Ratchet and Clank: Family of Heroes

by Blackdrag-rose

Deadlocked: Orxon

After resting from their time on Shaar, and seeing that some of the viewers were excited by the display that the siblings brought to DreadZone, Ratchet joined Autumn and Starswirl when it was time to head out to Orxon, a planet that they had been to during their first adventure. The siblings found it odd that they were heading back to the home planet of the Blarg, a planet that Drek had tainted with all sorts of pollution so he could put his money making plan into motion, tear all sorts of pieces out of the surrounding planets to make a super planet. It was a plan that they had stopped and put the Blarg that was responsible for all of it in a cell, as he deserved, even though Ratchet recalled his siblings turning him into a sheep for his crimes, a fitting punishment, in addition to having all of his funds seized to help those who suffered because of his actions, and after everything else that had happened his race had no true leader. None of them were sure what happened after that, save for helping Sasha in the election against the Blarg that was running against her father, but that was all they could have done to stop Drek's race from causing more chaos in the Solana Galaxy, so they simply sat down and waited for the ship to arrive at their destination.

Upon approaching Orxon they found that the course was going to take place in one of the many mining factories that were scattered all over the planet, so all Vox had to do was modify each one for the contestants he was sending there, where this time Ratchet and Autumn teleported down to the start of the course.

We're here on the beautiful Blargian homeworld of Orxon, overlooking a massive raritanium mining facility. Dallas said, even though Ratchet and his siblings knew that this planet was beautiful once, before Drek arrived and polluted it into the mess that it became, and based on what Autumn was seeing there were no cleaners working, likely torn apart by Vox at some point, Each week challengers navigate their way through the facility with one goal in mind: Destroy it! DreadZone would like to thank the generous people of planet Orxon for, uh, donating a new mining facility every week.

"Well, this place still stinks." Ratchet commented, where he and Autumn walked over to the vendor as they stared out at all of the gladiators that had been positioned between them and their targets, especially with a pair of paths that had been built under the main walkway of the facility.

"I know. Its a shame that my fixes were broken by Vox's team." Autumn replied, finding that there were no new weapons to add to their arsenal, though with that discovery she readied her weapons as they focused on the path in front of them, which had two directions they could pick from.

Almost immediately they were assaulted by the gladiators that were positioned along this course, especially the ones that dropped down behind them at one point, where Ratchet hacked into the orbs on the left path as Autumn tore their foes down, allowing the pair to continue moving forward. On the other side of a rather short tunnel the siblings found some of the sniper gladiators aiming down at them, so Ratchet blasted them first and removed them so his sister would hack into a set of orbs, repeating what they had done not a few moments ago. Of course they had to deal with some large groups, not to mention an enemy Landstalker that had been placed in their way, before finding that it curved back to a small gap between where they were exploring and the main facility that they would enter in due time. From there they were able to tell that picking a direction didn't matter, as it was them basically going in a circle and taking out all of Vox's gladiators, not to mention a turret that was in their way, which would no doubt appease the fans that were watching them right now.

With the first challenge complete, even if they hadn't accomplished much due to the stupid nature of Vox's set up this time around, Ratchet and Autumn were allowed to move up to the raised area that was just outside the facility, where they had to fight for six control nodes so they could destroy the main drill and enter the facility.

This was where most of the gladiators seemed to be resting, a good chunk in the middle while some were guarding each of the control nodes, including some lasers that had been deployed once they learned that the siblings had survived the first round, no doubt to make things that much harder. As such the pair moved out and opened fire on their enemies, as each one blasted the robotic enemies Vox had deployed and blew each one up before they could really do anything to the pair, which was thanks to Autumn using her barrier to help them out. Seizing control of one of the nodes sent a chain of explosions, small ones, to where the drill was located and Juanita mocked them for doing no damage at all, where Autumn was tempted to just tear the drill out with her magic and hurl it at the pair, but decided not to do so as she focused on the gladiators who dropped into the area once the first node had been captured. It made sense, the first one was easy to take control of and the other ones became increasingly more difficult to reach, or at least that seemed to be the plan since the siblings were more willing to blast and tear their foes apart, especially with Autumn weaving her magic and launching bolts of energy that blasted her targets apart.

Vox wanted a show and he couldn't have asked for better contestants, as while Ratchet and his siblings tore the various gladiators apart, in a manner that could be deemed as 'unfun' or something, it was their magic that held the crowd and all of the viewers at home interested in the show, not that they cared as they tore through another set of gladiators, giving the pair control over another control node.

Eventually the sixth and final control node was captured and they watched as the drill was torn apart, which apparently caused some highly toxic drill fuel to leak out on the other side of the facility, though given that there weren't any people in the stands this time around, no doubt Vox didn't want to pay for so many O2 Masks, they lacked the incentive to head inside and continue the course. Of course they decided to just play along and headed inside without delay, where it was far too easy for them to see that the next challenge was to hack into a number of control orbs to open the way to backside of the facility, which had to be where the end of this course was located, given what they had seen previously. Based on what they were seeing there were twelve targets for them to take care of over the course of a few moments, and, just like all of the other challenges they had been through so far, it came with a massive number of gladiators who were tasked with destroying them and stopping Team Darkstar from succeeding in their mission. Ratchet and Autumn tore them apart, one using both his wrench and his weapons while the other used smaller spells to avoid causing damage to the area they were in, and whenever there were no enemies one would hack into the orbs while the other kept watch, making sure no gladiators snuck up on them.

Much to Dallas and Juanita's continued amazement the siblings smashed the challenge and won in no time, allowing the pair to head outside for what had to be the last part of their main mission, where they climbed into the Landstalker and took it out on a predetermined track. Based on what Dallas was saying, that DreadZone's fans were in danger, they found that the key to victory was to use the Landstalker's main cannons to tear apart some Raritanium chains that were linked to some anchors, all while dealing with more gladiators, turrets, and enemy tanks. Of course, since Ratchet had Autumn with him, there was also her magic that they could call on and that was what they did from time to time, laying waste to all of the gladiators who tried to join the battle, allowing Ratchet to focus on all of the turrets and tanks as she smashed the four anchors they were hunting down. Truth be told he didn't think that this was an overly hard course, it sure wasn't like what he and Starswirl faced on Shaar the prior day, and part of him even wondered if he needed his siblings for this one, given all that he had seen so far, but he simply shelved the idea and tore through the last of the obstacles, earning them one of the Blue Medals and, surprisingly enough, access to the next tournament.

Before heading back to their containment suite, and waiting for the call to be dragged into the next tournament, they took a moment to deal with whatever Dread Challenges existed on this planet, finding that the first one was called Swarming the Gauntlet, an interesting name for sure. What it was, as they soon discovered, was a challenge where they had to pick up weapons and make their way through the first section of Orxon's course, navigating the lower paths while taking out all sorts of small enemies, like the blade balls and the snappers, though it really didn't take Ratchet and Autumn long to win it and earn more points for their team. After that they focused on the second, and last, challenge, Scoring with the Blarg, a fact that landed them in the Landstalker once more as it followed a predetermined path and they had to fire on all sorts of moving targets, like what happened on Shaar, which surprised the siblings since they weren't expecting to repeat one of the previous challenges so soon, but they didn't say anything as they tackled it. As they discovered it was a simple course for them, as Ratchet could focus on the smaller enemies that got in their way, blasting all of the gladiators that dared to approach them, while Autumn accurate targeted all of the targets that were the requirement of the challenge, and, by the end of it, everything had been wrecked.

With another challenge complete, and Orxon had been cleared once more, the siblings returned to the transport ship so they could rejoin Starswirl and head back to the containment suite, as it was time to see what sort of challenges Vox had in the new tournament, not to mention the planets they'd unlock this time around.