The bullets tore across the pavement, leaving permanent dents in the street. Then, the sound of metal bouncing across the ground, and an explosion rang out, leaving several bodies blown to bits and a pool of blood in its wake. A tall, muscular man carrying an assault rifle with a chainsaw bayonet stepped forward, surveying the area. Following him was another soldier of equal body mass. The two stood there in silence, watching over the street that had become a bloody battlefield. A brisk gust of air blew, dangling the tags that rested on their hard armor.
After several moments of watching the fight, one of the COG soldiers spoke up. "Hey Dom."
"Yeah Marcus?" The other said after a pause.
Marcus gripped his weapon tighter, the bayonet revving slowly. "What do you think the Locust are doing down here?" He lowered the assault rifle and pulled out a map. Inspecting it carefully, Marcus scanned the entire piece of old, wrinkly paper. They were no where on the map.
"Probably just trying to salvage some ammo from one of the buildings. I heard some Stranded had an outpost here a while back." Dom replied.
"You'd think they'd have enough weapons to hide an effin' Brumak." Marcus joked. His squad mate smirked.
Suddenly, an enormous sound exploded, followed by the screams of soldiers. "Speaking of Brumaks..." Dom said, jumping down a ledge towards the street. "There might be more of those things, so we need to take it out fast." He leaped for the battlefield, running and ducking behind some cover.
"Control, this is Delta." Marcus held two fingers to his ear. "Brumak in the area, repeat, there is a Brumak in the area." A moment of deadly silence. He opened his mouth again. "Contro-"
"Read you loud and clear, Delta. Ravens are on their way. Watch out for any addition Bru..."
The voice faded into static. "Control! Control, can you hear me?!" Marcus slammed his foot in anger, then took a deep breath. "Wilco. Delta out." Placing both hands back onto his gun, Marcus yelled out, "Alright, let's get this over with." He bounded down the broken street, hiding behind some cover and blindfiring at some Locust.
"Hey, good to see you finally made it." Dom said sarcastically. He peaked out from behind a car aimed his rifle, but couldn't find a target. "Hell, where'd they all go?" The COG soldier look down the street. A rampaging Brumak was heading their way, and it looked pissed. The giant beast stomped on helpless gunners and trampled over cars.
Marcus desperately shot at the lumbering creature, though it did little. "Dammit! Where's our support?" He leaped out into the street, shooting wildly.
"Don't waste all your ammo." A male voice said. It came from not Marcus or Dom, but from a fellow teammate, Baird. "Looks like you could use our help."
Marcus smirked at him, then looked around. "Where's Cole?"
"He's back there," replied Baird, "helping some COG soldiers that got ambushed in a building."
"Well tell him to hurry his ass up." Marcus looked down the street again, watching the Brumak walking towards him. Then, he noticed some fuel tanks stowed away in an abandoned shack. "Hey Dom, look over there." Marcus pointed towards the building.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Dom replied.
Marcus nodded. "But..." He hesitated. "Where's the rest of the Locust? You'd think they'd be all over us by now." Baird just shrugged.
"Alright, if we want to get over to those fuel tanks, we'll need to get through a ruined hotel. It's the only way we can make it in time." Dom said. By now, the Brumak was in shooting range; it proceed to take aim at and fire the COG soldiers, who jumped away and ducked under cover.
"Delta, move out now!" Marcus yelled from behind a support beam of a building. "Cole, if you can, try to distract that Brumak. We're going to try and get some explosives to kill it."
After a short pause, there was a crackling noise, followed by a voice. "You got it Marcus! Go kick some Brumak ass!"
Marcus smirked, and replied, "Will do. Delta out." He motioned at Dom and Baird to follow him into the main entrance of hotel, as all other openings were inaccessible. Carefully watching out for any Locust, but moving throughout the building quickly, Marcus and the rest of Delta darted down hallways and hid behind doorways.
Pulling out his shotgun, Dom said, "I dunno Marcus, this seems like an ambush."
"He's got a good point." Baird replied. "Explains why we haven't seen any Locust yet."
Marcus hesitated for a moment, then took out his own Gnasher shotgun. "Just try to be on your toes." He looked into a fairly empty room, then rolled in. In the room were two doorways, one on the left, and one on the right. The soldier aimed at one, then the other. After nothing happened, he lowered his gun. The other two walked in. "Look's like the room's empt-"
A loud ticking noise sounded from both of the doorways, followed by the ravenous growl of a Wretch. "Dammit!" Dom yelled out. Click, boom, click, boom. He and Marcus stood at the far end of the room with their shothguns, each watching an entryway, while Baird stayed back and aimed with a Lancer assault rifle. A small, crawling, insect like critter, covered in white and strapped with a bomb, skittered into the room. A single bullet pierced its flesh, and instantly it exploded. The Delta squad members shielded their faces from the blast. Several more ran in, though they were killed almost instantaneously. Then, small jittery creatures no more than three feet off the ground swarmed the room, filling it with their deafening cries. Shots rang out, blood spattered everywhere, and ammo clips lay on the floor.
Walking over to a Wretch that was crawling around half dead, Marcus stomped on it's head, killing it. "Is that all of them?" He said, expecting their to be more. The walls of the hotel began to shake slowly, then much more violently. Marcus, Dom, and Baird were all thrown to the ground.
"What the hell is going on out there?!" Baird yelled, standing up again.
"Hey Delta! Where are you?" Cole yelled. The sound of gunshots could be heard as he talked.
"We're almost there, Cole, just hang on." Marcus said. "Just finished cleaning up the building."
"Yeah, well, hurry the hell up!" The noises got louder, and the sound of Cole cursing was the last thing heard before the transmission broke.
Standing up and reloading his gun, Dom said, "We need to get over to those fuel tanks!" Baird and Marcus nodded. They dashed off further into the hotel, shooting any Tickers or Wretches that were still in the building. After several minutes of running, the sounds of the battlefield became louder and louder until Delta was nearly outside. A single Locust grenadier hid behind some of the explosives. Marcus looked at the other guys, and smirked. He sneaked up behind the Drone, and tapped him on the shoulder. Before he knew what hit him, Marcus put his shotgun to its face and pulled the trigger, leaving a bloody mess all over the ground.
Walking towards him, Baird laughed, and Dom said, "Didn't even know what happened."
Marcus smirked, but quickly lost his smile after hearing Cole's voice. "Tell me you're at the fuel tanks, Marcus, C'mon, gimme some good news."
The soldier replied, "Affirmative Cole, we are in possession of the explosives."
"Yeah baby! Bring out the big stuff!" Cole yelled back.
"Tell all other COGs to evac immediately. The boom is gonna big."
"Will do, Marcus." The Cole Train said. Then, loud static filled Marcus's ear, and Cole yelled out the words "Oh shi-" before the transmission faded again.
"There's no way he can hold that Brumak off for much longer." Baird said worriedly.
Dom said, looking at the tanks, "He's right. We need a way to get these things into the street."
As if things weren't already bad enough, the Brumak began shooting at the group. Marcus rolled behind a damaged car, looking out to see where the Locust artillery was. "Dammit! What do we do now?" He yelled out. As the Brumak came closer, it's giant foot hit a van, sending it spinning towards Delta.
"Hey..." Baird said.
Dom replied, "Do you think... ?"
Desperate, Marcus added, "It's our only chance." Luckily, the vehicle was so badly damage that it's back doors were torn completely off. Marcus, Dom and Baird each grabbed a fuel tank and ran over to the van, loading it.
In the distance, the sound of Cole shooting effortlessly at the Brumak was nearly the only thing to be heard. After the van was nearly full, Marcus contacted Cole, saying, "Cole, are you ready?"
"I was born ready Marcus!" He replied, hiding inside of a building.
While Marcus was talking, Baird and Cole finished loading up the vehicle. When the van was aligned with the rampaging Brumak, all three started pushing it. Soon, it's wheels gave, and it started rushing towards it's target. Marcus pulled out a frag grenade, and lobbed it into the back of the van. "Everybody get down, now!" He screamed, taking shelter in the crumbling hotel. A vicious moment of dead air, and then, an extremely loud noise exploded, followed by the sound of an otherworldly roar. In the air was a large cloud of destroyed debris and smoke. After the dust settled, the corpse of a Brumak lay in the middle of the street, though then everything went back to being silent.
Just as Delta stood up and look into the road, a very reassuring voice rang out. "Yeaaah, whooo! The Cole Train's still got it going on!"
Marcus smiled, and exited the building, along with Dom and Baird, and met up with Cole. "Great to have you back in Delta, soldier." Dom said.
"Man, it's great to be back." Cole replied.
Another familiar voice called out. "Delta, are you there?" It was none other than Anya. "I've got reports of a massive detonation in your area. Are you alright?"
Marcus looked at his squad members. Cole leaned against the wall, letting out a loud sigh. Baird and Dom checked out the rest of the hotel, finding some ammo clips here and there. "Control, Delta is alright." Marcus said with a smile.
"Great." Anya replied. "Unfortunately, we are receiving large heat signatures narrowing in on your location. We have Ravens on the way. Sorry about the wait, Delta."
"Roger that, Anya. We'll be sure to watch our backs."
However, instead of a female voice, a male voice replied to Marcus. "Woohoo!" He yelled. "Let's roll, Betty! Yee-haw!"
Dom laughed and said, Dizzy, you crazy S.O.B." But before anybody else could comment, an eruption of gunfire broke out dangerously close to the location of Delta. The air was filled with the sound of chopper blades, and groups of COG soldiers ran past the building. Taking a look outside, Marcus found a swarm of Locust, including the promised Brumaks.
With the sound of machine gun bullets ricocheting against tar, metal, and concrete, the noise of numerous grenade explosions, and the sight of Cole and Baird leaping into battle, Marcus stood forward, looking over the entire battlefield.
Walking up to him, Dom lay a hand on his friend's shoulder. He said the words, "A COG's work is never done, huh?" before charging into the fray. Marcus pulled out his assault rifle, took a deep breath, said the words, "It never ends.", and ran into battle.