The Deep Space Disposal Facility is a location in the Bogon Galaxy featured in Going Commando. It is a large, spherical space station located in the Hrugis Cloud and close to a blue star, owned and operated by Megacorp. It was used to dispose all of its unwanted waste, and is guarded by hover turrets, with repair drones used for maintenance.
Ratchet and Clank visited the facility after asking to meet Abercrombie Fizzwidget there. He agreed to meet them, and gave them a password. On inputting it, they were attacked by the defense turrets, and had to destroy them. Fizzwidget then gave them a commercial for a tour of the Megacorp Armory on Todano, with coordinates to it, and did not address their issue.
The player controls Ratchet's ship, the Star Explorer during the entire visit to the Deep Space Disposal Facility. As with most space combat locations in Going Commando, several challenges are available.
History[]
Megacorp scientist Dr. James T. Fullbladder recommended that the Protopet, known then as "experiment number 13", be destroyed at the Deep Space Disposal Facility, due to its apparently incurable violent tendencies.[1] The Protopet was not destroyed, as Qwark, then disguised as Abercrombie Fizzwidget, fully intended to produce and market the Protopet as a killer to cause a crisis, so that he could then save the galaxy to restore his damaged reputation as a hero.
After seeing Dr. Fullbladder's report in the testing facility on Dobbo, Ratchet and Clank contacted Mr. Fizzwidget to warn him, unaware that the Fizzwidget they were speaking to was Qwark. Qwark appeared to be completely aloof, and gave them a false password, "Qwarktastic".[1]
The facility defenses attacking the Star Explorer.
When Ratchet and Clank arrived, and input the password, the hover turret defenses attacked them. In "Disable the Disposal Facility's defenses", they destroyed the defenses in their Star Explorer, after which they contacted Qwark again, protesting that the password had failed. Qwark met them, and once again pretended to be completely aloof, suggesting that the password changed depending on the day. He then gave told them that he had appeared in a commercial for a tour of the Megacorp Armory on planet Todano, and showcased it to them.[2]
The space station was later attacked by saboteurs, and a virus infected the repair drones, causing them to go berserk. After stopping this, Ratchet raced Ace Bunyon again.
Design[]
The interior of the space station.
The Deep Space Disposal Facility is a large spherical space station with an exterior of translucent, triangular green windows covered with red and yellow lights. Two large rings effectively bisect the sphere on the horizontal and vertical axis, both of which are visible on the in and outside of the station. The horizontal ring can be flown through as well, but otherwise the interior is entirely hollow, save for the random debris and a large device located in the center of the station. The massive cylindrical device, with white and red plating, rotates on its own axis.
The debris, consisting mostly of broken parts of space ships such as canisters and satellite dishes, floats from the horizontal ring to the center of the space station, and is sucked into the top of the core and destroyed. Despite the debris being destroyed when it enters, it is possible to fly through the narrow hole at the top and bottom of the core unharmed, inside of which lights will flash, but no damage will be done to the Star Explorer. During "Take out the Saboteurs", the core has sixteen red spherical power receptors connected to it by a beam of electricity, all sixteen of which are vulnerable.
Around the horizontal ring are six ports from which repair drones are released. Inside the ring are a few square windows on the outside, large wires around the space station, and blue tubes connected to the ports from which repair drones are released.
Space combat challenges[]
Each challenge's reward gets multiplied by 0.33 and then rounded up or down to a number ending in either 00, 25, 50 or 75, with a minimum limit of 500 bolts per challenge.
| Challenge | Description | Prizes in bolts | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First | Second | Third | ||
| Disable Disposal Facility's Defenses | Your password didn't work, and now the disposal facility's defenses are attacking you! Destroy them before they destroy you. | Coordinates for Megacorp Armory, Todano | 2,900 | 900 |
| Take out the Saboteurs | Saboteurs have attacked the disposal facility, and are destroying its power receptors. Stop them before they take them all out. | 9,000 | 3,000 | 1,000 |
| Destroy the Berserk Repair Drones | A virus has infected the repair drones, and they've gone berserk! Destroy them before your ship gets torn apart by their lasers... | 10,000 | 3,250 | 1,100 |
| Race Through the Disposal Facility | Ace Bunyon, one of the galaxy's premiere space racers, has challenged you to a race through the disposal facility. | 11,000 | 3,650 | 1,200 |
Disable Disposal Facility's Defenses[]
This challenge is the only mandatory challenge. In order to complete it, six hover turrets must be destroyed, before the repair drones can repair them and put them back online again. This challenge is significantly easier upon purchasing upgrades such as the Fusion Laser Cannons, Advanced Shielding System, and any new weapon system (be it the Electro-Mine Launcher or Torpedo Launcher) or an improvement to an existing one, like the Fast-Lock Missile Launcher, from Slim Cognito's Ship Shack.
The real challenge here is not destroying the turrets, but destroying them all before the rest can be repaired. After a turret is destroyed, a repair drone will appear from the port to repair it. Your options are either to destroy that repair drone and any that come in, or attempt to destroy the remaining turrets. With a strong enough weapon it is possible to simply destroy all the turrets and move on before a repair drone can make enough progress. Without any, the best option is to destroy a repair drone as soon as they appear to repair a turret, and quickly move onto the next and repeat the progress.
Take out the Saboteurs[]
The second challenge is an objective based challenge in which twenty saboteurs must be destroyed before they can destroy all sixteen power receptors surrounding the device in the center. The saboteurs are relatively durable, but will deal little damage to Ratchet, choosing to mostly attack their own targets. The only challenge with this mission is destroying them quickly enough. This can be done by flying around the core in the opposite direction of the saboteurs, chasing them one by one to destroy them. Care must be taken to avoid flying into the receptors themselves.
Destroy the Berserk Repair Drones[]
The third challenge is a combat challenge in which thirty berserk repair drones must be destroyed. A non-upgraded ship will struggle to complete this mission, as it takes two of the standard Missiles to destroy a single drone, and the standard lasers will not deal significant damage.
The repair drones deal respectable damage, and are very durable. Their lasers should be dodged frequently by boosting and performing barrel rolls in order to survive. Aside from this, the usual dogfighting tactics are the same: as soon as a repair drone flies in front of the Star Explorer, it should be shot down. Most of the repair drones fly in groups, so it is possible to destroy several groups at a time.
Race Through the Disposal Facility[]
The fourth challenge is a race against premiere space racer Ace Bunyon, through several rings around the Disposal Facility, much like the previous mission "Race Through the Asteroids" in the Feltzin System. Though this mission is possible without it, purchasing the Triple Boost Acceleration Engine upgrade can help.
As with the previous mission, the main challenge is missing as few rings as possible (missing fifteen rings will cause the mission to fail) and avoiding taking damage by hitting the narrow walls. A lead against Ace is easy enough to maintain by boosting. At the very end, when the rings lead through the core, it is important to be very careful as the gap is quite narrow; if needs be, skip the rings here, as the final golden ring is found at the bottom of the core.
Flying through all 65 rings will earn a platinum bolt.