Chapter XXII
A/N: Dialogue credit at the end of the chapter!
Rivet leaps from the moving platform and lands in a low crouch, tele-equipping her Enforcer as a small black disk in the floor opens, releasing one floating mine after another. A couple shots take care of them though, leaving them as piles of smoldering metal.
She sprints down the platform and across the bridge, quickly blowing away the Blargian chopper that swoops down from above before it can fire.
Rivet hops onto the elevator platform, crouching low to keep her balance. She leaps onto the conveyor belt upon reaching the top, and blasting the Blarg soldiers as soon as they round the corner. Some of them turn to run, but the energy-based shotgun engulfs them before they can escape.
Another chopper bites the dust as well when it dives down low, firing its poorly-aimed missiles. The helicopter's remains crash into the side of the platform, going up in flames.
Rivet wall-jumps her way up to the next section— a small cave that leads to another conveyor belt doubling as a bridge. She stops just short of it, squinting. Another one of those black disks.
She re-equips her Enforcer and sprints down the conveyor belt, pulling down on the trigger repeatedly as soon as the first mine pops out. Once the area is clear, and she makes her way past another wall-jump section, she sprints through a smaller cave, only stopping briefly to take care of a few more of those little snowy white creatures with the help of her Mallet.
Rivet skids to a stop when she reaches the end of the cave, entering the outside world once more. "There's the missile!" She can see the giant green ship is still docked, the Planet Buster Maximus attached to the bottom. "We're almost there!" She could see little dots on it, probably workers making sure it's secure. And then she sees the moving platforms ahead. "Oh come on!"
"What is it now?" Klunk asks, audibly irritated.
Rivet lets out a low growl. "Just do your heli-pack thing when I tell you to, okay?"
"No, no, no!"
The massive ship is starting to rise away from the docking platform, thrusters humming to life.
"What is going on—?" Klunk starts.
"Just shut up and let me think!" Rivet snaps.
Klunk goes quiet. The feline spies an old defense turret ahead and wastes no time, charging towards it with her hoverboots. The ship starts firing at them, but their aim is so off that it doesn't even come close to hitting. She dives behind the turret, quickly taking control of it and pointing it at the ship.
The vessel stops firing, probably to reload or something. Rivet smirks. "My turn."
Thankfully, due to the Planet Buster Maximus being a lot lower in the atmosphere than it would've been had it reached its target and possibly the ice cold water rendering whatever materials were used in its construction useless, the missile did not explode upon falling into the water below or when the remains of the giant Blarg ship landed on top of it.
Probably wasn't the best plan of the century, but hey, she had to improvise! And it worked!
Rivet steps off the turret, trembling as the adrenaline running through her veins slowly dies down. She feels Klunk sliding off her back, and she hears a hum.
"What?" she asks, turning around.
An infobot peers around the underside of the turret, blinking at them.
"Oh," Rivet mutters.
The infobot opens its mouth, the screen inside expanding and fizzling. Drek's slimy face appears, of course.
"Men!" he bellows, "you are about to embark on a very dangerous mission!" The transmission glitches for a moment, as if the signal went bad, and then returns to normal. It cuts to an image of a base surrounded by asteroids and parked close to a sun. "We will be launching a heavily armed surprise attack from our new moon base against a completely unarmed planet." The camera cuts back to him, and Drek pauses, clearly thinking for a moment. "Actually, that doesn't sound too dangerous… nevertheless! Your orders are simple—"
The video cuts to an image of a platform with a Versa-Target attached to it.
"Destroy anything that moves—" And then an image of several towers poking into the stormy sky, glowing in the darkness. "— steal the power generators from Gorda City. Then, destroy anything that doesn't move!" The feed cuts back to him as he giggles. "Oh, and don't forget— have fun!"
After the transmission is over, Klunk stuffs the infobot into his chest compartment.
"Drek's gonna tear that city apart!" Rivet's fists clench in her anger. "We have to get to that base and find the coordinates for that planet!"
"No!" Klunk retorts. "If we can capture Drek before he leaves that station, the galaxy will be saved! We must get to the base!"
"That's what I said!"
"No, that is what I said!"
Rivet throws up her arms in frustration. "Fine!"
"Fine!" Klunk shouts back.
"Fine," Rivet hisses, crossing her arms.
The return trip to Ed's is made quicker with the teleporter, and after getting back Rivet's new and improved R.Y.N.O., and Klunk getting a new hydro-pack as promised, the two soon leave planet Hoven and set a course for the moon base.
Unknown Location…
"Ah, a photo op by your shiny new shuttle! Now that's something I can do."
Drek looks up at Qwark, clearly unamused. Qwark chuckles nervously, continuing, "Or you trust me well enough now to watch over the fleet while you're away?" Drek's fists clench with fury. "In my defense, sir, I don't think I'll be able to fit in that thing! It's your size!"
The pint-sized Blarg snarls at him, scaring Qwark enough that he takes a step back.
"You are to take this shuttle—" Drek points to the shuttle in question. "— to the moon base and ambush those two miscreants when they arrive."
"You mean Rivet and Klunk?"
"Obviously!" Drek hisses, now pointing at a wanted poster for the duo in question. "I put that there so that you and all the other dullards would not forget!"
"Right, right!" Qwark says hurriedly, nodding and smiling nervously. "Still, at the risk of giving those two too much credit, I think—"
"That you're too washed up for ground combat?" Drek pauses. "True, but I'm loaning you my star fighter once you get to the moon, so long as you can still fly, right?"
"Yes, but back on topic, it'll only be Rivet and Klunk, yes?" Qwark's anxious smile falters at the Blarg's glare, but he continues, "I'm not sure I can face the Rangers yet, and—"
"Qwark, you will do what I say and not screw it up, or I will abandon you as easily as your own birth parents did!"
Qwark's mouth drops. He remains silent, still stunned by the words as Drek continues to scream at him.
"Just as your dear friends and fans have done now! And then, you will not only be ruined completely, but completely alone as well! Never again to be treated with respect, compassion, or anything else that was all most likely wasted on you in the first place!"
Qwark's head drops in shame and sadness. "You really know how to reach the weak points of a person. Alright, I'm going." He climbs into the shuttle, barely managing to squeeze inside.
Drek wordlessly slams the metal door shut behind him.
. . . .
Rivet's glad she stocked up on ammo before gliding down to the section below— as soon as her boots touch the ground, the aerial pterodactyl-like robots drop down and charge at her. Two bombs from her Shatterbomb glove quickly take them out.
To say this moon base is creepy would be an understatement. It reminds her a lot of the BTS station, minus the ghost pirates. Everything seems deathly silent, like at the drop of a pin chaos would erupt. It leaves Rivet's stomach in knots, and she doesn't like it.
Some well-aimed shots from her finally newly acquired Devastator take out the giant tower powering the security gate blocking their way. After wiping out some more of the pterodactyl-bots and Blarg soldiers guarding the area, and then destroying another tower, she runs into a door that can only be unlocked with the Trespasser.
"Of course," Rivet grumbles, tele-equipping the gadget and stepping onto the pad. She plunges it into the Invinco-lock and gets to work. She eventually gets the gates to open, but she has to stick to the wall, edging around the corner to stay out of the turret's range as the Blarg inside fires in her direction.
She wonders if it has a limited range to prevent a case of friendly fire, but it's not something that she's going to wrack her brain to try to figure out anytime soon. She carefully climbs up the stairs, and lobs a Shatterbomb at the pterodactyl-bots shambling around on the bridge ahead.
She sprints past their remains and tosses another one at the Blarg behind the turret once she's at a spot where their shield becomes useless, killing them instantly.
Rivet sprints down the stairs and runs down the path ahead, stopping upon seeing the large, green cylindrical glass cases littering the next section. Something in her head screams "explosives," so she steers clear of them. She groans upon running into another gate blocked off with an Invinco-lock.
"Forget this!" Rivet boosts over the gate with her hoverboots, landing in a low crouch on the other side. She hoverboots along the side, narrowly avoiding the turret fire, and then lunges at the Blarg as soon as she's able, slamming her FissionMallet into their head.
The Blarg soldier crumples to the ground, unconscious.
Some more pterodactyl-bots succumb to one of her Shatterbombs, and she takes out another tower along with a fighter jet just hovering there with a couple shots from her Devastator.
Rivet sprints on ahead, stopping when the massive double doors ahead open to reveal two more of those jets behind it. They immediately fire, and she's forced to dash out of the way to avoid them. A couple shots from her Devastator quickly makes short work of the fighter jets, though, and she's able to sprint on ahead.
She finds a couple more stacks of bolt crates to smash open, and collects the little pieces of metal inside with her Mallet's magnetizer. She blows up the green containers crowding the path ahead before continuing her trek, not wanting to be standing too close to one if something decides to attack from above (like the pterodactyl-bots, for example). After clearing out the glass containers, she sprints down the path towards the elevator.
Thankfully nothing swoops down to attack as she steps into the elevator and plants a foot down on the glass button in the center.
A room with floors covered in dangerous chemicals whose depths fluctuated in intervals as they were being pumped to another location (if the one big room with the giant glass capsules and pumps inside were anything to go by), more robots, more Blarg soldiers, and a massive chamber completely overrun with swarms upon swarms of both—
Rivet's relief can't be understated when they're past all of that and she can take a rest and breathe for a bit. After resting long enough that her breathing is steady once again, she climbs up the set of stairs ahead, Enforcer at the ready.
She stops at the top of the stairs, frozen as she locks eyes with him.
"You," Rivet snarls.
"Yes, me!" Qwark growls back at her, before swan-diving backwards off the platform.
The Lombax stares at the spot he'd just been a second ago in bewilderment, and stumbles back in surprise as a massive ship suddenly soars into view, thrusters rumbling loudly.
"Catch me if you can, Rivet!" The ship's speakers crackle mockingly with his voice.
"Come back here!" Rivet shouts at him. "I still need to swipe your pilot's license you son of a b—!"
"Rivet," Klunk begins drily, "I do not think he can hear you at this point."
The feline grumbles under her breath. She turns, and stops upon spying a lone fighter jet in the hangar. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"I sincerely doubt it."
Rivet growls, twirling the fighter jet out of the way of the missiles.
"You know, Rivet, I'm doing this for your own good!" Qwark's voice crackled over the comm speakers.
"What's that supposed to mean?" the Lombax snarls at him.
Of course, he has no response to that.
Rivet slams her thumbs down against the fire buttons of the steering, unleashing a spray of bullets that rip into the armor of Qwark's ship like a knife through butter. One of the thrusters falls off, tearing away from the ship in a mess of plating and wires.
"Pretty good! For a beginner."
"I'll show you who's a beginner, you—"
Qwark's ship whirls around, catching the jet in a golden cone of light. Rivet growls again. A tractor beam! That cheating—
"Rivet, meet missiles. Missiles, meet Rivet."
She's barely able to turn the jet enough to be able to aim at the missiles Qwark fires, blowing them up before they can land a hit. Qwark gives up after a moment, seeming to realize that he isn't really getting anywhere with this, releasing the jet from the tractor beam.
He turns tail and runs, blasting off as fast as he can.
Rivet pursues, raining bullets and missiles on him until two more thrusters fall off. Three small Blarg fighters swarm in, surrounding Qwark's ship and generating a green shield around the vessel.
"Ah, just a scratch. Reminds me of my first space battle when I was just a small fry."
"If it's just a 'scratch,'" Rivet sneers, "then why are you hiding like the slimy coward you are?"
"Why you son of a— hey, wonder what this button's for?"
Rivet swerves out of the way as Qwark's shield deactivates long enough to release a bunch of mines. She boosts past them, firing another rocket onto Qwark's ship just before the shield returns. She shoots down the Blarg fighters one by one, quickly doing away with the shield.
"Why those buffoons! They couldn't shoot the broad side of my fitness trainer!"
"Why don't you shut up already," Rivet shouts into the comm, "before your jaw falls off from flapping so much?!"
"Ouch! That's brutal…"
"You think that's brutal?" Rivet takes aim at the last two thrusters and unleashes her last barrage of rockets on them. "Captain Squishy, meet missiles. Missiles… meet Captain Squishy."
In a burst of flames, the last two thrusters fall off of Qwark's ship, and he begins spiraling violently towards the planet below.
"Uhh, mayday, MAYDAY! Rivet, I gotta tell you something before I go! Drek's next target! It's V… Aaaaaa-aaaaaahh…!"
"I wonder what that was all about?"
Rivet stops in the middle of the bridge, looking down at Klunk. She heaves a sigh and asks, "What do you mean?"
"He was about to tell us something, Rivet," Klunk points out. "Drek's next target. Do you not find that, well… odd?"
Rivet scoffs, crossing her arms over her chest. "It was probably a last ditch thing to get us to save his skin! Even if he genuinely gave a teratrope's behind about Drek's next target, it's too late now. He's gone. We'll have to find out his next target ourselves."
She strides past him, entering the central computer room and getting to work on hacking the thing with her Trespasser. A minute later, and they're in. The first thing that pops onto the central computer's screen is a news channel.
The reporter, who Rivet realizes is Darla Gratch, is looking worse for the wear. A finger is missing from her hand, sparking, and steam is billowing from her body, scorch marks in various places on her body.
The city behind her, Gorda City, is up in flames, debris everywhere and what looks like the occasional body half-buried underneath.
A civilian in typical mechanic's garb is running around behind her, screaming their head off.
"This is Darla Gratch reporting live from Gorda City," Darla Gratch speaks. "This once peaceful planet is being torn apart today in an unprovoked attack. It now seems certain that Supreme Executive Chairman Drek will not be dissuaded in his efforts to destroy the galaxy for his own selfish needs. All hope certainly seems lost." Darla Gratch glances over at the civilian sadly, hand on her chest as she watches them continue to scream.
Rivet squints.
Wait, was that civilian struck by lightning? Their hair looks scorched and—
"Darla Gratch," Darla Gratch speaks again, more shakily this time as she faces the camera once more, "coming to you live from her home planet… Channel 2 News." The footage ends, and the program closes.
Rivet stares at the screen blankly for a long moment, then looks down at Klunk. He's looking down at the keyboard, fiddling with the keys.
"I cannot find Drek's current location or his next target on this computer," Klunk tells her, "but I have found the coordinates for that planet. I am transmitting them to your nav-unit."
Rivet silently nods, not sure what else to say. She looks up at the screen one last time before leaving with Klunk.
Drek plays back the footage one last time. When the recording ends, and the screen goes black once again, he slams his fist against the side of his keyboard in a fit of rage. Of course. Of course, his spokesman still didn't kill those two miscreants!
No matter. Perhaps it's just as well that they did away with Qwark. It saves him the trouble of having to do it himself, that much is for certain.
He slams his finger down on a red button and leers close to the microphone poking out of the console. "Zed, ready the Deplanetizer! We still have a pathetic dust ball to destroy."
"Sir, yes sir!"
A/N #2: Special thanks to Awareness Bringer for the dialogue between and including "Ah, a photo op by..." and "You really know how to..."!