Echo Log: 04

Octus frowned as he stared at the strange ship only about three hundred meters away from him, half of it sticking out of the sand, a massive hole giving easy access to the riches sure to be in its belly. He watched as another of his technicals, driven by a marauder with a midget psycho strapped to the front by ropes, rushed at the ship. The engine roared as the guns that peppered the ship's hull closest to the charging bandits reacted and opened up a volley of fire.

The rounds were practically mortar shells, tearing through the metal plates of the technical before detonating and killing the technical's inhabitants. Octus caught sight of something flying through the air towards him and raised a brow. He took a deliberate step to the left as the midget Psycho from the Technical landed hard right where he had been standing. He pulled out a pack of cigarettes and flicked one out, bending down to light it off the fire that was on the barely alive Psycho's mask straps.

He stood back up and took a long draught of the cancer into his lungs before expelling it out his nose, looking right at the small camera that had appeared underneath one of the turrets on the ship. Octus made a mental note to have the patrol's tonight tripled at increased intervals. His prize was before him, and she wouldn't like another failure, not after what had happened at Sanctuary the week before.

Octus looked back at the horde behind him, hundreds of Bandits still left to use and he took another drag of the cigarette, his eyes narrowing just a tad bit. "Tch."

~Axton~

To be completely honest, he thought about offing himself at that point just so he didn't have to deal with his Hang over. After all, when being remade at the new U station, you came back without any kind of ailments. Unless it was a genetic disease of course, but the New-U stations had been shut down after Hyperion Left. With no one left to monitor and maintain them had meant that the massive influx of Bandit deaths had stopped them up and made them shut down.

Thus Axton had to deal with his hang over the old fashioned way. With more drink, luckily he had passed out at Mac's and Mac was too much of a push over to toss him and the slumbering Gunzerker onto the street. Axton missed Moxxi'S bar sure, who didn't miss the femme fatale? But Mac was just as interesting in his own right, a myriad of tails from his trips around the universe in search of treasure until- Not kidding here- He had taken a savages arrow to the knee and had to retire. Yeah, that's the truth.

Axton dragged himself from the floor with the most effort he had put out in his entire life. It seemed to take forever for him to get seated at the bar, half hanging out of the bar seat. Mac had been watching him all the while cleaning a glass in his hands, that same small smile on his face. Mac was an exceptionally attractive man, His features strong, with just a hint of softness at all the right places.

His hair was medium length and swept back with oils, {where the fuck he got them Axton didn't know.} pure white and had a soft gaze of red. Odd fact was he wasn't albino; he looked like this by choice. (The local quick-change station were maintained by their resident Anarchist) he wore a traditional bar tenders outfit and did so quite well.

Axton was resting his head on his crossed arms which were sprawled on the bar as he stared at Mac, who placed the cleaned glass on the bar before Axton. "Really, I am surprised you even woke up today." Mac said, reaching under the bar, his eyes closed mind you, to pull out the good stuff. Mac had come off world after apparently meeting with and becoming partners with Moxxi while she had been on vacation, but the point is he had brought with him many different types of alcohol, all way better than anything that had been made on Pandora.

"This is on the house, but don't expect any more till after you answer your echo." Mac said as he poured the drink. Axton blinked slowly as he final noticed the ring of his comm and groaned as he moved to take a drink of the sweet ambrosia. It tasted like strawberries, huh. "Comm, answer." His cracked voice came out after his throat began to rehydrate in response to the drink that went down smooth. Mac placed another glass, this with water next to the nectar of the gods.

A small screen opened to show Lilith's face. "About damn time you answered."

Axton took a drink of the water before letting his head fall back to the bar. "Yeah, yeah, what do you want?"

"We have a downed space craft in the dust." Lilith said.

Axton processed that for a quick moment before sighing and pushing himself up to rest on his elbows and looked at the small screen. Even Mac was paying attention, having stopped cleaning the bar top and leaning on it to try to look at the screen. "Sit Rep."

Lilith shifted her weight, giving a view of the mountain of explosives behind her that Maya and Gaige were messing with. "We managed to get in contact with the ships owners and are preparing to strike back against the bandits."

Axton frowned. "If it's the dust then the bandits will be numbering in the hundreds."

Lilith smiled. "Yep, and our two new 'friends' are more than eager to fight against them."

Axton shared a look with Mac before looking back at the screen. "Talk."

~Maya~

"So, you think we can do this?" Gaige asked her as she tinkered with a detonator.

Maya didn't pause in her work. "Nope."

Gaige stopped and looked at her. "What?"

"I like these two, they have a lot of guts and they are definitely skilled," Maya said as she rested her weight on the hand she planted on the work table, her body turned to look at Gaige. "But there are literally hundreds of the bandits out there and while we are bad asses…" Maya used her free hand to swat at the air.

"I see your point." Gaige said with a bit of a pout. "So, what do you think is gonna happen then?"

Maya frowned and thought for a moment. "I think we are going to carve out a good chunk of them, but will fail to drive them off in the three day time limit." She turned back to her work. "After all, we are all just human."

Lilith came walking over. "Got in contact with Axton, he said he will be here by nightfall with a somewhat sober Salvador and Ace."

Gaige frowned and looked at Lilith. "Ace?"

"Whether you like him or not," Maya piped in. "Ace is one hell of a gunman."

Lilith shrugged. "We are gonna need all the help we can get for this besides," Lilith said as she crossed her arms under her joy bringers. "He isn't that bad, sure he's a bit of a tight ass but hey, we all have issues."

Gaige made a gagging motion and looked away with annoyance. "Yeah, but that's because he never messes with you," Gaige frowned. ""He is always yelling at me."

"That's because he is sanctuary's law man and you constantly break the laws." Maya said.

"CRASH THE SYSTEM!" Gaige screamed out by instinct before pausing and coughing into her own hand and regaining her composure. "That's beside the point and I never do anything particularly bad."

"You reprogrammed Moxxi's Innuendo bot to follow him around and constantly make terrible sex puns, cop jokes and even connected it to the echo net so it could search the web for the latest in anti-establishment propaganda," Lilith said as she rested a hand on her hip and shifted her weight to her back leg.

Gaige frowned. "It was just a harmless joke."

Lilith raised a brow. "You made it follow him around for a month, and repaired it every time he destroyed it."

"In fact, you made it worse every time he destroyed it, having it use a microphone to scream it at him while he slept." Maya chipped in helpfully.

"THANK YOU," Gaige said as she sent the blue haired woman a hard look. "Very Much, Maya!"

Lilith sighed and fixed the mechanic with the 'I'm-the-boss-so-you-better-fucking-listen-to-me-or-I-will-melt-your-fucking-face-off-with-my-bitchen-ass-Siren-powers-'look and said. "Play nice."

Gaige hawked loudly then spit on the ground to the side. "Fine."

Maya looked up at the ceiling. "Wonder how the boys are doing."

"Oh I am sure they are fine." Lilith responded.

~Lance~

Honestly, had someone told him he was going to be grabbed by an extremely large man with one massive arm and one tiny arm who would then slam him into the ceiling before tossing him into another room filled with freaks and crazies, (One talking about how a horse he knew named Butt Stallion would shit guns when you fed it) Lance would have just stayed in bed that morning.

But someone hadn't told him that, and here he was, surrounded by the mistakes of Mother Nature and that fucker was screaming the name Butt Stallion at the top of his lungs. He had landed roughly, his back sliding across the ground before he tucked into a ball and rolled up to his feet. He looked up to see a mass of bandits getting between him and his companions. He felt one corner of his mouth tighten as his hand reached down to the magnum in its holster, taking stock of his surroundings quickly.

The room was dark, light pouring in from the hole he had been thrown through but that didn't help with the visibility much. No real cover he could use and the bandits were advancing quickly. What caught him off his guard was that none of them were shooting at him, even though this was a great opportunity to do s-.

Lance quickly dove into a forward roll that ended with his back to the floor and facing the opposite way, his gun pulled and the hammer cocked back as a massive buzz axe swept through the air his head had occupied a moment ago. He quickly sighted the gun and pulled the trigger, the gun jerking like a bull as the round smashed through the freaks mask, into the hollow of the eye socket and proceeded to bounce around inside the monster's head until it found a home in the freaks Abdulla oblongata.

He then quickly aimed up, his free hand fanning the hammer as he fired into the crowd of now upside down bandits, taking three for dead, one getting a chunk of his shoulder blown off and the final round ricocheting of the wall harmlessly. Lance snarled as he rolled over and over, bullets eating up the ground right behind him. He turned one roll into a spring that sent him into the darkest part of the room where he quickly reloaded the revolver and rushed back into the lighter part of the room.

He pistol whipped one of the psycho's in the face before getting him in a standing choke hold, using him as a meat shield as he fired off again. He didn't see the massive man to his right until a burst of rounds hit his shields. Lance quickly fired off a round at the man's head, hitting a large metal helm instead and knocking it off the mountain of flesh to reveal a tiny head on a tentacle like neck. Lance made a disgusted face as the voodoo headed man screamed in rage and through his guns down before charging Lance like a tank.

Lance attempted to fire another round into the chargers tiny head but was rebuffed with a massive back hand that not only shattered his shields but sent him flying into the wall. Before he had a chance to even land the giant rammed its shoulder into his gut which caused him to gag, and then vomit all over the man's tiny head. Oddly enough, that didn't seem to calm the raging giant's temper, in fact it seemed to make it worse. The giant backed off, giving Lance a quick second to regain composer before the giant let out a salvo of powerful punches and flying spittle.

Lance was no stranger to cqc and was dancing around the hits, letting them slip over his shoulder or to the side before punishing the giant with rapid blows to the tiny skull. That only made the bastard angrier though and it struck out faster than before, blows now landing in Lance's side and gut. Lance felt his stomach try to revolt but he quickly tightened all the muscles in his body, taking a purely defensive stance as the giant quickly began to pummel him into the wall.

~The Goliath~

The cheers of his fellow bandits made the Goliath even angrier, his fists hitting harder and faster as he roared and grew larger, the eridium in his veins fueling the transformation. He was so far gone that he didn't even feel it as his victims fist slammed into his gut, lifting him off the ground for a quick moment of air time before another fist slammed into his tiny head, smashing it into his massive body before it sent him flying into the crowd of cheering Bandits.

His head snaked up to look back at the meat bag he had been pummeling, just noticing the deep purple glow that surrounded the flesh stick that stepped out from the small crater on the wall. Its eyes were a deep purple as it wiped blood from its word hole and spewed out sound that it couldn't quite understand.

"I'll admit, you caught me off guard." It said as it held up its right fist, the tattoo's glowing blue as purple energy began to form around its arm, shifting and growing till it was a massive, three clawed arm that could easily reach the group of bandits that were awestruck at the sight. "Allow me to express my gratitude."

The creature, that was the only thing the goliath's mind could process it as, charged forward, sweeping out with the massive arm and eviscerating three bandits in a row. Blood splattered as the bandits died and panicked. Bullets ricocheted everywhere as the creature tore through more of the bandits, back handing a few with a sickening crunch in response as their bodies twisted into unnatural shapes from the blows.

The creature grabbed a psycho and flung it into another one, bones crunching and snapping as they screamed in pain and fear. The room became a sea of viscera, shit and blood as the creature savaged them till finally, he was all that was left. The creature tore the bandit it was holding in twine, dropping both halves as it walked over to him, still cowering in fear, his rage all but forgotten.

"Well," the creature said as it loomed over the quivering goliath. "Just you and me now friend."

It reared back its massive claw before stabbing its two more prominent claws into his chest, wrapping the third one around his frame and lifting him up into the air. The creature simply looked into his eyes before slamming the goliath back into the ground. He struggled against the claws weakly, his life leaking into the ground, forming a massive puddle as he grunted and fought. And finally, he felt peace, for the first time in his life he felt calm. Funny, he had never believed that death was true peace.

Then the goliath went to hell because he had done many terrible things in his life, for which he was punished by a midget devil wearing a string bikini made of human flesh and was riding on a red, horned bully mong named Carl.

~Malcolm~

Malcolm looked at the blood covered room and shook his head with a quick whistle. "Damn Lance, couldn't you have kept the place cleaner?" Malcolm walked over to his brother who had turned to face him and Mordicai, patting his brother on the shoulder. "Or at least invited me to the party?"

Lance gave him a grim smile. "What can I say," Lance shrugged as the large purple arm of energy disintegrated. "I know how to throw one hell of a bash."

"What the hell was that!?" Mordicai said as he holstered his weapon, his arms crossing as he rested his weight on his back leg.

Lance looked at the hunter and scratched the back of his head as he thought, his jaw slowly shifting side to side. "Well…" Lance rested his hands on his hips. "It's the key."

Mordicai blinked then slowly nodded his head. "There is a story to this, more then you have told me." Mordicai cracked his neck. "But you can tell it to us later, and I mean all of us."

Lance inclined his head towards Mordicai and Malcolm raised a brow. "You accepted this pretty quickly."

Mordicai looked at Malcolm and said. "I have fought giant alien creatures, I am friends with two of the six legendary Sirens, I know a girl who cut off her arm to replace it with a device to summon a giant robot, A native whose steroid abuse turned him into a midget with serious anger management problems and a possible robot that speaks in haiku's."

Malcolm's brows shot up. "Point, Taken."

Lance walked back out to the main room, picking up his gun and quickly checking it. "Come on, we came here for a reason right?" His gun was fine and he quickly went about reloading both the rifle and his magnum as Malcolm and Mordicai did the same.

"This way." Malcolm said as he walked briskly towards a door, his Hacky Jack program already active and the massive spike formed. He didn't bother waiting for the door to open; he simply slammed the spike into it and watched as electricity danced around the frame and into the doors automated connection. His code infected the facilities personal network, unlocking everything until it hit a high security matrix.

"Ah hah!" Malcolm said as he read the data on his digiscreen, letting it close back into his gauntlet. He looked back at his companions. "There is a high security access room that hasn't been breached yet, so whatever is inside it will be untouched."

Lance shared a look with Mordicai. "Any idea?"

Mordicai shrugged. "Fuck if I know."

"Then let's get moving." Malcolm said as he took off down the now open corridor.

Lance shook his head as he started walking, holding his rifle at ease as Mordicai took the rear, his revolver held up next to his head, the barrel pointing at the ceiling.

They passed through a few rooms that the bandits had obviously been living in, judging by the state and smell of each room. One room they walked through had a sign in the front that read. "On at a tiem." Inside of the room had been large pictures of Moxxi, tons of porno mags strewn all over the floor and a shit ton of balled up tissues on the floor. Malcolm did his best not to stare at the stains on the walls under the pictures of Moxxi. Instead he stared at a Magazine called Heavy Metal and started laughing.

"What is it Malcolm?" Lance asked.

"I think I found Ellie." Malcolm said as he used his gun to point at the massive woman on the front of the magazine.

Lance frowned and Mordicai smiled. "Not too far off actually." He said, which caused Malcolm to laugh even harder.

They came up to a pair of massive doors that were under heavy bars and had 'Authorized personel only' written on it. "Here we are." Malcolm said with a half-smile on his face.

"Yeah, So how do we open it then?" Mordicai asked.

Malcolm opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by an alarm sounding.

"High security breach, Prisoner 007 is escaping, activating primary Defenses." A female voice said over the speakers as a set of massive digi turrets constructed, aiming at the trio.

"Shit." Lance said as he readied his weapon.

End

So yeah, it's a shortier chapter this time, but really blame Starcraft 2. Just got it and its eating my life away.

Quickly.

Also I thank the two who took the time from their busy lives to review my work and comment on it. I appreciate it whole heartily.

Also, next chapter there is gonna be some shit going down as I introduce another vault hunter. One Jack didn't even try to kill, just subdue. Now be warned, this character is gonna be a little over powered, for a reason. But I think ya'll are gonna love our Dear Robert.

After all, who doesn't love a sociopath?

~TheXWheel.