AuthorsNote: hey hey, its been a while has it not? Yea, sorry bout that, after my AF update, school kinda occupied a lot of time. New quarter set at school and a full schedule have left me with little time to do much. Not to mention that after the last chapter, I lost inspiration considering I couldn't place what made the chapter fell 'off' to me. I figured that out by the way, it was me trying to tell of a quick pitched battle and then drawing it out way past what it should have been. I believe this one is a little bit better. But, enough of my babbling, how about you readers find out?

-Starship Phoenix- -High Veldin Orbit- -Bridge-

"Do you think this could be it Ratchet?"

Ratchet opened his eyes and looked at his wife leaning against a console across the bridge, it was late in the cycle for the Phoenix and most were asleep. The only people on the bridge were two Galactic Rangers and Sasha and Ratchet.

"I don't know"

Over the past two months the war had turned bad for the inhabitants of the Solona Galaxy, aside from the first few victories that Ratchet and Sasha them selves had manged to pull, the war was turning towards the Fire-Lords. The retreat line had been pushed father and father inwards. The Phoenix had been redeployed to about three planets away from Veldin. Ratchet was worried for his home planet, and it showed.

"Do you think this courier knows a way to stop them?"

They had been watching the Fire-Lords creep ever closer when they had received a summons to report to Veldin. Upon arriving they had been told to wait for a courier who could help them win this war. That was three days ago.

"I don't know"

This morning they had received word that the Fire-Lords have razzed the planet they had been guarding a few days before. The detachment of protectors was destroyed and no survivors were known to have escaped the raze.

"What will happen if...if we lose?"

Ratchet sighed, never had it seemed so bleak, sure things had been bad, or scary before, but at least there was a chance. A bigger weapon if nothing else worked, but this time, nothing, it seemed for every Fire-Lord he put down with his wrench or gun, another ten hopped up to take its place.

"I don't know."

Sasha stood up and walked over to him.

"Can you say anything aside from 'I don't know?'" She demanded as she stopped in front of him, and locked eyes

Ratchet met her gaze and waited, after a moment she sighed and looked down.

"I'm sorry."

Ratchet took off his glove and brushed the back of his hand across her cheek and she nuzzled her face against it. This had been happening more and more, as they were forced to retreat, both of their tempers got shorter and shorter. They seemed to just take turns snapping at each other.

"It's okay, we're all a little stressed."

They stood that way for a few minutes until a comlink on the dash beeped.

"The courier is on his way up, prepare for his arrival."

The two broke apart and Ratchet put his glove back on. He turned to face the exit to the bridge and held out a hand to Sasha.

"Well, let's go meet this guy."

Ten minutes later in the main landing bay, Ratchet and Sasha stood at attention with five other Galactic Rangers while a small pod was deposited in front of them. They stayed that way until the pods door hissed open and a small figure stepped out. Ratchet blinked and took a step forward.

"Clank?"

Clank jumped out of the pod and walked over to Ratchet "Hello, Ratchet."

"Your the courier?" Sasha asked as the two shook hands.

Clank looked at her "Yes, I have been working with Al since you two left, and we have found something...interesting."

Ratchet looked as his little fried "Interesting how?"

Clank met Ratchet's gave "Interesting enough to take down the Fire-Lords."

another ten minutes later found them gathered again on the bridge, this time with Clank calling up various holo-displays.

"Al and I have been working on a way to track where the Fire-Lords have been coming from. With our theory being that if we can find where they are coming from, we may be able to hit them hard enough to stop their advance."

"How did that work out for ya?" Ratchet asked as he walked around the galaxy currently revolving around the bridge.

Clank shook his head "Not very well, at least, for a while."

Sasha cocked an eyebrow "What changed?"

"This" Clank pushed a button and a Fire-Lord Fighter popped into view over the display. "Our study revealed that the Fire-Lords use a very special type of fuel to power their ships. We can not tell what it is, but it does leave behind a very special type of trail."

Ratchets turn to cock an eyebrow "What type of trail?"

Clank chuckled "A traceable one, Al hooked our program into Veldin's scanners and we discovered that the trial led all the way back into the Shadow Sector."

"Big surprise there."

"It did not stop there, we were able to track it through the Shadow Sector and we found that it originated somewhere just on the fringes of the Galaxy. Once we had that, we sent a probe out, and this is what it found."

Clank pushed another button and the Fighter was replaced with a very large planet.

"This planet is where they are from?"

Clank shook his head and pressed another button, highlighting a few things on the planet. "Not Planet, Plant-ship."

Ratchet felt his eyes go wide when he realized that they were in fact staring at the biggest ship he had ever seen.

Sasha found her voice first "How...how did they build a ship that large?"

Clank shrugged "I do not know Sasha, I just know that if we destroy that, we cripple them massively. Taking out this ship will destroy their ship production, not to mention put a serious dent into the population number, it would also give us a way to get behind them and attack from the rear."

Ratchet stepped up to the controls "Great plan, one problem." Ratchet zoomed out the display to show the entire galaxy again, then he colored a huge swatch of space red. "How do we punch through their lines in one piece and still have the firepower we need to take that ship out. It won't be easy, even if we could pull the whole fleet into an attack."

"I have thought of that already, before the probes battery died we got a good scan of their ship." Clank refocused on the Fire-Lords Planet-ship and it turned hollow, except for a glowing red core located in the dead center. "This is the planet-ships power core, very unstable from our scans, a direct hit from the Phoenix's prototype laser cannon would cause the entire thing to implode."

Sasha started pacing around the hologram, "Okay, Clank, let's say, that we manage to convince the Galactic President to authorize a force to attack the ship, let's say we actually hold off the Fire-Lords long enough to gather this force and get ready to attack. Just how are we supposed to punch through the Fire-Lord lines and still have the power to take on this ship. I just don't see the Phoenix making it there in one piece."

Clank chuckled and Sasha gave him a glare. "I have been waiting for this question. You see, another thing that I have been working on with Al is adjustments to Ratchets Gravametric Warp Drive. Before the device just made you go extremely fast, punching occasionally through the void to get you up to speed. I have made changes to it, upon the theory that we could instead of just punching through the void for speed, actually use the void as a 'gate' of sorts that could lead us right to the Planet ship."

Sasha shook her head "This sounds crazier and crazier the more I hear." she glanced at Ratchet to see him looking thoughtful. "..Ratchet..."

"It sounds crazy, but with the right adjustments to the Phoenix power system and the engines of course, and maybe some extra armor plating you know, this could work. We could take this right to the heart of the fire lords and use the Waver beam to stab the Fire-Lords right in the heart and end this war with us possibly on top."

"Ratchet you can not be serious."

"Think about it Sasha, if things continue the way they are, we'll be pushed back to the corners of the Galaxy before being wiped out altogether, this is the first offensive plan I've heard with even the smallest chance of success."

"But, wha, what about the Twins? We can't take them with us."

Ratchet glanced her way "I'm willing to leave them on Marcadia for this attack if its the only good chance we have at ridding the Galaxy of this threat for them."

Sasha glanced between him and Clank before she sighed "Alright, I'm in, I'll talk to the Galactic President with you, see if we can't get this plan in motion."

Ratchet faced his friend "Clank, what are the odds that we'll come out on top?"

Clank thought about it for a moment "If we get everything we need not to mention catch the Fire-Lords off guard, the probability of success is about 48.74%"

"What all do we need then?"

"Well, considering the Planet-Ship like all the Fire-Lords ship burns and has heated the general area around it to almost 3000 kelvin we would need sufficient cooling systems, perhaps some frost armor of some sort. The energy reactors would have to be outfitted to fire under extremer stress and of course the fighters too."

Ratchet nodded "and if we were just to go now?"

Clank didn't need any time to think this one through "0.14%"

Ratchet sighed, "Yea, I thought so."

Ratchet turned to face a console behind him, he punched the intercom button and his voice echoed throughout the ship. "All Ranger repair groups are to report to the service bay in one hour, Ranger Mechanics are to start outfitting our ships with cold technology shields and plating, report to Senior Engineer Clank for specifics on your orders. All active bridge duty Rangers are to make their way up here to take control of systems."

Clank looked confused "But, Ratchet, I do not understand, I am not a Senior Engineer and you have not talked to the Galactic President yet."

Ratchet was busy putting data into a console "No you're not a Senior Engineer yet" A few more keystrokes "You are now though, and to answer your second question, I don't care if we get approval, we could make the changes on the down low and go with out her approval." Ratchet looked over at Clank his eyes hard "I have finally managed to be happy Clank, I have a family and friends and I am not-" he pounded a fist on the console "-going to lose that to these Fire-Lords. We are not, going to lose this war, we are going to win, and my family will be safe."

Clank watched him for a moment before nodding and heading off to the service bay for his new duties.

When the door closed behind Clank Sasha walked up behind him and gave him a hug.

"I'm worried to you know."

Ratchet nodded "I know."

"By the way, The Galactic President is waiting for us."

Ratchet felt his eyearch raise as he glanced over his shoulder at his wife "Really? That was fast."

Sasha gave him a quick kiss, "A girl has her ways, plus it doesn't help that I told her we had a plan for stopping the Fire-Lords once and for all."

"Well, I suppose that might get anybody up at this time."

Ratchet stepped out of his wife's embrace and turned to face the blank vid screen, he gestured to one of the Rangers who had just walked in. The Ranger ran over to the console and opened the waiting link. Ratchet saluted as Auqagirl's face appeared.

"Ratchet, I hope this plan I've heard about is good, considering that it interrupted the only sleep I've managed to get this week."

"Well, its not good, but its the best plan I've heard so far, with a little tweaking and a whole lot of luck, it might just help us come out on top of this war."

As Ratchet detailed Clank's plan Aquagirl looked thoughtful and when he finished she was quite for a few minutes.

"Well, I don't have any plans showing up in the nick of time to save the day." She sighed "I'm behind this, I still need to run it by the senate for funds approval. Not to mention where we would set up this, what was it that you called it?"

Ratchet cleared his throat "It was Clank's idea, my term, but I believe you're referring to the 'Void-Gate'"

"Right...The Void-Gate, we still need a place to construct it, from what I understand, while it wont be a large device, we still need a safe staging area."

The bridge descended into silence for a while before Sasha spoke up "Marcadia."

"What?"

"Marcadia, we can use the old fleet yards to build the device, plus its a staging point, and, if worse comes to worse, Marcadia is going to be the last fall point. So it gives us the most time to get the plan into action."

Aquagirl nodded "I like it, I'll meet with the senate in a few hours to finalize for the bolts, but other wise begin the preparations. Find out what you need exactly for this to work from Clank and send me the list next time we meet."

Ratchet nodded and the channel closed as he turned to face Sasha "Well, this seems like it, the last all for nothing."

Sasha nodded "Are you sure about it?"

He shook his head "Not even close, but its the best plan and the last hope I can see, otherwise, well...I would rather not take my mind in that direction."

Sasha nodded and took his hand leading him from the bridge "Come on Hotshot lets get some sleep, we need to be on duty in a few hours."

"Ain't no rest for the wicked."

"What, when did we become wicked?"

Ratchet shook his head "Sorry, Ain't not rest for the weary."

Sasha gave a soft chuckle as the gondola closed them off from the world "Better."

So three quick last notes:

1: This chapter has a shout out to one of my favorite songs, sneak peak of the next chapter to whoever guesses it.

2: NotP has reached 5000 hits as of me writing this, omg, so awesome, thanks for the support.

3: I've decided to host a R&C Christmas fic contest, idea spurned by an author I know doing the same thing for Artemis Fowl. I'll have an submissions area on my forums here in the next few days, be sure to spread the word please, I would love to see what everybody writes. There will be a vote, I haven't decided on a prize for winning, but hopefully, just the fame of winning will be prod enough? Oh it may also be early, but more time to write.

Deadline is December 25, midnight, After that I'll go through and tally the votes. I hope to see lots of entries.

With that, I leave you to your musings.

Peace,

Emile