Chapter 17

Burgloth

Deathtrap

He'd moved to the shelter of the building not long after the girls had gone inside, not because he was cold or worried about his parts freezing up, he was too well built for that, plus the girls had made sure he'd be fine in the cold before they'd come down. No, the reason he'd sought shelter was because the small flakes of snow in the air had been making his invisibility noticeable, something he hadn't thought of until he spotted them landing on his arm.

It had absolutely nothing to do with the creepiness of the ghost town and the way he felt like he was being watched, even though he knew nothing could see him. And it certainly wasn't that this place made him think of a robot graveyard, with all the deactivated bots sitting there.

So he'd been waiting by the entrance, he'd been tempted to go inside, but he figured that being outside would give him better sensor coverage. He thought about calling in, just to see how things were going, but kept deciding against it, after all, if they were sneaking, his call might give them away and if not, it would probably spook them and make them a bit short. Still, he hoped they were getting along alright in there, he was still a bit worried about them, especially since the incident on Pandora, but he thought they were starting to mend, to really get back into the groove of being together.

He didn't really have an opinion on their personal lives. He liked Artemis, but he wasn't sure if she was right for Gaige, then again, he thought, was there anyone right for her? He'd seen a procession of men who'd hit on her, from cheap come-ons at the bar to more serious ones at jobs, but he'd chased them off, after all, none of them had been good for her either, not that Gaige had been appreciative at the time. Most of them had been looking for a quick score, or had been interested in conquering the Vault Hunter. None of them had really been interested in her, which he supposed made Artemis different. She at least cared about Gaige. Wanted to make her better, not for her own personal desires, but to make Gaige just be better, which was what he'd realized the first morning they'd spent together.

So, he supposed that out of all the would be suites that had come over the years, he liked Artemis the best, even though he knew that she didn't consider herself one. It wasn't that he disliked her, far from it, he actually enjoyed traveling with her and knew that Gaige felt the same way, but as for anything else, well, he supposed he was a bit like Gaige's dad in that regard, that he felt that no one was good enough for her.

But he understood that that was her choice. One that he would have to respect, unlike her drunken antics that he'd interjected himself into, mostly because this would be an actual choice, not a mistake. Well, that wasn't necessarily correct, it could still be a mistake. The truth was he often wondered if she ever could settle down with someone, if she wouldn't just drive them away like she did to everyone that spent any time with her. True, Artemis had been on the receiving end of the worst that he'd seen Gaige dish out, and she was still around, but he wondered how that would be in the long run.

He'd helped her out since he knew that Gaige needed someone else around and he'd hoped that she could be the friend that Gaige had needed, but he wasn't sure about anything else. Still, he was glad that Gaige had been giving it honest thought instead of just jumping into something like she usually did. That didn't mean he had any idea where she'd end up, not the choice she'd make, nor where that would lead, but for once, that didn't really bother him since he knew that Artemis would be alright with it either way. Actually, it might be harder for her to accept a relationship then it would be for Gaige to initiate one, if that's what she chose, but that was a circuit they'd have to solder when they came to it. Either way, he'd back Gaige up with whatever she decided.

As he mulled where things were and where they were going, he ran his sensor over the ice once again, trying to detect what was feeling wrong about it. He knew it was something and that all his processing of Gaige's relationship issues was in some way to try and set his mind at ease, but he knew he needed to figure out what was actually wrong before it bit him in the back. But again, his sensor sweep came back negative.

Giving up on the shelter he'd taken, he flew out, hoping that the small amount of snow he was disrupting wouldn't give him away to anything that was watching and started to fly around the building, doing a more thorough job of it.

He tried to pierce the ice as far as his sensors could in the hopes of finding anything and part way around the building, he detected something strange. There was something metal in the ice. It was down a little ways so if he hadn't been directly over it, there was no way he would've found it, but it was there, too near the surface to be a support, not to mention too far away from the building.

Floating down, he did a sensor sweep to make sure there wasn't anyone around and then carefully wiped the surface clear of the snow that'd built up.

Looking at the slightly rough surface of the ice, he angled his head back and forth, trying to get a reading on what it was and though it took him some time, eventually he was able to figure out that it seemed to be one of the Holloway bots, frozen into the bottom of the ice.

Confused, he nearly called it in, but he needed to check something else out before that, so he took a slow sweep of the surrounding area and found that it wasn't just one of them, there seemed to be an entire fleet of them.

This worried him, if it had just been one or two of them, he could've written it off as strays that had gotten buried by accident, but this many would have to be for some kind of purpose.

He opened the channel to Gaige, when suddenly all of the bots activated at once, causing him to pause, but only for a split second. He immediately got his circuits firing as fast as they could and sent as much of a warning as he could to the girls, even as he watched the bots come to life and the fleet tear loose from the ice, many of them bursting through upwards, shattering the ice field around the factory and sending chunks of ice falling into the gaping pit that surrounded it. But the majority of the bots flew downward, towards the supports that held the factory up and started throwing themselves into the massive metal pillars.

He reacted as fast as he ever had, firing his caustic laser through the swarming hoard, melting as many as he could in an attempt to stop them from bringing the entire place down, but despite how many he brought down, there seemed to be an endless supply of them and though they weren't equipped with armor or weapons, they didn't seem to have any programming besides attacking the pillars.

Ignoring their compatriots deaths, the bots continued to throw themselves into the supports and Deathtrap quickly realized what would happen, the entire building would fall into the ice and be destroyed, or at least it would close all the exits and then they could set off some kind of explosion, perhaps the reactor and there'd be no way for the girls to escape, so he made a snap decision and after doing some quick math, figured out the only solution, he turned his laser onto one of the pillars, slicing into it and weakening it for the next wave of impacts.

He moved onto the next and then the next, making sure that his plan would work and soon enough, under the constant onslaught of bots, the factory started to fall, tilting sideways as the supports on one side gave out first, falling into the massive hole in the ground till it came to a rest with a terrifying noise, but like he'd hoped, it didn't fall all the way and had instead wedged itself into the hole with the entrance facing upward.

Now he had to defend those entrances against the swarming bots and hope that the girls were alright. And that they could make it out before anything else went wrong.

Artemis

She'd seen what was about to happen, Gaige had been next to the door when the building suddenly tilted, throwing her towards the opening, so Artemis had reacted without thinking. It wasn't that she had any plan, not that she thought that her being prepared would allow her a better chance to survive, she'd just seen Gaige about to fall and reacted by shoving her out of the way.

The next instant the ground fell away, sending her falling through the door and into the storeroom. She hit the floor as it fell and in a moment of clarity, knew that she had to stay as close to it as possible, if she got too far away from it, she'd be unable to control the direction of her fall and would therefore fall all the way to the far wall, a fall that she had next to no chance of surviving, so she'd flattened herself down as soon as she'd hit, turning to slide as the floor became the wall.

She dug her hand into the ground, trying to change the angle of her descent and managed to start turning just as she passed the first row of shelves.

With a kick, she threw herself out onto the second rack and managed to catch the metal post in a death-grip. Slamming into one of the supports, she winced as her thin chest took another hit. Her ribs had been taking a beating for the last few months and this wasn't helping, especially since she was missing a few. Thankfully, she'd hit on her other side and her jacket had helped absorb some of the impact, but it still stung.

Dragging herself up, she looked above her, at the shelves of crates that had wedged into place and were hanging precariously over her. She looked away and surveyed the room, in an instant, everything had changed. What had once been vertical was now horizontal and visa-versa. But it wasn't just the change in perspective that was throwing everything off, crates had fallen and smashed against the far wall, now the floor, the shelving creaked and groaned as it took weight in a way it wasn't designed to, but despite that, it seemed to be holding, at least for now.

"You alright?" Came a panicked cry from above.

Leaning out, she could see Gaige peering over the edge of the door. A wave of relief spread across Gaige's face as she saw Artemis was at least alive, then her expression hardened. "What the heck was that, trying to sacrifice yourself for me, again? Do you have any idea how worried I was? What that felt like? Huh? Well, do you?"

"No, I was too busy not falling. You're welcome by the way."

"For what? Saving my life, again?" Gaige paused and looked abashed "Thanks. Again. I just wish you wouldn't throw yourself in danger like that, it's not good for my heart."

"Yeah, well, it wasn't a well thought out plan." Artemis said, indicating her position "But it was better than you falling through unprepared, wasn't it? At least I was able to get myself stopped."

"Yeah. Still." Gaige trailed off, like she was unsure of what to say next and a moment of silence fell between them. A moment that was interrupted by a sudden cracking noise.

"Oh, now what?" Artemis muttered, looking around. The sound seemed to be originating in multiple places at once, both above and below her.

Edging closer to the drop, she looked down, but other than the crates that'd smashed open against the new floor, she couldn't see anything. Looking up, she caught Gaige's confused expression, but then out of the corner of her eye, she caught movement. One of the crates that'd been wedged was wiggling and not due to the effects of gravity. As she watched, it shook again and her mind started to process what was going on. It was one of the large crates, the ones the size that the bots were shipped in and it was starting to thrash around.

Now that she knew what to look for, she spotted the rest of them were also moving. Looking back down she found one amongst the smashed crates on the floor and spotted a bot trying to lift itself out, only another of the crates had slammed into it, destroying most of its head and torso, leaving it helpless.

"Get back!" She shouted at Gaige, just as the crate between them broke open and the bot flew out. Gaige managed to yank back before it spotted her, but Artemis had nowhere to hide as she threw an arm over herself to shield herself from the falling debris.

The bot seemed to lock onto her and dove straight for her. Without any hesitation, she threw herself forward, rolling along the thin metal bar that had supported the second level of the shelves as the bot slammed into the post that she'd just been standing on, smashing the bot and bending the support with a hideous shriek.

She felt the entire shelving unit shudder as it started to come apart, sending boxes and crates falling into the unit below. Two of them broke open as the bots inside flew out, throwing themselves at her in another suicidal gambit.

Unable to flee very far she had to jump to what had been the next shelf up and then jump forward to the next support as the bots smashed their way through the spots where she'd stood.

She was forced to drop into a crouch to steady herself as the entire shelving unit shook and the side she'd caught in the first place tore off and fell, bouncing off the next unit down and spinning till it smashed into the floor.

The rest of the crates burst open around the room and dozens of bots swarmed up. Some made a shot for her as soon as they emerged, but a number of them couldn't see her, so they circled to the ceiling, trying to get a better line of attack.

With nothing else to do, she dodged the ones that were directly attacking her, while searching for a way out. There was no way she was going to be able to climb back up to where Gaige was, it wasn't just the constant attacks, given a few minutes, they could be dealt with. No, the problem was that she had nothing to climb to get to the door. Even if she went to the wall that had once been the ceiling and climbed it to the new ceiling, the door was too far away for her to jump and if she missed, the fall would kill her.

Optimally Gaige could've lowered a cable or a rope down to her, but she knew the other girl hadn't packed one, so that was out. Her other option was to hope Deathtrap flew in and could lift her out, but she wasn't going to count on that, after all, he undoubtedly had his hands full dealing with whatever must've been going on outside, so she was on her own.

She twisted and danced across the disintegrating metal frame as the bots continued to tear it apart. It seemed that they had no weapons, nor any orders beyond 'take out the intruders' so that at least was helping a little, if they'd been given more thorough instructions, they might've attacked in mass, destroying the entire platform she was on, or maybe taken out all the ones below her and then attacked.

Still, she was faced with a rapidly narrowing list of options. She figured she should keep letting them destroy this shelving unit and then, once it was almost gone, jump down to the next and keep going, but that plan only worked for so long, and it also counted on no backup arriving and since there was an entire factory floor worth of bots, she worried that they might be active too, so she needed time to think of a better plan, or at least one that minimized her interaction with the rest of the building.

Then she spotted something that might work, or at least, would give her a chance at catching her breath, the door on the nearest wall, the one that'd led to the hallway that they hadn't really explored.

She looked up and spotted the swarm of bots that'd circled upward had gotten into position and as if her gaze were their cue, started dive bombing her.

She took off running, feeling the impacts on the frame as they hit. Twisting, she jumped up just as the frame gave a strained groan and broke loose. Following it down, she managed to twist so that she didn't impale herself on one of the twisted girders and landed on the next frame.

Directly ahead of her was the door that she wanted, so she started sprinting again, nimbly dodging the diving bots. Just as she got to the end of the frame and gave a mighty jump, the frame gave out and fell. She soared through the space and slammed into the door, hands scrambling to try and find the nob or anything else to grab onto. Just as she felt the nob in her hand, something smashed through the wall above her, sending chunks of blocks and what appeared to be a filing cabinet hurtling towards her.

She kicked off the door, throwing herself back as the cabinet flew through the space she'd just occupied and twisted, managing to get her hand onto the last twisted few inches of what had once been one of the shelving supports.

Swinging out, Artemis kicked her legs, trying to build momentum as she adjusted her grip. Twisting her body, she let go and threw herself back at the door, slamming into it with enough force that it fell open to lay flat, like a platform.

She managed to catch herself before she went over the other side and took a second to look around. The hall continued to fall down beneath her for the full length of the room, behind her the rest of the bots were swirling and started trying to get to her. Her only consultation was that straight across the hall from where she was crouched was a door to one of the rooms, it's nob on the lower side. She couldn't reach it from where she was and she couldn't figure out any safe method over, at least not one she could do quickly. Her choice was made for her when the first bot flew into view behind her.

Taking as much of a start as she could on the narrow door, she leaped across the hall and scrambled at the door, trying to get purchase on it as she started sliding down the wall. Her fingers dug into the frame as she nearly fell. Pulling herself up with her left arm, she desperately flailed for the handle with her right, managing to latch onto it and yank the nob around. Shoving the door open as far as she could, she heaved herself through, falling into the room as the door swung shut behind her.

Gaige

The entire building shifted under her, throwing Gaige towards the door to the storeroom at a bad angle. For a second terror gripped her heart, she knew that going through that door this high up and without any means to control her fall would be fatal.

Just as the icy grip tightened on her heart, she felt a strong shove from behind, sending her sprawling onto the new floor. Rolling over she locked eyes with Artemis just as she fell through the doors in Gaige's place.

Picking herself up as fast as she could, Gaige lunged over to the hanging doors and looked down. In her panic she mistook a piece of one of the crates for Artemis for a split second and felt her heart vanish, but then she spotted movement on one of the shelves a little ways down.

"You alright?" Gaige yelled, voice cracking in a mix of panic, anger and relief.

She watched as the other girl leaned out and looked up, blinking at her for a second before she gave a small wave that sent a surge of relief, followed immediately by an intense anger.

"What the heck was that?" She snapped down at the other girl, feeling all the fear of having thought she'd lost the girl and the frustration at having to be saved, again, coming out. "Trying to sacrifice yourself for me, again? Do you have any idea how worried I was? What that felt like? Huh? Well, do you?"

She could see Artemis's face twisting as she imagined it, but instead of apologizing like Gaige had expected, she snapped back "No, I was too busy not falling. You're welcome by the way."

"For what? Saving my life, again?" Gaige snapped back, feeling the frustration inside, but she had to calm herself. What Artemis was saying was right, Gaige knew that, just like she knew that the other girl had reacted without thinking, she'd just seen Gaige in danger and moved. But knowing that didn't alleviate the worry Gaige had felt, nor the guilt at having made her put herself in that position, but she did know that she needed to acknowledge that she'd been saved, that she owed her again for saving her, so she took a breath and tried her best to express herself "Thanks. Again. I just wish you wouldn't throw yourself in danger like that, it's not good for my heart."

"Yeah, well, it wasn't a well thought out plan. But it was better than you falling through unprepared, wasn't it? At least I was able to get myself stopped." Artemis smiled wryly as she motioned around herself, indicating the mess she was in.

"Yeah. Still." Gaige tried to counter her, to say anything, but the words stuck in her throat. She wanted to ask again to make sure the other girl was alright, to ask if she could make her way out, what they should do next. Should Gaige join her down there? Or would it be better if Artemis stayed still while Gaige went looking for something to pull her up with?

Before she could come up with anything, a loud cracking noise, like wood popping, echoed through the room, causing Gaige to jump.

Below her she heard Artemis mutter "Oh, now what?" Causing Gaige to groan, 'Would she ever learn?' She thought to herself even as she looked around, trying to find the source of the noise.

It didn't take long for the source to reveal itself to be the bot sized crates that were stacked around the room, since they started to bulge and hop, as if their contents were trying to escape.

Gaige watched as the splintering grew worse on the one that she could clearly see, but before it exploded, Artemis shouted at her "Get back!" Causing Gaige to instinctively throw herself away from the opening just as she heard the crate burst open.

Gaige heard the sounds of the bots flying through the air and quickly debated leaning out to open fire, but before she could, she heard a cracking sound from down the hall, in the direction that they'd been headed in.

Cursing, she pulled out her caustic SMG and aimed towards the source of the sound, but then she realized, if she got into a fight where she was, then if any of the bots in the storeroom heard, or if the ones she was engaging sent out an alert, she'd quickly become pincered between the ones in front of her and the ones coming up from below.

So she knew she needed to fall back, but at the same time, she didn't want to abandon Artemis to the swarms she would be facing. Without any other options, she decided to move a ways down the corridor back towards the offices where the bots could only come at her from one direction, at least she hoped they could, there were too many unknowns in the layout of the building and how many bots there were. Still, she knew any decision she'd make was a gamble, so she had to choose the best bet that she could live with.

So she fell back, getting just past the doors that hung open that led up into the office area and crouched down, waiting for the bots to burst through, while sending a silent apology to Artemis, feeling like she was abandoning her friend.

It didn't take long for the door at the far end of the hall to burst open, flying off its hinges and sliding along the ground as the blank bots started to enter.

There weren't as many of them as she'd feared, probably due to the size of the room they'd been in, but it did cause Gaige to pause for a second and wonder how they'd gotten there. She couldn't imagine the employees rolling the crates into the room, but she supposed that must have been what happened.

As she opened fire, tearing through the first one, it suddenly hit her, the order that Holloway had sent, that must've been it. She bet that it activated an automated system that not only shipped the ones that had been requested out, but also activated a few bots to carry the crates and stack them around the building as a form of a trap.

Which led her to wondering what had activated the trap, was it opening the computer room door? Or perhaps it had been a timer on the main door. But the most likely scenario was that it was tied to her opening the message, there was probably some kind of code she was supposed to enter into the computer to disable the trap or else it sent out a signal, activating the bots.

It was so obvious in hindsight, she should've known that Holloway wouldn't make things easy on her, not to mention she'd seen the crates scattered about, so she should've opened one up, made sure what was inside, that way, when the trap was sprung, she'd at least've know what to expect. But no, she'd failed again. And she'd once again put those around her in danger, just because she couldn't learn to think ahead. She'd put them in danger because of her own selfish desires, her problems. After all, Holloway was her problem, Artemis had only gotten involved because of her. She knew the other girl wouldn't see things that way, she'd argue that he was also after her because she'd been the one to trick him into spilling his plans, that she'd been the one to warn Gaige, that she was part of this because she wanted to be. But none of that made Gaige feel any better about herself, so she did the only thing she could do at the moment and continued killing the bots.

About then, she heard a terrifying shrieking noise followed by a crashing sound that made her think of one of the shelving units tearing loose and tumbling all the way down to the floor.

Panic started to set in, she wanted to run forward and see what was going on, but the bots in front of her weren't about to let her. To make things worse, she'd been right about them coming to investigate the sounds of gunfire as one of them poked its head through the doorway, only for her to melt it off.

She didn't have enough Anarchy to make much of a difference at this point, neither in accuracy, nor in damage, so she was able to effectively aim where she wanted, which was useful, not that she didn't want the power that the Anarchy lent her, but for right now, she'd take what she had.

She heard her gun click empty and as if they'd been waiting for that, a half dozen bots popped out of the door to the storeroom. Swearing at them, Gaige knew she didn't have enough time to reload before they got to her, so she was forced to do the only thing she could, she rolled forward and sprung up, catching the hanging door and scrambling her way up it.

She'd just managed to pull herself into the room when the door was knocked off as one of the bots torpedoed into it. Taking the brief second to reload, she ran away from the opening as the bot reorientated itself and flew up through it. She met it with a hail of caustic rounds.

Turning away from the melting bot, she tried to figure out what to do next, she wanted to try and help Artemis, but the only thing she was doing that would be of any use, was drawing the ire of the bots away from her, so she had to get more of their attention. Before she could come up with anything, the wave of bots burst through the doorway and flew up at her.

Backing away, she unloaded on them while looking around for anything she could use, only to spot something that made her heart sink. In the far corner of the room was a stack of crates. The only reason that they hadn't opened yet was that they'd landed together awkwardly, pinning them, but she could tell at a glance that it wouldn't hold for long.

Quickly finishing the bots that were chasing her off, she scanned the area and spotted a solution to her soon to be problem, a massive row of filing cabinets that seemed to have gotten hung up and they were hanging directly over the crates. With a smirk, she slapped a new clip into her gun and gave a short spray, causing the corners that were hanging it up to start to melt and soon enough, it broke loose, falling with tremendous force and just as the top crate broke open, the cabinet slammed into it, smashing it to pieces, along with the rest of the crates, and the floor under them.

She winced as she heard another crashing noise and ran over to the new hole in the floor and looked down, seeing the hole in the hall below her as the cabinet had kept falling until it hit the floor of the storeroom far, far below.

Not seeing Artemis from where she was, Gaige briefly considered calling her on her ECHO, but saw a hoard of bots flying for the door that was set into the wall. So, figuring they had to be chasing Artemis, she opened fire on them, killing one and drawing the attention of a number of the rest.

She kept pouring fire into them as they flew mindlessly at her, melting them before they even got close.