Without another sound, the man fell dead. His face was bloody and broken from the struggle against the Drone - whatever's left of his face anyway. The blue lights on his armor were almost covered in his own blood and flickered as the 7-foot tall creature just laughed at the scene in front of it. He stood over the body and kicked out the rifle held in the corpse's hand and raised it in celebration. Before leaving, he tossed the arm he ripped off from the late Gear on the body and followed another group of Locust Drones.

Hidden behind a knocked over street stand was a boy, no older than fourteen. He wanted to go and help but stayed put, he knew for a fact that the moment he left his cover he'd be next. Not to mention his lack of protection and firepower, he was only a simple boy forced to watch everyone he knew die slowly and painfully. He waited for a perfect opportunity to run and find someplace to wait everything out or find somebody who was still alive.

Once the opportunity did arrive he jumped for it but before he could finish the move for it, a much heftier version of the Drone stomped by; Boomer they called it. It stopped a few feet away from the boy, it surveyed the area, stopping when the Boomer looked content with his inspection. It started to make its way to... somewhere but stopped when a noise caught its attention. The boy's eyes widened as the Locust aimed in his direction. He closed his eyes as it fired... but it never hit him.

Instead, he blew away another poor soul trying to find his out of the slaughterhouse, but it's futile when every step greets you with a one-way ticket to hell. The Boomer sniffed the smoke and the already thick iron-laced air before following the Drone from earlier. The boy sighed a heavy breath of relief as it did so.

He already knew what was happening even before running back home. It happened to every other settlement before them: Woodstock, Iron Bridge, Rose Mary, all wiped off the map in a single day. Well, Woodstock did survive a seven-day siege against the Locust but even then, no one made it out alive.

When the coast was clear, he quietly dashed in a smashed out store, behind a flipped over car, and then in one long stretch, he hopped over fences across several backyards. A small group of Drones patrolled in a dirt alleyway nearby, and a single small twig snap alerted them to the boy's presence.

"Sapien," one Drone hissed. In a panic, the boy hid in one of the houses. The home belonged to a happy and once wealthy family but since the war, they held up in this small little town. They were quite popular too.

A single Wretch feasted upon one of the bodies that lied in the main room, a small pistol held in one of their hands. Time was running out as the chainlink fences rattled as the Locust jumped over them, they screeched in pure hatred for the boy.

The Wretch turned to him as he tried to reach for the gun before letting out a glass-shattering scream, it's voice causing the boy to cover his ears as the building itself shook. The deformed humanoid charged him, clawing at him all the while. He slammed his fist on the Wretch's head following it up with a kick that held as much force he could muster while it was temporarily stunned. It collapsed on the carpet trying to lift itself but the boy brought his foot down on its neck, stomping it continuously, he stopped when he heard the neck crunch under his boot. By now, the Drones were nearing the house so he scooped up the MX8 Snub Pistol with the few magazines left near it. He fired at the backdoor where he came from as the Drones poured in one by one.

As he fired, he walked back into the main room, he tried to duck behind a couch for cover but he was hit. He cried out in pain as the bullet slammed into his right shoulder and he fell to the ground. A Drone rushed to him, holding his Hammerbust high preparing to smash his head in but a quick succession of hot lead from the Snub blew his head into small pieces of bone. The wounded boy smiled slightly at his first kill, the Drone and the Drone's rifle fell right on top of him which only furthered his smile.

Using the dead body as a bullet shield, he reloaded and fired again, killing one more before popping in another fresh mag and pocketing the Snub to replace it with the Hammerburst Assault Rifle.

Admittedly, he had no experience with rifle class weapons but training live in the field should fix that real quick... or get him killed. The adrenaline that pumped through his veins numbed the pain from the kick of the gun as he fired. Another two Drones fell to the gunfire leaving one left crawling on the floor. With the stock of the Hammerburst, he bashed away at his skull until it ruptured. And then he was left with only his thoughts until the rest of the Locust occupying the town came for his head which shouldn't be too long from now.

His mother came to mind first but he already knew the answer for that one before it even properly formed. She was going blind for years now, it was unlikely for her to escape in such a tightly locked-down area. Quickly, he scrounged up ammo from the grubs and left from the front door this time. He decided that before leaving for another town, he'd check just to be sure about his mother. As a goodbye sort of thing. It wasn't going to be his first and definitely not the last.

Outside was a Reaver soaring high above. Locust foot soldiers marched toward his position fast, two Mallers leading the charge along with a Theron, Snipers steadied their scopes while Grenadiers pumped out the used shells of their Gnasher shotguns. They all had one goal in mind: kill the boy.

He grinned nervously but he still held on to the act of killing his first few Locust proudly. With one heavy breath of air, the Hammerburst's magazine fell to the earth below, he loaded the gun once more. He's on his own now and he's going to make sure it's the last thing these grubs try.

[I]

That was nearly 8 years ago and a long 8 years that was indeed. And now, well he isn't that far off from then huh?

He laid against an old couch that seen better days decades ago and that wasn't on his list of the most fun places to sit. He flipped out the silver locket around his neck, his eyes planted on the photo it contained. His mother sat to the left while his dad stood to the right. He was standing right next to dad while mom held onto a young baby girl wrapped in blankets with a pacifier in her mouth. He stared blankly at the photograph, without thought, his eyes wandered to his teammates in the room.

Sgt. Kelly Bridge sat in the corner, a bullet hole in his chin. Went straight to his brain. Pvt. Carter Burns laid sprawled out on the floor, a bullet wound right between the eyes. Everyone had the same gunshot wound that Kelly did: Derek, Ryan, and Kelly himself, except for Carter and the one and only… Dallas-fucking-Foster. What an unlucky bastard he was.

Carter would have had the same wound as everyone else did but no, he had to be the one who got killed by the Locust. He'd tried to convince Dallas that it would be better if he shot himself and left him alone which Dallas didn't take too kindly to. The dumbfuck tried to shoot him to make sure his plan worked but Dallas overpowered him in seconds and shot him himself.

The Boltok used for the "get out of jail free card" ran out of ammo, leaving Dallas all by his lonesome. Turns out when Carter tried shooting him, the Boltok actually had six bullets left not just the 5. The only thing left over in the battle was a single Bolo Granade, but it was enough to do what he wanted. While he didn't want to go out in a puff of smoke and a loud bang he had no choice, it was either this or giving the grubs a single ounce of joy in that they wiped a squad of Gears. Not a chance in hell. The sound of approaching footsteps only getting louder by the minute.

Taking one final gasp of air he slid back on his helmet as the footsteps suddenly stopped next to the door leading into the hallway. Under the door leading to the hallway was the low strained sound and the golden glow of a Torque Bow. It really was going to end like this, huh?

Under his helmet, he smiled grimly, he accepted his fate long before joining the COG. He stood up and extended the grenade out and began to swing it for the last time. The barbed tip of the explosive Torque arrow dug into the wooden door like paper as he bent his knees and prepared to pounce. Once the door exploded into splinters and smoke. He didn't even have to see through the vapor to start lunging at them.

Hot lead ripped through his exposed arms but it didn't matter now, what's done is done. The grenade embedded itself on the thick onyx armor of the Theron.

At least he did eventually bring the horde down with him, even if it was only a few of them.

And as the quick beeps died out… he did with it.

Edit 3/21/19.

This is one of my first real attempt at a story so mistakes were bound to happen at one point. Sadly, most of them went under the rader when originally posting so I fixed most of them by now. Hopefully, from now on I can be more consistent with my writing abilities in the future.

A massive shoutout to my buddy who helped out a ton with spelling and grammar mistakes. Without him, this first chapter would suck even more than it already does. Future chapters will come out a bit later then I want them to but they'd suffer the same fate as this chapter did. I will try to be more thorough with my proofreading and spell checking for your sake. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this, I really do hope you don't mind my mistakes.