In the King Raven's troop compartment Artyom sat down on the metal floor with a dull thud, finding it hard to breathe as he took off his helmet while leaning his body against the helicopters metal hold while trying to catch his breath before turning his to his Squadmates who seemed to deal with it pretty well if not for the fact that they were nearly eaten alive by an overgrown spider from hell.

"Whats in the creator's name was that thing?!" Forlin breathed out, feeling that few years of his life were scratched out.

Or he could be wrong.

"A Corpser, a real pain in the ass to deal with. I am Lieutenant Minh Young Kim. Weclome to Delta squad." The bald man said as he Handed Marcus a new Lance since his hammer burst was out of ammo.

"Where are we going?" Marcus asked.

"Embry Square, Colonel Hoffman's waiting for us," Kim replied before looking at the UIR squad," And he will need an explanation as to why there's a squad of UIR troopers here as well."

"Hoffman? Oh shit." Marcus said sounding very annoyed.

Dom just elbows him in the side lightly, "This is going got be awesome."

"Hoffman? you mean Anvil Gate Hoffman?" Pavel questioned causing the Gears to raise an eyebrow at him.

"Anvil gate Hoffman?" Dom repeated in exasperation.

"It's a nickname we gave him when he repelled our forces during the siege of Anvil Gate," Miller explained. That Siege was a major battle of the Pendulum wars where the fiftieth Furlin cavalry pounded that rickety old fortress for almost three months until COG reinforcements pushed them out of Anvegad.

"Anvil gate Hoffman...has a nice ring to it," Kim said smiling a bit.

"Hey, are you the Marcus Fenix? The one that fought at Aspho fields?" another Gear asked.

Marcus gave a slight nod," Yep."

"Wow. Cool!" the gear said before going back to shooting Locast on the ground.

Marcus looks away, "Not really."

However, for the UIR squad, it was a different story as they stared at Marcus Fenix with both shock and disbelief because they unknowingly just fought beside the son of the Coalition of Ordered Governments Defense Research Agency leading scientist and the creator of the Hammer of Dawn. But on the other hand, Artyom couldn't bring himself to hate this man instead the Grosinyans gave him a warrior's respect in their own way.

The Gear then looks at Pavel, "Names, Anthony Carmine by the way."

Pavel smirked behind his helmet," Private Pavel Morozov, first ranger company."

"Pavel!" Florin shouted out.

"What? At this least, this gear is nice enough to talk to." Pavel replied as their transportation finally landed only to be greeted by a man who had a very rough edge and a military cap, glaring at Marcus before giving him a rough shove with his finger.

"You!" Hoffman stated, "A traitor like you who doesn't deserve to wear the uniform."

"Looks to me you need all the help you can get." Marcus shot back.

The man's glare did not let up and then notice Miller and his squad, "And It would seem that you brought some old friends as well."

"I take it you must be Hoffman?" Miller asked.

The named Hoffman matched him in height as his glare intensity doubled, "That is Colonel Hoffman to you! You Indie son of a bitch and I want to what you're green asses are here!"

Miller kept on his stone face before replying"Hmph isn't obvious. We're here to teach you COG cocksuckers how to fight a real war."

Hoffman blinked in surprise before his entire face began turning red in anger causing the others to back up a bit as the two stared at each other with such intensity, Artyom could see imaginary light bolts clashing.

"I don't give a shit right now." Hoffman gritted out, "What I do give a shit about is what your true attentions here."

"We don't answer to you, COG but if you really want to know our intentions is to get out of this hell hole," Miller said.

"Well tough luck for you indie. You are not going anywhere until our job is done here. Now I got more important stuff to do." Hoffman said before he went to talk to Kim.

"Lieutenant!" Hoffman stated," I've got good news. We have a plan to end this war once and for all."

"Yeah right," Dom said.

"Quite a charmer ain't he?" Pavel asked sarcastically.

Dom smirked, "He is louder than a wretch who has lost its balls. But he is our superior so we just have to bear with it."

"Are you sure because we can just 'accidentally' push him onto a mine," Florin suggested keeping his belt-fed machine gun at the ready.

Artyom slowly nods his head at that since the Pendulum war, it wasn't uncommon for UIR soldiers to kill their own officers if they were incompetent enough however such incidents were not confirmed as more men died during combat than actual incidents.

"Sensors are picking up enemy movement, sir. Close by." A blonde woman in a military uniform said.

When Marcus noticed her his expression changed and for a brief moment Artyom could have sworn that was a look of love in which He also noticed the women smiling at him. The Grosni couldn't help but smirk under his helmet since the big tough guy had a soft spot after all.

Sadly the touching moment was soon interrupted when a Gear was suddenly shot in the head spraying the man's blood and some brain matter on the women's grey officer uniform covering part of it in red while the Lochest drone who fired roared out.

"Locust!" Dom shouted.

"Take cover!" Kim called out as everyone ran to cover while they immediately came under heavy fire, killing another Gear who was too slow, spraying his blood across the ground.

"Shit!" Dom muttered as bullets and grenades started to rain around them as they finally reached the sandbags.

"Florin surprising fire!" Miller ordered as the UIR squads heavy began setting up his machine gun before unleashing a stream of lead while the rest of them returned fire with their own guns.

"We now had a lightmass bomb! I'll take out all these bastards in one shot. But it can't work if we don't have the targeting data." Hoffman explained" That's why we need the Resonator. So that we can hit those sons of bitches where they live!"

"Now I'm pissed!" Marcus said as he stands up and guns down several Locust.

"Grenade!" Pavel shouted causing Fenix to take cover as the grenade exploded in midair causing everybody's ears to start ringing.

"We've lost contact with Alpha squad, last transmission was from Embry Square. I want you to get in there, find those men, and deploy that Resonator!" Hoffman finished explaining.

"Will we have air support?" Ken asked.

Hoffman gave him a look, "What are you kidding? You are the support, son! Nemacyst are keeping our birds out of the area. You'll have to move on foot."

"We're screwed," Dom said as Marcus talked out the last two Locust.

"All clear!" he called out.

Hoffman and Kim stand-ups, "But the lieutenant here will feed you intel."

"Yes sir! And the smart thing to do right now would too leave." the women breathed out.

"You, get it done!" Hoffman told Kim before looking at Marcus"I expect you to give me 110 percent, Fenix."

"I'm not doing this for you" Marcus declared.

"Umm, what is gonna happen to us?" Pavel asked.

"I was getting to you." Hoffman said before walking up to them."You said you want out of this dump? Well, you got two options.1:You can try to get out yourself and more than likely get killed since you are Grosyans, or 2: You help on their mission, and maybe, if I'm feeling generous, we can give you a ride out of here. So what will it be?"

Miller thought about this for several moments before looking at his squad then at Colonel Hoffman as sighed, "I can't believe I'm doing this...if we do this, we'll go free?"

"If you are useful, then yes?" Hoffman confirmed.

Miller gave out a heavy sigh, pressing his comm unit before speaking in Gorasnayan for a few minutes to their own control before giving Hoffman a content look not trusting the COG one bit but his orders say otherwise "Ok colonel, we'll help but under one condition."

"What is it?"

"Is that my squad will not be part of the COG but as an ally," Miller said reluctantly before continuing," also someone important wants to talk your highest-ranking officer."

"You're looking at him," Hoffman responded bluntly causing the Groasnayans to look at him as if he was joking but the look on Hoffman's face said that he is dead serious.

"Wait a minute," Artyom said, stepping forward, "If your the highest-ranking officer what happened to your other generals?"

"Dead, killed during the hammer strikes or by the Locust," Hoffman answered.

Shaking his head Miller pulled off his helmet showing his brown white hair and blue before reluctantly saluting, "Then by order of General Zhukov of the UIR, my squad is attached to this operation until he says either wise, Sir."

"Eh, never had an Indie saluting to me before."Hoffman said, "So what're your boy's names?"

"The man beside me is Private Pavel Morozov our squad's joker and historian, to my right is Private Artyom Alekseyevich our survival specialist, and lastly Florin Anton our heavy."

Hoffman nodded seeing it fitting since the UIR had infantry units specialized in different fields of expertise, unlike the COG's gears, as a woman from before walked up to them, "My name is Lieutenant Anya Stroud, if you insist on helping us, you need this. Put it in your ear."

The women named Anya handed each of them a small earpiece as they put it in their ears.

"Good luck out there," Anya said.

"We don't need luck, we have ammo," Florin replied.

"Let's move out people," Kim said as they headed out.

But as they were about to continue on more Locust drones appeared forcing the group to take cover while King Raven that picked them up from the prison fired its chain gun strafed the Locust squad in a matter of seconds turning the batch of grey creatures into a pile of dead meat.

"That was on the house." the Raven pilot said, "Good luck Delta."

"Get up those stairs!" Kim exclaimed, "Alpha's waiting."

Artyom squad followed the gears up into the building silently admiring the Tryanian architecture that was carved on inner walls with pictures tapped on its walls showing different people with their families while candles lit the darkness. Stopping for a moment at one of the pictures he stared at what looked like a man's child graduating from college feeling a ting of pity.

Tearing his eyes off the picture, Dom spoke up, "Okay man. Here we go. You still got it?"

"I guess we'll find out. Huh?" Marcus replied nonchalantly.

"Hey, if you don't mind me asking but how many years have your gears fought these things before?" Florin asked.

"About almost fourteen years ago," Dom answered, "Took us the hammer of dawn just to hold them off."

That's the same time that the burning bloom happened? Artyom thought it could explain the reason behind why the COG incinerated most of the planet.

But before they could say anything else the UIR squad was confronted by a massive pantheon with its stone large columns inscribed with pictures of kings and lands from the ancient past while covering a smaller building under its shade. The Groysnians couldn't help to stare at it in awe as the sunlight gave it a peaceful beauty while the birds flew by.

"Grubs!" Dom called out

As more locust drones came out of hiding firing their weapons forcing the group into cover, taking a glance Miller could see a way around them, kneeling back down he hand-signed Pavel and Artyom to flank left while the rest of them kept the grubs busy.

Using the columns for cover Artyom and Pavel were able to flank the drones who were so concentrated on the enemy in front of them, they didn't even notice a pair of humans gaining upon them until it was too late when a pair of grenades were thrown in the middle of the Drones who were too late when an explosion of shrapnel turned the Locust into deep red paste.

Walking out of cover Pavel shook his head, "You know...these things are pretty easy to kill if there's just a single squad."

Turning around Artyom saw another Locust squad making up, "Get down!"

Pulling Pavel out of harm's way as the bullets started to pass through where his comrade was standing before returning fire, hitting one forehead and the other one was gun down by Marcus who then punched on in the face before using his chainsaw to cut it open.

Dom was fighting up close as well, switching between his guns and knife in a very impressive motion, he kicked a locust drone into a wall, before ramming his knife up to its head, killing it.

Kim shot two Locust that was charging at him, he then looked to see the UIR squad fight. Their teamwork was truly impressive, Miller is obviously the leader, Forlin their heavy, while Pavel and Artyom are foot soldiers well trained in fact. But the question remains of how they were able to survive the hammer strikes unscathed?

"Sergeant Miller," Kim called out catching the Grosyanans attention.

"Yes, Lieutenant? what do you need?"Miller said nonchalantly.

"If you don't mind me asking, but how did you survive the hammer strikes," Kim asked curiously.

Miller stopped for a moment before turning with a single raised eyebrow, "You mean during the crimson bloom."

Kim nodded his head, "Yes, the last time I heard about the UIR they were entirely wiped at Pelles."

"Well where do I start," Miller said scratching the back of his helmet," During the peace talks our leader General Zukov wasn't very happy with surrender marched over several dozen UIR infantry and armored divisions to secure the northern colonies, and when we arrived instead of shooting at us the defense forces welcomed us as heroes."

"Bullshit," Marcus said, raising a single eyebrow.

"It's true," Artyom spoke up," most of the UIR garrison sent to guard there joined them instantly when they set to foot on the colonies. After that, it became a haven of sorts for anyone who kept on fighting you COG but that all changed when the Hammer came."

He paused for a moment as his eyes caught sight of a couple of human corpses near a sinkhole, but these are wearing COG armor unlike normal corpses. Shaking his head, Artyom turned to face Kim before speaking in a grim tone, "Guy's I think we just found what left of alpha."

Walking up to him, Kim could see the dead COG soldiers causing him to activate his commlink.

"Control this is Delta." Kim said into his radio, "We have visuals on Alpha. Possible KIA. No sign of the resonator."

"Roger that Delta." Anya replied sadly, "Keep looking."

They soon found a way down through one of the buildings as the two squads walked down the stairs, getting closer to the hole in the ground that had three mangled dead bodies around it. The sight didn't startle the UIR squad one bit since they've already been in dead bodies during their patrols on mainland Grosnia but it didn't make things easy for them.

Dom's words made it even worse, "I hope that's not Rojos down there. His little boy just turned two last week."

When they reached the bodies Kim spoke up, "Well, it could be alpha."

"COG tags are gone," Marcus reported, having looked over a dead Gear with half his head missing.

"This one doesn't have any tags either," Florin added as stood back up while Carmine picked up a metal ball, gaining Kim's attention.

"Is that the Resonator?" Kim asked.

"Nah," Carmine simply answered, shaking his helmeted head.

"It's a geobot." Pavel said plainly, taking the small machine out of the gear's hands.

Kim turned to face the UIR soldier with a confused expression."A what?"

"A Geobot, it's ahh, a small robot that used to store map data to Gears during the end days of the pendulum wars," Pavel explained, examing the machine more closely, however by closer inspection he could see a single bullet had damaged it.

"Ahh, god damn it, this thing looks damaged," Pavel exclaimed, as he began taking it apart, the Grosni was able to pull out a single computer chip.

"There we go, one Geobot memory chip ready to go," he said triumphantly.

"Now what?" Marcus asked, not wanting to waste any more time.

"Let's get that resonator," Kim answered strongly before getting on his coms and stepping away.

"Marcus," Dom said, motioning for him to come closer so they could speak in private. "What do you think?"

Marcus looked around before answering "What do I think? Could be Alpha...or it could be the Locust, setting a trap. There is only one way to know for sure."

"Damn, I'm starting to miss fighting you Gears every second." said the Grosni, grimacing at the body of a gear who looked like he had his arm torn off from the socket.

"Our next objective is the House of Sovereigns. Let's move." Kim ordered as they set out once again, while Anthony and Pavel bringing up the rear tossing the damaged Geobot he had been tinkering with over his shoulder and into the hole.

They barely made it a few steps before another squad of Locust came out of hiding and fired upon them, one of them getting behind a large panel van across from them.

"Dammit, we're pinned down!" Dom shouted, unable to even lean out enough to pick off a single target.

"Carmine! flank them!" the lieutenant shouted over to the Gear.

"Artyom go with him!" Miller added before firing his Rusker Mk1 blindly.

The UIR trooper and Gear waited for the right moment before going around the back end of the van and into a sealed-off area of the street safe from the turret's line of fire, creeping along to avoid being turned into red paste.

Approaching where the turret was set up, the duo was halted when a pair of drones came out of hiding and opened fired on them.

"Shit!" Anthony shouted as they were forced behind a cracked concrete barricade.

Artyom peeked his head over their cover, only to duck back down when a couple of rounds tore through where he had just been, thinking quickly, he looked around for something to help them until his gaze locked onto Florin who was behind one of the broken down vans.

Nodding his head Florin brought his belt-fed matching gun to bear while Anthony was trying to take out the drones with his lancer, Artyom pulled out a grenade from his pouch before throwing it at the feet next to where the Locust soldiers were firing on them.

A moment later an explosion killed one of the Locust, stunned at its partner's sudden demise, the other drone was gunned down by Anthony and Forlin before it had the chance to react.

"Damn, that's a good arm." the gear said as they moved up.

"I was part of my college's thrashball team, pretty good at it too," Artyom replied with pride in his voice.

As they made their way behind where the gun replacement was set up as Carmine wasted the gun operator before taking control of it and shredding the rest of the drone squad that attacked them with the two UIR troopers backing him up with their firepower.

Within moments the area had been cleared and allowed Delta to regroup.

"Great work you three." Kim said, "Let's get going, we still have to locate that resonator."

As they headed farther off into the city, Artyom looked back over his shoulder at all the Locust and wondered just how much harder things would become.


If there were a specific word to describe the Locust, Artyom believed that word would have been relentless.

The UIR ranger had been well trained for combat against both bandits and Stranded enemies and adding with the anti-insurgency operations which honed his skills for years to handle any situation he might encounter when he became a full-fledged ranger.

However, nothing could prepare him to face anything like the Locust horde.

The Stranded are mostly scavengers and looters who were either trying to survive but relied on ambushes and traps. The minority being the ones who had lived longer gathered a large following of people creating settlements.

But the Locust...they were coordinated, they were skilled with guns like a human would be, and they could take a great deal of punishment before being brought down.

On top of everything, their hatred for Humanity was right on par with the most battle-hardened Gear. It showed in their actions how they threw themselves into the fight regardless if they lived or died as long as they killed as many humans as possible.

At almost every step of their journey, the UIR rangers and the members of delta squad were attacked by a seemingly endless horde of Locust who made it their mission to kill them before they could find the resonator matter how many they killed, more would take their place.

It really didn't take the young ranger very long to be annoyed at how persistent the locust are since he learned that these creatures could pope up from holes in the ground, luckily throwing a good grenade would collapse the sinkhole thus burying the grey bastards alive.

Currently, the group had just finished clearing out a couple of gutted buildings where a large group of drones had been stationed. Another bigger group tried to retake the area, but the combined fire of the two squads, one of them taking the stationary turon-site, wasbeen dealt with quickly before they could gain any ground.

"Good job, everyone." Kim said after the last Locust fell."Now let's get that resonator."

A door leading out o the building suddenly burst open and a drone wielding a shotgun in with gun blazing, but a barrage of slugs cut it down before it had a chance to hit anyone.

Artyom ejected the spent magazine from his Markza and fed a new one into place.

"Nice shooting, Artyom." Miller praised as they went through the door the drone had come through and down a narrow and Miller leading, Marcus, Dom, Forlin, and Artyom backed them up with Anthony and Pavel bringing up the rear.

While they walked, Anthony spoke up, "Sooo...is it true that you guys are from the UIR colonies?"

"Yep," Pavel replied.

"Is there any Locust where you from?" he asked.

"No, just Stranded who have a knack for launching raids on our bases or ambushing our supply convoy's " Pavel explained, shrugging his shoulders, "What about you?"

The Gear tried to think of something to say but ended up sighing, "Sorry, was never one for social conversation, that was more Ben's thing."

"Friend or brother?" Pavel asked.

"My brother, little brother to be more specific. He's still in training to become a Gear like me and our older brother Clayton." replied the soldier.

"Your family's in the military too? asked Artyom asked, interested in getting to know the ones he was now fighting with.

Anthony nodded, "Well, most of us. Dad fought in the war before the locust showed up. Mom works as a dispatcher with the COG. Ben, Clayton, and I are Gears, but our other brother is working to help civilian refugees."

The Gorasnayan blinked, "Four brothers, must be nice to have siblings."

"Gave mom some grey hairs, but we've been there for each other growing up. When Clay went off to fight I wasn't too far behind, me and our brothers looked up to him like that." the gear said before looking down at him.

"What about you? Any family?"

Pavel shook his head."Just my mom and dad. Never had any siblings."

"Wow, must be lonely being a lonely child."

The UIR ranger shrugged"For a while it was but I made friends at school when I got older."

They reached the end of the corridor where Marcus kicked open a door that led out to an abandoned parking lot.

Once back outside, the team looked at the large building across from them. The front in the shape of a half-circle with steps leading to the hardened wooden doors 'House of Sovereigns' proudly displayed just under the edge of the roof.

Florim couldn't help but whistle in amazement at the building, "Damn, I didn't know you COG had a thing for architecture."

"Control this is Delta, any word on Alpha?" the Lieutenant asked into his comm as they approached the building.

"Negative, Delta. We still have radio silence, over."

"Roger that. Dom, Fenix, you'll look for a way in. Carmine, and I will stay back and suppress." Kim said to the squad.

"What about Alpha?" Marcus asked.

"We'll save'em if we can

Miller turned to his squad," Artyom, Pavel you go with Fenix's team and make sure they won't. Florin and I will go with Kim"

The four men made their way toward the building while the remaining four hung back to keep them covered.

Soon, a small squad of drones met the duo head-on, but Marcus and Dom's teamwork was nearly flawless as they cleared the entrance out along with Artyom and Pavel, who kept an eye out for any drones trying to flank their position.

The others took out a couple of stragglers who tried to overwhelm them.

"All clear!" Marcus called them on the comms before the two squads regrouped on the steps.

Anthony sat behind of pile of sandbags messing with his and cursing loudly.

"You good?" asked Kim, seeing the young man struggling with his weapon.

"Yeah, but I got a problem." replied the gear as he tried and failed to feed a clip into the rifle again," Something wrong with this damn thing! It keeps jamming!"

"Did you clean your gun before you went out?" Artyom asked

"I did!" the gear complained showing the group his Lancer, "See!"

All of a sudden Carmine's head jerked violently left his brain spraying his brain across the pavement.

"Holy shit!" Forlin yelled out in surprise.

"Sniper! Take his position." Kim called out as they saw a sniper who took the shot not too far away.

Pavel felt rage in his gut just as he felt he made another friend only to get killed right in front of him, in other words, the sniper just made it on top of his kill list and he intends to cross it, in that fuckers blood!

"Artyom cover me, I'm going after the fucker!" Pavel shot of cover and ran at the sniper.

"Covering fire!" Miller shouted out, before firing his Rusker in which everyone else followed keeping the drone sniper suppressed. But before it could even get a shot out, Pavel smacked it in the face with the back of his rifle before quickly putting three bullets into each of its legs.

Seeing the drone crippled Pavel walked right behind it and grabbed its armor toward himself before bringing his Markza down like a hammer, smashing its skull into a bloody paste. Pavel simply pushed the body with his boot without a head, letting it fall with a dull thud.

Pavel was breathing hard and when the rest of the group came up to him he looked at them "Know...this place is clear."

"While I am glad you avenged one of my men. But don't ever into combat like that again until I give the order! Got it?" Kim asked in a stern tone.

Pavel calmed down," First of all, unlike your armor, UIR infantry armor can handle a high caliber round, and second of all I don't follow your orders, Sir."

Kim was about to say something until Miller put a hand on his shoulder before speaking up, "Pavel, you did the right thing however don't be reckless. One more move like that and you'll be put six feet under, understood."

Pavel grunted in response before nodding his head.

"Good. Now with that out of the way let's move, Alpha still needs our help." Miller said as they continued with the Lieutenant leading them to a sealed door with a panel on the wall next to it.

"Good thing the Colonel gave me the codes," Kim added, punching in the proper sequence before the door unlocked and swung open, allowing them entry into the old building. They had all just barely made it to the base of a flight of stories when they heard gunfire and shouting from somewhere farther in.

"You guy hear that?" Artyom asked.

"I think we just found Alpha," Marcus added as they went up the stairs and followed all the noise.

"Yeah! Whoo! Bring it on, baby!" Someone shouted out in excitement amongst the firefight they were hearing."You can't stop this! I got enough for all y'all!"

"Sounds like someone's having a good time," Dom commented as they reached the upper level and looked out into a small courtyard where a lone man stood fighting off Locust on his own, "Holy shit, it's just one guy!"

"That's one for the highlight reel!" the unknown soldier shouted as he kicked another drone into a wall and blew its head off, however, more started pouring into the courtyard.

"He's about to be overrun!" Miller exclamed, seeing the Gear's opposition.

"Open fire!" Kim ordered as they all fired down onto the Locust from their elevated position. The Locust fell under their combined barrage, effectively keeping the man covered as he dropped down to reload.

The lasted for barely a minute before the remaining hostiles were taken down where they stood. Once they were sure that there wouldn't be any more coming, Delta and Omega made their way down to where the lone gear was set up.

He was a little bigger than some of them with dark skin and a shaved head. His armor was a dull white and grey color unlike the normal blue and black of other gears, his large arms exposed for all to see, when he turned to the new arrivals, a wide grin nearly split his face as he approached them.

"Yeah, that was a beautiful baby!" he said jovially.

"State your name, soldier," Kim said.

"Private Augustus Cole, Alpha squad, Sir." the man known as Cole replied.

Dom and the entire Grosni squad perked up.

"Cole? As in the cole train'?!" Dom asked surprised.

"Yeah that's right." the man said with pride.

"Where's the rest of your squad?" the Lieutenant, getting the discussion on track.

Cole motioned farther into the other building," There sitting over in the tombs."

Kim nodded, "Were Delta squad and that Omega. We're here to retrieve the sonic device."

"And to get you guys out of here," Marcus added.

"Hell yeah. We've been waiting for the chopper, but the radios don't work for shit, Sir." Cole said.

"We noticed," Dom replied.

"It's the Seeders. They're jamming our transmissions." The alpha soldier reported.

"Then we have to make those Seeders our top priority, sir," Marcus said to Kim in which the lieutenant nodded.

"Agreed. We need to reestablish radio contact with control. ASAP. Let's move out!"

"What the hell is a Seeder?" Miller asked.

"Seeders were large, eight-legged beasts that fired Nemacyst spores out of a second mouth on their rear end. When the Locust Horde deployed Seeders onto the battlefield, they used these creatures as artillery or AA emplacements. They have also been known to jam radio transmissions with their very presence." Kim explained.

"That's why we didn't see a single Raven in the sky," Miller muttered.

"Exactly, so we need to take them out fast before we could call in the Raven," Kim answered.

The known group of eight began making their way through the house of Sovereigns, all the while some of them were talking about their new addition.

"I can't believe it," Frolin said in awe, "I am walking with the great number 83 himself."

"The one and only, baby," Cole said, still beaming from ear to ear.

Dom nudged Marcus, "Remember this guy? He played for the Cougars, a defensive lineman. We watched you play," he said turning to the man in question.

"Hell yeah, Everyone wants to see the train, baby," said the former sporter.

"Hey Marcus, Remember? Division playoffs? 40-yard line?" Dom continued.

"I remember you owe me 20 bucks," Marcus replied with a smirk.

Dom chuckled, "Oh yeah? See me after the war."

"Did they record those matches? I would love to see them" Forlin said since he was a fan of thrashball.

"I will give all the seasons signed by yours truly," Cole said

It was then that Cole finally noticed that the other four were wearing green composite armor that the UIR wore not the regular Gear armor

"Hey, ha what's with the green, you former UIR or something?"

"Well,uhhhh, not exactly" Artyom trailed off a bit, silently looking at his comrades for a little help to which Florin spoke up rather bluntly.

"We're from the UIR colonies," he answered, causing the former thrashball player to stare at them for a few moments.

"Damn, that new. But wait sec if your truly UIR then how the hell did you survive the hammers? " Cole asked.

"That's a good question," Kim added.

"Would you believe us if we told that massive hurricane saved us?" Miller questioned.

"No," Marcus answered bluntly.

The squads had entered the house of Sovereigns when a small creature suddenly lunged from a dark corner screaming. But Dom reacted quicker, striking the thing down with the butt of his rifle before crushing its head beneath his boot.

"Fucking wretches." he spits.

"That's the ugliest motherfucker I have ever seen in my life?" Artyom said in disgust as he looked at what remained of the creature, barely even half his height.

"Yeah, they are. Hate these screaming bitchs!" Cole said as he shot another one.

Kim worked on a nearby control panel and opened the way for them, the sealed door lead into a long hallway that ended in a dead-end on one side and a large hole on the other that didn't seem to have an end. The lieutenant tried another door across from the other and found the panel broken and a door sealed shut.

"Jack, decloak and rips this door."

As soon as he said that the air began to distort as the strange robot revealed itself, its four glowing blue optics lit up a small portion of the corridor as a pair of long, thin metal arms extended from its body. The robot beeped and chirped as it floated over to the door where it began to cut along the edge where the door's locking mechanism was located with a small blowtorch.

Keeping an eye out for any more locusts, it was then that Forlin saw something drop from the ceiling, in a form of a snarling wretch who growled at the group before letting loose a nearly ear-piercing screech that shattered all the windows around them.

"Wretches!" Marcus shouted as more of the small creatures made themselves known and converged on them from all sides. The two squads opened fire on the attacking creatures, keeping them at a distance to avoid being mauled to death.

Artyom killed a couple of them when his Markza clicked empty, another wretch ran along the wall, its claws sinking into the stone as it leaped at him. Thinking fast, he brought out the jammed Lancer he took from Carmine's corps where the creature landed on the saw, the teeth of the saw doing little to distract it as it continued to try and claw at him.

Gritting his teeth behind his helmet, The UIR ranger grabbed the handle at the top of the lance and pulled back. The chainsaw bayonet roared to life, the teeth spinning and slicing through the wretch's weak armor and flesh like a wet tissue paper.

The Wretch screeched as it was effectively cut in half. Its blood splashing across Artyoms arms, chest, and face, forcing him to turn his head to avoid getting it in his helmet's eyelids before the creature fell to either side of him.

The rest of Delta and Omega finished off the rest of the attacking wretches in time to see the ranger brutally finish the last one. The bayonet powered down as he stood there with blood dripping down on his face and armor before wiping it off his arm.

"Artyom," Forlin asked, concern in his tone, "You okay, man?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, just a little too much blood to my liking is all," Artoym grunted putting the lancer away, just as Jack got the door open and vanished into thin air via cloak. but as soon as the two squads entered what had once been a library when a horrible, pungent smell assaulted them.

"Damn! What the hell is that smell?!" Dom exclaimed, clutching at his nose.

"Seriously. Something smells wrong in here." Added Marcus.

"It's those Seeders. They're nasty, man. Nasty." Cole said.

"I think I'm going to be sick," Pavel gaged in disgust.

"Well, you three should've kept your helmets on then. If you did then you wouldn't have to smell that shit " Miller scolded as they tried to ignore the stench as best as they could.

They soon stepped out into the courtyard, at the furthest end stood a spider-like creature with its rear-end in the air spewing out jellyfish-like creatures into the air that left trails of greenish-black smoke in their wake.

"That...just ain't right," Marcus commented.

Artyom couldn't help but agree as he stared at the abomination in front of them, "Okay...Does anybody have any explosives? If not then we're going to need a lot of bullets to take this ugly bastard down."

Dom smirked as he put his lancer on his back and pulled off another weapon that he aimed at the larger creature. "Then let's make it look less ugly."

A small beam projected from the weapon, centering on the beast. A series of loud beeps were heard just before a massive beam of amber-colored energy shot down from the sky, scorching the Seeder's armor and flesh even melting the stone around it.

The attack lasted for a few seconds before ending, the Seeder collapsing to the ground, burnt to the crisp.

"...that was..." Artyom wouldn't find the words.

"Now that's what I'm talking about baby, Wooo!" Cole exclamed.

Dom swapped the weapon with his lancer, "We should use the Hammer of Dawn more often."

"It only works outside, and even then only when the satellites are overhead. Basically, we lucked out," said Kim before trying their comms"Control, this is Delta, come in."

He was met with static," Still no good. There must be more Seeders. Let's move out."


It took them an hour to find and deal with countless Locust squads and the remaining two seeders spat out Nemacyst, the aerial that was jamming their transmission.

Artyom and his squad had learned along the way that the Seeders spat out Nemacyst, the aerial creatures, to disrupt their transmissions and making it difficult to use air support without being brought down by the flyers as well.

Once they managed to establish a connection with control, they had been patched through to Alpha squad who was pinned down in the tombs across the street from their location. And with their evac running low on fuel, they needed to clear a landing zone so they could all get out of there.

Dispatching another group of Locusts, the squad entered a large, circular chamber with an elevated platform in the center and rows of seats on the level above with statues of warriors surrounding the main floor.

"What is this place?" Miller asked as he surveyed the large room reminding him of some of the historical sites that survived the hammer strikes.

"The Grand Courtroom," Kim said as he looked around the chamber as well, "This used to be a beautiful place. There's a lot of history here."

"A lot of lies too," Marcus said roughly.

The Lieutenant glared at him, "You've got some nerve, soldier. I heard all about your trial."

"His trial was a sham, sir," Dom said, quickly coming to Marcus' defense.

Artyom looked at Marcus with a lot of questions on his mind but kept to himself, not wanting to cause an argument.

Going up the flight of steps on the other side of the courtroom, the squads found themselves on a balcony overlooking the tombs and the street between them. A lone Locust arming a stationary gun and firing on the other building.

Dom quickly killed the drone and took the gun while the others spread out and took positions.

"This street is the Pickup zone!" Kim shouted, "We need to clear it! That means no Nemacyst in the air!"

"Agreed but we had to do it quickly. The more time we waste, the Less fuel our evac has." Miller added

The squad opened fire. Dom, Florin, Miller, and Kim focusing on the drones below while Marcus Artyom, Pavel, and Cole shot down the Nemacyast that floated around the Tombs. A handful of the creatures attempting suicide run to the balcony and were quickly taken down before they got too close.

Once the skies were cleared, they all focused on the ground below them. Dom jumped off the stationary gun and pulled out the Hammer of Dawn again, firing the massive laser down on the street and incinerating the Drones that were behind cover. When the last of the Locust fell, the squad made their way back down to the ground floor and approached Alpha's location.

"KR Two-four, we're at the pick-up zone now." The Lieutenant said into his earpiece as he left the house of sovereigns.

"Copy that, we have visual." the pilot answered

"We're out of here," Dom said, sounding relieved.

Cole shook his head before groaning, "Man, I puke my guts out on those things, every time."

"Guess you're sitting next to Marcus then," Dom replied quickly which got a smirk out of his friend and a laugh from both Artyom and Pavel

"If he does then I swear to god that I'll throw myself out the Raven, rather than smelling puke for how many hours," Florin exclaimed not wanting to smell the former thrashball players puke.

From the Tombs, a man with spiked blond hair and goggles on his head flanked by two gears in full armor approached with a large device in his hands. Cole met them halfway with a wide grin. "Who loves ya, baby!"

"Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, group hug." the blond said sarcastically as he fixed the device to Cole's back. He then looked around a moment before signing, "Where's Rojas?"

Cole's grin vanished as he shook his head, holding up a set of COG tags causing the blond to sadly look away, his face promising that someone will pay for this.

Delta and Omega squad stood guard, looking at the many open windows and doorways around them in case of any locusts were laying. Artyom was doing the same, his eyes searching for any movement. Even though everything was silent, something didn't feel right, like a chill going up his spine trying to warn him of something.

" Sarge, we should find another evac zone, we're too exposed here" Artyom whispered to Miller who couldn't help but agree with him.

"I know private just keep your guard up," Miller ordered.

"You feel it too?" Marcus asked, eyeing the sky with suspicion.

"Da, Something wrong with this picture," Artyom confirmed.

Before any one of the rangers could answer, a King Raven was heard closing in, drawing all eyes to their incoming transport. This didn't last long as a pair of Nemacyst flyers suddenly came out of nowhere.

"LOCUST!" Marcus shouted as the Nemacyst struck the Raven, causing it to pitch to the side and crashing through a building before hitting the ground and sliding up the street in a ball of fire and metal forcing the squad to jumped out of the way.

"Damn it!" Artyom shouted. That was their only way out of here, now they are trapped.

Then all of a sudden a hailstorm of bullets started flying around them as another horde of Locusts attacked from nowhere, as dozens upon dozens of Locusts began flooding the street and firing on the humans, forcing them into whatever cover they could find.

Artyom found himself behind a large concrete block beside Marcus and Dom, while Pavel was checking him over for any injures since he was close to the blast radius. Over the ringing in his ears and the endless roar of gunfire, he could make out the others shouting to one another as more drones began flanking them. Looking to his right he could see the other half of his squad with the remains of Alpha who were taking cover near the tombs but when he started reloading his Markza, he looked to his left.

Through the flaming wreckage of the king Raven, he could see Kim holding his own against the coming horde, trying to shout out orders to the others while fighting to stay alive.

The UIR ranger's eyes caught movement and turned to see a lone Locust, easily three times bigger than the drones around, wearing full black heavy armor as it walked up behind the Lieutenant.

"KIM! BEHIND YOU!?" He shouts out over the chaos, but he didn't hear him as the imposing Locust closed in.

As if sensing the coming danger, Kim finally spun around and tried to shoot, only for his lancer to click empty forcing him to revved his chainsaw bayonet and charged. But to his shock, the locust caught the powerful blade with his bare hand and kicked him away, stomping over to him, it picked him up by the neck, and rammed his blade into Kim's gut, killing him.

Artyom could only watch in horror as, as Kim's blood splattered across his pale face as he ripped the blade from the now dead body and tossing the corps to the ground, as it turned to face them.

Shaking off the disorientation, the UIR ranger was about to take a couple of shots at the massive Locust along with Marcus who had the same idea however before either of them could avenge the Lieutenant's death, Pavel grabbed him by the shoulder with Dom doing the same Marcus.

"No! We're here for Alpha and the Resonator." Dom reminded them, "Come on!"

"Covering fire!" Miller shouted out as they began falling back into the Tombs as dozens upon dozens of Locust drones were right behind them. The last thing he heard as they left the battlefield was Marcus sawing a Drone in two before kicking it down the stairs before slamming the doors shut.

After that, there was only one thing on Artyom's mind, What do we do know?


Okay here is the second chapter and the reason why that I took so long is that deciding if Carmine lives or dies and I chose Anthony's death however I'm going to keep his second brother alive okay.