Warriors of Old
November 03, 2557 (UNSC Calendar)
UNSC Infinity
Wittmann was currently in a firing range. The soldiers were using a wide variety of weapons, but the most common seems to be a firearm with the length of a rifle and the rate-of-fire of SMG. The firearm was somewhat similar to Stg44, the first assault rifle.
Assault rifle was a good choice of weapon when you need to suppress an enemy while, well, assaulting their position. It has the range of a rifle (well, at least longer than SMG) and the rate-of-fire of an SMG. Unfortunately, they were only manufactured in Neue Karlsland and the distance makes shipping the Stg44s…challenging to say the least.
Not so much for the bullets though.
As she thoughts about where these people got all these kind of weapons, she's approached by Abbas.
"What's wrong, little girl? Being surprised by the amount of dakka that we have?" Teased Abbas a little.
"W.. Of course not! And what's a dakka?" Asked Wittmann back.
"Just an old reference. Besides that, are you going to just stand here or you'll join us with the training?"
"Of course I am. I told you that I'll show you I deserve my rank!" Replied Wittmann with excitement.
"Glad to hear that. But some basics aren't gonna hurt. Go towards Locke over there to start your training." Said Abbas as he points at Locke, who waves back.
Wittmann approached Locke as the turns around and does some final inspections on the weapons near him.
"Hello there, Wittmann. Are you ready for your training?" Asked Locke with a bit of smile.
"Ready when you are." Replied Wittmann confidentially.
"Good to hear."
Wittmann walked forward to one of the shooting gallery. On a stand in front of her are two weapons; a large handgun and the assault rifle she saw earlier.
"First off, the handgun. M6H Magnum. It fired 12.7x40mm ammunition, capable of holding eight at a time. Effective range of 250 meters and has one of the biggest recoil among all handgun."
Wittmann grabbed the M6H and inspected it. The handgun really was big and the design was quite unique. Not only the trigger, but also the handle was protected. She also noticed that for its size, the gun was actually lighter than it should be.
"Ready?" Asked Locke.
Wittmann aims the M6H towards the target area before responding, "Do it."
A paper target appeared from the ceiling. Wittmann fired a shot before jerking back and released her grips in pain.
"Well that's not surprising. The Magnums are well-known as either the biggest handgun or the smallest rifle. Next time, try to be prepared for rifle recoil rather than handgun." Advised Locke.
Wittmann nods a little and does what Locke suggested. She fired all eight rounds and see that out of them, three hit near the chest bullseye and two hit at the chest bullseye. It's quite decent actually, remembering that Wittmann never fired this kind of gun.
"Alright, that's enough. Now it's time for the assault rifle." Said Locke.
Wittmann puts down the M6H and picks the assault rifle. When she looks at the rifle, she sees some sort of glass with a number "32" created from blue light. Checking around for a bit, she realizes that the magazine is behind the trigger.
"Why is the magazine in an unusual place?" Asked Wittmann.
"It's called bullpup. This configuration permits a shorter overall weapon for a given barrel length. This maintains the advantages of a longer barrel in muzzle velocity and accuracy, while improving maneuverability and reducing weight." Explained Locke.
That's…quite an achievement actually. That means any rifle can be made shorter while still maintain their normal effective range if bullpup configuration is used.
On second thought, after imagining a rifleman uncomfortably reloading a bullpup Lee-Enfield, it might not be a good idea for an existing rifle.
"This is MA5D Individual Combat Weapon System, or MA5D ICWS for short. It fired 7.62x51mm FMJ-AP ammunition, capable of holding 32 rounds at a time. I am not exactly sure about the effective range, but it's short-mid range."
After hearing the explanation, Wittmann aims down the MA5D. Shortly thereafter, another paper target appears and Wittmann begins to shoot it. During that, she realizes that she can only fire two or three rounds per trigger pull. After spending the entire magazine, she looks near the trigger and finds a firing selector.
"As you can see, MA5D has a firing selector installed on it; single shot, burst fire, and full auto. It is advised that the last setting should only be used in emergency as the chances of missing the target increased."
Wittmann puts down the MA5D and looks at Locke.
"So, is there anything else that I can do?" Asked Wittmann.
"Hmm, not at the moment. But do you want to look at the video of SPARTAN's training? That might be a good show." Suggested Locke.
"Well, I guess I'll do it. Who's going to do the training?"
"You'll see."
September 03, 1945 (Local Calendar)
Karlsland-Orussian Border
It is not hard to say that everything starts to go to hell for the Allies after Operation Market Garden. It looks like that the decision to strike deep into the Neuroi territory is not a wise one considering that now the Neuroi are bringing in their new toys.
One of their new toys is a humanoid Neuroi, standing slightly taller than average men. Unlike other Neurois that have some parts of their body as a weapon, this one has some sort of rifle to fire its usual laser.
Unfortunately, this type of Neuroi has something that none of its previous kin have; a shield not dissimilar to a witch's shield. But instead of appearing like a circle, it instead surrounding the wearer's body.
"AAH! Why it doesn't work?!" Shouted an Orussian soldier who fired his PPSh-41.
"What are you doing?! Get down! You're going to get…" Before the Karlslander soldier can finish his warning, a laser takes off the Orussian's head.
"Somebody bring a tank! It sure as hell will work!"
"Where are the witches? Where are the goddamn WITCHES?!"
A Panther shoots at one of the humanoid Neuroi. It hits and send it away. Suddenly, another humanoid Neuroi appears. It's armed with a strange cannon and it uses both of its hand to wield it. The cannon charges a laser beam before firing it at the Panther, destroying it.
Slowly but steady, the new humanoid Neurois push back the combined Karlsland-Orussian forces. Despite constant artillery barrages, the Neuroi continue to advance. Many of the infantry weapons, that previously can at least damage the Neuroi, are rendered useless by these new versions. The trusted Flak 88s are simply too big for human-sized targets. Getting destroyed doesn't help at all.
"Where the hell are the witches?! I already sent a request half an hour ago!"
"Sir, they are…too busy with other assignment."
"What other assignment?"
502nd JFW Base
"And stay back!" Shouted Kanno Naoe as she punched a humanoid Neuroi.
The situation in the base can be described by one simple word; disaster. It was all started when a high-speed Neuroi suddenly fly over the base. Before the witches can react, it dropped several pods. When the military send teams to investigate the pods, they open up and the humanoid Neurois emerged, ready to kill their enemy.
The Neuroi flies several feet away before landing. However, it immediately stand up and runs to the alley.
"Hey, get back here!" Naoe was about to give a chase when someone grabbed her from behind.
"Don't chase them, Kanno! It might be a trap!" Exclaimed Nikka Edvardine Katajainen.
"Let me go, Nippa. Even if they try to trap me, I'll just punch my way out!"
"That won't be good."
Naoe and Nikka looked above them to see one of the humanoid Neuroi fell to the ground. Above them, Waltrud Krupinski was flying with her striker armed with a hunting double-barreled shotgun. It was one of few weapons that can heavily damage the Neuroi's shield.
Provided being fired quite close though.
"This new type of Neuroi do not fight like other Neurois that we have fought before. Until we…"
"Look out!"
Krupinski turned around thanks to Nikka's warning and raised her shield. She saw the Neuroi that shoot her before it got away.
"I know that, Krupinski. But what else that we can do?! These things are having their own merry way while we…"
"Look out!"
Naoe raised her shield. Unfortunately, it was a solid thing that hit her shield. When the three of them look at it, they realized that it was a grenade.
Naoe, Nikka, and Krupinski immediately went away from the grenade ASAP. Soon after that, the grenade shot barrages of destructive laser beams to all direction; destructive enough to penetrated through the walls of nearby buildings.
UNSC Infinity
Wittmann and Fireteam Vanguard, alongside other UNSC personnel, were looking at the training done by four SPARTANs. Though calling it a match would be more appropriate, considering there were two sides fighting each other using special tranquilizer rounds. The SPARTANs on the screen were, according to Abbas, S-058, S-104, S-087, and S-117. When asked about it, he explained that those SPARTANs were the original SPARTANs, the predecessor of Fireteam Vanguard, who were SPARTAN-IVs. The originals were SPARTAN-IIs.
When asked about SPARTAN-IIIs, Locke said that she won't want to know. And leave it at that.
From what she could saw, the SPARTANs were fighting against two or three dozen marines. Pretty unbalanced in her thought. Yet it was the SPARTANs that dominated the field, so much that the marines looked more like trying to survive rather than fighting back.
S-058 was a very good sniper. Heck, in fact that might be an insult. She shot two marines with the time distance so short that it looked as if she shot both of them at the same time.
S-087 was very, very fast and same degree of reflex to boot. The marines who tried to shot her missed thanks to the fact that she was no longer there. She was also capable of getting close to the marines, shot her shotgun, and ran away. Rinse and repeat. Basically, hit-and-run tactics.
S-104 was an expert in CQC. He was using something like a small baton. The way he used it indicated that was some sort of non-lethal version of knife. He managed to ambush a squad of marines and beat all of them. None of them even managed to land a hit.
S-117 was the one that stood the most. It was thanks to his strategy and tactics and the other SPARTANs and him managed to lured the marines into the kill-zone. His way of fighting, well to be honest, he looked as if he improvised along the way. Shoot some marines, then throw a grenade or two.
"So, what do you think?" Asked Locke.
"Very impressive. Their abilities are above normal people. Perhaps even above witches. Just asking, but where are they?" Asked Wittmann back.
"They're taking a rest if the higher-ups are to be believed. Make sense considering that they've been spending the majority of their lives fighting." Said Abbas.
"27 years. No question in that." Added Adams.
Wittmann looked back to the screen and thought about it. It was a policy that soldiers that've spent a long time on the battlefield must be send home otherwise they won't be able to function as normal people anymore. The First Neuroi War taught them that lesson hard.
Wait a minute…
"Did you just say…"
Before Wittmann could asked Adams, there was a beeping sound coming from Abbas. From the looks of it, he was communicating with someone through the radio. After it was done, he stood up and signaled the other SPARTANs to do so.
"Alright Vanguard, Captain Lasky just give us a new order. We need to be ready in 5 minutes." Stated Abbas.
Hearing that, the rest of the Vanguards stood up and walked away with their CO. Wittmann decided to withhold her question; she knew how valuable every second is for military operation.
As she walked back to her quarter, Wittmann couldn't help but realized something.
"Where am I?"
Classified Location
Adolfine Galland slammed the phone after the call ended. She grabbed a bar of candy and ate it, a little habit she made due to the increasing stress that she need to dealt with.
After the major failure that is Operation Market Garden, it seemed that the Neuroi decided to drastically increased their war efforts due to attempted invasion of their main bases. It took the shape of the humanoid Neurois that attacked all fronts and all Joint Fighter Wings' bases.
Strangely though, those that attacked the fronts retreated after pushing back the Allied Forces for several miles while those who attacked the Witches' bases only inflicted casualties on the support staffs and destroyed many parts of the bases before disappearing.
It as if they were trying to send a message that for the entire war, the Neuroi didn't take any of it seriously and they could defeat the Allied Forces from day one.
But if that is true, then why didn't the Neuroi did that? Why they bid their time and actually let themselves get beaten not one, but two times that resulted in the destruction of two Hives?
Really, this was frustrating and people demanded answer.
When she heard her phone rang again, Adolfine let out a sigh and pick it up.
"Air Marshal Galland here."
"Look…at…map…"
"What?" Adolfine immediately put a distance between the phone and her.
She could hear three voices from the phone. There were Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Koiso Kuniaki. Those voices sound like there were being broadcasted from a radio. She deduced that whoever the caller was, he or she didn't want Adolfine to recognized the caller's voice.
"Motive…look…at…map…"
Soon after that, the call was being cut. Adolfine put down the phone and immediately look at the world map on her office. She didn't understand; was it "the motive is looking at the map", the "clue of the motive is looking at the map", or something else?
The world map in her office have several additions. One of them were arrows that indicated troops movement from the European countries' colonial regions and America continent to the Western Europe, Eastern Europe, or North Africa.
She looked at it for several moments before returning to her desk. Adolfine didn't understand what the caller means. It might be a simple prank call, but she doubted it.
As she thought about it, she didn't notice the small black and red bug that flew away from her office.
Answers to some reviews:
Zeus501: Thanks for telling me my mistakes. And yes, I know Infinity carried 10 frigates.
downyawood: No, they're not. As for sniper, it's just a preference.
A 'Reincarnated' writer: As soon as I take care of my writer's block.
DEFCON-1: Don't worry, it's nor Forerunners. But it is related to the Forerunners.
And finally done. Sorry for the late update, I have writer's block.
If you have question or suggestion, feel free to tell me.
Review please!
