As kids, the three of them were inseparable; as soldiers, they were torn apart. Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago fought alongside Dom's elder brother Carlos at Aspho Fields in the epic battle that changed the course of the Pendulum Wars. There's a new war to fight now, a war for mankind's very survival. But while the last human stronghold on Sera braces itself for another onslaught from the Locust Horde, ghosts come back to haunt Marcus and Dom. For Marcus-decorated war hero and convicted traitor-the return of an old comrade threatens to dredge up an agonizing secret he has sworn to keep.As the beleaguered Gears of the Coalition of Ordered Governments take a last stand to save mankind from extermination, the harrowing decisions made at Aspho Fields have to be relived and made again. Marcus and Dom can take anything the Locust Horde throws at them, but will their friendship survive the truth about Carlos Santiago?
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About the Author
Karen Traviss is a former defense correspondent and TV and newspaper journalist. She has worked in public relations for the police and local government, and has served in the Royal Naval Auxiliary Service and the Territorial Army. The New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of City of Pearl, Crossing the Line, The World Before, Matriarch, Triple Zero, and over a dozen Star Wars novels, she lives in Wiltshire, England. David Colacci has been an actor and a director for over thirty years, performing coast-to-coast in lead roles of plays by a variety of playwrights, from Shakespeare to Sam Shepard to Steve Martin. He has worked as a narrator for over fifteen years, during which time he has read the works of such authors as Jules Verne, Henry Adams, John Irving, Michael Chabon, and John Lescroart. He has won AudioFile Earphones Awards, earned Audie nominations, and been included on Best of Year lists by such publications as Publishers Weekly, AudioFile magazine, and Library Journal. David was a resident actor/director with the Cleveland Play House for eight years and has been artistic director of the Hope Summer Rep Theater since 1992. He currently lives in New York with his wife, narrator and actress Susan Ericksen, and his children, Mario and Elena.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
CHAPTER 1
I swear I thought the place was a museum when I walked in. I mean, it was huge, full of books and old paintings. And deserted, you know? That kind of dead silence that says just shut your mouth and feel the awe of history. And then Marcus’s mom came through the door like she hadn’t seen us, reading some papers she had in her hand, and she says, “Hi sweetheart, you brought some friends home? I’ll catch up with you later.” Then she was gone. I saw the look on Marcus’s face, and knew right then that the guy needed a brother a whole lot more than he needed a library.
(Carlos Santiago, describing his first visit to Marcus Fenix’s family mansion at the age of ten.)
Ephyra, present day–14 A.E.
Dom Santiago decided that there was one good thing about a phantom sniper blowing a Locust’s brains all over his face. It took his mind off worrying how many Locust were still around. His legs were shaking as he moved to the edge of the pit that had opened in the paving and aimed his rifle below, just in case the grubs had backup on the way. The shakes were just the aftershock of the adrenaline, but–
Liar. I nearly shit myself. The grub was choking the life out of me, a round missed my brain by inches. That’s fear. Forget the adrenaline.
No, it never stopped being terrifying. The day it did, he’d really be dead. In the tangle of broken pipes and cables below, nothing stirred beyond the clicking of settling soil and stones. Dom couldn’t feel anything under his boots now except the slight rocking movement of broken paving. The vibrations from deep in the planet had vanished for the time being, and the smell of chargrilled dog had been overwhelmed by shattered bowels and pulverized concrete.
“Hey, smart-ass,” Baird called to the empty street. “Nice shot. Now show yourself.”
“Better shout louder,” Cole said. “He could be a mile away.”
It was always hard to spot a sniper. But in this maze of destruction and shadows, there were a thousand places to lay up and wait for trade. Marcus squatted down and examined what was left of the Locust’s skull again. Then he looked up and gestured in the general direction of the south side of the street.
“No, a lot closer. The round went in near the top of the skull. High angle, and a lot of kinetic energy left.”
Dom looked where Marcus was pointing, trying to work out where the sniper would have had clear line of sight. Marcus backed slowly to the nearest wall and pressed his fingers to his earpiece. Dom listened in.
“Delta to Control, any sniper teams to the south of Embry? Any Gears at all?”
“Negative, Delta.” It was Lieutenant Stroud: Anya Stroud, still on duty after eighteen hours. The woman never seemed to sleep. If Delta Squad was awake–so was she. “Need one?”
“Not anymore.”
“Don’t leave me in suspense, Sergeant...”
“We’ve got a joker loose with an obsolete sniper rifle. He’s helpful now, but he might not stay that way.”
“Thanks for the heads- up. I’ll put out an advisory.”
Cole was still focused on the roofline. Baird lowered his Lancer and started walking again. “Let’s get out. Maybe they got a sudden dose of patriotism and realized they owe us, now the war’s nearly over.”
“Maybe,” Marcus said, “he was aiming at Dom and missed. And it’s not over.”
“Stranded never fire on us. They’re not that dumb.”
“Old rifle. Great shot.” Marcus reloaded, casual and apparently in no hurry. “So I’m curious.”
Baird didn’t look back as he picked his way over fallen masonry. “Plenty of Stranded are good shots. Doesn’t mean we have to go find them and enlist them.”
Baird had a point. As long as nobody was shooting at them, it wasn’t their problem. But if someone had a sniper rifle, Dom knew it was stolen. Obsolete or not, the things were scarce. A handful of factories struggled to produce spares, let alone crank out new weapons. Every operational piece of kit, from Ravens to Armadillos to assault rifles, was a losing battle between maintenance and decay. Like all Gears, Dom cannibalized parts from anything he could grab. Baird was a master at it.
“Yeah, we need to know,” Dom said. “Because if the rifle isn’t stolen, that means the owner’s one of us. A veteran.”
Baird paused to pick up something. When he held it closer to his face to examine it, Dom could see it was a servo part of some kind. “It’s old kit and they’re thieving scum.” Baird pocketed the servo.
“Because no Gear is going to hang around with street vermin if he’s capable of shooting.”
Again, the cocky little bastard was right. Dom wanted to see him proved wrong someday, if only to shut his mouth for a while. Yes, veteran Gears reenlisted after Emergence Day, even some really old guys, because there were two choices for any man worth a damn: fight with the COG forces, any way he could–or rot. The only excuse for not fighting the Locust was being dead.
“Every rifle counts,” Dom called after him. No, the war wasn’t over. “And every man.” He turned to Marcus and gestured toward the likely direction of fire. “Give me ten minutes.”
“You’ve got me curious, too,” Cole said, resting his Lancer against his shoulder. “I think I’ll join you.”
Marcus sighed. “Okay, but keep your comm channels open. Baird? Baird, get your ass back here.”
Half of this city block had been a bank’s headquarters, surrounded by snack and coffee shops that lived off the army of clerks. It was all derelict now. Dom could just about remember how it had looked before E- Day, the ranks of neatly wrapped sandwiches in the window displays, filled with the kind of delicacies nobody could get hold of now. Food in the army was . . . adequate, better than anything that Stranded had. But it wasn’t fun.
Dog. Damn, who’d eat a dog?
The glittering granite façade was just a shell now, with a few hardy plants rooted in cracks in the ashlars. Nothing much grew here. It didn’t get the chance. Dom and Cole edged inside the burned- out bank and looked up to see that there were no floors, and nowhere to hide. It was a big empty box. Everything that could be hauled away and reused–wood, metal, cable, pipes–had been scavenged long before.
“Well, shit,” Cole said cheerfully. “I had my fortune stashed here.”
Cole had been a pro thrashball star, a rich man in a world long gone. Wealth was measured in skills and barter now. He always treated his worthless millions as a big joke; he could find humor in just about any situation. But there was nothing much left to buy that a Gear needed. Dom decided that when life returned to normal–even after fourteen years, he had to think that it could–he’d follow Cole’s example and treat money as easy come, easy go. People were what mattered. You couldn’t replace them, and they didn’t earn interest. They just slipped away a day at a time, and you had to make the most of every precious moment.
When I find Maria, I won’t take a single minute for granted.
Dom scanned the interior and peered down into a deep crater where the polished marble counter had once been. Nothing moved, but he could see the old vaults, doors blown open. “Yeah, better cancel the order for that yacht.”
“Hey, Dom, you won’t find no snipers down there.” Cole shoved him in the shoulder. “Heads up.”
The back of the bank building was a sloping mound of rubble and debris, like scree that had tumbled down a mountainside. Above the ramp of brick, stone facing, and snapped joists, the rear wall rose like a cliff and the top row of empty window frames formed deep arches. Now that was a good position for a sniper–depending on what was behind the wall, of course. Dom slung his Lancer across his shoulders and scrambled up the slope for a better look.
“Nobody home, Dom.” Cole followed him. “Don’t you get enough exercise?”
“Just want a look- see from the top.” Dom grabbed at a rusted steel bar and hauled himself up the stumps of joists that jutted from the wall. His oversized boots weren’t ideal for climbing and he had to rely on his upper body strength more than momentum from his legs, so getting down again was going to be interesting. “Because he’d have to be at this height to get that shot in.”
Dom heaved himself onto a windowsill and stood with his hands braced against the stone uprights on either side. It was a big solid wall, built like a bastion, and thick enough for him to stand on comfortably even in a Gear’s boots. On the other side, adjacent buildings in various states of collapse provided crude stairs down to ground level. If anyone had been up here, he’d had a relatively easy route down.
“See anything?” Cole called.
“Usual shit.” Dom scanned one- eighty degrees. “Not exactly a postcard to send home. Unless you live in an even bigger cesspit.”
Below, the city still looked like a deserted battlefield, sterile and treeless. Smoke curled upward in thin wisps from domestic fires Dom couldn’t see. There was a visible demarcation between the parts of the city that stood on thick granite–the last COG stronghold–and the outlying areas where fissures and softer rock let the L... --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
I swear I thought the place was a museum when I walked in. I mean, it was huge, full of books and old paintings. And deserted, you know? That kind of dead silence that says just shut your mouth and feel the awe of history. And then Marcus’s mom came through the door like she hadn’t seen us, reading some papers she had in her hand, and she says, “Hi sweetheart, you brought some friends home? I’ll catch up with you later.” Then she was gone. I saw the look on Marcus’s face, and knew right then that the guy needed a brother a whole lot more than he needed a library.
(Carlos Santiago, describing his first visit to Marcus Fenix’s family mansion at the age of ten.)
Ephyra, present day–14 A.E.
Dom Santiago decided that there was one good thing about a phantom sniper blowing a Locust’s brains all over his face. It took his mind off worrying how many Locust were still around. His legs were shaking as he moved to the edge of the pit that had opened in the paving and aimed his rifle below, just in case the grubs had backup on the way. The shakes were just the aftershock of the adrenaline, but–
Liar. I nearly shit myself. The grub was choking the life out of me, a round missed my brain by inches. That’s fear. Forget the adrenaline.
No, it never stopped being terrifying. The day it did, he’d really be dead. In the tangle of broken pipes and cables below, nothing stirred beyond the clicking of settling soil and stones. Dom couldn’t feel anything under his boots now except the slight rocking movement of broken paving. The vibrations from deep in the planet had vanished for the time being, and the smell of chargrilled dog had been overwhelmed by shattered bowels and pulverized concrete.
“Hey, smart-ass,” Baird called to the empty street. “Nice shot. Now show yourself.”
“Better shout louder,” Cole said. “He could be a mile away.”
It was always hard to spot a sniper. But in this maze of destruction and shadows, there were a thousand places to lay up and wait for trade. Marcus squatted down and examined what was left of the Locust’s skull again. Then he looked up and gestured in the general direction of the south side of the street.
“No, a lot closer. The round went in near the top of the skull. High angle, and a lot of kinetic energy left.”
Dom looked where Marcus was pointing, trying to work out where the sniper would have had clear line of sight. Marcus backed slowly to the nearest wall and pressed his fingers to his earpiece. Dom listened in.
“Delta to Control, any sniper teams to the south of Embry? Any Gears at all?”
“Negative, Delta.” It was Lieutenant Stroud: Anya Stroud, still on duty after eighteen hours. The woman never seemed to sleep. If Delta Squad was awake–so was she. “Need one?”
“Not anymore.”
“Don’t leave me in suspense, Sergeant...”
“We’ve got a joker loose with an obsolete sniper rifle. He’s helpful now, but he might not stay that way.”
“Thanks for the heads- up. I’ll put out an advisory.”
Cole was still focused on the roofline. Baird lowered his Lancer and started walking again. “Let’s get out. Maybe they got a sudden dose of patriotism and realized they owe us, now the war’s nearly over.”
“Maybe,” Marcus said, “he was aiming at Dom and missed. And it’s not over.”
“Stranded never fire on us. They’re not that dumb.”
“Old rifle. Great shot.” Marcus reloaded, casual and apparently in no hurry. “So I’m curious.”
Baird didn’t look back as he picked his way over fallen masonry. “Plenty of Stranded are good shots. Doesn’t mean we have to go find them and enlist them.”
Baird had a point. As long as nobody was shooting at them, it wasn’t their problem. But if someone had a sniper rifle, Dom knew it was stolen. Obsolete or not, the things were scarce. A handful of factories struggled to produce spares, let alone crank out new weapons. Every operational piece of kit, from Ravens to Armadillos to assault rifles, was a losing battle between maintenance and decay. Like all Gears, Dom cannibalized parts from anything he could grab. Baird was a master at it.
“Yeah, we need to know,” Dom said. “Because if the rifle isn’t stolen, that means the owner’s one of us. A veteran.”
Baird paused to pick up something. When he held it closer to his face to examine it, Dom could see it was a servo part of some kind. “It’s old kit and they’re thieving scum.” Baird pocketed the servo.
“Because no Gear is going to hang around with street vermin if he’s capable of shooting.”
Again, the cocky little bastard was right. Dom wanted to see him proved wrong someday, if only to shut his mouth for a while. Yes, veteran Gears reenlisted after Emergence Day, even some really old guys, because there were two choices for any man worth a damn: fight with the COG forces, any way he could–or rot. The only excuse for not fighting the Locust was being dead.
“Every rifle counts,” Dom called after him. No, the war wasn’t over. “And every man.” He turned to Marcus and gestured toward the likely direction of fire. “Give me ten minutes.”
“You’ve got me curious, too,” Cole said, resting his Lancer against his shoulder. “I think I’ll join you.”
Marcus sighed. “Okay, but keep your comm channels open. Baird? Baird, get your ass back here.”
Half of this city block had been a bank’s headquarters, surrounded by snack and coffee shops that lived off the army of clerks. It was all derelict now. Dom could just about remember how it had looked before E- Day, the ranks of neatly wrapped sandwiches in the window displays, filled with the kind of delicacies nobody could get hold of now. Food in the army was . . . adequate, better than anything that Stranded had. But it wasn’t fun.
Dog. Damn, who’d eat a dog?
The glittering granite façade was just a shell now, with a few hardy plants rooted in cracks in the ashlars. Nothing much grew here. It didn’t get the chance. Dom and Cole edged inside the burned- out bank and looked up to see that there were no floors, and nowhere to hide. It was a big empty box. Everything that could be hauled away and reused–wood, metal, cable, pipes–had been scavenged long before.
“Well, shit,” Cole said cheerfully. “I had my fortune stashed here.”
Cole had been a pro thrashball star, a rich man in a world long gone. Wealth was measured in skills and barter now. He always treated his worthless millions as a big joke; he could find humor in just about any situation. But there was nothing much left to buy that a Gear needed. Dom decided that when life returned to normal–even after fourteen years, he had to think that it could–he’d follow Cole’s example and treat money as easy come, easy go. People were what mattered. You couldn’t replace them, and they didn’t earn interest. They just slipped away a day at a time, and you had to make the most of every precious moment.
When I find Maria, I won’t take a single minute for granted.
Dom scanned the interior and peered down into a deep crater where the polished marble counter had once been. Nothing moved, but he could see the old vaults, doors blown open. “Yeah, better cancel the order for that yacht.”
“Hey, Dom, you won’t find no snipers down there.” Cole shoved him in the shoulder. “Heads up.”
The back of the bank building was a sloping mound of rubble and debris, like scree that had tumbled down a mountainside. Above the ramp of brick, stone facing, and snapped joists, the rear wall rose like a cliff and the top row of empty window frames formed deep arches. Now that was a good position for a sniper–depending on what was behind the wall, of course. Dom slung his Lancer across his shoulders and scrambled up the slope for a better look.
“Nobody home, Dom.” Cole followed him. “Don’t you get enough exercise?”
“Just want a look- see from the top.” Dom grabbed at a rusted steel bar and hauled himself up the stumps of joists that jutted from the wall. His oversized boots weren’t ideal for climbing and he had to rely on his upper body strength more than momentum from his legs, so getting down again was going to be interesting. “Because he’d have to be at this height to get that shot in.”
Dom heaved himself onto a windowsill and stood with his hands braced against the stone uprights on either side. It was a big solid wall, built like a bastion, and thick enough for him to stand on comfortably even in a Gear’s boots. On the other side, adjacent buildings in various states of collapse provided crude stairs down to ground level. If anyone had been up here, he’d had a relatively easy route down.
“See anything?” Cole called.
“Usual shit.” Dom scanned one- eighty degrees. “Not exactly a postcard to send home. Unless you live in an even bigger cesspit.”
Below, the city still looked like a deserted battlefield, sterile and treeless. Smoke curled upward in thin wisps from domestic fires Dom couldn’t see. There was a visible demarcation between the parts of the city that stood on thick granite–the last COG stronghold–and the outlying areas where fissures and softer rock let the L... --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good . . .not great,
By
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This review is from: Gears of War Aspho Fields (Paperback)
If you are a Gearhead (Gears of War Fan) you will love this book as it really fleshes out the main characters back stories. It will answer some long standing questions & create some new ones. This book reads well & is good escapist fun. I'm usually not one to buy a novel from a video game, but Gears is different here because the 1st game doesn't give any back story really. It just throws you in the middle of the fray. That being said I enjoyed the novel & look forward to the next one in the planned trilogy.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Essential reading for any gears fan,
By V. Santore (Voorhees, NJ, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Gears of War Aspho Fields (Paperback)
If you have played the gears of war games, this should be defined as essential reading. You learn a lot about Marcus, Dom, Anya and Maria's backstory, as well as learn about Dom's brother Carlos. It also is not conflicting with the game at all; everything seems to flow. It is very well written, and its at a great reading level for everyone. Also, if you have read any star wars books by the same author, you will certainly enjoy this book.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very good book,
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Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Gears of War Aspho Fields (Paperback)
Aspho Fields bridges Gears 1 and 2 and not only expands the characters introduced in the first game as well as introduces new characters that you meet in the second game, but also tells a great story that provides background information to the main characters. Dom's background story, including his relationship with his wife, is explored, providing context for the sappier parts of the second game. I found this book immensely enjoyable as it took some characters I was familiar with, gave them deeper personalities and back story, and told a great story at the same time. I highly recommend it for any fan of the Gears of War series.
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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs):
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adam fenix, bike guy, aspho fields, victor hoffman Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Bai Tak, Professor Fenix, Embry Star, Major Stroud, Bernie Mataki, Pendulum Wars, Anya Stroud, College Green, Marcus Fenix, Eduardo Santiago, Carlos Santiago, Anvil Gate, North Gate, Sea Raven, Nina Kladry, Marcus Carlos, Agent Settile, Boomer Lady, King Raven, Sergeant Mataki, Hammer of Dawn, Aspho Point, Dom Santiago Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Surprise Me!
adam fenix, bike guy, aspho fields, victor hoffman Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Bai Tak, Professor Fenix, Embry Star, Major Stroud, Bernie Mataki, Pendulum Wars, Anya Stroud, College Green, Marcus Fenix, Eduardo Santiago, Carlos Santiago, Anvil Gate, North Gate, Sea Raven, Nina Kladry, Marcus Carlos, Agent Settile, Boomer Lady, King Raven, Sergeant Mataki, Hammer of Dawn, Aspho Point, Dom Santiago Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Surprise Me!
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