Ratchet and Clank: Family of Heroes

by Blackdrag-rose


Deadlocked: Catacrom Four

Before Ratchet and his siblings departed from DreadZone they stopped at the Vendor that was at the edge of their section, where they found a grenade launcher known as the B6-Obliterator, along with an Omega Mod, which seemed to add some sort of effect to the weapons that Vox had created. Autumn found that, despite the fact that it would be unfair to the rest of the contestants, she and her brothers had access to their Bolt accounts, meaning Vox wanted their money as well, so she made sure to purchase the weapon and ignored the modifications for now. Her reasoning was because Sasha and Angela were no doubt looking for them and leaving a bread crumb trail would bring allies to their aid, where it depended on how fast they arrived and how far they were in tearing apart Vox's plans. Once that was done the siblings boarded the transport ship that was waiting for them, as it was time to see what sort of games he had in store for them and what sort of obstacles he had created to challenge the contestants that were pulled into this dark sport.

The inside of the ship appeared to be a sitting area with some guards to watch over them, so they took some seats as they learned about where they were headed, as there was a screen wit the name Catacrom Four on it, part of the Catacrom set of planets, of which it appeared that there were four in total. That appeared to be the only thing Vox wanted his gladiators to know about the planet, causing Autumn to sigh as she sat back, as she was hoping to learn more about the planets that were in the Shadow Sector during their time in DreadZone, but Vox clearly didn't approve of giving anyone anything about the planets they were being sent to. None of the guards said anything, meaning the robots were designed to simply watch over the contestants and make sure they got off whenever they arrived at their destination, causing the siblings to sit down and simply wait for the ship to reach Catacrom Four. As such there was nothing they could do but sit there and rest, to save their energy for whatever was waiting for them and whatever types of enemies might be on the planet, since there had to be some sort of variety, otherwise people wouldn't tune in and watch the show.

One thing they discovered was that Vox had left a message for them, indicating that only one magic user would be fighting beside Ratchet at a time, as he claimed that two would just kill the ratings and he'd be forced to end their lives, going on the fact that any boring contestants would be terminated, causing them to sigh as they waited for the ship to reach their first DreadZone destination.

"I think I'll go first, allowing Starswirl to take the next planet," Autumn remarked, as she had been thinking about things, or more accurately the rule that Vox was trying to impose on them, and this was her opinion on the matter, where both she and Ratchet found that their brother didn't seem to mind her decision, "not that it matters, since we'll overcome whatever Vox decides to send at us."

No one could really say anything else as they reached their destination, where Ratchet and Autumn were pulled off to the side and teleported down to the start of whatever course Vox had created for the contestants, discovering that a lone ship floated in the air with Dallas and Juanita aboard it, even though the area in front of them looked like an ancient temple of some kind.

"The Vox construction team really outdid themselves in turning this once sacred robotic burial ground into deadly DreadZone battle course!" Dallas commented, giving them more information about Catacrom Four, that it was the home of a robotic burial ground and that Vox clearly didn't respect anything if he twisted the temple into an arena for those he captured to fight for the entertainment of his twisted masses.

"Of course they had to prepare the battle course in preparation for Autumn and Starswirl's arrival," Juanita remarked, a fact that told all three of the siblings more information, that whatever course might have been here in the past had been reworked after the decision to capture Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl, "I've heard that they're seasoned commandos, so this season should be rather interesting to watch... certainly better than watching a bleeder get crushed by the dangers of the modified battle course."

As Ratchet and Autumn teleported down to the start of the battle course the first thing they did was access the Vendor for a few moments and found a new weapon, the Holoshield Launcher, ready for purchase, to Autumn added it to their new arsenal before they headed down the path in front of them. What they discovered were more of DreadZone's gladiators waiting in their way, plus some of the blade spheres, which fell in a matter of seconds before they found a turret waiting in front of them, to which Autumn deployed one of the new shields to tank the bullets. As she did that Ratchet did what he had seen back in the main DreadZone arena, he tapped a button on his armor and deployed an emp that shocked their foe into submission, allowing him and his sister to blast the machine to pieces before moving forward. After that the pair found more gladiators coming to face them, which were blasted into submission without much trouble, and Autumn used the emp to shock some platforms into losing the electricity trap that was on them, allowing them to move forward and use a jump pad to launch them up to the blue waypoint that was their destination.

The waypoint was designed to show contestants their objectives, which appeared as stars on their maps, though as they reached it the siblings paused as they stared out at the altered temple that was in front of them, plus the dead trees that lingered around the area.

"As Team Darkstar continues toward the Catacrom Burial Dome, they'll need to cross what I like to call the chasm of endless falling and eventual dying." Dallas remarked, which the siblings were fine with, since it appeared that he and his partner were supposed to give them their next mission once they succeeded in overcoming the current one, or at least that was what it looked like, "In the unlikely event that they survive, they'll take control of the big, bad, and burly walking armored tank called the Landstalker. Good luck, kids."

Based on what they could see there were tree targets for them to claim, three bolt cranks that needed to be turned, due to the red objective waypoints that appeared on their maps, while a blue one appeared even further away, the location of the Landstalker no doubt. With that information in hand the pair jumped down into the burial grounds, which happened to be when they had their first encounter with the undead gladiators, who tore themselves out of the ground and groaned for a moment before discovering that enemies were nearby. Autumn had a feeling that whatever curse had been placed on all of Captain Blackstar's crew, turning into into robotic ghosts, might have been altered and placed on this planet as a defensive mechanism to keep whatever treasures were here safe from plunderers, but, knowing Vox, the treasures must have been looted when the course was built. The undead likely knew that Vox's people had taken their sacred items, and had trashed their sacred temple, and since Ratchet and Autumn's armor had the marking of DreadZone on them it was far too easy for them to understand why the risen wanted to kill them, since they assumed that they were part of the team that stole their sacred treasure.

Even with that thought in mind the siblings didn't stop, heading to the dead end to their immediate left and found one of the three cranks they had to turn, to which Autumn defended Ratchet as she blasted all of the incoming undead enemies that were rushing at them. When he finished turning the crank he joined her as they moved out from the section that was near the chasm edge, where they blasted the enemies that were in front of them and made their way to the next crank, as it was off to the right of the temple's main entrance. Of course they found more of the DreadZone gladiators moving in to face them as well, to which Autumn seized them with her magic and dragged them down to the ground, giving the risen a few targets to tear down so Ratchet could safely turn the second crank. After that they entered the main temple and just repeated what they had done so far, they blasted their way through the risen, tore down all of Vox's gladiators, disabled a turret's shield and blasted it until it exploded, and then turned the crank they had been guarding.

With all three cranks turned an energy walkway sprung to life nearby, allowing them to cross to an area that had more of the risen and gladiators guarding it, not that such a thing mattered since they were able to blast their way through them and reached a few Swingshot targets, finding that the armor came with one built in, allowing them to swing to where the Landstalker was resting. It was a four legged tank that had some powerful guns attached to it, along with a pair of missile launchers on top of it, though while one person could pilot it just fine, based on what they could see, it was also built for two in mind, depending on the number of contestants forced to work together. Ratchet climbed in and took control of the main systems without delay, while Autumn took control of the launchers, though as they did that Dallas informed them, or more accurately the people watching the show, that the Landstalker had a number of features and had the power to wipe out a small star system, the last one she sincerely doubted. If it had that much power there was no way Vox would use it in his show, rather he would have likely used it on the people of Solana at some point, forcing them to submit to whatever his demands were, so it wasn't as powerful as Dallas claimed it was, and even if Autumn tore into it she was sure that she wouldn't be able to bring that to reality, not with the components she had.

Once they knew how to control the Landstalker, which was rather easy, Ratchet started to move forward and blasted his way through the metallic fence that was in front of them, though while he focused on the smaller enemies Autumn used the missile launchers to blast the dropships out of the air and tore down a turret that was in the way.

With their combined focus the obstacles that Vox placed in their way stood no chance, as they tore through them without any real resistance, making Autumn wonder if the enemies of the first planet were designed to be weak so contestants could move onto the next planet and face greater danger. When they reached the arena that seemed to be the area that Vox wanted them to move to, however, they had to face waves of enemies, but before they started to arrive Ratchet and Autumn had to climb out of the Landstalker, since it would give them an unfair advantage over their enemies. Once it had been pulled out of the area, and the siblings were ready to go, they faced off against the waves of risen and gladiators who wanted them dead, though once more their combined might was more than enough to tear down the enemies that were coming to tear them down. In fact Autumn was sure that Dallas and Juanita were surprised by this turn of events, as while most knew about her, Ratchet, and Starswirl, and what they did when they encountered their enemies, it was another thing to actually witness them fight and understand the tales that were told.

As such it didn't take the pair long to finish off the last bit of Catacrom Four's main battle course and gave them another Green Medal for later, likely to enter a tournament or something, along with a device called the Hacker Ray and the right to take on Dread Challenges, which were additional challenges to boost their ratings. The first one was called Hoverbike Madness, where Ratchet climbed onto a hoverbike, one that looked like it was ripped right out of the Star Wars movies, a fact they knew about thanks to the information on the Net, and rode around the temple as he flew through some decent sized red rings and avoided the explosives that were in his way. Sure enough Ratchet succeeded in overcoming it, not that Autumn was expecting him to fail, before they tackled the Destruction Derby, climbing back into the Landstalker and took to the field once more, Ratchet focusing on the smaller enemies while Autumn blasted the turrets into pieces with some of the missiles. Once that was done they focused on the Monuments of Death, where they had to walk around the grounds for a time and set explosives around three stone spires that seemed to be connected to the undead rising, or maybe not since that would cripple the course, to blast the structures apart and complete the challenge, and with them watching each others backs it didn't take them long to succeed in their mission.

With that done, and they found no more challenges to tackle, Dallas and Juanita informed the crowd that Team Darkstar, their team, had just unlocked Sarathos and that they would be sent there in due time, to which Ratchet and Autumn just returned to the ship and headed back to the station, to rest for a short period of time before being sent to the new planet and facing whatever dangers it might have.