//------------------------------//
// Tools: Ardolis 
// Story: Ratchet and Clank: The Starlight of Solana 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

"And that's the reason behind us coming to warn you about Tachyon's invasion," Ratchet eventually said, wrapping up the details of their current adventure to Talwyn and her robotic companions, ending with the information they had received from Qwark that brought them here.

Talwyn, after interrupting them several times to inquire how Ratchet and Angela had met, how Ratchet had ended up with a powerful unicorn as a sister, how Tachyon hadn't discovered them until now, and, of course, how they all ended up being related to Sunset Shimmer, was actually taking the news quite well. She didn't like the fact that the Emperor of the Polaris Galaxy wanted to raid the station in search of a particular Lombax artifact that would help him locate the Lombax Secret, which was why she had order Cronk and Zephyr to get them moving away from their current location. Apparently there were many locations where the station could be hidden until someone discovered it, which was why it had taken Tachyon so long to find the location in the first place.

While the two war bots had the station move to another area, along with some of the surrounding asteroids, Angela had Aphelion return to the Hyperion so the starship could follow them as they made the jump through space.

"Miss Apogee, is there any reason that Tachyon would think that you have a Lombax weapon?" Clank asked, though he and the others were sitting around a table while the station moved through space, "Besides the fact that he explored the universe and discovered things that no one else ever discovered."

"Max Apogee was..." Cronk started to say, though one angry look from Talwyn was enough to make him stop in his tracks, to which Zephyr let out a laugh at his comrade's expense.

"Not was an explorer, but rather he is," Talwyn stated, almost as if this was something that she and Cronk did all the time and was constantly having to correct him.

"...is a famous explorer and collector of rare interstellar antiquities," Cronk continued, shaking his head for a second while Talwyn turned back towards the group, "One of his most notable finds was a Lombax artifact... the other, and certainly more well known discovery, was the six gemstones that he called the Raritanium Cores, but they were stolen shortly after he turned them over to some scientists."

"Its a shame that no one was able to find any of them for such a long time," Talwyn said, turning her gaze over to Ratchet and Angela for a moment, "though one of the rumors that is often associated with you guys and Sunset Shimmer is that you actually found one of them on your first adventure."

"Yeah, we found Generosity, the purple stone, years ago after defeating Chairman Drek," Starlight explained, opening up her tablet and opening a file on it, to which she laid her tablet on the table and revealed an image of the four stones they had acquired, "and then we found and recovered three more since then; Honesty, Laughter, and Kindness. We know that the fifth stone is currently in the possession of Tachyon, but we still have no idea who holds the final stone."

"So you really have them..." Talwyn said, looking at the image for a moment, "Is it possible for me to hold one of them and actually see i with my own eyes? I've been hoping to see one ever since my father told me about them."

"Unfortunately the four we recovered were taken as well," Angela spoke up, letting out a sigh as she spoke, "Sunset carefully withdrew the stones and said that she was going to study them, for what we have no idea, but shortly after Tachyon attacked I discovered that she's missing... and so are the Cores that we recovered."

Even as Angela mentioned what had happened to Sunset, and the Cores they had collected, Starlight found her mind turning to Ysmir once again, as if she was trying to figure out who the mysterious stranger was without waiting for Red to tell her what he had figured out. Ysmir, the so-called Dragon of the North if Red was to be believed, had an unusual ability that allowed her to use the very elements however she desired, as in using wind to blast her foes away or using fire to burn her opponents. She had heard of beings that could use some form of telekinesis, without the use of magic, but that was the only confirmed one she was able to find, leading her to wonder if Ysmir was one of the undiscovered beings.

Eventually she let out a sigh and shook her head, deciding that it would be best for her to forget about such things until they were done with Tachyon and whatever he was planning.

"So, who has the artifact now?" Starlight asked, as she knew it was time for them to get back on track before they forgot why they had come to the station to begin with.

"The station was raided by pirates, under the orders of Captain Slag, years ago," Talwyn replied, rubbing her arm for a moment, indicating that it wasn't something she liked to talk about, "the artifact was the only thing they took from us. My father, before heading out on his return journey to the nameless planet he had discovered, had placed a tracking device on the artifact in case it was ever stolen... and I know its being held on Ardolis at this very moment. I've had scans done on the planet, from the safety of my station of course, and I know the exact location where the artifact is being held, but I'm not foolish enough to go charging into battle against an army of bloodthirsty pirates... not without backup anyway."

"Well then, why don't we pay those pirates a visit and take the artifact from them," Angela said, a smile appearing on her face while she tapped her lightsaber for a second, "After our last encounter with them, where they fled with their tails between their legs at the mention of Sunset's name, they won't be expecting an attack on their main base... so we should be able to catch them off guard and secure the artifact before they even knew what hit them."





Once the Apogee station was in its new position, and Talwyn indicated that she and her war bots were ready to depart, everyone transferred themselves onto the Hyperion before heading to Ardolis. It didn't take them long to each their destination, though they split up into two groups to divide the pirates' attention when they launched their attacks. Ratchet and Starlight were able to pick up and fully upgrade two new weapons from the vendor; the Buzz Blades, which released a number of blades that would ricochet a few times, and the Nano-Swarmers, a hive weapons that hurt enemies.

The moment they were done upgrading their new weapons Ratchet and Starlight followed the path in front of them and attacked the robotic pirates that were standing guard. With their improved arsenal the few pirates that were in their way didn't stand much of a chance, though they were forced to stop in front of a rock wall, where the small creatures Clank had seen earlier returned to him and gave him another upgrade that would help them out, the Geo-Laser. Starlight was able to figure out that this was a device that was capable of cutting through hard stone and pieces of earth that were in their way, which was proven right when Ratchet and Clank stopped using the laser on the wall, to which the section they had been cutting into collapsed and revealed a path they could use.

The instant there was an opening in the rock wall Ratchet and Starlight switched to the new Buzz Blades and loosed a few of them a the flying bat creatures that were coming at them, while at the same time they progressed further into the cave. It was really easy for them to make their way around the cave, cross all of the jumps they needed to pass over, and take out all of the bat enemies that were in their way, though the real challenge came when they finally reached the pirates that were waiting for them. One pirate happened to be guarding the bridge they needed to cross, so Angela pulled out her lightsaber, extended one of the ends, and charged at the foe standing in their way, to which she cut through the shield he had been carrying before slicing him into pieces.

Once the bridge was cleared the group moved forward and opened fire on the remaining pirates in the area, who happened to be standing around a campfire like normal people would do, though in a matter of seconds the way was open once more. Ratchet approached one of the stalactites that was hanging in their way and allowed Clank to use the new laser, where they cut down a platform that would allow them to move forward. They then had to deal with two more pirates and another group of the bat creatures before they could approach a rock wall, where they cut their way into a massive chamber that was filled with pirates.

The moment the wall came down, and the pirates noticed them, the group charged in and let loose with the weapons they had gathered, while at the same time Angela stood on the side and cut apart any foolish pirates that wanted to attack them from the side. The newest weapons, in addition to the older weapons, proved to be too much for the pirates to handle, as they fell left and right, by either Ratchet and Starlight's guns or Angela's saber. Eventually the large force of pirates had been dealt with, allowing the group to move forward again, though as they made their way outside the area they were in they spotted an electrified pirate charging at them... though he didn't get very far as Starlight surrounded him with her magic and pinned him to the nearby wall.

"He sure didn't see that coming," Ratchet commented, while he made sure to put the pirate down before following the others outside, to which they found the massive structure that Talwyn had pointed out on her map, "There it is... the treasure room."

"One of the heavily guarded places a pirate can have," Angela said, to which she noticed two small ships flying into the area and dropping off four pirates a piece, giving them eight more enemies in addition to the ten to fifteen that had been waiting for them, "At least they're fighting back instead of standing around and doing nothing."

Fortunately none of the new pirates they were currently facing had any shields of any kind, so the new Nano-Swarmers weapon worked like a charm as it tore into the large group of enemies that were in front of them, to which they could pick up the stragglers with some ease. The moment the entire group of pirates had been taken care of, and they were sure that there weren't any additional enemies coming at them, they looked around and found a rail they could ride into the treasure room. The group thought that such a glaring weakness would have been addressed at some point by Captain Slag, but at the moment they weren't about to complain about it. They each attached the base of their weapons over the rail and rode down into the chamber, though before they could get grab the artifact, which happened to be in the middle of the chamber, they heard some pirates singing and discovered that Captain Slag and his second in command were coming their way.

The course of action that they took was simple; they ducked behind some of the nearby crates and waited for the duo to arrive, where they would wait until they left to claim their prize.

"Wait... I smell something foul," Captain Slag said the moment he and Pete walked into the chamber, though at the same time he put away his mug of... whatever he was drinking... and changing it for a crescent shaped hook, "A Lombax... two of them to be exact... come out landlubbers and tell me why your here."

Ratchet looked at Starlight and Angela, wondering if they should do what the captain said, but then he remembered how fearful Slag had been the last time they had come into contact and decided to try his luck. He rose to his feet and stared at Captain Slag, to which Angela and Starlight followed his lead, but they all kept their weapons hidden until they knew what was going on.

"Oh... so the reports of the Starship Hyperion approaching our planet were true," Captain Slag stated, his eyes glancing at the artifact in the middle of the chamber, to which he turned around and made his way outside, "Take the artifact and get off my planet... I want nothing to do with any of you. And take your Apogee friend with you."

Before any of them could say another word, or anything for that matter, Captain Slag and Pete climbed back onto the ship they had been using and departed from the treasure room, leaving them with the item they had come for. As Ratchet claimed the item, to which it opened and revealed their next destination, Starlight contacted Talwyn and ordered a retreat, informing their new friend that they had gotten what they had come for. It didn't take them long to return to Aphelion and depart from the planet, but even as they returned to the Hyperion Starlight had the feeling that their luck with Captain Slag was going to run out one day.

She only hoped that they had discovered whatever the Lombax Secret was by then, otherwise their future was going to be made a little harder than it was at the moment.