Arc 1 Chapter 2: Discount SCP Containment Breach
Assistant Team Leader Corporal Nathan Ramirez from Force Recon Company of the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion walked into his Recon team's tent, Bandit 3-1.
As he walked in, he heard a loud slap on a table. "Ha, fucking beat your ass!"
He looked over to see Pointman Lance Corporal Aaron McCraw and Slackman Lance Corporal Evan Carter at a table. "The fuck's going on in here Aaron?"
He looked over, and Aaron yelled as he tousled his lowest possible reg brown hair. "Gay chicken!"
"Guessing you won."
"Evan over here chickened out of a Bravo Juliett!" Aaron laughed. Bravo Juliett stood for a blowjob.
"Everyone knows you're fucking gay as shit." Evan retorted.
"Voluntarily," corrected Aaron, "and don't you talk back to your betters Evan, it's bad for you."
Radio Operator Corporal Natasha "Rabbit" Vasiliev, reading a book from her hammock, looked over. "Yeah, he's either voluntarily gay or bisexual, the Lance tried to stick his two-inch dick in my mouth once."
Assistant Radio Operator Lance Corporal Jax Smithson peeked his head out from his hammock, revealing his dirty blond hair, and his blue eyes, looking like the poster boy of a Nazi propaganda poster, something they made fun of all the time. "Did you know this guy used to be a squid? Explains a lot."
"Oh come on guys, Carter's the new guy!" complained Aaron.
Nathan grinned like a Cheshire cat. "Oh I didn't know you used to be a fucking squid Aaron, is that how you got that chick? Bet she doesn't know you're gay. Rode in on some fuckin' boat then joined the Marines 'cuz you need to impress her?"
Carter sat there grinning with his typical shit eating,
Before Nathan and the team could start hazing the McCraw for hiding the fact that he used to be a squid, Team Leader Sergeant Maria Lopez poked her head through the tent. "Word of advice McCraw, don't get married yet, the second piece of advice to everyone, get your asses to the briefing room, no debrief for the exercise we just flew out to do, something came up."
Lopez said this a tone that said this was serious. Serious as in they were going to shoot something. Jax jumped up and sprinted out to the brief tent.
/ - /
"Fucking weird ass shit, I swear," complained McCraw as he geared up
"Fucked up shit, I know, this is insane," Ramirez replied.
McCraw tossed on his new ECH helmet. The Corps initiated a equipment replacement program to equip Jarheads with the finest of gear. From the new ECH helmet, to a new standard infantry rifle, the M27. McCraw kept talking. "Shit, we're some of the most fucking elite Marines in the Corps, and they still don't fucking issue us enough damn shit, like, they can't even give us enough 9mm ammo for our sidearms!"
McCraw complaining about not having enough anything was anything but abnormal. "Wonder where the hell that went?" Ramirez wondered out loud.
"What the hell, heard something like this happened in Haiti too. They didn't have enough 9mm for everyone, I bet some of the SOF guys stole all of it!"
He gave a little chuckle. "Yeah, bet our friends over at the Raider Regiment raided our 9mm ammo, posing as room service and breaching with brooms and shit."
Aaron gave a chuckle in return, and he continued on. "Hey, shit man, we're hitting a large ass underground complex, shouldn't one of the Direct Action platoons, or like Raiders be tasked this? Not us, the deep recon?"
"Heard that 1st Recon leadership wanted in on this part of the mission, and pushed hard to get in the compound breach, the rest is just The Good Idea Fairies doing their work," he replied honestly.
"Still, this isn't in our mission set, we should be doing some sneaky recon shit."
"Whatever man," he said, "we've been doing CQB workups and exercises recently, so good practice for your terminal lance ass."
"Shut the fuck up man, how that hell did you even get promoted to fucking Corporal?" asked Aaron.
"I'll give you my secrets when I pick up Sergeant, now shut the fuck up Aaron and finish gearing up."
He looked down at his helmet before he put it on. His ECH helmet was state of the art, providing better protection for the user against small arms fire. Issued to them in 2019 following a full year of gradual integration. Along with the new helmet, came new NODS that could provide both night vision and thermals capabilities, which could greatly increase the capabilities of the average grunt. The new Gen 3 plate carrier was lighter and provided the same amount of protection the last one had. The Corps had replaced everything the infantryman carried from the rifle to their backpack.
Along with the new gear had came some new responsibilities. The Assistant Radio Operator, who used to just help with the Radio Operator and carry batteries and spare parts for them, now also took on the responsibility of operating a small foldable backpack drone that the Corps threw away like bullets.
He looked over to see Carter checking his M38, an accurized version of the M27 made for the designated marksman role. They also all had the Leupold Mark 4 2.5-8x36mm variable zoom scopes on their rifles, which improved their combat effectiveness in mid-ranged combat, for CQC, not so much. For that, every single one of them had attached a red dot to the top of the scope.
Lopez called to him. "Ramirez, Carter, McCraw! Get over here, we're loading up!"
He jogged towards the V-22 Osprey, used by the Corps as their defacto mode of air transportation, the twin-rotor VTOL aircraft looked like World War Two bomber, except with the wings stopping at the engine, and the engines being able to tilt ninety degrees. Jax and Rabbit were already there. Jax had dropped the backpack drone he usually carried, seeing what the operation was. Rabbit also ditched her backpack radio in favor of speed and being lighter on her feet.
He arrived over at the ramp. The rest of the twenty-one man recon platoon slowly loaded onto the Osprey, Lopez was standing there tapping her feet impatiently, with Rabbit standing next to her.
Rabbit smirked. "So women take longer to get prepared than men huh?"
McCraw looked like he wanted to say something in return, but he promptly shut his mouth. That was weird, Aaron didn't usually hold back his retorts.
"Yeah? I remember coming here before you," interjected Jax, his silver tongue never failing him.
Maria rolled her eyes. "Come on guys, let's get on the damn Osprey."
With their playtime cut by Lopez, they shuffled onto the large aircraft, whose blades were whirling up.
/ - /
"Ramirez! Wake the fuck up! We're nearly there!"
He was jolted from his sleep and blinked rapidly. The first thing his brain registered was the thundering propellers of the V-22 Osprey. As his blurred vision cleared, he saw a slightly pissed off Team Leader snapping her fingers in his face.
"Earth to Nathan, you there!"
Nathan rubbed his eyes. "Come on Maria, I was just getting to sleep!"
"We're thirty minutes out. Get up."
"Yes Sergeant." Ramirez took his helmet and strapped it onto his head.
Lopez went to go sit back to her seat. He looked around to see all twenty-one members of his force recon platoon. Mostly everyone in the platoon had at least one deployment under their belt. Some of the junior Marines haven't seen a tour yet, or combat, and a lot of them were nervous, tapping their feet, looking around rapidly to see the reactions of their betters. Some put on a tough guy persona, though the mostly everyone easily saw through them. He chuckled as he watched these marines, or as the senior Jarheads liked to call them, boots, go through their first trial of combat, the waiting.
The marines were told in no uncertain terms, that anything other than governmental forces and civilians were to be shot. They were told they were facing black demons, often looking like bears, wolves, boars, and more but in complete black and a white bond mask, and sometimes a bone exoskeleton, codenamed by the military X-Rays. The incident had happened at a Fermilab in Illinois. It was unknown what had happened exactly at the facility, but shit had gone wrong, and Command had thought it had something to do with the scheduled test of a particle accelerator. But it was all speculation at this point in time.
Apparently, humans had emerged from the facility. These "humans" had animal-like features and were identified usually by white masks eerily similar to the X-Rays. The bastards roamed around killing everyone and anything, when the first contact was made by the SWAT team sent in to investigate, the threats were neutralized, needless to say.
The loadmaster yelled a warning, the red light turned on. Ramirez grimaced as the Osprey tilted it's rotors upwards from its forward position. He never did enjoy the feeling of the Osprey tilting its engines, it felt strange, unnatural. Progress was a bitch.
As the Osprey thumped onto the ground, and the ramp dropped, the platoon rushed out of the Osprey and formed an all-around defense to protect against any immediate threats. Ramirez scanned the surrounding area for targets to shoot, he could see a black mass forming up about five klicks out to their west.
His worries were assuaged as two AH-1Zs who were escorting them rained rockets from the air. They flew back around the marine platoon on the ground and Nathan could see the pilots give them a salute. He pumped his fist up and yelled. "Oorah!"
Lopez called out to them. "Team One! Form up!"
The team formed up around Lopez. "Alright, we're moving to the control room, watch your sectors and keep alert!"
Their part of the mission was to breach and seize the main control room, there the Command Element could move in with their attached security and secure the area and provide vital intelligence via the security cameras.
They moved in a column slowly across the fields, constantly on the lookout for any hordes of X-Rays. McCraw was in front of course, as the Pointman, with Lopez not so far behind. Behind her were Rabbit and Smithson. Carter, the most junior one of the team, was typically the one to draw the short straw and get to carry all their kit. Ramirez brought up the rear and made sure no one got lost and made sure everyone was accounted for.
Any X-Rays they encountered on the way they dispatched quickly and efficiently. They had been told the monsters evaporated into thin air, but the reports said that even though a National Guardsman got a faceful of the dust, no strange effects emanated from it.
Their destination was a metal back door to the main surface facility. The surface facility was a two floor kilometre squared facility. But that wasn't even half of it. The subterranean side of it is unbelievably large. That was why the Force Recon company was only sent to secure vital locations, while the whole compound was to be seized by 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines "Darkhorse" later.
They knew what to do and wordlessly moved into a stack along the door. Ramirez did a quick headcount, all accounted for. Time to rock and roll.
"Rabbit! Radio Actual and tell we're in position." Lopez ordered Rabbit.
Rabbit nodded and keyed her personal radio. "Bandit 3 this is Bandit 3-1, over."
The radio crackled to life. "Roger Bandit 3-1, send traffic, over." said the voice of the Platoon RTO, Corporal Samuel Campbell.
"Affirmative Bandit 3, Bandit 3-1 is in position over."
"Copy, I'll pass it along to actual, wait, over." Actual referred to their platoon commander, 1st Lieutenant Killian Dixon.
They waited until Campbell got back on the radio. "Bandit 3-1, you and clear to breach, over."
"Copy that, Bandit 3-1 out."
Rabbit nodded to Lopez. She signaled to the rest of them to get into position. First in the stack was McCraw, with Carter bringing up the rear. Smithson smoothly went to the other side of the metal door and started laying a breaching charge at the hinges of the door.
Ramirez could hear the orchestra of gunfire and explosions in the background. He ignored it and focused on his job. He was a highly trained and skilled warrior, he was a professional, and a professional focused on his job.
Rabbit slapped her hand on his back to announce she was ready. Then he slapped Lopez's shoulder in of him, and in turn, slapped McCraw's. McCraw gave Smithson a thumbs up, and Smithson stepped back in the stack and blew the charge.
The deafening boom was lessened by his state of the art hearing protection, the COMTAC III, the bloody thing could let you hear whispers across a room but could deafen out a 155mm being fired. Smithson quickly moved up and pied the door, with McCraw not so far back, they both pointed their guns down the hallway, then moved in.
Ramirez moved in smoothly, scanning what he saw. He was in a long hallway, doors on either side. Nothing special to see there.
Carter was still covering behind them, that was his responsibility, Ramirez had his, which was help manage the team, and help cover themselves.
The team moved smoothly, just as practiced, down the hallway. They had studied the maps, they knew where to go, what to do. Killing was their profession.
Time was of importance to them, they didn't bother clearing out every single room they passed, they would leave that to Darkhorse Battalion. So they moved in a moving T, three men covering the front, one to the rear, and another two covering both sides, they needed to move while covering all 360 degrees, that they did.
Ramirez was in the middle, helping to cover both sides, beside him was Rabbit. Carter kept watching behind him, scanning left to right, on the watch. Up front, McCraw, Lopez, and Smithson had three rifles moving forward and on watch.
McCraw rounded the corner and lowered his rifle from the high ready position, to find two Rooks sitting at a table, playing some sort of game, oblivious to the man with a gun no less than ten meters away. One of the Rooks looked up, to get his brains splattered against the wall. The other one followed suit.
Ramirez rounded the corner to find the grisly marksmanship by McCraw. He didn't comment, praise was to be given later.
The team moved silently to the door, carefully, the Rooks had to be guarding something, and suppressed weapons still weren't silent no matter what you try. They were already going to pass through the room, there was no way around it without adding on far too much time.
Carter swung out his battering ram, and after a moment's pause, smashed the flimsy wooden door inwards. A flash-bang was immediately thrown in by Smithson, the lever already thrown away to give the enemy the least amount of time to react, a second later, the resounding BANG boomed.
McCraw cut the pie, moving in a circular movement around the entryway, firing several bursts in the action, before sliding smoothly into the room, with Ramirez following.
He saw a disoriented enemy in his sector. He squeezed the trigger, and pink mist popped up from tango's head. While moving laterally to provide more room for the rest of the team to move in, Ramirez swept his rifle to the right, not bothering to aim down his sights, and sighted another tango, one pointing his gun at the cluster of terrified civilians.
Unacceptable.
He let loose with his trigger finger, lining up his rifle with the tangoes center mass. The Rook jerked back, the tango's trigger pulling back by reflex, sending bullets into the mass of civilians. Ramirez scanned the rest of the room, no more threats.
His eyes rested on the several shot up bodies of the civilians.
/ - /
Captain Eli Kristiansen of the Force Recon Company had his temporary Tactical Operation Center set about one click away from the target, protected by a platoon of recon marines. His RTO, Joshua Christophe, had set up his field radio to set up communication both between the platoons under his command and the company TOC.
The plan called for the Force Recon platoon to establish spearheads within the facility, seizing vital points. The worrying thing about the plan was that it stretched his company too thin, and allocating not enough forces to a point. Hell, Top Brass at 1st Recon hadn't even included him in the planning.
He had tried his best to argue against the plan, but leadership brushed his arguments off with a sweep of their hands. He had no choice but to pass the orders down to his subordinates.
He signaled to Christophe for the radio. "Bandit 3, this is Bandit Actual, how copy over."
The voice of Bandits 3's RO came on. "Good copy Bandit Actual, send traffic over."
"Affirm Bandit 3, SITREP over."
"Wilco, Bandit 3-1 is near their objective, they have recovered ten scientists and guards, plus five KIA. They are currently debriefing them as we speak. Bandit 3-2 has encountered light resistance and are pushing through. Break."
The brief break between the transmission was to both prevent the enemy to jam or track the transmission and allow anyone else on the net to deliver any message they had. "Bandit 3-3 has encountered heavy resistance and are pinned down, over."
"Copy Bandit 3, Bandit Actual out," he said.
Christophe stayed silent, his job was to carry the radio for his commander, not provide comment on radio transmissions.
"Yeah, they are." He said.
Just then, the Marines attached to the command element started shooting. He didn't flinch and instead grabbed his rifle to join the fight, Kristiansen had to savor this combat while he still could, any higher then he would be getting more restricted to fighting with a rifle in hand.
As he ran up his way to the line of marines, he saw the aggressors were a group of Rooks who had stumbled upon them. Likely trying to reinforce the Fermilab. The Jarhead next to him sighted his M240B and started letting loose with, a mad grin on his face.
Despite the fusillade of guns, it was relatively quiet for a firefight. The Corps has sought to try and shove suppressors on everything. Including the revered M2 Browning even.
The remaining Rooks sought cover in a small cluster of buildings and would prove to be hard to dislodge without getting up close and personal, which they did not intend to do.
"Hey Gander!" he called to their embedded JTAC. "Call in an airstrike on those building over there!"
Gander nodded and begun the process of calling an airstrike. Calling in the orbiting A-10s, callsign Steel Eagle, he requested a strafing run of 30mm.
A single A-10C Warthog streaked down from the sky, it's GAU-8 spinning up. It unleashed it's both times terrifying and awe inspiring sound. The rounds kicked up dust and tore apart the buildings and anything inside.
The marines let out whoops as the A-10 made a second and dipped its wings in camaraderie. The short firefight was over, and so the captain returned to his field radio to keep monitoring the radio traffic.
Bandit 2 had everything under control, while Bandit 1 had encounter difficulties. Bandit 4 has achieved their objectives and were holding for Darkhorse to take over. And Darkhorse reported that they were ten minutes out.
As soon as Bandit 3-1 secured their objective, they could move the TOC to there. He wondered why Top had only allocated one team to it. Sometimes, it was better not to think about it.
/ - /
Team Leader Sergeant Ryan Goring fired his M27 down the hallway.
Why the hell was the Deep Recon Platoon doing this? Why, in any hell, would anyone think the guys who snuck into enemy territory would like doing direct action. They could do direct action, they drilled it all the time, but that wasn't their specialty. Like the Direct Action Platoons could do deep recon, it was just that it wasn't their purpose.
But the Rooks down the hallway didn't care, just like Goring didn't care that their heads were nonexistent.
"Derring! Suppress those fuckers!" he yelled to Assistant Team Leader Corporal Harry Derring as he slowed to a stop behind a wall. They had been pushed into a defensive position as the enemy forces started to grow in force.
His suppressed rifle sounded like a mouse fart compared to the thundering firearms of the enemy.
He knelt by the newest team member, Slackman Lance Corporal Silus Smith. "How's your leg feeling?"
Smith stopped to talk between his heavy breaths. "Feels like someone shot me with a fucking flaming bullet."
"C'mon, it's only a flesh wound, get shooting." He said.
He smiled a little. "Aye aye, Sergeant."
He turned back into the corridor as Radioman Corporal Joseph Martinez's rifle clicked dry and he drew back behind the wall to reload. He rapidly sprayed down the oncoming Rooks trying to rush them as Martinez reloaded, but hadn't accounted for Goring.
He quickly felled numerous Rooks before returning to cover. He yelped as a round dug itself into his shoulder. He made a cursory check with his hand. No exit wound, the round was still in there.
"Frag out!" he yelled as he tossed an M67 frag grenade around the corner. He prepared to go around the corner as the explosion shook the lights.
"Go!" he yelled to his team as he rounded the corner. The smoke from the blast cleared to reveal the mangled bodies of their opposition on the floor. He ignored it and sent three rounds into the stunned Rook up ahead.
The team moved quickly down the corridor. The two Rooks came around the end of the corridor were quickly dropped by the suppressed shots from their rifles.
The team reached a wooden door on the right-hand side of the corridor. "Hey, Garner! Kick it!" he said to Assistant Radio Operator Lance Corporal Daniel Garner.
Garner, they had discovered in a bar fight, had some strong legs, so that was why he was the one to kick doors. As Garner was getting ready to kick the door, it swung open.
Garner stepped back and tried to raise his rifle, but stumbled back from a burst of bullets from the doorway. Pointman Corporal Terry Kelligan was on the other side of the doorway, if he fired here, he would likely hit him, and vice versa.
Instead, Goring drew his M17 sidearm and sidestepped into the sight of the doorway, the Rook in the doorway tumbled into him and knocked them both into the ground.
He grunted and tried to roll over to gain the upper hand, but the Rook had to be as strong as a fucking bull. The Rook tried to reach for something at his waist, but Goring stopped him with a strong knee to the stomach. The Rook grunted in pain but kept a firm grip on him.
The Rook reared back to strike his face. If this guy was strong enough to hold him down, this would hurt, if only he could free his gun hand with his sidearm… he twisted and squirmed until the sidearm turned to face the Rook, now he squ—
The Rook's brain was splattered all over the wall, half his face blown away and some of his brains on Goring's face. He turned to see Smith with his rifle raised, his hand reaching to help him up.
Goring took his hand and pulled himself up. Smith stumbled a bit, forgetting how heavy a person could be with all their gear on. "Nice shot," he grumbled.
"What? You're not happy that I saved your ass?"
"That's no way to talk to your betters!" he reported, "SITREP?"
"Derring took charge and breached the room, told me to help."
"Roger," he said as he brushed off the gore from the dead body. "Garner! You okay?"
He looked over to see Garner groan. "Got hit couple times in the plate, then clipped me under my armpit. Tore up my fucking shoulder too, I'm one lucky fucker."
He helped Garner up. "Alright, let's get you in the room and patched up." everyone on the team had some level of medical training, as being behind enemy lines made it difficult to medevac an injured man out.
He pulled Garner into the room, to see the team checking to make sure the five dead guys on the ground were really dead.
Derring looked back at Goring. "Hey! The Sergeant's alive!"
He snorted. "No thanks to you Corporal. Keep the fucking jokes locked down till we get back to base. And Kelligan?"
"Yeah?" Kelligan answered.
"Come treat Garner," he said.
As Kelligan went over to treat Garner, Goring yelled to Martinez. "Hey, Martinez!"
"Yeah 'mano?" Martinez casually responded.
"Radio the TOC and tell them 3-3 is in position and holding at phase line Aberrant. Everyone else, take up defensive positions in the room, we're probably expecting some company soon."
/ - /
"So you're telling that an experiment went wrong with a particle accelerator and that created a portal?" said Lopez. They had spent the last three minutes quickly debriefing the scientists and guards.
"That is the gist of it." shakily said Miguel Sanchez, the lead scientist from the remaining survivors, he glanced over to the dead bodies of his colleagues.
Lopez noticed the glance and responded. "We don't have time to lay the bodies to rest, we're on a mission, we should already be there. Go back to your guys, tell them you're coming with us to the control room."
Ramirez walked up to Lopez. "We're bringing them with us Sergeant?"
Lopez glanced over. "Yeah Nathan, we're just going to leave them here? No, they'll trail behind, and the guards can act as extra guns if shit hits the fan."
Ramirez grunted and moved off to organize the team for movement. When Maria was set on something, there was no stopping her.
Lopez yelled to get everyone's attention. "Alright, everyone! We're moving out in two mikes! Get ready!"
They all gathered up into the formation, the Marines in the front, the guards watching the scientists and behind them. It was a similar formation to before.
McCraw dashed around the right-hand turn ahead, and from memorizing the map, Ramirez knew the control room was just around the next bend.
The suppressed reports of McCraw's rifle were amplified by the small space. As Ramirez rounded the corner, he brought his M27 to bear and sighted one of Rooks in and squeezed the trigger.
The five unprepared Rooks with a sword and blocky rifles were no match for the firepower of six pissed off well-trained recon marines.
Three of the five Rooks were shredded, one of the rounds struck a vest and the ammunition caught fire from their vest, the Rooks was quickly engulfed by fire, the screams of Rooks lasted impossibly long, like he couldn't die from fire, but could from their bullets. He was quickly put out of his misery.
The team didn't relax, if there were guards, there were tangoes inside. And their engagement wasn't exactly silent with the Rooks screaming either.
The team stacked along the door standing off a few meters. Smithson ran up to the metal security door and layed two breaching charge strips, and ran back to them. Smithson pulled out his clacker and clacked the charges off.
McCraw moved to pie the door. Moving behind was Smithson, he quickly pied the door firing off several shots as he moved past the door. Both men poked their rifles in both on either side firing off bursts of fire. The rest of the stack pushed in with McCraw and Smithson on point, the team swept the room back and forth.
Ramirez could see there was an adjoining room, Ramirez moved to clear. As he rounded the corner, he saw a Rook holding a terrified guard up in a chokehold with a gun to their head. Unfortunately for the Rook, he didn't hide his head all that well. His brains splattered across the wall behind him.
He could see that there was another person, but he laid dead on the ground with several 5.56mm wounds. He glanced back to see McCraw with his smoking barrel, hot from just shooting.
"Room clear!" he yelled back.
"Roger that! Ramirez! McCraw! Pull security on the west side! You!" she pointed to a guard. "Go help them! Move!" Lopez ordered. She began ordering everyone else around, Smithson, Carter, and another guard covering the north side and the rest of the guards helping guard the control room, with Rabbit remaining with Lopez for C&C with the other forces. The tech marines began working on the console to begin surveillance on the facility and pass along information. She also called the company command element so they could move their TOC inside the facility.
The marines plus a guard moved into position. They dragged a filing cabinet into the hallway to act as impromptu cover. They had stacked two filing cabinets in front of each of each other, effectively making it thick enough to be able to slow down a small caliber round.
Ramirez and McCraw laid their M27s down on top of the cabinets. And the guard equipped in tactical gear following suit.
"So, you, what's your name?" asked McCraw to the guard, hoping to pass time.
"Robert, Robert Hawthorn." replied the guard. "Did my eight years as a Ranger. Hoped to find something safe to do as a guard here. Now I'm caught up in all this shit."
"Rangers huh? You army guys are fucking pussies, Oorah," said McCraw.
Hawthorn grunted. "Shit, I just hope I live through this shit."
"Same here, same here..." replied Ramirez.
They spent the next twenty minutes making small talk. Generally bullshitting around, trading stories, and bashing Hawthorn for going Army. Then Ramirez heard something.
He hushed the two men sitting next to him. They could both hear the clangs on shoes onto the metal. The men got into position and sat weapons up.
He keyed his radio onto the team net. "Actual, this is Bravo, do we have any friendly inbound?"
"Affirmative Bravo, the command element is coming up on us right now."
He breathed out a sigh of relief. "Copy Actual, Bravo out."
He kept his gun ready, just in case it was something unexpected. "Friendlies coming in!" a voice shouted across the hallway.
"Verrickston!" he yelled out the challenge word.
"Glosehaver!" came the response.
"Come on in here!" he said.
Soon, an entire platoon of recon marines filed into the hallway, one of the direct action platoons, no doubt more than slightly upset that their deep recon brethren got payback while they played guard duty to command.
Ramirez recognized one of the operators coming down the hallway. "Hey Josh! How is it in DA?"
"Probably more exciting than sneaking around as a bush." Corporal Josh Farung retorted. He and Farung went far back, being in the same Basic squad, and attending the same Recon class.
"Bet I still got more action than your ass guarding command." he snorted.
"Nah man, shot some Rooks up who stumbled on us, then an A10 gunrunned their collective asses."
Ramirez whistled, he've seen first hand what the gun on that thing did to bodies. "Well now your sorry ass gets stuck guarding the control room, and I get to explore around this god forsaken place for a giant ass magical portal."
Lopez stepped in, "Alright boys, split it up, and for fucks sake stop trying to recruit Nathan into Direct Action, he likes sneaking around in bushes."
Ramirez nodded in agreement. Farung responded. "Come on, sneaking around in bushes is gay as fuck, why not seek out trouble and shoot them up?"
Ramirez shook his head. "Sometimes Josh, I wonder how to hell you made it through Recon training."
"Alright, shut it up, get over to the rest of the team Ramirez." said Lopez sternly. Ramirez promptly ran over to the rest of his recon team, one does not cross Lopez.
Lopez walked over, she gave the signal to move out, and so they started moving.
/ - /
They arrived to the room fairly uneventfully, no encounters with any Rooks, and to prevent a fratricide incident, they called on the radio that they were coming in.
McCraw walked in first, "What's up guys!"
"Shut the fuck up Aaron!" yelled Terry Kelligan.
"Aw come one man! Thought we had something going on!"
Staff Sergeant Hal O'Brien, Team Leader of Team Two, cut in. "Cut the shit McCraw, or Fisher over here won't treat your ass when you get shot up." he was referring to the Special Amphibious Reconnaissance Corpsman Petty Officer Second Class Garrett Fisher.
Platoon Sergeant Gunnery Sergeant Alex Halsey said, "Alright, form up so we can start moving." noone said anything else, so they formed up in a long tactical train.
The tactical train moved through the halls carefully covering their sectors, with Ramirez's team on point. Ramirez walked through the hallways, things were too quiet, they had to be getting close to the particle accelerators.
Both McCraw and Ramirez rounded around the next corner with ease, raising their rifles at the two Rooks standing infront of the a set of wooden doors at the end of the corridor behind even registering the Rooks themselves. Ramirez squeezed the trigger while moving laterally to the other side of the wall, allowing everyone else to have room to shoot.
Ramirez's first burst caught the Rook on the right in the arm, spinning him around which did nothing for him as Ramirez fired fully automatic at the Rook. The normally deafening discharges of his rifles were muted by the KAC NT4 suppressors screwed on the ends.
Roman's ears perked up, had he heard something? A man like him didn't make it this far in this business without being aware, he had to assume that the opposing military was getting close to him. He looked to Neo walking besides him. "C'mon Neo, let's go get to the portal. I'm sure Cinder would be going there too."
Neo nodded and happily skipped alongside him.
Ramirez lined up to breach the door, McCraw tested the door to see if it would open. It didn't, Carter came up with a battering ram. Carter slammed the door with the ram opening it wide open.
McCraw went in first, then Ramirez. He saw a empty hall with a left turn further down, time to move.
Roman's cigar dropped out of his mouth he heard the loud crash of a door slamming open. Shit!
Ramirez moved smoothly forward just behind McCraw with his rifle ready. Soon he rounded the corner, where he saw a redhead man in a white coat and a midget with pink and brown hair.
Roman turned back to see several young angry looking men clad in digital camouflage pointing their rifle at him, he knew their rifles could somehow go through their aura. He weighed his options carefully, they were in a hallway making their way to the portal nearby. From what he knew Cinder was going to the portal from another direction. Any White Fang grunts were out of sight and somewhere else. Maybe Neo could… There were six soldiers now.
"Hands up!" Ramirez yelled, they were told to try and take prisoners if they spotted anyone other than a grunt. These people certainly qualified. Hopefully the platoon of Recon marines could dissuade them from any… drastic action.
Roman thought quickly, they were more than ten metres far from them. Contrary to popular belief, Neo's semblance was illusions, not teleportation. She could put up a illusion wall to allow them to escape, he nodded to Neo.
What the hell were they doing standing around? Thought Ramirez. "Hand ups!' he yelled again.
When they stood still, McCraw discharged a round into the midgets knee. The duo's image shattered like glass to reveal the two rounding the corner at the end of the hallway. Ramirez was done with this shit, this topped his list of weird shit he's seen.
"Fucking hell." he said under his breath. He started sprinting down the hell to catch up.
"Ramirez!" yelled Lopez, "Shit, McCraw, Carter, go with him!"
Ramirez kept running down the hallway, there was no way these chucklefucks were getting away from him. Just as he was reaching the turn, the man in the white coat swung around trying to raise his cane which he had no obvious use for. The man's eyes widened as he saw Ramirez. There was no way Ramirez could stop himself in time to get his gun up, so instead he tossed his rifle away and shifted his momentum into a tackle.
He rammed into Jacket Man with a hard impact, knocking him down into the wall. Jacket Man recovered quite quickly, just in time to evade the knife plunging down to his face. Jacket bearhugged him and managed to roll him over with incredible strength unusual to humans. Ramirez grunted and shoved his arm out to make some room, with some struggle he succeeded.
Quickly he drew his pistol and tried to shove it in his stomach. But Jacket knocked it out of his hand. He swung his legs up and simultaneously shoved Jacket back and grabbed Jacket's arms in an arm bar.
Then Jacket with sheer force, ripped his head out the headlock. Ramirez didn't miss a beat and rolled over to where he knew his pistol had gone. He grabbed his M17 up and pointed it at Jacket.
"Don't move." Ramirez growled as he shoved the sidearm into Jacket's gut. "You may be fast, but not that fast."
Jacket froze, Ramirez dragged him up and held him at gunpoint in front of him. The midget seemed to have beat both McCraw and Carter and stood poised to kill a downed McCraw on the floor with her blade. "Stop or Jacket gets it!"
Neo froze to see Roman being held at gunpoint by the angry looking brown man with a look of determination on his hard face. Roman gave her a look. Surrender, or we'll both die today.
Neo weighed her odds, there was a small army at the otherside of the corridor, sure she could take a small army of White Fang but these soldiers seemed well trained. They sure proved a better challenge than the White Fang. Maybe she could take all the soldiers down. Even then, the White Fang didn't have guns that could go through their aura so easily…
So Neo raised her hands and kneeled.
Ramirez shoved Jacket forward onto the ground and cable tied his hands together roughly. Jacket grunted but wisely said nothing.
"Hey Hayes! Get me a hood over here!" Ramirez yelled to the Special Equipment NCO Sergeant Adam Hayes, who generally helped them with their special equipment, like scuba gear, and parachutist gear, but in this scenario, he also carried a bunch of prisoner hoods.
Quickly he shoved the black hood on Jacket's head and passed him to Bandit 1-3, who took to guarding the two very seriously.
Ramirez asked Lieutenant Dixon for permission to perform a little battle field interrogation on Jacket. Permission was granted.
Ramirez walked up to Jacket and gave a kick to the back. "Hey asshole! What's your name!"
Jacket chuckled. "Come on, let's just keep this civil shall we? No need for violence?"
"Answer my damn question."
"Alright, alright!" he answered cooly. "My name's Roman, and my partner here is named Neo. How about you Green Man?"
"If you took this for a friendly conversation, you're mistaken." he answered coldly. "Can Neo talk?"
"No."
"Alright Roman, what the fuck is behind that door? And if you try and lie to me, I will personally go back here and kick the shit out of you."
"No need for threats Green Man. On the other side is a portal guarded by at least twenty White Fang grunts, there should be a very special VIP coming to evacuate this side very soon."
"First, what the fuck are the White Fang, and what are the capabilities of this VIP?"
Roman shrugged. "White Fang are the poor people in white, and the VIP wears a red dress and can create fireballs out of nowhere, she can turn you into a crisp."
"Well then, guess we'll just use a shit ton of flashbangs. Now go fuck off over there Roman." and with that, he walked away.
He informed his team of the information, "Nothing we can do there, now stack the fuck up." said Lopez.
They stacked up on the center feeding door at the turn. Carter laid a breaching charge on the metal door. Behind them was Team 3, and Team 2 behind them. Carter stepped aside and held up the clacker, and depressed the trigger.
The metal doors blew open, even before the smoke cleared McCraw threw a flashbang in through the smoke, then ran in. Ramirez followed and trained his sights searching for targets.
Immediately he squeezed a burst off at a Rook to his right, then he swung his rifle over while moving laterally to allow everyone else room to move in. His eyes found a woman in a red dress standing next to a enormous portal. Just as he was about to fire off a burst, his shots went wild as a hand knocked his rifle out of alignment.
He stepped back from the source of the hand and dropped his rifle and pulled his M17 from his holster. To his surprise, his attacker was a young girl, couldn't be more than sixteen. Her expression was one of fear, and her bunny ears made her seem even more innocent...
His hesitation costs him, her expression hardened immediately and swung up a pistol putting a round into his plate. In exchange, he shot her three times with pistol, his first shot going wild before he got back on target.
He swung his pistol back to the portal, the woman in the red dress was gone, the only thing that remained was a line of blood leading into the portal.
In mere seconds with shock and awe, they had seized control of the area.
"Room clear!"
/ - /
The Senior White Fang grunt guarding the portal was told to not to shoot the humans Roman and Neo, and that one in the red dress if they came back through the portal. He was told to follow any orders from them by Lieutenant Bane himself. He didn't like it, but he feared Bane, so he would do what he asked.
A human stumbled out of the portal. The one in the red dress, holding wounds and cuts all over her body. "Hold your fire!" he ordered.
When she had stumbled over to their positions, she looked up at him, her eyes flared. "Get me Bane dammit!" she snarled. "And shoot anything else that comes out of that portal!"
He was not one to get scared easily, but something about this woman radiated something to be feared and respected. He shouted into his radio for Bane to get over here, yes, the woman in the red dress was here. They took up an alert position covering the portal with all their rifles, their emplacements providing cover to their otherwise exposed positions.
The runner they had sent came back with an annoyed Bane. The human and Bane argued out of earshot, but he had caught something about bullets penetrating aura… Impossible.
Bane stormed over to him, with an annoyed aura around him. One does not piss off Bane lightly, which this human had, who was being escorted to their main base.
"Hey, you!" Bane yelled at him. "Be on high alert, the enemy could come across the portal at any moment, I'll be sending more men to you, and I'll step up anti-Grimm patrols too, you can't always control every single one of those bastards."
"Y-yessir!" he replied quickly. One does not fail Bane, if you do… well your body might get found, eventually. He turned his attention back to the portal, and begun directing his soldiers around. Whoever came through, he'd be ready, nothing would get past him, he'd make sure they would either stop them, or die trying.
/ - /
C A/N: Thank you for reading the story, I appreciate the patience. I'll try to start writing more of the chapters, life has been busy with me having Air Cadets three days a week plus a weekend or two every so often, and school really kicking my ass.
The story's a tiny bit in the future, and in interest of flavour, future technologies for the military have been rushed forward in the timeline if it's within an eight-year range of present time. (No fancy exosuits, the story's going to stay mostly in the present).
Anyways, please review the story and give as much constructive criticism as possible, and no replying to other reviews in reviews, there are PMs for a reason.
Until next time (A couple years), TopHat out.
A/N (Smurphy1999): Yeah Top Hat and I are getting fucked by school and other personal shit. Additionally, this Canadian can actually write a good story about modern war... despite him writing is=n his maple syrup dialect. My finals are wrapping up so expect a new chapter of Dropout commander sometime this winter. Thank you for your patience, and have a Merry Christmas.