Hey readers I'm here with another chapter. This chapter is just catching up on the available side missions so there isn't a lot of plot developing themes here. Only progress they make on the storyline mission is meeting Ellie as the title suggests and getting the Technical Vehicle. So read on.
Chapter 13: Cult Followings and Ellie
"Alright Axton, we have the location of the bandit fort." Lilith told him.
"Good let's go an-" He started.
"But you need a certain vehicle to get in."
"Oh…"
"Scooter said that his sister lives in the Dust and she can make one." Gaige told them all having already talked with the mechanic.
"Ok good. But we probably don't need everyone to go and get the vehicle specs for the Catch-A-Ride. So we'll split up. Half of us will go and get the vehicle, the other half is going to help me monitor my bandit worshipers." Lilith asked, more worried about her cult than a vehicle.
"Me, Maya, Zero, and Maddox will take care of your cult. The rest will get the vehicle specs." Axton suggested.
"Sounds good to me." Lilith agreed.
The group split and went their separate ways, giving each other good lucks. Gaige, Salvador, and Krieg all traveled to the Dust while the rest went back to Frostburn Canyon.
"I am Incinerator Clayton. And you... I witnessed you enter the lair of the Firehawk, and return unharmed. If you truly wish to serve our mother, you must pass a test: use a fire weapon to send my brothers to the Eternal Flame! Then collect their ashes, and return them to me." He said telling them what to do.
"They want us to burn them? I'm glad I'm not part of any cult." Maddox said under his breath.
"What was that?" Clayton questioned him
"N-nothing."
"I don't have a flame weapon guys." Maya informed them as they headed towards the camp.
"That's ok, the rest of us do have one." Maddox reassures her.
They four very easily killed the bandits and burnt them to ashes. Then gave the ashes to Clayton.
"Now that you are officially part of the Children of the Firehawk. There is a false one. You are to show my brothers that our mother will not be mocked by such false idols."
Gaige, Sal, and Krieg all walked up to a large lady laughing as she crushed a bandit in his vehicle.
"Oh heeyyy y'all. The names' Ellie, Scooter told me he sent ya."
"Uh… hi we need a vehicle, specifically one that the bandits use."
"Oh you mean a Bandit Technical! Yes I have one of those… oh I'm sorry I'm afraid I don't have one as I just crushed the last one I had. But if y'all run around and destroy other technicals and grab 'em parts then I can make one for ya."
So the three drove in their smaller vehicle and collected parts for Ellie.
"You got the parts? Good. Now just set 'em over here. It's gonna take me awhile to get the Technical built for ya. But my friend outside has something you can do for him while you wait."
"I'll go." Sal volunteered. He came back just a few minutes later. "Ok, we need to get up into the buzzard camp up there and… break some stuff or something."
"O...k"
"But eh, how do we get up there?" Sal asked pointing to the buzzard camp that had to be flown into.
"BIG ROCK MAKE BICYCLE FLY!" Krieg shouted.
"What?" Sal asked.
"No, I see what's he's saying. We can use that large rock as a ramp to get into the camp."
"Are you loco?!? I'm not doing that."
"Then me and Krieg will."
"You know, when I'm fighting a false idol. I don't expect it to be a giant spider that's literally made of fire!" Maddox shouted as he dodged a molten rock.
"Yea… I don't really understand why these bandits are considered heretics for worshipping an actual monster." Axton shouted back as he dodged a psycho.
"Less talk, more kill!" Maya shouted at them as she phase locked a smaller spiderant.
Maddox switched to his Boom and fired a rocket at Scorch. Scorch caught it and threw it back, making a roar as it made impact with Maddox. Maddox was throw into an ice wall and fell to the cold ground. He slowly got up on all fours.
"You alright Maddox?" Axton asked over the coms.
"Yea, just had the wind knocked out of me." He responded over the coms, then saying to himself, "If I still had organs, I'd be bleeding internally."
He then took out his Callipeen, using his optical zoom to gain more range from his sniper. Maddox waited patiently. Zero, Maya, and Axton were too busy with its minions to fight Scorch. So it was all on him. Maddox aimed at the butt, waiting for the thorax to come into view. However, his chance refused to come.
Maddox looked away from his sniper to the great wall of ice that had them surrounded. He knew he had to ricochet a bullet into the spider, but the ice had to be strong enough to redirect the bullet instead of being shattered. Aiming at a spot on the wall, Maddox took the shot. Maddox waited and waited, but it seemed that nothing would happen. Suddenly, Scorch let out a shriek as its thorax exploded. Scorch was dead.
The minions began to fall back. Zero turned towards Maddox as Maddox approached them. "What a shot/accuracy in its true form/any of your powers?"
"No, I didn't use any of it."
"Wait that was all skill?" Axton asked.
"Yea, while I was being trained there was a portion of training that required me to do things without using my power. It also may have been some luck too."
Gaige took cover as a Buzzard launched a volley at her. They had already acquired the volleyballs and gasoline. Now they needed to set the nets on fire. Krieg was the only one of them that had an Incendiary weapon. Sal wasn't with them but he didn't have one either.
Gaige targeted one of the Buzzard's engines with her Weakened Animosity until she covered the whole thing in a thick purple goop. She switched to her Rifle and and shot the engine. The Buzzard lost control as its engine exploded and was sent spiraling down and crashing.
Using this as her chance she doused a net in gasoline. "Krieg now!" Krieg fired his incendiary launcher and set the net on fire. Gaige dodged other fire a doused the second one. "Krieg!" Once again Krieg set the net on fire.
"They destroyed our volleyball nets, get em!" A shirtless man said. Two other shirtless men came out to kill them. They relentlessly fired on Gaige as she was out in the open. Gaige ran to cover as her shield gave out and popped out a booster to recover some of her shield. However, she was unable to grab it and a bullet hit her in the leg.
Gaige screamed in pain and fell down. Clutching her left leg that was bleeding profusely. She took out her Weakened Animosity and killed on of the shirtless men. She got up and hobbled to behind cover and put her gun down as she bit back her tears. Thankfully the wound was just a normal bullet, not elemental or explosive. She summoned Death Trap and he flew around the corner towards the battle.
Krieg brought out his buzz axe and went on a rampage against the bandits where it seemed like an endless amount. Eventually, Krieg and death trap killed all of them. Krieg looked at the gore before him. "NO GUTS NO GLORY!" He screamed. Krieg went and found Gaige holding her leg. Surprisingly, he gently picked her up and they returned to Ellie's garage.
"Why do we have go all the way out here to light this guy on fire? Can we just set him on fire back in Frostburn?" Axton complained about being back at the southern shelf. Fighting more enemies that had populated the bandit fort while they were gone.
"I have no idea why we gotta do this." Maya joined in on the complaining.
Maddox killed a psycho as he looked up to see the long way up that they had to go. "Ugh…"
They fought through the bandit hoards easily killing them. Finally making it back up to the frozen ship. They lit the psycho on fire and it shouted something about feeling the mothers sweet embrace. Until his corpse became scorched.
"Let's go back to Clayton…"
"Oh dear what happened?!" Ellie asked as Krieg brought in an injured Gaige.
"I got shot."
"Here let me help, go and put her down over here." She cleared the table of her tools.
Krieg set her down on the table. When Sal came in. "Ah amigo are you ok?"
"Yea… I'll be alright."
"Did you get the job done at least?"
"Yea. The nets are on fire."
Ellie wrapped Gaiges leg up. "I'm not a medical professional. Working on a living thing is much more different than a vehicle. When y'all get back to Sanctuary, I recommend y'all find an actual doctor."
"Now I'm not done with the Technical yet but you two can go and destroy more of those technicals and get me those statues of me on 'em."
Sal and Krieg nodded as they went out to get the statues for Ellie. They easily took out the technicals and put the statues around the garage. "Alright y'all Technical is done. Go on and head back home. Take care of Gaige."
They all lit the effigies on fire and went ahead and pulled the lever. The fire emerged from the pit. "My brothers, we have caught these heretics from the wretched city of Sanctuary. Today we will sacrifice them to our great mother. Let the Enkindling, begin!"
The cultists around them shouted and cheared. Maddox looked up to see the captives were indeed from Sanctuary.
Lilith appeared out of nowhere on top of the cage. "This is your goddess and she is very disappointed. Vault Hunters, I'm going to return them to Sanctuary, in the meantime. Kill these heathens."
"Brothers, we have been lied to. Attack the vault hunters."
Furies of bullets came from every direction. As the group all spread out in order to survive the onslaught. Yet again Maddox's shield gave out just before he got into cover. A psycho ran over to his position and tried to hit him with the buzz axe. Maddox grabbed its arm and punched him hard enough for the psycho to hit the ground. Maddox still had the arm and broke it before using the dropped buzz axe to kill the psycho. He picked the buzz axe and threw it at a nomad. Scoring a direct hit in the stomach. Maddox quickly finished him off.
They continued to fight it out. Eventually Clayton was killed. Having fallen into his own sacrificial pit. They stated to head back to Sanctuary hoping the others missions had gone more smoothly.
Gaige laid on the bed in Dr. Zed's clinic. She was currently under anesthesia for the surgery as Zed looked for the bullet that entered her leg. Finally finding the dangerous piece of metal and pulling it out. He then began to patch up her leg. Knowing it would be a while before she would regain consciousness. Zed walked out and headed to the headquarters.
"It was pretty bad. But she'll be alright." Zed told Sal and Krieg failing to notice that the other four had returned.
"Who?" Maddox asked.
"Uhhh Gaige, she uh. Well she was shot." Sal admitted.
Maddox sprinted past them. "She's on anesthesia she's not going to be up for a while. "Zed shouted at him but it fell on deaf ears.
Maddox ran into the medical clinic and indeed Gaige was on the table with a wrapping around her left leg. The bullet obviously hit her calf. She was unconscious and looked peaceful. Maddox walked up to the red head before him. Looking at the torn black and whites she was wearing so Zed could get to the thing that could have ended her life. Making Maddox lose yet another person he really cared about. Her cybernetic arm was removed and on the shelf for whatever medical reason that it was removed.
Maddox walked over and picked up the complex design. He knew that Gaige had made this arm for her. Inside this arm was the module that summoned DT. Maddox wasn't quite sure how DT was actually summoned, he knew she would raise an open hand then bring it down in a closed fist. But other than that head no clue, maybe part of it came with her speech, a type of voice command. She would always say "DT" or "Death Trap" while her hand did its thing and DT would digistruct in front of her. He wanted to find out but would ask later.
He put the arm back on the shelf and looked at her missing arm. From the shoulder down there was nothing. Just a small little scarred stub. Maddox couldn't quite understand how the armed stayed on. "There are no screws, or scars on your arm for an incision. In fact when I put it arm back yesterday before it was like a simple clamp, maybe it was squeezing the stub to stay attached. Not painfully I hope, but just enough to stay attached through even through harshest beating." Maddox thought out loud.
He moved to the side of the bed and carefully sat near her head as to not disturb her leg. "You're a really good engineer. Sure I can turn myself into some weird thing that's about my size, or if I had my car I could create a towering robot, I can theoretically create a giant ship but I have no AI to manage all of the systems. But I can only do that because of my power. You… you don't need any power to do that. In fact you'd make the AI for a ship. You don't have a special ability like I do. You're just insanely smart. Something that people from where I'm from don't value very much. In fact if you're smart you're kinda laughed at. I know Anika was pretty smart, not smarter than you. but enough for people to look down on her." Maddox began to chuckle a little. "I'm talking to someone that can't even hear me. I guess that tells you just how important you are. To me at least." Maddox ran his fingers through her hair. "I don't know why, but of all places you could have gone to, to escape from Eden-5. You chose Pandora, and how lucky am I that not only you chose Pandora as your get away. But that you chose me, to be your partner." Maddox was sitting on the right side of her. So he grabbed her flesh hand. Interlocking their fingers. As he awaited for her to wake up.
"Well, do we wait on Maddox to get back to sort out the loot?" Sal asked.
"No, let him worry. We can sort it all out." Axton said.
They began to put out the loot in different piles. In Axton's pile was a Pointman Class Mod, Specialist Class Mod, Acidic Aegis, Tactician Class Mod, Grenadier Class Mod, Incendiary Rakeshell, Acidic Bratchny, Rubberized Incendiary Effect Grenade, Weakened Lobbed Singularity Grenade, Flame of the Firehawk, Shock Trooper Class Mod, Acidic Peacemaker, and The Afterburner Relic.
He kept the Pointman Class Mod, Acidic Peacemaker, The Afterburner, Flame of the Firehawk and Incendiary Rakeshell, he kept his Pooshka, and Weakened Homing MIRV Grenade.
Maya had found a Incendiary Zooka, Rifle, Electronic Handgun, Warder Class Mod, Lobbed Bettie Grenade, and Electronic Vanquisher.
She kept the Electronic Vanquisher, Lobbed Bettie Grenade, and Electronic Handgun, she kept her Electronic Spinigun, and Fox Class Mod.
Salvador received two War Dog Class Mods, a Acidic Punishment, Scarab, Electronic Renegade, Monk Class Mod, Titan Class Mod, and a Bushwack.
He kept the Acidic Punishment, and Electronic Renagade, he kept his Longrider, and Beast Class Mod.
Zero sorted through his pile that had a Incendiary Kindle, Incendiary Spike Shield, Rokets, Spinigun, Explosive Spike Shield, Lobbed Incendiary Effect Grenade, Professional Class Mod, Electronic Sticky Longbow Transfusion Grenade, Scarab, and Electronic Aegis.
He kept the Incendiary Kindle, Explosive Spike Shield, Electronic Sticky Longbow Transfusion Grenade, and Professional Class Mod, he kept his Incendiary Fighter.
Krieg found a Lobbed Acidic Effect Grenade, Sticky Homing Bettie Grenade, Torch Class Mod, Hulk, Electronic Pistal, Acidic Longbow Bettie, Reaper Class Mod, Barbarian Class Mod, Rod, Incendiary Blaster, and an Incendiary Room Clener.
He kept the Lobbed Acidic Effect Grenade, Torch Class Mod, Hulk, and Incendiary Blaster.
That's it. Gaige was the first injury to the group unless you count Maddox passion out. I know that Gaige and Maddox haven't gone through their stuff yet. They will be going through that near the beginning of the next chapter. However, the inventory update will include what they get anyway. You will see what it is that they kept by the "@" on the end of it.
Inventory Update:
Axton
Pooshka- Vladof Sniper
Incendiary Rakeshell- Sniper
Acidic Peacemaker- Pistol
Flame of the Firehawk Shield- Maliwan Legendary (Constant Fire Nova when completely depleted)
Weakened Homing MIRV Grenade- Torgue
Pointman Class Mod- Faster health regeneration and more health.
The Afterburner Relic- longer boost and faster recharge time.
Maya
Electronic Vanquisher- Vladof Launcher
Electronic Handgun- Tediore Pistol
Electronic Minigun- Dahl AR
Standard Shield- Tediore
Lobbed Bettie Grenade- Dahl
Fox Class Mod- higher burn chance and damage
Salvador
Longrider- Jakob's Shotgun
Electronic Renegade- Vladof AR
Acidic Punishment- Maliwan Launcher
Standard Shield- Tediore
Electronic Homing Effect Grenade- Vladof
Beast Class Mod- more health and faster reload
Zero
Sniper- Dahl Sniper
Incendiary Fighter- Vladof Pistol
Incendiary Kindle- Tediore SMG
Explosive Spike Shield- Torgue
Electronic Sticky Longbow Transfusion Grenade Effect- Maliwan
Professional- faster reload speed and more shield capacity.
Gaige
Incendiary Blaster-Dahl AR@
Acidic Smig- Bandit SMG@
Longarm- Jakobs Pistol@
Booster Shield- Dahl
Sticky Homing Standard Grenade- Tediore
Catalyst Class Mod- more team elemental damage
Krieg
Hulk- Torgue Shotgun
Incendiary Launcher- Bandit Launcher
Incendiary Blaster - Vladof AR
Acidic Nova Shield- Maliwan
Lobbed Acidic Effect Grenade- Vladod
Torch Class Mod- more burn damage
Maddox
Blaaa- Torgue Launcher@
Callipeen- Jakobs Sniper
Incendiary Provocateur- Maliwan SMG
Acidic Spike Shield- Maliwan
Incendiary Longbow MIRV Grenade- Vladof@
Slicer Class Mod- plasma blades consume less energy@