Ratchet and Clank: Family of Heroes

by Blackdrag-rose

Tools: Kortog, Fastoon

The Smuggler was a well of knowledge about Tachyon, about how his egg was found in the Verdigris Sector and he was hatched by some Lombaxes, who were looking to raise him as an enlightened or educated Cragmite, but, since they were responsible for the extinction of his race, he had a sore spot for them. Autumn collected every bit of information he was willing to share with her and her siblings during the flight, allowing Ratchet to learn more about his race, though when he considered things he knew something was wrong, as the Lombaxes didn't seem like a race that would exterminate another race, even the Cragmites. Polaris, as they discovered, happened to be the home galaxy of the Lombaxes, something that many in Solana and Bogon had rumors about and they were able to confirm with a simple conversation with a native, but all of it was now under Tachyon's rule, much to the dismay of everyone. Apparently the little Cragmite had betrayed the rest of the Lombaxes and exterminated them in kind for what happened to his race, but, once again, Ratchet had a problem with that as he recalled what happened to his sister, clearly lost and hurt in another dimension.

He could tell that Autumn, Starswirl, and Clank were considering the same thing, that his kind were in another dimension and that the answer to his question might finally be in front of him, he just had to deal with Tachyon first, but before they could say anything the ship got a message about a bioscan noticing Ratchet, to which Starswirl teleported them out of the ship, to a ship landing area, so the Smuggler could escape.

"Well, now we have a reason behind why Tachyon was hunting you and Angela." Autumn remarked, where she stretched for a moment as they approached the Vendor that was in front of them, finding more commandos standing between them and the rest of the city they had been brought to.

"Not to mention an idea of how to find your sister." Starswirl added, as he knew that Ratchet was focused on finding out how to get to his sister and save her from whatever was going on in the dimension she was in, even though they would no doubt have to deal with their new foe before that happened.

"Yeah... hang on sis, I'm coming." Ratchet said, taking a moment to touch the necklace again, giving Autumn the time to buy the Predator Launcher, a new toy to add to their arsenal, while his stance informed his siblings of his hope that they were right, about the dimensional tool to find his sister, before he got moving.

As they started to tear into the commandos, however, they found a few screens showing Tachyon issuing news to those he ruled over, about the 'renegade Lombax' and his troublesome allies, though they ignored him for the most part, since his opinion mattered little to them. While the three of them tore their way through all of their enemies, showing them that what happened on Kerwan wasn't a fluke, Starswirl found another weapon, the Shock Ravager, which turned out to be an energy whip that seemed to take on the appearance of electricity, something their foes disliked. As such duplicating it for all three of them made things easier for Ratchet as his siblings as they tore through all of their enemies, collected all the bolts and raritanium they found, and used some Slingshot targets to move further through the city as the commandos did their best to track them down. Their efforts showed anyone watching that the Emperor's forces weren't as tough as they might have assumed, that a Lombax was fighting to free Polaris from his foul rule, and that they wouldn't stop until he was taken down, just as they had done to the other galaxies and sectors they had freed in the past.

What interested them, as they fought their way through the city, was that some of the commandos assumed that Ratchet and his siblings were heading for the Hall of Knowledge, a forbidden place apparently, which meant that it was their next destination as they swung their way across hazards and used their new gadgets to progress. Such a thing made them take a moment and wonder what might be in such a place, that Tachyon would outlaw being able to go there and make it one of the punishable offenses in Polaris, and each of them knew they would understand in due time. The commandos kept trying to break them so they could capture Ratchet and present him to their Emperor, though it resulted in them breaking Tachyon's forces with ease, much to the joy of those watching them, even if they kept their cheering low so the Cragmite didn't discover that they hated him. Given what the siblings had faced in the past this was next to nothing to them, which made them wonder if Tachyon had some elite guards he wasn't using yet, which he should if they existed, so they left yet another trail of destruction as they made their way through the city.

Eventually they came to a stop at what seemed to be the end of the path they could use, causing Clank to drop down and walk around for a moment before Autumn and Starswirl watched as some energy surged around him and gave him a pair of nice wings with green material, something that allowed him and Ratchet to reach the Hall of Knowledge by flying, even if the pair teleported behind them when they landed.

"So, this is the Hall of Knowledge... time to stick it to Tachyon and steal his 'forbidden knowledge'," Ratchet remarked, to which he and his siblings advanced into the structure, while Autumn asked about the new wings and discovered that Clank had no idea what had happened, even though she and Starswirl had an idea given everything they had read about before this point in time.

From what they discovered there were some defenses to keep people from entering the depths of the facility, the first one being a chamber with three buttons they had to press, so they separated from each other for a few seconds and did so, to which they opened a tunnel to the next chamber. Ratchet found that the second one was just powering up a device to let out a sound that would move some large squids into position, allowing him and his siblings to reach an upper area that he felt was part of the ventilation system, large enough for them to pass through with ease. It lead to what appeared to be a map room, where Clank dropped down and started to download everything that was on it so they had a map of Polaris, so they wouldn't get lost once they found a ship or Angela and the others arrived with their starship. Of course they fought a surge of commandos that arrived to take them down, allowing Clank to do his work without being interrupted, which had to be annoying Tachyon when he watched what was going on with his forces, before their friend informed them that his task was done and he had a planet in mind for them to escape to.

In the following moment they climbed into an egg shaped escape pod and Clank input the coordinates for Fastoon, which was the planet he had picked out, allowing them to blast off and slip into the hyperspace that the ships of Polaris were able to use to travel between sectors, granting the siblings a period of rest before reaching their next destination.

---

While they traveled between sectors Clank revealed that Fastoon was a Lombax planet, the Lombax planet, which meant Ratchet was going home at long last, even though he had bad news for them, it was deserted and in ruin in some places, confirming part of the story they had been told, Tachyon attacked the Lombaxes. It was in that moment Ratchet wished that Angela was with them, as while he was still learning about his race, and everything associated with them, she was still far more knowledgeable in everything concerning the Lombaxes. Autumn also informed them that she had completed her own task before they left, stealthily stealing the information in the Hall of Knowledge, and it came with a surprise, the full and complete Lombax language, confirming what Angela showed them a long time ago. Starswirl did reveal that this left them with a problem, if the planet was in ruin there might be no ships for them to find or fix up, especially given the fact that Tachyon would track down the escape pod and follow them in no time, causing the others to nod as they realized that this was either a quick stop or a permanent stop.

When the pod emerged from hyperspace they found themselves heading down to a desert planet that reminded them of Veldin, which might be why it had been picked as the place that Ratchet and his sister would be sent to, causing him and his siblings to brace themselves as it landed and allowed them to see the ruins.

"So this is home..." Ratchet commented, where he could see some tall buildings, which had to be either homes or a work structure of some kind, before he spotted something across the gap in front of them and crossed it without delay, which allowed him and his siblings to see a crashed red ship that was in near pristine condition, "We have to fix her."

"Given that it's the only ship around, it is either this or wait for either Angela or Tachyon to arrive." Clank said, despite the fact that none of them had enough time to send the code that would tell Ratchet's wives where they were located, which Ratchet turned into the frequency she, Sasha, and Nika would be keeping an eye on.

"From what I can tell, there are six missing components we need to find to fix it up, five out here and one in a nearby mine that only Clank can explore." Autumn remarked, as she had taken the liberty to scan the ship Ratchet wanted to patch up, where she found that five were nearby and they could either recover them separately or take them as a team, but at least none of them were too far away.

They found that one of the flight components were above where the escape pod landed, where the siblings found some small kobold creatures, armed with clubs, who wanted them dead for some reason, causing the group to lash out at their new enemies and found that they took them down in no time. With the first one claimed they returned to the middle of the area and resumed looking for the other ones, where one happened to be at the top of the central tower or pillar, but as it happened they got a holo-vite from Qwark, since it was his voice on the message. He used one of the aliases he made for undercover work, that being Finnegan O'Qwarksalot, though the interesting thing about this was that none of the foes he used his aliases against realized he was Qwark, despite his well known name being part of his supposed fake names, a fact they had long since stopped questioning. Of course they couldn't actually play the message just yet, but Ratchet was sure that, when they patched up the ship, they would be to see what the message was and head to a new planet to figure out what in the world Qwark was up to this time around.

After discovering that they found the third flight component inside one of the nearby buildings and claimed it, though they did have to fight the little kobold critters, apparently called Nanophytes in part of the Hall of Knowledge information, and it took them no time to claim the component and continue searching. Another happened to be across a gap that they had to use a pair of Swingshots to cross, leading to more enemies showing up and trying to take them down, where Autumn did a bit more research and found that they were scavengers and she made it a point to take the Lombax items from them, just so Angela could appraise them later. The fifth one was in an odd place, what looked like a water reservoir that was both a natural cavern and a metallic area that some of the Lombaxes crafted in the past, where Ratchet swam through the area for a few moments, looking for the item in question, before returning with his prize. Once that was done Ratchet and his siblings returned to the ship as Clank headed into the mine to find the final component, giving them some time to work on the ship and make sure it was good enough to fly, even though all three of them admitted that Lombax tech, especially for ships, was rather interesting to study.

Once Clank returned, and informed them that the Zoni, the energy beings that he was conversing with that Autumn and Starswirl could see if they focused their magic, were certain that the Cragmites would return, how he had no idea, which lead to them inserting the final component and activating the ship.

Miserable little Drophyds! I can't believe they used seeker ammo! the ship said, speaking in a feminine voice, which none of them were expecting when they decided to patch the vehicle up, all while closing the area of her frame that the siblings had been working on to repair her, before she noticed Ratchet and the others standing there, What a bunch of cheat... oh, a Lombax. After what happened here, I thought I'd never see one of your kind again... wait a moment, it can't be... Ratchet?

"That's me. Do I know you?" Ratchet asked, as this was the first time he had seen a talking ship before, especially since he knew that neither of his siblings had considered such a thing in the past, though this was good for them, because if the ship knew him it meant she might know more about his family.

I'm Aphelion, the ship your father, Kaden, made to help defend Fastoon, even if I was shot down by cheaters on the day we were attacked. the ship, now known as Aphelion, replied, though as she said that, and they got a chance to see that she could hover while talking and even made movements when utterly certain lines, either because of her programming or due to her being annoyed about something, she noticed something, Ratchet... where is Rivet?

"My sister... well, she's lost in another dimension." Ratchet said, though now the etching on the pod he was found in on Veldin made sense, it was 'Ratchet and Rivet' written on the side of it, where he considered what they had thought about on the way to Kortog earlier, "And Tachyon, unless we're mistaken, might be after some sort of dimensional tool that the Lombaxes created at some point in the past."

Aphelion, while being sad that Rivet wasn't here, confirmed their suspicions and informed them that the gadget had been his father's greatest creation, the Dimensionator, but she had no information on where it had been hidden, meaning they had to track it down themselves. It was the key Ratchet was looking for, a gadget capable of traversing dimensions, and if he could get his hands on it he could finally reunite with his sister, save her from whatever world she had ended up in, and then seal the device away in a magical storage area so Tachyon couldn't claim it. With that information in hand they asked Aphelion if she could play the holo-vite they had received and she confirmed that she could, allowing them to climb inside, even though Autumn had to apply the magic for the expanded sitting area, though once that was done Ratchet slipped the device into the slot and they watched what Qwark sent them. It was an advertisement for the Imperial Fight Festival, which had to be the arena of this portion of the Polaris Galaxy, and their friend even mentioned that the offer was only for them, in his own description to avoid someone like Tachyon figuring out what he was doing.

With that information in hand Ratchet took the controls and blasted off for planet Mukow, allowing them to continue with their adventure and, hopefully, gain more information on what Tachyon was doing, all while hoping to cut him off before he found the gadget Ratchet was seeking, even though they knew it wouldn't be as simple as that.

Comments

[Golden_Reflection]

Yeah! Best Ship Aphelion! And in this universe, she has a bit more knowledge because the future’s broad strokes are actually already known due to running through the timeline of the games and therefore is at least somewhat planned out with future knowledge.

[Blackdrag-rose]

11282155 Indeed. Plus her knowledge has allowed Ratchet to learn one of the most vital pieces of information, in addition to his sister's name, and that's the existence of the tool that could allow him to fulfill his promise to himself.