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(BUS)Chapter 86: Recap
🕑 Added 2025-04-21 15:15:53 +0000 UTC"Of course not, this ship is brand new. Those transports are probably very fucking old and just as likely not very safe to boot." I said with a scoff.
"Yeah, got to poke about in the guts of one of em and found like eight things on the verge of breaking." Scooter said in agreement.
"So status quo for Pandora." Lil said with an understanding nod of the head.
"Hey how'd you get all this down to this size without blowing this rig up?" Scooter asked curiously as he tapped his knuckles on the pipes.
"Eridian fuckery, not something that can be copied." I said with a shrug.
"Fair enough, shame though." he said satisfied with that answer for now.
We started looking around the ship after that and I had to admit it was a bit cramped. The whole ship from rear storage area to the bridge was at most sixty feet in length and there was only two additional rooms on the whole ship with the rest being used for the stuff that made the ship work to begin with. The two extra rooms weren't very big at all at ten feet long, wide and tall and merely had a bed and a bathroom set up with nothing else.-
The bridge wasn't a standard one with a wide holographic projection navigation system but consisted of two chairs and a half circle shaped high end control board and projection lay out. I was quite happy with it personally as it was all business and no nonsense. It was also very user friendly with everything clearly labeled and ordered. -
"Place seems kinda lifeless doesn't it?" Lil asked confused.
"I haven't had the time to spruce the area up yet on account of just getting it like thirty minutes ago." I said with a chuckle.
"She's a beauty man, whatcha gonna name her?" Scooter asked curiously.
"She's already got a name, Predator. Fits perfectly since she's mainly going to be used to hunt new life planets." I said with a grin.
"Hammerlock is gonna get a kick outta that, fits her like a glove though I gotta agree." Clay said with a smirk.
"Welp tours over so lets head back down to the planet to plan how we are going to retire Krom and his merry band of bandit fuckwits since they ARE holed up in a canyon. A frontal assault seems.... ill advised for this." I said shooing everyone back to the fast travel unit in the storage room.
Once we were back in New Haven Clay split from us temporarily to go find Marcus to finish the transport job he was officially on. Dropping off my ship was more of a happy side objective for him in truth. The rest of us went back to our temporary base in Zed's top floor room where I set up my house again. Once there we relaxed without bothering to talk about our next step since it wasn't like Krom was going anywhere.-
Bandits may be crazy fuckers but they were predictable in that once they got entrenched in a spot they very rarely left it in a true sense. Perhaps it was a remnant from when they were normal folks but they had a habit of setting down roots. Very few bandit groups were truly nomadic as a result and thus made it easy to deal with them at ones leisure. When Clay eventually came through the portal to my house with an annoyed look I chuckled.
"Marcus try and shaft you somehow?" I asked knowingly and he sighed.
"He actually tried to negotiate a lower price because and I can't make this shit up "I was late by five minutes". I've heard of greed but that's something else entirely." he said with a frustrated tone.
"Yeah, dude's a real wallet goblin. Pretty sure he measures out the exact amount he eats and drinks to get his moneys worth." i said with an understanding nod.
"Forget the fat prick, i'm more interested in hearing what you've been up to since you got here. Wouldn't say no to a stiff drink too." he said as he pulled up a chair.
"It's been pretty strange all things said and done. When I first got here I ran into this lot having just arrived at the stop outside Fyrestone. I won them over with my unending charm." I began.
"And snacks!" Brick chimed in.
"That too. And then some of the local bandits showed up and went all terrorize the town on Fyrestone before we kindly sent them to meet whatever god they believe in. Bandits have terrible traits by the way, maybe it's the lack of veggies?" I said with a thoughtful rubbing of the chin.
"Sounds pretty standard fare for Pandora so far." Clay said breaking me out of my thoughts.
"It was but then it changed when we were contacted by someone or something claiming to be an angel, which is total grog shit by the way. This "angel" communicates through our echoes connection to our thoughts somehow which gave away the fact they weren't what they said since they could be cut off entirely by isolating our echoes from all signals. Anyways this person wanted us to help out the locals who weren't bandits take care of their bandit problem as a step towards the vault." I said casually.
"Nine-toes died like a bitch." Brick said with a chuckle.
"Quite. After killing Nine-toes we had to go track down the key to the mine turned bandit headquarters in this old safehouse belonging to the head bandit Sledge. Actually got a legendary trait and a Clap trap out of it so not a complete waste of time. Ladon hatched out shortly after that and we took a small break before going to kick in Sledges teeth. We fought our way through the mine before taking care of Sledge and grabbing his piece of the vault key, which the "angel" tried to take credit for us finding." I said with a relaxed sip of my tequila.-
I continued "Then we took a few days to relax as we waited for authorization to the Dahl headlands in which I made me a vehicle since I was tired of having to hang off the side of one of the others like a damned jabber. Finally we got the the headlands, reactivated the fast travel network for the planet, killed Mad Mel who was a bandit leader trying to take Sledges spot and waited a bit more for access to New Haven." I said with my expression turning annoyed at that part.
"I take it from that mean mug of yours something unpleasant happened at that part." Clay said and I nodded.
"Helena Pierce, the lady in charge of this place humiliated us right out the gate. Clashed a few times with him after that too." Mordy explained.
"Clashed? Those two are like sodium and water, violently reactive when in contact." Lil said seriously.
"She really that bad?" Clay asked surprised.
"You've seen this town, it's a fucking dump and that's putting it gently. If it was just that I'd say she was just a bad leader but she's got the delusion she is better than everyone else, including us." I said with a derisive sneer.
"Didn't take you as someone with an inferiority complex." clay said with a surprised look.
"I'm not but I can't stand unfounded arrogance. She's hideous, a bad leader and weak but has the audacity to treat us like we are beneath her? Ridiculous!" I said getting more and more heated just talking about it.
"Easy there! Just tell me what happened after you got here." Clay said with an easing tone to calm me down.
"Not much to tell really as we got shacked up in this room as we waited to get allowed into the Rust commons. A good guy who helped us over in Fyrestone was killed by bandits in retaliation but I got revenge for it. Most recently we met the local science nerd Tannis who is helping us find the other fragments of the vault key. She sent us to this crazy old fart who tried to lead us on but I sniffed it out and now we are relaxing before taking on yet another bandit lord who has a vault key fragment by name of Krom." I said with a shrug.
_______________________________________________
Alexander Drake
Lifeforce:259,524
Integrated Traits: [Gun expertise-Uncommon grade]X4, [Clever mind-Rare grade],[Enhanced senses-Epic grade]X2, [Demi-supreme body-Legendary grade], [Supreme armored hide-Epic grade]X2, [Energy projection-Legendary grade], [Superior vitality-Epic grade]X2,[Flame breath-Uncommon grade],[Regeneration-Epic grade]X2, [Disease resistance-Epic grade],[Amphibious lungs-Uncommon grade], [Thermal sensing-Uncommon grade], [Water resistance-Common grade],[Active camouflage-Epic grade], [Eridian engineering expertise-Mythical grade], [Efficient lungs-Rare grade]x2, [Fire resistance-Epic grade]X3, [Elemental body(fire)-Legendary grade], [Shock resistance-Epic grade]X4, [Energetic sustenance(shock)-Epic grade]X2, [Radiation resistance-Epic grade]X3, [Energetic sustenance(radiation)-Epic grade]X2, [Biometallic bones-Epic grade],[Elemental body(shock)-Rare grade]X3,[Quick thinking-Rare grade], [Minor spatial awareness-Epic grade], [Buzzaxe expertise-Uncommon grade], [Siren(Phaselock)(Altered)-Mythical grade], [Pugilist expertise-Uncommon grade], [Adrenal rush-Rare grade], [Mechanical engineering expertise-Rare grade], [Gunsmithing expertise(degrading)-Common grade]X3, [Elemental body(Corrosive)-Rare grade], [Corrosion resistance-Rare grade], [Mechanical Savant-Epic grade],
Stored traits: [Flame projection gland], [Mechanical engineering expertise(degraded)-Common grade]
