Author's note:
Hey all! I've had this story bumping around in my mind for a while, so figured I might as well start writing. Maybe it'll keep me from dropping off of the proverbial grid as far as writing goes.
This story is set in the Borderlands universe, of course. I've taken quite a bit of liberties with Dahl's military structure. As we know, they're somewhat based on the U.S. Army, so I kind of ran with that.
Other bits you might notice are new technologies and vehicles, but all within the realities and rules of the Borderlands universe. So yeah. Read and review, please! :)
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Prologue
The merchant stretched lazily as he sat on the bench in the tiny town of Desert Spring. He hated the Sand Dunes run. It was incredibly boring. There was nothing to be seen but a flat expanse of desert. There wasn't even any risk in this run anymore. Now that Dahl had re-established its presence on the planet, the few bandit raider gangs that once called the Sand Dunes home had been wiped out. While plenty of other regions of Pandora were still chock full of bandits, every settlement in the Sand Dunes region was now a safe haven with plenty in the way of food, water, ammunition, and other vital supplies.
It wasn't that the trader minded the safety that the Dahl military brought to the region, he just preferred some excitement or wonder on his trips. He had heard that the famous Sir Hammerlock had started up his hunting lodge again, and that trade might resume there. Now going there would be something he'd love to do. He had heard many stories about the creatures that inhabited Aegrus. He would love to see them himself, maybe take them on. He glanced at his three Cara-vans, all parked outside the bar next to the four escort cars. His Cara-van escorts had been outfitted with enough guns to take on almost any bandit attack with plenty of extra money from increasingly successful trades. The merchant had invested in better security, which in turn, brought in more clients. The drivers and guards of his trading caravan were probably in the bar, having a beer, and relaxing. The Sand Dunes trading run was three days, from the town of Oasis to Sanctuary, two of the days being travel through desert.
The merchant yawned. He began to think back to the days before Handsome Jack had woken the Warrior, before the five Vault Hunters had defeated it. There seemed to be quite a lot of famous Vault Hunters now. Though word had spread quickly of the death of Roland, the surviving three Vault Hunters who had discovered the first Vault were alive and well. They had linked up with the five newer Vault Hunters… Eight… Eight famous Vault hunters. As if that wasn't enough of them.
Too many heroes… There were too many heroes on Pandora, the merchant thought. This was no place for a hero anymore, at least on the scale of the Vault Hunters… The massive "evil" had been defeated. Now only bandit gangs remained, though there were plenty of those to go around… The merchant was just considering joining his employees is the pub, when a sound caught his attention. In the distance, he could hear a strange, airy series of sounds. It sounded like wings, but there were never rakk in this area unless a rakk hive was present. Rakk hives were monitored closely, however, and the nearest one was over two hundred kilometers away. So what could it be? The sound grew louder and louder, and the merchant look in the direction it was coming from with an expression of disdain. Perhaps this was a flock of birds… Perhaps Dahl monitoring has missed a Rakk Hive? No, that couldn't be the case. How could someone miss a Rakk Hive, given the size of even the "small" ones?
The merchant looked up into the moonlight sky, when suddenly, hundreds, if not thousands of winged creatures went zooming past it, casting strange shadows onto the ground. The loud sound of the countless pairs of leathery wings was all that the merchant heard as he attempted to focus on the creatures. He simply couldn't make them out. It was far too dark and they flew by too quickly. The merchant cursed to himself. If this was some unseen species of Pandoran flyer, he might have been the first to see them. Those would be some impressive bragging rights. His thought was interrupted as the creatures suddenly turned and flew back towards the city. With the stream of the fliers seemingly endless, they whirled around above the small town, creating what looked like a tornado of living, breathing creatures.
The merchant began to wonder if they were dangerous, but remembered that Desert Spring's overshield kept out any unwanted wildlife. It had lasted for countless years. Though it had been breached by bandits in the past who managed to disable the generator, those instances were rare. The merchant gave a short laugh as he watched on of the creatures dive down towards the town, only to ricochet off of the shield, followed by another. He still couldn't quite make them out. The merchant's attention was turned to several of the citizens of the town and traders making it their lodging for the night as they came out of random buildings and looked up with confusion at the swarm of fliers.
Despite the fact that he couldn't make out details, the merchant managed to estimate the size of the creatures. Most looked to be about 1.5 meters, about the size of a stalker. Here and there, he noticed larger shapes, one that were pushing three meters from front to tail. The tails… Finally, he recognized the quick flicking tails of the creatures. They seemed dangerous. Still, with the shield, there was nothing to worry about. One of the flyers broke off from the tornado of its fellows and shot in a downwards arc, attempting to pierce the bottom of the shield. The merchant was stunned. They were testing the shield for weaknesses. As this thought occurred to him, the creature rebounded off of the shield and tumbled to the ground, giving a shriek of anger. One of the town's citizens shined a flashlight. The beam fell on the creature, and the merchant finally got to see it fully. It was truly fearsome looking. It reminded him of something he had seen on wall records of the Eridians. He had only seen pictures of the records from passing scientists and archeologists, but they sure looked similar to the beast in front of him.
Well, whatever they were, they weren't getting through the shield. The merchant couldn't help but be impressed at their display of intelligence, however. He began to note larger and larger fliers among the mass. He could have sworn he saw one that had to have been 5 meters long. Still, the shield was strong, and would keep them all safe. More and more people were emerging into the streets of the town to look at the creatures. Here and there in the mass of fliers, the merchant began seeing very different colors on them. Similar to skags and bullymongs, it seemed the fliers had elemental varieties amongst them. He spotted several of each major weaponized Pandoran element: fire, slag, corrosive, shock… Shock… He barely had time to register as four of the shock fliers grouped together and plummeted down in the center point of the shield, right where the generator tower point was. He felt his stomach drop away as a massive surge of electricity arced down the shield, which flickered, then disappeared. Immediately, the creatures descended on the town. Their first target was the shield tower. The merchant watched in horror as the large one he had seen smashed into the tower, causing it to wobble. It definitely was about 5 meters, but was even shorter than its companion that also attacked the tower. This one was more than 10 meters in length with a massive wingspan to match. He stared in horror as the tower shook, giving a loud metallic screech. There was an echoing crack, and the tower was ripped out of the ground, one of its legs bending awkwardly as the monsters destroyed the town's primary form of defense.
With the tower down, the creatures concentrated on the townsfolk. A man several meters to the merchant's right got caught between two of the larger fliers. They lifted him into the air, fighting over the kill until he was literally torn in half, blood spraying the ground.
The merchant cursed and drew his assault rifle from its holder on his back. Maybe if he shot his way through the creatures, he could make it to his Cara-van and hide. Even with creatures bigger than his vehicles, the armor of his Cara-van might just hold. These things were big, but there had to be a limit to their strength, like any other animal on Pandora. Before the thought had even left his head, the moon in its entirety was suddenly obscured. Confused, the merchant looked up, and his jaw dropped as he felt the contents of his bowels escaping into his trousers.
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Part 1: Deployment
The Rocky Heights Space Station never slept.
Of course, this was as indicative of the lack of night on any space station as it was the dearth of a definitive day. Since the lights hardly ever went out and Pandora's sun was a poor indicator of the hour, everyone who worked on this station operated on his or her own clock. It was certainly restless, but never noisy. At any given hour, people were sleeping-and yet the station itself never slept.
Dahl's orbital facility circling the massive planet of Pandora had been largely dormant since the great evacuation seven years ago, but it had since come back to life following the news of the collapse of Hyperion, the major competing corporation. With all its competitors largely gone, the Dahl corporation had little trouble reclaiming all of its lost assets it was forced to abandon, absorbing new ones, and re-establishing an effective monopoly on goods and services on the entire planet. Massive mining operations re-opened almost overnight, and the corporation's market share soared. Now, it was at an all-time high. Things were going very well. Save for several major Hyperion strongholds on the planet, all competing corporations had been wiped off of Pandora.
The only sticking point for Dahl, if there was one at all, had been the semi-autonomous city of Sanctuary. The initial contact had been rough; they had nearly come to blows with the residents, many of whom were former Crimson Lance, the infamous military arm of the now bankrupt Atlas corporation. Eventually, after tense negotiations and grudging compromise, it was agreed that Sanctuary would retain its sovereignty, but Dahl would have some influence there and treat the place like one would a foreign nation. Previous tensions between Dahl personnel and former Crimson Lance personnel were brought down to a simmer after that. After the last round of disciplinary hearings, they had all but evaporated. The common ground, it seemed, had been the shared hatred for Hyperion and its C.E.O. Handsome Jack on both sides.
Unfortunately for the Dahl Special Forces, security meant complacency and complacency meant idling. Though the highly secretive Dahl First Recon had been deployed almost immediately upon word of Hyperion's demise and strange things being picked up on Dahl's scanners and cameras, other elements had been left on the space station-"dregs", as the brass liked to call them. They had fulfilled their purpose for now, and were now simply left at the bottom of the proverbial teacup until they were needed again. Everyone knew that the brass had designs on the now-abandoned Hyperion space station, but until the plans were finalized most of them would be stuck in space until further notice.
In short, the buzz on Dahl's executive board had left the higher-ups extremely excited, but departments of its military branch were left sorely lacking in action. For no squad was this truer than for Ranger element Romeo 3, a highly successful reconnaissance, infiltration, and deep deployment section who had participated in the early theater of Pandora's reclamation but now sat idly in orbit. The success on Pandora and on previous planets that had gained them so many accolades felt, to some of them, a curse. They never left anymore-they were "too valuable to be expended lightly," according to the official report.
How fucking kind of them, thought Corporal Jacob Greenberg, scowling at the Hyperion Space station winking uselessly in the distance. He was not as bitter as he was bored. At the moment, he was slouched in a chair with his legs dangling over the arm rest. He stared at his fuzzy reflection in the glass, running a hand through short, unkempt, black hair. His green eyes were half-closed, more from boredom than exhaustion. He was twirling a coin between the fingers of his right hand, an old habit from his youth that he'd never quite been able to shake. Jacob yawned, wishing absently that something would happen.
He didn't notice the shadow looming behind him until it reached out with one hand and lightly pushed his face into the window in front of him. He grunted indignantly, twisted around, and met the sparkling, mischievous eyes of Specialist Katylin Zhang.
"Found you," she said brightly. "What's up?"
"Bored, that's what," he grumbled. Katylin yawned and nodded in agreement.
"Ditto," she said, and sat down on the floor next to him.
"Why can't you sit in a chair like a normal person?" Jacob wanted to know. "For all the years I've known you, you've never not sat down on the floor unless it was absolutely necessary."
"I feel in sync with nature here," she said dryly.
"Kat, you're on a fucking space station."
"You're clearly not in sync with Nature."
Katylin and Jacob went way back. They'd first met years ago during Ranger training. In different ways, they'd helped each other survive the rigorous ordeal. Katylin however, was still rather cold towards everyone around her, Jacob especially. While Katylin had come from a rough background, Jacob had been raised in a loving, supportive family. She automatically viewed him as "stuck up" because of this. Though all Rangers who made it through Ranger training had a respect for each other, Katylin's view of Jacob didn't go much further than that. In fact, she was outwardly hostile to him, and it didn't take long for Jacob to lose patience and return the feelings. This continued until their squad's first mission. Well before they had joined Romeo 3, they were part of a Ranger squad sent to a remote, snowy planet called Yular. Their squad, composed of Rangers fresh out of training, landed with a mission. The squad leader however, a rookie, botched the mission and caused the deaths of the entire squad save for Katylin and Jacob while on deep deployment. Jacob and Katylin managed to complete their objectives, however, and survive two days in sub-zero temperatures, getting back to the main Dahl base mere minutes before the last of the company's shuttles left for good. After that, they had become extremely close.
It was an unlikely pair, the sniper and the medic. The others had always joked about how "opposites attract": his role was up close and personal while hers was distant and often lonely. But what they shared in common was their sharp, sometimes off-color humor, which had earned their entire squad the nickname "Smartass 3".
Jacob scowled at Hyperion's space station again.
"Can't we just ram it?" he groaned. "It would be so easy to just plow it over."
"That's what she said," Katylin teased in a singsong voice. He snorted.
"But seriously…" Jacob muttered. "I wish we'd just get deployed already. This is painful."
"Yeah, I'm kind of bored already too." Katylin agreed. "I think I've already messed with every Ranger chalk still here. Still, we'll be shipped out soon."
"Zulu headed out last night, I hear." Jacob said. "Are we gonna get a mission, or what?"
"Give it time, Jake." Katylin glanced at him. "We'll be deployed soon."
"Haven't we given it enough time, though?" Jacob asked. "Why are they keeping us here?"
"Maybe they don't want to risk us on pointless missions." Katylin shrugged. "You know command has a boner for the Rangers… Especially for us. They probably still remember the Targus tie-and-fly we pulled before. Don't want to waste our skills."
"I guess." Jacob said, memories of that mission briefly coming back to him. "Still no comfort to us, you know?"
"Nah, I gotcha. I'm just saying, don't let it bug you."
"Yeah, I guess you're right." He nodded. "When's our on call shift end? I want a beer."
He barely had time to finish that sentence when the door opened. "No beers tonight, kids. We're being deployed."
"Holy shit!" Jacob scrambled to his feet. If there was any lethargy in his posture before, it evaporated now.
He stared in disbelief at Captain Nathan Jones, Romeo 3's squad leader. "Really?"
"Yes, really. Contact has been lost with an outpost along coast of the Highlands." Jones nodded. He was a big man in his late thirties. His hair was curly and dark and a thick black beard sat on his chin, making him look like someone out of Greek legend.
"So we have to re-establish contact?" Jacob asked.
"Yes. I'd like to say it's only a problem with the transmitter, but my gut tells me something else."
Katylin smacked Jacob, stopping him from turning the Captain's last statement into a joke.
"When are we heading out?" Katylin asked.
"One hour. Grab your gear, suit up, and meet in airlock seven. Wait in the barracks until I call you. It'll be dark, so bring NOD." Captain Jones smiled. "The rest of the squad has been informed."
He left. Jacob punched the air victoriously. Finally, a mission! It felt like the last time he'd seen real action was high school. He looked at Katylin excitedly. She was not so ecstatic-she looked worried, actually, and was staring at the door.
"Kat?" He snapped his fingers in front of her face.
"That's not sketchy at all," she murmured, frowning.
"What?" He deflated abruptly.
"Why are we being sent to some base in the middle of nowhere just to 're-establish contact'?" she asked. "Shit ain't right."
"Come on, man, it's just simple recon," he pointed out. "At least we're actually going out."
"We don't get sent out on 'simple recon'. And if we are...fucking waste of my talents."
Ignoring her last jibe, Jacob considered what she was saying. She was right, of course. Romeo 3 was too skilled and too experienced to be doing simple check-up on a silent outpost. Something else was in play, and it filled him with nervous excitement.
"I see what you're saying," he said at last. "Okay. Keep your eyes open."
"My thoughts exactly," she said dryly. She brushed past him and was gone, leaving a faint aroma of smuggled shampoo and perfume behind.
He scowled at the door. Katylin was a sweet girl; she was a good friend, a reliable squadmate, and she remembered people's birthdays. But she had her host of problems and insecurities and sometimes, he couldn't help but wonder if she thought she was above it all. Her role as the squad's sniper suited her. She meant well, but she was sometimes hard to deal with-one moment she might be bubbly and pleasant, and another she might be closed off and hostile. Maybe today was one of her off days, but maybe the boredom had made her as antsy as any of the others, he reasoned. With a sigh, he pushed his thoughts aside and followed her to the airlock.
