DragonzZilla
02-07-2012, 10:31 PM
[Warning, the following content includes blood, gore, graphic violence, suggestive themes and mature language. Viewer discretion is advised]
WARRIOR'S CODE
To Croswynd and Jay the Arbiter, I wish the greatest honors upon you.
War... ain't always about violence, it's about hope, survival, duty and perhaps the most precious of all... humanity; that's why I respect multimedia franchises such as Gears of War and Halo - - their novels and their comics explain the humanity behind their heroes and their wars. To truly enjoy a fictional universe for what it is, you must go further than simply playing the games. Once you delve into these universes, you find yourself in an ocean of vibrant colors.
When I first planned Warrior's Code, I wanted to tell a story unlike any other yet; other fanfictions describe about the conflicts of their heroes but Warrior's Code, I decided, had to be more than just fighting. Warrior's Code was going to be about duty, honor, brotherhood, humanity, vengeance, power, greed and savagery. Like Jace Stratton once said, "Being hollow is the danger... feeling is the key. It’s tough sometimes. Hell, it’s tough most of the time. But feeling is what makes us human." Warrior's Code is going to show what it means to be Human. But if you lose your humanity, if you lose sight of who you are... you're no better than the demons you fight.
Welcome to Warrior's Code, the first actual story written by me, DragonzZilla. Warrior's Code is the story of the Gorasni Prometheus Artum Militis, a former UIR-Lieutenant, who is suddenly caught in a deadly war between a hated enemy and an unknown foe in a strange and unfamiliar country. Left with few options, the Gorasni is forced to join the people he once deemed enemies in a desperate war against the creatures of the dark. Faced with hostility and meet with perils at every turn, in order to survive, Prometheus must first survive his new comrades if he has any chance on surviving the Locust Horde!
Prometheus was born to a group of free-thinking monks who believed of a greater good and viewed the universe to be ruled by six primal Gods who embodied the classical elements and controlled over various spheres of influence. In exchange for religious, political and personal freedom, these monks offer the Gorasni Republic some of the greatest soldiers ever to grace the Gorasni Army; randomly, the monks choose several unborn children from even before their birth to become the future fighters of Gorasnaya. From birth, these children are raised to become the perfect warriors who are taught in humility, honor, and duty - - as long as someone, somewhere needs them, these chosen-few would deny any and all personal needs. These soldiers fight until they die or could not fight anymore, so often these warriors would never wed or even have children.
Prometheus was one such child. He was trained from childhood all the way to age eighteen when he could join the Gorasni Military. Prometheus partook in the closing years of the Pendulum Wars, climbing the ranks through his innate bravery and dedication to the cause. When he became a lieutenant, his name was renowned throughout most of the entire Gorasni military as being a hands-on officer, a caring soldier, excellent strategist. Two weeks prior to the COG-UIR Armistice, Prometheus' and his platoon was captured by a carefully-planned Coalition of Ordered Governments ambush; the ambush ultimately resulted in the capture of the UIR soldiers. As the leader, Prometheus was hauled away from his men to the Coalition City of Blackwatch. There, he has remained... until now.
ACT I
Chapter One: Emergence -Completed-
Chapter Two: Out of the Frying Pan -Completed-
Chapter Three: Into the Fire -In Development-
COG City of Blackwatch, Tartarus Prison
Six weeks after the UIR-COG Armistice, 2554 Hours
Prometheus Artum Militis sat hunched in the darkness of his cell, his arms sitting atop his legs. The putrid smell of the prison entered Prometheus’ nostrils, filling them with the scent of death… and rats. Prometheus occasionally bent his fingers, cracking the bones inside. Despite the prison’s intoxicating odor filling his nose, Prometheus sat quietly in his unlit prison, taking in slow, concentrated breathes, contemplating what his COG captors had in store for him. The earth causally shook.
I should not be here… Prometheus brooded. Either I should be fighting or dead. But when I was captured, I thought the Gods had planned something for me… but now I wonder when will the darkness take me? I’ve I earned the right to enter the Gods’ hands or I’m I condemned to linger in the Void as a wisp, another forgotten soul among so many? I have almost forgotten how it feels to have the wind against my face, to have my feet buried in warm clay, to drink from the purest of water or to bask in the sun… Prometheus drifted off to his now-seemingly distant memories of Gorasnaya. Home… It was now three minutes after midnight, if Prometheus’ guessed right. But… it was only a matter of time before the COG would execute Prometheus like the dogs they are.
Prometheus’ stopped; his mind halted and his body froze. As a muffled sound drifted into hearing, Prometheus’ left ear twitched. He stood up from his bed and followed the noise. He took several paces toward his cell’s left wall; he scanned the entire wall before putting his ear to it, listening with natural curiosity. The wall suddenly exploded in a great blast of fire, sending chunks of the wall along with Prometheus flying to the other side of the room. Prometheus’ vision became blurry, so he had to shake his head several times to regain his sight. Through the recently-made hole in the wall, Prometheus could see the inky blackness that was night. Seconds later, a black mass entered the room through the hole.
It towered over the downed Prometheus, standing tall at two meters. It looked like a pale reptilian-humanoid; the unarmored sections of its body were covered in patches of grey-colored scales. Each clawed hand had four fingers and a thumb. It had two deep amber-colored eyes and two nostrils on a relatively-flat nose. The thing wore an oxford-grey and crimson breastplate and the shoulder strap lights glowed blood-red, a double-belt with several pockets, leather pants, armored vambraces and heighted boots. Holding a most unfamiliar weapon in its hands, the thing smiled at Prometheus, revealing its maw full of razor-sharp teeth.
Prometheus rose himself and said, “What are you?”
The thing remained silent, still smiling, and took a step toward Prometheus. As it took two more steps toward the Gorasni prisoner, Prometheus’ training took over. Upon the fourth step toward Prometheus, the human sprang into the air with unmatched speed, tackling his would-be assailant. Beforehand, the monster’s angular features and eyes widened in surprise, futilely shooting off his weapon to no effect.
As the creature dropped its weapon, Prometheus quickly overwhelmed his opponent; throwing a vicious punch to the monster’s face. Unexpectedly, the punch did little more than piss it off. The thing tossed Prometheus almost effortlessly, sending the Gorasni packing several feet away.
Both combatants were on their backs now, shooting each other sharp looks. In the race to get up, Prometheus won; he gave a swift kick to the monster’s jaw as it tried to rectify itself, sending it crashing back to the ground. In a frenzied search, Prometheus spotted the monster’s former weapon and darted for it. As the thing finally got to its knees, Prometheus knocked it back to the ground with a hefty rifle-butt. His inhuman opponent lying helplessly now, the Gorasni rose his weapon barrel-up and brutally slammed it against the monster’s head, before repeating the process another three times until the thing’s mangled head popped in.
As his opponent’s mutilated body lied motionless on the floor, Prometheus’ adrenaline rush ended, restoring Prometheus’ control over his own body. Hearing returned as well, allowing Prometheus to hear the screams and shouts coming from outside. Whatever was going on, Prometheus had to find out; he walked toward the hole in the wall and proceeded out.
\\*//
Staff Sergeant Dianna Duncan fired toward the encroaching horde of monsters, dropping several in a second’s notice; but for every one felled, six more took its place. “PUSH THEM BACK!” Dianna hollered over the gunfire. Dianna’s lieutenant threw a bolo grenade, “SIR! THERE’S JUST TOO MANY OF THEM; WE GOTTA RETREAT WITH THE CIVVIES!” the grenade blew a handful of monsters into dozen different places in a great explosion of blood. Dianna looked upon the large crowd of fleeing civilians numerous meters away.
Just as Dianna was going to reply, her gun jammed. “*****!” she cussed. Dianna peeked out of cover to see several red-clad huge monsters with even bigger guns push aside the rest of the swarm in an attempt to get to the front; they had to be at least 2¼ meters tall and were thicker than a motorcycle. “BOOOM!” one shouted before firing its weapon; a grenade the size of two water bottles flew from the barrel of the monster’s gun, streaking through the air. When it hit the van two of Dianna’s Gears took cover behind, it violently exploded, sending the van crashing atop of the Gears… the unpleasant sound of metal hitting pavement played simultaneously with the unnatural sound of crunching bone. Dianna’s face converted in horror as a pool of blood flowed from the side of the now-overturned van.
One of Dianna’s less-courageous Gears screamed. “RUN!” he said, dropping his rifle. “FALL BACK!” Despite her first thoughts, Dianna ultimately knew that the AWOL Gear was right… they had to fall back. “YOU HEARD THE MAN!” Dianna commanded. “GET YOUR ASSES IN GEAR! COVER THE CIVILIANS!” the remaining Gears didn’t argue; hell, it looked like they liked the idea.
\\*//
Prometheus stood half-way through the hole of his jail-cell, rifle in-hand, and observed the area; it was pure, untainted chaos. Buildings were on fire, cars were flipped and trains were knocked off their train tracks atop a road of pillars. Prometheus has seen plenty of destruction in his career, but nothing could compare to this; hundreds of bullets were flying from different directions while a squad of giant squid-monsters buzzed through the air. Then there were the screams.
Perhaps a hundred people ran pass the wall Prometheus was standing on in a frenzied sprint, not even taking notice to the escaping Gorasni; barely twenty of them were actual Gears by the looks of their armor. The COG soldiers were performing a half-retreat/half-retaliate maneuver, simultaneously firing their bayonet-equipped Lancers and running sideways while the rest of the group, most likely civilians, took the head of the retreat.
“HEY!” Prometheus called out to the Gears. “What’s going on, where’s the fight at?” A female COG cocked her head, still running, and pointed in the opposite direction. “Take a guess, Genius!” Prometheus turned to see a massive legion of monsters… there were hundreds; they came in dozen different shapes and sizes... there were humanoid monsters, giant monsters, small monsters… their number was too many to count. Fear surged through the Gorasni’s body like a virulent poison, flowing through his veins. “Astaepta! Wait up!” he shouted to the COG, jumping down from the wall.
Prometheus quickly dashed to catch up with the Gears; a bullet darted the Gorasni’s hairline. “Where is everyone going? What’s happening?” Prometheus asked the female COG, but she didn’t even stop. “Anywhere that ain’t here,” she expressed bitterly; she then added, “And it’s obvious on what’s going on, that’s for sure!”
The most indescribable chorus of screams filled the air ahead of Prometheus and the Gear. Up ahead, the civilians halted in fear as a gargantuan, fifty-foot titan emerged from the ground. Two huge chainguns were attached to its arms while a single, massive cannon dominated its back. The creature’s eight eye-pieces glowed with an unnatural fire. The beast roared back to the crowd, sending spittle over the civilians. “Take cover!” two of the other Gears screamed but they were too late: the monster’s chainguns lighted up, hosing down the civilians with a storm of bullets. Prometheus spotted a nearby library and pointed at it. “In there, double time!” Several of the Gears along with the closest civilians heeded Prometheus’ command and followed him inside the building. As the behemoth gunned down the last of its victims, the survivors made it inside the library. The able-bodied members of the group began to barricade the door. Once at least seven chairs and an entire bookshelf blocked off the door, everyone stepped away from it as if it were a Kashkuri Great-Bear.
“I don’t know who you are,” the female COG panted out of breath. “-but thanks... you’ve saved alot more lives than there were going to be.” Prometheus ignored her and looked upon the remaining survivors. Only three other Gears and four civilians made it out alive; one civvies’ leg was bleeding profusely. “Hey, what’s wrong with your leg?” Prometheus barked; the wounded civilian stumbled backwards into the arms of the other civvies in fear, but otherwise remained silent.
One of the Gears came over to the injured civilian, an onyx plus-sign was emblazoned on his silver pauldron. “Roll up your pant sleeve, sir.” The civvie complied; he lifted up his blood-soaked pant leg and showed it to the Gear. After looking at the wound for several seconds, the Gear verified, “Yep. Just what I thought: gun-wound. I don’t have the tools to fix this completely but I can at least bandage your leg up and hopefully suppress the bleeding.”
As the medical COG bandaged up the civilian, Prometheus turned to the leader COG. “Now that we’re out of danger, I want some answers. I’ll start off with your name, madam.”
“The name is Sergeant Dianna Duncan, commanding officer of Sigma-Six; but it’ll be ‘Sir’ to you. And you are?” she grumbled.
“Prometheus Ar-,” Prometheus stopped. “Just… Prometheus,”
“Wait… I saw you leaving the jail… now I remember you! You’re that UIR Lieutenant that Gamma-Three brought in eight weeks ago! You gave Aaron a black-eye.”
“He fought well.” Prometheus said. “But now my second question: what in Soara’s name going on?” Everyone gave the Gorasni a grim look but only Dianna spoke. “I’m not completely sure either. It was a normal midnight patrol when all the sudden the ground shook and was ripped asunder; then those things came out the ground and started shooting like mad gunmen. Alot of the company died in the first four minutes, being caught off-guard… then the bigger ones came out, toting’ grenade launchers bigger than my arm and began blasting us by the clusters. When the civvies came out to see what was going on, they ran. After a minute of holding those things back, we were forced to retreat and cover the civilian; the more we ran, the more monsters joined the horde… some of the faster ones were literally on our heels before we put them down. On how you got out our cell, I bet one of the big ones tried to hit us from far away and missed his mark, blowing your wall wide open. That’s where you came in and now here we are.”
“Do you know what these things are?”
“All I know is that an army of Galangi Dragon-men of all shapes and sizes popped out the ground, shooting guns. And at this point, I don’t rather much care what they are – I rather not know one thing than be a dead women. What we need now is a pla-” the library door suddenly slammed against its barricades; everyone stopped moving.
-Thud-
“Oh ****, hide!” a Gear whispered. Everyone took cover; most of them hid in the columns of bookshelves while Prometheus and Dianna took cover behind the librarian’s desk.
-Thud-
As Prometheus settled behind the desk, he found a fragment of window-glass and moved it so that he could see the beyond the desk; once the shard was positioned, the door burst open, knocking down the chairs and bookshelf.
From what his shard of glass showed him, Prometheus saw two black, six and a half foot tall, trench coat-wearing monsters climb enter the room, climbing over the fallen bookshelf and pushing aside the knock-over chairs. Both of them carried obsidian-colored, bladed double-barreled sawed-off shotguns, wore armored visors, and spoke with a raspy, almost wind-like voice. “Ssearrch,” one hissed. The first monster started to check the one of the columns of bookshelves while the other one began investigating the library’s café, mantling over the counter. As the first monster drew closer to the survivors, the resident Gears quietly raised their Lancers, ready to combat the thing. Before the creature took its final step toward the survivors, another monster entered the room… and from what he could see from his shard of glass, Prometheus was scared for his life. A massive, 10 foot-tall creature entered the room, wearing black-as-night armor; the thing’s hands were easily the size of Prometheus’ face and then some! The monstrosity slowed surveyed the lobby with its onyx-colored eyes before uttering, “Mmmmovvve onnnn.” The two smaller monsters returned to their master, following him out the library in a quite-orderly fashion.
For an entire hour, nobody moved a single muscle, fearing that they might come back. Once the group finally left their hiding places, they all walked slowly towards each other before they became a circle once more; the swarm of monsters was gone, but screams still echoed in the air. The medical Gear swallowed deeply and took a deep breath before speaking, “What was that?”
Prometheus couldn’t stop thinking about the bigger monster, how impossibly big it was and how black its soulless eyes were. Prometheus simply said, “That… was the very Maw of the Void.”
WARRIOR'S CODE
To Croswynd and Jay the Arbiter, I wish the greatest honors upon you.
War... ain't always about violence, it's about hope, survival, duty and perhaps the most precious of all... humanity; that's why I respect multimedia franchises such as Gears of War and Halo - - their novels and their comics explain the humanity behind their heroes and their wars. To truly enjoy a fictional universe for what it is, you must go further than simply playing the games. Once you delve into these universes, you find yourself in an ocean of vibrant colors.
When I first planned Warrior's Code, I wanted to tell a story unlike any other yet; other fanfictions describe about the conflicts of their heroes but Warrior's Code, I decided, had to be more than just fighting. Warrior's Code was going to be about duty, honor, brotherhood, humanity, vengeance, power, greed and savagery. Like Jace Stratton once said, "Being hollow is the danger... feeling is the key. It’s tough sometimes. Hell, it’s tough most of the time. But feeling is what makes us human." Warrior's Code is going to show what it means to be Human. But if you lose your humanity, if you lose sight of who you are... you're no better than the demons you fight.
Welcome to Warrior's Code, the first actual story written by me, DragonzZilla. Warrior's Code is the story of the Gorasni Prometheus Artum Militis, a former UIR-Lieutenant, who is suddenly caught in a deadly war between a hated enemy and an unknown foe in a strange and unfamiliar country. Left with few options, the Gorasni is forced to join the people he once deemed enemies in a desperate war against the creatures of the dark. Faced with hostility and meet with perils at every turn, in order to survive, Prometheus must first survive his new comrades if he has any chance on surviving the Locust Horde!
Prometheus was born to a group of free-thinking monks who believed of a greater good and viewed the universe to be ruled by six primal Gods who embodied the classical elements and controlled over various spheres of influence. In exchange for religious, political and personal freedom, these monks offer the Gorasni Republic some of the greatest soldiers ever to grace the Gorasni Army; randomly, the monks choose several unborn children from even before their birth to become the future fighters of Gorasnaya. From birth, these children are raised to become the perfect warriors who are taught in humility, honor, and duty - - as long as someone, somewhere needs them, these chosen-few would deny any and all personal needs. These soldiers fight until they die or could not fight anymore, so often these warriors would never wed or even have children.
Prometheus was one such child. He was trained from childhood all the way to age eighteen when he could join the Gorasni Military. Prometheus partook in the closing years of the Pendulum Wars, climbing the ranks through his innate bravery and dedication to the cause. When he became a lieutenant, his name was renowned throughout most of the entire Gorasni military as being a hands-on officer, a caring soldier, excellent strategist. Two weeks prior to the COG-UIR Armistice, Prometheus' and his platoon was captured by a carefully-planned Coalition of Ordered Governments ambush; the ambush ultimately resulted in the capture of the UIR soldiers. As the leader, Prometheus was hauled away from his men to the Coalition City of Blackwatch. There, he has remained... until now.
ACT I
Chapter One: Emergence -Completed-
Chapter Two: Out of the Frying Pan -Completed-
Chapter Three: Into the Fire -In Development-
COG City of Blackwatch, Tartarus Prison
Six weeks after the UIR-COG Armistice, 2554 Hours
Prometheus Artum Militis sat hunched in the darkness of his cell, his arms sitting atop his legs. The putrid smell of the prison entered Prometheus’ nostrils, filling them with the scent of death… and rats. Prometheus occasionally bent his fingers, cracking the bones inside. Despite the prison’s intoxicating odor filling his nose, Prometheus sat quietly in his unlit prison, taking in slow, concentrated breathes, contemplating what his COG captors had in store for him. The earth causally shook.
I should not be here… Prometheus brooded. Either I should be fighting or dead. But when I was captured, I thought the Gods had planned something for me… but now I wonder when will the darkness take me? I’ve I earned the right to enter the Gods’ hands or I’m I condemned to linger in the Void as a wisp, another forgotten soul among so many? I have almost forgotten how it feels to have the wind against my face, to have my feet buried in warm clay, to drink from the purest of water or to bask in the sun… Prometheus drifted off to his now-seemingly distant memories of Gorasnaya. Home… It was now three minutes after midnight, if Prometheus’ guessed right. But… it was only a matter of time before the COG would execute Prometheus like the dogs they are.
Prometheus’ stopped; his mind halted and his body froze. As a muffled sound drifted into hearing, Prometheus’ left ear twitched. He stood up from his bed and followed the noise. He took several paces toward his cell’s left wall; he scanned the entire wall before putting his ear to it, listening with natural curiosity. The wall suddenly exploded in a great blast of fire, sending chunks of the wall along with Prometheus flying to the other side of the room. Prometheus’ vision became blurry, so he had to shake his head several times to regain his sight. Through the recently-made hole in the wall, Prometheus could see the inky blackness that was night. Seconds later, a black mass entered the room through the hole.
It towered over the downed Prometheus, standing tall at two meters. It looked like a pale reptilian-humanoid; the unarmored sections of its body were covered in patches of grey-colored scales. Each clawed hand had four fingers and a thumb. It had two deep amber-colored eyes and two nostrils on a relatively-flat nose. The thing wore an oxford-grey and crimson breastplate and the shoulder strap lights glowed blood-red, a double-belt with several pockets, leather pants, armored vambraces and heighted boots. Holding a most unfamiliar weapon in its hands, the thing smiled at Prometheus, revealing its maw full of razor-sharp teeth.
Prometheus rose himself and said, “What are you?”
The thing remained silent, still smiling, and took a step toward Prometheus. As it took two more steps toward the Gorasni prisoner, Prometheus’ training took over. Upon the fourth step toward Prometheus, the human sprang into the air with unmatched speed, tackling his would-be assailant. Beforehand, the monster’s angular features and eyes widened in surprise, futilely shooting off his weapon to no effect.
As the creature dropped its weapon, Prometheus quickly overwhelmed his opponent; throwing a vicious punch to the monster’s face. Unexpectedly, the punch did little more than piss it off. The thing tossed Prometheus almost effortlessly, sending the Gorasni packing several feet away.
Both combatants were on their backs now, shooting each other sharp looks. In the race to get up, Prometheus won; he gave a swift kick to the monster’s jaw as it tried to rectify itself, sending it crashing back to the ground. In a frenzied search, Prometheus spotted the monster’s former weapon and darted for it. As the thing finally got to its knees, Prometheus knocked it back to the ground with a hefty rifle-butt. His inhuman opponent lying helplessly now, the Gorasni rose his weapon barrel-up and brutally slammed it against the monster’s head, before repeating the process another three times until the thing’s mangled head popped in.
As his opponent’s mutilated body lied motionless on the floor, Prometheus’ adrenaline rush ended, restoring Prometheus’ control over his own body. Hearing returned as well, allowing Prometheus to hear the screams and shouts coming from outside. Whatever was going on, Prometheus had to find out; he walked toward the hole in the wall and proceeded out.
\\*//
Staff Sergeant Dianna Duncan fired toward the encroaching horde of monsters, dropping several in a second’s notice; but for every one felled, six more took its place. “PUSH THEM BACK!” Dianna hollered over the gunfire. Dianna’s lieutenant threw a bolo grenade, “SIR! THERE’S JUST TOO MANY OF THEM; WE GOTTA RETREAT WITH THE CIVVIES!” the grenade blew a handful of monsters into dozen different places in a great explosion of blood. Dianna looked upon the large crowd of fleeing civilians numerous meters away.
Just as Dianna was going to reply, her gun jammed. “*****!” she cussed. Dianna peeked out of cover to see several red-clad huge monsters with even bigger guns push aside the rest of the swarm in an attempt to get to the front; they had to be at least 2¼ meters tall and were thicker than a motorcycle. “BOOOM!” one shouted before firing its weapon; a grenade the size of two water bottles flew from the barrel of the monster’s gun, streaking through the air. When it hit the van two of Dianna’s Gears took cover behind, it violently exploded, sending the van crashing atop of the Gears… the unpleasant sound of metal hitting pavement played simultaneously with the unnatural sound of crunching bone. Dianna’s face converted in horror as a pool of blood flowed from the side of the now-overturned van.
One of Dianna’s less-courageous Gears screamed. “RUN!” he said, dropping his rifle. “FALL BACK!” Despite her first thoughts, Dianna ultimately knew that the AWOL Gear was right… they had to fall back. “YOU HEARD THE MAN!” Dianna commanded. “GET YOUR ASSES IN GEAR! COVER THE CIVILIANS!” the remaining Gears didn’t argue; hell, it looked like they liked the idea.
\\*//
Prometheus stood half-way through the hole of his jail-cell, rifle in-hand, and observed the area; it was pure, untainted chaos. Buildings were on fire, cars were flipped and trains were knocked off their train tracks atop a road of pillars. Prometheus has seen plenty of destruction in his career, but nothing could compare to this; hundreds of bullets were flying from different directions while a squad of giant squid-monsters buzzed through the air. Then there were the screams.
Perhaps a hundred people ran pass the wall Prometheus was standing on in a frenzied sprint, not even taking notice to the escaping Gorasni; barely twenty of them were actual Gears by the looks of their armor. The COG soldiers were performing a half-retreat/half-retaliate maneuver, simultaneously firing their bayonet-equipped Lancers and running sideways while the rest of the group, most likely civilians, took the head of the retreat.
“HEY!” Prometheus called out to the Gears. “What’s going on, where’s the fight at?” A female COG cocked her head, still running, and pointed in the opposite direction. “Take a guess, Genius!” Prometheus turned to see a massive legion of monsters… there were hundreds; they came in dozen different shapes and sizes... there were humanoid monsters, giant monsters, small monsters… their number was too many to count. Fear surged through the Gorasni’s body like a virulent poison, flowing through his veins. “Astaepta! Wait up!” he shouted to the COG, jumping down from the wall.
Prometheus quickly dashed to catch up with the Gears; a bullet darted the Gorasni’s hairline. “Where is everyone going? What’s happening?” Prometheus asked the female COG, but she didn’t even stop. “Anywhere that ain’t here,” she expressed bitterly; she then added, “And it’s obvious on what’s going on, that’s for sure!”
The most indescribable chorus of screams filled the air ahead of Prometheus and the Gear. Up ahead, the civilians halted in fear as a gargantuan, fifty-foot titan emerged from the ground. Two huge chainguns were attached to its arms while a single, massive cannon dominated its back. The creature’s eight eye-pieces glowed with an unnatural fire. The beast roared back to the crowd, sending spittle over the civilians. “Take cover!” two of the other Gears screamed but they were too late: the monster’s chainguns lighted up, hosing down the civilians with a storm of bullets. Prometheus spotted a nearby library and pointed at it. “In there, double time!” Several of the Gears along with the closest civilians heeded Prometheus’ command and followed him inside the building. As the behemoth gunned down the last of its victims, the survivors made it inside the library. The able-bodied members of the group began to barricade the door. Once at least seven chairs and an entire bookshelf blocked off the door, everyone stepped away from it as if it were a Kashkuri Great-Bear.
“I don’t know who you are,” the female COG panted out of breath. “-but thanks... you’ve saved alot more lives than there were going to be.” Prometheus ignored her and looked upon the remaining survivors. Only three other Gears and four civilians made it out alive; one civvies’ leg was bleeding profusely. “Hey, what’s wrong with your leg?” Prometheus barked; the wounded civilian stumbled backwards into the arms of the other civvies in fear, but otherwise remained silent.
One of the Gears came over to the injured civilian, an onyx plus-sign was emblazoned on his silver pauldron. “Roll up your pant sleeve, sir.” The civvie complied; he lifted up his blood-soaked pant leg and showed it to the Gear. After looking at the wound for several seconds, the Gear verified, “Yep. Just what I thought: gun-wound. I don’t have the tools to fix this completely but I can at least bandage your leg up and hopefully suppress the bleeding.”
As the medical COG bandaged up the civilian, Prometheus turned to the leader COG. “Now that we’re out of danger, I want some answers. I’ll start off with your name, madam.”
“The name is Sergeant Dianna Duncan, commanding officer of Sigma-Six; but it’ll be ‘Sir’ to you. And you are?” she grumbled.
“Prometheus Ar-,” Prometheus stopped. “Just… Prometheus,”
“Wait… I saw you leaving the jail… now I remember you! You’re that UIR Lieutenant that Gamma-Three brought in eight weeks ago! You gave Aaron a black-eye.”
“He fought well.” Prometheus said. “But now my second question: what in Soara’s name going on?” Everyone gave the Gorasni a grim look but only Dianna spoke. “I’m not completely sure either. It was a normal midnight patrol when all the sudden the ground shook and was ripped asunder; then those things came out the ground and started shooting like mad gunmen. Alot of the company died in the first four minutes, being caught off-guard… then the bigger ones came out, toting’ grenade launchers bigger than my arm and began blasting us by the clusters. When the civvies came out to see what was going on, they ran. After a minute of holding those things back, we were forced to retreat and cover the civilian; the more we ran, the more monsters joined the horde… some of the faster ones were literally on our heels before we put them down. On how you got out our cell, I bet one of the big ones tried to hit us from far away and missed his mark, blowing your wall wide open. That’s where you came in and now here we are.”
“Do you know what these things are?”
“All I know is that an army of Galangi Dragon-men of all shapes and sizes popped out the ground, shooting guns. And at this point, I don’t rather much care what they are – I rather not know one thing than be a dead women. What we need now is a pla-” the library door suddenly slammed against its barricades; everyone stopped moving.
-Thud-
“Oh ****, hide!” a Gear whispered. Everyone took cover; most of them hid in the columns of bookshelves while Prometheus and Dianna took cover behind the librarian’s desk.
-Thud-
As Prometheus settled behind the desk, he found a fragment of window-glass and moved it so that he could see the beyond the desk; once the shard was positioned, the door burst open, knocking down the chairs and bookshelf.
From what his shard of glass showed him, Prometheus saw two black, six and a half foot tall, trench coat-wearing monsters climb enter the room, climbing over the fallen bookshelf and pushing aside the knock-over chairs. Both of them carried obsidian-colored, bladed double-barreled sawed-off shotguns, wore armored visors, and spoke with a raspy, almost wind-like voice. “Ssearrch,” one hissed. The first monster started to check the one of the columns of bookshelves while the other one began investigating the library’s café, mantling over the counter. As the first monster drew closer to the survivors, the resident Gears quietly raised their Lancers, ready to combat the thing. Before the creature took its final step toward the survivors, another monster entered the room… and from what he could see from his shard of glass, Prometheus was scared for his life. A massive, 10 foot-tall creature entered the room, wearing black-as-night armor; the thing’s hands were easily the size of Prometheus’ face and then some! The monstrosity slowed surveyed the lobby with its onyx-colored eyes before uttering, “Mmmmovvve onnnn.” The two smaller monsters returned to their master, following him out the library in a quite-orderly fashion.
For an entire hour, nobody moved a single muscle, fearing that they might come back. Once the group finally left their hiding places, they all walked slowly towards each other before they became a circle once more; the swarm of monsters was gone, but screams still echoed in the air. The medical Gear swallowed deeply and took a deep breath before speaking, “What was that?”
Prometheus couldn’t stop thinking about the bigger monster, how impossibly big it was and how black its soulless eyes were. Prometheus simply said, “That… was the very Maw of the Void.”