Zane was the first one off the dropship, landing with a stretch and taking a long, deep breath. Pandora still smelt like it always did; reeking of a mixture of death, shit, and a fine hint of blood; all things that made the planet as horrid as it was, at least for the unprepared.
Considering his upbringing, he was far from unprepared. Overprepared was probably a better word.
The others dropped out from the dropship, the team looking up at the Crimson Raider outpost that, judging from the dinks and dust, hadn't seen use for quite some time.
"Welcome to Roland's Rest," Lilith said through his ECHO. "an…important place to all Crimson Raiders, and where Vaughn currently is." Zane looked up at the statue of who he assumed to be Roland; considering what he heard about the man, he was the prime definition of a leader. A hero.
It's funny, Pandora wasn't usually a place for heroes; took balls and brains alike to become one.
"Hi, hello? I'm alive! For now." Tannis' voice resonated in his head, though it made Zane jump a bit from instinct. Felt like she was right over his fucking shoulder. "It seems Eridian professors are like Vault Keys; everyone wants a piece."
"…y'all hear Tannis too, right?" Amara nodded. "Was that her attempt at a joke, or am I goin' as crazy as she is?"
"I…think it was an attempt. I'm not sure." The Siren responded.
"It was. Gallows humor aside, a rescue would be quite welcome, as clearly it looks like I'm to be tortured and killed for the amusement of a crowd. I still have some tricks up my sleeve, yes, but I fear using them would only change the method of my death, and potentially make them change from slow and horrible to agonizing and infinite."
"We will see what we can do, Tannis. We need to locate Vaughn, first." FL4K said.
"Right, yeah, time ain' somethin' we got a lotta. Vaughn! Ya in there? Say somethin' dumb if ya are!" Zane called.
"…what counts as dumb, here?" Moze asked.
"Mostly anythin' he says—"
"Hey, you're back! Reunion~!" Oh shite, the shitebirds were back in his ear. Zane, curtly, switched to a different ECHO frequency. He wasn't in the mood to entertain the fuck wits.
"Tell me if those idiots say anythin' I should be worried about." Zane was already walking ahead, looking around the semi-abandoned place for any signs of Vaughn.
"Oh! H-Hey! You're back!" And there he was. The 'poor' bandit walked out of a metal-lined building, still…walking around with no fucking pants. Oh joy. "Welcome to my new clan—the Pectoral Libration Alliance! Heh, I'm just kidding. Go Crimson Raiders! Haha."
Zane shot Moze a look that said everything. "Glad ya haven' gotten eaten yet, I guess."
"Yep. It's been hell keepin' safe out here, especially ever since Troy Calypso snatched our turrets a while back. Only thing keepin' us safe was…well lotta guns and hiding."
"Hang on, us?" Moze asked. Right on cue, a few soldiers emerged and started moving about. "…the fuck? Where were these guys?"
"Oh, all across Pandora. When the twins left with most of their 'flock' lotta 'em came outta hiding and came here to help. We even found this one guy who—"
An explosion made Zane visibly flinch. The Operative looked over to see a Technical smashed into a wall, with a squirming, bleeding cultist attached to the hood.
"Found a snooper, Vaughn! I thought these pendejos learned after the last six times." The man who dropped down was…well Zane almost assumed he was a Tink, given his height. Short, stout, and fat with muscle, he had an unkempt beard and what Zane guessed was a mohawk atop his head as, to finish his odd look, the short man had an assortment of guns strapped to his person, one gun currently aimed at the unfortunate cultist. The short man laid eyes on them and grinned. "These the amigos Lilith said were coming?"
"Y-Yeah. Just gonna inform them what's going on. You…um…have fun over there."
"…friend of yours?"
Vaughn scratched the side of his head. "Ehhh…sorta…he's a friend of Lilith's. I heard he was here during the Hyperion thing, even helped stop Handsome Jack." Zane recognized him in a flash, then.
"Salvador." The Operative concluded. "He looks…a bit more feral than Maya said he was."
"Well, he's been killing COV left and right ever since they sprouted up, so…yeah." A gunshot made Vaughn flinch.
Said gunshot was followed by screaming.
"¡Deja de gritar, perra!" Several more gunshots followed.
Zane was glad Salvador was on their side, all things considered. He was like an angry little chihuahua.
An angry little chihuahua with guns for days.
"So, Carnivora isn't a who, but a where?" Moze concluded. Vaughn had finished explaining what he knew and what he heard from the COV's radio chatter. He got off track a few times and, right when she was considering punching him, he finally spit out the important bits.
"Yep," The strangely ripped nerd said, currently seated on a concrete barrier. "It's a big festival of murder, carnage, and mayhem run by two murderstreamers named Pain and Terror. Drums up a LOT of attention for the COV. It's out in the Splinterlands."
"Any…more information?"
"It's a fuckin' riot if they don' know who you are!" Salvador chuckled, nearly spilling his beer. "I went there a few times and got into a fight with a cabrón over the price of some food. Next thing I knew they told me never to come back."
"…how do you get banned from a murder festival?" Amara asked, clearly concerned.
"Lotta ways. All of 'em fun."
"…moving…on. Splinterlands. Mark it on our ECHOs or something, and we'll see what we can do. Already this place doesn't sound easy to walk right into." Moze got up and headed for the Catch-A-Ride station, spawning up a decent Technical so they could all commute together. Once the jeep dropped down, she planted herself in the driver's seat, waiting for the others to climb in first before starting the ignition. "Um, Salvador, right? Did you wanna come with?" She was still weirded out by the man, but if he was a friend of Axton's from back in the day, he had to be alright.
"Eh…nah, can't." The short man finished his beer and simply chucked the bottle behind him. "Gotta watch for more cult fuckers. Til we get those turrets, we ain't defended." Moze nodded and, after silently making a mental note to fix that issue, drove off.
She quickly became a touch distracted when she noticed Amara was sitting next to her. Fucking feelings were making things weird again…
"So, Vaughn," The Siren spoke into her ECHO. "Any information we need to know about Carnivora? Anything useful?"
"Well…it's the most popular Calypso fan-stream in the galaxy, for one. Pain and Terror take kill requests non-stop in the twins' name…and higher viewer counts."
"It still disturbs me they seek to commercialize death." FL4K grunted from the back of the Technical.
"Yeah it's…not good. Anyways, yeah, it's marked, but getting in's gonna be a different story."
"Define different stor—FUCK!" Moze swerved the Technical to avoid from mowing down a skag in the road. "Fucking SKAGS! Why the FUCK are they in the fucking roads?! Is there a sign for this shit?!"
"…um…" Zane pointed. Literally to her right was a sign that said 'skag crossing' in crude writing. "I forgot, ya hadn' spent a lotta time on Pandora. Expect, like, six more of those."
"…fucking…why?"
"Ain' just skags who cross the roads." Right on cue, something else sauntered past. Something that looked like a giant bug. "Varkids do too."
"Ugh." This was gonna be a long ride.
Amara flipped through some stuff as Moze got them closer and closer to Carnivora. They recently crossed into the Splinterlands and, so far, the COV presence was at a disturbing low. Considering this 'festival', she assumed most were there, probably engaged in all sorts of debauchery.
Probably.
"Um, Vault Hunters," Tannis' voice resonated in her head. "My imminent demise is whipping these cultists into a frenzy. They're delivering Eridium by the armful, screaming my name all the way…I had no idea I was so popular among the idiot masses. But, then again, I suppose you never know where flattery's going to come from."
"Well save you. Don't worry about that." The Technical came to a stop. Amara could honestly say she wasn't ready to see a bigass psycho head staring at her. Upon closer inspection, she realized it was…a gate of some sort, with a maw filled with sharp teeth.
"Hey, you made it to the Splinterlands! All right, so Carnivora should still be nearby."
"Wait, should?"
"Oh, right. It moves around Pandora, setting up wherever there's enough crazies to fill the bleachers. They've been camped out there a while, so I guess the sacrifice business must be a boomin', right?"
"Shame we gotta put a stop to that shite." Zane sarcastically said as he disembarked the Technical himself. "…why the fuck do they got a psycho's ugly mug as the gate? Fuckin' hate lookin' at these shite-kickers."
"Let's ignore the mug for now, Zane, and figure how we're getting inside." Amara noted.
"Oh, heads up, Carnivora is SUPS exclusive. Only the most dedicated followers get in, so you're gonna have to give up your car as an offering." Amara looked to see FL4K had already, quite literally, pushed the Technical onto the 'metal tongue'. When said tongue started to move, Amara realized it was simply a conveyor belt…one that dragged the Technical into twin, spiraling blades that reduced the Technical into flaming metal and shattered parts.
"…I take it that's not a good sign." Moze muttered.
"That was a PITIFUL DEATH RIDE," A voice shouted from loudspeakers. "No ticket, no GLORY!"
Amara scowled. "So, we need to find something better. Vaughn, anything?"
"Nah, nothing comes to mi—WAIT SOMETHING DOES! I heard Big Donny, over at the Chop Shop, won a golden car in a sweepstakes; go steal that!"
"…who comes up with these names?"
"It's Pandora, Mara Mar," Zane was already walking off to, no doubt, drum up another ride or steal one from a bandit. "Ya can call yarself anythin' ya want, so long as people're screamin' it when ya kill 'em."
"That's morbid."
"Well, it's true. Me brother knew a guy named Nine-Toes back in the day. Apparently, he also had three balls."
"…gross."
FL4K was honestly disappointed 'Big Donny' was a pushover. Retrieving and stealing the car was easier than they anticipated, and they were the first to disembark the 'golden chariot' once it was on the conveyor belt tongue, with the others following suit.
"Y'know, I'm sorta pissed we gotta give this ride up." Zane muttered, shaking his head. "Damn fine ride. Could really see meself crusin' 'bout, blowin' shite up in it—"
"Submit your death ri—OH SHIT THAT'S A SWEET ASS CAR. Slap that bitch on my tongue!" The loudspeaker cut him off. He scowled.
Moze mashed the button and the belt started, though instead of turning the Technical into scrap metal and rubble, the blades instead retracted and allowed it to safely pass through, though it was sucked upwards once far enough in the 'head'.
"You have been CHOSEN! Enjoy Carnivora!"
"Surprising they haven't realized who we are, yet." Amara was already passing through the gate, with everyone else in tow.
"Maybe they're just that stupid."
"Or maybe they're that confident we can't get in." FL4K concluded for Moze. "Given how they treated this Carnivora, it makes sense they figured it would be impossible for us to gain entry. And yet…"
"Well, let's hit 'em where it hurts, save Tannis, and blow this fuckin' place to bits."
And, with that, they passed through to Carnivora.
[Some of you may have been surprised I didn't upload yesterday. That was both for a valid reason, and for a bamboozle.
Due to a serious project being concluded, my Friday's are now open. So I figured it'd be good to move the story to being updated every Friday as a good sendoff for the weekend for my readers. Plus, yesterday, I was helping my brother, or at least making an attempt. I was considering doing another update Thursday to explain why I couldn't update and, instead, just kicked myself in gear and pulled this plan out.
So, really, expect updates every Friday from now on.
Won't do reviews today, mostly 'cause today was both giving the prelude to Carnivora and, also, giving an update.
Til then, stay safe. I'll see you all next Friday.
Also, it was hard reintroducing Sal. Sorta forgot how he talked and if he mixed Spanish with English.]