Dusty Roads [Faction Quest]

[Jak]

Just when the eco warrior was awkwardly knocking on the entrance of Uruk’s doors, a “quest” popped up on Jak’s comm.

If he and Daxter wanted to prove themselves to Uruk, they would have to do a little something for Uruk’s guards.

Daxter raised his eyebrow “What message did you get, Jak? Don’t say we are doing the dirty work again..”

Jak frowned, with a sigh “Uruk’s guards are too busy to do this so I guess we are on our own. Come on, Daxter. This shouldn’t be too long.”

Daxter raised an eyebrow “Are you sure you want to do this, Jak? After that incident in the Omniverse? You know I’m worried about you…”

Jak was silent as he lifted his handkerchief over his mouth and placed his goggles on. The sands in Mesa should be just as rough as the Wastelands, if not worse. “Daxter, we talked about this..”

Daxter scoffed “Jak!” The ottsel saw Jak wasn’t arguing back at Daxter this time. This meant he was deathly serious.

The ottsel took one deep sigh and pulled down his own goggles over his eyes.

“Here goes nothing, Jak.” Daxter gulped

The eco warrior walked toward the dune buggy with Daxter on his armor pad.

The long eared Wastelander was grateful his comm at least had directions that lead him through Mesa Roja so he wouldn’t have to spend too long out in the dust storms.

Daxter stared down at his comm “Where are we heading to, Jak?”

The eco warrior turned “We are heading to an unusual bandit hideout that might contain untold dangers. But don’t worry we got it handled, right Dax?”

Daxter gulped “....”

Jak shook his head and nodded “RIGHT, DAX?!”

Daxter groaned and crossed his arms “Fine.”

The eco warrior grabbed ahold of the dune buggy and at least the buggy had room for two on there.

Leaving Uruk was the simple part, finding the bandit’s hideout would be a lot trickier than usual. But the eco warrior was at least prepared for part one of the mission.

A light dust storm was picking up and visibility wasn’t the greatest at the moment as Daxter could see where Jak couldn’t pick up where to drive in the dust.

“Dax, I need you to be my eyes during this storm, alright?”

“Alright, let’s see. Let’s go that way!” The ottsel pointed where he believed a war boy was screaming in the distance.

Jak nodded “Right, I’m on the way.”

But turns out that war boy was stupid enough to rush out in a dust storm without goggles or a handkerchief. Foolish man.

Where was this bandit’s hideout? Were they sent on a wild goose chase? Perhaps one of the random war boys or Marauders out here were willing to spit out the location if they were forced.

It was then Daxter screamed and a random Marauder hopped on the dune buggy hoping to pull the ottsel out for a quick snack.

Jak stopped the dune buggy and quickly turned Dark. Eco lightning shining through the dust, the demon’s claws lusting for blood. “Drop the ottsel. He’s not a snack. Or a pet or anything of the like.”

The Marauder dared to get closer and the demon scraped his claws along the man’s hand, making the man scream in pain, dropping the ottsel. “LET’S MOVE, JAK!” Daxtre hopped in the dune buggy, Jak following .

He left the marauder bleeding in the middle of a dust storm, hopefully leaving him to die, getting little information about their camp in the process.

The eco warrior changed back, quickly wiping said blood in the sand.

“Come on, Daxter.” Jak sighed, he seemed a little worked up for having to kill someone and leave them for dead for once.

Jak was quiet for most of the drive, just trying to focus on where this bandit camp could be. He knew there would be more war boys, bandits and Marauders out there if he wasn’t careful. But it was strange. Both the duo thought finding a bandit camp in one place would be easy, but they had a whole planet to check this time. It seemed more and more like a headache. But Jak insisted they both go on. Daxter was complaining on and off his feet were burning from touching the sand on and off and he had sand in several uncomfortable places he didn’t wish to talk about.

Jak almost groaned for a second and rolled his eyes, again.

As Jak insisted they hide from the various dangerous figures of Mesa Roja, it was harder than planned. But at least something better came out of the whole expedition. It couldn’t be any harder than finding something for Damas, right?

But Jak at least had more hope than the ottsel did at the moment. The ottsel wasn’t used to the heat like the eco warrior was and there was a lot at stake right now to be honest.

“Hey, Jak. I’m thirsty.. Can you give me some water? Daxter was sweating and looked thirsty.

The long-eared Wastelander took out a bottle and gave it to the ottsel as the ottsel took a few light slugs of the bottle, leaving some for Jak at the same time.

The eco warrior took a few light drinks as enough to sustain himself during the trip.

It was then some sort of illusion came up. More like a “false path” to those who believed it.

Jak looked out into what appeared to be an oasis, with waterfalls and cold water with lovely ladies splashing around in it. Daxter seemed to believe it as he ran toward it as Jak growled “DAX, Wait!”

Daxter ran into the sand, getting ready to hop into the “pool” only to land in a dune of sand. “Ahhhh, water… how I love you... “ It was then the ottsel tasted the water only to spit out sand.

“YUCKKKkK! That’s Nasty!” Ugh…

Jak facepalmed. He had tried to warn the ottsel before. Perhaps he’d never learn.

The eco warrior grabbed his compadre and pulled him back to the dune buggy, the ottsel annoyed “Come on Jak, it was an oasis!”

The man sighed “It’s the most common desert illusion in the book, Dax. We’ve been through the Wastelands and you still haven’t learned that this isn’t an oasis?”

Daxter muttered “Alright, Alright, fine. It wasn’t an oasis but it sure looked like it had some hot ladies around though.” The ottsel’s eyebrows made a sultry move.

Jak sighed “Perhaps Daxter was just weird this time and was feeling the heat.” He felt sometimes like he was talking to a brick wall but that was too mean for his friend.

Daxter finally blinked, hoping up on the higher part of the dune buggy, finally pretending to be useful in this situation. The Dune buggy at least had a weapon usable to shoot down Marauders, War boys and bandits.

Daxter then hopped down back into the dune buggy as Jak started up the loud, noisy dune buggy again.

“Hey, Jak. Wait… hold on… I smell blood nearby..”

Jak’s frowns were covered by the handkerchief over his mouth to cover from storms. “What do you smell, Dax?”

Daxter nodded, getting serious and stepped onto the sand, using his black nose, he took a whiff of a blood trail and a wheel trail. “Looks like we got our path, Jak.” Jak smirked “Well, good job Dax.. you got us on the right path this time.”

“Can you get us there, Dax?” Jak turned to his partner in crime.

Daxter nodded “Yeah, just get me back on the buggy and I’ll sniff out the blood like a bloodhound.”

Jak nodded “Right.”

The ottsel hopped back onto the sand car and bent down as the car was moving, he put his finger down and occasionally sniffed the sand with the blood on it. “Keep moving, Jak. The path is a long way off.”

Jak turned and started to follow the other dune buggy trail as the ottsel kept up his exploring with his finger, stopping on occasion to keep following the bloody trail.

Daxter turned to his partner in crime and nodded, frowning “You’d think these guys would be smart enough not to leave a trail leading us right to them, you know. I guess not.”

Jak stepped on the gas to make the trip a little less but on occasion, the eco warrior would have to stop for a bit, let Daxter sniff the blood on the sand, move on for at least a good hour before rinsing and repeating. After a good four hours on the trail, it seemed like the blood trail disappeared and reappeared turning another direction.

“Damnit, I knew they would try and trick us.” Daxter muttered under his breath, trying not to get upset at the clear ending of their pathway.

Jak shook his head “ Daxter, look, another way to follow. Let’s keep going.”

Daxter blinked “Wait, another path?”

Jak nodded “Yes, if we keep going, we might make it to the bandit camp by nightfall.”

Daxter blinked “How will we know if the bandits don’t go out by nightfall.”

The eco warrior turned “The desert always gets cold in the middle of the night and a lot more manageable to get through. The bandits perhaps think its foolish to go out at night where they can’t see a thing. Plus the dust storms are still a thing in the daytime.”

Daxter nodded “You are right. Though we can’t exactly sit here until nighttime, right?”

Jak looked back “We have some choices to make: We could choose to take the nighttime path and prevent ourselves from overheating for now or we can keep on our way and tackle this while we can still see.”

Daxter sighed “Yeah, we don’t exactly have any night spying equipment now, do we, Jak?”

Jak itched his head in frustration “Yeah, you are right, Dax.”

Daxter shakes his head “Well, let’s go then, Jak before it gets too dark.”

Jak nodded “Yeah, right. The dune buggy started off with a roar and both the duo were on their way again toward the other angle of the path it was taking.

It was then the area lead to a strange area where there was a huge gathering of bandits, and warboys all seeming to be collaborating with each other over the strange matters of the planet at hand. They all seemed to be at war with each other, but over what?

Jak stopped a fair distance away, trying to prevent Daxter from yelling something obvious to get them into huge trouble. Daxter lightly scowled so as to not disturb the talks underneath. Jak told Daxter to quiet his mouth lest they get captured on an unfamiliar planet and turned into meatbags.

The eco warrior and Daxter were quietly moving toward the “meeting of the groups below” trying to quiet their steps in the dune sands as they slowly tiptoed toward their destination.

As they stopped, they quickly dropped into the sand, hoping nobody heard them before once again, they moved forward to look down, listening closely at the meeting point.

They had captured at least a few stragglers down below, thinking they would make great meatbags in the process of searching for anyone wondering.

A man was being pushed toward a car, clearly attached to something. That is what the meatbags probably meant in the first place.

But that meant it was pretty stupid right now to play the hero in layman’s terms right now. But they could do nothing in terms of save the people down below at the cost of their own lives. They were here for a mission and they didn’t want to mess this up and they couldn’t afford to make a mistake.

Jak sighed, things could and would make a very dangerous turn if they were caught here. Plus not to mention they were at most hours away from Uruk and there was no safe area nearby.

Daxter was about to sneeze..

Jak dove to cover the ottsel’s mouth “AA...AH...AH….C-mmmmmm!”

Jak winced as he wiped the sticky snot on the sand wincing as it got stuck to his hand. The eco warrior got a bit mad at Daxter for sneezing accidentally during this very tense moment and he was lucky nobody heard that sneeze.

The ottsel would have to repay him a favor next time as his hand was covered in snot and sand as he mumbled something coherent.

As the day went on, the eco warrior managed to get the sand off his hand and they had finally found where the bandits were hiding and what they were planning. They always attracted trouble. They didn’t know why but they did.

Jak bit his tongue again as Daxter sighed “Let’s get to Uruk before Nightfall, old Gilgamesh must be shaking in his armor just worrying for our safety.”

The eco warrior tried to remain serious as he snickered, lightly. A joke at someone else’s expense in the middle of a desert planet didn’t seem too bad right?

The long eared wastelander finally lightened up at least during the ride home. Daxter giggled and joked at light sand puns, having sand in underwear and the dust storms on the planet and how they weren’t so “tough after all”

Jak tried to enjoy the ride during the long, long ride home.

The second hour was full of sand sing-a-longs that somehow wasn’t caught by anybody in the desert oddly.. The two were clearly having fun on the way back.

The third hour was based in the afternoon, as dust swirled around, kicking up another dust storm. The eco warrior stopped, and Daxter took another light drink of water as Jak covered his mouth as he took another drink of water and both got back on the dune buggy. The eco warrior needed to stop for a bit as he checked the dune buggy out and made sure it wasn’t getting overheated during the storm. The worst possible thing during this storm was to get stranded in the middle of nowhere on a desert planet with nobody to rely on for help.

As they finished checking the car for any problems, Jak got back in and Daxter was still relaxing in his seat.

Daxter nodded ‘You ready, Jak?”

Jak nodded and sat in the seat.

It was only then during the 3rd hour of the afternoon, trouble arised. Marauders found them and their dune buggies rushed at the eco warriors from a distance.

Daxter screamed “Incoming!” as Jak started to turn the wheel and pepper the Marauders with bullet shots into their own car. The eco warrior kept spraying the bullets at the deadly Marauders.

Jak managed to pull away from the Marauder brigade and distract them in the dust storms on the way back as two crashed into each other leaving an explosion which scared off some of the bandits from chasing Jak and Daxter.

Daxter muttered under his breath “Damn, that was way too close.”

Jak sighed “You can say that again, Dax. We managed to pull away from 4 marauders in close proximity to each other. Luckily, they don’t seem to be all that smart. “

The eco warrior and Daxter fistbumped each other before heading back on the big dusty trail.

Daxter felt the need to yell out the words “YEEEEEHAWWW!” as he held onto the dune buggy, letting the warm wind hit his fur.

It wasn’t until Daxter was back to his old ways again, sometimes peaking near Jak and bothering him “Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?”

Jak groaned “NO! We are not there yet. Don’t make me turn this dune buggy around so help me.”

Daxter smirked “Oh right, you don’t want to turn that dune buggy around anyway.”

Jak frowned “Why, Dax?”

Daxter screamed “AHHHHH!”

Jak lightly punched Dax “DAX, Damnit, don’t scare me like that.”

Daxter groaned and rubbed his check “Ow! You don’t have to hit me so hard you know.”

Jak sighed “Sorry, Dax. You were getting annoying. Just don’t make it a habit. We still have a long time until we make it back to Uruk.”

Daxter rubbed his check “Alright, I can handle that fine.”

The eco warrior managed to start the vehicle up again to watch the sand roar underneath the tires.

It was a few hours later and nighttime started to roll around as the dunes were silent and the desert planet was suddenly quiet and the hot air became cool. It was then Jak and Daxter both took a quick nap since the silence was enough for a nap.

The eco warrior would hop out of his nap if there was danger coming out there. Both were silent and quiet as the desert’s cold air would lap at their skin.

Daxter would blink as he stirred awake “H.. Huh?” Ugh, what happened? Have we really been sleeping that long? Hm.”

It was then Jak was stirred away by Daxter waking up “Huh? Hi Daxter, you awake too? Think we should get a move on?

Daxter gave a tired yawn and nodded “Sure, I think we still got a few hours before morning and we can make it back to Uruk before then.”

Jak nodded, rubbing the hair out of his face as Daxter sat up as well. The dune buggy gave a purr of energy as it was ready to go. Lucky for them, this dune buggy actually had lights so they could see in the dark.

The lights shone in the dark at least giving them a sense of direction as to where they were going.

“Huh? I’ve never seen a dune buggy like this, maybe it’s different or something?” Jak shrugged as he kept driving. Daxter on occasion smelling the cold, crisp air blow in the night air.

Daxter said “That reminds me, Jak.. Is Uruk finished developing yet? It looks like it’s somewhat done but not sure.

“I should ask about that,” Jak thought to himself.

The night watch consisted of Jak and Daxter switching places driving so one of them could sleep until the night was over. It took a few hours but the sun started to rise and the desert started to become hot again and it was a pain in the butt to be a ottsel again.

The ottsel stirred and wiped his fur again, trying to get some of the sweat off his fur before waking up Jak. Heaven forbid how that man knew how to sleep in crazy positions when it was time to wake up.

“Hey.. Jak! Wake the hell up!” Daxter shook the bigger long eared man.

Jak blinked “Huh.. huh? What?”

Daxter turned to Jak “It’s time to switch driving again.”

Jak sighed “Right, right.” He stretched, trying to wake himself up again. The eco warrior got out of the dune buggy and switched seats quick before starting the dune buggy again. “Hm, this is a pretty quiet morning so far. Not sure if we should be lucky or something weird is about to befall us again.

The ottsel was messing around with his comm, making sure he was getting the directions right back to Uruk. They already wasted a lot of time at once going in circles or a wild goose chase or somewhere off into the weeds.

Jak bit a small piece of food they’ve taken from the hotel a lot earlier before continuing to drive. “Want some, Dax?”

Daxter smirked and grabbed another piece of food they crammed into the small bag they took from the hotel bar and he began to eat it. Everything was so strange, yet so good. Daxter was eating an orange and Jak picked up something called a “yo-gurt.” He didn’t know what the hell it was but it was sure tasty. He licked it with his tongue, a bit of it falling into his green goatee. Daxter wiped off as much as he could of the stuff, but he wiped the yogurt off Jak’s green goatee without him complaining.

The ottsel’s orange was actually tasty, yet he wondered why they never had this kind of stuff back where they lived. Sure, they heard of yakow steak, and warm moomoo milk but nothing of this caliber.

But sure why not? Jak ate some of the cereal that was still stored in the bag, and ate one piece at a time along with Daxter chowing on some toast in his mouth with real butter. The ottsel was starting to get used to real food back at the hotel where Jak and him were staying with that guy Shinku.

“Hey Jak, have you eaten all that cereal yet?”

Jak laughed and said “You ate all that toast yet?”

They just played around and ate food on the mission before starting back up back to Uruk, yet again.

Daxter placed the food on the ground and shrugged “Nobody will probably see this anyway, right?”

Jak shrugged.

It’s when Daxter pointed out two bandits that showed their face.

“We have trouble, Jak..” Daxter said with baited breath.

Jak said “I’m on it, Dax!” It was annoying how many times he hadn’t used the morph gun and had to rely specifically on the eco he had.

He had just gotten it back and hadn't gotten any attacks on it yet.

So he had to rely on dark and light eco at the moment.

Daxter held tight to the Dune buggy wheel as he dodged both Dark Jak and the two bandits trying to crash them off the road.

The feral dark beast was already hopping on the other bandit’s car and ripping at their stomachs, once again wanting to finish them off but he couldn’t and left them to die in the desert as well.

Daxter looked as Dark Jak cleaned his claws off on the sand so Jak wouldn’t have to see caked dried blood on his hands later. Jak was back in control as he was silent getting back into the dune buggy.

“Sorry about that, Daxter. Let’s just move for now, before we attract even more attention to us.”

Daxter sighed and looked back at the two men crying something about wanting to visit Valhalla in an odd voice.

Daxter said “Jak, you couldn’t kill those guys? What if they follow us? What if they come back and hurt us?”

Jak sighed “It’s more of a personal decision.”

Daxter frowned “It’s about Kras, isn’t it? Leaving Blitz to die, so many to die.”

Jak said annoyed, “It’s not time to play psychologist, right now Daxter, we have to get moving again before things happen.”

Daxter said “Alright, I won’t ask for now but later, alright.”

Jak nodded, glad Daxter got off the topic for once.

Jak sighed and kept driving, eventually checking each way to make sure the seemingly endless stream of enemies that kept coming was finally coming to an end for now. Where exactly was a safe spot to relax on a desert planet where everyone wants to kill you?”

After a while, finally the sun started to come to its peak. Afternoon was here and things were getting warm. So close, yet so far. Daxter took a sip of the water bottle they had as both of them had eaten while here.

It was then they started to arrive back at the same blood trail they were following earlier and all they had to do is follow the tracks back to Uruk. Daxter stretched for a bit and Jak kept pressing on the gas while they took the “scenic way” back to Uruk. There really wasn’t too much to consider on the planet while around but perhaps they thought they were missing something out there on the desert planet.

Perhaps they’d have to check into looking for the other “sights” while on Mesa Roja. Maybe when they have extra time on their and they didn’t have plans.

The pathway was coming up again as they would still take the slow way around, trying to avoid the avid blood trails from the last enemies they left dead or in this case Jak did anyway. Daxter was just a witness in all of this. As the trails almost came to an end once again, Jak stopped right there.

Daxter was confused why he had stopped in the middle of nowhere. Jak looked up and pointed “The cityscape.. It’s close.”

The ottsel shrugged “Yeah, so?”

Jak shrugged “We got some time to kill and we spent hours of our time doing this mission. We have to tell someone what we find, right?”

Daxter shrugged “Yeah, i think i get what you are trying to say, Jak. I hope anyway.”

Jak nodded, getting back in taking the ride slowly and surely, just taking in the sights and slowly trying to get back in the mood after the long mission he and Daxter went through. He sighed and kept driving the dune buggy trying to kill some time, on occasion seeing what he could find on the pathway back to Uruk.

Daxter pointed out an occasional cacti and perhaps a few chances to go visit something else but nothing really that popped out.

To kill time, Jak spun the dune buggy in full circles and used it over a hill as Daxter cheered. It provided some entertainment for some time but nothing really that interesting. After standing by the dune buggy and checking their communicators for any more messages and nothing came, boredom started to come to the dynamic duo. The eco warrior and Daxter still relaid important information but nobody was around to give it to.

Eventually, the eco warrior and Daxter decided it was best they pace around boredly, even though they could possibly use the time to browse the unfinished area at least around Uruk for now.

It was time both of them could at least take a nap or something while killing more time. Jak sighed while letting Daxter drive the dune buggy for the time being as he observed his empty Morph gun, no ammo shells but he had to buy them eventually.

Jak took the time to dig in his small pack, trying to find one of the ammo mods for his morph gun eventually. But he realized that he didn’t buy any of those yet so he was out of luck.

Daxter looked up “Hey, Jak. You got your morph gun back? But you didn’t even buy any mods or ammo to go with it yet?”

Jak looked kind of awkward for a second as he said “Don’t worry, I’ll get my stuff back eventually, maybe sooner than you think.

Daxter crossed his arms while grimacing “Well then, with that cash you got perhaps things will change, hm?”

Jak patted Daxter on the shoulder “Heh, well who knows. I did get a lot of my stuff back after all.”

The ottsel turned to Jak, “What about our dance? We can kill time using something like that while we wait.’

Jak blushed “Well, we could. But I’m not sure who would be watching us in the middle of nowhere and plus we could make a bad first impression.”

Daxter groaned “Aww, come on Jak, please, for me?”

Jak looked around awkwardly and sighed “Fine, really quick.”

Daxter smirked “Alright! Let’s do it.”

Jak looked at Daxter as they started to move forward toward each other and started doing the funky dance they were used to doing when they got a power cell. Daxter was enjoying the crap out of all this while Jak was starting to feel more and more embarrassed by the second “Uh Dax, can we not?”

Daxter smirked ‘Since when have you been worried about doing “the dance? Huh, Jak? Daxter looked up at Jak with a smug grin “Are you embarrassed of what this place would think of you now of all people?”

Jak shook his head and rolled his eyes trying to avoid Daxter’s statement about him being embarrassed in possibly making a fool of himself in front of Uruk’s gates.

Daxter frowned “Alright, we can stop with the fun stuff and get serious again. You won’t let me have any fun. Hmph.”

Jak faked a smile and looked up “Later, Daxter after we go to rely on the information. Then maybe, we might gain a place here.”

Daxter sighed as he moved his hand lightly “yeah, yeah, Jak, let’s just get on with it, shall we?”

Jak nodded as he and Daxter hopped back into the dune buggy, messed with their comms again before staring up the dune buggy. As a few hours passed, Jak seemed to finish traveling and finally made it back to the gates of Uruk.

Daxter chilled in the dune buggy while Jak paced around, waiting for a response from almost anyone at Uruk’s gate that he had important information to relay. Daxter looked up from his comm, interested if Jak got any information about anyone who would like to hear information from the ottsel and the long eared man.

Jak could only hope that he didn’t waste hours of his time doing something nobody needed done in the first place.

Daxter blinked, trying to get someone’s attention “Hey, anyone there? We have information to rely here..”

Jak covered Daxter’s mouth “Sorry about that!”

Daxter muttered something and almost bit the eco warrior’s hand in retaliation for covering his mouth. “Come on, I was only trying to help, Jak.. you know that.”

Jak said “You didn’t need to annonce to Uruk that we’ve arrived with important information after possibly being introduced as someone bad..”

Daxter crossed his arms “You got any bright ideas, Jak? Come on, let me hear them?”

Jak sighed “At least let me handle it right now, Daxter, please. Just want to make a good first impression here.”

Daxter scratched his head in confusion. But would that solve this problem?

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