I do not own Gears of War or any of the characters.


Mining

Joseph glanced at Marcus as they walked through the mine. Finally, Marcus looked over at him, narrowing his eyes.

"What?" Marcus asked.

"I've been hoping to get the chance to talk to you about something," Joseph said.

"Is now really the best time?" Marcus asked.

"No, but I'm a Carmine, so there's no guarantee there will be another time," Joseph said.

"Not if you think like that there won't," Marcus growled. "Fine. What?"

"About my father," Joseph said. "Uncle Clay told me about him, but I never new him. My mom got pregnant just before he joined Delta. And then he died. And then when Uncle Ben joined Delta, he also died."

"What do you want from me?" Marcus asked. "An apology?"

"No," Joseph said. "I don't blame you. My brother did, but I understand. War has casualties. I just want to know honestly, did my father die a hero like we were told, or did he just die?"

"Your father's gun jammed between firefights, and he made the mistake of standing up to fix it," Marcus said. "A sniper put a shot through his head. He didn't die a hero. He just died. The same with your uncle, except instead of a sniper, some nasty creatures with acid spit got him inside of a giant worm."

"I see," Joseph said. "Thank you."

"That's really all you wanted?" Marcus asked.

"Yes," Joseph nodded. "That's it."

Marcus grunted and returned his attention to the front. As he did, Lizzie stepped up beside Joseph.

"Are you okay?" Lizzie asked.

"I'm alright," Joseph said. "I always suspected it was something like that. I just needed to be sure."

Lizzie nodded. "Still up to play wingman?"

"Sure, but I'm warning you now, any male that flirts with you, I'm going to hate for thinking they deserve to get with my cousin," Joseph said.

Lizzie laughed. "Girls only it is. But i'm just warning you, if you get a girl and I don't, you're sharing."

Joseph laughed.

"Would you two cut it with the incest routine until we're at least out of this God damned mine!?" Marcus snapped.

Both of them held their hands up in surrender. Just then, the Loader J.D. had been driving to clear Locust cocoons exploded as a Snatcher's tail spike stabbed into it.

"Shit!" J.D. swore. "Loader's hit! Shoot that Snatcher!"

"That what?" Marcus asked.

As J.D. began to explain, Joseph and the others all opened fire, drowning out his voice. The Snatcher leapt from the tunnel it was in against the far wall to the path they'd taken, turning toward them. Kait, Del, and Lizzie all sprayed constantly, J.D. hurled a pair of grenades, and Marcus and Joseph fired careful bursts, targeting its head and glowing underside. After a moment, its tail flicked toward Kait, but J.D. tackled her out of the way. Joseph narrowed his eyes as it began to stagger. He aimed carefully and took one of its front legs off, Marcus taking the other off a moment later. Then, after a few more moments of bullets raining down on it, it exploded.

"It's so nice to not get covered in Swarm goo every once in a while," Joseph sighed.

As if on cue, the Loader suddenly erupted into a fireball, turning the Juvies on it into paste and splattering them all over Joseph, and only Joseph.

"Nevermind," Joseph said, Lizzie snorting, then laughing so hard she had to use her gun like a cane to avoid falling over. "Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up."

"Let's just...uh, find an exit tunnel and work our way back to the ore transporter," J.D. said.

"Then what?" Joseph asked, wiping the liquified Juvie off of his helmet's eyes.

"You'll see," J.D. said.

"Oh, I can't wait," Joseph smirked, following J.D. into the tunnel, Lizzie just behind him.

"We do have a way back up, right?" Marcus asked.

"Oh, yeah," J.D. said, unconvincingly. "Of course."

Lizzie shook her head at Marcus, who groaned.

"It's on fire," Joseph said.

"On fire?" Marcus asked, not impressed.

"Dad, I got this," J.D. said, just as he stepped around a corner and a bullet whizzed past his head. "Whoa! Swarm ahead!"

He dove for cover, but as the others moved to follow him, a burst bounced off Joseph's chest, knocking him backward into Lizzie, both falling. As they were, a Torque Bow bolt deflected off the top of his helmet and stuck to the wall behind them.

"That would have been messy," Joseph said, just before it exploded harmlessly.

He shoved himself up, opening fire as he ran for cover, Lizzie two steps behind him. Then, just as he reached cover, a bullet slammed into his shin, deflecting off of his boot's plating but sending him crashing to the ground and rolling into cover. Lizzie skidded into cover beside him, grinning from ear to ear.

"Don't even!" Joseph growled.

"Did you have a good trip?" Lizzie asked.

"Fuck you and your corny jokes," Joseph grumbled, pushing himself up and firing at the drones that remained.

"We might have to wait a while before we can, but I'm game if you are," Lizzie said.

Joseph rolled his eyes, shooting the last drone in the foot, allowing Marcus to put a bullet through its head. "You never give up, do you?"

"If I did, you'd never catch on," Lizzie shrugged.

Joseph sighed. "Yeah. Sure. Anyway, getting back to reality, are we getting close?"

"I have no idea," J.D. said, kicking a metal door open.

They followed him down a short hallway and up a set of ladders before J.D. used his saw to cut through a chain holding a set of double doors closed, then kicked it open. On the other side was the room with the one human corpse and bits and pieces of Juvies strewn about the room.

"We passed this guy on the way down," Del said. "We're almost there."

"Finally," Joseph said.

They worked their way up through the mine quickly, retracing their steps, and slaughtered their way through an ambush about four rooms later without any trouble. However, as they reached the area where they fought the first scion, another Snatcher caught up with them, as did several drones, though they all dies in moments. Joseph instantly grabbed a Buzzkill from nearby and set it on top of a cement block, aiming carefully before sending saw blades flying at the Snatcher.

"You know, I've never figured out what those could possibly be used for besides as weapons!" Lizzie shouted over the gunfire.

"Same!" Joseph shouted back as the last blade spun away. "Our family probably aren't that great at construction, judging by this and the Dropshot!"

Lizzie nodded in agreement just before grabbing him and hurling herself backward. Just as she did, the Snatcher's tail spike tore up the front of his helmet, ripping it off and bouncing away with it. Joseph sighed in relief.

"That's one less you owe me," Joseph said.

Lizzie nodded as both grabbed their Lancers and stood, just in time for the Snatcher to spew a wave of goo onto them both, then explode a moment later, coating them yet again. Joseph stood motionless for a moment before wiping as much of the goo off as he could, Kait and Del helping clear his face for him. Once it was clear, Joseph spat out a mouthful of goo the others all gagging.

"I...fucking...hate...Swarm," Joseph snarled.

The others, minus Marcus, laughed and they all continued through the mine. As they ran, however, the shrieks and yips of Juvies and the roars of drones and Scions echoed from behind them, growing louder rapidly. Within a minute Juvies began to swarm from all around them. They blasted anything that moved and wasn't each other as they ran, Marcus, Del, and J.D. alternating who was taking rear guard.

Finally, they'd reached it. Marcus was not impressed. It was covered in debris and still burning, and it was obviously going nowhere.

"Now what?" Joseph asked, just as Juvies and Drones began flood through the door.

"Kait, with me," Marcus said. "James, we need a plan!"

"Okay, fuel tank?" J.D. asked.

"Exploded," Del said.

"Control room?" J.D. asked.

"Buried in rubble," Joseph said.

"We fly?" J.D. tried.

"What?" Del asked. "Okay, interesting. Also, impossible."

J.D. looked around before running to the crane cables on one side. "Maybe not. Hey, I got a plan!"

"And for the record, I had no input on this plan!" Del said, he, Marcus, and Kait running over to the other three cables over there while Joseph and Lizzie ran to the other side. Except, their side only had one cable not broken.

Now what?" Lizzie asked.

Joseph dragged her to the cable, stepping up behind her. She stepped onto his feet and he wrapped an arm around her to hold onto the cable while she clung to it with both hands.

"In case we die," Joseph said, "I just want you to know..."

"You don't have to say it," Lizzie said. "We can do butt stuff if you want."

"As I was saying before being interrupted by a whore," Joseph continued. "I just want you to know, I blame you if we die."

Lizzie shrieked in mock outrage. "Well fuck you too! See if I ever offer anal again!"

Joseph chuckled, then carefully aimed downward. A short burst later, they were streaking upward out of the mine, Lizzie going back and forth between laughing and screaming in terror. As they shot upward, Joseph looked at the others, seeing that they were having to shoot their way through webbing as they rode theirs, while Joseph and Lizzie's was clear. Then, the others' crane, or whatever track they were on broke free and began to fall along the chasm they were in, taking them for a ride. Joseph sighed in relief at having the better luck for a change. Except, the gears at the top weren't slowing, and they were rapidly approaching them.

"Shoot it!" Joseph shouted.

He and Lizzie both grabbed their pistols, shooting up into the gears rapidly. Sparks began to fly, the machinery operating the gears rapidly exploding before the gears ground to a halt. Joseph sighed in relief and looked around just as J.D. and the others similarly stopped their own ride. Lizzie groaned, settling back against him slightly.

"Let's never do that again," Lizzie said.

"Agreed," Joseph nodded.

Lizzie climbed what was left of their cable, then up onto the ground at the top, and Joseph followed. They looked around, seeing J.D. and the others climbing out on the opposite side in the distance. They quickly ran around the nearest edge of the chasm and joined up with the others, everyone sitting down a safe distance from the mine.

"Never again," Joseph said. "Ever."

"Agreed," Del said.

"What's next?" Lizzie asked.

"We're going to get my mother," Kait said.

"What, no backup?" Joseph asked.

"There's no time!" Kait snapped.

"Alright," Joseph nodded, pushing himself up. "Then let's go."

The others all nodded, Joseph pulling Lizzie to her feet, and began to walk away from the mine.


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