Chapter 10: The Hunter becomes the Hunted

Present Day, Ankara, Vacuo

Leonidas Nikos scanned the outskirts of Ankara, the capital of Vacuo. He could see patrols of VNA soldiers roaming the streets, the occasional technical with a heavy machine gun driving along the highway, and the various roadblocks that served as checkpoints. Where there was a bustling desert oasis of a city, there was now a fortified and protected city.

He sighed; seeing several smaller cities along the Hunters' way become miniature military outposts. Houses barricaded, barb wire running along every inch of fencing and rooftop, garages turned into vehicle depots for the VNA tanks and heavy vehicles, and the trains became armored conveyors. But the worst thing was that despite the hostile takeover, most people in Vacuo welcomed the insanity!

He didn't know how many times he and his group of hunters had to watch as young aspiring huntsmen, politicians, and anyone that resisted the VNA were put to public execution, and how much he wanted to scream against the people cheering their demise! What kind of madness had fallen upon Vacuo where civilians cheered for other's death?!

"Hey, Winchester's group have reported in." Leonidas turned to Achilles, his partner from when he first began his career in becoming a huntsman. The man had a spear and a shield, much like Leonidas, but his spear transformed into a shotgun as opposed to Leonidas's sniper configuration.

"What does the bigot say?" Leonidas said; despite the urgency of their mission, Leonidas couldn't help but despise Henry Winchester, due to that bastard being the biggest fucking racist pig you could encounter in the World, save perhaps for Jacques Schnee.

"He says that Shade Academy seems to have been demolished by the VNA," Achilles said. "He only knew it as he knew it was near the canyons, and he also said that it looks like there isn't any resistance in the area."

"No shit," Leonidas snidely commented. "Who the fuck would remain to fight when everyone in a hundred kilometers wants you dead?"

"True, but you'd think that some people would resist the VNA." Leonidas shook his head at his partner's thought.

"Say you fought back, what would happen in a week? Where could you get supplies, reinforcements, medical, hell even a place to sleep for a few hours? The VNA sprang up everywhere and without warning; there was no way to form a resistance amidst the chaos," Leonidas countered. "But here we are, about to kick in the hornet's nest and begin liberating Vacuo."

"I agree, but-wait, what is that?" Leonidas looked to where Achilles was pointing, and saw a rather strange convoy. Unlike the technical or the tanks they had to slip by on their way in, what he saw were tractors with a little turret that seemed too small to be carrying the cannons of the light tanks they had saw before, and they had two tanks with a strange label in a yellow circle. In addition, there were large dump trucks with a similar symbol, and the beds of the trucks were covered in a tarp.

"I don't know, but I don't like it," Leonidas said. "Probably some new weapon that the VNA is going to send to the frontlines. Damn it, why did we agree not to carry radios?"

"Because it would've weighed us down, we underestimated the extent of the VNA's reach, and because we decided it was better to ensure we had food, medical, and ammunition supplies over carrying a radio," Achilles answered, despite knowing that his partner's question was rhetorical. The two men sighed, thinking how hasty they were in their planning. But it wasn't all their fault, as the council urged and pushed for a fast response.

"Alright, Achilles, get everyone ready to move out. We are going to head towards the councilor building and see if we can't get a better scope of the location," Leonidas said, and Achilles was about to nod when a whumping noise was heard.

"The hell is that noise?" Achilles asked, getting close to a window. Leonidas saw a quick flash of light from across the street, and realized what the flash was. As fast as he could, Leonidas tackled his partner to the ground as a bullet slammed into the wall behind them, followed by a thunderous crack.

"Shit, we've been made!" Leonidas shouted. "Everyone, prepare for combat!"

As the veteran huntsman heard his comrades in the building they had holed up in scramble for their weapons, Leonidas took a peak out of the window and saw a sight he never thought he would be on the receiving end of.

In the streets, civilians ran inside to seek cover while VNA soldiers began to converge on the building. Two of the strange tractors began to turn around and head this way, along with technical and even one of those tanks that had a small missile on the turret. In the skies were strange aircraft that had a large blade rotating above the airframe, a large glass bubble cockpit, and what looked like a farming sprinkler system that acted like wings that were moving towards the building.

Leonidas switched his spear into its sniper configuration and began to line up a shot on a VNA soldier that was carrying a rocket launcher. He tuned the world out, taking in one deep breath, lined the crosshair on the soldier's center of mass, and gently squeezed the trigger.

Unlike most guns that huntsmen used, Leonida's rifle used only dust as a propellant and had a lead bullet, finding it was cheaper and a bit more reliable than a pure dust round. This was also better in most situations against people who didn't have aura unlocked, as it wouldn't cause secondary effects like lighting them on fire or covering them in thick ice. However, as the bullet struck home, Leonidas would regret his choice.

The bullet landed solidly in the chest of the VNA soldier, who was knocked down. Leonidas was about to move on to the next target, only to see the soldier get back up, albeit sluggishly. He frowned, wondering how the bullet was stopped, only to groan as he saw the soldier flick the bullet off his chest, which had revealed a black plate underneath the soldiers clothing.

"Fuck they have body armor!" Leonidas cursed. He was about to take another shot, but a bullet hit the window frame, shattering the bottom wooden plank into splinters. Ducking into cover, Leonidas wondered where the hell that shot came from, before remembering the scope flash he saw earlier.

Leonidas saw his partner sneak a peek outside, before cursing.

"Shit, we really did stir up the hornet's nest, didn't we?"

"Damn huntsmen, they really think we wouldn't find out about them sneaking into our land?" a soldier in one of the technical escorting the toxin tractors asked, gripping his AK-47 tightly. "We should just send in a bomb truck and-"

"Quiet you fool!" shouted a tall black man in a deep voice wearing a turban and a combat jacket. "These aren't the young naïve fools that were at the academy; these men are hardened by their fighting with the Grimm. Also, those bomb trucks are being sent to deal with the beach heads."

The GLA soldier muttered something under his breath, but the tall black man ignored it. For Imani Azikiwe, he had been fighting in conflicts far worse than the GLA uprising in Vacuo.

Born in the Republic of Congo, Imani's family had moved to Egypt when he was four, but a US drone strike that hit the wrong building had orphaned him at the age of 11. Since then, Imani had been a soldier in the GLA, quietly yet efficiently rising through the ranks due to being Anwar Sulaymaan's top lieutenant, torture expert, and envoy to other GLA leaders.

On the battlefield, Imani was respected by his troops, mainly because unlike many in the GLA, he didn't send them to die unless it was to distract the enemy from the true attack, and even then, he tried to keep losses to a minimum. Imani was highly sought out by US forces due to his constant harassment of US interest in North Africa and the Middle East, becoming one of the top 10 most wanted in the GLA.

As they neared the building the huntsmen were entrenched in, Imani checked his Vektor R4 assault rifle, ensuring he had plenty of ammo and that it was set for full-auto. Based on the Galil Assault rifle, the Vektor is made in South Africa and built to withstand the conditions of southern and central Africa. He also checked that his chrome plated Desert Eagle was in prime condition. He preferred the Desert Eagle due to its sheer stopping power and the terror it inspired when it went off.

A bullet dinged off the roof of the truck, causing the driver to momentarily swerve to evade more fire, but he quickly righted the vehicle when no more fire came in. Imani thumped the roof of the technical, signaling the gunner to open fire.

The gunner racked the bolt of the M2 HMG, before unleashing a withering fire of .50bmg at the lower floors of the building. Imani smirked as all incoming fire seemingly stopped; the GLA had used the massive machine guns to suppress Vacuo's Rangers and huntsmen several times, and it seemed like the enemy never learned, as the GLA soldiers always rushed in to get in close to use Molotov cocktails.

"Heh, looks like they will fall all the sa-" the GLA soldier in the cab didn't finish as a bullet had actually punched through the glass and took off his head. Imani quickly began shouting orders.

"Everybody, get out and suppress all windows you can!" Imani then turned his attention to the gunner. "Gunner, pepper the second floor!"

"Aye boss!" the gunner shouted, switching fire from the first to the second floor. Imani rolled out of the vehicle and began charging forward with the other GLA soldiers. He smirked as a couple readied the Moltov cocktails, only to frown as rapid gunfire from the second floor, despite the gunner peppering there, hit the lit cocktails.

As the GLA soldiers who were unfortunate enough to be holding the cocktails were engulfed in flames, Imani signaled to the toxin tractor to move forward. He recalled seeing the dumbfounded looks of the local GLA fighters at the effects of the anthrax spray upon even the aura-protected huntsmen. It turned out the no one on Remnant used chemical or biological weapons, and aura had the horrible effect of trying to counter the toxins, only to severely weaken those with aura, until it finally broke, and then the buildup of toxins did truly horrific things to the huntsmen.

The toxin tractor moved in, getting to within firing range, when Imani saw a man leap out of the building, brandishing a shotgun.

"Soldiers, protect the tractors!" Imani shouted. Several GLA soldiers aimed their AKs at the man, but their aim wasn't that great, as the man seemingly danced around the bullets, only using his shield to block rounds he could dodge, trying to close in to engage the tractor. Imani knew he'd have to take a risk to prevent the loss of the tractor and potentially causing a spill of the lethal contents.

He rushed forward with his Desert Eagle in his left hand, firing as he charged, while getting a machete in his right hand. The man twirled around and raised his shield, and Imani was impressed as he saw the man still standing, his shield taking the brunt of the .50AE rounds. However, he couldn't stall.

Imani slid towards the man, and took a wide sweep with a machete, but the man jumped out of the swipe. The man transformed his shotgun into a spear (that was something Imani was still trying to get used to) and began launching a series of thrust at Imani.

Imani instinctively backed away from each thrust, replying with each thrust with gunfire from his Desert Eagle. This kept the man from doing anything crazy and forced him to use his shield. Imani glanced and saw that the toxin tractors began spraying their lethal concoctions into the building. He heard the terrified gasp and screams of the huntsmen inside as the anthrax beta went to work cutting through their aura.

Imani then saw another man jump out of the second story and began firing rapidly with what looked like a sniper rifle at the technical gunners. Imani growled; he needed to finish his current opponent, so he could deal with the fast firing sniper.

Imani leaped back and pulled out his Vektor, quickly emptying the entire magazine into the man's shield. Due to the battering barrage of Desert Eagle's bullets, the shield was weakened enough to allow the 5.56mm rounds to punch through the shield. The man's aura did stop some of the rounds, but he took a couple of hits to the arm, which caused his shield arm to lower a bit. Imani took his chance.

Charging forward and brush aside the man's spear with his pistol, Imani used the hilt of the machete to yank the shield out of place. The man's eyes widen as Imani quickly thrusted the machete's blade into his shoulder.

The man desperately kicked Imani away, but was forced to drop his shield. Imani quickly raised his Desert Eagle as the man tried to level his spear, turning it back into a shotgun. It was in a split second as Imani fired rapidly into the man's center of mass. With all the damage the man took beforehand, seven .50AE rounds buried and then exploded out the man's back, completely eviscerating the man's chest cavity, killing the man before he fell onto the ground.

Imani didn't have time to celebrate however as the other man saw this and bellowed out in anguish.

"Achilles, no!" the man then charged at Imani. Imani was out of bullets for both of his guns, and was about to accept his fate and the man's spear lunged forward. However, as though Allah was watching him here, a bullet from a GLA sniper across the street impacted the charging man in the leg, causing the spear to miss and bringing the man down.

Judging by how the leg seemed to be blown apart, Imani assumed the sniper was apart of Sarah's Ghost. They had made a reputation for using the massive PTRS-41 anti-tank rifles to terrifying effect while being unseen by most. Imani was glad for the support.

He turned and saw the damned souls of the resisting huntsmen stumbling out of the building, massive blisters forming on their skin and coughing up an unhealthy amount of blood. Imani thought it was a small mercy for the huntsmen that the GLA soldiers gunned them down as they stumbled out of the building.

Imani turned his attention to the crippled huntsmen, who was trying to reach his weapon. Imani strolled over and kicked it aside, while reloading and then pointing his Vektor at the man.

"It's over huntsmen," Imani spoke in his deep voice. "Your comrades that were with you are dead or dying, and soon the other groups will be hunted down. Your only option is either to surrender or die."

"You bastards," the man grunted, before he coughed in pain. "Damn it, why did everything go to shit?"

"Because you arrogant imperialist think that the world will roll over and die so your leaders can profit off the misery of those born outside of power," Imani coldly stated. "The Vacuo Nationalist Army will not so easily be defeated, not by the armies of the other kingdoms, not by you huntsmen, and not by any other outside force."

The man growled, but Imani knew that the man would surrender; after all, what else could the man do? He couldn't fight, couldn't run away, and if he tried either he would be shot dead like a feral dog.

Imani motioned for a couple of the GLA soldiers to come and pick the man up. As the soldiers gripped the man by his arms, a third soldier came running up to Imani, holding a radio.

"Sir, it's Qahira; he wants an update on the hunt," the soldier said. Imani sighed, watching briefly as the man was knocked out by the GLA soldiers before being loaded up into a technical. He took the radio before calling in.

"Hello, this is Imani, reporting in."

"Ah Imani, so good to hear from you," Qahira cheerfully replied. "How goes the hunting of the huntsmen?"

Imani resisted the urge to growl as Qahira's demeanor. When Anwar Sulaymann ordered Imani to ensure the loyalty of Qahira, he had thought the War Hound was simply a mad dog hell bent of waging eternal war. Yet the more time he spent with the man, the more Imani questioned the man.

There was no doubting the hatred that Qahira exhibited towards the US, China, and the ECA, yet despite the claims from his enemies and himself of being a war hound, Qahira was far too crafty to simply be a war-hungering soldier. His attacks were meticulous, his speeches designed to inspire his soldiers and send terror into his foe, and his grasp on geo-politics was a bit alarming. If Imani hadn't spent enough time around Qahira, he would think that Qahira was planning on taking control of the GLA from Anwar.

But he wasn't. He seemed content with fighting his enemy anywhere, anytime. He always seemed to chose his target to shake things up for his enemies. Like with the raid on Israel, it had caused the tensions that were already high to skyrocket with the discovery of nuclear weapons in Israel's arsenal. And the scrambler incident, it seemed like it was perfectly orchestrated to incite further tensions between Russia and the ECA. And this caused Imani to wonder what it was that Qahira was after.

"The hunt goes well," Imani reported, dragging himself from his quiet musing. "we managed to eliminate on the groups of huntsmen, even taking one of them as a prisoner."

"Ah, that's interesting," Qahira said, humming quietly to himself. "Well, please do make sure that the prisoner is alive and ready for your…gentle touch. I would like to know more about what Vale and Atlas are doing, considering that despite facing severe casualties they managed to secure a beachhead. And our puppet is trying to worm his way out of the deal, so I might need you to ensure he listens and gives up information we can use in future operations."

"I understand Qahira," Imani said. "Is there anything else?"

"Not per say, but Sarah seems hellbent on finding one of the huntsmen that is supposed to be in this 'raid'. You remember the dossier I gave you?"

"Aye, and before you ask, no, he wasn't with this group," Imani said. "That said, I got the other groups to round up and eliminate."

"Very good, then god speed to you," Qahira said, before the connection cut off. Imani sighed and handed the radio back to the GLA soldier. He then turned to the assembled soldiers, who were busy reloading their weapons and patching their wounds.

"Alright everybody, get back in the transports, we got more hunting to do!"

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Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical (NBC) Warfare report.

Due to the conflict with the VNA (which is most likely a false name for the Global Liberation Army), the threat of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons is of grave concern, not only to military units but also to the civilian population. However, due to a lack of these kinds of weapons in Remnant's history, it is the prerogative of this report to inform commanders of the dangers of these weapons and the solution to these weapons.

We'll begin with chemical weapons, as they are the most likely to be used by the GLA. Defined as any chemical mixture designed to incapacitate or kill through their toxic properties, chemical weapons are relatively easy to manufacture, but difficult to transport and keep viable. Due to the numerous kinds of chemical weapons, the main issue with combating these weapons is the effects that chemical weapons have on the environment and the lack of control over the distribution of said chemicals.

Often being deployed as a gas, chemical weapons can also be used as a liquid, with the gas being harder to direct only at military targets while liquid-based agents can affect ground water and other sources for long period of times.

Therefore, it is a priority to eliminate any units that use chemical weapons (please refer to the GLA unit dossiers for more information), and to secure the contaminated site. Once the site is secure, cleanup efforts may commence, but special agents need to be made to eliminate the chemical weapons without doing further harm to the environment. In the case of individuals exposed to chemical weapons, they should be shipped back to the kingdoms to receive intense treatment to recover from the various effects of the agent, and if need be, retire from the armed forces.

Biological weapons meanwhile is the use of disease against human targets. These can vary from fungal, viruses, parasite, bacteria, and protozoan disease. The most common in the GLA arsenal is Anthrax-Beta, a strain of the bacteria Anthrax that was designed to survive in a liquid solution to direct combat uses. However, this is far from the only bio-weapon that the GLA has used, with some cells using gene-modified strains of highly contagious and lethal disease like those found in the Hemorrhagic fever and influenzas families.

The only way to combat this is to combat the strain directly, creating anti-bodies and vaccines to prevent soldiers from dying to the bio-weapons, or to buy time to get them to a field hospital should they exhibit symptoms. While less able to affect the environment, it is still recommend that areas exposed to bio-weapons be quarantined until the area has been deem cleaned by those trained in eradicating the bio-weapons.

It is also imperative to prevent GLA agents who have voluntarily infected themselves with bio-weapons to get into the kingdoms. Entry into the kingdom must begin putting in efforts to screen individual for these agents, as if they get into the civilian population the case mortality rate could exceed 80%.

Finally are nuclear weapons. These weapons have only been used a few times by the GLA, but the devastation this class of weapon can unleash is unseen in Remnant's history. The power of nuclear weapons is not to be underestimated; the average nuclear weapon can wipe out a small city, while the largest ones can destroy a kingdom in the blink of an eye.

There is no defense against a nuclear explosion; for reference the Chinese DF-21 medium range nuclear missile (Dossier on the DF-21 will be published in the future) has a 500 kiloton (KT) warhead, a air blast radius (at 1psi) of 15.7km, and fireball radius of 0.73km. If a warhead of this size were to hit Vale's capital city in an airburst, conservative estimates of casualties would be 431,000 fatalities, with a further 466,000 injuries. Inside the fireball no structure would be safe, at the air-blast radius of 5 psi would be 5.58km from the epicenter, with most residential buildings would collapse, and 3rd degree burns are expected out to a radius from the epicenter of 9km.

In addition to the physical damages caused by the explosion, radioactive fallout would contaminate air, ground, and water. The effects of radiation poisoning can be seen by several medical reports when miners were exposed to radioactive elements, and these effects would be prevalent in a nuclear detonation.

Alas, the GLA doesn't have the means to build a nuclear weapon, but if there was an opportunity for a nuclear weapon to be stolen, they would take the chance and use it to cause maximum harm to any of the kingdoms. The only viable means to stop a nuclear attack is to prevent it from occurring, either by ensuring no nuclear weapons are built for them to steal, neutralizing any nukes they could have, or intercepting the attack before the nuke is allowed to detonate.

This concludes the dangers of NBC warfare. I hope this report is listen to and effective measures are enacted to prevent such attacks against the kingdoms.

~report written by Jaune W. Maximillian von Kurten

Author's Note: Holy shit, I had a rough idea of what I wanted this chapter to cover, but damn if things didn't keep creeping up that kept me from being satisfied with the resulting chapter. But finally, a chapter I can be proud of. Now, let me get to your guys' reviews before talking about some points I want to discuss.

-RaGex: Yes, Salem and her minions will be making an appearance, yet their role will be undermined due to the GLA and other forces. They won't be as powerful in the shadows as seen in canon-RWBY, mostly because the White Fang is going to be shaken up something fierce.

-Psihopatul: Glad you are enjoying the story, and I do intend to have alternating chapters, just so that the combat isn't taking all the spotlight. Plus it takes me a long time to be satisfied with how I write the combat, as it can be difficult to write combat that isn't two armies clashing (like the combat was in this chapter).

-The armed forces: You're kind of right, but the US did suffer some defeats at the hand of the Viet Cong. The fighting could be seen like Iwo Jima, but it wasn't the only influence.

-Artyom-Dreizehn: Here's the next chapter, enjoy!

-Shashenka: Yep, I'm trying to make the GLA fight like they would. As for Jaune fighting the Grimm, it's kind of going to be one sided, cause Jaune is a proud supporter of the God of War, artillery! Now professional army vs huntsmen, I gave a peak into what it be like in this chapter, but the GLA isn't on the same class as say the People's Republic of China's army or the US military.

-Mr. Green37: Thanks for the compliments and I do try to use historical examples to make the combat seem more real.

-reader: Yeah, snipers against huntsmen doesn't end well for the huntsmen. I mean, even huntsmen that use sniper rifles (like Ruby, May, and Pyhrra) don't utilize the range advantage all that well. In fact, I think they are better described at designated marksmen then actual snipers, which would be fine against the Grimm, but against human snipers, yeah fat chance.

-Count Sinner: So do I, but things IRL do sometimes make it difficult to update as much as I like.

-PotatoZirkiri: Thank you, and I try to make the story as entertaining and good as possible.

Now onto a few points that I want to discuss.

-Imani's character: Imani's character was Mr. Green37's creation, and he submitted the character to me to use. So give thanks to Mr. Green37 for a new character for will be appearing from time to time.

If you want to submit an OC for me to use, send me a private message and give a detail list of the character, including their name, appearance, faction loyalty, preferred weapon, etc. I will respond to each submission, but unless I feel the character has something to add, they may not be added.

-the NBC report: This is a teaser to future events in the story, as these weapons will begin to alter the way wars are fought on Remnant. I decided to give the report as done by Jaune to ensure that when the weapons are brought in, yeah they'll be a shock to most of Remnant, but those in power will be able to react faster than if Jaune hadn't warn them. This will also tip off Qahira that someone knows the GLA's textbook. Can't wait to write that reveal, but it must wait.

Also, in that report I used the city of San Francisco to stand in for Vale City, and used a 500kt warhead in the nuke map to determine the effects of a nuclear attack. Seriously, nuclear weapons scare the shit out of me, mainly because one minute you can be enjoying your day, and the next your nothing but ash, or worse you are dealing with radiation sickness and 3rd degree burns.

That's all for now, until next time guys, please read, review, follow, and favorite, and I'll catch you guys next time.