The courtyard in the Maliwan base was now cleared for battle, having the various valuable items removed and replaced by pieces of cover and ammo boxes. They obviously took this challenge thing seriously due to the amount of detail they were putting into it.
Lieutenant General Ciruolo was seated on a box of ammo, his shotgun on his lap. He was chewing on a lit cigar in his mouth, appearing fairly patient for such an aggressive guy.
"I am so glad they stopped playing that gay poetry shit" he said waving at his four opponents. "Seriously, you ever actually listen to that shit? Half angst, half fluff. If I wanted shitty music, I'd watch MTV."
"They don't put music on that anymore" stated Saprus calmly.
"Then why is it stilled called Music Television?"
Dion shrugged. "Your guess is just as good as ours. I prefer my Pandora account."
"Really? That any good?" inquired the general. "I mean, it is named after this butthole of a planet."
"Well you'll find a lot of shit you don't like, but it does give you the occasional good stuff. It's a crap shot, but you'll find something new in like an hour."
Ciruolo nodded. "Really? I might want to try that. You know after I'm done killing you."
"You know we're hooked up to the respawn system right?" asked Taika.
"And? I ain't accepting another challenge. Kill me now or never."
"So if we fail and come back...?" began Baldemar.
"I'll just shoot you."
Dion smirked. "I guess we won't fail than."
The Lieutenant General chuckled at his comment. "Confidence is key. But to be honest, this isn't going to be easy. Just because my ass was dumped in this culture shithole doesn't mean I'm weak. My superiors are douchebags, that's it."
An aide appeared beside him, holding a clipboard. "Sir, all munitions supplies and tactical protection have been deployed onto the battlefield."
"Awesome. Keep not playing your music while you're at it."
"Sir, I do not understand why you have made this request, but it will be followed with the highest efficiency and proficiency."
"Kinda roundabout way to describe not playing music" murmured Dion.
"Dude, it's freaking crazy around here" agreed Ciruolo. "Seriously, I barely understand half the words they use and I'm pretty sure they make a few of them up."
The Lieutenant General stood, unlocking the safety on his shotgun as he did so. "Well I think we can go. Good luck."
He paused. "Wait, you can respawn. Even if I kill you, you'll just come back. If that's the case, don't bother coming back."
Baldemar nodded. "Same to you."
"Oh I don't respawn. Bellum doesn't believe in respawning. Neither do I, so I opted out of it when I got here. Now let's get started."
He raised his shotgun and fired, ruffling his coat as he did so.
Saprus opened his glove and released a cloud of Plaque IX, degrading and eroding the general's clothing. He raised his Corrosive and Incendiary firearms, both of their elemental effects activating the bullets.
Dion roared as his Plasma Rage took over, his hair blowing off his face. He fired both palms forward, releasing two pillars of energy.
Taika summoned Roosevelt and slid to the corner of the battlefield. Bring her sniper rifle to her cheek, she began shooting at the general with timed precision.
Baldemar activated his Combat Clone and tossed a series of grenades. His Clone raised its custom Assault Rifle and started to unload lead down the field, his mechanical eyes having near-perfect accuracy.
The general didn't even break his shield, calmly walking forward while shooting. He whirled and nearly blew Saprus's head off, assessing the next shot instantly. He spun on a heel and hit Dion straight in the chest, sending him flying.
Roosevelt slammed into him, making the general stumble backwards. Then a sniper round burned through the shield, hitting his shoulder.
"Goddamn it!" he roared turning towards the sniper.
Dion sprinted into his field of vision and punched him in the face, tearing through the shield with the blow. Spinning on his feet, he began a rapid series of plasma strikes.
"You're dealing with me now" stated the Titan growling in his throat.
Ciruolo backhanded him and fired into his chest, blowing a hole in it. He paused when he noticed that his opponent was regenerating rapidly, his organs and skin already forming back into place.
"Jesus. Just like the reports" murmured the general.
Dion grinned and fired a shot point-blank into him, sending him skidding backwards.
Saprus shot another bolt of Plaque IX and hit the general's clothes, instantly eating away at the fabric.
Ciruolo swore and threw off his overcoat. Even when he did that, a speck of the disease clung to his boot. He tried to stomp it out, but that only agitated the decomposition of his body.
"Get him!" roared Baldemar reloading his assault rifle and raising his Torgue shotgun with it. "His shield is down!"
Dion deactivated his Plasma Rage and leaped back, raising his elemental guns. He began to back up slowly, his shield rapidly reforming itself as he moved.
Ciruolo clicked a small button on the butt of his shotgun and his gun began to shudder, seemingly charging up. Then he fired, releasing all 16 slugs at once.
The Titan slammed into the wall and collapsed, blood pouring from his mouth. It was like he had been hit with a sledgehammer right in the sternum. He could feel his ribs being fractured in his chest and he was certain a lung was gone.
"Dion!" yelled Taika.
"Stay back!" he ordered. "I'll respawn anyway!"
He spat what looked like a chunk of his ribs. "Goddamn…"
He glanced to his left and saw one of the Maliwan soldiers trying to sneak into the battle. Snarling in anger, he raised his Dawn and shot him.
The soldier collapsed and the Titan breathed in deep. His chest began to heal itself, punching back outwards from where it had previously been dented.
Baldemar slid over to him and loaded a large Bandit SMG. "This is going to sting" he warned aiming carefully.
Then he began to shoot Dion in the chest rapidly, loading his chest with bullets.
"What the fuck are you doing!?" shouted the Titan. Then he realized that the bullets were actually healing his body, somehow patching up the wounds alongside his normal regeneration.
"Uh…what kind of bullshit science are you using?" inquired Dion.
"I have no idea" admitted the inventor.
Saprus glanced back at them, having been given the task of holding off their opponent. "We need both of you to get back up! We can't win without you!"
Dion nodded, standing up and stumbling. He cracked his knuckles and began to glow green. "Okay then. Thanks for the heal."
"No problem" replied Baldemar reloading the SMG. "Now let's kill this asshole. I think the others are getting close to hooking up the explosives."
"Red dead fed med, men ten fen gen" murmured Mel casually hooking up some explosives. "Get bet het let…"
"Lew few mew pew" continued Del doing something similar. It was a game they had played since they were children. You spoke four words that sounded very similar with only letter difference, then changed another letter of that word and spoke another series of four. It could literally be continued indefinitely if you were smart, but it could be pretty short if you didn't know anything that would suffice.
"Peg meg leg keg, ked head wed red…goddamn it!" spat the older brother. He had just repeated a word, the only rule that you couldn't break.
"Ha! That one goes to me" stated the younger brother victoriously.
"Oh shut your trap! I don't spend all day lugging boxes across the freaking desert! I actually work!" objected Mel defensively.
"Spying on Tina doesn't count as work" argued Del.
"You clearly don't know how I spy on people" muttered the older brother.
"That's mildly disturbing."
"Yeah. It's pretty exhausting if you catch my drift."
The younger brother glanced at him. "I don't even want to know."
"Ya, you really don't."
The four Vault Hunters were lying on the ground, most of them bleeding and exhausted. Dion was completely out of it, his suit torn and burnt in dozens of places. The others weren't fairing so well, all of them on the last drops of their life.
"Wow, this is pathetic" spat Lieutenant General Ciruolo. "I bet you expect someone to come in here and save you like last time? That's not how it works this time."
He sighed. "Damn it. You all are the newest generation of Vault Hunters. The first ones were pretty good, and the second ones were even better, but you guys took two steps backwards or some shit."
They all glared at him angrily, but he was right. They could barely move at all due to their injuries. Any second they'd bleed out and die.
"What is with you all?! Have you lost the will to fight!?" yelled the general. "What is wrong with you!? Are you tired of fighting because this shithole planet drained it out of you!? Well tough shit! This life is full of pain and misery, and you won't solve anything if you lay around and cry like bitches! The first generation paves the way for you ungrateful fuckers, and the second one made sure you had a place to rest your fucking tired ass so you could take over for them! You dare spit upon the sacrifices of those who came before you!? YOU UNGRATEFUL COCK-SUCKERS!"
Ciruolo actually seemed to be getting rather pissed off at their defeat, his fists clenched so hard that his knuckles began to bleed. "THIS ISN'T A GODDAMN KID'S SHOW! You won't get your asses rescued by your knight in shining fucking armor because you bitch hard enough! No Vault Hunter worth his dick on Pandora ever gives up! EVER! Did the first generation complain when they had to sleep on top of the corpses of all the bandits they killed?! No! They wrapped up snug and had a fitful night of sleep so they could do the same damn thing the next day! Did the second generation ever think, 'hey, let's just stop doing this shut for free and let Hyperion mow us down like grass'? FUCK NO THEY DIDN'T! They brought the fight right up to Handsome Jack's face and blasted his skin off!"
He took a deep breath. "And now you're hear, thinking that you can just rely on those guys, the same motherfuckers who time and time again sacrificed everything for this shithole of a planet?! They aren't the stars of this story you cock-gnawing boot-lickers! You are the stars this time around! It all falls on you to fight against people like us! Stop trying to humanize us, stop trying to show mercy! We stepped onto your yard! Blow our asses up! Kill us all! Prove to every damn doubting douchebag out there that you CAN DO THIS!"
He began to pant, having exhausted himself from his speech. He glared at them, still not critically injured. "So what will you do, eh? Will you die like dogs and hide in some hole when you respawn? Or will you fight like Vault Hunters and prove that you deserve to even survive on this planet?"
"…hey you…" spat Baldemar standing up. Even though he was near dying, he didn't look ready to die. He stumbled towards the general, not even holding a weapon anymore. "I…I got something…to say to you…"
Ciruolo waited, his glare not faltering.
Baldemar stopped right in front of him, breathing in deeply.
Then he slugged him in the face, the blow being enough to throw him to the ground.
"SHUT THE HELL UP!" roared the inventor infuriated.
The general looked at him astonished, as if he hadn't expected that kind of reaction.
"YOU THINK MY CREW DOESN'T KNOW THAT!? I'm sick and tired of motherfuckers like you underestimating us just because we're new to this planet! Well guess what, we belong here like all the other assholes that came to this planet! We ain't leaving just because some bitch-ass douchebag thinks we aren't worth our salt! Even if we have to put a bullet in every single fucking one of you assholes, including that goose-stepping, neo-Nazi Josef Fucking Muller that runs your company, I'll throw in two just so you all will SHUT THE FUCK UP!"
Ciruolo grinned, even though he was now in the dirt. "So what? Words are hollow. Prove to me that you can back that up."
He stood back up and flared out his arms. "Come on then! Kill me already! Show me what you can do Vault Hunters!"
Taika stood up, helping Dion to his feet as well. They both grabbed their weapons, loading them with bullets.
"Finally you're up" spat Saprus. He chuckled dryly and stood up himself, throwing the dirt off his suit. "Man Baldemar, you really got us in a pickle didn't you? We could've just left and never come back, but now we gotta do some work."
"Yeah, that's kinda pissing me off too" agreed Dion grinning. "You talk too much Baldemar."
"Oh shut up!" snapped the inventor. "Says the guy who never shuts his freaking trap!"
"Yeah, you gotta point" murmured the Titan. "I do talk too much."
Taika loaded her sniper rifle and summoned Roosevelt. "Well I can't be El Cazador if I just give up, now can I? I'm with ya all the way Baldemar."
"I put my faith in you" said Saprus.
"I guess you're cool enough for me" joked Dion.
"Shut up" ordered Baldemar smiling. "Come on. Let's finish our job."
"With pleasure" commented the Titan.
I did that just to prove something: These guys really are the replacements for the last two generations. They aren't some add-ons or something. They are the third generation. I wasn't sure it was necessary, but it really did drive in the nail, didn't it? Comment on what you thought about that or anything in general.
