was time for them to speak with Torn about what had happened to the city since they departed for the Wasteland and see what sort of damage they could do to Errol's forces, before it was time to head back out to aid their father in keeping Spargus safe, though when Jak and his sisters wanted into the bar they found that Torn was talking to Jinx, who paused and glanced at them.
"Jak, girls, boy am I glad you guys showed up. We have a plan to reach Freedom HQ!" Torn stated, something that caused all of them to give him their attention, because if they could reach the rest of their forces they could do some serious and terrible harm to Errol's forces, though at the same time Jak was sure that he saw Shade, who was the leader of the Neo Metal Heads in the absence of the disguised brothers, lurking in the shadows, likely resting before heading out to do more harm to their enemies, before Torn beckoned to Jinx, "And Jinx came up with it."
"I managed to capture one of those Blast Bots... don't ask how, though I'll show you the scars later," Jinx spoke up, where he took a moment to pull his cigar out of his mouth and used one of the ash trays that were resting nearby, mostly due to the fact that he could see Daxter glaring at him, watching to see if he disrespected his bar and made it dirty in some way, and understood that the Ottsel had his own unique powers, "but I've rigged it with enough explosives that should be more than enough to take down the next barrier that's in our way and added a remote control so someone can drive it right into our destination... Torn was waiting for you to arrive, so you can drive it into the barrier and blow it sky high, so we can join up with the rest of our comrades."
Twilight, Starlight, and Cozy stood near Jak as he accepted the remote control and started up the Blast Bot, where the table that Torn stood near glowed for a moment before revealing an image of the robot in question, giving them a view of what was going on as Jak moved the weapon towards his destination, where they found that Jak could fire the blast attack of the Blast Bot if he so desired, though after seeing how many robots were standing between him and the barrier Daxter left the bar with the disguised brothers and headed for the Blast Bot... where the sisters watched as they joined the fight and used their powers to clear a path for the rigged robot, where Jak walked it right into the barrier and blew it apart.
"I knew I did the right thing by waiting for you to return... you guys are the best." Torn stated, where he climbed behind the bar and reached down into a crate that was hidden behind the bar, even though the siblings could tell that he was pleased by what the four of them and their Ottsels had done so far, before he emerged and produced four Peace Maker mods for their weapons, ones that seemed to be upgrades for their existing modifications, which the siblings took without delay as Torn kept a light smile on his face, "Now that we can link up with our northern allies, I'll give them a call and let them know the good news, before we head up there... Shade, can you and the Neo Metal Heads hold the Port while we deal with the KG Robots and Errol?"
The Neo Metal Head in question nodded her head, which made sense due to the fact that a single Metal Head was capable of tearing armies apart, which was what they were facing right now, especially since Errol hadn't figured out that they had a hard time fighting a small group, which Jak and his sisters had figured out after a few interactions with them, before she headed out to tell the others of her forces the news, giving Torn a moment to tell Ashelin and the others that they would be there in no time. Once that was done Torn and Jinx headed outside before climbing onto two single seater zoomers, all while Jak took a two seater vehicle so they could pick up Tess as well, who was waiting outside the Gun Course, though as soon as they were loaded up they headed into the Industrial Section and met up with Daxter, Alvin, Simon, and Theodore, who rejoined their companions before everyone headed for the new ruined barrier and passed into the Slums. From there it took them no time to switch from the Slums and enter the revived section of the city, which had replaced the section of Haven that had been known as the Water Slums in the past, an area known as New Haven that looked like a modern city and not like what Haven had looked like when they first emerged from the time tunnel, though the siblings focused on the journey as Torn lead them to where Ashelin and everyone else would be waiting for them. It still never ceased to amaze all of them when they stared out at the new buildings and structures, as it showed what was possible when everyone banded together and joined forces to do something, and if they could do this much in about two weeks, before the war for Haven started, it meant they could rebuild the rest of the city and outfit the remaining districts to better suit a modern age, but all of their thoughts were interrupted as Torn stopped in front of a large building, one that likely had a back opening for the cruisers and flags out front to show that it was Freedom HQ.
As such the rest of the group climbed off their zoomers and followed Torn inside, where they took a lift that brought them up to a large war room, allowing for more access to the city's systems and everything else Keira had used to gather the bits of information she had handed to them, where Jak and his sisters found Ashelin, Samos, Keira, Onin, Pecker, and Praxis in the chamber, with Tess, Jinx, and Torn joining them.
"Okay, we know what we're up against," Twilight stated, where she weaved her magic into the space in front of them and formed the image of the Dark Maker ship for everyone to see, something that caused their friends and allies to stare at it for a few moments, taking in the fact that a spaceship was literally making its way towards their world, instead of a star or whatever they assumed the Day Star might have been, "a planetary vessel that must have been designed to help build all sorts of worlds, before being twisted into the dark vessel that the Observation Platform has revealed to us, likely either the only one of its kind or the first of many in the arsenal of the Dark Makers."
"Indeed, and we have no idea how much time is left before it arrives," Samos said, though it was clear that he hadn't been expecting to face off against darkened Precursor technology, much less the possibility of running into Dark Precursors, as in the Dark Makers, when thinking about what might have happened to those who built their world, before he sighed not a second later as he considered something else, "I would say that the Catacombs are our best way to combat it, before that ship has a chance to reach our world and do whatever dark deed it was designed to commit."
"Given the quantities of Eco Crystals being moved around, I have an idea of what might happen," Keira commented, where she took control of the central table for a moment, allowing Twilight to pull her magic back as she did that, before she took a moment to bring up everything she could on the Tainted's section of the city, the Nest that Kor had ruled from, and all of the other locations that the Tainted had terraformed in the past, "Errol might be working to reactivate all of the ancient Precursor technology that is scattered around our world, especially since the Tainted seem to be moving towards sites of importance, and I have a terrible feeling that if the Dark Maker Planet Builder reaches our world, and Errol is successful in realizing his dark goal, we won't stand a chance... he'll be able to terraform the planet in moments and wipe us out before we have a chance to fight back."
Before anyone could say anything else the building seemed to shake, likely due to something hitting it and this was just a bit of recoil from tanking the hit, which caused Ashelin to seize control of the terminal and found that the KG had a couple of drop ships that were right outside their HQ, something that caused Jak and his sisters to chuckle for a moment as they headed back over to the lift and let it take them back down to the front of the building, allowing them to see that four large red colored vehicles, which looked like moving forts of some kind, were attacking them. Jak decided to try something new as he drew his blade from his back, where he took a bit of the Blue Eco from his Morph Gun and added some Light Eco to it, something that allowed him to surge towards his target, at a speed that was faster than just using Blue Eco on its own, before he swung his arm and sliced through one of the outer power nodes with just the edge of his sword, even though he made sure to get all four of them before sending his target collapsed. Cozy, however, shifted into her more berserk form and rushed through the enemies that were in front of her, clawing them to pieces before smashing the power cores like all of them were made out of paper or something, impressing the members of the Freedom League that were guarding this area of the city from the robots, and her drop ship collapsed on part of the walkway to the right of the main building that their allies were watching from. Starlight, on the other hand, didn't have to do much as she floated around her target and used a bit of her magic to simply wipe out all four of the outer power cores for her drop ship, though as she did that, which caused the third drop ship to fall down in rapid succession, Twilight raised her hand and stalled her target with a bit of her magic, before she dismantled the attacking vehicle and created a pile of metal in a matter of seconds, even though she did the same thing to the remaining robots and drop shops, cutting off the attack before it could even do a significant amount of damage to the area.
With that done the siblings turned around and headed back into Freedom HQ, taking the lift back up to where Keira and the others were waiting for them, something that was followed by them seeing just how relieved everyone was that they were on their side, especially since it made parts of this war that much easier for them to deal with, though as Jak and his sisters came to a stop they were interested in what might happen next.
"Jak, girls, you four and your Ottsels are our best warriors, and should be the ones leading the expedition into the area the Catacombs rest in." Samos stated, showing the siblings that many of their allies knew that allowing them to continue what they were doing right now, and eventually allowing them to lead the charge for the Catacombs, happened to be the best course of action for them right now, especially since it looked like no one disagreed with his words, including the rest of Haven's Council, who were watching from screens around the chamber.
"Please, please, let us not be too hasty." a familiar voice spoke up, where everyone turned their heads slightly and found that Veger, of all people, was daring to enter the HQ and he even paused for a moment when he noticed the siblings, as if he thought they might be dead or something, though after what happened inside the Eco Mine Jak knew that the man had been hoping to never see the four of them again, before he focused on the others for a few seconds, "Are you sure you want this Dark Eco freak, his tainted sisters, and their pet abominations contaminating the hallowed halls of our glorious Precursors? Especially while I hold the knowledge of how to turn on the Planetary Defense Grid, granted to be my monks and their annoying leader... I should be the one to lead this expedition."
"I figured that Seem might know such a thing... I'll be sure to ask them about that in the future." Jak said, where he knew that the monks didn't like Veger all that much, especially after what he and his sisters had seen during their first visit that awakened their true power, and due to the fact that he and his sisters were more respectful towards Seem it was likely that if one of them asked them for the information they might hand it over without question, before he glanced over to Keira for a moment and found that she and Praxis had something special in mind, "Besides, you aren't fit to lead, Veger... do we need to remind you of what happened in the Eco Mine?"
As Veger opened his mouth, to claim that nothing had happened in the Eco Mine and that the siblings were likely mental, possibly unstable and a threat to the rest of their fair city, a voice spoke up that happened to be his own, repeating what he had said when he was talking to Jak and his sisters when they tried to enter Haven City, that he had been behind the attack on the Palace, toppling it so he could access the Precursor Catacombs below their large city and use its power to destroy everything that has been touched by Dark Eco, causing him to realize that the siblings had recorded their entire conversation and had given it to the rest of their allies.
"Veger... I never liked you in the past, but now I really don't like you." Praxis stated, where it was easy for the siblings to see that everyone was angry, even outraged in some cases, with the Count, where the thin man took a step back for a second as he noticed that the Baron took a single step towards him, though to be sure he didn't run away Starlight weaved a bit of her magic over the door that lead to the lift, creating a barrier he would be unable to breach, before the Baron let out a sigh as he noticed that the Council had something they wanted to say.
We have come to a decision: Count Veger, the Grand Council of Haven City finds you guilty of treason against the city and its people, and we strip you of your title, command, and all privileges. one of the Council members stated, which caused Veger to pale for a moment as he realized that his life was pretty much over at this point in time, that nothing he did, short of saving the entire world from the threat of the Dark Makers, would allow him to save his reputation and the spot in history that he desperately desired, before the member in question beckoned to them, Normally, when we issue a sentence like this, the individual is banished to the Wasteland and given a beacon, but I don't think the Wastelanders will find any value in keeping you alive... so we'll leave the sentence to Jak, Twilight, Starlight, and Cozy, the future rulers of our fair city.
In that moment Midnight stepped out of Twilight's shadow, once more surprising Samos and the others since they weren't used to seeing this sort of thing happen, and raised her hand for a moment as a dark oval of magical energy appeared in the space behind Veger, revealing a reddish realm on the other side of what Jak had to assume was a portal of some kind, a realm that he was sure he heard a scream come from, before a mass of shadow tendrils reached out, grabbed Veger by his arms, legs, and waist, and pulled the terrified man through the gateway, something she waved her hand at and sealed as soon as the deed was done.
"I sent him to the Plane of Torment... he deserves it after everything he's done," Midnight stated, her tone showing them that she didn't like Veger and that this might be a way for her to make up for the fact that they had missed out on taking him down back in the Eco Mine, though before anyone could say anything she faded back into Twilight's shadow, knowing they didn't need her to stick around and that she would come out when she was ready to do so.
"We'll be sure to spread the word of Veger's corruption to the rest of the city, so the people know that they were betrayed by someone who was supposed to help protect them," Ashelin said, where she sweated for a moment as she and the rest of the group took in the fact that Midnight had displayed her expanded knowledge to them for a few seconds, opening a portal to an entirely new plane of existence, or one that they had no way of knowing about until something like this had happened, before she glanced at the central table for a couple of seconds, "but even with the powers that you four have access to, not to mention Daxter's skills and the forms of Alvin and his brothers, we won't be able to withstand too many more of those attacks. We need to take down that floating war factory, before they send out something we can't repel at all, the problem is that the thing is shielded and there are gate codes on every access point... Jak, why don't you and your sisters go check on Vin, at the Power Station? He and his guards haven't said anything since I first asked him if he could find the encryption key that should allow us to get inside the factory... if we get our hands on that, we can send you four up there and break Errol's forces before they have a chance to take us down."
Jak nodded as he and his sisters headed outside, allowing him to use one of the single seater zoomers as he headed back into the Industrial Section of the city, his sisters moving through the air as each of them smashed or blasted the robots that were in their way, though when they reached their destination it was easy for all of them to see that a few Neo Metal Heads, Scouts, were lurking in the shadows and seemed to be protecting the Power Station, only for Vin to emerge for a moment and hand Jak a cylindrical metallic item, the encryption key, before he headed back inside and sealed the door so he remained safe, allowing the siblings to smile as they headed back to give Ashelin the good news.