//------------------------------//
// Commando: Maktar Resort 
// Story: Ratchet and Clank: The Starlight of Solana 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

	It took Ratchet and his sisters some time to reach the area in which the Maktar Resort was located, giving both Starlight and Sunset time to recover their magic and study the area surrounding the resort. They took note of what appeared to be a asteroid field of some kind, where they suspected an ambush would be placed if the Thugs were actually smarter than they actually seemed to be. While they scanned the area they would be heading towards, and the potential enemies they might fight, Starlight started making a list of everything the three of them needed to do at the moment. Besides taking out the jamming array, and having someone take part in the gladiator fight, Starlight also noted that they needed to return to Megapolis and pick up Clank.

At the same time Starlight took note of how her sister was faring, because her readings revealed that she had expanded some of her energy to clear the way through the path they had given her. She had to wonder what Sunset had done all by herself, but considering that she had been using her magic to do things much faster, before they had been brought to the Bogon Galaxy, she suspected that she had merely used her powers to get passed several obstacles that would have taken more time to clear the normal way. She almost sighed for a moment, because she had lectured her sister on the proper usage of her magic when they had started training after she had been released from the hospital, which meant that she'd have to do so again when they had time.

As they flew into the asteroid field, the only way to their destination, the ship's alarms went off for a moment, to which Ratchet started looking around the exterior of the ship.

"What's going on?" Starlight asked, looking around for whatever her brother was looking for, but at the moment she didn't see anything that was different about the area around them.

"We've got incoming enemies," Ratchet replied, flipping some switches and activating both the ship's shields and the weapon systems, something that he had trained in before they had arrived in this galaxy, "Its time to show the Thugs that we mean business... even if it means that we have to blast them into a thousand pieces."

The moment that Ratchet mentioned that the Thugs were coming at them the scanners went crazy, as at least twenty ships appeared on their radar with the intent on tearing them to pieces. He flipped a switch on the dashboard and activated the systems that would allow him to aim his missiles at whoever got caught in his crosshairs, so that way he didn't have to waste time with actually aiming and could take enemies out. One enemy came near them and started firing at them, but as Ratchet fired the blasters and tore the ship to shreds he groaned as the enemy managed to get a shot off. The shield shimmered for a second before it collapsed completely, to which Ratchet started flipping a switch to get them back on before their enemies tore into them.

"This cannot be happening," Ratchet said, panic entering his voice as he tried to get the shields back online, before turning to his sisters, "Could either of you spare a shield until we get through this mess?"

Sunset touched the side of the ship and expanded her energy, a flame colored shield forming over their ship in time to take the next few shots that were coming their way. She nodded and Ratchet engaged their enemies, loosing missiles that the ships that he knew would take longer to take out with his blasters alone and taking out the smaller ships with the main systems. Starlight used her magic to grab several of the asteroids around them and slammed them into whoever was closed to them, smashing the ships and their pilots before they could get anywhere close to the three of them.

When the twenty ships were taken care of they thought that they would be able to move on, but then seconds later the alarm went off as another twenty enemies flew into the area around them. This time the enemies managed to get more shots off on them, because Sunset was starting to sweat as her shield prevented the attacks from reaching them. Sunset noticed that, at one instant, that their enemies were planning on just rushing them all at once, after figuring out that the shield was preventing them from hitting their target. She grinned once and told Ratchet to let their enemies get close to them, but when the majority of the Thugs' ships were all around them she poured more of her magic into the shield and, in an instant, loosed a wave of fiery destruction that tore through nineteen of the twenty ships.

As Ratchet removed the final Thug ship, and then continued towards their actual destination, Starlight reflected on how tired her sister looked from keeping that shield up the entire time. She knew that it had to be draining, to keep the shield up and then convert it into a wave of destruction, but she took note that the golden bracelet seemed to be reacting to the strain in some way. She seriously wanted to know what was so special about that bracelet, because every time she thought she had figured out everything that the bracelet could do, and understood it, something else came up that changed her opinions.

It was almost as if the bracelet had a mind of its own, as if it had been crafted by a creature that existed outside the normal rules of the universe and had been given to Sunset at a young age by their parents... wherever they were at the moment.





When they finally reached their destination Starlight noticed that Sunset was still tired from their fight in the asteroid field, as the moment they started climbing out of their ship she fell to one knee and started huffing for a few seconds.

"You okay Sunset?" Ratchet asked, resting a hand on his sister's shoulder, worried that she might have overexerted herself to protect them from the ships that Thugs-4-Less had sent at them, "Should we take a break before moving forward?"

"No... I'm fine," Sunset weakly replied, pulling herself back onto her feet before looking out at the Resort itself, "We've got to take out that jamming array and get into that arena..."

"You are in no condition to be fighting in the arena," Starlight commented, shaking her head just a bit as she turned to her scans, wondering if it would be best to have her sister come along with her and have the two of them take out the array.

"Never said... that I wanted... to fight in the arena," Sunset told her sister, moving to the weapon vendor and picking up the Chopper, one of the weapons she had ignored on Oozla, before she palmed several of the stars in her right hand, "Come on Ratchet, we've got to get you to the arena so you can see what prizes their giving away."

Starlight was somewhat surprised that her sister even wanted to go near the arena, but then again she had said that she wanted to get their brother to the entrance so he could fight. Sunset was going to take it easy for the moment, which was actually a smart move considering the amount of power she had used up during the fight with the Thugs. She watched as her sister pulled her arm back and threw a trio of stars towards one of the pile of crates that was sitting before them, though that was followed by several of them exploding and one of the Thugs being ripped to shreds.

The instant the enemy was taken care of, and the three of them touched the platform he had been standing on, Ratchet and Sunset turned to the left and moved forward, leaving Starlight to head to the right side.

Within half a minute of leaving the main platform Starlight noticed what appeared to be robotic chickens of some kind, but as she made a note of them in her files she pulled out her own Chopper and loosed a few stars at them. The stars moved around and tore into her enemies, allowing her to loot the crates around her as she rapidly approached an entrance that was blocked by a large cylinder. She spotted a symbol that Sunset had pointed out when she had showed off the Tractor Beam, to which she ignited her horn and gently removed the section from where it was resting. With the deed done she gently sent the cylinder on the platform behind her and advanced into the building that would, in time, lead her to a small ship that would take her to the jamming array.

Once she was inside the building she noticed a robot, carrying clipboard and moving around as if it was late for something, before she zeroed in on a pad that she assumed that the robot interacted with. She gently moved the robot over to the pad with her magic and waited a few seconds as the door opened before her eyes, to which she let the robot go as she pushed onward. The next room had what appeared to be a bomb sitting in the middle of the room, but she took a few seconds to study the device before she turned towards the passage on the right side of the room. She noticed several more of the robotic chickens coming at her, and that included the blast door at the end of the passage, so she tore the robots to pieces with her staff as she determined what she needed to do next.

It took her all of ten seconds to figure out what the bomb was for, so she teleported it to the blast door and watched as it was blown to pieces, causing the enemy that was standing behind it to run into the passage and start firing at her. Starlight smirked as she teleported behind the Thug, because the instant she reappeared she smacked her target in the middle of his back before pulling out the Lancer and loosing a few shots until he was dead. Once the deed was done she noticed that there was what appeared to be a launch pad in the middle of the room, to which she smiled as she thought about the inspector robot that had been following her the entire time. She gently picked the robot up with her magic and set him down on where the pad would have launched him towards, opening the door that would allow her to move forward.

She teleported to where the inspector robot was standing, as it didn't want to move from the area anymore, before heading into the passage in front of her and spotting even more of the chicken robots blocking her way. As she stepped into the passage she noticed that another Thug was waiting for her at the end, beckoning her to move through the passage as if he wanted a piece of her. Starlight smiled and pulled out the Gravity Bomb, loosing a bomb at the group of chicken robots to get rid of them before appearing next to the Thug and blowing him to pieces. Once the enemy was taken care of she noticed another blast door blocking her path, along with a bomb resting in the middle of a room on her left, but this time she merely teleported to the other side of the door and continued onward.

She then exited the building she had been moving through and spotted the ship she had spotted when she had entered the building, though it was still protected by the barrier that she had seen. She also noticed another launch pad that had another bomb resting in the middle of an electric field, to which she assumed that she had to take out the four ships that were powering the barrier. She smiled as she tore the bomb from where it was floating and set it sailing into one of the small ships, blowing it to pieces and decreasing the strength of the barrier. She then repeated that three more times, sending the bombs that spawned to remove the rest of the ships and take down the shield that was preventing her from getting into the ship.

Once she had brought the barrier down, and the walkway behind the ship was restored, she trotted into the limo shaped ship and closed the door behind her, so she could ride to the jamming array and take it out. It didn't take the ship very long to reach her destination, as it had been moved into the Resort's orbit, but when she arrived she engaged her mask and stepped outside so she could get to work.

The instant she stepped out of the ship she spotted what appeared to be one of the power generators for the array, which was protected by the chicken robots, so she used her staff to make quick work of her enemies before turning her attention to the power source. She spotted a bolt crank and attached her staff to it, allowing her magic to spin it around and raise the generator out of the area that was keeping it safe from damage, before tearing out the power core and causing the generator to fall to pieces. She quickly checked her readings, to determine how many more of them she needed to get rid of before the jamming array went down, before setting off to the north of where the ship landed.

It took her a minute to reach the second generator, which was again guarded by the chicken robots, so she continued to use her staff and cleaned up the area around the bolt crank. The moment that she was done with the enemies she turned the crank and revealed the power source of the second generator, before she destroyed it with one swift swing of her staff. She then ran around the immediate area for a bit, looking for where the remaining generators were, before she found a launch pad that allowed her to leap up to one of the platforms that rested above her. As she landed she spotted more of the chicken robots running around, so she smashed them with her staff as she made her way towards the next target on her list.

She then found a floating walkway that was guarded by a spider bot, with the bolt crank waiting on the other side with two more robots, so she tore the first apart with her Chopper before loosing a Gravity Bomb at the other two. Once they were taken care of she raised the next generator out of the floor, to which she delivered the same blow that destroyed the previous two before beginning her search anew. She backtracked to where she had taken the launch pad and spotted a walkway that was laid out over a lava field of sorts, to which she spotted another generator and grinned as she used her magical steps to reach the walkway.

Starlight came into contact with more of the spider and chicken robots, where she used her Gravity Bomb to get rid of the larger groups of enemies while sticking with her staff for the lone enemies. After clearing out the area she found another crank that allowed her to smash the fourth generator, to which she left the lava area and started looking for the other two targets. She then resumed walking around for a bit before she discovered another jump pad, to which she leapt up to where it connected to and immediately smashed the chicken robots that were walking around the platform. As she finished with her enemies she used another pad to reach the fifth generator, to which she used her bombs to remove the enemies that were walking around it before she searched for the bolt crank that would allow her to remove her target.

Once she found the crank, and removed the fifth generator, she turned her attention to the scans once more, scouring the moon sized array until she discovered where her final target was resting. She chuckled when she found where it was, because it was literally right in front of her muzzle and she had ignored the light that the generators gave off. Instead of getting back on the ground and running to a jump pad she engaged her magic and ran over a walkway that would take her to her target, as she was eager to get this over with. She found that the final bolt crank was guarded by one spider bot, so she smashed it to pieces before raising the generator, to which she used one more Gravity Bomb to destroy it and the robots that had been guarding it.

With her task done, and the jamming array offline by her scans, she nodded her head and returned to the limo ship, to which she closed the door and began the journey back to the Resort. Along the way, however, the screen in front of her came online and she spotted their employer, who seemed eager to relay some information to them.

"Good work my boy!" Mr. Fizzwidget exclaimed, completely ignoring that it was Starlight sitting in front of the screen and not Ratchet, but she was going to overlook it for the moment, "You are proving to be invaluable in this underware. Any who, it appears that the Thief is now under the protection of Thugs-4-Less, but I may have found a way for you to insinuate their operation."

"Is it dangerous?" Starlight asked, because she knew that if it was dangerous that she, Sunset, and Ratchet would likely be heading to wherever the coordinates were, regardless of whatever they were supposed to be doing at that planet.

"No no no... actually, yes it is," Mr. Fizzwidget replied, clearly failing at trying to make it seem like it wasn't dangerous, though he appeared to be setting up another video, "Take a look at this."

Starlight then watched as the video explained the Desert Riders, a sort of racing event for Thugs and other people who used the hoverbikes that Megacorp created. She could see how she and her siblings could get some valuable information, all they needed to do was beat one of the races and they'd likely be able to join the club... and get something on where the Thief was located. Once she had the coordinates she thanked their employer and watched the screen go blank, as she wondered what Ratchet and Sunset were getting themselves into at that moment.





As Ratchet and Sunset separated from Starlight they walked down a walkway that had four slot machines on their right side, but they ignored them as several Thugs started firing at them. Sunset pulled out several of the Chopper stars and threw them through the air, allowing them to spin through the area around her targets before they embedded themselves in the Thugs. As Sunset approached what remained of her targets Ratchet pulled out his Lancer and shot at the chicken robots that had been ignored by his sister's stars.

"Seems like Starlight's getting excited," Sunset commented, feeling her sister's magic for a moment before turning to the elevator in front of them.

"I expect nothing less," Ratchet said, riding the elevator up and spotting an enemy that hadn't noticed that they had arrived, to which he loosed a storm of Lancer shells and tore the Thug to pieces.

The other enemies noticed that they had appeared and started firing at them, to which Ratchet moved in front of his sister and returned fire to the best of his ability. Sunset resorted to using her sword on those that her brother didn't take down immediately, as she didn't want to use what ammo she had at the moment until they reached a group of enemies that was larger than what they were fighting. The instant that the area was clear they boarded a limo type ship, which briefly moved forward just a bit until it came to another platform and let them off.

When they exited the ship they found that they were at the end of a wall they would have to climb up before they could move forward, but Sunset sighed and magic swirled around her left hand for a moment.

"Isn't it a little early for you to be going back to using magic?" Ratchet asked, knowing that it had only been five minutes since they had landed, which, according to Starlight's own notes on magic, wasn't enough time to recover from what she had gone through.

He had also read several of the notes in his spare time, because he wanted to determine how Sunset even had magic to begin with, though Starlight had come to the conclusion that the bracelet was the key to everything. His sister had been able to determine that the piece of jewelry increased Sunset's magic regeneration by some degree that she wasn't able to pinpoint yet. He could tell that several of Starlight's theories were right about that ability, because within roughly five to ten minutes after landing in the Resort she was at least halfway back to her normal self.

"A simple transportation spell," Sunset promised, knowing that anything more might push her over the edge and force her to stay back at the ship until her siblings were done, "just to the top of the area above us."

Ratchet sighed and nodded his head, to which she teleported the two of them up to the top of the platform and allowed the magic she had been gathering to leave her once more. They found more of the Thugs waiting for them, though a ship flew in and started dropping off more enemies for the two of them to fight, to which Ratchet growled as he pulled out the Gravity Bomb. He leapt over the small gap between their platform and landed on the one that their enemies were standing on, to which he started loosing bombs at his targets. Several of them were restored by the ship above them, to which Ratchet assumed that he would have to fight an endless tide of enemies before the ship left.

Sunset appeared next to him and sliced off one of the Thugs' arms, causing him to drop the weapon he had been carrying, before she turned around and drove her sword into his heart. She pulled her weapon out and turned her attention to the other enemies, cutting into those that tried to hit Ratchet from behind as she wondered what would take out the ship above them. When Ratchet blew up the last Thug the ship shuddered for a moment before it flew off into the distance, leaving them to continue towards the arena. They found a jump wall, though this time they simply leapt up to the top before they found a room with more Thugs waiting for them with a few more of the chicken robots.

Ratchet started firing at his targets, providing cover fire as Sunset leapt down into the room and cut one of the Thugs' guns in half, before bringing an end to him as well. They spent a few seconds to be sure that there weren't more enemies in the room, which there weren't according to their scans, they advanced onto another walkway and found even more enemies waiting for them. Sunset spotted another ship depositing more enemies for them to fight, but this time she growled and summoned a fireball, to which she threw it into one of the ship's exhaust systems and blew it up from the inside out. They then cleared the enemies that were waiting for them, either cutting them into pieces or blowing them up, before they approached the door that would take them into the arena.

"So, I guess this is it." Ratchet commented, restocking his weapons as he wondered what Chainblade would be like up close, before approaching the door and knocking on it, "Hello? I'm here to fight in the arena."

"No, you are not ready for the arena." a voice replied, just as a mechanical eye opened on the door and turned to Sunset, "The Cazar, on the other hand, she is definitely ready for a fight or two. Tell you what pal, either she fights or neither of you fight."

"Oh by the Maker," Sunset replied, drawing her sword and pointing the end of it at the eye, "Fine, I'll play your 'game'. Don't come crying to me when the other fighters are wrecked beyond belief."

The eye remained silent as the door opened, to which Sunset sighed and entered the area as Ratchet moved towards where the watchers sat and waited to see what happened which his sister stepped into the ring. When Sunset did step into the ring the announcer exclaimed that a cazar had stepped into the ring and mentioned that the last one that had stepped into the ring had died a horrible death against the normal gladiators. Sunset didn't seem phased by the fact that there had been another cazar before her, though the only response she gave was for the fight to begin.

The moment the gladiator doors opened, and the enemies poured out of where they had been waiting, Sunset let them come to her as she used her sword, and nothing else, to cut her way through her enemies. Ratchet had to admit it, but his sister was definitely getting better at fighting with only her sword, because at this point it didn't even look like she had been weakened from her excessive magic usage earlier. He considered that the bracelet was behind it, as Starlight had thought as well, though at one point he looked at the golden piece of jewelry and could have sworn that he spotted a small crack in the metal.

When the basic fight was over, and Sunset had been given a gadget that was basically the Bogon version of the Trespasser, Sunset declined another fight and left the arena, to which Ratchet left with her.

"Just the one fight?" Ratchet asked, noticing that the moment they left the arena they appeared on a powered down walkway that connected to where their ship was located, to which Sunset used the new gadget on a nearby terminal.

"We don't have time to waste on arena fights," Sunset commented, smiling as she overcame the lock that had been placed on the terminal and activated the walkway, "Come on, we can take a picture at that booth for Clank and then see if Starlight found anything."

As it turned out the Thief was expecting them to make it through the arena, because when they used the machine the Thief appeared and revealed that he had captured Clank, to which he electrocuted the robot to show that he would kill anyone that got in his way. Sunset almost laughed, because it was clear that the Thief had merely powered Clank off in an attempt to scare the three of them off so that they would return to Solana. Now that they had the coordinates for Megaoplis they knew what their next course of action was, because the moment they told Starlight what had happened they were back in their ship and were racing through the stars once more.

The Thief might have assumed that they would flee when they saw what had happened to Clank, but in reality it only made them want to stop their enemy even more than normal... and the Thief had no idea what power that Sunset and Starlight would unleash on him the moment they caught up with him.