Brothers In Blood

Jacinto Plateau, the only city that still looks normal even with the war going on outside their door. I might think of taking a vacation here. Marble floors were still white. Trees blowing in the cold winter wind. Oh and don’t forget the dead Locust everywhere. You glanced over your shoulder, observing a Locust trying to crawl to a shotgun. I think it’s a Grenadier... Doesn’t matter.

     You walked over to the heavily injured drone, its back torn open by bullets, revealing its ribcage. Its left leg was barely attached, a single muscle dragging it on the floor.

     “Excuse me sir, you seem injured...” He looked over to you, surprised that you noticed him. Horror can be seen in his eyes a mile away. It started to drag itself a bit faster, this time not to the gun. It just wanted to get away from you. You stepped on its barely detached leg, the Locust roaring in pain. It looked at you, pleading mercy in its eyes.

     “Don’t worry sir.” You said, pointing at your chest. The Locust looked at where your finger was pointing, its eyes getting wider. In white paint read ‘GRUB KILLER’. You smiled under your helmet, pulling your Lancer from your back, the chainsaw coated in the blood of its comrades. “I’m a doctor.”

     You revved up the chainsaw, its sound pleasing your ears. The Locust looked at you in mercy before you silenced the beast, plunging your Lancer into its chest. Bones and ripped flesh sprayed as you cut deeper through its shoulder, passing through the heart before exiting through the liver. The top half of the Locust twitched its mouth open as its eyes went pure white. The bottom half laid limp, its blood gushing out like a faucet.

     “Are you done having fun?” A familiar voice called. You turned your head to see your younger brother, well one of them, stating in front of your, clenching his Longshot as he stared at the Locust.

     “Ben,” You said, turning off the Lancer’s chainsaw and reloading it, the empty mag clanging to the ground. “I think I may have accidently killed my patient.” He grunted, shaking his head before looking at you.

     “Just call the damn KR; I don’t want any more of these grubs appearing.” You stepped off the dead grubs foot and chuckled to yourself, hooking the Lancer onto your back.

     “You’re a goddamn sniper!” You exclaimed, pointing at his chest. He made the mistake of looking down as you flicked his chin, almost knocking his helmet off. “The only thing you got to worry your ass about is the another damn sniper.” Before he could protest you pressed a button on the side of the helmet, activating the radio.

     “This is Echo Squad to command, stop trying to fuck Fenix and answer the damn phone Anya.” Static answered you back before a women’s voice finally answered back.

     “You know I could activate the Hammer of Dawn and blast your ass right now Clayton!” You love it when you get this girl flustered.

     “Yeah well if you do that you’d kill all these civilians we spent our asses trying to protect!” You glanced over at Benjamin, chuckling softly as he tried to give you the middle finger behind your back. “Besides, you’d miss me.” You hear her laugh softly.

     “It would be the happiest moment of my life if you dropped dead.” A grin formed on your face, you turned to Benjamin and he nodded. You started making a choking sound, Benjamin making a perfect impersonation of a grub growl. You turned on your Lancer and sawed into a dead grub, the sound of bones breaking echoed through the cold wind. You dropped to the floor, acting dead as Ben started to shoot randomly before fake crying.

     “Ben what the hell was that!” Anya called on comms. He suppressed a laugh as he cried.

     “Anya… He came out of nowhere!” He cried, you laughing quietly as he told her the news. “I’m sorry… He’s dead.” Anya sounded devastated on the comms. She kept calling your name until you couldn’t hold it. You busted out laughing, Ben soon falling backwards and laughing himself to tears. Anya sounded butt flustered before the call ended, her curses silenced as you both laughed to tears. You started getting up, clenching you gut. Or what’s left of it.

     “Great!” Ben said, his laughter finally dying down to giggles “Now we’re here for another day till Anya forgives us. Nice plan Clay!” You gave him the finger as you picked up your Lancer.

     “You joined asshole don’t put the blame on me.” You walked over and picked up the shotgun the grub was crawling to. You already had a Boltok and a Sawed Off but its good to have more firepower. You put the Sawed Off into your custom made pistol holster and put the Gnasher on your back. Got to remember to turn off your badass. “Where’s Anthony?” Benjamin pointed back at the outpost. Before you can respond the sound of chopper blades caught your attention. You looked up to see a King Raven flying its way to your position, two more trailing behind. A soft cheer from the civilians at the outpost made you grin. You waved at the KR’s, their front lights flickering in response. The sun started setting behind them, its rays making the sky orange.

     “Guess she does have a heart.” Ben said softly behind you. Your smile faded as an ear crushing roar echoed in the distance. A barrage of rockets flew out from an ally, their path straight for the choppers. Before they can respond the rockets crashed into the main chopper, a giant ball of fire and debris blasting from all sides as the chopper exploded. The destroyed shell of the chopper crashed into another one, another explosion echoing through the park.  The third chopper flew right over you, turning around to assist.

     “Gunner!” Benjamin yelled as he quick scoped the Locust getting on a Troika on top of a building. Locust started popping out of the ground, some from emergence holes while Kanthus shot out of the ground like missiles. Showoffs you thought  You and your brother rushed to cover, avoiding the rain of bullets. You pulled out your Lancer and open fired, chopping down Grubs like trees.

     “Eat shit and DIE MOTHERFUCKER!” You roared as you shot multiple shots at a Kanthus, making sure the fucker doesn’t get back up. Carmine sniped Locust that tried to target you. What a guardian angel this kid is. You ducked over cover and reloaded, concrete chips peppering your armor as bullets hailed over your cover. You gave the thumbs up to the hovering Raven and Anthony as they opened fire, devastating the Locust with their Troikas.

     “Twelve O’clock!” Ben yelled as you popped your head over to see a charging grub, its chainsaw revved up and ready. You revved your and charged at him, your blades clashing and grinding against each other. You overpowered him easily, to his horror, as you chopped him partly in half. You took out a frag and stuffed it into the gaping hole before kicking him to his comrades. The grenade ticked twice before exploding, blood splattering on your chest and into the locusts eyes. You picked up the fallen Locust’s Lancer and dual wield, mowing down the Locust into mulch. More started shooting out from the ground, getting mowed by you and the King Raven.

     “These bastards are starting to really piss me-“

     “BRUMAK!” Anthony yelled in the distance. A building collapsed in the distance as the hulking creature walked into the park, its deafening roar shattering the windows of buildings. You dived into cover, shooting down three more drones before reloading. You tapped into the radio, looking at the King Raven.

    “KR Unit 59! Concentrate fire on the hulking asshole on the playing field!” A shriek sent a shiver down your back as two Reavers flew past the Raven, blowing off its back propeller and part of the cockpit. The chopper spun out of control until a third Reaver crashed directly into it, the explosion causing you to cover your eyes. The remains crashed to the floor, the blazing fire the only lightsource in this cold night. “Son of a- Ben fall back to the outpost! Anthony, give us cover fire!”

     “The guns jammed!” Anthony replied on the comms. I swear to god if this kid doesn't learn to reload properly...

     “Fuck it! Ben! RUUUN!” You and your brother ran to the outpost, you backpedalling abit to give cover fire. The gates opened slowly as you and your brother jumped in, shooting at the charging drones as the gate closed. The outpost wasn’t much of a nice place, if you call an abandoned hotel nice. You got up slowly, wincing as you noticed you got grazed on the shoulder. The pain went away completely as Anthony ran down the hotel stairs, telling the civilians to stay calm before looking at you. He went to say something but you shoved a Lancer into his chest, a loud clang as the metal connected.

     “Reload this twenty times in a row.” You grunted, pointing at his face. “If you mess up, start over.” Anthony nodded slowly as he walked over to a bench. Its not that you hated your brother, he is young after all. But Gow damn this kid's got to learn how to reload. COG soldiers comforted the frightened civilians as you pointed at one. He stood up, saluting infront of you.

     “Get upstairs and man one of the Troikas, bring three others with you.” He nodded and turned to his friends, who saluted and ran upstairs.

     “What the hell…” Benjamin mumbled at he looked through the barred windows. He looked through his sniper scope and gasped.

     “Status?” you crouched beside him, flicking the side of his helmet so he pays attention. He glanced over at you.

     “Their retreating…” he said quietly. You look through the window to see the Locust backing down, the Brumak roaring one last time before stomping away. You open up the gate and ran outside, glaring at the retreating grubs through your helmet.

     “You motherfuckers running away? I thought we had something special you and me!” The drones grunted as they retreated, going back into their holes and around the corner. A lone grunt sprinted away, trying to avoid your gaze. You looked through your iron sights and shot at his leg, causing the grub to fall face first into the ground. You chuckled to yourself. Classic humor. As you walked over to is the ground shook, causing you to sprint to the injured grunt.

     “Excuse me sir but you seem injured.” You stepped on its chest getting a low grunt as a response. “Shall a call an ambulance to treat you wound?” The drone laughed, causing you to press harder on its chest. A notable crack makes you stop applying pressure.

     “Mind telling me where this Locust party is?” You asked, the drones grin getting wider. “I seem to have lost my invitation” The drone chuckled. You applied more pressure to his ribs, causing his chuckled to turn into agonizing pain. The ground shook again, a chill running down your spine.

     “What’s so funny!” you yelled bending down and grabbing him by the neck. You slammed him against a wall, a noticeable crack appearing on the buildings wall. The drone tried to speak but you were cutting its air supply. You dropped it to the ground, taking out your Sawed off and pointing it at its head. “Repeat yourself asshole.” The locust coughed before laughing.

     “Your doomed human.” The drone spoke, its deep raspy voice cutting through the cold air. “The Riftworm will claim this city to its rightful owners.” The ground shook violently, the locust’s laugh being downed out as the ground started to split apart.

     “What the FUUUUUUUUU-“ Buildings started crumbling down as the earth beneath your feet started to crumble away. "Holy shit! Holy shit! HOLY SHIIIIIT!"

     “CLAYTON!” Benjamin yelled on the comms. You looked over to the hotel to see it fall down a giant hole, crumbling like it was building blocks. Jacinto started sinking into the ground, buildings clashing with eachother.

     “BENJAMIN!” you yelled, sprinting to the sinking building. “ANTHONY!”

     “Marcus to Carmine! Get out of there!” Felix yelled on your comms. “It’s a giant worm! The Locust are sinking cities with a GIANT WORM!” the floor crumbled under you as you fell into the abyss. As you fell, you noticed a faint purple glow. A voice laughed as two yello eyes appeared in the endless abyss, their red irises looking at you as you fell. You passed a large toothy grin, one tooth larger than the others.

     "Down the rabbit hole you go." It chuckled. "When will it stop? Nobody knows"