Chapter 1: Old Friends

They awoke to the sound of another alarm." I thought Ironwood said there weren't to be any practices while he was away." A grunt said as he turned over in his cot. "We're not 'combat ready' as his niece would say." "Come on Smug, either way look at everyone else, so we have to get ready." His friend said as he threw some gear at Smug. "Besides Bearstone is in charge so it might be…" before the soldier could finish his sentence a bewildered soldier ran in drop the grub he was carrying and went for his rifle. All the soldiers looked at each other, while the soldier franticly was putting his weapons together. " Oye What's going on?" Smug asked in a hursh tone. "Their here!" he yelled back, "Who's here?" He turned to all that were the barrack, "Grimm, in the hundreds, they have entered the camp. We're under attack on all sides!" He screamed as he ran out. At this point a voice came on the speakers, it was Bearstone, "THE CAMP IS UNDER ATTACK, I REPEAT THE CAMP IS….." then he was cut off, at this point all men and women were out of their bed, and getting their gear on. "Damn we're surrounded then, huh?" Smug turned to friend, "Good." He responded with. "What do you mean 'Good' Vex?" All the soldiers lined at the door looking at him, "That means we can shoot in all directions," Vex answered with a smile, "COME ON, LET'S GIVE THEM HELL, REMEMBER GLENN!" Vex announced leading the troops out of the barrack. Everyone followed suit scream in unison "REMEMBER GLENN!"

Once they entered the fighting area they saw barracks burning, heard the screams of wounded soldiers, and were met by very hungry Grimm. Fighting them back they noticed a huge mess of troops were held up in the center of the camp, they fought their way to them, once there a sergeant ran out "Vex, Smug!" "Choppy, where's Bearstone?" They responded. "He's inside trying to reach Ironwood, and tell him our situation, but he wants to see you two right now." "Alight, Deva hold here." They order to the unit. As they went inside they saw wounded, radiomen, and complete udder madness. They were directed to the upper level, there they saw Captain Bearstone talking over the radio calmly, he was a captain who was able to handle pressure extremely well, even in an all-out attack like this. "Yes, sir...I understand sir,...I will have the best we got handle it,..." Smug nudged Vex, "He's talking about us." Smug said with a grin, Vex just shook his head. " Yes sir,...E.T.A one hour got it. We will be ready to go till then."

Bearstone got off the radio, put his hand over his mouth, and then turned to the boys. "I hope you are ready for this." He said as he approached them. " I have always been ready to kill Grimm sir." Smug spat with a salute. "What are your orders Captain?" Vex asked with his salute. "At ease, both of you are only nineteen, the average age at this camp is eighteen, so I have arranged transport to get most of the soldiers out of here, the plain is to take half our fighting force and move them to the platforms for evac. Once there the wounded can sit safley on top, and those who can fight will hold the incoming Grimm at the bottom, Smug I know you want to fight on the frontline, but right now I need you to not argue and get this job done, otherwise more of our soldiers are going to die, can I trust you with this?" Smug saluted, "You can count on me sir." 'Alright now Vex, you will tag with me and we are going to push them back over the wall, if we can do that then we should be alright in getting everyone out of here." "How many do we have left?" Vex asked."Out of 700, we have a total of 469 still able to fight." "Alright then let's get it done." The three made their way down, to meet with the soldiers.

"Alright Deva, with me." Vex order, they formed a wall of 15 soldiers, front would shoot any Grimm that try to get through, when they had to reload, they laid down and next row covered them, the third row would watched the sides as well as the back. This worked for the most part, Grimm were getting destroyed, while some got lucky plowed through soldiers. Vipers were hard but not impossible while Nevermore where picking them up like bugs. When they ran out of ammo they would pick up the weapon of their fallen soldiers to continue the fight. 'Damn it, we need more us out here, we will not be able to push them all the way back.' Vex thought to himself, for every Grimm they killed, four took its place. He could see it in the faces of his brothers and sisters, they were losing hope, this was attracting more Grimm, but they were so close to pushing them back. He turned to Bearstone who was on a handheld radio. "Reinforcements!? That will be to….Hello? Do you read….Fuck." He threw the radio he looked to Vex, shaking his head. "Dammit, we were so close." He said as one soldier pointing to a group of Griffins perching on the wall. Some saw this and instantly gave up, falling to their knees hoping their death would be quick.

Just then shots came from behind, dozens, they turned to see Smug's unite behind them. "COME ON, DON'T STOP WE'RE ALMOST THERE!" With that ever troop stood to feet morale was high, everyone fought, and sure enough the Grimm were retreating. "Back over the wall they go." Some of the soldiers started to chant, once they got to the wall, they ran to the top and watched as they took off into the forest. "Ya, that's right get out of here you monsters!" There were chants and praise all around. Vex turned to his Captain who just looked in amazement, then to Smug who was hugging a female troop he had his eye on, looking back at Vex with his thumbs up.

Vex wiped the sweat from his face. 'We held them back, thank goodness.' He thought to himself. "That's right, you better be glad we don't go to your homes and destroy your lives like you did ours.'' Everyone turn to this frantic soldier at this point, "Someone get him down." Bearstone order. "That's right we're what you left behind! Remember Glenn!" The soldier screamed at the top of his lounges. "I said get him down now…" Before the Captain could finish his order the soldier was put down by a shot to the head. "What the…." "White Fang! White Fang, coming out of the brush!" White Fang soldiers were coming out. Soldiers that remained on the wall returned fire but as they tried to keep them at bay a rocket flew out of the tree line. "Get off the wall!" The order was giving but it fell onto depth ears as the sound of the explosion blew a hole into the camp throwing soldiers from the wall like broken toys. The White Fang didn't waste time, they rushed in like a flood of water. Vex picked himself up and heard some soldiers cheering, In the mist of all the fighting, it began to snow, as he looked to the sky he saw dropships incoming. 'Finally, help is on the way.' He smiled as Smug dragged him to the platforms in his daze, but that hope was quickly destroyed as that was not the only thing he noticed in the sky. The dropships were being whetted out of the sky by rockets. Only Three seem to have made it unharmed.

"Get to the ships, retreat, that's an order fall back!" Bearstone screamed to them as the unites started to fall back. Vex broke free of Smug and began to hustle and was putting some down every five steps he took. "Damn this was starting to get interesting." Smug said helping his old friend out. "Ya, but you know what else is interesting?" Smug looked puzzled at Vex. "What?" "Wondering if the ship will be polite enough to wait for us. Isn't one of these pilots your ex-girlfriend?" "Oh, funny aren't we." The two battled their way to the platforms dodging, shooting, fighting hand to hand when they had to. However along the way Vex could see a man, a Faunus in all black, leading and barking orders to the white fang, 'They're looking for something,...' Vex put together, seeing them turning over some bodies. 'Or someone.' As they were getting closer to the platform, they saw Remint bodies, their friends dangling from the attack of the Grimm who were drop or thrown like rage dolls across the camp, they also saw bodies of White Fang members mixing with the body count. "Damn, this is messed up." Smug announced as they kept moving. "We'll return a favor later, not now." Vex said. They made it to the dropship area, they quickly started to climb the stairs, the White Fang were hot on their tail.

Pilots were dodging rockets from all directions. " We have to move now Captain." they warned Bearstone. At that moment one of the dropships went down, "Dammit, am sorry sir but we're buggin out!" "Alright, let's go." Bearstone ordered with a heavy heart. "Fuck, we're not going to make it." "Your right," Vex responded. "We're' not going to make it." He ran past his friend, turned around and shot some White Fang coming in. "Come on!" Vex order. Smug knew what to do he ran as fast as he could, and jumped, Vex then cupped his hand and launched Smug an extra four feet enough for Bearstone to catch him, and the survivors pulled him in. "That worked, good," Vex said as he fought off to the best of his ability the threat before him. Knocking white fang off the platform, using their weapons against them, above all else making sure his friends got out of there.

He turned to see them salute him as they were about to exit the perimeter of the camp. He saluted back before he saw a heavy amount of missiles come over head and brought it down, before Vex even had a changes to realize what had happened the same amount hit the platforms, knocking them to the ground. Vex hit the ground hard, but it wasn't enough to put him down. He started to move, drag himself towards the flames of the dropship, he could hear the screams and cries of the wounded, even Smugs taunts toward the White Fang. "I have to get there." His breath let out, "I have to." Just then he saw the flashes of lights, then came the silence. Vex leaned himself against a barrack, he couldn't move anymore, he was beyond tired and the cold began to set in. Then he felt it, someone was watching him. He turned as much as he could to see a female white fang member staring at him, rifle in hand. They were exchanging stares what seem like hours, then she spoke. "You stood up for me when no one else would, you saved me more times than I could count when we were kids Jake, let me return a favor."

And with that she raised the rifle to him and pulled the trigger. Other White Fang members showed up, to see the Faunus stand over the lifeless corpse of the soldier, his blood on the wall. "Come, it's time to go." And with that they left as quickly as they came. She looked up and saw more dropships overhead. "I hope they find him in time." The young Faunus said to herself as they disappeared into the night.

A team from Beacon Academy arrived on the scene. They could not believe what they saw, it was just udder destruction. "We got here too late." A rabbit ear girl said, "There has to be someone Velvet." Her leader placed a hand on her shoulder. "Are you sure Coco?" Velvet asked. "Yes, let's just look around." The leader spilt up her group and began to look around, and then Velvet heard something, "Quick this way Coco." She said as she turned the corner, Coco followed suit. They found a soldier trying to patch himself up, he turned to look at them. "Are you going to stand there or are you going to…." With that he passed out. Coco and Velvet quickly recovered him and headed to the dropship, there they were met by the other two members of their team. "Find anyone?" Coco asked them, Fox and Yatsu just shook their heads, "However, I did find this on a rifle." Fox handed it to Coco, she took a look. It was two tags stapled to a piece of paper which read 'Give to him if he wakes up' Coco put them in her pocket as they were headed back to the city.