F.N.G

Sera

A month and a half after the lightmass Offensive

Apartment Complex in Northern Jacinto

Beep! Beep! Beep! Smash! Christopher Hylton rose from his small 6 and a half foot by 3 feet bed and groaned.

"Shit," he said to himself looking at the clock. It read 5:30 AM. For the last week Hunter squad, Chris's squad had been on leave. Chris had enjoyed it greatly, waking up at 8:30 every morning and pretty much being free. He especially liked not having to fight the wretched locust horde.

But now that was over and it was time for Chris to be a soldier of the COG, Coalition of Ordered Governments, a Gear as the troops were called. Gears were the backbone and fighting force of the COG. They undergo rigorous physical training to achieve top physical shape, and even have taken a sort of steroids to increase their muscle size.

Gears were big and they were once described as "walking tanks." Chris was no exception. He was about 6'4 and weighed easily over two hundred pounds. His muscle capacity was thick with every bulge and strand seemed to perfection.

After going to the bathroom to relieve himself and shave, Chris ate some stale breakfast cereal and had some orange juice. Going back into his bed room to put on his Gear armor. The armor was gray, exceptionally bulky and has a sort of hunch backed sort of look to it. Not many of the current gears in the COG where this kind of armor and Chris was happy he was unique. He put the armor over his head until it rested snuggly on his shoulders and then he sealed it up through the two large circular seals on the chest then quickly making sure his black do-rag was tightly wrapped around his head he headed out of his three story apartment building and onto the streets of Jacinto.

The sun hadn't even risen yet. It was a short walk to the Mag-lev train station. As he walked onto the platform he took notice of the other people there. They were civilians; there was an old man of maybe 60 and a young girl of maybe 15-16. They gave him a look of terror and respect as he sat down on the bench nearest to the edge of the platform.

"That's weird," Chris thought to himself as he eyed the young lady through his peripheral vision. Women of that age usually weren't allowed out at this time and they usually were at the breeding farms, sadly getting induced at such a young age.

Ever since E-day (Emergency Day), the day the locust came up out of their emergency holes and attacked the surface of Sera almost 15 years ago, nothing had been the same. Almost every physically fit male from 16 to about 45 had to serve usually in the COG military. And every female usually got put in some desk job or was a breeder. Chairman Prescott had said that everyone had to play a part in order to ensure humanities survival, humph he wasn't thinking about humanities survival when he had over 90% of the planets surface scorched in a foolish attempt to stop the Locust. Though it had slowed the locust down it hadn't stopped them and for 15 years humanity has been in a constant war with the locust. No not a war more of just trying to survive against the genocidal tactics and ways of the unstoppable locust.

That was until the Lightmass Offensive a month and a half ago. There Chris and hundreds of other Gears were able to enter the locust controlled city of Ephyra, give covering support to both Delta and Alpha squads as they relocated the sonic resonator, then went to East Timigad to give more fire support then they banged out on King Ravens, just as the Lightmass Bomb went off killing "a whole rack of squashed face grubs" as Chris's sergeant had said. They hadn't gone without casualties though. Dozens of Gears lost their lives in that battle, including one of Chris's squad mates, but it had been for a good cause and Chris would of gladly gave his life to defeat the locust.

Though the locust weren't completely defeated, they had been drastically weakened with a few pockets of heavy resistance left. And Gears were still dying almost everyday, but the war was now in humanities favor.

The Mag-lev train pulled into the station slowly then came to a complete stop, Chris and the other two people on the platform entered the train. He sat in the farthest car to the back, not wanting to keep being stared at by the others.

As the train slowly began to move he slowly drifted into slumber. It was another 20 minutes riding through the barely lit city before they came to the base. The base station was much more packed then the one near his apartment. It was packed, despite it being only 6:15, with military personnel going every which way. Gears in their bluish armor guarding the base and running their daily routines. Intelligence officers and crew working on their small laptops or talking over ear pieces, and the occasional civilian just working a regular maintenance job or just passing through. Whatever the reason they were all rotating gears part of a machine that if it stopped working humanity might fail.

Chris began to make his way through the crowd. Bumping into people, apologizing and saluting to higher ranking Gears. He occasionally would make small talk with a few gears that would come up to him, though at first he couldn't recognize them due to the helmets they had, but once they started talking he would know who was who. But he couldn't talk for long as he had a 6:30 meeting with a new member of their squad.

He made his way to the central court yard of the base, which was no easy feat as the hallways were kind of small and the Gears armor was quite big a thick. But after a few minutes of intense walking he finally came to the court yard. It was barely lit only by the grayness of the clouds. There were a few people in the courtyard, but only one Gear and he made his way over to that Gear.

***

Private Damon Myles sat on a bench in the center of the large courtyard next to an aging sycamore tree. He tussled his blonde hair a little in boredom. He had been in the courtyard waiting since 6:00 and now it was almost 6:30. He fiddled with the optics of his Lancer Assault Rifle. After making sure the optics were on tight he took a rag out of his duffle bag on the floor next to him and began to clean the chainsaw attachment of the Lancer, taking care not to cut himself on the blades. After cleaning his gun thoroughly for the second time in the last half hour he decided to take another quick look around to see if he could find this Corporal Hylton.

He glanced around and saw the same type of people he had been seeing for the last 30 minutes. Just regular people all in their work clothes, but as his eyes went pass the north entrance he noticed a Gear. This Gear was black and was wearing a black do- rag around his head. He had a few scars on his face and he seemed exceptionally tired with bags under his eyes. Damon took note that he wore armor unlike anything he's seen before. It was dark gray with a hunched backpack type thing on it. The black under suit didn't even cover up is arms completely, stopping around the wrist. Damon wanting to look like a true COG soldier quickly adorned his helmet which completely encased his head and face.

Chris swaggered up to the young gear and eyed him with pity. Before the Gear had put on his helmet Chris had spotted his face, and quickly took in features. This gear was young maybe no older then 18 as were most recruits. He had wavy blonde hair and a innocent looking face with blue eyes.

"You Damon Myles?" Chris asked as he stood in front of the young Gear. Being a whole head shorter Damon had to look up to see the black mans face, "yessir, Private Damon Myles at your service." Instinct took over as he raised his hand in a salute, so much instinct that he forgot he was holding his rifle and dropped it on the marble floor. The gun discharged and fired a quick burst into the nearby wall as it hit the floor. Everyone in the room ducked and a few women gave out cries of surprise.

"Keep that damn thing on safety Rookie, before you get someone killed!" Chris said angrily. Turning to the other people in the room he apologized. "Follow me now!"

"Sorry," Damon said embarrassed as he picked up his Lancer and quickly clicked the safety on, and then began to follow Chris. Chris turned his head and looked towards where Damon's duffle bag lay, "and don't forget that." Damon once more embarrassed for forgetting something like that turned and picked up his duffle bag then jogged after the fast moving Corporal.

Without turning around Chris smirked, "Welcome to Hunter, your just more meat for the grinder."