When the Japanese arrived they planned and acted to own the islands with victory in the Pacific War. The Japanese Navy conveyed secret internal directives explicitly stating this intent and strategy 4. Mobilizing and protecting those resources required infrastructure and the labor to build it. So the Imperial occupiers enlisted the political elites among the occupied to mobilize that labor force — the romusha corps was thus pitched and organized as a patriotic voluntary service to the incipient nation of Indonesia.
The leading Indonesian nationalist, Soekarno, became the chief recruiter of romusha. The men were taken from villages on Java with the promise of good food, decent housing, medical care, and fair wages. The romusha were gathered at camps near rail or port transport hubs on Java and prepared for their duties at distant worksites. Indonesian caretakers at those camps largely provided what was promised.
The transiting romusha were housed and fed decently, drilled for discipline and camaraderie, and received expert medical care from superb Indonesian doctors.
The transit camps, many within plain sight of the Indonesian populace and their political leaders, provoked no concern for the treatment of enlisted romusha by the Japanese soldiers managing them. The Japanese thus not only tapped a vast labor pool for their war effort, they provided Indonesian leaders a means of demonstrating their loyalty by recruiting and training the romusha.
Indonesian responsibility for the care of the romusha, and ability to witness their treatment, ceased once they boarded their Japanese transport ships and sailed over the horizon.
Most of these men would not survive more than a few months of captive labor. By all accounts they immediately encountered almost complete neglect of their most basic human requirements: grossly inadequate rations and shelter, unremitting heavy labor, no medical care whatsoever in the face of endemic tropical diseases, and brutal beatings or summary execution for defiance, theft, or attempted escape. No one knows the actual number killed in this manner, but among the , romusha documented as leaving Java the vast majority were not documented only 52, of those were accounted for as repatriated 6.
Scores of labor sites were operated across Indonesia, and some romusha were exported to Burma, Thailand, and even Japan. Mortality at some sites is documented: 90, dead at the Cikotak Rail Line project in West Java 7 ; 70, at the Pekanbaru Rail Line project in Sumatra 8 , and among 1, romusha shipped to a site at Noemfoor in western New Guinea, only skeletal and diseased survivors were found alive by McArthur's troops a few months later 9.
There is no question that high rates of mortality occurred among the romusha, but absolute numbers evade documentation. Japanese management of romusha at their transit camps on Java represented a cruel deceit of them and their political leaders. Had their actual treatment been widely known at the time, the collaborating Indonesian elites and their Japanese allies, would likely have faced at least collapse of the labor program or even open rebellion against the occupation.
Japanese cruelty toward the romusha posed a serious threat to the guise of an occupation in the better interests of Indonesia and Indonesians. The facts of the romusha program and its political underpinnings sets the stage for understanding an event that occurred in early August at a romusha transit camp on the outskirts of Jakarta. The panicked caller from the romusha transit camp at Klender a few miles away pleaded for medical assistance.
Hundreds of romusha were contorted into bizarre postures and groaning in agony. A medical team was dispatched to investigate what they presumed to be a meningitis outbreak. Instead they ruled out meningitis and suspected acute tetanus when they learned all had been injected with vaccines a few days earlier.
Among the roughly stricken men the number estimated by Dr. Bader Johan who attended that first medical visit to the camp, Japanese sources cite an estimate of dead , they hurriedly evacuated 90 who had not yet fallen into rigors to the hospital. Within 24 hours those hospitalized had died of suspected acute tetanus despite desperate therapy with anti-tetanus toxin plasma.
Post-mortem tissue samples were taken from them and sent to the nearby Eijkman Institute for analysis by the bacteriology laboratory of Professor Achmad Mochtar, also the director of that institute.
Mochtar's laboratory confirmed the diagnosis and reported that the vaccines manufactured by the Japanese Army at a laboratory in Bandung, West Java formerly the Pasteur Institute operated by the Dutch had contained purified tetanus toxin.
The bacillus Clostridium tetani produces tetanus toxin, and the toxin is the agent of death due to acute tetanus rather than the bacterium per se. Mochtar's dutiful and honest report of these findings forced the Japanese to explain how vaccines they produced contained that toxin and had killed the romusha at Klender.
We know of these events thanks to the memoir of an Indonesian scientist who survived the persecution that followed, Dr. Ali Hanafiah 11 , corroborated by Mohammad Hatta Indonesia's first Vice President in an interview in the s by Theodore Friend 12 and other sources The Japanese army sealed the camp at Klender within hours of the 90 romusha being evacuated to hospital.
Requests to receive more patients for treatment were denied. The Japanese army removed the corpses from the hospital, presumably for mass burial with the dead and dying at Klender.
The Kenpeitai investigated the event during August and September before finally making arrests in early October. The arrests included the two Indonesian doctors from the municipal health service who had administered the injections, their boss Dr.
Marzoeki, and most of the scientific staff of the Eijkman Institute. Marzoeki survived and penned a powerful memoir of the cruelty of his treatment in the Kenpeitai jail Further, Ms. Nanny Kusumasudjana of Bogor, West Java, then just 23 years old and Mochtar's laboratory technician, survives in and provided verbal testimony of her experiences in Kenpeitai custody in connection with the Mochtar affair The Kenpeitai set about the task of extracting confessions from the arrested medical people by systematic and severe torture.
Their treatment included beatings, wash boarding, waterboarding, burnings, electrocutions, prolonged suspension in agonizing positions, and starvation rations.
These persisted for two months before one doctor succumbed under torture. Several survivors recalled the mutilated corpse of Dr. Arief being paraded before their cells in early December Arief's body bore the marks of many dozens of cigarette burns from head to toe, his face had been beaten beyond recognition, and his legs had been splayed open from ankle to buttocks by wash boarding tortures.
A week or so later, survivors recalled, during a rare moment of being able to speak to fellow prisoners, Prof. Mochtar communicated that their ordeal would soon be over and they would return home to their families.
He also expressed that he would not be released and was unlikely to survive. Mochtar had exchanged his signature on a confession of sabotaging the vaccines at Klender in exchange for the liberty of his colleagues and subordinates.
Indeed, during late December and January, all of those arrested were either released or transferred to regular prisons in the case of Marzoeki and the surviving health service doctor, Suleiman Siregar, who would later die in custody as a result of injuries sustained under torture. Seven months would pass before the Kenpeitai executed Mochtar at a remote site on the Jakarta waterfront. The Jakarta Kenpeitai Headquarters and jail circa The Japanese did not inform Mochtar's family of his death, and soon thereafter they relinquished control of Indonesia to British forces sent to disarm and repatriate them.
Certainty of his death would dawn only slowly with his failure to return, and decades would pass before certainty of his innocence in the Klender massacre would also emerge. The prestigious Eijkman Institute died slowly in the wake of the trauma of the Klender event and a cruel and bloody struggle with the Dutch for independence after the war.
It formally closed in The President of Indonesia, Soekarno, asserted Mochtar's guilt of mass murder even as late as that date Nonetheless, the Indonesian medical community, along with Mohammad Hatta persisted and prevailed in rejecting the Japanese coerced confession. In the s President Soeharto honored Mochtar posthumously with a prestigious national medal, and a major public hospital at Padang, West Sumatra, bears his name. The community of Mochtar's defenders presumed that the vaccine manufactured by the Japanese had been faulty rather than sabotaged.
However, survivor Hanafiah expressed in his memoir a belief that the romusha had been killed by deliberate placement of tetanus toxin in the vaccines by the Japanese for medical experimental purposes. Prior to meeting Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon, he said the Palestinians crossed a "red line" and that he "communicated that in no uncertain terms" to Palestinian leaders a day earlier.
Israel will be able to count on Canada's firm support in opposing any ICC action against the country, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said as he formally welcomed Baird before their meeting. Baird replied that "the great struggle of our generation is terrorism" — one Israel faces on the front lines. One Canadian official, who briefed The Canadian Press on condition they not be named, said Baird and Netanyahu met for almost an hour in the prime minister's office and discussed a range of issues, including "the Palestinian Authority's misguided attempt to accede to the Rome Statute.
The Rome Statute is the international treaty that led to the creation of the International Criminal Court, giving it jurisdiction over crimes against humanity and war crimes. On Dec. They then began to make their way to the Fenix Estate. After regrouping with Marcus and Dom in the courtyard, he ordered Baird to fix it while Cole guarded him and they got the data. Marcus and Dom return from the basement, and send them back to prepare the APC for extraction. As they head toward Timgad Station to deliver the targeting data to the train with the bomb, they find the Timgad Bridge is raised and uncrossable.
Baird heads with Marcus to raise the bridge. They find the bridge is out of power, and Delta is attacked by the Locust. After they defeat them, Baird realizes that the Locust were waiting for them, and that they knew what they were doing. After being ordered to stay and guard the APC with Cole while Marcus and Dom try to find a way to restore the power, Baird protests, saying there has to be a better way. However, Marcus shouted him down, telling him it was his squad, and his decision.
However, Marcus later found his path blocked by too many enemies, and contacted Baird and Cole to coordinate with Anya to find an alternate route. In a building overlooking Nassar Memorial Park , they talked to Marcus and Dom, and Baird directed them on where to go. Marcus ordered them to keep it away from the powerlines, and Cole got its attention so that it followed Baird and him.
After they thought they lost it, they headed back to the powerlines, only to have the Brumak show up again and be forced to keep running. They then headed to Timgad Central Energy to raise the bridge. However, Baird discovered that the Locust had been taking parts to the station underground, and worked with JACK to attempt to fix what he could. He directed Marcus to turn off several panels and switches to help in the repairs. He managed to get the power flowing, but needed something to connect two transformer blocks.
When they reached the station, Baird and the others battled against Locust forces as they waited for the train to pass by. As it did, Marcus and Dom jumped aboard, but Baird and Cole were unable to make it. They were picked up by a Raven with Col. Hoffman aboard, and Baird contacted Marcus to let him know they were on the way.
One week after the bombing, Baird had been promoted back up to Corporal and was on patrol with the rest of Delta-One in Ephyra , when they came under attack from a small group of Drones. During the battle, Dom's life was saved by an unknown sniper.
Baird shouted out for the sniper to show themselves, but he got no response. Marcus and Dom were curious about who out there was such a good shot and if it might be a Gear, but Baird pointed out no Gear would be Stranded and would have reenlisted in the army. After Dom and Cole scouted the area briefly for the sniper, Marcus got a report that Echo Squad was under attack along Sovereigns Boulevard , and they rushed to help.
Marcus had Baird and Cole cover him and Dom while they took out the Boomer, and once they succeeded, Baird and the rest of the Gears wiped out the remaining Drones. Harries Lancer, which had been lost when Harrie was killed. As they waited for Dom to return, they heard firing, and Baird, Cole, and Marcus rushed to see what was going on.
They found Dom with former sergeant Bernadette Mataki , who had startled him and caused him to open fire. Baird, unlike Cole, was unimpressed with her, and remained silent on the way back to Wrightman Base. When the COG learned that the Locust were trying to cut off access to the North Gate Agricultural Depot , a convoy was put together to evacuate the depot.
Baird was annoyed with the assignment, believing it would just be easier to let the Locust kill everyone at the depot, which would balance out the food situation. When Cole began tossing ration bars out of the APC to Stranded children, Baird tried to convince him to stop, but failed.
Baird and the others boarded KR A and headed to intercept the Drones. He took cover in a doorway and fired on the Locust when they turned the corner of the street. After all the Locust were down, Baird went from body to body and shot each one to make sure they were dead. After the convoy began moving out, part of the convoy was hit, and thirty grubs were spotted on the ground. Baird drove the APC to intercept the Locust.
After he reached the truck, he came under attack by Locust forces. Baird got him behind cover and held off the Drones until Cole and Bernie arrived, and the three of them killed all the Locust.
Baird then showed Bernie how to properly chainsaw a Locust, and pointed out the optimal places to attack them with it. Baird killed the Drone, and helped Bernie pick Tatton back up. As they walked toward the road, Baird paused to kick the dead Drone so hard it's guts fell out.
Federic Rojas in their APC. Cole took over driving, and they returned to Jacinto. After arriving at the barracks, Baird began cleaning his equipment. While working on his boot, Bernie asked him why Anya was still only a first lieutenant at her age. He told her there was no point in promotion, and that only assholes wanted them. She asked him if they made him a corporal because he was a reluctant asshole. He asked her how long she was going to keep up the insults, and Bernie said she would stop when he did.
He continued to clean his boots as Bernie talked to Cole about him writing to his dead mother , and Bernie's trek across Sera. He was disturbed to hear her mention she had done bad stuff and skinned more than just cats.
When Dom arrived and wanted to talk with Bernie alone, Baird and Cole headed down to the vehicle compound to wait for them so they could go out and recover the bodies that had been left behind during the evacuation. Bernie opened fire above their heads, and Baird supported her completely in demanding that the Stranded return all the parts of the truck. He warned them that he would know if they left anything out, and proceeded to put the truck back together. Bernie complemented him on his skills with machines, but Baird was confused when she didn't add an insult to the complement.
He remained silent on the way back to the barracks, and began playing a game of cards with the rest of the squad. When Marcus showed up, Baird insulted him, and questioned Bernie about what she had told Dom.
He wanted to know if it involved another screw-up by Marcus, which angered Bernie. She told him to shut up, and stood up, challenging Baird to a fight, and many Gears in the barracks stopped to watch. Baird stood as well, holding his ground as she charged at him, expecting her to try and kick him in the crotch. However, she punched him in the jaw just under the ear, sending him backwards into the wall and onto the ground.
Cole grabbed his shirt collar and told him to knock it off and play nice. The Gears returned playing cards, with Baird wisely choosing to stay quiet for the moment.
Reports had been received that the city was flooding, and Hoffman wanted it investigated. Baird suggested that the Lightmass Bomb had opened up underwater wells or rivers.
They arrived to find the whole city was completely flooded, and was now a lake. Major Gill Gettner , the pilot of the Raven, believed that a pocket of methane had sunk the city, but Baird insisted it was the Locust.
He pointed out how the elevation around the city indicated it had been sunk by something, and convinced the others it was the Locust. They rushed to assist, and Cole managed to wound the Brumak with a Boomshot. It was killed when one of its shots hit the canyon wall and buried it under a pile of rocks. Baird stopped the Centaur in a field, and talked with Marcus and Dom. He asked what their mission was, and they told him they were heading to Montevado to investigate seismic disturbances.
Baird told them he wouldn't be able to fix their APC, but Cpl. Michael Barrick found two Rat Bikes Delta could take instead.
Jace Stratton had saved, with them. Two months later, Baird and Cole were assigned to help Delta on their mission to Jilane. Hoffman and Anya briefed them on the mission to locate the old Birthing Creche in the city, with the help of Sgt. Alex Brand. A distress beacon had been detected in the city from the area of the creche, and the possibility that the women and children there were still alive was too great an opportunity to ignore. Baird was skeptical it was a good idea to go to the city, which had been in Locust hands for four months.
After the briefing, he joined the others in packing supplies for the mission and catching up. Dom asked him how the rest of Sigma was, and Baird told him that they were a bunch of idiots, always almost getting themselves killed, so that made them a lot like Delta. They then discussed the Alex, and Baird was doubtful she could scout anything out other than a beauty parlor. Cole then began saying that's why they called in Sigma, so because whenever there was a women in need of help, they needed the Cole Train, unaware that Alex was right behind him.
Baird and the other watched, amused, as she yelled incoming behind him, causing him to drop his beer, which she caught and thanked him for. As they continued to pack, Jace wondered what they would do if they actually found someone, but Baird told him that they wouldn't. She told him she didn't know where it was, annoying Baird, who thought that she had grown up there. Marcus told him to use a map, and he located it soon after. They first went to the wards, and discovered several mutilated bodies.
As they kept moving, Baird talked about how glad he was that once the war had started, people had stopped bugging him about settling down and starting a family. As they prepared to go through another set of doors, they were surprised to hear a voice behind them, and turned around to find a group of heavily armed women. They took cover behind a wall, and Marcus ordered them not to return fire, and tried to convince the women they were there to help.
Matron , the women's leader, ordered the Gears to drop their weapons and stand up slowly. Marcus agreed to surrender, but Baird protested until Marcus gave him another direct order. However, they were saved when the rest of the squad arrived and surrounded the women. They questioned the women and learned they had been surviving there since the fall of the city, protecting the children that had been left behind.
After determining they had not set off the beacon, Baird went with Marcus and Cole to continue trying to find the source while the others stayed with the women and children. After locating a mentally ill women holding the beacon, they tried to get her to drop it, but she activated it, drawing the Locust to their position. As the Locust began their attack, Molly dropped the beacon, and Baird shot it, stopping the signal.
They then began fighting their way to Dom and the others, but were unable to get a lock on their location due to jamming. They found themselves trapped by the Locust in a greenhouse, and when Molly would not stop laughing about their situation, he threatened to use her as a meat shield. They were saved by Alex and Annalisa arrived and killed the Locust, and they followed them back to a bunker where the others were taking cover.
Matron closed the door to the bunker before anyone could attempt to rescue him, and Baird ordered Dom and Cole to stand down, agreeing with Matron that they had larger priorities in getting the women and children to safety. Dom was angry with him, but Baird convinced him to back down. Cole asked Baird if he had a plan, and he told Cole to watch over Marcus while he came up with one.
Baird contacted Anya and told her that the mission was complete, and asked for three Ravens to evac them from a combat zone. Anya was worried about why Marcus wasn't contacting her, but he reassured her that he was alright. Annalisa questioned why the Locust didn't just shoot Marcus, and Baird told her they wanted to ambush whoever came to rescue them, leading him to realize either a Theron or Kantus was in charge of the drones.
He figured the Locust had superior numbers and likely owned the skies, and decided if it was a Theron, they would torque the door open, and if it was a Kantus, they would send in Tickers. He asked if anyone had seen Tickers, and Jace told him he had. Baird decided to let them the Locust into the bunker after they boobie-trapped it with grenades, while they escaped via tunnels.
He ordered Dom, Cole, and Jace to fire on the Locust, but make it seem like they were low on ammo. He would take Annalisa and Alex to kill the Locust leader while the others escaped, and then rejoin them.
As Jace and Thecelia led the children to safety, Baird set up a recording making it sound like children were running all over the building to distract the Locust. He, Annalisa, and Alex then got into position to ambush the Locust leader, and found a Scarred Kantus reviving a drone. After the ambush in the bunker succeeded, they opened fire on the Kantus when it became distracted, killing it. They all then regrouped, along with Marcus, who Dom had recovered.
Baird told the women they were all coming with them, since they were all COG assets. The argument was cut short when Alex spotted a large group of Locust reinforcements approaching. Baird was angry that they had spent time arguing instead of escaping, but Marcus told him to forget about it. Marcus asked Matron if there were any vehicles nearby, and she revealed that they had several trucks, but that they would not be leaving, and instead would be making a stand against the Locust.
Baird asked why they would do that, and she told him that it was better than becoming slaves in another birthing creche. He called them crazy, but Marcus said it didn't matter, and that they would take the children and whoever wanted to go.
Baird protested, saying their orders were to bring them all back, but Marcus didn't care, only wanting to save his squad and the children. After they got to the trucks and everyone boarded, Baird stayed behind to try and convince Matron and Annalisa to come along as well.
When he found them, he discovered that Alex had stayed behind as well to do the same thing. However, he was willing to use force to make them come with them, but Annalisa hit him in the face as Matron armed a bomb to take out the Locust and themselves.
Baird picked her up and carried her to the last remaining truck, while Alex failed to convince Matron to come with them. Alex drove the truck out of the city as the bomb went off, and they rejoined the rest of the squad in a convoy heading back to Jacinto. The rest of the squad contacted Baird and were relieved that they had made it, and he told them that they had gotten Annalisa as well.
After dropping the women and children off, Baird thanked Alex for saving his life, and she accepted. He then began working on repairing the trucks they had escaped in. On the road to Landown , Baird and the rest of Sigma saved Delta after their rig broke down by providing covering fire as it was being repaired. Their driver was killed, but they managed to deploy in their Grindlifts and enter the Hollow.
Baird's Grindlift jumpmate was Tanner , and thirty minutes after landing, he was sent an image of Kantus Scrolls that Marcus had found. He analyzed them, and was disturbed to discover they were made out of human skin. He translated some of the runes, and learned that they talked about the Locust talking to worms. Baird was even more worried by this, since their enemy was talking to worms and still outsmarting the COG. Tanner was killed, but Baird was rescued by Cole and Delta-One, and rejoined them.
He told them that the Locust were going to take him to be " processed ", and that people are being tortured on Beast Barges. They raided two of them, and find Cpl. Tai Kaliso in the second one. Marcus handed him a Gnasher , not realizing Tai's mental state, and was shocked when he kills himself.
Baird berates Marcus for giving him a weapon, and they quickly leave the barge. They fought their way back into the sunken city towards a chopper pick up, but the LZ came under attack. They managed to board the Raven under fire, but as it takes off, the Rift Worm arrives and knocked debris into it, and caused the Raven to crash inside the Rift Worm. Benjamin Carmine was killed inside the riftworm, but Baird and the rest of Delta managed to destroy all three of its hearts, killing the riftworm.
Once they arrive at the facility, Marcus orders Baird and Cole to stay with the Centaur while he and Dom look for the data. Baird is skeptical that anyone will attack them out in the middle of nowhere, but stays with the tank. After a short while, Marcus comms Baird and tells him he need a blast charge, and Baird asks if he wants it regular or extra strength.
Marcus tells him extra strength, and Baird quickly builds it before they make it back to the tank. As they carry it away, Baird warns them to get out of the blast radius, and not to drop it. When it appears that razorhail is on the way, Baird and Cole head inside the facility to take cover. Marcus orders him to find a way to get back to the Centaur as quick as he can.
However, the razorhail continued coming down, keeping Baird and Cole away from the Centaur, which began taking damage from the razorhail. When Marcus and Dom were almost back to the Centaur, the razorhail finally let up, but Baird needed to repair damage to the tank. Once he was done, Delta got in the tank and headed for the location of the Locust stronghold: Mount Kadar. When they arrived at Mount Kadar, Marcus piloted the Centaur up the mountain, with Baird complaining about his driving and fixing any damage to the tank along the way.
After they entered the mountain and fought their way below it, [77] they found a Stranded camp led by Chaps. He gave them information on where Nexus , the Locust stronghold, was, and Dom information on Maria. Marcus sent Baird and Cole back to the surface in the Centaur to get the Stranded to safety, much to Baird's annoyance. When he examined it briefly, he thought it looked like it might be some kind of jailer schedule, but he would need to take an in depth look later because they were getting ready for Grindlift prep.
Soon after, Baird was sent some more info that disturbed him: Marcus had found a necklace made from human fingers. Baird passed this disturbing information along to control, and wondered why the Locust would do that. They rejoined Marcus and Dom, and fought their way to the Locust Palace , while discovering that the Locust were involved in a civil war with the Lambent. Baird also examined a Locust calendar they found, and guessed that it was based on the ebb and flow of Imulsion.
He also examined some defense plans they found, and discovered the Locust were preparing for an attack from below them. They then discovered a recording in the Locust computers of Adam Fenix , Marcus's father.
It recommended that the Locust Hollows be flooded in order to defeat the Locust, an act which would require the sinking of Jacinto. Baird was skeptical it would work, but Marcus sent the information to command just in case they were unable to kill the Queen. They boarded Reavers themselves, with Baird flying one with Dom as the gunner, and Marcus and Cole on a seconded Reaver.
When they arrived in Jacinto, Marcus assigned Baird and Cole to help prepare a Lightmass Bomb to sink Jacinto while he and Dom cleared the target area. After Baird and Lt. Kevan Mitchell pulled Marcus and Dom off of the Brumak, Marcus used the Hammer of Dawn to take it out and cause it to explode, and begin the process of sinking Jacinto. Marcus ignored his question and told him that they should concentrate on the casualties, and Baird asked if anyone had heard from Cole.
He tried to contact him, but was unable to, and reassured himself that Cole would be at the RV point, and the comms network was just down. Marcus told him Cole had nine lives, and Baird said that Anya did as well, trying to do his best to reassure Marcus. As they flew over the city, they spotted a car trying to escape over a bridge, and Lt. Mel Sorotki set down in front of them to drop Marcus and Dom off to rescue them.
However, two Reavers attacked, forcing them up into the air to shoot them down. The rising water then flooded the bridge, sweeping the civilians away, but Marcus and Dom survived and got back onto the Raven. They then headed to the RV point, and Baird managed to raise Sgt.
Drew Rossi on the radio, and gave it to Marcus. However, when comms were reestablished, he found out that Dom had been forced to kill his wife down in the Hollow to end her suffering. During the flight, Baird clipped a safety line to the back of Dom's armor to make sure nothing happened to him. He was surprised to see a submarine among the fleet leaving Jacinto, and remarked that he had to find a way to get his hands on it.
After they pulled Bernie off of the building, Baird helped her into a seat and draped a blanket around her, much to her surprise.
He complimented her knife skills she had shown while dealing with a Drone that had climbed on the roof with her, and did his best to be polite to everyone. When she noticed Cole wasn't with them, Baird reassured her that he was okay, and listened as Marcus gave her a rundown on who had been killed. They were joined by Anya, and they discussed what they had heard about Maria's death. Baird couldn't believe that Dom had actually shot her because he had seemed so normal when they met up with him in Nexus.
Bernie told him to shut up, and that they would do what they could for Dom, but that Baird was not to offer him any advice. After the battle, he and Bernie located a wounded Drone , which Bernie pinned down while he questioned it as a large group of Gears gathered around and cheered them on. Bernie asked him if he would understand an answer if the drone gave him one, and he told her he was interested to find out.
Baird asked the drone why the Locust had attacked them when they had been fighting another war below the surface, and where they had even come from. The drone just roared back at him and weakly struggled to get free. Just as they were about to begin to torture it, Marcus arrived and convinced Bernie to shoot it, to Baird's great annoyance, but Marcus said he didn't care what any drone had to say. They then drove back to Port Farrall. One week later, Baird was on guard duty at one of the checkpoints leading into Port Farrall.
When Bernie arrived in an APC with four deer strapped to it, he told her that her vehicle camo sucked. He got into the APC and headed with her to the barracks, telling her about the number of civilians that had died that day. As they passed civilians, she asked him if there was a headcount on the number of civilians. He told her there wasn't, and that stragglers were still arriving, and that some had even left to join the Stranded.
They were both disgusted by that, and Baird asked her if she was lost, not knowing what to do now that the Locust were almost gone. He admitted that he didn't know what to do with himself either. He then attended Bernie's demonstration on how to prepare a deer, but it was interrupted when a riot broke out at the food distribution center. Baird examined the engineering of the docks, and was highly impressed with them.
When they spotted the others approaching, Baird mentioned that Dom looked like shit, and he and Cole talked about Dom's mental state. Once the others reached them, Marcus gave them flashlights, revealing that they navy had had a store of them.
Baird commented that he had wanted one during the war, and was not happy about having to go back underground. After Dom located an entrance to the tunnels, Baird stayed above ground to keep watch. He stayed in contact with the others over the comm, except Bernie, who went looking for the main entrance. He talked with them as they searched, and learned about them finding food, medical supplies, and tons of ammo. Baird then reported to the others he heard barking, and they all heard a shot ring out.
The others began following after Bernie, and Baird attempted to locate the main entrance above ground. He located it just as the others emerged, and found that they had been attacked by a large pack of feral dogs. Baird couldn't believe that they had been reduced to fighting dogs to survive, and headed back with the others to Port Farrall. Two days later, Locust attacked the food distribution center in Port Farrall. Baird, Bernie, and several other Gears fought off the initial attack, and were soon joined by the rest of Delta and Centaur tank.
Although the won the battle, several groups of civilians began leaving Port Farrall to join the Stranded, believing that the COG could no longer protect them. He wondered if he was supposed to say something before cremating the bodies, but decided that had already been done, and began cremating them. They then begin driving them back to the city in a Armadillo , but they encountered a civilian fleeing with his family in a truck.
Cole had him block the trucks path, wanting to try and convince the guy to stay in Port Farrall. Baird said they should take the truck instead, but Cole just ignored him. He failed to convince them to go back, and had Baird get out of their way.
Baird asked him why the family had been leaving, and Cole told him that they hadn't wanted to go through another evacuation, due to the rumors that the COG was going to move to an island. Baird didn't see what the problem was, since it would be warmer and far away from any remaining Locust.
Cole figured out that Baird was happy with the way things were, and he told Cole that it was because he had skills that a lot of people needed now, and that everybody knew he was useful. Once they got back to base, Baird began doing maintenance work on the 'Dill.
A few days later, Baird had acquired a Hammerburst , and went with the rest of Delta and Sigma-Four to hunt down a wounded drone that Sgt. Rory Andresen had encountered the night before.
He and Bernie discussed on if it was worth it to head down into the Locust tunnels and see if they could hunt down and kill every last Locust, but Bernie decided the COG was in no shape to launch such an assault. After finding a blood trail, they began following it, but found other trails and became more spread out.
Baird then had everyone stop and listen, and they picked out a Kantus screaming deeper into the forest. The ground around the Gears erupted , and drones and an assortment of Boomer variations charged the Gears. The Gears were forced back into mines, but got into some cover. Baird's goggles were destroyed, seriously pissing him off, and he charged a Butcher , ducking as it swung it's cleaver at him, which shaved a few hairs off his head and embedded itself in a tree.
The Butcher tried to pull it out, but Baird shoved his Hammerburst into its gut and fired several times, killing it. He then took the cleaver for himself. Bravo-Three arrived to provide reinforcements, and the last of the Locust were killed, but the Kantus continued to scream. The ground around the Gears erupted again, and more Drones and Boomers charged the Gears. Baird began gathering weapons and ammo from the dead Locust, gaining a large haul of cleavers and Hammerburst ammo.
He went with Cole to locate Bernie and give her a cleaver, but they found her stuck in a tree. She dropped down and Cole caught her, and hefted her over his shoulder to carry back to base. Baird handed her the cleaver, and headed back to help the other Gears gather the bodies of their fallen comrades.
Baird and Anya wondered what they would find on the island, and Baird joked that they might find Union of Independent Republics soldiers who didn't know the Pendulum Wars were over. As they flew over it, Baird spotted a house, and they discovered the island was still inhabited.
They located a small town, Pelruan , and landed on a cliff near the town. Baird stayed back and covered Marcus, Anya, and Bernie when went to talk with a group of people gathering in their path. After they convinced the townspeople they were not hostile, they went into the town.
Baird was happy to find that it was a COG enclave, and that they had had good luck for once. Nat Barber while the others investigated the base. After the others returned from inspecting the base and visiting the Stranded community on the island, Baird and the others were given quarters in the town hall.
The played cards until Cole asked Bernie about why she had gotten so upset upon seeing a blue dinghy at the Stranded settlement. She told them the story of how she had been raped by Stranded during her journey back to the COG, and how the boat belonged to the last surviving member of the gang that did it, and that she had killed the others brutally and slowly.
Baird told her that she had done the right thing, and not to worry about it. After she and Anya left the room to talk, Baird wondered how anyone could rape someone that old, and was disgusted by their actions.
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