Chapter 17
A/N: Heyo! I'm back with a fresh installment of the series. This time, the Slayer has found himself in the Gears of War universe! Not GOD of War, GEARS of War. I just want to clear that up right now. However, please do not be discouraged if you were expecting a God of War chapter, as it is likely to occur in the future. But enough God talk, more Gears talk! Remember that I own nothing, and enjoy!
"Baird, any way we can slow this thing down?"
"Oh, it'll slow right down. When we crash."
Marcus Fenix cursed inwardly and held tightly to the console as the Locust barge slammed into the forest floor. The impact jarred the five Gears on board, and all of them were thrown forward as the barge crashed through trees and dirt.
Marcus tucked his head in tight to avoid whiplash. That is, if he didn't get thrown from the barge first and break his back. All of a sudden, the barge listed to the left as the front corner caught in the dirt, launching Marcus from his standing position at the console and into the air.
Marcus saw a brief image of Dizzy tumbling through the air next to him, then the wind was knocked from his lungs as he landed hard on solid ground, the barge skidded to a stop next to him.
Marcus lay still for a moment, mentally checking his body to see if anything was injured. After a brief self-examination, Marcus concluded that while he was definitely going to be sore tomorrow, he was unscathed.
"Oh, man…" Marcus said with a grunt as he pushed himself up. "Everybody still in one piece?"
Marcus looked over his shoulder to see the rest of Delta Squad scraping themselves off the forest floor.
"Uh…" came Cole's voice from behind. He had propped himself up onto his elbows. "I'll get back to you on that."
Before anyone could say more, an intense white spotlight flooded their vision from up ahead. Marcus turned his head to the source and shielded his eyes with one hand to try and get a better look. Against the stark white ambience of the light, he could just barely make out a few silhouettes approaching the wreckage of the barge.
"Hold your fire!" ordered a voice that Marcus was all-too-familiar with. As his eyes adjusted to the light, Marcus saw none other than Colonel Victor Hoffman, his old superior from days long ago. The two of them had shared a very rocky relationship over the years, but personal matters tended to take a sideline when the extinction of your race was imminent. Marcus decided that in his own way, he was happy to see the colonel.
As Marcus's eyes adjusted, he saw Hoffman approach the group.
"Fenix? What in the hell are you doing here?" the grizzled veteran asked. He held his lancer easily at his side, scanning his eyes over Marcus and the rest of Delta Squad as he spoke.
"There's a column of grubs headin' this way, Colonel," Marcus said pushing himself off the ground as he spoke. His chest still ached from the impact. "Let's get out of here, and I'll explain."
Hoffman read the urgent tone in his voice and turned smartly to address the Gears that accompanied him.
"Okay! Mount up!" he barked, his voice never losing that authoritative tone that compelled others to follow his commands. "Get on the radio and warn the fort we've got grubs inbound!"
The Gears immediately stood-to and mobilized for transport. Hoffman turned back to Marcus and offered his free hand, which Marcus accepted.
…
Not another word was said until they were well on their way back to Anvil Gate. The trucks were putting in serious overtime to get them to the fort in time to prepare for the attack.
"It's been a long time, Fenix," Hoffman said from the driver's seat. Marcus sat in the passenger's seat next to him. Their truck was leading in a column, and it bounced and heaved over the gravel road.
"I'm guessin' you didn't come all this way to inquire about my health."
Marcus quickly explained the situation, how it had turned out that his father was alive after all these years of supposedly being dead. How Chairman Prescott had given him the necessary decryption data to access the disk that Hoffman had been holding on to—just before he died.
Soon they had passed through the front gate of the old fort and parked within the garage. Hoffman killed the engine and turned to Marcus; his expression mirrored what he said next.
"Well, Fenix—I have no goddamn idea what to say. And that's a first for me."
Whatever Hoffman had to say next was immediately cut short by as the fort's alarm pierced the air inside the garage. Marcus turned his head to the noise and immediately heard Bernie's voice in his earpiece.
"Contact! Grubs at the front gate! All personnel to stand-to positions!"
Marcus immediately jumped out of the truck. The rest of Delta Squad jumped out of the back and joined him. Hoffman leapt out of the driver's seat with surprising agility for his age.
"I'll fill you in after we've dealt with our visitors!" Marcus said. Hoffman nodded in return. Already turning his head to give orders to the rest of the Gears.
"Load up and meet me at the front gate. I'll be damned if I let these bastards take this fort!"
Hoffman accessed the radio in his ear as he ran out of the garage.
"Bernie, you're on Ops. Get on the PA system and call it out!"
"Okay. Will do," Bernie replied, her thick islander accent cutting through the radio static.
Marcus hastily refilled his ammunition belt, then followed Hoffman to the front gate. Bernie's voice came through again, but this time through the fort-wide intercom.
"All personnel, stand-to! Hold the front gate, we've got a whole grub battalion out there, people!"
Delta Squad fell in behind Marcus as they reached the ramparts overlooking the front entrance. Marcus immediately had to duck as Locust gunfire peppered the space above him. Hoffman took cover beside him.
"Never seen this many of 'em out here before," Hoffman said in an ironically nonchalant manner.
"Well, I think we might have pissed 'em off. We ran into the queen," Marcus said, momentarily peeking over his cover to fire at a drone below. The monster grunted in pain once before succumbing to its gunshot wounds, and Marcus ducked again as its comrades fired on his position.
"She's alive?! Goddamnit—Fenix, any more shocks you want to share with me?"
"Not yet."
Marcus once again leaned out of cover to fire another burst from his lancer. He was rewarded with a dying grunt of a Locust sniper. He looked over and saw Dom, Baird, and Dizzy doing the same. Cole had taken position in the Troika nest and was currently raining fire down into the seemingly endless Locust wave.
"Marcus," Cole shouted over the noise of the Troika turret. "If we don't hold these gates, the grubs are gonna be all over us!"
Marucs didn't bother to respond, choosing instead to focus on dropping as many grubs as he could.
"Head's up!" Baird shouted. "We got Reavers!"
Sure enough, two of the giant flying nightmares swooped down from the sky. As ugly as they were deadly, the two Reavers landed hard, and stood rather high on their tentacles. This give their riders a much better angle at the defensive positions that Delta Squad was in, spelling trouble for Marcus and his team. Reavers were equipped with explosive artillery, which was a formidable weapon to fight against even when it wasn't strapped onto a giant flying monster. Marcus cursed and covered his head as a round exploded nearby. Delta Squad all ducked their heads as well, one member excepted.
"Whooo! Finally, something big to shoot at!" Cole whooped. With a quick turn of the turret, Cole began spewing bullets at the massive monsters, peppering both the Reavers and their riders with a tide of lead.
The creatures from the Hollow screeched in pain and listed sideways, knocking their riders from their saddles. The fall alone wasn't enough to kill the riders, but the massive Reaver body crushed them as it fell to the ground. The threat ended as quickly as it had come, and Marcus smirked at Cole's child-like enthusiasm, as it was not the first time that it had saved his life. The moment was short-lived however as Dom's voice cut across the gunfire.
"Now we got Grinders! Coming in on the left!"
Marcus looked and sure enough, a small squadron of Grinders had appeared from the tree line. Standing roughly eight feet tall on average, each one was equipped with a Mulcher, a heavy gatling gun developed by the COG back in the Pendulum Wars. Like most weapons the COG had manufactured, some had ended up in the hands of the Locust Horde, wielded specifically by the juggernaut Grinders.
"Focus fire!" Marcus barked, ducking back into cover just as the Grinders began their assault. A sea of bullets spewed overhead from the Mulchers they carried, severely discouraging any idea of peeking out of cover again. With a grunt, Marcus pulled a frag grenade from his gear. Without even looking, Marcus tossed the grenade over the wall in the general direction he thought the Grinders were. Today proved to be his lucky day as the grenade beeped for a split second before exploding. Cries of Locust anguish followed shortly after, meaning that the grenade had struck home. The hail of gunfire faltered as well. Marcus once again leaned out of cover to fire only to see what the next wave brought.
"Ah, shit! Siege Beast!"
The Siege Beast, while still a relatively new addition to the Locust's war machines, still adhered to the horrific trend of strapping machinery onto a creature of the Hollow and using it to kill humans. This time, the poor creature had a massive catapult fitted onto its back, and as Marcus watched, the massive catapult cocked backward and fired its explosive ordinance directly at the gate.
"Incoming!" Dom yelled as he dove away from the incoming projectile. As the ordinance struck, Marcus could hear the screeching of metal as the gate yielded to the catapult's explosive power. The doors bent and burned under the stress, but surprisingly held against the bombardment. Unfortunately, Marcus wasn't sure they would survive another hit like that, and the catapult was already reloading.
"Those gates ain't gonna hold much longer!" came Dizzy's voice from over the gunfire. As if on cue, the catapult fired again, an explosive round arching through the air and striking the already damaged doors to the fort. The heat from the resulting explosion caused Marcus to turn away, but he already knew that the gates had not survived that hit. For the first time in the history of the COG, Anvil Gate had been breached.
"Fall back, they've breached the outer courtyard!" Hoffman's voice crackled from the radio. Marcus looked over as he ran and saw Hoffman grab a Gear by his armor and throw him away from the burning gate. "Come on—move!"
Marcus barely listened as Bernie's voice relayed the status over the intercom, focusing instead on rushing to defend the inner gates. Their second line of defense. He quickly regrouped with the rest of the squad above the second gate, and immediately began firing down on the horde of grubs that poured from the hole in Anvil Gate's defenses.
"I thought nobody got past the defenses here!" Baird shouted, making no effort to hide the irritation in his voice.
"They didn't!" Hoffman replied. "But that was the Pendulum Wars!"
"You still got Hammer of Dawn control, Colonel? You know, the big dangerous one?"
"I do, but the targeting system is screwed. We can't risk it."
Marcus didn't bother to look, but he knew Baird was even more annoyed about the Hammer problems than the grubs breaching the fort. Being the resident mechanic on the squad, Baird was always pissed when things broke, and a heavy weapon like the Hammer of Dawn was a huge disadvantage when it didn't work.
"Grappling hooks!" came Dom's voice from next to Marcus. Sure enough, just after he heard it, Marcus saw grappling hooks appear all along the upper wall where they were holding defense. The grubs were trying to overrun their position.
"Like hell, they are," Marcus growled to himself as he fired up the chainsaw bayonet on his Lancer. Shortly after the emergence of the Locust Horde, the traditional knife bayonet on the Lancer was replaced with a chainsaw bayonet in order to better deal with the tough hide on a grub's body. The weapon had proven effective, and now it was standard issue among COG forces. Well, it was standard issue, but nowadays the remainder of the COG took what they could get.
Revving the bayonet to full power, Marcus sawed through the thick rope that constituted most of the grappling hook. There had been a drone attempting to climb the rope at the time, and there was a satisfying thud as the grub fell back to the ground. The rest of Delta Squad was doing the same, but there were more hooks than there were saws to cut them. Some grubs made it up the wall before they could stop them.
Revving his bayonet again, Marcus ran to the nearest drone that had climbed over the wall and sawed through its torso. Blood spewed everywhere as the chainsaw cut through flesh and bone alike, and as quickly as it had begun, the grub was sawed cleanly in half. It gave a choked grunt as it died, but Marcus paid it no mind. He had already moved on to cut the rope that it had used to climb the wall.
The melee ended quickly as Delta Squad cut through the grubs and the grappling hooks, but there was no respite after, as Locust were still coming through the hole in the gate.
"Maulers inbound!"
Of course.
Now coming through the gate were roughly six of the hulking behemoths, each one equipped with a Boomshield and an explosive flail. Each stood just as tall if not taller than their Grinder counterparts and were much wider. Marcus immediately opened fire on the behemoths, but they instantly responded by ducking down behind their massive shields, leaving virtually no openings to shoot at despite their bulk.
"Yo, bitches! Put those shields down and just let me kill ya!" Cole shouted at the slowly approaching Maulers. Marcus spared a glance and saw that the former thrashball player was already swinging a frag grenade in his hand. Even he slung the grenade at the Maulers, Cole continued to taunt the encroaching enemy.
"Hey! I promise I'll kill ya fast! The Cole Train's humane, bitch!"
With comedic timing, the grenade then exploded right in the middle of the Maulers' formation, making mincemeat of all but two of the Boomshield wielding foes. The remaining two Maulers roared with anger at their fallen brethren and rushed toward the inner gate with renewed vigor.
"Come on! Drop 'em!" Marcus yelled as more Maulers appeared through the hole to take the place of those that had fallen.
"Yeah, we're dropping 'em! But they've invited all their cousins!" came Baird's reply as he fired at a Mauler's exposed flank.
The situation was dire, but then again, how many times had Marcus and the others found themselves facing impossible odds? It wasn't like this was anything new. Their death always seemed just around the corner, but this somehow felt different. Anvil Gate was one of humanity's last strongholds, and there was nowhere left to run now.
Marcus took aim at another Mauler, but before he could pull the trigger, a bright red beam burst from outside the courtyard and blew the Mauler to pieces, Boomshield and all. Marcus frowned incredulously at the sight, and as he watched, more beams emerged from outside the front gate, blasting Maulers and Drones alike. In the span of a few seconds, the grub presence was eliminated from the courtyard, and any remaining pieces were decaying rapidly into dust. Likely a side effect from whatever that beam-thing was.
"Bernie! What in the hell is out there?" Hoffman barked into the radio.
"I'm picking up footage now, Vic. I can't see it clearly, but whatever it is, it's killing all the grubs! It's broken their line!"
"Hear that, Gears? We got 'em on the ropes out there! Everyone back to the ramparts! We're burying these bastards!"
There was hardly any hesitation as the Gears rallied and charged back to defend the front gate. Hoffman pulled up alongside Marcus as he ran.
"This another one of your surprises, Fenix?"
"Not this time, Colonel…" Marcus said as they reached the ramparts. Marcus surveyed the scene down below to discover that Bernie was correct. The entire Locust offensive formation had been broken, and now the grubs had turned their attention away from the fort and were all trying to shoot something that Marcus couldn't see. The Siege Beast lay on its side at the edge of the battlefield, damaged beyond repair. Suddenly, Marcus saw a figure burst from behind the toppled catapult and charge headfirst into the Locust Horde. Holding a shotgun in its hands, the figure lunged for the closest group. When it was close enough, the figure fired the shotgun, bursting the skull of the nearest Drone, then grabbed the body before it could fall and hurled it at the others. The body crashed into the other nearby Drones, scattering them and knocking them off their feet. The figure disposed of them as well before turning to the next group.
"Whooo!" Cole piped up. "The Cole Train is gonna have to practice that move for the next highlight reel!"
"This guy's bought us a distraction, boys!" Hoffman yelled with vigor. "Let's finish these bastards while they're down!"
At his words, the Gears rained fire down upon the discombobulated Locust Horde. What followed was nothing short of a massacre. The grubs had been so focused on killing their new foe that they neglected to take cover from the Gears within the fort. The price for their mistake was now being paid in blood as more and more of their number fell dead.
As for the figure, Marcus occasionally glanced its way to see that it was having no issue tearing its way through the grub ranks. It's strength and agility were a force to be reckoned with, and Marcus watched in awe as it easily overpowered and outmaneuvered the grubs with ease.
"Marcus, just what the hell is that guy down there?" Dom asked so that only Marcus could hear.
"I dunno," Marcus replied as he dropped another grub. "But it's killing grubs, so that puts it on my nice list."
"Good enough for me!" Dizzy said from Marcus's other side. Dom didn't seem to share Dizzy's enthusiasm, but he seemed content enough with the answer.
…
The last grub died beneath the figure's boot as it walked through the open gate into the fort at Anvil Gate. Delta Squad, with Hoffman at the lead, walked out to meet it, and Marcus got an up-close look at it for the first time. The gear that it was wearing was different in design than anything Marcus had seen before. Its armor didn't seem all that extravagant, but the helmet it wore gave it a mysterious aura that told Marcus that there was more to this figure than it seemed. The green color of its armor almost made Marcus think it was Gorasni, but even the Indies didn't have gear like what the stranger was wearing.
"Well well, I'd be lyin' if I said I've seen something quite like you," Hoffman said, holding out his hand. The figure took it and shook without a word.
"Not much of a talker? Well…shit. Normally I'd be pissed about that type of behavior, but I can't get too pissed off when you just saved our bacon back there."
"Fuckin' bacon…" Baird grumbled with a scowl. Cole elbowed him in the ribs.
"That looks like it was the last of 'em. For a while, anyway," Dom said.
"Yeah, probably just long enough to get rid of the smell of rotting grub," Baird added. Introductions were made, or what passed for introductions seeing as how the unnamed soldier didn't speak at all.
"Colonel," Marcus said, turning away from the newcomer. "We better have that talk now."
…
"Well that's downright unbelievable!" Hoffman said as he led Delta Squad into the Operations Center of the fort. "Even for that asshole! …So, this thing your dad's invented—it'll kill off the Lambent? What about the rest of the grubs?"
"No guarantees," Marcus said with a shake of his head. "Just because they turn into Lambent doesn't mean it'll work on 'em."
"Shame about the Hammer. It's just what we need…" Baird said. He was currently checking over a few control systems at the main console. After a moment, he shook his head and walked over to where Marcus and Hoffman were standing.
"Goddamn thing!" Hoffman cursed. "It still triggers a few satellites, but forget about accuracy!"
"Hmmm," Baird said, more to himself than to the others. "Maybe I can fix that…"
There was a loud clank of metal as the door to the Operations Center opened and in came Bernie. Though she was showing signs of age like Hoffman, she still held the air of command that all Gears respected.
"Bernie, you are not gonna believe this shit!" Hoffman said.
"It'll have to wait, Vic," Bernie said with a dismissive wave of her hand. She spared a momentary glance at the stranger, who had wrested a nearby Gear's Lancer rifle from his hands and was currently examining the design.
"Hey!" the Gear said in annoyance. "Give that—"
A look from the stranger immediately silenced him, and he backed away carefully. Bernie turned back to address the others.
"Is anyone monitoring the radio net? It's Sam and Anya. They're pinned down outside the perimeter!"
"We're on it, Bernie," Marcus said with a nod. "Come on, people, lock and load."
"I'll get someone to drive the truck for ya," Hoffman said as everyone mobilized for combat.
Bernie spared another glance at the stranger as it ran by, Lancer still in hand. She caught Baird's arm as he continued to work on the Hammer.
"What? Did I miss something, Blondie?"
"Uh…" Baird obviously didn't feel like telling the story from his tone.
"I'll…let him fill you in," he said, gesturing to Hoffman. "Just keep an eye on his blood pressure. Stay calm, deep breaths, that kind of stuff, okay?"
Bernie frowned at the response but decided that she wasn't going to get a better one, and she choose instead to follow Delta Squad rather than pester Baird for an answer.
"Dom, you and Bernie get up on the wall and give us some cover fire," Marcus ordered as the group entered the garage. "You two, with me."
Everyone wordlessly nodded and hurried to their positions. Dom and Bernie took the nearby stairs up to the wall defenses, and the stranger, Cole and Marcus climbed into the back of the truck. The driver had already started the engine. As soon as they were on board, the truck took off.
Marcus accessed his radio.
"Anya, we're coming to get you. Are you okay? Where's Jace?"
"We're pinned down," came Anya's voice over the static. "Jace isn't here. He's on his way with Carmine."
"Okay, Anya, hold on!"
The truck gunned the engine and turned the corner once outside the gate. As they drew closer, Marcus saw a brigade of grubs closing in on a downed Packhorse—the COG's very own armored Humvee.
"We've got you covered from up here, Marcus," came Dom's voice from his ear piece. "Go get 'em."
"Yo, I see the ladies—behind the Packhorse!" Cole said enthusiastically.
Marcus could see that he was right, but as he surveyed the scene, he saw a disturbance in the dirt. Something was moving underground, and it was coming closer and closer to the truck…
"Look out! Digger!"
But it was too late, the live ordinance burst from the ground and exploded on the driver's side of the truck. The vehicle immediately lost control, and Marcus, Cole and the stranger were hurled from the truck as it fell onto its side.
Marcus hit the ground hard and saw stars. All sensory output was fuzzy for a few moments, but Marcus could still hear Sam and Anya calling to him, telling him to get up. Marcus groaned and struggled to his feet. He looked to his left to see a downed Gear being set upon by a Locust Grenadier. With a malicious grunt, the monster reached down and ripped the Gear's arm from his body, causing him to cry out in pain from beneath his helmet.
"Jynx!"
With another roar, the Grenadier beat the Gear mercilessly with his own severed arm. The Gear twitched a few times before he stopped moving. Marcus growled in anger, but before he could bring his rifle to bear, the stranger was already on the scene.
Before the Grenadier had time to react, the figure plunged its hands into the creature's chest, evoking an anguished roar from the monster. In the next instant, the stranger pulled its hands away from each other, ripping the Grenadier's body in half down the middle, silencing it forever. The stranger then wasted no time setting its sights on the nearby Savage Boomer that wielded the Digger Launcher. Marcus knew that the Boomer would not last long against the stranger, so he turned to Sam and Anya.
"Come on, fall back to the fort!"
Sam, Anya, and Cole wordlessly complied, and Marcus turned back to see the stranger wrench the Digger Launcher from the Boomer's grasp and fire it point-blank into the hulking creature. The small Digger-Creature burst from the weapon and began burrowing into the Boomer's flesh, causing the Boomer to cry out and writhe in pain. After burrowing deep into the creature's body, the Digger exploded from within, rendering the Boomer's body into ground beef. The stranger seemed satisfied and turned to Marcus.
"Cover our tail! We're falling back to the fort!"
The stranger nodded and took up its new Lancer. Marcus turned and ran to catch up with the others as they sprinted for the gate. Marcus heard a rumble to his right. A moment later, a Lambent stalk burst from the ground. As thick as a redwood, and arching nearly as high, Lambent monsters immediately began pouring from the stalk. More stalks sprouted nearby.
"Shit Marcus! Now the Lambent are joining the party!"
"Just keep running!" Marcus yelled as Lambent forces opened fire on their new moving targets. Marcus heard the sound of a chainsaw revving behind him, signifying the stranger's engagement with the Lambent forces. It was making good use of its new weapon. Another stalk burst from the ground nearby.
"Baird!" Marcus yelled into his radio. "We're being overrun with Lambent! Bring the Hammer online!"
"Okay, but you'd better get in here! We don't have full control!"
Shit…
"Just fire it up!"
Marcus ran full tilt toward the open gate where two Gears were suppressing fire to cover their entrance. Just as Marcus thought they were going to make it, another stalk popped up right next to the gate.
"Uhhhhh, Marcus?! That don't look good!" Cole shouted. As if egged on by his words, the stalk spewed out a massive Lambent creature, larger than all the rest.
Standing at least eleven feet tall, the hulking monster sported arms and legs that were the size of tree trunks. Its hide was thick, with a bright yellow light showing through in certain areas. It was a constant reminder of the Imulsion that coursed through all Lambent creatures. As if the creature didn't look scary enough, four bladed tentacles sprouted from its back, each one as long as a car and as thick as Marcus's arm.
It was a Lambent Berserker.
The creature roared, which came out as a piercing scream, and set upon the two Gears at the gate, tearing through them like tissue paper. It then turned to Marcus and the group, setting its sights on the remaining humans. Roaring again, the Lambent 'Zerker hefted the truck the Gears had been using and hurled it towards the group.
"Look out!" Marcus said as he made to dive out of the way. But the truck never hit him. In a split second, the stranger was there again, and it braced itself and caught the truck with its gauntleted hands. The force of the impact caused the stranger to skid backwards a foot or so, but it held its ground. With a seemingly small effort, the stranger braced itself underneath the truck and heaved, sending the vehicle flying back to the Lambent 'Zerker, who swatted it away with its giant hand and charged directly at the stranger. Marcus recovered from his roll and opened fire on the massive creature, but the bullets were nothing compared to the thick hide the Lambent 'Zerker sported. Standard weapons were useless.
"Goddamn! You an ugly bitch!" Cole shouted as the Lambent 'Zerker clashed with the stranger, lashing out ferally as the armored solider ducked and weaved through its blows.
"Baird! Where's the damn Hammer!?"
"It's firing—now!"
As Baird's voice came over the radio, red beams rained down from the sky, scorching all in their path. The Hammer of Dawn was firing. The beams were tracking the Lambent 'Zerker, each slowly converging on its position. When they all converged, whatever was underneath got toasted.
"Everybody, run! Get to the fort!" Marcus bellowed. He looked back and saw the stranger deliver a solid uppercut to the Lambent 'Zerker, buying them precious seconds as the monster staggered backward from the force of the blow. The stranger then turned and caught up to them, getting inside just as Marcus slammed the gate control, closing the gate and trapping the Lambent 'Zerker outside.
Marcus watched from the courtyard as the beams finally converged, and there was a loud shrieking noise as the lasers all combined into one giant death ray on the Lambent 'Zerker's position. Marcus could feel the heat even from inside the gates.
The laser burned for a few more moments, then the beam disappeared. The Hammer of Dawn was offline. All fell silent as the light from the beam faded.
"Did we fry that bitch?" Cole asked cheekily with a grin. Sam let out a breath she had been holding.
"Looks that way."
Marcus turned away from the gate to address Delta Squad.
"Alright, everybody get inside. We've got unfinished business to—"
An ear-splitting puound came from the other side of the gate, and the gate itself caved inward slightly. Another pound came, and the gate yielded a little more. Another pound came, then another, then another…
"What the hell? —"
The night lapsed into silence for a brief second, then there was a loud shriek, and the Lambent 'Zerker jumped over the wall and into the courtyard. Its body was red hot from the Hammer, but it only added to its horrific form. It was still alive.
The Lambent 'Zerker roared again and charged at Delta Squad, but not before Marcus noticed something strange. As he dove out of the way, he saw that when the beast had charged, its rib cage had opened, exposing some sort of glowing chest cavity beneath the hard chitin.
"The hell is that flappy thing in her chest?!" Cole yelled as he recovered from his roll.
The Lambent 'Zerker stopped its charge, but before she could turn to charge again, the stranger produced a weapon that Marcus had never seen before. The stranger carried it in two hands, and it was forked at the end while humming with a powerful red light. Without a moment's hesitation, the stranger fired the weapon, and a bright-red beam burst from the forked end and struck the Lambent 'Zerker directly on her shoulder. Marcus then recognized it as the weapon from the battle earlier. The impact from the weapon was obviously powerful, as the beast roared and staggered from the impact, and like with the Maulers from before, the area around the shot began to decay. However, the effect appeared to have diminished greatly against the Lambent 'Zerker's tough skin, as the effected area remained relatively small and did not burn through much chitin at all. So much for that plan.
The Lambent 'Zerker roared and charged again, and again Marcus noticed that the chest cavity exposed itself before she charged.
"Ugh!" Baird said, obviously grossed out. He dove out of the way just in time as the beast flew past him.
"Looks like her ribs opening. Okay, that's gotta be a weak spot! Aim for it!"
Marcus didn't need to be told twice. Marcus took aim and waited patiently.
"Don't shoot until she's up close!" he shouted.
"Yeah, you get cozy with her!" Baird replied over the Lambent 'Zerker's cry. "I'll stand back."
Marcus knew Baird was just being his sarcastic self, but the stranger seemed to take the idea to heart, putting its beam weapon away and charging straight for the Lambent 'Zerker. The beast turned around and made to charge again, exposing her chest cavity like before. In a flash, the stranger drew its fist back and plunged it deep into the monster's exposed chest. The Lambent 'Zerker reacted immediately, crying out in pain and falling down on her back. She began writhing and twitching violently, but the stranger kept its fist lodged deep into her core, twisting its arm to ensure the damage had been done.
"Get back!" Marcus yelled. "She's gonna blow!"
The stranger either didn't hear him or didn't care, as it chose to remain where it was, staring down from atop the Lambent 'Zerker as she continued to cry out in pain. The rest of Delta Squad dove for cover just as the monster went nuclear, engulfing both her and the stranger in a rather sizeable explosion.
Pieces of the Lambent 'Zerker rained down all around Marcus as the night fell into silence again. When he looked up, he saw the smoke beginning to clear from ground zero, and the stranger emerged from the thinning cloud, showing no signs of damage from the point-blank explosion that it had just tanked. Delta Squad walked up to meet it, somewhat shocked that whatever this thing was had just survived an explosion like that.
Baird, as usual, was the first to break the silence.
"So…how was it for you?"
The stranger looked at Baird, but its attention was immediately diverted as a spark fizzled from its right gauntlet. Raising its arm to inspect it, Marcus could see that it was covered in Imulsion. Likely due to the fact that it had been buried deep in a Lambent 'Zerker's gut not a few seconds ago.
The gauntlet sparked again with a hiss, and though Marcus couldn't see the stranger's face, but its posture portrayed a confused expression.
The gauntlet sparked once more, and the stranger was suddenly engulfed in a bright blue light. A loud bang echoed through the courtyard, and Marcus squinted and covered his eyes against the piercing light that stabbed the darkness. After a brief moment, the light went out, but when Marcus looked again, the stranger was gone.
"Uhhhhh…yeah. Everybody saw that, right?" Baird asked incredulously.
"How the hell could we miss something like that?" Dom retorted with a hint of annoyance in his voice. Despite the slight abrasiveness, Marcus knew that none of them, himself included, had any idea what the hell just happened. Seeing no use worrying about it, Marcus shook his head and let it be. They had more urgent matters.
"Are we done here? Come on, Baird. We got a job to do."
Marcus spared one final glance to where the stranger had been standing mere moments ago, then turned and strode back into the fort, Delta Squad followed behind.
A/N: Another one for the books, my friends! I've been with Gears since the beginning, and I knew that this chapter was probably going to happen sooner or later. Now that I'm back into the status quo, hopefully I can start pumping out chapters on a more regular basis. As always, please don't hesitate to leave a review as to how the story is going so far. All positivity and negativity is accepted with open arms! Until next time!
-ImpulsiveWeaver