Author's Notes: Man, this one was a struggle. When there's little story involved in a planet, it can be very boring trying to write a retelling of it.
Clank: Eudora
Approaching the forested world, Ratchet's ship slowly landed onto the platform. The gang disembarked, looking over the tree harvesting operation.
"Dang," Ratchet commented, "The Blarg don't hold back."
"Yes, however, it may be worse than I feared." Clank replied.
"How so?"
"As we entered Eudora's atmosphere, I connected to the planet's local satellite network."
"You can hack it?"
"No, it's an open network. Strange."
"The population of Eudora," Summer declared, "Doesn't even reach a hundred million. Combine that with their peaceful nature, it's quite possible they never considered a hostile invasion. Naive, but it's impressive that they have that level of trust."
"Indeed. However, what concerns me is the Blarg themselves."
"Well, yeah," Ratchet retorted, "They are the ones tearing down their forests."
"Yes, but it goes deeper than that. From the Eudora network, I've learned that Blargian cargo ship activity has dropped 97 percent in the past few lunar cycles, by Eudoran standard."
"And that means…?"
"Ratchet, I think he's saying that the Blarg aren't taking as many trees."
"That is correct, Mrs. Rose."
Ratchet turned back to the heavy operation.
"But, then why are they still harvesting?"
"Perhaps Chairman Drek wishes to have a reserve?"
"If that was the case, they'd still be taking them off world."
"True."
"Maybe…" Summer slowly stated, "Maybe Drek is cutting loose ends."
"Wait, mom, are you saying that Drek is done with the planet?"
"Yes."
"Which…which means that Drek intends to destroy the entire planet. Just level the entire place. It's bad enough he's stolen their trees, but now he's going to make sure the Eudorans don't have any left?!"
"Now you see," Clank declared, "Why we must find Captain Qwark. He's the only one who could stop Drek."
Ratchet sighed. "Well, let's hope Drek's right hand bot is still on the planet."
Summer nodded, "Unfortunately, if we intend to fight them, we'll have to reach their HQ, wherever it is, and these cliffs won't make it easy."
"Perhaps the bridges the Blargs brought would suffice."
The trio nodded to each other, and quickly dispatched the nearby robots.
"Ratchet, crank the bridge up, I'll clear the otherside."
Summer threw Sundered across the gap. As she teleported, two buzz droids charged at her, she stuck the ax into one, and threw it and her weapon into the air. When the second one swung the blades, she casually teleported up into the air, grabbing her ax.
She swung down, dislodging the dead droid from her weapon, and chucking it as the second one, causing both to now be deceased.
Ratchet quickly followed behind, as the two pushed forward, reaching another lowered bridge.
"You crank it, I'll cover you."
"Got it!"
Ratchet took out the ax wielding bot then set to work on the crank bolt. As he did so, two ax bots began charging after Summer dealt with the buzz saw bots.
Summer scoffed, "Please."
Shifting to gun mode, she shot the head off of one. When it looked at its now dead comrade, it wisely turned around and started running…
Only to get an ax to its back.
Summoning her ax back, Summer turned to see Ratchet crossing the now raised bridge. The two continued, fighting through Blargian ax and saw bots, and even Blargian soldiers. Eventually, they reached a large chasm. Ratchet looked around, seeing a bolt crank connected to a foresting platform.
"Mom, you clear out the other side, I'll boost my way up."
Summer nodded, throwing her ax and teleporting to it. As she destroyed the robots, Ratchet lowered the platform, but didn't lock it in. After a few seconds, which he used to get onto the platform, the bolt dislodged, twisting back down, and raising the platform, giving him enough height to use Clank's heli-pod.
"Is that the HQ ahead?"
"No, Ratchet," Clank retorted, "Merely an outpost."
"Then we keep burning through them," Summer smirked, "Either we'll find the base, or their leader will be forced to come out to stop us."
AS they entered, a much larger ax robot blocked their path. Ratchet threw a bomb, knocking it into the wall, and switched to his newly bought Glove of Doom, and sent a swarm of mini-bots to blow the machine up. Continuing on, they found a cannon of some sorts.
Picking it up, Ratchet inspected it. "Clank, any idea what this is?"
"I cannot say without a closer inspection. Which is impossible so long as I'm your back."
"Fair enough. Let's see what-"
"Ratchet, is it a good idea to-" Summer began, slowly moving out of the cannon's line of fire.
Too slowly.
"-this does."
Ratchet turned it on, and Summer's cloak began getting sucked in.
"Ratchet, turn it off!"
The furball panicked, and reversed it. However, that just shot out what parts of her cloak did get sucked in into a projectile, causing a small smokey dent in the wall. The bottom right corner of Summer's cloak was now torn and scorched.
"Yang," Ruby declared, clutching her cloak, "I don't like my new brother."
Everyone around her chuckled, even Clank. Ruby, however, did not join in. Aside from Crescent Rose, her cloak was very precious to her. She did not find it amusing.
And neither did Summer, if her death glare was anything to go by. Ratchet gave a nervous laugh, while Clank merely eyed him with annoyance.
"Maybe they should have the instructions close by."
"Yeah, maybe." Summer scolded, "Let's just go."
It was only a short distance, however, that Summer's scowl returned.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!"
"Isn't that our ship."
"Yes. Yes it is, son!"
"So we just went in a giant circle?!"
"Perhaps the secondary path, behind the locked door, would provide us another path to the Blargian headquarters."
The two turned to Clank.
"You knew it was locked?"
"You didn't?"
"No! Besides, the better question is why would they keep the most direct path to their HQ right at the landing pad!?"
"Well, I…I don't have an answer."
Ratchet merely shook his head in anger, now getting Summer's frustration, just a bit.
Hacking the door, they continued onward. However, the path ran along an entire cliffside, forcing the two to either teleport, or swingshot their way across. Reaching another locked door, Ratchet began to decode it.
"Alright," Summer declared, loading another clip into her ax, "HQ is right through this door. When we go in, they might try to make a run for it."
"Yep. Wouldn't want to stick around after the massacre we pulled off."
"But we also can't leave any clues behind. So, Ratchet, you clear out any intel, I'll take on the leader."
Ratchet nodded, "And…go!"
The door opened, with the Robot Lieutenant immediately making a run for it, dropping an Info-Bot.
"So much for 'Second in Command'! Ratchet, get the data!"
"Got it!"
As Summer chased after the leader, Ratchet began combing the computers.
"Clank, give me a hand here!"
Clank jumped off, going to the computers.
"What are we looking for?"
"Anything. We'll deal with the Info-Bot in a minute, but the computers might have intel we could use."
Outside, Summer saw that the exit literally was next to their ship.
'Every path loops back here. What is this, a video game?!'
She ignored that conspiracy, and chased down the robot. Crossing the bridge, she saw a much bigger helicopter about to pick him up.
"I don't think so!" She leveled Sundered at him. The robot turned, eyes widened before narrowing.
"Lieutenant Ion!" The pilot exclaimed.
"Open fire!"
The twin cannons fired, leaving small craters wherever they landed. Returning fire, Summer killed the pilot, causing it to briefly wobble.
"Do I have to do everything?" Ion exclaimed, pushing the corpse of the pilot out of the chopper, and plummeting into the white abyss below. Ion continued to open fire, ripping apart trees with the cannons. Summer ducked under a fallen tree, the debris briefly making Ion lose sight of her.
'I'll only get one shot.' Summer stands up, and throws her ax. Ion turns, firing a missile, and sending Summer flying back. However, her ax reached her target.
Sundered Rose slams into the main rotor for the helicopter, causing it to spiral out of control. Crashing with a thundering shockwave, Summer summoned her ax back, though barely. The fires made it hard to see it. What wasn't hard to see was the shadow figure in the fire, slowly walking out, and dusting the flames off his chassis.
"You're gonna pay for that." Ion declared, holding a…Minigun!?
"Crap."
Ion launched a wave of bullets, forcing Summer behind a tree. However, the bullets were slowly peeling away bark. Summer looked at her Scroll.
'Aura at 15. How do I?' Summer saw an automated mining ship pass by…with a swingshot tether underneath it. Summer looked at her ax.
"Yeah…" She muttered slowly, "That could work." She switched her ax to swingshot mode, making sure to jam the button so it wouldn't switch back, then fired at the ship. When it connected, she let go of her ax, and watched it fly with the ship.
Summer then turned, running around Ion, but getting closer. For a big lumbering robot, he was surprisingly fast with using the minigun.
The two heard a snapping sound, and looked at the source. The tree Summer hid behind cracked, and began falling towards Ion. He had to stop firing to run away, which gave Summer the opening she needed. Running towards him, the tree landed infront of her, and she dove through the branches, rolling upon landing. Ion swung the minigun around, but Summer was now right in front of him.
Ion smirked through his metal cigar. "Well, aren't you brave, little lady? But you don't got your ax."
"True," Summer looked around, "There she is."
Ion looked up, seeing the mining ship passing by, Sundered still attached to the swingshot. Summer's hand glowed, and so did the ax…which then extended to the swingshot, and the entire ship…
…Which then teleported, at its current speed, directly behind Summer.
Ion's mouth opened wide, the cigar falling to the ground. Summer jumped up, pulling her ax, and landing on the ship. As it crashed into Ion, she desperately tried to unjam the button. As it fell off the edge, Summer punched her ax, and it disconnected. Falling with the ship, she threw Sundered up, going back up the cliff face. When she teleported, her body gave off a white shatter, her Aura depleted. With the last of her strength, she hooked Sundered to the top of the cliff, keeping herself from falling to the abyss.
"Okay," Yang cheered, "That was awesome."
"I must admit, I don't think I've seen Summer use her Semblance like that before."
"Neither did Summer," Clank replied, "But, Doctor Oobleck, she had to try something."
'Gods, my arms are killing me. Guess pulling that ship did more than just wreck my Aura. Then again, maybe I should be glad it didn't kill my outright.'
Summer tried to pull herself up, but her arms felt like they had Goliaths on them. As her head crested the top of the cliff face, a gloved arm reached down to her, and a very worried son connected to it.
"Thanks, son." Summer gripped the hand.
"I heard the crash, and only saw your ax."
Ratchet pulled his mother up.
"Good news: Drek's right hand man is dead. Bad news, everything hurts."
"You're sure you're alright, mom?"
Summer dusted her shoulders. "I'll probably be wishing I was dead for the next few hours, but, yeah. Find anything."
"Good news and bad: Good news is that we know where Qwark is. He's currently in Blackwater City. If we were just a minute too slow, Drek's forces would've deleted it from their records."
"That's great."
"Bad news: Drek's henchmen didn't bother to keep the coordinates locked in, so we have no idea where Rilgar is."
"I'm sorry if I'm mistaken," Clank responded, "But, if we know he's on Rilgar, why not just search up the coordinates."
"Not that simple," Summer countered, "Gadgetron controls all the star charts. And, while I certainly have the bolts now to buy them, you'd still have to go through a week of paperwork in order to have them sent to you. Each Info-Bot had the coordinates plugged in, per Gadgetron protocol, so we didn't need to worry too much."
"That seems…inefficient."
"Tell me about it. And it's highly unlikely that Qwark will still be there in a week."
"Ugh," Weiss groaned.
"Weiss?" Blake questioned.
"As someone who works for the biggest distributor of Dust on Remnant, I can sympathize. My father makes it ridiculously hard to get mining rights, to the point that it would be easier for competitors to just work for the SDC, rather than trying to do their own thing."
"Anything else?"
"Well, we've found this Info-Bot."
At Ratchet's words, the Info-Bot played its message, detailing a recruitment video for the Blarg Tactical Station, where they tested out many of Drek's weaponry, including that Suction Cannon that ruined Summer's cloak.
"Well, it's not Rilgar," Summer stated, "But-"
"But taking it out could help slow down Drek." Ratchet finished.
"Exactly. So, next stop, BTS."
Author's Notes: So, I'm borrowing another thing from the 2016 game. The Robot Lieutenant never had a name, and was originally going to have a boss fight. However, time constraints prevented that from being a thing, and we never see him again after this (aside from one or two cutscenes). Figured I'd change that up a bit, while also giving him the name of the Lieutenant from the 2016 game. Hope you enjoyed.
And, don't worry, if Ratchet finding out that Qwark is on Rilgar early seems a little redundant, it's just setting up a conversation next chapter.
As always, leave a review, fav/follow, and I'll see you all next time.