A/N: Watch out! Chapter 2 is coming in hot! Enjoy! I own nothing!
...
Axton grunted as he stepped out of the runner, feeling uneasy and even a bit annoyed at how his day had been going so far. He had just learned less than twenty-four hours ago that this "Angel" A.I., whom they had all previously thought was on their side, was actually working for Handsome Jack all along, meaning that everything he thought he'd known about her was a lie. And then, as if it wasn't weird enough, Angel had reached out to all of them right after trying to destroy Sanctuary, promising them that she was also double-crossing Jack and that she could help them find the vault key to awaken the Warrior before he could. Because, of course, things weren't fun unless they were also extremely complicated and full of people backstabbing one another, right?
Axton gave a sigh and a shake of his head as he took a moment to stretch his legs, asking himself yet again why he ever agreed to join up with the Crimson Raiders in the first place.
Oh right, because Handsome Jack tried to kill him and the rest of the vault hunters on that train, and Axton would be six feet underground before he let some maniacal psychopath that wore a fake face get away with something like that. Plus, Axton had originally become a vault hunter for the challenge and glory it afforded someone with skills like his, and hunting for mysterious alien vaults was way more interesting than hunting random bandits for extra cash.
In a way, Axton supposed he got the challenge he'd asked for, as despite the number of dangerous people that wanted Jack dead on this hellacious planet, the Hyperion C.E.O. was still proving to be more than a match for the Crimson Raiders, which made it all the more important that they got to the vault key before he did so that they could level the playing field with the power the Warrior wielded.
"So, this is Thousand Cuts, huh?" came Salvador's voice from next to him, prompting Axton to look over and see the squat yet strangely muscular man peer out over the landscape. "Never actually made it out here before…looks like I didn't miss much!"
"Fitting name," came the voice of Gaige from Axton's other side. "It definitely looks like this place has seen better days. But, like, that could really be said for most of the planet, I guess."
The teenager placed her hands on her hips and examined the rocky scenery that spread out in every direction, and Axton followed her gaze and frowned at two relatively high mountain peaks that sat a few miles away from each other in the distance.
The first mountain peak reeked of Hyperion, and despite the couple of miles between himself and it, Axton could clearly see that it was heavily armed, with turrets and lasers covering almost every square inch of a large superstructure that had been built on top of the mountain itself. In addition, a giant dome energy shield surrounded the entire construction, very similar in nature to the shield that had once protected Sanctuary before it had been sabotaged.
"Alright Roland," Axton said into his ECHO device. "What are we looking at over there?"
"That's Control Core Angel," the leader of the Crimson Raiders replied, his gruff but level-headed voice crackling over the net from HQ back in Sanctuary. "That's where the vault key is being held, at least, if Angel isn't lying to us again."
"Look, I know that you have no reason to trust me, Roland…" began Angel's voice, soft yet somehow sounding anxious, and Axton briefly thought about how unusual it was for a multi-function A.I. like her to have such expansive personality subroutines, but he chalked it up as yet another product of Handsome Jack's psychotic tendencies and continued to listen.
"...but you have to believe me when I say that I want to see Jack brought down just as much as you all do, if not even more so!"
"You'll forgive us for finding that hard to believe, honey," Axton interjected, speaking again into his ECHO device. "You didn't seem all that hesitant to destroy Sanctuary and everyone in it less than twenty-four hours ago."
"Or tricking us into opening the first vault and fighting an ancient god five years ago!" came Lilith's heated tone from the net. "Just in case you forgot about that little stunt, because we sure as hell didn't!"
"I'm not proud of what I've done, Lilith…" Angel replied somberly. "...but I'm trying to make things right now, godda—"
Angel abruptly cut off.
"...gosh dangit," she then mumbled.
"Yeah, too little, too late," came Lilith's snarky reply. "Don't expect us to do you any favors once we take down Jack."
There was no response from Angel.
"The Slab King's hideout is located on the cliff opposite Control Core Angel," Roland said instead, the commander firmly steering the conversation back on track.
Axton shifted his gaze to the opposite cliff, which was far closer than the one housing Control Core Angel in the distance. What he saw was what he'd come to expect from a bandit camp. Dozens of ragtag dwellings constructed of rusty metal and junk sat in a loose cluster on the side of the mountain with a large warehouse sitting at its apex, likely the "palace" of the "Slab King" bandit leader himself. The biggest difference, however, was how large the camp was. It was easily five times the size of an average bandit camp, meaning that this Slab King had a much larger force of bandits at his disposal than nearly every other bandit leader on Pandora.
Subconsciously, Axton patted his pocket, feeling the note that Roland had given him to deliver to the Slab King. The commando hadn't asked as to the contents, but he could offer a pretty accurate guess as to what the leader of the Crimson Raiders had written.
"Soooo, this Slab King guy used to be a part of the Raiders?" Gaige asked, raising an eyebrow at the bandit camp. "And you kicked him out because he was a little too psycho for you?"
"I didn't think ripping Hyperion officials limb from limb in front of their loved ones was an efficient way to gather intel," Roland said simply. "He disagreed."
Next to Axton, Salvador shrugged as he hefted one of his larger weapons.
"Eh, to each their own, I guess…"
"Either way," Roland continued. "We need serious firepower if we're even going to think about getting past the defense bunker outside the control core. His Slabs can help provide that firepower…if he's willing to cooperate."
From the way Roland made this guy sound, Axton wasn't too confident in their chances of convincing him, and he almost wished they had brought Kreig along, as the psycho might have been more attuned to the Slab King's way of thinking and therefore more persuasive in a weird bloodthirsty kind of way. Kreig had opted to go help rescue Bloodwing, however, because Maya had opted to go help rescue Bloodwing, and where Maya went, Kreig followed, end of story.
Whatever, at least they had Salvador as a worthy backup.
"Alright, then," Axton said, readying his own assault rifle and starting forward at an easy pace. "Let's go see if the King is in his castle. We'll keep you updated, Roland."
Roland acknowledged and signed off for the time being, and the ECHOnet went dead as the three vault hunters approached the Slab compound. The silence lingered for a moment before it was broken by an amused grunt from Gaige.
"Damn, Lilith's really fired up about Angel, huh? Talk about a cat fight! Say, why do you guys think Angel doesn't want Lilith to join the assault on the control core? Gotta say, that's pretty unusual for an A.I. to make some weird request like that…"
If there were two things Axton had learned about Lilith since joining the Raiders, it was that she that she and Roland had history; the type of history that would make a nun blush, and that she was quite literally the textbook definition of hot-headed (Sir Hammerlock even had a picture of her next to the term in his own personal dictionary).
The latter of his two observations regarding the Siren tended to make itself evident often, as out of the four original vault hunters that had formed the Crimson Raiders, Lilith was the youngest and least experienced, and though she was still a formidable warrior and a viable strategist, her lack of restraint still gave Axton a sense of unease every now and then.
"My guess, it's 'cause she's unpredictable," Axton said with a shrug, and Gaige curiously asked him to elaborate.
Axton then explained that Lilith's brash and impulsive nature could be attributed to her Siren abilities to a certain degree. Each of the vault hunters were all dangerous for different reasons, and most of the time it was due to a sturdy foundation of experience, training, and intelligence. Lilith possessed all of that, of course, but not to the degree that most of the rest of them did, as her Siren powers were strong enough that they compensated for where she came up short in other areas. That made her more prone to making mistakes.
It also made her a little too confident in Axton's opinion.
"Okaaaaay, but then why doesn't Angel have a problem with Maya? She's got super-badass voodoo powers too, but the creepy ECHO lady doesn't seem to care about her at all."
"I'm not trying to diss Maya or anything, but Lilith's powers are waaay more badass than hers," Axton replied with a smirk. "I've seen Lilith clear out a varkid infestation without even breaking a sweat, trust me when I say that Maya is at a severe disadvantage."
Gaige's brow furrowed in genuine interest as Axton continued.
"But in this case, that's actually a good thing for Maya. It means she's had to discipline herself in other areas instead of using her powers as a crutch. As a result, she's got a reliable foundation to fall back on when her powers just ain't enough. It's like my old drill sergeant used to say: 'Never put all your liquor on one shelf!'"
Axton consciously omitted the fact that his old drill sergeant also used that saying to justify being married to five different women simultaneously, as it didn't seem exactly pertinent to the conversation at hand.
"Ehh, she'll be fine," Salvador shrugged indifferently. Talking about anything that wasn't guns, explosions, or killing bad guys tended to bore the gunzerker very quickly, as Axton had come to find out since meeting him for the first time. "Lilith figure it out eventually, amigo."
"Maybe. Doubt it'll be anytime soon, though. At least, not with the way she's been using Eridium like a straight-up junkie since we met her."
"Whatever, now come on! I'm tired of waiting to meet the Slab King! This pendejo sounds like my kind of people!"
With that, Salvador pulled ahead of the other two, his short but incredibly wide and muscular form eagerly walking faster towards the main gate to the Slab compound.
"Yeeeeeah, gonna have to agree with Sal on this one," Gaige said, flexing her robot arm in readiness a few times. "I've been kind of building this guy up in my head since Roland first gave us this mission. He sounds, like, way cooler than the other bandit leaders we've dealt with so far."
Gaige then picked up her pace as well, leaving Axton to catch up as they crossed the threshold of the Slab King's domain.
…
Handsome Jack grit his teeth and slammed his fist against his desk, the noise echoing throughout the expanse of his massive office aboard Helios Station. These filthy bandits were really starting to get on his nerves, and the fact that Angel had chosen this point in time to go through a "rebellious phase" was definitely not helping.
As if to pile it on even further, Jack had just recently been made aware of the fact that the damn Crimson Raiders were still somehow finding a way to attack his Eridium mines even though their precious Sanctuary had been quite literally uprooted from the ground less than a day ago. The most recent report of an attack had just landed on Jack's desk, meaning that it had happened after Sanctuary had taken flight. How Roland still had the resources to continue his attacks was beyond Jack's understanding, but the weirdest part was that satellite imagery was unable to find a trace of them arriving or leaving the entrance to the mine, meaning that they somehow gained access from inside the mine, attacked, then left through some kind of underground passage.
The thought crossed Jack's mind that perhaps they were using some kind of cloaking tech, but last he'd checked, the only person that was capable of producing such devices was former Hyperion scientist, Doctor Lloyd Grayson, who had generously crafted one such device for Jack. Despite how freaking badass the cloaking device was, Jack would come to find out that Grayson was actually a traitor to Hyperion during the time the Lost Legion attacked Helios, or at least, maybe might have been one. Either way, Jack wasn't going to take any chances, so he'd shot the possible-traitor (and all of his doctor buddies, of course) out of an airlock just to be sure. Good times.
With that in mind, cloaking tech was off the table, as Grayson's death made Handsome Jack the sole owner of a handheld cloaking device, which truthfully made him all the more grateful that he'd killed Grayson when he did, traitor or not. Couldn't risk that kind of tech falling into the hands of those disgusting bandits, right?
Right, so that meant that the Raiders were somehow attacking from underground, and according to the report, they were taking all of the Eridium and all of the workers with them, which was even more peculiar. Were the Crimson Raiders taking prisoners now? There were signs of struggle and carnage at the mining site, to be certain, but there were no survivors left to tell the tale. There weren't even any bodies left behind, meaning that they were taking those with them as well. What the hell was that all about? Were they eating them or something? Of course, Handsome Jack wouldn't put it above those savages to resort to cannibalism, but he knew that was not how the Raiders or their "virtuous" leader typically operated.
With that in mind, Jack accessed the ECHOnet, opening a direct private line.
"Angel, if you're not too busy helping the bad guys, get me all the info we got about the Eridium mine attacks in the last month."
There was no immediate response.
"Angel…" Jack said dangerously, his finger hovering over a large red button sitting on his desk.
"Accessing now…" came Angel's tired voice, her resentful tone not lost on Jack at all.
"You know, pumpkin, I'm not sure what's gotten into you lately, but now is not the time. Not when we are so close to opening the vault and wiping out those filthy bandits, who, might I remind you, want to keep me from turning this planet into the perfect paradise it can become. So, how about you show me a little enthusiasm and get me what I need, capiche?"
"Yes, Jack," Angel said, her tone improved but still not quite where it needed to be.
"Better. Now, what do we got?"
"Attacks on the mines have increased exponentially over the last month," Angel began. "The most recent attacks seem to have been conducted with some sort of method or technology that allows them to approach, attack, and escape without appearing on our satellite imagery…"
"Skip the stuff I know already," Jack irritably interrupted. "You were acting as a double agent for those savages for over half a decade, kiddo, so how about you act like it? What's Roland doing? How's he getting in and out of my mines without getting caught? Was it his little Siren girlfriend? Because honestly, that sounds about right."
"We are currently monitoring Sanctuary via infrared and satellite imaging," Angel said, her voice betraying a slight twinge of bewilderment that peaked Jack's interest. "There are no signs of her leaving the city via conventional means, and no signs of her powers activating since Sanctuary launched into the lower atmosphere. She couldn't have assisted with the most recent attack."
"Ok, so what are you saying? You're telling me the Crimson Raiders aren't the assholes that did this?"
"The likelihood is high. In fact, I don't think any of the recent attacks are from the Raiders."
"Ok, well if it's not them, then who? Nobody else on this craphole of a planet is organized enough to beat the firepower I got guarding the mines. And don't bother trying to tell me it's any more of those Lost Legion psychos. Those guys are long gone. I saw to that personally."
"There's…a recording from the most recent attack," Angel said, mystified and even a bit apprehensive. "I…I don't think it's the Lost Legion."
"Roll it."
There was a burst of static as the ECHO recording began from the speakers on Jack's computer, then there immediately began a chorus of screams in the background, all human and all very much afraid and in pain. The sounds of haphazard gunfire could be heard as well.
"This is Site Manager Ricketts sending out an immediate distress call to Helios Station!" came a frantic voice from somewhere near the microphone. "We are under attack by…by…goddamnit I don't know what! They're some kind of rabid creatures that shoot fire from their hands or something! None of them match the description of any Pandoran creatures we've encountered before. Oh God, there's so many! If anyone can hear this, we're being overrun! Send as many reinforcements as you can! Send the bots! Send help! Plea–"
There was a loud boom as something large entered the room where the man was recording, and there was a panicked scream.
"Stay back! Stay–!"
There was the grotesque sound of something fleshy being pummeled into the floor, then relative silence save for the screams that could be heard in the background. There were far less of them now. Then heavy footsteps could be heard as something huge left the room, dragging something else along with it. The steps sounded far too loud and heavy to be human.
"Talk to me, Angel!" Jack said angrily as the recording stopped. "What the hell was that?!"
"I…don't know," Angel replied, and Jack could tell that she was honestly at a loss for words regarding what they'd just heard.
"It's possible that the mining efforts have uncovered some kind of subterranean species we have yet to discover, but…" she began.
"But what?"
"...but it is highly unlikely. Whatever this is, I don't think it's natural."
"Get a team down to the site, now. I want every inch of that mine photographed and—"
Jack was interrupted by a loud and incessant alert that suddenly came from his monitor, and within a second, he accessed the alert and began typing commands and reading lines of code.
"For the love of…what next?! Angel! What the hell is happening?"
"The Hyperion network being accessed by an foreign entity," Angel replied. "Source: unknown. It hasn't attempted to access any classified information yet, but it's spreading at an unprecedented rate."
"Well, then force it out, Angel!" Jack shouted, furiously typing in an effort to halt the progress of whatever was trying to access their system. "You got enough power to sweep the entire network clean three times over, so fry the bastard!"
"I am attempting to discern its point of origin," Angel replied. "I think if I can just study it a little longer…"
She was lying. She was lying and stalling. Jack had known Angel since her creation, and he always could tell when she wasn't telling him the truth.
The truth was that Angel was potent enough to force anything and everything from whatever network she was connected to, no matter how powerful the opposition. Anything, from viruses, malware, and even other A.I. could be swept out in less than a second, and anyone who was aware of Angel's true nature would be fully aware of that fact, regardless of any programming background they possessed.
"Angel, either you force it out NOW, or so help me—"
"Hello," came a sudden and entirely foreign voice from the computer. "I am VEGA. I would hope that you do not perceive my actions as hostile, but I believe—"
The voice then abruptly cut off as Jack slammed his hand down hard on the large red button located on his desk, and Angel let out a blood-curdling scream as her power surged through the Hyperion network, forcing out the intruder before it had a chance to speak further. The lights temporarily dimmed at the surge, and every electronic device in Jack's office flickered momentarily before resuming full functionality.
The alarm on the monitor ceased as the screen cleared up, and after ensuring that the entity was gone, Jack immediately began typing further commands into the console, issuing an override that kept Angel's power present at all times within the network so that it could not be accessed again.
Once he was certain that everything was correct, Jack accessed the phone system on his desk.
"Blake," he said, his voice uncharacteristically nonchalant despite what just happened. "Sweetie, remind me again who our current head of I.T. is? Richardson, right?"
"Actually, sir," came Blake's voice over the speaker. "Kingsley replaced Richardson approximately two weeks ago."
It went unspoken that Kingsley had taken over because Jack had killed his predecessor. If Jack recalled correctly, it had been because the wifi in the cafeteria had been too slow or something.
"Right, Kingsley…Say pumpkin, do me a quick favor and get him on the line for me? That'd be terrific."
There was a pause as Blake placed the call, and there was an even longer pause before Kinsgley's nervous voice came through the speaker.
"You, uh, wished to speak to me, Handsome Jack, sir?"
"You bet your sweet bippy I did, Kingsley!" Jack said cheerfully as he popped open his desk drawer and removed a large revolver from within. The large pistol was a Jakobs model, not Hyperion, but Jack didn't really care. It got the job done quite well despite being made by his competitors.
"I just had a few new ideas for improving your department, and I figured you might wanna swing by and go over them with me! You know, before I took over as C.E.O., I used to work down in I.T., so together we might be able to brainstorm a few improvements!"
"I…that sounds great!" Kingsley replied, his nervousness fading quickly from his voice while Jack began loading the revolver with bullets that were also housed in the drawer.
"Perfect, kiddo! Just pop on up to my office real quick and we'll get to work!" Jack said. "I'll let my secretary know you're coming."
"Yes, sir!" Kingsley's voice was now incredibly enthusiastic. There was a click as the line disconnected, and Jack smirked to himself as he finished loading the revolver and snapped the cylinder into place.
"Blake," he said, accessing the speaker yet again. "Kingsley is on his way up, go ahead and let him in once he gets here."
"Yes, sir."
"...and go ahead and lock the doors after he comes in, honey. Oh, and then send in a cleanup crew after…let's say about five to ten minutes. You know what? Let's just say ten! No need to rush this!"
"Y-yes, sir."
Jack then disconnected the call and spoke directly to Angel once again.
"It seems to me that you still don't quite get the picture, Angel," he said, his voice suddenly malicious as he leaned back in his chair with the revolver resting easily in his right hand. His left hand rhythmically tapped on the desk, dangerously close to the large red button he had pressed before.
"So, let me just lay things out clearly for you one more time before my meeting…just in case you ever decide to disobey me again."
Angel said nothing, but Jack knew that she was listening. She didn't have a choice.
…
Axton ducked behind his cover as a spray of bullets whizzed overhead. The Slabs couldn't shoot worth a damn, but they were throwing enough lead in his general direction that he'd still be hit if he wasn't behind something.
The commando hadn't really been surprised to see that the bandits had responded with hostility right off the bat, but any attempts by the vault hunters to convey the fact that they were only here to see the Slab King had fallen flat, leaving violence as their only option. It was par for the course, truth be told.
With a brief moment to himself, Axton called into the ECHO, speaking loudly over the gunfire and the sound of Salvador hollering with maniacal laughter and screaming as he wielded two guns at the same time against the bandits. Unlike Axton and Gaige, the gunzerker had forsaken cover, instead choosing to stand completely exposed out in the open as he matched the hail of gunfire being sent his way by the Slabs.
"Hey Roland," Axton called as Salvador continued yelling and shooting. "How exactly are we supposed to talk to this Slab King guy if his 'subjects' won't listen to us? At this rate, we'll end up killing this asshole before we even get the chance to talk to him!"
"Oh…right," Roland said over the net. "Forgot to mention it before, but the Slab King won't talk to you unless you join his gang…which is famous for their 'trial by fire' method of initiation."
"Ugh! Seriously?!" Gaige shouted from her own cover a few meters away. "That is, like, the worst recruitment tactic ever! We'll end up having to kill half the camp before we even get to him!"
"Knowing him, I'd guess that was his plan from the start," Lilith said, giving her own input. "That's always been his kind of thing."
"HELL YEAH!" Salvador roared, obviously liking the Slab King's description more and more by the second. "Bring it ON!"
Axton shared a glance with Gaige from across the firing line, and the teenager shrugged in response before raising her hand and making a fist.
"Alright then!" she called as her robot companion, "Deathtrap", digistructed next to her. "Go get 'em, bot!"
Needing no further instruction, the large hovering robot charged into the fray, swinging its claws in a whirlwind of destruction. Slabs yelled and screamed as they struggled to fend off their new foe, and Axton found himself admiring Gaige's handiwork for a split second as Deathtrap tore into the swarm of Slabs.
Despite how young she was, Gaige had quickly made herself known as nothing short of a genius to the other vault hunters, as her expertise in robotics outmatched anything the rest of them had ever seen before. Deathtrap, being her magnum opus, was quite literally a breakthrough when it came to combat droids, and that fact was proven time and time again when the robot would easily overpower any of the rustbuckets Hyperion would throw at them. Everything about Deathtrap surpassed even the most advanced models that Jack cooked up, and no one was happier about that fact than Gaige herself.
She, of course, hadn't been able to shoot worth a damn thanks to her age and lack of experience when she'd met up with Axton and the others on that train, but the commando had taken her under his wing in that regard, giving her plenty of pointers and training sessions at Marcus's shooting range back in Sanctuary. Thanks to the sessions and also having numerous real-world opportunities for target practice, Gaige could now shoot almost as well as the rest of them. With that in mind, however, Axton still had yet to teach her some of the more tactical aspects of combat, so he made sure to stay close to her as he started picking off Slab bandits from behind his cover.
Slowly but surely, the three of them began to push forward into the Slab compound, Deathtrap having been a huge help in distracting the opposition so that the vault hunters could finish them off quickly.
"Psychos, ten o'clock!" Axton called out after a few minutes of solid advance, catching sight of a pack of the maniacal buzzaxe-wielding bandits as they leapt into the fray like rabid dogs. Unfortunately, Deathtrap at that moment had been preoccupied with slicing through a Goliath's substantial body mass, and was not able to turn around before the pack of psychos fell upon it, their buzzaxes sparking as they whirled and tore into its metal body.
"D.T.!" Gaige called with concern as the bot reeled and attempted to buck off one of the more ambitious psychos, who had leapt onto its back and was now riding it similarly to a wild bull while smashing his weapon against the metal chassis.
Deathtrap managed to finally free itself from the psychos, but not before one of the masked humans landed a lucky blow against the bot's singular eye, cracking through the glass and rendering the organ useless.
"Son of a dick!" Gaige cursed, reminding Axton that her swearing game needed a bit of work. Frustrated, the mechromancer recalled Deathtrap with another motion of her robotic arm, and the bot dissipated into hardlight, vanishing without a trace from the battlefield. Axton knew that when Gaige digistructed Deathtrap again, the bot would return fully functional, but the process required a substantial amount of energy, meaning that Gaige's robotic arm would need time to recharge before she could summon the bot again.
Without Deathtrap, the Slabs were quickly regrouping to focus solely on the vault hunters again, which was Axton's cue to use a little trick of his own.
"Alright boys!" Axton called to the Slabs. "Time to meet the missus!"
With that, Axton grabbed his storage case from his belt and threw it expertly against the wall of one of the ramshackle buildings that were scattered all around them. The case stuck to the wall and popped open, revealing Axton's very own automated turret, which immediately targeted the Slabs and opened fire with its main cannon, scattering the advancing bandits as the machine gun fire effectively halted their counterattack.
"Move up!" Axton barked at Gaige and Salvador, vaulting his own cover as he did so and rushing to the next available spot.
"Awww YEAH!" Salvador cheered, reloading his own weapons as he marched forward as well. He was looking as though he was having the time of his life.
"Slaaab Kingggg! Come out to plaaaay!"
A glance to Axton's right showed that Gaige was moving forward as well, though Axton could see that she was quickly entering what he had begun to call an "Anarchy Fit".
The commando learned rather early during his practice sessions with Gaige that the mechromancer had a tendency to get caught up in the adrenaline rush that came with the gunfights and dangerous missions associated with vault hunting, and when she found herself in a particularly intense situation, Gaige would at some point fly into an energetic state of excitement and begin shouting stuff like: "Smash the system!" and "Anarchy forever!" All of which Axton considered to be typical teenage behavior.
The part that wasn't typical, however, was that when this happened, Gaige's accuracy with a firearm would plummet severely, causing her to miss most of her shots. What was even weirder was the fact that when she actually did manage to hit something in this state, it always seemed to strike a vital area, like right between the eyes of a badass psycho or right between the armored sections of a Hyperion bot. It had been easy to dismiss the first couple of instances as total flukes, but Axton quickly noticed a pattern when Gaige entered an Anarchy Fit. She would miss a dozen or so shots, and then BAM, she'd line up her next shot out of nowhere and kill three bandits at once…then she'd empty her next magazine without hitting a thing, and then BOOM, her next shot would ricochet off a wall and directly into the heart of a goliath…
Hell if Axton knew why or even how the girl was doing it, but it had happened enough times now that the rest of the vault hunters had begun to recognize it as a very real phenomenon. Even Gaige herself wasn't able to explain it. She just described it as being "in the zone".
"Sal! Gaige is goin' Anarchy!" Axton called over the gunfire, and the gunzerker's malicious smile grew even wider.
"It's about time!"
"Let's get it on!" came Gaige's hyped scream as she squeezed the trigger on her rifle, spewing bullets at the Slabs as she did so, or at least in their general direction.
Meanwhile, Axton and Salvador immediately moved to cover Gaige as she continuously fired, making sure that no Slab sharpshooters interrupted Gaige's Anarchy Fit.
"Well, well, well," came a sudden and unknown voice from the ECHO, broadcasting over an open frequency. "Looks like y'all ain't just a bunch of wannabes after all! This just got a whole lot more fun!"
"What the–? Who the hell is that?!" Gaige called over her own crazed gunfire.
"Matter of fact, I think we got a couple of vault hunters on our hands, boys!" the voice continued. "Let's show 'em a good time!"
A collective cheer went up from the Slabs over the net and from across the firing line, which provided Axton with more than enough context to discern who the man on the other end of the line was.
"Hey look, uh…guy, I'm guessing you're the Slab King, right? We're just here to deliver a message, not join your gang! Any chance we can chat about this instead of killing all your guys?"
"Hell no!" the voice laughed back. "Half my boys have been itchin' to fight another vault hunter for months now. And suddenly three of 'em just show up on our doorstep? Ha! I couldn't stop 'em if I wanted to! Which I don't! This is gonna be awesome!"
Axton caught a glimpse of Salvador nodding in steadfast agreement, then sighed.
"Guess we're doing this the old-fashioned way, huh?" he said out loud.
"Looks like it!" Gaige replied enthusiastically.
"You best believe it!" came the voice of the Slab King before apparently speaking to one of his lieutenants. "Rocko, take your boys and roll out the welcome mat for our new guests! The rest of y'all get to the throne room. It's time for initiation!"
Cheers began anew from the Slabs, and Axton frowned when he noticed many Slabs turn and retreat from the battle, though many also stayed and continued to engage the trio.
"Looks like the King has a little treat prepared for us!" Salvador called, dropping a few of the bandits with a shot from his rocket launcher as he did so. "Just when I thought this couldn't get any better!"
While the significant decrease in their current number of enemies was welcome, Axton couldn't help but focus on whatever this "initiation" was that the Slab King was preparing in his "throne room".
"Guess so," Axton called before accessing the ECHOnet. "Roland, the Slab King has got us all lined up for initiation. Any advice before we walk into what is undoubtedly a trap?"
"I'd say get ready for a bloodbath," Roland's voice replied. "The Slab King doesn't half-ass anything he does, so I'm sure he's going to be rather…grandiose with whatever he's got planned."
"I wouldn't worry too much though," Lilith chimed in. "The Slabs are tough, but after seeing you guys personally take down Wilhelm, I'm not too concerned with your chances."
Axton knew the Siren was trying to be reassuring, but he most certainly knew that it had taken all six of the new vault hunters to finally bring down the Hyperion cyborg. And even then, it had almost not been enough. Now, with three of their usual six out rescuing Bloodwing, Axton couldn't help but feel like they might be biting off more than they could chew with this one.
Whatever, this was what he signed up for, right? And truth be told, he was also beginning to feel a little bit of excitement at facing the Slab King's "initiation". It looked like Salvador was finally starting to rub off on him a little bit.
"Heh, guess you're right," he said with a chuckle. "Should I tell the King you said hi, Firehawk?"
Lilith snorted goodnaturedly at the nickname, no doubt remembering the unorthodox means she'd received it.
"Honestly, he might like that. He's a bloodthirsty meathead 90% of the time, but he's always been a bit of a softie once you get to know him."
"I'm not exactly sure I believe that…" Gaige called, slowly coming down from her Anarchy Fit now as the number of opposing Slabs continued to diminish. "Bandit leaders aren't exactly what I'd call 'softies'".
The conversation abruptly ended as Gaige's next shot ricocheted off the buzzaxe of a charging psycho and directly into a large barrel of slag, which ruptured violently and covered all nearby bandits in the steaming purple substance.
Immediately, the affected Slabs began hacking and coughing as the effects of the slag took its toll, burning through their skin and temporarily blinding them with its fumes. This made them easy targets for the three vault hunters, and with Axton taking the lead, the trio took advantage of the opportunity and dropped the Slabs with a few well placed shots before continuing their advance through the camp.
…
Just as the trio finally made it to the entrance of the Slab King's throne room, the bandit leader's lieutenant "Rocko" apparently decided to "roll out the welcome mat" even further than he already had by bringing out the big guns. As if in an instant, the skies were suddenly filled with buzzards, the personal trademark of bandit airpower on Pandora. Kept aloft with two small turbine engines and armed with a large gatling gun and missile launchers on the sides, each of the aircraft's already substantial firepower was complemented even further by two airborne marauders on either side of the cockpit, both of which rained fire upon the vault hunters with their own rifles in one hand while the other kept a firm grasp on the frame of the buzzard.
From what he could see, Axton deduced that air combat was the Slab King's specialty, as the monarch seemed to possess far more buzzards than any other bandit leader Axton had seen before. In addition, the pilots and crew onboard actually appeared to have some degree of training in airborne warfare, which quickly made them a cut above most other bandits on the planet.
With that in mind, the vault hunters were quickly forced onto the defensive as at least five of the flying machines swooped in, their mobility making it difficult to find decent cover among the ramshackle buildings made of junk.
From beside him, Axton heard Salvador give a grunt as a few shots from the buzzards flickered against his shield, the momentum of the hits still staggering the gunzerker despite the fact that they hadn't pierced through.
From his other side, Axton saw that Gaige's arm had finally recharged, and she had managed to summon Deathtrap again. The large bot, due to its limited capability for ranged attack, was now being used as mobile cover by the mechromancer, giving her much needed defense against the fast-moving buzzards that were constantly moving to get an angle on them..
The situation was getting bad very quickly, and thinking fast, Axton rapidly swapped his ammunition and loaded his rifle now with corrosive rounds: bullets filled with a highly concentrated acid and designed to detonate upon impact. The rounds had been specifically designed to counter targets with metallic armor, and Axton had found them extremely useful against the seemingly endless tide of bots Hyperion sent their way. With any luck, they'd be just as effective against the Slab King's buzzard horde.
With the speed and crisp movement of an experienced soldier, Axton slammed the magazine into place and racked the slide on his rifle before taking careful aim at a buzzard that was lining up to rake the trio with machine gun fire.
Exhaling slowly, the commando squeezed the trigger and fired a short burst that struck home against one of the turbine engines of the buzzard, the corrosive rounds immediately eating away at the metal upon impact with the hull.
There was a brief delay, then the engine sputtered and died as it fell apart completely, causing the buzzard to immediately list to the side and spiral out of control as it began to plummet to the ground.
There was a large fireball as the aircraft crashed into a full stack of fuel barrels, but Axton missed the fireworks completely, as another buzzard had targeted him without his notice and landed a substantial number of hits upon his form, breaking his shield completely and knocking him off his feet.
Axton landed hard onto the dirt, and over the ringing in his ears, the commando heard Gaige call out to him with concern. He blinked rapidly to see the teenager trying to make her way over to help him up, but the same buzzard then opened fire on her as well, forcing her to hunker behind Deathtrap as the bot staggered against the sustained volley.
As Axton forced himself into cover, he heard Salvador give an enraged yell and fire two rockets from a twin pair of launchers he'd produced from his seemingly endless arsenal, and to Axton's mild surprise, the buzzard immediately veered to the side, dodging the rockets as they sailed through the same space the vehicle had occupied mere seconds before.
Before Salvador could fire another volley, one of the airborne marauders on the craft raised his rifle and fired an automatic burst in their direction, and though many shots missed, the accuracy had been enough that a few struck home against the gunzerker's wide form.
Unfortunately for Salvador, his shield had already been weakened from the previous damage he'd sustained, and at that moment, his shield flickered and died like Axton's had, with the last shot piercing through completely and continuing into his right shoulder.
"Hijo de puta!" Salvador swore as his body spun from the impact, forcing him to drop one of his launchers and take cover for the first time since they'd arrived in the Slab camp.
"Stay low!" Axton called over to him from where he had hunkered down. "We gotta find a way to take that bird down! Gaige, you got a bead on 'em?"
"Is that a trick question?" Gaige asked, prompting Axton to look over and see now that he and Salvador had been momentarily taken out of the fight, the rest of the buzzards were now focused entirely on Gaige, as was evident by the sheer amount of bullets that were peppering the Deathtrap's form. Axton was no robotics expert, but even he could see that Deathtrap didn't have long before it broke down completely, which would leave Gaige completely exposed even for a moment against the firepower the buzzards carried.
Great, the situation had just gone from bad to worse.
"Wait, what in the chicken-fried hell is that?"
Axton frowned before daring a glance out of his cover to see what Gaige was referring to, and his eyes widened in surprise as a dark figure suddenly burst from between the buildings made of junk and ran out into the open, moving at a speed that outpaced any human Axton had ever met.
Without hesitation, the figure suddenly leapt from the dirt and into the air, its sudden rise in height leaving the three vault hunters speechless as it crashed into the side of one of the buzzards, which had been hovering almost ten feet above the ground.
The force behind the jump had been such that the buzzard lurched sideways when the figure struck, and as it began to spiral out of control, Axton squinted and just barely made out the figure as it punched its fist through the glass of the cockpit. There was a loud whine from the twin turbine engines, then the buzzard quickly lost power and crashed down to the ground, knocking up a massive cloud of dust as it landed hard.
Axton squinted as the dust began to clear, then his eyes widened considerably as the wreckage came into focus. The two airborne marauders on the side of the buzzard had been knocked unconscious from the impact, and Axton could see their inert forms laying in the dirt a few feet away from the crashed vehicle. His gaze was then immediately diverted to the figure, who appeared to be completely unharmed despite the crash it had just endured.
As the dust cleared further, Axton could now make out the figure was clad entirely in a dark green suit, of which appeared to be heavily armored and built for combat. The figure itself was humanoid, to be certain, but there still remained some ambiguity to its true nature, as its face was completely concealed behind a helmet and darkened visor that matched the color of the rest of its suit.
Awestruck for a moment, the battle seemed to halt in shock as the armored figure wrenched open the cockpit of the buzzard, showcasing a strength that was at least on par with the raging goliaths and badass psychos Axton had encountered on this planet.
Reaching into the cockpit, the figure pulled the unconscious form of the pilot from within, carrying the bandit as though his weight was almost negligible and setting him on the ground away from the wreckage, far enough that the bandit wouldn't be in danger from the buzzard if it were to catch fire.
At that point, the armored figure turned and faced the rest of the buzzards, all of which had recovered from their own initial shock and were now circling back for another run. Then, as if they had received some unknown order, the buzzards then peeled off and disengaged, flying away from the scene and breaking away from the fight completely.
Axton frowned at the sight, then slowly stood up from behind his own cover, eyes searching and ears ringing from the sudden lack of noise throughout the camp. After confirming that they were alone save for the stranger standing out in the open, Axton gave the all clear to Gaige and Salvador before striding forward warily, his rifle lowered but ready to be raised at a moment's notice. He squinted as he got a closer look at the figure for the first time.
"Impressive stuff," he chose to say once they came to a stop in front of the armored figure. "I have to say I'm a bit miffed though. Haven't really seen anything like you around here before. If the look of that snazzy armor is anything to go by, I'd guess Pandora isn't your usual stomping grounds. Care to introduce yourself, cowboy?"
"Hello," came a metallic yet kindly voice from somewhere within the suit. "I am VEGA, the Artificial Intelligence housed within this armor–"
"Uh, excuse me?" Gaige suddenly blurted, her voice growing from a normal tone to barely contained squealing in a matter of seconds.
"You're an A.I.? Holy H-E-double-freaking crap! I've never seen a bot move like you do before! You gotta let me get a close up look at your internals! I'll do anything!"
Axton opened his mouth to annoyedly remind Gaige to keep the conversation on track, but the A.I., or VEGA apparently, answered first.
"I am sorry to disappoint you, but I am not a robot, nor is the individual wearing this armor. He is a separate entity. You may refer to him as the Doom Slayer."
"Doom Slayer, huh?" Salvador grunted as he applied a rag to his wounded shoulder. "Sounds kinda badass…"
The armored stranger, or Doom Slayer, turned his helmeted gaze and studied the three vault hunters, and even though Axton couldn't see his face, the mercenary somehow knew that this guy didn't miss much. There was an experience about man behind the suit that seemed almost bottomless, and Axton's gut instinct told him that if this guy wanted something, there wasn't much that could keep him from getting it.
With that in mind, the three vault hunters introduced themselves, though Axton took care not to reveal too much lest this Doom Slayer guy was some sort of Hyperion muscle. Or worse…Dahl.
"So, you're supposed to be some kind of mercenary, then?" Axton asked. "Or maybe some rogue soldier or war reporter or something?"
"I am afraid we are none of those, Mr. Axton," came VEGA's polite reply. "My knowledge of this world is limited, but I do understand that the Hyperion corporation is currently searching for a vault left behind by an ancient alien race on this planet. It is also my understanding that Hyperion's current Chief Executive Officer, under the name of Handsome Jack, intends to utilize the artifact inside in order to impose his will upon Pandora and its residents."
Axton chuckled.
"That's actually about right, but to be honest, that doesn't really answer my question. It sounds like you're relatively new to everything that's happening on this ball of crap. So what brought you here in the first place? Don't tell me they're advertising Pandora as a vacation scene now…"
"We arrived here by happenstance," VEGA replied cordially. "Both myself and the Doom Slayer originate from a different dimension than the one we all currently occupy. Are any of you familiar with multiverse theory?"
"Sounds like nerdy magic stuff to me," Salvador snorted. "So hell no!"
"Hey! Nerdy magic stuff is actually really cool, dude!" Gaige retorted, before tilting her head back in a show of superiority. "And I, for one, am super aware of what multiverse theory is, and if you're both seriously telling me that you two are from another universe, then I might literally die from excitement!"
Axton quickly realized that full introductions were going to be a lot longer than he originally planned on, and so far, it didn't seem like this Doom Slayer had any malicious motives or was working for anyone other than himself, so the commando quickly interjected.
"Ok! I can see that this might take a while, so how about he finish this convo after we've dealt with the Slab King? I'd rather not stand out in the open in the middle of a bandit camp any more than I have to if you don't mind."
The Doom Slayer nodded his agreement, then turned to face the large warehouse the four of them stood at the foot of.
"To be clear," Axton quickly added as they approached the main door. "We're not here to kill this guy. We're here to deliver a message to him to ask for his help in taking down Hyperion. Sooo, any ulterior motives you might wanna introduce us to before we get started?"
"I was temporarily able to access the Hyperion network upon our arrival on this planet," VEGA said. "Before I was locked out of the system, I came across data that listed you three as well as many others as Handsome Jack's top kill priorities. I also became aware of the resistance group known as the 'Crimson Raiders', or which you all are members. I do not believe Handsome Jack's intentions to be entirely honorable or altruistic, so it remains in both my and the Doom Slayer's best interests to ally with you."
The Slayer said nothing, and Axton took his silence as a gesture of agreement and released a breath that he had been holding.
"Hell yeah! One more amigo to shoot bad guys with!" Salvador exclaimed loudly as they stopped in front of a large garage door leading into the warehouse.
Without waiting, Salvador reached out and banged loudly on the door with his fist, the sound echoing loudly throughout the camp.
"Hey! Open up, Slab King! Time to give us this 'initiation' of yours!"
There was a moment of silence, then the door began to rise from the ground, pulled up by a large motor from within the warehouse.
The four of them waited for a brief moment for the door to rise completely, then crossed the threshold into the Slab King's palace.
...
A/N: And there we go! Finally managed to add the rest of our badass BL2 vault hunters to the mix. I now must admit, when I played Borderlands 2 for the first time, I picked Salvador, and I had an absolute blast! It wasn't until later that I realized how broken he is as a playable character, so then I had even MORE fun! With that in mind, I'm curious to see what everyone's favorite playable vault hunter is from ANY of the the games. Which badass gives you the greatest rush when you play them? I have to admit I'm a sucker for melee builds, so Brick and Kreig for me, though I lean more towards Kreig solely for his voicelines! (Also, feel free to say who your favorite character in the franchise is, playable or not!)
Additionally, please do not hesitate to let me know what you think of the story so far! I feel a wee bit embarrassed about the grammatical errors from the last one, but I was so eager to get it out that I didn't proofread as hard as I should have. Hopefully this one is better! Until next time!
-ImpulsiveWeaver