Gears of War: Mountain Shadows

== Synopsis ==
This story centers around the squad Alpha Four. The story takes place 1 month after the events of Gears of War 2. This gear team is made up of four COG veterans that all have been fighting for a long time, and have to make the hardest decision of their military career. What will their decision be? Come along on their journey and find out for your self. From the city of Jacinto to the great North Mountains of Sera, these COG veterans continue to fight, so that others may live.
== Act I: Frozen Hell ==
Captains Diary Part 1:"What Are You Fighting For?"
That question is hard to ask, let alone answer. The truth is, at times I really don't know. The other day my best friend Vince Milson asked me, exactly what I was fighting for, and that was the only truthful answer I could give him. "I really don't know anymore." Why you may ask? Because I'm different, I'm not like the other Gears. All of them have something truly important in their hearts that they are fighting for. Family, freedom, revenge, etc. None of those things matter to me, at least not anymore. 
Personally I think fighting for revenge is...well stupid, it can eat a man up from the center of his very soul, and eventually drive anyone insane. Freedom, that's a word hardly anyone even ever speaks of anymore. I'm not entirely sure there ever was such a thing. We all are in subjection to something. Whether it's the Coalition's laws and regulations, or the bottom of a grubs boot. We all answer to someone, or something besides ourselves. Last but not least, family. I never had one, never even new what happened to my parents, and for other reasons I never got married either. I felt alone my whole god forsaken life....until I joined the COG.
It was then I finally felt like I truly belonged somewhere, like I wasn't totally alone anymore. In a way the COG is my family, and i love all of them, especially my squad mates. So I guess that is what matters to me, that's what I'm fighting for. I'm fighting to make sure that the only family I've ever known stays safe, so that the people they're fighting for have someone to hold on to, when this war is finally over.'' Excerpt from the diary of Captain Harold James.
== Chapter 1: Making The Jump==
"I never liked these god damned Ravens. Why? Because when the shit hits the fan there isn't anything you can do about it, but hold on, and hope you don't fuckin die!" Private David Gouse, Stating his opinion on why Ravens are so dangerous. 
Captain Harold James was cold.....and nervous. 
The cold he could easily explain. He was flying in a King Raven at low altitude, approaching a place on Sera known as Naalvar, one of the coldest areas on the planet. 
The fact that he was nervous worried him though. Why were his nerves troubling him so much? He and his team were only servicing one of the few COG medical facilities left on the planet. It was nothing that should be of concern to The Locust Horde. Besides The Locust had never been seen this far north, most people said the creatures couldn't survive extreme cold. 
James knew better though.
He had seen them in action before. It had been two years ago when he and his squad had been assigned with the task of delivering supplies to Gears, held up in the mountainous region of Illimn. They had been passing through a COG checkpoint when the ground suddenly erupted with the bastards, and shots suddenly began to ring out. The pale genocidal monsters appeared seemingly out of nowhere, screaming unintelligible battle cries. It was then James realized that all of the rumors and stories were untrue, and now he was starting to realize the reason his nerves had been bothering him. It had been incredibly cold that day, and the night before then there had been a blizzard like nobody on Sera had ever seen.