The Apogee Space Station is a location in Tools of Destruction and the comic series. It is located in the Nundac Asteroid Ring, in the Cerullean Sector of the Polaris Galaxy. The base is the home of Talwyn Apogee, Cronk, and Zephyr. The station was used by Max Apogee as a research and testing facility before he disappeared. The base is defended by large Apogee Defense Turrets on the outside. The ring was formerly under the control of the Great Cragmite Empire.
Ratchet and Clank came to the Apogee Space Station after Captain Qwark revealed to them that Emperor Tachyon targeted it as a potential location of the Lombax Secret. When Ratchet was recognized as a lombax, he befriended Talwyn and her war bots. The station later became a base of operations when Artemis Zogg abducted planets throughout the universe.
History[]
Before Tools of Destruction[]
The Nundac Asteroid Ring was cragmite territory during the Great War.[1]
At some point, Max Apogee built a space fortress amongst the asteroid belt.[2]
Years prior to Tools of Destruction, space pirates raided the Apogee Space Station, taking the Lombax artifact containing directions to the hiding place of the Dimensionator. Max Apogee followed them, but did not return,[3] instead leaving the dimension with Angela Cross.[4]
Tools of Destruction[]
Ratchet and Clank being greeted by the Smuggler.
Emperor Tachyon's spies identified the Apogee Space Station as a potential location of the Dimensionator. Tachyon filmed a recruiting video involving Captain Qwark, which Qwark passed onto Ratchet and Clank via an infobot after they participated in the Imperial Fight Festival on Mukow.[5]
Upon getting to the station, Ratchet and Clank found the Smuggler, who had come in search of leviathan souls to sell to the pirates on Ardolis. With no place to land on the station from the asteroid belt, the Smuggler issued "Make a Trade with the Smuggler": he agreed to give them the launch code to a shuttle that could reach it in exchange for three souls.[6] The two returned with three and used the shuttle to reach the Sigma-3 Maintenance Hub, where they navigated the gravity cube below the station to enter.[7] They also sold additional souls to the Smuggler in "Sell Your Souls".
Ratchet and Clank meeting Talwyn, Cronk, and Zephyr.
Inside, in "Search the Station" Cronk and Zephyr identified Ratchet and Clank as threats, deploying defenses to stop them. After breaching the defenses, the Zoni appeared to Clank to provide him the Geo-Laser, allowing them to break through a wall to the inner sanctum. There, the two met the war bots along with Talwyn. The group then resolved to travel to Ardolis in search of the Dimensionator.[3]
Ratchet after Clank is taken away.
After Emperor Tachyon was defeated, Ratchet, Clank, Talwyn, Cronk, Zephyr, Rusty Pete, and Qwark celebrated at the Apogee Space Station. Their celebration was cut short when the Zoni appeared and took Clank away.[8]
Comic series[]
Talwyn Apogee often used the shooting range on the station to blow off steam. A year prior to Lost and Spaced, while using the Alpha Disruptor, she accidentally hit the gravity generator behind the range's wall, causing her, Cronk, and Zephyr to float in zero gravity for two days until terachnoids repaired it.[9]
During Artemis Zogg's expansion of the Artemis Galaxy via the Helios Project, one of the planets stolen was Igliak. In response, Talwyn offered the Apogee Space Station to the Polaris government as a command post, where President Qwark remained. After Cronk and Zephyr reported in a week prior to Lost and Spaced, the Polaris Defense Force and the Solana Galaxy's government mobilized, with the Galactic Rangers and Sasha Phyronix operating from the station.[10]
The group devised a plan to steal the Surinox Shard, which powered the Helios Project, to return the stolen planets to their original locations. In Multiple Organisms, while Ratchet and Clank went off to steal the shard, Qwark and Zephyr attempted to rebuild a project under Al's remote guidance. However, after Al's unhelpful remarks, they gave up and sought help from the terachnoids, who were busy locating the planets' new coordinates.[11]
In Bros Before Foes, Ratchet and Clank returned to the Apogee Space Station with the Surinox Shard, but were still unable to relocate the planets. Zogg then arrived in an escape pod with a hostage, Talwyn, and his assistant Vorn Garblak, who had memorized the coordinates.[12] Zogg unleashed Zurkon forces to attack the group, while the Rangers and Sasha fought them off. Meanwhile, Ratchet, Vorn, and Talwyn escaped through the aqueduct, nearly drowning before being rescued by the Plumber, who advised them not to swim there.[13] Qwark, docked on his ship at the station,[14] saw Zogg eventually defeated.[15] Ratchet and Clank then stayed behind in Polaris to help Talwyn repair the space station.[16]
Location[]
Map layout of the Nundac Asteroid Ring.
The Nundac Asteroid Ring is a collection of large and small asteroids surrounding the Apogee Space Station. It is a basilisk breeding ground with Cerullean wildlife that is also seen in the swamps of Cobalia. It has many smaller raritanium crystals spread around various asteroids, and some small gel sources on the Delta asteroids. It is navigated using teleporter cannons.
Structure[]
Map layout of the Apogee Space Station.
The Apogee Space Station is a vast complex that serves both as an oasis and a fortress. The station has multiple terrariums inside containing various vegetation. The primary one where Talwyn lives is located in the center, with an aqueduct resembling a lake leading into it. Other areas seen through windows include a grassland with ancient statues and buildings, a tropical forest with buildings in the trees, a forest with red vegetation and a lake, a mountainous waterfall area, a desert with a large building, and an underwater base.
The interior of the station is guarded by Thermosplitters and Fusion Turrets.
Below Apogee Space Station is the Sigma-3 Maintenance Hub. The primary maintenance grid for the station, it is a gravity cube that powers a Sigma-3 Gravity Simulator with protomorphic ionization synthesizers.[3]
Citations[]
- ↑ Tools of Destruction script § "Make a Trade with the Smuggler (gameplay)"
- ↑ Tools of Destruction menu § "Nundac Asteroid Ring"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Tools of Destruction script § "Search the Station (gameplay)"
- ↑ A Crack in Time script § "Angela Cross"
- ↑ Tools of Destruction script § "All That and Travel Too?"
- ↑ Tools of Destruction script § "Get to the Space Station (gameplay)"
- ↑ Tools of Destruction script § "Navigate the Gravity Cube (gameplay)"
- ↑ Tools of Destruction script § "I'm Gonna Need More Grog"
- ↑ Lost and Spaced, p. 21
- ↑ Lost and Spaced, p. 4
- ↑ Multiple Organisms, p. 4
- ↑ Bros Before Foes, p. 6
- ↑ Bros Before Foes, p. 7-10
- ↑ Bros Before Foes, p. 11
- ↑ Bros Before Foes, p. 18
- ↑ Bros Before Foes, p. 19
References[]
- Video games
- Insomniac Games (2007). Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction [Game]. Sony Computer Entertainment. PlayStation 3.
- Bibliography
- Fixman, TJ (2010). Ratchet & Clank (Issue 3: Lost and Spaced) [Book]. Wild Storm.
- Fixman, TJ (2011). Ratchet & Clank (Issue 5: Multiple Organisms) [Book]. Wild Storm.
- Fixman, TJ (2011). Ratchet & Clank (Issue 6: Bros Before Foes) [Book]. Wild Storm.