[A/N]: Okay, first off I wanna say I'm sorry to those of you who have been waiting for this chapter for three years. I honestly thought I was all caught up when I stopped posting for this story. I feel really bad for just uploading a dusty chapter, since I've improved drastically since I wrote this, but I want to get y'all all caught up before I get to the good bits.
I hope you enjoy, leave a review if you have any comments or questions.
POV- Cassie
At her house Cassie is playfully wrestling with Lucas before there's a knock at the door.
"Alright, time out Lucas."
Lucas happily climbs off and sits on the couch, drumming his feet on the floor.
Cassie hauls herself up and slides down the railing before opening the door, where a black and red uniformed Lieutenant stands in full gear.
"Major, get your gear, we have a situation."
Cassie nods and shuts the door before bounding up the stairs and down the hall, into her bedroom, slamming the door behind her as she grabs her vest and weapon, throwing both on with practiced ease before picking her backpack up off the floor and running back out the door.
"Go get 'em mom!" Lucas cheers as she clears the entire flight of stairs and sits on the bottom step, tightly lacing her boots before grabbing her helmet off the hook and heading out the door, where a HMMWV is waiting.
Cassie finds the same Lieutenant in the driver's seat and plops her helmet on as she slides into the front passenger seat.
"What's the situation?"
He floors the accelerator and the rocket down the road while he talks. "One of our armored convoys was overdue for return, so Castle sent out the LtCol and Viper to search for them, they've found the convoy but we need to secure the area until the recovery vehicles get there."
"How bad?"
"Four vehicles destroyed, three more unaccounted for, including two Marksman systems and a contingent of support vehicles."
They skid sideways around a corner and stop in front of four bullheads, all loaded with infantry in black and red camouflage.
They clamber out and jog to the nearest bullhead.
"Gambler one through four ready for deployment!" Another Lieutenant salutes the two as they approach, and Cassie returns it.
"Mount up!"
They climb up the ramp and into the aircraft, and the ramp quickly retracts before the door closes and they accelerate into the sky as snow begins to fall.
The flight takes fifteen minutes, and when they get there the bullheads hover above the site while the infantry jump the ten feet to the ground, quickly spreading out.
Their movement is somewhat hindered by the deep snow, but the troops ignore it while they get a perimeter set up and investigate what happened.
Cassie moves to the lead Merkava and walks around the still smoking wreck, observing the blackened side armor before she finds an interesting discovery; a hole in the hull, the marks around it being evidence that it belonged to some sort of explosive, and not the Grimm.
"Ember! Get over here!" She yells to a redhead holding the perimeter.
The ginger jogs over to her, struggling slightly in the deep snow due to the heavy 84mm recoilless rifle on her back.
"This look familiar to you?"
Ember crouches down and scrutinizes the hole before looking up to Cassie. "Yeah it does, it looks like a rocket propelled grenade, the old model we used to have."
"My thoughts exactly, but what is a mark like that doing on one of our tanks?"
Ember crouches down and looks at the hole again. "No idea, but a hit like this shouldn't have detonated the ammo, there isn't any stowage here." She moves around the vehicle until she finds a similar mark on the front right of the hull. "This however, this would be a problem, that hit the engine. But still shouldn't have caused a boom."
"I'm thinking the crew may have bailed and blown it up to prevent capture, that is procedure anyway."
"I'm inclined to agree, but that brings up the question, capture by who?"
"Indeed. Go get the serial number off the turret and the other vehicles, I'll check to see if all the other vehicles have the same marks."
Ember wades through the snow to the turret while Cassie walks over to the next Merkava, finding the same holes on all of the disabled vehicles.
"Hey boss, you may want to look at this." Ember walks over and shows her scroll. "This was on the barrel of the lead turret, is that what I think it is?"
On the screen is a purple spade.
Kimberly's personal insignia.
"Yeah...shit….give me a minute, I'm gonna contact Angel."
She motions a radio operator over, and he wades through the snow before taking a knee in front of her. She grabs the handset and holds it up to her ear.
"Angel this is Bulldog."
{Go for Angel.}
"Angel, I've got a vehicle with Razor's insignia on it, no visible bodies, but the woods around us are chewed to hell from gunfire, this wasn't a Grimm attack."
{Roger that, I'll see if I can contact her. Hold your position until the recovery vehicles get there.}
"Solid copy on all, Bulldog out."
Cassie hands the radio operator the handset and sends him back to his position.
"So what's the plan?" Ember asks from her position next to a burning hull.
"We wait. The recovery vehicles are almost here, and then we go get the bastards that did this."
"Rest and revenge, a plan I can get behind."
Suddenly one of the Faunus in the perimeter raises a fist above his head, a signal that something's up, and Cassie takes cover next to the tank hull, her eyes scanning the trees on the side of the road.
She spots movement and raises her rifle, as do the other dozen troops that see it.
Slowly tankers in black jumpsuits emerge from the trees, some helping their wounded walk, while others carry those too injured to walk on their shoulders in a fireman's carry.
Cassie spots a full helmet with a purple stripe among the troops, a bear Faunus draped across the person's shoulder with their right leg missing from the knee down.
"Gambler stand down!" Cassie yells, lowering her rifle and standing up.
The masked person carries the Faunus over to the side of the tank and sets her there before removing her helmet.
"How you holding up?" Kimberly asks Christie, tucking the helmet under her arm.
"Hurts like hell, but I'll live. I wish I could say the same about my pride."
"Hang in there, I'll buy you a platter of salmon when we get back."
Christie chuckles. "I'm going to hold you to that."
"I know." Kimberly grins at her as she stands up and looks to Cassie. "Damn it's good to see you."
"Likewise, what happened here?"
Kimberly does something Cassie doesn't expect; she pulls a cigarette out of her pocket and lights it before taking a deep drag. "Ambush, guys dressed in white, covered faces too. They were pretty well equipped, we had to bail and blew the tanks so they couldn't steal any tech."
"What about the other vehicles?"
"I sent them back to bivouac at range Golf, those Marksman Leopards are pretty good against ground targets I found."
"Alright, call them back, the recovery vehicles will be here in a few minutes….also, I thought you didn't smoke?"
"I don't."
Kimberly heads off the check on the rest of the tank crewmen, leaving Cassie to watch after Christie.
"Hey, you need any water?"
"No thanks Major, I'm alright for now."
"Alright, you let me know if you need anything."
"Will do."
Cassie stands upright and the radio operator from earlier walks up.
"Ma'am, we'll have to ride along with the convoy, command says there's a blizzard back at base, and they can't send any dropships."
"Shit, alright, thank you."
He nods to her and walks back to his position, lying down in the snow once again.
"Medic! MEDIC!" Cassie hears Kimberly yell from further down the road, where she's kneeling next to a tanker, the person's left arm is missing at the shoulder, and they have several bloody bandages pressed to his stomach in an effort to stop the bleeding. Two medics run past Cassie at a dead sprint and slide to a stop next to the bleeding tank crewman.
They frantically try to stop the bleeding, but the more they try the more he bleeds, until finally the bleeding slows, but not in success from the medics.
Kimberly watches as the life fades from the man's eyes, being replaced by a cold, thousand-mile stare.
She quickly closes her eyes and turns away, but it's too late, the image is already engraved into her memory, down to the small trickle of blood falling from his mouth.
One of the medics reaches up and closes his glazed-over eyes before covering him over with a rain poncho.
Cassie hangs her head in respect, saying a small prayer under her breath before sitting down next to Christie.
"Poor guy…" Christie mutters.
"May he Rest In Peace."
"Amen to that."
Kimberly slowly walks over and sits down next to them.
"Someone you knew?"
"Yeah, he was the commander for Razor three."
Over the sound of the wind there's a roar of Diesel engines as both the recovery vehicles and the convoy converge on the disabled vehicles, their forms appearing out of the growing blizzard.
"Come on, let's get the wounded onto the medical humvee." Cassie says as she stands up and hauls Christie onto her shoulders, slowly wading through the snow with the wounded to load Christie into the vehicle while the recovery vehicles attach to the hulls of the destroyed tanks and use a crane arm to put the turrets back on for ease of transport.
In half an hour everyone is loaded up and ready to move, with a majority of the infantry riding on top of the recovery vehicles.
The final thing to do takes a few more minutes; load the body onto a stretcher and into the medical truck. And soon they're moving back to base, the infantry being battered by the cold wind.
In an effort to keep morale up Cassie knows just the song, and through training so do most of the troops.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the lord!
He's trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored!
He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword!
His truth is marching on!
By now most of the troops are singing with her, their voices cutting through the howling wind like a ghostly choir as the Diesel engines of the convoy provide the perfect sound to sing with, and the convoy rolls down the road towards Vale.
POV change- Jackson
Jackson sits in his living room, watching the blizzard outside with a cup of coffee in his hand while Neo snuggles up to his right side in her pajamas.
He looks happy and contempt, but inside his head he's going a mile a minute, trying to figure out who would attack them, and why. They hadn't provoked any groups, they'd only attacked Grimm nests and defended villages from attack, and so nobody had any valid reason to attack them.
But it didn't matter if they had a valid reason, they'd attacked, and that meant war.
He's broken out of his thoughts by a nudging from Neo.
"Hmm?"
Neo uses sign language to communicate with him.
'Mom is back. She needs you down at the HQ.'
"Oh, okay. Sierra should be home pretty soon too, try not to destroy anything while I'm out."
'I make no guarantees.'
"I know you don't…." He sighs as he gets up, his boots already laced so he can just leave if need be. "Oh, and get some work done on your new sword, that thing hasn't been touched for weeks."
She jumps up and skips down the hall to her room, closing the door behind her.
Jackson smirks and grabs his rifle before heading out the door, in his ground combat equipment, and ready for anything.
When he walks into the front doors the HQ is practically buzzing with activity as people run to and fro, performing various tasks under Janet, who stands on the raised platform.
"Good you're here! Head into the war room, I'll be there in a second." Janet calls to him, only briefly looking up from her various monitors.
"You got it, don't take too long."
Jackson walks down the hall, across a gantry above the command center, and into the war room, the soldiers running about only stopping to let him through.
Kimberly stands at the edge of a map table, her black jumpsuit smeared with blood, and a mug of coffee in her hands.
"Welcome to the party."
"Thanks, what's the casualty report like?"
"One killed, eight wounded. Four Merkava's were destroyed and another was damaged."
"Damn…..I'm sorry, we'll make whoever did this pay."
Amelia walks over from the corner, her cloak pulled around her.
"We didn't find any thermal signatures other than our people, they were long gone."
Jackson gives her a peck on the cheek and they both walk to the map table, where Kimberly is making marks on the holographic map. "After finishing firing exercises at range Golf we got on the MSR and proceeded towards Vale at a moderate pace. Near junction Hotel twelve my Merkava's air conditioning system stopped working, and so two of my crew left their stations to stay warm, five minutes later we took a rocket propelled grenade to the engine, which halted the vehicle. Then all hell broke loose, they attacked from both sides of the road with small arms and RPG's for a minute and then retreated. In the lull in the action we tried to tow the disabled vehicles, but they attacked again and disabled the other tanks, so when they retreated we set demolition charges and abandoned the vehicles to hide in the woods. Five hours later Cassie and Gambler showed up, and we came out of hiding."
Jackson looks at the map for a few minutes before speaking.
"Right there, that's a known cave. They may have hid there once they attacked." He points to a spot roughly a quarter mile from the ambush point.
Cassie looks at the spot and nods. "I'll have a squad dispatched to check it out."
"Good, if there's any evidence that they used it I want them to blow it, collapse the entrance."
"Will do."
"Kimberly send two Spooky's to cover them and have the gun batteries on standby, I'm not messing around anymore."
"You got it."
"We commence as soon as the blizzard clears."
Jackson walks over to an intercom for the building. "Three runners report to the war room."
Janet walks in just as he finishes transmitting the request. "I take it we've already got a plan made?"
"Yeah, I'll fill you in once the runners get here."
On cue three runners enter, and each of the commanders give them instructions to retrieve the units for their plan before they run out.
"So here's the deal…."
Time skip- sixteen hours later, 0336 hours.
Jackson stands atop the air traffic control tower in a black cloak, a flare gun in his right hand as the aircraft for the small operation sit in their takeoff positions, ready to begin.
He checks his watch repeatedly, waiting for the minutes to pass.
Finally, at 0340 he raises the flare gun and launches a green flare over the runway, indicating it's time to start.
The roar from the eight engines of the two AC-130U gunships increases as they throttle up and accelerate down the runway, past the four large drop-ships sitting on the landing pads.
The large aircraft lift off the ground and climb into the star-filled sky, turning their exterior lights off as soon as they are airborne.
Jackson calmly loads another flare into the pistol and aims out over the taxiway before launching it high into the sky.
The four craft gently lift off the ground and accelerate into the night, their lights off to make it harder for any observers to spot them should the enemy be watching.
Jackson watches them disappear into the black of the night and climbs down the ladder before heading into the headquarters, across the gantry, and into the war room, where the other commanders are watching the holographic monitors that display unit positions and status while radios in the room are tuned to listen in on the communications.
In one corner sits a coffee pot and several mugs, each with a symbol on them indicating who they belong to.
"I pray this is just an isolated incident." Cassie yawns before she grabs her mug and fills it to the brim.
"It's not, the Vacuo branch reported an attack five hours ago, and the Mistral branch did as well. Minimal casualties on both sides."
"Did anyone recover any bodies of the enemy? Take any prisoners?"
"No, they did a VERY good job at picking up after themselves, these aren't amateurs."
Kimberly pulls a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket and sticks one in her mouth before patting her pockets in search of a lighter.
Jackson stares at her in surprise. "I thought you didn't smoke."
"I didn't, not until a few hours ago."
Amelia pulls her lighter out of her pocket and tosses it to Kimberly, who snatches it out of the air and lights the cigarette before tossing it back.
"Heads up everyone, five minutes out." Cassie sits down on a raised seat against the wall so she can watch all the monitors at the same time with ease, most specifically she watches the thermal camera feed from the two gunships as they circle high above the target.
{Reaper one reporting no contacts on thermals, holding pattern.}
{Reaper two reporting no contacts, holding pattern.}
The suspense and tension in the room sits at a high as the drop-ships flare for landing and the troops jump out, falling through the forest canopy before spreading out.
{Gambler one and two on the deck, moving towards objective.}
{Gambler three and four in position, digging in.}
Everyone watches intensely, their eyes flickering from monitor to monitor as the two squads converge on the cave entrance, some of their helmet camera feeds being displayed on a couple monitors.
{Gambler one-six reporting multiple footprints in the snow, we aren't the first people here.}
The two squads enter the cave, and communications go silent, adding to the suspense as the commanders wait.
Finally the troops walk back out, the squad leader stands in the cave entrance.
{Gambler one-one reporting a massive munitions cache inside, old company weapons, small arms, RPG's, multiple IED's.}
All the people in the war room look at each other in shock before Cassie stands up and grabs the handset for the radio.
"Roger that Gambler, blow the cache and collapse the entrance."
{Gambler copies, proceeding as ordered.}
{Gambler three and four moving to objective, bringing the fireworks.}
The squads that had waited in reserve had large backpacks filled with explosives, more than enough to collapse the cave and destroy the cache.
The first two squads set up a perimeter while the demolition teams plant the charges and set a timer.
{All Gambler elements, objective complete, proceed to LZ.}
The four squads quickly leave the area, heading for a large clearing a half mile away, and five minutes after they reach the clearing the charges detonate, slinging pieces of rock hundreds of feet in the air.
"Damn! They weren't kidding!" Cassie chuckles in surprise, sipping her coffee with a smile.
"I'm saving that to show to Sierra, she'll be sad that she missed that." Amelia nudges Jackson in the ribs.
"No kidding, the last time I saw an explosion that big was when we were still in Syria."
{Mission complete, returning to base.}
The four drop-ships land in the field, and the squads all rush out of the tree line and into the large cargo bay, the loading process from start to finish only takes thirty seconds, and the loading ramp closes as the craft ascend.
{Reaper one and two returning to base.}
{All chariot elements returning to base, full complement aboard.}
Amelia gets up from her seat and sticks a cigarette in her mouth, slowly pulling her lighter out of her pocket with her eyes fixed on the monitors. Jackson notices her hesitation, and stands next to her. "Hey, what's wrong?"
She holds the unlit lighter in her hand, not yet raising it to light the cigarette.
"Something doesn't seem right, that was too easy for the damage they did to us. These guys are professionals, they would have hidden their equipment better."
Jackson nods slowly in understanding.
"Well…even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then."
They wait until all the units involved have returned to base, and Amelia heads outside, lighting her cigarette and pulling her cloak around her before she walks out the door.
The airfield is quiet, the breeze but a whisper as it blows across the tarmac and gently rattles the branches of the trees outside the tall barbed wire fence.
She walks up the road towards the house, her eyes alert, but her mind lost in thought. Before she knows it she's at the front steps, and shakes the issue from her head before heading inside.
"'Welcome back, how'd it go?'"
Sierra sits in the living room, on the coffee table in front of her sits a teapot and a half-full cup, the brown liquid steaming.
"It went well, found a cache and blew it sky high. I've got the footage on my scroll. I'm going to guess you couldn't sleep?"
"'Yeah, did the squelch ever come back for you? Because it squeals in my head every time I close my eyes.'"
Amelia hangs her cloak on a hook in the hall and takes her vest off before sitting down next to Sierra.
"Yeah, a couple times, but I got better after each time. Think of it as a milestone."
"'How long does it last?'"
"I think my first time lasted two days."
"'TWO!?'"
Amelia nods. "Or was it three?"
Sierra scowls at her, her tired, bloodshot eyes struggling to stay open.
"Sorry honey, but the result is worth it."
Sierra slumps her shoulders and finishes the last of her tea.
"'Why did it have to start tonight? I've got initiation tomorrow!'" She whines, putting her head in her hands.
"Well, I know one way you could get some sleep, I had your dad do it to me when it first happened."
Sierra looks up hopefully.
"'Really?! What is it?!'"
"You're not going to like it. It's pretty simple really; I knock you out."
Sierra deadpans, her hope dashed.
"'Whatever, let's do it.'"
Amelia huffs out through her nose and stands up, heading into her room for a second before emerging with a blackjack in her hand.
"Last chance to back out."
"'Nope, I need to sleep.'"
Amelia shrugs and hits Sierra hard on the back of the head with it, and she drops like a sack of potatoes.
Putting the blackjack in her pocket she picks Sierra up in a bridal carry and takes the girl into her room, laying her on the bed and giving her a kiss on the forehead.
"Good night."