The Bandits of the Borderlands

by LongHeed

A group of intrepid friends will be found by a presumed dead girl that will lead them to what all people on Pandora want, a vault. (please note that I put the whole thing in one chapter because it was too much trouble to separate. Please leave any criticism or suggestions to improve. But anyway. I hope you enjoy)

The Bandits of the Borderlands

Chapter 1

(Marcus) So, you want to hear another story, eh. WHAT! YOU DON'T! GET BACK HERE! I'm telling you a story whether you like it or not. Ok, good. We start on a cold Pandoran night, 9 bandits (The bandit boss: Jack Crook, the hustler: Orion Diamond, the scout: Jamison Scale, the sniper: Jericho Reaper, the mechnomancer: Stuart Spark, the hacker: Alby Sly, the heavy gunner: Mather Bullet tooth, the support: Aaron Knight, the "distraction": Marmion Viper) sit round the fire in the centre of tonight's camp somewhere in the salt flats between Old Haven and Hollow Point. The last bandit (The lookout: Wes Black Eye) was on top of one of their trucks on lookout duty, he stared out at the barren salt flats looking bored but still ready to jump at any moment, just in case, everything was normal… for now.

'So how you guys doing, found any good stuff lately?' said Jack.

'Nah, not really, why?' said Alby tiredly.

'No reason, well except I found some pretty awesome stuff, well when I say found I mean killed and looted. Obviously.' Jack replied.

'What ya get babe?' asked Marmion.

'A set of armour, a full set. Of Crimson Lance armour.' Jack replied proudly.

'WHAT, REALLY. THAT STUFF IS AWESOME.' Mather yelled excitedly.

'Sadly no gun though some stray shots hit all their guns and damaged 'em beyond repair.' He replied disinherited.

'Aww, too bad. It don't matter babe' Marmion replied supportively.

'When did you fight these Lances?' asked Stuart puzzled.

'Last night, when I went on that supply run. Didn't get hit once.' Jack boasted smugly.

Alby looked sceptic. 'Of course you di-'

'GUYS, HUGE GROUP OF ELDER AND SPITTER SKAGS COMING RIGHT FOR US FROM THE SOUTH EAST' Wes yelled horrified from on top of the truck. 'GET READY, THEY'LL BE HERE IN 8 SECONDS' Wes screamed.

'HEY ALBY, THROW ME MY STOMPER, (Marcus) That's an assault rifle) I'VE GOT MY RAZOR (Marcus) handgun)!' Jack yelled.

'INCOMING! SOUTH ENTRANCE HAS 7 SPITTERS AND 3 ELDERS, NORTH HAS 1 SPITTER AND 9 ELDERS!' Wes warned.

'EAT LEAD YOU... BEASTS!' Mather yelled violently.

Ten minutes of hard fighting, dodging and the such later the skags were dead and nobody was hurt. 'Everyone good, no injuries?' Jack asked.

'Fine.' Orion was the first to answer.

'Great, totally not exhausted from fighting' Stuart replied sarcastically.

'Shut it sparky! I'm good boss.' Snapped Alby.

'Fan-friggin-tastic dude. Wait, I got SKAG BLOOD! ON! MY! GUN!' Aaron screamed. 'That stuff takes ages to get out.' Aaron mumbled to himself.

CRASH! 'I fell over a barrel, ow, I'm good though.' Mather said gritting his teeth.

'I never came down.' Shouted Wes from on top of the truck.

'I'm fine. And of course you didn't Wes.' Jericho teased.

'Hey Marmion, you good?' Asked Jack.

'You know it baby.' Marmion replied with a slightly frazzled look. 'Are you ok, honey?' Morgan asked turning to Jamison.

'I'm great sweetheart.' Jamison said as he walking up behind Marmion and kissed her on the neck.

'Stop that.' Marmion said in a very seductive voice.

'Why?' Jamison asked kissing her again this time just above the collarbone.

'Seriously cupcake, stop it. Save it for later.' Marmion replied meeting Jamison's eyes.

'You got it, you hot piece of ass.' Jamison said still making eye contact.

(Marcus) Before we continue I think I should describe what everyone looks like, don't you?

(Child) Ok.

(Marcus) Well, Jack was tall, relatively handsome and muscled. He was witty, cunning and COMPLETELY full of himself. You know what I mean right? A full blown case of massive ego.

(Child) You mean like you?

(Marcus) Shut it kid! Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, Orion. Orion was Jack's second in command, a tall, skinny man. Not the strongest person you'll ever meet but he's smart and can talk his way out of any scrap and probably the other persons wallet.

(Child) He sounds sketchy.

(Marcus) He was. Now. Stuart. A man of average height, quirky but charming. He lost his left arm and right foot in an explosion, he also got a horrid burn on his face from the same explosion. He replaced the arm and foot with robotic parts he built.

(Child) That sounds like it hurt.

(Marcus) Probably. But anyway. I think I'll describe Alby next. Aldy is a very tall, thin man that isn't the brightest in the universe but still smarter than a psycho. Likes to use handguns but prefers to use his 8 foot axe, he tends to just run into battle swinging the axe until there isn't anyone left. Thinking about it, that's probably how he got the massive ugly scar that starts above his right eye and ends just below the left side of his mouth. He may be slightly stupid but he is unmatched when it comes to hacking.

(Child) He sounds cool.

(Marcus) Not really. Ok, Aaron's a small and surprisingly strong guy, quite the flirt even though he usually gets rejected but it doesn't bother him. He made 94 attempts at Morgan before giving up.

(Child) Sounds sleazy.

(Marcus) Yea. Mather's about as thick as the armour on a loader bot, but he's good with guns. VERY good with guns. Medium height and built like a truck, he could break through anything with nothing but his left hand.

(Child) Strong, stupid and I'm guessing cocky. kinda like some of my friends.

(Marcus) Now on the opposite end of the spectrum, Wes. He's smart, scared at almost anything and fragile. He rarely gets into fights, mostly tries to ignore them. He's a COMPLETE coward.

(Child) He sound like a massive pushover.

(Marcus) Jericho, a tall, thin man that wears a smart, surprisingly moveable, suit with a trench coat, if he reaches over his shoulder and hooks his thumb under a small catch, it has a section that pulls up into an assassin's hood. He's smug and has more than a few women at his feet.

(Child) He's a player.

(Marcus) REALLY, WHAT GAVE IT AWAY! Jamison is tall, slender and also a half lizard, half human thing that somehow landed Marmion. He has wings that he tucks into his cloak, they're bulletproof. He can also spit acid, acid strong enough to melt through eridium.

(Child) AWESOME! Does he have a tail?

(Marcus) Yes. Now, the last of this merry band of friends, Marmion. She is a tall, slim and extremely provocative woman. The only woman in the group and the first to talk to Wes after he joined two weeks after her. She made 376 attempts on Jack to "climb the ranks" quickly before giving up and set her eyes on the only non-human in the group, Jamison.

(Child) Sounds like probably every woman on Pandora.

(Marcus) Anyway, on with the story.

Several hour after the skag attack, everybody was talking about what they found on the skags. The night had got colder since the fighting started and was now near freezing, some of the rats feeding off the carcases of the skags were actually starting to leave and those things could live through the Pandoran sun for 3 days without food or water for three days before breaking a sweat. People started turning in for the night so Wes started to get to his post but Jack stopped him and sent him to sleep and climbed up to the lookout position himself. His reasoning for doing so was so he had some time on his own to think things over.

The night was cold, dry and quiet, far too quiet to be a Pandoran night, not even one rakk in the sky. Weird. Jack picks up his stomper and scans the horizon but doesn't see any thing, he checks again and for the second time sees nothing but the empty salt flats. Just then Jack notices a small twinkle on the ridge of a nearby hill, it looked like a reflection. At that moment the realisation hit him like a bullet train, it had been a reflection. A reflection of a scope, a sniper scope. Just then Jack braced for the impact of a bullet but after 10 seconds of squinting his eyes he realised that his watcher wasn't firing, just sitting there, watching. Jack raised his gun to the gun to the reflection and increased the magnification of the site to get a better look and it was exactly what he thought it was, a sniper.

He climbed off the truck and woke Wes to go check who the sniper is and why he's there and if needed to jump him. Both Jack and Wes got their weapons and armour, when they were ready to set out they walked to the entrance closest to the sniper, the north entrance but the second they got out the camp, the sniper let off a silenced shot. Wes dropped to the ground a second later, Jack looked over at him and saw a tranquilizer dart sticking out of his neck. Nothing lethal but enough to knock him out. About four seconds later Jack noticed the thunderous roar of engines, car and motorbike, then a flash of colour and a symbol. It's Gabriel Veto's guys, he's known Gabriel a long time he's done lots of stuff to him and other people but never has he messed with his crew and he knows not to mess with them. Little did Jack know that was one of the last times he would see Wes.

Chapter 2

VROOM! CLUNK! SLAM! A motorbike shoots over a ramp, flies through the air and the psycho driving smacks Jack over the head with a wrench and sends him tumbling into the ground with a thump. The psychos yelled in delight as Jack hit the ground but calmed down when they saw that he wasn't dead. But for some reason restrained themselves from killing him. They just surrounded him, staring at him, surprisingly NOT ripping him limb from limb. He looked over toward where Wes lay and saw that he was being carried away by a brute. The brute dumped him in a truck then turned and lifted his mask, at that moment he saw that the brute was Jacks' childhood friend Joe. Feeling betrayed Jack raised his hand gun, shot and saw his old friends face explode into a million pieces in a matter of seconds. Then. Black. Knocked out, probably from the wrench that he was hit with earlier.

Jack woke up on a bed in the infirmary truck with probably the worlds worst headache, he looked over at the clock on the bedside table and saw it was already past mid-day of the next day. Jack tried to get up but winced at the stab of pain that shot into his side, he looked down to see a large bandage covering a large section of his torso, he tapped his side to see how it felt and ended up having to bite back a scream. 'AAAHHHHHH!'

'Jack, do Not move that much and definitely don't touch it.' Said Stuart trying not to sneer.

'I saw that you ass.' Jack snapped.

'Calm it, you suffered some serious ballistic trauma to your side, even with your overshield. Bullet cut straight through it actually. You got hit just after the wrench that knocked you out. It was a pipe wrench by the way.' Stuart explained.

'Ok doc, how long till I'm back to normal?' Jack asked but afraid of the bad answer.

'Never.' Stuart said flatly.

'WHAT!? NEVER!?' Jack yelled horrified that he actually got the bad answer.

'Don't worry, I patched you up. I said you'll never be the same, you'll be better. Faster. Stronger. You'll be up and about killing, looting and chatting up women in bars by at latest tomorrow night, that good chief?' Stuart asked smugly.

'Awesome, thanks.' Jack thanked

'You know you're the only one in the group to thank me for this stuff right?' Stuart said sincerely.

'I know dude. Now. Get out so I can rest, mmm kay.' Jack replied smiling.

'Sure thing boss. But remember to be careful because.' Stuart started.

'War never changes.' Jack ended. 'I know.' He added

And with that Stuart left and left Jack with his thoughts. He decided to lift his bandage, SLOWLY. Jack saw a large pristine metal plate that spread across his torso and thought to himself that it must of been some ballistic trauma. He then noticed a built in overshield to go with the overshield he already had but this one mitigated bullet piercing. Jack decided to look round the room a bit and noticed a vase filled to the brim with full, crimson red roses. 'Where the hell did they get such good quality roses on Pandora?' Jack couldn't help asking himself. Then he saw the note next to him from the whole group and a picture of Jericho, Marmion and himself sitting on the doorstep of the orphanage they all grew up in. On the back it said "Friends from day one. Get well soon dude." It touch him so much he started to tear up but wiped it away when he felt the med-truck move.

Jack just slept through the ride but had a really weird dream, far weirder than anything he has seen in a dream or in real life. Weirder than when that one drunk guy in sanctuary. It started off pretty normal in that he woke up, got out of bed and left the med-truck to see what was going on. Everyone was there apart from Wes of course, sitting there around the front of the main truck eating dinner. Starving Jack sat down, grabbed dinner and tucked in without noticing the stranger that was also sitting in the circle talking with Marmion about something. Jack finished the food and gulped down his drink before looking around the group and only then notice the woman sitting next to Marmion and Alby. Alby looking dumbstruck at how enchanting the woman was. 'Oh crap, sorry. I didn't see you there. I was just so hungry because I've been out of it for a few days.' Jack apologised looking the women to see what kind of armour and overshield and if she had any hidden weapons. No hidden weapons but a large rifle next to her and also pretty good armour and overshield.

'It's fine, I was told of your condition and was the one that brought the flowers but let your team say it was from them.' The women said in a extremely stunning voice.

'How did you get them?' Jack asked stunned that someone he only just met thirty seconds prior had got him flowers of such a high quality.

'It was really easy actually. I have the ability to exchange something for stuff I want as long as it's an equal exchange, it's called alchemy.' The women said with a hint of satisfaction for the look of wonder in Jacks' eyes.

'Who are you?' Jack asked bewildered.

'The names Tessa. And the woman over there speaking with your doctor is Angel. I'm sure you will have heard of her.' Tessa said pointing over to Stuart and another woman that has pale skin and black hair with the same gear as Tessa.

'Can't say I have.' Jack replied.

'You must have, considering she's Handsome Jack's DAUGHTER!' Tessa said putting emphasis on daughter.

'Wait, HANDSOME JACK'S DAUGHTER! Didn't she die?' Jack shouted surprised.

'Yeah, I did. And was revived by something I think it was eridium radiation' Angel said flatly. 'And Tessa, stop telling people that.'

'Fine' Tessa said sadly.

'Wait. Are you Jack Crook? Wholly crap, you have no idea how long I've been looking for you' Angel said Ecstatic.

'What are you on about?' Jack asked slightly weirded out.

'I had a vision as I was coming back to life. I saw you, me, Tessa and your crew. Entering a vault with the monster defending it dead. Just lying on the ground behind us. Your eyes had a odd, almost divine, looking white and gold glow coming from you eyes' Angel said marvelled at the memory of it.

'Ok, that's weird.' Jack said thinking how crazy it all was.

Just then Jack felt like someone had just slapped him over the face and at the same moment Marmion got up with a very blank look on her face and she started yelling. 'JACK! WAKE UP JACK! PLEASE! JUST WAKE UP!' Startled Jack leapt to his feet and looked around everyone had the same look as Marmion. He walked over to Angel and shook her shoulders but as he did so she and Tessa turned to dust. Shocked Jack stumbled and watched the dust of Angel get blown out of his hands, after all the dust had blown away Jack looked around and saw his friend still had the blank looks and Marmion was still Screaming for him to wake up, he felt another slap and that was the point where everything started to slowly deteriorate into nothing but white. Starting with his friends, then the trucks and finally Pandora its self. Just then everything goes black and Jack feels like he's falling. Everything comes back into view and his eyes start to work normally, then slams into the bed and bounces onto the floor.

'JACK! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?' Marmion yelled almost sounding fearful.

'Stop yelling, my head wrecks.' Jack replied holding his head.

'Sorry. What happened though?' She asked relaxing.

'I don't know, you tell me?' Jack said confused.

'Well. I came in to check up on you, you were fine. But then you started to mumble about somebody called Angel and I assumed you were having a good dream but then there was an odd...' Marmion explained.

'Let me guess. An odd, almost divine white and gold glow? Come on, you know I'm right.' Jack continued.

'Yeah, how'd you know? You know what explain later. After that started you actually started to lift out of bed and in ten seconds you were hovering next to the ceiling. You were like that for three minutes. Then all of a sudden the glow cut out and you dropped and here we are.' Marmion finished.

'Whoa. Really.' Jack looked at her Shocked.

'Yeah it was freaky. By the way, how did you know about the glow?' Marmion asked worried.

'It was in my dream. Angel said it in a vision.' He explained.

'And who's Angel?' Marmion asked confused.

'Handsome Jack's daughter.' Jack said calmly.

'WHAT? HIS DAUGHTER? HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT SO CALMLY? Marmion yelled.

Jack explained everything that happened in the dream, told her what happened at the end and she left him to tell the rest of the group. Jack tried to get up and found he could get up and could actually do more than he could do before. He found that the doc had given his legs an upgrade, same with his arms. Jack could lift the bed he had lay in only minutes prior, the bed must have waighted as much as a small motorbike. He could also feel his leg augmentations priming his muscles for him to run, jump or do whatever he wanted to do.

Jack opened the door of the med-truck and stepped outside to see what was going on and saw instantly that everyone was surrounding Marmion. She was obviously telling them about what happened in the med-truck, what it looked like when Jack was floating and how shocked she was at what he had said. Jack walked over to the group to hear what was being said about it, he already activated the invisibility upgrade on his torso plate before he went over.

They were all arguing over whether Marmion was helucinating about Jack floating in the air and the glow. Then they started to argue over whether Jack was crazy or if the dream was legit, if they would end up in a vault surrounded by loot. At that moment Jack heard something that he thought he would never hear. Aaron actually suggested they usurp Jack and select a new leader. With that Jack walked up behind Aaron, uncloaked, cleared his throat and scowled as Aaron turned around. 'What was that Aaron?' Jack asked through bared teeth. 'Before you answer that, it's ok. I might have thought that if it hadn't happened to me. And by way you may need to change your pants.' Jack laughed as he saw Aaron hobble off to his bunk to change then turned to the rest of the group, the scowl reappearing. 'What were you guys talking about before I came out three minutes ago?' Jack investigated.

'Nothing boss.' Mather said looking at the ground.

'Better haven't been.' Jack gave Mather a sideways look. 'How close are we to Gabriel's place?'

'100 meters.' Stuart answered.

'Brilliant.' Jack replied. 'I'm in the mood to kick some serious ass.'

The group spent ten minutes collecting themselves after that incident and then started to gather their stuff. It took three minutes to attach silencers to all guns and explain the plan. Jack placed Jericho on a nearby hill providing cover fire but not so his scope could be seen reflecting, he had Mather all set to blow the front gate off its hinges and go in guns a blazing (Mather was the only one without silencers), everyone else was going to the back of the base cutting through the back wall silently with Jack on point. They were going to make their way silently to the cells where they kept prisoners and anyone else who wanted out. Then make their way to Gabriel to give him what he disserved and then start to clear the bandit camp from the inside out, starting with the barracks to cut off any reinforcements.

All the teams were in place, Jack gave the signal to Mather to start the assault and the second the explosion sounded he motioned for his team to run and started towards the wall before the rest answered at full sprint. He got to the wall in ten seconds without making a sound thanks to his leg upgrades, Jack looked back and raised his hand, beckoning for Albys' axe. Alby threw the axe and Jack caught it with ease then silently cut a hole in a weak spot of the wall while simultaneously catching the body of a too curious guard that Jericho picked off. Jack gently placed down the body as the rest of the group arrived, he handed Aldy back his axe while also pushing away the insertion he had made on the wall. Jack walked through the newly formed hole while unclipping his assault rifle from his belt, he raised it to his shoulder and started towards the prison cells, only looking back to check everyone was still there.

Jack and his friends went to reclaim their friend like something I can only describe as winged fury or a highly trained military unit from hell. The shear rage in his eyes could have killed never mind the guns, they moved so quickly that none of the guards saw what hit them until their brains were all over the walls and floors. The rescue squad got to the cells in four minutes and Alby setup to get Albys'_ onto the computer system controlling the door, it broke through the system in thirty seconds flat, but as they entered the cells Jack noticed that Wes wasn't there. Just a bunch of other prisoners, one of them sitting in the corner with a hood up concealing there face. Jack freed the rest of the prisoners and they all thanked him when he gave their stuff back, one of them was especially thankful. He called himself Jason Pyro, he was a average height, average strength person that looked as crazy as a badger and a chainsaw in a box made out of dynamite. He apparently liked fire because he had a flamethrower, fire resistant armour and about fifty Molotov cocktails. The mask had a skull spray-painted on the front with red glass covering the eyes, the helmet was connected to an oxygen tank on his back via tubes that are slotted into the cheeks.

The last prisoner was still in the corner with its' hood up, so Jack went over and knelt down to speak with her. 'Hello? You're free. You can leave.'

Then the prisoner spoke in a hardly audible voice. 'What's your name? I need to know the name of the man who saved me.'

'Ok. My name is Jack Crook and these are my friends.' Jack explained softly, as not to scare her.

'JACK CROOK! IT'S YOU?' The person yelled in a familiar voice while leaping up yanking off her hood.

'It's you.' Jack jumped in shock. 'Tessa!'

Chapter 3

'How do you know me? We've never met.' Tessa said confused.

'Long story. Marmion explain please.' Jack replied.

Marmion explained the dream, what happened when Jack was in the dream and how they had come there to get their friend but saw her. Tessa explained that Gabriel had Wes be brought to him when the first explosion sounded and that she would help them get Wes back if they got her back to her base and Angel safe. They agreed to that and went to give Tessa her stuff back and found only her armour. Jack asked where her rifle was and she explained that Gabriel took it because he liked the make and how she had decorated it. Tessa said it was fine because she could use here phaselock ability and that it's stronger than most rare snipers. Jack nodded and they set out to get their friend and stuff back, the winged fury returning although this time it had someone who could send pulses of phaselock energy that made the guards explode about two seconds after it hit them.

Josh contacted Jack about a large group of guards coming that way and asked for permission to fire but Jack said to wait till they got closer. Ten second later the guards came into view and Jack said to take the shot, all of a sudden three of the seven guards dropped dead and the rest exploded into hundreds of pieces three seconds later. All eyes went to Tessa to see the red glow coming out of her hands. After about 30 seconds of wonder Jack shushed everyone and got everyone to continue, they went to the centre of the camp to finish this and end Gabriels' reign of terror. Jack walked round the last corner to Gabriels' quarters, where he ran the place.

'Well, Well, Well, look at this feared Bandit boss, Gabriel the gruesome none the less, sitting in his quarters crying like a baby because of some explosions and his guard going missing.' Jack said with a large smirk on his face that disappeared as Gabriel turned around with his own smirk while also gesturing to a man kneeling next to him. The man wasn't facing Jack but had tons of bruises, cuts and bullet wound all over the side of the man Jack could see, it was definitely Wes, a horridly mutilated Wes.

'Your friend has been very informative to me and I'm thankful for that. So, for that I'm going to give him a quick death, not even very painful.' Gabriel said as smug as a saint. Well, a saint that partakes in brutal murder. He pulled a big handgun, from where Jack saw it was an Unforgiven, out of it's holster and levelled it with Wes' temple.

'WAIT! DON'T SHOOT! We only want our friend back, please. Remember New Haven, I gave your brother back without a scratch.' Jack pleaded pathetically.

'Well. Look like I owe you two.' Gabriel replied grimly as he pulled the trigger. Wes' brain coated the wall as the corpse fell to the floor, showing the rescue team how mutilated he was. Wes was horribly burned on the other half of his body, covered in deep gashes, some exposing bone. He also was missing his left arm from the elbow down, that wound had been done recently.

'Ok. You owe me two.' Jack snapped. 'Here's for New Haven.' Jack gestured to Tessa then to Gabriels' brother. Tessa raised her hand and sent red phaselock energy at her target, as indicated by Jack, and it latched onto his tail bone. While the soldier stood there screaming, Tessa quickly yanked her hand back which ripped out the spine and in turn the head and sent it flying then slamming into the wall.

'AND THIS IS FOR WES!' Jack screamed raising his hands, pointed them at Gabriel and shot a beam of pure white and gold energy at him, reducing him to a pile of blood and gore in a flash of blinding light.

'Jack? Are you ok?' James said shocked at what Jack had just done.

As James finished asking there was another burst of the godlike light and a giant black and gold humanoid being stood exactly where Jack had only seconds earlier. The thing stood up straight, reached for a scabbard on its' side and unsheathed a broadsword of white and gold phaselock energy while also extending black wings that have gold around the edge. In less than a second it took off, burst through the ceiling and as the rest of the Jacks crew ran out side they saw that the thing had landed in the centre of a group of at lest one hundred bandits. Some of the bandits were dropping their guns and running and the others tried to shot it but were getting slaughtered, Mather ran into the area but even he was smart enough not to attack it and instead ran over to ask what was going on.

Alby explained everything that happened up until he arrived and