Omega's Valued Prisoner.
Chapter 2: Lambent.
Currently the sun has risen and it is morning. Aiden is awake before everyone standing on one knee muttering a prayer. Within his hands clasped together are black prayer beads. Aiden is always up early, and after his prayer walks over to a now active fire where he is cooking a meal. He approaches Osman's sleeping bag which is zipped up so he is within it, and shakes it a little.
"Ugh, is there breakfast?" he muttered from within.
"I will make you some if you need it." said Aiden.
"I do."
"Then get up and I will make the five of us a nice meal. I caught us something nice." Osman pulls it open exposing his tan face. He has short black hair and a soul patch.
"I hope this isn't roadkill soup again." he said frightened it would be.
"No this is better than! I found a nice recipe to cook Locust."
"...I am gonna be sick! We are eating Locust!" said Osman "This is a new low even for you." Aiden laughs a little.
"Nah its a surprise, get up and you'll get some." Osman climbs out of the tent. He is wearing his normal Gears armor pants and a black T-shirt. He walks clumsily to his makeshift bench almost tripping twice and gets to his bench. Osman is handed an old metal circle with what looks like, a 5-star meal.
"What is this!" said Osman.
"This, is what this Locust girly of ours was fed every day. Eat up, don't know how much of it we got left or how long we will keep those crates. Then you got to take down your sentry and load it into the cart. We can probably follow that on a path and make it back home."
"...How early do you get up?" asked Osman.
"I have been awake for two hours now as usual." Osman is about to say something but realizes they should be used to it and just remains quiet. An hour or so later Tanner finally wakes up. Gyules and Moragna waking up before him. Moragna is still bound but without the duct tape. Gyules is feeding her a meal as he tends to his own.
"You are feeding the prisoner? Can't she have road kill soup or something?" asked Tanner as he was getting up.
"Aiden prepped the meal, we feed it to her. Just cause she is a prisoner doesn't mean we have to go out of our way to treat her like crap." said Gyules.
"...Douche." said Tanner as he was handed a plate.
"I am tempted to give him roadkill soup...or make him into it." Gyules muttered to Moragna.
"If you hate him why not just kill him?"
"Because we need every man we can and it takes a long time for a human to mature." Before she can say something he cuts a bit of the meat off of her plate and puts it in her mouth. She chews and swallows the food.
"Good human meat, I see you guys do cannibalism also." said Moragna with an evil smile.
"Wait what..." said Osman.
"FUCK!" said Tanner gagging after eating his first bite. Aiden doesn't care and Gyules looks disgusted.
"She is bluffing." said Aiden.
"How do you know! We know these creatures eat us!" said Tanner. He throws his plate of food out.
"Wasted a plate, but the real answer is because she is grinning evilly and I have had human before. Tastes different, much worse."
"You are a sick man Aiden." said Osman. Aiden snickers a little.
"Once the soul is gone the body is useless, its still good meat."
"Well doesn't matter for me, I am out food anyways." said Tanner.
"May I have more?" asked Moragna.
"After that trick..." Gyules shoves the entire meat in her mouth. "Have it all." He walks off as she tries to chew it all look pissed at him. Moragna could think of a million harsh comments to say to them at any moment, but for now unless angered to the point she would not lash out but at least try to mess with them.
"So after we eat we are gonna pack up and leave guys."
"Sir if I may request, may we take the cart?" asked Aiden.
"Can we drive it?"
"I will go confirm that." said Tanner walking off. He comes back a few minutes later.
"Of course you drive it!" said Moragna "You killed the Grenadier who learned from a Beast Rider how to drive it though. You merely look at a little screen and you can see through areas on the little lights on its leg armor."
"Oh...alright then, I got dibs on driving it!" said Tanner.
"You are welcome to do so, in cart fighting I doubt you'd be any good." said Gyules.
"HEY! I got my Gorgon Pistols for a reason!"
"Just drive." Tanner mumbles a few curses and walks into the cart. Inside the cart its set up pretty nice. An old chair is at a control panel in front in which the beast operates a bit like a car. To the opposite side of the door are three large crates, two stacked on top near going to the ceiling, and one next to it thats been opened to get the food. The floor is stone and markings bear the inside of it as well. A soft lovely bed sits at the end of the end with a block of granite as a nightstand. A jewelry box sits on it with a necklace bearing a Locust symbol pendent laying on top of it. Moragna is carried in and placed on the bed as Osman get inside. Aiden climbs from to the roof of it which has multiple crates on it though smaller which can act as cover. Possibly someone was meant to be on top but they did not put one up there or the Locust up there was killed. Gyules goes out and grabs one of the Mulcher's left over. He picks it up to the best of his abilities as Aiden grabs the barrel and with ease pulls it on top. They do the same with the other one and everyone gets in.
"K lets see how fast this thing will go!" said Tanner as Gyules climbed in. Tanner looked at the little screen and began driving it.
"Hard to believe what the Locusts accomplished...by accomplished I mean they just obviously used old technology to create this shit."
"We know they are resourceful, a reason why they were winning. We are just better." said Osman.
"Well considering they turned old crossbows we tossed into the hollow into one of my favorite weapons the Torque Bow."
"We basically had to learn a lot of our stuff from your old shit. Luckily we have Locusts smart enough to do so." said Moragna.
"Doesn't matter lets just get back to camp as fast as we can." said Gyules.
"Alright gonna speed up." said Tanner. Tanner begins to make the thing go as fast as he can. The Corpser is running at intense speeds sending them almost flying back. Aiden on top is trying to keep his Mulchers from flying away as the thing speeds forward. Tanner slows it down and shouts apologies to them all. Nothing much occurs along the path until they are out of the woods and in moreso of a grassland.
"Its hard to believe how well this land grew back." said Osman looking through the window. "The COG burned everything outside of the Jacinto Plateau yet so many forests popped up."
"The ash is good for the soil, wherever there is death there is life." said Aiden from the roof.
"And wherever there are Gears there are enemies, I SEE A STALK!" shouted Moragna. The guys all look at what she is looking out to only see a dead stalk.
"Its dead and hasn't been cut down and made into firewood." said Gyules "It could be old but keep an eye out anyways." As they inch away from that they hear a sound and a stalk comes out of the ground with a few Lambent Drones coming out of pods, along with a Drudge to the right side of the cart.
"We got company!" said Aiden as he picked up his Mulcher and began grinding it at the Drudge. The Druge begins to mutate and a grows a headsnake. Osman and Gyules open the windows only to have Osman sprayed with some Imulsion. He screams in pain and gets into cover as Gyules fires his Lancer at the headsnake. The Drudge blows up and Osman takes out his pistol killing the headsnake. More drones begin to come out and fire at the Corpser and the cart.
"Think they can do any damage?" asked Osman.
"Don't appear to." The Lambent drones are quickly killed by Aiden's Mulcher and he kills the pods. Two more Stalks arise one behind and one in the center of the road. A Gunker comes out of the one in front of the road.
"I got an idea!" said Tanner as he floored it. The cart went speeding towards the Gunker and the Corpser rammed it and stopped instantly as they felt something hit the front of the cart. Outside Aiden looks over and sees the Gunker retract its slicing arm. The Corpser's head is split in two. He unleashes the last of the first Mulcher to kill it and gets into cover as Imulsion is sprayed about. The Lambent are incoming.
"Shit, TANNER GET THIS THING MOVING YOU DICKWEED!" shouted Gyules as he opened a window and shot down two Lambent.
"I am trying but the Corpser is dead!"
"And now we are dead...just great I always figured the infection would kill me!" shouted Moragna.
"Be quiet! We don't need your support!" said Gyules. Gunfire comes at him and he has to get into cover. He blind fires and harms a Lambent but doesn't kill it. The door is kicked down and Osman rolls over to it and fires his Gnasher twice to kill two Lambent coming in. Tanner gets out two Gorgon pistols.
"GUYS! Get out of the cart, we are gonna be cornered and killed here! Go to the old subway ruins we might be able to defend there!" shouted Aiden as he killed Lambent finishing off the second and last Mulcher's rounds.
"He is right, Osman, go first!" said Gyules. Osman uses his Gnasher on two more guys and then Roadie Runs forward. Gyules grabs Moragna and she is light enough that after Tanner goes ahead he can carry her. Gyules carries her bridal style as Aiden jumps down crushing a Lambent and enduring the explosion as he fires his hammerburst at them. A former Grenadier runs up and Aiden pulls out a grenade quickly slamming it into the Lambent's face, throwing it into the increasing group which is now ranking in fifty men and Roadie Runs off to the rest of the guys by the dead Corpser. Aiden fires his Boomshot into the ongoing horde of Lambent and then throws a frag grenade into the now thick horde of Lambent coming.
"K run when?" asked Tanner.
"One second!" said Gyules as he took out his Retro Lancer and cut the ropes restraining Moragna.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"Making it easier to bring you along, ROADIE RUN NOW!" he shouted as they began to run towards the ruins of an old subway and get behind a car parked there. Moragna was barely able to keep up and they all took some hits to the back. Luckily their armour mostly blocked the bullets.
"Fuck even through the armour their bullets hurt a bit!" said Osman.
"It'll heal! Get firing at them, use grenades, do whatever you can to hold them off! We have flashlights once in the subway which we can navigate to the end of it and then come out and head back to the tunnel having lost them." shouted Gyules.
"Alright lets do this!" said Aiden standing up throwing his two of his three grenades at the same time. He then takes his Boomshot and begins screaming a battle cry as he is firing it. Tanner throws a smoke grenade, Osman one frag, then another, and the last thrown is by Gyules who throws a smoke. Osman's frag stuck to a Lambent's face who tried to charge at them but explodes sending his Hammerburst at them. Gyules catches it with one hand and hands it to Moragna.
"I don't care if you don't know how to use it, just fire." he said. Lambent were running out of the smoke but kept getting gunned down and exploding. Every time a Drudge came out the guys would focus their ammunition into its stomach and make it explode. After twenty eight dead Lambent drones, and five dead Drudges they were all behind cover with little ammo.
"Shit!" said Osman "Run to the subway now? I think we should find enough ammo for the trip there."
"Course, HURRY HURRY HURRY!" he said signaling them to run down. The guys run down the subway as Gyules stands up and is firing at the Lambent. One is running close with a shotgun and he slams his Retro Lancer's bayonet into it's eyes and kicks it back doing a tumble down and tripping down the stairs. Gyules falls on top of Moragna as Aiden slams a grenade on the wall. Osman and Tanner pull back Moragna pulling Gyules who is on top of her as the explosion goes off collapsing the staircase. There is silence within the darkness and then they all hear: "GET THE FUCK OFF OF ME HUMAN!"
Moragna throws Gyules off of her slams the gun into his back.
"DON'T EVER TOUCH ME YOU WEAK PATHETIC HUMAN!" Gyules gets up dusting himself off.
"Sorry sorry Prince Bitch for trying not to get shot! I saved your ass too giving that gun."
"If I never met you I wouldn't of been in that situation hence been fine, happy, and helping end your species like it will soon." Osman shines a flashlight at them.
"How cute, they are in love!" he joked.
"Mora and Klause sitting in a tree, F-U-C-K-I-N-G." sang Tanner.
"Klause? And what does that spell!"
"It spells this!" said Klause Gyules punching Tanner hard, his own face a little red.
"Someone is sensitive!" said Tanner.
"Both of you do not mock the commander, now is not the time." said Aiden. He is difficult to see and is farther ahead of them.
"We have Wretches living in here." said Aiden.. Moragna appears happy when the light is shined at her.
"Awe I LOVE WRETCHES! They are so cute and playful!" she said. Omega Squad looks at her weird and she returns the look.
"What? Never played with a Wretch? All of the Locust creatures are cute and playful but Wretches are the most playful."
"Bet she can get a Brumak to roll over?" asked Osman.
"Lets hope if we see one she makes it play dead." said Tanner. The guys begin to rush down the tunnel.
"What about your supplies, do you care for those at all?" asked Moragna.
"We will deal without them, we can merely say we all we caught was you." said Gyules "Whether Conway will be pleased you arrive or not we'll see. If he isn't then might just need to kill you."
"Great so I am at the mercy of this human whether he likes me or not, why don't I just kill you guys right now, I got a gun. Give me a reason" said Moragna.
"Because if you shoot one one of us dead then the survivors will kill you. Gears are not trained to take prisoners of war so don't get angry if I am too kind or cruel with this!" stated Gyules with anger in his voice. "Now we must get going, there will be Wrenches ahead and a possibly Stranded settlement. You Locusts have no idea how many settlements you missed and how well humanity survives."
"Hope we don't find any Stranded, fuckin hate them." said Osman.
"They are just trying to survive like the rest of us and the fucking COG did kind of, oh you know, burn their homes and friends into shit."
"They still don't have to be so hostile to us! Its not like we were the ones who did so specifically."
"No but we represent those who did so, I pity them and everyone in that area. If only we used a different strategy." said Gyules.
"If we did we wouldn't be here now then! Would we?" said Tanner.
"Might not be! If we kept to coastal cities and used as Adam Fenix had suggested to sink Jacinto then we would be relaxing and have never met." said Gyules.
"Wait Adam Fenix? I know him!" said Moragna as they began to wander off of the railways and onto a different railway. The sounds of Wretches hoping about can be heard making Omega uneasy. They still have to ask about this though.
"You know him currently? The bastard hero is dead!" said Osman.
"Well, mom spoke of him and when I was little and would run around our house I saw him and mom talking a few times. Mom would sometimes be kind to him, but other times she would be angry and demanding, yelling at him furiously and even hit him a few times. He is the one human I assume could've even been remotely good at something." confessed Moragna.
"Eager to give out a history, aren't we? So Adam Fenix knew the queen...as that info we got last week revealed. Thank god we still get some information from the former COG." said Tanner "Well used to but now all relies are dead ever since a raccoon chewed through our hidden satellite dish's wire."
"Smooth..." said Moragna before they all began to hear a terrible scream. A wretch stood with the light shining brightly behind it as it screamed. Three wretches, ran past it and at them.
"Come here little guys!" shouted Moragna getting on her knees with her arms spread. The three Wretches run up and into her arms as she barely manages to hug them all. The fourth runs up and she begins scratching under the jaw of one and the tummy of one. The one getting its tummy scratched rolled over and was kicking its legs.
"Come on, show them some love guys!" she shouted "Do it or they will attack." Tanner aims at one and Gyules smacks the back of his head.
"We are low on ammo, don't waste." said Gyules. Aiden was already on the ground and had one laying in his lap as he petted it. Two more ran up and Gyules got down next to Moragna and began rubbing the stomach of one. Tanner merely looks pissed at the creatures until one begins running up against him and looks up at him expecting. Tanner glares at it until Gyules slams his fist into Tanner's knee. Tanner gets down and begins petting them.
"Ah, their skin is like sandpaper!" he said.
"Don't complain."
"Aha! I like these creatures, think we can keep up for the rode sir?" asked Aiden as he took one Tanner neglected and held it into the air. He placed it on the ground and began to pet it vigorously.
"I think we should, can we Gyules?" asked Moragna "It'll make me think more of you humans!"
"Eh it'd be too many mouths to feed, four men, a human girl-"
"LOCUST! I AM NOT A HUMAN!" The Wretches growl at Tanner.
"Okay okay okay! Fine, Locust, Locust girl and a little monkey beast thing."
"Fine, we keep one Wretch, one! Moragna, pick which one, name it, then we head to that Stranded settlement ahead for any directions or trade or anything at all." Gyules gets up and begins walking off as the Wretches run up to Moragna, wave bye to her and leave." In the end the only Wretch left is the one sleeping in Aiden's lap which he lifts up.
"I name you after the greatest warrior to have fallen, Tai." said Aiden "The name will give it power." He begins to walk towards the light holding the Wretch as Moragna admired it. Walking ahead of the group was Osman, Tanner, and Gyules.
"Are you insane! Letting her keep that, that beast with us!" shouted Tanner "It will kill us in our sleep!"
"If it goes feral we will kill it and it appears tame with her around, besides a pet might increase our morale a bit."
"I am sorry but I must agree with Tanner here, we can't let that thing with us!" said Osman.
"Obey my order and be quiet Osman! We can let her keep it, make her a bit happy, Conway is probably gonna have her killed anyways." said Gyules.
"She deserves to die! She has been killing off our entire fucking race!" said Tanner. Gyules growls a bit and is tempted to lash out at him. Rather he just sighs and simply turns to him stating as they got to the Stranded settlement: "She has done nothing wrong, is not commanding troops, and is merely related to Myrrah. Just because she is related doesn't make her in the least bit responsible for any of the problems the Locusts have created. Now be quiet we got Stranded to deal with. Lets not let them know what she is." Gyules steps back a bit over to Moragna who was admiring the Wretch.
"Mora, for this city you need to pretend to be human. If anyone asks you stole the armour from a fallen Locust cart. Do this not for our safety but for your own because if you say you are Locust you will certainly end up shot and dead." said Gyules "Got it?" Moragna sighs appearing annoyed.
"Fine if I must to survive. Its really starting to look tempting to just take my chances and kill your squad." said Moragna.
"Don't express how much of a spoiled fucking grub you are around us, okay? You are with Gears for the time being, you do what you can to survive, accept what you can, eat whats edible, and you survive any way possible." said Gyules. He steps back with Osman and Tanner.
"Why is he such a hard ass?" asked Moragna.
"Oh he has been in a bad mood for a long while now. His girlfriend