It took a while for them to get to the Feltzin System, which turned out to be a large asteroid belt that looked like someone, no doubt Megacorp based on everything Ratchet and his siblings had seen so far, had been drilling into the larger stones at some point in time, likely looking for Raritanium and whatever other rare metals might be located in this galaxy, but as Ratchet got close they discovered a large station on one of the large rocks. It confirmed that this might be a mining facility of some kind, one that Megacorp had clearly abandoned since Thugs-4-Less had set up a base of operations here, which was why Ratchet carefully made sure their ship was undetected as he landed on another asteroid and turned off most of the ship's systems, allowing his siblings to cloak themselves with their magic, hiding them from view as he kept the oxygen online. They were here to gain information on the Thugs, to see if maybe, just maybe, the Thief might slip up and send her guards a message about their failure to stop those that Mr. Fizzwidget had called upon to get the Experiment back, which was still missing since neither Ratchet or his siblings had seen it in the recordings so far, since a transmission would give them an idea on where to go next, hopefully before the Thief left again. Other than that the only thing they could do was wait and rest in their ship, Ratchet keeping his hands resting near the controls, in case one of the Thugs noticed them, all while Clank continued to scan for transmissions that might be entering or leaving the station, leaving Autumn to woke on her plans as Starswirl continued his reading.
Eventually, however, one of the Thug ships was sent out and seemed to blast several of the smaller asteroids to avoid the station from being damaged in the near future, where the first one happened to be theirs, so Autumn used her magic to catch the blast and returned it within a few seconds, causing Ratchet to move as the enemy ship was taken out, though it did cause an alarm to sound as more enemies came out of the station. Sure enough none of the Thugs were happy with them interrupting their meeting, or maybe it was due to Ratchet and his siblings beating up so many of their number, all after being hired by the Thief to stop them in their tracks, though that didn't stop Ratchet from opening fire on them as his siblings used their magic to ensure that none of the incoming blasts hurt them. One might consider barrier magic to be a foul move, cheating in some cases, but when it was one against twenty to twenty-five, like what happened whenever they faced off against the Thugs in space like this, Ratchet was fine with evening the odds with the best thing in their arsenal, as in the magic that his siblings were capable of using, allowing him to deal with every ship that came at him. Of course they found that a second wave came after the first one not a few seconds after the first wave fell, reminding them of what had happened near Maktar Resort, so once Ratchet took care of the first one he turned his attention to the second wave as all of their enemies flew out of the station and converged on where he happened to be flying at the moment.
As Autumn, Starswirl, and Clank expected it didn't take long for Ratchet to clear out the remaining ships, which also gave him a chance to reduce the Thugs' numbers, before finding that no more enemies came out to see what was going on, as it meant that either there were more in hiding or this was all there was, causing Ratchet to return to the asteroid he had landed on earlier and focused on the station once more.
"It was an interesting challenge," Ratchet said, when he stopped and considered how many Thugs had come out to blast him to pieces, and take into account the fact that both of his siblings had helped him out, as without them he was sure it would have been a different story and his ship would have likely taken some additional damage, "but one that a trained commando..."
"Hold on, I'm intercepting a transmission." Clank stated, as while he knew that Ratchet would likely speak about the skill of his enemies and his newly honed skills as a trained commando, showing some respect for those he had beaten, which was mature of him to do after something like this, they were interested in recovering any and all transmissions to this place, as it would tell them where to go next, and he pulled it up to see what they would learn next.
The transmission in question was of the Thug Leader receiving a call from someone, who turned out to be the Thief, who proceeded to chew him out for a few things, like the fact that the Thugs she had ordered were off on some picnic and not where she wanted them, before she gave him an ultimatum, that if her hired help wasn't at the pick up point pronto both the Thugs and their Leader could kiss the contract goodbye. Such a thing was funny, especially since it caused the Thug Leader to pause as he considered the information, which gave the Thief time to disconnect the line as he considered what he felt was a witty remake, due to it being that she could kiss her something goodbye, even if Ratchet and his siblings felt it was rather weak, if non existent, before the transmission was terminated. Fortunately Clank acquired the coordinates that they were here to gather, to figure out where to go next, hence why Ratchet removed the ship from where he had parked it and set off for the planet the Thief was calling from, as there was a chance that they might catch up with her and put an end to part of their mission, even if they were hoping that it would bring them to Megacorp's Experiment as well. While the four of them flew through space, however, Clank found an episode of Behind the Hero, one that detailed Gadgetron's investigation into Qwark for selling 'bogus' merchandise and that authorities would be dealing with him in due time, which caused them to chuckle as they flew towards the planet the Thief was calling from.
When they reached the planet that the transmission had come from, Notak as it turned out, which happened to be a dark colored planet that was full of water and scattered islands, hence why it had all sorts of canals and boat related items all over the plane, didn't come as a surprise to the siblings as they landed, as they found the Thief flying off in a small ship, no doubt done with whatever she had come to do.
"Too late again." Ratchet remarked, where he touched down on the landing pad that was in the city that happened to have a Megacorp chemical factory, which happened to be where the Thief had come from, before he powered down the ship as his siblings focused on the Thief's ship, no doubt trying to guess which planet she was heading to next, even though they lost her ship in due time.
"We always seem to be a bit late. Why is that?" Clank inquired, as he had been thinking about that for some time, in fact he had done it a few times when they were back in Solana, because it seemed odd that no matter what they did they were always behind their targets, at least until the point where they stopped to confront them, like how Drek had done when he reached the end of his quest.
"Well, we are chasing someone who knows the galaxy better than we do," Starswirl pointed out, reminding them that they were newcomers in the Bogon Galaxy and that the Thief knew more about the galaxy than they did, even though the first thing they had learned after raiding her factory had been her tracking down a building to get a map of this quadrant of the galaxy she called home, "but we'll catch up to her in due time, that I'm sure of."
Autumn nodded her head as she headed down to the Vendor that was below where they landed, where she discovered a new weapon was available, the Synthenoid, a tiny device that one could press and deploy four defender bots, which was similar to her Hover Drone weapon, only these robots fired at enemies, so they were far more advanced than her creation, which already gave her new ideas on what to make in the future. After that Ratchet and his siblings glanced around for a few seconds and discovered that there were two paths to take, one leading into a shopping center of some kind, which just so happened to be heading in the opposite direction of the building the Thief had come from, while the other seemed to head directly for the chemical factory. Even though they knew that heading over into the shopping section of the city was designed to be a distraction, as heroes made sure to protect innocents and save settlements, just like they had done back in Solana, Ratchet and his siblings headed to their left and opened fire on all of the enemies that were in front of them, a number of robotic ankle biters and a fair number of Thugs. One other thing Ratchet discovered was a dispenser that sent out more enemies, as in the small and annoying ankle biters, even though the path they were following did bring them to an area with a few metallic moons circling a metallic planet that looked like Notak, even though it couldn't be since there were a number of rings flowing around it, though they ignored it as they opened fire on the Thugs.
It really didn't seem like there was anything of importance in the shopping section of the city, except for Thugs that wanted a piece of them, plus a few fighter jets that came in and tried to blast all three of them into submission so their boss could pay the Thugs for completing their mission, before they reached the end of the path and discovered that no gadget was at the end of it, to which they used a teleport pad to return to their ship.
From there they headed across a bridge and headed for the chemical factory, as it seemed like the best course now that Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl had checked out the other path that they had discovered, finding more ankle biters and an army of Thugs that seemed to be guarding the way forward, hence why all three of them opened fire on their foes without wasting any time. Based on what it looked like their foe wanted to simply stall the three of them, four counting Clank, all so she could carry out whatever plan she was trying to complete, given that they had no idea what her plans for the innocent looking Experiment were, though if they caught her they might be able to ask her some questions and talk for some time, to either talk some sense into her or have her do it to them. One thing the siblings discovered was that the main path was blocked by a barrier, an electrical one that seemed to have a power source on the other side, similar to what they taken out during their quest to take Drek down, so they doubled back to a building that seemed to be open and Autumn found a small body of water for her to freeze so she and her brothers could continue forward. From there they blasted their way through the enemies that were in front of them, mostly ankle biters and a dispenser, before reaching an area that looked like it was just a few walkways leading up to an upper area, with a number of Thugs and a fighter jet waiting for them, so it was a trap on their part, hence why Ratchet wasted no time blasting them and his siblings followed his lead.
It took them a few moments to clear out the area that they were in, knocking down all of the Thugs that were in their way, while avoiding being harmed by several explosive containers that happened to be stored all over the place, before using a lift to reach an area that would allow them to glide down to the backside of the barrier they had seen not a few minutes ago, even though Starswirl crushed a fighter jet with his magic before they discovered a holodisplay. What they discovered was that the speaker was someone called Slim Cognito, who just so happened to be the same person that had been back on Endako, the weapon modifier, though this time it seemed like he was talking about ship upgrades, be it weapons and shielding, or even modules that allowed a ship to go faster. The downside of the commercial was that it all illegal, as Slim claimed that they were 'legally ambiguous', meaning Megacorp wouldn't approve of anything they might obtain for their ship, since Ratchet was sure that they might come to a point where they needed some reinforcement and advantages over the Thugs, in case such a thing happened, but he was sure that Autumn could do something about it. Despite that fact he had Clank download the coordinates for the area that Slim would be doing the upgrades in, just in case they felt like they needed to go behind Megacorp's back and upgrade their ship to deal with some of the tactics that the Thugs might use on them in the future.
"Slim's sounds like a neat place to go, but we should focus on the chemical factory," Ratchet commented, speaking once Clank was done collecting the coordinates for the location of Slim's shop, which seemed to be stationed inside an asteroid that had been modified in some manner, though once their friend was done, and was back on his back, he turned towards the large structure off in the distance, "someone inside might know where the Thief went."
"Someone should know where to find her, or a terminal might have some information on her," Autumn said, showing that she agreed with her brother, there had to be something inside the factory that would give them an idea on where their target might be headed, which, at some point in time, had to be where she was keeping Megacorp's Experiment, while at the same time Starswirl nodded his head as well.
With them in agreement the siblings jumped over the edge and glided down to the platform that was below them, over a canal to be exact, where Starswirl swung his staff and loosed a burst of magical energy, in the form of purple blasts that rushed through the space between them and struck his foes down, allowing them to land with ease before quickly making their way over to where the barrier was resting. Like they expected there was a spherical power source that they smashed in seconds, something that powered down the barrier, before the three of them headed over the bridge and focused on the enemies in front of them, ankle biters and a dispenser that was sending out more as time went on, though they were able to crush the robotic enemies with ease before reaching the front of the building. What Ratchet discovered was one of the Bolt Cranks and activated it without delay, something that happened to be connected to the front of the building and his siblings watched as the main door opened without delay, allowing them to head down a passage before discovering a set of walls that allowed them to enter the actual factory. After that they discovered a fair number of machines that were scattered around the area that happened to be the inside of this factory, which seemed to be designed to move chemicals and create more, so hitting some of the containers would be the wrong move, so for the time being they focused on their melee weapons as they smashed some ankle biters apart, even though Autumn also discovered a body of water that had to be frozen with what they acquired on Barlow.
Truth be told Autumn was still excited by how quickly the Thermanator froze the water, because it was new technology she could use to make all sorts of weather based weaponry, possibly even gadgets if she found a way to do it, though using it allowed her brothers to move over to a ledge that allowed them to reach a raised platform that was level with where she happened to be standing. The Bolt Crank her brothers discovered revealed a walkway that connected to the other side of the chamber that they happened to be moving through, to which she formed some platforms to jump over to where both of her siblings were moving, discovering a frozen pool of ice that Autumn quickly thawed so they could swim through it, all to reach another part of the building. Of course there happened to be a lower area that had a Bolt Crank, to which Ratchet jumped down as Autumn and Starswirl stayed back, where he turned the crank and moved a walkway into position, one his siblings could walk across as a set of magical platforms formed in the air for him to use, allowing him to catch up with them as they moved deeper into the factory, deciding that this time using magic to get ahead was necessary. After that the three of them found a few sections of water that happened to be raising and lowering as they were used to make all sorts of chemicals, some even having dangerous looking sharks inside them, before Autumn discovered that she could freeze the pools and create platforms for them to use to advance through what was left of the factory.
What the siblings discovered at the end of the path they had been following was a trio of small robots, almost like the ones that came from the Glove of Doom, except with glasses and no temper to devour everything, standing in front of another holodisplay, though as Ratchet and his siblings came to a stop, with Clank detaching from his back so he could walk, they found that the robots turned for a moment and looked at them.
"Clank, do you think you can communicate with them?" Ratchet asked, figuring that their friend might be able to tell these robots why they were trespassing in the chemical factory and what they were looking for, though if they had nothing to tell them this would be the end of their mission, not unless they found a transmission waiting for them when they returned to their ship.
Clank nodded and made a few noises for a few seconds, where it came out as beeps and whatnot, even a few sounds that they weren't sure what they were supposed to be, before the robotic trio glanced at each other before saying something in the same language that Clank had just used, causing him to say something else that sounded like he was asking a question and they replied in due time.
"They said that a masked customer picked up an order not long ago." Clank replied, informing the siblings as to what the robots had said, who seemed pleased to have repeated the information to someone who worked for Megacorp, or at least Ratchet hoped that was the case, before he got onto what he felt was more important, especially since they hadn't found anything useful on this planet, "Recently they received a new transmission from 'him' and they are willing to show it to us, for a small price."
Ratchet still had no idea why everyone in Bogon referred to the Thief as a male, as her body was clearly female and he felt that it had to be the voice changing device she was using, before paying the six thousand Bolt price that the robots were asking, something that caused the little robots to turn and press a button, which revealed the Thief, in all her glory, while she was holding onto the Experiment. What they discovered was that the Experiment was far more aggressive than what Mr. Fizzwidget had told and shown them when everyone agreed to take on this mission, especially when it tried to eat the Thief's right hand and she ended up sending it straight down into the ground, smashing some crates that seemed to be a few items she needed, though as she said what she needed the violent Experiment jumped up and tried to devour both her mask and her face. From there it evolved into her trying to tell the workers of this factory what she needed and they watched as the Experiment tried to eat her at every turn, making Ratchet, Starswirl, Autumn, and Clank wonder if this was common and that Megacorp had been in the middle of fixing it before it was stolen by the unfortunate Thief, or maybe this was why it had been stolen in the first place, to prevent a violent thing from being released to the masses. In the end they found that the Thief eventually gave up on trying to do two things at the same time, especially since her body seemed to be off balance for some reason, and the Experiment stopped when it tried to much on her head, which failed since they knew that she was fine, before she mentioned where the supplies were to be delivered.
As the little robots laughed, sharing a joke that only they and Clank knew, Ratchet and his siblings quickly downloaded the coordinates for the planet in question, Siberius to be exact, before gathering their friend and used a taxi to return to their ship, where they climbed back into their ship and blasted off for the next planet, as there was a chance that they might be able to catch up to their target and secure the Experiment, and maybe learn more about what was going on.