Songs: The Doors - Riders On The Storm
"You okay?" Mordecai asked when he caught me staring off into the distance. I was in the middle of tying the laces on my combat boots, but for some reason I had to think of Scooter and started staring into the void. It happened a lot since Ellie told us, and I think I just still hadn't fully processed it.
Ellie was staying in Scooter's garage in Sanctuary for now, mostly to take care of his paperwork and have a look at the city's engines. They didn't seem to be doing too good at the moment.
"Yeah, I am. Sorry, I just..."
"Scooter?"
"Yeah. It just doesn't seem to have hit me yet. Like as if I hadn't really realized he is actually gone. I keep expecting to see him when I pass the garage, but then I remember he's not there and..." I trailed off. Mordecai sat down next to me.
"This place sure seems lonely without Scooter." he said.
"I really miss him. I wish I could've said goodbye or something. I didn't expect that one day he'd just be gone, because he was... well, he was Scooter." I replied.
"I know. Doesn't feel right, not having him around."
"I just never thought Scooter would be one of those people that die before their time, you know?"
"Yeah. You sure you're ready to go and do recon?" Mordecai asked, giving me a worried look.
"I'm fine. It'll distract me. Just... just nudge me if I space out or anything." I replied with a small smile.
"Alright then. You ready?"
"Not yet, gimme a second." I replied and finished tying my laces. I got up and filled my belt pouches with ammo and health vials. After that I grabbed my sniper rifle and my SMG. I checked the programming of the microchips in my leg and they were all set correctly. Perfect.
"Now I'm ready." I said, as I slung my rifle over my shoulder. Mordecai looked me up and down with a smile on his face.
"You look amazing." he replied. I blinked and had to laugh. That was unexpected. What was he on about?
"What?" I blurted out.
"I dunno, I just... didn't say it in a long time, that's all." he said. I laughed and shook my head.
"You're being silly. But thanks. Come on, let's go. Lil's gonna kill us, if she realizes we've been slacking off."
"Yeah, she will. Did she send you the location?" Mordecai asked. I actually hadn't checked the last message Lilith had sent me.
"Uh... hold on a sec..." I said, while fiddling with my ECHO device (and almost falling down the stairs while I was doing that). There was a message from Lilith, providing some very sparse details on the mission at hand and a location. Bingo!
"Yup, I got a location. But it's just a rough area. Same for you?" I wanted to know. Mordecai nodded.
"Yeah, we'll have to go to the edge of that area and check where they've put up their camp. She wants us to pinpoint the exact location, see how many there are, if they are in any way organized, if they seem to be well able to survive or if they're just barely getting by. That sort of thing."
"They're Hyperion office workers, how well does she think they're prepared for the Pandoran desert?"
"Who knows? Maybe they get survival training up there. Although I'd really doubt that. Can't imagine Hyperion cares much for the survival of their employees. Seeing as they can always get new ones." Mordecai said as we got to Pierce Station. The place had gotten pretty busy, since Jack was dead. Lots of people suddenly felt safe enough to leave Sanctuary and wander around the planet again.
"Where are we fast travelling to?" I asked.
"To the wasteland. The bit that's still as it used to be." Mordecai answered and put the Fast Travel code into the station terminal. Shortly after we materialised in the Wasteland at a lonesome Fast Travel station.
There really wasn't much around it, a few abandoned huts, some ammo crates and dumpsters. But not much else apart from sand and rocks. I was almost sure we'd run into Spiderants on the way to the Helios wreckage, so I got my SMG ready, just in case. Thankfully I had remembered to pack the right ammo. It had happened before that I left Sanctuary with the completely wrong ammo.
"I think we'll have to go that way. We're not far from the border of that area Lilith sent us." Mordecai said.
"Cool, let's go so. I wanna see what Hyperion's up to." I replied.
"You think they're up to no good?"
"They're Hyperion. Of course they're up to no good. But I wanna know if this is like a planned no good or if it's really just a bunch of office workers being thrown into a desert, trying to survive. Because that would honestly be kinda hilarious to watch." I said and chuckled a little.
"Sounds like a good idea for one of those reality ECHO shows." Mordecai agreed and laughed.
Ah yes, trashy reality ECHO shows. Mordecai and I had been binging on them for a while whenever we were injured or sick or anything and if we got sick of Mordy's period dramas. Those were some good times. Maybe this would be just as entertaining and would actually be a lot of fun.
"You sometimes wonder if your old place might still be standing?" Mordecai asked all of a sudden.
"I dunno. I haven't really thought about it, I just assumed they stomped the place to the ground when they arrested me. I mean they wanted to use it as a slag dump, so I suppose it's gone. I never really bothered thinking about whether they actually tore everything down." I replied.
I hadn't been thinking of my old house in ages. I had kinda missed it at the start, but after my time in the Gulag, I really was just glad to have a proper bed and more food than one meager meal a day. And once I had gotten over that, I had found my peace with everything being gone. There wasn't anything I could have done to prevent it anyway, and now I just barely thought back.
"That's fair enough. I suppose it would be infested with bandits, even if they had left it. Or it would be at least severely damaged." Mordecai said.
"Yeah, I guess so." I answered, when Mordecai held me by my arm and nodded towards a valley we were overlooking from the hill we were on. I looked down and saw some burnt wreckage that looked suspiciously like Helios parts. Was that it? The infamous Hyperion space station?
"You think we can do recon from those hills here?" I asked.
"Yeah, I'd say so. They should give us good enough cover and with the scopes we should be able to see well enough." Mordecai answered. We quickly moved towards the edge of the hill.
There were some rocks that would give us a nice cover, but would allow us to see what was going on down in the ruins of the space station. Mordecai and I both laid down and got our rifles ready. It was more for observation purposes than shooting, but if we had to shoot, I had some ammo. It was a very limited amount, because I had packed mostly SMG ammo, but enough to save our asses, if it should come to that.
"You wanna camp out here for the night?" Mordecai asked me while he was looking through his scope.
"Sure. If there's nothing weird going on that is. I can digistruct our stuff from HQ." I replied and internally commended myself to get a whole lot of programmable microchips installed in my leg. Those things were good for almost anything and honestly, I loved being able to just digistruct stuff all over the place.
"Cool. Oh my God. Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Mordecai asked. I quickly looked through the scope on my rifle. I was so distracted I hadn't actually bothered looking yet. There were a bunch of people running around nervously and it looked like they were erecting some sort of statue.
"You mean the statue?" I wanted to know.
"Yeah. I'd have suspected they raise up a statue of Jack or something, but this is a headless one." he said.
"Maybe it just got damaged in the crash and they couldn't find the head...? Oh wait. Holy shit!"
"What is it?"
"There is some writing on the statue. Red paint, right across Jack's chest." I told Mordecai, while trying to decipher it.
"Rhys... why does that name ring a bell?" I asked.
"Wasn't someone that was with Vallory called Rhys?"
"I dunno, maybe? But how would the Hyperion guys know him. And why would they write his name on a statue of Jack?"
"No idea. Hey, see all those people bowing? To the left of the statue?"
I moved my rifle a little to the left and I could see them. A small group dressed in Hyperion uniforms was boeing down quickly. Shortly after, a short guy came in sight. He had long hair that he was wearing in a bun and a beard. He looked more Pandoran than the rest of the people we could see.
"Yeah, I can see them. Seems to be their leader. He almost looks like he is from here, but he doesn't have enough scars for that. He seems too clean and prim and proper to be from Pandora." I said.
"True. Man, what on earth are they doing? They're butchering that skag!"
"They managed to kill a skag for food?" I asked curiously.
"Seems so." Mordecai answered.
"Huh. That's not bad for a start. But what are they all doing down there? They almost look like they're forming some sort of bandit clan."