Chapter 20
Pandora
As they sat on the ground catching their breath Gaige eventually turned and said "Thanks."
"Huh?"
"For saving me, again."
"Don't mention it, I mean I was using you to draw its attention so I could get a clean shot off, still how did you set it on fire there at the end?"
"That shield you gave me."
"Spikes, right, still probably shouldn't have got that close. But wait, why didn't you punch it?"
"What?"
"After it broke your shield, it's also a roid shield isn't it?"
"Aw damn it, I never use roid shields so I didn't even think about it."
"Yeah me neither."
"So what kind do you use, shields I mean, what'cha carrying?"
"I prefer an adaptive myself."
"Huh, kinda figured you for an amp girl."
"Eh, I've got one back on the ship, but it's more for hunting, on a place like Pandora, where you don't know what'll be coming at ya and in what numbers, I find the adaptives to be more universally useful."
"Fair point."
"Well I guess we should get going, and on that note, you got any ammo left?"
"No, you?"
"Same, let's just hope we can find some more before too much shit hits the fan."
"Probably shouldn't have said that." Gaige muttered thinking 'Aw crap, I am turning into Wainwright.'
They moved to the door, where Gaige led the placement of the explosives against the cracked and aged concrete only to realize that they lacked a detonator, so she quickly dismantled a nearby bit of machinery and cobbled together something.
Holding the wire, she muttered "Well here goes." But she really wanted to shout out a 'Meedly-meedly-mowww' when she connected the wire causing the bomb to go off. Instead she coughed and allowed herself a "Ah, Mr. Torgue would be proud." as she waived away the dust.
She moved up and quickly proved once again that the old DAHL tech was no match for her and the door groaned and shook as it opened a few feet, causing a rain of dust and sand. Brushing themselves off, they made their way cautiously to the opening and after a quick glance, moved through to what appeared to be some kind of loading area.
They moved around the rusted vehicles sitting on their rims, their tires having long since rotted off, and ignoring the rusted catwalk to the second floor, in no small part due to how it was precariously hanging off the wall and instead went to the door set near the back of the side wall.
It took a bit of hitting to knock some of the rust loose before the two of them managed to pry it open. On the other side was the remains of a facility. They were probably still underground since the walls were made out of some kind of concrete like substance, with ancient metal fixtures where lights had once hung. Down the sides of the hall were doors, some of which had been knocked in, probably from seismic activity, and revealed the ruined remains of rooms.
They made their way cautiously down, checking each of the rooms they could, some of the doors refused to open, and one side of the building had apparently collapsed at some point, as was evident by the cracked ceiling and partially collapsed frames of the doors. They found nothing of use as they went but eventually found a door that led to a hall with light at the end.
They approached the nearly blinding light slowly and with a hand up to shield them as their eyes adjusted. As they acclimated, they realized that they had indeed found a way out, a cage like vertically sliding door that had been propped open with a metal bar, through which light was streaming.
On the other side they could see a concrete sloped sided gully that had undoubtedly been built with the facility, but was now filled with sand and shipping containers and any other detritus that had accumulated over the years.
It was also crawling with bandits.
Neither one of them could figure out how 'The God Kings Acolytes' had beat them to the middle of nowhere, but the crests they wore left no doubt about who they were. Artemis slid up to the door and peered out examining the situation and listening to the nearby bandits conversing, before sliding back to where Gaige was sitting nearby with her head in her hands.
"OK no good news, just bad news this time" Artemis whispered "From the looks of it they've got a good number here and they're spreading out. So what we're gonna need to do is head back to the maintenance bay or whatever that was and try and find a way out from the second floor."
"But won't they be searching near that exit too?"
"Yeah probably" she said standing up and moving to look cautiously out the door at the upper edge of the gully "That's why I'm gonna be distracting them." She said stepping through the door and knocking the bar out.
"Sorry about this, but take care of her big guy. And don't worry, I got this." She said with a sad apologetic smile as she turned her back on the cries coming from behind her and turned to look at the clan who had froze and were staring at her in a mixture of shock and hunger.
She inhaled slowly and twisted her neck to the sides before slowly exhaling and narrowed her eyes. The first psycho must have taken that as his cue to attack because he leaped off the nearby container with his buzz ax held high.
Coming down at her, he started to swing, only to be met by her stepping forward and spearing him through the head with her blade. The nearest bandit opened fire as she used the blade to hold the psycho up as a shield and charged. Feeling the meaty thunks of the bullets she closed the distance
and when the bandit paused to reload she quickly retracted her blade and as the psycho's corpse
fell she spun around it snatching his buzz ax from his hand and let it fly, solidly burying it into the bandits head.
Without pausing she finished closing the distance and dropped into a slide snatching the bandits gun as it fell from his limp fingers and popping up in a crouch slapped the receiver closed and let loose a short bust at the next nearest bandit, before spinning around to gain cover behind one of the containers.
Dashing down the length of it she snapped off another shot at the psycho that rounded the corner and leaped over his body before dropping into another slide as she left the end of the container, feeling the bullets wiz over her as she did. She rolled over and shot the shooter before hopping back up and running full out to the next piece of cover. Rounding the corner, she shot the bandit there point blank, and dropped her now empty gun, while snatching the shotgun that her latest victim had been carrying. Hearing the clang of footsteps above her she spun out from the side of the container and put a shot into the bandit running across. As he fell, she continued her spin and pumped another round into the psycho that had rounded the corner.
Tossing the empty shotgun she snatched up the bandits SMG and charged around the container only to come face to face with a large man with what looked like a car door held in front of him. Artemis ducked reflexively and slid between his legs before popping back up and slamming her gun into the back of his head before pulling the trigger. Even as his head vanished she was running away. From one side she saw a psycho with a bundle of explosives laughing and running at her, so just before he passed where two bandits were crouched for cover, she shot him in the knees.
Without bothering to watch the explosion take out the threat on that side, she turned to the other side and fired off the last few rounds into another bandit. Grabbing whatever he had she ran on, only to find a badass with a rocket launcher sliding down the side towards her.
Swearing she charged them and threw herself to one side when they fired the first round. It whizzed past and exploded somewhere behind her. Artemis wasted no time closing the space and unloading her gun as close as possible. The badass staggered back even as the gun clicked empty so Artemis didn't stop, instead she sped up and slammed her blade into them at full speed.
She hit with enough force to knock both of them down, only the badass didn't get back up. Shaking herself Artemis grabbed the rocket launcher with a maniacal smile and turned to where she could see a huge guy with a tower shield leading a small group of bandits forward. She braced herself, aimed and pulled the trigger only to be knocked on her ass by the recoil. Sitting up she saw the rocket lob up and fall short exploding shy of her target, who slammed his shield down to absorb the blast.
Cursing she adjusted and fired again. This time she got it just right and the shell landed just to one side and a little behind the shield, the resulting explosion killed the cluster in gloriously chunky fashion. She tossed the now empty rocket launcher aside and ran forward to grab one of the dead's assault rifles. As she did she felt her shield take a hit and the instant she had the gun in hand turned and ended the shooter.
She slid behind a small box and brought the rifle up and shot two more bandits running across the lip of the gully, and as she watched she could see a few more returning from where they had been searching. She snapped off a few shots and dropped a few more, causing the rest to slow down and take cover allowing her time to move.
She leaped over a small barrier and suddenly found herself flying. She hit the ground hard and rolled before getting her feet under her. She turned to see what had happened only to have to throw herself around the nearest container as a grenade landed nearby. Leaving the explosion behind her she ran down the length of the container and leaped up catching the lip before pulling herself up. She ran across the top and jumped off, coming down hard on the Tink who had been throwing bombs. As she retracted her blade from his skull, she turned to see what had hit her in the first place and found a pair of armored bandits wielding shotguns coming towards her.
She swore and fired at one of them only to watch as her bullets pinged off. They continued their slow advance as she quickly glanced around and spied one of the Tinks bombs. She grabbed it and ran behind the same container only this time she stayed on the ground the whole way around to emerge behind them and threw the bomb at them before bringing her rifle up and shooting it just as it passed their heads. The resulting explosion killed one of them and threw the other off his feet. Wasting no time she dashed over and put him down for good before switching to his shotgun.
Taking a moment, she scanned the area to find to her surprise that she had made it nearly to the other end of the gully where she could see another of those metal doors, this one closed. Turning back she saw a new set of bandits sliding down the edge and went to greet them.
She fired twice as she neared them, killing two in rapid succession and just as she was about to kill the third one of them, his head exploded on its own. Confused Artemis looked around only to find herself face to face with something scarier than the whole bandit clan.
A very pissed off Gaige was huffing while glaring at her.
Artemis sheepishly looked to where she had closed the door only to find Deathtrap holding it open. He looked at her and shrugged apologetically, as if to tell her 'Sorry' and 'You're on your own.'
"What. The. Hell. Was. That. About." Gaige managed to get out past her clenched teeth.
"Um, what are you doing? You were supposed to be escaping."
"I am not running away while you stay here to sacrifice yourself playing hero."
"What? I wasn't going to die, I had it under control. I was going to join up with you when I found a minute to get out of here."
"Bull. Shit." Gaige's face was glowing red with rage, so much so that her eyes seemed to be throwing sparks as she glared at the other girl.
"No really." She managed to squeak as she slowly backed away.
"If that really was your plan then you should have let me fight with you." Gaige retorted as she continued to close the distance.
"Yeah but if it went wrong, I wanted at least one of us to survive."
"Ha, so you were planning on dying."
"What no, just if it all went wrong, but it didn't."
"Oh we are gonna have a nice, long, painful discussion about all this when we get out of here, but for right now, I think I'm gonna take it out on them." She said, turning her wrath to the bandits.
As if in response to her declaration the bandits pulled back and from the rim a loud voice
boomed down. "Well, well, so the sacrifice has been found. The Twin Gods truly bless us for now we can complete the ceremony and usher in a new dawn."
"Aw crap" Gaige muttered looking up at the source of the declaration.
Castor stood with his bride next to him, dramatically posed with the sun behind him, against the rim of the gully. He spread his arms wide and continued "Many of our children have fallen nobly today at the hands of you non-believers, but their sacrifices will not be in vain, for we now have before us not one, but two sacrifices. Now I see, this was the Twin Gods chastising us, for we were about to make one sacrifice for two of them. But in their infinite compassion, they have decided to enlighten us on the error of our way and so they led us to a second glorious sacrifice to bestow upon their altar."
"May they rise again."
Artemis leaned in and whispered "This guy loves the sound of his own voice, doesn't he?"
"Yeah, wouldn't be so bad if he wasn't completely insane."
"So which one you want."
"What?"
"Well, two of them, two of us. I just figured that we'd each take one, or what's your plan?"
"No, that's about right. I guess I'll take the crazy one."
"Which one's that?"
Gaige stopped and looked at the couple "Yeah, good point, I'll take the one on the left."
"Your left or mine?"
"Mi…we're facing the same way!" She looked over at the grinning face of the other girl and realized a bit belatedly that she had been joking. "Bitch"
"Yeah well, purple is also your favorite color."
"Touche, you ready?"
"No, but I don't think we really get a say. I'm as ready as I need to be." She said patting the shotgun.
They turned back in time to see the couple making their way down the incline towards them. One of Castor's attendants had produced his shield at some point and his bride had unslung her massive buzz-ax and was holding it in one hand like it weighed nothing.
"Hey." Artemis whispered.
"What?"
"Just remember, don't get in your own way and you've got this." She said it with a soft smile to let Gaige know that there wasn't any malice intended and held out her left fist. Gaige bumped it with her own and nodded before moving a ways away and turning to the groom.
"Oi did you get yourself that color by drinking Slag or just bathing in it."
"This is proof of my blessing by the"
"Yeah, don't care, seriously are you trying to bore me into submission? I mean we do have other plans for today, you know."
"Such impudence, though I see through your poorly veiled attempts to rouse my anger. And the only plans you need are to be on the altar, the sacrifices must be made."
The couple started to move towards Gaige when Artemis whom had been circling to one side yelled out "Hey I've got a question, do you psychos hide your face's cause you're so ugly, or so that your victims can't see you crying like the little bitches you are?"
"Bluxigrexx" came the reply from under the brides' mask.
"Sorry, didn't catch that, oh shit, sorry, do you have a speech impediment? Wow that was thoughtless of me."
The couple stopped as the bride continued to glare at Artemis, at least she thought so considering the mask in the way, and the groom placed his hand on her shoulder. "Go, have fun with that one, make her suffer before you send her to the feet of the Twin Gods."
"Bluxixxil"
"Yeah definitely some kind of speech impediment." Artemis yelled backing away with a condescending grin.
The couple charged at the same time. Gaige let out her breath and ran, leading her follower towards one of the containers. She let him close the gap between them and at the last moment leaped up and pulled herself onto the top. Hearing a loud clang as the entire container rocked from the impact she spun around and fired down at his exposed head only to have him raise his shield with a horrendous screeching noise as the spikes coating the front tore through the side of the container.
"It was a nice try little sacrifice, but weak and transparent."
"Great, now he's mocking me." She grumbled as she jumped off the back side of the container. 'Focus' she thought to herself 'How did I used to do it? What did I do? I just did it didn't I, I didn't think about it so how did it work?' all ran through her head when she suddenly heard a soft voice repeat 'Get out of your own way'. Was that it? Was she over thinking things? Analyzing the how and why of how things worked till she couldn't understand that some things just did? Hell, it was worth a shot.
She cleared her mind and thought back to when she was younger 'What was it I felt when I was a Vault Hunter? And not pride or arrogance or any of that shit, what was I feeling? Anger. For one. Anger at Marcie and her dad and the whole world. But it wasn't just that, was it? There was something else. Once I got in a fight there was a kind of warmth, a clarity that I've been lacking lately, find that again and I've got this.' She turned and fired off a shot which pinged off the container and went nowhere.
"Damn it why isn't this working?" she growled in frustration.
Artemis watched the psycho bride charge her with a smirk, watched as she brought back her great buzz ax and swung with all her might. Artemis pivoted and slid to the side bringing up her shotgun as the ax fell in slow motion, and when the large hand holding the ax passed, she pulled the trigger. Both barrels boomed and unleashed point blank into the psycho's fingers, shredding them and causing the ax to fly out of her now ruined hand.
As the psycho howled in pain and rage, Artemis continued her spin, tossed her now empty shotgun to the side and took off running. She immediately heard the sound of the now enraged psycho giving chase. Knowing that she had no time to spare Artemis booked it towards her goal, and quickly dropped into a slide sending both of her arms out, her left caught the edge of one of the concrete barriers littered around and used the centrifugal force to whip herself around while her other latched onto the assault rifle that had been dropped nearby.
As she popped back up to her feet and continued running, she spotted Gaige looking frustrated and yelled out encouragement to her "Trust yourself, your body knows what to do."
"You think I don't know that!" Gaige yelled back as she fired off a shot while focused on the other girl and to her surprise she saw it ping off a crate and slam into Artemis's shield.
"Aw crap." She grumbled, that was it, that was how the bullets were supposed to behave. Now how had she done it?
She fired off another round only to have it slam into the ground. 'Remember, you did it once, don't concern yourself with the bullet, let go of logic, let go of figuring it out and just let it happen.'
And then it did, more to her surprise than anyone's, the bullet bounced and hit Castor in the head, causing him to stumble and shake his head for a second. He continued to move forward in an unperturbed way, no doubt chalking the shot up to blind luck.
Gaige smiled and looked at her gun before snapping it back up and letting loose a short burst, and to her complete joy, a number of the shots struck Castor in the back. This time when he staggered, he looked a little concerned, he was obviously not used to bullets not behaving according to the laws of physics. And this was too many to be mere coincidence. He narrowed his eyes and started to get serious as Gaige put a brave face on even as she realized that at her current rate, she would need a lot of ammo.
As she glanced around to spot where there were other guns laying around, she caught Artemis's eye.
Artemis flipped the switch on her new DAHL assault rifle from burst to full auto, she would have preferred a semi option, but she had what she had, and at least on full auto she could control the
bursts better.
She ran, leaping over a short barricade and trying to put some distance between herself and the psycho bride. Only she was keeping up remarkably well so far, smashing through things that Artemis had to dodge. As she ran Artemis was formulating a plan, it was risky, but it should work, she just had to get all the pieces in the right place first.
So for the first thing, she jumped and pulled herself onto one of the containers and the instant the psycho followed, she jumped back down. As the psycho spun, Artemis fired a short burst into her leg before taking off running again. The bride roared in frustration and jumped back down to follow her. As she did so Artemis took a second to glance back at Gaige and assess her situation and to her relief she watched as she bounced bullets into the warchief's back. Unfortunately she was at best getting one in three to work, but it was a start.
Realizing that Gaige would need all the bullets she could get Artemis sent her a hand signal.
As Gaige watched, the other girl pointed to her own gun and gave a thumbs up, probably trying to tell her that she was good with just that one and that Gaige could have the rest. Relieved that she didn't have to worry about sharing, especially with her learning curve, she was still worried about how the other girl would manage with only one clip of ammo against a raging psycho. But she didn't have time to figure it out because Castor let loose a bellow and charged again.
Gaige spun and ran, sidestepping a corpse and placing a foot on a barricade before using it to launch herself onto one of the containers. She ran its width before spinning and firing off a quick burst and with much satisfaction listened to the bullets bounce into their target. And even better, this time she got a better percentage of them.
She waited until she saw the top of the shield round the container before leaping off the side that she had come up on and snatched up a dead guy's gun, slinging it over her shoulder as she went. She then headed straight away from the container and positioned herself behind a low concrete wall just as Castor rounded the container. She could tell by the way he was moving that he was getting pissed, which caused her to smile.
This time when he charged, she unloaded the assault rifle and was satisfied to hear him make a pained noise from behind his shield. But then he must have had enough because he pulled a gun from around his slab of metal and started firing at her.
She swore and ducked, switching to the shotgun she had grabbed and waited while he charged. Peeking out she spotted his shield getting close so she threw herself out onto the ground and unloaded. This time she hit what she was aiming at and the shots wove between the ground and the shield to slam into his feet.
As he cursed and slammed the shield into the ground, she sprung up and closed the distance and with a swing of her trusty hammer, smashed it into his exposed hand as it was reaching around the shield to shoot. He let loose a rather undignified squeal of pain and dropped the gun, but instantly retaliated by shoving the shield forward.
This time it was Gaige who took the brunt of the damage, but her own shield held and managed to do some damage back, but the impact sent her flying and when she landed, she lost her gun, not that it was too concerning since it was almost out anyway. She managed to pull herself up using a nearby barricade as Castor recovered and started moving towards her again.
Gaige sighed and took off looking for another weapon. As she did she continued to hear the sound of sporadic gunfire.
Artemis continued to run away from the bride, pausing whenever she got enough space to slide into a crouch and fire off a few shots, always aiming for the psycho's knee. It was starting to work as the bride was starting to hobble ever so slightly.
As she ran Artemis checked the readout on her gun, she was getting low on ammo. Soon she would have to move on to the next stage in her idiotic plan.
Gaige was running out of guns, and to make matters worse, at this point she was losing track of which ones still had bullets in them and which were dry, so she was going to have to end this rather quickly. She tossed aside what she figured was the last of the SMGs and pulled what she thought was the last shotgun off her back.
'Time to go nuts' she thought 'All or nothing, here we go.'
And she ran at Castor holding the shotgun loosely and prepping to attack. Castor seemed to be expecting her to try something, but instead of playing along, he just thrust his shield in front of himself and charged, willing to take the retaliatory hit from her spike shield.
They collided with enough force that even though she was prepped for it, it still nearly winded Gaige. Castor pulled his shield back and slammed it forward again, this time successfully shattering her shield.
With a roar of triumph, he slammed the shield forward a third time only to hit nothing, as Gaige spun around it and brought the shotgun down. She had specifically saved this gun for now due to the large chopping blade attached to it, which now was boosted considerably by the roid effect from her shield, and slammed into Castor, tearing deep into his chest. As he fell back in shock, she leveled the gun and fired point blank into his head. He turned into crystal, one hand up to try and protect himself and the other forever holding his shield.
Artemis tossed aside the empty gun and ran around the container with a smile on her face as the psycho bride angrily limped around the other way to cut her off, everything was moving into position. Artemis ducked down and grabbed the weapon that had been left here and as she rounded the corner, found her mark and let the buzz ax fly.
The surprised bride, hampered by a hurt knee didn't have time to react as the ax spun and buried itself into her wounded limb with a meaty thunk, knocking the leg out from under her.
Artemis didn't slow down as she chased the ax, swooping down and coming up with the brides' own massive buzz ax held in both of her hands. With a grunt she spun around in a full circle to build momentum and then let her feet leave the ground as she turned and brought the ax around in an arc carrying her body with it, she used all that force to drive the ax deep into the bride, severing her head.
As she lay panting next to the dead bride, she rolled her head over to see Gaige fall to her knees next to the crystallizing form of Castor. Gaige looked over at her and gave a weary wave, or at least a hand flop that was meant to be one.
Then as if to tell them their fight wasn't over, they heard the clattering of one of the gates being raised. Artemis wearily lifted her head and looked at the other end from where they had entered to see a dozen of the black armored mercenaries poor in, led by a massive heavily armored man carrying a Gatling gun nearly the size of her body.
She looked at them as they spread out into a crescent and held out her hand and waved it side to side while shaking her head as if trying to tell them 'pass' before flopping back down in the dirt. She looked sideways at Gaige who was moving slowly over to her and let out a sigh before pulling herself to her feet with a low groan. She grabbed the giant buzz ax and after a few tugs managed to pull it loose, and holding it in front of herself turned to the group and with a weary sigh stated "OK, who's first?"
And then from behind the mercs came a soft thump, followed by an odd meeeh noise, like a dog toy. The back row turned confused, only to be more so when they saw a pair of stuffed rabbits sitting there wearing what appeared to be suicide vests.
The rabbits exploded in a shower of pink smoke, glitter and shrapnel, tearing the back row apart. The rest of them started to spin to find where their attack was coming from, when their heads started popping into clouds of gore in rapid succession, quickly leaving only the leader remaining. He sensed more than saw a large shadow land behind him in the cloud of smoke, but whatever it was landed hard enough that the girls felt the ground shake where they were standing. The lead merc spun around while bringing his gun up only to find its progress suddenly halted as a massive meaty hand closed around one of the barrels.
He managed to get out a "What the?" before Brick's fist took his head clean off.
"Hell yeah!" The big man yelled "Aw yeah, I'm keeping this gun." he said with a crooked smile as he tore the huge gun loose and casually tossed it over one beefy shoulder while he walked to where the girls where standing stunned by his sudden arrival.
"Brick?" Gaige finally got out "What're you doing here?"
"It not just The B man who be here Gaigey-Gaige." Tina pipped in as she slid down the embankment "And you, shorty, you cray-cray, I like. Ain't seen anyone kill a bitch wich her own ax in like, forevs, you keepin dat right? You totally keepin dat, Brick! Carry the ladies buzz ax for her por-favor."
"Jeez Tina, no one's gonna know why we're here if we don't tell them." Mordecai came walking up from the other end of the gully with his sniper rifle over his shoulder.
"Shut it Mordi!"
Artemis turned to Mordecai figuring he would give the most intelligible answer and asked "So what are you guys doing here?"
"Ooh, ooh let me tell let me tell, comeon prettyplease" Tina started begging causing Mordecai to sigh.
"Tina, it's Mordecai's turn to explain." Brick said patiently.
"But. I. Wanna."
"Tina"
"Boooooooooooofine"
Mordecai gave an exasperated look before turning to the girls and answering them.
"Well you know that job we had, the one you turned down? It was to investigate this weird bandit activity in the area, so we do our thing, ya know, and we figure out where they're all going to. The Cathedral of the Twin Gods or whatever their calling it, it was this old C.O.V. base that the Vault Hunters never ended up having to deal with when they were on Pandora, so it survived mostly intact."
"Your boring Mordi, get on with it!"
"Geez Tina, let me tell this, anyway we end up getting there and it looks like a war zone. I mean bodies everywhere, fires and smoke and"
"Don't forget about that trail of parts." Brick added.
"What? Oh yeah there was this strange miles long trail of parts and wreckage that we found a ways away from there, though it was leading in their direction, but that may not have had anything to do with it."
"Hey, just trying to help."
"So anyway, we get there but whatever happened was already over, so we tail some of the stragglers who are leaving and they seem to be searching for something so we asked them"
"Bitches, What Are You Upta?!"
"Come on, can I tell this story?"
"No your doin a crappy crap job."
Mordecai threw his hands in the air and just gave in "Fine you can finish it."
"Yeah shoulda just let me from the start, so we was all like 'Yo what you bitches doin' an their all 'Oh crap it's Crunk Bunny' an I'm like 'Talk or go BOOM' an they all like 'Have mercy great and wonderful Bunny Goddess' an I'm all like 'No, you didn't bring cupcakes, so you will suffer' an Bircks all 'Hell Yeah!' an Mordi's all 'Talon Talon Talon' an they all tell us nothin so they went BOOM."
"But then we hear their ECHO goin all 'We found them sacrifices and things' an we all like 'Whaa' so we come and we find a robot waving us down and he leads us here and that's where you were and we were all like 'Yo we gotsta like save them' but then you go all crey-crey on them and then these losers showed up an we was like 'Now we gotta save them' an then we do and it all good."
The girls stared at Tina for a second trying to translate what they had just heard and eventually Gaige spoke up "Thanks for the save."
"So who were those guys?" Mordecai asked nodding to the black armored dead.
"I'll tell you about it back at Boomtown. I don't suppose we could get a ride?"