Axton popped the hatch open and waved his hand at the cheering mass of humanity. Sure, some of them were worse for wear, but he had saved the day and turned the tide, and for that they were thrilled beyond measure. This joy only increased in intensity when they found out that there was a way off the planet without relying on the Mayor or his connections. This whole colony was a nightmare and had been for years. Whatever desire that people once had to start a life here and establish civilization on this desolate rock was long gone and in its place was a single-minded drive to leave this tomb and torture behind and go… well, anywhere else.

Still, it would take a fair bit of time to unearth and boot up the ship that Axton had revealed, and Stebbs still needed to be dealt with. There simply were not enough people who were willing to storm the compound again, which meant that the only option available seemed to be to dig in and hold the goons at bay as they besieged the canyon again.

Or at least that was the initial idea, but Axton had other plans. A bunch of RPG Launchers had been left behind or had been left without owners, and even more RPGs themselves were just lying around to be put in the launchers themselves. Axton had already asked that he be allowed to lay claim to them, along with the numerous grenades that were also just lying around.

Nobody really questioned what he was going to do with them and all just assumed he was going to do something bizarre or outlandish. To be fair, if they knew what Axton was planning to MacGyver into existence, they would be shocked and deeply concerned, but Axton himself was reasonably sure that they should have nothing to fear. He still had a lot of scrap metal to work with, and if he could dismantle the explosives and then reconstruct them….

Well, it was almost the 4th of July in the Real World anyways, so maybe a bit of ‘fireworks’ would be acceptable. Either way, it was sure to be one hell of a light show.

…

The sounds of picks and shovels biting into the earth echoed through the canyon. Deep inside the caverns that connected into the far edge of said canyon, those who could were hard at work clearing the majority of the soil and rock away from the transport ship that Axton had told Daxter about. Remarkably, the ship was almost spotless and was only hidden by a hangar door above itself that had been covered in no small amount of earthen debris. Essentially, all that was needed was that they clear the top of the doors and remove a bit of debris from the interior of the hangar. Once that was done, all that would need to be done after that would be to open the doors, board the ship and shoot off into the deep, dark abyss of space.

The job would have been easier if they had explosives, but much to everyone’s chagrin Axton had claimed all that could be found for his ‘secret project’. Of course, some were not at all happy with this arrangement, but Daxter was doing his part to try and keep the more disagreeable people from messing with the guy who had a War Suit and almost all of the explosives. Work was going along quite well, but there soon was more urgency added to their mission.

“No way…”

“Impossible! How are we supposed to leave now?!”

“We’re going to die on this god-forsaken rock, aren’t we?”

Word had just come in that Stebbs had gathered around thirty ground vehicles and was preparing to use some ‘borrowed’ artillery that had long since been ‘reappropriated’ from the now-defunct colony militia to bombard their base into dust. They would not even be able to launch the transport! If they did, then Stebbs would be able to blast enough holes in it as it took off to make the trip up be shortly followed by a very fiery trip back down. Now they really needed Axton’s explosives to make their work go by faster, but as they entered his section of the caves they found that he was no longer there and neither were Franken or the copious amounts of explosives he had at his disposal

Some called him a traitor. Some called Daxter a traitor, but a few of the more violent voices were at the very least slightly hushed up when someone actually bother to look around the place and discovered that Axton had left a holo-message for everyone.

“Hello, everyone!” the recorded voice of Axton said with a chipper tone. “You may have noticed that I am not currently here, and there is a very good reason for that.”

The holo recording pointed its finger in a direction and the hologram scowled.

“No, you morons, I am not turning traitor. I know you want to be all doom and gloom, but I and many others just want off this rock without relying on being a slave.”

Axton’s recorded image then returned to its cheery former appearance.

“So, the message! Well, I would ask that you fine fellows join me at these coordinates. Bring some drinks, some snacks, and a few chairs and reclining seats, because today is a very special day for those who come from where I do. Today is a day that my people celebrate as the date that we, as a nation, declared our freedom from tyranny and oppression. Please come to these coordinates at roughly 7:45 PM and be sure to bring recording devices. I think you’re going to absolutely love the show I have planned.”

The hologram cut off at that point and then restarted, looping over and over until someone turned the device off.

There were mixed feelings among the people there. Some thought that there was a decent chance that Axton was leading them into a trap, while others thought that he was just nuttier than a fruit cake. Daxter offered his own life if this did indeed turn out to be a trap, but it was ultimately understood that if Axton did turn traitor then they would all almost certainly either be dead by now or in chains.

Besides, Stebbs was gathering his forces for a long-range bombardment session from the safety of the compound, so what else could possibly go wrong? Either they died in the base by sustained artillery fire, or they died by a giant killer war machine. Either way, they were fucked, so it was best to simply roll the dice and hope that Axton, the crazy bastard that he was, had a plan.

Time was a wasting, and the message had said nothing about not bringing weapons, so at least they could somewhat defend themselves, right?