The weather had calmed considerably, either due to the storm passing or the mountain-like glaciers that surrounded them the Vault Hunters were glad for at least this small form of fortune given to them.
Treking through the ice and snow covered terrain with their blinded guide leading them, they all kept their wits about them as they searched for the Bullymong called Knuckle Dragger.
"Even though Knuckle Dragger blindsided me, I know my way around this glacier like the back of my hand!" Claptrap exclaimed from the front, the wires that had once been connected to his optic still sparking. "I bet ya we'll find my eye in Frostbite Crevasse."
Right as he finished speaking, the small bot crashed into a pile of snow and fell over.
"Anyone else think following this guy might be a bad idea?" questioned Axton.
"Bad or not, it's all we've got for now." Maya replied as they continued.
Ghost kept himself close to the front of the group, Zeke on his left with Gaige on his right. The infiltrator thinking back to what Claptrap had been saying about Liars Burg, from what he could remember, the place had once been an outpost for the Crimson Raiders before the people evacuated to Sanctuary.
If the place was still standing, and hadn't been picked clean by bandits, there could still be a large stash of supplies they could use to help them on their journey.
The group came to a clearing when Claptrap suddenly froze up, a moment later a handful of tiny Bullymongs began making their way down the nearby cliffs toward them.
"I hear Bullymongs! Sic'em minions!" the bot screeched before tucking in on itself.
Ghost tossed his second pistol to Salvador as he, the gunzerker and Axton all opened fire on group of monglets. Kreig and Zero each drew their respected weapons and cut down any that got in close.
The icewall at the back of the small canion crashed open with several more of the creatures that joined the fight. Maya raised her hand, her tattoos glowing as she captured three of them in a phaselock and crushed them to death.
Zeke growled before launching himself at another Monglet, the Skag latching onto the other creature's arm and began tearing into flesh and crushing bones underneath while the last one threw itself at Gaige.
The mechromancer glared, timing the Monglet's jump as she cocked her robotic fist back and shot it forward. The creature's head caving in like a rotten pumpkin and exploding on impact, showering the surrounding snow with blood and skull fragments.
"Madre, that's a hell of a left hook there, little red." Salvador said while clapping his hands.
"This thing can crush concrete, guess it's got other uses too." replied Gaige with more than a little pride as she shook off chunks of Bullymong from her metal hand.
"Let's go minions!" Claptrap called out as he started rolling his way to the opening the Monglet's had made. "If we don't get my eye back, we'll never get to Sanctuary!" The Vault Hunters regrouped and followed after him, Ghost coming up and bumping Gaige's shoulder with his own.
"Now that was badass." he said in regards to her recent kill. Causing the younger girl to grin back with a small blush. The group barely made it to the other side of the ice wall when the ground started shaking.
"The fuck is that?! A quake?!" Axton exclaimed, barely avoiding falling on his ass in the snow.
"No! Hyperion's literally ripping Pandora a new one looking for the Vault!" Ghost called out, barely managing to stay up himself as the quake came to an end. "It's Jack's mining operations."
"That, or your mom just rolled out of bed. Zing-AHHHHH!" " Claptrap quipped just before the cliff he had been approaching collapsed beneath him.
The Vault Hunters peered over the edge and found him buried beneath a pile of snow at the bottom to he ravine, arms and wheel waving around frantically in an attempt to free himself. "Talking metal box should stay in the frosty whiteness." said Kreig.
"Were it so easy, compadre." said Salvador as they all made their way down to the bottom.
"Since we got a minute of silence, anything more you can tell us about Sanctuary and the Crimson Raiders?" Axton asked Ghost as they carefully scaled down the ice.
"Sanctuary is a big settlement built ontop of a Dahl mining ship, it's considered one of the few highly defended locations that isn't owned by Hyperion." replied the mercenary. "As for the Crimson Raiders, the group was started by an ex-Vault Hunter named Roland. Five years ago, he and three others opened the first Vault here on Pandora which released the element Eridium that everyone is so hot after. When Hyperion started their occupation, Roland gathered all the remnants of the Crimson Lance along with an array of mercenaries, specialists, and anyone else who opposed Handsome Jack and brought them under one banner."
"The enemy of ones enemy, becomes a friend, in the worst circumstances." said Zero.
Ghost nodded, "Roland believed the same philosophy. Though that doesn't mean he lets everyone in. A lot of bandit groups also claw at the borders from time to time and try to cash in on the bounties Hyperion has out for those in the CR."
"If you don't mind, how high's your bounty?" asked Gaige, her curiosity peaking the others as well.
"Last time I bothered to check...about $580,000,000,000." the mercenary said with a casual shrug. Axton whistled.
"That's a lotta lettuce on your slaughter sandwich!" Kreig bellowed.
"Do we even wanna know how you managed to get it that high?" asked Maya.
Ghost smirked beneath his mask, "It wasn't easy, I really had to work at it." Gaige and Salvador laughed while Zero projected a smiley face emoji from his helmet.
The Vault Hunters reached the bottom of the canyon and went toward where Claptrap was still half-buried. Their movements stopped when another group of Monglets and several Brat Bullymongs made themselves known.
"Hey, what's that noise?! Are you all fighting?!" the stewart bot mumbled from under the snow over the sound of gunfire.
Maya froze one of the larger Bullymongs in a phaselock and gave Kreig the chance to run in and cleave its head off with his buzzaxe. Salavdor laughed like a crazy man as he jumped ontop of another of the creatures and started hammering his large fists down into its face, the Truxican dwarf relishing in the carnage.
Axton emptied the clip in his pistol and quickly went to swap another when a Monglet leapt at him from the side, knocking him to the snow. The commando rolled to his feet, taking out his combat axe only for his attacker to receive a kukri to the side of the head before it collapsed sideways. He sent Ghost a thumbs up as Zero appeared behind the mercenary and stabbed his katana through another Bullymong's chest.
Gaige and Zeke stood side-by-side, the mechromancer frusterated that she couldn't offer more aid as a pair of Monglets came at her and the Skag. Zeke reered his head back and launch a green blob of bile from his mouth that splattered on one of the attacking creature's faces, making it bellow in alarm and pain as the acidic substance began to burn its skin and blind it before the Skag speared into it.
Bracing herself to go hand to hand against the other small Bullymong, Gaige caught sight of something laying in the snow. Without heistation, she dove down and picked up the Dahl pistol Axton had dropped and emptied half the clip into the creature.
Adenaline still pumping, she reaimed and ended the one Zeke was still wrestling with while the others finished off the stragglers.
"All clear!" Axton called out when no more creatures came at them. Salvador went over to where Claptrap was still stuck and pulled him out with one strong yank.
"Many thanks, friend of friends!" the bot praised, "Now onward!"
The group made their way to the other end of the canyon where a supply drop pod was set up as a makeshift bridge when their echos all went off with an incoming transmission:
"Hey kiddos, Jack here - President of Hyperion."
"You got a lot of fuckin' nerve calling us after what you tried to pull." Axton growled, everyone else showing the same level of hatred for the man.
"Hey now, if anyone's got the right to be upset it's me. You see, lemme explain how things work here: Vault Hunters show up. Vault Hunters looks for the new Vault. Vault Hunters all get killed, by me. Seeing the problem here? You're all still alive. So, if you could just do me a big favor and off yourselves right now, that'd be great."
"Is he serious?" asked Gaige.
Ghost activated his own comm-link, "Guess that's what happenes when you don't got the balls to do shit yourself. Then again, from what I heard, you never really had any to begin with."
The line was silent a long moment, "You gotta be fucking kidding, if it ain't Casper the Friendly Cocksucker! I'd recognize that annoying voice anywhere. Finally got some time off being Roland's butt buddy?"
"Nice to hear you too, Jackass. You sound good, well rested, like you've been pitching not catching. Unless you paid someone to do that for you too." the mercenary roasted back which had a couple of the others snickering.
"Ohh, haha, I bet you think your being cute huh, Ghostie?"
"Bitch I'm fuckin' adorable. And as for your 'little favor' of us killing ourselves? If we wanted to do that we'd climb your ego and jump to your IQ." with that statement Salvador and Axton lost it and started laughing, Maya and Gaige each not fairing any better while Zero flashed ' :D ' on his helmet and Kreig scratched his head.
"That's almost funny. But you know what else would be funny? When I roast your corpse with the rest of those bandit savages you call friends and use that mask of yours to wipe my ass." Jack fired back, "On second thought, scratch that last part. Wouldn't want to catch something with all the knob-hobbling you're probably doing"
Ghost's grin remained in place beneath his mask. "How bout a better deal, Jackoff." His grin vanished and his tone became deadly serious, "I'll take off my mask when you take off yours."
The air seemed to drop several degrees colder than it already was, the line went silent for several long heartbeats;
"I'm gonna enjoy watching you die." was all Jack said before the line went dead.
"He can dish it out, but he can't handle it." Ghost said shaking his head before turning to the others who were all looking back at him. "What?"
"Dude, that was so metal!" Gaige exclaimed
"Si,amigo. I haven't laughed that hard in a while! That was one hell of a roasting." added Salvador, clapping a large gand on the mercenary's back.
Maya shook her head, "Starting to see why your bounty's so high now. This happen often?"
"Only when he acts high and mighty like that. It actually brightens my day a bit when I piss him off. It's worth having the extra highered guns coming after me." said the mercenary. "Now lets get going, we're burning daylight."
Taking a couple minutes to open several crates scattered around the supply pod, the Vault Hunters made their way up the makeshift bridge and up onto the other side of the ice cliffs. Gaige went to hand the pistol she had picked up back to Axton only for the Commando to wave her off.
"Ya earned your stripes, kiddo. Aim between the eyes." he said while twirling his combat axe in his hand.
Claptrap came to a stop and started looking around in a couple directions, "Oh! My eye just switched back on! I see a tough-looking group of minions, and an incredibly handsome robot. Which means that whoever has my eye...is very close..." the stewart bot shivered just as the large Bullymong that took his optic appeared at the top of a pile of wreckage on the ridge.
Dropping down, two of its four massive arms picking up a damaged runner and held it over its head;
Knuckle Dragger
This is gonna hurt
The vehicle was sent hurdling at the Vault Hunters who all scattered in different directions when it crashed in the show with an explosion of heat and metal. Kreig was the first to go charging in;
"You will paint my meat bicycle with your red sauce!" the psycho shouted as he leapt at the Bullymong with his buzzaxe held high.
Knuckle Dragger roared, swatting the large man aside and sending him crashing into a snow drift before hauling up a large chunk of ice and throwing it at the others.
Avoiding the projectile, Maya attempted to freeze the beast in a phaselock only for it to break out of it. The constant use of her Siren powers coupled with still recovering from the train crash leaving her drained and unable to maintain her abilities.
Zer0 drew his katana and dashed toward his target, his form all but a black blur as he flittered across the snow with unnatural speed and swiftness. The blade slicing through Knuckle Dragger's lower left arm, the large monster roaring in pain and swinging one of its other arms around to hit the assassin, only to hit empty space as Zer0's body flickered away in a flash of light and reappearing several meters away.
Seeing the Bullymong distracted, Ghost activated his own abilities. Time slowing down with his eyes glowing bright silver as he closed the gap between him and Knuckle Dragger. Leaping up onto the beast's back and driving his kukri into the side of its neck and emptying his pistols clip into its right eye.
When time resumed its original flow, the mercenary leapt away as Knuckle Dragger started flailing its arms around with blood pouring down from its destroyed right eye.
Salvador, Gaige and Axton came next, the mechromancer and the dwarf drawing the Bullymong's attention while the Commando slid between its legs, driving his axe into the back of its left knee. Zeke followed after him, large claws going after the larger creatures other knee and forcing it drop to the ground.
An explosive warcry was the only warning any of them got as Kreig came exploding out of the snow he had been thrown into. His large, booted feet running up Knuckle Dragger's back and jumping high before coming down and slamming the blade of his buzzaxe into the top of the beast's head. The force behind the blow burrowing the weapon deep into the Bullymong's skull and nearly cleaving it in two while at the same time driving its body to the ground.
"The meat bicycle rides again!" Kreig shouted in victory from utop the now dead Knuckle Dragger.
"Nice takedown, psycho-man." Axton said as they gathered around the corpse. The Commando reaching down and pulling out Claptrap's eye which was attached to a long chain of wires around the Bullymong's neck.
"Got my eye? Great! Now we just gotta find someone to put it back into me. Much as I'm sure any of you would love to jam your fist into my skull, optic surgery is best left to the professionals." said Claptrap.
Gaige grinned, "Right here, robot man." she said taking out her small tool kit, "Fixing an optic is child's play."
Taking the optic from Axton, the mechromancer knelt down and started working on Claptrap. Attatching the proper wires to one another and making sure that there wasn't any damage done to any of the more sensitive components before screwing the optic in place. The whole process taking less than a minute for the robotic savant.
"Just one more twist annnnnd." The optic sparked before glowing a dull-blue like it had before. "Bam! Done!" Gaige exclaimed with a fist pump.
"Praise be! I can see!" Claptrap shouted while doing doughnuts in the snow. "Thanks a million cyber-minion! Now I can make sure we're actually heading to Liar's Berg instead of guessing the direction!"
The group paused, taking in what the stewart bot had said as he wheeled up the ridge whistling merrily. "...starting to see why Jack killed all those things." Salvador grumbled as they followed after Claptrap.
"Com'mon minions! Liar's Berg is on the other side of this Hyperion barge." the bot said motioning to the reinforced doors of the yellow painted ship that was half buried in the side of the glacier. "Ha! This door's Hyperion tech, too easy!" Claptrap started typing on a small panel before a lense activated and scanned him. "Aaaaaaand OPEN!"
"Intruders detected. Locking door." the system said before the door was sealed with even more locks and the panel shut down.
A dull silence filled the air as Claptrap turned to the Vault Hunters, "Well, it was nice knowing ya! I hear getting eaten alive by Bullymongs isn't such a bad way to go."
"Lemme get that for ya." Angel's voice suddenly came through their ears. "Executing phase shift." The panel flicked to life with the unknown woman's face a moment before all the locks disengaged and the ramp lowered.
"Thanks for the help." Ghost said as they stepped onto the barge.
"You're welcome. Perks of being an Artificial Intelligence. I'm networked into almost everything on this planet." replied the newly dubbed AI.
"So, wait, you're watching us right now?" asked Axton a little uneasy at being spied on.
"In a matter of speaking. Don't worry, I only intend to offer aid when you need it."replied Angel. "Speaking of which..." the sound of machinery within the Hyperion ship came online, the walls and floor shifting and opening to reveal several weapon, ammo and supply crates that were being kept inside.
The Vault Hunters looked around in awe, "Oh, wow..." Maya muttered as all of the containers opened to reveal an array of guns.
"DIBS!" Salvador shouted, tossing his borrowed pistol back to Ghost as he dove toward the nearest weapon chest and grabbing a Jakob's triple-barrel shotgun and a Bandit SMG. "The gunzerker rises again, putas!"
"Now this is more like it." Axton said as he picked up a Jakob's assault rifle that he checked over closely before picking up a Dahl SMG as well.
"An impressive collection, not as strong as we need, but better than what we have." said Zer0 as he slid a Maliwan sniper rifle over his shoulder and slid a Tedoire pistol on his hip.
Maya grabbed herself a Maliwan pistol that fired corrosive rounds and a Hyperion SMG while Gaige managed to her hands on a Maliwan SMG that fired shock rounds. "So, they just left this stuff laying around?" wondered the mechromancer as she looked over her new weapon.
"Hyperion's overly arrogant given that they have more than enough supplies for just about anything, one lost barge with a handful of weapons and ammo is nothing more than a drop in the bucket to them." replied Ghost as he scooped up a Vladof assault rifle and slapped a fresh clip into it.
"If you're ready minions, lets get going!" Claptrap exclaimed. "Even though I got my sight back, we need to meet up with my good buddy Hammerlock before going after my ship."
Ghost's head whipped around at the name, "Hammerlock? Alastair Hammerlock?"
"Know him?" asked Axton.
"One of the most renouned Big Game Hunters and zoologists in the system. He came here to Pandora years ago and has been helping the Crimson Raiders with the war effort since Hyperion arrived. I've actually helped him on several of his assignments in the past." replied the mercenary. "If Hammerlock's in Liar's Berg, then that means we got a big helping hand in getting to Sanctuary."
"Exactly!" Claptrap bellowed as he started working on the panel and opening the ramp on the other side of the barge. "Onward minions!"
The group treked along the open path through the glacier and found themselves on a high cliff overlooking a valley. At the base ahead of them was a cluster of small buildings surrounded by a fence with a long bridge stretched over a frozen river.
"Welcome to Liar's Berg! Keep your wits about you minions, this glacier's run by a bandit named Captain Flynt." warned Claptrap. "The jerk kept me as his torture plaything for a few months. We played games like 'dodge the blowtorch' and 'don't get dunked in the pool of acid'. I was really good at the first one."
"Sounds like a real charmer." muttered Maya as the Vault Hunters made their way down the ice and started for the front gate of the settlement when their echos went off;
"Attention people of Pandora! Handsome Jack here. The mass-murdering psychopath known as Ghost has been spotted in Liar's Berg. I'm offering a $600,000,000,000 reward to anyone who can bring him to me dead or a live, preferably the second one. I am also offering an additional $1,000,000,000 for the head of each of the Vault Hunters he's traveling with. Good hunting bandits!"
"That's a lot of cash! Alright, boys this is Captain Flynt! I want you all to find those skaglicks and bring 'em to me! NOW!
"...Guess they know we're here now." said Gaige with a nervous chuckle.
Ghost cocked the bolt handle of his rifle, "Than lets not keep them waiting."
X
A/N: A bit of a hiatus, but I'm still in the saddle.
For those wondering, Ghost's Action Skill is known as 'Ghost Walk'. To simplify it, his power is similar to Pointman's reflexes in FEAR where he moves so quickly the world around him seems to slow down. Giving him a huge advantage in a firefight. But at the same time it doesn't last forever and there are limits to how much he can do while in that state.
As for the overall story, I'm still keeping a lot of the plot the same while at the same time making as many changes as I can to ensure I'm not ripping off the game's script. As awesome as the story is by itself, I'm doing my best to spin off in my own way. And believe me, things will be taking an array of turns in the near future.
Thanks for hanging in there folks, and I'll update again soon!