Chapter 1 - Part 2: Back in the swing of things

This is the remainder of the chapter preview. Maya heads down to Pandora to take care of business in Eridium Blight. Reviews are appreciated! Leave some ideas for upcoming chapters if you'd like!

I stood there, soaking in the sight until a pair of hands grabbed my shoulders and pointed me to a door on the right side of the room. "That's the armory. Stock up and get moving, it would be best if you were to go sooner rather than later." Jack said. "There's a few more things I want you to do, and the quicker you finish this, the quicker everything else gets done." After he finished, he gave me a gentle nudge in the direction of the door signaling me to move. I opened the door and was a step inside before he called my name, turning around "When everything is said and done, I have a gift that I know a Siren like you is going to appreciate." He said with a slight grin. It looked almost sadistic, but I couldn't tell from this far away. Turning back around to face the armory before me, there was a shit ton weapon chests open already, one for each type: Assault rifle, Shotgun, Pistol, Sniper, Rocket launcher. Then there's the elemental chests: Corrosive, Shock, Incendiary, Slag, Explosive. Each type of gun got its own chest, a chest of corrosive shotguns, a chest of corrosive pistols, a chest of explosive pistols, well.. You get the point.

I must of stood there for longer than I thought, because from behind me I heard Jack speak. "What the hell are you doing?" He asked, sounding very direct. I turned to face him and he spoke again. "You've been here for like ten minutes already and haven't moved an inch." To this, I just shrugged and faced the weapons. It felt like every Christmas I've ever had as a kid rolled into one. "Okay, you've said like three words the entire time you were awake. What gives?" Truth is, I have no idea. I guess I just don't feel like talking right now. I made my way over to the pistols, plain old, regular pistols and took my time examining each one. Ultimately, I ended up deciding on a Jakobs, it just felt right in my hand. One more gun. Fires cool, so how about an incendiary sniper? So I made my way on over and picked up just that, made by good ol' Hyperion, which I then slung across my back. Time to go pick up a shield. It didn't take long for me to choose one, and I went with Torgue that releases an explosive nova burst when its depleted. Awesome. And finally, grenade time. Relative to the time it took me to choose a shield, this took forever. But in the end, I just had to go with a MIRV, because what's better than one grenade going off? More grenades going off, that's what.

That's it. I'm completely ready. Turning to head back out the door into the Command room, I see Jack is still here. Leaning on the wall with his arms closed, asleep. Or so I thought. He opened his eyes, unlocked his arms, and rubbed his eyes before saying in a sarcastic tone "Done already?" I was about to walk right past him into the other room, but then he pointed behind me. Looking back, there was a door on the other side of the room that was opposite to the one I was about to walk through. "That leads you to the docking area. Get in a pod and head out." Pulling a complete 180, I made my way to the other door and headed into the dock.

It was a rather large room. I was on a catwalk and looking down I could see pods. Hundreds of them lined next to each other with a few feet in between, then there was three rows behind that, so the number of the pods probably broke into the thousands. I walked down the stairs onto the main floor and approached a pod in the front row. It was pretty much exactly like an oval big enough to fit someone twice as big as me in. It was attached to two metal rails on the bottom that led to a closed metal door just bigger than the pod. The pod itself was made out of some kind of metal save for the door which was made out of glass. A little console stood next to the pod with several button on it, but the one that stood out was the "Open" one, which I pressed and the glass door to the pod swung open, as did the metal door at the end of the rails which led to a small hallway with another metal door at the end of it.. Stepping inside, it felt very cozy. Burgundy padding lined the interior and there were two hand bars protruding from both sides of the doorway. There was a console on the side of the wall with the same buttons as the one outside, only this time I pressed "Close" and just like that, I was sealed in the pod. A few moments go by and the pod started to move. It was going pretty slow, but before I knew it, I was in the small hallway and the metal door closed, separating me from the rest of the docking bay and leaving me in complete darkness. Elevator music began to play from one of the speakers hidden somewhere in here, and the sound of the pod being pressurized traveled throughout. Huh. I've never been on a high speed train thing before. This is exciting. Suddenly, without any warning whatsoever, the pod shot out of the hallway at what seemed to me a million miles an hour, sending me face first right into the glass door. I was dizzy for a little while, but when I came around, I saw I was in space. I was in space. What. WHAT?! Looking outside, I could see the giant "H" of the Hyperion Space Station. I thought I was on Pandora! Looking down, I saw Pandora getting closer and closer at an ungodly speed. Before long, flames could be seen engulfing the outside of the pod as it broke through the atmosphere. I grabbed onto the hand bars and screamed from the depths of my soul. "AHHHHHH FUUUUUUUUCK! FUCKING MOTHERFUCKING SHIT! AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" This doesn't go on for long, but it certainly feels like forever. At this point, a green light flashes inside the cabin and the pod starts to slow down, though not very much. I could see the ground rushing up on me, and I force my mouth shut as I let out a loud, muffled, MMMMPHH! I thought I was going to die, so I shut my eyes as tight as I could. Less than a minute later, a slight vibration runs through the cabin followed by nothing. Nothing at all. Opening my eyes, I could see I made it safely to the ground.

Slamming my hand on the open button on the panel, I helped the door open by pushing it and I feel to my hands and knees outside the pod on the ground where I promptly threw up. All liquid. Makes sense, seeing I haven't eaten anything in god knows how long. I wiped my mouth with my wrist and looked up. I was in Eridium Blight. A towering volcano to my left, streams of lave all around, jagged rock formations nearly everywhere I looked, and to top it all off, the whole area had a purple hue to it. I slowly got to my feet, my legs shaking and adrenaline pumping through my veins. It took me a few seconds to get calm thanks to deep breathing exercises and the realization that I was alive and fine.

There was a little white diamond without a center that appeared on my ECHO and was about fourty feet away. But that looked as if there was a cliff over there, the ground just gave out into nothing. I walked up to the waypoint and sure enough, it was a cliff. But at the bottom of was the Eridium mine and the bandits working on it. The ground was a manageable distance for me to use my sniper, so I took it out and looked down the scope at the people below. There were several bandits moving carts into and out of the mine, and for each one of them were two psychos screaming a random assortment of words at them. Three Nomads were walking around patrolling the base. And two Goliaths carrying large crates, of what I can only assume to be Eridium, and placing them in a storage area where there were already at least thirty stacked up. Perfect. I clicked the safety off and focused on one of the two Goliaths. Taking a deep breath, I placed the crosshair over his helmet, and as I slowly let out my breath, I pulled the trigger. The sound of a bullet exploding through the barrel of my rifle is followed by the faint sound of it making contact with metal. Almost immediately, he reacts with a fit of rage and tosses the crate in his hands at the other Goliath who was just a few feet behind him. Both crates fell on the floor and littered the ground with Eridium.

I guess I'll just kick back for a few minutes and let him take care of everything. I laid down with my legs hanging over the side of the cliff and looked up at sky. The bright purple clouds in the sky and the violet smoke from the volcano seem to intertwine, like two different colors paint until they were the same color. It was such a peaceful sight in such an inhospitable area. I got lost in the view and was only dragged back into reality when the sound of bullets rang throughout the air, but none of them were directed towards me. A few minutes go by, and each one that does the noise of the guns get lower and lower, until it stops completely. Adjusting myself so that I was sitting up to see what lied below, all that remained was the Goliath and numerous dead bodies around him. He moved slowly and his back was slightly arched. He appeared severely injured. Time for the mop up crew.

I pushed myself off the ledge and began to fall towards the earth, though thanks to the low gravity of this planet, not very fast. When I landed, it was behind a little shack. Just around the side was the main plaza area outside the mine, and that's where he was. I poked my head around the corner and I saw him. His back was turned to me so I took this time to kneel down and line up my shot. When everything was in order, I whistled. To this he turned to face me and I promptly shot him right in his tiny head. The finishing blow was dealt and he fell to the ground.

"Well done! Time to hire some new, more cooperative people. Bandits are so hard to work with." Jacks voice rang in my ear as soon as I was finished. "Alright, there's a Hyperion base a bit to your east. Or west. I'm not really sure at this moment…" He says and goes quiet for a few seconds before returning. "South! It's a bit south from where you currently are. Get over there, do whatever you want, and wait for me to give you something to do next."