I do not own Gears of War or any of its characters.
A.N.: The knife Lizzie gives him is a custom Outsider Knife.
Evacuation
Joseph stared at his new gear in stunned silence. Despite Baird's promise that the armor wouldn't be pretty, it was beautiful. He'd created a machine that used a laser to cut the Locust Crystals, and since there were a lot that were extremely large rather than the size of pebbles, he'd been able to make several of the sections in single pieces. He'd taken the base of a set of armor and had replaced the metal entirely with perfectly cut Locust crystal, and instead of the usual circles on the chest of COG armor, it now had a more old-world look with two sections shaped vaguely like pectoral muscles over the chest, several dozen cut and seamlessly fit together over the ribs and diaphragm, to make a solid band, pauldrons that looked like they were cut from a single piece and were rounded like the face of a pearl, and then several smaller, more form-fitting bands in a layered design down the abdomen to the belt. The sides lacked armor and had been designed to open with three clasps so that the armor could be put on and taken off relatively easily, and the armor bore powerful magnets under the Locust Crystal in all the same places as normal COG armor. Baird had even included kneepads that were flat in the front then blocky around the sides, like a rectangle cut diamond, had made boots, gauntlets, and even a helmet styled closer to the Onyx Guard's appearance than the normal style given to basic Gears. All of them were smooth and beautifully crafted. But he hadn't stopped there. As he'd said he had a bunch left over, including several long, thin ones he couldn't find a use for he'd made Joseph six knives out of them, all of them identical, single-edged weapons with eight-inch blades and a row of serrated teeth along the back edge, unlike the COG's standard-issue knife with featured three enormous teeth in the front. And lastly, he'd included a chainsaw bayonet out of the crystal scraps he'd had left over.
"They're incredible!" Joseph finally breathed. "Thank you!"
"You're welcome," Baird said proudly. "But these aren't all of the gifts."
"What?" Joseph asked, halfway through pulling his new chestplate on.
Baird looked to Lizzie, who smiled, stepping up beside Joseph as he set the armor back down. Then, she held up another knife, this one, unlike those Baird had made which had normal hilts around the crystal blade, was entirely crystal, save for the brown cloth wrapped around the hilt as a grip. It was cut rougher than Baird's immaculate blades, but more beautiful to Joseph than anything Baird had made. It was a mostly straight, double-edged, leaf-shaped blade with the back slightly misshapen, leaving it to have three distinct curves interspaced around two definite, but small points along the back edge, a rounded, slightly curved grip, no guard, and had five curved, decorative ridges along the sides of the blade sweeping from the grip and out toward the edges in gentle curves, a little bit like wings, or the lines on a shell.
Joseph stared at the knife as he accepted it, then stepped forward, kissing Lizzie happily, Baird sighing in exasperation. After a moment, Joseph pulled back, accepting the leather sheath Lizzie had also made for it, which bore a pair of metal straps like his bayonet sheaths did, and carefully slid the blade into the sheath before strapping it to the front of his chestplate before finally pulling it on. He quickly pulled the rest of the armor on as well, then turned to Lizzie who smiled instantly.
"You're so pretty," Lizzie teased.
"And now, I'm invincible," Joseph grinned.
Lizzie smiled, nodding. "Good. I'd rather not have to find someone to replace you."
Joseph rolled his eyes, pulling his helmet off, and turned back to Baird. "Thank you, Baird. You're amazing."
"Yeah, yeah," Baird shook his head. "Just go away already. You can thank me by not giving me any more projects."
"But what else do you have to do besides invent stuff?" Joseph asked as he and Lizzie walked away with his new toys.
"I get to invent what I want to invent," Baird answered.
Joseph frowned as he stared out the window. The evacuation was going well, but it wasn't moving quickly. Settlement Two was near a burial site that had recently gone active, but intel about exactly when it started was spotty at best. As such, Jinn had ordered an evacuation, but something just felt off. Joseph had a feeling the Swarm may have been active longer, and could attack at any moment.
"Hey, relax," Lizzie smiled, taking his hand. "We're doing good. Another hour or two, and we'll be back home getting shitfaced."
Joseph groaned. "I swear to God, Lizzie. If you make me hold your hair back so you can puke one more time, I'm finding a side chick."
Lizzie laughed. "Finally! I've been waiting for you to say you want me to start bringing home girls! Finally we can have some real fun!"
She squeezed his hand gently, assuring him she was just joking, and he turned his hand over, lacing his fingers with hers. Just as he did, however, an explosion sounded off to their right. Joseph sighed, picking his Lancer up off the dash of the truck.
"And so it begins," Joseph said disappointedly. "I was really looking forward to holding your hair back."
Lizzie smiled. "We still will."
Behind their convoy, one of eight currently trying to evacuate the Settlement, the Gears conducting the evacuees immediately grabbed their rifles, shouting for everyone to move faster. Within minutes, the evacuees had all loaded up from the shelter they were at and Lizzie stomped on the gas, Joseph readying himself to shoot. For the first few minutes, they were fine. Then, Swarm spilled onto the road ahead of them, all Juvies and Drones. Joseph snorted and Lizzie matted the accelerator, plowing through the Swarm, splattering several Juvies and clearing the way for the two trucks behind her to follow.
"How far are we taking them?" Joseph asked.
"Only to the gate," Lizzie said. "There are transports waiting there for them."
Joseph nodded, waiting in silence. Then, a few minutes later, they slowed to a stop and the evacuees quickly switched to the faster transport trucks there before Lizzie and her convoy swung around, heading back for more. However, the situation had broken down quickly. There were dozens of Snatchers, Pouncers, several Swarmaks, and they rocketed past a Carrier, making no move to stop for the civilians it was heading for.
"Hey, there were people back there!" one of the other drivers called out.
"No Carriers," Lizzie said, her tone leaving no room for debate, her right hand gripping Joseph's tightly, able to feel him trembling just at the sight of it. "It would destroy our trucks and kill everyone anyway."
The other driver hesitated before acknowledging her decision.
"Thank you," Joseph said.
"I'm not forcing you to face one of them," Lizzie said. "Your nightmares are bad enough without reinforcing them."
Joseph nodded, squeezing her hand before taking his own back and readying his rifle again. As they were nearing the next group they found, the Swarmak exploded through the building opposite the evacuees from them, killing them all in the ensuing collapse, but Lizzie swerved, cutting left onto a side road and the convoy left the Swarmak behind, and then a few minutes later, they skidded to a stop to pick up a small group of survivors. Joseph hopped out the moment the truck had stopped, his rifle snapping up and opening fire instantly as Swarm began to charge at them from further up ahead, mostly Drones and Juvies. Joseph opened fire, just before several more Gears joined him, Lizzie stepping up beside him before any of them. The Juvies swarmed ahead of the Drones, but there were enough Lancers firing at them that they were all slaughtered, and once the Juvies were gone, the Drones swiftly followed.
"We're clear!" one of the Gears shouted, only for a door down a side street to burst open. "Shit! One the right!"
Everyone spun, opening fire, but as more and more Drones and a couple of Scions stomped toward them, the last of the evacuees loaded up.
"Go!" one of the Gears shouted, he and another Gear advancing into the side street. "Get everyone out of here!"
Lizzie and Joseph loaded up, the other dismounted Gears scrambling onto the trucks anywhere they could as Lizzie and the other trucks sped off, leaving two Gears to cover their escape. They were called to several different locations once they were moving again, each more volatile than the last, until the entire Settlement was a warzone, Joseph having to shoot Swarm out the window while Lizzie drove. Finally, after the third scattered group, it was all too much, and they headed directly for the Settlement's main hub, where the vast majority of the evacuees should have gone.
"All evac trucks, proceed immediately to the hub," Lizzie instructed, watching a pair of Drones chase a small group of unarmed civilians into an alleyway, only for Juvies to swarm out of it a moment later. "No stopping."
"Lizzie, Delta here!" JD radioed. "There's a Swarmak in the settlement! Keep your convoy away from it!"
"Aw, Delta, I was gonna do donuts around it," Lizzie joked sarcastically.
"Good to hear from you, too, Lizzie," JD said. "How's Joseph."
"He got shot in the head, again," Joseph responded, rubbing his head where he had, in fact, been shot and now had a sore spot that would probably bruise underneath his hair. "Remind me to have Baird put some padding in this thing."
Lizzie laughed, nodding.
"Glad to see you're still a bullet sponge," Del said. "Want to come hang out until we're out of here?"
"Nah," Joseph said. "I've been here for hours and only got shot once. You guys got me shot like five times, and blown up by a rocket, by the second shootout."
"Fair," Del reasoned.
"We're on our way to the hub, so we'll see you there," JD said. "Delta out."
"We're going to be in some deep shit," Joseph said, pulling his helmet back on. "Delta is like a walking jinx."
Lizzie grinned behind her helmet. "That's fine. You're invincible, now."
"Tell that to the Swarmak I'm sure we'll meet later," Joseph snorted.
Lizzie grinned, then fell silent as Joseph leaned out of the window to spray a group of Drones up ahead in the road, killing a few and forcing the others to duck into cover, allowing the convoy to speed past, several of the Gears helping escort the convoy dropping souvenir grenades for the Drones.
"Lizzie, Delta requesting civilian pickup," JD radioed. "Sector Eight, apartment complex."
"Copy that, Delta," Lizzie responded. "I'll circle back."
"What happened to no stopping?" the other driver asked.
"If Delta's there, it'll be safe to pick them up," Lizzie explained, swinging down a side road. "Delta's the best we've got."
After another moment, they'd swung back around, heading back toward the apartment just as a Snatcher crashed down ahead of them.
"Control, need backup!" Lizzie said urgently, seeing the tail beginning to glow. "A Snatcher's about to-"
"Just ram it, Lizzie," Joseph snorted. "You can fix the truck later."
"Ah, fuck it," Lizzie sighed, then plowed into the Snatcher at nearly fifty miles an hour, crushing it between their truck and a parked troop transport blocking the road. "Nevermind, Control." She and Joseph hopped out of the truck on Joseph's side, as there wasn't room to open the door on Lizzie's side on account of a guard rail, then slapped a grenade into the Snatcher's stomach inside of its open abdominal sack as they passed it. "I took care of it. DeeBees, we gotta secure this street!"
As the grenade exploded and blasted the Snatcher apart, the Snatcher actually shielding Lizzie's truck, the Gears all deployed, along with the DeeBees riding with them. Everyone quickly moved to cover, beginning to fire at the small army of Drones filling the street ahead of them.
"Lizzie!" Cole's voice shouted. "Oh, man, sister! You are crazy!"
"What can we do to help?" JD asked.
"Feel like doing a burger run?" Joseph asked sarcastically. "I could really go for a burger right-OW!" he shouted in pain as a bullet pinged off the left side of his helmet, making his left ear ring.
"Serves you right!" Lizzie called over the gunfire. "You should be ordering alcohol!"
"Okay, let's just help them clear the street," JD sighed. "Christ, I forgot what it's like to talk to them."
"Yeah, they're a lot," Del agreed.
"You know them?" someone Joseph didn't recognize, who had an Embar and a prosthetic right leg from the knee down, asked in a foreign accent Joseph also didn't recognize.
"They helped us out when we first encountered the Swarm," Del explained.
"And got absolutely maimed doing it," Joseph reminded them. "You guys fucked up my pretty face!" He shot several Drones in short, rapid bursts, the bursts all hitting the Drones' heads. "Although, I have to say, it's easier to shoot a rifle without being distracted by what my left eye is seeing."
"Uh...silver lining?" JD offered, spraying several Drones before dropping into cover beside Joseph.
Joseph shrugged, then stepped out just as a charging Drone reached him, beginning to raise his Gnasher. Instead, Joseph slammed a knee into the Gnasher from the side, knocking it away before his upgraded chainsaw bayonet ripped into the Drone, sawing through armor and bone with no resistance. As soon as that Drone had collapsed, he swung his rifle back up, only for a sniper bullet to slam into his chestplate, hurling him backward but doing nothing else.
"Sniper," Joseph warned almost casually, then rolled into cover just ahead of a second shot.
He leaned out, seeing the snipers on the second floor of a building ahead and on the right, but they were far enough away that he couldn't accurately target them. So instead, he targeted the Drones, seeing Cole and Del already pushing up to try and reach the snipers.
"Fenix, for the last goddamn time, I'm the ranking officer, which means I call in the reinforcements!" the guy Joseph didn't recognize was shouting over the gunfire as Joseph refocused on his surroundings.
"Yes sir!" JD said sarcastically. "I-I will fix it!"
Joseph raised an eyebrow at JD.
"That's Fahz," JD explained. "He's got some issues." He wiggled his pinky at Joseph, who snorted, then stepped out directly into the barrel of a Gnasher.
"Oh for fuck-" Joseph snapped, only to be cut off by the gnasher firing, hurling him backward.
Lizzie and JD both sprayed the Drone instantly, killing it, and Joseph sat up, shouting in annoyance.
"How the fuck do they keep getting to me!?" Joseph demanded, just as a Drone sprinted past a DeeBee who was busy shooting at another Drone and didn't notice it. "You fucking useless machine!"
As Lizzie laughed, Joseph sprayed the oncoming Drone, killing it, then stood and ran to cover with Lizzie just as one of the Drones' shot out a window of Lizzie's truck.
"No one wrecks my trucks!" Lizzie seethed instantly. "Only I get to wreck my trucks!"
She hurled a grenade, the ball at the end shattering the Drone's jaw and sticking to it, knocking the Drone to the side into two more just before the grenade exploded, Lizzie spraying several more Drones angrily before calming herself.
"Feel better?" Joseph asked.
Lizzie shrugged. "Not really."
"Could you two focus!?" JD shouted as he ducked down just ahead of a sniper shot.
"Trust me, we are!" Joseph responded, hurling a grenade and blasting two Drones hidden in cover.
"JD, your Condor's close!" Baird informed them. "What do you need?"
"Lieutenant Chutani requests Guardians!" JD said over the gunfire.
"Oh, do I, then!?" Fahz snapped.
Just then, as Cole and Del finally reached the Snipers and quickly killed them, a door below them burst open, more Drones and a pair of Scions emerging from it. A moment later, a pair of DeeBee drop pods exploded down among the Drones, two Guardians armed with Tri-shots rising from them and immediately opening fire on the Swarm.
"Guardians, secure this street!" JD ordered.
"We will do our duty, Lieutenant," one of the Guardians responded.
Joseph stood, spraying the Drones as they ran for cover at the same time as glancing toward the stairs leading to Cole and Del. One of the Scions, who had a Mulcher, was heading for them.
"Cole, Del, incoming!" Joseph warned them, ducking back down as the other Scion began to spray with his own Mulcher. "Scion with a mulcher!"
"We got it!" Cole assured him, just before a cluster of armed grenades fell on the Scion from the top of the stairs, then exploded, blasting him and the stairs both apart.
Joseph shook his head, then leaned out of cover as the other Scion's Mulcher began to cool, and began to spray. Finally, three full magazines later, the Scion was dead, and a few moments after that, so were the Drones. However, as per their usual luck, it seemed, as soon as the humanoid Swarm were dead, the non-humanoids arrived. A pair of Pouncers announced their arrival by way of one Pouncer crushing a Guardian and the other crashing into Joseph. He grunted as he crashed to the ground, but when the Pouncer immediately moved to take a bite out of his head before he could even react to being tackled, its teeth shrieked and chipped against his helmet.
"I fucking hate these things!" Joseph complained, slamming his helmet into the Pouncer's face so that the goo wouldn't splatter into it, then ripped the knife Lizzie had made for him from its sheath, slashing along the pouncer's stomach before stabbing it several times.
Finally, it exploded, and he stood, sheathing the knife and picking up his rifle again. The other Pouncer turned to Lizzie and flicked its tail, sending a barrage of quills at her, only for Joseph to tackle her out of the way before both sprayed at it from below, their bullets slamming into its stomach and killing it within seconds. Finally, it was clear, and the Gears accompanying Lizzie and Joseph headed into the apartment complex to round up the civilians as Delta continued toward the hub, where Lizzie and Joseph's uncle Clayton had apparently just been overrun and were now only barely holding the tower.
"So, how're the COG's attempts to recreate my rifle?" Joseph asked, gesturing the the new Mark 3 Lancer Lizzie was holding.
They'd been equipped with buttstocks and flashlights, based off of a combination of Marcus's custom Lancers and Joseph's.
"I prefer the aesthetic of Marcus's buttstock," Lizzie shrugged. "And yours has a much better buffer, so it has less recoil. But it's better than the old Mark Twos."
Joseph chuckled, nodding. "Sounds about right. Remind me to get you a better buffer system when we get back."
Lizzie nodded, and they glanced at the apartment, where the civilians and Gears were finally returning. "Alright, once they're loaded up, we can go save Uncle Clay."
"Right," Joseph nodded. "We'll need to hurry."
Lizzie nodded, and once everyone was loaded up, they rolled out, heading for the hub as quickly as they could. Finally, they arrived at the front just as JD announced that the hub was secure for the time being. As evacuees flooded out to get into the Minotaurs, Joseph and Lizzie ran to see Clayton.
"Yeah, and now I gotta get up again," Clayton grunted as Lizzie called out to him, forcing himself up despite his aging body clearly protesting and sore, and having literally just sat down.
Lizzie hugged Clayton and he returned the hug before turning to Joseph and staring at his outfit.
"What's with the fancy armor?" Clayton asked.
"Locust Crystal," Joseph said. "Courtesy of Baird."
"Huh," Clayton nodded. "Not bad. Not my style, but it'll be damn hard to keep you down now."
"That was the general way of thinking," Joseph nodded. "How're you holding up?"
"I'm alright," Clayton nodded. "What about you two, though? You didn't report back like I was expecting."
"Radio died," Lizzie shrugged. "Then these guys pulled us out of a jam." She gestured to Delta.
"Then I guess I owe you twice, Fenix," Clayton nodded, just as an explosion in the distance made the ground lurch, screams echoing instantly.
"What now?" Joseph groaned, pulling his rifle off of his back.
Just then, a massive swarm of something fast, flying, and red swooped up over a building in the distance, then swept past, several of the things burrowing into a Gear unfortunate enough to be caught. And then, as he screamed in terror and agony, his body exploded apart, ripped into a dozen chunks from the inside, all in about a second. The enormous swarm began to swing back around, and Joseph growled, opening fire along with the other Gears and the DeeBees. The massive swarm spiraled into a ball, but even as some of the things burst apart, the swarm didn't seem to shrink any. Then, as the swarm swept down into a charge, Fahz shouted for everyone to drop, and they all did, the swarm of creatures passing over them, leaving a handful on each DeeBee, which immediately shut down.
"Aw, what the hell?" Del complained.
Just then, the swarm of creatures began to swing back around, just as another swarm approached from the other side.
"Oh, shit!" Lizzie swore.
"Everyone, run!" JD shouted.
They scattered instantly, Lizzie sprinting for her tucks, Joseph a few steps behind her. However, before he could reach the truck, one of the two swarms swung around toward them.
"Shit!" Joseph shouted. "Lizzie, go!"
He opened fire on the swarm, getting its attention before diving into the ruins of a small building. The swarm ripped through the building instantly, allowing Lizzie to escape with her convoy, but the swarm missed Joseph, so he shoved himself to his feet and took off at a sprint. And as he ran, all around him, the world went to Hell.
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