*Notice to all new readers. I have a second story called Rebel Anarchy: Side Quests, this is a side series that is Canon to this one but focuses on the side missions that are throughout the the game. These stories canonically start after chapter 5. If you find you enjoy this story please don't forget to check it out the other for more hilarity. Thank you and please enjoy the adventure.*

(Kilo8) Hello everyone, I'm Kilo8, and welcome to my first story! Now let's get one thing straight before we start, don't expect any type of regularly scheduled updates. Right now my top priority is finding a job… Which is a massive pain in the ass for someone fresh out of college.

(Claptrap) Hey Kilo, my offer for you to work as one of my minions is still- *BANG! BANG!* AHHHH! MY EYE! MY BEAUTIFUL ROBOTIC EYE!

(Kilo8) As I was saying I have to focus on other things right now, such as finding work, fixing my portfolio, and setting up my plans for universal domination. You know, the typical things a college graduate deals with. This may change in the future once I find steady work.

Now then, where was I… Oh right. As a warning in advance, this story starts a little bit before the start of Borderlands 2 main story to help establish the characters, just a few months so no Pre-Sequal stuff. Don't worry, there will be plenty of Borderland-esk shenanigans added in till we get to the main story which should start in the next four or five chapters. Another thing I wanted to mention has to do with the pairing in this story. Most character pairings have already been decided and set in stone, and said stones have been locked up in a Gundanium Alloy safe with a 256-bit encryption code and biometric lock and is guarded by several Gundams that are tucked away in a reinforced bunker located 300 meters underground and said bunker is in an undisclosed location… On the moon… With the moon surrounded by 50 Super Star Destroyers. However after some new info dropping hints about some things that might happen in Borderlands 3 with certain characters (Borderlands 3 is Confirmed by the way! YAY!), I am not entirely sure if I'm going to keep one or two pairings or how I'm going to pair them, so I might put it to a vote for you the readers to decide later on. So with that in mind please don't ask me to make certain pairings…. ON TO THE DISCLAIMER.

DISCLAIMER: Before we start I have to say this, I, Kilo8 do not own the rights to any of the characters or places from the Borderlands series. All rights are owned by Gearbox Software and 2K Games. This is just a story for your fun and your enjoyment, not for profit. So please enjoy and support the official releases.

WARNING: I feel that considering some of the content in this game series, that this story is based on, I would like to think that I shouldn't have to warn anyone who has come here about what to expect in this story. Buuuut I like to cover all my bases. So to cover this I have the perfect guest to explain to all of you just what you might be in for later on. Mr. Torgue If you please.

( Mr. Torgue ) THANK YOU KILO! Now for those of you not familiar with the Borderlands series, it has a lot of EXPLOSIONS! DEATH AND VIOLENCE! DARK HUMOR! SEXUAL INNUENDOS! F*CKING FOUL LANGUAGE OUT OF F*CKING WAZU! EXPLOSIONS! BLOOD AND GORE! EXPLOSION! SEXUAL SUGGESTION! EXPLOSIONS! MORE GUNS THAN THE MARINE CORPS! BIG EXPLOSIONS! BADASSES! MORE EXPLOSIONS! EPIC AIR GUITAR SOLOS! EVEN MORE EXPLOSIONS! TESTOSTERONE! EXPLOSIONS OUT OF THE-

(Kilo) WOAH! WOAH! Okay, I think they get the picture Torgue.

(Mr. Torgue) Just one last thing. It's that part you told me to remember.

(Kilo) . . . Fine.

(Mr. Torgue) Thank you. This is based on an M-rated game, so this story will be M-rated for Mature, meaning it's meant for mature audiences. If you are not old enough to buy an M-rated game at a game store without your parents, then you shouldn't be reading this story. Now then, EPIC AIR GUITAR SOLO! MEEDLY MEEDLY MEEDLY MOWWWWWWWW!

(Kilo) *Sigh* At least I'm only dealing with him.

The door to the room suddenly explodes open in a ball of fire. After everything settles down everyone (who can) looks to see a short blonde-haired blue eyed thirteen-year-old girl skip into the room and stop in front of Kilo and Mr. Torgue.

(Tiny Tina) Yo Yo! Mr. T, did you tell everyone about all the epic explosions and whatnot?

(Mr. Torgue) Of course, I did, little boom buddy.

(Kilo) Ugh. Me and my big mouth… Well, I guess it's time to get this story started. Please enjoy the story, everyone.

(Claptrap) Could you fix my eye minion? You can listen to my new beatbox tune while you fix it.

(Everyone) NO!

(Kilo) And I'm not your minion!

(Claptrap) Awwww.

X-X-X

Chapter Beta Read by "MyBrainIsAPlasmaNebulaBall"

Edited by "Redemption's Avenger"

X-X-X

Stories text formats

"Talking"

'Thinking'

"Echo/Radio"

'Krieg's inner voice'

X-X-X

CHAPTER 1

The Path of a Rebel

It was early in the evening on the lawless wastelands of Pandora as a cloaked hooded man could be seen crouched down atop a small hill by a ragged tree, working on a slab of metal. A light blade sprang from an emitter on the back of his glove as he used it to etch words into the plate. After some time, the man finally stepped back and looked at the slab of steel before him. He ran his eyes over the letters that he had carved, as the metal popped and cooled from the heat. It read "Here lies Colonel Reyt Barkov. Freedom fighter, revolutionary, Mentor, and father figure. May he find his freedom in the next life." The cloaked man kept staring at the slab, even after it cooled off and stopped glowing. After what seemed like an eternity, the man let out a worldly sigh.

Turning, he walked over to a large boulder close by and looked over his gear. Grabbing a backpack, he started stuffing items in. SDUs, the food he managed to scavenge, components, and some tools that he managed to save. He threw the bag over his left shoulder and grabbed the last item, a long object wrapped in a cloth, which he slung over his right shoulder. Sitting next to the boulder was a glowing white and blue wolf made of semi-transparent hard light. It was about the size of a large dog, with golden eyes that managed to convey sadness despite their artificial nature. As the man finished getting everything together he stopped and gazed into the distance, over to what was left of the now smoking scrap pile that used to be their ship. He was more than sure anything of use had been destroyed when one of the remaining fuel tanks exploded an hour after the crash. He was just lucky he wasn't inside of it.

He looked one last time at the grave marker by the tree. After about a minute he spoke to no one but the dead. "Well, wish me luck." He turned to the wolf, "Well, ready to go boy?" The wolf gave a low whimpered bark. "I know boy, we'll come back and visit again." The wolf barked acceptance. "Okay. Let's go then." He said as he turned and started walking into the wastelands of Pandora. While the wolf started to follow, it faded into a swarm of light that quickly dissipated.

About an hour later, the man was still walking through the frozen wasteland when a beeping sound came from his pocket. He pulled out his ECHO device and saw it was an alert for one of the few ECHOcasters that he was subscribed to. Seeing who it was put a smile on what little of his face could be seen. He pulled out some earbuds but only put the right bud in so that he could still hear his surroundings.

Gaige: "Hello my faithful subscribers, all twenty-three of you anyway. So big news, in a few months the Eden 5 Youth Science fair will be here again, and this time my science teacher Mr. Bakers has made entry mandatory for everyone in our class. Pfft, I was already planning on entering anyway, this is just extra credit on top of it, and now I also get to whop Marcie's butt at the same time! HELL YEAH!"

An older male voice in the background suddenly chimes in.

Gaige's Dad: "Gaige dear, what have I told you about being too loud?"

Gaige: "Sorry Dad!" She yells back. "Anyways, so I was thinking about maybe doing something with robotics. You know something that "Marcie Halloway" would have no chance of ever understanding. Although knowing her, she'll probably just have Daddy buy everything for her project." She said in a mock high-pitched voice.

Gaige: "I haven't decided what kind of robotics I'm going to do though. I mean there's your military, service, medical, construction, prosthetics, the list goes on and on. I got a few ideas though. I was thinking something with claws maybe."

The man chuckled at this as he kept walking while he continued listening to the maverick inventor. " You've got it easy Gaige." He said as he continued to walk on.

X-X-X

The sun was slowly, but surely, starting to rise over the wasteland as the man continued onward. It had been about two days since the man had crashed onto Pandora, but apparently, a day on Pandora was about 90 hours; so the nights were about 45 hours long. During those two days, the man had yet to find any settlements or signs of civilization other than an old 'Welcome to Pandora' billboard by Dahl, along what was probably a road that had long since been buried under the ice and snow. That didn't provide him much help other than a possible general direction as his Echo device couldn't lock into the planet's GPS network, which was Hyperion controlled, so there was no way to access it until he found and hacked a fast travel station.

To top it off the man only had another two days worth of rations before he ran out of what he had managed to recover from the crash. He decided that it was time to try out some of the local game and get a head start on his survival needs, as his mentor taught him. He spent about an hour looking around the frozen wasteland for any animals or edible plants, with no luck whatsoever. He was about to give up and just try again later when suddenly he heard a screech above him. He looked up to see a... Flying snake? His HUD identified it as a Rakk.

"Well it doesn't look like it has much meat on it, but beggars can't be choosers." He muttered.

The man was about to go for the wrapped object slung on his back when an explosion went off, disrupting the silence of the tundra. He turned to see a pillar of smoke rising and the sound of gunfire in the distance. He looked back again to see that the Rakk was flying away from him. He just sighed in defeat before he started to run in the direction of the firefight. "Someone is gonna regret making me fight on an empty stomach." He muttered as he pulled the clothed-wrapped item off his back.

X-X-X

'It was supposed to be a simple job, pick up info from the informant, bring it back to Sanctuary, and give it to Roland.' He thought. Cpl. Reiss was ducked down behind his wrecked Runner as several dozen Marauders and Psychos were peppering away at his position with weapons fire, shouting their typical insults, threats of death, and promises of cannibalism. "I'M GONNA EAT YOUR EYEBALLS!" he heard one such Psycho shout out. And to make matters worse, all he had was an old Dahl handgun, as his assault rifle was thrown out of the Runner when he had crashed.

Reiss was wearing an old set of gray Crimson Lance armor with a black undersuit, brown pants, and steel-toed combat boots. His helmet was the same gray as the rest of this armor and had red lenses for his eyes. The whole helmet looked like it had gone through several wars with how many scratches and dents were on it. On his hip was a Tediore quick charging shield, which was just as busted and useless as the Runner. His ECHO device was also ruined, which meant he couldn't switch to any of his other weapons or even call for help. This also meant that his ammo was severely limited, so all in all, he was fairly fucked.

"Well, things can't get much worse," he muttered before a rocket flew just half a meter over his head and impacted a large stone jutting out of the ground about 20 meters from him.

"Time for killing~!" he heard someone with a somewhat deep voice yell in an almost sing-song tone.

"Oh no". He muttered as he glanced over the wreckage to see a Goliath hefting a Vladof rocket launcher under its arm with a midget riding on its shoulders. "Great job Reiss, you just had to say it." He said out loud, firing off rounds in what was most likely his last stand.

Reiss and the Bandits continued to exchange fire with each other until a rocket nailed the wrecked Runner, which sent it and Reiss flying several meters into the air, slamming Reiss into another boulder. He was dazed from the impact; the radio in the car must have turned on because he could hear it crackling through different channels as if it was stuck on scan. It took a couple of seconds for his vision to clear up, but when it finally did, he found himself staring down the barrel of a Jakobs triple barrel shotgun that a Marauder had leveled at his face, "Finally something to kill!" he yelled, grinning maniacally.

Before the Marauder could pull the trigger, Reiss watched as the Marauder's head exploded in a bloom of red blood. Moments later, the sound of the powerful gunshot echoed back across the tundra... Reiss heard a loud metallic 'ping' sound followed by the sound of a gun being reloaded above him. Reiss looked up to see a figure in a ragged-looking cloak loading a fresh ammo clip into an odd-looking rifle that was partially covered in a ragged cloth. From what Reiss could see, the rifle seemed to resemble something out of an ancient World War 2 movie.

"Alright... which one of you assholes decided to start shooting and scare off my breakfast?" The cloaked man said in a calm voice. A thought seemed to cross his mind. "Or is it dinner… How do you even tell time on a planet with 90-hour days?"

The bandits all stared at him for a moment in shock and confusion, some of the bandits actually looked to be pondering the question he asked as they counted on their fingers. The short-lived silence was broken by one of the Psychos who yelled, "You're gonna be my new meat bicycle!" And with that, all the bandits started shooting or throwing any sharp objects they had at the intruder while Reiss scrambled to a nearby rock outcropping for cover.

Once he got there Reiss looked back to see the cloaked man firing from the cover of another outcropping, when a rocket hit near him and engulfed him in a cloud of dust and smoke. The Bandits stopped firing as the smoke and dust hung in the air. Everything was quiet for several seconds as the bandits looked at each other. "Did we get him?" A Marauder asked out loud. A moment after the Marauder uttered his question the newcomer bursts out of the cloud as his tattered and burnt cloak falls away. He fired at several bandits close to him, hitting them either in the head or double-tapping them in the chest with surprising accuracy. In a swift motion, almost too fast to be seen, he reloaded the rifle and ran for one of the bandit trucks, letting his shield soak up the damage from any shots fired at him. He jumped on the hood and fired twice at the turret gunner, who snapped back from the shots before his dead body slumped into the turret well. Just as the man was about to jump down a Psycho midget with a buzz-axe jumped him from behind, grabbing onto his back.

"WAH-HAAAA! YOU WEREN'T HERE BEFORE! WHAT HAPPEN!? WHO ARE YOU!?" the midget wildly screamed as it waved its buzz-axe around and slapped the side of the man's head with his other hand. After a moment of panic, the man grabs one of the midget's outstretched arms with his left hand, and throws the midget over his shoulder, slamming it into the truck bed. He brought up his rifle and slammed the butt of the rifle into the screaming midget's face. The force of the impact was enough to crush the mask the midget wore and shatter its skull. "AAAAGH! Auuuugh! AHHHH!... I die now." The midget said before it went limp.

The man took a second to catch his breath until he heard a Psycho yell, "He was gonna be my new hat!" Bandits started charging at him from both sides of the Technical. He turned to the group on the left and tossed a metallic sphere into the air toward the bandits yelling, "Time to play fetch boy!"

The sphere, which was about the size of a baseball, started to glow, as a white and blue light began to gather around it and take shape. In seconds a glowing white and blue wolf that was about the size of a tiger formed in front of the bandits. Its golden eyes shone out like stars in the desert environment, but only for a moment. Finding its first target, the wolf's eyes turned red. It leaps forward and slams into a psycho, pinning the man to the ground. The wolf quickly starts ripping the bandit apart with its razor-sharp fangs. The Psycho could only yell out "Oh God, oh God!" In mere seconds the Psycho was ripped to shreds. The wolf slowly turned to look at its next victim, a marauder standing several meters away. "What the hell is that?!" The marauder yells before the wolf snarls and pounces at the marauder.

Reiss turned back to the man and continued to watch him as he jumped down from the truck and fired away with his rifle, which only seemed to have about eight shots, but he was making each shot count as each round killed a bandit. Just as he was putting down another bandit, a group of three Psychos started to rush from behind. Seeing this Reiss yelled out to the man, "Watch your six!"

In less than two seconds the man spun around, slung the rifle, swapped to a Vladof pistol, and began unloading a hail of lead into the Psychos. The first two Psychos were cut down by the rapid-fire weapon, the third Psycho, however, got close and jumped at the stranger, buzz-axe raised over his head, ready to strike the man down. "GET READY FOR BAD TOUCH!" the psycho yelled, attempting to attack the man before he could realign his aim. Instead of standing there in surprise, though, the man charged at the psycho, letting him close the distance between them to punch the Psycho in the gut with his left arm before the axe could strike him. The only thing was, it wasn't just a punch he hit the psycho with, as Reiss noticed the tip of what appeared to be a white and blue glowing blade protruding from Psycho's back for a second until it dissipated and the bandit fell to the ground.

Not missing a beat, the man swung his pistol to his right and shot another approaching Bandit in the head. As that Bandit collapsed to the ground, its rifle accidentally fired off a shot, managing to nail the Goliath in the head and knock its helmet off.

'Oh crap' Reiss thought as he watched the Goliath's skin turn red. Throwing away his rocket launcher, in a fountain of blood, its skull-like head popped up out of its body attached to an elongated neck. In its blind rage, it grabbed the midget on its back and threw him far across the field.

"Mistake! BIG GODDAMN MISTAKE!" He yelled, before charging the man. "Die for me, BITCH!"

The man starts running the other way in a sudden panic as if he's never seen a raging Goliath before. 'He must be from off-world,' Reiss thought. The man ran and jumped over a group of bandits by another Bandit Technical and kept running. These bandits, who had just been watching the fight, were now fully focused on killing the man. They were so focused in fact, that they didn't see the raging Goliath coming at them till he jumped straight at the truck and landed on top of it, crushing both it and the bandits in the turret and truck bed. This caused the vehicle to erupt in an explosion that showered a few of the nearby bandits with fire, metal, and blood. The Goliath quickly got back up and began beating down the last few bandits around the wreck while the man and his... Light wolf, started dealing with another small group of bandits.

After the Goliath finished killing its remaining comrades in a fit of rage the Goliath, or GOD-liath as it was now labeled on anyone's HUD, had rapidly grown to almost twice its original size after killing a dozen or so Bandits. The Goliath turned and spotted Reiss, "I CAN'T BE STOPPED!" he yelled as it charged at Reiss.

Reiss attempted to move only to trip on a small rock, causing him to fall forward. He rolled over and looked up to see the GOD-liath only a few meters from him, ready to smash him into a bloody pulp when the wolf jumped over Reiss from behind and tackled the raging brute to the ground. The GOD-liath tried to punch the wolf only for his fist to pass through the wolf's head. He stopped in confusion, then tried to punch it again and again with the same results as before. "WHY CAN'T I HIT THE PUPPY!" the raging hulk yelled. The Goliath got up from the ground, throwing the snarling wolf off of him as he stood.

Just as the GOD-liath managed to get on its feet again the wolf reared around and sunk its fangs into the GOD-liath's leg, it's claws then seemed to extend to several times their normal length and dug into the ground, rooting it, and the God-liath in place. This left the GOD-liath pinned to the spot as he attempted to shake the wolf off. As the GOD-liath was distracted the man jumped up on its back, grabbed onto its long neck, and attempted to snap it by throwing all his weight into it, only to find that it had no effect.

"HAHAHA, that tickles, but you no strong enough to break my neck!" the GOD-liath yelled.

"Then try this instead!" The man said as a 30 cm long, white and blue energy blade formed from a device on his arm. With a quick slash, the man severed the brute's head from its neck. The headless GOD-liath just stood there frozen for several seconds as blood spewed from what was left of its neck like a fire hose. the man jumped off and the wolf let go of its leg, letting the brute fall forward as several pieces of loot fell to the ground with it. All the while the head rolled over to Reiss's feet and stopped in a way that caused the head's still open eyes to stare back at him. Reiss didn't know how long he was staring at the head until it was suddenly kicked away by the man, sending it flying into his blown-up Runner.

Reiss looked up at the man who had saved him and was able to truly take in his appearance. The man was in either his late teens or early twenties with jet-black hair, blue eyes, and light tan skin. He stood around 180cm tall and was wearing a tight-fitting gray and black soldier's uniform with a metal chest plate that was pockmarked with dozens of nicks and dents. The armor piece appeared to have a faded emblem, a blue silhouette of a wolf howling towards the sky framed in a white hexagon on the left side of the chest plate, over his heart. On his left shoulder was a small wedge-shaped, bare metal shoulder pauldron that had several gashes in it. On his left hip was a device, which looked like an overly modified SDU. Connected to the back of his belt was a black cape-like cloth with blue trim on its bottom edge, which reached down to just past his knees (Think of the kama's that clone ARC troopers wear in Star Wars). He also had on gray military pants with well-worn knee pads that attached to a set of metal plates that covered the front of his lower legs, with a pair of well-worn combat boots that protected his feet. His forearms were covered by some kind of small devices with small touch screens, which connected to backhand plates on his fingerless combat gloves that appeared to be the emitters for the energy blade. In his hands was the rifle from before; now that Reiss was closer he could tell that it was a Jakobs rifle, but it was unlike any Jakob's weapon he had ever seen. It was about a third of the length of your average Jakobs sniper rifle, but it didn't have a pistol grip or a scope on it, and it appeared to be clip-fed from the top and had a rifle strap on it. As noted earlier, it looked more like something out of an old war film (think of an M1 Garand rifle only with the color styling of a Jakob's Hammer Buster).

"So bud, tell me, who are you, and what was so damn important that you picked a fight with over three dozen armed and crazy thugs?" The teen said.

It took Reiss a second to gather his thoughts, "I- I didn't pick a fight with them. They ambushed me. They're bandits, that's what they do here on Pandora. As for me, I'm Corporal Reiss from the Crimson Raiders. I was on my way back to Sanctuary after an important pickup."

The man looked at Reiss for a few seconds till he asked. "Crimson Raiders? Like the Crimson Lance? because that would explain the armor you have."

"Well, yes and no. You see after the fall of Atlas, those of us in the Lance that were stationed here were abandoned on Pandora with no way to get home, let alone off this hell hole. So when Hyperion came to Pandora in force," Reiss noticed the man's eyes narrow in anger at the mention of Hyperion, but he continued. "Many of us decided to join up with Roland and formed the Crimson Raiders to fight back against Hyperion, as they didn't care who we were. Handsome Jack sees everyone who lives on the surface as a Bandit, even the innocent."

The man thought about it for a moment until he extended his hand to Reiss. "Kai," He said.

"Sorry?"

"My name is Kai, rebel fighter, and sworn enemy of Hyperion."

Reiss looked at his hand and then back to his eyes. He could see the kindness in them as well as the look of hardship and pain, the kind of look someone only gets after years of hard fighting. After a moment Reiss finally took Kai's hand and the fighter pulled him up.

Just then they both heard a low growl, and they turned to see the wolf, which seemed to have shrunk to the size of a German shepherd, staring at Reiss with killer intent in its piercing red eyes. "Uuuh, is he going to...?" Reiss stammered, taking a step back. Kai looked from Reiss to the wolf. "Hati, stand down boy. He's not the enemy."

The wolf looked at Kai for a moment and then back to Reiss as its eyes turned back to their earlier golden color. Hati just continued to stare at Reiss for several more seconds with an 'I'll be watching you' glare. The wolf then started to dematerialize in a shower of light until all that was left was a floating sphere that promptly flew back into Kai's waiting hand.

"Sorry about Hati, after everything we've been through, he finds it hard to trust anyone," Kai said as he placed the sphere into a slot on the device on his left hip.

"Seem a little testy for a program," Reiss said, eyeing the sphere.

"He's an AI and a smart one at that, but when my mom programmed him she made him a little overprotective of me." He said with a chuckle. "Parents. Am I right?" His expression saddens a little, as though he was remembering a bad or painful memory until a loud shrill caught their attention.

They turned to see the Psycho midget that had been riding the Goliath standing among its fallen comrades. Unlike most midgets, this one had on a golden Psycho mask and had long red dreadlocks. For his clothes, he had an armored chest plate made from an old stop sign, spiked shoulder pads, and black leather pants with foreleg guards made from rusted license plates. In his right hand was an old Maliwan fire pistol; in his left hand was a beat-up machete with dry blood stained on it.

"You assholes kill my men and my BFF Mong-da." He said in a high-pitched voice as he pointed the machete at the dead Goliath. "You have no idea who you scatterbrains are fucking with! I'm the one who showed these men how to live, how to fight, how to survive. I alone banded them together-" the midget continued to rant as Kai and Reiss watched in confusion.

"Well, this is interesting." Riess muttered.

"What is?" Kai asked turning to Reiss.

"It appears what we have here is a Psycho midget that has a couple of extra brain cells."

"And we should be worried because...?" Kai asked leaving the question hanging as the midget was now on some rant about his origin story.

"Oh no. I wasn't implying that this is a bad thing, it's just something of a rarity to see. Usually, these little guys can't even make a logical sentence, and here this one appears to have formed a whole road gang." Reiss said not taking his eyes off the midget.

"I see," Kai said looking back to the midget.

"And so I, Blood Rage the Mighty, leader, and founder of the roving Blood Rakks, Protectorate of the Frozen Plains of the Outlands, declare that you all will die by my-."

The midget, or Blood Rage, as he called himself, never got to finish what he was saying, as a single gunshot rang out and hit him square in the middle of his head; piercing through the mask he wore and causing the back of his head to explode like a melon. The weapons he was holding fell from his grip as Blood Rage's body collapsed seconds later alongside several pieces of loot. Reiss, who had ducked at the sound of the gunshot, looked and saw Kai had the smoking muzzle of his rifle pointed at where the midget's head had been.

"Well that was disappointing, and here I thought we were going to have a boss fight or something." Kai said as he sang the rifle over his shoulder.

They were both quiet for a few seconds as Reiss tried to process what just happened.

"Okay… Well, do you think any of these trucks still work?" Reiss asked, breaking the silence.

Kai looked around the shattered battlefield until something caught his eye. "That truck looks like it can still work.'' He said as he pointed to a blue-green Bandit Technical with a saw blade launcher that was flipped on its side.

They both spent the next forty minutes flipping the truck upright and replacing a blown tire on it. As the two fighters were finishing up the repairs, Reiss finally asked Kai something that had been bugging him. "So are you here just to fight Hyperion or are you here to be a Vault Hunter? because you look like the type of person who would."

Kai stopped and shot Reiss a confused look. "What's a Vault Hunter?" he asked as Reiss looked at him in shock.

"Wait, you've never heard of the Vaults?" Kai just stared at him. "Ancient alien vaults that hold weapons, treasure, and who knows what else, bringing the adventurers that hunt down these vaults for fame, fortune, and power? Hell, even Handsome Jack has most of Hyperion scouring the planet for the Vault location." Kai just shook his head, leaving Reiss dumbfounded. "How have you never heard of the Vault? Where have you been all your life, stuck under a rock?"

"No, I've been fighting for freedom on an outer rim colony world that has been cut off from the rest of the Galaxy for the last ten years."

"Oh." was all Reiss could say. It was quiet for about a minute after that.

Kai slowly looked at Reiss, "So Jack wants this... Vault?" He asked hesitantly.

"Yeah, that's the main reason he came to this hell hole of a planet. Hell, it's the main reason why anyone would come here anymore, other than to escape the law."

Kai appeared to be thinking about this new information while tossing the tools into the back of the truck. "So just to be clear, if I were to track down the Vault, I could stop Handsome Jack from getting its contents, and then I could use it against him and the rest of Hyperion," Kai asked.

"Basically, of course, none of that matters unless we can retrieve the Vault Key from Jack. He stole it several years ago from a scientist named Tannis, who lives in Sanctuary now." Reiss paused for a moment before looking back to the teen. "You never answered my first question as to why you are here. Do you even have a plan or a place to stay here on Pandora?"

Kai leaned against the truck and thought about it till he finally shrugged. "Not really, my partner who I came here with had the plan but he… he died when we crash-landed," He said in an uneasy tone.

Reiss could see from the hurt look on his face it was someone close to him. "Who was he?"

"My mentor, who has basically been my father figure for the last few years. His name was Barkov, Col. Reyt Barkov. To put it simply, he cared for those he trusted while also being a grade-A hardass to all of those around him." Kai said with a small smile.

"He sounds like my old drill Sergeant from basic." Riess said with a chuckle.

"He basically was one, but imagine if instead of the few weeks of boot camp you got it's extended over nearly seven years!" Kai said. Reiss visibly shuddered at the thought as Kai chuckled. "If it weren't for Handsome Jack, he and a lot of other people I cared for would be alive right now." Kai said somberly as he just stared into the distance.

"Well, since you are interested in fighting Handsome Jack, you could tag along with me to Sanctuary, it's the best place for anyone who comes to this hell hole to start again." Reiss told him. "And besides, would you rather stay out here and sleep outside in the wilds of Pandora or go where there's a roof over your head and a hot meal."

Just then they both heard a low growl. Kai looked down and grabbed his stomach. "Looks like one part of you is on board," Reiss said with a chuckle.

Kai just shook his head. "Traitor," he muttered to his stomach.

Reiss climbed up into the driver's seat and turned to Kai. "The way I see it, you saved my life today, so I at least owe you a place to stay and a good hot meal, maybe even a spot in the Raiders. So what do you say?"

Kai thought about it for a few seconds, until his stomach started to growl again and he just sighed. "Okay, okay, I heard you the first time, damn traitor," he said as he walked around and climbed into the turret. He then paused and said, "You know that whole growing up, leave the nest and start a new chapter of your life deal that everyone goes through when they get older?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Never expected mine to be this level of fubar," he flatly said.

They both looked at one another and started laughing as they drove off.

X-X-X

After several hours of driving, joking around, and stopping to take pictures of funny road signs, the two travelers finally managed to get to Sanctuary. They pulled up to the outer wall and called the guard on the comm box outside. Kai looked around and saw several buildings off to the left of the gate. To Kai, it looked like a shantytown.

"Hey Davis, open up would ya," Reiss said into the comm box.

"How many times do I have to tell you, it's Lt Davis, CORPORAL!" came a voice from the comm box.

As Reiss began arguing with Lt Davis over the comm set, Kai kept looking around the area until he noticed some movement in the shantytown. "Ugh, Reiss," he said as Kai pulled his rifle out.

"And another thing, you still owe me three hundred bucks from the last poker game," the guy on the comm said as several Psychos started to come out of the huts.

"Reiss!"

"Oh, sure I'll pay you back after you give me that Torgue shotgun you still owe me from the week before." Riess yells into the comm box.

"REISS!" Kai yelled.

Reiss whipped around and yelled. "WHAT!?"

Just then the truck explodes from a grenade, and he could hear several Psychos yelling. "Oh," was all Reiss uttered before turning back to the comm box.

"Uuum Lieutenant, we could use an exit here, the neighbors are getting rowdy again," he said.

"Right, one second," they heard on the comm box.

Several seconds later the gate opens up just wide enough to walk through, "GO!" Kai yelled as they both rushed through the gate as bullets started to wizz by their heads. The gate slammed shut several seconds after they got through.

It took them both seconds to catch their breaths till Kai spoke up, "Seems like a nice area around here."

Reiss glanced at him, "Yeah, until you disturb the neighbors, then it becomes a madhouse."

They then started walking towards Sanctuary, which was sitting on a spot of land across a massive gorge that seemed to encircle the whole city. As Kai was walking across the bridge he could see a guardhouse with a large shield generator on top. He could also see a guard in green Crimson Lance armor standing on an observation deck that Reiss waved to. The guard responded in kind by flipping him the bird.

"I'm guessing that's Davis," Kai asked.

"Yup, don't worry, he's nice once you get to know him."

They approach the gate and another guard in red Lance armor, minus the helmet. "Cpl. Riess," he greeted.

"Pvt. Jessup," Reiss responded.

Jessup looked over to Kai. "Who's the kid?" Jessup asked pointing to Kai, much to his irritation.

"This is Kai, he saved my life from a bandit ambush. He's interested in fighting Hyperion, so I'm taking him to meet Roland."

Jessup looked at Kai for a few seconds then just shrugged his shoulders before turning to the gate controls and pressing a few buttons. It opened up a few seconds later and they walked in. The first thing Kai saw was a blond-haired man covered in grease arguing with someone next to a rusted truck outside of an auto garage. They just kept walking past them, up the stairs, past a med clinic called Zed's, until they reached the center of town. In the middle was a large metal monument-like structure that didn't seem to represent anything Kai could think of. They continued on past the monument to a building with Crimson lance banners hanging in front of it.

"Nice place," Kai said.

"It is what it is. Come on I'll introduce you to Roland." Reiss said.

They walked past another guard outside the door, but before Reiss could open it himself the steel door flew open, and a man with dark hair in a doctor's uniform with a name tag reading Dr. Zed on the front left side of it and a medical mask over his mouth came rushing out and quickly turned around.

"Oh come on Tannis, I just need it for a short time," Zed said.

A second later he ducked as a glass test tube flew out of the doorway. "If you think I would ever let you use my equipment again after what you did to my centrifuge, then guess again. Now leave, I have work to attend to and I don't need to be bothered by any of you fools." Said a woman walked out and stood in front of the door.

The woman was about 5.6 with ghostly pale skin, likely from so much time indoors, with very short dark brown hair and a pair of gold-tinted goggles on. She was wearing an open red leather jacket and a matching leather choker on her neck. Under the jacket, she had an old white shirt with a brown leather top cut off at the midriff over it and wore light gray pants with knee-high leather heeled boots.

Reiss then decided to speak up. "Hey, Tannis is Roland in?"

Tannis looked at Reiss, then rapidly waved him off, "Yes, Yes, he's in the war room." She said in an annoyed tone as she started to turn to go back inside only to pause and pull up her goggles revealing her light green eyes as she looked Kai over. She then leans in a little and takes a few sniffs.

"You're from off planet, you smell odd." She said before walking back inside as Kai stared after her for a few seconds.

"Uuuh." was all Kai could say.

"Yeah, that's Patricia Tannis, it's best not to bother her... or make eye contact for that matter... come on." Reiss said as they entered.

The first floor was a large room with several lockers, bunks, and a Lab Tannis was working in... if you could even call it a lab. They went upstairs and went past what appeared to be some more living quarters till they got to a room with a large vault door and more bunks. The next room they came to had several monitors mounted on the walls and a holo table in the center. Two soldiers were talking to a dark-skinned man who had a sturdy muscular build. wearing a black beret with the Crimson Raiders logo on it. He wore a black shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and tan and rust camo pants with a knee pad on the right leg, a foreleg guard on the left leg, and a pair of combat boots. The soldiers saluted and left the room before Roland turned to the newcomers.

"Reiss, it's about time you got back. What happened?" Roland asked.

"Well, that's an interesting story," Reiss said.

After Reiss gave Roland the package he had picked up, he started to explain to Roland everything that had happened till the end of Kai's fight with the bandits. "And if it wasn't for Kai here, I wouldn't have made it back, sir."

Roland turned to Kai and approached him. "So, it looks like I owe you for saving one of my best men, and I thank you for that," Roland said.

"Wasn't a problem, sir." Kai said.

"The only question I have for you is why did you come to Pandora, and what are you going to do now?" Roland asked.

Kai looked Roland in the eyes for a moment in silence, Roland noticed that he seemed to grow rigid, and his eyes showed a spark of anger and regret, but there was also determination and conviction as well.

"I came here with my friend and mentor who… Died after we crashed and landed here. A Hyperion patrol caught us while we were on our entry approach and they shot us down. As for why we had come here, it was to hunt down Handsome Jack and several other individuals in his corporation, put an end to his reign of terror, and stop him from getting to this Vault that I keep hearing about, sir" he finished.

Roland cocked an eyebrow. "Any particular reason for this conviction son?"

Kai not taking his eyes away from Roland's took a breath. "Handsome Jack and Hyperion took everything from me. Hyperion came to my world in force and took control of it, so we rebelled against their occupation. For the last 10 years, I have fought beside my friends, family, and my fellow citizens for our planet's freedom. We were winning too, until Jack came to power that is. After that, all bets were off. Jack's tactics were cruel and sadistic, in the end, I am the last surviving member of our cause, and of my world. I'm the last man standing if you would. If what you're asking is if you can trust me, sir, then know that all I want is for Jack to pay for all of his crimes."

Roland looked Kai over again. He could see the conviction in his eyes, but he was also a little concerned with the anger he could see within, but he saw no deception. 'I'll have to watch out for him in the future', he thought. 'That kind of anger and determination could get him hurt or worse.' He kept looking him over for a few more seconds till he finally smiled and held his hand out.

"Well then, in that case, welcome to the Crimson Raiders, Vault Hunter." Roland said as Kai took his hand and shook it.

X-X-X

(Tina) AH HA HA HAAA! Those stupid bandits don't know what hit them. And Kai's doggie is so CUTE! I want a cute killer light wolf!

(Mr. Torgue) I agree, that wolf was badass. Although I think there should have been more %$ EXPLOSIONS in the story.

(Tina) Hmmm, agreed good sir. Oh, Mr. Writer, retell the story, but this time with more explosions and more badass enemies.

(Mr. Torgue) And add us in!

(Tina) I agree with Lord Mr Torgue of the explosions and testosterone. Write us into the story as well, good chap.

(Kilo8) Tina, this is only the first chapter. You guys will be added later on, okay? Also the name's Kilo8, or just Kilo, not Mr. Writer. Anyway, I hope the rest of you enjoyed the first chapter of "Rebel Anarchy". I already have the next several chapters written out, but I just need to do some corrections and editing, so it could be a week or two before the next chapter is up. Plus, next chapter we start to introduce our Heroine, Gaige, and bring her into the scope of the story more.

(Tina) AWESOOOOMMME! Big sis is coming!

(Kilo8) Yes Tina, she'll also probably join us for the PRE-chapter chat as well. Anyway, thank you all for reading, and leave a comment before you go.

(Tina) AND COOKIES!

(Kilo8) TINA! *Sigh* Till next time everyone. Kilo8 out.

**EDITS 1-6-2024**