It was a typical day on the desert world of Pandora, the sun was blazing, the desert winds were blowing against the sand, and skags roamed the desert looking for their next meal. In the distance, a Trans-planetary shuttle began its descent into Pandora's atmosphere. It began landing on one of the barren plains near an old space facility once used by the Dahl Corporation to deploy troops and researchers to the planet for mining purposes. The Shuttle then began its landing procedures, sand and dust flew up in the air as the shuttle's engines came closer to the ground. Once the shuttle had stopped moving, the pod bay doors began to open. After the doors had opened, an automated message played through the speakers inside of the ship. "THANK YOU FOR RIDING THE TORGUE TRANS-PLANETARY SHUTTLE!" said the loud voice coming from the speakers, "WE HOPE YOU ENJOY YOUR STAY ON PANDORA! NOW GO BLOW SOME S**T UP, YOU BADASS MOTHERF***ERS!"
Soon after the automated message stopped, bounty hunters and mercenaries from all corners of the galaxy began pouring out from the doors of the ship, hoping to make their fortune on the desert planet. The mercs that came out of the ship were nothing really special, most were young kids who had left home trying to make a name for themselves while others were ex-military looking for the kind of glory and excitement they could never have while serving.
One of the passengers however stood out from the rest of the group. At first glance, he could have easily been mistaken as a robot. The passenger was a 6'1 male who wore a gun metal black, fully armored body suit with glowing red markings around his upper torso and his joints. He also wore a helmet which hid his facial features with the exception of his glowing blue mechanical eyes that peered through the helmet's red tinted visor. He carried a tan duffle bag, filled with guns, ammo, and other miscellaneous supplies for his journey. As he started to make his way off of the shuttle, his joints began to make a heavy clanking sound with each step he took. Once he had gotten off, the shuttle took off in quite a hurry and disappeared into the Pandoran sky within minutes. The man then placed the duffle bag on the desert ground and began to punch some numbers into his wrist. He then began to record a personal log detailing his arrival to Pandora and his mission in hand.
"Mission Log," Said the man to the device on his wrist, "I have just landed on the planet of Pandora. I have been asked by a family from my home world of Eden-5 to help them locate their young daughter, Gaige, and report her current whereabouts as soon as possible. The family had her sent to this planet to avoid being executed by my ex-employer, Mr. Holloway, and the once corrupt police force of Eden-5, the reason why Holloway and the cops wanted the girl dead is because she accidently murdered Holloway's daughter Marcie during the Eden-5 Youth Science Fair. Ever since her departure, the family had lost contact with their daughter and hasn't heard from her in over 2 years. I plan on investigating any of the nearby towns to see if any of the citizens may have knowledge of the girl's whereabouts. If I'm lucky, I'll have a lead on her location soon and hopefully find her before any harm can come to her. This is Lieutenant Jason Murphy of the Eden-5 Police Department, signing off." The Enforcer ended the recording and prepared himself for the journey ahead.
"Do you always have to do that on every mission?" said a female voice coming from inside of Murphy's helmet.
"Sorry A.N.N, its force of habit." said Murphy. He then began to extract a chip from the back of his helmet and from that chip, a small holographic figure of a beautiful young woman came out. The Woman had short black hair tied neatly together to form pony tail, her eyes were a blue color similar to Murphy's eyes, she wore a strange, almost alien, outfit covered in blue markings and her holographic skin was a pale color.
"So are you ready to get moving?" asked A.N.N, eagerly waiting for the mission to get started.
"In just a minute" replied Murphy, who was checking his bag one last time to make sure he had brought everything he needed for the trip. "Can you locate a town close to the landing site" said Murphy too his AI companion.
"Already done" A.N.N said confidently. "The closest nearby town is Ovejas. It's a small settlement just north of the landing site. It should take us about 30 minutes on foot to reach the settlement."
"Good, then we'll start our investigation there." said Murphy. He then proceeded to place A.N.N back into the slot in his helmet, pick up his duffle bag and walk toward the settlement through the barren plains of Pandora.
"Murphy, are you sure we're even going to find this kid alive in a hellhole like this?" Said A.N.N, questioning if whether the girl could have survived on Pandora. "For all we know, she could be dead by now. You know what Pandora's like, bandits and criminals basically flourish on this world. One of them could have killed her and left her for the skags." Her concerns were valid; Pandora was a place where bandit clans wreaked havoc on the peaceful denizens of the planet and vicious predators roamed the wild, doing whatever it took to survive the hostile environment of Pandora. "I don't want you to risk your life on some wild goose chase Murphy." A.N.N continued, obviously showing concern for her longtime partner.
"I highly doubt that she's dead" said Murphy in a rather optimistic manner, "Have you forgotten about the mess her science fair project made, if her robot could do that then I think she could easily handle a few bandits." Murphy was of course referring to the incident at the Eden-5 Science fair, where Gaige's project accidently murdered Marcie Holloway. All that was left of the girl was blood and organs that were splattered all over the Auditorium, where the event took place. It took several weeks to completely clean the mess.
"Well when you bring that up, she definitely has a chance at surviving" A.N.N said. After a 30 minute hike in the desert, Murphy and A.N.N had finally reached the small settlement of Ovejas. The town streets were filled with people just going about their day as usual, but the minute Murphy entered the town, everyone became silent. The citizens began to give frightened and concerned looks to the Enforcer from Eden-5 and for good reason, the last time someone from another world came into their town they were attacked, losing innocent lives in the process. Murphy was on his guard, prepared for anything the townspeople may try to pull while he was there. Murphy then walked toward a group of older men, conversing with one another near the center of town.
"Excuse me gentlemen" Murphy said to the group, he then began to unzip his duffle bag ready to pull out a picture of the mechromancer. "I'm looking for this girl, around 5'4, age 19 to 20, and orange hair with pigtails on the side. By any chance have you seen her around here or have any ideas of her current location?" The townspeople then began to scream at the top of their lungs.
"Oh my god, it's a Hyperion Robot! Run for your lives!" shouted one of the men Murphy was speaking to, obviously mistaking Murphy for something he wasn't. The town then went into a frenzy and began to rush to their homes, locking their windows and doors fearing what Murphy was.
"Well, that went well" sighed A.N.N. "If every town on this planet is like this one, we'll never find a lead on this kid's whereabouts".
"You can't blame them A.N.N" said Murphy in defense of the townspeople "How often do you think they see a cyborg from another world walk into their town? I'd probably freak out too if I were them." A.N.N giggled a bit, agreeing with Murphy's statement
"So what's the plan now hero?" Said A.N.N to her companion, focusing on the mission at hand.
"We head to the next town I guess" Murphy said with a hint of disappointment in his voice. "Try to locate the next town closest to our current location and see if…" But before Murphy could finish his sentence, a loud booming male voice with a strong Spanish accent cut him off.
"Freeze pendejo!" Demanded the voice. "Drop the bag and turn around slowly, or I'll blast your sorry metallic ass into tiny bits!" Not wanting to cause any trouble, Murphy complied with the voice, dropped his duffle bag and turned around slowly.
