Last Dead Man Standing

Kid looked out the window of the ship and saw the planet approaching. It was Pandora, the most chaotic and violent planet in the galaxy. He felt a mixture of anxiety and excitement.

He adjusted the controls of the ship and began the descent. He felt the ship shake and the heat increase as he entered the planet's atmosphere. He saw sparks and smoke coming from the wings of the ship. He hoped it would make it to the ground.

Looked at the map on the screen and searched for a safe place to land. Kid looked for a more secluded and quiet place. He saw a depression in the middle of a desert. It was a canyon with some trees and rocks. He thought it was a good place to hide his ship.

Kid steered the ship into the canyon and slowed down. He saw the ground rapidly approaching. Pulled the brake lever and activated the landing gear. He heard a metallic noise and felt an impact.

The ship had landed.

Breathed a sigh of relief and turned off the ship's systems, except freeze, where your food was. Kid took his backpack with some of the supplies he had bought and left the ship.

He felt the warm sun beat down on his face and the blazing wind blow through his hair. Smelled the dry, dusty toxic air. He heard the sound of strange birds and noisy insects.

He was in Pandora.

Kid looked around and saw the canyon he had chosen. It was a barren, desolate place with little vegetation and animal life. He saw some twisted trees and thorny cacti. He saw a few large and small rocks, but no sign of human activity.

Kid thought it was a perfect place to hide his ship.

He pushed the ship into a cave he had found. Covered the entrance with some branches and stones. Kid hoped that no one would find his ship because the rest of his supplies, food, and other things were in it.

He took his vehicle, his faithful jetbeast that had been with him for more than 7 years, the thing cost 270,000 dollars, sports model, no armament installed, but great for all types of terrain.

Kid mounted the vehicle and started the engine. Heard the rumbling of the machine and felt the vibration of the seat. He was ready to go.

_____

Currently, in an unknown place, a middle-aged man was sitting in a chair, his fingers typing on a large digital panel, The man had an angular face, brown hair with some white strands, well-trimmed beard, The most striking feature was his heterochromia, his right eye was blue and the left green, he was wearing a gray jacket and underneath a shirt with the Hyperion logo. A corporation focused on fast travel services and the supply of weapons, both military and for personal defense.

The man has his work interrupted by a mechanical voice. "Mister John, it's about time to check your daughter."

John takes only a glance at the clock, Rising from the chair he stretches, his bones rattling in the process, letting out a tired groan the man grabs a glass of milk and takes a few sips while walking to another room.

"Okay, any candidates today, Angel?" Entering the other room, John asks a young woman sitting on what looked like a throne, The young woman was attached to several devices, with the right side of her head having two thick cables attached. But the most striking feature was his blue tattoos that glowed so brightly that even the room with lights off still left the place well-lit.

"There is... a man on a motorcycle that has never been seen in Pandora, I did some quick research on the model of the bike and found out that they are mostly made and sold in Gehenna. I'm guessing he's a treasure hunter who came to Pandora after hearing about the Vault on Pandora radio, he's currently following a road that leads to Fyrestone. Should I approach him?" Angel gave the information to John as his eyes twinkled, his tone was placid and emotionless.

"Gehenna huh? If he survives and is useful in opening the Vault, then do an inspection of the antecedents and identity." John strokes his beard thoughtfully "Does he have any technology connected to the internet?"

"No"

"Then wait for him to arrive in Fyrestone, if I am not mistaken there is still a Claptrap unit on site, wait for him to pop an ECHO device, and then say exactly what I say." John begins to think of a good dialog that will attract the man.

"Say the following, Don't be alarmed..."

_____

*Groan!

In the dry barren lands, what appears to be a mutant dog crawls out of an advertising sign, The animal runs to the nearby road, its stride is imposing as if it were an Alpha.

*BAM!

"Oops... I think I hit something." Kid says as he sees the mist of blood, unfortunately, Kid can't recognize exactly what it was as the body of what appeared to be a dog has turned to pulp.

"Those guts are not going to come out easily." Kid complains as he realizes the innards are stuck to his vehicle.

He continued on the road for a few more minutes, and just as Kid was beginning to get discouraged he spotted what looked like a construction site in the distance Kid accelerated his motorcycle and soon saw that the site was a motel, Fyrestone Motel to be more specific.

Stopping in front of the motel Kid realizes that the place seemed to be abandoned because there was no one present, but then what looked like a small yellow robot came out of the motel, The small robot kept looking from one side to the other until it spotted Kid and in what could be described as the joy he quickly runs to Kid

"Welcome to Fyrestone! I'm CL4P-TP, you may call me by my locally designated name, Claptrap. Before continuing, please accept this ECHO communication device and heads-up display provided free of charge by the Dahl corporation!" The little robot comes forward and takes out a device that he holds out for Kid to pick up. The device is shaped like a rectangle with rounded corners. It has a small screen, and several buttons and controls on the bottom. It also has an antenna on top and a microphone on the side.

Seeing that Claptrap is not hostile and in fact, appears to be an employee of the motel Kid relaxes, he accepts the thing called ECHO, which immediately starts a scanning process all over his body, Claptrap says that he needs to put a connector on the side of his forehead, the connector was a small round device that would display and send signals to his brain and show his statuses in his vision. When he connected with ECHO several things appeared in his vision.

[Initializing…]

[Health display module]

 [BI(Body Integrity): |77%| Condition: intoxicated lungs - sick - dying]

[Initializing…]

[Weapon display module]

 [Detecting SDs segments…]

 [One SD Detected!]

 [Storing weapons and miscellaneous in the inventory]

[Initializing…]

[Digital Compass display module]

[All modules are active. ECHO v1.039008 is ready]

"What the hell is this." Kid feels dizzy with the number of things appearing in his vision, he closes his eyes for a while and then opens them again. An imperceptible change could be seen under Kid's red coat, and after a few seconds luckily only a few texts remained.

[BI: |90%| Condition: sick - dying]

Kid deduced that this module showed the integrity of his body and whether he might be sick or injured. And at the top of his vision was what looked like a compass.

Kid doesn't care much about the ECHO saying he is dying and sick, he was already born with that condition so he wasn't surprised. But his intoxicated lungs were probably Pandora outlet air, he really felt that the planet's oxygen was making it hard for him to breathe because on Gehenna that never happened.

Suddenly Kid's eyes widened as he realized that his gun was gone and his backpack was light.

"Where is my gun? Claptrap do you know where my gun went? Don't tell me that thing stole it from me." Kid said urgently, he didn't like to be without weapons, it was like being naked for him.

"That's the weapons module, It usually just tells you how many bullets you have left in your gun, but when ECHO has an SD installed it can store your weapons and ammo in a digital space, you can retrieve it with a mental command!" Claptrap calmly explains, as if this has happened several times in the past.

Hearing what Claptrap said Kid is amazed, placing his hand near the ECHO, Kid gives a command and his Sudden Passion magically appears in his hand, well not so magical as you could be seen it being built up in the process and when he put it away it seemed to be deconstructed.

"Has the technology reached that point yet?" Kid mutters dazedly to himself, but Claptrap seems to have listened and answered.

"It's not that amazing, this technology was already widely used in Catch-a-Rider and Fast Travel. it is known as digistructing. Dahl was creative in creating a small SD (Storage Deck) digistructing segment that could be equipped in ECHO for portable storage. Since yours only has one SD it can only hold a few things, but you increase the inventory space by installing SDU (Storage Deck Upgrade) that increases the inventory capacity, Although I find it very hard for you to buy one, the prices of just a single SDU can reach exorbitant prices!" Claptrap explains in depth how ECHO's inventory works, he was in fact a robot assistant by being very helpful. {1}

Kid hisses in amazement at hearing such an amazing device, but he is also in doubt.

"Is that thing really free Claptrap?...on my planet that must be worth the price of an entire city!" Kid really liked the ECHO he received and would not return it even if Dahl's own owner asked him to, this thing was his dream of consumption.

"Yes, ECHOs are given out of grace to newcomers to the planet, Keep an eye out for updates and report possible bugs, this is of great value to Dahl and we thank you in advance."

Kid narrowed his eyes, he felt it was not that simple, but his thinking was interrupted by a female voice in his head, the face of a pixelated blue woman covered his vision.

["Don't be alarmed, I need you to stay calm and don't let on that anyone is talking to you. You don't have any reason to trust me, but I need you to believe that I'm here to guide you… I'm here to help you find the Vault.'] Kid's eyes twitch for an instant when he hears that she would help him find the Vault, but he quickly changes his face to a placid monotone, letting nothing show.

Your finger silently crawls into your ECHO and turns off the device. The woman however does not stop talking to him even with his ECHO turned off.

'Do everything this little robot says. You'll see what I mean when it happens. I'll contact you again soon.' Punctuating her words the woman disappears.

'So it's not an AI... a siren? Not a day has passed here in Pandora and I've already come across one, I remember she knew how to do the same thing...' Kid makes sure to turn on his ECHO again. Falling into deep thought, Kid remembers his troubled past but is brought back to reality when Claptrap speaks to him.

"Great! I detect that your ECHO device is fully functioning! This way, please."

Claptrap starts guiding Kid to a gate and begins typing furiously on buttons, but stops abruptly when he hears the roaring sound of an engine in the distance. {2}

"Wait… is that?... oh no, not again! Ruuuuuuuuun!" The little robot desperately runs to a small shack, leaving Kid alone.

"Hmm?" Kid doesn't bother to find a place to hide and just stays where he is while several cars full of bandits fly over his head and jump the gate.

"Are... are they gone? *Whew! Those bandits really have it in for us Claptraps. Using us as target practice is not part of our programming!" Claptrap hearing that the bandits were not nearby comes out of his hiding place cautiously and types again on the gate console. "Annnnd... open!"

The gate then begins to rise, but Claptrap is too impatient and ends up hitting his head on the not fully open gate, Kid ends up secretly laughing at the clumsy robot, but his mockery ends when he sees some bandits approaching them, they wearing helmets.

With a command his Sudden Passion appears in his hand, it is fully charged by what is indicated in the display right of his vision.

[6/54]

Kid aims at the heads of the two bandits who were running towards him and quickly finishes them both off, he moves forward quickly but stops abruptly when several shots pass by him. Kid seeing the bullets slowly flying from his perspective quickly ducks behind a large piece of metal.

[BI: |73%| Condition: bleeding - sick - dying]

Kid receives an ECHO notification and checking his body he realizes that he was hit in the abdomen and was bleeding, although painful, Kid reacts only with a frustrated snort, he had been used to receiving lead for many years.

The bandit stops shooting, his gun apparently ran out of bullets, Kid takes the opportunity and stands up with his aim locked on where the bandit would be, and with a sharp shot, the bandit's head explodes like a watermelon.

Kid doesn't move forward but reloads his gun, heals, and searches the bandits' bodies, taking everything of value and storing the weapons in ECHO. With everything in order he gets up and goes after the rest of the bandits.

[BI: |90%| Condition: sick - dying]

[6/51]

He quickly shoots one bandit inside a car before he escapes and kills another that was in the open, Kid advances cautiously and his body shivers at the sound of his worst enemy.

*Tchum!

Suddenly a thug with a mean shotgun runs towards Kid, the latter of course not wanting for the world to let the thug get close to him and Kid unloads his gun on the thug's body, although the thug is dead with the first shot.

*Bang *bang *bang *bang *click *click

[0/51]

Kid stops pulling the trigger when he sees the disfigured and immobile body of the bandit, he breathes a sigh of relief and wipes the cold sweat from his forehead.

Unfortunately, he is surprised to realize that there was one more bandit alive, Kid tries to reload his gun but is too slow.

The bandit seeing the opponent's situation has a sadistic smile and aims at Kid's feet. "DANCE FOR ME DEAD MAN AHAHAHAHAH!"

"Oh no, not again! Why do people only like to do that to me?" Kid sighs as he realizes the bandit's intention

The bandit then holds his finger on the trigger of his submachine gun aimed at Kid's feet, The latter had no choice but to dance to the rhythm of the bullets trying to mutilate his legs.

TIk* tik* tik* tik* tik* tik* tik*

"Hmmm?" The bandit stops laughing as he realizes that his bullets have run out and his enemy is still with both legs, he tries to pull a pistol on his waist but has his nose broken by Kid. The bandit then realizes that his gun was thrown away and they both end up in a melee situation.

Kid gets into a fighting stance, never staying in one place, he moves around the bandit while giving him quick blows while dodging the last one without difficulty, after all, it would be a shame for Kid to dodge bullets and punches not.

The thug does not give up and punches with all his might, Kid sees the fist slowly approaching his face, and the blond just raises his left hand, The fist connects with his hand, and a metal sound sounds.

The thug was stunned to feel a sharp pain in his hand and was eventually knocked out by an uppercut to the chin.

Kid laughs as he sees his fallen opponent, he then reloads his revolver and finishes with a headshot.

[5/45]

"I didn't know you could dance so well" Claptrap exclaims from afar, hiding in a pile of trash.

Kid just rolls his eyes paying no attention to Claptrap as he searches the thugs and their surroundings, looking for anything valuable.

*-*-*-*-

A/N:

{1} - The creators of the series never said if the SD is in fact canonical in the history of Borderlands, but since they are so present in the universe of Borderlands I will write them as canonical in this fanfic. I can't imagine the vault hunters carrying more than 30 guns in their pockets.

Oh! And also in the intro movie of borderlands 2. Salvador pulls two guns out of his waistband when in fact there was no gun in his waistband, and if you slow the video down you can see that the texture of the guns looked like that of the vehicles when they were built by Catch-A-Ride.

{2} - I removed the introduction of the New-U station as it is not canonical.

Despite in-game references and explanations of New-U stations, Anthony Burch, head writer of Borderlands 2, has confirmed that New-U stations are non-canon and therefore do not exist as far as the plot of any installment is concerned. Technically, they only exist for gameplay-balancing reasons. This would then explain how every deceased character did not revive storywise after being killed.

And being honest here, it would take all the weight off of death in Borderlands (within the world of borderlands) if people could simply pay a fee to be resurrected from the dead. But deep down everyone accepts that New-U is just a mechanic of a game, not a real thing in the plot of Borderlands.