Chapter 16: The Highlands
Lilith stood over the map in the war room, the umpteenth cigarette of the day tightly clenched between her two fingers. She ran her other hand through her hair wearily. Mordecai stood across from her, studying her face.
"Come on Lil, you need to get some sleep. You haven't slept in two days. Staring at that map isnt gonna do any good."
She took a long drag and stared at him with a look of disgust. "So what, I'm supposed to just lay on my ass and sleep?!" she spat. "This is all my fault, for all we know they could be fucking dead. I still think I should go after them."
"Lilith you're the only one keeping this city afloat and away from Jack's line of fire. And besides, we aren't even on the fast travel anymore. We need you here to protect Sanctuary." Fuck Sanctuary, she thought. She was too bitter to care anymore. The selfish part of her wished she had just grabbed Maya and phased them out of there. Let everyone else fall right into Jack's hands while she and Maya fled Pandora. She knew this wasn't right, and that it was just the anger talking. However, because she protected Sanctuary, Maya and Axton were no longer here. The whole thing left a bad taste in her mouth.
"Maya and Axton are a couple of the baddest motherfuckers I've ever seen," he continued. "They're gonna find their way back. You'll see."
Even if she wanted to, Lilith couldn't bring herself to answer him. She simply couldn't trust herself not to break down right then and there, and she needed to be strong. Though she found it difficult to think of much else. She butted the cigarette furiously, immediately sticking another between her teeth and lighting it. Maya, where are you? She stared at the map as though it were to answer her, but it was silent.
As though there was a higher power sent to answer her longing prayers, her Echo began to crackle. She grabbed it at lightning speed, fumbling and nearly dropped it. She held a finger to her lips and the echo to her ear. The static was fading in and out, causing her to nearly snap.
"Hello? HELLO!?" she cried frantically.
A voice as sweet as honey came through weakly, but there was no doubt as to who it was. "Lilith?" came Maya's voice.
Lilith sobbed, squeezing her eyes shut and falling to her knees. Her shaking hand held down the talk button as she raised the device to her lips, trying to gain her composure but failing miserably but she didn't care. It was Maya. She was alive.
"Maya," she said tearfully.
Maya could've kissed the ground when they got out of the Fridge and into The Highlands Outwash. The air was finally warm again and the feeling was beginning to come back to her extremities. They stood on a grassy hill overlooking a river. Down below, there was a small building with some ammo and health machines. A structure resembling a lighthouse sat in the distance, and in the sky was- Sanctuary?!
"Fuck Axton look! Up there!"
Axton raised a hand to his forehead, shielding his eyes from the sun. He whistled, "well I'll be damned! There it is! Let's go try that fast travel network down there!"
They started down the hill when Angel spoke, "Without you, Pandora has no hope. You have no reason to trust me. I get that. But if you're going to stop Jack from controlling the Warrior, you'll need my help. Because I know where the key is. It's with me."
Maya and Axton exchanged looks of confusion as they reached the Fast Travel station Maya went to punch in Sanctuary but was angered to find it wasn't there.
"ERROR, LOCATION SANCTUARY NOT FOUND."
"ARRGH!" Maya cried, punching the Fast Travel station.
"Oh no-the phase blast must've taken Sanctuary off the Fast Travel network. Uhm…okay, head to the Eridium extraction plant nearby. I think I know a way to get you back to your friends," said Angel.
Maya turned and kicked the loose steel wall from the building. "Its always fucking something isnt it!" she cried angrily, sitting on the cold concrete and placing her head in her hands. She was so damn tired. It had been nearly two days since they last slept, nor had they had much to eat or drink. She just wanted to get back to Sanctuary, back to Lilith. She needed to recuperate.
"Hey now," Axton said gently. "this is just a minor set back. Were gonna get back to them Maya." He placed a strong hand on her shoulder "Why don't you try echoing Lilith now that were out of the Fridge?" he gave her shoulder a squeeze and walked to the ammo machines to give her some privacy.
She couldn't stop the tremble in her hands as she brought the echo to her lips. She prayed that the coms were back up. Her heart was beating in her ears as she licked her lips and pressed the talk button.
"Lilith?" she tried. She bit her lip awaiting to see if there would be a response or not.
Her heart nearly leapt in her throat when she heard the tell tale static of the device. She held it close to her ear, afraid to breathe as to not drown out any words that might come through.
"Maya," came Liliths tearful voice, though it was music to Maya's ears. "Maya, are you okay?! I'm sorry baby, I-I'm so sorry for everything. Where are you guys? We should have listened to you, Maya I'm such an idiot-"
"Lilith it's okay, we're okay," Maya choked. "You have no idea how amazing it is to hear your voice again. Are you okay?"
"Yes, everyone's fine. I phased the city, but I lost you in the process. I'm so sorry Maya," Lilith sobbed.
"No don't apologize. You did what you had to do. Don't worry, we are on our way back to you. Have you communicated with Angel at all?"
"That traitor? Of course not, why?"
"She spoke to us. The vault key is with her, and she's the only one who knows how we can get back to Sanctuary. We are in The Highlands right now, heading to the Eridium extraction plant. I can update you from there."
"How can we trust her, Maya?"
Maya swallowed hard, "We…we cant. But we are out of options at this point."
"Maya, there's so much I want to say…but I want to tell you in person. So, you guys just get your asses back here. Get back here to me. I want to hold you and never let you go."
Maya tried to maintain her composure through Liliths words, but she could feel the dam breaking. She blinked the tears away and cleared her throat. "I'm coming back to you Lilith. I'll take out this entire fucking army to get back to you. That I promise. We-We should get going. I don't know how long this will take." Her heart broke to be saying goodbye.
"I'll see you soon Killer," Lilith said softly.
With that, she turned off her echo, sighing as she clipped it back to her belt. She stood dusting herself off and went to Axton, who had a sad smile on his face.
"Sanctuary is safe. Lilith phased them up there," she said, pointing. "The Extraction Plant is just at the bottom of this hill. Let's get moving."
It was nearly nightfall at this point. They were exhausted but they knew they had to press on. They could see lights below as the plant came into view. There was a large building and a bridge that led over a river with a gigantic steel wall on the other side. Within the wall was a large closed door.
"If you can cross the river and steal a supply beacon, we can get Sanctuary back on the Fast Travel network I promise. Little as I'm sure that means right now…" said Angel.
Maya pulled out her scope and observed the surrounding area. "I don't see anything, but I'm sure the place will be crawling with loaders once we get down there. We will use that bridge to cross over and see about opening that door on the other side. If something doesn't come through and open it for us that is."
She slung her rifle and pulled out a caustic shotgun. "come on, let's see if we can get down there without being spotted first."
They tip toed through the darkness along the edge of the railing over the water. Maya peered over and saw that it was quite a drop into the river below. The closer they got to the bridge, the closer they were to the building, which meant a definite risk of being spotted by loaders.
"Hold up," said Axton, crouching behind a sea can. Maya crouched next to him, listening intently.
"Alright, the bridge is just right there. I say we make a run for it. Loaders move slow, so if they do hear us we should already be across. Sound good?"
Maya nodded and peered around the side of the sea can, making sure the coast was clear. "Okay, let's move, now!"
Together they bolted from the sea can, dodging various boxes and pipes that lined the concrete floor until they made it to the bridge. Just as they were running across towards the large steel door, they could hear the doors to the building open behind them. They didn't stop.
"Target in sights," came the robotic voice of a loader behind them. She didn't look to see how many. They almost reached the door when suddenly it opened, revealing a large constructor on the other side.
They skidded to a stop, breathing hard. "Shit," said Maya. Axton, in his quick thinking, unclipped a grenade and tossed it at the constructor. "Run!" he said, pulling her past the constructor through the door. They dove just in time as the grenade exploded, taking a large portion of the constructors life with it. On the other side of the door was a grassy area with a few more scattered sea cans. They ran behind one for cover before the machine could begin to fire its missiles.
"Do you still have that launcher?" he gasped.
"I do," said Maya, pulling it off her back. She shouldered the cannon and leaned out from the cover. "hold on!" she shouted as she fired, hitting the constructor at its base and sending it sky high before it blew into a million pieces.
Axton smiled, "good thing you kept that!"
She smiled back. "After last time, you cant be too careful. The beacon is over there, I can see the light. Come on the quicker we get it the quicker we can get the fuck out of here."
They ran past some large hangers over to a rocky area of dirt where the beacon sat. "Thank fuck," said Axton, reaching for the beacon, when the ground beneath them began to tremble. A look of understanding dawned on Maya, before changing into horror. "It's a thresher! We gotta move! Back to the fucking sea can!"
She had ran into these beasts before. It was said that some idiot fired them over from Elpis, and they've been running rampant on Pandora ever since. They were extremely dangerous due to their ability to disappear underground and pop up in unknown places. Even worse, their tentacles could pop up multiple unknown places. They resembled something like giant land squids, differing in sizes and colors and even elements. If the cracking and quaking of the earth below their feet as they ran was any indication, this one was huge.
They ducked behind the sea can and armed their weapons. "We don't got a lot of time," said Maya. "we need grenades, lots of em, and you need to cover me so I can get a shot with the launcher. We need to act quick, cause if it moves before I can fire that launcher, theres a good chance one or both of us will die." She shouldered the launcher and looked to Axton, "COVER ME!"
Axton leaned out from the sea can on the right while Maya took the left, but to their surprise the thresher was nowhere to be seen.
"Oh no," Maya said, before she was suddenly shot up into the air, effectively dropping the launcher and letting out a shriek.
"MAYA!" Axton cried in horror. The Siren was strung up in the air, the thresher's tentacle was wrapped around her ankle and holding her upside down nearly 30 feet high. The beast was massive, its body was the size of a bus with tentacles as thick and as tall as tree trunks.
"Axton! Get me the fuck down from here!" Maya cried. The sound of Axton's shotgun rang through the air, though it did little for her situation. She could feel the blood rushing to her head. She was looking down at the top of the thresher's ugly head and she attempted to phaselock it. While the monster was far too big to be gripped in a phaselock, it did cause some serious damage. The beast let out a bellow and began to thrash around, and much to Maya's dismay, it still had a tight grip on her ankle. She began to swing to and fro, making her nauseous and disoriented.
I'm an idiot, she thought to herself. "Axton the fucking launcher! USE THE LAUNCHER!" Come on you fool!
He scrambled to where the launcher sat a few feet away. He only had one shot, Maya had the rest of the missiles on her person. He aimed the launcher at the thresher's head and pulled the trigger. He held his breath as the projectile sailed through the air, just praying that the creature didn't move.
Luckily for them, the missile found its target no problem. The thresher's head exploded in an impressive amount of guts and blood. Its tentacles, once flailing in the air, now began to fall and crash to the earth.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!" came Maya's cries and Axton looked up just as she came crashing down on him.
"Oof!" The wind was knocked from him as he fell under her. The pair lay groaning on the ground, before Axton broke into a fit of coughs.
Maya slowly got to her feet, dusting herself off. "Heh, sorry about that," she said sheepishly, lending him a hand. He groaned as he took it, hauling himself up to his feet. "I think you broke one of my ribs," he whined, but a smile was lit up on his face.
"Yeah thanks for the catch," smiling back. "That fucking sucked. I still feel nauseous. Let's get the beacon and get outta here."
They trudged over the broken earth to where the beacon sat. Axton picked it up and Maya assisted him in strapping it to his back.
"You got the beacon? Good," said Angel. "We can use that to request an uncalibrated fast travel unit from the moon base. You'll need a quiet place to set up the beacon. Head to the town of Overlook. Thanks to Hyperion's mining operations, the people of Overlook suffer from the skull-shivers. They won't disturb us."
"Ew, skull shivers, sounds shitty," said Axton. Maya just gave him a playful punch in the arm. She decided to echo Lilith and the gang to let them know their progress.
"Lilith, Axton and I are just checking in. We're okay, we got a lunar beacon and we are heading to the town of Overlook to request a fast travel to you guys. Is everything okay there?"
"Its good to hear your voice killer, I'm happy you're still in one piece. I miss you..." Lilith paused as though she wanted to say more, but changed the subject. "Well, we've got no plan to stop Jack, but at least the quakes from his drills aren't shaking the city anymore. Silver linings, you know?"
Maya chuckled. "Ever the comedian. I could use a laugh when I get back," she said softly, her temperature rising. She couldn't wait to see her Siren again. To make this real.
"I'll do more than that," Lilith said in a sultry voice. Lilith's flirting always drove Maya nuts.
She bit her lip, "I look forward to it." She replied softly, and with that she signed off the echo before turning around and catching Axton laughing at her. Her ears immediately burned and she turned away quickly, walking in the direction toward Overlook. "Shut up," was all she could muster, as Axton howled behind her.
The pair had made it well into the Highlands at this point. They got into a couple scuffles with some stalkers, but walked away unscathed. They stood atop a hill in a small cave, going over their supplies. "I wouldn't say we have enough ammo to get into too much trouble, but we will definitely make it to overlook I'm thinking. There's a catch a ride station just at the bottom of this hill," Axton said as he packed up.
Finally! Maya thought. We're going home!
They finished packing up their gear and sprinted down the hill to get a vehicle. Constructing a runner, Maya took the driver's seat while Axton manned the turret, naturally.
She took the road the map led them down going heavy on the gas. She couldn't stand another minute here, she desperately needed sleep and a shower and a proper meal. And perhaps a certain red head.
They were taken through a tunnel and on the other side the little town sat on the top of a hill to the left, facing a great canyon. She drove the runner up and parked. There was a wooden archway over the main road, with barriers preventing further entry by vehicle. Sad looking buildings ran along the side and by all appearances the town seemed deserted.
"You'll wanna set the beacon up over there," said Angel, "once the moon base processes our request you should have a fast travel station."
They ran up the main street toward a platform to place the beacon. "Hold up, theres ammo-ah, shit, never mind its busted. That's just great." Axton sighed, regarding the powerless ammo machine.
"Forget it, once we set up this beacon we should be back in Sanctuary and we won't have to worry about it," Maya replied. Together they climbed the platform on top of a large grinding machine and set up the beacon. It began to beep signifying that it was working.
Angel spoke then, "It's transmitting the supply request now. We just gotta wait a few minutes and-"
"Angel that's enough," Jack said angrily on the echo. "you can stop pretending to help the bad guys now! Angel!?"
"We don't have long until Jack realizes I'm not helping him anymore! Defend that beacon!"
Just then, loaders collided into the ground from Helios, maybe a dozen or so rained down from the sky. Unfortunately for the pair, they didn't have much in the way of cover that was close to the beacon.
"Fuck Axton, what now!?"
"We don't have much of a choice!" he shouted, cocking his weapon. "we just gotta hope that the moon base gets our request and fast! Start shooting!"
They had landed a distance down the hill and had now begun marching towards them, shooting as they came. Maya adopted the prone position and pulled out a sniper, hitting the bots at their "shoulders" to knock of their limbs, slowing them down. All the while more were getting shot to the earth. Gun loaders, War loaders, and every other kind of loader imaginable were beginning to surround them.
Axton had deployed his turret which began spraying down the robots in front, but it was too slow. For every one they seemed to cut down, another two emerged in their place. Maya phaselocked an incoming loader and slammed it into an oncoming group, blowing them to pieces.
She continued to rapid fire her weapon until she ran out of bullets, then switching to a scoped SMG. Axton too looked to be running out of ammunition, he was cursing to himself and resorted to his shotgun despite the range. He unclipped a caustic grenade and threw it at a large War loader, rendering it useless as the acid ate away at its armor.
Maya looked to the beacon and then to the sky, there was no sign of the fast travel yet. And all the while the loaders were closing in on them. A Gun loader suddenly leapt onto the roof of a building to their left, and began raining bullets down upon them.
"Agh!" Maya hissed as she felt a projectile tear through her left shoulder and out the front just above her heart, realizing her shield must have been depleted by the bot.
"MAYA! IM OUT OF AMMO!"
She did the only thing she knew she could at this point, and created a phaselock around herself, Axton, and the beacon. The bullets from the loaders were pummeling the shield she placed around them, causing her great difficulty to hold it.
"Maya you cant hold this forever!"
"Just…a little longer," she strained. She was praying hard for that fast travel.
The loaders were all around now, trying to force their way into the phaselock.
"Maya it's no use. I think…I think this is it."
Tears sprang to her eyes. "Axton," she said, her voice trembling, "its been…an honor fighting with you. You're the best friend…ugh…I could ask for." He took put a hand on her shoulder, giving it a slight squeeze in response. His eyes too shone with tears.
There was a beam of light as the fast travel came crashing down to the platform. "The fast travel is here! Just give me a minute to calibrate it to Sanctuary!"
But they didn't have a minute. She reached a trembling hand to her echo. She had someone else to say goodbye to.
Lilith stood in the War room, as she had since Maya and Axton were separated, drumming her fingers on the map. Her stomach was in knots and her face was white. She felt sick with worry for her team, for Maya. Her heart skipped a beat when her echo began to act up.
"Maya? Is that you?"
"Lilith…"
Liliths eyes widened. Maya was in pain, she could hear it undeniably. "Maya what's wrong?!"
"We're…surrounded….loaders. We-we aren't gonna make it..."
"No Maya please, you cant say that. Just hold on!"
"Lilith, I-Im sorry, I just…w-want you to know h-how…happy you've…made me…"
"Maya," Lilith solved, "Maya, I lo-"
The echo static went silent, and Lilith's breath caught in her throat. She turned around, to see Mordecai and Roland's face matching her own. Defeat, despair, hopelessness.
"FUCK!" Lilith screamed, smashing the echo into the wall.
Maya could feel the blood running from her nose, and her head hurt so bad. She couldn't hold the phaselock much longer, that much she knew, but she would die trying.
"Lilith, I-Im sorry, I just…w-want you to know h-how…happy you've…made me…"
Axton suddenly took a hold of Maya by the scruff of her shirt, and she released her phaselock. She swore she felt her feet leave the ground as she was blacking out. Either that, or she was dead.
Then, all too quickly it was silent. Her face lay on something cool, but that was all she could feel. Quickly the memories came rushing back to her, they were in overlook and surrounded by loaders, there was no way out, the fast travel couldn't calibrate in time.
Or could it? Maya dared open her eyes and it felt as though her head was splitting in half. She slammed them shut again and began to dry heave, the pain was almost unbearable. She rolled to the fetal position, holding her aching head in her hands. She felt a strong pair of hands on her shoulder, and she moved to her back and tried once again to open her eyes to see the source.
There laid a bloody Axton, with a bloody grin on his face.
"Axton…?" Maya said weakly. "Did we…"
"We fucking made it Maya. We're in Sanctuary!"
Maya took in her surroundings, still holding her head. They were in the station of Sanctuary, she couldn't believe it!
"Axton you brilliant fucker you did it!" she cried, embracing him tightly.
He laughed, squeezing her back. "You brilliant fucker! You saved our lives! Fucking Siren's man!"
Lilith! Her mind shouted with glee. She cared not for the blood still dripping from her nose or oozing from her shoulder. She paid no mind to the screaming in her muscles and her brain. She was powered on the adrenaline of being home, and wounds or not she pounced up and broke into a run.