Chapter XII

A/N: Whatever steam that made me write the last few chapters daily quickly has effectively sputtered to death, so it's going to take me longer to post chapters now (mainly because it's now taking me longer to write them). I don't particularly like this chapter, I think it could've been better, but... Idk.

I hope it's okay nonetheless.

Credits are in the notes at the bottom.

"Yipe! Eel tail!"

Rivet pushes down on the steering wheel, and the bulky red ship plummets into a sharp nosedive. The robotic space eel's tail soars over the vessel harmlessly, instead crashing into and shattering a small asteroid. Rivet then swerves the ship to the right, and presses her thumbs down on the "fire" buttons atop the wheel. Bursts of plasma rain down on the eel from the spacecraft's kinetic demolishers, ripping through the eel's armoured plating.

The eel opens its mouth wide, and Rivet barrel rolls the ship left to dodge the bright blue beam bursting from its gaping maw.

"Of course, he just had to have a robotic space eel on hand," the Lombax grumbles, slamming her fist on the button to launch a couple plasma torpedoes.

The eel's terrible screeches of pain as rockets rain down upon it reverberate through the ship, accompanied by a small tremor.

Rivet smashes her thumbs down on the buttons for the kinetic demolishers, allowing bursts of fire to soar from the ship's barrels and strike the space eel. The mechanical creature swings its tail, attempting to smack and perhaps crush the spacecraft with it.

The feline pushes the steering wheel forward, tipping the nose of the ship down. The eel's tail just barely grazes the ship, shredding some of the vessel's metal plating in its wake.

"Warning: Hull integrity down to seventy-two-point-six-five percent."

"Why is this hunk of junk so slow?!"

"Rivet— according to the ship's sensors, the robotic space eel has a weak point," Klunk pipes up, his crimson eyes glued to the screen relaying said information. "Firing on it should cause a chain reaction that will disable the eel from attacking us further."

"Got it, bolts!" Rivet pulls up on the steering wheel just as the space eel dives for the ship, its gaping skeletal maw wide open to snap them up and crush them between its fossilised teeth.

The speakers on the dash of the ship crackle once more.

"This nebula will become your grave… then we'll see who's the most feared pirate of all time! And maybe for once—"

"Such a nice guy, we really should hang out with him sometime," Rivet grumbles sarcastically as she hits the mute button and quickly performs a U-turn.

"Aim for the inside of the eel's mouth— and use the plasma torpedoes. They will deal the most damage!"

"Got it!" The Lombax barrel rolls to the right to dodge another beam, and then hovers one hand over the button for the torpedoes again as she takes aim. She slams her hand down on the piece of plastic, launching the plasma filled rockets. The nasty explosives fly into the eel's mouth just as its maw closes— and before it can spit them back out, the torpedoes unleash their fury. Further along the eel's body and tail, flames burst from the thin gaps between its Raritanium panels, before expanding and consuming everything but the eel's skull itself in a massive ball of fire.

"Why you little…! This is what I get for not installing that dark-matter shield charger behind the photon cannon! I just wanted to be able to drink grog while in this form…"

"I thought it hit the… you know what, never mind." Rivet grabs the lever for the ship's throttle and thrusts it forward.

"On the one hand," Klunk starts, his tone thoroughly annoyed (to say the least), "you insist on keeping that R.Y.N.O., even though it is illegal and difficult to find ammunition for, and you also take over piloting duties way too often for someone who has yet to acquire a license for doing so. Both of which are infuriating, as they put the Hero Charter we acquired at risk should any authorities choose to challenge us on those matters! However, on the other hand..."

"Yeah?"

"On the other hand, not only did you not give me any trouble over my decision to rescue the Gadge-bots, you endeavored to make sure that they remained liberated…. thank you." The last two words come out as a low mumble— if it wasn't for Rivet's large ears, she would never have heard them.

"Anytime, partner," Rivet tells him, offering a small smile. "And you're welcome."

"Now, turn the controls back over to me and pay attention! If you are going to continue to insist on flying, I am just going to have to give you lessons so that you can get a proper license, so you can be reckless in a more law abiding manner."

"I don't need a license to know how to pilot a starship!"

"No, but you need one in order to do so legally. Besides, how hard can the application test be? Captain Squishy has a valid pilot's license. I checked."

Rivet's eyebrow quirks up slightly. "You're not exactly selling your point with that comparison, bolts."

"I will let you pilot more often if you get a valid pilot's license."

"Now you're talking!"

"Your own license. Not someone else's."

"Not even Captain Squishy's?"

There's a moment of silence as Klunk considers this. "Fine. Either your own or Captain Squishy's."

"YES!"

"But I am still giving you lessons."

"Aww..."

Fort Krontos has seen better days. There are craters from missiles all throughout the outer fort, and much of the once rich jungle vegetation is now scorched beyond recognition. The relentless thunderstorm raining down on the fort only serves to amplify the depressing atmosphere of this place.

Klunk carefully sets the ship down on one of the landing pads along the outside of the fort. When both Lombax and robot clamber out of the vessel and begin trudging cautiously across the platform, the last thing they expect is a commando to come running out from seemingly nowhere and start barking orders at them.

"At attention, you desertin' maggots!"

Rivet and Klunk share a quick glance of confusion before looking back at the military officer currently glaring down at them.

"The next time one of you soldiers try to go AWOL, I'll shoot you myself!"

Rivet lifts her hands and waves them for the commando to calm down. "Look, I just wanna—"

"Zip it, worm!" The officer whips their hand up towards the sky, pointing at the big, heavily-armed, clunky green ships circling like vultures above the fort. "You see those bombers?! If someone doesn't get to the Starwatch Defense Cannon and knock those ships outta the sky, this whole planet's gonna be rubble!"

"Commando Leahcim, I'll take it from here. And please— stop harassing the civilians." Rivet's eyes widen in surprise when none other than Galactic Ranger Cora Veralux lands on the platform next to Leachim, the reverberating hum of her jetpack quickly fading.

"So… they're not from my battalion?" Cora regards Leahcim with a blank look, and that tells them what they need to know. "Oh. I— uh, I see." The commando turns their gaze back onto Rivet and Klunk. "My apologies. I, uhh… I've been puttin' off gettin' my eyes checked for a while now." They pause for a moment, and then ask in utter bewilderment, "Wait, why are you two here, anyway? Can't you see the planet is raining bombs?!"

"That is why we are here, actually," Klunk answers. "We are here to help fight off Drek's attack."

"Aaaaand—" Rivet reaches into her pocket and whips out a Hero Charter. "We have a Hero Charter, so our assistance is one hundred percent legal!"

Leahcim snorts derisively, and looks back at Cora. "Have fun with these two, Miss Veralux. I'm off to find my battalion." And with that, the commando walks away, mumbling to themself about "amateurs" and "death wish."

Rivet rolls her eyes and un-equips the Hero Charter before dusting off her gloved hands.

"So… how are you guys doing?" Cora asks awkwardly.

"Pretty good," Rivet answers, scratching the back of her head. "Almost died a few times in the past couple hours, but hey, I can't complain."

"Not to mention we are in need of a proper cleaning at some point," Klunk adds, gesturing to the faint splotches of green still decorating his chrome. "Those nano-wipes did little to remove the stains from those mutant swarmers."

"Anyway…" Rivet holds her hand out to Klunk, and the silver robot takes it. She swings him around, smiling when she hears the click of their magnetized mounts meeting. The Lombax then tele-equips her Spiral of Death and turns her gaze back onto Cora. "Let's get dangerous!"

"You really need to stop saying that," Klunk grumbles.

"Party-pooper."

"Actually, you might want to use this—" Rivet un-equips her weapon just as Cora tosses her what appears to be a partially upgraded Enforcer. "Trust me," Cora adds. "You'll need it."

Just then, the speaker on Cora's bracer squelches to life, and Brax's voice cuts through. "I'm at the Starwatch Defense Cannon now— but Drek hit it with an EMP. This weird plumber guy is trying to get it back online now, but the Blarg are kinda making it difficult for us. We could really use some backup over here!"

"We'll be there soon, Brax, just hang on!"

"'We?' Never mind— just hurry!"

Rivet pulls the trigger of her new Enforcer halfway down just as a swarm of PX6 BladeBalls surged towards them. A burst of fire spills out from one of the shotgun's barrels, instantly destroying the entire pack of spherical bots.

"See what I mean?" Cora meanwhile tele-equips a Predator Launcher and takes out another swarm with a barrage of heat-seeking missiles.

The two sprint across the platform side-by-side, swiftly blowing the remaining BladeBalls in their path into smithereens. Just as the two approach the bridge leading into the fort, a pair of warbots lumber into view, hovering a couple of feet above the platform. Their jetpacks sputter pitifully with the strain of keeping the bots in the air.

"Galactic Ranger detected," one of the warbots announces, tele-equipping a Combustor. "Time to die, Ranger scum!"

"Hey! We're here too, y'know!" Rivet calls indignantly— right before pulling all the way down on the trigger and blasting the warbot with both barrels of the weapon. A speaker somewhere close by in the fort squeals loudly.

"Supreme Executive Chairman Drek here with a brief warning for my employees. Failure to destroy the Starwatch Defense Cannon will result in your dismissal from Drek Industries. And do you know what happens to those I no longer have a use for?"

Silence, aside from the occasional boom-boom of bombs going off in the distance.

"You don't want to know."

Just as both warbots go down at the hands of Rivet and Cora, a missile hurtles down from the sky and hits the bridge ahead of them— instantly vaporizing a huge chunk of it. Rivet kicks on her hoverboots and hurls herself over to the other side, Cora following close behind thanks to her jetpack.

The feline yelps, startled, just as a Blarg soldier leaps out from within a cluster of weeds, clutching a bomb.

"Ack! A Lom— ouch!"

Rivet smashes their face with her FissionMallet, sending the reptile flying over the edge and into the miniature valley below— where the bomb in their gloved hand promptly explodes, taking out a couple BladeBalls along with the soldier.

A couple more Blarg troopers come running up the slope off to Rivet's right. She quickly switches back over to her Enforcer and blasts them all right in the faces. The Lombax sprints past the charred corpses and down the slope, blowing away some more BladeBalls that made the mistake of approaching.

Meanwhile, Cora took out the three warbots lurking around the bolt crank below— the rockets from her Predator Launcher leaving the aforementioned machines as piles of gnarled, smoldering scrap metal.

"Does that bolt crank do anything important?" Rivet asks, tilting her head as she looks at it, then glances up at the wide gap between the two ridges above. I wonder if it's meant to…

Cora confirms just what Rivet's thinking. "It's supposed to extend the bridge. But I have my jetpack, and you've got your hoverboots, so…"

"We have no real need for it?" Klunk pipes up drily.

"Pretty much," Rivet answers, already turning around and sprinting back up the slope. She hurls herself across the gap to the other side, and smashes a few bolt and ammo crates that had been sitting there unattended.

The feline's fluffy ear twitches as she catches the sound of water trickling somewhere off to her left. She slowly approaches the source, rounding the corner, and groans upon sight of it.

"You've gotta be kidding me… we have to slide down a stinkin' sewer pipe?!" Rivet waves her hands towards the thing incredulously as she adds, "Who even put this here in the first place?!" When Cora opens her mouth to reply, the Lombax shakes her head. "No, never mind, I don't wanna know."

More like I don't want confirmation…

Instead of out of the frying pan and into the fire, it was more like out of the frickin' sewer pipe and into the fire.

Rivet is all over the place, leaping and dashing to the side to avoid enemy fire as she tries to take out the quartet of warbots with her Enforcer. Cora meanwhile also blasts the warbots with her Combustor, having run out of ammo for her Predator Launcher some time ago. Apparently these guys had been outfitted with stronger armour.

"Why does everything have to be made of dense alloy?" Rivet groans as she pulls the trigger and blasts the closest warbot in the face. Finally, finally, the heavily damaged machine falls.

"I will try not to be offended by that," Klunk snarks back.

"Oh, I, uhh—"

"I was joking," Klunk tells her, actually sounding slightly amused by her reaction.

… Right. Rivet just shakes her head and focuses her gaze on the remaining three— no, two warbots, seeing as Cora's just taken one down as well. Both Lombax and Markazian weave between the blaster bolts flying from the warbots' weapons, while trying to shoot the warbots themselves. Now being able to focus their efforts on just two enemies instead of four, the last two warbots quickly fall. And now the machines are nothing more than piles of scrap metal.

Rivet stands hunched over for about a minute, gloved hands resting on her knees and supporting her upper body as she tries to catch her breath.

"Looks like we'll need to extend the bridge here," Cora speaks up, gesturing to the bolt crank, and then the place where the bridge would be if extended— the gap between the starting platform and the next one is wider than the last.

Rivet just nods, still too winded to talk much right now. As she starts approaching the bolt crank, tele-equipping her FissionMallet, the feline thinks, First thing I'm gonna do when we get back to the ship is gorge on some food…

Less than a minute later, the bolt crank is screwed in, and the bridge extended. When she and Cora get to the other side, Rivet groans for the second time that hour. "What is it with people and their bolt cranks?" The Lombax waves her hand towards the bolt crank on other side of the next gap, just in front of the entrance to the small compound up ahead.

While both of them can easily get across the gap with no trouble, this weird system must be pretty annoying for the people living here.

Cora doesn't seem to be paying her ally's complaint any mind, instead tapping a button on the top of her glove. She stares at the small screen next to said button for a moment, and then turns her gaze onto Rivet. "We're gonna have to find another way in— you see those turrets on either side of the platform?"

Rivet looks over to them and nods. "Yeah?" A frown tugs at her muzzle as she stares at the turrets. "Wait a second— they're on."

"Exactly. Which means, if we get too close, we'll be blown to bits. I'm kind of surprised that they aren't shooting at us right now, but I'm not gonna complain either." Cora waves her hand towards the grav-ramp curling up and around the mountain. "We'll have to go this way if we want to get inside and still be breathing."

Rivet takes one look at the ramp and shakes her head. "I don't have a pair of Magne-boots."

"That… does make things a little harder. Okay, I'll take the grav-ramp, and get inside that way. Then I'll make my way to the bolt crank and screw it in. If it'll extend the bridge, then it should deactivate the turrets too."

"Okay, sounds like a plan," Rivet tells her, glancing over at the turrets once more.

. . . .

"Aaaall done!"

"Hey, look, the plumber's back!" Rivet and Klunk both instantly recognise the plumber who assisted them back on Novalis.

"What did you just say?" The plumber whirls around, seemingly miffed.

"…" Rivet looks at Klunk, who just looks back at her and shrugs. The feline turns her gaze onto the plumber and says, "All I said was 'hey, look, the plumber's back'…?"

"Oh! Sorry, I thought you said something else. Guess the ol' brain could use a good plumbin' too, eh?" The plumber then pats the Starwatch Defense Cannon, adding, "She's all set and ready to go! All she needs is a good shot to blow those Blarg outta the sky!"

"I'm a pretty good shot," Brax pipes up.

Cora elbows him in the chest. "What he meant to say is, is that Rivet is a pretty good shot."

"Me?!" Rivet's eyes widen in disbelief, and she puts her hand to her chest as though to emphasise. "But you've neverseen me use a turret. Like, ever. What makes you think I'll be able to…?"

"You did save our skins back on Kerwan," Cora points out, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow. "Not to mention from what I've heard, you've caused Drek trouble in other places too. I think you can handle it. And besides, it'll look good for your Hero Charter."

"Will someone get into this [bleep] turret already and start blastin' those ships before they drop a bomb on us?!" Everyone stares at the plumber for a few awkward seconds, before Rivet and Klunk wordlessly clamber into the Starwatch Defense Cannon.

"Here we go," Rivet mutters, shakily taking the controls as her partner shuts the door behind them.

A/N #2: Credit for the dialogue between and including the lines "On the one hand," (Klunk) and "Aww..." (Rivet) goes to Tangent! And the idea of Blackstar possessing his eels goes to Awareness Bringer!

Also, I wish I could've done Blackstar and his robotic space eel justice in this chapter... I think if I hadn't run out of that steam I was running on, I might've pulled it off. If I'm able to, I'll probably come back to the chapter when the steam comes back, and rewrite that scene.

And yeah, the plumber cussed. It was funnier in my head.