Over 2 hours ago.

Fiona dropped the dusty tome on her latest employer's desk. The bearded explorer's eyes lit up, boyishly almost, as he reached over to pat the cover. Like he wanted to confirm it was actually there and not a trick of the light. He looked up at Fiona with a grateful smile. "Thank you for recovering this for me."

"No problem. Though I am kinda curious: what sort of biologist takes an interest in black magic?"

"The kind that has a broad spectrum of interests: experimentation, safari trips, deep jungle exploration, dissection (never let Dr Zed near a living subject - he'll only make things worse), hunting... the list goes on. Your payment, as agreed." He dropped a wad of cash in Fiona's laid out palm and she thumbed the bills, counting. It was measly, pathetically so, compared to her other recent payments but she and Hammerlock had a decent business relationship. Still ongoing, unlike some others Fiona could name.

"Drink?" Hammerlock offered a sculpted glass bottle of whiskey, and Fiona declined with a shake of the head.

Setting the bottle down, Hammerlock was then alerted by a beep from the ECHOcomm on his desk. He snatched it up, scanning the screen for a moment. "Oh dear..." Hammerlock rose abruptly. He grabbed his sniper rifle, and faced Fiona. "Ah, Vault Hunter? It appears I have found myself in another quite bothersome predicament. If you wouldn't mind..."

Fiona pocketed her cash and turned her attention to Hammerlock. "What's the payment, and what's the job?"

This was part of their routine at this stage. Fiona always asked about the reward first, and the sum was what usually made her accept an assignment. She was never one to ponder the potential risks and hazards for long.

"Five hundred. And it's to clear out my wildlife study facility. You may have seen it on the way in. There's been an intrusion."

Fiona gave a nod. She had spotted it before venturing down to Hammerlock's little hideaway. "Might as well, since I'm here already."

"Excellent! Then we have no time to dally!" Hammerlock raced outside, with Fiona on his heels.

The wildlife study was merely a couple minutes' jog away. Fiona knew something was wrong the moment she spotted a Bullymong in suspended animation. It had been frozen solid. It was not the only animal to receive this treatment. Others, skags, rakks, varkids, threshers, and more she couldn't name off the top of her head had been encased in ice inside their pens.

Hammerlock howled in despair, "My zoo!"

Unexpectedly, something solid smashed through the head of the Bullymong. Fiona startled and backed away. A woman with a cruel smile, a forelock of white streaking through jet black, and a buttoned-up blue jacket removed the stock of her rifle away from the headless Bullymong.

"Hello, brother dearest." Shivers skittered down Fiona's spine. The utter malice and contempt was venomous.

Fiona stared. "That's - that's your sister?"

Hammerlock spat. "We have nothing in common." He angled his head to look Fiona in the eye. "I've heard from other acquitances who hired you in the past that you're something of a talker."

Fiona gave a sheepish look and a shrug.

"Well that won't work on her." Hammerlock ripped the bolt of his sniper rifle back with a sharp clank. "Though I do know she responds extremely well to violence."

"Really, little brother?" scoffed Aurelia. "Bringing in some dirty little tramp to deal with me?"

Fiona clenched her fists, gritted her teeth. She felt the pit of her stomach curl with unrestrained fury.

"Do remember I consider you enough of a threat to hire a Vault Hunter to rein you in."

Aurelia's eyes widened and she mockingly gaped at Fiona. "W-Why - why, that is simply astounding! Then you must be a total utter nobody, as I've never heard of you, and Aurelia Hammerlock does not associate with those."

Fiona addressed Hammerlock, "You're right. You don't have anything in common."

"Glad you see things my way. Now, let's drive her off this land." Hammerlock squeezed the trigger, and a shot rang out.

Aurelia chuckled darkly as she returned fire, throwing an ice shard straight at Hammerlock's head. Hammerlock ducked, rolled and blasted the next ice shard, shattering it mid-flight. "Come now, Alistair. I'm only doing you a favour."

Fiona flanked the Baroness and attacked from the rear, Atlas Silver spewing slugs that were going for Aurelia's smug face. "How's that?" she grunted as Aurelia dodged the hail of lead and closed in.

Aurelia smirked. "He should really know better than to waste his time - trifle his efforts - with pathetic specimen like these. I'm helping him move on." Fiona mashed the trigger, but her submachine gun clicked empty. When Aurelia came up close and personal, Fiona executed a combat roll and switched to the crimson, drum-magazine SMG 'the Working Class'.

"You pride yourself on being a huntress. But this isn't a hunt. And they're not your trophies. You're just killing them out of spite!" yelled the younger Hammerlock in outrage.

But no shots were fired. Aurelia grabbed the barrel and twisted the gun roughly, yanking it from Fiona's grip. Ice wrapped itself around the gun, and Aurelia shattered it in her hands.

Fiona goggled at Aurelia's wolfish grin. "That'd been a present, you... you friggin' jerk!" She'd been thrown for a loop by the fact the Baroness could just freeze objects by the power of her mind or whatever.

It was... more than a little unusual.

Aurelia began to extend her arm, meaning to immobilize the hat-wearing nuisance. Except, she had forgotten all about Sir Alistair Hammerlock.

A loud bang and a shout later, and Aurelia was thrown off her feet. She felt warm liquid dribble down her fingers, and a sharp, irritating ache in her hand.

"Oh look at that. You drew first blood, little Alistair." Aurelia looked up from the ground, and displayed the result of her brother's sniping.

Hammerlock snapped the bolt of his rifle, ejecting a spent shell casing. His expression was unreadable. "Leave. Now."

1 Hour Ago.

They were inside the gigantic, spherical casing which housed the Eye of Helios. Maya was positioned on a platform beneath said shifting eyeball.

It was huge. Five times bigger than her entire body. At least. She wasn't interested in comparing notes on height and mass, though. She had a job to do.

It was a stupid, dangerous job but when Rhys mentioned the exact figure she'd get after a bit of coaxing, she had an incentive. Besides, now that she thought about it, she was curious to see what would happen. If it even worked.

She circled the massive eyeball. It once belonged to the Destroyer, a Vault Monster defeated not too long ago. Hyperion had been putting it to use ever since. Even this 'incarnation' of Hyperion... this rebirth of Hyperion... whatever term you'd want to use - these people, the ones she'd hired to protect, were not hesitant to use the eye to wipe out troublemakers. The leadership was especially insistent. "C'monc'monc'mon! C'mon! Make it snappy!" Vaughn briskly waved her to move closer and get started already.

She raised her hands up to it, and raised her chin to take a better look. "Okay, but... how is this meant to work?" Maya glanced over to Vaughn, looking for an answer, but the guy just shrugged at her with a face that read 'How am I supposed to know that?'.

Vaughn pushed his hands out, opening his palms. "I just figured you'd... channel your Siren-y powers through it or something."

"Rriiiigght." Maya took a deep breath, shut her eyes, and murmured, "Okay. Okay, you can do this, Maya. You can do it."

"Yeah! Go Maya!" Vaughn cheered. Maya cracked her eyes open, and silenced the Bandit King with a glare. Vaughn twiddled his fingers with a sheepish look. "Right, uh. Sorry." He pointed off to the side. "I'll just be over there. While you... do your thing."

"I am trying to concentrate."

"While you concentrate. Yeah! ...Alright, shutting up now," Vaughn said with a pout, then shuffled off. She was certain he squealed, "This is gonna so awesome," sometime after that.

Maya trailed her fingers along the surface of the sclera of the eye. It felt wet and sticky. And gross. As if an eye would feel like anything else. Her eyelids dropped, and she inhaled. "Work with me, pal. We gotta do this. We gotta this. People are counting on us."

Maya's Siren markings ignited, burning electric blue. "Well, here goes nothing..."

She willed power to pour from her fingertips and into the Eye of Helios. It trembled violently, and made a terrible noise. It was a scream, beastly and wild. The Eye was in a frenzy. Maya didn't recognise the first instant it began firing moonshots.

The Eye shuddered as it recoiled, and Maya felt the extent of its might, firsthand. The Eye was the gun barrel. It was the one that was spitting balls of energy onto the wasteland below, levelling all who got in the way. It attacked indiscriminantly. Maya had the ammo, and her finger on the trigger.

"Whoa, careful! You almost got some of our guys!" Vaughn scolded, tone panicked. He was wrong. Countless bandits and countless Children of Helios were being smeared across the landscape. Not that Maya would know.

Beginning to feel sapped of her strength, she fell to one knee. Everything was being scorched; her vast networks of nerves, her taut muscles, her rigid skeleton. "Uhhrrr..."

Smoke trails wafted from her skin, curling and twisting, dancing upwards. Then, with gritted teeth, she threw her head back.

It was blistering agony. Stars exploded across her vision, and she bowed her head, fingers pushing herself up off the ground. "You didn't tell... me..." she bit out. She defiantly raised her head to glare at Vaughn, who approached with horror and concern contorting his features. "You never mentioned... the slaaaggg..." she ended in a groan. Her shoulders shook as she fought the pain. Maya checked her arm, the one with the tattoos. They looked like they were bubbling, snaking and wriggling to escape her.

Vaughn had the decency to seem apologetic. He knelt beside her. "I'm so sorry..."

Maya gave a bitter chuckle. The skin around her eyes crinkled, creating a regretful image. That was how she felt last before a blanket of darkness was pulled over her conscious mind.

Vault Key Storage Facility No.17. Half an hour ago.

She strolled into the room with the Gladiator at her side. Athena inspected the safe before which Lilith crouched. A fingerprint scanner waited for a hand to be pressed against it. Lilith did so, and her arm glowed a dull orange colour. "Needs your handprint, huh?"

"Not just that. This is programmed to detect the presence of Eridium in the handprint, too."

"Fancy."

"It has to be, yes. There're facilities like this one all over Pandora. And all of them contain a Vault Key. And only I know all of their locations and passcodes."

"Security is pretty bare," noted Athena with folded arms. She was referring to the slim guard detail outside.

"The bigger the presence, the more bandits there'll be to annoy us. We have to be subtle about this."

"Of course, being out in the middle of nowhere does help."

"Middle of nowhere doesn't mean no trouble."

The safe's door shifted away to reveal a keypad and another door. Lilith typed in the code, and the safe opened. There was a second fingerprint scanner. Lilith repeated the procedure from a few seconds ago.

"What about that bomb you stole from Torgue? Where's it being held?"

"If I recall correctly, you were complicit in that con."

"I only played along because... because..." Athena wracked her brain, wondering how to best summarise her feelings on the subject.

Lilith shook her head. "I don't care why. So for now, that'll be my secret and your curiosity."

"People are going to find out, one way or another. That you have a planet-leveller," said Athena after Lilith shot her a questioning look.

"So? Am I supposed to be, what? Scared? Pissing my pants? Nervous?" Lilith leaned in as she saw the Vault Key being exposed to her. She tapped the sides four times. It wasn't giving off a glow. Why wasn't it glowing? wondered Athena.

"Empty," said Lilith. "The Key is empty. Outta juice. It was used to open a Vault on Demophon recently."

She locked the safe's three doors and stood up, satisfied.

"We came all the way here just to check if a Vault Key was still in the right place?"

"Yep," Lilith replied, popping the 'p'.

"Seriously? Why are you keeping all the Vault Keys, anyway? Why not sell them off to, oh I don't know, buy more guns? Or - or actually use them for something aside from storing them who knows where?"

Lilith brushed her hands off. "I don't have all the Vault Keys. Not all the ones that we need."

"Need for what? What reason - ?"

"Eridian reasons. Eridian guardian reasons."

"And? What did it tell you?"

Lilith walked past Athena, who grabbed the Firehawk by the arm. "What did it say?"

"Something about needing a bunch of Keys to form a bigger key...? Ugh. It was cryptic. You wouldn't have gotten it either." Lilith wrenched her arm out of Athena's hands. "Don't do that again unless you want your arm detached from its socket," she warned.

"And people say I'm hard to get along with," whispered Athena, scowl deepening. She followed Lilith out, and once the Pandoran heat was simmering on her skin, she noticed the dead Raiders.

Lilith turned to Athena. "Okay. What the hell?"

The Gladiator began her investigation. She turned over the nearest corpse. Its uniform was singed and charred. Like it had been burned, but in very specific places. Rings of violet had been seared into the guard's shoulders, legs and helmet. She didn't even flinch after taking off the helmet. After all, she'd inflicted worser injuries herself. "Whoever did this, they didn't use a gun or a fire-based weapon. Energy-based. Quick, sufficient attacks. Others are displaying similiar signs."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning most likely that just one person is responsible for this."

A new voice interrupted, "Bravo, Sherlock Holmes. Bravo." A woman strode towards them, delivering a slow clap. "Molto bene. And before anyone says anything else, I'll take credit for my work: I killed your men," she told Lilith. "It was hilarious watching them put up a struggle. Thinking they could fight back. Of course, they were wrong. Incredibly so." She pretended to wipe a tear of mirth from her eye. "So yes, I killed those Raiders, and soon I'm going to kill more, after I'm through with you."

Her emerald hair was tied back in a ponytail. She had high cheekbones, an infuriating simper, and swirling cyan tattoos along her right arm. She wore a combat vest, green with black highlights.

"A Siren?" asked Lilith.

"That's right," chuckled the newcomer. "It always pleases me to see another one of our own."

"Last time a Siren got in my way, she ended being impaled by a tentacle. And then she died a second time, which was fun for me. So just so you know, you basically brought a shitstorm down on your head."

"Oh I know." The hostile Siren gave a smirk. "And I also know it's gonna be a lotta fun." She signaled to a squad of armoured troops.

"Boys, deal with the assassin trash. I'll take care of the Firehawk."

"Call for backup!" Lilith ordered Athena as she battled the other Siren.

"Don't bother!" laughed the ponytailed woman, narrowly dodging Lilith's Phasewalk attack and blasting a scorching line of energy that missed by an inch. "The installed jammer will have taken care of that. And besides, you're isolated. Nobody would reach you in time." She struck Lilith in the face as she shimmered into view, making the Firehawk grimace.

"You've come prepared."

"Obviously."

Athena held the line, using her shield to deflect the zipping bullets. "Okay, Lilith, what do we do?"

No reply over the gunfire, or the punches and kicks the Siren were exchanging. "Lilith! What's the plan?"

The vested Siren cried, "Voltzmann!"

A buff, raven-haired man cannoned into Athena. He was far taller, and far broader than her. He was clad in a simple tank top, but that wasn't what drew Athena's attention to him. His entire skin was blue, a dark-navy tone. "Oh wow. A smurf on steroids," she quipped drily.

The man, Voltzmann, bore his gaze down on Athena and smirked lopsidedly. Without warning, his hand surged forward and grabbed Athena by the throat. He raised her stiffly like a doll, and began to apply pressure. Athena choked and gasped for air. Her legs dangled and kicked wildly. Her training kicked in, and she aimed the heel of her boot at the man's throat. Voltzmann grinned as electricity crackled along his arm, down to his fingertips and effectively electrocuting Athena.

Athena spasmed and convulsed, howled and screeched while she, from head to toe, was getting fried.

"Stop it! You're killing her!" Lilith glanced over, saw what was happening.

"That's the point," said Voltzmann, his voice a rich, deep baritone.

She Phasewalked, reappearing before Voltzmann and clocking him in the nose. The Living Conduit did not flinch. Lilith did the next best thing. Activating her Siren powers, she watched the Gladiator melt through a tear in space. Seconds later, Athena had vanished. Voltzmann slackened his grip around empty air. He turned to Lilith as she pursed her lips.

The Firehawk had no time to decide her second course of action as she was swiftly pistol-whipped and conked out. Lilith lay in the dirt, and Voltzmann and the other Siren shared a look.

Ruins of Helios. Now.

"How would you like to make an ad for me?"

Sasha quirked an eyebrow at the one-armed cyborg. "An ad for you?"

"For me, with me. Actually, let's make it together. It's to get the message across about Atlas hiring staff."

"What, I'm like your marketing manager or something?"

Rhys shrugged. "Something like that. Call it a favour."

"Really, Rhys? Shy about paying me?"

"I-It's not that... per se..."

"But it is that, you money-grubbing Atlas."

"C'mon, Sash, we're pals. And pals help each other out. Without asking for payment."

Sasha sniffed, looked away and tapped her bicep. "...Sometimes."

"I'll take that as a yes, then."

Fifteen minutes after that, they set up a broadcast studio in one of the far corners of the ruins of Helios.

"So how's this work? I just talk into this and say what I want?" Rhys curled his fingers around the mic.

With a roll of her eyes, Sasha answered, "Yes, Rhys. Talk into the mic and - wait, you have a script?"

Rhys fluttered the printed page before him and set it on the desk. "Yeah, actually. I've been working on this for a while now. Just - never found the motivation to properly broadcast it, though." Sasha nabbed the paper and skimmed through its contents. She wrinkled her nose in distaste and handed it back to Rhys.

"Yeah, no. I can't use that."

"What? But, I worked ages on this!"

"I know propaganda when I see it, Rhys." Sasha jabbed at the page in Rhys' hand. "And that's Atlas propaganda at its worst."

"Propaganda, advertising, so what? 'S all the same."

"'Atlas is supreme'. 'Atlas is the best'. 'All hail Atlas'. That's basically what that is saying. How about an interview instead? It'll do for a better representation of Atlas." And for me, she decided. Sasha did not want to sound like a drone spouting slogans and catchphrases like one of those corp-sponsored ECHOcasts.

"Image. Right. How does that help...?"

"It just will," said Sasha firmly. "Now come on, let's get this underway."

Dr Zed's Clinic in Sanctuary.

The ward's doors burst open and Mordecai and Dr Zed watched Axton storm in. The Commando was livid. He stopped dead in his tracks, observed Maya resting on the bed in front of the licenseless doctor and the sniper. "What the hell happened to her?"

Zed steepled his fingers and looked over to Maya. "Slag poisoning. She's in a coma."

Axton spluttered, "W-What? Well you're the doc! Do something!"

"Siren biology ain't ma specialty," Zed argued testily, his eyes burning over his mask. "In any case, she's not in any lethal danger. Just... inert. I'll try flushing her system clear of any toxins, but settin' up the decontamination chamber's gonna be a pain."

"Why not just use a healing hypo?" Axton asked like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"It's not that simple. A hypo ain't much good in this situation." Zed shrugged. "Like I said. Siren physiology. It's different from ours."

"How the hell did she get slag poisoning, of all things?"

"My understandin' is that she absorbed it."

"Absorbed it?"

"When she was firin' the Eye of Helios. Now, she didn't absorb it on purpose. That'd be just plain stupid. But from what I garnered from the Raider that brought her in, she pulled off a mighty crazy stunt to make her employer happy."

At Axton's nonplussed look, Zed elaborated, "Apparently, she did it to save a bunch of Hyperions."

"That's - that's just dumb. We fought Hyperion for years. Why would we help any of those assholes now?"

"For the right price, you'd do anythin'."

Axton shook his head. "No. Some people have a line not to cross. I know what mine is."

"Anyway, my diagnosis is, that on a cellular level, she's screwed."

"Very insightful," deadpanned Axton. Zed held up a hand.

"I wasn't finished. Now. You be damn sure I'm gonna do my utmost best to help Maya. It'll take some time, however."

"To treat her?"

"To get her out of the coma. The decontamination chamber will take care of Maya's poisoning, but as for getting her to full recovery... you're just going to have to be patient." Zed nodded farewell to the two Vault Hunters. "Gentlemen. If you'd excuse me, I have a patient to treat." He strode off, leaving them alone.

"First Maya, then Lilly..." groaned Mordecai, clutching his forehead.

"Lilith? What's up with her?"

"She's missing. According to the Gladiator, she 'n' Lilly ran into some real tough sons-a-bitches who ambushed them. Athena got teleported to the Raiders HQ while Lilith... dammit. She let herself get captured."

Axton wrung his hands together, eyebrows bunched up in concentration. "Too many coincidences. Maya goes into a coma, Lilith is captured by... whom, exactly?" He scratched his head thoughtfully.

Mordecai hiccuped, covered his mouth with a gloved hand. He took a swig of ale. "No idea, amigo. These pendejos never gave their names out. Although, we do know one of them's a Siren..."

"A Siren, huh. Fuck, man... Shit's just gettin' more and more complicated..." Axton straightened. He said firmly, "So that means we gotta go on a search and rescue."

"Where to start, though? We got no leads. The ambush happened nowhere near any settlements. There wouldn't be anyone to ask around."

"What did these guys look like?"

"Look, you wanna know the details, go ask Athena. I gotta plan."

"Plan for what, Mordy? You're wasted."

"Heh. Don't I know it. But hey, you're lookin' at the new leader of the Crimson Raiders." Mordecai towered over the blonde Commando. "So show a little respect."

Cramped in his office with stacks of data-pads crowding his desk, Vaughn carded a hand through his hair. His ECHOcomm was receiving updates almost every minute. He had a moment to breathe in quiet and contemplate. But he didn't want it.

So he had called Yvette instead. "Estimated casualties?"

Yvette made a noise of impatience. "I dunno. You're the numbers guy. You figure it out." Vaughn's gaze flashed momentarily to the Hyperion ECHO-Spex on a shelf. His old glasses.

"Yeah? Well I'm asking you." Why did he even want to know that? So that he could torture himself over his losses and be tormented by his failures?

"...Too many. Way too many."

"I meant a more precise figure."

"Five-thousand and forty one. That's... how many we lost. Those in med-care - that's about two thousand three hundred. And - "

He blocked out Yvette's next statistic and just thought. He thought and thought and thought. Today was officially a disaster. He daren't ask about how many they could have possibly lost when the moonshots started. That was too much to handle. He tented his hands and mourned. Mourned all the names and faces he'd never heard of, never seen, never talked to, never... gotten to know.

" - Vaughn? Vaughn, you there?"

"Huh? Yeah, what, I'm here. Sorry." Vaughn reflexively brushed his fingers against his nose, but realised he had no spectacles on. "What were you saying?"

"If there's one thing we haven't lost, it's our collective love for gossip and rumours." He registered the light amusement in Yvette's voice. "You need to allay their fears. Calm them down. It's a storm of chatter up in here."

"Fine. I'll send an announcement through the intercom."

"We don't have an intercom anymore."

That's right. They didn't.

"You'll just have gather them all in one place and address them face-to-face."

Vaughn buried his head in his hands and emitted a muffled groan. He hated giving speeches.

Vaughn stood before the Children of Helios on a dais. A sea of visages, some hopeful, some resigned, some bored, stared back at him. He coughed once. "Alright, so I'll admit that was the worst attack launched by the bandits yet. During the battle, we lost many brothers and sisters who fought to defend our home. They will not be forgotten.

"I'm sure no one will object to my singling out of the Liberator and his allies who helped us in our time of need. Thanks to them, in fact thanks to all of us, Helios still stands. The Children of Helios will not be so easily beaten by bandits who think they'll have their way with us.

"We ought to be proud of ourselves for continuing to defend our home with great vigilance and determination. And now, I invite the Liberator himself to give a few words." Vaughn looked across the hall, right at Rhys. "Rhys?"

Rhys pushed himself to his feet and strolled up to the stage that Vaughn occupied. The crowd sweeped to either side of Rhys as he approached. Everybody watched with bated breath. He made it up the steps and whispered to Vaughn, "Why is this happening right now? You're putting me on the spot."

"You're the motivational speaker, Rhys. So go do some motivating. Give these people hope. Give them something to cling on to."

Rhys almost replied, "You mean lie."

He turned, walked to the edge of the stage and waited a moment.

[Give an inspirational speech]

[Tell them they're screwed]

[Offer them a better future at Atlas]