Chapter 28: Ready or Not
"Maya, time to get up," Axton said as he shook her gently. "We need to move."
She blinked the sleep from her eyes. She had only slept about an hour, but it did make a huge difference. The nausea was gone, leaving her with nothing but slight grogginess.
"Thanks Axton, I needed that."
"I know," he replied, smiling.
They stood from their hiding spot and checked the map. "Looks like we have to double back to the Main Street Reservoir, the Buzzard should be in a hangar over that way." Axton said thoughtfully, pointing at the map. Maya put her assault rifle at the ready, and they went back that way towards the Reservoir. They emerged into the late afternoon sun, the Reservoir overlooked a river and was lined with more less-than-soundly built bandit houses.
"We're at the Reservojr Brick," Axton said over his echo.
"Ahhh that place takes me back. Last time I was there I had Tiny Tina riding piggyback right, throwing grenades at the Sawteeth while I punched em' into red mist. The looks on their faces!" he exclaimed, letting out a hearty laugh. "Ohhhh I killed a lot of people," he said almost fondly.
A slight left took them through a large clearing, so far there didn't seem to be any bandit patrols. But Maya knew looks to be deceiving.
A message began to come through her echo, causing her heart to skip a beat. It could be Lilith! She whipped it out with lightening speed, holding her breath in fear that she wouldn't hear the message. The voice that came though, was not that of her lovers, but of the very last person she wanted to hear from.
"Hey, do me a favor," Handsome Jack snarled, "you think about all of Roland's training, all his experience counted for nothing when he met me. And ask yourself, if I could kill the wise leader of the Crimson Raiders without breaking a sweat, how easy would it be to kill a wild bandit king and a drunken fucking sniper?"
Brick and Mordecai, he was speaking of them. They had to get to Jack quick, before he wiped out everyone she held dear. Her emotions were bubbling up again, and she was about to give him an earful when another voice was heard. It was Lilith.
"UGGHH¹!" she cried in pain, causing Maya's knees to buckle. "I can feel…this thing around my neck…sapping me dry," she choked out. "promise me, so long as theres a bullet left in your gun…promise me you'll make Jack pay!" and just like that she was gone. Maya had no more tears left to cry. She felt as defeated as Lilith sounded.
"I promise," she whispered.
"Here we are."
They reached the hangar a little ways from the Reservoir. They ran into a dozen or so bandits along the way, but with Maya's renewed energy they didn't prove too difficult. If anything, Axton had to warn Maya to slow down. She knew her emotions were getting the better of her, causing her to rush, in turn causing her fighting to be sloppy. She couldn't allow any room for mistakes when it came to Handsome Jack, and she vowed to get her shit together.
"You think Mortar will be pissed?" Axton asked jokingly, pulling her from her thoughts. She snorted, "from what it sounds like, this Buzzard is his pride and joy. This should go off without a hitch."
He nodded in agreement and pressed the button to open the hangar. Immediately they jumped over the railing to a platform down below, and scrambled to the safety of some cover in the form of debris and road blockades scattered in the area. They raised their weapons, waiting for the bandits to come out.
"Blast Boombringer to bits! Mortar wont be happy to see his Buzzard go up in smoke. He should take the elevator down to come fight you. Oh, and after you blast Boombringer, don't look back at the explosion. Just walk away from it! You guys will look so badass!"
Maya and Axton couldn't help but smile. Even in their current situation, Brick was the type to stay positive. It wasn't nearly enough to take her mind off the worry for Lilith and Sanctuary completely, but it was something. They could most definitely make Brick's wish happen.
The hangar opened up like a flower, revealing Mortar's prized Buzzard. Along with it, the bandits inside the surrounding buildings must have heard the commotion, as they began flooding out in hordes.
Axton deployed his turret, while Maya phaselocked a Goliath and threw him into the crowd with great force, crushing a handful of bandits. She then used her incendiary SMG, lighting up incoming psychos causing them to stop in their tracks as they screamed in pain through the flames. Axton was taking down Sawteeth one by one, before shooting the helmet off another Goliath.
"Mistake! BIG GODDAMN MISTAKE!"
The Goliath bellowed and began to mow down his own clan, slamming them into red mist and broken bone. Meanwhile, Maya and Axton stayed out of sight and let the Goliath do the work so they could save their ammo. They heard him fast approaching once he was finished with his fellow bandits, huffing and snorting as though trying to sniff them out. Maya jumped from the shelter and put him in a phaselock, and using all her strength, sent him flying through the air straight into a building, destroying it in the process. The Goliath lay motionless in a pile of rubble.
Once all was settled and they were sure they were alone, Maya and Axton ascended the steps leading up the Boombringer.
Axton let out a low whistle, "I'll be damned, that is a nice fucking machine."
Maya had to agree. The Buzzard was painted the color of solid gold, and was mounted with two huge cannons, bigger than the standard size of most buzzards.
"Shame we gotta destroy it," she said as she unclipped a grenade, pulled the pin, and tossed it into the cockpit of the Buzzard. "Might wanna stand back!" she called, as they leapt down from the hangar together. They walked away from the exploding Buzzard, without looking back, like the badasses they were.
"NOOOO!" came a shrill voice over the echo, assumed to be Mortar's, "Boombringer! That's it Slab's, I'm coming down there and YOU are gonna find out what it's like to eat your own throat!"
"Sounds like you can take the elevator now," Brick chuckled. "Feel free to kill Mortar on your way up!"
They doubled back the way they came, back underground to Smoking Guano Grotto. When they got to the elevator, it had just been arriving, and out stepped the gangly figure of a man. To be honest, he looked part of the rat variety, the guns on his back were thicker and longer than the twiggy little arms attached to him. Maya raised her eyebrows at Axton, who in turn rolled his eyes.
"IM GONNA-"
Maya phaselocked the rat like being, holding him suspended in the air as Axton approached. He put the barrel of the shot gun to his temple and pulled the trigger. Needless to say, Mortar was no more.
"Man," Axton said as he slung his shotgun. "These bandit leaders are getting more underwhelming by the day."
"I heard that," Brick grumbled into the echo.
"Whoops. Not you Brick," Axton said hurriedly, looking sheepishly at Maya as she snickered.
Finally, they were in the elevator and on their way up. And up. And up. Maya peeked out the side at the rapidly shrinking ground, wondering just how high they were going.
They had finally reached the top, an open flat platform called the Buzzards Nest. Brick messaged them with further instructions, "my boys are gonna come in and steal the explosives. But the skies gotta be clear first! Take out those buzzards! Man, why don't these guys just give up? Ya'll already killed their boss!"
Brick wasn't lying; five buzzards suddenly took flight from various spots on the platform, hovering over them and taking aim. Maya and Axton quickly stepped back inside the elevator where they were effectively hidden from the buzzards firepower. Axton threw his turret from the elevator to the middle of the platform, the buzzards had powerful guns, but they were no match for the turret. It quickly set one buzzard aflame, sending it smoking to the ground below with a huge crash. Leaning out the elevator with their machine guns, they took aim to the skies, every so often ducking back inside to reload. The pilots were getting wise to their whereabouts, and flew away to the other side of the platform. The only hope they had to taking them down now was by exposing themselves.
"Let's just run out there," Maya said.
"Are you nuts? I thought we agreed to slow down!"
"Axton you know we don't have time for that. The only way we can hit them is if we go out there! Here, take the launcher," she said, handing it to him. "keep your turret out, I'll phaselock the buzzards. I cant hold them, but it will knock them off their flight path, slow them down. Then you hit em with a rocket. First cover we see out there we take it."
He sighed, but he knew she was right. They had to fight head on.
"Go!" she shouted, and they took off running. Behind the elevator on the other side of the platform lay some ammo boxes, and they quickly slid to cover as bullets pummeled the platform around them. Miraculously, they were unhurt.
"Throw the fucking turret quick!" she shouted over the deafening gunfire. Axton chucked it out in the open, while Maya phaselocked an incoming buzzard; the turret tore it to shreds within seconds.
Axton was putting heavy fire on the remaining three still circling the sky, Maya soon following suit. Another buzzard fell from the sky, spinning and weaving sporadically before crashing to the earth, the screams of the Sawteeth just barely audible over the engine of the two remaining buzzards.
"Steady the launcher!" she called to him, and he shouldered the launcher and followed the nearest machine's movements. She phaselocked the Buzzard, causing it to dip and spin around, smoke billowing from one of its mounted guns. Axton fired the launcher, clipping it on the other side, but it was enough; lopsided, the pilot lost control and the Buzzard careened into a hangar that had been on the outside of the platform, igniting the entire buzzard and the surrounding rubble into a consuming fire.
Maya had readied herself to phaselock the existing buzzard, but Axton's turret had already done the rest. The machine began to spiral to the ground far below, out of sight, before the sound of a telltale crash echoed through the canyon. Maya put a hand on her hip and huffed, the other hand going to her forehead to wipe her brow. Axton dusted himself off and joined her.
"Cool, now mark the crates for pickup and my boys will come and get em. They'll need those charges to blast open the path to the Info Stockade." Brick echoed.
There were four crates in total scattered around the compound. Maya took off towards one while Axton went towards another. She knelt down and fastened the small beacon to the large wooden crate, and stood up with a groan, her back cracking and aching from the previous battles. Axton quickly attached beacons of his own onto the remaining crates on his way back to her.
"My buzzards have arrived!" Brick exclaimed with joy as the friendly machines dipped in towards the compound before lowering Slabs to the platform, allowing them to fasten the cargo. Maya's hair whipped around from the force of the buzzards, she pushed it back with a huff.
"What now?" she echoed Brick.
"just jump off the east end of the tower if you wanna get back to the fast travel station in the quickest and badassest way possible!"
"Oh fuck yeah!" Axton whooped. "I am here for this!"
Maya smiled; any other time she would see this as a wildly fun moment, but fear has already gripped her heart. It won't loosen its hold on her until she has Lilith back safely. If such a feat is able to be accomplished.
They got their fill from various ammo boxes laying about, along with looting some of the packs found on the surrounding dead. Axton turned to her as they walked to the edge of the tower and put a hand on her shoulder.
"To the next step?"
She couldn't help but shoot him a smile, "off we go!"
Together they jumped, and shit, was it ever higher than Maya first anticipated. No matter to a nimble vault hunter though, and for a few brief seconds she forgot about her troubles in the world. The scenery around her blurred by, and the fresh air rapidly filling her lungs left her somewhat feeling somewhat rejuvenated, alive. As if everything really was going to be okay.
The ground approached quickly, and the duo tucked and rolled to their feet, taking off in a sprint back in the direction they came from. Back to Eridium Blight.
Her breath came ragged and wheezed, as though she were breathing through a straw. Every so often she would choke, and a hacking cough would wrack her body, draining what little energy she had left. The device Jack put on her was still tight around her neck, she could feel her pulse beating weakly against it. Lilith had no notion of just how long she might have been there, wherever there was.
She sighed a long wheezing breath. I just have to hold on a little longer, she thought. They're coming for me. Maya is coming for me. Maya…
Lilith refused to cry at a moment like this. The last thing Jack needed to see was any weakness in her. She wasn't sure if Jack knew of their relationship or not, but if he didn't, it was probably best to keep it that way. If he does, Lilith just wasn't sure what difference it would make at this point. He already had her captured after all.
She squeezed her eyes shut and gritted her teeth. Her life was being sucked out of her in order to charge the damned Vault key. She knew they must be on a race against time. She didn't know when the Vault key would be charged enough to release the Warrior, but she could only hope that Maya and the group would reach her before that could happen. Problem was, how could they possibly know her location?
They'll come up with something, she told herself. They'll find a way.
Finally, her thoughts drifted back to Roland. God, how could this have happened. Lilith knew there was no bad blood between them, despite everything that happened. They broke each others hearts, true, but he was her dearest friend. They came to Pandora together, and went to hell and back side by side. That friendship had blossomed into love, and even though it fizzled out, the loyalty and the bond remained unbroken. Still, she fought back her tears. There would be plenty of time to cry at his funeral. Once she was out of whatever hell this was.
She groaned and tried to move, but the bonds made of energy prevented her from doing so. All she could do was continue to sputter and cough until she was red in the face. She gave up, heaving deep, troubled breaths.
Maya, please find me. I need you.