Chapter XXI
The reinforced door collapses, crashing into the sand and sending clouds of particles billowing into the air. Rivet steps out from behind the turret, a satisfactory smirk on her face. "Rivet and Klunk: one, reinforced door: zero!"
A trio of Blarg soldiers armed with Pulse Rifles run up the slope ahead, entering the Lombax's field of vision. She tele-equips her Shatterbomb glove, and just as she's about to throw, the Blarg trooper leading the others skids to a halt, eyes wide with fear.
"It's the Lombax! Run! Run for your lives!"
The soldier whirls around and scrambles past their comrades, even shoving one down to the ground in their haste to get away. The remaining two share a look, before turning their wide eyes back on Rivet. The feline lifts up the hand with the Shatterbomb glove covering it. "Your friend had the right idea. Run."
Both Blarg soldiers wordlessly scramble to their feet and scurry away in terror.
Rivet slowly walks up the path where the three troopers had been just a couple of seconds ago. For a lava-covered world with only a few strips of land here and there, and— at least here, at the Blarg Research Outpost— a ton of metal structures that have to be built from Carbonox alloys since they're not melting, there's a lot of plant life. Thin trees with massive thorns jutting out from their trunks and sprouting tiny crimson leaves at the top, fiery orange grass sticking out of the ground here and there, weeds with large purple red-tipped leaves, and weird, almost sponge-like looking things with holes in the top.
This isn't too surprising since telepathopi are native to this planet (not to mention there are other creatures both here and on other planets that can survive in extreme environments like this). But still, it's interesting to say the least.
Rivet rounds the corner and is instantly ambushed by another Blargian trooper armed with a Double-Barreled Constructo-Shotgun. She quickly dashes to the side as a condensed beam of energy scorches the sand upon which she'd been running just seconds before.
"Your bounties are as good as mine!" The Blarg fires again.
Rivet catapults into the air just as the beam strikes the ground, engaging her hoverboots to gain extra lift, and tele-equips her FissionMallet. She brings it down on the Blarg's head, knocking them to the ground. They drop their weapon, and as they twitch, and try to reach for it, Rivet looms over them, and slams her Mallet into their head again— knocking them out cold.
Rivet leisurely skips over the body, eyes scanning for any signs of further danger. There are none. It's a quick job to get to the next turret. The Lombax isn't exactly expecting for two warbots to come swooping out from behind the reinforced door when she uses the turret to shoot it down, but luckily the turret is powerful enough to make short work of the warbots. Which is a nice change of pace from using up all her ammo on them.
When Rivet takes the elevator to the upper levels of the facility, she's instantly ambushed by those annoying chomper robots. She smashes several of them in the face with her Mallet as the swarm closes in. "Seriously?! Of course they'd be right there near the elevator," she grumbles.
"It would be the most efficient place put them," Klunk says. "They would take any potential intruders by surprise and kill them before they could react."
"Well, lucky for us, I'm quicker." Rivet smirks as she switches over to her Enforcer, and mows down the entire min-army of robots within seconds— leaving them as nothing but smoldering piles of metal and wires. The feline sprints down the corridor ahead, boots thunking against the steel floor, calmly cutting down the few Blarg soldiers actually brave enough to fight her with a single shot each.
Things get a little more difficult when she enters a hallway full of tanks. How they fit them in there to begin with is a mystery she isn't going to be able to solve anytime soon.
In any case, with these tanks in the way, she's not going to be able to use projectile weapons in here. Not safely, anyway. The few Blarg lurking seem to realize this too, quickly backing out of the room as fast as they can. Rivet manages to take down two of them, leaving only one remaining as they manage to step out of the room. The Lombax doesn't give them a chance to fire. She dashes forward with the help of her hoverboots and smashes her Mallet into the Blarg's head.
Another sharp blow, and the trooper goes down, groaning in pain.
Rivet sprints past the body, entering the next chamber. There's another turret and another door reinforced with dense alloy. It doesn't hold up for very long against the rapid-fire rounds of the turret, and within moments collapses into a heap of metal and glass-like crystal.
"Bye-bye, door!"
Rivet leaps over the debris, reentering the outside world as her boots thunk against the steel deck. A dropship swoops in low and begins to shoot just as she ducks behind a stack of large, Raritanium alloy crates for cover. Her ear twitches as two turrets somewhere up ahead join in, shooting at the crate.
"Good thing these crates are as durable as they are," Rivet mutters," or we'd be full of holes by now…"
The firing all of a sudden stops. The turrets and the dropship's blasters must have overheated. Rivet equips one of her Dual Raptors, pokes around the corner, and as soon as the dropship is in her sights, she pulls the trigger. Rounds of energy rain down on the dropship's armor, scorching and tearing into it.
She stops, ducking back behind the crates as the dropship and the turrets fire again.
Rivet's ear twitches as it catches the sound of the dropship changing position. The feline hurtles forward, hoverboots thrusting her forward, and dives back into the building just as the dropship swoops closer, its compressed energy rounds scorching the spot where she'd been crouching a second ago.
She huddles close to the wall, with her front against it rather than her back so she doesn't accidentally squish Klunk. "Might I offer a suggestion?" Klunk speaks up.
"All ears, bolts," Rivet tells him.
"The Blarg turrets are equipped with powerful rounds and shields," Klunk continued. "The one in this room should be able to protect us long enough to destroy the dropship. Which should not take long, if the quick ends to the reinforced doors are anything to go by."
"I like your thinking, partner." Rivet takes a deep, quiet breath. "Alright. Hoverboot time, in three… two… one!"
The Lombax speeds away from the wall and back into the dropship's view. She can hear the spatters of fire against the steel floor behind her, but she can't worry about that right now. She grabs onto the handles of the turret, spinning around 180 degrees and hurtling over the top of the machine— landing right into the seat, feet resting on the pedals. The shields are already thrumming loudly with energy, catching the blasts raining from the dropship.
Rivet slams her thumbs against the little red buttons atop the handles, spraying a steady stream of electrified rounds. They rip into the dropship's armor like a hot knife cutting through butter. As though the pilot was realizing their predicament, the dropship promptly stops firing and begins to pull away. One of the rounds slices into something volatile, and the dropship explodes.
"Yes!" Rivet fist pumps, grinning triumphantly. "'Nother one bites the dust!" she sings, twirling off the turret.
"… another what bites the dust?" Klunk asks, audibly confused.
"I…" Rivet blinks. "It's just a reference to a song I heard once."
"That still does not answer my question."
Rivet snorts with laughter. "I'll explain later. Right now, we've got a couple more turrets to take care of."
After taking care of the turrets with a few carefully aimed Shatterbombs and smashing open some bolt crates, Rivet sprints across the platform and skids to a stop. Along the sides of the small, square platform there are three red pads. In the center is an infobot trapped in a bright orange forcefield.
"Let's hope this deactivates the forcefield…" Rivet doesn't finish that thought, instead opting to sprint over the buttons one by one, turning each of them a bright green upon being stepped on. There's a beep, and the forefield flickers, and dissipates.
The infobot peers at them curiously, blinking slowly.
Rivet and Klunk both approach, and the infobot opens its mouth, the screen inside expanding.
The face of none other than Drek himself appears on the screen.
"Hello again everyone, Supreme Executive Chairman Drek here to fill you in on our progress."
He starts walking toward the camera as it pans backward.
"We have now found the perfect orbit for our planet, one which will allow for the optimum temperature, all year round! However, there is a planet now occupying that orbit, and sadly for its few insignificant inhabitants, it must be destroyed."
The camera cuts to a side view of Drek, and he turns gleefully to face it.
"That's why we've created this!" The camera zooms out to reveal a giant missile sitting in the middle of a platform. There's a snowy tundra in the background, with dark greenish blue evergreen trees dotting it. "The Planet Buster Maximus!" The camera cuts back to Drek, with part of the missile and a Blarg scientist in the background. "A device capable of blowing an entire planet into sub-atomic particles!
"We're quite proud of it! Here's how it works. We attach the Planet Buster to this ship—" The video cuts to the ship in question. "— fly it into orbit around the planet—" The camera cuts back to the still gleeful Drek. "— and let it go! Kaboom! Heheh, quite ingenious really. Once our trained professionals put the finishing touches on our new planet, everything will be complete!"
In the background, the viewer would be able to see the Blarg scientist backing up way too far down the platform, and then tipping over the edge to their doom.
"Thank you! Goodbye!" Drek waves condescendingly at the camera.
As the infobot's screen goes blank and Klunk stuffs it into his chest compartment, Rivet throws up her arms in frustration. "Well, that's just great! He's almost done with his stupid planet!"
"We will have to move fast so in order to stop the Planet Buster Maximus from leaving," Klunk says.
Rivet grabs his hand and flings him around onto her back. "Let's go blow that thing to pieces, then."
Planet Hoven…
Rivet blows away any Blarg soldiers that approach with a Dual Raptor before they could even try to aim. She stops partways down the path, spying an elevator slowly moving up and down to the right, leading into a cave higher up in the cliff. To the left is another path made up of moving and static metal platforms.
Rivet mentally recites "eeny meany miny moe," and lands on the path to the right.
"Here we go!" She leaps onto the elevator, crouching low to maintain her balance when it jerks to a stop at the top. She leaps off into a cave, tele-equipping her Mallet as she listens carefully for any sound.
It's strangely quiet.
Halfway down the rocky tunnel, small, fuzzy white creatures with faces not unlike the mutant swarmers from Orxon and the BTS station and gangly arms burst from the ground, snarling and trying to snap at her legs.
Rivet smacks them with her Mallet, knocking the teeth out of their gaping, drooling maws. She keeps whacking them until they either lose consciousness or dive back into their burrows.
Rivet stands there a long moment, gripping her Mallet tightly as she scans the area for any more danger.
She slowly moves towards the end of the cave, which tapers into a drop-off. She peers down to see water down below. "Klunk, heli-pack in three!" She takes a few steps back. "One, two, three!" Rivet sprints and leaps off the edge, her hoverboots clicking on and slowing her descent with the help of the heli-pack.
Rivet shuts them off as soon as she and Klunk hit the water. "COLD!" She shrieks, not realizing until now that maybe diving into water on a tundra planet isn't the best idea. She flails, hurriedly scrambling for land. Something that isn't wet.
As soon as her hands find rocky ground, she heaves herself onto it, shivering violently.
"Perhaps that was not the best idea?" Klunk says, echoing her thoughts from earlier.
"N-not— helping,— b-bolts," she shoots back, sitting down and trying to steady her breathing. Soon her shivering dies down, and she stands up. Hands on her hips, she surveys the room, trying to get a feel for how to even begin navigating it.
It looks like it operates via filling the room with water using the hydrodisplacer, but for one, she isn't exactly in the mood for freezing her butt off again, and two, they don't have a lot of time left. Rivet tele-equips her Swingshot and engages her hoverboots.
"Rivet… what are you doing?" Klunk asks.
"Improvising," Rivet answers with a sheepish grin. "Hang on tight, bolts!"
She flings her arm out, and the Swingshot grapple latches onto the pillar of machinery in the center. She surges forth, spinning around and around the room, slowly rising as she boosts along the walls. Thankfully the cord was made of compressed energy and not metal like the original Swingshots or they would be in deep water both literally and figuratively.
She releases near the top and shouts, "Heli-pack!"
With the help of Klunk's heli-pack and her hoverboots, she glides down onto the platform below. She stumbles down the path and falls onto her knees, promptly throwing up right then and there.
"N-never a-again," she mutters before slowly standing up on wobbly legs.
"Definitely never again," Klunk agrees. "My head is still spinning…"
Rivet slowly trudges out onto the snowy path ahead, grunting in annoyance when the deep snow slows her down. Once she manages to get clear of the deeper snow, it's a quick jog to the next building.
She skids to a stop upon entering, a frown tugging at her lips.
This is a workshop! She took a wrong turn!
"Idiot, idiot, idiot!" Rivet smacks her head in frustration.
"What happened?" Klunk asks.
"Oh mah goodness!"
Rivet jumps, startled by the voice. She sees someone peering from behind a worktable. It hits her like a ton of bricks flung in her face when she sees the nametag.
"Ed?" Rivet asks, cautiously approaching.
Klunk slides off her back, slowly surveying the room. "Rivet… did we take a… wrong turn?"
"Something like that," the Lombax answers.
"You're just a li'l angel!" Ed squeals, picking Klunk up when he wanders too close to the counter.
"Hey!" Klunk glares pointedly at her, looking almost insulted. "I am not a 'li'l angel.'" He crosses his arms and hmmphs.
Ed just giggles. "You're funny, too!"
Klunk seems to perk up at that. "That, we can agree on."
Rivet snorts, shaking her head. She figures they might as well use this as an opportunity instead of letting it be a total setback.
"Listen," she says in a hushed voice to Ed as she approaches the counter, resting her hands on it, "we need to get to the Planet Buster Maximus so we can destroy it. Do you know where it is?"
Ed's face immediately hardens and she nods. "Yeah, Ah do. It's on the other side of the factory, to the west. It's very heavily guarded though, you're not gunna make it through."
Rivet smirks and shakes her head. "We've gotten this far, another little army isn't going to stop us."
A faint smile spreads across Ed's face. "Ah hope you're right." She raises her voice as she continues, "And Ah'd like to help, if Ah can. Ah can install your li'l friend here—"
"Hey," Klunk says indignantly, but this time it goes ignored.
"— with a hydro-pack! Ah can even modify it for underwater combat! Aaaand, if you have any weapons you want modified, Ah can do that too!"
"We do not have time for this," Klunk says blandly. "We have to destroy that missile."
Rivet nods in agreement. "Those upgrades will come in handy after though." She tele-equips her R.Y.N.O. and sets it down on the counter in front of Ed. The young woman's eyes light up like the Fourth of Mayjune. "If you can upgrade this while we're gone to carry more ammo—?"
"Oooo, if ya'd like, Ah can do a lot more than that!" Ed exclaims. "Ah can make this bad boy even better than his successors!"
Rivet smiles and winks. "Go crazy then."
As Rivet and Klunk step off the teleporter— which took them back to their ship funnily enough— her partner suddenly blows up at her, startling her enough that she stumbles back at bit, wide-eyed.
"You—" He points at her, eyes narrowed in anger, "— you! Got us lost! And we wasted so much time that we now might be too late to stop the Planet Buster Maximus from leaving the planet!"
"You're pinning this on me?!" Rivet stares at him in utter disbelief. "Excuse me, but there aren't exactly a bunch of neon signs saying 'Planet Buster Maximus this way!' now are there?"
"I should have known better than to trust your faulty squishy brain," Klunk declares, crossing his arms and looking away.
Rivet's fists clenching, trembling. She shouts, "Oh yeah?! Well you and your so-called superior robot brain couldn't exactly correct my course now could it!? So I don't think you have the right to pin this on me! It's as much your fault as it is mine!" She pokes him harshly in the chest, sending him tumbling back into the snow. He looks up at her as she continues, "You know, I've been thinking over and over again in my mind how you're the first person in literal years to stick with me for so long, but that's just it, isn't it? All you care about is the mission! What about me?! Don't I matter too?"
Klunk opens his mouth to speak, but Rivet cuts him off.
"I'm not done! You know what?! Up until this moment, I did want you to stick around. I did want you to be my friend! But you have the worst attitude, especially towards organic life like me. I just didn't pay that much attention to it because you didn't direct it at me, you haven't in a while! But you just did."
"Rivet—" Klunk starts.
"Not finished!" Rivet yells. "You wanna know something else?! You're not even doing what you were built for! You're just a defect who's technically malfunctioning!"
Klunk's mouth falls open slightly, but he doesn't say anything.
The Lombax takes a deep breath, closing her eyes and trying to calm down a little. When she opens them again, her breath is shaky as she tries to speak more steadily. "We still need to destroy that Planet Buster thingie. So let's go do that, track down Drek and kick his sorry butt into the next galaxy, and then we can go our separate ways."
Rivet whirls away, stomping towards the weapons vendor. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna look to see if there's some new firepower I can use!"
A/N: It's been almost a year since I started writing this fic, like holy shit I CAN'T BELIEVE IT DXJKDJKFJFD