Operation: Hollow Storm

PFC. Raymond Evans

Evans looked at the lieutenant wide-eyed. "Sir, if I may ask, how are you not dead? In packs wretches are highly lethal, I'm surprised you survived long enough for your CO to get to you to you. You are either very lucky or someone is fucking looking out for you."

He was truly amazed that Lt. Rhodes was still standing. He thought to himself: if he ever met the medic assigned to Rhode's team on that day, he'd have to congratulate him.

"I've seen some gruesome stuff growing up as a doctor's assistant, but the sight of a man with half his face ripped off sounds like any medic's worst nightmare."

Lt. Waylan Rhodes

"Well, I guess I'm lucky my medic was a Pendulum War Vet. That old man stitched me up real nice. Fantastic fucking doctor in my book. And, goddamn, he was one of hell of a soldier, too. Unfortunately, he died a couple of years into the war," Lt. Rhodes replied, again somberly shaking his head before breaking into a smirk.

"Damn grubs..." Pvt. Fillmore said lowly, digging through each and everyone of his pouches as if he had lost something.

"Oh, no. It wasn't the Locust. His heart simply gave out," Lt. Rhodes clarified leading to a surprised stare from Fillmore and York. Waylan smiled, looking at them both, and very plainly said, "Yeah, we tend to forget how easy it is to die. Can't escape it, can't cure it, but we sure as hell can delay it."

"Huh... Ah, here it is," Pvt. Fillmore muttered to himself, unveiling a small photograph of his family before pressing against lips. Noticing that everyone was looking at him, Fillmore simply smiled, turned the photo's face to everyone, and explained, "It's my family. That's my wife, Vera, and those two are my little girls, Clair and Celina. They're my good luck charm."

Lt. Rhodes leaned in, closer examining the photo, before happily replying, "Hm. Well, I am impressed, Deckard."

"Yeah, I'm impressed that they're not at all as ugly as you. In fact, they're very cute." Pvt. York remarked in a snarky tone of voice.

"Thanks, asshole," Pvt. Fillmore responded without a hint of anger in his voice. Having known York for about three years now, Fillmore understood that he could be a sarcastic jackass.

"Omega-Two, this is KR Two-Seven, RADIO CHECK, OVER?" The distorted voice of the KR Pilot chattered in through the Omega-Two's comms.

"We read you loud and clear, KR Two-Seven. Let's get this bird flying." Lt. Rhodes responded, setting his comm device more comfortable in his ear, before testing communications with the Centaur crew. "Nila, how do you read?"

"Wow, Waylan, you should probably ask your preschool teacher that question. I really can't believe you don't know how to read," SSgt. Farris replied, chuckling at her own childish joke, as Lt. Rhodes lightly face-palmed. She then decided to be a little more professional. "Yeah, we're reading you loud and clear, Waylan. Try to keep me an' the boys covered now, ya hear?"

"Yeah, I hear ya. Try not to smother everyone with that oversized ego of yours. I know how cramped it can get being in a tank with you," Waylan responded with a sly smirk as the Raven lifted off. "See ya at the rendezvous point."

_________________________________________________________________________________________


SSgt. Nila Farris
The Road to Landown

The Centaur Tank pulls into a mass of mechanical behemoths. The COG formally calls them "Assault Derricks", the Gears informally call them "Rigs", and the trucker-like conscripts hired to drive them have simply named them after a special lady-friend. Nila parked the Centaur directly in front of Rig D28 as KR Two-Seven flew overhead.

Awaiting the order to commence the Assault on Landown, Nila glanced back at her crew and said, "Alright, boys, this is probably gonna be the bumpiest ride of your lives, so try not to bang your head against the ceiling, okay?"

Shifting her view towards Mac and Rikter's stations, she went on to say, "Boys, you two have a big role here. Try not to muck it up, okay? Because I really wanna see Gears having a grub barbecue on the drive back, so try to roast as many as you can!"

Cpl. Jaden MacNamara

Jaden leaned forward and reached over the seat, grabbing Rikter by the shoulder "Hey man. It's all on us. So like, try to aim straight, okay Sarge? Safety off, only point at things you don't like being alive, squeeze don't pull, you know all that right? I really don't wanna die just because no one mentioned that you sucked at aiming this thing."

Mac turned to his side and looked deeply concerned towards Cpl. Phillips "Seph. Look. If I die somehow, you're not allowed to take my spot reloading the gun. Seriously. I'll do it while I'm dead. I just don't want you trying to do my job. It makes me look bad." He finally looked at the Staff Sergeant: "And now I've said my peace, here's my last request."

Jaden tried his best to make puppy dog eyes, and clasped his hands in a faux pleading gesture "Sarge. If we make it through this," He could barely keep himself from laughing, "...can I ride the Farris wheel? Just once?"

SSgt. Nila Farris

The Centaur's cabin erupted into laughter after hearing Mac's proposition. Malvo was so cracked up by the joke that he began violently shaking Jaden's shoulders while saying, "You're the fucking the man, Mac! I fucking love you, brother!"

Nila simply looked forward, lightly beat the back of her head against the chair, and in a defeated tone of voice said, "Seventeen... Seventeen," Her tone then turned sinister as she creaked her head back toward Jaden, "Mac, you are the seventeenth person to say that to me within the last two weeks. The last two weeks. Now, for the sake of the mission, I'm going forgive you, but if you ever bring it up again, I will either deck you across the mouth or shoot you in the knee. Depends on how I'm feeling at the time."

She then pulled her head back forward, feeling that her warning resonated with Mac, and said, "Just so you know, Mac, you would've had a better shot if you asked in any other way, but, no, you took the low road. By the way, don't you have a wife? You should be ashamed!"

An eerie silence filled the Centaur. Everyone was either too afraid to speak or too apathetic to care. Suddenly, Nila wheels back once more, gets right up in Mac's face and says, "I'm just fuckin' with ya, Mackie! I bloody fucking love that joke! I know you meant nothing by it." Her grin was practically gleaming despite the dark lighting within the tank.

Sgt. Michael Rickter


All Rikter could do was snort at the Corporal's inappropriate joke. Rikter wasn't laughing at the joke though; he snorted because he knew that Nila got rather crazy and dark every time someone made that joke or some version of it. He had been around Nila long enough to see more than a few people make that joke, too.

Had Rikter's eyes not been glued to the now online targeting screen, he probably would have participated in the group's reactions to Nila's banters. But Rikter was zoned in. Locked in. His mind was now stuck on one thing and one thing only: kill Locust.

Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on! COME ON!!

Rikter wanted them to come. He wanted to see them, shoot them, kill them. He wanted them to pour endlessly from over the mountainsides and rocks. He wanted to fight. He wanted to maim them, wound them, torture them, torch them, blow them to bits of Locust guts and bone, and he wanted them to try to do the same to him. Rikter wanted an infinite horde of them to show up right now. He needed it.

Cpl. Jaden MacNamara

Jaden practically ignored Farris and the boys' reactions, instead listening to see how Rikter reacted. And he snorted. The Sergeant fucking snorted.

Mac had wanted to gauge the man's reaction, to see if the guy would laugh, if he could bond with Jaden or hell, anyone for that matter. And he fucking snorted. What a prick. This guy was completely incapable of socializing with his fellows on any kind of normal human level.

A Gear is a brother.

What kind of brother won't even fake a laugh for the same of looking like a normal, non-psychotic human being? Jaden leaned forward to chastise the Sergeant, to tell him he was a piece of shit. But he stopped when he saw Rikter staring intently at the targeting system. Eyes waiting for any sign of grub movement.

Jaden could see in the man's eyes that all he wanted was blood and death, and had to admit: as long as that attitude was directed toward the bad guys... Rikter was a brother. Maybe. At least while there were grubs to kill.

But no one said Jaden had to like his brothers.

Lt. Waylan Rhodes

Peering out the right side of the Raven, the lieutenant could see the Centaur Tank leading Rig D28 Marilyn through heavily forested path along the mountainside. The thought that the Locust could be waiting in the forest, setting up ambushes, crossed Waylan's mind and slightly concerned him, but the lieutenant knew it was wiser to conceal his fears for the sake of Omega-Two.

At that moment, Waylan glanced over at his new spotter, PFC. Alexandria Rothschild. She was one of the younger Gears like Evans, those that were just kids on E-Day, the ones that had to grow too fast. Still, the older Gears would refer to them as "kids." Having read Alex's dossier, the lieutenant knew she lost far more than just her childhood. The poor girl's mother starved herself to death, her brother, David, was killed sometime after signing up, and she has since then lost contact with both her father and her other brother, Michael.

Family, it's what keeps many soldiers going. The loss of it can either destroy a Gear completely or harden their will to survive. In Alex's case, she's opted to be one of the survivors.

From what the lieutenant read in her training report, she excelled immensely in long range weaponry, but she took a beating when it came to close-combat situations. As a sniper himself Lt. Rhodes understood the feeling, but he also understood that she would need to adapt quickly if the time came. He prayed it wouldn't.

For the last hour she had kept mostly to herself tinkering with her Longshot Rifle, practicing reloading, and adjusting the sights. She hadn't said much of anything as far the day went. Perhaps, her mind was wandering on about the coming mission or maybe even her family.

Just as the lieutenant was thinking all this, Pvt. York broke out of his pointless rambling with Fillmore to look at Alex and say, "Hey, Sexy? I got a barrel you can polish when your done over there. It's a Longshot too."

Suddenly, Lt. Rhodes gave York an almost demonic-like death stare before angrily replying, "Watch your tongue, soldier! I wouldn't wanna have to cut it off and throw it out the Raven."

"Yeesh," York responded before looking back at Fillmore to say, "I told you I'd say it, dick. Now, give me your smokes."

As Fillmore handed the cigarettes over, York looked back at both Alex and the LT and apologized, "Sorry about that, Alex. You too, LT. I have an addiction. Can't really help it sometimes."

"Yeah, well just remember this girl is gonna be your guardian angel, so try not to piss her off. I hear she's a crack shot." The lieutenant responded mildly pissed off.

Ravens were loud beasts, that much was certain. Alex could hardly hear herself over the din of the chopper, especially since she had removed her helmet once she got on, but she was sure able to hear York's lewd comments, and then the Lieutenant's rebuttal. She smiled, and heard their banter for a bit, before responding herself.

"Don't worry about it, lieutenant, I've heard much worse things from much better looking people." She smirked, before turning back to her gun, before examining the nature that flew below her. She always appreciated a bit of beautiful scenery, though there wasn't much left of it nowadays. "You're too kind, Lieutenant." She then said, once more, in a cheery tone of voice, referring to the Lieutenant's bestowal of the Guardian Angel title unto her. "I wouldn't say crack shot. Hell," She turned to look at the two privates who had made the sexual remarks. "I'd even wager that I'd miss a few when these two are around." She playfully winked at them. "I don't think we've officially met. I'm Alex, Private First Class." She said to York and Fillmore. "I know that you're York, and you're Fillmore, right?" She asked. She wasn't the best with names.

After they had responded, she turned back towards the Lieutenant. She was going to say, Playful little bunch, aren't they?, but she decided that she would stow it away for now. Instead, she turned the subject matter onto more important issues. "Lieutenant, where do you think the Locust'll hit us? I don't exactly want to be blown to oblivion by a Nemacyst before I get to kill some of the bastards."

Lt. Waylan Rhodes

Pvt. Fillmore smiled at Alex and responded, "Yeah, Fillmore, you got it. Listen I'm real sorry about that joke. I really didn't think York would be stupid enough to say it. I just want to let you know I'm not a bad guy."

"Oh, you are bad guy, Fillmore. You're just the quiet kind of bad," York snidely stated as he lit up his first smoke of the day.

"Sure, yeah, whatever. At least I'm not a chain-smoking dipshit like you," Pvt. Fillmore retorted.

"Fuck off, man. A lung disease is the least of my worries. I'm more concerned about getting shot, blown the fuck up, or eaten by some bug freak.

"Do I need to start separating you two?" Lt. Rhodes asked, genuinely curious about their relationship towards one another.

"No, sir. It may not look like it right now, but me and Fillmore actually work very well together," Pvt. York responded, blowing out a puff of smoke, as Fillmore nodded in agreement.

The lieutenant simply shrugged and looked back at Alex as she asked her question. "Lieutenant, where do you think the Locust'll hit us? I don't exactly want to be blown to oblivion by a Nemacyst before I get to kill some of the bastards."

"Yeah, I know the feeling," Lt. Rhodes replied, "Well, I'm no grub tactician, but If I were I'd probably lay ambush beyond somewhere within the forest or around next mountain. No telling how many grubs they'd be using though. Although, if and when they do show up, they're definitely gonna be using Brumaks, Corpsers, Seeders, and Nemacysts. So, I'm going to assume they have somewhere around ten shitloads."

"Really, LT? That's your estimate? Ten shitloads?" York responded sarcastically, "See, I was thinking something like five fuck-tons, but no you're probably right."

Shrugging off York's comment, Lt. Rhodes glared directly back into Alex's almond-shaped eyes and asked, "So, Alex, you're ready for this right? The grubs aren't just gonna lay down and die for us, we're gonna have to persuade them. You think you'll be able to convince 'em?"

"Don't worry, man, the two of you'll have a number of chances to make it up to me in the coming weeks." She winked at Fillmore again. After listening to the two of them banter some more, she decided she liked them. "You know, the two of you are like little puppies. All bark, no bite, and you never shut up." She smiled in a friendly fashion, before turning back to the Lieutenant, and adopting a more serious tone.

"Of course, sir. I don't think anything's more convincing to some scaly-skinned motherfucker than one of these." She pulled one of the Longshot's bullets off of her left shoulder bandolier, and nodding towards it. She opened the bolt of the Longshot like she'd been using it for a decade before kissing the bullet once, and inserting it into the rifle.

"Ten shitloads?" Alex repeated, turning back towards the two Gears in the helicopter. She scoffed, and then pretended to do some mental math. "Ten shitloads is roughly equal to... Carry the five, put the decimal there... One metric fuckton, Private, if you want the exact number. You know, considering if you take a fuckton as a literal ton of people, you've only got about thirteen and a half. So, realistically, a fuckton isn't that much. I mean, even if you do take five metric fucktons of Locust, we'd be facing about sixty five, sixty seven of the Drones, at most." Alex shrugged. "Nothing me and my trusty Longshot can't handle." She chuckled.

Lt. Waylan Rhodes/SSgt. Nila Farris

The lieutenant snickered after listening to Alex's response. Her lighthearted attitude reminded him of the Staff Sergeant. Both of the women seemed to have an optimistic view on life and a slightly flirtatious personality. Believing that most of the female Gears worked hard to earn their place in the COG military, Waylan treated them with as much respect, if not more, as his fellow Gear brothers.

Just as Lt. Rhodes was about to speak up, a loud, frantic voice came over the comms system, "NEMACYSTS! LOOK OUT!"

Suddenly a barrage of mortars, Nemacysts, and Reavers began raining hellfire down upon the convoy. Nila sped up the Centaur in attempt to avoid a direct hit. In panicked tone she began spouting out orders, "Rikter! Shoot the Reavers and anything that gets in our way! Try to protect the Rigs! Mac, make sure Rikter stays fully stocked! Waylan, give us some goddamn covering fire!"

"I'm on it!" Waylan replied, grabbing hold of the Raven's right chain gun and firing at the oncoming Reavers and Nemacysts. "Evans! Get on the left gun and shoot down anything that gets too close! Everyone else, give the Centaur and the Rigs some covering fire!" The lieutenant ordered.

As Alex heard the reports and saw the chaos erupt around her, a spike of fear jabbed upwards from her gut into her belly, and her mouth became dry. She suppressed her desire to scream and as the Nemacysts flew around her, she felt completely helpless. "Lieutenant, what do you want me to do?" She asked.

It wasn't her first time seeing Locust, but it was the first time that she had been targeted by them. She wanted to throw up, but she knew that if she did she would never be able to live it down. If I ever set foot on the ground alive again. She grimaced, waiting for the Lieutenant's response.

PFC. Raymond Evans

As soon as the Lieutenant's order reached his ears, Evan's eyes narrowed. This was his first chance to prove himself and he was ready. He grabbed the chain gun with a leaping motion and got into position. But he quickly realized that is was heavier than he expected, almost too heavy to aim. With all his strength he pulled on the handles and pivoted it on it's stand to aim towards the Nemacysts.

He pulled the trigger and there was a slight delay before hundreds of bullets went flying. The sound was loud and distracting but he kept focus and shot down anything that got too close while attempting to avoid losing grip or hitting his allies.

"Son of a bitch!" He yelled as one Nemacyst got too close before he shot it down. He thought to himself that there must be dozens of them around and that Rikter and MacNamara must be having hell trying to clear the flying targets.

Sgt. Michael Rikter


Rikter lurched forward suddenly as Nila sped up the vehicle. He had his eyes shut tight as he was thrown forward and then, just as violently and quickly, thrown back into his seat. When Rikter was finally settled, he gripped the operating sticks and opened his eyes up towards the targeting monitor - a dark gleam appeared on his eyes, foreshadowing great and furious violence. 

He aimed the main cannon towards the nearest landed Reaver and, almost experimentally, squeezed the triggers. A round fired from the cannon's barrel faster than the speed of light in Rikter's mind. A bright and wondrous explosion went off below the Reaver's "legs," and it was to Rikter as a shooting star is to a small child. Half of the creature's legs either went flying or were vaporized, and the Reaver fell over awkwardly to the ground.

"Yes," Rikter said - no, whispered. 

Rikter fired off another, this time directed towards the fallen monster's body. It was obliterated in a glorious sphere of fire and brimstone. "Yes," Rikter said a bit more loudly this time.

Another explosion, a group of dead grubs. "Yes," Rikter said far more loudly.

One more and a Reaver falls from the sky. "Yes!" Rikter shouted.

Another round upon the broken body of the grub that was riding the last Reaver. "Yes! Yes!" Rikter shouted on.

A shot fired off and missed, flying over another group of grubs and hitting nothing. "NO!" Rikter shouted angrily.

Another shot aimed towards the group again and another group of dead grubs. Another and another. More shots. Becoming ceaseless and endless. "Yes! Yes! Yes! YES! YES! OH GOD! YES! FUCKING YES! YESYESYESYESYESYES!!!!"

Lt. Waylan Rhodes/SSgt. Nila Farris

"Lieutenant, what do you want me to do?" Alex asked.

As the lieutenant fired relentlessly at the oncoming Nemacysts, he yelled back to Alex, "Just fucking fire at anything that gets too close to the Centaur! We can't afford to lose it!"

Lowering the altitude of the Raven, the KR Pilot buzzed in over the radio, "Somebody get a fix on those Seeders before they land a shot on us!" Right at that moment, the King Raven flying left of KR Two-Seven spun out of control after taking a direct hit from a Reaver missile to its main rotor system. The Reaver then double-backed in pursuit of KR Two-Seven. Taking notice of this, the pilot rotated the Raven ninety degrees to the left opening up a window for Evans to take the shot.

"Left side! Left side! Reaver! Take 'em out!" The pilot ordered, the panic in his voice sure to send Raymond's heart racing into a trembling fright.

As if things couldn't get any worse, two more Reavers descended upon the Centaur, both of them landing on either side of the Centaur. "Fucking shit! Rikter, right side! Waylan, take out the one the left!" Nila shouted.

"I can't! Too many fucking Nemacysts flying at us! Alex, fire at that Reaver down there! Try to hit the pilots!" Lt. Rhodes ordered.

Cpl. Jaden MacNamara

Jaden calmly waited as Rikter fired the the initial six shots. One by one they hit home, save the last. Mac may have had some smart comment to mouth off about the round flying too high over a group of locust, but the internal magazine ran dry.

Rikter has already moved to aim his next shot, so there was no time to waste. Jaden slammed the breech open and loaded the shells into the magazine as fast as possible, barely slamming the breech closed again as Rikter squeezed the triggers on his next shot.

Almost as if in reaction to the shot he missed, Rikter seemed to zone in and nail every shot. They came ceaselessly, Mac could hear the Sergeant screaming in bloodlust even over the sounds of the cannon firing and Mac's own ears ringing.

Breech open, load the rounds before Rikter tried to shoot again, breech closed. Repeat. Over and over. Jaden briefly had time inbetween reloads to wonder what would happen first, they ran out of ammo, or he botched the process.

He quickly found out. Loading in the last round of this mag, Jaden fumbled the shell and clumsily slid it in, burning his hand on the metal rim of the breech. Jaden recoiled, hissing out a loud curse. Seph quickly slammed the breech closed in his stead.

Sgt. Michael Rikter

"YEHEHEHEHESSS!!!" Rikter shouted with laughter mixed in as he fired off one of the new rounds upon a squad of grubs.

"Fucking shit! Rikter, right side! Waylan, take out the one the left!"

Rikter damn near broke the operating sticks as he jerked them towards the directed target. Another Reaver. Aim at the pilot this time, Rikter. Right on his fucking head, yeah, that's it. Fire.

Another round blasted through the barrel and straight towards the bug-pilot's face. It collided with the force of a collapsing star into the grub's skull, but it didn't explode like Rikter wanted. The round went flying off behind the Locust's body, taking the grub's head with it. 

"SHITFUCK!" the ballistic-archer shouted in frustration. It all went in slow motion for Rikter as the pilot's body began to fall backwards upon the Reaver's back. Blow him up before he falls, Rikter thought, giving himself a kind of gore-based challenge. FIRE NOW!


"AARRGH!!!" the man screamed and re-aimed the cannon appropriately. Rikter squeezed the triggers again and another round went flying out of the barrel. This time, it flew right into the dead grub's armor and had enough resistance to explode. The grub's body vaporized and the top half of the Reaver's body exploded violently to become a fountain of blood and gore.

PFC. Raymond Evans

Evans turned his rail gun hard and slammed the trigger down. Bullets went flying as he tried to keep it on target. He sprayed hundreds of bullets down range in seconds hoping that he hit the damned thing.

After a second he realized his eyes were closed and upon opening them he realized the Reaver was no longer there. He looked down and saw its mangled body laying on the ground.

"Fuck yes!" he yelled before swinging the gun around and continuing to fire at the enemy swarm. "Got him Lieutenant!" he said with a tone of accomplishment in his voice.

Once being told to fire upon the Reavers, Alex put her helmet over her face, finding the Reaver visually, before aiming through the scope of her weapon. The bulky standard-issue helmets that the CoG Gears were supplied with were awful for snipers; they were hard to see through, thick, heavy, hot, and completely eliminated the periphery of the user. But they did provide certain amounts of protection in battle situations, and we can't have this pretty face going to shit so soon after it gets fun, Alex thought, realizing that, somewhat weirdly, her sense of humour didn't disappear during stressful situations.

The Reaver was a fast beast, and even for an experienced marksman, it would be hard to hit a fast-moving, relatively small target from a similarly fast-moving and unstable craft, but, having been ordered to by her commanding officer, she had no real choice. "Here goes." She said under her breath, sighting one of the fast beasts within her Longshot's cross hairs. She held her breath, aiming for the pilot of the monster, seeing his yellow, razor-toothed smile in her scope before squeezing the trigger.

The instant she did so, however, the King Raven moved itself slightly to the side, throwing off Alex's aim completely, the Longshot's bullet impacting relatively harmlessly into one of the Reaver's multitude of tentacles. "FUCK" Alex exclaimed, frustrated, but wasting no time in reloading her rifle. The way she did so could be considered a work of art. From the unlatching of the bolt to the re-latching was less than one and a half seconds. In a single fluid motion, she pulled the rifle's bolt up and then back, calmly taking the resistance in order for the rifle not to jam, like it occasionally did if one was rough with the bolt. She saw the shell of the failed bullet fly out of the barrel through the force of the unlatching of the bolt, falling into the oblivion of the battlefield below. Without pausing, she pulled another bullet out from the bandolier on her shoulder pad, not bothering to kiss it, before calmly inserting the round into the rifle and re-latching the bolt in the same way she had unlatched it.

One point six seconds. Alex thought to herself, before grunting. Re-sighting her target, she continued to quietly criticize herself. You've done it in one point four before. That could mean the difference between a Gear's life or death. The Reaver had swung around, trying desperately to avoid the gunfire that was being almost literally poured at it from both the ground and the sky. This one's mine. She thought grimly, looking into her scope, and holding her breath. As she heard her heart beat, she relaxed herself, closed her eyes, and squeezed the trigger. Perhaps through an act of the Gods, the King Raven stayed still and the Longshot's bullet flew true, right into the skull of the skilled Reaver pilot. Opening her eyes she saw the satisfying spurt of deep red blood from the stump of what used to be the head of a Locust pilot. Fuck, that's satisfying. She thought to herself, wasting no time in loading in another shot, watching as the Reaver who had lost its pilot began to spiral uncontrollably towards the ground.

Lt. Waylan Rhodes/SSgt. Nila Farris

"Yeah, great fucking shot, Evans, but we still got Nemacysts buzzing all around us!" The lieutenant replied, taking note of the young soldier's skill, as Waylan continued to fire endlessly into the grub-speckled sky. Waylan realized that putting a physically weaker Gear on a high-powered chain gun may have not been the best call and prayed the boy wouldn't fuck it up for the crew.

SSgt. Farris floored the Centaur in reverse, evading a direct shot to the cockpit, as Rikter sent the drone's head flying into the distance. This proved to be a troublesome maneuver causing the tank to back straight into the Rig, near about steamrolling the entire squad had the the conscript driver not halted, which then allowed Nila to pump the tank back into the forward gear. Over the radio chatter, Nila could hear one of the Gears aboard Marylin comment on how stupid her actions were. She had half a mind to argue back at the man had there not been explosions and gunfire going off all around them.

Thankfully, Alex managed to put down the Reaver blocking the Centaur's left path. Eyes widened with a slight smirk, Lt. Rhodes was stunned to see Alex pull off such a shot. For a rookie, the girl had more skill than the lieutenant anticipated.

Meanwhile, Pvt. Gallagher stared out of a medium-sized hole, ripped open in the back of the Centaur by Nila's sloppy maneuver, before announcing, "Uh... Ni, we have a bit of a problem back here. There's a fucking hole in the tank! We really need to get this patched up before a Theron fires a torque bow in here!"

"Shit! Okay, I'm coming back there, Seymour! Get the welding torch ready! Mac, come over here and drive this damn thing! Malvo, take over for Mac!" Nila quickly rotated to the back of the tank, briefly stopping next to Jaden to say, "Try not to run us down a E-hole, will ya?"

Cpl. Jaden MacNamara

"Try not to run us down a E-hole, will ya?"

Jaden scoffed as he crawled into driver's seat, grabbing the controls and resuming the Centaur's forward movement, trying to stay in formation. "Hey, goddamnit, I'm not the one who backed us into a rig! My driving skills aren't the ones in question, boss lady!"

Mac quickly abandoned his original strategy of staying in proper formation with the Rig for a more practical approach of maneuvering into any position that gave Rikter a clear shot at the baddies, and kept the whole Centaur from ending up as flaming debris.

He was surprised, as heavy as the damn tank was, with as many men as were in it, it responded well to the controls, and he quickly felt more comfortable with it. Right in time for an E-hole to bust open just feet infront of the tank.

"Shit! Grab onto something!" Mac slammed on the brake and forced the steering controls to the side, power sliding the tank just to the right of the hole. He looked back over his shoulder and could see straight through the hole in the tank and see the emerging grubs.

Jaden had a thought. It could work, but... "Fuck it, bad idea incoming!" Jaden grabbed a bolo grenade from Sgt. Rikter's gear, and armed it. "Farris, get your fucking head down!" The Corporal hurled the grenade as hard as he could out of the hole in the tank, straight into the chest of a grub. The tagged Locust stumbled from the force of impact and fell backwards into the E-hole, and Jaden hammered the gas, pulling the Centaur away before the hole sealed.

"Okay. Uh. That happened. Everyone okay?" Mac blurted out nervously, starkly aware that he almost got his own team killed about twice in thirty seconds flat.

Sgt. Michael Rikter


Rikter craned his neck to turn his head back towards the Corporal. "Yeah, MacNamara, other than almost killing everyone, we're completely fine. Also, I am not a fucking supply crate!" Rikter said. He didn't seem quite as angry as the last confrontation -- not like he was before the battle started. Even though he was currently paying attention to Jaden, it seemed like his anger was focused elsewhere. 

"You owe me a grenade," the Sergeant said before turning back towards the targeting systems and gripping the control sticks. "Someone take the wheel and get us back en route with the rest of the convoy."

Rikter didn't say anything else after that. He kept his eyes fixated on the targeting screen -- waiting for the enemy and hoping that his reload team could continue to keep up with him when the combat renewed.

Lt. Waylan Rhodes/SSgt. Nila Farris

Nila merely glanced at Mac with disconcerted face before saying, "Are you fucking insane, Mac?! I mean I'm fucking stunned that worked, but please don't lob grenades past my head like that! You could have killed everyone in here!"

Pvt. Gallagher attempted to calm the staff sergeant down, telling her to just focus on the job at hand, before picking up the welding tool and advised everyone to look away from the light or put their helmets on.

About twenty minutes passed on by before the convoy reached what appeared to be a bomb-shelled wasteland. Nila and Seymour were just about done with the repairs, having sealed over the hole with few layers of heavy steel, as the Centaur slowly traversed the battered landscape. Suddenly, the land began to shake violently and the sounds of a thousand roars carried over the mountains as an army of viscous subterranean monsters came charging out of the Hollow.

The lieutenant eyed over the massive Locust army, gritting his teeth together, before shouting into his comm link, "You got grubs all over the place down there! Hundreds of them! All over the place! Don't let 'em latch onto the Rigs!"

Lt. Rhodes ordered Pvt. York to take his place on the right chain gun before motioning towards the back of the Raven. Sitting down next to Alex, Lt. Rhodes handed the girl some extra Longshot ammo before saying, "Make every shot count, Alex. There's plenty of targets to choose from down there, but focus on the ones that get to close to the Centaur or Rigs and keep an eye out for Boomers. We don't want them rocking our boys down there."

Waylan then turned his attention towards PFC. Evans and said, "Evans, now would be a good time to trade places with Fillmore if you're sick of firing the chain gun. Your choice! Make it snappy!"

Cpl. Jaden MacNamara

Jaden's head spun as half the centaur cursed at him, but only his superiors words seemed to stick out:

"Are you fucking insane, Mac?!'

"Yeah, MacNamara,"

I mean I'm fucking stunned that worked,

"we're completely fine."

"but please don't lob grenades past my head like that!"

"Also, I am not a fucking supply crate!"

"You could have killed everyone in here!"

"You owe me a grenade,"

After a few moments Pvt. Gallagher grabbed Nila's attention, refocusing her on welding the hole in the tank, with Rikter returning his attention to the targeting systems. Mac was grateful for the quiet, and sat for nearly the next twenty minutes silently contemplating the stupidity of his actions. He also noted that it was probably best to not bother mentioning that he had absolutely no practical experience as a tank pilot.

As long as he didn't fuck up again, and nothing went horribly wrong, everything would be perfectly fine right?

Mac grit his teeth as the ground rumbled, shaking the tank. He glanced over at Rikter "Do you feel...?" The battle cries of the locust could be heard even over the tanks engine and the grounds shaking. Mac cursed as he saw the flood of grubs, like so many fucking ants pouring out from the ground.

Mac abandoned the formation just to keep from driving straight down an E-hole, the sounds of grub bones being crushed under wheel were sickening to him. It made him want to throw up.

The Centaur's weight shifted drastically to one side. Mac fought to keep the tank from peeling off course "Fuck, they're on the tank!"

Sgt. Michael Rikter

"Fuck, they're on the tank!"

Rikter smirked to himself and his grip on the gun's control sticks tightened. "Fuck yes they are," he said under his breath and tilted the control sticks all the way to the right. The tank's gun immediately responded and began to spin 360 degrees. There were a couple of thuds heard from above the tank as the barrel of the gun slammed into a couple of the Locust grunts that had boarded.

"Someone take the gun!" Rikter shouted with a grin plastered on his face. He pulled himself out of the gun's control chair and grabbed his scorcher. Rikter made his way to the middle of the tank and cracked open the entrance hatch.

With another opening in the tank, the sounds of battle poured in and mixed with the cacophony that already existed inside.  Rikter pulled himself out of the tank and braced his body against the entryway's frame. His grin became wider when he saw several Locust pulling themselves up the tank. Rikter took aim with his flamethrower and unleashed a stream of hell-fire on his enemies.