The flight to their destination, Stratus City on Planet Kortog, was much faster than what Ratchet or Starlight was expecting, as the moment they left Cobalia's atmosphere Red engaged a warp drive and crossed the distance they needed to travel. Not moments later they exited the warp space, directly in front of Kortog's atmosphere, and they began their descend towards the planet's surface, where Red promised to find them a decent spot to land. Ratchet decided to use the time they had left to ask a question or two about the galaxy they were in, just so they had an idea of what was happening around them.
"So, Tachyon owns the Polaris Galaxy?" Ratchet asked, though it only reminded him of the planets that Chairman Drek had owned during his first adventure and the planets that Gleeman Vox owned during their stay in Dreadzone, "He owns all of it?"
"Unfortunately he does," Red confirmed, though he sounded annoyed about something, which was understandable considering Tachyon was no doubt making his life harder, "Ironic, ain't it? The one Cragmite they didn't vaporize comes back to oppress the galaxy."
"Who is this 'they' that you are referring to?" Clank asked, though because he had no knowledge on the Cragmites, which he assumed was Tachyon's race, he had no idea who or what Red was talking about.
"The Lombaxes of course," Red replied, though his tone shifted to something that sounded like praise, "They gathered together, came up with some crazy idea, and then vaporized the entire lot of Cragmites years ago... effectively leaving their planet as a ball of dirt ever since."
"AWK! All hail the Lombaxes!" Blue suddenly said, flapping his wings in excitement for a few seconds, before he settled back down on the crate he had been perched on the entire time, "AWK! Saviors of the Universe!"
Before anyone could say anything else, or give Ratchet, Clank, and Starlight time to figure out how the Lombaxes vaporized an entire race, the communicator sprung to life for a moment.
"Attention transport vessel." the communicator said, speaking in its automated voice as everyone turned to it, "A bioscan reveals a Lombax lifeform aboard your vessel. Stand by for immediate disintegration."
"I guess we're free falling into the city," Starlight commented, to which she grasped the lever that would open the cargo part of the ship and dropped several crates through the opening on accident, "See you guys later."
Red and Blue watched as Starlight, Ratchet, and Clank jumped out of the ship through the opening Starlight had opened up, which at the same time increased their speed enough to where he wouldn't have to worry about being captured. Red looked out of his rear view mirror for a moment and watched as the Lombax and the unicorn began their drop into the city limits, while at the same time a smile appeared on his face.
"Oh, I'm sure we'll cross paths again in the future," Red said to himself, flipping the switch that would close the opening, before he left Stratus City behind, "of that you can be sure."
Starlight noticed that the free fall into the city proved no more difficult than any other free fall she and Ratchet had done in the past, as she used her magic to move herself around and shot down any missiles she deemed dangerous for Ratchet's safety. As she landed on the platform they would be landing on, and beginning their adventure through the city on, Starlight looked up at the sky and watched as her brother weaved his way through this missiles without allowing one to touch him. It wasn't long before he was standing beside her, to which they approached the weapon vendor and restocked their ammunition, as well as taking a moment to purchase the new Predator Launcher and upgrade them to the max.
The first enemy they encountered was the small robotic ones that had been attacking Metropolis, no doubt the drones of Tachyon's army, though further up the stairs they both spotted a pair of dropships that brought in the fish aliens that controlled the mechanical suits... where Starlight noticed that some of them happened to be carrying shields as well. The two of them smashed through their enemies with their weapons, though Starlight also grabbed a piece of the shields their foes had been carrying so she could study it later on, but as they walked they noticed that there was a screen with Tachyon's face on it... where he was trying slander Ratchet's character.
Starlight found it amusing that Tachyon was even trying that route, because he was doing a worse job than Gleeman Vox had done back when they were in Dreadzone.
They eventually came to a stack of crates that was apparently hiding some sort enemy vehicle that rolled forward and back, while also turning and firing at them the moment it had them in its sights. The combined barrage from their weapons tore the vehicle to pieces, where it rained several bits of raritanium, though the room behind where the vehicle had been waiting was some sort of weapon. Starlight identified it was a Shock Ravager, a weapon that was essentially an electric whip, though before they moved any further Ratchet insisted on going back and upgrading it... where they discovered that Starlight could now buy one and upgrade it at the same time.
With yet another new weapon in hand they returned to where they found it and started to cross the bridge, though before they could take a single step a ship flew into the area and blew pieces of the bridge to pieces, leaving the structure intact for the most part. Ratchet and Starlight made their way to the other side of the bridge, where they put their new whips into action as they tore apart the enemies that were carrying shields. There was another round tank enemy behind the group of shield bearers, though after some well placed shots the enemy group had been dealt with... to which more walked down the stairs on their left and pointed their weapons at them.
"Tachyon definitely isn't holding back," Ratchet said, though at the same time he used the electric whip and broke through the shields that had been raised against him, "This adventure might actually be fun."
"We'll see about that," Starlight replied, using her magic to blast all of their enemies off of the staircase, to which they walked up to a small area where more enemies were gathering, "though the title of Emperor definitely fits Tachyon... he's got some decent numbers to do what he's done to find us."
Once the enemies in the small courtyard area had been taken care of, including the dropships they had used to enter the area, they used a zip line to reach the platform in front of them... where they discovered that they were going to have to use their Swingshots to hook up with one of the flying trams to move forward. Unfortunately there was only one target per tram, so that usually meant that Starlight was going to have to stay behind for a moment, but she didn't have to wait long as a second came up right as Ratchet was moving with his tram. In a minute they traversed the distance needed and dropped off of their trams, to which they discovered that one of the rounded tanks was waiting for them.
Ratchet and Starlight took a moment to restock their ammunition, thankful that the tank hadn't noticed them when they landed, before they jumped out of their hiding spot, opened fire on the tank and its flying companion, and opened the way for them to move forward. The moment their enemies were taken care of they swung across the gap in front of them and landed on the next platform, to which they shot down the saucer enemies that appeared the instant they landed. They then climbed up the side of the cargo crates that were in front of them, where they ended up fighting a few more soldiers the instant they pulled themselves up, before they used two close walls to jump up to the next section they would need to fight through... or levitate in Starlight's case.
On the next platform they found a gel station that was being guarded by the robotic drones, which were easy to take down considering they fell apart in one hit, so once the area was clear Starlight filled up the gadget that Red had given them and they continued onward. The gel allowed them to find a chest full of raritanium, several clusters of boxes that were filled with bolts, and eventually reach the next zip line that they needed to take. Unfortunately when they reached the end of the zip line they discovered that there was nowhere else to go, which meant that they were cornered without anywhere to go... until Clank spoke up.
"Ratchet, Starlight," Clank said, pointing to a nearby building that several small creatures were pointing at, "those creatures are telling us to go inside that building."
"What creatures?" Ratchet asked, looking around the area and finding absolutely nothing that could have sparked Clank's interest, though he had the feeling that Starlight might know what he was talking about.
"Clank, do you mean the tiny robots that are currently floating in the air?" Starlight asked, staring at the creatures though a small veil of her magic, though while she did that she pulled out her scanner to see if there was any strange readings in the area, "It appears that the creatures happen to be giving off a strange glow at the same time... though in addition to that I can only see them when I focus my magic."
Before Clank could say anything the little robots in question floated over to him, though that was followed by them pouring some sort of energy into his body. The flight pack erupted out of him, though Ratchet and Starlight watched as the wings changed from their metallic structure and took on a more crystalline appearance... along with the fact that they also looked like wings this time.
"Wow, now that's an impressive upgrade they gave you," Ratchet commented, though he looked around one more time to see if he could see the creatures now that they had expanded their energy, but the result was the same as before.
"Interesting," Starlight said, looking over the brief readings she had managed to get from the entire experience, "it appears that there is a high level of chronitons left behind from the creature's manipulation of Clank's tech, or time energy if you prefer. This is so fascinating... and it kind of makes me wish Sunset and Angela were here, so they could share this discovery with us."
"For some odd reason the small robots are insisting we follow them," Clank continued, staring at his new wings for a moment, before turning his attention to the creatures that had given them to him, "and the insisting only increased when Starlight mentioned Sunset's name. They might know something about her that we don't know yet."
Ratchet and Starlight shared a look with each other, not really believing that the creatures could know anything about their sister, but in the end they decided to go with the flow and check out the building the creatures wanted them to visit. Ratchet slipped Clank back onto his back as Starlight levitated next to him, as it appeared that there was an alternate route the creatures wanted them to take that wasn't walking through the front door. Considering that Starlight could see the creatures, and the strange rings that they had created in the air, she wanted to make sure Ratchet had a guide so he didn't crash into anything.
It was rather interesting to see Ratchet flail around when he first took off, as he had never done anything like this before, but in the end they managed to reach their destination, the Hall of Knowledge as the building was called, without anyone getting seriously hurt.
"Attention citizens." an automated voice said, causing the group to stop the moment they heard it, as they were interested in what the law or rule they were about to break, "You have entered the Hall of Knowledge without authorization. Knowledge has been declared contraband by Emperor Tachyon. Any attempt to learn while on these premises will result in permanent confinement in Zordoom Prison."
"Seriously?" Starlight asked, glaring at the room around them for a moment, "He's forbidden his subjects from learning... oh, I am so going to enjoy bringing him down in the near future."
"Let's show him what we think of his rules," Ratchet said, knowing exactly what Starlight was going to do once they started exploring the facility, "and take all the information we want... never actually thought I'd actually say something like that."
As it turned out the only enemies they had to fear were the smaller drones, which either had been stationed here to prevent people from learning whatever knowledge Tachyon had deemed forbidden... or they had been told to come here because Ratchet and Starlight were here. The puzzles were similar to the underwater ones they had taken care of during their first adventure, so while Ratchet solved the puzzle Starlight waited until he was out of the water to teleport to his side. They eventually came to a room that had what they assumed were some sort of jellyfish, but instead of bothering with the puzzle Starlight merely levitated them to the other side and they moved deeper into the building... all while Starlight made sure to grab whatever information she deemed as important or interesting.
The trip eventually came to an end as they dropped down into a room that appeared to have some sort of star map, where they could see the various planets across the galaxy and learn a thing or two about all of them... though the one that caught Clank's attention was Planet Fastoon, which was apparently one of the few known Lombax planets. As Clank downloaded the coordinates for the planet he decided that the information he had gleamed from the machine would best be delivered not by him, but by the planet itself. The three of them climbed into the nearby escape pod, which Clank input the coordinates for the planet they had found, though before their enemies could break down the door the group was long gone.
Starlight, on the other hand, had noticed that there was something odd about Planet Fastoon by the information that had been revealed to them, but she trusted Clank and knew that he wouldn' withhold information... unless he deemed it necessary to do so. She only hoped that Angela and Sunset would catch up with them soon, as it wasn't an interesting adventure without the rest of their family fighting beside her, Ratchet, and Clank.