Rivet ran her hand over the cool metal of the omniwrench in her lap. This second trip to Fastoon had been far shorter than the first, but no less transformative for her.
That first time, leaving in Periapsis to start a new adventure, she remembered feeling like a real lombax for practically the first time. Now as the arid planet shrunk in her proverbial rear view mirror, she couldn't help but feel like now she was something more. She was a Keeper, something that couldn't be taken from her. It was as much a part of her as her name, or the term 'lombax.'
She noticed Kit staring at her from the corner of her eye and apologized for spacing like that, making the robot giggle. "It's ok. It's nice to see you so excited about something."
Rivet smiled again and looked back down. The wrench was old and battered, clearly having seen more fights than she could ever hope to guess. Scratches and gouges marred its surface on every piece, but none of it looked anywhere near a breaking point. She turned it over in her hands, examining every facet her eyes could land on. "It's not what I'm used to fighting with, so I'll have to modify it."
"It's what marks you as a Keeper, right?" Kit asked and she nodded, showing her the engraving on the pommel with their dimension's number on it. Kit's eyes shown as she read it, then looked back up at her. "Is it really ok for you to modify it?"
Rivet stopped and considered that. Kaden had used the head to access the Nexus to begin with, and then they used them to become Keepers. And as she looked it over it didn't seem like she could replace the wrench head with her hammer at all. "Now that you mention it, I guess not. Maybe I'll just duel wield then! Hammer in one hand, wrench in the other!"
She summoned the hammer for good measure and struck as fierce a pose as she could while staying seated, Kit breaking into laughter with her soon to follow. Periapsis chimed in to let them know about an incoming call, a threeway one from the other two ships.
"What's up boys?" She asked as it connected.
"I was about to ask dad about Auros, and I figured you'd want to hear too." Ratchet informed her. "Dad?"
A 2-D representation of Auros came up on her display. "Like I mentioned before, it was home to a top secret research facility before the uprising. Specifically it focused on genetics. The planet's in a position relative to other stars in its nebula that it's constantly bombarded with radiation. It has a strong magnetic field, so it's habitable, but the higher radiation has made life there highly malleable and ideal for experimentation."
"So they experimented on living things?" Rivet asked, not hiding the traces of disgust.
"That's the only way when it comes to genetics without an advanced enough computer to simulate ecosystems down to a molecular level. None of them are sentient, and steps were always taken to make sure the ecosystems they were taken from remained intact."
"Doesn't make it okay." Rivet pointed out.
"No, but that's the past, nothing we can do about it now." The image cleared up and showed the planet in color. The same ribbons of light that they saw on the 3-D model shimmered across the surface. "Those colors you see are a reaction of the stellar radiation with the planet's atmosphere, and they basically make it a planet of eternal daylight. Plants dominate the surface and grow rapidly, while the fauna are mostly relegated underground where they can have rest cycles."
"Quantos had plants like that. Will the facility where the dimensionator's being held be ok? It might be overgrown by now." Ratchet asked.
"It should have automatic trimmers, and most of it's underground so it should be fine. The other version of me probably locked the dimensionator in the artifact vault near the bottom of labs. They were used to just store data at first, but then we put a bunch of pre-spaceflight artifacts in there for safekeeping too, so it's very secure."
"Why not in a museum? Lombax artifacts are few and far between." Clank asked.
"All our museums were digital or filled with really good copies, less risk they'll be stolen or damaged that way. Instead they're scattered in vaults across Polaris, sat atop scanners and preservation equipment. If the dimensionator's going to be anywhere on that planet, it's there."
"How do we get in then?" Rivet asked.
"Getting into the facility will be easy enough. All lombax systems are connected, so it'll already recognize you two as Keepers, and as such you'll have almost free access to the whole thing." Kaden started, but Rivet cut in.
"Why do I feel like there's a 'but' coming?" She asked herself aloud.
"Because there is. The vault is basically the one place you won't have access to, that has to be granted by the facility's administrator from their computer. And seeing as they're either dead or in the lombax dimension, we'll have to do that ourselves. So we'll have to land, find the facility, find the administrator's computer, and then make our way to the vault."
"Bout time you actually explained something." Rivet muttered under breath. If the mic picked it up, Kaden didn't acknowledge it.
"I have a general location for the facility, but that's it. Nothing on the entrance or what there might be on the ground near it as far as hostile flora or fauna, not to mention defenses."
"Not even the layout inside?" Rivet asked.
"It's likely different between dimensions, so anything I tell you would probably turn out to be false. On top of that, I never spent a lot of time at the place, only the occasional visit as needed."
"So into the unknown we go then." Rivet surmised. "At least the planet looks pretty."
"We can agree on that. I've never seen a planet with colors like that." Ratchet admitted, no doubt admiring the image inside Aphelion much like she was.
"Well, you're both about to see it for real, 'cause here we go." With Kaden's announcement they dropped out of warp over Auros. The inside of all of their ships were immediately bathed in a rainbow of lights, bright reds, violets and blues blinding them for a few moments. When Rivet's eyes recovered, she was able to see Auros and its stars in all their beauty.
She could see five of them in total through the dulled glass of the cockpit, suspended in vast swathes of colorful dust blowing around in the solar winds. Auros itself shone with lights of its own, shining like a ribboned pearl. Past the lights she could make out vast green continents, dotted by mountains, lakes and the occasional desert. Most of what she could see though was a planet dominated by large lush forests, wrapped in swamps that bordered deep blue oceans. By all means it was a beautiful planet, though at the same time she remembered the prospect of an everlasting day which somewhat soured it. Much as she loved a gorgeous landscape like this, she loved being able to sleep a lot more.
Descending to the planet, they passed through that colorful band of light in the atmosphere, flying low over the tops of trees hundreds of feet tall. They managed to find a clearing large enough for all three ships not far from the area where the facility was supposed to be, and once disembarked they set out to find it.
Kaden led the way, a map projected from his hand to keep them on the right course as they wove through the dense jungle they found themselves in. Multi-colored overgrowth tried to stop them practically every step, with tangling vines and thick foliage that had to be constantly pushed out of the way. Every ten feet they went though, Rivet could look back and see it recovering almost immediately. Cut vines regrew while ferns and bushes that were shoved aside shifted back into position.
Though, the strange vegetation wasn't why her head was on a swivel. "Do you guys feel that?"
Ratchet just in front of her nodded. "Those eyes boring into the back of my head? Oh yeah."
"I haven't detected any large predators in our vicinity." Clank stated. "Kit?"
"Same here. Though it's difficult to tell, as much of the plant movement could be natural."
"Dad, you said all the fauna evolved to stay underground right?"
"For rest cycles, yeah. I imagine quite a few hunt above ground for food though. We should keep moving, make ourselves a more difficult target." The others nodded in agreement and pushed on a bit faster than before, hoping to make themselves less appetizing. All the while, they could feel the hungry eyes following them.
As they went, Rivet did her best to take in the new world around her in an effort to distract herself. This whole adventure had been a flurry of new destinations to her, all foreign and a bit strange. This place was no different as rainbow beams of light pierced through the canopy above them, illuminating plants of every shape and size.
Thick barked trees with multi-colored leaves surrounded by ferns, bushes and crawling vines surrounding their bases and roots. All of them dazzled the eyes with leaves in practically every color she could imagine, all the plants having evolved them likely to absorb as much light as possible in the ever shifting spectrum around them. Deeper and deeper into the forest they delved, passing all of these beautiful sights by.
All in all, if it wasn't for the fate of the universe, the eyes of predators, Kaden, Clank, and Kit, it might have been a place for a nice romantic walk.
… Ok, maybe there's a lot there to overcome. Rivet thought to herself with a little snort. That's not something to think about till after this whole mess is done. Maybe then we can come back though. I'm sure this would look good in the mi-
Her thoughts were cut short by Ratchet in front of her tumbling head over heels forward, tripping on something in the dirt. He grunted and huffed as he came to a violent rest face down, nearly flinging Clank from his back. Kaden stopped and turned to him, though by the time he did Rivet was crouched down next to him, laughing at him as he yanked his head from the dirt.
"You alright Hotshot?"
"Ugh, yeah. What'd I trip on anyway?" He asked as he rubbed his head.
Rivet looked behind him to a small bump under the blanket of leaves they had been walking on. "Not sure, looks like a root or something."
"Whatever it was, keep your eyes open, you two." Kaden told them. "The entrance to the facility is going to be somewhere around here."
Rivet rolled her eyes and half ignored him before shifting to move the leaves aside. Beneath them she recognized the silvery glint of lombax alloy, lines etched into its surface in the shape of a five fingered hand. It was a right hand though.
"Guys! I found something!" She called over her shoulder at the others. Ratchet's ears perked high immediately, making him stop nursing his head and crawl over. On his knees next to her, he looked at what she found.
"Looks like a hand scanner." He muttered.
"Yeah, wanna give it a shot?"
"I'm surprised you didn't just do it yoursel-" He stopped himself as his brain made the connection as to why she hadn't gone and activated it herself. "Sorry. I forgot."
"About my bright yellow arm?" She asked, eyebrow raised.
"To be fair, almost my whole body is bright yellow." He joked with a small chuckle, though it died in his throat when he saw her glare. There were certain things she was ready to joke about, but the arm wasn't one of them. His ears sunk behind his head. "Sorry. Again."
She shook her head. "It's alright, just do the thing."
He nodded shortly and peeled his glove from his right hand. He didn't delay pressing his long fingers into the grooves of the metal. For a moment, nothing happened. The forest around them hung still and silent. Then a hum started just under his hand, followed by a pulse of light that came from it and followed the lines into the ground. After that he pulled his hand away and stepped back alongside Rivet.
A solid thump beneath their feet let them know something was happening before the hand scanner sunk into the dirt and was replaced by a bolt crank sticking up out of the ground.
"Maybe this opens the front door?" Ratchet asked aloud and stepped up, bringing out his wrench as he did. Kaden stopped him before he could try and find out though.
"Maybe we shouldn't activate random switches we find just to see what happens." He cautioned. Ratchet seemed about to agree when Rivet's hammer slammed down on top of the crank.
"We don't have time for caution!" With a click, her hammer attached itself to the bolt crank. Then she reeled her right arm back and threw the hammer, sending it screaming around the bolt crank and activating the device. After three trips around accompanied by a winding sound but nothing else happening, the crank came to a solid and sudden stop. Recalling her hammer via the magnet in her hand, Rivet and the other lombaxes watched and waited for something to happen.
After some time, the ground in front of them all split open. Large panels set into the ground slowly revealed a platform raising to fill the place the doors once occupied.
Kaden marched up to the edge. "Must be a landing platform. While I don't agree with just activating random switches-"
Rivet cut his lecture short with a sharp glare, cutting clean through the now screaming sound of the grinding gears of the ascending platform. The volume continued to climb with it, a screech echoing through the surrounding woods. She found herself wishing they had ear holes to plug to muffle the noise, and was practically ready to rip her ears off by the time it came to a stop at the top.
"Ugh! Finally!" She exclaimed as it stopped, relishing the return to the quiet of the forest. They all walked onto the platform, tentatively at first though, since none of them trusted those rusty gears that had made so much noise coming up. Kaden walked over to the console used to control everything, followed by Ratchet while Rivet took more interest in having a look at the gears.
There were four, one on each side of the square platform, and all of them looked like they were rusted almost completely. "I'm surprised this thing could move at all without breaking." She muttered to herself as she kicked it lightly.
That much force seemed to break grunthor's back though, as the gear snapped free of its holder and tumbled down into the tunnel below. The whole platform lurched and pitched a bit with part of its support now gone, as she could clearly hear more crashes from underneath their feet. She looked over her shoulder at the other two with a nervous smile.
"So-" As she opened her mouth to apologize, a massive crash came from below as large debris finally settled and shook the ground, making her flinch.
"...Sorry."
Kaden sighed heavily. "Try not to break everything until after we find the dimensionator maybe?"
Rivet glared at him, but Ratchet came to her defense before her, for better or worse. "To be fair, breaking everything has certainly always been my MO, and from what I heard it's hers too."
She was about to protest, but connected eyes with Clank on his back. The silver bot gave her a look that silently said if she did he'd go ahead and set the record straight himself. Her shoulders slumped and she shook her head, turning her back on the judgment of her ways going on between the other two lombaxes. The robots, now facing each other, shrugged at their carrier's antics.
This relative calm was shattered by a deep, pained cry from underneath their feet. It shook the floor beneath them, and whatever it was sounded big and very angry. The prior conversation was abandoned and they all looked at each other before the call was answered all around them. Cries echoed in from every direction, and all of a sudden those eyes that had been on them had their hunger supplanted by wrath.
In a moment Ratchet and Rivet had guns in their hands while Kaden typed away on the console all the faster.
Out of the treeline around them burst out a small army of eight limbed arthropods, all of them about equal in size to the lombaxes themselves. Bug eyes and slathering mouths were wrapped in thick, shimmering chitin that chimed like a disgusting chorus as they charged. Their segmented limbs were tipped with razor sharp claws that dug furrows into the dirt, propelling them forward.
Blaster shots ripped through their ranks, courtesy of the armed lombaxes. They tore through line after line of the chittering mouths, but for every one they seemed to cut down three or four more took its place. And soon, it wasn't just ones their size that they were holding off, but larger ones too. The horde they piled shots into grew in size and number endlessly, pouring out towards them, and in spite of all their shooting they didn't seem to slow.
"DAD!?" Ratchet called behind him, his voice begging for good news as Rivet ditched her gun in favor of her hammer in one hand and new wrench in the other, a myriad crunch sounds following her as she dove forward into the enemy.
"ALMOST GOT IT!" He responded, and true to his word the platform started moving a few seconds later. The screeching gears sang their song again as they started their descent. Even as the platform moved though, their assailants didn't stop. They jumped from the ledge up high down on top of them, or crawled down the walls. Some just took the opportunity to rest up high, throwing clawfulls of organic acid at them. Ratchet focused his gunfire in the area near Rivet, trying his best to keep her from getting surrounded as she swung away, but in doing so left himself open.
One of the creatures tackled him from the side, sending both of them sprawling. It was on top of him immediately, swinging its gouging talons at his head. He ducked and tried to swing back, but the assault of six arms at the same time was too much for him to handle. He was only freed when its chest suddenly burst, splattering him in the dull green goo they were filled with.
"Ughhh." He groaned as he hoped none got in his mouth. He recovered and was hefted to his feet by his dad, though that seemed to accompany a waning in the strength of the bugs. Barely any were left alive on the platform, and they were so far down now that any crawling on the walls risked getting shot before they hit the bottom. Rivet carved heer path through the group around her, the same goo that covered part of him was thoroughly ground into her clothes. They all regrouped in the center of the now cleared platform.
"Ok." Ratchet yelled over the gears, panting from the fight. "I think that's it for no-"
He was interrupted by another roar from below cutting through the noise, now angrier than before.
"Why do I say things?" He wondered aloud. The tunnel shook around them as the beast climbed the tunnel, the impacts of its claws rattling their teeth with every thump. The trio swiveled around, looking for where it would come from, assuming it would dig through the wall at them. With a final thud, the platform lurched and shifted as a mass hit from below, followed by a chitinous claw piercing up through near them.
The claw alone was the size of their ships above ground, and it only got bigger as it continued to rip up through the plate, tearing a fissure through it. Up through the opening came another claw that it used to drag in its oversized head. Massive, segmented and milky white eyes glowered down at them before anger flared within them. The creature roared, spittel and slime scattering from its jaws all around them.
Kaden's response was to construct a bomb in his palm and toss it down the gaping maw. IT tumbled through as they all dashed out of the way, knowing the effect the explosion would likely have. They were proved correct as the boom was followed shortly by a wretch, heaving a glob of acid that splashed onto the floor. It didn't melt through the platform, but that only meant that it remained a floor hazard in the middle of the half of the platform that wasn't now occupied by some kind of queen bug.
With the shock of its emergence now worn off, all three lombaxes started shooting at the giant. Its face was a prime weak point, but it kept protecting it with its claws while it swung and smashed, trying to squash them. If they tried to hit anywhere else the shots bounced off uselessly, pinging off dangerously. Explosions from rocket launchers and bomb gloves did a bit more, but overall seemed to be doing little.
"Do either of you have ideas for how to deal with this thing?" Kaden asked through the radio. "We're lively to run out of ammo before we crack through that shell!"
Ratchet tried to think, but was busy since his most recent attack had drawn the creature's ire. He had little time to think beyond jumping and dodging out of the way of the lumbering beast. Luckily, Rivet picked up his slack.
"I've got an idea! Hold on!"
Over on Rivet's side of the fight, she was free to mostly do as she wished, the bug's back to her as it attacked Ratchet. She turned and looked at the grinding gear right behind her.
"I do not think that's a good idea." Kit warned.
"Noted. Doing it anyway." She responded before slamming her hammer down on top of the gear. It snapped free of its housing immediately, tumbling like the one before into the darkness below. The platform lurched again, now half unsupported from below. She had partially expected it to just fall, but it managed to remain in place.
"ARE YOU CRAZY!?" Kaden shouted, his voice audible even without the radio.
"If we drop the platform it'll crush the bug!"
"AND US ALONG WITH IT!"
"Rivet, are you sure about this!?" Ratchet cut in, his voice shaky as there was another smash.
"Nope! But I think we should do it anyway!" She could feel Kadens eyes boring into her in disbelief before he turned to his son.
"Don't you dare!" There was relative silence for a bit, no one saying anything as Ratchet seemed to be thinking. All the while, the giant insect's attacks seemed to increase in ferocity. It couldn't see them, having to keep its face covered, but the sound of them talking to each other seemed to jostle its attention around.
"Ratchet, I'm asking you to trust me! There's nothing else we can do!" Rivet told him. Another few beats of silence while the bug swung at her, making her side dash out of the way. From her new angle she could see him conversing with Clank.
"I'm not sure pal." He muttered.
"You need to make a decision quickly regardless."
Ratchet looked from his dad to Rivet, and in the moment he saw another swing come down at where she was he made up his mind.
"I trust her. Hold on pal!" He yelled and dashed towards the gear right next to him. He doubted he was strong enough to break it with a swing, so instead he produced a bomb from a glove and tossed it towards the moving mound of rust.
Same as with the others, the explosion blew the gear away. This time, when the platform lurched and tipped it didn't stop. The metal groaned and ripped more, the strain of its own weight beginning to tear it apart. The platform crumbled away beneath their feet, falling fast from them.
The lombaxes were left hanging in mid-air, spreading their limbs out to fall slower while the creature fruitlessly clung to the platform's shards while it tumbled into the dark. It shrieked and clawed at them with its free arms, a longer one sweeping out. Rivet dipped, making herself more aerodynamic to avoid it, but Ratchet wasn't as lucky. The claw caught him in the side, knocking him off course and towards the wall. He tumbled towards a ventilation shaft, a large sinning fan poised to mince him. She could practically see the gears turn in his head in slow motion as he thought of his way out, choosing to phantom dash through the fan blades.
She didn't have long to think about where he was going as he vanished into the vent though, as the monster beneath them hit the bottom. It Blasted up a wave of air, hitting her and Kaden like a wall of dust and dirt. It slowed their fall, making her feel like she was floating on the current before she started falling again.
Thinking fast, she angled herself towards the wall. She drifted near it, making sure she ended up next to one of the channels that the gears had traveled in. Thrusting out her right hand, she gripped the side of the channel. The sound of screeching metal on metal grinding rang out, filling her ears again while sparks filled her vision.
To help her slow down more, she lit her hoverboots. She managed to keep her balance as she descended, now at a far more manageable rate. Another grinding noise joined hers, and she turned to see Kaden doing the same as her, though a bit further down since he had been falling faster than her.
They both sprawled from the landing, Rivet tumbling into a pool of goo that was all that remained of the creature from before. She quickly lit the flashlight on her hip, illuminating the dank cavern.
The areas here at the bottom that hadn't been crushed or painted in a thick layer of the bug's remains were equally coated in thick black slime. Swaddled in large clutches and held together by slime were thousands of small eggs, each no bigger than her fist. The massive clutches almost seemed to breathe and seethe as light shown on them.
"I'm good." She called out, looking around and cracking her back. "Mostly."
"Good, great even!" Kaden shouted at her. "Now we just have to hope you didn't cause a cave in or something that would take weeks to dig through!"
"You need to calm down old man!" Her flashlight swiveled over to show him to her, and his face was as angry as his words.
"Calm down!? How can I when every step you seem to take is at the risk of the mission as a whole!? When you seem dead set on making sure that if we succeed at all it'll come on a razor's edge!?"
"I'm making sure we can keep going at all, and I'm managing to do it without keeping everything a secret! And if you don't like the way I do things, then you can go fu-!"
"ALRIGHT!" Ratchet cut in, the radio crackling to life with his voice. The interruption made Rivet realize she had been stomping towards the old lombax with fists clenched. She held herself in place, keeping herself from charging. It wasn't like Ratchet was here to stop her, but his voice reminded her of something important.
"We all want to save the universe, let's keep that in mind." He said. "None of us are quite used to working with other people like this, I get that. But we won't save anyone by arguing."
She shook her head, ripping her gaze from Kaden. She had nothing she could say that wouldn't reignite that brewing argument, so instead she blew hot air from her nose and turned from the group, throwing her hands in the air. "Whatever!"
She saw two paths leading from the elevator shaft, one going down and the other stretching off into the facility. She started walking towards the path down.
"Where are you going?" Kaden shouted after her.
"I'm going to find that vault!"
"Before we even open it? We need to find the computer first."
The radio crackled again. "He's right, Rivet. Plus, here in the vent I'm standing on the edge of a drop. I think I'm already deeper than you anyway, so this might be a better way down."
She groaned and gripped the bridge of her nose.
"Fine!" With that begrudging agreement, she trudged down the other path, blazing the trail straight into the facility. "You just make sure you stay safe, you hear!?"
The anger in her well wish made Ratchet smile as he gazed down the dark, dank depths of the dusty vent he was on the edge of. "I will. And same to you."
The radio cut out with that, leaving him in silence until Clank spoke.
"I hope they do not kill each other in the process."
"Same. But right now, we can't worry about that. We need to find that vault before they open it so we can be ready to grab it."
"Are you worried someone else will steal it from us?"
"Not exactly, just a gut feeling that we're better off not spending a long time here." He clarified. "Ready to go down?"
"Oh, I suppose." He didn't sound very sure, and Ratchet couldn't blame him. They had already fallen pretty far after going through the fan, so the prospect of going even deeper didn't sit well with him either. Still, they had no other path to take.
So, he toed the edge of the pit, bent his knees, and leapt into the pit. It was only a moment before he vanished into the darkness of the depths.
And pointedly ignoring the scratching sounds that followed him down.