Sup my readers, I want to say that the last 2 chapters don't have that much action but this chapter will have more guns and explosions like borderlands was meant to be. I also want to add that this fanfic pays more attention to rivet than ratchet. PS: I will shorten the 'children of the vault' to the 'C.O.V'. Enjoy.
…
Chapter 3: the carnage begins
On the roads of Pandora, an out runner sped across the harsh desert of this hell hole of a planet. This out runner was carrying the lombaxes, warbot defect, warbot rebel and the robotic hunter who claims himself as 'Fl4k'. When the lombaxes first met Fl4k, they worried that he was a crazy gunman but they later found out that most people of Pandora lost their sanity and became animals that need to be put down. The psychopaths killed innocent people for fun and that Fl4k protected innocents and killed the one who went insane. The lombaxes were about to explain themselves and why they're here but Fl4k said it would be wise to tell his group because they need to hear this. On the road, clank was looking around the landscape with kit while ratchet and rivet were silent on the top seat that had a rocket launcher attached to it. Rivet decided to break the silence and spoke up.
"So, Fl4k, we saw a poster when we arrived here…" Rivet said as Fl4k was paying attention to the road but also listening.
"It said 'we are the children of the vault', what does it mean?" She continued. Fl4k was silent for a moment before speaking.
"The children of the vault are both a cult and an army of bandits, psychos and cannibals that serve only two beings on this planet, the calypso twins. The calypso twins are sirens and convince every tribe on Pandora that there is something called 'the great vault' and they all worship them as gods." Fl4k awneserd the female lombax and ratchet remembered what face-meat said before being shot in the head.
"Wait, that guy you shot, he said something about a 'god-queen'." Ratchet said to the one eyed robot.
"He was referring to Tyreen Calypso, she's the alpha of the cult while her brother, Troy, runs the broadcasting. There is a group of sane people who battle against the cult to prevent them from destroying the galaxy with the power of the vaults. I'm from that group, we call ourselves 'the crimson raiders'. We need to head back to my pack and tell Lilith about you." Fl4k said as the lombaxes and warbots were confused.
"Who's lilith?" Rivet asked the hunter before suddenly hearing a female voice.
"I'm lilith." The voice answered, everyone except Fl4k started to look around to find the owner of the voice.
"W-what? Where are you?" Rivet asked in confusion.
"Far away from here but the reason you can hear me is because I'm using telepathy to speak to you, like how I can talk to Fl4k without communications. I'm Lilith, the leader of the crimson raiders. We'll talk back at my base, I need to hear about this." The voice, Lilith, replied to the lombax before going silent.
"She poke in our heads, strange." Clank exclaimed as Fl4k nodded in agreement.
"Yes, it is indeed strange but you'll get used to it." Fl4k said as kit noticed something approaching the group fast. She could make out an outrunner before more appeared alongside it and she can hear yelling and laughter.
"Um, guys, I see outrunners heading our way" kit says as the outrunners approached closer and closer. And suddenly a rocket was fired at our heros and nearly hit them when Fl4k used the outrunner to immediately dodge it. Fl4k turns his head to the aggressors, knowing exactly who these guys were.
"Hmm, it appears that a couple of members of the C.O.V have finally decided to hunt us down, most likely payback for killing the ones I've saved you from." Fl4k stated as he pulled out his Horrorshow sniper rifle while Clank was counting how many there were.
"4, 5, oh my. I'm afraid there are too many of them. I suggest we try to lose them." Clank said to Fl4k but the one eyed robot simply shook his head.
"I understand where you're coming from but the C.O.V will not stop hunting us, even if we lose them. We need to put an end to these savages" Fl4k replied to the warbot defect.
"I'll take the wheel." Ratchet said as he got into the driver's seat while Fl4k got to the roof. Fl4k can confirm that there are 20 C.O.V outrunners in total and aims at a bandit who is steering a C.O.V outrunner. He shot his rifle and killed the bandit before the C.O.V outrunner the bandit was driving spun out of control before crashing into another C.O.V outrunner, causing it to flip over before it blew up. The other C.O.V outrunners rushed past the smoke and fire from the destroyed C.O.V outrunner as our heros went into a small canyon.
"Great, 2 down, 18 more to go." Rivet exclaimed before suddenly a C.O.V outrunner drove from above the canyon and landed right next to the outrunner driven by ratchet. A woman wearing a mask, like face-meat's, got up from the top seat as she took out her blade. Fl4k turns to face his opponent but the woman nearly kicks the hunter off the roof the outrunner Fl4k was standing on but ends up causing him to fall on his back. The woman pinned Fl4k on the chest with her foot before speaking.
"This is where you die, vault thief! This is what you get for killing my older brother, face-meat!" The woman shouted in rage before raising her blade. Rivet was watching Fl4k at the psychopath's mercy before deciding to take action. She pulled out her omni-hammer as she got to the roof to face the psycho who was unaware of the lombax. She jumped at the woman who was turning her head before being greeted by the large hammer. The impact forced the woman off the outrunner into the front before she got crushed to death by the large wheels and heavy weight of the outrunner. Rivet put her hammer away before making a get up gesture and Fl4k accepted it as both outrunners exited the canyon.
"Thank you rivet, I owe you for saving my life." Fl4k thanked the female lombax as she made a small stop gesture.
"Don't thank me yet, we've still got to survive this." Rivet replied before she and Fl4k heard the voice of ratchet.
"Uhh, guy? The driver of the C.O.V outrunner is trying to pull his gun out." Ratchet said as the bandit driving the C.O.V outrunner was struggling to pull out a gun that got stuck. Fl4k turned to rivet and spoke up.
"Are you familiar with guns?" Fl4k asked the robot arm lombax who nodded.
"You know it." She replied with a smile before Fl4k pulled out a pistol and gave it to her.
"Then take this pistol. It's called 'the duc', I want you to shoot the C.O.V outrunner." Fl4k said as he pointed to the enemy outrunner while Rivet grabbed the duc.
"How the fuck can a pistol take down a vehicle like that!?" Rivet asked in confusion.
"You'll see soon enough, just unload the clip and see what happens." Fl4k replied before Rivet pointed the pistol and shot 4 bullets before hearing a click. She noticed pellets stuck on the C.O.V outrunner before the bandit finally pulled out his gun and pointed it at Ratchet. Ratchet had the expression of fear on his face.
"This is where you die! HAHAHA! FOR GOD-QUEEN TYRE-!" The bandit shouted before the pellets stuck on his outrunner exploded, causing the C.O.V outrunner to blow up as well. Rivet had an expression mixed with surprise and amazement as she looked at the gun.
"Holy shit!" Rivet exclaimed in awe before turning to the rest of the C.O.V outrunners and started to shoot with Fl4k. They managed to destroy 5 outrunners, leaving 12 left to destroy (the outrunner rivet destroyed was outrunner no.17).
"Yeah! We're really kicking their asses!" Rivet exclaimed before a rocket from one of the C.O.V outrunners was fired and exploded right behind the outrunner rivet and Fl4k were standing on, causing it to crash. The out runner was flipped to its side while the lombax and one eyed robot had a rough landing. Ratchet (who was dizzy from the crash), clank and kit got out of the outrunner and rushed towards rivet and Fl4k before the C.O.V outrunners made a circle around our heros as the psychos, cannibals and bandits readied their guns while the ones on top of the C.O.V outrunners readied the rocket launchers attached to the C.O.V outrunners at the group. Rivet looked around seeing they were completely surrounded and knew that they wouldn't be able to fend them off. Rivet immediately remembered something that happened at megalopolis and turned to kit while the warbot rebel looked back. Rivet and kit nodded before kit slowly walked a small distance in front of the crew. Kit stood calmly and firmly before the C.O.V members started to laugh.
"Aww, wittle robot tries to take us all on, HAHAHAAA!" A cannibal teased the small warbot before the said warbot closed her eyes before flashing and kit immediately transformed into her warbot mode. Everyone, except Rivet, ratchet and clank, was staring at the now towering warbot in shock while kit glared daggers at her and her friend's attackers before the C.O.V members started attacking. The bullets and rockets weren't doing much against the warbot but they didn't care, they just kept shooting before kit fired her cannons at the C.O.V outrunners (with the bandits and psychos in them) and destroyed them as well as killing a few C.O.V members. It didn't take long for kit to annihilate the members of the C.O.V and their outrunners, after she finished she transformed back into her normal mode as Rivet got up and approached her partner.
"Heh, that warbot mode of yours never disappoints me." The robot armed lombax commented with a smile before she and kit did a fist bump, making the metal of Rivet's robot fist and kit's fist making a small metallic tap. Fl4k got up, brushed himself off and approached the White lombax and the warbot rebel.
"Your friend, I assume the form she took is part of your story so I won't ask. She has formidable weapons and power and she did something I never thought was possible." Fl4k said to Rivet who had a slightly confused expression on her face.
"And that something is?" Rivet asked the hunter.
"It… surprised me." Fl4k said as he turned his head to the rivet's partner. Unaware of the group, 3 C.O.V members survived Kit's assault and tried to get away but are stopped when an orange light crashes to the earth, attracting the group's attention. The light faded to reveal a woman with red hair, a green tank top, green shorts and blue markings on her left arm. The woman was facing down with the fist of her left arm touching the ground (like a badass superhero or secret agent in a movie), after 3 seconds the woman raised her head and punched a C.O.V member in the face, the impact caused his skull to crack like an egg. She turns to the 2nd survivor and crashes her knee onto her victim's head. She finally turns to the final one who had a piece of one of the C.O.V outrunners and attempted to kill her but the blue markings on the redhead's left arm began to glow fiery orange before she punched the C.O.V member in the face, causing him to sent flying into a large rock with another large rock above it. The C.O.V member crashes into the rock but survives the impact. The C.O.V member raised his arms up, thanking Tyreen for saving him but the rock on top of the rock the member crashed into fell off onto the survivor, killing him from the heavyweight as blood spewed underneath. The light of the woman's left arm began to fade back to blue before she turned her head to the group with a smile. She then approached the group and spoke in a familiar voice.
"That thing your yellow robot just did was pretty awesome. I didn't think I was going to save you in time" She said to the group. Rivet was certain she heard that voice before and then it hit her like a brick to the skull, this woman was the one who talked to her and her friends with telepathy.
"It's you…" Rivet exclaimed and the redhead nodded with a comforting smile. Ratchet, clank and kit were a little confused but quickly realised what Rivet is talking about.
"Yes it's me, the one who spoke in your head." The woman said to the lombax.
"I'm Lilith, some people call me fire hawk, nice to meet you." The woman, Lilith, introduces herself to the lombax.
"I'm Rivet. The yellow robot is my partner, kit." Rivet introduces herself and kit before turning to her their dimensional counterparts
"The one who looks like me is ratchet and the silver robot next to him is clank." She said to Lilith before Ratchet said a little 'hi'. Lilith nods before turning to Fl4k.
"Fl4k, let's head back. The C.O.V are getting on my nerves" She stated and Fl4k nods. Lilith then turns to the white lombax.
"You guys are coming with us, we don't see mutant ratches in the borderlands very often, by that I mean never." Lilith said to Rivet who had a confused expression on her face.
"Me and ratchet are not ratches, we don't know what they are, we're lombaxes." She replies to the redhead.
"Lombaxes? You know what, we'll talk about that later. Right now we need to leave, I've already told a crimson raider to send a technical to pick us up." Lilith said before a truck began to head their way.
"Speak of the devil." She muttered as the truck stopped before a man stuck his head out of the window and began to tap the truck door.
"Come on mates, get in. I don't want those C.O.V wankers to show up." He said in an Australian accent. The group began to get in the back of the vehicle and the truck drove off. The lombaxes and warbots began to tell Lilith and Fl4k everything about them, their adventures and the recent events (more specifically, rift apart) involving Dr nefarious putting all of reality at risk and how emperor nefarious almost destroyed the multiverse. They even told them how they arrived at Pandora and how they met Fl4k. This is the start of a new adventure for both our heroes and the hunter.
