Songs: Creedence Clearwater Revival - Run Through The Jungle; Major Lazor, Flux Pavilion - Jah No Partial; Koffee - Throne
"Bring the blood sample to me so I can begin synthesizing the antidote. It will be nice to see another human face again." Cassius told us, as soon as we stepped out of the elevator. We walked into the research center and were greeted by a complete jungle. There were big massive vines growing all over the place, but there was also a narrow path leading through them.
It was awfully quiet, almost too quiet when we made our way through the vines that were spreading through the whole section. We all looked around nervously for Hector's soldiers to jump out at us any second. No way was he just going to let us pass through here. No way in hell.
"Okay, fuck this! It's too quiet." Gaige suddenly broke the silence, voicing my exact thoughts. She got some approving nods from everyone.
"True. Come on, Hector, throw some people at us already!" Axton agreed.
"Oh my God, stop provoking him. You can all be glad he hasn't thrown his people at you yet." Lilith echoes us.
"Lil, sorry, but you aren't here. It's so quiet, it's actually torture." I replied to her, when we heard a shot being fired.
"WE GOT ONE!" Maya shouted loudly and started shooting her SMG. It was almost a relief that we finally had some opposition. Waiting for some of them to attack us had made us all trigger happy beyond belief. I was almost happy when someone ran up to me to attack me, so I could unload an entire magazine into that guy.
As we moved on into the next part the New Pandora guys were all over us and it would have been overwhelming if we weren't eight people going at them. At this stage we all had had a good night's sleep and we were nervous and anxious to get this job done. It really was a bad idea to attack us right now.
Salvador was humming and singing loudly as he fired his two guns into the masses of ex-Dahl soldiers. Krieg was going absolutely wild with his buzzaxe. Gaige was screaming and shouting while blasting people away with her shotgun (and Deathtrap did his part in killing, too). Maya kept phaselocking people right in front of Axton's turrets, so they got shot and couldn't even run away. Axton was just being trigger happy and seemed to have the time of his life. Zero kept disappearing and reappearing randomly, throwing grenades, sniping and slashing people with his sword. Anouk had disappeared behind cover and was dishing out headshots in quick succession, while I did the same. It was carnage. It was beautiful.
It took us maybe about ten or fifteen minutes to clear the whole room, but damn, was it a satisfying experience. I had just built up so much anger and frustration over the whole situation we were in and over Hector's snide remarks, that this was the perfect outlet for all of it.
By the end of it, I felt really exhausted, but also happy with myself. I was starting to think that maybe - just maybe - I had what it took to be a proper Vault Hunter. Maybe I could be happy with this kind of life - searching for Vaults, getting by on bounties and contract kills, travelling the solar systems. It sounded quite tempting.
"Alright, that was fun." Salvador said with a grin, as we all regrouped. Everyone was a little out of breath, but unharmed.
"It was. Where do we go next?" Anouk asked. I checked my ECHOmap. Looked like the lab was somewhere around here. There was a part of the room that was heavily overgrown with plants. Maybe that's how we could get to Cassius.
"Let's try over here." I answered and started walking towards the marker that Cassius had sent. We had to be really close, but I couldn't see any door that was leading into another room...
"Down there?" Maya asked. I looked up from my ECHOmap to what she was pointing at. There was a big hole in the floor, just about big enough to get through. I walked up to it and the marker was directly in front of me.
"I suppose..." I answered and turned off the map for now. I carefully sat down on the edge and looked down between my legs. There were some crates that didn't look too stable... I moved aside a little and then jumped down, landing on my two feet and on some solid ground.
"Alright, you guys can come down, just be careful with the crates!" I shouted up towards them. One by one the rest of the group jumped down the hole. The room we ended up in was pretty small, so it ended up being quite crowded once everyone had made it down to where the marker was.
"Cassius, you skag-suckling traitor. You could have had a spot in paradise, but there's no room for cowards in the New Pandora. Let's see how long you can hold your breath." Hector echoed all of us.
"No! That maniac is releasing the gas directly into the facility! I can fix this! One moment!" Cassius replied, panic coming from his voice. We all looked at each other, painfully aware that this could mean the end of all of us.
"Containment failure. Emergency lockdown initiated." a robotic voice announced. We all looked at each other, unsure whether the gas was already in this room or if we were still somewhat safe.
"There should be a valve that you can open to vent the gas out of the neighbouring room. Should be close to the door." Cassius told us.
"There is one here!" Zero said and I heard some metallic noise and something that sounded like air vents after that.
"Okay, I believe... we're in the clear. Most of the facility should still be safe to traverse. Make your way to me, Vault Hunters." Cassius told us. We all let out a sigh of relief. For a few seconds we were all sure we would get infected as well and become a part of the plant army or die or both. That was a close one.
"Decontamination complete." the robotic voice announced, as the doors opened. We all looked at each other, the relief still clearly visible on our faces.
"Alright, let's continue onwards." I said. I walked through the door and saw the next problem. We had to jump down another ledge, into a room full of vines and plant soldiers. I took a deep breath.
"Okay, prepare yourselves for another round of carnage. There's more salad soldiers down there." I whispered, just before jumping down. I quickly took cover behind one of the massive vines and aimed at the infected soldiers. I took one out with a clean headshot, before they noticed me. That's when the rest of the group jumped down to help out. This time there weren't as many of them, thankfully.
When we were finished with them we had to make our way through even more vines - some of them lashing out at us - before we climbed up to another floor. Everything was either broken down or overgrown with vines, so it was really difficult to figure out how to get to some places on the map.
"There's an emergency console in that containment room. You can vent the remaining gas from there." Cassius echoed us, as we walked into a room that had big glass windows and seemed to be leading into some sort of lab. Looked like we were close. The containment room looked kind of like Zed's place - scary, if you weren't used to it, but pretty standard for Pandora. The console Cassius mentioned was just opposite a big glass door. I turned the wheel and most of the plant pollen started disappearing.
"Very good! You can now proceed without being, as my main bro Vaughn would say, plant-monstered up. What a sad fate that would be." Cassius told us. Just as we were about to walk out of the room we saw some massive plant soldiers outside our room. They looked pretty nasty.
"Cassius, there's some scary guys out there. Any clue who they are? They with you?" Axton echoed.
"Ah, yes. The armed guards. Please take care of them, Vault Hunters." Cassius replied and started coughing.
"Great." Maya mumbled and loaded her SMG.
"Decontamination complete." the robotic voice announced, just a little too early for all of us to be ready. The doors opened and the guards came at us. I saw a ladder leading to some walkways higher up. I quickly made my way over to it and climbed up, my shield barely holding the shots from the plant guards.
I had a better view up here and I was more difficult to hit, so I had a little bit more time to properly take aim and get some good shots. I looked around the room. There seemed to be a good few specialized soldiers and... ah shit.
"Guys, careful, there is a sniper down here, I'll try and take him out first." I echoed the rest of the group. I looked through my scope and watched him for a little while. He was moving around a lot, but he finally had to reload. My time had come. I aimed at his head and while he was least expecting it, I put a bullet through his brain.
"Sniper down." I let the others know.
"There's one guy hiding behind one of the tubes, can you get him from where you are?" Anouk echoed me. I looked up and saw her give me a short wave from the other side of the grating, before I checked on whether I had a clear view of whoever she was talking about. Turned out, I had a perfect view. I quickly aimed and killed with a single shot. Looking around it seemed like that was the last of them.
"Are we all clear?" I asked.
"Yup, we are." Axton answered, as I made my way down the ladder again. I was surprised how well this was going for me. Considering the amount of shooting we had done, none of us was seriously injured yet.
"Alright, the map is a little confusing here, but it looks like we're going around this way..." I said and went ahead. There was a little side room with some ammunition in it and an ECHO recorder. I figured it couldn't hurt to see what was on that recording. There might be some important information on there. Or maybe it would just be interesting and help us focus or something.
"I've always found it odd that this planet's soil lacks the essential building blocks for mature flora. Yet while the land itself resists growth from desert to tundra, I've discovered a way forward! Upon careful observation, the same spores that fill these men's lungs can be found in the greater Pandoran atmosphere! Take a deep breath, Cassius. Measure twice, change the world once!" I heard Cassius voice as we walked through the corridor. It was kind of sad to hear that he was just trying to do good and help Pandora and to see how Hector has just used him.
We finally reached another area that looked like it had been used for research of some sort. I couldn't stop thinking about how long we had been in here already, trying to get to Cassius. It felt like it was hours already, but it probably wasn't that long.
"Getting closer! Ah, the thrill of scientific progress. Stimulating, isn't it? You know, when this is all over, I think I might take your scientist up on her lascivious offers!" Cassius echoed us when we made our way through the area.
"Okay, too much information. Where do we go next? Upstairs?" Maya asked. I looked around. Seemed like there was no other way...
"I guess." I replied and shrugged. We made our way up the stairs. Hopefully this antidote wouldn't take long.
When we had made it upstairs we found ourselves surrounded by vines again. This research facility was an absolute labyrinth. I just hoped we'd be able to find a way out of this place again.
"There's another hole in the floor. Looks like the lab is down there." Salvador shouted from the neighbouring room. I went over to him, looking through the hole in the floor. Hopefully we'd find a way out of there again.
"Alright. Let's do this. No time to lose." Anouk said and jumped down. She knocked on the only door that was in the room.
"One moment, I'll let you in." Cassius echoed us. That was our cue to make our way down there as well.
"Cassius, you book-readin' sonofabitch! Your services are no longer needed. Stand down." Hector replied to that. He seemed to be really really pissed about Cassius helping us. I hoped he was really pissed.
"I'm in the emergency containment room. Fear not, I absolutely escaped the effects of the gas, and I can assure you I am using absolutely quite disingenuously." Cassius said as the door to his lab opened.
There were vines already growing inside the lab, but apart from that it looked pretty neat and intact. I couldn't see Cassius around anywhere. We slowly walked inside the lab and looked around. Where the hell was Cassius? What were we supposed to do now? There was some weird cylinder in the middle of the room... it was full of spores. What the hell was going on here?
"That is where you will deposit your friend's blood sample." Cassius said. I looked around, not sure what he meant, until I saw Axton looking up with a guilty expression on his face. He was standing in front of some sort of scanner.
"I didn't touch anything!" he replied. I sighed and walked over to him, handing him the vial with Mordecai's blood.
"Now, scan the sample. The antidote will cause his spores to enter a remissive state. It will also provide you immunity to the gas." Cassius told us. Axton put the sample in the scanner and the scanner activated itself with bright blue light.
"Scanning bio-signature" the scanner announced. Thank God, the scanner still seemed to be working!
"Oh, drat. Your friend's blood was compromised by the decontamination chamber. I can fix this... I can fix this." Cassius suddenly said, after the sample had been scanned for only a few seconds.
"What? What's that mean?" I asked, not sure if I had heard that right. Was... was all that just for nothing?
"It's no good. We will need another sample. There's no time for anything else. Open the emergency containment room." Cassius replied. I was in some sort of shock, because I just couldn't move and I could barely think. What was that supposed to mean, we'd need another sample?
"I'll go and open it." Maya said, as she walked over to the cylinder in the middle of the room. There was a wheel that was probably supposed to open it. I still couldn't really figure out what was going on.
"I'd hoped to use the antidote on myself, but we need infected blood... So instead, I must make one final request..." Cassius echoed us, while we waited for the containment room to open. There was some sort of mechanical noise and then the cylinder was lifted upwards. All the pollen inside the cylinder spread into the air around.
In the middle of the room there was a big figure that looked like one of the plant guys. What was happening? Why was a plant monster inside the containment room? Was that...? He got up and revealed his face.
"Kill me!" he said. Dear God. This was Cassius. Cassius was infected and he's been keeping it a secret from us until the end.
"Nova, stay back by the scanner, we got this!" Anouk shouted back at me, as if I had been able to do anything else. I was still trying to process what was happening and what that meant for everything.
I didn't even realize what was going on until it was all over. All I could hear were gunshots and screaming. I had no idea how long the fight actually took, but it didn't seem like it took long. I only really snapped back into reality after Cassius was dead. And my first instinct was to panic.
"What are we going to do? We don't have a blood sample and Cassius is dead and we still don't have an antidote and-" I started babbling mindlessly until a message on the ECHOnet interrupted me.
"If you're hearing this, I am gone. But I have left oddly-prescient instructions for synthesizing the antidote. First, collect my blood." Cassius' voice said. I blinked with surprise. Collect his blood. A blood sample. Of course.
I made my way to Cassius' body, taking an empty health vial out of my pocket. I had used it earlier, thank God I had put it in my pocket and not just thrown it away. I quickly bent down and took a hold of Cassius arm. I was almost on autopilot when I repeated the same procedure as earlier to fill the vial with Cassius' blood.
"Yes, yes! Now, to the aptly-named antidote machine! Quickly!" the recording said. I ran back to the scanner and placed the sample.
"Scanning bio-signature" the scanner said again. I really hoped this would work. This was our only chance to save Mordecai.
"That antidote will save your friend. It will also provide you immunity to the gas, just to be entirely clear." Cassius' voice said while the sample was scanning. Just after Cassius was done talking, there was a quiet beeping sound that came from the scanner.
"I love that sound." Cassius replied to that. I took the vial out of the scanner and looked at it. It looked somewhat different now.
"Is... is that it?" I asked.
"I... I think so." Salvador replied. I packed the antidote away safely and carefully. That's when we heard Tannis' voice over the ECHOnet.
"That man's blood is as titillating as his mind. I will begin synthesizing the antidote immediately. And then Cassius will be inside all of us." she said. We all exchanged looks that said the same thing. We just all got very uncomfortable.
