Before the War

Retrieving A Vault Hunter

As it turned out, saying you were going to find a Vault Hunter and then actually being able to do it were vastly different things.

Mostly because Vault Hunters? Yeah, they're good at not being found. Being able to disappear is their whole M.O.

Or at least, that what was Rhys was rapidly learning.

Also not the best plan? Walking around in some radiation suit in the middle of the Pandoran desert, the sun beat down on the metal causing your back to develop a sort of stickiness you didn't think the human body was capable of.

Rhys had spent weeks trying to find Fiona, and his frustration with this fact was not exactly helped by Loader Bot chirping in his ear that he had already found the first piece of Gortys. Frankly Rhys was just tempted to try to find the pieces himself, searching for Fiona be damned, and then just have Loader Bot contact Fiona and let her know of the plan.

Except as it turned out...Pandora was a lot larger than he remembered. You could spend a whole month walking through one section and still not have ended up anywhere important. Or with food and water.

God, he'd kill for that pizza right now. Even if the intentions for giving it to him were less then pure.

His stomach churned painfully. All he'd eaten over the past few days was random plants he could find and he was surprised he hadn't killed himself yet.

He loaded up his ECHO and waited for Loader Bot to respond.

"Heyyyy LB, so would you mind doing me a favour and telling me where Fiona might be?" Rhys asked as he pulled up the mask in order to breathe.

"Was she not in Hollow Point?" Loader Bot asked simply and Rhys sighed.

"I tried looking for her there but there was no sign of her."

"Did you try to contact Sasha?"

"Yeah, no LB, that...that wouldn't be the best of ideas right now," Rhys replied as he imagined a gun pressed to the hollow of his throat. "We, ahh, we didn't exactly part on the best of terms..."

"If you say it is important to find her sister she would be willing to assist you," Loader Bot replied and Rhys shook his head.

"Loader, I'm pretty sure she'd be happier to shoot my head off," Rhys replied, before he realized that Fiona probably would be even worse if she figured out who he was. If he ever found her, that is. "Hey, are you sure it's a good idea for me to be looking for Fiona anyhow?"

"Affirmative. I need you both to activate Gortys. Without her we cannot complete the mission."

"Well, yeah, but...pretty sure she's not on Pandora anymore," Rhys replied as he glanced around at the seemingly never-ending desert. "So unless you have any other ideas..."

Loader Bot was silent for a few moments before he responded.

"We will give her an incentive to return," Loader Bot replied.

"What kind of incentive?" Rhys asked hesitantly. "Because I'm not going to kidnap Sasha or anything like that..."

Besides, she'd probably be able to break him in half if she wanted to. The thought made him shudder.

"No need. I will aid in deploying an advertisement saying that there is 10 million dollars for any Vault Hunter willing to do a job for someone on Pandora."

"And how do we know other Vault Hunters won't show up instead?"

"Because you will only send it to her ECHO," Loader Bot replied.