Yerek is a planet featured in Into the Nexus. It is a haunted temperate planet in the Zarkov Sector of the Polaris Galaxy. It is home to the Meero Ruins, an abandoned city where the Meero Orphanage, the childhood home of Vendra and Neftin Prog, is located. Yerek contains numerous dimensional rifts connected to the Netherverse.
Vendra and Neftin Prog grew up in the Meero Orphanage. Much later, they used the haunted and evacuated planet as a base of operations. Ratchet and Clank arrived on Yerek after the Nebulox Seven was destroyed.
History[]
Early history[]
After the explosion of the Great Clock caused temporal disruptions, several rifts appeared on Yerek, connecting it to the Netherverse.[1][2]
When Vendra and Neftin Prog emerged from the Netherverse, they were discovered in caves near Meero City and raised in the Meero Orphanage. They were bullied by other children and dismissed by teachers who punished them for reporting it.[3] Neftin was small and frequently bullied, but Vendra helped him toughen up.[4] In the caves, Vendra made contact with Mr. Eye, who exploited her loneliness by offering friendship.[3] Her isolation was reflected in the orphanage's eerie crayon drawings, fake bones, and pentacrosses hung from trees.
Through Mr. Eye, Vendra learned that she and Neftin were nethers who had remained in Ratchet and Clank's universe too long to survive in the Netherverse. Determined to bring the nethers into this universe, she studied quantum mechanics and transdimensional tunneling to amplify the anomalies.[1] These efforts succeeded, and twenty years before the events of Into the Nexus, Yerek and the entire Zarkov Sector were classified Alpha-9 and evacuated by order of the President of the Polaris Galaxy.[5]
Into the Nexus[]
Six months before the events of Into the Nexus, Vendra and Neftin Prog attacked Pollyx Industries and abducted several terachnoids, including Pollyx himself, to construct a new Dimensionator in the Azeril Caverns.[6][7][8] During his six months of captivity, Pollyx grew bored[7] and invented the Grav-Tether to navigate the planet more easily through the nether rifts.[5] When Neftin hired Thugs-4-Less, they were stationed on Yerek to guard the terachnoids.[5]
After Vendra was freed from the Nebulox Seven, Ratchet and Clank arrived on Yerek and contacted Talwyn Apogee via holo-com to report their safety and the deaths of Cronk and Zephyr.[9] Talwyn, in turn, enlisted Captain Qwark to assist them.[10]
In "Explore the Meero Ruins", Ratchet and Clank searched the ruins and rescued a terachnoid lab assistant, who rewarded them with a Grav-Tether for freeing him from Thugs-4-Less.[5]
Pollyx installing the Rift Cracker upgrade onto Clank.
During "Enter the Azeril Caverns", Ratchet and Clank used the sewers to reach the caverns and find Pollyx. Pollyx upgraded Clank with transdimensional software, enabling him to interact with nether rifts and escape the caverns.[7][2]
The Prog twins communicating with Mr. Eye.
In "Head to the Meero Orphanage", he directed them to the abandoned Meero Orphanage, where they uncovered the Prog twins' origins.[3] They witnessed Vendra, using a low-rent Dimensionator, having a conversation with Mr. Eye. She successfully brought some nethers through to Yerek but could not bring Mr. Eye, learning she would need to do so on Silox. Ratchet and Clank fled after Vendra discovered them,[8] shortly after which Qwark arrived with Aphelion to help them leave the planet.[10]
In "Investigate the Thugs-4-Less outpost", Ratchet and Clank fought through a nearby Thugs-4-Less outpost and recovered an infobot containing information about the Destructapalooza.
Geography[]
From space, Yerek gives the appearance of a dark brown and desert-like planet, with a heavily fractured surface that is entirely bisected by a network of bright, incandescent fissures, suggesing powerful tectonic stress and active volcanism. Up close, however, it seems quite lush and relatively normal.
In recorded history, Yerek had never experienced a natural quake[11], hence why its current appearance and the quake that Ratchet and Clank experience seem to be due to the Prog twins' experimentation with the Netherverse. Leading a nether through a rift sets off a violent localized earthquake[2], possibly explaining the planet's dramatic appearance.
Meero Ruins[]
The Meero Ruins.
The Meero Ruins are an abandoned city spanning across tall plateaus. Many of these plateaus resemble tropical islands with palm trees and greenery, while others are flat rock or tall mountains. Beneath the ruins are the Azeril Caverns, which connect to the ruins by a sewer.[5]
Meero Ruins mostly comprise older-style huts, many of which are overgrown due to the city's abandonment. Throughout the city and on the huts are neon advertisements and a statue of an unknown figure. A Thugs-4-Less outpost was set up during Vendra Prog's control of the planet after its evacuation.
The Meero Orphanage is a grand building with stained glass windows. Much of the building has caved in due to abandonment, creating a direct path to the caves below. Inside, the walls are covered with drawings from Vendra Prog, some resembling nethers and others dead creatures.
The Azeril Caverns below the ruins are a dark network of caves featuring stalactites, coral-covered walls, and pools of water. Within the cave system is a laboratory set up by Vendra Prog to test dimensional equipment.
Citations[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Into the Nexus script § "Find Vendra and Neftin (Yerek) (gameplay)"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Into the Nexus script § "Test the Rift Cracker (gameplay)"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Into the Nexus script § "Head to the Meero Orphanage (gameplay)"
- ↑ Into the Nexus script § "Defeat Neftin Prog (gameplay)"
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Into the Nexus script § "Explore the Meero Ruins (gameplay)"
- ↑ Into the Nexus script § "The Infamous Prog Twins"
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Into the Nexus script § "Find Pollyx (gameplay)"
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Into the Nexus script § "Making Contact"
- ↑ Into the Nexus script § "Bad News"
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Into the Nexus script § "Qwark the Savior"
- ↑ Into the Nexus script § "Explore the Meero Ruins (gameplay)"