I felt attraction towards the treasure, almost lifting me off the ground. Alas, even the mighty power of heroic greed wasn't enough to overcome the chthonic, chained-to-the-earth power of lack of HP. So all I could do was to crawl towards Jim, seeping tears and blood, to share - no, not the grief of the money flowing through my fingers, but just the effect of the medikit. Then the two of us courageously crawled toward Lily, and away from the impending explosion.

  Shit. All this pain and suffering, all this effort, all this futility, is unp...

  ...oh, rock.

  ...unpaid! The moral pain of it was comparable to the physical pain that tormented me. The latter was gradually dulling under the influence of the first aid kit and probably the natural regeneration of my body, but the former was only aggravated with the timer sounded from the Citadel.

  And, by the way, we should be as far away as possible. Who knows about Knox thoughts, he could activate an atomic bomb. Or some weird, locally-inspired absurdity.

  But we couldn't get out of here quickly, so there was a second option: to create a shelter. Alas, I still didn't have time for something serious, and I didn't have a lot of materials, as the digital storage of the ECHO was far from limitless, but I was able to cover our disabled team with a couple of walls. Which I started to do when the three of us got together.

  Lily stirred; turned her head, looking around, opened her mouth to ask something...

  - Countdown to self-destruction! Ten, nine...

  ...and closed it.

  I, in turn, raised my face to the sky; there wasn't enough material for a proper roof.

  - It's shameless to deprive the heroes of honestly earned loot from the boss! - I voiced my concerns. - And more importantly, it's against all canons!

  - ...Zero. All the best in the next life!

  The ground shook. The flash was visible in the hole above me - for a moment I was afraid that AlBa had decided to strike me with lightning - and the rumble made my whole body "buzz". Something drummed into the walls I had created.

  And then something massive and elongated fell into the hole from above, embedding itself in the ground.

  The rumbling and banging continued outside, but there was silence - or rather, silence in our little hiding place.

  - Listen... How do you do it? - Jim finally asked, not taking his eyes off the weapons container sticking out of the ground.

  - Connections - I answered, also not taking my eyes off the container.

  Our treasure chest was locked, but that wasn't a problem: unlike the late General's personal digital vault in the ECHO, which I'd cleaned up so I could look at it later but hadn't counted on being able to open, this one had a simple corporate lock designed to protect it from drunken idiots, mostly. There were plenty of ways to deal with it when you didn't have to worry about security and consequences.

  And inside.

  - This is mine - I said, pulling out an orange shield from my seat.

  - You're putting together a patriotic Vladoff kit? - Jim chuckled.

  - An option - I agreed, taking the old shield off my belt and replacing it with my new charm, which soothed the pain. Mostly the pain of loss.

  "Shield Atomic Flame Engine," - the ECHO reported. - "Capacity: moderately high, reload speed: moderately high, stabilization speed: moderately high. Unknown additional function."

  Like the other orange items (and some purple ones) I had seen before, the shield had an inscription on its body - "Polymer Power!". Although the ECHO didn't display the exact numerical characteristics (I wouldn actually like such game convention, and it's not that actually game-like - shields have measurable characteristics, right?), it did show a comparison with my previous shield, and it reported that the "Atomic Flame Engine" was superior to it on all counts.

  Perhaps next time there wouldn't be such serious injuries.

  Lily didn't take anything from the 'chest', but put a beacon on it - and took the general's head. "I'll show it to my mom, let her be happy," she said.

  - So take the whole carcass and make a scarecrow - I hummed. The girl froze and made a facepalm.

  - My mistake - she admitted, and that immediately raised her grade in my eyes. A girl who can admit her mistakes is nice. If anything, it applies to men, too. - Well, I guess we can still sew it up....

  She looked at me hopefully, but I held up my hands.

  - No, no, no, no, not my field. I'm more of a coffee maker, and it's not going to make coffee.

  - Too bad - Lily sighed. - A little necromancy would be nice right now.

  While she dealt with her bloody trophy, I contacted Roland. We had a protocol, and in this case I just sent him a text message - "The Crimson Citadel has been destroyed, General Knox has been killed, but he was able to evacuate his staff beforehand. The fighters will probably join Steele." Now it's time to recover a little more so that I can move around properly, and then we can go back to the Lancer.

  - Good gun - said Jim, stroking his new purple revolver with satisfaction. I would have taken it myself, but since I'd chosen the shield, Jim had the right to choose something for himself. - And by the way, amigo... Don't worry so much about the money. If the Citadel was evacuated in time, the treasury was probably taken out anyway.

  I nodded sadly. He was right, and it wasn't that we'd been left with no loot at all - even roadblock, after all, had given us something - but it was still a ruthless dash of hope. The treasury of the entire expeditionary corps.

  ...Wait a minute. If it was evacuated, it wasn't scattered by the blast. And we may yet meet.

  I felt my spirits lift. Wait for me, our separation is temporary... I hope so.

  - It's worth tracking the evacuees before they join forces with Steele's forces - I said. - Divide and conquer. We won't be able to destroy them all, especially in this state, but...

  - But to weaken them, to strike a financial blow, perhaps, - the mercenary picked up my thought. - That's a good idea. It's hard to say how feasible, but why not try? Well, they could use air transportation...

  The use of aviation on Pandora is very limited. Primarily because it's easy to cross the turret-guarded border by air, and the corporations prefer to keep the population within clear boundaries. There are still some, the anti-grav from the junkyard is a testament to this, and bandits are making their own flying jalopies, but in general only the corps have aviation. As a result, it is almost impossible to track the movements of aviation, and if Atlas men used space transportation, which brought them to the planet, the matter becomes impossible.

  But, uh.

  - Angel, you're up. Hyperion's got airspace monitoring stations, and Dahl must have something like that.

  Just in case she's busy and can't eavesdrop. - I duplicated it with a message. It seemed like a good bet, as I received a map with three moving dots on it, and right before my eyes, one of them separated from the others, heading in a different direction. Somewhere to where the protagonists are now, it seems. They, by the way, for some reason began to be called "Vault Hunters", although as far as I saw, their activity in this direction was very little, if any at all. Inertia of the game basis, I suppose.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  It's more likely that Tannis should be referred to as "Vault Hunter".

  In any case, reinforcements to counter militia forces didn't interest me; in our current state, we can't fight them anyway. But the treasury, in the sense of what the main forces intend to do there, is worth checking. So there are no unpleasant surprises.

  Hmm. That's true, isn't it?

  I nodded to myself and voiced my conclusions.

  - We need to get to the Lancer, recover, and try to figure out what the evacuees are up to. We don't want to get into any sudden trouble.

  Jim nodded.

  - I agree. It's worth finding out what else they're up to, and where our money is.

  That "our" made me a little queasy, but I nodded too; it was fair.

  Homo Recens physiology, plus modern medicine, is something. My Earth body, with injuries like that, would, if not vigorously protest with a desire to retire, at the very least require several months of bunk leave. The Pandorian version... In two or three days I should be in shape.

  Unfortunately, a couple days, especially Pandorian days, is enough for things to change drastically. Fortunately, so far my suspicions have not been justified.

  "Commandant" Steele's forces were focused on holding back the militia, and they were doing an excellent job of it, as the latter were not eager to put their heads down either. Without a clear and obvious objective, the enthusiasm of the natives waned; I suspected that some were even making a small business out of it. The same Marcus might well be supplying both sides with used ammunition and weapons. Perhaps even of my own making.

  Or not. After all, the Atlasians must have their own vanguard fabricators.

  ...No, don't be greedy. Although I would like to get my hands on it, of course.

  ...But to see if I can make money from it, I must.

  During the forced recovery downtime, Jim, as the most zealous and best driver among us (and the most capable at the moment), was conducting a mobile reconnaissance of the activities of the main forces of Steele. Even sent a video of the lady herself; quite interesting, though of an odd sort (color, primarily).

  Annoyingly, she had familiar-looking "tattoos" on her skin. A siren, or just an imitation?

  Sounds like another "boss" to me. Maybe even the final one.

  I'm not sure what Lily was doing (made stuffed general, I think), but I was testing my new acquisition, among other things. The results were strange.

  My new shield had several properties. When received melee hit, it occasionally released a white, sticky liquid, a kind of superpolymer with variable properties that could ignite, could activate an electrical discharge, or could simply restrain the victim's movements. This, however, was of limited use, despite the abundance of close combat enthusiasts; more valuable was the fact that when the shield was depleted, the polymer covered the user with a layer of additional protection, covering wounds and plugging holes in the armor. The shield had its own digital construction module and digital storage, plus an evaluation algorithm, so this layer of plastic on the body did not constrain the user's movements.

  More than one skag suffered in the experiments, which was an added plus.

  War is war, lunch is lunch. Lily and I were racing B&B with croissants - the access to the goodies alone was worth saving her, I was even starting to consider proposing marriage and a prenup again - when my ECHO made itself known.

  "Incoming call, caller: Patricia Tannis."

  - Are you alive in there? If not, you don't have to answer - you probably have more important things to do, like feeding the worms. Worms are an important part of the ecosystem, in case you don't know, and Pandora's soil desperately needs their work.

  - I'm probably alive - I replied. - You seem to be, too. But feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

  There was a pause. Checking to see if she is alive.

  - Diagnostics show you're not wrong.

  Told you.

  ...Shit. I was beginning to understand Tannis.

  That's a bad sign.

  - Well, that's all well and good, but I contacted you about something more important than clarifying the existential status of a pair of primates - the archaeologist continued. - Ms. Steele and her goons were kind enough to provide me not only with a dozen rifle butt pokes - by the way, I don't need them, so can they have them back? - but also valuable archaeological information, as well as the last piece of the Eridian artifact... did I mention that it had been collected? It wasn't destroyed, but deliberately split into pieces, apparently.

  Damn it. Roland wasn't ahead of them after all. That sucks, it's a plot artifact.

  Losing it is probably a plot point, too, though.

  Wait a minute. I think I know what this is. At least, I have an idea.

  - Unfortunately, I haven't finished researching it, so I want you to return it, plus my notes borrowed by Ms. Steele without my permission. I fear she intends to use them for some sinister purpose. Perhaps even to publish in her own name... though the latter, of course, is unlikely. After all, Ms. Steele is only a mass murderer and war criminal, not a despicable plagiarist. It shouldn't be particularly difficult if she doesn't want to give after a polite request - she only has a few hundred soldiers, a thousand at most. The reward for this would be phenomenal!

  - Will you raise it higher on the list of co-authors? - I asked.

  - And I'll even share the notes I have left - Tannis nodded.

  - First of all, do you know where they are now?

  She knew. For the simple reason that it was her deciphering of the Eridian records, cleared by me and Atlas' forces, that had determined the current location of Steele and her forces. "The Salt Plains," the place where the passage to the Vault is hidden.

  Uh-huh, so that's how simple and anticlimactic we've come to the finale... I smell a catch. Well, not really: there can't help but be a catch.

  Tannis didn't know anything about Steele's abilities, but she did say something interesting. And not just interesting, but something that clearly affects me...

  So, a piece of lore.

  From my previous work with Tannis, I already knew something about the Eridians. A highly advanced civilization that likes to entertain itself with gladiatorial fights fought by anyone other than the Eridians proper; mostly various artificially bred critters like the same skags, though this is very low level. The show has to go on and not get boring, so they created more and more powerful critters, purely biological and biomechanical, like the same guardians, trying to create more and more efficient, spectacular and deadly models for more and more spectacular shows.

  Aside from the advanced biotechnology that these assholes used for such nonsense - yes, I'm judging other people's culture, you can sue me - they were pretty advanced in other things. Apparently in digitalization - that's their technology, after all - in shields and energy weapons...

  And also, according to what Tannis had read, they'd made a breakthrough in yet another direction.

  They were able to contact another universe, to open a passageway.

  That's what AlBa was talking about.