Well here it is chapter 5 , I do hope you'll enjoy reading it as much as I did in typing it. Also if you wish to leave comments about characters, situations or just about anything don't be afraid. It helps me in making this small story evolve better!
Declaration of trouble
Ratchet sighed as he was staring at his dinner. He didn't feel like eating, his mind twirling around as he remembered all that had happened that very day. It felt to him like the universe lay on his shoulders at the very thought of having to fight another war! Sure they had beaten the crap out of Nefarious men before but this time, this time it was different. He glanced over his crewmembers each of them laughing and talking as if there was no problem whatsoever. And then there was the matter of Abel wanting to help Ratchet, ok he admired the other Lombax but helping on missions would be far too dangerous! Normally it was only he that did missions and sometimes the Rangers helped (if they weren't hiding somewhere scared), but having someone else go into the same danger as himself? It terrified him to know what could happen to the poor Lombax and Ratchet would never allow someone to hurt Abel let alone that he could never forgive himself if any of the Q-force would get hurt! Looking back at his food he finally decided to take a small bite, after all one needs to have a full stomach!
A few tables further Qwark (as usual) was busy exaggerating one of his stories whilst Helga adored to there mere sight of the man talking gibberish. Skidd was busy with one of his charms on one of the nurses of the ship employing the "I'm cool" charm which to everyone's surprise almost always had effect on the ladies bots.
Not far from both those tables sat Abel, his blue eyes fixed on his pet, Bolt, watching as the mini Lombax grasped one of his carrots and began to eat at it vigorously. "He may look like Ratchet in mini, but that sure didn't affect his appetite!" laughed Abel with glee as Bolt stared at him confused with big green eyes. To everyone's surprise tough Bolt learned a lot in a very short time, something which reminded them more of Abel in a sense as Abel was very intelligent not to speak of how he behaved, seemingly (always) knowing what to do. Be it to fix a certain damaged circuitry or just helping solve a riddle Clank provided to tease ratchet with… "So Bolt, do you like it?" tickling the pet's golden fur as he watched the clock hanging over the kitchen. "18:35 mhhh the news is going to start!" he said in joy as he shouted at ratchet to come over to there chamber in a few minutes which caught the attention of all and especially made Ratchet blush. "What do you say Bolt. Ready to watch the 7 o clock news?" at which his pet gave a small nod as approval. After his small escape this afternoon Bolt had seemingly became quieter. Perhaps he was trying to mimic both Lombaxes behaviour? Whatever the case may have been Bolt was a little more relaxed much to everyone's (especially Ratchet's) joy.
"Abel?... You didn't need to shout through the entire mess hall you know! You could have just asked when you passed me by." said Ratchet giving Abel a small smile as they made there way towards there chamber. As soon as the door had barely opened Abel already jumped on the couch taken the remote and setting the tv to Channel-64. As both Lombaxes noticed the news hadn't started yet
"… now return to Secret Agent Clank episode 217." Said the narrator "Last time our hero Clank had been caught by the evil and notorious super villain Maxmillion, will Secret agent Clank be able to survive and escape from Maktar Estate? Find out now!!" "So agent Clank, how does it feel to be at the loosing ends for once?" said Maxmillion gloating over at his prisoner who was hanging over a pit of liquid nitrogen. "This time you won't be able to escape at all, I have all your gadgets with me and your partner is not here to help you out… hahahaaa" "Well Maxmillian, you should know better then anyone to not…" Clank said as Skrunch appeared on screen attacking the few guards Maxmillian had placed. "…monkey around. Hehehe!" said Clank as yet another guard fell down by a well placed kick by Skrunch. But as soon Clank was free they had been targeted by Maxmillian his rifle, ready to shoot both Clank and his sidekick if they even dared to move. "You loose this time permanently! Agent Clank!!!" Maxmillian said as he fired at Clank, the bullet racing towards him at lightning speed, but all of a sudden the screen went white before turning normal seeing a heavy wounded Skrunch that had jumped in front of Clank taking the hit with him. "Well that takes care of him…Heheheee…WHAT?!" as Clank used fusion bomb pushing Maxmillian into the liquid nitrogen pit. "Well it seems he's very cool now. Heheheee" giggled Clank as he quickly made his way towards Skrunch "Hold on Skrunch I will find a way to help" "Will Secret agent Clank be able to help Skrunch? Find out next time on Secret agent Clank!!!"
Abel had formed tears in his eyes as the screen went of to commercials "Ooh poor Skrunch I hope he's alright we need to go save him!!" screamed Abel, he yelled so loud some of the bots even taught they heard something but ignored it. "He's hurt we need to help him Ratchet." "Abel ABEL!!! Calm down… It's not real!" said Ratchet trying to calm him down, as he noticed that Bolt began to get afraid from what Abel was doing." For Bolt's sake your scaring him!... Look Secret agent Clank is not real, it's just a holo-vid show. Skrunch is fine you saw him just a few minutes ago remember?" as soon as it had sunk into Abel's ears he instantly became jolly again. "So what will we do now? Watch the news? Play a Qwark vid comic?" Ratchet just sighed as he put his hand in front of his face not believing how oblivious Abel was just now. "Ok ok, let's watch the news then if your sooo eager to watch something." Said Ratchet taking the remote setting the volume a bit louder, as he still didn't like the show Clank starred in.
"Welcome to the Channel-64, 19:00 news, with your hosts Dallas and Juanita."
"Welcome to Channel-64, isn't that right Juanita?" said Dallas towards his colleague "It sure is Dallas… Our top stories tonight, children trauma's after Gleeman Vox Dreadzone, Is there life on Aquatos, but first we go live towards Metropolis where the Galactic President is making an announcement." Said Juanita as the screen split showing the President at Metropolis being photographed as he made his way towards the stage. As he grabbed his papers on of the stand the chattering calmed down when the President started to speak "My fellow Solaniëns, at 17:05 a day that will live in infamy the Robonoids have attacked Blackwater city, we received a message from Nédal-Nib Amäso. Negotiations have not worked with these robots and therefore the Galactic Navy will be used to find and destroy this menace of Doctor Nefarious men. Even now that the doctor is gone, this renegade squad keeps resisting and will therefore be punished." Said the president towards the crowd, who now were anxious for answers. "Yes Darla" "Darla Gratch Channel-64 news, is it correct that there have been taken no peaceful solutions towards resolving this?" asked the bot knowing that the president would need to have a miracle to find his way out of this one. "Negotiations had started to find a peaceful solution towards the problem, but as I ave stated they had ignored the spokesmen we send towards which only resulted in the brutal attack on Blackwater city… No more questions" said the president as he went off screen whilst dozens of reporters still asked if he would answer at least one more question. "Ugh, you just hate to see such senseless violence, ain't that right Juanita?" Dallas said as he put his feet on the desk, which Juanita quickly cancelled by slapping him on the head whilst giving an evil grin towards Dallas "It's appalling Dallas… In other news, local crime lord…" "Can you believe that shit?!" cried Ratchet as he was stunned to hear about Blackwater city. "Yea poor Dallas all he wanted was to stretch his feet!" said Abel like that would have been the end of the world. "Not that you oaf!" a low growl came from Abel at that as well as from Bolt! "Sorry Bolt didn't mean to say that…heheh" ratchet chuckled as he told the actual reason "The fact we are at war!... That guy on screen already told us they would strike when we least expected it. Seems like they already beat us to it." Ratchet sighed at the thought of seeing all those people flee for there lives, it was the War all over again as a small tear formed in his face, all the destruction and chaos it had caused, all of the suffering that everyone needed to endure. It could not, no it WOULD not happen again not this time he would make sure of that! "Abel I decided, you can join us I will need as many people as I can get for taking this Nédal-Nib Amäso and his men down!" said he as he contemplated if this was the correct decision, but what he was 100% sure about was that whatever action he took this may never turn into a full scale war! "You mean it?" said Abel overflowing with joy and happiness, as what to ratchet just told him it even got Bolt all enthusiastic about it, tough the little Lombax didn't fully know and understand what was going on. "Meet me tomorrow at the hangar 06:00 sharp! I need to make some preparations and talk t the president. It seems we will be going to war… But first this, if you are going to be under my command you'll be following my orders! So no fancy stuff got it?!" "Sure ratchet no problem. You can count on it that I'm there tomorrow." Said Abel still happy as his tail went from side to side and his standing more upwards then they had ever been as long as he could remember.
As Ratchet entered the bridge the entire crew stood up proud ready to go "You have all seen the news and you know what has happened. As of now we go to Code Red!" "Yes sir! Will do so, engaging the code… Notifying the crew as well." Said Y60 as several lights began to blink on the monitor. "Run a full diagnostic on the entire ship. I want this bird to be able to fight within the week!... Heck check everything, I want anything double checked before we launch… Z45 calibrate the weapons system, F77 arm the fighters." Several ayah's and sir's came from the respective crewmembers as they had received there orders. "And gather the entire crew for a briefing in 20 minutes. They need to know what we are up against once I have spoken to the president."
One phone call and several orders later at the hall of the Phoenix, Ratchet began to address the entire crew which now included Abel in full uniform as the newest full time crewmember. The entire crew consisted of several Battalions, each battalion was divided in nine Divisions and each Division had several Squads. The Phoenix had undergone several large changes since the War against Nefarious especially her size, as it was not a normal cruiser but a full mother ship at that. Enough room for around ten Battalions which each could be up to around 500 persons. This made the Phoenix the true pride of the Navy in both name and reality.
As Ratchet stood before them on the upper level, he had to brush his face as the size of the crowd was a bit intimidating. Several Battalions each with there own drop ship and crew... Many of them were from the original crew he had known back in the last war, but when they reformed the Phoenix more men had been put on the ship and now with a new war at the door several other Battalions had been assigned to the Phoenix taking over the decks 6A to 9D who had been empty up until now. And all of them were eager to serve under the war hero "Ratchet". It felt wonderful to the Lombax to be addressing this many people even under these circumstances. "You all know me, either as captain or as a friend. I am a Lombax of few words so I'll keep this short, as of 20:09 the President has declared the war on what is now known as the Galactic Independent Robot Liberation army or GIRL." This made several of men chuckle but where quickly silenced as Ratchet gave the men a very impressive look he continued, "Each of you were issued a mission pack, and I trust that none of you opened the sealed section yet. "He looked up as there was a slap of a closed book from the rear, where evidently a Ranger and an organic friend had been peeking. He told them a bit sarcastically, "You may now open that section." several opened mission briefings later "As you can see from this, we will be patrolling the borders and inner core of Solana. If it should become clear that our new enemy has the potential to harm any of these planets we are allowed to use deadly force." said Ratchet not noticing that the crew actually didn't began to like how this was forming. But they sadly knew they had no choice but to follow there orders. "That is all your all dismissed." He said which resulted in several whoops and yea's from the men as they made there way towards there quarters or other places of interests. Ratchet stood there with his hands clasped before him, watching as the officers went to their teams to talk things over. Curiously, it looked like Doctor Bertan's group was playing rock, paper, scissors.
"It could be fun!" said Nurse Bucher. "It could be a disaster…" muttered Doctor Bertan. "It could be a wild goose chase." remarked Y40. "Bah, he won again!" grumbled the Nurse. Looking at Y40's hand, the Doctor exclaimed, "Vwait a minuet... yer a robot! Zat's not fair!" The bot gave Helsing a dim look. "Wait you are a doctor, you're just now noticing this?"
Ratchet sighed when the entire ordeal was over. He was never good at speaking against crowds, but he was happy that it was over none the less. "I envy those that didn't have to prepare a speech like this." He said as the Lombax made his way towards his quarters, receiving various "Sir's" and "Captain" towards him. He was happy tough that his crew at least followed orders, that meant that should there happen anything that they will be ready. A small smile formed on his lips as he began to contemplate everything he could do being the captain of the Phoenix. It was true he had superiors like the President and the Chief staffs of the Navy, but on this ship he was the boss and what he said was what would happen even if it was a fire drill at 3 am in the morning. One of the security bots called SE1 came running towards the poor fella at top speed almost hitting him as he stopped. "Sir, I have checked several compartments" "Yes and? Can't this wait until morning? I'm rather tired you know" he growled towards the bot even going as far as showing a big yawn infrontf of everyone in the hall whilst the bot, who besides powering up every now and then, had no idea what the captain was talking about. "I understand sir, I'll have it on your desk tomorrow at 7 am, sir!" said the bot before running of again. "I swear those robots sometimes are a pain in the… Gah ABEL!!!!" he scowled out as the other Lombax greeted him by jumping from behind. "So ready for bed Ratchet?" asked Abel who according to Ratchet had still way to much energy as they went into there chamber. "Well just keep that energy for tomorrow you'll need it trust me!" he said yawning yet again.
Ratchet knew that this would be a very long year indeed, only a few years back there was the war with Nefarious, but now it seemed there was another mad person trying to complete what he had started. The only thing he really hoped was that this war wouldn't turn out for the worst… As he looked at Abel who was barely asleep with Bolt next to him, he wished for this war to end quickly and spare his friends and anyone he knew from the horrors he had seen over his life. After that he fell asleep.