"Now entering Bernilius Sector," Aphelion intoned as they entered the new sector of space.
"Here's hoping we're actually getting closer," Twilight murmured. "I...I miss Mommy..."
"We'll find him soon, Twi," Ratchet assured her. "I promise."
"Ratchet, come in!" Alister called out through the comms. "I've just picked up a looping transmission on one of the emergency frequencies. Can you make anything of it?" A strange oscillation of sound came through the speakers.
"Mommy!" Twilight called out happily.
"You got it, Twi!" Ratchet confirmed. "That's a distress signal with Clank's signature. Aphelion, track-"
"Setting course to Planet Vapedia!" Aphelion intoned, correcting course immediately.
"I'll meet you there as soon as I can!" Alister promised. "But...if the Clock were on Vapedia, it would have been found long ago."
"Then we need to get to him sooner," Ratchet grumbled. "Because someone's taken control of the Clock from him."
"And we need to take it back!" Twilight insisted.
"Engaging maximum warp," Aphelion warned.
As they made their way towards Planet Vapedia, they were intercepted by another Valkyrie ship. "Bonjour, Monsieur Lombax!" the pink armored Valkyrie greeted. "I see you picked up on our-"
Twilight seized the controls as her magic flared, a massive silhouette of an alicorn made of living fire surrounding Aphelion. "GET OUT OF OUR WAY!" Twilight roared out as Aphelion blasted right past the ship and through the energy barriers raised to stop them. "I'm coming, Mommy!" Twilight shouted in a more normal voice as Aphelion dove in towards Vapedia's atmosphere.
The Valkyrie commander stared, her jaw hanging. "...girls, if anyone asks, we saw nothing," she ordered to her troops. "Now where's the nearest mead hall?"
"What about Libra, Commander Carina?" one of the squad leaders asked.
"When the little one is not angry enough to summon a fire giant," Carina replied. "We may be Valkyries, but last I checked none of us were named Freya."
Vapedia was a blue world that, at first glance, wasn't plain whether the blue was from water or gas. The few bits of land floated high up in the atmosphere, traversable only by flight or the bridges connecting them. Alister was waiting for them when they arrived. "Clank's distress signal is coming from somewhere inside the citadel," he explained as they arrived, gesturing to a massive building visible in the distance.
"Then why'd we land all the way out here?" Twilight demanded. "Why not just blast our way in?"
"Because my circuitry needs time to repair after the magical overcharge you manifested to get past the Valkyries," Aphelion scolded the overenthusiastic filly. "It would have been better if I'd just ripped the ship in half like last time."
Twilight's ears went flat against her skull. "...sorry..."
"I'll be fully repaired by the time you're all ready to leave, but I'll need to stay put until then," Aphelion offered softly.
"Then we'll just go in on foot," Alister insisted. "Nothing we can't handle."
"Right," Ratchet agreed firmly. "Let's go."
The stony outcrops floating amongst the clouds were lush with grass and trees, somewhat idyllic in appearance. Ratchet insisted Twilight take the time to take in the scenery while he purchased them each a Mag-net Launcher from the Grummel-net vendor nearby, wanting her to be calm for this mission. Once the group was ready to go, they moved forward together.
The Omni-boots proved most useful in getting from outcrop to outcrop, and before long they began the approach to the Citadel itself. Valkyries began charging them on foot and by winged jetpack at that point, the foot soldiers being a bit more svelte in appearance than the commanders had been. Their primary armaments seemed to be large guns and larger hammers. Unfortunately for them, Twilight was a bit too quick on the draw for any of them to show what the weapons were capable of.
Once they'd dealt with the first group of charging Valkyries, Ratchet unlocked an airship dock that allowed them to commandeer a Valkyrie airship - little more than three hovering platforms fused together - to make their way to the Citadel itself, a large collection of buildings resembling Old Earth nuclear power plant silos.
As they moved in, another Valkyrie commander - this one in orange - blocked their path. "Well, well, well," she greeted coldly. "If it isn't the galaxy's favorite Lombaxes. Come to rescue your little friend?"
"Our quarrel isn't with you, Cassiopeia!" Alister shouted back. "Hand over Clank and we'll cause no more trouble!"
Cassiopeia burst out in laughter. "After what happened to Libra, you really expect me to be so forgiving?"
Twilight took a close look at the Valkyrie. "Say, Ratchet...doesn't she look familiar?"
Ratchet blinked, taking a look. "Huh. Now that you mention it...except for the coloration and the helmet, she looks a lot like Helga."
"Now that we have what we-did you say Helga?" Cassiopeia demanded, rounding on Ratchet and Twilight. "How do you know that name?"
Twilight snorted. "Know the name? She's one of my best friends! I trained under her when helping get my brother, Captain Qwark, back into shape!"
"You lie!" Cassiopeia proclaimed. "If Helga was truly your trainer, than she would have taught you-"
Twilight lifted up onto her hind legs, one hoof over her left eye and the other at the tip of her horn. "Zip Zoom Zigaloom, Zam Zot Zut!" She then went back down to all four legs. "She said that was 'the secret greeting' if anyone asked about her."
The Valkyries stared in shock. Cassiopeia finally found her voice. "She...she lives?" she gasped out. "We...we thought she had fallen with the destruction of our colony! Where has she been all this time?"
"Solana," Twilight replied easily. "Though more recently, she's with the Polaris Space Pirates-"
"Forget Nefarious!" Cassiopeia proclaimed as all the Valkyries turned to leave. "One lost has been found again! We go to her!" As Cassiopeia led the way, she shouted out, "I'm coming, Mommy! I've missed you!!"
Ratchet, Twilight, and Alister stared at the retreating warrior maidens. "Well," Ratchet finally said. "That was..."
"You really trained with the Valkyrie Queen?" Azimuth demanded, stunned. "The Child of Freya? Surt-Slayer? She who tamed ten thousand leviathans?" He shook his head in wonder. "No wonder you're both so skilled."
Ratchet blinked. "Huh. Helga never mentioned she was famous..."
"The least they could have done was tell us where Clank was!" Twilight pouted.
"Well, the path's clear at least," Ratchet offered.
Shrugging, the trio made their way further in unhindered.
that was good man, as always.
6977828 Maybe someone mistook Freya for Freyr?
this made me laugh lol This story is so good
6977866 it helps when you're a robot.
6977866 u know Helga is a bot right? that or she just takes good care of herself...
Woah. Didn't see that one coming.
6977960 anyway, fairly sure that Helga is a bot...
6977866
In response to all your questions...
In Norse mythology, Freya was the leader of the Vlakyries, and the only one who joined the other Asgardians in doing battle against Surt and his Fire Giants during Ragnarok. Carina fled because it looked like Twilight conjured a Fire Giant out of pure fury.
Basically, implying there's a certain amount of mythos behind the Valkyries here. Also why they sought out a 'mead hall'.
6978063
Alternatively, the event that destroyed the colony sent Helga careening through time, and she knew enough about that to not try and interfere with the fabric of causality...and robots don't age after a certain point which is why she doesn't look any older.
And it was actually intended as a reply to all your comments in general, which is why I said "all your questions".
Ah, more OP characters, I love it! Looking forward to more.
Keep up the good work. Deus tecum.
"Let's go.
1. Just forgot your closing quotation mark.
And this is why you never get in the way of an angry Alicorn Filly Princess. She will Wreck you stuff with a giant fire avatar.
I never knew Helga was a Valkyrie, let alone a queen of the Valkyries...
Where did you get all this info?
6978408
That bit was thrown in because Helga does seem to be the same model as the Valkyries, and it made this part of the story funnier.
Besides, this way I can have Sasha, Angela, and Talwyn be embarrassed about being witness to a Valkyrie/Space Pirate drunken orgy worthy of Valhalla.
6978234 Actually depending how much energy was realeased during the supernova it is plausable that a time anomaly occured due to the energy released during the event. Going by Einstein's theory of relativity, which was just recently proven by the discovery of the gravimetric waves, and by the way high velocities interact with time, it is possible for helga to have been essentially launched through time due to the energy supplied by the supernova
6978449
I'm sorry to tell you that it does not work that way.
Even with relativity, the only way to move backwards through time is through the use of massive distances and wormholes, in an incredibly contrived way by effectively moving between different frames of reference.
The thing is, according to relativity, time does become warped by sufficiently high amounts of energy, but it only gets stretched or compressed. Time travel is made possible by relativity through a completely different mechanism, which is effectively the fact that the "present" is only a frame of reference.
What that means is that the current "present" depends of from which velocity you currently view the universe. Time travel is then only possible through the use of wormholes, by effectively moving faster than the speed of light, which would normally limit the ability of any object to move through their frame of reference.
That is not to say that time travel is completely impossible within our universe, merely that relativity provides no explanation or methods how it would be possible without the use of wormholes.
Edit: Additionally, in this universe, time anomalies are a thing. So just use that as an explanation and forget relativity.
6978413
I can tell that Cap'n Slag and Rusty Pete are gonna have a real good time then...
6977828 I'm pretty sure they were referring to her badassery.
6978413 Seems legit, by the way, the greeting was nice, but no Bah Weep Granna Weep Ninny Bong.
6978870 Oops, didn't see that.
Another enjoyable chapter. Good job.
Isn't Freya supposed to be a Norse Goddess? I didn't know that ancient Germanic mythology went hand in hand with ancient Scandinavian mythology
6979500
Which bit is Scandanavian? Pretty sure everything I've used in this chapter is Norse.
6978865
That would be too well known and recognized. Too widespread for a secret recognition signal of "this female has been trained by Valkyries".
6977950 I know Helga is. i havent gotten a chance to play Crack in time though, so i wouldnt know for them.
6979706 Fair enough
Carina has a fairly valid excuse, seeing as Freya is the type of warrior mage that would make the mythological Amazonian woman proud. When you can punch out Thor on a bad day, drink Odin under the table on a good one, and kill things about ten times your size for a day job and wrestling jabberwocks for fun... Yeah, the attempt to measure up is almost certain suicide.
6979706 Well, me and my brother have always been told by certain people that Scandinavian and Norse mythology were pretty much the same thing. and as far as the valkeries go, it started with me believing that they were Germanic when I heard about the old symphony by Hitler's favorite composer Vaugner; Flight of the Valkeries. That and hearing somewhere in German folklore that "Germany was born on the wings of the Valkerie" or something like that. I'm guessing now that it was just a big misconception on my part.
6977828 Also fire. And sometimes Thor dressed in drag (yeah, that happened).
6986722 I'm not saying it was bad, I'm just saying that it happened.
Ugh jeez, the amount of chapters in this is disgusting. I'm gonna be reading whatever work of art you made forever.
...Why does this story have a Human tag?
6991080
...I don't quite recall.
6991088 Because of Quark maybe? Though he's about as human as Nobby Nobbs.
It's funny how Twilight can solve every problem around her, but their connections with Captain Qwark or Gagetron usually resolve other problems.
6991146 considering he has 3 fat fingers on each hand, and no nose to speak of...
not really.
6991088 this group has turned into the most famous/OP group ever...
I Love it!
And here i though i was crazy for putting most my focus on Helga's name.
Huh,
Helga
vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/ratchet/images/5/5c/QForce_Helga.png/revision/latest?cb=20160110152307
Cassiopeia
vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/ratchet/images/b/bb/Cassiopeia_better.PNG/revision/latest?cb=20131205113651
hmm, now you got me thinking....
Ah, Vapedia... those ladies boosted both my Mag-Net and Buzz Blades from brand new to V4 lickety split! Haven't figured out how to progress to the next world yet, but I think I'm about to find out!
Pretty cool move, Twilight, even if it is a little bit hard on Aphelion's systems. Clearly an upgrade is in order so she'll be able to withstand the strain of it.
Always nice to be able to get a significant obstacle out of the way without having to actually kill anyone.