The roar of naval guns thundered in the distance, accentuated by Aircraft flying above.
Izuku was currently scrambling to get into combat gear, the invasion had begun.
Damn, this is a lot of stuff. He mumbled as he took everything.
His kit included basic medical supplies, his Tommy gun, which weighed a hefty fifteen pounds, hand grenades, which Izuku strived to not use. Apart from the more combat orientated stuff, he also carried food rations for the day and water canteen, since fighting was expected for the entire week if not longer.
Sergeant McDonnell had given Izuku the go ahead to exclude a pistol, since One for All did far more damage than any gun albeit only at short range, which was the range a pistol operated.
"Okay, Bandages, check. Ammunition, loaded…". Izuku rattled off his list before strapping on his green steel helmet, issued to all American troops.
"Hey Deku, you ready?". Kirishima approached. His spiky red hair had been compressed down by his helmet, and he too carried similar combat gear to Izuku, although he lacked any hand grenades, which was compensated by the menacingly large weapon, the Browning Automatic Rifle.
"Well, ready as I'll ever be." Izuku replied.
"How heavy is yours? This fucking thing weighs twenty pounds." He gestured to his weapon.
"On top of that, I have to carry eight magazines of bullets." Kirishima groaned.
"Well, it's heavy but that's gotta be one of the manliest weapons that exist." Izuku replied, in an attempt to console Kirishima's predicament.
"You're right." Kirishima spoke again, with more gusto. He slammed one of the magazines into the weapon and pulled back the slide which satisfying ka- chunk.
Kirishima's quirk was more defensive than offensive and was strictly close range, which wasn't always an option, for example, as it was quickly pointed out, a gunman in an elevated position would be quite the challenge for Kirishima to tackle as is.
But upon his urging, Kirishima was given the heaviest and one of the most powerful armaments the US military had. Arguably, it was even more powerful than some of the more modern weapons the Police used in modern/future Japan.
"Anyways, I kinda feel like I was born to be the squad machine gunner." Kirishima remarked.
"HEY! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TWO WAITING FOR!? THE EXTRAS HAVE ALREADY BEGUN BOARDING THE ASSAULT BOATS!". Bakugo barged in, barking for then to hurry up.
Bakugo had begun to refer to other marines and soldiers as extras, which earned him the extra scrutiny of Eddie and Jack, eager to prevent another brawl. It was a godsend for combat to finally arrive, so his anger could be directed at something else.
The two boys headed topside of the troop transport.
The island of Tulagi, in the South West Pacific was not too far from Australia, and it was home to a Japanese outpost, several islands nearby also had strong Japanese presence as well as an island called Guadalcanal, which reconnaissance had revealed a Japanese airbase.
And it was imperative these islands be taken, if the Japanese threat to Australia was to end.
"Well, this will first ground combat mission." Izuku spoke, with a twinge of nervousness and excitement.
"Well, we don't need to be too tense, after all, we've already fought villains on several occasions." Kirishima reminded.
The deck of the ship was cramped with American troops. Assault boats were already being packed with personnel, before peeling away from the troops ships, and towards the beach.
Bakugo and Todoroki were already amongst the troops, who were gathered around a stack of crates, a Marine Captain was on those crates, delivering a speech to the men.
" THOSE JAP BASTARDS STARTED THIS DAMN WAR!! AND WE WILL FINISH IT!".
This brought a wave of cheer from the troops.
"KEEP YOUR HEADS DOWN IN THE BOATS! KEEP MOVING, DON'T LET THEIR QUIRKS STOP YOU!".
" THE FASTER WE SMOKE THEM OUTTA THEIR HOLES, THE FASTER WE CAN ALL GO HOME!!".
"OORAH!". The troops hollered.
" LETS GO GET EM'!".
With that, the soldiers began boarded their assault boats, destined for Tulagi.
Unfortunately, the girls would not be joining the initial assault wave, due to the fact they were supposed to be part of medical personnel, who had no place in an amphibious landing.
"I'm still upset Uraraka and Tsu can't join us." Izuku mumbled.
"Damnit Deku, focus on the fucking mission." Bakugo scolded.
"You're right Kaachan, Jack and his group should be joining us in the assault boats."
The assault boats were docked beside the troops ships, and the group climbed down nets on the side of the troop ship to the boats.
"Alright! Bout' time you four arrived." Eddie spoke as they boarded. "Looks like we're all here."
The group; Bakugo, Charlie, Eddie, Monty, Izuku, Jack, Johnny, Kirishima, Todoroki.
"Alright, when we hit the beach, move fast, get inland quickly as possible." Jack instructed.
"Its not too bad, it isn't the Atlantic wall, that's for sure." Monty spoke, thinking of Dieppe.
Suddenly, the assault boats grinded to a halt, hitting something in the water.
"Damn! We hit something! Maybe a fuckin' Coral reef or something!?". Jack announced through gritted teeth. "Guess we'll have to wade the last meter.".
With that, the ramp of the boat dropped into the water.
"Wait!". Todoroki interrupted, squeezing himself to the front of the boat. He then froze the section of water ahead, creating a path to the shore.
"Good work." Monty congratulated. "C'mon! Let's move!".
The group then proceeded to storm ashore, taking care to avoid slipping on the ice.
It seemed surprisingly serene at first, almost no sign of the enemy.
But a sharp crack from the right proved this illusion false.
"TAKE COVER!".
The battle had truly begun.
More gunshots came from Japanese soldiers on the crest of the beach.
Immediately, the group took cover, as well as neighbouring troops.
"ALRIGHT! WE GOTTA SILENCE THOSE JAPS!". Jack announced, over the noise of gunfire.
"IZUKU! JOHNNY! TODOROKI! I NEED YOU THREE TO GO WITH MONTY AND ASSAULT THEIR POSITION!".
The three nodded as well as Monty, as they began preparing.
"EDDIE! CHARLIE! KIRISHIMA! BAKUGO! WE'LL COVER THEM!".
The other four heeded the Sergeant's word, and they moved to a firing position, trading gunfire and creating a distraction.
Whenever a particular heavy source of enemy gunfire was spotted, Bakugo would rise to the occasion, after the rest of the sub group had to reload, and fire his gauntlet, silencing the position.
And with an opening secured, the others rushed in.
It was now hand to hand battle. Todoroki struck first, attempting to freeze several foes, but he was foiled by a burst of gunfire.
He then redirected the ice blast to the assailants, and froze them on the spot.
Monty soon capitalized on this by cutting the immobilized foes with bullets from his submachine gun.
Izuku took out the closer foes, weaving around, doing his best to throw off their aim. Bullets hit the ground around him.
However, they were far from giving up, since once Izuku closed the range, the Japanese soldiers stopped aiming, and began fighting with their bayonets, mounted on their rifles.
Now Izuku had to contend with two spears, which had just enough reach to block Izuku.
But, once the Japanese began making stabs at him, Izuku found an opening between the bayonets and landed knockout punch on the first soldier.
A bullet to the chest threw down the second as Johnny came up, ejecting a spent bullet from his weapon.
Izuku winced as the second Japanese soldier, now collapsed, with a red stain growing on the area where the heart was.
He stared as the soldier's movements slowed then ceased. Fortunately, it looked relatively quick, but did little to console the teen.
"H-hey? You alright?". Johnny put a hand on Izuku's shoulder.
"H-huh? Oh, I'm good." Izuku replied, forcing himself out of his trance. "Thanks, and let's go."
As they rejoined the action, Izuku tried hard to not let his thoughts dwell. The battle was far from over after all.
At this point, Jack's group had regrouped with Monty's assault team.
"BANZAI!!".
"TOTSUGEKI".
Multiple Japanese soldiers flung hand grenades and gunfire, as well as a few who attacked with quirks.
Todoroki responded quickly, neutralizing the explosives by encasing them in ice, minimizing their effect.
Other members did their best to either get out of harm's way or throw them back.
Several of the aggressors charged, brandishing Katanas or else using their rifle mounted bayonets.
The American troops began unloading their weapons.
Two of the Japanese soldiers in the rear were taken out with a well-placed explosion.
The third was struck in the head with rifle fire.
But the last three charging did not falter.
They moved with blinding speed, evading gunfire. The bullets that they failed to avoid were cut with Katanas.
Out of the chaos, another voice shouted in Japanese.
But from the American side.
"YAMERO!!". Kirishima had his automatic rifle poised, but held fire.
"STOP!! DROP YOUR WEAPON!!". He continued in Japanese.
But it was in vain.
A plasma charge tore through the trailing Japanese soldier, stopping him dead, as he began to slump over as there was a gaping hole in his chest.
Kirishima finally fired. The Automatic rifle throwing large caliber bullets down range.
The Katana snapped; the heavy bullets had no difficultly going through the Katana as well as its wielder.
And so, the skirmish had concluded.
"Oh, god..". Kirishima sat down and panted a little.
"You alright?". Bakugo grunted as he walked by.
"Yeah, it's all good bro. The adrenaline's wearing off, can't believe I just.. killed a guy..".
Kirishima swallowed hard before getting back to his feet. It had been a spur of the moment. He was tense to say the least. This was different from any hero patrol he ever experienced; the number of casualties showed that.
"At least you warned him." Bakugo grunted.
"Jack, we found these by the radios, they were destroyed, probably by the Japs themselves." Charlie reported.
Despite the tense engagement, there was surprisingly little resistance on the beach.
Jack took two slips of paper with Japanese writing and handed them over to Izuku.
"Can you translate?".
"Yessir." Izuku replied, taking the slips, and cleared his throat.
"Enemy troop strength overwhelming.. We will withdraw into the mountains and fight to the last man..". Izuku read, translating into English.
"Well, I'd say they've withdrawn inland, perhaps into prepared positions." Monty hypothesized.
"I wouldn't be surprised. Well, looks like we'll need more reinforcements. Perhaps medical staff." Jack spoke. "Your girlfriend's probably coming along." He tapped Izuku, who blushed.
"What about those two soldiers I knocked out?". Izuku questioned.
"Navy will take care of it. Our job right now is to keep pushing. Check weapons and supplies."
By now more assault boats loaded with troops and supplies were ashore, which were hurriedly unloaded.
"We better get Kirishima and Bakugo." Todoroki spoke.
"Oh yeah, that reminds me." Jack spoke.
"Since Kirishima's going to be the squad's automatic rifleman, we need to keep him supplied with ammo."
Monty presented a crate of ammo.
"Each man will carry spare ammo for him."
Todoroki and Izuku grabbed three spare magazines for the Automatic rifle.
They soon spotted Kirishima and Bakugo, sitting on a rock.
"Fucking things get jammed with water and sand so easily..". Bakugo was clearing out his gauntlets from the muck gathered on the beaches.
"We're moving deeper into the jungle." Todoroki announced. "And grab more ammo, especially for Kirishima."
Bakugo stood up, and offered a hand to Kirishima, who accepted.
"Alright, where too?". Kirishima spoke, rolling up the sleeves on his military uniform.
The trek through the jungle grew long.
"This is fucking boring. We saw more action back in Japan. We're just walking and walking, to god knows where." Bakugo ranted.
The sweltering jungle took a toll on the teens. The jungle restricted visibility and movement, in contrast to the cities of Japan.
Blending in was the name of the game. Military fatigues were dull and in neutral colours compared to the flashy hero costumes they were familiar.
" It's important no one stands out.". Izuku recalled the Sergeant's words.
" Anyone with remotely powerful quirks is bound to be targeted. That goes for commanding officers like me as well. We're lucky we have this info. The Australians had to learn the hard way."
The Imperial Japanese Army was playing this game well. Apart from the initial landings on the beach, not a single person other than their group was seen. Only the noises of the jungle could be heard.
Eyes and ears had to stay sharp, searching for anything of suspicion. And a general tension hung over them.
"Hey guys." Johnny broke the silence. "Stop."
He put his hand to his ear for a moment, then aimed and fired his weapon at the foliage.
A body fell out.
"GET DOWN!!". Jack shouted as he began firing wildly into the trees.
More gunfire filled the air as all hell broke loose.
Bullets cut through as a Japanese machine gun revealed itself.
Bakugo tumbled to the ground, and into the muck and mud as he was struck by a few bullets.
"I GOT HIM!!". Kirishima answered, hardening his skin and returning fire.
The Automatic rifle and machine gun began their duel.
Just as this unfolded, three Japanese soldiers charged out of nowhere.
" TENNOHEIKA BANZAII!".
RAT-TAT-TAT
The Sergeant began firing away. Cutting down the lead attacker with his Tommy gun.
Charlie stopped the second with his trench gun.
And the third was stopped by a concentrated explosion.
"Die!". Bakugo gasped, through the pain.
Suddenly, another shout from behind.
Another soldier, charging with a Katana and pistol.
Bakugo aimed his second gauntlet, but a bullet punctured a hole in it.
" Shit".
He braced himself for the worst, scrambling to grab his rifle
"WASHINGTON!".
"S-S-SMASH!".
A thunderous boom came from Izuku's fist as the Japanese soldier was sent down.
"Hmph, NOW YOU SHOW UP DEKU?".
"S-sorry Kaachan."
"I had him." Bakugo puffed as he got up, groaning a little.
"You took some hits." Izuku produced some bandages and other medical supplies.
"I'm fine deku!".
Then the green haired boy stared directly into his eyes.
"You aren't fine. You're bleeding. Let me help you."
Activating a little of One for All, he firmly pushed Bakugo down and began dressing his injuries.
The battle now descended into close combat, now quirks could be fully utilized in the fray.
" MINAGOROSHI NI SURU!! TOTSUGEKI!".
"They're charging!". Todoroki alerted.
A general charge had been executed by the Japanese.
Frantically, Monty and Jack, the only two available who were armed with automatic weapons began pouring gunfire to hold the tide.
Todoroki swung in, determined.
Sharp blasts of ice began to break the charge. Anybody who wasn't directly hit by Todoroki had to slow and go around the ice blocks which funneled them into Choke points.
And guns awaited them behind the ice blocks.
Nonetheless, the stragglers resisted fiercely.
As Izuku finished up tending Bakugo's wounds several sharp spikes lodged themselves into the nearby tree
"Shit, are those fingernails?". Bakugo spoke as he got up.
"I-I think so! Must be a quirk." Izuku replied.
They rushed to intervene.
"Christ! This Jap's quirk uses his fuckin nails or something!". Eddie shouted.
Keratin spikes shot everywhere, forcing the group to dodge and weave.
Both sides were now stuck at range, exchanging quirk attacks as well as bullets.
"Fuck! Where's our Automatic Rifleman!?". Jack shouted over the noise.
"Kirishima's still fighting that machine gunner." Todoroki replied.
"We'll go smoke that fucker out!". Eddie signaled his intentions.
Eddie and Todoroki peeled off and began to flank the machine gunner.
"GRENADE!". Eddie called, hurling the explosive.
Two Japanese soldiers quickly ran out, no doubt having seen it.
The first one was vaporized by plasma, the other incapacitated by ice.
A clean rifle shot finished the last one off.
Todoroki watched as Eddie put down his rifle, which was aimed at the trapped soldier.
"What are you looking at? Let's go get Kiri!".
The quirk wielding Japanese soldier had begun fortifying himself with walls of keratin, which were pummeled by bullets and Bakugo.
"DIE!!". Came the battlecry.
Now exposed, several bullets impacted the quirk user, and sent him down.
"CMON! LET'S WRAP THIS UP!". Jack shouted as he saw Kirishima, Todoroki, and Eddie approach.
The Japanese soldiers were picked off by gunfire, obliterated with explosions and trapped by ice.
A powerful punch broke their formations.
And the battle ended.
"We, we killed them all." Izuku panted, still a little shaken from the battle.
It was quickly apparent taking prisoners was the exception not the norm.
The soldiers had also raised the point of how would they keep prisoners?
Prisoners required guards, food and facilities, which were scant in the jungle. It was something that never really crossed the minds of the teens.
Normally, they'd just hand prisoners to the police.
And sure, if they were close to the shore, they could hand them over to the American Navy, which did have prisoner's needs on ships. However, naval support was not always available.
"Well, turns out capture tactics were for shit." Bakugo took a drink from his supplies.
"It's not over yet. This island is still not under control." Todoroki reminded, wiping sweat.
" This battle's only begun.." Izuku thought.
Author's Note.
Well, this is it! The first real battle the group gets into. I hope you found the battle scenes enjoyable, since I'm not the best at them. The most challenging thing about writing them is balancing on how much quirks are used as well as guns.
Since war is hell, it's a matter of time before it becomes a PTSD fest for the group.
Uraraka and Tsuyu will be prominent in the next chapter which will finish off the battle for Tulagi, speaking of which, since this fic has a historical inspiration, it's possible to figure out what will happen next in the fic.
Overall, I'd like to know your opinion in this fic.