While the bullets flew through the air the first psycho arrived in front of me screaming with his Buzzaxe held high. I threw out a sharp uppercut under his chin lifting him off the ground before spartan kicking him in the chest towards a group of marauders who were shooting at me. Like knocking over pins at a bowling alley the now very dead psycho smashed into the marauders sending them to the ground or stumbling. I dashed forward and executed the marauders as I went as I got behind the pile of metal they were using for cover.-
"TING TING TING TING!"
Bullets rained down on the thick metal piles as soon as I did but I ignored that to wait for my shield to regenerate. That brief period out in the open had gotten it hit by several bullets and pearlescent or not the shield didn't have infinite defensive ability. My HUD told me that brief bullet sponging fuck fest had dropped the thing by half which while great meant I wasn't going to be fighting any armies by my lonesome anytime soon, at least not in head to head combat. -
My friends were not idle either as they burst onto the scene like the fucking Kool-Aid man and started wrecking shit. Lil phased in and out of reality as she gunned down bandits with her SMG, Roland deployed his turret and took cover behind it's shield while in a crouch with his assault rifle resting against his shoulder as he fired three rounds per trigger pull. Mordy was nowhere to be seen but spikes of energy found themselves in the bandits skulls while Bloodwing straight up ripped out eyes. Brick was the easiest to find though as he roared loudly while running through the bandits throwing hands like the mad chad he is.-
I joined in on this fun with precise shots to the fucking dome seven bullets at a time. Even as more bandits came out of the woodwork from who knows fucking where we were dropping these bandits like they were shit on taco night. About five minutes later there were no more bandits upright and I held out my hands dramatically as I drew in the lifeforce around me. The red energy flowed through the air before sinking into me as the bandit corpses turned to dust leaving only their equipment behind.-
"Got a faker over here!" I called out as I saw one Bandit "corpse" that hadn't been dusted on the ground.
The "corpse" tried to bolt but I casually blew the dudes head off with my gun before reducing him to dust before he even hit the ground again.
"Get anything good from them?" Lil asked curiously as I indulged in the satisfying sensation of bringing in a good 32,571 lifeforce.
"Just lifeforce this go around, standard bandit traits otherwise. I prefer quality over quantity though so no common trash for me." I said with a shrug.
"The scrapyard should be just through that tunnel there if the map is right." Roland said pointing as a rusted metal pipe covered in trash off to the left side of the area.
We Digi destructed our vehicles back into the Catch-A-Ride outside the area before heading through the tunnel to the scrapyard. If we didn't it was almost guaranteed that some asshole would steal our rides while we dealt with whatever nonsense Earl had us do to get that key piece. The tunnel was short and lead to a much more open garbage canyon, not even fucking joking. The rock walls that serve as the foundation of this area rose up ten or more feet and had scrap and trash of all sorts pushed against it and on it.-
There was a metal scrap structure here at the entrance that had a med and ammo vendor set of machines but I rolled my eyes at it as I was beyond wasting the braincells trying to figure out how the fuck they did it. I had been on Pandora for just under two weeks and I was pretty much numb to the weirdness of the place save the few exciting bits left. Anyways there was stagnant dirty green water on the sand and stone path forward and even a few storage units left to rot haphazardly.-
The fact there was plants growing from the ground at all had to be a fucking miracle as this whole place looked like it'd give you a disease just to be in.
"This place just screams "Choice real estate" doesn't it?" I said sarcastically.
"Dude's called Crazy Earl, I don't think he got that name by making wise life choices." Lil said with a chuckle.
"Fair enough I suppose but I swear to god if he sends us on different errands and doesn't even have the key piece I'm going to set his house on fire with him in it." I said dead seriously.
"Tannis seems to think he has it and she seems pretty smart to me." Mordy said and I scoffed.
"Sure she's brilliant but in case you haven't noticed she's also a fucking hermit who lives in the middle of nowhere and likely never leaves that place. You'll excuse me if I think it possible she's out of date on information." I said and none of them could argue with that since I had a point.
I got a glimpse of something ahead and grinned as I tossed out my house and got Ladon out of it. With a little more effort I sent the big lizard forward with a grin.
"Must not be bandits if you want Ladon to deal with it." Mordy said curiously.
"Nah, Skags. Besides he's been cooped up most of the time and has been going stir crazy, a bit of hunting will do him some good." I said with a grin.
"Makes sense." Brick said with a nod.
Sure enough about ten minutes later Ladon comes back with blood and flesh bits stuck to his scales and some burnt on his muzzle, no doubt from torching some of the Skags. He trotted along with us as we walked forward and around the corner where we saw his handy work. At least seven Skags that had been dismembered and three burnt to a crisp lay on the ground still smoking hot. I simply took the small amount of lifeforce before directly giving it back to Ladon since he was the one who hunted them anyways. His scales flexed on his body with the infusion but my tampering during his egg stage were clear as otherwise he didn't change at all.-
"Isn't that supposed do something to him? Make him bigger, stronger, that sort of thing?" Roland asked confused at the lack of reaction Ladon had to the lifeforce infusion.
"Well normally I'd say that's true but with Ladon my current theory is that since I had been injecting him with lifeforce in copious amounts along with traits while he was still an egg his body is adapted to my powers effects on him near perfectly, hence the lack of reaction to the infusion." I said and they all looked surprised but not disbelieving at all since it made sense.
Moving on we found more storage units sealed and left to rot as well as one filled with trash that was hollowed out and had a red gas canister next to it. I shot the thing causing it to explode which also cleared out the trash blocking the way.
"I thought she was fucking joking when she said she had to blow a hole in the trash to meet this guy, on second thought it IS a good warning system. Lets him know someone's coming." I said with a begrudging smidgen of respect.
We walked through the newly cleared storage unit tunnel and saw our destination, a small fucking shack. I'm not joking here this bitch was holed up in a shack that was made of thick welded plates of metal barely big enough to perhaps have a bed and a toilet in. Calling it a shed wouldn't be too off with how small the place was. As if that was not bad enough the door on the front had five fucking locks on it and industrial hinges. The only way you were getting in this bitch was if you blew the whole place to bits or were let in.-
"Whatchu want!?" a grumpy old mans voice demanded from the sliding peephole on the door.
"Tannis sent us to get the alien thing she traded you previously." Roland said calmly.
"Oh, so now that Tannis bitch wants that alien hunk o'junk, eh? And you're her little helpers? Bah! And they call ME crazy! What have you done for me besides blow a hole in my back fence? Tell me that!" the grumpy old codger said both mockingly and angrily.
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https://www.pa treon.com/user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa treon.com/pa treon_loskro
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Alexander Drake
Lifeforce:237,474
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]