//------------------------------//
// Commando: Maktar Resort 
// Story: Ratchet and Clank: Family of Heroes 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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As Ratchet made his way to the Maktar Resort, so they could take out the jamming array the Thugs had set up and see if they could find some new information on where the Thief might have gone, he found himself wondering what Clank was up to, since it was odd for him and his siblings to be on an adventure without their friend, especially after everything that had been through so far, before sighing as he focused on the mission. Starswirl continued his studies on magic, just to see if he could learn anything new from it, while at the same time Autumn was already starting up her tablet and already had a few piles open, the third generation of weapons for Gadgetron, as being in Bogon was inspiring her and she couldn't wait to see the look on Wendell's face when he saw what sort of weapons she had come up with during their time in this galaxy. Of course Ratchet wasn't too surprised to see that she was already creating a file for the RYNO 3, or the RY3NO as the file seemed to be called, though it made him wonder if they would find and claim the second one at some point in time, since he had to assume she had created one at some point in time, with Gadgetron making it for her, even if she didn't have it at the moment. It did make him wonder if Megacorp had a weapon that was inspired by Gadgetron's most powerful, not to mention highly dangerous, rocket launcher, and if they could get their hands on it at some point in time, though he knew they would figure that out in due time, since such a powerful weapon wouldn't be given to them in the early stages of their mission for Mr. Fizzwidget.

When they got close to the Resort, however, Ratchet discovered that the Thugs were waiting for them and ambushed him and his siblings when he flew towards an asteroid field, to which he grinned as he altered his course for a moment, where Starswirl and Autumn found that he was luring them into a dangerous area before he opened fire on the Thugs, though it meant that those that followed him in had to avoid his blasts and the asteroids to survive. This allowed Ratchet to prove that he was the better pilot as he flew around the asteroids, using each and every one of them for cover as Autumn found some Raritanium inside one of the floating pieces of space ice that Ratchet used as cover, before he took down one of the ships that was trying to take him down, to which she teleported it into the space in front of her as Starswirl used his power to form ships to protect them. Based on what the siblings were seeing right now it looked like the Thugs came with two waves of ships for Ratchet to take down, the first one that he was currently dealing with, and decimating with ease, while the second one was on their way, though it didn't take him all that long to break down the first set of foes and then focus on the other set that happened to be heading towards them. Sure enough he found that none of their enemies had even learned anything from how he took down the first set of enemies, meaning Ratchet was able to open fire on the Thugs that were coming at him without them really doing much to his ship in return, and once the second wave was wiped out, and he was sure of that, Autumn finished collecting the Raritanium before they headed for the resort.

A few moments later they landed on the outskirts of the resort and Ratchet switched off the ship, where they found that there was no need for any of them to worry about oxygen, as there seemed to be an atmosphere of sorts being created for everyone that happened to be here, be they visitors or employees, to which they stood there for a moment as each of them looked out at the station.

"So this is Maktar Resort... seems like a nice place." Ratchet remarked, though at the same time he found that there were two paths for them to take, would have been three if the middle one was open, and based on what they could see the one on the left seemed to head towards the arena, which he was interested in, while the right one seemed to head to a ship that would bring them to the jamming array, "So, take out the array first and deal with whatever the arena has once we're done with that?"

"Sounds like a plan." Starswirl replied, where he stopped looking at the Vendor, as there were no new weapons and they were able to restock the ammunition they had spent back on Oozla, before finding a Thug waiting down in the area that was just beyond where Ratchet had landed, who he blasted into some explosives behind his target and took him out, but as soon as that was done they headed to the right and followed the path in question.

As the siblings headed down the right path, and headed for the ship that would take them to the jamming array ship, they found some small light blue robots that reminded them of several enemies they had faced during their first adventure, like the robotic mutts for example, only these ones had two legs and seemed to bit at whoever they deemed to be enemies of their master, which included them since they were enemies of the Thugs. Fortunately the ankle biters were easy to take out, as in a single blast from one of their weapons, like the Lancer or Chopper, was more than enough to wipe them out in a matter of seconds before they moved down the walkway that was in front of them, before finding an opening that was plugged by a large cylinder, which also had a Tractor Beam icon on it, to which Autumn stepped forward. She had quickly tinkered with both her Tractor Beam and Dynamo during the flight to this station, finding that Megacorp had messed up in making their gadgets and weapons, as she was able to make several modifications without any alarms coming up, to which she created a cylindrical shaped item that integrated with her armor, allowing her to use either gadget without having to actually pull out the items in question. Such a thing allowed Autumn to fire a beam of Tractor energy and move the object out of the way, impressing both Ratchet and Starswirl, even though they had been expecting such a thing given her track record, before they headed inside the building that had been blocked and resumed exploring the path they had picked out after landing at this station.

On the other side of the opening they found a locked door that could only be opened by forcing a red robot to stand on a pad, using the Tractor Beam, so Starswirl did that so Ratchet and Autumn could head down the path that was opened not a few seconds later, finding a spherical bomb nearby and a passage that had some ankle biters inside it, to which Autumn opened fire on their enemies. As she did that Ratchet moved the bomb down to the other side of the passage and allowed it to blow through the door that was in their way, finding a Thug on the other end that he blasted into one of the walls so his siblings could catch up to him, before discovering that they had to launch the inspector bot up to another door, hence why they waited for a few seconds so it could catch up with them. Once it was nearby Autumn latched onto it with her new gadget, which she would have to name at some point, before launching it up to the door, where it unlocked the door and let them climb up a ladder to reach it, even though they then headed down a passage and blasted their way through a few ankle biters, not to mention a Thug after that, bringing them to a chamber that had a sealed door. Fortunately there was a passage to their left that allowed one of them to track down a bomb and bring it back over to the obstacle, hence why this time it was Starswirl's turn to do so and he wiped out the obstacle in a few seconds, allowing them to see that they were near the ship they had seen earlier, before discovering that they had to remove four floating devices that happened to be powering a barrier of some kind.

As such the siblings took a few seconds to launch the explosives at the generators and take down the barrier, though once that was done they climbed into the ship and let it take them out to where the Thugs set up the jamming array some time ago, a small spherical rock, either a very small moon or a decent sized asteroid, that had all sorts of machinery and several towers resting all over the place, though before they left the ship the siblings made sure to activate their O2 Masks.

Once they did that the siblings started to explore the jamming array, finding that the ship had landed in front of one of the power towers, to which Starswirl opened fire on all of the ankle biters he found near the structure as Ratchet used a Bolt Crank, showing them that the Bogon Galaxy had reverse engineered Lombax technology as well, which raised the tower up so they could access it's power rods. With the tower risen all it took was one of them to attack it with their weapons, like Ratchet whacking it with his wrench or Starswirl striking it with his staff, which caused a chain reaction that quickly tore the transponder apart, though Autumn received a notification that there were five more targets for them to take out, no doubt from someone who worked at Megacorp and had been tasked with identifying how many transponders they had to break. As such she and her brothers resumed exploring the rest of the jamming array, finding that there were a few craters that they had to be careful of, especially one filled with molten rock, meaning this place had to have a core, though when they jumped over a gap Ratchet found that he and his siblings could jump higher, likely due to the gravity when he considered things, and it was further boosted by some jump pads that allowed them to launch up onto some raised platforms. It also allowed them to move around this place much easier, without falling into some of the holes or being struck by the ankle biters and some of the chainsaw security bots, as Autumn had uncovered that both of robots they had faced on the ship the Thief used as a diversion were actually Megacorp security bots, as odd as it sounded.

Tracking down the rest of the transponders actually proved to be an easy task, as all they had to do was follow the green beams that were coming from each one, take out the guardians that happened to be guarding them, and then quickly use a nearby Bolt Crank to open the weakness of each target, allowing them to break them down and weaken the jamming array until it was totally offline, allowing them to return to the resort with a mission complete.

"Good work my boy!" the holodisplay said, revealing that Mr. Fizzwidget must have realized that they were heading for the jamming array and was using the device inside the ship to speak with them, especially since he appeared on the other side of it, and he seemed pleased with their actions, "You and your siblings are proving to be invaluable in this underwear. Anyhoo, it appears the Thief is now under the protection of Thugs-4-Less, but I may have found a way for you to insinuate their operation."

"I hope it's dangerous." Autumn remarked, because so far she didn't think the Thugs were that hard to take down, that all of the enemies they had faced when tracking down Drek were much harder than this, but as she thought about it she had to think that it was the commando training speaking and not the experience they had gained while dealing with the Blarg, not to mention every plan Drek had come up with.

"No, no, no... er, well, uh, actually yes it is." Mr. Fizzwidget replied, where it sounded like he was planning on informing all of them that it wasn't as dangerous as they thought it might be, so they didn't chicken out and demand to be sent back to Solana with all haste, before deciding that he might as well trust them by revealing that the mission was going to be very dangerous, possibly more than the other parts of their mission.

"Good, we could use a challenge." Ratchet said, because right now the Thugs were proving to be somewhat easy for them to take down and he was thinking it was more due to there being three of them, even though there were more enemies in Bogon than there were in Solana, so he guessed that it balanced each other out in some way, while Starswirl said nothing as they left the jamming array behind.

"Take a look at this." Mr. Fizzwidget stated, where his image disappeared and they witnessed a commercial for the Desert Riders, a hoverbike gang who seemed to be the number one leisure choice for the Thugs-4-Less, which meant that they could get some new information if they used a membership card that their boss included to participate in a few races, as the Desert Riders used Megacorp hoverbikes and he was able to pull some strings to get the item for them.

With that done, and there was no other information for them to gain from Mr. Fizzwidget, Ratchet and his siblings waited for a few moments before they landed on the docking area that the ship had been resting in before their arrival, where a walkway formed that allowed Ratchet, Starswirl, and Autumn to return to the heart of the outside area of this resort so they could head down the other path. What the siblings discovered was that a few slot machines rested along the path in question, ones they ignored as they found a Thug using a weapon which fired out ankle biters, so while Ratchet dealt with all of the smaller enemies Starswirl and Autumn blasted the Thug so they could search for the entrance to the arena, since it might have something useful for them to use on this mission. One thing Autumn discovered was that each slot machine required a ten Bolt payment to play, as she simply read the front panel before following after her bothers, after they took out two more Thugs, allowing them to use a lift to reach an upper are of the pathway they were following right now, and found an area with a few more ankle biters, not to mention a few Thugs. As such the siblings opened fire on them without wasting any time, surprising some of their enemies despite the fact that they had been visible for a few moments before they started facing their foes, though once that was done Ratchet found another ship, much like the one that took them over to the jamming array, that took them over to another part of the resort.

Once the ship came to a stop they found that it had brought them to an area that was a sheer wall, one that required them to jump onto the ledge that rested in front of them and climb over to the left, to climb up a few more ledges to reach what had to be the next part of the path they were following, to which they took turns doing that before reaching the upper part of the wall. With that done Ratchet and his siblings found a number of Thugs and ankle biters that were guarding the next part of the path they were following, complete with a dropship that deployed a fair number of Thugs, though it only gave them more targets to focus on as the siblings blasted their way through the foes that happened to be standing in their way at the moment. Sure, the superior number of the Thugs made things more interesting, especially after everything Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl had been through during their first adventure, but right now none of them felt that the Thugs were much of a challenge in the grand scheme of things, especially when Autumn crushed the dropship with her magic so they could use a set of walls to reach a higher point of the path. That brought them to a chamber that had a few Thugs and yet another walkway that seemed to connect to the backside of the arena, once more lined with Thugs, to which Ratchet and his siblings blasted their way through the enemies that were in front of them and made their way towards the arena's back entrance, finding that it took them a few seconds before reaching their destination.

The next thing they did was restock their ammunition before heading into the arena, where Ratchet and his siblings were observed by an announcer who declared that they were here to take on a 'Mega Battle', though they ignored him as each of them pulled out their weapons and focused on all of the gladiators who were brought out to fight in the arena, coming from carrier devices. As they faced off against the enemies that were in front of them Autumn focused on what seemed to be the prize of the opening match, an Electrolyzer, whatever it was supposed to be since they weren't familiar with all the gadgets that existed in the Bogon Galaxy, but they knew that nothing was going to stand in their way as they blasted every foe who happened to be part of this challenge. From what they could see the enemies happened to be some of the sphere bots they fought on the Thief's ship, the security bots, both of them to be exact, and some humanoids who had green skin and were covered by decent looking armor, and they came out of the containers in groups of between three to six, which seemed to depend on which type of foe was picked for each device. Other than that there wasn't much for them to worry about, as the combination of their adventuring experience and their commando training had turned Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl into good combatants, to the point where their enemies found next to no gaps in their defenses and were taken out in due time, eventually allowing Ratchet to gain a gun shaped gadget that had two prongs in front, the Electrolyzer he guessed, before the announcer claimed that they could tackle more challenges if they wanted to.

Instead of leaving right away, and following up on the lead that Mr. Fizzwidget had given them, Ratchet decided to stay in the arena for a time, because they could always use any of their earnings on equipment, for either them or their ships to be exact, and maybe receive some additional gadgets to help them in their mission, where Autumn and Starswirl joined in the matches since the announcer didn't seem to care. Eventually Ratchet and his siblings faced off against Chainblade, the gladiator that had been on the announcement that they had been shown on Oozla, where they found that he was fast and very deadly with his large swords, which doubled as extending blades, hence the name 'Chainblade', and happened to be a challenge for the siblings, where he nearly clipped them several times before being defeated. B2 Brawler, however, was an easier challenge since it only targeted one person at a time and had to pick who was more of a threat, even the attack that allowed it to sink to the ground and spin it's legs proved to be easy to dodge, not to mention it moved slowly in this form, so they were able to take it down as well. After those two battles the siblings faced a few more challenges, earning a fair number of Bolts in the process while putting on a show for everyone who happened to be watching, before Ratchet came to a decision, as he exited the arena and his siblings followed him outside, finding that they were on the end of the middle path they had seen earlier.

One thing they discovered was that to move forward Ratchet had to use the Electrolyzer, which was a hacking device as he and his siblings quickly determined, something that allowed him to bypass whatever defenses the terminal had and used it to extend a bridge, allowing them to step onto the transparent walkway and let it carry them to another platform, one that had another terminal on it for Ratchet to hack through, along with something else.

"Hey, do you think this would make a nice souvenir for Clank?" Ratchet asked, figuring that since there was a picture taking machine nearby, and it was on the way back to where their ship happened to be resting, they might as well take a couple of seconds to take a picture or two before departing for Barlow so they could see what was up with the Desert Riders, as it was the only lead they had right now.

Autumn and Starswirl glanced at each other for a few seconds before telling Ratchet that Clank would likely appreciate the gesture, especially since he was relaxing and enjoying his time off, to which they stepped forward and allowed it to take all of their pictures, before the image distorted and revealed the Thief's head over the person's who had used it last, only for it to turn into a live feed to a chamber of some kind, their target standing there with Clank in the background, tied down to a chair of some kind.

"You have no idea what you're involved in. Return to your own galaxy immediately, or this will happen to you!" the Thief stated, where she seemed like she was tired of them already, even though they had hardly done anything, or maybe she was interested in one of them and wanted to get rid of them before the person in question got hurt, which was when she pressed the red stop button, instead of the green start button, something she noticed before pressing the correct one not a few seconds later, "...or, this  will happen to you."

In that moment Clank was shocked, knocking him out, and the transmission ended with the Thief saying 'farewell', though as the siblings growled Ratchet hacked into the next terminal and opened the way back to their ship, as they were heading to Endako to save their friend, while Autumn claimed the photos for later, though once that was done the three of them climbed into their ship and blasted off for Endako with all the haste they could muster.