Having dealt with the Rakk Hive, we made our way back home via the same route we had used to reach Piss Wash Gully, and after a number of minutes had elapsed, we came upon the town once more.
"Uhh, aren't we gonna cut through town to reach the main gate?"
"Nah, we'll just circle around the right side and get to the area surrounding it that way. Why, you got a better idea?"
"Well, if we go around that way, we'll pass right through another skag-infested area that originated from Skag Gully, so I wouldn't recommend taking that route if we can help it. Plus, I'm not exactly fond of getting turned into a chew toy, especially by those mangy mutts." The little bot shivered.
Ohh, would you look at that, Claptrap is thinking and coming up with some decent info for once. That's a nice change from the constant random chaos he's been causing up to now.
"Hmm, that's an intriguing bit of information, and though it would be far safer and probably wiser for us to ignore the skags running around over on this side, I'm sure the town would appreciate us doing them a solid, so we'll do just that. And besides, it'll get you and me some additional combat experience, so why the hell not."
"Slaughter more meatbags, huh… You should've just come out and said that from the beginning."
And there's that bloody, chaotic element peeking its ugly head out again… I'm gonna have to keep a close eye on that going forward.
Making a mental note of the deepening of my ruthless little friend's voice and the change in the energy he gave off when it came to fighting and killing, I stuck it in the back of my mind and kept on driving past the rear gate… For now.
The two of us waved at the guards sitting atop the town's walls as we sped past and started circling Fyrestone's exterior. Things were quiet and uneventful, boring even, as we traveled along Fyrestone's perimeter wall, but that soon changed when we reached the halfway point and came upon a section, that had begun to turn mountainous. Easily spotting tons of skags roaming about the area along with plenty of dugouts in the rising rock, which were most definitely skag dens, I stopped the car and signaled to my buddy up top to open fire on the new prey.
"Let em have it, Claptrap!"
"Will do, friend. I'll slaughter the bunch of them."
Not wanting Claptrap to absorb all the kills since they would look oh so much better on me given my system's abilities to strengthen and empower me, I opened fire on the crowd of wild alien k9s with my modded Chopper and stole the first kill from him. My mechanical friend wasn't one to let me have all the fun on my own, so he quickly joined in on the fun and started laying into the beasts too with the mounted heavy machine gun.
My unique quad-barreled machine gun shredded, burned, and blew up the skags several at a time as I laid waste to their population. But I wasn't the only one enjoying myself in this hunt because Claptrap, on the other hand, simply held the trigger and kept pressure on whilst he gunned them down with heavier rounds, all of which could penetrate the hard, bony exteriors of the skags with ease.
"HAHAHA, EAT LEAD YOU MANGY MUTTS!" My chaotic sparky friend hollered from the Outrunner's turret.
Although my mechanical companion was getting a bit too into it, I let him unwind whilst I systematically dispatched the annoyances as quickly as possible. I still had a lot to do today, so I couldn't afford to waste more time than was necessary on this encounter. As the two of us continued our gunning, the skags' numbers dwindled lower and lower, and eventually an upset alpha stumbled out of the largest of the dens and roared loudly.
However, the large non-elemental alpha was no match for my souped-up machine gun, so the instant its soft, unprotected maw became exposed, I swiftly aimed my weapon in its direction, braced it against my lean muscular shoulder, and positioned my scope's reticle. The very instant I had it hovering dead center on its vital, I depressed the trigger and fired a wild stream of bullets that first penetrated the alpha skag's insides before burning them as they carved deeper and deeper into its flesh. A series of explosions went off following that, and the next thing I knew, the beast's head was completely missing from its thick, muscular neck. As for the rest of its body, it was left in such a state that it was nothing more but a smoking shredded husk.
"The pack is done for. Clean up the remnants!"
"Aye, aye, boss."
There weren't many skags remaining once the leader fell to my explosive incendiary rounds, so my buddy and I mopped them up and headed on our way.
I wasn't expecting much of a challenge, but that was certainly easy… Hopefully, the area outside the main gate puts up more of a fight.
Stomping the local savages was nice and all, but facing an enemy that could break up this monotony and actually put up some form of resistance was needed every now and again. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like I would be encountering any of those anytime soon.
My sparky bucket of bolts and I continued along our route, which had Fyrestone's cobbled-together wall to our left and an increasingly steeper rocky terrain to our right. However, this wouldn't remain the case for much longer because after speeding along for another few minutes, the surrounding landscape underwent a drastic change once more, but this time to an open arid desert with innumerable rocky outcroppings dotting its scape… Along with several packs of skags that were hovering close to town.
These should be the troublemakers I'm looking for, huh… Well, I better get to clearing them so I can move onto my next mission.
Keen on getting this over with as fast as possible, I rolled over to the gate and let the personnel know what I was about to do before bee-lining right for the packs of vicious, wild creatures who had begun to take notice of the incoming danger heading their way. "Hey, I'm just letting you guys know ahead of time I'm gonna be getting rid of our skag problem over there, so don't be alarmed when my partner and I start shooting."
"Right-on, just fall back to the gate if you need some help." The guy in charge sounded.
"I'll do that if the need arises, but I doubt they'll be able to give me much trouble."
"I've heard you're quite the capable fella from the boys at the rear, so I hope to be impressed." The cowboy hat wearing middle aged man replied.
"Just sit back and enjoy the show, then." I said last before jerking the wheel and peeling out of there.
Kicking up a decent-sized cloud of dust behind us with my issued Outrunner, I and my bud here raced towards the nearest grouping of skags first and started up our killing spree once more. The regular skags were no issue for us at all, as expected, but the badass corrosive alpha skag that bounded onto the field shortly after we began culling the pack's numbers was anything but.
Claptrap, knowing the danger it posed, immediately prioritized the boss of the group when it appeared, like the smart little guy that he was. Sadly, his rounds were only leaving superficial marks and small divots in its bony armor plating and were for the most part just bouncing off and falling to the dry ground listlessly.
"Vic, my bullets aren't FUCKING WORKING!" The little clanker shouted over the gunfire as he continued to lay into the leader pointlessly.
"Alright, focus on the creatures you can kill then. I'll take out the big guy myself."
Looks like I'll face some difficulty after all... But only a little.
Undeterred by my companion's inability to deal any meaningful damage to the beast, I switched my focus from the small fry to the big, angry fry that was quickly closing the distance between us and it. The skag, that had been a pain in the town's ass since it migrated from Skag Gully with its pack, was a mix of bright corrosive green and dark, black iron and more than displayed why it had become a headache for Fyrestone just with its immense physicality alone.
Shit, it's a big fucker... Maybe I should bring out the Rock-O Launcher for this one.
Unfortunately, just as I was considering how I wanted to put this alpha predator down, the Outrunner hit a deceptively large rock and caused me to momentarily lose control of the wheel, and before I knew it, we were on our side and tipping over fast.
Fuck was all I could think before the vehicle fully flipped over and really left my control. Lucky for us, it didn't fully flip over and just landed against one of the many rocky outcroppings that dotted this relatively open landscape once it lost some of its momentum.
Phew, that was close.
Counting myself and my partner lucky, I disengaged from the runner and checked to see if my mechanical companion was okay. "Claptrap, you good?"
"Y-yea, I'm fine but what the hell happened."
"I'll tell ya later, we gotta deal with the angry swarm of skags we pissed off still." I told him, whilst readying my weapons and equipment for what was to come.
"Alright." The little guy responded as he was about to dislodge himself from the gunner's seat.
"Stay there! I'll flip the vehicle back over."
"...Is that possible?" The sparky little bastard inquired skeptically.
Aware that answering was rather pointless when he could simply see for himself, I let my strapped guns come to rest against my developed body, ran to the other side of the vehicle and grabbed the top which ended up being the side since it was up in the air. And the second I had a firm grip, I exerted my absurd system-enhanced strength and brought the elevated side back down to the ground. The big hulk of metal was coming fast, so I hastily got out of the way as it came slamming down, and then its tires thumped onto the hot, dry earth and once again became flush with the rugged, unforgiving terrain of Pandora.
"Get to it, little guy!"
"Aye, aye, sir." The little fucker spouted just before he ripped the charging handle on the heavy machine gun and went to town on the incoming horde.
While my mechanical companion was handling things on that front, I redirected my attention to the massive skag bounding towards us. The deadly creature was no more than a mere 50 feet away from me, which was a minuscule distance in the grand scheme of things, so I swiftly readied the weapons I was carrying on my person: my two MGs, and brought them to bear.
"You're a big boy, ain't ya?"
The alien beast couldn't understand my words, but it still nevertheless roared angrily because of my past transgressions.
"Ohh, is that so? Well, here, let me take you down a couple sizes." I mouthed off just before I opened up on the car-sized elemental skag.
As soon as I depressed the triggers on my guns, they released a torrent of deadly, automatic fire that rushed at my dangerous opponent with blinding speed. Sadly, the armor plating on this creature was quite tough, so although my storm of lead managed to do some damage, the rounds lost quite a bit of momentum as they struggled to pierce through its bony exterior. Hence, no lethal wounds were delivered to the tough SOB, though the explosive forces did rock it a bit.
The badass corrosive alpha skag was none too pleased with my actions, so it wound up and unleashed a corrosive breath that quickly corroded and melted whatever it touched. Already well aware it would do something like this, I had wisely moved away from Claptrap and the vehicle, so they wouldn't get fucked up and drawn into my 1v1. And man, was that a smart move, because the rocky outcropping I was using for cover quickly whittled away before my very eyes.
Shit, that stuff is strong.
Although I found the capabilities of its corrosive breath to be impressive, I didn't want to find out what it would do to human flesh if I could help it, so I tried to take advantage of its exposed vitals by lighting up its mouth. However, before my rounds could really do anything, they got eaten away by the acid and did hardly any damage to the creature.
This isn't going to work. I would say let's bring out the Rock-O Launcher since it seemed so effective in my fight with that bandit boss. But I'm much too close to Claptrap to even attempt to use that unique double-barreled rocket launcher of mine when I think about that crazy wide explosive radius it has, so that's out.
As I was considering my options, the beast halted its breath and charged my position. The pack leader, though large, was not sluggish by any means, so the little bit of cover I'd been using to avoid its breath got smashed to pieces whilst I narrowly avoided the danger. It likely would've taken a normal man out then and there with that sudden blitz, but I was anything but, so as it passed me by, I lit up its side and removed some sizable chunks from its armor plating. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to deal any substantial damage just like the times before.
Think, Vic, think.
I thought to myself as the beast came to a stop and was turning back towards me.
Oh, you know what, that could work.
Having come up with a plan in my head, I retained my Chopper and stowed my Atlas machine gun whilst I swapped to a weapon that may help me in this fight a bit more. The next moment, just as the badass corrosive alpha skag was getting ready for a round two of bad breath, I summoned my trusty infinite-ammo Eridian Lightning Sniper Rifle.
I was working against the clock here, so as soon as it came into my grip, I unhesitatingly lined up its alien-looking barrel with the beast's opening maw and fired. And right as I applied enough pressure on the trigger, a bolt of energy arced from the muzzle and hit the huge skag right in the mouth just as it started spewing that deadly corrosive substance. When my alien sniper rifle's bolt of lightning made contact with the tender flesh of its mouth, it burned a good amount of it away before charring whatever it had disintegrated.
In addition to that, the electrical energy shot through its body and caused the beast to seize up and interrupt its ranged breath attack, much to my relief. Noticing the opening my attack presented, I pushed it and went on the offensive to take full advantage of the opportunity I had created. My guns blazed as I delivered my torrent of fire upon the pack leader and soon I started to see some progress.
"HAHAHAHA-" I laughed maniacally as I took great joy in the pain I inflicted upon this ruthless, savage beast.
The repeating strikes of lightning coming from my Eridian rifle kept the alien locked down as the powerful rounds speeding out of my Chopper's multiple muzzles slowly but surely whittled away at its defenses, and most importantly, its health. I wasn't doing a whole lot of damage all at once but the meager damage I was dealing was accumulating, so I remained persistent in my assault and let the beast experience the full extent of my explosive bullet storm. Chunks of its bony plating began to fragment and break away from its frame as its body struggled to receive and hold strong against my sustained fire, and before I knew it, the beast began to really roar in pain as the Hellfire element of my heavy machine gun took full effect.
"BURN BABY, BURN!"
The hulking corrosive elemental creature roared and roared as its dis-armored flesh burned and bore repeated pulses of high-voltage shocking energy coming from my arms. But soon its roars began to weaken, and once that started, it didn't stop. The poor bastard quickly went from pained roars to muted whimpers and then nothing. When the severely wounded creature had finally fallen silent, it teetered side to side, and before long its legs gave way, causing it to collapse onto the dry sands of Pandora with a loud thud.
"Damn, you were a hearty fella." I thought aloud to myself as my kill's warm, fresh blood drained from its marred, hole-ridden corpse and rehydrated the earth.
I stood there for a second or two, just recalling the fight in my head and analyzing the whole thing when I was interrupted and brought back to the present. "Vic, I need a little help over here... LIKE NOW." The little guy screamed, desperate for assistance.
Seeing Claptrap was beginning to be overwhelmed by the pack's numbers, I got back to it and raced over whilst lighting up the swarming skags. My friend had done a number on them whilst I was busy handling the boss, but he was really only using the mounted MG and there was only so much he could do with it. However, once I joined the fray with my heavy weaponry and my alien lightning rifle that was improving stat-wise throughout the fight, things had begun to take a turn for the better, and soon the remnants that had been surrounding sparky over here laid dead at our feet.
"HAHA, we did it!" The clanker cheered.
"Fuck yeah, we did."
"Gimme some!" Claptrap said, holding his little hand up high.
Not one to leave my companion hanging, I gave him the high five he was seeking... Though I had to awkwardly lean over to do so.
With our business pretty much wrapped up here now that everything was dead and lying in a pool of blood, we reloaded our weapons before heading on back to the main gate where the guards had been watching the show from. "Hey you guys mind collecting that big skag and sending it back home for me."
"Hell yeah, we can do that." One of the guys lower on the totem pole answered for them, pumped as can be after watching that wild spectacle.
"Well, since you've done us a huge favor by removing those annoyances from the area, I think we can return the favor. I'll even have it processed for you."
"If you would, I'd appreciate it a ton."
"Don't mind it. It isn't anything comparable to what you've done for the town… What do you want to do with the rest of the materials? I mean, it would be a shame to let them go to waste."
"I don't care. Divvy them up amongst yourselves if you got a use for them but don't forget the town and its residents."
"That's who I was thinking of giving the food and materials to."
I chatted with the men for a short while longer when I decided to get back to it. "Alright, it's been fun, but I got more bounties to collect before the day's end, so I'll catch y'all later."
"Mm, make sure you come back alive."
"And if you need help, let us know."
"Will do."
"Sayonara." Claptrap said from up in his gunner's seat as he waved the men goodbye as the two of us drove off to the next destination.
He always has to be extra, huh…
[ Status Changes ]
Level: 48 → 51
Experience Points: +11,970
Total Experience Points Earned: 123,505 → 135,475
Health: 47,360 → 48,320
Health Regeneration: 1,251.8 HP/s → 1,279.1 HP/s
Stamina: 19,240 → 21,140
Stamina Regeneration: 34.8 SP/s → 35.1 SP/s
Skill Points: 2 → 5
Badass Tokens: 2,003 → 3,129
Machine Gun: lvl 59 | Accuracy +59% - Cooling Rate +59% - Damage +59% - Magazine Size +59% - Recoil Reduction +59% - Reload Speed +59% - Stability +59% | → lvl 67 | Accuracy +67% - Cooling Rate +67% - Damage +67% - Magazine Size +67% - Recoil Reduction +67% - Reload Speed +67% - Stability +67% |
Heavy Weapon: lvl 30 | Accuracy +30% - Cooling Rate +30% - Damage +30% - Fire Rate +30% - Magazine Size +30% - Recoil Reduction +30% - Reload Speed +30% - Stability +30% - Stamina +30% - Weapon Handling +30% | → lvl 40 | Accuracy +40% - Cooling Rate +40% - Damage +40% - Fire Rate +40% - Magazine Size +40% - Recoil Reduction +40% - Reload Speed +40% - Stability +40% - Stamina +40% - Weapon Handling +40% |
Eridian Weapon: lvl 7 | Accuracy +7% - Damage +7% - Energy Capacity +7% - Energy Regeneration +7% | → lvl 18 | Accuracy +18% - Damage +18% - Energy Capacity +18% - Energy Regeneration +18% |
Explosive: lvl 75 | Crafting Speed +75% - Damage +75% - Element Effects +75% - Explosive Radius +75% - Shockwave Effects +75% | → lvl 80 | Crafting Speed +80% - Damage +80% - Element Effects +80% - Explosive Radius +80% - Shockwave Effects +80% |
Vehicle Proficiency: lvl 7 | Vehicle Cooling Speed +7% - Vehicle Damage +7% - Vehicle Handling +7% - Vehicle Shield Capacity +7% - Vehicle Shield Recharge Rate +7% - Vehicle Shield Recharge Delay -7% - Vehicle Speed +7% | → lvl 10 | Vehicle Cooling Speed +10% - Vehicle Damage +10% - Vehicle Handling +10% - Vehicle Shield Capacity +10% - Vehicle Shield Recharge Rate +10% - Vehicle Shield Recharge Delay -10% - Vehicle Speed +10% |
[ Loot Acquired ]
Ammunition: 53,811
Grenades: 42
______
It's been a hot minute since I last put out a chapter for this, but we're finally back with a decent-sized one. Though not for long, since I'm going from work to work and giving each of them some much-needed attention, so expect another 2 chapters at the minimum before I migrate to the next work, which will be Z.E.D.
Other than that, if you're looking for anything else to read go check out my other stuff, I got Fallout fic, a multiverse zombie fic starting off in Left 4 Dead, and an original work that's set in a similar setting to the Fallout one and takes inspiration from a lot of the greats.