Act 1: Ashes

Scene 1: 14 Years After E-Day

There I laid. Thoughts have made my mind grow weary, of all the same things. The same routine everyday...It's driving me crazy. If I don't get out of this god forsaken place I swear im going to kill myself. I can't stand it here, I was wrongfully placed hear. How does Hoffman outrank my father, another lie. Of course I've had time to dwell on my past. I have gotten over the trail a long time ago, but I still replay it in my head thinking of better outcomes. It's weird though. The prison seems a lot more quiet than it normally does. It doesn't even sound anyone even lives here anymore, if you can call it living.

But perhaps I spoke too soon. A terrible scream echoed throughout my cell, a few wretches were dancing around on top of a grate above my hand, almost as if they were taunting me. But soon I got the idea that they were hungry. One of them swung its scrawny arm at me, it looked like a rake trying to scratch the shit outta me. Then a display of disgust was made by the wretches as one of them vomited in my cage. 'Great now my cell smells like shit, I can't take much more of this...only 14 years. Feels like an eternity.' Those eyeless troll looking freaks have got some balls pissing me off. If I were able to get out of here I swear I'd strangle them. They hardly even stand tall enough to suck my balls.

I put my hands on behind my head and watched the wretches run off like a dog with its tail between its legs as a few lancer rounds were shot off. At last signs of life, for a second I thought that I was abandoned here to live out the rest of my life in this hell hole. Man, how long has it been. I can't even remember, at least I was able to get a some info from the guards that come to bring me my meals. I would ask them what the date was every odd time they fed me. Man I can't believe im 35, so much of my life was wasted here. I heard the hatch of the viewer open and I saw a man with a familiar look to him. He had a full grown beard and short hair, he reminds me of someone but I've been away from people so long that I can't quite tell. Until I heard his voice.

"Jack, rip that door!" he commanded 'Dom?'

I saw a reddish orange like bead hit the door, it followed a set pattern slicing the locks on the door. At first glance I was a bit skeptical and worried. I never get taken out of my cell, what the hell is going on here. Th door swung open and I immediately confirmed my assumption that it was Dominic Santiago, a Soldier of the C.O.G. and a friend. And metal side-kick was jack. A floating robot that was used for minor repair, opening locked doors, and minor medical treatment and field surgery. He put on his cloak so that he was invisible to the enemies and would not be harmed if a fire fight broke out. Dom walked underneath the arch of the doorway with a large duffle bag that I suspected had military equipment in it.

"What are you doing here?" I asked curiously, sounding a bit surprised.

"Getting you out. Here put this on. You'll need it." he said dropping the duffle bag to the floor.

I looked at the bag gruffly and opened it up, I found a military uniform in it which didn't sit well with me as well as a hammer burst. And I just had to tell Dom, "You could get into a lot of trouble for doing this."

"Not anymore. Things have changed." he said, I could tell from the tone in his voice he had a lot to tell me. I had to catch up with the world, with the new times. I spent quite a few years in that cell. I threw on the military uniform as Dom looked away, either from not wanting to watch as a get ready or to check and see if anyone is coming.

"We better go." he said, getting a bit nervous. There was something he wasn't telling me. Then I remembered about the other cell mates.

"What about the other prisoners? We cant just leave them here." I said picking up the Hammer Burst.

"Their gone. Hoffman pardoned everybody." replied Dom. 'What? I was never pardoned! God Dammit Hoffman you prick!'

"Is that right." I said in dismay.

"Welcome back to the army, soldier." said Dom, happy to see me back in action.

I groaned, "Shit," as I stepped out of my smell. I noticed a horrible smell, it came from the cell next to me. A looked over with a curious mask laid upon my face as I noticed that the door was bashed open and a small pool of blood just outside of the cell and bloody wretch footprints. I took a peak inside and what I saw brought me to near retch. I just about threw up right on the spot. A cell mate I knew, he was totally mangled. It looked like he was mauled by wretches. All that remained of him was his torso and bodyless head. His innards were in plain sight, trailing on the floor and his head close to his chest. If you looked closely you could see his neck bone and stinky excrements still in the bowl. He was killed on the can, his remains were drenched in blood which attracted many flies. 'Pardoned my ass.'

The flies were getting rather annoying getting close to my ear making their incessant buzzing noises more apparent. I made my way towards Dom who was waiting for me at the doorway which led to the prison blocks. "So what convinced you to come back for me?"

"Well I can't just let my best friend rot in jail when the prison isn't even under our control anymore." replied Dom, sounding reluctant.

"What? The locust..." I said leaving it hang in the air for a bit.

"Killed everyone." Dom stated turning around making his way to the prison blocks, "Come on lets go."

I complied and followed behind him. He put his right hand on his ear and began to talk to someone, who? I have no idea.

"Six four, this is Delta two we are on route, over." stated Dom.

"Copy that, we are beginning our run." stated the man on the other end who continued to speak, 'Six-four in position. Fox one, fox one."

I heard the sounds of a helicopter nearing our position, 'I began to wonder...' It all of a sudden the helicopter began firing on our position. It was on a bombing route, with us in the prison. "Hey!" I shouted as shards of glass hit me.

"Six-four, hold your fire. We are in the prison over." stated Dom.

"Roger that holding fire. Advise you relocate ASAP." said the pilot sounding a bit impatient.

Dom then turned at looked at me with a smile, "Man, If command knew I were hear to get you. I'd be in some deep shit. Come on, lets go."

"That's why you shouldn't all your gunna do is get into some serious shit. Besides, I felt safer in my cell." I said beginning to look up at the sky, "Fucking morons."

I then heard a small snicker come from Dom, he stills finds it humorous when I get in a swearing mood. We proceeded to the next door northwest from us. We walked through all the debris and made it through to the metal door where I booted it open. And what was behind the door was some dead bodies hanging from chains on the ceiling, a few crows flew out of there. Probably startled them when they were chowin' down. Looks like they cleaned these guys up pretty good their eyeballs were pecked clean and their skin was gone. All I could say really was, "Nice."

"What the hell's been going on in this prison?" asked Dom in disgust.

"You don't wanna know." I replied. A lot of horrible things go on here, none of them I really wanted to talk about.

We continued on to a small bridge when out of the blue a radio comm was broadcasted to me and Dom from the King Raven, "Ground units are taking heavy fire. We have hostels in all directions!"

Another comm was broadcasted, from command I think, "Copy that. Calling for reinforcement. Over."

Directly after the comm was finished King Raven made them selves in sight of Dom and I. It looked like it was getting fired on from an unseeable location. Luckily for the Raven it missed and hit a tower close to it making it crumble.

"Marcus, the tower." Dom said, trying to alert me to the collapsing tower. I noticed it beginning to crumble after a devastating blow was made to the lower section of the tower causing it to collapse. Soon afterwards I heard the grunts and evil laughs of locust drones, "Ground Walkers!" They were closing in on our position. "Take cover!"

I pressed my back against a slab of concrete and put of two rounds of blind fire shots so that I could move up and get a better shot. Unfortunately, I was immediately pinned by other drones on a bridge higher up to the right of me. "Dom!" I shouted looking at him.

"King Raven. Delta two...we've got Locust on that bridge. Over." said Dom making a comm link with King Raven.

"Roger that. Moving in." replied King Raven.

In a few seconds some pressure was relieved off from me when King Raven took out the Locust on the bridge giving me and Dom a chance to take out the Locust on our bridge. Dom moved up on their position, only a bit of cover was separating him and the Locust Drone. The drone jumped on top of the cover and rifle butted Dom in the forehead knocking him out. All alone and two drones closing in on me, I had to rely on combat experience.

The drone attempted to do the same to me, but I managed to put a shot in his knee causing him to fall over onto his face. He still managed to get up after that but I made sure that he wouldn't stay standing. I put a shot in his chest and bashed him in the face with my rifle. He was coughing up blood and still standing. I delivered the final blow causing his skull to somewhat cave in. I saw bullets whizzing by my face so I quickly took cover behind a pillar. I had a long range duel with the other one. I get the first shots in it causing it to groan in pain and agony. As I was reloading it made a rush to a pillar only a few feet away from Dom. I knew that it was going to try and finish him off. I laid down some shots to the exposed part of the Locust causing it to fall over and bleed out. I walked over to Dom and started slapping his face, attempting to bring him back to consciousness.

"Argh. Dammit, he got a lucky punch." sated Dom getting up. I found it humorous and laughed at him a bit. 'Six-four. We are moving in on your location. Over."

"Copy that, we are clearing area for extraction. Over." replied King Raven.

We continued our way across the bridge and made it to the doorway when Dom noticed some grenades lying next to the doorway, "Marcus, grab the grenades."

I grabbed a few and attached them to my belt saying, 'Got 'em." They were chain link grenades with the spiked explosive grenade at the end. Before I even made it to the next room I heard a locust drone taunting us. Me and Dom moved up and took cover behind the debris in the room. When I peaked my head up I could see three visible threats. One of them was in a double windowed room, another next to the room in a dark corridor behind cover and the last one was trying to flank us. I threw a grenade at the one in the double windowed room. It managed to bounce in the window and land right underneath the feet of the drone. It didn't even realize what had happened. It was obliterated. Several pieces of it went flying all over the place, his hand landed right next to me causing Dom to blurt out, "Boom, baby!"

As soon as he finished saying those words a drone got shot off on him just barley scratching the surface of his armor making him get a bit more cautious. The other two drones moved up on us getting merely feet away from us. We both got up and laid waste to the enemy via Hammer Burst. They were lucky I wasn't pissed off or else a less merciful fate would have been bestowed upon them.

"Okay, I think were good. Lets grab some ammo." said Dom.

"Alright then, lets get strapped." I replied.

We looked amongst the dead bodies to find unused magazines. We gathered them up and had enough for a while, we proceeded through the courtyard and were about to make our way to the P.Z. when we heard grunts behind the steel door that led there. And soon, they were cutting the door.

"Marcus, their cutting through the door. Take cover! Take Cover!" shouted Dom, getting cozy behind some concrete defense.

I grabbed another grenade out of my belt and readied it for the Locust who where about to breach the door. The second they blew their through, I launched into the smoke where the unsuspecting locust were about to step on deaths doorstep. The explosion took out the one behind the door who was cutting it. I guess they weren't as dumb as I thought they were. The remaining two took the left and right flanks. I put shots on the one flanking to the left and Dom finished him with a shot to the cranium causing brain matter to explode out of the back of his head. But the discharge made form the drones dying Hammer Burst shots scraped Dom's arm. "Ow! These guys are so luck!" he screamed.

"Now is not the time, Dom! To the right!" I screamed blasting the drone with five three-round bursts bringing him to a halt.

We proceeded to the courtyard for extraction when Dom made a comm broadcast, "Delta One, this is Delta Two. We are ready for extraction. Over." Soon after a reply was made, "Copy that."

On our way to P.Z. we encountered some heavy resistance. Multiple contacts were spreading out throughout the pick-up zone taking any kind of cover that they could. I threw my last two remaining grenades into the Horde. I wasn't sure if I caused casualties but I certainly did some damage. Once some cover was laid down I made my way to the left flank running up the stairs and shimming across the platform behind cover attempting to get a better shot. As the two choppers made their way into extraction Six-four was hit, "Six-four, this is Six-four we've been hit! I couldn't..." was the last words of Six-four before we lost radio contact and it crashed and burned.

"Six-four is down, I repeat, Six-four is down!" screeched Delta One, "We are aborting mission, I repeat, we are aborting position. Retrieving Delta now!" they continued in a panic.

Dom and I were still trying to clear the P.Z. so we had to hurry if they were going to pick us up. I took down one drone with two shots to the chest. I quickly reloaded and peaked my head out of cover to deliver some more shots. I shot a Locust that was a far ways away from me. So I figured it was safe to move up, and I did without a problem. Then the last one started moving in on me. It was apparent that it was going to get into close quarters. So I ran up to it and rifle butted it in the stomach, fazing it long enough for me to make the second deadly blow. I took the end of the Hammer Burst and rammed it into the side of its neck causing it to break and do a sort of cartwheel.

Suddenly King Raven made a comm broadcast moving in near the P.Z., "Delta, theres something moving below ground. Over."

"I see it too...what are we looking at?" replied Delta.

"Hell if I know." stated Raven.

Dom got a concerned look on his face that concerned me, he all ways kept his cool...something wasn't right. I noticed him moving toward King Raven and he began to scream at me, "Marcus, We've gotta move to the Raven, Now!"

I complied and ran as fast as I could, I mean come on. Who the hell does he think I am an olympic athlete? I can't move that fast! But yet he kept on telling me, "Go!Go!Go!" I soon figured out why he was so nervous. We barely made it out alive. A giant spider like demon popped up out of the ground like something out of a horror film. The chopper just narrowly escaped it's death, onboard I asked Dom, "What the hell was that?"

"A corpser..."