Chapter 6: Evolution
Present Time, 16 Years After E-Day
Inside the cave, Seran Deadlands
Vex was not proud of murdering the rebel all those years ago. He had only realized the truth in his words when it was too late to do anything about it. Perhaps the rebel could have been a useful ally in these dark, desperate times. Would he have been proud at the peace Vex had achieved with the humans, or would he have been ashamed it had not happened sooner? Whatever the case was, the commander wished things could have turned out different.
"Vex!" Griffon said as he and the rest of the search party entered the cave. His voice echoed deep throughout the tunnels, and Vex began to worry.
"We need to be quiet. If there are Lambent in here, we don't want to ring the dinner bell for them." Vex said cautiously, "Now what is it?" he asked.
"We found Bloodmount prints up on the higher ground." Griffon said, "Shuman said there are some in here as well. Why would they leave the higher ground to come down here?"
"Hiding?" a Drone asked.
"That's not very Locust-like." Shuman said.
"Maybe they were feeling nostalgic and felt like going back into the ground for a while." Griffon said jokingly. Nobody acknowledged the joke, much to his dismay.
"Drones, you two stay here and keep guard. Griffon, Shuman, stay close behind me." Vex said as he activated his flash light and started down the tunnel.
It wasn't the first time Vex put his life in the hands of the humans, and it always felt strange to do so. He was so used to ending the lives of humans that once he had to trust them, it made him feel vulnerable. Luckily enough, he trusted Griffon and Shuman enough to not shoot him in the back, but the feeling was always there. Perhaps, though, after a few more years of peace with the humans, this feeling would go away.
Their flashlights illuminated the damp walls of the cave, revealing bloodied scratch marks that led deeper into the cave.
"Signs of struggle." Shuman said, "The Lambent have definitely been here."
"Lieutenant, do you hear that?" Griffon asked.
The search party paused and listened carefully. From the far end of the cave, there came the sound of wailing humans. Their screams were unintelligible, no clear words could be heard, they were simply screams of anguish.
"They need our help!" Griffon said as he began racing further down into the cave.
"Griffon, slow down!" Shuman said as he and Vex chased after him.
Before they could catch up with him, Griffon stopped dead in his tracks. As Shuman and Vex did the same, they looked at what had caused the young Gear to do so. A massive, pitch black hole lay just a few feet ahead, a hole roughly a few hundred feet in diameter. From down in the pitch black depths came the voices of humans, and the search party aimed their flashlights in their direction.
Upon closer inspection, the humans appeared to be on fire, and they hastily climbed their way towards the search party. Vex didn't understand what was going on until he recalled his first encounter with the Lambent. The franticness, the fiery glow, the screams...
"Oh my god..." Griffon said, "Lieutenant..."
"Those are Lambent humans..." Shuman said.
"But, how?" Griffon asked.
"It's evolving," Vex began, "The Lambent parasite is evolving... Let's take care of them." he said as he raised his Hammerburst and began picking them off one by one.
The Lambent humans were rather fragile compared to the Lambent Drones. The former humans disintegrated after just one shot, and there wasn't that same bright, violent explosion that came with most other Lambent. Maybe the Lambent needed more time to evolve in order for the humans to be more formidible and combustible, but that was something Vex was not eager to see.
After a minute or so of firing, they had slain all of the Lambent humans in sight.
"Is that all of them?" Griffon asked.
"If there were more, they would be here by now." Vex said, "That was all of them."
"I can't believe it..." Griffon said, "What are we gonna do? Are we gonna turn?"
"I won't let that happen." Shuman said.
"Now you understand how the Locust have felt for decades." Vex said.
"But that just leaves one question," Shuman said, "Where are the Bloodmounts?"
"I'm wondering the same thing." Vex began, "We should split up until we-"
The Locust soldier was interrupted by the deep growl of a wounded Bloodmount. Everyone looked to the other side of the cave, at the other end of the deep black hole. They focused their lights there and saw a Bloodmount limping around aimlessly.
"Thank the Sovereigns... a survivor..." Shuman said with a wave of relief.
"Hey!" Griffon called out, "Come here, boy!"
The Bloodmount stopped in its tracks and looked over at the search party. It stood motionless for a few uncomfortable moments, then began to twitch all over its body. The three members of the search party were horrified when the brutal crunching of the Bloodmount's bones began to echo through the cave. Eventually, the creature's mouth split wide open, and a horrific, glowing worm shot out of it and sped towards them along the cave wall. The body of the Bloodmount collapsed, now useless to the Lambent parasite, and fell down the dark trench.
"I don't believe it." Vex said.
"It's jumped the species barrier twice." Shuman said as he aimed his rifle and fired.
The Lambent worm creature shrieked as the bullets struck its jelly-like body, and after the third shot, it detonated, spraying toxic Lambent gunk all of the walls.
"What about the others?" Griffon asked, "This trench looks like it goes down pretty deep, maybe it even goes down into the Outer Hollows. They could be down there."
"If they're down there, they're certainly dead." Vex said, "We should head back to camp."
The three soldiers turned around and headed back to the mouth of the cave, where the two Drones were patiently waiting.
"Heard shots. Find good guys?" one of the Drones asked.
"We found them. The Lambent did too." Vex said, "Now we've got Lambent Humans and Bloodmounts."
The Drones looked at each other in disbelief.
"We've got to get back to camp and inform the others." Shuman said, "We'll need to secure the border even tighter than before."
"Agreed." Vex said, "We'll form a repair team to fix any holes in the walls, and we'll double the guards posted on watch."
"Thank you, Vex." Shuman said, "You really do care about humans."
"They're my people too, Shuman, I need to take care of them." Vex said as he led the search party back to the camp.
As soon as the search party exited the cave, they were greeted not only by the bright, burning, unforgiving light of day, but also by the gunfire from an unknown source. They quickly dove back into the cave and leaned against the wall.
"Great, more Lambent?" Shuman asked.
As the gunfire began to calm down to a halt, Vex listened closely to the calls of the attackers. Their hoarse voices barked incomprehensible words back and forth, as if they were trying to form words, but could not.
"Yes. Lambent Drones." Vex said, "Shuman, you're the one with the grenades. Lob them at the closest ones, the rest of us will provide covering fire."
Shuman holstered his Lancer and plucked a Bolo-grenade from the pouch on his left leg. With the grenade primed and ready, he got into position and looked to Vex for the cue to go. The Locust warrior squinted through the eye holes of his barbaric helmet, and looked for a good opening. He did not hate these poor souls, the Drones he was forced to kill. So much had changed since the early days of the war. He no longer hated his enemy, he only pitied them, and wished to put an end to their suffering. In a way, he was more motivated to fight the enemy now than he ever was. It wasn't about hatred anymore, it was about a philanthropic duty.
Before he could give Shuman the sign to attack, a barrage of rockets rained down on the Lambent position, slaughtering each and every one of them. The search party ducked further into cover to avoid any debris that could reach them, and after a few moments, the barrage died down and the smoke began to clear up.
"When did our guys get access to rockets?" Griffon asked.
"Reaver rockets, no less." a Drone added.
"Those weren't from our allies." Vex said as he exited the cave and looked around for the source of the rockets.
The canyon was ringing from the sound of the rocket fire, but despite this, the unmistakable sound of a Reaver's calls caught Vex's ears. Suddenly, four Reavers landed just twenty feet in front of him. Scratch that, three Reavers and some kind of strange, insect like creature...
Vex looked up at the riders of these beasts. The Reaver riders were definitely Drones, but they were dressed in the armor of the Palace Guards, and they looked down at Vex with looks of disgust on their faces. Vex then looked up at the rider of the bizarre insectoid beast, and was shocked into silence as he recognized her.
"Commander Vex..." Queen Myrrah said, "It's been far too long. I believe I owe you an explanation."