"Damn Hyperion! We aren't even there and they're already throwing shit at us!" Gaige growled while shooting down an EXP Loader before it could get to her, her shield absorbing the force of the shockwave.

"Maybe because they don't want to us to get to Angel, don't you think?" Axton panted as he trudged ahead on the burned ground.

"Well its nothing we can't handle" Maya replies taking down another Loader, Krieg tore down one next to her.

"Hey Minions! You coming or not!?" Claptrap shouted hiding behind some bricks, the other hunters didn't have the slightest idea how he managed to get there before them and completely unharmed, or how did that pile of bricks to remain intact.

"Shut up you stupid robot!" the Mechromancer yelled back at it, she loved robots but Claptrap was just too annoying even for her, Deathtrap was so much better, and besides she built him, that was even more awesome.

"THE YELLOW CUBE MAKES MY EARS BLEED!" Krieg roared, unleashing his rage on a nearby Loader.

"Annoying" was Zero's comment, he was patient but even he had his limits.

"Just open the freaking door!" Salvador screamed at it, he drew out one of his Rocket Launchers in the process, he was pleased to see the robot pass the force field that was keeping them out to do his job, he was so close at shooting at Claptrap, he wasn't afraid to do so and knew the others felt the same.

Axton saw the Gunzerker take out a rocket launcher and decided to stop him from using it to keep it for later. "Sal, put the launcher away, we might need it later"

"You're no fun amigo" the short man replied.

"I know you don't like it but we've got to keep the heavy weaponry for later, we don't know what's in there, we better not waste everything so soon" the soldier explained. "Everyone got that?" he got a series of affirmative words in reply, or yells in Krieg's case, but nonetheless he understood as he was using his axe mostly. He either loved it that much or he wasn't much interested in guns, he was still a Psycho after all.

As soon as Claptrap deactivated the death wall the hunters advanced ahead on the dock, the robot told them he would protect them, but as soon as enemies started approaching he fled.

"Typical…" Maya groaned, wondering what the hell she was expecting from him. But anyway the annoying robot was there to deactivate the force field that would have killed them and he did, for whatever reason he had, his job was done now.

A turret popped out from the left side, but Zero's excellent sniping skills took it down in seconds before it could shoot, this allowed his companions to go ahead as more enemies appeared from the containers, they were quickly disposed of as well though.

That moment during the fight Jack contacted them, he was bragging so much about this bunker thing that from what he said should have destroyed them, based from what the Hyperion CEO said Axton was more than happy of his decision to keep the most powerful weapons they had for later, hopefully it would be enough, unless what Jack said was true, though for all the time they had been on Pandora he had never been, when it came to killing them at least. They were still there, alive and kicking ass, no matter what he threw at them.

A Constructor floated outside of a container and posed itself in their way, flanked by numerous WAR Loaders, Field Turrets and Hyperion Soldiers. Feeling threatened Axton deployed his own turret and Gaige called Deathtrap into the fight as well, the hunters sought shelter behind the containers.

The Sabre made quick work of the less powerful turrets allowing the hunters to come out of their hiding place now that the biggest nuisance was out of the way. The Constructors never moved from their places and the soldiers were humans and didn't have a perfect aim or very powerful weapons, the Loaders could be kept at distance, but turrets were always something tough to deal with, they shot well, hard and fast.

Deathtrap instead clawed at the bigger robots with his digistruct claws being careful to avoid their own hits. Gaige and Axton gave him a hand with their own guns to take them down. Once they were destroyed, Deathtrap floated over near the turret aiding it in shooting down the Constructor with his electric beams. Zero was also busy taking the big machine down by shooting it right in its eye.

Maya phaselocks a Soldier as Salvador shoots at the others while Krieg is busy slashing and tearing them with his axe, the Psycho didn't notice he was getting too close to the still barely active Constructor and got in the ring of fire the machine created right before exploding for the excessive damage dealt to it.

Instead of screaming in pain the Psycho just laughed hysterically as the fire burned him, or at least he would if it wasn't for his shield, still having a shield didn't mean you couldn't feel the pain when you got hurt, yet Krieg didn't seem to be bothered by it at all, on the contrary, he loved pain. He wasn't much different from the other psychos on this.

Gaige approached him. "You okay big guy?"

'Say yes, come on its easy' the Psycho's inner voice urged. "THE MEAT IS ALIVE!" he yelled instead. 'Close enough' the coherent side of him said.

"I'll take it as a yes" the Mechromancer smiled brightly at him.

During the time the other Vault Hunters knew Krieg they somehow learned to understand most of his ramblings, and from what Maya said he was also improving himself, when he was alone he was still talking nonsense but when he was with someone else he tried, for as tough as it was, to say something even if not that much coherent, at least similar to something a sane person would say. And it was getting easier and easier as the time passed as now all of them knew, pretty much, the meaning of his strange synonyms.

The siren had been right since the beginning, he was different from the others, more sane, if that meant something at all for a Psycho.

The moment they saw Krieg was good enough to continue, Roland contacted them, he was making his way in the facility as well, luckily from the sound of it, it didn't seem like he was having that many problems, meaning the Vault Hunters were doing their job right, the Hyperion forces were too busy fighting them to notice Roland sneaking into the place.

Axton urged them forward. "Watch out! Mortars!" he yelled.

The group ran as fast as they could doing their best to stay out of the target circles on the ground, as soon as they thought they were safe one of the bombs exploded behind Maya, her shields absorbed the impact but the shockwave sent her flying into Axton, which fell as well with the siren on top of him.

"Ow…" he grunted, he opened his eyes and was met with the siren's face that was inches from his.

"I-I'm sorry" she scrambled to get up from him, he swore he saw a slight red tinge to her cheeks but he couldn't quite place it, he had no idea if sirens could blush at all.

"Come on lovebirds! We got shit to kill!" Gaige called, she giggled at the sight though, wishing she had a camera to take a picture.

"Wha… oh yeah" the soldier picked himself off the ground "Zero take the turrets out, you guys get ready, a ton of bad guys will come out as soon as we open that door"

Quick and precise the sniper took out the turrets in seconds and like Axton predicted, as soon as the door opened a barrage of WAR Loaders and Hyperion Soldiers charged at them.

Taking the initiative Deathtrap shot at the loaders with his electric beams, he took them down with the aid of Maya's corrosive SMG, she was out of bullets on her pistol already, pretty much like everyone else, these damn people and their machines always ate through their supplies as it they were bread. Besides Krieg, he always preferred his Buzz-Axe to bullets.

The others took care of the Soldiers swiftly, the Psycho laughing maniacally as blood and guts splattered all over him, he waved his bulky arms shouting 'blood' in a cycle. Salvador joined the laughter.

"There's more too amigo! Hahahaha!"

Surprisingly ahead of them there was nobody else, which was weird, they ran up a fleet of stairs and at turret shot at them, it was too good to be true, the siren made quick work of it though.

"There must be a Constructor near" she says, they knew these turrets way too well by now to know they were linked to one of those machines.

Exactly how she said there was a badass one on the upper level, a couple of soldiers made their way to them as well, though Krieg charged at them as well, Axton following him, the Commando threw his turret on the field to give support to the rest of the group fighting against the Constructor. It took quite some effort from the remaining hunters and Axton's turret to destroy it but they managed.

Without other enemies the group could take a breath for a little bit. "Let's check around and see if there's anything useful, healing hypos or ammo" Axton panted, he took the occasion to approach Maya.

"You okay?" he asks, he didn't get the chance to check on her after she fell on him, he would have found it amusing if it wasn't because they were in the middle of a battlefield, and Maya wasn't a person you could call clumsy.

"Yeah, nothing that didn't I didn't experience already" she shrugs, though he could see a bit of discomfort as she did so, when she turned to grab some ammunitions for her SMG he could see why. Even if her shields managed to absorb the impact he could see that her yellow bodysuit was burned in some places, between her shoulders in particular, that explained her previous reaction, but a strong woman like her would never admit she was in pain.

"Regardless, I'm glad you're safe" he places a hand on her tattooed shoulder before leaving her to find some supplies for himself. The siren watched him with an eyebrow raised, she had expected one of his cocky comments not this, still it felt good to know that at least someone cared for her. The thought bringing a smile to her lips.

"Are we ready to continue?" Axton asked as the group rejoined, he got a series of nods and so they resumed their mission.

As they approached the Bunker, Jack called them telling them the way he got the Vault Key, bragging so much on how he and his friend tortured the poor Tannis, that woman might have been crazy, but nobody should suffer at the hands of Handsome Jack, that might have explained part of her behavior too.


Those times had been fun, very fun, probably one of the best things he ever did, he remembered that crazy scientist's broken face as he snatched away the key from her frail hands.

He enjoyed slicing her open every non-lethal place he could find, just small cuts at time, not enough to do serious harms but enough to spill more blood each time. Still no matter how many times he drove the blade into her, she wouldn't let go of the key, always clutched tightly in her hand, so he had Wilhelm do what was best, he had him break her fingers, slowly, one by one, until eventually she let go of the artifact. She screamed, of course she did, and he liked every second of it.

In the end they had left with what they came for and let her be, beaten, bruised and bleeding, but still breathing, if she survived or not was none of their business.


As soon as the Vault Hunters entered the large structure known as the Bunker they were contacted by Brick, he informed them that he sent some air support but also that the cannons of the Bunker was killing them all, he urged the hunters to dispose of the cannons.

"Let's get a move then, Krieg cover us against the Loaders, I'll have my turret help you" Axton instructed, yelling loudly the Psycho charged at the incoming Loaders, the soldier threw his turret out in the middle of the field for support.

"I can be useful too!" Gaige said as she called Deathtrap on the battlefield, he immediately went to help Krieg with killing the other robots, slashing at them with his claws.

"We shall get rid of the cannons, before they kill all our supports" the Commando managed to say before wincing when one of the buzzards hit the ground exploding in million pieces.

That didn't take too long as the Auto-Cannons focused mostly on the buzzard supports, Maya's corrosive SMG did most of the work, with some help from Zero's sniper rifle. The most annoying thing were the lasers that activated when one of the machines were destroyed, but nothing some well-made jumps couldn't deal with, or their shields when they failed to dodge them.

When they thought to be done there was a loud rumble, up on the center platform a huge aircraft lifted itself from the ground. "Oh shit…" Axton whispered.

"Oh fuck…" Gaige paled.

"Hijo de puta…" Salvador growled, obviously referring to Jack.

"Well it was nice knowing you" Maya says "Pretty lady…" Krieg murmured.

"It's not time for goodbyes/ We're still here/ So we fight" Zero says trying to encourage the others, they had to try until they were dead for real. They faced tough enemies, they could face this thing too.

Shaking his head Axton regained a bit more of sense back "Zero's right, we can do this!" he yelled. "Come on, let's get the heavy artillery out and take down this thing!"

"Corrosion always works on machines" Maya reloads her SMG and takes the initiative in shooting the aircraft, Salvador followed her example and hoisting both of his rocket launchers on his shoulders started shooting as well.

As soon as they started shooting it the Bunker started shooting back at them too with his Auto-Cannons, forcing the hunters to take cover, luckily for them their air supports came to their aid, shooting the machine while they couldn't, but their luck was short lived as another Buzzard crashed to the ground exploding in pieces.

"Oh fuck you! You damn huge thing!" Axton yelled shooting at the aircraft with his assault rifle.

Suddenly Zero had an idea, raising his sniper rifle so he could look through the scope he aimed to the Bunker's cannons, if they managed to take them down the machine couldn't shoot at them anymore, and the explosion would cause more damage than their bullets could. His theory proved to be right as the aircraft's right side was engulfed in flames as soon as it was disarmed, he watched the damaged machine take off in the distance.

"Good job Zero, that was awe-" Axton was cut off as he was blown away from a mortar, he fell to the ground in pain, he could feel himself being carried away to safety right after, well more like dragged away but still someone managed to save him from being shot down and die as his shield was still down and needed to recharge from having absorbed most of the last impact.

"You okay amigo?" he could hear the Gunzerker ask, the soldier wanted to say he was but an intense pain from his now bleeding leg said otherwise. From his position he could see Maya hurrying over to his side as well, she crouched next to him and he already knew what her intention was.

"Stay still, I've got you" she reassured him, her left arm flared with energy as she reached to his wound but he stopped her hand with his own before she could get near enough.

"Don't waste your powers over me, the battle is not over yet" he said and his statement was confirmed by the sound of the rest of the group shooting at the loaders that were trying to sneak up on them, they were all promptly destroyed though.

"We can't win this without you, so shut up and let me heal you" the siren scowled as she forcefully made Axton release the grip he had on her wrist by tearing away his hand with her other free one. The soldier didn't say more and let Maya do her thing, he hissed as her glowing hand made contact with him, the stinging sensation in his leg subsided quickly, replaced by the warmith of the siren's healing powers.

He glanced at her face, she had her eyes closed, her brows furrowed in concentration, he wondered how much brain power it took her to use her powers the way she did. She always made it look so easy, as if there wasn't any effort from her part at all, yet he knew it wasn't and her current expression just confirmed it. When the warm feeling faded he knew she was done.

"Oh crap he's back!" they heard Gaige shout as the aircraft came back "We're coming!" Axton replied as he picked himself off the ground, the recent wound still stung a bit but at least it was closed now, Maya followed, SMG in hand.

Zero aimed to snipe down the second cannon that showed up on the machine but he wasn't fast enough and he was shot down too, his shield held up but he was flung into Krieg that was behind him.

"GET UP YOU'VE GOT PEOPLE TO HURT!" the Psycho yelled as he pulled the Assassin back on his feet. "Thank you" Zero spoke as he aimed once more.

"I'll help too" Maya says as she pulls out her own sniper rifle, she wasn't as good as Zero was but if needed she could lend a hand too. In no time the second cannon was destroyed and the machine took off into the distance once more.

"Krieg you've got to help us shooting that thing too" the siren urges and he looks at her with a confused expression. He did have guns with him of course, but he never liked to use them, actually the crazier part of him didn't.

"Come on big guy, we know you can shoot too" Gaige continues. "Please Krieg" Maya pleads.

The Psycho said nothing, his hands reaching for a weapon that was in his ECHO, An SMG of the Tediore brand and fiddles with it with his large fingers. He recognized it, it was one of the weapons he got from his companions, from the siren.

He had found this weapon in a chest, he knew that Maya loved this kind of weapons so he thought to give it to her as a gift, but instead the siren just smiled and refused the gift, he was confused at first but she claimed that he needed it more than her.

"Krieg you're always going around killing stuff with your axe, but you can't always do that" she said, he gave her a confused look.

"I know you're strong but you never know what's going to happen, rushing in battle like that is dangerous, sometimes you just have to lay back and stay far to protect yourself, so please…" she pushes the gun further into his hands "Keep this, do this for me, please big guy"

So the Psycho decided to keep the gun on him, though he barely found any use to it, he just kept it to not make Maya angry at him. Though now it was the best option he had, after all what he was doing was laying back and watch the others fight the huge flying machine, he wasn't feeling useful the slightest. In the end he gave up his own likings to do something good that would please the others and mostly the siren, so as soon as the Bunker was back in range he started shooting at it.

"NOBODY KILLS MY MEAT BUDDIES!" he shouted at it.

The others joined in, and in a matter of minutes they managed to finally take down the hellish machine with no more hits taken, it was easier than how they previously thought. Nonetheless they took a moment to breathe before continuing, taking their time to restock as well.

Once more Axton approached Maya which was now sitting on the ground to rest a bit.

"Well, thanks for saving my ass once more" he says.

"Anytime" she shrugs.

"You sure you're okay though?" he asks, worried that she might have used too much power to heal him, he knew sirens could get very tired from using their powers continuously.

"I'm okay don't worry" she flexes her left arm "There's still plenty of power in here"

Axton nods. "You're ready to meet Angel then?"

"I am" she nods back.

"Let's see what's the big secret then"