DISCLAIMER: I do not own Borderlands characters, and I make no money from this fan fiction.
BORDERLANDS: Escort Mission
by
Rhonnel Ferry
"What do ya' think?" Mordecai, the lanky vault hunter who likes to hide his eyes behind tinted goggles, refers to the lone mission on the bounty board in the small ghost town.
Roland, a stoic soldier and their unofficial leader takes a closer look.
"I don't know," he says. "500 dollars to go through a sand worm infested desert? That's pretty cheap. Might not be worth the risk."
"I'll do it," Brick, the team's massive muscle man announces.
"I'll go with you," Lilith, a lithe, red-haired young woman, and a powerful elemental siren offers.
"Whoa, wait a minute," Roland objects. "It's 500 dollars. That's ridiculous. It's an insult, almost. I can see why Brick would want to take this job. He's a lunatic." Then he turns to Brick. "No offense."
"None taken," the big man responds unemotionally.
Then Roland goes back to Lilith, taking hold of her shoulders. "Why would you want to take this job?"
"Well, it's not like I'm doing anything here, am I?" she answers, angrily pushing his hands away. Then she turns and sashays towards one of their Catch-A-Ride runner vehicles.
Brick quietly shrugs his large shoulders at Roland, then follows Lilith.
"Seriously, I don't know what it is I do that pisses that girl off so much all the time," Roland says to no one in particular.
"Maybe it's not what you do,..." Mordecai tells him, "...but what you're not doin'."
"Oh, what are you, the Dr. Phil of Pandora?"
#
"Things not OK with you and the boss?" Brick asks from behind the runner's gun turret, as they drive across the wasteland to meet the client.
"Why do you suddenly care so much?" Lilith asks impatiently from behind the wheel.
"I don't."
"So why ask?!"
"Long drive. Making conversation."
"Thought the only words that came out of your mouth were SHOW ME SOME BLOOD!"
"Most times."
Lilith hesitates momentarily, then asks, "Look, do you really wanna know?"
"Not really. No," Brick admits.
Lilith exhales angrily, and they drive the rest of the way in silence.
#
They meet the client in a small town bar. Every man inside, and maybe even some of the women, look up when the curvaceous female vault hunter enters. Then they fearfully look away when her large companion follows.
They find the client, a portly man in a mullet, alone in a corner table.
"You the cheapskate?" Lilith bluntly asks him.
The man is momentarily stung by the remark, but answers, "I am Dr. Joshua Espinosa, yes. I require escort to the Fast Travel teleportation system in WaterRock."
"WaterRock? That's a legendary back door ticket out of this place."
"I was charged with the manufacture of recreational drugs. I didn't sell it. I didn't use it. Other people did that. I just made it. I'm just a chemist. I don't belong in Pandora with the rest of these maniacs. I didn't deserve to get tossed in here-"
"I don't care what you did. You should be paying more for a job like this. If WaterRock wasn't so dangerous, everyone would be going there to get out of Pandora!"
"I realize this, and I do apologize. But if I had the finances, and if I didn't have a criminal record, I would be finding a more legal means to leave, but I do not."
"Maybe Roland was right about this," Lilith whispers to Brick.
"I'm still doin' it," Brick whispers back.
"Why?!"
"Got nothin' better to do."
Lilith sighs.
"OK," she tells Joshua. "We'll do it. But if this back door Fast Travel turns out to be nothing more than a myth, or if it's damaged beyond repair, you're not getting a refund."
The doctor excitedly jumps out of his seat, and vigorously takes her hand in both of his and shakes it.
"Thank you! Thank you!" he says on the verge of tears.
Then he offers to shake Brick's hand, who doesn't take it. The doctor tentatively withdraws his hands, then smiles and nods to both vault hunters in appreciation.
#
They rent a Sand Skiff, a boat-like vehicle that can glide above the sands. A necessity for traveling the treacherous sand dunes.
While the good doctor snacked on some canned skag meat, Brick walks over to Lilith behind the boat's wheel to relieve her.
"No, it's OK," she answers. "I can still go for another hour. The driving helps me think. Clears my head."
"Suit yourself," Brick says then begins to walk away.
"Wait," Lilith surreptitiously calls after him.
"What?"
"Someone's after him. He's not just trying to escape a prison sentence. He's running from someone. And if he's this desperate, then it must be someone pretty scary."
"Scarier than a giant sand worm?"
"What-?"
Lilith looks forward just in time to see a colossal sand worm emerge from under the ground!
"Shit!" she curses as she spins the wheel, narrowly avoiding the monster's enormous maw!
"What the fuck was that?!" Joshua screams, fearfully wrapping his arms around a steel lifeline.
"That's a sand worm," Brick replies, manning the harpoon gun. "You never seen one?"
"When they said sand worms are dangerous, I thought it was because they were repulsive, germ-laden, and can get in your asshole!"
"You must have a really big asshole."
Brick aims and fires at the sand worm, now chasing them. The harpoon's antler pierces the worm's skin, but the creature is undeterred. Soon two more of its kind join in the chase.
"Shoot it again! Shoot it again!" Joshua cries.
"We're gonna need somethin' stronger," Brick mutters.
The strongman takes out a grenade, and ties it to a harpoon's foreshaft. He loads it into the gun, and fires again at their voracious pursuer! The spear strikes the creature mere inches from the first harpoon. Then Brick draws his revolver, takes careful aim, and shoots the grenade!
The explosion makes the giant sand worm shriek and sway its head in pain! Its companions simply ignore and overtake it. A few seconds later, the dazed sand worm recovers, and continues its relentless pursuit.
"We're not gonna be able to kill these things," Brick mentions.
"Don't you have a bazooka or something?!" Joshua complains.
"Well, we didn't really have the proper funding for this expedition, did we?" Brick snaps back. Then he calls over to Lilith. "We're gonna have to outrun them!"
"Hang on!" Lilith calls back. "I can see the docks. The sand's too shallow for them there!"
Brick looks from the docks to the chasing sand worms.
"We're not gonna make it," he mumbles.
"What?!" Joshua shrieks in panic.
"It's alright," the big man assures him, as he readies his shotgun. "If we're still alive after they capsize this Sand Skiff, I'll hold them off, you and Lilith make a run for the harbor."
"What?!" the doctor shrieks again.
He worriedly looks back at the sand worms rapidly gaining on them. Then he quickly reaches inside his robes, and pulls out a strange looking hand grenade.
"Here! Use this!" he tells Brick. "It's for emergencies! You probably have a better throwing arm than I do! Just make sure you throw it far enough so we don't get caught in the blast radius! Don't miss! It's the only one I have!"
Brick doesn't even bother questioning the doctor about the weird contraption. Explosive devices are his specialty after all. So he simply takes the bomb from the doctor's hand, easily figures out how to activate it, and then hurls it as high and as far as he could at the giant maggots!
It explodes in mid air, causing lightning to strike down on the hapless sand worms!
"What the devil is going on?!" Lilith yells, as she weaves the Sand Skiff to avoid being struck down herself.
When they reach the harbor, the lightning subsides, leaving only three, badly burnt giant worm corpses. Lilith anchors the vessel. Joshua looks at her sheepishly.
"I may have lied about being a chemist," he haltingly admits.
She replies, "No shit."
#
"My name is not Joshua Espinosa," the doctor confesses after they've set up camp for the night. "I am not a criminal serving time in Pandora. I am Abraham Gonzalez."
"Abraham Gonzalez," Lilith repeats. "Why does that name sound familiar? I think Marcus, our arms dealer mentioned you."
"I am one of Maliwan's foremost senior weapons designers."
"Oh, I like Maliwan! Elemental weapons. Just like me, sort of. You probably designed most of my submachine guns!"
"I used to like Maliwan, too. They paid me very well, after all"
"Not well enough with what you're paying us."
"That's because they froze all my accounts when I ran away!"
"Why would you run away from a high paying job?"
"Because it was never enough for them!" Abraham cries, overcome with emotion. "The first electrical gun I invented was designed to incapacitate a target as harmlessly as possible. But no, Maliwan wanted electrical guns with such a high voltage, it would make a man's eyes pop out or cause his head to explode! They were treating the weapons manufacturing business like some kind of video game!"
Lilith looks away, slightly ashamed of her own satisfaction when using those weapons.
"They wouldn't let me quit," the doctor continues. "They're a powerful corporation. They have all the transportation stations and Fast Travel terminals out of Pandora guarded. I know that the Fast travel terminal in WaterRock exists because I built it...a long time ago, back when Atlas still had things under control, before all the dangerous alien wildlife came out of hibernation, before the Dahl corporation decided to use all that convict labor. Yea, that was a brilliant move on their part."
"You were here that long ago? Just how old are you?"
"Clean living and a positive attitude. It keeps me young looking."
#
Much later, as Abraham sleeps, Lilith decides to join Brick by the fire.
"Do you wanna fuck me?" she asks him.
"Sure," he answers, then unceremoniously pushes her down, and gets on top of her.
"Whoa, big guy!" Lilith squeaks. "I asked if you wanted to! I haven't actually agreed t-"
But Brick has already started to undress her. Her first instinct is to cover herself, but for some reason, she changes her mind at the last second. She blushes as he gazes upon her. Then his hands start moving.
"B-Brick, wait-" she stutters,...then gasps,...then moans. "Oh, screw it," she says, wrapping her arms and legs around him, and pulling him in for a kiss.
#
It was different, Lilith thinks to herself. Roland, she supposes, is gentler and has more technique, but the soldier is sometimes repetitive and predictable. Brick, on the other hand, practically dominated her like some kind of wild animal! And she wonders if last night counts as bestiality. She giggles at the thought, and nuzzles closer to Brick, as she rests her head on one of his huge biceps.
Then she starts pondering about why. Why did she do it? Or rather, why did she let him do it to her...over and over? Maybe it was because she got angry at her boyfriend, Roland. Maybe because sex with Brick is just that. Sex. No complications, no strings attached. The giant berserker, is not exactly handsome, or rich, or even funny. He's basically just really big, brave, and strong. But in a rough world like Pandora, maybe those are the qualities in a man that a woman might consider attractive.
Brick's mind, on the other hand, is much simpler. Lilith is hot, and he likes sex. That's all the reason he needs.
#
The next day, they eventually locate a Catch-A-Ride Station, and acquire a standard Bandit Technical, a truck that can seat four people, and is equipped with a machine gun turret. From there, Abraham gives them directions to the legendary Fast Travel teleportation terminal in WaterRock.
They encounter and kill several skags and spiderants, but thanks to Abraham's familiarity with the territory, they are able to avoid the more powerful monsters.
By midday, and maybe only two hours away from their destination, a Maliwan Buzzard, an armored aircraft armed with machine guns, suddenly reveals itself, and flies after them!
"How did they find me?!" Abraham screams.
"Well, you did post an ad at the bounty board!" Lilith shouts back from behind the wheel, as she increases speed.
"But I changed my name! And I was very vague about the mission! I just mentioned needing an escort across the sand dunes!"
"What does it matter how they found you?! Maybe someone overheard us talking at the bar! Maybe one of the giant sand worms was a fucking sleeper agent! We just need to fucking get away from them!"
The Buzzard does an attack run using its machine guns! Lilith zigzags to avoid it. Now in front of them, the Buzzard opens fire again, but still misses.
"OK, how are they still missing us?!" Lilith yells. "I'm not that good a driver!"
"Those are warning shots!" Abraham explains. "They want me alive!"
"We don't have that compunction!" Brick says, and shoots at the aircraft with the machine gun turret!
The Buzzard's engine is struck! Black smoke billows from it. The aircraft starts spinning in midair as the pilot tries to maintain control! Brick continues his assault, and the Maliwan Buzzard explodes!
Abraham cheers! But his joy is immediately replaced by confusion, when Lilith halts the Bandit Technical, and both vault hunters disembark.
"W-why did we stop?!" the alarmed doctor yells. "There could be others coming! We should get out of here!"
"Loot!" Lilith explains, a smile on her face. "We're going to the crash site to pick up cash, weapons, maybe a grenade mod, if we're lucky. Standard vault hunter procedure."
"You greedy fools! You're going to get yourselves ki-!"
Abraham stops mid sentence, when he sees a lone figure, larger than even Brick, and covered from head to toe in white Maliwan power armor, emerge unscathed from the burning wreckage.
"That's Matt Bauer!" Abraham screams fearfully. "He's the director of security at Maliwan! Quick! Get back in the truck!"
"Vault hunters!" Bauer booms at them. "I don't know how Gonzalez managed to pay you, but Maliwan can easily double, even triple that amount! Just surrender the good doctor over to me! You have ten seconds to comply!"
"Oh, we don't need ten seconds!" Lilith replies.
Then she swings her submachine gun forward, Brick does the same with his shotgun, and they both unload on the security director!
But Bauer's high capacity Orb Shield, a rechargeable forcefield generator, prevents him from taking any damage. He then raises his right hand, and his palm emits a streak of lightning, similar to the fancy grenade that toasted the giant sand worms earlier! And while the attack does not directly hit the vault hunters, it is so powerful, that both Lilith and Brick are viciously thrown into the ground!
"Take cover! Take cover!" Abraham screams at them, as he himself ducks behind their truck.
Lilith dizzily shakes her head, then crawls next to the doctor. Brick, who was thrown too far away, takes cover behind a large rock.
"What was that?" Lilith groans. "I feel like all my insides are on fire. My Orb Shield didn't protect me at all, and it's not recharging either."
"That's my latest invention," Abraham explains. "I called it Zeus Mk11 after the lighting god. It permanently disables an opponent's Orb Shield."
"I have to buy a new Orb Shield? Wow, you really should be paying us more."
"Well, you could have taken his offer, but you didn't."
"Would've hurt us in the long run. Who would want to hire vault hunters that back-stab their clients? Besides, we're not exactly helpless without our shields. We have our own powers. I'm a Siren. I can use Phasewalk to become invisible, or cause damage with Phase Blast!"
"What about Brick? What can he do?"
"Brick? Well,...he can,...you know,...punch stuff...real hard...like."
Bauer unleashes another lightning bolt that smashes the rock Brick is hiding behind, again throwing the large vault hunter down, and painfully pelting him with bits of stone!
"You really should have taken my offer," the security director tells him.
Brick goes berserk! He snarls, then rushes forward!
"This is your plan?" Bauer asks. "Suicide?"
He raises his hand for another shot. Then suddenly, Lilith reappears out of thin air! She jumps on his back, and phase blasts him from behind!
"Let's see how you like it!" she yells at him.
Bauer howls in pain, but he is still able to elbow the Siren in the face, and flip her over his shoulder! Lilith yelps as she hits the ground!
"Bitch!" Bauer hisses. "Did you really think you could defeat our superior science with your witchcraft?!"
Lilith, her face bloodied, just laughs, "Gonna take your shield a while to recharge though,...asshole."
"What-!"
And then Brick shatters Bauer's face armor with a right straight!
A left hook breaks the security director's jaw! A body blow makes him puke blood! And an uppercut, knocking him into the air and then onto the ground, finally finishes him off.
"What're you waiting for?" Lilith groans to Brick. "See if he's got any cash on 'em."
#
After scavenging the crash site, the group drives on. It is already night when they arrive at WaterRock. And it is exactly that. A rock islet surrounded by water. They leave the Bandit Technical, and go for a short swim towards the islet. Once there, the trio, led by Abraham, scale a small rock hill. Above, they find the remnants of Atlas Corporation's failed attempt to settle the planet. And among these relics, the fabled WaterRock Fast Travel teleportation terminal.
"I can easily get it working," Abraham announces, taking out several tools from within his robes. "But after I use it, I'm going to set it to self destruct. It's the only way to make sure that those Maliwan bastards can't follow or track me."
The vault hunters say nothing. Complex ancient technology is beyond their understanding. In less than an hour of work, Abraham flicks a switch, and the Fast Travel terminal hums to life.
"Why don't you guys come with me?" the doctor offers, as he wipes his dirty hands with a rag. "There are other worlds out there, far richer and less dangerous than Pandora."
Lilith looks over at Brick, and smiles.
"What do you think, big guy?" she asks him. "Leave all this behind? Start over?"
But Brick shakes his head, and says, "You two go ahead."
"What?!" Abraham asks, flabbergasted. "Why?!"
"Because I belong in Pandora with the rest of these maniacs."
Then Brick turns around and walks away.
EPILOGUE
Back at the Bandit Technical, Brick watches a beam of light shoot from the peak of the rock hill to the night sky, indicating a successful teleportation. This is shortly followed by the sound of the fabled WaterRock Fast Travel teleportation terminal self destructing.
"So why didn't you go with him?" he asks.
"Why do you suddenly care so much?" Lilith asks, a smile playing on her lips.
"I don't. Long drive back. Making conversation."
"Whatever."
END