I do not own Gears of War or any of the characters.
Beat Down
Joseph dug himself out of the rubble, groaning and holding a hand to his head, then lifted a chunk of rubble off of Lizzie. She also groaned, standing, and pulled her helmet off, both lenses shattered and the top of it heavily dented.
"Everyone alright?" Marcus asked.
"I think so," Kait nodded as Joseph and Lizzie pulled their intact Lancers out of the debris pile.
They'd fought their way through a couple dozen Swarm Drones and Juvies, as well as a Windflare, only to have the tower they were heading for collapse on them just before thw Windflare faded. Out of the group, only Lizzie and Joseph had been burried, but had escaped injury, besides being battered and sore.
"Stormwall passed," Kait said. "But we just lost our way up."
"There's another service tower up ahead, Marcus said. "Follow me."
"So, is it just me, or does it feel like this entire planet's trying to kill us?" Del asked.
"Definitely not just you," Kait said.
"Welcome to my world," Joseph said, still dusting off his armor from the tower collapse and limping slightly.
"Try and draw the entire planet's attention for a few minutes while you're here," Lizzie agreed, not bothering to dust herself off but limping slightly worse than Joseph.
After a minute or two, they began to pass under a crashed Condor, only to duck behind the small rock formations scattered about as a Swarm Nest opened and began to release Drones. They all opened fire quickly, slaughtering the Drones, and managed to finish before Jospeh or Lizzie had to get shot. The other tower was on the other side, and JD and Del held the gate open for them all to pass through. They climbed the tower quickly and Joseph kicked open a door, only for a trio of Hammerburst shots to slam into his armor, sending him stumbling backward through the door, Lizzie catching him just shy of the edge.
"I'm so fucking ready to be done getting shot," Joseph growled.
"Let's go!" JD said, charging through the door just ahead of Marcus.
The others ran through after him, opening fire at the Swarm and making it to cover without anyone taking another shot. As they fought their way onto the dam, Joseph and Lizzie worked their way up the right side with Kait, flanking the Drones and rapidly dropping them. Joseph found a buzzkill, but just as he picked it up, a door burst open opposite him. A Drone roared at him from the doorway, several more behind him, only for saw blade after saw blade to fly through the door, rapidly slaughtering them all.
"Nice!" Lizzie grinned, shooting a Drone in the elbow in time to make it drop a grenade, which cleared a small group.
"Thanks," Joseph grinned. "As I'm sure Gary probably told you, I'm a professional buzzkill."
Lizzie laughed. "You know what, maybe playing wingman for you isn't as good an idea as I thought."
Joseph opened his mouth, only to be cut off by an echoing ping! as a sniper shot bounced off his shoulder. He swire, ducking down just ahead of a second, then risked a careful glance. There was a sniper on the second floor of the building the reinforcements had tried to come from.
He ducked ahead of the next shot, then vaulted over the low wall he was on, sprinting across the dam. A split second before he reached the door, a bullet slammed into his boot, tripping him through the door, and he spun in midair, slamming down on his back just before Lizzie tripped over his feet, landing on top of him.
"Christ, woman, you're relentless," Joseph smirked. "Didn't you notice me running away from you?"
"But the chase is the best part," Lizzie grinned.
"Only with your shit taste in men," Joseph snorted. "I favor the build up to the main event."
"Can't wait," Lizzie grinned, placing a quick kiss on his cheek before hauling him to his feet as he rolled his eyes.
They ran up the stairs together, pausing to get shoulder to shoulder for a moment before clearing the last of the stairs, both spraying the sniper, killing him. Instantly, Joseph crossed the room, grabbing the Longshot and began to pick off Drones at the back of the room, Lizzie using bursts from her Lancer to disuade them from firing back. Then, finally, the fight was over.
"The main gate's sealed," Kait reported over the radio. "Joseph, do you two see a way to open it up there?"
"I got it," Lizzie said, pulling a lever.
As the door began to groan open, Joseph tossed the Longshot aside, heading down to the dam with Lizzie and jogging over to the others.
"Here," JD said, holding out several Lancer magazines to Joseph, Kait offering several to Lizzie.
Both accepted the fully-loaded magazines, tossing the empty ones away. Then, they all headed into the dam together. There were scattered boxes, crates, and vehicles clogging the tunnel-like section they were in, making Joseph feel like he should be looking for Swarm, but as they progressed into the room, they found nothing.
"Wow," Del said, looking around. "I bet no one's even been in here since the war."
"Not even to recover the bodies?" Kait asked.
"After the war, we weren't thinking about the dead," Marcus growled. "We were dealing with the living."
"There were too many bodies to recover, too," Joseph said. "Considering the percentage of humanity that survived, it'd have been impossible to recover them all."
He stopped next to a pair of long-dead COGs who were seated against the wall together, their armor broken and bearing ancient bloodstains. He lifted their helmets from the ground in front of them and tossed one to Lizzie.
"We'll probably need these," Joseph said.
Lizzie nodded in agreement.
"Plus I'm tired of throwing up every time I have to look at your face," Joseph added as he pulled the helmet on.
Lizzie glared at him, then slammed her borrowed helmet into the top of his, Joseph yelping, then holding the sides of his new helmet in hopes of stopping it from ringing.
"You're such an asshole," Lizzie said dramatically. "Why do I love you again?"
"Because I'm desperste enough to be an easy lay," Joseph said.
"Oh, yeah, that was it," Lizzie agreed.
"Wait, what?" JD asked. "You guys have..."
"No," Joseph said casually, walking toward the massive doors on the far end of the tunnel.
"I've actually just started tuning them out when they do this," Del told JD as he passed. "It's easier that way."
JD sighed, nodding, only for everyone to freeze as something huge and heavy slammed into the door, denting it inward. It hit again, and again, bending the doors opwn enough for them to see a huge, bloated creature with a thick, red body. Finally, it smashed the doors out of the way with its enormous arms, which were also its only legs, and roared, its ribs opening and revealing a glowing inside. Its body was like a highly bloated torso, then below the ribs it was a very short, flat tail. However, as they all began to back away, it leaned back, its ribs opening again, only for six small, almost octopus-like objects to burst out of it, arcing in the air before streaking toward them like missiles, or mortars.
They all dove for cover, but two exploded against Joseph's chestplate, denting it and coating him in Swarm goo, but scalding hot, this time. He shouted in pain, slinging it off his arms before scrambling into cover ahead of another volley.
"Why do I keep getting covered in this shit!?" He shouted over the gunfire once he was safe.
He leaned out, firing a burst at the creature, but the bullets had no effect. It leaned back to fire another volley, and everyone fired at its glowing chest. It still fired its volley, but it also roared in pain, and everyone fired up into the oncoming projectiles, bursting them in midair this time. Joseph leaned out again as the thing growled and its ribs began to open.
"That's it, you big bastard!" Joseph growled. "Show me that pretty-FUCK!"
Instead of firing a volley like mortars, it instead had fired a trio of much faster projectiles straight at Joseph, two slamming into his chest and one into his helmet. He bounced away with the force as the others tried to draw the creature's attention. Then, as its chest opened for a full volley, Lizzie sprinted past it, slamming a grenade into its chest before diving away. The explosion blew a gaping hole in its torso, and it roared in pain, rearing up and thrashing, bits of its body beginning to explode rapidly.
"Joseph!" Lizzie panicked, running over to him, Joseph still lying motionless against a stone block.
She rolled him onto his back, seeing his borrowed helmet was cracked and one lense shattered, leaving small cuts and bits of glass around his left eye. She pulled it off carefully, and he groaned, coughing twice begore groaning again.
"Be gentle taking the glass out," he requested.
"I will," Lizzie sighed, shifting to hold his head in her lap as she pulled out a pair of needle-nozed pliers, in place of tweezers. She worked carefully, and after a few minutes, she'd extracted all of the glass. His eye was undamaged, fortunately, and there had only been a handful of small pieces, which meant the tiny puncture wounds shouldn't noticeibly scar, and weren't bleeding much. Sulled out a roll of duct tape, tearing off small pieces abd covering the cuts to keep the blood out of his eye, then taped his eye shut as well so that the other pieces wouldn't come loose and poke him in the eye.
"Nice eyepatch," Del grinned as Joseph sat up.
"Thanks," Joseph said, knocking the rest of the broken glass out of the helmet he'd borrowed before pulling it back on. "Everyone ready?"
Marcus shook his head. "You really are something."
"Oh yeah," Joseph said. "And that something is sore and in need of new armor."
"True," Marcus agreed, eyeing Joseph's battered, dented, and gouged armor. "You good to keep going?"
"I'm fine," Joseph said. "Let's go."
Marcus nodded, and they all quickly left the tunnel the way the massive creature had come. As they walked toward the main structure of the dam, Kait asked Marcus about the last time he was there. Marcus told them it was when the dam fell, and had been an exfiltration mission, but when JD asked how he got the other Gears out, Marcus simply said he hadn't, then continued toward the dam, the others all following.
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