Gears of War: The Novel.

We at Transmogrifer are proud to unveil for our devoted reader the following, entirely exclusive extract from The Pendulum Wars: The Battle of Aspho Fields by (as if he needs any introduction!) Steven Kent. Enjoy!

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Chapter Six: Bloody Spray

10.40 Hours. Gastric Entiitus IV

"Its quiet," muttered Marcus Fenix, half to himself. "Too quiet."

"I hear that, bro," replied Carl Jaster, a hulking brute of a man who was well known in the unit for the array of explicit grotesques tattooed onto his rippling back . "Bound to be-"

"Hey, you two!" snapped the Lieutenant. "Keep your fucking spacing!"


"Asshole," muttered Fenix, shooting a look at Dom, who was just up ahead.

"What was that, trooper?" the Lieutenant, a pale young rookie straight out of COG Academy, came pacing over.

"I said," muttered Fenix. He turned to face the Lieutenant down and muttered, right into his face, "You're an asshole."

"That's it, trooper, I'm gonna-"

The shot came out of nowhere. One moment, the Lieutenant was standing there, a pale young rookie straight out of COG Academy, the next he was standing there, a pale young headless corpse, jets of crimson blood spewing from the stump of his neck.

"Holy fuck!" yelled Cawley.

The building directly ahead of them, a once beautiful temple long since crumbed to ruin, erupted with gun fire.

"Get into cover! Get into cover!" Dom yelled, shoving the new recruits behind walls, behind wrecked cars, behind the twisted wreckage of trams, behind anything.

Bullets spilled over them like hot mercury. Cawley was hit, blood sprayed and he tumbled over onto his back. Blood sprayed.

"Get into cover!" Dom yelled. It was the only thing they could do. The only hope they had. To duck behind whatever obstacle was closest.

The rookies, nameless and masked and unimportant, were getting gunned down like cattle. If the Locust kept their fire up, the unit would be reduced to just four or five of the old salts in no time at all.

"Shit," muttered Fenix.

Carl was returning fire, firing blind over the top of the low wall he was crouched behind.

The rookie next to him took a hit.

"Keep in cover, you stupid bastards!" Dom yelled.

The sergeant was out in the open. He'd been hit. Blood was sprayed across the ground around him, lurid crimson on black.


"FRAG!" yelled Hamilton. The explosion tore apart one of the rookies, spraying blood all around.

"Shit," muttered Fenix.

"Bitch!" screamed Jaster.

"I gotta get the sarge," muttered Fenix.

"I'll cover you! Just get into cover, fast as you can!" yelled Jaster.

"I'm going."

"Go! Go!" Jaster reared up. The slightest glance ahead revealed the situation. Some of the Locust had broken cover, they were moving down towards the pinned unit. Jaster opened up. "Eat this, bitch!"

The first Locust was shredded by the gun fire. Blood sprayed.

"They're coming!" Jaster called. The veins in his neck pulsed. "Make your shots count!"

"I'm out!" cried one of the rookies.

"Rapid reload, you fuck! Don't they teach you anything in the fucking Academy?" snarled Lawrence. He shook his head in disbelief.

"FRAG!" yelled Hamilton.

The grenade arced over them, bounced, spewing black smoke. It exploded harmlessly, sending up a cloud of churned gravel.

Fenix jumped from cover to cover, slowly getting nearer to the sergeant.

"I'm coming, sarge!"

"No!" the sergeant yelled. "Don't! Stay in cover! Its suicide Fenix!"

"Shut up, you asshole," muttered Fenix. "I need some cover fire here!"

"More Locust! Coming in from the right!" yelled the rookie.



"Got 'em!" snarled Lawrence. He stood, aimed and opened up. The Locust tumbled, blood misting around them in bright, red sprays.

"Aren't I getting through to you ass holes?" muttered Fenix. "COVER FIRE!"

"Coming up!" shouted Dom, good old reliable Dom. He stepped over of cover and opened up, roaring. The veins in his neck pulsed.

Fenix discarded his weapon, leapt towards the sergeant.

"FRAG!" yelled Hamilton.

The explosion went off beside Fenix. He felt shrapnel tear his side. "Aww, bitch," he muttered.

"You fucks!" yelled Jaster. He reached for his own brace of grenades, scrounged from a shadowy corner in the last building they had been in. He hurled the grenades, up, overarm, at the Locust.

The flurry of explosions tore the Locust apart, but still more were spawning all around, crawling from their reeking, smoking holes.

"We gotta seal them up!" the rookie shouted.

"Jeez," snarled Lawrenson. "This kid's bright!"

Fenix staggered on, blood spraying from his gashed leg. "I got you, you old son of a bitch," he muttered, picking the sergeant up.

"Get into cover!" Dom yelled.

"I'm going," muttered Fenix. "I'm going."

He staggered towards the next low wall.

"Fenix you fuck!" gasped the sergeant. "You'll get a medal for this."

"Medals!" muttered Fenix.


And then he heard that same old cry of, "FRAG!"

"Aww, shi-"

But Fenix's laconic mutter never finished. The explosion blew him over, sent the sarge sliding away across the asphalt.

"Fenix! No!" Jaster stepped forward. A flurry of bullets tore his chest open. Blood sprayed everywhere. He collapsed onto his knees and keeled forward.

"I can't feel my FUCKING LEGS!" Fenix muttered.



"The locust-" the rookie stammered. "They're falling back!"

"Fenix must have scared the shit out of 'em," snarled Lawrence, reaching for a celebratory cigar.

Dom rushed to Fenix's side. "Medic!" he yelled. "Medic!"

"You asshole," muttered Fenix, blood spraying from his wounds, his mouth, from everywhere. "We haven't got any fucking medics."

"Shit," hissed Dom. "We have to revive him." He pulled out his defib pack, laid it across the gnarled chest plate of Fenix's battle armour.

"Will that work?" gasped the rookie.

"Sure. Better if we get him out of his kit, though," snarled Lawrence. "All this," he pounded his chest, "a bit impractical at times like this."

"Dom-" Fenix couldn't manage more than a weak mutter. "I can... I can only... see... a huge... its a huge red circle, Dom!"

Dom stared down at him and yelled, "What?"

"Red circle... growing larger... oh, Jesus!"

"No, Fenix! No!"

"Hit the fucking button, you asshole!" Lawrence snarled. "Hit the button!"

"I'm trying! Its not... its not working!"

"Oh no. They told us about this at the Academy," whispered the rookie, fighting back the tears. "In certain types of warzone, the defibs... they don't..."

And the red closed in on Fenix and he felt nothing more. The last thing he heard was Dom screaming, "We've got to get him back to the check point!"