Chapter 12
Anthony and the ponies land, crashing to the ground, Gaige landing near them, all four of them groaning as they sit up, only Gaige and Dash’s shields holding up. “Oh man... my everything hurts...”
“I miss flying...” Dash mumbles, rubbing the back of her head. “Where the flying haysicle are we?”
Anthony stands up only for his nose to finally be in the air and he grabs it, squeezing his nostrils shut at the toxic, chemical stench. “Wherever we are... it...” He looks up and around and sees a bunch of Varkid mounds, spiderant hives and below... a huge lake of green... stuff. “We’re screwed...”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Gaige asks, getting up, her arm bent at an odd angle. Thankfully it was her mechanical arm and a few wrench turns and it’s mostly back to normal though swaying on its elbow hinge a bit. “Darnit... I’ll need a workshop to fix this. At least the fingers work so I can shoot.”
Anthony helps Pinkie up, who seems the most beaten up of the group from the fall. Luckily she didn’t break her legs this time, having landed on her side.
“We’re in the Caustic Caverns, a huge underground expanse that-”
“Smells worse than baked bads.” Pinkie replies, making a disgusted face.
“Well, let me put it this way... Sanctuary used to be up there.” Anthony says pointing up at the light filtering in from above.
“Yeah... how can the city fly again if I can’t?” Dash asks, more than a bit miffed.
“Well, if you didn’t know, Sanctuary was the name of an old Dahl mining ship.”
“So...”
Anthony looks back up towards the surface. “That ship was left here on Pandora when Dahl pulled out, leaving their employees here. Those guys that Dahl left here on Pandora had one of two choices... join the Crimson Raiders founded by Roland, or become bandits.”
“Wait wait wait... you mean some of those bandits out there are miners?” Dash asks confused.
Anthony nods, sadly. “Or engineers, or soldiers, or such. Dahl just up and left Pandora when they thought there was nothing left, but they were to first to actually find anything of worth on Pandora.”
“Eridium?” Pinkie guesses.
“Nope, Hyperion beat Dahl to the Eridium. Dahl was here for crystals and other valuable minerals. Right here... is the Sanctuary Hole. The spot that the Sanctuary ship’s crew had been mining.”
“You mean...” Dash looks confused.
“Sanctuary is a ship?” Gaige finishes, in awe.
Anthony just nods. “With Scooter’s tech-savvy and Lilith’s Eridium-charged Phasewalking Siren powers, they managed to get Sanctuary to fly again, leaving behind where Dahl had been doing its mining before they pulled out and left Pandora. All that’s left down here is a bunch of old Dahl machinery, a base of theirs, and whatever they decided wasn’t worth keeping.”
A chirrup catches their attention, and a small, cricket-like creature looks at them with large, buggy eyes. “Ah... what’s a Varkid?” Dash asks, looking at the name tag with a raised eyebrow. Gaige is fumbling for her shotgun and backpedalling, as the Larval Varkid moves cautiously towards Pinkie.
“Varkids... damn.” Anthony mumbles, his first instinct to look up expecting to see the sky littered with its usual blanket of grown, flight-capable adult Varkids.
The Varkid chirrups again, and the sounds of young wings stridulating against their casings makes both of the humans look towards the coral-like Varkid colonies nearby, as Pinkie picks up the young varkid and cuddles it.
“Pinkie, don’t, those things bite! Er, sting... they’re dangerous!”
The varkid, however, does neither. “Imma name him Squishy, and he shall be my squishy!” she says, nuzzling the varkid before stuffing him into her mane, the insectoid vanishing completely.
Gaige quietly picks her jaw up off the floor, as a living tide of other Varkids begin to erupt from the nearby hives, ranging from the youngest Larval Varkids to the formidable Badass Varkids, thankfully none further along their metamorphic track than that.
Anthony tosses his Fire burst grenade out, hitting a bunch of the ground-bound Larval staged bugs, the loud shrieking noise doing a number on the group’s ears. “I don’t have a better wide-area attack!” He says in his defense as the group covers their ears, the Badass Varkids walking through the fire just fine, their armored carapaces brushing off the flame with ease.
“Shit, this is exactly the sort of situation I hate! Too many things to kill, and I don’t have Salvador here to hand me more bullets!” Gaige yells angrily, beginning to simply unload her shotgun at the oncoming swarm, screaming incoherently and pausing only to summon Deathtrap and sic him on her enemies.
Anthony and Pinkie take out their corrosive weapons and pelt the badasses with enough goop to coat them completely, but the low level of their guns protects the Varkids from too much pain, their armor holding strong through the acid.
“We need to get through their armor somehow, it’s the only chance we have!”
“Will slag help?” Pinkie asks, not waiting for an answer and swapping her Dog for her other elemental shotgun.
The slag does indeed help, but at this point the Badass Varkids are already too close to the group. “Melee!” Anthony yells, as he’s leaped at, pinned to the ground by the screeching insect. Sparking up, he delivers a double-fisted swing at the Varkid, his electrified fists zapping the bug and knocking it back enough for Anthony to get up... just to get a gout of acid to be spewed in his face by a flying Adult Varkid divebombing the Hunters. His Alkaline shield’s corrosive resistance holds, but just barely.
“Dash, can you do something about the fliers?”
A short burst of assault rifle fire flies over his head, missing just barely and happening to hit a far-off adult Varkid. “Stop reminding me I can’t bucking fly!” she screams at the winged menaces.
“Yeah, that works. Pinkie, you got that singularity mod still?”
In a wordless response, Pinkie tosses a yellow-white grenade with red highlights at, over, and past the still-charging Varkids. The grenade lands and after a second begins to float and pulls the varkids into itself before releasing a burst of flames, still doing little to the Badasses, but at least making the unarmored Larval varkids less in number. That, and the Badasses were pulled a decent distance away from the group, giving them the range they needed to shoot.
With the badasses on fire, getting slagged and being pelted by standard gunfire and corrosive Plasma shots, their armor starts melting and they let out keening shrieks, one of them burrowing into the ground, preparing to evolve, an orange chrysalis growing out of the ground where the Badass had burrowed.
“Pop that pod, now! We can’t handle what it’s gonna turn into, not now!”
The entire group focuses on said growth, unloading everything they have into stopping it... and failing to notice that Dash had just stopped firing at another Badass, and it had begun burrowing behind the group.
“Splash and Area of Effect damage!” Anthony crise, as he realizes they needed more lasting damage on the pod in front of them. Gaige tosses another Bonus Package, several explosions going off and a fourth of a metric ton of mirv secondary grenades fall around the pod. Anthony grabs everyone nearby and turns them around, throwing them to the ground in the process. Nobody’s shields being able to withstand the onslaught, Gaige and Pinkie just barely holding on while Anthony and Dash are all badly scorched along their backs.
Anthony groans and looks up to see... the second pod that was now in front of them, twitching and pulsing. “Ah shit...” With a loud splortch, the second pod ruptures, and a Super Badass Varkid emerges, glaring death and right in the midst of the group.
“If anyone has any brilliant ideas...” Gaige suggests, Pinkie responding by pulling out her Launcher and firing it point-blank at the gigantic insect.
When the explosion stops, the Varkid has dropped to the ground and is charging at the downed group, barely any damage taken, the only sign any damage was done at all was a small sliver off it’s health bar and a blacker piece of armored chitin.
All Anthony could think of was how the last respawn point was back at the Hyperion base somewhere, which was likely filled with neurotoxin. If he or any of his friends died now, they’d keep dying until the toxin was vented out. “We’re fucked...” He mutters.
“Rgh... we are if we have that kinda attitude.” Dash replies, hoisting Pinkie up along with her so the two ponies were on their hind feet again “Come on... we’ve handled meaner and bigger!”
“Yeah... we killed an Ultimate Badass Goliath!” Pinkie says, a bit of her usual cheer shining through. “We can do this!”
As if to spite the group, Gaige is quickly pinned by the SBV and is dodging bites and stings from her limited range of movement, her mechanical hand jamming its jaws. Anthony gets up and charges at the varkid, punching it as hard as he can and... hurting his hand on the steel-hard carapace.
Pinkie and Dash run up to the varkid and give it a simultaneous buck, managing to knock it off Gaige who summons Deathtrap again as the varkid takes to the sky.
“Pinkie, give it another blast, get it back down here!” Dash yells and Pinkie attempts another shot, but the launcher’s rockets were just barely too slow for the quick-maneuvering Super Badass Varkid.
“Can’t get a good shot!” Pinkie cries, loading another rocket.
“How do we bring it down here then?” Gaige says, as Deathtrap floats up and starts trying to swipe at the Varkid, who deftly dodges, before spraying the robot with acidic saliva shots.
Anthony looks down and realizes he’d backed up to another long drop off the platform they were on, where the Varkid had flown out over. “End of the line here... wait...” A plan starts forming in his head and he jumps down, thankful for Pandora’s relatively low gravity taking him down to the ground with only a bit of hurt in his ankles at impact. “Shoulda landed on my butt...” He laments as he starts running off, past and underneath the Varkid. “Gaige, how long can Deathtrap keep that up?” He calls over the ECHO.
“Uh, not much longer, why?”
“Make him last another minute, can you do that?”
“Not from down here!” She pouts back.
“Well try. Pinkie, Dash, harry it a bit.”
At the ponies confirmation he runs to the far end of the area and crouches down taking out the Sloth he got from Mordecai. Its bullets would take about two seconds to get from here to the varkid and and if it moves to the left as often as it moves up to dodge Deathtrap... He could get a few shots on it's mostly unarmored and sensitive underside of the tail.
Peering down the scope, Anthony fires a shot and misses by a mile, having to recalculate for the bullet speed. Six shots left. Gritting his teeth he watches as Pinkie and Dash begin firing wildly at the varkid. It ducks down and-
ka-chuck-chuck-chuck!
A burst shot lands with two shots in the tail, sending the varkid into a panic at the sudden pain before turning on Anthony. “Come and get it you piece of crap...” Anthony mutters as the Varkid charges at him full speed.
“What the hay are you doing!?” Dash yells over the ECHO.
“Improvising!” Anthony replies as the Super Badass Varkid is seconds away from hitting Anthony who braces for impact. The two are knocked into the knee-deep corrosive goop, Anthony hissing as it burns his skin through the shield and the Varkid lands in it past him, also keening in fury as its armor is eaten by the much-stronger acid. It begins to crawl towards the shore, flashing its wings violently and spraying acid everywhere, but only miring itself further into the slick, thick acid, which is beginning to do far worse than just ‘burn his skin’ to Anthony, prompting him to make a bee-line for the shore, too.
The advantage Anthony gets is his Spark form, lasting just long enough to get him to the shore, though the wading through the goo had taken a toll on him, his shields completely broken despite its resistance to acid and his health bar pulsing rapidly along with his heartbeat. He takes out his Jakobs and aims a few bullets right into the Varkid’s thrashing body, making the acid’s job easier by putting a viable hole in its undersection for the goo to flood into.
Anthony pants as his pistol clicks, clutching his legs and hissing in pain.
“You are some kinda stupid, you know that?” Gaige says as she helps the larger man up. “Ugh, and you’re heavy.”
“I killed it, didn’t I?”
Dash takes her special assault rifle and empties a full clip into the bug, now tipping itself over to keep the goo out of it’s bullet wounds, revealing it’s sensitive and now fully unarmored tail. As the clip of her gun runs dry the entire party’s bars flash with cyan as they are pushed to roughly one third of a bar to go for next Level up.
“Actually, I killed it.” Dash smugs.
“You’re an inspiration to us all, Rainbow Dash.” Anthony groans with a smirk. “Urgh, I could use some healing here.”
“Where are we gonna find any down here?” Dash asks, looking around at the area.
Anthony points to some green Dahl containers and ammo deposits. “You can find some in those occasionally. Careful of opening the bigger ones though. They uh, tend to have more Varkids in them.”
“More?!” Dash yells.
“And Loot Midgets sometimes.” Gaige chimes in, ‘helpfully’.
“Yeah, but just the little Varkids. Kill ‘em fast enough and they won’t be much trouble.”
“Still, they’ve always got crazy amounts of stuff with them. Oh, and if you ever see a Loot Goliath, hope there isn’t a Loot Midget in his box. I’ve had that happen once, no joke.” Gaige says.
“You have quite the adventures, don’t you.” Dash comments as she trots off to find some healing stuff. Around an hour and a half later, Anthony is feeling the burning sensation crawling all the way to his face, Pinkie staying with him to make sure he doesn’t scratch out his eyes. “Finally found some!” Dash calls over the ECHO. “Heading back to ya now.”
“Hurry up, please.” Pinkie says, “He’s not looking very good.”
Anthony for his part passes out a few times but wakes up when he feels a needle jabbed into his arm. “Agh, no needles!”
“This is the best way!” Dash says as Pinkie holds him down, Gaige administering the hypo. Finally the hypo works and Anthony is back in action. “Just be glad you didn’t get any of that gunk in your mouth.”
“Yeah... thanks... okay, feeling better now.” He coughs up a bit of bloody phlegm, the result of a tiny spot of unnoticed acid getting to his lungs and healing over, “Let’s get back to everyone else, they’re probably already back in Sanctuary with Brick by now.”
“That’s the third time you’ve mentioned him.” Pinkie notes. “Will he really be able to help with the bunker thingy?”
Anthony just nods, exhaling harshly as he grabs his sniper rifle and carries it on his back. “Yeah... he’ll be a big help. But we won’t be getting anywhere unless we get Claptrap upgraded.” He turns to Gaige. “You do still have the upgrade info right?”
“No duh! I wasn’t the one who swan dived into acid goop.”
“Good. Now we just gotta get out of here.” Anthony looks around at their surroundings and recognizes the area. They were on the upper platform of Dahl’s base before he had jumped off. “Alright, this way.” He says, leading them to where he remembered the exit elevator being. “But be careful, we’ll have to deal with some spider ants.”
“Those I can handle!” Dash says. “Well... if I had a car...”
“Yeah...” Anthony says, looking up at one of the old mining machines. “A car... Gaige, you think you could get that thing working? We could bash our way outta here in no-time.”
“Sure, if I had the parts, no problemo... but most of the stuff around here that isn’t junk is just spare guns and ammo. And I am not scrapping Deathtrap for parts.”
“Fine.” Anthony relents, wondering how Gaige guessed he was about to suggest just that. “Then we take the long way.”
A long trek and some hopping across pits of acid goop, the Hunters get to a large base-like area. “Wow, you mean those Dahl guys just set this up and left it here?” Dash asks. “I’m not exactly a recycling freak but that’s just wasteful.”
“They did more than set up base here...” Anthony says as he leads them inside and opens the door. After delving further, they come to another door, this one labelled ‘Deep Core Six’
Anthony pulls open the door and the stench of old, stale air rushes the group, actually being fresh compared to the rancid odor of the caves they’d been walking through. But said freshness doesn’t last as the smell of fermenting and very-old blood radiates from the walls and floor and ceiling, coated completely in the red-brown substance.
“Jeez...” Dash mumbles as the group looks around, holding their noses at the smell, Pinkie thankful for her gas-mask, though she could still smell some of the ancient viscera through its filters.
“So, uh, Anthony... you got any idea which way we’re goin’?” Gaige asks, looking at the old smears with very little interest.
“Yeah, it’s just through here.” He says, leading them through the room towards a door on the far end of the room “It’s the one on the right.”
When they come out there’s a large conveyor belt leading to a crusher, and in the distance of the cavernous room they can all hear the buzzing of more Varkids.
“Well, it’s either this or the long way...”
“And what’s the long way?” Pinkie asks.
“Varkids and spiderants. And Threshers.”
“What’s a thresher? I mean, I assume you don’t mean a grain thresher...” Dash says.
“Huge tentacly monsters.” Gaige clarifies. “Right out of some creepo’s hentai collection.”
“Aren’t you a little young to know what hentai is?” Anthony asks looking at the girl, eyebrow raised.
“Aren’t you a little old to be hanging around with candy ponies?”
“Touche.”
“What’s hentai?”
“You don’t wanna know, Pinkie, trust me.” Anthony says making placating gestures. “For now, let’s just get through here. There’s a ladder on the far end of the room. And whatever you do, don’t fall or get sucked into the crusher.”
“Gotta say one thing for Dahl. Their stuff lasts. How long do you think this conveyor belt will keep running for?” Gaige asks, inspecting the machinery. “Wow, this stuff is ancient, it’s not even electrical!”
Anthony, a bit interested, walks up behind Gaige and looks at the still-moving belt. “So, what’s it got for a power-source to keep it running all this time?”
“Uh, can we get a move on?” Dash requests, looking antsy. “I don’t know how long we’ll be able to sit around without getting noticed by the varkids up there.” As if to punctuate her statement a group of adult Varkids fly down towards the group.
A couple blasts from Gaige’s shotgun and they fall to the ground, wings damaged by the spray, leaving them in prime position to be taken out by the ponies, Anthony picking off larval varkids as they jump up. “The small ones are at least easy. Just don’t let them pod up.”
“I think we learned that lesson the hard way.”
Anthony swaps to the Sloth and lands a few shots at a pair of incoming adult varkids, too far for any other weapons to hit them. By the time the burst-fire rips through the first one the second is already spitting at Anthony, hitting the shield. It didn’t hurt but it was still slimy. “Ah man... I’m gonna need some new clothes after this.”
“Worry about that later.” Pinkie replies, firing her launcher at the second adult, blasting it to giblets while Anthony reloads his sniper. “I don’t have many more rockets left. Is there an ammo dump around?” She asks hopefully.
“Sorry, the closest one is either back the way we came or on the way back to the surface. We’ve hit the halfway point.” Anthony swaps back to his hyperion pistol and takes out several larval varkids who had leaped up onto the conveyor belt and were jumping at the group. The Jakobs had more power, but the Hyperion had a larger clip and faster reload speed, landing more shots faster.
“And... you said not to fall, right?” Dash asks, looking down over the edge and seeing a very long drop, the bottom of which was littered with varkid mounds. “Eesh, noted.”
Anthony hops onto the belt and makes a hasty leap across to the other side, making the jump easily. “It’s not that far, but you still don’t wanna fall down.”
The ponies nod as they take galloping leaps, also making the jump easily, Gaige following suit. Once they had gotten over the pit, the Varkids start swarming out of their colonies below. Some were beginning to metamorphose. Anthony tosses his last grenade down and the spinning wheel of fire burns and melts away the pods and larval varkids, though merely angering the adults. Pinkie covers the adults in slag as they pop up, Gaige’s shotgun finishing them off easily with their increased damage reception.
“See? Nothing to it. Now, let’s get out of here.” The group runs across the room as fast as they can, shooting behind them at the straggling Adults and soon they come to the ladder Anthony mentioned.
“So how exactly do you know this place like the back of your hand, anyways?” Gaige asks. “You said you just arrived a few days ago, right?”
“Yeah, we got here on the first day we met. I uh...” Anthony racks his brain for a believable lie. “I know Dahl’s tendency to make everything look the same, being all military and such. I just know what they look like on the inside. For the most part.”
Gaige just shrugs. “Okay. Well? After you.” Dash and Pinkie are already halfway up the ladder, as Anthony climbs on.
Once the group reaches the top and file out of the door, they end up back in the caverns properly again. “The exit to the surface should be just on the other end of that wall.” Anthony says, running up and giving a squeaky, rusted wheel a few turns. Failing to open it he gives up. “Anyone else think they can get it open?”
“Move aside, noobsauce.” Gaige replies, walking up to the wheel and giving it a heave. While the wheel does in fact turn, the resistance of age puts a lot of stress on Gaige’s arms, most notably her robot arm which was already in bad shape from earlier. “There... we... go...” She says as the door begins sliding open. “Nothing to-” crack “Oh... that’s not good.” Her mechanical hand was now fully bent backwards at the wrist. “Yeah... I’m not fixing that down here...”
Anthony winces as he looks at the damage. “You’re gonna need some stuff from Sanctuary, huh?”
“Eh, no biggie, Crazy Earl should have what I need. Anyone got some Eridium?”
“Uh...” the group pauses.
“Ah darnit... Oh well, it’ll have to wait. For now at least the door’s open, right?”
“Yeah.” Anthony says as a few varkids leap out over the wall, several more charging through the now-open doorway.
They are quickly taken care of, the main problem is in their numbers. Soon enough they are finished off and the group is free to head back. “Is this it?” Pinkie asks, indicating the gigantic, vault-like door.
“Yeah, just need to... Uh oh...”
“What? What’s Uh oh? That doesn’t sound good.”
“There’s no way to open it from this side...” Anthony recalls. “The mechanism is on the other side.”
“We’re... stuck down here?”
“Unless we can get through this door by force... yeah, we’re here until someone can come for us.” The trio of girls sigh heavily, Anthony getting on the ECHO. “Hey, you guys back from Thousand Cuts?”
“Yeah, why? We were about to have some drinks at Moxxi’s. You gonna join?”
“That’s a negative. We’re a bit stuck. Let’s just say that the info stockade was a breeze, but the whole ‘leaving’ part had issues. Can you get back to where Sanctuary was before the liftoff?”
“Ah... yeah? Why?”
Anthony turns and sees a tripedal creature slowly lumbering towards them, crystals all over its body. “Well, until someone gets this door open we’re gonna be stuck. There’s no way to open it from our end. You’ll meet some bandit resistance getting to us, but nothing you can’t handle. No rush but these crystalisks down here don’t seem happy to have visitors...”
As he speaks, another begins to advance, and the four vault hunters start spreading out, all thinking to back into a more defensible position... and all thinking of different places for such a defense. A third begins to climb out of the toxic, acidic ooze towards them, and it’s not the only one, but none of them seem to be targeting Dash or Pinkie, much to everyone’s confusion until they begin to fight.
“Aim for the legs, it’s their weak spot... their only weak spot.” Anthony advises, Gaige fumbling to use her shotgun one-handed.
“Ugh, this is not working... I need parts to fix this!” she shouts angrily, calling on Deathtrap and directing him towards the Crystalisks’ weak points.
As if to respond, the crystalisk nearest to them launch a small barrage of spikes at Anthony, who manages to dodge, a stray spike however grazing his back. “The sooner you get here the better!” Anthony adds into the ECHO.
“We’ll be there ASAP.” Axton replies calmly before ending the call.
“Alright, we just have to last long enough for them to get to us.” Anthony says, dodging some more spikes, this time with less luck, his shield taking a direct hit.
“And exactly how long is that gonna take?” Dash asks.
Anthony pauses to calculate the distance from the nearest Fast Travel station, in Three Horns, to the Sanctuary Hole. “Uh, best guess for a set of five well-equipped Vault Hunters? Ten to twenty minutes.”
“Fantastic...” Dash remarks sarcastically.
“They might make five if they take a fast enough car.” he says, optimistically.
“And how close is the nearest Catch-A-Ride?” Pinkie asks, backing up against the door.
Anthony struggles to remember. “Uh, let’s see, the closest Fast Travel is by the Happy Pig, so...”
“So they’ll have a car in no time!” Gaige replies enthusiastically. “Yes, we ain’t screwed today!”
Then they get a call on the ECHO. “Uh, guys, our ETA is gonna be at least an hour...”
“What!?” comes the entire group’s response.
“Something happened by the Happy Pig, power’s down so no Catch-A-Ride. You’ll have to hold out until we can get a vehicle.”
“I think we can do that.” Anthony says, pulling out his Jakob’s and aiming at the Crystalisk’s legs, aiding Deathtrap. Anthony swears under his breath as he misses, succeeding in only ticking the creature off.
“Thanks for understanding. We’ll be there, just keep your heads.” Axton ends the call again, as the nearest Crystalisk sends a cluster of crystals that barely lands at Anthony’s feet before exploding, sending crystal shards flying like shrapnel.
After his shields recover from the damage, Anthony swaps out for his electric assault rifle and begins firing bullet after bullet his HUD indicating a critical hit each time he hits a leg with his spray, which wasn’t as often as he would’ve liked.
The Crystalisks continue their slow advance, occasionally stopping to hurl more spikes at the group. Finally Deathtrap and Anthony completely destroy the crystal casing on one of the creature's legs, knocking it back and slowing it down for a bit before the ones behind it begin charging. One slams the ground heavily and causes a minor earthquake making Gaige and Anthony stumble, Pinkie and Dash forced to go quadrupedal to stay up.
The group get back to their feet in time for another cluster of crystal bombs to land nearby, scattering them. “We need to focus on one at a time!”
“Easier said than done.” Dash says, dodging another barrage of spikes. “They aren’t giving us the chance.”
“Well, what do you suggest, then?” Anthony asks, seriously. “I’m open to ideas right now.”
“Iduuno!” Dash yells, “But for some reason, they’re only really going after you two!” she pauses. “Wait, why aren’t they going after me or Pinkie?” she asks.
“They hate humans due to what the Dahl corporation did to them.” Anthony clarifies. “But you seem fine. Guess they don’t see you as a threat yet.”
“Uh... can we sit this one out then?” she asks. “I mean, if they’re just wanting to be left alone, Anthony... what did the Dahl corporation do?”
“They came here for crystals. They found them. And tried mining them. Suffice to say that ticked them off.”
“Eesh, I don’t blame ‘em. I mean, if someone came looking for, like, my feathers and started plucking pegasi left and right, I’d be pretty peeved.” she says, backing out of the way with Pinkie, though she doesn’t look entirely sure of herself.
“Are you seriously not gonna help?” Anthony shouts exasperatedly.
“Well, they’re kinda in the right, here, Anthony.” Pinkie says. Dash furrows her brows, biting her lip.
“No they aren’t!” Anthony argues, taking a barrage of spikes in his shield, breaking it. “I didn’t do anything, they attacked first, how are they in the right!? This is self-defense!”
Dash looks like she’s wavering. “Well... maybe we can try reasoning with them? Dang, this is really the time we could use Fluttershy or Rarity here. I’m sure Rarity could distract them or Fluttershy could talk them down...” she gives a frustrated groan. “Aagh, I don’t wanna piss them off, but... oh, why can’t we just have, like, shields we can throw down or something, like the Royal Guard uses?”
“Because this is Pandora, nothing wants to just talk things out.” Gaige replies. “Miles better than Promethea, but when you got nowhere else to go, Pandora is still pretty crappy.”
“What she said. If you aren’t gonna help us, then we’ll help ourselves!” Anthony says angrily, grabbing Pinkie’s Launcher off her back and firing a rocket at the nearest Crystalisk, taking out all three legs with the only rocket in the launcher. Not having any rockets of his own, Anthony just tosses it back to Pinkie as the Crystalisk begins to burrow into the ground before exploding in a shower of golden crystal sticks.
“Still got more to go, and their legs aren’t exactly an easy target for Deathtrap.” Gaige says. “Haven’t upgraded him to go for specific crit spots.”
“Seriously? You couldn’t mention that until now?” Anthony complains.
“Look smartass, he was built as a highly-effective bully-repellant. I just added claws and lasers because they’re cool.”
Anthony just sighs. muttering to himself before going back to his AR, sending another wave of bullets towards the crystalisks as Deathtrap, true to Gaige’s words, finally starts taking enough of a beating for his master to recall him. “Hope that shotgun is good enough.”
“Hey, at least I’m trying!” Gaige bickers back. “This is a lot harder, I’m used to having more than one pair of hands as backup.”
“So am I!” Anthony calls back, sparing a second to give the ponies a look, which results in him getting hit by more spikes.
“Augh, I can’t just stand here!” Dash yells, and finally steps in, throwing a grenade at the Crystalisks, stalling them as they turn towards her. “Uh... I can go back to standing here now.” she says, fifteen Crystalisks now bearing down on her, in vengeance for their friend who had been effectively put out of commission by the mirv grenade that had auto-targeted its victim’s weak point.
“Too late. You fire a shot, you can’t take it back!” Anthony advises. “And by the way, that grenade won’t help much, they can’t be slagged.”
“Now you tell me!” Pinkie says, putting away her ‘support shotgun’. “Anything else they can’t be hurt by?”
“Uh, yeah... the list of what does hurt them is shorter. Normal bullets and standard explosives.”
“Man, Dahl really picked a bad fight...” Gaige mutters, hearing the bad news.
Another huge barrage of spikes and crystal clusters rain from the sky onto the group, taking out everyone’s shields and dealing significant health damage.
“Now what?” Anthony asks, worried.
“You’re the one with all the plans!” Gaige replies.
“She’s right, you usually have some idea.” Pinkie agrees.
“I have one idea, but it’s pretty stupid.”
Dash groans. “And I thought I’d be relieved when you finally admit you have stupid ideas...”
“Is it stupid enough to work?” Pinkie asks helpfully.
“Not sure.” Anthony admits, training his pistol at the nearest Crystalisk, breaking another leg.
“Just do it!” Gaige yells. “We’re getting creamed here!”
Anthony nods. “Pinkie, cover me”
“Wait, wha?” Before she has a chance to react Anthony dashes back behind Pinkie and begins training his Sloth on the sky. Finding his target, he takes a shot and the keening shriek of a hurt Adult Varkid echoes throughout the caverns. “Anthony what did you just do?”
“There’s only one thing Crystalisks hate more than people...” he says, as the enraged screeching of a swarm of Varkids begins to fill the caverns, and the Crystalisks begin to turn their attention towards the cavern’s roof, launching out stony spikes as a veritable carpet of angry arthropods descends towards the group. “And I just called down the storm.”
For her part, Dash was getting a brief stroke of PTSD at the giant swarm, letting out a yell of “Are you insane!?”
“Nope.” Anthony replies calmly. “I’m stupid. Now let’s get those guys really pissed.” He takes out a grenade and cooks it for a few seconds before throwing it into the sky, the spinning wheel of fire releasing moments after it rises into the cloud of varkids, the burst of fire setting several of them on fire, the loud screech hurting everyone’s ears and causing the Varkids to descend upon the group and the Crystalisks by extension.
Several flying Badass Varkids join the adults in the attack, acting as backup for their enraged family members.
“Now run!” Anthony shouts, picking up Gaige again, sparking up and taking her back inside the Dahl’s structure, leaving the door open long enough for Rainbow to Rainboom over, carrying Pinkie on her back. Once inside, and now far enough away to be ignored, Anthony sets Gaige down and slams the door, sounds of the Varkid/Crystalisk battle being audible through the decent inch and a half of steel that was their door.
“Anthony, that was crazy!” Gaige yells giving him a punch with her normal arm. She then sits down on the blood-caked floor. “But it worked I guess.”
“Yeah... Now we only have to wait it out and deal with the stragglers. The way they’re riled up out there, they should be almost done by the time or backup gets here... hopefully.”
“So that’s it? We just sit here and wait?” Rainbow asks, complaining just a bit.
“Unless you’d rather be out there then yes.”
“Fine.”
---- (/\) ----
After what feels like an eternity of listening to the angry rumblings and shrill cries of Crystalisks battling varkids, the team is getting strained in their current position.
“How long are they gonna keep going?”
“Crystalisks are tough, and Varkids are fast and more numerous. Who knows... But at least we’re safe in here.”
As if to reassure the group that this was the right plan, they get another ECHO call. “Hey, you guys still okay?”
“Yeah... a bit battered though.” Gaige replies.
“Cool. We ran into some bandits squatting in the remains of Sanctuary. Should be down in a few.” A loud explosion is heard over the ECHO. “Maybe a bit sooner. Krieg’s going absolutely nuts out here.”
“I have potatoes with your names on them!” Krieg adds into the conversation.
“Good, we’re just waiting out a little ecosystem war down here.” Anthony says, relieved that help was only minutes away. “You guys are just in time.”
“Alright... wait, what ecosystem war?”
“Varkids versus Crystalisks.”
“Eesh, sounds nasty. Real nasty. I thought that was static on your end.” Axton says sympathetically as the bunker rumbles.
“I wish. Anyways, they should be almost done by the time you get to us, just a few stragglers for us to take care of, shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Roger that. Seeya in a bit.” The ECHO goes down and Gaige is sitting in the corner trying to fix her mechanical arm but getting frustrated.
“I need to get back to Sanctuary for some parts...” She moans. “This started out going so well...”
“Welcome to my life.” Anthony says, laying a hand on her shoulder. “But hey, glad you came with. Couldn’t have gotten this far without you.”
“Put that on a valentine card and it’d be the nicest thing I ever got from a guy.” Gaige says, rolling her eyes.
Rainbow just stares. “Why, your arm?”
“Yeah, apparently for most guys, the whole ‘robo-arm’ is a real turn-off. Especially the cute ones.”
“Well, I knew a pegasus in flight school who had a wooden leg and everypony thought he was the coolest thing ever...”
“Oh, are we sharing stories?” Pinkie asks excitedly. “Well, one time I-” a loud blaring noise cuts her off, and the noise is followed by loud whirring and mechanical clunking. The door to the elevator room was opening. Stepping out from their hiding place, the Vault Hunters meet up with the rest of their group, clearing out the last of the Crystalisks, who had apparently won, though had lost a few numbers.
“Man are we glad to see you.” Anthony breathes. “Thanks for the backup.”
“No problem. Just returning the favor from Overlook.” Maya says as she Phaselocks a Crystalisk for Kreig to go whole-hog on its underside with his buzz-axe.
Soon enough, all the creatures are dealt with and the entire group heads over to the newly-activated Fast Travel Station, sending them to Sanctuary. Once back, the crew all heads to Moxxi’s for a celebratory drink, Anthony handed a glass of Faux-range juice. “Sorry sugar, but Roland paid me a pretty penny to make sure you don’t get buzzed again until we win this war on Hyperion.”
“No, no, he’s right. I shouldn’t be drowning myself in alcohol.” Anthony says as he takes a drink, this time expecting the strong taste. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either.
Dash is regaling Axton with the story of what happened in the caverns. “And then Anthony just... lets the badass tackle him into the goop. I thought he was suicidal for a moment but he ended up giving me the chance to take it out.”
“Heh, wow, kid, you got guts.” Axton says approvingly, slapping him on the back. “Could use some work on the brains area, but guts. Not bad.”
“Hey, a leader’s gotta do what a leader’s gotta do.”
Axton nods and raises his glass before taking another drink. “Anyways, once Gaige is fixed up, the six of us are gonna head out and do a job for Brick, something about a Hyperion moonshot landing in his neck of the woods. We’re gonna do that and take the Bunker afterwards. You guys do have what you went to get, right?”
“Yeah.” Gaige mumbles, half of her attention on her arm. “And some plans that Jack had to mass-produce a crappy-awesome version of Deathtrap. Angel says she’s gonna wipe it from the system over the next few days.”
“And in the meantime, we’ll upgrade Claptrap.”
Gaige just looks at Anthony. “Please, you wouldn’t even know where to begin, leave it to a professional.”
“You’re a professional? I wasn’t aware you had a job as well as school.”
“Okay, not a legal professional but hey, a girl’s gotta start somewhere, and there are worse ways for a thirteen year old girl to earn cash for her projects.”
“Wait, I thought you said you’re fourteen?”
“Uh, yeah, I am now. You think I started on my fourteenth birthday? Pfft, it takes time to become this awesome.”
“Anyways, fine we’ll leave Clappy to you. In the meantime, we can look for our own jobs to do. We’ll help with the Bunker too, but we’ll probably be up in the skies, helping the Slabs.” Anthony says.
“In the air?” Dash says, sounding interested, looking up from her own drink.
“Well yeah, what better time to try out whatever upgrades Scooter’s made to the Buzzard?”
“Yes! This is gonna be awesome!” Dash says getting up from her chair only pausing to throw some money Moxxi’s way, rushing out the door to head to the garage, laughing and squealing in excitement.
“Man, she sure misses flying...” Anthony says. “But I guess that’s to be expected. I’d be pretty upset if I lost my thumbs.”
Moxxi just saunters up to Anthony. “She overpaid for her drink... hand this back to her when you get the chance.”
Anthony nods and takes the money, dropping some of his own into the tip jar. “I plan on entering that ‘Dome once you rebuild it. Might as well help it get its funds paid for.”
“I’d like to see that. I hear a lot about you, but I’ve never seen you in action. Hey, here’s an idea. There’s a sort of proxy-Underdome I helped fund that’s run by a guy named Fink out in the Fridge. If you head out there and win a few rounds, I’d appreciate it if you could show Pandora that they need a real arena.”
“Fink’s Slaughterhouse.” Anthony says. “Yeah, I’ve seen posters around. I’ll enter.”
“Thanks. Unfortunately I can’t exactly offer you any kind of reward for it if you get through it, but how about I owe you a favor if you show Fink that his slaughterhouse leaves something to be desired?”
“Works for me.” Anthony says. “We’ll do a few jobs around Sanctuary, maybe check a few bounty boards around the highlands, and then head for the Fridge.”
“Thanks sugar, you’ll really be helping me out. I knew I could count on you. But you do really need to learn how to hold your liquor. Until Jack’s put six feet under, I’m cutting you off. You can have food, but no drinks.”
“Fair enough.” Anthony agrees, paying for his faux-range juice and gets up. “Seeya ‘round Moxxi. Pinkie, you coming?”
“I’ll catch up. I’m planning our ‘we beat Jack’ party!”
Anthony nods and heads out to the garage to see what Scooter had cooked up. He is also interested in what the mechanic could do to a flying machine. Anthony walks down the steps of the upper floor down to the garage proper and sees most of a Buzzard... sorta. This one is about half again as big, and appears to have a set of rocket pods under one wing, and Scooter strapped upside-down under the other, working inside of a bigger propeller setup than the Buzzards have. The crackling of electricity and the flashes of an arc welder catches Anthony’s attention.
“Listen, if you’s a Hyperion bot, gimme a few more days ta finish this, then ya kin kill me!” Scooter yells from where the upper half of his torso is inside of the housing.
Rainbow Dash is watching Scooter work with rapt attention, a small, modified visor over her eyes to protect her vision from the bright lights of the welder. For her part, she is barely sitting still, hopping from one set of hooves to another in anticipation of the new vehicle being finished.
“We’re gonna raid a bunker with this!” She squeals. “I can’t wait!”
Anthony chuckles and sits down by her, petting her to calm her down to little effect. “Yeah, we’ll be air-support. I should probably go see about a few jobs and come back in a bit. You okay here?”
Dash nods excitedly, eyes not straying from the much sturdier-looking flying machine. “I am so going to put my next set of skills into more driving stuff!”
Anthony pats Rainbow on the head and gets up, heading to the local bounty board and reads through a few jobs, most of them simple ones. At this point he was less concerned with the jobs that offered money as much as the ones that rewarded decently-levelled loot.
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Read the fight with Hell to Pay playing in the background. Perfectly themed for the fight
Ah, yes... The Caustic Caverns... I HATED that place. So many Varkids and Threshers.... The only consolation I had was that I was several levels higher than everything there the first time I visited. Also, isn't that where the Creepers are?
7554668 Yep, that's where you find the Minecraft stuff.
Yay! It's been so long since I last read this, I had to read the previous chapter to stay caught up. Totally worth. Luv reading from ya.
7570397 I don't wanna be away for too long on anything, but it's been hectic lately. On top of school, I've got several other projects that haven't gotten posted yet because they're not entirely Starlight related or they're for 'later' in the stories.
Was juggling with the idea if I should (in the main story) have Anthony participate in Equestria Girls stuff, and I've made a decision finally.
7571180
Well whatever it is, I'm always excited by new stuff. By the way, in regards to this story, am I supposed to be looking for the document for skill trees and giving suggestions, or did I miss out on that part of the story?
7571967
We ended up scrapping that idea because people weren't voting.
If you are interested in seeing it, I can link you to it. Just PM me.