Hello, everyone. I just want to tell you guys ahead of time, this story is a re-telling of Borderlands 3, so expect some...departures from the actual plot of the game. Just imagine if four guys from a grittier sci-fi setting (Starship Troopers, Aliens, Killzone, etc.) or from real life randomly jumped into the Borderlands universe. Reviews are highly appreciated and will be a big help!
Jump In Blind
Kane took a deep breath, "You guys alright?"
His friend, Wilkes, muttered with slight pain as he got up, "Hell yeah."
Fisher, who managed to stay standing the whole time, silently nodded to Kane.
"Never better." Grimm snarked as he quickly snatched his sniper rifle, which was lying next to his seat.
Kane proceeded to get his ass up from the hard, cold floor. First thing he picked up was his assault rifle and Wilkes, who had just activated the visor on his helmet, lighting up the dark and cold command center. Kane did the same so he could see where the hell he was. He quickly ran up to Fisher and Grimm. Both of whom were already up, armed and ready to get back to duty. The bright, cyan glow on Kane's visor and the green on Wilkes's helped them find their own helmets. With no idea of where they were, they felt they were gonna need their gear just in case.
Looking to the doorway leading out of the command center, Kane ordered, "C'mon. We gotta get outta here. The ship's compromised. Let's get a vehicle and find out where the hell we are."
Cocking his LMG, Fisher grunted coldly, "Understood."
As Zeta Squad once more, Kane, Wilkes, Fisher, and Grimm hastily made their way to the docking bay and jacked one of the land vehicles still left in the OFS Tyrus. Leaving the ship through an erecting ramp, the four Marines were immediately blinded by the bright sun of the new planet their ship crashed on. Grimm would've thrashed the Vanquish good were it not for his eyes rapidly adjusting to the sunlight. Upon landing on the sandy terrain, it was easy for them to realize they had crashed in a desert.
Lieutenants Fisher and Grimm grunted with gritted teeth, expressing their disdain for desert environments. They would've preferred getting lost on a snowy region having grew up in Aspen, one of Earth's remaining crowning jewels. Sergeants Kane and Wilkes on the other hand, thanks to spending most of their younger years in the lush jungles of Venus, didn't mind so much. The humidity of their home planet was still more preferable in comparison.
Grimm drove the Vanquish with no particular direction in mind. It took him a while to find a road in the middle of the desert. Had they not all been destroyed, Zeta would've used drones to scout out the planet before heading out blindly. But since they were, the four had to check things out the old-fashioned way. When a road was discovered, they used it right away, hoping to find a town or a military base to make contact with their guys back home. It was only then they managed to pass by the lovely scenery that gave Zeta Squad some idea of what kind of planet they stumbled upon: Corpses, animals stranger than the ones on Terra Nova, burned buggies, they even witnessed the bones of a giant vertebrate laying in the hills. It quickly became clear to them that they weren't on a nice colony, well, what they perceived to have been a colony in their home galaxy…
Wilkes finally asked his squadmates, "Where the fuck are we?"
"No idea." Kane answered calmly as he checked his device, "My TranSAT isn't tellin me a thing."
Fisher was checking his out too, "Neither is mine. Something's not right here."
Zeta needed some answers. But luckily for them, they may have found someone, or something, that could give them just that. Looking ahead on the side of the sandy road, Grimm spotted a small robot standing in front of what looked to be a giant scrapyard judging by all the rusted vehicles and a single turbine next to a neon welcome sign.
"Stop the Vanquish." Kane ordered Grimm.
Grimm nodded, stopping the military transport in front of the junkyard. Stepping out of the vehicle, the squad grabbed their respective weapons; Kane his M56 assault rifle, Wilkes's Kessberg N78 pump-action, Fisher his M492 BUZZ light machine gun, and Grimm his Hawkeye sniper rifle and Condor DMR.
Armed to the teeth just in case, the four confronted the little yellow robot with the single blue eye. Moving with just one wheel, the robot came right up to the heavily-armed Marines, not giving a shit in the universe.
"Hey!" The robot greeted in a very high-pitched male voice, "You must be the new recruit! I am a CL4P-TP steward bot, but you can call me General Claptrap of the Crimson Raiders! What're your names?"
Fisher was the first to speak up about the encounter, "Umm…what?"
Wilkes asked, "The fuck's a Crimson Raider?"
Kane walked in front of his squadmates to speak for them, "Hello, erm…Look, we were hoping to get some answers – "
Finally, Grimm decided to step in Kane's place to do the speaking. Fisher rolled his eyes as his red-visored friend nudged Kane to the side.
"We are Zeta Squad!" He started speaking like he was Commander Ray in that Star Commander show, "Protectors of the Milky Way! Defenders of the people! We traveled across the stars to bring justice and order to the lawless colonies!"
Kane and Fisher facepalmed the second Grimm shut his mouth. Wilkes was the only one smiling and snickering.
"Wow!" Claptrap responded with excitement, confusing the two, "You outsiders are just what we need!" The robot chuckled, "You guys sure are a long way from home!"
Shocked that his bullshit story worked, Grimm and his fellow Marines looked to one another, baffled beyond reason. Back home, they'd usually be faced with either childish laughter or straight-up hostility since everyone kind of knew who they were anyway. It's rather hard for someone to impersonate somebody else when their face is plastered on nearly every piece of propaganda to bring hope to the average joes and their fellow troops.
Fisher was the only one thinking about what Claptrap's comment at the end. A long way from home?
"Well, anyway, I'll pre-order your tombstones just in case! Now, those jerks who tried to murder you are the Children of the Vault, a bandit cult who follow their creepy leaders with blind devotion. Which reminds me – "
Claptrap's chest opened up, revealing four clunky, rectangular devices. One of which he pulled out to present.
"If you're going to obey my every beck and call, you'll need an ECHO device!"
With a tilted head, Kane volunteered to be the first to get one of those crappy-looking things, taking the one Claptrap had in his hand. He then handed the rest to Wilkes, Fisher, and Grimm. As they turned them on, Claptrap explained a bit about the metal bricks in their hands.
"The ECHO-3! Slightly more powerful than the ECHO-2, and twice as expensive. Besides, the ECHO-2 had a tiny issue with spontaneous combustion, so they rebranded those as grenades!"
Excellent business decision, Fisher thought.
The four were quick to put their new ECHO devices away. At the time, they saw no real use out of a giant metal brick with 8-bit graphics, not when they had ones of their own built into the sleeves of their armor, with HD.
Claptrap soon changed the subject, "Now listen up. Lilith ordered us to take over a Children of the Vault Propaganda Center. Time to show those culty weirdos that nobody messes with the Crimson Raiders! Follow me, recruits! TO GLORY!"
With bitten lips and exchanged looks, Zeta Squad followed Claptrap to this so-called "Children of the Vault Propaganda Center". But before they could really set off, the yellow robot stopped at what the four perceived to have been a pit stop or some main office to the scrapyard.
"Before we wreak our righteous vengeance, you'll need to register your ECHO at this Quick Change!"
The squad reluctantly walked up to the orange photo booth-like machine stationed on the wooden porch of the office.
The robot went on, "Once we defeat the cult, I'll be famous! And when I'm signing autographs – "
Wilkes finally interrupted the talkative robot, "Uh, can we speed this shit up? I wanna shoot something!"
"Oh! Okay, minion! Follow me!"
Claptrap lead the four to the front gate of the scrapyard. Approaching the gate, they saw that it was made up of nothing but rusted, unused vehicles. One in particular was hung up vertically used as a door by a crane. Before Claptrap could come up and make a long comment about it, Fisher walked up to the improvised front door and kicked it down with one boot. Claptrap chuckled when he saw him do that. He thought in that very moment there'd be no way someone could just bust in like that, until the car got torn off the crane holding it in place, slamming hard onto the ground a couple seconds later. With the path open to them, the four climbed on top of the car and walked over it, prompting Claptrap to do the same from behind. As their boots landed back on the ground, the yellow steward bot rolled back in front of his new minions as they made their way to the wooden bridge ahead.
The squad managed to get ahead of Claptrap to cross the bridge. Just as he was halfway to making it on the other side, the bridge collapsed. "Woah!" The robot exclaimed as his body hit the ground below. The four had to backtrack to see if he was okay. Looking down, they saw Claptrap standing in the pit arms raised.
"A little help here, minions?"
Kane volunteered to have a hand for Claptrap to grab. As the de facto squad leader brought him back up, the robot quickly rolled himself in front of the four as they continued on their new mission.
On the way, he went on again, "The propaganda center is up ahead. Those cultists have been killing Crimson Raiders left and right. They totally suck skag balls! But I've got a fool-proof plan to kick their culty asses!"
The hell's a skag? Wilkes thought, swearing he could hear the engine of a bus from way behind.
Just as Claptrap stopped running his mouth, there they saw it: The Children of the Vault Propaganda Center. The big sign over the front gate bearing their name gave it away.
"So, what's the next step?" Grimm asked the leader.
Claptrap answered, "Stay quiet and – "
Fisher chimed in, "He was talking to Kane, Clap."
Kane took this queue to speak, "Well, there are a bunch of big rocks on to the way to the base. Plenty of good cover. The only problem is, we gotta get that gate open."
Wilkes, their demolitions expert, smiled, "That's where I come in!"
The robot interrupted, "Save your dynamite! That's where I come in!"
"Does it involve five minutes of bragging?" Fisher quipped as he was busy scoping out a particular rock to take cover from.
"...Like I said, I've got a fool-proof plan to kick their culty asses!" Claptrap reminded the four.
Kane's emerald eyes rolled, "Ugh! Just…take cover while I follow Claptrap!"
Despite the doubts of his friends, Sergeant Kane followed Claptrap into the front gate of the Propaganda Center. As he began singing while leading the upstanding Marine, the rest split up to find a particular place to take cover from. Zeta's infiltrated enough bases to know that opening the front gate to anything never ends up pretty. Grimm stayed behind the furthest and highest rock from the Center, Fisher found one halfway to the gate, and Wilkes ran up next to the giant door itself to provide a nasty, pump-actioned surprise for their enemies once they came out.
As they approached the rusted, steel gate, Clap ordered, "Wait here. I'll talk my way in, become their king, and then you'll surprise-slaughter them in cold blood. Watch and learn, outsider!"
Walking further up to the door, Claptrap stupidly waved, "Helloooo! Anyone there?"
"The hell're you doin?" Kane asked the so-called general.
Clap turned to the Marine, "Infiltrating the COV!"
"That's no way to – "
Suddenly, the little circular door to the left of the front gate opened up, revealing an eye-shaped camera. The thing extended out of the hole to get up, close, and personal with the robot who claimed to have a "fool-proof plan".
"This is Shiv!" Said a male voice from the thing, "Holy influencer of the Children of the Vault! What do you want, Crapbot?"
"Hello, bloodthirsty maniac! It is I, Claptrap, slayer of the Destroyer and super-general of the Crimson Raiders."
"Uhh…yeah. Lemme think about that!"
While he was standing around in cover, Wilkes finally had enough, "Oh, fuck this!" He muttered to himself.
With zero patience, Wilkes ran out of cover and approached the eye-camera. To Kane's anger, he aimed his shotgun at the thing and BOOM! The cam shattered instantly, sending sparks of electricity everywhere.
"What the hell, Wilkes!?"
"Think that savage's gonna listen to some robot with a superiority complex?" Wilkes tried to justify himself to Kane, "I sure as hell ain't gonna fuckin play kum-ba-yah with'em, are you?"
Well, his little introduction did work. The gate had just unlocked. The door was beginning to open up. Having known what was gonna come, Wilkes grabbed Claptrap by the arm and tossed him to the side.
"Woooooaaaaahhhh!" He shouted as he soared in mid-air before falling flat on his shiny, metal ass.
Kane and Wilkes soon rushed to cover behind two rocks nearest to the Center. When the gate had fully opened up, the facility's inhabitants, armed with rusted blades and cheap pistols and SMGs, came pouring out almost immediately, screaming like the maniacs they were. They could barely make out what they were screaming aside from "God-Queen", "Heretics", and "Bludgeon", not that it mattered to them at the time as the squad opened fire once enough had ran out with barely any armor on. The COV were easy prey for Kane's AR, Wilkes's shotgun, Fisher's LMG, and Grimm's sniper rifle, scoring most of their kills with bullets to their heads and chests.
The storm was over before it even had a chance to begin. All the COV that poured out were dead. Picking up on Kane's nod, the five regrouped, including Claptrap, who cowered where Wilkes took cover from originally.
"Alright." Kane cracked his neck, "Let's keep moving."
The five made it inside the Propaganda Center through the front gate. Before he went in with them, Fisher took a second to look up at the sign stationed next to the big door. He took visual notes of the white-haired woman with shaved black sides and the man with spiky black hair. He also kept the red V sprayed next to them in mind and recalled the name Claptrap gave to them, Children of the Vault. When he caught up, he started to wonder what this "vault" was. Before he could ponder further, he was interrupted by a woman's voice coming from one of the TVs in the tiny village.
"Time to check out our Let's Flay of the day!" She spoke like some game show host.
Coming out of the same TV was the shrieking voice of a man as he was set ablaze.
"Bloody!" She said before laughing like a maniac.
Then the TV went to static. Fisher's had no choice but to take his focus back to the mission. Looking to his friends, Wilkes had just opened the next door via a button for some reason placed in a trunk of what seemed to have been formerly attached to one of those old tail-finned cars from the 20th century. With the door open, the five went up the flight of stairs, making into a way bigger area than the last, which meant it was crawling with even more COV, all of whom were on alert thanks to the way they introduced themselves before entering.
"IT'S THE HERETICS!" One pointed at the squad, shouting in a maniacal tone of voice, "KILL THEM! FOR THE TWIN GODS! FOR TROY! FOR GOD-QUEEN TYREEN!"
That was Zeta Squad's queue to fight, and Claptrap to cower again. As Kane, Wilkes, and Fisher headed towards the battle, Grimm went the little house where Clap was hiding to find a good place to use his sniper. The rest, for charging into the fight, were treated with a barrage of screaming COV, none of whom were a match for the three and the swarm of bullets and shells that came their way. Some however, were able to survive the lead wave, managing to get up, close, and personal with them. The COV cultist who charged up to Kane was met with the side of his assault rifle, giving a nice diagonal crack going down his white and orange mask. Kane then repeated the melee attack, splitting it into two and sending the cultist to the ground alongside his friend who was quite eager to introduce his buzz axe to Wilkes. His head met his shotgun instead and the top half decided to leave with the discharged shell.
Fisher was lucky to have three female cultists come up to him, two armed with buzz axes and one a flamethrower. The blue-visored Marine rolled his eyes at the obvious stupidity of the cultists and put a few rounds in the flamethrower itself. BOOOOM! The explosion killed all three of them. The force it created even managed to shake a few COV that Grimm was busy with off the already-unstable platform, sending them to their deaths. Thanks to Grimm and his sniper rifle, there weren't that many in high ground. The few that were left were eliminated by Kane, Wilkes, and Fisher as they made their way to Grimm and Claptrap.
With the COV in the area dealt with, the team regrouped again at the path leading into the Propaganda Center. Barely having broken a sweat taking them all out, the squad took this moment to reload their guns, knowing the fight was not over.
"Excellent job, minions!" Claptrap's typical excited attitude was back, "I have taught you well! I make a great general of the Crimson Raiders, don't I?"
Fisher responded all chill, "Yeah, sure. Whatever."
Grimm asked Clap, "So what now, erm…General?"
Claptrap was ecstatic to answer his new comrade, but was rudely interrupted by something in the sky. That something was a bright fireball that came crashing down on the ground, generating a very brief blast of orange energy the size of a grenade's. The sudden impact shook the squad back to work. Their guns had been reloaded anyway, so they were ready for more. Running up to the location of the blast, they saw, to their surprise, someone. It was a woman to be precise, a red-haired woman with fiery wings made of pure energy and bunch of glowing tattoos on her left arm and chest, both orange in color. The wings faded and her tattoos turned blue as they stopped glowing as soon as they encircled her guns drawn at Kane's orders.
Kane spoke to the woman with caution, "This area is an active combat zone. State your intent."
The woman said nothing at first. She was busy checking the four out, revealing her bright yellow eyes to all four of them.
"Sup?" Said the Firehawk herself...