song: Zayde Wølf - New Blood

It had taken me a long time to get rid of all the Eridium that was stuck to my clothes and my body and my hair and my everything. I had wrapped myself up in a towel and the woollen blanket we used for sleeping.

At least it helped me stay a little bit warmer. As soon as the night cycle approached it got really really cold, especially out here in the Tundra and so high up in our tower. Mordecai was sending the copies of what we had found over to Sanctuary and once he came back, we would go through some stuff ourselves.

I had just made myself a nice cup of coffee and Bloodwing was hopping around happily on the floor. Mordecai had taken off without her to check on Tina as well, so at least I had some company, while I was waiting.

"Hey, little girl." I said to her quietly. She looked over at me and cawed a little, as if she was offended by me calling her a little girl.

"You wanna come up here, Blood?" I asked. She cawed and hopped over to me, looking at me strangely. After looking at me for a little while, she hopped up on the couch, next to me. I held out my hand to her and she rubbed her beak against my hand. I smiled at her and scratched her head carefully.

She cawed happily and let me pet her for a while, until she seemed to hear something and jumped down from the couch, hopping to the door, just as the door was opening. Mordecai had finally made it back. He was still covered in liquid Eridium and he looked insanely tired. He was holding a half-empty bottle of rakk ale in one hand and an ECHO recorder in the other hand, as he walked inside.

"Hey, Blood!" he exclaimed, when he saw her and bent down to pet her with a big smile on his face. Mordecai's relationship with Bloodwing was still the most adorable thing I had ever seen so far.

"You got all the stuff to Sanctuary?" I asked him, once he was done petting Bloodwing. He nodded.

"Yup. I've also got some bad news." he replied, the smile gone from his face again. He took another swig from his bottle.

"What bad news?"

"They got Roland." he said, his words sounding a little slurred. I felt a lump in my throat and felt a little sick.

"What? Who?" I replied.

"Bloodshots. Well, officially the Firehawk's got him, but we both know it's the Bloodshots." Mordecai said. I sighed with relief. This wasn't good by any means, but it wasn't the worst thing that could have happened.

"Shit, I was scared that Hyperion got him and they had burned Sanctuary to the ground just like they did with New Haven."

"Yeah, well, it's still not good."

"I know, I know. Who's taking over in Sanctuary now?" I asked.

"Well, I think, Scooter heard some Firehawk ECHO message and told the new Vault Hunters to get Roland. So hopefully, Lilith knows what's going on and will have a plan once the Vault Hunters arrive there." Mordecai explained.

"That's a lot of maybes right there. And Lilith doesn't make plans. She just wings it." I replied.

"Yeah, well, that's all we really got right now. Gotta hope for the best. I mean, without Roland we can basically forget Sanctuary. We need Roland to lead the raiders and we need the new Vault Hunters to help us. None of us, except Roland, can actually pull this off." he said.

"Why not?"

"I'm a drunk, Lilith's believed to be dead and should officially stay dead and Brick is a total maniac and not even part of the raiders anymore. None of us can properly lead a whole resistance."

"I guess you have a point. Let's see what we got from the Info Stockade. Anything on the new guys?" I asked. Mordecai nodded.

"Looks like there's six of them. The girl whose ECHOcast you found, a former Dahl soldier, another siren, a guy from Pandora, some dude who only speaks in haiku and a Psycho." he summarized. I blinked at him.

"What the fuck?"

"Yeah, well, that's mostly what I've gathered so far. And that was the short version. Who do you wanna know about first?" he asked.

"Was there anything else on the girl?"

"Well, her name is apparently Gaige and she's from Eden, but the rest I think you already know."

"Okay. What about the siren?" I asked.

"Goes by the name of Maya and is from Athenas, apparently. I'm not sure if she can phasewalk like Lilith or not, or if she can do anything else, maybe. She seems to have lived in a monastery most of her life, so that's sorta all I could gather on her. Killed one of the monks and escaped."

"Hm. Who else we got left? What about that guy from Pandora?"

"Oh, that one's weird." Mordecai said, scratching his head.

"Yeah, no shit, everyone on Pandora is weird as fuck."

"Okay, so he's Truxican, his name is Salvador and he apparently used to live in some small village. He's got a pretty big bounty on his head for Pandora." he replied and sat down next to me.

"What'd he do?"

"Uhm... there was a lot, manslaughter, theft, arson, destruction of property, trespassing, cannibalism, public indecency, profanity... that's the ones I can remember for now. He was supposed to be executed, but then Hyperion came in and tried to take the town and he basically killed them all."

"Holy shit. What town was that?" I asked.

"Ovejas. Never heard of it myself. You?"

"It kinda rings a bell, but it is far, far out. I didn't think Hyperion would actually try and take the whole damn planet. I mean, fair enough, they're interested in the Eridium and this other Vault, but still. Damn."

"Yeah. Looks like there's no need for us to worry about them. Half of them seem to be absolutely insane anyways."

"Okay, okay, the Dahl soldier next." I said, eager to get more information. It was a bit like being in a candy store as a kid and trying all the different sweets. Just with way more blood and violence this time.

"Okay, so former Dahl soldier, was supposed to be executed, but it seems like his wife or ex-wife or someone let him off the hook and got him out and then he came here, because why not? Apparently everyone ends up on Pandora lately in one way or another." Mordecai summarized.

"Hm. Who else do we have left?" I asked. Honestly, the information on those new guys was pretty sparse.

"We have the Psycho and some mysterious assassin. Honestly, there isn't much information at all on the Psycho, just some possible links to Hyperion's human experimentation, but that's really all we got on him. Same goes for the assassin. I really didn't find out much at all, except that he's apparently looking for a challenge and goes by the name of Zero. Speaks in haiku. That's all. I don't think anyone's even sure if he's human or not." Mordecai said and shrugged.

I sighed. That really didn't sound like much to work with. But at least they seemed to be able to survive on Pandora, so that was good.

"I mean, you can go and have a look at the stuff yourself, but that's all I can remember for now. There was some other stuff we got on Hyperion convoys and all, but I didn't have time to look through them yet." he said.

"Will I help you have a look at them?" I asked, hoping he'd let me in on some of that intel this time.

"No. The more you know, the more danger you are in. I can't let anything happen to you. Not again." he replied. I wanted to protest, when I heard a beep from my ECHO device. I looked up at Mordecai again.

"You wanna check that?" he asked. I nodded and slowly took the device.

"You think the Firehawk's got Roland, huh? Y'know, I heard the Firehawk liquefies bandits and drinks 'em like flesh smoothies. But nah, I'm sure your bandit pal Roland's just fine. Of course, if Roland hadn't been such a dumbass in the first place, he wouldn'ta - whoops! Almost spilled the secret!"

"What is Jack on about...?" Mordecai mumbled.

"He doesn't know about Lilith, does he?" I asked, sounding more afraid than I wanted to. Mordecai shook his head.

"He shouldn't. He didn't know from what I heard last." he replied. There was some more white noise coming from my ECHO.

"Lemme explain something: even if you DO rescue Roland from this Firehawk guy, the Crimson Raiders ain't exactly long for this world. You know what? I think you deserve a little hint. My secret involves your pathetic resistance dying, and me laughing, heh-heh-heh! A lot."

This made me gulp audibly. I never knew if Jack was bluffing or not and I didn't like the sounds of that message.