Chapter 9

Pandora

The last body hit the floor and Gaige let out a sigh. It wasn't that she was tired, just grateful that the skirmish was over. The women had been all over the place in skill, with the second one Artemis had been fighting, being almost useless with a gun. Didn't mean that she wasn't dead, but it wasn't satisfying. She looked over to the other girl as she picked up her rifle and quickly reloaded. Gaige was always amazed at how fast her hands moved while reloading. It wasn't that Gaige herself was slow, it was just that she almost always used either single shot weapons, or magazine fed ones, but Artemis almost always used ones that had to be reloaded one shell at a time, so the fact that she could do so as fast as she did always fascinated Gaige.

Noticing the attention, Artemis asked "What?"

"Oh, nothing."

"Really? Cause that's the second time I've caught you lookin."

"What? When was the first?"

"Seriously? While that, that, whatever she was was talking."

"You caught me, huh?"

"Course I did, why wouldn't I?"

"I donno, thought you might not be able to take your eyes off of her."

"I admit she was a sight."

"Right." Gaige said sadly, looking down at her own inadequate body.

"There it is again. Why do you sound sad?"

"Huh?"

"Just now, you sounded sad, and when you looked over earlier, you looked sad then too."

"Uh, it's just, well..."

"Look, if you don't wanna talk about it, forget it, we need to be going after her anyway."

"Y-yeah, you're right, it's just, well, um, are you, well, gonna be alright? You know, fighting her and all?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, it's just, you know."

"No, I don't, spit it out."

Gaige shifted uncomfortably and looked down at her boots for a second, steeling her resolve before finally saying what she needed to "Well, with you being, well, the way you are. No, that's not right. With you liking girls, and her being a stunningly attractive woman, are you gonna have any, well, issues fighting her?"

"What the hell are you on about? I mean seriously? First off, you think that's my type? What, with her overinflated chest and that simpering, coy attitude? Gives me the willies. I hate that type. I mean, you're way better looking than her, confident, competent and a way better figure on top of that."

Gaige felt a swell of relief for some reason, but Artemis continued "And even if she was my, gag, type, she's an enemy, so it wouldn't matter if I thought she was the most attractive woman that I'd ever seen, I'd still have to fight her. I mean, you've never faced off against someone that you thought was attractive? Er, handsome. Whatever?"

"I...have. You're right. I just thought she was so pretty and I know a lot of guys like big boobs, so, I guess I just kinda assumed, I mean, we've never had a discussion about what you find attractive."

"We kinda did."

Gaige thought for a second and then blanched. "Well that wasn't really a, um, you know..."

"Urgurrru" Deathtrap interjected, saving Gaige from the awkward direction that the conversation was going.

"Right, shit, sorry." Gaige said, shaking her head "You both ready? Then let's kill this bitch. And I don't mean you. I really need to think of something better to call her."

They ran through the door at the back of the room and up the stairs, coming out in an opulent room that obviously belonged to the woman. It was richer and fancier than anything that either of them had seen on Pandora, outside of what Gaige had seen in some of the Hyperion bases. Cloth was draped on the walls where 'art' wasn't hung. The 'art' ranged from works by Pollux, to standees of Tyreen Callipso, to pinups from magazines and even a poster sized picture of a half-dressed Moxxi.

In the center of the room was a large chair made of thin twists of metal and topped with a posh red cushion. Behind it was a massive bed, with drapes of semitransparent cloth hanging over it, almost hiding the fact that it was overflowing with pillows. Behind some other curtains was what appeared to be a rather spacious tub, though there were some rather disturbing red stains in it. And most surprising of all was the fact that the floor was covered in carpets, and not threadbare ones, but newer, cushy ones that felt like walking on grass and all in vibrant colors.

Gaige wrinkled her nose at the smells of perfumes and something else that it didn't quite mask lurking underneath. She glanced over to see Artemis almost gagging at the mixture. It suddenly hit her that she hadn't seen the other girl react to a smell that much since they'd been in the processing plant on the Project Odysseus station, which distracted Gaige just long enough that she missed the half-dressed women emerging from the bed.

Artemis didn't, as she brought her rifle up and without even hesitating, fired, striking the first one in the head and ricocheting the bullet into the other, killing them both instantly.

Gaige spun and looked a bit horrified as the seemingly unarmed women hit the ground.

"What the heck? They might not have been hostile? I mean, they could've been hostages, or brainwashed or something. You could've talked to them before shooting."

"Yeah, like I'm gonna trust anybody I find living in a bandit base."

"Alright, that's a fair point, but you still could've tried talking first."

Artemis shrugged "Maybe, but probably not."

Gaige wanted to scream in frustration, also because she wanted a drink and there was an open decanter on the table by the bed. "What the hell kind of bandit has a decanter?" She growled.

"Urguur"

"Sorry, you're right babe, it's just that it kinda caught me off guard is all."

"Yeah, I'm sorry too. It's just the smell in this place."

"So, let's get outta here."

"Are we supposed to kill the boss or not?"

"Probably should, but she's hiding and it's not like we've got a lot of time to look for her, so maybe we should get outta here while we can."

"Too late." Artemis said, listening to the sounds of troops rushing up the stairs.

"I had to say it." Gaige groaned "I should've known better."

"So it's not just if I say it."

"No, I've tried to explain that before."

"Well, whatever. Now's not the time for this. We've gotta make a choice and fast."

"Between what?"

"Staying and fighting, or chasing after the boss."

"Well, if we chase the boss, chances are we'll get pincered."

"And if we don't chase the boss, she'll attack us from behind, pincering us anyway."

"Fine, let's chase after her. Rather face her on my terms anyway." Gaige paused and sheepishly looked around "That is, if you know where she went."

"Who do you think you're talking to?" Artemis declared before turning and walking over to the wall, sniffing slightly as she went, reminding Gaige of a hunting dog, which she instantly felt guilty about.

"So, uh, not to interrupt or anything, but, uh, how're you tracking her? I mean, I'm not doubting you or anything, it's just that I feel I should be learning is all."

"Huh? Oh, I'm following her perfume."

"Wait, you can smell that amongst all this stench?"

"Yeah, her's is particularly pungent, not to mention that it's fresh, so it stands out a bit more."

"That's impressive, but can you hurry up a bit, we're running out of time."

"It's always something." Came the murmured reply. But despite the grumbling, she moved considerably faster, hustling over to the wall and looking at it for a moment before grabbing onto the Tyreen standee and pulling it aside, revealing a hidden door.

"I'm not even going to ask anymore." Gaige muttered, taking point again and stepping through the door. She found herself in a small room lined with shelves of things she was glad they didn't have time to pause and look at, though she did spot a few ECHO movies she was horrified by the covers of.

Racing through the room, she went through the door that was still hanging open on the far side and found a small stairway leading up.

Abandoning stealth, even as she heard Artemis closing the door behind them, she raced upward as an idea suddenly popped into her mind.

She burst out the door at the top and found herself where she'd suspected, she was behind the half-finished head, where the landing pad was.

Immediately she glanced to the sky, trying to see if they'd missed their target, when an arm snaked around her throat and her head was buried between twin massive swells of flesh.

"Be a dear and don't struggle, I wouldn't want to hurt you before the fun begins."

Gaige felt a cold sweat run down her back as she realized what had happened, the woman must have heard her coming and hid behind part of the skull, stepping out behind her and was now holding her around the throat. The overpowering smell of her femininity cloaked in perfume choked her worse than the arm, causing her to gag and thrash, only to be brought to a standstill by the force suddenly applied to her windpipe, not to mention the fancy bladed Hyperion pistol against her temple.

"Now now, there'll be none of that, you can squirm all you want once we're back downstairs, but first, I think we should say hello to your friend, shouldn't we."

They turned slightly to face Deathtrap, who was floating in the doorway exuding an extremely pissed off attitude of simmering rage. He shot Gaige a look telling her that he was disappointed, not just in her for running off ahead, nor for getting grabbed, but at himself for not having been able to deal with this situation.

"Hmm, that's odd, there was supposed to be one more of you. Where did that tiny little cutie go?"

She must have detected movement coming in from her side, cause she started to spin, moving her pistol to try and intercept whatever was coming at her. As she rotated, she caught sight of Artemis, lunging forward with her own blade extended and threw Gaige at her, trying to get away.

She partially succeeded, Artemis's blade sliced through her face, just below the eye almost the entire length from her nose to her ear, throwing an arc of blood past her to splatter noisily on the ground.

Volupta froze, nothing about her moved except for her hand that twitchingly made its way up to her cheek, and when it found blood she let out a shriek of pure hatred.

"You...you...bitch! Look what you've done to my face! My beautiful face. Arg! Everyone! Kill them!" She roared as the first of her assistants arrived, quickly surrounding her and escorting her away as the rest of them opened fire.

"Thanks for that." Gaige shouted, as she returned fire, laying waste to the first group as they tried to exit the door.

"Don't mention it." Came the reply through clenched teeth. Gaige was surprised to see how angry the other girl was and hoped it wasn't aimed at her, though she doubted it considering how she continued "I just wish I'd been able to skewer that over inflated monstrosity when I had the chance."

Gaige didn't know how to respond to that, so she continued firing into the doorway as she looked around, as she was afraid of, there didn't seem to be any other way off of the roof, other than the direct way to the courtyard, which she didn't want to take.

Artemis must have had the same idea, cause she was moving over to the edge as she fired, and eventually was able to glance down around the metal skull that was being built.

"Huh, so I was right." She muttered.

"About what?"

"They're still fighting the Stalkers down there."

"Well, that might explain why we're able to hold them back here. How's the fight going? Down there I mean."

"The last Stalker's just about dea...whoops, there it went."

"Well, I guess that gives us about a minute to figure a way out of this mess."

Artemis nodded and looked around, there were two doors that led to the platform they were fighting on, the one they'd come through, which was being guarded by Deathtrap, and the main one, where they were currently shooting into, trying to keep the mass of bandits from getting out.

It didn't look good. Sure, if they could keep the choke-points held, they should be able to grind through the entire base worth of troops, but that was relying a lot on luck. The luck that they wouldn't have to reload at the wrong moment, that there wasn't going to be a badass or a group with shields, particularly the giant metal kind. It also relied on the fact that there wasn't another way up here, and considering she could see at least two giant metal tubes on either side of the platform, she seriously doubted that.

As if to reinforce the point, she started hearing metallic thunking noises echoing up from within the tubes, as if great doors were being opened, followed by a low humming noise that echoed oddly up them.

"What's that?" She called out.

"What's what?" Came the reply "I mean, there's a lot of what going on right now, so be more specific."

"The noise coming from those things." She shot back, nodding to the tubes.

"Aw crap, Buzzards."

"What?"

"Buzzards, imagine small, flying boxes manned by bandits."

"Oh."

"You sound way too optimistic for what's coming."

"Why, this could be a good thing."

"And how would more trouble ever be a good thing?"

"Like this." She said with a smile as the first flier came into view.

To Gaige's surprise, rather than shooting at it, she charged it, leaping into the open side of the cockpit and punching the surprised pilot. While it didn't kill him, it did stun him long enough for her to shoulder check him out of his seat and send him bouncing down the tube he'd just come up from.

From far below, Gaige heard the sound of an explosion and realized that the falling pilot must have hit the next Buzzard coming up, which should clog up the tube at least for a few seconds. Nodding to Deathtrap, she dashed for the shaking Buzzard and hopped up next to Artemis as she struggled to gain control.

"Can you fly this thing?" She shouted, taking another shot at the emerging bandits.

"Sure, these idiots can, can't they?"

"That's not very reassuring." Gaige muttered "Oh well, no choice now, get us outta here."

With that, Artemis tilted the controls, causing them to slide dangerously across the platform, and while it nearly unseated Gaige, it did have the bonus of causing everyone that was starting to emerge to throw themselves back, clogging the doorway.

"Watch it!" Gaige shouted, clinging to the metal frame.

"Yeah, yeah."

"It might be yeah, yeah for you, but I'm stuck on the outside of this thing."

"Yeah, sorry. You wanna pilot it?"

"Maybe."

"Then get your own. Alright, I think I've really got it this time." She said confidently and took them off the platform, darting over the courtyard and away from the base.

Twenty-Seven Seconds Later

Gaige shook her head, trying to push herself up from the grass. She wasn't sure what had happened, only that they'd crashed. Glancing over at the flaming wreckage, she marveled at the fact that she was still alive, let alone in one piece. Even as she watched, the Buzzard exploded, sending a great plume of black smoke skyward.

Looking around, she spotted Artemis laying in the grass a short-way away and pulled herself up enough to call out "You alive?"

"No."

"Good. Now get up."

"Is this supposed to be one of those 'anything that you can walk away from' moments?" Artemis groaned as she forced herself to her feet and started patting herself to make sure she was in one piece and hadn't lost anything.

"No, and if you couldn't fly it, you should've said so."

"I could fly it."

"Obviously not." Gaige bitterly indicated to the roaring fire surrounding the Buzzard "I mean, what the heck happened."

"I hit something."

"You...what could you have possibly hit? We were flying and there's nothing up there." Gaige waved a hand at the clear sky.

"Uh, can Stalker's fly?"

"No, and that's the stupidest excuse I've ever heard, why would you even ask that?"

"Oh, cause if that's not what that is, then what is it?"

She pointed to the burning wreckage as something large moved through the fire. It placed its clawed forelimbs onto the body of the Buzzard and swung it's head around at them, eyes reflecting the fire around it. It was definitely a Stalker, and a badass one at that, or at least it was the size of one, if not bigger, but something about it was different. Gaige couldn't tell what it was until the Stalker reared back on its hind legs and threw it's forelimbs out, spreading it's wings. It went invisible just as it gave the first great flap, taking off in a swirl of black smoke.