Act 3

Emerging into the enormous cavern that was this battle ground, it made the last one look like a tiny closet. There were all the big guns out now for the locust. There were a couple of Brumaks on the battlefield and entire battalions of drones and wretches and snipers and boomers and therons. This was one of the most colossal battles ever in COG history and now it was time to join the fight.

"For the COG" Jacob roared and began to sprint down the steps towards destiny. Then he thought to himself…steps? The grubs had actually formed steps down to this battlefield like they had planned for this kind of contingency. Like they knew we would be here sometime.

Moving into a line formation Baker 4 joined the battle and threw themselves hard into the killing. Shotguns were shredding drones and wretches to pieces and lancers were pumping out hundreds of thousands of bullets and eviscerating anything that got in their way. A couple of troika machine guns had been hastily deployed by the Gears and were making their mark in the grubs. The Brumaks though were launching punishing salvos of missiles and in the corner of his eye Jacob seen handfuls of Gears being tossed into the air like confetti.

"Take down the big ones and see can we scavenge some boomers. We need to get them Brumaks off the field before they kill us all." Jacob shouted to the men around him. There was more than just Baker 4 in his field of command and nobody seemed to disagree with him either. Concentrating their fire on the boomers to their right they had expended some amount of clips taking them down but the numbers didn't seem to thin out that much to make the dash for their guns.

"Grenades!" he shouted while unclipping one from his belt and stood to make the throw. The bolo grenades were great for long distance throwing because of the handle that could let you throw them some distance. The grenade left his hand a few others had thrown as well and in 2 seconds a crump of explosions had thrown drones around like a bull in a china shop and without a word Jacob, Victor and another member of Baker 4 bounded over their cover and made for the boomshots.

Pumping their legs they covered the distance and jumped into cover before a loud shout confirmed their worst fears. "Were pinned down by a grinder! Fuck!" he shouted at himself. They couldn't move now and trying to fire at it would be near suicide.

"I got a shot on that grinder. 2 seconds Jake." Jase said and the radio went dead.

The grinder was in mid shout, the deep booming sound of its war cry cut short when its head turned to a fine mist of blood and brain matter.

"Thanks were moving out again…" Jacob said and sprinted from the tiny chunk of cover that was left from the grinders devastating barrage of bullets. The boomshots were in sight and sliding across the floor he grabbed one and searched around for more shots. The boomers were heavier than a truck and twice as dangerous so moving their bodies was a chore, but Jacob and the two others managed to find 6 spare shots before making the run back to their lines. No man's land was as dangerous as the enemy lines because it meant you could be shot in the back running back to safety or caught in the crossfire of your men trying to save your ass. The Gears were good shots but accidents do happen.

Jacob mantled over the cover and with a heavy thud hit the floor with a big boomshot in his hands. "Ok, lets party" he said as he looked at Jase with a smile on his face. There were Brumaks to their left, about 400 meters away but the effective range of a boomshot was about 30 to 40 meters.

"Ok, I'm going with Victor and…" he looked at the other man but didn't know his name yet, which embarrassed Jacob slightly.

"Rikki sir, Private Adam Rikki." The helmet said back to him with a shake of its head.

"Ok, Rikki show me what you can do with that thing. Were moving down the line to hit these damn Brumaks. Jase you're in charge 'til I get back. Let's move out!" Jacob said and began to roadie run down the line of sandbags and natural rock formations that provided cover for the Gears.

The sound of battle was loud but not deafeningly loud as such. The room was so big that the sound was enveloped by the walls and roof and sent back as a tiny echo. It was a weird effect that he hadn't experienced before and that was another thing on the list of things in the Hollow that bug me he was compiling in his head.

The Brumaks were still punishing the Gears but the sheer volume of fire had taken one of the damn beasts down but the grubs were still moving up fast, even clambering over the body to reach the frontlines to rip apart and eat the hearts of their aggressors. Shrieks and roars and other bestial sounds were preceding the bullets and missiles coming from the Locust and it would scare a man just as much as the bullet. Grubs didn't just kill for victory but for the sheer love of it. They relished in the bloodshed and probably had been bred to love killing. What sick fucking creatures Jacob thought to himself.

"Ok, hit the big things on their arms. They're like super troikas or something and can rip a man to shreds in seconds. I'll go for the missile launcher on top." He said to Victor and Rikki. He was taking the harder shot because he felt he had to inspire the men around him with some kind of heroic feat. Rikki seemed young to him somehow, like he wasn't a veteran Gear like him or Victor and he and would still need battlefield blooding.

Taking aim with the boomshots they counted down from 3 and fired at their targets all at once. Victor scored a hit and a massive explosion erupted from the left gun and chunks of metal and shrapnel came from the ruined arm and a roar came from the beast's mouth. The Missile launcher took the next hit and when the white hot flash of the explosion cleared his sight the smoking ruins of the launcher showed another successful hit. Rikki though missed his shot completely and Jacob shook his head in disappointment.

"You gotta compensate for the drop of the rocket. Aim a good bit over the target and try again!" he shouted over the din of combat at the young private. Rikki raised his boomshot again loading in another cumbersome rocket but while he was taking aim the Brumak started to move around like a crazy horse thrashing out it limbs and smashing aside Gears and grubs alike but it needed putting down. Rikki bounded out of his cover into the middle of open ground trying to make his shot

"Get back here private! Your gonna get yourself killed!" Jacob shouted as he made to reach the young and reckless Rikki. He shouted back something about having the perfect shot and still Jacob was trying to save him. The Brumak was still thrashing around and stomping its tank sized hands into the ground in a savage attempt to unleash the fury brought on by the crippling pain. Rikki's boomshot kicked in his hands and in slow motion Jacob seen the horrifying action in slow motion.

The boomshot travelled in a perfect arc towards the gun mount and no matter where the brumak moved it would take the full brunt of this attack but what Rikki didn't see was the brumaks hand raising above him and coming down in a savage blow that crushed Rikki inside his armour and sprayed blood in wide gruesome arcs across the ground like somebody standing on a tin can of red paint. That's what it reminded Jacob of it was so brutal but he could hardly believe himself.

"Rikki! NO!" he shouted but the Brumak was in its death throes and crashed to the ground on top of the corpse of what was Private Adam Rikki of Baker 4. "God Damnit no!" Jacob sighed to himself as the crushing reality of the situation was dawning on him. The com-net was alive with whoops and cheers as the second Brumak came crashing down and voices were asking who took it down and across the battlefield the name of Jacob Wyler was being hailed as a hero of the COG.

"Sergeant Wyler? Sarge?" a voice was beside him shaking him out of reprieve and when he came to it was Victor trying to get him to move out of the way for more squads to push forwards. The COG were charging forwards, ever deeper into the grubs and taking the fight to them any way they could. Scorchers and Grinders were spitting hail and brimstone at the monsters from the deep like in the old myths he had heard as a child.

"Ok, lets regroup with the rest of Baker 4 and keep moving up." he said sourly and Victor could see the distraction in his eyes, probably running the sight of that young private getting killed and all the other things that run through your mind when something like that happens.

"Jake, don't do it man. You can't change anything now and we need you to lead us man! So just keep it together until we get back topside and then you can grieve all you want." he said as sympathetically as he could to his Squad leader.

"Yeah, your right. Let's keep moving though ok?" he said and broke into a sprint. The war was still here and while it was he had a job to do and he wouldn't stop until they were dead or he was dead now.

The two stragglers rejoined their squad at the right flank of the attack and started to push on into the locust lines. The fighting was fierce and bloody, so much blood and ichor was spilt that the ground was slick and people were losing their footing and slipping in the blood. Taking any chance necessary openings they could get the Gears and Locust were reaping a bloody toll on each other with their chainsaw bayonets and gun butts and even their bare fists when it was necessary.

Jacob was getting stuck in with the thick of fighting, ripping through the tough armour like skin of a drone with his chainsaw bayonet, the blood and guts splashing his armour and clogging the mechanisms of his bayonet. It was tough work taking down the grubs in close combat, they were hardy foes and very resilient against pain so it was very precise killing from the Gears, taking them down and out as quick as possible but some of the younger Gears were being ripped to shreds by packs of raving wretches.

This wasn't going to last too much longer in the COG favor so Jacob had the idea of having Gears from behind to lob grenades in to break up the Locust squads so the COG could fall back into cover, bring the guns to bear rather than get up close and personal. The idea was working well and let the COG's superior tactics to come into play. Jacob and Baker 4 made it back to cover and started laying down suppression fire to cover the others working their way back to the safety of the rocks and crumbling pylons all around the battlefield.

"Keep it pouring boys!" Victor said as he loaded another clip into his blood red lancer and popping his head back up to fire more death at the enemy. The Locust were holding their ground as well, not trying to counter attack like any enemy would have tried to do by now. But then again over 14 odd years of fighting these monsters the tactical books were heavy rewritten from the standards during the Pendulum Wars.

A high pitch screaming sound came from the darkness behind the locust lines, but the sound was really loud compared to the rest of the battle taking place and then the sound became a vision and it was a vision of horror. The flying forms of reavers bobbing and weaving through the air in a search for prey. Gunners on the back started opening fire from reavers and punishing hails of rockets and bullets were striking from above and Gears were dying.

"This is Lieutenant Harper, everybody start falling back. We can't hold this line with those damn AGH!!!" he was suddenly cut off the link as bullets ripped into his body.

"This is Sergeant Wyler! You heard the Lieutenant keep moving back!" Jacob said into his microphone trying to encourage the men to follow the order instead of dwelling on the fact that it was more than likely Harper was dead where he lay.

The Gears fell back in quick order but the reavers kept swooping and some even landing to punish the Gears for being on their turf. Some rear line units moved in with the heavy guns and started to reap a toll on the reavers but with dozens of them it was too little to make an instant effect to their devastating attack. The drones and wretches and even some therons started to charge now and slayed many a retreating Gear, showing no remorse to those fleeing. It was disgusting in Jacobs's opinion, No man should die like that, to be cut down while trying to run and this thought fuelled his anger and bullets rang out from his gun in a stream of random fire that caught a few grubs in the head and stopping their butchery.

"Fucking grubs! Fuck you!" a trooper said before his head snapped suddenly to the right and looking at his face a massive wound replaced where most of his face used to be. The grubs were not letting up and charging towards Baker 4 was a group of about 20 locusts led by a Kantus who let out a high pitched squeal and the grubs kept pouring fire at the gears. We can't hold the line here! Jacob thought to himself and he waved everybody to start moving back. Jacob kept firing along with Jase and Victor to cover the retreat and they were just about holding at this rate of attrition. Nobody seen it when a smoke grenade landed beside them and with a bang the concussive force knocked all 3 Gears to the ground with a heavy thud. Fuck! No! This can't be happening…Jacob thought to himself before unconsciousness took over his prone body.