AN: Here it is, my first chapter revised. I've decided to let Gaige make her appearance in the Bright Light, Flying City mission, specifically the Highland - Outwash. My reason for this is that the way i see it, Outwash seems to be some kind of military base under construction that if finished would be at a strategic position and major choke point to guard off bandits and round off the Hyperion territory. That would explain the supply beacon and multiple supply crates lying around. This would also explain Gaige's presence as a supervisor for the construction. I have tried to make the chapter as realistic and pratical as possible without creating an over-the-top fight. If you notice anythings out of place or don't understand the reason behind some detail, feel free to ask, i will try to fix the problems and explain things more clearly in the next chapter.

So...read and review =D

Chapter 1:

"Every Hyperion personnel cease fire!" Gaige shouted over her ECHO com, her voice carried through the various speakers installed around the place, prompting the fight to stop, thought more out of shock than anything.

"What are you doing?"

"We all know how this is going to end, David. Our men are not trained for this. They are engineers for god's sake!"

"Combat engineers."

"Who have no fighting experience whatsoever! This isn't a fight! This is a slaughter!"

"What do you want us to do? Giving them free passage? Do you have any idea what Jack would do should this reach his ears?"

She did. If three years of working for him had taught her anything about Jack, it was that the man never took it kindly to insubordination of any degree and was prone to cruelty if triggered. She had been told by one of her older colleagues that once a programmer had tried to sell the company's technology to another corporation, and the man had been fed alive to a horde of hungry skags in the Wildlife Exploitation Preserve with audio feat broadcasted over Hyperion network. In a sense, working for Jack was like befriending a lion, and even under his borderline tyrannical rule, people were still loyal to him mostly out of fear. Unless…

"No. A fight they will get, but not at the cost of every person in this facility. Hey David, you have the second most authority here right?"

"Yes. Why?" David didn't like what this was going. He couldn't read the expression on the girl's face.

"Tell everyone to standby and do not engage under any circumstance." With that, Gaige stood up from behind their cover and approached the Vault Hunters, her SMG not shouldered but still with safety off.

"No…" Realization dawned on David to what Gaige meant, but it was too late to stop the girl now. Gritting his teeth in frustration, he said through the com, trying to keep his voice as leveled as possible. "Carry all the wounded to the med quarter. Everyone else retreat inside the facility and wait for further directions."

Reluctantly, the engineers filtered inside, some looking back at the young field officer approaching the Vault Hunters with doubt written on their faces. With a grunt, David pushed himself to his feet and staggered behind. One engineer, Frederic if he remembered correctly, noticed his bleeding wound and helped David toward the med bay. Taking one look at Gaige in morose, David sighed. "You stupid girl…"

Calmly standing within hearing distance of the Vault Hunters, Gaige observed them in one tense moment. They were a mismatched group, consisting of individuals with astronomical bounties on their heads, especially the Siren, though she didn't find the assassin among them. He was probably on some vantage point trailing the sniper rifle crosshair on her head. The thought was disconcerting, and the image of an unfortunate engineer's head exploding in a shower of blood and brain matter brought a terrible chill down her spines. The idea seemed way more stupid now than she had thought, but it was the only way to keep the people here alive and not bring Jack's wrath down their head afterward.

"I'm Gaige, Hyperion chief engineer and field officer." It was an awkward introduction, but she was in no press for time, so it couldn't hurt.

"Well, the name's Axton. Ten years of Dahl military experience at your service."

"Salvador. Gunzerker." The short one grunted out.

"I'M THE CONDUCTOR OF THE POOP TRAIN!"

So the two men seemed to disregard her as a threat. That's good. The Siren just furrowed her browns, obviously more observant and wary than the other. She could be a major threat with that alone, not to mention her unknown Siren power. The assassin was not among them, but he most certainly had figured out that Gaige was more than she looked.

"Cut the crap and get to the point." The Siren said, still shouldering her SMG and ready to put a few bullets in her head.

"I want a deal." Gaige knew she was playing dangerous here. There's no telling if the Vault Hunters would keep to their words. She was the best fighter here, and even if they didn't know that, it would be much easier to put down a threat while they could. A bullet and all's done. "I will fight you, all of you, and if I win…" not likely – she added mentally "…you will drop your weapons and surrender." Again it's not the best kind of deal. They would probably fight to the dead, but this would have to do. She had practically no chance of winning anyway.

"And what if we win?" The Dahl ex-soldier said with amusement.

"You are free to go through without any resistance." And spare everyone here. The Siren's brows widened a little. She must have picked up the meaning behind this proposition.

"Deal!"

"Axton!"

"What? She just a kid!"

The sound of moonshot landing startled them all, except for the self-dubbed mechromancer. Someone must have called for back-up from the Hyperion space station. Not much it would do, but it's a good distraction nonetheless. Her delayed cloaking device activated and Gaige quickly dived for one of the supply crates, mentally timing the moment the Vault Hunters' magazine run out shooting the constructor. Feeling rather than hearing the Siren's gun reloading, Gaige popped out and activated the spawning mechanic on her cybernetic arm. With what equaled to a mechanical grunt, Deathtrap appeared in a swill or digiconstruction particles, his deployable shield on the left arm raised to block the oncoming bullets. Quickly activating the half-charged cloaking device again, Gaige tossed out a slag mirv grenade and ducked behind cover to avoid the assassin's sniper rifle.

"Slam!" Gaige shouted and fired a shock round from her pistol, effectively charging Deathtrap's shield with the element. Raising the shield like a battle ram Deathtrap flew forward, forcing the Vault Hunters to jump to the side, except for the hulking Psycho who was screaming something about flesh and blood. The jet-propelled momentum threw him off his feet and crashed into the pile of supply boxes. Using the distraction, Gaige kicked up her Anarchy overdrive system and sprayed shock-charged bullets at the general direction of the Siren and Gunzerker. The sound of shield failing could be heard and Gaige tossed out another grenade, this time a singularity. It was not particularly damaging, and it only caught the gunzerker, but that was enough to put him out of the fight temporary.

"Turret out!" The Dahl ex-soldier yelled over the explosive noise. It was unnecessarily stupid to announce your position and action to the enemy, but she was not going to complain. She was going to do it anyway.

"Death lance!"

Deathtrap's right hand digistructed an energy beam crudely in the shape of a lance and swiped at both the deploying turret and the one behind it.

"What the FUCK!" Shouted Axton as he narrowly evaded the robot's swipes. With a shout, Maya channeled her power and locked the robot in a giant purple sphere just before it cleaved the man in half. But before the Siren could do anything else, they were assaulted with another wall of bullets from the spawned loaders and turrets.

"Don't screw with a girl and her robot!"

Quickly, the siren moved the sphere to act as over, though the robot's strength seemed to be affecting her control and threatened to break out at any moment. With the last of her power, Maya pushed the sphere, sending they robot crashing with the loaders. Or that was her attention. The sphere sizzled out mid flight and Deathtrap propelled himself toward them again with his energy lance in a thrusting motion.

Gaige could believe it. She was winning the fight. She was actually winning against the Vault Hun…

*slash*

The sound of metal torn apart was chilling as Gaige saw her cybernetic arm cut off cleanly and dropped onto the ground with sparks flying. The assassin. An unconscious part of her mind realized that he could have decapitated her or pierced her heart with the sword just as easily. The spawning mechanic was partially linked to her nerves and would deactivate should she be incapacitated. Or dead. So why was he intentionally sparing her?

Deathtrap froze in motion and dissolved into digiconstruction particles, the signal to assemble it into existence cut off. Gaige felt a hard blow on the back of her neck and she slumped against the supply crate unconscious.

(to be continue)

That's it. A little short and the start seems to be lacking, but that's all i can do for now. What i have said still stands though, about the ties between Zero and Gaige, i mean.