Chapter 19: Siren's and Wildlife
The night spent together was blissful. After their heartfelt confessions, they kissed passionately until they could barely keep their eyes open. Maya was hopelessly addicted to the red head, and now there was no going back. Lilith had opened doors Maya never even knew existed, and she would follow her through every one of them. She had awoken to the sound of running water in the kitchen, and she rolled over to see her lover busying herself with a delicious smelling meal. She was already ready for the day, dressed in her usual attire and her red lipstick on. Seeing movement in the corner of her eye, Lilith looked up from her task and shot her a dazzling smile.
"Morning killer. Eggs?"
"Mmmm please," she said, sitting up to stretch. The air was unusually cold, and she looked down to realize she was still shirtless. In the bright light. Right in front of Lilith.
"Oh Jesus!" she exclaimed, ducking under the covers.
"Mmmm Jesus indeed. I must say you're even sexier in this light." Lilith drawled.
She thinks I'm sexy? Me? Maya supposed she was being a little silly, this was her girlfriend after all.
She did something daring, ripping the covers off and stuck her tongue out at the red head.
She laughed heartily, "keep it up killer and I'm gonna have to come over there!"
"Mmmmm is that a threat?"
"It's a promise!" Lilith declared, running full tilt at the Siren and jumping on the bed.
"Ahhhh!" Maya shrieked with glee, trying to hide under the blankets to no avail. Lilith ripped the covers off her and began placing kisses all over her neck and down to her breasts.
"Ah-ahhh Lilith, God the things you do to me," Maya whined.
Lilith just hummed in response and continued her assault, kissing Maya's belly down to her defined hip bones, nibbling at them gently.
"Mmm fuck," Maya moaned at the shock of electricity that shot through her from the sensitive area. An echo, unsure whose or both, began to crackle interrupting their fun times.
"I need the Crimson Raiders up to the war room in one hour. We need to discuss what our next move is gonna be, we have no time to waste," came the no-nonsense voice of Roland.
Lilith groaned in frustration, burying her head in Maya's breasts. "Lilith!" Maya scolded in jest, rolling her to the side and getting up from the bed.
"I can't wait for all of this shit to be over!" Came the red heads muffled cries in the mattress.
"Me either baby, but for now, duty calls. I'm gonna go grab a quick shower then we'll eat, yeah?"
Lilith just groaned in response, and Maya shook her head smiling all the way to the bathroom. Lilith was so different with her in comparison to when she was kicking ass in the field or hanging with the rest of the group. She was actually a big sucky teddy bear.
She showered and did her makeup quickly, and put on her yellow jumpsuit as the rest of her gear was in desperate need of a cleaning from yesterday. She pulled her blue hair back into a sleek ponytail and gave herself a final once over in the mirror before emerging back into the living area.
"Damn, killer, you look good enough to eat!"
Maya's chest warmed at the compliment, "You just eat your breakfast, Roland will be pissed if we're late because we cant stop foolin' around!" she laughed.
She sat with Lilith at the small table, digging into the eggs and toast she had prepared for them.
"So, what do you think all this is about?"
Lilith swallowed and looked thoughtful. "I'm not too sure…but whatever it is we have to do, I would like to go with you. If you'll have me."
Maya smiled, "I'd love to have you. We kick some serious ass together. Plus, Axton will be happy to know he can get some more rest."
"Pfft, rest, I bet Roland will give him some sort of shitty task."
"Very true," Maya said, giggling. "Wait, don't you need to stay here? What if Jack attacks Sanctuary and you need to phase it away again?"
"Don't worry about that. Jack is completely oblivious to Sanctuary's location, and besides I can always phrase back here if I need to."
They finished up and grabbed their weapons, assisting each other in putting everything on and stealing some kisses along the way. They were out the door and headed to the HQ with plenty of time to spare.
They arrived in the War Room to find Roland standing by the map, Axton was seated on the other side.
"Okay guess, I'm just gonna get this started." Said Roland. "We need a plan. Jack's getting closer and closer to digging up the Warrior, and we still don't know where he's got the vault key stashed."
"I can help you with that!" Angel exclaimed over Roland's echo.
"You!?" Roland snarled with disgust. "Damnit we told you to never contact us again!"
"Will you please just hear me out?"
"Sure, let's listen to the crazy computer that just tried to kill us. Hey, remember that time she told us the vault was full of loot?" Lilith said disbelievingly, but her expression softened when she saw Maya's pleading one.
"Its with me, I'm charging the vault key!" Angel said desperately.
There was silence for a moment. "continue," Roland said calmly.
"The key naturally charges itself once every two hundred years. Jack is patient, but he's not that patient. He's been using my power to forcibly charge the vault key with Eridium. If you find me, you find the vault key. The vault key is housed in my AI control atop Thousand Cuts. Its protected by three impassable security hurdles. The first is a competitor detterance field that will obliterate any non-hyperion entity passing through. Beyond that lies a second hurdle; a defense bunker outfitted with the most high-tech weaponry Hyperion can afford."
"That doesn't sound good." Said Roland.
"If you manage to get past both of those obstacles, you'll have to get through the final hurdle: a door that will only open for Handsome Jack."
"That sounds even worse," Lilith pointed out.
"This will be your only opportunity to steal the vault key and stop Jack from controlling the Warrior. I'm out of time - do what you will, but promise me this: no matter what happens - do not allow Lilith into my chambers."
"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" Lilith said angrily. Maya placed a hand on her elbow, rubbing soothing circles on her arm.
"If she were luring us into a trap, she wouldve made it sound a little bit more possible." Roland said thoughtfully.
"If we're taking that bitch down I'm coming! Trap or no trap!" Maya could see the anger burning in Lilith's eyes, and she was afraid because she knew she meant those words. There must be a reason Angel is telling her to stay away, but Lilith is stubborn. Maya could only hope she could talk her out of it when the time comes.
"if anyone is gonna take her down, it has to be you two," Roland said, looking to Axton and Maya. "Head to the Hyperion Preserve, I think I know a way to get through that door. We'll need to get claptrap an upgrade. Considering he's Hyperion property, he's our key to getting in that door
"I'm going."
Everyone in the room looked to Lilith. Roland opened his mouth as though he wanted to object, but she held up her hand.
"Sanctuary is fine without me. I got us the fuck up here, and now I'm going the fuck down there. I wasn't there last time and I'm not gonna make that same mistake again."
"Lilith, you're far too valuable-"
"I am not the only valuable person here. I'm going and that's final. Axton, you stay here with Roland and keep an eye on things."
Axton nodded, not wanting to set the Firehawk off further. She was already in a bad mood.
"Come on, let's get a runner," Lilith said to Maya before turning on her heel and heading down the stairs. Maya shot the room an apologetic look, before turning and following in suit.
They drove through the Highlands in silence most of the way. Maya could see that Lilith was still fuming about the earlier conversation with Angel, so she figured it was best not to bring up the fact that she wasn't going. She could only hope Lilith would listen to her when the time came when she did have to bring it up.
Lilith sighed, "I'm sorry Maya. For losing my temper. I just-Angel almost got both of you killed. Almost got everyone in Sanctuary killed. The whole thing just pisses me off."
Maya placed a comforting hand upon the red heads, as they slowed to a stop outside of the entrance to the Wildlife Exploitation Preserve. "I know baby. I know none of this is fair, but we have to do what we can with what we have to work with. Let's just focus on the mission today," she leaned into Lilith's ear, and said with courage, "then, when we get back to Sanctuary, I want to put my mouth all over you."
It wasn't often you saw Lilith's face match her hair. She simply chewed her lip and got out of the runner with Maya in tow.
The Preserve was a large grassy area, with pink mushrooms the size of trees looming over them all over the field. Stalker sacs clung to them, a good indication of what was ahead at least. In the distance, a running waterfall could be seen along with a large Hyperion building to the right. Mordecai had met them there; he stood atop a high vantage point, providing fire support to the Siren's below.
They were on their way to meet up with him now. They went from the waterfall and followed the riverbed to the base of the mountain where the sniper stood atop. They had ran into a couple stalkers along the way, but with Maya's phaselock and Lilith's quick shooting, they were taken care of easily. They followed a winding cave up to the top of the mountain, finding Mordecai scoping out the ground below with his large sniper.
"Hey! I heard about Sanctuary, is everyone alright?" He said turning to them.
"Yeah, it was a close call," Lilith responded, glancing at Maya. "But we're all okay."
"Sorry I missed the action," Mordecai continued, "I saw some Hyperion movement out in Tundra Express, so Bloodwing and I checked it out. Didn't realize we were walking into a trap. Bloodwing gave me time to get away, but the bastards grabbed her and brought her here. Roland echoed ahead, all my data is on a chip in Bloodwing's collar, along with your claptrap upgrade. Some Hyperion jackass nabbed her, and took her into the preserve over there," he said forlornly, pointing towards the Hyperion building. "I'm glad you guys are here, I've been scouting the place for the last half hour. Looks like a two man job, er-woman job I guess. If you's can get into the shipyard, I can give you support and lead you to Bloodwing. I'll get my bird, and you'll get your claptrap upgrade."
"Don't worry Mordecai, we're gonna get her back, and take out as many of these Hyperion asshats as we can along the way. You have my word," said Lilith.
He nodded and they were off back down the mountain, headed toward the doors to the shipyard below. They reached the building and stay ducked behind a wall for the time being while Maya scoped the place out.
The place was what looked like a massive factory. There were a few scattered seacans laying about in the grass, which led up to the building itself. Maya could see at least four doors that she was sure would soon be flooding with loaders. To the right, there was a door built into a large steel wall.
"That must be the entrance to the shipping yard," Maya said over her shoulder. "You have a caustic weapon?"
"I do," Lilith replied, pulling out an SMG, and Maya a shotgun.
"Beauty," she said. "I guess there's no real plan except getting through that door. Let's kick some ass!'
"Anytime!" the red head said cheerfully, and together they sprinted from the wall across the grass toward the steel door.
"Murderer detected."
"Combat Commencing."
The loaders began to file out of the doors to the factory, turning their sights on the two Siren's as they sprinted towards the door.
"Cover me Lilith!"
Maya began to look for something to engage the door, finding a lever to the left. She gave it a pull, but the lever jammed and the light turned red. "Unauthorized access detected. Releasing loaders."
She got on her echo, "Mordecai, we cant open the door!" she said frantically. Behind her, Lilith was absolutely destroying the loaders. If Maya wasn't careful, she might end up in awe just watching her. She was a surgeon with that SMG.
"Ahh CRAP! Damn, give me a sec to think of something."
Maya had turned around and phaselocked a pair of loaders and was now assisting Lilith. "Take your time Mordecai!"
"Okay I got an idea! If you cripple some of those loaders, and don't kill em, they should open the door to send reinforcements."
"Great," Lilith said sarcastically as she shot the legs off another loader. "More of them!"
Together they began to blow off the arms and legs of surrounding loaders, leaving them with just enough health to call out.
"Repairs needed."
"Medic."
"Error. Error."
The female voice bot of Hyperion came over the loudspeaker, "loaders damaged. Deploying reinforcements."
The door then opened, sending more loaders their way. "Doors open, get inside and find Bloodwing."
Lilith threw a grenade at the fresh loaders, blowing them to bits. The hurried through the door before it could be closed again and found themselves in the Preserve Dockyard. It was a platform with railings over looking the water and stairs leading up to other parts of the buildings. "She should be in a holding cell at the other side of the facility."
"Okay, let's kill these loaders and get to those holding cells!" Lilith yelled back as she charged a group of loaders, phasewalking herself behind them and catching them by surprise. She turned them into a quick pile of scrap metal. Maya phaselocked a loader coming through a door, hitting it with a critical with her shotgun and it exploded into melted fragments.
They ran up two sets of stairs, at the top they came to a large steel archway that hung over a paved bridge. The bridge appeared to have some sort of nets running along the side. Below there was grass, and holes in the stony walls that could only be Skag caves. On the other side past the caves was the facility. There were glass walls, though one appeared to have been shattered out. Blood ran down from the shattered glass and into the grass.
"Guess we gotta go down there," said Maya, sighing. "I fucking hate skags."
Lilith chuckled, "Really? I was thinking we could get one as a pet someday."
"No."
They leapt from the bridge and immediately drew the skags attention. The growling and snapping of jaws could be heard echoing from the caves, before they reared their ugly heads and roared. One by one they started bounding towards them at full speed. Skags were easy enough to take out though, just shoot them in the face. Lilith was now using an incendiary shotgun, lighting the incoming beasts on fire filling the air with their screams. One suddenly leapt off the bridge right at Lilith, but Maya put it in a phaselock and blew off its head, unfortunately coating Lilith in blood and skag guts in the process.
Maya clapped a hand over her mouth as Lilith turned around and faced her, a look of shock on her face.
"Now THAT is fucking gross," said Lilith, unimpressed. She attempted to wipe the blood from her face, but with her hands being covered as well it was a pointless task.
"Lilith," Maya said, trying not to laugh. "I am SO sorry, but I mean, it was coming right at you."
"Yeah well when you phaselocked it you coulda given me just a little bit of time to take a step back!" she said in mock anger. "I'll be sure to get you back for that one day."
"You know, this does give me another opportunity to clean you up," Maya said with a wink.
"And clean me you shall."
With all the skags dead they trudged towards the facility and jumped up inside through the broken window. Inside it looked like some kind of fight must've happened. On the other side the glass was broken there too, leading to another grassy area with an expansion of the facility in the distance. Looking around they were able to find some weapons boxes and replenish their supply.
They leapt out of the window into the second grassy area when Handsome Jack echoed the pair, "Oh look you're in the Preserve, I was gonna do this whole thing where I lure ya in here and kill ya but then you just kinda showed up! Thanks guys!"
"Ignore him, he isnt gonna kill shit." Lilith said firmly. Ahead there was a dome like structure with the Hyperion logo on it. More of the strange pink mushrooms were scattered about, along with a couple of stalkers slinking around.
"We gotta get to that structure killer. You take the right, I'll take left."
They ran down their respective lanes towards the dome, making short work of the few stalkers. Some rakks flew down unexpectantly, but thanks to their shot guns they never got too close to land a blow.
They ran past the large skull of an unknown creature, up to a door in the side of the building. Maya pressed the button, letting them inside into a dimly lit hallway. It led to a room with some ammo and health machines, and Maya went to stock up while Lilith looked around. The Hyperion logo hung above them, causing her lip to curl in disgust. Lilith couldn't help but think of that time where she could've killed Jack, but didn't.
Once Maya was sufficiently stocked up on ammunition, they continued through the building, eventually going up some steps leading to the dome area they had seen from outside. This part of the facility must not have been used in quite some time, for grass had now grown over the floor and a downed satellite lay have buried in the center. "Up there!" Maya exclaimed. Part of the concrete wall had caved in at the top, creating a ramp leading to outside.
They carefully climbed up the loose stone, emerging on the other side they could see more of the facility, hopefully that which contained the holding cells. Upon their arrival, loaders immediately began to get shot down from Helios.
"Jack can certainly try to kill us, but were getting that bird and that upgrade whether he likes it or not. Come on killer!"
They went to work shutting down the loaders, even Mordecai's sniper could be heard slagging the loaders to make them an easier kill.
"Come on!" Maya shouted, sprinting to the door. It opened just as they got there, and they came face to face with a Super Badass Loader.
"Shit," they said simultaneously and broke off into opposite directions to take cover.
Maya ducked behind a rock while Lilith phasewalked into invisibility. Maya peered from her shelter to see the red head reappear behind the giant loader and tossed a caustic grenade at its feet. She phasewalked again before it could turn around and see her. The grenade went off, eating away at the machines feet. It didn't do much, but it slowed it down and Maya knew how to make it even slower. She put it into a powerful phaselock and took out a sniper. Aiming for the critical spots she fired off deliberate rounds, taking down its health a considerable amount. The machine was heavy as fuck, so she decided to throw him into the wall with her remaining energy.
"ouch. Nonono."
The huge loader heaved itself to a stand, looking more than a little worse for wear. Lilith suddenly phased on top of the thing, much to Maya's shock and dismay.
"LILITH WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING!?"
The Siren reached down to the loaders red eye with both hands. Due to its injury, it was trying to throw her off of it, but it moved too slow to gain any momentum.
Lilith was twisting back and forth with a strained look on her face, and Maya realized the was trying to pull out the eye of the loader.
"Unnghh!" Lilith groaned as sparks began to shoot from the loaders eye, before she yanked it out with a great heave. Electricity shot from the socket where the eye once was, and the loader went crashing to the ground face first, dead. Smoke was rising up from the loader as Maya ran over to see where her lover had landed.
"Lilith!?"
"What?"
Maya whirled around to see Lilith had phased behind her, holding the eye with a triumphant look on her face. Maya stomped over to her, "you're such an asshole!" she said, giving her a smack to the shoulder.
Lilith just smirked, "hey I got the job done didn't I?"
"Was worried about you," Maya grumbled, still unimpressed. "Come on let's get moving, and if you pull any shit like that again I'll put you in a phaselock!"
"I kinda like the idea of being your prisoner."
"Smartass."
They walked through the door that the loader emerged from, and found themselves in a dark hallway with rooms on either side blocked with an orange force field. "This must be it," Lilith said quietly, trying to peer within the cells.
"Bloodwing should be in one of these cells," said Mordecai on the echo. "just get to her and you'll get your upgrade to get through that death wall."
They moved down the hall past the other enclosures until they reached a door at the end. Pressing the button to open it revealed a path before them into what looked like a make shift cave.
"Bloodwing's gotta be in here somewhere," Maya said as they continued down the quiet enclosure. They entered a clearing with a tree, and there was a sizable amount of blood at the base.
"Did you find Bloodwing?!" Mordecai asked in a panic.
Maya picked up a bloodied feather and looked to Lilith in alarm.
"Looking for Bloodwing? I moved her a few hours ago. Somewhere a little more…dramatic." Jack's haunting voice sneered over the echo. This did not bode well for the Crimson Raiders.