Tfghost92's Gears of War 3

=Overview=
==Plot==
It has been a year and a half since the sinking of Jacinto and the war against the Locust rages on. Yet, deep beneath the surface of Sera, the Lambent churns. It's path of destruction shows no end until the COG remnants discover a new way to destroy the Locust and the lambent in one swift move. Now the remaining Gears must enter the Hollow one final time and rid the world of the Locust Horde and the Lambent Infection once and for all. The war is ending, but the question is, will humanity be able to triumph?
==Characters==
There are twenty characters in this story. All others are not important or aren't recognized as a character.
===Main Chracters===
# Marcus Fenix - leader of Delta squad. 
# Dominic Santiago
# Augustus Cole
# Damon Baird
# Sam Burn
# Victor Hoffman
# Ben Wolf - squad leader of Sigma 2.
# Clay Carmine
# Anya Stroud
# Dizzy Wallin - Yes, Dizzy is back. 
===Supporting Characters===
# Jace Stratton
# Nicole Williams
# John Graves
# Edward Pitt
# Sven Brant
# Rick Hood
# Richard Niles
# Darren Carmine
# Bernadette Mataki
# Queen Myrrah
=Act 1: The Sacking=
Dont read it it sucks
==Chapter 3: High Priority==
Whoa what do you mean a bomb?" asked Jace.
Marcus looked confused. "I'm not sure Jace, but for the trouble we are going through to get it, it must be something important."
Maybe we're making another lightmass bomb?" said Baird slyly. Baird was always cocky. Sarcastic too.
"Maybe." said Marcus.
Jace was a younger soldier. He was a decent shot with a sniper rifle too. But what he had that most other gears didn't was compassion. He joined the war not just because of the Locusts killing, but because he cared deeply about the lives of people. Jace didn't like to see people dead. All he wanted to do was help others. Were it be a stranded cornered by locusts without a gun or a fellow gear wounded in the field, Jace was there to help. He sometimes pondered his thoughts after his battles. Why didn't he become a medic? There was no going back now; whats done is done, yet he always wondered how different his experience in helping could have been if he could stitch up wounds or give the right doses of medicine to wounded gears. He also had a particularly subtle interest in Sam. He wasn't sure whether it was a love interest or friendship, but he knew he couldn't let anything happen to her.
Marcus led the group to a gate. It seemed to lead nowhere as the road that went through it turned into a wall. He noticed a bit later that the wall was actually a warehouse gate.
"This is it." said Marcus, leading the group to the warehouse gate.
"I don't think we can open it." said Cole, trying to lift the gate up.
marcus pondered for a moment. He finally said "Jack, rip this door."
The stumbling robot suddenly appeared and shot its saw into the gate and tore open a hole big enough for the gears to walk through.
"I'll take point, Marcus." said Clay.
Marcus was suprised.
"This kid may have some balls after all." thought Marcus.
No other Carmine had ever called him Marcus. If they did, it always had Sergeant in front of his name. Marcus liked Clay. He followed orders and took the risks when he knew he should. He was very headstrong and true to the war. Very much unlike his brothers who were cocky. Marcus, in a small way, thought Anthony deserved to have been killed the way he did. Anthony was way too cocky. He didn't know how to multitask. Clay was the perfect soldier. He then thought about Ben and his last words to Marcus. "Tell my brothers, my ma...tell them I love them." He also remembered Ben's COG tag and the letter that was with it to Clay and what he promised to tell Clay had he ever seen him.
Clay ran in, jumped behind a wooden box, and held up his lancer.
"It's clear." yelled Clay.
Baird felt the same respect for Clay as Marcus did. He thought he was smarter than his brothers and knew how to handle a weapon. He disliked his eagerness however. It was true, Clay was eager to fight and that was his weakness.
"Carmine." said Marcus. He felt it was time to tell him. Yet, just as Clay replied "Yes, sir?" Marcus backed out and said "Nevermind." He couldn't tell him; not yet.
Cole progressed into the darkness of the warehouse. He felt a presence. Someone, or something, was hiding in the shadows. He saw something move in the shadows. It was big. Bigger than normal. Cole yelled "Contact!" and jumped backward just in time for a berserker to run out towards Delta.
"Berserker!" was all Clay got out of his mouth before the berserker rammed into him. Clay flew across the air and into the dark.
"Shit!Clay!" yelled Marcus. The berserker heard Marcus yell and ran after him, this time breaking a large hole through the warehouse's metal door.
"Cole distract the berserker with your shotgun! yelled Marcus. Marcus ran around behind a wall and yelled into his com "Hoffman! This is Marcus! We have a berserker in the warehouse but no hammer of dawn! Repeat, berserker with no hammer!"
"I hear you Marcus. Get your whole squad to hide somewhere! It will be a few minutes until the hammer is online!"
"Delta get into cover dut do not engage the berserker!" yelled Marcus.
"What the hell am I shooting at this bitch!? You come out here telling me to shoot and jump 3 feet to avoid gett crushed by the evil panda here and you tellin' me to hide!?"
"Aww shut the fuck up and hide Cole!"
Delta became very silent from then on. Anya and Marcus were hiding behind a wall near the gate while Baird and Cole crouched below a broken down fence. One was out of place however. The berserker had a very keen sense of smell. Jace was stuck. He was out in open ground close to the berserker. He was afraid to move and was frozen in place on the ground. Jace made his decision. He stood up very quickly and tagged a frag grenade onto the berserkers face. He tried to run around it but it was far too powerful for Jace. It yanked him by the arm and with all its might, slammed him into the concrete wall of the warehouse. He screamed in pain as the berserker picked him back up and threw him into the open field past Cole and Baird. There wasn't any response from Jace afterward.
"Hoffman." said Marcus very softly. "Carmine is MIA. Jace is a possible KIA."
"We read you Marcus. Hammer is online now. Get yourselves out of there. Hammer drop in 10 seconds."
"Hammers coming down! Run!" yelled Marcus out loud. Cole and Baird jumped out from behind the broken wall and ran away from the building with Marcus, Sam, and Anya. The hammer fell straight down on the berserker who muraculously survived the frag grenade and tore it apart.
Marcus stared back at the dead berserker. He couldn;t beleive two of his soldiers were already possible KIAs.
"Cole, Baird,Sam go check out Jace." said Marcus. "Anya, lets go find Clay."
Marcus and Anya made their way into the Warehouse to find Clay. As they entered, Marcus said "Anya, find a power switch for the lights."
"You got it, Marcus." said Anya and she ran off.
"Carmine!" yelled Marcus. There was a groaning going on in the corner. "Here sarge!" said Clay. Clay st pped out of the shadows, limping.
"You ok?" asked Marcus. He could tell he wasn't.
"My leg hurts." replied Clay, still limping. "It's not broken though. I should be fine."
Baird ran into the warehouse. "Uhh Marcus." said Baird. "You better get out here. Jace is hurt bad."
Marcus' heart sank. "No. not Jace." thought Marcus. The lights suddenly turned on and Anya ran out to say "I got em!"
Marcus looked worried. "Whats wrong?"
"Jace." replied Marcus.
==Chapter 4: Unexpected==
Marcus quickly ran out to see his longtime friend. Jace was broken. He couldn't move and what he could move hurt him too much.
"Damn Marcus. I ain't never seen one of those bitches do something to a Gear like this." said Cole, looking down at Jace's broken leg.
"Me either." said Marcus back.
"Aww hell. Hoffman. This is Marcus. Jace is severely wounded. Carmine is alright. I need immediate evac for Jace. Carmine should come too."
"This Hoffman. We'll try to send a Raven your way. Proceed with the mission. Over." said Hoffman through the comm.
"Thanks. Delta out." replied Marcus. Marcus shut off his comm and walked back to the others.
"Alright, Jace a Raven is inbound to medevac you. Carmine, I want you to go too."
"What I can fight sergeant Fenix! Let me at em!"
"Carmine, you'll get your share of Locusts when it comes time for it. Right now your hurt and I can't have a hurt soldier fighting." said Marcus. He then mumbled "no matter how much we need them."
Baird stood up from playing with the dirt and said "I'll go too."
"Fine." replied Marcus. Cole, Anya, Sam; I need you to stay here with me. We have to find the material we need and get it to Anvil Gate."
"You got it, Marcus." said Anya back to him.
Sam nodded in approval and Cole cocked his shotgun.
"Delta, this is KR-53 inbound for medevac over."
Marcus pressed his finger back to his comm and replied "We read you, KR. Two soldiers hurt, one seriously wounded."
As the King Raven landed, Baird and Cole helped Jace limp to it as Clay stumbled to get into the chair of the KR. Baird jumped up onto it after settling Jace and the KR lifted off the ground. It flew away and out of site. Baird said "Good hunting." and the line was canceled.
"Lets get in there, Delta." said Marcus.
Anvil Gate
Dom was quicker and stronger than he used to be. His rage was fueled by the Locust. He was very glad to be standing outside of Anvil Gate. If the locust came, he wanted to be the first person to shoot at them. Unfortunately, it was just Lambent. The Lambent, no matter how much they represent the Locust, to Dom they weren't the enemy he wanted. Lambent were hard to kill. A few bullets couldn't take them down. The second they knew they were about to die, they would charge at you as fast as they could and explode. Dom didn't like that. Instead of them charging at him, he wanted to charge at them. He knew he couldn't though. Pendulum Lancers would be better suited. The truth that Dom had never come to peace with was that he wanted to die. He was sick of the war. The only reasons he joined up were dead and gone.
A lambent stalk shot up from the ground as Hoffman yelled "Fall back!"
Dozens of COG soldiers took off back toward the wall but Dom wouldn't budge. He continued his fire on the Lambent behind a sandbag. As he reloaded he turned his head to see 3 Gears shooting at the Lambent with him.
"Don' worreh Dommy i got yer back!" yelled a familiar voice.
"Is that...Dizzy?" asked Dom.
"Spot on brother!" yelled Dizzy back.
Dom smiled, returned from cover, and fired another round at a Lambent.
Dizzy swung out from cover and jumped near Dom to stand next to him.
"I haven't seen you in a while." said Dom, menacingly. He pulled back out from cover and fired at a lambent.
"Worlds gone to hell and back. I wouldnta been suprised if aint seen you everagin." replied Dizzy, blindfiring.
A King Raven came out from above the trees and over the comm Clay yelled "Wooohoo!"The King Raven's side gun turret clunk its metal bullets out of the barrel and rained down on the Lambent soldiers.
Seconds later a voice over the comm yelled "Marcus sends his love, Dom!" It was Baird. The King Raven landed on a helo pad and as more lambent soldiers raced out from the stalks, the Raven lifted off again with only Baird on this time and fired the gun turret back on the Lambent. More Gears ran back out from the fort and began firing on the Lambent. AsDom pulled out of cover, a bullet wizzed past his face by centimeters. A small cut lay upon Dom's nose as he returned fire back to the lambent soldier.
Another familiar voice came over the comm and said "Hoffman, this is Marcus. We got the material. We're heading back to Anvil Gate. ETA 10 minutes."
"We read you Sergeant Fenix. We'll try to keep it cleared of hostile forces." replied Hoffman.
"Dizzy's here." said Dom.
"Dizzy?" asked Marcus. In the backround Cole yelled "Cowboy there? Gimme the phone!"
Marcus chuckled and said "We'll be there soon Dom. Delta 1 out."
"Hey Marcus." said Dom.
"Yea?"
"I think I got a new name for us."
"Oh yeah? Whats that."
Dom took a long pause and said "The Gears of War."
"Gears of War huh?"
"Yea. No government, no command centers, no order. Just Gears fighting a war."
"Uh huh. Ok Dom. Delta 1 out."
Marcus almost took it as a joke. Dom didn't. He was serious. He felt the Gears of War was true to its name. It had two meanings. The Gears, as a metaphor for soldiers, of war. Gears represented the backbone of the war, the matter that drives the fuel of war. It also meant the slang name of the soldiers: Gears.
This didn't matter to Dom right now though. He hadn't forgotten he was in mid-combat. As Dizzy jumped back up from cover. A lambent saw him a fired. A bullet penetrated DIzzy's front chest armor and sunk into his body. He quickly fell backward as more lambent poured out of the stalks.
Dom hadn't noticed Dizzy went down immediately. He was still shooting when he heard the cry. Dom jumped down on the ground and said "Where are you hit?"
"It'll be fine boy. Help me outa here!" replied Dizzy, holding his wound.
Dom looked around for another Gear. He saw one standing opposite their cover and yelled "You gear!" at him. The Gear urned around and ran across the cover line to them.
"Yes?"
"I need you to lay down cover fire while i escort him back into the fort." yelled back Dom.
"You got it!" said the Gear back. "My name is Ben Wolf by the way!"
Ben turned back around and followed Dom and Dizzy back through the gate, firing his lancer at the lambent that posed any threat to Dom and the injured Dizzy. As Ben came in, he was hit with a bullet in the arm. Ben tripped backward and crawled back in as a few other Gears came to help him up.
Ben stood back up. His hit was just a brush off his armor. He stood back up and proceeded toward Dom.
"You'll be fine, Dizzy." said Dom, as medics wheeled him away to a medical center.
Ben walked up to Dom and Dom said "Thank you, private."
Ben chuckled and replied "Sergeant Wolf."
Dom felt shudden by this and replied "My apologies sir."
"No problem at all, corporal." replied Ben. "What's your squad?"
Dom paused and then said "Delta 1. Do you have a squad?"
"I was recently promoted but I lead Sigma 2." said Sergeant Wolf.
Suddenly, on Dom's comm, he heard Marcus yell "We're approaching Anvil Gate as we speak! Open up the gates! Wait! DIGGER!"
"Marcus!" yelled Dom.
Outside Gears began to run from the front gate toward the west side of the fort. Ben revved his chainsaw and took off toward the front gate with other Gears. Among them was Baird and Carmine.
Dom ran along side Carmine. He hadn't met him yet, but he was sure he would get along with him for the time they had left. 
==Chapter 5: Anvil Gate==
The truck, now overturned, came to a complete stop. Marcus was face down near the truck. He could he a faint yelling. Anya was shouting for him.
"Marcus! Are you okay!? Marcus cmon get up!"
Marcus stood and turned to see Anya and Sam hiding behind the downed truck, shooting. He quickly turned to see a locust push a Gear on the ground and rip his arm off. He then proceeded to beat the Gear to death with it. Marcus couldn't believe his eyes. He pulled out his Pendulum lancer and charged at the Locust soldier, after shooting a few bullets at him, he stbbed the locust in the chest with the bayonet blade on the end and threw him back on the ground. He could heear Sam yelling "Digger! Get your heads down!"
A digger drove itself underground and directly at Sam. She leaped away just in time for it to explode. Marcus took this time of distraction to round the outside and hit cover opposite a locust. He jeaped over the front and gave a boot to the locust. As he picked him up, he quickly tagged a frag grtenade to it and kicked it at another locust. Both exploded.
Marcus, Cole, Anya and Sam all proceeded back toward Anvil Gate but this time, a Lambent stalk appeared and out jumped a changer.COle took the worst of the attack. He jumped behind a rock just as the changer breathed a full breath of fire. Marcus fired a series shots that hit the changer in its spine. The changfer exploded as Cole yelled "That's one for the highlight reel!"
Delta was now directly on the side of the base. As they got closer, another Lambent stalk shot up from the ground and out jumped a Lambent Berserker. With all its might, it tore a Gear in half and threw another one into the brush behind it.
It ran after Marcus who jumped out of the way just in time. He was nearly ran over.
"Baird, we got a Lambent Berserker. Bring the hammer online!"
Dom heard this and yelled "Marcus, get out of there!"
The berserker continued its charge at Marcus. He dodged again as Cole yelled "We're running out of time, Marcus!"
"The hammer is firing....NOW!" yelled Baird. The moment he said that, the sky lit up in a bright fiery red and a beam shot down from the sky.
"GOGOGO!" yelled Marcus. Delta quickly ran to the gate and jumped in just in time for the Dawn to hit the Lambent Berserker. There was a short moment of silence.
"Did we fry that *****?" asked Cole.
Suddenly, the gate began to be beaten in as the berserker screamed in rage and pain. It leaped over top of the gate and knocked Marcus and Cole backward. Hoffman yelled "Hammers fire away!" and dozens of Gears on top of the buildings and towers fired their hammer of dawns on the Lambent Berserker. It cooked and fell to the ground dead. Hoffman made a sigh of relief. Another Gear on guard in the front of the base yelled "Attack!" A sniper rang out through the base. The GEars dropped from the roof dead. Marcus turned to the front of the gate. The Gears could hear several growls and then a slam on the remains of the door. The door was being dented in. "Get behind cover!!" yelled Hoffman. The gate broke down and 4 Locust berserkers barged through the gate, grabbing Gears and tearing them in half. Down beams shot through the sky and killed 2 of the berserkers as more and more Locust soldiers charged through the gate.
"We goin up top!" yelled Cole. Cole took off up a flight of stairs while Baird and Sam trailed behind him. Dozens of GEars ran to the courtyard of the front gate and fired on the Locust drones. Marcus backed out of the courtyard and ran off to the medical center, intent on finding Jace.
Dom was vengeful. He was now fighting the Locust, not Lambent. As he drove his chainsaw into the drones and gunned them down, he wondered why the Locust sent such a large force to take Anvil Gate. Were the locust becoming desperate? Dawn beams continued to fire on the berserkers. 2 more were killed, leaving only 1 remaining. It spotted Dom this time. It charged at him with full speed and he charged it too. As he got closer to it, he slid under it, revving his chainsaw. He tried to saw through but it would barely leave a mark on it. The berserker slammed its fist downto crush Dom. He took this as a chnace to try his finishing move on the berserker. He pulled on its arm to lift himself up. As the berserker pulled her arm forward, Dom activated his frag grenade. When the berserker roared, Dom shoved the grenade into her mouth and kicked off her. The berserker tore at Dom until the detonation. The grenade exploded and the berserker dropped to the ground, headless and bloody. Dom stood back up, brushed himself off and continued his fire at the Locust.
Marcus finally reached the medical center. He entered to find dozens of bloody, wounded Gears laying on stretchers. Dizzy, completely patched up and running like normal, greeted Marcus. His wound must not have been very serious. Marcus was happy to see Dizzy. To know there were still people he could trust alive left in the COG remnants made him feel much better.
"Well I'll be damned. Marcus Fenix!" yelled Dizzy. Dizzy held out his hand and Marcus shook it and replied "Good to see ya too, Dizzy."
"Them grubs got some balls tryina take anvil. Must be somthirn' goin' on down in that ****hole they got under us."
Dizzy seemed tougher than the last time he and Marcus met. He now seemed more focused on the war than anything else.
"I'm looking for a friend in here. Jace Stratton. Have you seen him?" asked Marcus.
"Oh I don know no Jace, brother." said Dizzy.
"I'm gonna go loo-" Marcus was cut off. Over his comm a voice yelled "Everyone get on the Raven's! We're being overrun!"
"I here ya son! Fire the big boys up!" yelled Dizzy. "I'll see ya Marcus!"
Dizzy ran out from the hospital and left Marcus all alone.
Clay was a crackshot with the sniper rifle, like his brothers. He was picking off headshots without much hassle or interventions. Butchers proved to be a problem though. Unfortunately, he faced one. The butcher swung his sword forward and Clay. Clay was a quick thinker. He threw his sniper rifle at the butcher who in turn hit it just in time for Clay to follow up with a Plancer bayonet to the face of the butcher. Flamers were easy pickings for Clay. After the butcher, Clay hit the cover and jumped back up to fire his sniper. A Flamer stood directly over him and as the Flamer fired the flamethrower as Clay, he dodged it and shot the Flamer in it's immulsion tank. The Flamer exploded as he recieved his orders to retreat to the King Ravens. He and dozens of other Gears, including Baird, were the first on the first wave of King Ravens. They lifted off of Anvil Gate and flew away toward the carrier, Raven's Nest.
Cole, Dizzy, Sam and other Gears were on the second wave. It was the third and final wave of King Ravens that Marcus raced to get on. Dom was still shooting. He denied orders and continually stole ammo off of dead Gears.
Marcus searched through every room he could see. No sign of Jace at all. Marcus gave up. He couldn't find Jace and time was running out. The King Raven pilots gave a countdown to their final liftoff. He had 30 seconds. As he left the building, two Gears were helping Jace as he limped to the King Ravens. Marcus smiled. He couldn't afford to lose anymore of his allies. Marcus saw Dom still shooting and ran off to get him. Berserkers were beginning to charge into the fort again.
"Dom lets go!" yelled Marcus. He turned away and ran back into the King Raven. Dom finally stood back up and ran to the Raven. It lifted off just in time for a Berserker to charge directly under it.
"Son, when your given orders your expected to follow them!" yelled Hoffman.
Dom wouldn't say anything. He only stared down at the Raven's floor while another Gear rained death down on Locust forces with the gun turret on the KR. Moments later, the Raven flew over the canopy to see dozens of Brumaks marching toward the fort. On the ground in the jungle and shoreline were downed KRs.
Jace was wrapped in a cast on his leg and arm. He couldn't fire a weapon. Marcus knew that Jace was no longer useful. He was about to speak before Hoffman intervened.
"Fenix. It's time to tell you why you were retieving that meterial from the warehouse." said Hoffman. "Your not goin to believe what I'm about to tell you."
"Try your best." replied Marcus. 
=Act 2: Hollow World=
I apologize about how retardedly short and undescriptive Act 1 was. IF your still reading to this point, thanks for sticking with it. I know it sucked but I was so confused and lost at how I would start it. Act II is going to be HUGE. If you don't believe me just check out the first chapter below.
==Chapter 1: Adam Fenix' Legacy==
Hoffman began to speak. "Fenix, your father may be the key to defeating the Lambent once and for all."
Marcus was dumbstruck by this. His father's ideas to kill the Locust have failed once already and has cost too many lives. He was unsure of whether to trust his father's judgement anymore.
"What do you mean 'the key' to defeating the Lambent?"
Hoffman took a pause before saying "Your fathers discoveries before he died are more valuable than we had ever believed. Years ago, during the Pendulum Wars, your father had discovered a high amount of immulsion on one particular area. It was surrounded by immulsion fumes and we were never able to get to it from the outside. The hole is very large but we can't get to it from the surface. There are complex tunnels made by the Locust that lead straight into the hole."
"And why the hell is this hole so important?"
"Its important because something is at the bottom. Fenix, we know the Locust wasn't infected by immulsion by just bein around it. There is a high level of immulsion readings at the bottom. Fenix, we think its a sybiosis, a heart."
"A heart of the Lambent huh?" asked Marcus, slyly.
Dom couldn't beleive what he was hearing.
"A heart? You mean, we could kill the Lambent with one major hit?" asked Dom.
"Exactly." replied Hoffman. "But the hole leads close to the core of Sera. We cannot get down into it ourselves. So-"
Marcus was beginning to peice it together, the shifter, the titanium -- it all made sense now.
"So we are making a lightmass bomb?" asked Marcus.
"You got it, Fenix." replied Hoffman, shaking his head. "There's something else."
Hoffman pulled out two boxes from his pack container. He handed both Dom and Marcus one of the boxes.
"You two have shown the enemy countless times that we will not be taken lightly. You killed the worm, the General, Skorge, you have confronted the Locust Queen on her own turf, and you have sucessfully deployed a Lightmass Bomb into the Hallow. Fenix, your criminal record has already been pardoned. We need more soldiers like you these days. Congratulations, Sergeant Santiago and Leuitenant Fenix."
"Thank you, sir." replied Marcus. Marcus then shook Hoffman's hand. For the first time, Marcus felt like he was getting along with Hoffman. He saw a bright future ahead of him with his newfound agreeance and friendship with Hoffman.
"Thank you, sir." replied Dom.
"The lightmass bomb is near completion." said Hoffman. "Leuitenant Fenix, your squad and several others are going down into the Hallow again. Your going to clear out and reduce Locust numbers. We need to get that Lightmass Bomb into the Hallow. The only way to do that is to kill every one of them. The attack on Anvil Gate with such a large force shows us they are desperate and their numbers are dwindling. We are gonna make 'em fall some more."
Marcus had one other question after some thought. "Sir, how will this make any difference with the Locust?"
"Well Fenix, you wil be whiping a large number of them in the process of dropping the Lightmass Bomb. The Lightmass will blow through the Locust tunnels too."
The King Raven was now in sights of the Raven's Nest. Dom leaned out from the side to look to the back. He could see movement in the distance and could hear roaring and wailing. He knew the roar was from Brumaks but he had no idea what the wailing was. Suddenly he saw it. Reavers, dozens of them, were trailing the King Ravens. One shot its missle pod at a KingRaven and blew it down while other pursued other KRs. One Reaver flew straight up to the side of the KR. This Reaver was fitted with a gun turret. It fired the turret straight through the King Raven. Jace grabbed his Plancer. He was waiting for this chance for years. To finally make a difference in someones life as a Gear. Instead of brutality, his final moments were with compassion and bravery. Jace pushed himself off of the King Raven at the Reaver. Marcus was shocked to see what his old friend was doing.
"Jace no!"
Marcus reached out to pull Jace back in but missed him. His broken leg kept him from making a perfect jump. As he landed, he stood in front of the gun turret with his Plancer held in the air. Jace stabbed the Plancer through the Drones face as it revved the turret up and fired. Dozens of bullets emptied out into Jace's chest. The last thing he did before falling down backward into the ocean was tag a frag grenade onto the Reaver. The grenade blew and the Reaver dissipated in red mist, the remains falling into the ocean below with Jace.
"No." was the last thing Marcus could say before sitting back down with a melancholy expression. He put his hand over his face and stayed in position for the rest of the time they were in the Raven.
Dom had barely an emotion at all. He held his head down for a few seconds then back up. as he turned to Marcus he said "You'll get used to it." in a low care-free, and saddened voice. Dom was now Marcus' only true friend, beside Anya. Marcus swore from then on to never let anything happen to Dom. He would never forgive himself if something happened to him.
The Raven finally found the platform of the Nest and landed. Hoffman, Marcus, Dom marched below the platform down a flight of stairs.
"Hey, what the hell happened?" yelled Baird.
"Hoffman turned around and replied, "Come with us, Sergeant." He turned back around and continued to walk down the platform. Baird was left speechless. "Did he just say Sergeant?" Baird turned around as to make sure nobody was behind him. He stood in place for a second and quickly rushed down the stairs to Hoffman. Cole printed up to the top of the stairs and as he looked down he yelled "No love for the train!?"
Hoffman pushed open a door and inside were engineers and scientists working on a large mechanical object. Marcus knew immediately that it was the lightmass bomb.
"This is the bomb?" asked Dom.
"Yea." said Marcus.
"Damn, it looks much bigger than the others made before." replied Dom
"Thats because it is. This LMBholds three times the power than the LMB you shot down into the Hallow before."
"Well, colonal. This li-"
"General." said Hoffman. "Fenix, I am now in charge of all military operations in the COG remnants."
"Well, sir. This lightmass bomb has an equal chance of killing the Lambent as it does blowing the whole damn planet in half. This doesn't seem like a good idea."
"It's a risk humanity has to take Leuitenant.-"
Hoffman continued to talk to Marcus as Baird said "Did he just say Leuitenant?"
"Yea, man. Me and Marcus just got promoted."
"Well, I think I just did too." replied Baird.
"Sergeant Baird, Your being reassigned to a new squad. Unfortunately for you, son, I am leading it. I want a shot at the Locust. I want to be there when they fall, or I'll die trying."
"Leuitenant, your still in Delta 1. Almost everyone in your squad is reassigned."
"Who's in my squad?" asked Marcus quickly. He hoped Dom was.
"Private Dizzy Wallin, Corporal Clay Carmine, and Leuitenant Anya Stroud."
"Dominic, your taking control of Delta 2. I'll show you your squad members later. We are going to get back down into the Hallow and we are going to destroy BOTH of the sons a *****es!"
One hour later
"Sir." said Sven, nervously.
Private Sven Brant was a young german Gear. He was very muscular and tall, standing at approxamately 6'2, surpassing his fellow squad members by inches. He wasn't very good with long range and always wore a helmet for his eyesight. Sven, to himself, was a cannon fodder. As long as he got his bullets out of his Lancer, he was happy. He loved the chainsaw on his Lancer. He loathed to shove the chainsaw into a Locust stomach and revv it until the Locust lay in half, bloody on the ground.
"What is it?" replied Wolf.
"It is true? Are we really going down into the Hallow again?"
"Yea, Sven. We are."
Hood coughed up the water he was drinking and said "What? Back DOWN?"
Rick Hood was the Baird of Sigma 2. Sarcastic, annoying, obnoxious, and stubborn.
"Watch it, soldier. That water is the only water your going to be drinking from now until tomarrow if we are lucky."
"If we're lucky. Jesus help us." replied Niles. In every squad theres always an older soldier, grizzled from war, that respects his squad leader. That soldier is Niles. He fought in the Pendulum Wars and he was one of the COG on Aspho Fields that fought for the Hammer of Dawn. He wondered what it would have been different if they hadn't gained the technology for the hammer.
"Gears, in a few moments you will be lifting off to a location given to your squad leader. When you get there you will enter the Hollow and begin to fight your way toward Jacinto's remnants. We are going to strike straight into the Jacinto Basin and when we do, we will continue into the ground. There will be locust tunnels. We will progress through the tunnels until we come to a hole. The biggest and longest hole to exist on the planet. When we get there, A LMB will be dropped into the hole. When it blows, not if, the Lambent will DIE!! The LMB has been created with enough power to blow through the Hollow in its entirety. The Lambent and nearly every Locust will be destroyed in a matter of minutes! Some of you will survive this, most of you won't. This is Humanitys pivotal moment!. What we do here will decide the fate of our race! Now load up, get into those tunnels and blow those bastards to hell!"
The Gears all across the Raven's Nest began to cheer in yell in excitement and anger. Hoffman, Baird, Cole and Sam: Echo 4 got into their Raven and flew off the base while Dom's Delta 2, Marcus's Delta 1, Wolf's Sigma 2, and dozens of other squads followed.
Dom looked at the only picture of his wife one final time. Dom threw the picture over the edge of the Raven, his face full of anger. This is the moment he was waiting for.
"Good to meet you, sergeant." said a Gear.
"Whats your name?" asked Dom.
"I'm Edward Pitt, but most people just call me Pitt."
A female gear sat opposite of Dom said "Names Nicole Williams. Call me Nicole."
"I'm John Graves."
"I'm your squad leader. Name's Dom."
0100 hours into the Lambent Insertion
"Sergeant, we are about to land." said the Raven pilot. "Just get into the grindlifts and it will shoot you down into the Hollow."
Dom , Pitt, Nicole, and Graves entered their grindlifts and soon shot down through the ground. Dom opened the door of the grindlift and stepped out to an unexpected sight. There were see-through lambent stalks pumping Immulsion laying all over the ground and walls. Dozens of Locust bodies lay on the ground.
"Control, this is Delta 2. We are inside the Hollow. But something is wrong here."
"This is control, whats the problem?"
Dom kicked a Locust body and said "The Hollow is...changed. I think the Locust are much more desperate than we thought. I'm seeing Lambent stalks covering the walls and floors and Locust bodies laying everywhere."
"Dom this is Marcus. I'm seeing it too. I'm thinking what your thinking."
In the backround, a voice yelled "AGH!" and Marcus yelled "Carmine!" The radio cut off.
"Marcus whats wrong? Marcus! Dammit!"
Alright Delta lets move out. We just need to head forward and kill whatever we see. My orders said that the tunnels we are in should all meet up together so eventually anyone still alive will meet as one big squad."
"I'll take point." said Pitt. Pitt held up his Lancer and walked through an open stone walkway to see more Locust bodies scattered and Sandbags covered in blood.
0200 hours in the Lambent Insertion
Tickers crawled all around the stone platform ahead. Pitt and the rest of Delta 2 hit the sandbags and fired on the Tickers. They continued forward until they came up to a tunnel. They ran through the tunnel and stood over the edge of a cliff. As they looked down. Four Gears were hiding behind grindlifts, shooting at Locust drones.
"Sh*t im out!" yelled Marcus.
Carmine jumped over cover and tossed a Lancer round behind his back to Marcus. Marcus reloaded and continued fire at the Locust. Dom and the rest of his squad unpacked Snipers and took out the Locust shooting at Delta 1.
"We gotcha Marcus." said Dom.
"Thanks Dom. See ya in Jacinto."
"Thanks brother!" yelled Dizzy, through his comm.
Marcus, Carmine, Anya and Dizzy all ran out through a passageway below and out of sight.
0230 hours into the Lambent Insertion
"I got him sir!" yelled Sven. Sven grabbed the crawling Locust and snapped its neck then pushed the locust off the cliff and into the sea of immulsion below.
"Control, do you have a fix on our location?" asked Wolf into his comm.
"We read ya Sergeant. It looks like your very close to a sinkhole. Your gonna see the sunshine soon. Your about 5 miles away from Jacinto. Make sure you try to meet up with other squads too.
"Copy, control. Wolf out."
"Alright guys, we're close to Jacinto now. Keep fighting, this is over soon.
0300 hours into the Lambent Insertion
"Sergeant! Contact ahead!"
Dom spun around and fired his lancer at a lone lambent soldier. After killing it, Dom spotted a wooden ramp. As they got to it Dom said "Alright lets cross this ramp and get over to the other side. Don't go yet."
Graves didn't hear this. He quickly ran across the bridge As he did, he looked down to see frag grenades tagged to the bridge.
"Graves come back!" yelled Dom.
"GRENADES! GETDOWN!" yelled Graves. He leaped across the bridge as the grenades blew apart the bridge. Graves was thrown across the ground and finally landed face down. He wouldn't budge. As he hit the ground, he was knocked unconscious. The immulsion level was rising rapidly on the platform Graves was on. He quickly woke up to the burning feeling of the immulsion and screamed in pain. His armor was melting through and skin was being burned part. The rest of Delta 2, without one look back at Graves, climbed up a rocky wall to avoid the immulsion as Graves fell beneath the levels of burning immulsion and didnt come back up. As they arrived at the top of the rocky cliff, they noticed there was a massive tunnel, bigger than any other they had seen before.
"Is this the hole?" asked Nicole.
"No, the hole goes down into the ground, not forward. I think we just entered the main tunnels."
"This is huge." said Niles, rubbing the dirt from his hands.
"Well, lets get moving Delta. We need to link up with the other squads."
"This is Marcus We've just entered the main tunnel. Any other squads here too?"
"We hear ya Marcus. We just arrived at the main tunnel, we are moving to your position." replied Dom.
Another voice came over the comm. "Watsup boys! We comin in hot right now toward the main tunnel. We'll be meeting up with you in a few minutes. Cole out!"
Dom looked worried for Wolf. "Any of you come in contact with Sigma 2 yet?"
"I heard some talk from a sergeant Wolf earlier. Said they were in the Ilima sinkhole and were close to Jacinto. They might not yet be in the main tunnel." replied Marcus.
"Hold it Dom we got a contact!" yelled Marcus.
In the backround Carmine was yelling "Come on they don't call me Grub Killer for nothing!" and then a loud turret could be heard being shot.
"Lets go Delta, We need to link up with Delta 1 and the other squads."
Dom reloaded his lancer and ran down the long tunnel, his squad following, covered with more locust bodies and immulsion.
==Chapter 2: Wolfbane==
0100 hours in the Lambent Insertion
The grindlifts slammed into the ground and came to a halt. Wolf nodded to his jumpmate, Sven, held up his Lancer and opened the door. A group of Locusts were walking, some limping away from a group of dead Locust drones. One Locust was being carried away growling and screaming in pain. Sven cocked his shotgun and held it up to fire. The Locust turned around to look at Wolf. He growled and snarled at him and ordered his fellow teammates to get behind cover. Sven fired his shotgun into the Locust squad leader who went down, spraying blood across the cold, hard, rocky ground.
The second Grindlift touched down and out ran Niles and Hood, both wielding Lancers, who then fired on the rest of the Locust soldiers. All but one were killed. Hood ran at the surviving locust while revving his chainsaw, putting straight down onto the drones throat, sawwing its head off.
Wolf switched to his shotgun and cocked it. "Alright Sigma lets move."
"Yea mothas!" yelled Hood. Hood ran back to Wolf and as the squad cleared the next room of Tickers, an emergence hole appeared across a long chasm, a boomer kicked open a door from behind Sigma.
"BOOM!"
A large grenade-like missle that was so common for Gears to see shot out from the Boomers gun and exploded next to Sven who leaped out of the way just in time. More locusts continued to crawl out of the Emergence hole and fire on the quad who reluctantly found sandbags to take cover behind. Sven finished off the Boomer and switched to his Lancer. Wolf bravely stood up and as a Sniper bullet wizzed past his face and threw a frag grenade directly into the emergence hole. Locust bodies that were crawling from the hole at the time blew into the air in a bloody mess while the Sniper took another shot at Wolf. Wolf pulled back down into cover just in time for the bullet to fly straight through where his head originally was. Wolf made a sigh of relief.
"I got you I got you!" yelled Sven at a Locust as his fired his lancer into it. A full clip was emptied before the Locust finally fell backward dead.
As the final shots were fired into the last remaining locust, Wolf threw his helmet off his head and sat down against the sandbags.
"Control!" yelled Wolf into his comm, coughing.
"What is it Sigma, anything to report?"
"No no I just need to know where we are."
"Oh. Well we have you near the Illima Sinkhole. Your getting very close to the site. Follow the tunnels the riftworm made and you'll enter the main locust tunnels there. Watch out though, there have been reports from Echo-Four that Sniper towers are set up all of the place."
"Copy control, Wolf out."
"So what?" asked Hood, kicking a sandbag.
"What do ya mean so What? We're gonna continue forward to the Illima Sinkhole. Echo-Four reports there are Snipers all around it but it's the only way we can get to the main tunnels."
"What the hell?" said Hood, roughly. "If Echo-Four reports snipers and theres only one way to get through then-"
"Then they got something going on. All I know is the only way through is those tunnels now get your sh*t together and lets get moving."
"Yes sah." said Niles. He picked his Lancer up and followed the rest of his squad. They all jumped across the chasm and ran off toward the sinkhole.
More locust drones were fighting Lambent all around the squad, only in different rooms. The hostiles couldn't see them. Wolf dismissed the squad from engaging and told them to continue toward the sinkhole. Besides, it wasn't their fight anyway. The lambent probably would end up winning and Wolf didn't want to deal with Lambent at all during this operation. He found that ironic, not wanting to fight Lambent yet going through such effort to enter the Hollow with the purpose of blowing them all to hell. He just hoped that when that moment comes, their plan would work.
They neared the end of the tunnel they were in but something wasn't right. There were two paths. One led to the right and one to the left.
"Goddamn. Alright, Niles and Hood you take the right. Me and Sven'll take the left."
"You got it boss." said Hood. Hood took a drink from his cantine and ran off behind Niles who was already leading the way through. Wolf and Sven reloaded and ran forward through the left tunnel.
Wolf knew Niles wasn't a man of many words. In all honesty, Wolf barely knew anything about Niles. Of course no one really wanted to dwell on their pasts, especially after E-Day. Wolf didn't mind it however. He knew that his parents were killed in E-Day yet he was much too young to remember. All he knows is that a Gear found him inside his house hiding under his bed. The only thing he could remember was seeing his mother lying in a pool of blood on the living room floor. They told stories about what happened to their families back in basic, though most of the trainees were lying. He remembered in basic that one soldier claimed his father killed dozens of locust soldiers before finally being shot by a drone. Though, a quick check on the Gear in training afterward found him crying and holding a picture of his mother and himself, without his father being in the picture. He assumed that he never actually had a father, or that he had died before E-Day. Whatever the case, Wolf didn't confront him on it. He understood perfectly.
0200 hours into Operation: Lambent Insertion
He and Sven finally came to the end of the tunnel. They were inside the Illima sinkhole. It was completely barren though. There were sniper towers set up all over the sinkhole.
"Snipers, get down!" whispered Wolf over his squads comm channel.
Sven and Wolf jumped behind abroken down concrete slab as Hood whispered back "****. A tower spotted me I think."
It was growing dark outside quickly, the snipers were quick to turn on the spotlights set up on their towers to search for any possible Lambent or Gears wondering around in the sinkhole.
"Control, this is Wolf. We are in the Illima Sinkhole but theres Sniper towers all over the inside. We have zero cover, control."
"We read ya, Sigma-Two. We didn't think there would be any trouble in the sinkhole. If its completely barren. Wait a minute. Sigma-Two you have something large coming in your way. It might be a brumak we-" The comm became muffled under the sound of someone yelling.
"WHOO!" yelled a voice of the comm as a Centaur burst through the wall of the sinkhole.
"Who is that!? Identify!" yelled Wolf through his comm.
"This is the Cole Train baby!" yelled Cole. The centaur's barrel locked in over one of the towers and fired. A single rocket fired from the Centaur's smokey barrel and hit the tower, toppling it over.
"This is Echo-Four, Sergeant Wolf." said Hoffman to Wolf. "Don't worry, son we got you covered. Get through those tunnels and stay low, Locust snipers like to shoot at Squad leaders and COG officers."
"Thanks, Echo-Four!" yelled Wolf. "Alright lets move!"
The squad, both from the opposite sides of the sinkhole, Hood and Niles in the north and Wolf and Sven in the south, ran down into the sinkhole toward the main tunnel. As they did, a lone Locust walked out of the cave. It was shrowded in the darkness of the night. This Locust was large, not abnormally fat like a boomer, but large like a locust nobody has ever seen before. The Locust stopped where he was and pointed toward the squad. Behind the locust, in the darkness, not dozens, but hundreds of bright glowing yellow lights and sounds of stretching and rumbling began. Wolf realized what this was and finally yelled "THERONS!"
The squad turned to run. Wolf knew the only chance they had was to hide behind the centaur quickly. Wolf and Sven were the first to slide back behind it. Hood was too late. The Therons fired their charged bows all across the sinkhole. Hood was hit. One sunk in to his chest as dozens more continually stuck into his body. Hood looked down at his chest and managed to get a syllable out and only one lancer bullet from his barrel before exploding in a massive eruption of fire and blood. There was nothing left of his body except a bloody mess scattered all over the side of the Centaur and on the ground.
The bullet that he fired flew down straight at the shadowed Theron leader-esque character and grazed its shoulder. As quickly as the torques were fired, the leader-esque locust dissapeared leaving an army of Therons and, now Reavers, left in the sinkhole with the Centaur.
Niles happened to make it behind the Centaur just in time as a torque grazed his arm. Had he been only moments late, he would be dead. The Centaur fired upon the flying Reavers that were sporting gun turrets similar to the Reaver that attacked Marcus' King Raven on the return from Anvil Gate. The remainder of Sigma squad got into the Centaur and drove off toward the Therons, crushing a few while doing so. The Centaur drove through the tunnels, closing in on the main tunnels. He could pick up radio talk of Marcus talking.
"This is Marcus We've just entered the main tunnel. Any other squads here too?"
"We hear ya Marcus. We just arrived at the main tunnel, we are moving to your position." replied Dom.
Cole felt compelled to talk to his old friends so fo coruse he did. "Watsup boys! We comin in hot right now toward the main tunnel. We'll be meeting up with you in a few minutes. Cole out!"
Dom, worriedly asked "Any of you come in contact with Sigma-Two yet?"
"I heard some talk from a Sergeant Wolf earlier. Said they were in the Ilima sinkhole and were close to Jacinto. They might not yet be in the main tunnel." replied Marcus.
"Hold it Dom we got a contact!"
Sounds of gunfire were heard across Wolf's comm as a voice unknown to him yelled "Come on they don't call me Grub Killer for nothing!"
"Lets go Delta, We need to link up with Delta-One and the other squads."
"This is Sergeant Mataki. Charlie-Seven en route to the main tunnels, over."
"This is Sigma-Two, we lost a man. En route to the main tunnels with Echo-Four, over."
"Glad to hear ya, Wolf." replied Dom.
"You too." replied Wolf.
"Alright, guys, take a breather. We'll be in the main tunnels shortly."
Sven sighed and dropped his Gnasher. He was glad to take a break, even if the Locust weren't.
And they most certainly were not.
==Chapter 3: Rumbling Echo==