THIRD PERSON'S POV

Marcus Fenix held the laser targeter for the Hammer of Dawn level, keeping it pointed directly at the third and final Seeder to fire the weapon and kill the insect-like Monster, the targeter beeped as the beams focused and then struck the Seeder with force.

The beam scorched the Seeder until it suddenly crawled out of the hole it was lodged into, and skittered around the small space it was holed up in, before it fell onto it's back with a crash, it's Spider-like legs arching upward like a dead insect as it died.

"And that's three for three" Marcus said to himself before he walked back into the building with the rest of Delta Squad, who had been joined by former Thrashball Star, Private Agustus Cole of Alpha Squad, to make up for Carmine's loss.

"Control, this is Delta, come in" Lieutenant Kim said as he had his fingers to his ear, making contact with their Commanders, to see what their next orders would be.

"I copy, Delta, loud and clear!" Anya's voice came over the comm devices, the four men all breathed sighs of relief that they were finally back in contact with Control.

"All Seeders are neutralized, moving to Alpha's location now" Kim said to her, as he and the other men in the Squad stood and waited to hear an update on their objective.

"That's great news, Delta, stand by for Alpha" Anya said happily, before going quiet to connect Alpha Team to the comms signal.

"This is Alpha! Where the hell are you guys?!" a man's voice suddenly asked loudly over the ear pieces, causing some of the squad to wince from the volume.

"Baird! Oh shit, man, where you been?" Cole asked sounding very happy to hear from another member of their Squad, likely happy they didn't end up like Rojas did.

"Delta Squad is in the House of Sovereigns, over" Kim replied to Baird over the earpiece.

"Well that's great! We're pinned down by Troikas on your rooftop, over!" Baird said back to him, as they could hear gunfire in the background.

"Understood, sit tight, we'll take them out" Kim said to him, now sounding more urgent after hearing the situation.

"We're not going anywhere, sir!" Baird replied to him sassily, before the communication's cut off.

"Let's find those Troikas" Kim said to the rest of the Team, all of them nodded and went to try and find a way to those Troika turrets, before they heard one of the doors hiss as sparks slowly went up the door, the Locust were here and cutting through the door!

Marcus, Dom, Cole and Kim all took cover behind some ancient chairs and couches from before the war, Marcus however pulled out a Bolo-Frag Grenade and started to swing the grenade in his hand, preparing to throw the explosive through the door as soon as it was cut open.

"Get ready, here they come!" Kim said loudly as he and the team got ready to face whatever came through the doors, the doors then opened and Marcus quickly tossed the Grenade through the doors, it beeped loudly before exploding and killing two Locust Grenadiers at once!

Then Cole charged in and pulled out his Gnasher, closing the distance between himself and a stunned Drone, aiming the muzzle of his Shotgun at the Locust and pulling the trigger, blasting the Locust's upper body apart from the power of the shot.

"Nice!" Dom said, sounding very impressed with that kill, before the group of four then started to jog their way through the ruins and stopped at a window.

"There they are, man! Yeah!" Cole exclaimed as they all looked through the window, seeing the Tombs, which were under heavy fire from Locust Forces.

"Alpha, we have visuals on your location" Kim said to Baird over the comm unit, watching and hearing the constant stream of bullets going at the stone building.

"We'd like to have your AMMO on our location, right now!" Baird said to him rather loudly, as they heard the sound of bullets hitting their cover.

"Wilco, Delta out" Kim said before the Squad hurried to get to the Troika's and stop them as well as the Locust that were attacking Alpha Squad, Marcus also picked up a Boltok Pistol along the way, when they reached a hallway in the building and as they went to run through, but then were almost hit by a stream of bullets!

"Troika! Marcus, flank right!" Dom called out, Marcus jump-rolled into the doorway to a hallway to the right, while Dom, Kim and Cole had to wait for him to stop the Troika which was at the end of the main Hall.

Marcus fought his way through the hallway, having to kill Wretches until he finally reached the gunner and sawed him apart with his Lancer's Chainsaw Bayonet, then he had to use that Troika Turret to kill another swarm of Wretches, before they continued onward, until they soon reached what seemed to be a place for politicians to meet.

"This building used to be a beautiful place, there's a lot of history here" Kim said as he looked around the large, circular room, with the large table in the middle of the lower part below the seats.

"A lot of lies, too" Marcus said offhandedly as he also glanced around the room.

"You've got some nerve, Soldier, I know all about your trial" Kim said back to the man, not sounding happy about Fenix's comment.

"His trial was a sham... sir" Dom said to Kim before the four men hurried up a set of steps, they heard the sound of Locust shouting and roaring as well as the sound of constant heavy gunfire, they reached the rooftop and Marcus blew the head off of one of the gunners with his Boltok, while Cole shoulder barged into the other gunner, causing them to fall off the roof and hit the street below with a sickening crunch.

"This street is the pickup zone! We need to clear it! That means no Locust on the ground, and no Nemacyst in the air!" Kim said as the Squad got to the overhang and looked to the street below, they saw the small army of Grubs trying to break into the Tomb.

"Get on those Troikas!" Dom said as he motioned to the gun turrets, he and Marcus quickly jumped onto the Troikas and started to shoot down at the Locus on the street below, quickly killing the Grubs off with a hail of bullets, and shooting down the Nemacyst that were floating in the air.

While Delta was killing the Locust, Gator was close by crouched on the edge of a roof and watching the fight from a high vantage point, zooming in with his Mask to see the group of four Humans who had just arrived.

"Copy that, we're at the pickup zone now" Kim said into his earpiece to the pilot of the King Raven which was coming to pick them all up and take them to safety, or perhaps take them to wherever they needed to deploy the Resonator.

"We're out of here!" Dom said eagerly as he walked with Cole out of the House of Sovereigns and onto the street toward the tomb.

"Man, I puke my guts out on those things every time" Cole complained, sounding unhappy about getting air-sick.

"Guess you're sitting next to Marcus, then" Dom commented before splitting off from Cole, who walked across the street toward a man wearing C.O.G Armor, with short cut Blonde hair and a pair of goggles on his head walking toward his fellow Gear with the Resonator in his hands.

"Who loves ya, baby!" Cole said as he had his arms spread out like he was going to hug Baird.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, group hug" Baird said as Cole turned himself around, allowing him to attach the Resonator to Cole's back, while Gator was watching the interaction from above, and also recording some of the conversation too.

"Where's Rojas?" Baird asked Cole, Cole's face then changed from his usual energetic smile to a downtrodden look, he then showed his fellow member of Alpha Squad the Cog Tags of their Squadmate, Rojas.

As they spoke, Marcus had this feeling in his gut, a feeling that they were being watched, that... they had walked into an ambush, his eyes scanned the streets, the buildings and the rooftops, before his gaze stopped on something on a spot on a rooftop.

It looked like some kind of shimmer... a shimmer in humanoid form, whatever it was, it moved only very slightly before Marcus saw what seemed to be a pair of yellow eyes flash briefly, he quickly went on alert and aimed his Lancer at the shape, when he suddenly heard the sound of blades spinning through the air, Marcus glanced over to the end of the street and saw the King Raven flying toward them.

Marcus quickly turned his gaze back to the rooftop only to see that the shimmering form seemed to have gone, Marcus blinked a few times before dismissing the sight and turning his attention back to the incoming Raven.

Gator moved quickly as he stalked across the rooftop, watching the Humans below before he looked toward the incoming Human transport, he then noticed the shaped on the street below on his Thermal Vision, he zoomed in and saw that a large number of Locust seemed to be coming to attack the Humans, Gator decided to stay and observe the conflict to select his ultimate prize for this Hunt.

Gator zoomed out and watched as the Human air transport approached the group, when suddenly a trio of floating creatures appeared, trailing Ink behind them, he heard the Human below call out and then saw the three creatures fly toward the Raven rapidly, one of the Nemacyst slammed into the tail end of the Raven and exploded as the other two flew past it, the strike caused massive damage to the vehicle, which then crashed into one of the buildings on the street, metal screeching as the Raven dragged across the side of the stone building, carving a huge furrow into the structure before it plummeted down to the street below.

Gator's mandibles clicked as he watched the Humans jump to avoid being crushed by the destroyed Helicopter, and saw that one of the Humans, their leader had been separated by the flaming wreckage and was alone now, then suddenly the large number of lesser Locust launched their attack!

Gator observed the ambush in motion and he saw that many of the Locust were being gunned down by the Humans, from what he was seeing these Humans would make far better prey to Hunt and claim as Trophies, at least until... he saw a very large Locust stomping toward the Human's Alpha.

Gator's interest was piqued to say the least by the appearance of this much larger and stronger specimen of the Locust Horde, he watched as the lone Human noticed the Locust Leader's presence and turned to face him, the Human went to shoot at him only for his weapon to click empty, then the Human revved up his Chainsaw Bayonette and tried to attack the Locust Leader with the roaring blade.

However, the Locust Leader simply stopped the revving Chainsaw blades with his bare hand, before he ripped the weapon from the Human's hand and then delivered a heavy kick to the Human's chest, sending him flying onto his back as the Locust tossed the empty Lancer aside and approached the downed Human.

Gator watched intently as the Locust Leader reached down and grabbed Lieutenant Kim by the throat, easily lifting them off the ground as the he tried to free himself of the Locust's grip, Gator then saw the Locust General draw a large, jagged Knife from his belt and then stab the Human through the lower abdomen.

The Human let out a cry of pain before he spat a mouthful of blood into the Locust General's face, this seemed to annoy the Locust General who shoved his large Knife in further so that the blade went all the way through and came out of the Human's back.

Gator then saw the Locust Leader toss the dead Human to the ground, as the rest of the Humans seemed to retreat back into the Tombs Gator marked his potential prey, his gaze going back down to the street and watching the Locust Leader roar at it's soldiers, pressing the attack to kill the Humans.

(This one seems to be the Locust Leader, or perhaps a great warrior of their kind... his Skull will make a fine prize to claim) Gator thought to himself as he remained cloaked and observed the small army of Locust on the street below, his thoughts were then interrupted by a loud screech from the Tombs where the Humans had retreated to.

Gator's mandibles clicked under his Mask as he looked to the Tombs, his interest piqued further as he saw the lesser Locust Soldiers back away from the door of the building, it seems that whatever made that sound also made the lesser members of their army shrink back, perhaps a new potential Trophy?

Gator heard the Locust Leader let out another commanding roar to the lesser Locust before he turned and walked away, Gator staked his mark on the General, he would claim his head but not now... the General was surrounded by an army of his kind, Gator would continue to go after other Prey and work his way up to the General.

"Perhaps this new prey may be a worthy fight?" Gator said to himself as he stood up and then started to run and jump along the rooftops and sides of the buildings, planning to make his way to find a view of this new potential Prey, he soon reached a building that overlooked a garden for the Tomb and heard another loud shriek from inside the building.

Gator crouched low and watched as his mandibles clicked under his mask, when he saw the door to the Tomb was suddenly blasted off it's hinges and a very Large creature came charging out into the open, Gator immediately began to observe this new creature and observed it with his Bio-Mask.

He then saw two of the Humans followed the new Creature out of the building, he saw the creature turn and growl at one of them before letting off a loud shriek and charging at the closest man, the Human dodged the charge causing the creature to slam into a concrete wall, cracking the stone.

"Well then, okay, Dom, let's drop the Hammer!" one of the Humans, the one that Gator thought had seen him just before the ambush, said to the other before they took aim at the new creature with a laser targeter and held the beam steady, however, the Creature seemed to react to the beeping noise the targeting device made and charged at him!

The Human then jumped aside to avoid getting run over by massive creature, which moved very fast, Gator then saw the second Human, the one called Dom take a shot at the creature with their gun, but the creature seemed to have some sort of thick body armour which deflected the bullets!

"Hm... so it's got thick armour, the Humans weaponry cannot easily penetrate it" Gator said to himself as he watched Dom avoid the Creature's charge again, and saw the second Human point the targeter at the Locust Monster, Gator then saw four small beams converge on the point of the laser before a large, bright laser beam came down from the sky.

Gator could hear the large Creature shriek in pain as the intense heat burned it's body, the creature thrashing around as it burned up, Gator was also scanning the creature as it was burning and saw that the intense heat from the beam was softening the Creature's armour, making it vulnerable.

"Hm... that weapon is dangerous, I will have to take one back to the ship to be analysed, it could cause damage to the Clan Ship if it's discovered, and work out a plan to hunt and kill one of these Creatures if I encounter another one" Gator said to himself as he continued to watch the fight, then the beam stopped and the Creature resumed it's attack, the second Human shooting at it with one of their guns, the bullets tearing into the Creature's softened flesh and hide.

After a few seconds Gator then saw the Creature's glowing skin cool down and seem to solidify again, he then watched as the first Human used that targeting device again to blast the Creature with the orbital laser, after a few seconds the beam was fired a second time and the Creature let out a loud screech of pain, before it's large body dropped dead to the ground.

"The Human laser weapon is quite powerful..." Gator said as he continued to observe them, seeing the other two Humans from the street come out of the Tombs and start prodding at the dead creature while the one who killed the Creature was speaking with someone over their primitive communication's devices.

"Control, this is Delta, come in" Marcus said into his earpiece as Baird and Cole started kicking and prodding at the smouldering carcass of the creature, Gator was critical at how they had let their guard down so easily.

"I read you Marcus, Colonel Hoffman is coming online" Gator heard as he then focused his attention on the one called Fenix, to overhear their conversation, he overheard the Humans speaking of deploying a device called a Resonator, Gator then used his Mask to scan the device that was on one of the Human's back, the scans showed a primitive sonic mapping device of some kind.

(Hm... seems the Humans are planning a strike against the Locust, perhaps using that device?) Gator thought to himself as he continued to listen in, he was also curious when one of the Humans spoke uneasily about how it would be dark soon, before overhearing that the Humans were to deploy their sonic device at an Imulsion Facility west of the City.

The Human Fenix was also promoted as the new leader of their small group, the group of four seemed to have made their decision and started to make their way further into Ephyra City, not too far from them, Gator activated his cloaking system and also made his way deeper into the city, eager to continue his Hunt, but also cautious about the upcoming night...

FURTHER INTO EPHYRA CITY

Meanwhile, further ahead of Delta Squad in a fortified Stranded Settlement, there was a conflict going on, not with the Locust but between the Stranded and the COG, currently the Gears were working to evacuate the occupants of this settlement, loading them up into Evac transports and sending them away from the city.

"Alright, we're almost done... I hate these kind of duties, these Stranded never appreciate what we do for 'em" said one of the Gears that was overseeing the evacuation of this settlement.

"I know what you mean, man, why do we have to help these thieving scum?" said another Gear as they watched the dirty, homeless people be loaded onto one of the transport vehicles to be moved out of the city.

"Orders from Command, Soldiers!" someone shouted loudly, making both Gears jump from the sudden loud noise, and they turned to see a man wearing the normal Trooper COG Armour, minus the Helmet, the man had short-cut Black hair and a beard that was braided and hung down to his chest plate.

"Sir!" both Soldiers said with discipline as they then stood at attention, both holding their Lancers tight.

"These orders come directly from the Chairman himself, whatever he says, goes, you have a problem with it?" the Bearded Man said loudly to the two Soldiers, this men seemed to be the leader of this Squad.

"No, Lieutenant Andrews, sir!" both men said back to him, both worried about getting chewed out or being stuck on a latrine duty.

"Then do your jobs, and get these people out of here, I want this settlement emptied out and fortified before nightfall" The Lieutenant said to them both as he pointed to the transport, which was almost filled up.

"Not a chance! I'm not going anywhere!" one of the Stranded shouted, sounding drunk and angry.

"You all know what the COG did to us! Locking us all out of Jacinto and leaving us to fend for ourselves all this time after they destroyed everything! They left us all for dead! Why should I move just because the COG suddenly want to take our shit again?!" the drunk man shouted to the other Stranded, some seeming to agree with him, it looked like a riot may ensue, until...

Another COG Soldier approached the man and hit him over the head with the butt of a MX8 Snub Pistol, knocking the man out easily, the other Stranded quickly quieted down after seeing that, this Soldier however was different, they wore Black armour that completely covered their body, apart from a glowing Blue strip in the middle of the chest plate and the Blue eyes that glowed in the helmet.

"Take him onto the Transport, make sure he won't cause any trouble" the Soldier said to the other Gears in a deep voice, slightly altered from the helmet they wore, as other Soldiers dressed similarly to him also came out, all wearing the same Black armour.

"Woah, the Onyx Guard? What're they doing here?" the first Gear said in surprise as the unconscious drunkard was picked up and dumped into one of the trucks.

"Remember what the Sergeant said earlier? Orders from the Chairman himself, maybe it's a plan to ambush some sort of Locust Leader?" the second Gear said to him as their bearded Squad Leader went to oversee the evacuation.

"You think they're trying to kill General Raam?" the First Gear asked the second.

"Maybe, but if they are, I hope they put that oversized Grub down" the Second Soldier said to the man firmly, the first man nodded in response, both men watching as the last few Stranded were loaded onto the last truck.

Standing on the fortified wall of the Settlement was another Onyx Guard, who had his helmet off and was watching over the removal of the Stranded, this man had dirty-blonde hair and moustache, he also had a scar that ran from his left brow to his chin, then he got an incoming call over his earpiece, he answered the call.

"Captain Keyes, I understand your occupation of the Stranded Settlement is going smoothly?" a man asked the Onyx Guard Captain seriously.

"Yes, Chairman Prescott, though we have prioritised the improvement and instillation of stronger light fixtures to get us through the night, as well as requisitioning all weapons and ammo to protect the stronghold from Locust incursion" Keyes answered him in a serious and professional manner, watching as the last of the Stranded they found were loaded up and sent away to another location.

"Good, have everything made ready for Operation "Big Buck" asap, we cannot afford to lose this potential asset" the Chairman of the COG said to the man, who nodded to himself in response.

"Don't worry, sir, we'll see it done, you'll have your specimen and it's technology at Azura before long" Keyes said to him before the call ended, there were still a lot of things to do before they were ready for the Chairman's operation...