<span style="font-size: 200%; line-height: 116%;"><span style="font-style: italic">Pandora</span></span><br/><br/>The sun was setting over the desert-like scenery as Pandora sat atop a large rock situated at the back right corner of the camp. She and her bandit brothers and their friends were waiting for nighttime to come, as they had been planning to raid the newly-erected Crimson Lance camp only a few kilometres from their current location. It seemed a long wait; they were all nervous. Pandora and her two brothers, Ajax and Cronos, were especially apprehensive of the trek. It was more of a revenge mission for the three.<br/>Years ago, when the trio were young, the Crimson Lance had killed their mother. She had been their only parent, and they were a poor family. Pandora and her brothers took up a habit of stealing what they needed to support their small family, and eventually it got under the Lance's skin. Low-ranking officers came to their house when the three were gone and shot their mom, leaving the corpse sitting in the same chair she died in to await her childrenâ€™s' return.<br/>Pandora's eyes filled with nostalgia and anger as she looked up from her fidgeting hands and out to the continuous sand. After a few moments, she noticed a low rumble in the distance, slowly growing louder. It sounded like... a vehicle? Pandora looked closer, saw dust being tossed up just near the horizon. The object was steadily getting larger until a definite shape could be made out. A Runner, carrying... Oh, fuck. Crimson Lance infantry. They must've discovered the bandit camp. Fuck, fuck, fuck! This was bad.<br/>â€œGuys! Guys, get over here! This is bad!â€ she yelled, jumping down from the rock and running toward the other bandits. They rushed over to her; they knew she wasn't one to freak out for no reason.<br/>â€œWhat is it, sis?â€ Ajax asked. He eagerly looked over Pandora, trying to see what had caused all the commotion.<br/>â€œLance infantry. They're approaching in a Runner. They found us, guys. We need to get our shit together if we want to fend them off,â€ Pandora replied. For a few moments her report was greeted with blank stares until Ajax waved the other men off, shoved one of them and told them to gather their weapons.<br/>â€œGet your guns, men. You had better be ready for a fight. And Ora,â€ he said, using his nickname for his sister in what was possibly an attempt to lessen stress and fear, â€œhow long do we have? Go, check how far they are.â€ With that he turned to find his own guns.<br/>Pandora ran across the camp, quickly climbed back onto the rock she had previously been on. They were much closer than before; they'd be there in minutes. An ominous wind ruffled her short ebony hair and she turned back to the scurrying men behind her. Quickly she dashed back to the hut she slept in and grabbed her assault rifle, ran back outside. Her two brothers and the others were standing at the back entrance of the camp near Pandora's rock. They awaited the arrival of the Lance bastards.<br/>In only a minute or two the Runner skidded through the gap between the two cliffs bordering the bandit camp. The vehicle hit most of the six outlaws, knocked their guns out of their hands. Pandora backed up a few steps instinctually and aimed her gun at the infantrymen. The Runner turned sharply and protected the men inside from the oncoming bullets.<br/>Pandora and her brothers scrambled around in an attempt to grab their guns and get into a shooting position. The Lance men leaped from their vehicle and began shooting. The bandits took cover behind rocks and huts, tried to get a few shots in when they could. The infantrymen approached, however, and the bandits were put into a position where they had to make a decision: fight or flight. True to nature, they chose fight. Almost simultaneously all six of them abandoned cover and went into the fray, shooting the moment they emerged. So many of the Lance would've been dead already if it wasn't for their<span style="font-style: italic">damn</span>armour.<br/>Pandora turned in time to see one of the bullets from the Lance hit the throat of one of the friends of her brothers. He went down, choking and screaming. Pandora gasped quietly, starting to shiver. She aimed her gun. A wave of bullets sped toward their target, impaling the armour of his chest. It had apparently been stopped by the thick metal and the man hardly flinched. Fucking armour. She emptied round after round into the man, trying to get a slug through his chest. One finally seemed to dig through a weak point in the armour, as the man doubled back in pain, holding his side. No rounds after that perforated his flesh and he recovered from the previous shot quickly.<br/>Hundreds of bullets later, Pandora swiftly made her way to her brother, continuing to shoot. She glanced back, saw a slug plough into her friend's arm, rendering it useless. Not long after, he was shot in the torso and as he fell he cursed the Crimson Lance with his last lungful of air.<br/>All of the breath left Pandora's chest as she realised what was happening. Two of her friends were dead; they were losing this battle. She gritted her teeth in anger, emptying a whole clip into the man who had just killed her friend. Some of the rounds dug into his soft body, but none so much as to cripple him.<br/>â€œCronos, we're losing. I can't get any rounds through their fucking armour. Their helmets are so damn strong, and their body armour absorbs bullets like they're nothing,â€ she told her brother as she reloaded her rifle.<br/>â€œWell, Ora, it's keep shooting and empty all of our clips into their armour in hopes of killing them or turn our backs to them and run away, rendering ourselves squishy test-dummies for their target practice,â€ Cronos replied. Pandora knew he was right but still wished there was a better way. These Lance douches not only had armour as an advantage, but they also had numbers. In the beginning it had been six against ten, and now it was four on nine. Cronos fired his assault rifle, emptying almost the entire clip into the face of one of the infantrymen. Unable to take that much more abuse, the protective helmet broke and the bullets invaded the flesh, bone, and brain of the man. Without another sound he fell to the dusty ground and died almost instantly. Four on eight.<br/>Anger boiling in their veins, the Lance men hastened their assault. They walked up to the last of Cronos and Ajax's friends and shot him in the belly. Pandora's stomach twisted in nausea. The damned Lance bastard had planned that, not aiming for the head. He wanted the bandit to suffer, and so he did as he writhed in the dirt, stirring dust into his gaping wound. Blood clotted with dry soil as he twisted in gut-wrenching pain. Pandora waned to vomit, wanted to cry, wanted to slaughter those bastards. The only option was to slaughter them.<br/>Pandora fired her gun. Bang, bang, headshot, no damage, fuck! Six more rounds, pierced the helmet. He fell, skull pierced. Three on seven. A blood-curdling scream issued from only a few metres away from Pandora and she whipped around to look. Cronos, her brother, was holding his torso, blood spilling out from between his fingers. Pandora felt sick. No, this couldn't be happening.<br/>â€œCronos! Fuck! Cronos, get up!â€ Pandora called. Her voice was laden with misery and desperation. Her brother... dying at her feet... Tears welled up in her eyes as she fired an entire clip into a soldier's head. He dropped, but his death alone wouldn't satiate her revenge-lust. As Cronos let out his last gasping breath and died, it was just Pandora and Ajax left. They glanced at each other. Their looks had the same message: they were going to die. But damn it, they were going to go down fighting. The two siblings nodded at each other and aimed their guns. They fired, running around the small area in a zigzag pattern to make themselves harder to hit. With effortâ€”and a lot of bulletsâ€”they took out two more Lance infantrymen. In retaliation, one of the soldiers ran up to Ajax and used the butt of his shotgun to strike him onto the ground. Hurt, Ajax tried to shake off the pain but wasn't fast enough to avoid what came next.<br/>A single slug ploughed into his torso and he screamed. Pandora guessed the yell was less out of pain and more out of realisation that it was all over for him. Pandora's gut churned, twisted, writhed in misery and shock. Both of her brothers... All of their friends... Lives spent in mere minutes and now she was the only one left.<br/>â€œPandora,â€ Ajax whispered, his words like life force seeping from his lips, â€œrun, little sis. Run like hell. You've gotta get outta here; I wouldn't be able to die happy if I knew I let you die...â€<br/>Pandora wanted to cry. She wanted to kill something. Oh, god, her brothers! The only family she had left... and now she was alone. She looked up at the men who had stopped shooting. They were laughing. Laughing! They thought it was funny that her brothers and friends had been murdered.<br/>One of the soldiers walked up to Pandora and she aimed her gun. Before she could fire, the man bashed her with the butt of his gun. She fell to the ground, dropped her gun. The gunman above her walked in her direction, backed her into the wall of the cliff. The Lance grouped around her laughing. The man in front who had assaulted her to the ground aimed his gun, pointed it at her face. Clean headshot, she would die instantly. Pandora closed her eyes and prepared for the life-ending blast. It never came.<br/>â€œHey, hey,â€ one of the men said, tapping his comrade on the shoulder, â€œthis one's a girl. 	I dunno about you, but... I think I could have a little fun with this one. I've been around all men for so long; let's do this, man!â€ Now they were going to rape her. Why couldn't he just have pulled the trigger...?<br/>â€œYou have a point,â€ the man in front said and Pandora could almost see the twisted grin on his masked face. He reached down, picked the girl up by the collar of her shirt. â€œI'm first,â€ he added and carried her toward the hut she had lived in. The man hurled her at a wall once he walked in, began to strip himself of his body armour. He took off all but his helmet and pinned Pandora to the wall by her throat.<br/>Scanning the hut for anything she could use to escape, Pandora spotted the soldier's shotgun lying unguarded on the other side of the small room. If only she could get away, slip out of his grasp... She gasped as he touched her with his free hand. He fondled her breasts roughly, released her throat to bring his hand to her face and whisper.<br/>â€œYou chose the wrong planet to live on, bandit whore.â€ He laughed. He must've been exceedingly amused by he and his troop's actions. Pandora was disgusted. She watched as he withdrew his hands from her body and backed up. She almost exclaimed in shock and relief when he made one fatal mistake: he removed his helmet. His face was scraggly and rugged, a short beard on his chin. He had red, veiny patches on his moderately-tanned skin. To Pandora, he looked like the poster-boy for rapist douche bags. He approached her, grabbed her chin strongly.<br/>â€œKiss me, you dirty whore,â€ he said and pulled her face to his. Pandora let out a small squeal of pain and fear. She wasn't afraid of what was happening, but rather what she was about to do. In one swift motion, she doubled back and slipped painfully out of his grasp then punched him hard in the face, breaking his nose. The man fell backward, yelling out curse words. Pandora seized the opportunity and ran for his gun. She snatched it, whipped around and shot him in the head. His screams silenced, Pandora ran out the door of the hut to see the other men standing in front of her, guns drawn. She shot one of them in the face at nearly point-blank range and aimed for the others. She pulled the trigger and the sheer force of the shotgun pellets at that close range sent them all flying backwards before she deposited the gun into her backpack unit. The delay gave her a chance to run, and she got a decent length away from them before they started shooting. She passed the last of the huts in the camp when a round grazed her arm, slicing it open and blood began pouring out. She brought her right hand to the wound on the opposite arm to add pressure and hopefully slow the bleeding.<br/>Knowing the terrain better gave Pandora the advantage over the pursuing men. She took a sharp turn into a narrow path into the side of the cliff, nearly tripped over the small rocks in her way. She heard the yelling of the men behind her, they had passed by the path. She must not've been seen turning into the naturally-formed alleyway through the tall cliff partition.<br/>Pandora began to feel as if she had literally opened Pandora's box, unleashing chaos and turmoil onto her world. Making her way to the end of the path, Pandora felt the emotion that was left in the box after chaos was released into the world: hope. She had hope in this chaotic, defeatist situation.<br/>As she exited the path, Pandora came to a road. It was dusty, mostly unused. She sighed, hope fading as she realised the extent of the task in front of her.<br/>â€œNo one ever drives down this road...â€ she said in dismay. Looking up, she noticed something. A cloud of dust, a quickly-approaching object. She made it out to be a Runner. Someone was on the road. Someone was driving in her direction. Someone could save her. With the hope of attracting the attention of the oncoming vehicle she jumped in the air, waved her hands. Taking her hand away from the bleeding wound allowed the dark red blood to spill and drip onto her pale skin. She realised how many wounds she had on her body, felt faint at the thought.<br/>â€œHelp me!â€ she screamed, continued to jump and wave at the vehicle. â€œPlease...â€<br/><br/><br/><span style="font-size: 200%; line-height: 116%;"><span style="font-style: italic">Tsura</span></span><br/><br/>Tsura watched the sunset, pet the head of the Skag pup next to her. The blue static electricity sparking around his body shocked her hand and she withdrew it, aware that the pup couldn't control the sparks. She looked down at the creature, smiled.<br/>â€œIt's alright little spark plug. Calm down; you're safe,â€ Tsura told the Skag she had named Jove in her soothing voice. He seemed to relax a bit, the electricity around him dying down a bit. Tsura patted his head, laughed quietly. This time she wasn't shocked. She gingerly took the Skag's chin and observed his face. The gash on his nose was healing from the fight with bounty hunters, and it wasn't bleeding anymore, nor was it infected. That was a good sign; he'd be healed in no time. Tsura smiled at the Skag and looked back to the setting sun. It was beautiful and orange, undertones of purple in the clouds. DÃ©ja vu...<br/>Tsura looked around, confused. Crap, one of those daydreams was coming on. Some called them â€œvisionsâ€, psychic looks into the future. Tsura was a â€œgypsyâ€, or as they were most commonly called, â€œbansheeâ€. They were a group of gypsy-like psychics who only tended to speak to other people when they were giving warnings of the disasters fated to befall the unsuspecting souls.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">	The vision begins and Tsura is no longer regarding her real surroundings. The new scenery is dreamlike and faded, slightly blurry, and fragile-looking. The sun has slipped down behind the horizon and bright stars are gleaming in the sable sky. Gunshots sound in the distance, reverberating through the rocky desert. Yelling can be heard and Tsura goes to investigate the sound. She makes her way to a craggy bluff and slips her slender body behind large rocks to conceal herself.<br/>	Now the yelling is louder. The source of the voices must be close. Tsura hears a screaming sound, and dissecting the noise she concludes that it is an eagle-like creature. This is turning into an odd menagerie of noises. <br/>	A man comes into sight, breathing deeply. He sees Tsura,runs up to her. This startles Tsura; she fears her own curiosity. The man is different-looking, small and nearly as slim as Tsura herself, and has a mask covering almost his entire face. He begins to speak, but it's as if Tsura does not speak his language. Through his masked face, he looks desperate. <br/>	The man glances back and looks shocked. The men have apparently almost caught up to him. He turns back to Tsura and says something, more urgently now. She still can't understand him.<br/>	Before Tsura has time to respond, the vision fades. Momentary darkness veils her sight before she blinks and is facing a wall of posters. Wanted posters. She studies the one closest to her, recognises the face. The man from the earlier part of the vision is wanted for 1,000,000$. His crimes committed are poaching and possession of an endangered species. Tsura frowns; she hates poachers. After reading the poster the blackness returns and she sees nothing. The vision is over.</span><br/><br/>Tsura shook her head, rubbed her eyes. She saw the real world now and reached out to touch the cold stone next to her just to make sure this new reality was real. She found no fault with it, leaned back against the face of rock behind her. What was this new vision? What was going to happen? All Tsura knew was that her near future was largely based on the meeting of that man.<br/>Thinking about the illusion, Tsura tried to dissect it enough to uncover meaning. The man wanted help apparently, that much was obvious. The frantic tone, his facial expressions, from that she could judge his intention, but the second part of the vision was what troubled her. The man was wanted for poachingâ€”the very thing she'd saved her new Skag friend from.<br/>Tsura rubbed her eyes once more, deciding that she'd assess the situation when it happened. She could be totally wrong, anyhow, and maybe the man was threatening her. He might've been about to hurt her. But... his face, the desperation... It was so vivid, yet...<br/>She shook the thoughts from her mind and looked down to Jove. The little Skag yawned a cute little puppy yawn, began walking in tight circles and lay down next to Tsura. He was pressed against her slightly, probably for warmth. Tsura ran her hand down the pup's body from the base of his neck to just above his tailbone. He seemed to enjoy it, nuzzling his face into her hand and making happy whining sounds. Tsura smiled at his puppy-like innocence.<br/>As Jove fell asleep, Tsura couldn't easily keep her mind off the events which had been shown to her in her vision. That guy... Who was he? Why did he seem to want help? Tsura didn't know if she wanted to find out the intentions of this man or why he was running, but she knew she would. It was inevitable, at least meeting him was. She had a choice to help him or not, and that was going to be the hard part... Save a criminal who stands for everything Tsura herself was against, or let him die and go against everything she believed in?