A/N: So yeah, not going to say much other than the following; I don't own either 'RWBY' nor the 'Borderlands' franchise. They are property of their respective owners, and as such this story is a non-profit work. Alright, let's get to the ANARCHY! I mean story.
Chapter 1: A New Adventure Begins
"Well, that's the last of them," muttered a girl with red hair. She was wearing a blue jacket, orange skirt, and long striped socks. She began to twirl her Jakobs revolver which was called Rex in her non-robotic right hand as she gazed upon the carnage in front of her.
In front of her laid a literal blood bath of ripped limbs, shattered skulls, and pools of blood from her attack. She sighed as this was supposed to be an easy mission; find some artifact for Tannis and get back. But no, nothing on Pandora was ever that easy, as what Tannis failed to mention was that the artifact was in a cave filled to the brim with threshers and stalkers.
"Gaige, everything alright?" asked a voice. Gaige jumped as she forgot that her echo communicator was on.
"Yeah Axton, everything is fine," Gaige replied. "I just had to kill so many stalkers and threshers for no good reason other than the artifact Tannis wants are in the cave." He heard the Commando chuckle.
"Hehe, reminds me of the days when the gang would go collect 'samples' for Tannis," he said. "That or kill the poor souls Hyperion tortured in their eridium experiments."
Gaige nodded solemnly. She couldn't forget all the people who suffered at the hands of Handsome Jack, Hyperion's tyrant leader. Krieg who lost his family (thankfully he reunited with Tiny Tina) and his psyche, Bloodwing who was experimented on like a lab rat, and finally Angel and Roland. Gaige felt her heart twist at the thought of Angel dying trying to stop her father and saw her death as merciful. And Roland's death, well, it was nothing but fuel to the fire for the rest of the Vault Hunters.
"Yo kid, you still with me?" Gaige felt herself shaken from the memories by Axton's question.
"Yeah, just thinking about how much good we did by putting Handsome Jack down," Gaige replied. "Son of a bitch deserved worse, far worse than a bullet to the head for what he did."
"That he did," Axton answered. "But enough chit-chat, get the artifact and return to Sanctuary, there's a skag steak with your name on it."
"Yeah, I just need to find the artifact at this point," Gaige said. "See you when the quest is done." She quickly turned off her echo communicator, and sighed. "Great, now what was it I was looking for?"
She pulled out Tannis's notes and saw she was looking what could be described as an octagonal eridian relic with black markings. Apparently it was important to the Vault Key, so Tannis wanted it. Gaige put the note in her pocket and began sifting through the cave and the bodies, disgusted with how messy the cave became with the eviscerated threshers and stalkers.
After not finding it in the part of the cave she was in, Gaige moved a bit deeper in the cave. Oddly enough, despite there being the telltale signs of a stalker infestation, she didn't run into any more of the blasted devils. Gaige was going to wonder what was going on when she tripped.
"The fuck?" Gaige asked to herself. "What the fuck did I trip on now?" Checking her feet, she saw what she first thought was a vine; only it seemed a bit too bright. She grabbed ahold of the vine, groaning at the realization of what it was.
"Alright, let me guess, I bet someone, probably Hyperion, is also after the relic," Gaige said to no one. "Great, this keeps getting better and better." She checked the ammo in her Rex revolver, glad that it was completely reloaded. She didn't need to run into a badass WAR loader with only a single round in the chamber.
She cautiously walked deeper in the cave, growing more and more paranoid at the lack of any activity. She thought that Hyperion would've at least laid out turrets, had gun loaders patrolling the cave tunnel, hell even had some 'paid' bandits keep unwanted visitors from getting to the relic. But as far as she could tell, there wasn't anything.
"God damn it, if Tannis sent me on a goose chase quest, I swear I will kick her ass," Gaige muttered. She jumped down a ledge, sighing when nothing happened. She was getting bored; she wanted to test out what her conference call would do with max anarchy. She was about to think this quest was a waste of time when she saw that at the end of the tunnel was the relic.
"Huh, I guess I can just grab it and leave," Gaige said. She walked up to the relic and looked around it, wanting to make sure that there were no bombs, traps, or pop up turrets that would emerge should she go after it. After a minute of probing around the pedestal that the relic was on and satisfied that nothing was laid to screw her over, Gaige grabbed the relic, hearing a soft click as she removed it.
"Oh, ain't this a surprise," said an arrogant voice that sent chills down Gaige's spine. "Did you seriously think I wasn't looking for other Eridian relics other than the Warrior, did you?"
"No, it can't be," Gaige said, turning around, and seeing a monitor behind her with a face she was all too aware of. "NO, you died in Hero's Pass when Axton BLEW YOUR HEAD OFF!" But the man that caused her so much suffering was staring back at her through the monitor.
"Come on, did you think that me and my top lieutenants didn't have a New-U account?" said Handsome Jack, smirking at the fear that was apparent on Gaige's face. "Did you Vault Hunters seriously thought that I wouldn't have some back up plan in case you ass hats fucked everything up?!"
Gaige was about to shoot the monitor when she felt the cave starting to shake. She looked up and saw that falling from the ceiling were what appeared to be five steel cubes. But she knew better, and sure enough, she saw these boxes unfurl into the bastardization that she knew to be Badass Loaders. She then saw to her horror a pair of Constructors deploy and began deploying several turrets and ION Loaders.
"Yeah, didn't think to look up to see if I had any forces to prevent your escape, now did ya?" Jack asked, a shit eating grin on his face. "Oh, by the way, this cave, it's actually a bunker that designed to stop anyone from exiting or entering if I want, so I doubt you can get out through the blast doors. Not that I think you can get past all the loaders, constructors, turrets, and drones."
"You bastard!" Gaige yelled. "What do you intend to do now, retake Pandora? Everyone knows you can be beaten, and they…"
"Who said anything about retaking Pandora?" Jack asked, shrugging as though taking over a planet wasn't a big deal. "But hey, it's not like everyone in Sanctuary has lowered their guards and what not. But I have set my eyes on a greater goal. Thankfully, you guys were such idiots to be able to draw up a map of the other vaults on other planets while a Hyperion camera was able to record the map."
Gaige paled as the implications. Jack was willing to tear up Pandora for the Warrior, but at least Pandora was a back water planet. However, some of the other planets with Vaults were actually pretty peaceful and had stable populations. Gaige knew however Jack would do anything to get to those Vaults, even if it meant ripping apart a world.
"Anyway, I just wanted to leave you wallowing in despair at this one little tid-bit of information," Jack stated. "You can't get any chance to warn your bandit scum friends in Sanctuary as I blocked any signals from your echo communicator, you can't use a fast travel station for the one in the room is disconnected, and I also canceled your Hyperion New-U account. So, enjoy your death; this is for my daughter."
The monitor went black, and Gaige felt her anger boiling over. Jack was alive, he was going to rip apart planets other than Pandora for the Vaults, and there wasn't a damn thing she could do. She rage overtook her, and she began firing Rex as fast as she could possibly.
"DAMN YOU JACK!" she yelled. "I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU!" She deployed Deathtrap, who began eviscerating through the turrets and drones with such fervor. However, Gaige knew she was in trouble. Her shield was designed with maximizing capacity, but the ION loaders would fry the shield in no time, leaving her wide open for the Super badass Loaders to kill her.
She quickly took cover behind the pedestal, hoping that the cover it provided would last a few seconds for her to plan. She began to consider her options. She could try and fight her way out, but with all the drones repairing and shielding the other Loaders, and the huge hit pool that was standing in front of her, it would probably be a one way trip. But with no other alternatives, what could she do?
Gaige pulled out her caustic Conference Call, and began pouring fire into the mass of Loaders. The pellets began ricocheting off the walls and soon Gaige saw the damage she was inflicting. The loader's armor began to corrode under the acid of the pellets, and several drones and turrets where knocked out quickly.
Gaige threw out several acid MIRV grenades, but she saw that the ION loaders had moved forward and begun shielding the other loaders from the fire of her Conference Call. She growled, annoyed that Hyperion were undoubtable very capable of creating battle worthy mechs. She needed to switch tactics.
"Deathtrap, get in and kill the ION loaders!" Gaige called out while she switched to her Vladof Electric Shredifier. She needed to knock out the ION loaders if she wanted to take out the rest of the loaders. She began laying down a lead wall, hoping to do something, but the bullets deflected off the shields. Worse still, Deathtrap began to sustain heavy damage from both the gunfire and the Ion shields the loaders were using as cover and was seconds away from behind deconstructed, and the ION loaders were continually being repaired by the drones that the constructors were making.
"Shit, what do I do now?!" Gaige asked. She threw her MIRV grenades before the ION loaders had deployed their shields, so she was out. She didn't trust her odds of hitting what she was aiming at with a Nukem due to both the large blast and the large stack of anarchy she had. And now the loaders were all taking aim, readying themselves to take Gaige out in a single volley of fire.
Gaige took out the black Eridian relic and cursed her luck for accepting the quest by herself. She knew she should've asked anyone for help. If she had someone here, then maybe the loaders could be dealt with and she could figure a way past the blast doors. But the others deserved a break from all the missions, after the long hard fight against Handsome and Hyperion.
Axton and the original Vault Hunters was busy training the citizens of Sanctuary so they could defense themselves without the Vault hunters. Maya, Zero, and Salvador were busy taking down various bandit camps. Krieg was trying to regain his sanity so he could raise Tina. Gaige was the only one with no goals, and her entire reason for being a Vault hunter stemmed from accidently killing Marcie and running to Pandora to evade prison.
Gaige knew that the tiny pedestal wouldn't last very long under a barrage of bullets, and that if this relic was important to Handsome Jack in some way, well it was better out of his hand. She placed Rex's barrel against the relic, taking a moment to clear her mind.
"Fuck it, if it screws over Handsome Jack, it will be worth it," she muttered. She pulled the trigger, expecting the relic to shatter to a millions pieces followed by her being riddles into a million pieces.
However, that was not what happened. The first part happened, Rex's bullet shattered the Eridian relic, however something else occurred. Instead of being riddle by the Loaders, Gaige was suddenly engulfed in a purple cloud. She looked as the cloud seemed to stem from the relic, and Gaige only had a moment to realize what was about to happen.
"Fuck my life!" Gaige said, unprepared for the sudden and very disorienting feeling of being teleported by the relic, very similar to when Lilith phased her and the others out of Sanctuary during the lunar bombardment. Her vision became filled with strange symbols, visions of things she didn't recognized. Black creatures with crimson red eyes rampaging through villages, and people using something to burn, shock, crush, and brush aside these creatures.
It felt like hours before these visions receded, and Gaige felt herself dumped in some… place. Gaige was sitting on the ground, and she began to take in her surroundings. First off, wherever she was, it certainly wasn't the cave where she would've died. Instead it appeared to be some back alley, as around her were two buildings, a chain link fence that blocked off the alley at one end, and a couple of garbage cans.
Secondly, as it was night, Gaige peered at the moon, only to not be seeing Hyperion Moon base Helios. Instead, there was nothing obstructing the moon, but the moon looked like it had a chunk of it missing, as though someone blasted it with some powerful weapon. Also, the night seemed darker here than it did on Pandora. Gaige sighed as she pulled out her echo device, hoping to confirm her suspicions.
"Error, no active echo satellites, off-platform databases, New-U stations, or Fast Travel Stations detected," announced the device. "Please contact your local Dahl representative for instructions to reconnect your Echo device."
"Well, this is great," Gaige said, leaning on the building. "Not only do I not know where I am, but I am not connected to anything to help me out. I might as well check if my gear is still in my Digi-pack."
Gaige scrolled to her inventory, and immediately groaned. Not only had her echo device lost connection to anything that could help her out, she was missing a number of her most valuable weapons. Amongst these were all (except for Rex) of her Legendary-rarity guns, grenade mods, and shields. What she had left for weapons and equipment left her very much annoyed.
For firearms, her only legendary loot was the Jacobs Rex, her trusty and well-loved high powered revolver. She would need it for when things got heated, as the rest of the loot was unimpressive. She had a Vladof Spinigun, which had only a fifty round magazine and no elemental effects. She did have a Dahl Surgical Terror that had a corrosive effect, but since Gaige was running around using anarchy to do extra damage at the cost of accuracy, it was dead weight except at close range. Her last weapon was a Jakobs Coach Gun that had decent stats, but nothing like her Conference Call.
For other equipment, she only had an incendiary bouncy grenade mod, something she didn't want to use. She hated how the damn things kept bouncing around for seemingly forever, and often times missed their target. For a shield, it was a Turtle Shield, which offered her incredible amount of shields at the cost of some of her health which was fine when she wasn't taking on anything that could drain her shields like it was nothing. Her relic which she had equipped increase damage and accuracy with her pistol, something she intended to take full advantage of. And then finally her class mod was a Swift Anarchist mod, which improved the speed of her Deathtrap.
Speaking of which, she wanted to see if her skills had changed during the trip. A quick look at her skills informed her that still had her build that she was using before she phased out of the cave. She tried to maximize her anarchy skill, getting buffs to both the number of stacks she could have and the rate she acquired them. She also had it to where she would deploy a digi-struct claws in she would melee an enemy, her bullets would have a good chance to ricochet, and that her shields were buffed.
"Good to see my skills didn't go away," Gaige muttered while she deployed Deathtrap. "I better make sure everything is working on Deathtrap before I leave the alley." Deathtrap deployed, revealing his claws, skull face, and blood red body frame. Deathtrap had been Gaige's friend ever since she been forced to Pandora to evade the police, and she wanted to make sure he was alright. It scanned the area for threat while Gaige made certain nothing was wrong.
She frowned as she reviewed the codes for Deathtrap; the codes indicated that Deathtrap would need both software and hardware upgrades. He was running around 30% slower than he should be, due to the number of upgrades Gaige had installed on him to improve his melee combat ability, which were causing unnecessary lag. In terms of hardware, Deathtrap's armor and weapons were in bad need of repair, as the fighting on Pandora weren't kind to the robotic killer butler.
"Sorry D-T for the lack of attention as of late," Gaige apologized to Deathtrap. "When I figure out where we are and get to a workshop, you are getting a much needed refit." Deathtrap nodded, and calmly Gaige recalled him, having added that feature to him after the fight against the Warrior. Gaige glanced at the moon, before deciding to wait until morning to figure out what the hell she was going to do. She closed her eyes, and let sleep overtake her weary body.
When she awoke, Gaige groaned. Sleeping while leaning on the wall caused her to have significant pain in her neck, and her joints were stiff. She began to stretch, wondering where she should begin in her search in determining where the fuck she was. Better get out of this alley and look around, she thought to herself. She got up, and after dusting herself off and getting Rex ready for a fight, Gaige left the alley.
What she saw reminded her a little bit of Lynchwood. The buildings looked to be worn by weather and time, there was a high street which was open, and finally it was dusty. However, one thing stood out for her; there wasn't anyone around. She was used to something, be it bandits trying to kill her, some poor soul who had a quest for her, or someone that didn't pose a threat to her. However, in this town, there was no one.
"Hello?" Gaige called out. "Is there anyone here?" After a minute of silence Gaige shuddered. "Great, I'm in a ghost town. I might as well see if there is anything in these buildings that will tell me where I am."
She walked down the street, scanning the buildings. Some were house, others were places of business, but not of the kind she was looking for. She was looking for either a book store or a library; she could find books that she use to determine where she was. If there were in a foreign language, then she would have to translate it with her echo device, which might take a few minutes to an hour. But since the store fronts were in English (thank god), she doubted she would need to translate anything.
As she got to the end of the street, she found a book store. Fist pumping the air in success, Gaige walked into the store. She began first by heading to the geography section of the store, and began pulling out various books. However, as she looked through the books, her heart plummeted at the growing realization.
Apparently, she was in the lands of some kingdom called 'Vale', on a planet called 'Remnant'. Gaige didn't recognized these names, but assumed that perhaps it was a new planet that was discovered while she was stuck on Pandora. Grabbing a book of the technological history, she began frantically looking through it to see when people landed on Remnant, only to come up blank.
To the best of her knowledge, the people of Remnant had always lived on Remnant, not arrived by a shuttle, exploration fleet, or mining operation rig. And as far as Gaige could tell, the citizens of Remnant didn't even have anything space worthy. Gaige smashed the table in frustration, her claws cutting the table into four sections.
"What the FUCK?!" she yelled. "How the hell did shooting that relic land me here?!" She was about to continue her little rampage of frustration when she heard a growl. Turning her head, she saw that deeper in the store were a pair of red eyes staring back at her.
"Um, that can't be good," Gaige said, readying Rex. Turns out her instincts were right.
Leaping out of the shadows was a black beast that rivaled Krieg in size. It had shaggy fur, with bone white spikes protruding from its back, elbows, and knees, with what appeared to be a bone crust over its face. On the face crust was a red pattern that connected with the blood red eyes. It looked like a bipedal wolf in Gaige's mind.
Instead of waiting, Gaige began firing Rex, hoping to kill the beast, whatever it was, before it did anything too crazy. She fired a shot and watched as the bullet hit the ceiling and ricochet and hit the beast in the arm. The beast howled in pain, and blood began dripping on the ground from the wound. However, before Gaige realized it, the beast charged her.
Within a second it was on top of her, and it slashed right at Gaige. Gaige was glad that she had her shield on, as the slash ended up taking half the shields in one blow.
"That fuck?!" Gaige yelled in surprise. On Pandora, most of the enemies that didn't have any electrical weapons had a hard time dealing with shields. Melee opponents could do a bit better against shields, but now were as strong as this.
She fired Rex rapidly, pumping rounds into the beast. Even with her four hundred stacks, at this range all the bullets hit where she was intending. The beast howled one last time before collapsing dead, a pool of blood beginning to soak into the ground.
"Well, that's over," she said, when she heard what sounded like more growls deeper in the store. Gaige reloaded Rex, cursing herself for thinking that there was only one threat. She contemplated deploying Deathtrap, but decided to reserve him only if the beasts either became too much to handle or if a super badass version of them came out.
Out of the shadows emerged a dozen more of the beast, all charging at her. Gaige fired off the magazine of Rex, taking one more of the beast down before she began to run out of the store. She quickly swapped out Rex for the Vladof Spinigun, hoping that the magazine capacity would be enough to keep her safe.
Once in the street, Gaige turned around and began firing at the pack of beasts.
"Take this suckers!" she taunted, watching her bullets either rip into the beasts or ricochet and hit them anyway. She managed to take down three more before any of the beast emerged from the shop, but when they did they quickly closed the gap.
Four went around her while four charged straight at her. The larger of the beast had a cracked crust, and he swiped at Gaige, who narrowly avoided it by rolling out of the way. She reloaded the Spingun and began firing it, killing another beast only to be forced to roll out of the way again by the other beasts.
"Damn it, these creatures are much more aggressive than the beasts of Pandora," Gaige muttered. "I can't get the Spinigun to fire at its maximum, so better switch to the Coach Gun."
She switched again, pulling out the double barrel shotgun. She fired both barrels at one of the smaller beast, and it took the head clean off. She then saw all the beast charge at her again, and Gaige groaned.
"Fuck it," she muttered. "Deathtrap, take care of these pests!" Raising her hand in a wave, Deathtrap digi-constructed behind a smaller beast and slashed him across the back. The beast howled and took a swipe at Deathtrap, only to cause a minor scratch to the mechanical Grim Reaper. Deathtrap replied with a laser to the beast's face.
Gaige meanwhile had begun to fire/reload at a rapid rate, trying to force the beast to keep their distance. An advantage with her build was that she was able to reload and fire her Coach Gun fast enough to keep the beast at bay.
She was about to fire upon a smaller beast when the large one with the cracked crust let out a loud howl and charged at Gaige, knocking her to the ground. The beast then stepped on her arm, preventing her from raising the Coach Gun or swiping at the beast. Gaige turned to see Deathtrap had his hand full taking care of the three other beasts.
This seriously can't be the end for me, can it, she thought as the beast snarled at her. She watched as it raised its hand, readying to strike her down. She closed her eyes, expecting the strike to rip past her shields and kill her when a crack broke through the air.
The large beast stumbled off of her arm, and Gaige wasted no time blasting the beast away with the Coach Gun. All the pellets managed to hit the beast, most in the arms and chest, but a few contacted the head. The beast collapsed in a bloody heap, and Gaige got up, to see Deathtrap unleash a flurry of strikes against the last of the minor beasts, ripping him into ribbons.
"That's the last of them," Gaige muttered. She recalled Deathtrap, seeing no more need to keep him out.
"Miss, what are you doing out here?" asked a man, based on the voice. Gaige turned and saw a man with matted down gray hair, with thick eyebrows and mustache. He wore a burgundy suit with gold linings and buttons. But what got Gaige's attention was the blunderbuss with an axe head in his hand.
"Don't you know how dangerous it is out here?" the man asked without giving Gaige a chance to answer. "You could've been killed by that Beowulf pack had it not been for me getting that Alpha Beowulf off of you."
"I-" Gaige began before being interrupted.
"I mean, this town was abandoned last week when the Grimm overran the defenses," the man continued. "All citizens of the town were reported as having been evacuated, so please tell me-" At this point Gaige lost her patience.
"Look, all I know is that I found myself in this town sometime last night, I get up this morning, try to figure out where the hell I am, get attack by those - what did you call them, ah yes- beowolves, and I only got into that position of nearly dying because the Alpha charged me and crushed my arm. Otherwise, if you see, I did kill an entire pack, with you only helping get the Alpha off of me. So please, give me a second to answer your question!"
The man stared back at Gaige, his blunderbuss being lowered to the ground. He stared silent for a minute before sighing.
"Miss, how about we begin with your name, what is your name?" the man asked.
"It's Gaige, no last name," Gaige replied. She did have a last name, but in all her time on Pandora she had yet to meet someone who insisted on knowing a last name, let alone actually used one.
"Alright Ms. Gaige, my name is Professor Port, Huntsman and professor. Now, can you explain how and why you are here?" Gaige was about to reply when she heard a series of explosions. Turning around, she saw a number of aircraft dropping bombs, still outside the city, but getting closer. Port sighed.
"Damn military," he muttered. "They're all too eager to bomb the Grimm and destroy months of efforts to expand the kingdom. Never mind, follow me Ms. Gaige, it isn't safe here." He began walking away, and Gaige sighed.
Well, I guess this is great, Gaige thought. I am on an unknown planet, forced to follow a guy who I barely just met, and already escaped death once today. Deja fucking vu.
Gaige slid her put away her Coach Gun and pulled out Rex. She followed Port, as he was currently the only person she knew. Meanwhile, Port continued to talk to Gaige.
"Ms. Gaige, your encounter in the town will have to be debriefed," Port said. "However, if what you said is true, then the debriefing will take place where I teach students to become Huntsman and Huntresses. So we will be taking a Bulkhead straight to Beacon academy. Any questions before we leave?"
Gaige pondered for a minute, thinking about what to ask, when she thought of a quick and easy question to ask.
"How long until we get to Beacon?"
A/N: Well, this is the first chapter, so not much to discuss other than a few things.
First off, the relic that Gaige shattered will become important later. What it does and how it works won't be revealed yet.
Secondly, on the fact that Jack (and his lieutenants) being alive, that is for plot reasons. I always wondered how the player could die and get resurrected by the Hyperion New-U station. Wouldn't Jack want to oh I don't know shut down their accounts? And why didn't Jack, Wilhelm, Nisha (sheriff of Lynchwood), or the countless other Hyperion soldiers/officials didn't have a New-U account; it would make sense if they did.
Next, I don't want Gaige being super powerful, sure, she is at least level 30, but she doesn't have any super epic loot to make her a indestructible war machine. Now on how Gaige will fare in combat, I have my thoughts. She is used to facing enemies that are hard to kill and come in hordes, so she is used to focusing on damage output over finesse, which is perfect when on Pandora. But I can see the enemies of Remnant giving her problems, as they focus on speed and aggression. The grimm are the perfect example; they charge in, hoping to overwhelm the enemy with their strength and speed, much different from say a WAR loader, which focus on dealing damage from afar and being able to tank hits.
Finally, as to character relations, I don't intend to have Gaige get along with everyone. She is still the anarchist we all love, and thus she is going to have an issue with authority and those she views as being full of themselves.
But enough of me talking, see you next time with the second Chapter. As always, please follow, favorite, and review!