Well, here it is, the chapter that's nearly three or four months in the making! Had to sort some personal stuff out, and now I'll hopefully now be able to get these out at least a bit more consistently. (But don't quote me on that) And I want to thank you all for the support on the last chapter, all of your reviews mean a lot to me!
Also, I noticed how the Ratchet Clank series had its 20th anniversary recently, I can't believe it's been around for twenty years! It stills feels like it was just the other day I was playing Up Your Arsenal on the PS2. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to what Insomniac has planned for the next game and beyond, I just hope the debut of the Lombax Dimension is at least decent, especially with how long they've been teasing it up until now.
Anyway, enough of my rambling. Let's get on with the next chapter!
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"I'm offering a reward of one-million Nefbucks to anybody with information regarding the source of this minor annoyance." Aired a voice Daniel found to be incredibly irritating via the speakers within his Crow. "Goodbye for now!" The voice added, which was followed by a brief chuckle, before the transmission ended.
Daniel scowled, "I haven't even met the guy yet, and I already don't like him." He remarked from the pilot's seat. "Did you get all that, BT?"
"Affirmative. It is possible the electro-magnetic pulse may have been a by-product of the Ark's detonation." The Titan hypothesised.
"Well, if this "Nefarious" finds out we're indirectly responsible for it, he's going to gun for us."
"That is a reasonable assumption, Pilot. Due to our lack of knowledge on this galaxy and its inhabitants, it may be prudent to avoid conflict unless absolutely necessary."
After wordlessly agreeing, Daniel remembered that Phantom had given him a mapping chip alongside a communications device. He fished said mapping chip out of his satchel and held it in his left hand, "Phantom also gave me a mapping chip; I don't have the slightest idea how to use it." He admitted.
"If you bring it to me, I may be able to extract its data." BT offered, as Daniel's crow flew down through the dark clouds towards the Carter Braxton.
After another minute or so of flying, Daniel came up on the Militia carrier ship and saw the massive doors on its top already open for him. After landing his ship inside the MacAllan-Class Carrier, he gave the aforementioned mapping chip to BT.
The Vanguard was able to successfully extract the data from the chip, and projected a map of the entire galaxy in front of the Pilot. A bit of translating later, and it was found that the galaxy in question was called "Polaris", containing several different sectors within, like the Cerullean, Vela and Verdigris sectors to name a few.
It was found that the star system they were located in had only two major locations: The Scarstu Debris Field, and the volcanic planet of Tharia.
After getting BT to upload a copy of the map to his Crow, Daniel figured he might as well pass the time while he was waiting for Phantom to contact him, by heading to the Braxton's shooting range and testing a new weapon he'd purchased from Ms. Zurkon.
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BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
VVVRRRRRR!
Daniel replaced the magazine on his newly-acquired "Burst Pistol". So far, he was pleased with the performance of the orange and green-glowing weapon. Despite the lack of iron sights, Cooper found himself hitting his shots fairly reliably with the massive "pistol", evident from the shots he placed on the holographic target.
Its two main features were the acid ammunition it fired, and its unique fire control system: Squeezing the trigger halfway made it fire slowly and precisely, while holding it down all the way made it fire much faster, at the expense of accuracy. No matter which fire mode was used, the recoil was very manageable. It wasn't the only weapon he'd purchased; the other being a Shatterbomb Glove. It was a fairly simple concept; a glove that fabricates bombs into your palm that explode on impact when thrown.
Both weapons were stored in his Holo-Manager, and could be deployed by just a thought. Ms. Zurkon had also informed him about a substance called "Raritanium", that she would be able to use to upgrade his new weapons.
Daniel was pulled from his thoughts when he heard a soft beeping coming from his satchel. The culprit was proven to be his new communicator, that had a small flashing light coming from a tiny opening in the front of the device. Almost immediately after, a beam of light burst outwards from the opening, turning into a holographic display, containing what looked to be a text and voice message respectively. With his other hand, he tapped on the voice message in an attempt to play it, and was mildly surprised when his finger touched something solid, instead of phasing through the hologram like he expected.
"Hey Obsidian, I sent you the coordinates for one of our safe-zones near the warship factory in Nefarious city's Industrial District. Make sure you fly low once you get to Corson V, so you stay off the radar of any Seekerpedes. Be there in three hours from now, Phantom out."
Alongside the voice message, there was a text message that contained a set of numbers: Obviously the coordinates Phantom had mentioned. Daniel decided that it would be wise to get his kit ready for the (hopefully) final stretch before he could get home. After all that was done and he had everything ready, he continued practising his aim with the Burst Pistol for little while longer, before getting into his Crow and setting out towards Corson V.
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INDUSTRIAL DISTRICT,
NEFARIOUS CITY,
CORSON V
When Daniel arrived in Nefarious City, he was overwhelmed by the shear scale of the gargantuan metropolis. The coordinates to the "safe-zone" Phantom mentioned led him to an old dilapidated warehouse, located in the dark city's Industrial District.
As he got his Crow inside and concealed from the outside world, he noticed a ship with a colour scheme reminiscent of the Troopers in Phantom's photos, already parked inside the warehouse. With that, there were a few small crates at the very back of the warehouse next to a table, with some orange graffiti on the wall behind it, alongside a holographic map with several locations either circled or crossed-out in orange.
Getting back on track, the Titan Pilot exited the warehouse through a side door and into a particularly long alley, officially beginning his next mission.
Cradling a Spitfire outfitted with a standard Holographic Sight to his chest, Daniel had plenty of experience using one. Needless to say, The LMG was very effective, as it was capable of spitting bullets almost endlessly with easy to control recoil to boot. Just the kind of sustained fire he needed.
The Spitfire wasn't the only weapon the Pilot had at his disposal: Attached to his back, was an MGL. It fired out two magnetic grenades per trigger pull, which would veer towards and explode on contact with anything metal. It was designed to be used against Titans, and worked well against Reapers. As such, Daniel assumed it would be good for Troopers. To finish off his arsenal, he brought a few Arc Grenades with him, as they were designed to combat automated infantry in the later years of the Frontier War.
He reached into his satchel, pulled out his communicator and began scrolling down the list of names, now thankfully able to read the language displayed thanks to a translation program uploaded to his helmet by BT. Right next to a "Rivet" and a "MoyDoy", was Phantom's name and frequency .
A few moments of dialling, he heard the green-reptilian alien on the other side pickup. "Phantom, this is Obsidian," Cooper's filtered voice spoke in earnest, "I'm leaving the 'safe-zone' now, where do I go?"
"Good to hear from you, Obsidian." The Rilgarian spoke, "We're waiting in an alley near the factory. My Nav-Unit's turned on; you should be able to see it on the map in your communicator."
Right on cue, a map appeared on the screen, with a blue dot in the centre that was presumably represented Daniel's own communicator, with a green dot labelled "PHANTOM" appearing about a kilometre south-west.
"I see it, I'll be there soon."
"Just to warn you, the patrols have been stepped up as of late." Phantom informed, "You won't find a straight-forward path without coming across at least a few, so try not to be seen if you can help it."
"I'll manage."
Phantom let out a chuckle, "Alright, whatever you say dude." The reptilian alien remarked as the line went dead.
Daniel returned his communicator to his satchel, as he emerged from the alley and onto a walkway. "BT, triangulate Phantom's signal and put it on my HUD."
"Copy that, marking your HUD."
The walkway continued parallel to a large gap, with what looked like cargo ships flying through it frequently. As Daniel peered over the guard rail and looked below, he saw nothing but a foggy abyss with no bottom in sight.
"Shit, glad I'm not scared of heights."
He looked back up to the other side of the gap, where a HUD indicator for Phantom's location appeared. He knew his Jump Kit wouldn't be able to reach the other side; he needed another way across. His eyes spotted a bridge a short way up the walkway he was on, with several floating robots going across it from both sides.
As he approached the bridge, any robot that saw him seemed to be frightened by his presence, as they would quickly move out of the way as he got near.
Across the bridge, was a pair of large white robots that Daniel recognised to be Troopers from the pictures Phantom showed, both of them appearing to be conversing with each other. Behind them past another walkway, was a tight alleyway that looked like it would be easy to wall run from side to side.
Daniel knew the Troopers would likely spot him if he just waltzed onto the bridge, and that it was probably a good idea to follow Phantom's advice on not being seen on his way to the rebels.
He got to thinking. If he Cloaked and ran across from here, his Cloak would likely run out before he could even get close to the alley, so that was a no go. As he watched a handful of robots cross the bridge towards the Troopers, an idea popped into his head.
The Pilot quickly hid in a nearby alley, concealing himself from the many robots floating about. When a large red robot floated onto the bridge, Daniel sprang out. He pinned one of the robot's arms behind its back and pulled it downwards, to where it was floating just above the ground beneath it. As a result, Cooper was successfully concealed behind the bot.
"Whaa!?" The red robot yelped, as it tried to turn around to face its sudden attacker. "Who are you!? Let me go!"
"Shut up and keep moving, or I'll throw you off the bridge!" The black-armoured Commando hissed, as he shoved the robot onwards across the bridge. With the lingering threat of being thrown into an endless void, the robot ceased its resistance, now complying to get whatever was happening over and done with.
Daniel was able to get halfway across the bridge before the Troopers noticed something was amiss. One Trooper walked onto the bridge to investigate, both of its arms raised and ready to strike at a moments notice.
"Citizen! I order you to explain your reasoning with this disturbance!" The Trooper's voice boomed, as the red robot froze up from the order.
"Umm... uhh..." The red robot stammered, as he was continuingly pushed forwards by Obsidian, slowly getting closer and closer to the Trooper. Once he got close enough to said Trooper, Daniel quickly flicked his wrist and vanished from view, then threw the bot out of the way.
The now invisible Pilot ran through the investigating Trooper's tentacle-like legs and off the bridge. The Troopers thankfully couldn't see through his Cloak, which was what he was expecting, as the only thing Daniel knew that could would be other Pilots, as a Pilot's helmet contained specialised sensors that could detect light being distorted by a Cloaking Module.
As he ran past the other Trooper at the end of the bridge, it reacted upon hearing his boots hitting a stray puddle. "Warning! Possible resistance activity detected!" The Trooper informed as it began shining a light around and scanning the immediate area. The other Trooper on the bridge turned around upon hearing its compatriot's warning.
The Pilot kept running towards the alley, when a pair of floating troopers suddenly emerged from it. In response, Daniel used his Jump Kit to leap over the two smaller Troopers and into the alley. His Cloak deactivated as he landed on the hard metallic floor and rolled, but he didn't stop moving. On instinct, he launched himself onto the wall and bolted down the alley.
He wallran from side to side, climbing higher and higher as he came up to a T-junction in the alley. Finding himself not particularly fond of the idea of potentially being in a confined space with another Trooper, he fired his Jump Kit again, propelling himself over the top of the building ahead and onto the roof.
The Commando slid across the top of the building and came to a kneel just before the edge of the roof, and let out a breath. "Okay , note to self: Stick to the rooftops." He was pretty confident that he wasn't seen, the lack of any alerted Troopers heard as he went through the alley supported the notion.
Alright, time to get a move-on. Daniel thought to himself. After all, he didn't want to keep the rebels waiting. He spotted a large tower crane up ahead, which gave him an idea on how to traverse the cityscape much faster. Thanks to his Jump Kit, the Pilot effortlessly jumped across the rooftops and towards the crane.
The tower crane itself happened to be situated within a massive gap between the buildings, its mast disappearing into the void below. Cooper found a few smaller cranes sticking out the side of a nearby building that looked to be under construction, the last of which holding a metal wall panel over the edge. He triangulated the path he would take and took off at a sprint, putting his plan into action.
He jumped and fired his Grapple onto the end of the first crane. Immediately after it hit its target, Daniel felt a sharp tug on his right arm, as the compact reeling system in his right bracer pulled him towards the end of the crane.
Just before he slammed into it, Cooper fired his Jump Kit to the left and released the Grapple, sending him flying upwards past the empty cranes. He flew towards the last crane holding the aforementioned metal wall panel.
The Pilot slammed against the floating wall panel with enough force to move it slightly. Thankfully, his Jump Kit kept him firmly attached to it. He ran along the side of the panel as far as he could, before leaping upwards as high as his Jump Kit could allow. Right as he felt himself slow down, he fired his Grapple towards the bottom of the crane's jib.
The Grapple hit its intended target, as Daniel felt a sharp tug on his right arm as he was subsequently reeled upwards towards the jib. With another boost from his Jump Kit, he dodged the metal jib and released the Grapple, sending soaring him past the crane and into the sky.
His Jump Kit automatically activated, correcting his orientation and slowing his descent. If anyone else had been in his place, they would have likely been shitting themselves. But not Daniel. To him, this was just what Pilot's like himself did every day: Practically flying through the battlefield and moving in ways many would deem to be straight out of a video-game.
Straight ahead, near the HUD marker for Phantom's signal, was an absolutely massive building. He presumed it was the factory Phantom wanted to blow up. If he was to hazard a guess, it looked to be at least half the size of the Braxton. Daniel wondered just what kind of bombs Phantom must be packing, as he got ready to land on the roof of a building.
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A particularly cold breeze blew through the alley, causing Rivet to tighten the orange scarf around her neck in response. She sat with her legs crossed atop a dumpster, with a scowl on her face. It had been a few hours since she was dethroned as "Queen of the Battleplex" by a black-armoured Commando only known as Obsidian. The same Commando who would apparently be helping herself and her fellow rebels with their next task.
To make matters worse, she had spent a good hour-and-a-half trying to reclaim her throne, to no avail. Each time Rivet came close to beating Obsidian's high score, she would be hit by a stray blast or an unnoticed opponent, resulting in deducted points. She had been just as surprised as everyone else when Zurkon Jr reluctantly announced that his Battleplex would be closed for the rest of the day, due to a lack of available contestants. Rivet had never heard the spectators boo so loudly.
The only upside to it, was the considerable number of bolts the Rebel Lombax had earned in the process. She used it to treat herself to a brand-new Warmonger, since she lost her old one (and most of her arsenal) the last time she was incarcerated in Zordoom Prison. Good times. She thought.
When Rivet realised that she would have to postpone her reclamation of the top spot, she made her way to Corson V to proceed with the resistance's next mission: Destroy the nearby warship factory by any means.
While there were many factories in the city like it, the little detail that made this factory in particular special, was that it was the forefront of the emperor's new Warship Armada. If they managed to take this one down, it would seriously impair the production of said armada, thus dampening Nefarious' ability to send fighters to distant planets.
Rivet's ears perked up when she heard a quiet beeping sound, one she recognised to be from a communicator. She instinctively checked her own communicator attached to her belt, as her eyes caught Phantom removing his own communicator from its pouch and then stepping away from the other rebels, around the corner of the alley.
After a brief conversation (one that she couldn't quite make out, her hearing was good but not that good, damn it) with whoever it was on the other end, the Rilgarian returned from around the corner.
She decided this was a good opportunity to get a little jeer in, "Was that the girlfriend, Phantom?"
Phantom let out an annoyed sigh. "For the last time, Haleigh isn't my girlfriend!"
"Oh, so it was Haleigh then?" Rivet and the other rebels let out a slight laugh at his exasperated reaction to the comment. "Seriously though, who was it?"
"It was Obsidian, says he's on his way from the warehouse." The Rilgarian replied.
"Well, we better get comfortable. Ya'll know how long it takes to get around with all the patrols lately." MoyDoy added, as he leaned against the wall next to his massive Agorian Warhammer, and started fiddling with the straps for the bracers and pauldrons on his arms and shoulders.
Rivet noticed movement on the edge of her vision to her left, spotting Katzae slowly shuffling closer to her. Oh Great, this again. She said to herself internally.
The Brown-furred Cazar started rubbing the back of his neck, "Hey Rivet, uh...how are you keeping?" The brown-furred Cazar asked with a nervous smile on his face.
"I'm fine, Katzae." Rivet replied irritably.
"Oh uhh...okay." Katzae acknowledged as he began to awkwardly shuffle away from her, and began playing with the handle of the machete attached to his belt that he always brought with him wherever he went.
Rivet let out an annoyed sigh through her nose. The young Cazar had been fairly persistent as of late in his attempts at flirting, even if they were often only awkward at best. The fact that his outfit looked like a poor attempt to imitate her own attire, certainly wasn't helping. He wore a light-grey long-sleeved jumpsuit, black and grey metal gauntlets, a pair of old, rusty greaves and a pair of large, white single-lensed goggles. The only unique thing about the outfit was the orange sleeveless jacket that he'd worn for about as long as Rivet knew him. (Which wasn't very long, mind you.)
She felt a tingling feeling start to travel up her legs, one she knew was from a lack of circulation. She uncrossed them and let them dangle over the edge of her perch, hoping to get some blood back into them and prevent them from going numb just before the next mission, as she knew that she'd never hear the end of it if she ended up falling flat on her face.
Rivet looked up across the alley, and took notice of the strange look MoyDoy had on his face; one that looked like combination of nervousness and barely-contained excitement.
"You okay there, MoyDoy?" She asked the Agorian in concern.
"Oh? Yeah... it's just... I'm about to meet an actual Commando!"
"You scared of a guy less than half your size?" Rivet said jokingly, to which MoyDoy laughed at. "What even is a "Commando" anyway?"
"Do ya' really not know?"
"Nope."
"Well, it's kinda hard to explain what a Commando is without tellin' ya' about their history. They're basically super-soldiers that used to serve in the United Polaris Army. They're well-known for goin' AWOL and fighting against the Polaris government and the army during the Great War." The Agorian explained, "No-one's seen one in years, not since Nef' went out of his way to wipe 'em off the face of the galaxy."
"The Great War? You mean the war where Polaris fought against Bogon with an army about ten times bigger than theirs, and somehow got destroyed by them anyway?" Rivet questioned.
"Yep. Bogon's army was no joke, let me tell ya'. Didn't help that the Commandoes were helpin' 'em too. Destroyed loads of things that were important to the Polaris Army, like the old gelatonium refineries on Jasindu, as well as killin' lots of important people in both the government and the army." MoyDoy explained. "With Bogon's help, they managed to more-or-less wipe the army and government out."
"Why would they do all that?"
"It was because didn't agree with the war, they believed it was only a ploy for the government to line their own pockets. That, and they had used the army to... let's say... subdue any of their own citizens that protested the war."
"Damn. Sounds like the Commandoes were pretty noble, then."
"Some would argue against that, but to each their own, I guess. When the war ended, they sort of became their own thing for a while, before they pretty much disappeared, 'cept for a few. The last Commando I ever heard of in Polaris was Captain Moonblade, a couple years before all of... this happened." The Agorian remarked as he gestured widely.
"How come you know so much about the Great War and the Commandoes, MoyDoy? Isn't the Holo-Net in this galaxy pretty much dead because of Nefarious?"
"I may have a book or two about them..." MoyDoy admitted, as he rubbed a hand on the back of his neck.
"I never took you for guy who's into reading."
"I thought the same, until I learned about some of the things the Commandoes did, like when Captain Moonblade took down an entire platoon of Polaris soldiers on his own!" The Agorian exclaimed excitedly. Rivet was smart enough to know that when a book was captivating enough to make MoyDoy of all people actually want to read it, chances were it was an interesting read.
MoyDoy himself seemed to correctly guess what she was thinking, "You can borrow it sometime if you want, ain't like it's getting any use from me by sitting in a box."
"Huh, Thanks. I might—" Whatever Rivet was about to say evaporated as her large ears picked up a distinct whooshing sound in the vicinity. Before she could ask the other rebels whether or not they could also hear it, a large dark figure landed on the ground in front of her, with a loud metallic thud that reverberated through the alley.
"GAAAHH!" Katzae yelped, as he leaped away from the sudden intruder.
Acting on the same battle-hardened instinct that's kept her alive all these years, Rivet summoned her trusty OmniHammer and leapt off the dumpster into the air towards the figure.
She heard Phantom and MoyDoy call her out, but she ignored it in the heat of the moment. She swung her hammer down towards the intruder, who quickly side-stepped the attack. Her hammer struck the ground with a loud bang, creating sparks in the process.
Not relenting in her assault, she immediately tried to swing the hammer upwards from the ground towards the figure's head, who deftly caught the handle with both hands. Before she could react to the grapple, her legs were suddenly swept out from underneath her, and she felt her OmniHammer slip out of her hand.
The Rebel Lombax landed on her back with a thud and let out a grunt. Before she could pick herself up, she felt the bottom of a boot hit her chest hard, knocking the wind out of her. Almost immediately after, she felt something cold and sharp poke into the front of her neck.
"You were fast, I'll give you that." A filtered masculine voice spoke, as Rivet looked up to see a double-edged blade protruding from the figure's left arm. Instead of seeing a face, her eyes met a blue-glowing crescent-shaped visor. "But... you telegraphed your intent. Made you easy to read."
Before she could think of a snarky reply, the blade retracted, and the man took his boot off her chest. His gloved hand reach down to offer her a hand up, which she hesitantly accepted, as she recognised the black and orange-striped armour from before.
Obsidian pulled her up to her feet with relative ease, and looked behind her towards Phantom. "Phantom, you should've warned me to look out for flying furballs!" He called out as he released the Lombax's hand.
"We weren't expecting you to be here so soon!" Phantom admitted, "And sorry about her, she can be a bit jumpy at times." Phantom replied to the man.
"Easily startled, huh?" Rivet heard the armoured man quietly mumble under his breath, as he looked back at her. "So, tell me, what's your name, Fluff?"
"It's Rivet, thank you." She sternly corrected as she went to retrieve her OmniHammer that she had lost during the brief scuffle.
"Eh, peculiar, but definitely not the weirdest name." The man replied, as he looked over to Katzae, who was in the middle of dusting himself off. "Hey, Kid, you going to tell me what your name is, or are you just going to stand there and gawk?"
"Why the fuck do you wanna know?" The Cazar spat out, clearly still upset from when he was almost used as a landing platform.
"I want to know, because I'm not going into a life-or-death situation without at least knowing the names of who I'm going to be entrusting with my life." The Commando spat back.
Katzae let out a hushed growl, "Katzae Vyrnix."
" That's what I wanted to hear." Obsidian responded, as he looked towards MoyDoy expectantly, which the Agorian began to look slightly nervous under the Commando's gaze.
"I-I'm M-MoyDoy, sir." The Agorian informed as he stood at attention.
"Alright, now that that's sorted, shouldn't we get started on destroying that factory?" The rebels wordlessly agreed, as MoyDoy retrieved his Agorian Warhammer and stowed it on his back. Phantom lead the group around the corner and towards the entrance of the alley, with Rivet following close behind. She was immediately on edge when the Commando retrieved a long gun from his back and racked something on it, which made a distinct ker-chunk in the process. The other rebels noticed, especially MoyDoy.
"Sir, if you don't mind me asking, is that a combustion-based gun?" the Agorian asked.
"If by "combustion-based", you mean "does it use gunpowder as a propellant", then yeah." The Commando answered. "And quit calling me "sir", will you? You're making me feel old."
"Sorry."
A combustion gun? Really? Where's this guy from, Solana? Rivet thought, as the group exited the alley and into the open. Thankfully, the area outside of the factories loading station looked almost abandoned, with no bots in sight to potentially alert the Troopers to their presence.
The rebels approached the large security gate connected to an orange force field fence that surrounded the exterior of the factory's loading yard. A force field like this one was pretty-much impenetrable, where even Phantom Dashing wouldn't allow you to pass through it. Thankfully, this fact was something the Emperor didn't yet know of.
One by one, the rebels Phantom-Dashed through the security gate and took cover on the other side behind some shipping crates. Rivet watched Obsidian disappear on the other side of the gate with a flash, before reappearing on her side with another flash. The group weaved through the tight walkways between the containers, and before long, they were close-enough to the factory's entrance.
Obsidian peaked around the container he and Katzae were behind, before retreating back behind it and looking across at Phantom, "Alright, there's two of them at the entrance. What's the plan, Phantom?"
The Rilgarian thought for a moment before continuing, "I'm gonna move up ahead and get as close to the entrance as I can, then I'll slip by when the shooting starts." Phantom explained. "MoyDoy, Rivet, you two get up close and personal and do your thing. Obsidian and Katzae, climb on top of the containers and cover them from above." The Rilgarian ordered.
After a mixture of 'got its' and 'okays', both the rebels and the Commando started getting into their respective positions. Rivet got down low and weaved in and out of the shipping crates, before getting down behind a stack of barrels. MoyDoy hid behind a shipping crate across from her, giving her a thumbs up, which she returned. Above and behind the both of them, she saw Obsidian and Katzae looking down at the both of them from afar on top of a shipping container.
"Alright gang, I'm ready when you are." She heard Phantom inform through her earpiece. Time for a bit of fun. The Rebel Lombax thought, as she nodded at MoyDoy to inform him that she was taking the first shot this time. The brand-new Warmonger that she had been saving for this moment materialised, and she felt the heft of the rocket launcher in her hands.
Rivet took aim at the right-hand Trooper stood at the entrance, which was looking at the other in conversation. Won't even see it coming. She squeezed the trigger, the Warmonger letting off a single rocket that flew towards the Trooper and hit it dead centre, sending it flying off it's feet to the ground. Body parts and pieces of armour were blown off instantly.
The other Trooper stared down dumbly at its wrecked counterpart on the ground, before it sounded the alarm. "Resistance alert! Resistance alert!"
She heard a loud wailing alarm activate, likely alerting every Trooper in the factory to their presence. On queue, Several more Troopers of different varieties emerged from the factory, ready to repel the sudden attack. "Release the Warmonger, Lombax!" One Trooper ordered.
Rivet felt the familiar surge of adrenaline in her veins, a sensation she had come to enjoy, and almost crave. It only intensified when she dodged a Trooper's laser by flipping out of the way, the laser burning a deep gash into the barrel she was behind only moments earlier.
"Hey, you missed me!" Rivet jeered, as she fired another rocket at the group of Troopers, obliterating the smaller ones and knocking back the bigger ones. The Troopers didn't even have a chance at getting their bearings when two more rockets hit them one after the other. The resulting heap of orange glass and white-painted metal on the ground just outside the factory entrance was a treat to her eyes.
As Rivet was about celebrate her small victory, another group of Troopers emerged from the alley, some of which were Sluggers. She tried to fire her Warmonger again, and instead of hearing a rocket taking off and immediately crashed into a Trooper, all she heard was the click of the rocket launcher's trigger.
She looked to where the ammunition was stored on the end of the gun, and saw a distinct lack of rockets. "Aww, damn it. Why'd I spend all my Raritanium upgrading my Blast Pistol?" The Lombax scolded herself after realising her mistake.
"Yer gettin' sloppy, Rivet!" MoyDoy yelled, as he charged a Slugger with his Warhammer and let out a battle cry. When they both met, the Trooper wound up one of its massive arms to 'punch' the Agorian. Unfortunately for him, said Agorian was faster. MoyDoy's Warhammer smashed into the Trooper in a wide side sweep, putting a sizeable dent into the side of its abdomen and sending it flying into another Trooper.
Before he could finish them both off, they were suddenly lit up with a spray of bullets, alongside a few shots of superheated plasma that burned and punched through their armour with relative ease. The sources proved to be Obsidian's machine gun and Katzae's Combustors respectively.
MoyDoy quickly brought his focus back to the other Troopers, with Rivet equipping her new Enforcer to help. She pulled the trigger all the way, firing two shots of plasma into a Trooper and knocking it onto its back. She repeated the action against two more Troopers, occasionally using her hammer on any smaller ones that got too close, while MoyDoy proved himself to be a deadly threat against any Trooper that thought otherwise.
Amidst the carnage, Rivet noticed a lone worker bot quickly entering the factory on the edge of her vision. A bot she knew was Phantom in his Hologuise. Her and MoyDoy continued their assault against the Troopers, dodging lasers and wrecking balls, giving a spectacular show to the Commando and the Cazar covering them from afar. Or namely, the Commando, for all that Katzae could do was stare down at the white Lombax, in absolute awe at the power she demonstrated.
"Huh, looks like they've got this taken care of." Obsidian remarked beside the Cazar, as he did a quick double-take to ensure that there was nothing behind them that they needed to be concerned about. Unfortunately, there were somethings to be concerned about, namely a group of Troopers that had suddenly appeared from different directions, all of which were rapidly approaching the security gate.
"Aw, shit! Kid, we got more of them behind us!" The Pilot warned, as he jumped across a few crates to get closer to the gate. He swapped his Spitfire for his MGL and expended the entire eight-round belt in four two-shot bursts, the magnetic grenades veering into and blowing up a quartet of smaller Troopers that had almost made it to the gate.
Daniel heard his helmet radio go off as he was in the process of reloading, "What's going on back there, guys!?" A feminine voice spoke.
He tossed an Arc Grenade to slow down another wave of large Troopers that had made it past the gate, the blast of electricity stunning some of them as he put two fingers to the radio on the side of his helmet. "There's Troopers behind us! Me and the kid can handle them, focus on your bunch!"
"Okay!"
The Commando narrowly dodged a Trooper's laser, then used his Jump Kit to periodically jump between the crates while he continued firing his MGL at the Troopers. Katzae had managed to catch up to the fight, and started firing upon them with his pair of Combustors. But the Troopers kept on piling through the gate, with some of them opting to fly over it entirely.
"Surrender while you still can, rebels!" One Trooper ordered just before it was met with a stream of bullets.
"Damn it, where do they keep coming from!?" Katzae asked no-one in particular. It was beginning to look like the Commando and the Cazar were going to be overwhelmed. Luckily, Cooper had just the thing to repel the sudden onslaught of Troopers. He lobbed another Arc Grenade at the group, stunning and staggering some of them. Just like Ms. Zurkon had taught him, he thought about which specific weapon he wanted out of his Holo-Arsenal, and a Shatterbomb Glove materialised over his right hand.
He wasted no time in lobbing out several bombs in the vicinity of the Troopers, either killing or dealing devastating damage to any Trooper that failed to dodge the incoming bomb, giving the Commando and the Cazar some much needed breathing room.
While he and Katzae were now doing a decent job at preventing the other Troopers from getting past the gate again, a Trooper that was similar in size, but looked mildly better armoured compared to the rest hovered above the fence at the same height as the Commando and the Cazar on top of the shipping crates. Cooper had just noticed it right as the magazine in his Spitfire ran dry, alongside the massive quadruple-barrelled guns it had for arms.
Katzae had noticed it too, a look of horror spreading across his face. "A Blitztrooper!? What the hell is one of those doing here!?" He exclaimed as said Blitztrooper raised and revved up both of its arms, giving them both an idea of what's to come.
"Prepare to die, squishies!"
The Blitztrooper opened fire, unleashing a sweeping storm of dense laser fire upon the both of them. Daniel instinctively activated his Cloak like he had done many times before, vanishing from view, then dropped down off of the crate he was standing mere moments before the many laser shots would have hit him.
Unfortunately for Katzae, he was not so lucky. Cooper watched the Cazar take a nasty fall from the top of the crate onto his side and curl into a ball, clutching at his left arm, right as a pair of small Troopers caught of to them. The Pilot quickly and smoothly drew his Smart Pistol and put a pair of guided rounds into each one, taking them out and causing him to abruptly reappear. He holstered the pistol and ran over to the injured rebel. "Kid, are you alright!?"
"It only a graze, I'm fine!" Katzae reassured through grit teeth. A small blue-glowing tube suddenly materialised into his right hand, which then popped off the top of said tube with his thumb before pouring the glowing substance onto his badly-burnt upper left arm. The substance appeared to permeate into the Cazar's arm, as the wound proceeded to heal up quickly. "That's gonna leave a mark." Katzae surmised.
Right as he was about to pick himself up, the Commando grabbed Katzae under the right arm with his free hand, and hoisted the Cazar to his feet. "Get up, then! We need to get to cover before that thing shows up and lights us up again!" Obsidian said as he reloaded his Spitfire and quickly retreated towards and crouched between a metal barrier and a shipping container.
Katzae was about to follow him, right as he got an idea. A Mine Glove materialised onto his left hand, which then fabricated a spiky ball into his palm. He placed one next to a stack of gelatonium barrels right next to a walkway that the incoming Troopers would likely take. He lobbed several more on the ground a little bit in front of the path, before taking cover behind the barrier beside the Commando.
"Kid, spread the fuck out." Obsidian ordered, "Do you not know anything about spacing?"
"Will you stop calling me 'kid'? I'm twenty years old!" Katzae replied vehemently.
"That makes you younger than me, so you're still a kid." The Commando replied. "Now fucking move already!"
The Cazar did as he was told, crouch-walking to the other end of the metal barrier. Daniel heard him mumble something under his breath. Teenagers. The Pilot thought to himself, recalling the time when he was a narky teen. He suddenly heard multiple loud and metallic thumps quickly approaching, and got his MGL ready over the barrier in response.
A few seconds later, a trio of Troopers rounded the corner by the stack of gelatonium, with one stepping just a bit too close to the mine laid there by Katzae, the effect being almost instantaneous. The mine detonated, sending heated spikes into every direction including a few gelatonium barrels. This resulted in an explosion that blew all three Troopers to kingdom come. Flaming gelatonium coated the surrounding area of the improvised bomb, some smoke arising from said bomb, and some falling just short of the Pilot's and Cazar's cover.
"How'd that feel, you bunch of oversized tin cans!?" Katzae yelled at the deceased warbots. He noticed his mines had also been covered in the flaming green fuel. "Uh oh."
Said mines detonated, with flaming spikes narrowly missing the heads of both Obsidian and Katzae, then embedding themselves into the container behind them both before quickly burning out. A few seconds of uncomfortable silence passed, with Obsidian sending a sharp glare towards the Cazar through his blue-glowing visor. "Sorry." Katzae meekly apologised.
The Commando heard more Troopers approaching, "Eyes up, here's more of them!" He informed as more Troopers rounded another pathway to their right. Getting his MGL to bear again, and unleash two bursts magnetic grenades upon the Trooper in the front of the group. The grenades veered towards and detonated on impact with their target's upper abdomen, stripping armour and evacuating wiring and other vital components from the Trooper's body, before it fell dead.
Daniel ducked back down behind his barrier mere moments before a Trooper's sweeping laser hit him, burning a deep gash into his cover and the crate behind him before it met its end at the hands of his MGL.
Suddenly, some Sluggers appeared from both pathways, rushing towards the pair. Cooper swapped back to his Spitfire and held the LMG's trigger down on the group to his right, while Katzae fired both of his Combustors as fast as he could at the group coming from the left.
"Ceasefire, squishies!" One Trooper ordered.
"How cowardly to hide behind cover!"
The Commando and Cazar ignored the Troopers, slowly but surely whittling them down one by one. With the near constant fire on their behalf, any Trooper that managed to get close to their position was swiftly cut down.
While he was in the midst of reloading, Cooper spotted the Blitztrooper making its return on top the containers directly in front of himself and Katzae. He pulled out his last Arc Grenade and threw it in between the two groups of Troopers, the electricity arcing to both groups and finishing off the weaker ones while stunning the rest.
The Commando summoned his Burst Pistol into his right hand, "Kid, it's back! Light it the fuck up!" The Commando ordered while he took aim with the acid-firing pistol.
"Would you stop calling me that!?" The Cazar rebel replied as he brought both his Combustors to bear against the Blitztrooper up above as it revved up its guns again.
"Let's try that again: Prepare to d-AAHHH!"
The rapid-fire shots of acid and superheated plasma proved to be too much for the Blitztrooper to handle, as armour and other extremities melted off, and the machine fell backwards off of the top of the container.
By then the other Troopers had recovered from the blast of electricity, with Daniel and Katzae returning their attention to them. Another minute or so passed with a close shave against a laser here and there, the Commando and Cazar looked at the burnt and shredded piles of metal left in their wake, having seemingly dealt with all of the flanking Troopers.
"That all of them?" Obsidian's filtered voice remarked.
"I hope so." Katzae replied. "I never had to fight so many Troopers for so long before..."
Of course I end up with the kid with fuck all combat experience. Cooper thought to himself as he pulled out his communicator and pressed one of the side buttons. "MoyDoy, Rivet, do you copy?"
"I hear ya Obsidian!" MoyDoy replied presumably from his communicator, "Me and Rivet are just finishin' off the last of the—"
"Initiating rocket barrage!"
"OH SHIT!"
MoyDoy was cut off by a sudden cascade of blue explosions, that lit up the other side of the factory's loading yard.
"That doesn't look good." Daniel spoke blankly.
"You think!?" Katzae replied, "There's only one thing that does that, and I'm not going anywhere near it!"
"Suit yourself then, kid. Stay out of the way and try not to get yourself killed."
Before Katzae could reply, Daniel took off at a sprint, leaping onto and wall running on the side of some containers, towards where he saw the other two rebels last. He jumped across to and wallran on another container, before using his Jump Kit to propel him onto the top of the containers.
Then he saw it; a massive white and black warbot that dwarfed the other Troopers, hovering in front of the factory's entrance. It left an epicentre of destruction in its wake; shipping containers blown open, craters and scorch marks left in the metal ground, alongside the broken and destroyed Troopers. There he noticed something lying on said ground, a something with white fur.
The machine raised one of its equally massive arms and pointed it at the downed and wounded rebel, with then started to glow blue. "The Emperor will be so pleased when he learns that I neutralised the Lombax!"
Cooper subconsciously brought his Spitfire to his shoulder, exhaled the breath he didn't realise he was holding, took aim at the warbot, and fired. The LMG immediately kicked back into his shoulder at a rapid succession with its distinct chuck-chuck-chuck sound filling his ears, as it endlessly ejected spent cartridges.
The rounds uselessly pinged off of the warbot's thick armour plating, doing little more than being an annoyance. However, it did get its attention. It stopped its attack on the Lombax to glance up at the Commando currently scratching its hull.
"A new rebel? How delightful!"
The warbot raised its arms again in Daniel's direction and unleashed a barrage of blue-glowing rockets into the sky, with then redirected their course and quickly flew downwards to the Commando.
Oh man, I wish BT was here right now. Cooper thought.
——————————
It was times like this, that made Rivet hate getting blindsided. While she and MoyDoy were busy taking out Troopers, a Juggernaut had appeared out of nowhere and taken them by surprise, firing a cluster of energy rockets at the both of them, sending Rivet herself flying into a container. As for what happened to the Agorian, she had no idea.
And there she lied, dazed and disoriented, helpless on the ground. The massive warbot was taking glee that it was going to be the one to finally end her. Until it wasn't. A series of bangs, loud enough for Rivet to mistake for small explosions suddenly erupted in her ears, then she looked up to see bullets pinging off of the Juggernaut's armour, with the warbot looking at something in the distance, before taking aim and firing another barrage.
She wasted no time in taking advantage of the opportunity to escape the Juggernaut's clutches. Fighting through the pain, she forced herself up and ran down a narrow pathway in between some crates. After a few moments of painful running, she stopped, put her back up against a crate and pulled the communicator off her belt.
"Phantom!" Rivet loudly whispered between pained breaths, "I hope you're nearly done in there, because there's a fucking Juggernaut out here!"
"I'm working on it, just hold out for a little while longer!" The Rilgarian replied, much to Rivet's frustration.
"That's easy for you to say, you're not getting killed out here!"
"You will not escape me, rebel!"
Rivet's breath hitched in her throat, she stood completely still and dared not move, because only Zoni would be able to help her if she was heard by the Juggernaut. She tried to listen closely to get an idea of where it might be located, but the sound of her heart pounding in her ears made the task nearly impossible.
Though, she clearly heard a pair thu-thunk! Sounds through her heart's fast thumping, which were followed by a quartet of small explosions.
"Ow! You will regret that, new rebel!" The Juggernaut promised, as she heard the sound of the Juggernaut's Plasmatic Crash Beam being fired. Rivet risked a peak around the corner of the crate, and saw the Juggernaut facing away from her, picking up and throwing around some crates in its search for the "new rebel".
While its back was turned, Rivet quickly left the crate she was hiding behind in favour of a few much larger containers close by. Once she had herself safely hidden behind one, she produced a vial of Nanotech from her Holo-Manager, popped off the cap and downed it in one go. She cringed at the taste, despite her many experiences with the near-universal remedy. Almost immediately, the pain she felt faded away, and she could feel herself breathing easier.
She pulled her communicator out again with the intention of contacting the resistance's brawler. "MoyDoy, are you okay?" She asked her fellow rebel, only to get static in response. "MoyDoy, just say something - anything if you can hear me!" Rivet heard static again. That was a bad sign, to say the least. But she knew the Agorian was tough, really tough. She'd seen him tank hits like they were nothing, though it did little to ease the pit forming in her stomach.
Rivet's excellent hearing picked up a faint electronic buzzing sound within her immediate vicinity, one she didn't recognise. She looked around for what could be the source, and let out a yelp when Obsidian suddenly appeared beside her.
"Where the hell did you come from!?"
"Quiet!" The Commando ordered, as he put his hand over the Lombax's mouth, and removed it once she had gotten the point. "Where's Phantom?"
"He's still in the factory." Rivet whispered back.
"Perfect." Obsidian said sarcastically, "Okay, tell me, what are you supposed to do against one of these things, run or fight?"
"Run, obviously! But Phantom's still in—"
"He's got that disguise thing. He should be fine, right? What's stopping all of us from just getting the hell out of here?"
"Hologuises don't really work on Juggernauts for some reason." Rivet clarified. "We can't just leave him behind!"
Obsidian paused for a moment before he continued, "Alright, that means we have to destroy it, here and now."
"How the hell are we supposed to do that!?"
"Where did you go, squishies?" The Juggernaut boomed.
"How about that rocket launcher of yours? That shredded through the Troopers just fine, didn't it?" Obsidian suggested.
"It's out of ammo..."
"Of course..." The Commando muttered quietly.
"Come out, squishies! The Emperor demands your blood!" The Juggernaut boomed again. This time however, it sounded close. The Commando and Lombax both leaped away from the crate mere seconds before the Juggernaut whacked the container away with a blow from one of its massive fists, revealing them both to the warbot.
Rivet quickly picked herself up and Obsidian did the same, as he flicked his wrist, shimmered for a few seconds and then completely disappeared. "What the—" She was interrupted by the Juggernaut, when it tried to slam an arm down on top of her, which she dodged with a backflip. The front of the Juggernaut's abdomen split open to reveal an orange capacitor that then started to glow purple; a warning sign she immediately recognised. She used her Omniglove to Phantom Dash through the Crash Beam when it fired, avoiding what would have no-doubt been a lethal blow if it weren't for Phantom's tech.
Rivet heard her earpiece come to life, and heard the Commando's filtered voice come through. "Rivet! I can see some of those flammable green barrels just south of where you are, try and lure it to them!" Though she couldn't immediately verbally acknowledge the idea, she knew exactly what he was referring to: Gelatonium barrels. Something that might actually put a dent into that warbot.
"How do I get to them!?" Rivet asked as she dodged a swing from the Juggernaut.
"Go straight through the gap in those containers to your left!"
She looked to her left, and sure enough, there was a small gap between a set of containers. She continued evading the Juggernaut's blows while trying to put some space between it and herself.
"Please stand still, you are making it unnecessarily difficult to destroy you!"
"Oh, is that so? Maybe you should work a little harder!" Rivet taunted the Juggernaut, as she took advantage of an opening and sprinted away, squeezing through the small gap between the containers. The Juggernaut smashed them out of the way a few moments later and giving chase.
She materialised her Blast Pistol and fired off a couple of shots behind her as she ran. As expected, the acid rounds did little more than irritate the Juggernaut and give its Raritanium armour some mild and harmless burn marks.
"Take a right!"
She did exactly as she was told, taking a sharp right turn upon hearing Obsidian's order.
"Now left!"
A left turn later, and Rivet turned onto a wide pathway that would be wide enough for at least two Juggernauts to hover side-by-side within it.
"Now just keep going down that path until you get past the barrels, I'll shoot them once it gets close enough!"
"You better not miss!"
"Give up, rebel! Resistance is futile!" The Juggernaut bellowed, as it fired another barrage of rockets at the Lombax. This time however, she was ready for them, and with some Phantom Dashes alongside some impressive acrobatics in the form of various flips on her part, Rivet was able to dodge the rockets with only a few close calls.
Everything seemed to be going smoothly, until Rivet saw the Juggernaut leap into the air towards her. She dove to the side and narrowly avoided being crushed by the warbot in the process. Rivet quickly recovered and continued running, while dodging rockets and Crash Beams alike. Despite Juggernauts being by far the slowest class of Trooper, it was still managing to keep up with her.
Suddenly, blue-glowing rockets flew over Rivet and hit a stack of containers on either side of the pathway, sending a few of them crashing to the ground below and blocking the path ahead of her, as she quickly slid to a stop.
"There is nowhere left to run, Lombax!" The warbot declared. "Give up now so I can make your death slow and painful!"
Rivet turned around and faced the Juggernaut, which already had both its arms primed and ready to launch another volley at slightest provocation. She noticed the mild green glow of some Gelatonium barrels stacked into a few crates behind a container to her right, about halfway between herself and the now slowly approaching warbot. Rivet knew exactly what she needed to do. She slowly raised both her hands into the air, feigning a surrender.
"That's a good Lombax..." The Juggernaut began, "Do you have any last—"
BOOM!
The Gelatonium barrels all burst in a sudden and catastrophic explosion, that completely engulfed the Juggernaut in flaming fuel and smoke, the blast knocking Rivet to the ground and onto her back. She looked up and for a moment, it seemed that Obsidian's plan might have worked. But, to her horror, the Juggernaut emerged from the smoke, albeit covered in scorch marks and black soot, turning the previously mostly white war machine almost completely black as a result.
"I can get that repaired. Unfortunately for you, rebel, you cannot."
She noticed movement on top of one of the containers to the left of the battered Juggernaut, right before the multiple bright flashes and loud bangs of automatic gunfire erupted. The rounds shattered the Juggernaut's orange glass dome of a head to pieces, and one eye was completely destroyed by the stream of gunfire. The Juggernaut immediately realised where it was suddenly being attacked from, and it turned to locate the threat.
Rivet saw the opportunity and materialised her Blast Pistol while she was still lying on the ground. She carefully aimed the weapon right between the warbot's two remaining eyes and pulled the trigger all the way back, causing all three of her Blast Pistol's barrels to fire simultaneously, with the middle shot flying between her intended targets while the other two hit an eye each. The effect was immediate, with the acid rounds melting into the eyes and damaging them irreparably, effectively blinding the Juggernaut.
"No! My optical systems are compromised!" The Juggernaut exclaimed in a slightly panicked tone, as it fired another crash beam in the general direction of the where the cascade of gunfire was originating from. Rivet spotted a brief and somewhat bright flash on the top of the container just before the purple energy beam closed in. Then, another flash happened, with Obsidian suddenly appearing from it into the air and landing onto the Juggernaut's shoulder. He quickly climbed over the armour plate and firmly grasped onto the rim of the Juggernaut's damaged head with one hand, the other holding a Burst Pistol.
The Commando pointed the barrel of said pistol down into the centre of its head, where the warbot's eye stalks were connected into the main body of the machine, and then started unloading the magazine into it. Immediately as a result, the Juggernaut started to thrash around and fire rockets indiscriminately in all directions, causing Rivet to instinctively shield herself with her arms.
After a few seconds of chaos, the explosions died down. Rivet heard a loud crash followed by a smaller thud. She looked up again to see the Juggernaut lying motionless on the ground, with green acid and other fluids oozing out of what remained of its head. She lied back down on the cold ground, bringing her eyes back to the bleak Corsonian sky, thankful that the ordeal was over.
"You still alive, Furball?"
Rivet watched the source of the familiar filtered voice cross onto the edge of her vision, and gaze down at her. "Yeah, I'm good. That was kinda cool..." Rivet replied softly while still looking at the cloudy sky.
"That's twice I've saved your ass now." The Commando informed as reached out to offer her a hand up, which unlike last time, she eagerly took.
She released the Commando's hand as she suddenly heard heavy footsteps approaching. She looked towards the source and was thankful to see a familiar large, pink-skinned individual running down towards herself and Obsidian.
"Hey! are you guys okay!?" MoyDoy called out, as he came to a stop beside the two.
"Yeah, we're fine!" Rivet replied. She noticed how he was covered almost head to toe in cuts and bruises, (As was expected with his brawler's style of fighting) but was surprised that they were the only things in terms of injuries present on the Agorian. "What happened to you?"
"I don't know. All I can remember is waking up underneath some sheet metal and seeing the Juggernaut firing rockets all over the place." He let out a low groan and put one of his hands to the side of his head, "I think I might've hit my head or somethin'; it's killin' me."
"Use your Nanotech, MoyDoy." Rivet said sternly. She knew that MoyDoy had a habit of deliberately not using Nanotech on his wounds, so he would get more scars and by his logic, "look tougher".
The Agorian in question replied like a child being reminded by his mother to take out the trash, "Yeah, yeah, I know." MoyDoy assured as he materialised a vial of the glowing substance and drank it down without so much as a slight cringe, before disposing of the leftover vial.
"Is your communicator working alright? I tried to ask you where you were, but I got nothing."
"Yeah, about that..." MoyDoy produced his communicator, which looked to Rivet like it had just been stepped on by a Grunthor.
"How'd you manage that?"
"I have no idea. That's the third one I've broken now, Phantom ain't gonna be happy..." MoyDoy muttered, "Wait... Where's Katzae?" He added as he looked back at Rivet and then towards Obsidian.
"I'm here."
The trio looked over to the Cazar in question, who had suddenly appeared behind Obsidian and Rivet.
"Where have you been? We could've used your damn help, you know!" Rivet angrily said to Katzae, who shrunk back at her outburst.
"To be fair on the kid, I don't think a pair of pistols would've been much, if any help with that thing." Obsidian interjected. "Him getting involved would've only made things harder for us."
Rivet found it hard to disagree with the Commando's point, but didn't really make her feel much better about the Cazar's actions, or lack thereof.
"And where the hell is Phantom?" Obsidian continued, "He couldn't still be—"
KABOOOOM!!!
The group immediately flinched at the deafening explosions that had just taken place. They collectively looked on at the warship factory in the background, now engulfed in flames and smoke. The Rilgarian in question strode forward from between some crates while dusting off his hands in a job well-done, before noticing the stares being given to him by the rebels and the Commando. "What?"
"Took you long enough. Now, isn't it time you upheld your part of the deal?" Obsidian said.
"Of Course! A deal's a deal, after all." Phantom replied. "Do you have it with you?" He said somewhat cryptically.
"No, its in my ship back at that safe zone you told me about. I couldn't risk getting it even more damaged than it already is." The Commando explained.
"Alright." Phantom replied, before looking back at Rivet, "Rivet, meet Obsidian back at the warehouse safe-zone near here and see about fixing his module for him."
"Yeah, sure." She replied nonchalantly.
"Okay. You all know the drill gang; split up and make sure you're not followed back to your safe-zone." Phantom ordered, and the group of rebels began to disperse, with each one of them going their own route, Rivet included. She was about to backtrack to the entrance of the loading yard, when she noticed Obsidian running straight towards the energy fence.
Confused on what he was doing, Rivet watched him suddenly jump up onto the side of the containers with the assistance of some sort of jetpack, wall run on it similarly to how she and the other rebels often did with their Omnigloves, then leap over the energy fence entirely.
It was at that point the Rivet realised, with his apparent ability to vanish and reappear at will, the prowess he demonstrated against the Juggernaut and his rather unique method of traversal, that there was more to Obsidian than what meets the eye.
——————————
Daniel parkoured efficiently through the city, opting to stay high above any Troopers that might have patrolled below him, after taking into consideration how dangerously low he was running on reserve ammo. He periodically used his Grapple in conjunction with a well-timed boost from his Jump Kit, to allow him to cross the open spaces that his Jump Kit alone wouldn't allow.
"BT, it's done, the factory's dealt with." Daniel informed the Vanguard-Class Titan through his helmet radio, "I'm going to meet one of Phantom's buddies back at the warehouse, so she can fix the module for us."
"Understood, Pilot. You performed well during the engagement, and also demonstrated the ability to make informed decisions quickly. Your personal combat efficiency rating has increased." BT responded.
Cooper continued to maintain his current elevation where he could, easily avoiding some Troopers in the process, as it seemed that even so (presumably) far away from home, people still didn't look up, which was all the better for him. Before he knew it, he'd made it to the roof of the warehouse he'd initially arrived at. He dropped down through a broken skylight onto some rafters, confirmed the interior was secure, then dropped to the ground below.
He entered the army-green and yellow Crow and retrieved the Central Processing Module from the duffle bag, and found it was still just as heavily damaged as he'd left it. I'll be very impressed if she can fix this . Daniel thought, as he placed the module back into the bag, and sat himself down on one of the seats in his ship's troop bay. Once the weight was taken off his legs, he felt a familiar fatigue begin to set in.
There was a feeling of slight emptiness within his stomach, which was followed by a low rumble, which Cooper knew was the reason behind the sudden fatigue he was experiencing. After all, he'd experienced it throughout the majority of the time he spent on Typhon. The Pilot let out a sigh, "That's what happens when you run on fumes, Coop..." Daniel reprimanded himself as he reached into the satchel on his left side, retrieved a nutrient bar and opened the visor on his helmet with the push of a button. It didn't do much to alleviate his hunger, but it would tide him over for now. I gotta get some actual food when this is all done. He thought.
Speaking of which, if himself and BT were able to get the Braxton's communications system working again and send out the distress signal to the Militia, how long would it take for them to receive it? He remembered when they used the IMC's Interstellar Beacon to send a distress signal on Typhon, it only took mere seconds for Militia HQ to receive it, despite how it took nearly an hour or two to travel to the planet from Harmony. Though, he knew that the Braxton's communications system would pale in comparison to the Beacon. That, and they were certainly in different galaxy now.
Even if by some miracle, that they were only in the next galaxy over, the likelihood of rescue at this point was still extremely low. It could take months, or even possibly years before they'd get something as simple as a response. Daniel noticed his heartrate spiking in his HUD, put his hands on either side of his head (or helmet, you could say) and took several deep breaths to regulate it. Take it easy, man. You're only getting yourself worked up. The only way you'll know for sure is if you try.
After the initial anxiousness when he arrived at Zurkie's, Daniel was remarkably calm about his current situation, which could be chalked up to his years of combat experience that trained him to stay calm in stressful situations. Speaking of which, he never ever thought he'd live long enough to meet and speak with a sentient lifeform that wasn't a member of his own kind. That was literally First Contact, and... Ok, maybe it wasn't really First Contact, considering it was just himself, but the point still stood.
He was in the middle of taking a swig from his water canteen when his thoughts were interrupted by the echoed creek of a door being opened. He looked towards the other end of the warehouse, to see a familiar white and blue-furred alien entering through the door in question. He put his canteen away and closed the visor on his helmet, as Rivet walked over to his Crow.
"Nice ship." She stated nonchalantly, as she poked her head in through the open side door and leaned against the doorframe. "Look, I have somewhere I need to be, so I'd appreciate if we could do this quickly."
"Fair enough." Daniel replied, as he produced the Central Processing Module from the duffle bag on the floor of the troop bay, and handed it to the Lombax. She inspected it closely, taking in every minute detail. The Pilot noticed Rivet furrow her eyebrows together, which was something he did not like the look of due to what it could mean regarding the module's reparability. "Well, can you fix it?"
She looked back up to meet the Commando's gaze, whilst keeping a careful grip on the yellow triangular-shaped module in her hands. "Of course I can." She reassured confidently, "Might need a day or two though, I've never seen tech like this..." She resumed her inspection of said technology, before she quickly looked back up at him. "I'll need to bring it back to my place where all my tools are, is that okay?"
While he wasn't exactly pleased to hear that he wouldn't be getting the Braxton's communications system working again today, at least Rivet would be able to fix it. "Sure, do whatever you need to do." Daniel confirmed with a nod.
Rivet nodded back, "That settles it, then. I'll let you know when I have it working." She informed, as she stepped out of the Crow, quickly walked over to a switch on the wall and pushed one of the buttons. Subsequently, the hanger door at the end of the warehouse began to slowly slide open, as she returned to the white and orange ship parked near his own. Its orange glass front split open into three separate pieces, with a pair of seats lowering to the ground, which she then climbed into.
After a few moments, the ship's rear split into three separate pieces, revealing a single large thruster that then visibly powered up. The ship then took off at a considerable speed, with the result of the sudden increase in power from the thruster sending several pieces of junk on the ground flying backwards. After a few seconds, the ship left the warehouse and disappeared into the dark sky with a flash.
As for Cooper, he realised that there was no reason to linger on this planet any longer, and he too left the heart of the Nefarious Empire.
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I hope this chapter was worth the wait! If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a review! I'll try my best to give an answer, as long as I don't need to spoil anything in the process!
