Act 2
The ground shuddered with the impacts of falling grindlifts and a thick cloud of dust was beginning to form all around the cavern from the impacts. The hissing of doors opening and the clanging of heavy boots on the metal was all the notice Jacob needed for the arrival of more gears.
"Thank God for these reinforcements, we could have been proper fucked without them" one of Gerry's men said. Nobody was sure what to do with his 3 remaining men. It hadn't been reported in yet about his death and securing the area was a priority over that, when more gears were on the ground he would have time to do it.
Bursts of gunfire were still echoing all around the Hollow and the odd thumping sound and quake of the ground of grindlifts descending in other parts of the Hollow could be heard. Hollow Storm seemed to be working so far. The Gears were making down in good numbers and seemed to be having the Locust on the back foot for the first time in a while. The Lightmass bomb had done a mighty good job but them grubs just came back twice as hard.
A man and by the look of the insignia seemed to be a Lieutenant, was walking over to Jacob and what was left of Baker 4 and Fox 2. He was about 4 inches taller than Jacob and had a long mane of black hair and a face of stone. Most Gears had a face that made a mother wince after a while but this guy just looked like he had a personal vendetta with every damn locust and had exacted a bloody toll. His stride was long and in his black armour seemed huge and menacing.
"Lieutenant Peter Stampton taking over command here and you are?" he said in that pompous and arrogant manner of somebody who knew their place was above the common grunt and it irked Jacob.
"Sergeant Jacob Wyler of Baker 4 sir" He replied crisply and snapped off a quick and prompt salute. "The area is secure sir, we are just after repelling a locust force from up there" he pointed "and I estimated their strength to be about 30 to 40 but we dealt with most of them and about only 5 or 6 managed to escape but Fox 2 lost their Sergeant in the process and I haven't had time to radio that to command." He reported briskly, just wanting to leave this jerks presence.
"Well done sergeant." Stampton said and just turned on his heel and walked off. What a jerk. It was guys like this who needed a good boot up their ass. The pendulum wars was the day of this kind of officer but now was the time for solid and dependable leaders like Sergeant Fenix and Delta Squad and even the leader of this rabble you could call an army, Colonel Victor Hoffman.
"Command this is Baker 4 reporting in. Grindlifts are down and area is secure. But we lost Fox 2 leader and 1 of his gears, Awaiting orders." Jacob reported as calmly as he could. He was still torn up about Gerry's death. There wasn't a god damn thing he could have done to save him but it still tore at him that he sat and watched him die trying to save everybody but then again that was how he would have wanted it. To be remembered as a hero to the men he served with and to set an example of what kind of sacrifice had to be made.
"This is Command Baker 4. Seeing as Fox 2 has 3 non-com Gears I'm now assigning them to your Squad command until further notice." Anthony said calmly and then followed "I'm sorry to hear about Gerry. He was a damn good friend and an even better soldier but he would have wanted you to lead in this situation. So kill a few for me Sarge" he said and then cut out.
Jacob walked over to the crowd that was now the new Baker 4. He didn't know any of them or how they worked but he would have to learn quickly. They seemed like a decent bunch of guys and from what he seen well drilled and ready for more killing.
"Ok listen up. You guys are now part of Baker 4. I'm Sergeant Jacob Wyler and this is Corporal Jase Cherry. I don't expect you guys to just forget you were part of Fox 2 but for now until I get the word your gonna be part of Baker 4 but no doubt if you guys work hard and show the initiative you could end up running your own damn squads." He said with a chuckle and the rest chuckled too.
"Some stick-arsed Lieutenant named Stampton is running things around here for now so I guess he has the order sheet. So just form up and get ready to move out in about 5." He said and then turned to talk to the stick-arse.
Walking towards the towering block of pompousness that was this Lieutenant he took a deep breathe and began. "Sorry to interrupt sir but I have my squad formed up and ready to deploy. Do you have our orders or will I have to contact command?" Jacob said in as nice a possible way as he could to somebody so nasty
"Well Sergeant, we are deploying a sonic resonator to map out the immediate area. But since you are ready, take a pick of any of the tunnels you can find and start killing some damn Locust. Are we clear?" he said and again, turned his back on Jacob like he wasn't even there in the same space as him. Pure upper class blue blooded bastard he thought. Probably bought his damn commission before E-Day and nobody seen any sense to demote this guy to cannon fodder.
Walking towards his squad he motioned with his lancer to ready up and follow. It was these kinds of actions that real squads understood, not everything had to be said to be understood.
One of the new squad turned to Jacob and with the cold glare of the UV lamps in his helmet said with a deep voice said "Where we going Sarge?" with a hint of fear in his voice.
"Don't worry soldier, were going to scout out the tunnels and report back to the beachhead if we run into any contact. From what I'm piecing together were going to try and find some grubs and when we do, we bring down more Gears to help eliminate the bastards. Doesn't sound like a half bad idea does it?" Jacob said trying to soothe the fears of the Gears. In actuality he had no idea what the plan was but there was no point in telling them that.
The first thing to learn about squad command was that morale was very important. You could train and drill a man forever but if he met the enemy and had no morale to stand up and take the fight to them, they were as good as dead meat.
They continued in silence. The grubs could be anywhere down here and they had started paying the price in blood for their over confidence. Hopefully they didn't lose too many Gears of they were doomed to die in this god forsaken hell hole that was the Hollows. There hadn't really ever been any kind of surveying of the Hollows before the war as far as he knew. If the big energy companies found a big pool of Imulsion then that was as far as they went but there was the children's spook story that monsters from underground would come up to scare bad children but nobody ever expected it to happen!
Leaving the tight confines of a tunnel they emerged onto a naturally formed gangway inside what was probably the largest space he could have ever seen. It might have stunk like hell and was twice as warm but the Hollow was so immense it was hard to comprehend. Below the gangway was enough Imulsion to fuel the COG from now to the next millennium and the damn grubs were keeping them from having it.
As far as he could tell apart from the odd thing the Grubs never actually used the Imulsion but why was beyond him or any of the big wigs back in Jacinto. For as much as the COG knew how to kill them they didn't know that much about their enemy except they were hell bent on killing every human left on Sera.
"Damn, that's one hell of a lot of Imulsion. If we win this damn war I want to call dibs on that lake." Said one of the new squad mates who Jacob found was called Victor Henson. He was a big guy about 6'3 and built like a tank and the only person who could make this guy seem small was the Cole Train. The new amalgamation seemed to be going quite smoothly but then again nobody had really been saying much but Jacob doubted that he was going to get much trouble from them and pretty much everybody kept their distance from the cold and methodical Jase.
"Well you will bloody earn it when we win!" Jacob emphasized then when because he had complete faith in the Human race to prevail where others might think they were doomed. The human race was more resilient than you thought. Through years of constant combat they had become quite the warrior race and knew how to fight, some people thought that was all we knew. That every new invention and leap in technology ultimately led to a fight over who got to control it and what purpose it could be used to fight somebody else.
But enough with the philosophy debate he thought to himself, Deep inside enemy territory with the chance of being killed at any moment and here he was having a philosophical debate about the human race. He steeled himself and cursed himself at the same time and continued to march on in silence.
The constant echo of Gunfire had become a background noise to Jacob but he knew then and there that there was a fight up ahead and he had to get into it, to keep himself sharp and also to see if he could help somehow.
"Ok, lets double time it guys. There's a fight up ahead and we gotta join the party!" he said to the Squad and started breaking into a run. The big chunky boots made a sprint hard but he couldn't waste time when people's lives were on the line.
The fight was about 500 meters down the gangway inside another enclosed tunnel space as far as he could tell and pushing himself to his physical limits he was closing in on the target and the din of combat becoming louder and louder with every footstep. In the rising smoke of the combat he could just about pick out a grindlift and a couple of Gears ahead taking the fight to the oncoming waves of drones and wretches. Jacob could spend all day killing drones but it was the damn wretches that got to him. They could climb anywhere and drop on top of you and rip your face to shreds if you weren't careful. Pushing the com-bead he broadcast his presence to the Gears.
"This is Baker 4 moving in from your rear to support. Over" He shouted and instantly a voice responded
"This is Gamma 2, glad to see you guys. Get your asses up here quick!" he shouted and then abruptly cut off. This was a battle that was coming down to the wire it seemed. They were probably running short on Ammo and the locust gaining ground with every second. Jase put the longshot onto the magnetic holster on his back and took a grip of his Gnasher shotgun. Jacob slid into the cover provided by the grindlift. It seemed that since it wasn't going back up topside that Gamma 2 had heaved it onto its side to use as cover. Smart thinking he thought, that's what real commanders are made of!
With a roar on his lips Jacob and his squad started unleashing punishing hails of fire into the wave of grubs and the battle quickly turned in the Gears favor. The wretches dropped and twitched were they were killed and the grubs were charging on mass into the wall of bullets and buckshot coming at them. Gamma leader was down to using his Snub pistol, his lancer probably out of ammo and he didn't seem to be carrying anything else with him.
After a few minutes of intense battle and bloodshed it went eerily quiet and that always unsettled you. The quiet part was where your fears rose to the front of your mind. The fear, paranoia and constant feeling that you could die any time and that was the hardest part for any soldier but it came with the job.
"Ok Gamma, make your way back from where we came, there is a beachhead settling down about 2 kliks from here and they probably have some ammo for your guns. We are going to move on from here." Jacob told them quickly as he reloaded his lancer and made ready to keep moving. The rest of Baker 4 were moving out as well and in his com-bead he heard the voice of Gamma leader say his thanks and again the silence was there, only broken by the soft crunching sound of boots hitting the dusty floor.
Walking along the long winding paths of the Hollow Jacob and Jase leading from the front while the rest of the Squad were covering the rear of their column, Jase quietly turned to him and said "Have you noticed that since we have got down here we have only seen Drones and wretches and maybe that 1 Kantus and Theron Guard? Ok maybe the last 2 are a bit of a rarity topside but I haven't seen a single boomer or grinder or even a Brumak. Not like I'm looking to fight a Brumak, but come on! Were in the Hollows for god sake, their back yard and not a single big bad guy? They must be waiting for us deeper inside now that they know we can penetrate this far in."
"I have noticed that already but I'm just hoping that the forward Squads such as Delta and Alpha have taken most of them damn bastards down and all were down here for is a clean up. But your just itching for a big fight ain't ya buddy?" Jacob replied with a bit of a laugh. He was hoping the hypothesis was right and most of the grubs were just starting to cool off now in piles deep of their own dead but that was wishful thinking for a Gear.
About 400 meters in front of them was another opening to a tunnel but there wasn't much light emanating from the mouth of it. It gave Jacob the spooks and he waved his hand for everybody to fan out and find cover. This seemed like as good a place as any for the Locust to get the drop on you he thought to himself.
Jacob and Jase took the liberty of moving forward towards the opening and he radioed to Victor "Ok, were going to move in and see what we can find around the opening, keep an eye out for any surprises while were in there." Jacob asked quietly over the radio
"No problem Sarge, Henson out." The deep booming voice came back over the radio.
Creeping slowly down the path into the all consuming darkness Jacob was searching for any sign of trouble but he couldn't even see the end of his gun in the darkness let alone any enemies. "No contact as of yet…" he said into the open channel of his com-bead. Swinging the lancer from side to side he was on the edge waiting for something bad to happen.
The gloom seemed to be dissipating but still he was on edge and some light was beginning to sting his eyes but he still kept looking around expecting at any moment for the grubs to make their move and kill him and Jase. "Ok, move up, were on the other side of the dark patch." He radioed back. Still scanning frantically he wouldn't be happy until they were all back together as a unit. Strength lay in numbers when it came to dealing with the Locust.
The clanging of the boots was emanating from the darkness and after a few seconds the faces and helmets of the rest of Baker 4 were back into the light. Jacob couldn't understand why it was so dark but it really bugged him. Maybe it was thinking back to pre-Timgad times when the darkness meant Kryll and practically instant death. Now the Lightmass bomb had destroyed the Kryll the darkness wasn't as big a threat as it once was.
Jacob's heart was still pounding inside his chest and a sudden burst of a voice in his ear nearly put him over the edge. It was coming from command this time.
"Baker 4 leader, this is Command. We have reports of a major firefight about…3 kliks from your position. Our Gears need immediate assistance." The voice radioed, it was Anthony again. He must still be on duty after this long. No doubt all the operators were running crazy shifts now. This was the single biggest operation launched by the COG in years and with such a small population people had to make some sacrifices like sleep.
"Roger that control tell them we shall be with them as quick as possible." He said and with a wave of his hand he pointed down the next long gangway and started to run. Another day, another battle he said to himself.