To my sheer shock and amazement and immeasurable joy, I recently got incredibly lucky and was able to order a PS5. It is standing beside my monitor as I'm writing this, all tall and proud. Naturally I played Rift right away from start to finish, and I've still not wholly completed all of the side quests. I really love the story though, and with the ending, it really seems as if Insomniac is setting us up for another multi-game story arc.
Rift Apart is such a breathtaking experience for me that it single-handedly rekindled my passion for this franchise, and inspired me to start writing on this project beside my other ongoing projects. At its core this is my vision for the future; my prediction of the events that I expect to transpire in the next game(s), and I decided to sprinkle in a bit of Ratchet/Rivet romance since a lot of people seem to be enjoying that. All of this has lead to a story arc that I'm currently developing, of which this is the prequel. So without further ado, please enjoy this first chapter while I finalize and get to work on the main story. I hope it won't disappoint! :)
"So, Phantom, what do you plan to do once this is all over?" Rivet asked as she approached her old friend. Phantom gave her his usual, cocky grin. "Disappear," he replied. "How come?" Rivet asked as she placed her hands on her hips and looked at him, bemused. "Well, if there's no Nefarious, there's no resistance, and if there's no resistance, there's no Phantom," the Rilgarian elaborated. "There'll still a need for Phantom though," Rivet replied. "We're going to need all the help we can get rebuilding the galaxy after this tyrant," she elaborated. "Plus, I reckon there are more than a few lowlifes waiting in hiding to pounce on the power vacuum, so the resistance isn't obsolete either."
Phantom grinned and shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. We'll see. Let's first deal with the lowlife at hand, eh?" Rivet grinned back at him and nodded. "That's the spirit. Take care, Phantom."
"You too, Riv," he said as she turned to walk away. As she absentmindedly walked past the booths, she suddenly noticed someone wave her down out of the corner of her eye. It was Ratchet. She turned and walked into the small alcove wherein the Lombax was sitting at a table by the window, with Clank sitting on the table. "Please tell me that isn't grog," Rivet said as she pointed at the mug in Ratchet's hand. Ratchet winced. "Oh, you have no idea what Clank and I saw on Ardolis. I'm not about to drink Speetle juice, thank you."
Rivet's eyes widened and she recoiled visibly. "Bléh. No wonder Pierre's crew always smell like they're rotting on the inside," she mumbled eyeing the Pirate in the corner of her eye. Pierre didn't seem to have heard her, thankfully. She turned her attention back to Ratchet. "But something tells me that you didn't wave me over to share that disgusting bit of trivia. What's up?"
"Right," Ratchet replied as he stood up. "Mind if I leave you here for a few minutes, pal?" he asked. Clank shook his head with a small smile. "No, I think I am in good company with Gary, Phantom and Captain Quantum. I will be fine."
"You'd better be, Bolts," Rivet said to him as Ratchet walked over to her. "Just follow me for a moment, please," he mumbled in passing, and Rivet obliged, keeping pace beside him as he lead her out of the bar area, past the reception and down the hallway toward the exit. Rivet kept pace beside him, and occasionally glanced over at him. She tried to study his face but it was like he was wearing a mask of steel; she just couldn't gauge him. 'Damn it, man! Just talk to me, I'm right here!' she thought, getting increasingly frustrated with his complete lack of elaboration on what he wanted from her.
Quietly, Ratchet walked over to their ship and sat down in the pilot's seat. Rivet followed his lead and sat down in the passenger seat. It was then that she realized something. "Whoa, hey, if you're planning on going to Savali, I-"
"I just want to talk," Ratchet quickly interrupted as he closed the window. Rivet fell quiet and just looked at him, waiting to see where he would take this. "That's all," Ratchet added, his voice barely above a mumble. An awkward silence hung between them for a few seconds while Rivet waited for him to speak, and at last he cleared his throat and spoke up. "I wanted to talk to you about our little fight there," Ratchet said. He was looking out into space, avoiding her eyes.
"Gosh, Ratchet, I said 'sorry' about that, didn't I?" Rivet asked, half-surprised and half-annoyed.
"Well, yeah, but then I realized that… well… you might be the only other person who could understand," Ratchet replied awkwardly as he averted his gaze to his knees. "Why I'm hesitant to go and find the Lombaxes, that is," he added as he finally looked up at her.
A surprised and soft "oh" was all she could muster in response. Ratchet looked away again, seemingly hesitant to continue. Rivet reached out and grabbed his hand to get his attention. "Hey," she said, somewhat firmly. He looked at her again, and she sighed internally. "Look, whatever it is you want to say, you can trust me with it." She gave him a small smile. "I mean, because of Nefarious, I've been living in shadows and secrets for a decade now. I promise you: whatever you tell me stays between us." She gave his hand a gentle squeeze to affirm her point. "I swear."
"Thanks, Rivet," Ratchet mumbled, and he gave her a warm, genuine smile. "It's just… I've been chasing this for so long. I've been wondering about it for as long as I can remember. Always wondering why the other kids had mommies and daddies but I had no-one. Where was my family? Where were my people? Why was there nobody around who so much as resembled me? And now, when that carrot is finally within reach, I wonder if it's something I actually want an answer to. I mean… what if I visit the Lombaxes, and it turns out that I'm nothing like them? What if they're not what I expected? What if I'm not what they expected? What if… what if all I learn from that is that, as far as Lombaxes are concerned, I'm a failure?"
Ratchet stared at her, his eyes pleading for an answer. Rivet meanwhile listened with bated breath. When he fell silent, she looked away for a second, lost in thought. Then, she frowned, and she looked at him, before giving him a small smile. "Well, if you're a failure, then so am I. And you know what? I don't care. If the Lombaxes turn out to be just a bunch of butt-wipes, then screw them, the lot of them."
She chuckled, and squeezed his hand again to emphasize her point. "Look, Ratchet, if you, with everything you've done, are not up to their standards, then they don't deserve you. Simple as. It kinda reminds me of something Mort once told me. 'There ain't no sense in tryin' to fix a machine if it's simpler to replace it'."
Ratchet chuckled at her Mort impression, and she couldn't help but laugh a little herself as well. "Upshot is, if they're not your family, then so what? You're better than them. You're still you, no matter what any of them have to say about it."
Ratchet looked away again, and gazed at the stars. "I guess, but… I just can't stomach the thought of it all having been for nothing. That every second I've spent dreaming of being around other Lombaxes turned out to be a waste of time."
"But it can't possibly be!" Rivet retorted, and he tilted his head slightly to look at her. "I mean, let's say that your fear is true, and they're completely unlike your expectations. Well, in that case you at least learned as much. At least you'll have closure. It's pointless to worry about missing if you never even take the shot. If you don't want all that wondering to be a waste of time, then make it count and get an answer. At least then you can move on."
Both were quiet for a while after that, just looking at each other while Rivet still held his hand a bit awkwardly. "So, if you were in my shoes, you'd go?" Ratchet ultimately asked. Rivet nodded. "Absolutely. I don't worry too much about the answer, I care about getting an answer in the first place."
"Would you go with me, to the Lombaxes?" Ratchet then asked. Rivet again nodded. "Gladly. And if they dare to be mean to you, I'd also gladly kick their asses for you." Ratchet burst out laughing. "What, you think I'm joking?" Rivet asked with a smirk. "No," Ratchet replied. "I think you're completely serious. I just imagine you utterly roasting this group of startled looking Lombaxes. I'd love to witness that."
Rivet couldn't hold back a laugh now either, but then she got quiet, and she bit her lip in thought. "You know… you told me about your fear, it's not fair if I don't tell you about mine."
"You don't have to do that," Ratchet replied, and this time he squeezed her hand. Rivet shook her head. "No, I know. But I should. It's only fair." Rivet took a deep breath and then shoved him her robot arm. "You know about my arm, right?"
"Yeah?" Ratchet asked.
Rivet looked away. "It was Kit," she mumbled. "Kit roasted my arm with lasers until I had to amputate it."
"What?!" Ratchet asked in shock. Rivet looked at him. "You never seen that hulking behemoth mode of her? She used to be a Nefarious war machine."
Suddenly it all clicked. "So it was you," Ratchet whispered as he looked away, the gears turning in his head. "Oh my gosh. Kit told me that she was on patrol one day, and spotted a rebel, so she tried to 'stop' them. Kit realized in that moment that she was only built to hurt, so she fled to Savali to keep everyone safe from her."
Rivet sighed and looked away. "I just don't know, Ratchet. I just don't know. I spent years trying to come to terms with this arm. It still doesn't truly feel like me. And now I learn that the person who, if you and Clank are anything to go by, I'm apparently supposed to team up with, is the one who did this to me. It really tore that wound back open."
"Supposed to?" Ratchet asked. Rivet looked at him. "Well, I'm you, am I not?"
"I thought so, but, I found something on Savali," Ratchet said. He reached for his quick-select inventory and a set of twelve orbs materialized in his hands.
"What are those?" Rivet asked. Ratchet looked at her with a small smile. "So it turns out that when the Lombaxes created the fist dimensionator, they set about exploring dimensions. It turns out that yours is one of the first. They set up a colony on Savali. These are logs that I found on Savali from a researcher that was tasked with mapping all dimensions. Not the dimensions themselves, but where they are within, well, the multiverse I guess. I think you need to hear the last one," he said as he selected one of the orbs and gave it a gentle squeeze to enable it.
"This is my final recording," a strange voice began, emanating from the orb. "If you're listening to this, that means you didn't make it to the new dimension with us, and I'm so sorry. We-we're trying hard to get everyone out, but our race is scattered across so many dimensions, it's…"
The orb fell silent for a few seconds before the voice continued. "This is not farewell. I left a copy of my dimensional map in the Archives, and I marked down where we're all going. I-I-I wish I could've left you a dimensionator too, but… heh… I'm only one Lombax. I hope you find your way back to us, and if you do, please look me up. The name's Mags, and I'd love to hear your story."
Rivet was quiet for a long while, processing what she had just heard. "Scattered across dimensions?" she ultimately whispered. Ratchet nodded. "You're not an alternate version of me. I don't know who your family is, but according to these logs, you're from a group of Lombaxes that settled in this dimension."
"Then where did they all go?" Rivet asked, sounding rather hurt. She turned away and stared out at the stars, as if they would answer. "Maybe… maybe around one of those many stars… somewhere… could it be?"
Ratchet looked at her with sympathy. He knew that empty feeling all too well. "I'm sorry, Rivet," he said to her. She looked at him. "Please don't apologize. I've spent… I've spent who-knows-how-long trying to figure out who I am and where I'm from. Why was I left on Sargasso? Why did… why did they leave me behind?"
She let out a long sigh. "I'd pretty much given up on getting an answer, and granted, this is not an answer. And yet it's still so much."
She closed her eyes, and Ratchet could tell that she was tearing up a little. "Do you remember them, your parents?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. Ratchet shook his head. "No. I was left behind on Veldin. They didn't even leave me so much as a name. I don't remember their faces. All I know is my dad's name, and what he looked like. At home, I have a pocketwatch with his photograph."
"Who was he?" Rivet asked.
"His name was Kaden," Ratchet replied. "Apparently I look a lot like him. The last thing I know about him is that he was chosen to protect the first dimensionator. He died doing his job. And now look at things." Ratchet let out a broken laugh. "What a joke. The son of the dimensionator's guardian breaks the universe apart with it. I can feel his disappointment."
Rivet looked at him. "Stop it. Nefarious misused the dimensionator, not you."
"No, no he really didn't," Ratchet replied. "The dimensionator started malfunctioning after I shot it in desperation. Clank blames himself, but all of this is my fault."
"Well… it's only because things ended up the way they did that we're now about to topple two tyrants. You and Clank helped so much here. We're so close to finally being free here."
Ratchet nodded, while he stared off into space, rubbing his chin in thought. "What's on your mind?" Rivet asked. "Something is bothering me though. Rivet, do you know why the Lombaxes fled?"
"No, do you?"
Ratchet nodded. "Yeah. The Lombaxes came from my dimension, from the planet Fastoon. It's in the Polaris galaxy, too. Pretty near Sargasso actually, and that's significant, but I'll get to that. So, there was also this other species; the Cragmites from planet Reepor. They were doing to Polaris in my dimension what Nefarious is doing here. Ultimately the Lombaxes rebelled and triggered a war with the Cragmites. It was rough, until the Lombaxes first built the dimensionator. They actually did that in an outpost on Sargasso in my dimension. With the first dimensionator, the Cragmites were banished to another universe and left behind on a planet around a dying star. After that, according to these orbs, the Lombaxes started exploring other dimensions. Rivet, on Savali, I found these weird… they're like spinning, circular gates if that makes sense. They create dimensional rifts to connect two places together. They're used by Gary and the other monks for transportation, but also for study. As far as I can tell from the tech, they're Lombax made. I suspect that Savali inthis dimension was linked to some point in my dimension with such gates, for easy transport to the Savali colony in this dimension."
He halted for a moment to cough and clear his throat. "So, a long time after that, Lombax Trillium miners found a lost Cragmite egg. The hatchling was raised by the Lombaxes like their own, and was named Percival Tachyon. When he learned of his race, he grew resentful. He approached the Lombaxes with weapon blueprints, he just needed access to Lombax technology to complete the designs. Nobody trusted him, except for an old friend of my father: general Alister Azimuth. The pocketwatch I mentioned was his. Azimuth gave Tachyon access, and Tachyon indeed perfected his designs, and then bought the alliance of the Drophyds – weird little fish-like creatures from planet Zaurik – to use the weapons, and set them all loose on us. Wait, one of these orbs talks about that, hang on…"
Ratchet started digging through the twelve orbs again before picking up another one and activating it to play it back.
"Uh, I found out why Kaden has been so stressed lately. Something bad's going on… bad enough that we need to hide as many Lombaxes as we can. And I guess all of my mapping work was to help find the perfect dimension for us to hide in. Sooo… yeah… hope I didn't screw anything up."
Rivet listened with bated breath as Ratchet continued. "So, that's why I was left behind. My dad sent me far away to keep me safe, and stayed behind to hide the dimensionator. Azimuth was exiled to my dimension's Torren IV. Tachyon ultimately tracked me down, and he managed to get the dimensionator. He brought back the Cragmites but I stopped him before he could take it further. I fought and left him in a pocket dimension, but the whole ordeal broke the dimensionator. So, what I think is that Tachyon found those gates, had part of his army come to this dimension, and destroyed the Savali outpost. It could be that your family sent you away, just like mine did, to keep you safe."
"Once this is all done, I have to go and visit Savali," Rivet replied. "I have to – no, I need to know if there is anything there. Anything that could give me a clue. Surely it can't all be gone?"
Ratchet shook his head. "No, not all of it. These orbs were hidden in statues that only open up if interacted with by a Lombax. I wouldn't hold out a lot of hope, but there might be answers for you there."
Rivet looked at him. "So, if you never shot the dimensionator, then Clank would have never met Gary, you would have never visited Savali and uncovered this, and… well… I guess nobody would've learned about Kit either; I guess that also counts for something. So are you done beating yourself up over what happened or should I repeat myself?"
Ratchet finally eased up a bit. "Thanks," he said. "Seriously, Rivet, thank you for everything. I hope we stay in touch."
Rivet nodded. "Me too. I'm glad you and Clank are here, and I'd love to stay in touch, too. I hope me and the resistance got this all covered once the Nefariouses are dealt with, but I'd love to be able to call for help if need be. Plus… well…"
Rivet nervously rubbed her arm. "Around you, I finally don't feel so… alone, like I always did. It's still surreal to me that I'm looking at another Lombax. Someone who gets it."
Ratchet nodded. "I feel the same way. It'd been so long since I saw another Lombax, I was starting to worry I could've been the only one left. Well, in my dimension at least."
Rivet chuckled. "Tell me about it. I still can't believe that our race's dimension is suddenly so close. It feels like I could reach out and touch it. Just imagine all of the cool tech they'd have." She looked at her arm. "Perhaps…" she mumbled.
Ratchet followed her gaze, but decided against speaking. "Rivet, what's your story anyway?" he asked.
"Hm?" she asked as she looked over. "What do you mean?"
Ratchet shifted in his seat. "Well, though I'm confident that we can do this, this might be my last chance to ask you. I just want to know what you went through."
"Well, it's not nearly as lofty as your story," she said, a bit bashful, as she folded her hands in her lap. "I grew up on Sargasso, with the Morts. They're kind of my adoptive family. All I know is that I came crashing in an escape pod, and the Morts – like the big-hearted and curious people they are – came running over to check if whoever inside was alright. And instead they found me. Apparently I was in a pretty rough shape, but they nurtured me back to health. It's them that taught me the ins and outs of engineering."
Her lips curled into a small smile as she recounted her past. "Mort built me my first arm, and the second one we built together, but that aside. Like I said, I grew up in their care, and when I was a teen, they gave me my own place in an abandoned Kerchu silo. All of it off-the-books, so it made for an excellent hideout, too. I pulled my first heist when I was fifteen. I overheard the Morts worry about their safety because they couldn't afford the new taxes Nefarious was looking to enforce, and then I heard that the punishment for an inability to pay was bodily harm. So I took my hammer and I stowed away on an outgoing Gelatonium tanker. I soon arrived in Nefarious city, and I raided a nearby treasury. I stole a few crates of bolts and created a trail as a distraction, and indeed, the few patrolling troopers noticed the trail and followed it, suspecting a careless robbery. So they left the front end unsupervised, and I could steal enough to cover the Morts. I snuck out and managed to hide aboard the tanker again. Oh boy, the Morts gave me an earful for risking my life for them. They happily accepted the help though."
She looked at him. "I've got a few other stories, but I think I'll save those for later. Now it's your turn."
"Fair enough," Ratchet replied as he leaned back in his seat. "First verse is identical to yours; I came falling out of the sky in an escape pod as a kid, but I landed on planet Veldin. I grew up at a local orphanage. Veldin is a poor place, always was. I was treated pretty terribly and ultimately I ran away. I found a run-down garage and an abandoned Omni-Wrench inside. I fixed it up myself and lived there since I was twelve."
"That's rough," Rivet remarked, her ears lowered. She felt terrible for him. "Thanks," Ratchet remarked before he continued. "So, I set about trying to build a ship, and when I was seventeen, it was almost done, save for the robotic ignition system, which I didn't have. That evening, another ship came falling out of the sky. I went to check it out, and it turned out to be Clank. I took him to my garage, gave his systems a look over, and set about looking for a way to bypass the robotic ignition system. So I'm looking at the engine and suddenly I hear someone say 'interesting' behind me. I fell right off the crate I was on."
Rivet chuckled. "I bet that looked rather silly."
"Yeah, I can laugh about it now. So as it turned out, there was this guy called Chairman Drek, one of the most influential Blarg there was. The Blarg home planet, Orxon, had become so polluted that you couldn't live on it anymore, so Drek decided to try and build a new planet by pulling apart other planets, regardless of whether they're populated."
"He did what?" Rivet asked in shock. "Yeah, he'd designed this enormous claw-like contraption that just ripped a large chunk out of a planet's surface. Clank was a defective warbot from Drek's manufacturing plant on planet Quartu, and he'd found a message from Drek to another planet, Novalis, about how he was going to destroy the planet for his own goals, and how there's nothing they could do. Clank wanted to find this hero, Captain Qwark, to warn him so Qwark could stop Drek."
"That name… that reminds me of Captain Quantum," Rivet remarked.
"Yeah, that's no coincidence. They seem to be dimensional variants of the same person," Ratchet explained before he continued. "So, Clank offered to start my ship if I helped him find Qwark. So, I did. We tracked down Qwark, but he betrayed us, and almost killed us. I gave Clank a hard time after that, but since he was the only one who would start ships for me, I was stuck with him. A lot of work later, I managed to track down Qwark a second time, and beat him. It's only then that I realized how big a threat Drek was, and Clank and I put a stop to him together. That's basically the gist of how he and I met," Ratchet explained.
Rivet chuckled. "Clank told me a few snippets about it in passing. I realize you're omitting most of the details for brevity, but when this is all over, promise me you'll tell me the full stories, okay?"
Ratchet nodded. "I will. Just… just don't put this on a golden scale. Drek didn't have a whole galaxy under his thumb, and I had Clank with me."
Rivet shook her head. "I won't. I might not have had much success but I tried my very best and that's what matters." She smiled. "Now, how about we fix all of this and talk further once we've cleaned up this mess?"
Ratchet chuckled and pressed the button to open the cockpit. "Yeah, I think your dimension is long overdue for some freedom. Let's go." He got up and waited for her, and soon the duo walked back to the bar area together. Ratchet went to check on Clank while Rivet approached Captain Quantum. "So, Captain, what's your plan?" she asked as she placed her hands on her hips and smirked. She glanced over at Ratchet, and caught him glancing at her. She gave him a subtle nod, and he nodded back.
Despite knowing that she was heading into the greatest fight of her life so far, paradoxically enough she felt more assured than ever. This time, she would win. They'd all make sure of it.
Although, like I wrote at the start, I am currently still working on the main plotline, I do already have a solid idea for the next chapter, so that one shouldn't take too long to complete. That said, I do have a number of other projects so I beg you to be lenient; vacation or no vacation, it may still take two weeks or so for me to complete the next chapter. Here's hoping I can get it done sooner than later. With all that said, I hope you enjoyed, and take care.
