Author's Note: Hey all, been a while. I hope you like the new chapter, leave a review if you can, I'd greatly appreciate it! Also, I'm going to try and update a little more often, I'm hoping once a week is doable, we shall see.

The vault hunters hurried into the cave-like digistruct garage, escaping from the freezing wind that blew across the road outside.

Axton brushed the dust off of a rusty terminal computer in the back, causing the holoscreen to blink to life. He examined the ancient Dahl mining vehicle dispenser skeptically: Dahl's mining operation abandoned Pandora long ago, and the dented and scratched terminal clearly showed that the bandits had given up on getting anything out of the terminal long ago too.

But when Axton touched the blank holoscreen, the Dahl logo briefly flashed up before being replaced by a caricature of Scooter's face and the words "Catch-A-Ride".

"Scooter, are you sure this is going to work?" asked Axton, recalling the monstrosity Gaige had created when she "fixed" one of Pandora's decrepit machines.

"Well heck you ain't walking to Lynchwood, that's all the way in The Dust man," said Scooter over the ECHOcomm. "I still don't think you guys should be trustin that angel lady but if you gon get to Lynchwood you gonna need to catch a riiidddee."

Over a different channel, Roland came on the ECHOcomm. "Don't worry, we've tested the system before. Scooter may be short a few chromosomes, but he's a savant when it comes to vehicles. More importantly, are you sure you guys want to do this. I don't trust Angel is an understatement for how I feel right now."

Axton sighed and thought back on what Angel had told them.

"Before you rescue me and take the key, there are some things that need to be done," Angel had explained calmly. "First, go to Lynchwood and destroy their Eridium mining operation; it's the biggest operation on this continent, destroying it now will slow down the charging of the key by …about thirty percent."

"Anything we need to watch out for?" asked Maya.

"Becareful of Nisha, Handsome Jack's girlfriend. She's also Lycnhwood's sheriff. Also, um, make sure you get rid of her. She's been ruling the people of Lynchwood with an iron fist. Once she's gone, I'm sure the townspeople can help the resistance somehow."

"Yeah, we're sure," answered Axton. He'd stayed in Lynchwood awhile and even caught a few bounties for the desert town. He remembered sensing an inescapable gloominess hanging over the citizens like another corpse on the gallows that were everywhere; with the sheriff gone, maybe the town could change for the better.

"We don't have a choice anyways, Angel's in charge."

"Then good luck soldier," said Roland. "We're tied up trying to regroup, but once things settle down I'll see if I can send some reinforcements your way."

"Thanks, how're things going on your end?"

"A little better, we've got most of our defenses back up thanks to Gaige's friend."

"Woohoo," interjected Gaige cheerfully, joining the ECHOchat. "Can't beat Cable when it comes to software, and you can't beat me when it comes to hardware. We gotcha guys covered."

"Gaige, help me," cried Cable as he hopped on the channel as well. "How do I turn this claptrap thing off? It won't leave me alone!"

"Minions!" chimed in Claptrap.

The rest of them disconnected.

Axton turned his attention back to the holoscreen terminal. His eyes widened as he explored the options on the Catch-A-Ride station menu. "Holy hell, you're not messing with us are you Scooter?"

"Heh heh, who do you think I am sonnn," boasted Scooter. "When I say catch a ride I mean Catch-A-Ride!"

Axton pressed a button on the holoscreen and turned to the others with a grin on his face.

"Oi what'd you get amigo?" asked Salvador. "Whatever it is, dibs on shotgun."

"Dibs on-" Gaige groaned when Salvador beat her to it. "Then I call dibs on an indoor seat, it's getting kinda cold…" She rubbed her hands together and shivered in her tattered school uniform. "I'd kill for some new clothes…"

"Yeah I take mine from dead bandits too," Salvador took a blood stained yellow shirt out of his storage deck unit and showed it off.

"…nevermind."

The vault hunters stepped back to the corner of the garage and watched as digistruct particles began pouring out of the projector lenses on the ceiling. Slowly, a large vehicle took shape in the middle of the garage, filling almost the entire cave.

"Oh ho ho muy bueno amigo," declared Salvador as the vehicle took on its final shape.

"Uh, what counts as shotgun?" asked Gaige, as she stared agape at the vehicle.

"You know what counts as shotgun chica!"

Dry, hot wind and sand blasted the truck's windshield as the car went over the sand dune. Through the open window, some of the sand flew in and hit Gaige in the face.

"Ack, pfffbbt." Gaige squeezed her eyes shut and tried to blow the sand out of her mouth.

Still driving, Maya reached down with her right hand and took a bottle of water out of her storage deck unit and offered it to Gaige on her right.

"than' yu," gurgled Gaige as she swished the water back and forth in her mouth. She spat the water out the window, and noticed the bandit truck fast approaching them from the right.

The bandit truck, equipped with a catapult turret, launched a barrel at them. Gaige pulled out her pistol and aimed up at the falling barrel. She steadied her aim as best she could as their truck bounced across the desert sand. At the last second, she pulled the trigger, and the barrel exploded mid-air.

"Nice shot," said Maya, still focused on driving, while a small GPS holoscreen continued to track their progress on the windshield.

"Salvador," called Gaige over the ECHOcomm. "They're on our righ-"

Before she finished, the bandit's truck exploded into bits of twisted metal and burnt flesh. The leftover chassis, sent airborne by the explosion, landed upside down and the one surviving wheel spun helplessly above the flaming wreckage.

Salvador's mad laughter reached Gaige over the ECHOcomm. She leaned out of the truck window and looked behind them. She stared, with pouted lips and jealous eyes, at the massive tank.

Sitting in the back of the truck, Zero and Krieg were staring at the tank too as it rolled down the dune and caught up to them. The turret top kept turning, swinging the twin cannons back and forth, raising up a dust storm only a little smaller than the one that followed in the war machine's wake.

The tank turret turned to face a buzzard stupid enough to threaten them. The two missle pods on the side of the turret fired off a salvo, blowing the buzzard out of the sky, sending Salvador into another incoherent rant filled with gibberish, cursing, and truxican words.

"Guys I think he's gone insane." Gaige pulled her head back into the truck.

"I can't blame him, I'm kinda jealous," confessed Maya with a smile. She hit the gas to stay clear of the sandstorm the tank tossed up. "Look, we're almost there." She pointed at the GPS holoscreen; a little goal flag blinked ahead of the truck icon.

A steep hill ending on a wide cliff lay straight ahead though and there was no way around. Angel came on and explained, "Lynchwood is below in the canyon, you'll have to get there on foot or take the local rail system I'm afraid."

"I've got a better idea." Maya kept her foot on the gas pedal. "Hang on tight guys," she shouted, and stomped the boost pedal down.

The engine roared in response as fire blew out of the exhaust ports. The truck accelerated up the hill, pushing Maya and Gaige into their seats while Zero and Krieg tightened their grips on the railings in the back of the truck.

"I WANT OFF MR. BONE'S WILD RIDE," shouted Krieg as the truck drove off the cliff and flew across the chasm.

Like on a rollercoaster back on Eden-5, Gaige put her hands up and screamed with her eyes closed as the truck began to fall and their stomachs lifted into their chests.

Thanks to the relatively low terminal velocity, the truck simply landed below with a hard bounce.

Gaige hobbled out of the truck. "Uhhhgh, I think I broke something. So worth it though."

"Maybe that wasn't such a good idea," admitted Maya sheepishly, but with cheeks still flushed from the thrill. "Sorry."

The vault hunters had landed on the outskirts of Lynchwood. Already, a crowd was forming; a mixture of bandits, mercenaries and townsfolk stared at the strange newcomers that'd fallen out of the sky.

"That's the vault hunters," shouted someone within the crowd.

"The bounty's mine," shouted some other people.

But before shots could be fired, the tank landed behind the truck. The menacing crowd quickly dispersed.

A loudspeaker on a nearby gallows turned on.

"I like your style kid," said the cool, feminine voice. "I'm Nisha, the sheriff around these parts. If you're looking for a fight, you came to the right place, sunset, main street, see you there."

The hatch to the tank opened and Salvador climbed out. He wiped the foam from his mouth as he and Axton walked over to join the other vault hunters.

"Looks like we've got a date tonight guys," said Axton. He looked up at the early morning sun. "Got a long time til sunset though, what do you guys want to do?"

"I'm going to go find some new clothes," declared Gaige eagerly, she summoned Deathtrap and ran off into the town with the robot in tow.

An idea came to Axton, and after setting up his turret to protect their vehicles, he happily asked the others, "Well, now that the minor's gone, anyone want to check out the best Saloon in Lynchwood with me?"

"How do you know it's the best?" asked Maya, though they were already following Axton.

"I'm glad you asked," said Axton; he'd eagerly anticipated the question. "I did some bounty hunting here. This one time, I caught these two brothers who were…"

Maya, Salvador and Krieg humored the commando, and even joined in with their own make-believe accomplishments.

But Zero lagged behind the group, keeping out of their boisterous conversation. Instead, as he walked, the assassin quietly spoke with someone over the ECHOcomm.

"Hey assassin, I'll pay you to kill the other vault hunters for me."

"No." Zero looked away from the other vault hunters' exposed backs.

"Huh, why not? You scared of a little challenge? Isn't that your only goal in life anyways? Heh, looks like you've gone soft. Welp, whatever, I've hired real assassins to do the job anyways, enjoy your last week alive, weakling."

"…they are not a challenge."

"Yeah? Whatever helps you sleep at night kiddo."

"…"