Gears of War: Ascendance Read online

  Wiping one arm across her face, she pushed herself upward and stood at the ready. Marcus rolled out from under the Juvie she’d just eviscerated. Yelping sounds came from all around.

  Then Cole was in front of her, chainsaw revving. He coiled and rammed it toward her face. Kait flinched, heard the growl of Cole’s Lancer as it passed by her cheek and struck a leaping Juvie just behind her. Its yapping cry ended in a crunch of bone and teeth.

  Together the three of them ran for the trees. Ahead, JD and Del unleashed a deafening salvo on the now completely exposed enemy. As the bullets streamed past her, Kait didn’t look back. Judging from their high-pitched cries, just audible over the sudden burst of gunfire, she knew they’d come in overwhelming numbers. Outrunning them wasn’t going to happen.

  Spotting a dirt trail, she led them to it. Somewhere ahead was the hideout she’d suggested, but she couldn’t quite remember exactly how far they had to go through the swamp. Her only visit had been months ago, with Oscar, and she’d spent most of that journey helping her uncle guide his horse Chuzz through the—

  “Chuzz,” she muttered.

  “What?” JD called out, not far behind her.

  “I have an idea!” Kait glanced ahead, looking for a familiar tree or bend in the trail that wove through the swamp.

  “Whatever it is,” Del shouted, “now would be good.”

  There! Kait recognized a curved branch, and at its midpoint hung a length of rope. She angled toward it and pushed herself into a full sprint. Turning her head she shouted to the others, “Follow my path exactly!”

  Just before the drooping tree she turned and made a wide curving path around a dark area on the ground, choked with those bony white reeds. She returned to her original course once the branch with the rope was behind her. Then she came to a stop on a small rise.

  The others followed her route with determined precision. Their expressions changed, though, when they realized she’d come to a halt.

  Behind, the pack of Juvies poured toward them.

  “Last stand?” Marcus asked as he reached her. “Is that your strategy?”

  Kait shook her head. “Not exactly.” Her gaze remained fixed on the Swarm, almost insect-like in the way they crawled over everything—even one another—to get to their prey.

  Just before the tree, they met the same fate Chuzz had.

  The first to hit the deep pool just vanished into the reeds as if it had fallen off a cliff, which wasn’t far from the truth. Kait heard the splash but didn’t see it over the vegetation. It was only when the others followed that splashes of muddy stagnant filth began to spray from the concealed pond. Some of the Juvies seemed to recognize the problem before falling in, only to be bowled over or shoved forward by those behind them.

  “I hope they can’t swim,” Baird said.

  Kait allowed herself a satisfied grin. “Let’s not stick around to find out.”

  * * *

  For an hour they ran, jogged, and waded through the rapidly darkening swamp, with only Kait’s memory of the landscape to guide them around the occasional obstacle. By the time the ranch house came into view, they were all bruised, soaked, and exhausted.

  At least the Juvies gave up, Kait thought. Sometime after the second water trap their sounds had faded, then vanished altogether. Either they couldn’t swim and had all succumbed to the swamp, or the little fuckers were smarter than they seemed and had given up.

  “That the place?” Marcus asked. He’d come up beside her, his armor still dripping brown water from the last gully. Somehow he’d managed to keep clean the black skullcap he wore over his head. Clean-ish, anyway.

  “Yeah,” she said.

  “What’s it doing in the middle of a swamp?”

  Kait raised her voice a little for the benefit of the group. “Used to be a horse ranch, until Windflares emptied a nearby lake, dropping all the water in this lowland. The place never recovered. My uncle knew the owners, traded with them now and then.”

  “Is this where he got Ugly?” JD asked.

  “He was always ugly,” Del noted.

  “The horse, you idiot.”

  “Chuzz was his real name, and yeah, this is the place,” she said to JD. For a moment she became lost in memories of Oscar. If only I could have buried him like I did Reyna. She wondered what had become of him after the Snatcher took him. If one of those Juvies they’d just fought could have been him. Probably gave the thing serious indigestion before the end. Knowing him, probably made the monster a little drunk, too. “The owners left a couple years ago,” she continued, “moved south to higher ground. We’ve been using it ever since as a supply cache and Windflare shelter.”

  “What sort of supplies?” Marcus asked. “You mentioned comms.”

  Kait shrugged, glanced down. “Just… you know… stuff we sorta stole from the COG.”

  To her surprise Marcus laughed. “How much stuff?” There was a flash of admiration in his perpetual glare.

  “Let’s find out.”

  She entered first. The house, once grand, felt like an empty shell now. It had been a warm place full of rustic charm and surrounded by picturesque rolling grasslands. All that had gone, though, and the color had bled away, leaving dim gray walls with peeling paint. Dusty floors with patches where thick rugs used to lie. The huge central fireplace was just an ugly black mouth, wind howling somewhere deep inside.

  Her shoes crunched on broken glass as she crossed into the great room. The rest followed her in silently, keeping their thoughts to themselves.

  “Over here,” Kait said, and her voice echoed. She walked to an open doorway at the back corner, leading to a small room full of wood shelving.

  “Nice,” Del said. “A lifetime supply of dust and cobwebs.”

  Kait frowned at him. “Not that. Here.” She pointed at a discolored square on the floor at the back, three feet to a side, with a recessed handle on one edge. Kait knelt and heaved at the metal pull. “Little help?”

  JD stepped up. Together they managed to get the rusty hinges to cooperate, and soon enough the hatch swung upward with a squeal and thudded against the wall in a thick puff of dust. Beneath it was a square of darkness and a wooden ladder of which only the top three rungs were visible.

  Leading the way down, Kait felt around for the light switch. By the time she switched it on, Marcus and JD were already on the stone cellar floor, waiting. The single bare bulb cast a wan yellow glow over the area, barely reaching the distant corners.

  JD whistled.

  Marcus rubbed at his chin, nodding slightly. “This’ll do,” he said.

  Once it had been a wine cellar, but most of the old bottle racks had been pushed to the sides or dismantled altogether, creating a vast empty space. Across this, row after row of semi-organized COG gear had been piled, leaving paths in between for easier access.

  Kait walked down one aisle, passing ammo crates and several hard cases labeled with bold warnings of explosives. None of this mattered to her right now. It was at the end of the row that she found what she wanted.

  “Rations,” Kait said. “Ready to eat.”

  “Enough for an army,” Del said. He and JD were just steps behind her, and when Kait moved aside each grabbed an armful of the COG-labeled packages and headed back for the ladder. Del, she saw, had tucked a dusty old bottle of wine under his arm, too.

  She grabbed a protein bar and tore the wrapper away, chewing rapidly and consuming the whole thing in three big bites.

  “Over here,” Marcus said from somewhere off to her left. “Field comms.”

  “Ulh gih Ber,” she replied through her mouthful.

  “Huh?”

  Kait swallowed with an effort. “I’ll get Baird.”

  “Nah. Just grab the other handle, we’ll move it upstairs where there’s some light. And look for power cells, will you?”

  Brushing crumbs from her hands, Kait started scanning the aisles. Didn’t take long to find a whole pile of the devices. She stuffed a few into pouches at her belt. Only then did it register that she still wore Anya Stroud’s armor. Marcus’s wife, who died a long time ago. He’d given the armor to Kait in a moment of necessity, as they hunkered down inside his estate while Jinn and her DeeBees shot the place to hell all around them. Over the last few days it had become like a second skin, but standing here now she wondered if it might bother him to see her wearing it. The piece had history, if not serious sentimental value.

  Kait looked at Marcus. His back was to her as he wrangled the large comms crate out from under some thermal blankets. All business, all calm professionalism. Would it gnaw at him? Memories dredged up every time he glanced in Kait’s direction?

  She’d ask about it, Kait decided. Later, when there was no imminent threat. Such a time felt far in the future.

  * * *

  Twenty minutes later the portable comm was set up on the floor in the middle of the great room. While Baird and Sam tinkered with it, Kait sat with Del and JD.

  Del picked up an extra mug and poured wine into it from the old bottle. “Try some. It’s damn good.”

  “Should be,” Kait said, taking the wine. “Oscar stocked this place.” She sipped, aware that Del and JD were watching her. The mention of her uncle had put them on edge. Neither seemed to know what to say, and for her part Kait didn’t really want them to say anything. She met their eyes, raised her mug, and drank.

  They joined her in the silent toast.

  “You’re right about the wine,” Kait said. “It’s very good.” After a few more swallows a slight haze settled over her thoughts, pushing away lingering images from last night’s dream.

  Across the room Cole moved from window to window, constantly scanning the swamp for any sign of the Swarm.

  “Do you have to keep pac
ing like that?” Baird asked without looking away from the comm display. “What are you so worried about?”

  “The Cole Train ain’t worried, baby,” he replied without pausing. “Hoping those little bastards come back for a rematch!” Leaning out of one of the broken windows he shouted, “We’re in here, bitches! Come and get some!”

  Samantha chuckled. “You really need to get out more, Augustus. So much pent-up energy.”

  “This is like a vacation for me.” The big man sighed. “Hardly ever get outside the walls anymore, you know? I miss it. A little.”

  The comm made a long series of beeps and pings.

  “Here we go,” Baird said, holding his hands away from it as if his touch might fry the thing. When the beeping settled down, he leaned back in and tapped away at the controls. Entering an ID code, Kait assumed. Baird shrugged. “Could be a while before the system recognizes my credentials and allocates a bird—”

  A crackle of static, then a familiar voice.

  “Damon, is that you? Where the hell are you? Report.”

  It was First Minister Jinn. Kait almost laughed.

  Sam did laugh. “What the hell, has she been waiting by the console? That’s a bit needy, even for her.”

  Her boyfriend sat back, chin in his hand. “She’s probably already got us triangulated,” he said, index finger tapping at the corner of his mouth. “Should we talk to her now?”

  JD stood. “Better that than when her Command Bot gets here with a fully armed escort. Last time she didn’t use words so much as… what was it? Oh yeah. Missiles.”

  “Agreed.” Marcus Fenix nodded. “I’m curious to hear what she has to say for herself.” When no one argued otherwise, Baird leaned forward again and picked up the handset. As he did, he activated the video feed, and her face appeared on the screen, looking off to one side.

  “First Minister!” he said. “Uh… Lovely to hear from you.”

  “Cut the bullshit, Damon, and give me a status report.” Her voice had a slight nasal quality that made Kait reflexively clench her fists hard enough for her nails to bite into her palms.

  Baird glanced at his companions as they gathered around him, then launched into his summary, starting with the events around Tollen Dam. He talked of the creatures they had dubbed the Swarm, that were emerging from the old Locust burial site there. Before he could go into detail, Jinn cut him off. She’d been looking off screen the entire time, but now her gaze finally fixed on Baird.

  “Has the threat been neutralized?”

  “Not from what we’ve seen,” he replied. “If anything, it’s getting worse.”

  Jinn’s mouth tightened and her brow furrowed. She leaned in, squinting.

  “Looks like you’ve got an interesting group with you. Hello again, Fenix.”

  “Hello—” JD said.

  “It’s been—” Marcus said at the same time.

  They exchanged a silent glance, then Marcus spoke. “Jinn,” he said. “It’s a goddamn mess out here, and the time you wasted blaming things on the Outsiders and on us didn’t exactly help, not to mention what you did to my farm.”

  It was all Kait could do to suppress her smile. A silence stretched, and Jinn seemed to be looking straight into her eyes—just an illusion of the screen, Kait decided. Probably. She waited, tense nonetheless.

  “An error in judgment on our part,” Jinn replied, forcing a contrite smile, “but understandable given the intelligence we had.”

  Kait stepped forward. “Understanda—”

  A hand on her arm stopped her. Del shook his head, his eyes seeming to say, “Just wait.” Kait swallowed her anger, something she was getting awfully tired of doing.

  “I’ve already dispatched a large DeeBee force to investigate what happened at Tollen Dam,” Jinn said. “In the meantime… I once again request that all of you come to New Ephyra so we can discuss this in person. As is often the case in these situations, lack of communication, of cooperation, has led to operational inefficiencies—”

  “You gotta be fucking kidding me,” Kait whispered through clenched teeth.

  “Relax,” JD said. “Relax.”

  If Jinn heard, she gave no indication, and never stopped talking. “—work together to solve this, whatever ‘this’ is.”

  “We just told you what ‘this’ is,” Marcus said.

  Jinn raised an eyebrow. “Surely you understand that I cannot base military policy on a single report, no matter how trustworthy the source.” She spread her hands. “Look, I’ll ask nicely if I must. Please would you all join me here in New Ephyra for a debriefing and consultation.”

  “A few days ago you were trying to kill us,” Kait said. She couldn’t help herself.

  “Trying to capture you,” Jinn corrected, “until I had no choice but to escalate matters.”

  Baird shifted. “Putting lethal weapons into the hands of security robots was a monumentally bad idea, Jinn.”

  Jinn held up her hands. “We all made mistakes. I admit it. Perhaps we can put that behind us and focus on the real problem—this ‘Swarm’—instead of pointing fingers? I promise immunity while you’re here.”

  “Is she for real?” Kait asked Del.

  “Yup.”

  Kait smirked. “Wow.”

  Jinn continued with her pitch, but Kait stopped listening. While the others continued to talk, she walked to the window and looked out over the landscape. It took a force of will not to remove the pendant from where it lay concealed under her armor. That last parting gift, given with no explanation.

  What the hell did it mean?

  Then Kait caught Baird’s final words.

  “We’ll think about it.”

  “Think quickly, please. Transportation will be arriving before first light.”

  The link ended, and the screen went dark. There was a moment of silence.

  “Well, what do we think?” Baird asked, not addressing anyone in particular.

  “I think it smells,” Marcus said, “but then this is Jinn we’re talking about. Taking her at her word would be a mistake.”

  Del shook his head. “Even so, we can’t leave this Swarm for her to deal with, can we? I mean, that’s not an option. Not in my book.”

  “He’s right,” JD said. “We have to try. Get her to understand what we’re up against here, if nothing else. Assuming she doesn’t arrest us the moment we’re through the city gate.”

  Sam gave a small shrug. “Damon and I have learned to work with her. And we have leverage. She relies heavily on DBi. As long as you’re with us, I think you’ll be okay.”

  “Kait?” JD asked her. “You haven’t said anything. What do you want to do?”

  She glanced at him, then the others. They were all looking at her, waiting. Kait took a deep breath to gather her thoughts. She wondered what Reyna would do. Kick Jinn in the face, probably. Then thank the others for their help, return to the village, and start rebuilding.

  But Reyna was gone now. Time to come to grips with that, or at least try.

  “I want to make sure what happened to my mother, my entire village, doesn’t happen to anyone else. Their deaths should mean something.”

  Before any of them could respond she nodded toward JD’s father. “I agree with Marcus. We can’t trust her. And every Outsider bone in my body says going to New Ephyra is moving away from the problem.” JD started to reply, but she held up a hand to quiet him. “But you and Del are right, too. She’d make this into an even bigger mess if left to handle it on her own.” Now she turned to Baird and Sam. “Jinn can’t be trusted, but I feel like you two can. If you say you can force Jinn to keep her word, I believe you.”

  Cole stepped forward. “So it’s settled then. Marcus?”

  The veteran glanced at Kait. After a moment he nodded, slowly. “It’s settled.”

  With the impromptu meeting over, everyone turned their attention to getting some sleep, Cole taking first watch. Kait lay in the dark, watching him as he stood silently by the front window. The old house creaked, settled. Wind moaned deep inside the chimney.

  She knew what was to come. Fought it as long as she could, but finally her body gave in.

  She slept…

  * * *

  …Crusted webbing held her arms and legs, veins coiled around ancient rock pressed into her back. She writhed, tried to cry out. Her mouth would not work, jaw hanging slack, unhinged, blood trickling from her mouth, nose, ears.