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.