"Alright...let's see what this old hunk of junk has on her." Axton said, his hands fiddling with the starfighter's dashboard. He watched as a few messages popped up on the glass screen in front of him.

WELCOME BACK, BUCK.

Axton made a mental note to change that name later.

LAST FLIGHT: 14 YEARS, 10 MONTHS, 19 DAYS.

The ship had been in starport custody for longer than he'd thought. At first, the starport owner was a more than a little upset at the idea of somebody taking corporate property, but the fact that Axton had saved the six galaxies on more than one occasion plus the assault rifle he had slung over his back were good negotiators.

ALL SYSTEMS OPERATIONAL.
WEAPONS SYSTEMS: TWO VLADOF KATARINA-PATTERN ROTOR CANNONS, ONE HYPERION SILVER BULLET-CLASS HEAVY PLASMA BLASTER.

Axton raised his eyebrow in approval. He'd been on the receiving end of each of those guns on more than one occasion.

COMMS SYSTEMS: ONE MALIWAN DISSEMINATION-CLASS TRANS-GALACTIC ECHOCASTER.
AI INTERFACE: ONE DAHL HAILER-CLASS ON-SHIP ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.
YOUR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE HAS BEEN DESIGNATED: PAT.

He wasn't familiar with this class of AI. Dahl had phased them out for a newer model by the time he'd joined up.

"Pat, are you operational?"

"Yes, Buck. I am operational." he heard a pleasant female voice, not unlike Hyperion's, say over the ship's speakers.

"Great. Pat-what kind of music do we have?"

"We have 943 songs dating back to the days of Old Earth. Your most played song is...Renegade, by the band known as...Styx." Axton raised his eyebrow again. This ship had a hodgepodge of military-grade corporate equipment, from the weapons to the comms network to the onboard intelligence. The previous owner was clearly an adventurer of some kind. A Vault Hunter, maybe? Could be, but unlikely. But then again, the ship and its systems were far above a typical mercenary's pay grade. Whoever this Buck character was, he must have been raking in a ton of cash to fund a ship like this. He also was a fan of rock music, apparently.

"What kind of a name is Sticks? Never mind. Pat, link my Echo unit up with the comms system and tune in to frequency CRM-50N, please." Axton ordered the AI. He didn't know if the Raiders were still using that Echo frequency. It was a bit obvious, he had to admit, but it was an easy frequency to remember.

"Yes, Buck. Processing...done. Your Echo has been linked. Shall I play the frequency for you now?" Pat asked.

"Sure, let's hear it." Axton replied.

He listened over the speakers, waiting to catch some piece of radio chatter.

"...and then I said, directory? I don't even have a director-A! Ha! Ha ha ha ha ha, oh..." he heard a familiar over-enthusiastic robot say. Axton smiled. The Raiders hadn't changed it after all. And after eight years away from Pandora, he had to admit he even missed Claptrap.

"Hey, Claptrap." Axton said, and the little robot shrieked in surprise.

"AAAH! Minion! Don't surprise your master like that!" Claptrap scolded.

"Axton! My old friend! I've missed you so!" Axton heard an old Russian man say. "You haven't bought from me in eight years, you cheapskate! Explain yourself." Marcus finished, his cheery demeanor going to serious in a moment.

"Nice to hear from you too, Marcus. Is Tannis there?" Axton replied.

"Well, I WAS just using Eridian techonology to attempt to create a second Big Bang, but I suppose I have time for tedious, mind-killing chitchat. What do you need, Axton?" Tannis said.

"Can you tell me anything about the Siren queen known as Jocasta?" he questioned.

"Siren? Isn't Jocasta a moon, Axton?" Marcus asked.

"Wait. Moon? I thought it was a band." Ellie interjected.

"I thought she was a / character from one of those / crappy Space Wars flicks." Zer0 chimed in. Axton was surprised-he didn't know Zer0 was onboard the Sanctuary III now.
If awkward silence could kill, every Crimson Raider would have died. They had five precious seconds of quiet before the comm channel exploded with arguments. It seemed like everybody aboard the Sanctuary III had their own opinions. He heard Moxxi, Vaughn, even Zed all fighting over each other.

"There is NO WAY it's a-"

"-ridiculous, a friggin' moon, I oughta-"

"-honestly thought they were pretty good, even if their label-"

"-librarian / from the bad prequel movies-"

"-you can't possibly be THAT ignorant-"

"-stop getting so hot and bothered, sweetie, it's not a-"

"-WILL YOU SLAVERING SYCOPHANTS PLEASE BE SILENT?" Tannis screeched, silencing everybody on the comms network.

"Yes, Axton. I can tell you that unlike most Sirens, there is absolutely no concrete proof that this Jocasta woman ever existed or that her legends are the slightest bit true. I should know, because I am the only woman in history who has actually taken the time to research her." she said. "Actually, I must correct myself. There is no concrete proof of her legend except for the Vault on Hieronymous."

"Wait-there's a Vault on-"

"Hieronymous, yes. You clearly didn't study the Vault Map very hard."

"Where?"

"The Vault on Hieronymous is located...wait, this can't be right. The Vault...moved."

"Moved? Like...like what, like it just grew legs and walked away?"

"No, Axton. That's ridiculous. It's as if this Vault is not a set location. Perhaps it's a creature, like the Warrior? Or perhaps there are many different Vault on Hieronymous and this can only mark one at a time? Oh, one more thing. The Vault's current location is also currently 2,192 feet under the ocean."

"Oh, great. Can you send me its coordinates, please?"

"Only if you promise to bring me every shard of Eridian history you can find."

"...sure, Tannis. I promise."

"Great!" she said, with surprisingly genuine joy. "I'm transmitting them over your Echo log. Try not to die! I want to see what kind of things the Eridians would hide in a moving vault! The possibilities!" Tannis finished.

"Thanks for the help." Axton said.

"Erm, Axton? What are you planning to do on Hieronymous?" Marcus questioned.

"So much for 'low prices and no questions asked.'"Axton grinned. "I'll stop by the Sanctuary III and tell you all about it when I'm done. Axton out." he said, switching frequencies on his Echo. Suddenly, he got an alert. An unknown contact was trying to call him. He accepted it. Why not?

"You've reached Axton, slayer of the Warrior and handsomest man in the six galaxies. What can I do ya for?" he asked, kicking his feet up on the starfighter's dashboard.

"Ummm...Axton? This is Ava. I think we met, on Athenas?"

"Oh. Yeah...I remember you. What do you need? Want me to tell you another story?" he asked. When he'd visited Maya, a younger Ava had constantly pestered him to tell her stories until Maya shooed her off.

"No. Well, yes. Well, kind of. Can I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

"Did you and Maya used to date?"

Axton frown, pausing for a moment. "Well...uhm, it was...yeah. Yeah, we did." he replied cautiously.

"Then why did you leave her?" Ava continued in an almost accusatory tone.

"It wasn't...look, kid, I didn't leave her, alright? After the whole Hector thing, we split up. The six of us. We all went our own way."

"Did you want her to go with you?" she asked.

"...Yeah. I did."

"Well, why didn't you ask her?"

"Because...she wanted to go to Athenas. She wanted to stay there and help people. Protect people. I've never been good at that kind of thing. When we split up, I just went back to manhunting. She had her mind made up, and I lo-" Axton caught himself. "I cared about her too much to try and keep her."

There was silence on the other end of the line for a good thirty seconds.

"I miss her, Axton." he heard her sniffle.

"So do I, kid." he replied. "But you...you're a good kid, y'know that? You helped beat the Calypsos. You're gonna make a great Vault Hunter one day. And if she were here? She'd be real proud of you."

"You mean it?"

"Sure do. I knew her better than anybody. She saw something great in you, kid. Trust me."

"Th-thanks, Axton. That really...really means a lot."

"Anytime, kiddo. Whenever you want to talk, about her or anything else, you just give me a call, alright?"

"Yeah. I will. Thanks a ton, Axton." she said, her voice audibly happier. She ended the transmission. Axton set his Echo down, leaning back in his seat, sighing deeply.

"Pat, set a course for Hieronymous."

"Course set. Estimated journey time: three days, twenty-one hours, forty-three minutes."

"Great." he groaned. "Pat?"

"Yes, Buck?"

"...Shuffle music." he said. It would be a long trip.