Author: Now, the good stuff begins...
Chapter One
Light years away and many years passed…
The Polaris galaxy.
Planet Igliak. Meridian City.
"Hey, Clank, could you pass me my wrench?" Ratchet spoke from underneath the ship which he appeared to be fixing. Or modifying…
His hand appeared out from underneath the large vessel opening and closing his fingers, waiting for the tool. Clank walked over to him and handed him the wrench with a sigh.
"Ratchet, are you not finished yet? You have been working on this modification for most of the day." The small robot shrugged out his arms and hands.
"Not quite," the determined Lombax answered with a lag in his words. "I still need to make a few adjustments to this cloaking device and I haven't even taken it out for a test fly to see if it works."
"Why is it so imperative to have a cloaking device?"
"Why?" Ratchet rolled out from under the ship and his expression seemed shocked. "Why? Because it's cool!" He smiled and shrugged his head and resumed his work. "Besides, I've always wanted one."
Clank's metal eyelids spun and blinked as his head slowly shook. His attention was diverted to a large holo-screen outside of the garage which was presenting the news. It seemed like something exclusive by the way the reporter was speaking. His head tilted a bit as he listened in to the newsflash.
"…was stolen from Meridian's National Museum of Science and Archeology moments ago in a hostile takeover and exciting gunfight. The banditos were suspected to be a group of a turncoat pirates from the Phylax Sector. Officials say they are on pursuit of the thieves as we speak. More details to come at seven."
"Hmm." Clank turned his head in question. "Did you hear that, Ratchet? Something was stolen from the National Museum," he said moving closer to the mechanic's work area.
"Something's always getting stolen, Clank."
"Indeed. But it does make me wonder what a group of pirates would want from a museum. I do not remember anything being labeled as valuable to space brigands."
"Brigands?" Ratchet chuckled through his nose and moved out from underneath the ship again to stand on his feet. "Anyway, I think I'm finished," he said standing accomplished with his hands on his hips looking at his vessel.
"I suppose you wish to test it now?" Clank glanced up at his eager friend who was already running to the cockpit. He sighed and followed after him.
Not even seconds later Ratchet's ship was in the air and off up into the sky. He flew the ship towards a body of water, an ocean. His fingers pressed on several buttons on the dashboard in front of him as one hand steered the flight controls. Clank looked at the scenery below and watched as the reflection of the ship began to disappear.
"I suspect that your cloaking unit is fully functional."
"You got that right." Ratchet smiled coyly at his friend and flew about with a howl.
Clank spotted a ship in the distance that was being pursued by what seemed to be the Meridian police.
"I wonder if that is the ship which has the stolen…," he paused to tap a finger on his chin, "whatever was stolen from the museum."
"Wanna find out?"
"I suppose. Yes. Let us sequester this ship."
"That's the right idea," Ratchet smiled boldly and pushed up the throttle
The pirate ship was small but fast. The police that were following it chased up through the atmosphere. For some reason they weren't opening fire, though. Clank noted that observation, stating that whatever they stole must be that valuable that they could risk no damage. The transport seemed to be flying to its mother ship through a nearby asteroid belt. It immediately opened fire on the vessels that were following the stolen cargo. However, Ratchet's ship was still undetected. He kept a distance from the firing and took a different route to the ship.
"The smaller vessel is docking to the mother ship," Clank announced.
The police pulled back after maneuvering through the asteroids. The bigger ship was armed well. It seemed like they had been preparing for something like this.
"These pirates are rather well armed. Perhaps they were planning this heist for a while?" Clank spoke aloud. "Sending transmission to Meridian Police Head Quarters."
Clank's idea was to get the information on what was stolen. Maybe they could locate it on the ship and bring it back. All they needed to know was what exactly they were supposed to look for. Ratchet's vessel meanwhile landed on the side of the pirate ship without being detected. So far, so good.
"Ratchet? Clank? Is that you?" a voice over the transmission spoke. "If you're near that ship, you'd be doing us huge favor by getting that artifact back to the museum."
"Actually, we just happen to be there right now," Ratchet answered back to the voice.
"How did you…? Never mind. Do you know what you're looking for?" he asked.
"Not a clue."
"It's a rare artifact. The scientists or whatever at the museum say that its value is immense, which doesn't surprise me by this situation at the moment. Regardless, they kept telling us at the station that it's imperative we bring it back. Their studies on the object are still underway and they don't want anything to happen to it. I don't know. Something about it being a sensitive type of material. Anyway, it looks like a blue-purplish, sorta, thing, like a ball or big marble."
"We'll see what we can do, Chief."
"Good. Just be careful."
"Roger. Initiating radio silence."
The transmission ended and the two looked out the window from the cockpit. They seemed to be traveling pretty fast.
"Well, let's see how this works out." Ratchet shrugged and went behind his chair to pull out his mask to breath for the small moment they'd be exposed to space's elements. There was an armored suit for him to wear as well. "Glad I saved this," he said as he fitted himself in it. "Alright, Clank, let's go."
The hatch opened on his small ship and his trusty companion immediately linked onto his back. Ratchet hopped out of the vessel and stood on the side of the oversized transport with help of his gravity boots. He scanned the side of the ship with his eyes until he could find a potential spoke to break and enter through. Fortunately, he did manage to find it. He could take off one of the panels with his wrench.
"Let's hope this just doesn't lead us right into the mayhem," he mentioned as he worked off the section.
The thick metal sheet flew off into the void a few minutes later.
"There."
The clever mechanic dropped into one of the rooms. There didn't seem to be anything in it but boxes and crates full of grog or whatever other pirate confections they enjoyed. Ratchet found his way to the door after taking off his mask and pressed a button on the side of the wall to open it. He could hear some pirate robots making their way down the corridor. Seemed to him like they were talking about their apparent victory. His large ears flicked curiously. Maybe they'd give away the whereabouts of this rare artifact. No. They just kept gloating about it. Ratchet left the room quietly and ran down the hallway in search still.
"I'm not exactly sure where I should be going, Clank."
"Perhaps we should locate the captain's quarters of this ship? It may have arrived to him by now."
Ratchet agreed to his little partner's suggestion but sighed through his nostrils.
"Now to locate the captain's quarters."
As Ratchet snuck around the ship he noticed two pirates holding something in thick cloth coming their way. Quickly, he hid in a side room that had a door opened.
"Clank," he whispered, "I think that's it. I think they've got the artifact."
Ratchet listened in to their conversation as they neared. Yeah, that was it! They were carrying whatever they had so delicately. They must have it, then. Their discussion of bringing it to the captain was just like Clank anticipated. Good thing they hadn't brought it just yet.
"We must stop them, Ratchet."
"I'm on it."
Ratchet with overconfidence promptly left the room he hid in letting his presence be known to the pirates steadily making their way down the hall.
"'Ey! What do ye think yer doin' here?" the taller pirate said nearly dropping the item they were carrying.
"Watch it, ye thick headed scrap o' junk!" the shorter pirate yelled trying to keep the item secured in their hands.
"Sorry…"
"I'll make ye sorry!"
"This might be easier than I thought it would be," Ratchet said watching the two fumble and argue. "Say, uh, I hate to stop whatever it is you're doing but I think you've got something that doesn't really belong to you." The mechanic brought out his wrench and smacked it lightly on his palm as he walked closer to the two pirates. "We'll just be taking it back with us, now."
"Oh?" The small irate buccaneer squinted his only working eye and grinned. "Ye mean this? Ha ha! Run!" he yelled as the two hurried in the opposite direction of Ratchet.
Ratchet rolled his eyes twitching an ear and sprinted after them.
The clumsy duo ran with the precious object, turning at all odd corners trying to lose the Lombax. Other pirates that saw the pursuit began opening fire on the intruder. The small pirate yelled out angrily every time a shot was close to hitting them or the thing in their hands. Ratchet kept on his toes and darted through whatever obstacle they threw at him. He watched them make another turn down yet another long corridor. There was large door at the end this time, however. It was the captain's quarters. They made a beeline right to the door and frantically requested entrance. The doors opened and the two hurried inside and Ratchet followed closely behind them entering and then stopping after he noticed a figure walking towards him. It halted as the two brought what they were carrying to the person emerging from the shadows.
"Are we done here? I'd like to get that thing and just go home," Ratchet announced to the figure.
"Ah, Ratchet and Clank. How nice of ye to join aboard me ship."
Funny. The voice that spoke sounded feminine. She was a female captain. Still a robotic pirate nevertheless. The red and black feathers bounced on her hat when she walked out of the darkness. Her features were revealed and she held the cloth covered artifact in both hands. It was rather heavy and large, actually. She unraveled the priceless treasure carefully and let the cloth fall to the ground. It showed a bright blue and purple light—it was beautiful. Ratchet look captivated for a moment by the light but quickly blinked his focus back onto what mattered.
"Stunning, innit?" she said. "Do ye know what this piece o' treasure be, little Lombax?" Her arms held out the item in front of her. "It be a rare rock that came not from this galaxy. The scientists that research this piece o' treasure can't seem to pinpoint its origins, but it crashed on planet Igliak thousands of years ago. They say that the energy radiating off of this rock is so great that it could power me whole ship for years. And even more…"
"So, is that the only reason you took it? To power your ship? Seems kind of pointless if you ask me." Ratchet perked a brow at the female captain.
"Aye, it would be pointless. Which is why I be using it to help power me cannons and increase me weaponry. I'll be the most feared pirate in all Polaris—since poor Slag's decapitation knocked him down a peg, that is." She cackled under her breath as her shipmates followed with her example. "Who knows? I just may be able to even give me own self some modifications."
"Yeah, we'll see about that." Ratchet tossed his wrench in the air, catching it seconds after and ran towards the devilish captain.
She immediately gave command to seize the Lombax and his robot friend and ran to the end of the room, climbing up a ladder to another deck of the room. The room of pirates motioned after Ratchet. His hands were full instantly as pirate after pirate bombarded him with hits of their swords and shots of their guns. Meanwhile, with him distracted, the captain took the artifact to a port on the wall and inserted the glowing marble inside of it carefully. Her eyes were wide with immeasurable expectation. The ship's computer scanned the item and validated it as a sufficient source of power and began to feed of its energy.
"Yes!" she cried out with exhilaration.
Ratchet looked up at her after smacking down another pirate with his wrench. He observed a few sparks coming from the port on the wall. His head cocked to the side a bit confused and the lights in the room flickered on and off. The pirates stopped attacking when they noticed the sparks as well. They saw their captain step away and a warning flashed on the computer's holo-screen. A feminine voice came over the intercom.
"Warning. Warning. Core temperature overheating. System shutdown initiating."
"What…? What's goin' on?" the captain asked to no one specifically. She tried to turn off the energy extraction in process but was nearly electrocuted in the process. Her hand flinched away from the controls as she tumbled back.
"Warning. System error. Requesting manual override to commence shutdown."
"I already tried that, ye stupid machine!" her voiced cracked with her yell.
"Oh, boy…" Ratchet looked at the mess that was happening above.
"Ratchet, I think we should escape before we are caught in an explosion. It sounds like to ship's computer could not intake the amount of power that this stone was giving it," Clank advised as Ratchet was taking a step backward.
"I'm way ahead of you, pal!"
The mechanic skid out of the room as some of the pirates did as well. The room behind them was becoming an electrifyingly blue and purple storm. Clank could see the chaos behind him on Ratchet's back.
"Abandon ship!" one of the pirates yelled.
"I knew this was a terrible idea!" another said fleeing from the ship.
The captain didn't want to leave the treasure behind. Finding another like it would be one in a billion. She would go down with her ship. She would try to pull the artifact from its position in the port but every time she tried it became more and more agitated, sending a shock through her system and illuminating the room with a blue and purple light. The ship was falling apart. Ratchet was making his way down the corridors as fast as he could just to get to his ship.
"There, Ratchet! The room to the right! That is where we entered from!" the robot said and with a hurry Ratchet ran in to the room seeing that the panel he took off before was still missing.
The lights continued to flicker and circuit boards busted with rapid shots of electricity all around. He quickly put on his oxygen mask before exiting the room—there was hardly any air in there now. Ratchet's ship was still under its cloaking device on the side of the mother ship. The hatch opened with a press of a button on a small remote that was around the mechanic's belt. Clank was tossed onto his seat on the passenger's side and Ratchet took a hold of the controls, starting up the small vessel in urgency. The same glow came outside of the ship and reflected off of Ratchet's now visible windshield.
"Hang on, Clank."
Ratchet's ship rumbled with its detachment from the exploding pirate spacecraft. Other ships were leaving it but something strange was happening. Where the captain's quarters were, the ship was severed and the glow there was most concentrated; but it appeared as if things were being drawn to it. Ratchet's ship was hard to control. It fought to get away from the gravity of this thing but it just kept pulling and pulling.
"I can't get the ship to move out of range!"
The small ship was only a transport ship. It wasn't meant to go very fast or go through gravitic warp. If things were going to end up like this he probably wouldn't have taken the ship out in the first place. They only managed to get a few miles away from the wreckage and havoc. From the window the two could see what was becoming of the ship. It was being taken over or consumed into something. Clank mustered a worried face at what he felt like would be their own fate as well. Ratchet couldn't but look back as well and his ears narrowed to the sides after he saw the chaos behind them.
"What exactly is that, Clank?" he bothered to ask questioning the anomaly behind them.
"It looks like a small black hole."
"But there's light coming out of it. And we're not slowing down…or whatever."
"Perhaps it tore a worm hole in our universe?"
"Well, I really wish it hadn't…!"
The small transport couldn't bear the pull much longer. They were just wasting fuel at this point. The light from the anomaly reached the ship and engulfed it. The speculation was seen through the asteroid belt—it even took a few rocks with it. The only thing the duo saw was a bright light and they only heard a loud humming sound. The anomaly from the artifact remained opened but its energy was slowly decreasing. What things that were taken through it were spat out somewhere else. It was like traveling through a bright, warped tunnel. There was no direction and it seemed like forever. There was an end, however, and Ratchet's ship was sent hurtling out if into a different section of space. His concentration was dulled and hindered from the disorienting travel through the tunnel. Clank was feeling the same way, though he noticed the planets and stars they were around. But they all went by so fast. Nothing looked familiar—if he could just catch a glance… They were rapidly approaching something. It was a blue planet. It had life, it should seem.
"Brace yourself for impact…," Ratchet said trying to grip the controls and steady the ship knowing that their crash would be inevitable.
As they pressed through the planet's atmosphere, Ratchet hoped for the best.