Marcus' feet landed on a stable incline. He had only jumped down a couple feet, but the uneven tunnel had various rocky slopes before it evened out. Even though it wouldn't be a completely straight plummet to the bottom, there were jagged edges that could easily cut into a human body, Gears armor or not. "How you holding up?" Dom asked from above. Luckily, the ceiling to the House of Sovereigns had been busted open by God knows what, so there was a significant amount of light shining down, giving him a lighted path.
"So far so good," he answered. He grabbed hold of a nearby crevice, balancing his weight so that he could take another step down. It wasn't until he had descended a few more feet that he heard Baird' urgent voice.
"Marcus, man, you're not going to believe this shit."
Marcus groaned, irritated that his concentration had been interrupted. He found another ledge of solid footing before he answered. "Not now, Baird," he warned.
But Baird's voice came back relentless. "No, you don't understand, man. We just found Hoffman's tags… with no Hoffman."
"What?" Marcus snapped, almost losing his balance. That statement brought a lot of things to light, but it was a lot of things he didn't want to accept. Hoffman may have been one of the biggest jerk offs on the planet, but he knew how to take care of himself in battle. The man was damn near unstoppable once he was in his A game. Could it be that the colonel was dead? Could Anya-
Again, his thoughts were broken into, but this time by their unknown "friend." The voice was monotone, void of expression and pitch. "Based on the samples that I have received from Damon Baird, I can tell you that the blood found on Colonel Hoffman's tags are not his own."
"That still doesn't tell us if he's alive or not," Baird's static voice countered. "So how are we sure that it's even worth going down into this hell to look for them?"
"As I have expressed," the voice continued, hardly fazed by Baird's attitude. "The main objective is to retrieve the data that 763-1 was carrying. I am sorry, but the survivors are only second priority."
"You smug son of a b-"
"That's enough Baird," Marcus cut in. "I think I found a way down here, so get your asses inside the House center." This was the wrong time to argue with control, but he knew where Baird was coming from. The voice was so different than Anya's. It wasn't just the tone of voice that was irritating, it was its disregard for human life. Anya had expressed before that she had felt guilty that she was within secure walls while the Gears were on the field literally in the middle of the war. She had surrendered her whole being to the military, being the guide and support for Delta, sacrificing meal after meal and hours of sleep to be there for those who needed her. It was that mentality that showed him, she was indeed fit to be a soldier.
Above, he heard Dom making his descent down into the tunnel. "Careful where you start kicking shit," Marcus said, seeing a fist sized rock fly passed his head. He glanced down over his shoulder, seeing a sturdy slope that lead down into the rest of the tunnel. "About damn time…"
According to control, they would have to head back east in order to find 763-1's crash site. Part of him wanted to get there as soon as possible, but another wanted him to stay away, far away. As much as he wanted to find 763-1's survivors alive and well, war had taught him never to fully place a large amount of faith in that type of hope. The majority of time, you will only be disappointed. He heard Dom sliding down the edges of the tunnel, making excellent progress to the bottom. Marcus felt a twinge of guilt.
Many times, he had caught Dom looking at a picture of his wife Maria. Until now, Marcus never fully understood why Dom pushed himself so hard to track her down. There were several occasions where Marcus just wanted to tell his friend to let go, that his wife was lost. How could he possibly find one person in all of Sera when there was a war being fought not only on the surface, but underground as well? That doubled the hardship of finding her. But still, Dom persisted. Maybe it was karma. The panic Marcus now felt for Anya's safety was his punishment for doubting Dom's battle to be reunited with Maria.
Marcus finally found solid ground to walk on. "Baird, Cole, what's your status?"
This time he heard Cole's voice. "We're almost there. Had to take care of some grubs along the way, but we can see the entrance to the tunnel. You and Dom already down there?"
"Yeah," Marcus said. Dom had jumped down beside him, readying his Lancer. "You guys catch up when you can. Dom and I are gonna clear a path. Marcus, out." He took point, keeping his eyes peeled. There were so many things that bugged him about this mission, but orders be damned, in his mind, rescuing survivors was first. What kind of reputation would he have if he started obeying direct orders now?
"Don't worry, Marcus, we'll fine them," Dom assured. He didn't know if Dom was trying to be encouraging or if he was lying through his teeth to ease the tension, but regardless, it didn't help. They continued down the murky tunnel; the farther they went the more humid and wet the atmosphere turned. Above all else, it smelled horrible. It wasn't an ancient smell, or even an earthy fragrance, the entire tunnel smelled like death itself.
Over the years, Marcus had fought in countless battles against the horde, so it was a no brainer that he became desensitized to a lot of things. He didn't flinch when he saw a Locust's head blown clean off, he didn't mind using the Lancer's bayonet to get up close and personal with a Wretch. At first, he found it odd that even seeing human remains didn't quite faze him. Despite all of that, the one thing he could never get over was the smell of the death that surrounded him. The day the smell didn't bother him anymore, he decided, was the day he truly stepped beyond being human.
"Ah shit," Marcus spat. The path split into two separate tunnels; the left looked more inviting. The air was cleaner. Which one to take… eeny meeny meiny mo…
"We could wait for Baird and Cole-" Dom started, but was cut off by a chilling scream. It didn't belong to Locust or an adult human, it as a child. "Right path!" he shouted, and took off.
"Shit, Baird, Cole, there's a fork in the tunnel, and we're going south!" Marcus yelled into his earpiece. "There are Stranded down here. I think we heard a fucking kid!" He didn't wait for a response, and sprinted after Dom. The screams were getting more frantic, and the closer they came, the more voices they could hear. There were shouts of terror, and women crying out for help. He could hear people being slaughtered and torn down.
"Humanssss," hissed a voice. "Take themsss."
Marcus and Dom broke out into a full run, and it didn't take them long before they found a large cavern covered in dripping stalactites and gaping stalagmites. Several Locust drones were heading toward a small crowd of Stranded. They cowered away, but they were trapped between the large stone pillars of the cavern. "Hey, asshole!" Marcus shouted, successfully gaining the Locusts' attention. He took aim, and fired, covering a drone's head in bullet holes.
"Gearssss!" cried one of the other drones. The entire Locust raid was now focused on him and Dom, just the way he wanted. In his periph, Marcus saw the Stranded group inching away from the fight, the children cowering in the arms of their parents.
A Wretch dropped down next to him, knocking him off his feet. He kicked at its face, keeping the gnawing teeth away from his flesh. It bit at him, and sparks were sent flying when it began clawing at his armor. He revved up the Lancer and sliced away at its body, ignoring the blood that splattered onto his face. "Dom, we got Wretches!" he yelled, getting back on his feet.
"I see 'em!" Dom shouted back. He took cover behind a pillar, aiming high above them, shooting down the Wretches that were climbing overhead. "Got one!" They fell easily, but it was difficult to determine where they were coming from. It looked like they were leeching through the nooks and cracks of the cavern walls.
Many of the drones were walking to the group of Stranded. Marcus fired at the stalactites above a group of drones, aiming at the joints of the most fragile stone spears. He dove out of the way when several came crashing down, crushing the bodies of the Locust drones. In the back of his mind, he wondered why they were attempting to take humans hostage instead of terminating them where they stood, but he would revisit that theory later. When all the drones were down, he turned to Dom. "What do you got?" he shouted.
"Just one more Wretch," his comrade said. Dom was taking aim, careful not to miss his target, but his expression quickly turned to worry as he lifted his head from the scope of his rifle. "Oh, kid- no, no, no, no!" he yelled.
A child, around seven years of age, was hurling rocks at the Wretch. "Go away!" he screamed. He picked up a larger rock and threw it at the Wretch's head. The creature hissed in anger, and turned its attention on the boy, letting out an enraged cry, bearing its long fangs and claws. The cavern was filled with the terror-stricken cries from a woman, but the rest of the Stranded held her back.
"No! My baby!" she screamed, fighting off the men who contained her. "Peter!"
Marcus jumped over the bodies that littered the floor, running with all of his might to reach the child before the Wretch did, but he was too far away. He couldn't fire upon the Wretch without risking the life of the boy as he was directly behind the Wretch. One stray bullet could hit the kid and kill him. "Fuck!" he cursed. "Kid, run!" He swung his arm out, hoping that the boy would read his body, but he remained stationary, floored by sheer horror.
"Get out of the way!" Dom barked, trying to get a clear shot.
The Wretch pounced, intent on tearing the boy to shreds. "No!" Marcus screamed, envisioning the beast ripping the boy limb from limb.
Three loud gunshots echoed throughout the cavern. The Wretch's body convulsed when the bullets entered its body, going limp in midair. It fell roughly on the ground, dead, blood dripping from its mouth. The boy buried his face in his hands and fell to the ground crying.
Marcus halted when he saw two Gears running up, one held a pistol firmly in his grip, and the other knelt by the boy, picking him up, and cradled him in his arms. Both Gears wore the standard issued helmet, but the armed soldier was smaller in stature, reminding Marcus of another soldier that used to be part of his team. He and Dom walked up to the Gears while the mother of the boy wrapped her arms around her son's savior. "Oh, thank God!" she cried, tears streaming down her face. The Gear let the mother take the boy from his arms, and she kissed the child's face multiple times. "Thank you, soldier, thank you," she repeated, before joining the other Stranded.
"Nice work," Marcus commented to the shooter. His heart was beating rapidly, but it was beginning to slow. "Marcus Fenix, Delta Squad."
Dom caught up to them, and shouldered his Lancer, admiring the handy work of the shooter. "Dom Santiago," he introduced. "Also Delta." He held out his fist to the first Gear in greeting. He smiled when the Gear did the same, smacking their fists together .
The bigger Gear took off his helmet and saluted Marcus. "A pleasure, sergeant," he said. The man was probably around his mid thirties, short blond hair. He had several scars on his face, and Marcus could see the beginnings of a tattoo at the base of his neck. "Omega Squad. Private Edward Dorne."
Marcus nodded and looked to the other Gear. "Nice shooting," he said. "Not too many are that deadly with a pistol."
"Sir," the Gear greeted. "Also Omega Squad." He took off his helmet, and shook Marcus' hand rather than salute him. He was a bit younger than Edward, and he had darker hair, but Marcus could easily see he wasn't a rookie in battle. The Gear kept his head down as though he was searching for the right choice of words to say next. There seemed to be something he wanted to say to Marcus.
"Something wrong, soldier?" Marcus asked.
"Well, sir," the Gear began, but at the last moment, he veered off into another sentence. "Sir, we and one other Gear were on board the King Raven 763-1."
Marcus felt the blood rushing through his veins. So there were survivors. "What about the others? Did Colonel Hoffman and Lieutenant Stroud survive?"
Dorne shrugged his shoulders. "We were thrown from the bird right before she landed in a lake. I'd say it's about a mile or two from here. We went searching for them, but we didn't find anyone. We'd actually still be down there, but control has given us direct orders to return to the control tower for processing. When we refused initially, control had said reinforcements were on the way."
Marcus sighed, this day was just full of disappointment. He heard Baird and Cole jogging up to them. "Oh man, we missed all the fun!" Cole said, surveying the bodies around them.
"Took you guys long enough," Dom sighed. He turned to the second Omega soldier. "What about the materials that were in the King Raven? We were sent down here to retrieve whatever it was that she was carrying."
The smaller Gear held up his arm, and detached a small terminal from his armor. It resembled Baird's but it was much smaller, almost as if it was meant to be overlooked. "This is only half of the data we have on the Locusts," he said. "Lieutenant Stroud kept the other half in case either of us were captured by the Locusts. We didn't think we would have been attacked in the air…"
"Haven't you ever seen a Reaver before kid?" Baird asked, brow raised. "They're made for taking down our choppers."
Dorne shook his head, politely contradicting Baird. "No, we were in flight, and a Reaver flew by, but the riders physically jumped into the Raven. They held Lieutenant Stroud at gunpoint demanding the data we've collected. Colonel Hoffman ambushed one of the riders, while we took care of the others, but we were also hit by something from below. It was pretty fucking big."
"Don't remember much… it all happened so fast. But before we hit ground, couple of the riders, were thrown from the Raven. The Colonel and lieutenant were also thrown before we hit water. After that, Dorne and I swam to the surface," finished the other Gear. He rubbed the back of his head, wincing as he did so. "Suffered from one hell of a concussion, but I'll live."
Marcus tried to picture the events as Omega explained them. It wasn't hard to believe that Hoffman's tags were ripped from him while he was grappling with the riders. So it was probable that he was still alive. Before he could make a decision about Anya, control joined in.
"Excellent work, Omega. If you would please, continue on your mission to transport the data to the control tower. Hostiles have been neutralized on the surface above your position. Sergeant Fenix, continue your search for Miss Anya. Her whereabouts are extremely vital to this mission."
Dom, Baird, and Cole gave him a questioning look, with Dom mouthing 'Miss Anya?' to Marcus, but the Delta leader barked out orders. "All right, Omega, travel down this tunnel heading north. Take them with you," he gestured toward the Stranded who still huddled in a corner. "You should come up right below the House of Sovereigns. We'll keep looking Hoffman, Anya, and the other Gear."
"You got it, sir," Dorne said, putting his helmet back on. He walked over to the crowd of people, and began telling them about their plan to relocate them. Many were willing to go back to the surface since they witnessed how the Gears had defended them.
"Man…" said Cole. "Ain't this some shit?"
"Whatever this special data is, it better be god damned worth it," added Baird. He wiped his mouth and spit on the dead carcass of a drone.
Omega began to make their way to the exit of the cavern, but Marcus stopped the second squad member he didn't get a name from. "Hey Omega," he called. "You got a name?"
The Gear stopped and slowly turned to Marcus. He placed his fingers at his temple in salute. "It's Carmine, sir. Clay Carmine." He turned back again after Marcus returned the salute, and joined Dorne and the Stranded to prepare evacuation of the underground cavern.
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I have definitely no clue what Clay's true role will be in the game, but I wanted to have someone from the Carmine family in this fic. Short lived, I know, but a cameo appearance is never a bad thing, especially since there seems to be a high level of praise for the Carmine brothers.
Kris
