Bab 65: Hollow Storm

I arrived at my rendezvous location with Jack, but instead of a Stranded encampment I found a scrap fortress with buff dudes in red clothes and sports gear guarding it.

"No way." I stood in awe, "She couldn't have possibly done this in one weekend."

The gate guards saluted me with shouts of 'the Legate has returned!' and I moved through the fortress seeing more men dressed in red and sporting equipment drilling younger naked men furiously. The naked men performed vigorous calisthenics as well as practice drills with makeshift spears and machetes.

All around the area, men used the local rubble and scrap to create more and more fortifications and hard points within the fort itself. These murder boxes would do far more to counter Locust insurgents than walls ever could.

Every man I saw without a baseball helmet and sunglasses on had a shaved head and a thousand yard stare, and the raw number of men here was mind boggling. Jack had left with a crew of a dozen who worked as scrappers for a tribe of just over fifty including women and children, yet there were hundreds of adult males at this location.

At the center of the fort stood a large tent where I found Jack sitting on a mobile yet comfortable throne in a red dress with a bearskin hung over her shoulders and a gold chain with a heavy medallion dangling temptaciously between her heavy breasts.

"How the fuck did you make these people into Cesear's Legion?" I asked her as she smirked, "I was only gone for two days."

"Sounds like you're doubting my hustle." she grinned, "It was a lot of work conquering all the local Stranded Tribes and whipping the best of them into something worth leading, but I did it. And I did it in style."

"Please stop." I begged, "I can only become so erect!"

I spent the next three and a half months leading Jack's Legion. The first thing I did was lead scrapper teams along the path of Delta's devastation, gathering the massive amounts of guns, ammo, and armor left behind during the Lightmass offensive. It was a damn good choice as we soon needed those guns when the remaining Locust attacked the surface in their desperate bid at both revenge and escaping the Lambent. The COG lost territory daily, drawing back to the bedrock of Jacinto, and the Stranded started heading our way en masse.

No one knew how to break a man down and forge him into twisted steel better than me and Jack. In ninety days we had turned over two thousand men from desperate lawless and oftentimes gutless savages into stoic brutal killing machines. When the Locust came to attack us we thanked them for bringing us more guns and ammo and armor.

Soon I was leading platoons into the hollows to hunt down the grubs before and after attacks on our rapidly expanding fort. After a recruit finished his training he would earn the right to wear clothes and would quickly be blooded against the Locust. After his first kill he would be allowed into the female camps, and each kill after allowed return trips.

New comers complained only briefly about being stripped of their freedom and segregated by sex, but the older Legionaries quickly beat that out of them. Obedience, Discipline, Survival. Jack and I never subscribed to that bullshit about losing your humanity for the sake of victory. Humanity gets your species extinct. When all that is left of the world is ash and rubble and enemies it is time to start making sacrifices to ensure the survival of the species. The COG sure as hell couldn't do it, so we would.

Men fight and scavenge and build, women grow and raise children. If you are not participating in one of those activities then you are part of the problem. I only had to discipline a platoon once. All forty men presented themselves in their ten man squads, drew lots and the two short lots in ten were beaten to death by the other eight.

Most of those young men now wear refitted Theron Guard armor as elite Praetorians of the Legion.

For myself, I resized and reinforced RAAM's armor, mounted an underslung shotgun to his double barrel machine gun and forged some larger magazines for it, as well as reworked the receiver of a COG sniper rifle to take custom made ten round magazines and operate as a semi automatic weapon. I kept the revolvers as is. They kick ass, were made for huge hands, and made me feel cowboy as fuck.

Slowly but surely we were gaining ground against a world that just wanted to kill us all.

At the end of the Harvest month, Dom and Marcus came to the fort on a King Raven. We may have beaten the weakness out of the men of Jack's Legion, but we didn't beat the hate of the Gears and the COG out of them. The bastards are lucky I was down by the gate getting ready to lead another raid on the Locust when they showed up.

"Dude." Dom greeted, "The fuck is with all the naked guys?"

"I try not to notice but with my enhanced field of vision and 100 - 20 eyesight I am pretty much fucked on not seeing pipe non stop." I told him as we moved through the now sprawling Fort Legion, "Jack has them earn the right to wear clothes again after they complete basic. Its all a part of breaking them down and making them tough as nails. It works, so I endure the eyesore of your pathetic human genitalia."

"Ain't nothing pathetic about what I am working with." Dom thumbed his nose in pride.

"You got a pair of nuts." I told him, "I got a quad of apples."

"That's just the testicles though, I got a baby's arm holding an apple hanging left, dawg." Dom asserted his dominance.

"You people got horses on this world?" I asked him.

"Dawg, no! That ain't right yo!" Dom backed up in fear.

"Head is more spade shaped, but yeah. Don't waste your time measuring dicks with me." I chuckled.

"People think horses have big cocks?" Marcus asked in confusion.

We both looked at him in horror.

"Now I know why they were all crying." I muttered and Dom nodded his head.

"Fuck dude." He sighed, "I ain't ever been the dude with the littlest cock. This don't feel good, man."

Jack was chilling empress style when we came in.

"These Theron's are looking a bit smaller than usual." Dom commented on Jack's Praetorians.

"Post apocalyptic survival favors those best at reducing, reusing, and recycling." I grunted.

"I take it you two are here to see if Grunt can come outside and play?" Jack grinned.

"Actually to see if all the guys you two have gathered can come and play." Marcus answered.

"No deal on the minions." Jack shook her head, "I'm not giving the COG another chance to betray them to their deaths."

"And you are cool with your alien husband being the one at risk of betrayal?" Dom asked.

"The COG can go ahead and make his day by giving him more people to fight and vengeance to pursue. He is like a dog with a bone when it comes to vengeance. The last guy dumb enough to betray us got cut into three pieces with one swing."

"The Locust are winning right now, and if Operation: Hollow Storm fails then you and your people will be all that is left for them to attack." Marcus reasoned with my wife, "If we don't stand together to survive, we will all die divided."

"On the contrary," Jack mused, "I like our odds against the Locust."

"They would drown you in their blood." Marcus countered.

"Just more meat for Grunt." Jack smirked, "You get to take Grunt out for another boys weekend and he will probably make this Hollow Storm go super easy. He knows the Hollow, the Nexus, and everything down there like the back of his hand. Plus he never turns down a fight with the Locust."

"Deal." Marcus nodded and I went to pack extra ammo for our trip to the depths of Sera.

"Is that 'the' Grunt." shouted and excited Ben Carmine as we loaded up onto the armed mobile drill rig being piloted by Dizzy, a Stranded turned Gear in a cowboy hat with the most backwoods over the top accent I had heard, possibly ever.

"Yeah." I nodded my head, "The one and only."

"Oh my God!" he frantically started digging through his duffle bag and came back with a permanent marker.

"Could you please sign my chest plate?" He requested in awe.

"Sure thing." I agreed and signed it Gatatog Grunt Bearsbane Desilijic Tiure.

"Clayton is going to lose his mind when he sees this."

"Nice kid." I commented while he walked away from me.

"Hopefully he doesn't go the same way his brother did." Marcus nodded.

As we stood in companionable silence I screwed a heavy duty silencer on the end of my sniper rifle and chambered a round of my hand loaded hot rounds. Better bullet shape, more powder, way more death down range.

"You'll thank me for the can later." I started shooting the oncoming Nemecysts as they flew through the air seeking to destroy our convoy. Once upon a time I marveled at my new reptilian reflexes and dexterity. Today I put on a shooting clinic that would leave the old me in awe. Not a single damn Nemecyst got through to the convoy. I also deadeyed the Reaver riders, cutting the effectiveness of those flying squids to near nothing.

Despite taking no damage, our drill rig broke down when the engine overheated giving the Locust a chance to come at us, but the local air support cut them down to size. They performed similar feats when we came across a volcanic area with lava seeping out of the ground. From a sloping crevasse came an enormous wave of Locusts trying to overwhelm a rig to our right. They were supported by a giant Brumak, forcing us to charge ahead rather than sit around for it to fuck us up. We didn't end up duking it out with another rig piloted by the grubs, so my work keeping the airspace clear was paying dividends.

Another Brumak appeared but we just pumped rounds into its head till its skull couldn't continue to maintain its structural integrity.

"This operation is going really well." I commented as we pulled into the town of Landown and I fired a quick machine gun barrage at a wave of 'hidden' tickers that exploded causing the convoy to come to a halt.

We had to send in ground forces to sweep the area for the landmine strapped dog sized creatures. After we cleared the town the Locust began another nemecyst bombardment that I no sold. With that out of the way we were forced to clear a pitch black tunnel of the little exploding creeps and then battle a Locust mortar crew on the other side. I think Marcus must have had extensive artillery training because he commandeered their mortar guns and used them to clear the whole town and the drill site. The dude was like an artillery savant.

With the drill site cleared Marcus and Dom loaded up onto a drill pod and awaited deployment. Because of this they were completely unable to watch me blow the head off of General Skurge when he popped up out of the ground with his stupid chainsaw staff. Dumb mother fucker should have known not to lead his army from the front if he wasn't bulletproof. RAAM knew better with his weird kryll shield.

No one has plot armor when I am in range.

With him dead the Locust immediately lost morale and started to rout and the Gears began an easy insertion into the hollow. I even had my own drill pod with my name on it.

I wish I could get the sound system to play 'The Boys are Back' because with the memories of five Therons this definitely felt like a homecoming.

Do people normally kill everyone when they come home? Probably not, but I am sure there is ample president for the psychotic rampage I am about to embark on.

PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA
JManM

Over 2000 words in this chapter and the story is within spitting distance of 100,000 words. I will be posting this story on fanfiction . net once I do, but I will probobly interact with those people less than on this platform.

You can support me and my family at

ko - fi . com / jmanm

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Pilih

Bab 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.

PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA
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

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