Killing Machine
Disclaimer: I do not own Gears of War
Captain Kurt Pliskin was a man about the regular size of a Gear except with longer legs that seemed to give off some indication of agility. His uniform was the typical COG armor with the variation of having open short sleeves that showed off the scars and tattoos on his long arms that seemed to be longer than an average person's. He was the only one of his group and probably COG forces to have a scar that curved up his cheek like a smirk. His hair was medium size, a bit longer than what military norms would be, but his hair couldn't reach in front of his eyes despite having a few strands fall in front of his forehead. Unlike his squad, he had auburn hair that sometimes looked red and was probably the only person in the military with that hair color.
"Alright men, command wants us freezing our asses off on that roof top with the football by morning," said Captain Kurt Pliskin as he put the cigarette out on the piece of debris that littered the ground. "We expect heavy enemy fire and there will be krill waiting to kill any poor bastard who steps out into the dark, but this is the best time to hit them. Most of the grunts are tired from the bombing and hit and runs that other squads have been doing so we should get light resistence."
"What about reinforcements from emergence holes," asked Lieutenant David Styles as he shouldered his Lancer rifle and started to clean his snub pistol. "The Locust are out to stop us at any costs and right now it seems that they have been doing a good job at hitting any forces and checkpoints that were left for us between the drop off point and here."
"Well there is no other way, unless you want to just wait until the war is over," replied the captain as he turned to look at the two privates, Richard Valentine and Vincent Price. "Both of you better be ready to get into the fight because we won't be waiting for no one, except for Beta squad."
"I guess there is no choice but to charge right in, sir," declared Pvt. Vincent as he started to fiddle with his gun and pulled off his helmet to stroke his black hair. None of the men had hair as dark as Price's nor were they as pale as him due to the fact that he was the only one who was wearing a helmet. He was also the one who was least eager to fight unlike the rowdy Richard Valentine, a blond haired boy who was bouncing off the wall to get into a fight.
"I'm up for it, I'd like to actually get a fight going for a change instead of all this running," exclaimed Richard as he started to rev his chainsaw bayonet in a frenzy. "I mean this squad is led by a man who is famous for killing Locust, ain't that right Captain, sir?"
"The killing was accidental, I only killed because I was forced to fight," replied Plisken as he ran a hand over his hair and started to stand up and took out his Lancer rifle. "Right now we better move to the rally point before it gets dark, we don't want to leave Beta squad out there in the middle of a Kryll swarm."
"Okay then you heard the Captain let's mount up," barked Lt. Styles as he picked up his rifle and slung his shotgun over his shoulder for close contact. "Just give the words, sir."
"Let's move out," ordered Plisken as he pointed to Richard. "Valentine you're on point!"
"Yes sir!" cried the happy soldier in response as he ran out in front of the group.
They started to march out near the street using the cars and damaged buildings for cover as they moved down the street and came to an intersection. Luckily Price made a habit of having a sniper rifle with him since he was the team's sharp shooter and checked around the corner for any enemies that might be hiding. When the coast seemed to be clear, Gamma squad started to move to the other side while checking around in a group for enemy fire. Everything was too quiet for that time of day, especially with the darkness coming; the Locust would be moving to get one last attack before being confined to lighted areas. Pvt. Richard started to move to the open area while crouching down so he was harder to hit and he reached the safety of a destroyed car that was used for cover. From his spot of cover he could catch sight of two grunts standing around out in the open.
"I've got two targets, permission to fire, sir," said the Pvt. Over his comm. link as Plisken picked up the line.
"Permission denied, we don't want to bring any attention to ourselves yet," replied the Captain as he started to peer out of his cover and then looked over at Richard who was acting as sniper from atop of one of the abandoned buildings.
"I don't see any snipers or enemy troops in the area," said Richard before he added, "though this is not a detailed observation, sir."
"Don't fire until I give the orders for weapons free," commanded Captain Plisken as he waited for Richard's detailed observation.
"Sorry, sir, but I don't think we can wait for that," replied Pvt. Valentine as he put his finger on the trigger and was ready to fire before Plisken intervened, grabbing the top of his weapon.
"If you're going to be in this squad you better learn to follow orders or else you won't be in this company," hissed Plisken as he let go of the weapon and then brought up his channel with Richard. "Any words on that report?"
"It appears to be only these two, probably stranded from their company," replied Richard over the link.
"Okay then, take the shot," ordered Plisken and Pvt. Valentine raised his gun to fire at one of the grunts while Richard took the other one out with a headshot.
"Tangos down," cheered Valentine as he stepped up from the cover and was immediately hit by the stray bullet from the last burst from one of the grunts, the one he had shot.
"Damn it, don't just jump up like it's a game of hide-and-go-seek," scolded Captain Plisken as he pulled Valentine down and then popped up to take the grunt out with another concentrated burst.
Valentine had been shot in the shoulder, the bullet managed to get lodge into the bone, the unluckiest of hits that was rewarded to those who God really had something against. With a curse, Plisken pulled out his knife and started to perform surgery to cut the bullet out while using one of his medical supplies to sow the wound up. The wound was able to be covered with a padded bandage that was given to all Gears in case of a wound occurring in battle that would make others bothered. After being certain that the wound was cleaned and closed, Plisken gave Valentine a pain stimulant so that he could still use the arm while the padded bandage would help the blood clots to form.
"Okay then, now that we've had our daily dose of stupid we can get moving again," announced Plisken as he stood up with his rifle in his hands and looked up at the sky. "We should be close to the area where Beta squad was so let's move!"
The Gears marched through the Locust territory, using alley ways and other short cuts to end up at the checkpoint during the final hour of daylight. The checkpoint was mostly an abandoned warehouse with lighting in it to protect itself from Kryll as well as mounted Troika's to protect them from grunt attacks. Beta squad consisted of three men, two privates and a sergeant. The youngest private was a man nearing the age of twenty-six and was probably the smallest in size having almost barely the average build of the army or rather barely in the range of an army build, and his face was covered with one of the helmets. He only stood at 5'6 with a very frail look and for some reason looked to be the greenest member. The other private, Private Quincy Morris was a big man with lightly tanned skin and a very slight mustache that almost looked like he had something on his upper lip. He was very well built for an army man, not as built as the famous Thrashball player, Private Augustus Cole, but still he was a big man.
Pvt. Price had a regular army look to him and was probably only distinguished for his drowsy look that made him look like some type of army drone. By contrast, Private Valentine was a bit bigger than Price with an army shave as well as the look of a big kid waiting for his playtime. His lieutenant, David Styles, was probably one of the vainest military men in the company because he always styled his hair with grease and would often spend time using a small mirror to wipe his face off. Before the war he was a bit of a lady's man, having a girlfriend in every city in Seras before the Locust attack forced him from the reserve and into action. Many had thought he would buckle up under the pressure from the rather dainty appearance he put on, but when push came to shove, Lt. Styles was one to push back, a trait that had made him Cpt. Plisken's go to man.
"Well then how many of you are here," asked Plisken as he lit a cigarette and started to look around at the Gears around him. The sergeant, a bald man with one blue eye stepped forward and saluted him.
"We're only three men strong, sir," replied the sergeant before adding, "I'm Sgt. Jonathan Crane, sir!"
"At ease, I want everyone to get any ammo they can and get ready to move out," announced Plisken as he looked at each soldier. The men dispersed to check around the rooms for spare ammunition and grenades that could be used later on in the battle. They all came back a few minutes later, standing at attention as they waited for their orders. "Okay then I want distance between numbers and stick to cover, I'm not losing most of you to snipers or Corpsers. Alright then move on, Morris I want you in the front."
"Yes sir!"
Pvt. Morris was holding one of the grub Hammerbursts, probably a good idea for at least one of them to have that, but for a point man that would be a bad idea since the enemies would be too close for the Hammerburst to be used efficiently. Following the large private was Private Jeremy Wilson, the greenest member of the group who seemed to be getting shakier by the second as they walked through the lighted area, Kryll swarming around them. The lighted path was safe enough, but it had the disadvantage of being narrow enough so that the enemy could easily keep them from advancing all night. Why Command wouldn't get lights for a much larger area was unknown but it was probably the original lights that had been there before and so that was all they had to use. Still, Captain Plisken was disappointed in the choice of lighting, but luckily they made it into the open area without an incident, a luck that was very rare.
"Finally we get off that narrow path," sighed Pvt. Jeremy as he let out a sigh of relief before he was hit in the stomach by one of the bullets from a grub sniper. In a flash, Pvt. Price had his sniper rifle aimed and placed a round right between the Grub snipers eyes, while the rest of the group ducked for cover.
"What's Pvt. Jeremy's status," asked Plisken as he raised his Lancer up and put down a line of fire on the grubs that were popping out of the emergence hole.
"He's still alive, but hit badly," replied Sgt. Crane as he pulled the young private to cover and then proceeded to deliver medical treatment to his wounds.
"Okay then, try and save his life meanwhile, Price, Morrison, and Styles, I want you to lay down some covering fire! Pvt. Valentine, you're with me!"
Price nodded instead of responding with the typical "yes sir" that was expected, but Plisken didn't care much about that, just as long as he was concentrating on sniping. Styles peered around the corner while aiming his Lancer at the enemy and let fire on the enemy, bullets peppering his cover while he fired a burst right into the leg of one of the grubs causing it to fall forward. He then brought the gun up to fire at its head, brains splattering out of its skull in a grayish-red matter that stained the floor.
Plisken didn't need a second as he started to rush right to one of the heavily damaged cars that were abandoned on the street with bullets flying over his head. The blood pumped through his temple as the adrenaline kicked in turning everything around him into one big haze as he slammed himself into the car and raised his gun to shoot over the roof. Behind him was Pvt. Valentine, who was foolishly gunning at everything that was around him as if it was some type of game to him, and the grubs started to concentrate their fire on him. Valentine would have been a damn good soldier if he hadn't been a stupid one, standing right in the clear while he started shooting off wildly and then when the bullets started to swarm to him, he panicked. Without a second thought he started to fire off wildly not even realizing that he gun was clicking empty as the bullets started to hit him in the shoulder and leg, bringing him down while the bullets flew over his head.
"Now I'm pissed," growled Captain Plisken as he rose to a standing position and started pressing on forward while shooting at the grubs.
Pvt. Valentine turned his head to see the bullets flying over Captain Plisken, as if no bullet would dare touch him and his own gun was unleashing a horizontal rain of death. There was something about the Captain, just from the way he looked as he fired upon the different grubs and then he lunged the nearest, his hand on the handle that was placed at the side of the assault rifle as he revved the chainsaw bayonet. He growled as red clouded his vision, only focusing on the frightened look on the face of the grub as he pushed the chainsaw blades right through it, slowly cutting it into pieces as he cursed and spat at it. He hated grubs, he hated his enemy, because he was a perfect soldier and a perfect soldier was only alive when he killed.
"Whose next," asked Plisken, his question booming out like thunder in a quiet night and he looked around to see that there was nothing left, only corpses.
"Alright then soldier, you're going to be okay," said Sgt. Crane as he tended to the wounds of the private, leaving Pvt. Jeremy's corpse behind in the dust. He was able to get Pvt. Valentine to somewhere near combat ready, but he wouldn't be able to do much for movement.
"There is a hill for us to capture, right now we have to make a run for it," announced Plisken as he pulled the mechanism for releasing the empty clip and slapped in a new one. "I hope you're ready for Hell men because I am."
Hell was the right word for it because as soon as they got to the base of the hill the grubs started to open fire on them with the Hammerbursts, bullets coming down like a deadly rain of metal. Captain Plisken slammed himself into cover while he watched his men do the same. Sgt. Crane was hit in the foot, causing him to stay behind as the rest of the squad navigated through the terrain while Price would stop at a place to fire at the grubs while the bullets hit the war torn hill. Pieces of rubble from the destroyed buildings provided excellent cover for the squad while Private Vincent Price stayed there to shoot at the grubs.
Plisken was the first to reach the house on the top of the hill as a lone grub started to fire out of the doorway, the bullets hitting Plisken in the side while he revved his chainsaw bayonet. Adrenaline pumped into his blood as he charged at the grub and raised his bayonet to bring it down on the grub, shredding through the skin as blood spurted out like a gushing fountain. Behind him was Lt. Styles, who was armed with a shotgun and used it to blow apart the face of the grub that was about to fire at Plisken.
"Clear out the rooms," ordered Plisken as he watched each man walk into the house before running out to find Sgt. Crane. It was obvious just from the way that Crane was laying that he was dead and this was only confirmed when Plisken lifted his head to see a bullet hole in his head. Not wanting to leave his body behind, Plisken picked him up and brought him into the house.
"Damn, we're short two men," cursed Styles as he saw the body of the sergeant laid out on a long wooden table that showed signs of decay in the legs and was partially burnt on the top. A lot of the house was marred by burnings or holes in the walls while the furniture was almost non-existent.
"We can manage here," said Plisken as he looked out of the window and into the cloudy night sky. "We'll wait here until evac arrives, but for now everyone pick a spot in this house and keep an eye out for enemy soldiers."
"Morning is almost up, but I don't think Pvt. Valentine will make it till we get him medical attention."
"Right now I'm beginning to wonder if any of us will make it through this night as well," replied Plisken as he sat down on what remained of a sofa. "The enemy is bound to be coming soon and I don't know if we have the ammo to take them all on. Even if we did this is probably the worst position to be in for us while they can easily send millions up here to fight us."
"You'll survive this one," said Styles. "You're a killing machine, doesn't matter how many they bring here."
"Wish I wasn't though because I'd have had a better life if I was not a killing soldier, just an average soldier. The only thing that could kill a killing machine is peace and that is why I'll always lose."