Gears of War:Bloodbath

This is CheesyPuffs99's first attempt at a Gears of War story. Criticism is welcome.

Summary
Gears of War: Bloodbath is by CheesyPuffs99. This story focuses on the events of Gears of War 2, but it is told from the perspective of a previously unheard Carmine brother, Dale, who had joined the C.O.G with Benjamin Carmine. He is part of Sigma Squad during the Assault on Landown.

This story contains gore, violence, strong language and most things you'd come to expect from the Fanfiction of a violent series.

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

Prologue
I walked down the dirty streets, kicking trash and soda cans around. I bit my lip, stopping for a few seconds. I glanced at my teammates over to the east, which were climbing into buildings and reaching into windows. I didn’t know many members of my squad – they all wore identical C.O.G helmets, but I was only told that one member was named Rick, or something. Being a newbie was pretty hard, and it was even more so when I was put randomly into Alpha-Ten as soon as I joined the C.O.G.

I had three brothers: Anthony, Benjamin and Clay Carmine. We were all unique in our own special ways, I guess, but we were never hailed as heroes. We were just average brothers. Anthony was killed in a way which I still desire to be aware of – the C.O.G hasn’t told me a thing. Benjamin is my little brother – he was a little nervous at joining the C.O.G (admittedly, I was too) and not necessarily the greatest soldier when it comes to reloading, but he’s an enthusiastic lad nonetheless, making a fresh change from all of the gruff, emotionless soldiers I was usually teamed up with. Clay – well, I don’t know about him. He joined the C.O.G before Anthony and I haven’t heard of him since, though I know he’s still alive. He’s the toughest of all four of us; if anyone could survive tons of Locust ambushes, it’d be him.

The sky was predominantly a soothing cream colour, endless clouds floating here and there. The dying sun cast a bright orange spell on the streets, lighting the corpses strewn about everywhere. I had only just realised the bodies – obviously an intense bloodbath had occurred at this exact location some time ago. I let out a sigh as I cautiously examined the reptilian-like face of a Locust Grenadier, scrutinizing the brutal splodges of arterial liquid which indicated where it had taken several shots. Shells remained shining on the solid, stone-covered pavements. I bit my lip again before continuing my stroll down the deserted streets for a few seconds prior to turning an immediate right. I climbed over the window of a building and sighed, examining the area for any possible ammunition or discarded supplies, just to be on the safe side. There was a mirror leaning against a brick wall, accompanied by cobwebs and splatters of blood. I turned to and peered into it.

Staring back at me was a quite tall man with neat, spiky black hair. The man had the normal C.O.G uniform, which shone a bright azure, illuminated by the evening sun’s solar rays, however, he despised the C.O.G’s default helmets available for him to wear – they simply restricted his vision; not a very handy thing during Locust encounters. The man’s face was smooth, and he wore baggy trousers, or pants; whichever way you wanted to call them.

I climbed back out of the window again and continued my walk down the streets, letting out a deep sigh.

Alpha-Ten and I were tasked with locating a squad which had mysteriously gone missing, Gamma-Eight. Their last chat with Control had been at this very street in Ephyra. I wasn’t sure what one of my squad members was doing; he was going around and pulling strange necklaces from all the human bodies he could find. I had one, but I knew that they were sent to the families of those that wore them after they died. Perhaps the owners of the necklaces were members of Gamma-Eight?

I could barely hear my teammates talk to each other as I progressed further into the deserted streets, occasionally picking up Lancer clips from the remains of the Locust grubs.

“You bastards have nice corpses,” I smiled as I glanced at Locust bodies flung everywhere. I would commit no other act than grinning at the Locust corpses, but I couldn’t help but grimace over the remains of Gears splattered everywhere. Was this war ever going to stop…?

A sickening clang spontaneously resonated through the air. As it echoed through my ears, I crouched down low, pointing my Lancer up to the sky. I bit my lip again, cautiously examining the streets about me for enemy movement, if any. Maybe a stray dog had caused the noise, but I was to expect the unexpected. From the corner of my eye, I could see my teammates sprinting towards me. I froze as they approached, two of them forcing fresh ammo clips into their Lancers.

“Hey rook,” a soldier said to me, tapping my shoulder with his hand. I could hear him breathing heavily through his cerulean helmet. “We got some grubs comin’ down this way, back from where we came. You’d better reload.” He strode off, holding a finger to his ear. “Control, this is Alpha-Ten, do you read?”

I gulped and fixed my eyes on my Lancer. The Gear didn’t have to wait long before a soothing voice responded to him. “I read you, Alpha.”

The soldier hesitated for a moment, tightening the grip on his Gnasher Shotgun. “It seems that a huge battle or something took place here.”

“Copy that, the voice replied. “Any news on Gamma-Eight?”

He glanced at the many necklaces around his neck which he had collected. “Well, if I’m right…they were all killed.”

“Oh…I’m sorry to hear that,” the woman speaking depressingly sighed. “King Ravens en route to your position. Control out.”

The soldier sighed. “If we’re lucky, the Ravens should pick us up before the Locust try to make some sushi outta us.”

I nodded at him; if there were Locust in the area, I’d be ready for them, but it’d be a hell of a lot better if we were whisked away before any of us could get caught in a firefight.

Unfortunately, we weren’t so lucky.

I noticed my squadmates walking around before a low-pitched bellow resonated through the streets. I perked my head upright almost immediately, and cursed loudly after what I saw.

A large group of Locust were charging down the streets from where we had come, raising their firearms high in the air and chanting fearlessly.

“Ah, shit!” I heard one of my squadmates cry.

“Locust!” screamed another. They ran towards several abandoned cars scattered around the streets, taking cover behind them. I followed one Gear to a scarlet car tipped on its side, embedded with dust and cobwebs.

A wave of bullets flew over my head as I took cover, covering my ears as the Locust bawled with confidence. The Gear next to me trembled with fear, holding his helmet in his hand. I peeked out of cover to see the Locust also taking cover behind cars and building remains ahead of us. Further away behind them, I could see a colossal hole in the ground with grubs pouring out of it.

“There’s too many of them!” the soldier next to me replied as he took several bullets to his leg. I could tell he was frustrated, pulling the trigger of his Lancer like there was no tomorrow.

Deciding to give the Locust a piece of my mind, I stayed out of cover and shells poured out from my Lancer Assault Rifle as I pulled the trigger. I noticed a Drone leap over the block which he had previously taken cover at; he was soon enveloped in our bullets, leaping to the ground after clutching his chest and spilling blood from his mouth.

“One dead grub!” I grinned as I reloaded my weapon. As soon as my Lancer was ready, I fed several more Drones attempting to kill my allies with deadly bullets. Many fell as they unwittingly got in the way of my Lancer’s wave of destructive shells. I noticed one Grenadier clutch his leg as he endeavoured to crawl away from the battle not too far away. “Hey, where are you going?”

I withdrew a Boltok from my shin and fired at his head, which pinged clean off. Crimson liquid gushed over his body.

“Nighty night!” I smiled at my excellent kill. Or at least, I thought it was excellent. I returned the Boltok and grabbed my Lancer again.

A Gear taking cover behind a dark emerald car to my left stood out of cover, swinging a spiky grenade and aiming to throw it over to the enemies. He lobbed it a few metres and alerted us of the situation. “FRAG OUT!”

A colossal explosion occurred, and as I leant out of cover, I could see Locust guts soar high into the air as a result of being in the deadly frag’s blast radius prior. The sound of lead pinging still reached my ears, and I just wanted the Locust to die already.

I placed my Lancer atop the tipper over car, keeping my head low. I pulled the trigger, blind firing at the opposing Locust. I held my head in cover completely so as to prevent possible headshots from snipers, if any. Better to be safe than sorry.

I felt something odd touch my shoe and soon discovered that it was a smoke grenade. I gasped, rolling backwards. The force of the grenade pushed me a few feet away, and I struggled to rise. It seemed that the Locust were winning, for when most of the Drones were killed; more simply rose from the Emergence Hole.

I heard an arrow strike somewhere near me, followed by an explosion. I quickly comprehended the fact that a Theron Guard had fired it. More of the scarlet-armoured guards rose from the Emergence Hole and took cover, some blind firing their hazardous Torque Bow arrows.

“Therons!” the Gear near me shouted as I took cover at the same car again. Suddenly, a horrific stab quickly thundered through my ear. “NO!”

I swerved to the man standing next to me and gasped at the sight. A Torque Bow arrow had pierced his stomach, and within a millisecond he simply blew to bits. The explosion flung his insides at me, and I was soon engulfed with his body parts. I let out a groan of discomfort, wiping organs off of me as the bottom of the man’s body fell onto its knees. I felt sorry for the Gear, but I didn’t want to be next.

After what seemed like an eternity, I began to hear a recognisable humming noise. I peered up into the evening sky and saw two helicopters flying above, steadily coming down to pick us up. I grinned, praying that the Locust wouldn’t kill me before I got into a King Raven; after all, I had got this far.

It wasn’t long before the King Ravens had landed. As I ran towards one, a helmeted Gear lobbed a smoke grenade several feet forwards. Smoke soon enveloped the area, preventing Locust from getting clear shots at us whilst we fled. I approached the helicopter and another man with a helmet held his hand out to me. I grabbed it and was immediately pulled in; I collapsed onto the floor of the King Raven, absolutely exhausted. I could hear others climb in with me, but it was only until I got up when I realised two of my other squadmates had climbed into the other Raven.

We were the first to take off, hovering in the air for a few seconds before zooming steadily off into the distance. The smoke had cleared and Locust grubs were opening fire at the aerial machines, though they weren’t affected much. Soon the Locust and the street of Ephyra were nothing but a speck, and I sighed, clutching my aching right arm. A sigh of relief escaped from my mouth and I tipped my head back against an unoccupied seat.

Journey to Landown
''“Humans are no strangers to war. After all, we’ve been fighting for as long as we can remember. War is all we know.”''

Centaurs, Derricks and thousands of Gears progressed through the fields below. The noise of the King Raven’s whirring had become trapped in my ears, and I tapped my leg continuously, tipping my head back against the wall and listening to the speech.

''“In the past, we fought for Imulsion. We fought for country. We fought for freedom. But all that changed after E-Day. For 15 years, we’ve been fighting for our very survival against inhuman, genocidal monsters. But it is a fight we cannot continue.”''

Sitting next to me in the Raven was a soldier rocking side to side. His helmet glowed as the bright orb of gas known as the sun endeavoured to stroke him with blinding rays. Opposite me was a man sighing and folding his arms. He was blonde, and I could tell not very enthusiastic. Next to him chuckled a black Gear nudging him.

“Why can’t we just drill down here into the hollows?” I croaked. I didn’t expect anybody to answer.

The blonde sighed. “Because Landown is the perfect spot to drill into the hollows, and Jacinto is the one place they can’t dig through. Yet.”

I felt guilty of asking the question; he held his head in his hand. The C.O.G was issuing a full-attack on the Locust Horde, and the main firefight was to be held at Landown. The objective was to drill into the hollows and destroy the Locust and their breeding grounds. I knew it would be very dangerous and I probably wouldn’t survive – I found it hard enough as it was to survive on the surface; going underground would be a whole new thing.

''“Humanity faces extinction, unless we end this war now. We had hoped the Lightmass bombing would decimate the Locust Horde, but they survived…and have returned stronger than ever. They’ve brought with them a force that can sink entire cities. Soon we’ll have nothing left to defend, and that means we have only one option…attack.”''

The speech was coming through a radio or something from someplace inside the King Raven at a considerably high volume. I knew it was the Chairman; I had heard his voice before, but it was a very rare occurrence to meet him in person.

Indeed, the Locust did have a force which could sink cities; Montevado and Tollen literally fell into the ground, sinking in a short period of time. I was near Montevado when it sank, and I didn’t see anything – it just truly, honestly disappeared beneath the ground. I saw something that I was quite sure about – something massive was moving as I watched many buildings collapse. King Ravens and other vehicles were trying to evacuate everyone, including me, but I comprehended the fact that hundreds had sunk along with the city. Tollen sank soon after, but I don’t know what happened then, if that time was any different.

''“Gears, what I ask of you now is not an easy thing, but it is necessary. If we are to survive…if we are to live long enough to see the seasons pass, our children grow, and experience a time of peace that we have never known…we must now take this fight to the Locust.”''

I perked my head upwards in response to the Gear sitting next to me cheering with pride.

''“We will go to where they live and where they breed…and we will destroy them! This is the day we take the battle to the heart of the enemy!”''

The black Gear also began cheering, clapping his hands. “Fuck yeah baby!” he cried with enthusiasm, and I let out a cheer also.

''“This is the day that we correct the course of human history! This is the day we ensure our survival as a species! Soldiers of the COG, my fellow Gears, go forth and bring back the hope of humanity!”''

Everybody was cheering and screaming; I could even hear the Gears in the fields below yell with excitement. I joined them; grinning as the soldier next to my left wrapped an arm around me. We were taking the fight to the Locust and we were going to win!

Our King Raven slowly began to descend to the fields. I saw a huge Derrick and a man with a striking black cowboy-hat and a wrinkly face. He was dressed like a normal Gear, and he held his thumb up at us.

The Raven landed and I jumped out onto the soft, dew-coated grass after a soldier. The two other men leaped out behind me, and the Gear with the helmet engaged in a conversation with the cowboy-like soldier.

“Alright ladies, m’names Henny,” he called to us. “You’ll be riding on this sweet Rig D26, Marilyn. Please enjoy the ride!”

Henny strode over to the Derrick and climbed up the ladder steadily. The Gear with the helmet held his hand out, displaying a desire to shake mine. As the blonde man climbed into the Rig, shortly followed by the black Gear, I shook his hand.

“The name’s Tanner, mate!” he said in a young voice.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Dale. Dale Carmine.”

Tanner climbed into the Derrick and I followed him. The vehicle was quite large; big enough to hold many Gears. I noticed the blonde strolling around and glancing at his Lancer whilst the other soldier was chuckling. There was a C.O.G Chain Gun mounted to the north.

The Derrick started moving, and a sigh escaped my mouth. I walked over to Tanner, whom was on his knees to the right.

“Hey Dale, how ya feeling?” his voice was very soft and gentle. I took a knee beside him, scratching my neat, dusky-black hair.

“Alright, I guess,” I shrugged. “Man, this is going to be hell.”

“Yeah…this is a really big thing, just storming the hollows. I doubt many have actually gone in there and reached the surface again. Who knows what kind of Locust are down there? Still, it’s our only option. We have to attack and end this war. I’m with the Chairman all the way.”

I nodded, beads of sweat breaking down my brow. “Who are those guys?” I inquired, raising an eyebrow and pointing to the other two Gears.

“Ah, those are just Baird and Cole. Damon Baird, Augustus Cole, to be exact. Cole’s the black Gear – he’s never boring, quite an enthusiastic dude – and he’s the complete opposite of Baird, the blonde man. He’s not that fun, but he’s smart enough to know how to survive. Those two were part of Delta Squad during the Lightmass bombing, and they’re known to actually have been greatly involved in its detonation.”

I nodded again, standing upright. I had heard of Augustus Cole before and his famous Thrashball matches. I slowly walked over to the north, my head beginning to throb. My eyes became slightly sore, and my lungs felt heavy. I gently fell onto my knees again, clutching my head in my hands. I shut my eyes for a moment, and when I opened them, I noticed that I wasn’t on the Derrick anymore.

''My surroundings were dark, with rain pouring down onto me and lightning booming up above. I could make out several kids gathering near a large building ahead of me. It seemed that one child was being beaten up by the other kids. They were feeding the poor boy punches and kicks and blood splattered onto the ground. He tried to shield himself from the assault with his arms, but it was no use. He took a kick to the stomach and howled in pain. After a few minutes had passed by, all of the kids had fled the scene, abandoning the boy and leaving him badly injured. I could only watch in horror as he endeavoured to crawl away to safety.

''Then another boy appeared, looking less likely to damage the kid even more. He was wearing a strange bandana around his head and offered the kid crawling on the earth a hand. He helped the boy up, and from my distance it seemed like they were both smiling.

''“Thanks for helping me,” the injured lad said.

''“No problem,” the boy with the bandana replied. He held out a hand again, this time expecting a shake. “The name’s Marcus. Marcus Fenix.”

''The boy injured prior shook his hand and they both giggled.

''“My name is Dale Carmine. Pleased to meet you!”

A flash of light greeted my eyes, and a voice calling my name did the same to my ears. I realised that I was kneeling down on the Rig with Tanner kneeling beside me. It was soon obvious that he was the person who had called and snapped me out of my flashback trance. “Are you okay?”

I hesitated before replying, almost choking on my own saliva. “Yeah, I-I’m good.”

Still kneeling on the Rig, I swerved my head to the left, noticing what seemed like a massive, old city on top of a hill far, far away in the distance. Nonetheless, it was able to be seen. Through the corner of my eye I noticed Tanner rise from the ground. “Well, there it is,” he sighed. “That’s Landown.”

I gulped, hoping that I was not looking at the city in which I would die. Chances are I would die down in the hollows rather than up here, but getting the Grindlifts (the machines we were using to drill into the hollows) to Landown would be hell too. The Grindlifts would be taken out of our Rig and we’d utilize them to get underground.

Thunderclouds spontaneously rolled in, engulfing the skies with bolts of lightning flowing through them. I felt rain patter hard onto my smooth face as I stared blankly at the heavens above. The thunderclouds were blocking the sun’s light from reaching us, and so I welcomed darkness.

“Shit man,” Cole cursed. “Fuck you rain!” he held his middle finger up to the sky. I knew the rain would heavily affect the plans of proceeding to Landown.

However, soon there wasn’t just rain.

Something pounded against me, and I knew it wasn’t rain. I felt hail strike my body, and I endeavoured to shield my injured body parts with an arm.

“Goddamnit!” Tanner cried. “Razorhail!”

As soon as he had spoken, the hail started to become a lot harder. A few hail strikes to my right arm was all it took for me to wince in pain. I had heard of razorhail before but never experienced it.

The hail became pouring down and all of us were attempting to shield ourselves with our arms.

“Hang on, boys!” Henny called from somewhere. I couldn’t see anything, but I felt a huge wave of something like mud wash over me. Dirt and slime entered my mouth, and that’s when I collapsed.

My eyes shot open and my lungs demanded air almost immediately. I conducted a series of heavy breathing though I soon calmed down. I slowly rose from the floor, pressing my hands to get up. I froze as I noticed Henny sitting down in front of me.

“God,” I sighed. “I thought that hail was going to kill me.”

“Nah,” he shook his head. “We Rig drivers got alotta experience ‘n we’re used to that bullshit. I’ve never had any ‘o mah passengers die, and I’m not particularly fond of letting this ever happen in the future.”

Around the Rig were the unconscious bodies of my comrades. Cole was slumped near the Chain Gun, snoring very loudly. Tanner and Baird were snoozing beside each other – no, not in the dirty way if you were thinking. It seemed that Henny had driven the Rig into some sort of huge cave tunnel, and I couldn't see the ceiling of it. There was a massive lake near the Rig, and the razorhail was still storming outside several metres away from us near the entrance.

“So, what do we do now? Just…wait here?”

Henny nodded. “If we’d have stayed out there any longer, we’d still be lying out there, torn to pieces by that razorhail. Damn, I wonder if any of the other Rigs got outta that storm. I hope they all did, ‘cause they’d be bacon sandwiches already. Why razorhail today, when this whole fucking assault only started a few hours ago? I bet no Gears’ve reached Landown yet.”

A sudden chill drove down my spine, forcing me upright. I walked around for a minute, my eyes locked on Baird slowly moving and waking up. He groaned, rubbing his eyes and soon stood up tall. He moaned again as he stretched his arms. He was covered in his own blood, and there were scratches and marks across his face. “What in God’s name happened?”

“Razorhail,” I replied. “Henny drove us into this tunnel before any of us could be killed. I’m surprised he could see where he was going; I sure as hell couldn’t.”

I heard Henny chuckle behind me. I turned to him, watching him gulp water down his throat like a pig from a clear plastic bottle.

“We’ve just gotta wait,” he shrugged. “That ‘ail’s been stormin’ down for ‘bout a few hours now. I ain’t never seen razorhail that’s been comin’ down fer this long.”

I sighed, slowly falling to the ground and resting my head on the floor. An event of my past, one that I had endeavoured to forget, suddenly resurfaced at that point.

''There was a man walking with a younger, slightly shorter young female adult. They were both around twenty years of age and occasionally kissed each other as they walked across the park. They walked around swings, benches, slides, and more, the boiling sun shining gloriously on them as if accepting the couple and warming them greatly. The girl was very beautiful, and her blonde hair was long and slim. The man had gelled-up, neat black hair, and his smile was glistening with amazement. Around them were fields and dog owners chasing their pets as they dashed around playfully.''

''It was a time of peace on Sera then. If only it were the same now…''

''At least, the scene was peaceful until a small quake shocked through the ground. The male stumbled a little, and shook his head, shrugging off the small shake of the earth. However, the quakes became more continuous, and spontaneously, behind him, a loud crumbling noise was heard. He turned around and gasped at what he saw.''

''Many strange, bipedal creatures were rising from a colossal hole in the field of the park. They were bellowing and seemed to withdraw some kind of guns from their backs, opening fire on everyone in sight. The female beside him screamed with terror and broke into a sprint to flee the scene. The man, not wanting her to get into trouble, chased after her.''

''The attackers charged through the streets of the city, shooting people down and kicking them. The man noticed a boy fall to the floor, helpless and injured. He bit his lip, hesitating for a few seconds before spinning his head around in all possible directions. No sign of his girlfriend. He cursed loudly and helped the child up before the kid slowly gained the energy to join the wave of fleeing citizens.''

The man joined the child in running away from the scene, and the unfortunate people at the end of the group of citizens were left behind and the attackers soon caught up to them to finish them off.

It was a while before the razorhail went. Henny had started up the engine as soon as he noticed that the weather became sunny again.

“'Bout fucking time the weather turned better,” Baird remarked as Henny drove the Rig out of the tunnel and into the daylight. The huge roadway leading to Landown was littered with corpses and I noticed remains of a Derrick’s chassis were strewn across it.

By the time we had driven out of the tunnel, Cole and Tanner had awoken. They too were pissed off by the razorhail prior; they wanted to get down to Landown and kill some freaking grubs, and they possibly would be doing so by now were it not for the storm.

I glanced over at the body and machinery parts flung carelessly here and there along the roadway. “Damn,” I sighed. “That razorhail is nasty.”

The crunching of human bones and the squelching of runny mud resonated from beneath the tyres of the Rig. We were the only humans left travelling to Jacinto. From the looks of all the Rig remains scattered about the slimy ground, it seemed that a lot of Gears hadn’t even got to Landown.

Retribution
Our Rig kept pushing down the roadway. We were all uncertain as to how long it would take to get to Landown, but it was obvious we were pretty far away from our destination.

All seemed peaceful until we heard some rumbling whilst still on the road to Landown. Our Rig shook a little, slowing it down. Baird cursed and looked everywhere for the source of the noise. It was probably some Locust attempting to get to the surface in order to see if there were any razorhail survivors, or just to kill some groundwalkers for the fun of it.

At that point we couldn’t see any Locust, though we knew some were most likely in the area. After all, we hadn’t encountered any at all yet, and they would definitely dispatch huge amounts to destroy the Rigs heading to Landown.

Loud thudding noises reached my ears and I instantly realised that there definitely was some enemy activity up on the surface in addition to something massive nearby. Then, out of the corner of my eye, towards a huge field to the right, I saw a colossal creature stomping towards us.

“We’ve got a Brumak!” Tanner cried. He darted towards the Chain Gun Turret and manned it, chuckling. The Brumak was a bipedal, humanoid monster with huge rockets and Troikas attached to its arms. It was at least the size of a house.

The Brumak let out a deafening roar, and only then did we realise Locust charging underneath it towards us.

“Hostiles!” I yelped as I leapt for cover. There wasn’t much cover up on the Rig apart from several blocks near the edges. I peeked out of my block and readied an Ink Grenade from my pocket. I loved Ink Grenades, mainly because I wanted to watch the Locust suffer and choke inside a huge, poisonous cloud – I didn’t want their deaths to be quick, so the Frag was a big no for me.

I blind-hurled the Ink into the mass and heard Drones bellowing after noticing my grenade. A toxic cloud engulfed them and most towards the centre collapsed on the ground almost instantly with no chance of breathing in Sera’s oxygen ever again. The Brumak charged through the cloud, ululating as it endeavoured to dart towards us and knock our Rig over. Fat chance of that happening.

Tanner screamed, firing out from the Chain Gun turret. He sprayed a blanket of lead over the humanoid, slightly emerald-coloured beast, causing it to hunch in pain. The Brumak, however, activated its mammoth rocket launchers, propelling a multitude of hazardous missiles at us. Marilyn rocked back and forth in response to the firepower.

“Ah shit, that Brumak’s molesting us!” Henny remarked from wherever he was. Tanner continued to blast away flesh from the Brumak, aiming mostly for its limbs. Opal flames varying from small to large appeared, eating away at our Rig.

“He won’t be for long!” Tanner replied. He grunted as the Chain Gun overheated, a screeching noise alerting him of this.

“Hit ‘em hard, Sigma!” Baird roared. There were Drones, Snipers and Grenadiers pouring out from a large emergence hole behind the Brumak. Said creature was wheezing due to its massive wounds, waves of scarlet liquid pouring out from its stomach and arms. “Keep at it, Tanner!”

I yelled with joy as the Brumak steadily fell onto the ground forwards, head-first. It collapsed after one last groan, its elbows and legs slamming onto the field with an ear-splitting SLAM.

Though the main threat was down, we weren’t out of the woods yet. An invisible, warm snake slid down my neck, and I swerved around behind me to find that there were more of the crispy flames than before. They were burning out of control.

“Marilyn ain’t goin’ anywhere wi’dose bigass flames!” Henny stormed. “Everyone, get your asses off her while I getridda them!”

I sighed with disbelief as I darted over to the milky white ladder. Cole very enthusiastically grabbed a bar of the ladder and leapt right off into the blood-coated grass below. Mud sprayed over him as he rose and made his way over to take cover at the remains of an Assault Derrick. Baird followed him slowly, cursing under his breath. I was the last to get off Marilyn and sprinted over to take cover next to Tanner.

More Locust continued to leap out from the Emergence Hole. Cole, taking cover next to Baird to the left, pumped bullets into a Drone’s chest with his Lancer.

“WHOO YEAH BABY, YOU DIRTY ASS BITCHES ARE GOING DOWN!” he shouted as Baird took out a Drone from afar with his Hammerburst.

Deciding it was time to kill some grubs of my own, I blind-fired a round from my Lancer, hoping to bombard any of the enemies.

“Wretches!” Tanner warned us. I peeked out of cover to see what Wretches were, and I didn’t like what I saw.

The Wretches were like monkey-dog-things. There were a large amount of them and they crawled along the ground very quickly, thunderous screams emerging from their dirty mouths. Charging towards us, they dribbled with hunger.

One quick Wretch had found its way to flank me from behind – I didn’t know how it had gotten there. Just as it neared me, a heartbeat later it was a fresh pile of guts lying on the ground. I look at Tanner next to me, steam emerging from his equipped Gnasher Shotgun.

“Seal that e-hole!” I yelled to Baird, whom had just finished smacking a Wretch until it collapsed with his own Gnasher.

“You do it, dipshit! Can’t you see I’m busy?” he replied.

“Ah, go to hell, Inks can’t seal ‘em off!”

I didn’t think he heard me; I expect him to shout back.

“Henny, are you done yet, man?” I yelled over the Tac/Com.

“Almost! ‘Just gotta patch up these extra parts – wouldn’t wanna lose control and fall off a cliff, eh? Ha-ha!”

I watched the battle, ceasing fire. A Drone wailed its final wail after receiving multiple leg shots from Tanner’s Snub Pistol a few metres away. Blood oozed out from its wounds after it stopped dead.

A few minutes later and Henny yelled into our ears through the Tac/Com. “A’right ladies, Marilyn’s all ready to go!”

Immediately I broke for a sprint towards the ladder of the Rig. Grunting, I advanced up it until I hauled myself onto Marilyn. After Tanner, the final Gear, had climbed up, we steadily began to drive down the path to Landown again.

The Locust were still trying to fire at us, but we took no notice. Soon, we had turned a corner around a cliff, and no enemy activity was in sight.

“That was a little too close,” I remarked, sighing.