As the trio settled into the pilot's seats of the ship's controls, the computer spoke up. "Auto pilot engaged."
"We'd better hang on tight!" Ratchet shouted out. Twilight and Clank immediately strapped themselves in.
"Hyperspace boosters online," the computer continued. "Engaging cryosleep."
As a strange gas began filtering out of grills on the control console, Twilight's helmet automatically activated the O2 mask, giving her clean air to breathe. "Good thing I increased the yield on this," she pointed out. "I'm good for three days."
As Ratchet slumped into unconsciousness, Clank grinned. "And it is a good thing cryosleep doesn't work on robots." As he began to chuckle, a panel on the control console popped open and he received a punching glove on a spring to the face, slamming him into his chair and knocking him out.
Twilight promptly surrounded herself and her chair with an energy shield. "Beat that!" she challenged the computer. "Ouch!" she added as something pricked her rump. Turning, she saw a hypodermic retracting into the seat cushion. "Clever girl..." Her words drifted off as she slumped into unconsciousness.
"Cryosleep engaged," the computer asserted firmly, and more than a trifle smugly.
When the three came to, the ship had crashed on an unknown planet in an unknown sector of space. Twilight simply glowered at the ship, considering its computer at fault for the crash for being so insistent on cryosleep.
Looking around, the planet was lush and fertile, and they seemed to have crashed in a jungle segment not far from a city, or at least what looked like a spaceport.
"Come on, you guys," Ratchet pointed out. "We need to find another ship and get back to Kerwan."
Nodding agreement, Twilight followed as Clank leapt onto Ratchet's back. At first the path seemed rather straightforward, the only hostile lifeforms being small reptilians that resembled baby dinosaurs. When attacked, they could be felled with a single swing of the Omniwrench. A larger hostile lifeform resembled a giant centipede that spat explosive balls of acid. It took several more hits to take down.
Though the terrain was varied, the path continued straightforward, and was relatively easy for the experienced trio to traverse. However, the ease of travel that the trio had been enjoying was disturbed when a massive creature reared up out of a deep pit. It resembled a large fish that hovered in midair, a large part of the underside of its body glowing blue, with the top side being stone brown. It didn't actually attack them, but it gave the trio pause nonetheless.
"W...what was that?" Twilight asked worriedly.
"No clue," Ratchet replied.
"Perhaps, instead of attempting to find out, we should continue with our efforts to get off this planet," Clank offered.
Quickly agreeing, the trio made their way further along, continuing to follow the path. Discovering a large box filled with crystals, the trio examined it to discover it was full of Raritanium.
"Finders keepers," Ratchet decided, stowing the Raritanium away for use in weapon upgrades.
As they progressed further on, the creature from before arose to attack them. It swam through the air, dropping spheres of electrically explosive energy, while occasionally diving down to try and bite them or spit acidic energy at them. Twilight discovered that, while she couldn't grab the spheres of energy with her magic, using a flat plane in motion could knock the spheres into the massive beast. She decided to go with a giant magic projection of a ping pong paddle, while Ratchet focused on using the Combuster and Fusion Grenade launcher to deliver damage. Before long, the beast's body swelled before exploding, a sphere of blue light and gas left behind, which found its way into Ratchet's inventory, along with a large amount of Raritanium that fell out of the creature's body.
"Congratulations," Ratchet's nav unit spoke up. "You have collected a Leviathan Soul. These are valuable in the Polaris Galaxy, and can be traded for bolts."
"I...guess it was a Leviathan," Ratchet allowed.
"And we're apparently in the Polaris Galaxy," Twilight pointed out. "We're really close to the Zero Coordinates, then."
"Zero Coordinates?" Ratchet asked, confused.
"The hypothetical center of the universe, from which all of the cosmos are measured in terms of the coordinate grid," Clank explained. "Many have tried to reach the Zero Coordinates, but the space around it is...unusual."
"And what are the chances that this information will be innocuous trivia rather than unexpectedly significant to our journeys?" Ratchet joked.
"Unlikely," Clank mused, having learned to recognize certain patterns by now.
"Although I don't think it qualifies as unexpected at this point," Twilight added with a giggle.
Not far beyond that, the trio reached the city they'd spotted from a distance, which had a large sign proclaiming it as 'Cobalia Spaceport'.
"Guess this is Planet Cobalia," Ratchet offered as the trio moved into the city. As they entered the spaceport, they could hear an announcement talking about how a Lombax had infiltrated the star sector. "So much for anonymity," Ratchet growled.
"Assuming anyone here will actually know what a Lombax looks like," Twilight pointed out. "It's not saying anything about me, or about Clank, so if you tie your tail around your waist like a belt and call yourself a Cazar and no one will blink twice."
"And your Omniwrenches?" Clank asked.
"Reverse engineered," Twilight countered quickly as Ratchet proceeded to bind his tail as suggested. "As long as we stay out of Tachyon's sight, no one should realize who we are."
"I guess it's time to be stealthy, then," Ratchet allowed, carefully leading the way into the spaceport.
Wait until they find out most of the robots are blind. Seriously, it's either that or Tachyon didn't give them any relevant info besides how to work the fuel plant.
The Gadgetron Onmiwrench is NOT Lombax tech!!!!'
It was BASED on the Lombax Spanner-staff weapons as a universal tool for mechanics and security use with the Gadgetron Bolt Crank.
...
Then again, I'm not too sure if the Gadgetron company opened in Polaris. They use Grummel-net there.
Either way, there was a concept-art of the wrench that had the Gadgetron logo on the jointed part, but they couldn't get it into the game.
I look forward to Twilight's reaction to the bounty hunter's parrot's organ harvesting comment.
I bet Equestria can be found at the Zero coordinates! Looking forward to the next chapter!
6510130
This was established back in the early chapters when I stated Ratchet's Omniwrench was of sentimental value.
I'm going to guess that the Cryostatis was because of the distance traveled.
6510134 next game if tats doesn't do 'quest for booty' is a crack in time and in the center of the universe is the GREAT CLOCK the thing that holds all of time together it will probably be the dimentionator that gets to equestria
So, is the ship the Big One?
Snnrk that Cut scene nostalgia
Another enjoyable chapter. Good job.
Now we're into games I haven't played yet.... But that's why I love the wiki (I read how all the games went up there)...
The Cryosleep segment was hilarious
So lombaxes are like the saiyans?
6511386 there big cats dude
6511768
I meant in that they both wear their tails around their waists like belts.
6511803
No Lombax has ever done that.
But it is a rather obvious idea for how to hide, since even Lombaxes considered their tails their most distinguished characteristic.
6512242
Well he's doing it now.
Stealth, eh? Let's see how stealthy Ratchet can be without the use of his tail for balance...
6512243 wat about the other lombrax from ealier who cut her tail off to hide for bounty hunters
6510267 "AND CONSTRUCTED IN THE EXACT CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE!!! Give or take Fifty Feet."
So, no fedora and suit? A shame.
6510342 Big One, really, I saw this flash through my brain
6511386 Well, they're a missing superior race with tails, a deep history, "last" child(ren) with no knowledge of their race, and they're bright yellow... well except for that one guy in "A Crack in Time."
as one who never played the games before I need to know, is the boxing glove canon?
7941395
Yes, yes it is.
I'm glad that we finally gone to the Lombax backstory part of the story, I've been really curious about what that was going to be.