Apologies to all the Del fans out there, but in this story he's dead. This story continues after the ending of Gears 5, and JD was the one who survived the encounter with the Swarm Queen.
This story is going to be fairly light hearted in the beginning, potentially getting more serious as we go. I love the small interactions you hear between the characters as you play the game, the little things that don't make it into the main storylines. I'm trying to keep that feeling as I write, so here's hoping I can inject a little humour.
If you've read my previous Gears fic, Tears and Smoke, I consider these two stories linked. It's not required reading by any means, but it helps establish JD and Kait's relationship. I see them as being two people who care deeply about one another, but they haven't yet crossed that step into a romantic relationship. That might (read: will probably) change as I write.
In a perfect world I'll have this updated once a week with a new chapter. Please try to keep me to it!
"Alright kids, gather round." It was becoming Baird's standard greeting.
JD lowered himself onto a box of parts—one of many in Baird's perpetually messy lab—and eased back on his palms. Kait found a seat on another box, while Fahz chose to remain standing, leaning against a computer console behind them. Marcus had claimed a short crate, and Cole and Sam were chatting away on the other side of the room.
"So what's the deal, Baird?" Kait asked. The meeting had been unplanned but not unexpected.
It was common knowledge within the COG that Baird was actively searching Sera for Swarm activity, trying to find the site of their central hive. Since the assault on New Ephyra a few months ago, hunting down the hive had been one of the COG's top priorities.
Baird turned to the lab's central console. "Iris, if you would?"
"Of course, Damon." The elegant AI said, and the holoprojector glowed to life.
JD wondered what his Aunt Sam thought of Iris, knowing her special gentleman friend was spending so much time with a near-sentient AI who sounded—in JD's personal opinion—like a very beautiful woman. A very beautiful woman who catered to Baird's every whim, charmed him, and who put up with his acerbic attitude with patience and even a bit of joy. Sam didn't seem like the jealous type, but JD also knew she was the type to resolve conflict with a hard punch or a knife stab. He awaited the day when Baird's beloved AI was unceremoniously unplugged by his peeved lover. JD would watch that showdown with great amusement.
A spinning globe appeared on the holoprojector, a sparkling view of Sera. It spun slowly, New Ephyra and the handful of settlements shining pinpricks on its surface.
"Eight days ago seismic sensors began picking up unusual activity near the old Vasgar capital." Baird made a spinning motion with his hand and the image of Sera zoomed in to focus on Vasgar. Its capital city, long since destroyed, was highlighted in red.
"What kind of unusual activity?" Kait asked, leaning forward in her seat.
"The kind that shows up on seismic sensors, but is decidedly not seismic in origin." Baird said.
"So what, not an earthquake then?" Fahz crossed his arms, staring up at the display with yellow tinted glasses.
"The dullard gets it in one." Baird said with his usual dry snark.
"I know what that means, you know." Fahz actually looked a little offended, and JD chuckled quietly.
"Whatever we recorded wasn't an earthquake or a volcano." The old Gear turned back to the projection. A flurry of sensor readings appeared on the screen, showing graphs of tremors. "Didn't even match the readouts for geothermal activity." The image shifted to show a cross section of Sera's crust, magma core thrumming beneath several kilometres of dirt and stone. "Upon closer inspection, none of the readings were even remotely deep enough to be the usual suspects."
"So you're thinking they're Swarm?" JD gestured to the glowing dot in the crust diagram.
"That," Baird started, twisting his lips and glowering up at the projection. "We don't know."
"What do you mean? Is it Swarm or not?" It was Marcus's turn to ask, leaning forward and pressing his palms into his knees. The old soldier's permanent frown drew even further downwards into a hard scowl.
"Whenever the Locust or the Swarm have made themselves known, they've generated distinctive seismic readings. Within a certain margin, we can recognize marching grubs, Corpsers, drilling equipment—"
"Giant worms!"
"Giant worms, thank you Cole. We learned what they usually sound like. But this," an audio graph was highlighted on the screen, the line bouncing up and down as it recorded the activity in the crust. It almost looked like a heartbeat, JD noted. "This is something new, and I don't know if it's Swarm or not."
"It looks like it's…repeating. Is that right?" Kait asked, watching the heartbeat signal.
"The signal repeats for one hour, then it changes its frequency and continues for another hour. This cycle completes after twenty-six hours before it starts at the beginning again." Iris explained mellowly.
"The set repetitiveness of it, as well as the fact that it adheres to the twenty-six hour clock, is what's making me question whether it's Swarm or not." Baird placed his hands on his hips and turned to address Delta. "Swarm, so far as we've been able to tell, don't follow our lovely form of time measurement. And this signal, whatever it is, is so regular that it has to be machine made. Nothing organic would ever be that consistently precise."
"How do we find out?" Kait asked
"That's where Delta comes in. I was able to get some drones in the area to do a few detailed scans to try and figure out where precisely this activity is coming from. Sensors show that beneath the city are a series of tunnels, like the old Locust burrows." The map of the Vasgari capital returned and moved to show another crust cross section. A spider web of tunnels appeared as an overlay, highlighted in bright green. "Aside from the repeating signal, there's no other activity detected."
"No Swarm then?" Fahz asked.
"Iris and I don't think so, no."
"So what do you want us to do?" JD suspected he already knew the answer.
"Iris, show them what we've prepared." The projector flashed and a series of blueprints and diagrams illuminated the room.
"Ugh." Marcus grunted. "Not those goddamned things."
JD stared up at the display and tried to puzzle out what he was seeing. They were hollow cylinders, capable of holding two, maybe three people, and had a strange engine on the bottom of them with a series of bizarre gears. The interior was lined with harness straps, similar to the cabin of a King Raven, save for the fact that there were no seats.
"Grindlifts. A COG speciality when we infiltrated the Locust Hollow. I had Iris dig up the blueprints and we constructed a few, just for you. With a few adjustments, of course." Baird looked quite pleased with himself.
"Wait a tic. Are you saying you want us to go down there?" Fahz almost looked stricken at the idea.
"That's precisely what I'm saying. Congrats on keeping up."
"Are you for fucking real?!" Everyone turned to look at Fahz, at the flabbergasted look on his face. "You want us to drill down there and what, walk around to find this thing?"
"You sound like you have a problem with that idea." JD tried to keep the amusement out of his voice.
"You don't?"
"Not really, no." He gave Fahz a casual shrug. "So far it sounds easy. And if Baird's right and there's no Swarm down there, it'll be a real cakewalk."
"You're seriously okay walking around in some random tunnels that might collapse on you? We don't know how stable they are or whether they'll hold after we drill into 'em." Fahz was beginning to gesture irritably at the display, shifting on his feet. JD thought the tough soldier almost looked…nervous.
Kait picked up on it too. "Fahz," she said slowly, raising a questioning eyebrow. "Are you claustrophobic?"
"Am I claustrophobic?!" An incredulous tone had appeared in his voice. "Are you asking if I have an irrational fear of small spaces and getting crushed to death?" Fahz suddenly seemed to notice the room was focused on him, and he hesitated. "Because I don't. I have a rational fear of small spaces and getting crushed to death."
JD shot him a surprised look. "Really?" It was not the bravado-filled defensive answer he was expecting.
Fahz fidgeted under all the attention. "Yeah, alright. So what then? I don't like being in a place where the ceiling can fall and kill me without any warning. Seems perfectly rational to me."
"Can we all focus back on me now?" Baird waved his hand to catch their attention. "As I was saying, Delta hops into these Grindlifts, drills down under the old city, and we see what's making all this noise."
"What do you think we'll find down there?" Marcus rested an elbow heavily on his knee and glared up at the Grindlift schematics.
"It'll likely be something big if it's making this much racket. And if we're picking up on it, then the Swarm likely are too."
"Unless it's Swarm tech." Kait pointed out.
Baird mulled over the idea for a moment. "I doubt it. They're good at making guns and things that blow up, but something about this seems too…precise for them."
"So if it's not Swarm, then it's human. Why do we need to investigate it? Do you think it offers any sort of tactical advantage?" JD asked.
"We need to investigate it because I need to know what it is." Baird said, sighing and crossing his arms over his white lab coat.
"You need to know?" Kait pressed.
"Damon has desire for knowledge that borders on obsessive." Iris chimed in.
"That's enough, Iris." Baird snarled, fixing an annoyed stare at the centre console.
"Bot lady's got a point. You're intolerable when you don't know something." Sam's voice was full of mirth as she sidled up beside her not-husband, giving him a playful nudge with her hip.
"Yeah, yeah." The old bald Gear waved a dismissive hand, as if he was trying to swat the comments away. "I want to know what it is, and if it has any value—tactical or otherwise—we need to get a hold of it before the Swarm does."
"Alright, then. When do we leave?" JD pushed to his feet, and the others followed suit.
"You'll head out first thing in the morning. I've reached out to Paduk, and he's agreed to meet you when you reach Vasgar. He and his nomads will support you however they can." With a wave of Baird's hand, the holoprojector shut down and the room returned to its normal florescent lighting.
"I'm sure Paduk's going to be delighted to see us again." Kait gave a humoured roll of her eyes.
"Nah, he likes you, remember. It's the rest of us he's going to get upset about." A smile spread across JD's face, and he turned to look at Fahz.
Fahz was fuming quietly, his arms folded across his chest and his eyes focused on the ground.
"Uh oh. I think we broke Fahz." JD mused. "You alright?" He asked with a laugh, giving the Gear a playful swat on the arm. Fahz grunted and glared at him.
"S'a stupid fucking idea, all this." He grumbled.
"You know you can sit this one out, right? If going underground bothers you that much." Kait was much more comforting than JD ever would have been. He was a firm believer that Fahz deserved bit of ribbing he got, with all the snark and bullshit he dragged the rest of them through on a daily basis.
Fahz grunted again, still not looking at them. Then he gave a big huff and dropped his arms from his chest. "Like you lot would ever let me hear the end of it. Let's just get this over with, yeah?"
JD laughed lightly and clapped the other man on the shoulder. "That's the spirit. Come on, I'll buy you a drink to settle your nerves." He turned and walked up the steps to exit Baird's lab, giving his dad and Baird a quick wave. Sam shot him one of her customary grins with an added wink. Fahz and Kait trotted along behind.
"Hey, you can't just buy Fahz a drink and not get me one too."
"Aw come on, look at the poor guy. He's clearly terrified." JD jerked his thumb back at the glowering Gear behind him.
"Is this what it's going to be like on this whole trip? Everyone makin' a mockery of me?"
"'Fraid so."
"Look on the bright side, Fahz. If we're underground we don't have to worry about all those desert windflares." Kait offered with a smirk. Fahz rolled his eyes and gave an exhausted sigh.
"There you go! Silver lining." JD said with a laugh, turning them down the hall towards the base's recreational area. "Come on, first round's on me."
"Damn well better be." Fahz muttered, glumly following along.