Songs: Champion - No Heaven; The Last Internationale - We Will Reign

The sun was burning down on me and I was really pushing myself right now, but I knew I could do it. I knew I could run the last few meters all the way until the Fast Travel Station. I was fully aware I had been out running for about half an hour at this stage, but I was getting back on track again with my running schedule.

I had to start slow after my leg had healed enough. And then I had to learn how to use my leg. It wasn't really that much I had to do, but I had to get used to certain movements again, as if my nerves needed a reminder how things worked. It took me maybe about a week to be healed up enough and another week to be able to do all the stuff I used to do with my leg. And now, about a month after we got back, I was out here, running again and improving every day.

"You gonna be back soon?" I heard Mordecai's voice from my ECHO device. I had been taking a little longer than usual, but that was only because I increased the distance I was running.

"On my way, almost back at the Fast Travel station." I said quickly while panting heavily. The heat really wasn't helping.

"Okay, see you in a bit."

"Is anything up?"

"Nothing much. Found some stuff on my brother, Tina's bored and I think Lilith is tapping into some ECHO transmission or something, but she doesn't wanna tell me what it is. Wants to wait for you. Oh yeah, and Salvador's making breakfast for everyone and I know you wouldn't wanna miss that."

"Oh damn..." I mumbled and sped up a little. I could already see the Fast Travel station ahead of me. I really didn't wanna miss Salvador's breakfast. Sometimes he was in the mood for cooking and he made the biggest, most elaborate and most delicious breakfasts ever.

"Mordy, I'm gonna be there in 5, okay? I'm getting to the Fast Travel station now." I told him, just as I ran up to it. I stopped when I got to it, breathing heavily. Sometimes I wondered why I liked torturing myself. But then I looked down and saw my legs being in a better shape than ever before and I knew exactly why.

"See you soon, chica. I'm gonna head to Zed's and get some supplies, so I might not be there when you get to HQ." Mordecai said as I hammered the code for Sanctuary in the Fast Travel Station.

I was really out of breath from all the running I had done this morning. Sweat was dripping down my temples and my neck and I felt like I would faint any moment now. But I didn't. I initiated Fast Travel after taking a few deep breaths.

It was pretty noticeable that the Fast Travel Stations weren't really being maintained on Pandora. After having the ones in Artemis, it was pretty obvious that they were old and outdated. Fast Travel felt weird on both planets, but it was a much smoother experience on Artemis.

Once I had my sense of orientation back I made my way towards HQ. I really didn't want to miss one of Salvador's breakfasts, it was a pretty rare occasion. But I also really needed a shower, because I was drenched in sweat and it was pretty gross, to be honest. I stepped into HQ, nodding at Tannis who didn't even notice me, because she seemed busy analyzing something.

"Is that you coming up the stairs, Nova?" I heard Lilith shout at me as I had made it halfway up the stairs.

"Yup, why?" I replied and walked upstairs a little faster. When I got up to the room, Lilith was bent over the ECHO console, looking like something interesting was going on. I walked over to her.

"Listen to this." she said without looking up, as I approached her. I looked down at the console. It looked like she was tapping into an ECHO transmission between Helios Station and some place on the surface of Pandora. The name of the nearest Fast Travel station seemed to be "World of Curiosities". I had never even heard of the place, so that was kinda odd.

"Why are you trying to screw me on this?" an angry voice said. I looked at Lilith, raising an eyebrow. What was going on here?

"Oh, fine. Just wait there, okay? I can only be down... if it's gonna be ten million dollars, I'm gonna need another hour or two." the same voice said shortly after. Ten million dollars? That was a lot of money.

"Ten million dollars in an hour or we don't have a deal." another voice said.

"Okay. Yeah, I'll be there in a bit."

"We can't go anywhere transporting... this. It's too dangerous."

"Well, then just stay there. It's a tourist shop, right? Buy a mug or something."

"I'll have to let my mother know-"

"Sure, sure, sure. Okay. Say hi to your mom."

That's when the connection was ended abruptly. What the hell was going on and since when did Pandora have a fucking tourist shop?

"Okay, you're gonna need to update me on stuff. What did I just hear and why is it important?" I asked.

"There are some people down here who are allegedly making a deal with Hyperion for a Vault Key. Now, I don't know where they got it from or what they're going to do with it, but I heard of the guys who are selling it." Lilith replied.

"We're going to get the Vault Key, before they get to it?" I wanted to know. She shook her head.

"No. We should wait and see what's going on. I'd rather take it off the Hyperion guy buying it than of the guys selling it. If we're going to take it at all. If it's even legit. I'm not sure yet, but I told Tannis to run some scans. Zero's out there, trying to find out some more about all this." she said.

"Okay. Where is this place even? I've never heard of it."

"Out in the badlands. You remember Shade? That guy out in Oasis? I think I can make out his ECHO signature in that place."

"What's Shade doing there?"

"What's Shade doing where?" a voice behind Lilith and me asked. I jumped a little and turned around, looking into Mordecai's face.

"Okay, okay, from what I've gathered, Hyperion is trying to buy a Vault Key from some guy named August. He's Vallory's son. The deal is supposed to happen at the World of Curiosities and Zero is there right now to check things out. That's all I know. Tannis is checking if the Vault Key is actually legit, if... if she can manage to do that from the little data we've gathered. It seems like some people from Hollow Point are involved in this, too, and I have a feeling this whole thing is gonna lead us to Athena." Lilith explained. Mordecai and I looked at each other.

"Okay. This all sounds pretty confusing. Are you... are you sure this is gonna get us somewhere?" I asked.

"I don't know. Maybe I just need some breakfast and then I can make sense of this. Zero should hopefully report back soon, so maybe he'll have an update for us. There is a whole lot more involved in this, too, but I'm starving, so let me tell you about this later. Let's go down, I think Salvador's ready to feed us." Lilith said.

"Sounds good to me. What does a lot more mean?" Mordecai wanted to know, as we made our way downstairs. I could already smell the fried rakk egg and the bullymong bacon. There was probably even some skag meat and fried spiderant bits. Salvador usually made some mushrooms with all that, as well. I would kill for that breakfast, even if I had the choice between an Aquatorean and a Pandoran breakfast.

"Well, in short it's this: There was a secret Atlas project called the Gortys project, which supposedly has a Vault map in it. Moxxi knew some stuff about it, so she is currently telling Zero where to go. The whole Vault Key deal is something we found out about by coincidence, but since it's on the way, Zero is there right now to check it out. Then he'll go and try to find the Gortys project, so we can make sense of our own Vault 's a pretty convoluted situation, to be honest. But Zero and Moxxi are focusing on the Gortys project while we are all trying to get to Athena, that's the general consensus at the moment." Lilith said.

"Lil, you sound like you have no idea what you're talking about yourself." I replied. She sighed and shook her head.

"This girl needs a break. Come on, Lilith, sit down and eat something." I heard Salvador say, as he came out of the backroom with a couple of plates full of breakfast.

"This looks delicious, Sal. Thanks for making breakfast." I said to him.

"De nada, chica. You need that protein after running." he replied and handed me a plate full of all kinds of Pandoran delicacies.

"Thanks, Sal. I might really need a break. Somehow it's been more stressful dealing with having nothing to do, than actually doing things." Lilith said and started gulping down the food.

"He's right, Lil, you're taking way too much responsibility and I don't like it." Mordecai agreed, looking worried.

"I'm fine, guys, stop worrying about me. I'd rather have stuff to do than not." she replied with her mouth full of scrambled egg.

"You do look pretty stressed out..." I told her and she was about to protest when her ECHO device started beeping.

"What's up, Zero?" she asked, after quickly gulping down the food in her mouth.

"The Vault Key is fake / time to move onto Gortys / will update later."