Chapter 10
Pandora
Gaige let out a whimper as the invisible Stalker flew upward, throwing the dark plume from the burning Buzzard into small spirals sparkling with embers with every flap of its wings. She hated this, she hated Stalkers, she hated that she had been wrong, there was, in fact, a flying one, she hated that she'd found it. She also hated the fact that she hadn't had a drink in weeks. And she hated herself for hating that she wanted a drink. All in all, not a good time.
"Don't just stand there, shoot it!" Came the shout from her side, accompanied by the crack of a rifle.
She glanced over, only to find what she should've expected, Artemis with her rifle up, squinting at the sky as if she could track the beast.
"And how am I supposed to do that? It's invisible in case you'd missed it."
"But I'm pretty sure I hit it."
"Not now!" Gaige shouted, her voice cracking from the stress.
"Sorry." Came the small reply.
"No, you're right." Gaige sighed "It's just that, well...you know what, I'll tell you later."
"It's alright."
"No, it's not, but enough of that right now. For right now, how am I supposed to fight it?"
"Huh? Shoot it."
"Again, invisible."
"Not really. I mean, there's a slight shimmer where it is, but in your case, why not shoot the ground?"
"Shoot the...duh." Gaige mentally kicked herself as she switched to her Maliwan, she'd gotten used to using her Anarchy again, so why wasn't that her go to? So what that she was low on it at the moment, it was better to hit the creature with low powered shots, then to not hit it at all.
She opened fire on the ground, watching as the shots bounced and tracked the creature. With the blue orbs flying at it, she could tell where it was, which relieved some of her tension. Just as she was relaxing a bit, she got hit from the side, throwing her into the reedy grass.
"What the..." She spat out angrily as the other girl hopped off of her and fired again at the sky. Gaige growled a bit, but glanced over at where she'd just been standing to see a spike of bone sticking out of the ground. Remembering the way some of the Stalkers fought, she paled slightly and picked herself up.
"Thanks." She grumbled "But a hand up would've been nice."
"Yeah, well, next time I'll just leave you to catch the spike."
"No, you won't." Gaige said, softening her tone.
"No, I won't."
Gaige shook her head and turned back to the fight, slapping a new clip into her SMG and resuming fire while adding "The invisibility is some kind of shield, so electric would do better."
"Thanks, but it's in my pack right now, so this will have to do."
"Why would you leave your elementals in your pack?"
"Cause we were killing bandits, alright. And it's not like they're all in there, I've got a caustic-fire one on the outside."
Gaige just shook her head, some days she had a hard time dealing with the other girl. It wasn't anything new though, she'd always had days where it was hard to deal with someone or other or everyone, even back in her Vault Hunting days there'd been more than one occasion where she'd been frustrated beyond words with Maya or Axton and more often than that with Zero, with his endless riddles and poems, he was great backup, but a pain to deal with, so overall, she was better with Artemis. That still didn't make her easy to deal with.
Artemis stopped to reload, letting her hands take care of it while her eyes never left the creature. She could sense that it was getting frustrated, after the first time, it had launched another couple of spikes at them, but knowing they were coming, they'd been able to dodge. Knowing beasts like she did, she could tell that it was about to try something else, but having never faced even a regular Stalker, she couldn't predict what it was.
A few seconds later, just as she predicted, it attacked. This time, it whipped its tail at them, launching a spike and as they dodged to the side, the instant they'd unbalanced themselves, it dove. It seemed to have decided that she was the worse threat, since it was targeting her, which she didn't mind. After all, she was the hunter and the expendable one out of the two of them.
Still, she was able to go from throwing herself out of the way of the spike, into a roll that cleared her from the path of its claws as they dug deep furrows into the sod. But she didn't manage to get completely clear of its tail, catching it in the chest.
Thankfully, her shield took the brunt of it, leaving her with only getting knocked off her feet to deal with. She managed to take the impact and roll with it, going over twice before she got her feet under her. She wanted to pat herself down, to make sure that there wasn't anything broken, but she didn't have time, since it was already launching another spike at her.
Predictably, it followed with another dive, only this time, it was intercepted by a large pair of Digi-claws slashing through its wing as Deathtrap arrived, having fallen behind the rapid acceleration of the Buzzard. He'd wanted to join in earlier, when he'd first seen the creature attacking, but it had taken him a bit to get in range and by then, it was dive-bombing Artemis, so he'd taken advantage of its distraction to get into position, though he was mentally apologizing to the girl for using her as bait, not that he thought she'd mind, something else that bothered him, but he knew he'd have to shelve that and deal with the creature in front of him first.
The Stalker let out a cry of pain as the claws tore into its shield and hit it hard enough to knock it out of the air. It hit the ground and flipped over letting out a rapid clicking hiss at the new threat, but spun around and lunged at its first target rather than the new one.
Artemis dove to the side, narrowly escaping the claws that slashed for her and pulled her pistol, firing as she came up. Even as she did, she saw a bright blue beam hit the Stalker in the back as Deathtrap fired on it, causing the Stalker to causally fling a spike at him, which he easily slid to the side to avoid.
This didn't seem to perturb the Stalker too much, since Deathtrap had stopped firing temporarily, though it had nothing to do with the spike and more to do with the nature of his laser, not that the creature could understand that.
It took advantage of the brief lull in laser fire, to launch itself back into the air, even as Gaige continued to pour shots into it while grumbling "How much shielding does this thing have?"
Almost as if it heard her, the Stalker spun and flung another spike her way. Without the keen senses of the other two, she barely managed to get away from it, so she was off balance for its follow-up attack, which hit her squarely in the side, throwing her away from the other two.
Even as Artemis started to run, the Stalker hopped and landed on the fallen girl. To Gaige's horror, she felt the familiar sensation of the Stalker pressing down on her, the heat of its breath on her scalp, the helplessness and she screamed. Not a scream of pain, or of anguish, but the high-pitched girly scream of someone terrified.
She felt more then saw the head descending at her, knew that the teeth were closing in on her face and squeezed her eyes shut. Only the bite never came, instead another scream joined hers as the Stalker thrashed off of her, narrowly avoiding stomping on her as it stumbled away.
Cracking one eye open she saw something truly shocking, Deathtrap seemed to be grabbing and struggling with something, pulling with all his might, while Artemis was floating up and down rapidly, as if she was straddling a bucking animal while stabbing it repeatedly.
It took her a second to get her mind wrapped around what she was seeing as she rapidly pieced together what must have happened, as soon as she'd been hit with the spike, the other two had realized what was about to come next, and had charged, knowing that their shots wouldn't do enough damage to deter the beast. Deathtrap had got there first and had grabbed the creature by the first thing he could, which had been its tail and pulled on it with all his might, dragging the beast off of her at the same time Artemis had gotten there. She must have jumped onto it's back and latched on, stabbing it with everything she had.
Gaige watched her suddenly leap up and land awkwardly as the beast rolled over and over in the grass. Watching the grass seem to flatten out on its own was a bizarre sight, but it helped Gaige aim at the Stalker, her cheeks burning with shame as she opened fire on it, tearing through the last of its shield.
The creature flickered and popped into sight, thrashing mightily against Deathtrap's hold on its tail, but it couldn't seem to get him loose, even when it flapped its wings and tried to take off.
While it was fighting, Gaige switched to her shotgun and unloaded on it, walking forward as she did, trying to erase the memory of the shamefully girlish scream it'd drug from her.
Eventually the beast gave up on trying to fly away and started to try and bite and claw the girls, digging its clawed forelimbs into the ground, it managed to start dragging Deathtrap behind it, though he did manage to slow it down enough that they could stay out of its reach, so the Stalker spun and tried to bite him, only for him to spin with it, keeping out of its range.
It didn't take long for the combined efforts of the girls to drop the beast.
Doubling over to catch their breath while keeping a close eye on the Stalker, it was Gaige who spoke up first. "Thanks babe, you were a real lifesaver back there. You too by the way." She said, glancing over at Artemis "Though why you didn't use your backup piece, I don't know."
"I was hoping to save it, besides, its shield would've absorbed part of it."
"You didn't think of it."
"That may have contributed."
"That said, I'd appreciate it if everyone could wipe this fight from their memories."
"Why?"
Gaige turned away as her face colored. Not getting an answer, Artemis looked to Deathtrap, who turned his head away as well, but he was giving off a low noise that sounded suspiciously like laughter.
"What am I missing?"
"I made a noise I didn't want to." Gaige shouted.
"Huh? Oh, you mean that cute scream? I thought it was refreshing."
Gaige spun on her, her eyes as dark as her face was bright "Stop mocking me!"
Artemis took an involuntary step back and managed to get out "Sorry. I'm not mocking you, I genuinely thought it was cute. But I won't mention it again."
Seeing the other girl's reaction made Gaige feel worse "Let's just get outta here before the bandits arrive alright." She grabbed her stuff, but when she caught the look from Deathtrap, she relented and asked in a soft voice "You really thought it was cute?"
Artemis glanced around like a small animal that had been caught. "Uh, that is, I did, but if you don't like that, I mean, I could, you know..."
"It's fine, it's just embarrassing."
"Ah, I can see that."
"Great, so let's get outta here, where are we anyway?"
"You weren't paying attention while we were flying?"
"I kinda forgot to pull my goggles down before we started, so I had a hard time seeing."
"Oh, sorry. Anyway, we're on the other side of the bridge, though we didn't make it past it."
Gaige shot her a confused look so she added "The bandit base is over there and the bridge is that way. Oh, and for the record, the Technical is parked that way."
"Ah, got it, thanks."
"So now what?"
"Well, we should head back."
"But we didn't get everything."
"Dang, you're right, but we should still get outta here, at least until the bandits calm down a bit."
"Will they though?"
"Probably not, but what other option do we have?"
"So, what're we gonna do? Just flee the planet and never come back?"
"That's actually not as bad an option as you seem to think."
"Yeah, this place sucks. But don't you have friends here?"
"Yeah, but we could meet them somewhere else."
"Urgurr"
"Right, let's get outta here before..." Gaige cut off as the first Buzzard fired at them.
"Son of a..." Artemis spat "Other than flying Stalkers, what're these things weaknesses?"
"Caustic, or killing the pilot, or shooting off the engines."
"Right."
With a nod, Artemis fired, shearing off the first engine, causing the Buzzard to spin into the second one, sending them both to crash into the plains around them.
"I'll never get used to seeing that." Gaige muttered "Right, you've bought us a second, let's get moving."
They took off running and as they cleared the wreckage of their Buzzard, they could see a number of them forming up over the top of the bandit base. Looking in front of it, they could make out a mass of bodies surging forward, no doubt called to action by the injury of their beloved boss.
"Uh, we might wanna go faster." Gaige said.
"We won't make it." Catching the look from the other girl she continued explaining as she ran "They'll have already got to this side of the bridge by the time we get there, so we won't be able to hold them and if those Buzzards slow us down, we'll get caught. And it might not be too many of them at a time, but it'll be a constant stream, which'll wear us out."
"So, what're you suggesting?"
"We need a place to hide, or someone else to fight them."
"I'm not going into a Stalker den, hell no, no way, forget it."
"Alright then, follow me."
She led them across the plain, skirting as close to the Stalkers as she could without them noticing, though she wasn't too cautious about that, if they noticed, maybe they'd follow along and tangle with the bandits.
Gaige followed closer than usual, casting wary glances at the Stalker dens. If she hadn't liked them the first time she'd been to Pandora, she really hated them now. Even thinking about it made her cheeks heat up with shame and no matter what Artemis said, she hated that she'd let out such an embarrassing noise. Truthfully, she thought the other girl was just trying to comfort her, though she chose to ignore how socially inept the other girl was.
She was keeping an eye on the Stalkers almost to the point of losing her ability to see what was going on around her, so it took a bit for her to recognize the distinct sound of the approaching Buzzards, though the low curse from Artemis did help draw her attention. Glancing up, she spotted at least five of them circling around to attack from the side, probably trying to either push them back towards the rest of the troops, or cut off their escape. Either way, it wasn't good for them.
Artemis didn't let the number of enemy's bother her, instead she spun around and shot the first pilot, watching with satisfaction as his head vanished and the bullet split. She didn't look around to see where they'd gone, instead she turned and kept running, hoping the threat would keep the fliers at bay.
It didn't work. The next moment she heard the distinct sound of rockets being launched in mass and was forced to take evasive action.
Gaige swore as the other girl dove between some rocks, allowing the chasing missiles to explode around her before popping back up and firing back, dropping another Buzzard. She was feeling useless, she knew she needed to do something, but just bouncing her shots wouldn't do much damage and would chew through her ammo needlessly. Adding to her frustration, she watched as Deathtrap spun and fried one of the wounded Buzzards with a caustic beam, sending one of its engines falling to the ground where the Buzzard itself quickly spiraled down to join.
Swearing she spun and brought up her rifle, but just as she did, the Buzzards swung around to the side, as if they were avoiding her.
"Damn it." She growled in frustration.
"Don't worry about it." Came Artemis's cool reply "Save your ammo for the ground forces, we'll need to keep them away if we're gonna survive."
Gaige knew it was true, but that didn't mean she had to like it. To her relief, the first Buzzard dropped its passengers near them.
"Finally." She muttered, spinning and bringing her rifle up, only for the bandits to be tackled from the side as the Stalkers joined the fight.
"Aw come on." She spat as the creatures drug the screaming men back down the rise and out of her line of fire.
"Forget them." Artemis called out, dashing past her.
With one last growl of frustration, Gaige followed. It didn't take long for them to come to a slight rise and saw the massing mob of bandits swarming around the bridge. There were enough of them to give even her pause. For the life of her, she couldn't figure out how that many of them had hidden themselves in the base they'd just fled from, especially since the three of them had snuck in without getting caught.
"Should we make a break for the Technical?" She asked, eying the mob.
"We wouldn't make it, we're gonna have to hope that I've got this worked out right, otherwise, this is about to get worse."
"Oh, that's just great."
"You got a better plan?"
"Well, I don't even know what your plan is, so how would I know?"
"Alright, let me try again, do you have any plan?"
"No."
"Then follow along."
With that, she ducked low and started moving at a pace that Gaige couldn't figure out how she was getting from her stature, the only thing she could think of was that since the other girl was used to being that close to the ground, she could move better there, but then felt a bit bad about insulting her friend, even if it was only in her mind.
Even with the way they were moving, it wasn't long before they were spotted. It didn't help that the Buzzards had returned and started strafing them.
"Let's just hope we got far enough." Artemis muttered and took off running, ignoring the flying menace as well as the slavering hoard chasing them, concentrating on getting the most distance she could out of her legs.
Gaige followed along, letting her longer legs do the work for her, though she had to push a bit to keep up. It didn't take long for her to realize where they were going.
"Are you kidding me?" She panted.
She didn't get a response, not that she'd expected one, Artemis wasn't about to waste her short breaths on arguing. Still, Gaige couldn't help but think this was a bad idea as they ran for the old Hyperion site.
They had made it to the plant without too much difficulty and slowed down, cautiously moving forward, and to her surprise, the bandits didn't follow, instead they fell back, almost like there was an invisible wall around it.
As soon as they were sure they weren't being chased, the girls slowed down and took a look at the massive building ahead of them. It was clear to her that it was an old Hyperion base, but the barricades built on top, while they'd looked like bandit work from a distance, looked wrong up close, as if someone else had been emulating bandit aesthetic and not done a particularly good job of it. Other than the strange barricades, there were lumps sitting along the wall as well as small buildings that looked more like metal posts had been set upright and sheet-metal had been attached to the top, though for what purpose, she couldn't tell.
Still, something about the place seemed off to her, and apparently Artemis shared her opinion, since she slowed down and started circling it, even as the bandits opened fire at them.
They threw themselves into the tall grass to try and minimize their profile as they moved forward with renewed speed.
Artemis paused and looked back, motioning for Gaige to go ahead. Behind them, she could just make out through the waving plants the bandit boss arriving as she started shrieking at the troops. Straining, she could just make out what the woman was saying.
"What are you doing, get in there after them!"
"But boss..." One of the men responded.
"Did you see what that little bitch did to me? Ah, I can still feel it!" She ran her hand over her smooth cheek, tracing the line that Artemis had gouged into her face.
"But boss, it's all healed up."
"I can still feel it! It's throbbing, it's aching. Ah, I know only bathing in her blood will make this pain go away. You wouldn't deny me that, would you?"
Artemis could practically hear the heart being added to the end of the statement and struggled to keep from vomiting. But it seemed to have the desired effect on the troops, since a battle-cry went up and they started surging forward.
"Aw crap." Artemis muttered and was about to start forward, when a cold sweat popped up on her back. Glancing around, she spotted Gaige frozen as well. Continuing to search, she spotted the cause, the lumps on top of the wall were unfolding and standing up.
"Target acquired." She heard the metallic voice echoing down as the Hyperion loaders started firing on the charging bandits.
The loaders were of all different kinds, they could see a few of the BUL loaders standing there with their shields up, next to them was a WAR loader and a couple of the HOT loaders. Gaige spotted an ION loader start spinning up as it's shield covered the rest.
While the loaders hadn't started out uniform, they'd gotten more individualized over the years, with many of them having bits of metal welded on in spikes and a few Mohawks. A few had tires over their shoulder joints and the WAR loader was sporting what looked like the roll-cage of an Outrunner over its front, as if it was wearing it as armor.
It didn't take long for the firefight to begin in earnest, as the bandits gave up on chasing the girls and tried taking out the immediate threat of the loaders.
Gaige couldn't believe how well the plan was working, she knew this was what Artemis had been hoping for, but she hadn't thought it would work, at least not so well.
"Now what?" She whispered to the other girl.
"Now we need to try and get inside."
"Why would we wanna do that?"
"Because we still need the last part for Tina and this base would be our best bet. I wonder if she meant for us to come here?"
"Not likely, she probably just couldn't think of a place that would have it and hoped we'd figure it out on our own."
"Oh."
"Well, shall we?"
