While the small orange robot continued to yammer on in the distance, I traced my original steps back, and the instant I ended up at the bike; I hopped on and took off for the Catch-A-Ride station that was located just down the road from Fyrestone. I was in a bit of a rush because of the many freed captives that required varying levels of treatment, so I didn't take my time and raced past the town, and before long the Catch-A-Ride station appeared within eyesight.
Hmm, it has a few changes from the game, like the addition of two more digistruct pads for a total of 4 and a bunch of other machinery tossed about, but it pretty much resembles what I remember minus the destroyed wall and gate surrounding the place.
As soon as I pulled up to the location, I received a call from a new ECHO number.
Is it him, the one and only, Scooter?
Getting a bit excited to hear from one of my favorite characters from the series, I eagerly picked up the call. "This is Vic. Who's calling?"
"Hey man, it's nice to meet ya..."
"..."
"Oh, right, I'm Scooter, by the way. I issued one of those missions on that handy-dandy job board you've got over there in Fyrestone."
"Nice to meet you too, Scooter… I suppose you're calling about getting your station over here fixed?"
"Yup, and I see you've pried my primary digistruct module from that asshole Bone Head's hands."
Yeah, I'm going to have to study up on tech and stuff so I can't just be tracked and spied on willy-nilly. If I don't, I can easily see myself kicking the bucket as I accumulate more and more enemies, especially when that vault opens, and the galaxy finds out about all the eridium Pandora will have access to.
Leaving those thoughts till after I cleared my missions for the day, I corrected. "Dead hands."
"Even better." He exclaimed.
"Anyway, now that you've gotten your hands on the module, let me tell you how to fix the station."
"Okay, let me hop off and take a look at the thing, and you lead me through the process step by step."
"Mhm, of course it'll be as easy as pie; don't you worry about a thing."
Responding with a simple grunt, I passed the destroyed walls that were originally built from tires, rusted sheets of metal and other junk and walked into the station. And just as I cleared the crumbling walls, I spotted the OG station pillar that was currently in an offline state because of the empty slot that was hanging open.
"See that?"
"The open slot."
"Yup, it drops right in there."
"Okay, let me give this a try." I responded just before I eyed the opening and easily slipped the piece into place.
"Aye, any monkey can do it just like I told ya."
"Yeah, I gotta give it to you; it was incredibly easy to fix."
"Listen, thanks for savin' me all that trouble of coming down there myself. I'm gonna set you up with an all-access Runner account. It'll keep you in a vehicle until my gratitude wears thin."
"Appreciate it, man."
"No problem, brother man... Anywho, if you're ever in New Haven, stop on by; the beers will be on me."
"Will do, alright, catch ya later, Scooter."
"Later, Vic."
What a pleasant guy is all I thought before I activated the light blue holographic panel and called up a Runner, and the second I did, the station whirred to life and emitted a light blue glow. Following that, one of the pads on the ground lit up and started constructing a Runner from nothing, and a dozen seconds later a pristine Runner was sitting right in front of me ready to go.
Yeah, a huge amount of research and experimenting is going to have to go into digistruct tech because it literally requires no effort to imagine how broken this can become if properly utilized.
Putting those thoughts on the back burner, I jumped into the driver's seat and got myself acquainted with the vehicle. I was quick with it, so once I had a solid grasp of the controls and where everything was located, I drove back the way I came and less than a minute later I came up on the rear Fyrestone entrance.
*Whistle*
"Sweet ride you got there, Vic. How'd you manage to acquire that in the short span you were gone?" Trev blurted as I came to a stop right in front the gate.
"Umm, I dig the new Runner, but where's my Speedster?" Josh inquired after noticing his motorcycle was missing in action.
"Ohh, that... Yeah, I just left it down at the Catch-A-Ride for the moment since I can't exactly drive two vehicles at once, as you can see."
"Phew, I thought something happened to my bike." The owner exclaimed in relief. "Alright, cool, so we just need to go pick up my bike then."
"Yes, but before that, I kind of need some help. You know how Bone Head has been a thorn in your sides' for a while now."
"Yeah..."
"Well, I kind of killed him off-"
"So that's what all those gunshots and explosions were coming from." Trev thought aloud as the gate guards erupted into cheers.
"I'm not done yet." I interrupted their uproar.
"..."
With the noise levels reduced to murmurs between the guards, I continued. "And along with his death, I mopped the floor with his second in command, Rock-O, and all of his crew and rescued the people I found being held captive there. Meaning I need bodies to help me move the people Claptrap and I freed to Fyrestone and get them treated... So, will you help me?"
There was a brief pause but only for a second or two. "What kind of a question is that? Of course we'll help you, Vic." Trevor spoke.
"I mean, you've been nothing but good to us, so why wouldn't we help?" Buford followed with an expression that said, you can't be serious now.
"And besides, I'm sure some of our people are among the captives so that's only more reason to lend a hand." Another guard added.
"Thanks guys, I appreciate it."
"Don't even mention it, just let me make a call first to get some more manpower down here to take over for us before we set out to lend a helping hand."
The moment those words left Trev's mouth, he rang up the mayor and arranged for several guards to move on over from the front gate. After that, I hopped back in the driver's seat and had Trev man the heavy machine gun up top whilst Buford, John, and Josh, plus a couple of the other guys, climbed onto the Runner. As soon as they had a firm grip and were holding onto it in a similar fashion to one of those bandit Outrunners in The Dahl Headlands, I gave the fast, normally two-person car some gas and began ferrying those that came along on this trip to the Catch-A-Ride.
Fyrestone was located just a hop, skip, and a jump away, so we pulled into the ravaged, beat-up station in a heartbeat, and when we did, the guards let go of their holds on the vehicle and wandered over to the Catch-A-Ride interface and began spawning in Runners one at a time.
When we finally had everyone in Runner, I grew curious about what their Runners cost because there was no way Scooter could run all these goddamn Catch-A-Ride stations across Pandora without making some money from them. "Hey, how does that all work, you know, the cost and everything for the Catch-A-Ride?"
"Oh, it's just a $1,000 sub... What, you don't pay the same monthly fee?"
"Nah, the Scooter man hooked me up with an all-access Runner account." I answered Trev, much to his jealousy.
"You fucker, he must really like you then because that's the first time I've heard of him doing such a thing."
"I have that kind of effect on people, so it's not a surprise." I joked.
Following a short bout of laughter, the whole bunch of us peeled out of the station's somewhat walled zone and drove back to Fyrestone to pick up the rest of the boys. Once we had repeated the process once more, and headed to the bandit camp with a convoy of 15 Runners, all armed with a single coaxial machine gun for the driver.
As for up top, the gunner seats were normally armed with a heavy machine gun, but if the Runner wasn't running a heavy MG, it instead had a motherfucking rocket launcher that could replenish its munitions with digistruct tech. However, we weren't going to see those in action anytime soon because all of them were sitting empty, so we could transport the maximum number of people.
The freed captives' injuries didn't appear all that urgent when I left but there was no need to drag things out, especially when I had three more missions that needed to be accomplished before I'd be happy to call it a day, thus we rushed to Bone Head's annihilated base. I wouldn't have been surprised if we got attacked on our way there by the bandits from across the large crag that ran alongside the route. But I didn't see anything nor hear anything... Other than the sound of the convoy hauling ass to our destination, of course, and minutes later we rolled up to the gate.
We're here.
Eager to get these people as well as my newly acquired bandit loot transferred to Fyrestone, I was about to hop on out and figure out some way to bring down the rusted, cobbled-together gate blocking our entry on my own, but my mechanical friend beat me to it. "Comrade, you're back... And with plenty of reinforcements." Claptrap greeted as the gate retreated and moved out of the way.
"Aye, they'll help us with getting all the survivors moved over to Fyrestone." I started before catching sight of what was going on a wee bit away in the distance.
"Claptrap, what the fuck is going on over there?" I asked bluntly as the sight of recently freed human captives pulling teeth out of deceased bandits' skulls entered my irises.
"What do you mean, best friend?" The small orange machine asked dopeily.
I can feel a headache coming on already.
Mentally sighing to myself, I asked. "I mean, why do you have these people, who we've just freed from their bandit captives, prying worthless human teeth out of skulls when I had assigned them to gather the spoils of our labours?"
"Oh, that... Well, they already finished that work, so I thought I could, you know, have them help me with getting some materials for an idea I had."
"And that would be?" I pushed.
"Fashion." He stated simply.
"Fashion?"
"Yes, fashio-"
He tried explaining, but I cut him off since I already knew this was going to go in a nonsensical direction. "Alright, everyone, you can stop collecting whatever Claptrap asked you to gather for him and board the vehicles. We're going to take you guys to Fyrestone."
"But what abou-"
"No human teeth, Claptrap!" I told him as the guards loaded the freed people onto their Runners.
"Okay, fewer human teeth."
"No."
"Alright, I'll only gather them when you're not looking."
"No."
"..."
I stared at the little clanker for a few seconds, and even though he wanted to pursue this stupid idea of his, he succumbed to my menacing gaze. "Fine, I'll gather skag teeth then."
"You don't need them either."
"What… Urrgh, fine, but I want an upgrade." The little weirdo complained.
"We'll add it to your wishlist alongside your stair-climbing wheel."
After agreeing to get him an upgrade of his choosing, I picked up the semi-placated machine and placed him in the gunner's seat as he oohed and aahed at the heavy machine gun he just gained control of.
"Don't fuck up, or I'm banning you from gunning again." I warned the little bastard before he could start farting around with the very lethal weapon he'd just been given.
"Aye, aye, captain." He responded in mock salute.
With my warning issued, I had several of the guards lend me a hand in loading all the loot into the trailer I hooked up at the station. There was a decent amount, but it was nothing when compared to all the stuff I still had to go pick up at the Headstone Mine, so after abusing my digital storage abilities to its fullest on top of several minutes of laboring away, we eventually got every last bit of haul on board.
Satisfied with what I accomplished here, I was about to get in the driver's seat when a certain someone climbed onto the vehicle. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Well, I thought I could tag along to Fyrestone, seeing how much of a mess this place is now." The ballsy stoner replied whilst waving his hand over the wrecked bandit camp, old Claptrap and I turned upside down.
"Hmm... You gonna contribute when we get to town or are you gonna laze around all day?"
"Umm, sure I can work... Occasionally."
"Good enough, welcome aboard."
"Thanks." The stoner said last.
[ Loot Acquired ]
Guns: | Uncommon || All | Combat Rifles (10) - | Uncommon || All | Machine Guns (3) - | Uncommon || All | Pistols (5) - | Uncommon || All | Revolvers (1) - | Uncommon || All | Rocket Launchers (3) - | Uncommon || All | Shotguns (5) - | Uncommon || All | Sniper Rifles (2) - | Uncommon || All | Submachine Guns (6) - | Common || All | Combat Rifles (101) - | Common || All | Machine Guns (21) - | Common || All | Pistols (17) - | Common || All | Revolvers (5) - | Common || All | Rocket Launchers (8) - | Common || All | Shotguns (15) - | Common || All | Sniper Rifles (5) - | Common || All | Submachine Guns (36)
Melee Weapons: | Common || Bandit | Psycho Axes (15) - | Common || Generic | Serrated Combat Knives (198)
Grenade Mods: | Uncommon || All | Grenades (5) - | Common || All | Grenades (42)
Armor: | Common || Bandit | Basic Scrap Armors (100)
Shields: | Epic || Torgue | Quick Charge Macho Shield (1) | Rare || All | Shields (2) - | Uncommon || All | Shields (9) - Common || All | Shields (79)
Class Mods: | Common || Generic | Basic Classless Class Mods (9)
Meds: Super Healing Kits (5) - Super Insta-Health Vials (5) - Greater Healing Kits (12) - Greater Insta-Health Vials (13) - Healing Kits (25) - Insta-Health Vials (20) - Light Healing Kits (78) - Light Insta-Health Vials (57) - Minor Healing Kits (153) - Minor Insta-Health Vials (177)
Storage Deck Upgrades: Ammo SDUs (5) - Backpack SDUs (3) - Grenade SDUs (2)
Ammunition: 57,528
Grenades: 228
Dollars: 978,441
Vehicles: Outrunners (2)