Pandora.

Noun, location. It is a place, a planet. A tangible thing. It is barren, a wasteland, essentially the leftovers of everything good in our universe. It is all desert and rain-less. As far as I know, it's rainless.

It's over-run by bounty hunters and bandits, and I myself was there for The Vault. I had never really believed in The Vault, but then stories, rumors, and people came to me, almost as if it were some sort of mission. I kept hearing a voice in my head, and she always told me that The Vault was very real, and that I needed to get there.

What did I have to lose?

When I arrived on Pandora, the first place I was taken was The Arid Badlands. It seemed reasonable enough to me, considering I had no idea where I technically was. But I was not the only Vault hunter on the bus. No. It was I, another woman, she had blond and pink hair. The others were men. One appeared to be a soldier, there was one skinny one, and a very large, buff man. No one spoke to me, or one another. The bus driver was the only voice, and soon enough he was telling me to get off. I was being kicked off the bus. Why? Ask him, not me.

As I tripped through the door of the bus, I met the dusty earth of Pandora's ground, and I turned to glare at the bus driver. He was an odd fellow, grinning at me, and he threw me a stray wink.
"We'll be doing this again later," he said to me. Just like that, he was gone.
Looking around me, I saw... nothing... but I could hear a sort of voice. It wasn't human whatever it was.

"Hey! Hey you!"

I whirled my body around, pistol drawn and aimed, ready to shoot at whatever it was flagging me down.

"Noooo! Don't shoot me, please!"
As I looked down, I saw a robot. He was small and square, he came up to my waist, just about, not counting the antenna on top of his body. He (and I only say he because of 'his' voice) was essentially a rectangle, and he went from bottom to top, smaller to wider. He was yellow and a white-ish color, rusted, with one wheel for a foot beneath his body, and he had one 'eye', a circle, like a porthole.
When I had addressed the fact that he was no threat to me, I sighed, and relaxed, watching the small robot relax a bit as well. He seemed to clear his voice before continuing to speak to me.

"Welcome to Fyrestone! I am CL4P-TP, you may call me by my locally designated name, 'Clap Trap'. Before continuing, please accept this ECHO communication device and heads-up display provided free of charge by the Dalh Corperation!"

Clap Trap opened his stomach, a small square compartment, and pulled out said ECHO device before handing it to me. Looking at the object, I pressed the only button I saw, and on the screen, I saw the words 'Boot sequence initiated'. My work there was done.
I looked back to Clap Trap, and he was ready to speak again.

"Great!" he said. "I have detected that your ECHO device is fully functioning! This way, please."

With no hesitation, Clap Trap began rolling through the dust smoothly, leaving me in his wake. I caught up rather easily, glancing around at what appeared to be a town of sorts. Everything looked rusted and old, like scrap metal. Looking to my left, I saw a building with a large neon sign with blue letters that read 'Welcome'. Nothing welcoming about dust and heat.

"Step right up!" Clap Trap said.
I turned my attention back to the small robot, and then looked at what he was motioning to. Something I did not recognize.

"This is the New-U Station. When you use this device your DNA profile is automatically identified and stored. Please activate the New-U Station now."

What I was looking at resembled a telephone pole. It had a small device on the front facing me, that looked like an open pamphlet. It was a series of screens. I obeyed Clap Trap and stepped forward. The only issue was that I had no idea what I was supposed to do. Considering it looked touch-screen, I pressed my index finger to the center screen. Immediately I was jolted with a small shock, and I gasped, yanking my finger away. The New-U Station beeped, and then the screen lit up. I glanced at it to see... low and behold, myself. Not only was it me, but it was me right that second. I wasn't entirely pleased with what I saw.

I am a short individual by birth, and I am quite a bit pale. Not unnaturally, but being in a place like this, I was liable to be sun-burnt by the end of the day.

I had long, dark brown, wavy hair, and it fell just below my shoulders, making me look even shorter. Right now it was in a pony-tail to keep it away from my face. And to match my hair, I have dark brown eyes. I'm rather plain. On my face, shoulders, and pretty much everywhere else on my body, though, I have beauty marks. My favorite is right above my mouth, kind of like a Monroe type of deal. Only not so big and gross.
But the New-U Station had me matched to a T. Not only did it show my physical appearance, but also my outfit. As of now, I was wearing beige cargo shorts, those came down to my knees. On my feet I wore black combat boots. Simple enough. Around my waist hung a black holster for my pistol. Nothing fancy, yet again. For a shirt, I had on a white and dark blue striped spaghetti strap tank, with a practically shredded black vest over that, and a mostly new beige vest over the both of them. I am an array of colors and layers, none of them really matching, and now I am regretting coming to Fyrestone, for I look a hot mess.

"Excellent! Now that your DNA is registered, you have the best in horrific death and dismemberment insurance! Should an unfortunate fatal incident occur, your 'new you' will appear at the nearest station."

Clap Trap was such an informative little creature, and now I realized that that was exactly what he was designed to be. An information bot. Boy, was he efficient.

"Now we can head into the peaceful town of Fyrestone!" he said brightly. "Right this way."
I placed my gun into my holster, and began to follow him once more, Clap Trap readily moving on his one wheel.
I follow Clap Trap over to a half-broken gate of sorts. It was large and tall, and metal, looked pretty decent about keeping intruders out. Clap Trap was to my left, punching codes into a small box in front of his body.

Suddenly a very loud engine rev sounded in the distance, and Clap Trap went into panic.

"Wait... is that? ...Oh no, not again! Ruuuunnnn!"

He whirred past me, eye gazing past the gate and into the distance, and not even a second later he was taking cover in a small shed to my right. Looking out of the gate, I spotted two large vehicles, wheels grinding against the dust beneath them, speeding rapidly, and spinning out on the other side of the gate. I couldn't be sure, but I swear I heard gunfire, and immediately I drew my weapon, poised for action.

One last vehicle spun around the sand dune, spinning out in front of me. Now I was positive I heard gunfire, and I aimed my gun, arms extended in front of my body, one eye closed, ready to shoot if it got closer. What happened next, however, I was not expecting. Suddenly a building quite close to the gate burst into explosion, and I cried out in fear. I had not been expecting that in the least. I turned my attention back to the vehicle, closed my left eye again, and fired. I don't know if any shot made contact but whoever was in that buggy sped back around the bend and left me.

I was panting, terrified already, and spun to my right to see Clap Trap emerging from the shack.

"Are... are they gone?" he asked. "Whew! Those bandits really have it in for us Claptraps. Using us as target practice is not part of our programming!"

So they were after the robot. With a sigh I lowered my arms, holding the gun in front of my body now, but limply. I watched as Clap Trap moved back to the code box, and began jamming the keys once more.

"Annnnnndddd open! Yes!" Clap Trap's arms clew open toward the gate, and slowly it began lifting. Before the gate could even get open enough for Clap Trap's entire body to get through, he went in anyway, his antenna smacking the bottom of the gate. He made a frustrated noise, and we both pressed on. Not even ten yards in, and shots rang out. Instantly I drew my gun once more, and aimed. There were men in gas-like-masks in the distance, both in plain sight, both in all black. Both firing at me.

"Aaah! Oh no!Aaaahhhh!" Clap Trap cried, and once again, he was off.

Both men firing at me possessed machine guns, and I only had a pistol. The difference between us all was accuracy. They weren't aiming, and I was. Calmly I stepped around, firing and reloading, my left eye always closed. The first bandit went down easy, a death cry following his fall to the dirt. The second man dove behind some scrap metal, and I took this time to reload once again, dropping a clip to the ground.

"Over here, asshole!"

My eyes grew wide, and I turned swiftly to my left to see the man dive from behind his cover and begin to fire. I narrowly avoided being hit, tumbling a good foot or so as I dove away. In the midst of this gunfire, I could hear Clap Trap still terrified.

"I don't like this..." I heard him say. "This is making me nervous... Take a deep breath- I can't breathe! This is just a recording of somebody breathing! It's not real! It's making me more nervous!"

Taking aim once more, I fired, and my enemy dropped down. I had a damn good eye. He was dead.

Unfortunately, it wasn't over yet.
More shots were fired in my direction, but I couldn't see where they were coming from, much less where they were. Clap Trap suddenly sped from his hiding place and began to jet down the path and very much away from me. I broke out into a run, shots continuing as I followed the robot and met my enemy. And he had a shot gun.

"Shit!" I cried as I watched him reload, and I took cover rather far from him. I was crouched behind what appeared to be a barrier made for... well... occasions such as this. The man in the distance was dressed like the others, and I heard the telltale click before he fired at me. I ran from my cover and aimed, both eyes open this time as I blindly and compulsively fired at my target. From my right I heard another man yelling at me, one of the bandits no doubt.

"Hey, you in there!" he called. "Open the door! We need you to come out and... give us a hand! Hehehe. You really don't want me to come back with Nine-Toes! Open the door!"

I was becoming frustrated.

Closing my left eye, I watched as my target fired once more, and I side stepped before unloading my gun's contents into his body. He fell limply to the dirt. With flared nostrils, I opened my eye and dropped another empty clip before lowering my weapon, and watching Clap Trap emerge once more.

"Whoo!" he said. "That was a doozie!"

I made a sort of 'tch' noise before brushing a strand of loose hair from my face. I was hot and sweaty already, and I hadn't been here for a half an hour.

Clap Trap moved ahead again, and I followed until he stopped at some sort of lock-box.

" You should open this storage device! There may be something inside to help against those bandits!"

I had to admit that Clap Trap was probably right, so I bent down, setting my gun in the dirt and I unlatched the storage box. With the slightest upward push of my fingers, and it began to unfold from it self, and open. There were two shelves extending out and on either side of the box, both containing ammo, and in the middle were two small guns. Out of the two, I took note that the one on the right looked more formidable, and I lifted it carefully from the foam it was contained in. I didn't know much about the gun, but it looked bad-ass, and I left my pistol in the dirt as I took the ammo for my new gun as well.

"Wow!" Clap Trap said as he moved closer to me. "That looks like that can do some damage! Okay, let's get this gate open."

We moved on to another gate, this one was well hidden in the scrap walls of the town. Clap Trap was at yet another box that held keys, and he was jabbing away at them. After a moment though, he spoke.

"These controls seem to be damaged. Have no fear, I'm sure I can do it."

Clap Trap began jabbing again, but soon enough smashed the controls with his small clasp-like hands.

"Arghh! This isn't working!"

I thought it was rather amusing that while Clap Trap spoke so much, I said very little. I jumped slightly as he began erratically banging on the box yet again before finally dropping his arms to his side.

"Quick!" he said. "This way!"

This following nonsense was getting old, but I sighed and complied, following him through a small opened beneath one of the scrap walls. For once we were moving along and nothing seemed to be happening that was out of the ordinary. Oh, but I spoke to soon, for Clap Trap went into panic mode yet again, running off along his own way.

Three men jumped from a large wall to the east, each thrashing toward me with shotguns, one of the three moving toward the back of their little flank formation. Time to test out me new gun.
I dashed away swiftly, my new gun in hand, and I came to a swift stop, dust pouring from beneath my feet, and I aimed. My target himself was aiming, typical shotgun position. I fired first, and down he went. The next to went down just as easily, and once I was done, my lips thinned out. This was already more than I had bargained for.

A good five minute walk and six bandits later, and I was exhausted. We were to town, though, and done. Town however, was a completely different story. Not only was it empty, but I saw not one soul. It was completely and utterly deserted.

I followed Clap Trap over to a home-like structure. He stopped in front of the door, and then spoke yet again.

"Attention citizen of Fyrestone! There is no cause for alarm. This new visitor has resolved the problem!"

However, I was surprised yet again. I heard a voice, a response from something that was not Clap Trap.

"Well shoot, I thought I was a goner that time." the man said. "Damn bandits won't leave us alone. Had to lock the place up tight. I'll let ya in... come on! Damn it. The blasted circuits are on the fritz again. Give it a go from the switch out there, would ya?"

I placed my new gun in the holster, and with little hesitation I moved to the obvious location of the switch. With a few minor tweaks on my end, the mechanism beeped, and the large metal door began to raise.

The first thing I noticed was the stench, the smell of dried blood. Had I not been used to death and bloodshed, my stomach may have overturned at that point. There was a metal table in front, the body of a man splayed across it. He was clearly dead, covered in blood. Behind the table was a man, he was wearing surgeon attire, and his back was to me. He was at another table, doing something. Above him and on the wall were three cabinets, each open, one containing a human skull. The man before me turned around and in his hand was a cleaver of sorts, constructed of mostly metal, and some sort of saw blade. He raised the object over his head, and I covered my mouth, watching as the doctor slammed the metal into the leg of the deceased. Blood spurted everywhere, and I had narrowly avoided being sprayed.

The one slice was made, and the man looked to me before speaking.

"Thanks for openin' her up again," he said to me. "Name's Zed. They don't let me cut on folks anymore since I lost my license, so now I keep the med vendors round here up and runnin'. From the vendors you can buy all the healin' you could ever want from a real doc.. thankfully without the 'the-Vault-is-a-myth-you'll-get-yourself-killed' lecture."

Once done speaking, Zed lifted his cleaver out of the skin of his patient, and then began to wipe it off on his apron.

"Say, what's your name?"
"Nairis." I smiled politely when I spoke, and could hear Clap Trap in the background quietly repeating my name, as if testing it out.

"Well nice to meet you, Nairis," Zed said. "I got a job for you."