Chapter XIII
A/N: Okay, apparently I had a little extra steam left in me. Maybe it was due to the prospect of being able to write for a certain location? Idk, I'm genuinely surprised that I wrote this chapter so fast AND that I actually sort of like it?
Anyway, credits are in the notes at the bottom.
"Rivet, Klunk, can you hear me?"
"What is it with people and hijacking our comms?" Rivet grumbles, glancing down at the speaker on her glove before focusing her gaze on the big, green screen in front of her. The turret is cramped, to say the least— there's barely any room to sit comfortably, even with Rivet and Klunk's short statures, and the Lombax finds the console in front of her digging into her chest. Who did these people build this thing for, a Sand Mouse?!
"Starwatch Defense Cannon now online," the turret's computer announces, its voice monotone.
"I'll take that as a yes," Cora says with a hint of amusement in her voice. "The Starwatch Defense Cannon has a machine gun and an ion cannon. The machine gun's useless against the bombers, but the ion cannon can easily blast them out of the sky. It takes a while to recharge after each shot, though, so you'll have to keep an eye on the gauge and wait until it's full before you can fire again."
Rivet briefly wonders if Cora's used the Starwatch Defense Cannon before, and then shakes her head quickly as she takes the two joysticks sitting atop the console. "Got it!" The feline can feel her palms sweating underneath her gloves, and she tries to will herself to focus. That's when she feels Klunk's hand on her arm.
The Lombax turns her gaze onto him, and he simply says, "We can do this."
Rivet allows herself a small smile, before gluing her eyes to the screen once more. She's still far from sure about this, but at least she has her partner at her side.
The turret hums as she takes aim at one of the smaller Blargian saucers that had made the mistake of coming close to shoot at them and slams her thumb against the button for the machine gun. She shoots down a couple more of the small vessels, eyes occasionally flicking towards the ion cannon's gauge.
"Starwatch ion cannon armed and ready to fire."
Rivet smashes her other thumb on the button for the ion cannon as soon as she locks onto one of the bombers. The resulting beam of super-condensed energy neatly slices the airborne vessel in half, sending its remains plummeting into the turbulent ocean waves below. "Yes! One down, three to go!"
The rest of the bombers go down fairly easily. Some try to destroy the Starwatch Defense Cannon with their heat-seeking missiles, but those are quickly obliterated before they can even get close enough to do any damage. Really the only major threat are the Blargian fighters, which decide to gang up on the turret in an attempt to disable it before it can destroy the rest of the bombers. Rivet blasts the fighters out of the sky too, but the Starwatch Defense Cannon winds up taking some damage anyway.
Thankfully, the last of the bombers is annihilated and the fighters retreating, before the turret can be destroyed.
"YES! You guys did it! Batalia is safe!"
. . . .
On the way back to the ship…
"So where are you two heroes off to next?" Cora asks as the small group of mismatched heroes stride across the platform.
"Somewhere to eat and clean up, then we'll probably be heading for Kalebo III," Rivet answers. "We liberated some stolen Gadge-bots from a BlargTech facility, and they want to return home."
"I recommend Zurkie's," Brax pipes up, twirling his Combustor absent-mindedly. "It's not too far out of the way if you're heading for Kalebo from here, and the owner would probably get a kick out of meeting the two of you."
"It's also a full service station on top of being a gastropub, so you can get yourselves and your ship cleaned up, refueled, and restocked," Cora adds.
"And Zurkie himself is a hoot. Y'see, he's a retired Mr. Zurkon who got it into his head to conquer 'hunger' and raise a 'family,' but while he..."
"If they want the life story, they can look it up themselves, Brax." Cora rolls her eyes and comes to a halt, as do the rest of the group. She tele-equips what looks like a small card in one hand and a pen in the other. The Markazian scribbles something on it before handing it to Rivet. "Anyway, here's the authorization voucher for the assist reward you guys earned for the mission here. Any bank or ATM should honor it, and there's an ATM just outside the door at Zurkie's, since it's a full service stop."
Rivet takes the voucher and offers the Ranger a small smile. "Thanks!"
"Give our regards to Captain Squishy," Klunk pipes up, "and please inform him that we have declined his invitation to use the 'advanced training facility' on Umbris."
Cora's previously pleasant expression morphs into one of anger. "What the hell? That facility is supposed to be for Ranger use only!"
"Maybe the Captain's trying really hard for a recruitment pitch?" Brax offers.
"Maybe," Cora admits, crossing her arms as her scowl deepens. "Still pisses me off though. I had to wait months before he let me train there, and Elaris is STILL waiting for permission..."
"Elaris is mission support, not a field operative."
"Elaris has the helm of the Phoenix whenever we're in our fighters. She needs the training in case of boarders!"
Rivet turns her gaze towards Klunk and points her thumb towards their ship. "Maybe we should go? They stopped paying attention to us and this seems to be a private conversation."
"Agreed." Klunk nods, and walks alongside Rivet as they head towards the ship. "And I note that Captain Squishy is just as inconsiderate of his own team as he apparently is with everyone else."
Rivet shrugs. "Yeah, well, equal opportunity and all that, I guess…"
"Equal opportunity offender, perhaps."
"HAH! Good one, bolts! We'll have to use it on him next time we see him!"
"That is something to look forward to," Klunk replies. "There is certainly nothing else pleasant about the prospect of encountering Captain Squishy again."
"Except maybe calling him Captain Squishy to his face," Rivet tells him, smirking.
"Agreed."
"And getting his pilot's license off of him," Rivet adds, her smirk growing wider.
Klunk gives her a look. "You are not letting that go, are you?"
"Not a chance!" The Lombax comes to a sudden halt, and motions for Klunk to stop as well.
"What is it?"
Rivet waves her hand towards the ramp next to the Gadgetron weapon vendor, leading up to… somewhere. She can't exactly see from where she's standing. "I wonder where this leads?"
"You wish to investigate?"
Rivet nods, her bushy tail swishing with excitement.
Klunk's voice box squelches lightly as he crosses his arms. "Oh, very well. I suppose one small detour will not do much harm."
. . . .
"This was a really bad ideaaaaa-aaaahh!" Rivet crouches low as her Grind Boots carry her across the winding metal railing, which has just now plummeted downward at a steep angle, and nearly sent her and her partner flying.
"Might I remind you that this was your idea?!" Klunk shouts over the wind, his voice barely audible due to the constant whoosh brushing across Rivet's ears.
"Not helping, bolts!" The rail just as suddenly curves upward, and the next thing she knows, they're flying through the air over the ocean waves. "Heli-pack!"
Without any further prompting, Klunk extends his heli-pack, and Rivet activates her hoverboots. The two devices quickly slow down their descent, allowing them to safely land on a lone platform in the middle of the ocean.
And there's another person standing there, at the edge, looking about ready to jump. They whirl around, blaster at the ready, as soon as Rivet's feet hit the platform with a thunk.
"Halt!" the person— who appears to be a very young soldier, probably no older than twenty or so— yelps in warning. "Who are you?! What're you doing!?"
"I could ask you the same question," Rivet tells them as her partner clambers off her back. "What're you doing all the way out here?"
"Actually, I don't care who you are," the soldier mumbles, lowering their blaster after a moment. "I've gotta get the heck outta here. I joined the army to get money to go to college. I never knew I'd end up in a war!" Shrugging, they add, "Go figure."
"Well, what did you expect?" Rivet asks, waving her hands around to gesture to their surroundings. "Usually when you join a military branch, you're gonna wind up in a war zone, one way or another."
"Look, I just wanna get home to my family…" the young soldier whips out an infobot and explains, "Here. I pulled this off a busted warbot. Give me some bolts for bus fare, and it's—"
Rivet lifts her hands for silence. "Whoa, slow down there, pal!" She waves her hand towards Fort Kronos, which is now little more than a dot in the distance, and yells, "You're just gonna run away from this?! If it wasn't for us— if Klunk, myself, and the Rangers hadn't been here to fend off Drek's attack, this planet would've been decimated!"
"Rivet is right," Klunk adds firmly, settling his hands on his hips as he glares up at the soldier. "If we had not been here to do your job, then everyone on this planet could have died. Billions of people, robots and squishes (not that I remotely care about the latter) alike, who are counting on you—" The silver bot points his finger directly at the trooper. "— to protect them."
"It's okay to be scared," Rivet continues, now a little more calm, but no less angry. "But it's not okay to abandon an entire planet just because the going got tough. Sometimes you just have to roll with the punches and hope you'll make it out alright."
The soldier sighs, rubbing their neck awkwardly and looking away. "I… guess you two are right. This is bigger than me." They thrust the infobot forward and say, "Here. Take it. I'll… I'll go find Commando Leahcim and turn myself in."
"I didn't say anything about—"
"I might as well face the music," the trooper tells Rivet, cutting her off. "It's probably better than running away and thengetting caught. At the very least… maybe my parents won't be as ashamed of me… anyway, see ya around, kid." They look down at Klunk and tilt their helmet up, presumably as a gesture of respect. "And little guy." The soldier then steps onto the lone teleporter pad bolted to the platform and disappears in a flash of light.
"I am not a 'little guy,'" Klunk grumbles indignantly, before turning to the infobot.
The little orange bot opens its mouth, allowing the blank screen inside to expand. The speaker crackles, and on the screen appears the face of a Blargian scientist.
"Greetings, Supreme Executive Chairman Drek," the scientist drawls. "As you can see we're about to test our newest automated Pilot's Helmet. This helmet allows pilots to control our latest hi-tech fighters using only their thoughts."
The transmission cuts to a clip of a Blargian pilot, who is wearing the aforementioned helmet, giving a thumbs up to the camera before the cockpit window comes down and seals shut.
"Please enjoy the demonstration," the scientist says when video cuts back to them.
The transmission then cuts back to the fighter jet, which lifts off the platform a couple of inches and simply hovers there for a moment— right before suddenly shooting off in reverse and smashing into the cliff behind it, promptly exploding upon impact.
The video cuts back to the scientist, who stares in bewilderment and perhaps even fear at the mess that was just seconds ago a fighter jet, just as the Pilot's Helmet flies out of the blazing debris and hits the platform in a noisy clatter.
Clearing their throat awkwardly, the scientist adjusts their glasses and turns back towards the camera. "Uhh— of course, we still have a few, err, minor adjustments to make." The transmission ends, and the infobot closes its mouth once the screen inside shrinks.
"We should visit that planet, and see if we can obtain any information in regards to Drek's other operations," Klunk says, opening his chest compartment and sliding the infobot inside.
I wonder how many of those guys he can fit in there? Rivet refocuses her thoughts on the matter at hand and quickly nods in agreement. "Yeah. But first, Zurkie's, and then Kalebo III."
. . . .
Rivet sets the ship down on the landing platform, and then shuts it off. "So, how'd I do?"
"It is certainly an improvement," Klunk tells her. "You just might pass the test."
"I'm still swiping Captain Squishy's license if we get the chance," Rivet replies, smirking as the cockpit opens up. She clambers out first, and then Klunk leaps out and onto her back. She heads around to the back of the ship and presses a button to open up the cargo bay.
Out the door come scurrying the little Gadge-bots, chirping happily.
"Hey, little guys! You wanna go grab a bite to eat?"
The Gadge-bots look up at her and chirp again. "They say yes," Klunk translates. Thanks to the neural link that's developed between him and the Gadge-bots, they can now better understand what they're saying.
"Alright, let's go!"
Rivet does take a moment to admire the view, though. Zurkie's is situated in a small asteroid belt, which does make access a bit difficult. The establishment itself, along with the bridges and landing pads surrounding the outside of it, are protected from the asteroids by a special energy shield that allows only ships to come in and out. The same shield also allows for a breathable atmosphere, so Rivet didn't even have to put on the O2 mask.
The stars twinkle brightly in the sky, with splashes of what are either nebulas or perhaps parts of the galaxy painted across the sky. Zurkie's itself is also impressive, what with the giant statue of Zurkie himself, with what looks like a vanilla sundae with chocolate fudge in one hand. Behind the statue is a series of… pillars? Posts? Rivet's not quite sure what they are, but they have star shaped lights on the ends of them that light up intermittently.
It's really all quite pretty.
What Rivet nor Klunk nor the Gadge-bots had been expecting was to find a Ms. Zurkon running a small shop on the platform just outside Zurkie's.
"Oh mah goodness!" Ms. Zurkon grabs Rivet by the arm and tugs her towards the small shop excitedly. "A Lombax! Why, Ah haven't seen one of you in— well, years!"
Rivet heaves a sigh, pulling her arm away. "Yeah, I get that a lot." And it's starting to get kinda annoying. "Uhm, do you know where the—"
"How would you like a Shatterbomb glove?" Ms. Zurkon interrupts. The robot seems to realise this and adds, "Oh, mah apologies, darlin'— sometimes words come outta mah voice box before Ah can stop them."
"It's fine," Rivet reassures. "What's a Shatterbomb glove?"
"Whaaat? What's a Shatterbomb glove, you ask?" Ms. Zurkon seems to be bewildered by the fact that the feline has no idea what it is. Beyond the fact that it's probably a weapon, anyway. "Well, how about Ah let mah son, Zurkon Junior explain. He's the weapon expert of the family."
The next thing Rivet knows, Zurkon Jr. is right in her face, screeching so loud her eardrums hurt.
"Feel the power of the omniverse in the palm of your hand with this explosive ball of energy that'll tear apart baddies and reality! Zurkon Incorporated is pleased to present—" Just as quickly, Ms. Zurkon is yanking the mini-Zurkon away from the Lombax's face.
"Mah sincerest apologies, darlin'— Ah forgot, he hasn't gone through the 'Salesmanship 101' class yet." The poor robot seems absolutely mortified by her son's behaviour, while Zurkon Jr. seems like he could care less, if his expression is anything to go by. "Son, why don't you go back to the Battleplex and take over announcements? Ah'm sure your li'l brothers could use a break."
While the exchange quickly dissolves into an argument, Rivet and the Gadge-bots take this opportunity to back away and head for the establishment's entrance. After making a quick stop at the ATM just outside to trade in the voucher for the reward she and Klunk earned.
Afterwards, the Lombax and her partner tread inside, the Gadge-bots trailing behind them and chirping in excitement.
The robotic attendant at the front desk looks up from their computer and spots the to-be customers coming inside, and greets them all excitedly. "Welcome to Zurkie's, your new intergalactic, full-service station— proudly equipped with a state-of-the-art gastro-pub and Battleplex! Aaaand, we now even have a BNB!" The attendant holds their hand out and adds, "I just need to take your neural interfaces— Zurkie's, outside of the Battleplex anyway, is a violence-free zone.They'll be returned to you when you leave the establishment. Unless you've had enough drinks to make you tipsy, in which case they will be returned to you after you can pass the breathalyzer test."
Rivet begrudgingly turns in her and Klunk's interfaces. She doesn't particularly like the idea of giving up their weapons, but it does make sense. One wouldn't want an intoxicated person to suddenly whip out their Negotiator or something and start shooting up the place.
When Rivet, Klunk, and their tiny companions finally step into the gastropub though, all her previous worries about the place quickly fade. Everything is spotless, well-lit, and everyone here seems to be enjoying themselves, if all the friendly chatter is anything to go by. There's a nice, somewhat energetic beat playing from the brightly-lit, neon jukebox sitting in the corner.
And it hits her, just how much she and Klunk have been running around lately. She doesn't even know what day it is today!
And the stop in Blackwater City hardly counts, seeing as they only stayed long enough to pick up some supplies and refuel their ship. Here… here, they could actually relax a little. Sure, they can't stay too long— they have a galaxy to protect, after all. But at least they can actually rest for a few hours.
Rivet's aching muscles can sure use a break.
Everyone settles down at the nearest available table, and a Zurkon Jr. zips in out of seemingly nowhere, wearing a small black apron with his name tag on it. In his hands sit a small notepad and pencil. "And what can I get for— ohmygosh!You're the Lombax and robot who saved Kerwan from the Blarg invasion!" Zurkon Jr. whips his head towards the bar table at the other end of the room, where Zurkie himself is apparently serving beverages to the patrons sitting there and calls, "Hey, pops! Those two heroes from Kerwan are here! Rivet and that little robot guy!"
"This is the second time today that I have been called a 'little guy,'" Klunk groans, facepalming.
After serving the last patron their drink, Zurkie zips over to the small group himself. He places his palms, one against the other, and bows his head. "Namaste, and peace be with you two and your friends. For your acts of heroism, all purchases made by you will be twenty percent off." He pauses, blinking. "Except for the peanut buckets. Those remain full-price."
Rivet offers a nod and a smile.
"So then, what will it be?"
A/N #2: Credit for the dialogue between and including "So where are you two heroes off to next?" and "Not a chance!" belongs to the one and only Tangent! And yeah, I decided not to censor Cora's swearing. And Idk if I said this already or not, but do check out Tangent's stories "Widget & Clank: Lombax Bebop" and "Sine of Destiny." They're both really good so far!
And also credit to Awareness_Bringer for the concept of the Zurkons also running an intergalactic alternative to other companies like Gadgetron, Megacorp, and GrummelNet.
Also, please read Awareness_Bringer's new fanfic, "Ratchet & Kit", and also his fic "Sargasso From the Get-Go." Both are also really good! :3