As the trio landed on Marcadia, the devastation was obvious. Two Galactic Rangers greeted them upon arrival.
"Glad you made it sir!" the first proclaimed happily. "The Presidential compound is on the other side of the city!"
"Then why didn't we land over there?" Twilight asked Clank.
"Too much enemy fire," Clank explained. "We'd be shot down and crash before we could find a safe landing."
"I suppose so," Twilight replied. "Haven't quite figured out how to apply the Tesla Barrier to the ship."
Clank blinked. "You've been making the attempt? Why?"
"I was bored," Twilight explained.
"Keep your head down!" the Ranger instructed. "The Tyhrranoids are everywhere! Keep your head down!"
"Come on, Twilight," Ratchet instructed. "Let's get blasting."
Grinning, Twilight reached into her saddlebag and pulled out a new shipment from Gadgetron. "I get to test this baby out!" she said eagerly.
"What's that?" Ratchet asked.
"The RY3NO!" Twilight said proudly. "The latest generation of the RYNO weapon system, complete with the auto-upgrade system that the newer generations of weapons have. It's the prototype, and Mr. Fixxit asked me to test it in combat to see how it functioned along the projected upgrade path."
"I am suddenly a lot less worried about fighting the Tyhrranoids," Ratchet replied.
"And I'm suddenly a lot more worried about property damage," Clank replied.
Chuckling, Twilight led the way through the streets, the RY3NO held in her magical grip, speaking her notes to her holo-comp as she moved. "The self-stabilization systems work flawlessly," she noted as she moved. "The smaller number of missiles per launch does allow for greater control, but there appears to be a bug in the targeting system, causing the missiles to lock onto crates as well. Cost-effectiveness becomes a major quandary as a result. Also, having only 25 salvos makes it difficult to maintain sustained usage through a mission. Will continue further notes as the RY3NO upgrades to future levels."
Ratchet glanced from Twilight taking notes to the devastation she had been causing with the weapon. "She considers this inefficient?" he asked in shock.
"That's Twilight for you," Clank admitted as they continued onward.
Their progress through the city was uneventful, although Twilight eventually ran out of ammunition for the RY3NO and had to switch to a different weapon. Before long, they reached a dropship attended by other Galactic Rangers.
"Nice shooting Sir, Ma'am!" he greeted them in a welcoming tone of voice. "A second wave of Tyhrranoids just landed! They're attacking the compound from the other side. We could sure use your help!"
"You got it!" Ratchet confirmed.
"Just let me reload!" Twilight added.
"The dropship's equipped with an ammo synthesizer!" the Ranger pointed out. "You can reload between waves."
Twilight's grin made Clank a bit nervous.
The first assault wave was the Rangers own assault, driving back the Tyhrranoids who had already laid siege. As there weren't any crates to screw up the RY3NO's targeting system, Twilight was able to purge most of them with a few volleys. As others came as Tyhrranoid backup, she and Ratchet fought back to back against the oncoming waves, especially as the RY3NO proved especially effective against Noid dropships.
When a brief break in the battle allowed for a breather, Twilight and Ratchet both took the time to reload.
"Sarge!" a Ranger called out. "We've got aerial assault incoming!"
Grinning, Twilight hauled out some weaponry. "Get back by the gate for shelter, boys!" she ordered, tossing out some Megaturrets from the arsenal she brought from what Ratchet had acquired in Bogon. "You there!" she called, pointing to the most competent looking Ranger and tossing him the Plasma Coil. "Aim for saucers primarily!" She then tossed the Heavy Bouncer to the Ranger next to him. "You focus primarily on laser wielders and larger Noids. Let the Turrets and the mini-bouncers handle the Mininoids. Daddy and I will handle the dropships and any that are outside your range!"
"Sir yes Ma'am!" the Rangers barked, rushing to obey orders.
"And you said I was military," Ratchet teased.
"Hey, I was there for those lessons, too," Twilight replied, sticking out her tongue.
Twilight's strategy worked surprisingly well. With her focused on the dropships and Ratchet thinning the numbers, the Rangers were able to confidently use their borrowed weapons to take down any Noids that got close to them. Twilight's instructions in that regard also conserved ammunition.
Ratchet took control of the Turret to handle the next wave of dropships, while Twilight used her N60 Storm pistols to target the saucers that backed them up. However, the turret took damage during the assault, and needed to be repaired. Twilight used her RY3NO to cover them, and during the assault it upgraded to a V2.
When this happened, she began taking verbal notes to her holo-comp. "The Version 2 shows a marked improvement in damage output, and the increase to 12 missiles per shot greatly increases damage potential. The targeting bug mentioned before has not been corrected, and should certainly be addressed before any models hit the open market. However, the disintegration aspect of the missiles is quite impressive, and the change to energy based projectiles instead of physical ones allows for much greater versatility."
With her notes taken, she continued to obliterate the assaulting troops alongside Ratchet, protecting the repair crew.
When it came time to activate the automated turrets, Twilight's remote manipulation of her Omniwrench proved especially useful. Once all the turrets were active, the Noids were pushed back, making the Presidential Compound once more secure.
President Phyronix came out to thank them personally. "Agent Clank!" he said warmly, shaking Clank's hand. "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." He shook Ratchet's hand as well.
Ratchet rolled his eyes. "Well, if I'm supposed to keep 'Sparks' out of trouble, I at least need to be able to keep up with her, right?"
"Too true," the President replied. "Speaking of, Sparks, what happened to your cybernetics?"
Twilight raised an eyebrow at Ratchet and Clank, having a hard time believing she was really being asked this. "...synthoskin," she replied finally. "For when I'm going incognito."
"Well it's damn good quality!" President Phyronix rubbed her cheek. "Feels just like the real deal!" He turned back to Ratchet and Clank, completely missing Twilight's facehoof. "Sasha's told me a lot about you, though." He leaned in close. "Don't get any ideas, kid. She is way out of your league." He missed another roll of Twilight's eyes. "Sasha filled me in on the Qwark situation. I'm told the man thinks he's a monkey?"
"He has lost his memory, sir," Clank explained.
"Well then you'll simply have to find it for him," the President replied.
"I don't suppose you have any suggestions on how to do that?" Twilight asked.
"I'm afraid not, but then again, I'm not a secret agent like Clank," he replied.
Twilight rolled her eyes. Typical politician, she thought to herself. Says "Do this" without bothering to think "how".
"My daughter tells me you're a man who's good with his hands, Ratchet," the President continued.
As Ratchet opened his mouth, Twilight kicked him in the shin before he could insert his foot.
"The city's laser shield went down during the attack, and we are defenseless without it," he continued. "I sent out a repairman to fix it, but he disappeared."
"We'll get the shields back online and find out what happened to him, sir!" Ratchet said quickly.
"Good on you, son! Do me proud!"
Arriving at the laser lab, the trio encountered a new Gadgetron product called a Refractor. "Apparently, this device generates a field that absorbs lasers and redirects them," Clank explained.
"Why does it have to be a gadget?" Twilight complained. "Why not make it an armor attachment that auto-refocuses the laser through line of sight on the helmet?"
Ratchet smirked. "Why not try it and see?"
Twilight's eyes gleamed, and she grinned widely.
Ten minutes later, Twilight had adapted the Refractor into two armor attachment gadgets. It reduced the maximum nanotech by 10%, but the refraction field was constantly generated, and would automatically redirect any laser impacts on line of sight from their helmets.
"Not bad, Twi!" Ratchet said proudly.
Twilight blushed happily, and then led the way through the laser lab.
With the two of them redirecting lasers together, they made it through to the end with ease. They found a surprising figure at the controls. "Al?" Twilight gasped in shock.
"Just a minute, Twilight!" Al called back. "I'm almost at a high score!"
"High score-" Ratchet blinked. "Is that...are you playing an interactive vid-comic on the city's laser defense grid?"
"Impressive, isn't it?" Al bragged. "I simply bypassed the security server with a 626 hex matrix adapter, and reprogrammed the graphic subprocessor."
"However," Clank pointed out, "it appears you have a feedback loop in the induction coils of your DB3 signal processor."
"What?" Al demanded. "Impossible!" He examined the codes and the controls. "I ran a recursive checksum on the signal matrix!"
"Did the recursive checksum take into account the power drain of an active bombardment?" Twilight asked. "Because Marcadia's presently under attack by the Tyhrranoids."
Al's eyes widened. "No, it hadn't taken that level of usage into account. Oh my goodness..." A few quick keystrokes and the city's defense grid was back online. "That was close."
Twilight took a closer look at the vid-comic. "Is...is this about Captain Qwark?"
"Indeed!" Al proclaimed. "It's the first of four issues of a historically accurate interactive graphic novel about Captain Qwark's rise to heroism!"
"That could be what we need to help him regain his memory!" Twilight said happily. "It's compatible with a VG-9000, so we could play it right in front of him!"
"If it'll help Captain Qwark, then take it with my compliments," Al replied, handing the vid-comic over to Twilight.
Taking it carefully, with Marcadia now safe, the trio returned to the Phoenix.