Battle of Tobruk Crater

The **Battle of Tobruk Crater** was a battle fought in June of 5354 between two Solanan resistance fighters, Ratchet and Clank, and a significant number of Blargian military robots, as well as Blargian bomber jets. The battle was part of the RaC Insurgence in the Solanan War. The skirmishes started as a result of rebels Ratchet and Clank traveling to the blarg-occupied planet of Novalis in an attempt to help the civilian population. The two had engaged in a partnership hours earlier on the planet of Veldin, from which they both benefited.

## Background

In June of 5354, a defective Blargian robot, Clank (XJ-0461), was born on a production line in a factory producing sentry-bots on planet Quartu. He was marked as being a defect and was to be destroyed by other sentry-bots. However, after watching an infobot, Clank came to learn of Orxonian Chairman Alonzo Drek's plan to create a new planet for his species, the blargs, due to overpopulation and pollution on the original blargian homeworld of Orxon. Clank made a narrow escape from the factory and fled Quartu with a stolen escape shuttle. During the escape, he was chased by two blarg minifighters, piloted by electroids, through space and was eventually shut down above the planet of Veldin, where he then crash landed. A local lombax, Ratchet, noticed the escape shuttle spiraling towards the Veldinian capital of Kyzil Plateau and decided to investigate the crash site. On his way there, he encountered multiple hostile electroids, who had landed in Kyzil Plateau following the pursuit. Eventually, Ratchet and Clank partnered up, with Ratchet wishing to leave Kyzil Plateau and explore the Solana Galaxy and Clank wishing to receive assistance in stopping Alonzo Drek from destroying numerous planets, including his next target of Novalis. Therefore, the duo decided to travel to Tobruk Crater, Novalis and help the local population from the invading blargs. However, the urban areas of the Tobruk Crater were already suffering from the effects of the blarg invasion, as many buildings had been wrecked or were in flames, and the civilians had largely fled the planet on escape transports.

## Battle

   Upon entering Novalisian airspace in Ratchet's personal transport vessel, the duo immediately came under fire from the blargian anti-aircraft system. Their vessel then crash-landed in Tobruk Crater. They were left unharmed in the process, however, the vessel was destroyed. A clash then commenced between the rebels and blargian birdbots and peckbots. Dozens of robots were killed, and a bridge was blown up by a blarg bomber jet. When the rebels encountered a large-scale transport vessel hovering above them, the vessel suddenly ascended to the ground. Three peckbots emerged from the vessel and attacked the rebels in an ambush orchestrated by the blargian Lieutenant Victor Kogor. However, the rebels quickly wiped out the peckbots without suffering any injuries. They then opened the large-scale transport vessel, where they were met by the Novalisian planetary chairman, Agnogg Buckwash. Buckwash had been held prisoner and subjected to torture by the blargs, namely Lieutenant Victor Kogor, and he thanked Ratchet and Clank for freeing him by awarding them a new Novalisian courier ship.

After clearing the urban area of robotic invasion forces, the rebels went on to explore the local waterworks, also heavily guarded by blargian peckbots and birdbots. Here, they maneuvered their way across the complicated waterwork system and killed several robots along the way. After clearing the waterworks, they provided economic support to a local Novalisian plumber in exchange for an infobot, allowing the civilian to escape the war-torn planet.

## Aftermath

Upon acquiring the new courier ship and infobots for Kerwan and Aridia, the rebels left Novalis to continue their insurgence against the invading blargs on other planets. Agnogg Buckwash and the Tobruk City Division of the Novalisian Army were able to capture the Tobruk Crater, waterworks, and surrounding urban areas, due to Ratchet and Clank's efforts. The Novalisian Army kept control of the area until the end of the Solanan War when Alonzo Drek and the Blargian Empire collapsed one year later. The rebels are still regarded as heroes in the Tobruk area to this day.