It was a habit of Malachi's, to arrive as early as possible. Patience was ingrained into him by now, so deeply that when he didn't have to wait he became anxious. And so he was the first of the many who had been invited to this strange place. At least seventy percent of Actaeon's surface was comprised of a single city, and the district where the meeting was set to take place wasn't any different.

Room 1134
Building 00837
Oscar District
Planet Actaeon.

Malachi didn't seem to notice how out of place he was in the city as he sat in one of the rows of chairs that faced a blank wall, and put his feet up on the one in front of him. He could hear footsteps int he corridor outside, multiple pairs of feet, but all walking at the same rhythm. When one pair suddenly stood out, he knew it was another Vault Hunter, and he turned in his seat to see as the door opened.

“Normally I’d be skeptical of these situations… I would… So, I’ll remain that way.” Hector whispered as he pressed his back against the wall beside the door to Room 1134 in Building 00837. It had barely been a few hours since he had made planet-fall, but apparently the Vladof AMM knew that he was there. “Damn Ruskies, always knowing where I am, it’s like thy hunt me or something.” He spoke as he peered through a crack in the door, spying a slightly older gentleman who carried a fairly plain looking assault rifle and a digistruct skag collar on his hip. “Oh good, eaten by a trained skag, just what I always wanted, life never gets boring. Fuckin lunatics keeping fucking beasts like that, it’s weird.” Hector whispered again as he brandished his fire element Jakobs revolver, wondering if he could get the drop on this guy in the room before Hector was caught by surprise and having a skag eating his leg. For a moment his hand fingered a flashbang grenade that hung at his waist, pondering whether he should make a flashy entrance and kill the guy before he himself was food, or if he should just wait and find out the outcome. “Damn skag lovin’ hippies.” He huffed as he kicked opened the door and aimed the revolver dead on Malachi’s forehead.

“Allright, freeze there you are, ass nuts. Else you’ll be making good friends with the end of my smoking barrel, hear me?” Hector spoke rashly and kept his revolver trained on the man’s head. “No sudden moves partner, I’m in no mood to have my bounty collected just yet. I like life and I like living… and crime… and money… Hell I just love being a degenerate. Now tell me why you called me here or I might just let my trigger finger slip.” He spoke as he paced around the man, hoping that he didn’t just make an ass of himself. It was true though; many bounty hunters and thugs have been sent after him to collect his body, or bounty. Hector got used to being a wanted man after a while, and got used to killing those who wanted to kill him. He was really good at killing them first.

As Hector stood in front of him he'd see Malachi's rifle already pointing at his crotch. "If you wanna be sneakin' up on a fella, I suggest you don't talk to yourself so much." He spoke slowly and calmly, never taking an eye off of Hector's fingers, ready to fire if he so much as twitched. To be true, he didn't like his chances of getting out of a fight unscathed. "I been listening through the door. Wasn't me that sent you that message; I got one too," he held out his left hand to show that it was empty and slowly reached into a pocket with just a thumb and forefinger, producing the missive that had been sent to his home a few days ago. "I haven't the foggiest who sent it, either."

Morikir walked with a brisk pace, sand and dirt kicking up behind him as his long strides took towards a building. His eyes were fixated on the ground, and when he breathed his apparatus made a soft mechanical sound. He stopped just before the building the building and looked up towards it. Morikir his right arm down and shoved his mechanical hand into his cargo pocket, and he pulled out a partially crushed pack of cigarettes. He stared a long while at them, until he coughed a violent cough for several seconds, then he crushed the pack in his hand and threw it to the side. Again, he looked up at the building. What's this all about? Seems a like it could be a little ridiculous. He found his way to the entrance and walked inside, with one hand against the handle of his shotgun. After a few steps Morikir heard something like a crash, something being busted in. He pulled Princess of his back and took off at a full sprint toward the noise. He slowed down to a creeping walk as he started to hear voices. Who could this be? The thought crossed his mind, but only briefly. He turned a corner and saw a pair of open doors down the corridor. Morikir kept close to the wall with the doors and slowly made his way down the hall, trying to hear what the men were saying. Damn. My hearing isn't what it used to be after that explosion... Gotta get closer yet..

Just as Morikir got to the door way, he tilted his head just enough that he could peer in. Peculiar enough, or maybe not, there two men holding weapons aimed at each other. The other man, with a Skag collar on his side, was standing there with the message Morikir had gotten as well. Morikir casually walked into the room and put two fingers on the closer mans weapon, slowly trying to lower it, "Now, now men. Let's act like civilized folk." He walked over to chair, pulled it out and sat down abruptly, "I'd assume we all have this same message that was delivered us," Morikir pulled the missive out of his pocket and placed it on the table, "If we kill each other before these guys do, then they won before we could even fight back." He leaned back slightly in the chair and put his feet up to the table, "I'd say we at least wait and see what these guys want before start making bullets fly."

Hector grinded his teeth and eyed the new man who entered the room, then looked back to the other. “Alright, but maybe that’s what they wanted in the first place. Maybe they just wanted to take out the trash without getting their hands dirty. B’sides, you chumps wouldn’t stand a chance going toe to toe with me.” Hector spoke and swept his hair out of his eyes, after he holstered his revolver. He paced around and eyed the new man. “So, are you some kind of Robo-Man? Like those Hyperion scumbags with the big metal arms? Doesn’t matter, you look like some of the unsavory gents that I’ve dealt with in the past. All jack up with metal parts and shit. Man, whatever, the old man over there has a shit-for-brains skag as a pet and is carrying around a relic Jakobs rifle… I’d say we’re more likely to be joining up together to do some less than legal work for whoever answered their little call. My guess, it’s the Vladof funded AMM… They’ve been protesting the Dahl control on this world for a while and Vladof has been helping by giving them weapons and armors… but recently they’ve been getting more vocal and more active. I’ve heard that Dahl and Vladof might even break out into all out war between the two companies. A shame I’m stuck here an’ not out there scavenging the scraps of whatever ruins lay out there in the aftermath.” Hector spoke as he leaned his back against the wall next to the window.

Hector lit up a cigarette and brought it to his lips, looking out to the cityscape, dreading whatever trials awaited him. “I’m not a man that enjoys being trapped on a world like this for long… Actaeon is not very friendly to people like me.” He spoke then ran his fingers over the scar on his right eye, recounting the time he got trapped on another one of Dahl’s militarized worlds. The memories of getting hunted like prey made him quiver. “It won’t be like that again, I can promise that…” He spoke softly and breathed out a puff of white smoke into the room, trying to relax before whatever misfortune befell him and the other two men.

Baltimore had been marching towards the crowding room, nose up and whistling brightly. The young girl's trek only came to a halt as she watched an unknown man enter a doorway. The chattering that came from within - something about messages? - was audible enough to snag her attention and draw her closer to them. She too peered into the room, watching as the three older men conversed among one another. Her eyes especially drew to their drawn weapons, although the ashy-blue Moloko sniper hoisted over her back outlengthed them by far.

Baltimore straightened her back and held her chin high; she had to at least appear confident, right? Hopefully these men would not jump at the blue tattoos scattered along her left arm and half her face. She was quite tired of being ganged up against, but if these men were all there for the same reason she was summoned...

The young girl took two steps in and let out a low whistle, hoping to catch their attention. She held her hands close to her chest, with the same message as Malachi's and Morikir's pinned between her fingers.

Hector glanced over at the whistling girl and quirked his eyebrow. He noted the telltale tattoos of a Siren and smiled to himself, making sure to remember the day that a huge pile of cash just walked right into the very room he was standing in. “Well… looks like I won’t need to be a scavenger, picking from the dead no more. Biggest bounty I’ve seen in a while just walked right on in here boys.” He spoke and nodded to Baltimore, knowing that Sirens, if caught, could fetch a high price from the right buyer. Problem was, Sirens are not easy to catch.

Hector snuffed out the burning embers of his cig on the window sill and walked leisurely towards the young Siren girl, looking her up and down. He made a mental not of the sniper rifle and also noticed that she was actually much much younger upon closer inspection. The last thing Hector noticed was the white note she held in her hands, knowing what it was. “No… this is just sick. Whoever set us up got this kid involved too… Sure she may or may not be a Siren, but seriously… She doesn’t even look like she’s hit puberty yet.” He shook his head and placed his hands on his hips to examine her more closely. “Hell, I bet she doesn’t know a damn thing about what we do… not that I know what you two do, I know what I do, and it aint nice. And I’ll take a guess that neither of you two are good men either… at least not down in your cores. Us old guys are sick fucks, and they got this girl mixed up with us? You look like you’re half machine and the other asshole has a god damn skag for a pet. I’m not gunna get over that, by the way.”

Hector went back to pacing the room and getting antsy, wondering when the messengers would show up, tell them what was going to happen next. He looked down through the window again, wondering how much of this hideous city would crumble if Dahl just left it here. Hector figured that it’d be a great place to be when the place did get abandoned, like all other Dahl worlds eventually do. Even happened to Pandora way back when the first vault opened… Then along came Hyperion and Atlas corporations to uproot them. Wouldn’t be long until someone else wanted what Dahl was after. “They always seem to know before everyone… what’s the purpose of this world, could it be like Pandora? Could it be that this place has another one of those vaults? Damn… that would be huge… I could make a killing here and retire young. That’d be real nice.” Hector spoke to himself, returning to ignore the other occupants of the room before the next visitor or informant arrived.

"Unknot your britches," Mal was still holding his gun, and kept it held loosely in his right hand after the colorful man's frankly disgusting display of greed. "Looks to me like she's carrying, and she chose to be here. Makes me sick, thinkin' of my daughter, but I wouldn't stop her from doing what she liked either." He looked over his shoulder at where the man was looking out the window, "And quit talking shit about Smit. He never bit anybody I didn't tell him to."

"I reckon it's high time we got civilized, at least. Name's Malachi. Tracker and Bounty Hunter, from Pandora. Don' worry," he added, smiling first kindly at Baltimore, then coldly at Hector, "I don't mean to turn either of you in."

Corhog walked into the building with the loud sound of his metal feet clanking against the floor. Corhog hadn't been out of his home 'town' for ages and would probably still be there if not for that one trespasser that had come onto his land and and met his match at the hands of Corhog with a message in a backpack he carried inviting Corhog to a meeting of sorts. Corhog was thrilled when he got the message and began walking as fast as he could which took him quite awhile but eventually he got to the building. As he approached the room he heard voices inside but he ignored what they were saying and decided to enter the room. He saw three unsavoury men in the room along with a small Siren girl "Corho- I mean I got a message saying to come here? Did you al get the same?" Corhog asked. Years of isolation in his 'Town' made him refer to himself in the third person and impaired his grammar which most found a little unsettling so he was trying to correct himself. As he looked around at the people he noticed one of them had a digistruct slag collar "you have trained skag?" He asked.

As Hector made his advances, Baltimore stepped back, dropping both her hands and her smile. She was prepared - she was always prepared. Soon the smuggler showed a face of disgust, and as he droned on and on about the type of people the three men were, Baltimore slowly reached for her rifle. Only when another man with a skag collar spoke up did Baltimore stop her movement, resting her hand on the butt of her gun.

Then he introduced himself as Malachi. He smiled warmly to the Siren and the others, waiting for them to introduce themselves as well. To that she smiled back at him, with as much innocence as a girl could have, though she did not respond to his request. She didn't have much time to anyway, as another noisy-footed visitor popped into the room - what appeared to be a tiny robot. Baltimore's eyes sparkled.

Dropping her message to the floor, the small Siren girl bounced to the bot and embraced it tightly. Ah, the sweet, sweet smell of clattering metal. Hopefully Malachi's pet would come out to play soon too.

She already liked where this meeting was going.

Morikir started at Hector as he lit his cigarette, "If you keep on smoking those, you'll end up like me. No lungs, just robotic lungs and a face mask to let you breathe." He put his feet up on the table and leaned back in his chair as he heard a female voice enter the room. Morikir craned his neck and looked back to see the person standing there, a young woman with a sniper rifle on her back and blue tattoo's on her body. "Little young to be getting tattoo's don't you think?" Then the other man with the cigarette spoke up and something about her being a Siren, and something about collecting a bounty because of this fact. Morikir shot Hector a glance, "I don't think we should do that. Remember the stories of Handsome Jack and what he did to the Siren's he caught? I wouldn't wish that treatment on anyone." He put his feet on the ground, letting the legs of the chair that were suspended in air, slam to the ground ground with a loud crack, "Let alone turning them in to deal with that." Morikir stood up and went up to the Siren, extending his robotic arm in a gesture for her to shake it, "For yourself," he looked back at the other men in the room, "And everyone else, my name is Morikir." He walked around to the opposite side of the room as Hector and crossed his arms, just as a little robot waddled into the room. Morikir stared at the robot for a few long seconds, "Well then. Looks like I'll have someone I can relate to at least." As Morikir took a few steps forward, the Siren girl hugged the bot.

Morikir went up to the little robot and knelt down next to him, "I think Maverick will like you. He doesn't meet many robots that weren't previously trying to kill us." Morikir put out his arms and Maverick came out of Morikir from all sides and floated in front of the tiny bot. Maverick stared at the bot and in a metallic voice stated, "My name is Maverick. Formally known as unit FV-2586. It's nice to meet you." Morikir stood up and took a step back, "I'm going to have to apologize, I can't go further than 5 feet from Maverick without him falling apart." Morikir closed his eyes and let out a sigh, "His systems were damaged when I incurred these wounds." He put out his arms and pointed to the mask, "I didn't get this from smoking. I got it from a battle." Morikir looked around the room for a few seconds, "When are we going to meet these strangers who brought us here together? Is this all of us? Are they waiting for us to all show up?"

The door opened one last time and a young boy, perhaps twelve or thirteen, stepped into the room. He started to stand at attention, as if automatically, but when he saw who was in the room, his body eased up and he smiled. "I been looking for you lot all morning. Walked into five wrong rooms, I did. Had to think right quick. Got a message from Rommy for ya's." He produced something similar to an ECHO recorder from his uniform jacket pocket and closed the door. The boy put the device on the floor in the middle of the room and pressed a button. Instead of audio only, as was typical from ECHO recorders, a small hologram appeared of a figure, lit from behind so as to be nothing but a silhouette.

"Greetings," an electronically distorted voice came out of the recorder, "You can call me Romulus. What you are watching is a series of recordings that I have prepared. It is designed to respond to you, but it can only answer questions that I predicted. I cannot talk to you in person, obviously because I don't yet know that I can trust each of you. And I cannot risk an open transmission, for fear of being intercepted.

"The first and most obvious: Why have I gathered you here? Young Luke here is a prime example. He is thirteen years old. In three years, if he continues to live on Actaeon, he will be inducted into basic training, and conscripted to fight in one of Dahl's many proxy wars. Dahl rules through military might, and not through the consent of the governed. This is wrong and I seek to correct it. Most of my supporters are not soldiers, they are every day citizens. Some old, many retired soldiers, and some young like Luke, who want to avoid the horrors that many of us have been forced to face in the name of the Dahl Corporation. How shall I oust this dictator? The power from the vault that has been revealed. It can only be opened with a key in three parts. I believe that Dahl has one, but I have tracked another one down. Retrieving them both is what I ask of you. The reward cannot be measured in dollars, the riches of the Vault are bountiful and strange, as we know from the events on Pandora. I will give you more information when you are somewhere safe. There are very probably soldiers on the way to investigate this unauthorized meeting as I speak.

"If you accept the job, take the recorder with you as you flee. Turn it back on only when you are safe and alone. To aid your escape, allow me to introduce a dear young lady I've made the acquaintance of. Meet Grendel." The recorder suddenly turned off, and a the same time, a hydraulic whirring came from the wall to the right of the door, as a secret compartment opened up. Steam billowed out, and as it cleared it revealed a girl with massive mechanical arms. She was held up by chains that ran under her arms, but as the secret door finished opening, the chains unlatched and allowed her to stand by her own power. Malachi was holding his gun, ready to aim it wherever he needed to as she awoke from her artificial sleep.

"What do you take us for?" Malachi asked, turning to the boy in the doorway. But he was gone now, the door was ajar, and as Malachi looked, a boot kicked it open from the outside and a uniformed soldier dropped to one knee in the door frame, aiming a rifle.

"This meeting has not been recorded and authorized under Discipline code Eight section Fifteen," As the soldier barked his rote, more could be seen behind him, pointing their own guns over his shoulders into the room. "Surrender your arms and you will be taken into custody to be executed officially."

Sitting on her knees, Baltimore watched the hologrammed image closely as he explained the five's situation with direct instructions. A wary smile crept on her face once Romulus mentioned a vault; she's heard stories about them, and especially the recent chaos that occurred in Pandora, though she wasn't certain whether to be intrigued by how important Sirens play in the role of opening these vaults - or to be terrified by that role. After all, that was why she was called in, was it not?

Then a wall to the right whirred open, causing the Siren to bounce onto her feet and watched with widened eyes as a woman - a cyborg? - emerged from the clearing fog. Quickly she reached for her rifle, unhooking it from her back and reloading it - not to be aimed at Grendel, but at the door. Footsteps were inbound, coming in rapidly, rapidly, before what appeared to be a patrolman burst inside.

Baltimore smiled widely as he demanded their surrender. Without so much as even waiting for the others to react, she backed up further towards Grendel's position and stood idly beside her. One hand held her Moloko rifle at her side, a finger resting on the trigger. The other, tattooed arm loosely extended before her with its wrist limp, as if waiting for a cue. Her other three teammates - well, now four, looked capable enough of taking down a single patrolman. But considering the severity of his demands, she prepped herself in case others were behind him as well.

Guess hugging Maverick would have to wait.

Morikir watched as the young boy brought in the echo-tape recorder, "Seriously? This kid is the one who br-" He was cut off when the echo-tape projected a hologram of a man. Maverick perked up, breaking his concentration with the small bot, as well to the hologram that popped up from the machine. Morikir looked at the others, making sure to stay close to Maverick, "What is this? I've never seen one of these before.." Morikir gestured, by waving his hand, to Maverick for him to move up as Morikir got closer to the table to watch the hologram closer, intrigued by it. Morikir paid more attention to the technology presented before him, rather then the message it tried to relay. Though he did pick up on the key parts: Vault key, Dahl trying to make the kid join the military, more stuff about the vault and Pandora. Then the hologram cut off, and Morikir picked it up, almost investigating it, until a large crash was heard behind. He turned to see a cyborg of a woman inside, until she was released. Then Morikir saw something else in the door way; a soldier.

Surrender your arms and you will be taken into custody to be executed officially

A sinister grin crossed Morikir's face, seemingly from ear-to-ear, though you wouldn't be able to see it. Morikir put out his right arm, while putting the hologram on his left hip, and Maverick retreated back around his body, forming the protective armor that he was primarily used for now. Morikir let out a deep sigh, smile still ingrained on his face, "So. You expect us to go with you, just so you can kill us somewhere else?" He put out his arms, devoid of weapons and took a step closer to the man, with his head down giving the appearance of surrender, "Well... I suppose," Morikir shot up his head and gaze directly at the soldier as part of Maverick on his back shot his shot gun straight into Morikir's right hand, pointing directly at the soldiers face, "It was a nice try." Morikir pulled the trigger, sending a slug of a shot straight into the mans face. Sending him flying back. In Morikir's mind, a thought came up, Let the war ensue. Probably shouldn't have done that.

Hector scowled at the messenger for a moment after acknowledging the little robot that had entered the room. The message was almost what he expected. Stealing something from someone and returning it to a client willing to pay top dollar for his services. As the message continued and a secret door opened up, Hector got a little antsy. He’d heard of the genetic enhancements nad human experimentation that went on in the universe, but this was a monster of its own. “I hope she… I mean it… doesn’t rip my arms off and beat me to death with them… Like I said before, I like to live.” Hector spoke once the message ended and he could hear footsteps coming down the hall. “Well, sorry if I rush my introduction, but my name is Hector… I’m a smuggler and a scavenger that preys upon the weak or already dead… I don’t like dealing with the living, but most of you seem like robots anyways, so lets get this underway.” He spoke as the open doorway was met with a soldier holding a rifle, who was then blown away by a stunning act of stupidity on Morkir’s behalf. Hector loved being stupid like that though, dirty jobs were always the fun ones. “Well, that’s one for you Mork, try to save the next one for someone else you sneaky bastard.” Hector spoke as he looked around the room, wondering what would happen next, but he decided to take matters into his own hands.

A second later, Hector was bolting out the door, his revolver in one hand, spinning it carelessly, with a flashbang in the other. “Kaboom! Bitches!” He shouted as he threw the flashbang into the hallway, around the corner, laughing to himself as he slipped away in the blindness of the guards around the corner. Once they came to vision again and regained their footing, they began to rush the room that the rest of his group was in. Little did they know that Hector had snuck right past all of the soldiers that were in the hallway. Hector kept hidden within a doorway a little bit behind the soldiers and drew his second revolver. “Oh boy, this will be fun!” He spoke as he popped from out behind the corner and began firing his revolvers at lightning speed, emptying the clips fairly quickly and leaving the barrels smoking. The result was at least two soldiers dead and a couple with gunshot wounds, not enough to get though the others shields. “Eh, it was helpful.” He spoke as he ducked back behind cover to reload his revolvers and put the second one away, waiting for the rest of his party to get to work.

"Wow! Your a siren!" Corhog said as he was hugged by the child. Then his attention turned towards the robot who hadn't been there a seconed ago and had introduced himself as maverick "nice to meet you Maverick I Corhog! I mean I'm Corhog. Sorry bout' that my systems are a little messed up too" he said. Soon a boy came into the room which made Corhog assume he was going with them to but he soon realized that he had just come to put down a weird ECHO recorder but soon it popped to life with a silhouette figure which surprised Corhog more than a bit. After they listened to what he had to say Corhog turned to see the wall opening up and revealing somthing he had only fantasies about. A cyborg. He was thrilled to see her and instantly prepared to attempt to sweet talk her. There weren't many female robots where Corhog had been living or really any robots at all so seeing Maverick and then a cyborg woman made Corhog feel like he was booted up for the first time.

Soon a soldier came in and told them to surrender but then was then shot by Morickir and out the door then another one of the men proceeded to introduce himself as Hector and his occupation of looting the dead and weak then he proceeded to run out into the hall, throw around some flashbangs and escape from the room "well" Corhog said "that happend." As the men ran into the room Corhog quickly pulled out his weapon and jumped for cover while he tried shooting potshots at the enemy. He didn't exactly want to use his Primal.exe program due to it wreaking havoc on systems and due to the fact that he might hurt an ally in such a confined space but he was willing to do so if it could better all their situation.

Grendel fell to the floor with a thud, her arms making a great clanging sound. Her eyes fluttered open and she lied still for a moment before she moved her arms with a light whirring sound and pushed herself up from the ground. She looked around at the people in the room and frowned.

"This is... Not where I remember falling asleep." She mumbled. She was in a strange room, with strange people, with somebody walking towards them out of sight. Unfortunately a common occurrence for Grendel, but she remained calm. "Would some-" she began, but she was soon cut off my someone kicking the door open and entering. They were outfitted in Dahl gear, and were already pointing guns at them and saying something about a... Meeting? What had she gotten herself into? And come to think of this, this didn't look anything like the lab.

"I'm sorry, but-" Again, she was interrupted. This time by gunfire as one of the men in the room charge towards the soldiers, guns blazing. She dropped behind a fallen table and cursed. She's just woken up, she has no idea where she is, and there are bullets flying everywhere and she has no idea why. Just another day in the life.

Splat! The initial soldier's head practically exploded with Morikir's gunshot, causing Baltimore to wince. Just barely did she miss Hector's flashbang followup before he charged outside. Seeing as the soldiers were slowly being pushed back, Baltimore bounced off the wall and waved brightly to the two taking cover inside the room. As she took to a position nearby Hector, she let out a gasp and quickly jumped back into the room - a sniper's bullet had whirred right between the duo, burying itself into the table behind them.

The Siren ran a finger under her nostrils with her signature delicate smile before charging back to the doorway. Dragging along her Moloko rifle, she nudged passed both Morikir and Hector to get to the front most of her mini squad. Luckily the enemy soldiers had been pushed back quite a bit thanks to her team's efforts, and she took the opportunity while they reloaded to make herself vulnerable.

Then, Baltimore thrust her tattooed arm forward and made a swift sweep across the air, from right to left. A loud shing! sounded off, but there were no immediately visible changes. At least not until the enemy soldiers fired at the Siren in sight - before screaming as their own bullets suddenly rebounded back into them. What the?

She looked back to the others and winked, before charging off through the transluscent wall she had erected to take cover elsewhere away from the room, rifle in hand.

Malachi dived behind a table, following the lead of the cyborg girl.

"Mornin'," he greeted, speaking up over the gunfire as bullets whizzed over their cover. A particularly heavy shot(long range rifle, Mal guessed) struck the table, but then there were screams from the hall and the gunfire suddenly stopped. Mal peeked over his cover and saw most of the group leaving into the hall. It was suddenly a lot more quiet than most firefights Mal had been in.

"Gasmask took the ECHO," he told the girl, though he didn't know how much of the situation she understood. "We needa get on his tail. Let's go!" He jumped over the table and ran out the door, rifle in his right hand, his left reaching for the collar on his belt. He tossed it into the hall and white and black pixels expanded from it as Smit the Skag was digistructed onto the battlefield. He immediately started sniffing the air and looking around, Mal followed suite, his ECHO HUD showing red blurs in his vision.

Smit gave a quiet growl, as Mal looked around in the sudden quiet. "Stop!" He hissed at the Siren as she ran right toward the battalion that Smit could smell around the corner. "There's more that way, I reckon we high tail it the other direction."

Grendel nodded. She had no idea what was going on, but considering the bullets flying over head now wasn't really the time for questions. She flinched when a chunk of the table was reduced to splinters by a shot, but things slowly began to quiet down. The man talking to her leaped over the table and she followed, making sure to grab one of the fallen Dahl soldiers guns on the way.

"Stop!" He called out. Grendel skidded to a stop, and he explained that there were more around the corner. She looked down at her arms, and held up the clawed fingers. Vague memories of the lab came back to her, reminding her of what she was built... Changed for. She was a weapon, and nothing more.

"... How many are there?" Grendel asked. She checked the ammo on the Dahl rifle then slid the magazine back in. "I think I can be of use... Siren, can you make your... Thing... Again? And can you throw a grenade over?" She said addressing the girl and the man respectively.