"Haa, I guess things can never be easy on this savage planet."
"That's an understatement seeing how Dahl cut their losses and abandoned their employees and left their assets to rot and rust away on Pandora. But the Rakk Hives are not the only problematic enemies you'll encounter while trying to access the outpost and what's stored in it."
"What else is there?" I asked, already getting a headache about the problems I'll soon encounter whilst trying to get off this shithole planet that will freeze over in another 10 years or so.
"Well, from what I can see with the Hyperion 4N631 satellite I have control of, there are over a dozen huge Rakk inhabiting the surroundings, and among them are several elemental variants."
"That's fucking great."
"...Are you going to be able to handle something like this, or would you rather try a less risky option?"
I can handle this number of boss enemies after a sizable power-up and enough preparation, but it's still going to be a pain in the ass to deal with all those monsters, so let's see what else Angel has to offer.
"What's the next closest Dahl location?"
"Mm… The next site is about a hundred miles from Fyrestone, and the area surrounding the base has been overrun by a scythid colony."
"Yeah, instead of traveling a hundred miles to fight swarms of oversized alien leeches, I think I'll take my chances with the rakk."
"If you're that confident in your ability to handle the nearest location and threats that inhabit the surrounding zone, I won't tell you otherwise, just be careful."
"It'll be a pain, but I'll be able to handle it after preparing for a bit." I said, confident in my ability.
I could probably take them on now if I scouted out the area and utilized hit-and-run tactics alongside a shitton of explosives, but I'll wait until I've culled the local bandits and ensured Fyrestone's safety. The last thing I want is for the town to get raided and head downhill even more while I'm away.
With my way off planet potentially figured out, we moved onto the next thing on the agenda. "Alright, now that we've established a location for me to check out, I have a favor to ask?"
"Oh, go on, I'm listening." The young woman replied, eager to help.
"There are four Vault Hunters I want you to be on the lookout for who will play a pivotal role in the future. Their physical features are-" After listing their physical appearances in great detail and providing everything else I could think of, I continued. "If you could find all of them and keep tabs on where they're heading, I'd owe you a huge favor, beautiful."
"Don't even mention it. This is the least I can do for you since you're already going out of your way to release me from my chains. And besides, I've already got tabs on a couple of these people."
"Such as?"
"Like Lilith, as we've already established, she's also a legendary siren like me, so of course I would be on the lookout for those similar to myself, and Brick."
"Oh, Brick's already on your radar?"
"Yes, because he's already out for blood and causing chaos across Pandora."
"That big lug's already ripping his way across the planet, huh?"
"Violently and explosively." She dark-haired beauty stated, appearing to be somewhat disturbed by what she may have seen that brute committing.
The two of us talked briefly about Brick's less than peaceful actions and moved on to the other two fellas. "Roland is either still in the Crimson Lance or will desert them soon, so he should pop up on bounties issued by Atlas."
"I would ask how you can be so sure, but I know you won't tell me squat."
"Not now, but maybe someday in the future. As for Mordecai, I have no clue. I just know he's from Artemis, is one hell of a sharpshooter and has a pet wing."
"He's managed to tame one of those exotic wild birds?"
"Should, is the key word."
"Alright, I should have more than enough information to find the other two. Is there anything else I can assist you with?"
"No, I can handle the rest on my end for the time being."
We conversed for a few minutes longer before I decided to wrap it up and go catch some much-needed zzz's. "Okay, I'm gonna hang up now, Angel. I'll talk to you again soon."
"Tomorrow?"
"Hmm... I'm gonna be busy, but I'm sure I can set aside some time to chat with a charming fox such as yourself."
"My, you're quite the sweet talker. Do you do this with all the ladies?"
As the dusting of pink was returning to the fair-skinned beauty's cheeks, I replied. "Nope, only the ones that catch my eye, and right now you're the only one occupying that list."
Though that's only currently.
I flirted with the young beaut for another minute or so and soon got off my ECHO communicator, and when I did, I found the skag pups had passed out once more and were snoring away peacefully.
I suppose it's time I joined them.
Finishing that thought, I headed up a floor, ventured into the master bedroom, crashed on the freshly cleaned sheets of the king-sized bed, and fell asleep shortly thereafter.
…
The next day I woke up well rested and full of vigor, so I climbed out of bed and approached the covered window that had a bit of light peeking through. Pushing one of the blades up and out of the way, I had a look of the town.
Yeah, it's going to take some getting used to these long-ass day and night cycles.
As I was peering out the window that had a hefty layer of Pandora dust coating it and observing the surroundings, I started considering what I wanted to accomplish today.
What do I wanna do today… I could go around town to explore and get a lay of the land, I suppose, and see if I can't locate Dr. Zed. Or I can go do some loot runs back and forth from the Headstone Mine, or chill for the day and work on how I'm going to apply constant damage to myself, so I can keep skills like | Incite | active at all times or pretty much at all times.
Yeah, I don't need a whole ass day to come up with a viable idea for that; I mean I already came up with a couple decent ideas like using something like a small open wound that I never allow to heal fully or I can implement an IV or some other form of injectable that feeds weak and very mild venom or poison into my system to keep it active.
Untested ideas aside, I got way too much I want to accomplish to be wasting time sitting around in my new pad. So that means I'm going to go see what the town has to offer and find that unhinged Dr. Zed if he exists. If he does, I'm sure he'll have a few crazy ideas in that skull of his. I can also check out what sort of class mods, shields, and meds he's got in stock… I hope he has some stuff I haven't seen in games before; that would be sweet.
After that, I'm going to see if I can find Marcus's gun store. I have a ton of weapons I want to unload for cash and a number of weapons and gun parts I want to get my hands on. If I can acquire a Vladof Chopper machine gun and a Maliwan Hellfire submachine gun elemental mod, then I'll have one hell of a primary weapon.
And now that I'm thinking of that unique machine gun again, I wonder what a Chopper would look like in this world with its 500+ round magazine and its ability to fire four shots in one trigger pull. I mean, the Anarchy type of submachine guns have 4 barrels in this world and appear to have space for 4 separate accessory modules, so maybe it has 4 barrels as well and just as many spaces for elemental modules… Alright, that's enough thinking about all that. It's time to get ready and head out the door and go explore.
Ready to start my day, I hopped out of the bed I slept like a log in and hit the bathroom to take a nice long piss and brush my teeth. Once I gotten that junk out of the way, I headed down a floor to my pups, who were already up and at me and not even a moment after they greeted me in the way of licks and jumping up on me they started crying out for food… Typical.
"Alright, alright, I'm going to feed you guys, calm down!"
I don't think they truly understood the substance of my words, but they understood the tone, so they eased the early morning hyperactivity and followed my steps into the kitchen where I immediately began heating up a load of fried chicken for them and an even larger portion for myself. I had a big day ahead of myself, no doubt; hence, I had to load up on as many calories as I could, especially since my burn rate had gone up quite a bit with the massive increase in my body weight.
The bunch of us were starving, i.e. pretty hungry, so once the oven beeped and the door popped open, I swiftly delivered the aromatic chicken to the ravenous pups and made short work of the meal alongside them. As soon as the pups were finished with their meals, I cleaned up whatever mess they made in the house before I brought them outside, so I could attempt to teach them to take care of their business outside instead of in the god damn corner of my fucking living room.
I don't know how successful that lesson was, so it would probably be a good idea to look up how I can train these scamps properly.
Whilst I was thinking about finding training methods for skags and other alien creatures, the skag pups energetically piled through the door the moment I opened it and took off into the house.
Yeah, we're in need of some "serious" training.
Needing to crack the whip on these rowdy guys before they got too big and out of control, I began looking for the relevant information on the ECHO net as I made my way upstairs. My searching efforts didn't take more than a dozen seconds to locate what I needed to straighten these rascals out.
You guys are in for a rude awakening.
Eager to start right away, I gathered the very active pups and began training the little bastards, but only for an hour since I had other priorities to attend to.
They're not anywhere near fixed, but I think I can see this whole training thing working out in the long run if I give it enough time.
What stood before me after my quick training sesh with the rascals was 5 mushrooming jet-black skag pups sitting in a straight line in front of me. Content with the improvements I was seeing from this short bout of training, although very minor in the grand scheme of things, I sent the pups off to get some more sleep, whilst I on the other hand headed out the door to go explore the town.
The second I threw my armor on and had my Atlas machine gun resting against my abdominal region, I walked out the front door, locked it, and headed for the town center. There wasn't a whole lot to see, nor anywhere near as many townsfolk as there used to be, so my journey to the center was a brief and uneventful one. Right smack dab in the center of town again, I ran my eyes across the scene and wandered off down one of the streets I hadn't traveled previously in my real estate hunt yesterday, and not long into that route I discovered a certain business.
Well, if you're just gonna plaster your face on your business's sign, then I guess you gotta exist, huh, Dr. Zed...
Nearly 100% certain I had the right place, I walked up to the entrance of Dr. Zed's Medical Clinic and went on inside. Right as I cleared the door, the doc himself greeted me as he worked on filling out a log. "Hey, how's it going?"
"Not too shabby, and you?"
"Ahh, things could be better, but such is life." He said right before he lifted his head up from his work. "Ohh, you must be someone new to town since I don't recall someone of your stature ever stepping foot into my establishment."
"You're certainly right about that. I just arrived in Fyrestone the day before."
The man went into thought for a second and seemed to have realised something. "You're not one of Marcus's men, are you? Cus if he sent you, you can tell him to suck it. Any of his guns I get from a dead patient belong to me, you hear me."
[ Loot Acquired ]
Ammunition: 7,228
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