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Chapter Text

Command Center in a US military base, central Kazakhstan.

1300 hours.

He took a deep breath, closing his eyes, then opening them, looking upon all the military personnel, officers and even politicians sat or standing by the table.

General Kirkman began his speech.

"On January 8th 2010, the GLA attacked a small village outside of Akmola, Kazakhstan, they wouldn't be the first terrorist organization in that region, but there was something that set them apart from all the other terrorist organizations of that continent and even the world, they were smart. Slowly, the GLA amassed power, power that no terrorist organization in the history of man has ever been able to attain. China was the first to launch a full on offensive against the GLA, it was a success for the most part, they had retaken southern Kazakhstan, they then celebrated with a military parade in Beijing, and I believe that we all know what happened there."

On the screen behind Kirkman, images of buildings in Beijing burning down, crumbled and even dead bodies of Chinese soldiers and civilians. A somber look fell upon the people in the room

"We, the United States, at this stage had largely ignored the GLA, mainly due to the fact that they were doing us a favor by weakening and distracting the Chinese. But this was until March 2013, when multiple terrorist organizations in the Middle East pledged their allegiance to the GLA, and bases were suddenly popping up in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, North Africa, Saudi Arabia, and more. I don't need to tell you what happened after that." Kirkman paused. "But after a relatively short but bloody struggle with the GLA, we were able to beat them back to their Capital, Akmola, and on December 6 2013 we retook Akmola."

"After the destruction of the GLA's main HQ in Akmola back in 2013, the GLA was left fragmented, leaderless, and weak, they attempted to fully regroup at a different base in Kazakhstan, luckily our extensive satellite and surveillance network was able to pick up strange activity in Eastern Kazakhstan. We were able to put a swift end to that attempt. God knows what would have happened if they regrouped successfully."

The people in the situation room looked solemnly at the General with a speculative aura.

"Today, four years after the historic event that was the destruction of the Akmola HQ, we are about to attack the last major GLA base. The base currently holds GLA leader, prince Asad." Prince Asad being the brother of Prince Kasad, he took leadership of what was left of the GLA after Akmola was taken back. Kirkman pressed something on a remote control, a view of the massive GLA base on the large screen behind him came.

"This was the base three days ago." He pressed a button again.

The screen now displayed the same GLA base, this time many buildings were broken down, burning, or even completely leveled.

"After airstrikes of key points and strategic bombings, we are now confident that we can send in a proper force. Right now there are multiple units stationed around the base ready to attack, all we are waiting for now is confirmation.

A phone then rang, one of the officers in the briefing room picked it up.

The officer spoke with the man for a second before saying "Thank you." And hanging up.

"That was the SecDef, we have confirmation, General."

Kirkman smirked "Great."

He stepped up to the desk in front of the screen, there was a microphone, and next to it, a button. He pressed it.

"All units, move in."

GLA base, Central Kazakhstan.

1320 hours.

"We are Oscar Mike. Go! Go! Go!" The sergeant commanded

An M1A4 "Paladin" tank began barreling down a hill, a squad of rangers and missile infantry by its side.

Their Job was simple, eliminate any stinger sites in that area to allow for helicopter support. They were one of the many squads assaulting the base.

They encountered a concrete wall in front of them, a ranger walked forward and placed two frame charges on the wall, all the soldiers stepped aside. The sergeant walked in front of him, preparing his M4A1. The charges blew up, creating a massive hole on the wall.

"Ramirez, take point." The sergeant commanded.

Private Ramirez stepped forward in front of the breach, bringing his M4 forward and leveling his sight in front of him, seeing a stinger site he opened fire, most of the bullets missed, but one struck one of the men on the neck, they all pulled out smaller arms and began to shoot at him. Ramirez took cover back behind the wall. "Stinger site twelve o'clock, one hostile down" Ramirez told the sergeant.

The sergeant then picked up his radio and said "Move!" The paladin drove forward through the breach on the wall.

It was immediately fired at by stingers, the laser on its gun made quick work of them. The rest of the squad followed the tank and used it as cover, firing at the stinger site when they could.

The paladin shot its powerful gun, two of them were smart enough to dive away, but it was pointless. The man manning the machine gun of the Paladin opened fire on the remaining stinger operators, killing them instantly.

The sergeant along with a few other rangers ran up to take cover behind the sandbags at the stinger site as dozens of GLA soldiers approached from the right. They came from within the ruins of a large palace, they crouched behind the palace walls and began firing upon the American troops.

The machine gunner at the tank opened fire, but was relieved of his right eyeball along with a small portion of his head.

"Man down!" One of the rangers said

The sergeant picked up his radio. "This is Hunter Two-One the stinger site is down, I repeat, the stinger site is down, requesting air support, over."

"(COMMS) Negative Sergeant, we detected another site north of your position directly behind the palace in front of you."

The sergeant put down his radio, as the rangers with him were in a mix of shock, anger, and fear.

"What the fuck?! That place is crawling with fuckin GLA, there's only twelve of us and a tank!" Corporal Dunn screamed out as a bullet whizzed above him, hitting a metal table in front of him.

He peaked above him, seeing guns protruding from barricaded palace windows. "Sarge, tell the tank to shoot the windows."

They then saw the tank's turret turn and move upward.

"I think they already are." The sergeant watched as the tank shot, the shell hit the windows, causing a massive crater to form.

"Can't we just call in artillery?" Asked the ranger

"The artillerymen are already busy with other parts of the base, we have no choice but to go in there." The sergeant readied his gun as the tank fired once more at the GLA soldiers held up by the windows. It hit, killing most of them, but suddenly two men in black uniforms appeared from behind the wall near the crater holding RPG launchers, they fired, the laser on the paladin destroyed the RPGs. They took cover to reload.

"(COMMS) Hunter 2-1, this is Rhino 4. Our laser defense system is gonna need to cool down soon, we need you to take down the RPG troops now."

"Roger that Rhino 4." Sergeant Foley said into comms. He looked to the twelve men hiding behind the sandbags with him. "It's now or never boys. Dunn, Ramirez, you're with me, the rest of you flank from the left." Multiple Yes sir were heard from the rangers.

Foley, Dunn, and Ramirez all stood up and began opening fire on the rebels on the ground. Ramirez levelled his red dot on the head of one the rebels and shot four times, blood and brains burst from the back of the rebel's head, he moved on to another and fired, this time hitting the body of the rebel multiple times, making him collapse.

The other rebels were also shot at and killed by the other rangers.

Ramirez saw as a ranger beside him fell upon being fired at by a rebel gunning them down from a window in the palace. The tank's turret aimed at the window the rebel was firing from and fired. Two RPGs suddenly came at the Tank. The laser destroyed one RPG but didn't destroy the other, it hit, causing damage to the tank, but it wasn't destroyed.

Foley said something over comms, but Ramirez didn't listen he brought his aim to the crater where the window used to be, seeing the two RPG troopers about to take cover, he opened fire, killing them both.

"RPG troopers down." He told Foley

"Good job Ramirez, we still have work to do noys." He vaulted over the sandbags, Dunn and Ramirez followed.

He could hear bullets plowing into the sand near him. The rangers to the left vaulted over the sandbags as well and started rushing forward, immediately a few of them fell. But most survived. The other rangers reached the leftmost door and entered, muffled gunshots could then be heard.

The three of them could only hope for the best.

The the three reached the main door. Immediately they spotted multiple rebels inside. One of them ran outside and rushed Foley with a knife, he slashed at Foley's side, Foley dodged, then smashed the stock of his gun into the rebel's stomach, making him cough and crouch over in pain. Foley backed away, brought up his gun and shot.

"Multiple tangos in the building!" Dunn shouted, as the three took cover by each side of the door.

Foley looked to Ramirez and Dunn. "On three." Dunn and Ramirez nodded.

"One… Two…" They took a step forward "Three!"

They stepped in front of the door, five rebels in the room. Dunn was the first to fire, popping the head of one of the rebels with his SCAR-H.

They continued firing, killing everyone off.

"Where're the others?" Dunn asked.

Suddenly a door next to them swung open, they all aimed at the area

"Hold your fire! Hold your fire!" They were American troops, turns out they made it.

They all lowered their guns.

"Search the rest of this floor." Foley ordered. "Dunn, Ramirez, with me."

They ran up the stairs with their guns at the ready. As they ran Foley spoke "We're gonna take out the RPG troopers first on the second floor, then we'll take out the stinger site from the windows on the other side."

Once they reached the top of the stairs, they were immediately assaulted by two rebels holding AK-47s. But before they could open fire, Foley took them both out with a shot each.

"Check the corners and clear out all the rooms!" They spread out

Ramirez walked over to the rightmost room, there was a door blocking the way, he shot at the hinges before kicking it down. Time seemed to slow for him as he shot at his assailants. First he shot the one at the middle, the bullets hit his chest then head.

There were two more, he looked to his left, and shot thrice, the first bullet hit his shoulder, the next two hit his head, then he turned to his right, then fired his gun at the final man.

"Clear!" Ramirez shouted.

He heard multiple gunshots. "Clear!" Dunn's voice could be heard from the room he had breached.

More gunshots came, then the sound a rebel's pained grunt before Foley's "Clear!" Could be heard

"Last room, this should be the one with the RPG troopers." Dunn stared at the large door, as Foley and Ramirez walked over.

"Alright, you ready?" Foley asked.

Ramirez simply nodded while Dunn said "Always, sir"

Foley banged on the door heavily, multiple voices began to shout, he opened it lightly and tossed in a flashbang, he closed the door immediately. A loud bang was then heard as Foley kicked down the door. There were three RPG troopers in the massive room, with four rebels holding a mix of AKs and M16s.

Most of the wall in front of the room was now a crater courtesy of the paladin tank.

All seven of them had been stunned by the flashbang, their guns rang in tandem with the hail of bullets that hit all the GLA mercilessly, bodies fell, blood spurted out, it was almost too easy.

"Rhino 4, do not fire at the window, we're here. RPG troopers are eliminated, moving on to the stinger site."

"Roger that Hunter 2-1, good luck."

"Stinger site should be on the other side, we'll fire at them from the windows, Ramirez, grab an RPG, we'll use it."

Ramirez did as told and walked over to the dead body of one of the RPG troopers, with both hands he attempted to move the RPG, but he noticed that the RPG trooper was still breathing, he unholstered his pistol and finished him off. He then grabbed the RPG.

"Let's go!" Dunn told Ramirez.

They ran towards the other side of the building, to the room that Dunn had cleared. They walked inside, there were bodies of two rebels there

There were three windows that overlooked the stinger site. Foley and Ramirez walked over to one, he pushed it open. "Fire your RPG!" Foley shouted. Ramirez brought the backside onto his shoulder for support, he saw the stinger, aimed down at it, then pulled the trigger. The rocket launched forward. The stinger operators seemed to finally notice them, but it was too late, the rocket propelled grenade hit the ground, killing all four of them. It was then that all three of them took notice of the barracks and two arms dealers with dozens of rebels along with scorpion tanks and quad cannons in front.

They were in danger

Ramirez threw the RPG, As Foley ran up to him and threw him aside. Dunn dove away. Foley dove away as well just as the shell of the scorpion Tank hit the wall. Foley was blasted back, their ears began to ring as dust and debris filled their surroundings.

"Sarge! You okay there Sarge!" Dunn yelled into the dust."

He got his answer when Foley spoke into comms.

"This is Hunter 2-1. Stinger site down, I repeat stinger site down! Requesting air support!" The ringing wore off and the things that filled their ears now were the familiar sounds of gunfire being aimed at their room.

"(COMMS) Sir, the scorpions and quad cannons are firing at us sir, they got Mikey!" A bullet could then be heard whizzing and embedding itself into something. "Ah FUCK! I'm hit." Something could be heard collapsing.

"Corporal Simmons! Corporal, come in!" Foley's face warped into one of worry, not for himself, but for his men.

"Overlord, this is Hunter 2-1, where the hell are they?!"

The sounds of helicopter rotors were then heard.

Twelve Comanches flew in

The three rangers immediately ran to the window

Firing their rocket pods at all the buildings, arms dealers, barracks and more, completely destroying most of them. Their machine guns killing the rebels. With some of the rockets hitting the quad cannons and two scorpions.

"Wooo! Fuck yeah!" Dunn yelled with a smile as he raised his arms up

There was one more quad cannon, aiming high at the helicopters, but before it could fire, a tank shell hit it, destroying it instantly.

They looked to the right, to see the paladin tank driving.

"Hell yeah! Did you fucking see that?!" Dunn yelled once again.

"Easy there, Corporal. We still have a battle to fight." He tapped Dunn lightly on the shoulder.

"Damn right we do."

The General watched from his seat as multiple camera feeds were shown on the screen. He smiled. Kirkman had been fighting the GLA for years, from the Mazar free fire zone, to now. This was finally it. The sounds of gunshots, explosions and men screaming filled the room, the sounds of victory.

1451 hours.

An hour later the situation room was filled with cheers, the Base had been completely destroyed and the United States was victorious. The US and China had been in a cold war of sorts for global dominance, and had been using the war with the GLA as a means to fight for this global dominance. But with this victory, the United States had gained much influence over China, especially after their humiliation at the battle of Sichuan two years ago, wherein the fragmented GLA forces were somehow able to completely beat Chinese forces, capture a nuclear weapon and aimed it at the west coast, luckily the NMD was able to shoot the ICBM down.

But not without a national panic which caused millions of dollars worth of damage.

Kirkman breathed a sigh of relief, and began to laugh, he had done it. He cheered along with all the officers around him, they had won.

He would be flying out back to D.C. to do a press conference with the president soon. The president already made an announcement that the GLA base was destroyed and with it, Prince Asad. Which led to mass celebration all across the globe.

He looked at the cheering staff. "Quiet down please. I'd like to say a few words" He asked

"I would like to thank you all for your tremendous help, we just made history today." He smiled "I'm sure we've all lost something to these monsters who have terrorized our nation and this world for nearly a decade. Family, friends, time. But today, justice has been dealt."

Those around him clapped and cheered.

He excused himself and left the room, he had to be in a flight in less than three hours.

Two weeks later.

General Kirkman's home, Virginia.

0600 hours

The sounds of an alarm woke him up.

He groggily woke up and slammed the alarm clock.

Kirkman stood up and began to do what he usually would do, shower, brush his teeth, put on his uniform, the usual.

Two weeks since the battle with the GLA, two weeks since what was arguably his greatest achievement, and two weeks since the last time he feared the loss of American troops to the GLA.

The press conference from weeks ago and the subsequent work he had to do had been exhausting to say the least, the point where all the happiness from his defeat of the GLA was practically sucked out.

He looked at the mirror. At only 48 years old, he is the youngest four star general in the history of the armed forces, or at least used to be, until General  Alexis Alexander took his spot a few years back. 

He adjusted his collar and walked out the door. His phone rang, Kirkman picked it up.

"Hello?" He recognized the voice immediately, it was the national security advisor, Herman Lynch. Getting a call from the national security advisor usually denoted to something important, very important.

"We need you to come down here quick, it's an emergency" No other words were needed

"Understood." The general hung up the phone as a look of worry came upon his face. He wasted no time going to the White House.

He got in his car and started to drive.

He wondered what this emergency was. Did the GLA make a return? Did the Chinese attack? Or worse yet did a new terrorist league come about from the ruins of the GLA? His worry grew as he came closer and closer to his destination.

White House, Washington D.C.

0701 Hours

Kirkman walked through the elevator doors into the Command Bunker. A specialized room under the White House, mostly for briefing and situation viewing of classified and small to large scale operations, crises, and the such. The first person to greet him was of course national Security Advisor, Herman Lynch.

Lynch brought his hand forward for a handshake. Kirkman accepted and shook his hand.

They both walked forward together.

Kirkman saw multiple other military and high government officials sitting around the table, all in a mix of arguments. conversations and more.

Herman signaled to an empty seat in the table. Kirkman walked over and took a seat.

"Excuse me." Lynch quietly stated, trying to get everyone's attention, but nobody seemed to hear him.

"Everyone quiet down!" Now this got everyone's attention. Lynch continued "I'm sure that all of you already know about the situation, but some people here only just got the call to be here, that includes General Kirkman, who is the reason why we're all here in the first place.

'Reason why we're here?' Kirkman asked himself

"You see, fourteen days ago, the near complete destruction of the last major GLA base thanks to General Kirkman's efforts led to us uncovering a massive GLA tunnel network, which in fact still had some GLA agents within. But a small force of navy seals were enough to take them down." He paused, then typing on the keyboard on the table, the screen beside them lit up, showing the layout of the tunnel.

"We then conducted an extensive search and investigation of the tunnels, wherein we found this strange room."

It zoomed in on the room which was larger than any other rooms the tunnels led to.

"And they found this."

An image appeared on the screen, showing a dimly lit room, but at the front was this massive square structure that took up the back part of the cave, the cave itself being around the same size as an aircraft hangar. This was met with many awes and gasps from the people who seemed to not be briefed of it yet.

Still, Kirkman didn't get why this was an emergency? So what if the GLA made a giant structure in a giant cave?

"Upon examination, the material appeared to be metallic, and there were many engravings on the metal." The image zoomed in, and indeed there were engravings on the metal, like one would find on classical architecture.

"On Its sides were what appeared to be inlets of sorts, obviously, immediately after this discovery, we set up a base above ground to begin testing, because this didn't show any signs of being built by the GLA." It zoomed out, showing the newly built base, it had wired fences, Patriot Missile Systems, fire bases, the whole nine.

"We first connected it to a powerful generator, and this was the result." A video displayed on screen, bringing everyone's focus to it.

There were people in lab coats all around, then suddenly a loud shock came and the engravings on the structure lit up for a split second and emanated a wavy sound, then nothing.

"What are you trying to show us? A light show?! I can show you a better one with my laser weapons?" General Townes voiced his opinions loudly.

"Respectfully, General, I believe that it's best you continue listening." Lynch responded, as Townes grumbled in his seat.

"So then we built a cold fusion reactor and connected it directly to the structure."

A video played again, same men and women in lab coats, then a shocking sound. The engravings glowed once more, this time much brighter, the sound came back louder than before, and then for some reason the space in the middle of the structure filled with a green light, it looked like one of those portals in sci-fi movies. The entire room was now filled with gasps from the different generals and officials in the command bunker.

All the lights suddenly flickered away, and it was all gone

"I think you can guess what we did next."

Everyone unanimously nodded.

"You connected a second reactor?" General Alexander asked

Lynch nodded "Yes."

"And this time." He played the video. "It stayed that way." The lights all shone brilliantly and the sound was soothing yet somehow terrifying at the same time.

'It really does look like a portal' Kirkman surmised

"I think you all know what it looks like. So our first reaction was to send a few scout drones in. Which revealed these."

Pictures appeared of an expansive forest. There were even videos, there was a visible sun, and a lot more.

The gasps and awes grew louder, this was insane, nothing like this had ever been seen before.

"The portal also existed on the other side, and we could still connect to the scout drone likely thanks to the portal. The weird thing was, we couldn't track it using any radar maps we have, which leads some of the scientists to believe that this portal leads to somewhere…" he took a pause as if contemplating what he was about to say.

"…Outside of Earth"

Chapter Text

It had been three weeks since everyone was briefed on the situation. In those three weeks many things happened.

The first was the new area being given the code name 'Juno'

The second was the scout drones discovering life… In the form of massive black creatures never seen before on Earth which only strengthened the theory that the place the portal led to wasn't Earth.

Scout drones travelling at night time also discovered that the moon of this world was shattered, which was what proved that this wasn't earth

Many samples were taken by robots and drones, leaves, gravel, rocks, all of the same composition as those on earth.

The next was testing if organic matter could go in and out unharmed, first was an apple on a scout drone that went in and out, after being tested, the apple was still completely the same. The next step was bugs, which also after return ended up completely the same, then mammals, specifically rats, this was also to test the possible effects on the human brain. After a 30 minute stay. The rats were returned, they were living and completely fine.

Which meant the atmosphere was not harmful to life from earth, since certain bugs are known to be able to survive out of Earth conditions for a short while. Then they sent in chimpanzees which practically ended the same way the rats did

Then finally, an actual human being. A scientist by the name of Benjamin Steele, walked through the portal, took one breath then went back in. He was completely ecstatic, and overjoyed at the success of the experiment

He stated that everything was pretty much the same, gravity, the atmosphere, humidity, temperature and more. Many scientists then followed all going out and taking some time staying out. Many scientists were then requesting to put a research facility out there.

Two weeks after the first entry through the scout drone, as more and more scientists spent time in Juno, an incident occurred. Three scientists went out to take their own notes. That was when one of the black creatures approached, the camera picked it up, but the scientists weren't paying attention to the camera feeds, luckily one of them noticed the black creature approach. They all immediately run into the portal, but the creature followed, luckily, two soldiers were guarding that room and they all fired at the creature, killing it swiftly.

But before anybody could examine its carcass, it dissipated into dust.

Nonetheless, after this, it was agreed that at least one ranger squad would accompany scientists during their trip out

They avoided having the drones going farther than thirty kilometers from the portal site, not until a proper facility was established. But it seemed that the more people visited Juno, the more attacks came from the creatures. So first and foremost, they would have to set up a proper defense, likely a small military base housing a research facility. A request was formally sent to the White House, which was still pending.

Meanwhile, back above ground, the temporary base that the US had built now became a permanent installment, and had grown very large, but the Chinese were starting to get suspicious. As discovered by radio interception, they were suspicious as to why the US was making such a fortified base right where an old GLA base used to be. So the US built multiple phony bases around central Kazakhstan to avoid suspicion. They would not allow anyone to have this information.

Office of the National Security Advisor, White House, United States of America

0900 hours.

"Come on in."

Kirkman entered, In front of him, sitting by a desk, was Herman Lynch.

"Last time you called me, we discovered what was likely a portal of alien origin that leads to a new planet. So what's the news?" The General smiled

Lynch chuckled. "Take a seat" Lynch gestured to a chair in front of his desk

"The people over at MOB Kostanav are requesting for an FOB (Forward Operating Base) to be set up at Juno. They want to be able to properly do their work without interference from those animals."

Kirkman put his hands on the desk "We should really designate a codename for those, calling em animals or creatures doesn't fit very much.

"I agree."

"So, why are you telling me this?"

"Being National Security Advisor, I don't have direct control over you, but I advised the DOD to send you over. You're going to be the one setting up the FOB."

Kirkman gasped, his breath faltering for a second. "Wow, I definitely wasn't expecting this." He was shocked, he should be shocked, but then he thought for a bit.

This was the perfect opportunity to finally do something that didn't involve the GLA.

"…But I'll happily accept"

Lynch continued. "You will be in charge of all military operations in Juno and even be given some non-military powers. You will officially be given the title of 'Supreme American Commander of Juno" or SACOJ for short, the title is subject to change." Lynch laughed.

This was huge, less than two months after the defeat of the GLA, Kirkman was now in charge constructing a military base on a different planet, and was also now in charge of all military operations in that planet. It was honestly amazing.

"The Secretary of Defense will formally brief you in a few hours, be ready."

Kirkman nodded. Lynch gave him a salute as Kirkman left the room

Main Operating Base Kostanav

1100 hours

General Kirkman was accompanied by four army rangers inside a humvee, in front and behind it were two paladin tanks also accompanied by rangers and missile infantry. The team in charge of the base had greatly expanded the cave system, making it look like a proper underground base.

This was the first time that Kirkman got a good look at the portal, it was massive, it was rectangular in shape, around 250 feet tall and around 280 feet wide, which would mean that most aircraft, tanks and even ships could fit through it. But anything that couldn't be transported directly through the portal would have to be built on site, which was why the General requested for tons upon tons of material as well.

He saw the Paladin in front enter and slowly disappear, then the Humvee slowly entered as well, seeing the green light overtake it, he braced and closed his eyes, and felt nothing, but looking out the window, he saw the Juno for the first time.

He stepped out of the Humvee and so did the other soldiers within it, Kirkman admired the sight, luscious trees, the sounds of birds chirping, the smell of fresh air, looked like it came straight from Earth. After a few seconds, another Paladin came from the portal, then two construction dozers and a few transport vehicle containing construction workers, military personnel and more.

"Set up a perimeter, I don't want a single area within eight square kilometers open. Stay in your squad, only attack leviathans if you have at least two other soldiers close to you. Move out." The black creatures were given the umbrella term "leviathan" though it is to be noted that there are apparently multiple different types, some bore the resemblance of a werewolf in folk tales, some looked like deformed bears, and in one case a drone spotted a giant two headed snake sixteen kilometers east of the portal. According to the Secretary of Defense he would soon be getting some Vomanches for air support.

The construction workers got to work on a command center and a barracks while rangers set up sand bags and barbed wire around the construction work. He planned on covering up the giant portal in a steel facility with massive steel doors serving as an opening to anything being transported, then have a second entrance that is connected to the command center.

Certain construction workers also began to cut down trees for proper flat land. If all went well, they should be finished setting up a perimeter by nightfall, and the command center and barracks should be done in a little less than two weeks.

Nine days later.

A perimeter was set up, sadly, two rangers and one missile defender lost their lives in setting it up, the squad consisting of five rangers and two javelin operators encountered a large pack of more than a dozen leviathans, they were overwhelmed.

Shortly thereafter, the first few Comanches arrived in Juno, they were able to locate the leviathans and avenged the fallen. Kirkman would have to write a letter to their families stating they lost their lives in a firefight with a small force of GLA operatives that were still alive.

He hated to lie, but the operation here in Juno and at MOB Kostanav was highly classified. So he sadly couldn't tell the truth.

More and more trees fell, and most of the land within the perimeter was flat now, work on a research facility for the scientists had already began. The command center was expected to finish being constructed in two days. While a barracks had already been set up.

Barbed wire and sandbags now surrounded the perimeter, soldiers guarded it with extreme focus. They encountered leviathans regularly so they had no choice but to be focused, but once the command center was set up they would finally be able to allocate the construction work to reinforce the perimeter with wired fences, patriot missile systems, fire bases and more, meaning less soldiers would have to risk their lives to this degree.

More and more things were discovered about the leviathans. They were very prone to anti-materiel rifles, so snipers with Barrett M82s were stationed all around the perimeter to kill any leviathans they spotted.

Howitzer 155mm artillery guns soon arrived which meant they could now set up fire bases which could kill any larger leviathans. He diverted some construction workers and dozers to work on a few fire bases.

The general, so far, was happy with how much the base was progressing, there were currently two thousand military personnel stationed here. Most of them were in charge of defenses, but some were helping out with reconnaissance and even construction.

Scout drones still were not allowed to go farther than forty kilometers from the base, at least not until a proper airfield was set up for refueling.

But they had already done enough reconnaissance for them to get a good idea of what was around their base. Thirty nine kilometers south and southeast, drones encountered a mountainous region, twelve kilometers northeast, they found a body of water, same for northwest, but for thirty kilometers southwest, drones only found forest plains and hills.

Five days later

Kirkman was sitting on a table in the Operations Center of the Command Center, signing a progress report on Operation 'Forging Steel'. There have been no leviathan related casualties in the past week, as the soldiers slowly got better at fighting them. The perimeter was a lot more reinforced now and construction on two cold fusion reactors, and an airfield had begun.

Once the airfield was finished, Raptors, Lightning IIs, Blackbirds and more would be transported to the base. He originally didn't need any aircraft apart from Comanches, but after a pair of Comanches doing reconnaissance came upon a large avian leviathan, Kirkman asked for more conventional aircraft. Though the Comanches were able to easily dispatch the avian leviathan, it was concluded that there may be much more dangerous forms of avian leviathan.

Thus many more aircraft were requested.

The next two weeks were a blur of construction work and small scale fights with leviathans. The first casualty in two weeks occurred when a squad of fourteen men encountered a scorpion like leviathan, the armor was impenetrable through the M4 rounds, and the men were unable to fire their rockets due to worry that it would hit their fellow soldier, which led to the death of one of them.

But after firing the missile, the leviathan was killed instantly.

The first tank to leviathan combat happened when a crusader tank came across a group of wolf leviathans with one being heavily armored, the machine gunner fired the tank's machine gun at the less armored ones, while the turret instantly killed the armored one with a single tank shell.

The soldiers so far were happy with Kirkman's leadership, though the scientists and researchers weren't, it seemed Kirkman's focus was more on the military aspect of things rather than scientific, his reasoning being that setting up a proper defense is very important.

The presence of fire bases and snipers with anti-materiel rifles definitely lessened the risk, being able to kill leviathans easily and at a long distance was a big plus.

Currently though, the aerial leviathans had to be killed using Comanches, if he encountered high flying or faster aerial leviathans then he'd have to use the planes which would soon arrive.

Once the cold fusion reactors were completed, he would then add a few Patriot missile systems. Which would effectively make the aerial leviathans powerless.

Kirkman finished signing the report, then giving it to the Colonel in front of him, they gave each other a salute and he walked away. He stretched his arms

He had barely gotten any sleep the past two weeks. He'd had his fair share of sleepless nights fighting the GLA though, so this was something he was used to. But a full seven or eight hours of sleep would be very much appreciated.

Apart from the military progress, Kirkman was also happy with the scientific progress, the scientists were able to conclude that the atmosphere was almost the exact same as Earth's with only very slight differences that were harmless. It was also impossible to get leviathan specimens, because they dissipated on death, a trait which perplexed scientists, getting live specimens was out of the question until proper defenses were set up, and so research on leviathans would have to be delayed.

The trees were also compared to those on Earth and were given a proper name. Everything was the same as Earth, the only key differences being a slightly higher oxygen level, leaves having a different pattern compared to the closest versions they could find on earth, and the most obvious thing, leviathans.

Kirkman had seen one with his own eyes when he paid a visit to a fire base at the defense perimeter, and a bear like leviathan showed up, which was immediately shot and killed by the snipers stationed there.

He had never seen anything like it, it had jet black fur, a bony white mask, and glowing red eyes, they were terrifying, which made it a good thing that they were killed so easily.

Kirkman stood up, walking through the many rooms and corridors of the command center, before finding the door outside, he opened it and took a step out.

Watching the construction of a nearby cold fusion reactor

A few days had passed, and FOB Juno had grown into a large military base, the cold fusion reactors brought much power to the base, with bluish control roads from Alexander offering extra power. He already got a few Patriot missile systems set up.

What was most important of course, was the airfield, which just finished construction the day before. Reconnaissance flights using drones, and an SR-71 Blackbird going beyond would begin shortly. Zero casualties since the incident last week.

Kirkman sat at his desk and looked at the papers in front of him. They were documents of the manned aircraft he currently had.

"Four F-35A Lightning IIs, eight F-22 Raptors, one SR-71 Blackbird, twenty two AH-66 Comanches, four AH-64 Apaches, and ten UH-60 Black Hawks." He read aloud.

As far as he was concerned, the aircraft, specifically the planes that were given to him, were too much, he only requested for two Raptors and two Lightning IIs each, as he wasn't expecting leviathans with capabilities that trump those of the anti-air defenses he already had to show up. But he wasn't going to complain.

'I wonder how the Blackbird pilots are doing' He decided to go meet them, stepping out of his office and out the doors of the command center. Kirkman walked over to the airfield, after around ten minutes of walking, he saw the massive Blackbird and the airmen viewing it.

They took notice of him, they all immediately gave him a salute.

"At ease, men."

"Sir." The reconnaissance systems officer replied

"I'm here to simply greet the men who will be conducting the first manned reconnaissance mission on a different. How are you all feeling" He smiled at them

The men smiled back.

The pilot on the right replied first

"I think I speak for all three of us when I Say we're a bit nervous." The other two seemed to agree. "I mean, we don't know what to expect, it's a completely different planet. But like always, we'll do our best."

Kirkman nodded,

"Good, I'll be watching your mission with great interest." He gave them a salute and walked away

In less than an hour they would depart, flying southwest of the base.

"Is that a city?!" Were the first words that Kirkman heard on comms when he entered the operations room of the strategy center.

"What?!" Kirkman

The rest of the officers in the room also went into a frenzy

"A city?!" One of the senior officers spoke into the microphone

"Yeah! We snapped a few photos of it. We're not entirely sure though, could just be weirdly shaped trees."

The Blackbird is an incredibly fast and powerful aircraft capable of travelling up to Mach 3.4 and it had just found what the pilot claimed to be a city in just under five minutes of travel.

"We're coming up at what looks to be another settlement, it's on an island! It's a lot smaller."

Kirkman collapsed onto a seat and put his palm on his forehead, the implication of this were huge, if the pilots were correct, which would soon be made clear once the photos came, then that would mean that not only was their more animal life here than leviathans, but that life was also intelligent.

Which meant that the very nature of this operation would change. This wouldn't just be about making a base in a different planet.

Now there may be sentient life added to the equation, and that complicates things very much.

Would they be hostile towards his forces? Would they see the US as an invading force or as an ally? Would they even be able to communicate with humans? And how far advanced or primitive were they? All these questions would be answered soon.

But for now he had to wait.

Nineteen minutes passed before the pilots spoke again with more info.

"We're seeing a desert." There was a pause for thirty seconds "Multiple possible settlements spotted" The reconnaissance officer stated.

Kirkman stood up.

"I need to start working on a report, I'll be back in my office, once those photos arrive, I want them on my desk immediately." Kirkman firmly said

The officer speaking on the comms looked at Kirkman. "Yes sir." He nodded.

Kirkman stepped out.

Chapter Text

Southern Tajikistan, near the Chinese border.

2230 hours

Operation Blazing Glory

A Black Hawk flies over sandstone hills. It was dead at night, perfect for the operation. Trees sparingly dot the cold desert landscape

"Approaching the LZ."

A team of Delta Force Operatives, Callsign "Metal" were currently flying over Tajikistan on a mission.

"ETA four minutes."

Hours before they were briefed.

The GLA had massive amounts of information on the locations of American bases in the Middle East and Central Asia. The Chinese desperately wanted to get their hands on this information but they didn't want to get their hands dirty. Intel from the CIA suggested that China had paid Chinese mercenaries to raid a small group of GLA held up at a minor outpost near the Xinjiang province in the Chinese-Tajikistani border. And according to information given up by multiple GLA operatives through advanced interrogation methods. This outpost held tons of physical documents of American bases.

The US wasn't going to let the Chinese get that intel.

The plan was to intercept the raid before the mercenaries could get to the intel. Then destroy all of it.

"I have a visual on the target." The pilot stated.

"Lock and load" One of the operatives ordered

"Thirty seconds."

The outline of a faraway cliff grew closer and closer.

"Ten seconds."

"Five Seconds."

A thick rope fell. "Green light. Go." The four operatives descended from it, as soon as they hit the ground they trained their sights to the area around them.

"(COMMS) Metal 0-1, we'll be on standby for extraction." The Black Haw flew away.

"Copy." Metal 0-1 or Sandman said into his comms. "Cliff is a klick north, Truck, you need help with that stinger?"

"Nah, I got it." Truck, was carrying a stinger, with an M4A1 holstered to his front, a pistol on his side. The stinger was brought because the mercenaries would likely land from the helicopter.

"Let's move." They started hastily moving, alert and ready. "Stay frosty, area could be crawling with GLA."

They began moving north as Sandman commanded. While looking and aiming around them. They were making quick progress, moving quickly. Truck was a bit slower though, which made sense considering how heavy the stinger and its ammunition was. The stinger was relatively light on its own. But Truck was carrying the Stinger on top of his usual weapons, ammo, and grenades.

They eventually arrived. They were at a cliff overlooking the outpost. They could see it, it was small, but it made sense as it was just an outpost. There were four rectangular buildings, two watch towers and a paved road connecting all the structures.

"Overlord, we have a visual on the outpost." Sandman said into his radio.

"(COMMS) Affirmative, do you have eyes on the red building, over."

The red building was closest to them, at the southeastern portion of the base, it was also the largest building there.

"Yeah, we see it." Sandman replied

"(COMMS) Keep your eyes on the outpost, the Chinese mercenaries could arrive at any time."

"Copy that" Sandman took out some binoculars and went prone. Grinch loaded his M110 sniper rifle, extended its bipod, he went prone and rested it on the ground, aiming down at the outpost.

"One hostile at the eastern watchtower, another on the other watchtower." Grinch spoke while keeping his aim on the base.

"Multiple GLA on the roads, looks like patrols. A few behind that car." There was an old black car in front of a decrepit green painted building, with two rebels chatting in front of it.

Truck crouched and looked at the outpost. "Could be more inside the buildings."

"Yep."

Truck tapped sandman on the leg "Say, why don't we just attack now, I mean a Black Hawk's on standby, could probably take most of em while we burn the documents."

"We don't know how many there are yet, for all we know, we'll get outnumbered ten to one, and we can't risk the mercs arriving while we're taking care of the documents. When that happens we'll be fighting both sides at once."

"Got it." Truck relaxed a little, but still stayed alert.

Frost crouched down as well, looking at the outpost with interest. Half an hour passed as nothing changed with the outpost.

"(COMMS) Be advised, images from a satellite imaging show two unknown helicopters coming north of your position, ETA ten minutes." Overlord's voice suddenly came into the ears of the four soldiers

Sandman stood up and put away his binoculars. "That's them. Let's go over the plan one more time"

Sandman stood up and walked over to Frost and Truck, Grinch did the same.

"Let the mercs drop in and fight the GLA, while they're distracted, we'll rappel down the cliff and sprint to the wired fence, Truck will then take out the helicopters." Truck nodded as Sandman continued. "I'll cut the wired fence behind the red building, the two of you will take down any hostiles close to the door, Grinch will stay here and provide sniper support. Once the nearby area is clear, I'll go in through the door and start burning the docs and you'll cover me while I'm doing it, clear?"

Frost nodded his head

"Crystal" Truck walked up to the cliff.

They just stayed there for minutes, waiting for the mercenaries to arrive, then Grinch seemed to get alerted to something.

Grinch adjusted something on his scope. "Two tangos exiting the green and grey building to the north."

Truck looked a bit confused "You know this is a lot of GLA just for one small outpost. They said there was going to a dozen at most" It was true, usually outposts like this would only be guarded by around a dozen GLA but there were at least twenty GLA, outside, likely more indoors

"Well, all their main bases were destroyed so most of em are just hanging out wherever they can." Grinch spoke while keeping his aim on the base

"This is also one of the last places that has info on American bases, so the GLA, or at least what's left of them are gonna want to keep it protected."

Over in the distance, two large transport helicopters began flying in, their silhouettes growing closer and closer as time passed.

Truck brought up his binoculars. "Those definitely look like Chinese helicopters."

"Yeah" Sandman had his own pair of binoculars, he brought them down. "Alright, lock and load boys."

Frost adjusted his foregrip and examined the grenade launcher on his M4A1. Grinch readjusted his M110 and truck simply stared at the base.

Sandman pressed his earpiece "Overlord, this Metal 0-1, we have a visual on the helicopters, I repeat, we have a visual on the helicopters."

"(COMMS) Copy that Metal 0-1, you have permission to engage."

The GLA in the outpost suddenly went into a panic, people started running around, loading their AKs, and some of them even were holding RPGs.

Truck laughed "Heh heh, mercs are pretty shit at hiding their presence."

"True that. They're landing way too close to the base." Grinch responded

The helicopters were now less than a hundred meters from the outpost as ropes were then released, the GLA began firing RPGs, the helicopters began veering around and releasing flares.

"Now! While they're distracted.

Sandman, Truck and Frost all embedded metal loops into the sand, the spikes that went in had a fast acting adhesive that would keep it grounded. They attached their ropes with hooks to the loops and began rappelling down the cliff.

Truck stayed above though, waiting for all the mercs to drop, once they did, he aimed his Stinger at one of the helicopters and fired.

The helicopyer was out of flares and was hit by the stinger, it began spinning around uncontrollably and crashed onto the ground, Truck didn't even need to fire another missile, the GLA RPG troopers already took down the other one.

Truck rappelled down.

"(COMMS) Holy fuck, these guys are bad." Grinch said over, Comms.

Truck ran over to Sandman and Frost's position, by a chain link fence behind the red building, Sandman pulled out some wire cutters and began cutting them quickly with ease. After thirty seconds, Sandman lightly pushed the freshly cut part and it fell over.

"Frost, take point."

Frost moved forward and entered through the hole in the chain link fence, taking cover behind the red building, then slowly moving to the corner on the left side. Truck then moved in but did the same to the right side. Sandman stood in the middle.

Gunshots were heard, and a mix of Arabic and Chinese words were flying around.

"(COMMS) The mercs and the GLA fighting right in front of your position."

"Alright let's move in, Grinch will cover us" Sandman moved in front of Frost. A bullet whizzed past them, finding itself in the head of a GLA member, it was Grinch's shot, this caused the one right next to him to panic.

"Weapons free." Sandman whispered. Frost appeared as well and began to shoot at the mercs and GLA alike, the rounds hit and their bodies fell.

There was a small stairway leading to the door of the red building, with guard rails covered with sheet metal, the two ran up the stairs and took cover behind the sheet metal, as bullets began hitting their position.

They could hear bullets whizzing past them again, and suddenly the shooting stopped.

"(COMMS) I got em, the rest are fighting the mercs, you're free to breach."

Sandman nodded to Frost. Frost brought out a frame charge and placed it on the door, it blew up as Sandman and Frost readied their guns, searching for anyone inside who may attack them. It was filled with file cabinets, bookcases filled with stacks of papers rather than books, they searched the room, there was nobody inside, that was until a rebel appeared from the shadows with a pistol and a knife, Sandman was quick enough to react by taking cover behind a filing cabinet.

The rebel ran at the filing cabinet, but as he rounded the corner, Sandman appeared right in front of him, grabbing the arm holding the pistol and lifting it upwards. Sandman unholstered his Five Seven and shot the hand holding the knife, causing the rebel to drop the knife with a grunt of pain, he then brought the pistol up to the rebel's chin, and fired. His jaw now hung lifelessly from his head, Sandman dropped his arm and continued searching the area.

"Rest of the room's empty." Sandman began to open the file cabinets, emptying their contents into the ground, same for the papers. All of it was going to be burned.

"Frost help me out here" Frost brought down his gun and began doing the same as Sandman, tossing papers onto a large pile of papers.

"Truck, where are you?" Sandman spoke as he continued to toss papers onto the pile.

"(COMMS) I'm on the outside, right side of the building, if they move to your position, I'm going to try to flank them."

"Roger."

For a full minute, Frost and Sandman kept on throwing papers as gunshots could be heard outside. Eventually the place was empty.

Sandman looked around for something, then he saw under the desk was a small plastic gas tank.

"Frost, grab that gas tank, pour it all out on the papers."

He walked over to the gas tank, and spun the cap free, and then poured it all out on the papers, soaking them with the liquid. Sandman pulled out a lighter and lit it up, by the time Frost was finished, they both backed away and Sandman tossed the lighter.

The pile lit up in a fiery blaze, the room began to heat up, they backed away and got close to the exit.

Sandman tapped on his earpiece again. "Hawk 3-2 this is Metal 0-1, requesting for extraction over."

"(COMMS)Copy that Metal 0-1, we are en route to your location, ETA five minutes."

"Truck, Grinch what does it look like out there.

"(COMMS) Mercs have taken heavy casualties, but all the visible GLA are dead. Shit, they noticed the bodies near your location, they're walking over."

"Frost, you're with me, Grinch take the shot when you're ready, we'll take that as the signal to attack, Truck you'll flank them from the side. Ready up!"

They both brought up their guns and waited on each side of the door.

"They're two meters from the door, four of them, I'm taking the shot." Soon after the sound of a bullet penetrating a skull came, Sandman was the first to come out, taking out one before taking cover behind the sheet metal.

Frost came out, and just before one of them could shoot him, his head exploded into a bloody cloud, courtesy of Grinch's M110. Frost then aimed at the last one, and gunned him down.

Suddenly shots came from the grey and green building in front of them. The mercs were taking turns shooting from the window.

The concrete walls were thin enough for Grinch to shoot and penetrate through the walls, hitting a target.

More shots then came from behind a car, near the grey and green building. Two mercs were using the car as cover.

"Frost, take out the ones behind the car, Grinch will get the ones at the window, I'll try to get around the building and meet up with Truck, and then we'll take out everyone inside that building."

Frost nodded. He stood up from his position behind the sheet metal and aimed down his sights at the car, a Chinese merc appeared from the windows, ready to fire at Frost, but fell down almost as fast as he came out, they were really lucky that Grinch was a damn good marksman.

The car was familiar, it looked exactly like the kind the GLA would use as car… bombs… He looked closely through the window, and sure enough, one of the seats were filled with blackened C4. Both of the mercs popped their heads up, Frost made quick work of one of them by firing multiple shots, the other merc looked at his downed comrade for just a second before coming back to his senses and taking cover. When he looked to his left, Sandman had already left his side.

He put his hand on the barrel of the grenade launcher on his M4A1 and pulled the trigger, the grenade launched forward and under the bomb car, triggering a massive explosion to engulf the area making the ground shake a little, it completely damaged the green and grey building, causing its occupants to be exposed, there were numerous mercs inside the building, some were on the ground, bleeding having been hit by the car bomb.

He aimed at one of them who was still standing and pulled the trigger, the merc's head brutally blasted backwards as he fell down, as Grinch took out another merc inside.

Suddenly a cooked grenade was thrown inside, it was Sandman and Truck, the Grenade blew up, blasting most of the occupants too. As both Sandman and Truck entered from the right, killing all who were still alive, Frost and Grinch did the same.

Sandman walked to Frost, they had just cleared the entire outpost.

"Check on the papers"

Frost went inside the red building, the pile was still burning, but less bright as most of the papers had already been turned to ashes, and those that weren't already ashes would soon be turned into ashes.

Frost walked back outside and gave his leader a thumbs up.

"(COMMS) Metal 0-1 this is Hawk 3-2 approaching the extraction zone."

As if on cue they all looked above to see a helicopter about to land on the cliff near Grinch

"Change of plans Hawk 3-2, we cleared out the base, requesting direct extraction from within the compound."

"(COMMS) Affirmative Metal 0-1"

The Black Hawk changed course and went closer to the outpost. Grinch began to rappel down the cliff to meet with the rest of Team Metal. The helicopter landed in the middle of the compound, right in front of Frost, Sandman and Truck lightly jogged to it, the doors opened, as Sergeant Bradley helped Truck get on.

Then suddenly from the rubble of the wrecked grey green building emerged one final mercenary charging at the three of them with a knife,

"AHHHHHHH!" He was screaming at the top of his lungs, probably to null the fear of attacking four heavily armed and well trained soldiers, and a helicopter with a knife.

Frost aimed down his sights and pulled the trigger, the bullet hit his head.

Then Bradley helped him up. Grinch soon arrived and got in.

The Black Hawk then took off.

"So we're going back to Afghanistan?" Grinch asked.

Sandman was about to respond but Sergeant Bradley spoke first.

"Negative, the four of you are going to MOB Kostanav, you'll be briefed on your new mission on site."

A confused look spread throughout the men.

Office of the Supreme American Commander of Juno, FOB Juno

1600 Hours

Four days after the discovery of possible intelligent alien life

General Kirkman was angry, no, angry was too soft a term for what he felt, he was furious. Just mere hours earlier, a squad of sixteen marines performing basic reconnaissance outside the perimeter were attacked, not by leviathans no, but by what looked to be humans, twenty of them, all wearing strange white uniforms and white masks.

Three of the marines were killed in action, while five were injured. But the rest were able to hold off and fight back the aggressors, killing all but three.

Kirkman ordered a scout drone to be sent to follow the last men, they found them, but they weren't going to kill them, at least not yet, wherever he was running back to would probably be where the rest of them were.

The marines took a few bodies back to the base, and upon examination, it was found that they all were similar to humans, apart from a few key differences, some of them had furry ears extending from their head, others had horns, whiskers and more.

After this was reported to Kirkman, the scientists went into a mad frenzy simply due to how big of a discovery it was that there was life similar to humans here. But Kirkman couldn't give less of a shit, as far as he was concerned these "Humans" Killed three of his men, and he wouldn't let them get away with it.

"Sir." Colonel Burton entered the room.

"Yes, colonel." His tone was sour, not that he held any hatred for Colonel Burton, no in fact they were good friends. He was simply still in a bad mood from the attack.

"Lieutenant Vasquez is here to see you."

Kirkman nodded as Burton stepped out and a tall mestizo man still in full combat gear entered. Kirkman still hadn't been fully briefed about what happened, all he heard so far was from under detailed reports given to him by different commanding officers, but he wanted to hear it directly from one of the men who were attacked.

Vasquez gave him a salute.

"At ease, soldier. So, I understand you were one of the men present during the attack."

"Yes sir."

"First I would like to commend you for that, not many men could do what you and your squad did, especially while outnumbered and surprised."

Vasquez smiled for half a second. "I appreciate that sir, but it's our job."

"I am fully aware of that, but you still deserve praise." Kirkman smiled at him "Now, I've already been told a few things by a few officers in this base, but I doubt they have everything yet, so I want to hear it straight from your mouth. I'll tell you what I know, and I want you to tell me the things I don't know yet."

"Alright, sir." Vasquez said with a nod.

"At 1431 hours, your squad was attacked by a group of men and women in white uniforms and white masks, all were holding some sort of weapon, mostly rifles and curved swords, due to the element of surprise three of the marines were sadly taken out." That last part was said with a hint of anger, Kirkman looked at Vasquez's face, it wasn't evident, but he could tell Vasquez felt intense anger as well.

"You were eventually able to fight back, and the ensuing firefight led to the deaths of all but three of the attackers who were able to escape despite your efforts, five of your men also suffered medium injuries during the firefight." Kirkman concluded "So, is there anything else you can tell me?"

"I see they haven't told you yet about the forcefield."

"Forcefield?"

"You see, sir. When you fought back, we noticed something… strange."

"Mhm." Kirkman continued to listen.

"Whenever we shot the attackers, they wouldn't take any damage."

Kirkman's eyes widened. "How so?"

"We… Don't know."

"Then how did you kill them?"

"Well they would take damage, but only after a few shots. You see, after about one or two shots, I swear I could see a dim light flicker, we called them forcefields. It was different for everyone, some only took one shot to break it, and others took five, they were all in different colors too, some were just white, some were pink or even black. The officers looked at us like we were crazy when we told them about it."

Kirkman let out a heavy breath as he put his hand on his mouth in a sort of thinking pose. He knew for a fact that since this was a new world, pretty much anything was possible. But this was still a surprising fact nonetheless.

"Well I believe you, but I do have a question."

The lieutenant.

"If these pseudo humans truly did have forcefields that protected from your bullets and indeed outnumbered you, how were so many of you able to survive. I'm sorry for asking such a question, but I would like an answer."

"It's alright sir, but I think it's a mix of being trained for these kinds of situations, and their weapons being weak.

"Weak." Kirkman shifted a little on his chair

"Yes sir. Those who were killed were unfortunately hit in areas that were completely unprotected, more of us were actually hit by them, but their aim wasn't very good, and those of us that were hit, got hit on areas protected by Kevlar and didn't go through, one of injured men were actually hit in the head, but his helmet stopped the round from penetrating his skull and he ended up with only a minor concussion, and some slight bleeding."

"But wait, I heard from one of the researchers that the rounds in the guns you brought back are actually bigger than the standard 5.56x45mm NATO rounds."

"Have they tested how fast the rounds go?"

"No…" That made sense though, if a bullet was slow, the larger size would actually hamper it.

"That will be all for now, lieutenant, thank you.

He gave him a salute and he left.

Kirkman pulled up a drawer on his desk, and picked up an envelope and looked at its contents again, the photos of the cities and settlements discovered by the Blackbird reconnaissance mission.

The first one showed a city, pictures showed buildings that resembled early modern European architecture, but there was one photo that stood out, upon a cliff rested a gargantuan tower that defied all laws of physics, and surrounding it were smaller buildings, situated by a road system. Some of the photos contained little black dots which were likely the people in the city.

It was strange that the architecture was similar to that of human architecture, one would think that a species that weren't humans and didn't live with humans on earth would create visually distinct architecture.

Even stranger was the fact, that though different in certain ways, the specimens they collected looked identical to humans.

Juno was getting stranger and stranger by the day.

Early estimates report the city to be at least a thousand square kilometers. If the population density was like that of London, then that would mean the population would be in the millions.

The fact that there even was a city suggested at least some form of governance, and if the people that attacked his men did indeed come from this city, then that would mean conflict, and his base wasn't ready for conflict of that scale.

It had been four days since the photos arrived, and in those two days he had already made multiple requests for a severe increase in manpower, machine power and more. Kirkman even ordered for an expansion of the defense perimeter. He even requested for materials and manpower to launch a proper satellite network into space.

He then looked to another photo, this one was of a city of similar size, the architecture was different and it was situated in the middle of a desert.

"Sir."

Someone came through the door, he was of average height, had black hair, a mustache and was in a lab coat, he was the lead scientist, Benjamin Steele.

"We did some tests on the weaponry, and we found a few things."

"Oh? What did you find?"

"The most significant thing is that the guns and swords were made of steel."

Kirkman was confused "How is that important?"

"Well it's the same kind of steel we use on earth, same exact composition as the standard type of steel, which means in terms of materials we're very similar."

Kirkman saw it now, there were way too many similarities, you would think that an alien lifeform would have many, many significant differences apart from just a few extra appendages and a forecefield.

"Everything else was analyzed but there is nothing else of importance, clothes were nothing of importance, masks were nothing of importance, but, the bullets." Benjamin paused. "The bullets do not use gunpowder. They use some other form of propellant, it's red in color and is less effective as a propellant but is many times more volatile and slightly more powerful in terms of explosive power."

"What did you do to find these out?"

"An incident occurred wherein a fellow researcher stubbed or toe on the table with small pile of this strange dust like substance, multiple particles spread, causing her to sneeze and well, blow up the ones in the air, don't worry she only suffered minor injuries, since she was some distance away from the pile, but she'll probably have a few permanent scars on the face." Benjamin chuckled casually.

Kirkman shrugged off Benjamin's nonchalant behavior at the injury of his coworker

"What about the part of it being a less effective propellant?" Kirkman asked

"Well, we actually tested the rifles, which by the way were off very different design, we had a ranger fire them at targets, we measured the velocity, and the bullet was slow, going at subsonic speeds, even though the bullet uses more of this substance than we do gunpowder in our own bullets. It travelled at 322 meters per second, putting it a little under certain muskets and modern day large bore pistols."

"That explains why they weren't able to penetrate most of the men who were hit's Kevlar vests."

"With Kevlar, size actually does matter, since size determines the amount of fibers broken on a certain area, speed is more for penetration, but its size combined with its subpar speed will make it so getting hit in the stomach by one of these while wearing a Kevlar vest, will make it feel like you just got punched in the stomach, after interviewing some of the men who fought as you call them "Pseudo Humans" this was indeed the case. Some of the men who were injured in fact even had some major bruising anda few broken bones. Don't worry they're recovering fast"

So the bullets could still be lethal even with proper armor.

Benjamin grabbed a drinking flask and took a quick swig. "Well if you don't mind, I'll be taking my leave now, General. He pulled something from his coat, a brown manila envelope, he tossed it to his desk. "That's my full report on the research done so far."

Benjamin Steele left, Kirkman grabbed the envelope and put it in his drawer, he would read it later, for now he had some business to attend to regarding the drone currently following the men who had escaped. He stepped outside his office and walked through the many hallways and rooms of the command center and left through the door, outside many things were happening, army personnel, rangers, marines, and tanks were doing training drills, drones were being prepared for takeoff at the airfield, soldiers were transporting ammunition and more, he walked silently through all of this and walked up to the large metal doors of the Strategy Center, he entered.

He entered the operations room, and found many military officers on computers and some on papers, one of them approached, Colonel Burton

"General Kirkman, we were just about to come to you, we found it."

"Found what?"

He signaled to one of the men in the operations room to do something, the man types something on his keyboard, which then displayed a black and white video on the screen.

"We followed the men as you ordered, and it led us to this compound." It was small, from what he could see on the video, it was surrounded by some sort of concrete wall, it had multiple buildings, two larger buildings of equal size and three smaller ones, it resembled a small GLA base with its design.

"What are your orders?"

Kirkman took a minute to think, he didn't have the proper equipment to do a proper attack, , and just letting them go would mean that they would go unpunished for attacking and killing some of his men. He merely had a few thousand soldiers and a couple dozen tanks, he could theoretically send in that entire force there and be able to take out the base, but that would end up risking too many lives. The three men who had escaped would likely now be warning the others of them, but attacking now was a last resort.

He would have to wait for extra men, munitions and equipment which would soon arrive in a few hours, he would scramble the jets, and commence airstrikes on the buildings, before having a team of soldiers clear all that was left of the base and hopefully take one of them alive.

He also didn't know how big the numbers in this base were, considering its size there had to be at least a couple hundred of them here.

"I need you to monitor the base for now. Once more Raptors and Lightning IIs arrived I want airstrikes on key points immediately, once the men arrive, I want you to mobilize a strike force capable of searching and killing anyone who may still be alive. If you see any evidence off them starting to evacuate, I want you to mobilize the troops and get ready for an offensive"

"I'll get it done sir." Burton nodded.

Kirkman left the room.

Chapter Text

"Ready?"

"Always, boss." Truck responded.

The four of them looked up at the portal, the massive green portal with the green light in the middle, scientists and researchers crowded the room.

"Let's go." Sandman began to walk forward.

The others followed. Sandman stopped in front of the green light, before putting a foot through, feeling nothing but a slight change of temperature in the new environment his foot was in, he entered, the others followed. What met them was a massive white room made of steel.

But right in front of them was General Thomas Kirkman himself, widely regarded to be one of the best generals in the armed forces. He gave them a smile

"Welcome gentlemen, I am General Kirkman, and I'm sure you've already been briefed of the situation."

Truck relaxed a little. "Woo yeah, alien worlds, alien life, getting attacked, all that."

Kirkman laughed. "Yes, while that is a very abridged version of the situation, I believe it is somewhat accurate. Did General Townes inform you of your mission here, uhh Sandman?" He looked at Sandman, wearing his US army uniform, wielding an ACR and sunglasses covering his eyes.

"Yes, you need a special operations team to take down the people who attacked you."

"Correct, and would you say your team is suited for the job?"

"Yes sir." Sandman's tone was confident, he was indeed confident in his team's ability and skill.

"Good, now please come with me." Kirkman signaled them to follow him, there was a door on the right, Kirkman went through it, and team Metal followed, as they walked, Kirkman began to talk.

"After being attacked, I issued requests for many things, jets, helicopters, materials, missiles, ammunition, even a cyber-team, though the cyber-team hasn't arrived yet. The attack on the marines happened two days ago, and so far no strange activity has been noted from the compound we followed them to."

Kirkman paused, as they walked for a little more.

"We already have multiple jets ready to take off and do airstrikes on the compound as soon as they are given the order, but we haven't done that yet, we've been waiting for you."

Team Metal stood quiet, but they wondered why they would need an actual team on the ground when they could easily level the base, as they could swear they saw dozens of cruise missiles through a window. But other than that they saw white phosphorous bombs, napalm, cruise missiles and many more.

"Now I'm sure you've noticed all the different weaponry we have here, those only arrived recently, I requested them after realizing that we may have to go to war with the massive cities we encountered. You may ask why I don't use all this weaponry to completely destroy the base. Well, it's because the researchers want live specimens of this alien life, and the marines want someone to interrogate."

"So we're going to take one back alive?" Grinch asked

Kirkman nodded. "One is the minimum, but it'd be best if you can take multiple, preferably of different sexes."

Grinch and Truck winced a little at that.

"Don't worry, we won't be doing any human experimentation or anything of the sort, the scientists simply want to compare differences between a live alien and a human, then the marines will do some interrogation. They, after all, have been wanting revenge since what happened before."

A woman in a lab coat hastily walked past them.

"I would like to ask though, what's been going on in the outside? I haven't been getting much news."

Truck was the first to answer.

"Nothin' much, China's desperately trying to get as much info on American bases as they can by taking what's left of the GLA. Tensions are building up in Korea, there might be a third Korean war soon enough."

"We might be able to make up for what happened in the second Korean war." Grinch replied in a joking manner.

Ahhh yes, the second Korean war, lasting from 2007-2008 where general Alexander got her name and fame. Though the US had many early victories, but it wasn't until China amassed a massive army and field tested their Overlord Tanks that the American backed South Koreans began to lose tremendously. It was a massive embarrassment for the US, in fact it was in direct response to the Overlord that the US made the Paladin tank, thought it wasn't as powerful as the Overlord, it did its job and did very well against missile based units, the Paladins ended being the spearhead to the American counterattack.

The Paladin had a 125mm cannon, as well as a point laser defense system which can take out multiple missiles before having to cool down for a short amount of time, making it more practical than the Overlord. But when the two faced each other in a one on one tank battle (which was highly unlikely), the Overlord would beat the Paladin.

The second Korean war made the US spend even more on military development and soon in terms of military tech the US would be completely unmatched, by the end of it, General Townes and General Alexander were both working on a laser defense system which can take out IRBMs, ICBMs, and the such, if that program is successful, China's nuclear weapons arsenal would be then obsolete-

He had been lost in thought for too long, he hadn't realized that they already arrived at their destination, it was the door to the outside, he opened it, and went out, Team Metal followed.

"Whoa." came from everyone except for Frost, there were raptors being transported, ordnance being wheeled away, ammunition and more.

But that wasn't what impressed them, that was common place in nearly every major base they've been to, no, what impressed them was Juno itself, the grass was green, the sky was blue, clouds were fluffy and white, the air was the same, and most importantly, they weren't dying and convulsing on the ground.

"Welcome to Juno." Said Kirkman

"It's exactly like Earth."

"Indeed it is, now, follow me."

They follow Kirkman as he continued walking, the sounds of men screaming orders, wheels rolling and engines on the move filled their ears. Suddenly an M1A3 crusader tank barreled past on the road next to them.

Frost looked at it.

After the crusader passed Frost could see many tomahawk launchers being loaded with tomahawk missiles

They passed a large B-3 bomber being taken out of the hangar.

They reached a building, team Metal immediately recognized the building, it was a strategy center, Kirkman opened the large doors and they all entered.

The walked to the operation room and all heads turned to meet them.

"This is Colonel Burton, he'll be with me on overseeing your mission." Kirkman gestured to a tall bald man in military uniform, he looked professional and strict.

"What do you need us to do, sir?" Sandman asked

The Colonel simply turned around and faced a large screen behind him showing what looked to be a medium sized base with multiple buildings and concrete walls surrounding it, at the front was an opening with an iron gate.

"It's simple, a Chinook will transport you there, while that is ongoing, Raptors will destroy the wall behind the base allowing for an opening, Lightning IIs will then strike at what we assume are a barracks and ammunitions facility, to allow for lesser reinforcements." a red square appeared over two buildings on the screen.

"Two Comanches will be there for close air support, once you drop in from the Chinook, you'll simply take at the very least one of them alive and bring them back to the Chinook. You will leave and we will then level the base with a carpet bombing."

That explained the B-3 bomber being prepped earlier.

"You all have an hour to prepare and review the plan, we've designated a room here in the strategy center to allow you and your squad to do some of your own planning."

Team Metal nodded their heads as an officer walked up to them to lead them to the room where they would be staying at for the next hour.

"So." Kirkman turned to Burton. "Do you have any news on the city?"

"Well, our drones spotted multiple unidentified flying objects going all around the city, we assume they are some sort of aircraft."

Colonel Burton pressed something on his remote and pointed it towards the screen, it now showed an overhead image of the city, a square appeared over certain spots of the image, as zoomed in versions of the spots on the squares appeared. There were a few weird looking objects in the air, they were white, had what appeared to be wings that extended, at the end of these wings were weird cylindrical winglets. There was also some form of tail extending to the back, at the end were what looked to be stabilizers.

It looked like some modified version of an Osprey

"We've observed them doing vertical takeoff and landing, they appear to be advanced."

All the more reason to fear them, if these aliens had access to technology that was far more advanced than theirs, then a couple cruise missiles and planes wouldn't suffice, which made it a good thing that he had recently requested for three more B-3 bombers. Granted, those bombers and the two ones he currently had wouldn't be nearly enough to capture or even the city in the event of a war, but it was a start, and at the current point he was on, a particle cannon or nuclear weapons would be overkill.

Right now they are not even sure if these white masked individuals are in any way related to those in the city.

He set up meetings in the futures with the other generals to request some of their materials, like Alexander's EMP missiles, Aurora Alphas and upgraded Particle Uplink Cannon, or Granger's King Raptors and Stealth Comanches, or even Townes' Laser Tanks, all were tools that would make him capable of defending the base if war were to break out.

But they were already taking necessary precautions, within the week, they were going to launch multiple satellites into orbit, thus allowing them to properly observe Juno without the excessive use of drones or spy planes, more and more ordnance and equipment was also arriving at the base, further equipping them with the ability to fight back against these aliens.

A cyber team is also going to arrive soon, since if the world is at a comparative level of technology to the Earth, then it would make sense for them to have computers or some large computer network like the internet, So cyber team would be useful when getting information out there, that is if they could decipher whatever language they spoke here.

The marines who were previously attacked claimed that they heard the men and woman they fought shouting in English, but Kirkman and many others doubted, they likely only heard it due to the shock of the situation, or mistook them for speaking English.

But he had enough to think about, for now he had a mission to oversee.

Juno, 34 kilometers southwest of the base.

1201 hours.

Team Metal were all currently in a Chinook helicopter, the side doors were open, and the sight of two Comanches tailing them could be seen.

"Approaching the LZ, ETA three minutes." The pilot said

Sandman looked to the rest of his team

"Alright, let's go over the plan one more time, we'll go in quick and fast, try to keep it all under a few minutes, go in, Frost and Truck will knock a couple out while Grinch and I will cover the two of you."

Everyone nodded

"Now remember, these guys got some sort of forcefield, so shooting them at vital parts is okay, but once you see the forcefield break, avoid lethal attacks on the people we want to take."

They all nodded again

They got the gist of it, they were able to meet Lieutenant Vasquez and his team of Marines before departure and they gave them all the advice they could, granted they only ever had one engagement with them, but that was enough to them the most experienced in that regard.

"One minute."

Overhead they could hear something soaring through the sky with a thunderous boom, before fading into nothing.

"Must be the Lightning IIs." Truck remarked.

A minute passed before another thunderous boom echoed overhead.

"And there goes the Raptors." This time it was Grinch who spoke.

"Aliens must be scared shitless."

Truck laughed. "No shit."

They could hear the thunderous sounds come back, the jets must have hit their target already.

"Thirty Seconds."

Sandman turned to look at the rest of his squad. "Lock and load boys"

Frost did an ammo check, he was holding a standard M4A1 with an ACOG. A USP was holstered to his side, he brought down his goggles from his forehead to his eyes and stood up from his seat.

Grinch did the same, for this mission he was carrying an Mk14 with a rifle optic. He stood up behind Frost.

Truck held an Mk46 light machine gun with ACOG sight, he was planning on doing some heavy damage. He walked in front of Frost, as they could feel the helicopter start descending.

Sandman was the last to stand, he stood in front of Truck, readying his ACR with a red dot sight. He placed his sunglasses over his eyes and readied himself.

"Five Seconds."

"Why do you always have to wear those?" Truck asked with a sarcastic tone

Without a hint of sarcasm in his voice, Sandman answered. "Style."

The Chinook landed. The doors at the front opened and they all rushed out, above them the Comanches were still flying at the ready/

The Chinook flew back up and went away

"We'll be coming back at your signal, good luck, out."

They were in the middle of some sort of forest, right in front of them was a clearing, with a large compound surrounded by a concrete wall, but the wall had a large breach.

They could already hear the shouting of the compound's occupants. Suddenly bullets starting coming at the two Comanches.

Sparks flew from the metal hull of the Comanches, but no damage was done.

"Take cover by the wall."

Sandman held his ACR with one hand, while with his other hand he counted.

Three

Two

One

"Go!"

They all went away from there cover, immediately seeing dozens of uniformed individuals, they weren't expecting Team Metal, Truck fired his machine gun, the rest fired upon them with their own guns. A hail of bullets struck the aliens.

The rocket pods on the Comanches fired on the large group of aliens as well.

Just like what Vasquez said, flashing lights of different colors came as they were hit, but after that the blood started to flow. Some were hit in the head and were killed instantly, others were hit in the chest and torso, but they all started to bleed.

Limbs flew from the explosions caused by the rockets of the Comanches, blood sprayed out and painted the ground in a liquid crimson.

In front of were two groups of metal barrels, close to each other. Team Metal spread out and took cover behind them

Grinch peeked his head out. The smoke began to clear, and the outlines of more uniformed individuals coming from a warehouse near the ruins of a barracks.

"Warehouse, right side!" Grinch fired twice at one of the silhouettes, the first shot broke their forcefield, and the second shot blew their head up.

Grinch went back behind cover.

"Any survivors?" Sandman asked with a loud tone.

Truck peeked his head to left, the smoke completely cleared, he saw a few of the downed individuals breathing, in fact one of them was quickly crawling to his allies.

"A couple, but I don't think they'll make it."

"Damn, we went a bit too hard." Sandman was angry, now they had to take the risk and attack the ones coming from the warehouse.

"You think?" Grinch smirked

Suddenly someone started firing at his head, the bullet luckily missed, hitting the barrel instead.

"We're taking fire!"

"(COMMS) We see em, multiple individuals from a large two story building to the left, we're moving to fire, over." The Comanche descended slightly and went in front of the large two story building, before unleashing a torrent of bullets at it.

"Roger, Owl 6-2. Owl 6-1 we need you to assist with the hostiles coming from the warehouse." Sandman spoke into his radio, while poking his head over to see the warehouse, and indeed there were currently six hostiles in the field firing either at their position or at the Comanches, while more were coming out from within the warehouse.

They could hear the guns and rockets, they assumed it was Owl 6-2 firing at the two story building building

"(COMMS) Understood, Sandman, what do you need us to do?"

"We need you to fire at the warehouse entrance to stop more from coming out, we'll attempt capture while they're distracted."

"(COMMS) Roger that."

The Comanche descended a little and immediately started firing its guns and rockets.

"Frost, Truck, try to grab one, Grinch and I will cover you."

"Alright."

Frost reloaded his M4, and looked to Truck. "You ready?" Truck asked

Frost nodded.

Truck pulled out a flashbang, letting it cook for a second before throwing it above his head and into the field full of hostiles. He heard the bang accompanied by the rockets and machine gun of the Comanches firing at their respective targets.

"Let's go!" Truck shouted. Frost and Truck vaulted over their barrels

They ran forward, ready to meet their opponents.

There were around six of them, four of them were holding swords, the two ones holding guns and rifles were immediately shot at by Grinch and Sandman, the forcefields broke in a few shots and the bullets penetrated their skin with ease.

The last four sprinted towards them, the one farthest at the back had his forcefield broken, he stumbled backwards before a bullet penetrated his skull. Frost and Truck continued, three more, they were near point blank range.

Truck aimed his machine gun forward, it was aimed at the three men and women running at him and Frost, he squeezed the trigger, the bullets sprayed out, Truck let go, he made sure to only fire for two seconds, and it worked, he watched the lights flash amongst all of them.

A bullet struck one of them in the head. Frost aimed down at the remaining two's legs as they ran at him and Truck, and he shot them, they fell down.

"We got em!" Truck shouted into comms.

The two Comanches pulled away from the areas they were initially targeting, and moved to support Truck and Frost as they walked up to the bodies of the aliens.

They stepped closer and closer to the downed men, they reached them, Frost looked at the face of the person, noticing long blonde hair, and a significantly non flat chest, this was probably a woman, they really weren't lying about them looking like humans.

She was downed but still conscious as evident by the fact that she was trying to grab hold of her sword which fell right next to her, Frost crouched slightly and butted his rifle onto the side of her head, cracking her mask and knocking her out, he grabbed her from the back and arms and lifted her over his shoulders.

Truck got to the other downed man, this one was actually a man, which meant they met all the criteria except for maybe the part about it being best if they were uninjured, but a couple shots in the legs and a concussion wasn't too bad. He was still breathing, and clearly attempting to crawl away.

Truck was about to knock him out with a butt to the head as well, but he suddenly turned over and looked him in the eyes.

"Damn… You." He said in between grunts of pain.

He spoke English. This was a complete surprise, Truck had to register his words.

"You speak English?"

"What the hell… is an English?"

Truck shook away his shock and knocked the stock of his gun onto the guy's head, breaking the mask and knocking the guy out.

He lifted him up and followed Frost as he had already began carrying his alien back to their defensive position, he could see the barrel of Grinch's Mk14 sticking out from the side of the metal barrels.

They got close as gunshots began to hit the sand around their feet."

"(COMMS) We're seeing more of them coming from inside the two story building, we're moving into fire, over."

The Comanche moved over to the position of the men coming out and fired its machine gun.

Frost and Truck got to where Sandman and Grinch were.

They laid down the bodies by the metal barrels.

"I already called in the chinook, get those bodies, we're going back behind the wall." Sandman gestured to the bodies of the woman and man

Frost and Truck picked the bodies back up again, and followed Sandman and Grinch as they started quickly walking behind the wall, they were fired at once again.

The Comanches silenced those gunshots with their own.

They went through the hole in the wall and crouched behind it. Laying the bodies there, they could then see the Chinook about to land.

Its wheels touched the ground, and the door opened, Sandman and Grinch were the first to enter, then followed Frost and Truck with their cargo. Frost and Truck dropped the bodies onto the seats as a medic walked over to tend to their wounds. The Chinook lifted off, and flew off into the other direction.

FOB Juno

1222

Colonel Burton put down the headset

"It was a complete success."

Everyone in the room began to cheer, much like how the room was when he beat the GLA.

"That's good." Kirkman breathed a sigh of relief. "So no one was injured?"

"None, sir. They were able to take two live aliens, one female and one male."

They had been watching the mission from a drone recording the whole event in the sky, but it was unclear from that high what was going on, they could only see dots on the screen moving around and bigger dots, being the comanches moving around as well.

But F-35 and F-22 strikes and the ensuing destruction was made very clear, the ammunitions facility especially made a really big boom.

Kirkman relaxed in his seat. "The scientists will be happy." He then stood up. "Order the B-3s to begin their carpet bombing, I don't want a single building left standing."

"Yes, General."

Colonel Burton spoke into the microphone. "Start it."

Seconds passed, based on the drone feed it didn't look like they were evacuating, Kirkman expected some form of attempt to leave by now which would be silenced by the incoming carpet combing, but for some reason they stayed, like they didn't expect them to come back.

Minutes passed.

The room was filled with trepidation, anxious as to the success of the upcoming bombing

Minutes more passed

"(COMMS) TOT ten seconds." He could hear the Pilot's voice amongst the chatter of everyone in the room.

Then black shadows darkened the ground below the drone, and black shapes started coming into view, it was the B-3s, they were flying side by side at a high altitude, they passed right over the base, Kirkman could see outlines of the bombs drop. They hit the ground and with a thundering boom, the base was pulverized in mere seconds.

The walls fell, the buildings were decimated, by the end of the bombing, nothing was left of the base. It was a haunting yet beautiful sight.

Dust and smoke filled the surroundings as the B-3s moved away.

The cheers began again

"(COMMS) That's a hit, we're coming back around to return to the base."

Kirkman stood up and walked to the microphone, pressing the button, he spoke. "Good Job, Sparrow Squadron."

"(COMMS) Thank you, sir."

Kirkman was happy to say the least, this was the first major military operation to happen I Juno and it was a complete success, a celebration was soon to come, he would be giving Team Metal, and Lieutenant Vasquez's Squad of marines awards soon, they deserve it.

An officer walked up to him and put his mouth near Kirkman's right ear. "General. Team Metal has returned."

Kirkman nodded his head and looked to everyone in the room

"Well I'd like to talk with the men who made this success possible, so I'll be leaving."

It was 7:30pm, the sun had set, and the shattered moon had taken its place, the branches and leaves of the trees were swaying in the light breeze of the early night. It was Thursday and Classes had just finished a few hours earlier. Team RWBY were all situated in their dorm, all doing different things.

Weiss was studying on her desk, Ruby was playing Ninja Battles 3 with Yang on their scrolls, and Blake was doing what she always does, reading a damn book.

Just the day before they had resolved to investigate the White Fang, which they would be doing tomorrow, they had barely done any planning, but being the procrastinators that they were, they would cross that bridge when they get to it.

Yang pressed a button on her scroll controller and ended the game.

"Guess, I'm still better than you sis, better luck next time."

Ruby's arms slacked and she groaned with a slight pout on her face. Yang put down the controller and jumped onto her bed, seeing Ruby and Yang's game finished, Weiss decided to speak up.

"Hey, did you hear, people on the northern side of Vale said they could hear explosions."

Blake's bow perked up and focused a little of her attention to what Weiss was saying.

"You mean, the shopping district?" Ruby quirked an eyebrow at Weiss

"I prefer to call it the commercial district, but yes."

Yang sat up from her bed and looked at Weiss. "So… What about these explosions?"

"I don't really know, I just read about it on the internet an hour ago, because of all the reports, they sent a group of huntsmen north to check it out a few hours ago."

"Huh, I wonder what could've caused that."

"What's more interesting is that there is a significant amount of White Fang activity being reported in that area."

This was when Blake stopped reading, she still had the book over her head as she was lying down, but her focus was now on the thing the other girls were talking about.

"Hm. Blake, you know any bases around there?" Asked Yang.

Blake put down her book. "I think so, I remember hearing from Ad- Someone that we have a base somewhere in the northeast."

It took a while but it clicked, someone might have attacked the White Fang base. She sat up immediately.

"Someone could have attacked the base." Ruby suggested as if it wasn't already the most obvious thing in the world.

"As if that isn't the most obvious thing in the world." Weiss had a snarky tone.

Ruby was insulted "Hey!"

Yang looked at Weiss "You think Atlas had something to do with it?"

"No, last I remember, Atlas isn't allowed to conduct any military operations on Vale Territory."

"That's on paper."

"Well if they were going to conduct any covert operations without letting the Vale council know, they certainly wouldn't use something as obvious as a big explosion." This time it was Blake that answered

Yang looked to Blake "We don't know what happened, maybe the White Fang fought back with some sort of big powerful bomb."

Weiss stood up from her desk and walked to her bed and sat down, then she answered Yang. "Well if the White Fang had access to bombs powerful enough that it could be heard all the way in northern Vale, then I'm pretty sure we'd all be dead by now."

Blake was annoyed at Weiss' assumption that White Fang would even use such a weapon, her eyebrows furrowed as she looked to Weiss with a look that suggested she wasn't very happy with her.

"The White Fang isn't full of bloodthirsty monsters, they wouldn't just use a weapon like that." Her tone was starting to increase in volume.

"We don't know that, do we?"

"I do!"

"Can you guys stop fighting?" Yang stood up and put her arms up on each side trying to calm the situation.

"How can we, when she's such a-"

"Guys." Blake was cut off by Ruby. "The huntsmen… They found something."

"What?" Everyone asked at the same time.

Ruby was looking at her scroll with a concerned look, everyone was now paying attention to her. "The base… It's gone."

"What do you mean, 'It's gone'" Blake asked with a skeptical look.

"I mean like it's gone! The huntsmen found the base but all the buildings are destroyed, the walls are rubble, and… and…"

"And what?" Blake walked up to Ruby.

"A lot of the White Fang there are… dead."

"What?" The question was then again brought up by everyone.

"Look."

Ruby showed her scroll to everyone, it was a news article, and in the middle of the page was a picture of the base, everything really was gone, it was all rubble, and sprinkled all across the image were many spots that were blurred out, which were obviously censored corpses.

Everyone got off their beds and walked to Ruby. Yang's eyes were widened, even Weiss was utterly shocked, sure the people in the White Fang weren't entirely good, and of course she hated them, but to kill so many of them? That wasn't something she was entirely comfortable with either.

Blake especially was mortified. How could anyone do something like this? To kill other human beings, even if they were faunus, or even if the world did brand them as terrorists. And as someone who was part of the White Fang for a majority of her life, she sympathized with them, she lived, fought and ate with them after all.

Though she left for moral reasons, just for them to be mercilessly struck down like that… It disturbed her to no end.

She took a step back and put a palm on her head. She slumped down on the wall, Yang walked up to her and put a hand on her back in an attempt to comfort her.

Ruby pulled back her scroll and began to scroll through it, trying to find anything that may possibly lead to more information about it, Weiss watched her as she did it.

They scrolled for a minute before Weiss pointed out something on the screen, it was video, and it had a red bar on its side that said 'LIVE'

"Breaking News: White Fang base attack survivors interviewed." She read the title aloud. Blake was still on the ground, but with the new piece of information, she stood up, Yang helped her up and they both walked up to Ruby and Yang.

Ruby tapped on the video and hit play, she laid down her scroll on an end table between the two bunk beds, it projected a hologram.

They all watched in silence.

"-tsmen and Huntresses were surprised today when they investigated the source of the explosions being heard this afternoon in Northern Vale, and found the ruins of the base along with the bodies of many fallen White Fang operatives"

The image they saw earlier was shown on the hologram, seeing it just minutes earlier didn't diminish how jarring the image was. The image disappeared and what took place was the upper body of the reporter.

"Many suspected Atlas responsible for this, but Atlas has denied any responsibility for this attack, many believed this claim was false until the huntsmen interviewed some of the very few survivors of this attack, this is what one of them had to say:"

All of team RWBY inched closer to the screen as a new video popped up, showing a beaten and battered Fang Operative, her mask was gone, her clothes were torn, and she had bruises everywhere, parts of her arms and legs were bandaged up. She was sitting on a chair, by a table, opposite to her were a pair of police officers.

"What happened earlier this day?" The police officer took a seat.

The woman shifted a little in her seat

"A little before noon, I was just in the warehouse, sorting through some ammunition that was going to be transported to the ammunitions facility near the barracks, when we heard a massive explosion, I ran outside, and the barracks, and ammunitions facilities had massive holes blown through them, they were practically ruins at that point."

Team RWBY was perplexed. How can something strike so fast and escape right after attacking? Not even Atlas had a single ship in their fleet that could do something like that.

"When noon came, we were attacked... by a group of men in green uniforms, they had two of these weird looking bullheads too, and the men had powerful guns that broke our auras in just a few shots. Th- they didn't even hesitate to kill us."

"Those monsters." Blake whispered, Team RWBY agreed with her, sure, the White Fang were criminals, you can even call them terrorists, but to them at least, killing was way overboard, and it was clear that with the hesitation in her voice, this girl was probably new to the White Fang.

"What about the bullheads?"

"The… bullheads were even worse, they had these rockets and guns that could mow down a dozen of us in seconds, I watched one clear an entire building in actual seconds, they were terrifying."

"Where were you when these men attacked?"

"I was outside, I was right there when the wall suddenly blew up, and I swear I could see these weird birds in the sky flying away right after it happened, but that's when the men struck, they shot all of us while we were distracted, I was hit twice, the first shot broke my aura, the second… almost killed me, it hit me in my stomach, and I just laid there, hoping they didn't notice I was still alive, I laid there surrounded by the dead bodies of my friends."

Ruby hit pause, to process everything.

"What kind of people would do something like that?!" Blake was almost shouting.

"To take a human's life… especially that much…" Weiss couldn't find words to finish her sentence.

"They could've stopped when they broke their Aura, but they didn't." Yang's hands were balled up in fists, grasping so tightly that her nails were starting to dig into her skin.

"Why would they even do something like this?" Ruby was also disturbed by this, what could bring a human being to take another human's life, and to this degree.

"And what kind of weapons can do any of that? Bullheads that can clear entire buildings? Birds that destroy those buildings in a split second disappear as fast as they came?"

Nobody seemed to be able to answer her

"Should I continue it?" Ruby asked, knowing that everyone else was getting more and more uncomfortable by the subject of the video."

"Yes." Blake surprisingly was the one to answer.

Ruby pressed the play button, as the hologram continued to move, it skipped to the part that was currently live.

"-that the bullheads had rockets, was it them that destroyed the base?"

The police officer clearly looked uneasy as well after what the girl had said, but he continued to question her.

"No, it was something much worse that destroyed it, and killed most of us."

They all walked closer to the hologram, they watched as the girl's eyes seemed to darken, she was remembering something awful.

"I don't know what happened next, but my aura was starting to regenerate and heal me. The next thing I know, a brother picked me up and brought me to into one of the warehouses that weren't affected by the attack, they tended to me, and told me that the men had left and had captured two of our own, they left in a third bigger bullhead."

"What does this have to do with the destruction of the base?"

The girls were angry.

That was a very insensitive question to ask, the girl was already giving them information, and she was clearly dredging up traumatic memories, the least he could do was to care a little bit.

"Around fifteen minutes later, we thought, everything was done, we thought that they just did that to capture some of us for information, and that was the end of it… But then these big black shadows in the sky appeared, I couldn't tell exactly what happened, since I was as just near the opening of the warehouse but next thing I know, I hear loud explosions, the warehouse imploded around me and I went unconscious under some rubble."

All of their eyes went as wide as dinner plates

"How…" Were the only words that could come out of Weiss's mouth.

Blake was angrier than ever, and she was just about to burst when,

The video ended

"The situation is still new, and more interviews are being conducted, but we here at the Vale News Network are sure to-"

The video cut and it went to static

"What's happening?" Yang asked.

"I don't know. Bad WiFi?" Ruby took her scroll and started lightly tapping it with her fingers to see if that would fix it.

Weiss looked at Ruby with an annoyed face. "Like that's going to help-"

The hologram came back, this time showing a man, looking to be in his mid-forties, he had brown hair, green eyes, and was wearing a dark green uniform, and on it were multiple symbols and badges.

He was standing behind a podium, on the podium was an insignia of some sort of bird with its wings spread, it had a red, blue, and white shield behind it's back, it's torso was covered by what looked to be golden armor with a star on its middle. A sword was striking through the back of the shield.

Behind the man was what looked to be a green screen effect of a weird looking pattern, horizontal red and white striped, on the top left was a blue square with numerous stars across it.

"Who's he?" Yang asked.

Blake's eyes eased, her attention was turned from the atrocities that had been committed by the men in green uniforms to the man who had seemingly hijacked the news broadcast

"I… don't know."

"I think we're about to find out." Weiss stared at the screen, as did Ruby.

The man opened his mouth

"My name is General Thomas Kirkman, and I was responsible for the attack on the White Fang Compound."

Chapter Text

Team RWBY stared at the screen, utterly speechless, this man readily admitted that he was responsible for it.

"What?!" Blake was the first to speak up.

"Who even is he?" Weiss affirmed everyone else's thoughts.

"He has to be lying or something." Ruby said in disbelief.

"But then who would go to much trouble just to hijack a news station and say that? Seems a bit risky."

The video was starting to go to static again, but it came back. It was clear that the people at VNN were trying to regain control but were fighting a losing battle.

"The attack was done as retaliation for what the White Fang did to us two days ago."

"What could possibly warrant the killing of dozens of people?" Blake carried a sarcastic tone in her voice, she rolled her eyes and continued to listen.

The man took a deep breath, as the green screen image of the pattern behind him distorted for a split second.

"On a standard reconnaissance mission, a team of my soldiers were assaulted by agents of the White Fang, causing deaths and much injury."

The man spoke with a professional tone, his face was completely serious.

He really seemed like the real deal.

"His men were attacked, it makes sense why he would want revenge."

Blake's face soured at Weiss's comment

"It still doesn't give him the right to kill dozens of people."

Everyone seemed to agree

"Still we aren't even sure if he's telling the truth." Weiss replied

"Of course, you may want proof to this claim, one of the soldiers during the attack on the White Fang had camera footage of the event, one of the Comanches also had a camera during our retaliation, and we have submitted these recordings to the proper authorities."

"What's a Comanche?" Ruby asked

Nobody seemed to be able to answer her

"Still, we don't even know who exactly he is." Yang asked the question that everyone watching was asking.

"He said he's a general." Ruby answered

"Though, as far as I'm aware, neither Vacuo nor Mistral has a professional military, if he was a general from Atlas, then I'm sure he would not have to hijack this news station." Weiss gave her explanation as 'Kirkman' continued to talk

"Now, you may be wondering who I am and why I have claimed myself responsible for this attack. Well, I am a General of a nation known as the United States of America, we are made up of multiple military operatives and people who choose not to align themselves with the four kingdoms."

"What?!" Everyone yelled

"So he's not from any kingdom?!" Weiss was practically screaming. Wait, no, she was screaming.

Blake's angry look turned into one of surprise. "That makes no sense, if what the survivor said is true, how can an independent 'nation' have so much power that they took down a heavily guarded White Fang base with four guys and some bullheads?!"

"Uhhh, what's a nation?" Ruby meekly asked.

"It's a term used to identify a large group of people. It was used prior to the Great War, but most nations fell through after that."

"We did what we believe is a justified retaliation. We are not hostile to anyone who does not provoke us. Thank you for listening."

The video cut off, as the screen went back the static, the image of a female news reported and the VNN logo on the bottom started to slowly form with the static, the distortion grew less and less, and then finally, the image was clear.

"What the - oh uhh, we seem to be back on air, we are sorry for that interruption… Our um ahem, staff our working on finding out what happe-"

"Cut. Cut!" Someone off screen said

Then just like that, the news cut.

And with that, team RWBY and everyone else who tuned in to VNN that day, were left absolutely perplexed.

FOB Juno

1230 hours

Two days later…

Kirkman was on his desk, in front of him, his breakfast… or lunch at this point, a meal consisting of scrambled eggs and toast. To him, nothing embodied beauty in simplicity more than eggs and toast, he dug in.

The days earlier were long and tiring.

He had made an announcement to all the people of the now named Remnant about the attack on the now also named, White Fang. He had to give it to the USCYBERCOM, their cyber team was able to dig up so much in just a few hours, they were even able to hijack a news station to get him that announcement.

But in exchange for telling the entire world that they were the cause for a large scale attack on people of their world, the chances of them attacking or finding FOB Juno, soon to be changed to FOB Remnant, were high.

As such, the base was now on high alert, anticipating an attack that may come especially after such an announcement. Some in FOB Juno even criticized him for making that announcement, but in his opinion, not making that announcement would only be delaying the inevitable, as the bombing was guaranteed to have left at least a few survivors, and he was certain that once interrogated, they would blab about the attack on the marines just a few days prior.

So the announcement was a semi attempt at peace.

He wasn't sure yet if that attempt at peace bore fruit, as the last piece of information he got from the cyber team was from approximately nine hours ago about how the people of the Kingdom of Vale were now investigating the authenticity of the hijacking and whether or not the information stated was true. There was so far no news about the proof they sent in, but the situation was still fresh, therefore making many assumptions wasn't a good idea.

He spread some of the eggs on top of the last piece of bread and finished it, he was done eating, and with that he was done with his rest, he had much to do for today, he put away his plate and stood up, ready to walk up to the designated room of the Cyber team in the command center, but he was then interrupted by a familiar man in a lab coat bursting through his door without knocking.

"Good morning, general." Benjamin Steele with a bottle of Buffalo Trace and two small glasses walked to Kirkman.

"It's afternoon, Benjamin." Kirkman sat back down, ready to hear what Benjamin had to say now.

"Really? Hell, my body clock has been so fucked, I don't even know anymore."

Benjamin sat down on the chair in front of the desk, and put down both glasses and poured himself some bourbon, he brought his hand up and gestured to the glass in front of is, Kirkman nodded his head, so he poured him some too, it got to around a third of the glass before Kirkman gestured him to stop

Benjamin pulled back the bottle, screwed the cork back on and put the glass down on the floor beside him.

Kirkman could tell hat Benjamin was quite tired, bags under his eyes, his hair was unkempt and messy. He pulled the glass up over his mouth and poured a bit of its contents within.

"So…"Kirkman took a sip from his own glass, letting the numbing sensation pass through is mouth and throat before speaking. "What brings you here?" Kirkman quirked an eyebrow at Benjamin.

"Well, we did some experimentation on the subjects you brought, and let's just say we may have violated a few human rights and treaties in the process, but I assure you, the information we got is worth it"

Kirkman heard the part about violating human rights, but at the same time, he wasn't held back by those treaties as he was on an alien planet.

"Don't worry, we didn't do anything too major, but we definitely did cause some minor injuries to test the extents of this 'Aura' as they call it."

"So what did you find?"

"We confirmed what the marines got from them in the interrogation, we broke down their aura and caused minor injuries, a few cuts here, a few punches there, and all the bruises and cuts seemed to heal as the aura 'regenerated'." He said the last part with air quotes

"Why the air quotes?"

"Well we aren't sure if their aura actually is regenerating or if it's just a passive ability for individuals with aura, or both, we're just taking their word for it. That said, I still don't believe in all that soul bullshit though."

Kirkman brought the glass close to his mouth. "Heh, believe me, I'm skeptical about it too." He took a drink.

Benjamin downed the rest of the contents of his glass, a visible lump went down his throat as he breathed a heavy sigh, the smell of alcohol clearly in his breath.

"But we are in an alien planet, so anything is possible, discounting of course differences in the laws of physics, biology, chemistry and basically any other scientific law. Cause if we see anything in this world that violates any of those, then we may be in more than just an alien planet."

Kirkman knew exactly what Benjamin was implying.

"What else did you find?" Kirkman himself finished what left of his bourbon.

"Aura is susceptible to electricity, all forms of radiation, heat, and heavy amounts of kinetic energy, of course this isn't to say that it doesn't protect from them, it's just less effective against them. Oh and Aura protects from damage, but not pain."

"I don't want to ask how you found that out, but if you didn't do anything too major, how were you able to determine that aura is susceptible to radiation?"

"I'm sure you know that gamma and x-ray aren't the only forms of radiation, we subjected them to light amounts of infrared, microwave and ultraviolet radiation, which all burned through there aura pretty quick and caused first degree burns."

"I see."

"We still have yet to try stronger forms of radiation and high powered lasers on them, but we don't want to risk killing the only specimens we have."

Benjamin poured himself another glass of the rich amber liquid as Kirkman thought on what he would do now with these new pieces of information, high kinetic energy meant bullets, tank shells, and your average ordnance would be enough to take people with auras down, but they already found that out with the two engagements his men had with the humans of Remnant.

"Though, apart from the obvious built in forcefields which these people say come from their souls, the similarities between us and the humans of this world are remarkable, obviously not including the fact that the ones we have are faunus. Everything is practically the same, which makes me think that there are two more possible explanations apart from this just being a different planet that somehow had multi celled organisms evolve into primitive primates and from there to Homo sapiens with forcefields."

"Since you implied it earlier, I assume parallel universe is one of them, but what would be the other one?"

"That the conspiracy theorists are right and that humans and evolution as we know it is wrong, and humanity originally came from another planet, but I absolutely refuse to believe that, I'd pray to some god before I buy into that crap." He took a drink.

Benjamin offered Kirkman the bottle, ready to pour him another one, but Kirkman waved his hand in refusal.

"Well, we have all time in the world to speculate about these 'humans', but I think right now, we have to focus on what's right in front of us, and that's the fact that we're still in an unknown world with aliens with unknown intent."

"Indeed."

A knock was then heard on the door.

"Come in." Kirkman told the mystery knocker.

The door opened and a man of around the same height a Benjamin walked in, he was young, had medium length hair and brown eyes, he was in incomplete uniform, with a black t-shirt and proper uniform pants, in his hand he held a thick envelope.

He was Frank George Miller or George for short, the man leading the cyber team sent by Cyber Command. They must finally have news.

"Sir, we have made multiple developments on the things you ordered us to find."

George handed him the envelope, Kirkman opened up and pulled out the contents, it was a full booklet with many pages.

"That's a lot."

"We're very thorough sir."

Benjamin looked at George with eyes that suggested some sort of familiarity. "Oh, it's you."

George looked at Benjamin he seemed to remember him too. "Oh yeah, I know you! Benjamin Steele right?"

"I prefer to be called Ben, but sure that works."

"You two know each other? Kirkman said as he opened the book and began sifting through its contents.

"Yeah, George here was part of the cyber team making sure we weren't gonna get hacked when we were developing the particle cannon in a secret research lab back in 08'. "

"Seems you haven't changed a bit, always drinking on the job." George laughed

"Hey, it helps get my creativity runnin' That, and I like it."

George chuckled, "Tell me, how old are you again?"

"What? I'm 38."

"And you look like you're in your late 40s. Lay off on the whiskey and maybe you'll look your age"

"Oh fuck off."

Safe to say Benjamin was completely unamused.

Kirkman seemed to finish sifting through the pages.

"I'll fully read it later, but based on what I'm seeing, what you've found is remarkable, based on just this, I can confidently say that we can beat them in small scale conflicts, and even large scale if my requests for a massive expansion of armaments and men are accepted. But the part about people disliking us is still not very good."

"Disliking us?" Benjamin asked.

"From what we found, they're not very keen on killing other people." George explained

"What are they? Hippies?"

"No clue, all I know is they believe it should've been avoided at all costs."

"Well that's fuckin' stupid." Benjamin took another drink.

Kirkman decided to speak up. "I think it has something to do with the fact that they have these aura forcefields, maybe they only have to go as far as to incapacitate each other because their weapons don't have the same level of lethality as ours."

George looked at Kirkman with confused eyes. "Don't have the same level of lethality? Well, I wouldn't say that, didn't you see the mech, it looks pretty lethal if you ask me."

"Well looks can be deceiving because-"

"Mech? Can I see that?" Benjamin put his drink down and looked at Kirkman.

Kirkman handed him the booklet and Benjamin started turning pages.

George turned to Benjamin. "It's on page 32. It's called the Atlesian Paladin, boy did we have to dig through a bunch of classified files to get that."

Benjamin turned to the said page and viewed its contents, after just a few seconds of reading it, he began to laugh "Heh heh, the fuck is this?"

"What do you mean? Are you blind or something? Do you see how deadly that thing looks?"

"Well I'm not exactly an engineer, but being an experimental physicist I think I can spot the errors, first of all, carbon steel and titanium?"

"What? Aren't those strong?"

Kirkman answered. "They are, but they aren't very good for armor, Hollywood will make you believe that titanium is a wonder metal, but military grade steel will leave it in the dust. But even with carbon steel, you won't even need HEAT rounds to take this out, all you would need is a couple well placed HE shots and this thing is gone."

"Not to mention those exposed joints, like the General said, even just a couple HE shots on the joints on the arms and legs will leave it limbless, or hit it on the torso and it's decapitated."

Benjamin continued to read, something caught his eye and he started to laugh again

"What now?" George asked, clearly disappointed at the turn of events.

"The rockets, heh heh… and the fucking laser motion sensor."

"What? Don't those make it more versatile and deadly?"

"Oh sure they would, if they weren't so ineffective."

"Ineffective?"

The General spoke again. "The missiles use fire dust, which after testing, the scientists have determined has the same explosive power as amatol, but I'm not sure about the problems with the motion sensor."

"Amatol which is basically TNT and ammonium nitrate mixed together hasn't been in widespread use on Earth since World War Two, it's obsolete. As for the laser motion sensor, it relies on the light not being bounced back to the sensor, so if you can move quick enough, you'll dupe it real easy. Honestly it would work better as a targeting system for the missiles." He pulled out a cigarette, and placed it in his mouth. "And please, call me Ben." He lit it and took a quick puff

"It also says the effective range is 50 meters for the gun and 100 for the missiles. Even the obsolete Abrams tank can fire a depleted uranium armour piercing dart that would shatter this thing from a mile away, Imagine what a Paladin would do." Kirkman added.

George looked over Benjamin's shoulder to view the contents of the envelope. "Okay sure, but it says here that it was built to fight infantry and grimm, not other armored units. How would it do against infantry and levia- grimm then?"

"Huh, is this… Atlas the only country with a capable military?"

"What makes you say that, General?" Benjamin asked.

"If you look at the fact that it uses missiles and kinetic energy guns, it would make sense for it to be made to fight other armored units."

"The General is right though." George answered. "We found nothing else suggesting that the other kingdoms also have mechs."

"But to answer your question, Miller, no, an FGM-148 Javelin can very well take this thing out with an effective range of 4,000 meters."

George opened his mouth but Kirkman stopped him. "And if they were in close range, then an AT-4 would do just as good a job.

George sighed. "Tch, well there goes my hopes for cool tank versus robot battles. Well sir, I'll be going now, I'll be updating you if we find anything."

He gave him a salute and left.

Benjamin was still turning pages on the booklet, trying to find something interesting, then he did.

"Ho ho, General, you saw this? The 'Atlesian Knight-200'"

"No, I must have skipped over it." Ben handed over the booklet to Kirkman

Kirkman viewed the page, it was a blueprint of a humanoid robot, there were two images, one wherein the robot was holding a rifle similar to the ones being held by the White Fang soldiers, and the other picture showing the robot with two swords for hands.

"Made of a titanium alloy, torso's more exposed than my Aunt Jen's ass on Thanksgiving."

Kirkman held back a chuckle as he looked at the blueprint.

Benjamin blew smoke in the air and finished the last of his drink.

"Anyway, I'll be going now, chemists have probably already fucked up with the dust samples."

Ben picked up his bottle and the two glasses before walking out the door.

Then Kirkman was left their, alone, wondering what this all entailed for him and his men.

He picked up the booklet, and decided to properly read it.

It took around an hour, he was a fast reader, so finishing a forty page report in that amount of time in one sitting was hardly a challenge.

But the contents of the paper were very interesting. The cyber team were able to find much.

The information within would indeed be very useful for the future.

To him though, the most interesting part of the report was the part about the Atlas military, which was apparently the only proper military force in all of Remnant. The report held pictures of the strategy manual of Atlas, and it was straight up Napoleonic.

The soldiers and androids were meant to fire in straight lines good ole 1860's style. There were no maneuvers for getting into position, long range, short range, no matter the situation, the strategy was the same, just open fire. Sure there were a few basic flanking maneuvers, but they were that, basic, there was no concept of suppressing fire, no shock and awe doctrine even though they were by far the most advanced military.

Most of all, even though they were the largest military on remnant, they only had 44,000 soldiers; 32,000 being androids which were already concluded to be weak.

The Atlesian military also had a fleet of more than a thousand aircraft, made up mostly of big, clunky and slow airships, smaller craft made for CAS, and dropships.

Any fighter jet in the American arsenal could take them out very easily.

So again, Kirkman was left wondering what all this meant for the mission and his men.

"Sir! We just received a radio communication!"

And with that, his wondering was ruined.

"Our only option is clearly to fight back against them!" One voice spoke.

"Why fight? Their only act of aggression so far has been against blood thirsty faunus terrorists!" A second one came

"As a Faunus, I find that incredibly offens-" The third voice was cut off

"Oh shut up!" The second voice bit back

Ozpin turned off the hologram, he was getting tired of listening to the reactions of the public anyway.

He sighed. The past few days had been a complete disaster. The fact that someone claiming to be from a sovereign nation claimed to be the one who had attacked the White Fang base was already big enough, but then the evidence they sent them from a signal that was still being tracked, was damning.

All the doubts he and anyone of authority had about this man and his claims being fabrications were cleared by the evidence.

He must have watched those videos at least a hundred times already

There were two videos.

The first was taken from the head camera of a man, there was no audio, either that or it had been taken out in post-production. It started with the camera man and three other men rushing into a wall with hole blown through it, then them entering and mercilessly gunning down dozens of men and women. The video made a jump cut to then showing the camera man shooting White Fang coming out of a warehouse with more fire coming from behind him.

It struck something in Ozpin's heart, the bloodshed was too much.

The video was already enough to prove the validity of 'General Thomas Kirkman's' claims, as you could clearly identify the compound from the video.

He didn't care if they were terrorists, nothing justified taking another life.

He had done so in his past, but not a day went by that he didn't regret them.

What made it worse though was the bullhead video or Comanche as their mysterious hijacker called it. The video was in black and white, and it showed that the object filming was high in the air before suddenly descending in front of the second floor of a building with windows, there were lots of white human looking blobs, it was some sort of thermal camera, a luxury that only the Atlesian military could afford.

Then the guns and rockets fired and then suddenly all the heat signatures just disappeared.

It terrified Ozpin to no end that such things, such machines that made killing so easy existed. He wasn't fearful for his own life no, he was fearful for humanity, those two videos and the fact that the base was turned into dust by a bombing that Ozpin assumed there were no videos of, showed the extent these people would go to kill, and how they seemed to have perfected the act of killing.

The sheer firepower.

It was terrifying.

Yet, there were still many question that clouded his mind.

Who are they? Why have they only reveal themselves now? And of course, where did they get such weapons of destruction?

What was more interesting was that the videos were sent directly to the CCT's classified communications floor, the only people who would have clearance to send things directly to this floor are members of the council of the four kingdoms, headmasters and others with incredible high clearance.

So not only was this a breach of morality, but it was also a breach of security.

The term nation also has never been used since before the Great War, as all the nations fell before the Great War started. Could this 'United States of America' possibly be a nation from before the Great War?

That was when the elevator doors to his office opened, and out of it came Glynda Goodwitch and General James Ironwood, they had just met a few days prior, Ironwood was supposed to deal with security preparations for the Vytal festival.

But current events changed those plans.

"Hello James, Glynda." Ozpin stood up

James walked up to Ozpin, with Glynda by his sided "It has not been long since our last meeting, I assume you called me here because of the still developing situation about the White Fang base attack."

"And the ensuing news hijacking" Glynda clarified

"Yes." Ozpin started to walk back to his desk, taking a seat, he continued to speak while the other two walked up to the table.

"Though I am certain Atlas had nothing to do with any of this, I want to hear it straight from you, James. Did Atlas have anything to do with this?" Ozpin asked with furrowed eyebrows, he took a sip from his coffee and brought his focus back on Ironwood

Glynda also looked at Ironwood, waiting for an answer and he did.

"Atlas had nothing to do with both the attack on the White Fang base and the news broadcast hijacking" He said with a completely straight face.

Ozpin with his literally millennia of experience of telling whether or not people were lying could tell that Ironwood wasn't. His eyes eased up.

"Now, onto business. Glynda, what news do you have of the situation?" He looked at Glynda who was holding a large scroll tablet, she tapped on it for a few second before placing it on Ozpin's desk, a hologram projected from the desk showing random numbers and sentences.

"Ironwood's team was able to determine the frequency used to send us the videos, but they have failed to determine the location of the broadcast or where the videos were sent." Glynda zoomed in on a specific set of numbers which looked to be some sort of radio frequency.

"But, even with just the frequency, we can already do many things." Ironwood added.

Ozpin leaned back on his chair. "What are our options?"

Glynda pulled her tablet back.

"We can be cautious and wait for Ironwood's team to determine the exact location-"

"But this may take a while, I am confident in my team's ability but it seems that this Kirkman and his nation are good at masking their location."

Glynda shot a quick glare at Ironwood for interrupting her. "As I was saying, our other option is to communicate with them using this frequency."

Ozpin mulled over it.

"I think we should communicate with them, it's important we got our agendas straight now" Ironwood suggested.

"I think that's its safer we get their location first, if we communicate now, we risk talks breaking down and having them attack us."

"And if they do, they will face the full power of Atlas."

"It's not all about war, James." Glynda raised her voice

"It will be if they attack us first."

"Which is exactly what we are trying to avoid."

"Well it will be unavoidable if-"

"That's enough!" Ozpin raised his own voice. He took a deep breath and let it out. "I believe we must communicate with them."

Ironwood smiled while Goodwitch frowned a little.

"General, meet up with your team, tell them that I will be there soon."

The general left the room and went inside the elevator. The doors closed and with a pleasant ding, it could be heard descending.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Glynda took a few steps until she was standing beside Ozpin.

"Well, there's not exactly protocol for a nation attacking a criminal organization and announcing themselves to the world. So we're all just making assumptions, and I assume this is a good idea."

Ozpin took a sip from his mug.

"What of the students?" Glynda asked.

"What about them."

"Should we broadcast this talk throughout Beacon?"

"I don't think we should, we can certainly report about it in the news, but broadcasting the entire talk would mean that if it were to fail, everyone in Beacon, nay, the world will see it all fall, imagine the negative emotions that would spread through just that."

Glynda nodded in agreement

One hour later.

Ozpin stepped through the recently opened elevator doors and quickly walked to the large monitor Ironwood and a few other men and women were standing in front of, Glynda walked beside him with the large tablet scroll held closely to her chest.

"James."

Ironwood turned around and met the eyes of Ozpin.

"I already sent them a radio message asking for them to open up their communications to allow for proper video."

Ozpin stepped forward and stood beside Ironwood, looking at the giant holographic monitor. "Did they accept?"

"Yes they did."

"Who will be speaking?" Ozpin asked.

"Well, actually, I thought you would be fit for the job, considering you hold a seat in the Council of Vale and your negotiations skills are impeccable."

Ozpin lightly laughed "Very well then."

"We'll start whenever you're ready, Oz."

Ozpin cleared his throat, and put down his coffee mug, he adjusted his eye glasses. "I don't think I need any more preparation, you can start it now."

"Very well." Ironwood pressed a button, and with that the Vale insignia on the hologram was replaced by Static.

"What's going on?" Glynda suddenly stepped forward.

"Wait for it." Ironwood put a hand up.

The static disappeared and in its place was the man himself. The same man who hijacked the VNN news broadcast, and the same man who claimed and showed proof that he attacked the White Fang compound.

The chatter in the entire room stopped, Glynda looked wide eyed at the screen, while Ironwood simply stared on with a stern face.

He was in a room, much like the one Ozpin was in now, a room filled with men and women on computers, but Kirkman was there, in the same uniform he was in yesterday.

"I assume that you are General Thomas Kirkman."

Kirkman, with a stoic face, answered Ozpin. "You would be correct. Let's skip the formalities shall we, to what do I owe this… call to?"

"I simply want to ask a few questions." Ozpin answered honestly

The man on the screen simply stared for a few seconds before finally coming to an answer.

"As expected, I am sure you and your people have questions regarding not only the attack but myself as well. I will answer all that I can."

'Can.' Ozpin knew exactly what that word meant; Kirkman would be holding back information, and will likely refuse to answer some.

"Then let us begin."

Glynda unfolded her scroll and set it to stand in front of Ozpin, they were a list of questions that they had written out which were supposed to be asked by whoever was speaking, but since Ozpin was speaking, he pushed the scroll back to Goodwitch as he had already committed them to memory.

"Who are you?"

"I believe I already answered that, I am General Thomas Kirkman of the United States of America." Ozpin could tell that Kirkman knew exactly what he meant by that question, he could see it in his eyes. Even Glynda and Ironwood who were watching alongside him could tell.

"I don't mean surface level information, I want to know who exactly you are, what is this 'United States of America.'"

"Alright then, The United States of America, the United States, or the US for short is a nation founded by the inhabitants of multiple villages and towns from all over Remnant. It was founded shortly after the Great War, and we have remained isolated until now."

This came as a big surprise to everyone in the room, the chatter came back, but Ironwood quickly gestured them all to stay silent, though he was shocked himself.

Still, the three of them were skeptical, how could 'multiple villages and towns' suddenly migrate and combine into one new nation completely undetected?

"Where is the United States of America?"

Kirkman seemed to hesitate for a second. "Northeast of Vale, though we will not tolerate anyone doing any amount of reconnaissance near us."

"That's a tall order." Ironwood whispered.

Though Northeast of Vale made sense, the White Fang base was there, and there were multiple patches of land there that have remained uncharted since the end of the Great War. But for the activity of a nation that seemed to be powerful to be completely undetected for 80 years was unheard of. He could understand the want for no reconnaissance as maybe he still wants some amount of isolation.

"What did you do to the two White Fang agents you had captured?"

"I'm sorry, but I don't think I can answer that question."

"Very well." He knew it.

Now for the really important question.

"What is your intent?"

"Intent?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Do you intend to establish a new kingdom, defeat the White Fang or perhaps you intend to cause death and destruction?"

Kirkman sighed.

"I believe that if you look to the northern window on your current floor in the CCT you will see the Emerald Forest in the horizon beyond the first year dorms, correct?"

Everyone in the room turned.

How did he know where they were, this was a highly classified floor within the CCT. Nonetheless, everyone was looking at the window, Glynda, Ironwood and Ozpin all walked to it, they stared upon the green Emerald Forest.

A muffled "Call it in." Could be heard from Kirkman.

Suddenly a thunderous sound echoed throughout, the glass window vibrated, and their eyes looked above them, to see a bird flying high above the sky, it was of strange shape, it was grey, and had long thin wings. It flew at incredible speeds. It was flying so high that it indeed did just look like the size of a bird, suddenly it released eight bright lights which started to quickly descend upon the forest.

"What is that?!" Glynda shouted.

Less than a second later the bird disappeared, and with it, the thunderous sound.

As the eight lights came closer and closer to the ground, the dispersed into many smaller bright lights, there must have been nearly around forty of them. They all crashed onto the dense forest, causing explosions that could be heard even through the thick windows and walls of the CCT.

Bright lights lit up all throughout the forest, which were then followed by smoke and flames. All the trees within the area affected were in a complete cloud of white smoke and flames.

The forest was miles away, yet the explosion, flames and smoke could be very clearly seen and heard.

The room went quiet, everyone was in complete disbelief at the total destruction the single attack had caused. The area of effect was large, the blaze stretched for about half a kilometer in all directions.

"How?" She whispered. Glynda stood there in shock. Her eyes widened and her forehead with a few droplets of sweat forming on it.

Ironwood had never seen such a display of military power just from a single attack from an aircraft, not even Atlas had something like this.

Ozpin himself was equally surprised. Nothing in remnant even came close to that level of speed and power.

Granted it wasn't just the destruction that terrified them, drop enough fire dust bombs on a target and you could cause this much destruction too. The But the fact that the aircraft came and left without giving them any time to react and how it only took a few bright lights, was the worst part of all.

How could someone even defend from something like that?

Kirkman then spoke.

"Believe me when I say that we can cause death and destruction, I simply choose not to. As war is not in our best interest."

Everyone was too stunned to respond, except for Ozpin.

He turned around, and with a stern voice, he spoke. "Is that a threat?"

"As I stated, we do not want war, we want peace. We just want you to promise that you will not antagonize us."

Ozpin started walking back to the monitor

"You say that, yet your only actions thus far are ones that caused death and destruction."

Kirkman looked up as if in thought, then his eyes went back to Ozpin.

"Then how about an act of peace for once?"

Ozpin was surprised by this, he wasn't expecting that.

"What do you have in mind?"

"Tell the people of Vale to tune in to 107.1 FM later at 7pm. Thank you." Then the screen went to black.

Leaving Ozpin and everyone else who was still looking at the blazing forest stunned.

He sent a few drones with thermal camera there just to make sure he wouldn't be demonstrating on an area with people in it.

The demonstration worked perfectly, Kirkman was really holding back a smile when he saw the utter disbelief in the faces of those watching after the demonstration of the white phosphorus airburst bomb.

Their surprise and disbelief suggest that Remnant really does have nothing like that, and that was very good for the Operation Forging Steel, strategically speaking

But he did make a promise of peace.

Kirkman turned to Colonel Burton.

"I need you to tell the cyber to start setting up a radio broadcast at 107.1 FM, it needs to be up by 1900 hours."

Burton nodded but he still looked rather confused. "If I may ask, sir, what is this for?"

"A radio show."

"A radio show?" The colonel looked even more confused.

Kirkman was dead serious.

"We've done this before, in Germany, Vietnam, Iraq, we usually do it to spread anti-whoever-we're-fighting propaganda. I think that if we host a peaceful radio show, we can convince the world of Remnant that our interests extend to more than just war and fury."

The look of confusion disappeared from the colonel's face. "That's actually a smart idea sir, I'll get the cyber team to it."

He saluted and walked away.

Now that that was done, Kirkman needed to find one man, who would be integral in this plan.

He also hastily walked out the doors of the strategy center. He went past marines doing some sort of drill, before reaching his destination, the designated research lab of FOB Juno.

The metal, doors automatically opened, he walked through a corridor, people in lab coats sped past him. He took a left turn, he stopped after seeing a wooden door, he put his hand on the knob and twisted it, he walked inside only to find the office empty.

He went back out and closed the door, seeing a woman in a lab coat walk past him, he spoke.

"Excuse me!"

The woman turned around, she had a few bandages on her face, it was then that Kirkman remembered Ben's story about the woman who sneezed on some dust and got wounded.

He was able to control his surprise though.

"Do you know where Benjamin Steele is?"

The woman pointed her hand in front of her.

"Just straight ahead, general. Take a right turn, he's in laboratory 2A1, testing high powered lasers on dust."

"Thank you." He nodded his head and walked further into the hallway.

And just like the instructions given to him, he took a left turn, walking a bit further into the hallway he saw another wooden door, next to it a plaque saying '2A1'

He opened it and went in, there he saw Ben with safety goggles on, his hands were on top of some sort of large metal apparatus, in front of it was a metal plate on a stand with red specks on it.

Ben turned around at the sound of the door, and he looked rather surprised to Kirkman so soon after meeting him.

"General. Came for a drink?"

"I'll pass. I came to see you for another matter." Kirkman closed the door behind him.

"What is it?"

Ben took his hands off the device and stood straight

"You used to host a radio program about physics in the mid-2000s right?"

"Yeah, started around 06', did it with a buddy, lasted for a year then the Department of Defense brought me in to start developing the particle uplink cannon. Got a decent amount viewers, why are you askin'?"

"Well, I have a plan, need to get the people off Remnant to stop thinking that we're just a bunch blood thirsty sickos."

"Mm. Let me guess, you're starting a radio show and want me to host it?"

"Precisely." Kirkman was glad that he got the point quickly.

"Alright, when do ya need me?" Ben went back to work, and flicked a switch on the metal apparatus, a red laser beam shot forward, and hit the red specks in the middle, causing miniature explosion.

"I need you at the command center by 6:30. Still have some planning to do."

"Alright, I'll be there." Ben walked over to the remains of the metal plate

Kirkman walked out of the room to let Benjamin continue his work, now he just needed to do some planning.

Six hours later.

Everything was set, all the high ranking officers were observing from behind a wall with window on it. Benjamin was sitting behind a table, a microphone in front of him and a half empty glass of whiskey to his right. George was on his left giving him a rundown of what he was supposed do.

The radio show was going to play every morning on weekdays, but today was special case, since it would be the first time.

It was going to have a thirty minute talking segment with Benjamin and whoever his cohost would be. But they wouldn't have any of that for today. Today, it was just going to be introductions and playing of some songs from Earth.

George seemed to finish up, he left the room, he sat down on the seat next to Kirkman, he put on a headset with a microphone attached, he tapped on a button on the right speaker.

"Ben, you ready?"

Benjamin gave a thumbs up.

"Alright, we're going live in five… four… three… two… one."

George pressed a green button on the table in front of him.

"Why are we using my scroll for this?" Weiss asked with an annoyed voice.

"Because your fancy scroll is the only one that can connect to the radio." Yang grabbed Weiss's scroll from her desk, and tapped around on it until she opened the radio app.

Weiss crossed her arms with a grunt but begrudgingly walked up to Yang as she prepared it.

"What was the frequency that Ozpin said again?"

Blake and Ruby both watched Yang prepare the radio broadcast.

"107.1 FM"

Yang tapped around a bit again. "There. Now we just gotta wait for 7:00."

The time on the scroll said '6:58'. So it was close.

"I wonder what these murderers have to say for themselves now." Blake rolled her eyes.

"Probably another 'justification' for their savage killings." Weiss scoffed.

"Do you think they had something to do with the big forest explosion?" Ruby innocently asked.

Weiss shook her head. "No. General Ironwood already clarified that a software malfunction caused a large group of cargo airships to drop their shipment of fire dust."

"But I didn't see any cargo ships, and I was in the courtyard talking with Jaune that time."

"Maybe you just weren't paying attention."

"But-"

The scroll in on the desk suddenly made static sounds

"It's happening." Yang said, everyone quieted down.

"Gzhhzzzzk"

"Good Morning Vale! Is it evening? Ah, Good Evening then I guess."

A low gravelly voice spoke. It sounded like someone unenthusiastic trying to sound enthusiastic.

"Hey, he kinda sounds like uncle Qrow!" Ruby pointed out

Yang could indeed hear the slight resemblance.

"How could he mess that up?" Weiss said with a condescending tone.

"This is 107.1 America Radio. I'm your host…." There was a sigh. "Rusty Steele."

"They're doing a show? What the heck?" Ruby asked.

"Really?! After killing multiple people just a few days ago, they go and do this?!" Blake yelled.

"This is unbelievable."

Yang stood quiet waiting to see where it goes.

"Let me go off script for a second. I know our nation and your kingdom haven't exactly gone through the best start."

"You think?!" Weiss and Blake shouted with sarcastic undertone.

Yang made a slight grimace at them "Come on you two, just listen."

"But I promise you that we here in the United States have interests past fighting, and I hope that this program shows that. So without further ado, I present to you, A Day In The Life."

"What is A Day In The Life?" Ruby turned to her sister

She shrugged "I don't know, some kind of comedy skit?"

"I bet it's some sort of propaganda against the White Fang." Blake rolled her eyes for the billionth time that day.

"Maybe another 'justification' for their killi-"

A soft guitar rhythm suddenly played.

Everyone was confused.

"A song?" Weiss questioned.

The guitar continued for five seconds, then a piano joined the rhythm.

Weiss raised an eye "Acoustic guitar and piano is a strange combination."

"Eh, maybe that's just in Atlas, here in Vale you here it a bunch in folk songs." Yang who loved music knew much about the popular music in Vale.

The descending tone of a bass guitar came and with it the sounds of maracas came.

Even Yang was stoked by this "Now that's a weird combination."

"I read the news today ~oh boy."

In the distance, within an unknown concrete building . Adam Taurus sharpens his blade with a sharpening steel, going through the motion back and forth over and over again, he was listening to the broadcast too.

"About a lucky man who made the grade."

He pushed the steel forward, making a metallic ringing sound as he did, he did it on the other side.

"And though the news was rather sad-"

The thoughts of relieving that bastard Kirkman of his head passing through his mind.

"Well, I just had to laugh and~ I saw the photograph aaand~"

The motions went faster and faster, as all his anger built up the more he thought of him. The base lost. Sienna won't be happy. He had plans for her anyway, but this was still a massive hindrance to his cause.

"He blew his mind out in a-" He sliced the scroll in half.

He stood up and looked down at the dead body of the police man he had killed minutes earlier. He jeered and walked away.

Chapter Text

"You know what I really hate the most about public restrooms though?"

"What?"

The cohost, Dirty George, asked

It had been a week since the 'United States' started their radio show, it started badly, but people took interest to it due to the unique personality of the hosts who weren't afraid to discuss subjects that weren't usually discussed on similar shows, and the music played by it.

A majority of people still disliked the United States, but had warmed up to America Radio, this was true for Yang Xiao Long. Team JNPR were hanging out in RWBY's dorm, with Yang playing the current episode of America Radio from her scroll for everyone to listen to.

They were all playing a card game called "One." Though Blake and Ren really weren't paying attention.

"What's so bad about public restrooms?" Jaune asked.

"No idea. But I think we're about to find out." Yang responded

"Sometimes I'm at a bar, and maybe someone I know comes out of the bathroom. They come up to me to shake my hand or high five me or something."

"Yeah."

"But their hand is fucking wet"

George then started laughing along with Nora, Ruby and Yang, while Jaune was off with a slight smile.

"Maybe they just washed their hands." Pyrrha placed her card down "One." She was close to winning

Blake scowled. She felt as though that her friends consuming the content of literal murderers was disturbing.

"But then I'm thinking 'Yeah sure, public bathrooms are usually out of toilet paper or got hand dryers that don't work."

Rusty's voice calmed down a little.

"So what's wrong with that?"

"Well shit starts getting weird because the person whose hand I'm shaking feels the need to reassure me and tell me: 'That's not pee or anything, I just washed my hands.'"

"That's so true, I always wonder if the other guy's wet hand is actually pee." Jaune put down a reverse card.

"I don't see the problem with that. But I can relate to this situation, subtracting the barbaric language." Weiss put her own card down

"Really, the pretty princess had to go through the pains of public toilets?" Yang asked with a sarcastic tone.

Weiss crossed her arms in response. "No, but whenever our family hosted a dinner party, I had to greet guests who would sometimes come out of the restroom."

Rusty continued from his previous statement "-well I should fucking hope so! I sure as hell hope you didn't piss all over your hands then come and shake mine."

George started to laugh again.

"I mean it's not impossible right? But I trust these people though, I mean these are my friends, colleagues or whatever, right? So I have faith that they don't start spilling yellow all over whenever they go for a piss."

Everyone started except for Blake and Ren.

"Yeah I notice that with guys, they got horrible aim." Nora put her card down

"Hey, it's harder than it looks." Jaune retorted.

"But now I'm thinking, why would they even think it's necessary to clarify that in the first place? Unless there's a chance… that it is piss!"

He said the last part in a dramatic tone

Everyone's laughs grew louder, even Ren started to smirk a little, Blake was still staring her cards down with a frown.

"But look, I've had to shake people's hands with my wet hand too because of shitty hand dryers, so then, does that mean the person whose hand I'm shaking might think that I'm wiping my piss all over their hand?! Because apparently it's so normal that people have to clarify."

"I'm curious, is it normal?" Nora turned to Ren with a wide grin.

Ren's face reddened a little as he focused real hard on his cards.

Pyrrha turned her head to Jaune who was oblivious to the situation.

"So what's the lesson here?"

George asked.

"Stop shaking people's hands after seeing them coming out of the toilet, just pat em on the back or something, take no chances, I know I'm not, now that I know that everyone pisses all over their hands for some fucking reason."

"You guys should really learn to wash your hands." Ruby looked at the only two boys in the room.

"Or get better aim." Yang added

"We do! I swear, it's just some people."

"Sure."

"So if you ever see me coming out of the toilets, don't try to shake my hand, unless you want piss all over yours."

Pyrrha chuckled "Well we don't even know what he looks like, so I don't think he has to worry about that."

'Fucking, 'I just washed my hands' Yeah right, I'm onto you now Edward Pisshands."

"Haha, What, hehehe, the fuck" George said in between laughs

Everyone in RWBY's dorm was laughing as well. They didn't get the reference, but the analogy was still very funny to them.

"Well, that's enough pissing around about piss. Coming up, Radio Gaga!"

The sounds of synthesizers took over.

"So what do you guys think?" Yang had been listening regularly to America Radio ever since it had come about, but the only broadcast from America that RWBY and JNPR had heard was the very first one, and she didn't associate Rusty Steele and Dirty George with the murderers that attacked the White Fang base.

"I can certainly understand the appeal, but the way they speak and the topics they speak of are a bit too…" Weiss couldn't find the word for it

"Vulgar." Pyrrha tilted her head.

"Yes."

Yang shrugged. "Eh I don't know, I find it pretty funny, and some of the songs are nice, so that's a bonus."

Ruby casually placed her card down, winning the game. "How do you listen to it anyway, I thought your phone didn't have radio?"

"Downloaded an app." She showed her scroll to Ruby and there was in fact an application names 'Radio' open.

"I still think that we shouldn't be listening to content coming from the place that proudly admitted to killing faunus." Blake crossed her arms

Yang tilted her head "Oh come on, it's not like these two were the ones that killed them."

"But they actively support it!"

"But that's not the point of the radio show though, they just talk about random stuff and play some music." Yang said in a calm town, in complete contrast to her partner's angry one.

Blake didn't answer, while everyone else just awkwardly looked at them.

This 'America' had completely upturned the lives of everyone with just a single attack, and a single show.

MOB Juno

1320 hours

Three days later…

Kirkman walked into the operations room with a smile on his face. He walked in short strides to Colonel Burton's side and looked at the monitor as usual.

Burton noticed the General's smile. "Good mood, sir?"

"Indeed, I was able to strike a deal with the other Generals for equipment."

"What equipment?"

"EMP patriot missiles from General Alexander, multiple laser defense systems for our aircraft from General Granger, and a dozen laser defense turrets from General Townes, though Townes was a bit reluctant to give them to me."

"Given their cost, I'm not surprised.

"Well I kinda got Lynch to convince the SecDef to force Townes.

He watched as multiple lights blinked on the screen, indicating possible points of interests that the single satellite they had detected.

"And on a related note, Lynch informed me that my title has been officially changed to 'Supreme American Commander of Remnant' or SACOR, and this base is now effectively a main operating base and has been given the name Juno."

Burton let out a single laugh. "Any news on the actors we hired?"

"None yet, then again hiring two thousand different actors to basically live on an alien planet as a cover and keep it a secret will be a hard to process, just imagine all the paperwork that has to be done, then all the paperwork I would have to do."

"Hehe, ye-"

The doors behind them opened, they both turned around, to see George coming out, he was of Benjamin's Cohost, though he used his middle name. But he held a folder with him.

"Sir, I have something."

"What is it?"

"Well you ordered as a few days ago to find some place where we can get dust right?"

"Yes?"

George handed him the folder.

"Well, we found something."

Kirkman opened the folder, inside were papers, the cover page had the symbol of the United States armed forces in the center. He turned it and on the top right of the second page was a picture of an orange haired man, he was holding a black card up with the words 'Roman Torchwick.'

Behind him were height markings, it was a mugshot, there was text beside the image, listing multiple deeds.

"He's wanted for a myriad of things, murder, armed robbery, sexual assault, grand theft auto, and most recently grand larceny, for the theft of tons upon tons of dust."

"So you're suggesting we buy from a criminal."

George did not disagree.

"Well, all the other legitimate business and companies that sell dust, sell them at either too high of a price or present a logistical problem when transporting that dust. Roman Torchwick put up an offer on the black market and is selling all kinds of dust at very low price and relatively close to us."

Burton stepped in front of Kirkman.

"General, I do think he's right, as of right now, we need a way to get dust for research and possible progress with alternate fuels and resources, dust can solve many problem back at home."

Kirkman sighed. "You make a good point colonel, after all, this wouldn't be the first time our Nation has collaborated with criminals for her interests. But how can we pay him? Even if it is cheap, we have no lien to speak of."

The Colonel went into a thinking pose. "Usually, I would suggest making counterfeit money, but we have no idea about the production process of their actual money, so it would be hard. What do you think, Miller?"

George looked up. "Well, we can make money, you know how grimm are a big threat around here?"

"Yes" The other two said in unison.

"Well tons of non-kingdom based villages, town and settlements are calling for the destruction of grimm incursions, pacts and the sort."

Kirkman saw where George was going with this. "And they're offering money"

"Yes, apparently it's these kind of things that make up a huntsman's livelihood."

"So huntsman really are just glorified licensed bounty hunters."

"Pretty much." George said with a cheeky smile.

"So they're letting anybody take these types of missions?" The Colonel was already starting to form plans.

"Yep, they're asking help from anybody, it just so happens that prior to us coming, huntsman were the best grimm fighting force."

The General hunched over and rested his hands on a table.

The notion of Americans being better at killing Grimm was still unproven though, Kirkman had seen videos of some huntsman even breaking the sound barrier with speed. He even saw a single one mow down nearly a hundred in less than a minute.

Huntsmen and huntresses were basically one man armies, and generations of being oppressed by the grimm led to the fighters of this world to becoming adapted to fighting them.

But the United States' superior military technology made it clear, that, with enough technological superiority, even normal human beings can beat what were essentially superhumans.

So Kirkman needed to know if doing this would be worth it

"What are our options with this grimm clearing scheme."

"I've only done a slight amount of research, but the closest place to us asking for assistance is the village known as Cooperwick, offering to pay 40,000 lien, to eliminate a few dozen grimm who have shacked up at clearing in the forest close to the village.

"And what is 40,000 lien equivalent to in our currency?" Kirkman needed to get a good idea of how much people were paid here, in the US, your average mercenary working for high level contractors were paid around thirty to forty thousand dollars, while the commanders were paid double that, so that was a decent baseline.

At the very least, the payment should be at least half of what a mercenary commander would get paid on Earth.

"Again, not much information in that regard. Lien is government Issue, fiat money essentially, it's not backed by any precious metal, common commodity, or even dust. But we have found purchases to cross reference with, for example your average American sofa would cost a thousand dollars, here the average cost for none high end sofas were six hundred lien."

So this meant that lien was worth more in this world? But George didn't stop talking, he continued.

"But that can't really be an accurate estimate because maybe the demand for the materials on the couch isn't as high, and there a lot of other discrepancies with other stuff too, not just sofas, so I think we'd need to hire an actual economist for us to deter-" The General put his hand up and cut off George

"Sergeant Miller, with all due respect, we neither have the time to get an economist on this project nor do we have the time for you to do much more research."

Colonel Burton agreed "The General has a point, someone else might take the offer, or they might simply take down the offer."

"Yes, so I ask you know, as the man heading our cyber team, and as the man who currently knows more about the world that surrounds us than anyone else in this room, do you think we should do this?"

George pursed his lips and took a minute to deliberate what his answer should be.

"Yes." George breathed out.

"Good, I need you to contact the people of Cooperwick, tell them we will take the job and that we'll get it done by tomorrow. I also want you to gather as much information about this mission as possible."

George saluted him and left the room.

Burton turned to the General, his eyes were slightly furrowed, a look of concern.

"Tomorrow? General, are you sure we can get it done by tomorrow?"

"Well if doing these kinds of jobs will be our main source of money for the time being, then I think it's best we show that we are very effective. Don't worry, if the job is as easy as it sounds, we likely won't need more than just an airstrike."

The Colonel was still in slight disagreement, but he could see Kirkman's reasoning.

"So should I call up at A10 pilots?"

"No we've already displayed much of our arsenal, I think we should stick with what we have displayed or at least, if we're gonna use new things, then it shouldn't have too drastic of a difference to the ones we have shown."

"But sir, white phosphorous airburst bombs such as the ones we have might hit the village."

This was indeed true, the way the white phosphorous spreads the area of effect was too large, if the clearing was too close, then they could risk hitting the village and causing possible injuries and casualties.

"That depends on the distance of the target to the village, we'll have to wait for miller's report for that one, for now we have to come up with alternatives for a more precise strike that wouldn't involve showing off too much."

Indeed there were more precise methods, a drone strike wouldn't put the village at much risk, but at the same time the hellfire strike drones they had were not capable of taking down large masses of grimm, especially if those grimm were not in extremely close proximity to one another, though it was too early to tell, for now he just had to wait for miller.

The general of course still had many operations to oversee, so he stayed and watched over the room.

"Wake up." Those were the first words, she heard as she was rudely pulled out of her slumber by her fellow Lieutenant. She looked around her, all her colleagues were already up, donning their White Fang masks and preparing their weapons.

Her back ached quite a bit, guess that was a problem that accompanied sleeping on a rock.

There were 24 of them, Adam had ordered multiple groups of White Fang to search different parts of the forest to find wherever the United States of America was, Fubuki Shiro's group being one of them. The groups were split into twelve, but for safety's sake, Fubuki decided to stick close to John Aero's group, and even merging at times.

She was very confident with how close they were to the base though, they found footsteps, weird tire tracks, and some of the more scent sensitive faunus in their group smelled the recent passing of humans.

"What time is it?" Fubuki groggily stood up, before putting on her mask.

John pulled out his scroll and pointed the screen to her. It read '2:31 AM' which meant it was time to keep looking again. She looked to her side and found her katana, still in its sheathe, leaning against the very same rock she leaned on to fall asleep, she picked it up and attached it to her side. She then grabbed her earpiece and put it on her left ear, her non fox ear to be specific.

"Split up?" John asked

"Of course." Fubuki adjusted her mask as everyone else around her began preparing to depart.

They were close to something, she knew it and felt it in her gut. They were given strict orders to not directly attack the Nation if they were to find it, but rather, retreat and report it. However; the fact that they were even looking for the Nation meant that Adam was planning an attack on it, she and every single member of the White Fang couldn't wait to avenge those who died in the Northern Base attack.

The two groups split up, John's group went left, while Fubuki's went to the right, they would only be going separate directions for a short amount of time, soon after, they were heading north, not staying more than a mile from each other, this separation was only to increase the search area, but sticking relatively close was still important.

Currently her group was walking through dense forest, the two groups would give each other regular updates, and had their each other's location on their scrolls.

John's group was slightly ahead of hers.

They continued to walk for nearly half an hour, not stopping.

With a gruff tone, one of her subordinates decided to speak up. "I'm getting sick of doing this, we've been looking for this thing for two weeks now and we have barely anything to show for it."

Fubuki was irked by this. "Be patient, we'll find something."

Most of them were in agreement, but a few in her group still carried noticeable faces of doubt.

Another spoke up, a young dog Faunus who had only recently joined the White Fang. "And then what? You saw all the news footage. First the northern base which got destroyed in under an hour, then that grimm filled clearing at Cooperwick! I mean come on! One minute there were dozens of grimm, and the next they're all smoke and ashes!"

The faces of agreement that originally was common amongst the group, morphed into ones of realization, it didn't hit them yet that they were eventually going to fight these people. The same people who took down a heavily armed base in minutes, the same people who turned some of Remnant's deadliest creatures into mist in mere seconds.

"And if you believe that conspiracy theorists, they might have been the ones to cause that big fiery explosion near Beacon."

As they walked, murmurs began spreading throughout the group, ones of worry, fear, and anxiety.

Fubuki couldn't stand to see her team be wrought with doubt. "Stop it, Adam wouldn't send us looking for them if he didn't have a plan, have faith in Adam."

This didn't do much to ease their worries, sure Adam was a competent leader, there was a reason he was leading the Vale branch of the White Fang, but at the same time, wits and leadership can only go so far. When facing an opponent that is that much stronger than you, what can intelligence really do?

"And if us here in Vale aren't enough, we can always ask for help from our brothers and sisters in Menagerie or Mistral." Fubuki continued

"Fubuki" Sounded from her earpiece.

"Yes?" She responded

"Found something."

Her eyes widened, the rest of her team who were also wearing similar earpieces heard it, they all stared on in shock.

"What?"

"We found a paved road."

"A paved road?!" A paved road meant it would usually lead to something man made, but for all they knew, this paved road could just lead to a harmless village.

"Yeah, I sent Greg ahead to take a look, he came back just now, said there were some men in uniform travelling through it, with a big car in between. The men had the stars and stripes pattern from General Thomas Kirkman's broadcast on their uniform."

Fubuki couldn't help but smile. This was it, this was the moment they were waiting for, and the United States of America must be at the end of the paved road.

"What's your position?" The looks of worry slowly started to disappear amongst her team, they were being replaced by ones of determination.

"Ehhh… we're about four hundred yards to your left, we'll end up on opposite sides of the road, we can launch a surprise attack when they get here, we can even take a couple of them back home to give them a taste of their own medicine."

"Good."

"But weren't Adam's orders not to attack." A man in her group raised his hand.

"Adam's orders were to not attack their base if we found it, he didn't say anything about attacking a measly patrol."

"Yeah!" Another in her group shouted, gaining some excitement. They were originally worried with attacking the base, but a small patrol couldn't do much harm right?

Her group was immediately filled with excitement.

"Alright, we're heading over there now, what's the size of the group and how far ahead are they?"

She signaled her group to start moving towards the directions given by john.

"Greg said there were 16 guys, not counting how many there must be inside the vehicle, and they're a little less than a mile away."

Good this meant, they outnumbered them, unless there were 9 or more guys inside the vehicle, but they had the element of surprise on their side. That, and their two groups had multiple skilled White Fang veterans, her and John included. In fact, she and John had one of the largest aura pools in their unit.

They made their way towards John, going as fast as they could so they would have enough time to prep themselves. They reached the road eventually, they were still in a densely forested area, but in front of them was a very wide paved road, she could just barely see the silhouettes of the men and women in John's group on the other side.

They did a good job of hiding themselves

She pressed on her earpiece so that her message could be relayed even to those in John's group.

"Alright, everyone with a ranged weapon will fire at the patrol once they get in between us, once enough damage has been dealt, we'll charge at them, and kill all of them."

Everyone in her group nodded their heads. It was a basic plan, but it should work, there was no need for a flanking maneuver if you already outnumbered the other group after all.

She pressed her earpiece again. "Actually, if you can, maybe we can try capturing one, and take them home. Give em a taste of their own medicine, after what they did at the northern base.

A few in her group started to chuckle, clearly there excitement only grew.

She unsheathed her Katana, pressing a button on the hilt, loosening the bottom, she loaded a dust magazine in it, before pressing the button again. She transformed it into its second form, a submachine gun.

Everyone else started to prepare their weapons.

Her ears could then start hearing the familiar sound of engines whirring. Everyone else with sensitive hearing could hear it too, any last minute preparation would have to be done now.

"John, doesn't anyone in your group have bombs that we could set?"

"Amy has some miniature landmines, but they're gonna contrast pretty badly with the road, they'll probably end up seeing them and run away."

That was unfortunate, but their weapons, skill and the element of surprise should be enough to take them down.

They all continued to prepare, with Fubuki making occasional communications with John to clear up certain things and such.

She could hear the engine getting closer and closer, eventually boots hitting the ground could also be heard, she turned her head to the right, and as the sounds got closer, her grip on her submachine gun got tighter.

The road was straight, up until a point, where it curved behind a small embankment, she watched this curve slowly, the sounds grew louder and louder, eventually even those without faunus traits that enhanced their hearing could hear them, and then they came

First were two men wearing green uniforms, and just as John' said, they were wearing the pattern on their uniforms. She could make out a weird pipe sticking out from the corner, then it came, a behemoth of a vehicle.

It was greyish in color, with a hint of green. In the place where wheels should have been, there were treads. Its body was made of two distinct segments, the first was the body the front was curved, the sides had these weird square segments on them. The second part was smaller, it had this huge barrel, and on top of the head segment was a man holding a machine gun.

If she had to guess the barrel was some sort of gun, but that made no sense, dust ammunition of that size would never be able to reach maximum velocity. It was the reason why even the largest conventional guns in remnant never went over 65mm, but from the looks of it, the gun on that thing was about double that.

It stopped in its track though, for some reason, neither it nor the uniformed men moved. Then shockingly, the men ran back behind the embankment.

"What?" Fubuki whispered, then murmurs spread throughout her group.

"Shhhh!" They couldn't risk being found

"Don't worry, even if they do know we're here, we outnumber them, what could they possibly do?" Fubuki, again eased the worries of her team.

Indeed, there was nothing to worry about, it was impossible that this vehicle nor the men posed any significant threat.

The head segment of the segment of the vehicle suddenly turned, and now the giant barrel was staring down right at them, she felt it, they had been found, but before she could react, a boom filled their ears, the trees shook and the world felt like it was having a miniature earthquake.

Those who were trained in fighting and skilled enough had the ability to defend against and move like bullets, Fubuki was one of those fighters.

But whatever exited the barrel of the behemoth was no bullet, it was huge and moved at speeds impossible to have been achieved by dust, she only caught a glimpse of it before it implanted itself onto the ground, close to a cluster of her subordinates, and exploded. What looked like hundreds if not thousands of metal balls flew all over at speeds faster than a bullet.

She instinctively brought her arm up in front of her head, hearing the balls collide with everything around her, she even felt herself getting hit, they stung, aura protected from damage, but not from pain, and even from the few hits she took, she already felt her aura weakening.

She unsheathed her sword and started to deflect all the spheres she could.

Once she heard the balls stop flying all over, she brought her arm down, unsheathed her sword and looked around her. All over, bodies of her comrades lay on the ground, entire pieces of their bodies missing, blood was splattered all across the greenery of the forest, replacing the once green landscape with red.

She looked around, a few of her men were still standing, though they didn't have much time to retaliate, there was so much smoke, that they could barely see, but then through the smoke came the whizzing sounds of bullets, randomly being shot at them.

"AHHHH." Something then fell onto the ground.

It didn't take much to figure out that someone gotten hit.

"Take cover!" She shouted at the top of her lungs. She fired her gun at whatever was at the other side of the smoke. She heard the bullets hit the metal of what she assumed was the vehicle.

She could barely see what was in front of her, the smoke was clearing though, but she wasn't gonna let the behemoth have a second chance at a shot, she could hear more of her men falling, and distant shots and cries of what was likely John's group.

She looked to her right, and directly in front of her was a tree, she needed to get a better view of the situation. She wrapped her arms around the tree, hugging it, she pushed her arms up, once her arms hit the tree bark, she pulled herself up, continuing in this fashion for a few more pulls. She heard the massive gun on the vehicle fire again, the sea of smoke parted under the force of bullet, but was ten replaced by new smoke caused by the ensuing explosion.

More metallic spheres blew everywhere, catching her in the legs, she could feel her aura dangerously going close to breaking. But she pushed on.

The sounds of men screaming, guns being fired, and bullets whizzing all around the place filled her ears as she made her best attempt to survive.

With a grunt she did one final pull, bringing herself up on a branch, she could finally see over the smoke, and the sight was horrifying. She silently gazed upon the scene.

Over in the distance she could make out the dead bodies of John's team, sprawled out across the forest floor, devoid of life. The uniformed men were walking around, probably searching for more.

The vehicle was still aiming straight at the smoke, it seems they didn't see her just yet, she hovered at around 30 feet above the ground, and being where she was, it was hard to spot her. Suddenly the smaller barrel next to the big one started firing bullets into the smoke. The man on the mounted machine gun also started randomly shooting.

They continued firing into the smoke for a few seconds, then they stopped

"…I think we're clear" Her heightened hearing heard the machine gunner say.

"Do one more sweep, just in case. Let the smoke clear first. Bring out the drone." She heard one of the men on the other side of road say.

In the distance, the men who had attacked John's group began to cautiously move towards the vehicle.

But what did they mean by bring out the drone?

As if to answer her thought, a hatch on the back of the vehicle suddenly opened, small object suddenly flew out. It had two segments one part was shaped like a metallic umbrella, it was likely what was causing it to fly, the second segment which was connected by lose wires and metal pipes was what looked to be a rotary machine gun. The device zipped around the air, scanning the smoke.

If she had to guess, this was some sort of combat drone that was being manually controlled by whoever was inside the vehicle and right now it was still fooled by the assumption that there were still people in the smoke.

'Are there actually still people inside? Or are they all dead?' She soon got her answer, when the smoke fully thinned out, there were bodies everywhere, all bloodied up, some still had life to them, attempting to crawl away, or letting out pitiful breaths.

She was mortified.

Half of the uniformed men began to run towards the bodies, while the other half stayed close to what remained of John's group.

Her body tensed up as she squeezed herself tighter on the branch as to lower her presence in attempt to not be detected

"Holy shit! Some of them are still alive!" One of the men yelled, staring down at the legless body of Daniela, who was struggling to breathe.

Another man walked up to him.

"It's what happens when you use imprecise methods, corporal. I bet there are some survivors over there too, might just be knocked unconscious." He then pulled out a radio from his breast pocket. "Command, this is Hunter 2-1, tell the boys to bring some medics with them too, we got survivors over here."

'Medics? Isn't their goal to kill us? Unless they're trying to get information from the survivors.'

"Ramirez, go back to the other side, and tell them to start checking for signs of life. Backup should arrive shortly. Alright boys, be prepared for a second wave, we're lucky that satellite caught em when it did, but we're not in the clear yet, stay frosty!"

'Satellite? What the hell is a satellite?'

Her train of thought was suddenly cut off with a high pitched whir, and suddenly the drone was in front of her. It made a beeping sound and the gun pointed directly at her, it started to rotate.

"huh."

The gun started spinning and after half a second, the gun started releasing its payload of bullets. A few hit her, knocking her off her position as she fell forty feet and hit the ground, her aura seemed to finally have broken.

Three men around her were alerted to the sound of both her aura breaking and the fall. The men pointed their guns at her.

She wanted to attack, she wanted to kill them all, but seeing as they had the power to take down an entire group of White Fang, she wasn't going to take her chances, her best bet was to run now and just inform the White Fang back in Vale.

"Stay on the ground!" The man yelled.

She rolled over, got on her feet and booked it the other direction. She kept running and running

"Don't let her get away" Someone said in the distance.

All around her bullets flew by, they were accompanied by the sounds of more than a dozen men chasing her down, hitting the trees and ground, some getting dangerously close to her. But she kept running, she wouldn't stop until she got away, but, one well-placed shot was all it took, the back of her knee was hit, and with a grunt she fell down.

She crawled forward, pulling out her blade, she turned over and continued to back away. The uniformed men approached.

"Stay back!" She yelled at the top of her lungs while aimlessly swinging her sword around the air.

One of the men aimed his gun at her, and shot her in the shoulder.

The sudden amount pain coursing throughout her arm made her let go of her weapon.

"Ramirez, knock her out." A tall dark skinned man ordered.

In return, one of the men in the back approached her, flipping his gun so the stock of his rifle was pointed forward.

"Get away from me!" She twisted her body around and did her best to crawl away with her one good arm. But her motion was ended. She felt an incredible amount of force on her back

She turned around with nothing but fear in her eyes, 'Ramirez' had his boot on her back, he smashed the stock of his rifle onto the side of her head, instantly knocking her out.

Chapter Text

Kirkman walked into the room, with a slight grimace on his face.

In front of him was a one-way window, where he could see their prisoner, and looking into it, was Colonel Burton.

"I just got word, what happened?"

Burton turned around and met Kirkman's eyes. "We were doing deployment exercises like you asked, a team of rangers along with a crusader tank were nearly ambushed, luckily our satellite was in the right spot at the right time, it snapped a photo of the assailants just a few minutes before the unit reached the ambush site."

"How do you know they were going to ambush?" Kirkman walked beside Burton and looked at the white-haired woman behind the window, tied to her chair and looking dejected at the ground. Her furry ears twitched.

"They were positioned at opposite sides of the road, never moving, we assumed they were waiting for the incoming team of rangers, and that assumption ended up being correct."

"Good job, Colonel, so, what do we have here?"

"One of the few survivors of the White Fang from the battle and the only one who isn't missing a limb or is in intensive care."

Kirkman nodded. "Alright, but why is she here and not with the other intact prisoners we got from the base attack a few weeks back."

"Because she appears to be of higher importance, her mask had a unique design and covered her entire face, which is why we also took her scroll and our cyber team is currently working on breaking into it to get as much information as possible.

"I see."

Kirkman was a bit worried. What were they doing so close to the base? If they had gone around another eleven kilometers north, they would have reached the first set of defenses Juno had. This only meant one thing.

"The White Fang is looking for us." Kirkman said with a face of realization

"Yes, I thought so too. But who's to say they haven't already found us."

"If they have, then they would have had to have gotten within range of at least one of our defense measures, so I think they just came close, dangerously close at that."

This was bad, the White Fang was actively trying to hunt them down. Fighting them wasn't the problem, no. Kirkman was confident that they could beat the White Fang, the problem was that if the White Fang did end up even finding evidence of being close to the base, that information could very well leak out.

And with how unpopular they already were, if they made Remnant hate them more, with the world knowing Juno's location, it may mean all-out war with an entire planet, and he certainly was not ready for that.

The radio show definitely helped slow their growing unpopularity, but it wasn't enough, there needed to be more.

"Burton, I need you to interrogate her, I have to go and talk to some people."

"Yes sir."

Kirkman wasted no time and left, leaving Burton alone in the room. He steeled himself, took a deep breath and opened the door to the room.

"Good morning, miss." He looked at the faunus woman currently handcuffed to a metal table, looking dejectedly at her cuffed hands.

He closed the door behind him before walking over to the chair opposite to her.

He took a seat

"I'm sure that you are aware of your current situation, and I'm sure you've already thought of the possibility of escape, but I assure you, there is no escape."

She continued to look down at her hands, not making any eye contact at all, her hair messily flowing in front of her head.

"Even if you do break through those vanadium steel cuffs, which I'm sure you've tried, you'd have to go through me, who is trained in multiple martial arts and is armed to the teeth, though that might not be entirely obvious."

It was true, under his uniform, he had what was practically an entire arsenal of small arms, and bladed weapons, though he wasn't completely confident in his ability to take out a superhuman in the case that she was able to escape, but he was damn sure that he could at least slow her down enough for more people to arrive at the scene.

"And if you are able to get through me, you would then have to fight through an entire building of skilled soldiers who will not hesitate to kill you, and if by the impossible chance that you can do that, you would then have to go through fourteen square kilometers of a base with enough men and firepower to take out a kingdom."

The woman was seemingly unfazed, as she just continued to look down. She didn't believe that last part.

"So I suggest you eliminate all thoughts of escape, your situation is utterly hopeless, no one is coming to help you, so I suggest you start spitting out what you know now or you'll regret it later."

"You're wrong." She whispered, bringing her head up slightly, going into direct eye contact with Burton. "They're coming, they will find you, and we will destroy the United States of America." Her eyes held nothing but animosity.

Burton couldn't help but let out a chuckle.

"You really believe that, don't you?" The Colonel said with a smirk.

The girl fully had her head up, looking directly at the Colonel with a fury in her eyes. "We came this close, once they know we disappeared, they'll start looking the direction we went, and they'll find you."

"And then what? They'll destroy us?" He laughed.

The furrow in her eyebrows grew.

"Let me show you how hopeless your attack was from the start, just to give you an idea of how outmatched the White Fang is."

From under his coat he pulled an envelope, he opened it up, and took out what was contained within, a picture. He slid it in front of the girl. She looked down at it.

"This is an image of the attack yesterday, or at least five minutes before the battle ensued. This was taken by our satellite at 0302 hours." Her ears and eyes seemed to perk up at the word 'Satellite' he assumed it was because she didn't know what it meant

"Now, you may be wondering what a 'Satellite' is, well it's this tiny thing in lower orbit, or in space, in simpler terms, and it allows us to monitor the locations within that specific orbit."

She seemed to be very surprise.

"That's a lie!" She attempted to stand up, but the straps on her chair kept her in place. "Dust doesn't work outside of Remnant's atmosphere!"

Burton's smirk only grew. "What if I told you we used something else other than dust?"

She once again gained a surprised look on her face. It was clear she had many more questions, but Burton didn't have time to waste.

"Now, back on topic." There were three sets of specs in the image, within the thick greenery, one could make out two groups of specks situated on two opposing sides of the paved road.

"To avoid confusion, we're gonna give these groups names." He put his finger on the bottom one, the girl's eyes widened for a second. According to the intel given to him by the soldiers who dealt with them, she was in this group.

"This group will be called 'Trash'." Her eyes immediately darkened at the name, and Burton couldn't help but laugh in his head. "Then this group." He pointed at the top one. "Dogshit."

Her eyes darkened even more as she grit her teeth.

"Based on what I was told, you belonged in Trash." Burton pulled out another picture, this one being taken just a few minutes after the last one.

"Now this shows the soldiers moving into position, because we had spotted you, they were expecting you there. From the very start, you had already lost the element of surprise."

Burton leaned back in his chair as he let his words sink in. He could already see evident surprise in her eyes.

"Now this..." He points at the greyish green shape in the image, the girl looks at it with interest as if she recognized it. "…is what we call an M2A1 Crusader tank, or just Crusader tank if you don't want the extra syllables. It is armed with a 120-millimeter cannon and has armor more powerful than anything in Atlas's arsenal."

The Colonel moved his finger onto the bottom group. "After first spotting you, we radioed in what we found. After that, the fire command was given, and the gunner of the Crusader identifies a target 30 meters ahead. The loader loads in an anti-personnel canister round in under 7 seconds, which is the standard. They move the turret and fire."

The girl seemed to traumatically remember those events.

"The shell hits, suddenly, thousands of tungsten balls fill Trash's surroundings, making quick work of aura and killing many in Trash. While this is happening, the soldiers behind the embankment throw flashbangs over it before climbing and then splitting up. One group to take dogshit head on and the other to flank them."

She seemed to get confused over the word 'Flashbang'.

"The flashbangs were enough to temporarily disorient them, the soldiers made equally quick work of Dogshit. And you'll be happy to know, we suffered no losses." Though he did not mention that two of them did return injured.

"And what did your group do? Nothing, when faced with superior tactics and technology, what can the White Fang really do?"

Her eyes flared at him, a burning rage all aimed towards Burton.

"Believe me, The United States has faced terrorist threats far worse than you can even imagine."

"We are not terrorists!" She yelled at the top of her lungs.

"Mhm, your actions thus far say otherwise"

"It doesn't matter, once Adam gets here…" She trailed off.

'Adam.' Now that was interesting.

"Adam? Who is this Adam?"

"The one who will be the end of the United States of America."

Burton only laughed. "If I had a nickel for every time someone said they would be the end of the United States, I'd be a goddamn millionaire, yet here we are, still standing here, why do you think that's the case?" Burton then furrowed his eyebrows.

"We have an orbital asset, soon to be assets, equipment that has yours beat by miles, men who have more skill and experience than your average White Fang goon, and a General who is more than willing to stomp you out, the White Fang has. No. Chance." He said with incredible gravitas. "After all, all it took to destroy a White Fang base was a preemptive strike, four men, two Comanches, and a bombing run, and we're capable of much more than that."

He seemed to finally be getting to her, the flair in her eyes lessened.

"You… You're all monsters."

"Says the woman who is part of a group responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocents."

She struggled in her seat, before opening her mouth. "Those were justified-"

"Justified? And what makes those deaths any more justified than our retaliation against you?" Burton bled some hostility in his voice. "If fighting back means we're monsters, then you're monsters as well."

"We have lived under the oppression of humans for centuries! They have shown no mercy to us, so we show them no mercy."

Burton took in her words. "But in killing innocents, causing unneeded suffering, and bringing upon untold destruction, you yourselves are becoming the oppressors."

She opened her mouth, but before she could speak, Burton cut in.

"Are all of the people you have killed directly responsible for your suffering? I know that's simply not true, those children did nothing, those shop owners did nothing, those American soldiers did nothing to you. Yet you treat them all the same."

His words were doing something, it was clear she was getting angrier with every sound that came out of his mouth, her teeth were practically grinding, and her eyes were fixed in a glare that would make most men shudder, but Burton pressed on.

"Tell me, what do you hope to achieve by causing so many to suffer? Equality? Cause let me tell you, killing and hurting humans will only make them hate you more."

"Adam sees it differently; he envisions a world where faunus reign supreme and humans are at the bottom."

There again, with this 'Adam', with how the woman spoke of him, at this point he was sure that he was a figure of great importance, a leader most likely. One that earned enough confidence within the Woman to make her think that he could destroy the United States.

"So essentially, you want to become the oppressors? My, the White Fang really is far gone, from what I'm hearing, you're just a bunch of hypocrites with weapons."

"You don't know what any of us went through! You have no right to criticize our actions, because you weren't in our position, you're a human, you don't have to go through the same amount of hardship that we have had to go through every single day for the past brothers know how long!"

"Perhaphs." Burton crossed his hands together. "But I don't have to go through what you did to know that killing innocent civilians is wrong, with or without your history, what you do is still wrong. Your end goal speaks volumes of just how morally bankrupt your group is, you're lying to yourselves if you think this is you making things right, because no, you don't really want to end your suffering, do you? You just want to make everyone suffer with you just because you had to go through it, even if those who suffer because of you have had no hand in your oppression. After hearing what you have to say about it. I will certainly be happy wiping your group off the face of Remnant"

Burton sat up. "And I promise you, there will be nothing left of the White Fang if you continue poking at us, I'll say it again, tell me what you know now, or you'll regret it later. We've wiped out a base before, what makes you think we can't do it again?"

The girl seemed to realize this fact, she nervously looked down at her hands, as if considering something, it was obvious after all, the whole world had seen how easy it had been for them to destroy an entire base in seconds which was apparently unheard of in Remnant.

"All I ask for, is who this 'Adam' is, answer and this will all be over sooner."

"He's the leader of the Vale branch." She weakly stated.

Burton couldn't help but a let a smirk form on his lips. "Good, now, do you-"

He was cut off by the sound of three knocks from the door behind him. It was opened. Burton turned his attention to George Miller who had entered the room.

The girl also looked at George, wondering what he was here for.

"Sir, you're needed in Cyber Ops."

Burton stood up, and adjusted his coat. "We'll continue this later." He told the girl, before walking off with George.

"So, what do we got?"

Kirkman turned around to meet the eyes of Colonel Burton as he walked in to the Cyber Ops room.

"Cyber team was able to crack the scroll of the woman."

"Oh? And what did you find?"

Kirkman sighed. "Sadly, nothing too important at the moment, though we're still digging through the contents of the scroll, the only things of note we found were the fact that the girl's name is Fubuki Shiro, and that she's a White Fang lieutenant."

"Already guessed she was of high rank from her mask, but is that really all you were able to find so far?"

Burton walked over to Kirkman who was leaned over and watching George's monitor

"Yeah, right now we're just digging through her photos and videos, her location pings were rather interesting though, the two groups were constantly pinging their location towards each other, and it showed in their messages towards each other, so that gives us a good idea on their movement, but that doesn't tell us anything in regards to the White Fang and what they're planning."

George decided to speak up. "Well, we already guessed that they've been looking for us, all we really need is confirmation. And who knows maybe there's some other shit on this phone, I mean scroll, maybe locations, names, and other bits of information."

Kirkman turned to Burton. "Speaking of information, did you get anything from the woma- Fubuki" Kirkman corrected himself.

"Yes, a name, 'Adam', apparently the leader of the Vale branch of the White Fang."

The General put his hand on his chin. "'Branch suggests that the White Fang divides itself into branches of different leadership, but based on what we've deduced from Vale's files on it, this isn't the case."

"Yeah, but that's just what Vale knows, I mean did we know everything about how the GLA worked? And it's even worse for Remnant since their surveillance technology is not as good as ours." George said while continuing to search the contents of the scroll.

Kirkman and Burton both nodded in agreement, though 'not as good' was an understatement, George had a point. Vale would definitely not have the resources to monitor the White Fang to that degree.

But the fact that the leader of the Vale branch was hunting them down suggested that it was not the entirety of the White Fang that was out to hunt the USA, but rather just this 'Adam' and the Vale branch. But this wasn't guaranteed yet, maybe the White Fang was separated into branches, but worked under a central figure, who ordered the Vale branch to search for the United States.

Either way, they now had a new target, Adam.

"Did she say anything about Adam?" Kirkman asked the Colonel.

"No, I was told to come here before I could pull more information out her."

"Ah yes, I called you here to tell you that I just got permission to meet directly with Ozpin."

Colonel Burton was shocked. "Why would you want to meet with Ozpin?"

"It occurred to me that maybe the reason that even with our now growing satellite network, our thousands of spy drones, our fleet of spy planes and more, we have been unable to identify a second White Fang bases is because we've been using our logic while fighting the GLA too much."

"What do you mean?"

"The GLA was strong, it had hundreds of thousands if not millions willing to work and die for its cause, they had the support of millionaires, government officials and even monarchs, which are the reasons why they had the power to create hundreds of strategic bases and outposts. The White Fang doesn't even have a fraction of that power."

Burton slightly understood what Kirkman was getting to. "So you're suggesting that the base we destroyed was the only White Fang hideout in this region? But that wouldn't make sense since we're still being hunted."

"No, I'm suggesting that the White Fang are like the small terrorist organizations on Earth, mostly hiding in plain sight, living in villages, towns, cities, rarely ever having a single, if not multiple central bases of operations. There might still be bases that we just have not seen, but if I'm right, a lot of the members could simply be living in Vale or in many of the surrounding towns and villages."

"And you need to speak with Ozpin for cooperation." Burton affirmed.

"And his permission for us to launch or own investigation inside Vale. I also plan on meeting with other leaders of the aforementioned towns and villages afterwards."

Burton was impressed. If the General was right and he was successful in convincing Ozpin and the other leaders, then that would mean that hunting the White Fang would be all the more easy.

"Burton, what I need you to do now is to prep an escort to Beacon academy, get some of your best men, and I want them ready by the end of the week."

"Yes, sir." Burton gave Kirkman a salute and left the room.

He planned on opening communications with Ozpin today, hopefully getting to meet him in a few days, and then the other village or town leaders afterwards, starting with Cooperwick, since he had already begun relations with them through helping them with the grimm horde that was harassing the town.

In fact, it might be better to speak with the leader of Cooperwick before he went to Beacon, it could give him some leverage in negotiations. He would have to speak to Burton about arranging a trip there. For now though, he would have to supervise searching through Fubuki's scroll.

Cooperwick

1100 Hours

Two days later…

"Village is just past these hills" The pilot said through COMMS.

Kirkman relaxed in his seat. He was currently seated inside a Chinook helicopter along with thirty fully armed soldiers. This was to be his security force while in Cooperwick.

"ETA, three minutes." A few of the soldiers that were with them tensed up a little, not that he could blame them, to some of them this would be their first mission outside of Juno's protection.

Though speaking of protection, he was sure that the two Comanches that were joining them would be more than enough to win any possible altercation that may happen.

Cooperwick was in a tricky spot, it was just thirty-two kilometers north of Vale's walls, putting it in between Vale and Juno, it was surrounded by a dense forest, and it was situated in a crossroad leading to two major towns outside of Vale, meaning that it often saw much trade and visitors.

They had used satellite imaging to the determine the perfect landing spot for the three helicopters which just so happened to be the town center.

Kirkman looked around, taking note of the some of the soldiers carefully checking their weapons, looking into their optics, checking their mags, and more, while some were simply staring at the closed ramp anticipating the order to move.

"Aaaand I see it." The co-pilot stated.

"(COMMS) Do you have a visual on Cooperwick?" Burton's voice came through COMMS, he was staying at Juno.

"Affirmative. I have visual on the LZ." The pilot pushed some buttons. "We're landing now."

Everyone could feel the motion of the Chinook descending, it descended for a good few second before finally touching the ground, though the rotors were still spinning.

"This is it." Kirkman said.

The ramps opened up, and all the soldiers exited the Chinook. Kirkman was the last to exit.

The immediate area around him was a very large paved area, like a parking lot but without any asphalt. There were even some civilians in the square, some were running away in fear of the three strange shapes that suddenly landed in the middle of their town.

The soldiers around Kirkman ran forward and started securing Kirkman's path, shouting orders for the civilians to stay back.

In front of him stood the Town hall. Or at least it seemed it like it was, given that it was in the center of the Village and was an elaborate building in contrast to the simple homes and other structures that surrounded it. Having a painted concrete base, polished wooden pillars and stairs leading directly to the door, if 'overkill' was a building this was it.

The general walked slowly to the steps, paying attention to his soldiers who had began to file into a few lines.

He walked up the stairs. Meeting the eyes of the two village guards beside it.

"Good morning gentlemen." They were doing a good job at hiding it, but he could tell they were fearful, not of just the fact that there were over thirty soldiers ready to kill them at any given moment but also the fact that they were currently staring down one of the most feared men on Remnant.

A squad of soldiers walked up behind him, they were supposed to be joining him inside the town hall.

"Now where's your chief." Kirkman asked.

As if on cue the wooden doors opened, revealing the village chief, Jonathan Winslow.

He was tall, around the same height as Kirkman, had a bushy beard and had a rugged face. He wore a white tunic with a black vest over it, having thick leather pauldrons over his left shoulder.

"Hello general." He said with a tone that showed no fear or nervousness, much unlike his guards. It was clear that Jonathan was not intimidated.

"Hello to you to, Mr. Winslow. May I come in?"

Jonathan stepped aside and let Kirkman and his soldiers in. Kirkman finally got to see the interior, which compared to the grandeur of the exterior was rather lackluster, with simple wooden floors and walls. Though it was quite large.

Winslow started leading them through one of the hallways as Kirkman and his men followed.

"You didn't give us much time to prepare. You told us only an hour before that you and your men would come here."

"I apologize for the intrusion then, but our decision to come here was just as sudden, and we couldn't delay it any further."

The chief shot him short glare before turning his attention back to the way he was walking.

This was in fact a lie, this sudden arrival with not much notice ahead of time was done on purpose. Kirkman was not entirely sure if he could trust Winslow yet. By the off chance that Winslow was someone who wanted Kirkman dead, then him informing Winslow of his visit days or many hours ahead would give him time to plan an ambush.

After a minute more of walking they finally reached a door. Winslow opened it, letting Kirkman and the others in.

The room was of medium size, in the middle was a large wooden desk with a cushioned chair behind it. In front of it were two smaller cushioned chairs.

Winslow took a seat behind the desk, and signaled Kirkman to take a seat in front him, Kirkman did so.

He waved away the soldiers and made them stay outside the room. He waited for the door to close.

Kirkman looked into Winslow's eyes. He crossed his and leaned forward before finally speaking.

"Do you know why I came here Mr. Winslow?" He narrowed his eyes towards his.

"No, like I said, this is all very sudden to me, I have no clue as to the reason for your arrival." His face kept at the light grimace that was on it when Kirkman originally came.

"I came here because…" Kirkman took notice of the gun-like object attached to his leg. "We both need help."

Winslow raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And what do you mean by this?"

"Let's not sugarcoat here, Cooperwick is on the verge of being overrun by grimm. Every month there's a new grimm horde outside the gates which your guards just can't handle."

The grimace grew, Kirkman could imagine Winslow grabbing the gun and shooting him for disrespecting the village. But Kirkman pressed on.

"And every month you hire huntsmen to take out the grimm, but you can only afford the bottom of the barrel huntsmen, so the grimm horde only remains partially eliminated. So, you turn to anyone who could help, unlicensed mercenaries, former soldiers and the like."

"It sounds like you're just insulting my village and my leadership." He said with an intense anger.

Kirkman was not intimidated. "But this time, the grimm horde was particularly large, to the point where the bottom of the barrel huntsmen and mercenaries could no longer fight them off, so you forced all your citizens to give money to pay for a higher quality huntsman which you weren't even sure could deal with the horde. But turns out, the Vale Hunstman Assosciation charged too high."

Kirkman could see the confusion in Winslow's eyes, he must be wondering how Kirkman knew all this. All it really took was some wire tapping and paying some Cooperwick citizens for information.

"How do you know all this." He asked with a mix of confusion and anger.

"That isn't important, the point is, you were having a problem, and you paid us to solve it. You saw what the United States could do, one airstrike and all the grimm are dead. So I propose a partnership or an alliance would be a better word for it."

"And what do you have to gain from this partnership?"

"We will provide you protection, we'll build an outpost nearby which will house some soldiers and equipment to deal with the grimm. We only ask for access to your trade and information gathering within your village."

"Information gathering?" Winslow furrowed his eyebrows.

"We have reason to believe that few… persons of interest are living within your walls."

The chief's eyes met Kirkman's with disdain.

"Is this because of the high faunus population?" He snarled. "I will not allow racists to- "

"Believe me, this has nothing to do with race. Our information network simply shows that there may be a few problematic individuals living here, we simply request that we be able to question certain individuals to ascertain their innocence."

This 'Information Network' was really just Fubuki giving them the answers needed. All it took was threatening to pull the plug on 'John Aero' the leader of the second group.

He had come out of the battle missing his lower leg and most of his arm, he was put in a medically induced coma but would not wake up. The investigation into Fubuki Shiro's scroll led to finding out that she was romantically involved with John which gave them a negotiations advantage.

She spilled the beans rather quick.

"I don't see how this deal will benefit me."

"You really don't?" Kirkman asked with a mocking tone. "Here are your choices, you either accept this deal, and get protection free of charge. Or you continue what you're doing, forcing your citizens to pay impossible taxes to fund your protection, this will only increase the already high amount of negative emotions, leading to more grimm, and more grimm means a higher need for protection which means higher taxes and so on."

The village chief slumped back into his chair but kept the scowl he was giving Kirkman.

"You can't keep this up Mr. Winslow and you know it. And all I ask is for the ability to question some of your citizens and trade, once I get that, you'll never have to worry about grimm ever again."

This entire thing may seem like a one-sided deal, but it wasn't, he wouldn't actually participate in trade in the commercial sense, but rather ask for a cut of the profit and materials of the trade happening within Cooperwick, so the United States would get some lien and dust.

But putting a base in Cooperwick's vicinity would put that base at an advantage, it would put the United States much closer to Vale and many other villages and towns which would mean not only easier access to the rest of the world, but also an extra line of defense for Juno.

But whether or not Winslow accepted was unimportant to the upcoming FOB. Even if Winslow said no, Kirkman would still have one built just a bit farther than he was asking Winslow for. But making this deal with Winslow would allow him to get some lien and dust but also continue investigating the White Fang.

"I accept, but I don't want you questioning or detaining anyone without telling me first."

Kirkman smirked. "Of course."

The door behind suddenly burst open. A sergeant from his guard detail entered.

"Sir, reports coming in from the other squads that two Beringels appeared outside the village walls."

"Beringels?!" Winslow yelled out. "We need to mobilize the village guard and notify a huntsman agency now!"

Kirkman put his hands up in a placating manner towards Winslow. "There is no need Mr. Winslow."

"What do you mean?! There are Beringels. Two of them! Those are some the most dangerous grimm on Remnant."

"And there is no need to worry." Kirkman smirked, before reaching into his coat and pulling out his earpiece, he put it on his ear and pressed on it.

"Hammer squadron, take out the Beringels."

"(COMMS) Yes, sir. Moving to the new AO."

"Come with me." Kirkman told Winslow.

He turned to the soldier. "Take us to where the Beringels were spotted." The soldier nodded and jogged off while Kirman and Winslow followed.

Once they got out of the Town Hall, they were met with a huge commotion outside, the Comanches were just taking off, and the soldiers were running forward to take defensive positions. The citizens were in a panic looking around and screaming in confusion as to what was happening. He continued to follow the soldier, eventually reaching a tall concrete wall with a watch tower behind. They climbed the stairs and got a good view of what was ahead of the walls. There were already two soldiers on the watch tower.

Two Beringels were approaching from the forest. Overhead, the Comanches flew, flying in front of the Beringels before firing their guns.

The Grimm were pushed back, and were taking some damage, but it didn't look like they were dying. "Fire your rockets." Kirkman said into his earpiece

A few rockets flew from the rocket pods on the wings of the Comanches, hitting the Beringels directly and making them blow up into many pieces.

"(COMMS) How bout those rocket pods!" Yelled in a celebratory tone by one of the pilots.

Winslow looked on in shock at the firepower of just two bullheads. He had seen it before with the large gathering of grimm that they had destroyed, but he thought that was just a fluke, a lucky shot, but here he saw that Kirkman could tote around that kind of firepower wherever he wanted.

And with that, all his regrets at accepting the deal disappeared.

Kirkman patted him on the back.

"We're gonna have a beautiful partnership, Mr. Winslow."

Chapter Text

The Auditorium of Beacon academy was packed, everyone from the first to third years were here, the fourth years were all doing missions outside of Beacon so they couldn't attend the sudden meeting that was ordered by Ms. Goodwitch.

It was right after dinner time too, it was unusual that students were called out this late, it was already 8pm.

The Faculty were on the stage looking down at the students who were all whispering and talking amongst one another. They were all thinking the same thing, why were they here? The last time they were gathered in the auditorium like this was for the Initiation, but even that was only for the first years.

The fact that all but one of the year levels were gathered here today meant that there was something big about to be announced.

Ozpin finally walked up to the microphone, tapping on it once. Everyone quieted down

"Good afternoon, I apologize for calling you all here on such short notice, you see, a few days ago, we received some… worrying information."

Ozpin clearly looked more on edge than he usually did.

The combined amount of confusion increased, though the students kept quiet.

"I'll get right to it. General Thomas Kirkman of the United States of America plans to visit Beacon tomorrow morning."

And with that the silence was completely broken, students started talking. Many 'What?!'s and 'Why?!'s were heard along with the general chatter that came with startling news.

"Silence!" Ms. Goodwitch ordered. The students once more quieted down.

Ozpin cleared his throat before speaking again. "General Kirkman will be given a tour around Beacon as he requested."

Some of the faces within the auditorium morphed into ones of anger, or even fear.

"Now I am aware that some of you are not very fond of the United States and its actions, but we expect you all to be at your utmost behavior, this is a very important visit."

Ozpin took a moment to look around and gauge the reactions of the students, the general emotion was confusion, but he could tell that some were very unhappy about this, he could particularly notice the scowl on the young Blake Belladonna. Given her history, it was unsurprising that she did not like General Kirkman.

"Ms. Goodwitch will remain to answer any question that you may have." He nodded before stepping down the stage and walking towards the door.

He exited. He walked down the hallway and into the elevator, he pressed the button leading directly to his office, the doors closed, and he sighed.

It had been a long couple of days, just two days ago he had received troubling information from Qrow Branwen that the General had paid a visit to Cooperwick last week. Qrow happened to be staying in Cooperwick while he was travelling back to Vale.

It was noted that Kirkman entered the town hall and seemed to speak with the Village Chief, Jonathan Winslow, before coming out and observing his Bullheads eliminate two Beringels that had appeared outside the Village walls, courtesy of Qrow's semblance.

The elevator doors opened, Ozpin stepped out and walked to his desk, before taking a seat, he scratched his head and observed the stack of papers on his desk. He had more important matters to attend to over the different forms that were related to the upcoming Vytal festival. Kirkman's visit was indeed an important one.

Qrow noted that Kirkman brought with him around thirty armed soldiers, along with two of those strange looking bullheads that he called "Comanches". This meant that Kirkman would likely bring the same posse with him to Beacon. It made Ozpin uncomfortable to know that such killing machines would be right at Beacon's doorstep. That along with the small army possibly coming with him worried Ozpin.

Was this supposed to be a diplomatic mission or a threat? Ozpin did not know.

While lost in thought the doors to the elevator in front of him opened. Behind it was General Ironwood.

"Ozpin, we need to discuss this visit that's about to happen."

"Agreed, but what is there really to discuss?"

Ironwood walked forward, standing directly in front of Ozpin.

"A lot, it was clear what the United States was trying to do with that 'Demonstration' of theirs from two weeks ago."

"Oh?" Ozpin already knew the answer but still felt the need to ask.

"Intimidation."

Ozpin stood up and walked to the table on the side of his office where a glass pitcher containing his coffee was.

"I am well aware that fact, but what is it exactly you plan to do? Intimidate them as well?" He sarcastically stated. Ozpin began to pour himself some coffee as Ironwood turned to face him, his eyebrows furrowed, it was clear he did not appreciate the sarcasm.

"Yes."

"And how exactly do we intimidate them? You saw what they could do. I hardly think they'd be intimidated by anything Atlas has to offer."

Ozpin walked back to his desk and sat down with his new cup in his hand.

"I think you just might be wrong, Oz." Ironwood smirked. "Atlas has been developing new technology, and as you know, we just got the first batch of Atlesian Paladins from our factories, if we put a few of them on display at Beacon during the visit, I'm sure that can show these 'Americans' that we are not to be trifled with."

"Oh? And you think the weapons that the Americans have displayed are not enough to make them fearless of your Atlesian technology."

Ironwood. "I doubt it, wasn't it you that said that the footage from the emerald forest of the bomb they used to demonstrate didn't really hold that much explosive power but instead produced a lot of flames. I assure you, the Paladin does very well against heat."

Ozpin was indeed able to procure footage from within the Emerald forest, there were many cameras there that were left from initiation, and of the ones that weren't damaged beyond repair, he was able to retain footage of the bombing, it was there that he saw that the bombs didn't actually detonate on the ground, rather they detonated above the ground, and even then, the strength of the explosion was strong but nothing certain semblances and loads of fire dust couldn't do.

What was more impressive about it was the fact that it spread so much superheated particles, smoke and flames all around that it caused an environmental hazard to the places around the areas affected.

But Ozpin had also known of what happened in Cooperwick.

"And what of the bombing in Cooperwick? Don't you think that's evidence enough for the explosive power of their weapons, or even the attack on the White Fang compound, and the reports from the very few survivors."

"Easy shot, the grimm were all packed together, I'm sure Atlas or a good group of huntsmen could have done the same. As for the White Fang compound, I doubt they can do that kind of attack again and again. I suspect that bombing was the strongest thing they have in their arsenal, and I don't think they can afford to do that all the time."

Ozpin still wasn't sure, given Kirkman's confidence when speaking to him about the United States' strength, it made him worry that they were a much bigger threat than he or Ironwood could even imagine.

"I'll let you do as you please, but I don't expect the Americans will be very intimidated."

"Hmph, I disagree." Ironwood turned around and walked to the elevator. "I'll have a few Paladins flown here overnight."

Ozpin folded his hands and looked at Ironwood as the Elevator doors closed. He grabbed his cup and took a sip of his coffee.

It was bland.

The day had been hectic, the majority of those in Beacon had barely gotten any sleep, what with the anticipation of General Kirkman's arrival. Classes would still push through but it was almost guaranteed that the students would just be looking out the windows for the duration of the classes, the same went for the Professors.

Ozpin was on the ground. Waiting. Stood there, was him, Professor Goodwitch, and General Ironwood.

They were all stood in between four Paladins, with an entire legion of the new Atlesian Knights stood behind them. Ironwood thought that this ought to intimidate the Americans when they came.

Ozpin looked at his watch, it read 8:26, Kirkman said he would be at Beacon by 8:30.

"James…" Goodwitch called out.

"Yes, Glynda?" Ironwood responded without turning, simply continuing to look forward.

"Do we really need these… robots?" Her voice was tinged with aggravation.

"Correction, the Paladins currently have my men and women piloting them. And yes, this shows the Americans our strength, that we are a force to be reckoned with." He said his fist in front of his chest.

Glynda let out an exasperated sigh while holding her forehead. She, like Ozpin, was not fond of Ironwood's clearly unnecessary display of military strength.

The Beacon courtyard had become designated landing zone for the American 'choppers' as the man called 'Colonel Burton' who coordinated the visit called them. As such, the courtyard had been cleared of all intrusions, students and faculty alike, minus of course, Glynda, Ozpin himself, Ironwood, and his unnecessary posse.

Ozpin looked around, he could hear the chatter of the students looking through the windows of their classes, he could tell apart the face of one Blake Belladonna with a grimace on her face as she looked on from her classroom.

He couldn't blame her, he too was not very fond of the Americans and their actions, Blake was especially angered given her history with America's current enemy, the White Fang.

Whatever the case, it was clear that everybody had ignored the order to be at their best behavior.

Ozpin checked the time, 8:28.

"He's gonna be late isn't he- "Glynda was cut off when the thunderous boom entered their ears, as four shapes in the sky filled their vision. Four grey shapes with wing like protrusion coming out of them, much like the airship the Americans used to show off their fire bomb, except these were flying much lower and slightly slower.

"What was that?!" Glynda yelled, but before she could get an answer, something could be spotted in the distance

But just as soon as they arrived, the shapes disappeared. And over in the distance, many more shapes could be seen, they were going fast, getting closer and closer as seconds went by.

Eventually the three of them could tell apart the many shapes, there were seven of them, at the center was something that looked almost exactly like a bullhead, but with a less bulky looking design and with propellors instead of dust-based propulsion jets. Surrounding it were two green cylindrical shapes, with two massive propellers on them. Surrounding them were four strange looking figures with only a single propeller at it's top, they could make out what looked like rocket pods on its wing like extensions.

They grew closer and closer, until they finally reached the edge of the courtyard. They reached big open area within the courtyard. The propellers on the different crafts slowed down, as wheels started to become visible. They descended onto the ground. Except for the green bullheads which reversed themselves before they too landed directly in front of them.

All the vehicles were now right in front of Ozpin and his group.

Ramps descended from the green bullheads, and out came dozens of men wearing green uniforms all holding what looked to be guns, some of the men had large tube-like equipment on their backs. There were easily around fifty men.

They lightly jogged around before finally getting in formation, they were all separated into groups of around ten. They surrounded the central bullhead.

A massive commotion could be heard from behind Ozpin, Glynda and Ironwood, only muffled by the walls and windows of the classrooms

All eyes went on the central bullhead.

Its ramp descended.

Out of it came General Thomas Kirkman himself, wearing sunglasses to block out the shade. He wore an elaborate uniform, with a dark blue jacket with a dress shirt and tie under. His suit jacket was decorated with many badges and medals. The nation's flag was on Kirkman's left collar. Ironwood's uniform paled in comparison to Kirkman's, and he felt lightly ashamed.

Behind him were the silhouettes of four men, possibly his personal protection detail.

Kirkman stepped forward, and his guards followed.

Everything was silent as Kirkman walked towards the shocked group of Beacon professors and Atlesian general.

The light had finally shone on Kirkman's guards, revealing men wearing similar green uniforms to the other soldiers, except one was wearing shades, and another wore a full-face mask and goggles.

Kirkman and his guards continued walking, before his eyes met Ozpins.

He nonchalantly brought up his arm and looked at his own watch.

"Right on time."

"OOOOOH MY GOSH THEIR VEHICLES LOOK SO COOL!" Ruby was screaming at the top of her lungs as she was watching the meeting from a window.

"Quiet, you dolt!" Weiss lightly smacked her palm on top of Ruby's head.

"Ow!" Ruby grasped at the top of her head with a mildly pained look on her face. "Why you…" She jumped at Weiss.

Yang ignored the usual antics of the two partners, and asked her own of the situation. "What are they saying."

They were all inside an empty classroom, they had snuck out of Professor Peach's class and were able to do so because Peach herself was distracted by the meeting. Through both the quiet (not so quiet anymore) empty classroom and her sensitive hearing, Blake was able to listen in on the meeting that was happening between the feared General Kirkman and Ozpin's group.

Blake could swear she saw a smirk cross Kirkman's face before disappearing in seconds.

"Kirkman just said 'Right on time'."

Yang was disappointed with the lack of interesting dialogue.

While Blake continued to listen in for anything interesting, Yang looked on in mild confusion. "What's the point of bringing out those Paladins and robots?"

Weiss stopped her argument with Ruby and turned to Yang.

"I believe it's because General Ironwood wants to demonstrate the strength of Atlas to General Kirkman."

"Preeetty sure Kirkman's show was better." Ruby commented.

"How so? I don't see any powerful Mechanized infantry on their side, just some bullheads and soldiers."

"But those things in the sky though! They were faster than any bullhead I've seen! And don't you think those bullheads on the ground are the ones that the White Fang member was talking about on the news, that would mean that they just brought some serious firepower."

Blake shuddered, it sickened her to think that those same bullheads on the ground may be the 'Comanches' that were used to carry out the brutal attack on the White Fang base.

"But we don't even know what those fast aircraft were for. Maybe they were just there for reconnaissance, and I seriously doubt those bullheads would be enough to destroy this brigade of cutting edge Atlesian might. I mean, could you really trust the words of a terrorist?"

Blake was very tempted to snap back but Ozpin just asked Kirkman an interesting question, one that was related to what Weiss and Ruby were talking about.

"… are those aircraft for? I assume they weren't just for show."

Kirkman removed his sunglasses and pocketed them

"They're our QRF of course."

"QRF?" Professor Goodwitch asked with a puzzled look.

Ironwood seemed to be mortified at Kirkman's answer. "A quick reaction force."

Blake gasped; those fast things were meant to be some sort of rapid response unit?

"Kirkman just said that the aircraft are his quick reaction force."

"What's that?" Yang questioned.

Weiss who was well versed in military terminology answered. "A quick reaction force is a unit meant to respond to any situation quickly, hence the name."

Ruby was perplexed "But if they're supposed to be a respond quickly why can't we see or hear them anymore? They'd have to be pretty far."

"You saw fast those things were, Rubes. I'm pretty sure they could get here real quick if they wanted to."

"And I doubt most guns would be capable of shooting them down." Weiss conceded.

Down in the courtyard, the conversation continued.

"Is that a threat?" Ozpin asked.

"Only as much of a threat as those androids and Atlesian Paladins behind you are. I'm simply taking the same type of safety precautions that you are."

None of the three could seem to rebut Kirkman's statement.

"Now, I believe I'm due for a tour around this place, don't worry, I'll only be taking these four with me." Kirkman gestured to the four men in green uniforms with him. "The others will simply stay here."

Ozpin shook off his shocked look before responding "Of course, now… come with us."

Blake looked back to her Team, Weiss was still in disbelief at their air capabilities, while Ruby was more focused on the technical side of things.

"What kind of propulsion methods do you think they use? Dust isn't very fuel efficient when it comes to Air travel."

Yang simply did not care; she was more interested in what was going on between Beacon and Kirkman.

"Blake, they say anything? Why are they walking off, is it time for the tour already?"

"Yeah."

"Should we follow them?"

As much as Blake wanted to stealthily jump from roof to roof and listen in on their conversation, she knew that it would be too risky, Ozpin only tolerated people looking and listening now because they were directly in front of school buildings, but once they got into a more private location, Ozpin would not be as lenient to people listening in.

"No, too risky."

"Hm." Yang disappointedly hummed. "So what do you guys think?"

"Well, their vehicles are pretty cool, their bullheads have unique designs and a have huge carrying capacities, I mean there must be at least a hundred of those soldiers down there."

"I don't think so, by my count there are maybe a little more than fifty of them, better than most dropships but nothing too impressive, and the fact that the bullheads use propellers instead of dust jet engines show that they have a primitive understanding of flight." Then Weiss remembered how fast and high the other aircraft flew. "Never mind."

"What do you think those fast things were anyway?" Yang asked. "I know they're supposed to be a 'Quick Reaction Force' but they didn't look like they could pack a punch, wouldn't they be way too fast for them to fire guns at the ground, they'd fly straight into the ground if they tried that."

"Maybe they have other methods of attack." Weiss couldn't think of any though. "But I'm starting to think that Kirkman just said that to intimidate Ozpin, there's no way something that fast can reliably attack something, maybe they were just aerial scouts?" Weiss brushed off the thoughts that Americans had superior air capabilities.

Ruby faced Weiss with an agitated look on her face. "Oh, come on. Didn't you read those news reports from the people from Cooperwick two weeks ago? A bunch of Grimm just exploded."

"I was probably busy with studying for the Grimm biology quiz unlike you, what news?"

Blake finally stood up. "Eye witness reports from the citizen of Cooperwick who were watching from inside their homes say that fire rained down from the sky and into the nearby forest. When the village guard went to check, all the grimm were already gone. I think those things were used to kill all the grimm."

Blake had kept up to date with the situation surrounding the United States of America, apparently reports were coming in that Kirkman had come to visit Cooperwick just a few days ago. It made Blake wonder if the reason for his visit there were the same for his visit here.

But she did not like it one bit that murderer was currently walking on Campus. And that murderer's army was standing right inside the courtyard. She looked down at the Window as her teammates continued to discuss.

All the soldiers were standing still, all of them holding these weird looking black guns, some had massive green tubes on their backs. They were all uniformed, though some had extra pieces on their uniform, others had some sort of walkie talkie, some had sunglasses, some had headphones, ear protectors and other peripherals.

Weiss stood beside her, also looking at the soldiers. "Their weapons are… strange."

"Yeah, their guns look pretty weird, they have bunch of tiny crevices and look really segmented, but from the looks of it all their weapons are customizable." Ruby was now looking outside too.

"Customizable?" Weiss asked, to her, their weapons looked inferior to Atlas, since the Atlesian standard Mk. 22 rifle looked smoother and sleeker.

"Almost all of them are holding the same gun model, but the guns have different attachments on them, different sights, I think I even see foregrips and a second trigger on some of them." Ever the weapons nerd, Ruby identified the unique nature of the American weaponry.

"What about those weird tube things, what do you think they are? Yang asked her sister.

"No idea." She shrugged. "Some sort of weapon? But I don't know what it would do." Indeed the shape perplexed her, they were just some long green tubes with some attachments and extra pieces.

If she were to guess, she would think rocket launcher, but the rocket launchers that she knew off were squarer.

"Though, considering that they seem to have no automated soldiers, I'm sure that in terms of military capability they aren't any better than Atlas. They probably just got lucky with the White Fang and grimm." Weiss surmised that the Americans were simply posturing and showing an air of confidence to intimidate the other kingdoms, when in reality he was weak.

Blake thought Weiss's thoughts were biased. "I don't think so, the fact that Atlas feels the need to show off in front of Kirkman shows that they're pretty worried of him too."

"General Ironwood is just showing off its strength." Weiss folded her arms.

"Why would Ironwood feel the need to show his strength if he wasn't worried on some level? If he was so confident that Atlas was more powerful than the United States of America, then showing off Atlas's strength in this way wouldn't be needed. Unless he's trying to intimidate Kirkman, which I'm sure you saw that Kirkman was not at all intimidated, in fact I'm pretty sure he was smirking down there."

Yang decided to cut in. "Yeah I don't know, I think we should just wait and see what happens before we assume what's going on."

Everyone seemed to agree.

Kirkman's footsteps suddenly stopped.

"So, now that that's over, I believe we must discuss some… things." Kirkman stopped walking and steadied himself.

The entire tour had been uneventful, it had been clear that Kirkman requested the tourjust to be polite, when in reality he really just wanted to negotiate. About what, Ozpin did not know. And it seemed Kirkman believed it was about time for negotiations to begin

Ozpin made sure to highlight all the greatest parts of Beacon, but it was as if Kirkman simply did not care about the grandeur of Beacon academy. Neither was he intimidated by the display of Atlas's military might, much to the disappointment of Ironwood.

They were standing in front of the CCT.

"Indeed" Ozpin finally answered Kirkman. "Shall we?" Ozpin gestured to the CCT.

Kirkman nodded as Ozpin, Goodwitch and Ironwood walked in.

The group walked straight past the receptionist, and stood in front of the Elevator.

He held his hand in front of his men. "You stay here."

The man in sunglasses tilted his head in confusion but followed the order and stood still along with the rest of the protection detail.

Goodwitch pressed a button on her scroll and the elevator activated. It opened its doors. The four of them stepped in. The elevator began to lift itself upwards, for a good thirty seconds they stood there in complete silence. None of them daring to show any amount of nervousness.

When the lift finally reached the top, the doors opened and they all stepped out.

Ozpin, knowing that the true purpose of this visit was to negotiate, had set up an extra seat within his office for Kirkman.

For a brief second Ozpin saw a shimmer in Kirkman's eyes when he saw the office. There was something that seemed to finally impress him. As he walked, he looked around at the many machinations that were within the office.

Kirkman immediately knew where was supposed to be seated and walked to the chair in front of Ozpin's desk, while Ozpin's group walked to their side.

Kirkman took a seat, as did Ozpin. Goodwitch and Ironwood stood next to him.

"I believe it's best we cut to the chase." Kirkman seemed to gauge their reactions before continuing to speak. He seemed to be pleased.

"As you know, the United States is currently engaged in a war with the White Fang."

A look of shock spread throughout Ozpin's group. 'War' was quite a heavy word, almost nobody described a conflict of this scale in that way.

"War?" Goodwitch asked.

Kirkman turned his head to meet Glynda's. "Don't be mistaken Ms. Goodwitch, shots have been fired, lives have been lost on both sides, what exactly doesn't make this a war? All it's missing is a declaration."

Kirkman's almost relaxed statement of war disturbed the group. Kirkman only continued looking at them with a cold stare.

"Now, I'm sure that you heard from your informants within Cooperwick that I went there a few days ago."

Informants? The only informant he had within Cooperwick was Qrow who coincidentally was staying there for a few days on his way back to Vale. Did he know about Qrow? This worried Ozpin, how did he know about Qrow? And more importantly, was he in danger? Though the fact that he didn't send hm a message saying that he was in peril soothed his worries just a little.

"My purpose for going there was simple, I wanted to negotiate a deal that would aid in my current war with the White Fang."

"And you came here to do the same?" This time, Ironwood did the talking.

"Correct."

Ozpin folded his hands and looked directly at Kirkman with a stern look on his face. "And what is this deal?"

Kirkman appeared to not be deterred by Ozpin's intimidating tone of voice. He breathed in and leaned forward.

"After doing some thinking, I realized I was looking at the situation wrong, the White Fang doesn't operate like your average military and camp out in large heavily defended bases. They may have a few, but the majority are hiding among the civilian population within Kingdoms and the settlements outside."

Kirkman paused and leaned back, putting his hand on his chin.

"Go on."

"I convinced the mayor of Cooperwick that it would be in our best interest if I could detain some of these individuals within his village."

This shocked the others. Why would the mayor accept such a deal like that? To just let Kirkman and his forces stomp around his town unopposed. And Kirkman mentioned detaining individuals from the White Fang, did that mean he already had detainees?

And he came here to negotiate that same deal with Ozpin? No, Ozpin would not let the United States waltz into Vale and shed blood like he did to the other White Fang.

"At the current moment we have four new members within our detention camp. They are currently being questioned. I offer you the same deal. And I already know what you're worried about, I know that you are quite opposed towards killing, to which I can assure you that there will be no unnecessary bloodshed involved."

Ozpin took note of the word 'unnecessary'.

"And what constitutes as necessary bloodshed?"

"If they threaten the lives of my soldiers then I believe fighting back using lethal force is necessary."

Ironwood could agree with what Kirkman was saying, but what he was suggesting with just letting the United States walk into Vale with no obstruction was unheard of. No Kingdom with an ounce of pride would let that happen, and that, combined with the fact that Ozpin was a pacifist made it unlikely that the Headmaster would let that happen.

"I'm sorry but I cannot accept." Ozpin unfolded his hands.

"I believe you don't understand. The White Fang are a terrorist group that has been festering in this continent for years, and you have thus far let their actions go unanswered, they have killed many and struck fear into the hearts of many more."

"I can say the same about you."

Kirkman's fists clenched and his eyes lit up with a silent fury

Ozpin could tell that he was especially angered with that one, it was almost as if it activated an emotion held deep within.

"Do not suggest that I am a terrorist, Headmaster." His voice dipping into a growl.

Ironwood almost reached for his pistol, sensing the anger, but chose not to.

"My point still stands, you see, I do not indiscriminately murder hundreds if not thousands of innocents, I don't just kill the first human I see, I don't cause suffering under the guise of a desire for equality, the White Fang do."

Ozpin acknowledged this, he knew that the White Fang were a terrorist group, but he believed that no matter what, one was never to take another life.

"The White Fang kills and causes suffering, that much is true, but this doesn't mean we're supposed to stoop to their level."

Kirkman's fists finally unclenched, and the fury in his eyes lessened.

"I beg to differ." His voice to had returned to its original diplomatic tone. "But we're getting off topic, this isn't about whether or not killing as a military action is correct, this is about whether or not I can detain the literal terrorist I know are hiding within Vale." He ended with a matter-of-fact tone.

Ozpin knew that there were many White Fang hiding within Vale, how else could the sudden spike in crime be explained, but allowing a foreign nation to simply step into Vale to hunt and possibly kill was something that was undesirable.

"I'm sorry but I cannot allow that."

Kirkman seemed genuinely confused.

"I'm sure you've seen the reports of the many dust store robberies within Vale, I'm sure you've noticed the increase in assault, murder, rape, kidnappings and much more, all in areas where agents of the White Fang have been reportedly spotted. Are you really just going to let this all continue?"

"The police-"

"And don't even think about mentioning your unbelievably incompetent police force. Who, prior to our attack on the White Fang compound and the little altercation at the docks, have quite literally been unable to detain a single member in six months. They've barely done anything since the White Fang became violent. And I also know that most of your huntsmen are currently busy with grimm incursions happening everywhere. So I know for a fact that you are powerless to deal with the White Fang."

How did Kirkman know so much? Hadn't the United States been almost completely isolated for decades? Or had they been keeping tabs everywhere for a while now, it made no sense. Did he have access to police records?

Ozpin hid his concern well, the same with Goodwitch and Ironwood who had let Ozpin do the talking, since they themselves couldn't think of responses.

"But you know what you have power to do?" Kirkman slanted his head forward and looked Ozpin directly in the eye. "You have a seat in the council, and I know that you have enough influence and power to let me deal with this problem for you, there are exactly zero downsides to this."

Ironwood was at a loss for what would be the right answer, ignoring any morals, on one hand Kirkman was right, Vale was powerless to do anything, and that letting the United States do the work would be a seemingly effective strategy.

But doing that would humiliate Vale and would only exemplify its powerlessness to the public, which would mean less faith in the Kingdom and its council. And in their own ongoing war with a certain someone, a lack of faith in the Kingdoms would be disastrous.

Ozpin did not have a good rebuttal towards Kirkman's White Fang argument, but he still believed that he must protect the integrity of Vale.

"No." Ozpin answered firmly.

Kirkman lifted his leg and placed it upon his other leg before letting out a sigh. "Frankly, Headmaster, I'm starting to feel like you care more about protecting a group of terrorists than your own citizens."

Ozpin felt anger well up within him, but he didn't let it show.

"That is rather insulting, General. I'll have you know; I value the citizens of Vale very much. But I also value both Vale's sovereignty and human life."

"And I'm sure you know that the human life you are currently valuing are the lives of terrorists that I have stated I will do my best to not take the lives off. But what is this about sovereignty? You're saying that me sending my forces here to collect a few rebels infringes on your sovereignty?"

Ozpin felt that the answer was obvious. "Of course."

"Then by that logic, wouldn't allowing General Ironwood to deploy his forces in Both Beacon and Vale unhindered infringe on its sovereignty as well?"

Everyone in the room was stilled, nobody dared speak a word, Ozpin could not think of a good argument

Many thoughts raced through the Atlesian general's mind, Kirkman was right, no matter how much Ironwood did not want to admit it.

"Are you averse towards an attack on Vale's sovereignty or are you just averse towards the United States entering Vale? After all I'm sure we can compromise, rather than me entering here, I can just send you a list of the insurgents and you can hand them over to me upon collection."

The room was silent, all that could be heard was the light whirring of the many mechanisms within the office. Kirkman eliminated the sovereignty argument and it was clear that Ozpin would not win in this battle of words. But no matter how logically flawed, he would stick to his ideals.

"General, I believe it's best that you leave."

It seemed that both Goodwitch and Ironwood were surprised by Ozpin's decision.

The American General's face remained the same. He stood up.

"You are making a mistake, Headmaster. But I'll respect your decision nonetheless."

He walked to the elevator doors. They automatically opened. He stepped in, and as the doors slowly closed, he spoke.

"I'll have you know; this isn't going to stop us; it will only slow us down.

The doors finally closed as they got one final look at Kirkman's visage as the lift began its descent.

For minutes, it seemed as though time had stopped, they all simply looked at the elevator many thoughts rushing through their minds.

The silence was broken by Glynda sighing. "This was a disaster."

"Agreed."

"Oz, are you sure you don't want to reconsider? He was offering you a way out on the White Fang problem, and you just said no without even thinking it through."

Ozpin folded his hands once again and let his head rest upon them.

"We will find our own way, James."

Suddenly a boom echoed throughout the sky. Goodwitch and Ironwood looked out to see the same four aircraft flying out towards the direction they originally came from.

Down below the Bullheads could be seen taking off before flying the same direction the aircraft went.

Ozpin stood up and looked out to the window as well, as the silhouetted of the bullheads grew smaller and smaller.

"But who's to say the Americans won't find their own?"

Chapter Text

"General."

At the sound of Ben's voice Kirkman finally snapped out of his groggy state, it was finally time for them to begin their presentation in their quarterly briefing on Operation Forging Steel, this would be the first, yet Kirkman already knew that he was going to hate it.

"Our time to shine." Ben smirked before standing up and heading to the podium, Kirkman following.

In attendance were many people of great importance, firstly were some of his fellow generals, Townes, Granger, and Alexander. Then around four or five military researchers. His best friend and the current National Security Advisor, Herman lynch, the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, General Ironside. And finally, the president of the United States himself, Charlie Bennington.

They both went to their respective podiums, a large screen behind them, the controls to said screen were on their podiums, though they probably weren't going to use them.

"Guess I'll start." Right after Kirkman said that, Ben finally put away the drinking flask.

"As you all know, we have been doing our share of work over on Remnant, if you've been reading our monthly reports, you'll know that our first major priority of establishing a base of operations has succeeded, though there were and still are many complications that have arisen in our efforts to do so. Particularly, with a certain terrorist group. I'll give you an operational update on our little war with the White Fang: we are winning."

A few faces in the room lit up with a smile at his last line.

"Our visit to Beacon on August 8, approximately three weeks ago, did not succeed in its goal to convince, councilman and Headmaster of Beacon Academy, Ozpin."

At that, a few faces soured.

"Though we failed in that, it does not mean we failed in our overarching goal of detaining members of the White Fang, we already have the necessary information from the many insurgents we have already detained." Now for the interesting part. "The problem is, the information points to most of the terrorists to be hiding in two places, Vale, and an abandoned settlement southeast of Vale, Mountain Glenn."

Those who were not already briefed on this were astonished. And if he looked closely, he could see Ironside laugh when he said the word 'Hiding'.

"Now, as most of you know, the White Fang in the past few months has been collecting Dust, a mineral that Mr. Steele here will discuss soon" Ben with feigned glee, waved his hand.

"For what purpose they collect this dust is unknown. But we do know that they have been transporting most of it to their base of operations in Mountain Glenn."

Kirkman still remembered when they got that out of one of the White Fang. The CIA had sent over a few Agents who were apparently great at interrogation, they only asked for a dim room and some privacy. When they were done, the White Fang member had to be stitched up.

He still remembered the dull look the leader, 'Woods' gave him and Burton as he exited the room

"He broke." He still remembered his words.

Kirkman then noticed Granger with a half-raised hand. He pointed at him.

"Why don't you just send some Auroras with bunker buster bombs then?"

"We don't know where in Mountain Glenn they are, the insurgents we got were those who chose to stay in or around Vale rather than go to Mountain Glenn, and apparently they don't know exactly where it is."

Granger didn't need the rest of Kirkman's answer, he knew how expensive it would be to level an entire city with bunker buster bombs just to get at one base.

"Now, on that note, we will soon be sending a team of Delta Force Operatives along with a team of Marine Raiders who are affiliated with the CIA to interrogate an individual who may have information on the whereabouts of the White Fang within Mountain Glenn."

"CIA?" Townes asked. "Why're the CIA involved?"

Lynch and the president gave each other a look.

"We believed it was finally time to involve them" Lynch answered Townes.

The president turned towards Kirkman "And if I'm not mistaken General, you got your information of the White Fang whereabouts through the interrogation by some CIA agents, correct?"

"Yes, Mr. President." Kirkman then returned to his discussion. "If our intel serves us right and Mr. Jason Bane does have information on the Mountain Glenn base, then rest assured we will eliminate it immediately."

Kirkman trusted the information that was handed to him, the prisoner that snitched said that Jason originally went to the Mountain Glenn base a month ago, but transferred back because he got scared of all the grimm.

He then turned to Ben who was starting to sift through his notes.

"Now onto, the scientific side of things, Ben, take it over please."

As Ben started to speak, Kirkman drifted back into his thoughts.

He wasn't sure if he could fully trust the effectiveness of the team he had sent on the mission. He had already seen how effective Team Metal was, but so far all he had seen of the SOG team was their skills in Interrogation. But according to the CIA, the team was some of the best they got, he trusted that they were. Since nobody could afford to send off any more tier one special forces units. After Team Metal, JSOC wasn't willing to send any more Delta Teams, they were probably busy cleaning up what was left of the GLA.

He was informed prior to the briefing that the President was already making plans make Remnant known to the public in a few months, as there was ever growing suspicion from Congress on the sudden shift in a large portion of the budget towards a highly classified Operation.

This meant that the more inhumane methods that they had used over the course of Operation Forging Steel would have to cease within the base. He couldn't afford some journalist finding records on the kind of tests they did at the research facility, or the interrogation methods that were used within the detention center to get information at times. The PR fallout would be massive. Which was why he already began erasing the records.

Though, if interrogation methods didn't happen in the base and were unrecorded, then the risks were mitigated.

Strategy Center, MOB Juno

1932 hours

Team Metal were in a room in the Strategy Center, a large table in the middle, with the map of Vale and the surrounding areas on it. They've been prepping for this mission for weeks, they were supposed to raid a building with another Delta Force team, but apparently the General couldn't negotiate a deal with JSOC. So it made no sense to them why they were still called to the Strategy Center as if they were still going to do the mission.

Surely they weren't going to raid an entire building filled with around thirty terrorists, that would be too much, even for an elite Delta Force team. Sure, they raided an entire base just a month ago, but they had air support and it had already been significantly weakened from the F-35 and F-22 strikes.

They all were already fully geared up, anticipating the soon to come mission.

Suddenly the imposing figure of Colonel Burton walked through the doors of the room, with four men in civilian clothing in tow, though there was a slight outline of body armor under their clothes. The Colonel was holding a large duffel bag with him

"Good evening, gentlemen." The colonel greeted.

Team Metal all stood up and saluted the Colonel. He saluted them back.

"As you may have figured, we're pushing through with Operation White Arrow. Even with JSOC not handing us a new Delta team." He gestured to the four men. "The CIA though, was more than willing to send a few of their boys."

One of them, the taller bearded one in a black t-shirt brought his arm forward to shake Sandman's hand. Sandman looked at his hand for a brief second before reciprocating.

"Frank Woods, call sign's Yankee 1-1" He said in a not so friendly voice.

Another raised his hand. "Alex Mason, Yankee 1-4." Slightly shorter, with a more trimmed beard, Alex Mason sounded a lot less aggressive than Woods.

"Joseph Bowman, Yankee 1-2." The shortest one of them spoke.

Then came the next, who was the most interesting looking, wearing an eye patch and boasting a handlebar mustache. "1-3, Grigori Weaver."

They could hear the slight Russian accent in his voice, and given the name, they knew he didn't come from the US.

The Colonel continued speaking. "They just came in a couple days ago, Woods is their leader, he'll be taking command during the mission, their handler gave me operational control of them for the duration that they are here. You'll be working with them in the mission, mission details have also changed, it's no longer an extraction."

Team Metal was surprised, what was the point of the mission now if it wasn't an extraction?

"You see, the high-ranking White Fang are tough to break, so far only one officer has ever given up information under non violent means. And now General Kirkman has put a complete ban on enhanced interrogation methods within the base since he doesn't want to risk a PR fallout once this whole thing goes public. That said, you do it outside the base, and we so happen to not record the details of what went down, then we wouldn't be risking any PR fallout."

Team Metal caught what he meant, though none of them specialized in interrogation, so how exactly would they interrogate the man on site? Was that what the CIA team was for?

"SOG Team will be handling the interrogation."

That answered the question.

Burton lifted up the duffel bag on his hand and carefully placed it down on the table.

He opened it up, inside were multiple suitcases tightly packed together, he got them all and placed them on the table as both teams approached.

He opened one of the suitcases, revealing six normal looking firearm magazines

"These will be your gear, since Vale has noticed that we aren't using dust, we're gonna be using these, made by the eggheads at the research facility, using mostly gravity dust instead of fire, they're about as good as Earth bullets, but a lot more expensive. We specially made them for this mission."

Alex Mason picked one of the magazines up and started examining it. It looked like any other standard STANAG 30 round magazines, except it was white, he examined the rounds inside, it had a purple tip, signifying that it was a special bullet.

"Now each round costs around forty dollars, we spent a lot of money on these, even more designing them, so you better make each shot count."

Mason put the magazine back into its original place as Burton closed the suitcase.

They all knew why they were going to use dust rounds instead of gunpowder. It was to avoid the attack from being found to have been done by the United States, since apparently the Remnant natives had discovered that they weren't using dust in their rounds.

"Now, let me go over the plan one more time. You'll all be flown twenty klicks from Vale's walls, there's an SUV there that has your other needs for the mission. From there, you'll drive normally into Vale, once you reach the target neighborhood, we'll have a Cyber Team inject a worm into their system's power grid to knock out all power in that region."

They knew that most Faunus had the ability to see in the dark, this was mostly to disable any security cameras in that region.

"You'll rush in, eliminate any opposition, find the target, interrogate him, leave no witnesses, get out and then drive to the extraction zone. Got that?"

"Yes sir." They all unanimously said.

"Good, now, remember, this is an extremely important Operation, you fuck up in any way; leave a witness, get compromised, or get killed, and this entire operation…." He waved his hand around the place. "…Is in jeopardy. You all have a few hours to prepare, you leave at 2300 hours."

The Colonel left the room, for the two teams to prepare.

Woods pulled out a marker out of nowhere. "So…" He put his hands down on the table and looked at it. "Where do we start?"

Sanus, 20 kilometers north of Vale.

2319 Hours

Operation White Arrow

As the Black Hawk descended in the clearing, the eight of them exited the helicopter. And approached the large 8-seater SUV in the middle of the clearing.

"This our ride?" Truck asked while carrying two cases, one with the weapons and other equipment, and the other, smaller one, containing the ammunition.

"Yep." Bowman, who was carrying his own suitcase, approached the vehicle, he pressed a button on the keys and the back compartment opened.

He looked inside, just enough space. He placed the larger cloth case containing his gun inside. The rest of the squad did the same, putting the larger ones in first, stacking them on top of each other before placing the smaller suitcases on top. There was a total of four large cloth cases, each containing two M4A1s, and a few grenades.

Bowman opened the door to the driver's seat and put they keys in ignition and twisted; the car came to life. "Get in."

Everyone got in. Woods sat next to Bowman. Greg, Sandman and Mason all sat in second row of seats.

Frost dumped the two duffel bags he was carrying onto the in the trunk before he and the rest sat down.

The Black Hawk took off, leaving the eight men alone in the clearing, with nothing but a paved road in front of them

Their temporary leader, Woods, turned his head to look at the rest of the men. "Alright boys, we're on our own, just act normal and we should be good." He turned back around and tapped Bowman on the shoulder as he started to drive.

They were all wearing civilian clothing, wearing nothing but their Kevlar vests under their clothes, and their sidearms attached on their sides, they were relatively concealed and given that that the route they had picked had no vehicle searches and just had a simple payment gate made it so that they could pass safely without much suspicion.

This wouldn't be the first time Team Metal had done a mission in civilian clothing, but it would be the first time they did a High Value Target based mission in civilian clothing. But for the guys in the CIA, it probably would not have been their first, but they had found something interesting in their files.

"Woods." Grinch called out.

"Yeah?"

"Files said you guys are in the marine raiders, that your cover or something? Or is that classified?"

"Not classified, just a bunch of bureaucratic bullshit."

Grinch didn't seem satisfied with the answer.

Mason opened his mouth to speak. "We were offered to work the CIA back in 2013 which just so happened to be when the GLA started making moves in the Middle East, both MARSOC and the CIA were swamped, all the paperwork slowed to a halt."

Greg with his slight Russian accent Mason's statement. "We were already under operational control of the CIA and SOG by then, but on paper we're still Raiders, they only just got the process for the on-paper transfer a few weeks ago. So, for now, we're still technically raiders."

This was another thing confused them, Grigori or 'Greg', was definitely Russian but it was clear that he had been at least *working* with the US for a long time.

This time, Truck decided to speak. "And what's your story, Weaver? You defect from mother Russia?"

Greg nodded. "Yes, I was born in Moscow, my family defected to the United States when I was a six."

That explained why his accent was only slight and why he preferred to go by 'Greg'.

Frost watched the scenery provided by the window, as trees were speeding past his vision. The road was dark, almost pitch black, the only thing lighting up their way being the moonlight and the SUV's headlights.

"Man, this thing handles real good." Bowman enthusiastically whistled.

"Must be the dust engines." Mason pointed out. "Or could just be the way they build their cars.

"They got holograms, jet-based dropships, mercenaries with superpowers and they can't even take out a few domestic terrorists." Weaver laughed

"I mean, they don't even got vehicle searches, just identity confirmation, a pay only toll gate and that's it, welcome to Vale. No wonder we're dealing with their problem for em'."

Mason chuckled. "Hell, they don't even want our help."

"Sucks for them." Bowman put more force on the gas pedal, seeing as there were no other cars ahead, going over the speed limit wouldn't be a problem, they were getting close anyway.

"Any grimm around these parts?" Truck asked.

Having studied the place for weeks before being deployed to Remnant, Woods answered.

"Huntsmen guard these parts real good, they're deployed around the walls just to make sure people exiting or entering within a certain distance from Vale don't get killed. But once you go farther than that, you're on your own."

"What's that distance?"

"Nothing exact, but based on what I've read, around a four, five miles?"

"So we were outside the safety bubble?"

Indeed, the drop-off spot was twenty kilometers or around twelve miles from Vale's walls which meant they would've been outside the protection zone of the huntsmen.

"Yep, but our own people got that covered."

Sandman scratched his bearded chin as he spoke. "Mission's been in the making for weeks Truck, they've been preparing every single detail for all those weeks."

The car made one more turn before it was finally a straight road. Bowman pulled out his navigator device, and looked at it.

"Four more miles. Woods, prep the cash."

Woods reached into his pocket, pulling out a red leather wallet looking object, with a few multi colored cards sticking out of it.

"They got some weird wallets." Truck pointed out.

"Even weirder money." Woods pulled out a pink colored one then two green colored ones.

Truck noticed the weird sheen that were on the cards, they weren't paper, they were plastic.

"If you were wondering, the estimated conversion rate is one dollar being worth around 1.5 lien, meaning we're only paying eight bucks to legally enter a nation, they just ask for I.D., and that's about it."

Woods handed the cards to Bowman. In the distance of the straight road, they could make out the silhouettes of some of the taller buildings in Vale, with the moon shining behind them, and directly ahead of them, were the so called 'Entrance Stations.' Bowman slowed down to meet the speed limit.

Steering the car towards cash lane, he continued slowing down the vehicle as they approached the gate. This was the moment of truth, the others simply stared on. Truthfully there was nothing inconspicuous about the Vehicle, the only problem would be if they suddenly checked what was inside the bags in trunks.

Or if they were asked to step out and have their sidearms and combat knives be exposed. As well as the solid vanadium steel handcuffs they all had.

But the payment went down without a hitch, Bowman handed the woman in the booth the money and the forged I.D., and they went on their way. They were in Vale, the next part was driving through Vale,

This was when interest finally overtook the group, even the stoic Woods was looking all around. Glancing all around they took in the look and atmosphere of the city.

"Feels like we never left the US, huh?" Mason looked at the many buildings that surrounded the road.

"Nope, there's no traffic, no random trash on the sidewalk, and we're cruising on the left instead of the right. Feels pretty different to me." Most laughed at Bowman's quip.

Vale was definitely similar to any urbanized area on Earth, but different in many ways as well. Though the lack of traffic was done on purpose, Command had specifically chosen a route with very little population density, meaning they were going to have to travel a bit farther than if they were simply to take the freeway.

Most of the buildings already had their lights off given how late into the night it already was.

Grinch looked around, awestruck at the lights from the larger buildings in the distance, far away from the residential area they were in.

"To think this entire place is powered by magic crystals."

It was true, this entire world had fully relied on a single source for pretty much everything, electricity, vehicular transport, flight, guns, though the guns were quite weak.

"Not magic." Mason clarified. "Sure, as hell looks like it though."

The CIA had been privy to some information surrounding the mysterious crystals that were found on Remnant. Studies from the lab showed that the crystals themselves contained some sort of new element that was mixed into its chemical composition.

Though as far as technicalities went, that was all they knew, but the director of the CIA and a few analysts were supposed to attend a debriefing with General Kirkman and Benjamin Steele in Washington. So that should provide more information.

BOOM.

Suddenly, a massive explosion(?) rocked the area around them, then a set of massive sounding bangs sounds came to their left, and from a road to their left, burst a towering metal figure. Bowman slammed on the brakes.

"What the fuck?!" Woods yelled.

Luckily, it didn't seem to be coming for them, rather, it turned to the road ahead of them, and started running that direction, for what reason, they did not know.

Sandman winced at the familiar sight. "Isn't that a- "

"Atlesian Paladin. I think I even saw the White Fang insignia on it." Weaver finished. "Don't even think about trying anything, we don't have any anti-armor weapons with us, let's just continue with our actual mission."

Woods nodded and tapped Bowman to signal him to keep going.

Bowman put pressure on the gas pedal as he steered to the right.

Nearly twenty minutes as they silently drove through the now quiet streets of Vale, all thinking about the close encounter they had with a White Fang owned Atlesian Paladin. If they had driven just few feet forward, they could've ended up right in its path of destruction.

What was it chasing after anyway?

Bowman pulled out his navigator, taking one look at it, he spoke. "We're close, 'bout a minute more."

Woods looked back at the men in the back seats. "Alright, we're getting close, state your callsigns. Yankee." Woods started.

"Spider." Bowman was next.

"Redeye." A fitting callsign for Weaver, considering his lack of an eye.

"Sierra." Mason pulled out his beretta and started to inspect it.

"Sandman."

"Grinch."

"Truck."

"Frost" This was of course one of the rare occasions wherein Frost ever spoke.

Woods smirked, as he looked back ahead. "If you get captured, remember your RTI and SERE training, don't let em get anything out of you."

The general look of the area changed from when they first entered Vale, the streets were dirtier, the buildings were smaller and looked a lot less stable, the roads had visible cracks on them. Buildings were densely packed together and had all visibly aged.

These were of course the slums of Vale, where most Faunus lived due to those in the main parts of the city not accepting them.

This was not where they were stopping by though, Bowman continued driving, eventually coming upon a long straight road leading to seemingly nowhere. He drove.

They were looking for one building in particular though, it was about a half mile away from the rest of the slums. Bowman continued driving for a few seconds until they finally came upon it, a two-story L shaped office building. The lights were off, which meant that the worm had worked.

Which was good, as they were not allowed to communicate back to base, simply due to the fact that the radio interception technology of Remnant was still unknown. Though the squad did have a scout drone tailing them which was how the cyberteam got the cue to deploy the worm.

The scout drone also served a secondary purpose, to make sure the target didn't attempt to escape the building while they were raiding it, if Command spotted a heat signature attempting to leave the building, they would be notified by a simple ping on their communicators.

Bowman did not park right in front of it though, he drove a bit ahead of the building, a good four hundred meters away, he parked the vehicle.

"Let's go." Those were all the words that were needed.

Truck brought his fist up in front of Grinch, Grinch lightly tapped it. Grinch then did the same with Frost, who then tapped his fist back. This was it.

They all exited the car. Bowman and Woods were already out. They opened up the trunk.

"Gear Up."

Bowman and woods both grabbed two large cloth containers and placed them on the ground, then doing it again for the rest.

Frost opened up one of the cloth containers on the ground, revealing two M4A1s with reflex sights and foregrips already attached. They even had infrared red target lasers attached to them, as well as suppressors. There were also three flashbangs and two grenades extending to the length of each gun above them.

All this equipment was painted white. This, combined with the fact that they were almost in full civilian clothing would make it harder to correlate that they were Americans if witnesses were to testify.

Frost grabbed the gun and the grenades, while Grinch picked up the other. As the others around them got their own guns, Frost walked over to one of the suitcases containing the magazines, he opened it up, taking the first magazine and jamming it into his rifle, it was now loaded. He grabbed the rest and started placing them into the many satchels on his pants. He then slung the rifle's sling over his shoulder.

Grinch and Sandman then took out the two duffle bags that they had brought with them, they opened them up, showing multiple helmets that were painted white with night vision goggles attached to them, Frost took one and strapped it onto his head.

"You ready?" Woods's M4 had a different attachment, instead of a forward handling grip, he had a KAC Masterkey door breaching shotgun. Since they couldn't pack any frame charges or hydraulics, this was their alternative.

"Yeah." Sandman stood straight with his M4 at the ready, his own M4 having a holographic sight.

They had all been given the privilege to request what specific attachments they wanted for the mission, Truck had a grenade launcher and opted for an iron sight. The other SOG agents seemed to have the same M4 attachments as Frost and Grinch.

Everyone started throwing the now empty cloth bags and suitcases back into the trunk before Bowman closed it up and locked the car.

"Alright, let's move."

Everyone nodded, they started heading towards the target building in a light Jog, they finally spotted it.

"Check the windows."

They pointed their guns at the window, making sure there were no White Fang peeking out.

"We're clear." Sandman then ran to the door of the building; Woods went to the other side.

"Night vision on, Sandman, when I breach the door, toss a flashbang in."

Sandman prepped his flashbang. The others pulled down the goggles directly in front of their eyes, they were now seeing green.

Woods aimed the shotgun attachment directly at the door handle, where the bolt would likely be, Woods pulled the trigger as loud bang shot through the ears of everyone nearby. Sparks, and miniature chips of wood flew everywhere. Woods back kicked the door; this was it.

From the side, Sandman tossed the flashbang in, and after a full second, a muffled explosion could be heard on the other side, this was their cue, Sandman and Woods went in first, large room, what looked to be an accounting desk on the left, there were four White Fang, all disoriented. They picked their targets, and fired.

Their bodies collapsed onto the ground as Frost and Truck rushed into the room

Frost trained his sights on the Fang behind accounting desk, he pulled the trigger, letting three bangs echo into his ears before releasing. The first shot seemed to be enough to break through her forcefield, the next bullet embedded itself into her shoulder, and the third and final bullet found its way into her skull.

Her body slumped over onto the desk, blood spilling from her head, pooling onto the floor.

"Hey! What's going- "Sandman turned his head to meet the two assailants coming from the hallway to their left, only for them to be shot as blood sprayed from the new holes introduced into their bodies, courtesy of Weaver and Mason.

A figure then came down the stairs. "What the fuck is- "

Everyone fired at him, absolutely brutalizing the man's formerly living body.

Bowman and Grinch stood guard at each side of the stairs making sure nobody went downstairs alive while the six advanced deeper into the hallway.

Mason came across the door to a restroom, he looked to Woods who then nodded.

While the others pushed through, Mason focused on the restroom door, he took cover to the side of the door, with one strong back kick he broke through, he swiftly got in front of the now open doorway, he went in, quickly checking his right, then his left-

Suddenly, a man with a massive red knife rushed at him, the man slashed once at Mason's head, Mason instinctively ducked to the left, the man's forward motion made him hit the restroom wall. Mason took this opportunity to guide the target laser towards the man's body. He then squeezed the trigger.

The man let out a pained yelp as the second round broke through his aura and hit his back, no doubt piercing the skin, the third round sheared through his spinal cord, the man fell on the ground, as Mason's fourth shot hit the wall.

The man was on the ground, wheezing heavily. "Please… let me live." He said in between pained breaths.

Mason ignored his pleas, he aimed down his sights, training them on his head, he pulled the trigger.

"All clear!" Mason shouted. He moved to exit the restroom.

"Looks like nobody else is on this floor." Woods yelled back.

All eight were now in front of the stairway, everyone above no doubt expecting them now.

"Grinch, Spider, take point." The two wordlessly detached themselves from their cover and started slowly making their way upstairs while the others followed. They reached the split landing when they noticed the opening at the top of the stairs, an open pathway, no doubt White Fang on each side waiting to ambush. Bowman, took flashbang, pulling the pin, he threw it. It bounced off the wall ahead of him, and onto whatever was on the right side of the open pathway.

"What the- "BANG

Bowman and Grinch ran forward, the others behind them did the same. They faced the open pathway, they went in, they looked at each side, back-to-back, Bowman on the left, Grinch, on the right.

On each side was a member of the White Fang, who were probably waiting to ambush before Bowman's flashbang. Both were easy shots, they both aimed towards the heads of the White Fang, shooting them directly in their heads, the proximity, and force of the bullets, causing the heads to almost explode.

The bodies hit the floor, what remained of their faces now bloody gulches.

There were two more on Bowman's side, they had already recovered from the flashbang, their guns were trained on him and Grinch, Bowman shot first, hitting the woman on the left on her stomach multiple times, before he and Grinch took cover behind the stairwell as the man shot his gun.

Sandman was now at the front. Listening closely to the footsteps, the man was attempting to take the offensive, he was running at the stairwell, he let the footsteps grow closer and closer until the distance of the footsteps were enough for him, he came out of hiding. The man, not having time to react, was not ready for Sandman coming out with his gun pointed at him

Sandman's M4 blasted multiple bullets at his target, they all hit the man's chest and torso, the man coughed out one last time before his lungs were effectively turned into swiss cheese once his aura broke. He fell on the floor, blood pooling.

Everyone finally ran into the hallway, to the right was the hallway's end, a single door was there, with the words 'Security'. Above it, this was the surveillance room in this office building before the White Fang took it over.

To the right were two more doors, one had 'Maintenance', the other one lacked any such labels, it was likely one of the actual office rooms of the building.

The hallway went further, before taking a turn to the left, they needed to make sure that part of the hallway was also empty.

Grinch, and Bowman, having already taken point earlier, took initiative, they aimed their guns forward as they quickly walked towards the turn.

Grinch took cover behind the corner, Bowman behind him. He then stepped forward and aimed his sights at whatever was on the hallway.

"…Nothin' here." He called out

Woods tilted his head forward in understanding.

The two waked back to the position of the others.

Woods and Weaver then walked over to the maintenance room, taking cover by each side. Bullets pierced through the door, whoever was behind it was desperately trying to shoot Weaver and Woods, but what the White Fang didn't know is that it was standard procedure not to stand directly in front of a door during a door breach.

They let the bullets stop, the person on the other side had evidently emptied their clip. Weaver took this as an opportunity, he stepped forward and aimed his gun at the door, unleashing a hail of bullets at it.

"AH!" Hearing the pained yell on the other end, Weaver stopped, kicking the door in, only to find a Woman on the ground, numerous bloodied holes on her neck and chest.

The room itself wasn't even a room, it was more of a closet, with a few shelves with some rags and other materials.

"Clear." He said with a nod.

"Alright, move on to next- "Woods was cut off by the 'Security' door on the right blasting open, revealing a White Fang member brandishing a long dagger and rushing at Frost who was closest to the door.

Frost was caught by surprise, unable to react properly, he let go of his gun as the man came closer. As the blade was inches from his throat, Frost grabbed the man's arms, and pushed back. But the man kept pushing and pushing, with his aura enhanced strength, the blade came closer and closer to Frost's throat, then the left side of the man's head exploded with a spurt of blood.

Frost looked to the left to see Truck aiming his gun at his direction. All eyes were on him

"You good?"

Frost simply nodded his head.

He and truck moved to check the Security room, around four desks with computers and a few filing cabinets, other than that, there was nothing else inside.

"Clear!"

Frost, ignoring his brush with death, walked over behind Sandman, who with Woods was preparing to breach the next room.

From the side Woods once again pointed the breach shotgun right at the doorknob. He pulled the trigger, another blast echoed throughout the building, wood chips flew in the air as Woods back kicked the door, pulling his leg back as fast as he could, he brought his hand forward in a stop signal, before any of them could rush in.

Gunshots from the White Fang within the room then flew from the open door.

He knew it, he and the others had studied the blueprint of the building earlier, the next two rooms were big, thus it meant that there were likely more White Fang camped inside than the other rooms they had encountered, meaning those inside would be a lot more confident in their ability to kill them, and thus more aggressive.

He took a grenade from his pouch, grasping the lever tightly, he pulled the pin. "Frag out!" Woods's tone was whispery, so he wouldn't alert hose inside of the grenade he was gonna throw. He lightly tossed it through the open entrance. At his word the entire squad backed away from the doorway.

Two seconds passed, the White Fang seemingly ignoring the fact that a grenade had been thrown at them.

BOOM. Smoke kicked off from the ground and blasted itself through the open door. The sound of wood falling and hitting the ground accompanied the resonating screams of the men from within the room. Everyone then rushed into the room, Woods and Sandman came in first.

There were multiple people on the ground, two were standing up but looked to have been staggered, Sandman shot at the one closest to him, his aura likely having been severely damaged by the frag.

The rest of the squad shot the ones on the ground before they could regain composure. With this, they finally surveyed the rest of the room, it was around twice the size of the security room, filed with many desks and weird hologram-like computers on them.

"Damn, they got them sci-fi computers." Truck waved his hand around the 'Screen'. He pushed; his hand went straight through.

Truck snapped back to focus.

"Last room. Target should be in there, remember, do not kill the one with the special mask" Woods went back to the hallway.

"Metal, we'll handle this, you go around the place, make sure nobody's till breathing." Mason told the Delta team.

Sandman nodded. "Grinch, Truck, stay here and check, Frost and I will look around downstairs."

Sandman and Frost started walking back to the stairs.

Yankee team went out of the room and took a left turn onto the next hallway, this was the final door.

They started moving to breach, but then a dinging sound came from their radios, the same dinging sound that was supposed to happen if an unknown heat signature was detected exiting the building.

"Shit, someone's trying to escape!" Woods ignored standard procedure, standing right in front of the door, he grasped the Masterkey and aimed it directly on the handle of the door.

"(COMMS) Frost and I are moving to intercept!" Sandman's voice came from the radio.

Woods pulled the trigger on the Masterkey, the door blasted forward from the force. Woods and Mason went right in, immediately there were three White Fang, two of them aiming their guns at them, while another one was running at them with a red sword in his hands.

Time appeared to slow down for them. Mason fired his gun at the one on the right, not even letting the man shoot, as he bullets hit, his body was wrapped up in a green glow before blood spurted out from his chest. He moved his gun towards the one on the center, and shot straight at him too, the first bullet hit his arm, forcing him to let go of the sword and spread his arms apart from the force, leaving his chest and torso open. Mason opened fire, and he was killed almost instantly.

The first thing they noticed upon killing all the White Fang in the room was the broken glass window behind all the computers.

'Shit!' Wood internally screamed. He and Mason ran at the windows, looking right through, he could see the White Fang member running away towards the empty road. He pointed his gun at him, doing his best to aim towards the legs, but this was no guarantee that they wouldn't accidentally kill him.

Then he noticed, Sandman and Frost close behind, running towards the man, actually catching up. Woods and Mason lowered their guns.

Sandman caught up to the men and tackled him, he punched him on the side of the head. He grabbed the back of the guy's head, pulling back he slammed it onto the pavement, repeating again and again. With each slam, the man made a grunting noise indicating he was in pain.

"(COMMS) Target secure! Aren't you, you little shit?" Sandman slammed his head on the pavement again as Frost walked over to cuff him.

It was time for interrogation.

Seven Minutes Later.

Woods punched Jason one more time, a faint white glow developed over him, it had taken awhile to break his aura, but this was finally it.

"L-look man, I just make plans, I don't-"

"Shut the fuck up! I don't care about your rank or what you do, you see, we already know that. Jason Bane, former receptionist turned job planner for the White Fang, whose too much of a pussy to actually those jobs. Promoted because of one lucky raid on an SDC Freight Train."

They were in the security room; they had decided to perform the interrogation here. On each corner of the room stood Mason, Weaver, and Bowman. Team Metal were keeping watch outside as well as making sure everyone else was actually dead.

"Now, I only want to know thing, where is the Mountain Glenn base?" His gravelly voice clearly intimidating the man.

As soon as the words left his mouth, Jason's face evidently paled.

"I-I don't know what you're talking abou- "Woods slammed his fist onto his face. The man's head was thrown back at the sheer amount of force, before Jason could even turn to face him, Woods did it again, this time punching him on the right, earning him a pained groan.

"Bullshit, we know you were transferred there, too chicken shit to stay because of the grimm though weren't ya?" He pulled out his old marine combat knife and pointed it right at the tip of Jason's nose. Fear was ever present in his eyes as they stared at the knife's edge. "So where is it?"

"They'll kill me if I tell you anything!"

Woods slashed his knife right under Jason's eye. Jason writhed, but the cuffs kept him to his chair.

"And I'll kill you if you don't tell me."

Jason struggled in his chair, wiggling his arms and legs, trying to loosen or break the cuffs and rope that kept him in place, but it was pointless.

"I-Isn't this illegal in Atlas, you'll all go to pris- AAAAAAAH!" Woods had stabbed his knife straight through Jason's hand, twisting it around to increase the pain.

"In case you couldn't tell, dipshit, we ain't exactly Atlesian. We're American through and through."

Jason grit his teeth, he was in agony, Woods then pulled the knife out. "No… that's impossible."

"And let's just say Kirkman's getting tired of the White Fang's bullshit." Woods flipped the knife into a forward grip.

"Now, I want a fucking address, otherwise you're gonna have to say goodbye to ever being able to jerk off again." He held his knife in front of Jason's face.

"I… I don't know-" Woods didn't let him finish, he stabbed his knife through the other hand, twisting and wiggling it within the cut he had made. "I. Want. An address." He growled

He let go of the knife, he reared his fist and smashed it onto Jason's face, he pulled back and used the motion to slam it once again onto his head.

"They- they- just flew us there! I don't have an address, please! Just stop!"

Woods did not stop, he punched him in stomach, kicking all the air he had within out, getting him a few coughs out of the guy.

"Then what do you know?"

Woods smashed his fist against his face again and again.

"IT'S UNDERGROUND!" He wheezed. "It's underground…"

Woods scoffed. "That doesn't exactly help if we don't know where it is."

"I swear…that's all I know." His voice was weak, clearly both tired and in pain.

"Redeye!"

"On it!" Weaver went up the window, and using his elbow he shattered it, picking up one of the glass shards, he walked up to Woods and handed it to him.

"Maybe this'll jog your memory." Woods tone was menacing, he held the shard in front of Jason's face as he gave Weaver a look.

Weaver grabbed Jason's Jaw and the top of his head. He pried his mouth open. Woods forced the glass shard with his right hand, before quickly smashing his left fist onto his face. Then using his right hand to do the same.

Jason coughed again, smaller glass shards and blood came out of his mouth.

Weaver stared down Jason. "We can do this all day; we got a lot more windows."

Tears seemed to finally start streaming. "I DON'T KNOW!" He whimpered through each word. Woods reared his fist. "N-N-NO! I'll tell you!" Woods didn't put his fist down. "I-I think I saw rails? I think it's in some sort of subway."

The SOG team all gave each other looks, this checked out. Before Mountain Glenn was overrun, they were making a subway system that was supposed to extend all throughout the city. This project was put to a halt when Mountain Glenn was flooded with grimm. But Woods was not satisfied with this answer. He pulled out his pistol.

"In case you can't tell, the subway network is pretty big. So I'm gonna need a little more than that."

He cocked his pistol and aimed it straight at Jason's head.

"Uh-Th-There was a forest! Yeah!"

He pushed the pistol against his forehead making Jason's eyes squint. "Entire place is surrounded by a forest, Jackass."

"That's all I have!"

Woods clicked his tongue and holstered his pistol. "Redeye." On command, Weaver went over to the broken window and grabbed another broken shard. He gave it to Woods.

"No! No!" Woods shoved it into Jason's mouth and started repeatedly punching him, each punch he could almost hear the crunching of the glass within his mouth. Woods ignored Jason's cries and pleas and continued his assault for longer, but eventually stopped.

Woods could tell that if he knew much more, Jason would've told him at this point. His mouth was bleeding heavily, shards of glass were sticking to his bloodied White Fang uniform His head was drooping to the left.

Woods grabbed his head.

"Please… that's all I know." He sobbed "That's all I know." His whimper weakened.

Woods threw his head back, this was it, he would have to live with the sub-par information he had received. He pulled out his pistol and aimed it straight at his head, placing his finger on the trigger.

Jason's eyes widened with nothing but dread in them. It was as if he could sense that Woods was really going to do it this time.

"No!"

Woods pulled the trigger. A singular gunshot resonated within the room. His body slumped over, blood dripping from his head.

"Cleanup time boys, leave no evidence of torture."

Chapter Text

"Uggghhh" Coco of Team CFVY sighed. This was going to be a drag, another boring mission. Their third one this week.

"Cheer up, Coco, maybe this one will be interesting." Velvet attempted to comfort her Team Leader as they were walking to their destination.

"Interesting? INTERESTING?" Velvet recoiled at her leaders sudden burst of emotion. "Sorry Vel, but this is the third mission we've been sent on this week! Eighth if you count the other ones in the past three weeks. And all of the 'Search this building.' Missions always end up being just some drug addict squatting in an old house."

The usually quiet Yatsuhashi decided to speak up. "Though this time, the neighbors actually heard gunshots."

Fox nodded in agreement.

"I don't know, ever since that General visited, Ozpin has been sending everyone on missions that the cops are supposed to be doing."

Coco was not an idiot, she knew that Vale's police force was one of the most incompetent, corrupt and useless organization on the face of Remnant. But even she knew that using well trained huntsmen to capture random people shooting heroin was a waste of skill and resources.

They were the protectors of mankind damnit! Their job was to protect Remnant from the grimm, not squatter drug addicts.

"Yeah, ever since General Thomas Kirkman's visit, Ozpin has put a lot of emphasis on capturing criminals, seven of our last eight mission don't even involve us hunting any grimm."

Velvets opinions on Kirkman and by proxy, the United States were mixed. Though yes, he had been dealing with the White Fang, he was doing so in such a brutal, inhuman manner. The last bit of news from the Americans was them capturing dozens of White Fang from multiple different nearby settlements. Their fates were unknown.

They turned the corner, finally reaching the long road that was supposed to lead to the building they were supposed to be at

"Something that damn general said must've riled up Ozpin." Coco on the other hand, also believed that what General Kirkman was doing was wrong, but at the current moment, she was more annoyed at the fact that he was reason for why they were being sent on many mundane missions.

It was a nice day too, the sun was shining, there were barely any clouds, and the wind was just perfect, yet they were out here in the slums rather than enjoying the great scenery and shopping centers of the commercial district of Vale.

They had just left the witness's home. She was apparently balancing a checkbook late at night when she heard loud gunshots coming from down the long road. She said the only building down that road was an old office building that had been abandoned for years.

They could see said office building in the distance.

Coco pulled down her sunglasses to get a better look. She put them back up.

"That must be it, alright, get ready." Coco pulled out her handbag gatling gun.

Yatsuhashi unsheathed Fulcrum.

Velvet just stood there.

Fox already had his weapons prepared so he just followed as they walked towards the building. Something was wrong about it; he could just feel it. His senses were tuned up to the max, the same went for his aura, and he could *smell* this building from almost half a mile away.

They walked to it, just as they were getting to it, they noticed all that was wrong with the building. The building itself looked decayed. Cracks on the concrete, broken windows, mold on the walls. It was gross, but as they got closer, the smell became evident to everyone else.

They could see the dried blood upon the pavement. It was then that they realized that this mission just became a lot more serious.

The door to the building was already slightly opened, the area where the handle should've been had a gaping hole torn through. They cautiously walked to the partially closed door.

Coco didn't want to waste any more time, she kicked it in, and the sight that they had caught…

It was gruesome.

Velvet's eyes became dinnerplates at the sight of the multiple dead bodies that filled the room. She fought the urge to puke.

Coco could not hide the shock that had spread throughout her. This was brutal, the bodies and heads had holes torn through them, the bodies were all blue and devoid of life. They were clearly dead. Blood was everywhere, though most of it had already dried up.

Yatsuhashi could usually hide his emotion well, but this… this was too much, even he couldn't bear the sight of such slaughter.

They were all wearing White Fang uniforms, so this must have been some sort of base that the White Fang had, but who could do something like this? Did they betray the White Fang? Or was it an external force that went in and killed them all?

"B- Be careful! Whoever did this could still be here!" Her voice was shaky, no amount of huntsman training could prepare one for this.

They slowly walked on, down the hallways and up the stairs, only to find that the rest of the building wasn't very different.

As they reached the second floor, it became evident that the entire building was just like the first floor, bodies littering the entire place, giant holes where the handles should be on the doors.

It was as if the dead eyes of the corpses were looking at them, speaking to them. Or at least, the faces that were still intact were.

"Who could've done this." Velvet whispered looking to her leader for an answer, but even she was speechless. They entered the 'Security' room, inside was the dead bodies of a few more White Fang soldiers, with blue complexions and the familiar crimson liquid pooled everywhere. But on the ground was something else, a lone piece of paper.

Coco picked it up. 'Good luck finding me, bitches – Sir B.'

Office of the Supreme American Commander of Remnant, Command Center, MOB Juno

1311 hours

"Wait, I'm gonna need you to go over virtual particles one more time."

Benjamin sighed at Kirkman's question; this would be the third time he would have to explain virtual particles to the man. But in order to explain his theory on what exactly Aura was, and why it emitted light, he would have to explain virtual particles.

"Alright, since you're clearly confused. Let me explain it in a way that maybe you'll understand. Forget about particles as you know them, just fuck em. They're not important here, because virtual particles as they exist aren't really particles. They're random changes of energy in a given space, they act like particles and can be considered as particles, except they are usually immediately annihilated by the opposing anti-particle, which is why they're so damn hard to measure them."

Kirkman didn't really need to understand what Aura was, as a General, his job was simply to oversee military operations on Remnant, but he too was curious as to the nature of the many things in Remnant, so he took to having Ben explain his theories to him whenever he visited to drink.

"My theory is that aura is like an electromagnetic field, or some sort of medium that electrons stay in, these electrons get excited from absorbing photons. Through this excitement, the energy from these photons transfers onto the electrons, which put them in a high energy state."

"And how does them turning into real electrons relate to Aura being a forcefield."

"Electrostatic repulsion."

The General tilted his head in confusion. "Electro what?"

Benjamin downed his entire drink in one go, and started pouring himself another one. "Electrostatic repulsion. If two electrically charged particles meet, there will be some form of electrostatic force or repulsion. Since everything is made out of atoms, and all atoms have electrons, these electrons act as those electrically charged particles, so meaning, you're never actually touching anything, what you're feeling is the repulsion between these electrons."

Kirkman was finally understanding what Benjamin was getting to. "So you're saying that these electrons in Aura cause this electro repulsion, and creates a forcefield. But where do those virtual particles you were talking about come into play?"

Benjamin smiled at the fact that Kirkman was finally getting what he was saying. "Well, when electrons get extremely excited from photons, they start to release energy in the form of new photons. In this scenario, an electron resonates with a virtual proton, transferring its energy to the virtual photon, turning it into a 'real' photon."

Kirkman snapped his finger. "So then the electron loses energy?"

"Yep." He downed the contents of the glass. "That's what happens when aura 'breaks'. Once the electrons get over-excited and elevate to very high energy levels from all the energy: kinetic, heat, radiation and others. They get so excited that they resonate with a bunch of virtual photons and emit that light you see. Then they go back into a low energy state where the electro static repulsion is no different to simply touching someone's skin."

Kirkman put his hand on his chin, he kinda understood Benjamin's explanation, but he still had a lot questions, but he didn't have time to ask and discuss them, he had an appointment with Colonel Burton. Ben too, did not have the time to discuss further.

"Alright general." He picked up the empty glass and the bottle of bourbon. "Gotta head back to the lab, nice talkin' with you." Benjamin stood up and started walking out the door.

Kirkman gave him a half wave. "You too, Ben."

He looked back down at his desk, the report for Operation White Arrow was right on his desk. Written by Colonel Burton, detailing to events of the mission according to the eight men who assaulted the building.

These details included the methods of interrogation employed. Kirkman usually did not like to order the use of such methods, but he wanted to end this conflict with the White Fang as soon as possible, so he could get on to other tasks.

He was content with the results of the operation. Sure, the information could have been better, but knowing they were in the abandoned subway system was a lot better than nothing. If he had the option, he would have contacted the SOG agents' handler and recommend for them to be given a raise. He also wanted to recommend all of Team Metal for a promotion for all the stelar work they had done during Operation Forging Steel.

The problem was he couldn't cite Operation Forging Steel as a reason for promotion, as the Operation was still highly classified. Especially some of the missions conducted within it.

Nonetheless, the record would have to be destroyed, he eyed the aluminum trash bin next to his desk. He stepped on the pedal; the closed bin opened up. He tossed the report inside. He grabbed the glass to his right, there was still some bourbon from his talk with Ben inside. He tossed the rest of the rich liquid into the bin. He lightly placed the glass back down.

He opened a drawer, taking a matchbox, he half opened it. He took out a stick and ignited it, tossing it into the bin.

The papers burned, and with it, all tangible evidence within the base of the operation ever happening. He stared at the burning pile of evidence with a blank face, before releasing the pedal and letting the bin close.

The door opened.

Burton then walked in. "Saw Steele walking out, did he have some sort of report?" He had his own set of papers.

"Of sorts, he just explained to me his theory on Aura."

"Mm. Alright, anyway." He closed the door behind him "Cyber team got us some new info."

Kirkman was intrigued. "What is it?"

"There's a Fourth."

"Fourth what?"

"Authority Figure." Burton said succinctly.

"In the White Fang?"

Burton nodded, making Kirkman sigh. There were three authority figures that they were aware of.

Adam Taurus, a faunus who faced the abuse of working in Schnee Dust Company mines. When he was 17 years of age, he staged a riot, he was never seen on official records ever again. He was supposedly leading the Vale branch of the White Fang.

The next was Roman Torchwick, a very well-known criminal who only recently started working with the White Fang in Vale.

Sienna Khan was the next major figure, she was the overall leader of the White Fang, and was apparently a major reason for them radicalizing from the peaceful organization they once were.

But who was this fourth figure?

"Someone they call 'The Doctor.' He's apparently a pretty recent edition, only joining around a year ago, apparently, he makes specialized weapons for the White Fang, bombs and the such. He also occasionally plans operations for them."

"The Doctor? He has no name?"

"Nope, Cyber team's gone through just about every message on our detainees' scrolls, they've hacked into certain White Fang comms, and every time, they simply refer to him as 'The Doctor'. They say he's been working on something big for the White Fang. Something called the 'Yellow'."

Burton placed the papers on Kirkman's desk. Kirkman picked them up and began skimming through them, seeing multiple images of messages with mentions of this 'Doctor'. All speaking of him with some sort of fear or respect. Some messages mentioning 'The Yellow.'

"After interrogating Fubuki Shiro, she mentioned the Doctor is new, and only joined about six months ago. The story goes he attacked a group of White Fang for no reason, killing a dozen of them."

"That makes no sense, wouldn't the White Fang then be out for his blood."

Burton shook his head. "That's the thing, General. Apparently, an associate of Torchwick believed he could be an asset for the White Fang, apparently a survivor from the attack beat him, then this associate of Torchwick forced him to work for them. The White Fang now begrudgingly work with him."

This wouldn't be the first time Torchwick was mentioned to have a powerful associate, but all they knew of her, was her gender and her relation to Torchwick, apparently his boss. And the presence of another White Fang leader figure wasn't all too important, they had most of the information they already needed, all they were lacking now was just a specific location as to where in Mountain Glenn they were hiding.

What Kirkman was more interested in, was the so called 'Yellow'.

"Did You ask Fubuki about this 'Yellow'?" He said with air quotes

"Yes, sir, but apparently only Torchwick and his associate know about what exactly this weapon really is, but it's supposed to aid the White Fang heavily."

This worried Kirkman, though he knew that the White Fang would likely not make anything that would put an end to the American presence in Remnant. But a weapon as powerful as was being described may cause problems for the Operation.

"Tell the Cyber Team to continue efforts on finding the White Fang in Mountain Glenn, but I want them looking out for what 'Yellow' is as well."

"Yes, sir."

The Colonel promptly left the room, leaving Kirkman to his thoughts.

"Two days after the brutal and enigmatic Indigo offices massacre, police are still grasping for clues as to who 'Sir B.' really is."

Cinder frowned at the news, more White Fang dead, it seemed like there were only going to be more and more complication to her plans. First it was the United States of America, next it was this 'Sir B.' who had attacked the building that housed numerous White Fang.

"Councilwoman Wolff made remarks on the attack today, stating that 'Nothing of value was lost- '"

Cinder closed her scroll. She was starting to get annoyed. First, she needed a strategy with dealing with not only the United States but also the new threat posed by 'Sir B.'. But now that damn doctor was asking for more and more dust to make his 'Wonder Weapon' as he called it.

"This better be a good weapon, she mumbled to herself."

Cinder remembered why she recruited him.

A squad of White Fang who were prepping to assault a Schnee Dust Company truck were ambushed by a 'Wounded Man' carrying a revolver and weird vials of liquid containing what were apparently deadly toxins that killed much of the squad. The only one who was able to survive the encounter was Ilia Amatola who managed to subdue the Doctor.

Cinder had taken an interest to his toxins, the ability to kill so many so quickly was an ability that most poisons in Remnant lacked. So he was supposed to be an asset, but apparently the ones he used on the White Fang soldiers were all that he had.

Cinder told him to make more, but he kept screaming his head off saying that there was no 'Petroleum' or 'Atropine'. He was insane, it took quite a while to calm him down.

Granted, Cinder had bigger problem to face rather than her questionable subordinates. Right now, the biggest threat to her plans was the United States.

They would have to be dealt with immediately. But she was not an idiot, she recognized power when she saw it. She knew better than to believe that the fiery explosions that happened at the Emerald Forest a few weeks ago, was not Atlesian cargo aircraft accidentally dropping Fire Dust.

She knew Atlesian trade routes, and she also knew that there was no Atlesian presence in the direction the explosions and fire happened. It made more sense for the Americans to have caused it, but she did not know why they would have done it.

Of course, she could never forget the sudden destruction of the White Fang compound, she had the opportunity to see it herself, just had to bribe a few cops to see the crime scene. The destruction was unbelievable, what was once bustling center of operations was reduced to a bunch of rubble. The media did their best to hide the actual death count, saying that only eighty-eighty were confirmed dead.

But Cinder knew the actual number of deaths, and it rose to the hundreds. A lot of the dust they had robbed was also stored there, which heavily slowed down both the bomb making process for the breach on Vale, as well as the Doctor's progress on making his wonder weapon.

She had also watched them in their visit before, the aircraft they used looked strange and outdated, the same went for the uniforms and weapons of the American General's soldiers. He could tell that the General held himself with high regard.

She was disappointed that she couldn't listen in on the conversation up in the CCT. She regretted not putting the bug in their system much earlier, that would have allowed her to listen in. Oh well, she would just have to do it during the dance like as planned.

She did not like the wait though. She would've done something about the Americans much earlier if she knew where they were.

Her mistress was fully aware of the Americans, though the last time Cinder had contacted her was when she met up with Arthur Watts the week prior, and her mistress was rather adamant on eliminating the Americans as soon as possible, but she didn't have the means to do so.

Emerald and Mercury entered the room.

"Yo." Mercury waved his hand. "Why'd you skip dinner, they had pizza tonight, you missed out." Emerald rolled her eyes at Mercury's comment.

"Not hungry." Cinder stated succinctly.

Mercury simply sat on his bed and opened up his scroll.

"Any news on the squads Adam sent to look for the Americans?" Emerald asked.

Cinder shook her head. "A few disappeared, all the others turned up empty handed."

"Disappeared? Doesn't that mean they got close?"

"Yes, they disappeared North of Vale, but we already know that they're North of Vale, and in order to plan an attack, we must first know the exact location American base of operations, as well as an idea on what it looks like."

The American base was clearly well defended, she wanted to try a different approach, she was going to contact Adam and tell him to send bullheads rigged to fly silently instead of ground squads. They should do better. The Americans will probably have a harder time shooting down flying targets.

She remembered the fast-flying aircraft from General Kirkman's visit. Those were way too fast to actually hit anything with weapons, those were probably just reconnaissance planes.

And even if the bullhead method didn't work, she had many methods at her disposal that would allow her to get the location of the Americans. Radio transmission tracking and hacking into Beacon's records to see what they had on America being some of them.

The problem was, tracking where the radio transmission of America Radio comes from would take time. But she would soon hack into the CCT in Beacon, surely, she would find many useful pieces of information on the Americans there.

And the moment she got the exact location of the base, she would strike, and she would strike hard. She would make sure the United States of America would feel the wrath of the Fall maiden's power.

Barracks, MOB Juno

2004 hours

"That makes no fucking sense!" Woods yelled at Mason.

"What do you mean that makes no Sense, it makes perfect sense! Look!" Mason pointed at the whiteboard, particularly at the massive square that represented a subway station underneath Mountain Glenn.

"They're underground for a reason and isn't just to hide, they must be hiding out in this station and using some decommissioned trains there to get around the place! That's how they keep getting in and out Vale."

Woods shook his head. The four of them were in their designated room within the marine's barracks, there work within the CIA allowed them the luxuries of their own room.

"Yeah? Well, if it was that simple, how come the civvies that got trapped down there didn't just hop on a train and escape to Vale?"

Mason was stumped. But pushed on. "I don't know, maybe the White Fang repaired the trains."

Bowman finally stood up and pointed at the board, pointing at the long subway tube leading directly to Vale.

"Yeah, but if you reviewed the map, there's a barrier right here." He drew a line within the tube. "And there are no known exits outta this part, and I'm pretty sure Mr. Wizard of Oz would know if the White Fang were using old subway lines to enter his city. Not exactly hard to see people coming up from underground on CCTV" Bowman rebutted Mason's statement

Mason sat back down, defeated.

"Thank you, Sir B." Woods mocked. "Where'd you come up with that name anyway?"

"Back in boot camp we had an old drill instructor who was a bit of a weird guy, we called him Sir B."

Woods chuckled. The 'Sir B.' did a good job of throwing the Vale authorities, cause now they were focusing their attention on looking for an individual rather than an entire group. There were also barely any witness reports, just two, both with conflicting information.

Meaning their exit strategy was perfect.

"Anyway." Woods clapped his hands. "Now that Mason's theory is a no go, we're back to square one." Woods sighed.

Being CIA agents of the Special Operation Group, it wasn't exactly in their job description to be strategizing and making theories, that was the job of the analysts. But as they had no major upcoming operation and they had nothing better to do, they believed it was best they used their time to help out on the strategic side of things.

"Alright what about dust? Why do you think they stole so much dust?" Woods asked the group.

Weaver grasped his chin. "I thought it's already been confirmed that they're selling for money?"

"Yeah, but that's the thing, before we cut our deal with Torchwick because he was you know, working with the White Fang. We knew he was only offering to sell certain types of dust, didn't have fire, lightning, and gravity dust available. So why not? We studied the records; we know he stole a bunch of that shit, and he's not making bombs."

The logical conclusion was bombs. But the rate of White Fang attacks that used bombs wasn't increasing, so if they were using all that dust to make bombs then why wasn't the rate increasing like one would expect?

"What if, instead of turning them to conventional bombs, they're making a bunch of huge dust explosives." Weaver snapped his fingers. "Given what we know about fire dust, it's real explosive, gravity dust increases it's boom boom power, and lightning dust kinda acts like a fuse. If they pack all that dust together. With the amount they stole they could make a couple of real big bombs that they could just plant all around Vale, instead of making tiny ones."

Mason nodded lightly but then did the math. "Yeah but even if the explosions are real powerful, they're gonna be pretty concentrated, dust doesn't exactly got a large area of effect, at most these super bombs are only gonna be shaking up a city block a piece. So that would mean they planned for this and stole a bunch of dust for months, maybe a year just for an attack that would only kill about… a hundred."

"I mean a hundred's still a lot." Bowman brought up.

"Yeah, but all that planning and work? Look, the White Fang aren't exactly masterminds but I'm pretty even they could think of something better."

Woods was listening in and was unsatisfied with how little progress they were all making.

"Alright, alright, alright, let's do a review here. The White Fang stole a bunch of dust from a bunch of different places, 'bout a hundred fifty tons of the stuff. They're using it for something, as Weaver pointed out, possibly for a bunch of super bombs. We know they aren't attacking the US because they don't even know where we are, and they sure as hell aren't attacking anywhere else, because they finally got the means to attack Vale through the Mountain Glenn subway. So how are they going to use the Subway to attack?"

He asked the group, while also asking himself that same question. The Mountain Glenn subway had to be involved somehow, since even with the barrier it led them a direct line straight, and given how thin the ceiling was between that part of the Subway and Vale, it wouldn't take much to dig through it and…

That was it.

"I got it." Woods whispered.

"…What?" Weaver asked.

"I FUCKING GOT IT." Woods laughed "Holy shit I'm a god damn genius."

Mason was intrigued at his friend's sudden burst of emotion. "What? Woods? Tell us what you got."

Woods walked up to Mason and held his shoulder. "We gotta go to Kirkman or the Colonel now, I thought of something real good."

"Fuckin' hell Woods, you better tell us what you got first." Mason pushed woods away, which woods ignored."

Woods then walked up to the white board. "Alright, so you all know how this tube here leads straight to Vale?" He pointed at the singular tube going straight to the very heart of Vale. The men nodded.

"Yeah, but didn't we already agree that they probably aren't using it for entry?"

"Yeah, but that's the thing! They don't have to, because this tube right here is their method of attack."

The three men tilted their heads, clearly confused by Woods's conclusion.

"What do you mean?" Mason asked.

"I mean that this tube is their Attack! It's an instrument to their attack! Get what I'm saying?"

Woods could tell that they didn't.

"Alright, let me break it down for you, the tunnels aren't very deep, they aren't like back home where they're a good hundred feet below."

They all already knew this, the average depth between the subway tunnel and the surface on Remnant was around five meters, which architecturally speaking was abysmal.

"Yeah, but what's that got to do with…" Bowman trailed out in realization.

Weaver clapped his hands before Woods could continue. "I got it!" Weaver smiled at Woods who smirked back.

"Shit!" Mason Excitedly stood up, Mason too finally understood.

"They're gonna use the dust to blow holes under Vale. It'd be too easy with how little's in between." Woods finally said it out loud.

"…And that'd let the grimm in." Mason continued. "Let's take this to the General."

Woods crossed his arms. "Yep."

Beacon's library was almost completely empty, it was already 12am of course, the only students still here were those pulling all-nighters, reading up on future material, or the odd bookworm still reading.

And then there was the young Blake Belladonna, sitting in front of a computer, with darkened eyebags and the smell that would come with not showering for a few days. She did not intend to sleep or attend the upcoming dance until she was absolutely sure

'United States of America.' She typed into the search bar, and pressing the news tab in order to see all the latest news.

…Which were all about all the new songs that they played on the radio and the different things the hosts talked about. She gritted her teeth.

Couldn't they see that they were playing right into their hands? The public was getting so easily distracted by what was clearly a diversion for the atrocities the Americans had committed. The attack on the White Fang base which had killed dozens, maybe more, was just a little over a month ago. And here the public was completely forgetting about it.

The public also seemed to be completely ignoring how obvious it was that it was the United States that did the Indigo offices massacre, 'Sir B.' was just used to throw the cops off. Yet the public was eating it all up. She hated to think what CFVY had to go through, being the first to see that, and she despised the Americans even more for doing such heinous acts.

She heard Ozpin had sent them to the Guidance Counselor for a mental welfare check.

She had no evidence for her thoughts, apart from the fact that the United States was the only entity that was in open conflict with the White Fang, and they were the only ones willing to go that far. She remembered the censored images, even with all the blurring, she could see all the red, it was clearly brutal.

But nobody seemed to share her thoughts. And it seems that nobody took the threat of the United States seriously anymore, seeing only light hearted articles about music and jokes, this sickened her.

But then as she continued to scroll, an article caught her eye.

'Arrests and Suspicious activity within Cooperrwick from the…" The title was too long, it got cut off there.

She clicked on the title link, and it brought her to the article page, it was published on the website of 'Remnant Today' and written by Jesse Pink.

She read through it, skimming through each paragraph and only taking in what was important.

'…It has been reported that a few citizens of Cooperwick have been taken from their homes in recent days by what appears to be American forces…'

She gasped, how could the mayor of Cooperwick allow such a thing!

'Activity from the United States of America has been increasing in Cooperwick for the past month…'

'How could that be?' She asked herself. Then she realized, that of course, it had to be the visit, she remembered when it was news that Kirkman had visited Cooperwick a few days before his visit Beacon. Kirkman must negotiated or bribed the mayor to let him make arrests in Cooperwick, he must have tried the same with Ozpin.

With this realization she scrolled on, with more uneasiness than ever.

'The last we heard from our contacts within Cooperwick was last week, Monday, ever since, our signal seems to be unable to reach them. But before we lost contact, they sent in the following video footage, depicting the arrest of a man from within his home.'

Blake, intrigued, scrolled down to the aforementioned video. She clicked on the play button.

The video started, it was clearly being filmed from behind a window, heavy breathing could be heard from whoever was filming. On the other side, the thing being filmed was a small house, a bungalow, about twelve yards away from wherever the video was being filmed from.

The house's doors were open.

Not five seconds later, a man emerged, he was in a weird green uniform with patterns on it, she grew all too familiar to the sight a few weeks ago, she recognized it, it was the same uniform the soldiers who visited Beacon wore. This was indeed an American soldier. He was even holding the same type of gun, and had the banner like symbol on his arm.

As he exited, a man, not in uniform, came from behind him, he had bruises all over his body, he was tall muscular and had a bushy beard, he looked furious. His hands were restrained, in thick looking metal cuffs.

As he also exited, the first man took a turn, and the captured man followed, from the open doorway, five more uniformed men exited, some wielding different guns, and followed the first uniformed man. But before they go out of camera. The captured man suddenly bolted the other direction, going straight to the right.

But before he could continue his escape, the lead uniformed soldier pressed something on his hand and the detainee suddenly fell to the ground and started screaming. The soldiers moved to pick him up, but on the way to him, the soldiers went very close to the camera man, who then ducked under the window he was filming from, the video then ended.

Blake put a hand over her mouth, this was shocking, why weren't more people paying attention to this? And why was the mayor of Cooperwick standing idly by while this happened? What could the Americans have possibly offered him for the Mayor to simply let them do all this?

These questions plagued Blake's mind as she continued to read through the article.

But it had nothing else interesting to say, she exited the tab and went back to the search page. She erased her original search query. The United States, after all, was not her only worry, she also worried about the White Fang.

They were still a threat, and her Team's recent attack showed that, especially with the acquisition of powerful Atlesian tech. But now she was doubting whether or not the White Fang was a legitimate threat, because if she was right about the Indigo offices massacre, then someone else might just be the true threat.

Nonetheless, she needed to get whatever she could on the White Fang, them acquiring advanced Atlesian tech proved that they were still a major concern.

She started typing 'White Fang- 'a red dot appeared on her screen, she quizzically stared at it. It then went down to her hands, she brought it up and stared down at it. She looked around the library, annoyed, someone was pulling a prank on her. While she was doing something important, no less.

She couldn't see anybody with a laser pointer, she calmed herself down and looked back the computer screen she continued searching

'…news stolen Atlas- ' It appeared again, right on the back of her hand. She angrily stood up, with gritted teeth, she followed the red dot as it moved along the library floors, then behind a bookshelf.

She continued walking. Then she bumped into something, she looked up. She met the familiar Lilac eyes of her Teammate.

"Hello~." She sang.

Blake squinted her eyes, frankly she wasn't in the mood for any of Yang shenanigans.

"We need to talk." Her voice dipped to a low and serious tone. Yang suddenly pulled Blake, making her lightly scream.

Ozpin leaned forward, letting his head rest on the palms of his hands as he was sat on his desk. He sighed.

He was starting to get tired of reading reports on the Indigo street massacre anyway, after all, they all ended the same way. Inconclusive, unsolved, not enough information, all being terms and words he had grown all too used to seeing in the past week since CFVY had uncovered the killings.

He still remembered the moment they came back. The others were stuck in a shocked silence, Velvet's eyes were either close to or had recently gone through some tears. Ozpin had immediately relieved them of their responsibilities and even had them have bi-weekly sessions with the guidance counselor.

This was his cross to bear, should've known sending students out to investigate every little report would end badly. He shouldn't have let Kirkman's words get to him.

He'd gotten so desperate to prove Kirkman wrong that to make up for the small number of readily available huntsmen, he started sending out his second and third year students regularly. He felt nothing but guilt for what he made Team CFVY go through.

He sighed another time, picking up his mug of coffee to take a well needed sip. He watched as Glynda suddenly entered with a small stack of papers.

She laid it out in front of him.

"This is the paperwork for the materials you have ordered for the school dance."

Ozpin put down the mug, and brought the stack closer to him. Right, the school dance, with the stressful week he had been through, he almost forgot about it.

"Ozpin." Glynda called to her boss who had started signing all the paperwork.

"Yes?" He signed a paper.

"I'm starting to have… suspicions on the Indigo Offices massacre."

"Oh? And what are these suspicions?"

"I believe the Americans were the ones who did it."

Ozpin stopped signing papers.

"I admit, I've had my suspicions as well, but it makes no sense. We have to witnesses, both say that the perpetrators wore white apparel and had white weapons, and based on what we've seen of American soldiers they wear green uniforms and have black guns. And how would they have even entered without being identified; they would need identification cards to enter Vale."

Glynda shook her head. "But no person or group has been willing to go this far to kill, zero survivors. Zero! 'Sir B.' Makes no sense as well, both witnesses say that there were multiple people, meaning Sir B. is either just one of those people, or is a distraction. You've seen what the Americans are capable of, I'm sure they could forge a few identification cards."

Ozpin continued casually signing off on the papers. He sighed. "Glynda, I too shared your suspicions, in fact, my first instinct was to have the bullet casings tested to see if they contained the substance they use to propel their bullets. But after testing, it was found that the bullet casings contained Dust."

"I still think the Americans did it."

"Even if they did, what can we do about it? We have no actual evidence, just postulation. We likely also won't have support from the public, as they all seem to believe the Sir B. story."

"So, you agree with me? The Sir B. story is questionable."

"I did not say that, all I'm saying is that whether we believe it or not, we cannot prove that it was the Americans."

Glynda shrunk at Ozpin conclusion, but even she knew Ozpin was simply being realistic.

She cleared her throat. "So. What will we be doing about the distribution of missions to first and second years after the dance?" She changed the subject "I assume Team CFVY will not be required to attend?"

Ozpin took another sip of his coffee. "Yes, Brothers know they need to rest."

22 kilometers from Vale.

1955 hours

Their target flew overhead, a singular White Fang bullhead.

Truck pulled the trigger on his FIM-92F Stinger; the missile left its chamber and flew straight at the bullhead. Frost, who was wielding his own Stinger, also fired. Both hit their target. Two sets of explosions rocked the bullhead, whoever was the pilot seemed to try and stabilize it as it came closer to the ground, but there was no hope.

The bullhead came careening towards the ground. Frost and Truck slung the stinger behind their backs and went back to using their primary weapons. Sandman took point while Frost, Grinch, and Truck followed.

"Head to the crash site." Sandman ordered.

They jogged towards the direction they watched the Bullhead fall towards, holding their weapons in front of them.

Team Metal must have done at least a dozen of these interception mission during their stay on Remnant, but this would be the first time they would be doing one so close to Vale, they could even make out the CCT tower in the distance.

They continued jogging towards the crash site.

In front of them, smoke was billowing in the air, through the trees they could make out the light being emitted by the fire from the crashed bullhead. They jogged towards it.

The Bullhead was tipped on its side, two medium sized holes on its side. Three White Fang were loosely holding their weapons, limping away from the crashed bullhead, they couldn't see Team Metal.

"Weapons Free." Sandman whispered.

Every single man shot straight at the small group, breaking their auras and killing them instantly.

"Check the cargo." Sandman commanded

Truck and Grinch looked to the left, the large metal cargo container still was attached to the crashed bullhead, the two of them approached it and began removing the attacked cable.

"Wader 2-1, Hawk 3-2, Cargo secure, on standby for transport and extraction, over."

"(COMMS) Affirmative." Wader 2-1 pilot said through the radio, in the distance they could see two silhouettes flying in.

A chinook flew directly above them.

Truck and Grinch finally got the cables loose.

"(COMMS) Metal 0-1 we're dropping the cables."

As she said this, four sets of cabled dropped from the Chinook. Truck and Grinch started attaching them to the container.

"Frost! Help us out here." Frost ran over to help them attach the cables.

Sandman watched as they closed the latches on the empty ports of the container. Grinch gave him a thumbs up.

"Wader 2-1 the cables are attached, you are cleared for takeoff."

He received an "Affirmative." As the Chinook lifted up and started flying back to base with an entire cargo crate of gravity dust.

The Black Hawk then descended. After some communication with the pilots, Team Metal entered and took their seats.

As the Black Hawk took off, Team Metal relaxed, another successful mission.

"What's next? Prep for Mountain Glenn?"

Sandman shook his head at Grinch's question.

"Negative, apparently Kirkman wants us to meet the 'foreign' legions."

"Foreign legions? You mean non-Americans?"

Sandman nodded. "Yep, President told our key allies in NATO about Forging Steel, and some of them have been granted access to certain facilities."

This was to be expected, the US wasn't going to keep this secret forever, sooner or later this would've turned into a joint operation. All the extra soldiers, researchers, and material were welcome though, this just meant the entire operation would be easier.

"And good news, one of those teams is Bravo Team."

Grinch turned to Sandman in surprise. "No shit. You mean the SAS guys we worked with on Kingfish?"

"Yep." Operation Kingfish, Sandman still remembered it well, the SAS team were in charge of directly assaulting the facility along, truck tagged along with them. Sandman, Grinch, and Frost all provided sniper support.

The goal was to capture a high value North Korean Target essential in getting information for the Second Korean War. The mission was largely a success.

"And we'll be working with them on our objective."

That was good, they remembered how Bravo Team worked, they were some of the best special operation operators they'd had seen, so they were glad they were working with them once again.

"Heard Townes was coming by as well." Truck said, even Sandman didn't know this. "Army component of the Op is gonna be led by him."

"So, our old boss is gonna be working with us again eh?"

Truck nodded. Townes was a great General, they used to operate under his command prior to Operation Forging Steel, to them they knew him as Overlord.

"Townes is coming, they're bringing in Aurora Alphas from Granger, we're mobilizing a force five thousand strong, and we're being assisted by SAS. This is pretty big.

Everyone agreed.

It was clear that Kirkman was pulling all the stops for Operation White Death.

Chapter Text

Strategy Center MOB Juno

1513 hours

Kirkman stood up, walking to the podium, he brushed his suit with his palms to smooth it out. He took a deep breath.

He stepped up to the stage, looking upon his audience, officers, fellow Generals, and a few of the new NATO forces. Behind him, a computer screen displaying a map of Sanus, zoomed in towards the area of Vale, Mountain Glenn and the two American bases.

This was just like when he hatched the plan to destroy the GLA base at Kostanav.

"Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen." He smiled. "Today I present to you one of the greatest opportunities to grace the United States and its allies in the short history of Operation Forging Steel. A chance to finally eliminate the group which has been hellbent on murder and destruction, so much so that they have shed American blood." His anger seeped through the last sentence.

He gauged the reaction of his audience, many nods and affirmations of agreement.

"But… those emotions are tomorrow, for now, I will simply show you the battle plan." He tapped around on the controls on the tablet that was on the podium.

The map behind him now showed four insignias of the United States Armed Forces all surrounding Mountain Glenn. The screen zoomed into Mountain Glenn. Four square shapes appeared on the map, with tubes connecting them to each other. Two were at the north side of Mountain Glenn, the other two were on the south.

"These are the Objectives, the four train stations that were built prior to Mountain Glenn's collapse. Thanks to information from our CIA agents, we were able to focus our efforts on one particular station that is directly connected to Vale, we were able to prove that this Train Station is indeed their main base of Operations. It will be referred to as 'Fang One' and the other stations as 'Fang Two, Three, and Four' respectively."

Kirkman tapped on the controls, as different labels appeared on all four squares, each corresponding to the order they were in.

"Though it is believed that they will launch their attack on Vale through Fang One. We have reason to believe that they also use Fangs Two through Four as barracks and storage facilities. Aurora Alphas provided by General Granger will be deploying bunker buster bombs on Fang Two as it is believed that it is being used as a barracks and thus may contain the brunt of their forces, if the bunker buster bombs themselves don't kill everyone inside the train station, it will likely experience structural collapse, which will then kill everyone."

The screen behind him then showed graphics of explosions happening over Fang Two. "We will also be bombing the subway tube leading to Vale, this is so they can't escape to Vale using it."

"We know through tracking that Roman Torchwick resides in Fang One, our main Objective is to capture or kill Roman Torchwick, code name: Orange, preferably capture, and take any intact documents from his office in Fang One, thus we will not be bombing Fang One. Fangs Three and four will also not be hit by the bombing sorties, bunker buster bombs could cause structural collapse in the underground station, and that could hinder troop movement."

He pressed a few buttons, an insignia on the screen disappeared, what took its place were graphics of artillery cannons "So instead, we will be using precision artillery strikes on key points in Fangs Three and Four, making sure not to hit the roads."

The monitor showed graphics of the building on top of Fangs Three and Four being bombarded.

"Through the tracking code that we have implanted on Torchwick's scroll, we'll be able to track his movements. So we'll be careful not to hit him if he attempts escape as the attack is occuring, instead we'll drop in the Task Force early to attempt capture."

Kirkman paused, letting what he said sink in. "But if this does not happen, after the Auroras have completed their sorties, and after the artillery barrage, Task Force Redding will advance, starting with the 1st Marine Raider Battalion from the Marine Raider Regiment, they will advance using these roads." Three roads were highlighted with red streaks.

Task Force Redding was named after one of the Marines that were killed during the White Fang's attack on the US. The Task force consisted of mostly soldiers from the Marines, Army Soldiers, and those from the 75th Ranger Regiment, but it also had the SAS team that the British Army sent, as well as Team Metal of the Army Combat Application Group, or Delta Force.

"They will eliminate any resistance that may still be there and secure the area, the 1st Marine Raider Regiment is also responsible for locking down Fangs Two and Four and not letting any survivors from the bombing escape. At the same time, the 20th Infantry Regiment, aided by 37th Armor Regiment will advance on Fang One using the roads surrounding Fang Three and secure the area, aiding the Marines in their goal of disallowing escape."

The screen then showed three of the insignias advancing onto their respective objectives.

"Once the flanks are secure, the 75th Ranger Regiment aided by tank crews also from the 37th Armor Regiment will advance through the middle."

The final Insignia on the screen moved to Fang One.

"Special Forces of Task Force Redding will plant charges on the known three entrances of Fang One, blasting large crevices into Fang One, allowing for easy entry. They will enter, eliminate all hostiles, capture or kill Torchwick and secure his office."

Kirkman breathed in, he tapped on the controls once more, the camera zoomed out, the insignias and squares on Mountain Glenn disappeared. The four insignias then appeared near Cooperwick.

"The attack will use FOB Cooperwick as its jumping point, as we speak, all designated units will soon start moving to their positions outside Mountain Glenn. During the offensive, they will be supported by Raptors, Lightning IIs and Thunderbolt IIs for close air support. Though this will not be preferred, as the structural integrity of all the train stations are low, so airstrikes might cause cave ins, which will be detrimental to our forces."

The insignias on the map again disappeared, this time showing them at FOB Cooperwick, this was their current location.

"Though airstrikes are not preferred, our troops will not be alone. They will still be supported from the air by stealth upgraded Comanches from General Granger." He eyed Granger who was standing at the back, giving him a nod.

Even though he and Granger didn't have the best relationship, he was definitely willing to give him many of his troops, likely because he wanted to field test the new point defense lasers of his Comanches.

He didn't mind though, any extra help was good, Townes was even in charge of tactical control over Task Force Redding.

He had yet to see the capabilities of the SAS team that the British Army had sent. Though Major General Macmillan assured him they were the Finest among Hereford's Finest.

He had the pleasure of working with the SAS during the Second Korean War, they were right there fighting alongside Delta Force deep behind enemy lines. So the fact that the General had told him that the squad was the finest amongst the finest was reassuring.

"We will be monitoring mission progress through command-and-control aircraft, spy drones, and from radio contact from soldiers on the ground."

It was starting to feel like he never left his station on Earth, same old mission briefings, same old military offensives.

"Operation White Death will commence tomorrow at 0700 hours. That is all." He stepped down. And walked out.

FOB Cooperwick

1522 hours.

"Alright boys, nice seeing you again." Townes walked in.

All of Team Metal saluted, Bravo Team simply stared on.

"Always a pleasure, sir." Sandman addressed his former commander.

"Now as you know, we're all gonna start moving to our position at Mountain Glenn come nightfall, travel should take 0400 hours, and we should be there an hour or two before midnight."

Townes pulled out a notepad and started flipping through the pages.

"I've calculated every variable, once you get there, there's gonna be setting up of barbed wire, tents, field hospitals, and all that other stuff, should take another two hours so you'll have lots of time to plan…" He paused "There has also been a change of plans for you two specifically."

He referred to the two teams in front of him, who were now intrigued. "You will not be going with the rest of Task Force Redding."

Even the stone-faced Captain Price was surprised at those words.

"Uh, what do you mean, sir?" Sandman felt the need to ask.

"I Just got off the phone with Kirkman, he gave me the go ahead for you to use a special entry point into Fang One."

Price stepped forward "What special entry point?"

"We just recently discovered another entrance or exit for Fang One, this was very recent, just a few hours ago actually. Satellite spotted a few guys exiting from an area we haven't seen yet. Kirkman can't exactly mobilize another regiment now to lock down that region."

Townes went to the keypad and started displaying the satellite image of the exit, a blue square appeared on it, a second image popped up, showing a zoomed in photo of the entrance or exit.

"Aurora bombing sorties should start at around 0500 hours, the ten of you will be deployed here the moment the bombs start hitting, your job is to make sure nobody escapes through it. It could also be a good tool for a pincer maneuver, while the rangers attack from the front, you guys can hit it from the back." He laughed at his own joke.

A few nodded in agreement, though none were amused.

"Question, General." Price half raised his hand.

"What is it, captain?"

"There are six thousand troops assaulting Mountain Glenn, you're telling me you can't spare a couple dozen to join us?"

The Delta Team was surprised at Price's mildly crass manner of speaking towards a general, but Bravo Team had already gotten used to his behavior.

"Mountain Glenn is massive, Captain, I know you've studied the maps, we need every single corner of our attack safe and secure, and we need every man for that. And like I said, the op happens tomorrow, we can't delay it so that Kirkman can get another regiment ready for deployment."

He then pointed at the two teams.

"We chose you ten because, as the former commander of Team Metal, I know for a fact that they are the best of what Delta Force can offer. And I'm told you are the best of what the SAS could offer."

Gaz laughed. "Damn right, we are."

Price nodded, he was not all too satisfied with Townes' answer, but it would suffice.

"Looks easy enough." Price walked to the screen. "Sandman."

Sandman responded to the sudden calling of his callsign. "Yeah?"

"Your boys know their way around a sniper rifle?"

"We all do, Captain,"

Price nodded. "Good."

The rest of the teams paid attention as Price started laying out his plans.

"We can have snipers perched up at these buildings over here, making sure nobody gets out. When the rangers rush in, we can rappel down and breach. I assume our goal is still to capture or kill Torchwick and secure his office?"

"That is correct."

Ghost was the next to step up. His masked face staring down the General. "What about air support, sir? Will we be getting any if there are more of em than anticipated?"

"Yeah, no train stations under there, so there won't be as much risk for a cave in. You'll be given compact laser designators, but keep in mind, if the airstrikes hit anywhere close to the entrance, debris might cover it up. Then you can't use it anymore, so if you're gonna need air support, I suggest it not be used on targets close to the entrance."

"Understood."

"You have the whole day to plan, I suggest you get to it, if you need any special equipment or if you have any suggestions just tell, I'll be here in this office. You are dismissed." He waved them away, as the two teams filtered through the metal doors, ready to plan their next mission.

The campfire's flames barely lit up the faces of the still awake members of Team RWBY, none of them being able to catch the embrace of sleep.

"Is this really what it's gonna be like when we finally become huntresses?" Yang asked rhetorically.

They had just finished a discussion on what it meant to be a huntress, but she still didn't like the fact that she was currently lying down in what was essentially a massive grave the size of a city, that and it was possibly a criminal hideout too.

Blake breathed out a sigh. "Apparently. But like Weiss said, it's our job, if sleeping here means we get to help people, then so be it"

Yang turned over to face Blake. "I mean, are we actually helping people though? We've been here almost a day and we haven't found anything yet."

Weiss lightly slapped Yang on the leg. "Be patient." Weiss pulled her hand back. "We'll find something eventually, and even if we don't, Vale will know to stop diverting resources to investigate Mountain Glenn, so we'll have helped either way."

What Weiss said made sense, but it would still be a lot better if they found some evidence of criminal activity, just so their trip here wouldn't have been for nothing.

"Yeah, you're right." Yang went back to laying down on her back. "Still hoping we find something though."

"Me too." Weiss and Blake unanimously said.

They all relaxed, letting sleep finally take them.

Hours later…

A thundering sound awoke them all, it sounded like the sky was being ripped apart, it was… familiar.

Ruby was the first to groggily get up, hearing Zwei's barks.

It was loud, but at the same time it sounded distant. She looked past the buildings; the others finally got up. The sound was coming directly in front of the building they were sleeping in.

Yang yawned "What's that?" She didn't receive an answer.

The sound came closer to them, as it did, it dawned on them what it sounded very similar to.

She was almost immediately kicked out of her groggy state. "It sounds like…"

"The American aircraft." Blake finished, furrowing her eyebrows. What were they doing here? Did they suspect criminal activity too?

Weiss crossed her arms. "Maybe they're doing reconnaissance? After all, it would make sense that Vale isn't the only one to have suspicions on Mountain Glenn."

"Yeah…" She narrowed her vision, as the thundering sound came closer.

"Be weary, children! If your assumptions are correct, we might just encounter American forces!" Oobleck walked up from behind, startling them a little.

The sound drew unbearably close, it was almost deafening now. The sound suddenly then panned behind them.

All of them then looked to where the sound was now coming from. Peering through the large hole within the ruined building they were in, they saw that the sun had barely risen.

BOOM.

Their attention to the sound was then taken by the multiple sets of explosions that had shaken their world. The blasts were just a short distance behind the building they were in.

The sound of the explosions was actually deafening. They covered their ears as the sounds reached their climax. They all staggered back at the sudden shaking that came after the explosions.

"What the heck?!" Yang shouted, as her ears started to ring.

Through the fiery plumes of smoke and ash, they could hear the tumbling and crashing of concrete. They could make out the outlines of entire buildings collapsing within the smoke.

"What's happening?" Weiss spoke through the pain that was introduced to her ears. "Was… that the Americans?"

Blake brought down her arm, which she had instinctively brought up when the smoke kicked up. She looked at the slowly dissipating smoke. She had a feeling in her gut, that the mysterious Nation was responsible for this.

Once the smoke finally cleared, they could see the piles of rubble where buildings once stood. Oobleck's trained eyes, and Blake's faunus ones could tell that multiple large chasms had also opened up at the site of the blasts.

The thundering sound of the aircraft was slowly starting to disappear.

Ruby slowly removed her hands from her ears. "Are they gone? Should we check out what happened?"

Oobleck brought his hand up in a stop sign to Ruby. "No, I can see chasms that have opened up, the explosions likely hit where the Mountain Glenn underground transport system once was, if we go there, we might risk falling right through."

But just as soon as the thundering sound of what they assumed were American aircraft had left, it was replaced by another.

Oobleck looked at his students. "They may be returning! We have to flee!"

He took the lead, jumping through the hole in the building, onto the empty streets, the rest of them, including Zwei, followed.

They ran through the streets, ignoring some of the grimm that occasionally dotted it. Then the thundering sound once again reached its peak, and a deafening blast filled their ears once again as they continued to run. Smoke kicked up towards their direction, filing their surroundings. Their ears started painfully ringing once again.

They slowed down to a light jog, as the area that they were in started to quake, Oobleck, brought his sleeved arm up to his nostrils, it acted as a very crude filter to all the dust.

Though the others lacked such an instinct, they all inhaled the smoke and dust, Weiss and Ruby entered a coughing fit.

They all looked behind them, to see the building they were in no longer than thirty seconds ago covered in a fiery ball of smoke.

Adrenaline took over as an overwhelming sense of dread filled the group, the desire to live kicked in, they ignored the pain in their lungs and ears and bolted the other direction.

Through all the sounds of their running and buildings crashing, Blake could hear the faint echo of people screaming, though she wasn't sure if she was hearing things because of the panic.

Weiss's heel hit a pebble, she lost footing and fell on the ground, she rolled around, coming to a stop as the thundering sounds of the aircraft once again lessened. She felt the helpful hand of Yang pull her arm up, she stood up with Yang's support

"Get up! We have to keep going!" Weiss nodded as the two of them trailed behind rest of the group which was a little ahead of them.

Then the thundering sound came back again. They all braced themselves for the ensuing explosions, and they came, but this time, it was much further back.

As he continued to run, Oobleck assessed that perhaps they were not the intended target, but that did not change the fact that they were still possibly at death's door.

They ran and ran, never slowing down once, for minutes as they ran, they anticipated a fourth set of explosions, but it never came. They were safe… probably.

Regardless. They finally stopped, taking a minute to breathe.

"What… was... that?" Yang said through pants.

Blake straightened herself, her breathing still heavy. "The Americans." She knew it in her gut. She wondered if this was what that survivor from the base attack a month ago felt. Was this what leveled the entire White Fang compound?

"I'm starting to think that too, Ms. Belladonna." Being the experienced huntsman that he was, Oobleck wasn't as phased by the running as team RWBY, but even he was tired.

"But why would they…" She paused, wheezing a little. "Attack us? Did they declare war on Vale or something?"

"I don't think we were the target, Ms. Xiao Long. If we were, that third set of explosions would've either have been much closer to us, or possibly have even killed us."

Team RWBY all paled at the notion.

"Like Ms. Schnee has stated, it is possible they have found evidence of criminal activity here as well, and have come to… solve it."

Blake then remembered the faint sounds of screaming she heard, her eyes darkened.

"So they blindly bomb the place?!" She yelled. "So they kill every single criminal here without even thinking about it?!"

She was pained to imagine the probable hundreds of White Fang that had died from the explosion. Even if they hadn't, all the rubble would have definitely crushed or suffocated them to death.

"Now is not the time to complain, Ms. Belladonna!" Their professor loudly proclaimed. "Right now, we must return to Beacon and report what has happened to the Headmaster."

Oobleck pulled out his scroll, tapping his contacts, only for the shapes on his screen to appear with the text 'No Signal' under them.

"New order of business, students! We must find an area suitable enough to contact Beacon!"

They all pulled out their scrolls as they brought them around looking for a signal. All of them pacing around the streets, though none were able to find a signal.

Ruby defeatedly put her scroll down. "I got nothing."

Yang pocketed her scroll. "Same here."

"Me too." Weiss let out a tired sigh.

Blake simply stared on.

"Alright, students, we shall head north, hopefully we can catch the CCT Tower's signal the further north we go."

Everyone nodded, but then it dawned on all of them what else was north of their position.

"But wouldn't that mean- "

"We would have to go back to where we were 'attacked'." Oobleck finished Yang's sentence.

Again, all of Team RWBY paled a shade lighter.

"Do not fret, I do not hear anymore explosions, I believe they have stopped their assault. I believe we are not that far away from it, we should reach it within approximately fifteen minutes of walking!"

Just as the Professor said this, Blake's ears then caught something; she could hear multiple loud blasts in the distance.

Her bow twitched. Nobody else seemed to hear them. Everyone began wearily walking north, following Oobleck.

She ignored it; she must have been hearing things… Just like when she thought she was hearing things when she heard those screams. She got sinking feeling in her gut, though she quietly continued walking with the rest of the group.

BANG!

Their vision was filled with smoke, and they felt hundreds of sharp objects pepper them throughout their bodies, they hurt. It was an explosion, but it was different from the ones from before, it was smaller, less fiery, but it shot out those sharp objects that almost tore straight through their auras.

"It's happening again." Weiss whispered, her eyes holding nothing but fear."

BANG! Another one, not two seconds after the last. But they couldn't see this one, yet they heard the now familiar sound of a building collapsing a short distance away from them.

"RUN!" Oobleck yelled, as he started sprinting down the road, Team RWBY following.

Then BANG, a third explosion rocked their world, hitting the large apartment building right next to them. They stepped back from the sudden amount of force that rattled their balance, but this pause in movement was a mistake.

The building itself was collapsing in on itself, and they failed to notice it, but when they did, it was too late.

They watched as huge amounts of concrete started falling their way, unable to dodge, they could only stare at the falling debris just a few feet above them

"OOOOOH SHI- "Yang never did get to finish that sentence.

Camp Glenn

0553 hours, 7 minutes before H-Hour

Operation White Death

The camp was busy, soldiers everywhere sprinting to their positions, tanks and Humvees driving around.

Amongst the ordered chaos, a marine, Corporal Beltran, set up a camera timer, setting it at five seconds and pointing it towards his MSOT, the basic unit of the marine raiders. He pressed the shutter release button and ran towards the Paladin.

The rest of the platoon were looking at the camera, some making poses, others simply smiled while holding their guns to the side. A few of them were standing on top of the Paladin tank, Sergeant Davis was even sitting on top of the cannon while doing a strong-man pose.

The camera's shutter closed with a snap. Everyone stayed in their position for a second before walking off to the camera. Corporal Beltran grabbed the polaroid that was being printed, and lightly shook around his hand to let it develop. The rest of the marine platoon watched on.

The photo finally developed, showing all thirty-six marines in perfect clarity.

Lt. Vasquez abruptly grabbed the polaroid from the Corporal's hands, he smiled. He held the polaroid up high.

"Alright men, after this mission, I want to see everyone on this photo back here, alive and well."

"Tall order, lieutenant!" One of the marines joked, leading to a few laughs.

Their platoon had the most reason for wanting to fight the White Fang, they after all, were the unit that was attacked a month ago during the United States' first contact with the White Fang. They were caught by surprise, and in the firefight, three marines were killed in action.

They sought revenge, and this was finally it.

Vasquez handed the polaroid back to the Corporal who pocketed it.

"Now, I know that the bastards that killed Redding, Johnson, and Boetticher probably died at the D-boy raid, but that doesn't mean we still can't take revenge on their associates."

The marines nodded in agreement, some started making adjustments to their equipment for the oncoming offensive.

"So let's go out there and give them hell! Oorah?"

"Oorah!" The entire platoon unanimously shouted; some held their guns up high as they shouted. They were ready

Every single marine ran to the Humvees they were assigned to and entered; some manned the machine gun on the roof. The Humvees along with the tanks and LAVs started moving out.

Microwave tanks were originally supposed to be deployed, but after Kirkman reviewed the plan, he realized the Microwave Tanks may affect friendly troops especially in such a compact urban setting, so the plan to include them was cancelled.

Their job was simple, their MSOT was part of the larger Fury Company whose job was to move with armor through the large road on the leftmost side of the overall Marines area of attack.

Vasquez's MSOT was tasked to move with Dagger Team in Humvees until they reached Objective Blue, a large set of city blocks, connected by roads too tight for tanks that would be perfect for White Fang elements to use as routes to ambush them.

They would be one of many platoons tasked with clearing out these alleyways. Once they cleared Objective Blue, they were to regroup with the rest of the Fury Company, and continue their advance, eventually meeting with the other marine Companies once they reached Fang Two.

Inside the moving Humvees, the marines were confidently bantering, they were told that bullets here on remnant were weaker but still had potential to injure or kill, they were also told that their only semblance of armor, the Atlesian Paladin, given the nickname 'Roach' to avoid confusion with the M1A4 Paladin tanks, were incredibly weak. Command told them to remain cautious, but at the same time they made it sound like the easiest mission of their lives.

As the marines looked at the scenery of the city they were entering, they saw that half of the buildings had collapsed with smoke billowing at their tops, they were likely hit good by the artillery barrage, but a lot of the buildings were still mostly intact.

Bodies were everywhere, both dead and alive. Those who were still alive and wounded were taken back to camp to be processed

Their vehicles were going at low speeds, to make sure they weren't passing over any insurgents that might bite them back later.

Shots then erupted from a second story window of one of the intact windows.

"(COMMS) Two story building, three o'clock!" The Tank commander to the Paladin in front yelled.

The Paladin's gun rotated to the right; the gun aimed upwards at the gun that was pointed down at the.

"(COMMS) Affirm. HEAT on the way!"

Four seconds passed.

"(COMMS) Fire!" The tank commander shouted.

The earth shook from the powerful 125mm gun of the Paladin as the shell hit the closed window, turning whoever was behind it into a fine red mist, and the window into a large hole surrounded by debris.

"(COMMS) That's a hit!"

"(COMMS) Alright boys, we're reaching the hot zone, get ready to exit your vehicles" Vasquez's voice boomed through the radio.

Sgt. Paul Jackson inspected his M4, taking a quick peek through the red dot sight, making sure everything was working, he detached the magazine, checking the rounds inside before putting it back in. This would be his first proper offensive since they won the war against the GLA.

Then three consecutive bangs were heard within the Humvee, it was Lt. Vasquez knocking on the Humvee doors.

All eight men within stepped out, except for the man on the machine gun and the man driving it.

They had arrived just outside objective blue, they would have to fight their way through it.

Loud gunfire erupted everywhere, marines rushed to cover, the sentry drones deployed by the vehicles flew up to the rooftops and started picking off White Fang who had fired on their position.

More gunfire then erupted from the windows and the holes in the ruined buildings.

Every single tank in the convoy started targeting specific parts of the buildings.

Their cannons sang, a cacophony of bullets and tank shells resonated throughout the streets. Concrete fell from the new openings torn through the buildings. Every single terrorist hiding behind cover was silenced by the powerful guns of the paladins.

The marine infantry picked off targets in more open areas, mostly those who were taking cover behind buildings that were barely still standing.

The windows on the buildings within the area were now massive holes in the building. The effects of the artillery from early in the morning were only exemplified by the tank fire.

From behind a parapet, a single surviving White Fang soldier, shakily holds her rocket launcher. She stands up, resting the back onto her shoulder, and aiming it directly at one of the six behemoths down on the ground, she fires…

Only for the rocket to be destroyed by a laser.

A sentry drone spots the terrorist and fired its rotary gun.

After the quick, yet bloody (for the White Fang) engagement, Fox company, having taken no losses, pushed forward. With tanks and LAV-25A3s at the lead, and Humvees at the back. The marines who were ordered to exit their vehicle, walked on sidewalks, clinging tightly to the walls of the ruined buildings they passed.

They were approaching a crossroad, the road, one went straight ahead, the other veered right, with a dead end at the end of it. Jackson's squad would end up having to clear this street as planned, with help from an LAV.

Jackson and his squad stood behind a corner, waiting for the LAV to push into the street. PFC Beltran and Corporal Bailey ran to the other side, on a different corner.

The LAV-25's wheels rolled forward and made a turn, then started rolling through the street. The man on the auxiliary machine gun pointed at windows and rooftops on the left, as the buildings on the right had collapsed second stories from artillery fire.

"I see nothing by the windows!" The man on the gun yelled.

The buildings looked to be mostly stores, as there were big square openings by the doors which likely used to be windows.

Gunshots then came from the broken first story window on the red building to the left.

"Tango left!" Jackson moved into position to shoot. As did Corporal Beltran.

But before they could shoot at whoever was firing through the window, The LAV aimed its main gun, the fearsome M242 Bushmaster 25mm autocannon, straight at the window.

Beltran lowered his gun. "Oh, they're fucked." He remarked.

The gun fired, the rounds tearing straight through the thin concrete and wood that made up most of the building, shooting holes right through, and almost certainly killing everyone inside. The man on the auxiliary cannon also started firing at the approximate position of the assailant. They stopped shooting.

Nobody from inside the building fired back, the hail of bullets from both the machine gunner and the auto cannon having likely killed whoever shot at them.

The doors of the LAV opened up, revealing eight more marines, who went out to search the building that was shot at by the LAV.

The stepped on broken glass and chipped concrete as they entered the building

Then two men, wearing White Fang uniforms vaulted over the ruined walls of the building on the right, holding very long red swords, they were running towards the LAV, clearly aiming to kill the machine gunner while he was looking somewhere else.

Jackson, already being in position, aimed down his sights, leveling the red dot over the attacker's body and fired three consecutive shots, every single one hit leaving the terrorist on the ground with massive cavities on his head. He didn't stop firing, anticipating the second attacker to run into his gunfire while he was running. Jackson was right

The attacker fell over in a frontal motion, falling flat on the ground. Beltran fired at him while he was laid on the ground, not giving him the chance to get up.

The machine gunner looked back, and immediately realized what had happened.

Jackson's team ran forward, to inspect the ruined building they had come from to make sure there weren't any more adversaries.

"Yo!" The machine gunner whistled to get the squad's attention. "Thanks for the assist." He said before turning back to his gun.

Jackson simply nodded.

Jackson and Sergeant Peralta were the first to look upon the destroyed building.

They looked at the ruined building, it was practically a pile of rubble with some broken walls or a few odd pillars of cinder blocks still standing.

Then from one of the broken walls at the very back came gunfire. Jackson watched as a bullet impacted Peralta's vest, he summoned as much strength in himself, he grabbed his subordinate and pulled him aside, just in time, as the bullets started impacting the ground where the private previously was.

Peralta's eyes were wide, but he was still alert. Jackson inspected Peralta's vest, it impacted his stomach, but it didn't go through. The private coughed a bit.

"You good?" The sergeant asked.

He coughed again. "Yeah…"

"Can you keep going or do I have to call a doc?" The rest of Jackson's squad started running to their position.

"I can keep going." With a moderate amount of pain coursing through his abdominal region, the private stood up.

Wasting no time, Jackson stood for cover behind the corner, the rest of his squad behind him. He took a grenade from his satchel and pulled the pin before throwing it from behind cover at the direction the shots had come from.

Three second passed, then BANG! He heard a pair of screams.

Jackson, Beltran, and Davis all stepped out of cover. One of them was already on the ground, burn marks all over him bloody splotches all over his body, if he wasn't dead, he was definitely out of the fight.

The other one was stood up, staggering backwards but not surrendering, she had a small pistol pointed at them. The three marines trained their sights on her, three different sets of gunfire were laid upon her, it was a quick but gruesome death.

Jackson tapped on his earpiece. "Street's clear!" He looked at the near dead man on the floor. He radioed for a medic to collect the injured.

With those words, the company continued moving forward. As they pushed, they continued to meet resistance. Though the combined force of the two hundred marines in the company and multiple armored vehicles was enough to crush any resistance in their path.

Until they came across a four-story building, leading to another street that was near another crossroad, whoever was on the rooftop was laying down rocket fire on the marines.

It was heavily fortified, boarded up windows with gunfire coming from the small holes that were bored into the concrete. Tank fire could handle them, but the rocket troops at the rooftops were a different story.

This was Objective Blue, the area wherein the artillery didn't do much damage, as such it was expected that they would meet the most resistance here.

The infantry took cover behind the armored vehicles, being unable to spot their targets, the smoke being trailed from the rockets lowered their visibility.

The tanks couldn't get a good angle on the rooftop, and the sentry drones would be at risk of getting destroyed by the missile fire.

The defense lasers of the Paladins were making quick work of the missiles, but sooner or later they would overheat and have to cool down.

Lt. Vasquez took it upon himself to solve their predicament. As he was stood behind the cover of an M1A4 Paladin with sparks from the gunshots that were impacting its armor, he spoke into his radio.

"Command, this is Fury, requesting immediate air support at our position." He peeked out of cover, before shooting at the building to no avail.

He waited for command to patch him to the nearest Comanche.

"(COMMS) Fury, this is Hammer 3-1, we received your request for support, we got a positive ID on your position, we're comin' in hot from the southeast."

They could hear the powerful rotors of the Comanches coming in from the southeast, the marines looked behind them to see a pair of Comanches coming to their position.

"(COMMS) Got their positions!" The Comanches closed in on the target building, and unloaded their rocket pods on the boarded-up windows and walls. Their guns fired at the rooftop. Entire pieces of the building fell as the Comanches continued their barrage.

One of the rockets missed and struck the building right next to it, creating a large gap on the doorway.

Fiery pieces of concrete and metal spewed from the building, the Comanches finally stopped.

It was eerily silent, except of course for the rotors of the helicopters and the engines of the tanks.

"(COMMS) Anyone left down there?" 3-1 asked.

"(COMMS) Don't think so." His wingman answered.

"(COMMS) 'Right boys, good luck, we're moving out."

With that, the two Comanches flew away back to the company they were originally assigned to.

But with the fortified building out of the way, it was time to clear out Objective Blue.

Lt. Vasquez's platoon ran to the left side alley entrances, while other squads went to the right.

The vehicle convoy and the other marines temporarily halted their advance, waiting for the other marines to clear out the objective, if they didn't, they'd risk taking fire from both sides, and rocket fire from opposing locations was not preferred, even for a convoy of six Paladins, three LAVs, and numerous Humvees.

The plan was to breach the buildings from the back then kill all assailants within.

Jackson pushed out of cover and looked straight down the alleyway, there was a single man there with a bladed weapon, the moment he spotted Jackson, he ran at him.

He didn't bother aiming, with basic hip fire, he took down his opponent, he watched the terrorist collapse and fall onto the ground under his gunfire.

He watched as the rest of the platoon finally reached their positions

There were to different alleys on the block, Vasquez and Sergeant Edison took cover on the left one, while Griggs was on the right."

"Jackson, you go with Griggs's squad, clear every single building, I'll take Edison with me and take this one." Vasquez commanded Jackson to go with Staff Sergeant Griggs to assault the alleyway right next to Vasquez and Edison's alleyway.

Jackson and Griggs nodded. They looked down the pathway, it was relatively wide for an alley, there were windows everywhere. They could see that the alley was closed. Ending at the windowed building at the end of it.

Jackson and Griggs cautiously walked down the alleyway with their guns aimed forward.

"Separate into fire teams, and search the buildings!" Griggs commanded, with that, the twelve marines under his command separated into groups of three, they all went two different doors on each side of the alleyway, kicking in, shooting the doors, they used whatever means under their disposal to breach.

They heard no gunshots, the buildings they entered were likely empty, Griggs and Jackson's squads pushed on, they noticed a space in the alleyway up ahead, likely where smaller cars parked.

Jackson ran forward, he was right, in the space, a broken down a gray car was stuck there. He saw the heads of two White Fang poking out, they weren't completely within cover, they seemed to hear him though, they stood up to shoot.

Jackson and Griggs pointed their guns at them while they walked, slowing down slightly to allow for more accurate aim.

Jackson squeezed the trigger on his M4, while Griggs did the same M249 machine gun. releasing numerous bullets upon the now completely visible White Fang, the spray of bullets tore through their aura and bodies, blood spraying everywhere from their now open skulls.

Jackson reloaded as he, his squad, and Griggs walked forward.

In front of them were two half walls and a fence gate, barring them from the building at the end of the alley, but there was one more building they had to search.

"Davis, Beltran, with me." Jackson commanded, both Davis and Beltran followed him. He placed an explosive breaching charge on the door knob, everyone stood back

The charge blew up, opening the door wide, Davis entered first, the first thing in sight was a staircase leading to the second floor.

A large man then ran down the staircase, with a massive battle axe. He ran at Davis, the axe held up high. He took him out with two shots to the head.

He lowered his gun, Jackson and Beltran entered, looking down at the burly man on the ground with two holes on his head.

"They keep using melee weapons." Davis remarked.

"Yeah, I don't get it too." The sergeant admitted. "Even if they do have forcefields, wouldn't it be better if they kept at range, makes no sense to rush in with a sword if a gun's available."

"Maybe they think it's cool" Beltran joked, making Davis and Jackson laugh.

"Alright, no time for chit chat, search the second floor." His subordinates nodded. "I'll take point"

Jackson led the fire team up the stairs, they looked around, only two doors, one was slightly open. Jackson kicked it in.

Nobody. "Clear."

There were also windows that directly overlooked the road their company was supposed to take.

Onto the next. It was locked, he no longer had any explosive breaches, neither did his squamates.

"Back up, I'm kicking it in." He whispered, not wanting whoever was possibly inside to hear. He shot at the door lock, before back kicking the door from cover. Jackson, Beltran and Davis all rushed in, seeing a single assailant, but before they shot…

"Hold your fire! Hold your fire!" Jackson shouted, though the others already noticed.

Their 'assailant' had her hands up. Her sword was on the floor, she was shaking heavily.

"Please! Don't kill me!" Tears started flowing. "Taurin made us fight! Please… Please…" Her words were starting to turn into tearful blabbering.

Taurin must've been the tango they took out downstairs.

"Davis, take her back to the company." Davis nodded, taking the lady away, she was to be put into temporary custody within one of the Humvees until a perimeter was set up.

"That's our first capture of the day."

They exited the building, afterwards, searching the final building, it was completely empty. The alleyway had been mostly devoid of enemies, he wondered if the squads assaulting the alleyways on the other city block encountered more resistance.

There was one final door inside the building, He was with Corporal Turner.

Turner kicked it in, it led to Balcony, four tangos, crouching behind the parapet, holding rocket launchers and guns, waiting to ambush. None the wiser at the two marines that had entered from behind, bullets ripped through their bodies.

Turner and Jackson looked around, to the right of the Balcony they could see their company, around a hundred meters away.

"Sir, alleyway's clear."

"(COMMS) Good, return to the company, we just finished clearing stuff up on our side too. Other squads finished up as well, we're movin' out." Vasquez said through the radio.

He and Turner were just about to do so, then as they looked over the balcony, they noticed movement within one of the buildings just across from theirs. It was from a shop window, what looked like three targets crouched under it.

"Turner, use your SMAW, I'll direct fire."

The Corporal pulled out his SMAW loading in an NE explosive round. He aimed using the scope down at the three assailants, before he could fire the rocket though, he had to make sure it would hit, he pushed the secondary trigger on the SMAW, a 9mm tracer round exited the weapon.

Jackson watched where it hit, it hit the bricks right above the window.

"Lower!"

He pushed the secondary trigger again, and again, it hit brick.

"Lower!" Jackson said once more.

The corporal pushed the trigger, this time the window broke, signifying that the Corporal was aiming just at the right place, but now the ambushers had noticed them.

Jackson wasted no time. "Target! Fire!"

Turner pulled the primary trigger, the NE thermobaric rocket exited the SMAW, a rocket capable of collapsing small buildings, and it did just that.

The explosions instantly incinerated the three tangos within the building, but also caused a large part of it to collapse in on itself, crushing (literally) any chance of survival.

"Woo! Hell yeah!" Turney smiled.

Just as they finished the vehicle convoy started moving again, as the shapes of dozens of marines filtering out of the alleyways came to meet with the company.

"(COMMS) Devil dogs, this is Overseer, our scout drones appeared to have picked up a roach four hundred meters on the road ahead of you, can you confirm?" That was the sound of General Alexander. She claimed that they had spotted an Atlesian paladin up ahead.

The vehicle convoy once again slowed to a halt.

"(COMMS) Yep, we picked him up in thermal, it's a bit far, but it's closing the distance fast." The tank Commander of the lead Paladin, 'Warpig' responded.

In fact, if Jackson focused enough, he could hear the loud continuous metallic stomps in the distance.

"(COMMS I think it's trying to move in for attack, we'll try to pick him off before he can reach us." There was a pause. "Gunner! Load Sabot!"

But in the fifteen seconds that this exchange happened, the Paladin was just up ahead, it skidded to a halt.

"Oh shit!" Turner yelled. It was massive, with huge guns for arms. They actually felt scared for once, as did the Tank Crew.

The shoulders on the mech suddenly opened up, revealing rocket pods, they all fired at once, directly aimed at the Paladins. The point defense lasers on the six Paladins made quick work of the missiles, none of them hit.

Then the mech's arms pulled up, a few machine parts on it moved, the guns were about to fire, they could only imagine what kind of damage those guns would do to the Paladin, the loader was not yet done loading in the APFSDS round, and he was working under pressure.

Turner took it upon himself to load in another NE explosive rocket to fire at the roach before it could shoot the Paladin, but it was too late, the guns on the roach fired, two pure blue bursts of energy hitting the Paladin's frontal armor directly.

Doing immensely… nothing.

The tank was pushed backwards, one of the track links were damaged, but apart from that, the tank was still largely operational.

The tank crew burst into laughter; the gun was done loading "(COMMS) Fire!" The command was given. The gun on the Paladin shot a depleted uranium penetrator travelling at over four times the speed of sound.

A thunderous crack echoed throughout the battlefield, as the round shot straight through the roach, leaving a gaping hole where its head area used to be. It fell onto the floor.

"Huh. For a second there I was actually worried." The corporal laughed.

The sergeant just stood there in shocked disbelief at what had happened. He heard movement to his right, he instinctively pointed his gun at what had come next to him on the balcony.

It was a crow, it had landed on the ledge, its flapping wings must've made him think they were footsteps. He lowered his gun.

"Let's go back, corporal."

The tank's track link would end up having to be replaced before they could move forwards, but this was to be the last major engagement for the Fury Company, they reached Fang Two with little resistance. Eventually meeting up with fellow marines.

The combined total of over a thousand marines began setting up a perimeter, and doing patrols around the area, A few Ranger squads came by to help, as their mission into Fang One wasn't until later.

"Yo." A ranger, by the name of Corporal Dunn called out to Jackson, as all around them, marines, and soldiers from the Rangers started laying barbed wire everywhere and setting up a perimeter, to make sure nobody gets out.

Some were even rappelling into the large crater of the Train station, since apparently there were some survivors from the Aurora strike.

Jackson was sat on a park bench, drinking from his canteen. The Corporal was simply relaxing, something about the Rangers not having to rush into Fang One until a perimeter was set up

"What?"

"You find any roaches while you were out here?"

"Yep. Just one though" He took a swig from his canteen, before closing it.

"We found four. Man, those things were a lot weaker than they looked, one of the tanks shot through two of em at the same time, they were lined up, then boom! A single sabot was all it took to take em both out. One of our guys even destroyed one with a Javelin."

Jackson agreed, the Paladins were basically like multi-purpose Bradley vehicles, except they were weak.

"You guys take any casualties?" Dunn asked.

"Our company? Nope, except for two injured. I heard White company did lose a guy."

"Ah shit." The ranger sat up. "How?"

"Internal bleeding, got hit in the head, bullet didn't penetrate but it crushed a blood vessel, they couldn't save him."

Dunn tightened his mouth and looked solemnly into the distance as soldiers continued doing their jobs.

"What about you? You guys lose anybody?" It was Jackson's turn to ask.

"Rangers? Nope, but the 20th did. Friendly fire."

For an operation of this scale, just two killed in action was very good, but it wasn't done yet.

"We still gotta rush into Fang One in about half an hour, so you never know."

The Rangers, Delta force, and SAS still had a job to do, Jackson was disappointed that the Marine Raiders didn't get to assault Fang One as well, in his mind, the Raiders were equal to the Rangers.

"Bark! Bark!"

A dog? Dunn and Jackson looked in front of them. There was a dog, with black and white fur, it looked like a corgi.

Dunn walked over to pet it; the dog graciously accepted.

But then it ran off to the side.

"Rude." Dunn quipped.

But it didn't fully run off, it kept looking back at Dunn and Jackson, and barking as if wanting them to follow it. Some of the soldiers setting up the perimeter began to take notice.

"Does it want us to follow him?"

Jackson stood up. "It's collared, so he's someone's pet. His master was probably White Fang that got caught in the artillery or bunker buster bombs, I mean we are between Fangs Two and Three." He looked behind the bench he was previously sat on, seeing the massive sets of craters caused by the bunker buster bombs and collapse of the train station.

"But he's going away from the crater." Dunn observed. "Should we follow? Not like I got anything better to do while waiting anyway."

Jackson nodded. "Least we could do is show him to his master who I doubt is alive."

Dunn stood up, and together they followed the Corgi, it led them a little away from Fang Two, and a little deeper into Three, around them, soldiers curiously watched the two men from different service branches following a dog.

A few yards above them, a crow flew over them, that meant there were very likely dead bodies where they were headed.

The dog led them around the place, eventually down a wide road, where a few squads of marines were talking, it led them to a building. The entire second floor of said building having collapsed, either from artillery fire or tank cannon fire.

There was a massive pile of rubble, right in front of the building, likely from the collapsed second floor. The dog stopped, it sat down and barked, before going to the largest piece of rubble and pawing at it.

Dunn and Jackson gave each other a look. They each let go of the rifles they were holding, letting them swing wherever they had them attached to. Together, they grabbed an edge off the concrete slab, and pulled back. It collapsed onto the ground a very loud crash.

One of the marine squads ran over to them.

"Whoa! Whoa! What are you doing?" One of them walked up close to the two of them. He was a gunnery sergeant based on the shoulder patch, which meant he outranked Jackson.

"That dog led us here." He pointed to the corgi. "We think his master's under this pile of rubble, so it's either an extra body to the pile or a new prisoner if they're somehow still alive."

The sergeant clicked his tongue. "Alright, we'll help you out. Come on boys." He signaled to the two men he was previously talking with.

The five of them pulled off the smaller pieces of rubble that were revealed, eventually Private McCallan pulled off a piece to reveal a hand.

"I think I found something!" He shouted to the four men who were still lifting, but before they could do anything about it, the dog ran forward, bit the hand, and pulled back, with immense strength the body was being easily pulled out.

"Holy shit! This dog on steroids?!" The private was shocked at the display of strength the dog had displayed by easily pulling a human being around five times his size.

Speaking of the human being, it was a blonde teenaged woman, she was neither wearing the White Fang mask or the uniform.

"Shit… She's probably a civvy." The sergeant crouched down to the dead or unconscious woman's level, and brought his fingers down to check her pulse.

A crow dove down on him, before he could, it started cawing, clearly agitated.

"The fuck?!" The sergeant shooed the crow away, before putting his fingers on the girl's neck to check her pulse.

"She's still alive…" Instantly, he pulled out his radio. "We need a medic down here ASAP. We found a possible unconscious civilian, over."

She had a dislocated elbow, and she had a few wounds and marks. Corporal Dunn walked over, he had some experience, he levered her elbow back into place.

"Don't have a kit, we gotta wait for the medic to patch up the rest of it." He referred to the many small to medium sized cuts and grazes all over her body. "Might need to get a tetanus shot too."

The dog sniffed the blonde, he whimpered a bit before running back over to the pile of rubble, digging through the smaller pieces as it could now dig through the smaller ones better than it could the big piece from earlier.

"You're master's here." The gunnery sergeant shouted at the dog as if it could understand, but the dog kept digging.

"Shit, maybe there's more…" Jackson walked over to the dog and helped it dig, the others continued digging through the rubble on their side.

"Yup..." Dunn and Jackson pulled the girl out, a bow was loose upon her head, showing a set of cat ears. "This one's definitely gonna need a tetanus shot." Dunn eyed the rusty iron rod going straight through her thigh.

"Don't pull it out, she's donna bleed out even more if you- "

A Humvee pulled up, with his squad mates inside. "Corporal." Sergeant Foley whistled from the open window; Ramirez was on the wheel. "It's time."

"Ah shit, it's showtime, you sure you guys can handle the rest?"

The marines nodded at Dunn's question and watched as he got in the Humvee.

It drove off, leaving the rest of the marines to deal with digging through the wreckage to possibly find more bodies.

"You sure that one ain't White Fang?" A private asked. "She's got cat ears, and she's wearing white."

"Even if she is, she's injured and unconscious, not like she can fight."

They continued clearing the rubble, finding more and more bodies, all of which were miraculously alive, but were all also unconscious.

Corporal Baker laid down the body of a short girl wearing all white. "Jesus, they're wearing dresses and heels on a fuckin' battlefield."

"Corporal, the people over here have forcefields and animal parts, and you're talkin' about them wearing heels?" The gunnery sergeant, now named 'Keating', laughed.

The medics also arrived and started patching them up. They called in a Chinook with medical supplies to bring the injured back to base, ETA was two minutes.

They then got the last body, or what they assumed was the last one, as most of the rubble had already been cleared. It was an older man, green hair, a thermos attached to his trousers.

He had the least number of injuries of the bunch, while the others had cuts and scrapes, hell some even had some parts of their limbs crushed, this guy had nothing, except maybe a few bruises.

His eyes suddenly burst open, staring straight at the three men looking down at him, he sat up, startling the three. Out of instinct, the three trained their weapons on him.

"Don't do anything stupid, buddy." Keating placed his finger on the trigger.

He turned to Keating. "…Where are my students?"

Outskirts of Mountain Glenn, 3 hours earlier.

0429 hours

2 hours, 31 minutes before H-hour.

Two Black Hawks fly over the decrepit buildings of Mountain Glenn. Each carrying special forces units of two allied countries.

They were taking the long route, they flew from FOB Cooperwick to the outskirts of Mountain Glenn where they would land, that way, the White Fang don't hear them coming.

The sun was just barely starting to rise, it was still mostly dark out, that would usually serve them well on a normal operation, but in this case, most faunus had night vision, so the only reason they were coming in this early was to synch their attack with the aurora bombing raid.

"Overlord, this is Soar 2-2, we have a visual on the LZ. ETA thirty seconds." They could hear the pilot's voice, they looked out of the helicopter to see what looked like a roundabout road

"(COMMS) Copy, 2-2." Townes's voice blared over the radio.

Sandman adjusted his visor, from his seat he looked out to the other Black Hawk which contained six soldiers of the 22nd SAS Regiment.

Truck pulled the open bolt on his Mk 48 machine gun, then released it as he pushed.

"Ten seconds." The two Black Hawks started to slow down, coming to a hover right above the roundabout.

"Green light! Go! Go! Go!" The pilot shouted, the ropes dropped, team Metal rappelled down the ropes.

Grinch's boots were the first to hit the ground, he immediately went into a crouching position, and aimed down the sights of his Mk 22 ASR, searching for any possible targets in the region, as the others hit the ground, they did the same.

"(COMMS) Alright, we're heading out, good luck boys. We'll be on standby for evac."

The Black Hawks flew back the direction they came

The men slowly and cautiously walked through the roundabout, scanning their surroundings as they went. Every single one of them, except for Truck and Roach were armed with sniper rifles. The two would act as heavy gunners if snipers didn't work.

"Looks like we're clear." Price slightly lowered his L115A3. "But we got a long way to the objective, and we better get there 'fore the bombs hit. Place is just a klick ahead."

Price used hand signals to tell everyone to move forward. They moved through tight spaces and alleyways. Making sure not to go through any open spaces.

They were slowed down by the weapons they were carrying, even those with snipers still had MP5s for CQB, but they were making good progress getting to the objective, and they still hadn't encountered any White Fang.

They also has a lot of other equipment which slowed them down, ropes, grenades, sidearms and other paraphernalia that marginally slowed them down.

They passed through a very tight alleyway, where only one of them could pass at a time. Ghost took point.

He cautiously walked forward, the other followed through, he stopped as he reached the end of it, he peeked his head forward, and looked to the right, then the left.

"Heads up, grimm nine o'clock, looks like one'a those werewolves."

"Permission to engage, sir?" Gaz asked.

"Negative, let it pass. We don't want to make noise before we get there."

Ghost continued to watch the beowolf, it seemed to walk down the road and out of sight behind a building. He looked back to the other men and gave them a nod, he pushed forward as the other followed, this time down a wider alleyway.

"Man, this place gives me the creeps." Truck whispered as he vaulted over a fence gate blocking the alleyway.

"Hmph, you shoulda seen Pripyat."

As they walked down the city with sniper rifles and urban camo, Price's mind was taken back to the last time he was on a mission, very similar to this, the assassination Nigel Niabroneb, a Jordanian microbiologist who turned out to be Doctor Thrax's mentor.

He still remembered the intense mission in Pripyat that almost led him and his mentor to their deaths, though it was still considered a success, he still remembered the sight of Niabroneb's head popping under the force of the anti-materiel round.

The danger in Mountain Glenn was much more different though, while in Pripyat, him and Macmillan had to evade GLA and separatist Russian forces, here the team had to evade hundreds of grimm and the possibility of a White Fang soldier spotting them.

The ten men pushed on, getting closer and closer to the objective, passing by any grimm on the way. Getting spotted was not an option, getting spotted by a grimm meant they would either have to somehow run away, or fight back, fighting back meant making a noise. And because they were deep in enemy territory, they didn't want to get caught without the element of surprise.

"Should just be another three hundred meters." Price checked his compass, making sure they were still going west. Once Price confirmed the direction, they kept moving.

But right as they were about to enter the next alleyway, Soap spotted what was at the end of it.

"Two tangos up ahead." They were just standing there. Soap brought his rifle up, putting his line of sight directly on the two in front him.

"Soap, don't shoot, we're too close to Fang One, you'd be alerting the whole bloody neighborhood."

"Yeah, I know." Soap steadied his aim. "Just trying to get a better look." He confirmed they were White Fang; he could see the outline of their masks from behind. He also noted there was no way to get around them from inside the alleyway.

He brought his rifle down. "We have to use the main road on the left, no way around em from here."

Price sighed. "Alright, let's get this over with."

The team of ten moved down the road to the left, Wallcroft peaked from behind the corner, seeing nothing he nodded at the team behind him and they all went down the main road. IT was unsafe, too many vantage points around them, and the area was too wide, but they had no choice.

They advanced through the road, and once they got past the area where the duo of White Fang was, they went straight back to using alleyways.

With that, they finally reached the objective. Three buildings, each of varying height.

"'Right, let's split up, head to your assigned places and start setting up, we got about ten minutes before the Auroras come here, make sure to clear your surroundings." Price switched to his MP5 as he was about to enter what was possibly a building infested with White Fang.

Thankfully, all three buildings were clear. They were all in position.

Price and Soap were perched up on a high-rise building, an entire city block away from the entrance point, this was a good vantage point for sniper fire, but it didn't earn them that good of a view of the entrance point because of the many building that covered up the view in certain spots. But their job wasn't to lock down the entrance point.

No, they were to provide sniper fire in case White Fang assaulted the flanks of those whose job it was to actually lock down the vantage point.

That was the job of those in the two buildings two hundred meters ahead of Soap and Price's.

Frost, Sandman, Truck, and Grinch, were all on the right building, Truck was acting as both the spotter and the heavy gunner.

Wallcroft, Ghost, Roach, and Gaz were on the left, just like the other team, they had a spotter who acted as the heavy gunner, Roach.

If White Fang suddenly started pouring out of the entrance in the dozens, or if White Fang started hitting them from the front in large numbers, the heavy gunners were there for the job.

Price picked up his radio. "Sandman, your boys good to go?"

"(COMMS) Affirmative, everything's set up."

Down in the left building, Roach loaded in the magazine, he inserted the belt of bullets into the machine gun and hit the bolt. He nodded to roach as he extended his bipod and took aim at the entrance.

They were on the fourth floor for a four-story building fifty meters south of the entrance point, the only things 'obscuring' their view were a few trees and crumbled down small buildings.

All of them were prone, aiming with their respective weapons down at the entrance.

"(COMMS) You see anything down there yet?" Captain Mactavish's voice was heard through the radio.

"We've confirmed a bunch of hostiles down there, place looks like Camden on a bank holiday, nobody's coming out of the entrance yet though, they're all just walkin' around." Ghost adjusted the scope on his rifle.

The entrance was really a modified basement entrance, it was a large trapdoor right in front of what looked to be a town hall, it supposedly led to a tunnel network going directly into Fang One.

The rest of the area was mostly open, it was like a courtyard.

"Bloody hell, it's the GLA all over again with all this stuff about tunnels." Gaz adjusted his aim, putting the reticle right above the head of a White Fang agent talking to his colleague.

"Now we just wait for the bombs, right?" Wallcroft, who was aiming down his own rifle, asked.

"Yep." Ghost answered back.

And as if on cue, they heard the familiar screeching of supersonic aircraft start closing in.

"That's them." The four watched as the White Fang on the ground seemed to be startled by the sudden sound, they all looked around and started pacing all over the place looking for the source of the sound.

For a few seconds, it was all they heard, the screeching of the Auroras flying through the sky, almost invisible to the naked eye because of how high up they were. Then came the bombs, huge explosions collapsed buildings just under a kilometer ahead of them.

This was their cue, all the White Fang in the courtyard staggered back in startlement, some shouted profanities in surprise.

Then the sniper fire rained on them.

Both the Delta Force and SAS team fired volley after volley of sniper rounds at the disoriented White Fang, cutting down their numbers steadily

Heads exploded, limbs flew off left and right, terrified screams were heard even from all the way up in their vantage points. Most of them died with one shot, the size of the rounds coupled with the fact that they were travelling at almost three times the speed of sound made it like the bullets were simply tearing through paper with regards to their aura.

But some of the more stubborn ones refused to die after the first or even second shot.

Then most of them exhausted the round capacity of their magazines, meaning it was time to reload. There were still at least twenty of them down in the courtyard, as the snipers were reloading, Roach and Truck each opened fire with their machine guns, killing the droves of White Fang.

If they knew there were gonna be so many of them they would have all brought LMGs instead of just Truck and Roach.

Every single White Fang Member was still in a mixed daze, as the next Aurora sortie came down on Fang 2, it masked the sound of the two soldiers firing their machine guns.

The masked sound mixed with the fact that they were hiding in semi hidden vantage points made it hard for the terrorists to pinpoint their exact locations. The panic also didn't help.

"(COMMS) Delta! You got a couple guys runnin' along right of your position, it doesn't look like they're attacking though." Soap's voice alarmed them, there was a short delay. "Got em."

"(COMMS) Heh, they must've been running away." Price chuckled. "(COMMS) Keep shooting, we better make it clear that they aren't getting away from the bombs from that exit point."

So, it continued, for ten minutes, the two squads down below rained hell on the courtyard as Price and Soap picked off any individuals that got too close for comfort to the buildings.

Then Soap spotted something on his scope. "Price, we got three hostile left, looks like they caught us."

"Don't worry, we left some presents for them, remember?" Price casually picked off another hostile closing in on Team Metal's building.

Soap watched as the three individuals went out of sight, then he heard an explosion. Those were the claymores they left. They had left a bunch to account for their forcefields.

"Soap, check it out, make sure they're actually dead." Price pulled the trigger on another assailant.

Soap nodded, he stood up, leaving his L115A3 with it's bipod extended on the ground. He equipped the MP5 with its stock attached to a sling on his hip. He went to the fire exit of the decrepit building and rappelled down the rope he and price set up. Once he got down, he immediately got into a crouching position and scanned his surroundings.

Seeing nothing, he ran to the entrance point of the building as distant gunshots echoed all throughout.

The large open entrance door showed burn marks all around, he could see two bodies. Two? He saw three. He ran in, his gun at the ready. Only to find a single hostile, grasping his sword, holes torn all throughout his body, he was faced away from Soap, staggering towards the stairs that lead to the floor of his and Price's position.

Even so close to the end he still stuck to the mission, Soap didn't know whether to think of him as stupid or brave. Either way, he sped up the inevitable with three shots to the head.

He tapped on his earpiece. "Price, it's done."

"(COMMS) Good."

He ran up the stairs to meet back with the Captain and continue with their sniper support.

Down in the courtyard, the entire place was littered with the bloodied bodies of White Fang, it was a complete massacre.

Frost spotted one, his head was peeking out from behind a pillar of the Town Hall like building. He adjusted his aim for distance and windspeed, this was a difficult shot to make, with only a bit of forehead showing itself.

Frost pulled the trigger. Blood splattered on the wall behind the pillar.

"Good hit." Sandman muttered as he fired his own shot.

Then suddenly the trapdoors of the entrance point opened, there seemed to be a single man who had opened it up from the inside, but from the darkened area behind him, there must have been more waiting to rush out. Roach and Truck didn't wait, they immediately shot into the entrance point with their machine guns, not letting anybody exit from it.

There was nothing left, everyone either escaped somehow or was dead, nobody was exiting from the entrance, probably out of a well-placed fear of getting shot at.

It was unknown to them, but this would be eventually known to be the day that ten special operations operators from SAS and Delta Force took on over sixty members of the White Fang.

It was clear to them now that there was no escape, everyone who was smart would stay inside, they'd be semi protected there, at least until the Ranger attack. But anyone who tried to escape from the back would get hit by machine gun and sniper fire from SAS and Delta Force, anyone who tried to escape from the front through Fangs Three and Four, would get hit by the artillery barrage that would soon come.

And so, they waited, as the Aurora bombers finished their sorties, and as the Artillery barrage happened, for hours they stayed there, laid down in prone, carefully watching their surroundings for any bit of movement, grimm occasionally walked by, but never seemed to notice them.

They heard distant gunshots and tank fire of the invading American forces, as well as saw Comanches flying by and back.

Occasionally some of the 'dead' on the ground just turned out to be unconscious and tried to crawl away from the kill-zone, but their efforts were crushed by the snipers, some of the grimm even sniffed out those who were unconscious and finished them off.

"(COMMS) You boys still in one piece?" Overlord asked over the radio.

"Close enough." Price puffed out a bit of smoke from his mouth, as he threw away the burnt cigar. They had been sitting there watching for at least two hours at that point.

"(COMMS) Be advised, the Rangers are making their move soon. T-minus ten minutes"

"Mm." Price folded back the bipod on his sniper, and slung the rifle onto his back and stood up. "How'd the invasion go?"

"(COMMS)Three casualties, but the force of them reached all the objectives with stellar results. Even took down multiple mechs."

"Good." Price spoke into the radio. "Alright, round up boys, time to hit the base." He nodded to soap as they both walked to the fire exit, they rappelled down the rope and started sprinting to the buildings of the other two teams.

The two watched as Team Metal rappelled down their own building, they met up with them as they touched the ground.

The other members of Bravo Team also met them.

"Alright, you all remember the plan?" Soap asked the squads.

"We break in, kill everybody in front of us, meet the rangers, then take down Torchwick and get to his office." Sandman answered.

"Good."

They ran towards the open entrance, it was open, they made sure to keep to the sides, and not stand directly in front of it. All those wielding sniper rifles couldn't afford to bring other heavy weapons so they stuck with MP5s, but MP5s didn't have as much stopping power as rifles did, and because they were fighting humans with force fields, it was all the more dangerous. Which was why Truck and Roach were to take point, because they held the heavy guns.

They waited.

"(COMMS) Go." A single word from Overlord was all it took; Truck then threw in a flashbang. The entrance was lit up by its explosions. Truck and Roach ran in first, while the others followed. It was a hallway, wide enough to fit around three people moving the same direction.

Nobody yet, they pushed deeper into the hallway that angled itself downwards, it was long and dark. The group put on their night vision goggles, they could now see clearly, but there was nothing up ahead.

But after a minute of walking through the damp, leaky hallway, they could see a bright light with their night vision, that meant there was a source of light at the end, they took off their night vision goggles, seeing the end of the hallway, with a light shining.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Three massive explosions, then gunshots.

"Must be the rangers." Grinch looked at Price.

"Yeah, let's move!" Price commanded.

They all entered into a jog towards the end of the hallway, as gunshots and screams of terrorists could be heard on the other end.

They burst through and scanned their surroundings, they were standing on a tall ledge, down below were what looked like buildings and a single long rail.

On the other side there was a massive hole that soldiers were pouring through, on the ceiling was another hole Rangers were rappelling down using ropes, and right beside them was another opening which Rangers were also pouring from.

Ahead of them, down by the rails, Roach and Truck spotted three White Attempting to run, but one seemed to stop and raise his hands up above his head. Truck and Roach fired at the two attempting to flee. Accidentally grazing the one who had surrendered.

As this happened, Sandman and Price noticed two more terrorists with longswords rushing in from the left, with their MP5s, the two men, stopped in their tracks, but the weaker 9mm bullets of the MP5 made it take awhile to eliminate the hostiles.

The rangers continued to take out all White Fang within the subway, they were all caught by surprise, the sudden explosions and breaking in of the troops leading to mass panic within the ranks of the White Fang, some surrendered, many attempted to flee or fight back. Those who fought back were met with shots to their heads.

"You guys the D-boys and SAS?" Amongst the fighting, four Rangers ran up to the two squads. The lead, an African-American man with a shoulder patch that indicated he was a sergeant, walked up to Sandman.

"Yeah, where's Orange?" Sandman answered as he looked to the left, the rail led farther into the tunnel, a lot of the rangers seemed to be pushing into it.

"No clue, we're still waiting for command on that, but there's only one way ahead."

Then the radio blared. "(COMMS) Orange is in Fang One! I repeat, Orange is in Fang One! Keep heading east."

East was where the rail was headed to. "Guess you were right."

The rangers started going down the staircase that led to the rail path. "Hold up." Price told the ranger team.

"What?" The sergeant asked.

"How about we stay on this ledge, and move using it, it's good high ground."

"You're right, alright team! Push forward from this ledge!."

The three teams pushed on the ledge, taking down White Fang as they went.

They watched as a terrorist fired down on the soldiers from the building below them. The now named Corporal Dunn, laid down fire from his M4 on the terrorist.

Price was right, this was good high ground.

They kept running on the ledge, as rangers below pushed on. It seemed that Bradley Fighting Vehicles were lowered into the subway and were advancing alongside the troops.

Rangers also sabotaged the track to make sure a train couldn't escape using them. But if the Train tried to escape using the tracks on the other side, they would meet the caved in subway tube

"(COMMS) Orange is trying to escape through the caved-in subway line leading to Vale, he reached a couple hundred meters inside, he's stopped moving, the rubble likely stopped the train's movement."

"Ha! fucker thought he could use the train." Gaz laughed as he ran with his fellow soldiers, they met a dead end, what was in front was the subway tube Torchwick probably used.

The teams jumped down on the roof of a building, before using its staircase to go down to the level of the rest of the rangers.

The Bradleys couldn't Fit through without being able to turn back around.

"(COMMS) Do not advance through the Subway Tunnel, we'll be sending in more rangers above the subway tube, we'll have them breach while you push in. Stand by."

"So, we just wait, huh?" Ghost let out a sigh.

Over eighty rangers just stood there, guns aimed right through, the train could be barely seen just ahead of them.

Grinch then switched to his sniper rifle, and aimed down his sights to look deep into the subway, his rifle had a Leupold Mark 4 LR/T scope, that allowed him to up to 10x magnification. He saw a few individuals hopping off.

"I see them!"

At his word, everyone else wielding marksman rifles aimed down the tube and took potshots at everyone outside the train. They had nowhere to take cover except by going back inside the train, which most of them did upon seeing their comrades fall down and die from intermediate range marksman fire.

"(COMMS) We're sending them in to breach! Metal Team, Bravo Team, Hunter 2-1, Hunter 2-2, Striker 3-4…" Command continued to list names of squads. "You are tasked to Breach."

There was a look of disappointment from all the ranger squads that weren't called.

But before they could be given the order to move in, something crashed in front of them in the subway tube, a roach.

The giant mech tumbled forward, running straight at them.

A duo of rangers, one wielding an AT4 crouched down in front of the tube, the other one directed fire. The AT4 shot out its payload straight at the mech. It exploded, along with the mech.

"(COMMS) All designated units, move in!"

The seven squads named all rushed into the subway in squad column formation, they heard another massive explosion, this one coming from behind the train, that must be the other angers tasked with attacking, as they got closer to the train, they saw no sign of anybody moving out.

They reached the train, so did the other rangers, nobody was stepping.

Sandman tapped on his earpiece. "Overlord, I think they're trying to lure us in."

"(COMMS) Yeah, I assumed that, don't worry, I had the rangers pack a surprise." Townes's voice sounded almost jubilant.

Two ranger teams from the cave-in started scanning the closed metal train, they then identified something, some of them seemed to be holding large metal canisters.

One of the rangers laid one down as they continued scanning the train cars.

Ghost walked up to one and read the label on the canister. "Phenacyl chloride." He read out loud. "That's a type of tear gas." He muttered. It was one of the more dangerous types too.

Townes was authorizing the use of tear gas, that's why the rangers were scanning the train, to look for a ventilation system, and they did. This was illegal, but as long as this was kept a secret, nobody had to know.

They all watched as a few rangers started connecting the gas canisters to the ventilation system. Two rangers laid out a few green boxes, opened them up, revealing M50 gas masks.

"Put em on." The ranger then proceeded to pick one up and put it on his face.

The other ranger squads each picked up a gas mask and wore them, as did Team Metal and Bravo Team.

"It's set up!" One of the rangers on the ventilation system gave a thumbs up.

Captain Bradley stood up on the now empty gas mask box. "Alright, I want all of you ready to breach each door! We'll have teams set up hydraulics to breach. Hunter 2-1 I want you on that door!" He pointed to the door at the leftmost side of the train. "SAS, I want you on that one." He pointed to another door; this one was at the frontmost train car. He kept assigning teams to doors as the gas did its work.

Some of the train cars had no doors and would have to be entered through from within the train itself.

They could hear banging on the metal, as well as coughing from within the train. The gas was making its effect.

Bravo Team and Team Metal were also supplied with better weapons than their MP5s, though roach and Truck kept their machine guns.

Team Metal stood on their side of the train car, opposite to Bravo Team. A man with an electric hydraulic walked up to their door and started working on opening it up. The other doors were also being broken through by hydraulics.

"Poor sods probably don't even know what tear gas is." Gaz was right, Kirkman had studied it, Remnant had not yet developed the use of chemical agents in warfare.

The man on the hydraulics finally burst the metal door open, immediately two terrorists ran out, coughing and wheezing, they were restrained by one of the ranger teams, the other doors on the train then also burst open, allowing both the gas and some desperate terrorists to escape.

Bravo team and Team Metal rushed into the car, there was nobody inside left, they moved to the door which automatically opened, the tear gas slightly obscured their vision, most of it collected to the floor though. Phenacyl chloride was combustible, flashbangs weren't an option.

Sandman and Ghost simply rushed in, four hostiles, three of which were bent and leaning on the walls, gasping for proper air, another one still had enough coherence to have his pistol aimed at the door, but in his pain, he completely missed Sandman's head, a deadly mistake. It cost him his life.

The other three heard the gunshots, but put their hands in the air at all the soldiers that rushed in.

Seeing the three surrender, Price turned to Wallcroft. "Lead em out." Wallcroft took the three new detainees and led them out of the car.

"(COMMS) We have a situation! We found Orange! But they got Andrews hostage!" Sgt. Foley's voice was heard clearly through the radio

"Shit!" Ghost said out loud.

"Where?!" Price shouted onto his radio.

"(COMMS) Third car from the front!"

"Third car from the front?" Soap's face morphed into one of realization "That's the next car over!"

Soap and Ghost immediately took point and rushed through the door leading to the next car.

And they saw them, three rangers, two of which were aiming their weapons at a short pink-, brown- and white-haired girl of short stature, she had a blade right over the throat of a fourth ranger. Her eyes were red and clearly tearing, snot was dripping from her nose, the tear gas had taken effect.

Corporal Dunn had his weapon aimed at Roman Torchwick, Orange himself. As the remainder of Team Metal and Bravo Filtered in, they all aimed their guns at the two.

Corporal Andrews looked at Ghost who had his sights aimed on the girl, his eyes, even through the gas mask had both fear and determination, he gave Ghost a nod.

Ghost nodded back and pulled the trigger, the bullet sailed through the air, finding it's way into the girl's right temple, only for her to shatter into a thousand pieces, and as did Roman Torchwick.

"What the fuck?" Almost everyone thought or said the same thing.

"(COMMS) They're out here! I repeat! Orange is outside the train!"

Chapter Text

RUN.

That was the only thing that caught their mind. Between getting pummeled with explosions early in the morning to then being hit by invading American troops, and now being chased by said American troops, running was their only option, Neo had used her semblance to allow for her and Torchwick's escape from outside the train.

Neo coughed as tears and snot continued to freely flow from her face, her eyes and throat felt like hell, whatever those Americans did with that gas was effective.

Her boss wasn't looking any better, though it looked like his respiratory system was was a lot more affected than his tear ducts, he was coughing and wheezing quite a bit

But as they stood there, outside the train, trying to wait off the pain from breathing in and being exposed to the gas, they noticed their mistake.

There were still American soldiers outside the train, dozens of them actually. And they all aimed their guns at the two, and they all simultaneously fired.

Neo leapt up into the air, dodging every single bullet as she angled herself to land on the other side of the train. She noticed that right on the other side there were more soldiers, but they all seemed to be moving around the train, moving to her old position.

She pressed a secondary button on her parasol, and out extended a narrow blade, she landed on of the soldiers, piercing his neck immediately right as she landed.

No aura? That was perplexing.

Her boss landed right next to her.

The Americans seemed to finally notice them, but it was too late. Torchwick had pointed his cane at them, and released a fire dust bomb, blowing them all away.

They took the opportunity to run forward. But up ahead, she noticed the outline of more soldiers.

Good god, just how many of them were there?

not to mention that the soldiers behind them probably already noticed that the two of them weren't back there anymore.

They would be dead if they stayed there, dodging gunfire from two sides was not impossible, but very difficult, especially with the ridiculously fast bullets of the Americans.

So once again, she leapt into the air, she landed right on top of the train she had previously been in, Torchwick landed beside her. They sprinted on top of the train, eventually seeing the opening of the damn cave-in that stopped them from using their original escape plan.

There were ropes going down to the subway.

The two criminals jumped up through the crater finally they could make their escape, only to notice that this time, there were hundreds of soldiers around them, all of which were apparently waiting for them to come out.

Oops.

She spun in the air, using the Soldiers' slower reaction time to her advantage, she landed smoothly,, her boots slid on the ground causing some dust and pebbles of the broken concrete road she was in to be kicked up.

Her eyes darted around looking for any possible chance at escape, at least a hundred soldiers around her, and were those bullheads?

They seemed to not yet have been able to fully react to her yet, she sped towards the closest soldier to her, got behind him and held a blade to his throat as Torchwick finally got up from the crater.

The soldiers seemed to finally react.

"Shit! She's got Tommy!" One of them shouted.

They all pointed their guns at her.

"Whoa ho- ho… Easy there, boys, one wrong move, and my associate here will do something… untoward to that poor fellow."

The soldier she held hostage had his hands up in a placating manner. This was just like back in the train, her with a hostage, and Torchwick taunting the Americans.

She brought the Blade closer to his neck.

"Look, all we want is safe passage out of this city, and we'll promise to never bother you, we'll cut ties with the White Fang and everything!" Torchwick had a nervous smile on him.

The soldiers' seemed to ignore Torchwick, and it seemed some of them ignored Neo entirely and kept looking behind her? Why would some of them look behind her instead of at her?

She was confident that the two of them could take on a couple dozen of these Americans no problem, but there were at least a hundred of them up here, likely more, and if the soldiers didn't kill them, the two bullheads in the sky certainly might.

She couldn't use her semblance too, too many people around to notice her creation of an illusion, not to mention the fact that even if she was able to pull that off, there was no guarantee that she could coordinate her escape with her boss.

So, she just waited there, a blade to her hostage's neck, for seconds, thinking of any possible way they could escape.

"Come on guys, if you think we have anything important on the White Fang, trust me, we don't ! We just happened to do business! And you can't blame me for doing business, right?" He tried to keep up his nonchalant attitude but it was clear that Torchwick was starting to panic.

The soldier closest to her front glanced behind her. There it was again, why did he keep looking behind her and the hostage?

"You let go of him, and we can talk." The soldier spoke in a clearly faked calm tone.

No, she wasn't going to let go of their only piece of leverage here, so in response, she closed the distance of the blade and her hostage's neck, the edge was touching the skin at this point.

Some of the soldiers seemed to step forward in panic, if it wasn't clear already, they were itching to shoot her.

"Now, now boys, we both don't want this to end badly, do we? If you can all just calm down, we'll let your friend go, and we'll be on our merry way."

And again, the soldier stole a glance behind her, she was starting to get sick of it, why? Why? Why did he keep looking behind her?

The soldier suddenly tapped on his earpiece "Do it."

What?

BANG!

Her mind went blank.

Camp Glenn

1122 Hours

A mere four hours after Operation White Death, Kirkman mulled over what had occurred.

This was a disaster, well no, the operation was a success, but the fact that four huntresses in training and one huntsman, all affiliated with Beacon Academy, were hit by the artillery strikes and Aurora bombings, how they were still alive was a complete miracle, if they were killed, the situation would be much worse.

Kirkman looked over at the unconscious body of a blonde-haired young girl, apparently named 'Yang' according to the injured professor.

Kirkman wasn't supposed to come to Camp Glenn, but the moment he got the news of the possible non-combatants being hit, he wanted to see for himself. And in five minutes he was supposed to talk to Ozpin through comms at the command center here at Camp Glenn.

He had a semi-formulated strategy on how he would explain the whole situation, it was as simple as 'It was an accident.' Granted, this answer would probably not save him from the headmaster's ire, and if the headmaster chose to reveal it to the public, the public's ire as well.

But he had a trump card: that he had just stopped what was possibly the largest planned terrorist attacked in the history of Remnant, if things got hot with public opinion, he hoped that the revelation that America had stopped a massive terrorist attack would overshadow the fact that America also almost killed five non-terrorists, four of which were students.

He was surprised about how calm Professor Oobleck was about the situation, he didn't scream or fight back, he was simply content knowing that his students were safe, but Kirkman could sense a bit of contempt airing from the Professor.

Ignoring the possible PR massacre, the Operation was largely a success, his forces only suffering six deaths and thirty-two injuries. Three of those deaths and eight of those injuries came from the direct confrontation with Torchwick and his mysterious tri-toned associate.

Of course, any loss of a soldier was still unfortunate, but overall, Kirkman was content with the results.

He took a look around the room, seeing all the bandaged-up girls in the infirmary, all of whom were still unconscious, but according to the doctors they were in a stable state, and should wake up soon. Oobleck seemed to be taking a nap while he was sat on the bench.

Kirkman stood up; it was time, he sauntered out of the room and started walking to the Command Center Operations Room.

If he didn't have a scheduled appointment with Beacon's Headmaster, he would've headed straight off to the detention tent to have a word with Roman Torchwick, whose hands led to the deaths of two American soldiers as well as the injuring of four.

His associate also managed to kill a ranger while down in the subway.

And was almost about to do so again during the hostage situation, thankfully the Rangers organized help from a Marine scout sniper team nearby, all of whom were wielding heavy caliber precision sniper rifles and anti-materiel rifles.

Apparently if her aura didn't break after the first shot, she should've been be distracted enough to allow the other snipers to take their shots.

That was what happened, according to their report, she staggered backwards and let go of her weapon, another sniper in a nearby building took her out.

But the second shot apparently wasn't enough to kill her, her remaining aura softened the blow to her head, and instead she was knocked out, determined to have near fatal brain damage.

This showed that anti materiel rifles like the Barrett M107 firing .50 caliber rounds were effective in dealing damage against even individuals with strong auras, but she was still one tough son of a bitch to be able to take two anti-materiel rounds straight to the head, aura or not.

But she still took enough damage to be sent to the ICU.

It took Kirkman every fiber of his being not to order the plug to be pulled, but he knew she could be an asset during the interrogation of Torchwick, problem was, he wasn't even sure if the girl was someone Torchwick cared about, but he would find out soon enough.

Once he entered, he was met by a few dozen men on computers, a much larger screen at the front of the room.

Miller stood in front of him. "Sir, we've established a line with Beacon, they're ready."

That was early. "Alright, start it up."

George tapped one of the men on the computers on the back.

Kirkman walked closer to the large screen as it distorted and showed some sort of icon of Vale on a green background. He pushed the button on a table to turn on the microphone.

The Vale icon disappeared, and as did the green background. Revealing Headmaster Ozpin sitting on a chair, with a face that held no emotion.

Kirkman was about to speak. But was cut off.

"I see no reason as to why my students had to be involved in your conflict. I don't care for your excuses, I simply demand that they, along with Professor Oobleck, be sent back, and I want them alive and well." Ozpin's voice held emotion. Emotion that Ozpin usually did not display in the few times that Kirkman had interacted with him.

But Kirkman was expecting this, he knew Ozpin would be angry, so he played along. "Of course, headmaster, I assure you that your students and subordinate will be returned as soon as possible. We are simply supervising them as of now, as they have yet to properly recover from their injuries."

The moment he mentioned the injuries, he saw a fury flare in Ozpin's eyes, even through the screen.

"What injuries exactly have my students sustained?"

"According to Professor Oobleck they were not hit directly by our strikes, rather a majority of their injuries were caused by a building collapsing on them, as such, they suffered from blunt force trauma. Again, I apologize for this incident, your students were not the intended- "

"I believe I stated earlier that I do not care for your excuses, General." He leaned forward. "I know that you wouldn't strike my students on purpose, even you wouldn't be so cruel and stupid as to do such a thing. But even if it was an accident, that doesn't erase the fact that you inflicted unnecessary suffering onto my students and a member of my faculty. I simply want to secure their safety and have them returned here soon."

Kirkman had no excuses here, even back on Earth, the 'Accident' card was almost never effective.

"Of course, headmaster, but I'll have you know that our attack on Mountain Glenn was not a selfish act- "

"I don't want your- "

"We had proof of the White Fang having planned to attack Vale." Ozpin's expression of anger turned into one of shock. "We intervened both to stop this and to capture Roman Torchwick, we succeeded in both." That was a partial lie, the main objective was to capture or kill Roman as well as taking Mountain Glenn for the U.S.. Stopping the attack on Vale was just a happy side effect.

Ozpin eyebrow's furrowed, he doubted Kirkman. "And what is your proof of this impending attack?"

"The insurgents we captured at Cooperwick gave information as to the plans of the White Fang." He looked to George Miller on the side, giving him a knowing nod, as he started typing on his keyboard. "We are sending the necessary information to Vale authorities as we speak."

Ozpin's expressions seemed to change slightly, but not fully. So Kirkman decided to continue pushing. "The reason for the White Fang stealing so much dust was to load them into train cars, and drive a train attached to those cars, drive them through Vale while simultaneously detaching those cars, blowing holes right under Vale, letting the subterranean grimm rush in."

Now Ozpin looked very shocked, but then it morphed back into the emotionless face he was staring into just a minute or two ago.

"Thank you, General. But I assure you, it was under control, we sent the team that you almost killed for a reason, they were to investigate- "

"They were to investigate when we already had all the necessary information. Let me play this out for you, even if they did discover the plot, it would be too late, I doubt they had the means to find the White Fang entrances that lead to the train stations, and even if they did, by the time they enter the train station, Torchwick will have already activated the train and set its course to Vale, causing hundreds, possibly thousands of civilian casualties."

Ozpin looked to the ground, seeming to mull over Kirkman's words. Before looking straight back at the camera. "We don't know that, I'm sure that my students and Professor Oobleck could have very much handled it on their own."

"I don't doubt that they could have discovered the plot, the place was crawling with White Fang, it would be strange if they didn't discover it, but I doubt they could have stopped the train from reaching Vale and I certainly doubt that you could have mounted an effective defensive before the death toll reached the hundreds."

"I'm sorry General, but the defensive capabilities of the Kingdom of Vale have nothing to do with this."

"Oh, it certainly does, if the train had reached the town center as intended, what would have happened? Most of your huntsmen are out on missions or in Beacon, by the time the huntsmen or even the Atlesian troops in Beacon came, many would have already died."

Ozpin crossed his arms. "You should not have meddled with Vale's business, General."

That wasn't a very good retort. "You could say that, but that doesn't change the fact that we have saved Vale from what could have been an absolute disaster."

No reaction. "Alright, I admit that you may have protected Vale and its citizens, but that too hasn't changed the fact that in doing so you have inflicted heavy injuries on five of them, as well as having killed possibly dozens of Faunus in the attack on Mountain Glenn."

Kirkman almost laughed when Ozpin said 'dozens', the headmaster may have even detected his mirth, though it disappeared, and Kirkman went back to his original expression.

"And again, I apologize, I truly do for the five that I have hurt, we should have absolutely made sure that there were no non-hostiles left, but please do not count the eight hundred terrorists eliminated as reason to be against the attack."

Ozpin's eyes widened. "Eight hundred?" His voice grew louder, almost to the point of screaming. "You killed eight hundred in a single attack?"

Eight hundred two actually, and over a thousand wounded or captured.

"Eight hundred terrorists dead is better than a thousand innocent civilians dead don't you think?"

"Of course, why should I be surprised that you hold such little regard for human life, you killed hundreds in that base attack last month of course."

Kirkman sighed. "Headmaster, we've been over this, I hold little regard for human life who makes it their job to terrorize and cause suffering to innocent civilians, especially if those scum previously attacked us."

Ozpin grasped his temples.

"And believe me, it won't end here, we'll hunt down every last bastion of the White Fang until every single individual in Sanus is either dead or captured."

Ozpin's eyes narrowed. "You may have saved us from a disaster, but in doing so, you have caused one yourself. And you don't even have the morality to feel guilty for it.

"Guilty?" Kirkman scoffed. "You're guilty all the same, you want to point your finger, but there's no one else to blame. You're the one who has let the White Fang fester, how many innocents have died just because you want to protect this ever so precious human life? The lives of terrorists nonetheless."

Ozpin opened his mouth but was cut off.

"We did you a favor. Even if it wasn't because of the sanctity of life that you failed to take down the terrorists at your front doorstep, you also don't even have the means, you have a police force, yet they're incompetent, corrupt, and unable. You have the Atlesian military running rampant around Vale, but even with all their firepower, they can't even do the simple task of locating terrorists who barely do anything to hide their presence. And that's not even mentioning your incredibly stretched out huntsman- "

Ozpin slammed his desk.

That was the first time Kirkman saw him clearly displaying his anger.

"I believe our discussion is over, General. I want my students and faculty back by tomorrow, goodbye."

Ozpin ended communications and the screen went black.

Kirkman held back a laugh. He stared at the blank screen.

"Sir."

The General turned around to the direction of the sudden voice. It was Colonel Burton.

"Colonel?"

"I listened to the conversation, and I believe we should discuss our PR strategy."

Kirkman smirked. "You're right. Pretty sure Ozpin's gonna talk about his students being injured, but he's likely to leave out the fact that we saved Vale from a terrorist attack. So, what do you have in mind?"

Burton pulled out a planner, he flipped a few pages. "The Vale News Network has apparently been looking for leads on the attack, I think it'd be safe to invite a reporter for an interview."

"Invite? So, you plan on taking them here to Camp Glenn?"

"Yeah, just Camp Glenn, nowhere else, I think inviting them here will show the world on camera the partial extent of our strength without showing off too much."

"And it'll allow us to spin the narrative our way." Kirkman continued. "Alright, tell Public Affairs to set up an interview."

Though the Colonel still had one more concern to bring up "But before that, what should we do about the kids?"

"The kids? You mean the Beacon students in the infirmary?"

"Yeah."

All of whom were still unconscious, except for their professor, Doctor Oobleck who was keeping watch on them.

Burton was concerned on how to handle the situation around them. "How do we handle them when they wake up? We can't exactly keep them in the infirmary forever, doctors said they should be awake within the next few hours."

"Being awake doesn't mean they can just up and leave the infirmary, if I read the report correctly, one of them had a massive metal rod jutting out from her leg, and another has broken bones on her leg and arm as well as fractured ribs."

Apparently the injured by the metal rod, one Blake Belladonna, needed to get a tetanus vaccine administered for safety reasons.

"Yeah, but with that aura of theirs I'm pretty sure once they're awake it should only take a few hours before they'd want to stand up and I don't know, walk around? Maybe attempt to escape?"

Kirkman grasped his chin. "We can't exactly keep them in the detention center too, bad optics to be treating them like prisoners."

They were in a temporary camp, so the Command center didn't contain many rooms that could be cleared or refurbished to house the students for long periods of time, in fact the infirmary was just a refurbished meeting room, since the medial tents outside were all filled with injured White Fang members.

"Alright have them clear one of the barracks tents, once they don't need to be in the infirmary the others can be transferred there, and then we can have a talk with her."

The Colonel tilted his head at the notion. "Are you sure sir? Ozpin might get more pissed if you interrogate one of his own students."

"I'm aware, but this is a former White Fang member we're talking about, one with reportedly close ties to Adam Taurus. And what can Ozpin really do? Threaten us? The man doesn't even have the stones to fight back against terrorists."

"Alright sir, I'll try to come up with an interrogation strategy for Ms. Belladonna. Then I'll have Public Affairs set up an interview with some news agency within the next couple days, I want to ask again though, are you willing to grant permission for them to come over here?"

"Yeah, kill two birds with one stone, we can both show off our strength and paint ourselves in a better light."

"Alright then, I Assume you'll be conducting those interviews, sir?"

Kirkman thought back, he had many commitments to within the next few days, one of which was a meeting he was set to have with the CIA deputy director of operations regarding his plan with all the money and dust found in Mountain Glenn. Then after that, he had to appear on a Budget hearing at the Capitol.

"No, I'm sure you know that I'll be rather busy, so I suggest that you do the interview, you've had quite the experience after all. What with all those interviews during the GLA war."

"Yes, sir."

"Good, I'll leave you a few notes, you probably won't need them. You know the rules, avoid sensitive subject matter, appeal to the masses, and even if you have to lie through your teeth, say just what the people want."

Burton nodded, already knowing most of what Kirkman said.

"You are dismissed."

The Colonel saluted him then walked out the door.

Qrow's hands were shaking, he hadn't had a good drink in a while, he'd been watching the American movements in Cooperwick for a week, living off the land and never having the opportunity to drink or charge his scroll.

But here he was, taking the elevator up to the top of the CCT tower in Beacon academy, with news that would undoubtedly shake Ozpin and his cohorts.

With a freshly filled flask, filled from a bottle of whiskey he had pilfered from a pantry in the CCT, he took a swig, he cherished the slight burn in his mouth, letting it swirl before emptying the liquid into his throat.

He returned the flask under his coat; he really needed that drink.

What he saw…

It was horrific. In every sense of the way.

He wasn't supposed to come to Beacon until next week around the time of the Vytal festival, but given the urgency of the situation, and what had just happened, he had to come, and inform Ozpin directly of what he had seen at Mountain Glenn.

Entire armies marching their way through, with big green and grey behemoths shooting massive guns at terrorists who didn't know what exactly they were fighting. He shook off those thoughts as the elevator doors finally opened.

Revealing Ozpin who looked to be in an evidently sour mood, Ironwood, Goodwitch, and… Winter?

What was she doing here? Ah of course, Weiss, who had been hit, had been taken into American custody.

He worried for his nieces too, but he knew the Americans wouldn't do anything untoward to them with intent to return them back to Beacon. And he knew they intended to return them since after they got taken to camp, he heard someone named 'Townes' say over the radio that they would have to be brought back to Beacon then they got hauled off the direction of a big locked building he couldn't get into

Everyone in the room finally took notice of Qrow. He walked in.

The first thing those in the room noticed was the smell, Qrow hadn't had a proper shower in weeks, he had been living in the forest, collecting all the muck, mud, and shit that came with living in the forest.

The next thing they noticed was the very black and heavy bags under his eyes.

"Qrow… what happened- "

He cut Ironwood off. "I know, Jimmy… I smell and look like shit."

Even Ozpin's usual stoic nature was cut off by both the stench and Qrow's appearance. "What happened?"

"The Americans happened."

"They attacked you?!" Winter's voice rang heavily into Qrow's ears.

The lack of sleep as well as the currently being resolved alcohol withdrawal really didn't put him in the mood for loud noises.

He groaned. "Quiet please… And no, they didn't attack me."

"Then what happened? And why haven't you been in contact with us for a month?!" It was Glynda's turn to shout.

Brothers, he needed another drink, he took out his flask and took another swig.

This action annoyed many of those in the room

"Jimmy…" He put away his flask as he got the attention of the Atlesian General. "You sure she should be here for this particular discussion."

Winter almost looked offended… Oh wait, she was offended.

"If the discussion concerns the United States of America, then I believe it to be appropriate for one of my specialists to be present during the discussion."

Winter gave Qrow a smug smirk.

"Qrow, I ask again, what happened?"

He cleared his throat. "I'll start from the beginning. Before Mountain Glenn"

Winter looked up at Qrow. "Wait, you were at Mountain Glenn?"

"I'll get to that." He coughed, he really needed to drink actual water soon. "It all started about a month ago, I had just arrived at Cooperwick, it was a pit stop, I was supposed to go to Fanshire to collect information on a certain someone."

Everyone seemed to give him a knowing look, save for Winter.

"Just needed a good day's rest, and after that, I'll be back on my way, or so I thought. I woke up a bit late in the morning, and that was when they came, with all those weird looking bullheads and 'bout around thirty men."

"With all due respect, Qrow, we already know this, can you skip ahead to when you lost contact with us." Glynda cut in.

Qrow narrowed his eyes at the headmistress before accepting what she had said. "Fine, now I wanted to collect every bit of info I could, as you know, I tried following their bullheads, they went too fast and I gave up. So I decided to stay at Cooperwick for the night again, since I was already too far from Fanshire by the time I gave up. So, imagine my surprise when the next day there were a bunch of American soldiers all gathered around and inside Cooperwick, with even more of those bullheads.

"Yes, we had a discussion with Kirkman three and a half weeks ago regarding this, he had made a deal with the mayor allowing them to detain suspected members of the White Fang."

Winter eyes seemed to widen, it seemed as though she wasn't informed on that particular situation.

"Yeah, but that wasn't all they were doing, those soldiers you see, they started setting up tents and barbed wire outside of Cooperwick. Hell, they even kicked out the town militia and started manning stations at the walls, they were setting up a base of Operations."

That seemed to get something out of all of them, as far as the three of them knew, the deal was to only help defend Cooperwick from Grimm, not to set up a base.

"Are you sure, they were setting up the base?" Ironwood queried. "They could have just set up tents for the soldiers so they could help defend the town."

"I'll get to that later, but before that, while they were setting up camp, some of the soldiers knock at all the inns and hotels, because apparently, Mayor Jonathan Winslow told the soldiers that there were people in them that weren't in town records, I left before they got to my inn, didn't want them profiling me."

Ozpin let out a sigh of relief. "And that was when you lost contact."

"Yep, hadn't charged my scroll until the day before."

Winter was about to speak but was stopped by Qrow.

"I know what you're gonna say, why didn't just go to the next town and charge it there." Winter did not like that Qrow had predicted her statement.

"Well, you see, after seeing the Americans start doing a bunch of crap all over Cooperwick, I had a choice, either head to Fanshire and collect information that was likely to end up being a dead end anyway, or stay in Cooperwick and investigate what was right in front'a me."

"What information are you speaking of anyway?" Winter asked Qrow.

Everyone shot a look at Ironwood.

"It's best you don't ask these questions for now."

She wanted to ask why, but she knew better than to talk back to the General.

"Now, as I was saying, I left Cooperwick, and decided to set up camp at a mountain nearby that overlooked it, and I watched those soldiers and bullheads gun down grimm like they were nothing. After that, a day passed, I didn't sleep, but overnight I noticed that these bulldozers arrived, accompanied by a bunch of these hulking green and gray vehicles. I snapped a picture before my scroll fully ran out of charge, here."

He placed his scroll on the desk, which then projected a photograph, showing numerous bulldozers on the road, in between each of them were greyish green vehicles with what looked to be giant guns on them.

"How did you take these photographs up close if you were on a mountain?" Winter asked, almost innocently so.

Ironwood gave her a look that told her to stop talking, she shrunk at his glare, perhaps it was a mistake to keep her here for the discussion.

"What are they? What do they do?" Ironwood took interest in them, they looked like they'd be incredibly slow given their size.

"I'll get to that later, but yeah, over the course of a couple weeks, they start setting up base at Cooperwick. I actually almost got spotted by two guys in leaf suits. They came close to my camp while I was taking a nap, I heard them and made my exit."

"Leaf suits?" Ozpin narrowed his eyes.

"I don't know what to call them, it looked like they were wearing a bunch of grass and leaves on them, probably for camouflage."

Glynda stepped forward. "Qrow, get to the point, you can explain the rest at a later time, but for now, may you please explain what you saw at Mountain Glenn."

"Alright, alright. You don't want to hear about me listening into conversations, that's on you."

Her eyebrows furrowed as she pointed her riding crop at him. "I said you could explain it at a later-"

Qrow continued "Anyway." He took in and enjoyed Glynda's annoyed look. "Fast forward a few weeks, and there're suddenly a bunch of troops moving into Cooperwick, and I mean a bunch. Then they just camp there for a few days."

"Qrow." Now even Ozpin was getting annoyed.

Qrow knew he was annoying them, he usually wasn't one to mess around in serious situations such as this. But even he could admit he wasn't in the best state of mind at the moment. Having gone with no sleep for three days at this point, and after watching his nieces get hauled off to wherever.

"Yeah, this is it. At night, thousands of them started moving down the road. At first, I thought they were heading to Vale. I was about to go over there to warn you until I noticed they were going south, not to Vale, but to Mountain Glenn."

Ironwood then looked Qrow in the eye, clearly shocked at what he had just said. "You're telling me, they were able to mobilize a force, thousands strong, in a matter of weeks, and then have them move on Mountain Glenn almost immediately, you must be mistaken."

Qrow almost scoffed. "I saw what I saw Jimmy, there were thousands of them, most of them loaded up into cars, they sent up some small flying thingies that direction too, I assume to scout it out."

Ironwood wanted to ask what he meant by 'small flying thingies but the tired Huntsman continued.

"So, I followed them, they reached a spot about eight miles away from Mountain Glenn itself, and they set up camp through the night."

They set up a camp fit for thousands of soldiers in a night? Everyone couldn't believe what they were hearing, Qrow wasn't the type to lie, so the only reasonable way that this was untrue was if sleep deprivation and stress had mucked up his sense of time.

"And while they were setting up, they were also prepping these big green cannons in an open area, they had em all lined up and pointed at Mountain Glenn."

Winter stared down Qrow's baggy blackened eyes. "Cannons? Eight miles away? That makes no sense, how would they even be able to see their target? That's not even mentioning how the projectile would reach the city."

"Ho- ho, you should'a seen these guns, Ice Queen, they were bigger than any gun in that military of yours."

She wanted to retort that statement, but if the guns mounted on those vehicles in the picture showed them were any example of the caliber of American cannons, then Atlas really didn't have guns bigger than those, who would mount a gun that big on a vehicle anyway?

"Anyhow, I think most of the soldiers slept for the night while some others set things up."

"Was General Kirkman there?" Ozpin asked with a curious tone.

"Nope, big man himself didn't bother to show up, but it looked everyone who was down there already had everything sorted out. Things were quieting down for the night too, I thought they were just setting up another base like they did at Cooperwick, but no, the moment the sun started rising, everyone was out of their tents and running to their posts."

That didn't seem strange to the two members of the Atlesian military within the room, it was normal for soldiers to get up early and start preparing for incoming drills or possible deployment.

"They all started getting dressed up, getting' their guns, and just when I thought they were just doing a drill, I heard a sound, way up in the sky."

"Like it was being torn apart?" Ozpin continued.

Qrow tilted his head in thought. "Yeah, I was going to say like exploding, but that's a better description, I guess. I heard those sounds a bunch while I was spying over them in Cooperwick, they were usually a lot more distant than this though, this time it was like they were right over me."

Ironwood had a look of assurance. "Yes, those are aircraft of the Americans, they flew over Beacon during Kirkman's visit. We believe them to simply be reconnaissance craft."

Qrow chuckled. "Well, that's where you're wrong, they aren't just reconnaissance."

The look of assurance disappeared; his eyes narrowed in confusion. "That makes no sense, no conventional gun could effectively work when going at those speeds- "

"Not guns, Jimmy." Qrow wiggled his finger. "Bombs."

"From that altitude?" James went wide eyed. "How can they even accurately strike anything?"

"No clue, all I know is, I watched from eight miles away as the bombs hit the city, I could see the smoke from miles away. Little did I know, but RWBY were in the city at the time." Qrow looked at the ground.

Ozpin's expression soured, as did Glynda's. Winter resorted to looking at the ground, not wanting to show emotion yet clearly worried for her sister.

"Is… she okay?"

"Yeah, don't worry, the others are okay too, hell Bart even woke up when they got to him, but I'll get to that part later." He paused, ruminating whether to take a drink, deciding not to, he continued. "Anyway, after the bombings came the firing of those big massive guns I was talkin' about, they hit Mountain Glenn too, but just different parts of it."

He saw all of them give him an incredulous look. "Again, I saw what I saw, I may have been sleep deprived, but I was sober, I saw them hit, no clue why they didn't just use those aircraft in those other parts, but hey those guns did a helluva job too, they kept pummeling the city for hours, by the time they were done, the place looked a hundred times more run-down than it already did."

Ironwood couldn't believe what he was hearing, guns that could rain hell on a city from miles away? He wasn't even sure if the best optical sights his military had to offer could see that far, were they simply shooting blindly? But if they were as effective as what Qrow said, what did Atlas have to answer for that? Planes that could drop bombs faster than they could fly, guns that could tear through cities from miles away, what could Atlas do in the face of that?

Glynda wanted to ask how the kids and Oobleck even survived such a barrage, they were probably smart enough to start running when the bombs hit, but even then, if she was understanding Qrow's words right, they were trying to get at large swathes of the city, so it would have been hard for them to get out of the area of attack.

Not minding the stares of awed disbelief that he was getting, and the almost paranoid one of Ironwood, Qrow continued. "After about an hour and a half of that, everyone started moving out, getting in these weird armored cards, in the massive armored giants with guns, there also other armored giants too, some with smaller guns, some got into those black bullheads. And they all started heading the direction of Mountain Glenn. Thousands of them."

Winter could imagine how much of a mess moving thousands of troops into a single objective could be. "How could they even march in formation with such tight roads leading to Mountain Glenn."

"They didn't, in fact most of them weren't even on foot, the ones who weren't in those armored giants were in those smaller armored vehicles I was talking about. And it looked like complete chaos, there was no slow marching, they just moved straight to the objective."

Ironwood scoffed. "That doesn't seem very efficient."

"I thought so too, but even with all that chaos, but they moved through the place so fast that you'd think it was a race, it sure as hell looked chaotic, but at the same time it wasn't, they were getting things done."

The doctrine Ironwood and Winter knew of was to march in large formations onto the enemy, they couldn't imagine how such a disorganized strategy could lead the Americans to being able succeed.

"Hell, not marching probably made them faster. Those giant vehicles with guns on them, apparently they're called 'tanks', and I watched them break buildings like they were nothing. And a bunch of them had lasers that destroyed missiles that were shot at it."

They had an anti-projectile system? Something Atlas was trying to get at, closest to it being hard light dust shields. The more they heard about the assault the more it was starting to look like the Americans were a much bigger threat than they had originally assessed.

Ozpin especially was worried, Qrow had basically just said that there were now three major American bases surrounding Vale, essentially trapping it, north, south, and east, he now held an almost clear scowl.

"And here's the kicker, those 'laser tanks' were also called Paladins."

"What?" Winter and Ironwoods confused voices resonated throughout the room.

"Did they steal our name?" Winter's held a clear amount of irritation.

"Hehe, doesn't matter, cause you know what I saw? Cause I saw the American Paladin destroy one of the White Fang's Atlesian Paladins with a single shot."

Slack jawed, wide eyed, those were some of the words to describe the reactions of those in the room. Sure, the models that were stolen may have been prototypes, but even still, they were practically very close to what the final product would be.

Winter's back straightened into a dignified stance. "Impossible, the Atlesian Paladin 2-90 armor is powerful enough to withstand a full speed charge of a Megoliath."

"Yeah, and I watched it destroy all the missiles the Paladin shot at it with lasers, after that it took a hit from its energy gun, and you know what happened to it? It shook! That's all the Paladin's energy cannon did to it, it made it shake a bit! Might've given the tank a few burn marks, but that was it. Then with a single shot, both the Paladin and whoever that poor pilot was, were dead."

Ironwood was speechless, thoughts racing through his head. He didn't want to believe that what was the peak of Atlesian ground weaponry was destroyed by a single shot from an American gun, whereas its own guns didn't do anything. He didn't like the prospect of eventually finding himself the enemy of the United States, which given the current relationship of the Kingdoms, was a probability that couldn't just be overlooked. Which meant he might just have to deal with those out of sight cannons, high speed bombers, and those Tanks.

This was a terrifying thought indeed, even some of the best technology Atlas had to offer at the time stood no chance against a simple gun, they all stood there dumbfounded.

The fact that according to Qrow, thousands of troops marched, or didn't march, but rather rolled into Mountain Glenn, meant that the Americans probably still had thousands more troops in their other bases, which might put the total size of their military to over ten thousand men and women under their ranks.

Ironwood was still confident with what he had heard so far, Atlas had forty thousand troops at his disposal, he knew his military could still Beat the Americans, but given what he had heard from Qrow, the casualties from this hypothetical conflict would be immense.

But Winter's thoughts wandered off back to her sister, she still did not know what happened, she knew from Ozpin that Kirkman was keeping her temporarily while she recovered, but she still wanted to know what happened.

"So… What happened to- "

"Yeah." Qrow continued. "After the battle- "He shook his head. "No, it wasn't a battle, it was a massacre. After the massacre, everyone started putting barbed wire everywhere and went around the place securing it even more. I was watching over this one guy that I had been following around for most of the day, his name is Jack Son or something."

Strange name, some people didn't bother with naming their child something that corresponded with a color, but all the names he heard tossed around in the battlefield were all mostly non color related. But that was beside the point.

"He was chatting with another guy, talking about what had just happened. And no, bullshit- "

"Language!" Glynda sent a glare his way, which he ignored.

"No bullshit." He continued. "They were talking about how many Paladin kills they had scored, oh and did I mention they call Atlesian Paladins roaches? Hehe." He saw clenched fists from the two Atlesians in the room. "Anyways, after a bit, a dog ran up to em, and I thought, hey this dog looks familiar, because of course, it was Tai's dog, Zwei."

Glynda's head suddenly turned to Ozpin. "They brought an animal with them to their mission, that is against the rules! Did you know about this?"

"Well, that's beside the point, because if Zwei hadn't been there, I'm pretty sure at least one of them would've died under that huge pile of rubble. He led the two guys to this big pile of rubble, together, them and a few other guys pulled out all the kids plus Bart."

Glynda's glare softened, instead she went into this look of concern, though Qrow couldn't really tell, Glynda was such a hardass that if he wasn't sure if she even had the ability to feel genuinely concerned, or at least that's what he told himself every time he'd get nagged by her.

Ozpin held the same look of concern, except he looked to be a lot less surprised by the revelation.

Winter wanted to speak, clearly wanting to ask if Weiss was okay, but it appeared that she'd thought to have asked too many questions as is, and didn't want to ask more in order to remain in that calm and composed façade of hers.

Qrow still remembered when Yang was pulled out of the rubble first. He hadn't expected to see his niece be suddenly pulled out unconscious, so he reacted quite aggressively.

"Before you ask, they're all fine, few cuts and scrapes here and there, but it looked like their auras took the brunt of it, hell that pile of rubble probably saved them from all the bombs hitting around the place. Out of all of them though, that one girl, don't know her name, she's got black hair, a bow on her head."

Looks of relief filled the room.

Ozpin stood up. "Blake Belladonna? What happened to her?"

"She was the most injured, had a big metal rod poking out her leg, and her arms looked pretty banged up, but nothing a good doctor and aura couldn't fix."

Ozpin sat back down, still concerned, but his worries had been slightly eased.

"Now you're all informed, I think you should really think about making a plan for the Americans. Cause it's starting to look like there's a new player on the board."

Blake's head was a mess, how long had she been out? Her consciousness was still in a very shaky state, she could barely muster the lucidity to even think, much less muster the strength to open her eyes. She could vaguely feel a sharp pain coursing through her right leg. As her mind was starting to finally climb out of its confused state, she started to hear scattered words around her.

"… You can move them now…"

"… Keep her here…"

"… Make sure to ask about…"

"… She isn't waking up…"

"… Check her au- "

She opened her eyes, slowly, finding it rather hard to do so, her vision was blurry. She tried to blink away the blurriness. There was a pulsating pain going through her head, she could feel the pain in her leg even better now. She was laid down on something soft.

'A bed?' She thought.

Her surroundings were strange to say the least, mostly empty room with empty beds, metallic walls, and a large closed door directly in front of her.

She heard a few metallic clanking sounds to her left, she achingly turned her head to the right, it was hard to turn her head too, not just from the pain but it was as if every muscle in her body was in an overly relaxed state.

Was this what anesthesia felt like? She'd never been administered anesthesia before, all she knew was that it knocked people right out.

In her peripheral vision she could see an IV bag to her right, though she couldn't feel the IV, must be whatever drugs they had injected into her.

As her head finally finished turning, she saw a disheveled looking man, unkempt dark brown hair, untrimmed facial hair, and blackened eyes that just screamed insomnia. He was in what looked to be a white lab coat.

He was fiddling with some wires which all lead to a screen with a blue meter on it, but it showed up as empty.

She just stared, before realizing that she was laid down on a bed in an unknown place with an unknown stranger right next to her fiddling with an unknown device. She strained to sit up, she gathered all the strength she could and pushed herself up, her blanket flew forward.

"Oh shit!" The man yelled in shock with an almost familiar voice. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, don't even try, doctors said something about you not being able to walk for at least a few days." The more he spoke the more she recognized his voice.

The man stood up, placed his gloved hand on her chest and pushed her back down on her bed. His hand was in a precarious position which only served to irritate her more. He pulled back his hand, and pressed a button next to her bed.

"Where am I?" She strained out; her voice was raspy.

She was expecting to hear the word 'Beacon' come from his mouth, the room, after all, looked like an infirmary in Beacon Academy, though she didn't recognize the man. She was pretty sure she knew the faces of all the doctors and nurses in Beacon. They frequented the infirmaries after all because of all the injuries that would happen from sparring and just the general mayhem that her team and JNPR would get to.

He looked like a doctor, but he talked about 'the doctors' like he wasn't one of them, was he not a doctor?

The man seemed to deliberate her question, thinking deeply. "…You're being treated for your injuries at Camp Glenn. A temporary military encampment owned by the United States of America."

Upon hearing those words exit his mouth, Blake immediately attempted to jump out of her bed, adrenaline rushing through her veins.

Out of pure anticipation, the man had already begun forcing her onto the bed; she could have easily overpowered him if it weren't for her weakened state."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Just stay put, we ain't gonna hurt you, Kirkman just has a few… AH!" She smacked him square in the face. He staggered backwards, grasping his face.

"Fuckin' hell, they really should've slapped some handcuffs on you."

She lifted her leg, only for a much larger pain to shoot right up it, she yelled out in pain. She pushed through the hurt and twisted her body in an attempt to roll off the bed. Then the doors opened. Revealing General Kirkman Himself accompanied by a tall bald man. Both were in green uniforms. She froze.

"Good afternoon, Ms. Belladonna, I assure you, there's nothing to be so… Agitated about, you're simply being treated here for your injuries."

The bald man next to Kirkman then looked to his right, to see the disheveled man who was grasping his nose.

The disheveled man spoke. "Thought there were supposed to be guards outside, would've been real useful when she punched me in the face."

The uniformed men gave a look to Blake, they held no emotions but there was something hidden there. "Forgive her, Ben, she's just… adjusting." Kirkman spoke.

Kirkman then looked at the device that the now named 'Ben' was fiddling with. "Detection device still doesn't work?"

"I was working on it when she woke up."

Kirkman nodded. "Alright, you may go now Ben." Ben stopped holding his face, and with an irritated look, he exited through the large metallic door. "You too, Colonel."

"Sir, are you- "

"Yeah." The two then turned their backs to Blake and whispered amongst themselves, normally, she would've been able to hear them easily thanks to her heightened faunus hearing, but her grogginess combined with her recent injuries made it hard to focus.

But the Bald man also then left, leaving her and Kirkman alone in the room. She tensed up.

"Relax, like I said, you're just being treated for your injuries, your friends are in the other room, most of them are awake, same for your professor. I apologize for what occurred during the attack, I truly do." His tone was genuine yet almost hollow.

Blake stayed frozen. At Beacon she had imagined screaming every single profanity known to man at Kirkman, but here she was, unable to even speak. Not out of fear no, but something else lurked at the back of her mind.

"Now, you might be asking why you're here and are separated from your schoolmates, well it's because I have a few questions for you." Kirkman's tone dipped low.

Did he know? Did he know about her past? Was that why she was separated? So that she could be interrogated or worse? She immediately started planning her escape, with the sheets off, she finally noticed that her left leg was heavily bandaged which would lower her mobility. But if she could gather enough energy, she could lunge at Kirkman using the IV stand as a weapon.

"We know that you're a former member of the White Fang."

Her eyes widened, that IV stand was starting to look really appealing.

"But don't worry, I won't do anything against you for that past of yours, it would be cruel to do so against an unintended victim of our offensive."

"…Cruel?" Finally finding the strength to speak to the man, Blake levelled a glare at the American General. "Cruel?!" Kirkman was slightly taken aback by the sudden outburst of emotion. "Cruel… Like the dozens you killed in that attack in the base, like what you did now! That's cruel!"

Kirkman remained expressionless. "We clearly have opposing moral views; I view the White Fang as a terrorist group which has done nothing but oppress innocents since your father stepped down as leader."

Her teeth were grinding, she wanted to say something, but did she hear that second part right? "How did you…"

"Not exactly hard to figure out, doing research on the White Fang always leads you to its former leader, Ghira Belladonna, then a quick search of family history will lead to you. Again though, this isn't about you. You see, we are aware of you having had a close relationship with high-ranking White Fang member, Adam Taurus."

The moment those words exited his mouth, many previously bottled-up emotions escaped her mind.

"Currently, we suspect Mr. Taurus of having been the one who started all this, the orders to find and attack our base, and the kill-on-sight orders for all humans which started this very conflict. Did you know that, Blake? You call us cruel, yet you ignore the fact that we only do this 'cruelty' because they were cruel to us first."

Blake stayed quiet, too many thoughts flooding her mind for her to be able to put together a coherent sentence. She knew Adam was not perfect, she knew that the White Fang had strayed away from its original purpose. She knew all that, but could she really accept what they were doing?

"I'm not telling you anything."

Kirkman gave Blake a glare, she met his glare with her own. They stared at each other for a full minute before Kirkman broke it with a sigh. "Alright then, it's not like you're my prisoner. I'll have it arranged for you to be brought back to your friends."

Blake wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but she had a feeling it wasn't over yet.

He slowly walked to the door. Before stepping "One more thing though." She knew it, she tensed up once again. "Do you know who the Doctor is?"

"That…" Blake trailed off, the Doctor was an entity she really didn't want to remember, something that struck both disgust and incredible fear in her heart. She could still remember the screams of his so called 'Test subjects' and how Adam just let it happen.

Blake stared down at her sheets. "I'll never forgive you for killing so many…" Kirkman frowned. "But I wouldn't mind if you killed the Doctor."

Chapter Text

Lisa Lavender considered herself to be a good journalist, she knew how to get a scoop, she had many sources and connections that allowed her to get a good idea on what was relevant in the world. She also considered herself to be a good reporter, VNN was the #1 most viewed television news source for a reason.

But even she wasn't expecting much when she opened an email that was sent directly to the Vale News Network from one 'eaglefucker1776 '. The usual protocol was to delete emails coming from such questionable places, but she took the liberty of sifting through every single message which had led her to many things good and bad.

But the message she received from eaglefucker1776… It was possibly the best information she'd received from a single message in her entire career as both a journalist and a news reporter. It was a simple message, saying the United States was interested in conducting an on-site interview with them at Mountain Glenn. Granted, she had scrutinized this email heavily, who wouldn't scrutinize an email coming from one with such a vulgar name.

It came with an attached video of General Kirkman himself saying that reporters of the Vale News Network were invited to meet with 'High Ranking Individuals' of the United States at their camp near Mountain Glenn. The entire network conducted a mass search of the video everywhere on the internet, showing no results, meaning that it was authentic and original.

The next part of the message contained coordinates to a random spot a few miles off Vale, telling them to bring a small camera crew and one to two reporters.

So here she was, driving inside a large van with the camera crew that she had personally picked out.

This was a risk, she knew it, this could have all been one very elaborate prank, but with how little reliable information there was about the United States, she was willing to take any risk to report on them, especially in an on-site interview in one of their military camps.

That not even mentioning how much the viewership to the network would be affected, the numbers would skyrocket. And hopefully she would be promoted for taking the initiative.

She watched as one of the men started fiddling with his camera.

"Is everything alright?" She asked.

"Yeah, I just need to…" He breathed as he started twisting at the lens with a device. "Replace the lens." He continued.

The van continued to make a turn down a freshly paved road. They were already miles from the bubble of safety surrounding Vale, this wouldn't be the first time she would venture outside safety for a scoop though, but something about the situation made her even more weary. As the van got deeper into the paved road, they could make out a clearing at the very end of it, with shapes and a loud humming noise that could be heard from within the van.

And as the van neared the end of it, they could see what exactly was in the clearing, three large shapes right next to each other, two of them reminded her of bullheads with propellers, while the other one was a lot thinner, and had a propeller at the top. about two dozen men in green uniforms who all had what looked to be guns aimed outside the clearing as if protecting everything within the clearing. And at the center was a tall bald man in a similar green patterned uniform.

The van slowed to halt, before a grunt in her crew cautiously opened the doors. He pulled as the doors came open. They slowly stepped out, none of the soldiers looked at them, the only person looking their way was the tall man.

"Good afternoon, I assume you're Lisa Lavender." He spoke with a deep baritone voice. He held a welcoming smile, but that didn't change the tenseness of the situation.

Lisa stood at the front of her crew, she did her best to hold a dignified stance and to not show the intense uneasiness she felt. "Yes, I am. And you are?"

He still kept with the unnerving smile. "Colonel Ernest Burton. Aide-de-camp to General Kirkman." He brought his hand forward, offering a handshake.

Aide de camp? What did that even mean? She recognized 'Aid' and 'Camp' but with the words stuck together with 'de' in the middle, she didn't at all understand what it meant. He was also Colonel, which if her knowledge served her right, was the rank right before General in the Atlesian military, did they just copy the ranking system of Atlas?

"A pleasure to meet you…" She questioned whether to address him as 'Colonel', 'Ernest', or 'Burton'. "Colonel." she chose. She gave a smile and accepted the handshake.

Through her peripheral vision she could see a few of the soldiers glancing at her.

The Colonel pulled his arm back, and gestured towards the bullhead on the right with opened bay doors. "Please, come in, we'll be heading straight to Camp Glenn."

Camp Glenn? She had so many questions, most importantly the question of whether or not it was a good idea to head inside the bullhead as suggested, she was starting to regret her choice coming here, those glances from the soldiers were not helping. She nervously looked back at her crew looking for any sign of approval, they were equally if not more nervous than her.

She looked back ahead. She slowly nodded to the Colonel, it was too late to back off now, given how many soldiers were here it would probably have been more dangerous not to take that offer. The unnerving smile on his face grew. Her fingers were starting to tremble, she was more on edge than ever.

She inched forward, taking a step at a time towards the bullhead, her heel hit the bay door of the bullhead, a metallic clank resonated through the silent clearing, startling her a little, she could hear her crew slowly following.

"No need to be nervous, we'll keep you safe."

Either the Colonel had a sick sense of humor or he failed to understand just how intimidating the situation currently was.

With a gulp she sped up the doors and entered the bullhead. She and the crew were now inside. It was surprisingly spacious, the interior reminded her of a metallic tube, seats on both ends. She looked out to see the Colonel do some hand signals, she heard dozens of footsteps with soldiers suddenly running to what was probably the other bullhead. The Colonel himself walked inside the bullhead Lisa and her crew were in.

He was immediately followed by four men, possibly his personal bodyguards. Unease was in the air.

She and her crew took a seat, as did the soldiers and the Colonel.

She heard a sound as if the wind was being chopped up, likely the propellers on the aircraft, they lifted up and were now in the air. It was quite loud.

Silence overtook the group; nobody spoke for a few minutes as they flew through the skies of Remnant. Then the Colonel broke the conversational silence.

"I don't see broadcasting equipment on you. You aren't going to be filming live?" He spoke louder to compensate for the noise.

Lisa was caught off guard by the question. "Uh- no, we'll be taping it."

She built up the courage to ask a question. "When will we get to see General Kirkman?"

The Colonel gave her a deadpan look. "You won't."

Her eyes widened.

"The General's a busy man, he sent me to do the interview for him, don't worry, I'll be able to answer all your questions."

She felt a tad bit of disappointment, but this was clearly someone who was important to the infamous General, and she would be, as far as she knew, the first non-American to take a step into an American property and interview who she assumed was a high-ranking American officer, so this trip was shaping up to still be very worthwhile.

She took the time to observe the Colonel and his entourage. The four of whom wore masks that almost completely covered their faces, two of them even covered their eyes with weird looking sunglasses and goggles. They had unique helmets that looked different from the other soldiers guarding the clearing. They had a different air to them.

The Colonel was certainly unique, he wore a uniform of a similar color to the one Kirkman wore on his first appearance in the news, except it was short sleeved and didn't have any markings, it was a simple green shirt with camouflage patterns. On it were 'Burton' and 'US Army' written atop each breast pocket.

As time passed by, she ran out of things to observe, she finally took in the awkward yet threatening silence, the only thing not silent being the propellers. They must have been in there for around twenty minutes

A very faint chatter could be heard on the pilot's side of the aircraft.. They were probably talking to the Colonel through his earpiece.

"We're getting there, just a bit longer, ETA five minutes." The Colonel pulled out aviators from one of his breast pockets, he put them on. "I suggest you start prepping to film, lots of good footage once we land"

He was helping them? Nonetheless, Lisa took his advice, she tapped her cameraman on the shoulder, who then fumbled with his equipment, trying to get it ready for the landing. The same went for the one in charge of handling said equipment who was setting up a microphone, and going into his backpack to get other pieces of equipment.

More time passed as the crew finally finished setting up. The propellers started slowing down as evident by the sound, they could feel the descending motion. The Colonel's entourage were the first to stand.

The cameraman was about to stand up too, but was held back by a hand from the Colonel. "Let them out first."

They touched the ground, the doors opened, the soldiers jogged out, and Colonel Burton gave them the thumbs up. He stood, as did the others, the camera was rolling, the microphone was picking up audio.

As they descended down the loading bay style doors, a blast of light hit them, they could finally see the very thing so many in Remnant were desperate to see an American base, and it blew her expectations away.

Hundreds of soldiers filled their immediate surroundings, some were doing exercises, some were firing their weapons in some sort of shooting range.

A behemoth of a vehicle suddenly barreled down the road in front of them, startling them, it had a massive pole sticking through it, the cameraman inwardly scrutinized himself for not panning over to take a video.

Overhead four aircraft suddenly came to view and with a thundering boom flew right past them.

Lisa stepped back from the sudden noise, but composed herself once more, and looked upon the massive 'camp'. If this was just a camp, what constituted a fort to them?

Colonel Burton stepped forward, just out of view of the camera, his boots making a crackling sound with the gravel on the ground.

"…Welcome to Camp Glenn."

Cinder paced around the room, a glare fixed on the floor as she just walked around, her two cohorts being too afraid to speak, they knew when it was not the time to make snide remarks, Cinder was not in the mood for any of that.

The news channel blaring throughout the room, it was night, evening news was playing, and as expected all they were talking about was the attack.

Just a single day had passed since the attack that shook the world, something that did much more than just disable a White Fang logistics facility, it was an attack that would absolutely cripple the White Fang's reach and capabilities in and around Vale, an attack that had thrown not only a wrench into her plans but also doused it in fire dust and set it aflame.

"…The United States just hours ago released its official fatality report on the White Fang, 628 dead due to combat, 181 dead due to grimm, friendly fire, and other causes, putting the total number of dead at 809."

The sound of Cyril Forest, VNN's evening news reporter could be heard.

Cinder clenched her fist. Mercury walked over to the scroll projector, about to turn it off.

"Stop." She growled at mercury. "I want to hear this."

Mercury sat back down.

"Over 1900 wounded, according to the press release made by the United States, the number for both dead and injured are still being counted, due to certain areas currently being inaccessible without special equipment. The total number of injuries is staggeringly in favor of the United States, who, if their words are to be believed, only lost six men and had thirty-two injured."

"Oh, that can't be real." Emerald shook her head. "That place had at least a couple thousand White Fang in there, how could they only lose six guys?"

Cinder spoke. "It doesn't matter. Even if the Americans lost a hundred while attacking it, we still lost many more White Fang. Adam will now be hesitant to push through with our plans." Cinder's clenched fist started to tremble as the room's temperature increased by a degree or two.

"But there still has to be at least a few bases left, right?" Mercury tried to justify still being optimistic.

Cinder didn't answer. She knew all hope was lost for the White Fang's Vale branch. Out of over 3000 members at the start of the year, 400 had gone missing searching for the American base. Around 300 died during the attack on the White Fang Base, a further 200 dying from other confirmed direct combat with Americans. Dozens have disappeared from different towns and villages under mysterious circumstances, and now this. Their membership had been halved, and that wasn't even counting the hundreds that deserted out of fear.

Those altercations with Team RWBY were nothing compared to this.

She hadn't fully recognized the Americans as a true threat, but now… This truly put a stop to her plans.

Without the White Fang at its full strength, they wouldn't have an invasion force large enough to attack Beacon, and any potential recruits would now likely be too scared to join after seeing what happened to the White Fang at Mountain Glenn.

She was thinking many things at the same time, she knew that she needed a large force to take on Beacon, she didn't care what the Doctor said about his work in progress project being more than enough, her group and the White Fang as it was were nowhere near enough for the task of taking out Beacon with the Atlesian military, huntsmen, and now the United States ready to take them out.

She knew Adam would no longer be willing to work with her as is, he would be too hellbent on destroying the Americans, he wouldn't sit back and listen to her plans any longer. The only thing that would work was a promise to take down the Americans, not a false promise too, as they were the first legitimate threat to her own plans.

"So…" Emerald nervously stepped forward. "What happens now?"

Cinder had but one honest answer to that question, but she didn't want to say it out loud. 'I don't know.'

All she knew was that things had to go back on track, or else all her hard work from the very day she left that hell she was stuck in would be for nothing. And it all rested on defeating the Americans.

"It makes no sense!" Ironwood was in his office, his lieutenant standing beside him as he looked over the pictures Qrow had taken of the attack.

"How were they able to attack all of Mountain Glenn like this?" Frustration was clear in his voice as he viewed the picture.

It was taken from a high angle. Qrow was likely on top of a building or hill when this was taken. Vehicles were rolling down the streets, dozens if not hundreds of men rushing down alongside them, aiming their guns everywhere. It was incredibly disorganized, yet if they were to be believed, they had achieved a complete victory with these tactics.

The streets and buildings of Mountain Glenn were clearly ruined, even more ruined than they already were. He needed to know more of their tactics, and how they could even succeed with this much chaos in their movements. Qrow had called it "Organized Chaos" Every soldier had a purpose, yet they were moving about the place like they had no purpose.

Common protocol here was to march in an organized fashion and eliminate any opposition that appeared, but that wasn't what was happening here, it was like they had a completely different doctrine to them.

Even that preemptive strike that Qrow talked about made no sense, how could those guns fire that far? And how could they be so powerful? Team RWBY had come back along with Professor Oobleck, but they had to rest before questioning could happen, but based purely on the photos, those guns and aircraft clearly did something.

But he needed more information.

Beep

It came from his left. There was a glowing light within Winter's pocket, it was her scroll. She pulled it out, unfolding it, she viewed the contents.

"Sir. The Americans are doing an on-site interview with VNN, it's playing on the news right now."

Ironwood couldn't believe what he was hearing. An on-site interview?

"What do you mean by on-site? In Mountain Glenn?"

Winter tapped on her scroll. "It appears to have been done at their base near Mountain Glenn."

That means it was the same camp Qrow had said they set up. He immediately pressed the power button on his hardlight projector, a very large hardlight screen popped up on the opposite side of the room, he went to a live streaming of the VNN news to watch the report.

He looked to Winter as the livestream started to load. "Winter, take notes."

"Yes, sir." She went to a different desk and opened up a computer, readying to type down whatever she deemed necessary.

The video finally appeared on the screen, showing Lisa Lavender.

"…Surprise when two days ago, we received an email from an anonymous source, we decided to investigate it, bringing us to an unmarked location near Vale where we saw this…"

The screen was taken over by a video feed of Lisa Lavender stepping out of a vehicle out to what looked to be a clearing within a forest, was this their base? And was it really that short a distance from Vale that it just took a short drive?

"This was where we met with one, Colonel Burton, a supposed Aide-de-Camp to General Kirkman."

Ironwood was even more intrigued, the video cut to showing Lisa Lavender speaking with a taller Bald Man in a green uniform. Ironwood did not recognize the term 'Aide-de-Camp'. Around them were a small force of soldiers who had their sights trained on the surrounding greenery.

"We were told to enter the aircraft."

The news reel continued as Lisa and her crew entered the bullhead-like aircraft that was in front of them.

Ironwood's face held visible worry. "This is bad."

However, Winter did not know why her superior was concerned "How so, sir? Should we not allow the news media to interview Americans from this point forward?"

"No, it's just that this proves that Qrow was right, they're able to get troops so close to Vale without us finding out, and if Qrow was right about them moving thousands of soldiers outside Mountain Glenn, that would mean they can move armies without us knowing." The concern grew on his face as he continued watching the news.

This was indeed concerning, because it meant that if the Americans had their sights on Vale, it would already be too late by the time any point of authority found out about American troop movement.

Even them being able to move a small force of soldiers was already very worrisome, he of all people knew that even just a squad or two could do wonders, reconnaissance, special operations, assassinations. This meant that it could be a very real possibility that the Indigo Offices massacre was perpetrated by the Americans.

But he eventually dismissed these thoughts, after all, one would require identification in order to actually enter Vale.

After a short minute of Lisa talking over the footage of them within the bullhead, the footage eventually cut into a few minutes later as the audio faded back in, it sounded like something was chopping through the air, the familiar sound of the American bullheads when they arrived at Beacon all those weeks ago.

"After a short flight, we landed at their base…" Short flight? That was concerning, how short was this flight? If these American bullheads were of similar speed to their own that would mean that the American base was closer than they thought.

"We were escorted out where we were met by the sight of their camp."

The footage cut into a scene where the soldiers around them rushed outward, the previously dark view of the camera was taken over by a flash of light as the audio came in, the chopping came to a slow halt, metallic footsteps came from the camera crew stepping out into the open, the camera returned to focus as Ironwood and Winter finally saw something that had been coveted by politicians, generals, and civilians alike… Or almost saw, as Colonel Burton blocked the view of the camera.

He then stepped to the side as the camp came into view. And it was shocking.

A large paved road was right in front of them, with different turns and intersections. There were hundreds of soldiers, all doing various tasks, some were in a shooting range firing from guns of all shapes and sizes, others were jogging, doing push ups, sit ups and other exercises. Some were simply chatting with each other on the sidelines.

Then on the road in front of them, a massive vehicle came into view, rolling down the road in complete view from the camera, it was the exact same as the 'Paladins' in Qrow's photos.

Then before Ironwood or Winter could even make a comment, a sound exploded into whatever audio capture device the camera crew was using as above them came four aircraft flying so fast that they disappeared the second they appeared. They were the same ones from when they visited Beacon.

"All these things happening at the same time…" Ironwood trailed off.

"What is it, sir?"

"This isn't just an interview, this is a demonstration, they are putting all their power on display to show the world just how strong they are."

"It's an intimidation tactic." Winter realized

"Exactly. And I'm guessing the interview is only going to hammer down the point that they are a force to be reckoned with." Ironwood remembered the original reports the Americans sent, was that another strategy too? To show off the fact that they lost so little in a battle that completely devastated the White Fang, so that the general populace would start questioning Valean authorities over their incompetency with the White Fang when the Americans seemingly did so well?

Because that was exactly what was happening. All around Vale, huntsmen, the Vale Police Department, even the Atlesian military were all being ridiculed, all because the Americans did what they couldn't, in certain circles, the Americans were even being lauded.

Ironwood almost couldn't believe it. If he was right, it would be like every move they pulled was part of a well curated plan that had been set in motion from the very damn start. From the most obvious military operation, to what was essentially going to be a well marketed press conference.

"We were welcomed by Colonel Burton, after which he requested us to switch off our recording equipment as he led us through the base."

The video cut to black and went to footage of the group inside an office-like room.

Ironwood was hoping for them to state that they continued recording in secret, but they seemed to have been intimidated by the presence of that many soldiers and the colonel himself, or they didn't want to ruin the chance of them being invited to the base again, either way, it was a missed opportunity.

"Colonel Burton then presented a flash drive which contained a video of General Kirkman himself presenting and explaining the attack on Mountain Glenn. He asked that we watch the video before proceeding to ask questions about the attack, these were the contents of the flash drive."

The video transitioned to General Kirkman, in the same type of uniform that he wore to Beacon. He simply stared at the camera for a short second.

"This is it." Ironwood remarked, watching closely.

The infamous General was standing straight, behind a podium with a triangular symbol on it, a familiar symbol of a white bird wearing a blue and red shield on its back. Behind the General were two flags, both of which were strewn down due to gravity, but the shapes and symbols on them were still clearly displayed. One was the same set of stars and stripes worn by all their soldiers, which was likely their flag used to symbolize their nation. The other flag was blue, the center had the symbol of a hawk or an eagle perched atop a shield, the words "United States Central Command" around it.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, it's no secret that the attack on Mountain Glenn has shocked and confused many, and it is because of that that I have decided to give everyone a complete rundown on why we did it and the strategy behind how we did it."

"Isn't this a mistake? Showing their strategies and tactics for the world to see?" Winter asked.

"Perhaps it's to show us their strategic superiority, but I'm not so sure myself."

"Unfortunately, due to previously set obligation, I will be unable to answer any questions that you may have after this video is shown to VNN, but I have left Colonel Burton in my stead to answer those questions." After a short pause, he continued. "Now let's begin with a complete briefing of the operation."

The General then moved to the left, the camera followed him, now there was a board with an image on it. Words on the top left read: '18 September', below it were numbers arranged in military time that read: '0500-0700'.

The image on the board was clearly a map of a large portion of Mountain Glenn and the surrounding areas.

There were multiple squares of different colors in and around Mountain Glenn. The first group were blue squares, with undiscernible white shapes within them, there were many of them south of Mountain Glenn on the map, within mountain Glenn were four areas highlighted in yellow, in and around them were red squares.

The two Atlesians discerned that the blue squares symbolized American forces, while the red were White Fang, the yellow highlighted areas were likely objectives.

"Now, before we get onto the actual operation itself, I believe it's important for me to explain why we did this in the first place, and of course its effects."

Ironwood heard of this from Ozpin, apparently the White Fang was planning a massive attack on Vale, though none of the proof Kirkman showed was very compelling. But this was certainly problematic, if he told the world that the attack happened to stop the White Fang from attacking Vale, the American would be made to be bigger heroes than they were already made out to be by the public.

"Through the incredible efforts of our special forces and our intelligence sectors, we were able to determine an attack planned by the White Fang, an attack on Vale that planned to utilize the ruins of the Mountain Glenn subway system to create chasms at the very center of Vale, one that would allow for the entry of hundreds if not thousands of subterranean grimm."

There it was, but even the public wasn't that stupid, they were going to want proof, and not just the testimonies of those captured at Cooperwick, that wouldn't be enough. Then Kirkman pulled out something from under the podium, a set of papers, he laid it out on top of the podium.

"These are copies of the documents of their plans to attack Vale from various White Fang bases as well as the personal office of Roman Torchwick." Ironwood and Winter's eyes widened. That was certainly much better proof. Kirkman then pulled something from his pocket, a flash drive, he showed it to the camera. "And this is a recorded confession from Roman Torchwick."

The two Atlesians went slack jawed. Roman Torchwick of all people? Confessing to crimes? Torchwick had been arrested several times, all he would give to authorities was a snarky smile and a wink when questioned, but the Americans had an actual recorded confession? What did they do? Regardless, with that, the hearts of the people would definitely be swayed.

"Now let's get on with this, shall we? On the morning of September 18…"

Raven Branwen was many things, warrior, bandit, murderer, but what she was not was weak. She had spent her whole life earning her place amongst the strong, and she was willing to use that strength for the needs and wants of her tribe exactly as she had done now.

The ruins of a once thriving town surrounded her. What was once a population of over seven hundred capable men, women, and children were reduced to a few wounded survivors huddles up in basements and attics, soon to be found by her men, only to be killed, raped, or sold off to the black market.

Some would say her actions were unnecessary, but as far as she was considered, this was the simple order of the world. The strong culling the weak. So, she was surprised when she heard the news of the United States, a self-proclaimed nation, causing much trouble for the White Fang, an organization which had eluded destruction by Vale and Mistral's authorities for decades.

They even paraded around their almost complete destruction of the White Fang as part of some sort of noble cause, but she knew lies when she saw them, and this was one of them. Just like any leader, this was simply done to advance their interests, she didn't care what Kirkman had to say about just causes and an attack on Vale, those were simple side-effects of his plan.

"That concludes the strategic and tactical overview of Operation White Death, a complete success."

The General Finally finished drawling on and on about the operation.

The holographic screen flickered a bit. This was to be expected, one of her men inadvertently hit the televisions' projector module when he beat the bartender to death against the wall with a baseball bat.

"This something to worry about?" Vernal leaned against the bar counter, near where Raven was sitting.

Raven struggled to answer, even she had to admit that the Americans taking back Mountain Glenn with such little casualties (if the slides were to be believed) was impressive. So she decided to answer realistically.

"Sanus is their playground. We are… unlikely to face them."

"But what if we do?" Vernal seemed to catch the fact that she had avoided answering the very obvious question.

But right as she was thinking about the right way to answer, the video feed of Kirkman seemed to stop and was replaced with Colonel Burton.

"Colonel Burton then offered to do an interview with us. We asked him several questions, many of which he refused the answer, here were the ones he dignified with a response."

Raven started to clean her weapon while casually listening to what was being said on the news. Vernal seemed to look to her for an answer to her previous question, seeing as Raven ignored it though, she decided to move on. Vernal knew better than to annoy her.

"Where is Roman Torchwick?"

"He is currently incarcerated at our detention center." He curtly responded

"For him to snitch like that, they must be beating the guy senseless." Raven heard one of her men say.

"Or they have something on him, blackmail, loved ones…" Vernal insinuated.

"Ha! Like he'd have loved ones."

"Does the United States plan on taking the fight to the White Fang in Mistral, or even Menagerie?"

'A good question, a better one would be if the US could handle that.' Raven thought.

"As of now, no, we are aware that the White Fang is divided into different segments, all being under some vague control of a regional leader, some of which being more aggressive than the others, the Vale branch of the White Fang is thus far the only branch to have shown aggression towards us. But if the other branches choose to avenge their comrades, they're free to do so, but they will be met with the same force that met the White Fang here."

Impressive answer, but it was clear he was showing off. Raven finished cleaning the blood off her sword, and took out her sharpening iron, she ran it across the blade in a back-and-forth motion.

"What 'business' is General Kirkman currently involved in that prevents him from being with us today?"

"Business that involves our future endeavors in various sectors."

"Would you care to divulge information on these… future endeavors?"

"Of course, one of these endeavors involves the fact that we have noticed that many smaller towns and villages in Remnant are unprotected, we have built alliances with a few villages, benefitting them with our protection, and benefiting us with deeper relations with the outside world. We plan to do the same outside Sanus, specifically in Anima as we hear the Bandit Tribes there are quite vicious and are making trouble for the- "

Upon hearing those words, Raven put too much pressure on her sharpening tool, causing a loud metallic hiss to deafen her surroundings. She was taken aback.

Looks like they were going to have their answer sooner than expected.

Green Gap research facility, MOB Kostanav

2300 hours

Two days since he had left for Washington DC for his meeting with senior officials, General Kirkman was exhausted, between long talks with the director of the CIA, Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Secretary of Defense and other high-ranking officials, and the near 14-hour flights to and from DC, the General really needed a break.

Unfortunately, he wasn't going to get one, because as soon as he stepped in the portal, now codenamed 'Green Gap', it was back to work, he had already communicated the results of his talks with the senior officials to Colonel Burton and other important figures back in Remnant, but this wasn't enough, he would have to discuss concrete ways on how to execute the plans that were made, of which there were many.

The General mustered up the energy to walk through the portal, and what greeted him was Colonel Burton, holding a folder in his hands.

Great, more papers to read through.

"Welcome back, General." The Colonel gave him a salute, Kirkman did the same.

"Good to be back." He walked forward, initiating the trip to his office.

"Did VNN run the news story?" He asked as he walked.

The Colonel gave him a nod. "Yes sir, including your speech and Torchwick's confession."

"Did it have any effect?"

"A lot, many are calling us heroes, councilman Don Forest from Mistral called us…" Burton opened the folder, reading its contents, he continued "The best thing Remnant has seen since hardlight dust."

A politician supporting the US? That was certainly a lot better than people of the general populace supporting the US. This would mean someone with actual power liked them. That said politician was from Mistral, the kingdom on a continent they had taken interest in.

"Though sir it should be noted that he and his followers are known to be racist against the faunus, so him supporting us might give out the wrong impressions."

Ah, there was the caveat.

"Any support from people who aren't racist?"

"Other than your average citizens, most people in power have kept quiet. A couple celebrities have said their piece though, mostly from either interviews or from social networking sites." Kirkman almost laughed at the notion of celebrities. "A popular Valean actress named Scarlett Drab said she was happy to see action finally be taken against the White Fang. Willis Creek, a musician from Atlas called us 'badass'. A few more are included in this report." He closed the folder and wiggled it in his hands.

Kirkman nodded, celebrities, while holding no actual power do hold a lot of sway on the opinions of people. And while these positive opinions were good to hear about, he was sure that there were at least a few dissenting opinions.

"Any negative reactions?"

"Clancey Sky, a political commentator said that we are warmongers."

Unsurprising, he couldn't count the number of times he heard that comment back home, justified or unjustified.

The Colonel continued "Robyn Hill, a popular huntress, said that we used too much force and that the fatalities for the White Fang prove it."

"Robyn Hill?" Burton nodded at Kirkman's question "That name's familiar, is she that woman from the Happy Huntresses group we tried to get in contact with?"

"Yes, sir. She's slated to run in the next Atlas Council elections."

That was not something he wanted to hear, if she, a person with negative opinions on the United States, became council member, it might be detrimental to any future operations involving Atlas.

The pair finally reached his office and as they stepped in, they gave a salute to the guards outside. Kirkman fell onto his seat as the Colonel laid out the report on his desk. He would make a mental note to read that later.

"Alright, now about my meetings back in DC. The CIA agreed on the money laundering operation."

After taking Mountain Glenn, they had found a lot of money, in stores, homes, old banks, many of which was still up to date, the Kirkman wanted to use that money for trade and other possible operation, the problem was that Vale and other Kingdoms had their own version of the IRS and he had no experience with money laundering, hence why he turned to the CIA.

"Do they have a plan?"

"They want to plant agents in Vale, establish some sort of business to launder the money we found at Mountain Glenn through. The money will go straight to our other operation which was the focus of my meeting with the President and Joint Chiefs of Staff. They really want dust."

"And they agreed on your plan to use the abandoned mines near Mountain Glenn?"

"Yeah, the problem is we can't use contractors from back home since they don't even know about Remnant yet, so we're doing a joint operation with the CIA, they'll get natives to work at our mines and use that laundered money to pay them."

"Won't we have to hire guards to protect them? Those mines are surrounded by Grimm. Last I checked the Armed Forces aren't allowed to protect commercial interests."

"That's where the CIA comes in again, they want to make a whole private military company made up of natives who will be trained by troops provided by us."

"A PMC?" Burton was surprised to hear those words.

"That's not all, since the money we found at Mountain Glenn probably isn't enough, they want to also establish a dust business to ship dust around Remnant to make some money on the side to help pay for it all as well as to ship dust back to Earth. Protection of said shipping will be done by that PMC."

"But don't we want dust for ourselves as well? Won't trading off a lot of it mean we don't get as much for research?"

That was a valid concern, but at this point that was all off Kirkman's hands, all the higher ups approved of the mission, they assured him that dust would still be delivered to Earth in a steady fashion.

That was the point of all of this after all, for all this time they had been using money from mercenary contracts to purchase, they couldn't let that get out of hand, if news of that got to the public, the fallout would be horrible. The Armed Forces, at least officially, were not allowed to act as mercenaries.

They needed to find a way to get dust without any of those very public contracts, with the dust company, at least according to the CIA, they could ship dust back to Earth without any illegality. Anybody with a brain would likely be able to tell how suspicious the whole thing was, but they wouldn't be able to do anything.

"They say we will, I have my doubts but we aren't the lead in this particular operation, we just provide assistance. They're sending a couple more of their officers here soon. They'll start immediately. Our job is to secure Mountain Glenn, we lead an operation in that regard."

"We've occupied it for a week now, sir, we have a camp just outside, isn't it already secured?"

To Kirkman, it wasn't completely secured just yet, even though they cleared out most of the White Fang an unprecedented amount of grimm came in the wake of the attack, attacking from the outskirts of the city or even using the old sewage systems to surprise unsuspecting patrols, causing multiple casualties, and three fatalities. Bigger grimm were coming too, a Raptor doing a low altitude patrol spotted a massive herd of elephant-like grimm, likely goliaths heading the way of Mountain Glenn.

That same herd had been spotted moving away from Mountain Glenn before the attack, maybe there were merits to grimm being attracted to negative emotion, cause what else could warrant them moving back there?

"No, you know what it's like down there, you've read the updates from staff."

From a number's standpoint, the occupation was damn successful. Usually at this stage they would see a soar in casualties, but this wasn't the case. Overall, it was still unsatisfactory though, troops were exhausted, morale was low from constantly having to fend off surprise attacks from never-ending streams of grimm, it was like the GLA again except it was big black animalistic creatures instead.

Nevermore had started coming in meaning Avengers had to be deployed to slice them up, directly occupying the city was starting to become more and more costly.

Kirkman was thinking of pulling out of the city proper once they got all the necessary materials and just have the troops stay at the camp, but he recognized the strategic importance of Mountain Glenn, an abandoned coastal city, close to dust mines with untapped potential, and most importantly it was right below Vale, occupying it permanently would be a big affront to Vale's leadership. 'We held it when you couldn't', a symbolic victory on their front, maybe they could even move in with natives, or possibly in the future, citizens from Earth.

A city with old seaports that could once again be put to use especially for that CIA operation.

It was why he proposed a plan to the Joint Chiefs, as well as the Secretary of the Navy, one to establish a naval base at the Mountain Glenn region, to finally have an American presence on Remnant's seas and oceans, military bases also tended to allow the surrounding area to be easily secured,

But that would mean unfortunately occupying Mountain Glenn for longer while the Navy gathered the necessary materials.

"You've read the plans to build a naval base there, right?"

"I thought that wasn't going to push through

"It is now, we're also getting a few legacy navy assets, but they definitely won't be legacy here. Anyway, how did the transfer go?"

"All five, students, and teacher were successfully brought back to the custody of Vale."

"Did anything interesting happen?"

The Colonel eye twitched, Kirkman could almost detect a sense of annoyance from him. "Not exactly, we just set up a meeting somewhere outside Vale, Ozpin, General Ironwood and Glynda Goodwitch were there along with… A woman."

"A woman? What's so special about this woman?"

"Well, she appeared to be the sister of Weiss Schnee, she also happens to be an officer in the Atlesian military, and she was very angry with me, I'm pretty sure she would've pulled out her sword on me if her General didn't stop her."

That was a funny scene to imagine, a woman talking Burton's ear off.

"Apart from that, nothing else happened, they were boarded onto their bullheads they were off."

They finally reached the doors of Kirkman's office, they went in as they both took a seat opposite from each other on Kirkman's desk.

Now Kirkman wanted to bring up a topic they both had been avoiding discussing since he had stepped through the portal. A piece of information that had shocked and brought him to silence after speaking to Blake Belladonna.

"Now, about the Doctor." Kirkman brought up the name of a White Fang leader which had eluded them for a long time, and the mood of the room suddenly dipped. "We both know what or who it seemed to be Blake was referring to. Insanity, constant laughs, never showing his face unless masked, the usage of strangely colored toxins on victims."

"But he died, sir, you were promoted because of it. Operation Black Gold, it's your biggest achievement aside from dealing the final blow to the GLA. You saw what happened to his base. That whole place was leveled, we even found his body."

The Colonel had personal experience, he was there, he fought during Operation Black Gold, he was one of the soldiers assaulting the compound.

"And you know for a fact that we never could identify that body. We don't know any of his family members, so DNA was ruled out, nobody ever saw his face so that was also gone. Our only piece of evidence was that it had the same clothes as him from his last broadcast, he could've easily put his clothes on some random volunteer and escaped before or even during our attack."

"Then how could he have gotten here, it took the combined power of two whole cold fusion reactors to power the Green Gap, the GLA doesn't even have anything close to that technology."

"I… don't know, but it's time we start seriously considering that Doctor Thrax might be here in Remnant."

Chapter Text

Command Center, MOB Juno

0917 hours

The squeaking of the metal door alerted Kirkman to someone entering the room. He looked up from the pile of paperwork he had been working on.

Closing the door behind him, the man that came through was an older gentleman, African-American, in his late 50s. wearing a business suit while holding a hat in his hand, coupled with his tall stature and tired looks, he emanated the aura of an experienced professional.

This was Elijah King, the man the CIA recently sent to be the Division Chief of Remnant. Of course, this title meant very little as Yankee team and a few others were the only CIA assets on Remnant at the moment. He had done much work with the CIA, he was the former Division Chief of Russia and Europe until a few years ago when he temporarily retired.

"What brings you here, Elijah?"

"Well since I'm off to Cooperwick soon, I decided to stop by." As he spoke, Elijah walked paced around the office, looking at the various memorabilia within the room.

Kirkman knew better than to think this was just to say hi.

"What actually brings you here?"

Elijah stopped walking; he brought his focus onto a particular picture of Kirkman's old company during the Gulf War. A picture of them all holding their guns, smiling as rows and rows of tanks and self-propelled artillery were behind them.

"Oh, nothing much." He finally looked at Kirkman. "Just wanted to talk,"

The General gestured to the seat in front of his desk, Elijah obliged, taking a seat.

He leaned back "I think you're lacking in the PR department."

"Isn't that what you're here to fix?"

"No, I'm here to make sure we're able to establish various corporations and help oversee the training of a paramilitary force. PR was, or is, supposed to be your job. And I think you're not doing very good at it."

That stung a little, but Kirkman knew that this was true, but he was no expert on public relations.

"What exactly is wrong with the PR strategy so far?"

"Don't let the numbers fool you, an okay amount of natives might like you but right now you're only appealing to… a certain type of native."

Kirkman knew exactly what he was saying. Currently the US had only been popular with people who held nothing but hatred for the White Fang… andmaybethere were a few racists.

"It can't really be helped."

"No, it can, you see by only doing things like killing terrorists and all those interviews which are very obvious shows of strength, you're making yourself a very polarizing figure when you should have elements that attract both sides. Since if you fuck up, ah excuse my language. Forget I'm not back in Georgia." He chuckled.

"It's alright, continue."

"Basically, you want people from everywhere to like you, racists, non-racists, faunus, humans, everybody. that way if you make one group unhappy you still got many people to back you up."

"And how do you suppose we do that?"

"Lots of ways actually."

He looked at the ashtray on Kirkman's desk that had been left by Benjamin, Elijah pulled it closer to himself before pulling out a cigar from his jacket, snipping the end and lighting it up. He took a huff before continuing.

"But the option that would be easiest for you at the moment would be to play the sympathy card."

"We already tried that, we made sure to get the media to know that we did this cause a marine squad was ambushed for no reason."

"Your mistake was not putting a face on it."

"What?"

Elijah tapped the edge of the cigar on the ashtray. "When you gave info to the media, you should've put a face on the people who were lost. Johnson, Boetticher, and Redding if I'm not mistaken. You should've shown pictures of them while they were alive, add a couple personal things, they have a wife? Kids? It's hard to sympathize with someone when you don't have a face to ah… actualize the sympathy on."

He made a good point, but Kirkman felt it was a bit morally dubious to take advantage of their deaths in that way.

"I already know what you're thinking, bit scummy, but it is how it is with PR, I suggest next time this is brought up by news media, you take my advice, give them pictures of the three, basic personal info, maybe even a comment or two from their living squad mates."

Kirkman nodded. "What else?"

"Well that's the only option easily available to you at the moment, the rest is damage control."

"Damage control?"

"Yes, I don't think I even have to mention how much of a disaster those kids getting hit was."

Ah yes, Team RWBY and Professor Oobleck's unfortunate run-in with the artillery and Auroras. The news of that almost completely overshadowed all the other news on the Mountain Glenn attack on most Remnant media.

"Isn't stating that it was accidental pretty much all the damage control we can do?"

"I'm not talking about that kind of damage control; I'm talking about rehabilitating our image."

"In what way?"

As Elijah finished up the rest of his cigar, he looked back at the picture of Kirkman's squad during the Gulf War.

"You know what I like the most about those kinds of pictures?"

Kirkman didn't see how this was relevant to what they were talking about, but he conceded nonetheless. "What?"

"It shows camaraderie, the kind you can only get from training and fighting side-by-side with someone, it's a human quality. That's what you show the world. Not just news of us killing terrorists, show them that we're human too that we have the ability to show compassion. And we have the ability to use that compassion, try to do some things that help, I know you're protecting a bunch of villages from grimm right now, maybe show that."

There was something about the way Elijah spoke of compassion that sounded so pragmatic, it was as if he only truly cared about their image.

"Why don't you take over PR then? You seem to be really good at it." This was a serious inquiry by Kirkman.

Elijah gave a slight chuckle "I would if I could, unfortunately we don't exactly got many assets down here and the ones we do are busy doing things for the Redwood initiative, and remember we're not here for political or public espionage… yet. So until we get more officers set up over here, you're our best bet, you got a Cyber team here anyway. You have the capabilities, just not the know-how. But I'm sure you'll learn the longer you're here."

"I'll do my best." Kirkman took his words in.

Elijah promptly stood up "Alright, I have a flight to Cooperwick to catch. I hear the Green Berets are about to get there along with the help I requested."

Kirkman stood up too. "I'll be going with you; I think it's best I speak to some of these men myself."

"Good idea."

They then shook each other's hands as they left the office.

"…What?" A wide-eyed Blake asked Sun.

"We told them not to do it, but they did, they never listen." Scarlet, Sun's teammate shook his head in light disappointment. SSSN stood there in the middle of Team RWBY's dorm room, after having told them the shocking thing that Sun and Neptune had done.

"You signed up for some sort of program with the Americans?" Weiss repeated in an astounded tone

"K-kinda." Sun scratched the back of his head with a nervous smile, not getting the reaction he was expecting from Team RWBY. All of whom were giving them angry looks minus Ruby and Yang who looked more confused than anything.

"It's complicated." Neptune insisted in a similar nervous tone.

"How is it complicated?!" Weiss shouted.

The two in question scanned the room only to find nobody looked particularly pleased with them, maybe they should have thought it through, that of course the team that was attacked by the Americans would not be happy with them signing up for something involving them.

"Why would you join them?" Blakes voice was shaky, a mix of anger and betrayal.

It was here that Sun realized his mistake with explaining what happened "Wait, no, we didn't sign up to join them, we signed up to spy on them." He said enthusiastically.

"Yeah!" Neptune agreed.

It was then that the whole room gave them unimpressed looks.

Blake's eye twitched "…What?"

"Y- Yeah." Sun responded. Noticing the many glares he and Neptune were now getting, he continued "Look, it's some sort of program they're doing in a couple villages. The Team was doing some training in the forest near this place called Birch. We did it cause all the training centers were booked up then some of those weird American bullheads landed at the village. We thought this was weird so we checked it out"

At this the confused and angry looks of RWBY switched into perplexed ones.

"Wait, you said this was in Birch, right?" Blake asked.

"Yeah."

"Last I heard there was already an American presence there. If you've been there before then why would this be different?"

"We saw soldiers the last time, but these guys from those bullheads were different, they were wearing suits and these really cool sunglasses just like you see in those Spruce Willis movies."

"Yeah and a few of them were carrying these big briefcases."

In all the research Blake had done on the United States, she had never heard of these men in suits and sunglasses like Sun was describing.

"What happened next?" Ruby timidly asked.

"Neptune and I asked the guy in a suit what it was about and they said they wanted to train former village militia."

The feline faunus tilted her head in response "But you're not former village militia."

"Yeah, but we pretended to be! We got the applications, said we were both from Birch, join dates, blah blah blah, we hand them back, they take a picture of us and say we'll get a letter in a week."

"And we got a letter saying we got accepted and to meet back at Birch in two days. Which is… Today" Neptune added.

"Wait…" The Schnee was perplexed "What address did you put down?"

"Beacon!" The enthusiasm did not leave Neptune's voice.

Everyone collectively slapped their palms on their faces.

"Wh- Why? Oh -oh…" The two then realized their mistake.

"But you two still got the letter to go there." Yang piled on.

"That makes no sense! How did they not find out?!" Blake seriously didn't know what to feel at this point.

The two in question then shrugged.

"I don't know, maybe they thought we just moved near Beacon or something."

Blake's palm didn't leave her face, perhaps the Americans weren't as smart as she thought. That or they were desperate enough to train people to ignore it.

"So I was thinking that you guys tag along."

"No way!" Weiss spoke for everyone else "Even if we wanted to, we didn't apply for it like you three did!

"No, not train, but to spy on us spying, and I don't know… help us fight our way out if things go south?"

"The answer is still no. In fact, you two shouldn't even go there, it's not only senseless but also very dangerous." Weiss gave a genuinely worried look, particularly to Neptune.

Yang jumped down from her bunk to properly face the two "Weiss is right guys, this is kinda dumb, you should just back off."

Ruby then suddenly sprung up "I think we should do it!"

Everyone stared wide eyed at both Ruby and what she had just proclaimed.

"Think about it, we've done this kind of thing before, remember?" She recalled to when the same Teams investigated the White Fang months ago.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean we should do it again, in an American base no less, they know who we are." Weiss Interjected.

The Americans had seen them, after all they were confined at their base in Cooperwick for over a day.

"Yeah and the White Fang didn't know who Blake was when her and Sun snuck in."

Weiss opened her mouth to speak but couldn't think of a good retort.

"And Blake." Blake then looked to her young leader. "Didn't you say that you always thought those news interviews in Cooperwick were bull…" She cut herself off.

"Bullshit." Her sister ended up continuing for her.

"Yeah! That, maybe while Sun and Neptune are training or whatever in Birch, we can look around there and see what people actually think of the Americans. We don't have to go near any of the soldiers so maybe we won't be recognized, we'll just ask the people. And even if they do recognize us, we're not really doing anything wrong by just coming into the village and talking to people."

Weiss then started to understand Ruby's side but was still skeptical.

Blake deep down really wanted to do this upon hearing Ruby's arguments, she would finally have an opportunity to see the Americans up close. Well up close while she wasn't incapacitated on a medical bed. The most she saw while she was in that base was the infirmary and the interior of the Bullhead the Americans put her into before they were given back to Beacon, as well as the slight view of the base she got while looking out the window. The same went for everyone else.

"So, what do you guys think?" Sun asked.

Scarlet and Sage were rather surprised at the fact that everyone seemed to warm up to the idea, that to them this still seemed to be a bad plan cooked up by their team leader and rowdy teammate.

"I'm in." The reaper in red replied.

"Well if Ruby's in, then I am too. Can't leave my lil' sis behind." She gave Ruby a wink.

"I'm in" Blake said, repeating what Ruby said. "I think we can do some good with this."

Weiss clicked her tongue in light annoyance "Well the rest of you are doing it then I shall too." Then she too was hit by the art of peer pressure.

The six then started to discuss different plans and approaches, all while the Scarlet and Sage stood dumbfounded.

"You gotta be shitting me dude." Private Colt Ainsley stared at the picture on the phone that his squad mate held up in front of his face

Private Tyrell Griffin gave a doubting face to his fellow private "What? You're telling me you wouldn't tap that?"

"I don't fuck cartoons, Ty."

"She's a pretty hot one though. And she's not a 'cartoon', she's an anime character."

Indeed, the caricature of a well-endowed blonde woman on the phone screen of his friend did boast almost all the factors he would find attractive in a woman… If she weren't cartoon, or anime as his friend snidely told him

Colt gave a deadpan face "It's a fucking cartoon"

"And? Don't call her an 'it'.Sheis my waifu." Said Ty with all the seriousness in the world.

Colt's face held nothing but ridicule, he stifled a laugh "How the fuck did you graduate high school?"

Ty pulled back his phone "Hey, I'll have you know that when I get back home, I'm going to MIT."

"Pssshh, like you could get into MIT- "They were interrupted by banging from the roof of the Humvee.

"Can you both shut up down there! I can hear you from up here." The gunner, Corporal Andrew Jones banged on the roof a few more times.

"Aw come on! Doesn't look like sarge gives a damn! Do you, sarge?" Ty referred to Sergeant Bennet Smith who was driving the vehicle.

"Actually, I do, private, remember, we're meeting Army Special Forces at Cooperwick. You'll wanna make good with these guys, I mean they're Green Berets, these are people you want to impress, and talking about whether or not you want to have sex with cartoons isn't going to help."

This quieted down the two privates.

"For the record I said that I don't want to have sex with- "

"I don't care."

The team, along with the rest of their squad, was in a convoy, about to meet a group of Green Berets in Cooperwick, they were there because of something about them training militias from towns around the continent.

"If you ask me, training a bunch of aliens and giving them our equipment isn't gonna end well, look what happened last time we did something like that. General Kirkman's usually pretty smart but I don't know about this one." Colt voiced his disagreement.

"First, they aren't aliens, they're natives, second this isn't something we a have a choice on, this is coming from all the way up, and I'm sure they've learned their lesson, Kirkman was in Iraq, Afghanistan, Korea, he knows the consequences of giving randos guns and looking the other way."

That mistake had been done by many previous leaders of the US, and it had caused many of the problems they saw today, they hoped that Kirkman saw that and would be making the necessary adjustments to make sure they did not turn out like all those previous armed groups.

They then heard some chatter on the Sergeant's radio.

"Yeah?" Smith responded.

The radio made a beep before it started stating something inaudible to those in the back.

Smith switched off the radio. "It's Craigs." The sergeant stated the name of the squad commander who was in the Humvee at the front of the convoy.

"What'd he say?" Cole asked.

"He just got new orders from base, says he's gonna tell us once we get to Cooperwick."

Colt collapsed further onto his seat "Great, let me guess, more grunt work."

Right before the Sergeant could make a retort, Ty jumped in.

"Bitch, where the hell you think you are? You been doing grunt work since you enlisted, dumbass."

"Yeah, but you gotta admit, after that whole Mountain Glenn thing, things have been pretty cushy up at Juno."

The Sergeant decided to answer "Yeah, well Kirkman probably wants to get a couple more big operations done before this whole place is announced to the public, heard that's in a few weeks."

Colt sat back up "Honestly I can't wait, maybe they can finally set up shops at our bases, I kinda miss the Burger King at Kostanav."

"Heh, remember that PX that sold plasma screens and PS4s for cheap? That was the shit." Ty reminisced fondly.

"Yep, still pissed they wouldn't let us take them with us here, I paid for those god damn it."

Ty laughed at his friend's frustration "Yeah, well the Colonel did say they're gonna let us have them again soon enough."

"Quiet, we're coming up on Cooperwick."

And just as soon did the Sergeant say that did everyone quiet down. The checkpoint at Cooperwick was ahead of them.

The marine at the checkpoint spoke shortly with the Smith before letting them in. Cooperwick welcomed them with the sights of the lively town filled with happy citizens strolling down the, some staring at the American convoy as it drove down the road towards the FOB.

The four Americans within all stared in varying levels of awe at the people of Cooperwick,

This would be the first time any of them would actually see Remnant natives who weren't terrorist prisoners at MOB Juno.

"Whoa." Ty commented, his eyes drifting in particular to a woman he found rather attractive with fluffy fox ears and flowing white hair, being escorted? To a building by marines. Just as soon as Ty saw the woman did he start almost squealing out of joy.

"Chill the fuck out dude." His friend called out.

"How can I? I mean this is it bro! I finally get to live my fantasies! 'Specially since Sarge said we'd be here awhile!" He pumped his fist in the air once more as his eyes darted to another woman, this one with a lion's tail.

"(COMMS) You're fuckin' creepy, man." He heard the voice of one of his squad mates in the Humvee behind them come out the open radio.

Ty picked up the radio with a cheeky smile "Come on, Teddy, I know you thinkin' the same thing as me, you're only saying that cause Lily is sitting right next to you." The lack of response gave Ty his answer. The radio crackled shut as he himself cackled.

In the front seat, Smith sighed at the antics of his subordinates.

Ty went back to fiddling on his phone. Filming from behind the window, the town's sights.

Its roads were narrow, this town was never built for vehicles to be passing through it after all, but the citizens seemed to be used at this point to be traveling on the sides of the already small roads.

The convoy made a few turns as they started getting closer to the base.

They heard their corporal on the gun bang on the Humvee's roof "Sergeant, watch out for the pothole!"

"WHOA!" Smith hit the brakes, causing Ty to drop his phone.

"Aw, what the hell?!" He said to no one in particular as his phone hit the floor, he picked it up, checking for damage, seeing none, he let out a relieved sigh and looked at his leader. "What pothole?"

At this, those in the vehicle looked outside to see a large pothole near the side of the road. Surrounding it were a fireteam's worth of Marines covering it up in wet concrete. One of the marines approached the car, a corporal by the looks of it.

Smith opened the door wide.

"What's going on?" He asked the marine.

"Just doing some road maintenance, whole town's roads are run-down and we just started fixing em' up now, you guys new here?"

Smith gave the marine a nod. "Yeah, we're supposed to be leading this convoy to base." He pointed his hand towards the five Humvees behind him."

"Yeah, well sorry, but this part of the road is closed down until the cement dries up, it's quick-dry though, shouldn't take more than an hour or two, you boys can come back around and park near where the MPs hang out and wait."

Smith let out an annoyed breath, he clicked his tongue. "Yeah, alright." He waved to the marine as he closed the door.

He picked up the radio. "Staff Sergeant."

"(COMMS) Yep?"

"Got a bit of a situation, looks like they're doing maintenance and it won't be done for a while, think this is the only road heading to base too."

"(COMMS) The hell? You'd think HQ would tell us."

"Yeah, well when has HQ ever not been a pain in the ass? He said we can wait near where the MPs hang out, should I ask for directions?"

"(COMMS) Damn." He sighed "We're gonna have to make the Berets wait. Yeah, go ahead"

And so, the Army squad waited.

Team RWBY walked down the paved road leading to the village of Birch. The four of them trailed ten yards behind Sun and Neptune, not wanting to look like they were associated with them.

The four were dressed in unusual garbs, wearing hooded cloaks and scarves to mask their faces.

They then reached the village, not marked by any entrance, gate or wall, just the simple appearance of houses, and a large wooden sign by the road reading: 'BIRCH'.

The group glanced at their surroundings, taking note of anything peculiar they saw. Blake took note in particular of the lack of 'No Faunus' signs on any of the businesses.

This wouldn't be the first time they were in a frontier village, so none of what they saw was particularly intriguing, aside from the aforementioned lack of the usual anti-faunus texts on the businesses.

They kept on following Sun and Neptune who both claimed they remember where they had first met the Americans, and the streets got more and more crowded as they went, hopefully indicating that they were going the right way.

So far, they had not seen any Americans, no soldiers, vehicles, or even symbols.

"Pssst. Hey." Ruby whispered, getting the attention of her teammates. "Look." She pointed towards four men talking amongst themselves on a sidewalk outside a shop.

The four were dressed in the usual uniform of American soldiers, holding their guns and simply chatting. The people seemed to pay no mind to them, almost as if they had gotten used to them at this point.

This gave them confirmation that at the very least they were in a town with an American presence.

The four hurriedly hid their faces as they got closer to where the soldiers were. Weiss adjusted her scarf to go all the way up to her nose. Ruby pulled the hood on her cloak deeper over her face. Yang and Blake too, were wearing scarves that hid their faces.

This wasn't very strange as it was nearing the end of winter and it was still quite cold, so a group of girls wearing scarves and cloaks wasn't entirely out of the ordinary.

The long road finally ended at the town square, or at least what appeared to be the town square; it was a large open area, with many people within.

The four looked around them. The scene that surrounded them was strange. Children hugging their mothers or fathers, some in tears. Men and women locking lips with their significant others. Now this normally wouldn't be strange in any other context, but this was happening all around them, almost every person was doing this in some manner.

They could even hear goodbyes and wishes of safety.

"Why are they saying goodbye?" Yang asked. Nobody answered

Many thoughts ran through their heads, Blake's imagination in particular ran wild with assumptions of forced labor, much like the SDC mines. This was a scene she had grown all too familiar with.

"Guys…" They almost jumped in surprise. While they were distracted looking at the many goodbyes happening around them, Sun and Neptune had approached them, catching them off-guard.

"What are you doing? We're not supposed to be seen with each other!" Blake whispered angrily.

"Yeah I don't think anybody's watching." Neptune said as he looked around.

"Scratch that." Blake shook her head "Why is everyone saying goodbye to each other."

"I don't know either, I thought maybe you heard something since you know." Sun pointed to the top of his head in reference to Blake's cat ears."

Blake gave Sun an unimpressed face "No, it's hard to focus with so many people talking, and when I'm trying to hear everything at once it becomes one big mess."

"Sun! There're the guys!" Neptune pointed to their left.

There was a wooden stall, two men in suits behind them. A small line in front of it.

Yang gave a whistle. "These guys know how to dress.

"Alright, we're off, wish us luck." Sun and Neptune then walked off.

"Stay safe!" Blake whispered.

"Good luck!" Ruby shouted, garnering many stares from her teammates "What? Everyone else is saying it, I don't think I'm being suspicious." She whispered this time.

Weiss rolled her eyes "You still have to be cautious."

Yang then turned to Blake "Can you try and hear them?"

"Maybe if we get closer." She responded

"We can blend in." Ruby said, pointing towards a group of people looking at the very stall Sun and Neptune were in the line of.

The four slowly approached the crowd which was a mere few yards away from the stall. The close vicinity to presumed assets of the United States worried them, but it seemed they had not been noticed yet.

Sun and Neptune were next in line, Neptune pulled out a set of papers from under his coat. The woman ahead of them in the line then moved away.

They went up to the men in suits. Blake focused in, trying to tune out the conversations of everyone else.

Neptune handed Sun his papers as they started to speak with the men in suits.

"What are they saying?" Weiss asked.

"Quiet."

One of the men grabbed both their papers, taking a quick look at it, before handing it to the other man. He spoke.

"You're late." Blake dictated right after the man spoke

Sun seemed to nervously chuckle, scratching the back of his head before saying "Sorry."

The second man stamped something onto both their papers.

"Doesn't matter, behind that house over there are three trucks, hand these to the officer in charge, he'll be wearing a cap, he'll show you which truck to head into, it'll take you to Cooperwick." The man then handed both Sun and Neptune their papers.

"C-Cooperwick?" Sun managed to scramble out

"Yeah, didn't you read the contract you signed?"

"Of course, we did!" He nervously laughed once again.

"Good, then you know, you're gonna be sent off there for the duration of the program. Go ahead and say your goodbyes, you have about…" He checked his watch "Eight minutes till departure."

The two then silently walked off, as the next persons in line went up to the stall. They walked to Team RWBY, ignoring the fact that they were not supposed to be seen with each other. But given what they had just learned, they really didn't care for the rules at this point.

But they didn't want to be heard still, Ruby had them move to a nearby alleyway that looked empty.

"You guys hear that."

"Yes…" Blake gave a deadpan stare to both boys.

Weiss stomped towards the two "You didn't read your contract?!"

"We did! I swear! But… Just the first page." Neptune said the last part under his breath.

Almost the whole team collectively slapped the palm of their hands onto their faces.

"So what now?" Yang asked.

"We keep going." A determined Sun stated.

Blake's previously irritated demeanor was replaced by bafflement "What?!"

"I said we keep going, pretty much nothing changed, we're just going someplace else."

"A place we know nothing about! At least this place is near Vale and an airship depot. Cooperwick is farther away and…" She looked around her, making sure no American was listening in "And probably crawling with soldiers doing who knows what." She said in a lower voice.

"It's fine we can handle ourselves, and it's just us at risk, you guys just have to hang around in the city and ask. And if things go wrong, we can just escape, how hard can it be? Look at this place. Shouldn't be too hard to just walk away." Sun said noting the very few American soldiers they had seen when they entered the village.

Blake breathed in "Alright, but I don't think we'll be allowed in the trucks, so we'll have to walk there."

"Good thing we brought our weapons!" Ruby grinned while showing off Crescent Rose which she had hidden under her cape.

"And remember, we have to be back before Monday." Weiss told them, receiving a nod from everyone else.

"Are you both sure you can do this?" Blake genuinely asked both Sun and Neptune.

"Yeah." Simply said Neptune

Sun nodded his head and pulled out his scroll "I'll send you guys a message when we get there."

"Alright."

"Time to wrap up everyone!" They heard a distant voice shout.

"That's our signal." Said Neptune.

The convoy continued driving down the road, to the FOB, they had parked near an inside-town outpost and ended up waiting hours before the same Marine corporal came up to them and told them the concrete was properly set and dry.

Eventually they came upon their second checkpoint of the day, this one clearly more secure than the last one given that it was of course the one and only checkpoint within Cooperwick that led directly to the United States' one and only FOB on the planet, this time it was fellow Army soldiers who greeted them. They were let in and were once again on their way.

They continued to follow the vehicles ahead of them until they reached their stop. Smith was the first to exit the vehicle, then followed the rest of his team, everyone else from their small convoy also exited their rides.

"Holy shit." Something had caught Corporal Andrew's eye, a man, a very familiar looking man.

It seemed as though the others caught him too "Is that General Kirkman?" Ty asked.

Indeed, General Kirkman was right there, talking to the head of Operations at Cooperwick.

"Smith!"

Their line of thought was cut though by the approaching Staff Sergeant Matthew Craigs, the rest of their squad following behind him, while a group of Green Berets were huddled in their own circle near the Humvees behind them.

"Sir?"

"We got new orders."

"Yeah, you told me."

The squad of Nine soldiers then huddled around Craigs.

"Looks like we're gonna stay here in Cooperwick awhile."

"Yeah, we're gonna help unload the supplies the Berets brought with them, so what, that's like a day, right?"

As they said this, Kirkman seemed to approach the group of Green Berets and started speaking to them.

"Not just that, we're staying here for a while longer. We're gonna help them train the natives."

This came as a shock to everyone who wasn't in Sergeant Craigs' Humvee.

"What?" Smith's voice had a hint of annoyance.

"Yeah, I'm not too happy about it either, but hey, orders are orders, they want us to follow whatever the ODA's captain wants us to do."

"And that is?"

"Don't know yet, we'll have to wait for- "Craigs then noticed the approaching General Kirkman. "Attention!" He shouted.

All Nine men and women of the squad then stood straight, in a line, as the General walked to them.

"Stand easy, fellas." The General said in a friendly yet firm voice. "I just wanted to apologize for the sudden change in plans, I know that you all likely had your own business back at Juno, believe me your Captain wasn't very happy letting you go."

"Not a problem sir, we're always happy to serve." Said the Staff Sergeant in a professional manner.

The General chuckled and patted the man on the shoulder. "Now I know that's just a lie. Please, introduce me to your squad." The sergeant responded with an uneasy laugh.

Craigs was caught off guard, not expecting to be asked this, he still answered nonetheless. He gave the names of each member of the squad starting from the left, for each name given, the General shook the hand of the holder of the name. It started with Craigs' team before moving to Fischer's "… Private Lily Moore, Private First Class Jared Fulton, Corporal James Martinez, and Sergeant Neil Fischer."

As Kirkman shook the final hand, he nodded. He pulled back his arm.

"Nice to meet you all. Now I'm sure you've already heard from base that you will be working with the Green Berets to shape up some natives." As he said this, seven large troop transport trucks came barreling down the road they came. "And speak of the devil, here they are. Anyway, I would like you all to know that this is a very important mission, we have a lot riding on these natives being in top shape for the future. So I expect and know that all of you will put your all into this."

"Yes, sir" Responded the squad leader.

"Good." The smile on Kirkman's face went away as he came into a stance more befitting of one of the most respected Generals in the United States Armed Forces. "For the duration of the training period of these natives, you will be under the command of US Army Special Forces Captain Leonard McGarry of ODA 5211. You do not speak of the details of this mission to anyone who is not involved. That is all."

"Yes sir."

He gave them all a salute before departing, heading to the direction of a nearby V-22 Osprey. And no sooner did Kirkman leave did the group of 8 Green Berets approached them, they were in full combat uniform, weapons and gear all present, including attachments on their weapons, vests and helmets.

Most of Craigs' squad felt slightly intimidated in the presence of the older, more experienced Green Berets, but Craigs himself stood firm.

At the lead was a tall Caucasian man. 'McGarry' being on his name patch. He offered his hand to Craigs. "Leonard McGarry, you must be Sergeant Craigs."

"Yes, sir." He accepted the handshake.

The Captain let go of Craigs' hand. "Now let's get straight to business, no need for introductions. You see those natives over there?"

McGarry pointed the direction of a large group of Remnant natives being accosted by US soldiers, from the looks of it there may have been at least a hundred of them. Most of them were on the younger side, no older than 30, a few looked more aged and grizzled. Some of them were faunus, with notable animalistic traits, they were getting some dirty looks.

"Those are mostly made up of former village militia from a few different towns and villages near American camps and outposts. Mayors no longer have a reason to pay them since we take out most of the nearby grimm, so they laid off their old protection en masse. All the CIA had to do was sweep in, offer them decent pay and they signed up in droves."

Did they just hear that right? The CIA was involved here? This was starting to look a lot bigger than it seemed.

"Of course, not everyone could be accepted, budget for this is high but not that high, we aren't paying for the salaries, support, and equipment of 900 individuals we don't even know are gonna get through training. So this is more of a test group of the best of those near thousand applicants."

"How are they the best, sir?" Craigs asked.

"At least six months of experience, good track record from the mayor's office, and out of the few who had aura, we took all of them too. CIA also made sure to pick those with families to feed, more desperate for a paycheck."

That last part sure sounded rough "So some of these guys have force fields on them?"

"Yeah." He nodded. "Follow me."

The group of soldiers then started following the Captain who went towards the natives who were now organized in four long rows each. They were all looking nervous, some more annoyed, most of them were looking around at FOB Cooperwick, focusing on the various soldiers, vehicles, and structures within.

McGarry stood, looking upon all the accepted applicants. The Natives were chatting amongst themselves, making for a rowdy group, some were arguing, others were simply talking and whispering amongst themselves.

"QUIET!" McGarry shouted with a commanding tone of voice, this seemed to quiet everyone down.

"You've all seen what the applications offered." He continued in a less aggressive, yet still loud and commanding tone. "1400 lien a month, quite the upgrade from the 800 or a thousand most of you would receive in your local militia."

If Craigs remembered correctly, the exchange rate was one dollar was equivalent to 1.51 lien. He couldn't be asked to do the math in his head, but just thinking about it he could tell that the natives were gonna be paid a decent amount less than a private in the US army.

What he did not know that the CIA and Green Berets did was that militia in Remnant were paid substantially less. Towns and villages outside Kingdoms didn't exactly have the treasury to extravagantly pay their militia or give them benefits.

"But you must first complete your basic training course before even receiving your first batch of payment. How long will you be training? 8 weeks."

8 weeks was two weeks shorter than Basic Combat Training for American soldiers, but they had to expedite the process if it meant meeting the deadline the CIA set.

"You're allowed to leave at any time, but you won't be receiving your pay and we'll consider you effectively gone from the program…"

As McGarry continued to speak, Craigs pondered, he was confused, the whole point of making a PMC so it seemed was so that the US Military in Remnant could distance itself from commercial interests, yet here they were paying the natives… Unless.

"Who's paying them?" He tapped one of the Green Berets

"CIA but it's wrapped around its usual shenanigans."

He did not know what he meant by that at all.

McGarry continued to speak. "Training will involve physical training, combat trai-"

"We don't need training!" A masculine voice shouted "We can handle ourselves!"

McGarry seemed unfazed by the sudden challenge to his authority

"What was that? Can you speak up please?" He asked with a sardonic tone.

"All of us here have been guards before, we know what it's like we can handle anything you throw at us! We don't need any of this training stuff you're talking about!"

He spotted who was speaking, a tall tan skinned bearded man in rugged clothing at the very back. He was smiling confidently.

"Everyone who agrees with him, raise your hands." A good amount did, all with smug, confident faces.

He mentally counted each and every raised hand. '21.' He took note.

"Alright, everyone who has their hand raised, step forward, get in front of me."

Confusedly, the group of natives stepped out of their rows and headed for the space in front of Captain McGarry.

"I'm gonna show you just how wrong you are." He picked up his radio. "Prep the training area."

"(COMMS) Sir, this is a bit sudden; it could take a while."

"I don't mind, do it."

He then looked upon the group of natives in front of him. "Those who raised your hands will be participating in a combat exercise." Everyone stiffened at the sudden declaration. "Craigs! Tell your squad to start unloading our cargo."

"Let's take a break!" Shouted Ruby.

Blake huffed and puffed, her hands on her knees, taking deep breaths after having fatigued herself from running. The rest of the team was not fairing much better. Weiss in particular now had a scarf drenched in sweat.

They had tried to run to close the distance between them and the town of Cooperwick as fast as possible. This was of course a mistake, tiring them faster than their aura could keep up with, but they did make good distance.

"How… much… longer…" Yang said in between breaths.

Weiss brought out a map of land outside Vale they had brought with them. "We should be halfway down this road. Just a little bit more and we'll be there."

The other three huddled around her and looked at where she was pointing.

They were about a mile to their destination.

"How long have we been running?" Ruby surprisingly seemed to be the least fatigued of all of them.

Blake opened up her scroll "About an hour."

They all groaned.

Usually, an hour-long run wouldn't be all too bad, but they were running to get there as fast as possible, so they had not been pacing themselves, they didn't want to lag that much behind Sun and Neptune. Especially since if they walked, they could've taken hours to get there and by then it would've been night already, too little time to investigate the Americans and their doings in Cooperwick.

Ruby looked at Blake "Anything from Sun?"

They had gotten the message from Sun and Neptune that they had arrived at the American base in Cooperwick half an hour earlier but they didn't receive anything after.

She checked her scroll "Yeah, he said they're gonna do some sort of exercise soon."

"Exercise?" Yang tilted her head.

"Yeah." She then started typing on her scroll. "I asked him what he means, he hasn't seen it yet." She pocketed her scroll.

Ruby stepped forward, looking at her team "Should we keep going?"

She was given a nod by her teammates as they started to run once again.

As they ran, the fact that they were finally closing in on Cooperwick was dawning on them.

Their short time in Camp Glenn did not lead them to much information, the four mainly saw the blank empty rooms that the Americans kept them in before they were led into a bullhead they had right outside whatever building they were in. All they saw were soldiers standing around, rough roads, and a few extra buildings.

Blake would not forget the questioning she got from Kirkman, in particular the one about a certain man who she regretted ever knowing.

She wondered how the Americans knew him, and why they asked her about him in the first place. Perhaps all those raids they did on White Fang members and compounds led to them finding out about him.

But why? What was so important about The Doctor that made the Americans want to find him in particular? He was truly evil, but prior to her answering Kirkman's questions even they didn't know what exactly The Doctor was doing, only that he was a high-ranking member of the White Fang, so what was it that made them so interested in him-

She was snapped out of her line of thought by Yang tapping her on the shoulder while running.

"Blake, you good? You were spacing out there."

"Y- Yeah, just thinking about things."

"We're almost there!" Weiss was looking at a map.

A look of determination then fell upon all of them, as they ran faster down the roads, taking sharp turns in stride then something caught them off guard, bringing them to a halt.

Ahead of them was a small white building on the side of the road with a boom barrier blocking the road, much like the entrance stations in Vale. Everywhere around it was wire fencing. Behind the wire fence were a few vehicles with something mounted on their backs, aimed at the sky. There were strange structures, also looking up at the sky.

Outside the building with the boom barrier were a small group of soldiers, American soldiers, talking with each other outside the structure, they seemingly had not noticed Team RWBY.

"What is this?"

"This doesn't look like the pictures I saw on the internet."

"Who are they?"

"Why is everything fenced up?"

They all talked amongst each other, but once they realized they were getting nowhere by asking these questions, Weiss decided to be the voice of reason.

"Alright, we have to devise a plan, if we want to get to Cooperwick, we'll have to talk to them."

Ruby agreed "Okay, I'll go first, you guys- "

"Excuse me! You four!"

"GAH!" Ruby shrieked; her teammates were also caught by surprise by the sudden loud voice.

They looked at the soldiers who earlier weren't paying attention, one of them was now speaking through a megaphone, all soldiers were looking straight at them.

"Do you have business here? If you do, step forward! If not, you have 60 seconds to leave before we force you out!"

The four looked at each other before dipping their heads in agreement. They walked towards the soldiers, almost in sync.

The soldier put down his megaphone and spoke on some sort of walkie talkie before looking straight at them again. All the soldiers were fully kitted out, in all the gear they had grown used to seeing. He put down the walkie talkie and brought up the megaphone once again "Please avoid making any suspicious movements."

What did that even mean?

A few of the soldiers seemed amused at the confused looks they were returning.

Once they got within just a few yards of the soldiers they stopped. The soldiers walked closer to them though, holding their guns. The four were very ready to make 'suspicious movements' the situation was tense and they could not get a good read at the faces of the soldiers.

"Are you four visiting?" The man in the lead spoke

Yang lightly elbowed Ruby.

"D- uhhh, yeah." Her voice held a meek quality.

The soldier turned around, and spoke inaudibly once again on his radio "Do you have a permit?"

"Permit?"

"You need a permit to be able to enter, Ma'am." He said matter-of-factly

"And what are soldiers doing blocking the entry to Cooperwick?" Blake responded, crossing her arms and leveled a slight glare towards the man.

"Marines."

A perplexed look replaced her glare "What?"

"We're marines, ma'am. Not soldiers." One of the soldiers in the back said.

"America calls its soldiers marines?" Weiss asked with puzzlement.

"No, we call marines 'marines', and soldiers 'soldiers'."

This did not answer the question, if anything they were even more confused.

Blake shook her head "Doesn't matter, why are you blocking the road?"

"Safety reasons ma'am."

Yang waved her hands "We aren't here to cause any trouble"

Themarineshook his head "I don't make the rules, ma'am, if you want to enter you need a permit, you can get one over at the entrance office over there." He looked and pointed to the right where the road branched out and led to an unassuming square building. "But if you aren't related to anybody from inside it's gonna be hard to get entry."

The four then turned towards the building they were pointed towards.

"Good luck." The marine said before walking back with the rest of his men

The Team then looked at each other before nodding and walking to the building.

Ty lifted up a sandbag from the pile, setting it on top of the wall that Colt was finishing making adjustments to. They were given thirty minutes to prepare. Everyone was doing their part, setting up sandbag walls, moving crates of 'ammunition' or in Sergeant Craigs' case, keeping watch of the enemy team.

They were participating in a combat exercise, an informal one. Craigs' squad of nine against all 21 Remnant natives who raised their hands

On top of a nearby hill, surrounded by a few other fellow spectators, Captain Leonard McGarry watched over both sides as they made preparations, or at least one side did, the natives just seemed to crudely copy whatever Craigs' squad was doing.

This was an unconventional exercise, usually these types of exercises would have no clear winner and would rather have umpires give an evaluation of each team's performance.

But here, McGarry set up a winning condition, whoever held the other Team's flag in their hands by the end of it won. Each side on their defensive positions, a red flag for the Americans, and a blue one for the natives.

Each side was armed with M4s loaded with blank rounds, though they had laser attachments where if the laser hit one of the sensors attached to the helmet or body armor on a person would signal their elimination.

He observed the teams as the time ticked closer to the starting time. He then heard footsteps on the grass behind him. He instinctively turned around. It was his boss for the remainder of the operation, Elijah King.

"You're gonna want to keep an eye on those two." He said as he walked beside McGarry. He had his own pair of binoculars.

"Who?" McGarry asked, not even questioning the sudden inquiry.

Elijah brought up his binoculars and scanned the side of natives. "That one, blonde kid looking down the barrel of his own M4, the one with the tail, and the blue haired kid right next to him."

McGarry took a few seconds to find someone matching those descriptions. "Blonde kid with an open shirt?"

"Yep, that's him."

"What's so special about them?" He then confirmed the other man standing next to him, having blue hair, sporting goggles and a red jacket."

Elijah set down his binoculars while McGarry kept looking. "Blonde kid's name is Sun Wukong, blue's name is Neptune Vasilias. And they… Are not supposed to be here."

McGarry brought down his binoculars in a surprised manner and gave Elijah an incredulous look. "What?"

"The two of them are from Haven Academy in Mistral and are, or were, in Beacon to compete in the Vytal Festival in about three weeks."

"What're they doing here then? I thought you guys vetted everyone." He said, astounded.

Elijah simply looked on, relaxed. "We did, the two of them along with their team were in Birch, a village just right outside Vale. They were doing some sort of training. They must've noticed the commotion of our boys coming into town and passing out applications, they came in, and those two applied. We sorted them out immediately, knew who they were, why they were there, and more. I mean come on, it's like they didn't even try, the shipping address they wrote was for Beacon, ridiculous fake names, 'Bluekill Horizon'." Elijah laughed "Not to mention the pictures my boys on the ground took of them. We still let them in, they think they have fooled us though."

McGarry looked at Elijah, shocked "You LET them in? We should have them taken out right now."

"No, let them have their fun, we'll deal with them later. If they wanted to do something they would've done it by now. Plus, they're students, not exactly likely that they were sent here intentionally to spy on us. That applications run was a surprise visit, they probably just wanted to see what was happening and got roped in. Signed up, told to meet up at the same place in a week if they're accepted and here we are."

McGarry relaxed a little at that. A little. "Well, if you're gonna 'deal with them' anyway, what's the point of keeping them around now?"

Elijah gave him a haughty look "You did this whole exercise for a reason, right?"

The Green Beret nodded in return.

"I assume that reason was to show the natives that we're better than them, that might not be exactly it, but that's what it is in the end. I'm keeping those two around for the same reason. When I send em back home and pretend this was all an accident, they'll come screaming, talking about what they saw at Cooperwick, the superior tactics of American Soldiers and more. It's the same reason I'm letting all those Cooperwick villagers spectate."

He pointed out the crowd that had gathered outside the exercise zone to watch it.

"What if those two see something we don't want them to see."

"They aren't really gonna see anything incriminating anyway, what they'll see is the same as the rest of the natives and other applicants. And FOB Cooperwick is on maximum security, so unless they got some sort of shapeshifting superpowers, they ain't sneaking in anywhere, trust me I checked."

McGarry understood him a little, but still thought it would be better to escort the two out of the base. But he wasn't in charge here, so rather he asked a question. "And what if- "

"What if our boys lose? Then I'm gonna have a word with Kirkman and him not drilling the troops here well enough, can you tell me why, Captain?"

He already knew the answer to that question, it's why he set this up in the first place "Their only disadvantage is in numbers, both teams have been given standard equipment, the natives aren't allowed to use the weapons they brought with them so they don't have any experience with the equipment on them." McGarry made a quick observation.

Elijah nodded "That's correct, but there's more, since this is basically one big game of laser tag, aura or personal resilience isn't counted, one shot and you're counted dead by the system."

"And since Craigs' team is trained to use M4s and they have experience with them, theyshouldhave better aim and a better understanding of how to use them, putting our guys at a massive advantage with the one-shot system." The Captain continued "They're also trained in fighting human adversaries and have been drilled to fight in almost this exact same situation, the natives are more used to fighting grimm and don't have proper strategy in fighting a human force."

"That's right, so if they lose here, I'm gonna start having serious doubts about our armed forces, no offense."

McGarry caught a laugh before it got out. "You ever serve, sir?"

"Yep, six years in the Air Force before I signed up as an operations officer at Langley, wanted to be a protective agent but they barely accept anybody who wasn't SOF. Maybe you'll have better luck."

McGarry chuckled. If he remembered correctly, protective agents were the type of people the public thought of when thinking CIA agent, well-trained soldiers whose job it is to act.

"How much longer before the exercise starts?" Elijah asked.

McGarry tapped one of the umpires next to him. "Thirteen minutes." The umpire said.

So they waited as both sides continued preparing.

The inside of the entry office wasn't very impressive. The four were quietly waiting around in what they assumed was a lobby. Sitting on a large couch, staring at nothing particular.

The man who told them to wait was another soldier, or marine, at this point they didn't know what was what. But this soldier wasn't wearing any gear at all, no weapons, satchels, or the vests they had grown used to seeing, the helmet had even been replaced with a cap. With the lack of gear, they could even read the things on the uniform

The soldier had a badge that stated his name, 'Macklit', as well as 'U.S. Army' on the right.

Ruby twiddled her fingers at the awkward atmosphere. The only sound coming from the ceiling fan above them.

Then the door to their left burst open.

"Now, you're sure I can't help you carry those to the gate, Mrs. Burns?" A middle-aged man in uniform came out, smiling at someone still within the room.

Then out came an elderly woman holding a small stack of papers and a purse, she too was smiling.

"Don't be silly. I just hope I didn't waste too much of your time with all my photographs."

The man waved off the remark with a smile. As he led the woman to the exit "Goodness no, your granddaughter's wedding was gorgeous."

"Of course, it was! Did you see her dress?"

He opened the door for the lady "I bet even the mayor was impressed."

The woman giggled, walking halfway through the exit, turning one more time to the man, whose nameplate they could now read 'Lewis'.

"If you're ever in town, come by our house, I'll show you pictures of the floral arrangements."

"I can't wait, goodbye."

The Woman then stepped out "Bye!" Still smiling.

Bakers closed the door before then looking at the soldier at the desk. "Who's next?" The soldier pointed to the four who then looked up attentively.

"They're a group."

Bakers did a full 360 and stared them down.

"Ah! Sorry for the wait, please, come in." He took a few quick strides towards the door of the room he had left with the woman.

The Team confusedly stood up and walked inside.

Lewis followed, closing the door behind them.

It was a simple looking office, two chairs in front of a desk situated near a small window.

He sat on the chair behind the desk "Sorry we don't have enough seats, usually just one person represents the whole group."

They almost facepalmed. Why didn't they just do that? They chose to stand up.

"Ah anyway, I'm Warrant Officer Lewis. I'm going to help you today with the entry process." He gave them a smile.

The faces that were returned to him were a mixed bag, mostly incredulous looks, especially from Blake.

His smile didn't waver "Now, before we begin, do you have any questions? I think it's better we clear everything up now before we proceed."

They all glanced at each other.

"Why even is there an entry process? Can't we just enter?" Weiss was the first to speak.

"Safety reasons, Miss. You see, while the American presence has benefited Cooperwick- "Blake rolled her eyes which he took notice of "The United States also has many enemies, particularly in the White Fang, and we've had known members attempt to enter, this is to mitigate that."

"How exactly has the United States benefited Cooperwick?" It was Blake's turn to speak, she kept with incredulous glare.

"Well, we originally came here because we had suspicions that individuals affiliated with the White Fang were present, General Kirkman came to talk with Mayor Winslow who agreed to have us question these individuals while we set up a base of Operations here that would allow us to protect the village from Grimm, a crisis that had affected the village for a long time by then."

Blake knew this to be a fact, they had agents in Cooperwick, she'd never been here herself but she saw the records.

"Prior to our Arrival, the town would have 10-15 deaths a month due to Grimm, now that's down to Zero. "

Shocked looks came from the girls. Not even the four kingdoms saw casualty rates from grimm that low, and this is coming from settlements outside? Where it was common for one to just be wiped out in a matter of hours by grimm? It was unheard of.

"The added safety made people from all over want to move in as well, the town has grown exponentially, it's why I'm calling it a town now. It went from roughly 1400 people to around 2700 in the months we've been here. Not exactly a town, but it's getting there. That woman, Mrs. Burns, sweet old lady, I just helped her through the immigration process, she'll be moving in with her Grandson's family. It's actually why we're a decent bit far from the town right now, usually all the soldiers guarding it and this entry building will just be outside Cooperwick's walls. But because of how many people are moving in, the people have to build many new homes and buildings, hence the protection detail being further out now because Cooperwick is expanding rapidly."

Blake nodded, she wasn't wholly satisfied with the answer, but it gave somewhat of an explanation.

All this was very surprising to them, for a village to be growing this fast was unprecedented. They had been to villages outside Vale's walls before for missions and practice but none usually ever got to that size, not without money to pay for huntsmen at least.

But here, it seemed as though the Americans substituted for those huntsmen, and for free too.

"Speaking of protection detail, I hope those Marines outside didn't cause you girls too much trouble, they can be bit paranoid. They're the same squad who had to deal with a White Fang member try to throw a grenade through the entrance."

They winced a bit at that, even though Blake was not partial to the United States' tendency to ill indiscriminately, she acknowledged that the White Fang's against civilians were reprehensible.

"Speaking of marines." Ruby raised her hand "What's the difference between marines and soldiers?"

This too was on everyone's mind especially with how themarinesoutside insisted they were called that.

The officer seemed to almost laugh "Well to make it simple, soldiers are troops of the US Army, marines are troops of the US Marine Corps."

"Yes, but what's the difference?" Weiss, having been acquainted with the Atlesian military, didn't see the point of having more than one fighting force.

"Well, they have different purposes. Again, without getting too technical, the Army is well, the Army, the Marine Corps is the amphibious arm of the US Armed Forces."

Amphibious? They were pretty far away from any sea or ocean.

"I know what you're thinking, 'Amphibious? But we're far from the coast.' Well, the Marines also tend to take the role of the expeditionary arm of the US Armed Forces, the first in the fray if you will."

That was… interesting. Weiss gave the man a questioning look

"But why would you need a separate force for expeditions?"

In the Atlesian military, everyone fell under the same branch except for Huntsmen and the venerated Ace Ops. Everyone from pilots, to infantry.

"To put it simply, it helps keep things more organized, you don't want one guy or branch handling the bureaucracy and strategy of people whose missions he might not even understand. This way we have people trained for a specific thing being led by people who have experience in this specific thing."

That made sense, to Weiss' understanding of the Military, that would just complicate things.

The Officer then waved his hand "This is getting off topic, do you have any questions about the entry process? If so, speak, if not, then we can proceed."

They looked at the uniformed man for a second, then at each other, before shaking their heads towards Lewis.

"Alright." He pulled on one of the drawers an picked out four sheets of paper. "Since I assume you aren't immigrating here, are you?" He gave them a look as if asking them, he received several head shakes. "Then these are all you really have to fill out, then I'll have to confirm and check your identities for possible criminal records, or anything, all in all it shouldn't take us more than twenty minutes, granted of course there's nothing out of order I find."

That made them nervous. Especially the part about identities, what would happen if the Officer found out that they were in fact Team RWBY, the same Team that had been struck at Mountain Glenn. Of course, they had done nothing wrong, but the man might interpret them coming here as an attempt to take revenge.

Lewis wordlessly slid the papers towards them "Each of you take one, and fill in all the necessary information."

They took the papers. Lewis then got out four pens and distributed them among the four.

They began to write down all their information. The papers did not ask for much, name, place of residence, age, occupation. There were also checkboxes that related to their reasons for visit. They finished it in just under ten minutes, those marines outside had made it seem like they were going to be here for hours.

Lewis seemed to notice that they had finished writing. "You all done?"

They gave him a nod, as he took the papers one by one. He read one of them for a split second.

"Oh." He gave an inquisitive look the moment his eyes fell upon the document.

This was it, the moment of truth.

"You guys are from Team RWBY, interesting." He didn't take his eyes away from the paper "Really sorry about what happened in Mountain Glenn by the way, we did scans of the place weeks before we hit, we really didn't think there'd be non-combatants."

Dour features came upon their faces, but it didn't seem he was chastising them, mostly treating the matter casually. They breathed a small sigh of relief. He then started to type on his computer, looking at one of the papers, typing, and looking back at the computer, presumably checking whatever 'record' they had.

He then pulled something from his desk once again, it was a stamp, he pressed it atop Ruby's paper. Presumably meaning she was in. He handed it to Ruby. "Thank you." She quietly said. He gave her a nod in return.

"Alright, next." He muttered under his breath. "Blake Belladonna."

A bead of sweat fell down her forehead as a realization came over her. The Americans knew that she was a former member of the White Fang. Would this mean she'd be barred from entry? Worse yet, arrested?

Her line of thought was cut when he stamped her paper and handed it to her.

Nothing? Did he know and just decide not to do anything? Or did he not and whatever system he was using didn't show her records. According to Ozpin her Vale criminal record was wiped, did that mean the Americans were using Vale's criminal records? How did they even have access to them?

He then took another paper "Alright, Yang Xiao Long. Nice name." Yang smiled

"Oof, it seems like you got into a brawl." His eyes widened "Multiple brawls."

Yang sweatdropped and flailed her arms around in a pacifying manner "I promise sir, it won't happen here."

"Yeah, it seems like these happened not all too recently, as long as you don't pull any of that here, you're good, but if we see even a hint of trouble coming from you, we'll have you and your friends thrown out, got it?" He narrowed his eyes for her. For once, looking serious

She nodded adamantly

"Alright, last one, Weiss Schnee." And after just a few seconds, her paper was stamped as well.

As Weiss accepted her paper, the Warrant Officer smiled at them once again "Okay, that should be it, you're all free to go, just hand these over to the marines and they should let y'all right in. These papers allow you to stay here up to three days." He stood up and held his hand out.

Ruby reached in and shook it. She let go.

"Alright, you girls have fun now, stay safe and stay out of trouble. If you're gonna stay the night I suggest the White Fox Inn, I don't know what the drinking laws over at Vale are, but if you wanna Mr. Shiro has a bar in there too, he makes a mean old fashioned."

"We'll…" Ruby simply stared at the man, not knowing how to respond "Keep that in mind" She let out.

The four walked out, Lewis did not follow, they simply walked through the doorway and were greeted by the outside. They took the same path that they went down just minutes earlier. And eventually to the marines who had originally turned them away.

One of them approached, the nameplate being obscured by the vest he was wearing. "You got the papers?

Yang nudged Ruby to speak. "Uh, yeah!"

The marine held his hand out, they gave him their papers, as he read them one by one.

They stood around awkwardly as the soldier just read the papers.

Minutes passed when he finally gave them back their papers "You can throw these out if you want, but you're gonna need these to get back in if you leave Cooperwick during your stay."

The marine then looked to the others who were handling the stopper, he gave them a thumbs up and with the signal the boom barrier lifted up and girls were let in.

As they finally stepped behind the checkpoint, they got a good look the various vehicles that were behind the fence, they looked like strange pickup trucks with rocket pod looking devices mounted on their backs, pointed at the Sky.

Ruby speculated that they may be for Nevermore or other aerial grimm.

The road to Cooperwick was long.

The closer they got to Cooperwick, the less sparse the surrounding area became. They saw buildings, houses, wells, under construction, people speaking over each other, giving commands. Soldiers here and there simply standing, holding weapons. Once they finally reached the gate, their surroundings were nothing but buildings under construction. The officer was not lying about the rapid expansion.

People were pacing by them on the streets, they looked relatively content, not unhappy, simply minding their own business, seemingly not minding the relatively large American presence in the area.

The gate leading to the town was wide open, people were freely walking in and out.

"Guess that checkpoint was the only one." Blake stared at the open gate.

They looked at each other, nodded and went through the gate.

They walked aimlessly through the packed streets of Cooperwick, people were everywhere, carrying bags, simply pacing along, it looked like a scene straight out of Vale's most populous districts, there was not a single piece of road that people weren't walking across. The city was vibrant, the streets were lined with various businesses and shops.

Blake took notice of something as she glanced at the various businesses, none of them had any "No Faunus" signs or some variation of it. Faunus seemed to also freely walk the streets, she noticed that they had not garnered any dirty looks from any of the human passersby.

It became evident that they really didn't plan ahead when they didn't know where to go other than walk on the street.

"Where should we head?" Yang finally asked

All she got were shrugs as they moved.

"The officer said we should check out some inn." She seemed to ponder "What was it called again?"

"White Fox Inn." Weiss answered "He did not tell us where it was though."

Ruby shrugged "Guess we just have to ask around."

Yang tapped the shoulder of a woman who was passing them by.

"Excuse me, do you know where White Fox Inn is?"

The woman grasped her chin and looked on "Keep heading down the street, take a right and keep walking. You should see a big building, has a big sign with its name on it, you can't miss it."

"Thanks."

Now that they had a destination, they walked down the road as instructed, and took a right at the junction.

In the distance they could already see a building that stood out, its overall design was very similar to the surrounding houses, and it was made of a similar material, but it was larger and had a more elaborate design. Fanlights over the windows, pillars protruding from the walls, and a mansard roof.

Whoever owned the establishment must have been rich.

In front of the building was a road verge complete with grass and a large tree. Two soldiers… or marines, they really didn't know how to differentiate them, were standing there, facing away from them, looking up at the tree. But they noticed that patterns on each of their uniforms were different, the pattern on the darker skinned one looked more… pixelated while the others looked more splotchy.

As they approached, they noticed that there was a little girl standing in between the two men, she had large goat like horns coming from her head, clearly a faunus. And was she crying? Were these two men harassing her?

A rage suddenly rose from within Blake, the other three noticed the girl's saddened state too and were eyeing the two Americans with disdain. They came near them; Blake raised her hand up to put her hand on the shoulder of the one on the left with the splotchy patterned uniform.

"Hey- "Then he moved forward, they didn't seem to notice Blake's voice.

"I'll do it" His rough voice called out at the same time as Blake's as he walked towards the tree.

Her and the rest of the team were still behind them, seeing as they weren't doing anything to the girl, they just watched the soldier(?) walk up to the tree.

He put his arms around the trunk, then his legs, as he started to shimmy up to the tree.

It was then that they noticed that on a short branch halfway up the tree was a small orange kitten, meowing, seemingly unable to get down on its own, it looked big eyed at the soldier. Was that why the little girl was crying? Was the Soldier trying to get it?

The soldier was getting closer and closer with his motion. Eventually reaching where the kitten was, he was attached to the trunk, he reached out his arm towards the animal, it backed away in fear.

"Come on kitty, I ain't gonna hurt you." The kitten continued to back away much to the man's dismay, he shimmied up a few more times, the kitten could no longer back away further as it reached the end of the branch. With one swift motion, he caught the kitten with his gloved hand. He wrapped his hand around the kitten, as he attempted to descend from the tree.

But as he tried to do the same shimmying motion, the lack of a second arm to grip something with made his descent uncontrolled, he slid down the tree in a swift motion, dropping a solid twelve feet, his buttocks taking the brunt of the fall.

"Augh! FUCK!" He screeched. He instinctively let go of the kitten in his hand, it ran straight to its presumed owner, the little girl. He rolled onto his stomach and grasped his behind with his hand to ease the pain as squirmed on the ground.

Blake simply stared dumbfounded. Weiss was in a similar state, especially surprised by the level of vulgarity the soldier had just displayed in front of a child. Ruby and Yang held back the urge to laugh.

The other soldier did not "HA! HA! Dumbass… They didn't teach you how to make a controlled descent in ranger school?" He said while snickering.

And… more vulgarity. Was this natural to Americans? This wasn't the first time they heard this much cursing from citizens of their nation, a certain radio show came to mind.

"I've seen you crayon eaters do dumber shit." He stood up, still holding his sphincter.

The other soldier just smirked and threw his hands up, weapon still in hand "Don't diss the Crayola life."

"What's your favorite flavor? I heard you guys really like brick red, cause a brick is- "

Their exchange was interrupted by the little girl running up to the first soldier and hugging his leg, the kitten sat atop her right horn. The man, clearly caught by surprise, didn't know what to do. The other soldier gave him a knowing look. In response, the first started to pat the girl's head, slowly.

"Thank you." The girl quietly said, still sniffling.

"No problem." He answered awkwardly. The girl let go and walked away eventually blending into the crowd moving through the road.

And as RWBY watched on, they realized that perhaps they had judged the situation too quickly. It looked as though the child had asked them for help with the cat, and they had nothing to do with her original saddened state.

"Man, you are not good with kids." The second soldier said matter of factly.

"Well, they don't exactly teach child psychology in ranger school." He quipped

What was this ranger school they kept mentioning?

"What're you guys doing out here anyway, thought you all were still back at Camp Glenn."

He shrugged "Nah they're scaling back operations over there, same reason you guys were pulled back up here. They don't need SOF out there anymore."

The conversation was getting interesting, first was the implication of some sort of school and something called "SOF" that these two seemed to be a part of.

"But why are you out here in town? This is marine territory."

Guess they had their answer of who the marine was.

"Our LT likes the coffee grounds they sell here; he got a taste of it last time we were up here."

The Marine laughed. "You came all this way for coffee? Man, your LT must be a pain in the ass."

"He is."

The door of the inn then came open. And out came another soldier, with the same uniform as the first, likely not a marine. In his hand he held a jar with the presumed coffee ground within.

"Dunn, I got it." He spoke to the direction of the two men.

"Aight, time for me to go." The first soldier, now named Dunn, responded. "Nice talking with you again, Jackson."

"You too."

The waved to each other as Dunn and the other man walked off. It was then that Jackson turned around and came face to face with Team RWBY.

"Ah, didn't realize there were people, sorry 'bout that." He stepped aside, making way to the door of the inn.

They took the offer and stepped into the inn.

Ty pushed in another clip, securing it within his M4A1, before looking through his scope, trying to scan for any more of their adversaries.

"Tango, right!" Shouted Lily.

Ty reacted quickly, aiming his freshly reloaded M4 at a tall woman with horns firing randomly at their position as she ran. Both her and Lily fired their blanks at her, the lasers seemed to register as the beeper on her shoulder lit up and started to beep.

She threw her hands up, dropping the rifle as she walked off.

Usually playing as BLUFOR in any war game was hard, but so far it was a cakewalk, they must've already taken out just about everyone.

"Twelve o'clock!" Their commanding officer yelled as they laid down fire on the position given to them.

In the distance, Elijah King watched as the two sides fought it out, their guns ringing like they were firing real rounds. So far it had gone as he had predicted, the natives tried a suicidal charge against the Americans, losing half their force in the process, when that failed, they retreated and hunkered down in their positions, but because they didn't dig in like the other team, they were easily picked off one by one.

One more suicidal charge later and they were now only left with four remaining natives who were smart enough to remain at their base which they had now dug up slightly.

Curiously among them was the two infiltrators, the monkey boy and the blue haired kid, they were hidden behind a mound of sandbags they quickly piled on top of each other

This told Elijah two things, the first was that the very least his faith in the Armed Forces was well placed, the other was that these Natives were very close to hopeless. They were absolutely horrendous, not a single thread of a strategic sense of thought, they had grown used to fighting with swords, but even then, it would usually be basic logic to keep to your position if you had a weapon which supported a long-range battle, yet they still committed to a charge, a charge that didn't have an ounce of basic maneuvering.

"And this was the best of the best." He muttered to himself.

"It's not looking good for them." The Green Beret to his left said.

"Hm." He exhaled "I can see that."

A couple more shots rang out from the side of the Americans, and another native who failed to dig in was hit. Leaving only 3 now, including the two would-be spies.

Elijah watched them closely.

Back on the ground Colt smiled. He had taken the last shot which had eliminated one of their opponents. "Outta here, bitch." He laughed.

"Man, this is way too easy." Ty said, twisting a wheel on his ACOG, adjusting the magnification level.

"Don't get cocky, it's not over yet." Their squad commander, Sergeant Craigs, held up his binoculars, relegating the task of firing to his subordinates. "The fuck?"

They all heard their squad commander suddenly curse.

Sergeant Smith turned away from his scope "What?"

Craigs wordlessly passed the binoculars to Smith, he looked at the where Craigs was looking. And he could swear the area behind the big pile of sandbags was… shining? He thought he was seeing things, he pulled back the binoculars and rubbed his eyes. The others were curious now, they looked at the sergeant. He brought his eyes back to the binoculars, and now there were even more lights behind the sandbags.

And then the lights came out in the form of two humanoids. "Holy shit!" Yelled out in surprise as he saw the two men made out of light come out from behind the sandbags rushing the

American position while fanning out.

"Are they really pulling out magic bullshit now?" Teddy began firing his gun at the men of light.

The rest of the squad burst out in profanities of surprise and confusion, but nonetheless they started firing at the men of light who looked eerily similar, they were surprisingly fast, much faster than the militia people, they were as fast as a speeding car, but unlike a car they had a small presence, making it much harder to fire upon the clones.

As the sound of firing guns filled their surroundings, from behind the sandbags then jumped a blue haired kid, who rushed the center, whereas the clones kept going for the flanks. They knew it would be better to hit the ones rushing from the sides.

"These guys aren't going away!" Colt said, firing a few more times at the clones.

"They aren't wearing vests, dumbass! They can't go away!" Ty clicked his tongue

"This has to be cheating or something." Corporal Martinez instead started shooting at the blue haired kid.

Fischer did the same "Well the umpires sure as hell ain't saying anything! Keep shooting!"

"But then the clones would get to us!"

"We'll deal with that later!"

Many thoughts then ran through Sergeant Craigs' head, the man in the middle was blindly firing at them as he ran, why weren't the clones? Then he got it, if the light clones did not have functioning vests, then neither would they have functioning M4s.

"They can't shoot us, their guns don't work, just like their vests." He told his squad "They're a distraction, shoot the guy in the middle. "

But as they pulled their rifles to fire the man in the middle, he jumped, and as he did both light clones disappeared, then another man came out from behind the sandbags, with blond hair and a tail coming out his behind, wielding his M4, running towards them at incredible speeds and firing in the same way the other guy was.

But firing a moving target in the air was difficult, regardless, two of them fired at the boy.

The first sound they heard after was a beep, then the sound of the boy's feet impacting the grass, he was out. Then a few more shots, and another beep, blue hair was gone too.

"YES!" Ty was the first to shout, then the whole team burst into cheers, though they kept their weapons trained ahead of them as they knew their to still be one more opponent at their original position.

The cheers died down after a few seconds, Sergeant Craigs lowered his weapon and looked to his squad.

"Alright, let's take the last guy out."

The innkeeper set the mug in front of Yang. "So you want to know more about the Americans, yeah?" His white fox ears perked up. Yang slid the mug closer to her and brought it to her lip, taking a sip.

The rest of the lower floor was empty, they looked to be the only ones inside which would be normal for this sort of establishment, it was midday after all. The innkeeper, named Edward, however, let them in and agreed to give Yang her order of a strawberry sunrise despite her being underage. The others opted not to drink

"Well, I can't really say much, they came here two months- was it two months? Eh it was a while ago, anyway, they had just dealt with a big horde of grimm that was coming for us, I honestly don't know what happened, I remember waking up to the sounds of faraway explosions and the mayor announcing a couple hours later that the grimm were gone."

RWBY listened to him recounting the story while Yang finished up her drink in one glug, not even savoring it.

"Few days later, they- General Kirkman and a bunch of his soldiers came right into the middle of the town square and waltz right into the mayor's office."

He paused to take Yang's now empty glass and set it aside.

"I don't know if this actually happened by the way, I was tending to the inn, but I heard some things."

Deadpan stares were returned to him.

"But what I do know is that a little after they start building a big base just outside the village and then all of a sudden there are a bunch soldiers walkin' around town."

They almost corrected his use of the word 'soldier'. He took a different glass and started to polish it with a cloth.

"I don't mind, they don't exactly cause much of a ruckus in the streets, well not when they're doing their job." His face morphed into a mild grimace.

The others looked with anticipation at what he was about to say, he noticed their looks and continued.

"Sometimes they're let off or something and some of them come over here and make a mess of the place, they're not allowed to drink booze but that doesn't stop them from making the bar look like an explosion just went through it."

His grip on the glass he was polishing grew ever so slightly stronger. He then sighed.

"It's not like I hate them being here either." He put down the glass and the cloth. " In fact I'm a little grateful."

Weiss raised an eyebrow "Grateful?"

"You folks from Vale?"

Three nods, Weiss hesitated but nodded anyway.

"I can tell, you wouldn't understand, behind all those walls, huntsmen, police, you people are the closest thing to safe on Remnant."

They recoiled a little at that but understood his point. The Kingdoms were always under the protection of huntsmen, as it was the kingdoms who facilitated them, there were always huntsmen nearby and ready to act, keeping everyone safe, the outside did not have the same protections.

"Out here? You know, we'd be lucky to go by a day without at least one of our own going missing or being found dead."

And there was the grim reality for all living outside the kingdoms, the four suddenly felt bad for questioning the man.

"Usually it would be militia, poor bastards were barely trained but they were sent out to protect the village, sometimes grimm get in the village itself and… kill a few people before militia can come in, there was one nasty attack a year ago, killed a lot, including my wife."

Their expressions saddened "I'm sorry." Weiss became the one to speak.

He shook his head "Don't be, I'm the one who brought it up." There was a pause as he continued polishing a glass "The mayor did his best, upped the salary for the militia, bought more dust, didn't change anything, people would still die damn near everyday… That was… Until the Americans came. And they changed everything. No more dead every day, no more going to bed wondering if the next victim will be someone you know, none of that. All for the small price of having to be woken up by explosions at four in the morning."

"But are you not at least a little bit angered that they've taken over your way of life?" The heiress decided to press on.

"I mean they haven't really taken over anything, they're more a guard detail really. The most they've done inside town is fill up the streets with soldiers here and there. But I admit, back when they first started, theywouldraid the houses of White Fang suspects. And it was pretty bad for the first couple weeks, cause we never knew what proof they had and if it was right or wrong, so pretty much every faunus in town was worried we'd be next."

Blake leaned forward "And aren't you mad, being a faunus yourself?" The innkeeper could've sworn her bow twitched.

He simply stared at Blake "These people they took, after they were taken, the Americans released all the evidence they had on them, and it was all pretty damning. So, no, not really, I don't agree with their brutality with dealing with the White Fang. But they're a big reason why people still look at us badly today, so in my opinion, them being taken down isn't really an issue. I don't hate the Americans, I don't like them either, but I'd have to be blind to not see the good that's happened since they came"

Blake stood up, locking eyes with her fellow faunus. "But look at what they're doing! They've taken over the town, isn't the reason you people are living outside the kingdoms because you don't want to live under the thumb of an oppressive system? But that's exactly what you're doing right now."

And to that the man simply sighed "Look lady, I know exactly why you and your friends are here."

She backed away

"You're not here for the sights, you're not here for the delicious sausages, you're here cause you want to know more about the Americans, you aren't the first."

Dumbstruck, the four almost recoiled at the innkeeper's sudden statement.

"And I'm willing to humor you, but what I think of them is set in stone, I know what this town was like before, and what it's like right now. You can go out, hell, talk to them, they're everywhere, some of them are even willing to have a chat, you can buy a room, just 80 lien a night for a room for two, and get more time to meet more people, you can find out all you want about the Americans, and everyone you talk to will probably tell you the same thing I have."

In a fit of anger, Blake pulled out a black purse, opening it, she brought out a set of multi-colored cards, she slammed them in front of Edward.

"I'd like to book two rooms." Her emotionless tone was not matched by her fury filled eyes. Her teammates behind her were simply standing astonished.

"Want to prove me wrong, eh? Go ahead. Upstairs, the last two doors down the hallway at the right." He reached under his desk, he stood straight, holding two keys, he slid them to Blake who wordlessly took them.

Yang tapped her on "Blake… Are you sure- "

"Yes."

Chapter Text

Muffled cries spilled throughout the room. A man was on his knees, blindfolded, in the middle of the tent, surrounding him were two bandits, all looking at him, smiles on their face laughing at his situation.

One of them, a woman, with short brown hair, tattoo on her arm, and a torn shirt, stepped forward, a grin plastered on her face. "Stop crying!" In her hand was a whip, clearly worn from use. She cracked it once, only making the man shriek.

"I said stop it." With the same grin, she pulled her whip back, and with a crackle cracked it onto the man's back.

"Chill, Vernal, Raven won't be happy if this guy dies of shock." A skinny blond man stated.

Vernal pulled back her whip, a look of disappointment washing over her face. Almost comedically, the flap to the tent was pushed aside, they all veered their heads towards the tent flap's direction, seeing their leader, Raven Branwen. They stood straight almost immediately.

"Has he talked?" she asked in her gruff voice.

"He's cried all day but he's said nothing so far." The blond man replied

"Hm." Raven simply said "Alright, Shay, leave"

"But-" He was stopped by a slight glare sent to him from Raven

Shay left the tent with little more than a nod.

Raven shot Vernal a look.

Wordlessly, Vernal nodded, and pulled back the man's blindfold. His eyes were red and puffy, still moist from the tears he cried, his stress was undercut by the many bruises and lacerations on his body. The one thing Raven could commend the man for was not speaking even under this much duress.

"This is Vernal, I'm sure you've grown familiar with her." Vernal smiled at Raven's words "Until now she's been… holding back, I suggest that unless you want to see her true strength, you tell us who sent you."

"What will you do to them?" The man barely managed to wheeze out.

"Things befitting of the weak when they anger the strong."

"Monsters!"

"Vernal."

And as Raven stepped back, Vernal stepped forward, summoning a mysterious power, one that took Raven a strange amount of concentration to observe. They were 'interviewing' a huntsman, one who had attacked their settlement before being easily subjugated by Vernal.

And as the huntsman's screams took over the room, Raven smiled, only a matter of time before he broke, she thought.

And just as she thought "SHION!" The man cried. "Shion sent me."

Ah yes, Shion, they had been raiding caravans recently, they must've sent the huntsman in an attempt to discover the cause for the disappearing supplies.

She looked at the man, a smug look on her face. He looked doubly worse than he did earlier, his bruises and cuts were now compounded with burn marks, sites of frostbite, and a few missing fingers. "Take him back to his cage Vernal, I'm going to make an announcement."

Vernal took the man from his bound hands and forced him to stand.

The two then walked to the tent flap, with one hand, Vernal pushed it open, allowing the three out. Vernal went a different direction towards the cages where they kept prisoners. Raven however, stepped up the platform outside her own tent, the largest one, and faced forward, it seemed as though this was a signal to everyone in the camp they walked up to the grounds in front of the platform, paying strict attention to their tribe leader.

"Brothers and sisters, as you all know we were attacked yesterday by a huntsman. It was a pathetic attack, didn't take more than a few minutes to take him down." She paused, letting the cheers of her crowd take over, after three seconds, they went quiet.

"But it doesn't end there, we now have to destroy the ones who dared challenge the strong! We attack Shion tomorrow!" With one quick motion she unsheathed her katana pointing it outward.

And again, the jubilant cheers of the crowd came to an almost deafening peak. Though the cheering crowd was unaware that something, or someone, was watching them.

Command Center, MOB Juno

1933 hours

The operations room was packed today, not that it was not in general, but this particular day saw many individuals taking positions within, one of them being General Kirkman, for today had marked a major breakthrough.

Kirkman stared down at the camera footage in front of him, it was drone footage taken from an RQ-4 Global Hawk. The subject being a small settlement, consisting of a few dozen tents, surrounded by palisades. It was in the middle of a dense forest; campfires were lit up around the tents, small specks representing people surrounding them, all in front of one especially large tent.

This was of course, the Branwen tribe, located after multiple sorties by an SR-71 blackbird, all of which put quite a dent into the budget, but with no less thanks to its flights they were able to locate the tribe a whole continent away.

Having already achieved his goal of eliminating the White Fang and establishing American dominance on the continent of Sanus, Kirkman had set his sights on Anima. Kirkman had little hope of winning the hearts of the citizens in Vale, but Anima was a different story, it did not have the same history Vale did with the Americans, it meant the opinion of Anima and Mistral's people could still be shifted in America's favor, and the Branwen Tribe was a key part of that.

Just getting the RQ-4 there was already difficult, because of how long it took to get there it could only loiter around for about three hours before having to return to base. The Global Hawk was a formidable surveillance drone, capable of flying long hours without refueling, but even for the Global Hawk, crossing continents was a difficult task.

No matter, he thought, he could have a constant rotation of Global Hawks watching the tribe.

Well, as of yet they weren't completely sure if the tribe was even the Branwen tribe, the base just matched the descriptions from the few sightings of their many settlements.

They were a nomadic tribe, switching from place to place when they were out of prey in any given region, they would not be the only nomadic bandit tribe in Mistral, in fact they would be one of many. But what set apart the Branwen tribe in terms of appearance was the presence of the main tent with a red top mast, there were few verified sightings of the Branwen tribe's camp that they could find, even with hours of searching whatever records they had access to, including the CCT's files.

But these few sightings were more than enough to give a relatively positive I.D. that the camp they were watching was the infamous Branwen tribe, Inarguably the most feared bandit tribe in Remnant. One that had subjugated and destroyed an innumerable number of villages and settlements, the tribe who along with other bandit tribes of the region were almost singlehandedly responsible for making the continent of Anima hell on Ear- Remnant.

If Kirkman could, he would've ordered the immediate destruction of the tribe, but they lacked the means to reach an entirely different continent, as such he had made requests for KC-10 Extenders for aerial refueling for this particularly long flight which thus far have been met with a promise to have them sent within a few days.

After that, it was only a matter of time until the Branwen tribe got what was coming.

A day later

"I don't know." The large man shrugged "They're fine, I guess. Pretty noisy, but with them here the grimm problem is pretty much solved." He took a drag from the cigarette between his fingers. "Tell you what, I think if you put them all over Remnant, I bet there'd be no grimm, period."

Blake promptly turned around and grumbled, almost tearing her hairs out. Yang looked at her worried, but decided not to say anything.

It was the day after they purchased a room, after going around town and speaking to an uncountable amount of people they all got pretty much the same answers. Some citizens were even fanatics, enthusing about the Americans, their weapons, and what they've been doing. And all throughout their journey, there were American soldiers they passed by, Blake felt almost insulted just looking at them. An afront to what she was trying to prove.

As the anger on her face grew, Yang couldn't help but speak "Blake, what's going on? Why are you so…" She shook her head "Why are you like this?" She put her hand on Blake's shoulder. A look of genuine concern on her expression.

Her eyes furrowed as she delivered a glare to Yang. "Why?" She threw Yang's hand away from her shoulder. "Because they're killers Yang!" The shout garnered the looks of a few passersby on the street they were in, luckily there weren't any Americans on this particular street.

"They're merciless, destructive, expansionist killers!" Tears seemed to well up in her eyes but refused to fall.

"Yeah but… What does any of this do? You're just hurting yourself more. You're not proving anything."

Blake looked down "It's just… so off-putting to see so many people not care."

Yang lightly stroked Blake's back in an attempt to comfort her. "Look, I don't like them either, especially after what happened in Mountain Glenn. But none of this is helping anybody."

Blake held her other arm, brushing it up and down, Yang was right, but she wasn't ready to admit it. The tears were just about ready to fall now.

Yang stopped stroking her back "Let's just call Sun and Neptune, and come back home, okay?"

Blake meekly nodded.

"Hey guys!" A red blur suddenly popped in front of them, startling the two, causing Blake to quite literally fall on the ground.

"Ruby! Don't use your semblance here!" A familiar distant voice shouted. Weiss ran towards them in an uncoordinated manner, clearly tired from having chased Ruby all day. Once she got to the three, she was a panting mess.

Blake turned her head to the side, trying to hide her puffy eyes.

"You guys find anything?" Ruby perked up.

"Nope, you?"

"Same."

Weiss finally found the energy to speak "There was this girl who apparently had…" Her face went a touch red "…Intimate relations with a soldier. Apparently, he didn't call back, she was particularly mad about that."

Yang rolled her eyes "Dick move but not exactly noteworthy."

"Alright, I think that's all, I think we should call Sun and Neptune now, we should be back at Beacon before night, we have classes at 7am tomorrow!"

Yang gave Blake a look. Who finally turned to look at the team, eyes still lightly red, and nodded. But before they could do anything.

"Excuse me." A soldier, or a marine, they still couldn't tell the difference, walked up to them. He was in full gear and he looked a little familiar, he had a scrutinous look on his face. "We were informed of a commotion around here. Said someone was shouting about a killer, y'all wouldn't happen to know something about that now, would you?"

Yang thought quick and promptly wrapped her hand around Blake "Oh, me and my friend were just talking about a TV show, murder mystery."

The scrutinous look vanished. "Oh, I see. Sorry 'bout that, command wants us to be on edge." He produced a radio and started talking into it. The girls couldn't tell what he was saying but he was done he looked back at them "I'll be heading back now; you ladies stay safe."

And right as he turned around, Blake held out her hand "I have a few questions to ask… sir?" She wasn't sure how to refer to the soldier… marine?

Yang looked at her with some form of disappointment, shaking her head as she did.

Blake gulped "We're uhh tourists, you see, and we- "

"Want to know more about us Americans, yeah, you guys wouldn't be the first, you have no idea how many journalists come around here. We're actually allowed to talk to you and show you our parts of town. Base is off-limits though."

Blake gave the best smile she could muster but all on her team could tell it was disingenuous.

"Alright, just follow me, I'm heading back to my post. You probably passed by it, it's where all the avengers are stationed. "

He saw they were visibly confused at that last line. "Avengers are… Uh, you know what I'll just show you, come with me." He turned around, flicking his hand to tell them to trail him.

They followed. As the soldier walked, he held his gun on the right hand, pointing it to the ground. The gun seemed to be attached to the vest he was wearing over his uniform, said vest had many pockets and satchels filled with varying pieces of equipment they couldn't recognize; however, Ruby was able to make out the contents of the satchels, magazines. She wondered if the soldier- marine? Ever found it hard to carry so much equipment all day, then again, she did do the same with crescent rose.

Weiss found it in herself to ask, she sped up her pace and walked closer behind the marine/soldier.

"Excuse me, sir?"

"Hm?" He sounded as he continued to walk.

"Are you a soldier or a marine?"

The man almost laughed. "Sergeant Jackson, miss. US Marines."

Elijah King looked over various papers on his desk, he eyed one particular set of documents. 'Project RMCALDERA' read the header on the paper on top of the stack. It was the larger plan to establish a holding company that would handle a private military corps, and more importantly, a mining corporation. The PMC part was in the process, but the mining company part had yet to be started.

The air conditioner unit's flap swung down, it hit the miniature American flag in his pen holder, it flapped around as it dawned on him just how big much of a mess this Project would be. Thousands of non-American personnel essentially working for the American government and military, personnel with cultures, beliefs, and ways of life, different from anything he'd ever seen before. This meant establishing a whole new doctrine when it came to exploiting them, he couldn't use all the same techniques his Agency would employ back on Earth.

Then even if he was to establish a proper working force of fighters and miners, he'd then have to go about making sure the business of selling dust was successful, otherwise there'd be no money to fund anything, the overall operation on Remnant was already costing the Federal Government untold amounts of money, not any more money could really be allocated to propping up a failing company, meaning it had to be self-sufficient.

There were many old and abandoned dust mines that littered the areas surrounding Mountain Glenn, an area they controlled. But surely a takeover of these mines would tickle some toes, but what could they really do? Square up with the United States? Elijah didn't like Kirkman's PR Strategy, but he had to give it to the guy, he sure knew how to put on a show, this meant one thing, and while nobody wanted to admit it, all of Remnant was terrified of America.

By the estimates of his subordinates, by just taking over the Mountain Glenn Mines, the theoretical company wouldn't be able to go up against big guys like the Schnee Dust Company, at least worldwide, but the smaller companies around Vale were open season, and assuming they played their cards right, they could create an oligopoly in Sanus. And if not that, at least they'd be able to sell to smaller towns and villagers who were getting sick of the high market price of SDC dust products that came as a result of their monopoly on the dust industry.

Money could be made, much more Dust could now be sent back home for testing, and Operation Forging Steel would significantly benefit. Soft power was not an easy thing to come by, and with this, they could move away from the United States simply just being a strong military power on Remnant, but an economic one as well.

Now the next point of interest… He shuffled the documents around to find the one he wanted. Then under one of the piles, it was there, a dossier.

On Doctor Thrax. The one Kirkman had suspected was the mysterious Doctor referred to in many White Fang text messages and now Blake Belladonna's testimony.

Admittedly, the names were eerily similar. But everything about what Blake said about the man just lined up with who Doctor Thrax was, or is. He would apparently kidnap random Vale civilians, or just take disobedient White Fang members, stick them in a room and test strange substances on them, toxins. Belladonna said something about a weapon he was working on everybody would call "Yellow", apparently referring to the color of the liquids he'd spray at his test subjects.

Elijah was absolutely convinced that the Doctor was Thrax. But how did he even get here? And more importantly, where was he now? He was one of the largest reasons the American led coalition took as many casualties as they did during the war against the GLA. But that was a question for another time, Thrax could be dealt with the same way they thought they dealt with him before, it was simply a matter of finding him again.

For now, Priorities were on interests and threats that were present and immediate, this meant...

His eyes arrived on a different set of papers titled 'The Bandits of Anima.'

"Not good." McGarry sighed "They're already fucking up on EOs."

The Americans watched as the hopeless recruits let out pained shouts at the exercise given to them on their first day of training.

"FASTER YOU PUSSY FUCKS! ANY SLOWER AND I'D THINK YOU'D HAVE PALSY!"

McGarry laughed as the sergeant he picked went off on the recruits. Authority had already been established when they had been shouted awake and told to refer to the man as their 'Drill Sergeant'. They went though a good amount of the usual boot camp occurrences, of course with a few parts being sped up or skipped entirely due to the small amount of time they had.

The recruits were currently going through the physical portion of day one. Which meant doing basic exercises, push ups, sit ups, pull ups. Most recruit did well on those but it seemed like everybody was struggling on the EOs. Surprisingly enough it was actually the two student infiltrators who had done the best, both having already reached the other side of the room while doing said exercise.

It took a good minute for the rest of the recruits to reach the other side of the room, at which point many of which were grunting or panting from the pain of using their core and shoulders to traverse a large room.

"ALRIGHT NOW STAND UP!" Everyone promptly stood up "GET IN YOUR PREVIOUS POSITIONS!" The recruits then went into the rows they were in previously before the exercise began.

"I want you all to jog in position until I tell you to stop!"

Everyone started jogging, with barely any rest, the majority were slowly beginning to cave.

"If any of you stop or slow down at any point before, I say so, you will be dropped from the program!" He then got up and close to one of the recruits, the blonde-haired monkey faunus infiltrator.

"Do you understand, monkey boy?"

"Yes, sir!" He responded.

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!" His face got closer, almost red now.

"I- Uh- Yes, Drill Sergeant!"

Quite the easy mistake, in the Marine Corps it was more common to call your instructors by 'sir' or 'ma'am' but doing so in the Army, which this drill instructor was from, would land you in some really hot water.

"You will not make that mistake again!"

"Yes, Drill Sergeant!"

McGarry smirked. "What do you think, Craigs?" He turned to the staff sergeant right next to him.

"I'm thinking when do we give them guns? That part is what scares me most." They both spoke in hushed tones so the recruits would not hear them.

"They get their weapons on week two. Rest of this week is just physical assessments and maybe some obstacle courses if they get set up on time."

"Couple PowerPoint presentation thrown in too, right?" he joked.

"Damn right."

Ah, just like real boot camp.

"Curious, Captain, what do you think about this whole thing anyway? You know, training Remnant natives on how to use American weapons, tactics, all with support from high up."

The man seemed to just stand there deep in thought for a few seconds "Well, part of me thinks it's a bad idea, another part of me thinks that we're making do with what's offered to us. The classified nature of Remnant itself makes it hard to commit lots of manpower to it, and with all the interests Uncle Sam has here right now, lots of manpower is exactly what we need."

"Why is it still classified anyway? You'd think a big discovery like this would've hit the presses by now. Surprised nobody's leaked it."

He stood there, silent. Admittedly there had been a few attempted leaks from what McGarry knew, but since 'America just discovered a portal leading to a new world' was such a ridiculous statement, anybody who did leak it was labeled a nutjob and wasn't taken seriously. The only ones who would be taken seriously were higher ups like Colonels, Generals, Politicians. But they knew the risks of leaking top-secret information of this magnitude.

The only people who attempted to leak were enlisted ranks with no more than a few years of service and a few butter bars here and there, even so, the internet was under constant watch for leaked classified materials by various government agencies, privacy was definitely being violated, but it was considered a necessary risk if it meant keeping everything under wraps. Though it still left a bad taste in McGarry's mouth knowing what the powers of the state was being used for.

"You ever been in combat, Craigs?"

The man shook his head "Combat Deployment sure, at Mountain Glenn, but we were just sat back in reserve for most of it, wouldn't exactly call it combat. Why do you ask?"

"Eh, nothin'. It just dawned on me how the guys you're watching fuck up jogging have seen more combat than your unit."

Craigs eyes widened in profound realization. The captain was right. Most of the recruits here had faced grimm almost regularly as part of being militia for frontier settlements. Whether he wanted to feel ashamed or not, he wasn't sure.

"But if you asked me who I'd be more confident sending into combat, I'd say your unit without a doubt."

This brought a smile to Craigs' face "Thank you, sir."

McGarry patted him on the back "Now don't get a hard-on, that doesn't mean your unit's special or anything, I'm just making statement about the importance of training and protocol." He crossed his arms "Something these people severely lack."

Craigs laughed "Don't worry sir, either way I take it as a compliment."

"Eh, take it however you want. You guys did beat them, I'll give you that."

"Pretty easily too." Craigs noted.

"That's like Mike Tyson bragging about beating ten four-year-olds in a boxing match." He deadpanned.

"That'd mean my squad's still Mike Tyson."

"Touche."

"And this is Patriot Missile System, usually used to shoot airborne targets but have been modified to hit ground ones too." The marine slapped his hand on a concrete structure with weird metal silos sticking out from the top.

"Really? Is that why this place doesn't have any more reports of nevermore? What's its range? What kind of missile does it shoot? What about its explosive yield- "Ruby was completely engrossed by just about every weapon the marine showed them, this would be the third on the list of weapons that Ruby asked about.

The first was about the American's gun, then about the various pieces of equipment on his body. The rest were getting increasingly bored by the marine showing off the American weaponry. They weren't here to get bragged to by an American soldier.

The marine threw his hands up at the questions "Bit too many there, miss, one at a time, even then I'm not exactly a handler of these systems so I don't know the specifics. I do know that they're the first layer of defense to any aerial grimm, but if any gets past its radar, or you're in an area without Patriot protection." We have this. He walked a few yards to the side and tapped his hand on one of the vehicles, this was rather familiar. It was the vehicle they saw with what looked like guns pointed at the sky earlier.

"This is the Avenger Mark 2, our short-range air defense system. Shoots a big laser beam into the sky, incinerating pretty much anything it comes into contact with."

Ruby's eyes were sparkling at this point "Mark 2? What was the Mark 1 like?"

"It fired short range missiles instead of lasers."

An audible "Cool!" came from Ruby as the marine's eyes narrowed at RWBY. "Say, I've wanted ask you all since I saw you girls yesterday."

Ruby's eyes stopped sparkling as he then gave the marine a questioning look and as did the rest of the team.

"Aren't you Team RWBY? You know, from Mountain Glenn." Their eyes grew a bit at that, Blake had worry fill her mind as the Marine questioned them. "No big deal, I'm just curious."

"Y- yeah." Yang answered back.

"Ah, thought I recognized you. I could never forget your faces." That was… creepy. The marine seemed to realize his error in wording. "You see, I was one of the guys who was pulling you out of the rubble, I'm Sergeant Jackson, as in Sergeant Paul Jackson."

Faces of realization then came upon RWBY. They remembered that exact name from the report Oobleck had given them about their rescuing. Apparently, it was 'Sgt. Paul Jackson' and 'Cpl. Troy Dunn'. Did that mean these two exact soldiers were the one they encountered the day before at the inn?

The marine then pulled something from around his neck, it was like a small chain, a metal square at the end of it, he showed it to the four. Was it some sort of I.D.? Immediately they recognized 'Paul Jackson' engraved at the top. But then there were terms and engravings they didn't recognize such as a weird set of numbers, 'O-Negative' his blood type, sure. But then at the bottom the word 'Protestant' was engraved, what did that mean?

The four really didn't know what to say to the man who apparently had rescued them, of course the first instinct was to say thank you, but the situation made it a little awkward.

Jackson pulled back the chain, attaching it back around his neck, as he did, Weiss was the first to speak. "Thank you." Then the rest followed, even Blake, even she could recognize what the man, and Dunn had done for them.

"Don't mention it. If it's anyone you should say thank you to it's that dog, he led me and Dunn to you guys."

"Zwei!" Ruby beamed. They had all heard of how they had been rescued, the family dog leading the two soldiers to the site where they had gone unconscious.

"You know his name?" Jackson's brow furrowed.

"Of course, he's, our dog!" Yang smiled.

"No way! Y'all had better spoiled the shit out of him when you got home." He matched Yang's energy

"Hell yeah we did!"

"He's got crazy pull strength too; I think he was the one to pull you out of the rubble." He pointed to Yang.

She gasped a little at that before returning to her cheeky smile "You can always count on dogs to pull you out of a ruff day."

The cheery look on Jackson's face fell flat with discontent, as groans from Yang's teammates filled the atmosphere.

Yang was unaffected "Come on, don't be so ruff on the edges, wouldn't wanna be paw-ty pooper, now, would you, guys?"

Jackson tilted his head and quirked his lip "That last one was really reaching."

Yang tilted her head "Oh really?"

"You could even say it was bit far-fetched." And then Jackson's cheery demeanor returned as he flashed a wild grin.

His grin was matched by Yang's as the other girls further sunk at this duo of puns.

It was refreshing to finally get to talk to an American soldier at this capacity, all the stories and the fact that they'd never properly met one until now put up a wall between the average person and the Americans, but conversating with Jackson now showed them that even the Infamous American soldiers were just regular people.

Jackson then suddenly leveled a stare at Blake, making her almost jump at the unexpected gaze. His eyes seemed to narrow. Was he suspecting something? Why was he suddenly staring? Or perhaps was he attracted to her? No, certainly not. Not even something she'd consider. An American of all people having a crush on-

"You're Blake Belladonna, right?" His eyes stopped narrowing.

Blake gulped "Y- yes."

He then smiled "I have something of yours." He reached into one of the satchels on his uniform and pulled out a book. Not just any book, a black book, with red text on it.

A book titled 'Ninjas of Love'

Oh… Oh no.

He extended his arm to reach the book over to her. She grabbed it as fast she could, her teammates absolutely did not need to know her literary tastes.

She had been missing the book ever since the incident at Mountain Glenn, she had assumed it had fell out of her satchel while she was running or when she got crushed by the rubble.

"Interesting stuff you got there." He smirked as the three girls gave questioning looks to Blake. "I don't think I've ever seen the word 'Katana' used in that conte- "

"THANK YOU." Blake practically yelled out to cut him off. Her eyes were wide as she hugged the book tightly to her chest, making sure her arms covered the title. Her teammates' curiosity peaked as they did their best to catch a glimpse at the books title

The marine's smirk only grew "I never knew ninjas were so versatile. Experts in covert operation, but also in se- "

"HOW DID YOU FIND IT?" This piece of… How did he even know those things about the book? Did he read it?

The marine's eyes then looked upwards as if reminiscing "Ah well, when we finished digging you guys up off the rubble, I noticed there was a tiny black book on the ground, I already assumed one of you owned it, I just didn't know who, so I flipped through the book, there was bookmark with your name on it."

Oh, brothers no… She left that bookmark on a page about-

"Really interesting page you left it on." He then scratched his chin, the sarcasm leaking through his voice "I think it was about two co- I mean Katanas making their way into… "

Jackson then noticed the look Blake was giving her. Her eyes were pleading, asking for a shred of mercy for her dignity. Yang seemed to catch on though, as she too adopted the smirk the marine had.

"Into the sheathes of two very respectable swordsmen, beautiful scene it was." Jackson relented, starting to feel bad for Blake.

Blake let out a relieved sigh, as she hugged the book tighter. But she was curious. "Did you read it?" Her tone was genuine.

The marine stopped smirking "Well, yeah… It's actually a pretty alright book, aside from the goofy euphemisms of course."

She didn't like that last part insulting her favorite book series, but it was nice to know that someone had taste, a slight smile came to her lips. Then a realization came, she was thinking positively about an American soldier, the smile was wiped off her face as her eyes widened.

A beep then suddenly came. It was from the radio on Jackson's vest.

"(COMMS) Holy shit guys, y'all got some extra toilet paper over there? I was jerking off in the porta potty and I dropped my phone in the toilet, I need to dry it off and the roll over here's empty."

What? What did they just hear? All their faces went varying shades of red.

Jackson pursed his lips, as if disappointed. He sighed as he turned around and clicked his radio.

"Matt."

"(COMMS) Yeah?" Spoke the voice on the radio

"You're on Company COMMS, dumbass."

"(COMMS) Oh shi- "He got cut off.

The sergeant clicked the radio before turning back to the girls "Sorry about that."

"Gross." Weiss remarked.

"That's a pretty interesting place to be doing that." Yang grinned

The marine gave Yang a look "Hey! Jerking off in the porta potty is basically US Military tradition. I mean, where else can we really do it on base?" He said in a thoughtful tone.

the girls looked for any sign that he was joking, but no, he was being serious. They all had various looks of shock on their face which the marine seemed to notice.

He threw his hands up "Oh, come on! Don't act like y'all haven't done shit like that in weird places too."

"No!" All of them except Yang shouted. They all looked at her.

"Yang?!" Her sister looked at her.

She too, threw her hands up "All I'm saying is there aren't many places in Patch to do that kind of thing."

The Marine smiled while pointing his thumb to her "See? She gets me. Matt's only fault was announcing it to the whole damn company."

He kept saying 'company'. What did it mean? Did he mean a business?

"What is a company?" Weiss brought up.

"Y'all don't have those over here?" She shook her head. "Well, it's basically a military unit, in the marines it's made up of a hundred or so marines, inside a company, there's platoons and squads, made up of smaller numbers of marines. Davis probably meant to say what he did in platoon or squad COMMS but ended up blurting out that he just jerked off to at least a hundred people."

Yang snickered. The others only continued to look grossed out.

"Alright you guys can head back now; we been talking long enough."

Disappointed faces fell upon most of the team.

"Aw, we really can't stay for longer? I wanna talk about those fast-flying aircraft you guys have." It was Ruby who voiced her disappointment."

He quirked his lip "Nah, If the Sergeant Major sees me slacking off more than I already am, he's gonna have my ass on a platter."

Blake narrowed her eyes. Jackson introduced himself as a Sergeant, a rank she was familiar with, but Sergeant Major was not something she knew to be on any military rank structure, but the 'major' implied that whoever they were, this person was above Jackson on the pecking order.

Ruby pouted, showing her puppy dog eyes to the taller man. Those unbeatable eyes seemed to leave the marine unfazed, only returning her a confused look. Seeing that her usual tactics didn't work, Ruby relented.

"Awww, okay. Thanks Jackson."

"Don't sweat it. Was nice talking to you guys, see you!" He waved as the team waved back; he began walking further down the road.

The four girls just looked at each other, not sure what to make of their time with the marine.

"…We should probably head back." Blake broke the silence.

"Yeah." Ruby agreed.

And so, the four walked back to White Fox Inn.

"I wonder what's going on with Sun and Neptune."

Blake checked her scroll "The last update Sun gave me was that they were told to go to sleep. This was around 9pm."

Yang laughed "What are they? Kids?"

"That's the normal time to sleep in the Atlesian military."

"Oh, I forgot we had miss wannabe soldier here, did Jackson remind you of anything else in the Atlesian military?"

Her brow furrowed as she looked at her teammate "Hey! It's only fair that I know much about the Atlesian military, all the combat schools there are managed by them, in fact, military protocol is even taught at schools." She then looked back ahead the way they were walking "But, to answer your question. Virtually everything about them is different, the weapons, equipment, uniform, technology, structure. The only things I can say are similar are their names for ranks. In fact, even their culture is different."

The team quirked an eyebrow at this "The way I saw many of the soldiers or I guess marines here interacting. They seem so… Friendly with each other. In our military, it is discouraged for you to talk unless completely necessary.

"That sounds really sad." Yang interjected.

"And boring." Ruby continued.

It was hard to imagine a work environment where you couldn't build a sense of camaraderie. As huntsmen in training this completely went against what they were taught, they were forcefully put in teams and told to make to do with who they were with. Because ass for huntsmen, sometimes you worked with random huntsman and would have to learn to function and communicate well together.

Weiss though seemed to be a little offended at the dig to her homeland's military "It is to keep professionalism. Of course, the most powerful military in the world would want to keep an air of competence."

Yang whistled "Most powerful military in the world… you sure 'bout that, Weiss?"

She scoffed "Don't let their feats fool you. Sure, the Americans may have successfully taken Mountain Glenn, but I'm sure Atlas could have done the same."

"Then why didn't they?" Yang pressed on.

"W- Well Because why would they need to? It's not like Mountain Glenn was presenting a direct threat to Atlas. We didn't even know there were White Fang there."

A fair point.

"But what about all their fast-flying aircraft and their big guns that can shoot from miles away?" It was Ruby's turn to speak, this time on the subject of weapons.

"Atlas has the biggest air fleet on Remnant. The Americans probably don't even have more than a few of those fast aircraft. As for those guns, what use are those when we can simply destroy them from the air?" She almost grinned, proud of her quick rebuttal.

"You mean the air Jackson just explained was covered by their Patriots and Avengers?"

Weiss' smug aura broke "Wh- Why are we even discussing this? It's not like Atlas and the United States are at war."

Blake smirked as she eyed Weiss "Yeah well you're the one who brought up Atlas as the 'strongest military'.

"Well, it is, and even by the small, small chance the United States is technologically superior. General Ironwood is simply a better strategist than General Kirkman."

Blake raised a brow "What makes you say that?"

"My sister works for him, and she has nothing but praise for General Ironwood."

"But has he ever actually done anything?" This was a genuine question by Blake, as much as General Ironwood was famous around Remnant, she had never actually heard about anything he'd done apart from his speeches and announcements.

Nonetheless, Weiss's eyes shimmered at the opportunity to list off Ironwood's achievements.

"He coordinates the entire Atlesian military, he is responsible for the procurement of technology. And is considered the pioneer of the current Atlas military. He designed almost everything from the rank structure to unit designation, and even the tactics. He is so far ahead Kirk- "

"Are any of that equal to taking a city?" Yang said in a vacant tone.

"Like I said, I'm sure Atlas could have done the same. We have tens of thousands of soldiers, many more androids, so unless the Americans do something that even I'd have to admit is impossible for Atlas, Atlas is still the strongest military power.

Yang continued smirking "And what would that be?"

"I… don't know."

The conversation wrapped up just as they reached the doors of White Fox Inn. They entered; Mr. Shiro seemed to be talking to a customer. The place was packed, even in the afternoon. Nearly all tables were filled up by customers, with an assortment of food lining the plates in front of them.

"Woah. Wouldn't expect a place like this to be this full so early." Yang remarked, scratching her head. She had a difficult time finding an empty table.

"You really expect an inn to only serve alcohol?" Weiss delivered an eye roll towards her teammate.

Yang shrugged. "Well, I guess it is around lunch time."

A "Good morning!" came from the pleasant voice of a pretty looking Waitress, a Faunus waitress, sharing the same white fox ears as Mr. Shiro. "Are you here to eat?" A business smile was plastered on her face.

"Uhh." Yang couldn't answer. She turned to the others.

"I'm fine either way." Blake simply stared on. A rumble then came from her stomach as a blush crept up to her face.

"Guess we're eating!" the enthusiastic glee of Ruby made the Waitress give a chuckle.

The waitress led them to an empty table, handed them a menu, took their orders, and left.

"Well, that was exhausting." Commented Yang as she slumped down on one of the chairs, her teammates doing the same. "You at least get what you wanted?" She tapped Blake.

"A little bit."

Yang rolled her eyes "A little bit? Come on! We got to talk to one, how much more do you need?"

"We even got to interview a few, and I'm rather surprised by their opinions. Most of them were impartial, and a few of them even liked the Americans."

Blakes eyes darkened at that statement. It perplexed her to no end why so many of people in Cooperwick liked them. Did they not see their blatant disregard for life? The wanton destruction they cause? But… Then there were the Americans they met here, Warrant Officer Lewis, who seemed to be a nice guy, then there was that one 'Ranger' named Dunn who helped out a girl with her cat, then Jackson, one of their saviors who seemed to be a normal guy all things considered. It was hard for Blake to imagine that these seemingly normal people were also brutal killers.

But then again, many people in the White Fang were also normal people, they just got indoctrinated into a horrible ideology, could she really say that they were just as terrible as the man who led them?

Memories flashed in her mind of a certain red-haired man. Perhaps her hatred was misplaced, it was Kirkman who should be despised. The soldiers- or marines themselves seemed alright. Mostly…

Command Center, MOB Juno

1224 hours

"Sir. Something's come up." Burton's Baritone voice jolted Kirkman's head up from the paper he was reading.

"What is it? Am I needed in the Situation room?" His eyes narrowed at the bald man.

"No, but it's still something you have to see." Burton approached Kirkman's desk, closing the door behind him. It was then that Kirkman saw that Burton was holding a brown envelope. Burton brought the envelope up to Kirkman.

Kirkman took the envelope, he opened it up and took out its contents, it was a set of papers stapled together indicating that it was hastily done. He read its contents; his eyes widened as he did.

The Branwens appeared to send out a raiding party. It happened in the three-hour gap where there couldn't be a Global Hawk watching the tribe. Or at least this was the observation of those who made the paper. There were photographs included within the pages depicting a large group of Branwens moving west. This wouldn't be them switching locations as that would entail them setting up caravans. Whatever they were doing did not require the full tribe, which meant a raid. But they couldn't be sure, this would be the first time they observed the Branwens doing such a thing.

But from the few reports about Branwen tribe raids, the Americans knew that they would send out small raiding parties of 30-40 tribe members to terrorize a village, these members were normally not enough to completely destroy a village, but that would not be needed. The reports of few survivors of Branwen tribe raids told of the raiding party killing a dozen or so people before retreating, the attack would be enough to cause the mobilization of the town militia or guards. The negative emotion from the attack attracted grimm which would kill the now exposed town guards.

Once the grimm were killed the civilians and town guard would have suffered enough casualties to leave the town defenseless and open to a second attack from the raiding party, one that would finish what the grimm had started.

But the fact that was still activity inside the actual base meant that this wasn't a migration, but rather a move of some sort.

"Why do you think they'd attack now?"

"Low on supplies maybe?" Burton guessed

"No, they raided a caravan just a few weeks ago, they wouldn't be in need of supplies so soon, would they?"

Kirkman put the papers back in the envelope and brushed his chin "Not unless…" His hand fell to the table "How many settlements did we send money to in Anima?"

The Colonel squinted his eyes, not realizing the relevance of their monetary support program to frontier towns. "Not much sir, we don't have much lien yet to begin with so most of our funding has been to Sanus settlements but ever since we expanded our horizons, we've only helped a few on Anima, I don't know the exact number."

"I see." Kirkman clicked his tongue.

"If I may ask, sir. Why is this important?"

"What if this is preemptive?" Kirkman looked up at the Colonel.

"What do you mean?"

"The whole world knows that we have started helping out frontier settlements in Mistral to help with Grimm and bandits, maybe this is to send a message, or maybe they just weren't economical with their last raid loot and have to get new supplies. Either way, this looks bad on us."

The Colonel gave a questioning look "What do you mean, sir?"

"How do you think this would play out in the eyes of the populace? The media? Week after we promised to deal with the bandit tribes of Mistral and a village gets attacked, one that we probably helped out, what would the survivors say?"

The Colonel got at what the General was saying, that would indeed be disastrous.

Kirkman reached for the telephone on his desk, he brought it to his ear and dialed a set of numbers "George Miller, please." He heard a click, seconds passed.

"(COMMS) General?"

"I need George Miller and Elijah King in my office, right now."

"(COMMS) I'll get it done, General."

He promptly hung up the phone. The Colonel wondered why Kirkman would need the head of the cyber team and the CIA Director of Operations in Remnant for. Kirkman couldn't exactly giver orders to the Director either, as there was no official designation of command structure between the heads of the two departments.

Nonetheless, after what felt like an hour condensed into ten minutes, George Miller entered, soon after, as did Elijah King.

"Now why were we called up here?" He asked as he stepped in. He swung the door to close it.

"There's been a complication." Kirkman spoke.

Elijah didn't seem fazed "I heard, bandits attacking Shion, didn't we send 40,000 lien out there a couple days ago, that's a good portion of our funds, and we haven't even started mining operations." Elijah did seem to grimace at the last part. Then he shrugged "But what can we do."

"We can help them, which is where you come in, Miller." He pointed to George.

He pointed to himself, questioningly. Kirkman nodded.

"I don't have authority over you, Elijah. But I ask that the two of you work together to find a huntsman agency and purchase their services to defend Shion since we can't reach them with our jets without proper refueling agents."

Elijah continued with his inexpressive countenance "Wasting more money for them? I understand, you're the sympathetic type, General, but we've done up enough resources for the Mistral operation as is, our lien supply is reaching a critical state, we might not have enough to fund our operation if we keep downing money down the drain we call 'settlement support'."

Kirkman shook his head "This is also about optics, what do you think happens if the media reports on us abandoning a town we've previously supported."

"I get you, I'm glad you're taking into consideration PR, but you should also consider how much it'd cost us, and if it'd even work. The money we sent; how much was it? 40,000 lien? Suspiciously close to your average huntsman job. They probably already bought one to deal with the Branwen tribe. What makes you think asking for more huntsmen will help?"

So they did help Shion. The General clicked his tongue, Elijah was right, and if they did send a huntsman to deal with or impede the Branwens in some way then the incoming raid could be a revenge strike, but it still did not sit right with him to just let it unfold after finding out about it so early, while it could still be stopped.

"If you care about optics." Elijah continued "Once Shion gets offed, you can always just release a statement looking sincere, saying you're deeply saddened at what happened and will promise hereon forth that no such event will take place under America's watch." Elijah paused "Besides by that point I'm pretty sure the Extenders would have arrived so nothing really will."

That's it. The Extenders, a lack of proper refueling operations across continents was the only thing preventing him from sending direct support like airstrikes and the like. He suddenly stood up and walked to one of the file cabinets in his office causing the three other men in the office to stare at him with confused expressions on their faces.

He searched one of the drawers, eventually arriving at a grey folder, he pulled it out, walking back to his desk, he opened it and produced two multi-page papers, then from the drawer on his table, he took out a notebook and pencil, he opened the notebook, he wrote on then notebook, sneaking glances at the two papers every now and then

Elijah then stared at the papers Kirkman was looking at, he recognized them as papers holding the specifications of two aircraft, the KC-10 Extender and F-35 Lighting II. He then glanced over at the notebook Kirkman was writing on, he was writing numbers on tables and lines, was he writing equations? Interspersed with the numbers were mixtures of words, notes probably?

Kirkman then looked back at the paper which contained information on the Branwen group raiding party. He shook his head.

"Colonel, I need you to go back to the situation room and ask for a few more specifics on the raiding party, how fast have they been moving? And how far are they from Shion?"

The Colonel gave a wordless nod and left the room.

"General, what are you doing?" Elijah finally asked.

"Calculating how long it would take for a strike package to reach the Branwens." Said the General while continuing to write. "While also accounting for refueling time, payload, and distance."

The distance between the two continents had been ingrained in the General's brain after studying just about every single report the Remnant Studies Group had sent back to him. From base to the nearest shore, the distance was about 2800 miles. He had measured up how long it would take for a strike package of F-35s to reach Anima.

For a minute they stood in silence as the General correlated data and did the math.

"Assuming one refueling sortie midway across the ocean, it would take about 5 hours to get to the closest shore, assuming Shion is a bit more in land, I'd put the number up to 6 hours. The raiders are moving on foot and could take days to get to Shion.

"General, this is assuming we even get KC-10s before then."

"The KC-10s I ordered are coming directly from American soil, I can make an emergency request for refueling aircraft from any nearby bases within Kazakhstan. If any comply, it shouldn't take more than a few hours for some to arrive at Kostanav. We could even kill two birds with one stone, same strike package that takes out the raiding party can take out the Branwen tribe as well." Kirkman smiled at the realization.

"An emergency request for some town in the middle of nowhere?" The CIA Officer challenged.

"Elijah, we made a commitment to these people, that we'd protect them, if this isn't the time to do so then for Chrissake I don't know what is." His voice oozed with determination.

Elijah sighed "I get your point, objectively speaking, if we succeed, we would be hailed as heroes, we can run one of the biggest PR campaigns Remnant has ever seen, America, savior of Anima. But if you fail, especially after using so many resources…"

Kirkman shook his head "Believe me, I'm aware of the risks, 6 hours to Shion, return trip another 6, it will be the third longest fighter combat mission in Air Force history, on a different planet no less. But why else do you think we've been given so much freedom over here? Why else do you think they've sunk so much of the budget into Forging Steel? I went back to Washington specifically so that I could negotiate the guarantee of resources to make this operation go past Sanus, what better action would represent that next step than to the destroy the biggest bandit tribe in the world?"

He knew just how badly this could end up, Pilots exposed to those forces and having travelled for that long will be exhausted, what if something goes wrong at targeting, at launch? So much could go wrong as a result of how much the pilots were going to be put through, but yet Kirkman was willing to risk it both for the good of innocents and the betterment of the world's views on the United States.

"Alright, I'll trust your judgement on this General, but I'm not liking the risks. I'll take my leave then" They both gave each other a nod as the CIA Officer left the room.

Just as soon as Elijah left did Colonel Burton return with a new paper.

"Sir this is an updated paper, this includes distance, rate of travel, and ETA."

Kirkman didn't need the other data points. "Give me the ETA."

"They give a range of 10-18 hours."

That was a pretty big range, it likely accounted for if they slowed down as a result of grim and if they decided to sleep for the night.

"Worst case scenario, we have 14 hours to set it up."

"Set what up?" The General forgot that the Colonel was not present for his conversation with Elijah.

"I'll explain later." He set aside the papers he had on his desk and got to thinking.

The closest major military hub within Kazakhstan was in the town of Esil, four hours away. If he made the request now and the aircraft were to arrive within that timeframe, were set up, and made to fly within the hour. Then if his math was right and it would take six hours for the fighters to reach Shion, then at the worst-case scenario of 10 hours for the raiding party to reach Shion there wasn't enough time, and that was assuming he could make the request and set up the operation in a very timely manner, striking them before they reached the village seemed to become less and less feasible the more he thought about it. That was unless…

"We intervene." He mumbled under his breath.

"What?"

"Colonel, how fast can the Marine Raiders and Rangers mobilize a unit for an operation outside the continent?"

"Six, but if we expedite the process, we could halve the time. They'll be coming from Cooperwick so it will take a while for them to get here" The Colonel was starting to get at the General's plans based on context.

"We'd still need refueling…" He picked up his telephone. Dialing as he talked, he looked at Miller who had been stood in the room since he was called. "I need you to see if we can't contact Shion, if we can get them to evacuate themselves, the tribe will be locked in a chase, that'd give us more time to strike them."

"Yes, General." The man left the room

"Colonel, I need you to prep the Raiders for deployment, a company sized unit should do."

While the Colonel didn't yet fully understand what was going on, he complied, leaving the room with his new duty, allowing the General to iron out the details of the operation.

Sun looked down at the tray of food he had just been handed by the person behind the counter. The food looked… Alright. two sausages, scrambled eggs and mashed potatoes with some coffee. He looked at the food Neptune picked out, it looked very similar except the coffee was replaced with what looked to be orange juice.

"Alright, let's find a seat."

They walked around the large tent that had been set up, minding anybody passing by, they were lucky to be first in line, this would be the first time they ate a proper meal since they got on base. Whatever that MRE stuff they ate yesterday did not count as a proper meal, at least to their palettes. So when they heard their officers saying 'chow time' they were among the first to line up.

Now the problem was finding a seat, as it seemed many of the tables had already been filled up

Eventually they found an empty bench and table in the corner, they took their seats and began eating their food, which all things considered was actually pretty good.

"Man…" Neptune spoke with a downtrodden voice, his mouth full of eggs.

"What's up dude." Sun said with his own mouthful.

"I'm starting to get really tired of all this. We're doing all this work that we already basically do back at Beacon and what have we really got to show for it?"

The American base had been surprisingly restrictive to the recruits, only ever showing parts of the base that needed to be shown, and Sun and Neptune didn't want to risk sneaking around as there were far too many guards and patrols, sneaking around would be impossible. All they had really achieved in their infiltration was finding out that the US was making some sort of new group. Other than that, all they really got to do was see the Americans and their stuff in person. Which admittedly, was pretty cool, but that didn't really justify the suffering they had to endure here.

"Yeah, I get you, bright side is we're leaving tonight, so there's that" Sun smiled to comfort his partner in crime. They had already planned on leaving by 5pm, the exit process was a lot simpler than they thought, a few people already left after those exercises they did earlier, you just had to speak to the captain and they'll ship you back to the village you came from.

"Yeah, but we have to do a whole obstacle course before we even get to leave! And we're gonna be hounded by that drill sergeant guy again."

At that Sun shuddered, the drill sergeant was a scary guy, he wondered if all American soldiers went through that same experience, not even the worst teachers at Shade or Beacon were that bad.

"Just for a few more hours." Sun took a sip of coffee "Feel bad for the rest of these guys though, imagine having to deal with that for another month and a half."

"You think RWBY at least got something done?"

"Knowing them? Yeah, definitely." Sun very much knew that RWBY was far more competent than the two of them.

"Man, they're gonna be so mad when they find out we basically got nothing."

"Hey we got a few things!" Neptune sent him a look as if asking 'like what?' "W-well we know how they train their soldiers now, that's something! Then we also know a bit of their base layout. Of course, we also know how they fight now because of that exercise."

Neptune gave him a smug smile "You mean the fight we lost?"

"Hey! We tried! And at least we learned something…" He trailed off.

"Not a lot though." At this Sun shot him a light glare causing Neptune to smirk.

By this point they had both finished their meals. An officer instructed those who had finished their meals to leave their trays in a basket near where the food was being served. They did so. They were told that they had three minutes left before they were to be called on for the next set for exercises, everyone relaxed for a bit, talking about theorizing what exercise would happen next, some begging for all of it to end, others saying they couldn't wait to get paid.

The tent flap then suddenly was lifted up and in entered Captain McGarry. Everyone quieted down. Most of everyone had developed a level of respect for the man, especially after he had the whole group of recruits get embarrassed by the soldiers. He seemed to scan the room, looking all around before his eyes fell upon Sun and Neptune, he walked up to them.

"I need the both of you to come with me." He spoke with an uncaring tone, causing a cold tingling feeling to run down Sun and Neptune's backs.

They had been found out. They had to be! Why else were the two of them in specific called? And so, the two of them stood up, with shaky legs, doing their best to smile to hide how scared they were of the possible repercussions that could occur. Surely, they wouldn't punish Beacon students, right?

They walked up the Captain, He then promptly turned around and led the two outside. Outside was a truck they recognized as a 'Humvee' as some soldiers called them.

"Get in the back." The captain said." They followed immediately. They opened the door. A different soldier was on the wheel, the captain got into the passenger seat. They started driving around the large base, it was only now that Sun and Neptune truly got to appreciate just how large the military base was, outside they saw airfields, hangars, ammo depots, and more.

The two eyed the captain and the driver for any sign of what was going on. Were they in trouble? Were they about to get jailed? Many thoughts ran through the two men's minds, causing their hearts to beat much faster. They began to sweat.

They needed to get out, but how? Could they fight their way out? Should they fight their way out? They didn't have their weapons and they were in the middle of a large American base where seemingly everybody held aura breaking weapons, this was not a fight they could win.

And so, they sat still, albeit shakily so, as the vehicle drove for a few minutes before finally coming at a stop somewhere in front of a large concrete building.

"Alright, follow me." The captain said as he opened his door.

Neptune was about to open his door, but the captain did so for him. They weren't being cuffed and told to get on the ground, so that was a good sign.

They stepped out of the vehicle and faced the captain who promptly turned his back to them and started walking towards the direction of the large building, he pulled out some sort of card from his pocket and swiped it on a device by the side of the door, the doors then slid open, allowing the captain to enter, he gestured for the two of them to enter the now open doors.

The captain continued walking as Sun and Neptune wearily followed. Sun finally broke the silence "If I'm allowed to ask… What's this for?"

"I think you both know what this is for." He said with a grim voice. Sun and could swear he saw the bastard smirk from his view behind the captain.

That sentence only served to terrify the two trespassers further. They needed to make some sort of escape plan. Their minds ran into overdrive as various strategies were created in their minds while they navigated down long tight corridors and turns, passing by many men and women in various attires, most of them having the same camouflage pattern that the other American soldiers wore.

The hopelessness of the situation began to truly dawn on them as they realized that they did not have their weapons, their scrolls were back at their quarters, and their aura likely would be no match to more than dozen Americans shooting them at the same time. The best they could do now was follow along and hope for the best.

They eventually reached an oak-colored wooden door, four opaque glass panels obscuring whatever was on the other side. A metal plaque to the right of the door read 'Office 1-A2'

What the hell did that mean? Nonetheless, the captain knocked on the door.

They were answered by a deep baritone voice "Come in." It sounded bored.

The captain turned the knob on the door, he entered he waved his hand, gesturing the two of them to enter. They followed. It was very dark, the room was only illuminated by a single lamp, the lamp set lit a single set of papers being written on by a man, they looked up to see the barely illuminated visage of a man in a business suit. His shoulders were broad, a moustache graced his countenance, the man was wearing eyeglasses. His desk was completely empty, save for a black porkpie hat set to the side and the papers he was writing on.

The man looked up, first at the captain, then Sun and Neptune, his eyes widened "I see you brought them." He stood to his full height. He was quite tall. An inch or two taller than Neptune who was already quite tall, as opposed to Neptune though who had a slim build. This man's size went both for his height and his build. His face, now being an ample distance from the lamp, now became a black shadow. The dark room coupled with the large imposing man made the situation quite threatening. Sun and Neptune's rapidly beating heartbeats could just barely be heard in the quiet room.

"I'll leave them to you, sir." McGarry said with a smirk.

The man simply nodded, the captain left the room, closing the door as he did.

"Take a seat." The man said.

It was then that the two noticed there were two chairs in front of the man's desk. They gulped, shakily walking forward, they took a seat. The man seemed to notice their anxiety, he chuckled quietly.

"Don't worry, I ain't gonna bite." This did not ease their worry at all. "You're really just here because the fun had to end at some point.

They looked at each other then at the man. Sun tapped Neptune's knee "Wh- what do you mean, sir?"

"Believe me we knew who you were from the very start, Mister 'Bluekill Horizon'." Neptune stiffened up immediately "You too, 'Sparky Legend.'" He eyed Sun.

They had known from the start?! Why were they allowed to be here then. Was it so they could capture two Beacon students? Was this all some big play? Sun mustered the courage to ask "B- but sir, if you knew- "

"Yeah, yeah, why'd we let you in anyway. Well for one, there was no real reason to refuse you, if it's open to militia personnel, then why not be open to beacon students too? Y'all are probably a helluva lot more trained anyway. Those suspicions were correct if McGarry's reports were to be believed."

Sun scratched the back of his head, smiling at the compliment while Neptune let out a nervous laugh.

"And it's not like the base would be at risk if we let you guys in, I mean what can the two of you really do? Really, if you think about it, two random beacon students really don't pose much of an espionage-based threat cause most of what we have available to be seen or heard by the trainees have already been seen by everyone else on Remnant. That's of course unless you two broke into somewhere you weren't supposed to be, but I doubt you two could pull that off."

Ah… That was insulting. The man basically just deconstructed and criticized their whole reason for being here. But… He was right, the planes, the weird vehicles all had already been seen on record in the VNN report, American tactics were on full display from Kirkman's explanation of 'Operation White Death' as well. All they had really gained in this adventure of theirs was firsthand experience.

"So, we decided to let you guys have your fun, where's the harm in it after all?" He chuckled, the atmosphere lightened up a bit, Sun and Neptune eased up a little as they smiled along with the man, but there was something about his tone that made it seem like it was more than just letting them have their fun.

The man's face then suddenly glowered, his brow furrowed as he narrowed his gaze at the two boys "But none of that changes the fact that you two still lied on your papers, falsified information, and illegally joined a project you weren't supposed to."

The unease returned with a vengeance, the two started sweating bullets. The silence was deafening as the man simply stared the two down. The man then chuckled once again

"I'm just messing with you." They were beginning to get annoyed with this playing of their emotions "We knew from the start anyway and let you guys do it. But you are still gonna get a few slaps on the wrist for doing this, don't be mistaken."

"L- like what?"

"Well, we're sending you back to the village you came from for starters, and we're going to inform Beacon's faculty of your little… excursion."

They sweatdropped. Oh no. They didn't know which was worse, American prison or Professor Goodwitch's ire.

"But from here on out, you're free to come visit Cooperwick any time you want, assuming you don't lie about your personal information anymore of course." He took off his eyeglasses, rubbing them with a cloth as he continued to speak "We would have loved to keep you around for a little longer, but unfortunately, things are… heating up on our end, and we don't exactly want distractions at the moment."

What did that mean? Was the United States fighting something again? He seemed to look at Sun and Neptune for a response, but when he didn't get any, he simply spoke.

"Alright, that will be all." He placed his eyeglasses back on, as he looked over to a telephone beside him. He placed the apparatus to his ear and dialed something "I need you to arrange for that Cooperwick transport I asked about earlier." There was a pause "Then I need you to pick up two civvies from holding room two and have them brought off out of base into town at 12:30."

Ah, so they were going to Cooperwick, at least they could meet up with Team RWBY. Just who was this guy anyway? He seemed important, the plaque outside his office however gave no indication as to his standing. Yet he was in a suit, much like those who were handing out applications? Was he perhaps someone equal to Kirkman? Or one of his subordinates?

"Your things will be collected from your quarters, plus any item confiscated from you before coming to Cooperwick and will be given back to you as soon as you arrive at Cooperwick." He pushed up his eyeglasses "Before I send you both off to your holding room, do you have any questions? I'll answer any I can."

Sun and Neptune once again shared a look, this was it, information straight from the horse's mouth, they just had to think of the right line of questioning and hopefully whoever this man was would answer it.

"Uhhh, who are you?" Was Neptune's first question.

The man laughed "Elijah King."

'Elijah King' was quite strange name, the more names of Americans they found the less and less they resembled any common naming convention on Remnant. 'Thomas Kirkman', 'Leonard McGarry', now 'Elijah King', what did these names represent?

"What do you do?" Elijah seemed to have predicted this line of questioning as he didn't react to it at all. Yet he seemed to mull over his answer for quite a while, leaving the room in silence for a quarter of a minute.

"I'm the guy who looks over information and studies it."

That… strangely made sense. Of course, the man seemingly in charge of analyzing information found out their fakes immediately. If so, that would mean he had no real relation to those suited men passing out flyers in the villages, he was just someone America used to clear up information.

They scrambled to think of more questions, almost coming up empty handed until Sun perked up "What's the point of the Redwood Initiative?"

Neptune nodded, this was a good question, seemingly everyone who knew about it was stooped as to why the Americans would need to recruit frontier militiamen for training. Surely they didn't need to, they already had the numbers, as evidenced by the thousands of soldiers walking around in the base, they had technology that confused every Atlesian analyst they brought on VNN, then there was also the clear disparity in skill when it came to the average militiamen and American soldier. They wanted an answer for this, and hopefully they would get it.

Elijah looked up, squinting his eyes, almost looking confused "I can't really say, I don't know that much more about it than the officers who trained you. I just know that the higher ups want to train people from outside America, for what, I don't know."

Higher ups? Was he referring to Kirkman? Or were there possibly other powerful individuals in the United States aside from Kirkman, surely, Elijah would have said Kirkman's name if it was him who orchestrated this whole training initiative, right? While that was an interesting notion, they did not get their answer. Sun quietly clicked his tongue in annoyance, a gesture that did not go unnoticed seeing as Elijah quirked an eyebrow.

Elijah brought up his arm in a quick, sudden motion, startling Sun and Neptune, making them all the more aware of the fact that they did not have their weapons. Elijah simply pulled up his suit jacket's sleeve, revealing an ornate looking silver watch with a leather strap, he read the time. He brought his arm back down, causing Sun and Neptune to almost breathe a sigh of relief.

"Alright, I think that's about all the time we have." Elijah once again picked up the telephone and dialed in a few keys "I'll need an escort detail for two civilians to holding room two." He hung up the phone "They'll be here in a minute."

Elijah stood up, brought his arm forward, his palm was open, he was offering a handshake. Sun was the first to accept, followed by Neptune.

"It was nice meeting you boys, I have to be off, wait for your escort, don't even think of trying anything funny." He shot a threatening look at the two, sending shivers down their spine.

Elijah took the porkpie hat on his table, placing it atop his bald head, he quickly left the room, closing the door behind him, leaving Sun and Neptune alone in the room. A silence filled the room, a silence that left the two thinking of what had just occurred, this was until the Silence was broken.

"…Well that was something." Sun said, smiling nervously.

"Here is your food." The Waitress began setting their food down in front of them as a chorus of "Thank you." Came from RWBY. She then left the table

The team eyed their meals, all things considered it all looked pretty good. They dug in as they spoke.

"So, what did you all think of Jackson?" Yang was the first to speak.

"I thought he was nice." Ruby had a mouthful of sausage and mashed potatoes in her mouth.

"Don't speak with your mouth full, but I agree with Ruby, I think he seems like a nice guy, a bit crass but that seems to be natural to all Americans."

They collectively remembered the hosts of America Radio talking about the most unnerving topics and using foul language on top of that, their music seemed to be filled with vulgar language and subject matter too, however it was still nice to listen to, at least for everyone except Weiss.

"How 'bout you Blake?" Yang eyed Blake, she jolted from her name suddenly being called out, a fork still being in her mouth, she quickly swallowed the fish and veggies and set her fork down.

She looked at the floor "I think… Meeting him was eye-opening."

"How so?" Weis crossed her arms.

Blake couldn't really put words to her thoughts, the only other American she had ever properly met was General Kirkman himself, a fact she had kept from her team to avoid talking about the Doctor. The General was rather intimidating she had to admit and they spoke she didn't really get the feeling she was speaking with a normal average person, every point of the conversation felt like it was calculated on Kirkman's end but Jackson…

"He was very human." She finally looked up. Only to hear a small sound come her teammate.

"Pfft." Yang covered her mouth.

"Why?" Blake narrowed her eyes at Yang.

"Yeah, 'very human', like he's some sort of Alien."

Blake crossed her arms. "You know what I mean, it felt like I was talking to an actual person, meeting him was very humanizing. He didn't feel like a ruthless killer who hated the Faunus, he had a personality, he even joked around. It's hard for me to imagine that same guy has probably killed so many."

He even read and appreciated Ninjas of Love, not that that influenced her opinion of him in any way, of course.

"But I think meeting him taught me, that just like in the White Fang, a lot of these soldiers are probably just normal people who got roped into doing this kind of thing one way or another, and in a way that makes me sympathize with the soldiers." She remembered many of the members in the White Fang, driven to action from generations of oppression, these days they were doing the wrong thing for sure, but they were misguided, influenced by the idealogue that was Adam Taurus "And it makes me hate General Kirkman even more."

"Yeah, I agree!" Ruby nodded "Maybe not on the hate part, I can't really say I hate someone until I meet them first." Ruby scratched the back of her head "But meeting Jackson and even War Officer Lewis-"

"Warrant Officer." Weiss Corrected

"-Warrant Officer Lewis showed me that there are good people in America too. At least a few people in town like the Americans too and I think that means they at least do at least little good here."

Blake once again looked down, she would have to be blind not to recognize the fact that many people did in fact like the Americans, the fact that the town seemed to be flourishing with their presence, the little detail that both towns they've been in now that had an American presence lacked 'no faunus' signs on businesses, which meant that a caveat to doing business with the Americans was that there was to be no discrimination against the faunus.

Maybe she really was looking at the overall American presence with too much of a bias, this of course didn't change the fact that they single handedly murdered thousands of people, and to her the good that they've done did not outweigh that, but perhaps there was consideration to be made that the Americans weren't all evil.

"I see your point." She finally said "But I still want to speak to more townspeople, and maybe even meet more Americans, the more perspectives, the better."

None of them could disagree with her.

The waitress from before then walked up to their table "Would you all like to see the bill?"

They looked down at their plates, surprised to see that they were already finished with their food, their focus having been shifted to the conversation they were having.

"Sure." Ruby stated.

The Waitress walked away.

Blake then felt a vibration from her scroll on her thigh, she opened it up to see a message notification from Sun, she tapped on it and read aloud as her eyes widened.

"I got a message from Sun, 'On the way to Cooperwick, we got found out, not in trouble though, we met some guy, we'll tell you about it later once we meet up.'"

"WHAT?!" Came the unified shouts of the team minus Blake.

"Call him!" Yang insisted

Blake obliged, tapping the call icon on her scroll, it rang for a short few seconds before it showed 'Call declined', immediately she got another message from Sun.

"Can't call, in a car with some Americans, they're going to drop us off at Cooperwick." She read aloud once again.

Weiss slapped her palm on her face "It seems their dumb plan, was dumb after all, of course they would have been found out after they put their address in as Beacon."

Ruby shrugged "At least they said they weren't in trouble, I guess they'll explain what they mean once they get here, ask them where we should meet."

"Nah have them come here to the inn, why should we go to them? They're the ones who messed up their mission."

"Agreed." Weiss nodded along.

Blake sent the message telling them to find White Foxx Inn and to meet them there once they were at Cooperwick.

The Waitress then returned with a metal tray containing a slip of paper, their bill, she set it on their table as she returned to waiting the other tables.

Ruby picked up the bill and read it out "122 lien, do we split or pay for how much what we ordered was."

"I got this." Weiss smugly brought her wallet out and took out one yellow card and one blue card, equal to 150 lien.

Yang, who had already brought out her wallet, smiled "Yes! Thanks, Weiss."

"No problem."

Blake eyes the metal tray where the bill once was, the others were still busy thanking and cheering on Weiss for paying for everyone but she noticed there was still a smaller piece of paper on the tray, she moved to pick it up. She read it, her eyes grew at the contents.

"Uh… guys." The others turned to face her "I think the Waitress left this." She turned the paper around to show them what was written on it.

Yang moved her head closer and read it aloud "Please meet me in room 221 now. URGENT! About the Americans." Her head moved away "Huh, wonder what it could be about. Should we go?"

Blake eyed Yang incredulously "Of course we should! This could be the evidence of abuse we've been waiting for! What if she got assaulted by a soldier or something or what if she knows something about what the Americans are doing here that the other townspeople don't."

Weiss gave a confused stare at the slip of paper "How did she even know we were talking about the Americans, there's so many people at this inn talking and eating how did she even hear us if she was just over at the waiting table?"

"Some faunus with ear traits have moderate to extremely heightened hearing, but we usually need to focus on a particular sound to understand it, especially speech, my question is how she knew to focus on us, but that's a question we should ask her when we meet."

"Should we go now?" Ruby asked.

Blake stood up. "Let's go."

It was just an hour past noon in the peaceful town of Shion, children were playing in the streets, birds could be heard chirping. People walking there and about. At the center of it all stood the Town Hall, a massive building at the center of it all, where the mayor stood, just outside, and looked upon the beautiful sight that was her village.

Shion was relatively well off for a frontier settlement, it was a major tourist hotspot, a scenic hiking trail, good camping spots, and faunus inclusivity made it an attractive destination for everyone who wanted a nice place to stay outside the Kingdoms meaning it had a lot of money to spend. It also helped that its guard force was one of the most well trained in the area, meaning that most grim incursions were dealt with swiftly. But the people of Shion were happy, meaning grimm attacks were already rather rare in the first place.

Shion of course wasn't without problems, the most recent being the fact that they hadn't been getting food shipments from their trade partner, Taima, causing food prices to go up which hit the poorer residents of Shion particularly bad, which itself affected Shion's economy. It was assumed that Grimm had begun attacking the route the caravans would usually take. The Mayor had decided to purchase the services of a huntsman, but huntsmen in Mistral were particularly expensive due to a shortage, going up to the hundreds of thousands for decent ones, they ended up taking help from the American support program. But the huntsman they bought out hadn't returned after three days. She worried the huntsman ran off with the money.

She felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned to see her assistant looking at her with weary eyes. "Ma'am."

"Yes?"

"Someone is trying to contact you through your PC, they are claiming to be General Kirkman of the United States."

She almost burst out laughing. After the impersonal mess that was their support program? Why would the General himself suddenly ask to speak with her. She couldn't hide her smile when she said "Alright patch him through, I'll be in my office in a minute."

Taking one more look at the scenery in front of her, she smiled before turning around and walking to her within the building. Up the stairs and through the halls, she reached the doors of her office. Entering the room, she sat in front of her desk and pressing the button to open her desktop, the holographic screen burst forth in front of her, revealing an incoming communication from an unknown caller.

Expecting it to be a bad attempt at a prank, she accepted, maybe she could have some fun for today. To her surprise, the video feed that appeared in front of her was one that showed the visage of General Kirkman standing in a crowded room, behind him were people using strange looking computers. Stood beside Kirkman was a dark-skinned man.

"Good afternoon." The General spoke.

The Mayor could not contain the shock on her face, she couldn't bring herself to speak, the words touched her mouth but they fell to the floor, specifically into stuttering mess. But even in that state, the General's facial expression did not change, it was one that conveyed a grave implication. While the man next to him looked largely indifferent to the situation.

"I'd like to ask if there is anybody currently listening in on our conversations, any aides, guards, assistants."

She meekly nodded her head.

"I need you to get them to stop."

With her mouse she hovered her cursor over the button to disconnect her assistant's connection. She clicked it.

"Alternatively, if you believe that they are trustworthy enough, you may let them continue listening but know that what I am about to state will impact the survival of your village so if either of you deviate in any way, it could cost the lives of everyone in Shion."

With a shaky voice she yelled for her assistant to enter the room. "Sky. Come here!"

She came in, slowly, clearly unnerved by the sudden calling by the Mayor who was clearly anxious.

"Close the door behind you." She complied.

Sky then walked around the room eventually arriving right beside the mayor. The look on her face after seeing General Kirkman mirrored the Mayor's when she first saw him, but the General gave no time for Sky to digest her surprise, he went straight to business.

"Today, at exactly 11:16 a.m. we spotted strange activity at the Branwen Tribe's camp."

"How do you know- "Sky spoke up.

"Shh!" But the mayor shut her up.

"How we got this information is not relevant, all you have to know is that we know with near complete certainty that the Branwen Tribe is moving towards Shion."

Both women were rendered speechless.

The Mayor shakily brought her hands to her mouth that had gone completely opened, she did her best to collect herself, the shaking lessened marginally. This was the absolute worst thing to come up. Her guard corps was strong. But strong enough to be able to take on an attack from the most notorious tribe of the continent?

"We have to make an announcement! Tell the people!" Sky blurted out

"That would not be recommended, Miss. Doing so would only cause panic and attract the Grimm."

"So you just expect us to sit here and let it happen?!" The mayor stood and stated with an unsteady voice. The Mayor acknowledged that telling the citizens would cause negative emotions to spike, but doing nothing was also abhorrent.

"No, we are suggesting that you withhold that information from your people. At least for now. We recommend that you evacuate your citizens."

The Mayor shook her head "That will cause just as much panic, taking people from their homes and telling them to leave? And without the defense of our walls and homes, more people would die than if we were to just tell the people and tell them to prepare."

The General grimaced, it was slight, but noticeable "Miss, with all due respect, Shion and its citizens will not survive a direct confrontation with the Branwen tribe."

"How can you say that?" Sky defiantly shouted.

The both of them were well aware of the risks involved and knew the Branwen tribe's record. Not a single village was known to have survived an attack from them. But perhaps they would be different? They had a powerful guard corps and they had a few huntsmen embedded into the. Who was this outsider to make a such a judgement immediately.

"Because even if you do survive the attack, you won't survive what comes after."

"What comes after?" The Mayor spoke.

"From what we gather, the Branwen tribe's strategy is to ruthlessly attack a village, cause as much chaos as possible and leave before things become too difficult for them to remain. The ensuing surge of negative emotion attracts grimm, decimating the village and its remaining ability to defend itself. The Branwen tribe then returns and reaps the benefits. Do you really think that with all the negative emotion from the initial attack, your guards will be able to withstand an attack from dozens, possibly hundreds of grimm?"

"It's still better than evacuation." The resolve in her speech was clear. "Outside, we are defenseless, here we have walls, guard towers, houses we can hide in. Outside…" She trailed off.

"I understand, forcing your citizens to evacuate would also cause large amounts of negative emotion and that would too, attract grimm. We predicted you might take such a position on the matter, so we have prepared an alternate plan of action."

Someone then came into view within the camera, giving Kirkman a booklet. He started sifting through its pages before looking back at the camera.

"We, the United States, will attempt to intervene in the Branwen Tribe attack."

Their eyes widened, neither of them knew how to react to that, the Mayor especially. Every man, woman, and child on Remnant had heard of the exploits of the Americans, doing what Valean authorities couldn't and destroying the White Fang on that side of the world seemingly for good. But they were a whole continent away, there was no conceivable way the Americans could intervene in time.

"How? And if you could do that in the first place why wasn't that your first suggestion. Why did you ask we do a complete evacuation."

"Because committing to this plan will risk American lives. The first plan also involved us using means that would be of little harm to us, I'm not sure if you've heard of the term airstrike, but this was what we were going to use if you evacuated. To summarize, an airstrike means us shooting ordnance from the sky."

The notion of an unseen enemy striking you where you could not see them was a terrifying thought, perhaps this was how the White Fang were defeated.

"But the preparation time and travel time for us to make this happen total would take at best, 11 hours, and we predict that the Branwen Tribe may arrive in 10 hours."

10 Hours?! That's how much time they had left? She had thought maybe she had a few days to rally the guards, increase the size of her militia through mobilizing the people, and begin arrangements for a defense, but the fact that were only 10 hours left changed everything.

"This is why if you choose to remain in the village, we would be unable to strike the Branwens, we would risk hitting Shion and its citizens."

Beads of sweat fell onto her table; this situation was impossible. Kirkman sighed as he seemed to look back at the booklet.

"But this report given to me just now seems to confirm your concerns, there are grimm concentrations near all possible routes of retreat making total evacuation a death sentence." Kirkman sighed

Her heart was very close to beating out of her chest. Why did this have to happen now? Why was it happening in the first place? Shion was never a town rich with resources. It was rich sure, but it's not like a bandit tribe could use currency, so what was the point of this attack?

"I mentioned that this alternate plan risks American lives, but it will also heavily risk the lives of your citizens, Miss. But we calculate it to be the best course of action if you choose not to evacuate."

"What is it?"

"We will attempt to strike the Branwens before they reach Shion, but should they get too close or even reach Shion before our planes can begin their attack, then we will instead drop troops into Shion to stop the attack as it's happening."

Then the two women went slack jawed. "What do you mean?! Wouldn't that just mean you'd just the Branwens have their way with us while we sit and wait for your troops to arrive?!" Her voice was very close to breaking.

He waved his palm around as if to brush off her outburst "Granted, we will have you take actions that will greatly mitigate the risk for your citizens. You see, if you can't evacuate, and if you can't defend yourself, then the best way to deal with the situation is to make sure there are as few civilians in Shion as possible."

"Okay…" She was breathing heavily, clearly having a hard time managing the situation, her head was all over the place "How do we even do this."

"Alright, we're confident that we can get there at least soon as the attack happens, meaning by the time the Branwens arrive it won't be long before we're there too. But by then the Branwens will be in the village already. This is where one of those risk mitigating factors I talked about come into play. Before the Branwens arrive, you will find a way to get as many civilians as you can to this campsite."

An image suddenly flashed on screen showing an aerial photograph of Shion and its surrounding areas. How did they even get this? A red box appeared over one of the northern campsites about two kilometers from the village. Camping and Hiking were two of the most popular tourist activities in Shion.

This was a better idea than the previously suggested one of evacuating, but this still, to her mind, put too many people at risk, but she could not think of anything better.

"Of course, you'll have to do this without telling the people that they are under imminent attack of bandits as to lessen grimm incursions from all the negative emotions. So to try and get as many to the campsite as possible, maybe you can say there's a festival, or maybe even a general assembly that everyone is required to attend. When our troops land, we will collect your people in the campsite and bring them to safety, then we'll deal with whatever happens in the town proper from there."

"Some of our citizens are bedridden or have those in their home that they have to keep watch of like children or infants. Some simply will choose not to attend. Many will be left behind." These people would end up becoming hostages, or worse.

The General let out one of many sighs he's had during this conversation "Miss, I don't know what to tell you, there are zero ways to go about this situation that involves none of your civilians risking their lives, the best course of action is to take the solution that presents the least amount of risk. And with regards to your citizens' wellbeing, this is the one."

She sank into her chair. He was right. But to do so in just 10 hours? It was impossible.

"So, what is it, Miss? Do you agree to this plan."

She gave a quiet nod.

"Alright, have your citizens at the campsite no more than 9 hours from now. This line of communication will remain open and further instructions will be given as the situation develops, if you have any questions, I will leave an aide to answer any."

"Okay." She set her hands on her desk as plans began to form in her head, there was hope, but even the slightest thought of her citizens being harmed in any way by the Branwens put a strain on her mind.

"Do note, that we will be endangering the lives of my people for the good of yours, so if we make any observations that you have deviated in any way from the plan we set out, then you can consider this alliance over."

Another nod. There was no point disagreeing anyway. The Americans had all the power in this situation, whatever they said she'd end up having to carry out as they were only way out of getting every single man, woman, and child in Shion getting brutally massacred by the Branwens and the ensuing grimm.

"Room 221… room 221." Ruby recounted as she and her team walked down the hallway of the 2nd floor of the inn until they arrived at the door with a plaque that read '221' on it. "Guess this is it. Uh… Should we knock."

"Of course we should." Weiss stated as if it was obvious.

Ruby knocked on the wooden door, garnering no response for five seconds until it creaked open, an eye peaked through, the door then swung open, revealing the Waitress, no longer wearing the smile she had while serving them just minutes earlier.

"Come in."

The team awkwardly stepped inside. It was identical to the room they had booked, two queen sized beds, two nightstands, a standing lamp, and a desk.

Ruby looked at the Waitress as she closed the door behind them "So um- Why'd you ask for us, Miss…?"

"Shiro. Fubuki Shiro."

They eyed her shocked at that

Yang took a seat on one of the beds "Wait what? As in Mr. Shiro from downstairs?" A nod. "You're his daughter or something?"

"Niece. But he's the closest thing I've had to a father since my actual father died in a Schnee Dust Company mine." She seemed to glare at Weiss.

They stared at her wearily while Weiss's eyes grew a bit at that.

"I'm… sorry." Weiss had been doing her best to learn about the oppression the faunus had faced under her family's operations, she knew just how bad it got, but she still felt a bit off at the fact that she was being blamed for something out of her control.

Blake, who had been quiet until now, suddenly moved her arm up, almost seemingly reaching for her weapon, instead grabbing at her bow, and pulling it off to reveal her cat ears.

"I'm a faunus too, I don't like the SDC as much as any of us, but it's not her fault." Weiss looked at Blake, almost tearing up at the fact that her friend was defending her.

"I know who you are Blake, we were in the same organization." She gave a side eye to her fellow faunus.

Everyone immediately understood the implication.

Their eyes grew to dinner plates, Weiss, and Ruby in particular began to reach for their weapons. Yang stood up and unsheathed Ember Celica, Blake simply stood speechless. That's why she asked them here, she recognized Blake.

"I'm not with them anymore, don't worry, I didn't bring you all here to attack you."

She took her own seat at the bed opposite of Yang.

"How do you know Blake?" Yang kept Ember Celica at the ready.

"She was our leader's little pet, always bringing her around, she was his favorite, of course until she betrayed us." She said matter-of-factly.

Blake's eyes narrowed at Fubuki "I don't regret that one bit, our leader was taking us down a dark path."

Fubuki stood back up to meet Blake's stare "I don't agree with you but I'm not here to argue." She then looked solemnly at the floor; this was the first time her expression was anything other than neutral since they entered this room.

"You might be wondering with how thorough the Americans are about clearing former and current White Fang, how have they not discovered me? Well, they have."

The combat ready atmosphere of team RWBY suddenly turned to confusion.

"Why aren't you dead or in prison then?" Blake said, a hint of skepticism in her tone.

"Because I made a deal with them." They looked at her, confusion only growing. "You see, about two months ago right after the Americans had destroyed our compound north of Vale, the leadership sent multiple units all around to look for the American capital, my unit was assigned alongside another one, there were 24 of us, I guess we got too close." She looked at the floor "I'm one of three people who ended up surviving."

Grim faces fell upon those in the room, Fubuki's eyes almost looked to glisten just a little.

"The Americans told me that I would be under their custody for the rest of my life, but they gave me a deal, they let me free, in exchange, I give them everything I know about White Fang operations in and around Vale." She looked to the side, not wanting to meet the eyes of RWBY "I accepted it, I told them about the people who knew of Mountain Glenn, I told them about all the villages that had White Fang operatives, I gave names, addresses."

She looked at Blake, not a hint of resentment in her gaze, a single tear fell, garnering no sympathy from her audience "I'm no better than you, I was selfish, looking out for myself, I betrayed our cause, our brothers, and sisters. But I didn't want to rot under the Americans, I wanted to at least see my family, I wanted to see my home, little did I know the Americans would occupy my home." Her voice trembled as she spoke.

"So the Americans just let you free?" Blake took the lead in the conversation.

"No, I told them I wanted to be in my hometown, Cooperwick, they told me they had no problem with that since they already had a presence there by the time I said yes to the deal with them. I told them I had family there, the first thing they made sure to do was tell my uncle about what I was a part of, he's against the White Fang, you see. Then after that they sent me here, telling me I'm not allowed to leave the premises of the inn without first asking permission. Do you notice how many soldiers surround the inn?" Nods "They're all there to make sure I don't leave, I have to ask one of them first, they then report it to their superior. But I am absolutely not allowed to leave the town."

This was how they treated former White Fang members? Blake had to wonder why Kirkman didn't bring upon the same measures on her when they met, perhaps there really was merit to Kirkman saying that she wasn't a prisoner, maybe even he feared the ire that might stem from incarcerating a Beacon student.

The fox girl then looked at them, her eyes having the same shimmering glow from the tears that formed on them. "…I didn't bring you people here to talk about my problems, that's over now, but I have something to tell you all."

Blake crossed her arms "And what's that?"

"The Americans aren't from here."

1410 hours

Command Center, MOB Juno

"They're here, General." Came the baritone voice of Colonel Burton

Kirkman stood up promptly upon hearing those words, he stood up, tightened the knot of his tie, and walked past Burton who followed him.

He did not find the strength in him to directly respond with words to the Colonel. He was beginning to feel the pressure mount on him, it was not his life that was about to be risked, but it all weighed on his conscience the same, his reputation was at possible jeopardy here too, all on a high risk, middling reward gamble.

"The extenders should arrive in 0230 hours."

"Good." He said as he walked.

"Did you get any word from Washington?"

Ah yes, the need for presidential approval, he had only been approved to freely conduct military operations within his current continent, meaning he needed permission from the White House to commit to conduct a direct action operation all the way in Anima, it was a part of the bureaucracy surrounding Operation Forging Steel that he did not like, any time he sent a surveillance drone, or any recon aircraft, he had to make a request first. For this particular Operation, he had sent the request an hour ago.

"Nope."

Even though he had yet to get approval, he had already begun preparations, so that the moment approval was given, he could begin.

The pair eventually reached their destination, the metal door was opened by Kirkman, it was a large assembly hall, soldiers from different service branches, talking amongst themselves, it was loud.

The hundreds of soldiers and marines who filled the seats suddenly stood up as they saw Kirkman, giving him salute. The transition from sounding like a college frat party to being so silent one could hear a pin drop amused Kirkman amidst the stress he was feeling.

"At ease people." At that, everyone took their seats, now silently watching Kirkman.

He stepped up to the podium, Burton continued following him, taking his seat on a chair directly behind the podium Kirkman was standing by.

He finally got a good look at those in front of him, hundreds of men, marine Raider and ranger, they were the only groups on Remnant both in large enough numbers and were trained in this type of situation, meaning they were really the only option here. On Remnant there were two Marine Raider Companies and three Ranger companies from the 75th Ranger Regiment, all collected in the assembly hall, where Kirkman was to inform them of his plans.

"I'll get straight to it." He looked at their individual faces. "Earlier today our surveillance drone over the Branwens…"

He then went on to explain the situation from the very start to where it was now where he has told the Mayor of Shion to stay at the village, though he did not go into the specifics of his plan just yet, he simply wanted to inform the men of the situation up to this point, some of the men wore shocked faces, seemed to thinking, others held no reaction.

"Now why am I telling you all this? The reason is simple, we intend to stop this attack one way or another. Of course, I still need to wait for approval, but regardless it's best to be prepared. In about a little more than two hours KC-10 Extender refueling aircraft will arrive here at Juno, these aircraft will be used to refuel four F-35s and five C-17s as they make an intercontinental flight towards Anima. The F-35s will contain a strike package meant to destroy the Branwen tribe's home and the detachment they have sent to attack Shion. Should the F-35s not reach the detachment in time, ergo the attackers have reached Shion, then the forces within the C-17s, those being you men, will deploy to intervene in the ensuing attack, capturing or eliminating all Branwens within and rescuing who you can."

More men reacted now, but they did their best to hide whatever emotions they had, but shock was evident in some, wide eyes, slight whispers amongst the men, Kirkman couldn't blame them.

"Of course, this is only if the F-35s don't reach the attackers in time, but as I said, it's best to prepare, especially since the possibility they don't exist. Unfortunately, we only have five C-17s on Juno, and no bases in Kazakhstan have agreed to fill in our request for more, so out of the two Marine Raider companies and two Ranger companies here, only two Marine companies and one Ranger company will be able to join the attack, however should this initial group need the reinforcement, the extra ranger company will be deployed."

He tried to remember his past, he knew just how much risk was being put to save random citizens in Anima, but then he looked back into his memories, of a time when he was an advisor for UN troops at Srebrenica, he didn't want something like that happening again, not when he had the power to do something.

"You might be wondering, there are five C-17s, that should be enough for all of you, however only two C-17s will be used to carry you, one C-17s will be used to carry three LAVs and a single mk. 2 Avenger, as well as ammunition to be operated by the marines to deal with any grimm that may cause a problem, the other C-17s will contain supplies."

At that, many of the men seemed to delight at that, two LAVs would be a huge help. Kirkman cleared his throat and pressed a button on the podium, displaying a high-altitude photo of Shion and its surrounding areas; shapes in different colors marked the various places.

"I have advised the Mayor of Shion to bring as many citizens as she can to this campsite north of Shion, marked in red. Should you have to intervene in the attack, you will set up base here, why the base? Because you need a place to stay while you wait for exfhil which at best could take six more hours. You are all intended to paradrop onto this large plain of grass, two klicks from the campsite, your exfhil aircraft will use this same plain to land. You will move to campsite, set up camp, tend to the villagers, protect the, and clear the town. Tactical Command will be given to Colonel Burton. He will be with you on the ground."

Kirkman gestured behind him, the Colonel simply nodded.

"I know many of you might be unhappy with this turn of events, especially since after this assembly you will only have two hours to prepare for what may be the hardest battle since arriving here on Remnant."

That was an understatement, only two hundred men to assault a relatively large town by Remnant's standards, to not only fight against Bandits, but the inevitable grimm.

"But I would like all of you to remember the good that could be done here, hundreds of lives could be saved, a menace to Remnant's society could finally come to an end, and if you're not the emotional type, hey, you could always bed a faunus woman while you act out your knight in shining armor fantasies."

A weak attempt to lighten the mood, but it still garnered a few nervous chuckles from the group.

He cleared his throat again "Ahem. Not that I'm condoning that of course. But all things considered…" He breathed in, ready to raise the volume of his voice, with much gravitas, he summoned all the air in his lungs. He hadn't done this since he was Colonel after all, it would take some preparation.

"AIN'T YOU THE DAMN BEST MEN THE ARMED FORCES HAS GOT TO OFFER?!"

Surprise, then smiles. Behind him he could hear Colonel Burton chuckling.

"Yes sir!" Came the uniform statement of marine raider and ranger alike.

"Well I couldn't hear you! Sounds more like little pussy shits to me! Say that again!"

A few laughs but then the group once again shouted in unison.

"YES SIR!"

"Good, I was just beginning to doubt you." A little sarcasm leaked into his voice. "So you're all gonna man up and do your job, cause we're facing a savage, fearless, tribe of monsters here. And I only know one group of people who are more savage! More fearless! Where might these men be now?!"

"RIGHT HERE SIR!"

He slammed his hand on the podium "FUCKING RIGHT THEY ARE!"

"In two hours, you will be called out to the field! Further details will then be discussed with you! You are dismissed!" The men then got up, some smiling, others still looking a little dreary from the information on their new mission, but one thing was the same for all of them, if even just a little, their worries had been eased.

As the room emptied down to the last soldier, he heard the laughter of Colonel Burton.

Burton's laughter finally died down. "Didn't know you still had that in you, haven't heard that from you since Korea."

"Well, I needed to do that, you and I both know it." A nod "I'm going to head back to the office now and wait for approval, I need you in the situation room seeing how this develops."

Kirkman turned to walk to the door leading back to the hallway of the command center.

"Alright. And hey." Kirkman turned around to look at the Colonel "You're doing a good thing here General, don't be so gray."

Kirkman smirked at his friend, nodding before heading off back to his office.

Ozpin sat by his desk, signing paperwork for the Vytal festival that was to happen in a few weeks. All around the world, people were now coming to Vale to watch it live. It was not just the regular civilian coming here, Atlesian troops were here to provide security. Dozens of huntsmen from all the Kingdoms were also here to provide security, not just for the stadium, but for Vale as a whole as the Vytal festival meant many emotions that may or may not attract hordes of Grimm.

Ozpin was distracted from his work when he heard the elevator doors to his office open showing Glynda Goodwitch. She walked to him; her eyes focused on him. Ozpin rested his elbows on the desk and locked his fingers together in anticipation of what Glynda was going to say.

"Have you been to the control room recently?" She crossed her arms, her riding crop hanging to the side.

"No." The control room of CCT usually contained all communications sent directly to Beacon. While ones sent to Ozpin would go directly to his scroll computer.

"Well we received a message from the headmaster of Haven Academy."

Leo? Why would he need to contact Beacon? Their last communication had been relation to the sending of students to Beacon for the festival as well as the sending of six professional huntsmen to help protect Vale's eastern walls.

"He asked for aid, apparently, he has received a report from the Mayor of Shion that the Branwen tribe is on the move towards their village. He is asking for some huntsmen from us to be sent to aid Shion as all his huntsmen are either here in Vale or unavailable due to existing missions."

The Branwen tribe, that was very concerning, but it was unlikely Raven herself would come out to attack, Ozpin knew how the Branwens operated, Raven rarely ever led the attacks herself, opting to just send out small to medium sized forces to harass villages, spike negative emotion, and come back once the grimm were done. Glynda knew this too, he didn't understand why this had to be brought directly to him.

"That is of little issue, we can send a group of 2nd or 3rd years, it would be good practice for the Vytal festival."

"The part about them being attacked by the Branwens is the least of our concern."

Ozpin took a sip from his cup of coffee, now even more intrigued. "And why is that?"

"The mayor of Shion received this information from the Americans, apparently, General Kirkman himself contacted her. The Americans intend to aid them"

Ozpin just about almost dropped his coffee, instead he sat the cup down on his desk. Oh no, oh no no no no. This was bad, he knew the Americans would not hesitate to kill the Branwens, and while this usually would just be another point about their moral culpabilities, it was who they might kill that made Ozpin sweat.

"The Branwens have the spring maiden." He stated simply "Raven is there too, Ms. Xiao Long's mother, Qrow's sister, and Taiyang's former wife."

He sighed into his hand. If either of them was to die, far too many problems would be caused.

"We'll deal with sending huntsmen there later, for now I want to contact the Americans as soon as possible."

His last conversation with the enigmatic leader of the United States had not gone well, but hopefully he would still be open to conversation.

"Oh, speaking of, the Americans have actually contacted us with something… stressful."

Oh no. What was it now? "What?"

And as he heard the words that came out of Glynda's mouth, he stood up, glasses almost falling from face.

"Sun and Neptune did what?!"

1625 hours

Airfield, MOB Juno

Kirkman watched as hundreds of soldiers: rangers and marines loaded into three C-17s. On one C-17, soldiers helped load in pallets of supplies: food, water, ammunition along with four Humvees. In another C-17 two LAVs were brought into it. In twenty minutes, they would be taking off alongside the Extenders and Lightning IIs, the Operation was in full swing as Presidential approval was finally given.

The president very likely saw the opportunity to make good things happen in Operation Forging Steel, as in just two weeks, everything would be revealed to the world. Recent news of American troops saving a village from bandits with direct approval from the President would be good PR for the election season.

He heard footsteps beside him. He turned to his right to see Colonel Burton in full combat gear, a fully modified M4 strapped to his Kevlar vest. It's been a while since he'd seen the Colonel like this, he didn't understand why he chose to be fully geared as he would be mostly commanding the operation from behind the lines over actually fighting, but Kirkman knew it didn't hurt to be prepared.

"I see you're ready."

"Course I am, General, this'll be my first operation with tactical command since 2015."

Kirkman offered his hand, an open palm. The Colonel shook it.

"Good luck, and stay safe, Ernest." The General smiled.

"Of course, Thomas." He smiled back, pulling his hand away from the handshake and jogged towards the Rangers loading into their C-17.

Kirkman watched on, he hoped and prayed the operation would go well.

And that menace of the Branwens would end in a bang.

Chapter Text

"Yo. Wake up, man." He felt his shoulder being roughly shaken.

Staff Sergeant Paul Jackson was shaken awake by Corporal Roemar Beltran. "Wh- What?"

His eyes adjusted to his surrounding, ah yes, he was sat in a C-17 alongside a hundred other marines, nervously awaiting the signal to stand up and attach their D-bags to the static line and make the jump.

"Major just said 20 minutes ETA till jump."

At that, he practically jumped, the drowsiness had left his body. "You waited that fuckin' long to tell me, dude?" The last time he was awake the Major had said three hours ETA, he'd been asleep roughly two and a half hours.

The corporal simply shrugged "I don't know, man, seemed like you needed it."

He leaned back into his seat, around him marines were doing equipment checks, some completing them already and putting their URGIs back into their zipper bags and attaching them to their uniforms.

He couldn't believe just nine hours earlier he was giving a tour of American military equipment to some teenage girls, but sometimes, this was just what the job entailed, this would be far from the first time he'd been called on short notice for a very risky mission.

It had been quite the long flight, almost six hours since they took off from Juno, just a few hours earlier they had gotten word that the bandits would reach Shion before the F-35s did, meaning the marines and rangers would end up having to intervene.

He was nervous, that much he couldn't lie about that, but he wasn't scared, there was a difference. This would be his first mission on Remnant that didn't have the complete backing of the US military machine. Should they need evac, support, or reinforcements, it would a take a minimum of six hours for anything to get to continent, they had a measly nine total vehicle, three LAVs, four Humvees, an avenger, an Oshkosh, and to top of it all, their ammunition would be limited to the couple tons of supplies brought within the pallets of a single C-17.

They had also been warned that the bandit tribe was very likely to be more experienced than the White Fang, having existed as an aggressive, and brutal force for decades now, but that didn't change anything, he had a job to do.

Damn did he need a smoke though, a Zyn, a nic patch, anything to calm his nerves, luckily every guy in his MSOT had a stash of at least one of these, he himself had a pack of Marlboro blacks on him, he just had to wait till they got on the ground.

Around him other marines who had been sleeping were beginning to wake up, some were chatting amongst themselves. But most were just checking on their equipment.

"Hmm hmm hmm mmm."

Beside him, Staff Sergeant Griggs was humming the Marine's Hymn while checking his SAW. Seeing as he had nothing else to do, he sang it as Griggs hummed.

"From the halls of Montezuma to shores of Tripoli…"

Corporal Beltrain joined him. "We fight out country's battles in the air, on land, and sea." They sing together.

They all probably looked like the biggest boots on the planet right now, but that didn't matter, it was something to do instead of just sitting on his ass and getting nervous. Marines around them, heard them, deciding to join them.

"First to fight for right and freedom-" Even more joined now.

"And to keep our honor~ clean." Came the chorus of over thirty marines now. They were loud enough for the whole plane to hear them, many chuckled at the antics but they joined in nonetheless.

"We are proud to claim the title of United States Marine!" Almost every marine in the C-17 sang the final line to the first verse, Griggs was smiling ear to ear at what he had started.

"OU tFfds flags TGunfuRledfds FGG." Came the garbled mess of the marines, it seemed like a lot of them hadn't memorized the hymn past the first verse. The singing turned into massive collection of laughter, even their major was laughing.

Just like that, the nervous air around everyone had disappeared, they all were now openly talking with their fellow marine, acting like they were not on a risky mission.

"Please don't go home, just yet! We still have more surprises for you" The Mayor of Shion shouted out from her place on the stage, she did her best to smile, around her food stalls were packed with people lining up. Others watched her on stage.

But she noticed a few people making their way to the village, they all shared the same features, they had elderly with them, kids who were ready for bedtime and more, it was just reaching midnight already, she couldn't blame them, but it was crucial they stayed, they'd die if they came back to town, plain and simple.

A few people turned back around when they heard her say she still had surprises. She really didn't. The excuse she made for everyone to come to the campsite was an impromptu night-time festival, she paid a dozen different people to set up stalls, but because it was extremely short notice she had to pay them exorbitant amounts, the coffers of Shion that were once lined with nearly a million lien was reduced to nearly nothing just to set this all this up, she had a raffle planned for 12am for someone could win fifty thousand lien, multiple games, and more. She absolutely needed everyone to stay.

The perks of this being a festival meant that even the kids wanted to go. But absolutely nothing would make every single man, woman, and child in Shion drop whatever they were doing and attend, she had people sign an attendance form on entry, and after having her assistant count it, only around 70% of Shion's population had attended, amounting to just over 800 people. She had visibly identified at least a hundred of them go home already as the night grew late, so there were even less now who could be saved. She even had the majority of the village militia remain in Shion proper to at the very least slow down the Branwens.

It still broke her heart that at least 400 of her citizens would be left to the wolves, and now she could see a few people beginning to leave the festival, she couldn't have that.

"If you leave now, you'll miss all the prizes you could win at the raffle, just wait twenty more minutes!" She breathed a sigh of relief as a few of the people who were leaving turned back around.

"What's that?" She heard a citizen say, he was looking to southeast of Shion.

The campsite was a little less than a mile from Shion, situated on a relatively tall hill where one could get a beautiful site of all the places around it, forests, plains, and most importantly, Shion itself. The same Shion where if one were to look east of it, eerily close to the town now, you could see the familiar lights of torches.

Her eyes widened, her stomach churned, those weren't Americans, the General's aide had told her his troops would be coming from the sky. Those were the Branwens.

Her assistant, Sky, seemed to realize this fact, she practically ran up to the mayor. "Where are the Americans!" She loudly whispered.

The mayor could barely speak, her rate of breath reached a peak, as sounds around her began to muffle, her sight began to Blur.

Screams could then be heard in the distance as the torchlights reached the town. The Americans estimated that about a hundred Branwens were sent, there were exactly 32 village militia.

Around her the festival goers screamed in return, all seeming to immediately understand what was happening.

"I left my kids there!"

"My mom's in a wheelchair at home. I need to get back."

Some tried to come back to the village to protect whatever family or friend they had but were immediately body blocked by some of the few militiamen that were here at the festival.

The mayor collected herself from the panic attack that was almost beginning to take hold her, right now her people needed her.

"Everyone calm down! Now is not the time to return to the village, you will not survive! Stay here!"

A man pushed through the crowd, a dagger drawn, he looked the mayor in the eye. "And just let my family die?! Are you fucking insane, ma'am?!" His voice laced with a mix of panic and anger.

He ran away from the crowd trying to bust through the line of five militiamen who were blocking the exit to the campsite, many people joined him, but many remained frozen fear, simply staring at Shion as the screams only grew louder.

And then, with no warning, a high-pitched roar came from the sky above. Everyone looked, all with fear. All but the mayor and Sky, both knowing what this meant. Seconds passed as the roar grew louder, they could now see three large shapes just above the clouds.

They were fast, faster than any bullhead she'd ever seen, they went past the campsite, and just as they did, shapes came out one by one from the bullhead like structures, it soon became a spectacle of hundreds of circles dotting the night sky.

"Help is on the way!" Yelled her assistant, straining her vocal cords, she pointed at the shapes that destroyed the nothingness of the night sky "Those are the Americans! Please just stay here!"

Plains of Anima, 1.2 Kilometers from Shion

0032 hours, Western Anima Standard Time

Jackson just about stuck the landing, his feet hitting the grassy ground. Immediately he worked on detaching himself from his D-bag, he unzipped the bag containing his URGI and holstered it. He looked behind as more soldiers started hitting the ground, as did LAVs, Humvees, and a single Oshkosh truck. He brought down his night vision goggles which every man on the ground for this operation was equipped with.

Already, he could hear the distant sounds of battle, screams, gunshots. He hadn't been in this kind of atmosphere since the war with the GLA, this would be his first true urban combat experience involving civilians since then too.

"Round up!" He heard the voice of Major Buckley call out in front of him.

He jogged forward, as did every other marine, forming a large group, they all listened intently.

"Alright, we don't got much time here, I'll just run over the plan one more time."

He cleared his throat "Alpha and Bravo companies of the rangers are gonna split up, Alpha company is gonna link up with the civilians at Hill One."

Hill One was the codename given to the campsite north of Shion.

"They'll set up medical tents, establish comms with Juno, and get a perimeter set up, they'll also start transporting our supplies back up there. Bravo company is taking Shion with us, platoon callsigns are Hunter 1 through 4, our job is to retake the village, kill or capture every hostile encountered, round up the villagers, get back to Hill One and wait for evac. Oorah?"

"Oorah!" Was the quiet yell of every marine, some Rangers behind them joining the yell jokingly. The major jogged behind them and hopped into one of the LAVs.

They would be accompanied by the LAVs for fire support, the Humvees and LAVs were to be used as not only extra guns but also to help transport the wounded, civilian or not, Jackson the second use would not be something that was needed.

Any surviving and able civilian they encountered was to be rounded up and told to group up at the plains where the marines and rangers began their assault, there was an MSOT that would remain there waiting for civilians to protect and eventually bring to Hill One.

The rangers loaded up into their Humvees, they would end up being the ones who got use the majority of them since they wouldn't have LAVs. The marines, in turn, only got three Humvees.

"(COMMS) Separate into MSOTs, fan out twelve meters, line formation."

They did as was ordered; Jackson took his position front of the formation for his team.

They were moving at a relatively fast pace, jogging lightly, behind them the LAVs and Humvees rolled past them, keeping at the pace of the infantry. They only had two LAVs, meaning they had to rely on the urban environment for cover. Ahead of them was a thin tree line, the border between the grassy plains and Shion itself.

"This is crazy, man." To his right, Leonard Edwards, the SARC assigned to his squad, shook his head.

"We've been through worse, chill out, we can handle this."

"I am chill, just been a while since we done this kind of thing. But hey, I'm always ready to pop a cap in the next fucker and help a brother out if he needs it."

Jackson smiled at that; every marine knew to respect the medic.

They had been running for a few minutes now, distant explosions rung out, those must've been the F-35s doing their sorties on the Branwen camp.

They reached the tree line, causing the formation of the teams of marines and rangers to break down just a little. The screams only grew louder. They were getting close; they could see houses just a few hundred meters ahead.

"The fuck are they doing here for them to be screaming that much?" Grigg's eyes narrowed.

"Those civvies are going through hell right now, boys, our job is to rescue them." Vasquez simply looked on.

They had studied the maps of the Village prior to leaving MOB Juno. The bandits were attacking from the eastern side of Shion, they would be coming from the same direction the bandits were, hopefully they could catch the bandits by surprise.

There were two large roads going straight through the village from the east, designated as Pave 1 and Pave 2 respectively. Rangers were supposed to take their Humvees along with two MSOTs from Assassin company and assault through Pave 2. The remainder of Assassin Company along with Fox Company, the company Jackson belonged to would assault Pave 1 with assistance from the LAVs.

They finally breached the tree line, the houses were just in front of them, the screams were in earshot. In front of them lay Shion, bandits ran amok, rough looking men and women killing without recourse. Already, the bodies of innocents laid on the pavement in varying states of dismemberment.

"(COMMS) All Units, you are clear to engage any individual carrying a weapon." The voice of Colonel Burton rang through in his earpiece, that was the go ahead.

He could see just that, people holding weapons, the LAVs barreled through the road that was Pave 1, but not shooting. Around him shots rang out as his fellow marines started taking their shots at whoever they assumed to be a bandit. Bodies dropped to the ground; heads were turned to gory messes.

Buildings burned around him, bloodied bodies, the scent of blood and burnt flesh entered his nostrils, an unfortunately familiar sensation to Jackson.

"United States Marines! Drop your weapons! Drop your Weapons!" Commanded Vasquez, however, nobody seemed to comply."

A man with a mohawk who was stabbing a man to death paused and looked to his comrades.

"Shit! The fucking Americans are- " Before being promptly gunned down by a dozen different marines.

Jackson spotted a man with a machete chasing down a woman holding a baby.

That man would be his first kill of the operation, a new crevice introduced to his skull. The woman he was chasing fell to the ground, eyes widening at the sight of her dead chaser. Jackson ran up to her, shots still ringing from both hostile and marine.

"Ma'am that's not a safe place to freeze up! Get up now! Get to some cover! We're here to help." The woman, still panting, slowly nodded, inching away from the dead body of her attacker before running the direction the marines were coming from.

"(COMMS) Devil Dogs, check windows!" The major reminded the Marines. The bandits likely broke into the houses to loot and kill, but now that the Americans were here, they were using the homes as vantage points.

This was to be a slow advance, they knew this. They had to check every building in the way of the road, the goal for now was to simply stagger the bandits, push them back, advance till the village center where the town hall was located, and set up a base of operations there before then clearing every single other building in the village.

They rushed through the road, firing at any hostile they saw, processing civilians as they did, they were to be dealt with later. He made sure to check the windows as he did, they unfortunately did not have time to clear houses one by one like they did at Mountain Glenn.

BANG! In front of him a marine fell, his helmet rattling as he did.

"REEVES!" Yelled the man's squadmate.

Jackson looked to the direction where the shot came from and saw a hunting rifle peeking out from a two-story home.

The LAV's gun turned to fire., mercilessly gunning down the second story with its main gun, punching a huge hole into the building and turning the man firing at them into a bloody mess.

Jackson ran towards the marine who had been shot, two men had already gathered around him, one of them a SARC, there was no blood on his helmet, but he looked unresponsive, his eyes were open but unmoving.

"Jackson, focus up! His squad will handle it!" Called Vasquez, he was right, it still didn't feel right seeing a marine seemingly die like that, and it seemed like Vasquez felt the same, the look in his eyes said it all, but the Lieutenant knew they couldn't lose focus now.

They continued pushing down the road, firing as they went, as their first and hopefully only fatality was loaded into a Humvee to be brought to Hill One later.

"(COMMS) Start clearing the damn buildings!" Shouted their major, this was the plan after all, the advance would momentarily pause every 300 meters to allow the clearance of buildings, meaning between them and the town center, they would make two stops to clear buildings.

Orders were then given by every MSOT commander to form up into squads and to pick buildings to clear out.

Within minutes eight marine raider tactical squads were ready to burst into their building of choice while the remainder remained outside to defend against attacking bandits alongside the Humvees and LAVs.

Jackson's team formed up in front of a pagoda-like building, likely a home, it was two stories, its entrance being a closed sliding wooden door.

He took point, ready to open the door for the rest of his squad to rush in, usually he would have someone in his team prepare a flashbang, but they were disallowed the use of those for room clearing for the risk of civilians getting hurt.

With Jackson's squad lined up behind him and in front of him, he grabbed on the door handle and slid it open at full force, causing the frame to shake, he rushed in, the fourth other men in his squad did the same, their guns trained on every inch of the room, nothing.

It was a living room, with a kitchen area nearby.

The squad did a continued search of the room, walking fast with their guns aimed forwards around the area, minding the furniture and other things.

"Clear!" Finally, Jackson shouted out.

There was set of wooden stairs leading up the second floor. He ordered his squad to continue upwards.

They walked up the stairs, as they did, Jackson shouted "United States Marine Corps! If you are armed you will be assumed hostile, we're here to help, please drop your weapons!" They all reached the second floor.

Again, the second floor appeared empty, but there were two separate rooms, again with closed sliding doors.

"Edwards, Turner, with me, we'll take the left door, Guzman, Beltran, take the right."

As ordered, they separated and formed up on their respective doors. Jackon slid the door open quickly, and rushed inside with Turner and Edwards behind him, hearing the other pair do the same.

Immediately Jackson noticed a tall naked man by a bedside holding what looked like a machine pistol aimed directly at Jackson. Every armed man in the room opened fire. The man was hit an uncountable number of times in the chest, neck, and head, his aura breaking, as did his body, bleeding heavily from every bullet hole.

Jackson was hit twice on his Kevlar, he felt a small flick on his chest, a small caliber dust round barely penetrating the Kevlar, but it did damage the cloth layer.

The squad then continued aiming around the room, to make sure there was no other hostile within. There was a dead body, a man, likely a civilian, he was laid down on the floor in front of the bed.

"You good?" Asked PO2 Edwards, the SARC, having heard the sound of the bullet hitting his Kevlar.

"Yeah, barely felt a thing."

"He was fuckin' naked dude, gnarly." Corporal Turner laughed, holding a smile, Jackson had noticed this too, the man they had shot's pants had been pulled down, revealing his parts to the world.

"Why though?" As they discussed, Guzman and Beltran jogged up behind them.

"We heard shooting, you got a hostile?" Guzman spoke.

"Yeah, dude had his dick out too." Turner chuckled. "Didn't know we weren't the only ones who did combat jacks." At his quip, many of the marines laughed, except Edwards who simply stared at the bed where the bandit had been standing by.

"I don't think it was a combat jack, guys." He spoke in a quiet tone, but one just loud enough to be heard by the others.

They all stared at what Edwards was looking at, on the bed was a torn set of panties, near the dead civilian was a pair of shorts that looked like they had been roughly thrown.

Quickly, Jackson ducked his head, looking down under the bedframe, the other marines crouched down to look.

And there they found a woman, tears streaming down her face, breathing in sobs, set down in prone under the bed, as soon as she saw the marines, she let out a breathless yelp. The night vision goggled allowed them to see her features even in the dark, she was a faunus, dog-like ears over her head, she was naked from the waist down.

The marines stared on in shock, Edwards being the only one to speak. "Don't worry ma'am we're here to help, please just come out from there."

Edwards offered his hand, the woman didn't budge, simply continuing to cry "I'm not here to hurt you ma'am so please. "He said in a pleading, genuine tone "We're about to keep pushing into the town, if you don't come with us now, you'll be left here, it's dangerous, you'll be protected if you come with us.

The woman then hesitantly and slowly reached her pale hand out to Edwards, it was trembling. Edwards pulled her out and pulled her up as he stood, they both now stood up. The woman's legs were particularly shaky and looked to have blood dripping down from between them.

Edwards stepped forward "Ma'am I'm gonna need to check you." A shake of the head and she backed away from the man "Ma'am I'm a trained medic." She only continued shaking her head. She had the right to refuse help, and it was understandable. "Alright, but if it gets worse don't be afraid to tell anyone."

"You want to put on some clothes?" Edwards gently asked, with the woman nodding she walked over to the pair of shorts, she froze upon seeing the dead civilian, having likely been a loved one, her shaking grew, she turned her head away and quickly grabbed the shorts.

Jackson wordlessly turned a dial on his radio and pressed a button "Mystic, this is Dagger Bravo requesting for immediate escort of an injured civilian, over." Mystic was the callsign of Major Buckley, however he likely wouldn't be speaking with Buckley himself, instead with whatever comm officer Buckley had in place.

"(COMMS) Request received Dagger Bravo, Lancer 3 is on standby to receive the civilian, over." The radio blared out, Lancer 2 was the rear LAV.

"Copy, Dagger Bravo out."

The woman was done dressing, Edwards spoke "Alright, now let's walk down the stairs, you can do it slowly if needed. They led the woman downstairs, nobody daring to speak aside from Edwards who gave words of encouragement as the woman shakily walked down the stairs, stumbling here and there.

They eventually got out of the building, marines gathered around LAVs leading a couple civilians inside, one of them looked gravely injured, there were SARCs waiting inside each LAV to treat the injured ones, Jackson looked to his left, seeing about a dozen civilians walking to the direction of the planes, those were the uninjured ones.

The squad led the woman to rear LAV which already had its door open, showing a SARC bandaging up a massive gash on the leg of a man, while another man who appeared to be knocked unconscious, but breathing was sat on the opposite side of the LAV. Edwards guided the woman to sit next to the unconscious man.

He hopped out of the LAV, and the door was then closed.

"Jesus." Turner was the first to speak "Wish we shot that guy in the dick now."

"Shut up, Turner." Jackson sighed.

The advance finally continued.

Jackson scanned the area, there was a space between buildings where two men holding melee weapons were running to their position.

Jackson and Corporal Beltran shot at them, breaking their aura, and killing them.

The push to through the city was slow, methodic, and constant. A bandit spotted? Shot. Peeking through a window? Shot. Running towards the marines? Shot. Running away from the marines? Shot. For some reason nobody was surrendering.

They stopped again, buildings were searched, the one Jackson's squad had searched turned up empty, but again a few civilians were rounded up, the able ones told to walk to the plains, the injured ones moved to LAVs and Humvees. There were a few bandits held up in the buildings searched, fortunately no marine was killed or injured in these clearing operations.

They reached an intersection on the road, on both sides of the main road waited two groups of bandits, who all immediately fired at the marines as they approached, one marine taking multiple hits to his Kevlar, and a final to his knee, his leg went limp as he fell to the ground. His squad mate grabbed him and wrestled him behind cover.

The remaining marines at the front took cover behind the lead LAV.

A bandit holding a battleaxe ran at the marines behind the LAV. Jackson aimed with his ACOG sight, shooting three times, the first two breaking the bandit's aura, the last one going through her midsection, causing her to fall down at the feet of the marines taking cover behind the LAV.

They killed her. The LAV brought hell to bandits, a single shot from its massive gun being the only thing needed to break their aura and kill them, it fired in a fan pattern, killing every single bandit that tried to shoot it.

Vasquez shook his head as he passed by the incapacitated marine, his knee looking bloodied. One dead and one injured in just an hour of fighting, this was not good.

The night was suddenly illuminated by a bright red flash. Jackon looked up to see the familiar sight of a laser. That was probably the Avenger shooting an aerial grimm.

"Shit." Said Griggs. "That means they're coming.

Jackson nodded "But those are the aerial kind, of course they'd get here fast, will probably be a while before we have to deal with the ones on the ground."

The lead LAV shot ahead of the marine company, it had apparently spotted a group of bandits running.

They continued advancing. More and more it seemed like the bandits were no longer staying to fight, rather choosing to run the opposite direction of the marines. Jackson wondered if it was because they were scared.

It had been more than an hour now since they began their push through the village. They were almost at the village center now. They were supposedly close to the town hall now, if the Bandits were smart, they would have grouped up here and set up a final line of defense against the combined advance of the marines and rangers.

But instead of seeing bandits firing at them from the windows at the village center, or from behind the covers of the half-walls that surrounded the town hall, when the Americans reached the village center, it was almost dead silent.

"Holy shit is that it?!" Yelled Sergeant Guzman, as chatter filled the marine company. They were confused, had they really already finished of every single bandit? What of the ones earlier they saw running, maybe the rangers got to them, but that would make no sense, because they had also just reached the village center.

The major had radioed in to

"(COMMS) All Units be advised, reports from command state that thermals from FAC surveillance showed multiple hostiles moving inside the town hall three mikes ago. We'll have to clear it." A pause "Do not shoot at the windows yet, we've been informed that there are civilians inside the town hall."

"Shit." Said the now disappointed Turner.

The major hopped out of the LAV and spoke with the major commanding the rangers who had just arrived. Members of both service branches then began set up a perimeter around the town hall, occasionally shooting at stray bandits who weren't able to retreat within.

Marines around them were not liking this, they frowned, swore at this, a very risky clearing operation, a massive building filled with bandits, they had just watched one of their company men die and were still reeling from that, but there was no time to complain.

The doors to the town hall then swung open, out came three people, all three crying and shaking, one man, one woman, and one child. They had their hands up.

From the darkness within came two bandits, one holding, a pistol, the other, a rifle. Aimed at the civilians.

Every single soldier and marine pointed their guns.

"Easy there." Loudly called a feminine voice. "There are more inside, people of Shion I mean. And there are more of us too." It come from above them, at the town hall's balcony stood a woman with short hair, wearing a ripped shirt, red shorts, and arm guards.

"You shoot at us, or step one foot in that garden." She talked about the front yard of the Town Hall. "We kill everyone here." She spoke in a sardonic tone, but it was clear she was not happy about how the situation developed, wearing a frown on her face.

The soldiers and marines did not let up, keeping their weapons pointed at the bandits. Jackson could see the face of his major, clearly unsure of what to do, nobody expected the situation to turn into this. These bandits were smarter than they expected.

"We'll give up these three to prove we got a lot more inside."

"Go ahead." A blonde bandit holding a submachine gain told the three, who then walked towards the Americans, hand still the in the air. The soldiers directly in front of the three, lowered their guns as the family approached them.

But they were cautious, these men had fought terrorists before, they weren't against strapping bombs to civilians before handing them off to American soldiers.

"Search them." Said a squad commander. The rangers then patted them down.

"All clear, sarge."

"You have a choice, you know? You can all just leave." The woman simply stated before turning around and going back inside the town hall from the balcony.

It was 5:30am at Vale, or just reaching the time at Vale. Ozpin had finally been granted communication rights with the Americans, having, in the last 15 hours since he had been informed by Goodwitch, been rejected by whoever was handling communication on the end of the Americans. But finally, on this very early morning, wherein he had yet to sleep, the call to communication had been accepted.

He was in the control room of the CCTS tower, waiting for Kirkman to appear on the video feed. He had already taken his own course of action with regards to Shion, at this point he just wanted to clear it up with Kirkman to make sure the man would not order the death of his students.

The screen flashed white, before showing Kirkman in his usual outfit, and in his usual room, once again surrounded by many men on desks and computers. Even with how early it was in the morning, the General did not look the least bit haggard.

"Good morning, headmaster." The general was the first to speak.

"To you too, General." Ozpin simply stood, looking at the large screen depicting Kirkman staring back at him.

"Let's get straight to the point, why did you ask to communicate with us? And if my Cyber-team is to be believed you have relentlessly attempted contact…" he trailed off, seemingly looking somewhere other than the screen "Twenty-seven times in the last fifteen hours."

Ozpin's eyes narrowed, so the Americans were aware of his attempts at contact and had simply rejected them. No matter, that annoyance was for later to addressed.

"I am aware of your intervention on Shion, General."

The General's expression remained unmoved, but Ozpin noticed a twinge in his eyes "And… you're here to tell me to stop and that killing bandits is wrong?"

Ozpin sat both his hands atop his cane, shaking his head "No, I have realized a long time ago that convincing you on that particular moral quandary is impossible, in fact I'd like to commend you for your selfless decision on this matter."

At this, the General finally visibly expressed his emotion with lightly tilted head and narrowed eyes, almost confused "Is that so?"

"Indeed. Bandits run rampant in Anima and have been the cause for the utter destruction of hundreds of settlements on the continent since the Great War. While I might not agree with your methods, helping a village about to be destroyed is a noble cause I can get behind."

Ozpin let one hand off his cane and reached for the mug on the desk below the screen, taking a sip from his coffee. This was a genuine thought, he had been overseeing the protection and hopeful salvation of Remnant for over a millennium now, and it hurt his old soul to see human life be destroyed so flippantly, and it hurt more to see it be done under the likely orders of his former student.

The confusion left Kirkman's face "That's… surprising, but I assume you didn't just contact me to tell me that you agree with me for once, did you?"

The headmaster set the mug back down, he needed that coffee, the exhaustion was starting to get to him "Bandits are relentless, General, especially the Branwens, I know their strategy, how are your men fairing against the grimm?"

The General seemed to ponder for a moment, straining in thought, as if wanting to hold back, but eventually relenting "I will explain as is, however I trust none of this will reach the media, headmaster, more eyes on this will just inconvenience everyone."

Ozpin nodded, everyone in the control room of the CCT knew that any information communicated in the room was to stay there, and there would be many problem if they were to broadcast the situation of Shion to the greater public, emotions would run rampant, which meant grimm, especially if the news was negative, which based on the grim look coming to Kirkman's face, was the case.

"It has been roughly six hours since American troops intervened at Shion, at first our troops made good progress throughout the town, aiding civilians, and eliminating any bandits in the way, but the remaining bandits have taken shelter in the town hall with an unknown number of civilians and have taken them hostage. Grimm have begun assaulting the town, as such, troops have set up a perimeter around the town, but we're stretched thin and the grimm seem to only be growing in number. We have a temporary base at a campsite nearby where we're treating injured civilians and where we're holding civilians that were not in the initial assault of the bandits."

Ozpin just about came close to letting go of his cane in shock, the situation was more dire than he thought, and hostages?

"Why don't you just break in?"

"We can't risk attacking the town hall and having the bandits shoot freely at the hostages in retaliation, this is something we've dealt with before. The mayor's census tells us that the population of Shion is exactly 1313, we've accounted for 952 surviving civilians, injured or well, and 186 dead bodies."

Ozpin grimaced at that, what a tragedy, Glynda, who was sat next to him, listening in, looked on in shock, 186 dead? Killed by the Branwens in a short period of time. Such a loss of innocent life was not surprising, yet that didn't change how tragic it was.

"There could be more of either." Kirkman continued "Dead and alive that are unaccounted for, we have a few units actively searching the town. But the data states there are possibly 175 civilians being held hostage by Branwens, the ones let out in a gesture of 'good will' by the Branwens say that they saw many Branwens inside, numbers change per witness, but it's between ten and twenty."

Ozpin simply stared on, letting Kirkman continue.

"We are making preparations to send reinforcements and more supplies as we speak, but our ability to send men and material across continents is limited."

Ozpin could see why, it was already impressive how the Americans were able to field enough soldiers and material to thwart a bandit assault, he could only imagine how much dust- or whatever it is the Americans used for their aircraft, was needed for such an operation.

"So, out of a mutual understanding, and want for what's best for Shion and its citizens, and the reason why I opened up communication in the first place is that I want to state that any help is appreciated headmaster."

The headmaster was brought to surprise Ozpin did not think for a second on considering this, he wanted to help "What do you need?"

"Medical supplies mostly, most of what we're sending over now is in the form of ammunition, as the troops on the ground are running low on it, but our medics are also tending to nearly a hundred wounded from the bandit attack, and also tending to wounded soldiers of our own."

Ozpin nodded "I can field a few bullheads to bring over any medical supplies needed, please just send a list, I can send doctors and other professionals too, if needed. It could take up to eight hours for them to reach the continent, however."

Kirkman waved off the concern before nodding "That would be appreciated."

"If you would like, to help relieve the grimm problem, I can also send huntsmen. All professional level huntsmen of Vale are currently busy on their own missions, but I'm sure I can gather at least a team of students."

The shock on Kirkman's face was visible, eyes widened, brow jumped "Huntsmen, headmaster? And students of Beacon at that? What are you trying to get at?" The shock then turned to suspicion as he wrinkled his eyes at Ozpin.

"I am not trying to 'get' at anything, General, at the end of the day it is your choice, you said yourself that we both want what is best for Shion and believe me my students are the best at what they do when it comes to grimm. Even just one team will help alleviate the problem, if just a little, please consider the offer."

He was genuine, if the American troops truly were stretched thin and were having issues dealing with the increasing numbers of grimm, no doubt due to the negative emotions brought about not only by the surviving citizens but also the hostages, then they needed people trained specifically to deal with grimm, not the soldiers trained to kill people that seemed to comprise the entire American military.

Kirkman sighed, as he tilted his head, looking down "Excuse me, headmaster, give me a moment to discuss with the others."

Others? Interesting.

"Go ahead." The camera feed cut off, as audio also went silent on the end of the Americans, but the transmission remained open, meaning Ozpin only had to wait.

"Who can we send? What are you thinking?" Glynda suddenly spouted out.

"Glynda... We both know the predicament those villagers are in as of right now, the fearful survivors likely worry for their loved ones held hostage and are mourning those they lost, the American troops themselves likely have their own feelings on the situation, this is all ripe for a major incursion of grimm, Kirkman himself said they weren't able to send many troops and are stretched out, they need our help."

"We're stretched out too." Glynda began "All of our professional Huntsmen are out guarding the city, our professors are busy with preparation for the Vytal festival, most are on the Amity Colosseum to make inspections, the only students who are rated to go on missions without a huntsman escort are our third years and fourth years, and they're all out on missions outside Vale and won't be back until the next week."

"Then we send the second years." Ozpin narrowed his eyes at the empty screen.

"Are you seriously suggesting sending them without a professional?" Glynda's voice raised.

"This would not be the first time they will be out at mission Glynda, and I have trust in my students' capabilities, they will also be aided by the Americans."

Glynda opened her mouth, but before Glynda could make a rebuttal, the camera feed came back on, showing General Kirkman.

"I have spoken with my… contemporaries, and we have agreed to allow you to send your students to Shion, under certain conditions." He spoke in a monotone voice.

"What conditions?"

"Your students, and the doctors you send, will follow our directions to a tee, this is our operation, we appreciate the aid, but we would prefer if they not committed actions that jeopardize the mission."

A reasonable request, however- "I will not allow you to order my students to kill, General."

Kirkman simply nodded "Yes, they will only be used to eliminate Grimm and possibly to aid in search and rescue of civilians, I can promise you that."

Ozpin nodded "Alright."

"One more thing, whoever you send, I want their records, I want to know their semblances, weapons, etcetera. This is needed so those on the ground can assign them to the right mission and stratagem."

"Unaccep- "

"I accept." Glynda moved to speak, but was cut off by Ozpin, she gave him a disbelieving look. "I will send the aid as soon as possible."

"Alright headmaster, thank you. That will be all."

But before Kirkman could end the transmission, Ozpin spoke "One more thing General, this is the reason I asked to speak with you in the first place."

"What is it?"

"Did you encounter Raven Branwen in Shion?" He needed to know of her condition, according to Kirkman the town, except for the town hall was successfully taken and nearly cleared of bandits which made the chances of Branwen herself and possibly the Spring Maiden being dead. Unless they both found their way inside the town hall.

"No." A sigh of relief came from both Goodwitch and Ozpin "But between a couple thousand pounds of ordnance and a white phosphorus cluster bomb, she is most likely dead."

Her eyes blinked open, everything was a blur, and even as her vision finally began to adjust, a lot of it was just smoke, but fires and ruins could be made out here and there in her peripherals, the sun was staring down at her right above, it was daytime.

The first sensation Raven felt upon waking was a gnawing pain to her right side, in fact her whole body hurt like hell, but the pain on her right side was particularly bad, even certain areas on her face had a burning sensation to them. Why was this? She was laying on her back and couldn't find the energy to twist her neck to check, her right leg also hurt quite a bit, again, why?

Oh yes, her home had been attacked…

They were attacked! Suddenly, Raven sat up, causing a migraine. All she remembered from the attack was hearing a roar from the sky before being deafened by an explosion and having her vision be turned to black. She used her left arm to support her as she tried to stand, she stumbled as she tried to move her right leg, it barely followed her want to stand, her left leg did though. She stood up, albeit having to practically drag her right leg.

She finally got a good look at her surroundings, her breath hitched at what she saw, every single tent or structure that once stood was reduced to ash or debris, around or piled up on the debris were the scattered remains of her tribesmen, her family. Most of them were dismembered, some didn't even have the dignity of having recognizable corpse, a lot of them were burned black.

No spot of what was once her home was left clean, if there wasn't debris there was a body, or at least some remnant of what was once a person, be it blood, organs, or limbs.

She wanted to scream out profanities, but her mind couldn't seem to formulate words and rather, sorrowful garbles were all that came from her mouth.

Very little logic formed in her mind from here, simply a mix of anger and grief, wanting to do away with whoever did this to her family, she moved to draw her sword, but when nothing came, she was perplexed, then she remembered the searing pain on her right, she looked over at her right arm, or at least where her right arm once was, only to see a blackened stump

At this, she no longer reacted, she had seen so much that the knowledge of her losing her arm was no longer something very noteworthy to her. Instead, she simply walked forward, or at least simulated walking, her right leg barely moving, looking down she saw a chunk of the flesh and muscle on her right thigh gone, she could see down to the bone, again parts of the wound were black.

As she limped slowly down her destroyed home, she took in her surroundings.

"Aughhh, hyughh…" a sound came to her left. Incomprehensible groaning.

Raven looked to the source of the sound, only to see the huntsman they had captured before, he was still in the big iron cage they had left him in, or at least what used to be the big iron cage, it was in pieces now, many of those pieces had impaled themselves into the huntsmen, he was also missing a few fingers, toes, and other appendages. He suffered from severe burns, blackened wounds, red skin, his eyelids were so red and damaged that he couldn't even open them.

But he was alive… Her family was dead, and this sorry excuse of a huntsman was alive.

She limped towards him at a faster pace, he was going to die, if not by whatever had attacked their tribe, it was going to be by her hands, there was no way her family died, and this… this afront to everything she stood for would get to live. She didn't have the energy to beat him to death, but she'd sure as hell grab a sharp looking plank and stab him in the throat.

The huntsman seemed to hear her, and was attempting to back off, whimpering as he did, but he could barely move his arms and legs, only managing to inch away from the irate Branwen.

But as she was a mere few yards from her latest kill, she tripped, stray pieces of debris, a set of broken wooden plank had caught her foot. She ungracefully fell to ground, onto her right, then onto her stomach, a massive jolt of pain shot up, she groaned.

She felt… liquid, she was bleeding, from the stump on her shoulder, the fall had opened up the wound that had once been otherwise clotted up or healed partially by her aura. She could feel her consciousness waning as this happened, her consciousness was already weak the moment she woke, but this was different.

She was going to die like this, she knew it, she needed to do something somehow. Transform? No, it was likely her avian form would also suffer from a lack of limbs, her semblance was her only option, could she go to Vernal perhaps? No, it was very likely they were also attacked. She didn't want to think about going to Taiyang or Yang. She had one option left. With the little strength left in her she used her left arm to open a portal.

The red hole in the air emanated a slight buzz, it was just a few feet in front of her, she crawled, with just her left arm, using her left leg to assist herself in pushing her barely living body.

But she could feel that with each tug, with each push of her leg, she was losing strength, her vision was once again beginning to blur, and for the first time in years, she felt fear, she was about to die, and there was nothing she could do about it, but push.

Her left arm reached through the portal, on the other end she felt cold smooth tiling, she continued to pull, only to feel a pair of hands grab her arm and drag her through the portal. Her whole body was now on the cold tiling.

"Raven?" She heard above, a gruff familiar voice, call her, but she couldn't say anything back, she heard a set of footsteps, multiple footsteps from multiple people, strange, she wanted to push herself up to look at who else was here, but she couldn't, rather, as her vision only continued to blur, it then returned to black.

Shion

1542 hours

15 hours after the American Intervention

Private First Class Ramirez calmly slid open the door to this next house they were searching, it was one story and looked pretty run down.

He entered the home, followed by Corporal Dunn, and Sergeant Foley, the rest of the squad waited outside in their Humvee.

There was a dead body at the door, a woman with ram horns on her head, it was accompanied by a weapon, a machete, a bullet hole was on both ends of her head, this was likely a bandit killed in the initial assault. It was also entirely possible that whoever killed them was an oocupant of the house.

"Whoever did this could have run outside or is still here, stay frosty, gentlemen." Commanded Foley

The three paced silently around the room, aiming their guns wherever. It was a tidy place, contrary to how bad the home looked from the outside, all things considered, a classic living room with Asian characteristics, a kitchen nearby, some extra sliding doors that probably led to a bathroom or a bedroom.

"Looks clear to me." Dunn remarked. Ramirez could agree, but the sergeant was looking down somewhere.

"Not so fast, corporal. Look here." He held his gun up close to his chest as a he inspected a part of the floorboards. There was a square perforation, and a small indentation at the bottom, likely a handle.

"Looks like a cellar." Dunn stated.

"Yep." Ramirez simply added.

"We should clear the other doors before we head down there." was the curt statement of Sergeant Foley. "Ramirez, Dunn take that door, I'll take this one."

"Right."

"Affirmative."

The rangers had begun clearing every house in Shion about three hours earlier. After the initial assault, Burton had ordered the marines to set up a perimeter around Shion, Alpha company of the rangers set up a perimeter and did other things at Hill One, while Bravo company did house clearing at Shion, as well as some cleanup.

Both rooms were clear, they gathered up around the basement. Ramirez had offered to be the one to lift it up, with Dunn taking point. Ramirez crouched down and sunk both his fingers into the handle, lifting it up, it was surprisingly light.

Dunn and Foley saw the darkness ahead, they both pulled down their NV goggles. Ramirez lifted the cover further before setting it aside, he too pulled down his goggles.

"US Army Rangers, if there's anybody down here, please surrender yourselves!" Foley yelled in a commanding tone.

There was a set of ladder type staircase leading down, a stone wall on the right. Dunn walked down slowly and looks right, dozens, if not hundreds of barrels were stacked atop each other in columns, taps adorned the fronts of each of them. This was a wine cellar. They slowly stepped down, training their sights around the room, Dunn finally touched the hard concrete floor of the cellar.

He turned and took a step forward, the space between the columns ahead of him appeared empty.

Then he heard a barrel roll and crash to his left, only to then see a small girl with large buffalo horns on her head brandishing a knife, rushing him, everyone hesitated to shoot, Dunn let go of his rifle as she approached, opting to grab at her hands instead, she was too short to reach his throat anyway.

He grabbed her hands and wrestled away the knife, now in his hands, he quickly popped it inside a satchel on his vest, causing the girl to gasp and wince as Dunn brought his hand up as if to slap her. Only to receive a pat on the head between her horns, she looked no older than ten.

"We ain't here to hurt you kid." Dunn kneeled down. She stared surprised at Dunn as he patted her head "You got a name?"

She rubbed her one eye, probably puffy or something from crying. "Laurel."

"Okay, Laurel. I'm Corporal Dunn. You got parents?" She shook her head. "You live with anybody?"

Ramirez and Foley simply stared, dumfounded at the spectacle of Dunn apparently being good with kids.

"I live with big sister Lily."

Dunn continued to speak as Foley radioed in the finding of a civilian child. "She protected me from a bad man last night, but then he left to call help, she hasn't come back."

"We could've found her earlier, but we need to take you somewhere else, it's not safe here, you might see your big sister where we're gonna take you."

The girl's eyes lit up with just a little bit of hope. "Really? Where are you taking me."

"To the campsite up at the hill, you might know it." She nodded along.

"Alright, let's go." He started to walk, Foley and Ramirez went up ahead of him "Shit." He muttered under his breath, luckily quiet enough to not be heard by Laurel. His expression looking as if he came to a grim realization "Ramirez, Sarge."

They stopped and turned to look at him "Yeah?" said Ramirez.

He got up close to the two of them, whispering. "Move the body." They both immediately understood, they jogged up the stairs, he heard a series of thuds and grunts coming from the two men.

"What are they doing?" Laurel asked.

"Just cleaning up." Dunn smirked and let go of his gun, letting it hang from his vest. With his left hand he reached into a pocket on his uniform, pulling out an e-cigarette, he took a hit, letting it flow down to his lungs before exhaling. Then he felt the little girl grab onto his right arm, causing him to stop taking a second hit out of shock.

"We're done here Corporal!" Shouted the Sergeant.

He pocketed the e-cig before slowly going up the stairs, little child next to him attached to his arm. As he reached the outside of the cellar, his two squad mates eyed him, Ramirez almost laughing at the sight of him and the girl, snarky bastard.

He brought his NV goggles back up as they were no longer needed, he looked once more at the girl, he could now make out details he once couldn't with night vision, like her light green hair.

Dunn led her out the door, she shuddered at the puddle of blood where the body once was, it's good thing they moved it, wherever they did.

He led her to the Humvee, where two more of their squad mates were waiting outside, having idle chatter. When they saw Foley, Ramirez, and especially Dunn, they couldn't help but laugh.

Dunn brought the girl to back trunk component of their specialized Humvee, she was supposed to sit there alone, with Dunn manning the 50. Cal, but she begged and pleaded to have Dunn sit next to her, which Foley was apparently okay with.

The drive back to Hill One was awkward to say the least, Laurel fell asleep on his arm, and stayed that way for the twenty minutes it took to reach Hill one.

His vision eventually filled with trees, there was nobody else on the road heading to Hill One. It made sense. He got on his phone, it read '3:58pm' he looked up to the sky, the reinforcements should be arriving in a bit.

According to Colonel Burton's briefing, it wouldn't include a strike package of F-35s, but rather three C-130Js, which was great, more supplies and men to fit. Right on cue, the shapes of parachutes started appearing in the sky.

They needed this relief, Marines were handling the perimeter around Shion and were dealing with a total of nearly a hundred grimm per hour, some sections were out of ammo, and had to pull back to Shion proper or Hill One, both were largely under Ranger control.

On their first day, the Americans lost three soldiers, one raider, two rangers, all happened during the initial assault. The injured numbered at twelve, a mix of grimm and bandit, mostly from the marine's side since they held the perimeter. If Dunn had to guess why they took a relatively high number of casualties it was because they didn't have time or resources to soften up the target with airstrikes or artillery, rather they came in with zero support, in relatively small numbers, and with little ammo.

To say that the aid and reinforcements currently dropping from the sky right now was much needed was an understatement. The reinforcements and aid included two more LAVs and their crews, an extra ranger company of roughly 100 soldiers, a company of conventional marines, also numbering at about a hundred or so men, ten Humvees, and quite a lot of ammo, food, and other supplies.

Dunn personally couldn't wait for more tents, right now there were 900 people on Hill One and there were only enough tents to house 200. They weren't allowed to sleep in their homes at Shion since the marine lines around Shion were tenuous at best as a result of them being stretched, low on ammo, and low on vehicular support, that and the grimm seemed to be far more focused on attacking the village than they were Hill One.

The Humvee finally reached Hill One, it was cramped, civilians everywhere, some lined up to eat the food a group of rangers made, others simply gathering in crowds to complain to an officer or whoever else they could complain to.

At the commotion, Laurel woke up, seeing her surroundings, her eyes lit up in hope once again, perhaps hoping her sister was somewhere here.

Hill One was pretty big all things considered, encompassing over half a square mile of camping grounds, but housing over 900 civilians as well as the hundred or so rangers who were here was a bit unrealistic.

They eventually reached a certain larger tent; this was where the mayor was.

"Come on, kid." said Dunn, he opened the door of the trunk, helping Laurel down the Humvee.

Sergeant Foley hopped out of the passenger door and walked up to the mayor's tent flap.

"Go with Sergeant Foley over there, he'll help you find your sister." Dunn pointed at his officer.

The only people needed for this particular procedure was their commanding officer and the civilian they found.

The girl seemed to be hesitant, but eventually did so, walking up to Foley's side, Foley stared at Dunn. "You can come with us Corporal."

"What?" Dunn asked, his face scrunching up in confusion. This was their first civilian found since the Rangers began searching house to house, but he was pretty sure some random corporal wasn't needed here.

"I feel like little Laurel will be more at ease if you go with us." The girl in question did not agree, but her eyes simply looked up at Dunn.

"Uh- alright, I guess?" He walked with Foley and Laurel.

Foley pushed open the flap to the mayor's tent, expecting to see the mayor, but instead was greeted by the back of a… marine, and another guy, looked like a Civilian? The marine in question was speaking to a pretty young blonde woman in a shoulder cut white dress sitting behind a metal table, multiple papers and books stacked on it. The marine's voice was familiar.

It wasn't unusual to see marines back here at Hill One, sometimes they came by for resupply, but why would a marine have a civilian with him? They didn't do house searching.

Then the two men turned around, Dunn's eyes widened in surprise to see that it was none other than Sergeant Jackson, well, staff sergeant now.

"Oh, Dunn!" Jackson smiled, he brought his fist up which Dunn bumped in return.

"We just saw each other a couple days ago, dude, it's destiny." Dunn chuckled

Jackson then eyed Laurel who was between Dunn and Foley. "And it seems like it's your destiny to be messing around with little girls, if I didn't know better, I'd think you were a pedophile." he whispered that last part.

"Oh, fuck you!"

"Language, corporal" Said sergeant Foley, oh wow, reprimanding him, but not the guy who joked he was pedophile, well to be fair, Foley only had power over him and not the marine.

Said marine was snickering "Anyway, gotta go. Nice meeting with you, stay safe out there." Jackson walked away and patted Dunn on the shoulder.

The woman on the desk who was watching this all unfold seemed rather amused at the display.

Foley simply stepped forward "We're here to bring a civilian."

"I can see that." the woman said, she gently smiled, her tired but bright blue eyes then fell on the kid, then to the corporal, causing Dunn to jump a bit. "Why are there two of you here?

"Uhhh- It's cau – cau" he stuttered though words.

"The kid grew a liking to Corporal Dunn." And was then saved by the sergeant.

"Yeah, that."

The woman then went up to the kid. "Hello, what's your name?" She gently asked.

"Laurel."

"Do you have a last name?" The pitch in her voice was elevated.

"Baum."

The woman's eyes widened as if coming to a realization "You're Lily's sister? She always used to help with the gardening at the Town hall."

For the first time in a while, Laurel smiled, nodding profusely "Yeah! Is she here?"

The blonde then frowned "No, we haven't found her yet." The kid in response looked downtrodden.

"But we'll find her eventually, just keep hoping, I'm sure she's okay, for now I'm gonna assign you to stay with the other kids."

Both Dunn and Foley winced at what the woman said at the start, it was never a good idea to set hopes that high, finding her sister was likely, but alive and okay? That was a different question entirely.

"Excuse me though miss." Foley began "Isn't the mayor supposed to be handling these civilian assignments?"

"The mayor is currently in a meeting Colonel Burton and some officers from your army, so she left me to speak with all of you. I'm her assistant, Skye."

Foley nodded "Sergeant Foley, nice to meet you" He brought his hand forward for a handshake.

She reciprocated. "And you are…" She once again eyed Dunn.

And again, did he jump "Corporal Dunce- I mean Dunn." Foley could almost be heard snickering, the woman, in turn, simply smiled at his missing of words. They shook hands, her hands were soft.

"Please bring this girl to area 3." Sky smiled.

The three made their exit, seeing Hill One somehow become more hectic as Humvees rushed in from the east, and soldiers and marine alike piled in, looks like the reinforcements had arrived.

They walked up to their Humvee

"So how was it?" PFC Joseph Allen asked casually from the driver's seat, while smoking a cigarette.

"Looks like our gunner is in love with the mayor's assistant."

A slight blush crept to Dunn's face as his whole squad looked at him in disbelief.

A stomach groan emanated throughout the once quiet interior of a bullhead, it came from a certain rabbit faunus now grasping her stomach and looking down in embarrassment. Well partially quiet, Coco was snoring pretty loudly.

"Hungry?" Yatsu had asked.

"Sorry, I don't fly very well." She had to bear with flight sickness the whole 8 hours they were here, she had planned on catching a little sleep but was unable to, so she sat strapped on her seat, wanting to vomit for a quarter of a day.

"It's fine, no need to apologize." Yatsu stated as Fox quietly nodded beside him.

Well, something else made her want to puke out her breakfast, and that was the extreme amount of pressure, nervousness, and just overall fear she felt going into this. Noy only was she going for a mission, but it was also on a continent she despised, and cooperating with people she both didn't know and was afraid off.

To just about everybody she knew, the Americans were enigmatic, showing up one day, destroying the White Fang, visiting Beacon, taking a city, helping out villages, starting up a radio show. Now here they were intervening in a bandit attack for reasons unknown.

But the point stood, they would be helping people, both the Americans and her team, so she did her best to swallow down the fear she felt going into this.

"Ten minutes." Said the pilot of their bullhead.

"Oh my." She whispered to herself; she must have not been paying attention the first few times he said how long they had.

She sat idly remembering all the things the headmaster had told her team before they departed.

They were to follow the American's orders when it came to how they were deployed but they had the right to refuse orders if it meant they had to kill people, that last part was very worrying, almost as if Ozpin suspected that might happen.

She checked her scroll; it had just turned 6pm. According to Ozpin which came from Kirkman was that the tactical head of the operation would them on the ground upon landing, Colonel Burton apparently, the man who was on the VNN news interview, a week or two ago. He seemed pretty scary.'

All things considered; it was rather unbelievable that in less than two weeks after promising to deal with the Branwens did the Americans have to deal with them.

"Sixty seconds!" Said the bullhead pilot.

Coco's snoring came to an abrupt stop as they all felt the motion of the bullhead's altitude coming down, her head slowly nodding up, blinking as she did.

They then felt the bullhead hit the ground, causing everyone's heads to jerk up, the muffled sounds of men yelling and talking came, as did the sounds of other bullhead engines.

They all looked at the pilot, alright "You're free to leave." He gave them a thumbs up.

Fox was the one to stand, walking over to the handle and pulling it open, revealing the grassy land ahead. Two bullheads were on each side of their bullhead, hopping out were a few doctors, while what looked to be American soldiers were taking carrying crates of medical supplies somewhere, other American soldiers were hauling large pallets into big trucks.

At the center of it all stood a tall bald man kitted up in the same gear as the other soldiers, they recognized him as Colonel Burton, next to him was a shorter, younger, brunette woman in a business suit. The two were looking straight at them.

CFVY stepped out of the bullhead, after a few seconds it took off.

Burton and the lady walked towards them. Burton approached, Fox who was on the leftmost side of the group, he was taller than him by an inch or two but was decent few inches shorter than Yatsu. Burton brought up his hand in a handshake gesture, Fox accepted.

"Colonel Burton, he stated." He then moved to shake Coco's hand, who also accepted.

"Coco Adel." She smirked "That one over there is Fox." The mentioned man nodded.

Then he shook Velvet's hand "Ve – Velvet Scarlatina, sir!"

Coco held back her laughter, but her smile gave her amusement away. The colonel did not react. He simply moved on to Yatsu.

"Yatsuhashi Daichi." He firmly shook, the colonel just nodded. He stepped backward. The woman then nodded at them.

"I am the mayor of Shion, thank you all for coming to help, I wasn't supposed to be here, but I wanted to see the faces of those who would be helping defend out village."

So, this was the mayor, that made sense, she looked quite haggard, bags under her eyes, a pale face, and her voice was raspy, yet she still made the effort to come all the way here to greet them, that was commendable.

"I… apologize for the mess." Said Burton "We just received reinforcements and resupply thirty minutes ago, we're still processing all the supplies and equipment. That explained the strange mix of vehicles, crates and pallets that surrounded them.

They didn't know if they should respond, this was the first time they spoke to an American.

'He's just a normal person.' Velvet felt the need to remind herself.

Burton then turned his back "Follow me, it's time we head to base, and you all get your assignments."

The mayor followed, as did CFVY. They walked for a short white, passing soldiers loading supplies into trucks, they could see some soldiers bringing the doctors into smaller looking vehicles with a gun on top.

In the distance, gunshots could be heard, but not from the direction of Shion, rather, south of their positions, must be the perimeter set up against grimm described by Ozpin.

They eventually got closer to a vehicle that looked similar to what the doctors were being loaded into, two of them. The mayor got into the rear vehicle.

The vehicle ahead was a bit different from the others, as it had an open trunk.

"There's not enough space inside for all five of us and a driver, we need two people willing to sit in the trunk?"

Yatsu and Fox stepped forward. It was settled there, Yatsu and Fox were put into the back trunk, Colonel Burton sat himself on the passenger seat while an unnamed soldier was at the driver's seat. Coco and Velvet sat beside each other at the back.

The ride was quiet, they followed a paved road that went uphill, it was a bit bumpy.

"So what do we do here?" Coco finally asked.

"You've been informed of the situation here, right?"

A nod from Coco.

"Then you'll know we face two main problems. The first is the hostage situation, which we're still adjusting and making plans for, we have no idea if the hostages are alright, our only evidence that they're still alive is that the soldiers around the town hall occasionally see people by the windows, but they could just be bandits."

"Why don't you just rush in?" Coco crossed her arms.

"There are an estimated twenty bandits inside along with a possible 200 civilians, if we just busted in without a care in a world, we risk the bandits just opening fire on the civvies and causing unnecessary death."

"People do that?!" Velvet nervously asked, she couldn't believe that was a thing that was possible, she'd read about the horrible exploits of the Branwens before but to hear about it as an actual possibility that could happen near her was surreal.

"People evil enough to take civilian hostages are generally evil enough to kill them, ma'am. So right now, we're getting help from the mayor and those who frequent the town hall to draw up a layout of the town hall, once that's done, we're gonna set up a team for breach using a method that ensures the least risk to the hostages."

That was clever, Velvet had to admit, she didn't even think about finding out the layout of the town hall first, the bandits would lose their advantage of having a better understanding of their surroundings that way. But she also felt that delaying things further might just make things more dangerous for the civilians, did they even have enough food and water there to last them the day?

"Our second major problem is the grimm coming from all directions, mostly concentrated on the areas surrounding Shion proper, our forward elements have already taken multiple injuries mostly due to a shortage in ammunition which has been solved thanks to the resupply, but we'll run out again soon enough. The grimm are also getting worse and worse in numbers most likely due to the hostages."

That made sense, the hostages were likely feeling a mix of fear and hopelessness, emotions which attracted grimm.

"There are massive grimm concentrations near Shion that have been observed to be making their way here, the intent is that we'll be done and out of here before that happens."

What would that mean for the villagers though? Then again once the hostages were free and were no longer feeling fear, perhaps the grimm would then go away?

"We were sent information on your abilities, traits, and synergy, and have made assignments with those in mind, Fox with his telepathy will be sent with our Rangers down at Shion, we'll see if he can communicate with the hostages. Yatsuhashi who is described to be good at taking down heavily armored grimm will be stationed with rangers at Hill One's perimeter, Hill One being our base by the way, there is a small group of beringels that are expected to reach our positions in 0200 hours. Coco with your minigun and Velvet with your specialization in smaller scale combat will be stationed with marines on the southeast of the Shion perimeter, they've been dealing with swarms of beowolves and ursa."

Coco and Velvet frowned their team would be separated, but at least it was pragmatic, it did make a lot of sense for them to try and get fox to communicate with the hostages, and Yatsu was pretty well equipped to deal with grimm like a beringel, still, it was unfortunate for them to be separated, but they had no right to complain, Ozpin's orders were clear, they were to follow every American order short of taking a human life.

The vehicle they were in eventually reached a crowded campsite, tents everywhere, some tents being setup up by soldiers. Some soldiers doing what looked to be maintenance on certain vehicles and more. Civilians were everywhere, crowding the entire area, some were sat on the floor, chatting, some were eating, others were lined up outside tents.

Every solider was doing something, be it working on vehicles, helping with supplies, or accommodating to Shion citizens, it was a very different scene from the Camp Glenn report where many American soldiers were sitting around idly by, talking, doing exercises, somehow this felt more hectic.

The vehicle suddenly then stopped in front of a large tent, this was probably the command tent, but in front of the tent was a group of soldiers with slightly different uniforms from the ones around them, they were standing by outside a vehicle much like the one they were in right now except the trunk was not open, but rather enclosed, some of them smoking, some of them chatting. All of them were equipped with the same guns except for one of them.

"I see the marines are already here." Burton remarked.

If velvet remembered correctly the marines were who they were to be assigned to. Velvet had to wonder what the difference was between marines and other troops.

One of the 'marines', a darker skinned man around the height of Coco smoking a cigarette eyed them, he was standing at the center of the other marines who were talking amongst each other.

Colonel Burton left the vehicle from his passenger seat, walked over to Velvet's side and opened the door for them.

"Come on out." He said, Velvet followed, scooting out of the vehicle, followed by Coco, the colonel then walked around the car and opened the trunk for Fox and Yatsu. "You two still have to wait for the squads I assigned to take care of you, come inside the tent and just take a seat at the bunch. He pointed to the large tent they were stopped in front of.

Fox and Yatsu nodded. They stepped out of the trunk, both of them looking at the two girls.

"Stay safe." Yatsu lightly bowed.

Fox repeated Yatsu's sentiment telepathically.

"Gentlemen." The colonel spoke towards the marines.

The marines suddenly stopped what they were doing, any conversation they might have been having was ended, any cigarette they were holding was thrown to the side, and they simply stood straight staring at the colonel.

"Sir." Said the one who had been looking at them earlier.

"These two are under your care." Burton gestured to Coco and Velvet.

Coco simply stared at them, looking at the marines up and down. Velvet gave a shaky smile with a wave, garnering a reaction from a few of the marines who did their best to hold back their smirks in the presence of the colonel.

The marine nodded.

"Watch out for these two, stay safe, and good luck." The colonel finished succinctly before heading to the command tent.

Coco and Velvet then awkwardly stared at the marines, who all relaxed upon seeing the colonel exit.

"Well let's skip all the formalities, yeah?" The marine who had spoken to Burton casually said "I'm Staff Sergeant Jackson, element leader of Dagger Bravo. That's Corporal Beltran." He pointed with his thumb to a shorter marine a little taller than Velvet leaning on the hood of the vehicle. "Our driver and resident smartass Corporal Turner." He then pointed at a marine wearing a smile at the jab.

Some of the marines started bringing cigarettes again, one of them brought out what looked to be a really thick scroll. He then pointed at that marine while looking straight at Velvet.

"Our Latino gunner over here pretending to use his phone but is actually taking a picture of you is Sergeant Guzman."

Velvet instinctively recoiled in embarrassment, a blush creeping to her face while Coco let out a "Pfft."

"What the fuck dude? I'm just playing candy crush!" He then showed his device apparently called a 'phone' to the others and displayed on it were a set of candies and a score counter, every marine except Guzman chuckled at this.

"Kidding, we all know the real perv here is Petty Officer Edwards." He nudged another dark skinned marine next to him with his elbow, he looked bewildered at Jackson's comment, why was his rank different?

Ray stood straight from learning on the vehicle "Yeah, we all saw you try and check that dog girl earlier." He laughed as he popped a cigarette into his mouth. Coco and Velvet eyed Edwards incredulously.

"Fuck you mean bruh? I'm a medic I'm supposed to check her!" He said, playfully offended. "And I'm married!" An interesting fact.

"Yeah right." Turner lit the cigarette. "Like that matters." Turned rolled his eyes with a cheeky smile.

"Aight." Jackson cut the banter "That's the squad, who are you two?"

Velvet almost jumped as all the attention suddenly came to her and Coco, she struggled to find the words, luckily Coco stepped forward, Velvet looked at Coco gratefully "I'm Coco, leader of team CFVY, and that's Velvet, cutie of team CFVY." Velvet stared blushing at her team leader, betrayed.

"Hehe, aight, hop in in the Humvee, bout time we get back on perimeter."

What was a Humvee? That line of thought was answered when everyone started going inside the vehicle.

"Oh shit!" An expletive suddenly came from Jackson's mouth, these marines were very vulgar "I forgot, we need to decide who has to sit in the trunk."

Jackson walked around the Humvee and popped the drunk, showing an enclosed space behind the backseat with barely any space and no seats, it would be very uncomfortable to sit here.

"Ey, I'm the driver, I'm out." Said Turner, smoke coming out of his mouth as he spoke.

"Gunner here, so am I." said Guzman.

"And I'm the CO, I vote myself out." Jackson garnered some annoyed looks. The choice then fell upon Edwards, Beltran, Coco, and Velvet.

"I vote the two shortest people." Edwards raised his hand.

That made sense, the shorter people would likely have the less hard time sitting at the back, Velvet thought, pleased by this suggestion. Only to realize she was with Beltran for the two shortest people amongst the for, with Coco standing at six-foot and Edwards being a bit taller than her. Velvet herself being five-foot-six with Beltran being about two inches taller than her.

"It's settled then." Beltran deadpanned, clearly displeased with the turn of events, which Velvet couldn't help but feel offended by.

They all got inside their respective parts of the Humvee. Jackson sat on the passenger seat at the front, Turner at the wheel. Guzman manned the gun, with Coco and Edwards below in the back seat, Velvet sat with Veltran in the trunk, her bunny ears folded against the Humvee's low ceiling.

"Play some music!" Shouted Beltran

"On it!" Jackson yelled back.

Tapping sounds could be heard at the front as synths eventually started to blast. The car started and they were on their way, driving down the direction of Shion, they were likely gonna pass within the city before driving to the southern perimeter.

"Sun is down, freezing cold..." The music continued as Velvet fell into thought.

Velvet was rather impressed, for the increasingly grim situation currently going on, these marines were acting very casually, joking amongst each other, talking idly, imparting in their vices like smoking and playing games. Velvet saw this as very different from how huntsman teams usually were during missions, the atmosphere with these marines was a lot lighter despite the situation being quite heavy.

This was also far from the image she had known of the average military man, the stoic, quiet, but competent Atlesian trooper, she had to wonder, with these American troops lacking the first two qualities, would they be competent?

"Made this here with all the ice on in the booth…"

In fact, the marines were even singing along to the song playing, a song quite unfamiliar to Velvet even though she had listened to her fair share of American music, it sounded very different any music she'd heard before, using less melodies in the vocals and more rhyming.

"What is this stuff?" Coco asked to the marines who all were singing along.

Edwards stopped his singing to look at Coco "It's rap, specifically trap music, but I think America Radio hasn't gotten to this point of our music yet, y'all are still on Michael Jackson and shit, right?"

"Oh yeah, Michael Jackson, I love Beat It!" Coco confirmed which Edwards laughed at.

"DJ! Queue up some MJ next!" Yelled Edwards earning a thumbs up from Jackson.

That was interesting, Edwards used the words 'gotten to this point' implying that there was still a whole part of their music they haven't seen yet, well the Americans had been hidden for nearly a hundred years after the great war, they probably had a lot of culture to show before reaching their current point, hence why this 'rap' felt so out of place to what Velvet had heard from the Americans up till now.

After driving down the hill for about two minutes they reached Shion, which had a sparse number of American soldiers, they seemed to be going in to houses, searching them.

"Why are they going into houses?" Velvet quietly asked Beltran which could be scantly heard on account of music blasting from the front with three of the marines singing along to it, Beltran seemed to have heard her though.

"They're Army Rangers, some of the ranger squads have been given the job of clearing every house in the village to check for more civilians or bandits."

That made sense, at least the Americans were thorough.

"Are they almost done with all the houses?" This earned a shrug from Beltran.

"She's in love with who I am…"

They passed by what looked to be a park, a dozen or so American soldiers gathered around, they were bringing weapons to a large pile of weapons.

"Those are bandit weapons, we've been ordered to gather them up where we can." Beltran already felt her question coming it seemed.

"What are you gonna use them for?"

"We do this kind of thing with enemy weaponry, we store them, sometimes we sell them to allies, other times they get scrapped for parts."

"The bandit prisoners were just okay with you getting- " She stopped as she staired outside the back window, eyes widened.

"What was that?" Beltran asked, seeing as she wasn't talking any anymore, he simply returned to nodding along at the music.

It was here that Velvet was reminded of the grim reality of American combat, their right outside the vehicle, quickly getting farther and farther away, on a sidewalk by the park they had just passed, was a dead body of a bandit woman, bloody spots riddling her body, a terrified expression forever stuck on her face.

Velvet instinctively turned away, the sight had pushed up memories she wanted to forget, she then looked at the Americans, the ones at the front seats especially, they had to have seen that, yet there they were, smiling, singing the music, bumping their heads with both of them singing. Just how desensitized had they become to killing that they could just pass a dead body and not care?

She then looked at Coco, but Velvet couldn't tell if she saw that, as Velvet could only see the back of her head.

She tried to push the thoughts away from her mind as the familiar tune of Beat It by Michael Jackson came on, after a few minutes they left the confines of the Village and reached a plains-like region with some trees that dotted the landscape

Another minute passed as they drove before coming to a stop. All the marines promptly exited the vehicle, the guy on the gun suddenly came down by squatting exiting from the door Edwards left in, Coco also opened her door and hopped out. Beltran had opened the trunk doors.

Velvet jumped out and observed her surroundings, it was starting to get dark, the sun already setting, her faunus senses were helping her though. She saw here surroundings clearly, near a large tree there were sandbags piled on top of each other to form mini walls, spaces ion between these walls for some reason.

"Alright this is our spot; we basically just wait out here for grimm. Beltran set up the mortar." Said Jackson as he pulled out a black cigarette pack, he opened it and put one in his mouth. What was it with these marines and smoking? Then she remembered the body she saw.

'Maybe it's how they cope?' She tilted her head in thought.

Jackson caught her staring, as he held the open pack to her. "Want one?"

Velvet waved her hands frantically "N- no!"

"Sheesh, it's just a cigarette, girl."

Turner crossed his arms and looked at Jackson, a cigarette in his own mouth "Maybe she doesn't want Marlboro blacks, that's hoe shit. Real ones only smoke reds." He laughed.

Velvet did not understand any of these terms.

"Shut up, Turner." Jackson rolled his eyes as he lit his cigarette.

"Look at you smokers, ruining your bodies." Sarcasm leaked out of the voice of Edwards as he pulled out an e-cigarette.

"Can I have one?" Came the sudden voice of Coco, extending an open palm to Jackson.

"Coco?!" Velvet indignantly shouted at her leader.

"Relax, Vel, we don't get to do this kind of thing back at Vale." Coco adjusted her sunglasses.

That was true, smoking was not allowed at Beacon, that and they weren't old enough to buy tobacco products, but that didn't mean Coco earned the right to forsake her health like this.

Jackson happily obliged, letting her have a pick at a cigarette. Why was Jackson even allowing this? This was not becoming of a responsible adult. Jackson lit Coco's cigarette.

She took a puff, and then coughed up a storm, smoke coming out with each cough. Edwards, Jackson, and Turner all laughed at her; she was wheezing now.

"How the hell do you start coughing from the blacks? This stuff is smooth. You weak as hell, girl." Jackson said, taking a drag from the one in his mouth.

"Fu- " A cough "Fuck you!" She threw up a middle finger, which Jackson smiled at.

Velvet panicked at seeing this, was she really insulting the people who were in charge of them right now? Oh no.

Jackon then promptly patted Coco on the back "You'll fit right in!"

Coco seemed to take another drag, this was one more successful, she let out the smoke from her lungs without coughing earning her a few performative claps from Jackon, Turner, and Edwards.

"Uh, guys, we got tangos south!" They all turned to Guzman who was looking down a pair of binoculars.

Indeed, in the distance they could make out the shapes of a few grimm closing the distance.

"Alright, let's see what you girls are made of! We have to conserve ammo anyway."