In Orbit

Once the space-bound Vault Hunters all rematerialized on the starship's main deck, everyone quickly gathered around the large hologram system and began processing their next plan of attack. Axton pulled up a map of Pandora and its surrounding planets. The four observed the hundreds of planets, satellites, asteroids, and other space garbage orbiting around in the single system. What felt like an eternity of silence was finally broken when Salvador groaned out a, "I don't even know what to look for."

"Well something that looks like it could have been a part of Pandora? I dunno." Axton shrugged.

"You mean like an asteroid or some shit?" Brick enlarged a holographic space rock.

"Remember, this happened pretty much forever ago, for all we know they could be no longer existent." Sarah added.

"Glad to see you're so optimistic..." The Commando grumbled.

"Hey, someone here has to be realistic."

The four refocused on the floating map in the center of the room, still very unsure where to begin, and even less sure how worthwhile this whole endeavor was. Time was of the essence and there was not a single step that could be taken.

Brick stared at the little blue planets hovering around his head, poking at a few feeling rather irritated. He had always hated these things. The projections only swarmed him more, causing the Berserker to swipe his arms out into the main map and scatter everything. All the celestial objects bounced around the deck and began disappearing.

"BRICK!" Axton cried as he attempted to sort out the holo-map.

"Damn it, my bad." Brick waved a hand again, not realizing he was continuing to scramble the map.

Salvador just cackled at the sight of a dozen floating lights crashing around the room while Sarah rubbed the bridge of her nose in annoyance. The Tactician raised a hand and swiped downwards, dismissing the projection. Everything fell silent once more and the group just exchanged defeated glances. The Gunzerker just kept laughing however.

"What's so funny?" Sarah looked over at the dwarf for an answer, but all she got was the truxican flailing his arms and making a strange expression.

"Everyone's goin' loco over all this. Thinkin' Pandora's some soft planet. Pah! I grew up here. And just like us Pandorans, the planet can take a beating." Salvador snorted

"Wha-"

"I think I get it..." Axton murmured.

"If there's anything I know about Pandora, it's that everything is big, slow, and obnoxious." The short Vault Hunter smirked and cracked his knuckles. Brick nodded and looked at the Commando who also nodded. Sarah glanced at the three men and raised a brow.

"Sorry, I don't follow." She sighed and scrunched her face.

The three said nothing as Axton pulled up the holo-map once more and began typing something away on a light screen. The map flickered a few times before it arranged a list of several planets. The male Vault Hunters all began chattering amongst themselves and occasionally glanced at the ex-Major.

"What? What is it?" Sarah began to grow impatient. Not once had she ever been ignored so blatantly.

The Commando returned to the list and began weeding out options without a word. The other two gave their own input for each planet that was sorted. Sarah gritted her teeth and balled her fists, this was getting ridiculous.

"Seriously...Tell me what's going on."

"Okay I think we got this." Axton turned the screen to reveal four planets, "These are planets we've visited that all have a few things in common."

"...Okay, what?"

"Traces of Eridium." Axton started.

"Pandoran-like creatures." Brick continued.

"And everything is extremely excessive." Salvador finished.

"And you all had to ignore me because?"

"Dramatic suspense?" The Commando nervously rubbed the back of his head with a chuckle while his bulkier companions shook their heads. Sarah slumped back and crossed her arms looking rather unamused. The room fell silent for a moment.

"Whatever. What are these planets we're looking at?" The Tactician sighed.

Axton enlarged the first planet, "This is Terrafloris, a planet home to big ass trees, humidity, swamps, and cannibals. Salvador was there for a week."

"Si, lots of Eridium. Haha those cannibals man, they really know how to bite!" The dwarf rolled up his sleeve to reveal a crudely stitched set of puncture wounds in his shoulder. Everyone else looked away.

"I'll happily go back!" Salvador chuckled

"Gross, anyways. It has some major Eridium deposits, similar to the Blight on Pandora. Next up is Crux." The next digital planet was enhanced.

"...Axton that's a gas planet." Sarah huffed, Brick just laughed.

"Nah. It's just cloudy. Dirt and clouds. That's all it is, except for some ruins and shit. "The Berserker commented.

The Commando smirked and brought up the next planet, "Nacon, we've only touched down on this planet once, but it's insane. Creatures that walk in and out of existence, floating islands, strange explosions...It's dangerous, but a real spectacle."

"Ooh! Dibs on goin' back! There's a big ass beast there I have to punch." Brick laughed.

"And this last one?" Sarah enlarged the planet.

"Enyo, another ruins planet. However these ruins resemble a temple or something."

"Alright, I'll head to this one. Survey can cover a lot." The tactician scanned over the image.

"Looks like I got Crux then." Axton seemed to sigh.

"Alright, when do we head out?" Brick cracked his knuckles.

"Tomorrow, we'll each have to tackle a planet."

The two other men cheered while Sarah just stared fixatedly on the hologram of Enyo in front of her, something in her gut told her that this next mission could very well be her last.

---

An hour had passed and the Vault Hunters had divvyed up the work on who had to tackle what planet. Salvador practiced throwing a few punches in the "dedicated sparring room"-which was actually some sort of Hyperion Hall of Fame that the Vault Hunters enjoyed destroying every last piece of yellow and white artifact-in the lower decks. Brick did repetition after repetition of curl-ups, sit-ups, and push-ups. Axton tinkered on his turret, occasionally glancing up at his ex-wife whom was working on the computer.

"What're you doing? Shouldn't you be working on Survey?" The Commando spoke up.

"I am." Sarah digistructed her surveyor drone and linked a cable from its hull to the small computer-like device in front of her, "I'm uploading all your information on Enyo...which isn't a lot."

Another silence surrounded the two. Axton resumed his work on his turret, trying to clear his thoughts and focus on the coming exhibition. But he just couldn't, there was one nagging question in the back of his mind.

"Why haven't you commandeered the mission yet?" He blurted out, sounding a little more bitter than he anticipated. Sarah paused her work and turned to her ex.

"Because it's not my mission Axton. It's-"

"It's mine. Right." The Commando cut her off.

"I was going to say ours. As in yours, Brick's, Salvador's, and mine. Everyone has their place in this." She explained calmly and continued sorting files. Axton was stunned silent. That was not the reaction he was expecting to get. He was anticipating something more bitter and harsh. He bit his lip in thought, planning his next words carefully, he didn't want to cause any unnecessary tension.

"So...if it were your mission, how would you handle it?" He mentally crossed his fingers. The Tactician uploaded her last file and deconstructed her surveyor. She smiled slightly and breathed out a chuckle.

"Not much different than you did. Like I said Axton, we all have our place. Trust me, I'll step in when I need to." Something flickered in her eyes as he smile widened a fraction.

"So you mean when I royally screw up." Axton laughed.

"Exactly." Sarah returned.

---

Salvador sat in the bunk room, cleaning his guns. If there was anything about him that was clean, it was his guns. After all, you can't go on a leaden rampage when a midget's spleen is gumming up your barrel. He polished every part, allowing his mind to wander for once.

He began thinking about the situation that Pandora was essentially falling apart. The Gunzerker had faith that everything would turn out alright in the end. They were Vault Hunters, terrible things always happened! This was no different. Everything was going to be okay.

But something sank in the Truxican's chest. What if they don't find what they're looking for? What would become of his home? No, he couldn't think like that. Thinking about the terrible possibilities only made for terrible choices.

Salvador hopped off his bunk and put his guns back in his storage deck. He needed to get his mind of everything. He needed to spar.

And he knew just the Vault Hunter.

---

"One thousand ninety eight…One thousand ninety nine…" Brick huffed as he counted out his remaining one-armed push-ups.

"Brick!"

"Two thousand…" The Berserker rose to his feet as Salvador rounded the corner into the sparring hall.

"Brick, hey, wanna spar?" The Truxican playfully punched the taller man's arm. Brick smirked and cracked his knuckles before raising his fists.

"It'll be a nice cool down." He laughed.

"Awesome!" Salvador immediately charged into the Berserker at full speed, knocking Brick back a step. In return Brick hoisted the Gunzerker off the ground with one hand and slugged him in the jaw. Salvador swung his weight and was able to bite down on his attacker's wrist. Brick instantly released his grip and swung his foot towards his opponent. The Truxican was able to roll out of the way in time and pulled out his brass knuckles. He charged again and landed a forceful punch right in Brick's solar plexus. Brick coughed as the air was knocked out of him.

For a moment the Berserker retreated to the far wall.

"What? Quittin' already?" Salvador taunted.

"Far from it." Brick laughed as he came barreling back with his hammer in hand.

"Oh shit." Salvador quickly leapt away from a swing and paused for a moment too long when the hammer struck his shoulder. The Gunzerker grunted in pain as the joint dislocated itself. He flopped to the mat with a thud, but pushed himself back up. Salvador slammed his good palm against his injured shoulder, hearing it pop when the joint resettled.

Brick tossed his hammer to the side and swung his fist under Salvador's ribs. Salvador ignored the pain and retorted with a swift kick to the shin.

"Hey hey hey! Guys!" Axton called out as he and Sarah ran in to break up the spar, "Not before we head out…sheesh."

"Come on…We'll patch ourselves up, not like we were trying to kill each other. And we were just having fun." Brick mockingly whined.

"Well…I sup—"

"Any other time, this would have been fine." Sarah snapped authoritatively, "But we have planets to investigate, and next to no time to do it. We cannot afford to go in with wounds."

"Bu—"

"No 'buts', you may be able to insta-heal those wounds. But if things had gone farther, I'm fairly certain you both would have been at less than optimal condition to go out. Even with healing."

Everyone looked at the Tactician in awe, "Now clean yourselves up, eat something, and pack whatever you need, then march off to bed. In t-minus six hours we leave for our respective planets. MARCH!" Both Salvador and Brick scrambled to the medical bay. Axton raised a curious brow towards his ex and crossed his arms with a smirk.

"Thought you said I was handling everything well." The Commando said slyly.

"You were, but let's face it. You would have let them go out injured."

"Hey, they said they were fine."

Sarah just rolled her eyes.