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Gears of War - Depredation - Chapter 29 (SK)

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Chapter 29: Fuel for the Fire



“How can I describe the monster I saw in the human city? How does an uncontrollable ball of fury sound? Having survived the likes of Scourge, I believed that we, as a race, were ready to take on the Emissaries.

We may need to re-think that now that I have met Rage. While I had heard the name before, I did not expect to meet such a beast.

No doubt our soldiers will be scared once they hear of what Rage is and what he is capable of, but there is something they can remember, which I hope will boost their confidence.

I fought Rage, yet I live.”

Hakar


----

As the lift reached the next floor of the power station, Hakar could feel his full strength returning to him. Good, he was going to need all of it if he was to fight his way back to the others! The only trouble was getting around that beast and finding a way out of here.

The lift doors opened and Hakar was greeted to the sight of an office floor, long since ransacked with it’s tipped over chairs, broken walls, smashed windows, missing metal from the filling cabinets. However, that wasn’t of interest to Hakar, what was interesting was the weapons… and the bodies.

Yes, it would seem as though the Gears had used this power plant as one of their garrisons. Large stacks of weapons, ammo and disused sentry turrets were scattered all over the place, with the dead bodies of the Gears not too far.

That would explain the Lambent! They must have killed all the Gears here long before.

“Well, I’m sure they will not be needing all this.” Hakar uttered, scanning the items.

Hakar grabbed some Lancer ammo from a crate, but then turned his attention to a weapon that was sitting on top of a desk. It looked like a human grenade launcher! A six barrelled one, probably one of those ones used for riot control, but repurposed into a deadly weapon.

“Hmm, that may come in handy!” Hakar said.

Grabbing the Grenade launcher, Hakar holstered the weapon while he grabbed two bags of Grenades. One marked “HE” and the other marked “FLAME”. The flame grenades even had a little red marking to distinguish it.

“Now to find a way out!” thought the Soul Killer leader.

Hakar frantically scanned around the area, searching for another way out besides the lift. He could spot some sort of fire exit near one of the smashed windows, with a ladder descending into an alleyway. Could it lead him back to the others though? It was difficult to tell, but Hakar had no choice but to risk it.

However, just as he approached the fire exit, he noticed something of interest. Just up ahead, behind the power station was what looked like a refuelling station! It may not have been “Chaps” (The people of Opulent C were probably too posh for him anyway) but it still served it’s purpose of refuelling the cars. It looked as though this was a little garage on the side that people from the highways would go to, but the road leading to the highway was long blocked off.

Hakar scanned the fuel station as he formulated his plan. “A big explosion ought to take down that monstrosity.” he thought. “Better that than trying to outrun the beast. Besides, not the most suicidal thing I have tried.”

Well, Hakar had to be honest, there was no way he would be able to avoid Rage. That monster would never stop coming, it was utterly single minded in it’s goal to kill him.

It seemed as though being denied the chance to kill The Soul Killer leader had really made Rage furious, and the last thing the Soul Killers needed was one very angry, very powerful monster stalking them because it needed to vent.

Hakar took the fire exit ladder down to the alleyway behind the power station and made his way to the fuel station.

---

“GO” a simple name, probably an acronym, but it was rather poignant. “Go” and in “On the Go” or “Get going”

Not that it mattered to Hakar anyway.

Arriving at the front of the Fuel Station, Hakar was greeted by the sight of a whole pile of tipped over, destroyed cars, the small shop of the station boarded up and on the verge of collapse and debris and shattered glass scattered for miles. Hakar couldn’t smell any leaking fuel, which was good, he didn’t want his trap to go off prematurely.

“Better have a look around.” Hakar thought.

Hakar approached the shop, which has the shutter for it’s door down. He used his superior Locust strength to simply lift the shutter up, then open the small, weedy door.

Once inside, he flicked the light switch by accident, and surprisingly, there was still power here! The lights and outdoor LED’s turned on, but the lights revealed nothing special. Just an abandoned shop floor and a passageway leading to an indoor garage.

Peeking in, Hakar could see a car left behind, it was probably being worked on before the city was abandoned.

Then… Hakar heard the rumble. Even from in the building, Hakar could hear the noise coming from the power station.

“Damn it…” Hakar uttered, he wasn’t ready!

Still, no sense running away now…

Hakar left the shop and went back outside, Lancer in hand. He got a bit of distance between him and the fuel station, before readying himself to face Rage.

“CRASH”

A wall of the power station exploded into dust and debris, sending bricks flying in all directions. Even through all the dust, Hakar could spot the pulsating, Imulsion fuelled veins of Rage’s muscular body, as well as he eyes of pure hatred, burning through his mask.

Rage stepped out of the dust, carrying the top half of a Drudge. The Emissary simply stood there, breathing heavily. He was eyeing up Hakar, taking a good, long look at his victim.

Time to make the stand.

“You wish for me, Rage?” Hakar called. “Well, I am here!”

Rage dropped the Drudge, and slowly lumbered towards Hakar. The Soul Killer leader started by winding up Rage with a few ineffective lancer shots, which casually bounced off his body.
When Rage got close enough, Hakar revved the Lancer’s Chainsaw bayonet and drove it forward… only for Rage to catch the chainsaw with one hand. The chainsaw groaned and squealed as it cut into Rage’s hand, but the Emissary simply crushed the weapon with ease.

Hakar tried to fall back, but the Emissary simply kicked him, sending him flying backwards and crashing into the ground.

Then Rage laughed… that same, evil laugh Hakar heard when they fought at the Museum.

“YOUR FRIENDS CAN’T SAVE YOU NOW!” He boomed.

Hakar was quick to get up, thank any deity that the blood of T’Chark was working right now.

“To face you? That is fine by me. I can face you myself, no problem!”

On the one hand, Hakar could probably use Rage’s destructive anger against him, on the other, was it really a good idea to insult such a towering monstrosity?

Rage roared and swung his fists, his wrist chains crashing into the ground. Hakar was able to dodge the attacks with a few well timed rolls. Rage’s chains left rather nasty looks craters into the ground, imagine what they could do a living thing?

Hakar was backed up against a truck, and Rage swung his chains again. Hakar dodged and the chains promptly cut the truck clean in half.

“Just need to land a few clean shots!” Hakar said to himself.

An un-amused Rage picked up the door of the truck he just sliced in half and tossed it at Hakar. The Soul Killer leader was forced to suddenly stop to avoid the debris, making him slip over. He had to recover quick, as Rage then charged for him! Hakar used that against Rage and quickly dodged the charge with a roll. Unable to control his momentum, Rage crashed into several tipped over cars.

This gave Hakar the opportunity he needed. He found a good angle for attacking in the form of a another van, parked near the fuel station’s air supply. Climbing on top, Hakar loaded the grenade launcher with HE grenades and aimed carefully.

Rage emerged from the wreckage, his breathing heavy and his anger rising. The Emissary turned around to spot Hakar on top of the van, clenching his fists, Rage made a charge.

Hakar fired the first grenade… direct hit! It landed straight on Rage, causing the Emissary to stumble back! It injured him!

“Perfect!” Hakar sneered.

Hakar fired off the five remaining HE shots into Rage, breaking off several portions of his skin, burning his body and injuring the mighty Brute. The last grenade round caused Rage to fall onto one knee, wounded.

“Now, to finish you off!” Hakar snarled.

Hakar readied the flame grenades, but out of nowhere, Rage caught his second wind. The Emissary was able to get up and swing one of his chains at the van, smashing the bottom of it and causing Hakar to fall off.

The grenade launcher landed near the fuel pumps and Hakar himself went back first onto the hard ground. As he moaned in pain, he watched in horror as Rage got up and slowly began to lumber towards him, the small quakes caused by him walking almost bouncing Hakar into the air.

Hakar was able to get up, but Rage swung a chain, it narrowly missed Hakar by inches, but the stinging sensation of the near miss caused Hakar to stumble.

Rage swung again, this time, striking Hakar on the arm. The Soul Killer leader was sent backwards as a gash in his arm began to bleed badly. Hakar looked at his wound, but tried not to become deterred. Grabbing a metal pipe off the floor, Hakar rammed into Rage’s chest. Despite being impaled, the Emissary simply back handed Hakar away and looked at the wound. He scoffed, it was nothing.

Rage punched the ground, causing a small quake and making the recovering Hakar fall back down again. Rage was toying with him, mocking him before delivering the final blow.

Not wise at all.

Hakar was able to get back up, but Rage appeared lightning fast and grabbed Hakar by the neck, choking the Soul Killer. Rage tilted his head in a sick curiosity, watching as Hakar struggled for air.

“YOU ARE WEAK” Rage taunted.

What he didn’t know, was that while he was choking Hakar, Hakar was reaching for his serrated blade on his belt. Rage was so fixated on taunting Hakar, he was completely oblivious to what Hakar was doing.

Still, Rage used his free hand to give Hakar a smack, making the Soul Killer leader spit up a lot of blood onto Rage’s mask. The Emissary laughed again.

“BLEED…MORE…”

Rage delivered another smack, Hakar spat up more blood onto Rage. However, this did not stop Hakar from getting his knife.

“TOO WEAK TO LIVE.” Rage boasted. “LAMBENT STRONGER, FASTER, BETTER…”

“… and way more arrogant.” Hakar chimed in.

Confused, Rage gave Hakar a look… that’s when Hakar struck.

With his knife in hand, Hakar drove the knife into the Emissary’s neck, causing Rage to react in pain, he loosed his grip on Hakar as he recoiled from the strike. However, Hakar wasn’t done yet, he grabbed hold of Rage’s body and hoisted himself upward.

Yanking the knife out of Rage’s neck, Hakar then used it to slice the small, Imulsion crystals on the back of Rage’s head. As they shattered, Rage recoiled and screamed in agony, he threw Hakar off of him, making him crash into the ground. Hakar watched as Rage knelt down, clenching the back of his head with one hand, while the other held onto his neck.

Hakar spotted the grenade launcher and quickly made a dash for it. Just as grabbed it, Rage began swimming his arms in random directions, hoping to hit Hakar. His chains smashed the ground a few times, before one chain clipped a fuel pump. Fuel began to spill onto the ground as Rage stumbled away.

“I’ve wounded one of you before.” Hakar taunted. “You are no different.”

Having loaded the flame grenades into the launcher, Hakar fired one at Rage. The Emissary could only screech as the explosion knocked him back and lit up him. In his agony, he managed to strike Hakar with a random hit, sending the Soul Killer crashing through the shop door.

Hakar was quick to recover, he got up and despite some cracking noises in his bones, he shrugged off any pain he could feel.

“I can only hope that blood will last a bit longer…” Hakar pondered.

Just then, Rage came crashing through the shop, utterly demolishing the wall and trashing the building. Hakar dodged out of the Emissary’s way and fired off a few more flame grenades into Rage. The Emissary screamed and roared in pain as the flame grenades sent him crashing into the garage, knocking him onto the floor and setting him alight.

Smoke… it was beginning to rise into the air, and Hakar could smell it. This was part of his plan, it just hadn’t quite gone the way he planned it.

Watching Rage attempting to get up, Hakar wasted no time and ran out of the shop and as far away from the fuel station as possible. Once he was a safe distance, Hakar fired the last flame grenade into the fuel pumps of the station.

“KABOOM!”

A massive explosion, so powerful that even from the distance he was at, sent Hakar flying backwards. The sound of the boom echoed throughout the entire city and the whole area turned bright orange as it was engulfed in flames. Hakar was forced to get back up and retreat for cover as flaming debris went everywhere.

It took several seconds for the full force to stop, but eventually it died down. Hakar emerged from cover and spotted the fuel station was no more, just a pile of rubble being devoured by fire.

He allowed himself a small chuckle as he tossed the grenade launcher onto the floor.

“Rest easy Horde.” He laughed. “One of the feared Emissaries is no more.”

----

“They’re getting closer!” Shouted Onyx Guard Captain Adams as he stepped on a Polyp that had crawled into the library.

The Lambent were advancing onto the library in full force, and they had back up, big back up! A few mulcher wielding Heavies laid down suppressive fire onto the front of the library, killing several Gears that failed to get away in time.
Further back, a Gunker groaned as it lobbed it’s Imulsion balls at the library, destroying several parts of it. The Gears inside were forced to duck and run for cover as debris came crashing down.

Despite all the commotion, Geist kept a cool head. He continued to aim out the window, watching as the bigger Lambent started making their way forward. He aimed down the scope of his Longshot and watched one of the Heavies march forward, Mulcher revved up.

“Steady… just find the weak spot in the helmet.” Geist told himself.

With a careful aim, Geist fired the shot and pierced one of the Heavies helmets directly. He watched with satisfaction as the Heavy collapsed and promptly exploded.

The Gunker, seemingly guessing where Geist was, tossed an Imulsion glob at the library windows. Geist was forced to dive as far away as he could. The glob destroyed the front wall and window, ruining Geist’s vantage point.

On the bottom floor, several Lambent Drones were trying to break in through the barricaded windows using an assortment of tools turned melee weapons. Cobra, Adams and the Gears were having none of it though. They were gunning down the Drones quickly, Imulsion spraying onto the floor as they exploded outside.

One Lambent Drone got a lucky swing with his pick axe and struck a Gear straight in the head, killing him instantly. Cobra responded by revving his Lancer Chainsaw and cutting the Lambent Drone into pieces just as it climbed through.

“The sooner that chopper gets here, the better!” Adams yelled over the chaos.

“Will it even by able to land, with that Gunker out there?” Cobra called. “Inaccurate they may be, but the blast radius on those balls are huge!”

Cobra’s point was proven, as a Gunker glob obliterated the front doors of the library, killing several Gears, but taking out the remaining Lambent with a bit of friendly fire.

Just as Cobra and Adams recovered, the Cyron Titan and a squadron of Gears emerged from the back of the library.

“Where the hell have you guys been?!” Adams demanded.

“Group of glowies tried going round the back sir, but we’ve fended them off!” A Gear uttered.

“Well, now we’ve got bigger Glowies up front!” Adams retorted. “We need all available units defending this point now!”

Cobra looked at the Cyron Titan, who recognized his status as an Epsilon, the Titan lowered his head, waiting for his orders.

“Shield those Gears.” Cobra ordered. “Your strength ought to cover them.”

“UNDERSTOOD, SIR.” The Titan boomed. Readying his Chaingun, the Titan lumbered outside, with the Curious Gears following him.

Once outside, The Titan revved up and opened fire upon the Lambent. Several smaller Lambent were sliced to pieces by the Chaingun fire instantly. Those that weren’t were picked off by the Gears taking cover behind the Titan.

The remaining Heavies were next, though they fired upon the group, they were badly inaccurate, with shots only clipping the mighty Titan. The Titan responded by opening fire, his superiror shots managing to tear the Heavies to pieces.

As the Gears killed off a few Polyps and Wretches spared from the Chaingun’s barrage, they noticed the Gunker was revving up for an attack.

The Titan also spotted this. He dropped his Chaingun and instead went for a Oneshot.

“FALL BACK” he boomed to the Gears.

The Gears were a little taken back, but they didn’t wish to argue, they hastily retreated back into the library while the Titan aimed.

Just as the Gunker got a beat on the Titan, the Titan had gotten a lock on the Gunker. The Lambent beast lobbed an Imulsion ball just as the Titan fired.

The ball struck the front of the library, killing the Titan and sending Cobra, Adams and the Gears flying backwards, but the Titan had managed to fire off a Oneshot round just in time. The round struck the Gunker in the chest, blasting a hole in it. The Gunker could only groan as it blew up, sending Imulsion chunks everywhere.
“Holy sh*t!” Adams gasped. “Your Titan just saved my men!”

“Not the dumb brutes you thought they were?” Cobra retorted in a friendly taunt.

Just then, the whole area was rocked by seismic activity. The whole force of the Library rushed outside to see what was happening…

… they could see the aftermath of the explosion from behind the power station…
Damn, the showdown! 0.0

I've never been any good with one on one battles, but I think this went okay! For this battle between Hakar and Rage, I want you to imagine the song from Resident Evil 3, where Jill and the Nemesis fight at the Clocktower! ^.^

We also see what the Epsilon got up to during their fight!

---

Damn, Hakar may have killed Tehrror's only decent opponent. ;p

Regardless, hope you enjoy!
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le gasp! The story is almost done! 0.0