Whoo, look who's back! No, the game responsible for my absence isn't Overwatch, I haven't been playing that game that often due to the sheer percentage of idiots among the players. If I'd get a dollar for every time I'd either get placed in a match that is already set (ergo, the enemy team winning literally three seconds later) or get placed in a match full of people who literally can't find the trigger of their weapon and don't even know the word 'team composition', I could straight up hire someone to write this story out for me.
No, the game that has managed to catch and hold my interest is Subnautica. It's still in early access, but I love the concept and art style of the game. The only thing is, due to it being in early access there are still many bugs, and the amount of bug reports I've sent is well in the double digits, but the team behind this game actually has coding skills (cough cough little big planet 3 cough cough) and works at an astonishing rate, therefore I have faith that this game will end up great.
But, salt over Blizzard's terrible matchmaking and love for Subnautica's beautiful yet scary as living heck art style aside, I think you're all here to see the story continue. Therefore, I'll reply to the reviews before letting you all read on.
rst64tlc: "Hyper is getting closer to the truth, Qwark is going to have a real bad time. and I hate that planet. Stupid Brain squids hunting quest. Great chapter."
Well... we'll see how that ends up. Trust me when I say you'll be surprised... And I'm personally cool with the Telepathopus hunting sidequest, at least it's an excuse for Insomniac to pull another 'massive level'. A fetch quest does get rather repetitive after a while though. Thank you once again, and I hope this chapter lives up to your expectations, especially when it comes to what I did about the whole hunting side quest.
Max Chronicle: "I like how you take facts that are harmless (or are meant as jokes) in the story and make mountains out of them. I find it entertaining. But beside that, great chapter. Glad to see Hypernova finally joining in on the butt whooping.
Count on me rearing my comments again on the next chapter but until then,
Max out.
P.S. Good memories indeed.
P.P.S. I'll look into acquiring Undertale. I've heard many a good thing but... reasons."
Well, if the original plot gives me something that I can expand on, then why not? As long as it's done right though and doesn't get annoying. Thank you once again, and I hope you'll enjoy this chapter!
P.P.S. I can guarantee you'll enjoy it. The soundtrack is also very well done!
As the Ranger aircraft entered Gaspar's orange atmosphere, Hypernova jumped off the wing, diving to the surface next to the blue Ranger vessel. As Hypernova slowed his descent, Ratchet initiated the landing sequences, bringing the ship to a complete stop on a landing pad near the Blarg facility. Hypernova landed on his feet and his left hand next to the ship, keeping his right hand ready for any attackers.
There was nobody in the immediate area, making Hypernova sigh in relief. Maybe they hadn't yet been noticed, but with the large satellite dishes positioned on top of the Blargian facility, the chances of that were slim.
He took a good look at their landing site as Ratchet and Clank climbed out of their spacecraft. They had landed on a small island close to the main facility, a small elevator could take them across and to ground level.
Behind Ratchet's ship, on top of a raised section of rocks, was a huge energy-dome, Hypernova wondered what it was for.
After Ratchet had restocked on ammunition at a nearby Gadgetron vendor, they entered stepped onto the elevator and let it take them down to ground level.
"Is your suit functioning properly this time?"
"Yep." Ratchet said. "Visor deployed correctly, everything's fine."
"How about the temperature?"
Ratchet shrugged. "I didn't notice any severe temperature changes. Thanks to my armor, probably, but still."
"It's liquid-cooled, so it should also protect you from radiation aside from keeping you cool. As long as you don't go jumping into lava, that is."
Ratchet shuddered.
Up ahead, they spotted a group of Blarg in exo-suits guarding the outside of the complex. There was an unused turret built on the ground in front of a small docks area, and the path to the right was sealed off by a blast door.
"Well, back into the storm we go." Hypernova said before throwing a stun grenade. Ratchet immediately got to work on shooting down the temporarily blinded Blarg.
"One more thing." Hypernova said after the Blarg had been dealt with. "The atmosphere here contains no oxygen, it'll fry you in a minute and lastly, the pressure is a side product of the temperature. Thus don't expect Clank's Heli-Pack to be of much use."
"Good to know." Ratchet said. He looked at the door. "Great. Why does everything have to be made of dense alloy?"
"I will try not to be offended by that." Clank said.
"Oops, sorry Clank. I wasn't talking about you, I was talking about this door. I mean, every time something is in our way it's always so heavily armored."
Clank giggled. "No offense taken, but that turret may be of use to us."
Ratchet stepped into the cannon. "It's not working."
Hypernova sighed. "I've got nearly no energy, but..." he said as he charged up an orb of energy behind him, before using it to blast right through the door. "You know, I really got to keep an eye on my power levels right now, so please, keep an eye out, okay?"
"Got it." Ratchet said. He equipped the Combustor and offered it to Hypernova. "Here, so you can deal some damage without having to worry about those energy reserves."
Hypernova laughed before taking the weapon. "I don't think I'll be dealing much damage with this, but thanks anyway. Well, let's just get going."
They stepped through the doorframe and followed the path to the left, at what appeared to be the facility's main entrance.
The blast door going kaboom didn't go unnoticed however. "Ah, I see we have visitors!" a scratchy voice said through the intercom. "Is that that Dr. Nefarious guy you told us about?" Ratchet asked.
"The voice matches perfectly, therefore I would assume that that is indeed Dr. Nefarious." Clank replied.
"I hope you like my facility," Dr. Nefarious continued before suddenly raising his voice. "BECAUSE YOU'RE NEVER, EVER LEAVING!"
"Damn, he's at maximum salt capacity already!" Hypernova said, making Ratchet laugh.
That's when a few of Gaspar's native lifeforms decided to pay a visit. Three huge bird-like creatures swooped out of the alien trees, their sharp beaks already ready to take a bite out of their prey. Of course, with Ratchet's new armor covering his face, ears and tail, he was well protected. Clank was made out of metal of course, and so was Hypernova. The result was the three birds breaking their own beaks. "Shouldn't have done that." Hypernova said, shaking his head as the creatures flew off.
After jumping across a small stream of lava, the three heroes reached the facility's main entrance. Of course, Nefarious had shut the blast doors in preparation, and three warbots stood guard outside the facility. Up ahead the path lead away from the complex before arching back to the entrance before ending on a rock in the middle of the lava, though it had a clear shot at the entrance. That's why a group of Blarg were located there, one in control of a turret.
Hypernova created a defensive barrier. "Take down those warbots, quick!" he told Ratchet.
The Lombax wasted no time in dropping two Bouncer bombs, completely obliterating them. "Holy cow, this thing's powerful!"
"It is, isn't it?" Hypernova said as he dropped the shield, and the two heroes ran. "It's in fact so powerful that it's experimental, Gadgetron is currently testing if it's actually legal to create a weapon this powerful."
"Then why do they sell ammo and upgrades for it?"
"That was already integrated into the vendor system in preparation."
"But then how did you even get it?" Ratchet asked as they jumped across a few rocks in order to reach the turret.
"It's originally my design, it's just that Gadgetron bought it. But as of now, this weapon's really rare. Could be that you're the only one that has it, seeing as Gadgetron hasn't given any away yet and since you have the prototype, the first Bouncer ever made."
"Huh." Ratchet said. "Any other things that you built that I should know of?"
"Should know of? No." Hypernova said as he gave the turret a powerful shock, disabling the hardware temporarily.
"But things I invented or helped create that you could know of, then yes." he said as he punched the Blarg in the face, knocking him out. Ratchet took control of the turret and blew the door to smithereens.
"QUIT SHOOTING MY DOORS!" Nefarious screamed. "Those are custom made, you know?!"
Hypernova burst out laughing. "That only makes me more eager to shoot them."
They stepped through where the door used to be and took an elevator up into the facility. "Ratchet, how's your suit doing by the way?"
"It's doing great!" Ratchet replied. "Thermal protection works like a charm, I don't feel anything of the heat. Rebreather seems to work as intended as well, since the thin atmosphere hasn't had any impact yet."
Hypernova let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness, that means you'll be alright underwater. You know, seeing you like that, lifelessly floating in the water with that look of pain on your face, that still gives me nightmares."
A shiver went down Ratchet's spine. They had no time to talk further though, as the elevator reached it's destination. The room they were in was circular, with various metal parts scattered about.
More unnerving was the sheer amount of enemies flooding the area. About one hundred small drones stormed at them. They closely resembled metal sandsharks.
"You take left, I take right?" Hypernova asked as Ratchet grabbed his wrench.
"Deal." he said before getting to work with his wrench. Strangely enough, these drones were just as vulnerable as their organic counterparts.
While Ratchet hammered on the drones with his wrench, Hypernova used his bare hands to save some energy. He punched a drone in the face before picking it up and throwing it at a bunch of other drones. He suddenly dropped to his hands while kicking his legs out behind him, sending three drones flying.
Despite all the effort they put into taking down the murderous machines, their numbers didn't decrease. "They keep coming!" Ratchet said, hammering on another drone.
"They just have a spawner somewhere." Hypernova said. Scanning the area, he noticed an innocent-looking machine hidden in the corner. As he watched, it spat out a metal ball that transformed into another sandshark-bot.
"Gotcha." he said as he jumped off the wall. As he approached the machine, however, three legs popped out of it and it tried to make a run for it.
"Oh hell you don't!" Hypernova yelled as he created a lasso of energy and pulled the machine back in before crushing it between his hands.
Meanwhile Ratchet was finally getting the upper hand, pushing the drones back far enough for him to equip the Pyrocitor and get to work.
About a minute later, the room was cleared.
"Nicely done!" Hypernova complimented as they walked out into the only hallway connecting the room.
They found themselves in a narrow, long room. Tanks were parked left and right, leaving a narrow path between them.
"Why are these imbeciles still alive?!" Nefarious spoke through the intercom. "Get out there and ANNIHILATE THEM BEFORE I LOSE MY PATIENCE!" he screamed.
"Too late." Hypernova said. Ratchet chuckled.
More enemies started to flood the part up ahead, using the tanks as cover. Hypernova laughed. "Ooh, just drop a Bouncer grenade and they're toast! You might as well try it out!"
"Okay." Ratchet said as he took cover behind a tank. He equipped the Bouncer and fired a bomb over the tank. A series of loud explosions followed. "You're gonna need more than that." Hypernova said, peeking around cover.
Ratchet responded by firing all five remaining bombs, and soon enough the path was filled with metal parts.
"Did that do it?" Ratchet asked.
Hypernova burst out laughing. "See for yourself, you wrecked them!"
Hypernova used some of his energy to clear the path before they moved on. They entered a circular room full of crates. A few Blarg were waiting for them, one of them in control of a turret mounted to the floor.
The Blarg immediately noticed them, and the turret sprang to life. Hypernova used some of his energy to raise a barrier in front of them that reflected the bullets, and sure enough the Blarg had been gunned down by their own fire. "Idiots." Hypernova said as he punched the only Blarg still standing, the Blarg in charge of the turret, out cold. Ratchet took control of the turret and destroyed another blast door.
"Easy peasy." Hypernova said as they walked out of the room, out onto a roof of the facility, where various defense turrets were located. "Uh-oh." Ratchet said when a drop ship swooped in and deployed a squad of Blarg that took control of the three turrets as well as a group of warbots guarding the skies.
A hook of energy formed in Hypernova's hands, and he pulled in one of the warbots while holding his fist out, punching the warbot's head off.
Immediately all hell broke loose. All turrets opened fire, the warbots began unloading rocket launchers and even the drop ship initiated an aerial assault.
Hypernova created a barrier in front of them while Ratchet fired his weapons at the warbots.
After they had been dealt with, Hypernova suddenly made the barrier vanish and gave Ratchet a forceful shove, pushing the Lombax behnd a crate just in time. Without having to keep a barrier up, he had both hands free, and Hypernova used the moment to send an electrical shock across the ground in front of him, temporarily disabling the turrets.
Ratchet immediately got back into action, taking on the drop ship while Hypernova cleared the turrets, before taking over one of them and flanking the drop ship.
They could hear a yell of pure rage coming from the speaker systems. "You imbeciles! How hard is it to stop two Rangers?! At least what they're looking for isn't here anymore or we'd have lost valuable technology due to the sheer incompetence of ALL OF YOU!"
Hypernova raised his hand and fired a blast of energy at the closest speaker, destroying it. "Stop screaming into my ears, you creepy green little gremlin." he mumbled.
"Well, looks like the jetpacks are gone, what now?"
"Ratchet do you really thing Nefarious would be able to move high-value technology without having to keep track of it somewhere? We must be able to find a data terminal somewhere where we can track down the location of the jetpacks. For now though... what is this?"
Up ahead was a platform with three glowing pads surrounding a small dome-shaped forcefield. Inside were two boots.
Clank got down from Ratchet's back, and they all stepped onto a red pad, the pad turning green in response.
When all pads had been turned green, the forcefield disappeared.
"What are these things?" Ratchet wondered out loud.
"They are grindboots." Hypernova said, inspecting their design. "They should allow you to grind on certain rails, such as grav-train tracks or power cables. For now though, I wonder what that is over there."
He pointed at a platform a few dozen feet away. It was built next to some kind of pipe leading upwards, they seemed to be able to enter from the top by walking on the electrified metal panels built on the sides of the pipe.
"Well, how do we get there?"
"I don't have enough energy left to fly us both there, but perhaps... I think I have an idea."
"I don't like this idea at all." Ratchet said, who was holding the Fusion Grenade.
"Trust me. I'll catch you, and the grenade won't hurt you because of your armor." Hypernova said, who had used his little energy to fly over to the platform.
Ratchet took a deep breath, then threw a grenade at his feet. Immediately he was sent flying by the blast like on Kerwan. However, he flew too far.
Ratchet screamed in fear as the lava got closer. Then, all of a sudden, something wrapped around his torso. Looking up, he saw that it was a wire of energy. Hypernova was standing on the platform above, trying his best to keep the cable together with his dwindling energy reserves.
"Pull yourself up!" he yelled, and Ratchet immediately got to work. Hypernova, in the meantime, began to pull the cable in, and soon enough Ratchet was back on his feet. "That was a close one, huh Clank? Clank?"
Clank didn't respond.
Hypernova shook his head. "You may be able to withstand such heat, but Clank doesn't tech that. He's probably shut down his systems to prevent overheating. Some circuits may have been fried, we should have a look at him later."
"We?"
"I'm excellent with hardware, and I thought you were a mechanic?"
"Yeah, that's true. We probably shouldn't check on this planet though, the air alone is forty degrees Celsius and that's only because it's so thin."
"Correct, would the atmosphere be thicker, it would be much closer to the lava's temperature here."
"Well..." Ratchet said, "Honestly, I can't wait 'till we're out of here, I'm starting to sweat and I can't wipe my forehead with this visor."
"Let's get to work then. Can you walk on this?" Hypernova asked, gesturing at the conductive metal ramp leading up against the tower.
"Yeah, Clank located a pair of Magne-Boots over a nebula G34. I'm not sure how old they are though, so I'm a little hesitant to try them out above a sea of molten rock."
"You'll be okay, I got your back. If you remain within arm's reach I'll grab you in a flash if those boots don't hold."
"Thanks." Ratchet said, taking the Magne-Boots out of Clank's chest compartment before noticing a problem. "Uuh... I can't wear these over my Ranger armor."
"And you'll end up with boiling feet if you swap boots. I got it." Hypernova said. "Hand me those boots real quick."
Ratchet handed the boots to Hypernova. "Thanks. Maybe I can..."
Hypernova began to tear the boots apart. "What are you doing?!" Ratchet cried out.
"Relax, I know what I'm doing. Sit down for a moment please."
Ratchet sat down, frowning. Hypernova lifted up one of Ratchet's feet before clicking something into place under the soles of Ratchet's boots.
"Wait, did you..."
"Take the magnetic soles and modify them so they can be attached to your boots? Yeah. Go ahead and try 'em out. With all of the infrared radiation here, I can fly up there, but I'll fly along with you for safety."
"Thanks." Ratchet said, walking up the ramp. "Whoa, this feels weird."
"Normally walking on walls with gravity constantly pulling on you would require a lot of power, but thanks to the same microthrusters that negate the extra weight on your arms so that you can aim better, you shouldn't feel gravity pulling you down anymore. It's not enough power to keep you in the air, but it's enough to at least take some of the load off your shoulders. And off Clank's as well, whenever he uses that Heli-Pack of his."
"Awesome!" Ratchet said, following the metal along the wall of the metal chimney before coming across a strange sight. A bolt was sticking out of the metal. "Hmm... I see smoke up ahead, coming out of this thing. Try turning the bolt and see what happens."
Ratchet equipped his OmniWrench Millennium 12 and began to walk around the bolt, using the wrench to turn it, and sure enough, the smoke vanished. Walking up and into the chimney, Ratchet saw that it had turned off a few burners embedded in the walls.
Reaching ground level, Hypernova landed next to Ratchet as they walked into a rocky tunnel. Some machines were scattered about, but they didn't interest the heroes at all. Their attention was drawn to a bunch of Blarg up ahead.
And the Blarg had noticed them too. "He's found out hideout!" one of the stunned Blarg yelled. "Kill 'em!"
"Don't forget that this is also a Raritanium mine!" Another Blarg yelled.
"Shut up, Ed!" a dozen of Blarg yelled in return.
Hypernova shook his head. "Fools."
He created a barrier in front of Ratchet as said Lombax unloaded his Combustor on them.
"Toasted." Hypernova said as the last enemy fell.
Walking into the tunnels, they sometimes had to jump across small streams of molten rock, Hypernova keeping a close eye on both of his companions and staying within arm's reach at all times.
As they finally reached the end of the cavern after having to fight the Blarg every step of the way, Hypernova noticed something. "Ratchet, look at this." he said after the last enemy had fallen. He walked over to a computer terminal built into the wall, the Lombax following him. "You see that blinking light?" he said, pointing at a small, blinking lightbulb embedded in the casing.
"Yeah, what's wrong with it?"
"This computer system is very, very old. From before the Great W-erm, older than you even."
"The Great what?"
"Nothing. Point is, this machine is an old way of communicating. Because it's so old, the chances of someone intercepting these old signals is tiny, as modern day equipment no longer uses these frequencies. That light means that there is an unseen message."
Messing with the terminal, Hypernova managed to find a message. The contents weren't that important, it was about transferring Raritanium from Gaspar, but the coordinates provided caught their interest. Cross-referencing them with a Blarg planetary database accessed on a terminal to the right, Hypernova was able to find that the source of the message was a secret Blargian manufacturing facility.
"That must be where Nefarious is manufacturing these jetpacks." Ratchet thought out loud. "This place seems more like a warehouse than a factory, I doubt they're being made here. It's more likely that they are shipped here before sent further."
"Good thinking. I doubt there are any jetpacks left here as Neffy caught wind of our presence pretty soon, soon enough to either send them off or destroy them to prevent any jetpack lying around here from falling into enemy hands. But I am certain that he has no idea of us acquiring this information, regarding the manufacturing facility. And even if it has no relation to the jetpacks, let's see about shutting it down."
Alright, so the people who played the PS4 game that this story is based on may have noticed the absence of a rather eccentric and brain-addicted individual. To those of you who wonder what happened to him, trust me, we'll catch a glimpse of this unusual character later down the line.
Regarding chapter 10, I have something big planned, and I'm excited to see how all of you are going to react to it.
I hope to see you all then!