Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn were ready for the transport ship when it was time to head to Shaar, as they boarded it as soon as it arrived at their suit, allowing them to take their positions, as this time Autumn would be staying on the ship and Starswirl would be fighting by Ratchet's side, as per Vox's rules. Thanks to Ace giving them that drive they knew more about the courses that had been designed for them and the rest of the contestants this season, meaning that everyone was able to learn about Shaar and all of the other new planets that they would be visiting so far. According to their information Shaar was home to some historic ancient temples, the type of priceless structures that Vox would destroy with his courses, and a number of them had been converted into deadly arenas for contestants to fight their way through. Their destination was one of the more challenging ones, based on the information they now had access to, which Clank was feeding to them via their communications so Vox had no idea they knew all this, no contestant had survived this place.
It was all too easy for them to realize that Vox was sending them to the hardest portions of the natural course, meaning he wanted to crush Team Darkstar and stop their rise, or at least slow everything down so he could profit off of them, but with two magic users he had no choice but to send them to the harsher courses, just to spice things up.
Shaar, as they soon discovered for themselves, was a frozen planet, or one of ice and snow, that had next to no sunlight to ensure things grew, though according to the information they could acquire the race that lived here either brought in food from the nearby planets, those closest to the sun, or thrived off something else. Sadly it was going to be impossible to tell since Vox had smashed most of the original framework of the temples, so whatever history had been written here was, for the most part, lost to time and there was no way for someone to figure it out anymore. As the transport flew down to the area that they would be starting in, the outskirts of the temple Vox wanted to send them through, the siblings found that there were all sorts of gladiators and hazards waiting for them, either because of what happened on the previous planets or because an Avenger had a rougher time than a Marauder. None of the siblings were overly worried, especially since all of their armor was designed to deal with the intense cold and the intense heat, showing that Vox didn't want the various contestants to fall to the elements, something Autumn and Clank had figured out earlier, so all they had to do was face all of the challenges and move onto the next planet.
Tonight on DreadZone: Team Darkstar embarks on a journey through the hollowed grounds of planet Shaar. Dallas commented, speaking as Ratchet and Starswirl teleported down to the planet's surface and found that they were at the starting area of their course, just like all of the other planets they had been to so far, What was once just a boring, historic, ancient temple is now the centerpiece of this explosive new battlecourse! Ratchet and his brother will have to complete some of DreadZone's deadliest challenges ever, just to gain entrance into the main temple! But, even if he survives that far, no contestant this season has come out of that temple alive!
"So, more gladiators and walking obstacles," Ratchet remarked, as he wasn't expecting anything out of the ordinary this time around, though when he accessed the Vendor he found that a new weapon was available, the Scorpion Flail, which was a ball and chain weapon that produced powerful hits when it struck the ground or their enemies, "Oh, I'm going to have some fun with this one."
Sure enough Starswirl found that Ratchet swung the flail and it slammed into the midst of his snapper enemies, knocking all of them away in the process, causing him to smile as that happened, as he liked it, before they headed for their first destination, the Landstalker that was on the other side of the structure that was in front of them. After testing out the new weapon, and enjoying it's destructive power, the brothers hacked into the control orbs that were in front of them, which brought out a walkway for them to use so they could access the center of the structure, an area that seemed to be where they would have to battle enemies and hack into more orbs. That happened to be what they had to do, where Ratchet did something new, he used his wrench to smash the enemies who got too close to him while using the Scorpion Flail on the enemies who were further away from him. Such a thing left Starswirl to use small blasts of magic on anyone else, blowing all of them apart so they could focus on hacking into the orbs, but since Ratchet was enjoying the feeling of his new toy, which he would no doubt ask Autumn to tinker with once this adventure was over, he made sure to hack into the orbs as he cleared out his portion of the arena.
The only thing that seemed to be a challenge was a large floating DreadZone construct that had two arms and fired beams of energy at whoever their target happened to be, but he shattered it with ease and opened the way for them to approach the Landstalker, something that no doubt put a smile on Ratchet's face.
With that done Dallas informed them that their next goal was to head around the outside of the temple and access several points to cut off the power to a pair of forcefields that were blocking the way forward, something that wasn't much of a challenge for them, even with all of the ground mounted turrets and enemies that were waiting for them. Ratchet focused on moving their vehicle and utilizing his guns to take down the smaller foes, as a number of gladiators were brought in to stop from reaching each of their targets, while Starswirl took control of the missile launchers and fired at all of the tougher machines that had been set up ahead of time. It was easy for them to tell why this was one of the more challenging places in DreadZone, Vox had made sure to outfit the temple with every gladiator and machine available, to tear down those sent to face Shaar's mighty and terrible defenses, confirming he wanted to knock them down a peg or two. Of course that was easier said than done as the brothers went to work, blasting their way through all of the enemies that were around them, and when Ratchet jumped out to turn the Bolt Crank his brother defended the area with both the Landstalker and a bit of his magic, making it impossible for their enemies to bother Ratchet.
Once the pair of nodes were taken care of, those outside the temple, the forcefield lowered and they were allowed to go inside, where they found that they had to repeat the process and claim two more nodes, so that was what Ratchet and Starswirl did, much to the amazement of Dallas and Juanita, along with to the annoyance of Vox.
As soon as that was done Dallas and Juanita informed them that they would be searching the temple grounds for five new nodes, which had been hidden all over the place and might have been placed under special stone carvings, while Juanita claimed that future generations of DreadZone fans would look back at these recordings with glee. Since the announcers took away the Landstalker, which would have made things ridiculously easy for the brothers, Ratchet and Starswirl walked over to the Vendor and restocked their weapons before tackling the dangers that existed inside the temple. Each node, as they soon discovered, was protected by a combination of gladiators and laser turrets, including some of the flying saucers or mantis bots, making it far too easy for them to locate where the nodes were positioned and gave them a chance to see what sort of dangers were waiting, which was a rare opportunity to plan their attack on their targets. Regardless of which plan they went with, attacking or scouting before attacking, it was all the same to Ratchet and Starswirl, especially since it took them no time to take out the guards of the first node and claimed it for their team, which to the shock of Dallas and his partner.
It didn't take them all that long to claim all five node and win the challenge, no doubt causing the watchers to cheer, as a team had finally conquered Shaar, despite the gladiators attempts to bring them down, where Ratchet found that they had earned a Blue Medal, likely the requirement for the next tournament they would be taking part in.
With the main campaign done the brothers tackled the Dread Challenges without delay, finding that the first one was a bit of a challenge for them, as it was called Assault on the Frozen Tundra and involved them taking control of some nodes, a repeat of what they had just done, only this time they had no access to their weapons and had to pick up charges that had been scattered around the temple. Even with Dallas forbidding the use of magic in this challenge, since they had seen the magical siblings use all sorts of spells during their time in DreadZone, it didn't take Ratchet and Starswirl long to claim all four of the nodes that were now scattered around the temple, reminding them that the nodes could be placed and taken away within seconds, depending on the challenge. Shoot to Kill, the second challenge, required the use of the Landstalker, as they had to destroy targets that had been placed all over the temple, which they overcame in no time at all, while they found that the third challenge, Whack-A-Swarmer, was just them in the center of the temple, killing the small snappers, an easy event to overcome. The fourth, and last, challenge was Robots in a Barrel, sending them back to the first arena of the planet and forced them to face off against eight waves of enemies, all sorts of gladiators and devices sent to crush them, but, as Ratchet and Starswirl expected, they were able to overcome it in no time.
With Shaar cleared, and they were sure of that, the brothers returned to the transport ship, rejoined Autumn, and headed back to the containment suite, as they knew Vox was allowing them to rest before they tackled the Orxon course, all while they silently plotted to bring him, and his dark network, to the ground.