I do not own Gears of War or any of its characters.
Hell
Screams rang through the Settlement almost constantly, the massive flock of whatever kind of creatures' chittering sound had grown nearly deafening, and gunshots echoed above it all as Joseph sprinted from one piece of cover to the next, shooting as many of the Swarm as he could at each spot before moving. A shot struck his boot and he tripped, grunting in pain as he bounced and rolled across the ground into cover, and a Drone leapt onto him, only for him to instantly grab a knife and stab it in the heart before shoving it off and returning the knife to its sheath. Another stepped around the corner of his cover, only to instantly be blasted, and Joseph stood, shooting two more before a Torque Bow bolt stabbed into the low wall he was in cover behind. He dove away from it and the explosion hurled him but failed to kill him. He bounced over the edge of a set of stairs, tumbling down it, then rolled to a stop just as a Flock arrived, drawn by the gunfire. He swore, turning and sprinting for a building nearby, diving through the doorway just before the Flock passed, narrowly missing him but dropping several of the creatures onto the ground. He rolled, staring at the enormous, red, two foot leeches as all of them reared up onto the several tentacle-like tails on their back end, their undersides glowing. Then, he shot them all, killing them in seconds before scrambling to his feet and running deeper into the building.
It hadn't withstood the battle so far well, and entire sections of the walls and floors had collapsed, forcing him to climb partially-collapsed floors, drop through holes in the floor, and pass through broken walls as he made his way through the building, searching for an exit away from the Swarm and Flock he'd been fighting a moment before. Finally, just as he found a door out the back and looked out through it carefully, Lizzie managed to contact him.
"Joseph...you...ead?"
"Lizzie!" Joseph sighed in relief. "I'm alright! Where are you?"
"Finally!" Lizzie cheered. "I can...arely hear..." the radio cut to static for a moment before she spoke again. "...is messing with the comms. Where are you?"
"I'm in an abandoned building somewhere between the hub and the main gate," Joseph responded. "Have you heard from anyone else?"
"...eard from Fenix," Lizzie responded. "He and Del...to regroup with...t and Marcus. Be careful! Those things...DeeBees against us!"
"Say again?" Joseph asked.
"Those...hack into DeeBees and turn them...tile!" Lizzie repeated.
"Understood," Joseph acknowledged. "I'll be careful. Do you know where JD and the others are?"
"I don't have...act location," Lizzie responded.
"Understood," Joseph said. "I'll keep heading toward the gate."
"Be careful," Lizzie pleaded.
"I will," Joseph promised. "See you soon."
He glanced out of the door again, then stepped out, quickly heading along the street toward the main gate. The Settlement was looking more and more like hell by the minute. Fires burned nearly everywhere, crashed Ravens and destroyed transports blocked the road and decorated collapsed buildings everywhere, and Swarm were popping up in small groups so often that Joseph had had to start limiting his use of ammunition any way he could, even resorting to borrowing a Drone's Hammerburst when he started to run low on Lancer ammo. Finally, as he was passing a completely trashed hotel, he heard gunfire echoing inside and ran toward it, pausing at a Guardian that had been destroyed but had an intact Salvo rocket launcher attached to it. He grunted in effort as he ripped the Salvo off, then hurried to the hotel's side door, kicking the door in and sprinting through a side hallway to the lobby. JD and Del were running around, shooting up at a Flock spiraling around the ceiling.
As he entered, the Flock dove, swarming toward JD, who rolled out of the way before the Flock circled around toward Del. Del also avoided the Flock, and it swung back up near the ceiling. And as soon as the leeches stopped to begin massing together for another pass, Joseph began to unload the Salvo's entire payload into it. Most of the rockets hit a leech and exploded, slaughtering several of them, but a few slipped by, blasting the ceiling and sending pieces of it collapsing to the ground. As the Salvo ran dry, Joseph dropped it, grabbing his Lancer instead and spraying up into the much smaller Flock. Then, a few seconds later, the Flock's few remaining leeches finally swept down, swarming toward Joseph, only to meet a spray of bullets from him and a crossfire from JD and Del, the last of the leeches exploding apart, the last dying a foot from Joseph.
Joseph sighed, ejecting his last magazine, now empty, then let his rifle fall, leaning heavily against the door frame. "I'm so glad I found you two. Got any spare magazines?"
"Better," Del said, hefting a pair of ammo generators and lugging them over. "You have them. Me and JD still have plenty."
Joseph nodded, generating as much ammo as the pair of boxes could, then passed Del and JD each a fresh mag as he replaced his own. Once he was done the three of them double-checked their ammo before moving to the main doors, where they could hear gunfire on the other side.
"James!" Marcus's voice suddenly shouted over their communicators. "James, do you read?"
"Solid copy, Dad," JD responded. "Loud and clear!"
"Heads up," Marcus said. "That Flock thing's made up of leeches."
"Yeah, we know," JD said.
"We just finished killing one of them," Joseph explained.
"They're messing with our comms somehow, but Baird's got a squad cleaning them off the radio towers," Marcus informed them. "We're at the theater. Are you close?"
"Down the street," JD answered. "We're on our way to you!"
Joseph kicked the doors open and promptly got hit in the chest by a few Hammerburst rounds, stumbling backward as JD and Del sprinted out of the hotel, killing the Drone who had shot Joseph, then heading for cover. Joseph followed, and they all opened fire on the Swarm that a small group of Gears around them were struggling to fend off.
"Now, Control!" one of them shouted. "Drop them now!"
"I don't think they got the memo about the Flock!" Del shouted over the gunfire as a Condor passed over them, deploying several drop pods.
"Shit!" JD shouted. "Well...let's just help 'em clear the street!" He glanced at one of the Gears, the one who seemed to be in charge. "Sergeant! We'll help you push them back!"
The Sergeant nodded, and Joseph stood, killing a pair of Drones before focusing his fire on a Scion with a Mulcher, who was shredding the DeeBees. It roared, swinging its fire around toward him, only for the other Gears to all follow his lead. Under the combined fire of about six Lancers, the Scion went down in moments, and everyone began to return their attention to the Drones. Slowly, they advanced up the street, the dozen-odd still functioning DeeBee Sentinels advancing without cover and drawing fire, allowing the Gears to quickly push the Drones back while they were distracted.
Joseph advanced through the active warzone quickly, ignoring the fires and destruction around him and focusing all of his attention on killing Drones. There were dozens of them, and while they were making progress, they were also losing DeeBees fast. Another Scion stepped out, only for Dell to pull a Lancer with an under-barrel Grenade Launcher off of his back and fire the grenade before tossing the weapon away. The grenade flew a few meters before bursting apart, a half-dozen rockets flying away from the shell and streaking into the air before raining back down on the Scion and a handful of Drones around it, slaughtering them all.
"Nice one!" JD shouted.
"I knew I saved that grenade for a reason!" Del called back.
Joseph killed several Drones further back as they tried to advance, then sprinted forward, vaulting over the hood of a car and planted both feet into a Drone's head, smashing it against the ground when he landed, breaking the Drone's skull and neck, killing it. A drone to his left turned to shoot him, only for him to rip the knife from the back of his belt free of its scabbard, slashing the Drone's throat before diving forward into a roll, slamming his back into a large, rectangular flower bed. He sheathed his knife and swapped his empty magazine for a fresh one before leaning out and opening fire again, killing a pair of Drones that were keeping JD and Del pinned down. Finally, a few minutes of chaos later, they finished the Drones, only for a Flock to arrive. Instantly, everyone opened fire, Marcus and Kait joining them a minute later and adding their own rifles to the effort. The Flock swooped low, catching the Sergeant in charge of the Gears they were trying to help, killing him instantly, then swarmed past three of their DeeBees. The leeches burrowed into the bots, and a moment later, the blue lights on their heads and the power core in their back turned red, and they turned, opening fire on the Gears around them. Joseph swore, blasting all three DeeBees' heads, shutting them down and making them explode, only for the blasts to kill the last two DeeBees as well. He turned back to the Flock, only to be forced to dive out of the way as it swept past, catching two more Gears and killing them. They all fired up into it desperately, and Kait hurled a grenade, only for the two leeches it stuck to to fly away from the main group, sparing it the explosion. The Flock made a third pass, catching four Gears this time, then finally, as the Flock began to make a fourth pass, Marcus hurled a grenade into the ground ahead of them, and the explosion wiped out the last of the leeches. Joseph looked around, instantly, only to realize that none of the Gears they were trying to help had survived.
"Shit," Joseph sighed. "All of them."
"We gotta move," JD decided. "Come on!"
They all hurried over to Marcus and Kait, all of them stepping into the theater.
"About time you three showed up," Kait said. "Glad you're safe."
"Same," Joseph nodded.
"Baird, we got 'em," Marcus reported. "Where do you need us?"
"Well, if you're at the theater, there was a group of evacuees there," Baird replied. "I lost contact with 'em an hour ago."
"Okay, we'll round 'em up and get 'em to safety," JD promised. "And Baird, if anyone calls for reinforcements, don't do it."
"Roger that," Baird agreed, "but there's a lot already out there."
"Understood Control," JD responded. "We'll keep an eye out."
They searched the theater quickly, but by the time they reached the stage, they hadn't found anyone, or heard anything. And Kait's headaches, which had been growing more prevalent since her mother died, based on the few times they'd met up since then, were growing worse, one of them kicking in for a few seconds just before they reached the stage.
"If people were here, where'd they all go?" Del asked.
"Maybe they got out," Kait offered.
"We didn't pick up any evacuees from here," Joseph said gravely.
"Let's get that curtain open," Marcus said flatly.
Joseph walked over to the controls, pulling the lever to open the curtain, only for them all to swear under their breath as they saw a corrupted DR-1 on the front of the stage. And beyond that, filling almost half of the seats, were the evacuees, all shot to death by the DR-1.
"Uh, guys?" Kait said. "We got a problem."
Joseph shouldered his Lancer, instantly able to guess they'd have to fight. The DR-1 had a Tri-shot, but currently it wasn't moving, almost seeming like it was in stasis. But then, just as Kait was saying they should leave quietly, the stage's music and props, like a rotating central platform with plywood foliage and wooden walls, came alive, instantly waking the DR-1.
"Goddamnit!" JD shouted as the DR-1 turned on them, raising the Tri-shot over itself from behind like a scorpion tail. "Kill that thing!"
They all opened fire immediately, scattering to avoid its returning fire. Kait hurled a pair of grenades, which did dishearteningly little to it, and JD followed it up by ordering Jack, a floating robot that had been accompanying them so far, to use a flash function to stun the DR-1, granting them a few seconds reprieve from its counter attack. However, after as it began to function again and returned to firing, its opening shots slammed into Joseph's helmet, hurling him backward and knocking the helmet off. Joseph groaned, then shoved himself up just as about a dozen corrupted Sentinels began to swarm onto the stage. He focused on those while the DR-1 was ignoring him, and managed to take down all of the Sentinels fairly quickly. Then, he turned his sights back on the DR-1. Finally, sparks began to fly out of it, and a second later, it exploded. Joseph sighed, reloading and collecting his helmet.
"It's done," Del said, panting. "Let's just...Let's just get out of here and find the others."
"Hey," Kait said, looking around. "I think we can exit stage right."
They all headed to the double doors she gestured to, and Joseph pushed them open, only for a corrupted Sentinel to lunge at him. He swore, knocking it aside on instinct, and they all fired a burst into it, obliterating it instantly.
"Nice block," JD said.
"Thanks," Joseph said. "Complete accident."
"Only if you admit to it," Del chimed in.
"Baird, the theater evacuees didn't make it," JD radioed. "Cole, Fahz, the Carmines, what's their status?"
"Lizzie made it back to her convoy, but she keeps getting rerouted," Baird reported. "Clay found a Raven out, but I can't reach Cole or Fahz. You heard from 'em?"
"No, not yet," JD said. "But we'll keep looking."
"How the fuck did Uncle Clay get a Raven off the ground without a Flock taking it down?" Joseph asked.
"He's always been lucky," Marcus said. "Even luckier than you."
"I guess so," Joseph shook his head.
They made their way through the theater, finally reaching the front lobby, only to stop as they saw the chaos unfolding before them. Explosions were blooming in the distance, tracer rounds wee filling the air from Gears struggling to fend off Flocks, and they could hear gunfire and screams from those they had no hope of saving.
"Holy shit," JD breathed.
"Delta, where are you?" Baird asked. "Command just called it! Pull out! Evacuation's over!"
"Control, it's Delta!" JD responded. "You're breaking up. We're at the theater. Say again?"
"You gotta get out of there, kid!" Baird said urgently. "They're letting the settlement go!"
"Wait, can't we use the Hammer of Dawn?" JD asked.
"Not when I can't target the damn thing!" Baird snapped. "Just fall back to the main gate!"
"Baird, we're stuck on the other side of town!" JD snapped, looking to Kait, who shook her head in annoyance.
"Fenix, Lizzie here," Lizzie radioed. "You're at the theater?"
"Lizzie!" Joseph cheered. "Thank God! Yeah, we're in the lobby!"
"Joseph!" Lizzie shouted. "I'm on my way! I've been diverted like six times, but I'm heading your way now!"
"Be careful!" Joseph warned.
"I will," Lizzie said, just as Cole and Fahz sprinted out of a side street outside, tearing into the theater.
"Hey, you made it!" Joseph grinned.
"We, uh...brought company," Fahz warned, gesturing back the way they'd come.
Just then, a Swarmak stomped into view. Joseph swore, sprinting for the stairs before anything bad could happen. Sure enough, when the Swarmak smashed through the facade of the building, a massive chunk of it exploded through the supports for the balcony they were on, collapsing it.
"That's the bastard that shot down our Raven!" Cole informed them all as they all fled into whatever cover they could find.
"What!?" Del shouted, just as the Swarmak's arm-mounted chainguns roared to life. "How can you tell!?"
"The Cole Train never forgets a face!" Cole shouted back.
Joseph risked a quick glance at the Swarmak, seeing that its blisters weren't scabbed over like the one they'd fought at the power station before. Which meant that they could target them easily. However, even with that, killing it would be ridiculously difficult.
"So where do we shoot this thing!?" Fahz shouted.
"Target the blisters!" Marcus shouted.
They all fired when they could, sticking to cover as much as possible while still being able to target the blisters. Joseph hurled all of his remaining grenades as soon as he had the chance, and the explosion burst two of the blisters. However, there were plenty more, and this Swarmak, unlike the last he'd faced, covered the wounds, preventing them from shooting into its body. After a few minutes of this, and after only bursting one more blister in that time, Cole excused himself, sprinting out of the theater and down the street. Joseph thought maybe he had the right idea, but continued to struggle to target any of the blisters he could. And still, it protected its vulnerable spots. Then, all of a sudden, Cole's voice cheered.
"I TOLD YOU I'D BE RIGHT BACK! ! !" Cole cheered over the gunfire and the roar of a motor.
The Swarmak turned toward the sound, then roared.
"IT'S DINNER TIME, BITCH! ! !" Cole cheered, just before he hit a jump on a Track Mule that had more than a dozen grenades on its front half.
Cole bailed off in midair, and the bike drove itself down the Brumak's throat.
"Cole!" JD shouted. "Are you nuts?"
"Always!" Cole nodded, pushing himself up, then pointing at the bike. "But now it's got a mouthful of boom!"
The Swarmak tried to roar, only for the grenades to detonate a moment later, blasting the Swarmak's head into paste. Everyone cheered, and Joseph dropped heavily onto a desk to rest. After a moment of catching their breath, they all moved out in front of the theater to wait for Lizzie. While they waited, Fahz and Del began to argue about the riots in Settlement Two years ago that ended in a massacre. Del, Fahz, and JD having been the three officers present, Del was arguing that the massacre was wrong, and Fahz was insulting the rioters, referencing one who broke his nose. Before it could come to blows, JD got between them, only for Del to call JD a coward.
"Coward?" Fahz scoffed. "Wow. Well have I got news for you."
"Fahz," JD said warningly. "Don't."
"Guess who ordered the first shot, Del," Fahz said. "Directly into those 'peaceful protesters' of yours."
Del frowned in confusion before looking at JD, whose face was sinking in shame. Kait stared at him, then looked to Marcus, whose face also betrayed shame as he turned away. Del shoved JD away from himself.
"Yeah," Fahz nodded. "That's right. Lieutenant Pedigree, there."
He turned, walking away, and JD began to try and placate Del and Kait's shock and anger at the same time as trying to justify his actions, only to give up when he saw that none of his excuses could save him. Instead, Lizzie saved him from the conversation by honking her horn as she sped toward them. Joseph turned, lifting his rifle, but as they were walking over to meet Lizzie as she approached, several rockets shot past, missing the trucks but blasting the road and buildings around them.
"Oh shit!" Cole shouted.
One rocket blasted the corner off of a building, and the debris crashed down on Lizzie's truck, not crushing it but immediately halting it.
"Shit!" Lizzie swore. "We're blocked!"
Joseph looked down the street the way the rockets had come from and swore, seeing three Swarmaks and a horde of Drones and Scions charging toward them from around a bend up ahead.
"Come on!" Marcus shouted. "Draw their fire!"
Everyone sprinted forward to meet the Swarm, and Joseph braced himself. Sure enough, just as soon as he ducked into cover, a Swarmak rocket blasted the stairs he was crouched behind, hurling him. At the same time, the rockets were still flying toward the convoy, one of them blasting a massive dent in the door of Lizzie's truck that Joseph had used. As Joseph began to scrape himself off of the ground, several bullets slammed into his chestplate, one glancing off of his kneepad and a Longshot bullet glanced off of his helmet, knocking him back to the ground.
"All trucks, back up!" Lizzie shrieked. "Back up!"
Joseph rolled, getting himself lying down with his armored upper body toward the Swarm, and began to fire, praying that nothing hit his arms. Several shots slammed into his helmet, but he kept firing. A rocket hit the road to his left and hurled him, but he bounced into cover, shook his head, then pushed himself up, returning fire once again. There were too many. Dozens of Drones, multiple Scions, and the Swarmak were all invulnerable. Joseph looked over at Lizzie, but the debris had landed under her tires, and she couldn't back up. He swore, then leaned out, firing again, focusing as much as he could through his fear of losing Lizzie. And then, JD was charging.
Joseph realized that the shots and explosions had knocked out his comms, and he couldn't hear what anyone was saying. But he didn't need to. Everyone tried their best to cover JD, whatever he was planning, and just as he began to pass through the Swarmaks, his plan became clear. The Hammer of Dawn began to fire, the laser tearing through the ground and obliterating the Swarmaks, incinerating any smaller Swarm it hit. Then, just shy of where JD had taken cover behind a car, the laser ended. Joseph sighed in relief. It worked. It was a stupid plan, but it worked. Except, just as JD stepped out of cover, it fired again, only for a second, but into a building a distance behind him, blasting it apart.
Then, it was firing again. Short blasts that did little more than cause massive explosions mixed with long beams that tore through the ground. One beam chased JD, another swept toward Del and the others. And one began to sweep toward Lizzie's truck. One convoy truck managed to get turned around and fled, only for a blast to slam down directly on top of it, obliterating it and killing everyone inside. JD swore, sprinting toward the convoy as the trucks began to empty, but Lizzie's door was being blasted by debris, and the other door, as she tried to open it, was jammed by the dent the Swarmak had left. Joseph tore down the street, moving at a dead sprint. He abandoned his rifle, pushing himself as fast as he could. He had seconds, at best. Finally, he reached Lizzie's truck and leapt onto the side, grabbing his Corpser weapon from the back of it where the evacuees had been. He swung it back, slamming it into the back of his armor where it instantly attached, the sides of its harness clamping around his armor on the sides instantly. Then, he jumped off the truck, landing facing of Lizzie's ruined door.
"Get back!" Joseph thundered.
Lizzie scrambled away from the door just as the four Corpser legs uncurled from the back of it. Then, he shoved his arms forward and the legs stabbed themselves into the seam around the door, deforming it even more before he pulled his left arm back, retracting his two left legs, then pivoted, stepping off to the right before the right-side legs ripped the door from the truck and cast it aside effortlessly. Instantly, the legs curled back up behind him and Lizzie leapt from the truck into his arms before he spun, putting himself between her and the truck and jumped. A half-second later, the beam met the truck, erupting into an explosion that sent both of them bouncing and tumbling across the ground, both unconscious.
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