Chapter 30

Apate 3

Gaige

The siren started so suddenly that she nearly dropped the ECHO log in her hand. Instinct was the only reason she didn't, instead she flipped it to her other hand and drew her pistol in a smooth motion.

Looking around the room, she quickly determined that the bots weren't activating, at least not here, at least not yet. She had no idea of what kind of protocol they had here, but she felt safe assuming that it wouldn't be good for her and that it would be even worse for Artemis, who had no doubt finally gotten to the main computer. Why she hadn't checked in before messing with it, Gaige didn't know, she'd have to have words about that later, but for right then, Gaige had to focus on the task at hand, namely getting out of there.

Storing the ECHO log, she switched to the assault rifle she'd brought with, an older model Jakobs that had been on the ship. It was a far cry from her usual style, but she had to remind herself again that she wasn't supposed to be Gaige here, she was masquerading as a simple thief, though she had kinda screwed up on that by disassembling the bot with professional ease. She just had to hope that no one would see that, or if they did, that she hadn't done anything that would prove she was Gaige. Most courts were corrupt, but few would issue an interstellar bounty on someone on just a hunch, even the seriously corrupt courts on Eden 5 demanded proof, even if it was faked.

Still, that didn't mean she wanted to create any more risk than was necessary, so she shouldered the rifle and started forward, dashing up the stairs and out to the main door, which to her surprise was still open.

Trusting that Deathtrap would keep up with her, she started running forward, trying to remember which line led to the exit. She knew that they'd gone through the factory on the way in, but she couldn't remember which line that was. Was it the yellow one? The orange one? The yellow one with black stripes? She honestly couldn't remember. Nor could she remember which way they'd come from. It didn't help that they'd made a few trips backtracking a ways as they went, so even if she did have an idea, she couldn't be sure of where it would lead.

Her best bet was to try and spot the factory through the walkway walls and move in its direction, which turned out to be rather easy since it was the largest building there.

Once she had a relative direction, she started sprinting in it, taking a moment each time she could to try and see if there was anything she could see about the building where Artemis was. Most of the time the answer was no, but once she thought she saw a flicker of blue from that direction, a color very similar to the ones the EMP's created, which she figured would make sense.

She hoped the other girl was doing alright, but she couldn't really do anything for her at the moment, it wasn't like she knew where she was.

Had she found a way out of the building? Was she stuck inside for some reason? Gaige had no way of knowing, so standing around speculating would do nothing but waste time. She'd also eliminated the idea of running over to where the building was. After all, what good would that do? Even if she did find her way there, if the door was still closed, and she had no reason to think it wouldn't be, then she'd be forced to stand outside and wait to see if Artemis got it open, and if she didn't and had to go a different way around, then Gaige would be simply standing around for nothing, so instead, she decided to try and meet back up at the entrance, like they had last time.

As she wove through the hubs and walkways, she started spotting activity outside, which while it didn't surprise her, still worried her. There seemed to be an awfully large number of bots swarming upward, nothing compared to the last factory, but still a larger number then she'd thought they'd leave behind, though she supposed these could just be the standard defense forces that had been set up before the place had been converted into a rebuilding site.

Still, that didn't make it any less worrisome, especially when they started noticing her running through the walkways. She didn't know if they could get at her through the clear sides, nor what kind of armaments they were equipped with, what she did know was that if they did start attacking her, she might well get trapped in one of the walkways when the security doors slammed shut.

She'd been incredibly grateful that they had remained open for as long as they had and she knew that they wouldn't stay that way forever, but she had hoped that she could make it to the factory before they closed.

She managed to get through another pair of the walkway hubs before the bots descended upon her, but to her surprise, they didn't open fire, instead they got near the walkway and extended their EMP fields, nearly sealing the route forward off.

Gaige didn't hesitate, instead she dashed forward even as the route was closing. Dodging to one side she dropped into a slide, ducking under the outer edge of the first bubble. Kicking off the wall, she sprang up and rolled across the walkway to the other side, dodging the second bubble, for the third she had to leap onto the wall and jump, twisting over it as the bot slid in low to try and cut her off.

Rolling into the hub, she glanced behind her, realizing that Deathtrap couldn't have followed her.

Since he was invisible, not to mention being silent, she had no idea where he was but still gave a hand signal to let him know to find his own way around. She hoped he got it, if he was still following along that was, which she realized he might not be. He could've broken off at any point and she wouldn't have known it. As useful as it was, she was starting to hate this invisibility nonsense.

Still, that didn't change the problem at hand as she turned to the walkways to find them closing off with EMP bubbles. It seemed that the bots had called in backup, since the walkways were rapidly getting tighter. She didn't have time to figure out the best route anymore, the only thing that mattered was not getting hit by the bubbles. Not only did she not want her Oz kit to get hit, but she was carrying the ECHO log that she hadn't listened to yet, all of which would be wiped out by the EMP.

She'd been trying to not shoot the bots, partially due to the fact that a bullet would destroy the walkway, sealing the doors at both ends and partially because she was afraid that the bots would explode afterwards, which could be even more devastating.

Unable to stay in one place, she dashed down the walkway in the only direction she could see a path, weaving and sliding her way around the EMP fields. If she thought the bots had been programmed better, she would've been worried about them leading her to a trap, but she really didn't think that was possible considering the way they were acting. It felt less like she was being herded then she was just managing to stay ahead of them, but she didn't know how long she could last.

Eventually her luck ran out and she came to a walkway that was completely impassable. It was made all the more frustrating because she could see the entrance to the factory ahead of her, she would've just had to have made it through two more walkways and she would've been able to move easier. She had no delusions that she would've been free, the factory most likely would've devolved into a firefight, but if she'd been able to fight back, she felt that she could have a chance or at least it would be better, because she could be proactive, but now she was trapped.

She wondered how long she could last, how long before the bots started firing at her? How long until they swarmed over the place till she was forced to push her way through and let the EMP field fry her electronics.

Thinking about it, she pulled out her ECHO player. At first, she was going to play the ECHO log and just hear what was on it, but then she realized that she could just slide the log into the player and not hit play. The shielding on the player would protect the log once it was inside, so that was one less thing she'd have to worry about losing.

And it wasn't like Deathtrap wasn't carrying a backup Oz kit on him. She was sure that she'd heard Artemis talking to him about carrying one, just in case, so even if she fried hers, he might have a spare and if that failed, she could figure something out with Artemis, either one of them going back to the ship and getting any that were left or sharing one on the way.

But then she thought about it, she was pretty sure the last one that had been on the ship had something wrong with it and she wasn't sure about the math in getting them back to the ship with only one Oz kit between them.

She supposed that if worse came to worse, one of them could head back to the ship and then Deathtrap could bring the Oz kit back, though that would give away that he was with them, meaning their entire disguise would be rendered pointless.

Just as she was starting to psych herself up to make a run for it, she heard a gunshot go off and one of the bots sparked and flew off, creating an ever so slight opening in the walkway, not enough to get through, but a start.

Maneuvering around the room so that she could see what had happened, she heard another string of shots go off, sending more bots spinning out of control as the bullets tore through their anti-EMP coating.

Getting around, she spotted something that didn't make a lot of sense at first, it looked like Artemis standing on top of one of the walkways, firing her pistol at the bots. But the part that didn't make sense was that she didn't have a bubble around her head and her face seemed to be turning red.

In a flash of understanding, Gaige got it. The blue light on the building must have been an EMP trap in the office, one that had fried Artemis's Oz kit and without any way to get the door open, she'd been forced outside. She'd somehow been holding her breath between buildings or something, since not even she could hold her breath long enough to have gotten that far outside.

But that still meant that she was running out of time trying to pull the bots off Gaige.

Looking at the walkway, Gaige could see that she could make it now, so she took off running as fast as she could. As she went, she eyed the side of the factory, spotting what she needed and throwing her arms around to catch Artemis's attention. Once she had it, she made a few hand signals and once she was sure the other girl had gotten the message, rushed the last bit till she was in the factory.

She didn't slow down even as she gave a sigh of relief, she couldn't, there was still something she had to do, so she turned and ran along the wall, praying with all her might that what she wanted wasn't behind some wall or piece of machinery.

Whether her prayer was answered or she was just lucky, she didn't know but she spotted the airlock hatch and ran over to the control panel, nearly tripping as she went. Staggering into the wall, she quickly scanned the controls and punched the buttons, cycling the airlock and opening the exterior door. She hoped that Artemis could get into it and cycle the system before the bots got to the wall and fried it.

Seconds after the thought ran through her brain, the airlock control chimed and the inner door hissed open, allowing Artemis to stagger through.

She collapsed onto the floor, trying to simultaneously suck in large amounts of air and cough her lungs out.

Gaige left her to that and spun around, bringing her rifle up and starting to shoot the bots that were entering the building. She didn't know where they were coming from, if they were already inside and were just following the directions of the ones outside or if they were finding a way in, but it didn't matter, she was going to kill them all anyway.

"Welcome back." She said as an aside as soon as Artemis's coughing had slowed down "Interesting route you chose, I'm sure there's a story there, but first, you alright?"

"No." Came the thin reply, followed by another fit of coughing "I think I'll live."

"Isn't that a good thing?"

"Sometimes."

"Thanks, again, by the way, I was in a bit of a situation back there."

"You and me both, I don't think I could've lasted much longer so you getting the airlock ready was a help."

"You know what else would be a help, you joining in." Gaige said as lightly as she could as she continued firing at the bots.

"Jeez, it's all work with you, isn't it? Fine, give me my gear." She said, pushing herself up.

Taking the bag that Gaige had slid off her shoulder, she got to work as soon as she'd gotten her gun out, opening fire on the bots trying to flank them.

"So, how're things?" Gaige asked.

"Terrible." Came the reply "But I did learn something, but before that, we should move away from the wall."

"Why's that?"

"Seriously? You think this wall's gonna stop one of those fields?"

"Ah, good point." Gaige said, observing the blue bubble around the bots.

They shuffled away from the wall, maneuvering around the machinery to try and find a spot that was easily defensible or at least as easily defensible as they could. Eventually they realized they were shuffling across the entire floor of the factory and that they weren't going to find a perfect spot, or likely even a very good one, the factory hadn't been designed for a firefight after all, so there were always going to be blind spots and obstructions to their lines of sight. Still, they finally managed to find a place where the bots wouldn't be able to hit them through the ceiling above and would have to come at them with a bit of distance before they could hit them with their EMP's.

Artemis swung out a little bit, since her gear was already fired, she figured she didn't have to worry about getting hit by another EMP.

Gaige noticed this and called out "What're you doing?"

"Getting to a better place to defend this side, what's it look like?"

"Well, if you get hit with one of those bubbles, you're gonna be in trouble."

"Why? I've already lost my gear."

"But not your assault rifle, that things got some tech in it."

Artemis looked down at the gun in her hands and realized that Gaige was right, the thing used a fair amount of tech.

Before she could say anything else, Gaige continued "Switch with me. I mean, mine's got like no tech in it right? So, it should be fine."

"Right."

They tossed each other their rifles and continued fighting. Both of them gave up on trying too hard to keep the charade of who they weren't up, at least to some degree, Artemis switched to picking her shots better, but Gaige worked to keep her Anarchy down, lest her bouncing bullets give her away.

She figured she was the only person in the galaxy that could do that, so she shouldn't out herself with it. Sure there were rifles that could do similar things, but she was the only person that could do it with nearly any gun, so if that was captured on film, they'd be in trouble.

The hardest part was reminding herself to reload before the clip was out, so she'd lose any stacks of Anarchy she was gaining, something she was so out of habit of that she kept forgetting. She also worried that she'd build up a new bad habit of actually reloading and then slip up in an important fight, which could have devastating results.

Time seemed to stretch out, like it always did in a prolonged fight, seconds seemed to take minutes and minutes seconds as time warped and twisted. The monotony of it combined with the thrill of putting your life on the line was such a strange sensation that it was impossible to describe to someone that hadn't experienced it for themselves. The only thing that made this fight different to Gaige was the fact that she wasn't fighting to her full potential, that she was stopping the power that she'd finally tapped back into from bubbling up by forcing herself to reload every so often, which kept deflating the sensation within her, making her feel a bit nauseous as she went up and down on the ride of Anarchy.

She glanced over to where Artemis was crouched, using a bit of machinery as cover, taking shots at the bots that were attempting to swarm her and wondered what she was thinking. Was she tired of this yet? The constantly putting her life on the line for someone else, the pain that she'd suffered through? Or was she still content with just being able to hang out with a friend?

For some reason Gaige suspected it was the latter, and she didn't know how she felt about that. Sure, she also liked spending time with the other girl, so much so that she couldn't think of what it would be like to be alone again. Well, not alone, she'd have Deathtrap with her, but somehow that seemed lonely now. 'When did that happen?' She wondered. They hadn't really known each other that long, only a few months, but in that time they'd become rather close. And it wasn't like she hadn't experienced getting close to people rather rapidly before, when she'd become a Vault Hunter, she'd gotten close to almost all of them in just a day or so. Maybe it had to do with the life and death circumstances of the time they'd spent together, but for some reason she didn't think so, after all, she'd left the other Vault Hunters. She supposed the circumstances were different, she'd stopped feeling like she wanted to travel with them. It wasn't that she'd gotten tired of them, it was more like they'd drifted apart. She supposed that someday the same thing might happen between her and Artemis, but she didn't think so, after all, when she'd met the Vault Hunters, she'd just become an adult, so it made sense that she'd drift a bit as she got older, but now that she was a bit more mature, or at least hoped she was, she felt that she'd already gotten the inability to sit still and not appreciate what she had out of her system.

Well, except for the sitting still thing, she still didn't like that.

She'd tried all the things that she'd wanted to. Well, actually she hadn't, Deathtrap had stopped her from doing a number of them, not that she held it against him. She had at the time, but the more time that had passed, the more she realized that he'd been right to stop her. Still, it wasn't like she didn't have things she wanted to do, but they weren't all that high on her list anymore.

So, she found that she'd had gone through most of the things she'd wanted to when she'd quit being a Vault Hunter. Sure, she'd found that almost all of them had been a disappointment, but that was part of growing up she supposed.

But she felt that she was in a much better place now than when she'd been a Vault Hunter, much of which she attributed to Artemis's influence. She knew that the other girl had helped her find herself in a way she hadn't even known she was looking for, but she'd also opened up other questions that Gaige had never even thought to look at, so she wondered if it was a wash? No, she realized, no matter the other things going on, she was much happier than she'd been in a long time, not just in general either, but with herself. She still had problems, ones that she knew would haunt her for the rest of her life, but she was starting to feel that she could handle them, that she was finally starting to, if not like, then accept herself, and that was good enough for now.

Shaking her head to clear some of the thoughts away, she realized that the waves of bots were tapering off. In fact, as the last bot spun off and crashed into a corner of a machine, silence descended, interrupted only by the hum of the EMP fields and the occasional sparking of a dying bot.

Slowly sweeping the area, she watched Artemis out of the corner of her eye as the girl cocked her head and listened. After a moment, she nodded and stood up, turning to Gaige as she did.

"We good?"

Artemis nodded and made her way over before responding "Well, we're at least out of bots for the moment, though we might not be so good if they decide to do anything else. Plus, it's gonna be a bit of a challenge to get out."

Gaige looked around and realized what she meant, with all the bots piled up, there was no way she was going to be able to get through them without hitting a field.

Just as she was starting to feel a bit down, Artemis shoved her gear over and said "Hold these for me, would ya, this is gonna take a minute."

Unsure of what was about to happen, Gaige took the gear and watched as Artemis looked around for a moment, then after nodding to herself, stalked over to one of the bot piles and scrambled over it. As soon as she was on the other side, she grabbed the arm of one of the sparking bots and started to drag it away. Gaige realized what she was doing, but felt guilty about it. What if the bots started exploding, without a shield, there was little chance that Artemis would survive, which might be why she was working as fast as she could, heaving the bots along behind her, trying to ignore the awful screeching sound of them dragging along the ground.

True to her word, it did take a few minutes to do, but soon there was a path open wide enough for Gaige to get through, and as soon as it was clear, Gaige made her way forward, making sure to give the remaining fields as much of a berth as she could and once she was on the other side, dug out a canteen to hand to the panting girl. To her surprise, she just waved it away.

"I'd have...to remove...my...mask...to drink." She panted.

"Well just slip it under the bottom of it then." Gaige countered, lifting the bottom of her own mask as an example.

"Oh...right."

She proceeded to follow the example and took a sip, sighing in contentment as the water hit her parched throat. Gaige didn't know how long she'd been running without any kind of break, but she could only imagine that it had been since the alarm had sounded, if not earlier, so it was no wonder that she was feeling a bit worn down.

She would've liked to give her a while longer to rest, but the bots clogging up the room were like time bombs and she wouldn't feel comfortable until they were far behind them, so she spoke up a bit reluctantly.

"We should get going."

"Huh? First it's wait, then it's go, make up your mind would you."

There wasn't any hostility in Artemis's voice, just tiredness mixed with a touch of humor, like she knew that what she was saying could be taken the wrong way and was trying to make sure it wasn't, but was too tired to make it work properly.

"Yeah, well, I don't like standing around here, place is kinda eerie, especially with the flickering blue lights, it feels like they could explode at any second." She was trying to get the idea through to Artemis without giving away their identities, since none of the bots had yet exploded here. In fact, the only bots that had exploded thus far had been the ones on Jaka, so she wasn't sure if these would or not, but didn't want to wait around to find out.

Artemis seemed to pick up on it and shouldered her bag with a sigh and said "Let's go."

"So, uh, you remember the way?"

"Wait, are you lost?"

"No, no, it's just that I don't recognize these machines and you seem to have a better sense of direction is all. Not lost at all."

"...Right. This way." She turned and started leading them through the maze of machinery till they found a familiar door, which thankfully stood open.

As they got close, Artemis mulled something and just as Gaige was getting ready to tell her to spit it out, she spoke up. "So, think we'll meet anyone in there?"

Gaige blinked, she felt like Artemis was trying to be subtle about something, but she couldn't quite figure out what she was getting at, so she shrugged and said "Maybe a bot or two, nothing we can't handle."

"Anything else?"

Now Gaige really knew she was trying to ask her something, but had no idea of what it was, so she gave up and asked "Like what?"

"I donno, like some kind of trap? One that might kill us?"

'A trap? What was that supposed to mean?' Gaige wondered 'And a deadly one at that? Wait a minute, a deadly trap, a deathtrap, oh I get it, she's asking where Deathtrap is.' Finally getting it, she shrugged, she'd been wondering the same thing herself. She got why the other girl had been mulling the problem though, it was hard to ask something like that without asking directly, especially for someone like her.

"We might run into one near the exit, depending on our luck."

"Ah, I see, well, let's go, but be sure to keep your eyes open."

Gaige shook her head and followed along a few paces behind Artemis. It didn't take long for them to find their way back to the room where they'd first entered the compound, though it felt like that was ages ago. Gaige looked around, but didn't see any sign that anyone else was there, but then again, if Deathtrap was there, he'd be invisible, so it wasn't like she'd see him.

Artemis cocked her head and drew her pistol, looking around the room. Eventually, she turned and fired, shooting out the cameras that were observing the area and once she was sure they were destroyed, let out a sigh.

"What was that about?" Gaige asked, "Lettin off a little steam?"

"No, waiting for that." She gestured to the shimmer that appeared in the corner of the room as Deathtrap flickered into the visual spectrum.

"Babe, how've you been? Where've you been? Ow!" She yelped as Artemis punched her in the shoulder "What was that for?"

"Calling him babe."

"You shot out the cameras, right? And he's visible, so what difference does it make what I say?"

"Just cause I took out the cameras in this room, doesn't mean I took out all the audio sensors, not to mention there were more cameras down the hall."

"Oh yeah. Oops."

"Oops indeed, way to potentially make this entire thing a bust." Artemis groaned before turning to Deathtrap and saying "Hey there, you doin alright?"

He gave her a thumbs up and motioned at her.

"Eh, we're still alive." She said with a shrug, but indicated to her Oz kit and shook her head. Deathtrap seemed to get it, since he pointed to his shoulder. Artemis nodded and turned to Gaige, knowing that she preferred to be the only one to work on him.

Gaige walked over and got to work opening the compartment up, instead of the usual root beer dispensing equipment, she found an Oz kit, plus a backup shield and short-range communicator, all in there in case someone got into EMP trouble.

Patting Deathtrap on the shoulder, she tossed the Oz kit over to Artemis and said "Well, we should get outta here before too much longer, got plenty to discuss."

Artemis nodded and attached the Oz kit to her shoulder, firing it up. Once she was sure that it worked, she grabbed the remaining oxygen tanks that they'd left there when they arrived and said "Lead on."