A/N: Back by popular demand. After taking this story down to do a bit of tinkering and reworking on the plot, I'm ready to put Ghost of Pandora back on the site.

Much like my predecessors before me, I never truly give up on a story, but I'll make sure that they are worth reading in the end. If you're all familiar with this then you might be glad that it is back, for those who haven't heard of it, then you will be in for a treat. For now, lets get this fic back on the rails!

X

They say that the best stories known are those that seem far too good to be true. And throughout the cosmos, there are literally millions of stories to be told, some that are great, others not so much.

The planet Pandora, a harsh, desolate world where only the strong, stubborn and even insane are known to thrive. A single day is 90 hours long, but to those that live amongst the wastelands, vicious beasts and harsh environments, survival is a common occurance that many have accepted as routine.

Countless have asked why anyone would take the risk to venture to such a world where only madness and senseless slaughter exists, the answer is one that is as old as Pandora itself.

The Vault.

An ancient, alien treasure trove that was said to contain riches and power beyond imagination. Countless have gone in search of it, all of which have either failed or perished in their attempts. However, four succeeded where they had all failed.

These four individuals were known as 'Vault Hunters', and against unstoppable odds, never ending waves of enemies and dangers that would have sent even the bravest of men running in terror, they not only discovered the Vault, but uncovered the horrifying truth of what it contained.

After killing the powerful beast that had been released, the Vault Hunters vanished into the wastelands of Pandora. Believing that the mystical trove held no treasure of any kind.

They were wrong.

When the Vault was opened, a new power was awakened on the planet. An ancient, priceless alien element, Eridium, spread all across Pandora. The rare mineral drawing even more people from across the galaxy to collect and cash in on it. Including the Hyperion Corporation.

They had come to not only mine the Eridium, but to also bring order to the savage planet. Many of the methods that had been used were...brutal, one might even call murderous or genocidal.

Among their excavations, Hyperion discovered evidence of an even greater Vault. Their leader vowing to use the great power it held to civilize the world of Pandora once and for all. But he wasn't the only one questing for the Vaults mysterious power...

The call of danger and riches is not easily resisted. Many warriors continude to come to Pandora in droves to uncover its hidden secrets. Some would call them adventurers, others call them fools, but a select few call them...Vault Hunters.

Our story begins with one of these brave souls, one who has endured much and has been driven by vengeance against the man who had destroyed his life. His skills and reputation becoming known far and wide despite his young age.

Many have considered him a myth, one who strikes with such swiftness that enemies in his sights might call supernatural. It is this that granted the name he now bares.

This is the story of...The Ghost.

X

The long stretch of desert was quiet, save for the occasional breeze that went through kicking up the sand and making small twisters at random intervals.

High at its peak, the sun shined down on the seemingly endless dunes making the already scorching heat rise even higher. But for the lone figure seated upon one of the few boulders dotting the landscape beside a long stretch of road, he didn't even regard the triple digit temperatures.

Clearly male in stature with a very lean build, he was dressed in a pair of jeans with armor padding stiched into the knees and shins that were tucked into a pair of steel-toed combat boots. He also wore a set of light armor chest piece with an array of pockets lined along the outside with a long, torn duster cover over it.

A Dahl Twin Hornet pistol was holstered on each thigh, a Tediore Gentle Blockhead shotgun across his lower back along with a Dahl Scorpio assault rifle slung over his shoulder. A belt full of grenades and ammo around his waist for each weapon that he carried.

Sitting beside him was an ECHO device that was playing a random tune off the playlist he had compiled overtime as he lightly dragged the blade of a kukri knife along the sleeve of his left forearm.

His face was hidden behind a black balaclava, only his dark eyes were exposed with a white skull embroiled over where his face should have been. His vision locked onto a billboard before him that had seen better days, some of the panels that made up the overall image having fallen off, but the message remained perfectly clear.

An image of the CEO of Hyperion standing with his arms outstretched to both sides, a triangle-like archway above him with the words 'Jack Needs You!' written in the top left corner and 'Vault Hunters Wanted' on the bottom.

Narrowing his gaze, he slipped the sharp knife into a scabbard attached to his left shoulder as he stood from the boulder. In the next instant, one of his pistols was in hand and a gunshot echoed through the desert, a new bullet hole punched right between Jack's eyes on the billboard.

"Fucking bastard." he growled lowly. "I'll make you pay for what you've done..."

Ghost

as "The Infiltrator"

Slipping the sidearm back into its holster, the merc checked his watch and whistled sharply. From behind the billboard, the spike-armored form of an adult Skag trotted out into the open, its vertical maw filled with sharp teeth snapping a couple times.

"Zeke! Come!" the Skag snapped to attention then bound toward the one that called to him. Sitting on its hunches while the human reached down and scratched the leathery skin behind one of his head spikes. "Let's get moving, we gotta train to catch."

The Skag made a sound somewhere between a choke and a bark before the two of them headed toward a runner that was parked a couple meters away. Ghost vaulting up and into the driver's seat while Zeke jumped into the passenger seat as the mercenary started the engine.

Slipping his ECHO into a slot in the dashboard, "Short Change Hero" by the Heavy started to play loudly as he hit the accelerator and shot off toward the North. A dust cloud kicking up behind them, the Skag's long tongue hanging out and flapping with the warm air whipping by.

Ghost kept his eyes forward, focused on his surroundings but at the same time allowing his mind to wander. The 20 year old Pandora native was on a mission, one that would hopefully lead straight to the man who had caused him so much pain and torment, the man who had been responsible for the deaths of millions on this planet and the abduction and torture of countless others for the last five years.

The CEO of the Hyperion Corporation, Handsome 'Arrogant-as-Fuck' Jack.

Just the mere thought of the asshole had Ghost gripping the steering wheel of his vehicle to the point of making his knuckles white beneath his gloves. He took a few calming breaths and relaxed his grip, he would get his chance. After all these years, he'd finally get his chance.

He heard Zeke whimper beside him before he felt the Skag rubbing his head gently against his arm. The young merc chuckled and scratched the creature's neck, "I'm good, boy. Just anxious." Turning his attention back to the road, Ghost could make out a settlement in the distance. Along with a set of long railroad tracks that passed right along side it.

"...real anxious." he muttered to himself, his eyes flashing silver for a brief moment as he pressed the switch on his steering wheel. The boost thrusters in the back of his runner blazing to life and launching him across the sand even faster toward their destination.

X

With in the ruins of what had once been New Haven, gunfire and explosions could be heard through the wartorn streets of the once prosperous settlement.

Amongst the wreckages of what had at one time been homes and a handful of businesses, a lone figure could be seen running in and around the buildings. Dodging bullets that peppered the metal and wood walls behind them as they tried to keep ahead of the ones chasing them.

Coming out of a short alley and back into the open sunlight, the figure was revealed to be a young female dressed in dark-red t-shirt with a skull in the middle beneath a denim vest with also with a skull on the back, a matcing skirt and a pair of steel-toed boots with stripped socks pulled up close to her thighs.

Her orange/red hair was done up into pigtails with a pair of goggles set atop her forehead. But the most prominent feature she had was her left arm, which was a metal prosthetic from her elbow down.

Breath coming out in pants and gasps, a Jakobs pistol clenched in her regular hand that she aimed back where she had come hearing the sounds of her persuers.

"Dammit, these guys just don't want to quit." she muttered with gritted teeth. Bringing up her metal arm, a large structure appeared in a flash of blue/white light.

Humanoid from the waist up, with jets beneath it keeping it in the air, made of metal and cybernetics with a lone optic in the center of its head. A set of long, sharp claws at the end of each of its hands that flexed and scraped while it looked at the girl and waited for her commands.

"DeathTrap, time to go to work." she said keeping her weapon trained on the entrance of the alley.

Gaige

as "The Mechromancer"

Out of the opening, two men wearing nothing but torn pants and strange looking hockey masks came, each one brandishing an axe with a buzzsaw on the end. "Strip the flesh! Salt the wound!" one of them bellowed crazily as they charged the 18 year old genius.

DeathTrap snapped at attention and went on the attack, swipping his massive claws and sending the two Psychos flying through the air and crashing into a far wall where they laid in broken heaps on the ground below.

Several more men followed after the first two, these ones dressed in ragged clothes or light armor while armed with shotguns and pistols. "Get that little bitch!" the lead Raider ordered as they fired at their target.

Gaige dove behind the burned out husk of a vehicle for cover, bullets pinging loudly off the metal surface. She leaned out far enough to return fire with her pistol, none of the rounds hitting any targets before she was forced to duck out of sight again or risk having her head blown off.

The young genius had never fired a gun before, let alone taken the life of someone else...willingly anyway.

She heard DeathTrap attacking the bandits that had been after her all day. The bounty on her head was a very sizable one, but she didn't think that the people here on Pandora would have caught on so quickly. It had been a week since she fled Eden-5, fled her home, family, friends, her very life, all because of an accident brought on by a petty rich girl who had her daddy do everything for her.

But there was no point in dwelling on the past at the moment, she had bigger problems.

The sounds of bandits falling to DeathTrap's claws could be heard loud and clear, his optic flaring brightly before a red beam shot from it, scrotching a Psycho where he stood and leaving a charred corpse in its wake.

Reloading the pistol, Gaige stood up intending to start shooting again-

Only to be knocked to the ground, one of the bandits managing to get past DeathTrap's assault and go straight for her. "All over now, sweetcheeks." the man chuckled as he raised the shotgun straight at her head.

With her bot dealing having two other bandits dangling off his form he wouldn't make it in time to help her, and the attack that had knocked her down sent her sidearm clattering out of her reach...she was as good as dead...or worse given how the creep was looking up and down her body.

Closing her eyes, accepting the inevitable and waiting to hear the coming gunshot...but instead she heard something else.

The rev of a loud engine, with the blast of rock music being played over it;

In the next moment, a runner came flying over a cluster of ruined buildings. The bandit that had Gaige pinned down looked up for a split second before the rear axel of the vehicle slammed into his head and caved in the front half of his skull.

The runner slammed into the dirt and skidded to the side until it came to a stop. The remaining bandits aimed their weapons at the vehicle, when a large Skag suddenly sprung out of the passenger seat, landing on the nearest one and tearing into his face. The man's screams of anguish drowned out by the beast's snarls and the ripping of flesh.

At the same time, a man in black armor, trenchcoat and a balaclava with a skull where the face should be jumped out of the driver's seat and landing ontop of the runner. Dark eyes leering at the opposition.

X

Ghost took in the bandits with sharp eyes before standing to his full height, "Oh fuck! IT'S HIM! THE GHOST!" one of the raiders screamed.

"Grease this fucker!" another shouted as they opened fire on him.

The merc narrowed his eyes, dark irises shining silver as the world around him seemed to distort and slow down. The bullets coming toward him traveling at barely a crawl, the air around them tunneling along with the distortion.

Bending his knees, Ghost leapt from the vehicle, landing on the ground and moving behind the bandits that had been shooting at him. Drawing his dual pistols and aiming at their backs just as the effects around him vanished as quickly as it came, time returning to normal as bullets riddled the side of his runner.

The bandits stopped firing and all blinked, "What the...where the fuck did he go?!" the one in the lead roared as he reloaded his weapon.

"Right here." said the merc, the raiders all whipping around in time for a hail of bullets from his sidearms. Each shot hitting home and punching bloody holes through their targets, bodies dropping in their wake in seconds.

Stopping long enough to slap fresh clips into the pistols, he quickly holstered them, drawing his kukri and spinning around in one fluid motion. The large knife blocking the strike from a buzzaxe that had been aimed at the back of his head.

"My pound of flesh!" the Psycho bellowed from behind his mask.

Ghost swung the two weapons to the side before slamming his right heel down onto the deranged man's knee. The whole leg bending backwards with a loud snap, the Psycho shrieking in pain which came to an abrupt end when the merc's kukri came back around, the sharp blade parting the flesh of his throat like butter and spraying blood through the air.

The man gurgled as he fell to the ground unmoving, Ghost slashed his weapon through the air to shake off the blood before turning around and looking at the young woman he had saved.

Said girl was currently staring at him, green eyes wide, mouth agape, but the sidearm she had been using held tightly before her at the ready incase it was needed. The robot she had summoned having de-digistructed sometime ago, and with the bandits all dead it was now just the two of them.

"Uh...thanks." she said after a moment, still keeping her distance. "I don't know how long I had before-"

Ghost cocked his arm back and threw his knife, the girl yelped as it flipped end over end and sailed past her shoulder. She spun around when she heard the sound of it impacting something and found it pierced through the center of a Psycho's mask, his buzzaxe raised to cut her down before he fell backwards, dead.

"You're obviously not from around here." he said, walking past her. Planting his foot in the center of the Psycho's chest and yanking his knife free before shaking blood off it again and slipping it into the scabbard on his shoulder. "Not being aware of your surroundings is one of over a million ways to die here on Pandora."

Looking over to where he could see Zeke still chowing down on the bandit he had lept on. Ghost whistled loudly to get the Skag's attention. "Zeke! Come!"

Zeke raised its head, a half eaten arm dangling from its maw that it slurped down before bounding toward his master as he drew his Scorpion AR.

"You here for the train?" Ghost asked turning his attention back to the red-head.

She blinked in surprise and nodded slowly, "Y-Yeah. I take it you're a Vault Hunter too?" she asked back.

"Something like that." replied the merc as he turned and headed farther into what was left of New Haven. Stopping after a couple of feet and looking back at the girl, "You coming, darlin?"

The young woman blinked again and moved up to fall in step at his side while Zeke took up the other. "Oh, name's Gaige, by the way." she introduced.

"Ghost." the merc said back as they headed toward the train depot together.

And toward an incredibly long journey, for the both of them.

X

A/N: The introduction and a couple of chapters to follow will be the same as before. But the changes and new chapters will soon follow before you know it. For now, I hope those who clicked on this like what they see, and I'll update soon.

Until then, keep on keeping on!