The emergence hole opened up just metres away from Delta squad, Locust pouring out in massive hordes. Everyone took the nearest cover possible and reloaded from the last killing spree. Cole leaned out to the side and put a burst through 3 of them while whooping loudly. Baird ran forward 2 metres and took cover again, swearing as his lancer jammed mid-reload.

"There's too many of them!" Dom shouted above the noise of bullets on metal.

"Hold 'em off, just hold 'em off!" Marcus bellowed chainsawing a Kantus in half.

Cole jumped cover and ran forwards at an alarming rate towards a group of 4 Locust, making Dom loose his focus for a second, he continued to watch as he knocked them to the ground, curb stopping their faces in, leaving a splatter of grey mush. Another emergence hole opened up to the left of Dom and sent him crashing to the floor, Marcus hauled him up by the shoulder and gave him his usual pull-your-shit-together look, before turning his back on him sharply and chainsawing a Drone to the ground. Dizzy poked his head above cover and let loose a short burst, emptying his clip completely as his Stetson was knocked clear off his head. A Drone jumped cover and landed just in front of him.

"Anybody miss lunch? Here, have some of this!" Dizzy roared with laughter as he scored a perfect headshot.

The hordes slowly eased out and Dom caught his breath, wiping blood from above his right eye. Cole's booming laughter caught him off guard as he placed Dizzy's hat firmly back on his head just over his eyes, causing Dizzy to swing a punch and missing, falling back to his knees, scowling up at Cole. He watched as Marcus wandered a few paces to his right, finger to his ear, listening to the comms channel, he was sure he only really listened to that now to hear Anya's voice; she really was all he had left apart from the squad. He slumped down, back against a burnt out car as he replayed that torturing scene over in his mind once again, when he encountered the gravestone angel, kneeling down and speaking through to Maria, telling her just how sorry he was that he couldn't bring her home. It had been exactly a year now since he found her in that underground Locust laboratory, lobotomized to the point where he could barely recognise her; the thought made tears swell up in his eyes.

"Dom?"

Marcus's voice brought him back to reality as he wiped a stray tear from his cheek; he rose to his feet and clutched his lancer tightly. Marcus looked at him with those pale blue eyes; he could see the sympathy in them for him. Marcus and him had been friends since they were youngsters, hell, how could he not feel something for him, he forced a small smile to his lips as he watched the rest of the squad.

"Raven on its way?"

Marcus grunted, his usual response meaning yes, he really didn't show that many emotions now-a-days, he'd always been the type to keep himself to himself but after his father's death that had really taken it out of him, Dom wandered if he'd ever let go of all that guilt he built on himself for every life lost, it was painful to watch him suffer in silence. He tried to talk to him, he really did, sat down over drinks, even out on patrol but he wouldn't budge, he wasn't sure if he ever would. The sound of helicopter wings above the treetops made him shake out of his thoughts and stare blankly upwards, Marcus was talking into his earpiece again as the Raven landed just metres away. The co-pilot stepped out on the opened deck and beckoned for them to hurry up, Dom couldn't place a name to the face and climbed aboard after Cole, Baird and Dizzy staring as the guy shimmied his way back to his seat, next to Sorotki.

He glanced around the crowed crew bay and smiled slightly, Dizzy was in a headlock with Cole and Baird was sitting to the side cheering Cole on, Marcus had arms folded, eyes shut, miles away but not asleep, he only knew because Marcus did this so often, to avoid eye contact and conversation with anybody else. He found himself gazing out of the open crew bay door as the land rushed past below, burnt out cars and broken down trees across the country landscape leading into even worse looking, scorched cities. He could only think of all those years that he spent looking for Maria, 10 fucking years and he still didn't find her in time, he knew he'd never forget those last moments with her, staring into those dead, gray eyes, apologising a thousand times over, wanting to bring her back to him, pulling out that pistol and placing it to the side of her head, pulling the trigger and putting her out of her misery once and for all.

He was awoken from his thoughts by the sound of Sorotki over the comms "Any last minute requests before we land back at base people?"

All of the squad looked between each other and simultaneously shook their heads while Cole spoke out "Got no demands from here baby"

Marcus placed a weary hand on Dom's shoulder as a tear trickled down his left cheek; he instantly turned his face to meet his gaze and wiped the tear away, feeling stupid for letting his emotions get the better of him again.

Sorotki landed the Raven in the bay and leaned back to look at the squad "Just a warning, Prescott's had a funny turn again with his ludicrous ideas and Hoffman's on his usual rampage"

"Fucking terrific" Baird murmured as he slumped out the crew bay with a thud.

Cole's reverberating laughter echoed around the empty court yard as he pushed Baird along by the shoulder like a small child "Come on Damon baby, Prescott's bound to have a shiny packhorse waiting for you to fix up"

Baird's eyes lit up at that as he quickened his pace towards the governors building. Dom jumped off the Raven with a loud thud and glanced at Marcus, the two of them gazed up at the old, crumpled building before them and it made Dom wandered how only two years ago this place had been grand and magnificent. He could hear Marcus grunting in response to his ear piece as they paced towards the building, Marcus took the lead and Dom followed, leaving Baird, Cole and Dizzy to debate about Baird's past love life with a Boomer.

Hoffman and Prescott were already standing tensed and clenched fists at their sides as the two entered the small office, Dom swore it got smaller every time he stepped in it. Hoffman was fuming and Prescott had his usual bastard composed expression, his eyes were fixed on Hoffman in a cold glare. Marcus stepped causally towards Hoffman and the Corporal slowly released his fists until his hands hung loosely at his sides.

"Sergeant Fenix, always a pleasure to see you" Marcus' gaze averted from Hoffman to Prescott as he began, he knew something bad was coming his way, Prescott was being way too friendly for any good to come out of it "I'm afraid I have some bad news for you"

Dom glanced quickly between Marcus and Prescott looking for any obvious changes in body language. Marcus had his ice-cold blue eyes fixed on Prescott now as he waited for the oncoming news, he looked as if he was going to rip him one any moment.

"We've found a data disc in your Father's old office"

Hoffman looked as if he was about to smack that composed expression right off Prescott's face. Dom could see the tensing of the muscles in his neck and the grinding of his teeth as he struggled to hold himself back, even Hoffman knew not to discuss his Father in such a manner, Marcus had enough on his plate on that turf.

"Your Father, although once a brave gear and a loyal scientist to the COG, we have found has worked with the Locust Queen and her people"

Her people, her fucking people, they were monsters, that's what they were, not people. He could feel the tension slowly rising in the room as Marcus tensed up and his fingers began to drum rhythmically on his thigh plates, he knew even the slightest twitch of a muscle now could give Marcus away, he also knew if Prescott continued, Marcus was going to flip. Hoffman's eyes were darting between the two as he looked for the right moment to intervene.

"You might want to take a look yourself, Fenix" Hoffman cut in just before Prescott could say anymore.

Marcus turned his back on Prescott and stared at Hoffman briefly before taking the offered data disc from his grasp "Report back to me at 0400 hours tomorrow morning Fenix"

Marcus grunted and shoved the data disc in between his shirt and his breast plate as he trailed behind Dom back down to the squad.

"You really think Prescott was telling the truth? I mean your dad...he wouldn't of-"

"Only one way to find out" he shoved lightly past Dom and made his way towards the mess hall, his body language was all wrong and Dom knew the conversation was bothering him.

"Hey Marcus, don't be too hard on yourself"

Marcus flashed a cold stare towards him as he shoved past a large group of gears, Dom knew he had hit a nerve and Marcus would talk to him when he felt up to it. Three pairs of footsteps sounded behind Dom and Cole's hand came to rest firmly on his shoulder, all of them watched Marcus disappear into the crowd.

"He'll be okay baby, he always is"