Chapter 66: Godslayers
"Welcome to the Inner Hollow boys." I chuckled as we stepped off our various drill pods.
The caves had many bioluminescent light sources, allowing the humans to operate easily underground and without the battle occurring on the rig, Ben's pod wasn't knocked off course, so we didn't have to go find him.
"Aright team, fall in line behind me. We'll have to do a little exploring to find out exactly where we are, but I have a pretty good idea."
"Have the Locust always been down here?" Ben asked as we marched into the depths of the world.
"No." I answered, "They were created by the COG during the Pendulum Wars to serve as a slave army against the Union."
"Are you fucking with us?" Dom demanded with some heat in his voice.
"Think back to all the worst shit that has ever happened to you." I told him, "A COG politician is the proximate cause of ninety percent of it. The research looking into a cure for Rustlung was conducted by a team of scientists with unlimited funding and zero morals and oversight. The project lead was a sadistic psycho who enjoyed the pain his experimentation inflicted on his test subjects, especially children. When his research created the Locust precursors, his team was moved to a secret facility where a 'Splinter Faction' in the COG funded the creation of the Locust. Its fucking bullshit doctored up incase the truth ever came to light. A team of top scientists and all that money and resources don't just vanish and leave everyone scratching their heads and saying 'awe shucks'."
"Sounds like a bad conspiracy theory pushed by the Stranded." Marcus cut in.
"Yeah." Ben agreed, "No way the COG would do something like that."
The kid defended the government his family served faithfully, no surprise there. And it's not like the COG would ever reveal information that would paint them as anything less than stalwart defenders of mankind and its ideals.
"It wasn't the Locust that burned the world, kid." I told them, "But you can be damned sure that they want to kill every man, woman, and child of the human race. They are just as fucked in the head as the people who made them."
We encountered Tai and his squad of red shirts while getting our bearings, the big Samoan didn't get nabbed by the grub general I killed, so no brutal processing for him. We got the order to investigate the source of the unnatural seismic activity, putting us on a collision course with the Rift Worm the Kantus were leading around.
After providing support for Alpha Two across a wide chasm in the tunnel, we caught our first sighting of the great worm.
"What the hell is that thing!" Shouted Ben in fear.
"Rift worm." I answered, "One of three known. They carved out the tunnels under the surface of Sera and their shit is what spawned the subterranean ecosystem. The Locust worship them as gods."
"Well… shit." Marcus stated and spat on the ground.
We pushed a little deeper and came to an area carved out by the Locust. I shot the local Kantus in the mouth to stop his horrendous screeching.
"Fuck those guys." I growled, "Always screaming. Fuck them."
His drones and wretches charged out to avenge him but we killed them too.
Beyond the stone gates they guarded we witnessed a trio of Kantus riding Reavers, leading the Riftworm with their shrieks. I shot them too and the Riftworm crushed their corpses as it continued its charge. Good times.
"Well we found out how the grubs are sinking cities." I chuckled, "Now all we got to do is kill it. Which is impossible from the outside. Should be fairly easy if we can get swallowed by it."
"Dude, don't tempt fate." Dom muttered.
"What will be, will be." Tai said, "But seriously dude, don't be tempting fate like that."
I just grinned at them.
The worm had sunk Ilima City, but human casualties were minor as the city had more than enough time to evacuate. We set off on a rescue mission for a downed Raven gunship that sent up its emergency smoke signal.
The grubs were already sending in mounted forces to search for human survivors. I shot a grub off his Reaver and jumped on it myself, finally getting to pilot one of these disgusting flying squids.
It was glorious.
I cackled like a witch as I rained death upon the grubs.
"I'll secure the pilot!" I told them as I took up into the exposed sky opened up by the sinking of Ilima.
I arrived in time to see him pinned down by the Locust and opened up on them with my double barreled machine gun, tearing them to pieces.
"It's grub on grub violence!" the man shouted as I left him for Delta to pick up.
I hunted down a few more grubs while Delta got to the pilot and met up with my pal Cole.
I landed my big tunnel squid and put the bitch in park as I hopped down and slapped the swole Cole on the back.
"Cole." I grinned, "My friend."
"Grunty." He and I locked down our super secret bestie handshake, "I should have known the big push on the grubs would bring your ass out of that nudist colony your wife set up."
"The destroyed cities and dead grubs are damn easier on the eyes. For sure." I sighed.
"Gotta put her in check, dawg." He shook his head, "Life is too short to be spending it staring at ass crack and nut sack."
"Words to live by, homie." I agreed, "Now let's go save Baird before he gets his ass processed.
Fortunately the missing man was nearby and untortured. A big win considering the speed at which the Locust can turn a strong man into a slab of broken meat begging for the release of death.
"Holy shit am I glad to see you guys." our newly freed blonde engineer/soldier gasped.
"Why are the Locust taking prisoners?" Marcus asked me, "That's never been their MO before."
"They have always been taking prisoners. Just no one told you people so you wouldn't lose morale." I told them, "They take as many as they can. They'll kill you for expediency, but they really want you at their mercy so they can unleash as much of their cruelty and depravity on you as they can. If you are still alive after they are done they'll lobotomize you and use you as a pack mule or a trophy of how much pain they can inflict on a human without killing them. Like a fucked up resume."
"Why?" Ben asked, "Why do all that."
"It's what they were made for." I answered, "Unlimited cruelty, unlimited aggression. If you ever run out of ammo fighting these guys, use your guns as clubs, or fight them with your bayonets or knives. Whatever you do, make them kill you, cause so few people are as lucky as Baird here."
Our ten man unit made our way to one of the Locust floating barges. I got the barge moving easily from the memories of the Therons and soon we were engaging in barge to barge combat as we floated over a bottomless chasm of doom. We took the other barge and I got us docked while the Gears engaged the Locust at the landing zone and pieced them up with ease.
After disembarking Marcus called in the situation and we learned we had an extract zone up ahead with King Ravens in bound.
I loaded up with Tai and his squad and we were up in the air faster than the gunship that picked up Delta. We got a front seat view of Delta's Raven getting swallowed whole by the oncoming Rift Worm.
"You had to jinx us." Tai muttered as he saw his friend Marcus getting eaten.
"A cold keg says they kill that thing from the inside and cut their way out." I grinned.
"I know better than to bet against Marcus." Tai declined the bet.
"Did you know about the beast he hangs between his legs?" I asked him.
"I wish I didn't." The big man shook his head, "I only caught sight of it in my periffs and still have nightmares about it. Never have I wept harder that when I learned he had used that monster on other people. Not even the Locust deserve that."
We met back up with Delta when our Raven was apart of a pair hauling armored vehicles to their location.
The boys were down another Carmine brother and covered in blood. Marcus was screaming at their Jack-bot as Hoffman gave them new orders concerning a declassified COG base and the Locust Queen. His line about everything being on a need to know basis made me smile.
"Remember when I told you guys that all your problems start with COG politicians…" I left off and loaded up onto one of the personnel carriers.
"Did we miss some big reveals? I fucking hate it when I am not around for the big reveals. Its a fucking conspiracy I tell you!" asked Baird as he and Cole looked at Marcus and Dom for answers.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
JManM
JManM I have the premise of the next few arcs of the story down for Brutal Legend, Halo, Xmen Evolution, Alternate Mass Effect, and the MCU.
It is after the MCU that I don't know what to do. I think it is time to start sending him into anime worlds, let me know what worlds and kind of arcs you guys would be interested in after Jack and Grunt have eaten Laufey from the MCU.
You can support me and my family on
ko - fi . com / jmanm
Chapter 67: Nothing Good Beyond
"Welcome to the source of the Locust." I told them as we stepped onto the New Hope Research Facility.
"Why the hell are we even here?" Baird asked, "Couldn't you just lead us to the Nexus?"
"The COG would rather risk the truth getting out than a xeno leading its army into a killzone." I answered using logic.
"Makes sense." Baird agreed, "So what are we going to find here."
"The sires." I told him, "Mutated children made during the research to cure Rustlung. They are the precursors of the Locust."
"For real?" Baird asked.
"Yep." I answered, "And if you guys are lucky, which all observable metrics indicate, then you'll figure out that the facility was moved to Mount Kadar, where the Nexus is now located."
I ended up playing cards with Baird and Cole as we were left to defend the transports while the rest of our nine man team went into the facility.
Fortunately the Locust showed up to kill us in another stunning display of their capacity to predict and head off threats to their objectives.
At least the ride to the mountain was comfier with two of Tai's red shirts killed in action.
The ride into the inner mountain was fun because they let me operate the cannon. The fact that I could nail every target with near AI like precision made the trip smooth sailing. In the depths of the mountain we encountered a group of Stranded living in the Hollow. It was fucking insanity that these people moved towards the Locust for 'safer' conditions. The various groups that did so were already being processed and these people just shrugged and waited their turn.
Marcus sent Cole and Baird back up to the surface with them in a show of compassion that had my stomach turning. I fully believe that some people are too stupid to live, and these people are deeply entrenched in that category.
As we made our way down to the subterranean lake that separated us from the path to the Nexus, Dom noted a little rowboat we could us to cross.
"Fuck that." I declared, "I am taking that in the name of the glorious Krogan Empire."
The Locust showed up in a patrol barge powered by another domesticated and genetically engineered animal. To think that all the various fucked up and handy creatures used by the Locust were made by one guy who reacted to the Locust mutation with a massive increase in intelligence rather than a decrease. The smartest thing the COG ever did was kill him at all cost.
In a burst of speed that would make a Triple Crown winning race horse jealous I leapt onto the barge and sent the crew flying into the lake with golf swings from the Hammer of Might.
The Gears joined me on the barge and I led them down the fastest route to the Nexus.
"Breathe it in boys." I told them as we traversed a section of river sending imulsion fumes into the air, "Rustlung and Lambency."
"Lambency?" asked Tai.
"You spend enough time around imulsion and it will mutate you into a semi-sentient rabid killing machine." I explained, "The Locust are trying to flood the Hollow by sinking Jacinto in an attempt to drown the Lambent and restart their society on the surface as far from the imulsion as they can get."
"Is that why they attacked us on E-Day?" Marcus questioned.
"That, and their nature." I said as we came up to the falls.
"This next part is going to be fun. Hold on tight!" I shouted as we shot off the falls into the pond below.
"They got a big ol' tentacle monster down here." I grinned as I pulled out my Torque bow, "Shoot any of the tentacles that try to pull us under. I'll be ready with the kill shot."
The Gears followed my instruction but the last red shirt got smashed by a tentacle and internally bled to death. When the tentacle beast rose up to take a bite out of our boat I put a high explosive arrow down its throat and turned the back of its head into a fine pink mist.
I took a big breath, "Smells like victory… and sashimi. Fuck I am hungry."
I pulled a bit of lake monster meat off the ship and dug in, surprised when Tai joined me.
"You think I got this big without a big appetite?" He joked with blood in his teeth and took another bite, "Damn this is good."
I nodded my head and added Tai to my mental list of friends for life.
The for of us disembarked the patrol barge and found the highway to the Nexus, but Dom wanted to search for his wife in the opposite direction of the mission.
"That ability to give yourself hope even when the path ahead is at its hardest and darkest." I commented, "I admire that about you. You have a lot of inner strength, Dom. Prepare for hope to die, because nothing good awaits you down this path."
"You don't know that!" He screamed, "Not for sure."
"And that is why I will go with you." I told him with a hand on his shoulder.
"We need to get the beacon planted in the Nexus!" Marcus countered, "In the opposite direction."
Dom shook his head and Tai looked at Marcus in disappointment, "After what you did for your father, I thought you would understand." stated Dom as he turned to leave.
"Fuck…" Marcus signed after taking a few deep breaths, "Dom, wait up."
We didn't find anything good down that path.
"We are going to avenge her like few others have ever been avenged, brother." I told the shaky man who continued the march with us to the Nexus.
"We can sneak in pretty easy." I said and Marcus nodded his head having scouted the path in already, "But why would we do that when there is fury and pain to be unleashed on waiting bodies?"
We locked and loaded and kicked in the metaphorical front door when we began our loud and proud assault on the Locust capital. Myrrah kept up with her PSA's blaring out for her loyal horde while we gunned them down in a blazing trail of glory and blood. When our assault penetrated deeply enough the squad Jack-bot began broadcasting our location to the surface, calling in the cavalry.
Cole and Baird met up with us and we took a gondola to the Queen's Palace. As we penetrated deeper into her territory we encountered the Lambent taking it to the Locust hard and fast.
"Damn." I commented, "If the glowies have made it this far the Locust are fucked."
"What's going on over there?" Marcus asked.
"Lambent are hostile to everything non Lambent." I answered, "Everything is susceptible to Lambency, but the Locust are especially so with their imulsion mutated bodies. The Locust have been loosing the war for survival against them from the start, but if they are here in the palace, then the war is almost over and it will be the human's on the chopping block next."
The solution came in the form of an Adam Fenix audio log located in the Queen's broadcast room. Sink Jacinto and the seawater will drown both the Locust and the Lambent. Command got the intel from their link with the team Jack-bot and began the process of evacuating the last great human city.
They'd have victory no matter the cost.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS
JManM
JManM
Gears 2 should be finished next chapter, and we have hit a hundred thousand words so I am going to start posting on Fanfiction . net. I doubt the responce there will be even half as good as it has been here, but who knows. I might pick up a few more people willing to donate.
I did some research on Pokemon, specifically Machamp because I think Grunt plus four arms would be sick. Apparently Machamp can push the weight of a mountain with one hand and throw five hundred punches a second.
That pokemon would turn the MCU Hulk, Thor, and Thanos into paste in under a second. The fact that pokemon can survive enounters with that level of dps is mind boggling.
I didn't think Jack and Grunt would have a problem in Pokemon, but apparently that world is hard as fuck.
You can support me and my family at
ko - fi . com / jmanm
Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
2 Power
stone You may also Like
Paragraph comment