As I came to, all I could see around me at first was a flurry of white snow. However, I could hear something else moving around and talking.
"Great, another dead Vault Hunter. Handsome Jack's been busy."
The voice was robotic, that was clear and vaguely familiar as well. Groaning, I worked on trying to stand up. A figure appeared in front of me, short and boxy and utterly unmistakeable.
"Wait a minute, you're not dead! YES! Now I can finally get off this glacier! Claptrap, your metaphorical ship has finally come in."
I focussed on the Claptrap. "I thought Jack had wiped all of you out. How the hell are you alive?"
"That's a long story." I weakly held up a hand before Claptrap could continue.
"As fascinating as I'm sure it is, there should be some friends of mine here. We need to find them." Struggling to my feet, I looked around. "Think you can give me a hand?"
"Of course!" Claptrap wheeled around and pointed towards a nearby mound. "I'm getting a heat reading in that direction."
Stumbling along, I made it over to the mount, finding Maya out cold. Checking for a pulse, I was relieved to find it strong and steady. A sudden flurry of movement caught my attention and I spun around to see Gaige's robot rise out of the snow, holding its slowly stirring mistress. I gave it a nod, relieved that we had other help and another of the group was alive. Another mound began to move and Krieg slowly rose to all fours, groaning. I stood and went to him, offering a hand.
"Come on, pal. No rest for us today."
"MEAT SHOULDN'T BE FROZEN, MUST BE FRESH!" Thankfully, Krieg let me help him up without doing anything drastic. I nodded at him before pointing towards the downed Siren. "Can I leave you to look after Maya?"
"PRETTY LADY SAFE WITH ME!" Well that was remarkably clear. Nodding again, I headed towards Claptrap, who was moving snow away from Axton, who was still out cold. As I did, a flicker of light flashed and Zero appeared. He too was obviously battered, but alive. He nodded silently, then moved towards another mount, clearing part of it off to reveal Salvador.
Well, that was a relief. How we'd survived that, I had no idea, but I wasn't about to argue. Crouching, I managed to haul Axton up over my shoulder.
"Claptrap, is there somewhere near here we can go? Get out of this weather?"
"Yeah! Follow me!" Claptrap seemed enthusiastic, but less irritating than I expected, given the low reputation of Claptraps generally. Thankfully, we didn't have to go far, Claptrap leading us to a door that he quickly opened before leading us through. It wasn't much and there were plenty of remains of other Claptraps and dead bodies, thankfully all frozen. Still, it was sheltered and warm. Laying our wounded friends down, those of us that were alert began to help the others. Gaige's robot just managed to put her down before vanishing. Claptrap silently rolled up with a small box of Insta-Healths, something I was very glad to see. Keeping three of the vials, I slid two over to Krieg and the rest to Zero, before injecting Axton and Gaige with the medical marvels. Within minutes, everyone was awake, if not necessarily in great shape.
Eight of us sat around the furnace. Eight against the might of Hyperion, that knew we were hurting badly and would be coming for us.
We had no chance. Not without help.
I reached for my ECHO, hoping to contact some of the other friends I had made, but found a problem.
It was smashed. Probably not completely beyond repair, but it was going to take parts, time and effort, none of which we had in abundance. Claptrap, seeing me, rolled over to a cabinet and opened it, pulling out a stack of new ECHO's and handing them around. Surprisingly, he was still silent. Sighing, I put both ECHOs down and turned to the little robot.
"You saved our arses there, Claptrap."
Claptrap turned and looked at me. "You know, I didn't expect you to say anything like that. No one ever thanks me."
I snorted. "Just because I'm seen as a bandit and have a rather large bounty on my head doesn't mean that I'm incapable of showing gratitude."
Maya turned. "You have a bounty?"
"Yeah. Three hundred and twenty billion, thanks to good old Handsome Jerk-off up there."
There were a few grim chuckles at that. "What did you do to him?" Gaige asked.
I hesitated. "Let's just say that we don't get along. No offence, but it's not a story I'm overly comfortable with sharing with you guys just yet. But I'll tell you this much. Jack doesn't like it when his employees go AWOL."
Everyone's eyes were on me by that point. Axton snorted. "So, you're Hyperion."
"Ex-Hyperion. Very much ex. Still have a few friends there but I try to avoid talking to them. Safer that way. As far as Jack knows, they chose Hyperion over me."
"Can't imagine it would be that bad, though."
I gave a grim chuckle. "In Hyperion? It takes dog eat dog to a whole new level. You make a wrong move there, if you're lucky, you get busted back to Janitor. But if you come to Jack's attention and he doesn't like it, or he's just in a bad mood? You're dead. I've heard rumours that he spaced a bunch of his top scientists because it was possible, not definite but possible, that one was a traitor."
"That's true." Claptrap spoke up. Everyone looked at him in shock.
Maya found her voice first. "And how exactly do you know that?"
"Because I was there." He replied quietly.
I blinked. I knew that Jack had always despised Claptraps, so how on earth had Claptrap been there? Claptrap wheeled away, picked up a photograph and brought it back to us, handing it to Maya. We all crowded around her, looking at the photo. In the centre was Jack, of course. It was impossible not to recognise him. To his right stood a tall, brown-skinned woman, with a cowboy hat. I recognised her as one of Jack's top lackey's, though it was widely rumoured that she was Jack's girlfriend. Beside her stood a tall, battered man with cybernetics implanted in various points. He, too, I recognised as one of Jack's main enforcers. Beside him, there was what appeared to be another Jack, though the pose and mannerisms in the photo were different. To Jack's (the real one) left stood another tall stately woman, screaming of wealth and nobility, along with a healthy portion of arrogance. Beside her was a shorter woman, covered in red armour and carrying a strange shield. I vaguely recognised her, but couldn't quite place her. But to her left...
Claptrap pointed at the last figure. "That's me. At that time, believe it or not, I was actually a Vault Hunter."
I would have doubted it, except the large sniper rifle on his back and assault rifle in his hand did tend to back him up. None but serious warriors carried that sort of weaponry.
Claptrap continued. "Jack assembled us to go after a Vault on Elpis. Only problem was, the day we were supposed to meet up was the day Helios was captured by the Lost Legion."
The memories evoked by that sent shivers down my spine. I remembered that day, and those following it, rather well. I'd had to fight my way out of more than a few tight spots and seen a good half of the staff get gunned down in the first few hours. There were survivors of the attack and I did know that Jack had led a team to retake the station, but I never knew exactly who was on that team.
Claptrap continued, pointing at the other figures. "That's Jack, the real one, in the middle. The woman to the right is Nisha. She's a lawbringer, crack shot. Also Jack's girlfriend now."
I added. "I've heard of her, at least. Runs Lynchwood now, from what I've heard. She's the Sheriff there. Nasty piece of work, by all accounts. Rather cruel, even for Hyperion." I pointed to the man beside her. "That Wilhelm?"
Claptrap nodded. "Enforcer. Tough as nails and loyal to whoever has the most money. Jack's been in that position for years and Wilhelm's stayed with him because of it."
"Yeah. Bastard's hard. I've run across him a couple of times before I gave Hyperion the bird. He's replaced a lot of his body with cybernetics now. Has some bone disorder that makes them difficult to heal, so he just replaces them. Cold, merciless, a great attack dog for Jack."
Claptrap indicated the other Jack. "This guy looks like Jack, but he's actually a body double. Jack hired him to impersonate him when necessary."
"Why?" Maya asked.
"No idea, but it was before Jack rose to prominence in Hyperion. Real name is Timothy Lawrence."
"That sort of surgery isn't cheap. How'd he afford to do that?" Axton asked.
"Especially considering a programmer's wage isn't that flash." I added.
"Again, no idea, but he must have been loaded. Jack hired him for twenty years, and paid up-front." Claptrap answered.
"So, he's got money from somewhere else. Be interesting to find out where."
"Speaking of money, she's absolutely rolling in it." Claptrap pointed to the woman on Jack's other side. "Name is Lady Aurelia Hammerlock and apparently, she owns a planet. You know, just for fun."
"Hammerlock? That name's familiar." I said, frowning.
"You're probably thinking of her younger brother, Sir Alistair. He's pretty well off and much nicer to be around, if still just as deadly. But she's like ice, literally. Her little trick? She'd freeze a target solid. The two don't get along, at all."
"Lovely. So who's the last one of these bunch of crazies?" Salvador asked.
"That's Athena."
I started. "Athena? THE Athena?"
"Yep. You know her?"
"Of her. Atlas's most deadly ever assassin, until she went rogue. Over a thousand jobs to her name, and never failed one. She's something of a legend in those circles."
"You'll like this, then. She's actually the best person out of all of them. Tim isn't bad, but Athena definitely is the pick. She's loyal to the job, but not necessarily to the person. You said she went rogue? Atlas got her to kill her own sister. She did it by accident, but they intended for her to die."
A wave of disgust flowed through us all. Maya shook her head. "So, these are Jack's top people."
I shrugged. "Nisha and Wilhelm, definitely. They're still with Jack now. First I've heard of Lawrence and Hammerlock, though. Athena dropped off the radar years back, no one's been able to find her. Then again, few people are foolish enough to do so."
"This is all well and / good but does it help us. I / do not think it does." Zero finally spoke.
I shot him a quick look, startled. Maya shrugged. "He does that."
"Fair enough. It does to a degree, Zero. Like Maya said, these have the potential to either be Jack's top people, or potentially good allies. Information on our enemies is always useful and allies even more so."
"Allies." Gaige said. "That's something we're going to need real soon."
At that point, the ECHO's that Claptrap had given us flared, attracting our attention. The image of a young woman's appeared on our HUD's, dark haired, blue and red eyes, all in all a very pleasant image to see.
"I'm glad to see you've all survived. There isn't a lot of time, Jack will work out you're alive soon enough."
I interrupted. "Ah, excuse me, but who are you and how did you call us?"
She paused slightly. "Of course, sorry. My name is Angel. As for how I called you, I'm an AI that can access everything on the planet."
I raised an eyebrow. "Now that's a neat trick."
"Of course. Right now, though, you need to get to Sanctuary, home of the Crimson Raiders. Alone, Jack will pick you off. Together with the Crimson Raiders, you are the best chance of stopping Jack. Claptrap can help you reach it. Go, friend. Time is short for us all."
The transmission died, leaving all of us stunned. Maya was the first to break the silence.
"So, what the hell was that all about?"
"Good question." Axton asked. "Anyone understand any of that?"
Claptrap and I exchanged a glance. "Some. The Crimson Raiders are the resistance here on Pandora, about the only group large enough and organised enough to stand up against Hyperion and stand a chance." I started.
"Sanctuary, as Angel said, is their home base. It's probably the safest place for us right now." Claptrap continued. "Funny, though. I thought I recognised Angel's voice from somewhere, but I can't place it."
"I thought that robots were supposed to have perfect memory." Salvador snorted.
Gaige shook her head. "Not always. Excessive trauma can cause problems, just like in living beings."
"Given that I've been programmed, re-programmed, de-programmed, re-reprogrammed, destroyed and rebuilt, it's fair to say that I've been through some excessive trauma." Claptrap said sadly.
"That would do it. Sounds like you have quite a story to tell."
Claptrap nodded. "I've seen a lot in my time. But those stories may have to wait. If Angel's right and Jack's on our trail, then he'll either drop loaders on us or bombard us from Helios once he finds us."
The others looked around nervously. I shook my head. "We'll need to move soon enough, but this isn't the easiest spot for Jack to reach. The weather will disrupt his sensors and with brand-new ECHOs, it will take a while before he can link them to us. Besides, we need some time to recover from that beating we got from the explosion."
"Angel managed to find us pretty quickly. Speaking of which, do we trust it?" Maya asked.
Gaige shrugged. "Do we have a choice?"
Eventually we agreed to stay put for the night, sharing watches. Gaige and I agreed to take the first one and I took advantage of the time to begin fixing my original ECHO, grabbing a spare one from Claptrap's stash to scavenge for parts until I could get proper replacements. Gaige watched me work.
"You're quite good with that, aren't you?"
I smiled. "Good enough. Programming's what I'm best at, but I'm not a bad engineer." I gestured towards her arm. "Not as good as you, though, I think. That robot of yours was quite something."
She chuckled. "Yeah, Death-Trap's a good boy, that's for sure. Can't believe he only got third place."
I raised an eyebrow. "At what?"
"Science fair on Eden V." She seemed reluctant to continue. I nodded.
"So what brings someone with your skills out to a cesspool like Pandora?"
Evidently, this wasn't a good choice of topic. She glared at me. "If you don't mind, I'd rather not talk about it either. Especially since I have a higher bounty on my head than you do. 820 billion means a lot to a lot of people."
That got my attention. "No kidding. I understand, but I'm more than a little curious as to how you pissed someone off that much. But, not my business."
"Good." She pointed back at my ECHO. "Think you can repair that?"
"Well, it was designed to be nearly indestructible, though evidently surviving an explosion and high speed train crash is a little past its limits. Should be able to get it working though. Your gear all survive all right?"
She grimaced. "Mostly, through my ECHO is past repair and I'm having trouble with DT's deployment system. That's going to take some time to fix. Just glad I have a memory backup for the ECHO."
I chuckled. "Hearing that." Opening the back of the case, I saw what I had feared. "Looks like I'll need mine, the data drive's a write off."
She looked at it. "Yeah, pretty sure it's not supposed to be powder. But then that crash knocked everyone for six. Maya's pretty drained, Axton's turret isn't syncing with his new ECHO properly, Salvador can't deploy more than one gun at a time, Krieg lost his buzz axe and Zero's been tinkering with his suit a lot, so he must be having trouble too."
"Great. At least we still have our own guns."
We kept tinkering and talking quietly before waking Zero and Krieg for their watch. We'd all agreed to let Maya sleep, given she had copped the worst of the damage from the excitement of today. I'm not sure how long I managed to sleep for.
But I woke with one hell of a rush.
Axton's voice slapped me out of my slumber. "Look out!"
I opened my eyes, saw what he was referring to, and dived for cover, snatching up my SMG as I went. Less than a second later, a massive bullymong landed where I had been, roaring a challenge. It swiftly grabbed Claptrap and proceeded to tear his eye straight out before tossing him aside. By this point, however, it was staring down seven guns and their less than happy owners. We opened fire, but it decided that discretion was the better part of valour and bolted back up and out of the hole in the roof. We all lowered our weapons. Maya sighed.
"Well, we didn't need that."
"Hell no. At least we'll have something to shoot." Salvador chuckled.
"It's Pandora." I pointed out. "We'll always have something to shoot. And we'd better go after it."
"Uh, why?" Axton asked.
Gaige raised an eyebrow. "Did you forget that we need Claptrap to take us to Sanctuary? Kind of hard to do if he's blind, you moron."
"Thank you!" Claptrap said, bumping into things as he worked his way towards the door. "Even blind, I know my way around here well enough. Let's get going."
Amid much grumbling, we collected our gear and headed out.
(Author's Note)
So, chapter 2 is here. And we first get to see Claptrap and Angel. Now both characters are different here to what you see in Borderlands 2. They are going to have a more central role and things are not going to follow canon. For those that like seeing Claptrap get kicked around and made fun of, there will be a little of that, but not a huge amount, as I want him to actually have a meaningful contribution to the story.
So, please leave me feedback in some form, whether you like the story or not, I'll listen.
Until next time.
