Barlow, according to Autumn's research, happened to be a desert planet that was the home of the Vukovar Tribe, a race of blue skinned humanoid creatures who seemed similar to pirates, or at least the information she found said such a thing, so it was possible it was wrong, hence why their destination was known as the Vukovar Canyon, which just so happened to be where they would find the Desert Riders. What Autumn found to be far more interesting was the fact that Barlow had an old Gadgetron outpost, back when they tried to expand into the Bogon Galaxy and were kicked out by Megacorp, even if she heard rumors that a branch of Gadgetron might exist in Polaris, before she returned to the topic at hand, where she had a feeling that she and her brothers might be able to find something interesting if they found the outpost. Still, their main objective was to track down where the Desert Riders might be operating, participate in a race or two using the card that Mr. Fizzwidget had obtained for someone to use, and see if whoever they found might have some information on the Thugs, so they could move on and continue with their mission to track down the Thief, to recover the Experiment and take it back to their boss. To help them accomplish that goal Autumn made sure to incorporate their Omniboots with the armor they had been given after training to become commandos, not to mention attaching her Swingshot to the unnamed bracer gadget she had created, but since they were constantly moving she hadn't had the time to update either of her brothers' armor, so for now they were going to have to deal with separate items.
It didn't take Ratchet long to track down a landing pad for them to land on, though once he did they climbed out as soon as he turned the ship off and discovered that some of Autumn's information was correct, Gadgetron had tried to build an outpost in this galaxy, as there was a sign version of their name off in the distance that happened to be falling apart, but as they took that in Autumn found a new weapon when she checked out what the Vendor had, the Seeker Gun, which fired a seeker missile that locked onto a target.
"I see we have two paths, the one to our right and one behind the ship," Autumn commented, where she purchased the new weapon and duplicated it, along with those that had been purchased on Endako, as here Megacorp likely had no way of knowing that she had done such a thing, though at the same time the path to their ship's right seemed to wrap around to a build to their left and the back path appeared to head further into the wastes, or at least she assumed so.
"Well, we might as well check both of them, see what we can find." Ratchet replied, though as he said that he lifted the rest of the weapons and checked each out, just to get a feel for them before they got into a fight, before he decided to make his way over to the path behind them and see what might be at the end of it, where Autumn and Starswirl shrugged before following after him.
The first thing they discovered was that there were a number of Swingshot targets in front of them, where they still found it odd that Bogon even had them to begin with, unless they stole the technology from Solana, especially since Swingshots were still fairly new in their home galaxy, which allowed Ratchet and his siblings to cross over a few gaps before finding a new target to latch onto, a blue one like the one near Clank's place. Such a thing told Autumn that someone in Megacorp had stolen the technology and had distributed the targets to certain planets in the Bogon Galaxy, why she had no idea, but she kept it to herself as they reached a device that was rotating with four containers of rock facing the four directions, so they used it to reach what had to be the next part of the area they were moving through. After that Autumn discovered a group of small orange creatures that looked like a dog of some kind, which seemed to be ankle biters of some kind, while each of them could be taken out in a single hit, just like the smaller foes they had faced since coming to Bogon, telling her and her brothers that all of the smaller enemies were easy to take out and all the larger ones were tougher. Of course the siblings wasted no time in wiping out the Hounds, as Autumn was going to call these foes, before pulling a container over to them so they could enter a small building and found a tunnel filled of water for them to swim through, though that was when Clank switched to the Hydropack as Ratchet got into the water, leaving his siblings to use their magic to follow after him as he swam through a tunnel.
The Hydropack was a gift from a lady on Hoven, Edwina as she called herself and who happened to be the sister of both Al and Bob, as a way of thanking them for saving the galaxy from Drek's schemes, even though Gadgetron only allowed her to do so once Autumn had a look at it, where she approved it in no time, as it met every requirement that her boss had set for her to find, hence why Clank had such a thing installed in his body.
On the other side of the tunnel Ratchet and his siblings found another rotating tower that brought them to some targets, Swingshot targets that brought them to yet another metallic tunnel that was filled with water, something that brought the three of them to yet another set of targets and a rotating tower, causing them to realize that this might be a path with next to no enemies. Still, it was good practice with the Swingshot and timing so none of them fell into the depths of this part of Barlow, especially since there appeared to be a massive fall around each tower and structure, like Megacorp had dug out massive portions of the planet to use the rock and sand elsewhere, and whatever materials they found along the way, but in the end the siblings just focused on moving through the area. The path in question brought them to another area that had a fair number of Hounds wandering around, where it made all of them wonder how the enemies had gotten up here since there were no paths leading to this section of the planet, though Ratchet and Autumn blasted them as Starswirl used his staff to whack a few of their foes as well. They discovered that it took no time for them to clear out all of the Hounds, as they were very easy to take care of, where Ratchet quickly found that the path in front of them included a few Swingshots that brought them to the building that he had landed in front of, where they found a scientist trapped in ice, a blocked off lift, and a tunnel that was frozen, so there was no way for them to move forward, not without using magic.
In that moment Ratchet glanced at his siblings for a moment, who shrugged and loosed a bit of flames at the ice, where it took only a few seconds for the ice to shatter and freed the scientist from his prison, who stood there for a few seconds, as if he was unaware of what had happened to him, before he started moving and glanced down at the machine that was in his hands, a gadget that resembled a gun of some kind.
"It works! My invention works!" the scientist exclaimed, like he had been in the middle of a presentation and, instead of a coworker freeing him, had been frozen in the block of ice for some time, though why someone didn't break him out when they were leaving the galaxy the siblings had no idea, but they could tell that he was surprised to see them standing there, instead of those he was familiar with.
"Your gadget seems interesting. What's it called?" Autumn asked, because it seemed like something that could fire bits of ice to freeze something, based on what they had seen when they walked into the building, and there was no telling what else it might be capable of without any demonstrations, even though there was a frozen bit of water nearby that he could test it on for them.
"It's called the Thermanator. It fires charged thermal pellets that can thaw a ice block," the scientist replied, where he took a second to spot the frozen tunnel in question and fired the device at it, where it seemed to scan the area before firing red flaming pellets that quickly unfroze the passage, turning it into water, before he scanned it again and fired white freezing pellets that looked like snowballs, which refrozen the passage, "or, as you can see, freeze a body of water. Gadgetron will pay me millions!"
"Hey, I have no how long you've been frozen, since we just got here, but Gadgetron was forced out of this galaxy and left this outpost behind," Ratchet said, as it seemed like the scientist was from the era when their first employers tried to make a name for themselves in Bogon and sell to people, meaning he must have spent a few years trapped in ice, before he and his siblings came to free him while looking for the Desert Riders, "in fact, everyone buys Megacorp products these days... but we'll gladly buy the Thermanator from you."
The scientist seemed to take in that information for a few moments, shocked by the sudden fact that his boss had left him behind when the others left, but he took Ratchet's offer and sold it to them for a thousand Bolts, meaning he must have been stuck in what was the early stages of Gadgetron's prices, before departing from the building that they were in, even if he had to remember how to get out. While he did that Autumn took the gadget and studied it, as she was going to use her power on it later, once they were no longer near the scientist, before she used it to unfreeze the tunnel so she and both of her brothers could head through it, finding that it brought them to another room of the chamber and that they had to step on a platform. Once all three of them were on the platform she refroze the water and created a surface for them to stand on for a time, which also included using a set of walls for them to jump up so they could reach the upper walkway, where they found that it happened to unlock the lift so the scientist could leave the building at some point, before they headed for another lift that returned them to where Ratchet landed the ship. As Ratchet and his siblings did that it was easy to see a few Hounds hanging out around their ship, hence why they opened fire on them before heading into the passage that they had seen earlier, which was also full of Hounds and a few turrets took care of the problem, even though the three of them were sure that there were more of them somewhere in the canyon they were exploring.
That brought them to an area where some of the Vukovar Warriors, since these humanoid creatures preferred to use what appeared to be swords and shields for the most part, happened to be standing, talking about things no doubt, along with a large purple beast that could be a beast of burden or even war, a Saur Beast since it was reptilian, though when the three of them entered the area they found the individuals turn towards them.
As the reports stated the Vukovar Warriors were aggressive and wanted to kill them, hence why the siblings opened fire as soon as one of their foes tried to swing at them, even though Starswirl focused on using his power to burn down the Saur Beast, since it seemed like the type to charge at whoever happened to be it's target, where this did give them a chance to test out the Seeker Gun, which targeted the warriors and zeroed in on them in seconds. After that they entered a building that looked like it might have been an old power generator that was long dead, or at least Autumn was sure of that as both of her brothers blasted their way through the warriors who tried to stop them from moving forward, bringing them to an area that was full of Hounds and a Saur Beast, who happened to have a gun wielding Vukovar on it's back as a rider, which was rather interesting. Of course none of it mattered since the siblings could blast their way through them, not to mention taking down the rider and the beast he had been riding on, before crossing over a decent sized metallic bridge that let the three of them access the other side of the canyon, where they found a number of warriors rushing towards them, but that wasn't much of a threat with three Blitz Guns pointed at them. After that they found three more Saur Beasts, a couple of warriors, and a rider that was across another bridge, causing the siblings to sigh as they opened fire on them as well, as it took them no time to clear out the path in front of them and reach another building, this one leading to an area that had to be a campsite of some kind for a number of warriors.
A quick Gravity Bomb took them out and they dropped down into the area to enter the next building, one that brought the three of them to an arena of sorts, where a fence quickly rose up behind them and an army of warriors rushed at them in a matter of seconds, though the fifteen enemies fell in no time and the siblings headed across the walkway that brought them to an old Gadgetron building, with an old female robot who was likely an old Helpdesk agent before being assigned to the Bogon Galaxy, though she was shocked awake by something inside her breaking.
"Ooh! Excuse me... I think I just blew another vacuum tube." the Matron said, as if expecting no one to be nearby and this was her way of passing time while she waited for her systems to go offline for the last time, since it appeared no one was coming to repair her or collect her, before noticing that the three of them were standing in front of her.
"Do you want one of us to take a look?" Ratchet asked, because he and Autumn were good at fixing things, especially when he considered that Autumn was getting more skilled in robotics, thanks to working on Clank for some time so they could put the new pack in him, though while he said that his siblings glanced around the building and found that it held several pictures of Autumn's first generation of weapons.
"My word! You young people are so fresh these days!" the Matron replied, where it sounded like she was speaking about one of them trying to date her or something, or trying to skip the date and move onto the next step, before she noticed a look of annoyance, before she frowned a little as she considered what to say to them, "Oh, don't feel bad. I guess I'm just old-fashioned about that sort of thing. Did you know that I've that been with Gadgetron from the beginning?"
"We would if you told us your serial number and everything." Autumn remarked, as that was part of what Clank had told all three of them back when they first met him, though as she said that she noticed something interesting, there was a very long container that seemed to be the size of the RYNO, making her wonder if Wendell had succeeded in producing what she had sent him before they were brought to the Bogon Galaxy, "Tell me, is that..."
"Oh, it arrived just yesterday... the RYNO II," the Matron answered, where she pulled the container over and opened it not a few seconds later, revealing a cylindrical weapon that had red and blue paint, as opposed to the square shaped weapon that was mostly blue colored, with eight barrels arranged in a circular manner this time, instead of in a three by three cube like the last version, to which Autumn grinned as she lifted it out with her magic and pressed it into her hands, "I was told you might be coming by... hopefully they don't forget about me this time..."
Ratchet decided that they wouldn't forget about the Matron and ask Wendell to send for her, once they finished the task that Mr. Fizzwidget had set for them, though once that was done they headed outside and Autumn blew up the Hounds in a test of the RYNO II's power, even if it was purely overkill on her part, though with that done they found a gap between the area they were in and an area that a Desert Rider was in, to which they jumped over it and approached the man, not to mention his red hoverbike.
"Easy, I don't want any trouble." the Desert Rider said, showing them that he had seen the damage that the weapon had done and that he didn't want to be on the receiving end of a volley, something he was sure would end him if he annoyed the siblings, though at the same time it made them wonder about the image of the Desert Riders, as they were starting to be more of a bunch of misfits who didn't belong in Bogon's society.
Clank explained that they weren't here to hurt the man, for they were his fellow Desert Riders and they understood that all of the riders had certain sensitivities, not to mention personalities, before mentioning that the reason they were here was to race, where the man allowed them to use his hoverbike, Bluebell as he called it, causing Ratchet to walk over to a terminal and took a few seconds with the Electrolyzer to do some repairs. Once that was done the man, joined by Autumn and Starswirl since there was only one bike and neither of them wanted to annoy him by duplicating his pride and joy, just stood by the side and watched as Ratchet followed the coordinates to the track they would be racing on, finding a decent number of racers for him to challenge. Of course neither of his siblings were surprised to see that he overcame the rest of the Desert Riders in due time, even if all he could do was boost his way through the track since it seemed that weapons weren't allowed right now, and it wasn't long before Ratchet claimed first place and returned to them, earning them a new helmet, one with flame designs on it and some horns. In that moment the Desert Rider received a message from his boss, the Thug Leader, who informed his people that he was tired of someone eating all the choochy bars, that the company picnic was this Sunday, and that they were moving their rendezvous point to the Feltzin System, in Sector 1-2-3-4-5, maybe ffiteen if they needed to add the numbers together, before he shouted at someone for turning on the lights.
With that information in hand, and the coordinates downloaded without the Thug Leader realizing his error, the siblings pocketed the helmet, just in case it was needed in the future, before heading back to their ship, as it was time to get one step closer to tracking down the Thief and the Experiment, hence why they blasted off without delay and made their way to the Feltzin System to see what might be waiting for them this time around.