Gears of War: What War Has Brought Us To

Chapter 3: You're One Of Us Now

The group of new Therons met outside of the training grounds. The former Grenadiers were now standing calmly, side-by-side, in groups of two. "I am General RAAM," the large Theron hissed. "I am now your teacher. You will obey my every command. I will train you to the highest of my abilities. Therons are only permitted to learn to much. Then, they rank up to Palace Guard which I also train further into Nexus.    Understood?" The Therons nodded but remained silent. RAAM continued. "You will no longer speak loudly and obnoxiously. You will speak in a silent whisper." The Therons nodded again and hissed "Yes..." while RAAM paced back and fourth in front of them. "You will learn to use new weapons, such as a torque bow which will be your primary weapon. I see some of you do not have one as you were asked to bring one." RAAM gave the Drone an evil look. "If you do not have a torque bow, step forward now." The Drone was the only one to step forward. RAAM handed him a torque bow that was connected to the back of his armor. "This is my personal torque. You may use it for today. After today, bring your own, or you'll regret it." The Drone nodded. "Now, you will all get assigned numbers to recognize you by." He called fourth the Theron that was closest to him. "You will be Theron 001." "Yes..." hissed the new Theron. About 30 minutes passed and the Drone had stopped paying attention to RAAM giving the Therons their assigned numbers. When RAAM finally got to the Drone, he looked hesitant. "I don't want to do this, I don't feel like you deserve the title of Theron. You never worked for it. But I suppose this is an exception. You will be Theron 208." 208 nodded. "You will be... You will be..." is all he heard for the next hour or so. It went faster than he had expected. The Therons were staying well behaved. It's like they were completely different locusts now. They didn't insult each other, they didn't hit each other. Maybe it was because of the presence of this high and mighty general. "First," RAAM hissed. "You will be trained to use the torque bow. Go back to the training ground. We will practice there." When they got there, there were a series of humans in cages begging to be let free. The other Therons laughed at their misery. "Ssssuffferrrr...." one hissed. The other ones tauntingly aimed their torque bows at them and snickered when they retreated to the back of their cages in fear. "These will be your practice subjects," said RAAM. "The cages will move back and fourth, left to right, and in random directions. The first level is just left to right. Now," The Therons were now snickering watching the humans tremble with fear and not paying attention to RAAM. "Let's see what you can do without any tips. 208! You can go first..." RAAM looked at him with a slight smirk as if he expected him to fail. 208 walked forward. "Stand here on the X." The cage began to move back and fourth. It was about twenty feet away from where he was standing. The human's pleading eyes begged him not to shoot. He had no pity for humans. As the cage swung to the left, he pointed the torque a bit more to the left. The other Therons were completely silent. He expected them to be laughing and taunting him. He let go of the trigger. Not expecting anything to actually happen, all of a sudden, an explosion of blood and guts flew everywhere. RAAM looked shocked that he had succeeded. Another caged human was brought out. The human seemed to know that he could not escape. He had given up and was just sitting on the floor of the cage. The cage began swinging in a figure 8 motion. He aimed, shot, and another explosion of blood and guts flew everywhere. The Therons remained silent while RAAM seemed even more shocked. "You're... quite skilled for a drone."208 nodded as the third and final caged human was brought out. This human was trying desperately to bend the cage bars get out. The Therons snickered behind 208. What hope did this human even have of getting out, and if he did, what would he do? Get mauled by a giant locust general, along with hundreds of training Therons? He aimed. The cage began flailing itself around in random directions, throwing the human around inside with it. The human screamed begging him not to shoot. It was too late. He had let go of the trigger and, once again, an explosion of blood and guts rained down. Moans still came from the cage, however. RAAM walked up to the cage, confused. The human was lying at the bottom of the cage somehow still alive but barely conscious. His organs were scattered over the floor of the cage and one his his arms were blown off. RAAM motioned for 208 to come closer. He walked up to the cage, confused as well. RAAM pulled a shotgun out of his belt. "End him." He hissed with a slight snicker. 208 took the gun and aimed it to the barley alive human's head. With a simple pull of the trigger, he was gone. The rest of the Therons were trained the same way. Three caged humans each. When the last Theron finally had his turn, RAAM walked to the front of the room and motioned for everyone to gather around. "This was a successful training day. But for now, it is over. There are rooms for you to stay for the night. I don't suggest going back to your personal assigned areas tonight. The rift worm is very active and it's unsafe. But to each their own." RAAM pointed down a corridor. "In the last door, to the right, there is a room with beds. Get some rest. We are getting up early to start day two of training. You are dismissed." Finally, 208 was relieved to take his helmet off. It was hard to breathe and see in it. "One last thing," RAAM mentioned. "Make sure you keep your armor by your bedside. If someone would happen to steal it or if it got lost, I cannot replace it. You will need it for future training. I expect you to stay organized, Therons. Tomorrow you will be put assigned to stations depending on your skill. That is all. Goodnight." RAAM left the room and the rest of the Therons filed into the room one by one. There was surprisingly enough beds for all of them. The beds were stacked above each other and lied in rows beside each other. There was only about two feet of height between each one and they were connected at the sides. The beds went all the way up to the ceiling. 208 had to crawl over some of them to get to an available one by the wall. He removed his armor and placed it next to the wall on his bed. He still had RAAM's torque bow. The beds weren't exactly comfortable, but they didn't need to be. It was going to be a long night.