The conversation was dropped after that though I could easily tell that my friends now saw the less than pleasant side of my personality. Being murderous was normal for them as they all counted to some degree but the level of casual detachment I had towards the idea of killing an entire planet was not good at all for them. I thought this was ridiculous since Brick would have though similarly if he had the smarts for it to begin with. Hell he already fucking did as he had made it known many times that his solution to the bandits was just to kill them until none remained.-
The only difference was scale, mine was bigger than his. Still this not-quite-revelation didn't change anything really as otherwise I was still the guy they all had come to know. Soon enough however word came from Tannis that she had FINALLY gotten through to one of the bandits blocking our way to the Trash coast and made a deal.
"It's a little shady but I've arranged for a meeting with a bandit named Taylor Kobb. The bandits of Janistown control access to the Coast but he says he can get you in. It goes without saying but be prepared to be betrayed by him at any time as he IS still a bandit." Tannis sent over the echo a day after I transformed Vater and I was checking on my refinement furnaces.
"Fifty bucks says this guy uses us to take out a rival before double crossing us." I say to my friends after relaying the message.
"No ones stupid enough to take that bet, the guys definitely gonna try and fuck us over." Mordy said with a scoff.
"Yeah how about we make an example of him when he does instead?" I suggested with a evil grin.
"What do you have in mind?" Roland asked curiously.
"Ever heard of Dlad the Impaler?" I asked and everyone shook their heads.
"Well he was a warlord way back when on Draco five that used a rather nasty form of intimidation that earned him the moniker of "Impaler". See he'd take still living enemies and shove a long blunt pole up their asses before leaving them hanging on it until their corpses were rotted and feasted on by all manner of carrion. Stories say it sometimes took agonizing days for the victims to die as the poles slowly pressured their way deeper in using the persons own weight to do so." I explained with a chuckle.
Lil's face screwed up in disgust "I don't think I want anything to do with anything involving someone's ass. At least not like that." she said with a shudder.
"Seems unnecessarily cruel too, we should just kill the guy when he turns on us." Roland added and I shrugged.
"Just a suggestion in case we wanted to leave a message to anyone else thinking about betraying us." I said knowing damned well both the "angel" and Tannis were listening in since we weren't in my house.
In truth I had knew before IO even stoke that perhaps only Brick would be willing to agree to the idea. The reason I still brought it up despite this was because just listening to it through the echo would cause anyone with any not so wholesome ideas to get the shivers, not the good kind either. Still with that implied threat delivered we grabbed our vehicles from Scooter and headed for the meeting point this Taylor Kobb wanted us to go to.-
It was to no surprise right outside the fucking path to the coast as though the asshat was mocking us. The drive there wasn't even smooth as the roads were literally cratered and shattered in some part making even the advanced shocks of the badger and runners pause slightly as the tires got briefly wedged in there. It certainly didn't help that we got fucking ambushed by Spiderantlings right outside the little rocky enclosed area he had set up shop. Taylor Kobb himself was nothing impressive to look at as he was in standard marauder gear leaning against the wall of his rinky dink little lean to.-
"I heard you wanted to get into the Tash Coast. I can get you in there but you're going to do me a favor first. I've got a special job, one that I'd like to keep on the down-low if you know what I mean. It'd be best for everyone if Helena Pierce never heard about this." he said with a rough voice.
"We scratch your back you scratch ours, stab our backs though and I'll rip out your fucking spine. Get me?" I asked with a firm tone.
He scoffed at me "My brother Janis is the leader of Janistown and he's turned the place into a hive of scum and villainy. It wasn't always that way, good people used to live there but he chased them all out. When I protested the cunt exiled me! It ain't right and the people of that town deserve better. Janis needs to be removed from office, violently." he said trying top make it sound like he was a good person but I just rolled my eyes at this obvious pile of grog shit.
Regardless of the pile of shit this dick was trying to get us to buy we still headed for this Janistown that was definitely NOT an actual fucking town. Calling it an outpost would have been fucking generous as there was only six buildings in the whole place. There was metal dividers scattered about for seemingly no purpose and a shit pipe running right over top of the middle of the place. The inhabitants of the place consisted of a pathetic twenty five bandits and that included this Janis guy as well. Curiously though I didn't see a single midget which was odd as they were in most bandit crews due to how uncomfortably common the genetic disability was in bandits.-
Surprising lack of dwarves aside the bandits of Janistown tried, and failed, to put up a fight as the five of us made our presence known. Janis Kobb himself was merely a "Badass" marauder with a pretty interesting assault rifle.
[Name: The meat grinder
Level: Uncommon
Type: Assault rifle
Damage type: N/A
Manufacturer: TORGUE
Affix: War is in your blood
Extended magazine, Improved fire rate]
Despite the stats of the thing being kinda pathetic for a Torgue the reason I found it interesting was this was a non-elemental weapon from the manufacturer.-
That was a whole helluva lot rarer than you'd think as the Torgue corporation had gone all in on capitalizing on the explosive damage type making the few guns from them without it oddities. I bought that shit off the groups loot pile for my collection for this reason as it really was more of a collectors item than anything. I didn't really find any traits worth grabbing from any of the bandits but got a cool 31, 144 lifeforce from them alongside the loot they left behind after being feasted upon by my powers.-
"Thank you. You understand why a man can't kill his own brother. Bounty hunters are an entirely different matter though. At any rate this is the beginning of an new era! Soon Janistown will be called Taylortown!" Taylor Kobb said excitedly once we came to report the news.
"Yeah yeah cool, so when do we get to the part where you let us into the Trash coast? You know, the entire reason we are even talking right now?" I asked pointedly.
"Patience. There's still the leftovers in Janis - I mean Taylortown to clean up. to do that I need you to spread the word of my appointment to office. You'll find my right hand man Erik Franks in New Haven keeping an eye on that bitch Pierce. Report to him and he'll spread the word and we will clean up the rest of the filth. Then you will get exactly what you deserve." he said and I lifted a hand and pressed it into his lean to's wall next to him while activating my corrosive trait.-
Acrid smoke rose from around my palm as the acid ate through it violently. I removed my hand after a hole the shape of my palm was left behind.
"If you ever think of fucking us over I want you to take a nice long look at that hole and reconsider if that's a good fucking idea. We'll be back." I said with a cheerful grin before leaving the area with the others for New Haven