As it turned out, the robotic racer known as UR-86 proved to be quite impressive on the track, as well as quite ruthless. However, he was a true lone wolf on the track, and the group's team tactics proved more than he could handle, and Jak and the others were able to escape any serious damage as a result. His primary racing strategy was to hang back and blast his way to the front, causing as much damage as possible. Unfortunately for him, even when he targeted a member of Jak's team that lacked the Red Defensive weaponry, another member would swoop in to their assist, whether with their own defensive weaponry or by carefully shooting missiles or grenades out of the sky with machine guns.
This cooperative strategy allowed the group to clear the next qualifying race with ease, with Jak once more coming in first as planned. It wasn't long after this that the group once more gathered around to hear what Daxter had to report from Blitz and Pecker's news reports, to see if any of the information was useful. Unfortunately, the only thing Blitz had reported on was the approaching Grand Prix.
Of greater interest to the group was Jak's report. "I got a private communication from Sig," he spoke up. "Seems things on his end are going well."
"What do you mean?" Rayn asked curiously.
"Let's just say, we didn't come into this blind or trusting," Jak explained. "We had a couple contingency plans in mind. Sig wanted to let me know that...Plan B was ready to go anytime, and that Vin had almost finished preparing Plan C, and it was fully viable."
"And...what are those plans?" Rayn prompted.
"It's not important," Jak replied easily, waving it off. "Right now, you need to focus on keeping track of everything race related." He gave her a firm look. "Our lives depend on it, after all."
"Yes...quite," Rayn replied, turning to leave to attend to that.
"So...what are Plans B and C again?" Daxter asked quietly once she was gone.
"Plan B involves taking this city by force," Jak explained. "Of course, that is incredibly costly in terms of resources. I'm hoping that whoever Plan A is placed against is more reasonable, or at least can be brought to be reasonable out of fear of Plan C being implemented."
"And...Plan C?" Shining asked worriedly.
"I asked Vin to look into repurposing the laser weapon Mar built to penetrate the Metalhead Nest," Jak explained. "Turns out, all it really needed was to be moved...and despite no longer having a live Precursor inside, the Precursor Stone still has plenty of power." He took a slow sip of his drink. "That, and breaking into the Nest was done on the 'low' setting. Vin's calculating the necessary angles, just in case."
Ashelin's eyes went wide and her face went pale as she put together what Jak was saying. "And I thought my Father was dangerous when he was under the influence of the Metalheads," she murmured softly. "Are you really gonna...?"
"Damas and your father both taught me that the power of a ruler is based entirely on a threat," Jak explained simply. "We pretend to be civilized, cooperate under rules we agree on...but boil it down, and civilization is based entirely in someone in power saying, 'Do it my way, or else.' Most people consider the 'or else' bad enough that said threat doesn't have to be carried out very often, but it always has to be there. If it isn't, there's nothing there maintaining order, and anarchy eventually awaits, because someone else is willing to carry out their own 'or else'." He leaned back, an unhappy expression on his face. "This is especially true if you're attempting to unite many disparate cities into a single unified country for the good of a planet. The threat has to be worse than anyone else's, because the primary motivation for cooperation is self-preservation, that we function better together than apart."
He took another small sip of his drink. "And if power is always going to be based in a threat, and the biggest threat brings the most to obedience...then I'm going to make damn sure I have the biggest threat around, so those I'm supposed to protect are never in danger because I'm afraid to pull the bloody trigger."
Daxter shuddered violently. "Jak...have you talked about this with Keira?" he asked softly, hoping there was still something to prevent what they were talking about.
"No, I haven't," Jak replied. "With luck, Plan A will work, Plan C will never be carried out, and I'll never have to think about it again. If that's the case, she doesn't need it preying on her conscience that it even exists."
"If not..." Shining began worriedly.
"Then I'll probably lose her forever," Jak confirmed sorrowfully. "And I'll hate myself for that for the rest of my life. But that's what it means to be a King. Doing what needs to be done, even when you hate it, and even when the consequences are soul-crushing. And that's why I never wanted the job." His face hardened, looking for a moment as fierce as it had when he'd first escaped the Dark Soldier program. "But it's my job now...and I won't flinch from it. Haven, Spargus...they need me to be strong. So that's what I'm going to be...even if it kills me."