"So, how are we going to find this transport?" said Ratchet, looking out through the cockpit window as Clank sat in the passenger seat beside him. The robot would want to look out for the transport, but even if he stood up on the seat, he could only see a fraction of the area outside, since he was only just above 2ft tall.

It's already been half an hour since they left Apogee Space Station, and they weren't having any luck.

"Well," said Clank, replying to Ratchet's comment, "it's already been 30 minutes, and there isn't any sign of a ship nearby."

There was silence for a moment; the sound of the engine can be heard from the back of the ship. Ratchet thought how else they would find this darn transport instead of looking out through the window, he then thought of a solution.

"Well," said Ratchet, wondering. "Isn't there some kind of detector that could find this transport?"

Clank accessed his memory banks, trying to find any information of tracking ship in space.

"Hmm," he said, "well, I'm not so sure about detectors, but there is a radar that can detect power sources from ships. Aphelion," he turned to the ship, "do you have a D-34 electronic radar installed?"

"Hmm," said Aphelion, thinking. "I don't have that sort of kind installed, but I got a G-87 power scanner."

Ratchet, who was confused by the conversation, spoke to the ship.

"Will that work in finding this thing?" he said.

"I'm pretty sure," said Aphelion, "It's sort of the same model. The only difference is a radar only picks up signals from ships, while a scanner scans for power sources nearby, any power source, even from ships. Even half a volt of electricity will be found on my scanner."

"Alright then," said the Lombax, as Aphelion activated her scanner. Ratchet and Clank sat inside Aphelion, waiting for her to find anything of interest, minuted passed by… nothing.

Ratchet just sat in the driver's seat, with his arms crossed, and sighed. 'Why aren't we finding anything? Is the scanner broken?' he thought. 'No, Aphelion would've told us if it was. But if that's not it, was the report on the news accidently had some wrong information on it? Gosh… I'm not sure why we—'

His thinking was interrupted by a small beep on the ship's controls, while Aphelion spoke.

"I've got something…" she said, "Its faint; it's coming from over there."

The ship suddenly turned sharply to the left, causing Ratchet to jolt from his position, while Clank didn't seem bothered at all by the sudden turn. Although the ship has a steering wheel for drivers, Aphelion still liked to ride for herself.

"Ur, Aphelion?" said Ratchet, who shuffled back into his seat. "Do you know where you're going?"

"Of course I do," she replied, "I told you I picked up a power source not far from here."

"Ok," said the Lombax, eying where Aphelion was traveling. "Do you need me to drive for you?"

"No," said Aphelion, "you wouldn't know where to go."

Ratchet just rolled his eyes, he knew she liked to drive for herself, but he was slightly annoyed by Aphelion not letting him. The Lombax wasn't a bad pilot himself; he remembered him and Clank, when they first met, had driven his first ship he built from Veldin more than 10 years ago, travelling to planet Novalis…

'…then it crashed into a cliff.' he finished in his mind.

It was a couple more minutes later when Ratchet noticed a small object, not very far from their position. "Hey, Clank," he said, turning his head to his robot pal, "look over there." Ratchet pointed, Clank stood on his seat and looked to where the Lombax was pointing, it was a small rectangular-like object not far from them, on an nearby asteriod. As Aphelion closed in on it, they realized what it was… a ship.

Not just any ship, imprinted on its side was the recognisable logo of GrummelNet…

"…the transport," said Clank.

"We found it," said Ratchet, excited slightly. "Finally!"

"See…" said Aphelion with amusement, "I told you I found something."

"Hmm," Clank hummed, "It appears the power source came from one of the engines… which is still on."

"Strange…" said Ratchet, with suspicion, "only one engine is on… and the rest of 'em aren't."

The Lombax put a hand up to his chin, rubbing it with suspicion. 'Why is there only one engine on? What about the rest? Were the rest broken? Something's not right…'

He put it out of his mind as Aphelion zoomed closer to the asteroid.

With their O2 masks on, their leader Zak and his men hid on the asteroid, inside a small crater, not far from them were the stolen transport, and their well hidden ship which cannot be seen. As they waited for their 'guests' to show up, they spotted a ship not far from them, and readied themselves for the trap. As the ship came in closer, Zak turned to his men…

"Now," started Zak to his men, "you all know the plan?"

They all nodded simultaneously.

"Right…" said Zak, "and whatever you do… do not—I repeat, do not…stuff this up, ok? Not like what happened back at GrummelNet."

"Yes, sir," they said.

Zak turned back to the approaching ship, it wasn't very far now, it closed in fast. Someone tapped him on the shoulder, he turned round.

"What?!" he whispered, not to attract attention from the ship. "Can't you see we got a trap to spring?"

"I'm sorry, but…" said the man, "what do I do?"

Zak just stared at him, and angrily sighed. "What do you mean 'what do I do?'. Haven't you listened to the plan?!"

"Well, I—" started the man.

"Just…!" said Zak, cutting him off. "Stay behind the rest of the team." He sighed.

He turned back to the ship; it was landing on the surface.

"Alright," he said, "get to your starting positions…" he turned around to see if they're ready, "You…" he pointed, to the man he just talked to, "if you don't know the plan, just stay here and keep an eye out."

'Bastard,' Zak thought, 'who HIRED him on MY team?!'

Zak turned again to the ship, it has landed, he held up a hand to the team.

"Not yet," he said, "wait 'till they get inside first…"

Aphelion landed onto the asteroid, directly in front of them, was the transport. It had 4 sections, the front was the driver's section, the two in the middle were storage areas, and the back was an open loading area, filled with automatic electronic barriers to hold down any sort of huge equipment, each of the sections were about 10 metres in length, giving the whole transport 40 metres length.

"There it is," said Ratchet, eying the transport. He took of his seat belt as Clank did the same. "Oh, that's right."

"What?" asked Clank, turning his head to the Lombax.

"I forgot my O2 mask," said Ratchet, remembering. "I can't breathe out there."

There was a click as something came out behind him, he turned and saw a mask on the wall with other equipment.

"Perhaps this could help," said Aphelion.

Ratchet grabbed the mask from its compartment, and had a look at it, it looked old but he saw some Lombax writing on it.

"Hey, Aphelion," asked Ratchet, showing the writing on the mask, "Can you read this?"

"What do you think?" she said, "I'm a Lombax ship." She scanned the writing on the mask, after a few seconds, she gave the response: "It simply says 'Oxygen Mask'."

Ratchet studied the mask, it was designed for Lombaxes, but he wasn't sure if it worked properly. He put it on, putting his ears through the top two holes at the back, he breathed. He smelled the rusty metal of the breather against his nose and mouth, but as he exhaled the air of the ship, he felt the freshly filtered air going through his lungs and decided it to use it. He took out his weapons except his wrench and placed them at his feet of the ship, thinking he won't need them.

"Alright," he said, his voice slightly distorted by the mask, but was still clearly heard, "Aphelion, open the cockpit window."

The ship opened up, with Ratchet and Clank hopping out. The Lombax breathed; he still smelt the rusted metal, but at least he could breathe. He held out a hand to Clank as the robot grasped it, Clank attached himself to Ratchet's harness on his back, as the Lombax pulled him up.

Ratchet walked up to the transport, he noticed the huge magnet on the top of it, 'The robbers must've used it to lift this laser thing and loaded it onto the back,' he thought.

He spotted a nearby door on the side of the 3rd cargo section of the transport; he paced up to the door and pulled out his wrench, ready to knock it down. He hit the door; causing it to swung open swiftly and hit the back wall.

'Already open? Huh,' he thought.

He, with his robot pal strapped to his back, walked inside. Not knowing that Zak and his men slowly following them from the other side of the transport.

Ratchet eyes scanned the dark inside, he noticed crates scattered over the place. Clank detached from Ratchet's harness on his back and hoped off, his eyed where Ratchet was looking at, all of the crates were unopened. Clank looked up and noticed air filters around the ceiling.

"Ratchet," he said, looking at the filters, "see those filters up there? They filter air in from the outside, so I guess it's ok to breathe in here."

Ratchet took of his mask to try the air inside, he breathed, and he didn't cough or choke. He attached the mask to his belt, knowing he'll need it later.

"Well," said the Lombax. "That's a relief; I don't like the smell of rusted metal."

He eyed around the room again and still noticed a lot of unopened crates.

"Why are crates still stored inside the ship?" said Ratchet, curious, "Shouldn't they've been taken? And they're all unopened."

"I noticed that, too," said Clank, "it seems that whoever stole this transport… left all of its valuable cargo behind."

Ratchet noticed a door over on the left of him, which led to the 2nd section of the transport. "There's a door over there," he said, pointing. "It must lead to more cargo in the ship."

Clank walked past Ratchet and up to the door.

"Clank?" said Ratchet, "Where are you going?"

"I'm going into the next room," he said, as he opened the door with a small control panel beside it, "you stay here and look around while I, look in there."

"Alright fine," said the Lombax, "just don't hurt yourself, 'kay?"

"Why would I want to hurt myself?" asked Clank, as he entered the next room. "That's one of the most stupid replies I've heard. I think you mean 'don't get yourself hurt'."

"Whatever," said Ratchet, rolling his eyes, "just… be careful."

Clank entered the next room with the door automatically shutting behind him.

Zak and his men were on the other side of the transport, opposite to where Ratchet and Clank entered.

"Ok," Zak said to his men, "they're inside; when I give the signal, we'll go through that door of the 2nd compartment." He pointed towards the door on the second section, behind the driver's section.

A few minutes went by until he gave the order. "Now!" he whispered.

He and his men came up to the door, opening it slowly.

A few minutes earlier…

Clank wandered around the cargo room, eying the crates, they too were unopened.

He hummed in thought, 'These crates are too, unopened. Whoever stole this laser and loaded it onto this transport must've been in a hurry, forgot about all the cargo in this ship.'

He walked over to one of the huge metal crates and inspected it; it also had the GrummelNet logo on the side. He noticed a piece of paper attached on the side of the crate; the robot took it off and looked at it, it was a price list of GrummelNet products. It contained Combustors, Pyro Blasters, Groovitron Gloves, Mr. Zurkons, Warmongers, and Thundersmakers.

Clank looked from the list and back towards the crate. 'The contents in this crate alone are a million bolts worth.' he thought, as he eyed it. 'In fact, the crates around this room are worth millions. Why would they leave all this behind?'

Clank was so busy on his thinking; he didn't notice the door behind him on the other side of the transport opened up, nor did he hear the sound of a door lock, and nor did he hear Zak and his men creeping up behind him.

'Something's not right here,' he continued thinking, 'I better tell Ratchet about this.'

As he turned to go back to Ratchet, he was suddenly kicked at, causing him to collide into some crates. He got back up, but was stunned by Zak, causing Clank to fall to the ground unconscious.

Before Clank was attacked, Ratchet looked around in the other cargo room opposite to Clank. He eyed a nearby metal crate, and walked up to it. Noticing a slight opening in the crate, he took out his wrench, and swung at it. The top of the crate popped up, Ratchet got a hold of the lid and placed it on the ground.

He looked inside, noticing a whole stash of weapons and gadgets, completely untouched.

'None of these weapons are stolen,' he thought, 'the robbers just left them. There's got to be millions worth of GrummelNet weapons here.' He eyed around the whole dark room, looking at the tens of hundreds of crates untouched and unopened.

'This is not right, first the engine, then the unlocked door, and now weapons inside aren't touched by the criminals? What is this? Is… this a…'

Setup?

As soon as that word came to mind, he heard a crashing sound from the other cargo room, and realized Clank was in that room.

'Oh, no,' he thought. He rushed over to the door of the next cargo room, and activated the button on the panel. Nothing.

He tried again, still the same response.

"Clank!" he yelled, as he bashed on the door. With no other choice, he took out his wrench and bashed at the control panel.

Zak, who looked down at the unconscious robot, heard banging on the locked door. He signalled his men to hide as he hid behind a crate, getting ready to attack. Ratchet bashed at the control panel with his wrench, causing the door to slide open. He rushed inside; he stopped as he looked around the room, trying to find Clank.

He spotted Clank, lying on the ground not moving. "Clank!" he yelled as he rushed towards him. Before he could reach him, he was kicked in the stomach by Zak, who was hiding behind the crate. The Lombax fell to the ground, but got back up again and eyed his attacker.

Ratchet ran and swung his wrench towards Zak, Zak dodged the wrench as he tried to lay another hit on him. He took this opportunity as he saw an opening, punching the Lombax in the chest.

Ratchet flinched from the impact, but it didn't stop him from attacking Zak. He swung his wrench faster; Zak dodged it for a few more seconds, before the wrench hit him hard in the arm…

Crack.

He heard the sound of a bone break in his arm.

Zak fell to the ground, holding his arm with his other hand.

Ratchet picked him up by the collar and looked at him with his angry emerald eyes, as he did; a choking gasp escaped his throat. One of Zak's men grabbed Ratchet around the throat with his arm, causing the Lombax to drop Zak and his wrench to the ground. He fought against the man, trying to pull his arm away from his neck with his gloved hands. Ratchet started to feel his throat close up, as the man tightened his grip.

Ratchet let one of his hand go from the man's arm choking him, and elbowed him in the gut hard. The man loosed his grip on the Lombax's throat, as he did, Ratchet bit down on his hand.

Hard.

Ratchet's triangular-like teeth broke the skin as the man screamed, blood squirted out from the wounded hand in Ratchet's mouth. The man pulled away as the Lombax kicked him, causing him to collapse into some crates.

Ratchet spat the man's blood out of his mouth as another one of Zak's men charged at him. Dodging out of the way, Ratchet picked up his wrench swiftly, and took a swipe at him, causing him also to collapse into some crates beside the other man Ratchet kicked down.

Zak eventually got back up, still clutching his broken arm, and slowly walked up to Ratchet, who was fighting with another one of Zak's men with his wrench. Eventually, Ratchet hit the man in the head with his wrench, causing some blood to leak from the man's head.

Zak slowly was right up behind Ratchet, then he kicked the Lombax in the back, taking Ratchet by surprise as he collided into some crates. Zak looked at his injured men from the Lombax attacks.

"Come on!" he yelled to his men, still clutching his arm. "Don't let a small, furry rat beat the hell out of you!"

Ratchet stood up at that comment, angered.

"Look at him," yelled Zak; again, "he's just a stupid furball!"

Ratchet's anger started to rise.

"At least we took out that pathetic robot of his," continued Zak to his men. "You all—"

Snap. That did it.

Ratchet charged at him with his wrench, colliding with Zak, causing his back to slam against the wall. Ratchet held him by the collar up against the wall of the transport.

"Don't…" he started, with anger in his eyes, "don't you dare say that about my pal!"

"Alright, alright," said Zak, slightly scared by how a small Lombax could hold up a 6ft man. "I'm sorry that your robot doesn't know how to defend himself."

Ratchet put his face right up to Zak's, still angry by what he said.

"Clank can defend for himself very well," he said, dropping Zak onto the floor. "But you…" he pointed at Zak with his wrench, "you gotta watch what you say… especially with that temper of yours."

Zak remained on the floor, as Ratchet ran over to Clank, who still was unconscious from the stunning. The Lombax knelt down beside him, "Clank…?" he said, he received no response from the robot. "Pal…?"

Still no response.

Ratchet stood up and walked back over to Zak, and picked him up again by the collar. The Lombax placed him against the wall.

"What did you do to him?" he said, firmly. "And how do I wake him up?"

"I only gave him a stun with my gun," he said.

"Ok," Ratchet said, lowering Zak slightly but placed him back against the wall. "But how do I wake him?"

"I… I don't k–know," he said, struggling to get a few words out, because the Lombax held him by the collar.

"You wouldn't want to mess with this…" he said showing him his wrench, "…look at the damage it's already done." he said eying around the room.

"Yeah," said Zak, eying his broken arm, "I noticed."

"Anyway," said Ratchet, turning back to the subject, "you still haven't given me a straight answer on how to wake Clank up."

"Well, I—" he started, but Ratchet cut him off by gripping his broken arm. Zak flinched from the pain.

"No 'wells', 'buts', or any childish excuses!" Ratchet said, firmly.

"Ok," he said. "If he's not too damaged by the shock he should wake up soon."

Ratchet looked at him in the eye, trying to tell if he's lying, but found nothing.

"Thanks," said Ratchet plainly, as he dropped Zak to the ground again. He walked back over to Clank, knelt down beside him and scooped him up in one hand, and stood back up. He'd completely forgotten about the injured men, when he turned around, one of them with a combustor in his hand aiming directly at Ratchet. A crate lay unopened on the ground beside the man.

"Oh, crap," he said, he had nothing else to say as the man opened fire. Ratchet, with Clank in one hand and wrench in his other, he leaped through the nearby opened door which Zak's men came through before.

"Damn," said the man, "I missed him!"

Zak, who was still on the floor spoke. "Well get him you idiot! We can't let him escape!"

The man who had been holding the combustor ran back over to the unopened crate, and searched quickly for anything more destructive. He found it the weapon; it was quite large with 8 missiles around its base, a Warmonger. He quickly grabbed it and rushed out of the transport.

Ratchet ran out from the transport, and realized he didn't have his mask on. Quickly, with his wrench still in his hand, grabbed the mask from his belt and put it on. He breathed in fresh (rusted-metal) air as he still ran.

"Phew," he said, relieved. "That was a cl—"

Suddenly a missile came from out of nowhere and collided with the ground, 10ft in front of him, causing an explosion and leaving a small crater (not that there was any on the asteroid).

"Holy—"

Ratchet turned and saw one of Zak's men with a warmonger in his hands. He fired another missile at Ratchet, the Lombax quickly moved out of the way, he would've fought him with his weapons but he left them back in his ship, so he dodged them instead while he ran back to Aphelion.

He turned at the corner of the transport, missing another missile as it hit the ground. Ratchet saw Aphelion in the distance, and ran as quickly as he could, still trying to avoid the missiles.

Aphelion noticed Ratchet running with Clank unconscious in his arm. "Ratchet!" said Aphelion, "What's going on? What happened to Clank?"

"I'll explain later," said Ratchet, "right now we need to get out of here—"

He spotted another missile about to be fired from the warmonger by the man.

"Now!" he said to Aphelion, as the missile hit the ground a few metres in front of him, but still missed. Aphelion opened the cockpit, as Ratchet with Clank in his arm jumped inside. Ratchet placed Clank in the passenger seat as Aphelion closed the cockpit. Ratchet placed his wrench and the mask with his other weapons as he spotted another missile about to be fired.

"Aphelion!" he said, "We need to go now!"

The ship took off from the ground and she started her engines, just as the man fired two missiles out from the warmonger. Aphelion quickly blasted off just as the two missiles followed directly behind her. The ship had to avoid the asteroids as the missiles gained on her.

Ratchet looked out in space and saw the two projectiles coming in, "Ur, Aphelion," he said, worried. "Can you go any faster?"

"In an asteroid field?" she said, "I don't think so."

The ship dodged more asteroids as the missiles came closer. Ratchet looked out and saw the missiles still coming. Ratchet turned back to Clank, he still was unconscious. 'Hopefully he'll wake up soon. But I'm worried about those missiles still catching up.'

The missiles were still about 30 metres away, but still came in closer.

In front of the ship were more asteroids, the ship dodged them very well, but the two missiles came in ever closer towards Aphelion. Every time Aphelion took a turn, it lost some speed, making the two missiles gain on them faster.

Ratchet looked out the window, and to his horror, the missiles were now about 5 metres away from them. His ears drooped slightly.

"Aphelion," he said, "I think we should get out of the asteroid belt. Those missiles are getting very close now."

"Alright," said Aphelion, "I'll try to find an opening."

The missiles slowly gained up on them, closer and closer…

"There!" Ratchet said, "Aphelion, turn to your right!"

Aphelion did so, as so did the missiles. The ship sped up as they started to zoom away from the asteroid field. Ratchet breathed a sigh of relief; he looked out the window and spotted only one missile.

'Wait…' he thought, 'what happened to the other—'

His thinking was cut short as the second missile appeared out of nowhere from behind an asteroid and closed in fast on them. Aphelion quickly dodged out of the way from the missile, as the first zoomed in closer as well. Ratchet held onto the sides of the ship as the second missile came back around for another turn.

Ratchet also spotted an asteroid to his side, and noticed a missile on Clank's side, both the asteroid and the missile came closer.

'Oh, no.' Ratchet thought as he realized something.

Aphelion was going to make a choice, right or left. Colliding with the asteroid or with the missile. They could go straight through, but there was a very likely chance by doing so, they were going to be impacted by both, with no survival.

Ratchet noticed the missile was not that large and decided to take the risk. "Aphelion," he said, "turn to the right."

"What?!" said Aphelion, "We'll be hit by the missile!"

"Just do it!" said Ratchet. Aphelion had no choice but to follow the Lombax's words.

Aphelion turned right, as she did, Ratchet looked over to Clank as he saw the missile came in closer. Ratchet then took Clank with both hands and pulled his close to his chest, shielding him with his arms and body, hoping the missile will not damage much.

The missile came in closer as Aphelion turned right…

Closer… and closer…

Until…

Impact.

There was bright light as the ship's right side exploded from the missile, lucky; the damage to the right side wasn't bad. Not until the other missile came in behind them, impacting right into the thrusters.

Ratchet completely forgot about the other missile before he was thrown off his seat by the second impact, hitting his head on the top of the ship, knocking him out cold, still with Clank in his hands.

Aphelion started to lose control of herself as the missile impacted her thrusters, also hitting the hyper-drive engine. The ship started to speed up as the hyper-drive was incidentally activated by the damage. Speck of light in space turned to long bright streaks as the ship went into hyper-space, disappearing from view.

Zak and his men were now in their ship, bruised and bleeding from the Lombax, as they scanned the asteroid belt searching for the ship they escaped in. So far, they scanned the whole place, no sign of the ship. Assuming the ship was destroyed by the missiles, Zak turned to his men.

"They're gone," he said, "the radar shows no sign of their ship."

"Suppose they went into hyper-space?" said one of his men.

"If they did," said Zak, "the ship would've been tracked. We have their signature of their ship, but as I said before, the radar could not find them. They must've been destroyed by the missiles."

Zak turned back to the front of the ship, eying outwards into space.

"If they did survive…" he said after a few minutes, "that Lombax with pay dearly for what he did to my arm."

He eyed his broken arm in a holster as he contacted his executive on the com-link.

"Aaron, sir," he spoke on the com-link.

"What is it, Zak?" Aaron's voice spoke through.

"We've got rid of them, sir."

"Good job," said Aaron, sounding pleased. "Return back to our base when your team is ready."

"Ok, sir," Zak said before cutting the connection. He turned back to his men, then one of them spoke.

"But," he said, "what if they are still alive?"

Zak eyed him for a few seconds before replying, "If they are, we'll try to get rid of them before Aaron finds out… 'cause he doesn't like failures."