Ratchet, Clank, Autumn, and Starswirl found that, for the next six months, they were the guardians of Vendra Prog, whose cell had been installed in the Nebulox Seven, a prison ship designed for maximum security prisoners, especially those who were incredibly violent. As such one of them were aboard the prison ship at all times, with Cronk and Zephyr, as Talwyn and the galactic defense force felt much safer with the siblings watching over Vendra, maintaining a watch over her cell, all of the systems, and everything else that happened to be aboard the ship. Part of their reasoning was because Neftin was still at large, they had no idea what he was planning or why he wanted Pollyx so badly, and whenever they pulled Vendra out of her cyrosleep, to make sure she sustained no damage from extended time in such a position, she refused to say anything about him. In fact the only thing Vendra preferred to talk about was the Lombaxes, speaking to Ratchet when he happened to be near her prison cell, either because she was interested in his race or she wanted to learn more about the Dimensionator, even though he was the wrong Lombax to ask since his father was the expert on it.
Of course it took a long time for the galactic courts to go over the vast crimes that Vendra had committed, figuring out the ones she and her brother had done and which ones were done by someone else, so much so that it took them those six months to figure out her sentence: a quintuple life sentence in the Vartax Detention Facility.
As such the three of them, Clank, and the two warbots were assigned to the ship shortly after the decision was made, due to the fact that there was a galactic crime wave, to which Talwyn authorized them to use a different route to get Vendra to the planet the facility had been built on. It involved flying through the Cerulean Sector, which Ratchet did without delay, even if it meant passing through an asteroid field as a shortcut, as his siblings were aboard the ship and he knew that they would be able to deal with most of the problems that were around the ship. Of course they went easy with their powers, since they had no idea what Vendra and Neftin had been up to before assaulting Pollyx's business and kidnapping him for their dark plans, while the two warbots stayed on the bridge to make sure everything was fine, leaving the captains seat vacant for Ratchet. Unfortunately a few small pieces got through their defenses and dealt a small bit of damage to part of the Nebulox, on the underside to be exact, where Autumn revealed her new suits for them to wear, which doubled as the new sets of armor to keep them safe, before Ratchet walked out with Clank on his back, using the newest version of his magnetic boots to head outside.
While he did that he double checked his gear and found that he already had everything he needed to make his repairs, as it should be an easy fix this time around, unlike some of the other things he had been forced to repair, allowing him to use the jumping feature of the new boots to reach the damaged area, where he and Clank agreed that they simply needed to recouple the ion convertor.
Hey Ratchet, I... a voice said, where Ratchet glanced up for a moment as a hologram of Talwyn showed up in front of him as he worked on the slightly damaged portion of the ship, though in the following seconds she grasped her neck, as if she was lacking oxygen, to the point where she even collapsed on her knees for a moment, No oxygen. Life flashing before my eyes.
"Nice one Talwyn." Ratchet replied, letting out a light chuckle as he listened to her for a moment, while remembering that she had done the same thing not that long ago, while Angela and the others were doing their best to maintain the peace on their own, as in without the siblings there to lay waste to their opponents, "What's up? Calling to check in on us?"
Yes, our sensors picked up some damage to the power grid on deck three. Is everything alright? Talwyn asked, though while she could easily speak with Autumn, who was no doubt monitoring Vendra to be sure everything was fine with her, she wanted to talk with Ratchet, since it was likely his fault that something had happened, unless Neftin had returned to save his imprisoned sister.
"Yeah, I was trying to save some time... which worked, mind you... by piloting through an asteroid belt." Ratchet answered, as he had weighed the pros and cons of the idea in question, in addition to asking his siblings what they were thinking at the time, before going through with his plan and succeeded in gaining some time, "According to Clank we'll arrive at the Vartax Detention Facility in about two hours... provided nothing else happens to slow us down. Autumn should be getting ready to start thawing Vendra for the last time..."
Just be careful... I've never seen someone like her, so cold and empty. Talwyn said, especially since they had no idea where Neftin was, which worried her more than she was willing to admit, so even with the siblings guarding Vendra she was worried that something bad might happen, even with Autumn's preparations, Contact me if anything happens.
Ratchet nodded before the link was severed, allowing him to head back inside the Nebulox with Clank, though as they did so he passed by Autumn, who happened to be working on Vendra's bindings, and Starswirl, who was talking with the last person of the crew, the Plumber, who had nothing new to tell them about Rivet. After passing by them he quickly entered the bridge and found that Cronk and Zephyr were sleeping, where he tapped them with his wrench and woke them up, to which he informed everyone that it was time to wake up their guest, even if the warbots didn't want to. As Autumn started the process, ahead of the warbots reaching her, she detected a power failure and watched as Vendra's eyes snapped open as she stared right at one of the cameras, indicating that she must have figured out a way to build her power while the cell was in use. Even the gravity broke for a moment, to which Ratchet and his siblings used their new boots to move over to a magnetic strip and headed into the depths of the Nebulox, as they had a feeling that something was happening and that they had to make sure Vendra was contained before reaching their destination.
Autumn was actually amazed by how much power Vendra was using right now, despite the fact that it had been a total of three weeks since her last talk with Ratchet, which manifested as purple energy that did whatever she wanted, like moving down a hallway to mess with whatever she was targeting. Ratchet, on the other hand, was more impressed by the additions that had been made to their boots, as when there were breaks in the magnetic floor they could actually target a new area and leap towards it, unlike in the past where one had to stay on a track until the end. Of course they also got a chance to use one of the seventh tier weapons, the Omniblaster, which worked like all of Autumn's previous blaster weapons and allowed them to break through some obstacles so they could quickly press onward, since there was no telling when Vendra would break out of her cell. Vendra displayed that her power was stronger than they believed as she forcefully opened one of the blast doors and ejected them into space, either to kill them or simply remove them from her path, but thanks to Starswirl latching onto the side of part of the exterior, and catching everyone with a net, he saved the three of them before placing them on another walkway on the right wing.
Cronk and Zephyr were worried about them, especially since they believed that Vendra shouldn't have woken up like this in the first place, but Autumn made sure to order both robots to attach their personal warp devices, because if things went south they, at least, should warp to safety and tell Talwyn the news.
It took them a few moments to traverse the surface of the right wing, avoiding small asteroids while navigating through the flames that came from the three thrusters that happened to be in front of them, which the warbots temporarily disabled so the siblings could pass by them, allowing them to enter the ship once more. Even with most of the power disabled, which was a bad thing for a ship of this size, Vendra was able to hack into the PA system and speak to Ratchet and his siblings, all from the comfort of her cell, though she was glad that they would have some time to talk before they reached their final destination. She also unlatched one of the elevators that the siblings were moving by, since the path back inside happened to follow one of the shafts, and let it move down, as if she was trying to crush them all with it, but she wasn't too surprised to find that they survived, by leaping over to another magnetic strip before crossing back over once the elevator was no longer a danger to them. The maintenance bots were also possessed by fragments of Vendra's power, who tried to take the three of them down with all of their tools, though the siblings simply blasted their way through them with their blasters and made their way towards Vendra's cell, who seemed to be having fun as she waited for their arrival.
After that they reached the containment area that Vendra was being held in, who was flexing her power while Autumn found that the proton was definitely disabled and two Battery Bots were wandering around the chamber, where Ratchet stood in front of the cell while his siblings found their targets and returned them to their sockets.
While Talwyn was convinced that Vendra was cold and empty, a danger to the universe, Ratchet had seen another side that was buried under the surface and he could tell that she was having fun, as she knew that none of her changes would take them down and was simply doing this to pass the time. After fixing the proton field, and Autumn was sure it was working as she designed it, Cronk informed them that the power had been rerouted to an exterior generator, which happened to be their next target to ensure Vendra remained in her cell. As they headed for the next airlock Autumn smiled as she found a fragment of the RYNO VII holoplan, where she told her brothers that the Plumber had broken it for safekeeping, meaning he felt it was too dangerous, much like her ideas for the RYNO VIII, and there were nine fragments, so it was worth searching for all of them. With that claimed they headed through the airlock without delay and headed outside to restore the power so Vendra didn't escape from her cell, which was a simple matter since it was not a few seconds away from the airlock, where Ratchet turned the Bolt Crank and completed his task without delay.
As soon as he did that several rockets slammed into the side of the Nebulox, dealing damage to the prison ship while also knocking them off of the magnetic strip, causing them to launch themselves at another one so they could head inside once more, while Zephyr exclaimed that Neftin was attacking and that he had hired Thugs-4-Less.
"Thugs-4-Less? We haven't seen them since our days in Bogon... wonder what they've been up to." Autumn remarked, as she spoke the truth, after the leader of the organization was taken out the Thugs had gone into hiding, no doubt waiting for the three of them to head back to Solana before making their move, before she shelved her thoughts as they headed inside the ship, while witnessing a Thug ship pierce the side of the Nebulox.
Upon heading inside Autumn also revealed the second weapon that was available right now, the Fusion Grenade Glove, yet another weapon that followed a specific type that was common among the tiers she had created, because it was the newest Bomb Glove she had created. With that in hand the three of them entered the next chamber and found that the Thugs had brought small orb bots with them, ones that fired laser beams at the ground, though they were far too easy to take down, a single hit tore them apart, allowing Ratchet and his siblings to move back towards Vendra's cell. Unfortunately the cell and most of the chamber had been wrecked, where they could see Vendra floating off with one of the Thugs, a lizard race that must have moved into Polaris to get away from their failed reputation after dealing with the siblings during their second adventure. There were a few more hanging around where the cell was located, no doubt guarding the place to ensure none of the siblings made it through the area, and while Ratchet could tell that they had gotten better over the years he also knew that the same applied to him, Autumn, and Starswirl, as they won the first fight and moved forward.
As they did that, however, the computer informed them that pyrocidic bombs had been detected aboard the ship, though none of them needed to be told what that meant, one or more of the Prog siblings were planning on blowing the Nebulox up so they could flee without the only enemy ship in the area pursuing them.
Such a thing was confirmed in the next chamber of the ship when the siblings found some Thugs moving the bombs into position, making sure not to drop any of them when one of them noticed that Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl were closing in on their position and called for the others to open fire. As such the siblings fired on their enemies while making sure not to hit the pyrocidic bombs that were scattered around the ship, in fact he found that his brother and sister shielded them as they figured out how to safely remove them, as most were armed with connectors to make sure they were unmovable once one was in place. Neftin even took a few seconds to utilize the PA system and informed the crew that the ship would be blasted if anyone dared to follow him and his sister, even though it was clear they were going to arm them anyway, as there were too many of them for the Prog siblings to be bluffing. At the same time Ratchet knew that Cronk and Zephyr would stand down in this situation, as the warbots knew they were no match for either of the siblings, plus they had a way out, which they might have used by now since things were going south fast.
As they approached the bridge, however, the siblings heard Vendra and Neftin talking, where Vendra asked where Pollyx was and her brother informed her that he was on the planet called Yerek, working on a 'device', before inquiring how long she had been stuck aboard this ship.
"I know we planned on you only being struck in cyrosleep for three weeks, but, well, I ran into some complications," Neftin replied, where Ratchet stopped his siblings outside the door to the bridge, as he wanted to see if Vendra would reveal any additional information that might aid them in figuring out what in the world they were up to, "please don't be angry, but you've been in the custody of Ratchet and his siblings for six months."
"SIX MONTHS?! You left me in here for SIX MONTHS?!" Vendra shouted, clearly showing that she was enraged by what she was learning right now, and to be honest Ratchet couldn't blame her for being angry, as they had expected Neftin to make a move a lot sooner than this and had been surprised when he stayed in the shadows until now, to the point where she grabbed Neftin's chin and shocked him a little.
"This wasn't easy you know: I had to bribe elected officials to even get the routes this ship would take, coordinate a wave of crime that spanned an entire galaxy, hire extra muscle...." Neftin replied, though his tone revealed that this event was more common between him and his sister, that they argued about many things and that Vendra usually won, even if he made some good points on the matters they talked about, all while rubbing his chin after it was released, "I tried all of the tricks I could think of to get them away from this ship, but they refused to leave you unattended..."
"Figures. Anyway, we had better get out of here... Autumn designed warp devices for the warbots, so it's only a matter of time until reinforcements show up." Vendra stated, informing the siblings that Cronk and Zephyr had fled after her escape from her cell, the wisest move available to them at the time, while bits of her potent energy danced around the fingers of her right hand, "You can come out, Ratchet, I know you and your siblings are watching us... fair warning, we're leaving this ship and there's nothing you can do to stop us."
In that moment the siblings opened the door and moved up the stairs, where Vendra swung her hand and sent out bits of energy at them, while at the same time Starswirl did the same thing, though as the two energies slammed into each other they mixed into a purple and blue vortex that rested between them. Autumn paled as she scanned it, their magical power and Vendra's nether magic, as that was what she and her brother called it, seemed to be antithetical to each other, to the point where they were violently reacting to each other. Vendra was surprised by this discovery and backed off, just like her brother did as soon as the collision happened, causing Autumn to call for her brothers to get away from the bridge before the explosion happened, as the moment the three of them and Clank were clear she warped them deeper into the ship, to get away from the blast. The following moment a terrifying explosion rocked the Nebulox Seven, where the detonation of the rift, combined with all of the bombs that had been planted, tore the entire vessel to pieces in a matter of seconds, a fact that was followed by Autumn ejecting them into space to avoid being consumed by the explosion.
They didn't have a lot of time to marvel at the destruction, as they started to stealthily move through the wreckage of the ship and Autumn tapped into their communications, finding that the Thugs were doing everything in their power to clean up after the explosion. The interesting thing was that Vendra didn't want them to kill Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl, as it sounded like they were on a deadline, now strained by her lengthy time in prison, and they needed to get out of here with all the haste that they could muster, while leaving no signs of their engines for authorities to follow. Despite that fact they still wanted to be sure that the siblings were either unable to do anything or had been consumed by the explosion, which caused the three of them to remain silent as they eventually reached the side of a Thug ship. In that moment they quickly engaged another function Autumn designed for them, cloaking shields to make sure they remained hidden, causing the Thugs to declare that they were either dead or had teleported out, where Neftin informed them that they would be going to Yerek and transferred the coordinates to all the Thug ships, all while the siblings slipped into the ship.
In that moment they slipped into the ship, without the captain noticing them, before stowing themselves away inside the crates that were in the back, as it would no doubt bring them to their destination and let them figure out what in the world was going on, they just had to be patient and wait for the Thugs ships to reach Yerek.