Corporal Seth 'Buck' Baldwyn, second-in-command of Echo squad, scratched his head and sighed as he squinted at the setting sun. His squad had been stuck on perimeter patrol duty all week while watching Alpha squad guard the scientists and top brass inside the camp. An Alpha asshole walked by with a chick in a white labcoat under his arm and smirked at Buck, heading for a tent; Buck watched them go with an irritated growl rising in his throat.
"Whoa Buck, lighten up!"
The voice of his commanding officer, Lieutenant Thaddeus Grey, made him stop growling and turn slightly. His Lieutenant was a tall, thin man with intelligent grey eyes and a gentle face under waves of pale brown hair. His soft voice and gentle mannerisms made him a magnet for young people, and he was well-liked by those who knew him. Buck was wrenched away from his musings by Grey's soft voice.
"I'll go and have a word to the commander, see if we can't make this a little more fair. In the meantime, you go and have something to eat and drink plenty of water."
The order was subtle but clearly there; Buck saluted and headed gratefully for the mess tent where the smell of dinner was invitingly strong. The tent was practically empty; Echo squad was still out guarding and Alpha was no doubt fooling around playing with the female scientists and pretty technical officers. There were two kitchen hands behind the line of food, one standing half-in-half-out of the tent as they smoked casually and the other was lounging behind the counter tossing a ladle into the air and catching it. The lounging kitchen hand scrambled to his feet when he saw Buck, and the other kitchen hand looked over; wordlessly he took one last drag and then stubbed out the half-smoked cigarette and tucked it behind his ear.
"What would you like?"
The man holding the ladle seemed anxious, as though worried Buck would report the two of them for slacking off; the tired Gear could hardly care less about two kitchen hands taking a break when there was no one to take care of. He accepted a plate with half brown muck, a quarter rice and a quarter overcooked vegetables, grabbed some cutlery and took a seat, picking at the food without enthusiasm; camp cooking always left so much to be desired, especially the seasonings; they were practically nonexistent. Buck wondered if the commanders had to eat mystery meat in mystery brown sauce, and smirked a little at the thought.
He was almost finished with the rather paltry meal when someone else entered the tent; the youngest member of his squad, Joel Cartwright. He looked excited and out of breath, and his Lancer was still smoking from fired shots. "Buck! Lieutenant Grey says to join him by the north perimeter barricade immediately! Locusts have been spotted moving through the trees!" Wordlessly Buck dropped his cutlery into his plate and grabbed his Longshot sniper rifle, which had been resting on the bench next to him, to follow the younger Gear through the turmoil of the camp as he checked his ammo and that of his backup Boltok pistol.
Echo squad was gathered by the barricade gate; they let Buck through the ranks to join Lieutenant Grey by the viewpoint. With a click the scope of his Longshot was detached and he peered through it, thumbing the zoom to pick out pale shapes moving in between the trees. Feeling the others' eyes on him, Buck started a quick count and did a double-take; something huge was forcing its way through the trees towards them. He recoiled from the scope, blinking a little as his eye adjusted to the distance, and looked at Grey.
"They've got Brumaks."
A groan went through the squad of Gears, but Grey held up his hand to silence them.
"How many?"
Buck peered through the scope again, mouthing numbers as he leaned almost fully out of the viewpoint to count. He gulped and nearly dropped the scope.
"There are approximately fifteen of them."
The squad gasped collectively, and even the Lieutenant looked shaken. The man recovered quickly and grabbed Joel from within the ranks.
"Go and inform the general staff. We've got to start evacuating the scientists as quickly as possible."
Joel ran off like a rabbit heading for the command tent, and Lieutenant Grey looked out of the view point.
"Echo squad… deploy along the barrier. We've got to hold them off until the choppers can get here for the scientists. Buck?"
The young man saluted with the barrel of his Longshot, in the process of replacing the scope, and Grey glanced at him.
"Take west. Bishop and Valentine head east and south; make sure they're not flanking us. If you see any Alphas on the way, send them to the north wall. Radio when you get results."
Buck saluted again, this time with his hand, and headed as quickly as possible for the west barricade viewpoint. He was approximately halfway there when he heard a massive explosion from the north barricade; Buck turned to see a huge smoking hole in the wall, almost exactly where his squad had been. The young Gear wrenched his head away from the sight, comforted somewhat by the repeated bursts that indicated Lancer rounds, and continued his headlong pelt for the west wall. A crunching noise that was issuing from over the wall made his stomach drop but he kept running, slamming in next to the viewpoint and peering over it to see several white shapes moving through the trees towards him. He clicked his radio into life as he opened fire on them.
"Lieutenant Grey! Hostiles at the west barricade!"
He listened as Bishop chimed in too.
"And at the east, too!"
Another explosion, much closer this time, made the ground vibrate under him as bullets zinged over Buck's head. His mind was working to try and find a way so everyone would get out of this alive, but he knew without a doubt that the Locust had them surrounded and they were about to be slaughtered; the Gears were out-gunned and outnumbered.
A third explosion threw him high up into the air; the Brumaks had had heavy artillery attached to them and were using it to blow big chunks of earth and people up. Buck was thrown up over the west barricade and into the forest, the concussion wave from the explosion making him dizzy as he crashed through branches. He spun and saw he was heading for the ground, and braced himself for impact; there was a moment of crushing pain and an awful crunching noise as his body hit the ground and then a comforting blackness descended.