Since I cliffed it last time, lets get right into it eh?

Starship Phoenix's Engine room

As Ratchet fell towards the mist a metal hand flashed out and grabbed his hand.

Ratchet looked down at the mist then up at CR3 "Thanks."

CR3 hauled Ratchet up onto the ledge "No prob, Sarge, couldn't let you go out like that."

Ratchet shook his head "Yea, I'll thank ya again later, first, bigger issue. Engine Ten."

CR3 nodded "Yea, any ideas how to get across?"

Ratchet nodded "Yes, Wrap your arm around my waist."

Cr3 did what he was told, kneeling down to do so and Ratchet spun around his sling shot appearing on his wrist with a heavy chink. He fired it across the gap and it latched onto a heavy piece of metal above the door to central engines. Ratchet flexed his hand and the slingshot pulled them both across the gap. CR3 let go over the walkway and hitting the ground rolled through the door while Ratchet hit the wall feet first, disengaged his sling shot, and back flipped off, landing and rolling through the door next to CR3. Ratchet stopped when engine ten caught his eye. "Whoa..."

Engine Ten cylinder was cracked in several places and sparks were flying out attached to gigantic bolts of green lighting, glowing scorch marks showed where they had hit. Radiated mist flowed from so many cracks that the bottom half of the engine was a glowing green. The piston inside was chugging along just inside the spectrum of visibility and from time to time it struck the side of the turbine causing another crack and a even bigger bit of lighting to lash out and usually break something. Ratchet and CR3 rolled to the side when one of these bolts destroyed the catwalk they were next to.

"I don't suppose you would want to act as a lightning rod?" Ratchet asked as they rolled to their feet.

"Not really."

"Didn't think so, had to ask though"

"Why?"

Ratchet grimaced "Because this is, is going to, REALLY, hurt if it doesn't work."

Before CR3 could ask,, Ratchet deployed his Sling shot again, grabbing onto a strut above him, as he was pulled up the strut gave way, half eaten as it was by radiation, which is what Ratchet wanted to happen. The strut altered his upward path and he released the hook, being sent in a gentle arc towards the piston. He landed heavily on it and grabbed the edge of a jagged piece of glass with an exclamation of pain. He pulled him self to the side as the piston struck the side and sent a bolt out from where he had been, then dropped sliding down the side heading for the mist. He engaged his grav boots and they caught the edge of the metal housing spinning him upside down and losing connection dropping him towards the mist. While he fell he used his left hand to grab a hanging power supply with just enough juice in it to make him seriously regret coming up with this plan, while his right shot his sling shot into the small hole in the engine. As he flipped around on the cable and his mag boots connect with the side again. Ratchet braced himself and set his Slingshot to pull, the cable reeled in its excess before it caught and almost pulled Ratchet oof the wall, but a before his boots failed, a deep groaning sound issued with the sound of shearing metal and he the cord pulled in again. As the claw popped out of the hole with enlarged it dragging along the main capacitor of the engine.

Ratchet grinned at CR3 from his upside down position as he released the claw and the capacitor fell into the mist below. The turbine slowed to a sluggish crawl and finally stopped as the electricity in the room dispersed. CR3 jumped across to a side platform and began to vent the radiation into space. As the floor cleared below him, Ratchet dropped down and landed heavily on the floor. His legs crumpling beneath him CR3 ran over and helped him to his feet.

"well, it worked, it also hurt, a lot." Ratchet managed to get our between clenched teeth, grabbing his emergency nanotech pack off his belt and breaking one of the vials over his body. As the nanites swarmed over him fixing his damaged limbs he raised his hand to his face and spoke into his comlink.

"Bridge, Ratchet, Status report on the engines."

"Sir, Ten is offline and the rest overloaded and shut down. We are dead in space, but we're also in one piece, good work Sarge."

Ratchet nodded "Thanks, now get a team down to see if they can piece together what caused 7's coolant leak in the first place, then check the other engines to make sure they dont suffer the same thing, I don't want a repeat."

"Yessir, We've already got a squad sent down to poke around a bit. They should have a report for you with in an hour."

"Good, How many Escape pods launched?"

"None sir, Commander Sasha order all pods to be held until the very last moment or it was clear your mission had failed."

Ratchet growled softly in his throat "Alright, I want that hourly report,." He clicked off his comlink and turned back to CR3, "Go wait, and then supervise that team that comes down here, I need to go find my family." CR3 saluted as Ratchet ran off.

Escape pod 47-B

Stella and Sky were sitting huddled on the bench of the small escape pod while their Mother warmed up the pods engines then went to stare out the access hatch. "Come on hotshot" she muttered to herself. Her ear twitched as she heard one of her children sniffle. She turned around to see Stella wipe a tear out of her eye.

"Dad's going to be alright...right?" she asked softly as Sasha glanced back out of the hatch. Sasha nodded her head and walked over to sit on the floor next to her kids.

"Of course, you're Father may be good at making things explode in various ways, but he's also quite apt at putting them back together."

Stella was silent for a few moments more while tears continued to soak the fur around her eyes. "What's wrong?" Asked Sasha.

"It's my fault."

Sasha was confused "What do you mean?"

Stella looked up and met her mothers eyes tears flowing heavily now "All of this" she said pulling out of Sky's grip and walking past her mother to point outside of the pod where the hallway was lit with a red light flashing.

"Stella..." Sasha began, she didn't get a chance to finish though as Stella's voice exploded out

"MOM IT'S MY FAULT, DAD AND I WERE WORKING ON ENGINE SEVEN! IF IT HAD JUST BEEN DAD THE ENGINE WOULDN'T HAVE EXPLODED, IT WAS SOMETHING I DID THAT CAUSED THE LEAK, SOMETHING I MESSED UP THAT CAUSED ALL OF THIS. IT'S ALL MY FAULT."She dropped to her knees after this the tears having soaked all of her face, gasping hard, she placed her hands over her face and started sobbing repeating "My fault" over and over again as her small frame shook and lost all support to lay on her side on the floor of the pod.

Sasha was struck speechless, she tried to say something, extending her hand to place it on Stella's shoulder, but stopped when Stella shrugged away from her. Sasha felt her heart clench but reminded herself that at the moment her daughter was distressed and didn't know what she was doing. She glanced back and Sky and nodded her head at Stella. Sky returned the nod and slid of the bench to sit next to Stella, rubbing her back as he sobs started to lost their sound. When she calmed Sasha walked over and pulled the small form of her daughter into her lap, crooning softly into her ear and rocking her as she started crying again.

"It's okay" she whispered into her ears "You're fine, it wasn't you're fault, you couldn't have known." She repeated this for twenty minutes while Sky watched on with worry showing on his face.

Finally Stella stopped crying and took a shuddering breath before looking her mom in the eyes. "Would you still say that if dad dies trying to fix my mistake?"

Sasha felt as if Stella had just stood up and punched her in the gut.

"Stella, don't even think that, you're father and I love you so much, nothing could change that."

Stella blinked and looked down,

"Besides, you're father has faced me down when I was angry, and if he can do that, he can do anything."

Stella gave a wet chuckle before struggling to sit up in her mothers lap.

"Are you sure it wasn't my fault?" she asked softly.

Sasha smiled "Stella, even if it was your fault, there's no harm done and it wouldn't affect how much your dad and I love you two anyway."

Stella looked up at her "How do you know there is no harm done?"

"That" Sasha said pointing out the escape pod hatch where Ratchet was leaning against the hallway wall watching them with an eyearch raised. Stella let out a small sigh as she leaped out of her mothers lap and slapped the release switch for the hatch door and ran out into her dads arms. Sky and Stella walked to the hatchs exit as Ratchet swung Stella around.

"She alright mom, isn't she?"

Sasha chuckled softly as she hoisted Sky up "She fine, You're father will be able to help her more with an explanation." Sky gave his mom a hug

"Good" Sasha chuckled as she stepped out of the escape pod, she walked over and kissed Ratchet on the cheek, ignoring Sky's fake vomiting motion in her arms. "Nice work Hotshot."

Ratchet nodded and swung Stella up onto his shoulders "Thanks, and we need to have a talk about staying on when I told you to evacuate."

Sasha smiled inwardly and glanced at Ratchet as they started down the hallway "First off, you never actually told me to, you just had the rangers activate the evac alarm. Second, I knew you would fix it, you always do. Third, if we're talking about anything we're talking about you thinking you could force me to do anything."

Ratchet cringed but glanced back at her "Well..."

Sasha held up a hand and winked at her children "See?" she asked as they both started giggling and Ratchet got a confused look on his face. They continued walking down the hall to their rooms, It had been a very long and busy day.

Sorry it's so short, kinda been pressed, but at some point in between the beating life has been throwing me I realized that I hadn't updated (A shout out to Agent pointless who's updates appeared in my inbox and reminded me I had another life) So hey, here it is, I hope you enjoy it, another crisis out of the way.

Oh two more things

1. Holy carp, The Nightmares Storyline has officially reached over 10k Views. Thanks guys, glad I could keep you coming back, even after the story was done.

2. Secret agent pointless fic-seriously, go read it, awesome stuff. I myself need to catch up.

Till next time,

Emile.

P.S. After fixing a bunch of mistakes I've decided not to post at 3am anymore. If you see anything feel free to point them out eh?