Iacon Wasteland

Once again, Ratchet onlined to a haze, although this was a short-lived one. He tried as quickly as he could to dispel it and concentrated on what was around him. First off, it was dark, only being illuminated by two very dim lights in two opposite corners of the room, one of them being a light torn out of the ceiling and dangling from it while the other appeared to be a small screen on a corner table. It was enough for him to see very vague amounts of the room, able to see the outline of a corner of a cabinet and that's about it. It was all quiet in the room except for the sound of something dripping at a slow pace.

Ratchet used his arms to sit himself up, which was a bit painful. All of his joints in his arms were crying out at him to stop, indicating that he hadn't use them in quite a while and he had to rectify that. He was a coma guy that just woke up and he had to be careful. He twisted his arms around to work out all the kinks, followed by throwing his legs over the right side of the bed and shaking them around to work out the kinks there. This was followed up by twisting his head around to work out the neck joints to make sure they were working and after a couple of pops, were working just fine.

With that done, he had to deal with the darkness. He reached for the Pipbot that should've been there, but hit bare armor. Ratchet quietly cursed to himself at that and looked around. He concentrated on the corner of the room with the small light on the table. If he had to guess, that would be it and he had to reach it. He got off the table, using his hands to hold on the table as he felt his legs nearly give in and make him collapse to the floor. He felt some liquid on the bottom of his feet and it made him feel a bit unease at it. Tacklebolt usually did a good job of cleaning the floors. Why would they be unclean… and why was the only other light source ripped out of the ceiling?

Ratchet slowly walked around the table, the soft spatter of the liquid he was stepping on filling the room. He could still fell the machinery in his legs grinding slowly, needing to be broken in again. At least his arms were working good, bracing him against the table to stand, probably because they were always the more effective limbs. He was always proud of his hands flexibility and precision and his arms had a sturdy quality to it that made it very durable. Still, his legs had to get better quick, as he felt open air in front of him, which meant that he had to walk unassisted. Ratchet gave a small sigh, gritted his teeth, and walked off the table. He stumbled forward unsteadily and outstretched his arms to find anything to hold on to. He was fortunate and his hands grabbed onto an object. It felt a bit odd, allowing his arms to encircle what he was holding, and felt more of that strange liquid on his hand. It was familiar, but he couldn't quite figure it out.

He ignored it and continued feeling his way around to the light, taking a turn with the table and making his way to the corner of the table where the light source that he wanted was a good three steps away. Ratchet silently groaned and took a careful step forward, making sure he wasn't going to tumble to the ground when he let go. Once that was complete and his leg stayed stable, he took the other two steps and grabbed the light, which was a Pipbot, which made Ratchet sigh in relief. He needed this. He looked around and saw that it was his name on it, so he slapped it on his left wrist, turned on the flashlight, and looked at his health. He noticed that his legs were a bit unwell, which he could figure out himself, and his head was consider unstable, but other than that, he was alright. One more look at other things proved his internal systems were working well, so he was alright overall. A cursory glance over himself revealed that he had energon caking his feet and various amount splatter on his body, which was weird, but he ignored it to focus on more pressing matter.

With all that done, Ratchet flicked around to the map and looked at where he was. According to him, he was in the Med-Bay, which made a certain amount of sense. He must've been on the operational table where First Aid and Ambulon could watch over him to make sure he was doing fine. And that other thing he felt at the table must've been another person! He didn't have a clue who it was, but he had to get help wherever he could. Ratchet quickly turned around to see who was on the operation table.

He immediately felt sick to his systems as he looked at the figure on the table. Energon was all over the person, some of it dripping from the table and hitting the ground. The person's chest was open up to have his organs exposed, where he could see the organs cut open and scalpels sticking out of several organs with a knife sticking out of the person's spark. Ratchet felt sick at the cruelty of what was done to the person and examined who he was. His legs, body, and head were red and his arms were white with a medical symbol on his shoulder…

"First Aid," Ratchet muttered as he figured out who he was. He immediately felt like purging his systems out, but resisted it, instead turning away so as not to look at him. He spent over 300 years working alongside him only to end up like that…. Who could've done it? How long was he in a coma? It must've been a while, considering the state of what's going on. And why did they leave him alone? Maybe they were attacked? Or they were being attacked right now….

Ratchet felt something creeping up his spine. That has to be the reason why no one cleaned up the room. That or they were all dead. Frankly, he had no idea which one was worse, but either way, he needed a weapon to protect himself. And that left one thing he could use.

He turned back to First Aid's corpse and looked at the knife stuck in his spark. He didn't want to desecrate his body in any way, but if there were people out there who wanted to kill him, he would have to have a weapon to protect himself. He walked carefully towards the body, his feet making the energon on the floor splash around. He approached the body and looked inside the hole in his chest. He could see in great detail all the wounds afflicted on his organs, being mutilated to the point of being unusable for anything else. After some hesitation and reminders that he needed that damn knife, he grabbed a hold of the knife and tugged at it. That was met with the body being pulled up slightly and Ratchet letting go in disgust. The person who did this really thrusted the knife in deep. Ratchet slowly intake and outtake, silently cursing himself for making himself do this, but he had to defend himself, so he grabbed ahold of the knife again and placed a hand on First Aid's neck to keep him still and pulled hard, dislodging the knife from the body, giving Ratchet a weapon to use, which both excited and terrified him. He looked at it to see it was rusted a fair bit and the blade was slightly dull. It wouldn't make for a good weapon, but he might be able to kill someone with it.

Before he headed out, he needed to look around and see if he could find anything of use in the room. It was the Medical Bay, there had to be something he could use, so he walked around and tried to ignore the body and the constant sound of his feet hitting the energon. He walked over to the cabinet and looked inside only to find pretty much everything gone. That must've been why the one who invaded attacked the place. They needed supplies and so they attacked to get them. Giving a remorseful sigh, he swung his Pipboy around the room in the hopes of finding anything he could use. His findings led to him finding nothing of interest in the room except for a stimpak in the room that was on the floor covered in First Aid's energon. Stimpaks were emergency medical devices used to give an infusion of energon loaded with Calaphex into someone's body if they were injured to make up for the energon lost and greatly speed up the auto-repair systems. They were mostly used during war time, but when peace came, someone managed to get them sold to the public and they became a hit, being very popular with certain people in the medical field and with people involved in less… moral fields. Still, they was good to have in his current situation.

With that found, he made one last look around the room and saw something under the bed that interested him. He bent down and grabbed it, which ended up being a datapad. He clicked on it and saw three videos saved on it. Ratchet was intrigued by it and clicked on the first one, which was the oldest. The video started with an image of Ambulon scowling into the screen. "Ambulon. Year 311. Day 23. Previous one ran out of memory, so starting anew. Madness happened. Pyrobyte, that frakking bastard, entered the reactor room and shot the place up, shooting Momus and Handbrake before shooting himself in the head, sending a bullet through his own head and into Ratchet's. Momus and Handbrake were both tended to and are doing well, but we're putting both on watch for any complications. Ratchet's the real problem. Took a bullet to the head that broke apart inside his brain. Even if he lives, he'll likely have permanent brain damage. We're not even sure if we got all the bullet fragments in his head. He might hear rattling in his head if he wakes up." Ratchet instinctively moved his head around and felt nothing, so he breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe they got them all.

"Still, I'm doubtful. A bullet to the head is hard to recover from. First Aid is scared after what happened and so is Lightstep. She locked herself in her room and I tended to First Aid after I finished with surgery on the three patients. It was… odd, but nice to actually reconnect with him. He needed it after watching all that." He gave a sigh and shook his head. "I really hope Ratchet pulls through. We need him and I… like him, even if he's responsible for letting First Aid get away from me. I would consider him a friend, which is rare for me. I didn't have friends when I came down to the shelter, and having someone like Ratchet was a breath of fresh air, even if he had a habit of making decisions an actual doctor wouldn't have made. Hmpf. Anyway, ending entry." The clip ended and Ratchet gave a relieved sigh. First Aid may be dead, but Momus and Handbrake appeared to make it through just fine. He didn't knew them very well, but anybody that could possibly get him out of this place was a boon to him.

He click on the second video and was once again greeted with Ambulon's visage, once again frowning. "Ambulon. Year 311. Day 25. I really hate Pyrobyte. The bullet the exited his helm split in two after exiting his head. One went into Ratchet's CPU and the other, somehow, in the worst case scenario, hit the reactor and is risking a complete meltdown. Lightstep and Lander are doing their best, but Handbrake was the best when it came to the reactor and he's still in bed, unable to actually get up from it. On that note, Momus is also bedridden and doing fine. Ratchet is still in a coma, because, to my surprise, bullets to the head don't heal in a day," he told the datapad in the most sarcastic tone imaginable, making Ratchet smile slightly. Ambulon had a certain skill in sarcasm that most people didn't have, although it can be a bit much. Some of the things he said were downright caustic.

"The reactor is a serious risk. It might make us have to go on a mass exodus out of the shelter if we don't fix the problem. Siren doesn't want that, as he said so eloquently to everyone. However, a small group consisting of five people, headed up by Sunspot, who wanted to leave, left the shelter. Siren was reluctant to, but he agreed and sent one of the guards, Zula, out with them to where they wanted to go. Guess he was too affected by Pyrobyte's shootout." Ratchet gave a small sigh. He should've guessed that Sunspot would leave at the first chance. He hoped that he was still alive. It was unlikely, but it was something he could hope for.

"The leak also had the odd effect of a small leak to up top. It's nothing that affect our standard of health – for now – but someone could use that to locate of us if they used Eleuvian scanners, since the radiation from it is quite different to the one infecting the outside world. I'm hoping all the ones back up top are broken. Don't want any unwanted visitors."

'Too late,' Ratchet couldn't help to think to himself.

"End entry." The screen went back to the menu and Ratchet let out a small sigh. That explains why they were attacked. The reactor let out enough up top for it to be tracked by someone. Now who was the question.

Ratchet clicked on the third video and something drastically different came up. Instead of Ambulon, it was First Aid on his knees, looking beaten up, and a gun pointed at him from someone just out of frame. Judging by the way the screen was moving, someone was holding the camera while another person was holding the gun. Ratchet felt sick when he heard a soft and educated voice say something. "Go on. We made a deal. Give your last will and testimony."

"I will. Just thinking of the things to say," First Aid replied, sounding in pain. It was obvious the ones who were filming this have already beaten him up pretty well. "Look, to whoever is listening to this, please give this to Lightstep, my conjunx endura, and tell her I love her. I love her so very much and… to remember 4791. She'll know it when you tell her. Please… don't let her see this video," First Aid told the recorder, his voice shaking all through it.

"Very good. Now, just to make sure, if you say yes to this message, we'll give you a long death. If you say no and we destroy this recording, we'll just put a bullet through your skull. Now, are you sure you want this message to exist?" the voice asked First Aid calmly.

"Yes… I am. Those numbers are necessary," he replied instantly.

"Hmph, strange that you are so worried about those numbers rather than your conjunx endura, but okay. If you say so. Let's strap you to the table." First Aid kept looking at the recorder with the emptiest look on his face. He knew he was dead and he accepted it. With that final image, the video was cut, taking Ratchet back to the main menu. Ratchet stared at the device with a withdrawn expression, a sense of sorrow feeling him. First Aid willing went through that pain just to give Lightstep those numbers. He wondered exactly what it was. As he was thinking this through, his Pipbot rumble and Ratchet looked at it oddly. The device told him that a new entry was uploaded to notes. He pressed the button and the device took him to the notes where the three video clips were there for him if he ever wanted to look at it or give to other people. It must've auto-load it directly to his Pipbot through a wireless transmission. He really didn't want to have those on his Pipbot, especially the last one, but they would probably be good for future references.

With that done, he placed the datapad to the side and went to the door. He took a rattled breath and tried to figure out where he should go. The exit would be the best idea, but he bet that wasn't safe at the current moment. So, where could he possibly go?

"On my effects, you should find my hacking tools."

That weird hallucination of Pyrobyte… it said he could get those hacking tools off of those bodies. Since Ratchet didn't see his body around the area, there probably was a morgue somewhere around the facility and he had to find it. It was probably a bad idea to listen to an insane hallucination who pushed him off a building, but considering the situation, anything would work. So, with an idea of where to go, he readied his knife and opened the door. He entered the dark hallway and Ratchet swung his Pipbot around to get a good look at the surrounding with only two lights working here. A couple of bodies were near the dorm room doors, looking like they were shot trying to get in. There were a lot a marks around the hallway, consisting of scratch and laser marks and energon on the floor and wall, the biggest amount being a small pool leading to the left door which looked kind of fresh. With the area clear, Ratchet looked at his Pipbot and looked at the map to find the morgue. It didn't take long to find it and figured out that he needed to take the door to the left where the small amount of energon was going to… great.

With a bit of apprehension, Ratchet walked toward the door and tried to open it up, which did so easily. He walked down the steps carefully, taking a note of the energon that was going down the steps as well. The stairway was especially dark, with absolutely no lights working and he had to use the light to make sure he doesn't trip and fall. After he reached the bottom, he turned his flashlight off just in case and he opened the door to see something unsettling. Inside, the hallway that was a lot like the previous one, was actually brightly lit for once with most of the lights working, which make it easy to see the black-colored figured around Ratchet's size brutally punching and kicking a red colored person down. Looking closely, he could see the Vault-Tec symbol on his shoulder, which meant the person was Joor, which meant the person beating him down was the enemy. Ratchet paused in place as he watched this, listening to the enemy mock Joor, the other giving ragged gasps of pain with each blow. Further away from him, he could see a rifle on the floor, impossible to reach without attracting his attention. He didn't want to fight, but Joor was getting a beatdown by the bot and were in the way of the morgue and he couldn't just sneak past him to get the rifle. He had to act or things would go bad for him. He had to save Joor.

He moved slowly, knife at the ready, him mustering the best grip Derve had when the guards showed off the knives in a defense training exercise. 'If you got the jump on someone, approach silently from behind. Once you're in range, place your arm around their throat to keep him still and attempt to crush his vocal cords, and thrust the knife in his back. Repeat the stabbing as necessary.' The enemy was slowing down now, now taking more time in mocking the downed guard than punching him.

"You vault-dwellers think you're so lucky, being down here, safe from all the radiation, the mutated animals, the lack of fragging energon, and those ugly sparkeaters!" A swift kick and a groaned. Ratchet was a quarter of the way there. "How does it feel, huh? You might be resisting us pretty well for now, but we'll slaughter you sooner or later. Doesn't matter and I'll make sure to make your death painful for shooting Frigid and Yorn." A punch to the face. Yorn and Frigid must've been the two he saw in the hallway. Ratchet was halfway to him. "How should I kill you? Do I slice you up very slowly? Very nice idea." Two kicks and a punch followed by a hard stomp on his knees, making him scream. Ratchet was almost on him. "And then, we'll throw your pieces to your friends and make them beg for mer- AH!" he shouted as Ratchet drove the knife in the small of his back and used his free arm to wrap it around his neck.

"Gah, you slagger! Augh," he grunted as Ratchet pulled the knife out and once again stabbed him with it, trying to hit his spark. In response, the enemy jumped back, digging the knife deeper in his own back and sending the two of them to the ground. The enemy dug his elbow into Ratchet's side multiple times to make him let go and was met with success when Ratchet force to loosen his grip and he broke out of it, rolling off to the side. Ratchet was left a bit pained from the blows, but ignored it when he saw the enemy got up with his back to the wall and he looked down at him with blue optics. "Wait, what the hell! You're the coma doctor. You're weren't projected to wake back up for over a year," he realized, shocked.

'If you're enemy is speaking to you instead of fighting, take the advantage and stab them.' Ratchet took advantage of that and leaped forward with the knife and sent it into his gut, making him gasp in pain and grabbed onto his wrist, trying to pull it back out. 'If your enemy is trying to take your weapon and both of you are using your hands, well… you will prove the head is the best weapon a person has in their disposal, in more ways than one.' Ratchet didn't let him, head-butting him to startle him and making a dent in his head, before he twisted the knife and pulled it up, trying to slice into the critical sections of his body. If he was correct, he probably just cut into a major fuel and energon line. This was confirmed when he suddenly started spitting a bunch of energon out of his mouth and onto Ratchet face, startling him but not stopping him as he continued bring the knife up into his spark. The enemy gave one last gasp before his grip lessened and fell to the side. Ratchet stared into his optics as they deaden and he let go, the intruder's feet falling out from under him, letting him slide against the wall to the floor with his head down.

Ratchet looked down at the corpse, a look of disbelief on his face and his hands shaking as he came out of his adrenaline rush. He had just killed someone. He was a doctor, someone who saved lives, not take them. Yet, he was calming down quickly and his hands had calmed down. He did what he was good at, which was rationalizing. He was an invader who was ruthlessly killing anyone in his way. He had to kill him or else he would've kill him. It was the best reasoning he could make for killing him and a good one at that, but Ratchet still didn't like it…

*Cough Cough*

Ratchet turned around to the down guard who was busy coughing his fuel pump out. He had forgotten all about him, so he quickly went over to him and crouched over him. He had a bunch of dents and small cuts leaking energon on him from the intruder's beatdown, but other than that, he was superficially alright. The real question was if he was damaged internally. He stopped coughing and looked up at his savior with red optics. "Ratchet?"

"Yeah, it's me," he answered as he continued to look him over for any other signs of injury. "Just woke up from a coma."

"Wow, you're tougher than I thought if you could wake up from a coma far earlier than expected and kill a marauder. Nice one, doc," he complimented him.

"Please don't compliment me for killing someone," Ratchet grunted as he wrapped the guard's arm around his shoulder and began helping him up.

"Oh, was that your first kill?" Ratchet gave a nod. "Then my bad. The first kill is often an unpleasant feeling. Believe me, you'll get used to it. You shouldn't worry about it. I'm not saying that because I'm callous, but I imagine there'll be a lot more fighting in the future." Joor tried to comfort him as Ratchet got him on his feet.

"Thanks," Ratchet replied as he steady him. "Can you walk?"

"Yeah," he replied, letting go and placing an arm on the wall. "Just… need to be more careful," he mutter as he placed his back against the wall.

"Can you check your medical situation with your Pipbot?" Ratchet asked.

"Yeah, let me look at it," Joor said, pulling the Pipbot and looking at it. "Yeah… it's crippled," he moaned in anger. "I swear, if you didn't kill that guy, I would've."

"It would probably be better on my conscious," Ratchet muttered.

"Yeah… did you see anyone before you rescued me?" he asked.

"Only First Aid's body," Ratchet answer.

"He's dead?" he asked, shocked.

"Yes… it wasn't pretty waking up to his mutilated corpse," Ratchet told him.

"Dammit…." He moaned.

"Look, can you explain some things to me? I have no idea what's happening," Ratchet asked him.

"We're attacked. Have been for a couple of days. We've been really good at holding them back. We've only been losing ground recently at the entrance, the dorms, the atrium, the Med-Bay, the jail, the science labs near the atrium, the conservatory, and the overseer's office, although Siren's been holding them off for a while. Don't know how long he'll last, but he's a damn fine shooter," he told the medic happily.

"How about casualties?" Ratchet asked.

"Only a few confirmed ones –Farlight, Blight, and Jadanarano- with the rest MIA. First Aid was one of them. We thought he was just taken away, since Ambulon was taken by them," he muttered.

"Wait, Ambulon was kidnapped by them?" Ratchet asked.

"Yeah. One of the guards, Srig, the gray one, saw them carry off with him, trying to fight against them. They knock him out and took him away," he answered.

"Why would they want him?" Ratchet asked.

"I don't know, but it left us without a medic before you woke up. We not completely incompetent in the medical department, but they took control of the Med-Bay and left us with nothing except some stimpaks that people brought with them," he answered for him.

"Well, do you know who's missing?" he asked.

"Let's see, um, well, aside from the few that we know left the Fallout shelter, like Sunspot and his group as well as Lightstep, who left because she said she had a transmission she had to follow – I really hope I don't have to break the news about First Aid to her- and Lugnutz, who really wanted to get out, we're missing Treads, Tidalshock, Bludgeon, Derve, Lander, Momus, Tacklebolt, Madoro, and Dosaro. Might as well include Swindle in that list because he was at the jail when they took it, but I wouldn't be surprised if he's dead. I don't mind, he deserves it. The other ones, I have no idea whether they're dead, hiding, or escaped, but we have no idea where they are," Joor explained to Ratchet.

"Well, things are better here than I expected," Ratchet muttered. "I fully expected a slaughter, but we appear to be doing good."

"What do you expect? We got the home-field advantage and they don't know about the secret passageways we use for flanking. Those secret passages are a lot more useful than I expected," he chuckled.

"Well, can you get me to the morgue?" Ratchet asked.

"The morgue? You want to see the dead bodies?" he asked.

"Just one. Pyrobyte's," Ratchet answered.

"That slagger," Joor growled. "He's the one who caused all this problems in the first place."

"I know, but I need to check his effects," Ratchet told him.

"Ugh… fine. Let's get you there," he muttered, lifting himself on the wall and standing painfully on his leg.

"You need help," Ratchet ordered, walking over to him.

"No!" he shouted, holding his hand out to keep him from walking forward. "I… can handle it," he said, bending down to get his rifle off the ground painfully and walking towards the door at the end of the hallway.

"So you say," Ratchet muttered as he followed the crippled soldier through the door and down the stairs that turned left, a grunt escaping the red guard's mouth with every step, using both of his feet for a step. This kept up until they reached the bottom of the stairs and he opened it up to lead to a wider hallway with working lights and a barricade set with people there ready to shoot, one of them of them being Srig with his smoky grey frame and eyes and the other being someone he didn't know quite well. The two of them, upon realizing who it was, put their guns away.

"Joor, good to see your recon went well and – is that Ratchet?" he asked, shocked.

"Yeah, it's him."

"Damn… impressive," he nodded. "We weren't expecting you for another year, Ratchet, and to have some brain damage."

"I'm a tough, old bot," Ratchet told him.

"That's putting it lightly. You stabbed someone to death on the way here. That's impressive," Joor told him.

"Woah, seriously?" Srig asked as he examined Ratchet closely and noted the energon-stained knife in his hands. "Ah, I see."

"Yes, although I need you to add First Aid to the KIA list. Ratchet can confirm he's dead," Joor told him.

"Oh, damn… I thought he was alive," Srig muttered sadly, scratching the back of his neck. "Lightstep is going to be so sparkbroken."

"We'll deal with that when the moment comes. Meanwhile, I'll take your place at the barricade while you lead Ratchet to the Morgue," he told him, hopping the barricade and taking his place at the spot, leaning against the barricade with his weapon ready.

"Yeah, sure. Follow me, Ratchet," he told him, walking towards the back door. Ratchet looked at Joor, who motioned for him to go on ahead, and he hopped over the barricade and followed Srig. They went up a set of stairs that turned right and entered another small hallway in the middle, this one slightly messy, but still looked decent. A couple of people were sitting down on the wall, talking to each other. He took a left and walked towards the door at the end. If Ratchet remembered the map correctly, this is where the morgue is. He opened the door and the two walked into a blue room with many small doors at the end and a desk to the left where a small, black-colored bot with yellow optics was at. He looked at them dully before noticing Ratchet.

"Huh… I expected you on the slab. Oh, well, I've been busy recently. Over 300 years without a body to look at and now I'm getting them like crazy. It's very nice," he said.

"I remember why I don't talk to you very often. You're a creep," Ratchet muttered.

"Dwell, we need to see Pyrobyte's effects when he died," Srig told him.

"Ah, Pyrobyte. The first one. I'm glad he took the initiative," he said, getting up and walking over to a file cabinet and opening it. "A bullet through the head, destroying his CPU and being unable to properly control the flow of energon and fuel. Suicide," he muttered as he grabbed a bag from the drawer and brought it over to them. "Here. I have no idea what they're for, but see if you can make use for it." He handed the bag for them and Ratchet quickly took them out. The two things he was looking for, the hacking and lockpicking devices, were there, to his surprise.

"What are those for?" Srig asked.

"They're a lockpicking and hacking device," Ratchet told him, pocketing them. He looked at the bag to see a bunch of small batteries, twelve to be exact. "These are batteries for the lockpicker, I'm guessing," he said as he grabbed them and pocket it as well. The only other thing was a small datapad that Ratchet could fit in his hand. Ratchet took it and flicked it on, revealing a picture of Pyrobyte and someone who looked like him with an icy blue paintjob, they're arms around each other's shoulders and smiling wide at the camera. Ratchet remembered that he he had a twin and he was probably with him now. Probably for the best. He heard a rumble and guessed that the photo was uploaded to his Pipbot, because of course it was. He doubt it was going to be of any use to him, but he might as well take what he could.

"That must be his twin that he always talked about," Srig muttered next to Ratchet as he looked at the photo. "He looked so happy."

"I think everything was happier back then… what a shame," Ratchet muttered as he put the picture back down.

"At least he's with him now."

"And we're stuck here," Ratchet murmured sadly.

"Well, you two look depressed, which I don't understand why. We're finally in an interesting situation," Dwell chirped, taking a seat behind his desk.

"Geez, would you stop being weird?" Srig asked of him.

"I don't see it as weird, but please, head on out and make more dead bodies. Preferably enemy bodies," he asked of them.

"Yeah, that was already our intention," he said, heading on out with Ratchet behind him and closing the door behind them. "I swear, that guy was a serial killer before he enter the vault."

"Relax. He's a creep, but he's our creep. He realizes what's going on and wouldn't try to hurt us," Ratchet told him.

"That's probably true, but you think he would develop some social skills," Srig muttered. "So, what do you want to do next? Patrol the area. Defend a barricade."

"How about… we find some way to kick them out," Ratchet recommended. Srig looked at him with a look of disbelief before he started smiling again.

"Alright, well, the first thing we need to do is get to Siren so we can coordinate a counterassault," he muttered, taking a knife and twirling it. "The enemy there has superior weapons and the armory is currently locked with no way in. We don't know any secret passages to the room and the door requires simultaneous use of entry, so one hacking device isn't going to cut it and we don't have another."

"Well… do we got any explosives?" Ratchet asked.

"In the armory… wait. Maybe, just maybe, Swindle has some on him, but he's in the jail. There's some secret passages there, but none leading directly to a jail cell, so we're going to have to fight them," he told him.

"We need to start fighting back and we need Siren for that. He knows how to fight better than everyone else," Ratchet told him.

"Yeah, I know… I'll see if I got get a fighting force ready to go for attacking the jail. It's to the left of that barricade and both of us are at a standstill. If we want to get in, it'll have to be a two-prong attack. One through the entrance way and the other from the secret passages. It's the only way of catching them off guard," he told him.

"Well, looks like you got a plan. I think rescuing Swindle will be a good thing for us," Ratchet said.

"I… don't think so, but we need his explosives," Srig muttered.

"Why are you so against Swindle?" Ratchet asked.

"It's not just me. It's everyone after we were able to follow a trail of evidence to Swindle giving the gun to Pyrobyte that he used to shoot the nuclear reactor room up. It's his fault we're dealing with these Marauders," he told him.

"He's the one that got Pyrobyte the gun? I thought he just stole it," he muttered.

"We thought so too, until we found evidence of him breaking into the armory with Pyrobyte and recovering the weapon. We locked him in the jail cell to figure out how to get justice for his crime when those marauders attacked. Frankly, I hope he's dead. Don't need a sneaker fragger like him around," Srig told him.

"Right… well, get this attack planned out and we'll see if we can get his explosives, dead or alive."