"Now the Locust are back and they're meaner than ever. And they've brought with them a force that can essentially sink entire cities. So humanity's back is against the wall, and we need to strike back against these guys. So the way that we do that is by taking these trucks called Derricks and we tow these devices called Grindlifts into Locust-occupied cities. The COG Guys get in the Grindlifts, they barrel down into the depths of the Underground and fight back against these bad guys."

— Cliff Bleszinski

Grindlifts in action

The Grindlift is a drill-type vehicle employed by Gears for drilling into Locust tunnels.The Grindlift appears to be a variation of some type of mining vehicle towed by the Derrick to cities occupied by the Locust Horde. Once they arrive, a pair of COG soldiers will board each Grindlift and ride them down into the Hollow, effectively delivering the fight to the Locust Horde. The Grindlift uses a powerful jet of flame to weaken the rock below it as it digs, allowing the drill-head at the bottom of the pod to easily burrow through. The Grindlift seen a great deal of actions during Operation Hollow Storm.

[edit] Getting Back Up

"This is such crap. Operation Lifeboat, my ass. More like Operation Death Wish. Damn COG, always manipulating everything...."Sign here, your wife will be taken care of. Sure, you'll see some action, but you'll always be back in Jacinto to see your wife after a patrol." Yeah, right. Didn't tell me I was gonna get a ride on an oversized drill right into the ass of the enemy, did you? You gotta be kidding me. This is a suicide mission. How the hell do we get back out of here anyway? They say the Grindlifts can go back up, but they sure as hell didn't train me how to do that... Should of deserted these fascist bastards when I had the chance."

— Pvt. Hank Bissell writing on the Grindlifts and lack of training on how to use them.^[1]

According to many Gears (Private Hank Bissell^[2] and Sgt.Jonathan Harper^[3]), the Grindlift the Gears never received training on would return the surface. During the Evacuation of Jacinto, Anya Stroud told Sgt.Fenix that the COG is still pulling troops out of the Hollows/^[4] However, it is never mentioned if they escaped via the Ilima sinkhole or if the Grindlifts were able to dig back up.

[edit] Trivia

• They are very similar to the HEV orbital drop pods from Halo.
• A collectible in Gears of War 2 claims that Grindlifts can go back up to the surface^[5].