Sons of Damas

by Tatsurou

Haven: Liberation

After finishing up at the Power Station, Jak, Shining, and Daxter decided to go get a drink and - hopefully - relax for a bit before heading out on the next mission. As they entered the saloon, however, they saw a large Crimson Guardsman in full uniform leaving. Krew practically pounced them once the guard was gone. "The Baron sent his goons to harass me, as usual," he moaned, as though trying to paint his lot in life as so terrible. "Health violations, back taxes...everyone wants a piece of me."

"Well, pieces of you would certainly violate the health codes," Shining joked.

"And you've got plenty of back to tax!" Daxter added, the pair bumping hoof to clenched paw in glee.

"...how droll," Krew replied blandly, plainly unamused. He turned back to Jak. "Destroying that cargo in the port was more important than you know. I've got a new project going, I don't need anyone snooping around my shipments."

Note to self: ask Keira if she's got a new model Scoutfly to sic on Krew's shipments, Jak thought quietly as he listened.

Noticing the looks the trio were shooting him, Krew smirked. "Let's just say...if things go as planned, I'm going to corner the market in Metalhead trophies."

"That's not ominous at all," Shining muttered to Daxter as Krew laughed.

"Anyway," Krew continued, "I have a job for you. An associate of mine, Bruta, works with me in the forced labor trade."

Jak's whole body clenched. "You mean the slave trade," he growled.

"I prefer 'freedom challenged'," Krew corrected delicately. He then leaned in conspiratorially. "Lurkers are the city's low class labor. Bruta pays me handsomely to help free Lurkers and get them out of the city." He let out an obviously fake heartfelt sigh. "It lifts my spirit to help those in need..." Rounding on the group again, his voice changed to a snarl. "And I need his money!"

"Lurkers?" Daxter gasped out, shocked. "We don't like Lurkers!"

"You like gun upgrades, don't you?" Krew countered, passing over an upgrade for their weapons' clips, letting them hold more ammo.

"How many?" Shining asked calmly, attaching the upgrade.

"Three Crimson Guard transports," Krew replied. "Pleasure doing business with you."

As the group left, Jak flexed angrily. "Keira," he muttered into the comms, "how much would it skew your plans if we went back in and slit Krew's throat?"

"Quite a bit, I'm afraid," Keira replied. "We need to keep him in place until we can take down his whole network."

"Then let's get this over with," Shining grunted.

---

Since the three transports were in close proximity, the trio decided to split into three groups to take them down. Each of them commandeered an A-Grav Zoomer, shifting into position near the transports. Shining and Jak took out all three transports at once with their Blasters. As the Lurkers ran and the Crimson Guard converged, each of the trio collected one of the Lurkers on their Zoomer before shooting off in three different directions.

Once all three had shaken off pursuit, they made their way to Bruta's trinket stand in the Bazaar, managing to get there all at the same time. Bruta - a rather large, red Lurker with nice hair - was quite pleased. "Little white warrior!" he proclaimed happily, shaking Shining's forehooves. "You have do great thing for Bruta and Lurker people!" He then proceeded to pepper Shining with kisses, much to Shining's displeasure.

"...thanks..." Shining muttered.

"You great guys!" Bruta proclaimed happily. "Bruta not forget! Bruta pay you back, you see!"

---

Back at the saloon, Krew had yet another job for them. "Years ago, when I was an art...collector, I hit the local museum to...borrow...a famous statue of Mar, the city's founder. In its hands, the statue held the Ruby Key to the city, an artifact of surpassing beauty...and of course, priceless worth."

"Let me guess," Shining muttered. "It's somewhere you can't get to, where you can't get anyone to go, and you want to send us?"

"Well aren't you the clever colt," Krew chuckled. "Yes. It is deep within the sewers, where dangerous floods and Metalheads discourage anyone from making their way-"

"We'll be done in an hour," Jak interrupted. Turning, he led the way back out.

---

It didn't take the group long to get back to the sewers, which - aside from being more empty - were no different than they had been on their last trip. It turned out that the path Jak needed to take to reach the Ruby Key was only passable via jet board, so Shining decided to wait for him to return. He didn't have long to wait, as Jak and Daxter were back in under five minutes. "So what now?" he asked.

At that moment, Bruta's voice came over the communicator. "I hear you three look for piece of Mar's shiny seal. Bruta love shiny, bright things too! I have piece, I thinks. It in water slums, hanging over me hut. You free to have! Gift from Bruta!"

"That," Jak replied to Shining as the message ended.

---

The piece of the seal proved to be exactly where Bruta had said. As soon as they collected it, another message from Bruta came through. "See? Nice and shiny, yes? All yours! ...uh oh! I think Red Troopers approaching!"

Bruta proved to be correct, as a Crimson Guard transport had pulled up and troops were jumping out of it...one at a time onto the narrow walkway over the water that led to where Jak and Shining stood, Blasters primed. "...Praxus needs to fire whoever's in charge of teaching these guys how to assault a fortified position," Jak grumbled as he opened fire.

"Or even a bottleneck point," Shining added, his own weapons fire backing up Jak's. "Why not leap over the buildings to flank us?"

"I'm not about to complain about having things too easy," Daxter suggested reasonably as the trio made their way safely out of the Water Slums.

---

Comments

[FTKnight]

Yeah, there is a limit to how stupid an enemy you want to be facing.

[Sci]

Getting out of the Waterslums is such a hard mission, I actually broke a controller because of it.

[Grahf]

6849208 I nearly did my first time and got a reminder of my hate for that mission in the HD remakes years later

[jwizard]

I HATE that mission with a passion. Every time I play that part, I have to redo it at least 3 times, mostly because I run out of ammo for the Vulcan barrel.

Then again, the best weapon to use is the Scatter. That and spin kicks when the enemy gets too close. I think the biggest issue with the Water Slums escape is picking the right path.

[not-so-anonymous]

is it not "Brutter" as the name of the Lurker? also, I always kinda wondered why they were not too surprised that a Lurker was able to talk...

[Tatsurou]

6849389
No subtitles in the vids I'm working from.

[Nurarihyon]

If you dark bomb the water it destroys the sentry and you can just swim/hoverboard to safety under the paths.

[Dirty Bit]

Brutter's a funny guy Although, the mission where you have to rescue six Lurkers instead of three was dicey...

[not-so-anonymous]

6849393 all else fails, check the wiki. I went by memory.

[Kenshinryuu]

Got to love dumb enemy AI in games, especially if you can exploit it for hilarious results. It does get sad when you stealth take down an enemy and his friends search for all of a second before resuming their patrols, letting you repeat the process.

[Lord Shaxx]

Bruta proved to be correct, as a Crimson Guard transport had pulled up and troops were jumping out of it...one at a time onto the narrow walkway over the water that led to where Jak and Shining stood, Blasters primed.

Just like the Unitologist AIs in Dead Space 3.

When you're friend's head just got blown off, you don't poke yours up too!

[6flyer]

"I'm not about to complain about having things too easy," Daxter suggested reasonably as the trio made their way safely out of the Water Slums.

I am not amused. Two weeks it took me to finish that mission.

[RanmaChaos]

Another enjoyable chapter. Good job.

[ArchAngelGundam]

Maybe the guy making the tactical decisions has a good reason. I can't think of a situation where that tactic would be good in any situation, but he might. Looking forward to more.
Keep up the good work. Deus tecum.

[desertbat]

In the last mission, the best way to escape is to equip yourself with vulcan fury, then keep pressing square then circle; use vulcan fury if needed. Don't stop until you reach the goal and you should be out in a minute or two.

[XYZDreadnought]

Did you just breeze over one of the painfull missions in the game?

I'm serious, the water slums raid was one of the hardest in my opinion, due to multitudes of guards coming from multiple directions about half of them with long range weapons. You can only take four hits max with no health pickups, and you can't advance too fast due to the guns on the transports.

I mean it would be slightly faster with two people, but come on Tats, you can't just do that

Nevermind, write on good sir

[XYZDreadnought]

6849833 I know your pain man

[Noctus Umbra]

"...Praxus needs to fire whoever's in charge of teaching these guys how to assault a fortified position," Jak grumbled as he opened fire.

it was probably Erol.

[Senou Natsuru]

6849561 THANK YOU!! Every time one pops a rocket at me I throw it back, and then some other bright spark throws a grenade, only to have me throw it RIGHT BACK IN HIS FACE! I MEAN SERIOUSLY! IF I CAN REACT TO AN IMPACT SENSITIVE ROCKET FAST ENOUGH TO CATCH IT, WHAT MAKES YOU THINK A GRENADE IS GOING TO WORK?!?!

[BronyPro2402]

I usually like to comment personal peeves after I finish catching up since it would usually be resolved in later chapters, but this has been bothering me for a while, why is Daxter here? I know game wise but I been feeling like he matters very little since most character would focus on Jak and Shinning, and most of Daxter's lines and scenes are replaced or its said by Shinning or rewrote for Shinning, and I know this is an alternate world and he's the main focus but it just feels off for me, and I do get that Daxter gets a few jokes and has his own lines and such but to me I can't remember much of them then again I have bad memory. To be honest this isn't the only peeve but i'll just wait till I get caught up, and to be honest (some more) it's mostly me since I keep comparing this story to the original story of the game, in short to many changes for me to grasp.

[Tatsurou]

6959371
Daxter is actually going to have a larger role as the games progress due to knowing that his transformation is actually an evolution much earlier.

You just need to get there.

[BronyPro2402]

6959783 okay good to know

[Flutters Is Shy]

I keep on expecting Twilight to show up, spout some seemingly random information, and otherwise be largely 'seemingly' unhelpful. Her refusing to give relevant information due to the fact that she's hopping back and forth along the time stream, and is wary about giving her brother information he shouldn't know yet... Maybe even testing his magical prowess at points, jibing and insulting him to get him to reach greater heights...

"Yes, cute. But in the vein of... pet. Or maybe best friend. Definitely not marraige potential."

"Eh... k, what about Shining here, he's a looker, right?"

"What?! EW! Ew! Ew! Ew! Ew! Ew! He's my brother you little... Ew! You're no longer 'best friend' candidate, you little rat!"

[Jake Witt]

I can't wait for Daxter to be more than the cute mascot/bug exterminator.

[proto20]

As the group left, Jak flexed angrily. "Keira," he muttered into the comms, "how much would it skew your plans if we went back in and slit Krew's throat?"

Probably not much, since you'll only be cutting into the fat.