Chapter 26: Breach
They exited the door leading into the Bunker. The sound of gunfire was immediate; it appeared that the Bunker was made up of outdoor levels, leading up forming something like the shape of a hive. The Slab's buzzards could be seen flying around, occasionally getting shot down and sending men flying to their deaths.
"Take out those auto cannons Slabs! They're tearing up your air support!"
Brick was right, the cannons were sending buzzards out of the sky left and right. If they didn't hurry, they would have no backup at all, and countless lives would be lost.
"Come on Axton we don't have much time!"
Together they ran through the lower level of the hive, trying to fine a way into the upper levels. They stopped as a large force field protected door caught their eye.
"That force field protects the final door to my chambers. It will only deactivate once you've destroyed the bunker," Angel said quickly over the echo.
"Wait, is this not the bunker?" Axton said inquisitively.
"I'm not sure," Maya replied. "Let's get up top and find out. It must be on the upper level."
Taking a set of stairs to their right took them up a level; another set took them even higher. They had reached the top level of the hive which appeared to be a walkway wrapped around a platform that stood slightly higher. It was chaos around them as buzzards were shot down left and right, the fire from the blast was close enough for them to feel the heat. Maya hoped she didn't take a huge chunk of debris to the head. On the platform, they saw one of the auto cannons firing up into the sky, but there were more scattered around the hive.
"Axton, there's too many and were quickly losing our air support. Let's split up, you take this one and I'll go find another!"
"Got it!"
Axton deployed his turret and pulled out a caustic shotgun, spraying lead into the auto cannon in an effort to shut it down. Maya turned and ran back to the walkway to circle the platform for more cannons.
Down the walkway, she found another cannon and quickly disabled it with her launcher. Loaders were being populated quicker then she could take them down, so she did her best to dodge their attacks as she went to destroy more cannons. There was no way they could take on all the loaders before they could destroy the cannons, and saving their air support was priority. Without them, they wouldn't have a chance in hell in destroying the bunker.
She counted seven different locations where the missiles were being fired from, so she started off to the closest one. Finding another cannon, she blew it apart quickly with her launcher once again. Across the way, she could see Axton destroy another. Only five left to go.
Destroying the cannons were relatively easy, as they were preoccupied with the buzzards in the sky. Avoiding the loaders on the other hand-
BOOM!
She was sent sprawling in surprise to the ground. Her back was burning as though it was on fire, and she quickly realized it was.
"SHIT SHIT SHIT!" she cried as she rolled on the ground to douse the flames. Her back was partially burned, but thankfully it was non life threatening and she hoisted herself to her feet. Turning around to find the culprit, she saw the scattered remains of an EXP loader that must've detonated behind her. She would have to be more aware of her surroundings.
"Fuck Maya are you okay?!" Axton said as he ran up to her.
"Surprisingly yes!" she replied.
"Come on, theres only a couple left!"
This time they teamed up on the remaining cannons. In hindsight, while splitting up had been effective in taking the cannons down quickly, it was a bad choice when it came to protecting one another. This time, as they shot at the cannon Axtons turret provided them protection from the incoming loaders.
The cannon exploded in a smoking pile of molten metal and electricity. "Theres just one left, down there!" Axton called, pointing to the walkway surrounding the platform.
They ran to it, shooting any loaders that came too close. Once they reached the cannon, Maya shouldered her launcher and took aim so Axton could hopefully take down some of those loaders. Her back was screaming in agony, but she was too hopped up on adrenaline to care. She would take care of it later.
With the last cannon destroyed with a satisfying BOOM, Brick shouted with glee, "HA-HAH! No more auto cannons! Good job Slabs! My boys have dropped some ammo for you!"
The fight wasn't over; they still needed to find and destroy the bunker, but first they had to resupply. There were still loaders about, so they made quick work of running to the dropped ammo box and filled their packs with clips and grenades.
"How do we get to the bunker?" Maya asked breathlessly.
They didn't have to wait long for an answer. The sound of hydraulic hissing and metal groaning had filled their ears, and a slight vibration ran under their feet. They turned to the source of the noise and observed the ground opening up on the platform.
The humming of engines joined the other sounds as a very big, very dangerous looking machine emerged from the platform, hovering in the air like some kind of spaceship. It was grand really, the sleek metal shone in the sunlight, the engine emitting a bright blue flame below the ship sending waves of heat in their direction. It was massive, nearly the size of a small building.
Jack's haunting voice came through their echo, "did you really think I would protect Angel with nothing but a couple of bots and some flimsy turrets? You see, you're not at the bunker right now. The bunker isnt a place."
The machine hovered up in the sky, it was shaped as a large round disk. Angry red beams pointed in their direction as it towered over them, blanketing them in a dark shade.
"That's the bunker. Meet the BNK-3R! The greatest defense bot ever built. Designed her myself. Now do me a favor and die." He said menacingly.
"Oh CRAP! The bunker went airborne Slabs!-this is gonna get messy!" Brick exclaimed.
The bunker took off, flying a few hundred feet away from the platform and began to circle the hive. Meanwhile, loaders will still slowly moving in on the pair.
"Maya, we're gonna have to split up, were sitting ducks here together. I'm gonna get the loaders to follow me and lead them away, you need to take care of that bunker!" Axton said as he pulled out a pistol and loaded it. She grabbed his arm before he could run off.
"Be careful Axton," she pleaded. He smiled at her.
"Kick some ass girl! I'll see you when it's over!" And with that, he took off, firing single shots at the surrounding loaders gaining their attention. His plan worked and they began to follow him as he ran to the other side of the hive. With the heat taken off of her, she set her sights on the still circling bunker. Being far away, she pulled out her sniper and just hoped the could land some shots on the moving target to draw it near, so she can hit it with a rocket launcher.
She took her shots, they didn't do much damage but her plan worked regardless. The large machine began to draw near, with multiple turrets appearing on the body, along with two big mortar guns mounted on the left and right side. It drew alarmingly close, and Maya realized just how massive the thing was and panic began to set in. She tried to phaselock it, knowing she obviously couldn't hold such a large machine, but to her dismay it did very little damage as well. She shouldered her launcher and took aim at one of the turrets just as the mortar guns swiveled to meet her position. The rocket soared through the air and hit its mark; now that did damage.
Angry, red mortar fire began to rain down on her, and she jumped and sprinted away just in time. The platform breaking beneath her almost caused her to lose her balance, but she kept going.
The turrets and the mortar guns were clearly the bunkers weakness. If she was going to succeed, she had to take out those guns. If she could disable its firepower, it would be nothing more then a flying junk of metal and utterly defenseless.
She took cover behind some empty boxes that had been dropped by her air support and switched to an SMG. With the bunker moving, it was hard to hit the turrets. She couldn't risk wasting her rockets unless she had a sure shot. Thankfully, the buzzards were also aiding in her efforts, riddling the bunker with bullets and keeping the turrets off her for the time being.
She emerged from her cover and took aim, spraying the bunker with lead and managed to disable another turret. There was only one left, along with the two mortar guns.
The bunker began to ascend to safer height, smoke billowing from where the turrets once stood. She took out her sniper once more, and took aim at the last remaining turret. She shot, and missed. She tried again, another miss. Cursing under her breath, she began to reload the rocket as the bunker came swerving back towards her, the mortar guns glowing red getting ready for another barrage. She aimed the launcher at the turret, hoping that even if she missed, the debris would hopefully destroy the gun anyway. Holding her breath, she had to take it now before the mortar fire came down.
Her aim rang true, thankfully for her, and the last remaining turret exploded in a shower of sparks and fire.
The bunker tilted forward, and a massive auto cannon rose up from inside the center of the bunker, taking out a couple of buzzards that had been circling the machine.
"It just never fucking ends!" she said angrily, pulling out a caustic sniper and tried to take out the cannon. She knew the bunker was nearing the end of its life, resorting to any firepower it had left. She had to act fast as they were quickly losing their air support. Axton was spotted running up the stairs and back to the platform to join her, which was nothing short of a miracle.
"Figured you could use some help!" he yelled. "I took out most of the loaders!"
"You're just in time!"
He threw out his turret, which drew the fire from the auto cannon long enough for them to fire some carefully aimed shots. The auto cannon blew up in a dazzling display, causing the bunker to lose some of its altitude and it was now flying sporadically.
"its not gonna hold up much longer, come on we gotta take out those last guns!"
Before they could make the first move, the mortar guns changed their fire, shooting electric orbs in their direction, striking Axton in the shoulder.
"AGGHHHHRRRGGH!" he screamed as electricity engulfed his body momentarily before sending him crumpling to the ground.
"AXTON!" She screamed, running to his side.
"Ugh…I'm fine….agh, go Maya. You have to stop it, or were all dead," he groaned as the volts began to subside.
Before she left, she injected him with a health booster to ensure his safety, and took off running towards the smoking bunker. It was now or never.
The flight pattern was too sporadic; instead she pulled out her SMG again and loaded a fresh clip. For good measure she phaselocked the bunker once again, to delay its weaponry at least which gave her an opening to put some heavy fire on the machine. As she fired the machine hovered closer, leaving her an opening to fire the launcher. She took her chance, firing the launcher at the remaining mortar gun.
It was a direct hit. What she didn't calculate, however, was the direction the massive machine would start falling out of the sky. The bunker might have been destroyed, but the debris was heading straight for her and Axton.
"aweh FUCK!" she spun on her heel and ran back toward where Axton was still kneeling on the ground, his body still locked up from the electric shocks that had coursed through him earlier. The shadow of the bunker was growing exponentially around them. She was almost there, she willed her legs to move faster, her breath puffing out in short harsh bursts. She was going to make it. She had to.
The heat was unbearable against her already blistered back, but she did her best to ignore it. She ditched her weapon and slid into Axton with a grunt, throwing a phaselock around them just as the bunker came to a crash directly where they were.
Her phaselock held strong, causing the bunker to flip up over them and fell over the edge of the hive with a mighty crash. Pieces of hot metal and fire rained on them but she held on tighter. After making it this far she'd be damned if she died under the crushing weight of one of Jack's robots.
The dust began to settle and she released her phaselock, gasping for air as she rolled onto her aching back and squinted into the sunny sky. Axton too rolled onto his and together they took a moment to catch their breath.
"That was soooo fucking close," he said, covering his face with his hands.
"Too close," she agreed.
She sat up and took in their surroundings; a good deal of loot that had been stashed on the bunker had littered the platform, and together they took a few minutes to scrounge through it. You could never pass up an opportunity for new weapons.
They had some pretty good finds all in all, and they regrouped in the center of the platform. Angel echoed them with further instructions.
"with the bunker destroyed you can now access the door to my chambers. Move quickly!"
They ran back down to the lower level of the hive, back to the once protective force field that separated them from Control Core Angel, which now stood clear.
"I'm nearly there soldier! I'm climbing up the rear of the control core! I'll meet you inside!" Roland relayed to them.
They approached the door to Angel's chambers. It was set up like some sort of pod, presumably where she would have to use her Jack voice in order to unlock the door.
"Thank fuck, I can't wait to feel like myself again," she muttered as she stepped inside the pod.
"Preparing bio-scan. Please stand on the Hyperion Emblem," came the voice of the Hyperion she-bot. She planted her feet firmly on the Emblem.
"Scanning bio signature."
She was engulfed in a blue light, the beam travelling up and down her body. As she was being scanned, she sincerely hoped this pod wasn't booby trapped.
"Bio signature confirmed. Hello sexy." Maya did her best not to gag.
"Awaiting password."
"The password is I love you," Angel said with a hint of hesitation.
"This voice modulator had better work or this will have all been for nothing," Axton added.
Maya cleared her throat and pressed the intercom button on the wall, "I love you." A pause. Maya felt her stomach clench. Please work please work please-
"Access granted."
There was a hiss and a groaning of gears and the door before them began to open. Maya breather a tremendous sigh of relief and she felt Axton give her a clap on the back.
"Consider this your-no, consider this my final warning. Turn around and I promise I'll make it quick, but I swear you take one more step, and every soul back in Sanctuary will die staring at their own lungs as I rip them from their chests!"
Lilith flashed in her mind. She kept going. Through the door was an elevator, she looked to Axton and he nodded. She hit the button and they began to descend into the darkness. A bad feeling in her stomach began to grow the further they descended. All the way down.