Sorry for the long wait everybody, got side tracked by D&D and some other stories…
Chapter 16: Dropping in on old friends. Begin.
Character Perspective: Zero.
We all waited in the hanger; Angel's Phase Shift allowing her to remotely land the ship. She stood alongside me, her eyes glowing a brilliant gold as her mind delved into the code and information of the ship's on-board computer. Her holographic representation flickered on the screen as every system yielded to her will. I slid my hand in hers and sighed deeply; I was less than excited to have her in harm's way again… She looked over to me and smiled faintly, her glowing eyes dimming as the ship jerked downward toward the surface.
"Alright people, get ready, this isn't going to be easy…" Lilith said in a commanding voice. The ship touched down and the hanger door opened, allowing the assault team to make their approach. Mordecai and I began to fire pot shots at Lance Troopers as they made their rounds at their posts, clearing the path for the team. Angel kept us steady and simultaneously fired down on a large group of troopers with an elemental sniper rifle, picking some off as they began to retaliate. We eventually dropped Mordecai off and continued on to my and Angel's drop zone as well; I was still taking down several troops as we passed. We were there in a matter of moments and jumped out of the back hanger; Angel hacking the Auto-Pilot to land the craft several meters away from us as we made our sneak attack. None of the Lance saw us coming before it was too late and they had a sward in their chest or a bullet in their brain; we were very efficient together. Angel flew tremendously fast, nocking several Lance to the ground or taking their weapons and hacking them to explode as she doubled back to drop the explosive payload of her Phase-Shifting. One of the Lance was carrying a sniper rifle- the very same sniper rifle that was lodged in his head and detonated inside his cranium to kill his allies with its explosion. Not one of them was ready for us and all were defeated at every turn as we made our way to the door. Angel made it to the door prior to me and hacked every security door in the compound and opened every door in it as well. She then turned into the open corridor that led to the deeper reaches of the underground bunker, firing a barrage of huge, elemental rockets into it. Walls and parts of the floor melted away as the powerful acid explosions from her Norfleet Launcher filled the halls and the sounds of dying foot soldiers echoed several meters ahead. She turned back to me and gestured for me to follow. I waved her on ahead while I cleared the fields of troops as to ensure that they could not locate our ship and strand us on this planet. The Lancemen came in droves and died in heaps as I removed their brains one after another with single rounds and lobotomized them with massive sniper bullets; either killing them or leaving them a mindless pile of pain as they bled out of the floor. Soon, none remained and I entered the door, holstering my rifle and pulling out my sword and attaching my Order shield. I followed the trail of acid and screams into an open room filled with green, writhing masses of death and armor rolled along the ground.
"Angel, how are you doing?" I asked telepathically, cutting down a trooper that attempted to surprise me.
"I'm doing fine, Honey… I'm almost to the Central Hub Computer… I should be… Damn It! Zero, I've been blocked… There's about twenty Badasses ahead and I just ran out of ammo… I have to fly over them and start Smiting… See you in a little bit…" she replied, her voice cheerful, as though it was a game to her… I didn't pay it much attention as I was getting attacked on all sides by a wave of about ten Lance women all dressed in tight-fitting armor and carrying blades. I smirked beneath my helmet and readied my blade. Two of them rushed me, allowing me to slice them in half without even swinging; I merely side stepped them as they approached. One then leaped up and tried a downward swing at my head, I easily blocked it and slid under her block and buried her own blade in her chest. I turned to the other seven and began to walk at them slowly. They took a step back with every one that I took toward them, their blades in defensive positions.
"Lower your weapons/ And you'll escape with your lives/ I'm done killing girls…" I said in a defeated voice. The one nearest to me lowered her swords and stepped towards me, removing her helmet. I nodded to her and she started sprinting toward the door, full speed. Five others did the same, only they sheathed their blades and followed their sister. The least armored of the group stood at the ready, her blades drawn and her eyes piercing with hatred.
"I'd rather die than live with such a defeat, Phantom…" she said, addressing me with an old name that I didn't care for.
"Leave! Before I kill you/ And you know I don't want to…/ Please… just let me pass…" I said, dropping my shoulders and flashing her a sad face emoticon. Just then, I deployed my decoy and side stepped her as she tried to lung at me. I pulled out my pistol and blew out her knee cap, forcing her to drop to the floor and clutch her bleeding leg. "I won't ask again…/ Leave now and you will survive…/ Please, Persephone…" I said in an even softer voice, kicking away her blades that she'd dropped as she fell. She squinted and lifted herself from the floor, beginning to hobble down the corridor. I watched her leave for several moments, remembering some old missions that I'd been on when I was with the Lance Assassin Squad. I quickly shook the memories away and I continued down the hall, redrawing my blade and now igniting my markings. Several standard Lance soldiers ambushed me and I used my Deception again, only this time, it was charged with kinetic energy and could strike back when hit. A Lanceman fired at the decoy and the bullets caused it to shutter, getting pushed to the ground. It lifted itself from the floor and cut one of the soldiers in half, but was then defeated by two others gunning it down. I then stabbed one through the spine and watched as they fell to the ground dead. My decoy sat, flickering as bullets passed through it and drew some of their attention away from their dead allies, however, many of them realized that it was a trick and searched for me. I then ran out of time in Deception and was focused by three Lance. I merely smiled beneath my helm and pointed gingerly to my decoy as it ignited in dark, blood red flames. It erupted in a kinetic blast that killed all of the Lance within five feet of it and rendered all the others unconscious. I was unharmed being as I surrounded myself in a kinetic barrier as soon as I became visible again. I walked on for another couple minutes, again being head off by a group of soldiers. I snarled in disappointment at them as they readied their weapons.
"Not a challenge…" I said in an annoyed tone, reaching out with my glowing hand and crushing their brains from within their own skulls and passed them by silently as their screams filled the halls and their grey-matter leaked from their armor and helmets. I pulled out a Kunai and buried it in one of the next wave's chest, preventing its explosion to confuse the enemies. They amassed around the struck soldier to inspect the knife; this is when I detonated it, causing it to explode in a huge, fiery explosion and killing all of them instantly. I continued on, stepping over their corpses and wiping my feet off on the floor as to remove the blood that I'd stepped in by accident. I displayed a frowny face as I wiped away the blood and continued. I eventually reached the corridor that Angel had been stopped at, coming to a stop next to her behind a large metal guard rail.
"Hey, Honey… How was your day?" she asked in a friendly voice, sitting up to lose a grenade into the crowd of Lancemen.
"Not bad…" I replied casually, lifting up and firing into the crowd with my Hawk Eye. Three of the soldiers ducked below cover just as I drew my rifle to my face plate to take aim. However, one unlucky soldier was not fast enough to duck and I fired a single bullet into his eye cover and watched as he dropped to the ground, lifeless. Seeing the others lingering behind cover, I lobbed a Slag Singularity Grenade that landed next to their cover and ripped them away, covering them in purple and black ooze and temporarily disorientating them. I took aim once again and took down the three slagged enemies without hesitation. I then turned to Angel and nodded at her, tossing her my Infinity Pistol from my Storage Deck. She winked at me and began to open fire on the horde of Lance ahead of us, dropping one of them and forcing the others behind cover out of the sheer amount of lead hurdling down-range. I took the chance to stand from cover and take careful aim at the targets. I let loose one cartridge after another, denting the cover with massive rounds from my Hunting Rifle before finally piercing it with huge slugs that could drop elephants. One after another, the Lance were reduced to writhing, bloody masses of paste and armor chunks, only leaving one left. The last remaining Lance soldier took a quick survey of his surroundings and just stood from cover with his rifle raised above his head. I pulled out my Hawk Eye yet again and aimed dead-center of his eye glass as he walked slowly toward us. He dropped to his knees and tossed his rifle far away after dropping its clip and kicking out the last slug. I then approached him and tied back his arms with a piece of steel that was sitting against the wall by the use of my Telekinesis. I removed his helmet and sat down in front of him silently. Angel approached him and kneeled down so her face was mere inches from his as she inspected him.
"Okay, Mister Lance man… You tell us where to find the main computer where all your records are held and we'll let you live and join up with your Assassin sisters that have already defected…" she said with a kind smile and light voice.
"Why would I tell you anything? I only surrendered because I saw it as a means to a quick and painless death!" he shouted, almost leaving spit on my Angel's face. I stood up and lifted him from the ground telekinetically and smashed him against a wall. I never said a word or flashed a single emoticon.
"Please tell us?... If you do… My Husband here won't have to crush every bone in your body into dust and force them to explode out of your eye sockets like a tube of toothpaste…" she said in a still playful voice. Had I not known her so well, she would have intimidated me with such a display...
My tattoos glowing, I approached him and withdrew my sward and began to make small incisions in his armor deep enough to brush his skin beneath.
"Alright! I'll tell you! Just please! Let me down!" the man pleaded, squirming against the metal hoop around his torso and legs. I lowered him as he asked and took a step back. "Okay… Just keep going that way…" he said nodding to the hallway on our left. "… Then type the code "Ask Jeeves" and the door will open and allow you access to the central console! Now please let me go…" he continued, his voice tapering off to a pitiful whine as he finished his explanation. I nodded; my tattoos glowed again and moved the metal at his legs up to tie tighter to his torso and allow him the use of his legs. He took off sprinting down the corridor that Angel and I had come from, crying like a small child.
"Impressive show…" I said quietly to her, walking alongside her as we continued on. She giggled and nudged me gently, taking the lead. I chuckled and followed her as she led us to the door. Strangely, no more Lance tried to stop us; as though this was a trap. I looked intently at Angel as she hacked the door terminal. A loud pinging resounded as what was supposed to have been an explosive deactivated and the door screeched open. We walked in and quickly turned around to the sounds of gunfire and insane laughter and shouting.
"Sounds like the gang's all here!" Angel whispered in a sultry voice, gazing at me with a soft smile.
"Indeed." I replied simply, turning to focus on the doorway. Lilith walked in and shifted on her hip, resting her SMG against her thigh.
"I guess we missed most of the fun!" she said in a slightly more playful voice than I'd ever heard from her before. I just displayed a smiley face and turned back to Angel as she began to work at the controls. Several moments pass as she works at the information banks.
"Yes! I found him! I found Roland!" Angel shouted with glee, looking to Lilith with a happy gaze. "I'm uploading the information from everything that the raiders and what you have on record into the memory profiles… This should only take a few moments, keep me protected for a little while… There are Lance coming from the east corridor…" she said in a distant tone as she uploaded the data. I reached into my Storage Deck and pulled out my stealth unit and handed it to Angel and nodded to her. She looked at it puzzled and put it on hesitantly before turning back to her work. She then immediately disappeared and only the sound of keys being pressed consecutively was indication to her presence. I readied my sword and stood at the ready as a loud humming and the sound of the Digistruct Network kicked into my senses, temporarily overshadowing the noises of combat in the doorway. I turned around to the sight of a large cylindrical device beginning to form a humanoid shape that was very slowly taking the shape of Roland. He dropped to his knees and coughed heavily before pushing himself to stand.
"Ugh… Z-Zero? What? Where am I? …Lilith? What's going on?" Lilith turned around to the voice of her love and her eyes tiered up with happiness as she practically forgot about the sounds of seemingly infinite droves of Lance coming to attack us.
"Ro-land?" she asked happily, her eyes filling to the brim with burning waters. She almost ran to him to kiss him fiercely when a stray bullet whizzed by her head, accompanied by Krieg shouting to us in the control room.
"Sorry, sweetheart! I'm not too good with guns!" Immediately following this statement, his voice echoed through the halls and the sound of Lancemen screaming in terror followed.
"Krieg! You son of a bitch! I'm trying to enjoy a moment and you fucked it up! Get better at killing things before I have to go out there and put you to shame!" Lilith shouted back, her eyes igniting into fiery orange and yellow hues.
"Uh… Were those Lance? Like Crimson Lance? Whe-where are we?" Roland asked confused, begging to look around, seeing my cloaking device shut off and reveal Angel at the keyboard, activating several contingency plans. She winked at him and tossed my device back to me and told me to go have fun. I flashed her a heart and dashed off into the fray. 'I wonder how easily he'll readapt to everything that has happened in his absence…' I thought to myself as I withdrew my blade and deceived in the midst of the combat, slicing away several waves of soldiers.
External Perspective.
"Angel, close the doors and give us some more privacy…" Lilith said in a soft voice. Angel complied, pressing several button sequences that closed the blast doors and set up a sound proof barrier around her and the console.
"Okay! What the hell! Isn't Angel dead!? We helped her commit suicide! Why is she here!?" Roland shouted, his eyes bugging out from his head slightly with frustration. His eyes widened even more as Lilith strode up to him and kissed him on the lips passionately, causing him to freeze in mid arm gesture. His arms instead slipped to her sides and held to her hips and his eyes closed. "Ah… Alright… You want me to shut up, I take it…" he said in a now calm voice. "…Well then… Let's go get in on some of the fun!" he said with a new found resolve and excitement. Lilith shook her head and pointed to the small device on her waist where her Storage Deck was and shook her head to Roland.
"Sorry, Babe… But we just got you back, and without one of these…" she said, pulling the contraption that Angel had commissioned before putting it back and continuing, "… We can't have you dying on the battlefield like last time…"
"Yeah… I guess you're right… Although… It seems that Angel spawned me with one of those already… along with this…" he replied, pulling out a Bearcat Pearlescent Combat Rifle. Lilith stammered at the sight of the rare weapon and huffed, punching the force field that surrounded Angel and the terminal. Roland them cocked the rifle and also knocked on Angel's protection, getting her attention; he pointed to the doors and gestured for her to open them. She smiled and pressed another sequence to override the locks. The doors slid open and revealed all of the team fighting against seemingly infinite waves of Crimson Lance soldiers, the team also seemingly having a good time doing so. Roland smiled and charged in, tossing his turret down next to Aston's and cracked a grin at the surprised commando before firing off several grenade rounds from his immensely overpowered firearm. Angel soon joined in, her shield taking round after round and only shaking slightly as she ignited into every elemental effect and began demolishing every enemy in her path, all without even releasing a single bullet. Roland then came across the man that had shouted back to Lilith while they were chatting in the control room. He looked like a psycho at first glance; but closer examination revealed that he was actually much more sane about his inherently insane movements. At first, Roland brought up his rifle and fired several rounds off into him, causing the man to recoil and look at him. Roland could not determine what his reaction was beyond what seemed to be a nod and the distortion of a grin under his mask before he continued his rampage, his form now on fire. Before long, all of the advancing Lance forces seemed to taper off to nothing and stopped coming to replace the fallen ranks. Axton threw down his Phalanx and called everyone over so they could speak without thinking about the fact that enemies could attack.
"Holy crap! I wasn't expecting to see you ready to fight so soon after re-spawning!" Axton shouted, his eyes wide as he shook Roland's hand.
"Yeah! I was expecting to have to drag your dead ass out of here by your ankles!" Mordecai said with a sobered chuckle. The small group laughed.
"Roland."
"Brick…" Roland replied, looking up to the Slab King with serious eyes. After several seemingly uncomfortable moments, the two pounded fists and nodded to one another.
"And kiss each other…" Gaige chimed in, giggling quietly.
"That's my line! And they better not! I've got plans for this man, and I would have to kill him off for another year if I found out he was gay now…" Lilith said with a lecherous smile.
"Ugh, Damn it, Lil, I didn't need that picture in my head! Not after going a full day without booze! …Ugh… That's just like nails on a chalkboard!" Mordecai replied in a voice deep with disgust. All the others laughed and looked to the (For once) sober sniper. Roland then turned to Angel and asked her a question that had been dancing across his mind ever since he'd been recreated.
"Hey… Why are you here? We watched you die back at the bunker, so how'd you get here?" he asked curiously. Angel just smiled at him and glanced over to Zero, blushing slightly. Roland wasn't exactly great at reading emotions but he'd had to have been a complete moron to miss a signal like that…
"Well… as for the living part… I used the New-U stations to fake my death… I then sought out the others to help with some information that I'd learned of after inheriting the Hyperion Company after Jack was killed… And if it wasn't for Zero here, no one would have trusted me to come back…" she said, clasping his hand and smiling up at the tall assassin as he displayed a heart emblem.
"So I guess it's safe to assume that the two of you are involved?" Roland asked rhetorically, smiling at the two. Angel's tattoos them began to turn pink and Zero's showed through his suit. Roland's eyes visibly widened and his mouth went slack for a moment.
"Oh! And Zero's also an Eridian… Sorry for leaving that out… And we're getting married…" Angel replied, her blush growing brighter.
"Most fortuitous/ For her to have chosen me…/ And love to have grown." Zero said simply, pulling Angel into his arms and pressing his helmet to her forehead, the same heart glowing brightly. Roland relaxed as he came to terms with the strange developments; before, that is, he saw Zero's skill in action… A Lanceman had broken into the Phalanx and grabbed Angel by the neck, putting a gun to her head. Her shield was still not recharged and could therefore take the hit, but Zero would never be able to forgive himself if another human ever hurt her… So in a flash of red and a slightly darker red that consisted of the Lanceman's head. He closed his hand into a fist and killed off a significant number of the man's brain cells and the man walked off, sputtering as he now called out for his mother. Roland just stared and stood motionless before Angel interrupted him with a playful voice.
"Stop staring at my man… He's mine. And besides… Lilith would tear you to pieces…" Roland chuckled and looked over to his now giggling love and old friend.
"So… All recent events aside, it's good to know that nothing much has really changed with you guys… And I can assume that I am going to have huge debts to repay to you and Angel…" Roland said with a slightly weak voice as he stared into Lilith's eyes. She just smirked menacingly at him and nodded her head. "…I thought as much… Alright gang… Let's get the hell off this planet!"
"First, you all need to know something… Zero and I allowed a few Lance to defect and come back to Pandora with us…" Angel chimed in, her cheeks turning red with embarrassment.
"That shouldn't be a problem… so long as they joined willingly…" Roland replied.
"We kinda sorta… Forced their surrender… Whether they actually come with us is still their choise…" Angel said with an even deeper blush.
"Even so… We just need to reason with them. So let's go catch up to them then…" Everyone nodded and followed Zero and Angel out through the corridor that they came in from. The group soon found the defeated Lance Assassins and the one Lance Badass that was seated next to the crippled soldier; their helmets all removed.
"So… You guys and girls are no longer affiliated with the Lance… Why don't you all come to Pandora with us and join the Crimson Raiders?" Roland asked with a bright smile, one that Lilith had not seen in ages. The assassins talked among themselves and eventually agreed; the Badass looked to the dirt and pondered to himself for a few moments before looking up to them with a tear in his eye.
"I'll only go if I can go with my wife…" he said in a determined voice. Just then, a whistle called from behind the group as the injured Assassin commander hobbled out of a hiding space in the hallway that led to the exit.
"You didn't think I would go out like that did you?" she asked the Badass as she hobbled into his arms, smiling.
"Then I will go…" the man said, holding her in his arms.
The mentally crippled man just shouted; "I wanna go play on the jungle gym, mama! Can I go play with Jerimy and his friends?" and stood up and hugged Maya around the waist. Everyone laughed and Maya began to hyperventilate out of surprise and confusion. Axton just placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a consoling wink. She calmed down after that, but not before punching him in the stomach and letting him fall to the ground in a heap of gasping pain. "Papa fall down!" the mentally hindered man shouted, pouncing onto the downed man that became his surrogate father. Everyone was now laughing hysterically and holding their sides, even the assassins were holding back giggles at the heart warming scene unfolding before them. Before long, they all walked back to their ship and began preparations to ascend from the planet and make their next plan of action.
End Chapter 16: Dropping in on old friends.