Garrett and Jackie appeared back near the Hunters' Guild.
"You want to go get some better weapons now?"
"Definitely. How did those things get so strong?"
"Well look at the environment they were in. It must take something strong to live there."
Garrett walked over to the weapon shop and sold the handgun and saber he had acquired. He knew he was going to get something strong enough to not warrant having those, but at the same time he wanted to keep his photon rifle since it was the strongest of the three photon weapons and he wanted to have one of those for if he ever ran out of ammunition. He them joined Jackie at the teleporter. Like he thought, the destination for the cave was gone from the screen. It didn't matter since he still knew how he would get back down there once he had new weapons.
Jackie and Garrett appeared in the forest. Garrett once again took out his MG34, since he would be getting more ammunition once back at the lab. He climbed over the earthen wall and headed in the direction he remembered having gone with Montague. Every once in a while he would stop to shoot at beasts approaching them. After traveling for a bit they arrived at the small outpost and walked in. Garrett walked back to the teleporter and he and Jackie went up to the lab.
"Wait, where are we now?"
"Back on Pioneer Two."
"Then why did we just go down to the forest and back to get here?"
"So no one sees us."
Garrett opened the door and stepped into the lab. Montague wasn't in at the time, but there was an android standing off to one side attending to something. At the noise of the door opening she turned around.
"You must be Garrett. I heard of you from the doctor. But who are you?"
"Jackie. And you are?"
"I'm Eleanor. Doctor Montague created me many years ago to help him at the lab and running errands outside when he was too busy to."
"Do you mind if we work on making some new weapons on that machine over there?"
"Not at all, but why do you need new equipment?"
"We ran into some trouble in the cave."
"How so?"
"The beasts there are much stronger than the ones on the surface. Plus I think there's someone after us to kill us. They blew up the teleporter with a photon crystal just after we got out of it."
"Then how are you getting back down to this cave?"
"I have an idea, but it shouldn't be too hard."
"Okay, but if there are different enemies you should let me come with you to collect samples."
"I don't have a problem with that as long as you can fight well."
"Don't' worry about that."
Garrett set to work on the machine. He wanted to have a good close range weapon that could break open the head of one of the enemies in a single shot. He thought of making a small caliber grenade launcher like a shotgun, so that is what he started designing. He designed it to be like a slug gun, with a rifled barrel 16mm around. A stick clip able to hold six shells was put in for it that fit under the semi-automatic action of the weapon. The shells Garrett designed were like shotgun shells, but they each held sixteen tiny photon grenades. He also designed shells that held one larger photon grenade. The weapon was given a low zoom infrared scope to top it off. Garrett selected to make one and to make several clips of each type of ammunition.
Garrett took the weapon off the printer-like machine and inspected it. It looked like a good weapon. He turned to Jackie.
"Do you want something like this for close range?"
"I don't know about that, but a submachine gun would be good."
Garrett quickly designed a submachine gun. It was the size of a carbine, but fired 9mm rounds from a large belt clip. It also had a second 16mm barrel under that to fire grenades or other large projectiles. This also got a similar low power infrared scope. He got this done as well as, several clips of uranium 9mm rounds and a few clips of 16mm photon grenades and 16mm flares as well. He handed these all to Jackie upon being completed before setting to work on a long range weapon.
Garrett designed his long range weapon as a high power sniper rifle. It had a 12mm bore and a long rifled barrel, which was set on a composite stock with a high power scope. He designed the scope to be interchangeable between thermal and infrared. He also made the rifle barrel and the semi-automatic action out of a titanium alloy instead of steel. This would be needed for the shells. They were uranium but also had small photon charges inside them so they would both pierce any thick skin or armor deeply and then explode once inside. The shells themselves were given a high velocity by being powered not by black powder, but by small photon explosives instead.
Garrett made this new rifle as well as much ammunition for it. He made a second one for Jackie and then saw that Eleanor was still standing there.
"Do you want anything?"
"No, I have my own weapons right now. I will want to see how those weapons you just made will perform though."
"Are we all ready to go now?"
"I've been waiting for you."
Garrett, Jackie, and Eleanor headed back down to the surface though the lab's teleporter. Garrett wanted to save his and Jackie's new weapons for the cave area, so he and Jackie switched to their photon rifles. Eleanor was also holding the same kind of rifle. The three left the teleporter and headed through the forest. Garrett told them to head for the teleporter that headed deeper into the forest, and he himself headed back up to Pioneer Two.
Garrett quickly returned to his apartment once he was back on Pioneer Two. There all he did was arm himself with his heavy armor piercing rifle and he headed back down to the surface. He found a trail of blood leading to where Eleanor and Jackie were waiting near the teleporter. They went through the teleporter and were back near the dome. Here they quickly gunner their way through several rooms and arrived on the platform. Eleanor inspected the teleporter.
"Is this the one that goes from the surface to the cave?"
"Yes, but it comes out in a large open chamber that it appears dragons frequent."
Jackie stepped up.
"How big?"
"Very big. Get out, oh, that new sniper rifle should do well."
Garrett took out his own armor piercing rifle and checked the clip. If the last dragon needed only two rounds, he would be fine. Jackie took out her sniper rifle and put in a clip. Eleanor switched her rifle for another, much larger photon weapon.
"What is that?"
"You've never seen a shotgun?"
"Oh wait, I did before. But that isn't a shotgun."
Garrett took out his grenade launcher.
"This is a shotgun."
"That is a strange weapon, but can we stop arguing and go down?"