Mercenary Road

So, you want to hear another story, eh? About adventure? About loot and firefights and Pandora? Maybe about… the Vaults?

Frankly, when I was your age, we had the ECHOnet for entertainment! Did they take that offline or what?

But then again, there are so many stories that can be told about Pandora… and I do enjoy telling them. So, get yourself comfortable and let's begin.

Pandora, the wasteland planet at the edge of the six galaxies, has always been infamous for the Vault. Supposedly, the ancient alien race of the Eridians had hidden away a chamber full of incredible riches and alien weapons somewhere on Pandora before they all died out. And since the first spaceship touched down, this call of unimaginable fame and power has lured Vault Hunters to the Borderlands.

Yes, I know that you know. And I know that you know about the great heroes who opened the Vaults and fought for Pandora's freedom. Roland and Lilith, Salvador and Gaige, Zane and Fl4k, all mighty Vault Hunters in their own rights. But with all those grand, larger than life heroes all lumped together on one planet, it is easy to overlook the tales of all those adventurers who didn't barge in and kicked open a Vault. Thousands came for the Vaults. And while most of them perished gruesomely, some adapted, survived and made a name for themselves. This is the story of one of them, who navigated all the wars and woes since Roland and his gang opened the first Vault. He shaped Pandora in his own way, he was all too often thrown into key moments of history, he met with Vault Hunters, with living legends and most importantly… me.

Marcus Kincaid

aboard the Sanctuary III

Author's Note:

Thanks to these introductory words by our sponsor and storyteller.

I'm back into Borderlands! Never really left, honestly, but I said I'd continue once Borderlands 3 was here... which it has been for more than a year now, well, technicalities, I wasn't exactly on time with my Borderlands 2 fic either. Speaking of which:

While the story of Borderlands 3 could go literally anywhere (case in point: the DLCs!), I'm out of the continuation business. My last fic didn't age very well in the face of Commander Lilith and BL3 (though only technically, because there's a lot of time in between games and the Borderlands lore is notoriously vague with specific times) and I prefer to stay as canon-compliant as possible. So I moved on by moving back and writing a story that parallels the going-ons on Pandora from the end of the original Borderlands to roughly the end of Tales. That should be save from retcons.

All recognisable characters, planets, weapons, robots, regions, concepts and assorted lore are the intellectual property of the creative heads at Gearbox Software in general and Anthony Burch in particular (for the most part anyways). I'm merely a guest humbly writing a story in the mad, colourful and vibrant world they have conceived, though I do claim ownership of my OCs. This story will not be monetized.

Now let's get started for real!