C: Veldin

Ratchet watched Sunset finish what remained of her breakfast and then wash off her plate and utensils, before wiping her hands clean and walking over to her bed area. She then picked up her belt, which had been laying on one of her shelves, and wrapped it around her waist, to which she locked the two sides together and walked back to Ratchet. She moved to where she kept the key to her hoverbike, a vehicle that had the sitting area placed between two fuel lines and thrusters, and picked up the small piece of metal. The vehicle was located in the storage room to the left of the shed's main door, keeping it out of the way when she wasn't needed to repair a part of the electric wall.

She had been given the hoverbike by the colonists soon after the Gadgetron vendor had come to Veldin, though it had taken her some time to repair the main systems of the bike to make it fully operational again. Ratchet had helped her repair the pieces that she could get to, which there were plenty of when she first received it, and helped her replace the broken pieces and install new ones properly. Starlight had, once she noticed them fixing the hoverbike, offered to install a few basic weapons to take out the toads if they got anywhere near her, but Sunset had declined. She knew that she could hold her own against the toads, with her Bomb Glove at her disposal, though she also knew that, if things got rough, she could retreat and call her family in... depending on how far away she was.

"Well, I had better I get going," Sunset said, walking outside and opening the storage room, to which she revealed the dusty hoverbike, "From the brief glance of the far side that I got this repair shouldn't take more than an hour or two, so I should be back..."

"...before noon, I heard you the first time Sunset." Ratchet finished, wrapping his hands around his sister for a moment, as it was his custom to hug her before she went out on solo jobs, "Just make sure that you keep yourself safe while your out there... there's no telling if there's anything else besides those toads out there."

"Don't worry about me Ratchet," Sunset told her brother, wrapping her arms around him as well, before the two of them pulled back and broke the hug, "I've got my Bomb Glove at my disposal, just in case some of those toads come after me."

Ratchet sighed and nodded to her, to which Sunset climbed onto her hoverbike, powered it up, and took off in the direction of the broken part of the electric wall. He knew that his sister could handle herself in combat, as both he and Starlight had done the same in the past, though he couldn't help but worry for her. He watched her ride into the distance for a few minutes before she eventually disappeared, to which he turned around and headed back into his own shed. Before he could reach his shed, however, he spotted the shroud that covered Starlight's bedroom move and watched as his other sister trot out of her room. As she walked out of her room Ratchet spotted that she was still wearing her communicator, which allowed her to talk with whoever she decided to call... be it her family or the Gadgetron Weapons Team.

"Morning Ratchet," Starlight yawned, trying to shake how tired she was, which had been brought on by a long night of inventing with the other members of the Gadgetron Weapons Team, "Where's Sunset?"

"She got called to the far side of the colony," Ratchet explained, reaching for his sister's communicator, which was attached to her right ear, for a moment and pulling it off for a moment, "You, on the other hand, need to take a break before you go back to trying to make another weapon... don't want you to collapse in the middle of a meeting or anything."

"I've got a few more holo-plans that I want to send in before noon," Starlight said, yawning as she also made her breakfast, to which she set her bowl on the table and sat down, "My colleagues were studying my plans last night... and there's one that I know we have to improve on before any of the plans are submitted to Gadgetron."

"Oh really?" Ratchet asked, wondering what weapon his sister was talking about this time, "Is there anything you can tell me about this weapon that you are working on?"

"Only that the current design calls for it to be a nine barreled rocket launcher," Starlight replied, eating some of her cereal after answering, "Once we get the plans to the point where Gadgetron can approve of the production of the weapon, then I'll send the plans in and see if anyone buys it. That's also taking into consideration that they might think the weapon is too dangerous and decide not to sell it, where I might get some compensation for the time put into developing the holo-plans.

Its a shame that Sunset had to get called away before I woke up... I really wanted to tell her happy birthday before any of us got busy with our various jobs."

Ratchet hid the shocked look on his face before Starlight could tell that he had forgotten his sister's birthday, which he knew that she would never let him forget about. The three of them, all unaware of their actual birthdays, had taken to using the month they arrived at the Veldin Orphanage as the month that their birthdays were in. The nurse bots had, after some careful calculations, concluded that Sunset was the eldest child, so her birthday was actually near the beginning of the month. Ratchet was actually the middle child, which put his special day somewhere in the middle, while Starlight was definitely the youngest among them, as her day was near the end of the month.

He couldn't believe that he had overlooked the fact that Sunset's birthday was today of all days, as he had nothing to actually give her as a gift and if he went out to get something now she would definitely know that he had forgotten.

"You forgot again, didn't you?" Starlight asked, rubbing her eyes for a moment, though she had caught her brother trying to hide the fact that he was shocked by what day it was.

Two years ago, on this exact day, Ratchet had actually been busy with his clients and had actually forgotten Sunset's birthday, but she had forgiven him in the end. Starlight, on the other hand, wouldn't let him forget and would definitely hold a second time over his head... to which he knew that he couldn't let her know that he had forgotten.

"Of course not," Ratchet nervously said, waving his hand a bit as if to brush off the question, "I've got a... project... that I've been working on for Sunset. A secret that I can't tell you about."

Starlight stared at him for a moment, as if trying to determine if he was telling the truth or not, before letting out another yawn and finishing off her breakfast. She then turned to the sink and washed her bowl out, before returning to the table and levitating the communicator back into her right ear. She then tested the connection, as sometimes it actually couldn't connect after being removed for a few minutes, but a small smile appeared on her face when the screen showed up.

"Whatever you say brother," Starlight finally said, levitating a cup into the air behind her as she moved towards her room, "I've got a few corrections to make before noon, so have fun... doing whatever you were doing before I woke up."

As Starlight went back to her room, and shrouded herself, Ratchet got up and headed outside, turning towards his shed and opening the door just a bit. He stared at the covered, and mostly complete, spaceship that he had spent the last year working on, to which he sighed and went inside, determined to make some fixes to it so it would be ready for when he acquired the one item he needed to get it started... whenever that was.

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It didn't take Sunset long to reach her destination, which was all thanks to her hoverbike, but when she approached the weak part of the wall she discovered that there was now a small chasm between where she was and where the generator was. She sighed as she slowed the bike down to a crawl, before coming to a complete stop in front of the chasm and turning off the bike to conserve its power. With the hoverbike parked she climbed off of it and carefully approached the edge of the chasm, studying the distance between her and the other side for a few moments. She knew that she could easily jump the chasm with her hoverbike, getting both her and her tools over there without delay, but she also knew that she might be able to jump it by crossing on the few columns of stone that still stood.

She sighed and ran towards the first stone column, to which she leapt into the air and carefully landed on the top of the column, landing on her hands and feet. Before she lost her momentum she continued forward, using her natural reflexes to leap from one column to another before she came to a stop on the other side of the chasm. With the chasm successfully navigated she approached the seemingly offline generator and pulled out a few of her tools, so that when she reached it she would be able to get started almost immediately. Once she reached the machine she gently opened the lid to the power module and immediately spotted the problem that she had been informed about... the main power cord had simply been unhooked from where it was supposed to be connected to.

"All this for a simple unhooked power cord," Sunset said to herself, picking up the cord and slipping it back into place, to which the missing section of the electric wall powered back up, "I guess that today will be a relaxing day after all."

The moment she finished that statement she heard the sound of something flying through the air and turned around to see a spaceship heading over her head, but from the looks of it the ship had been shot out of the sky. It flew for a few minutes before crashing into the ground, halfway between where she was currently located and where her family's house was located. She couldn't believe this was actually happening, that someone had actually been shot down when they were entering Veldin's atmosphere, but she reached for her communicator as she put her tools away.

"Ratchet here," Ratchet said over the communicator, "Did something come up while you were fixing that generator?"

"No, the repair job was actually easier than I was expecting it to be," Sunset replied, before shaking her head and getting to the reason that she called, "but the reason I called was because I just saw a ship crash land somewhere between where I'm standing and the house. I figured that I'd quickly ride back to you, as it appears that the route I took to reach the generator has been damaged, and then we'd investigate the wreckage together."

"I'll try talking Starlight into coming with us," Ratchet commented, though Sunset could clearly see that he was washing his hands, "She's supposed to be having a conference call this morning, so she might be busy when you get back."

"I see," Sunset said, sighing as she reached the edge of the chasm once more, "I'll be back home as soon as possible... just try your hardest to convince her to investigate the ship with us."

Ratchet confirmed that he would try to do that and cut the communication off, leaving Sunset to sigh as she looked out at the chasm once more. She ran at the column again and leapt into the air, but this time when she landed she merely rolled back onto her feet and kept her momentum going. It didn't take her long to get back to her hoverbike, though as she climbed onto it she sent a brief message to the person who had informed her of the broken section of the wall, to indicate that it had been taken care of. With that out of the way she activated her hoverbike once more and got underway, heading on the other path that would take her back home.

When she arrived about ten minutes later she found that Ratchet was the only one standing outside their house, immediately telling her that Starlight was still busy. She came to a stop in front of the house and turned off the hoverbike, before climbing off of it and walking over to her brother, whose eyes lingered on where the ship had gone down.

"I've seen a few ships circling the area of the crash site," Ratchet said, picking up his omniwrench as he turned to his sister, "From what I can gather, none of those ships are actually from Veldin... but they haven't picked up the ship, if it is actually one of theirs to begin with. The only creature's that might be in the way are more toads... though I don't think we have anything to worry about if that's all we end up fighting along the way."

Sunset nodded and turned back to her hoverbike, where she picked up her handheld weapon, which happened to be a saber like object with a blade that retracted into the handle, and slipped it onto her belt. She had few opportunities to use the weapon in the last few years, not after finding it during one of her solo missions and using it to defeat a swarm of toads when she had forgotten her Bomb Glove at home, but she always felt better having it with her. Once she was prepared, and she had locked the hoverbike in her shed, she returned to Ratchet's side and the two of them began the trek towards the wreckage.

At first all they found were a few toads, which Sunset concluded must have either found an opening in the wall or had dug under it to enter the area they were in, but neither of them were too concerned by the fact that the toads were there. Ratchet smashed several of them with his wrench, though Sunset resorted to using one of her bombs when they found a group of them, to quickly clear the way for them. They found quite the number of crates as they followed the path, adding to the amount of bolts that they had, as well as a crate filled with nanotech, though neither of them actually needed it at the moment.

Then they found what appeared to be a turquoise colored robot that moved around on what appeared to be a sphere of light, though it had some sort of cannon on its right arm, which it used to shock one of the toads with a laser. Neither of them had any idea what this robot was, but as they approached it the robot turned on them and fired its laser at them, to which they backed up and primed a bomb in their gloves. They then took the robot down with their bombs, to which it exploded and allowed them to move onward, where they discovered another four robots, each like the one they took down, standing in the way to the crash site.

The two of them sighed as they ran forward to meet the robots, Ratchet smashing one of them under his wrench while Sunset blew the second one up with another bomb, which she had found a crate of ammunition for and restocked her supply. She threw the excess ammo she didn't need to Ratchet, who primed his own glove and blew the next robot apart with a well placed bomb, leaving just one in their way. Sunset, not wanting to waste another bomb on the robot, swiftly approached the robot and pulled out her weapon, to which the blade extended to its full length, before she brought it down hard on where she assumed its power core was, cutting into the metal with ease.

Seconds later the robot was down for the count and the way to the crashed ship was open, to which she retracted the blade and slipped it onto her belt once more, before the two of them approached the ship. There were pieces scattered everywhere, though what caught Ratchet's interest was the small robot that was laying in the middle of the wreckage, its arms and legs tucked in to make it look like it was a lunchbox of some kind. He stared at it as Sunset dug into the only intact piece of the ship, clearly looking for something useful, though he carefully picked the robot up and studied it.

He could tell that the robot was offline just by looking at it, though he hoped that it would be easy to repair and get back online... as it might actually be the one piece he needed for the spaceship.

Once Sunset had found a few pieces, which she was annoyed that the majority had been damaged by the ship getting hit and crashing, the two of them took their finds back to their house. When they arrived at the front door they found that Starlight was waiting for them, though she was definitely grinning from ear to ear as they approached.

"Those holo-plans I was working on are projected to make quite a lot of bolts in the future," Starlight happily said, before she noticed that they had some extra stuff with them, "What, did you raid a junkyard without me?"

"Actually, its more like a crashed ship," Sunset replied, setting her few items down before running her land through Starlight's mane and rubbing her head, "though I'm glad that Gadgetron liked your plans."

Ratchet, after agreeing with Sunset's statement, returned to his shed and closed the door behind him, so that he could work on the ship and the robot without interruption. He set the robot on his workbench and turned to the ship, pulling out his wrench before popping the hood up and finishing what he had been working on before Sunset had called him.

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Roughly half an hour later Ratchet pulled himself out off the ship and stared at the engine, marveling at the fact that he had actually accomplished his task of building a spaceship.

"Interesting," a voice behind him said, something that he actually wasn't expecting.

"Wah!" he exclaimed, falling off of the box he had been standing on and turned around, expecting to find either of his sisters standing behind him and found that the robot had come back online.

"You seem to be quite handy with that wrench," the little robot said, indicating that he had been watching Ratchet for some time before actually saying anything.

"You bet I am," Ratchet replied, brushing off the dust that had gotten on him when he fell to the ground, before beckoning to the ship, "I built this ship..."

"Ratchet, are you okay?" he heard Starlight ask, causing him to mentally curse the fact that there wasn't much noise dampening between his shed and their house, "I heard something hit the ground and I was worried that you might have hurt yourself."

"Yeah," Ratchet called in response, not wanting to reveal the spaceship before it was actually usable, "I, um, lost my balance for a moment and nearly fell over... you heard the side of the box I was standing on hit the floor."

"What was that?" the little robot asked, clearly confused as to why there was another voice, as his original scan had detected one living person and determined that he hadn't scanned the main house.

"My younger sister," Ratchet replied, opening the door to his shed and beckoning the robot outside, "Don't worry, she's only making sure that I was unharmed..."

That was before Ratchet turned around and that both Starlight and Sunset were standing outside his shed, to which he allowed them to see the spaceship he had been building. The robot, on the other hand, seemed surprised to see that his sisters, as it now knew that there were two of them, were a equine and a Cazar. It though it was strange for a Lombax to have such strange siblings, but didn't voice its opinion as the two looked at them and they returned the gesture.

"So... whose your friend?" Starlight asked, focusing on the robot and not the spaceship.

"My serial number is B5429671," the robot said, to which the three of them looked at it for a moment, 'What?"

"You need a normal name..." Starlight commented, staring at the robot for a moment before something came to mind, "What about Clank? I heard the sound that your feet make before you scared Ratchet and figured he was working on something, though I didn't think he'd have a new companion."

"Hmm, I believe that I could get used to that," the robot, Clank, replied, "but back to the matter at hand. I am currently in search of someone to assist me in saving the solar system... He could probably help."

With that Clank pointed at the poster that Ratchet kept in his shed, another one that was of Captain Qwark, though Ratchet and Starlight seemed excited about the idea of going out to find the Captain. Sunset knew that her younger siblings liked Captain Qwark, so she never said anything about their fascination with the hero, but she had to wonder what danger Clank was talking about.

"So, what's this danger you mentioned?" Sunset asked, to which Clank opened a small compartment in his chest and retrieved what appeared to be an infobot.

The infobot grew to its full height and opened its mouth, revealing the message that Clank had seen earlier to the three siblings, who turned to look at it. The infobot revealed that someone named Chairman Drek, leader of the Blarg, had a problem with the overpopulation and over pollution of his home world. This 'problem' was apparently going to be corrected by tearing massive pieces out of a lot of planets and adding those pieces to this 'new world' that he was building, leaving the original planet to destroy itself in some manner. The Chairman even went so far as to thank the people of the planet he was attacking next, Novalis by the intro of the infobot, before getting angry when he discovered that his little rant at the end had been filmed as well.

"The people on those planets are hosed!" Ratchet exclaimed, somewhat worried that the deranged Chairmen might come for Veldin one day, "Look, we'd love to help you out, but we don't have a working spaceship. I mean, I have built one, but I'm missing a crucial component to get the ship started."

"The Robotic Ignition System?" Clank asked, having taken a moment to scan the ship and locate the missing component, "Sir, I believe that we can assist each other. I happen to be equipped with the latest in Robotic Ignition Systems, allowing me to start any ship I choose."

"You don't have to call me 'Sir'," Ratchet said, moving one of his hands to himself for a moment, before moving onto Starlight and Sunset, "the name's Ratchet. These are my sisters Starlight Glimmer and Sunset Shimmer."

"A pleasure to make your acquaintance," Clank told the sisters, before turning back to Ratchet, "Please, we do not have time to waste before the Chairman strikes Novalis."

"Then we had better get going," Sunset commented, turning to the house for a moment, "Captain Qwark should know what to do with the information we present to him, so make sure that you get everything you want to take."

Starlight, hearing that they were actually going to help Clank out in his mission, ran into her room and gathered the various hoof drawn plans she had made for future weapons, not wanting to leave them behind. She also grabbed her staff, confident that if they found any trouble on Novalis, or any of the other worlds, that she had another weapon to defend herself with. Sunset, on the other hand, turned her communicator on for a brief moment and sent a message to the colony, telling them that the three of them were leaving Veldin for an undetermined amount of time. Once that was done she closed the communicator and, like Starlight, picked up her gadget plans, some of which she figured Gadgetron would love when she got around to showing them off.

The two of them returned to the front of their house and locked the door, as Ratchet told them all he already had everything he needed, before they helped their brother pull out the spaceship. During that process Starlight glanced around the outside of the ship and wondered if it would hold until they reached Novalis, because she was concerned that it might come undone when they entered the planet's surface. When two more ships flew towards the crash site, however, she quickly boarded the ship and sat in the back, where Sunset joined her not seconds later. Ratchet took the pilots seat and waited for Clank to take the remaining one next to him, knowing that he had to sit there so he could activate the ship, before he closed the lid and started up the ship.

When they were finally in the air and began the journey towards space, however, Starlight brought up the one thing that Ratchet had hoped that she would forget about.

"So, why were you building a spaceship anyway?" Starlight asked, to which she and Sunset stared at their brother for a moment, who gulped as he felt their eyes rest on him.

"Happy Birthday Sunset," Ratchet finally said, hoping to convince her that he hadn't forgotten, "I started building this last year for your thirteenth birthday, which involved leaving Veldin for a few days before we returned home... which is why I tried keeping it a secret, Starlight."

He felt Sunset's hand on his shoulder for a moment, though he merely turned back for a brief moment to see some tears of joy running down his sister's face, telling him that she was grateful that he remembered.

"Thank you Ratchet," Sunset said, staring out at the stars as they began their journey to Novalis, "thank you."

Ratchet nodded and turned back to the controls, not wanting to ruin the mood by crashing the four of them on a moon with no way to get off of it. Sunset was happy to be leaving Veldin, Starlight was excited to meet Captain Qwark in the future, and Clank seemed pleased to be starting his mission, but Ratchet was content to have given his siblings something special, which brought a smile to his face.

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Vigilant of Stendarr

Vigilant of Stendarr #1 · May 11th, 2016 · 1 · ·

a nine barreled rocket launcher

Divines help us all... I think Starlight was working on the first RYNO weapon.

Sonata Blaze

Sonata Blaze #2 · May 11th, 2016 · · ·

"You forgot again, didn't you?" Starlight asked, rubbing her eyes for a moment, though she had caught her brother trying to hide the fact that he was shocked by what day it was.

Ratchet... did you honestly forget your sister's birthday?
For shame Ratchet... for shame.

Night_Moon60606

Night_Moon60606 #3 · May 11th, 2016 · · ·

7205014 she was...but it will not go into production, fortunately...

Guardian of Harmony424

Guardian of Harmony424 #4 · May 11th, 2016 · · ·

7205014 my friend I believe you're right.

Vigilant of Stendarr

Vigilant of Stendarr #5 · May 11th, 2016 · · ·

7205141 Save for the one prototype that was produced by someone (I believe the Blarg after buying/stealing the plans... I don't remember really).

7205148 Which means we should be expecting a show when they finally reach Rilgar... Starlight is going to be pissed when she sees that the weapon was actually made (not by Gadgetron though).

Sonata Blaze

Sonata Blaze #6 · May 11th, 2016 · · ·

7205014 Worked on it, she did. She also hoofed it over to Gadgetron as a possible weapon for them to make, to which they never will. If anything the Blarg will be the ones making it, and losing the prototype somehow. Besides, there no telling if that smuggler will be willing to even mention the weapon to one of the people (or pony as the case is) that worked on the original plans.

Vigilant of Stendarr