Borderlands: The Spartan
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Log: August 7th, 2558
It has been over a year since Cortana's expiration...her death. She was right when she told me that I'm not a machine...I know this because despite what others believe, I do miss her. Since my return to active duty alongside the Spartan IV division, my assignments have consisted of retrieval of active Forerunner technology and the acquisition of data. But recently there has been a new discovery on the fringes of explored space: a star system home to just one full hospitable world. Since the beginning of the Covenant-Human war decades ago, this system, Pandora, has remained hidden from the eyes of both the Covenant and UNSC.
And during that time they have made leaps in technology and warfare, advancements which would have helped a great deal during the war. Eridium, a powerful element and more valuable than diamonds. The Hyperion Corporation, which until recently kept all knowledge of Pandora hidden, possessed a monopoly on the element and currently has taken control of the colony. Their CEO, code named Handsome Jack, has begun an anti-crime campaign all over the planet. But multiple claims have been received that Jack is simply killing indiscriminately and violating numerous human rights.
Surprisingly, Handsome Jack has cooperated with the demands for a UNSC investigation. I have been personally dispatched to independently coordinate the investigation into Hyperion activities on Pandora. After landing at Hyperion Colonial Headquarters, which appears to be both the corporate HQ and only fully occupied and modernized city on Pandora's surface, I have boarded a train that will allow me to undertake a tour of Pandora's settlements.
I am also tasked with retrieving Eridium samples and investigating the specimens identified as 'Sirens'. Hyperion records describe them as a small number of women who are in possession of psychokinetic abilities caused by Eridium exposure. A recent bloom in Eridium in the past five years has caused the powers of these Sirens to manifest in newer, stronger ways that have moved them into the same category as a rogue or potentially rogue Spartan: highly dangerous and to be treated with all precautions.
I will be tailing a team of four 'Vault Hunters', mercenaries and outlaws who search for relics left behind by a previous civilization, possibly connected to the Forerunners or not. One of them happens to be a Siren while the other three come from vastly different backgrounds. Spacer colonies, small habitable moons, maybe even mobile colony ships. After examining their respective arsenals and gauging their talents, I have categorized them as moderate to high level threats, with records placing them at having training equal to or greater than that of an ODST.
Spartan Lieutenant John-117, retaining the simple nickname of Master Chief from all who knew him, looked up from his personal data pad. With one hand he tapped the power button, making the holographic keyboard interface vanish as he slipped the thin device into the satchel he carried with him. The MJOLNIR power armor may have been upgraded since his return to Earth, but it still lacked carrying space for much beyond ammunition and weapons.
The train had come to a stop at a desert settlement. From the windows of the transport it looked to be all but empty except for a few people who could be seen wandering the streets...and several highly armed individuals on the platform where the train had stopped.
"Overhang, last stop before your journey begins, vault hunters!" Handsome Jack's voice, every bit as charming and friendly as ever, said through the train PA system as the newcomers stepped aboard, now actually making the train car ahead look a little crowded.
Now a full eight Vault Hunters were on the train with the Chief, who took a moment to examine them all.
He began with the most ordinary members of them. One wore what looked like a regular set of fatigues one would wear in the military, and had his hair cut down to a crew cut. The second wore a dark blue hood and mask that covered all but his eyes, and wore more appropriate battle armor that wasn't too light or cumbersome. Then there was a woman...who was taller than Chief. She had to duck down into the train car and remain hunched over a bit.
This woman had ashen gray skin that looked as thick as a rhino's, and a bone structure that was different from the regular human skeleton. Her brow ridges were defined a bit and she had sharper teeth that was shown when she hissed at another of the Vault Hunters who bumped into her. Her dark hair was pulled back into a tight braid which wound its way down just past her shoulders. She...was not human, but the Vault Hunters were not reacting to her.
"Relax. She is an Apocalian. While your UNSC has never met them, the people of Pandora know of them." For a moment John-117 felt the familiar feeling of mercury travelling up his spine, the way he felt when inserting Cortana into his helmet...and that voice.
The next man, who had bumped into the Apocalian woman, was almost as large as John and had a square jaw with dark hair and was cleanly shaven...and was speaking with a deep accented voice. "You're one ugly mothafuckah."
"Care to repeat that, human?!" The Apocalian hissed, only for the hooded human to get between them.
"Eyy..." He said in a relaxed tone of voice, raising one hand in a placating gesture. "Easy guys, we're all friends here, right?"
THUD! He was shoved against a wall so hard that he left a dent in it, and gasped as the air exited his body. As the Apocalian stomped past him, he wheezed. "I've been wrong before..."
Before the Apocalian could touch the heavily muscled dark haired man the last of the additional vault hunters stepped between them, and this one was the same size as her this time. He looked like...an anthromorphic dog wearing body armor and carrying a large sniper rifle. "Be at ease, Apocalian...or I will put you at ease."
The woman growled, but backed off when she saw the other Vault Hunters, and the Chief, reaching for their weapons. John-117 holstered his pistol, but did not lower his guard. Most of the Vault hunters here were outlaws or people of interest wanted by Hyperion Corps, and previously by the Crimson Lance. Varying violent crimes from destruction of property, murder, arson and in the case of one of them political assassination marked their records. The two aliens were the only ones without bounties, but only because their species rarely associated with the people of Pandora...to the point where most of the settlers still weren't aware of their existence.
As for the hooded man and his muscular friend, they were known as Grey and Schwartz...oddly the latter had an eerie resemblance to the long dead actor and politician from 21st century Earth: Arnold Schwarzenegger. Grey on the other hand was apparently wanted for identity theft above all, literally managing to copy a person's face just by looking at them.
The point was that even he couldn't afford to let his guard down around two aliens powerful enough to wrestle with him, and a Siren who could do god knows what. This group was a grenade preparing to explode as it was...
The train rumbled as an explosion came from the front car. Everybody looked to the source of the sound before part of the roof began to buckle as if a great weight were on it.
"Don't worry folks! Just some bandit trash who came out onto the rail lines-OOH! Oh man that was hysterical." Handsome Jack, supposedly sitting in the forward car, cackled. "Check-check this out. This guy, he somehow survived the crash. His car is on the roof of the train and he was climbing out of it and BAM! He just gets clothes lined by one of the Grav-Pylons! Aw man that's real comedy."
The silent, helmet clad assassin known as Zero spoke. "As I listen close, my ire rises and rises, Jack sounds like an ass."
"Truer words never been spoken," Axton nodded as he checked his rocket launcher. "Why the hell are we here when we could be out lookin' for that vault without this ass hole? I mean you guys saw him, right? He's got a freakin' mask taped over his face!"
"He's also the legitimate authority on Pandora," A woman with what looked like blue hair and light blue tattoos said as she stepped away from the wall she was leaning against. Seeing as there were only a few Sirens in existence, it was easy for John to guess on which one this was based on her age and unique hair color: Maya.
"Heh, I just came cuz' it sounded like he'd be givin' guns out to anybody who works for him." A large man with tanned skin and an equally large belly chuckled as he pounded his huge meaty fists together. "Hyperion always has the biggest ones."
"Yyyyeah," Axton immediately hid his rocket launcher at this point. He had likely taken it from a Hyperion soldier at one point, and didn't want anybody looking too closely at it or any of his other weapons.
"I'm just concerned about him 'inviting' us to Pandora." Grey said, dusting off his clothes. "I mean...Jack don't deal with bandits and mercenaries, at least not honestly. Something's up."
John listened close. Any information on Jack would be useful at this point. Then his eyes wandered to the banner at the front of the car behind the assembled vault hunters, showing a friendly faced of Handsome Jack and the words 'WELCOME VAULT HUNTERS'. It fell away to show one behind it. Unlike the friendly shade of blue, this was red and had a sneering face on it...
With the words 'TO YOUR DOOM' with the tiny words beneath it 'nothing personal' in emphasis.
"...I think you're right." John said as he stood up, momentarily startling everybody.
"Awwww shit." Axton groaned as two yellow crates rose up and became blocky robots with gun tipped arms. In those moments everybody except Axton and John scrambled out of the way. The large tanned man, Salvador, opened a side door and leaped out only to grab onto the edge of the train's roof. Zero shot up through the roof while Grey followed in a less elegant fashion. Maya, Arnold and the two aliens rushed past John towards the back in the meantime.
"Alright Jacky, here yah go!" Axton tossed something up into the air and then turned and bolted. The device unfolded into some auto turret of sorts that immediately tore through the two robots, which Chief's database identified as Gun Loader models. Axton then turned while his rocket launcher appeared in his hands, compliments of the digistruct system that allowed the denizens of Pandora to carry large objects with little difficulty.
AXTON as the Commando.
"Everybody DOWN!" He fired a rocket past Chief, Arnold, Maya and the alien duo.
Maya , the closest to the explosion, furrowed her brow and began to manifest her Siren abilities even as more Loader bots began to march through the back door of the car. Her entire body blazed with energy as she lifted the closest Loader into the air and then sent it slamming through the nearest wall.
MAYA As the Siren.
Arnold then stepped up, carrying a sawn off shotgun that he expertly loaded with practically a flick of his hand and then fired it into the next two robots, continuing towards the aft cars.
ARNOLD as the Terminator Rip-Off.
The dog like alien, resembling a Doberman more specifically, shoved Arnold aside lightly and took aim with his sniper rifle, firing down the hall. A single beam of light came from the weapon and tore through as many as three of the robots at once, and giving room for the Apocalian to move forward.
KINE as the Renegade.
The Apocalian took multiple bullets, a shield manifesting around her body without a device in sight. She smirked as she slammed into the next group of Loaders and held one up in each hand. She spun around and used them as clubs on the other Loaders before sending one flying out through one of the walls.
TESA as the She-Hulk.
Salvador, still hanging on the side of the train, was almost blown off when the robot blew a hole right in front of him and slammed into a building the train was passing. He swung himself into the train car as the next door opened, showing another wave of Loaders. He manifested two assault rifles, one in each hand, and opened fire without having to aim. He cackled as the robots fell before him.
SALVADOR as the Gunzerker.
Meanwhile on the roof, Zero stood calmly, staring ahead until sensing enemies behind him. He turned and faced two charging Hyperion Combat Engineers, one of them thrusting the arm of his exosuit forward towards the masked warrior...only to pass through him like he wasn't there. The two stood there in confusion as Zero appeared behind them and thrust a long, glowing blade through the second man's chest. He then leaped over them both and, still not touching solid ground, kicked the leader of the two into his partner, impaling him on the sword.
ZERO as a number.
Grey stood further forward on the train, trying to get to the control car. Several Hyperion soldiers climbed out ahead of him, and several more behind him. He glanced back and forth and sighed. "Awwww shit." They all rushed for him at once, four or five on each side; in response Grey dropped something onto the roof of the train and rushed to the side. He vaulted down through a window, smashing through the thin metal shutters and kicking another engineer in the face as he found himself joining the rest of the group.
The engineers up above gathered to look down at the edge Grey had jumped from, not noticing the timed explosive he had set until it reached zero...
"Boom, bitches!" They all turned at the device let out an audio recording, nearly jumping out of their own skins before realizing it was a hoax. They all chuckled and sighed in relief...
BOOM! Then they were all sent flying, one of them landing face down in the deep snow the train was now travelling over. The ride had left the desert and quickly passed through a tundra, and now they were near the south pole entirely. The engineer's legs stuck up, and then hung limply.
GREY as...well who really gives a shit?
They all stopped as they entered the final car before the control car, this one containing...
"Bad ass incoming!" Axton shouted as they all back pedalled into the previous car or knelt behind crates for cover as the Bad Ass Loader began to fire bullets that melted sections of metal where it struck or tore holes through the walls. It kept up this barrage as the Vault Hunters waited for a chance to strike back...only for Chief to rush past them. The Mjlonir's shields deflected several shots, but he could see his shields dropping rapidly. So the Spartan slid along the floor and slammed into the Loader's legs knocking its feet out from under it and making it collapsed onto the floor.
The Chief then leaped onto the Loader, jammed his fist clean through it, and tore out its energy core as another Bad Ass Loader finished unfolding at the far end of the car. The Chief leaped through the air as it began to fire again, and jammed the unstable power core right through the second Bad Ass Loader's eye. He then leaped away and fired his pistol at the still exposed core...
BOOM! The explosion blew away part of the roof and walls.
THE CHIEF as...well you all know what the fuck he is!
The eight Vault Hunters came out of hiding. Kine nodded to the Chief. "Good work, human."
The Chief replied with a shrug and continued towards the door leading to Handsome Jack. The other Vault Hunters followed him, gathering at the door as the Chief raised one foot and kicked it open. The interior of the car was dimly lit by red lights, and a single chair sat in the middle of it...turning to show a dummy of Handsome Jack that had been chipped away at and desecrated. It also had dynamite sitting in its lap, along with most of the car being laced with explosives.
"It's cute that you all think you're the heroes of this adventure, but you're not." The real Handsome Jack said through a speaker. "Welcome to Pandora, kiddos!"
"...awwwww fuck." Grey groaned.
"Oh that son of a bitch!" Maya swore.
John almost swore beneath his helmet and herded the other Vault Hunters back. "Get back and hold onto somethi-"
The explosives went off, sending them all flying back as the train lost its stability. The gravity tethers that moved it along a preset track lost their grip, and the train essentially was derailed, crashing through a field of snow and ice. The Chief had been flung free of it through the breach made by the destroyed Bad Ass Loader, and slammed into a low cliff face. His armor locked down as he lost consciousness, but in his final moments he heard that soothing voice again...
"It's okay, Spartan. Jack will pay...I'll make sure you get to pay him back later."
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End of Prologue