Disclaimer: I do not own Gears of War, nor do I own any characters except for Ezra Morg.
Author's Note: Okay I know everyone is wondering that there was an update but no new chapter. I was just going back and spacing the dialogue. And changing a few things. I know what you guys are thinking... How many times and I going to revise this story before I just go ahead and just finish it? My answer is as many times as I want. I have grown a bit with my writing, and when I reading through this I couldn't help but make the appropriate edits as I went. So I felt that it would only be doing the story justice if I posted those edits as I read through it. Also there are things that has changed about me as a person that if I see something that I must change that is sort of major I will let you know in the AN.
Also I would like to point out that I went back and read some of my old emails from people, and have also read some of the reviews again. There was something I guess I never made clear when I trying to relay my anger about the feedback for this story to my readers that I would like to address now since it has been such a long time and I am not longer angry about it. I know when you upload something onto the internet you are opening it up to all sorts of criticism. I above all am not above giving firm criticism when it needs to be given and I surely do know how to take firm criticism.
Because you guys do not have access to my email you weren't getting that part of why I was mad. I was never angry at people who said that my work was choppy and didn't have good use of figurative language. In some ways I obviously agreed because I chose to rewrite the material. I was never mad when people reviewed and said that they didn't like the scene with the bra. Though I did defend it like it was my child. Now when I reread that part I want to shoot it like a dog with rabies. These aren't the things I was mad about. So here is what I was consistently angry about.
Here is a direct copy and paste of one of the many reasons as to what I was upset about: "I just wanted to say I was a faithful follower to your original Hell and Heaven, and I am just going to tell you now you have lost a reader. The rewrite is fing terrible. You should really feel bad that you are taking the time to rewrite something that was fine the way it was and only accomplished into turning it ino a major piece of crap. The original was so much better that I can't even believe you think this trash was better. Thanks for wasting my time on something that I wont ever get to know the ending of because you chose to f it up."
Here is another copy and paste: "I guess I understand why you wanted to rewrite your story but seriously it isn't like you couldn't just finish the original before writing the rewrite for those who actually care more about the relationship with baird then the story content. I was only holding on because I kept hoping that eventually you would actually write a sex scene worth reading instead of that gross one that you wrote in the original. So I guess what I am trying to tell you is thanks for absolutely nothing. I hope the rewrite sucks since you obviously couldn't deliver good content in the original."
And another: "Are you fuing kidding me?! You are revising Hell and Heaven? What sort of joke is that? The only reason you had readers is cuz we wanted to read smut with Baird. I think you should jst accept fact that your fic sucked to begin with and it sucks now just as much as the original"
So there you have it. I just figured because I noticed no matter how much I tried to convey my anger about legitimate flamers, the more people who actually gave me firm constructive criticism became angry with me because they thought I was talking about them, or couldn't take the heat. And while I was mad at flamers, people who became mad at me because they thought I was talking about them got on my nerves too. So I didn't handle the situation very well. These aren't all of the emails I got either. I got a lot of them that I could just fill up this first chapter with them. But for the record these are the examples of people of whom I would consider to be a troll or a flamer, or whatever the new term is to just describe people who exhibit unacceptable behavior because they can do so anonymously over the internet.
I just wanted to put this out there because it was just a bad situation and I just didn't want people to think that I was talking about them if it weren't directly brought up. An indicator that I was talking about you would be the fact that I would directly email you about it or write your name in an AN to address it publically because I am not above public shaming. So I do so hope this is all cleared up and whoever still reads this story knows that if I considered your feedback to be a flame I would have directly called you out on it.
I also just wanted everyone to know that I do apologize for not handling the situation appropriately and if I ever made you think that I was talking about you when I was wasn't I also apologize for that too. If there is anything that you would like to tell me, even if it is something you don't like about the story feel free to do so. Even if it is something like "I enjoyed the original more". That is fine with me because I will honestly assume that the original in some way was more light hearted and you liked that, less grotesque and you liked that, etc. Feel free to tell me your opinions. I just suggest if your opinion is that "You suck, your story sucks, you should roll over and die" you may want to just keep it to yourself because I don't take trying to put someone down is ever acceptable. I also stand behind my opinion that if you don't like my story don't read it. But overall I hope if you find yourself here you will like my story and know that I am really sorry if I have let any of my readers down by the revision.
Also if you have reviewed at all on any of my chapters and you try to review on the edited chapter it may not let you. And I am also sorry for this 1000 word AN.
So here is Chapter One with the edits. I will also in every AN say that the chapter has been edited that way if you have been here before and don't want to read them again you don't have to. Though if you want to read again it would be great if you would email me and let me know if it sounds better because I have gone back and tried to change some of my language. As in instead of repeating the word pain a million times I actually used my vocabulary skills. I will admit I am a lazy writer sometimes (most times). But I am trying to fix that. Oh and I guess on a side note this chapter is also is finding itself a bra scene less.
The pain was unbearable. It were as if her insides were on fire. Somehow she managed through it. There was a worse feeling than actually being on fire and that was feeling remains of the bullets, or whatever had hit her, still inside her. Every time she took a breath or moved, the shards wiggled deeper. It may have only been millimeters here or there, but they were making their way deeper from their original position.
She chewed her lower lip until it bled to suppress her need to scream in agony. There was a need to use one pain that she could control herself to distract her from another pain that she couldn't control. She had never felt like this before. Never in her entire life had she ever suffered so much physical agony. She would rather be birthing a ten pound child instead of lying around in the condition that she was in.
She laid amongst rubble form the Locust attack that had happened just moments before. The landscape was nothing close to barren, it was littered with bodies of Locusts and her fallen comrades. The land was scorched black and drenched with blood and viscera. What was left of buildings lay in dust and clumps of broken marble and bricks. It was a sad sight to be honest. It was even sadder that Sera as a whole looked like this. There was not one place she could think of that wasn't a waste land like this. Sera had once been a beautiful place and now she couldn't even recognize the planet she called home. She suddenly wished that she wouldn't die this day so she could continue giving a helping hand to killing all the Locusts, all the Locusts that they had said were already dead.
They had said it was over, the war that was. They said that there was nothing to worry about anymore. She had been fool enough to believe it too. For a moment she remembered how she had felt completely exhilarated when the words "its over" had echoed of their COMM units. That was until her entire squadron had been annihilated by a Locust Horde.
They had stopped to celebrate just like everyone else on Sera was doing, and then the chaos ensued. The war was definitely not over. It was understandable to find a few stray Locusts still picking their way through the remains of Sera, but it wasn't understandable to find an entire horde. A horde that consisted of at least sixty Locusts. Sixty! Sixty down, and only she had survived her squadron that had consisted of seven.
It was a hard place to be in, knowing that you were the only survivor. Tears pricked her eyes as she thought of the good men and women she had served with until they met their end today. She couldn't help but regret not being able to get up to collect their COG tags. She would if she could only stand, but she could barely drag her body around.
Hot blood sifted through her fingers that desperately tried to plug into her stomach wound to at least slow the bleeding. It didn't work though. She was now lying in her own pool of blood; in fact she was covered in her own blood, signaling to her that the amount of blood she was losing meant her wounds were fatal. At that moment she would rather be covered in Locust blood, in fact she could even rather be covered in Locust guts, which smelled worse than Locust blood. Just as long as it wasn't her own blood. If it weren't her blood then it wouldn't mean that she would die a slowly. However, it was her blood so there was nothing she could do.
She heaved to the side, throwing up her military pack meal that she had eaten hours earlier. It never occurred to her that hours later her body still hadn't digested her food. Throwing up only made her stomach wounds, and everything else that was wrong with her body hurt like hell itself had grasped her in a tight grip. The bleeding increased as she moved too, tearing the wounds deeper with the movement. She was going to bleed to death and she faced that fact with no fear, just a lot of pent up anger. Hot. Bitter. Anger.
The injuries made her want to blackout, or just go ahead and die. For some reason, at this moment she was still living, and it didn't make a whole lot of sense. Maybe she was supposed to suffer more before she died? She didn't have a weapon near enough to off herself, which would be a better death instead of bleeding out. Yet, her options were: bleed out, or get caught living by a stray Locust. She was going to happily take her chances by bleeding to death.
She was on a cliff and her eyes wondered below, to where she heard marching; to where the city Jilane had once proudly stood. No, she not only heard it, she felt it. The ground rumble beneath her body and it made her wounds hurt all the more with each vibration she felt. Her breath caught in her constricting throat. Fear gripped her so hard that she couldn't look away once she focused on what was causing the ground to ruble. Below was what surely would be the end of Sera. It only angered her more to learn that she was now afraid, but she was scared for what was left of humanity. It wasn't death itself that had her afraid; it was just the promise of the future of Sera marching below.
She turned on her COMM radio and heard celebration commotion over the channel.
"Stop fucking celebrating you dumb fuckers. This war is far from fucking over."
She had spoke through gritted teeth into the microphone. She could only hope that her anger had been conveyed exactly that way she wanted it to be. They were all having a splendid time thinking everything was fine and dandy, when in reality it wasn't. Her eyes continued to scan the Locust Horde that marched beneath her. There were enough Locusts down there to populate half of Sera alone, and there was no telling how many more Locusts were actually not there to be seen. Again fear ran through her, faster than blood could pump out from her wounds. It sickened her to be afraid.
Everyone was on the same frequency so to her dying pleasure, everyone heard her angry confession. That for a moment brought a smile to her bruised and blood stained face.
"Staff Sergeant Morg, what's your status?" asked Hoffman. She would recognize that deep drawl of his voice anywhere.
"Shot and bleeding out, sir. Don't bother with me. Will be dead by the time you get here."
As she spoke she tried to remove some of her armor so she could be more comfortable when she died. Her hands worked deftly at the leather straps of her breast plate, desperately trying to free it. She cursed herself for never trying to trade in this older plating for the newer combat armor. She had heard that the new stuff was lighter. It hurt so much having the armor plate bearing down on her.
She needed it off as soon as possible. It was too heavy for her to stand anymore because it was making it harder for her to breathe. Finally the straps gave way and she threw the damned thing off. It was a moment of blissful relief that filled her at the sudden loss of the heaviness. Yet that agony returned, but it wasn't as bad as it was before she had removed the plate.
"Don't worry gear, we are on our way," said Anya Stroud over the COMM unit. Morg huffed, she knew Anya couldn't help but sound like a pretentious ass, yet years of knowing the woman she still couldn't help but be highly annoyed by it as much as she had been when she had first met Anya.
"Bitch," she whispered to herself as she tried to stop the bleeding of her stomach again. What part about bleeding out did they not understand? Or would be dead by the time they got there? She thought to herself as she busied herself with the stomach wound.
She then dragged herself by her elbows on her back a few feet out of sight. She bit her already sore and bloody lip until she whimpered. She knew she probably had already given away her position by yelling earlier, but just in case she hadn't she didn't want to give it away now by screaming. So with all her might, she didn't scream as she dragged herself backwards. She would rather die bleeding out in the rubble that surrounded her, then by a stray locust or wrench passing her by.
She felt Sera rumble beneath her, which only reminded her of the threat below. The feeling sent chills up her spine and made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.
"You are wasting your time coming here. A click away there is the entire Locust nation marching around like it's a fucking parade. So don't come, they will kill you. Or better yet come and bring another fucking lightmass bomb with you!"
After her rant over the COMM she started to cough harshly. As she continued to cough she had to roll onto her side. Blood sprayed forth from her mouth and for a moment she gagged and choked on her own blood. It was several seconds until she was able to breathe without coughing or choking on blood. She managed to miss what Anya said to her though due to the coughing. She wiped blood off her chin with the back of her hand and then lay flat on her back again.
Dying wasn't really what she expected it to be like. Everyone said that their life flashed before their eyes, but then again the people who had said that never actually died, or at least none that she had ever met. She believed that they, who said that, were very wrong. Her life wasn't flashing before her eyes; the only thing that was in her head was how angry at the world she was. She was angry about losing many loved one to this war, and the time that she didn't get to spend with them longer. She was angry that she had to die this way. She wished that if she had to die to this war it would be a shotgun blast to the head. Yet, maybe that was the coward's way out, quick and painless. Dying in her case was slow and agonizing, so maybe she was proving she was no coward.
In the horizon she saw two King Ravens heading towards her direction. There were some times when it was perfectly okay to leave a man behind. She thought her case fell under one of those times. She would have understood them leaving her there to die. In fact she wasn't sure she understood why they didn't. To her luck though she snorted loudly before dying. Too bad it was a lost cause now to come and get her. Waste of their fucking time, was her last thought.
The King Raven had almost touched the ground when Sergeant Marcus Fenix was already jumping off and heading toward the outline of Staff Sergeant Morg. He could barely see her among the rubble, she tended to blend into the beaten and bloody surroundings. The boots sticking out and trembling side to side from the debris gave her away though, as well as the fresh blood trail there.
Once he reached her, he roughly pulled out an epinephrine pin and slammed the device into her triceps of her right arm. He pushed down on the device and the needle shot into her arm, releasing the epinephrine once there. After ten seconds, he removed the pin and tossed it to the ground. She screamed and woke instantly, grabbing her chest in an instant reaction to the drug. Her heart raced so quickly that she was sure that she would die of her heart exploding with the extreme effort.
She was a mess, and Marcus could almost stake Baird's life that she was going to die. She wheezed when she breathed, it sounded she had fluid in her lungs, most likely blood. He had to the hand it to her though, she had stuck around this long and lived, so maybe Baird would just die and they could keep her. He shook his head and tried to refrain from laughing.
As quickly as she came too, she slipped back into unconsciousness. At least he knew that she was alive and the epinephrine would help keep her alive for a little while longer if she were supposed to survive this day. He sure hoped that she would survive; otherwise they would have really wasted their time coming to pick her up. It had been Hoffman's idea though, he told Anya to announce it, and then here they were, picking up some half dead soldier.
Marcus with the help of Dominic Santiago picked her up roughly, which for a moment pulled her into consciousness just so she could curse them both to hell. They couldn't help but laugh at her. She was sure to let them both know before she slipped away again that she would kill the both of them with her bare hands. Together the toted her to the awaiting Raven that had touched down while the other Raven laid cover fire. Helping hands of the rest of the Delta/Alpha squad dragged her dying body on board once they had reached it. Marcus and Dom quickly climbed in after they had her situated on the floor.
As the Raven lifted off, everyone started to help with trying to stop her bleeding. She woke several times as they tugged at her COG armor, wincing in pain, and then succumbing to darkness again. It was rough on her body, but if they wanted to save her life, then it had to be done. She protested slightly, weakly, and then slipped back away as she grabbed hold of the nearest person to her, which was Damon Baird.
"Bitch's a trooper," stated Baird as he tried to pry her fingers off of his forearm. Her grip was like iron, but he finally removed her hand, but not without bleeding from where her nails had bit into his skin. "She is fucking tough too," Baird grumbled as he motioned to the blood on his arm that beaded at the site of his new cuts.
Dom produced a small knife and started to cut her shirt away so everyone could see the damage of her gave a sharp intake of air, not believing the damage they had found her in. This was not a gunshot wound, it was shrapnel wound. Meaning that she had been standing near a grenade when it went off, sending metal and debris into her stomach.
When one of them took notice to blood pulling under her shoulder they rolled her over slightly so they could see what was causing the bleeding. This produced knowledge that she had suffered at the end of a sniper's rifle. She had been shot in her shoulder, but by the look of it, it hadn't broken anything. They rolled her back onto her back so they could keep accessing the damage to the rest of her.
Once they had cut away some of her pants leg, they revealed a shot gun wound on her outer thigh. The stomach wound and the shoulder wound were the most serious of the three. The gun shot wound was bad, but was taken at an angle so the worse part of that would be she might experience some trouble walking.
"Baby is a fine trooper to be still alive," said Augustus "Cole Train" Cole as he watched Baird start to inspect her stomach wounds.
With a grimy finger Baird searched one of the many holes in her stomach which was also the biggest. His finger slid smoothly into the slick wound. The skin expanded around his finger, and he tried hard not to think about entirely disgusted he was by doing this. Finding the metal scrap was the hard part. Anya glanced over at Baird, and turned green and she was sure she was about to cover the walls with chuke.
It was something Anya would never get used too, cleaning out wounds. Bile rose to her throat as she watched his finger slip deeper and deeper into the wound. She closed her eyes and looked away before she lost her lunch. After a few minutes of carefully feeling around in her stomach, with his index finger, he found one of many pieces he was looking for. It was deep, and that wasn't good. He felt around gently with his finger, which made him happy to know at least in this area he was feeling in didn't have any internal organ damage. He frowned though and looked up at Marcus as he removed his finger from her. He wiped the blood off his finger onto his pants leg as he shook his head.
"She is going to need surgery, otherwise she will die of infection. I don't think any organs were damaged, but its deep, and infection probably has already set in."
"Infection you just gave her from your dirty ass finger," stated Cole with disgust. Everyone rolled their eyes, but they were all thinking the same thing that Cole said. It was necessary though. It wasn't like they had anything to sterilize their hands with, they had run out of that stuff a long time ago, and they were not doctors, so they improvised. Marcus then pulled out a wicked looking knife that he kept on his side. He tried to pass it to Cole who just shook his no. He then waved it in front of Baird.
"Can't too squeamish," Baird said as he declined.
"You just fingered her in the stomach with your gross ass finger. And you say you are too squeamish?"
It was Cole who asked the question that popped into all of their heads after Baird declined the knife.
"Well cutting on people is not what I do best," Baird explained.
"You can chainsaw a Locust, you can cut on a human," said Dom as he looked to Baird.
"No I can't. I only cut to kill, you want me to cut her, she is going to die, which she is going to do if you don't hurry the hell up." Baird growled the entire explanation at them as if they were all idiots.
Marcus then tried to pass it to Dom.
"How can you ask? I have too many deaths on my hands."
Dom whispered his explanation as he thought how he had to put a bullet in his own wife's skull. Marcus sighed knowing it was up to him. He gave a silent prayer and sank the knife deep but carefully into the first hole he found on her stomach. It was surprising how easy it really was to put that knife into her stomach like that. He had to be gentle though, which he knew that.
She woke with a start making the knife twist deeper into her. Her eyes widened in horror at the knife's tip being inside of her stomach, and a silent scream leapt to her lips.
"Get that shit away from me!" she yelled as she tried to get away. Nothing worked because Baird held her down by her shoulders. Tears pricked the corner of her eyes as she tried to fight the pain and the oncoming hysteria. She grabbed around, hoping for a hand or anything to grab a hold of. Dom's hand came more than willingly. She found his hand very comforting, warm, strong, everything she needed for that moment to find a little bit of strength.
The woman might be a bitch but everyone knew that pain. It was something so terrible that it caused some of the nicest people to become someone else, someone nasty or hateful. It made them become someone who they weren't.
"I said get that fucking thing away from me," she cried. She was actually crying. She choked on a sob and squeezed her eyes shut so she couldn't see the look of pity on each of their faces.
"You do realize if we don't do this now that you will die of infection, if you don't bleed out first that is," explained Marcus as he steadied his knife hand. Her breathing became labored and she tried not to move. Her black eyes opened and bore into Marcus' dark blue ones. She nodded in complete understanding. She really had already faced the fact that she was going to die, but maybe today was not her day. So she might as well try to live.
"Hey cock sucker, you have to knock me out," she said as she turned to look at Baird because he was the closest to her face.
"Bitch, what did you call me?" he asked, not sure he had heard her clearly. He was sure nobody spoke to him like that, not even this person in pain.
"I said knock me out, you cock sucker who likes it in the ass," she cried through clenched teeth as tears streaked her dirty blood stained face. He stared at her shocked for a moment and tried to understand what she was saying. He processed what she said and then he lost his cool. She, some bitch he didn't even know, had said that to him. No one spoke to him that way. He was a man who deserved respect, he told himself.
Without a second thought, he rocked her world with his fist to the right side of her face. The world blissfully went out like a light for her. She would probably have to thank him one day for punching her in the face, but right now she didn't have to be bothered with such thoughts.
"What the hell?" screamed Anya from the second pilot's seat, shocked that she just witnessed Baird knocking a woman out cold. She shook her head and fought with her inner morals to whether lecture him now or later.
"Anya hush. She needed to be knocked out. The pain is too much for her to bare." Marcus explained without looking at her. Her pretty green gold eyes flashed with intense anger. He had never told her to hush before, and she knew he was stressed but it wasn't something she wanted to get used to. She went to speak but she met Dom's eyes and the look he gave her made her sigh and look away.
Finally after a few minutes of silence, Marcus fished out the first fragment of debris.
"Should have just left her for dead," said Baird as he looked down at her mangled body, angry with her. It was useless to be angry with a woman who was bleeding to death, he knew, but he didn't like the way she spoke to him. He was hot headed when it came to things like that and so he reacted the way she had wanted him to.
For a moment he let the fact that he had given into her settle into his stomach. He had done what she wanted him to do. It made him momentarily hate himself, but he immediately got over it. Stupid bitch needs to watch her mouth, he thought as he stared down at her now peaceful face. Her face mocked him at that moment. She looked so serene in her knocked out state, he wished she looked like she were in pain that way he could enjoy it more.
"Look," demanded Cole, drawing everyone's thoughts away from Morg, as he pointed to the ground below. Everyone looked over and sighed rather loudly. SSGT Morg was right. They were doomed. Beneath them marched the Locust horde she had mentioned. They hadn't noticed the Locusts below them before because their minds had been so involved with Morg, but they had ran right into the "bee's hive" so to speak. Locusts swarmed together as far as the eye could see. It was truly terrifying to every man there. Simply so many Locusts that Humans were now the minority race on Sera.
"We are fucked," mumbled Marcus as he went back to his task.
I hope everyone enjoyed the first chapter, and if this is your first time here I would wait to read the rest of the story unless it is an edited chapter. If you have found yourself here before I hoped the edits made the dialogue easier to read through and I hope that you overall enjoyed the first chapter of the revised story. Also something I didn't mention before I am really happy that GOW is the fandom that does have some pretty hardcore fans. You guys are a hard crowd to please sometimes but honestly I think that is a great thing because I am such a GOW that I consistently find myself going back to play the games, read the comics, read the books and showing off my own replica lancer to all my friends every time one of them mentions GOW. Stay tough everyone and please bare with me if you are here for the long haul.