I have not forgotten to write this, fortunately. I've just been bust with projects and a few exams, along with other personal stuff that I won't concern you with. Anyways, this is long chapter, around 6.5k. The story furthers.
I saw all those trailers for Borderlands 3, too. Man, the game looks awesome. Guns on legs? Yes please. I guess they'll work like landmines. A pity I won't get to play it until April 2020, since I use Steam and not the god awful Epic Games Store. Thanks, 2k.
However, this story must go on. Well, maybe not "must", I just want it to. Here it is, then!
4: The Devil in the Details
Matt observed cautiously, hoping not to do anything unwise, or activate something Eridian by accident. He kept Amelia close to him, aware of her usual lack of balance, since she wasn't used to having a physical body. She may have been fine (mostly) up to this point, but the Anomaly wasn't going to take any chances.
Standing before them was a tall structure of stone, with three pillars standing at different heights, all connected by a crescent-shaped strip of stone. There was a circle in the ground, with sections of rock jutting out from the centre like sections of a shutter trap-door. There were two Eridian statues standing beside the pillars of stone, in poses symbolising power, influence and honour.
'Some sort of bunker?' Matt supposed confusedly. 'No, no, no – if Eridians needed anything to store, they'd keep it in the Infinite.'
'Unless this is before they discovered the Infinite? What about then?' Amelia suggested. Matt shook his head.
'No, the Eridians discovered the Infinite millions of years ago, long before they came to inhabit Pandora,' the Anomaly dismissed. 'Besides, the stone isn't millions of years old; there's no way the terrain would remain the same for this long to keep it afloat and the stone would've crumbled by then. This is something else.'
'What is it?' His sister wondered bemusedly.
'C'mon, Amy, use your brain!' Matt encouraged.
'Right, uh, well Eridians store things on Pandora that they intend to use upon their return.'
'Yeah, right, so why would they build a structure like this, just in the middle of practically nowhere? And why have a Vault direct us to it?'
'If they wanted us to find it, for what's inside.'
'Yes, but…?' Matt urged excitedly.
'If they wanted us to use it and keep it, they'd store it in a Vault, like the Artefact. No, they wanted us just to find it, interact with it somehow, but not appropriate it for ourselves.'
'So what do they need it for? Look at the statues.'
'Oh, yeah I see,' Amelia realised. 'They symbolise honour, respect, power, influence and legacy. But that's not shown for us, it's for them. In the Vaults, their statues are mainly power and control, to imply to us, the lowly humans, that they are more powerful. They don't care to tell us about their honour or respect; there's no need.'
'On the right track, good,' Matt complimented. 'So why would the Eridians want to tell themselves about one of their own compatriot's greatest aspects?' Amelia sighed, understanding his implications.
'If they wanted to make a memorial.'
'Yep. Ha, ha!' Matt celebrated, jumping up and down and hugging his sister ecstatically. 'Knew you'd figure it out!'
'So what you're saying is…?' Amelia inquired, purely flummoxed.
'It's not a bunker; it's a tomb.'
'An Eridian tomb? On Pandora?'
'A special one, obviously needed for a specific purpose. Why else would they keep this particular one on the planet and no other?' Matt mused aloud, excited at this new development.
'I don't know, why?' Amelia postulated.
'You wanna find out?' The Anomaly posited to her, gesturing towards the tomb.
'How are we supposed to get in?' His sister pointed out.
'Same way we always do,' the Vault Hunter responded with a smile, flaring up black and red lightning.
He walked towards a podium on the side of the circular entrance in the ground, pressing his hand against it. Amelia followed after him, watching as the podium glowed a dim gold, but otherwise nothing happened. Matt took his hand off.
'OK, maybe not…' He presumed, nonplussed with a risen eyebrow.
'Allow me,' his sister advised. She stepped forward, waving her hand over the podium. Matt noticed her limb go erubescent, as red as rubies, before the podium reacted with a bright gold.
In response to Amelia, the section of the tomb entrance slid open, revealing the stairway going down into the depths of the Eridian Tomb. Amelia gave a victorious smile, which Matt guessed was her attempt to gasconade, but he ignored it. At least Amelia was panurgic, somewhat.
'How'd you do that?' He immediately questioned. His sister suddenly gave a look of apprehension.
'Er, well, the Eridians granted me access to all Eridian structures and full privileges to their technology,' she enlightened him.
'Why?' The Anomaly catechized.
'They said you'd need it, but they'd rather give the privileges to me. The Watcher said they wanted to specifically make sure I was with you whenever you endeavoured to investigate anything Eridian.'
'Or they don't trust me.'
'If they don't trust you, what makes you think they'd trust me?' Amelia pointed out. Matt sighed and nodded, understand she was right.
Although, the possibility they gave Amelia the ability and not even tell him about it could've been for adscititious reason to maintain some semblance of control over him. It didn't really bother Matt too much.
'Well, c'mon then!' The Anomaly directed, as he began walking down the steps into the unknown abyss.
The steps were cracked and many of the edges had crumbled, filed into rounder edges naturally over the time, but they still maintained a great degree of support when Matt's feet stepped down upon them. His boots made a loud thumping sound when they hit the stone, cacophonous to his ears, but nonetheless, they held up against the force.
Once Amelia and Matt had reached the bottom of the steps, the torches on the wall abruptly lit, line by line one after each other. They burnt with an entirely red flame, crimson and erubescent, but lighting up the hallway well enough.
The walls were constructed from ancient stone bricks, crack and aged yellow like bone. Moss and dirt seeped through the gaps between the bricks like a germinating disease. Matt observed how they twisted around the rectangular shape of the blocks, caging them and holding them together as a natural reinforcement.
At the end of the hall, there was some kind of entrance, circular in shape. Neither of them could distinctly make out the details at this distance, especially since the lights did not light at that point. They would have to walk closer for the other torches to light. They lit themselves while Amelia and Matt walked down it.
It was simple but grandiose, as per the Eridians' style. They loved extravagance, especially since they were a highly intelligent and highly diverse species, although generally the species was gravitated towards science – more specifically, studying and harnessing the Infinite.
Very Eridian-like behaviour.
'How do we get past the door?' Amelia asked, as they stood before the circular entrance. It had various ringed panels around it, with prongs over the across the sides, covering the gaps where the door would open. A centre, round gem-like piece was lodged in the centre, a midnight black shade.
'You have access to all Eridian facilities, remember?' The Anomaly reminded her, almost superciliously. Amelia assumed a dumb look, slapping her forward at her stupidity.
She leant forward and pressed her hand against the centre of the door. Her hand glowed gold, and slowly, the cracks in the door glowed the same hue, spreading out from where she touched it. The centre gem glowed white, completely changing colour from the dead black. Abruptly, the rings began rotating, emitted a clicking sound as they all moved in different directions and at various speeds. Eventually, they locked into place, and the prongs shuttered out open, allowing the door to slide aside.
The Eridian Tomb was completely open.
It was black inside; an encroaching shadow threatening to engulf them. There was nothing quite as dark, as empty as the anomalous abyss outside of the universe.
As Matt and Amelia stepped into the ceremonial room, they were met with alien purple lights, which were likely made from Eridium. The room was as grandiose as expected, with more Eridian statues and material belongings to symbolise the entombed Eridian's former wealth.
In the centre of the room was a rectangular stone structure, old and yellowed in shape with a cottage loaf-like layer to it towards the bottom. There was a line down the centre of the top surface, where the two top sections fitted together like aesthetically challenged jigsaw pieces.
'We've found the Tomb,' Amelia announced. 'So let's go already!'
'C'mon, we travelled a fair distance to get here,' the Anomaly pointed out. 'There's got to be some reason they directed us to this Tomb. Maybe there's something we're supposed to do with it.'
'Like what?'
'If I had to guess, something to do with the Infinite. And the Eridians.'
'So what? Do we open it? There's no instruction manual!'
'The best instruction manual is your own initiative.' He leant forward and touched the stone coffin, crouching down to examine it. It was fascinating to see how every piece fitted together, but it didn't tell Matt a thing about how to activate it.
Maybe activating it will allow me to communicate with the Eridians, the Anomaly considered. He powered up his Chronokinesis, emitting lightning from his arms violently. They struck the stone aggressively, leaving blackened scorch marks on the side, encompassing the whole structure. Nothing seemed to happen.
'See?' Amelia pointed out. 'There's no way to activate it. You're not meant to. I can't even do i–'
She was interrupted by the sound of air escaping the sarcophagus, as the very top panels rose upwards and split apart. Matt stepped back and out of the way, observing how they moved to expose the contents and slowly locked into place. The Anomaly looked at Amelia confidently.
'"No way to activate it", huh?' The Vault Hunter gloated frivolously.
'Oh, shut up,' Amelia pouted. 'What's inside it, anyway?' Matt shrugged, stepping towards the top of the stone casket and attempting to look into it.
'OK. Not sure if I should be surprised or not.'
Gaige and Fiona had tried using their communicators, but it seemed that Gemini had scrambled their wavelength. No help from Lilith, then. It was difficult manoeuvring through the sewers without coughing vociferously from the faeces.
'This stuff stinks!' Fiona complained distastefully, wincing when she accidentally sniffed.
'I know!' The Mechromancer confirmed agitatedly, trudging through the mud and shit and trying to ignore the squelching sound made. 'But it's either or this or trying to get through the entire complex topside.'
'Yeah, but who sees a manhole in an alleyway and thinks, "ooh, trudging around in shit in pitch black? How could I resist?!"' The Artist catechized, much to Gaige's chagrin.
'There's probably an exit around here somewhere,' she replied, dismissing her complaints.
The sewer was dark, as dark as Gaige would've expected, but luckily, Fiona had a mini-torch on her to light the way. Rust covered the iron tunnel walls somewhat deftly, masking the shine they once had, along with the dried excremental matter and biological waste splattering the lower sides at their knees. There was no end in sight; no divine light at the end of the tunnel.
It seemed to go on for miles.
'Why would there be many exits anyway?' Fiona questioned, and continued once Gaige gave her a demeaning look. 'The Menagerie is a self-sustaining, energy-efficient compound. I doubt there would be much need for maintenance.'
'If the Menagerie was completely self-sustainable then why would they need human workers?' Gaige pointed out, quite confidently. When Fiona struggled to respond, the Mechromancer gave her look of disappointment. 'Exactly.'
There was a sudden beeping about the tunnel, and the duo looked around desperately to find the source. Eventually, Gaige realised it was the technology in her arm alerting her to something. Examining it, her face practically lit up.
'I got a bar of ECHOnet data!' She celebrated.
'So you can communicate with the Raiders?' Fiona quizzed ecstatically.
'No,' Gaige responded bluntly, making her friend go crestfallen. The Mechromancer put a finger up to her, as if to tell her to be quiet. 'But, it does mean that' – she began fiddling around with her arm interface, and a blue hologram popped up in front of them of a map – 'I can get a good look at the Menagerie schematics.'
Fiona mouthed an 'ah' as Gaige zoomed through the 3D map of the Gemini Menagerie. She moved through each level and sublevel until she reached the sewers. It was a long pipe stretching out to all edges of the complex, in a network of wastage and water pipes to cater to Gemini's needs. Once the Vault Hunter found the area of the sewage pipe they were in, she searched for some sort of exit.
'Aha!' The Mechromancer exclaimed, pointing at a small compartment on the side of the pipe, with a ladder in the centre. 'There's our exit, only half a klick from here! C'mon!'
With that, she sprinted ahead, not caring about the excrement she was kicking up into the air behind her. Upon noticing Fiona was not behind her, she stopped in her tracks, looking back towards her fellow Vault Hunter.
'What are you doing? Aren't you coming?' She demanded frantically, not wanting to waste time.
'I wanted you to get a suitable distance away before I followed,' Fiona sheepishly replied, although Gaige still frowned in confusion. 'I didn't want you kicking up shit into my face.'
'Oh, grow up!' Gaige disparaged angrily.
'I'm older than you!' Fiona argued.
'Then act like it!' The Mechromancer ordered, breaking back into a sprint down the tunnel. Fiona sighed and pursued after her, wincing again at the squelching sound at her feet.
Gaige rushed into the side of the tunnel and into the compartment that she had been looking for. She smiled as she saw the ladder in the centre of the room leading to a ladder shaft for them to climb up through. Fiona arrived, but was too busy catching her breath to grin at this new development in their escape.
'Look! We can clean ourselves off, too!' The Artist notified her, pointing towards the clean water gushing out the pipes fitted into the walls at the back corner of the room.
She took off her boots, grimacing at the faeces on the bottom of her shoes and walked over to the pipes. She looked down to where the water was gushing into, to be assured that there was indeed a filter for the water to pass through. Gaige eventually came over and they both dumped their faeces-covered shoes into the water. It wasn't difficult to scrub it off, fortunately, and the difference was definitely noticeable.
'Well, that's better,' Gaige commented happily. She shook her shoes to get the water off and put them back on. 'If you can survive wearing wet clothes for a little while.'
'I'll live,' Fiona replied cynically. Gaige walked back over to the ladder, and looked up towards the manhole. She began climbing, with Fiona following her.
The ladder shaft wasn't too long, but it was long enough to be considered as such. An occasional yellow LED on the round walls lit the way for them, allowing Gaige to see the cover at the top.
The Great Escape.
Once they reached the top, Gaige lifted the manhole up and over, allowing her to survey her new surroundings.
There was a building right before her, made out of metal bricks with weathering at their edges. All shine it might have had was gone, adopting a grey, somewhat blander appearance. Instead of glass, the windows had thick vertical bars, almost entirely preventing light from getting in. Each one was the same: windswept but otherwise pristine and in mint condition.
Not even a chip or a scratch across the whole surface.
'I found the prison,' Gaige told Fiona bitterly, climbing out the ladder shift to show her.
'Do you think we can break 'em out?' The Artist suggested.
'Right now, making it out alive would be an achievement,' Gaige replied, causing Fiona to give her a frustrated look. 'Later.'
Eventually, the Vault Hunter nodded, although evidently still exasperated.
'Where's the exit, anyway?' She inquired, looking around bemusedly. Gaige examined the 3D schematics.
'We're behind the prison right now,' the Mechromancer recognised. 'At the border to the Menagerie.' She turned around, only to be met with a large congruent grey wall. 'The exit is not too far around the corner.'
'Great!' Fiona celebrated prematurely, walking towards the side of the barracks, where there lay a gap between it and the next building.
'Fiona!' Gaige whispered desperately. Either the Artist didn't hear her or just didn't care, since she continued. 'Fiona, don't wander off! You don't know where you're–oh, never mind.' Shrugging her shoulders, the Mechromancer chased after her, as quietly as possible.
How big IS this prison? Fiona wondered, as she moved briskly along the side of the prison, her back to the wall. Brusquely, she felt a hand on her shoulder, and she tensed up. Turning around, Fiona was met with the face of Gaige the Mechromancer, who quickly put a finger up to her lips to tell her to shush.
'We have to move quietly,' she hissed to her. 'This place is patrolled by hundreds of guards. If they pick up on anything, then we're toast.' Fiona nodded in understanding, and began moving slower to accommodate.
There was an abrupt scream of pain coming from a nearby window, causing both Fiona and Gaige to shudder. Fiona rushed to the barred window to see what was going on, before Gaige could restrain her. The screams continued, urging Fiona more and more to find out what the hell was going on.
Finally, she found the window. It was larger than usual, but still had bars, probably to mock the prisoners by giving them a good look of only a wall of the outside world.
It was a dark, dingy room, with the only bit of light being let in by the window and small lights on the wall.
There was a dark figure tied to a chair in the centre of the room, its ankles were tied to the chair legs and its arms to the back of the chair.
Two other figures of indiscernible features stood before it, one which seemed to have its arms folded and the other leaning towards their captive.
'Tell us!' The closer one ordered.
'No…' the prisoner, seemingly female, responded weakly. 'I'm not telling you how I broke into the CCG.' Gaige and Fiona rose an eyebrow at that.
One of them moved an arm to the nearby table and twisted a dial. There were sparks of electricity which coursed through the convict and she yelled out in pain.
'Say…that…again?' The torturer scathingly catechized, pausing between words to electrocute her aggressively. The woman growled in pain, trying to hold back her screams.
'I…said…no.'
Evidently incensed, the other person stepped forward and angrily slapped the woman across the face.
'You're not here at your own leisure, 2341,' she claimed irreverently. 'Tell us what we need to now, quickly, and we'll let you go.' Something of a snigger came out from Prisoner 2341.
'If I tell you what you to know, you don't need me anymore. Why would I share the information that's keeping me alive?'
One of the torture guards responded with a current of electricity through 2341's veins.
'Don't get smart with me, 2341,' he disdained. 'Why did you break into the CCG? What were you searching for?'
'Shouldn't you know that?' the prisoner dodged. 'Didn't you see the files I looked through?' The female torturer slapped her.
'Of course we did, but we just want to know why.'
'Sorry, sweetie, I'm not telling you anything,' the woman insulted cynically.
Prisoner 2341 was greeted by numerous controlled shocks, spreading to every extremity of her body in less than a second. The jolts were continuous and extremely excruciating, as evidenced by her vociferous screams.
Fiona staggered back, pressuring her back against the wall. Her eyes were wide in shock.
'Fiona? You alright?' Gaige asked her, her voice almost drowned out by the shrieks.
'No, Gaige, I'm not alright!' The Artist almost yelled. 'That poor woman's being tortured in there. How are you remaining so calm?'
'Practice,' the Mechromancer supposed, slightly shrugging her shoulders.
Fiona searched with her pockets, before remembering she was using an ECHO and began rummaging through her inventory.
'What are you doing?' Gaige demanded, but Fiona didn't answer. She didn't even look at her. Something digistructed out of her inventory and into her hands.
A nova grenade; large radius.
Fiona looked like a deer in headlights when Gaige saw it. She moved to place it on the wall, but the Mechromancer stopped her.
'You can't! You'll alert the entire complex to where we are! They're already looking for us!' The Mechromancer told her alarmingly.
'Don't you want to help these prisoners?' Fiona replied desperately.
'Of course I do, but survival is paramount. Besides, what are just two of us supposed to do that hundreds of Crimson Raiders can't?' Gaige reasoned logically.
'Then you can get out in the commotion, but I'm doing something about this!' The Artist argued contemptuously.
'As your commanding officer, I can't let you do this,' the Mechromancer declared, but Fiona didn't care.
'Sorry about the arm,' Fiona apologised sincerely, before shooting her fellow Vault Hunter with the shock setting on her mini gold revolver. Gaige staggered back, electrocuted. 'Sorry! I hope that didn't hurt too much!' She activated the grenade and threw it through the wall, into the far corner.
There was a massive explosion, causing both the Vault Hunters to wince as metal shards flew everywhere and the bricks crumbled. Fiona shot the two torturers with fire damage, burning their faces off as they clutched them in pain.
Immediately, the sirens blared loudly, forcefully entering their ears.
'Who are you?' Prisoner 2341 asked her.
'I might ask you the same question,' Fiona responded. 'It's Fiona. I'm from the Crimson Raiders. We're here to release some of the prisoners here.' 2341 visibly perked up at the mention of the Raiders.
'Crimson Raiders? I've been looking to join you!' 2341 claimed excitedly. 'That's why I let myself get captured here.'
'You let yourself get captured?' Gaige inquired in the background suspicious.
'Gaige, I'm so sorry,' Fiona apologised profusely.
'Doesn't matter now; what's done is done,' the Mechromancer concluded.
'Er, not to interrupt, but, yes, I let myself get captured,' the prisoner said. 'I wanted to join the Raiders but I had no way of transporting myself here. So I made Gemini do it for me. I'm an escape artist. Breaking in and out of secure compounds is my specialty.'
'Sounds great, now let's get the hell out of here!' Gaige replied hastily.
'Right, yes,' Fiona agreed, untying Inmate 2341.
'Thanks,' the prisoner acknowledged. 'It's Deborah, by the way.'
'OK, Deborah, you got any escape ideas?' The Mechromancer asked her.
'If I did, I would've done it by now.'
Fiona inspected the corpses of the guards, pulling a strange round device. It was black and had several round disks, on top of each other at different levels. At the centre, there was a small white activation button.
'What's this?'
'It's an Emergency Spacial Displacement Device,' Deborah explained. 'Highly experimental, but it might be able to displace us out of the Menagerie.'
'If I reprogram it,' Gaige added, causing both Deborah and Fiona to look at her bemusedly. 'I'm a technological engineering genius with an enthusiasm for gaining expertise. Of course I studied them at Sanctuary's technology institute.'
'Be fast, the guards will be here any minute!' Deborah warned, throwing Gaige the ESDD.
'It's a quick fix, don't worry. Just stand guard and shoot anyone who comes to stop us.'
Fiona threw Deborah a Hellfire from her ECHO inventory and equipped an Atlas Double Anarchy herself. A few guards came around the corner, and they shot them quickly.
'Not to sound ungrateful or anything, but why did you save me specifically?' Deborah asked Fiona curiously.
''Cause you're special, Deb,' Fiona jested, causing Deborah to frown at her exasperatedly. 'I saw you getting tortured. Badly. So, I –'
'Felt sympathetic?' Deborah finished for her. 'What if I was an agent working to take down the Crimson Raiders? You'd be leading yourself right into a trap. Did you consider that?'
Fiona blinked. 'Um, well, no, but –'
'Sympathy gets you killed,' Deborah advised. 'Besides, your rescue just alerted the whole of Gemini to our location.'
'My emotions got the better of me.'
'I can see that.'
'Sorry,' Fiona apologised awkwardly. Deborah fired a few shots at the heads of the guards swarming around.
'It's OK,' Deborah assured her. 'You're only human. I know what it's like for your emotions to cloud your judgement. That's how I got into this mess. I'm only here because I was looking for my son.'
'Who's your son?'
'It doesn't matter now. I found his file in the Gemini database – he's dead.'
'I'm sorry.'
'Don't be,' she reassured her confidently. 'I've been looking for the Crimson Raiders so I could join them. You know, to honour his memory. He worked for the Raiders, so I thought I'd do the same.'
'That's, uh, poignant,' Fiona described, not entirely certain how to respond in the situation.
'Yeah, it's something like that.'
[ATTENTION: WILL THE TWO ROGUES HAND THEMSELVES IN OR FACE EXECUTION.]
With that announcement, a colossal swath of Gemini Guards appeared around both ends of the hallway – too many for them to handle. They tried firing back, but the Guards were more prudent in their aim and successfully shot their weapons out of their hands.
'Gaige, have you got that thing working yet?!' Fiona asked her loudly. Her question was answered when Gaige trudged into the hallway beside them, with a guard holding a gun to her back. She held her hands up with a frustrated glare on her face at the Gemini personnel around her.
Fiona noticed the circular ESDD in the Mechromancer's pocket, and caught her eye. Gaige winked at her subtly.
'Who are you?' One of the Guards demanded.
'Unbelievable you don't know,' the Guard Commander claimed, stepping out from the crowd. 'You haven't read sufficiently from our database, have you? This is Gaige and her accomplice is Fiona. They're Vault Hunters.' Gasps spread out through the crowd, but the Guard Commander shushed them decidedly.
'You're Vault Hunters?! Like, real Vault Hunters?' Deborah whispered to them in disbelief.
'Oh, I haven't hunted a Vault in a long time: I'm not sure I deserve that title anymore,' Gaige replied casually. 'It's quite a dangerous job too, but you know, I've come to terms with that. And what about you, Commander? What compelled you towards your job?'
'Imprisoning scum like you is a great motivator,' the Guard Commander replied.
While Gaige stalled them, an ECHO message showed up on Fiona's HUD.
[USE THE ESDD!]
Fiona saw her slowly pass the device over to her, while she distracted the Guards' attention away from her pockets. Quickly, the Artist responded with a thought message of her own.
[WHAT ABOUT YOU?]
[DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME. JUST GET BACK TO THE RAIDERS AND THEY CAN ORGANISE A RESCUE MISSION!]
[CAN'T I JUST GRAB YOUR HAND?]
[THEY'LL NOTICE IMMEDIATELY, AND SHOOT YOU BEFORE YOU CAN PRESS THE BUTTON! WE DON'T HAVE TIME TO MAKE THEM MOVE ME IN RANGE OF THE ESDD!]
[ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THIS?!]
[I'M DUPLICATING ALL THE DATA I TOOK FROM THE MENAGERIE DATABASE TO YOUR ECHO. IT'LL BE FINE.]
[BUT THEY'LL TORTURE YOU!]
[NOTHING THEY HAVEN'T DONE BEFORE, NOW GO!]
Receiving the ESDD from Gaige, Fiona took Deborah's hand to ensure herself that the woman was in suitable range. When Deborah gave her a confused look, she merely winked at her.
'Well, I'd love to stay and chat with Gaige here but I must be off,' Fiona announced confidently.
'See you later, Fi,' the Mechromancer replied with levity.
'And how exactly do you plan to make your escape, for the uninitiated?' The Guard Commander probed disparagingly.
'Like this,' Fiona replied, taking out the ESDD and pressing the white button in the centre.
The teleport activated in a haze of orange energy.
Amelia looked at the sight curiously.
It was a skeleton, as anyone would expect, although it was an Eridian's anatomy. Its skeleton was slender with inhuman proportions, like long leg bones and a strangely extended jaw cage. Its bones were not yellow or greyed like normal human bones; instead, they were a blue crystalline material, which was almost translucent.
On its chest, it was holding a stone brick. There were cracks of purple Infinite energy were flowing through them, with an orange glowing gem in the centre. The Eridian's arms were posed to hold it, clutching it tightly.
'What is it? What's it holding?' Amelia asked curiously, an eyebrow risen.
'Not a clue,' Matt admitted. 'But it's worth finding out.' He leant a hand towards the cube, but his sister grabbed his arm to stop him.
'Stop! What if it's dangerous? You know, like, booby-trapped?' She suggested.
'This Eridian Tomb recognises the Infinite. You're half Infinite energy. I'm pretty sure we'll be fine. Besides, if all else fails, my Chronokinetic lightning should be recognised by the Tomb too.'
'Are you sure?'
'Oh c'mon, where's your sense of adventure?' Before Amelia could react, he put his hand on the cube, and the orange glow strengthened. The Eridian skeleton's hand moved out the way for Matt to pick up the whole cube. Groaning from its heaviness, he hauled the cube out of the sarcophagus.
'What is this thing?' He wondered. 'I suppose we need to…activate it?'
Matt charged his Chronokinesis once again, revelling in the lightning that coursed through his veins excitedly. They transferred to the cube, causing the purple energy to brighten significantly, and cause an oppositely-charged shock to flow into him.
'Ow!' The Anomaly yelled out in pain, causing him to drop it at his feet. Half of the cube rose up, revealing a circular tube in between, which glowed a golden energy.
'I was wondering when you would get here,' a voice claimed, before a figure appeared.
An Eridian – Esog the Watcher.
She was lit by an unknown otherworldly source, completely bright and slightly orange, a stark contrast to the darker, dingier Eridian Tomb.
'I hope I'm not late,' Matt responded jovially, clasping his hands together excitedly. 'Would you mind explaining why you wanted me here?'
'That cube is an Pandimensional Interspatial Conduit. It provides an strong point from the Infinite this dimension. It's nowhere near strong enough yet to allow travel between the two dimensions, but it does enable me to communicate with you.'
'To tell us what?' Amelia catechised curiously.
'These Tombs are spread out across Pandora – the prophesised epicentre of the Great Monsoon,' Esog explained. 'Once activated, they link us closer to this dimension, since we are unable to leave the Infinite without a human host. Should we ever desperately need to escape the Infinite, then these Tombs will, eventually, provide us with an escape route.'
'Why can't you leave the Infinite?' Matt's sister conjectured.
'Because they don't have physical bodies anymore,' the Anomaly elaborated for her, turning to her slightly while keeping the Watcher in his peripheral vision. 'You remember how hard it was for me to give you a human body? Think how much rarer it would be to get Eridian DNA to create a new one for billions of Eridian spirits. Once they moved into the Infinite permanently, their bodies went with them.'
'You kept your body.'
'Because the Anomaly is a tether between the Infinite and the Midgardian dimension,' Esog enlightened them. 'The purpose of this is that he must have a physical body. It is science that we unfortunately invented too late – thousands of years after we elevated completely into the Infinite.'
'So why tell us about these Tombs? Are you saying we should go after them?'
'That is for you to decide,' the Watcher returned indifferently. 'The inception of the Great Monsoon is unknown; quite possibly, you could even prevent it. However, if you keep these Tombs connected for too long, you risk causing another backlash effect. Volatile Infinite energy will mix with Dark energy and result in a Big Crunch effect.'
'Business as usual, then,' Matt joked ebulliently, casting an exuberant smile towards his sister.
'You must return to the Crimson Raiders,' the Watcher instructed them. 'You are required there.'
'You don't have to tell me twice,' Matt told her. 'I'm anxious to return to my friends. But what exactly do they need us for?'
'To go into exact details, I'm certain your friends are in danger at what you may call the Friendship Gulag. It has since been taken over by the corporation known as Gemini.'
'The Dust is miles away, how are we supposed to get there in time?' The Anomaly pointed out.
'Long-range spatial relocation,' Amelia realised, to which the Watcher nodded. 'By use of the Dispersal Energy section of the Infinity Spectrum. It allows Eridians to transfer particles from one area in the Infinite to the other. Now that this Tomb is active, the Watcher can apply it to the Earth dimension – but only from this location and only with a huge amount of energy.'
'When did you become intelligible about the science of the Infinite?' Matt laughed with her, impressed by her intelligence.
'Since I became a host of a species native to the Eridians,' Amelia carried off gaily. 'It's easy to learn when information is constantly streaming into your head.'
'Standby for teleportation,' the Watcher ordered them, directing her arm towards the two of them. Her arm began to swirl with purple energy.
'Gemini, here we come,' Matt muttered under his breath.
Slowly, and wearily, Gaige's eyes opened, only to be greeted by the silencing presence of a ubiquitous black. Expecting to see angry faces of Gemini guards, she reflexively pulled up herself up off the ground, despite her disorientated senses meaning she was unaware of her surroundings. However, the Mechromancer did not see a prison cell – not even a Gemini soldier.
Instead, she was met with the many hills of sand pertaining to the Dust.
Gaige looked around and saw the entrance of the Gemini Menagerie. She could feel the grit and silt in her shoes, as well as the discomfort of sand slipping down her neck.
'I was wondering when you were going to wake up,' a voice claimed. Gaige jumped when she saw Deborah sitting down on the sand in front of her Runner vehicle.
'Why didn't you wake me up?' The Mechromancer inquired perplexedly.
'You have a metal arm, I wasn't sure if you'd be as jumpy as to sucker punch me in the face with it when you woke up,' the woman explained sheepishly.
'Are you around people like that often?' The Mechromancer asked carefully.
'I used to be a lawyer, so yes,' Deborah waved off, getting up off the ground. Gaige frowned for a second; it seemed to ring a bell a bit. 'So what's the plan?'
'Plan? What do you mean plan?'
'To rescue your friend. Fiona, was it?'
Gaige's eyes widened, almost beyond human capability. Fiona wasn't with them.
'Shit!' The Mechromancer susurrated furiously. 'The…the ESDD must've malfunctioned and the targeting system defocused it. I-I was hurrying, I must've left an exposed wire to close to the Targeting Gyroscope.'
'So what do we do?' Deborah queried inquisitively, uncertain how they would succeed.
'There's no chance we're getting back in,' Gaige cognised, shaking her head. 'This whole thing wasn't meant to be a rescue mission: it was a simple observe and report. The only option now is to report. Lilith planned to attack this place once we had all the necessary information, so maybe we can mount a liberation attempt in the crossfire.'
'Great! Do you mind unlocking your Runner?' Deborah awkwardly requested.
'Oh, right.' She manipulated with the interface on her arm and the Runner vehicle activated. Gaige leant into the driver's seat and ignited the engine.
'So what I am supposed to do while your "siege" is going on?' Deborah wondered, climbing into the turret.
'I'm dropping you off at Sanctuary. You can tell Lilith all about your intentions to join the Raiders in a strategist position.'
Deborah nodded silently.
Lilith crossed her arms with a pointed glare.
'What do you mean you "lost" Fiona?!' The Siren demanded deafeningly, nearly creating an rumble throughout Sanctuary HQ.
Gaige resisted the urge to remain fearfully silent.
'The ESDD…it malfunctioned. Fiona took my place and I took hers. Once they were aware of our presence, there was no way of getting back in.'
'What were you thinking, using experimental technology? Didn't it cross your mind that reworking it could make it more dangerous?!'
Gaige sighed. 'That was the first thing that crossed my mind, but the only other option was to wander around until we got caught. And once we got another tag-along, going around invisible was out of the question.'
'Ah, actually, that reminds me,' Lilith continued irritably. 'Who the hell is this?!' She pointed impertinently at Deborah, who was standing quietly by the Vault Key.
'Er, I'm Deborah.'
'She's a prisoner who wants to join the Raiders,' Gaige enlightened her.
'Why would I –'
'She broke into the CCG, Lilith,' the Mechromancer expanded for her. The Siren stood poised, raising an eyebrow to hint for Gaige to continue. 'I heard her torturers talking about it. Her son was apparently a Crimson Raider who was killed – probably by Gemini?' She turned to Deborah, and she nodded weakly. 'So now she wants to join up with the Raiders to honour him. She's a lawyer. There aren't many of those around here right?'
'I have information,' Deborah added. 'On Gemini. I stole it from their archives.'
'I suggest you talk to Tannis, then,' Lilith finally conceded. 'She runs the Science Department, but she's also a liaison between Karabraxis and Sanctuary – she'll be able to set you up with your position with the strategist sector of the Raiders.'
'Thank you,' Deborah acknowledged brightly. In response, Lilith suddenly gave her a serious glower.
'But if I find out you're not who you say you are, or worse, a traitor, then I will not hesitate to end you. And I'm not just talking about your job. Have you got that?' Deborah remained remarkably calm towards her threat.
'Completely.'
'Good,' Lilith simply responded. She turned to the Mechromancer. 'Gaige, call for Rhys, Axton, Aurora and Zer0. We're organising an assault on the Menagerie.' Gaige jokingly gave a salute before leaving to find the latter Vault Hunters.
And that's the chapter!
Oh boy, lots happened in this chapter. A mysterious "Deborah" who broke into Central Capricorn Galactica, which is the most secure and high-profile base in the whole of the Hathusis Galaxy (that's the galaxy that this universe takes place in), and we don't know how.
The Watcher returned again, using this mysterious orange end of the Infinity Spectrum, which has the purpose of dispersal using a Pandimensional Interspatial Conduit – the cube in the Eridian sarcophagus.
The action's slowly ramping up, with Fiona now captured by the Gemini Corporation and Matt is now finally making his way towards the Crimson Raiders once again. I deliberately didn't have the Anomaly return immediately, because not only will that Tomb they visited set up half of the story, but I didn't want to rush things either.
Fiona is surprisingly immature, even though she's older than Gaige, because she's honestly still excited to be a Vault Hunter. And Deborah criticised her for it. Lilith, of course, is incredibly paranoid and distrusting, so I'm not surprised that she didn't trust her. However, she isn't finished with Deborah just yet.
Dunno if you read all that – I won't be writing a TL;DR – but anyway I hope you all liked this chapter!