Chapter 30
Garden of Minos
"You just had to say something." Gaige yelled as they hunkered behind the small piece of cover the rise in the deck gave them.
"Oh, shut up." Jinx grumbled back.
The bandits were closing in on them from the side. A relatively small group from what Jinx had seen before they had dove behind the cover, but still, the gunfire would attract a lot of unwanted attention, not to mention each shot that the bandits fired was one less that the girls would have once they killed them.
"I mean, they weren't summoned by words, were they?" Jinx continued "They probably heard you squawking at me and came to find what was making that racket."
"Squawking? Seriously? You're gonna try and push the blame off on me?"
"Hey, if the pistol fits the holster and all that. But I'll let you off for now, so the first thing is, we gotta take these idiots out before they use up all their ammo." She said turning back to the charging bandits leaving a fuming Gaige to glare at her back for a second before heatedly turning her attention to the bandits.
"So, what've we got." She snapped.
"Didn't you see?"
"No, I was trying not to get shot thanks to you."
"Well, I was trying not to get shot either, but I managed to spot at least twelve of them, with a few more likely, and they had a mix of assault rifles and SMG's, with at least one shotgun and a few psychos mixed in for good measure. Do you want me to handle killing them as well, or were you interested in actually contributing?"
"Do you normally act like this? It's no wonder you didn't have any friends." Gaige growled "We seriously need to talk after this, but for now, I think I'll try helping, if you can lower yourself to accept it, that is."
"Whatever." Jinx said "Well, I think they're close enough, I'm stepping out for a bit, try not to shoot me this time."
And with that, she spun around the cover with the pistol in hand muttering about what a piece of crap it was and charged the nearest psycho. He didn't seem to mind, instead he jumped at her with his buzz-ax held high. Despite the strangeness she was feeling in her side, Jinx found that moving wasn't a problem as she spun around the psycho and shot him in the back of the head.
The gun in her hand kicked slightly as the shots drove home and much to her disappointment, it took three shots to finish the psycho off, but with the rate of fire the gun had, that didn't actually take all that long, but she still shot the pistol a look of disgust at the waste of ammo.
She didn't pause as she moved, continuing her spin, she went low and grabbed the buzz-ax in her off hand and finished her spin facing the rest of the bandits.
She pushed off and charged across the rest of the ship even as she heard Gaige start firing with her SMG, killing the other psycho. Jinx left that side to her and jumped between the ships and even as she switched back to the assault rifle, she flung the buzz-ax at the nearest bandit, catching him in the face. The blow wasn't enough to kill him but her follow up shot was.
She hit the deck and rolled, allowing the fire to cut through the air above her before coming up in a crouch and as she fired off twin rounds into the bandits, she could hear Gaige muttering "DAHL double tap." with a kind of strange pride. Jinx chose to ignore her and instead focused on the matter at hand.
It seemed that the rest of the bandits weren't idiots and they separated, trying to surround them or create distance.
Gaige didn't mind this, since her bullets did most of the work for her, but the terrain didn't help her much, there wasn't anything behind her targets for the rounds to hit and bounce back from. Her only consolation was the fact that she didn't have any Anarchy at the moment so her accuracy was fine, or as fine as it ever was. The truth was that she wasn't very good at precision shooting, something that she'd always brushed aside due to her fighting style, but something that she had been jealous of Artemis for since she'd first seen her shoot, back on Galia.
Still, it wasn't like she wasn't trying to aim and conserve her ammo. She let loose with another short burst from the SMG and watched as the bullets seemed to spawn a halo of smaller projectiles around them as they flew, tearing through one bandit after another.
She glanced around and did a quick count, all of the psychos and most of the bandits were already dead, there were just a few left circling around, trying to take them down. Even as she watched, Deathtrap flew up behind one of them and sliced him in half with a Digi-claw to the back. She nodded to herself, things were going well. Despite how bad things were between them at the moment, her and Artemis were still able to fight together, which gave her a little bit of hope. In fact, they'd wound up fighting side by side at the moment.
Just as she was thinking that, and lining up a shot on another bandit, Artemis punched her, hard.
The impact was enough to throw Gaige off her feet and even as she hit the ground, she was rolling back up to let the other girl have it when she didn't immediately find her where she'd left her.
Glancing around, she found her lying on the ground, writhing in agony.
"What the..." Was all she got out before her legs got swept out from under her as Artemis drove her boot into Gaige's shin.
Yelping in pain, Gaige suddenly felt one of her ponytails yank as a bullet ripped past her. Looking down she saw the tear across the other girl's side.
Dropping down next to her she asked "What was that about?"
"Wasn't it obvious? Sniper."
"I know that, and thanks by the way, but did you really have to punch me?" She gripped as she dug out a Insti-health.
"What? I didn't have time to just warn you."
"So, you still do care."
"No, I have the shield so I thought that I could take it. Turns out, no, no I couldn't. Tore through the shield like a Vorx through a paper bag."
"Yeah, well, it was the only shield I could find." She said using the vial on the other girl "Though I guess I should be grateful that it wasn't a nova."
"Yeah. Still, need to take this sniper out."
"Not to mention the rest of the bandits."
Jinx pushed her aside and fired twice into the bandit that had just popped up. Gaige fired her shotgun, killing one in the opposite direction and asked "So how do yah wanna do this?"
"Cover me." Came the reply as Jinx tossed the empty clip from her gun and slapped a new one in.
She popped up and was running before Gaige could even switch back to the SMG, which caused her to let out a muttered string of curses as she dropped the shotgun to get the other gun ready. Leaving it lay, she brought up the SMG and fired a couple of quick bursts, forcing the sniper to drop back down and took out one of the remaining bandits that was foolish enough to have their head exposed. She swiveled and took a shot at another of the bandits as Jinx jumped between the ships.
She landed and immediately dropped into a slide, anticipating the shot that flew over her head. Coming up, she spun on her knees, firing twice at the bandit that had popped out of cover to take a shot and hit him in the face. She finished her spin and came to her feet, continuing her dash at the sniper, who was trying to get a bead on her, so she dropped into another slide, this time going sideways behind a small raise in the ship and hopping up behind the central tower.
Without pause, she spun back out and ran at the sniper, who had been anticipating that she'd continue the full length of the tower and quickly had to readjust their aim.
Just as they lined the shot up, Jinx smirked, making them pause ever so slightly and wonder why. Deathtrap's Digi-claws answered that for them as they bisected their body.
Jinx nodded to him and smiled, her plan had worked. Distract the sniper by making him focus on her, use Gaige to cover her like she was the one really going after him and keep him from wondering where the robot had gone to.
She turned back and glanced around the area, Gaige was finishing off the last of the bandits, claiming her Anarchy, so all that was left was to go around and collect the gear off of them and get out of there before reinforcements arrived. Since she was at this edge of the battlefield, she started with the most important weapon, the sniper rifle.
She hopped over to where the parts of the body lay and pulled the gun from the corpse's hands, turning it over as she looked at it in disappointment. It wasn't a Jakobs like she'd hoped, instead it was an old model Vladof, probably taken from one of the Bear's Den scouts years ago and not maintained since. Still, it was better than nothing, so she gave it a quick once over and shouldered it as she stripped the body of the rest of its ammo.
That was about all that the corpse had, it seemed that the bandits didn't think that a sniper should get a shield.
She jumped back to the previous ship and continued back till she met up with Gaige, who'd been stacking the guns in the center of one of the ships.
Seeing Jinx walk up she asked "What'd you get?"
"Old Vladof sniper rifle, I'll need to check it over later, and a few clips of ammo. Also found a couple of SMGs, an assault rifle from some manufacturer that I've never heard of, a Torgue pistol, and the most basic grenade mod I've ever seen. You?"
"About the same, though I did find a shield mod on one of them, though it's pretty basic, as well as a better shotgun. For now, let's just shove as much of these as we can in our bags, have Deathtrap carry the rest and get outta here."
"Yep. Wait, why's there a buzz-ax in the pile?"
"Well, I thought that since you seemed to use them pretty well, and you were out your melee weapon of choice, it might not be a bad idea for you to carry one."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah, what's wrong with that?"
"I could get mistaken for a psycho."
"You could anyway." Gaige muttered before she could stop herself, and seeing the other girl start to heat up she quickly added "Joking, I'm joking, no one would take you for a psycho at a glance, you'd need at least a mask for that."
"Oh, so they only have to talk to me to know I'm a psycho, that what you're saying?"
"No. Look, I'm sorry, let me start over would you? You need a melee weapon, unless you want to punch things, I just figured that this would at least be something, alright?"
"Fine."
"Plus, you are surprisingly good with those, I mean, this is what, the second time I've seen you kill with one?"
Jinx decided to let it all slide, so she nodded and said "At least. The only problem with carrying a melee weapon is that I never remember to grab it, I'm too used to having it built into my arm to think of."
"Ah, I could see that, so should we leave it?"
"Nah, you're right, I should at least carry it."
"Urgurr"
"You're right, we should get going."
They did just that and after moving a good number of ships away, Gaige got them into another ship where they took a break and went through what they'd got. It didn't take long to realize that they hadn't found anything all that good. It was still better than what they'd had before the encounter, but they worried that it wouldn't be enough to try and take on the Orochi.
They divided the gear up, Gaige took the new shield, since it would be better for her as their front-line fighter, as well as one of the new assault rifles, one of the new shotguns and two of the SMG's, her MA, and a fire elemental Maliwan, while Jinx took the sniper rifle, after cleaning it thoroughly, the other elemental SMG, a corrosive Bandit, one of the assault rifles, as well as a pair of pistols, the Torgue and a Jakobs that Gaige had found, though it was a pretty weak one. Still, having the Jakobs at her side did make Jinx feel a bit better.
"So" Gaige said, eating a freshly Digi-structed burger from the ship's kitchen "Now what?"
"You mean, do I think we can take on the Orochi, or should we keep going like we are?"
"Yeah, not to put too much on you, but you know as much about this creature as anyone, so I'll defer to your expertise on this."
"Gee, thanks." Jinx snarked before taking a bite of her own burger and scrunching her face a bit in disgust, but kept chewing anyway.
"I know it's not up to your usual standards, and to be honest, this isn't the best burger I've ever seen Digi-structed, but it's not that bad, just put some more ketchup on it."
"How much more? Till I can't taste anything but ketchup?"
"That would probably be for the best." Gaige said, eying her burger for a second before sighing and putting it down. "So, what do ya think? About the Orochi, not the burger?"
"We might be able to take it, but I'd feel better if we had better gear, or at least more ammo, so I'm for trying to get to Mentes's place, if he's not there, we should be able to retrieve Shadowstar, but if he is, then we can ask him about ships with guns on them."
"Fair enough, let's go. Forget the burger, it's probably only going to upset your stomach." Gaige said tossing her plate into the trash and picking her gear up. Jinx followed suit and hit the bathroom before she grabbed her stuff.
They headed back up to the deck of the ship and finding it clear, headed out, aiming for where Jinx had fallen.
It didn't take long for the wall to come into view, though where they were in relation to where they wanted to be, none of them could say. Not even Deathtrap could tell exactly where they were, so they decided to head to the wall and then follow it until they either found something that was familiar, or came to a corner, and since both ways had the same chance to lead them to anything, they headed to the left, a decision that was based on a mostly random thought that they all had metal left hands.
They walked a ways in that direction before Jinx stiffened and turned.
"Trouble?" Gaige whispered.
Jinx just nodded and motioned. Gaige followed her direction and spotted the group of bandits coming across the decks to the side. She did a quick count and whispered "Should we try and take them?"
Jinx shrugged and started looking around nervously.
"What's up?"
"Feels like there should be more of them."
"We could let them go, just get to the other side of the wall and let them pass."
"Might be for the best."
Gaige nodded and turned to look at the wall when she heard a cry go up behind her followed almost immediately by gunfire. For a second she held out hope that something else had been spotted, but then the first bullet pinged off the wall next to her and she let out a sigh even as she turned and brought her gun up.
Next to her Jinx was already in a crouch with her new sniper rifle leveled. She took a slow breath and exhaled. Midway through, she pulled the trigger, letting it up as fast as she could to try and fire only one shot, which flew off and struck one of the bandits that appeared to be raising some kind of device to his mouth, no doubt to call for back-up. His head snapped back and he fell over, dead.
Jinx let out a disgusted snort, which caused Gaige to ask "What's wrong?" Even as she started firing at the oncoming bandits.
"It's nothing. It's just that, well, this thing doesn't have the power I'm used to."
"It still killed him didn't it?"
"Yeah, but it only killed him, my old rifle would've taken his head clean off, not to mention killed another one of these punks."
"I thought it seemed to hit you hard enough."
"Yeah, I mean, it's still a sniper rifle, it's just that it doesn't have the stopping power I'm used to is all."
"Ah, yeah, I get that, whoops, incoming."
Even as she said it the psychos came bounding across the deck of the next ship and jumped at the girls. Gaige casually shot the first out of the air as Jinx shouldered her rifle and smoothly drew the buzz-ax from her waist and threw it into the second, catching him in the throat.
Without wasting any time, she stepped forward and snatched the buzz-ax from the dead-man's hand and spun, burying it into the third psycho's chest while simultaneously drawing her pistol and finishing her turn, shot one of the bandits as she was running to a new piece of cover.
"Haven't lost your touch." Gaige muttered as she took the chance to sprint forward, closing the distance between her and the rest of the bandits.
Deathtrap meanwhile swung off to the side and unleashed a electro-blast into the exposed flank of the bandits, frying any shielding they had and causing a few of them to collapse into twitching messes. Gaige finished them off as she dashed past, tossing a nod to her bestie.
Even as she shot her way through the mob, she was casually grabbing any ammo or weapons that crossed her path, her old Vault Hunter instincts kicking in.
Just as the last of the bandits were getting herded together to be finished off, Jinx suddenly yelled "Get outta there!"
Gaige didn't hesitate and instinctively jumped back, just as a rocket flew through the air in front of her. Spinning she spotted the two that had captured her earlier coming at the lead of a swarm of reinforcements.
Gaige didn't hesitate and let off a short burst into the crowd as she dashed back to where Jinx was and hastily asked "Think we can take 'em?"
"Dicey at best."
"Think we can take the creature?"
"Also dicey."
"So, what's the plan?"
"Fall back to the other side of the wall and try and lose them."
"I was afraid you'd say that."
"You got a better option?"
"No."
Jinx grimaced like she'd been holding out hope that they might actually have a better idea, but instead of saying anything, just turned and dashed for the wall. Gaige fired off one last shot, aiming for the rocket launcher carrying psycho, forcing her to duck, before turning and chasing after Jinx.
They made it to the edge of the ship and jumped, angling between the walls and landing on the far side. Neither one of them paused to see what the bandits were going to do and instead sped across the ship. They'd made it past the fourth ship when they glanced behind them and saw that the bandits hadn't given up, instead they were pouring through the gaps in the wall and chasing after them.
Cursing, the girls made a run for the far wall, hoping that the bandits wouldn't get too many shots off at their backs as they went. Jinx made a motion and brought her own headphones up and snapped them into place over her ears. Gaige followed suit and the instant they sealed, all noise vanished leaving only the pounding of her blood echoing through her head and her extremely loud breathing, which was a completely eerie sensation, not to mention a bit terrifying since she could no longer hear the bandits and psychos screaming, nor the sounds of their guns firing, so the only indication that they were still being shot at was the bullets bouncing off the deck around her and the occasional tug at her clothes as one came close.
Before she knew it, the second wall loomed ahead of her, it's sharp blades and spikes threatening to keep them on this side. She glanced at Artemis and saw her throwing hand signals to Deathtrap and him nod back before flying a ways ahead of them. The other girl turned to her and caught her eye, before giving her the signal to keep running and to follow her lead. Without any other option, Gaige nodded and chased after her.
She was surprised when the other girl didn't slow down as she approached the end of the ship, instead she angled at the gap between ships where Deathtrap was waiting and when she got almost to the edge she leaped at Deathtrap. Gaige watched as she arced towards him, only for him to cup his hands and as soon as her foot landed in them, he chucked her up, arching her over the wall. Gaige didn't have time to see if she landed safely since her turn was rapidly approaching. Biting back the string of curses that was running through her head, she jumped, putting all of her faith in Deathtrap's abilities.
The instant her foot landed in his sure hands, she knew that all of her trust in him was well founded and she had a split second that seemed to stretch on where her eyes met his crystal and they nodded to each other. The next thing she knew, the world was blurring as she was launched up and over the wall. She was sure that she screamed, though whether it was out of fear or joy she couldn't say and the next thing she knew the deck of the ship was rushing up to meet her.
She hit the deck and staggered a few steps right up to the edge when a hand clamped onto her, pulling her back. Gaige glanced back and found Artemis holding her arm and when the other girl saw she was secure gave her a nod and let her go before turning to look around them.
Gaige found she missed the warmth the hand had imparted on her own, but instead of lingering on it, she joined the other girl in examining their situation even as she sensed Deathtrap flying over the wall to join them.
Even though there was nothing different about the view on this side of the wall, something about it felt different, ominous, and it sank in, they were in the den of the beast.