On my quest to get the artifact back I drove through the middle of nowhere, burning some scriptures the bandits were preaching on the way. I prefer psychos over zealots any day. Eventually I reached Krom's Canyon, fighting past some pretty tough defenses at it's mouth. Took a slight detour once inside to raid their food stores and kill another wanted felon called Reaver first before going after Krom himself.
Turns out it was pretty easy to kill him, I just sniped him from far far away before he could hit me. In fact getting to him to retrieve the artifact was more challenging (and it wasn't really). Upon returning to Dr. Tannis she found the pieces fit like a puzzle. She also told me where I might be able to find the next piece to it, and had made a bargain with some criminal scum to lower the drawbridges on the East side of the Rust Commons.
More tasks had opened up too, so I figured I'd do those on the way - investigating more heathens and taking plant samples from spiderant infested zones. The car really is the best weapon against them as it makes a satisfying splat when you run them over. Only two instances where this wasn't true, one where there were simply too many spiderants to crush - leaving me on foot to fight my way out and another where I rammed a giant boss spiderant. Fortunately it was so badly hurt, that I still managed to finish it off lying on my back.
Don't try running over it with your car!
