"So let me get this straight?" Axton asked. "You were in the middle of a Hyperion army, with Jack and his head goons leading them, all of them pointing guns at you? Is that right?"
I shrugged. "More or less, yes."
"How on earth are you still alive?" He demanded.
I grinned. "I told you that the only time I fought Jack, it wasn't a fair fight. Did you seriously expect me to risk walking into that battle, without being prepared? Jack was reacting, it wasn't something he'd expected to have to deal with."
"Neither were you." Salvador pointed out.
"You're forgetting something, Sal." Maya grinned. "Improvisation is Jason's strong suit. You may not have planned to confront Jack like that, but you were able to work out how to turn the situation to your liking, weren't you?"
"Some of it." I agreed. "Some of it wasn't my doing, though."
"So how did you get out of there?" Gaige asked.
FLASHBACK STARTS
There must have been close to a hundred soldiers that pulled their triggers on me. Enough firepower cut through the air to turn me into mincemeat. The first problem was that I was no longer there. The second was that the lights shut down at that exact instant. The third was that they were dealing with the effects of my very first model of Trojan Horse.
The lights going off was not something I had expected or anticipated. Nonetheless, I was thankful, despite the difficulties in picking my targets. It meant it was harder for Jack too. With a quick burst, I fired at a group of far guards as I moved, just long enough to distract everyone and cause chaos, so when everyone's guns reactivated, there was fire in every direction and not a few of the Hyperion soldiers were cut down by their own fire. It seemed they thought I was everywhere and in a sense, I was. Always on the move, never giving anyone a clear shot and evading any return fire, I was in my element. It was carnage, confusion and chaos.
Exactly what I thrived on.
Jack was shouting orders but the confusion was simply too much for him to control, a situation not helped by the pair of grenades I hurled in opposite directions. In the core of Helios, the centre of Hyperion control, control was the last thing on anyone's mind. In the middle of the confusion, I saw a single moment, a split second opportunity that I might never get again.
Jack was standing, looking around, trying to understand exactly what had happened in the heart of his precious station. There was enough light to see him clearly, but not enough that I could be easily seen in my current position. I leveled my SMG at his head, lining him up perfectly.
Perhaps he sensed my presence, perhaps his combat senses warned him of a danger he had overlooked. But he turned and looked at me. For a fraction of a second, we stared at each other, both realising that despite his skills and his forces, I had the upper hand.
But his reflexes were still good enough that the rounds I aimed dead centre into his forehead instead perforated his right ear. He fell to the ground, screaming, and everyone was drawn towards my area. Cursing, I knew I had to get out. While I had taken a very good shot at Jack, I hadn't done enough to finish him, and I certainly didn't have time to take another, not if I wanted to survive. In any case, Jack and his programmers would be able to undo the sabotage I had done in fairly short order, leaving me officially out of time.
As if to illustrate my point, the defence turrets that I knew Helios was littered with finally raised into attack positions and began to fire. But to my shock, they fired on the Hyperion forces. I had disabled the turrets, preventing them from activating at all, but to have them engage my enemies was something I hadn't had a chance to do at all. Still, I wasn't about to waste my sudden good luck, racing out of cover and towards the nearest door. While I had no doubt that at least some of the troops saw me, it was also clear that with the turrets engaging and the darkness that still plagued the area, they could do little to stop me.
On the other hand, two of those that did see me could still pursue me. Wilhelm and Nisha both took off after me and suddenly I was fighting a running gun battle through the corridors of Helios. Had those two been chasing anyone other than me under these circumstances, they would have easily won. But they were already tired out from the carnage they had perpetrated in New Haven and the battle they had just had to fight. I was fresh and very motivated. I ducked around a nearby corner into another corridor, turned and leveled my SMG. As Wilhelm charged around the corner, I unloaded the full magazine of fury into him at near point blank range, dropping his shields and dropping him where he stood, though not quite managing to kill him. Nisha was far more careful, which gave me time to reload and be ready to strafe again. For once, however, she held her fire, maintaining a stand off between the pair of us.
"I should kill you." She said coldly.
"Yet I don't see you trying." I replied with about as much warmth in my voice.
"I suspect Jack would want to do it himself."
"You mean he'd have to, because there's no way you're able to pull that off on your own."
Nisha snarled. "He's twice the man you are."
"You can live with your delusions, I'll deal with reality. Tell me why I shouldn't kill you right now."
Nisha sighed and lowered her gun. "Because I'm not stupid enough to take you on like this. If Jack and his army couldn't kill you, I certainly can't. So I won't hold you up. But there will be a reckoning between us one day."
"And on that day, you will look up at me from the ground and realise that I was right all along." I stated calmly. "Until we meet again. I strongly recommend that that not be for a very long time and that you don't give me even more of a reason to be pissed off with you."
Turning, I took off again, leaving Nisha behind, one final stop before my destination in mind. I had to get back to my office, as predictable and expected as it was.
FLASHBACK ENDS
"Why go to your office?" Maya asked. "You had to know Jack would expect you to go there."
"Of course he did." I replied coolly. "It was stupid and completely predictable on my part and could have been a very fatal decision. But, I had to go, nonetheless."
"Why?" Axton demanded. "What was so important that you'd throw away every tactical advantage you'd just earned to do?"
"A few things. Firstly, I was damned if I was going to let Jack gain the benefit of everything that I had worked on. Thankfully, none of my prototypes for the Trojan Horse were stored on my desktop system or Hyperion's server. But many of the plans that I had draw up to improve Helios, various contacts I had around the place, specialised equipment, along with anything that was of sentimental value, all of that was stored in there and I had a very narrow window to retrieve it before Jack thought to lock down my office. Secondly, if I was going to make a clean getaway, I had to make sure that I had a headstart on anything Jack sent after me, and he would send forces after me. I still had near top level access to all of Hyperion's systems and I had to use that access to get as much information as I could on Jack's plans, as well as create enough confusion and delays to slip away without being intercepted. Plus, if I could, I wanted to see if I could hang on to that access for as long as possible. Finally, it was perhaps my best chance to get a message to Ghost, inform them of Jack's actions. Ghost graduates are a very tight-knit group. There is not a single occasion when one graduate has ever killed another, and for good reason. Even when fighting on opposite sides, Ghost graduates tend to avoid each other wherever possible. On the rare occasion where they have had to face each other in combat, the victor has always accepted the surrender of the loser, rather than kill them. For a Ghost graduate to kill another, even in honourable combat, is unthinkable. To one to be simply cut down without a chance is not only a mortal insult to the victim and their family, but it invites the wrath of every single other Ghost student and instructor upon the killer. Jack, with that single action, had miscalculated far more than he had ever realised. No doubt, he would eventually inform Ghost of the 'tragic' death of my father, but I needed to get the truth out first."
"Did it work?" Gaige asked.
"You wouldn't know it from Pandora, but yes, it did. Hyperion has had a lot more trouble across all of its holdings since New Haven. Ghost's influence is incredible and it shows. They've been waging a shadow war against Hyperion ever since. They haven't managed to penetrate Pandora, simply because Jack is far too careful, but Hyperion has had to strengthen a lot of their defences elsewhere and they haven't been permitted to approach Ghost at any time since then."
She whistled. "That would hurt Jack."
"It has, but he doesn't care. I don't exactly what Jack's planning, even today, but whatever it is, he thinks it's enough to be worth everything it has cost him."
"Did you manage to get out without being detected?" Claptrap asked.
"Somehow, yes. Jack must have had to spend some time in medical, which was probably what saved me. With Jack out of action, even temporarily, command of Helios fell to me and I was able to use that to my advantage. By the time they wised up, I had my escape plan sorted. Rather ironic, actually."
"How so?" Salvador asked.
I grinned. "I used the automated systems to launch a freighter for the planet and tricked everyone into thinking there was a lifesign on it. While they were scrambling to shoot it out of the sky, I set the moonshot cannon to drop off supplies at a Hyperion ground facility and rode it down. Thankfully, I'd ironed out the fragile contents settings by this time."
Zero stood and paced. "There is one thing that/I do not yet comprehend./Who helped you escape?"
I sighed. "Even to this day, I don't know. I never found out and I spent a lot of time looking into it. That bugged me as well. It wasn't until a couple of days ago that I got a suspicion as to who might have been behind it."
Zero spun to face me, the others following suit, all of them clearly shocked. "Who?" Zero bit out.
I sighed. "The same person who made sure I was able to intercept the train you all caught. The same person who's been watching our arses ever since we met."
Maya blinked. "Angel. You think Angel intervened."
I shrugged. "Like I said, I don't know, but it's a reasonable guess. She did say she's plugged into everything on the planet, which suggests she was created by Hyperion, a fact that she confirmed to me after Liar's Burg.. If that's the case, then she could definitely be able to affect systems on Helios."
Axton joined Zero on his feet. "If Angel's Hyperion, can we trust her?"
"Now, hold it!" Gaige yelled, jumping to her feet as well. "That is exactly the attitude you had about Jason, remember? Don't jump to conclusions."
Axton looked like he was about to make some sort of biting comment but evidently thought better of it. He sighed and looked at me. "Question still stands, though."
I nodded grimly. "I'd be disappointed if you didn't ask. The short answer is that I don't know. Whatever Angel has planned, we're still shooting in the dark. We don't have any proof either way. I don't know if we can trust her, but so far, she hasn't given us any reason not to either. I think Angel's playing her own game, against both us and Jack. All we can do is play with the cards we have. So, we let Angel help us, god knows we need the help right now, but we keep our eyes wide open. We can't afford to do anything different."
Axton and Zero exchanged glances. "Fair enough. What happened after you left Nisha behind?"
"In all honesty, not much. There was still so much confusion, I got in and out of my office with ease, grabbing everything, before-" I suddenly snorted in amusement.
"What's funny?" Gaige asked.
I grinned as I looked at Claptrap. "Before I took the moonshot down to Pandora."
Claptrap chuckled. "I trust you had the systems sorted out by then?"
"Naturally. That was a little time after Elpis, you know." I sighed. "After that, Jack put the bounty on me and I spent the next two years dodging bounty hunters and trying to screw up Jack's plans along the way. There really isn't much more to say."
Axton frowned. "So, you've faced Jack in person and lived to tell the tale. Just how much of a threat is he?"
I sighed. "Jack is easily the most dangerous foe within light-years of Pandora. He's smart, committed, resourceful and with a hell of a lot of power behind him. Not only that, but he's capable of twisting everything to his advantage if he gets the chance. There's a reason why so few people have faced him, hurt him and lived. One on one, he's easily a match for any one of us. The only chance we have against him is to hit hard and fast, so that he never sees us coming. But that's far easier said than done."
Salvador slumped. "So, we're walking into hell, pendajo."
Zero chuckled. "We've always known that/ Jack was dangerous, But we/Live for the challenge".
Salvador brightened at that. "You have a point. Taking down Jack is one hell of of a fight, and we ain't walking away from that."
"Definitely now. I've got a score to settle with him." I pulled out three items, a revolver, a locket and an ECHO.
Gaige's eyes widened. "Are those what I think they are?"
I nodded grimly. "The last mementos I have of my family." I held up the locket, opening it to show them the image inside. "This is the only picture I have left of them. The only physical object that has all of us together. Nothing else exists."
"Nothing?" Maya asked.
I shook my head. "Nothing." My hand brushed the revolver and opened the loading chamber, revealing the eight holes for bullets, with only three occupied. "Dad never got a shot off that day, you know. They cut him down before he even had a chance to fire."
Axton frowned. "Then why-"
I interrupted. "Why are there only three bullets?"
He nodded.
"Because I've used them." I pulled out a bullet and held it up. "I made a lot of modifications to these bullets. Took me six months to do them, but I did."
"What sort of modifications?" Salvador asked.
I smiled nastily. "The fatal kind. You see, every Hyperion employee is keyed into the New-U system, so they can't actually die. Makes fights rather irritating sometimes. So I came up with a way of jamming that signal." I tossed the bullet, before sliding it back into the chamber. "You get hit by one of these, the New-U system can't restore you, it permanently disrupts your data in the system without being able to be recovered in any way. You get killed after being hit by one of these bullets, you stay dead."
Eyes widened all around the room. Finally, Salvador breathed, "And it works?"
"I started with eight bullets in this gun. There were eight people responsible for what happened to my family, above all others; Jack, Nisha, Wilhelm and the security team with my family. I've spent the last two years not only trying to sabotage Jack's operations, but hunting down each of those people. I found the last member of the security team less than a week ago. Believe me, it works all right. All that's left of the human side of the New Haven attack are those three, and they will get theirs." I smirked. "Jack will be last. I want him to know I'm coming for him. I want him to know that no matter what he does, the last thing he will ever see is the barrel of this gun and me on the other end of it."
There was silence for a moment. Each one of the Vault Hunters looked at me with a degree of shock. I glared at Axton. "You wanted to know why Jack and I had a falling out, why I want to take down Hyperion so badly. You get your answer?"
He nodded, choosing wisely not to say anything. I stood. "Then I'm turning in for the night. I suggest you do the same, we've got over 12 hours until we make landfall. This is probably the last chance for some quiet time before we reach Sanctuary."
Without waiting for an answer, I turned away, picking a bed against a wall and settled in for the night. Behind me, I heard the others do much the same. The day had exhausted everyone, both mentally and physically and everyone swiftly fell asleep.
Everyone except me.
I had tried very hard over the last few years to push my memories of that day to the back of my mind, to concentrate on the task I had in front of me. But the events of the last few days had brought everything back to the forefront. Finally, I gave up and went on deck, watching the waves on the near-frozen sea as we continued to sail forwards. But I apparently wasn't as alone as I had thought.
"Can't sleep?" Maya's voice came from behind me.
"Not exactly." I replied softly. "It's been an interesting couple of days and now I've got my memories to keep poking at me."
Maya nodded. "Understandable. Memories have a way of doing that." Her voice drifted off slightly towards the end of her sentence.
"Pulled up some of your own, huh?"
"You might say that. But there's other concerns on my mind right now."
I glanced at her. "And what might those be?"
"Angel. Normally, I can get a read on people, regardless of who they are. But there's something about her that's strange and I can't quite get a handle on. Almost as if she's familiar and not at the same time."
I looked closely at her. Experience had told me that when a Siren was concerned, you needed to sit up and pay attention. "She is an AI, so it makes sense that you wouldn't be able to read her as easily."
"I know, but there's something more to this. Something that's niggling at the back of my mind."
I nodded. "Well, don't let it slip away. Those instincts of yours are not something to ignore."
Her mouth thinned. "Glad someone sees it that way." She paused for a second. "Can I ask you something?"
I raised an eyebrow. "You can ask."
"You said your family came to Pandora looking for something. You never explained what."
I nodded slightly. "No, I didn't." I thought for a moment. "Not a Vault, that's for sure."
Maya chuckled slightly. "That's a surprise." The sarcasm dripped from her voice. She waited for me to continue. I sighed and pulled my locket off from around my neck, handing it to Maya. She frowned. "What does this have to do with anything?"
"Everything." I replied. She snorted before opening the locket, or rather trying to. Her brows furrowed as she couldn't open it.
"What kind of lock is on this thing?" She complained.
"A very special one." I replied. She looked up at me. I continued. "It's genetically linked. There are only four of those lockets in the universe. That one's mine." I pulled my sister's from my pocket. "This is my sister's and all that I have left of her. Only my parents' are unaccounted for. But the genetic link that opens it is a little more widespread than that. Another close family member could open it. Like an aunt or uncle, if they have the right connection. Or a cousin."
Maya got it. "That's why they came here. You're not looking for something, you're looking for someone. Family."
I nodded. "My father had a sister, who had a child. Apparently there was something different about that child and my aunt threw them out, simply for being different. When Dad found out, he disowned my aunt. Swore that he'd have nothing to do with a woman that would throw her own child away like trash. She died, years ago. Just as bitter and twisted as she had always been, apparently. But her child is apparently still alive. We never had a name, but Dad's hair seems to be very strong in our family. My sister and I inherited it and apparently, our cousin did too. It's not much to go on, but apparently, it was enough for them to come here. But any clues they had died with them at New Haven. I've no idea how I'd be able to track them down now. No photo, no clues to follow, nothing. I don't even know if my family ever managed to find them. Just another dead end."
Maya smiled sympathetically. "Don't give up hope. That determination of yours is half of what keeps us alive. Miracles have been known to happen, after all."
"Yeah. Just have to live long enough to see one."
(Author's Note)
Well, this one has definitely taken long enough to work on. My apologies for that, but it's been a very long few months without a lot of chance for writing. So, this chapter mostly ties up Jason's background story and we can start moving forward again. I've got a lot of plans for the next few chapters, now I just need the time to write them.
Now, reviews.
Verdin, I'm glad you're enjoying this. I'm trying to flesh out Jason a little more and I agree with you, Maya and Gaige are definitely my pick from the Vault Hunters. So I will probably spend a lot of time on them. I understand your concern about the dialogue and I am going to try and expand on it. Ultimately, though, as you said, I am writing this from Jason's point of view, so he will be the one most of the conversation is directed to.
JMK2, good to be back and I will continue to keep writing. In addition to my own two stories, I'm currently co-writing a couple of stories with my good friend Sharnorasian Empire, one that runs between Starcraft and Lodoss and we've just started a new Borderlands story as well.
Guest, I'm glad you like this. I have to admit, I always thought that Claptrap, despite how annoying he can be, has a lot of hidden depths to him and there isn't that much so far on highlighting those depths. So, this is my attempt to do so. In addition, I think Claptrap deserves his shot at Jack and he's going to get it, so hopefully you'll see some growth to him. I glad you like the banter, it's quite fun writing like that and I've always enjoyed writing battle scenes, there's so much opportunity to laugh at the chaos. The interactions between all of the Vault Hunters, the Crimson Raiders and Jason is definitely going to be something to watch from here on. I have quite a lot planned for that and some that (I'm hoping) no one is going to see coming. Your suggestion about Hyperion is a good one but it's going to take a very long time before we get to that point. I'm not going to comment on the fate of characters, partially to give things away but I also haven't decided on the final fate of a lot of them.
Well, that about wraps this one up. Please enjoy the chapter, review, follow and favourite if you're so inclined.
Until next time.
