Opportunity had been meant as Hyperion's flagship city, first permanent bastion planetside, and Handsome Jack's personal egopolis. With his death and the subsequent destruction of the moonbase, it had become the tombstone of Hyperion's Pandora efforts. Half finished buildings stood abandoned, already beginning to decay from the elements.

The city had remained strangely vacant since Hyperion's final defeat. No animals had built nests or dens in the structures. The plants left by Hyperion gardeners had withered and died, rather than spread unchecked. Not even the planet's omnipresent bandit population had taken to squatting in the ruins.

If Axton had been a more philosophical man, he might have thought that the planet itself had doomed Opportunity to die alone. Being the literal minded soldier he was, however... "I hate empty cities," he groused. "Oh, sure, if they're actually empty you've got nothing to worry about. The trouble is there's no way to know if they're actually empty until you either leave, or something starts attacking you. Before that, you're creepin' around, white knucklin' your gun, halfway to prayin' for the shooting start, just so it breaks the damn silence." He glanced at Krieg. "Am I making any sense?"

Krieg grunted and tugged at the shoulder straps to his burden. "A desert shark wants to fly with a hummingbird. See a witch doctor for sunrise and sunset."

Axton stared for second, then just shook his head and moved on. "You know, there are times I think I get you. Mostly, though, you just confuse the hell outta me."

"Hey, Minion 1? How close are we?" a voice asked from behind Krieg. "I'm getting a little tired of staring at the sky back here."

"You're the one whose greatest weakness is stairs," Axton retorted. "Opportunity's full of 'em. You either ride Kreig's back, or he tosses you down every flight we come to, and back up on the way out."

"Curse you, steadily-decaying-and-probably-not-Handome-Anymore-Jack!" Claptrap shouted angrily, waving his hands at the heavens. "Even from beyond the grave you inconvenience me!"

"You and me both," Axton muttered. "I really wish Moxxi had come up with a plan B."

"Probably could have, if you wanted to wait a while longer," Claptrap pointed out. "But there's no time for that. We've gotta save Minion 5!"

"And since you can talk to my turret software and Hyperion's mainframe, you're the fastest way to do that, I know," Axton growled. "Come on, Krieg. Let's pick up the pace."

Krieg nodded and motioned with his rusted, savage looking rifle. "Foghorn station in the root cellar."

Axton gave the gun an uneasy look. "Just make sure that I'm behind you if you have to fire that thing. I know you prefer your buzzsaw, but you could at least use a gun that doesn't look like it's going to fly apart at the seams every time you pull the trigger. God knows there's enough of 'em laying around."

Krieg just growled and stomped down the stairs to the communication center doors.

"Whoo-hoo! Take that AGAIN, stairs! Minion 6, you're the best pack mule a Claptrap could ever hope for!" Claptrap squirmed in his harness a little, trying to get a look at the door. "This is it! You can set me down now, Minion 6! I'm ready to do my part!"

"Just don't foul up my turrets," Axton warned as Krieg unbuckled his harness and lowered the little robot to the ground. "I still need to be able to use 'em after you're done here."

"No worries, Minion 1! Talking to other computers is one of the things I do best! Especially when they're sexy little turrets!"

Axton stared at him for a minute, then leveled his assault rifle. "Tell you what, boy-o. Poker nights or no, you'll treat my darlin' with as much respect as you treat yourself. Otherwise, I'll make sure your species is extinct by the end of the day."

Claptrap leaned close Axton's ECHO. "See that?" he asked in a stage whisper. "I told you there was nothing to worry about! He's all about you!" He looked at Axton. "She says she was worried you might be planning to marry her off after the whole Deathtrap/Mongzilla incident. I said she was crazy, but hey, you know women!"

Axton's stare had switched from protectively malicious to dumbfounded. "How did you-"

"Enough salmoning!" Krieg shouted. "Time to throw the raven!"

"Right," Axton shook his head and motioned to the control console. "Over there, Claptrap. Let's get this over with."

"Sure thing, buddy!" Claptrap rolled over the the center console and hunted around for a second. "Here we go! Input jack!" He plugged a hand into a horizontal slot in the side of the console, and the computer station flashed to life. "All set, Minion 1! Now I just need your ECHO!"

"Second time in two days I've given this up," Axton grumbled, handing over the device. "At least there's no killer monster crawling up a cliff this time." He turned to Krieg. "Keep an eye outside, will ya? Just to be safe."

"If you hear anything, beep the horn twice," Krieg agreed, and walked outside.

Claptrap had hooked the device under his free arm. "Okay, I'm interfacing with your turret controls now! This'll just take a min-"

There was a bang like a grenade, and Claptrap shot away from the console and across the room. The expulsion was forceful enough to throw him through the wall and out of sight, leaving a trapezoidal hole behind. A wisp of smoke rose from inside.

Axton bent over and looked in, halfway between amused and horrified. "My gear okay?"

Claptrap coughed and crawled his way out. A cluster of yellow wires was tangled around his antenna, but he didn't seem to notice. "Oof...Minion! We've got trouble!"

"I'll say," Axton said wryly. "Can you try again? Without blowing yourself up, this time."

"That wasn't my fault, Minion! That console was programmed to blow! It's a trap!"

"What?!"

"No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!"

The sound of Krieg's roar was followed by gunfire. "Oh, hell." Axton sprinted outside. "What's going-" He broke off.

Huge, four winged Surveyors were swooping through the air, diving bombing Krieg with energy blasts. Krieg ripped off another burst of gunfire, and one exploded, but there were dozens more in the air.

"Where the hell did these come from?!" Axton yelled, opening fire.

"Magician's post!" Krieg shouted back, still firing. "Waking up all over Chance!"

Between rifle bursts, Axton managed to catch a glimpse of light coming from the digistruct pillars. "Crap!" He fired at another Surveryor, but the nimble aircraft dodged out the way and swooped off. "Anything other than these yet?"

"Nothing but flies!" Krieg shouted. "Thick as mud, though!"

"Then we've got a problem," Axton said grimly. "We need more time to get the locator pulse out. Try and hold them off!"

"This far, no farther!" Krieg roared.

"I'll take that as a yes," Axton said. He ducked back into the comm room. "Trappy! Get plugged back in!"

"Wouldn't do any good, Minion 1!" Claptrap lamented. "The console's burned out. The power surge wrecked it."

Axton cursed. "We're up to our eyes in Surveyors out there. Can't you do anything?"

"Not from here," Claptrap moaned. "The only thing we could still try is plugging right into the transmitter itself. That's not accessible from the mainframe, so it's not hackable."

"And it won't blow you away again," Axton said, nodding. "Great, let's get going. Where is it?"

"Ummm... that's a problem," Claptrap said hesitantly.

"Where, Claptrap?!"

"Well... you know that big building with the light shooting out of the top?"

"That's the one? What floor?"

"Right at the beam of light. It's where the antenna base is."

"You mean all the way on the roof?" Axton demanded.

Claptrap nodded, a full body motion for him. The wires wrapped around his antenna bobbed.

"Great." He turned to the door, raising his gun. "Stick close, and try not to let them hit you."

"You got it, Minion 1!"

Axton darted out, firing into the air. "We've gotta get to the main building!" He yelled. "The beam of light at the top! Strap on Claptrap, I'll cover you!"

"No room for jell-o!" Krieg shouted.

Before Axton could work out what that meant, Kreig had stowed his gun and seized Claptrap, tucking the robot under his left arm like a football. In the blink of an eye, he leapt into the air, vaulting over the stairs. He landed on the railing, leapt again, and vanished.

Axton blinked in surprise. "Damn that was fast." He fired off a few more rounds at the Surveyors, then sprinted up the stairs himself, trying to see where Krieg had gone. As he reached the top, he screeched to a halt and stared at the side of the building in amazement, gun dropping to his side.

Krieg was scaling the building from the outside. He wasn't wasting time looking for handholds in the smooth glass face, either. From the sound of shattering glass, he seemed to be simply stabbing his fingers through the windows and dragging himself up that way. The aptly titled psycho was fast, already forty feet up and still going strong.

Claptrap didn't seem too happy about it. Axton could hear him screaming. It might have been a trick of the light, but he also thought he could see the gold wires bobbing at the top of his head.

A Surveyor strafed Krieg, splattering his path with plasma bursts. Axton snapped out of his funk and took aim, blasting at the flyer. His bullets clipped the wing, and the small plane spiraled off in a plume of smoke and fire.

Unfortunately for Krieg, there were at least a dozen more, and they were all focused on him now. Even worse, they were rapidly moving out of Axton's range.

"Out of range of my assault rifle, can't deploy my turrets, and the bogeys are flying really close to my friend."Axton exhaled sharply and dropped to one knee. "Zero, I really wish you were here right now." He swapped his assault weapon for a sniper rifle, and took a bead on Krieg. "Hang on, buddy..." He squeezed the trigger, and another Surveyor exploded.

Krieg didn't seem to notice. He kept climbing, one handed, never slowing or wavering. His grip on Claptrap never seemed to loosen, although the robot kept screaming the whole way up. Axton watched from the ground, sniping when he could, not even aware he was holding his breath.

But sniping was not Axton's forte. For every Surveyor he killed, he ended up firing at least seven rounds. He quickly depleted his sniper rifle ammunition, and the Surveyors continued to peck away at Krieg.

Despite the constant strafing from the planes, they reached the top. Through the scope of his empty gun, Axton saw Krieg set Claptrap down. The little robot finally stopped screeching and scurried in closer to the center of the roof, presumably to the antenna. Axton hoped he was successful in getting the locator pulse out.

Krieg was focused on drawing off the Surveyors. He roared wordlessly, pounding his chest, daring the flying annoyances to challenge him. One swooped in close, and Krieg swatted it out of the air with his axe.

"Shoot the damn things," Axton said, teeth clenched. "Forget the axe, shoot them!"

Three Surveyors left, and their shots were getting closer. Krieg swung again, and another exploded into fire. He spun into a backhand, and then there was one.

But the move had put him out of position and too near the edge. The final Surveyor plunged toward Krieg's exposed back and slammed into him, exploding and throwing him into the air.

"KRIEG! NOOOOOOO!"

Axton's scream could do nothing to halt his friend's fall to the ground. It seemed to take forever as he twisted and flailed, and finally-

Crashed.

Axton raced over to the base of the tower where Krieg had fallen. The masked man was lying on his back, arms spread and visible eye closed. "Krieg! Can you hear me?!"

Nothing.

Axton dropped to his knees and grabbed Krieg's hand. "Don't do this, man," he said, voice tight. His fingers felt at Krieg's wrist for a pulse. "You wouldn't die while Maya's still around, would you?"

For a few more gut-wrenching seconds, there was still nothing. Then, his eye fluttered and rolled open behind the mask. "Twas it beauty?" Krieg asked dazedly. He pushed himself up, groaning. "She's a cruel mistress."

Axton's breath rushed out in a huge sigh of relief. "Holy hell man, don't do that to me." He stood, grabbing the bigger man's wrist and pulling him up. "You are damn lucky your shields absorbed all the impact on that fall. I wasn't sure they would."

Krieg chuckled and adjusted his mask. "Hear the lamentations of their women." He threw his head back, arms wide, and yelled, "Noooooo!"

Axton felt his face redden. "That's between you and me, pal. Nobody else hears about that, or I'll push you off Sanctuary myself." He looked up the side of the tower. "Come on. Let's go see if Trappy got what we need."

"Once more into the breach?" Krieg asked, his voice weary and reluctant.

"I didn't say climb the outside of the building again," Axton pointed out. He walked over to one of the doors into the tower. "You know you could've used an elevator to get up there, right?"

Krieg was silent for a long minute. Finally, he said in a surprisingly good mimic of Axton's voice, "That's between you and me, pal. Nobody else hears about that, or I'll push you off Sanctuary myself."

Axton cocked an eyebrow. "Huh."

[Inspiration takes you to some odd places. Glad you're aboard for the ride!]

[Next week we go north of the Wall. Guest stars and oddities abound in... a chapter name I haven't figured out yet. Always eager to hear your thoughts, and thanks for reading!]

[Also, despite the lies of FFN's update system, I've decided to offer myself up as beta reader. You've all been kind enough to look over my work; maybe I can return the favor.]