AuthorsNote: Holy, Crap, Nine pages in Open Office, I'm pretty sure that's a new top for me in longest chapter ever. Might even beat out the final chapter of NotP. Anyway, Its done, after much delay, I give you Chapter 17.

Ratchet

As the elevators doors slid closed, Ratchet turned to face CR-3. "What do we know?"

CR-3 handed him a small pad "Not much, just the usual. The Fire Lord ships are not armed except for their people, they warped in and started advancing. I don't think they expected the Phoenix to be in orbit, they have been holding position since we made our presence known. I think they are waiting to see what we'll do."

Ratchet studied the pad, he counted fifty Fire Lord ships plus the small frigate that brought them here. "How did we make our presence known?"

"When we saw them moving in we fire a volly of the new laser photons across their field of attack."

"Glad to hear those new weapons are up, How long ago did we drop out of warp and let Calzon know we were here?"

"About twenty minutes ago."

"Hmm...Why did they request our help, I was under the assumption that they had one of the most powerful planetary shields, which is why they are a fall back point."

CR-3 shrugged "I didn't stick around to find out, once you told me to get to the fighters I bolted."

Ratchet nodded and spoke into his com "Sasha, when you get a chance find out what happened to Calzon's Planetary Shield."

"Roger that Hotshot"

The elevator slid to a stop and Ratchet and CR-3 rushed into the hanger, there was already a squad of eight Rangers running checks on their ships. As they approached CR-3 Started yelling.

"Go Go Go Go, We need to be out there, now." The Rangers jumped to attention and scrambled into their fighters, CR-3 running over to join them. Ratchet meanwhile headed for his own fighter, popping the canopy with a press of the button on his gauntlet he jumped up grabbed the edge and flipped himself sideways into the pilots seat. As he landed he glanced into the passenger seat to tell Clank to hold on, when he remembered that Clank had elected to stay behind on Veldin. Shaking his head Ratchet sealed his fighter and turned to glance out at CR-3, who was closing the canopy on his own fighter. A moment later his faceplate appeared on Ratchet's viewscreen.

"I'm the last in Sarge, warming the engines up now, the rest are rearing to go."

Ratchet nodded and flicked a few switches on his fighter "Glad to hear it, is every one who needs air out of the docking bay?"

CR-3 nodded on screen "Yes sir, we are clear to open the doors and launch"

Ratchet nodded one more time and heard Sasha voice in his ear "Ratchet, It seems the Fire Lords have some new tricks. Apparently the Planetary Shield went down due to sabotage, by, a, well, a Fire Lord Defector. He worked in the control room and sent out a virus to bring the system down. I sent two Rangers down to collect him, but when he caught sight of them he shouted that none of us were worthy and blew himself up."

"Great, Defectors, perfect, you know what, just in case, do a sweep of all organic personal on board right now. 'I may be being over dramatic, but I don't want anything like that happening to us."

"Already on it Hotshot."

Ratchet glanced out of his fighter and saw CR-3 give him the thumbs up "Alright, We're ready down here Sasha."

"Roger that, Hotshot, Releasing Rear shielding systems now and opening bay doors."

Ratchet tightened his grip on his control stick, his thumb resting on the slider for his throttle. He watched as the Bay doors suddenly slid aside, letting the cold of space in. He knew that there was a Oxygen shield that could be thrown up, but for what he and the Rangers had in mind, they needed it empty.

"Sasha, Last checks complete, We're good to go down here."

"Roger."

A few moments later the clamps on the bottom of Ratchets fighter and the nine Ranger fighters released allowing their hover pads to lift them gently off the floor.

"Ratchet, the Fire Lords have begun their attack."

"Copy, just tell us when." He thumb slid the thrusters throttle up just a little more, but prevented any power from reaching the engine, his fighter whined as the power shook it. Time seemed to slow down as he waited for the command, he hoped this worked.

"RATCHET, GO!"

With that Ratchet released his hold on his engines and the tri-thrusters engines scored the back wall of the Phoenix as he blasted out of the hanger at mock five, the Ranger ships following. As soon as he cleared the door Ratchet pulled up sharply on the controls, curving his fighter over the Phoenix. He saw twenty Fire Lord ships pause as their force came into view.

"No Mercy, Fire all" Ratchet sent over the com waves as he triggered his new missile system to launch. From the large tube underneath his fighter a large missile blasted out, its shell breaking apart to reveal eight smaller spiraling missiles that arced through the air towards the enemy. The Rangers followed up with their own launchers and in under a second there was a screen of Eighty Missiles curving in on the Fire Lord ships. The Twenty that were there didn't have a chance. There was a series of flashes and the Fire Lord ships were blasted apart. Forty Missiles spiraled on to blast into the remaining force, impacting mostly on the side of the Frigate and causing massive damage.

Suddenly the Fire Lords had a new target, the Phoenix.

Ratchet watched as the Fighter squad swung in towards the ship, he tapped his view screen.

"CR-3, Get two more Rangers and form up on me, we need to get them away from the Phoenix."

Before CR-3 could respond, Ratchet swapped to Sasha's channel "Sasha, Fire Lords inbound to the Phoenix, Start devoting some charge to the new system."

"Roger that Hotshot."

Ratchet glanced back and Saw CR-3's ship and two others form up behind him in a diamond. "We need to buy the Phoenix time to charge the Waver, we're going to blast past the Fire Lords and strafe their frigate."

"Roger"

"Activate OverCharge"

"Sarge, Our ships can only handle that for a few minutes at most."

"I know, but we only need about a minute of it to draw their focus back to us."

"Roger"

Ratchet flicked aside a cover on his console and seeing the blue and yellow buttons there he jabbed a finger on the blue one. His Fighter died suddenly in space everything going dark as the machine he installed in his engine disengaged his power core.

"Heileron Power Core Removed." His computer beeped at him.

Suddenly power surged back to the ship and it jerked forward several hundred feet,

"Excelerate Tritainium Shielded Core engaged." Then

"Warning, Power overload building, please disengage power core"

Ratchet simple hit the thruster control on his stick all the way up and felt himself forced back into his seat as his engine glowed blue and then propelled the fighter so fast that there was just a blur. The Ranger ships doing the same thing. As they blasted past the Fire Lords they actually rocked and disturbed their ships from going so fast, in a matter of moments they reached the Frigate.

"Weapons hot, Discharge OverCharge with Lasers, One strafe then back to the Phoenix and shut down."

Ratchet primed his lasers and began an arc over the frigate ship, as soon as he lined up his sights he pulled the triggers and let loose with a flurry of super charged laser bolts. Blasting off entire chunks of the Frigate one one end while the Rangers did the same on the other side. As they finished their pass and regrouped the frigate was listing heavily on its side with entire chunks missing and the Fire Lords turned back around, trying to decided what to do.

The choice was taking from them at that moment by Sasha's voice over the comm channel. "We're charged, get clear."

Ratchet and the Rangers blasted up next to the Phoenix and disengaged their OverCharge cores. "We're clear Sasha, fire away, you might even hit those Fire Lords that are left if you try."

Sasha almost growled over the mic "Oh believe me, I will."

From underneath the bridge of the Phoenix, the armor plates along its neck started to slide back and a large barrel began to slide out as the ship turned to face the last of the Fire Lords and their Frigate.

"Close you're eyes hotshot, its about to get bright."

The barrel that extended out from under the bridge was squared and how three glowing electrodes that started sparking and zapping the inside of the barrel. It began building a ball of pulsing yellow energy at its tip, kept in place and checked by the electrodes. After a few moments the inside of the Barrel glowed and a Green beam shot out to hit the yellow sphere. A few moments later the Sphere collapsed and a gigantic beam shot out of the Barrel actually pushing the Phoenix back in space.

The beam caught the Fire Lords unaware, vaporizing their little ships instantly, the Frigate which had seen the Phoenix's weapon emerging had began a slow turn to start an escape warp. The Beam met it halfway punching through its middle and lighting up space behind it. The beam cut off and the Frigate was left with a gigantic hole punched through it, glowing metal and Fire Lords being sucked out into space. Then with a flash, it vanished in an explosion.

Ratchet blinked and rubbed his eyes "Wow"

Sasha laughed as she appeared on his view screen "I Told you to cover you're eyes, Aquagirl went all out on that thing."

Ratchet shook his head and rubbed his eyes again blinked a few more times before grabbing hold of his controls. "That was intense."

"Yea" Sasha looked to the side as a Ranger ran up to her, she snapped her head back to Ratchet's Screen "Hotshot, you better get back in here."

Worried by her tone Ratchet powered his fighter around to the Hanger bay and landed, popping his canopy and running towards the elevator. Sasha was waiting for him inside it.

"Whats up?"

"The Twins found a spy."

Ratchet paused and felt his fist clench "Are they okay?"

"Well..."

Sasha

As Sasha walked onto the bridge she was greeted with the face of the President of Calzon.

"President Tang, what seems to be the matter?"

"What, you mean aside from those Fire Lord ships and our Planetary Shield going down, why nothing, nothings the matter."

"Relax, sir, We're already scrambling fighters." Ratchets voice echoed in her ear, telling her to find out about the shield.

"Roger that hotshot"

The president jumped "What did you call me."

"Not you, sir, conferring with my lead fighter pilot now, out of curiosity, how did your shield go down? I was under the impression that you boasted an impenetrable shield that never went down."

The President looked nervous for a moment "It was sabotage, A defect to the Fire Lords"

"He has a right to look nervous, a defect to the Fire Lords? Willing to kill everything, including yourself." Outloud she asked "Did you happen to capture this Defector?"

The President nodded "Yes, he was one of the control men for the shield, he uploaded the virus and was pulled away by his co-workers."

"Good" Sasha nodded at two Rangers who stepped into the middle of the bridge and vanished with a flash of orange. "I'm sending two Rangers down to escort him up to the Phoenix."

"Good, I don't want this scum on my planet anymore."

Sasha's view screen split into two views and she watched from one of the Rangers point of view as they approached the struggling Calzoneion. When he spotted the Rangers he stopped struggling and instead lifted his face to the sky yelling.

"WE ARE NOT WORTHY" Then the Rangers view was sent pointing up into the sky as the Calzoneion blew himself up. The Ranger rolled up and off the ground but there was nothing left of half a city block, just burning fires in the pit.

"Damn..." Sasha whispered to herself why the President fainted and his computer cut the connection to the Phoenix. "Alright, that's the last straw, begin charging the Waver" On her screen a waver charge meter appeared and showed 3%

Sasha spoke into her comm. "Ratchet, It seems the Fire Lords have some new tricks. Apparently the Planetary Shield went down due to sabotage, by, a, well, a Fire Lord Defector. He worked in the control room and sent out a virus to bring the system down. I sent two Rangers down to collect him, but when he caught sight of them he shouted that none of us were worthy and blew himself up."

Sasha turned back to the soot covered Rangers that warped up to the bridge "Do a sweep of all organic personal, check to make sure they are where their supposed to be."

Ratchets voice echoed back into her ear "Great, Defectors, perfect, you know what, just in case, do a sweep of all organic personal on board right now. 'I may be being over dramatic, but I don't want anything like that happening to us."

"Already on it Hotshot."

22%

Sasha noticed on the read out that a squad of Fire Lord ships was moving to engage the Phoenix she was about to tell Ratchet to hurry up when he spoke again.

"Alright were ready down here Sasha"

Sasha moved over and sat in the command chair, a holographic display appearing in front of her. She started tapping control buttons for the landing bay. She also brought up the Waver meter on her screen, 37%

"Roger that, Hotshot, Releasing Rear shielding systems now and opening bay doors."

As the readouts showed green she heard Ratchets voice again "Sasha, Last checks complete, We're good to go down here."

Sasha nodded to herself and replied "Roger" while tapping the release controls for Ratchet and the Rangers Starfighters. A red alert flashed on her display and Sasha swapped views to see that the Fire Lord ships had accelerated and were getting closer. Time to test their theories

48%

"Ratchet, the Fire Lords have begun their attack."

"Copy, just tell us when." Sasha waited until they closed with in 2oo meters

"RATCHET, GO!" She called into her comm and watched as the display showed Ratchets ships blasting out of the hanger and curving over the Phoenix. She waited as the Fire Lord ships paused from Ratchets sudden appearance, she heard him call over the combat channel that there was to be no mercy. She traced on her screen while their new weapons sprang out from the ships.

58%

She watched as the missiles curved into the Fire Lord ships and destroyed them with a good thirty of the missiles remaining and curving on to hit the frigate. She pumped her fist with a cheer and noticed the Waver charge 48%. Then she noticed that the rest of the Fire Lords had turned to engage the Phoenix. She was trying to decide if she should cancel the Waver charge and devote the energy to the cannons when she heard Ratchet going into OverCharge mode.

72%

Sasha was glued to the readouts as she watched Ratchet and three other Rangers blast towards the Frigate to attempt a strafing run.

83%

Sasha did another mini cheer when they pulled away safely a less the a minute later. She glanced at her readouts and saw Waver ready to fire 100%

She punched into the combat channel "We're charged, get clear." She then noticed Ratchet's squad holding position near the bridge and his voice came over the air.

"We're clear Sasha, fire away, you might even hit those Fire Lords that are left if you try."

Sasha felt a small growl rise in her throat, her chance to take down these things. "Oh believe me, I will."

Then she turned to the Rangers on deck. "Convert into Waver mode, Sub routine Alpha Alpha Mega"

The lights through out the ship dimmed as power was routed to the Waver beams generators.

"Release Barrel"

She felt the bridge shudder as the armor plates beneath her feet slid away to reveal the cannon. She watched as the beams firing status climbed quickly to 85%. She also grinned savagely when the Frigate attempted to flee the battle.

"No you don't. Target that Frigate, hold on to the something, and fire the Waver!" she called.

The rangers complied quickly and Sasha felt her body shake as the Phoenix fired the beam and she watched as it speared the frigate, which listed for a moment before imploding. She also noted that the Fire Lord ships had been caught in the beam. She laughed when she heard Ratchet's voice.

"Wow"

She tapped into his view screen still laughing. "I Told you to cover you're eyes, Aquagirl went all out on that thing."

"That was intense."

"Yes" Sasha turned to face a Ranger that came up and handed her a Datapad, her face hardened and she turned back to Ratchet. "Hotshot you better get back in here." Ratchets screen cut to black and Sasha turned and ran to the elevator, she got in and went down to the hanger bay, waiting for him to come in.

The Twins

As their parents ran off in different direction, Stella grabbed Skys hand and tugged him back towards the entrance she came though.

"Come on" she said pulling him along, "We need to get back to our rooms."

Sky got his own feet under him and the twins rushed towards the elevators, jumping into an open car, they were surprised to find somebody already in there. One of the service workers they brought aboard at Veldin before they had left. Some type of lizard man by the apperace of the scales that covered his body.

"Oh Hi" Stella said as she stepped back against the wall, Sky just stared down waiting for their stop.

"uh...Hi, Your the commanders kids right? Sky and uh, Stella, right?"

Stella nodded and smiled at him while Sky just turned his head to stare at the door.

"So, uh, where are you going?" Stella asked him.

"Living Area"

"Really, us too, funny that."

The three fell into silence until the doors opened, They all stepped out and the worker waved at them as he turned to the right.

"Nice talking to ya." he said with a wave, Stella waved back and tugged Sky around the corner, but grabbed him and held him against the wall when he tried to keep going. She held a finger to her lips and peeked around the corner. When the worker vanished out of her sight she looked back at Sky.

"If he's going to the living area, why did he just take the hallway to the sub access area?"

Skys eyes widened as he got what Stella was hitting at, then they narrowed and he spoke up "Follow him?"

She nodded "You know it."

Together the two of them crept down the hallway, moving fast at first to try and catch up, they caught sight of the worker as he ducked into another service hatch. Sky turned to Stella,

"Service Hatch, leads to the walkways that you can use to service the turbines." She said before he could ask "I have no idea why he would be going there though."

"Still follow him?"

"Yep."

The two walked up to the hatch and ducked under as well, the walkway they found themselves on was dark and they could hear the worker up ahead , his footsteps clanging through the dark.

When they finally reached the end they saw the worker holding a small device against the side of a small blue turbine, after he was done there he crossed the room to the other side and started placing another device on another turbine there.

"Whats he doing?" Whispered Sky,

"I have no idea, whatever it is, its not good though." Stella looked around the room to try and judge where they were. "Sky, I think we're below the bridge, and those are the really special turbines dad mentioned to me. It those get breached in anyway...boom."

Sky's eyes got wide "Mom, Dad"

Stella nodded and then gulped heavily, stepping out into the light and calling to the worker.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

The worker jumped and turned around dropping the device to the ground, where it broke. "I'm doing nothing, just, repairs."

"Really, Its was my understanding that only My Father and Mother know about, let alone work on these turbines."

The worker got nervous and cleared his throat "Well, they, uh, lied to you then."

"I think-" Stella never got to say what she thought, for at that moment, the lights all through out the Phoenix cut to black for two seconds and the ship learched violently. In that time, quite a bit happened, but the main focus for Stella, was the worker jumping forward and wrapping a scaly arm around her throat. Stella let out a scream when the worker picked her up off the ground.

"Great, I missed my mark because of you, My masters wont be happy, maybe if I bring them one of the brats of their biggest threat, they might forgive me, what do you think of that?"

"I think, you should let go of my sister" said Sky stepped around the corner and swinging a lead pipe he hand found around.

"Or what?" the worker asked, something you should never ever do.

"This." Stella said, reaching up her right hand and grabbing hold of his arm and triggering the motors in her glove. The power surged through her glove and she crushed the workers arm in less then two seconds. The worker wailed in pain and dropped her, grabbing his almost flattened arm. As he fell to his kness in pain, Sky vaulted towards him and spun in the air, bring the pipe flat into his face and knocking him out cold. Sky landed and set the bar in the middle of the workers chest. He turned to his sister.

"Stella, get somebody." Stella didn't have to however as a Ranger rushed into the room at that moment.

"I heard screaming, is everything-" he stopped when he saw Sky and Stella "What happened?"

"This worker tried to sabotage the Phoenix, The workers eye lids fluttered and the Ranger stepped forward grabbing him and slinging him over his shoulder. "

"Good work kids," he said as he walked out of the room. The workers head bobbing back and forth with his steps.

It was later in the day after everybody had said their thanks to them and their parents were putting them into bed that they congratulated them.

"You guys made us so proud today." Ratchet said as he saw Sky tucked underneath his blankets in the corner of his room.

"You handled your self's perfectly, and saved everybody on board the Phoenix, which is something your dad can't boast." Sasha told Stella as she saw her tucked into her bed.

"Really?" Stella asked as she settled into her bed.

"Really. Good night Honey." Sasha leaned down and kissed Stella on the forehead before turning and walking out the door. She was greeted by Ratchet who was leaning against the wall.

"Just said good night to Sky, told him he did good."

"Same thing here with Stella."

Ratchet wrapped an arm around her shoulder while they walked down the hallway towards their room to get some sleep

"You know something?" Ratchet asked her as they settled into their bed twenty minutes later.

"What?" Sasha asked pulling the covers over their bodies.

"I'm glad we decided to teach the kids how to fight, if we hadn't, and they still had followed that spy, which you know they would have, things could have turned out worse."

Sasha nodded snuggling against Ratchet "That's true, you want to know what I think?"

Now it was Ratchets turn "What?"

Sasha pulled him down into a kiss "I think, you talk to much."

Ratchet grinned at his wife, "Maybe your right."

So the commanders of the Phoenix returned to normality for the night, content that although the galaxy was still in danger, all was right with them.

So, Although the main focuse of this chapter was Ratchets fight, I thought I might give you what else was going on in the ship, so a few things worth mention.

First, Its Finals time, so I'm dropping off the grid for at least two weeks, sorry, nothing can be helped for that.

Second, After Finals, I'm going to try and update my Artemis Fowl Fiction, so Earth Bound, will not be updated for a while, once again, sorry, but I can't leave them hanging anymore then I can to the readers of this fic.

Third thing, and hopefully this will make up for delay updates, A major hint into what the Restoartion project is, ready? Your hint is located in the Closing Authors Notes of my LAST chapter, so go over them, and see if you can figure it out okay? I really hope somebody gets it off of this hint, ha ha.

Otherwise, thats all from my world for now, so,

Peace,

Emile.