Gears of War: What War Has Brought Us To

Chapter 1: Welcome To Nexus

He walked forward with his heavy boots making the stone floors and metal grates tremble. Unaware of how loud his steps were, he neared the entrance to Nexus, the innermost part of the hollow. Hesitating at first, he slowly took a step into the large arched doorway in front of him. It was not as menacing as he had expected. There weren't any guards and it was quiet. Not far inside was a torture barge getting ready to let a group of drones and a Theron Guard off. The Theron silently hissed orders to the drones who replied in a loud, obnoxious manner. "Move forward," hissed the Theron. They walked off, presumably to the next torture barge. He, only a Drone, quickly walked toward the barge, hoping he wouldn't be spotted. Drones weren't meant to be alone in the hollow. They should always be in a group with a Theron guiding them. He pulled himself up the ladder to the top level where all of the imprisoned humans were kept. Cages with human bodies dangled from the top level of the barge. Arms, legs, heads were ripped off, some of the bodies were ripped in half and some of them still seemed as though they were screaming. "What are you doing here?" Hissed a Palace Guard, a higher ranking Theron, who seemed to appear from nowhere. His voice was deep and menacing. Palace guards were very rarely seen outside of the palace. "Well?" His voice echoed off the palace walls. "My group and our Theron Sentinel were killed by ground walkers, sir. I came here in search of a new group to join." The guard seemed annoyed. "You shouldn't have come to Nexus unless you had an escort," he replied. "The queen has enough to worry about and doesn't need scum like you roaming around here." Two Armored Kantus suddenly emerged from a doorway leading outside of the barge. "These two will escort you to a Theron squad," the guard hissed. "There you will be trained for Theron duty, since we don't have the time to send you all the way back to the outer hollow. Get out of my sight." With a quick hand motion, the guard ordered the two Kantus away. Each grabbed one of his arms and took him outside. "We should teach you a lesson for coming here unauthorized!" One of the Kantus growled. "Yeah!" the other one added, "You think you're as good as us?" Suddenly, the queen's voice boomed over the speakers lining the hallways of the palace. "All locust, report to your assigned training quarters!" Her voice echoed for what felt like an eternity. The Kantus stopped their taunting and once again, grabbed his arms. They were much bigger than him and were covered, head-to-toe, in armor, so it would be useless to even try fight back. They pulled and pushed him down long corridors of which he'd never even seen before. They passed butchers who laughed a devilish laugh at him, waving their cleavers at him, growling that they'd eat him. Grenadiers taunted, "The hell is a little grub doing down here! Beat the shit outta' him!" They all laughed like they had just heard the best joke in years. Finally, they reached what looked like a giant gateway. The gates slowly opened, with a deafening screeching sound. The Drone cringed but the Kantus seemed unaffected. They escorted him through the gates where there was a long corridor that broke off into different rooms. The Kantus, finally stopping their torture, guided him slowly to one of the rooms. When he was in the doorway, they pushed him in and slammed the door shut. He could hear them laughing from the other side. Armored Kantus were even more rare than palace guards. Few Kantus were skilled enough to reach the rank of armored Kantus. That is the only reason he respected them.