The gunfire went on and on as I tanked storms of bullets with my energy shielding. However, my ability to tank damage was so much improved from my battle at the Headstone Mine that it was incomparable. Hence, I remained steadfast in the face of flying elemental lead and returned with plenty of my own fire in kind, making it so I wasn't the only one taking hits.
Other than the constant fire I was under myself, they even attempted to take out the little rascal a handful of times too. Unfortunately for them, they were unsuccessful in that endeavor because anytime he was in danger, he would just get down and take cover before once again popping back up to remove someone's head from their shoulders seconds later. After having experienced that aggravating strategy several times... Painfully. The bandit scum learned their lesson and directed nearly all their firepower at yours truly.
I had to say the small machine was loving the entire experience, and I was honestly loving it too... Maybe just not as much as my friend across the field was.
...
Rounds flew every which way across camp, explosions dug out craters, and deafening gunfire continued to ring out and echo across the battlefield, and as much as we wanted to keep this whole exciting experience going, the bandits couldn't go on forever with their limited numbers. So as their losses were mounting, the rounds bouncing off my shielding became increasingly less and less and eventually they reduced to three firing enemies, then two, and lastly one.
"Wait, wait, wait, I surrende-"
"It's a bit too late for that, pal." I said as I fired my heavy machine gun into the pleading bandit's chest.
When I took that final shot with my Chopper, his body literally broke apart before my very eyes, and those that didn't just outright disintegrate got sent flying in over a dozen different directions. And right as the last enemy fell, the gunfire petered out entirely, causing silence to take over the bandit camp turned battlefield... At least that was the case until Claptrap opened his trap.
"Hahahaha, we did it, comrade!" The sparky, energetic bucket of bolts prattled on.
Just as amped about our victory, I replied in kind. "Oh hell yeah, we did."
The little guy put his hand up, or his version of one, and was waiting, so I obliged him and gave Claptrap the high five he was seeking. It was kind of awkward due to our major height difference, but the little guy was happy, so I didn't care.
I was about to say something else, but before I could, a disgruntled, lazy voice came from behind. "Hey, man, can you, like, keep it down? I'm trying to catch some zzzs."
Not expecting any company to be wandering around after all the shit that went down just now, I spun around like a top and wearily trained my weapon on the newcomer.
"Woah, woah, woah, easy there, dude. I don't mean you no harm."
"Who the fuck are you?" I asked as I scanned the stoner bro who dressed kinda like a bandit.
"Yeah, what he said? And you better talk fast, meatbag, else I'ma put one between your eyes." My mechanical friend followed, still coming down from that wicked personality he had just unlocked.
"A-aye, I just live here, man, and do what I have to."
"And what does that entail exactly?"
"Well, I uh-"
...
The stoner bandit went on this whole long-winded spiel, and after listening to him drone on about his life's story, I heard just about enough of it. "Alright, I get man, just follow me, and once I've confirmed you haven't done anything too unforgivable to the captives, I'll let you go."
"Oh, that'd be rad, dude."
I can't sense any fear coming off the guy, so I suppose that's a good sign that he isn't too bad... But that still doesn't change the fact that he was part of this bandit crew, although it doesn't appear like he was that active of a participant in their activities. Welp, I'll find out in a moment here if I need to put him down or not.
The minute that conversation ended, I directed the stoner to follow and walked in the direction of the captives, and right as we came to a stop in front of them; they looked at us fearfully, particularly me and Claptrap since they had a front seat to watch the violent show we put on. "I'm gonna cut y'all loose in a second here, but can you do me a solid first?"
The group of men, women and children remained silent and fearful, but eventually a rough older fella, who possessed a particular aura, stepped forward and spoke with a firm, steady voice. "What do you want?"
"Just answer a few questions for me and I'll release you from your chains and move you over to Fyrestone."
A good portion of the captives perked up when they heard they would be brought to Fyrestone, and so too did the man who spoke up. "Mm, I can do that. What do you want to know?"
"Has this guy done anything reprehensible since you've been here?"
The old man stewed as he scanned the not so normal looking bandit, but it seemed this was his first time seeing him. "I don't think I've ever seen that man in my life?"
"Huh, that's odd... Do any of you recognise him?"
The group of captives looked at each other, but none came forward. "Doesn't look like it... I guess you're a free man then."
"That's cool, man... So, uh, what am I going to do now?"
"Well, as long as you keep your nose clean and stay out of trouble, I could care less what you do." I paused for a second or two and carried on. "But if you go down the bandit route again and I come across you, let's just say there won't be a next time, got it!"
"Message received loud and clear, dude."
After he was cleared, I located some keys for the captives' shackles, and those I couldn't find I broke with my armor-covered hands alongside an occasional slam from my savage pickaxe. Following that, I had the freed people and the stoner help me gather all the loot and transport it to a central location by the front gate, so I could swing by and pick up all of it in a wee bit.
Whilst they were handling that menial work for me, I first visited Bone Head's corpse and looted his unique drum-fed Tediore submachine gun. And surprisingly that was not all; there was even a unique shield, class mod, and a grenade mod I had never encountered in the series.
Shit, no wonder he tanked so many shots; this bastard was kitted to the gills.
| Unique || Bandit | Bone Carapace
Capacity: 3,050
Recharge Rate: 500
Recharge Delay: 4.5 Seconds
Ammo Regeneration: 5 Per Second
That's not a bad shield. I would actually consider using it if I didn't have Sledge's. That aside, the ammo regeneration effect has me intrigued. I've never seen that on a shield before… I wonder if I can replicate it.
| Unique || Bandit | Onslaught Class Mod
Accuracy: +10%
Damage: +25%
Fire Rate: +25%
Ammo Regeneration: 15 Per Second
Grenade Regeneration: 1 Per Minute
Yeah, I may have to consider using this. I mean, it doesn't give any skill boosts whatsoever, but it provides a good bit of stats, a hell of a lot of ammo regeneration, which I could abuse the ever-living shit out of, and grenade regeneration. I hadn't seen that final stat up till actually just right now, but it could prove very useful for my future ventures… And if not, at least I will have accumulated a hell of a lot of nades for myself and whoever I recruit.
I found the whole bone naming scheme kind of weird, but I didn't give it much thought since it didn't really matter what these bandits named their gear at the end of the day. Once I had stashed away all that unique kit, I set off for where I put down Rock- O and took hold of that double-barreled rocket launcher he blasted me with earlier.
Oh, this is a unique piece of equipment too, sweet.
Following that thought of mine, I ran my eyes over the stats and counted myself extremely lucky because its damage was nearly half of my shield capacity.
Damn, if I hadn't invested so heavily in my shielding, I could've died there... Maybe I should boost those numbers further just in case. Well, I'll consider it when I finish my business here and drop these people off at Fyrestone but to do that, I'm going to need something a little larger than a two person motorcycle, so where is that primary digistruct module for Scooter's Catch A Ride.
The setup for this location was a good bit different from the game, and I don't recall seeing the silver weapon chest it was stored in the first title, so instead of wasting my time searching for it myself, I went and found someone who likely knew where it was. "Hey stoner, come here for a second."
"Me?"
"Yea. you."
The guy stood there for a second but nevertheless came my way. "Hey where can I find the primary digistruct module you guys looted recently from the local catch a ride station?"
"The what now???"
Sigh, and this is why I don't like dealing with stupid people.
"Alright then, do you have any idea where Bone Head keeps his valuables?"
"Umm... He lived over there, so I guess he would've kept the good shit stashed in his place."
"Guess I'll check there first, and if I can't find it, I'll pay you another visit. Alright, continue as you were."
"K."
With a potential location to find this piece of tech located, I went ahead and ventured over to the rough, dilapidated shack and busted down the door that impeded my way. The door broke off the hinges when I did that and kicked up some dust, obscuring my vision, so I waited about a dozen seconds for it to settle and when it did, what I saw disgusted me.
What lay before my eyes was a messy shack full of random crap, bits and bobs plus the body of a woman lying atop a bare mattress, whose body contained various types of wounds, from burns and punctures to slits and bashes. And the second I looked up, I saw the face of the woman who had her face marred beyond recognition.
There weren't any scenes like this in the games, but this is the kind of fucked up shit I imagined at least some of the bandits got up to.
Although I wasn't surprised by what I was seeing, it still didn't change how screwed up it all was, nor the increasing anger, disgust, and outright hatred I held for the bandits clans that roamed Pandora and made life all that much more difficult for the locals. If that fucker Bone Head was still alive, I would've started reaming him a new one and probably skinning him alive. But I already put him down a while ago and sent him off to the great beyond, so I ignored the corpse of the disfigured woman for the meantime and turned my attention to the silver weapon chest sitting off to the side of the room.
This is the most obvious place it can be, so let's check here first.
Hoping I wouldn't have to rip this bandit camp apart to find this little doodad, I went ahead and activated the chest, and the next thing I knew the top flung open and revealed the contents hiding within. What I found within was a long cylindrical component surrounded by wads of cash and two rare machine pistols.
I'll be taking possession of those, thank you very much.
After pocketing the two machine pistols, I vacuumed up the cash before taking hold of the piece of tech I came to this bandit camp for. The digistruct module looked a little different from its in-game counterpart, but I didn't care as long as it fixed the catch a ride and I could get myself a decent means of transport. Once I had that device safely stowed away in my inventory along with the two new machine pistols I would modify when I returned home, I scoured the rest of the room and grabbed anything that interested me.
The moment I extracted every bit of value I could from the space, I left for the place everyone was depositing the gathered loot. "Okay, I found the digistruct module I was looking for. Claptrap, I'm putting you in charge of holding down the fort while I'm gone. I'll be back in a bit."
"WOOO, YOU HEAR THAT I'M IN CHARGE, HAHA-"
Alright, time to go get that catch a ride station fixed up.
"Listen here, minions, now that I've been put in charge by my best friend, we'r-"
[ Status Changes ]
Level: 45 → 46
Experience Points: +6,380
Total Experience Points Earned: 105,640 → 112,020
Health: 46,400 → 46,720
Health Regeneration: 1,224.5 HP/s → 1,233.6 HP/s
Stamina: 14,500 → 16,206
Stamina Regeneration: 34.5 SP/s → 34.6 SP/s
Skill Points: 0 → 1
Badass Tokens: 267 → 862
Machine Gun Proficiency: lvl 45 | Accuracy +45% - Cooling Rate +45% - Damage +45% - Magazine Size +45% - Recoil Reduction +45% - Reload Speed +45% - Stability +45% | → lvl 48 | Accuracy +48% - Cooling Rate +48% - Damage +48% - Magazine Size +48% - Recoil Reduction +48% - Reload Speed +48% - Stability +48% |
Heavy Weapon Proficiency: lvl 3 | Accuracy +3% - Cooling Rate +3% - Damage +3% | → lvl 11 | Accuracy +11% - Cooling Rate +11% - Damage +11% - Fire Rate +11% - Magazine Size +11% - Recoil Reduction +11% - Reload Speed +11% - Stability +11% - Stamina +11% - Weapon Handling +11% |
Eridian Weapon: lvl 3 | Accuracy +6% - Damage +6% - Energy Capacity +6% - Energy Regeneration +6% | → lvl 7 | Accuracy +7% - Damage +7% - Energy Capacity +7% - Energy Regeneration +7% |
Explosive Proficiency: lvl 69 | Crafting Speed +69% - Damage +69% - Element Effects +69% - Explosive Radius +69% - Shockwave Effects +69% | → lvl 71 | Crafting Speed +71% - Damage +71% - Element Effects +71% - Explosive Radius +71% - Shockwave Effects +71% |
[ Loot gained ]
Weapons: | Unique || Tediore | 2.4xOPT Bone Shredder Submachine Gun - | Unique || Bandit | Rock-O Launcher - | Vladof || Rare | RDLS Corrosive Torment Machine Pistol - | Rare || Hyperion | RDLS Shocking Rage Machine Pistol
Grenade Mods: | Unique || Bandit | Bone Bomb
Shields: | Unique || Bandit | Bone Carapace
Class Mods: | Unique || Bandit | Onslaught Class Mod
Dollars: 579,992
[ Loot Changes ]
Grenades: 1,603 → 1,591