Chapter 2: First Contact, Part 2
Eastern Region of the Kingdom of Vale.
The US Expeditionary force made first contact with the unknown black creatures, but it didn't go very well and they attacked everything human. Their sudden appearance made the military set up defensive perimeters on all sides to protect themselves.
Within miles of the Marine HQ, a company of two M1A1 Abrams, 3 Bradley Fighting Vehicles and some dozens of Humvees carrying Marines were supported by Apache helicopters. The soldiers were surprised to find a dirt road. The vehicles rolled down it.
Up in the skies, one Apache pilot caught something in the corner of his eye. He grabbed the radio to speak with his fellow pilot.
"This is Falcon-1, I think I saw something."
"I hear you Falcon-1, I saw it too and are those...buildings?"
"Positive." He paused. "From what it looks like, they seem to be... abandoned."
Northern Atlantic Ocean, Coasts of Atlas
After it appeared, the French and the British expeditionary fleet were sent to the coastline of Atlas.
A single British RC-135 flew over the skies of Atlas. After the surveillance was done, the recon team warned the expeditionary fleet that they needed to be ready right away as a single Atlesian Frigate made its appearance to the expeditionary fleet.
News reporters worldwide were awestruck by the hovering ships. One of the French captains ordered a single WG-13 Lynx to make first contact. The pilot was extremely nervous after seeing three Atlesian Dropships pointing their guns at him.
"Sacrebleu..." The French pilot muttered in fear as he gulped. "Alright...better connect to them via radio."
Inside the Atlesian Frigate, General Ironwood narrowed his eyes, curiously looking at a weird aircraft with rotors on top.
"Sir, I got some signal frequency."
"Impossible, the CCT Towers are down for maintenance," Ironwood said in a surprised tone. "Wireless communications are useless."
"But sir, listen."
The crew stood in silence as some words were spoken.
"*Static* This is *static* the European *static* Expeditionary Fleet," Said someone with an unfamiliar accent. The ship's radio tried to remove the static, achieving a clear signal.
"We come in peace, we do not wish to cause conflict."
More than an hour passed after first contact. The same Lynx returned back to Charles de Gaulle, the French Aircraft Carrier with some guests. Two Atlesian Dropships landed on top of the landing platform of British HMS Invincible.
Ironwood stepped down from the Dropships followed by two Atlesian guards. There he was met by its captain, the ship's crew members and news reporters.
"Greeting, I am James Ironwood," James introduced himself as he offered his hand for a handshake. "I am the General of the Atlesian Military."
"Captain Rory McLean," The captain introduced himself while tipping his cap and accepting Ironwoods handshake. "Welcome aboard the HMS Invincible, I am glad that we can negotiate terms of peace with the officials of the United Nations."
"Terms of... peace?" Ironwood raised a brow. "United Nations?"
"It's... a complicated story, General Ironwood," The captain answered.
CNN News channel.
"This is CNN on Live. This news came out recently. A few hours ago, around 10 o'clock, the joint NATO Expeditionary Fleet encountered what appeared to be flying ships."
The scene changed to a video where General Ironwood shook hands with McLean, then panned to show that they were surrounded by reporters.
"A man named James Ironwood hailed from a military organization called the Atlesian Military, which is affiliated with a country known as the Kingdom of Atlas."
The footage panned to show Ironwood shaking hands with the British captain before heading back to his frigate in an Atlesian Dropships.
"An hour later, Ironwood returned to Atlas to speak with the Kingdom's Council, however, the Atlesian General brought one of the French and British Officers to act as emissaries, chosen by NATO Officials to represent their countries."
The scene changed to another foreign area, showing a city near the coasts. A single Chinook Helicopter landed in the port of Mistral's City.
"In a place called Mistral, the NATO Fleet made contact with the Kingdom Councilors to take the first step for negotiations."
Eastern Region, Kingdom of Vale.
The US military convoy stood in front the giant gates of a ruined city. There stood a large rusty billboard, with the picture in tatters and scratched with large claw marks. It read:
WELCOME TO MOUNTAIN GLENN.
The American Marines were surprised. The language was unmistakably English. They soon passed through gates and entered the area, only to see ruins and piles of debris lying around.
Their tanks and Armored Fighting Vehicles parked near the entrance as the Apaches flew above. Inside the dark places of the City, Beowolves woke from their slumber from hearing the sounds of the helicopters and growled at the human newcomers.
"Searge, I gotta bad feeling about this," said one of the Private Marines who was readying his rifle.
"It seems that people used to live here," added another.
The recon teams began to investigate the ruins. They found old opened canned food, tattered clothes, rundown stores and restaurants, and unknown crystals. There were also skeletons, human skeletons and domestic animals found on the roads and inside buildings. The Marine Captain felt an eerie dread.
"Damn, this could be probably done by those things that are trying to eat us a few hours ago." He sighed.
"These bones are old," said a medic in his group, who was inspecting a human skull he picked up. "There are scratches and bite marks on these bones... Yeah, could be those things."
As the reconnaissance group continue their exploration, the marine captain halts and raised a gripped fist to stop his group. A single Beowolf came out behind the rubble and sniffed the ground.
The Marines were pointing their rifles when the large wolf humanoid tensed up and sniffed in the air. Its red eyes suddenly caught a sight of the group of human soldiers.
"Stand back."
The Beowolf growled and then lunged at the marine captain. The lead soldier carefully aimed his M16A2 Rifle. A single shot, a 5.56x45mm NATO Bullet made out of solid brass, slipped through the Beowolf's mouth, making a hole in the back side.
The marines lowered their rifles as the beast slumped to the floor and its body began to dissolve into a black mist.
"Jesus, there's more of these fuckers?"
Then the group was startled by the sudden howls of the Grimm.
"Yeah... shit, we gotta regroup."
"This is Captain John Sierra from Gamma Team." The captain ordered the rest of the investigation teams around the city through radio. "Regroup at the main entrance, I repeat, return to the main entrance, ASAP."
Meanwhile...
A few hundred yards away from Mountain Glenn, a single Bullhead made its way to the eastern regions of Vale. Summer nervously sat in a passenger seat next to her team.
In the cockpit, the pilot raised an eyebrow curiously when his radar caught unknown readings not so far away, from the ruins of Mountain Glenn.
The Pilot raised his head to see black smoke trails emitting from the city and a couple of unknown aircraft flying above.
"Whoa, what in Oum's name goin' on out there?" he asked.
Suddenly, Qrow entered the cockpit, wanting to see what the commotion was about and seeing the smoke trails from the ruined city.
"What's that?" Qrow asked, seeing the unknown aircraft.
"Qrow, what's going on?" a feminine spoke up.
Qrow and the Bullhead's pilot turned their heads towards a young huntress in her early twenties, covered in a white cloak.
Qrow responded to his leader. "It's could be those guys Ozpin told you about."
Summer watched the aircraft flying around the city. One of them fired a missile that created an explosion which could be heard from a mile away. Suddenly, Summer heard static coming out of her scroll.
"*Static* This is Alpha Team *Static* Holy shit, there's a horde of them!"
"Keep 'em *static* firing! *static* Don't let them get near! *static*"
"This is Falcon-1 *static* I've spotted *static* unknown Aircraft a few hundred meters away."
Impossible. Scrolls shouldn't be working when the CCT Towers were down. Summer hesitated and then press for the radio call.
"This is Summer Rose, a student from Beacon and Huntress-in-Training, can you hear me?"
*Static*
No reply.
"We need to land in Mountain Glenn right away." Summer said without hesitation.
"Are you sure-"
"Just do it," she interupted.
"You might be crazy." Qrow added in a cool sarcastic tone. "But not too crazy. Bet those guys are friendly."
As the Bullhead entered the city's airspace, a hatch opened, and team STRQ jumped off and landed on the ground with no effort.
The Bullhead left while the Hunters-in-training pulled out their weapons and made a dash towards the source of the sounds of battle.
In other parts of the city...
"Take cover people!" John warned the marines, who ducked under cover.
A single M1A1 Abrams Tanks released a High-Explosive Shell towards the armored forehead of a Deathstalker. As the shell slammed into its target, the large creature shrieked in pain and felt some of its forehead armor fall off.
"Right, the High-Explosive Shells we've got won't do anything," the tanker groaned. "Load a HEAT round."
This time, the Abrams tank shot another round with a High-Explosive-Anti-Tank shell. The round drilled through the armored forehead of the large scorpion like butter until the beast's body exploded from within, a gory sight.
"Nailed that huge-ass motherfucker!"
Meanwhile with team STRQ, Summer dashed together with Taiyang on the roads while above, Qrow and Raven jumped from rooftop to rooftop, until the Branwen siblings stopped in their tracks and listened carefully to the source of sound.
*Boom!*
"That way." Raven pointed towards the direction where the smoke emitted from.
"HEY GUYS!" Taiyang yelled. "Are we somewhere near?!"
"We're almost there!" Qrow called out. "A few blocks away and that's it!"
Qrow and his sister then reached their destination, and the other two team members on the ground arrived as well.
They saw a battle between unknown soldiers and Grimm. Qrow caught sight of a tank, the gunner shooting with its mounted machine gun, its Rheinmetall 120mm Gun sending out a single HEAT round to destroy another unfortunate Deathstalker in one shot with a deafening boom.
"Damn…" Qrow muttered, at a loss for words.
On the ground, Summer was drooling at the unknown weapons carried by the desert-colored soldiers.
"Uhh, Summer?" Taiyang asked, snapping his teammate back into reality.
"Oh, right, we need to help them!"
On the other side, some of the Marines stopped shooting as they caught sight of the newcomers. They patted the shoulders of their comrades and pointed to the group who arrived on the far left side.
There were a group of four people in their early twenties, two on the ground and two more on the rooftops. One was a woman in a white cloak, who waved at them as a friendly greeting before the four turned their attention to the black beings.
They dashed to a large pack of Grimm. Qrow and Summer unleashed their blades and slashed the Beowolves apart in less than fifteen seconds.
Taiyang jumped twenty-five feet into the air and then sent his fist into the ground, creating a large explosion in the middle of a pack of Ursas and sending them flying.
Then it was Raven's turn as she leaped into the air and caught a flailing Ursa with her sword and send it crashing against a pack of six Creepers, killing them instantly in an explosion.
The team regrouped as the Grimm corpses dissolved into black mist. They suddenly heard clicks and guns being cocked, and they turned around to see the Marines pointing their guns at them.
"Don't shoot! Everyone, stand down," called the Marine Captain.
"Are you sure sir?" asked one of the Marines. "Can we really trust them?"
"I'm certain, this is our chance to make first contact with the locals here," he answered.
The Marine Captain slung his rifle onto his back and stepped out, raising both of his arms into the universal sign of "no fighting." Summer and her team saw him come out.
"We were not here to fight you," he said. "We come in peace."
Summer was dumbfounded by him, and she stepped forwards and introduced herself nervously in an awkward moment.
"Uhh... hi! My name is Summer, Summer Rose, it's nice to meet you... err..."
"...Captain John Sierra," he introduced himself with a salute. "We're the United States Marine Corps, we are here to establish first contact with the locals in this area."
"I... I don't know what's going on," Summer said. "We haven't got a word from the outside world since the towers went down for maintenance."
The Marine cocked an eyebrow.
"Towers?"
"The Cross-Continental-Transmit Towers, CCT for short," she explained. "So anyways, where did you guys come from and what is this 'United States?'"
"The United States... is a country where we come from," he answered.
"I've never heard of it and... country?" Summer asked, confused. "You mean Kingdom?"
"We're not ruled by a monarch." He shrugged. "So, uh, can you lead us to your civilization so we can speak to your leaders."
"Oh, don't worry," Summer chimed in a childish manner. "We're quite far from Vale, but we can lead you there."
"Damn, we should've told that pilot to stay here!" Qrow swore hysterically while clenching his head.
Summer turned to the Marine with a nervous expression. "A-Anyways, we should head to Beacon Academy. Our Headmaster wants to meet you. It's because you guys appeared in the shores, east from Vale."
"I see." John turned to his group and barked out an order. "Alright everyone, they're no threat to us, pack everything and we'll head to the city."
"Yes sir," one of the high-ranking marines responded with some nods.
Chapter 2 ends.