Ratchet and Clank: Family of Heroes

by Blackdrag-rose

Arsenal: Marcadia

It didn't take Ratchet and the others long to reach Marcadia, where they landed in the outskirts of Capital City, given that the rest of the city was under attack there wasn't any good locations to land, so this was all he could do for now, and sure enough they found some Rangers standing their ground against the Tyhrranoids.

"Glad you made it, sir. The presidential compound is on the other side of the city." one of the Rangers said, while the other was in the middle of firing at the enemies that were further along the path that was in front of them, even though it was to keep his targets back while they waited for reinforcements, "Keep your head down, the Tyhrranoids are crawling all over the place!"

"Then let's take care of them." Angela replied, as she was ready for action, something she had learned how to do after her time with Ratchet and his siblings, hence why she launched a bomb and blasted the first group of enemies, causing both of the Rangers to rush forward and see what else they had to worry about.

Before they moved forward Autumn quickly checked the nearby weapon vendor and found another weapon was ready to be purchased, the Splitting Hydra, a weapon designed to hit multiple targets at the same time with bursts of electricity, but it didn't take her long to buy the new toy for all of them. With that done they headed down the path in front of them and found a number of Tyhrranoids guarding the way forward, causing the group to open fire on their enemies as both of the Rangers stood there in silence, stunned by what they were seeing, which caused Autumn to chuckle, as they hadn't seen anything yet since she wasn't using the RY3NO right now. The curved set of stairs nearby brought them to another area to fight their way through, one that happened to have a fair number of Tyrranoids, small and large, guarding the area, a few even firing at the walls as they tried to tear the area apart, why the group had no idea since there was no one else in this part of the city. Such a thing didn't stop Ratchet and the others from opening fire on their enemies, blasting the groups of Tyrranoids out of the way as Starswirl focused on weaving his magic through the air, where his power smashed into the couple of enemy dropships that were trying to deploy more troops, mostly to even the odds for the Rangers, but it did let the rest of the group move forward.

The next area had a number of Tyrranoid Soldiers, the smaller ones with guns or nothing, Brutes, the larger ones that had a machine gun like weapon, and a few Mechs, causing Ratchet and the others to open fire on them without delay, all while noticing that Nefarious had sent enough of his forces to try and smash the city to pieces. Given that it was the seat of the President's power Autumn figured that taking out Marcadia would cripple the abilities of the Galactic Rangers and the rest of the Galactic Fleet, making things much easier for Nefarious and his Tyhrranoid allies. Autumn had to admit that it was a valid strategy, launching an attack when he was sure that all of the main heroes of Solana were either missing or just gone, as they had been in Bogon, Qwark had gone missing, and the other heroes that sprung up after Drek's defeat didn't seem to be doing anything, which they would have to look into at some point. In regards to his planning, Nefarious was already a worthy foe to face off against, as his intelligence seemed to be far better than Drek's and he was leagues above Qwark, and it made her wonder what in the world he really had planned, as galactic conquest couldn't be the only thing he was working towards.

"Forgive me for asking, but why didn't the Rangers help out when Drek was around?" Angela asked, because she could see that Ratchet and the others knew more about the Solana President and the Galactic Rangers that worked to keep the rest of the galaxy safe, which made her wonder why Drek was allowed to get away with all of his deeds, without them having any allies to assist them in saving the planets the Blarg put in jeopardy.

"Because most of the planets Drek attacked were, at the time, outside the President's jurisdiction," Autumn replied, while at the same time blasting one of the mechs apart with one of her weapons, opening the way for the to move forward once more, where she considered what else she had learned about the situation Angela was interested in, "basically, the official territory of the Galactic Fleet was smaller during our first adventure, and once the President and other parties realized just how bad the damage could have been, well, they commissioned a new type of Ranger and expanded the territory to cover most of Solana... save for the Shadow Sector."

"It's a lawless section of our galaxy, located on the fringes to be exact," Ratchet added, giving Angela the information she needed to fully realize what his sister was currently talking about, all while blasting one of the Tyhrranoids that happened to be in their way, before he shrugged for a moment, "anyway, we didn't have allies because there weren't any... but that didn't stop us from wrecking Drek's plans."

Angela considered that information for a moment before deciding that she had gotten the answer she wanted, to which they leapt over a gap and blasted at the Tyhrranoids that were trying to tear down a pair of Rangers, who were trapped between two groups of enemies, where the second group was blocking the way to the dropship.

"Nice shooting, sir!" one of the Rangers said, speaking as soon as the last of the Tyhrranoids of the first group were beaten and the area was cleared, allowing them to stare out at the area that was in front of them, finding that not many enemies were between them and the dropship, "A second wave of Tyhrranoids just landed and they're attacking the presidential compound... we could sure use your help in routing them."

Ratchet and the others waited no time in blasting the enemies that were in front of them, striking down the Tyhrranoids while opening the way so they could reach the dropship, and once the area was cleared they boarded the vessel and let it take them to a large half circle shaped area that the Rangers happened to be guarding. After taking a moment to see that the compound's structure was safe, as there was no damage to it, the group climbed out and opened fire on the group of Tyhrranoids that happened to be firing upon the Rangers, surprising all of their enemies within seconds before they took them out. They kept the dropship stationed nearby, giving the group a good chance to test their new weapons out while having an area to purchase ammunition from, so it was an endless assault on the Tyhrranoids, those that were already in the area and all of the reinforcements that flew into the area. Starswirl focused on blasting the dropships out of the air, as it allowed him to cut down on the number of enemies that were in this area, while Autumn admitted that this was a good opportunity to empower some of their weapons, readying them for whatever the future held for them.

As they fought the Tyhrranoids, however, one of the Rangers mentioned that this was Operation Iron Shield, though that was met with silence as Ratchet and the others waged war on the attacking aliens, before the Rangers activated a plasma turret and Angela jumped on it, firing at all of the dropships that Starswirl was focusing on. Such a thing meant they were able to divide the area in half, her taking care of one side and him taking care of the other one, no doubt annoying all of their enemies once they realized what was going on, but there was nothing the Tyhrranoids could do save call in the rest of whatever forces Nefarious had sent to this planet. Even when the plasma turret blew a fuse they didn't have to worry all too much, as Angela switched with Autumn and let the Kirin get to work, where she figured out where the broken part was and fixed it without wasting too much time, much to the joy of the Rangers. After that they had to turn on a couple of the compound's defenses, as the Tyhrranoids were launching an all out assault to try and take them out, though in the end it didn't matter as Ratchet, Angela, Autumn, and Starswirl took care of them, causing the Rangers to cheer as they cleaned up the rest of the area.

With that done they found that part of the entrance opened and the President walked out, causing the group to walk over to him, as he had to have some sort of information for them to act on, though he waited for a few moments, to make sure the Tyhrranoids were gone, before focusing on them.

"Agent Clank!" the President said, his tone informing them that he was impressed by their actions, which made sense due to the fact that he actually shook their hands for a time, though they remained silent as he addressed them as who they were on the show, "You're even more impressive in person than you are on the holovid! And, I must say, I've never seen a chauffeur fight like you do, son. And you, engineer, you wouldn't happen to be related to the Nirik, would you?"

"There's no relation between us... just a coincidence." Autumn replied, though this confirmed something, the President had to be a moron for thinking that all of them were the characters they played on Clank's show, and she was sure Angela rolled her eyes, which the President apparently missed.

"Sasha's told me a lot about you, Ratchet." the President remarked, showing that he was now more interested in the fact that Ratchet was the same age as his own daughter, rather than being worried about the attack on his city and the rest of the planet, "Don't get any ideas, kid. She is way out of your league! Sasha also filled me in on the, uh... Qwark situation. I'm told the man thinks he's a monkey?"

"He has lost his memory, sir." Clank stated, though while he was willing to blame the RYNO II silo the man took, which had done a great deal of damage to him, he really had no idea what might have caused Qwark to lose his memory in such a short period of time.

"Well, then you'll simply have to find it for him!" the President said, where the group glanced at each other for a moment, as they still wanted nothing to do with Qwark and whatever schemes he might come up with, but they said nothing as they waited for him to finish talking, "On another note, my daughter tells me you're a man whose good with his hands, Ratchet.
The city's laser shield went down during the attack, and we are defenseless without it... I sent out a repair man to fix it, but he disappeared on us, so I need you to get that shield system back online."

Ratchet and the others acknowledged the order before returning to the dropship, which was now under orders to take all of them to the Laser Defense Facility, so it wasn't long before they reached their destination and discovered a device right in front of where they landed, a gun-like device called the Refractor, capable of producing an energy field around the user that allowed them to bounce lasers around. Angela glanced over at Autumn for a few seconds, figuring that she would do something to this gadget, though she only tilted her head and let Ratchet take it, as she wanted a field test before messing with the new device, who nodded his head before they started moving. Sure enough they found more Tyhrranoids inside the facility, some trying to get around the defenses while some seemed to be just guarding the area, along with a number of small lasers that could be redirected to open the doors that were in front of them. As such Ratchet focused on using the Refractor to move the lasers while the others opened fire on the Tyhrranoids, even though Autumn found something new to add to her notes on this gadget, it could also reflect the lasers from the mechs, possessing the same strength as the original beam based on what she could see.

It didn't take them long to reach a chamber that had a little spiderbot that could move around, so Ratchet used a laser to move it up a wall and open the next doorway, causing them to fight off more Tyhrranoids as they moved through the rest of the facility, eventually finding a terminal that someone familiar was working at.

"Hey look, it's Al!" Ratchet said, as he was happy to see a familiar face, even though he was surprised to find that the rest of the facility wasn't operational yet, given the man's intelligence and skill, and he could see that Autumn had tilted her head in confusion as well, "Al, do you have any idea how long it will take to get the shields up?"

"Silence! I am concentrating." Al stated, barely taking the time to look back at them as he focused on whatever it was that he was doing, as it was clear that he was focused on something other than fixing the shield that he had been sent to fix who knew how long ago, "I've close to getting a new high score!"

"What do you... mean..." Angela started to ask, though in that moment she and the others found a game cartage resting in one of the ports of the terminal that Al was standing in front of, causing everyone to instantly understand what Al meant, even if it annoyed a few of them, "Are you using the city's laser defense network to play an interactive vid-comic?!"

"It is impressive, isn't it?" Al inquired, apparently thinking that this was a good thing and that no one would realize he had done this, at least not for some time anyway, all while his focus rested on the terminal and his game, "I simply bypassed the server with a 626-hex-matrix adapter and reprogrammed the graphics sub-processor! It was child's play."

"While that is, um, 'impressive', It appears you have a feedback loop in the induction coils of your DB-3 signal processor." Clank stated, as both he and Autumn had noticed something as they stared at the terminal Al was working at, even if the man seemed too caught up in playing his game to notice the world around him.

"That's impossible! I ran a recursive checksum on the signal matrix." Al stated, where he paused his game and turned his attention back to the part of the terminal that was connected to the defense network and his alterations, before he took a moment to scratch his head.

"Did you take into account the fact that the planet was under attack, and the amount of power it would drain to repel an active assault?" Autumn asked, because that seemed to be the case, he was too focused on this being a normal day and not a day where Marcadia was being assaulted by the Tyhrranoids, but they were here to help him out.

In that moment Al moved slightly faster as he tapped the keys on the terminal and rapidly fixed the error in his coding, but as he did that Ratchet noticed that the game he had been playing was a Qwark Vid-Comic, a series that was supposed to detail Qwark's rise to heroism, or something like that.

"Hey, Al, do you mind if we borrow this? Qwark lost his memory, and we kind of need it to return." Ratchet said, because while he knew that there were many other ways for them to go about restoring his memories, especially since both of his siblings were skilled in the art of magic, this might be the item they needed to knock some sense into him.

"If it'll help the Captain out, take it with my compliments." Al replied, which was rather odd that he would give it to them as a gift, even if they might only need it for some time, but Ratchet wasn't about to argue as Al ejected it and handed it over to them, before a thought came to him, "But please, treat it gently... It is a first edition, after all."

Ratchet nodded as he safely stored the vid-comic away in his pack, though with the defense network restored, and there was no new missions from the President, he and the others returned to the dropship, so it could take them to their ship, all so they could return to the Phoenix and see if this would help Qwark out.

Comments

[badninja]

Nice chapter!