Edited on 12/22/16. Changed minor problems and fixed plot line error.
Lilith
Underground Tunnels of New Mombasa
Heading toward Superintendent's Data Center
20 minutes after receiving Dare's transmission
The room was quiet as she and Rook descended from the elevator shaft. In an instinct of past battles, she lifted her weapon, a MA5C Assault Rifle, and promptly scanned the room for hostiles. Her search came up empty-handed with only a few, scattered bodies or Runts, or other human soldiers.
She went over to one of the soldiers' corpses and looked at the gear that it possessed. The pouches had extra ammo for her assault rifle, along with more ammo for her shotgun that she found at the first beacon. Lilith then lifted an olive-green helmet off of the corpse and examined it with great curiosity. While it looked clean enough to be worn again, something about defiling a dead corpse just doesn't seem right.
But then again, she defiled many corpses for loot and money on Pandora countless times.
So, she placed the helmet on her head, cringing a bit as the helmet settled into place . The helmet seemed like a perfect fit, as if a supernatural force made the helmet of the now dead soldier be the exact size needed for Lilith.
She quickly turned around to notice Rook standing there, SMG in hand, with his head cocked to the side as if he were trying to figure out Lilith once again.
"What?" Lilith asked, "Never seen a girl loot a helmet from a corpse before?"
They stared at each other for a few seconds before Rook motioned to one of the doors in the room. The others were either blocked by an object or were locked down by whatever controlled them. The only exception to this was a single door that had bright green lights on it. The duo approached the door and watched with caution as it slid open. The two raised their weapons again to check for hostiles.
Maya
Sanctuary, Pandora
Crimson Raiders HQ
5 Hours after arrival in Sanctuary
"What do we do now?" Axton asked with a worried look across his face.
The Vault Hunters along with Mordecai and Brick sat in the main room of the Crimson Raiders HQ for the past few hours arguing back and forth on the issue of Lilith's disappearance; only stopping to grab a few pizzas from Moxxi's or to stop another failed attack from what remains of Hyperion. Everyone in Sanctuary heard of the news and were in a worse state of sadness than when Roland was killed by Jack. Some have even resorted to rioting in the street, only to be stopped by Maya and the other Vault Hunters.
So far, the Vault Hunters haven't been able to come up with a solution to the problem. Axton suggested that they acquire a Hyperion ship and take it to the other planets in search of them. Zero didn't contribute to the conversation at all. Salvador suggested that they turn over every rock on Pandora to find them, thinking that the Vault teleported Lilith to another part of Pandora instead of another planet. Both suggestions were shot down by Mordecai due to the Vaults having powers far more than teleporting people, or other Vault Hunters, to other planets. Other than that, nobody even uttered a word.
"I think I have an idea." Maya said after waiting impatiently for another idea to arise. "Although you may not like the sound of it."
"I'll do with anything at this point." Mordecai said with a hint of exhaustion in his voice. "What's your idea."
"Well," Maya began, "Maybe I can attempt to control the Vault and figure out where it teleported Lilith."
"How are you going to do that though?" Mordecai questioned.
"Because I'm a Siren. Besides, Vaults can only be opened by Sirens anyway. " Maya responded.
"Well, I don't think that we're gonna get any other ideas." Axton said with a sigh, "Lets head back to the Vault and get this over with."
"Ok." Brick acknowledged with delight, "But whose coming with us."
"Axton, Zero, and Salvador can stay here and control the citizens from rioting and run the Crimson Raiders while Mordecai, Brick, and I return to the Vault." Maya commanded, "Also, we're gonna need all the eridium that we can gather. I'm going to need it to control the Vault. The home team will also need to gather eridium while we're gone too in case anything goes wrong."
"Alright team." Mordecai said, "Lets go get Lilith back."
Rookie
Underground Tunnels of New Mombasa (Sublevel 7)
Heading to Superintendent's Data Center
40 minutes after receiving Dare's Transmission
"Fire in the hole!" Lilith exclaimed as she tossed a grenade down the corridor.
The Rookie watched as multiple Grunt bodies, and the screams that accompanied them, flew up in the air in a spectacular formation, only to fall down with a lifeless thud.
The duo rushed into the room and checked it for what seemed to be the 600th time. And once again, it was cleared due to the previous grenade.
"Clear!" Lilith shouted, her voice becoming hoarse from the constant yelling.
They stopped at the center of the room and observed their surroundings. The room had a selection of 4 doors with one being the one they entered in and another one being the only one open. The other two stood sealed tighter than an airlock. Along with the usual Covenant corpses on the ground and the weapons that accompanied them, there were often a few medical kits on the walls of each room and, as an added bonus, a few extra weapons that lay along side them. The Lilith and he had been in similar rooms like this for the past 10-20 minutes, looking for a way deeper into the tunnels to reach Dare, only to no avail.
"What do we do now?" Lilith asked, obviously tired from the extensive journey in the streets and in the tunnel system. Neither of them got any rest besides from the time that Lilith attended to the Rookie's wounds, and guess who didn't sleep.
The Rookie shrugged in confusion, holding his head as he did so. The biofoam was still holding, but it won't hold forever.
Then, as if on cue, a male voice rang out over the Rookie's radio, "Come on Super, unlock the keypad."
A robotic voice replied with, "Warning, construction ahead, expect delays."
"Hurry up Super, before the Covenant try to kill me!" The man shouted back.
"Warning, hitchhikers may be escaped convicts." the robot voice simply responded, much to the man's disappointment.
"What was that?" Lilith wondered, before rushing through the open door that led deeper into the tunnels.
'What now?' The Rookie thought with slight annoyance and chased after her.
Eventually, after catching up with Lilith, the Rookie saw the owner of the voice from earlier. It belonged to a NMPD officer that must have been trapped in the tunnels for some time. The officer looked a bit taller than usual officers that the Rookie encountered, but looked no different otherwise. The officer sported a navy blue shirt with a grey armor covering the shirt. The officer also wore a grey helmet with a bronze visor, thus hiding the face from gunfire. A M90 shotgun was cradled by the officer as the duo approached.
"Who are you?" Lilith asked, raising her MA5C in response.
"Oh, I'm Officer Harold Jackson." The officer replied with much relief, "I was just trying to get down to the lower levels of the tunnels to check on my squad, I tried contacting them over the radio, but I couldn't get a response. I was hoping that you could help me get to them."
The Rookie and Lilith gazed at each other with looks of confusion. Lilith still seemed tense, as if she didn't buy the officer's story, but there was no reason to kill him either. He didn't try to kill them, or at least yet; being down in the tunnels like the officer described with no backup would turn someone insane. But, then again, they knew nothing about him other than his name and his purpose.
'We could use the extra man. These tunnels could be crawling with Covenant."' The Rookie thought while trying to stay positive.
The Rookie moved his hand and placed it on Lilith's MA5C, her head swinging to meet his gaze.
"You seriously trust this guy?" Lilith asked with a stern tone, while keeping it low to avoid the officer hearing them.
He nodded his head yes and turned back to the officer before Lilith could retaliate.
"Hey, can one of you help me this hatch open so that I can check on my squad?" Jackson replied with haste.
The Rookie approached the keypad for the hatch control. It glowed a concerning red before turning into a greenish blue as he came close; accompanied by a Bleep and a confirmation from the robotic voice.
He could here the officer snicker in the background, "I guess you have the magic touch." obviously jealous of the Rookie's seemingly easy access of the keypad while Harold couldn't open it even by force; a few pellet holes on the exterior of the hatch justified the claim.
"Let's just go." Lilith groaned as she jumped down the hatch.
1 hour later
Sublevel 9
"Three hostiles, look like Brutes. I think that one of them is a chieftain." Jackson noted quietly; making sure to keep his voice low enough to conceal the group's position.
The Rookie gazed ahead down the wide corridor. Frost stuck to the walls and floor like a shroud. Apparently, from the information gathered from the audio logs given to him by the Superintendent, the lower levels of the tunnels were flooded with argon as a failsafe to prevent fires from spreading; at least that was the official story. In fact, the argon gas was used to kill a scientist studying a Covenant Engineer that had infiltrated the Superintendent's data facility.
Hoping to move his mind off of the subject, The Rookie turned to his left to face Lilith. A few speckles of ice were forming on her cheeks, but were barely noticeable.
"Let me take on the big one." Lilith began, "You guys take out the weaker foes."
"I like the sound of that plan." Harold commented, "My armor isn't enough to take on a freakin' chieftain."
"Ok, give me a few seconds to make up a distraction before you two go charging in like a bunch of stampeding cows." Lilith continued.
"How are you gonna do that though?" Harold questioned.
At this point, not even bothering to give a reply, Lilith vanished in a flash of purple.
"Where the hell did she go?!" Harold asked with panic.
The Rookie remained calm. He was used to this level of scary sorcery (or Siren powers as she called it). Somewhere in his mind, he knew that the teleportation scheme was very basic compared to what she could actually do, remembering back to the streets when she knocked him unconscious. Lilith tried to explain her powers to The Rookie before, but it didn't make a whole lot of sense to him. Using a metal called… He struggled to remember the name. His brain reminded him that he had more urgent matters to attend to at the moment.
A flurry of plasma bolts pelted against the walls of the corridor ahead.
'Lilith must have begun the distraction' The Rookie thought.
He turned and patted Harold on the shoulder and pointed down the frozen corridor. Harold silently acknowledged his command and snuck, shotgun in hand, down one edge towards the brutes while the Rookie stuck to the other with his M7S. He found one of the brutes and placed its figure into the bright red reticule of the SMG. He glanced over to find Harold sneaking up on the other low-ranking brute.
Quickly refocusing his attention, The Rookie took aim at center mass and let loose a barrage of silent clacks as the gun unleashed bullets into the Brute's pelts. It turned it's attention toward The Rookie and bellowed in rage, raising a Spiker to counter the soldier's attacks. A few spikes shot out in The Rookie's general direction, although the accuracy of the shot made the spikes very easy to dodge with a simple roll.
Another barrage of bullets from the SMG made the brute more angry than ever and made the beast drop his weapon and charge him.
'Not good!' Rookie's mind screamed.
Usually, when a brute decides to charge you, it means that it's very pissed off. However, being charged by a brute and holding a rather weak SMG, your basically, for a lack of a better term, fucked.
However, a loud blast came from behind the brute and made it stagger, thus making it loose it's balance and it's momentum for the charge. A second blast dropped the brute to the floor. Harold stood behind where the brute previously was, shotgun smoking and ready to kill more.
"That was kickass!" Harold exclaimed with much joy, "Good thing I remembered to grab this bad boy!" Harold then proceeded to cradle the M90 like a small child.
"Uh… Should I come back at a better time?" A female voice piped up from behind.
Harold turned to find Lilith staring blankly at him, with a brute chieftain corpse hanging heavily over her shoulder.
"No, let's keep going." Harold quickly replied, putting the shotgun back into a relaxed position in his arms as Lilith dropped the chieftain.
As the trio proceeded down the corridor, they came across a 4-way intersection. One passage had the continuation of the corridor, while the other two had locked doors at each end.
"Oh! This is my stop." Harold suddenly piped up, his voice changing from confidence to nervousness.
"In the middle of a frozen hallway?" Lilith questioned, an eyebrow shot up in suspicion.
"Yea, this is where my squad was. Well, not in the corridor, but in one of those doors." Harold sheepishly replied.
"You sure you don't want to stay with us?" Lilith pushed.
"NO! I mean you both might have something more important to do. So why drag little ol' me around. It'll just slow you down."
"Alright, it's your funeral." Lilith replied as if she didn't care much about whether he came or not.
Then the two trudged on without Harold through a set of doors that, thankfully, led to an unfrozen corridor. Even in the ODST suit, The Rookie was still getting a bit chilly in that corridor. Suddenly, his radio transponder crackled to life for the first time since he came underground.
"Buck?" Dare's voice crackled over the radio.
"Sorry about not letting you know about the mission, about everything. It's just that, ONI wouldn't let me tell you about it. You get the deal."
The transmission ended with that. At this point, Lilith and he approached a sealed white door with a red glow, indicating that the door was locked. Lilith reached out to knock on it when the Rookie grabbed her hand.
She gave him a dirty look, "What, you think that knocking on a door is only fit for soldiers or something?"
It wasn't. However, the only reason that he didn't want Lilith knocking on the door was that if Dare happened to be on the other side, Dare would think that Lilith was a hostile and kill her instantly, or spark and enraged firefight.
He kept his gaze on Lilith until she stepped back. The Rookie couldn't read minds, but the look on her face showed that she didn't like the idea. He then turned to the door and, after being hesitant, knocked on the door with a hard POUND. The door slid open to a blond-haired woman holding a M6 SOCOM to the Rookie's head.
"Oh, it's you." She began, lowering her pistol in the process, "What was your name again?"
He never got to answer as a few shuffles and alien voices could be heard down the corridor.
"Inside. Now." Dare commanded.
The Rookie pulled Lilith by her arm and threw her into the room and followed her into the room. Dare shut and locked the door.
Then Dare raised her pistol at Lilith.
"Who's this?" Dare questioned, keeping her pistol trained on Lilith's head.
"Go ahead, shoot me. I dare you." Lilith challenged.
Before Dare could do anything else, the Rookie stepped in and lowered her hand the same way he lowered Lilith's a few moments ago: fast and swiftly.
"What are you doing?"
He gazed back at Dare. He then pointed a finger at Lilith, then made a finger gun while pretending to shoot it, and nodded his head as if to say "No".
Dare gave him a questioning look, and then placed her gun on her holster. She didn't like the idea however.
"I'm trying to get into the Superintendent's Data Center to carry out our real mission. However, the only way in from here is right through a hive of Drones. To make things worse, some idiots blew up the building at the top of the shaft. Woke the whole damn hive. So, I've been stuck here, waiting for back up. I guess you two are it."
She turned toward a door at the other end of the door and shoved it open.
"Let's see what you got."
10 minutes later
Near entrance of Superintendent's Data Center
"We're here. Looks like some Brutes are trying to get through the door. We need to take them down, now!" Dare commanded as the trio entered the final stretch leading up to the data center.
Three Brutes stood at the entrance to the data center trying to open it's door by force. Two of them were firing Spikers while a third one, wielding a Gravity Hammer, shouted at the door.
The Rookie picked up on the yelling as he, Lilith and Dare approached the door.
"Open this door TRAITOR!" the brute yelled.
"KEEP IT CLEAN! RESPECT GOVERNMENT PROPERTY!" The Superintendent's voice perked.
The trio came in from behind the brutes with Lilith taking on the brute with the Gravity Hammer, while Dare and the Rookie went behind the other two enemies.
Like in the Rookie's previous engagement with brutes, Lilith began the attack first. This time, she seemed to lock the lead brute in mid-air, suspended above his comrades. She unloaded her MA5C into the brute's hide, tearing through it's hide and shattering it's spine. It appears that Lilith's trick also disabled the brute's shielding. The brute then fell to the ground with a loud THUD . The two brute minors gazed in horror as their comrade lay dead on the ground. The Rookie and Dare took this opportunity for unload their clips into their respective targets. They too fell to the ground.
"Well. That was easy." Lilith commented.
"Come on. We still have an objective to complete." Dare explained.
The team quickly approached the entrance to the data center. Spikes covered some of the wall and even the door to the data center.
"ACCESS GRANTED." The Superintendent chirped as the door opened.
"Move slow and steady. We don't want to frighten it. Safeties on. Lilith, you stay on guard duty. I have a feeling that you would be more suited for the job." Dare commanded.
"Yea, I could use a few minutes to myself anyway." Lilith commented, not having much joy in the statement.
"Come on Rookie." Dare said as she practically dove through the door not wasting any time.
The Rookie followed her into the data center, being careful not to run to quickly. He hesitated as he passed through what appeared to be a scanner, he pressed on anyway. Finally the duo approached the final door that led to the data center itself. The door slid open as the Rookie approached; making a slight hiss as it did. The room was haunted with a looming darkness that was only disturbed by the lights of several servers and the flashlight from Dare's pistol.
Placing the pistol down on the ground, the flashlight gave more light to the rest of the room. The room seemed to be quiet, as if there was nobody in the room including themselves.
'Where was this traitor that the brutes spoke of?' The Rookie questioned, thinking back to the earlier banter of the brute.
As if on que, a sound that mostly resembled a gurgle rang through the chamber. The Rookie, on instinct, raises his weapon as he scans for movement. He caught something moving off to his right: a Covenant Engineer. He aimed his weapon at it to neutralize the threat, but was told not to shoot by Dare.
She waited until the Engineer floated closer before she spoke, "We've seen these creatures before on the field but not this close. ONI calls these creatures 'Engineers'. I think that this one took the data that was stored by the Superintendent and combined it with its own. Everything we want to know on the Covenant is right here."
An alarm started to blare in one corner of the room. The Engineer floated toward the noise and tinkered with a small camera screen. The screen focused toward where the trio first entered. This time, however, a lone ODST trooper is seen walking toward the center. The trooper's armor is covered with drone blood and bits of drone wing. The Rookie could only find one ODST that would be stupid and or brave enough to venture all the way here: Buck.
"Buck!" Dare called out over the her radio transponder.
"Veronica? Where the hell are you?" Buck called out. His figure searched the room frantically on the camera.
"Data center, but we're coming out." Dare answered.
"We?"
"I'll explain later, but do not, I repeat, do not shoot anything pink."
"Ok just come on!"
The camera shut off and Dare turned to the Engineer, "You, stay with me. Ok?"
The Engineer chirped brightly. Dare turns toward the Rookie and nods to proceed out the door.
"Let's go."
Maya
Vault of the Warrior, Pandora
2 hours after leaving Sanctuary
"Here we are! The Vault of the Lava Monster!" Brick exclaimed as they approached a group of vending machines.
Maya's legs were about to give up on life. Since the fast travel machines never transport anyone close to the Vault, they had to walk all the way through Hyperion's mining base that was set up during the reign of Handsome Jack. However, there was a fast travel machine next to the Vault, it is an one-way transporter, meaning that it can only transport people away from the location. To add to the equation, many Hyperion loader bots and engineers were still left in the before mentioned base.
"Can we take a rest, I can't stand being this tired." Mordecai complained.
" We need to push on; we don't have time for sleep. Look, the Vault arch is up ahead." Maya adds, hoping to change the subject.
Deciding to make things progress faster, Maya rushed through the molten landscape over to the arch. A faint purple glow could still be seen curling around the arch. Maya places her hand on the arch, hoping that her Siren powers could control the Vault. Thankfully, she was able to connect with the arch and, to her shock, find out that Lilith was teleported to a different dimension. She disbelieved this idea. It seemed physically impossible for something like this to occur. Although, this was Eridian tech she was dealing with, so anything was possible.
"So, what's up doc?" Mordecai asked.
"It seems like Lilith was transported to a different dimension. I know that it sounds weird, but that looks to be what we're dealing with." Maya explained.
Mordecai mulled over the information that Maya explained. Then, a laugh crackles from Mordecai's lips. It slightly agitated Maya; with the fact that Lilith was gone along with Roland being killed by Handsome Jack all happening within a single week. She was about to punch him off the face of Pandora, but she shrugged off the idea.
"Alright enough with the jokes. What's up doc?" Mordecai tried again.
She didn't reply due to Brick called Maya over.
"Hey, didn't Handsome Jack die right here?" Brick questions.
"Yea. Why?" Maya answers.
"Well, his corpse isn't here."
"What do you mean?"
Brick didn't answer. However, he was right. Jack's corpse was absent from it's previous position.
"Oh. Crap." Maya said with some shock.
"What's wrong with that?" Brick asked.
"If Jack isn't here, then does that mean…" Maya began but didn't finish. The idea sounded impossible and dark in her head.
She didn't find the energy or stomach to even spark the idea.
Lilith
On elevator heading toward surface of New Mombasa
"Well that was a shit show." Lilith commented as the group entered the elevator.
Everyone was tired from the battle that they fought through to get the bag of gas to safety from the alien enemies.
The elevator doors closed as one of the soldiers took off his helmet; revealing a young, somewhat handsome face. She could argue that this guy looked better than any of the guys on Pandora, even more so than Roland's. However, she had other things to worry over at the moment, as a sudden stench overwhelmed the elevator.
"Good lord that thing stinks." the soldier named Buck began, "It kinda reminds me of my-"
Buck was interrupted by Dare as she punched him square in the face. Lilith was prompt to bet on who would win a possible upcoming fight.
"What was that for?" Buck complained.
"For abandoning the mission." Dare spat back.
"You didn't even telling me about the mission, my squad was scattered-"
Dare interrupted Buck's rant as she ran up to him and kissed him for a few seconds. They broke off and both seemed in a daze.
"And that?" Buck asked, his tone calmed by the previous kiss.
"For coming back." Dare whispered.
"Awkward!" Lilith whispered to the Rookie.
The two then realized that there were three other sentient forms in the elevator.
"Oh! Uh… good work Rookie." Buck perked up, hoping to change tone, "But we're not out of this yet."
The elevator opened up to find a familiar figure: Harold Jackson.
"Harold, what are you doing here?" Lilith asked.
"Oh, you know why." Harold said with an evil tone.
He then fired a stun gun at Dare, Buck, and the Rookie, leaving Lilith and the Engineer alone in the elevator.
"What was that for?!" Lilith yelled, shocked at Harold's actions.
He stood still, as if he were waiting for something. Then, he took off his helmet, earning a gasp from Lilith at the face under the helmet: Handsome Jack. Jack surged forward, taking Lilith by the throat, sedating her, and leaving the others for dead.
Whew! That was a long one. Sorry for the wait. It took me a bit for this one (it covers 15 or so pages in my Word document editor). I'm sorry to report that I may have to alter my schedule of updates once again, as I think that I may have to make these updates irregular. Anyways, a couple of new polls are up on my profile if you want to vote in them.
RNG OUT!