GOW - Revival - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: When hope falls


The unspeakable pain consumed the wounded body of Zaach, a lowly, unimportant Locust Grunt. It took him several moment to pick himself up off the ground and get his vision back, though even blinking was agony to him. When he came to, he saw that he was surrounded by his dead comrades in a human city which was slowly being swallowed by the very fires of hell.

Confused, disorientated and wounded, all he could do was limp forward, down the hell stricken streets of the city. Blood was slowly leaking from his mouth, he had to drop his Hammerburst assault rifle, as he was in too much pain to carry it. His left eye twitched as the wind blew against the bruise he had gotten. Zaach did everything he could to hold the pain in, if there was one thing that drone's were taught, it was to never show pain or fear, but it was getting harder and harder for Zaach to follow that rule.

The buildings around him were burning away, falling apart brick by brick and igniting into flames when they hit the floor. Despite not being near the burning buildings, the intense heat still irritated Zaach's rock like skin. The rot flies swarmed around the dead bodies that lay scattered across the streets, Zaach actually noticed that some of them were humans, but it wasn't exactly a comforting thought, as a vast majority were still Zaach's comrades. The rot flies also began to buzz around Zaach himself, he wasn't dead yet, but they knew he would fall soon.

All Zaach could remember was being ordered by his Theron Guard superior to charge towards the enemy… the vile ground walkers known only as "Humans". The Locust Drones charged towards the human soldiers called "COG Gears" with little regard for their own lives. Bullets scattered from each side, drones collapsed as they ran head first into the line of fire, the Gears clearly having the upper hand in this fight. Zaach, however, did not charge with his comrades, he stood back and provided covering fire with his hammerburst, but the sheer intensity of combat threw his accuracy off balance, despite his eagerness to join the Horde and slay many ground walkers, he found himself unable to concentrate… almost a little scared, in fact.

Had his desire to serve in the Queen's glorious army blinded him from realising he was not "cut out" for soldering? He had a friend who was not for the cut, so had joined the engineering corp, maybe Zaach should have done the same.

Zaach's nervousness got the better of him, as he was unable to down a single Cog soldier during the battle.

…Then it happened…

An Earthquake like no other, a tremendous force so powerful that it nearly sent everyone into the sky. Zaach and the platoon had been standing right on top of one of the hollow's many tunnels, the light mass bomb, the so called "Death bringer" had been detonated. The powerful tremors had sent earthquakes all over the planet, destroying the tunnels and causing horrific damage on the surface. The Locust suddenly found themselves weakened, almost like all the Drones felt the pain of countless dying below them. This sudden state of weakness in the Drones gave the COG soldiers the advantage they needed to finish off the attacking Locust.

They were all killed, except for Zaach, perhaps they had assumed he'd been killed already. Lucky him? Probably not.

Zaach snapped back to reality with a painful shake of his head, the death bringer had scored the COG a key victory in the war, perhaps even ended it. He thought about all those in the hollow being slaughtered by the death bringer. His Home, his friends, his family, his hope, all destroyed in a matter of seconds…

… Was he the last alive?

Zaach could only reach a statue of the Cog's leader, known only as "Prescott" standing tall and proud before him, when he saw this figure of evil, he couldn't't stand it any longer. Zaach collapsed to his knees and vomited, it was a vile mix of stomach acid and blood. His body was going numb and his vision was slowly fading, it looked to be the end of the line for him, sure enough, he collapsed onto the cold streets of the damned city.

So much for the last Locust alive.

Everything went dark, he could no longer feel his arms and legs, yet he could still feel his hearts beating, desperately trying to keep him alive.

Then he felt something strange, he was moving? Impossible, his arms and legs had gone completely numb, he was almost certain they were broken, yet he could still feel his body being dragged across the cold stone ground he lay on. Zaach used the last of his strength to open his eyes. His vision wasn't perfect, but he could just make out a figure, dragging him away, it looked like a Theron guard!

A survivor?!

The Figure stopped for a second and look directly at Zaach, then kneeled down at him.

"Good, you are alive!" The figure said in a deep voice, surprising for a Theron. "The queen must be watching over you, she must want you alive."

Zaach was in too much pain to speak, he slowly nodded his head.

"Well thank the queen! You don't want to know what I would've done to keep you alive!" The figure replied. "I believe you can help us, and we can help the Horde…"

Zaach's eyes closed again, he was able to breath slowly and keep his hearts at a steady beat, as the figure dragged him away…