Despite their desire to get to Gemlik Base and assault Chairman Drek, before he was able to escape them again, their ship could only go so fast, leading Ratchet to wonder how long he and his siblings were going to remain one step behind him and his plans, though with the destruction of the Planetbuster Maximus he, Autumn, and Starswirl had bought some time for the planet he was planning on blowing up, though his thoughts turned towards their target as he landed on a landing pad that had to be on the outskirts of the base.
"I do not see Drek's ship anywhere," Clank commented, speaking as Ratchet and his siblings climbed out of their ship, all while making sure to have their masks on so they could survive outside their ship, where he glanced at his companions as they took in the dark gray metallic nature of this place, which had all sorts of towers and defenses to make sure the base was safe, "We must have missed him."
"If he was here in the first place... honestly, he doesn't seem like the type to dirty his own hands," Starswirl stated, as that was something he had come up with from recalling everything he and his siblings had learned about the Blarg who was in control of his entire race, showing that he had been thinking about it for some time and this was the first time he spoke his mind on a topic or individual, "plus he was ordering his forces to come here and prepare for an attack, so there was never a guarantee that he would personally come here and oversee what his soldiers were doing."
"As much as I like this ship, save for the Qwark logos, we can't keep doing this," Ratchet added, something that caused all three of them to sigh for a moment, as each of them were still angry with the Captain and taking him out would have done wonders for them, as closure would have allowed him and his siblings to put that event behind them, before he glanced out at the base once more, "we're going to need a faster ship if we want to catch Drek."
"Perhaps we can find one here," Autumn said, causing her brothers and Clank to glance at her for a few seconds, though it took them a few seconds to understand what she was talking about, even if she was thinking of using her power to meld this ship with whatever they found in this place, sort of like what she did back on Pokitaru, before she sighed and took a step forward at long last, "Come on, let's see what sort of dangers are waiting for us in this base."
As they headed down the pillar that was in front of them, which connected their landing area to the rest of the base, one thing Ratchet and his siblings discovered in a matter of seconds was that to move forward they had to tear down some of the towers that lined the path they were following, towers that were easily destroyed by sending either a Devastator blast or Visibomb missile into the side of them, though in addition to those they found some metallic enemies guarding the way forward, little robotic birds. These robots weren't the same ones that they had seen back on Novalis, rather they seemed to be orange colored and appeared to travel in packs of six, at the very least, though while some of their recent foes took more than a single hit to take down these ones fell in seconds as a single swing of their melee weapons took them out, a fact that allowed them to move up some steps and let them approach an area that used to have a force field blocking the way forward. After that they discovered a few more robotic birds and a Blarg soldier guarding the way to the next tower, something that caused Ratchet and his siblings to lash out at them, allowing them to clear out all of the enemies that were in their way and even lead to them smashing some crates for all of the Bolts that were inside them, though as Ratchet took down the tower Starswirl discovered that some of his magic was nullified due to the space that was around them, so both he and Autumn had to stick with more energy based spells, like missiles made of magic or something. With that done they found a more open area that had a turret, one that fired in their direction as soon as they stepped down into the area it was stationed in, which lead Autumn and Starswirl to use magical barriers to defend themselves while giving Ratchet a few seconds to get behind the turret so he could take out the Blarg controlling it, allowing his siblings to catch up with him as he focused on a locked gate in front of them.
Of course one would have assumed that such a thing would have been the end of their exploration of this place, but that was when Ratchet pulled out the Trespasser and forced open the lock, which was followed by the gate opening not a few seconds later, revealing an area with another turret goon and some of the robotic birds, so Ratchet acted as bait as both of his siblings took care of their enemies, Autumn blasting the robotic birds out of the way as Starswirl used a Visibomb to take out the turret goon. With that done they found another locked gate and allowed Ratchet to step forward so he could unlock it, revealing another area with a turret goon, plus a lower side passage that held a pair of soldiers, though instead of wasting time Ratchet used his own Visibomb Gun to take out the turret goon, allowing his siblings to move forward and blast their enemies into the walls behind them, opening the way for them to head off to the right and move deeper into the base, with some robotic birds to take out. One thing Autumn found was that there were a number of barrels that had poison or toxic gas inside them, items they had to ignore since they could be dangerous to all of them, so she did the next best thing and hurled whatever containers were in front of them into the area they had just passed through, eliminating the danger before it could harm them, before finding a tower that was behind a barrier, meaning it was somewhat safer and harder to hit. Of course that didn't mean anything to the siblings since a single Visibomb missile could take it out and bring down the barrier, where they found a jet waiting right in the middle of the circular chamber the path had brought all of them to, causing Ratchet and his siblings to open fire on it before it could fire at them, though with it taken out the door on the other side opened and revealed two more jets, where Autumn and Starswirl lifted some of the toxic containers and hurled them right into the jets, taking them out in seconds.
On the other side of the door they found a Blarg soldier guarding some toxic containers, a foolish move since it allowed Ratchet to use a single Blaster shot to take him and the containers out, opening the way for them to reach a doorway that was actually an elevator that moved down a little, revealing a way into the insides of this base, which had toxic rivers for some reason, maybe pure waste given Drek's previous ventures, and some robotic birds, though it was easy for them to clear out the area of enemies.
After that they found their way over to a circular passage that lead to an area that was full of rising and lowering waste, a hazardous area for sure, so what they had to do was make their way to the middle of the passage before stopping on the highest platform that was just above all of the waste, though a few seconds later they were able to move forward again as they reached an area that they had to use their Swingshots in, to reach the other side and take down a number of soldiers to ope the way forward. With those enemies taken care of they found another metallic surface to walk on and walked on it without delay, finding that they had to be careful here since it also had rising and lowering levels of toxic waste, colored red this time around, even if it brought them to another area that had a soldier defending the way forward, but due to the toxic containers around him Ratchet targeted the nearest container and took their foe out. After that the siblings noticed the area in front of them and discovered it required them to glide down to a lower area, something they did without much delay, where they were able to use an elevator to rise up and head to another part of the exterior of this base, though as the door opened Ratchet found a pack of robotic birds waiting for them, who he and his siblings took out rather quickly so each of them could see what was coming next. Sure enough they found another barrier blocking the way forward, so that meant blasting apart the tower that was on the other side of it, though there was a jet on the other side of the barrier and Starswirl lifted a container before hurling it at their foe, wiping out the jet before it could fire at them, which allowed them to find some more robotic birds hanging out near a few toxic containers, allowing Starswirl to detonate it and cleared out the area within a matter of seconds.
Autumn stepped forward after that was done and found that there was another lock for Ratchet to use the Trespasser on, one that happened to lead to where a few turret goons were preparing to open fire on anyone who made it this far, so he quickly unlocked the door and let Autumn blast the toxic containers that were behind the three turrets, taking out their enemies in a matter of seconds before heading down the main path, allowing them to see their ship from afar, though it lead to an area that had a fair number of robotic birds and a pair of soldiers. As such she and her brothers opened fire on their enemies, her focusing on those who were up in the air while Ratchet dealt with the pair of soldiers, though Starswirl focused on taking down two more jets that were waiting on the other side of a moveable wall that pulled into the side of the base, opening the way for them to move forward. One thing they walked by was a trio of openings that lead up to the area that three more turret goons were waiting, causing Autumn to focus on blasting them down so they didn't have to worry about them, leaving Ratchet and Starswirl to follow the path that the jets had been protecting, before finding that no more enemies were in front of them, allowing them to reach another elevator that brought them down into another part of the base, even though this one spun around and required the use of the magnetic function of their boots. Such a thing allowed them to enter a massive chamber that had an army of robotic birds and some soldiers, something that caused the siblings to divide up the area as they dropped down into the area in question, though neither Ratchet or Starswirl were at all surprised to find Autumn firing a volley of RYNO missiles into her section of the chamber, wiping out her targets in no time, leaving them to deal with the remaining enemies, who seemed surprised that intruders had gotten to this point and tried to take them down, only to fail in due time.
With the chamber cleared out Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl gathered near the elevator that would take them outside, as that seemed to be how this placed had been designed, which brought them to a set of stairs and came to a stop at what had to be the other end of the base, where they found Captain Qwark standing in the middle of the platform, looking like he was the superior one out of everyone who was here... though after seeing the flames of Autumn's white hot anger, as it appeared as soon as she laid eyes on him, he jumped back and climbed into a large ship that flew off into space.
"After him!" Ratchet called out, though he instantly found a problem, there was only one ship and three of them, meaning they would have to decide on who got the pleasure of taking Qwark out and bringing justice to the corrupt hero that many looked up to, but before he could say anything about that Starswirl and Autumn weaved their magic over the ship and he found that they duplicated it, creating two more ships, to which he decided not to bother as he and Clank climbed into the closest one, leaving Autumn and Starswirl to follow after him.
Qwark, of course, seemed surprised by that fact, that they were capable of duplicating the lone ship into three ships so all of them could fly after him, and it wasn't long before Ratchet and his siblings tore apart one of his engines, causing him to press a button and send the damaged fragment off into space so he could keep moving without dealing more damage to his space ship, a smart move in Clank's eyes, though it didn't stop Ratchet, Autumn, or Starswirl from firing upon his ship in an effort to take him down and make him pay for his crimes.
"Listen to me, I'm doing this for your own good." Qwark stated, speaking over the communications system so the siblings could hear him speak, not that it mattered since they were ignoring him and everything he had to say, but that didn't stop him from trying to get through to them, all while Ratchet and his siblings dodged his attacks and fired at him in return, a fact that informed him that they were trying to kill him for what he did, "You four have no idea what you're getting into, as Drek will stop at nothing to make sure everyone either bows to him or is left in ruin, and right now I can tell you that he's focused on the latter for you guys."
Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl ignored his comments as they continued to fire upon his fighter, tearing into the backside of it while seeking out the rest of the engines, though it wasn't long before they shattered the second one and forced the corrupt Captain to eject it as well, something that was swiftly followed by another being destroyed and caused Qwark to activate a force field while calling in allies to aid him, even if the siblings tore them apart before they could do anything to their ships, allowing them to focus on Qwark once more.
"Come on, aren't you guys overreacting?" Qwark asked, though it was clear that he was worried about his chances of even surviving this battle, as they were tearing apart his ship without him being able to do anything in return, showing him that the siblings were quite skilled in the art of piloting vehicles like this, even if they were far younger than him since he had to be in his middle thirties to early forties at this point, "Ratchet, surely we can talk about this?"
"You and Drek have to be stopped... that's all we're doing right now." Ratchet replied, where Clank found that he was just as calm as he had been when the two of them talked after Qwark's betrayal, while Starswirl had tended to Autumn, and it made him turn his head for a few seconds, finding that Ratchet was in the process of letting go of the necklace before he refocused on what their foe was doing, even if he continued to deal damage to the fighter.
"For the future of our galaxy, you two have to be taken down and punished for your crimes," Starswirl added, though once this battle was over they would be able to check one name off the list, leaving Drek and those who served as commanders in his corrupt group, though after saying that he resumed firing on Qwark's fighter for a few moments and tore off one of the remaining engines that it had.
"Autumn... surely you know that I never wanted to harm you guys..." Qwark pleaded, which was a shock since none of the siblings, not even Clank, expected the man to do something like this while they tore his fighter apart, though they waited for a few seconds, just to make sure he wasn't trying to make them stop and lure them into a trap that would take all of them out, even though it didn't look like any additional enemies were coming to Qwark's aid, "please, you have to believe me... the Blargian Snagglebeast wasn't supposed to break out of the restraints and attack you guys, it was supposed to mind it's own business... please, I never meant to hurt any of you!"
"I want to believe you... I really want to... but I'm not a naive child anymore," Autumn said, though while she was angry at Qwark, enough to nearly make her burst into the flaming form she had taken back during their time on Umbris, there was a part of her that felt like crying as she continued to blast into the fighter that she and her siblings were focused on right now, even if no tears came from feeling that way, "I want to believe that you were a hero, fighting to protect those who looked up to you, instead of being corrupted to the point where you would side with someone like Drek... that's why this hurts, because we know you could have been a hero... but you made your bed, and now you must lay in it."
In that moment Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn opened fire on the fighter, tearing through what seemed to be the last of the engines that powered the large ship, where they watched as what was left of the ship, containing Qwark no doubt, just spun out of control and descended towards Oltanis, before eventually exploding during reentry, something that caused everyone to breathe a sigh of relief as they returned to the area that they had found the man on earlier, landing their ships near the hanger before climbing out, but before they could do anything an Infobot revealed itself and revealed that Drek's forces were already attacking Oltanis.
"I was hoping that we'd stop the invasion, but it seems that we were too late to stop that from happening," Ratchet said, though as he said that, and Clank claimed the Infobot like all of the others they had recovered over the course of this long adventure, he and his siblings stared at what was resting nearby, as there was a slim black starship that seemed far more advanced than any of the ships they had used so far, "though it looks like we might be in luck, since it seems that Qwark left us a little present before he shot him down... only it looks big enough for one of us, and Clank, so that's going to be a bit of a problem."
Of course Ratchet forgot who was with him for a moment as Starswirl used his magic to lift their previous ship over to the area that they were standing in, and when it arrived Autumn took a deep breath, since she was a little burned out thanks to her anger for Qwark rising again, before using her power to study both ships and dismantled them, though it wasn't too long before she combined the two ships together, into one that looked like the slim ship that had red stripes added to the black paint. Another thing Ratchet noticed was that it seemed to be somewhat bigger on the inside, which meant that she must added some of her magic to the mix, or Starswirl had done that when he wasn't looking, meaning all of them could sit inside the ship without having to worry about space, to which Ratchet chuckled as they climbed into the ship, finding it also had a ramp and rest area in the back, before heading down to Oltanis to assault Drek's forces and see what could be done to save the planet.