song: AWOLNATION - Sail

Roland was pacing up and down in the main room of the HQ in Sanctuary. I was lying on the sofa lazily, sipping on some nice hot tea and watching Roland. I had spent some time listening to the rest of this girl's ECHO casts and they were pretty entertaining, if I was honest. I was surprised she only had so few followers before... well, the incident with her classmate happened. Which left a huge bounty on her head, as well. Probably way more than was on any of our heads.

Roland and I had checked the bounty on her and it was massive. I mean, for killing a school girl it was an extremely high bounty, but that was probably due to the fact that her father was loaded and that the whole thing happened on Eden-5 where people in general had more money. Roland had tried for a while to find out about any of the other Vault Hunters that apparently arrived, but the ECHOnet was fairly quiet.

I heard the door downstairs opening and some heavy boots stomping upstairs. I shook my head smiling.

"Mordy's here." I said to Roland. He gave me a confused look, but was interrupted by Mordecai coming into the room, out of breath, with his stuff in his hand.

"What the hell is going on?" was the first thing Mordecai said. He looked from Roland to me and back to Roland.

"Nova picked up some interesting ECHO transmissions that suggest that there is a group of Vault Hunters out there that's still alive. Somewhere out by the Southern Shelf. Jack's been personally talking to them." Roland said.

"So why are we sitting around here?" Mordecai asked. I just shrugged. Roland always had good reasons for stuff, I rarely questioned them.

"We could be walking right into a Hyperion trap, if we go. We literally know nothing about these supposed Vault Hunters. We should wait and see if we can get anything else on them first." he explained.

"But-" Mordecai started protesting, but I never let him finish.

"Shut up, everyone, I think I got something new!" I said and turned up the volume on my ECHO. There was some grizzly noise.

"...still offering a reward for Roland, the mass-murdering leader of the Crimson Raiders. Good hunting, bandits!" was all I could get after that. We had missed the first part of the message. Damn. I was about to try and rewind that, when I heard some other signal chiming in. I held my breath.

"A million bucks?! Alright, boys - this is Captain Flynt! I want you to find that Vault Hunter and bring 'em to me! NOW!"

"Flynt...? Wasn't that some bandit group leader? Didn't we kill that guy?" Mordecai asked. I just shrugged and started fiddling with the ECHO to see if I could get the beginning of the first message back.

"Maybe somehow related to the guy we killed? There is a group of bandits hiding out in the Southern Shelf, I know about them, but not much else. Nova, can you get the beginning of that back?" Roland asked.

"Working on it right now." I said.

"You still think it could be a trap?" Mordecai asked, sounding exasperated. Roland sighed and shook his head.

"No, but we really have other problems at the moment. They'll probably go and find Sanctuary, if they're smart. We have to keep the city safe from the Bloodshots, they're trying to overrun us every other day." Roland replied.

"Well, maybe sending Lil away wasn't such a great idea, after all." Mordecai countered and sounded angrier than I had ever heard him. It was probably for the best he got away from Sanctuary. Things had been tense lately and Roland seemed to make a lot of people angry with his decisions.

"Shut up, both of you. I got the message." I interrupted. I wasn't sure if I had the message or not, that remained to be seen, but I didn't want them going at each other's throats. I really hoped this would work off the bat.

"Attention, people of Pandora! Handsome Jack here, offering a million bucks to whomever brings me the head of the Vault Hunter who just arrived in Liar's Berg. Oh, and I'm still offering a reward for Roland, the mass-murdering leader of the Crimson Raiders. Good hunting, bandits!" Jack's obnoxious voice spat from my ECHO device.

"Oh damn. He really wants them dead, doesn't he?" I said after a minute of silence. Both Mordecai and Roland just stared at me, as if that was the dumbest thing they had ever heard me say. And I was sure, at least Mordecai had heard me saying way more dumb shit. We used to get drunk together.

"What? I mean, obviously he does, but this constant silence is keeping me on edge, guys. The air here is so thick I could cut it with a knife. Just trying to loosen everything up a bit." I justified myself.

"No, no, no. If they're in Liar's Berg, that means they probably met someone we know..." Roland said and smiled a little.

"Someone we know? I don't even know where Liar's Berg is." I said.

"There is someone called Sir Hammerlock. He's living in Liar's Berg at the moment to study animals or something." Roland explained.

"Okay. So what about him?" I asked.

"I'll go and contact him and ask if he knows anything about those new Vault Hunters. Wait in here and don't do anything stupid, okay?" Roland said to me and Mordecai and took off with his ECHO device. I looked at Mordecai, slightly confused.

"Don't look at me like that, I barely know what he's on about myself." Mordecai mumbled and shrugged. He sat down next to me on the couch.

"So you think he'll go and find them?" I asked. Mordecai shrugged again.

"Doubt it. He's Roland, after all." he answered. I kept screwing around with my ECHO. Maybe I'd stumble upon something else that was interesting, but I soon decided to go back to the original frequency we had just heard a message from.

"...mate Boom Bewm is gonna kill ya, Jack's gonna pay us, and I'm gonna play hopscotch in your chest cavity!"

I looked over at Mordecai. Of course there'd be more happening once Roland was gone and couldn't actually hear the transmissions.

"That's Flynt again, isn't it?" I asked him.

"Sounds like him. Damn. I sure hope they'll survive this. We could use some people like them in Sanctuary to actually fight Jack. We're barely able to protect the city, as it is. I can't really see any way for us to get to Jack on our own." he replied with a sigh and got his own ECHO.

"Can you give me the frequency? I think I'm gonna get some recordings of this, in case Roland misses them." he said. I nodded and showed him the frequency on my ECHO device, keeping my mouth shut, so we wouldn't miss any other transmissions. And sure enough, we soon got more.

"Hey! How - ah, these pretzels suck... So, how's your day been, buddy? We haven't really talked much since I left you for dead. Hey, you think you'll freeze to death out there? Nah, probably not. The bandits'll get you first. My day? It's been pretty good. Just bought a pony made of diamonds, because I'm rich. So, you know. That's cool. Kay, bye."

"What a fucking douche." I commented.

"I know, right? Can't believe Moxxi left me for that... that... fascist!" Mordecai answered. I laughed.

"That was one big mistake on her side, I'd say."

"Well, she'd be with a drunk otherwise." Mordecai replied quietly. I honestly had no idea what to say to that. I mean, it was true. But it was also obvious he felt bad about it. I just looked at him, still thinking about what to answer.

"I'm sorry. I know, I shouldn't be drinking and I've tried to stop so many times, but I just can't. Not right now. I can't afford to not function for weeks right now." he said and looked as if he was embarrassed. I hadn't really seen Mordecai embarrassed, ever. I didn't even know that he was so aware of his drinking.

"I... I never thought that was what you were thinking. Shit, man." I answered. Mordecai smiled weakly.

"I do know how fucking useless I am right now. I'm sorry. I really don't know how anyone puts up with me."

"You're not useless. Stop saying that. Look, it's okay. Just... will you try and quit once all this is over? When Jack is dead and Pandora is okay again?"

"Of course. I just hope you'll be able to put up with me for that long."

"Don't be ridiculous. Of course I will. We've been friends for how long now? 6 years or something?" I asked him.

"Yeah, I think so. That's a pretty long time alright." he replied.

"I'm rackin' my brain trying to think of a name for that diamond pony I bought. I was gonna call it 'piss-for-brains' in honor of you, but that just feels immature. Maybe... 'Butt Stallion'? Nah, that's even worse. Tell ya what, I'll give it some more thought."

I looked down at my ECHO device, shaking my head in disbelief. I had met this Jack guy in person once, when he was scooping out someone's eyeballs with a spoon. I thought I couldn't abhor him more, but apparently that was possible.

"What an asshole." I heard Mordecai mumble next to me.