Cole Train

Augustus Cole is a COG soldier that serves under Marcus Fenix. He is often recognized by characters in the game for his previous career as a "thrashball" defensive lineman. Cole possesses a vibrant and often outspoken character, and is extremely enthusiastic in combat. Cole, along with Baird, is member of Alpha Squad, but joins Delta Squad after being rescued.

Change in Career

Beginning with events set fourteen years after Emergence Day, the day on which the residents of Sera were enlightened to the existence of the Locust. Marcus Fenix, a former COG soldier, is reinstated into the military after spending four years in prison. Dominic Santiago successfully extracts him from the prison, and takes him to meet Delta Squad. The group seeks to obtain the "resonator", a device that will map the Locust Tunnels, and later deploy the "Lightmass Bomb", which will destroy the heart of the Locust forces. Fenix and his allies recover the device, but suffer multiple casualties in the process. Amidst the chaos, Fenix leads the remaining soldiers through the ruins of Sera, to a mining facility, and finally into the planet’s depths.

Delta Squad succeeds in detonating the resonator, but only to shortly discover that the device failed to map the entire tunnel network. Fortunately, they discover a larger map of the network that originates from Fenix’s old home, specifically his father’s laboratory. The group ventures to the Fenix estate at East Barricade Academy, encountering heavy Locust resistance. The data is collected, the group fights their way past Locust boards a train carrying the Lightmass Bomb. Fenix and Santiago battle their way through the train, and defeat the Locust's leader, General Raam, before finally uploading the data. Fenix activates the bomb while Santiago escapes onto a helicopter and then, with the help of Colonel Hoffman, pulls Fenix onboard after the Bomb is activated. Fully activated, the Lightmass Bomb launches into Sera's underground, and eradicates the Locust tunnel networks. In the game's final sequence, Hoffman delivers a victory speech as the tunnels collapse and explode, whereupon the voice of the Locust Queen, Myrrah, promises that the Locust will keep on fighting, and will not stop.

Locust’s Revenge

With the COG army continuing to lose large numbers to Locust raids, the COG plan a counter-attack against the Locust by sending troops in Grindlifts deep below the surface to attack the home of the Locust, the Hollow. Though they suffer losses due to the leader of the Kantus monks, Skorge, the human forces continue their plan. After their descent, Delta squad, consisting of Marcus Fenix, Dominic "Dom" Santiago and Benjamin Carmine, later joined by Augustus Cole, begin to search the Hollow and discover that the Locust are taking prisoners, as they managed to save Damon Baird from imprisonment. Delta squad finds another imprisoned squad member, Tai Kaliso, who has suffered wounds inflicted by the Locust while torturing him. Though Marcus tries to arm Tai for a fight, Tai instead commits suicide, the emotional trauma too much for him to bear. Delta squad continues to search the Hollow and discovers that the Locust are using a giant Riftworm to eat away at the rock structures at the outskirts of Jacinto in hopes of sinking it. They try to evacuate, but are swallowed by the Riftworm. The squad manages to kill the worm from the inside, but Carmine is killed by parasites.

Delta squad manages to escape to the surface only to be given orders to investigate a nearby abandoned COG outpost. There they learn of a back door entrance to the Hollow in the nearby Kadar Mountains. The team fights its way to the caverns in a Centaur tank, and discovers that some Stranded have taken shelter near the mouth of the caverns. Marcus orders Cole and Baird to evacuate the Stranded while he and Dom search further. They find more prisoner cages, and Dom convinces Marcus to help him seek his wife. They manage to find her, but the Locust torture has left her too traumatized and unable to communicate, and Dom chooses to euthanize her. Marcus and Dom continue to make their assault on Nexus, the Locust capital, and are soon joined by more COG forces from the surface, including Cole and Baird. Delta squad is able to break through the Locust queen's defenses, though they discover that the Locust have messages from Adam Fenix, Marcus' father, that suggests the same tactic that the Locust are attempting: to sink Jacinto in order to let water flood the Hollow, killing the Locust. They also discover that there is a conflict within the Locust, as those that have become infected by Imulsion, or have become lambent, are attempting to overthrow the Locust queen, and she wants to sink Jacinto to wipe them out with the resulting flood caused by the ocean sinkhole. After briefly meeting the locust queen, Myrrah, Marcus realizes that humans must sink Jacinto first, before the Locust mobilize and escape to the surface.

Delta squad escapes the Hollow on a pair of Reavers, defeating Skorge and his Hydra, and then return to Jacinto, where a mass evacuation is occurring. The COG have decided that they can sink Jacinto using a Lightmass bomb, and Delta squad is ordered to sink the roof of a certain spot in the Hollow, which would allow a helicopter to transport the bomb into the caverns. Marcus orders Cole and Baird to assist with the bomb, while he and Dom defeat a Brumak, then hijack it, and quickly arrive at the Hollow to cave the roof in. As the helicopters arrive, the Brumak, exposed to high levels of Imulsion, begins to mutate. The Lightmass bomb lost, Marcus makes a plan to kill the lambent Brumak. Marcus uses the Hammer of Dawn to kill the Brumak, which explodes, taking out the last supporting structures of Jacinto, sinking it, and flooding the Hollow. As the COG forces evacuate, unkown to Marcus and his fellows, Queen Myrrah talks about "unintended legacies".