This is the second installment of the Invasion Arc. I know I just uploaded the first part yesterday but I found myself with a lot of free time today so I decided to work on it some more. Let me know what you guys think
***Caution***
This chapter is rather long. I suggest you find a comfortable place to read this haha
Jailer Invasion Arc Pt. 2
Archer can hear the muffled sounds of gunfire as he lazily opens his eyelids. He fully awakens to Jessup dragging him by his collar as Gaige runs beside them firing off bursts of rounds at their rear. Jessup notices Archer is conscious again and lifts him to his feet. He's groggy and a bit unbalanced at first but clears up as Jessup shoves a rifle into his chest.
"We need to get ourselves and these civilians the Hell out of Opportunity! Were under attack by a military I've never seen before!" Jessup yelled over the sounds of gun fire.
Archer looked back from the direction he was being dragged and off in the distance he could see soldiers clad in white armor from head to toe chasing after them between the buildings. His eyes widened and within seconds loaded his rifle and they all took off running.
"Where's the civilians were escorting?" He asked Jessup
Jessup looked back over his shoulder at Archer
"They're up ahead with the other group of Raiders that survived the initial attack. Were maintaining the rear while they clear the way!" Jessup said as the three of them ran to catch up.
Laser beams flew past their heads and collided with surfaces all around them as they retreated towards the Opportunity bridge. Every so often the three of them would stop to dwindle their pursuers numbers a bit. Firing at large groups and when they were forced through a choke point.
"Theres too many still following us! Were getting closer and closer to the bridge! If they're this hot on our asses when we get there we'll be easy targets for them!" Gaige pointed out
"Shes right! We need to figure out a way to stall them so we can get the bulk of the group across the bridge!" Jessup yelled in agreement
Archer thought for a few seconds as they finally caught back up to the main group. Finally an idea hit him. It was a plan, not a great one but it'd have to do.
"I got an idea. Gaige, I need you on that bridge before the rest of us get there!" He ordered
"Got it! Lets got DT!" She summoned Deathtrap and jumped on his back.
"Yeehaw!" The hulking robot shot forward far ahead of everyone with Gaige clinging to his head
Archer immediately stopped running and started rummaging through his pack. He shuffled from item to item until he pulled out a metallic cube the size of his hand.
Jessup looked at him with disappointment in his eyes
"You still carry around that dinosaur?" He asked referring to the cube
"You're damn right I do!" He said as he swung his backpack back on
"These guys will cut through that thing in seconds with the heat they're packing!" Jessup yelled with hesitation in his voice
"Not this one..." Archer replied with a cool tone
He placed the cube on the ground. The cube had dots painted on it similar to a dice. He flipped it around till the picture of a snake's eye faced up. He pressed down on its pupil and it digi-structed into a dome like turret with a whole in the center to house an operator.
"Don't be stupid! If you stay here you wont make it out alive!" Jessup said trying to talk some sense into Archer
"Dont worry! Thats why I brought this with me!" Archer answered back while holding up a metal heart-shaped chip to Jessup's face
"What the Hell is that thing? You're good luck charm?" asked Jessup
"Not even close." Archer answered with a smirk
He tossed the heart into the center of the turret and a blue light glowed from within the pit. When the light faded a robotic looking woman emerged from the hole.
"Greetings Archer." She said in the voice of a female generated by machine.
"Execute order 19-34, code named..." Archer paused as he looked back at Jessup with a confident smirk while the two machines started to digi-struct again.
"Bonnie & Clyde!" he yelled at the machine
The two robots reappeared again but in a different form. The humanoid Robot now wore a fedora and the turret had gone from having two barrels in the front to barrels that resembled that of a tommy gun's jutting out from all sides. It also took on a sleek black paint job.
"Give em Hell for me Bonnie!" He yelled as he and Jessup took off running again.
"You got it Archie." Bonnie said as she and Clyde cloaked themselves.
"What on Earth was that contraption? That doesnt look like the model I remember you using!" Jessup yelled
"I had some friends of mine off planet give it a few upgrades!" Archer laughed
The robotic duo was now completely cloaked and invisible to the nearing soldiers. When the first soldier passed by Bonnie quickly yelled out
"SURPRISE! SURPRISE! BITCHES!"
They're cloak dropped and a hailstorm of bullets sprayed in every angle. Soldiers in every direction hit the ground like wet towels. Bonnie turned a wheel inside of Clyde and the turret began spinning furiously while still firing from all barrels. Bonnie laughed an insane robotic laugh that made her seem almost human.
"I got you now you damn dirty rats!" Bonnie cried
Jessup and Archer still running were watching the whole thing.
"Jesus christ! Of all the things to be more psychotic than you Im amazed it was a robot." he yelled out
"Tha's why I love er!" Archer replied followed by a hearty laugh
Jessup shook his head and when he turned his head back forward he could see the bridge not too far away. At that moment Gaige's voice came from Jessup's echo device.
"HEY! I can see you guys from the bridge! So whats the plan?" She asked
Archer took the communicator from Jessup.
"Gaige, can you generate some kind of force field with that robotic beast of yours?" he asked into the echo
"HE'S NOT A BEAST AND YES I CAN! Not a real strong one though." She yelled irritated by Archer's use of the word "beast" to describe Deathtrap.
Archer looked back and saw Bonnie take several shots to the chest. Her head slumped forward and Clyde stopped firing.
"Alright pigs... you win" Bonnie said quietly
She stayed slumped over until another large group passed by her. All of a sudden she sprang back to life and grabbed one soldier by the neck.
"BUT YOU AIN'T TAKIN ME TO THE BIG HOUSE ALIVE!" She bellowed
Blue sparks emitted from her and a massive explosion swallowed up everyone around her.
"Das my girl..." Archer said gazing in admiration at the destruction
"HELLOOOOO? Gaige to ARCHER? Come in DUMBASS BEFORE WE DIE!" Gaige yelled over the echo
"Alright its simple. I want you to put up a barrier while we all pass over the bridge. In the meantime I'll set up some explosives." Archer explained
"You're gonna blow the bridge?" Gaige sounded surprised
"Damn right I am!" Archer yelled with confidence.
'Sweet! This is gonna be AWESOME!" Gaige sang with excitement
Archer and Jessup arrived at the foot of the bridge to find Gaige and Deathtrap shielded behind a barrier of blue light emitting from Deathtraps chest.
"Did everyone pass through already?" Jessup gasped to catch his breath/
"Everyones on the other side already. Were all clear!" Gaige said while cocking a salute
"Perfect!" Archer said has he kneeled down and started rummaging through his bag again.
Shots collided with the shield and coming up in the distance were the enemy troops again. They fired round after round at the shield in what was an endless barrage of laser beams.
"Could you be any slower? Hurry up and arm that damn bomb already Mr. Youngest Crimson Lancemen!" Gaige said mocking Archer's claims before
Archer glared at her before he punched in the final command and set the proximity range.
"Done! Lets move before they get too close!" Archer said as he took off running towards the other end of the bridge.
They ran a good distance before Archer stopped them.
"Alright, this is far enough. Not lets watch the fireworks shall we?" Archer said with a triumphant smile
Soldiers were about 20 feet away from where the bomb was placed. As they drew closer to the trap the anticipation rose to excruciating levels in Archer.
"This outta be good, they don't suspect a thing." Archer said mocking Gaige
"Whatever skaglicker. This better work..." Gaige said pouting with her arms folded
The anticipation had hit its peak until the first soldier passed right by the bomb. Then another, and another, and another.
"What? Wheres the damn explosion!?" Jessup yelled into Archer's ear
One soldier stopped and kicked the bomb off the bridge. The trio started sprinting to the end of the bridge once more.
"What the Hell happened back there?" Gaige said shoving Archer
He though back to the moment he was setting up the bomb.
"Eh no I did that right. All the specs were input correctly. Nothing was wrong with the bomb itself. All thats left is-" He fell silent and looked at Gaige
"Hey, you didnt happen to see a small little pin with a plug at the end laying around did you?" He asked in a worried voice
"What? Yeah, you put one in your mouth to hold when you laid the bomb on the ground and thats the last I saw of it." Gaige fell silent too as Jessup stared at Archer with murder in his eyes
Archer looked down at his stomach and wrapped his hands around his midsection with a grimace forming on his face.
"This is gonna suck bandit-ass if we survive.."
Gaige let out a groan of irritation as she swung her metal fist for Archer's face; missing by just a hair.
"Don't get mad at me! I under some serious pressure!" Archer said trying to defend himself
"You moron!" Gaige yelled as she slid to a halt and turned to face the oncoming force. With a wave of her hand she summoned Deathtrap once more.
"Leave the bridge to me..."
She took a few steps towards the company of troops heading straight for them.
"Alright Death, you remember that move we practiced over in the Southern Shelf a few days back?" She asked
Deathtrap let out a robotic groan.
"Then its time to put it to good use." she said with a fierce look in her eyes
Deathtrap began forming an orb of yellow energy from his chest. It slowly grew to about the size of a volleyball when the stream of light from Deathtraps chest cut off. He grasped the orb in his hand and it imbued itself within it. It caused his hand to vibrate violently with a yellow aura around it.
"We should start running." Gaige said as she pushed Jessup and Archer away from Deathtrap
"Is he gonna be alright?" Jessup asked, hesitant to leave Deathtrap behind
"Don't worry about him. We just need to really pick up the pace." She giggled with a grin on her face.
Once they cleared the bridge Gaige turned around along with with Archer and Jessup to see deathtrap slowing the enemies advance with a laser beam of his own.
"ALRIGHT DT! GIVE EM A TASTE OF YOUR MEGATON FIST!" She yelled with a hand cupped around her mouth and the other forming a thumbs up in the air.
Deathtrap ceased his beam and let them approach. They fired at Death but Gaige had given him a copy of her shield when she summoned him. The white mess of troops had advanced far enough...
Deathtrap let out a long robotic wail and Gaige from all the way behind screamed cheerfully at the top of her lungs-
"MEGATON FIIIIIST!"
Deathtrap slammed his fist into the bridge causing it to erupt with a gargantuan explosion that sent plumes of flame through the air and powerful shocks waves through the bridge itself. The bridge shook violently beneath the three Raider's feet and in the distance all you could see behind the cloud of smoke and dust was debris rain from the sky and white figures flying out over the edge. When the it had all settled there was a 50 foot chasm in front of Deathtrap where there used to be solid ground.
Deathtrap glided back over to Gaige and receded back into the palm of her hand.
"Thats how you blow a bridge." She said as she skipped past the awestruck Archer whose mouth hung wide open.
"By the way..." She put her hands on her hips and leaned forward to stick her tongue out at Archer
"Dont call my DT a beast again. Got it?" She said before she skipped past him
...
"Holy skaglicks..That was the most badass thing Ive ever seen in the history of baddass things I've ever saw.." Archer said still distraught
Jessup put his hand on Archer's shoulder
"Remember when I stopped you from fighting her with nothing but an assault rifle?" he asked smirking
"I think Im in love." Archer quickly replied
"Good luck with that..." Jessup said as he left to catch up to Gaige
Jessup and Archer caught back up to Gaige who had gone quite a distance. Archer ran up beside Gaige
"Hey what was that just now?" he asked frantically
"Just a little something me and DT cooked up while we were bored one day." Gaige replied in a cocky tone
"What? But how?" Archer continued asking
"Well I got the idea of using the same theory behind Nova shields to generate a controllable explosion of energy. All I had to do was tweak DT's functionality to allow him to generate a nova shield rather than just a plain old shield."
Archer scratched his head confused.
"So all that from just the capability of one shield?" Archer said in disbelief
"Yes and no. I figured generating one shield would be lame to watch go off so I have DT generate thousands of microshields in what LOOKS like one stream of energy but is actually thousands. So its actually like having one thousand nova shields with a capacity of 1 going off all at once. this impact between DT's fist and the object is what sets the whole thing off. Its pretty simple actually." Gaige said nonchalantly.
"We practiced by blowing up icebergs! The reward was what you just witnessed and an entire extra foot of risen sea level!" Gaige squealed jumping with joy
Archer and Jessup just stared at the young engineer bewildered.
"This is the kind of crap I think of on a day to day basis guys. Get used to it sometime." She said with her head cocked and hands on her hips.
They passed around the rock formation that seperated them from the main group. When they came into view of everyone several Crimson raiders were dead on the ground while the other had barrels to their heads.
"Lieutenant! Get outta here! They can cloak!" yelled one Raider.
Before he could say anything else one of the White armored soldiers shot him through the head, leaving a charred hole in his face. Shrieks of terror came from all around.
From behind them, the trio felt a pair of hands grab each one of them and push them to the ground. Archer instinctively fought back by sweeping the legs of his attacker and knocking him over. He jumped to his feet and used the one holding Jessup down as a shield to block the blast of the soldier who shot the man before. The beam punctured the mans armor and left a red hot after burn in his back plate. Archer tossed him to the side and rolled forward to avoid the man's erratic shooting. He was about 3 feet from him when Archer pulled out a tediore pistol and lobbed it at his attacker. The blast wounded the white soldier and left him dazed. Archer charged him with full force but was blind sided by another soldier who had been off to the side. The soldier sat on top of him and stroked him across the face twice with the butt of his rifle. Archer was dazed and could be seen spitting up blood.
A group of other men started kicking him in his ribs. Archer looked to see Jessup in the same position. Two other men held Gaige's metal arm to prevent her from calling out Deathtrap. Archer was a bloody mess. He lay face up staring at the sky until the soldier he threw the tediore at stood over him. He loaded his gun and aimed it straight for Archer's head. Jessup closed his eyes and Gaige turns her head away to keep from watching the execution.