The first thing she felt upon waking up was how cold and alien the floor felt.
Lilith attempted to get up on her feet, but her hands were bound together. Failing that, she tried to call upon her Siren powers to Phasewalk through her bonds, but her powers failed to come forth. She rolled to face the ceiling. Bad mistake. Big bright lights burned into her eyes. She closed her eyes and rolled back to face the floor. Once safe from the intense light, she simply leaned her head up to look around. Grey and white metal room with padded walls, no doors, no windows, no other pieces of furniture. Akin to a cell in a insane asylum.
Admittedly, living on Pandora and dealing with actual insane people have made Lilith a bit insane. But she didn't belong here!
As she scooted against a wall to get somewhat comfortable, a long hissing noise came from the far wall. A section of a wall lifted up and there stood a tall and helmeted grunt in military garb. Didn't seem to appear to like any of the grunts she slaughtered before; not Atlas, not Dahl, not Hyperion…the uniform had this weird slanted rectangles thing going on, sort reminded Lilith of a Maliwan weapon, but the colors were far darker. No orange whatsoever. Just white and dark blue. He did carry a mean-looking Jakobs rifle. No shield meant that weapon would either kill her or quickly remove a limb…and she would die via bleeding out like a ruptured fountain. The grunt walked over and stuck a key into the cuffs. But she didn't have time to rub her wrists, as the guard ordered: "Get up and listen to my instructions."
Being the guy with the gun that could take out a Badass Psycho in one shot, Lilith followed his orders.
The hallways were far more colorful than the cell. The entire area seemed to be glowing in a light blue light, but Lilith couldn't tell if the light emitted from the area around this prison or the prison itself. She was marched into a room resembling a clean doctor's officer…come to think of it, when was the last time Lilith stepped into a office this clean? The guard pushed her into a seat. "Stay here." He barked before ringing a bell on the wall. Lilith kicked her legs back and forth, waiting for the doc to come by.
"Lukas!" Came a shrill male voice with a slight western twang from behind a wall. "Thank you for bringing the Siren to me. Been wanting to poke one since I took this job." Another section of the wall opened up and out walked a middle-aged, average-height, half-bald man wearing half of a proper doctor's outfit: a white coat and a scrubs for the top half, and baggy cargo shorts with flip-flops. Odd this guy keeps everything but himself clean. He adjusted his half-crooked glasses multiple times as he peered over Lilith. She would very VERY much like to bitch-slap this sucker into dust, but it would take more than that to deal with Lukas there.
"A true Siren!" The doctor declared. "Oh, where are my manners?" He stuck out his tongue. "I am Doctor Genomsnitt. I'm the doctor to Ms. Jones' operations here in the Abyss…" He stopped himself mid-sentence. He went over to the nearby wall (not the one that been raised) and banged his head against it once. After shaking off the cobwebs from his forced trauma he started again. "I am Doctor Genomsnitt. I'm the doctor for Mrs. Jones." He went over to a hanging clipboard and removed it.
Lilith did manage to fill in the details. There was only one place named Abyss that made sense: the Abschluss Abyss. Some sort of massive canyon deep down south, real south. But the weird thing is, and this is all according to a rumor she heard off a young adult girl who acted and sounded like a teenager, the Abyss was in the middle of a ice cap but the entire area had temperatures up to triple digits. Sounded a lot like Hero's Pass; possibly the Abyss existed over a volcano/magna vein? She didn't feel hot…
"I see that the suppression implant is working at a efficient 97%." Genomsnitt hummed. "Got to boost that." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small device that resembled a top-of-the-line gaming device. A short tap, a wait, and then a few short more taps and then Lilith got shocked by something. Nothing like what she endured during her Vault Hunting days, but still enough to make her jump. "Okay, she's cleared." Genomsnitt sighed as he put his device back into pocket. "I would so much like to experiment on a Siren and find what really makes them tick…"
"You'll get a chance one day." Lukas said as he got up and got right up into Lilith's personal space. "We got another Siren on the base, someone a bit more powerful than this one." Genomsnitt let out a happy squeal at the thought. This got Lilith to immediately consider a escape plan. No time to wait around, they need to leave as soon as possible. Brute force their way out of here, work out how to get back home. Do the usual thing!
Lukas strong-armed her down another hallway towards another unknown destination. The hallways she went down offered no significant detail to make them distinct in anyway. Lilith wondered how the people that worked and lived here got around without getting lost every five seconds. Lukas' helmet had a small antenna on it. Maybe the soldiers' helmets had a map display. That would be useful in the escape. Lukas pushed her through the door second on the right in one hallway. This lead into a room with a table, chair, a flat bed and a clean pillow, a small room for a toilet and the most valuable thing the room had to offer was a wide-screen TV.
But the only channel available? Evil Lady TV.
"Lilith, Siren, Firehawk?" Asked a red-haired lady. Lilith opted to be silent, and hold back from making insults or a dry quip. She got in return another shock from inside her body, this time with more volts. Lilith could actually feel her toes going numb. "Are you Lilith, the Siren to open the Destroyer's vault, and the bandit known as the Firehawk?" The woman asked again.
"Y-yeah." Lilith grunted. "And who are you?"
"I am Lilian Jones." Lilian cleared her throat. "Ex-captain of the Maliwan unit the Tempore Autem. We dealt with the large-scaled threats, such as a Siren that one time on Eos." Lilith glared at the screen now with fury. She had heard about a Siren being murdered on Eos a few years back, the true story being that the Siren had been captured and brainwashed into becoming a super-soldier for some small-time army. She escaped, went on a mindless rampage thanks to the cocktail of serums in her system, and got shot down in the middle of a public place. Knowing how corporations worked, they probably reported the Siren to be a cold-blooded murderer and photoshoped in some bodies and debris to make the rampage be more violent and make people's hearts wrench and feel angry towards the Siren.
Lilian cleared her throat to get back Lilith's attention. "I have taken you and your allies for a certain reason. My plans require to do a significant amount of damage to the planet…which might result in massive fragmentation of the land, and possible destruction." The screen flickered and instead of a stoic lady speaking, it showed a gigantic drill that stood ten miles tall and spread out about twenty-five wide. Was Lilith inside the drill? "This drill, a Lidenbrock Model S, with our improvements, will drill through the multiple layers of Pandora searching for a…"
"A Vault." Lilith filled in with a long sigh. "This is becoming a cat stuck up in a tree thing here."
"Well, it's a good thing, or a valuable thing…" Lillian trailed off a second, having stumbled over her words. "Back on track. This Vault is said to be a cache of powerful weapons that the ancient Eridians built to fight some great war. According to legend, they feared the power of these weapons and locked them into a Vault deep underneath Pandora's surface. They didn't mention how deep the Vault is, so we are going to have to go as deep as possible."
"What's the end goal here?" Lilith asked. "Going to take over the world or some unoriginal crap like that?"
"My ideal plan is to take those weapons and end the needless corporation wars once and for all." Lilith honestly stared at Lillian. "Yes, I have grown tired of the endless and often meaningless wars…I have lost count of the friends and innocent lives lost for a small increase of profits. You have removed Atlas from the Pandora system, but they are still active in other systems. Hyperion is still active here though…despite what they have done to you." A slight smile appeared on Lillian's face. "Hyperion forced you to fake your death and go into hiding, killed a friend's pet, made you a slave, and killed your boyfriend, and you punish them by killing their CEO. Atlas beat you to a Vault and you kick them out. Seems right."
Lilith let her fist fly right into screen. The only crack that occurred was the one in her Lilith's knuckles. Lillian continued regardless. "Me and my men shall dispose of all the corporations. We shall kill everyone and destroy everything involved with the corporations: Hyperion, Atlas, Dahl, Maliwan, Jakobs, Torque, S&S Munitions, Tediore, Vladof, Bandit, Anshin, Pangolin…they will be forgotten when it's our time." Lillian looked off to the side. "This means I will have to find a way to permanently kill…Marcus, Patricia, Axton, Athena, Krieg, Aurelia and that doppelganger Jack had running around Elpis. They are the only ones who were directly involved with a corporation in the past, and in order to pick forth a better future where lives are more important than money, all traces of the gun runners must be removed." Lillian paused for a moment before adding, "Please don't strike the monitors. They aren't designed to be punching bags."
"Why?" Lilith asked, grimacing as she held her possibly-broken hand. "Why do you want to do this? You are going to kill billions…possibly trillions with this plan. I know the gun manufacturers have done horrible things, but there are some good people in them. Can you justify killing those good people?"
"I can-an..." Lillian stuttered. "…it's worth it. Trust me. I know what I'm doing." The screen shut down, leaving Lilith alone in a cold jail cell with only a broken hand. Her mind swam with plans on how to get the hell out of here. At this point, it would be smarter to get just herself or some people out and come back. Lillian had the power and resources to commit to her plans, and she would only bring massive destruction to Pandora.
For now, Lilith cradled her hand and sat down in bed. Might as well get some sleep. She wasn't getting anywhere and acting like a aggressive dick would only stack on more problems. Wait a bit, try to make a few new friends that work here, figure how to get the device out of her…and oh, kill Lillian.