Chapter 19
Pandora
The two of them had barely started down the tunnel when they found a massive concrete and metal security door blocking their way, and the dust covered control panel was being decidedly unresponsive.
"Don't worry, I've so got this. Old DAHL tech, pfft been playing with this stuff since I was a kid." Gaige said, popping the panel and getting to work. "What is it, I've been around you enough to recognize that silence, so just spit it out."
"Well, it's that guy with the shield."
"Ugh, that guy, what a dick, amiright?"
"I didn't really get to talk to him, but yeah, he seemed like a dick, but that wasn't what I was thinking, it's just that, and please don't get mad but"
"Hold it, any time someone says something like 'don't get mad' they're about to say something they know will be irritating, I mean it's right there in the subtext."
"O…K…? Do I? Do I continue or not?"
Gaige sighed "Say it, I'll try to hear you and get what you meant, not what you say, that what you're asking?"
"I guess so." she took a breath and sighed before continuing "It's just, well, why are you still holding yourself back, shit that came out wrong let me start over."
"I donno, that was pretty close to a deal ender right there."
"Just try to hear me out, let me…let me try it this way, when you were a Vault Hunter did you ever encounter shield carriers?"
"Well yeah, I mean there were nomads and some of the Hyperion guys had these really cool energy ones, why?"
"Did you have difficulty dealing with them, no let me rephrase that, how did you deal with them?"
Gaige sat back and thought about it "Well most of the time someone would keep them distracted and the others would circle around and take them from the back, or Deathtrap would kill them from above or you'd try and blow something up next to them, why?"
"What if you were by yourself? No back up, how did you do it?"
Gaige thought about it, 'Now that she says it, I didn't have a problem back then, I just shot them in the back. Ricocheting bullets and Anarchy tore them apart. Wait why could I do that back then and not now. Am I holding myself back? Oh crap is that what she was trying to say.'
"It looks like you've got it"
"Hum, maybe, but how did I do that back then, you're right, I was doing something different back then so what changed? I need to think about this for a minute."
"No I was meaning the door, but take your time thinking about it."
"Bitch" Gaige said while sticking out her tongue before switching to a friendly smile and connected the wire she was holding. The door gave a shake and dust and debris fell as it screeched and ground open a few feet before stopping.
"Well the bypass only works so far, but that should be enough to get through. What?"
Artemis stared through the gap in the door at the dead piled against it. "I think they were trying to get out." she whispered unslinging her rifle and stepping through, scanning her surroundings as she carefully stepped over the dead. Once she made sure there was nothing waiting, she examined the scene with more care.
"Looks like they got locked in" She said pointing to the scratches on the door, mostly it was just the blood left from panicked pawing but a few had managed to leave a mark
"Seems they weren't alone."
She crouched next to the torn-up bodies as Gaige turned away with a gag.
"What did it?" she asked, trying not to look.
"Let's see, if I remember right, this area of Pandora has Skags, Rakks, Varkids and Spiderants right? Well these wounds wouldn't have been made by mandibles, so that would leave the Skag. But while it's hard to tell with the amount of time that's passed, I can't see a Skag doing this. Which would mean it's something else." She sat back and thought about it. "I have an idea about that, but, no."
"What?"
"It's too early to tell, but I think it's probably a foreign species that got brought in, either by accident or on purpose, quite possibly Stevenson's pet and whatever it is, it probably mutated somehow, radiation or sometimes a species will react to a new environment by changing its patterns, lack of predators and all. Whatever it is or was, I would guess that it got loose in the mines and the company shut the place down to bury it."
"Well the documents in the office made it sound like the place was running dry anyway." Gaige said "But still to leave these poor workers to die like this."
"Didn't you say most of the bandits used to work for the corporations? And that they abandoned them? I mean this wouldn't surprise me if that was the case."
"Yeah but I guess abandoning them and dooming them to be eaten just feel different to me."
"They were doomed either way."
"I guess, but let's get out of here, this place is giving me the willies."
"Willies?" Artemis said with a laugh.
"What?" Gaige got defensive.
"No no I always liked that term, and to be honest all the other ones that mean that, you know like cobllywobbles, and screaming mimi's."
Gaige looked at her with a straight face for a full second before snorting and cracking up. "Ah, I needed that."
"Good, let's get going then, and keep your eyes peeled, I think this may be turning into a hunt."
"But wait, if this gate was locked to keep something in, then there wouldn't be another way out would there? I mean if there was, wouldn't that defeat the purpose of locking this one?"
"True but look at the map." she said spreading it out and pointing "There was another exit here, near what looks like a factory and some mildew. Now the hope is that they locked that gate as well."
"Why would we hope that?"
"Cause if they didn't, they would have collapsed the tunnel."
"Right, in that case I hope they did lock it."
The two girls and a robot started down the tunnel, keeping a close eye for signs of life when suddenly Gaige sputtered and started flailing.
"Gack, cobwebs." she said whipping her face.
"Good."
"Good? How is that good? I might have spiders in my hair or down my shirt or something. Yuck, spiders."
"It's good because spiderwebs means life, airflow and bugs. Think about it, if there was nothing to eat in here, they wouldn't build webs, that's why you wouldn't find any in sealed places, like tombs and the Vaults."
"OK point, but you didn't run into it. Every time I do, I feel something brushing my neck for the next hour or so and freak out a bit thinking it's a spider." She grumbled.
"I hear ya, but try and keep it down. Don't know what's out there."
"I really hope nothing's out there."
Artemis stopped "That depends."
"What do you mean?"
"It depends on whether they locked the door or not."
"Huh?"
"Think about it. If they sealed the door, then yes, finding nothing else alive in here would be fine. But if they collapsed the tunnel, then we would want something to be alive."
"Why would we want that?"
"If somethings alive, then it's getting food. If it's getting food, then there has to be a way for something to get in and out. If it was a sealed environment then they would have run out of food decades ago."
"Didn't think of that. Still let's hope it's sealed."
They continued on for a ways, trying to follow the map as best they could when they came to another collapsed tunnel. But what made this one of note was the corpse huddled against it.
It appeared that they had died from whatever was in the tunnels, with the bones being scattered around and the jumpsuit being torn. Near the body they found another ECHO log.
'They locked us in here. Oh god we're doomed. They locked us in here with it.
I saw it, when the doors closed, I was just coming out of B-14 when it attacked. They had no chance. I saw it get Davison, sunk its fangs into his neck and then, oh god.
Don't know why I'm recording this, but if you find it, I'm sorry. I…I've gotta confess before it finds me.
I cheated at cards. I wasted my money on cheap women instead of sending it home to my family. I didn't live my life well, but I thought I was a good man.
Well except that one time, I'm sorry Roy, I slept with your wife. And not just once. I, I think that Stephenie might be mine. Of god I'm sorry, I'm sorry I won't see her grow up.
Oh shit I think it heard me shitshitshit.'
The girls looked at each other. "Well that confirmed it, DAHL locked them in."
Gaige nodded "Still, didn't contain anything useful."
"Well we learned that Stephenie wasn't Roy's kid, and that his wife was cheating on him."
"I meant useful to the present situation." She said flatly as the other girl grinned.
Gaige was about to leave when Artemis dropped down using her ECHO to illuminate the ground.
"What are you doing?"
"Look at these tracks."
She crouched down and looked at what she was pointing at.
"What am I looking at?"
"Those aren't Skag. In fact, they kinda resemble those from a Babosear. It's a two limbed creature from the Elderos system. They've got these snake-like bodies with long grasping arms, though they mostly use poison from their fangs to paralyze their prey."
"And you think that's what did this?"
"No, it's just that the prints look like theirs, and the tail drag is similar. But no, they don't do this to their prey, they paralyze and then swallow their food whole."
"Then why give me the entire creepy lesson on them?"
Artemis blinked "Ah, good point."
She stood up and led the grumbling Gaige back to the last tunnel split and tried a new way. In a short amount of time they came to a large cavern.
"Oh damn, what is that smell, it smells like…I don't even know what. What does that smell like?"
"That's Slag" Gaige said confidently "Haven't smelled that shit in years. Back when I was a Vault Hunter, corporations were trying to use it in weapons and all kinds of other shit. And I always thought it was like piss and nachos myself."
They moved cautiously up to the edge and got a good look at the room. The cavern was large, though not entirely in a single room. There were pillars and large chunks like mini mesas around the room that stretched and curved out of sight. The machinery that had been left was sunk into pools and rivers of toxic looking purple ooze that reflected the light and gave the room an eerie feel.
Around the room they could see large three-legged creatures covered in shining crystals slowly moving around and as they watched one sank straight into the floor leaving only its top rocks showing.
"Crystallisks" Gaige groaned.
"They're beautiful"
Gaige looked at the other girl in disbelief before looking back. She watched as one of the Crystallisks thudded slowly across the room, the light refracting and dancing off the growths on it and had to admit that just on sight, it was pretty. Especially these ones, which had violet crystals, probably from the slag.
"We're gonna have to make our way across" Artemis said consulting the map "Our exit should be just beyond that thing, the one with the big drill on it."
"I think it's called a borer or something like that."
"You've faced these things before, anything you'd like to share?"
"Yeah, don't fight them, we're low on ammo, and these things can only be hurt by smashing those crystalline growths on them."
"Duly noted, and that Slag stuff, what's it do?"
"On its own, not much. If you coat something in it though, it does become more susceptible to various elemental attacks. That and don't drink it, like I said corporations were using that stuff in some pretty weird experiments."
"What is it though?"
"It's like, run off from Eridium processing, I think?"
"OK, well let's go."
They started down the ramp leading to the floor, moving with caution, and while trying to avoid the noxious pools of Slag, they slowly made their way from one piece of cover to the next. As they crossed, they had a number of times that they had to circle around and backtrack to avoid the lumbering Crystallisks as they rose and moved about on their own business. A few times they had to hide as one of them got too close, each time the smell of the Slag seemed to get worse till they could hardly breath. Finally after what seemed like hours, they got to the other side, and just as they were about to be in the clear, Artemis stopped.
'What are you doing?' Gaige mouthed to her in a near panic, only to be met with a shooing motion telling her to keep going. She glared at the other girl and slipped up to the wall and moved towards the borer when she froze. She could see the tunnel that they needed, and in front of it was a large mound, one of the Crystallisks. She silently mouthed her litany of curses and turned back to Artemis, only to find that the other girl wasn't behind her. Scanning the area, she eventually found her after taking a few steps back. She couldn't see her right away due to the fact that she was moving deeper into the room, away from the way out.
'What the actual hell is she doing' she groaned inwardly, whatever it was, she obviously didn't know that the way out was currently blocked, so it would probably end badly. As she watched Artemis slithered up onto a narrow barrier and shimmied across the narrow bridge it made over the Slag till
she was next to what appeared to be a small island with a control panel sticking up. She slid onto the island and started cautiously moving things that Gaige couldn't see around. It seemed that she must have found what she was looking for because she started stuffing something into her bag before heading back.
She made it off the rail bridge before things went wrong. Just as her feet touched the ground one of the Crystallisks emerged from under the Slag pool to her side, Artemis turned as it sent a spray of sludge over her causing her to swear reflexively and start coughing at the stench. The Crystallisk turned and let out a bellowing noise from somewhere and started stomping towards the intruder.
Throwing all pretenses at stealth out, Artemis took off in a dead run while wiping her face to try
and get the Slag off. She easily outpaced the Crystallisk until it gave a great shake and flung a shard
of crystal at her. While she managed to dodge it on pure reflex, the shard immediately began to grow
in size.
"Dodge!" Gaige yelled recognizing what was about to happen.
Luckily Artemis had good reflexes and threw herself over the edge of a nearby minecart just as the crystal exploded throwing tiny fragments like some kind of natural grenade. The other Crystallisks were answering the first one's call as Artemis leaped out of the cart as it fell over and took off running to where Gaige was waving at her.
"Run!" she yelled as she neared her, causing Gaige to turn and start towards the exit only to see the Crystallisk that had been blocking the path start to emerge. Not pausing, she ran straight at it and leaped onto it, using it as a springboard to land in the tunnel where Deathtrap was waiting. Just as Artemis rounded the corner of the borer Gaige lost sight of her as the Crystallisk burst from the ground with an irate bellow.
"Get out of my way!" She heard yelled from the other side of it and then saw Artemis running straight at its legs before dropping into a slide under the creature. It obviously hadn't been expecting that because it froze up, not knowing which way to turn. As Artemis came up she caught the rear leg and used it as a pivot to throw herself into the tunnel, only to have a chunk snap off in her hand, so instead of gaining momentum for a sprint, she found herself stumbling into the wall.
Gaige grabbed her and drug her around the bend just as a large crystal shard slammed into where she had just been. They dashed a ways in silence before collapsing to catch their breath once they were sure that they were clear.
"What the hell were you doing?" Gaige snapped glaring at the other girl "You nearly got us
both killed."
"I thought we could use these." Came the reply as Artemis held up a bundle of explosives "Besides you didn't tell me they could fire off exploding crystals."
"I thought you were the hunter. Didn't you research what was on this planet before coming here?"
"I did, I just kinda forgot they could do that, and when you told me about them I was like 'Yeah that sounds about right' so I didn't think too hard on remembering."
"Well you at least got something to remember them by." Gaige said, indicating the chunk that had broken off that was still in the other girls' hand.
"Huh? Oh yeah it is kinda pretty, guess I'll keep it." She said tucking it into her bag before pulling
an ECHO log out "Oh yeah, there was a dead guy by that consul and he had this with him, so I thought I should take it and give it a listen, might have something useful on it." She said while popping it into her player.
'Orders came down today to close shaft B3.
Knew it was only a matter of time. Ore's been drying up for weeks there.
Luckily, we got a new shipment of recruits to start on the new tunnels. Now if we could only get these damn Varkids under control, blasted things keep trying to eat the wires.
One of the new guys, Stevenson I think, brought some kind of pet with him, said something about it being a hunter, might let him keep it if the damn thing will clear out those bugs.
Don't know why I record these damn things, I guess it's to keep myself sane down here.
Got three years, four months, two days and thirteen hours left, but who's counting.'
"Well that was a waste." Gaige grumbled.
Artemis crouched there thinking "Maybe not" she muttered "I need to check something, rather I want to check something. But if I'm right then it'll definitely be worth it."
"How far out of the way we talking?"
Artemis spread the map "Here" she said pointing.
"B3, didn't that guy just say that it was closed?"
"Yep."
"And I don't suppose you'll tell me why?"
"I'll tell you if I'm wrong, come on."
She started walking, causing Gaige to sigh and follow. Gaige found nothing of interest on the way, no signs of life, not even a corpse. In fact, the only thing she noticed was a smell of rot, once the stench of Slag evaporated from the other girl.
It didn't take long for them to find their way down shaft B3 and after a short walk they found a collapsed dead end.
"Wow, totally worth coming down here, now you wanna tell me what this is…what are you doing?"
Artemis was making her way into the debris of the collapsed tunnel and after a little scrambling she crouched down and shifted aside some rocks. Gaige examined the area and spotted a boot sticking out, which she had missed and would have continued to do so if the other girl wasn't digging next to it.
"Aw geez, how can you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Dig through bodies like that, I mean I've gone through a number of pockets on dead guys in my time, but when they start getting all rotty and slimy, yuck."
"Eh, this is nothing compared to having to check scat. Especially on creatures like Skags. Or having to check a creature's larder, some of those can get pretty ripe, especially on a jungle planet. Anyway, found it." She held up an ECHO recording and hopped back down.
Just before she slid it in Gaige stopped her "You need to blow that out."
"Huh?"
"What, it's like full of dust and crap from laying there isn't it?"
Artemis looked at the ECHO a second before blowing across the open end and then coughing at the cloud that emerged.
"See, that would've went into your ECHO and messed it up but good."
"Why didn't you say something about the others?"
"Eh, they weren't buried, so what's on it?"
Artemis coughed once more and slapped the old log in.
'I'm gonna need to slow the shipments down. Boss is getting suspicious.'
'That's not my problem.'
'Well it will be if I get caught.'
'You were compensated well, and you've made commitments.'
'Look I can't move that much ore, alright I'
read error
Gaige sighed "Really, that's it, what a waste of time."
She was shocked to see that Artemis was smiling triumphantly.
"What?"
"Just as I thought, the creature wasn't eating the ore. This poor schmuck was smuggling it out, probably had an escape tunnel set up in this shaft and was using it to hide the ore. He was no doubt heading to his tunnel when the mine collapsed on him, might have been that management knew about it, but that's just speculation. What's important is that the creature wasn't eating the ore, that means that the Crystallisks aren't its food source, which also means that I know what it is."
"Wait, how'd you get all that from some garbled recordings?"
"OK first was that the foreman had got bit, right? He commented on the creature's teeth. Now there are only a few species that can eat ore, and out of them most have flat grinding teeth, like an herbivore only harder. Which leads to the second log, he talked about how it bit into someone's neck and tore the head off. If it had flat teeth it would have crushed the neck, not torn, meaning it had sharp teeth. That was backed up by him talking about its fangs and by the way the bodies looked. Now there is only one species that can eat ore as well as meat and has anything like teeth that could tear flesh, it's got these bone plates that form points around its mouth. But anyways, if it isn't eating the ore, then it couldn't be that, and we know that the missing ore was being smuggled out by this guy so that eliminates that, which means that the creature that was brought here was a Vadosarin." She finished with a triumphant smile as Gaige stared at her with her jaw hanging open.
"Well that sounded like a load of bullshit to me, but hey you're the expert. But wait, why do you keep saying that it is, like you know that it's still alive?"
"Uh, because it obviously is, you haven't seen the tracks? Smelled that charnel house rot from its den?"
Gaige looked at the other girl a second before realizing something 'Is she bragging? No, that's not it, she's trying to show off. Well this is what she does, so she would want to show off what she is good at, can't blame her for that. Still kinda odd hearing it from her, what do I do in this case'. "You seem to know a lot about this."
"Eh, it's my job, I keep telling you I'm a hunter."
"OK miss hunter, what can you tell me about this thing, a Vadosarin I think you called it."
"The Vadosarin is a native of the Silventaria system, are omnivorous, though they prefer meat, and are usually between three to six feet in length. They have six legs, and a cream-colored hide that feels rubbery to the touch. But what's really weird about them is that they have no skeleton, instead they've got these small plates of cartilage that are supported by a series of sinew and muscles. This allows them to fit into holes and crevices, they've been seen to emerge from holes as small as six inches, though some claim to have seen as small as four. What that means is that as they emerge from their holes they seem to reform like some kind of reverse melting. Let's see, they don't have that good of a sense of smell, instead they use taste and thermals to locate their prey. Oh and they are sometimes kept as pets usually to keep pest problems under control."
"So your saying this thing could be slipping out of some crack to go get food?"
"Yes, but if it's dragging it back to its den, then the prey would need to fit through the burrow, so we might still be able to use it. But the real problem is that while the largest recorded one was eight feet two inches, the one we've got here is at least twelve, if not fifteen feet long, and seems to weigh a bit much even for its size."
"Oh crap, but you have hunted them before right? So how do we kill it?"
"What? No, I haven't hunted one before, didn't you hear? People keep them as pets, they aren't a challenge, I mean you wouldn't hunt a dog or a cat would you? Of course not. But as for how to kill them, they can be a bit tricky due to the lack of bone structure and their ability to slide into impossibly small places, they can be a bit of a pain to capture, and due to their unique structure they have long thin brains, making clean shots to it a bit challenging. But like most things, put a hole in the right spot and it dies." She started sketching a rough lizard-like outline in the dust and then pointed to a few spots "Here, here and here should do the trick."
"Got it, I need a drink, then we can move on. Babe margarita me."
"No."
"No what?"
"No you are not having a drink."
"Excuse you?"
"Um OK, but you're still not having a drink. Do you know nothing about survival? Alcohol is a diuretic, means it prevents the body from retaining water, well it means something a little different from that, but close enough. We have half a canteen of water to last us till we get out, and not just from this mine, but across who knows how much distance. Plus alcohol dulls your wits, which is compounded by dehydration, and we need all the wits we can get. It also lowers inhibitions, but I don't think that's that much of an issue right now."
"You are a giant killjoy, and a bitch. Babe, margarita."
"Ururg"
"Whatdaya mean no?"
"Urru"
"Et tu? Traitors, I'm surrounded by traitors. How'd you get Deathtrap on your side, brainwashing?"
"You drink too much anyway, but tell you what, when this is all over, I'll share a drink with you."
"Oh I'm gonna get you drunk, and then you'll talk, yes you will."
"One, I'll share one drink with you."
"Whatsa matter, afraid to loosen up?"
"No, I just know my limits, besides I don't have anyone to keep me from making bad decisions while I'm drunk." she said nodding to Deathtrap.
"I don't make bad decisions while drunk."
"Urrru"
"Traitor."
They headed on and before long found themselves nearing where they exit should be. Following Artemis's lead, they moved as quietly as possible, which left Gaige wondering how the other girl could seem to make no sound, when they came to an overlook of the area.
As they both looked down upon it, Gaige whispered "Well good news, bad news."
"Yeah, I got the same, what's yours?"
"Well the good news is that they didn't collapse the tunnel."
"Same"
"Bad news is see that panel?" she pointed to one side of the closed door. "The controls to reopen it are on the other side of that. Which means we need to get through it somehow."
"Well, good news, I've got explosives."
"Right, that would work, just got to not damage it too much, so what's your bad news?"
"That's its den." she pointed to a side tunnel where Gaige could just make out bones and blood.
"Maybe it's out hunting?"
"No, it's in there. I'm guessing it just got back with its meal, not gonna leave for a while now, and no way it doesn't notice us blowing a hole in the wall, so we're gonna have to deal with this thing. Wait, shhh it's coming."
The girls flattened down as the creature emerged. It was quite a bit different from what Gaige had imagined, it had the same vague outline that Artemis had drawn, but something was wrong about it. First it didn't have rubbery looking skin, but instead it seemed to be covered in small cream colored plates, second something seemed off about its eyes, they were sunken in oddly, and third it seemed to be vibrating, the plates seemed to move differently than they should have as it moved.
As she stared at it, she watched as the creature yawned revealing rows of sharp teeth and stretched. As it did, she watched in horror as the plates twisted and stuck out. She nudged Artemis and moved back as quietly as she could.
When she got what felt like a safe distance she whispered "That doesn't seem like what you described."
"Yeah, no shit. I wouldn't have even recognized it as a Vadosarin looking like that, but that's what it definitely is. Looks like it mutated over the years, but what could cause that?"
"The Slag. It's probably been drinking that stuff for years. But that's not really the problem here, did you see those plates?"
"Kinda hard to miss."
"And how are they connected?"
"Looked like they were raised a bit above the skin with muscle and cartilage, why?"
"That's gonna be a problem, how much do you know about physics?"
"Enough to survive."
"Right, this is my area of expertise, but I'll try and keep it simple, those plates are going to redistribute kinetic energy. Put another way, um, let's say you punch something, if it's ridged it'll take quite a bit of damage right. But if it can flex, you lose a lot of energy and it remains mostly intact. Follow me so far? Good. Now this things plates will be like hitting a large leaf, even something like a bullet will lose quite a bit of force and might not even pierce the skin underneath, so how do we fight this thing?"
"Get rid of the plates. Fire would be good, but we don't have any, but we do have caustic, so you're gonna have to melt as much as you can before you run out of SMG rounds, then we're gonna have to hope that we have enough rounds left and that enough damage has been done to kill it, or at least drive it off."
"Yeah I was afraid you'd say that."
"Ready?"
"No, but when has that ever made a difference."
They moved back to the ridge cautiously and spread out. Once they were both in position Artemis tossed a rock to draw the beast out of its lair.
It emerged again, tongue flicking the air, plates puffed out as Gaige took aim and after triple checking to make sure she was on the right element, fired.
The beast let out a yelp of surprise as the rounds splashed its flank with harsh chemicals and the armor started melting with an audible sizzle. It tried turning and thrashing but the rain of acid continued until Gaige had to change clips. While she did, the beast homed in on her and let loose a fearsome roar and started in her direction, which was when Artemis sprung up rifle leveled and fired. Her first shot went into its sunken eye socket causing a spurt of blood as she blinded it on one side, she then emptied the rest of the rounds into its still bubbling side, shattering some of the plates and hitting the muscles holding others on.
The beast turned to the new source of pain and started thundering that way when Gaige popped back up and let loose with another clip. This time when she was out Artemis had switched to her pistol, but other than that she proceeded exactly the same.
This continued for a full minute as the beast became more and more enraged, but at the same time lost more and more of its armor plating. It only stopped when Gaige ran out of SMG ammo with a yell of "OUT!" She switched over to her assault rifle as Artemis nodded, she was out of pistol rounds and was low on sniper rifle, so she was holding back.
This gave the enraged beast enough time to decide that Gaige would be the first to go and charged her, blood and steaming melting chunks sloughing off its sides. Gaige swore and tossed aside her empty rifle and switched to the shotgun, unloading at almost point blank range into the beast's mouth, which at least caused it to twist its head aside and not bite her but instead threw a raking attack with its claws. Gaige swore unable to get out of the way when the beast yowled in surprise.
Leaping back in shock, it glared at her, which allowed her to put another blast into its head as she wondered what had just happened. As she watched fire spread up from its claws causing it to slam its paw into the ground and rub it in the dirt to put it out, then it hit her, she was carrying a spike shield.
"Nice" she whispered and moved towards the creature, which backed away slowly, newly weary of the strange thing in front of it. As she went Gaige continued to fire the shotgun, tearing off plates, but she got careless. She didn't realize that she was backing the creature into a corner.
It suddenly reared up and roared while swinging with both of its front claws, ignoring the pain as its paws burst into flame as Gaige felt the shield break. The beast glared down at her with its one good eye and opened its mouth wide. She raised the shotgun and aimed down its throat before pulling the trigger only to hear a heart freezing 'click'.
Everything slowed, her hand patting her pockets, desperately searching for a non-existent shell, the descent of the open mouth, Deathtrap, who had been told to reserve his batteries and not fight moving in anyway and a shadow moving in from her side. Then something collided with the side of the creatures' head, sending it sprawling into the dirt. Time snapped back to full speed as Artemis rolled to her feet, having thrown herself from where she had been to kick the thing in the head. She managed to recover before the beast and as it let out a noise of angry pain, she slammed her rifle into its side and fired. The creature let out one last rasping cry and fell to the ground dead.