Rivet stared vacantly out the viewport. Her eyes and body were completely unmoving, unblinking while she tried in vain to properly process everything she had just heard. The words replayed over and over in her mind while the story Ratchet started telling faded from her perception.

'I love you Rivet' in his voice repeated over and over again, every time making her face grow hotter and hotter and her grip on the flight controls tighter and tighter. A groan from the metal roused her from her thoughts and she shook her head, partially fearing that she was hot enough that steam would start shooting out of her ears. Her hand tugged at her scarf in a vain attempt to try and cool herself off from her rampaging thoughts, as well as end the call before hearing more of Ratchet's voice gave her a heart attack.

I heard that right, right? He loves me. Loves. ME. He said all those things, about me, about how he feels. This isn't a dream right? I didn't fall off of that hill and hit my head or something? Or some trick by the empress to distract us?

"Periapsis?" Her voice squeaked partway through the ship's name, but she soldiered on. "Was there any sign of tampering or interference in that call?"

"None, pilot. Lombax vessels use a unique encryption that is impossible to emulate. If you would like to listen again to confirm-"

"Thatwon'tbenecessary!" She quickly stopped the AI from continuing. "I don't think I can handle hearing all that again right now."

"Are you sure? Given all evidence, you are likely to have enjoyed the subject matter of the call. Are you not elated to know that your partner returns your feelings?"

"No, I did and… and I am. It's just a lot to take in all at once." Her hand massaged her temples.

"Would you like me to delete the record of the call in a similar fashion to the medical exam I have no record of?"

"No!" She shouted in a reflex. "As much as I want to talk to him about this, he has a point. We need to stop the empress first. For now, knowing that he loves me back is enough to last me until we deal with her."

"What shall I do with the data then?"

Rivet paused, the heat creeping up her cheeks again. "Can you... save it for playback later?" She asked quietly, almost like she was afraid the other lombaxes would hear her on the other ship.

"Done. May I also extend my congratulations to you pilot Rivet. My records suggest finding the one with whom you belong is not an easy thing. Had I a personality matrix, no doubt I would be happy for you." In contrast to the AI's monotone voice, a short clip on the center console of balloons and confetti played on repeat, the word 'CONGRATULATIONS!' zooming in and out in the middle of it.

Rivet sighed, letting herself feel more of that happy warmth before shoving it all back down. "Thanks Periapsis. You know, I'll have to come up with a nickname for you."

"Pilot Lenius was fond of calling me 'Peri' if that will suffice."

Rivet hummed in thought, welcoming the distraction that conjuring nicknames could provide.


"So you named him after the sound he made when he hit his head?"

"I was like seventeen at the time. I wasn't exactly ready to name another person on the spot like that, and I wasn't going to spend who knows how long calling 'XJ-0461'." Ratchet desperately tried to defend himself while his father laughed at him.

"Fair enough I suppose. I hope you're better about it now at least. You're gonna have to name my grandkids after all."

"Dad." Ratchet warned.

"Last one, I promise." Kaden clearly lied with a smile on his face, Ratchet rolling his eyes in response to hide his embarrassment. Then he remembered another question he had.

"How old am I anyway?"

"Twenty six." He answered quickly. "Your birthday actually isn't too far away either, just about two months. Once the empress is dealt with I'll have to work on all those years that I missed. Hope the bank kept my account open."

"How long do we live for?"

Kaden hummed in thought. "Last I heard, the oldest living lombax was about two hundred years old, and thanks to modern medical technology she was still going strong. Estimates flying around from biologists placed the new life expectancy for most lombaxes at around two fifty, passing our prime at about one seventy five. So we've all got long lives ahead of us."

"So you're not much older than Rivet and I?"

"Not by much, relatively speaking. I turned forty six about four months ago."

"Maybe I should get you some presents too, all things considered."

Kaden scoffed at him and put his hand on his shoulder. "The only present I'll ever need, you've already given me. I got to see my son, something I thought I'd never get again. So don't worry about it and let me handle the gifts."

"I could almost say the same thing to you. I stared up at the stars from Veldin for so long, wondering about my family. And now I get to learn not just about you and mom, but about everything that Alister never told me." Ratchet knew he sounded like a giddy school kid, but he really didn't care. Kaden laughed at his mirth.

"Then my first gift will be a map of our family tree. The Kuiper name is almost as old as the Azimuth's you know."

"Is that our last name? Kuiper?"

Kaden nodded. "Goes back to the pre-spaceflight era. The name comes from something about an asteroid or planetoid belt, but anything like that was strip mined from the Fastoon system for the great war so who knows what they were talking about."

"Ratchet Kuiper… That'll take some getting used to."

Kaden grinned. "Oh yeah? Just wait until it's Rivet Kui-"

"OH LOOK! WE'RE THERE!" Ratchet shouted to interrupt him, the ship dropping out of warp right then. Neither could be prepared for what they saw when it did though. The communicator rang, Rivet's name appearing on the screen. Ratchet absently hit the button to accept the call without looking away from the viewport.

"Are you two seeing this too?" Both lombaxes murmured in the affirmative.

To call the system well defended was as big of an understatement as Ratchet thought physically possible. He counted at least a hundred orbital defense platforms scattered across the system, each of them protecting a shipyard in the middle of constructing a ship to add to the already substantial fleet. Ships outnumbered the stations by at least five to one with Tyhrranosis floating behind them all at the heart of the largest fleet any of them had ever seen.

The planet was also a far cry from the arid and dry world he remembered it as. Even from the edge of the system, the planet now looked grey and metallic. Like someone had put a plate of armor around the entire thing. He guessed that if they were much closer he would be able to pick out arrays of planetary defense cannons, orbital shipyards, and planetside fortresses.

And all of a sudden, it sure felt like every last gun in the system was trained right on them.

Ratchet scrambled for the flight controls. "Aphelion, full power to shields and scan for a pocket with cover for us! Rivet, stay synced but peel off if we take too much fire!"

"Wait!" Kaden put his hands on the controls, preventing Ratchet from taking off.

"For what? Them to atomize us?" Rivet shouted through the communicator, though Kaden seemed to ignore her.

"All ships, run a system scan looking for heat blowoff and power spikes" A moment passed after his command before Aphelion chirped and displayed a map of the system. While it showed hundreds of ships and stations, barely a handful of them were giving off any heat or using any power. More than ninety five percent of the ships and stations were floating husks. Fully armed, but unmoving and inactive.

"Why would they leave a fleet like this just… empty? There's enough ships here to conquer Polaris in a day!" Ratchet poised.

"I could make a few guesses." Kaden started. "But first on the list is it's a manpower issue. Each of those needs about twelve hundred hands to crew it at full efficiency, and this cragmite army we're up against has only been around for a few years now. They pop 'em out fast, but not that fast."

"So they build the ships and fill them up later. That seems like a waste of resources."

"But where are they coming from?" Rivet asked. "This army pretty much came out of nowhere right?"

"Pretty much, yeah. One day I was running a mission to take out a fuel depot and suddenly a bunch of cragmite commandos dropped in to stop me. Ever since they've just been getting more and more prevalent. My best guess right now is that the Empress found another egg and is using either it or her own DNA to make clones, but I haven't found anything like a brood world to verify that." He explained. "But all that's not what we're here for. We need to rescue your friends."

Ratchet nodded. "Right. And since we know which ships we have to avoid, all we need to do is avoid sensor detection while we approach the planet. You ready Rivet?"

"Do you even need to ask? Let's go already!"

"I'll go back to my ship and activate a little device I've been working on. Should keep us hidden from their defenses until we get close." Kaden said before he motioned for Ratchet to put on a helmet and vent the cabin.

Kaden disembarked Aphelion and launched himself to his own ship. He settled in quickly and moments after he did his ship started to shimmer. Blue hexagons flared to life millimeters from the armor plating before dulling slowly. When they stabilized, Ratchet realized his father's ship wasn't on his sensors anymore. The only reason he knew it was there was because he could see it, and given the size of the three vessels that wouldn't exactly be easy from a distance.

A thin blue line extended from the ship towards both Aphelion and Periapsis, recreating that flare of hexagons when they landed. He watched the sensor readings as Rivet's ship disappeared and knew his ship had done much the same. Muttering a wow under his breath, his mind raced trying to figure out how his father had done this. His father's engine flare snapped him out of it though, so he made a mental note to ask him about it later.

All three lombaxes wasted no time in flying forward towards Tyhrranosis. They split up in an effort to make it more difficult for any of the active defenses to hit any one of them should they be noticed, flying and darting around. They wove their way through asteroids as well as the empty space hulks, taking every chance they could to hide themselves from being seen.

Ratchet got a good look at one of the empty ships as he cut a turn close. The design was vaguely lombax in origin, same as the warship the empress had been flying back on Corson V but much bigger. About half a kilometer long with sharp angles, a split nose, and hooked wings, it was reminiscent of both the empress' ship and the ones the lombaxes were flying at that moment. It was simply scaled up and armed to the absolute teeth. He also saw a large spinal canon mounted in the center of the split nose. Based on the size of it he had no wish to be on any ship that caught this fleet's ire.

Continuing beyond the ship, the planet was getting closer by the second and the defense cannons that dotted its surface larger in turn. He double checked Aphelion's readings as they slipped around to the dark side of one of the planet's moons. "We're still undetected, so let's go in as fast as we can."

The other two agreed and all three whipped around the moon at a few times the speed of sound. Seconds later there was a plasma flare as they entered the atmosphere, and that was when the security systems finally picked them up. Power spiked across the surface as defense cannons came to life, thundering flak rounds into the air around them.

They swerved and weaved to make themselves harder targets while searching for a viable landing spot. While doing that, Ratchet noticed some cragmite fighters stream up from some hangars on the ground before settling in behind Rivet. "Riv! You've got fighters on your tail!"

"I see them! Can you give me a hand?"

"Speed up and swerve left, I'll take care of them." She did just that while Ratchet slowed and swerved right. As the fighters followed Rivet and crossed in front of him he fired up his lasers and cut through them.

"Since when does an angel class fighter have lasers?" Kaden asked.

"A bit of a long story, but it's a Zoni modification."

"Zoni!? Now that's a story I certainly want to hear." He responded.

"If you two are done drooling over some admittedly cool lasers, there's a spot clear for landing. Marking it on the map." Rivet cut in, and with a beep a red dot popped up on his map, indicating the spot she had noticed.

Avoiding more anti-air cannon fire, they swooped down and onto the landing spot. That low they were safe from the cannons but the fighters were still a problem. They made sure the group knew it too, hitting Aphelion with a quick pass. The shots bounced first off the energy shielding and then the armor plating. The ship rocked from the impacts, even though they didn't leave a mark.

"You two see if you can hack the AA guns." Ratchet told them. "Ones that size are probably automated, so if you can do that we'll have an easier time getting our friends and then getting out of here."

They shouted in affirmative and disembarked while he took back off into the sky, providing covering fire while the other two made their way to the nearest AA gun.


Rivet scanned the area near the AA gun to try and find where the targeting computer likely was. Eventually her eyes settled on a tower connected to the gun via a small bridge. It was entirely ringed in glass panes, a perfect spot for the gun's sensors and operators. With that done she quickly plotted a course forward. They had landed in an area under construction, with partially assembled girders, pipes and concrete shards littered all over the place providing the ample cover that Kaden was taking advantage of while Rivet charged forward.

Doors opened all around them and cragmites poured into the area, but that did nothing to slow either of them down. If anything, it made Kaden get the lead out and actually get out ahead of her thanks to his slightly longer legs. Competitiveness roared within her, prompting her to spark her hoverboots to life.

Rocketing out to the front, Kaden's voice spoke in her ear. "Oh, so you have a pair already! Then I don't have to feel bad about using mine!"

As soon as he said that she heard the sound of another pair activating before he now darted ahead of her. He did it in style too, with a somersault onto a girder that he grinded along before bouncing off of a slab of concrete with a flip to another. He launched himself as far up into the air as he could. Up there he produced a lombax made gun similar to her blackhole vortex but with less flare to its design, making it far more utilitarian. The barrels spun before it started belting out bullets straight up into the air. They traveled for a few meters before stopping and suddenly changed direction, raining down on cragmites in every direction.

Rivet did her part to help clear the way while he did that. She produced a pair of lombax blasters she had taken from his armory and twirled slowly while firing. They worked similarly to her burst pistol, with a high fire rate and were shockingly accurate. Trying to shoot while moving like that was new to her, but she found it worked oddly well, the blasters seemingly made just for it.

Above her, Kaden needed to get moving to catch up again and swapped to a large rocket launcher. He fired it backwards, blowing up a large group of cragmites while the force threw him in the opposite direction. He flipped and turned like a dancer midair while bouncing from hanging slabs, alternating between his minigun for effect and rocket launcher for speed.

They quickly made their way closer to the base of the AA gun, it now towering about fifty meters over them. Kaden finally landed after his several minutes of midair acrobatics, and if Rivet was being quite honest it seemed like he was showboating a bit with a few extra flips here and there. After he was firmly on the ground they were just a stone's throw from the door set in the base of the gun. Running up to it, the door remained shut to them. Kaden almost immediately started examining a nearby wall console.

"Hold them off while I try and get us inside!" He said, but Rivet's patience was long gone, having taken off with Ratchet into the dogfight above them that she had been doing her best to keep from staring up at.

"Or I can just do this!" She cried and reeled back with her mechanical fist before putting all her weight behind a punch dead center in the door. The metal buckled and groaned, denting around her fist like she was punching a pillow. Again, she punched with all her force, this second strike tearing right through and making a hole to the other side. Gripping the edge of the hole she had made, she pulled as hard as she could. Planting her other hand on the frame for leverage. It groaned again, straining under the force she was exerting. In seconds the sliding door came free of its home, torn away like scrap paper from a notepad.

The force carried through, allowing her to throw what was easily a several hundred pound door made of military grade alloy like a simple frisbee. It glided through the air before impacting a group of cragmites that had been charging their position while she had been busy. She turned away as they were knocked across the courtyard and charged into the base of the gun. She vaguely heard Kaden mutter something like 'So that's what he was talking about.' before he followed in after her.

Inside was what looked like a dimly lit maintenance room that was also being used for ammo storage. Blocks of it were being automatically loaded into a conveyor system that brought them up to the firing mechanisms. The whole place shook with every round that was fired, some dust falling from cracks in the hastily built walls.

Kaden dropped an automated turret in the doorway to delay any would-be followers and they moved further in, directing themselves towards a stairwell that lined up with the tower on the outside. Kaden started running up while Rivet hot swapped to her grindboots in a mid jump. Landing on the railing for the stairs, she zipped straight up and once more left the older lombax in the dust, something he grumbled about under his breath.

Popping off the top with a flip for flair, she landed in front of a door that this time opened for her. She launched a rocket down the hallway beyond, blowing apart the ramshackle defenses that were set up on the other end. Following Kaden's lead down below, she popped a turret from a glove and moved on, not bothering to wait for him to catch up. She quickly cleared the hallway connecting the gun to the targeting tower and burst through the swirling smoke on the other end.

She found herself in a type of control tower, surrounded by consoles and slumped over cragmite bodies. Outside, past windows that ringed the whole thing, she had a good view of the entire surrounding area, with targeting information and ship positions being projected directly onto the panes. She looked around at the different consoles, looking for one that would let her change the targeting protocols.

Kaden finally caught up to her after a minute, though to his credit he didn't even seem winded. He took one look around and then went over to a console and removed his glove to reveal his robot hand and planted it in a clear area of the board where he wouldn't flip any switches. After a moment his hand glowed with blue circuit like lines that spread from it. His eyes darted from side to side, looking at something that she couldn't see. After a few moments of this his other hand activated his radio. "Ratchet, we made it to the tower. I'm reconfiguring the IFF protocols in the computer right now, but we can speed that up by 'calibrating' it on some of them directly."


"Got it!" Ratchet responded as he banked hard to avoid a jutting spire from the fort at the last second, some of the fighters hot on his trail failing to copy him and crashing in fireballs. "I'll bring a few around and line 'em up for ya! I just wanna get a bit more attention first."

"How can that be possible?" Rivet asked. "These computers say there's already a system wide alert that we're here."

"Watch and learn!" With that he dove the ship down towards a tunnel entrance, one he chose in particular for the fuel pipes coming out of it. Aphelion bobbed and weaved around various obstacles while flying at high speed through the tunnel, something his pursuers decided not to even attempt. He guessed they were following him on the surface through surveillance equipment, but that meant there was no one down there to stop him.

Following the pipes through twists and turns, he came to an underground storage facility. A massive cavern filled with tanks probably full of fuel for local generators and the starships in orbit. Spherical tanks suspended in large trusses and static prevention devices were everywhere, giving him the opportunity to pick his target. Launching a single missile at a smaller one, he was expecting the usual good sized ball of yellow and orange fire. Instead the resultant inferno was massive, sending out a resounding shockwave not just through Aphelion but the entire complex judging by how the other containers shook in place. Once his eyes adjusted to brightness he saw the fire wasn't even orange, but rather a bright pink before it sputtered and died, then reignited in a normal fireball. Not to say it wasn't still forceful, the shockwave shook the entire area again but with nowhere near the strength from before.

"Ratchet! What in the hell was that?" His father asked. "We felt that from here!"

"Maybe you can tell me. What kind of starship fuel burns pink and then explodes a second time?"

"Pink? The only thing I can think of is metallic hydrogen. And it's not burning per se, but rather phase changing, sublimating to be precise. The pressure change is huge and violent, and the resultant gas is pink before it disperses too much to be seen. The second explosion is combustion with the oxygen in the air."

"Alright, I think I know how to grab their attention. Hold on to something you two."

"Ratchet you better not-" Rivet sounded like she was about to try and stop him from going through with his plan, so he cut her off.

Putting it in motion, he dropped a remote charge from Aphelion on a larger tank that on closer inspection read 'M.M.H. HANDLE WITH EXTREME CARE.' The tank he chose was nestled amongst a bunch of others that warned for Helium-3, so he guessed this was going to be quite the glorious boom indeed.

With the charge placed, he went to hightail it out of the tunnel. He followed the same path that had gotten him so deep in, but soon had to divert. While he had been down here, some of his pursuers had finally gotten wise and followed him in, setting up blocks at turns to funnel him.

Soon enough he found his path blocked by a line of fighters on all sides, with a group coming up to block the way he had come. Coming to a stop, a voice came over the loudspeakers from the group to the front. "Attention filthy lombax, surrender and we'll make your death painless."

"Yeah, not likely." He responded to himself before popping the cap over the detonator switch built into the flight stick. As soon as it was pushed a resounding boom shook him to his core, and he guessed it did the same for the planet as a whole given how much it rattled his teeth. Ships in every direction started to fault and spin as sirens wailed.

Thinking fast, Ratchet chose a tunnel that didn't have fuel lines running down it to fly through. He took down some of the fighters blocking it while the rest were trying to stabilize and blew past them. An explosion ripped around the corner he had come out of, tearing the fuel lines to shreds with a neon blue glow, mixing with the pink of the hydrogen to make a purple churning mass of fire and gas that kept feeding itself.

With his own explosion of speed the intersection was quickly in the rearview mirror, but the fireball wasn't. He could practically feel the heat from the fire on his tail as he flew, hugging the corners tighter and tighter, missing walls and pipes by hair's breadths with growing speed until…


"Ratchet you better not-" Rivet was cut off by the radio going dead from his end, prompting a growl. "Like with those dang skeletons all over again."

"Skeletons?" Kaden asked, eyebrow raised in her direction.

She shifted closer to the door to guard it while he was busy. "That fuzzball pulled that same thing on Savali with living skeletons from another dimension. Tells me the bare minimum and then hangs right up."

Kaden shivered audibly. "I always hated that dimension. Anyway, maybe he just doesn't want you to worry about him. I know I'd do the same thing pretty often when I was younger."

"Well, he's definitely failed if that was his intention." She muttered, hoping that Kaden was too far to hear her. No such luck though.

"You care about him that much?"

She glanced back at him. "Of course I do. Not exactly that many of us left after all, and he's the only other one I'd met before you."

"Even still, not like you would worry about me if he and I were swapped."

"And you know exactly why that is." She growled the words at him.

He shrunk at the aggression and went back to focusing on his hack.

Even if he had planned on saying anything else he would have been cut off by the biggest explosion either had ever felt. It rocked the entire complex with enough force that they were afraid it would collapse. Rivet rushed to the window in the direction Ratchet was supposed to be in, and in the distance was a column of smoke and dust stretching up into the atmosphere. Lightning arced through the churning mass as it took on a mushroom shape appropriate of its size. Their conversation had made them miss the explosion itself, so they had only felt the shockwave that followed it.

"Ratchet!" Both lombaxes in the tower called out over the radio with only static as a response.

Rivet froze in place, feeling a wave of cold wash over her. An echoey wind blew through her mind, drowning out everything else. She forgot Kaden was there or even existed along with what they were there for.

She just stood there and stared.

Agonizing moments passed over the course of eons before she spotted a trail of smoke thinner than her hopes streaming from the explosion. A glimmer of hope sparked in her chest as she pressed against the glass, noticing the arc it had was different compared to the flying pieces of debris.

"Ratchet! Are you there!? Please tell me that's you!" She begged into the radio.

"I'm here and alive, if only barely. Better fire up that tower dad, I think I got their attention!" He said cheerily, and she had to stop herself from trying to reach through the communicator to try and strangle him. Instead she just chose to be happy he had made it out of that explosion apparently unscathed, that cold she had felt melting away from the warmth his voice brought to her chest.

"Will do son. Rivet!" Kaden shouted at her.

She snapped herself away from the view she had of Aphelion and the now swarm of fighters on its tail.

"The cragmites will catch onto us quick, so you need to get downstairs and keep them from damaging the gun before I finish the hack."

She nodded and ran out the door in a flash and then down the hallway, blowing right past a pair of cragmites on top of the stairs on the other side. She stopped herself just behind them, having gone so fast they barely had time to react to her. She quickly used her hammer to sweep one's legs, throwing it off balance before she brought it back around and connected it with the back of their head. The force of the hit launched the two into each other and over the side of the railing, sending them tumbling to the ground below.

Voices rose to meet her, letting her know there were plenty more. So she swapped to a shotgun and made her way down.


Ratchet's radar was practically solid red behind him at this point. He was fairly sure the only reason he was still flying in one piece was because only a small portion could position themselves to fire on him at a time, affording him the chance to maneuver and dodge between towers and arches.

"Ratchet," His father's voice cut into his concentration. "You're going to have to fly above the gun line in my direction, then divert on my mark. They're in tight behind you, so it shouldn't take me too long after that to square away the targeting parameters but I can't aim too well by myself."

"Gotcha." He called out and flew towards a larger spire, waiting till almost the last second to pull up, feeling Aphelion's belly scrape for the barest of moments before he peeled away from it, seeing a smoldering pile at the base where some of his pursuers had attempted and failed to emulate him.

Correcting his course towards Kaden, the tide of fighters fell in once more behind him. This time he had more than just them to worry about though. Now that he was above the gun line for the anti-air, flak rounds started bursting all around him along with not insignificant amount of lasers and missiles coming from behind him. His fur stood on end as he wove his way through the deadly maze of munitions.

And he was running out of places to do it. His margin of error kept shrinking, and with every mistake Aphelion shook and alerted him to a growing list of damaged parts. He muted the damage readout for now and radioed his father.

"Dad, tell me when!"

"Not yet!"

A flak round burst far too close for comfort and knocked off one of Aphelion's name plates as well as singed some of the paint and armor.

"Now?"

"Wait."

A missile struck the starboard wingtip, disabling the laser that was on it.

"Now!?"

"NOW!"

Ratchet could practically see his father in the lookout tower by the time he waved off his course, banking so hard to the left that he was afraid the ship might shear in half. The metal around him groaned in protest but thankfully stayed together while the AA gun he had been flying towards opened fire directly into the swarm that had been hot on his trail. Each round seemed to claim a dozen ships, and those that it missed either crashed into the well armored base or were easy pickings for Ratchet as he hovered beneath the gun line once more.

Between father and son it was practically raining flaming chunks of metal and cragmite on the ground below, with well over several hundred being downed by both of them in a matter of minutes. Soon enough Kaden spoke again.

"Gun's all calibrated and I've spread the new targeting data to all the other towers on the back of a virus. We'll have clear skies soon, but they won't last forever. We need to leave as soon as we find your friends."

He started to move Aphelion over to land with the other ships. "Can you find them from that system?"

"That's what I'm trying to do right now, but they've got some good firewalls shockingly enough. It'll take a bit more time. Until I'm done though, I think Rivet could use some help. I'm hearing a lot of not good things coming from down below."

"I'm on my way." The response was immediate, as was his exit from Aphelion once she settled on the ground. "Rivet, what's the situation?" He asked as his hoverboots carried him across the plaza the other two had crossed before.

"They've got the door surrounded from the outside and keep sending in raiding parties. I can take care of anything they throw at us, but I can't get outside to deal with them." In the background as she spoke he could hear a cragmite taunting her before it was silenced by a gunshot. "If you could give a girl a hand, that'd be great."

Within a few moments he found the ring of cragmites surrounding the entrance. He had the element of surprise though and made quick work of them. Once the coast was clear enough Rivet came out herself and fought back to back with him.

It didn't take long before nothing moved around them aside from the smoking whisps rising from craters in every direction. They turned to face each other all smiles when the damage was done.

"Nice!" They both said at the same time and paired it with a jumping high five followed by a fist bump when they landed. Then Rivet seemed like she remembered something and socked him hard in the shoulder with her left hand.

"OW! What was that-"

He was cut off by her metal finger jabbing into his chest.

"Next time you're about to do something that dumb I want you to stop and ask if even I would do it. Then, regardless of what you answer you land on, don't. Do. It." She punctuated the last three words with sharp jabs to his sternum, making him gasp with each one. He puffed out his chest after she was done and opened his mouth to speak again, but any words he had died in his throat, killed by her gaze.

She was putting every last bit of 'I'll kill you if you do something like that again' energy that she had into a stern glare that was strong enough to have curdled milk. He shrunk from her like a scared pet and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly with a halfhearted smile.

"Y-yes ma'am."

"Good. Now, Kaden." Rivet spoke into her communicator. "Where are we headed?"

"Well." Kaden responded from a few feet away, making them both jump.

When did he even get here? Ratchet thought before realizing how close he was to Rivet right then. He risked a sideways glance at her and they locked eyes before looking away hurriedly.

Kaden waited for them both to settle down before continuing. He extended his left hand with its glove still off, and from a glowing blue light in the center a 3D map was projected. Ratchet assumed it was a local map and was proven correct when he pointed to a spot with his other hand and it lit up with a red dot.

"We're here, and according to security records your friends are here." He pointed to another spot below a domed facility a ways away from them. He looked away in the proper direction and picked out the one, and it seemed to be about a kilometer away.

"Do you have a route to them?" Rivet asked, drawing his attention back. Kaden nodded.

"Here's the shortest route." A red line connected the two points, zigzagging through corridors in the facility. "Buuut it has a problem."

"And that is?"

"This clearing here is guarded." He said and pointed to what seemed to be a large open area near the dome.

"Okay, and?" She asked, confused. "This is a fortress planet, the whole thing is guarded."

"Right, but this is a landing bay reserved for the empress's private vessel, so the guard is a hundred meter tall giant robot."

The map showed said robot emerging from a large doorway set into the side of the domed structure. It was bipedal, heavily armored and seemed quick for its size, though it was at present just a simulation.

And the path that Kaden had highlighted went right in between its legs and through the door it came out.

"Is there another way?" Ratchet asked. He was trying to take the warning he had been given to heart. Taking something like that down would certainly be something stupid and she was certainly ready to do it jusging by the fire in her eye.

"Yes, but it's the opposite of a shortcut." A second path lit up in blue, winding around the whole facility in a wide arc before diving down below where their friends were for hundreds of meters before coming back up directly underneath them. Some kind vent if he had to guess. "Taking the other one will take hours and by the time we get out they'll have reset the targeting on the guns."

Ratchet shook his head. "I'm a good pilot, but with how much damage she just took there's no way Aphelion will make it past the stratosphere if those come back on against us."

"Short route it is then." He deactivated the map. "We'll need a plan then."

"And let me guess, you have one." Rivet said, both starting to understand just how Kaden did things. He nodded.

"As you saw before, I can implant a virus in systems through contact with my palm. I would have used it on the robot already, but it and the dome run off of a different closed system. If I can get on top of its head where there's bound to be an access port I can take control of it and tear open the doors."

"What will we be doing during this?" Rivet crossed her arms at the idea of sitting the fight out.

"The robot won't be the only thing they throw at us. While I get on top of it, you two will need to keep the ground clear. A well placed shot will bring me right back down, so I'll have to leave my back in both of your very capable hands. Sounds like a plan?" He looked between the two younger lombaxes, waiting for an answer.

They looked at each other, their gaze saying it all.

It was the only way.

They nodded, and with that all three took off running with Kaden at the head, leading the way with map quite literally in hand.


Getting to giant robot plaza was quite easy for the three of them. It turns out that no matter how well you fortify a hallway in preparation for an attack, you cannot fortify it well enough to withstand an assault from three lombaxes all at the same time. At every turn and corner they found some measure of resistance, and each time they were blown to pieces in a matter of moments.

Rivet would charge directly ahead, shattering the frontline while the other two danced together through the air, complete with spins and more than a few pirouettes. In only ten minutes a set of doors opened to a large paved area open to the sky above.

Ratchet glanced up and saw the crisscrossed trails of more ships and the bullets from the AA guns still going hot. The clearing itself stretched out for a few hundred meters in front of them with shipping containers and crates lining the landing area for the empress's ship like Kaden had mentioned. It wasn't there currently at least, so they could rest safe in the knowledge that she wasn't there.

On the other end were the doors they had to pass through, recessed into the side of the dome of the building. All three started running forward, knowing what their jobs were for the coming fight. And step one was set in motion by a voice that croaked in over the cragmite's military frequency they had tapped into.

"All ground forces, the lombaxes have made it to the royal landing pad. All available units respond immediately!"

As they had suspected, they weren't just going to throw the robot at them first thing. They'd have to make a scene first. Doors opened in every direction save the one they needed and in poured cragmites of every size and shape. They had probably meant to surround the trio, but they weren't just going to let that happen.

Instead they split up, Rivet charging forward guns blazing while father and son kept their distance. All three were like whirlwinds of destruction, tearing anything apart that so much as dared to move towards them.

Ratchet watched from a position on top of some crates as Rivet cracked skulls with her hammer and his dad skirted the edges of the landing pad at high speed, showing that he was no slouch with his duel wrenches. Ratchet took the opportunity to take out a sniper rifle while no one seemed to be paying attention to him. Zooming in through the scope, he had to quickly change where he was looking once he saw where he had accidentally pointed it.

I can't get caught looking at that or she really will kill me. He thought before picking off a few that were about to shoot at his allies, earning him the attention he had lacked earlier. A throng rushed over to him, so he jumped down from the box and activated his hoverboots. Dashing forward with wrench in hand he swung and dove through legs and openings while pushing further and further into the crowd. In the rare instances during this that he could see the others, Rivet was doing much of the same.

Kaden though had started on the next part of their plan, speeding past the doors that the cragmites were coming through and slapping his robotic hand just inside the frame on each of them. Turns out his hand could produce an attachable bomb on demand like one of Ratchet's many bomb gloves, so with every slap a powerful charge was left behind.

Having slapped every one, he came to a stop in front of the large and still sealed robot doors. With a snap of some robotic fingers a series of explosions rocked the entire clearing. Each door collapsed in on itself, blocked by rubble and shredded metal. Cutting the cragmites off from reinforcements for a time meant that the three could easily clean up the plaza and hopefully force them to bring out the robot.

They lined up in front of the door amidst the smoking craters that was once their attackers while that voice from before came through again. "Deploy the defense bot! Crush those furballs!"

With a load and deep metallic groan the doors started to open slowly, the ground shaking in a steady rhythm reminiscent of footsteps. Ratchet did some stretches to prepare while Rivet rolled her neck and shoulders, seemingly uncaring as a pair of massive robotic hands emerged from the shadows and grabbed the inner edges on the doors. With a deafening crash they were forced open by the robot that emerged from beyond them

While Ratchet had certainly believed what his dad had said about a hundred meter tall robot, it hadn't really sunk in just how big that was until it stepped out into the light. It was huge and definitely fast for its size, reminding him of the Giganto-mech he had fought years ago, except this one had two eyes and missile launchers built into its shoulders rather than over them. There was also no prison cell in its chest, just a solid and uniform piece of armor. He wasn't sure how his dad planned to get on top of it, but had little time to worry about as more cragmites started to pour in, clearing debris from some of the doorways they had blocked before. With one last resounding thud the large doors shut behind the robot.

Kaden ran ahead of them, shouting "Keep me covered!" behind him as he went. The robot took notice of his charge and fired a pair of lasers from its open eyes at him which he easily dodged and kept going. The robot raised its hands next, revealing dozens of gun barrels and missile launchers that all started firing at the same time. He didn't even hesitate though and instead sped up, making sure to jet around in erratic patterns to avoid being hit. Once he was almost directly underneath the giant bot's arms he wound back one of his wrenches as though he was about to hit it, but when he swung the head detached from it. Rather than a beam of energy connecting the wrench head to the handle like with Ratchet's though, there was a physical cable that trailed it.

With some kind of unerring accuracy, the prongs on the head found their mark in the form of a seam in the hand's armor plates. They sank in and stayed in place as the robot retracted its hands, at first pulling the cable taut and then Kaden up after it. The older lombax swung through the air with some directional assistance from his hoverboots until he eventually made it to the robot's torso where he sank in the other wrench head like an ice pick to keep himself in place. Ratchet and Rivet glanced at each other in shock where he had left them behind.

"Did you know he could do something like that?" Rivet asked him. He shook his head.

"Apparently I have no idea what he can do."

"Well, I guess that makes two of us. Now come on! We have some bugs to crush!" With that warcry, the tempest of a woman that is Rivet charged once more into the throng of enemies. Ratchet had to tear his eyes away from her and remind himself that he had to fight too.

And that there would hopefully be plenty of time to appreciate her later.


Kaden hit the switch to recall the wrench head he had thrown into the robot's hand. Sure he had meant to jam one of the gun barrels and hopefully blow it apart, but things had still found a way to work out. The recalled wrench head clicked into place, locking in before he flipped it in his grip and started using both to climb the armor seam he had landed on.

He didn't get more than a few meters before a shadow fell over him. The robot brought it's hand down, trying to brush him off like crumbs on a shirt. Hoping the same thing would work twice he pushed himself off and threw the wrench head one more time at the arm that was hanging to the side.

The head crunched into the metal near the elbow joint before he clamped it and hit the retract button while he swung. The cable retracting as he swung made him go faster, zipping around the arm and then releasing at the right angle to send himself straight up, whooping with delight the whole way. It'd been years since he'd had this much fun.

Twisting midair, he found himself level with the robot's shoulder. So he launched another effective grappling hook at an armor crease near the base of its neck and reeled himself in, all smiles all the way.

Then he realized he had no way to really slow himself down this time. Hoverboots wouldn't have the thrust and he couldn't fire his rocket launcher one handed. All he could do was brace for impact.

Clenching his teeth and relaxing his muscles, he slammed into the neck with a loud thud that made it (and his head) ring like a bell. With a pained and regretful groan he slid down, coming to a rest on the left shoulder.

Before he could slide the rest of the way off he plunged his other wrench into the armor again, anchoring himself in place. With a hefty grunt he pulled himself up, feeling like he was being peeled off the metal almost.

"Never doing that again." He muttered to himself before retracting his launched wrench head. Just as he was about to move closer to the head to start climbing it a cragmite hunter's barrage of energy rounds practically singed his fur they came so close. He looked back down to the ground and saw his son bash it over the head hard enough to send it flying.

"Sorry about that dad, but you should really hurry up. Seems like there's no end to these guys."

"Almost there, just a bit longer." He responded before he started inching his way closer to the robot's head. That was when it rotated to face him, bright red eyes staring him down as though it were alive. The eyes started to glow brighter, signalling an impending laser attack.

Thinking fast, he threw one of his wrenches into its right eye. It shattered at the impact, but before he could recall the wrench as it tumbled through the air the robot recoiled, reeling from the impact like it had been shot. The movement made him cling to his anchorhold for dear life lest he be thrown while his other wrench tumbled to the ground below.

That was when that right hand came back up, this time to try and swat him like a fly. He dashed to a spot that wouldn't be hit before anchoring himself for the impact. Turning around after, he dislodged and jumped on top of the hand as it lifted away.

The head spun to face where he had just been, presenting him the chance to leap from the lifted hand onto the shattered ring of the eye he had broken.

Anchoring himself with his remaining wrench in his right hand, he plunged his left into the exposed circuitry, feeling around for any kind of board that would give him access. After some rummaging around he found it and injected his virus.

His neural interface with his prosthetic showed him the full range of systems he was slowly gaining control of.

That was when he realized there was a bit of a problem.


The battle on the ground was starting to become desperate. Both lombaxes were starting to run low on ammo without their 'backpacks' to carry more for them and they kept having to help each other out of tight spots. Not that either of them really minded it, both discovering they were fans of being rescued by the other in a show of heroism.

Didn't seem like it was going to happen this time though as Rivet was busy with her own problem a ways away while a warrior loomed over Ratchet. It had caught him by surprise while he was talking to his dad and now was about to use its cannon to blast him point blank.

Thankfully, before he could even begin to contemplate his own mortality, one of his dad's wrenches came down and struck the cragmite in on the head, knocking it out immediately.

Looking up to see what was going on, the robot was reeling from some kind of hit while Kaden was hanging on for dear life. He wanted to ask what was going on up there, but that thought and any other was interrupted by the sight of Rivet in a pinch similar to the one he had just been in.

Hefting himself off the ground, he at least made sure to grab his dad's wrench before also pulling out his own and charging at the cragmite that had her pinned. Jumping it from behind, he knocked it out with two quick hits, one to the jaw with his old wrench and one to the back of its head with his dad's. Had he more time to think he would have examined it closer and just contemplated how beautifully balanced it was.

Instead he made sure Rivet was okay and helped her off the ground. They stood back to back, melee weapons out and at the ready while they stared down the enemies snarling as they surrounded them. Just when it seemed like the end was near the robot over their heads started to kick and stomp around, just barely missing them. Cragmites were sent flying far enough that they might hit ships in low orbit, but even once they all ducked for cover it continued to thrash. It almost seemed like there was no one or thing controlling it.

"Dad, what's going on up there?"

"Uhh, yeah. Bit of a problem." He started between grunts from him presumably trying to stay attached. "Turns out our big friend here isn't a robot. It's a mech!"

The pair looked at each other and they both shrugged, not knowing what that meant. Rivet asked the question they were both thinking.

"And the difference is?..."

Kaden sighed through the radio. "A robot is autonomous while a mech is directly controlled! I can't hijack it while the pilot is still inside, all I can do is scramble the controls!" His frantic shouts were accentuated by the effort in his voice of trying to stay in place on the mech's face.

"Okay, can you open an access hatch to let us in then?" Ratchet asked.

"No can do. It's got a mechanical lock, nothing digital about it! You two will have to find another way to get that door open while I keep the big guy busy!" With that the radio went silent.

The lombaxes looked at each other again, quickly trying to brainstorm something. A million ideas flicked through Ratchet's mind, but none of them had even a hope of working in the time frame they needed. He looked around for inspiration, and that was when his eyes found an unconscious cragmite collapsed onto a crate that had been broken open by his landing on it.

"That's it!" He shouted suddenly, spooking Rivet who had been equally lost in thought.

"What? You have something?"

"Yeah! We'll trip it into the dome." He said and gestured towards the flailing mech. Her face lit up when she thought about it.

"Yes! That sounds like my kinda plan!"

He could have stared at her smile then for hours on end, but instead had to radio his dad again. "Dad, how strong is that cable in your wrench?"

"It's almost pure raritanium, so about as strong as physically possible. Why?"

"We're gonna trip the robo- gah. Mech! Try and get it to walk towards the dome on my mark!"

If his dad had any problem with the plan he didn't say so, only replying "Got it!" and then cutting the radio again. Ratchet turned to Rivet.

"Time for you to prove that story Clank told me about you stopping the fixer." He said and handed her the handle of Kaden's wrench while he kept the head, wedging it into the head of his own.

"What, don't think I can do it?" She asked cockily while she prepared herself.

"More that I really hope you can. Now dad!"

On cue the mech started to stumble backwards towards the dome. Ratchet wound back and took aim, throwing the wrench head at a seam in the knee joint in the leg opposite him, making sure the cable crossed behind the other. Rivet dug in her heels and Ratchet heard the locks in her arm activate, making absolutely sure the handle wasn't going to leave her grip.

With another step back the leg hit the cable, pulling it taught as Rivet groaned from the effort of keeping herself in place.

"You got it?" Ratchet asked worriedly.

"I. Got. IT!"

Not only did she manage to stay put, she actually pulled back on the cable, sweeping the leg of the mech. Ratchet stared agape at the spectacle, marvelling in awe at her as she lit up happily.

They only had a moment to revel in her feat before the other leg, the one she was ostensibly attached to, kicked up too. Neither were prepared for this to happen, so it yanked her up before either could react. She was pulled screaming up into the air, flung high by the force of the leg.

"Rivet!" He yelled after her before he threw his own wrench head into the same spot in the hand that Kaden had hit before. Swinging from there, he copied his dad and used his hoverboots to try and adjust his path so he could catch her as she flew. He hooked one arm around her waist, pulling her in close as they swung. He tried not to think too much about what he was doing, but it seemed to make Rivet freeze stiff as a board. An odd contrast considering it felt like she was getting hotter to the touch by the second.

After a few moments her brain reactivated and she retracted the head on Kaden's wrench while Ratchet swung them up higher so they could go through the breach that the mech's head would create in the dome as it crashed through. The ground rumbled as the mech tore through the metal like it wasn't even there, creating a massive hole into what was now obviously a mostly hollow dome. He detached from the arm at the height of their swing and flew in through the opening, joined by Kaden as he leapt from the mech.

To let her land safely, Ratchet released Rivet and together they all landed with weapons out inside the dome. They visually swept the room, and the only occupants were a small pair of robots suspended in a pair of energy cages.

"Clank!"
"Kit!"

The younger lombaxes shouted their friend's names and ran towards them. Kaden hung back and kept an eye out, but things seemed fairly clear so he felt ok with relaxing a bit and strolled behind them slowly towards the center. All of them choosing to ignore the massive hole behind they had just made.

Ratchet ran right up to the energy cage holding Clank, that same joy he always felt when they were reunited springing to life in his chest. Rivet did similarly with Kit while he looked for a way to release them, but there was no console or access panel. He was about to just start smacking at the cage, but then Kaden knelt down and placed his robotic hand on the emitter. After a few seconds the energy from both dissipated and the robots fell from where they had been floating, being caught before they hit the ground by their respective partners.

Ratchet held Clank's limp body and knelt on the ground. "You there pal? Talk to me Clank."

A few moments passed with each heartbeat pounding like a drum in his ears before the plates that covered Clank's eyes started to move. When they finally opened and showed some of that green light Ratchet let out a shaky breath he didn't know he had been holding.

"Hey pal, glad you're ok." He set the robot down on his own two feet, making sure he could stand on his own while he did. Stealing a glance over his shoulder, Rivet was doing much the same with Kit. They were both ok.

"R-Ratchet? Where are we?" Clank asked hazily.

"Tyhrranosis. There's a lot of explaining we need to do." He answered and looked back down at his friend. He then looked up at his father. "A lot of explaining, but we shouldn't do it here."

Clank followed his gaze. When his optics settled on Kaden his classic 'Oh my' slipped out, but he quickly shook his head, clearing away what was likely some mental fog. "There is no time for that Ratchet! I found out who's leading the cragmites!"

"Yeah, an empress. We got filled in on the whole thing." Ratchet tried to calm him down, but Clank shook his head again.

"It is not just an empress Ratchet! She also has an emperor and it's-"

"A familiar face!?"

The voice that interrupted him wasn't any of theirs. No.

It was a voice that made Ratchet's blood go cold and Kaden's face contort with rage. High pitched and arrogant beyond redemption, it blasted throughout the dome on loudspeakers. Father and son locked eyes, dread matching the anger in both as they turned to look at the side of the dome opposite where they had entered. Plastered across it on a collage of screens was the most vile creature Ratchet had ever had the misfortune of meeting.

The tyrant ruler of the Polaris galaxy.

Butcherer of entire worlds.

Killer of the lombaxes.

Emperor Percival Tachyon.

They all stood there, staring up at him in disbelief and contempt.

"Seems like there are some un-familiar faces amongst you snivelling creatures, alongside one I thought long dead." It wasn't hard to tell who his eyes landed on with that last comment. "Perhaps this time I'll make sure you both can join that pathe-"

Words exploded from Kadens mouth. A storm of anger that roiled and churned, starting not with a trickle but a torrential downpour. It was like something in his father snapped, some primal and feral instinct rising to the surface and mixing with his intellect. His lips twisted into a snarl, fangs peaking out before with teeth exposed right to the very gum, the Lombax bellowing at the monitors the entire time. Grief raw and unsuppressed roared, blaring over the loud speakers as his chest heaved with each and every word.

Obscenities and threats beyond the pale of even hardened criminals all fueled by over twenty years of suffering. Twenty four years of pain, anguish and sorrow poured out of him as unfiltered and pure rage. Something told Ratchet that every last thing he said had been playing on loop in his father's mind for longer than he cared to guess. And while it scared him to see his father lose his composure to such an extent in front of him, it was also cathartic in a way.

It was like Kaden was channeling every last lombax that had died by Tachyon's hand into this single rageful yet mournful tirade. Every shred of emotion and grief that they had all felt, lumped in with that same agony that weighed so heavily on him. Ratchet could feel every last word of it in his core, in the part of him that wasn't Ratchet the individual but Ratchet the lombax. He wanted to stop his father, to get everyone and just leave. But more than that he wanted him to finish, to watch him get revenge not just for his people but for the life he never had. For the infinite futures his genocide had destroyed.

So he let the old man continue, and with each passing minute his voice dried out more. His anger ebbed, leaving behind only raw emotion and open wounds. His deep breaths were replaced with tearful sobs and hoarse coughing that brought him to his knees. Everything he had was burning away in his ire until all that was left was heartache.

But even that became a weapon, sharpened through the decades of anguish to a deadly point. Ratchet saw it and everything else in his eyes being thrown at little more than a face on a faraway monitor. That anger and pain burned bright as Ratchet knew Kaden was blaming himself for all of it through the tears.

Kaden only slowed when he was coughing and hoarse from the volume of his tone, his hands shaking as he pulled out the largest gun Ratchet had ever seen a single person carry. If he had to guess it was the lombax equivalent to a RYNO.

"So mark my words you spineless, arrogant insect! When I find you, I'll do far more than just leave a petty scar on your eye!" With that last statement he pulled the trigger. The gun hummed and whirred for a moment before there was a bright flash. Ratchet just barely caught a bright white sphere leaving the muzzle and streaking towards Tachyon's face.

When his vision recovered it looked like a miniature white dwarf star was tearing half the dome to pieces, disassembling the image of Tachyon and melting it in its heat. The sun grew, expanding in size and area of effect until it hit a critical mass, collapsing in on itself in a massive explosion that ripped to shreds and scattered what remained of the walls and ceilings of not just the dome but also the surrounding structures.

The dust settled, leaving five lone figures in the wreckage of what was once the heart a mighty military base. The gun Kaden had used was little more than molten slag now, completely destroyed after firing just once. He tossed it to the side and fell forward on his hands, the shock shaking some tears free from the fur on his cheeks. Ratchet glanced sideways at Rivet wondering how she had taken the whole thing.

She stood there, as motionless as him. Their eyes met and she pulled her hands away from Kit's audio sensors. Words passed silently between them, culminating in her telling Clank and Kit to go call the ships while he knelt next to his father. He was joined quickly by Rivet on the other side and together they all grieved anew.

Tears weren't shed.

Words weren't said.

Instead they sat silently amongst ten trillion vengeful ghosts.