Charlie Don't Surf

The skyscrapers and buildings of Jacinto soon turned to the wilderness of Tyrus. The King Raven accelerated to nearly 100 miles per hour. Chris watched intently wondering how after 79 years of fighting the UIR in the Pendulum Wars and 15 years of Genocidal fighting against the Locust how anything as beautiful as the landscape below could still exist on a war torn world such as Sera. He looked over at the Sarge and Marissa; both were sitting awfully close to each other. He would have to remark to Cspos later about that. If the two didn't want to get got then they would have to separate sometimes. He looked back outside at the view and he slowly began to accept the sleepiness that was overcoming him. "Corporal Hylton," Chris opened his eyes and glared at the rookie who had awoken him. "What kid?" he growled back.

"How long have you guys been Gears?" he asked everyone, though he somehow had to wake Chris up to ask everyone. "We have all been in the same squad for about 13 years," Marissa who had taken a small liking to the rookie answered.

"Wow 13 years you guys are lucky to even survive that long, let alone have all your squad members." Damon took note of the face of sorrow Marissa quickly gave before returning to her normal self.

"We weren't just a squad of three we a had a couple other members over the years," Sergeant Espinosa said slowly lowering his voice, "they didn't make it, I guess we were the lucky ones." Damon realizing that he should change the subject turned to corporal Hylton and asked, "So what did you do before the locust came?"

Chris who had been quiet since the start of the conversation looked out of the open doorway of the KR and replied, "I was a student, like most kids my age, I was going to follow my fathers' footsteps and become a Gear." He stopped and looked at his Lancer then continued, "Then when the locust came, my father went off to fight them, but about a week after he left we got his COG tags, he had died fighting the hard battle." Chris ended his story with that.

Chris closed his eyes indicating he was "sleeping" and didn't want anymore questions asked. The rookie got the hint and went to looking at the vast terrain of Sera.

Chris opened his eyes and looked up at a graying sky. "What the hell happened?" he groaned out loud. He could taste blood in his mouth and he felt like a few bees had stung him in his arms. "Shit, Chris is ok," he heard someone say over the TAC com; he recognized the voice as one of his good friends and squad mates, Ricky Thai. "Chris get your ass over now!" Sergeant Espinosa yelled.

Chris looked to his right and saw the three members of his squad taking cover behind a pair of rundown cars, tracer rounds pinged off the car hood, Ricky blind fired from his Lancer. Now he remembered the locust had ambushed his squad near Citadel Park in Ephyra. It was about 6 hours into the Lightmass Offensive and Hunter and other squads had met minimal resistance from the locust. The squads split up to cover more ground, Hunter had been sent to Citadel Park to push any locust north away from where Alpha and Delta were supposed to set up the sonic resonator. They were about halfway through the park when a bolo grenade landed about 10 feet away from the squad. Chris who was the closest took the most from the blast, but due to it being so far away it had little effect except for knocking him to the ground and a few shrapnel pieces into his arms.

Chris knew being in the open like this was suicide. He picked himself up with effort then he crawled his way over where the others were in cover. "What's the skinny?" he asked the Sarge. Christian put a fed a few more shots into his Gnasher shotgun before replying, "we got about a dozen locust grubs in the visitors center, they got us pretty badly pinned, we need to get fire dominance on this situation." Chris checked his Lancer before nodding to his Sarge. "Suppressive FIRE!"

Chris balanced his lancer on the front of the cars bumper and began shooting in quick controlled burst at the small rectangular building that the locusts were using as cover. Christian blind fired his shotgun hoping to get a kill. Behind the other car Marissa placed her Longshot sniper rifle between the rear door frames and began taking precise shots while Ricky covered her with his lancer.

Ricky dipped back down behind the car to reload, and noticed a few locusts sprinting behind the restroom building. "Locust, Sergeant pincer movement 3' o clock!" he yelled firing his lancer at the locust, who sprinted to not get caught out in the open. Christian dipped back down and yelled, "Ricky, Chris get those bastards, don't let them flank us, we will hold these ones off."

Chris and Ricky broke cover and crouch sprinted over to where the restroom building and another building created a sort of alleyway. The two Gears stacked up on either side of the alley. Ricky took out a bolo grenade and nodded to Chris. He threw the grenade into the alley and dipped back around the corner as it went off.

Chris peered around the alley with his lancer raised. The grenade had caused the walls from both buildings to collapse into the alley, effectively plugging it up. "Clear," he said. He was about to turn to high five Ricky when he noticed the locust coming over the crest of the hill behind them. Turning Ricky around he yelled, "Shit they went all the way around."

Five locust grenadiers were charging down the hill firing their Hammerburst rifles at the two Gears. Chris and Ricky both were caught out in the open with inferior numbers, it was a situation no Gear ever wanted to be in. It was a hopeless situation and both Chris and Ricky knew it, but they were going to take as much of the grubs as possible. Chris screamed a primal scream as he fired his lancer at the incoming locust, Ricky followed suit. He just fired from the hip not even aiming as he sprayed along the locust, soon one fell then another and another. To his surprise Chris they had all been killed before they had even stepped foot off the hill. He looked over to give Ricky a high five but stopped.

Ricky Thai lay dead on the ground, a wound through his head. Chris dropped his lancer and knelt next to his friend. He closed Ricky's eyes and took his COG tags. Suddenly he began to openly weep. He couldn't control it and he couldn't stop, he just wept. "Chris!" he heard someone yell, he looked down and Ricky's eyes opened and he was talking to Chris. Chris leapt back as Ricky rose and said, "Get up boii!"

Chris opened his eyes to see Christian crouching in front of him, "Pilot said five to dirt, get prepped." Chris looked around the passenger compartment of the KR. The squad was all prepping for the mission now. Checking ammo, doing last minute cleaning and making sure their gear was squared away.

Chris went through his own procedures. He took the ammo cartridge out of his lancer, blew on it and the spot where it went into the lancer, he did this so that the weapon won't jam. He checked that he had all the ammo for his snub pistol, and he then felt part of his upper right chest armor to make sure that his combat knife was there. It wasn't the standard gear combat knife, it was black handled, and it spotted a 6 inch blade. The blade was made from the same deposits that made up Jacinto Plateau. The knife had been given to Chris by his father. That day was the last he had seen of his father as he died a few days later fighting the Locust shortly after E-Day.

The King Raven began to decelerate as they came to their LZ. Chris looked out the side and saw that their LZ was a clearing among the trees. The KR did one lap around the clearing and then began to descend towards its middle.

"Alright Hunter, when we land get your asses to the cover of those trees, Marissa and I will head out left, Chris you take the rookie and go to the right," Chris nodded as the Sarge continued, "When you get to the trees move north and we will form up on the far side, from there we will move in a staggered line forward, got it?"

"Sir Yessir!" the Rookie yelled.

"Hell yea!" Cried Marissa.

Chris just nodded and raised his hand in a fist; Christian responded by raising his hand in a fist and the two pounded, "Let's do this."

Damon heart was pounding and his adrenaline was running through his veins. The King Raven came down with a thud and the pilot said, "Good luck hunting, Hunter squad." Sergeant Espinoza and Marissa went out first through the left, Damon waited until Corporal Hylton went out then he followed him out.

They dropped into a crouched position with their rifles forward, as the chopper began to ascend into the air Corporal Hylton began to roadie run towards the tree line, Damon crouched low and began to sprint after him. They reached trees and stacked up on the dark brown bark. Chris made a hand signal to Damon to follow him.

The two gears moved from tree to tree barely visible in the light of the slowly setting sun. Damon felt his heart pounding as if it wanted to burst out. He tried his best to stay with the corporal but Chris was moving pretty fast. Then suddenly Chris halted, Damon almost ran into him. "Shhh, be quiet rookie," Chris said nodding over in the direction he was staring.

Damon looked but couldn't see anything, "What is it?" Chris didn't reply, instead he placed his lancer on the ground and tapped his earpiece twice. "Cspos, this is Chris we got two drones about 70 yards in front of us, how do want us to proceed?" he said staring straight ahead.

Christians voice was barely audible as he responded, "We got a few grubs up here too, take them out stealth style, we can't have anybody raise the alarm that we are here, it might put us and Gamma; if they're still alive in danger."

"Right I understand you," Chris responded. He picked up his lancer and looked back at Damon, "I want you to stay here and don't make a noise until I instruct you further, got it?" Damon wasn't about to lose out on the first combat of the mission, "But I can help, you said there two of them, we can take them out together." Chris shook his head, "No way, you're too green, just stay here I'll be back in a sec."

Damon knew he wasn't going to win so he just nodded his head in agreement, and sat back as Chris began to move forward in a crouched position, darting from tree to tree. Damon quickly tapped into his comm. and listened as his squad took out the small group of locust. "Target neutralized," he heard Marissa say in a calm collective voice. "Tango down!" Christian said quickly over the sounds of something screaming in agony.

Up ahead he heard the sound of a lancer fire and a few seconds later corporal Hylton said, "He's down, rookie get your ass over here." Damon went into a Roadie Run and moved up to where Chris was standing over the corpses of two dead locust drones.

The locusts were gray in color though it was dotted with huge splotches of reddish-orange blood, courtesy of Chris's lancer. One had a bullet hole right through the center of its forehead, which was spilling out an exceptional amount of blood, so much it began to form a puddle around the grubs head. "Like my little artwork, I call it two dead grubs that didn't stand a chance," he put his boot on ones chest and smiled at Damon, "Well rookie is this your first time seeing a real live locust?"

Damon nodded fascinated at the corpses. He had seen the locust in training simulations and in the media, but he had never seen a real one. Even dead they were intimidating. They were about 7 feet tall and as muscular as a Gear, and their dark gray skin looked as if it was as hard as rock, though that couldn't be as the lancer had chewed them up pretty well.

"Let's get back and regroup with the rest of the squad," Chris said as he began to walk off. They walked for about five minutes until Chris put up halt hand signal. He brought his hand up to his earpiece and said, "Cspos this is Chris, friendlies comin in from your six." He looked at Damon and signaled to move forward.

Christian was sitting under the bow of an elm tree when the two Gears got to the RV point, "Took you guys long enough, how it went with the patrol?" Chris set his Lancer down and took a seat next to his friend, "Took both grubs by surprise, a few shots into each sealed the deal, and how you and Marissa do?"

The Hispanic Gear smiled and said, "Marissa got the first two by complete surprise, two precise head shots, but then a third one of those bastards who was lagging behind the others came at her, but a quick shot from my Gnasher quickly took care of him." "Quickly, that's a lie," this came from Marissa who was sitting in the low branches of the tree above them, "Cspos shot the grub in the leg then watched as it tried to crawl away, then he curb stomped the poor fellow, I swear you men enjoy other peoples misery."

"Locust aren't people," Chris corrected, "They are subterranean monsters from hell." Marissa gave him a look and replied, "Well you could have just shot him and taken him out of his misery."

"Marissa this is war, and if you can't handle it maybe you should be back doing a pencil pusher job or cleaning the house or you know having babies," Chris said with a smirk on his face. Damon had to stifle his giggles as he watched Marissa's face get red and she made as if she was about to punch Chris, but Sergeant Espinoza quickly intervened. "Marissa couldn't have babies if she wanted to, and it's a good thing we have her, she's one of the best snipers in the COG," He said smiling at her, "And a valuable asset."

Chris raised his hands to show he wasn't trying to start anything; Marissa hopped out of the tree and came down almost on top of Chris who hopped out of the way. "Whatever, lets just get to Gamma's last position," she began to walk north and Christian followed. Chris and Damon kept up the rear, Chris leaned in close to Damon and whispered, "You see rookie this is why woman shouldn't be in the military, when it's their time of the month all hell breaks loose." Damon laughed, but his laugh was cut short when a rock came hurtling at him and got him right in the head. Chris burst into laughter and from the front of the line he heard Marissa say, "Shit did I just hit the rookie? Fuck you Chris you can kiss my ass." Chris just smiled and said, "I gladly would but Christian is here so maybe later."

Damon was lucky that he was wearing his helmet as the rock would've hurt a lot, but all it did was leave him with a partial headache.

The sun had already set by the time the squad reached Gamma ones last position. Chris came to a stop at the edge of a clearing, raising his hand signaling everyone to stop. Christian came forward next to him, "What do we got?" Chris nodded and pointed to a building that stood in the center of the clearing, "Looks like some kind of church."

The church in question was fairly quaint. It wasn't very big, but it had a huge steeple that made up for the small base. It was fairly brown and it looked as if moss had begun to grow in between the cracks and splinters of wood. The church only seemed to posses three windows on the bottom part which seemed quite odd for a church, but then again this church was in the middle of the woods far away from any civilization.

Christian signaled for the whole squad to form up at the tree line before he stared talking, "Alright Hunter, it looks like we got ourselves a church, it looks like this was Gamma ones HQ before they disappeared," He looked over at Damon, "rookie I want you and Marissa to lag back and cover me n' Chris as we breach and clear that church."

"Sir Yessir!" Damon replied, though on the inside he felt he was being left out of any potential action yet again.

Chris and Christian burst across the open ground followed shortly by Marissa and Damon. Damon took a kneeing position in the grass as did Marissa, as Chris and Christian stacked up on the church's only door. Chris nodded towards his sergeant who returned the nod and with a powerful kick towards the doors center he kicked it in.

Chris entered first followed by Christian. There were no gun shots or sign of a struggle, or at least none that Damon could hear from his position outside. After about two minutes Christian radioed over the mic, "its all clear, come on in."

The two Gears entered into the church and were partially taken aback by what they saw. There were jumbles and piles of paper everywhere. Dust filled the air as they entered and if it hadn't been for Damon's helmet air filtration device he might've choked, though the other Gears present who weren't wearing helmets seemed to be to doing just fine. There were a few candles here and there but none were lit, so Christian and Chris had taken out their Zippo lighters and commenced with lighting the candles. When all the candles had been lit, Damon was surprised at how small the church was. It was only two rooms' maybe 12 feet by 12 feet each. Towards the far left were some raggedy decaying stairs that led up to the church's steeple. On the far wall were some writings and a picture of some guy who looked as if he was ascending into the clouds, Marissa was observing the picture with renowned interest.

"That's some interesting stuff here," she remarked putting her hand on the painting and rubbing of some dust to get a better view. "What is it?" asked Christian who was going through some of the papers on the floor. "It seems that this was one of those monastery type things I heard some of the intelligence officers talk about when we were back in Jacinto," she said turning around when she noticed something on the floor. She knelt down a moved some of the paper that was in her way, "Hey Cspos take a look at this, footprints."

Christian came over and he too noticed the criss cross of boot prints that had settled in a particular dusty spot. They looked about the size of an average Gears foot size, "Looks like Gamma was here."

"But where are they now?" Damon asked from the other room where he and Chris were exploring.

"I don't know," Christian replied standing up, "but the best thing we can do now is get some shut eye and we will look for them tomorrow," He walked over to a table where he placed his Gnasher shotgun, "Marissa you got first watch, I'll get next, then the rookie and last Chris."

"Fine by me," Chris said flopping himself down on one of the church benches. Marissa began the hazardous trek of climbing the flight of stairs to the top of the steeple where she could get a better view of the surrounding area. The rest of the Gears dispersed throughout the church to get some rest.

It was about an hour later when Christian went up to get Marissa. He made the dangerous trip up the stairs, made even more dangerous by the more weight he had on then Marissa. He got to the top and was surprised to find that it was quite spacious. From outside he had thought it would be cramped, but Marissa was laying out flat on her stomach with her sniper placed near her for when she needed it.

Christian snuck up behind her and tickled her exposed neck; she jumped up and turned around. But when she saw who it was she smiled and landed a wet kiss on Christian's lips. "Where have you been, I assumed you would be keeping me company on my watch," She said sounding kind of disappointed. "I would've been here sooner but the rookie hadn't fallen asleep for a while so I had to wait before I came here." She smiled again and said, "Aww whatever, come here." They embraced and kissed for about five minutes straight before Christian suddenly remembered something. "Wait hold on," he said reaching into his pockets. He pulled out the ring and got on one knee. Marissa put her hands over her mouth and her eyes lit up. Marissa Mayuga will you do the honors of marrying me?" He asked with the sincerest voice he could put on. Marissa literally screamed out the answer, "Yes! I will," she hugged him and started to kiss him. He struggled to get her off so he could place the ring on her finger. She eyed it a smiled from ear to ear. She looked up at Christian who looked relieved and was about to kiss him when she suddenly stopped.

Christian saw the look in her face and knew something was wrong, "What is it?" she lowered her voice to a whisper and leaned in close to him, "Locust."