Borderlands: Rebuilt

Prologue

I hate this place.

This whole planet's nothing but a giant wasteland filled with skags. Assuming you're unfamiliar with skags, they're basically dogs, but fiercer, uglier, and a hell of a lot deadlier. Mouths with three jaws, acidic saliva, and armored down to the bone, they're nothing but a walking pile of filth.

People here aren't any better, though. Nobody on this planet is sane anymore. Lost their minds long ago. They walk around aimlessly around their camps, masked and carrying whatever gun they last picked up. Nobody has any identity anymore, and they're main hobby? Murder. Nothing gives them more thrill than the perfect opportunity to point their gun at passersby and pull the trigger. Who are the ones in control? The ones supplying the firearms.

The problem with the people with power is that they don't care. However much more sanity they have than the bandits doesn't make them any better. They're sitting safely with their piles of guns and their piles of cash, throwing the guns out for us, sitting back, and watching the ever-entertaining show of the mass-murder that we obviously don't have enough of yet.

There's nothing worse here than the Hyperion corporation, though. They're at the top of the world right now. Literally, they're sitting up their in their fancy-shmancy space station that they call "Helios," doing whatever they decide they want to do. They have the most money, the most sanity, and quite frankly, the most weaponry. They've been so smug after they kicked the Atlas corporation off the map and took their place as the ones with the highest power. They've got the ability to shoot down whatever they want to from their station, and they've got armies of robots they call "Loaders." What's so bad about them, though, is that they're still trying to take after Handsome Jack's vision of a perfect planet.

Handsome Jack was an ex-president of Hyperion, and he was borderline psychotic. He spent his time trying to open an alien vault in the planet in attempt to take control of a giant creature they called the "warrior" to wipe out all life on the planet, and even sacrificing his own daughter to do so. His claims that he will bring peace and order to the planet were nothing but lies - he was planning to kill every last person in this place. As if we didn't already have enough death going on.

That happened years ago. The war's still going on, the great battle between Hyperion and the rebel group called the "Crimson Raiders." The bandits are just thrown aside, treated as just another minor obstacle between them and their goals, while the weapon manufacturers lie to each side, convincing them that they're getting the best guns. And frankly, the Crimson Raiders are getting so reckless, it's hard to tell which side is worse at this point. What a hellhole of a planet.

Oh, and welcome to Pandora.

Chapter 1: The Hunt

The name's Jack. It was given to me by my dumb, Hyperion-loving mother. I hate her for it. People here rarely ever name their children, anyway. But when someone gives you a name, it stays. In these places, anyone who even brings up the topic of Handsome Jack is beaten up or killed. Of course, she didn't last long after I'd been given the name. They kept me alive; they treat my name like an insult to me. It definitely feels like an insult.

I step out of my hut, scanning the area. Nobody in sight. Good. I make my way across the camp, keeping cautious of my surroundings. I can never relax in these bandit camps, even being a bandit myself. It's hard for me to admit it, but however much more sane I might be than the others, that doesn't change what my life is.

As I stroll down the dusty dirt path, I hear a yell coming from a house nearest to me.

"I'LL SLICE OFF YOUR LIMBS AND BREW THEM INTO MY STEW!"

A masked psycho charges out of the house, his buzz axe shining in the morning sun. I don't panic; within a second, I've already got my revolver out of my holster and in my hand, pre-loaded. He has no reaction. I straighten out my arm, take aim, and fire. The bullet finds its mark, and the man drops dead. I'm used to this. When you're living in this hell, you have to learn to fight to survive.

I make my way to the outskirts of the town without any other interruptions. I take the path to the nearest skag den I always go to. Skag hunting's probably the easiest way to make a living here. Fighting them isn't too difficult; just shoot them in the mouth when they roar at you. Best part about it is their dens always refill themselves about every week. Don't know how they manage it.

I reach the skag den, and there's a skag pup wandering around outside. It doesn't notice me. I pick up rock by my feet and throw it at him. It pecks him on the head, and he turns to face me. I grab my revolver, and put it on target, Just as he opens his mouth for an aggressive roar, I take the shot and it dies instantly. The sound alerts the other skags in the den, and out comes a a few adults, a couple of pups, and an alpha skag. Shoot. The alphas are the toughest. I've only ran into a couple of them before. The alpha gives a roar, and before I have time to react, an eager skag pup bounds towards me from the side, attempting to grab my leg. I stumble backwards and fall. He jumps on me, and tries to grab my arm. Unfortunately for the skag, he had my gun hand in his mouth, and all it took was a simple trigger pull to get rid of him. The other skags are circling around me, trying to stop me from being able to escape, while the alpha skag starts running towards me. This situation was too tough; I had to get out. Thinking quickly, I gave a quick shot to one of the adult's legs, incapacitating him, and using that to my advantage, I ran through the opening, firing my remaining shots at the skags giving chase to me. I'd have to return to the camp fruitless. No food for today, I guess.

Nearing the camp, I hear gunfire. No surprise to me. But very quickly, I hear more and more gunfire, as if there's a war going on in there. That's more gunfire than usual. I load up my revolver and head towards the camp to check on what's going on. There are outsiders in the camp - too bad for them. But it seems like they're actually putting up a good fight.

As I catch a glimpse of the people in the camp, it dawned on me who they were. Vault Hunters. They name doesn't mean what it used to anymore. They used to be people who believed in the legends of the alien vaults that exist on Pandora, and were dedicated to finding these vaults and exploiting them. Of course, the vaults are real, and the 2 times they've ever been opened, it went disastrously. After they stopped Handsome Jack from destroying Pandora, they've not been hunting vaults anymore, and the name is instead associated with a Crimson Raider "super-soldier." To each Vault Hunter, they have their unique trick, and that's what separates them from the common soldier. But what business would the Crimson Raiders have with a small bandit camp such as this?

There are 2 Vault Hunters here; one of them is a Siren, a woman with crazy alien powers. They've got some sort of access to another dimension or something that allows them to use their abilities. The other is a psycho - the biggest psycho I've ever seen. I don't know what it is, but this one seems more sane than the others. Either way, this one must be special, otherwise how else would the Crimson Raiders have hired him?

I don't know whether to fight them or not, but I guess I don't have a choice, because the alpha skag seemed to have changed his mind and trailed me, and he pounces on me from behind. I attempt to draw my gun, but the skag swipes it out of my hand and gives a roar. This alerts one of the Vault Hunters: The Siren.

"Krieg! Behind us!" She yells to the psycho. Fitting name for him. She picks up the skag with her powers, and it hovers frozen in the air. The psycho grabs a giant buzz axe and throws it at the skag, hitting its head and splitting its skull. The skag falls and I roll out of the way. I hop aside to pick up my gun, when a bullet flies past my head. The Vault Hunter's shooting at me. I'm a goner.

But I'm not going down without a fight.

I duck behind a low fence, checking that my gun is loaded. All six shots are in. Good. I peek out from behind cover and instantly pull back as a bullet nearly gets me in the head. She's using a sniper rifle. New plan: move quickly. I charge out of cover, a bullet flying behind me. Krieg comes running at me at a surprisingly fast rate, buzz axe in his hand, trying to cut me off. I give a quick shot towards his leg, and he stops. I can see he's going to throw the buzz axe at me, so I aim for his arm, but he's too fast for me, and before I know it, there's the axe flying through the air towards me at an alarming rate. Out of reflex, I snap my aim to try and shoot the buzz axe out of the air. The bullet hits the handle of the axe, and it loses its momentum, and falls short. I catch a quick glimpse of the Siren. She's moving to the side, since Krieg is blocking her line of sight on me. I take the opportunity and run to the exit, firing the rest of my shots but missing. I follow a path I've not taken before, and I'm out of the camp.

And I don't think I'm ever going to return to it.

Chapter 2: Recruited

I don't know where I'm going. All I know is that I'm in an area called the Arid Badlands; It was written on a sign. I'm wandering along the only path in the area, and I can see it leading up to a village. As I get closer I can see a sign on the path.

"Welcome to Fyrestone"

I make my way into the village, only to find that it had been converted into a Hyperion outpost. Damn. I should probably turn back, but curiosity gets the best of me. I hate the company, but I've never seen their tech myself before. As I get further into the camp, I find broken robot parts scattered everywhere, with any guns still in the robot hands. Clearly, somebody's already come and destroyed these Loaders. It's then I noticed a couple of Hyperion engineers huddling over a half-built Loader, repairing it. They look up and notice me.

"Vault Hunter!" One of them calls out, drawing their guns. Out of reflex, I flip around and draw my own, expecting Krieg to be swinging out with his buzz axe, but find none. Then I realized what it meant. They thought that I was the Vault Hunter.

I turn around to find their guns lowered. Seeing my reaction, they must have concluded that I wasn't a Vault Hunter, but perhaps merely a lone bandit. I guess they also decided I wasn't showing up to kill them by the fact that I came with my gun holstered. I put away my gun and the engineers reciprocated, allowing me to come nearer without harm.

"So what made you think of me as a Vault Hunter?" I ask them first.

"Well a couple Vault Hunters passed by earlier and trashed the place," One of them replies. "Seeing as they're not the friendliest with bandits, we'd assumed you were on their side. Plus, you don't seem to act a bandit, despite being dressed a lot like one."

"Well I think they might be the same Vault Hunters that just tried to kill me back there ." I comment. "That's why I ended up here."

"Wait a moment," The second engineer remarks. "You survived a Vault Hunter attack? That must take some serious skill."

"Yeah," The first one adds. "Not everybody can stand up to a Vault Hunter."

"Well, I guess I did," I say, not sure how to respond. "I, uh, I used this gun..."
I pull out my revolver and hold it up awkwardly for them to see. They seem to be thinking right now, though I could never guess what. Finally one of them speaks up.

"You mind we if take you to see Mr. Saunders?"

…

"Ah! Jack, is it? Sit down, please, I would like to speak to you about something."

I walk into the room, and take a seat in front of Mr. Saunders' desk, surveying the room as I do so. Seemingly everything on Helios has technology built into it in some way, and everything just looks metallic. It's as if this entire place is a robot of its own.

"How was the trip up?" He asks, by way of small talk."It was all fine, I presume?"

"Great." I answer back. "Smooth ride. Nice view. Very impressive." As much as I hate the company, I've got to admit, they're pretty damn good at what they do.

"Good. As you must know, I'm Ace Saunders, president of the Hyperion corporation. From what a couple of our engineers had recently told me, you survived combat between a couple of Vault Hunters, correct?"

"Yup."

"Then let's get on with it. We at Hyperion have been looking to hire some more experienced fighters. We may have more people than the Raiders, but admittedly, they have the better warriors. We also wanted someone who can fit in with them, to be able to slip past their defenses, and remain amongst them, undetected."

I take a moment to process this.

"So, what you're saying is, you want me to spy on the Crimson Raiders?"

He smiles. "We can supply you with the best guns on Pandora. We can give you piles of money. We can give you the highest power. The choice is yours, Jack."

Chapter 3: Mirrored

Maybe Hyperion isn't so bad after all.

I'm walking over to the Crimson Raider stronghold called Sanctuary. No change of outfit, still my usual attire. Hyperion's supplied me with a new Hyperion machine pistol, though I still prefer revolvers. They've also given me an ECHO communicator, so I have means of long-distance communication. I reach the gates of Sanctuary and press the button on an intercom. A hologram of a soldier appears above it. He gasps, and turns away to something I can't see.

"Maya! It's a bandit! Come check if it's the same one!" He cries out excitedly.

A moment later, the hologram of the Siren that I'd met walks into view.

"Yup, that's the one." She says. "Thanks, I'll talk to him."

The hologram of the soldier disappears, so it's just Maya left to talk to me.

"How are you doing? Sorry about earlier. We were actually searching for you in the bandit camp, but couldn't tell who you were or what you looked like. I'll explain later, once we let you in, as long as you promise that you're not going to be hostile to anyone. Deal?"

…

They've let me in on everything.

Recently, the Crimson Raiders had been monitoring bandit camps for potential recruits. I guess they decided I was suitable, and so they came to get me. I guess I was a lot tougher than they anticipated, and it was only after I'd escaped that they realized I must have been who they were searching for. Regarding my Hyperion pistol and ECHO communicator, I'd told them that I found them in Fyrestone, which in a sense is sort of true. I won't be able to contact Mr. Saunders; there's no way I could do it without being overheard.

Judging by my ability to go up against two Vault Hunters, I've thus been given that rank in the Raiders, and am already assigned to a big mission. I was the last Vault Hunter they needed for the mission... wow, it's so strange thinking of myself as a Vault Hunter. It's flattering, and really makes me feel like I'm in a place of honor, it feels like I can be trusted, something Hyperion didn't do for me. Come to think of it, everybody in Sanctuary is so much nicer, even offering me a bed to sleep in. It feels like another planet... like it's not Pandora. It's hard to think that I would have to betray them, but do I really need to?

The mission's tomorrow. We're to take a stolen Hyperion ship up to the Helios station, then split up into groups. I'm to be with a robot called Claptrap. There used to be a bunch of these models, until Hyperion shut down their product line. This one is the last one in existence. Since they were originally Hyperion manufactured, he should be able to open all the doors on Helios without issue. It's also the most annoying thing I've ever had the misfortune of meeting. To make sure things go smoothly, Lilith, the leader of the Raiders is going along with me. She's also a Siren. - no wonder they've been able to hold up against Hyperion for so long - but by the looks of it, she's a lot tougher than the other.

Our goal on Helios is to find some old Atlas technology that Hyperion's got their hands on. According to some intel the Raiders have gathered, it relates to the locations of the Vaults, and Hyperion plans to use that to their advantage. We don't know where it is, or what it looks like. Lilith, Claptrap, and I are to search Mr. Saunders' office for it. Which raises the question: What the hell am I going to do once we get there?

Chapter 4: Torn

It's time.

We all load up onto the ship, I with my new Jakobs Corp. manufactured revolver that the gun vendor, Marcus, gave me as a welcoming gift. Lilith puts the plane on autopilot and we sit in the passenger seats on the sides.

"Alright, Vault Hunters, let's go over our roles, make sure we know what we're doing." Lilith says. "Maya and Krieg, you're running through the storage; Zer0 and Salvador, you'll be searching the production facility; Mordecai and Brick, you search through the Hub of Heroism; Axton and Gaige, R&D department; and I'll be heading for Saunders' office with Jack."

"Hey, what about-" Claptrap starts.

"Right. Claptrap. Great." Lilith groans. "Remember, we only need you here to open access to the office."

"Aww! But that door is child's play! The door is Hyperion tech, and I was MADE to-"

"Yeah, yeah, you were made to open doors. We get it." One of the Vault Hunters cut in. I think his name was Mordecai.

"We all know our roles; No need for more discussion; Why don't we gear up?" Says another Vault Hunter. Zer0, I think. Wait, did he just speak in haiku?

…

We get to the office in no time. The offices are on the same wing as the hub and R&D, so we had 4 other Vault Hunters with us for most of the way there. Now it's just Lilith, Claptrap, and I left. It takes Claptrap forever to get the door open, and at one moment a Hyperion worker marched past us with a shotgun. Lilith had turned invisible, then suddenly appeared in front of the worker, killed him with some weird energy blast, and dragged him out of sight.

We go as quickly as possible to Mr. Saunders' office, leaving Claptrap behind, and burst through his doors. Lilith raises an SMG, and Mr. Saunders flinches, but makes no further movement. I draw out my revolver, but... who do I point it at?

"Ah! Jack, you're back, I see." Mr. Saunders says calmly. "And you've brought a friend."

"Wait, what?" Lilith exclaims, turning her head to face me. "You're with Hyperion?"

"I- I don't know." I say, awkwardly.

"Of course you are," Mr. Saunders says. "We made a deal, didn't we?"

"Bullcrap." Lilith snaps, turning back to him. "We recruited him into the Raiders, and you haven't seen how much of your men he killed."

He seems a bit taken aback. "Jack, I request that you kill this girl and get rid of this situation now. Then you'll get your payment."

"Don't listen to him, Jack. Work with the Raiders. This is for Pandora."

I don't know what to do. Hyperion is what keeps the planet in its wasteland condition, and the Raiders are the ones trying to protect it. The Raiders are so much kinder though, in the casual sense. But on the other hand, Hyperion has so much power, and they're trying to get rid of the planet. The planet filled with the brutality, the murder, and the wars. But...

The wars exist because of both sides.

I raise my gun to Lilith's head, and pull the trigger. She drops dead, and I aim the gun to Mr. Saunders. I only see his expression of shock for a second before I kill him. I go up to his body and find a key in his pocket, which I use to unlock his desk. I find a small, metal disc with the Atlas logo on it. I find a button, and press it. A holographic map lights up around me, displaying all the locations of every vault on Pandora.

I can use this to rebuild Pandora. I can use the Hyperion technology to rebuild Atlas in my own vision. Both leaders of both sides are dead. I'm in the highest position. Why be offered power when I can rise by myself?

And why choose a side when I can build my own?