Sins of the Mother
The war against the Swarm was nearly over.
She wondered if it could even be called a "war." The Pendulum Wars were a war without doubt, one that had lasted nearly eighty years. The Locust War was a war – a crusade of extermination rather than a conflict over resources per se, but still a war, and one that had lasted sixteen years. The 'war' against the Swarm had lasted only a few years, and was nowhere near as grandiose as past conflicts. The COG had moved from one hive to the next, killing every juvie, drone, pouncer, carrier, snatcher, and God knew what else they could see. DeeBees being used alongside Gears, and thankfully, not shooting at her. Less of a war, and more like pest control. What the Locust had tried to do to humanity, humanity was now doing to the Horde's misbegotten offspring.
And she, Kait Diaz, was fine with that. She was fine with wiping out an entire species. Fine with shooting them, stabbing them, pounding them to a pulp, even setting them on fire. She was fine with the killing, the carnage, and the feeling of satisfaction that every member of the Swarm she killed meant that she was one step closer to avenging her mother and her village. A piece of revenge that wouldn't be complete until every last member of the Swarm was dead.
And that was close at hand. But down her in the hive, cut off from JD and the rest of her squad, she could only hope that she lived long enough to see that revenge complete. Or, at least, live long enough to kill the monster sitting in this cavern, on a slump of rock carved out like a throne. A scion. One that, like the Speaker, was lounging around with delusions of grandeur. She slowly approached him, Lancer at the ready, finger on the trigger. He...no, it, looked up at her, and she stared back. Trinkets were scattered around its throne. Medallions. Small carvings of what looked like worms. Human fingers and ears. The remnants of Locust 'culture,' hung onto by the only person who would be aggrieved to see that culture be removed from the face of Sera.
"Have you come home?" it asked suddenly.
Kait held herself in place. So it could talk. Talk more than just in broken, guttural sentences. Was this another Speaker, she wondered?
"Will you be queen?"
"I'm here to kill you," she said.
The scion lounged back in the throne, and Kait frowned. She was aware of how Locust generals had conducted themselves. Monsters who could barely speak fluent Tyran, but each with their own call card. RAAM with his krill, Skorge with his chainsaws, even Karn with his giant corpser. This one had the independence, but not the uniqueness. Something that gave her comfort, that the Swarm could never match the heights of the Locust, and unease, wondering how many more scions were in its ranks that could match the relative intellect of past leaders.
"Of course you are," it said. "And yet you hesitate."
She still stood there, pointing the Lancer at the monster.
"Why?" it asked. "Biologically, you should be adept at genocide."
Kait froze. It knew. It knew what only a handful of people on Sera knew, at least to her knowledge. It knew what her mother had been, why the Swarm had taken her all those years ago. Somehow, it knew what she was as well.
"Well," said the scion, standing up. "Perhaps-"
She shot it in the kneecap, and it let out a howl, falling face first onto the cold, stony floor. Unperturbed, she walked over to the throne, picking up a medallion. It bore the same symbol as the one her mother had worn. The same one she used to wear, before she'd tossed it into a chasm after realizing what the symbol actually meant. The scion looked up at her.
"Traitor," it hissed.
She walked over to it, and dangled the medallion in front of its face. "Is this it?" she whispered. "Is this what you think you are? Is this what you think I am?"
"It's what you are," it hissed.
"I'm not."
"But you are. Swarm, Locust, Sire, we all come from the same source." It spat at her, and she involuntarily recoiled. "There'll always be one like you. We'll always be here. You won, because you monsters. You're here, because you're a monster. How can the child overcome the parent?"
Was it rationalizing, Kait wondered? Did the Swarm's creatures have a psyche sophisticated enough to make up justifications as to why they'd lost?
"Take my life, sister."
She did so, drawing out a snub pistol. One shot after another rang out, the shots echoing throughout the chamber. Through time and space. Flowing down the waters of time, as the tears did down her cheeks. She wanted them dead. Wanted them all dead. Wanted it so that soon, all that would be left of the Locust would be gone. All, but the blood that flowed in her veins.
The scion was dead before she reached the end of the magazine. Before she began pressing the trigger to the sound of nothing but clicks. Before she whispered, "I'm not your sister." Slowly, she reloaded the magazine, and popped off a final round into its skull. "And I'll never be your queen."
She stood there, in silence. Remained silent even as that silence was broken, as she heard JD and Del over her radio. As she heard their footsteps approaching her from behind. As she held the medallion in her hand. At some point, her grandmother had crafted this. At some point, she'd passed it down to her offspring, who'd been superficially human. A sign of love, she wondered? Or a brand? Was she too, branded? Marked forever, if not on the skin, than in her blood?
"Damn Kait, you okay?"
She looked over at Del, then JD. Neither of them knew. She could only hope they never would. None but Marcus, who'd guessed it long before anyone, who knew of what it meant to live in the shadow of a father's sins. Or Baird, who'd done the blood test, and for once, had kept his bloody mouth shut.
"Huh," JD said. He nudged the scion's body. "What happened here?"
Mother. Monster. Queen.
She shrugged.
Scion. Locust. Swarm.
"Nothing," she said. "Nothing happened."
Human. Offspring. Sister.
She picked up her Lancer and gestured to her squad, heading off down the tunnel. There'd be more Swarm to kill.
More blood to flow.
More blood to cleanse.
A/N
So, yeah, more or less subscribing to the theory that Kait is Myrrah's granddaughter. No idea how that works biologically. Does fit Gears 4 thematically, so I will give it that though.