Present, Sanctuary

Lilith: So, what happened next, and how did you meet Athena?

Crimson: That comes later, after you destroy Atlas and Steele gets killed by the Destroyer. I'll get to it eventually, but let me continue.

6 years 8 months ago, Pandora

It was my first combat mission. Simple: take out the bandits that were threatening Old Haven. Should have been easy, but shit went sideways.

C O: CRIMSON, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON DOWN THERE!

I duck behind a crate to avoid the gunfire from the enemies.

Crimson: Sir, there were far more than expected, it's down to just me and a few others. Axton is among us, but he's been wounded.

C O: God damnit! You all better hold that position until reinforcements arrive!

I digistruct my Bowie into my hand and use it to parry a psycho's buzzaxe before nearly bisecting his head vertically with an overhead chop. Only stopping at the lower jaw

Crimson: Yes sir!

Lilith(present): I call bullshit. There's no way you split a man's skull in half with a knife.

Crimson(present): Ask Axton, he'd likely remember. It was also the day before he went AWOL.

I press a button on my shield and check its capacity on my Echo HUD.

Crimson: Shit, 50%. Everyone, provide covering fire!

A couple of soldiers look to me in confusion as I hop over the crate, knife in one hand, my Jakobs pistol in the other

As the hail of bullets starts going both ways, I shoot a marauder in the face causing his head to explode. Before he hits the ground, I'm leaping over the box he was behind and rushing the enemies. Ducking under the stock of a Hyperion assault rifle, I dig my knife into the nomad's right side before sprinting forwards, knife still in hand. A wet squelch noise happens as his intestines leave his torso.

Axton: Crimson! What the hell are you doing!?

While holding a psycho in a headlock, I put my fingers to my ear.

Crimson: I HAVE NO FUCKING CLUE!

I snap the psycho's neck and use him to block a shotgun blast from another marauder.

Crimson: Fuck off!

I shove the corpse in my hands at the marauder and I reload my pistol before ducking my head under an oncoming buzzaxe. I shove the gun under the bandit's chin and pull the trigger. Next thing you know he used to have a head. I pull a grenade off of my belt, not even checking what type it is, I Chuck it towards an incoming goliath.

Suddenly I get an Echo call from the Commandant

Steele: Crimson, what the hell is going on out there!?

Before I can respond, a sniper knocks me to the ground in one shot with a bullet to the leg, causing me to scream in pain. Holding my leg, I try to stop the bleeding. Thankfully, me and the hail of bullets were enough to push the bandits back far enough for my fellow Crimson Lancers to push to my position.

Axton is surprisingly the one to tell Commandant Steele about my act once she arrives with more Lancers. Her immediate response is to walk over to my hospital bed, and punch me across the face.

Steele: Soldier! Although your act of courage was a deciding factor in our victory, it was incredibly stupid of you to throw caution to the wind and run into oncoming fire.

I chuckle while nursing my gunshot wound to the leg.

Crimson: Well, caution was never really a thing back home.

Axton decides to chime in.

Axton: You do realize that you're still on Pandora, right

I glare at him, but Steele clears her throat before continuing.

Steele: Nevertheless, you deserve some kind of reward for your heroism. The Commanding Officers have decided to make you head of Technological Security after checking your level of education. A degree in Coding, mechanical engineering and chemical engineering is very impressive.

Crimson: Well, what can I say. Also, I've done to calculations and have found out a way to make you armories even more effective.

Commandant Steele raises her eyebrow in intrigue.

Steele: And that would be?

Pulling up a document on my ECHO device, I show her the calculations I've done.

Crimson: With it's high stopping power and accuracy, Jakobs makes the highest quality sniper rifles. Dahl makes great Assault rifles with it's non-existent recoil and burst fire when ADS. Torgue makes the best shotguns, due to the fact that at its best distance, bullet speed doesn't matter. The large magazines of the Bandit company make its rocket launchers an asset that can't be ignored. Vladof is very good for SMGs due to the fact that they fire faster as you hold the trigger. For Hyperion, I would have to say that their pistols are quite good. The only manufacturer that in my opinion is average around the board is Tediore, since it explodes when you throw it and a new one is digistructed into your hands.

Commandant Steele nods as she jots down a brief summary of what I said.

Steele: Oh, and four Vault hunters have arrived on the planet. Those drones you recommended we send out managed to snap a few pictures of them. The leader of the group used to be an Atlas soldier.

She hands me some pictures of the Vault Hunters and I look at them.

Lilith(present): You were spying on us from the beginning? I should liquify you right now!

Athena(present): As interesting as that would be, I don't want to be in contact with his scalding remains

Crimson(present): Look, I didn't want to kill anyone. I tried to get Steele to let you do your thing, but she didn't listen.

Crimson: With all due respect Commandant, I know what you plan to do. I think we should let them go for this Vault. There are others on the planet which we can go for while they take that one.

Steele: Crimson I could shoot you for suggesting we give up on this Vault. We've made so much progress in these last few months, and you want to throw it all away!?

I visibly cringe at her tone, before steeling my nerves.

Crimson: Ma'am, I believe that they have help from someone.