//------------------------------//
// Tools: Ardolis, Rykan V 
// Story: Ratchet and Clank: Family of Heroes 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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Following their departure from the Apogee Space Station, and Talwyn was boarding a ship with her warbots, Ratchet and his siblings flew through hyperspace and arrived at a planet that was mostly water, save for some patches of land that were where the pirates built their bases. He had Aphelion touch down on what seemed to be the outskirts of the section of the base that Talwyn was sure the artifact was resting in, which Autumn could confirm thanks to the small program she and Angela had created, mostly to find lost Lombax items and none of the structures. Once they landed Autumn took a moment to check the Vendor and found two new weapons, the Buzz Blades and the Nano-Swarmers, which she purchased for the three of them, all while Starswirl glanced down the path in front of them. Clank also informed them that the Zoni gave him a second gadget to use during this adventure, some sort of laser that could cut through stone with ease, though their focus was on something else at the moment, even though Ratchet was glad to have that information.

Some distance in front of them they found some pirates standing guard, having seen them arrive and looked like they were ready for battle, but as Ratchet and his siblings approached them, however, most of the guards put their weapons away, showing them that Slag must have warned his crew about their existence in Polaris.

"Pirates of Ardolis, we have no desire to fight you, not when we have a mutual enemy in Tachyon," Ratchet said, keeping his weapons lowered so the robotic pirates could understand that he wasn't trying to trick them and that he was only here to talk, while his siblings did the same thing, and Talwyn, who was in the atmosphere, was staying out of the way, "We know you have a Lombax artifact that might help one find the secret that they left behind, and we would like to have it returned to us so we can claim the weapon before Tachyon does. Tell Slag that all we want is the artifact and we'll leave Ardolis."

The pirates glanced at each other and huddled for a moment, actually talking it over as they tried to figure out if he was lying to them, even though anyone who knew of him and his siblings would know that none of them lied, even to their enemies, not unless there was a plan in motion to deceive them, before the robots broke and faced him again.

"We will let the Captain know... stay here, and try not to steal anything." one of the pirates said, a female one to be exact, to which she departed from the area while the rest of the pirates stayed behind, keeping an eye on the siblings so they could attack them if this was a deception, causing Ratchet and his siblings to back off for the time being.

This was Ratchet's plan, as they knew that Slag was afraid of them, due to hearing rumors about the siblings and what they did to their enemies in the past, and he was using that against the pirate captain, though it was long before the obese robot rode in on a ship shaped vessel, with a thin orange robot behind him that looked and smelled like he was drunk.

"So, you believe that this artifact can locate the legendary 'Lombax Secret'?" Slag inquired, referring to a triangular shaped item he was holding in his left hook, even though both his hands had been replaced with hooks by the looks of it, though all of them found that nothing happened when he tapped the artifact.

"Yes, we do." Autumn replied, as they had considered the information available to them and knew that it had to be a weapon or tool that messed with dimensions in some manner, especially given Aphelion's reaction to Rivet's disappearance, and the pirates said nothing as they waited for the conversation to be over, "Tell me, who would you rather give the secret to the 'Emperor' of this galaxy, or would you rather see it in the hands of someone who can use it to topple his empire?"

"A fair point, and we aren't fans of Tachyon either." Slag said, something that made them wonder what Tachyon might have done to the pirates to earn their ire, which Ratchet knew Autumn would be able to figure out once she overcame the various blocks Tachyon had placed on, before he raised his hand and dropped the artifact into Ratchet's hands, "Very well, we'll see if the stories about you are true and that this isn't a trick."

Ratchet, true to form, gathered his siblings and departed from Ardolis, though as they breached the atmosphere, so they could return to Talwyn's station to see what was on the artifact, the four of them smiled as the Helios, in all it's glory, warped into the space near the planet, causing them to dock as Talwyn followed his lead.

"Ratchet, thank goodness you and your siblings are alright." Angela said, taking a moment to embrace him while Sasha and Nika stood nearby, greeting Talwyn and her warbots, who were seeing that Ratchet had been telling the truth, before she pulled back and studied the artifact that Slag had given them, mostly out of fear since they could wipe out the pirates in no time at all, along with the ship they had arrived in, "I have so many questions."

"And we'll answer them, but not right now. Tachyon's looking for the Lombax Secret, and this should help us locate where it might be hidden." Ratchet replied, where he held the artifact out and found that it was responding to his touch, activating as the top opened to reveal a hologram of a planet that looked like it was mostly lava.

"Rykan V... that might be where the Lombaxes hid the secret, or the next clue to it's location." Talwyn commented, as she was able to recognize the planet with ease, due to her studying everything her father had left behind when he went out on his last expedition, which he had yet to return from.

Ratchet and his siblings nodded as he input the coordinates for the planet and the starship started to move through space, though Autumn was able to quickly update it's systems with an identical warp drive to what the ships in Polaris had, and as it traveled they explained the situation to Angela and the others, just so they understood what was going on.





As they reached the space above Rykan V, where upon exiting warp space they started to move to their ships, Angela did a scan of the location on the map and found something that surprised them, Tachyon's forces were already on the planet, either because it was a fuel station for them or someone knew they'd be here in the near future.

"I'm not sure how he knew we were coming here, but Tachyon's about to lose some soldiers." Angela remarked, taking a moment to join the others as they headed down to the planet below them, though with three ships, Aphelion and the Star Explorer for the family and Talwyn's carrying her and her warbots, and it wasn't long before they confirmed that an army was in the starport.

"You said it. Let's do this!" Ratchet stated, where he set Aphelion to fly without him, as Sasha linked the other ship up to her so it would follow her, before opening the cockpit so they could jump out, allowing them to open fire on the various commandos that had been ordered to assault this area.

As Talwyn landed nearby, so she could be of some assistance since she wasn't great at jumping from heights, even though it would have been okay this time since Autumn and Starswirl had magic that tore the incoming rockets to pieces, she was able to witness just how good Ratchet and his team were. One thing she found was that each fighter had a melee weapon on hand, just in case enemies got close or they wanted to fight someone without using their guns, but for the most part all of them tore into Tachyon's forces with ease, showing that they had more experience than she originally believed. It was in that moment that she found herself thankful that she didn't turn Ratchet and his group away, forcing them to force their way into her station, as it looked like they would have been able to topple her defenses in no time. That, combined with all of the weapons they had gathered so far, made them a force to be reckoned with, to the point where Cronk and Zephyr paused for a moment to watch the group tear their way through the enemies in front of them, to the point where Starswirl loosed a bit of magic and tore down the gate blocking the way.

Autumn, on the other hand, also surprised them with her other form, the werewolf side she accidentally unlocked, where she slashed her way through some of the flying saucers with her claws and cleared the skies for the others, even though they did have to hide behind some of Starswirl's barriers to deal with four cannons that had been designed to stop them in their tracks, which fell in no time and allowed them to enter the starport.

"That... was amazing." Talwyn said, as that was all she could say on the matter, since she wasn't expecting them to utterly wipe out Tachyon's soldiers, in a matter of minutes no less, while wondering what would happen if she and her warbots stuck around with the family of heroes that came from Solana to defeat Tachyon.

"Tachyon was foolish to send so little at us... I mean, it was nice taking his commandos down, but I expected him to send far more after our last encounters." Autumn remarked, sounding disappointed in the fact that they had taken down all of the commandos so quickly, even though she was pleased with how her weapons had turned out, before she spotted the Smuggler standing off to the side once more, "Either he's following us, to try and make some money off of us, or he's got an item of some kind that we need to get closer to the location on the map... which is across the lava field, based on what I'm seeing right now."

"Friends, you sure picked the wrong time to visit Rykan V, since Tachyon's closed everything down until he can locate the infamous Lombax Secret," the Smuggler said, though in that instant they found that he had some sort of gadget resting on the rail behind him, one that looked like a single seater item, which he gestured to for a moment, "I do have this modified Gyro-cycle that I got off a Lombax many years ago, before they all disappeared..."

"It wouldn't happen to be a Lombax called Kaden, would it?" Ratchet asked, where the Smuggler and his parrot paused for a moment as he said that, confirming that his father must have known someone, most likely him, would come looking for the Lombax Secret and wanted to leave a way to get to the next step in the process, "Looks like we were right, dad left us a trail to use to find the secret."

The Smuggler was surprised by that information, even though he quickly realized that Ratchet was telling the truth, he was Kaden's son, to which he handed over the gadget and informed Ratchet that, once Tachyon's reign had been toppled and the Cragmite was defeated, they would have a chat about his father. Once that was done Ratchet used the device to make his way through the lava refineries that were between him and his destination, just to test out the new gadget, while both of his siblings, their family, and Talwyn's group used their ships to carefully track down the area in question. Autumn made sure to scramble all of their signatures so Tachyon couldn't figure out where they were, as it would be a bad thing if they found the secret and he stole it from them, but for right now everything seemed pretty normal. Their destination was far enough away from the starport, so no one would be able to see them from where the Smuggler was standing, and all that told them was that Kaden likely created the refineries as an obstacle course for whoever followed the trail, though Ratchet emerged from it in no time and landed on the outskirts of the small rock island.

Once he caught up with them, which might charge whatever power source was inside their destination, they found what looked like an incredibly touch stone door, likely brought in from another planet, which was connected to a building that Kaden must have helped construct, all looking like stone to remain hidden, with the Lombax language written on the door they were staring at.

"In this room, a secret born, to quell the angry Cragmite storm," Talwyn recited, showing them that she could read all of the symbols that were on the door, while at the same time Angela nodded, confirming that what she was saying was true, since she was the resident expert on all things Lombax, or at least for Solana and Bogon, "You've traveled far, but to be clear, without a tail your quest ends here."

Ratchet said nothing as he rested his palm against the stone, where it seemed to scan his DNA before opening up, which allowed them to see that the facility looked like a storehouse with next to nothing inside it, save for an old info player and a few boxes that were empty, likely Kaden's doing. While Talwyn was annoyed by the lack of anything, since she expected the secret to be here and not have to worry about another clue, the siblings activated the player and found that it played a mission briefing from the Center for Advanced Lombax Research. This appeared to be a testing site for what they claimed was the most important invention in Lombax history, the Dimensionator, and it included the image of a Lombax wearing a massive helmet on his head, something that caused Ratchet's to ache for a moment, as if something was wrong. It had a couple of warnings and mentioned the dimension of the Zanifarian Death Weasels, either an annoying creature or one of the most deadly, before they found that this wasn't a testing facility, rather it was Kaden's way of telling them about the Dimensionator and that the true testing area was somewhere on Sargasso.

As the presentation finished Ratchet found a memory resurfacing for a moment, two Lombaxes, one being his father due to a gun shaped Dimensionator resting in his hands, discussing something before the weapon changed hands, and next to him rested his sister, before he snapped back to reality.

"The secret used to take out the Cragmites... was a hat?!" Nika remarked, as that just seemed unlikely, especially when she thought about what Angela had showed her and the others over the years before Tachyon's arrival, where she glanced at the others for a moment as Ratchet found the headache retreating.

"No, it isn't... I mean, it could have been upgraded, but the original design had the shape of a gun," Ratchet replied, where his siblings raised their eyebrows for a moment as they heard that, even Angela did, as this was the first time he had even mentioned such a thing, causing him to tap the side of his head, indicating that a memory had surfaced, "Rivet and I were between one to two years old when our dad handed it over to another Lombax for some reason... that was the last time I saw it."

His siblings had no idea what was going on with him, but since he wasn't in pain this time, unlike when Rivet got hurt, they decided not to worry about it as they headed for their ship, as it was time to take the Helios and get to Sargasso, all while Talwyn was going to make a pit stop before joining them, just to be sure they stayed ahead of Tachyon and claimed the Dimensionator before he did.