It was freezing cold, but given the adrenaline pumping through her veins and the hundreds of still-burning corpses littering the canyon, Lilith was sweating.
She had destroyed The Destroyer. She, single-handedly, put to an end the being that had ended an entire species. It was hard to believe. The Guardians who tried to prevent the Vault from being opened had given her more trouble than the being inside. And yet, the Eridians couldn't kill it? Either they really sucked, or Maliwan made one hell of a submachine gun.
Lilith nudged one of the Destroyer's tentacles with her foot, just to make sure. Getting no response, she stepped back and emptied a clip all over the great being, each incendiary round setting a small fire in the wounds they tore open. The Destroyer didn't even twitch. It really was dead.
Lilith climbed up onto the creature, moving towards its giant mouth. This thing had eaten Commandant Steele, and Lilith spent the better part of the ensuing firefight cursing it out for that. She had come to Pandora solely because she heard of another girl like her on the planet. She hadn't heard of the "Vault", nor did she care about the riches or women that were supposedly inside. And the second she came face to face with Steele, and saw her tattoos, she knew that this was the "Siren" she was looking for.
And ten seconds after that, before Lilith could say anything, Steele was impaled and eaten alive.
Lilith pried the Destroyer's mouth open, hoping that, by some miracle, Steele was still alive. But, staring down its throat, smelling rotting decay, she found no sign of Steele.
Lilith sighed and climbed off the creature. That was it. All this time and effort to find another Siren, and she had learned nothing. She turned back, spat on the creature, and walked to the New-U station. With the Vault Key strapped to her back, and various weapons and devices holstered and pocketed, she brought up the menu. Patricia Tannis was foaming at the mouth, wanting the key, but that could wait. All the equipment Lilith had picked up was getting a little too heavy. Lilith selected New Haven, and vanished in a flash of light.
The Destroyer was already obscured by the falling snow, the flames from Lilith's incendiary rounds extinguished by the bitter cold. From the sky, a single Sera Guardian descended on the creature. It hovered a few feet above it, slowly flying over, examining every square inch of it. It eventually came to a stop, hovering over its mouth.
Suddenly, the Guardian activated some kind of scanner, shining a bright blue light into the Destroyer's gaping maw.
In a flash of light, Lilith appeared at the New-U station in New Haven. The sun was starting to set, and many of the citizens had already turned in for the night. Lilith briefly looked around for any irksome bandits, then made her way to the nearest of Marcus's weapon vendors. The Vault may not have been real, but just as good was all the money Lilith had received simply by selling everything from the people she had killed. After selling some weapons and mods, Lilith had collected another $40,000. For two hours of killing people, that was pretty damn good.
The vendor spouted a usual recording from Marcus Kincaid to thank her for her business, and Lilith turned to leave. Suddenly, the vendor spoke again.
"You, bounty hunter, have I got a deal for you." Marcus said through his vendor.
"...alright, punch it up." Lilith replied, walking up to the vendor's screen.
"No, no, it's not available to my usual customers." Marcus explained. "Come to my store. Bring your credits."
Curious, Lilith began her walk to Marcus's place. Marcus was always good for fantastic weapons, but after this, Lilith had no intention of sticking around Pandora. With Commandant Steele dead, Lilith's next move would be to investigate the sightings she had heard of other potential "Sirens". She had met many people on Pandora, and it would be hard to leave them alone on this desolate wasteland of a planet, but she had already made this decision. The other bounty hunters on this planet could deal with keeping settlements like New Haven and Fyrestone safe. Lilith was some kind of magician, she had no idea why, and her first priority was figuring that out. Call that selfish if you want, but what would YOU do if you couldn't remember any of your life before three months ago? Would your big concern be figuring out why, or sitting around preventing criminals from killing people before Skags could do it?
Lilith walked into Marcus's store. Marcus had his back turned to her, something in his hands.
"Ah, bounty hunter, hello." Marcus said with a smile. "Turns out the Vault was a fraud, eh?"
"Oh, not true, there was a giant tentacle monster in there." Lilith replied, shaking her head. "What a waste of time."
"Sorry to hear that. Believe me, I am." Marcus said. "I was looking forward to helping you sell all those goods with you... for a cut, of course."
"Of course." Lilith said with a smirk.
"And, you know, I'd keep the women, you could keep the power." Marcus continued. "...unless you'd like some women too. I'd be willing to share."
Lilith rolled her eyes. "Of course you would. What do you have for me?"
Marcus turned to face her, a submachine gun in his hand.
"Alright, alright." Marcus said. "I've been tracking your buying habits, and you seem to favor Maliwan weapons."
"I don't really think about it. I just go for whoever gives me the most burn for my buck." Lilith replied.
"Yep, and that's Maliwan." Marcus said. "Well, I managed to get my hands on one of Maliwan's brand new weapons. This beauty is the Maliwan 5CR 34M Pyre. 60 shot magazine, caps off 12 rounds a second, x4 magnification and accurate enough to castrate a Skag at 200 yards. And if anyone survives a shot from this, they'll go off like they've been doused in kerosene."
"Sounds good, gimme." Lilith said, grabbing for it.
Marcus quickly moved the gun from her grasp.
"Ah ah ah, nothing in this world is free, my lady." Marcus said with a smile.
"Aww, come on, no deals for a frequent customer?" Lilith asked.
"The deal is that I'm offering it to you at all, sweetie." Marcus replied. "I'd normally sooner give up my right hand than a new toy like this."
"Well, I'd hate to kill your sex life like that." Lilith said. "So, how much."
"Since you were coy enough to jump on my set-up there, $250,000." Marcus replied.
"...there's no way it costs that." Lilith protested.
Marcus simply extended a hand, waiting for the money.
Lilith groaned and started counting the credits.
"I should just shoot you with it and take the money back." She said, handing them over.
"Yeah, well, you won't." Marcus said, taking the money with a huge smile and handing over the weapon. "Pleasure doing business with you."
"Yeah, well, don't get used to it." Lilith said, admiring her new toy. "I'm on the next ride off this rock."
"That's too bad." Marcus said. "But before you go, Governor Piece has another job for you."
"I really don't care about doing any more little errands." Lilith replied.
"From what she's told me, it's more than just going around town turning generators on." Marcus said. "Something pretty big. A chance to use that thing at least once on Pandora?"
"Meh, alright." Lilith said, walking out.