A/N: (scoffing) Sorry this chaps short. Enjoy… I guess.
The Gear lay several meters away, faced down…and motionless. Odd… His rifle was undisturbed, but from this distance, the Lieutenant Colonel couldn't see the Gear's combat knife. So with curiosity, Kinsley slowly approached, but cautious of every trunk that was wide enough to conceal a Drone.
Could this be a trap? He wondered grimly.
As he approached, he crouched down and turned the Gear over. And covered his mouth, desperately tried to hold back his gag reflex.
The Gear's face had been smashed in.
Kinsley returned to the situation at hand. Spotting the Lancer once again, he grabbed it and fished out any magazines from the Gear's belt pouch. Then finally, he snatched the COG tag from the Gear's neck.
"I'm sorry this had to happen to you," he stuffed the tag in one of his belt pouches. And with that, Kinsley headed off.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"You think it belongs to the Lieutenant Colonel?" Winters asked.
The three were huddled around a pool of blood.
"Maybe," Brandon said. "Or an Alpha."
Winters shot a glare at Brandon, but said nothing.
"Or an animal," Culshaw cut in. "Believe it or not, this place is a forest, not a battle field. Nature still does its coarse here. But just to be safe, spread out and search the area. Met back here in five minutes."
Both Corporals nodded and drifted in their separate direction.
Culshaw slowly walked away from the rendezvous point, his Longshot at the ready. He continued until stopping in a small clearing; shrubs encircled him.
A brow rose as he spotted a boot print deep in the soft soil. Culshaw crouched down to observe it more.
"Locusts," he whispered.
Suddenly, his ear twitched to the sound of brushes shuffling. Instinctively, Culshaw spun around and fell on a knee, with Longshot leveled.
"Wow! Don't shoot!" Brandon held up both hands in defense.
Culshaw sighed with frustration, and lowered his weapon. "What the… You trying to get yourself killed?! What are you doing here?"
Brandon lowered his hands, and with sorrow eyes he threw a COG tag to the Lance Corporal's boots.
"That was all I was able to find."
"Where the Alpha?" Culshaw asked as he picked up the tags.
"He's probably still searching the area." the Corporal said. "Hey if we're lucky he's probably-"
A multitude of twirls passed by the Lance Corporal's head, and a loud blunt cut off Brandon. Culshaw's eyes darted to the Corporal who was staring at a stone-head hatchet embedded in the center of his breast plate. Blood began to run down his armor.
Brandon's breathing began to skip. His eyes rolled in the back of his head, and his body dropped to the forest floor.
"Shit!" Rushing over to his fallen comrade, he put both index and middle finger on the Corporal's neck, and Culshaw hoped to get a pulse. But Brandon was dead.
He quickly took up defensive position, moving to the nearest tree, two meters from the Corporal's body. All round twigs snapped and shrubs rustled.
A bulky figure, four meters away, ran across Culshaw's line of fire; running from tree to tree. His Longshot crackled, but he had missed. Whatever it was, it continued to stalk around the lone sniper…laughing.
Knowing his sniper rifle was slow in rate of fire, Culshaw drew out his next best weapon; his Snub sidearm. Keeping his senses sharp, he kept low, waiting for an opportunity. And let came sooner then expected…
Loud approaching stomps, followed by an inhuman whizzing, caused Culshaw to roll out of the way of a stone-head club. It nearly missed his head by an inch. Regaining in the kneeling stance, he quickly fired off five rounds.
The hulky humanoid figure grunted and stumbled deep into the foliage.
Culshaw had never seen anything like it before. It was the size of a Boomer, but it wasn't… It was a Drone. Nevertheless, he knew three of his shots had hit the creature.
When he looked back to Brandon's body, his eyes widen to find nothing but a trail of blood leading into the forest.
"Fuck!" Culshaw slammed his fist against a tree.
Another twig snapped, and he spun around, firing off another three rounds.
The Lancer dropped to the ground and Corporal Winters looked down at the two holes in his armor. A second later blood began to leak out. His watering eyes looked back up to the Lance Corporal with a confused expression.
"Why…?" was the only word to escape Winters' mouth before falling to the floor.
Cursing to himself, again, Culshaw rushed over to the Alpha and placed both fingers on his neck, and was surprised at the result.
Winters was still alive.