I don't own Borderlands. Trigger warning for non-graphic murder and threats of rape.
Ever since my arrival on Pandora, I've heard the bandits say some pretty dumb stuff; what, I hear you ask, was the stupidest thing I've heard from one?
"Looks like one of ours, let 'em in while I try to get Hyperion back on the horn!"
Flanksteak didn't know it at the time, but with this statement…
He done fucked up.
We drove into the bandit's car park before we revealed ourselves, firing our guns at every outlaw in sight until the area was empty.
Alarms started blaring after someone figured out that there was too much gunfire for it to be just the regular infighting, and we could hear shouting from further into the shantytown.
I climbed out of the car just in time to see Maya do a handstand on one of the bars on the car's side as she jumped out.
"That was unnecessary… but cool." I said.
"OH COME ON!" yelled Axton.
"Hey, she isn't in my bad books for being an arsehole." I replied, smirking.
We ran into the base, heading towards the dam whilst fighting the Bloodshot forces.
Krieg charged forwards, screaming incoherently as he hurled his buzzaxe at a marauder firing from behind cover; the bandit dodged the axe before it could hit them, but fell moments later as Maya's laser burned through their skull.
We reached the side of the dam, finding a large gouge between it and the camp, with a face on the dam made with a pair of red lights for eyes, large bars of metal for angry eyebrows, and a drawbridge for a mouth.
"We got intruders!" yelled Flanksteak "GET 'EM, BAD MAW!"
The bridge began to lower, but before it was fully down, a figure jumped off it and landed in front of us.
He was a nomad, with red and grey robes; in place of the usual mask, he had a cloth face mask covering the lower half of his face, and a hood that looked like a turtle shell in shape, leaving only his nose visible, and he carried a massive shield that looked like it was fashioned out of a car door.
He pointed at us-
Bad Maw
Before slamming his shield down in front of him, showing a trio of little people in psycho masks chained to the front.
…And his merry midgets!
The nomad drew a shotgun from his back, and began firing at us.
We dived for cover… well, the others did; I blinked behind the mutant and fired my shotgun at his back; the bullets hit him, but he didn't seem to care as he turned around and slammed his shield into me.
I blinked before he could shoot me, reappearing behind a crate and drawing my revolver.
"Zer0!" I yelled over the ECHO "Aim for the chains! When he hit me, I saw that the guys on his shield are covering a hole."
The hitman nodded, before cloaking and making his way to the roof of a nearby building; after taking cover behind a chimney, the assassin drew his Jericho; a sleek, futuristic-looking white, black and orange sniper rifle with an extended barrel and glowing red lines running down its body.
Zer0 fired the rifle three times, destroying the chains and letting the psycho dwarfs free.
We concentrated our fire on the hole in the shield, and, even with the fact that nomads are some of the hardiest of the mutant races out there, the bandit still fell after a few seconds.
After dealing with the psychos, we grabbed a key from his body, which was inserted into a hole in the middle of a weird metal decoration shaped like an eye inside a spiked wheel.
The drawbridge lowered, and as we walked across, I looked up at the face on the wall and said to no one in particular "Anyone else thinking of the phrase 'belly of the beast'?"
Inside, we found what looked like a garage, with several Technicals and Outrunners, along with some kind of bus; every surface was covered in rust, blood, and urine, which matched pretty well with the information coming from my nose; from here, I could hear what sounded like the dam's turbines, a constant hum, occasionally interrupted as the old, and presumably uncared for, machinery ground against something.
"You're in?" said Lilith "Great. Roland should be around here somewhere. I'm sure you can handle yourselves, but if anything happens to Roland… make sure nothing happens to Roland."
"The fuck?" I heard Axton mutter; looking other, I saw him looking at a image of Marcus, painted on the wall in blood, with the words 'GUN BRINGER' underneath.
"That's… interesting and in no way creepy." I said.
Continuing forwards, we found a room with a large portion of the floor lowered down and filled with knee-high water (at least, I hope its water).
There were several bandits in the room, looking as if we had run in when they were setting up defences; among them were a new kind of bandit- Bruisers; tall and heavily muscled, they wore cargo pants (Ok, what the hell is this planet's obsession with cargo pants?), combat boots, metal gauntlets, and masks made from haphazardly welded together pieces of scrap metal.
"Look out!" yelled one of them, pointing an assault rifle at us, as we entered the room "Mercs!"
Axton fired his rifle, taking down a pair of marauders before taking out his axe and slamming it into the head of a charging psycho; the commando then drew his pistol and fired, using the psycho corpse as a human shield as he yelled "I got some for EVERYBODY!"
"Look here Hyperion," came Flanksteak's voice - it seemed the bandit lord had left the intercom system running, broadcasting his voice across the base "I'm not askin' much for Roland! A million bucks! Hello…? This thing on?"
"You handling the Bloodshot alright?" said Lilith "They've been trying to take Roland out ever since he kicked their asses out of Sanctuary; I shoulda seen it coming."
In the next room, we found an ECHO tape on the table; playing the tape revealed what sounded like Marcus doing a template and adding in names later.
"Dear [Roland]. I can't help but notice the [Bloodshots] you are fighting pack some seeeeerious firepower; if you are going to have a chance against them, you'll need to up your arsenal. You could always arm your men with some high-quality munitions from my store. If you buy from me, those [Bloodshots] will be dead in no time!"
"Why do the Bloodshots have this?" wondered Salvador.
"Probably took it off Roland when they grabbed him." said Gaige.
The next room appeared to be a turbine room; water poured into the room from the right, turning a group of large turbines before flowing out through drain pipes to the left; we stood on one of two raised platforms above the waterways, with a pair of bridges connecting the two.
Maya dove behind cover, narrowly avoiding the shots of a shield-carrying nomad; when her laser failed to cut through his shield, the siren Phaselocked him, smirking before moving the mutant's head into the turbine, decapitating him.
Moving onwards, we found a hallway where part of the ice wall around Three Horns had collapsed, smashing through the dam wall (pun intended).
A trio of psycho stood in the room, two of them holding grenades; this proved to be their downfall when I shot one in the hand.
In short: boom.
"Ok, Hyperion," said Flanksteak, still unaware we could hear him "a hundred thousand bucks for Roland! Final offer! ECHO me back and let's negotiate, already!"
"Hyperion wants Roland, bad" stated Lilith "Even if they don't buy him from the Bloodshots, they'll be coming for him; you'd better hurry."
We came to a large open room where the Bloodshots had set up barricades, which we were prepared for.
What we weren't prepared for, however, was the turret gun that one of the bandits was manning.
We scrambled for cover as bullets started flying from the machine gun, barely avoiding becoming Swiss cheese.
I leaned out to take a pot shot at the turret, but had to abandon that plan as my Shield was nearly broken before I could pull the trigger.
"Anyone got a plan for-" I started, before remembering something "…oh, right, I'm Nightcrawler."
After my Shield charged, I leaned out long enough to get an idea of where I was going, before blinking behind the turret.
"What?! Where'd he go?!" the gunner said, moments before I drove a sword into his neck.
I pulled his body off the turret, before sitting on it myself and turning the gun on the bandits.
After they were dealt with, I stared down at the turret and sighed "If only I had my tools… I could take this thing off its base and mess with the firing mechanism so Krieg could lug it around, blasting bandits with unparalleled force and-"
Gaige grabbed my cloak with her cyborg arm and dragged me off the gun "Blondie, I like going evil genius on machines as much as the next girl, but I'm going to stop you before you try to stick your dick in it."
"Yeah, you want him to stick it somewhere else, don't you?" laughed Axton.
Without missing a beat, Gaige drew her pistol and shot him in the back of the head.
The commando stumbled forwards, before turning to glare at the mechroamcer.
"See," said Gaige "that's the good thing about Shields; you can shoot your asshole teammates without them dying!"
Krieg looked down at his shotgun, then at Zer0, then back to the shotgun.
Zer0 reached over, grabbing the gun and pointing it away from him and said "Don't."
Passing a table, I saw an ECHO tape on it, and put it in my ECHO.
"Dear [Flanksteak]. I can't help but notice the [Crimson Raiders] you are fighting pack some seeeeerious firepower; if you are going to have a chance against them, you'll need to up your arsenal. You could always arm your men with some high-quality munitions from my store. If you buy from me, those [Crimson Raiders] will be dead in no time!"
I stared down at my ECHO, before saying "Really? He's selling to the guys who want to destroy the town he lives in? REALLY? Greedy son of-"
Continuing on as I angrily muttered under my breath, we reached a large, circular area with a pit of water in the middle, swirling in a whirlpool.
The bandits- who hadn't seen us yet- pushed one of their own into the pit, laughing as he was pulled under.
"Look at those murderous Bloodshots." Said Jack, hacking like a prick as usually "Don't you think Pandora would be better without their scum? That's all I wanna do; clean up this planet. If that means I've gotta kill bandits like you, like the Bloodshots, like all those Crimson Raider idiots in Sanctuary? Hell… I'm happy to do it."
"I'm not a bandit!" I said angrily "I'm a vigilante! I KILL bandits, that's my job! As it stands, you're just killing everyone you think is a-" at this point, Jack's profile picture disappeared, meaning he had hung up.
"Oh that piece of FUCKING SHIT BALLS TIED TO A-" every bandit in the room turned to face us.
"-COCK!" I yelled, blinking behind a crate.
A nomad shield-carrier fired at Salvador, destroying the crate he was hiding behind; the gunzerker pulled out both of his rifles and shot at the nomad, the bullets pinging off her shield. After he stopped, the nomad yelled "That was really your plan, midget?"
The gunslinger smiled, pointing at the nomad's feet; the bullets hadn't got through the shield, but they had driven her back on to one of the half-broken bridges over the pit.
"Sí. Adios" he said, before emptying the rest of the rifle's ammo into the bridge's base, easily breaking it and sending the nomad into the water.
"The resistance needs the info Roland gathered on the Vault." Said Lilith, as we finished killing the bandits "We know Hyperion wants it opened, but we don't know why. If you rescue Roland, we might have a shot at stopping Jack."
"Stopping Jack is the whole reason I joined." I said "I don't like the idea of a clearly psychopathic man getting his hands on a super weapon or whatever is in the Vault; neither do I like the idea of the head of one of the corps getting their hands on a Vault; in a way, this is two birds with one high-calibre revolver round to the dick."
"Amen, dude." Said Gaige, offering her hand for the highest of fives.
We made our way to the upper level of the room, using some rubble as a pathway.
We fought the bandits who had been defending that area (including a psycho that I Sparta kicked into the water pit below), before a garage on the far side of the room opened, letting several psychos and nomads in, including a nomad in white and red, wearing a mining helmet over his leather mask.
Oh, and he was holding a rocket launcher.
A blinked away just in time to avoid a rocket that destroyed the bridge running over the water pit from one side of the room to the other, before hurling a lightning blast in his direction.
The nomad laughed, aiming his launcher at my new location; before he could pull the trigger, the end of the launcher fell off, severed by an unseen force.
Say it with me, 'Zer0'.
The assassin drove his blade into the nomad's neck, before blasting the heads off several psychos with his pistol; when one of the other nomads tried to hit him with his shield, the hitman leaped over the mutant, blasting him in the head with his shotgun whilst in the air.
After helping to deal with the other bandits, I looked to the ceiling and said "Dear god, Zer0 is so OP, he's making us look incompetent, please nerf. Love, an atheist."
Zer0 didn't verbally responded, but a smiley face appeared in front of his helmet.
As I made my way to the door the nomad came out of, I found another tape, this one from Flanksteak.
"Bloodshots: Roland's raiders are tearin' us up. Their guns are just too dammed good. But I've come up with a solution to this problem: sack the hell up and STOP DYING ALL THE GODDAMN TIME! And quit suggesting we buy guns from that Marcus jaggoff; he lives in Sanctuary, so he's just as much of a double-crossing, holier-then-thou JACKASS as Roland and his raiders!"
I saw Krieg start to reach for the nomad's rocket launcher, so I blinked over and snatched it whilst yelling "yoink!" before putting it in my ECHO.
"BUT… BUT… THE BOOMANITOR! IT WAS DESTINED TO-" the psycho yelled, only for me to interrupt.
"Be stolen by a bespectacled vigilante as vengeance for you stealing that grenade mod back on Southern Shelf?" I said cockily "Besides, it's broken; I'm just taking this thing for parts."
"Goddammit, Hyperion! I didn't get half my guys killed kidnapping the most wanted criminal on Pandora just so you could IGNORE me! How 'bout fifty thousand buc- what the hell?"
The sound of feedback came from the speakers before a new voice came over them.
"Hellooooooo Bloodshots!" the voice was a young woman's with an odd accent I had trouble placing.
"This is your queen speaking." She said, her voice filled with arrogance and scorn "I've heard from a reliable source that you're trying to ransom Roland to Hyperion. Now, there are a few kinds of people on this planet I hate: first, bandit clans who DON'T follow my orders; second, the Crimson Raiders; this is a planet of chaos and murder and all the things that normal, decent madmen like, NOT the pretty gumdrop fairyland Roland's cock-sucking fuckwads want to turn this place in to."
"But," she continued "You know what I hate most of all? People who work with GOD-DAMN CORPS! THOSE FUCKERS THINK THEY CAN CONTROL THE UNIVERSE JUST BECAUSE THEY HAVE MONEY! WELL THEY CAN'T CONTROL US!" I heard her take a deep breath, calming herself "Clearly, Flanksteak, that's not true for you. YOU contacted Hyperion. YOU tried to get ransom money from them. YOU allowed them to control you."
"You ain't a bandit, Flanksteak." She said, venom dripping from her voice "You ain't strong; you're weak. The strong rule, the weak serve; Morgana?"
A familiar voice joined in, saying "By royal decree of the Burned Queen, the Bloodshot clan are to be purged from Pandora, their bases and lands taken for the glory of the Anarc clan, and their leader, Flanksteak, brought in for… punishment."
"Thaaaat's right, Mori! For any of you who didn't get that: Burn every Bloodshot on Pandora, take over their territories, and bring that little shit Flanksteak to my fun room."
More feedback played as Flanksteak seem to take back control of the intercoms "Boys! Anarc transport copters headin' right for the Stronghold! Get ready for a raid! AND ONE OF YOU KILL THOSE FUCKING INTRUDERS!"
More feedback, before the Queen started speaking again "Thanks for the reminder, dead man! Fair ruffians and vagabonds of the Anarcs, a group of Vault Hunters are inside the Bloodshot Stronghold. Normally, I'd ask you to slaughter them, but these guys have proven themselves to be strong. If you have to kill them, do it, but get as many in chains as you can; they'll join us, one way or another. Mori?"
"The Vault Hunter group include a solder, a man in a skin-tight suit with a helmet, a siren, a short men in an orange shirt, a girl with a cyborg arm, a bruiser-like mutant in a psycho mask, and the Storm Wraith; pictures have been sent to the knight of every squad."
"'Storm Wraith'?" asked Gaige.
"Some of the bandits started calling me that after they saw my powers." I replied.
"Thanks, Mori, this is why you're my personal aide. Three more things, idiots: anyone who kills or captures a Hunter will get a knighthood; if you capture one, feel free to have some fun with them, just keep 'em alive. And finally: NO ONE, KILLS, THE WRAITH. Killing the Wraith shall be punishable by demotion to peasant, and we don't want that, now, do we?"
Flanksteak regained control of the intercom once more, and started barking orders to his men.
I called Lilith and said "Did you hear all that?"
"Yeah. You need to get Roland and get out NOW. Clan wars are always violent and bloody; let's just let them sort this out themselves."
"What I'm wondering," said Maya "is what they want with Dominic."
I shrugged "Hell if I know; maybe she wants to kill me herself?"
Heading forwards, we came to a room with pieces of concrete - pulled straight out of the walls, if the rebar sticking out of it was any indication- placed as barricades, with a slightly raised portion of the floor on the far side of the room.
Gaige took cover behind one of the barricades, before leaning out and firing her SMG, the elemental weapon's bullets electrocuting anything they hit; seeing a cluster of enemies, she hid behind the barricade and took out her pistol and a strange, cylindrical device, covered in Tesla coils, with a hole at either; a skull was painted over one hole, so that the hole was in the skull's mouth.
The engineer screwed the device on to the barrel of her pistol, before popping out of cover and firing at the head of a marauder; when the bullets hit, the bandit's head seemed to explode into electricity, shocking and killing the bandits near him.
After dealing with the rest of the bandits, I looked at Gaige unscrewing the device and said "What was that?"
She held the device up so I could see it, and said "Like it? I call it a Shock Storm."
"How does it work?"
"Science!" she said, as if that explained everything.
Next, we came to a large open room with the floor covered in knee-high water, with crates and makeshift huts scattered about.
Krieg fired his grenade launcher, blowing up a pair of bandits, before noticing a group of bandits firing at him from inside one of the huts; the madman smiled behind his mask, before charging straight for the hut, smashing through with a yell of "OH YEAH!" before slamming his buzzaxe into the chest of one of the bandits, and shooting another with his shotgun.
When the last one tried to flee, the psycho grabbed him by his jacket and slammed him in to the ground whilst shouting "DRINK THE KOOL-AID!" When the marauder tried to stand, Krieg yelled "I SAID DRINK IT!" before stomping the bandit's head back into the water, caving in his skull in the process.
After dealing with the bandits, I found another tape, this one from Marcus.
"Hey, Bloodshots! I notice you're not buying any of my guns. Maybe you're worried my wares aren't deadly enough for you. With that in mind, please accept this complimentary crate of Marcus Munitions weaponry. If you like what you find, maybe we can make a deal! 'Once you go Marcus Munitions, you'll never go back… us munitions…'"
…
I don't really think I need to comment on that.
Finally, we came to a hallway full of prison cells, and heard Flanksteak say "Somebody stop those slaggunds from springin' Roland! We lose him, we lose our payday!"
There were a few bandits guarding the cells, but they were dealt with fairly easily; on a table, I found another tape, with a voice I didn't recognise.
"Flanksteak! FLANKSTEAK! Can you- can you BELIEVE these guns Marcus gave us?! There's a shotgun in here that shoots FIRE! GODDAMNED FIRE! I've been usin' it to roast my food and girlfriends. Marcus is a- is a GOD! Me and the boys got an idea - a good idea, you see? Great idea: we built him a shrine. Big shrine. Beautiful shrine. And he'll keep givin' us guns! More guns! MORE GUNS! MORE GUUUUNS!"
"So the Bloodshot start worshiping Marcus because of the guns he sent them?" said Maya "Why?"
"They're bandits, amiga," replied Salvador "They like guns, violence, and money. And Marcus gave them really good guns."
All the cells were empty, apart from the one at the end of the hall.
Inside, laying on the bed that was against the right wall, was Roland; he was dressed in the same clothes I had seen in his profile picture - a grey beret and a grey sweater with red lines on the arms and neck, and a bandolier; now, I could see he had grey gloves with a piece of light grey armour on his right forearm, whilst his left sleeve was rolled up to the elbow, showing a tattoo of a skull; he was wearing cargo pants, with a tan-and-red camo pattern, and grey combat boots, and light grey armour on his legs.
"Vault Hunters!" he said, sitting up "Good to finally meet you in person. Hell of a job fighting through those Bloodshots."
Before we could say anything, we heard the sound of something charging up, and the back wall of the cell exploded.
We raised our weapons as a Hyperion loader bot holding a SMG walked through the hole, only for Roland to hold up his hand.
"This'll just take a second."
Roland leaped off the bed, tackling the robot, before grabbing the top of the power core in its head and ripping it out, and throwing it at another loader as it came through the hole, cursing an explosion.
A third robot, armed with a shield, charged into the room, knocking Roland on to the floor.
I raised my revolver to help, but before I could, Roland spun around to face the robot…
And aimed the first bot's liberated SMG at it.
Roland
Commander of the Crimson Raiders
"Well," said Roland, as the robot fell to the floor filled with bullets "That's that. Now, let's see about getting out of here -"
Before he could say anything else, a massive robot slammed into the ground outside his cell, with only it's 'eye' visible through the hole.
Beams of light shot out of its eye, attaching to Roland's limbs; he grabbed the bars of the cell and shouted "Vault Hunters! You gotta stop this thing!"
"What do you think we're doing?!" yelled Axton, as we fired at the robot.
It was in vain, however, as the robot pulled Roland out through the hole and flew off before we could even get a good look at it.
"And that's how Handsome Jack pays ransoms!" said the corporate tyrant "Long time no see, Roland."
Krieg ripped the cell door off, and we ran through the hole just in time to see the tail end of the robot disappear through a hole in the ceiling.
As we started to fight the robots and bandits in the room, part of the ceiling caved in as a light-blue projectile smashed through it, landed on the floor, and unfolded to reveal itself to be a loader.
"Son of a BITCH!" said Lilith, as we continued to fight through the room "They're taking him to the top of the dam; get there, quick!"
We rushed out of the room and on to the top of the dam; night had fallen on Pandora (checking the clock on my ECHO, I saw that it was two in the afternoon. Damn it, time is confusing on the planet.), and in the dark, the dam seemed to stretch on for miles, bordered by one of the Highland's lakes on one side, and the cold tundra of Three Horns on the other.
Floodlights and bonfires illuminated the dam, allowing me to see walls and huts built from scrap metal, along with a massive golden statue of Marcus, with six arms all clutching guns.
All along the dam, a three-way battle was taking place between the Bloodshots, the Anarcs- who appeared to be getting to the dam through the use of large, rectangular helicopters made of scrap metal- and Hyperion robots, who constantly got reinforcements shot down from the Helios space station.
"Hyperion took Roland?" said Angel, breaking the silence of the past day or so "Mother of… Jack didn't send Wilhelm, did he? Please tell me Jack didn't send Wilhelm."
"Who's Wilhelm?" I asked.
"Trust me: you don't want to know."
"But I do! I do want to know!" I said, but didn't get an answer.
As we fought our way across the dam, I noticed that the Anarc forces included nomads and bruisers: the Anarc nomads wore gasmasks and dark red robes, with the Anarc symbol on the back, and metal boots; the bruisers wore metal helms resembling medieval knight helms, with scrap metal armour over their cargo pants; their upper bodies were covered in tattoos and scars, just like the psychos.
I saw an Anarc bruiser beat a Bloodshot psycho to death with the arm of a loader, whilst yelling "LONG LIVE THE QUEEN!" before a loader painted with yellow and black stripes grabbed him in a bear hug, its power core popping out of its head and glowing, before the robot exploded.
A profile picture appeared without me even getting a call notification, but the picture only showed a stylised 'M' inside a pentacle.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" said Morgana "So much death and chaos… anyone else turned on right now?"
"Who the hell are you?" asked Axton, as we all ignored Salvador's raised hand.
"Morgana," I answered "some hacker who works for the Anarcs."
"Well, well, well, look what we have here." Said the hacker, tauntingly"Evenin', Wraith. Sorry if I sounded a little too formal, earlier, but we all gotta put on airs for royalty."
"What the hell is your boss's problem with the Bloodshots?" asked Gaige.
"Exactly what she said! Didn't you hear? Or do they not teach people to pay attention on Eden-5?"
"H-how do you know where I'm from?!"
"Oh, I know every little thing about you, Gaige, and I gotta say, that robot you built is pretty good… for an amateur."
"What did you just call me?!"
"Again with the not listening! To answer your first question, the Queen's doin' what she does best: weeding out the weak. It's what any right-minded person would do!"
"'Right-minded'? You're bandits!" I said "I saw one of your men rip out someone's eyeballs and try to stuff them up his nose!"
"Exactly! Among quote-unquote 'normal' society, he wouldn't be able to do that. But with us he can, and you know why? Because he's strong. You know how I became the Queen's personal aide? Because I shot the last one. You know how she BECAME the Queen? Because she disembowelled three bandit lords at once! The strong rule, the weak serve! Anyway, it's been fun talkin', but I've got shit to do. See you soon!"
We continued to make our way across the dam, fighting the bandits and robots along the way. Eventually, we heard Flanksteak come back on the loud speakers.
"Bloodshots! Don't let those Anarc skaglicks take anymore ground! I'm still waiting for a response from Hyperion, and I'm sure when they get here, they'll help us deal with these freaks!"
The sound of a door being kicked open could be heard, before the bandit lord said "Took ya long enough! Alright: twenty bucks for Roland! That's my FINAL offer!"
"REQUEST DENIED." Said a Hyperion loader, before gunshots were heard, followed by Flanksteak's screams.
We found the robot that took Roland standing underneath the Marcus statue: it was oval shaped, covered in angular plates painted a greenish-blue, with tree legs and a single eye.
Floating over it was a hard-light cage with Roland inside, and upon seeing us, he yelled "Kill this Constructer so we can get the hell out of here!"
Taking cover behind some rusted our cars, we soon learned way the robot was called a Constructer, as it began digistructing loaders.
"Gaige, Sal!" I yelled "Deal with the small fry! Everyone else, let loose on the big one!"
We fired at the robot, but our bullets disintegrated before they hit it, a shimmering field of blue energy appearing around it.
"It's Shielded!" I said, holstering my revolver and making sparks appearing my hands "If you've got shock weapons, use them!"
We continued lowering the thing's Shields, and eventually, they fell.
"Its armoured, use corrosive!" I shouted, drawing my SMG.
Our bullets pelted the bot, covering it in acid and heavily damaging it.
Gaige summoned Deathtrap and pointed at the Constructor, yelling "DT, staring contest!"
The bodyguard bot nodded, before its blue eye started to glow red; it threw its head forwards and…
It shot a death ray.
A beam of red energy blasted into the Hyperion robot's eye, melting it, and then a large portion of the robot's innards.
The hard-light cage fell apart, and Roland landed on the ground in front of the robot; he looked up at the sky, and saw multiple blue fireballs coming towards the dam from the space station.
"Lunar reinforcements!" he said, grabbing an assault rifle off a dead bandit "Get ready!"
We took cover again as a small army of loaders began raining down on us; Roland threw out a box, which folded out into a turret like Axton's, but this one was considerably smaller, and projected a waist-high forcefield to its sides.
Eventually, a large, green loader with a pair of machine guns strapped to its shoulders came down; I blinked behind the robot and slashed with my sword, severing one of its arms; the robot turned to look at me, and I raised my hand, blasting water in its eye.
The loader fell, giving off sparks, and I took the opportunity to jam a grenade in one of its joints, before blinking away and watching it explode.
After the loaders stopped coming, Roland lowered his rifle and said "Thanks; I'd be dead if it weren't for you. I owe you one, soldiers."
"Don't mention it," I said "happy to help. Now, let's get the fuck out of here and leave the Bloodshots and the Anarcs to fight it out."
We left the area below the statue, and found a fast-travel station.
"This station is damaged." Said Roland "We'll have to go one at a time. Meet me back in Sanctuary. I've got a plan to stop Jack, but it won't work without you."
Roland disappeared after pressing a button on the station; I went to press something, but before I could, the station exploded.
I flew back, but Krieg caught me, and set me on my feet.
"What happened?" I said.
"If I had to guess," said Axton, before pointing to the right "That."
Floating in the air, just off the side of the dam, was a large aircraft, appearing similar to the Anarc transports, but larger and in better condition, and with several missile pods haphazardly attached to it.
"Well," said Morgana "You should feel honoured!" she laughed.
"It's not every day you get a royal visit!"
Well, this was longer then I expected it to be [insert 'that's what she said!' here].
On to the notes:
1: I've always wondered how abilities like Gaige's Shock Storm or Anarchy work, and I figure that Gaige making all sorts of weird barrel attachments makes some amount of sense. Just don't ask me how they work…
2: Anyone else think it's weird that in the game, Roland calls you and gives you advice as you fight you way across the top of the dam? Did the Bloodshots not take his ECHO away? If so, why didn't he call you before then?
3: And so, the Anarcs show themselves, bringing with them fire and a survival-of-the-fittest attitude! And next time, the Burned Queen herself steps out of the shadows.
Be afraid. Be very, very afraid.
So, ya'know, review, follow and favourite if you like it, go read something else if you don't.
Later, mates!