Claptrap Chapter 29 - A Clapful of Luck

The entry of the depot was…to put it lightly, creepy. The game made it menacing with music mixed with sound effects such as metal scrapping, and static acting as a percussion to musical tones that wouldn’t be out of place in Dead Space.

Looking at it with my own eye, for real, I was already on edge. Not in a “I’m about to get in a fight for my life” edge, more like “A necromorph/demon/xenomorph is about to come out of the fucking wall” edge.

It was all put together with the skulls hanging from the ceiling, the paint on the walls in various graffiti mixed with splatters of human blood, with my olfactory sensor smelling the various scents of rust, rot, and metal, and thermal sensors picking up steam and cold spots, and the silence with only the distant sound of steam hissing from pipes.

I made sure to double check my weapons, make sure they were all loaded, and actions locked and unjammed. Given the close quarters I would be dealing with, I took out my shotgun and slowly rolled forward with my hydraulics primed to jump if needed.

The first room possessed the goal I had for Fyrestone. The Fast-Travel unit had power and was active, but a quick scan confirmed what I already knew.

===
ANAYLISIS COMPLETE

Localized Fast Travel Unit

Status: Inactive/Locked

Power: Active

Exit Location: Fyrestone Arena/Townhall
===

I couldn’t help but burst out laughing for a moment. The idea that the Arena was also the townhall…was just so hilarious in a way that so Wasteland-like. 

Mayor, or council can't fix the problem? Fight it out and whoever wins is right. 

Getting back my senses, I placed my clamp hand upon the holographic display, and connected to it.

===

Welcome. Please Enter Identification Biometrics.

Hyperion Maintenance Protocol Code: 1h49A7GhRD3wX

Accessing…Access Denied. You have two tries left.

Hyperion Maintenance Protocol Code: 53ftGy6J7nBS

Accessing…Access Denied. You have one try left.

Hyperion Maintenance Protocol Code: 7F3hYt5K8o0L

Accessing…Access Denied. You have been locked out. Please contact administrator, or Supervisor for access.

===

I pulled away with a small growl of frustration. I figured it was a bit of a long shot given what Clappy taught me, but it’s clear I have to find the Claptrap in this place, and get it to unlock this thing.

Turning in place. I took in the room, and stared/glared at the two vending machines Markus put in place. Even here, the guy makes a profit. I use the ammunition Vendor and sell the various stuff that I can’t use for a tidy profit of $674, and immediately use it to buy ammunition for my weapons. Out of my hand, and back into his.

“As$%@&%.” I cursed, getting bleeped in the process, which just made my groan as I switched out weapons to the SMG as I realized I may need range as I turned to look beyond the starting room.

I could already see five guys just hanging out, mostly playing cards down the hallway. So I decided to crouch and roll slowly out from the blindside, where there was a wire mesh wall and table.

“I just heard there was some action outside.” Spoke a voice, and I saw a man armed with a support machinegun walk out at the far end of the hallway. It was a Vladof, and I felt disappointed as it was yet another weapon my hands couldn’t use.

“What kind of action?” one of the bandits with a rifle sitting next to his leg asked as he dropped a red chip into what was a small pile.

“The kind that makes the guys in charge nervous. We ain’t getting any word back from outside ever since it got started.” The man replied as he walked around the group, looking at one of the hands as he did.

I realized what he was doing, and that I’d be found quickly, so I pulled out a fresh grenade, and rolled quickly into sight.

The man with the support weapon stopped with a jump. “Woah! What the-“.

His sudden change in tone caused the rest to suddenly look up, and see me as I flung the grenade towards them. It teleported from my hand to the small table that held the pile of chips, and beeped loudly.

“OH SHIT!” the group collectively cried out as they all jumped away from the explosive. To my surprise, most of them were well out of the way of the explosion when it went off, flinging debris, force, and heat everywhere. I didn’t stand still however, allowing my shield to take the brunt of the damage, which was minimal as I began to gun down each of the men one at a time.

Three were quickly cut down since they didn’t have shields, but the one with the support weapon did and he took quite a bit to take down, his weapon turning out to be an electric weapon on top of everything, but he was firing along with the two who were furthest from the blast, which only served to line them all up to my SMG which was firing two rounds every time it fired. Within seconds, it was all over and my shield was at 12%.

I had to pause for a moment as, once again, what I did just hit me, and I asked out loud as I reloaded.

“…Was fighting always as easy as the game? Or is it just that shields are bull$#!@?”

Thinking about it a bit more…there was also the fact I could just…well…not turn offemotions, but I could focus on the moment. Then again, I could do that before as a human too.

“Whatever. I’ll not judge luck, op-plz-dun-nrf equipment, or just this damned universe, if it keeps me alive.”

Speaking of alive, I heard the distant sound of more bandits mobilizing, specifically midgets, and a more distant metal clanging sound.

I crouched, SMG in hand, and rolled forward to the next chamber where I knew would be a large table, and heard the shrill laugh of a pair of midgets running up the stairs towards me. I slowed time down as they looked ready to leap at me when I saw the barrel next to them with a flaming skull painted on it, and the words “Genirator Fule”.

I shifted my aim, and fired.

In slow motion, the barrel caught fire and then exploded within a moment of time. The force sent me back a few feet in slow motion, and depleted my shield down to 90%. The two midgets however were flung across the room and covered in flames; their high-pitched screams sounded deeper to me.

I noticed in the distance a bandit with an assault rifle slid in and stopped, seeming to scramble away from the flying flaming liquid.

I began to roll forward slowly when a second explosion filled my vision. It was a burst of electricity that sent arcs of power out as far as thirty feet, almost kissing me in the process. The speed of which it did this was fast. Almost like time was moving at normal speed.

Time sped up again as I rolled back, and a third explosion filled the room with acid everywhere and melted steel and concrete alike. Why the hell they kept acid in that room, Fuck if I know!

Flames covered the entire entry of the room, so I went to the second entrance at the end of the hallway and roll-crouched into the room, and the man with the assault rifle peered out. I slowed time down, using the last bit before I needed to cool, to unleash a few rounds into his head. A three round burst did the job, and the man landed across the doorway lacking most of his masked face.

I rolled quickly across the room, facing towards the railing in case someone tried to get the drop on me, and hopped up the stairs and the body, before peering out towards the area. It was what used to be the barracks area, and the collapsed celling that led up a level. The bodies hanging from steel cords, and skulls being used as chandeliers really set the mood for the place.

“There it is! Shoot!” a man shouted, and five bandits appeared from cover behind beds and pillars, and fired a hail of bullets at me. I yelped as I rolled back, my shield taken down to 40%. I kept rolling back, almost tripping over the rifle of the dead bandit when a pair of grenades appeared and hit the wall to my left. They went off with a deafening pair of booms, and to my terror, followed up with clusters of explosives appearing after the explosion, which then exploded with almost as much force as the first one.

My back slammed into a door that I was sure was a closet, barely outside of the explosive range of the grenades.

I cursed, as I realized I was now stuck, bullets emphasizing this as they impact the corner where I had appeared, tearing chunks of metal and stone to the floor.

I could go back the way I came, and let them come to me, but they could just stay there forever too. I slowed time down, and focused on the problem, and though only eight seconds of real time passed, it was a little over a minute of speed time, and I had a plan…of sorts.

I crouched down, and readied a grenade. The good thing about the longbow, is that it could teleport to whatever I aimed at, so long as I had line of sight. So, I just needed the right angle.

I rolled around the corner, and was concealed by a chair when I saw the five shifted around for better cover and lines of fire, aiming down towards my general direction.

“You see it?”

“No. I can’t tell shit from shit!”

A few rounds sounded from one of them and hit the wall behind me. I had no energy for a time slow, so I had to take the chance and jerked my hand towards the floor near them.

I gave a small cheer as the grenade popped from the air, and smacked the floor exactly where I wanted it. They reacted almost immediately, having seen the flight of the grenade from where I was, and tried to dive away. Three were killed immediately and blown to pieces, while the other two were only brushed.

I took immediate action, and rolled in with my gun firing as I went. They both were killed in short order.

I take a few moments to “breathe” as I take in what I have accomplished so far.

“Geeze. I’m making good time here.” I murmur to myself as I began to roll towards the ramp going up to the higher level when I detected it. There was a weak signal coming from the wall near the barracks, and after checking its identification code, I felt my inside heat up a bit when I learned it was a Claptrap signal.

Rolling slowly over to the blocked entrance to the next hallway past the barracks, I saw the blue body of the robot. It wasn’t moving at all, not even making melodramatic statements of injury, which was very concerning to me considering I needed it to access the system. Oh, and the fact he was a fellow Claptrap, of course.

“Take positions!” I heard a voice shout above me.

I turned and checked my firearm, and slowly began to roll up the incline. I could see bodies hanging from the ceiling, again, and stopped as I tried to hear movement. There were men stepping about, distantly, but nothing to tell me numbers. Finally rising high enough to see over the incline, the place was dark, with a burning barrel to provide illumination. A flag with a skull in the form of a grenade hanging beside it and lit up a red, colored like dried blood.

Lovely.

I slowly rolled forward and then to the side as I stuck to the steel support pillar next to the incline, and was finally given a view into what was apparently a storage/meeting room. I could see a few guys aiming down my direction, but for whatever reason they hadn’t seen me.

I decided to pull the same trick from before, using one of the men as the target instead. To my glee, it worked, and the grenade was attached to the man. He jumped from the sudden impact, confused as to what just happened before exploding into a cloud of red.

I thought I could rush in, only to suddenly get a face full of buzzaxe when a Psycho that was somehow on fire rushed out, with a shield on him, and cackled.

“BLOOD! BLOOD! MORE FOR MEEE!!! AAAAHAHAAHAAA!”

I rolled back from a swing and unleashed into him, taking almost all of my bullets to put him down. I recoiled in panic as I saw into the room and witnessed a mishappened mutant with a gigantic axe in his hand rush into the room. He knocked the shelves down completely as he roared at me.

The shelves however helped me out by catching his legs between them, making the freak fall onto the ground face first, legs all trapped in metal shelfing.

I only blinked for a moment before switching to the shotgun and firing into its face until it wasn’t a face.

For a moment I just stared, before shuddering as I dodged yet another bad moment.

“Goddess of luck, keep helping me.” I prayed.

Remembering myself, and the Claptrap, I made certain to grab the toolkit I knew was there. How and why, it was up on the pipe…again, fuck if I know. After tossing a rock at it, it fell to the floor, and was now safely in my inventory, I made certain to reload my SMG, again, and noticed I was only a hundred rounds left on that.

“Damn.” I grounded out…and then paused as I realized what I said.

“Hey! I can say Damn? YAY!” I cheered, the Clappy side of me asserting itself, before I focus back on the job again.

After some careful maneuvering, I got past the fallen shelves, and finally saw a deadly foe…stairs.

“….Damn! They’re short stairs too!” I cursed.

Taking a breath, I steeled myself.

“Okay. Just one step at a time.” I whispered as I neared the edge, and then took the plunge.

Which was when I plunged, all the way down the stairs to the bottom.

“WHAAAAAAA!!!”

I crashed loudly at the bottom, and groaned painfully, glad the shield took the damage for me, but my balance was throwing me off and made me feel nauseous…which I had no idea was a thing for robots!

“Ugh…damn it all.” I growled as I got back onto my wheel. Picking my gun back up, and aiming it out towards the hallway, I slowly rolled into the space where a large container was, and blood was freely dripping onto the floor from…somewhere.

I kept going, feeling something was amiss given the shifting in the air, and saw the head pop above the cover across the hallway.

“Crap!” I cried out in fear as I rolled back.

“He made us! Take him out!” a bruiser shouted as his muscular frame appeared, missile launcher in hand, and pointed at me.

I cry in terror as I flung a grenade in their general direction and roll into the stairwell again. A missile slammed into the doorway nearby, taking my shield down to 40% despite not being a direct hit. A second explosion filled the air, with the cries of men dying and injured.

I blinked, as my grenade must have done something! My Hyper-Analysis alerted me that it was fully charged again at that moment and I used it.

Rolling out into the open, time slowed down, and saw the remains of the bruiser, and two other bandits who had been next to him. One man was still standing, and dazed. Time sped up as I fired at him with a burst until he fell dead.

I rolled to the opposite side of the room, not sure if there were more and was not disappointed as suddenly the hallway was filled with no less than seven men. Five of which were psychos, one a mutant. Two men, another bruiser with a regular looking bandit fired machineguns at me while the midgets and mutant sprint in my direction.

In a moment of panic, I activate the combat subroutine and try to Alpha-Strike. It started, with my unloading my shotgun and sniper rifle directly into the mutant, but not before he slammed his giant club into me, breaching my shield and hitting me directly. I was sent flying from the force and my eye was cracked by the hit.

I don’t know how, but by some miracle, not only do I keep my balance and keep aim as I kept firing, switching out the sniper for the SMG, but I landed neatly in front of the fallen Claptrap I came for. I kept firing wildly, and the shotgun and SMG got switched out for a pair of…Torgue Support Machine Guns?!

“I DON’T KNOW HOW I AM FIRING THESE!” I shouted as the two weapons barked out their Gyrojet ammunition into the mutant, blasting him apart with ease, followed up by the four midgets who exploded into blood confetti, and the Bruiser and Bandit who were hit with a macross massacre of EXPLOSIONS!

Soon enough I needed a cool down, and everyone was dead, and quite literally painting the hallway red. The weapons went back into my inventory, and again, I just stared in a shock at what just happened.

When my brain caught up, I looked up and pressed the “palms” of my clamp hands together.

“Thank you, lady luck, for not getting me killed.”

I turned to the fallen Claptrap, and realized from looking at it, it was in some kind of sleep mode. Possibly to save power in order to not die.

Tool kit in hand, and with my downloaded knowledge via technical manuals and tutorials, I worked on the machine. It took me about ten minutes, but the repair kit allowed me to patch things up really quick, and soon enough, after closing the robot chassis, I sent an order to wake up.

Slowly the blue robot powered up, and its eye glowed brightly. With an exaggerated yawn, it then leapt onto its wheel and gave a confident “punch” of its fist.

“Oh yeah! Back in the runnin.” It said with…a western drawl.

I will name you Duke…okay, maybe not that. I’ll come up with something appropriate.

It turned to me and saluted. “Thank ye kindly stranger.” It thanked me, before realizing that I was a Claptrap.

“Oh! A fellow Bot in the lonely range! Good to see you…uhh…” it stopped as its eye gazed over me, and then to the hallway, with the bodies and blood chunks falling from the walls and ceiling with wet, bloody splats, and back then to me.

“….You, and everything else, is all red. Did I miss a party?” it asked, genuinely bewildered.