Author's note:

To be fair, given how lengthy it would have been otherwise, I think splitting Gorn into two chapters was probably for the best. While I might not be 100% with the end result, its still a damn sight better than what would have been a fairly abrupt end to the arc as I had planned it, and I can only hope you enjoy the ride for what it is. Here's a-hoping.

I'm always trying to improve as a writer, so please read and review. Constructive criticism is welcome, flamers are not. If you enjoy this story, please feel free to check out the other stories on my account should you wish.

- RevenantReaper337

Disclaimer:

Ratchet & Clank, associated characters, organisations, and intellectual properties belong to Insomniac Games. All other real world organisations and products belong to their respective governments, companies, etc. Original characters, creatures, weapons, etc. belong to me. Cover art belongs to Nekolover3 and is used with her kind permission.

'Thoughts'

Flashbacks

"Speech"

Chapter 36:

Blue on Blue

Thugs-4-Less Fleet Rendezvous Point, Gorn

Bogon Galaxy

G2.17.085 Galactic calendar

4:03pm local time

"Ace... What're you doing here?" Ratchet asked warily, the man's last words having set him on edge. "I thought you were still after the Protopet thief."

"I was, until I got word that he'd already been taken care of," he confirmed with a growing undercurrent of something dangerous. "Or rather her. Imagine my surprise when a little investigating turned up the fact that the Protopet thief and missing scientist were in fact one of the same; using some sob story to convince a couple of idealistic, wet behind the ears rookies to turn against the company."

"Hey, it's not like that and you know it!" Ellen snarled back. "If you even saw half the evidence we've uncovered, then you'd realise that the Protopet is an uncontrollable killer that should never have seen the light of day. Can't you see that unleashing those things on the galaxy is a disaster waiting to happen? Hell, doesn't Megacorp?"

"Not my problem, missy," Ace replied dismissively; his ship suddenly speeding up and closing in. "But then again, neither is it yours anymore; either of you. See, the board wants a clean sweep, and while the doc is still a valuable company asset, your services are... no longer required."

"So, what, you're gonna try and silence us? After everything we went through together?" Ratchet demanded, grip tightening on his ship's controls and fingers hovering over the triggers. "Hell, if it weren't for us, you would have gone down with that station back in the Feltzin system!"

"True, maybe," he agreed with a slight sigh, "but that was then, and this is now. Nothing personal you understand..."

A sudden blaring tone sounding inside her cockpit was all the warning Ellen got; swearing profusely all the way as she wrenched her fighter into a hard right turn while the others broke formation around her, only to discover mere moments later that it had been little more than a ruse. For while the sleek black missile streaking across the distance between them was indeed meant for her, it only served to set up Ace's next shot. Ratchet and Cash still manoeuvring for position and only able to watch in horror as his cannons spat fire directly into the Star Explorer's predicted flight path, shattering its already drained shields and gouging melted chunks out of the exposed hull underneath.

"...only business," Ace finished as he rolled over into a high-G turn and neatly avoided a hail of retaliatory fire from the other two. "And the same goes for your friend there, too."

"You can try, ya bloody figjam!" Cash growled while bracketing him with laser fire in order to give Ellen some breathing room. "But there's a reason I'm the best damn merc this side of Bogon and me mates here are nearly as good. What makes ya think you can take all of us down by your lonesome?"

A dark chuckle was his only answer, Ace continuing to evade nigh everything they sent his way in spite of all three ships blazing away with a hailstorm of laser fire and the occasional missile. The golden-painted starfighter jinking sharply to the right as they approached the hanging colony complex once more and swiftly flying through at high speed, while they struggled to keep up through the myriad of twists and turns. Ellen in particular having a hard time thanks to the internal damage wrought upon her ship and barely getting half the engine output she should as the emergency nano-repair system struggled to keep it from cutting out entirely, while also stabilizing her now burnt out shield generator and bring it back online.

As a result, she soon lost track of older commando both visually and via sensors, thanks in part to the weather and sheer amount of ground clutter in such a confined environment. The others not having much better luck and opting to split off in order to cover more ground, leaving Ellen to rely upon her own wits as they played a deadly game of hide and seek amongst the cramped maze of vertically inclined buildings and slender mountain peaks that made up the occupied ruins. One that she was beginning to suspect the markazian had somehow rigged from the from the very start given how well they had been played.

"In a word, merc," Ace finally answered several seconds later with a smug tone. "Leverage."

Which was when the colony buildings began to collapse all around her, a chain of explosions tearing through their structural supports and sending the precariously positioned structures crashing down to earth. "Go! Get out of here! The whole frigging place is coming down!"

Pushing the already straining engines to their maximum, Ellen didn't have time to be cautious or even see if her warning was acknowledged as she plunged the Star Explorer into a sweeping dive towards the thick fog bank below in an effort to somehow outpace the rain of destruction. Weaving around the lethal hail of falling debris as best she could, Ellen gunned the throttle and ignored the spread of warning lights across the ship's main console as she made best speed towards perhaps their only hope for escaping this deathtrap alive. A small gap between a pair of buildings up ahead that was rapidly closing by the second as they ground together, the Star Explorer's wingtips sending up sparks as they just barely scraped through into clear airspace once more.

And right into Ace's sights.

There was no time to dodge, no possible way to avoid the missile rapidly filling her cockpit canopy. The Star Explorer's engines having burnt themselves out during that last desperate dash and leaving just about enough power to stay airborne, let alone allow the kind of manoeuvres that Ellen needed to pull even if she could react quickly enough, and the still ruined shield generator faring no better. As it was, perhaps the only thing that saved Samus and herself from imminent death was an instinctive, unconscious pull of the flight stick towards Ellen's chest. Barely Raising the nose enough that the missile instead brushed by the underside and detonated its proximity warhead directly against the ship's already damaged engine block.

"Ellen!" Ratchet cried out in alarm as the Star Explorer shuddered violently and began to stall. Ace's delaying tactic having scattered them all and leaving him way too far out of range to assist as another volley of cannon fire smashed into the stricken vessel and left it a smoking mess spinning out of control.

"Shit! My controls are gone!" Ellen yelled over the blaring alarms inside her cockpit, grappling with the flight stick all the while in a frantic effort to stabilise the ship. "So's most of the electronics; I can't even eject!"

"Sorry, sweetheart, but you never stood a chance against me," the older commando taunted while swinging around his grievously wounded prey to face the now charging lombax. "That's one down and two to go. I wonder if either of you'll put up a better fight."

"Cash," Ratchet began with a deadly sense of calm and determination, the likes of which Clank had never seen. Teeth grit and fur bristling in smouldering anger, while trembling hands held the controls in a vice-like grip that caused them to creak. "I need you get the girls out of there. I'm going after Ace."

It was perhaps a testament to the mercenary's long held experience that he didn't protest the lombax's order; instead offering a slight nod that likely went unseen and a single question of reassurance. "You sure about this, playing his game? He's countin' on taking us one at a time, and you'll be on your own until I can get 'em to safety."

"I know. Trust me, I'm counting on it," Ratchet countered before turning to his robotic companion. "Clank, I need you to take over the weapons while I concentrate on flying. This guy's good and we're gonna need whatever edge we can get to keep him off Cash and Ellen."

Clank bobbed his head in agreement, servos taking hold of the back up controls before him and optics narrowing at the golden yellow ship before them. "Understood, assuming direct fire control now. Let us bring the noise."

"Damn straight, pal... It's payback time!"

So saying, Ratchet promptly lit the afterburners and sent his Star Explorer screaming across the darkened skies on a direct intercept course towards the brightly coloured fighter. Ace chuckling aloud as he snapped off a missile and winged over into a dive, with the lombax rolling to evade and following him in. "You're up first, huh kid?. Alright then, let's dance!"

{()}

While the pair began to duke it out in a snarling dogfight however, Ellen was still desperately fighting to regain control of her stricken Star Explorer and failing fast. Her heart pounding a mile a minute and the horizon continuing to blur through the canopy as they continued to spiral down towards the ground far below, while an equally frantic Samus did what she could with the fritzed central console in an effort to help try and stabilise the ship.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" the redhead cursed through hurried, shallow breaths. A cold wave of panic gripping her limbs at the very thought of being trapped in a high velocity metal coffin as it ploughed into the ground. "Stick's not responding, I can't even level us out! Isn't there anything you can do?!"

I'm trying, Ellen, but I'm a data clerk, not a mechanic!_ Samus shot back as her servos made nervous, jerking motions across the cracked screen. Thankful for once that her lack of a vocaliser and text based method of speech prevented any miscommunication in such a loud environment, although that didn't stop her from babbling even still. This is a lot different than spreadsheets and databases, you know. Although from what I can tell, it looks like that last hit knocked the engine offline and shutdown a majority of the ship's systems. Most of the control surfaces aren't responding either, and I'm not really sure what I'm doing, but if I could just shunt the remaining power from our weapons systems into the primary drive core-_

"Just do it already!" Ellen gritted out through clenched teeth as the growing G-forces pinned them to their seats, turning every movement into a monumental task. "Preferably before we hit the ground fast enough to dig our own damn graves!"

O-okay... Here goes..._

Metal digits slapped against a large red button on the central console, a growing whine and stuttering sound filling the cockpit along with a fair amount of sparks from exposed electronics, before the Star Explorer's engine finally roared into life once again. Ellen wasting no time in wrenching the flight stick in the opposite direction to their flat spin as the control surfaces finally responded to her touch once more; gradually slowing them down with each successive revolution until the Star Explorer eventually settled on an even keel to hover a good few thousand feet lower closer to the perpetual canopy of fog down below.

But while Samus had successfully managed to give them back control of the thoroughly damaged ship, it came at a cost. The engines were just barely running and at less than a tenth of their capability; nowhere near enough for stable horizontal flight, and staying in VTOL mode was burning what was left in their apparently leaking fuel tanks at an increased rate. Not only that, but Ace was still out there somewhere battling with Ratchet from what she last heard over the radio, and unlikely to show any mercy if he just so happened to catch sight of the still airborne Star Explorer. Which of course left them with damn few options for getting out of said situation alive, or at least without external help, and thankfully it had just arrived in the nick of time.

"Nice work gettin' her under control, you two. Just Hold on a little longer, I'm almost there."

Bringing his brick of a ship into hover just off of the stranded vessel's starboard wing, Cash carefully began to vector sideways at a crawl. An intense look of concentration clearly visible on his face through the cockpit canopy as he inched his way closer, with high altitude winds buffeting at both craft all the while and increasing the risk of collision with each cautiously halting manoeuvre. It was all Ellen could do just to hold her own ship steady with shaking hands and a still thunderous heartbeat; their lives solely dependent on the mercenary's skill and familiarity with his ship in order to successfully pull off an attempted midair rescue.

Something that a small part of her mind not currently occupied with keeping them alive considered to be insane, but then again, so was half the stuff she had gotten into since first meeting Ratchet and Clank. Although, given the building dread in her stomach upon realising what Cash's intentions were along with her longstanding fear of heights, this definitely had to rank somewhere in the top ten. Ellen forcibly burying said feelings in favour of fumbling with the emergency canopy release pull cord beneath her seat as the Aussie-accented cazar's voice came through the cockpit's miraculously still functioning speakers.

"Hey, can you hear me in there? This is about as close as I can get with those bloody winds acting up, and I don't reckon you've got a lot of juice left in the tank either the way you're leakin', so we better work fast."

He's right, Ellen_ Samus cut in as her digits continued to dance over what was left of the central console to little avail seeing as it shorted out entirely soon after. If these readings are right, then we've got maybe two minutes at best, and I... really... don't want to be here when that happens._

"You and me both," Ellen muttered, before turning her attention back to Cash. "Yeah, we hear you." A grunt of effort escaped her lips as both hands yanked at the offending loop of plastic and metal that was the canopy release, while using her knees to keep the controls steady and ship along with it, thanks to the lack of an autopilot. "But the damn canopy just... won't... open!"

As if waiting for those exact words, the emergency release cord finally gave way with one last wrenching tug and an accompanying sound of tearing fabric. Explosive bolts set at

strategically placed intervals along the canopy's perimeter rapidly detonating in sequence and blowing it off entirely, before being whipped away by howling, rainswept winds that battered the now unprotected occupants without mercy.

"Okay... I got it. Now what?" Ellen was forced to yell over the thunderous storm. Cash opening the independent rear cockpit canopy on his own ship and struggling to keep it in position all the while as he confirmed her worst fears.

"Afraid you're gonna have to jump for it while I try and hold her steady," the cazar confirmed grimly. "Tricky, I know, but the storm's getting worse by the minute and we won't have another chance once it really hits."

A bolt of lightning struck one of the as yet untouched colony buildings in front of her a few miles away, and Ellen couldn't help but shudder in barely suppressed terror. Especially upon standing up in her now thoroughly soaked seat and catching a glimpse over the side at the perpetually fog enshrouded jungle that was way, way too far below for her liking. "Jesus Christ... Why did it have to be heights of all things?"

Um, Ellen? Are you okay?_ Samus hesitantly asked, having unbuckled herself from the passenger seat and grabbed on to the redhead's leg to steady herself against the elements.

'Not in the slightest' would have been her answer under any other circumstances, along with a lengthy tirade about just why even the very idea of leaping across a precarious gap, with a guaranteed death drop and no margin for error, scared the ever loving shit out of her. But given the alternatives in this kind of situation, it was perhaps the least worst option, and at least this time Ellen wouldn't be making a leap into the unknown without some degree of safety precautions in the form of her Grapple Gun anchoring on to the side of Cash's ship. The hook catching upon the lip of the open rear cockpit after a few abortive attempts and thus providing a safety line of sorts for the stranded pair.

Which was just as well really, seeing as the encroaching storm was getting even worse by the minute and buffeting both craft with increasingly powerful gusts of wind. Something which rendered moot Samus' ability to fly due to the very real risk of her tiny frame being swept away, and resulting in Ellen securing the little infobot to her chest with a bit of creative rejiggering, plus some borrowed wiring from the dying Star Explorer. Followed by wedging an empty weapons case between the pilot's seat and controls to keep them in place, before bracing themselves upon the cockpit's edge and preparing to take the plunge.

"Not really... but I'll deal with it the best I can. You ready for this?"

Samus simply nodded, the motion carrying through Ellen's commando suit thanks to being plastered against it, while the human psyched herself up for what she was about to do. A shuddering breath escaping suddenly dry lips and pulse pounding a mile a minute in anticipation, while gloved hands held on to both the Grapple Gun and cockpit's edge respectively in a vice-like grip as she unknowingly echoed her companion's earlier words.

"Okay... Here we go..."

And then, with leg muscles bunching in one fluid motion, she leapt into the abyss. Cable rapidly reeling in and heart rate spiking at the sudden weightless sensation as they crossed the windswept void between both vessels, before finally slamming into the side of Cash's ship moments later with an indignant grunt of pain. Later, Ellen would reflect on how the Grapple Gun's tentatively snagged hook had ultimately saved their lives and thank Al profusely for its robust design. Right now however, she was more concerned with grasping the cockpit edge just above her and hauling their combined weight inside; something made that much more difficult by the elements threatening to peel her off of the hull and Cash having suddenly swerved away from their stricken ship.

But with muscles straining and sheer bloody minded determination, Ellen finally managed to find enough leverage to get one arm then another hooked upon the cockpit's edge via elbows, before gaining enough of a foothold to push the rest of her up inside at an achingly slow rate. Cash closing the canopy once more and cutting off the howling wind outside as she flopped head first on to the rear seat with a squeaking Samus jammed painfully into her ribs; leaving them floundering within the cockpit's cramped confines and just managing to get upright in time to glimpse her Bogon blue Star Explorer plummeting into a spiral down towards the shrouded jungle far below. The remaining ordinance apparently cooking off and blowing the already broken ship to pieces

'Well, there go my frequent flyer miles... A few more seconds there, and-'

"Everyone alright back there?"

Shaking off her sense of loss with a small shudder at what could have been had Cash not showed up when he did, Ellen tore her gaze away from where the burning wreckage was soon to vanish out of sight in favour of the cazar merc who had saved their hides. A small but grateful smile meeting the concerned look he threw over one shoulder as he continued to fly them away from what so easily could have been their collective grave. "As much as we can be, I guess. Thanks again, Cash. I owe you one."

And, um, me too._ Samus trailed off with a pause before glancing up at the redhead she was still securely tied to. Ellen? W-would you mind, uh..._

"Oh, right. Sorry."

Chuckling at their antics as Ellen tried to disentangle the little infobot from her armoured chest, Cash gave the pair a reassuring grin before turning his attention back towards the front. "Ah, no worries, Sheila. Wasn't about to leave ya behind." The ship banked left past the destroyed colony complex before he continued, heading directly towards a particular patch of sky illuminated by distant laser fire and explosions. "Now how's about we go help your bloke even the odds a bit? Reckon that Ace whacka could do with a bit of a lesson on not pissin' people off."

"Too bloody right," Ellen growled in the back of her throat before eyeing the somewhat spartan console before her. "Say, Cash... Does this thing have independent weapons control back here..."

{()}

Elsewhere in the rain-lashed, darkened skies of Gorn, two distinctly different space faring fighters clashed in a duel of wits and overwhelming firepower. The sleek and deadly golden-painted frame of Ace Bunyon's heavily customised ship almost seeming to dance between the torrent of laser bolts being sent his way with ridiculous ease, much to Ratchet's increasing frustration. His red hued Star Explorer barely able to keep with the motions at such a close range and the guns beginning to overheat from sustained use, while Clank struggled to target the other machine at all in spite of being able to calculate its next intended move far quicker than most organic beings could ever dream. The reason for which continued to puzzle him since the battle started but a few minutes ago.

"Hey kid, you still back there?" Ace taunted with a positively smug tone that made the lombax's blood boil. "Enough with the warning shots already, let's see what you've really got!"

"Damn it, what does it take to hit this guy?" Ratchet snarled in mounting anger as they angled up into a high left turn, before rolling over into a pursuing dive down towards yet another mountain peak. The lombax suddenly deploying their airbrakes in order to gain some distance between them while yelling out loud to his passenger. "Nail 'em, Clank!"

Not bothering to respond verbally, Clank waited a spit second for the Star Explorer's nose to adequately line up before unleashing all six of their remaining torpedo complement on a direct course towards their foe. The now spent, pre-packaged launch tubes automatically ejecting themselves from their wingtip hardpoints in order to save weight and increase mobility; an edge they needed now more than ever given the effects of drag while flying within atmosphere. Even with their high yield payload and extra speed boost gained from not having to fight against gravity though, the lack of any guidance systems made torpedoes a poor choice for engaging highly agile fighters as opposed to the lumbering warships they were designed to kill.

But then again, who said they had to actually hit anything at all in order to cause the desired effect? For while Ace might be able to almost immediately pull a half loop in order to evade the dumb-fired weapons and come back at them on an attack heading, he clearly wasn't expecting the Star Explorer to shoot at the tight spread of torpedoes instead of himself. Or that they violently explode upon being hit; causing a chain reaction of detonations that briefly engulfed Ace's fighter as he passed nearby and shattered his shields entirely, before the two ships streaked past one another in a brief flurry of laser fire and the tables turned once again.

"Not bad, kid, not bad at all," Ace began with a hint of grudging approval, before an almost savage sense of glee entered his voice. "Let's see what else you got!"

A warning tone sounded inside the cockpit, and it was all Ratchet could do to kick the Star Explorer into a hard right turn that saw them diving for the deck with a pair of missiles in pursuit. One exploding prematurely against the side of an old colony building as they skimmed by, while the other peppered their already low strength shields with shrapnel; draining it down to critical levels and allowing Ace to finish the job with a carefully placed burst from his cannons along their predicted path.

With no more protection bar for the ship's only moderately armoured hull, and the markazian commando's unnerving knack for accuracy, Ratchet wasn't taking any chances. Throwing the Star Explorer over into an inverted corkscrewing turn with a steady stream of laser fire skimming past his wings, he began a series of erratic manoeuvres in an effort to shake off their tail. A winding route taking them back through what was left of the destroyed main colony cluster once again and using the ruins to help obscure Ace's line of sight while absorbing some of his fire. Or at least that is until the older commando decided to bring his rocket pods out to play instead.

Suddenly Ratchet found himself constantly jinking back and forth as ripples of explosive tipped death screamed past, slamming into the wrecked buildings directly on his flight path with a rapid chain of explosions and showering the fleeing Star Explorer with high velocity debris. Which in turn allowed Ace to catch up and gain a much clearer shot at his distracted foe with a controlled burst of laser fire that hit one of the red-painted fighter's secondary engine nacelles and knocked it out of commission. Much to the pilot's mounting frustration as he continued to evade and curse all the while.

"Damn it, we're losing engine pressure and fast!" Ratchet groused as the ship shook all around them from that last hit. "Clank, see if you can't redistribute the power where it's needed and get our shields kick-started. I've got an idea."

While it might have slowed the pair down a little and made outrunning their already frighteningly fast stalker a damn sight harder, the sudden drop in speed brought both ships much closer together, and more importantly, into the ideal firing range for Ratchet's intended weapon as it released from beneath the ship's belly with a distinctive thump. A few solid cannon hits striking the wings as he lifted the Star explorer's nose along with a touch of air brakes in order to bleed off speed, before allowing Ace to overshoot and slipping in directly on his tail as the modified starfighter ran straight into the slowly drifting Electro-Mine's crackling field of power.

Artificial lightning lashed out at the suddenly immobile and drifting ship in the blink of an eye, playing across its unshielded hull in brilliant blue arcs and possibly stunning the pilot as well, given his lack of a response. A momentary weakness that began to pass just as quickly once its control surfaces began to twitch back into life a few seconds later, and one that Ratchet fully intended to exploit as he peppered it with a torrent of laser fire. Most of which was deflected by some sort of energy diffusing coating that covered the fighter's entire hull, much to his surprise; save for a select few areas such as the engine nacelles and several areas where the paint had been scorched away by the explosive nature of Ratchet's last stunt.

But those that did get through finally managed to score some decisive hits on Ace's craft before he could adequately regain control and escape, much to his growing frustration. Several bolts of energy struck one of his external rocket pods and caused its remaining payload to prematurely detonate in a spectacular fashion; threatening to tear the wing to pieces had it not been ejected a few seconds previously once it began to spark, while a follow up, dumb-fired missile tore a chunk out of the wing root itself. The Markazian cursing lowly all the while as he finally got the ship underway at full afterburner and back into open sky once more with the Ratchet in hot pursuit, before pulling a ridiculously high-G turn and screaming back down towards the pair at high velocity.

"Of all the no good cheating... Fine, if that's the way it's gonna be, then no more playing around."

With cannons blazing away and a quartet of missiles leaping from internal launch bays before racing forth to greet them, Ace was clearly taking off the kid gloves and Ratchet got the distinct impression that things were about to get a whole lot worse for both Clank and himself. The lombax immediately pushing the throttle further still and nosing into a dive beneath the incoming missiles, hoping that the steep angle would prevent them from turning sharply enough to track him before hitting the surrounding terrain, and neatly falling right into Ace's trap as the markazian inverted into a half loop that brought him right back on their tail once again.

"Try these on for size!"

Another pair of much larger missiles streaked forth from the modified starfighter's underbelly and quickly crossed the distance between them at a blistering pace; proximity alarms blaring in Ratchet's ears while his eyes widened in realisation upon catching a glimpse via the rear view camera and realising just what exactly they were. "Oh crap... Hold on to something!"

Breaking hard left into a turn so tight that it would have torn the wings off of a less hardier craft while pushing the Star Explorer to its very limit, Ratchet desperately hoped that he could make it back down to the ruined colony complex in the precious seconds it would take for them to catch up. Because if he was right, then those were the very same type of anti-ship missiles that Ace used to take down that last Kowloon-class carrier like it was nothing, and their ship had nowhere near that kind of protection even while fully shielded. Leaving him no choice but to try and force them to detonate early via striking the terrain, while internally cursing out whatever moron thought it was a great idea not to install a countermeasures suite as standard on the Star Explorer range of fighters.

Some of his tirade must have slipped out however, because Clank's next words were exactly what he needed to hear in stressful situations such as this. A solution.

"Perhaps we do have a countermeasure of sorts... " he mused aloud. "Ratchet, if we were to launch another Electro-Mine directly along our intended flight path, it is possible that the electrical discharge would be sufficient to either disable the warheads or cause them to detonate prematurely before impacting their intended target."

"Better than no chance at all," Ratchet countered as he veered around yet another collapsed building. The ship-killing missiles turning to follow as they closed in to striking range with unnerving accuracy. "Do it!"

Within the space of a few seconds, several things happened all at once.

Rolling the Star Explorer over so that it was inverted, Ratchet began to pull back into a steep half roll just as Clank triggered both of the remaining Electro-Mines from their belly-mounted launcher in a loose, overlapping spread. A crackling electrical discharge playing over the ship and barely affecting its hardened systems, but more importantly providing a shield of sorts against the anti-ship missiles as they nosed down to strike a killing blow. One which never came, seeing as arcs of blue lightning lashed out at the approaching warheads and overloaded their proximity contact triggers; causing both to detonate prematurely with enough force to send the ship temporarily spinning out of control

Loitering above the chaos, Ace was about to capitalise on his opponent's weakness and finish the fight when his fighter was sudden struck from behind and below. A barrage of laser fire scoring burning lines across his vertical tail and perforating the engine nacelles before he could effectively break away from the blocky-looking ship that doggedly gave pursuit. "Sorry we took so long, mate. How're you holding up?"

"Better now we've got some back up," Ratchet groused as he coaxed then throttle and gradually managed to level out after a few hundred feet. "This guy's way above my league, and he's not messin' around. "What about the girls? Are they safe?"

"And ready to teach the bastard what happens when try to screw us over," came Ellen's angered reply. "Let's see how he likes it when the other side can actually shoot back."

"Well now, looks like the gang's all here still," Ace's oily voice interrupted over their open radio link. His modified starfighter, clearly trailing smoke as it swung back around towards the recovered Star Explorer on an attack heading. "Guess I should've made sure to finish you off first, sweetheart. But at least now I get to listen to your pretty little voice a while longer once tin man and the kid are out of the picture."

"Not happening, ya piker," Cash glowered as he emptied his ship's remaining complement of swarmer missiles while yelling over his shoulder. "Gun's yours, Sheila!"

Unlike a lot of similar spacefaring fighter craft, the blocky and heavily armoured vessel used by Cash Harding more closely resembled an attack helicopter from one of humanity's many nations. The most obvious features being the external weapon pylon hardpoints, tandem staggered cockpit arrangement, and most interestingly to Ellen, a freely rotating chain gun in addition to the fixed quad laser array. One that could be aimed and fired independently from the rear cockpit by a particularly vengeful girl and her infobot companion, irrespective of the parent ship's actual heading so long as they had a visual cue.

The result being that while Ace was able to dive under the shower of missiles screaming towards him, most of which were unable to adequately turn and follow given the awkward launch angle, it was only to run straight into a line of tracer fire from above on his predicted path. The diffusion coating proving irrelevant against non-energy based weaponry as several heavy slugs punched straight through the starfighter's nose and exploded deep within; leaving Ace temporarily blinded and well off target as he continued to close in on Ratchet's Star Explorer at high speed while keeping the trigger jammed down on his cannons all the while. Right up to the point a concentrated burst of laser fire slammed directly into the cockpit from in front at near point blank range.

Time almost seemed to slow to a crawl as the last bolt melted through the tinted canopy, Ratchet releasing his finger from the trigger while simultaneously rolling right into a corkscrewing turn that just barely managed to skim past the golden yellow starfighter's left wingtip with inches to spare. A breath the lombax didn't even know he was holding escaping from his lips, before craning around in his seat to see it streaking past with a hint of flames and billowing oily black smoke following in its wake. 'Did that...'

"Heh... Not so bad after all, for a bunch of rookies..." Ace's increasingly distorted voice sounded out over the radio, mired as it was with static and droning cockpit alarms. "Really had me going there for a while, but I guess it had to end one way... or the other."

"Damn it, Ace. Why?" Ellen demanded. "Why go through all this shit with the Protopet? What does Megacorp hope to achieve?"

"Way above my pay grade, missy," he replied after a brief delay. A dry chuckle on his lips as they collectively watched his fighter weave drunkenly to one side before rolling back the other way and out of control as a stressed wing finally snapped off. "But you're smart enough, so I'm sure you'll have it all figured out real soon. Shame I won't be around to see it end."

"Just eject already!" Ratchet exclaimed as he formed up on Cash's wing. Much as he didn't like the guy on a personal level, a condition made worse by the whole 'trying to kill them all' thing, that didn't mean that he couldn't help them again. They had been allies for a while after all, and if Angela could go from bitter foe to... tentative friend, who's to say the same wouldn't be the case here too with time? "C'mon, Ace, it doesn't have to be this way!

Too late.

With spectacular combustion of ruptured fuel tanks and sparking electronics, Ace's ship simply ceased to be. Any left over missiles only adding to the massive shockwave as it broke up in midair, before disintegrating into a burning shower of debris upon the landscape so far down below in much the same fashion as Ellen's now destroyed Star Explorer. Something that was almost ironic in a twisted kind of way when she thought about it, and marred by the betrayal of someone whom they had trusted to watch their backs in a fight on several occasions. "Egotistical to the end... What a goddamn waste."

"Maybe," Cash allowed gently, "but at least he can't threaten us anymore, or the doc. Speakin' of which, we still need to find where Logan and his mates took her."

Ellen shook her head with a sigh. "Yeah, but Ace pretty much totalled the Thugs-4-Less base in that old colony, and I kinda doubt there's anyone left we can ask, let alone hack their comms."

"Well, what about interplanetary traffic?" Ratchet suggested. "The thugs might've moved Angela out of this quadrant, but they had to be getting their orders from somewhere, and for that they'd need something pretty powerful to get through this weather and pick up the signal."

Which might still be broadcasting, since there's no one to cut off the signal!_ Samus added excitedly before deflating slightly. But I, um... Have... no idea how to do that kind of stuff._

"It is certainly worth attempting. One moment..." Clank trailed off with a frown as he continued to manipulate the central console's signal tracking function with a steady servo and keen optics, the latter of which suddenly lit up as he turned towards the lombax seated beside him. "I have detected a deep space transmission being broadcast to this planet on an open channel, but the signal is rather faint."

"Can you clear it up?" Ratchet asked with rising eagerness. "It might be our only clue as to where they took Angela."

"I will try."

With that and a simple nod of confirmation, Clank soon turned his attention back towards the console and began to tune out the background sounds of static and distorted voices filtering through the cockpit's speakers. Something apparently clicking into place given that Logan's all too familiar and thoroughly enraged face soon glared back at them from the screen with baleful crimson eyes and balled fists promising immediate violence; stood as he was against a surrounding backdrop of monitors a swirling nebula clearly visible just beyond via doubtlessly reinforced glass windows. Thinking fast, Ratchet ensured that the transmission was simultaneously relayed to Cash's ship too before sitting back and watching as Logan began his verbal assault upon the senses.

"What is your problem?!" he snarled venomously towards the camera. "I'm trying to make a living here, and you three losers keep lousing it up! Damn lombax, tin can, and mutant markazian..."

"How many times do I have to keep telling people," Ellen groused with a scowl from the back seat of Cash's ship; fingers involuntarily tightening against Samus' chassis and causing her to give a startled squeak. "I am not a bloody markazian, or even related in any way!"

"Really? Y'mean you're not?" Cash questioned over his shoulder with one brow raised in surprise, getting a scowl in return before both resumed listening as Logan ended his ongoing rant with a dismissive wave of his shovel-like hand.

"Well, whatever. Point is, if you numbskulls don't high tail it back to your own galaxy pronto, then I'm gonna blast you into so many pieces you'll need a..."

Trailing off with a creased brow and singular thick digit rhythmically tapping away at his chin in thought, Logan looked a far cry away from the tough mercenary image he liked to portray as he contemplated his next words. More importantly for those watching his broadcast however was the centre most monitor of those arrayed behind him as the reptilian man began to pace back and forth in front of the camera while mumbling to himself. Or rather what was on it, seeing as it showed an unfamiliar planet called 'Snivelak', along with what looked like statistics on composition of Thugs-4-Less forces and a set of very clearly defined coordinates off to one side. Surely that couldn't be...

"Um, ah, well there's gonna be a lot of 'em, I can tell ya that," Logan continued just as suddenly. Having ceased pacing and opting to park himself in front of the monitors once more. "So you three better hit the road, and don't even bother trying to find me, 'cause I've got wind!"

A series of simultaneous amused snorts sounded within the cockpits of both ships, Logan realising his poor choice of words a moment later and only serving to make things worse as tried to correct himself. "I-I mean I'm like the wind; you never know when I might show up next. And I blow hard, and I can be cooling on a warm summer day..."

By now Ellen was cracking up, with Ratchet close behind and Cash simply chuckling to himself. While both Clank and Samus found themselves rather puzzled at their companions behaviour, before ultimately dismissing it as some strange facet of behaviour inherent in organic beings; the sniggering continuing to grow in volume while Logan decided to sign off with his usual flourish. "Eh, well, you get the idea. So long, morons!"

A term he should perhaps employ closer to home in Clank's opinion. Especially once he had taken a moment to analyze and verify the more critical data he had retrieved from the mercenary leader's drawn out transmission; the conclusion of which made him vent a weary sigh and place a servo firmly against his helm in disbelief. "Does Logan not realise that he has just transmitted his exact location?"

"Well If not, then he's about to find out the hard way," Ratchet shot back with a mirthful grin; still feeling amused at Logan's backpedaling and unintentional screw ups. "Heck, he practically invited us, and it'd be kinda rude not to go pay him a visit. What do you guys think?"

"True enough, mate," Cash shot back with an easy going smile of his own. Ellen still snickering to herself in the backseat and otherwise in no position to contribute. "Besides, that mug owes me for both the doc and fixin' me ship, and I intend to collect."

Having little more reason to remain on Gorn, the two surviving ships were soon making best speed away from the merc's outpost and its still active high altitude defences; the weather not having let up in the slightest and forcing them to take a detour around a particularly violent storm front along the way. Once sufficiently outside of their engagement range though, it was simply a matter of nosing up towards the darkened skies and making for orbit once more with thunder crashing violently around them all the while. Something made that much more perilous by Ratchet's shields having only partially recharged and Cash not faring much better; just barely providing enough protection against the imminent threat of lightning strikes and potentially total systems failure.

For long moments they endured with bated breath and cautious flying, before finally breaking through the atmosphere and into the inky blackness of space more. Clank providing the coordinates as both Ratchet and Cash set course for Snivelak and the presumed headquarters of Thugs-4-Less at maximum cruising speed, so as not to stress their still damaged ships. That, and it also gave them a chance to plan ahead rather than just jumping feet first into what was likely to be the single most heavily defended territory outside of Megacorp's jurisdiction in the entire Bogon galaxy. An orchestrated assault that would take all of them working together in order to have a chance at successfully penetrating its defences at all, let alone rescue Angela and get out in one piece.

But after having been dogged by the mercenary company for so long, suffering through constant attacks and ambushes all the while, this was their chance to deal Logan a blow from which Thugs-4-less might never recover. Something that Ellen fully intended to be there for, given how she was still smarting from both the loss of her Star Explorer and Ace's betrayal, and an opportunity to finally settle the score once and for all.

'You're going to need a whole army of assholes to save your hide, Logan. Because ready or not, we're coming for you...'

{()}

SIGNAL LOST

The bright red capital letters stared back at him; a drawn out sigh followed by a mirthful chuckle escaping upturned lips as Ace leaned back in his chair within a darkened room over half a planet away. The markazian commando briefly standing up and stretching in order to work the kinks out of his back, before absently shutting down the remote piloting system still running on his Wrist Com and sitting back down with a thoughtful look etched upon his face.

The kid was good, he's give him that. Even with the other two effectively knocked out of the fight from the get go, eliminating the perceived numerical advantage against him and leaving the lombax to fend for himself, Ratchet had still managed to give him a much tougher fight than expected. Almost on par with Ace himself in fact, were it not for the signal ping delay providing a significant handicap and limiting the scope of his own performance. Otherwise the battle would have ended quite differently, and he wouldn't be down one heavily customised and very expensive starfighter right about now, even if the next step in his plan would have been that much more difficult to pull off without its unfortunately necessary loss and his untimely 'demise'.

Logan's band of incompetent mercs had outgrown their usefulness, and it wasn't particularly difficult to ensure that the misfit band of 'heroes' were pointed in the right direction. Confident in their ability to deal the PMC a crippling blow whilst hopefully sustaining heavy casualties in return; thus killing two birds with one stone and inadvertently advancing his employer's goals at the same time. Although perhaps he should send Logan an anonymous tip on what was coming his way, just to be sure? After all, it wouldn't do for the snot-nosed rookies to get off too easily, and the more mercs they dealt with, the easier his job became when it came to swiping Doctor Cross right from underneath their noses.

All he had to do now was just sit back and wait until said opportunity arose, feet kicked up upon the desk before him and opting to rest his eyes for a while. Though not without a few murmured words out loud. "You might have bested me once, kid. But let's see how you and the girl do when the odds aren't tipped so heavily in your favour."

RIP Ellen's ship, plus a plot twist you may well have seen coming a mile off and a whole bunch of foreshadowing that raises more questions than answers. Just what exactly is Ace up to, and Megacorp for that matter? Only time will tell, and the following updates of course. See you then!

Review replies:

bajy - Indeed they have, but as you may have gathered from the new update, things aren't quite over yet. Or entirely what they seem…

starrat - Thanks again, hope you like it!

DarkEnigma95 - Unfortunately, doesn't allow you to review twice on the same chapter - probably to stop people from spamming - so don't worry it. Still, I'm glad you enjoyed both the previous chapter and the finale to my rather bloated Aranos prison arc, given how long it took to bring things to a head. As for what Ace is up to… given that you've likely already read through the chapter up until now, you've probably got some idea. Although it does raise a whole new slew of questions as to his motives and overall plan.

Firestar5277 - And the last one for this story too, sadly enough. Much of a pain as it can be to make them flow the right way, air/space combat chapters are always fun to write, and this one was a welcome change from the last arc's grinding nature. Fingers crossed, I should be able to maintain my bi-monthly update schedule from here on out, although that might result in shorter chapters for sake of ease given how gruelling it can be. Although it won't be dampening my love of terribly bad puns anytime soon; the worse they are, the better!

As you likely do already, I suspect a good deal of Samus and Clank's budding relationship will revolve around trying to get him to notice her in the first place given how dense he can be with certain social cues. Let's just hope she's willing to ask Ellen for advice and not do anything too drastic, though she will need to grab his attention somehow. Preferably without going full on robot yandere mode… a mental image thst is equal parts disturbing and amusing, and which I now can't shake off for some reason…

Anyway, as for Ace, your suspicions about his character and motives may well be vindicated a whole lot sooner than you think. We already know that he's a little too slick for his own good and clearly up to something, but what exactly? I've only teased at a few hints this chapter, but perhaps the real question should be as to just whose side he's really on, and why… Thanks again for reviewing, and hope you like the new chapter. Enjoy!

Sonachugirl - Well, if by 'flirting' and 'dodgy' you mean 'betrayal' and 'all of the lasers', then I think you might be on the right track. Glad to have helped cheer you up, although why do I get the feeling that you and your brother's gaming woes involve quick time events? One of my pet peeves, and perhaps one of the single most irritating mechanics ever devised; especially in co-op games where one slight mistiming can end up sending everyone back to the start.

Until next time, please review and check out my other stories once they're posted and/or updated.

Thanks for reading

- RevenantReaper337