Fresh off the bus

Chapter I: Fyrestone Bus Depot

So here we were, 5 minutes out from the start of our little adventure. Vault hunters, that's what they started calling us. I never believed the stories of the vault in the past but apparently enough people did to make it seem worth my while. What else was I supposed to do? Never had a solid home in my life. I had a bounty on Artemis for hunting and capturing rare animals. I sure as hell wasn't going to any planets under observation by Atlas or Dahl or any of those corporate lunatics. So I came here to look for this so-called vault.

Apparently I wasn't the only one. 3 other people sat this rust bucket of a bus with me. I only spoke to the red head girl, Lilith. A siren. Id only ever heard of a siren, but to be sitting next to one. The soldier guy, roland, was ex-Crimson Lance. He sat for four god damned hours staring out the window avoiding all social contact with all of us. So I left him alone. The last of our little group was brick. At least 6' 7" and 300 pounds of pure rock hard muscle covered in dried blood and battle scars. This guy was wearing gloves with bolts attached to the knuckles. And to top it all off he smelled like burning flesh. So you know, that was reassuring.

As far as I know, this planet, pandora, was nothing but disgusting, murderous creatures and bandits. Cutthroats I can handle, but this talk of repulsive dog like creatures that can spit fire, acid, electricity, and what-not. But to be fair our guns can do the same. I didn't really mess with elemental weapons though. Snipers and pistols were where I made my money. I stepped on this bus with an atlas manufactured sniper and four mags worth of rounds. Lilith, the siren, was armed with a little SMG, Roland with a rusty old assault rifle, and brick with a shotgun that looked like it was going to fall apart right there in his hands.

None of us were armed properly for this savage planet but we weren't worried about it. From what we were told there were weapon stockpiles all around this planet. Every one is obsessed with protecting themselves so we would find ourselves armed to the teeth soon enough. Plus not to mention my bird, Bloodwing, that I trained to hunt with. I order her out and she'll tear through the toughest bastards on this planet. At least I hope. Roland also had this turret that he could throw out every once in a while to thin out some baddies. I'm not even gonna try to explain Lilith's crazy ass powers. Brick just decided that if he wasn't shooting he was just gonna punch the living shit out of em.

So finally we arrived. I had kinda dozed off when the bus stopped. "Hey killer, we're here." Lilith said, tapping me on the shoulder. Killer. I think I'm going to like this one. I stood up, swung my katana around a little to get loose, and hopped off the bus. Lilith followed close behind, and Roland next. Brick took a while to get off. We could hear him cursing and struggling to get his massive body through the little aisles, the bus shaking with his every step. final he jumped down and fell face first into the dirt. I swear the bus raised a good 18 inches. "ahahahahahahah! Now that's what I call a great start to an adventure!" Brick cried, raising from the ground and wiping the dirt from his battle clothes.

The bus drove off and a little yellow robot waved it off. "See ya next time!" It said in a high pitched robotic voice. "Hello vault hunters! I am a CL4P-TP Hyperion steward bot, but you can call me claptrap! Welcome to Fyrestone, and please take these echo devices for your journey. On your echo, you can see your current mission, your inventory in your digistruct unit, your map, and your progress through your journey. Now please follow me. The town of Fyrestone has encountered trouble with the local bandits and Dr. Zed needs your help to clear them out! Quick, this way!"

The vault hunters readied there weapons and followed the robot to a small settlement infested with some Cutthroats. For the first time, Roland spoke. "Mordecai, take the first shot. Get there attention, and let the bird do some work." I agreed silently and positioned myself on the tin roof of a small house looking thing and fired the first round into a bandit kicking at the door of someone's house. Unfortunately I don't think he felt a thing. "Open fire!" Cried Roland, tossing out his Dahl corporation saber turret. Lit kith turned invisible and re-appeared seconds later with a large blast in the middle of them and dazed some, but killed most. Brick charger in and let a few shells fly from his shotgun before initiating hand to hand. It didnt take long for the bandits to be dispatched. "Good work everyone. Scavenge for some guns and ammunition if u want. I want this one." Roland's said, picking up an assault rifle from a dead bandits corpse. He ditched the old one and put the new one in his digistruct unit. I looked around and got some pistol ammo and a revolver from the little ring leader. Nothing special but something to resort to if some baddies get a little to close. Lilith didn't bother looking and brick just picked up a little shotgun ammo.

The claptrap unit took us into a new area with just a few bandits. I let Bloodwing fly and he tore through one of the big ones. The other two retreat. Brick gave chase but Roland stopped him. We continued into the main area of Fyrestone. There was where we found the heaviest resistance. Everyone started shooting blindly. There was no escape form the hell storm of bandit gunfire. Roland tossed his turret of his cover but to one in his forearm. I shoved him down beside me and covered his head with my knee. Lilith phase blasted of few of them and brick let lose a barrage of shotgun pellets ever so often the fighting was intense but slowed down once the leader was killed. Finally we dispatched the remnants of the Cutthroats.

Claptrap escorted us to the man Dr. Zed and em opened the door for us. Before any introductions could be made, I payed Roland across the table and ordered Dr. Zed to help him. I didn't mean to be sound like an ass but the wound didn't look good. "We will have to formally introduce ourselves later. This man needs tending too. Take any of the houses around here for the night. Food in the kitchens. I'm going to need him over night."

Later that night we scavenged the bandits for ammo. Lil found a pistol but no other guns were worth keeping. I did find some sort of red storage cheat. Pressed a button and it sprung open, revealing hundreds of sniper bullets, a new (and much better) sniper rifle, some grenades, an assault rifle, and a shield. I needed the shield after
Seeing what had happened to Roland so I put it on. Supposedly it's made out of some shroud that covers your body in invisible phalanx energy that will stop bullets until it im absorbs enough damage, then it regenerates. I kept the assault rifle for Roland though. Guess I felt bad for him. That night brick slept on his own but Lil and I bunked together in a house that had two beds. Figured it would be better to be together if those bandits came back during the night. It didn't take long for us to fall asleep. And that was day one on pandora