Borderlands: Unconquered Read Free

skrappies, maybea nice ’n’ smelly rakk or two, not to mention them hungry ol’ crabworms—”
    “They’re coming!” the kid shouted, his voice hoarse with fear. “The Psychos! They’re out to the left side of the bus there!”
    “Scooter!” Marcus said. “Listen up! You got to send help and a repair crew!”
    “Like I said, I’ll do ’er, but it’s going to take a while to get ’em there, pardner. We’ll make it quick as we can, quickas a greased-up—”
    A rifle round sped between armor louvers and shattered a side window.
    “Scooter! Can you trace my coordinates from this signal?”
    “Yep, I got your location, just hold ’em off there,old son—we’ll see what we can do. Won’t be real quick, but if you can hold out, why, I’m gonna charge you a big stack of cash for this’n—”
    Marcus switched off the transmitter and ducked down, nota split second too quickly.
    The window next to the driver’s seat exploded inward, blasted by an energy ball that singed the top of his head as it went past to detonate on his right. Shrapnel from a shattered window louver zinged past.
    “Anybody dead yet?” he yelled, looking over the back of his seat at his passengers.
    “We will be if we don’t take the fight to the enemy!” the woman yelled fiercely.“I say we get out and rush ’em! With me around, you might actually get somewhere!” She was hunched between seats, but he saw her goggled face bob up long enough to fire her pistol four times out a shattered window. “Crap! I think I missed the bastard . . . No! I got him! I got that Bruiser . . . Oh, wait, he’s up. I just wounded him.” She ducked back down as half a dozen bullets slammed intothe armored side of the bus.
    “You got any shields, lady?” Marcus asked her.
    “Naw, I was gonna buy one from you!”
    “And I got plenty for you to buy, but they’re over in Fyrestone. Only one I had on the bus crapped out on me when I drove out to the spaceport.”
    Jakus was flattened on the floor as three moreenergized bullets sizzled screaming into the bus. Another tire blew. “What we gonna do ?” Jakus called. “Driver? Yo! You got any ideas?”
    “Listen, amateur—” the woman began, turning to Jakus.
    “I’m not an amateur!”
    “Okay, prove it! Get out there and head ’em off! If you’re going to survive on this planet, you’ve got to be able to take out a handful of Psycho bandits on your own! You’ve got the rifle! All I have with me’s a pistol!”
    “Yeah, well, uh . . . How about sending the robotout first?”
    “That would not be a recommended use of my hardware!” the robot protested shrilly. “My guarantee has expired! Helllooooooo!”
    Marcus shook his head impatiently. “The robots, they aren’t fighters, kid. That’s not what they’re for.”
    “Look, Jakus ,” the woman went on, “you want to give me the rifle, I’ll do it. But you better head back to the spaceport after. You’re not going to surviveout here without the guts to fight!”
    Marcus looked at Jakus, saw him chewing his lower lip. Then the amateur nodded, prepped his rifle, got up, and headed to the door. His voice was hoarse as he said, “I’m goin’ .”
    “Might do just as well to fight from the bus, kid,” Marcus pointed out.
    “I . . . I’m gonna see if I can sneak up on them, maybe if I nail the big one . . .”
    Marcus shrugged and openedthe door. It would keep the Psychos busy, anyway.
    Jakus stepped outside the bus, looking around, face twitching. Then he headed off around the hummock, hunched over, rifle at the ready to fire from the hip.
    Marcus lost sight of him. A few seconds passed. Then he heard a thud, saw a flash of light . . . and something flew over the hummock, falling like a soggy cannonball on the hood of the bus.
    It was Jakus’s head, blasted from his neck, rolling to stare sightlessly right at Marcus.
    “That’s not what I meant by ‘head them off,’” the woman said dryly. “Damn