The royal guards were amongst the most well trained troops known so after seeing that first shot not having any effect they wasted no time at all picking targets and splitting up fire to take them out. Not that they got too much of a chance as I phase locked all of them and pulled a vacuum in the bubbles. They were dead within moments all without damaging their gear at all as the air in their body was forcibly ripped out collapsing their lungs. It's a nasty way to go with my friends giving me looks for it after I dropped the corpses to harvest them.-
Got another [Gun mastery-Rare grade] from the one without a helmet that Roland identified as Master Mcloud who was a veteran royal guardsman of Atlas under Knoxx and the one who trained most of the Crimson lance. A big fish apparently. Didn't stop me from yoinking that trait and the lifeforce from his body though. Even with the three bodies lifeforce I still went into the hole 4,297 units since the trait cost me 7,000 units. I took the armor and guns too as they were pretty good. -
Looking over the Eridian gun I couldn't help but be disappointed that it wasn't really all that great beyond it's ability to fuck up shields. I mean I suppose it IS lethal if you were to get hit with it a few times but otherwise it's little more than a flashy long distance tazer unless you were robotic. Even worse it was only uncommon quality to boot which was the second lowest you could go and pretty easy to find. It was easy to see what the plan here was though and I had to admit it wasn't bad at all.-
See the idea was that Mcloud would hit us with this thing to take out our shields before his two actually well armed buddies filled our bodies with lead. We were really looked down upon for them to think we'd lose to something like this but jokes on them, we lived and they died.
"Not that we are not happy you are such a badass but could you maybe save some action for us too?" Mordy joked as I tossed the loot into my house.
I shrugged "My bad, just kinda impatient since we are this close to the opening of the vault." I said frankly.
"Yeah I feel the same. Took us a while but we are almost there. Just gotta get the key back from Steele and crack the thing open." Lil said and we all nodded.
We busted through the doorway the royal guards had come through and entered the Crimson fastness officially. I was not impressed. The place had exposed pipes and was painted red and white with no guards at all when we walked in. We stopped briefly at the ammo vender that was right here for some fucking reason to restock on ammo before moving deeper into the complex.-
The area we entered was clearly on the ass end of the base as there were only three soldiers patrolling nearby and a single auto turret was set to shoot anything coming from the doorway we walked out of. It shot off a few rounds before we all collectively stepped out of it's sensors since the idiots had put it behind a doorway and cut off a lot of it's sensor range in the process. The area was dusty and had a collection of shot to shit claptrap units that I assumed the Lance had been feeding to the turret for shits and giggles.-
One I noticed still operational but in it's "death" throws of whining and dramatics. It was purple with a white stripe and absolutely going in my collection. We killed the soldiers without much fuss before lil dropped a grenade on the turret blowing it to pieces. I walked over to the Claptrap units and looked over the damage they all had before sighing and shaking my head at the waste. All of them minus the still operational one were fubar internally with the one still working needing some parts desperately replaced as well but nothing vital damaged.-
I opened up my house, grabbed my tools from my workshop and then cracked open the unit as well as the other units nearby. I cannibalized the parts I needed from the destroyed units and swapped them out for the ones in the working bot that were damaged. I closed the unit up and let it get out the dramatic thanks outta the way before it opened up a shortcut with a couple red chests in the base for us. I then proceeded to toss the unit into my house before putting it away.-
"I still can't believe you collect those things." Lil said with an exasperated look.
I shrugged "They really aren't that bad once you get past the annoying personalities." I said with a chuckle.
"If you say so." she said rolling her eyes.
The red chests proved disappointing as they only had uncommon quality stuff that went in the "resale" pile of loot. The shortcut led us to a catwalk that split in multiple directions but was entirely unguarded for some fucking reason.
"Anyone else notice that this place is fucking empty of people?" I asked and they nodded all equally confused.
"It's like everyone has been mobilized somewhere else leaving behind only a skeleton crew. This isn't normal for the Lance." Roland said seriously.
"Something tells me we are going to find out why they are gone soon enough." Mordy said just as seriously.
As we moved through the base we soon came across two things of great interest to us. The first was a motor pool that had armored lance vehicles and parts just waiting for someone to take.
'I'm definitely coming back for these.' I thought as I looked at them greedily.
The second thing we found was the holding area Tannis was jailed in. There were five soldiers guarding her but they died easily enough.
"This is rather awkward. I must admit I should have seen Steele's double cross coming with how authoritarian she is. I suppose this is the part where you kill me for betraying you yes? Might I suggest listening to me first?" she said with a surprisingly calm expression.
"You must be rather confident that what you have to say is worth your life from how calm you are. Alright we'll hear you out. Be warned though, any funny business and you won't live to see tomorrow." I said casually like I wasn't threatening her.
"You must hate me, but I never intended to betray you really. Steele wanted the key and wanted you gone. She suggested sending you all after Flint and I thought it'd be something you'd enjoy and went along with it. Now i'm locked up here and she has the key. Getting the key back and opening the vault is unlikely so lets focus on something else, the Echo network. I practically invented the tech she used to lock it down so naturally I know how to lift the lockdown as well. I've written down the instructions on the paper towel. I'll mark the consoles for it down on your maps as well." she said handing over a paper towel with ink writing on it.
"You get to live for now but make no mistake you owe us." I said firmly.
"I shall endeavor to pay off my debt however I can." she said with a nod.
"You sure we can trust her again? She did still kinda betray us?" Mordy asked seriously.
"More or less. She's trapped and angry at Steele so she has no reason to mess with us anymore. The key is gone and she's getting nothing but a life debt to us for sparing her. Her pride won't let her not repay it." I said casually as we headed to the console she had marked for us.
___________________________________________
https://www.pa treon.com/user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa treon.com/pa treon_loskro
_______________________________________________
Alexander Drake
Lifeforce: 592,405
Integrated Traits: [Gun mastery-Rare grade]X3, [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,[Lesser dragon breath-Epic 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]X3, [Gunsmithing expertise(degrading)-Common grade]X3, [Elemental body(Corrosive)-Rare grade], [Corrosion resistance-Rare grade], [Mechanical Savant-Epic grade],
Stored traits: [Flame breath-Uncommon Grade], [Tinkering instinct-Rare grade], [Minor regeneration-Rare grade], [Superior vitality-Epic grade], [Omega body-Rare grade]X2, [Supreme Armored hide-Epic grade], [Hard bones-Rare grade], [Sword expertise-Rare grade], [Gun mastery-Rare grade]