Blackwatch vs Ghouls (Short)

It was silent on the helicopter as the Blackwatch soldiers checked their weapons and armor. Their arms deftly patted their ammo pouches and checked their gas masks as the night sky soared past their peripherals. The units commanding officer, Lieutenant Antonio Silva, called the men up as he entered the passenger cabin.

"Alright! We count at least fifteen Ghouls holed up in the hospital down the road from us. The civilians were evacuated before the Ghouls got in so we don't need to worry about damn civvies. But what we have to worry about are those Ghouls, we have Ukaku, Bikaku and mostly Koukaku. Keep spread out and make sure your fields of fires overlap. No in betweens you hear me?" Antonio commanded. The troop of thirty soldiers nodded and the helicopter shuddered as they steadied themselves above the hospital in question.

"Let's g-Incoming fire!" Just as the men prepared to jump down, Ukaku types began firing crystalline projectiles into their helicopter. The transport sputtered and two Blackwatch soldiers were clipped through their necks by the crystals. Antonio snarled, "Rockets!" Two rocket launchers were hefted and fired onto the roof. Designed specially with a portion of quinque. The explosives launched shrapnel all over the roof, forcing the Ukaku to cover themselves with their kagune and the soldiers quickly repelled onto the roof.

The first soldier snapped a weapon up, fired three bursts from his gun before he had to dodge from return fire. The twenty-eight man platoon spread out, dropping into crouches as they leveled the barrels of their weapons down range. Antonio chucked a grenade by the feet of an Ukaku and hummed in satisfaction when it blew up in a mess of gore. "Push!" Three soldiers eased forward, two keeping a steady stream of fire on an Ukaku as another aimed for its head.

The Ukaku blocked the bullets, twisted to try and retreat back indoors before he was slowly tumbling to the ground from a well placed bullet to his brain. The others checked the area, made reports of all clear, before they took positions near the entrance to the rooftop.

"Mendoza, Dowley, take a rope and repel down to ground floor. While we work down, you guys work up." Mendoza made a crisp nod and together with Dowley the both of them wrapped their ropes around a ventilation system and hopped off the roof with precision that would put most special forces to shame.

Mendoza tucked into a roll and sprung up with his M4A1 Carbine poised and ready to unload into any non-human son-of-a-bitch. He scanned the hospitals main entrance, satisfied that he wouldn't be expunging ammunition, and called Dowley to his side. "I go right, you go left?" Mendoza asked. Dowley was a Lance Corporal while Mendoza was just a PFC. Both of them were noncoms but Dowley had the higher rank.

"Sounds good, meet up at the stairs but don't stray too far." Mendoza nodded and they bumped fists before entering the hallway. The room was dark, the hanging luminescent lights having either been smashed in or out of power. Mendoza had his back hunched, his head up and alert and his strides close and careful. He had no intention of dying today, in fact he had no intention of dying whenever, if he could help it. Mendoza swung his weapon over the counter but found nothing.

Then he heard the audible click of a gun going off. He didn't blink in surprise, show any outward sign of distress- instead he calmly dropped to a knee as a volley of rounds went over his head. "Contact right!" Mendoza yelled before he squeezed his trigger. While the Ghoul showed a considerable lack of trigger discipline, Mendoza had no such problems and fired in sustained burst into the Ghouls knee. Blowing cartilage and bone apart as the explosive rounds tore through flesh. Mendoza then rolled out of the way as a tentacle as sharp as a blade swung by trying to cut him in half.

"Contact left!" Dowley yelled and Mendoza exchanged clips faster than the blink of an eye before he popped out of cover and acquired the new targets. One of them had a tail going down his leg while the other was another Koukaku type. The Bikaku would be a problem but as far as Mendoza was concerned the Koukaku was the one that had the highest chance of bisecting him. So he twisted his aim and fired a shot towards the bladed Ghoul. It hissed before it brought its shield up to block, Mendoza grimaced before pulling out a grenade.

"Frag out!" He warned before tossing the explosive. Dowley cried out in alarm as the explosions rumbled the hospital floor, sending the Ghouls flying each random direction. Mendoza twisted his sigh back to his right, noticed how the Ghoul he had shot both legs off was still alive- he sent one bullet through his head and emptied the rest into his back. It sputtered before dying.

Dowley lost his M4A1 to the Koukaku but he pulled out two pistols from his sides and aimed them down range. The Bikaku wasn't able to dodge due to the boxed in environment of a hospital's lobby but the Koukaku had his shields as a defense. The Bikaku took three hits to his chest, shuddered, and rolled into the cover of a hospital bed.

Sounds of explosions and gunfire were heard from the top floor and Mendoza realised that the main squad had already met resistance. He grimaced and raised his weapon to help his teammate before Silva reached them. Mendoza slid his arm against the mahogany wood of the desk and rested the barrel against the crook of his arm.

Dowley was firing wildly down the corridor at a wildly zigzagging Koukaku type. Each show Dowley made he would likewise take a step back but the difference in speed became abundantly clear. The Koukaku forced itself forward, its kagune wrapped around its arm, before it neatly cut off both of Dowleys legs. The noncom screamed but in testament to his training he didn't let up on his fire and scored three hits. The Koukaku snarled before gruesomely vivisecting him from the left shoulder blade to his right hip.

Mendoza bit back a yell, trained his weapon the exposed Ghoul and shot one bullet straight through its head. The thing squawked onced before falling to the ground dead. The Bikaku growled something nasty beneath its breath- in japanese- and tossed the hospital bed down range at Mendoza.

The soldier dropped onto his back, the hospital desk blocking his view on his target, and quickly aimed his weapon in preparation for an assault. He got back up to his feet and tsked when he spotted nothing.

"Silva's gonna be pissed." He muttered. He carefully stepped over the dead body of his friend and grabbed kagune of the Koukaku. He grinned before unsheathing a specially made knife and cleanly slicing it off. He did the same for the other Ghoul. He stowed them away before going up stairs. His rifle swung up and the first thing he saw was a dead Ghoul, an Ukaku, and judging by the huge hole in his chest, the explosion must have come from trying to kill him.

After he passed the body he spotted a dead Blackwatch soldier. This one didn't look like he died and most likely he had been dragged from his death point to hear to be fed upon. Mendoza didn't really feel anything- he had seen Manhattan- but he said a short eulogy for his fallen comrade before moving on to the next room.

There he caught the tail end of a one-way conversation between Silva and the rest of the remaining platoon- now just barely over fifteen. Still a better number than the CCG would have had, Mendoza thought.

He eased on his grip and reported in. "We came into contact with Ghouls, Sir. Two Koukakus and a Bikaku. The Bikaku got away."

"Anything else?" Silva asked as he fastened a gag over the captured Ghouls mouth.

"Dowley's dead, Sir"

"Something important Private!" Silva growled. Mendoza shook his head no and Silva made a long sigh.

"Fine. Saddle the kagunes and living Ghouls up. With Mercer jumping around from Brazil, Michigan and New Zealand Blackwatch doesn't want any more troops outside the base." Mendoza snapped a crisp salute before helping the rest of the men drag the Ghouls away. One gasped and looked at Mendoza pleadingly as he was hogtied.

"Please..." It wheezed but Mendoza didn't care and slammed his boot down on the Ghouls face. It wasn't like the Ghoul would extend the same courtesies to its victims anyhow.

"I'm glad we're out here facing these babies instead of Mercer. Could you imagine fighting a freak like him?" One of the Blackwatch soldiers mumbled. And Mendoza suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.