A/N: First things first, I'll reply to guest reviews.
chatterinq: Thanks for coming over from Reddit to review my fic. I really appreciate it. This chapter is where action starts to pick up, and I hope you'll enjoy it.
magna ryunoid: I know, and I frankly don't care. He's not important enough in my eyes to make a fuss over. The guy can go stew in his own misery and bitterness for all I care. I hope you do enjoy my story, though.
Disclaimer: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure belongs to Hirohiko Araki and Lucky Land Communications. I only own the OCs.
Philippines, mid-2009
As soon as she came back from her post-training leave, Captain Joestar was put to work. They gave her a team of 4 other soldiers to manage and shipped them off to deal with some Stand-using terrorist in Southern Philippines, which was how Joanna found herself in the hold of a Philippines Air Force Huey, listening to Fortunate Son blared on repeat from the aircraft's improvised entertainment system.
Joanna looked out of the helicopter's window, down at the jungle and villages that made up the countryside. While the song certainly fit the whole jungle atmosphere, she hated Fortunate Son with a passion. For starters, she actually refused the silver spoon even when it was dangling right in front of her face. Her parents were quite well-off before they lost their lives during Second Impact, and her legal guardian was none other than Joseph Joestar, her great-grandfather and owner of one of America's largest real-estate conglomerates. Despite all that, Joanna refused to tap into her inheritance or Joseph's generous offer to finance her college degree and instead opted to go the military route via ROTC. One thing led to another, and Joanna ended up in the same helicopter as four extremely deadly Stand-using special forces soldiers.
Fed up with reminiscing about her past, Joanna looked away from the jungle and cast her gaze around the troop bay at her men. Judging by the looks on their faces, they weren't exactly fond of the cliché of flying over the jungle with CCR blaring either.
Staff Sergeant Mike White, the team's comms guy, was buried nose-deep in one of Pink Dark Boy's many volumes. His close-cropped brown hair, seemingly wiry build, and an odd habit of wearing ballistic glasses everywhere just added to his nerdy nature. When the helicopter's crew chief put the song on shortly after boarding, he joked: "So who's Forrest and who's Bubba?"
Staff Sergeant Spencer Jankowski, the medic, was trying to keep himself busy by going over what medical equipment he had on him which wasn't stashed away in the other helicopter. His close-cropped red hair, freckles, and pale skin gave him a sun tolerance that was somewhat better than that of a vampire. Being cooped up in the helicopter for so long, Jankowski was just going through the motions of inspecting his equipment after the first ten serious attempts.
Sergeant First Class Daniel Halliday, the team's machine-gunner and 3rd in command, was taking a nap to pass the time. Being the second most experienced operator on the team, Halliday's personal philosophy was to sleep and save the energy for later. The dark-skinned man's body leaned forward in deep sleep, held in place by seatbelts inside the chopper's troop bay. Despite the fact he was over six feet, quite muscular, and built like an NFL linebacker, the seatbelts did an admirable job holding him in place. A deep rumbling snore emanated from him, fighting with the music for auditory dominance of the troop bay.
Finally, Chief Warrant Officer Five Stephen Zeppeli, Joanna's second in command, was deep in meditation and seated right beside her unlike the rest of her men. His Italian heritage clearly showed, with olive skin and a head full of dark hair. Despite his youthful features, Zeppeli was actually in his early fifties, with a kid going through West Point and another one finishing up high school. Zeppeli joked plenty of times about having to salute his own kid one day. Aside from the steady rising and falling of his chest, he was as still as a statue. Joanna was well aware of the relationship between the Joestars and Zeppelis and wondered if the higher-ups assigned him to her team on purpose.
By that point in time, Joanna was finally fed up with the song which was blaring on repeat for at least fifty times straight. With an annoyed grunt, Joanna grabbed a handle above her and hoisted herself to a standing position. She turned to her right and took a look at the digital boom box and saw something she didn't notice the first time before: a song list and some instructions stuck to the hastily-welded shelf which held the music player. Although most of it was in Tagalog, the song names were mostly English. She scanned the list before a huge smile crept up on her face. White, Jankowski and the Philippine Air Force crew chief were looking at her, curious what her plan was. After some fiddling and a few track changes, Fortunate Son was replaced by the fast and energetic lyrics of Little Richard's Long Tall Sally.
Satisfied with her little accomplishment, Joanna plopped back down in her seat and saw the crew chief looking at her with a smirk on his face.
"Goddamn sexual tyrannosaurus?" The Filipino man grinned.
"Goddamn sexual tyrannosaurus." Joanna replied. "Just like Jesse Ventura."
"Hey now, don't make her start quoting Predator." White chuckled as he looked up from his manga. "When she gets going, she can pretty much do the entire movie's dialogue. Even the clicking!"
"No kidding, and boy can JoJo pull off a convincing Arnie accent. That sure did wonders for our sanity during the SERE phase." Jankowski said. "We just need some guy passing around dip, and we'll have ourselves a fun flight."
The normally-stoic Zeppeli opened one eye, surveying the scene around him. The corners of his mouth turned upwards ever so slightly.
"Joestar, I like your choice of music." He said before going back to his seemingly vegetative state. "I can feel the morale rising already."
The rest of the flight was a lot livelier, as the helicopter's occupants decided to shoot the shit to pass the time. They even had an impromptu game of duct tape dodgeball going thanks to Jankowski trying to mess with White by throwing a ball of used tape at him, which White deftly caught despite still reading his manga. The fun eventually came to an end when the helicopter landed at the combined American-Filipino forward operating base. Joanna's team gathered their duffel bags and stepped into the South-East Asian sun.
Instead of their usual Multicam Army Combat Uniforms, the team opted for tigerstripe combat shirts and pants to fit in better with the jungle and warmer climate. Their choice of outfits made them look more like the Philippine military than the MARPAT-clad US Marines who greeted them.
"Welcome to our little FOB, ma'am! Come on over this way, we'll show you to your quarters." A Marine sergeant saluted Joanna, shouting at the top of his lungs to compensate for the constant whirring of helicopter rotors. "The snake eaters who are already there made room for you, and they can fill you in better on the situation."
As the small group made their way over to a sectioned-off portion of the compound reserved for special operations personnel, Joanna noticed the base was rife with activity despite its small size. Infantry and vehicles were constantly on the move towards whatever AO they were assigned, helicopters were zipping in and out every few minutes, and there were even a few artillery and mortar emplacements set up to deal pain from a distance. At the mouth of the compound, a Multicam-clad grizzled looking man with a completely shaven head and face greeted the small group.
"You guys the experts on freaky shit? Major Beckett, Special Forces." He said. "Come on in, we got lots to talk about. Your weapons and equipment go inside the armory."
"Pretty lively place you guys got here." Zeppeli quipped on the sheer amount of activity going on as they made their way to a briefing area. "Seems like this new group is causing a lot of problems."
"No shit. Even Abu Sayyaf and the Reds have losing ground to these guys for a few months straight." Beckett replied. "I know what you're thinking: 'Why doesn't the Filipino government just let them kill each other then sweep in to clean up the survivors?' Don't worry, I'll get to that in just a sec. Everyone take a seat and buckle in. It's gonna be a wild ride."
Once Joanna and her team made herself comfortable, Beckett got started on his briefing.
"I'm sure you guys already got the lowdown on the history of all the insurgencies that's been going on and how everything went to hell after Second Impact, so I won't bore you guys with the history lesson. You guys should know the bio for the High-Valued Target too. Ex-Abu Sayyaf, got some kind of vision, blah-blah-fucking-blah." Beckett said. "The part you really need to know is this: the guy pretty much declared himself a living god and started fucking shit up for everyone else, the Reds, his old Abu Sayyaf pals, the government, you name it. And from eyewitness accounts, he might as well be. Not only has he been dominating the other rebel groups in combat, but he's absorbing their resources and personnel. If we let this go unchecked, his group will be far more difficult to handle, even if there's no Abu Sayyaf or commies to deal with.
"Fortunately, we've made a breakthrough in this situation. The Philippine Army has discovered an area that we strongly suspect houses their main base of operations. Since intelligence suggests he's revered by his followers and the backbone of the group, killing him would cause their morale to completely collapse." Beckett continued. "However, we haven't had much luck actually icing the fucker. Neither Philippine Special Forces nor our guys have been to find the place, much less kill him. Casualties are starting to mount both for them and for us. AARs and survivor reports suggest something…unnatural is involved, which is why you're here. I have a map of your AO right here, along with all the reports for your information. Good luck, and you're all dismissed."
"You guys want to hit the range? I need to zero my weapons." Jankowski asked the team as they left the briefing area. Although Halliday and White nodded in agreement, Zeppeli and Joestar had other ideas.
"The Captain and I have some planning to do for the op. We'll join you guys shortly." Zeppeli said as he motioned for Joestar to follow him back inside.
"All right, here comes the fun part." Zeppeli said. "Beckett left behind some study materials for us to work with, so let's get this shit over with and write ourselves an ops order. We also have to set up a comms plan to sort out callsigns…"
0630, the next day
Captain Joestar and the leader of the Scout Ranger team going with them had agreed to meet next to the helipad for a joint brief. After finishing the briefing she and Zeppeli put together the previous day. Next came the buddy check. Zeppeli saluted Joanna and allowed her to inspect his equipment.
HK417? Looks like it's in good working order. The 1911 is good shape too; nice laser sight. Helmet, body armor, and chest rig are a-okay. Joanna went through a mental checklist as she inspected her 2IC while Jankowski and White were busy inspecting Halliday's M249 SPW machine gun. Damn, that's one badass Bowie knife. Radio is in working order too, and here we go, his I-FAK…
Soon, it was Joanna's turn to be inspected. Zeppeli, with the eyes of an experienced expert, quickly but carefully looked over Joanna's gear including her Ops-Core helmet, plate carrier, HK416, combat knife, and HK45 handgun.
Guess she took my advice to heart when I told her we don't use puny-ass 9 mils. He thought as he finished inspecting her gear and gave her a quick tap and thumbs up.
For the last little pre-deployment ritual, Joanna called her men to attention, and the Scout Ranger leader did the same for his men.
"I'm not a fan of drill and ceremonial, but we can at least this little thing." Zeppeli told her at the range while they practiced. "The Filipinos are proud warriors, so a little demonstration of fighting spirit can go a long way."
"Rangers!" The Scout Ranger leader started. "We shall…"
"FULFILL OUR MISSION!" His soldiers cried out.
"We shall…"
"KILL THE ENEMY!"
"We shall…"
"AVENGE! OUR! BROTHERS!"
"Recon Team Ohio!" Captain Joestar picked up after the Filipinos. "What is our purpose?"
"TO CRUSH OUR ENEMIES, SEE THEM DRIVEN BEFORE US, AND TO HEAR THE LAMENTATION OF THEIR CRONIES!"
"Good, very good." Captain Joestar said. "Ohio, kill on three! Three!"
"Kill!" The team cried out.
"Three!" Joanna screamed a little louder.
"Kill!" The men responded in kind.
"THREE!" Joanna was practically screaming on the top of her lungs.
"KIIILLLL!" The soldiers' response echoed throughout the camp and even parts of the jungle beyond the perimeter, causing the Filipino troops, US Marines, and Green Berets to look in their direction. Beyond the treeline, tropical birds flew from the treetops, clearly disturbed by the human vocalization.
"Now…get to the chopper!" Captain Joestar said. "We got some asses to kick."
Joanna's team and the Scout Ranger filed towards their respective Hueys. As she boarded, she saw two Marines staring at her men and winked at them, knowing full well who the demonstration's true audience was.
"Goddamn, those Army pukes just out-moto'd us." The first Marine said as the helicopters took off.
"Yeah, and I thought Green Berets were freaky enough." His buddy replied. "Those guys are on a whole other level."
Unlike the day before, the helicopter ride was free of music, and the atmosphere was also tenser. That allowed Joestar to read her map in peace and figure out any last-minute details she had missed. Suddenly, Joanna realized two things: 1) her breathing was getting heavier by the second, and 2) her foot was tapping the deck uncontrollably.
"Don't worry. Everyone is nervous on their first mission. Hell, I almost couldn't sleep the night before we went into Grenada." Zeppeli said as he put a reassuring hand on Joanna's shoulder. "But you need to make sure your emotions don't get the better of you and cloud your judgement. Remember your training and fall back on that, not your baser instincts."
Joanna muttered a quick thanks before putting her map away. Then she fell back on a technique she picked up way back during her ROTC days, and took a deep long breath.
Okay, four in, hold for four, four out. Joanna mentally recited the mantra as she changed her breathing pattern to something slower and more deliberate. After a few deep breaths, her nervousness was pushed to the darkest reaches of her mind.
As the LZ neared, Joanna yanked on her rifle's charging handle and flicked her weapon on safe. She then took out her HK45 and racked back the slide before re-holstering it. All around the troop bay, her men were doing the same with their weapons. The two helicopters soon came to a stop at an area of the jungle that didn't have quite as much foilage as the surrounding area, and that was where the two squads rappelled to the ground. The two teams quickly established comms and did a radio check before Joanna unfurled her laminated map.
"All right, this is our LZ, and we need to go further south to the nearest village. Find the nearest road and move parallel to it. Ohio and Karambit will split up and maintain no less than fifty meters apart to maximize coverage." Joanna said. "Our two teams will provide assistance to each other as needed if contact gets hairy. Let'move."
The two teams nodded in agreement before splitting up, with Karambit going southwest while Ohio went southeast. Before they set off, however, White allowed his arms to hang limply at his sides, right hand still gripping on to his weapon.
"「Thirty-Six Chambers」." He said as his left and right forearms became coated with what appeared to be bee hives that respectively glowed red and blue. Two swarms of hornets emerged, having the same glow as the hives that housed them. Five blue hornets perched themselves behind the operators' ears while the rest spread flew further into the jungle.
"All right, now we have a fool-proof method for comms if our radios become unusable." White said. "The remaining portions of my Stand will act as advance scouts for anything further ahead."
"Good work, now let's roll." Joanna said as she and Zeppeli stepped off, their weapons at low-ready. The other 3 soldiers followed behind, maintaining an arrow pattern with 3 meters spacing. Joanna surveyed her surroundings with care, her HK416 at the low-ready, jungle boots squelching in the mud with every step she took. She was grateful Zeppeli took her on a tactical gear shopping spree, because her feet would have been soaked if she was wearing her issued tan boots that were more suited for desert use. The slog through the jungle was quiet, save for the birds and a radio transmission about how Karambit found the road and were following it. The small team inched forward for what seemed like an eternity before White held up his right fist, the signal to halt.
"My Stand's picking up something. Small enemy encampment a hundred meters ahead of us. Mostly corrugated tin or plywood huts; seems to be an ammo dump in the middle." White said. "Not much perimeter defence except for two roaming sentries and occupants. Hill behind the camp with a machine gun nest. No civilians detected either, no quarter is a go."
"Good find, bro." Joanna said as she went into a prone position and took out her map. "Call in our position and the coordinates as I relay them to you."
After the team radioed back to command, they got together in a quick huddle.
"All right, Zeppeli, Jankowski, and I will take the hill. The three of us will sneak up on that MG emplacement take it over. I'll be able to fire one of my two thermobaric rounds straight at the ammo dump." Joanna said as she opened the breech of her underslung M320 grenade launcher and inserted a round inside. "As soon as that tin hut goes sky high, Halliday and White will commence the attack. I'll join you guys from the hill, Zeppeli will provide covering fire with his 417, and Jankowski will cover Zeppeli. Let's move."
White and Halliday went to the prone position while Joestar, Zeppeli, and Jankowski peeled off and circled around the small camp's outskirts. They crept towards the hill to get a closer look at the machine gun nest.
"Looks like a crew of two. We're perpendicular to their arc of fire." Zeppeli said as he surveyed the sandbagged emplacement. "You think you can make the shot with your ACOG? I'll take the loader since the gunner is closer to us."
"Hmm…yeah, that should be doable." Joanna replied. "Suppressors on."
Once that order of business was taken care off, Joanna and Zeppeli got to a kneeling position and took aim at their oblivious targets.
"On my mark." Jankowski said. "Mark."
Zeppeli and Joestar fired their weapons in sync, causing the enemy gun crew to go down amidst a pink cloud. The three soldiers quickly made their way up the hill. Once they were at the apex, Joanna unfolded her grenade launcher's sights, took aim at the tin hut at the middle of the camp, and squeezed the trigger. The 40mm thermobaric round sailed through the air before crashing through one of the windows. The ensuing explosion and chain reaction completely obliterated the ammo dump, disintegrating the two guards at the door, and knocking down the huts that weren't as sturdily constructed. Pieces of molten tin shrapnel shot throughout the remnants of the camp, skewering anyone unlucky enough to be caught out in the open.
Joanna half-ran and half skidded down the hill, her HK416 at the ready. A 7.62x51mm round zip passed her and blew a gory hole in the chest cavity of one of the terrorists who was turning around to meet her. As she reached the bottom, she shouldered her assault rifle and zipped from cover to cover, scanning through the micro red dot on top of her optic for any enemy survivors. A ragged-looking terrorist with a G36 caught her attention, and she quickly snapped her upper body to align sights with the hostile before pulling back on the trigger. A three-round burst rang out and caught the enemy right in the chest, but not before he managed to squeeze off a round of his own.
"「Bring Da Ruckus」!" Joanna cried out, and a feminine figure wrapped in bandoliers and wearing a gas mask materialized behind her.
"ORA!" Her Stand cried out as a fist met the bullet, sending it flying backwards straight at the doomed militant. Joanna's own burst already struck true, and the fourth round just added insult to injury as it buried itself inside his skull as he fell to the ground.
Joanna heard movement to her right and quickly swung her rifle in that direction, only to find Halliday coming to a stop while White pointed his own HK416 in her general direction. They were soon joined by Zeppeli and Jankowski, and the group quickly canvassed the village for survivors (there weren't any) before calling it in.
"Shit, man. You got hit." Jankowski noticed the bullet wound on Halliday's upper left arm and took off his rucksack full of medical equipment. "Just sit down and relax. I'll patch you right up."
"There's no need for that, Doc." Zeppeli walked up behind Jankowski and took off his tactical gloves.
"What do you mean? I gotta treat him." Jankowski raised an eyebrow.
"You'll see." Zeppeli replied, then took a couple of deep breaths. To the surprise of Halliday and Jankowski, the CW5's hands started to emit a warm yellow glow. Zeppeli placed the hands over Halliday's wound. Within seconds, the injury was starting to close up, the healing tissue even expelling the bullet. After mere moments, Halliday's arm was good as new.
"I'll tell you guys after we get back stateside." Zeppeli anticipated his two subordinates' curiosity and shock. "It's almost noon, get some chow in you and take a breather. You should replenish your nutrients before the adrenaline wears off."
Taking the lead, Zeppeli plopped down on one of the few intact chairs, took off his rucksack, and fished inside for a pack of First Strike rations. He sat among the ruins and corpses and nonchalantly tore into his food without a care in the world. The other four members of the team saw what he was doing and followed suit. A constant stream of gunfire erupted from the west as the team enjoyed their lunch, followed by the familiar "Contact. Wait. Out." After a quick but satisfying lunch, the team packed up and got ready to go.
"Ohio! This is Karambit!" White's radio squawked, the sound of gunfire was clear in the background. "We are encountering heavy resistance! Require immediate assistance! Out!"
"Shit, let's move." Joanna said as she took the lead and headed west. "Keep low and move fast. We should be able to flank them."
The team rustled through the thick jungle towards the source of gunfire, with 36 Chambers scouting ahead for any hostiles. Soon, they found themselves behind the right flank of a large group of militants who had Karambit Squad pinned down.
"Hoo boy, looks like we have a target rich environment." Zeppeli quipped as he trained his rifle scope on the enemy group. "Ma'am, I'd advise firing a grenade or two their way to soften them up first."
"Ma'am. We got a problem." Halliday interrupted. "Got another group approaching straight from the south, and check this out."
Halliday handed his binoculars over to Joanna, who took a peak through it and noticed the man leading the group, a man wearing some kind of golden skull makeup. He had all kinds of tribal and occult looking symbols painted over his bare chest and wielded a PKM which he fired from the hip on the move. The man's face matched that of a member of the HVT's inner circle. The space behind him, however, was what concerned Joanna the most. Occupying the space was what seemed to be a floating red spider with legs that were just a little bit too long.
"OH, SHIT!" Joanna said. "We're about to have contact with an enemy Stand!"
A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Don't forget to fave/follow and leave a review! Also, I realized I was trying too hard in my other story to emulate both Anno and Araki's style. In this story, I'll add more of my own flavor into it while trying to be loyal to JoJo's overall atmosphere.