When the Premir Yori Deschenko of the UIR entered peace talks with the COGS Chairmen General Egar Trescu gave out orders to seize the OZP-11 to launch their own hammer of down while this going on a Gorasni General by the name of Georgy Zhukov.
Like most Gorasnayans, he saw this as an ultimate betrayal for all the men and women who died in the Pendulum wars and openly raged on how the UIR leaders would wave the white flag just to surrender to a tyrannical regime.
In response, he led Five Gorasnayan field armies with several UIR member state army corps who wanted to continue fighting were sent to secure the crucial eastern island chain that was discovered by Groasnayan explores during the end of the age of Silence and began colonizing it.
Building over dozens of cities to house the workers for the factors and farms that helped the UIR war machine so when they arrived the entire UIR garrison joined letting them take the islands without a fight including capturing a second cosmodrome named OZP-10and since the island was mostly populated by Gorasnayans, Ostri's and Pellians they were welcomed as heroes.
With the larger eastern island chain fully under their full control, it immediately became a haven for the few nations like Gorasnaya who refused to surrender and turned to guerrilla tactics. To counter this threat the COG also sent a force to surround the northern island chain cutting it off from the outside world, effectively isolating the UIR colonies.
However, six weeks later, something strange happened. the COG units that were supposed to be blockading them started acting strangely and pulled back to one of their major cities far from the islands and they suddenly lost all contact with UIR high command, only receiving one radio message from the Premier himself.
"Rember us"
It was then and there did the General knew that something terrible had happed and put all UIR armed forces on high alert. Weeks later a large influx of refugees and other military units from the mainland started flowing into the northern island Chain, telling stories of monsters coming from up from the earth and killing everyone in sight. This worried many of the military leaders seeing that they may be the last true fighting force, one year later they got their answer.
On the 33rd of Bloom, 1 A.E. the entire southern skies lit up by pillars of fire indicating that the Hammer of dawn was being used on an unpreceded scale incinerating almost 90 percent of Sera's surface. This sent shock waves amongst the colonies populace seeing this as an apoplectic event and their probably the last bastion of civilization on the planet.
After this event, the reaming high-ranking officials of the UIR elected General Georgy Zhukov as the new Premier and was given the massive task of rebuilding. He began by reorganizing the UIR's armed, naval, and air forces including its infrastructure into a Rapid Response Group, dividing into a number of smaller departments to keep a semblance of order.
Zhukov then introduced another law to keep their cultural heritage and history alive thus founding the Stalkers and the ranger corps who would be sent out to the outside world, bringing back several dozen historical artifacts from the Silver age and pre-hammer strike technology.
Including connecting with Gorasin remnants in the cities of Chalitz and Meschov they were able to evacuate about fifty thousand to the eastern island chain while at the same time fighting off a group of looters called the Stranded gaining a foothold on the mainland.
But the true purpose of these military units was to confirm the stories about the grey monsters which they sent over a dozen of different types for autopsy at the cost of forty percent of their teams. Not wanting to cause a mass panic Zhukov decided to cover it up until the time was right to reveal the truth.
For almost fourteen years the people of new Gorasnaya lived in relative peace but that all changed when a single UIR distress beacon appeared deep in the Coalition of government's territory near the outskirts of Ilima city in a place called Jacinto Maximum Security Prison.
14 AE COG air space.
In the eternally blue skies of Ephyra, a single UIR Kimera gunship flew past the granite plateau before lowering its altitude to avoid being detected by the COG's radar. In its metal troop compartment is a single squad of soldiers who came from the city of Meschov in their regular grass green regulator armor with the emblem of the orange lighting bolt in a ring flanked by wings branded upon their left bicep, backs, or helmets.
Artyom gave out a heavy sigh in his Regulator skull-like helmet as he stopped his leg from shaking instead his hands gripped the handle of the Markza Mk2 marksman rifle more tightly. On every mission to eliminate Stranded insurgents or expeditions into the outside world but this was his first true mission deep into COG Territory.
It didn't take a genius to know who the COG was since his father fought them during the Pendulum Wars, making to have doubts while the others of his squad kept silent like the grave before one finally broke the silence.
"So, Artyom," Pavel started, "When we get back, I buy you a drink of Gorasnayan vodka from that store we passed awhile back."
Artyom smirked a bit," Naa I rather not thank you very much."
"Oh come on, my friend! Are you just a little interested in drinking a fresh cold beverage for once?" Pavel asked.
"No," Artyom replied bluntly causing the others in his squad to chuckle a bit when Pavel pretended to be offended.
"You, my friend have greatly offended the Vodka gods!" he almost shouted out making his comrade roll his eyes.
"Oh yeah, well the vodka gods can go fuck themselves because last time I checked, those drinks can basically liquidate your insides if you drink too much," Artyom said since he rather keep himself as far away from that drink as possible.
"Okay, cut the chatter!" Sergeant Miller ordered starring teach one of them.
Being a veteran of the Pendulum wars he was the perfect choice for the mission since he was in two assaults at the Ostir Front before being transferred to the Kashur Fronts which Miller led raids into COG territory. Unlike their armor which was more pronounced and bulkier, Miller's is much slimmer than normal with a small cape, along with golden decels and accents to show he's identified as an officer.
"Five hours ago, one of our ships detected a distress beacon coming from deep inside COG territory," Miller paused for a second before continuing, "Our mission is to rescue our UIR brothers from those military fascists and bring them safely home. Any questions?"
About three hands went up as Miller picked one, "Yeah about that, how will we get to the prison undetected again?"
Millier grunted for a moment, "We'll be drop off 15 miles from the prison, any closer than they'll we'll be spotted."
"And how are we going to get in the prison," Pavel said, "Because I don't want to be a prisoner of war."
"There's sewage pipe big enough to a person that leads straight underneath the prison showers, where we'll use explosives to get inside" Miller answered, pausing for a moment.
"When inside we'll only have a limited time window for us to get our people out and fight our way to the prison courtyard where out the chopper will pick us up," Miller explained
"Approaching LZ, we're landing now "The pilot called out
Artyom stood up from his seat as Sergeant Miller slide opened the Khimera's side door hatch revealing green mountainous forests as their ride finally landed on solid ground. Knowing this as their drop-off point the UIR troopers immediately dismounted from the chopper before securing the landing site.
Seeing that their no one in sight, Miller turned to the rest of his squad and headed out towards the direction of the prison as they kept pace with each other, not wanting to fall behind. For Artyom however, he looked around with silent fascination and awe as watched a simple bird fly into the skies above them.
Ever since he was born in New Gorasnaya, Artyom would always see the snowfall every day with summer's only lasting one or two months at a time, so being in another country was kind of amazing in its own right. Sadly he didn't have time to experience it, because he had a job to do.
Thankfully unlike COG armor, their armor is held together by a central semi-conical chest plate, whilst flexibility and mobility are granted through segmented armored plate pieces it also provided better protection in specific areas.
Back in the Pendulum Wars, the UIR used to be decentralized in structure compared to the COG, military equipment, and weapons used by UIR troopers varied from their respective region within the member states, added with the fact many UIR infantry formations consist of different models and types of armor lead their infantry looking contrastively different to other UIR infantry groups.
So when the COG isolated them and scorched almost the entire planet the UIR military gave each soldier in their infantry formation with green regulator armor but in four different sets for each different environment. Seeing that they're in a rocky environment they stayed
They marched on for few more hours keeping an eye out for any patrols or ambushed but something wasn't right, and Miller wasn't the only one to have such a churning gut feeling. Glancing at his tac map in his helmet Pavel could see nothing but five yellow dots around him indicating there are no hostiles up ahead but being in COG territory, he'll nothing to chance.
Hours passed as they continued only until they found a clearing did they saw their target.
The sewer pipe was big enough for five people to fit in just like their intel said as sewage poured out of it continuously, as Miller gestured one of his men who pulled out a miniature blow torch and began cutting it open. It took him about one minute for the metal bars to fall off to the ground with a metallic thud before they continued forward.
Thankfully their regulated helmets blocked out the sewer's foul smell making walking through contaminated knee-deep water bearably somewhat as their night vision also helped them to see what in front of them.
"Aah damn!" One of Miller's men gagged, "I hope this shit comes off our armor when we get back to Polis."
"What's wrong Florin, too gross for your stomach to take?" Pavel asked
"No, but I rather fight on the surface, not in a damn sewer," Florin replied in disgust.
Arytoum nodded to that, "I agree, it's too narrow and there's no cover either if we run into resistance."
"That's why we have you, Florin," Pavel said joyfully," You're our heavy demolitions expert after all."
"Yeah, and do you know that a grenade is a perfect booby trap for urban environments," Florin replied bluntly as he dragged his legs against the current.
Wanting her something else Arytom changed the subject, "You know, I heard a rumor that the eighth and sixth armored battalions are being shipped to Chalitz to reinforce the Ostri's first mechanized regiment."
"Where you heard that?" Florin asked.
"A friend a mine is in the eighth told me about it...something about destroying a major Stranded base," Artyom replied.
"That's a bit overkill for a bunch of mort бийте don't you think?" Pavel wondered.
"I would have agreed with that subject but the Stranded is a tricky bunch to deal with," Florin said remembering more than once how the stranded would ambush them to just steal their equipment and armor.
"Well, yeah, but you gotta admit that the stranded has nothing left ever since the damn COG almost incinerated the entire planet," Pavel stated.
When the UIR expeditionary force finally made landfall on the mainland it a scene out of an apocalyptic fiction novel, once-bustling entire cities turned into destroyed ruins with signs of plant life growing back slowly but steadily. It was pure luck that they found a few of their bases still intact so they could begin evacuation efforts, including salvaging most of the vehicles stationed there.
So when the Stranded decided to loot the place they were caught off guard by how well armed the UIR rangers and Stalker teams were as they took them out rather quickly. After the small skirmish, UIR high command decided to send more men, and vehicles in large numbers in force to securing some port cities along the coast of what was once the UIR nation of the Ostri Republic.
Only when the third UIR expeditionary fleet reached Gorasnaya did they truly began the massive task of rebuilding. He could still remember the thousands of people coming off the docks to get away from the overly crowded colony of new Gorasnaya.
Artyom was suddenly pulled from his own thoughts as Sergeant Miller suddenly raised his fist in the air indicating to the squad to halt. Wonder why they stopped he looked over the sergeant's shoulder to see a portion of the pipe they were in had a large hole in it.
"What the hell?" Florin said in disbelief staring at the torn rust steel.
"Uhh, sarge did command sent out another ranger squad without telling us?" Pavel asked in an uncertain tone.
"Not that am aware of," Miller grunted before pressing on his earpiece, "Sparta this is Ranger one, do you read me?"
"Ranger one this is Sparta, we read you."
"Sparta, did Meschov sent out another Ranger squad with a silverback before we arrived?" Miller questioned.
"That's a negative ranger one, all ranger or stalker teams are in the former Furlin or Vasgar territories at this time."
Artyom looked at the others guessing that they were thinking the same thing as he is. Something or Someone had already broken inside the prison and it had the strength to rip open stainless steel, making Miller growl in frustration, "Thank you, for the info Sparta ranger one out."
"Well, this mission just got a lot more complicated," Pavel muttered out loud.
"Cut the chatter corporal, we still need to find that beacon." Miller reminded as he landed on the pure white tiles of the showers.
Artyom faced the others and shrugged as he followed Miller into what looks like the showers seeing that they're in the clear, Miller gestured to them that the coast is clear as they started to walk through the prison's corridors weapons at the ready.
The prison's interior looks to be falling apart as he could see most of the concrete eroding in the hallways and corridors showing its metal skeleton. Within the years that Artyom been a ranger, searching through the ruins of once-proud cities slowly falling apart in time and this place was no exception.
Looking at the map on his heads-up display he could see that their getting closer to their objective as he kept his eyes through his gun's sight and a finger on the trigger, ready to fire at moments' notice, while in the back Forlin had his belt-fed machine locked and loaded to provide suppressing fire.
"Wait, you hear that?" Florin asked.
Stopping for a moment they started to hear the familiar sound of chopper blades getting loader by the second, at first Artyome thought it was their Khimera doing a fly-by but Millier on the other hand immediately knew what that sound was. Being a veteran in the Pendulum wars he grew accustomed to the sounds of each vehicle that COG use and he knows only one aircraft that the COGs Air Corps use.
"Kings Ravens," Millier stated.
"Oh shit!" Pavel swore, "that would mean the COG is coming here!"
Ignoring Pavel's comment Miller stared at the squad" The beacon must've drawn them here, we have to move now!"
With that said, the UIR squad began sprinting through prison hallways not caring if they were detected or not. It only took them about half an hour for them to reach their objective as Artyom barged through the door, only to be greeted by rotting dismembered corpses. This caused him to suddenly back up in fear as the dismembered face of the man's last moments stared into his very soul.
"My god!?" Forlin said as the squad stared in horror at what was before them.
Pavel made stated to make a gagging sound as he tried to hold what he just eats in, putting, "I think I'm going to puke."
"Well now we know how COG treat their convicts and prisoners," Miller said in disgust, passing the bodies as they continued deeper into the prison.
But then Forlin saw movement out of the corner of his eye, slowing down he pointed his belt-fed machine gun toward the location where he last saw it and yelled out, " Come on out know or I'll paint this fucking walls with your damn blood!"
The others stopped and turned around wondering what Forlin was shouting on about until a fifty-year-old man wearing a stained orange prison uniform walked out of his hiding place with his hands raised.
"Okay, okay, just don't fucking shoot, am unarmed!" the man exclamed keeping his hands in the air.
"Sir, look at what he is holding," Artyom pointed out.
In the prisoners, right hand was an old UIR beacon emanating the distress signal that UIR high command detected.
"Well, now we know who activated the beacon," Pavel said in expiration.
"Who the fuck are you people?" the man asked.
"The kind of people you don't want to fuck with you Tyranian fascist," Forlin growled out.
"Wait a second. You guys are not COG, your damn UIR!" Just as the man finished his sentence, his entire body suddenly jerked backward violently as part of the prisoner's forehead was blown off.
"Take cover!" Miller screamed out, forcing them to run behind concrete pillars for safety as a hail of bullets began hitting their position.
Ducking behind his improvised over Artyom managed to get a glimpse of what was shooting at them. Monsters! no, it was real monsters, hulking brutes of a creature, almost seven feet tall, although many of them were larger since they have bipedal, muscular build with tough skin. They were considerably more bulky than a normal human being and notably stronger.
In short, some really ugly looking creatures.
"What the hell are these things!?" Pavel shouted out.
"I don't know but whatever it is! It's not a Gear!" Forlin replied as he unleashed his own hail storm of lead killing over several monsters in the open.
Aiming his Markza mk2 Artyom pulled the trigger feeling the automatic weapon's recoil hit his armored shoulder as the round tore through the grey creature ugly mug while the second round hits the second one in the heart beside it. One tried to shoot him from the side, but Miller saw this and unloaded his Rusker mk2 magazine into the grey creature's body as it fell on its back.
The other monsters growled at them and he could have sworn he heard one say, "human, suffer."
While reloading his weapon Artyom could see more of them decided to join, "We got more of those grey things coming in!"
Almost on cue, the entire cell block became one big shooting gallery with both sides trying to get the upper hand on the other with the UIR squad being in a position of cover while the creatures were trying to overwhelm them with greater numbers not caring if more of their ugly kind died if it would mean to kill just one of them.
As the rest charged at them, ignoring the hail storm of bullets that were being fired by Forlin's machine-gun, severing multiple monster's limbs in fits of gore however these creatures were just galutians for punishment.
Using the butt of his rifle Pavel smashed one of the monster's ugly chin before following with five rounds in the chest at point-blank range sending blood and guts everywhere. Ducking behind cover again he pulled out a fragmentation grenade and started spin it to gain momentum before throwing it into the enemy's ranks turning a bunch of them into a red paste.
"Is it me? or these things are just plain suicidal!" Florin shouted over the sound of gunfire.
Nodded his head Artyom noticed several more assailants approaching from behind, "They're coming in behind us!?"
Seeing this Forlin turned his machine gun around and started suppressing fire keeping those things pinned while Artyom began to get up close and personal. Flanking around the things cover he let loose an unrelenting storm of fire getting multiple hits on different areas of the body being blown off by high power rounds thus spraying both blood and guts before sending the last abomination back to hell.
Breathing hard Artyom called out," all clear!"
Regrouping in the middle of the room he saw most of his squad okay, with small dents and blood on their armor but mostly in good health however they know have to face an enemy worse than the COG or stranded combined but unknown to the UIR troopers, two people had been watching the whole fight...and not just any people.
Standing inside the same old building two men named Marcus Fenix and his best friend Dominic Santiago.
Marcus had been in prison for almost four years four a rash decision that cost them Ephyra but when receiving word that the Locust had overrun the area. Hoffman ordered the prisoners not just released but conscripted into the army. Thanks to barricading themselves in the old wing, the other prisoners and guards were rescued, but they didn't know Marcus's location, which Hoffman ordered him left behind as it risked too many lives to try to find him and how he broke his jaw.
Leaning of this from Prescott who was unable to change Hoffman's mind, Dom took off to rescue his friend with Hoffman's secret approval, taking along extra armor and an extra weapon on Hoffman's suggestion for Marcus and broke into the Slab and was able to free him from his cell before wretches broke into his ceiling bars with help of his robot named JACK.
Soon Dom explained to Marcus that everything changed after he was imprisoned and Hoffman pardoned all the prisoners except for him. Dom gave Marcus a duffle bag with his armor and a hammerburst where both headed out of the cells into the main cell blocks. Marcus questioned why Dom was in prison and how he could get into trouble, but Dom told him that 'things had changed'.
After taking the route through the guards quarters which took some time and know they were watching as a squad of Indies in their green regulator armor was beating up a horde of Locast with what looks like an updated version of a Markza mk1 semi-automatic rifle and belt-fed machine gun while they were on their way to regroup with the others.
"Dom...please tell me you are seeing what am seeing," Marcus said.
"I can see what you are seeing but I don't believe what I'm seeing," Dom said, not believing that a squad of Indies just fought a group of locust drones and won.
"Was there any UIR holdouts still going on while I was locked up?"Marcus asked
Dom shakes his head, "Non that I know of. I thought they were wiped out during the Hammer strikes...friend or foe?"
"Well they kicked some Locust ass right now so I guess that earns them a talk, But if they prove hostile towards us we'll put a bullet in'm" Marcus declared as he readied his weapon just in case.
Dom looked as the Indie's continued talking to each other, feeling a little cautious around them because even though the pendulum wars ended fourteen years ago, some UIR nations were still fighting until E-day.
Non the less, he grabbed his weapon as he and Marcus made their way down to confront their old enemies once again.
Artyom was silent as he looked at all the monsters they had just killed while his squad was talking to each other about what just happened a few minutes ago. Miller wanted them to return to Meschov as soon as possible to report on what they found meaning they have to walk on open ground without cover any cover whats so ever.
In which Forlin reminded all them that their's know a strong COG presence in the area and would mow them down if they did. And Pavel suggested they could double back and use the sewage pipe to escape but that would mean encountering those grey-skinned creatures again.
It was only the sound of footsteps that alerted them as they immediately turned around pointing their guns at two men who did the same. Both wore the iconic GOG armor, one of them had a black skull cap on his head with a very tiny beard stump under his lip, the other man had black hair that was shaved on a few of his head and a thin black beard.
Though he was relieved to see some humans, however being fresh out of a fight and the fact these two men were part of COG did not give out a good vibe, so Artyom had his gun aimed at them."What the hell are you doing here COG?"
"We're asking the questions here, green boy. Tell me who the hell are you?"One of the Gears demanded more than asked.
Miller glared at him through his helmet but answered anyway, "Don't bother COG the only answer we're going to give you is a fist full of lead before you even pull the trigger"
The man just glared back at Miller, "Last time I check you UIR boys got your ass kicked and signed a damn armistice."
"Uhm guys?"
" Yori Descheko was a coward and a fool," Florin stated," he should've retaliated when the moment you fired the hammer."
"Guys?"
"Hey you guys started the war by invading smaller nations for their imulsion ." the second man muttered in frustration.
"And we didn't turn nations into a vessel government just to absorb them." Artyom countered.
"Hey, Assholss!" Pavel almost shouted out causing both sides to look at the Ostri born.
"Well, sorry to intrude on this lovely reunion of enemies but it would seem that we got more fucking company!" Paval pointed out to the iron door that was right now being cut open by a torch, forcing both sides to stand down.
"They're cutting through the door! Find cover!" the second gears exclamed.
"We can see that, COG," Florin said as he pointed his machine gun to the door as he set up behind one of the broken down concrete pillars.
The other did the same but keeping a close eye on each other since they were once former enemies, but today is different because now probably the first time in years both UIR and COG are truly going to fight against a common enemy this time.
So when the door gave way all hell went loose as bullets flew once again however unlike last time the humans got the upper hand in firepower quickly killing the drones off like they were nothing.
"How about this," Pavel spoke up, "We do not shoot each other for now until figure out what hell is going on. so truce?"
"Truce," the man growled before glancing at the other UIR ranger who begrudgingly nodded as they ran into the prison's courtyard while the Latino began their Raven for pick up.
"Delta One, this is Delta two." the Latino gear said, "We are ready for extraction, over."
"Copy that." Delta one replied.
Jogging up into the Courtyard Artyom could see it was a complete mess. A part of the prison wall was destroyed giving them a clear view of the mountains in the distance while fires caused by some type of explosives continued to burn however the peace was short-lived as his tactical map showed more enemies incoming.
"We got company!" Artyom called out.
Marcus was about to ask what she is talking about until he spotted a locust squad closing in."Weapons out!"
Everyone began to fire their weapons at the charging monsters as two ravens flew overhead letting loose a stream of lead from their chain guns pinning many of the grey-skinned monsters down while the second one is suppressing the ones on the outside of the prison. But it would seem that their also drawing most of the creature's fire causing their air support to keep on moving. Sadly one of the Ravens took a direct hit causing it to spin out of control and crashed right outside.
This scene caused Miller to silently cursed, he may not have any love for the COG but losing one of their guns in the sky greatly lower their chances of getting out of here alive. Seeing that Forlin, Artyom, and the two gears kept the creatures occupied he and Pavel began flanking right, it was that moment he saw the monsters without any cover the opened fire, being caught in across fire forced the Locast the pullback
One more Locust charged Artyom from behind, but he quickly pulled out his pistol and shot the thing in the face three-time as it fell back dead. Dom used his chainsaw on his weapon to cut the last locust foot soldier in half causing Pavel to almost throw up at the scene.
" Brutal but effective," Miller said nodded.
"Thanks but how did your guy know they were coming?" Marcus asked.
"We have a tactical map inside our helmets indicating who's friendly, unknown, and hostile. "Miller explained.
"So you guys are like walking alarms, right? Why didn't R&D think of that, it would make out missions a lot easier." Dom said with a smile.
"Probably because of the budget cuts during the years." Florin pitched in, "Building your hammer must've taken a lot of money from the other R&D projects."
Marcus couldn't help but agree with the Grosni, since it took his father about seventeen years of consent bloodshed just to create the Hammer of Dawn, it was kind of ironic in a way. They created that damn weapon to end the Pendulum wars but instead, they used it to destroy their entire world.
But then all of a sudden the ground began to shake, causing Forlin to growl out, "Know what!?"
Knowing something was on its way Dom quickly called out, "Marcus, We've gotta more to the Raven, now! Go, go, go!"
They started to run as the ground gave away under them until a large crab-like monster came out of the ground, trying to skewer them like a shish kabob making Pavel swear up a storm to quitting drinking vodka altogether as they run fast as they could before finally reaching King Raven.
With everyone in its troop's compartment, the Raven flew away as everyone unloaded their entire magazine just to keep this new monster roared in anger while the bullets bounced off of its armored head.
"OOH, I HAVE ENOUGH OF THIS FUCKING SHIT!?" Forlin bellowed as grabbed his UIR made Booshka and fired three high explosive grenades into the freak's mouth as the explosion tore the thing to shreds.
Gaining good enough altitude the group was finally safe for the moment but now it looks like the UIR truly just joined the Locast war.
Okay, guys what do you think of my first gears of war story. Since I added a bit of Metro 2033 into it eh, took some time though.
It was Baird's old friend Paduk that gave me the idea of putting the UIR back in the game baby, also since Grosniayan's language is a mixture of Bulgarian and Romanian dialects I had to look it up on google translate.
So have a happy 2021 folks.
