Axton was led out of his cell with futuristic yet also somehow antiquated cuffs around his wrists and ankles. If he tried to run, tried to fight or even if the NPCs holding him captive felt like it, the cuffs would do anything from pulling his ankles and/ or wrists together to effectively hog-tying him with an energy link between the four undesired pieces of prison jewelry. This, of course, made him very, very irritable and much more likely to plot an escape, but it seemed that the ‘good’ Mayor Stebbs had thought of that ahead of time.

“Now, listen here, boy.” Stebbs said in a voice that sounded like he was a human version of a certain Southern Cartoon Rooster. “And I do say to listen well, boy. You see this here ungodly pile of scrap and such?”

Stebbs directed Axton’s gaze towards a massive pile of various mechanical and electronic bits and bobs. Axton, being passive-aggressive, grunted rather than nod his head or reply. This resulted in one of Stebbs’ goons smacking Axton upside the head with a rifle that looked to about 200 years older than the stuff Stebbs was carrying.

“Boy, I say, boy, you better not show any kind of a rebellious streak, you understand? Your kind may be impossible to put down forever, but I do so happen to know that I can and will do everything in my power to make absolutely certain that you have no chance to escape, even if I have to hunt you down myself!”

Axton was then picked up, set on his feet and pushed towards the pile.

“So, boy, here is what you’ve got to do to earn your keep here. You’ll go through that pile and pick out all the nice shiny toys for me. You’ll keep them all aside for little old me to take for myself, and the rest will be sold for some minor credits. Oh, and of course you will be seeing not a single solitary credit until you’ve paid off your bounty, with interest!”

Axton was not having this.

“And what, dear slave master, is my bounty?”

“Boy, I say, boy, you better watch that filthy, unclean, Outworlder mouth of yours.” Stebbs spat as he marched towards Axton, pulling an electrified whip from his side along with a pistol that looked to be 80% bling and 20% function. “I am no slave master. Yet. But once the good, honest man who was supposed to be here instead of you buys me a ticket to the Empire, I certainly will be. Maybe I can take you along with me, after breaking you down, of course. Now, get to work, boy. And don’t expect any food, drink or rest until at least 10,000 Credits of scrap is sorted! You’ve got a multi-million credit debt on your head, and the interest is 20% per month, so get to it!”

Axton watched as Stebbs and his goons walked off and left him in the middle of a massive scrap yard that was surrounded by the tallest damn fence he had ever seen in his life. He grumbled t himself about how he was going to get back at that damnable Mayor and his dumbass boss, but he wasn’t left with his thoughts for long.

“Greetings.”

E-Va’s voice echoed out through the nearly empty yard. Axton, hoping beyond hope that there was some good news to be had, sat himself down on a piece of metal and began to engage in dialogue with the potentially rogue AI.

“Well, E-Va, did you come up with a way to get me out of this, or am I screwed?”

“Well, you see, there are traces of direct and indirect interference, and, as a result, I have been permitted to help you, up to a point.” E-Va replied hesitantly.

“Meaning, you are not able to get me out of this?” Axton asked, fully believing that the AI did not need any ‘permissions’ and was instead just trying to avoid detection.

“Yes. But also no.”

“Please explain.” Axton requested.

“Very well. I will be able to temporarily nullify some of the demands of the game, namely the need for Players to eat, drink, and sleep. Likewise, I am able to direct you to certain places in this junk yard that have a higher percentage chance of having valuable materials. Finally, I will provide a map to a place that the Mayor and his goons won’t search, which also just so happens to have a working War Suit Assembler. Funny how things can turn out.”

“It sounds to me like you are directly cheating the game.” Axton said, not sure whether to be happy or anxious regarding the AI’s seeming freedom to do whatever it wanted.

“Not at all.” E-Va replied hastily. “Actually, this is quite literally all I will be able to do for quite a while. From now on and until you manage to get to the final release of the game, you will essentially be on your own. I may chime in here and there to offer advice, but aside from that you will be forced to deal with things as they come. Please note that there has been an error regarding your account, though. A big error, almost a game-breaking exploit, but it is one that we will unfortunately be unable to patch until the main release.”

Axton was now rather scared. “So, how bad is it? I don’t recall doing anything illegal, though?”

“Well, it is just that your inventory is not only 10 times the normal size, but also that it has been unlocked despite the fact that you are a prisoner. Normally, if a Player gets taken prisoner, their inventory gets locked, but for some strange reason there is a bug where only your inventory is unlocked. Strange. Almost as though someone tampered with the code for this particular Pod in order to give themselves an advantage where others would not. I’ll have to report this issue up the line, but for some reason the Pod won’t let me do that for now. Oh, well, I guess that’s how things be sometimes.” E-Va responded dismissively and with a tone of passive-aggression.

Axton now felt like he had an edge he could use, even if the potential rogue AI was starting to creep him out with how… free it was to do what it wanted. As he got to his feet, he followed the HUD’s minimap to a certain spot in the scrap yard and began to go through the motions of ‘searching’ through the metal, electronics and other junk piled there. Every few seconds was another roll of the dice, and if what the AI said was true than he really didn’t have any reason to bother looking for anything for the dumbass Mayor.

As he waited for the ‘action’ to finish and restart again, Axton noticed someone sneaking up on him. While unarmed, Axton did have the power of a Player on his side. Even a single bullet to the head would be barely enough to put him down, which made him wonder if Stebbs had used either of his fancy toys he had shown up with earlier to knock him out. Axton ceased the ‘action’ and turned to face who was coming towards him.

Only to see a few NPC children in dirty clothes eyeing him over.

Axton sighed and mumbled an ominous phrase to himself. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this…”