As Aphelion swooped into the atmosphere of Planet Igliak, she began scanning the battle situation. She knew Ratchet would want an answer as soon as possible.
"Aphelion, what's the situation on Meridian City?"
And there it was. Her scans were incomplete at the moment, but she could give him some information, and hopefully cheer her little family up. "Partly cloudy, 72 degrees. A perfect day for Krull fishing."
"We'll have to try that after dealing with the invasion," Twilight offered happily, hugging Ratchet and Clank.
"Speaking of?" Ratchet asked firmly.
Aphelion smiled to herself. She'd accomplished her goal there. "Over a quarter of the city has been decimated by Cragmite Drop Ships. They will not last long without support."
"That's our job," Clank indicated smugly.
As Aphelion landed, Twilight hopped out, deploying her RYNO IV. "Time to level this up the rest of the way," she stated grimly.
Aphelion watched proudly as the group headed off. "Make Father proud," she whispered to herself.
With the RYNO IV and the other weapons in Ratchet and Twilight's arsenal, the individual waves of Cragmites that came against them were easy enough to deal with, simply through sheer mass of firepower. And those that Twilight and Ratchet missed, Qwark found, switching between using a blaster and his bare fists at need. Unfortunately, the number of Cragmites deployed meant that the damage the trio was inflicting was not as massive as they'd hoped.
"This isn't working," Ratchet growled. "They just keep coming!"
"Then we need to make them go!" Twilight barked back. "We need to get to Tachyon!"
"Twilight!" Clank gasped. "You aren't suggesting-"
"There's a reason the Lombaxes didn't want a drawn out war, and now I see why!" she shouted back. "Let's go!"
"But what about the danger?" Qwark demanded.
"We're at the Godzilla Threshold!" Ratchet shouted back.
Qwark paused as he hefted a massive Cragmite over his head. "...I don't get it."
"It is a trope that dates back to Old Earth science fiction," Clank explained. "Regarding the films starring the kaiju Godzilla, King of Monsters-"
"Oh!" Qwark interrupted, light dawning in his eyes. "The situation's so bad that dropping Godzilla into the mix can't make it any worse! I'll clear a path! Charge!"
With a change in priorities, the group focused less on destroying all Cragmites and instead on getting past them. Progress was much smoother this way, as the Cragmites themselves seemed more interested in general destruction than focused assault on a trio capable of obliterating such an assault. And with Qwark charging ahead to clear a path - batting Cragmites of any size aside with backhands and punches - the group was able to advance rapidly.
The only real enemy challenge the group faced were walking tanks with heavy cannon fire, but Qwark proved his mettle by tearing chunks of masonry from walls or ground to give mobile cover to attack them from, often finishing them off by charging forward and smacking the tanks with the masonry chunk to send them flying. "Home Run!" he called out proudly each time he did so.
At one point, Ratchet had to use the Gyrocycle to progress further. While at first it seemed like this would mean leaving Qwark behind, Qwark had his own unique solution. Climbing onto Twilight's back, he pointed forward. "To battle!"
"There's no way I can fly with you on my back!" Twilight shouted. "The physics-"
"Not with that attitude you won't!" Qwark overrode her. "And don't talk to me about physics! You're magic!"
While Twilight didn't agree with the logic, she knew making the attempt would have more effect than any amount of arguing. The fact that it worked flawlessly left her rather put out, and Ratchet and Clank in stitches.
It was a good thing it worked as well as it did, though, since immediately after the gyro-cycle segment ended, a long corridor that could only be maneuvered through by flight - whether Twilight's organic wings or Clank's robo-wings - awaited them. As they flew through, they did their best to avoid obstacles, whether electrified fences or ordinary traffic, since it was apparently a commuter tunnel for flying cars.
When they reached the end, however, there was no trace of Tachyon.
"Dammit!" Ratchet cursed. "Where is he?"
"I...believe he is headed for Fastoon," Clank offered.
"What makes you think that?" Twilight asked.
"A cryptic message from the Zoni," Clank admitted.
"Wish you'd told us before we came here," Ratchet grumbled. "This whole trip has been a waste of time!"
"And time we don't have," Qwark agreed. "We need to get to Fastoon, pronto!"
"Thankfully, there's a teleporter to take us back to the ship here," Twilight indicated.
"Then let's go!" Ratchet shouted, leading the way.
Aphelion was startled to see the group return so readily. "Didn't you find him?" she asked.
"It was a dead end and a wild goose chase!" Ratchet told her. "Set a course for Fastoon!"
"You mean I get a second chance to defend it from Tachyon's forces?" Aphelion gasped in shock. "I won't let you down!"
"I know you won't, Aphelion," Ratchet confirmed. "Get us there as fast as you can."
"I've contacted Cronk," Clank mentioned. "Talwyn's group and the Pirates will meet us there."
"And then we go to war." Steeling herself, Aphelion set her engines to maximum. She would not fail this time, not again. She failed her father, Kaden. She would not fail his son.
I believe you meant the Godzilla Threshold.
hurray for updates!!
and so this family now goes to War...it is likely, they go to their doom...last march...of the Lombax...
I believe the trope name is actually Godzilla Threshold.
6689777
LoL i had the same thought after i finished
And now we draw near the end. Looking forward to more.
Keep up the good work. Deus tecum.
6689777 did you just do a Lord of the Rings reference?
Makes sense to me!
I can't wait to see how it goes with the Pirates backing our heroes up the Cragmites won't outnumber them as badly. Still, did Twilight manage to upgrade to the RYNO IV to RYNO V???
Gotta love them tropes!
One of my favorites is the Reason You Suck Speech.
Another njoyable chapter. Good job.
Who else wants to bet on Aphelion doing something stupid?
6690479 Ouch. Hurtful.
Actually, I was wondering if Aphellion would later become a sister figure to Ratchet. Tatsurou's pretty much beating us over the head with fact that Kaden is a father to both of them.
6690492 Don't forget, Sister to Ratchet = Aunt to Twilight.
...She has a face? Is she some kind of Cybertronian? Or maybe a transforming anthro spaceship?
...
Oh, wait. Those two things are synonymous.
Teehee, steeled herself. You see, it's funny because she's made of metal...
I'll see myself out.
Throws smoke bombs, yet fails to disappear.
6689915
And now I want a pony in transformers. .. like Derpy being adopted by Megatron.
6692214 With Starscream pissed that he's been upstaged again?
6692503 Only the G1 Starscream has suffered that shame. The other ones haven't.
Did.. Did Twilight forget about Qwarks reality shifting ability?
Perfect song for the end of this chapterhttps://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=phJo1E94Yk8
6694657 not true, Starscream got upstaged again in Beastwars, Animated and several times in Prime...
A Quarter = 1/4th = 0.25
Decimated = reduced by 1/10th = reduced by 0.1
Y U DO DIS. Y DO U HURT ME IN THIS WAY.
6696352 Hey, Pinkie doesn't always ignore physics. Qwark is something else.
for some reason the end of this chapter made me think of this
from 0:16 to 0:20
6690019
Remember, Quark's abilities are based in faith. So long as he believes in it, and there is no doubt in his mind, he can do anything.