Claptrap Chapter 35: Last Second Luck

My shotgun swept around me as I reappeared inside the entrance to what could only be Sledge’s former bandit fortress. Specifically, the spot where the player could purchase health and ammo just before fighting the guy.

I had to roll sideways as Clappy appeared in midair and crashed onto his face with a yelp, RPG shotgun in hand, and thankfully not firing like it we were in Loony Toons.

“I meant to do that!” Clappy quickly announced while jumping upright, and tried to act casual.

A third Claptrap in the form of Maverick appeared, unarmed, and looked about.

“Woo~ Haven’t been here for a while! Looks a lot more…bandit-ty than before.” The blue bot said as he looked outside from a window at all the bandit crap that still laid about despite being depopulated.

“Yeah, but with the Vault Hunters having cleared the place, that can change with bit of time and effort.” I replied as I began rolling further into the building. The doors with the sign “Either/or” in between them were still open, and I could sense the heat of the smelter from my thermal detector.

The “Boss Room” was still as I remember it. Throne made of bones and stuff, opened lockers and boxes with everything gone, and the quick exit to the right. Looking out the big window, I felt some relief when I saw that there wasn’t a detonation kit near the cliff overlooking the pipeline. Which meant I got here before the guy even had the means to get here.

“Alright. The place is still in one piece, but it’s still open to anyone who wants to take it. Let’s go close the front gate.” I announced as Clappy and Maverick rolled into the room.

I was rolling away through the side exit before they could even reply. The sooner I can get this place closed down, the sooner I can prevent its destruction. I can remember the details now because of my robotic brain, that Shep Sanders wanted this place destroyed. The man’s reasoning was to prevent anyone else, bandits specifically, from using the place as a base of operations.

It appears, at first glance, to be a rather sound idea. No reason to give anyone a potential location to take control of the region, again. When you look at his future actions however, and his past, it’s obvious the man wanted the place destroyed because of what Sledge did to his family. Killing his wife and children, and then making a tent out of their skin…that does shit to a man. He didn’t destroy the mine just to deprive any future users of the place, but as a way of striking back at Dahl for abandoning him and his family, and at Sledge personally.

While I am speculating, I believe he more or less agreed with Handsome Jack’s plan to eradicate Pandora of all Bandits and bring peace and order to the Borderlands. As such, him betraying New Haven to Hyperion makes sense to me, when the man’s past is taken into context.

I could approach the man and try to shift him towards my goals…but I honestly wouldn’t even know how to approach him. Claptraps are one thing. Men and women who have goals, dreams, and ambitions to achieve are another. How does one approach a man who lost everything he cared about, and no longer cares unless it’s out of vengeance?

I suppose I could use vengeance as an avenue, but that leads to peril for me personally.

I rolled down the tracks that were elevated off the ground and leaped off, my shield taking the brunt of the force as I landed, and bolted to the front gate.

I could see bodies of dead bandits and a psycho here and there, flies and bugs already having their feast and filling the bodies with their eggs. I didn’t need to scan them to know they had a few million eggs in their bodies already.

“Gonna have to get rid of those later.” I mummer to myself as I passed the employee locker and storage area. Soon enough I reached the gate, and quickly began punching in buttons to close the place up.

“Access Denied.”

“Dammit!” I growled. Whatever frustration I had at that moment died when I heard the sound of a distant vehicle. I zoomed in on the vehicle, and it was one of the buggy’s from the “Catch-a-Ride”. I scanned the driver, and I felt myself panic as it identified Shep Sanders, and was carrying inside the turret explosives, and a pump trigger.

“Speak of the Devil, and he shall appear…Maverick! I need you over here! We’re about to have company and I don’t want them coming in!”

I head the blue robot yelp and began to hurry up. I would be sweating bullets if I had the capacity, as the Buggy got closer and closer. Fortunately, the man took the long route around to get here as opposed to riding through a large pack of Skags, which was enough to allow the Cow-Bot to reach me.

“Who’s a comin’?!”

“Don’t worry about it, just close the gate!” I reply quickly, forcing him to work. Maverick did it without another word, and in a few seconds of button pushing, the gate began to close and soon was closed and locked. Just as the buggy reached the “Catch-a-Ride” garage, the door was completely locked and closed.

I grabbed the bot, and clappy who had just arrived, looking ready for a fight, even though he was terrified.

“Don’t speak out loud, use your echo-units. We have a visitor, and with a closed gate, we may discourage him.”

“A visitor? A Bandit?” Clappy asked anxiously.

“Not taking the chance it is or not unless it’s from a strong position.” I replied as I pushed them past the first building. Finally, they took the hint and rolled back into the mining complex.

Time slowed down as I brainstormed how to handle the situation. I had no idea what the guy’s disposition was currently, so I had to play by ear and go with it. Then again, now that I think about it, the best way might be to just play the dumb bot. Pretend to be working under a higher authority, at least until something of an actual higher authority is established. Alright then.

Time sped up to normal as I stood by the echo-relay near the entrance and waited. I could hear Shep try to open the door only to curse. I just stayed silent, listening to the sounds of him trying to move the door before he cursed again, and then began to walk away.

I felt relief fill me as I rolled back to the others.

“What happened partner?” Maverick asked.

“It was Shep Sanders. He was just trying to get into the place for some reason. He left once he realized the door wasn’t opening. Hopefully no one else comes before we secure the place.”

Maverick agreed with me as he gazed over the various buildings. “Yeah. This place probably needs a major facelift before it can really be used by humans. Best to keep em out for now.”

A thundering boom filled the air, shaking the ground, buildings, and my internals. I whirled back to the gate and saw smoke from the gateway area.

I groaned and slumped dramatically. “Looks like Shep didn’t leave.”

Maverick squawked “This is corporate property! He’s gonna get fined big time!”

“Would that matter at this point?” Clappy asked.

“Well…not really? I mean…huh. Dahl have been-”

I left the two behind to deal with Shep directly. I had stopped when I saw that the gate was still up and blocking the place from being entered. There was some smoke coming off of it though.

“Huh. That’s a pretty strong gate there.” I said lightly before ‘clearing my throat’ and accessed Shep Sanders Echo-Unit.

“Attention-“ I had started when another explosion filled the air, with the force shaking the gate badly, and the force of the explosion shook my insides badly. I felt anger and made it known.

“HEY AS#$#%&! STOP SHOOTING THE LAUNCHER DAMMIT!”

I was ignored as another shot thundered against the gate, and the gate held despite it. I tried and failed to get him to stop for another three shots before he finally stopped. It held my hands over my ‘ears’ for a few seconds before releasing them. Despite covering them, my audio receptors were pretty much ringing.

“Ugh. God dammit. Are you ready to-“ I spoke when I heard a dull thrum of an engine rev up, and saw the vehicles leave.

“…What the hell?” I asked incredulous. “That’s it?! After all that.”

For a few minutes I sat there, waiting for the other shoe to drop, before deciding it will drop later and headed back in.

My bro-bots were hiding behind various things near the entrance, looking at me with queries being sent wirelessly. Mostly on their safety, followed up by asking “what the hell happened”.

“I guess he gave up when his rockets failed to actually break the door down.” I shrugged before looking at Maverick. “Seriously. What’s with those doors? That’re more firepower than I expected them to survive.”

Maverick sent me the electronic equivalent of a raised eyebrow. “Well, duh partner. How else didja expect to keep a bunch of crazies in this place? Them doors can handle a ten pound block of plastique explosive with only a dent. Dahl knew what they was handlin’ here, despite everything.”

I ‘blinked’ as I absorbed that. I was used to the idea of the Corps doing stupid shit for fun and profit, so them actually doing something that made sense always throws me off.

“Well, good to know. If the doors are that tough, then we don’t have to worry about someone trying to trash this place before we get it back up and running again. Or at the least figure out what to actually do with it.” I thought out loud.

“What about that plan of yours to revitalize Fyrestone Gatey? I figured if you wanted this place, you had an idea of what to do already?”

I shrugged as I rolled forward. “To be honest, I do have an idea of what I want to do with it, but there’s plans and ideas, and then there’s reality. This place may not be usable since it was in the hands of a bunch of crazy psychopaths for a while. So, it’s got to be inspected first. THEN! Then I will know what to do with it.”

Clappy, and Maverick, were all “oooh” about that.

“We could make THIS into a base! For death battles!” Clappy suddenly said outloud. I sent an incredulous “WTF?!” signal at the random idea. Maverick wasn’t too far behind.

“Uh…that’s what the Fyrestone arena is for Claptrap.” Maverick pointed out.

“Yeahhhh, buuuuuut Look at this place!” he waved a hand as we rolled past the inner gate to look at the facility.

“This place is just a Battle Royale waiting to happen, and if we Echo-Broadcasted it, we’d make a bundle!”

“Pretty sure Moxxie was disapprove, if not try to take that for herself.”

Claptrap stopped in thought, accessing the data on the person I just spoke of.

“Oooooh….yeah she would do that wouldn’t she?”

“Why the sudden interest in bloodfests?” I asked.

“Well, you said you didn’t really have a plan for this, so that’s MY idea, in case we can’t use this for some reason!” he stated proudly.

I looked up towards the brightening sky, and found myself agreeing with him. It was certain one idea.

“We’ll put a pin in that. For now, let’s see if there’s anything worth salvaging. Speaking of which, Maverick, do you have a schematic of this facility and are you able to do a comparison between the now and it to see what’s here and isn’t?”

“I do partner, but this will take some time.”

I nodded “Well, let’s get to work then. The faster we do this, and sooner we get to the next stage of the master plan.” I say dramatically.

“Oooooooh.” Both replied in awe.