Four miles outside of Bellenau
13:22 hours
Days since Invasion of Vale: 4
"Alright, we get off here," Ruby says to Blake, who's driving RWBY Squad's open top humvee down a side road from Bellenau, towards the approaching Feds.
"Copy," Blake says, and takes a left off of the road, into the grassy hillside. CFVY Squad, who are in an identical humvee, and a Vacuo technical, an old white pickup with a DShK heavy machine gun mounted in the back and the Vacuo Militia logo painted on the hood, follow behind them. Gunfire can be heard in the distance.
"Good to be back in action," Yang comments, LMG barrel resting on the open window. She doesn't even realize that she's smiling widely. "Never thought we'd get out of that town and back in the action."
"Seemed like you were plenty busy during our break," Weiss notes. "What were you doing, running around the FOB, talking to prisoners?" Yang's smile turns into a mere grin. Even possible suspicion can't spoil her fun.
"Nothing, just trying to get some intel."
"On what?" The jeep bounces over the top of the hill, and another humvee, parked, is ahead of them. There are two human soldiers standing next to it.
"That must be them," Blake says. Suddenly, the windshield shatters, and Ruby is struck by a bullet in the shoulder blade.
"Ow, punch it, Blake!" Ruby barks. Blake slams down on the gas. Ruby stands up in her seat, unfolds Crescent Rose, and takes a look down range. Several Vacuo technicals, about a hundred feet ahead of the parked humvee, and driving back and forth, their mounted guns throwing lead at far off silhouettes and muzzle flashes.
"And that's the front lines!" Yang shouts. She leans outside the window, takes aim, and starts firing short, controlled bursts at the enemy. Ruby turns around and waves her arm to the side, signaling CFVY to move alongside them. Their technical moves to the other side of them and moves in to join their comrades, the heavy machine gun already going to work.
"They're signalling us," Blake says. One of the soldiers, dressed in white and pink, is waving his arms. The other is dressed in dark green, and stands close to his comrade.
"Pull up alongside them, quick," Ruby says. She takes aim through her scope to get a better view of the Feds: They're standard infantry, plus a few mechanized troops with APCs, and modified humvees with AA capabilities; their target.
The humvees pull up alongside the idle one and the Hunters jump out. Blake pulls out an AS VAL modified with picatinny rails, a holo sight and slide to side magnifier, foregrip, and laser sight.
"What happened to your MP7?" Weiss asks.
"The MP7 was all I needed back when I could get close to the enemy while cloaked," Blake answers. "Now that the Federation knows about AURA, and are countering it, I need something with longer range." Weiss nods in agreement.
"Let's move," Coco says as she and her squad walk passed RWBY's humvee. "We gotta do this shit, and you still need to meet JNPR Squad."
"Coco!?" the white and pink Hunter says. Her jaw drops in surprise, then quickly forms a giant smile. "Holy shit! Where have you guys been!? There's plenty of Feds to go around for everyone!"
"Wait a minute," Ruby says, looking at the Hunter's apparel. "You...did you take out a tank by yourself in Vale? Sixth Street?"
"Ummm...well, I took out a lot of tanks in Vale..." The Hunter gasps. "You were the guys in that bus! That kept blowing up the tank shells!"
"Yeah, that was us," Weiss says, rubbing her head.
"Yeah, I thought I recognized you," Ruby says. The Hunter is wearing the exact same AURA and equipment from Vale. Now that she's up close, Ruby can see the word "VALKYRIE" written on the front of her patrol cap in marker. Her bright orange bangs stick out the sides of the cap, a few in front of her bright turquoise eyes.
"Anyway," Coco says. "RWBY Squad, meet JNPR Squad. Half of it, anyway. Apparently you've already met Nora, and the silent stealth is Ren." The Hunter in dark green stealth AURA nods, arms crossed. He has two Glock 18s with 33-round magazines holsters on either of his thighs, plus an MP5SD3 strapped to his back. His pink eyes dart between each of the members of RWBY.
"Oh yeah, Jaune and Pyrrha went out to do some recon before you guys got here," Nora explains, jerking her thumb towards the technicals. Ruby notices how her voice always seems to be raised a little more than it needs to be. Probably the ear defenders. "Not sure why, though. All we gotta do is blow everything up, right?"
"Only the humvees," Coco says. "They can shoot down anything we put in the air in a five mile radius. If they go down, even for only an hour or so before being replaced, we can slip in some attack choppers and mess up Fed infantry advancement for miles."
"Will it be enough to push them back?" Weiss asks.
"Probably not, but hey." Coco lifts up her minigun. "At least we get to fuck up some foxtrotters."
"Roger that."
"Friendlies coming in!" A female voice shouts from behind the humvees. Suddenly, a Hunter with sniper AURA leaps straight over the humvees, then immediately dogs her leggings into the ground and launches herself into the side of the vehicle just as a hail of gunfire comes. The Hunters all provide suppressive fire, and a technical parks itself in front of the line of fire to take the heat off of them.
"Too close," the Hunter says as she exhales deeply and reloads her M14. Her armor is painted different shades of red and gold, has a red bandana around her neck, and her bright red hair is in a pony tail. The M14 matches the color pattern, which deep red wood and gold trim. "We made it about halfway to their lines, but the fire was too much. We almost ran our batteries empty getting back here."
"Where's Jaune?" Nora asks. The Hunter's bright green eyes widen, and she looks back over the humvee's hood. Her shoulders sag, and she starts laughing. Another Hunter, blonde hair and blue eyes, runs into the humvee and clambers over the hood.
"Ohfuckofuckohfuckohfuck," he's suttering. He eventually makes it on top of the hood, then tries to make it across by moving his hands in swimming motions. After a few failed attempts to make any progress, the redhead gives him mercy and pulls him across the hood, where he proceeds to land on the ground back first.
"Made it," the fallen Hunter, Jaune, moans. The redhead smiles and extends her hand, which Jaune accepts.
"And that's the rest of JNPR," Nora says. "Jaune and Pyrrha." Jaune makes it to his feet and gives a sheepish wave to RWBY. His assault AURA is black and orange, with white armor plating strapped to his chest and arms. He holds an M16, the original version, with the triangular handguard and 20-round magazine. The only other place Ruby has seen that kind of gun is pictures from the First War.
"Hello, RWBY Squad," Pyrrha says with a welcoming smile. "It's always nice to see more Hunters in the field."
"Likewise," Ruby says, then realizes something. "Did...did you hear Nora say our name just now or…?" Pyrrha shakes her head, smile withstanding.
"No," she replies. "I've always done my best to remember the names of all the Hunter squads."
"She's really good at it," Jaune says. Pyrrha blushes.
"There's not that many squads operational right now. You could do it too."
"You kidding? It took me a week to figure out how to pronounce 'JNPR.' I kept saying 'jinpor' in my head."
"Didn't Ozpin say your squad's name when you formed?" Yang asks.
"Uh, did he?" Jaune asks, looking around. The Hunter exchange looks.
"Well, this is charming and all," Weiss jumps in. "But we have an objective to complete. Pyrrha, I'm assuming you're squad leader."
"Negative, that's Jaune," Pyrrha says.
"...What." Weiss stares blankly at the blonde Hunter, who is trying to pull out his empty mag without using the release button.
"Huh?" he says, looking up. "Oh, yeah, right, heh, that's me...squad leader...what are we talking about?" Weiss looks back at Pyrrha.
"...You're joking," Weiss says. Pyrrha shakes her head. Weiss looks to Nora and Ren, who do the same.
"It's fine, this is a cakewalk," Coco says. "Only a few Feds in our way, we have some HMG support, and there's twelve of us. Pyrrha, what did you see?"
"There's about three platoons of foot soldiers, four humvees with mounted M2 Brownings, and two Beowolfs, one seems to be disabled. Our targets, four humvees with Avenger air defense systems, are directly behind the fighting vehicles. They're pretty well dug in, so we can't take them out from range."
"Yat's down with that," Velvet says. The giant unslings his MBT LAW and readies it for launch.
"Can we take out the defenses from here?" Ruby asks.
"Negative," Pyrrha replies. "The humvees will drive away with no chance of pursuit if we start shooting rockets from here."
"So a steady advancement it is," Coco says. "Demolition up front, along with assault for defense. Snipers in the rear, focus on the gunners and snipers. Stealth, take the flanks and be ready to move in to make sure that AA stays put. Everyone switch comms to frequency seven to keep in contact."
"Sounds good to me," Yang says. The Hunters configure their radios for the correct frequency. "Anyone has comms with the technicals to synchronize our attack?"
"Wait, that's it?" Jaune says. "Aren't we supposed to consult all officers involved and perform a logistics check on all weapons and equipment-"
"This isn't infantry anymore," Coco says. "We're Hunters. We have AURA, we can afford to skip the bullshit."
"I've got comms for the militia," Pyrrha says. As she switches her radio to the correct frequency, she puts her hand on Jaune's shoulder and gives him a reassuring smile. Jaune crosses his arms and looks at the ground.
"Weird dude," Yang whispers to Ruby.
"Kinda reminds me of us starting out," Ruby says, remembering her first walk into her barracks at Fort Beacon.
"At least he doesn't seem to have an ice bitch."
Pyrrha finishes relaying the plan with the Vacuo drivers.
"They'll drive alongside us as we move," Pyrrha says.
"Alright, ready up people," Coco says. Everyone checks their weapons and approaches their humvees. The technicals have already moved to their positions on the Hunters' flanks Muzzle flashes and tracer rounds from the Feds can be seen clearly. "Ten meter spread. Stealth, move out now. Conserve those batteries."
"Copy," Blake says. She cloaks and runs down the right flank, while Ren and Velvet take the left.
"Assault, stay on our asses," Coco says, spinning up her minigun. "They'll know we're Hunters instantly, and they'll use everything they got on us. We need that GLYPH."
"Roger that," Weiss says. "Ready to move when you do."
"On my command."
"Psst, Pyrrha," Jaune whispers to his squadmate. "I forgot how to use GLYPH. Is there a switch, or heads up display or something?"
"Just face forward," Pyrrha says. She reaches into her humvee and pulls out an L96A1, with the same color pattern as her M14.
"But what if I miss?"
"Jaune, focus. You got this."
"Move!" Coco shouts, and runs out from behind the vehicle. Yang is right behind her, and runs to Coco's right and opens up with Celica.
"I love this part!" Nora shouts to Ruby, and takes off running to Coco's right. She crouches, aims, and fires three rounds straight into the Fed's lines. Weiss, Yat, and Jaune move in to cover their squadmates. The technicals slowly roll forward as the Hunters advance, moving at a brisk jog. As Coco predicted, three RPG rockets are launched, all of them destroyed long before they could reach their targets.
"Wait, are we supposed to move?" Ruby asks. "Or is this range good?"
"Whatever works for you," Fox says, eye through the scope of his rifle. "Coco likes to leave some of the planning to us." He fires a few shots to suppress a Fed sniper, then crouches down and leaps into the air, flying twenty feet forward, where the rest of the Hunters are still moving without interruption.
"Yeah, I think I'm good back here," Ruby says to Pyrrha.
"Same," Pyrrha replies. They place their bipods on the hoods of their respective humvees and sight in.
"Technicals halt!" Yat shouts. He fires a slug at a Fed, killing him, but not before he fires a rocket at one of the militia trucks. It lands a little low, and explodes below the front bumper.
"Assault, move up to protect the technicals!" Weiss orders. She moves to the side of Yang, towards two of the technicals. As she does so, sparks fly off the metal armor of the nearest one, and the gunner in the bed crouches down.
"There's fucking snipers everywhere!" he shouts/
"Ruby, we got Fed snipers," Weiss says into her radio.
"Copy, I got 'em," Ruby replies, sighting in on one behind a humvee. She fires, striking him in the chest. She proceeds to take out the gunner of the humvee, silencing the .50 cal.
"I got another one," Pyrrha says after firing a shot. Three more snipers pop out from behind a Beowolf and fire on Coco. Coco stops moving and halts her fire.
"Take them, quick!" Blake shouts, shooting a few rounds, hitting one in the leg and bringing him down.
Ruby and Pyrrha fire at the same sniper at the same time, practically tearing him apart. By the time Pyrrha cycles another round, Ruby already has and puts a bullet through the third sniper's neck.
"Wow, nice," Pyrrha says. Ruby gives a thumbs up, smiling to herself.
"Sweet, a veteran Hunter is impressed!" she thinks.
The Hunters are about halfway between their humvees and the Feds. Nora fires a round perfectly behind a humvee, taking out four Feds behind it.
"Reloading!" she shouts. She crouches and opens the launcher to add new rounds. A Fed pushes the dead body out of the gunner's position in the humvee and takes his place. A Fed on the ground points towards where Velvet and Ren are, still cloaked. The Fed gunner turns his gun towards them and opens fire, planting rounds all around them.
"Ren!" Nora shouts. She drops the grenade launcher and holds up the M4 strapped around her. She opens the M203 grenade launcher attached to the barrel, slides in a smoke round, and shoots it in front of the stealth hunters. Ren and Velvet are able to run around the .50 calibers with ease.
"Thanks!" Velvet says through the radio.
"Alright, fucker, that's enough," Coco grunts. She spins up her minigun again and unloads on the humvee. Even though it's got extensive armor upgrades, the Fed vehicle quickly deteriorates, a hundred holes created in the chassis every second. When Coco finally lets up on the trigger, the humvee is reduced to a charred mess. The one surviving Beowolf, the other taken out by Nora's first few shots, begins to back up, infantrymen clammering onto the sides.
"We got 'em now!" Yang shouts. She quickly reloads her gun and charges forward, LMG at her hip and finger tight on the trigger.
"Wait, stay in formation!" Coco shouts. Four Feds barricades inside the wrecked APC open fire on Yang, which her AURA easily takes. Yat fires his rocket launcher at the Feds, but it lands right in front of Yang. She's momentarily blinded and deafened from the explosion, but she keeps charging, straight through the smoke and towards the APC. Her LMG runs dry, and she slides to the ground, just as she reaches the machine. She takes out Ember, holds it out to the side of the Beowolf, and blind fires.
"Is she usually this crazy?" Pyrrha asks. One of the Feds peeks out the side, and she takes him out.
"More or less," Ruby replies.
Fox springs into the air and lands on top of the APC. He aims and fires two quick shots as the technicals pull ahead, next to the destroyed Faunus vehicles.
"Clear!" he shouts. All the Hunters run to join him and Yang. Pyrrha and Ruby are able to easily catch up with their powered leggings.
"That was too damn close, Yang," Coco says.
"It worked, right?" Yang asks, motioning her arms towards the bloody bodies, at least twenty of them, and the charred wreckage.
"Too bad we didn't get all the fuckers," Weiss says, motioning forward. The surviving grey APC and humvee are in full retreat, making a break for the nearest road.
"I think I can still waste them from here," Nora says, carefully aiming her MGL.
"Negative, we got what we came here for," Coco says. The four AA humvees sit stationary and abandoned.
"Oooh, even better!" Nora says. She takes out a pack of C4. "I almost forgot why I brought all this stuff."
"Uh, guys?" Jaune says. "Is anyone on frequency three?"
"We're supposed to be on seven," Coco says.
"I know, I forgot to change it, but...I have a bad feeling about what's on three." Curious, Ruby switches to three.
"-read me, Hunters? This is Foxhound 1-3 on attack pattern Bravo," she hears.
"Uh, say again, Foxhound 1-3?" she replies.
"Where the hell did you go, Hunters? You call us in and then radio silence?"
"Call who in?"
"Three squadrons, composed to Vale Air Force and Mistral Air Guard, T-Minus twenty seconds."
"What the fuck?" Weiss says. All the Hunters have switched to frequency three now.
"Where's your AO, 1-3?" Ruby asks. She can hear a low rumble in the air now, followed by a sick feeling in her stomach.
"Is that a joke, Hunter? Yours, of course. You should see us by now."
"Negative, there's too much cloud coverage."
"Well, we're coming in low and fast, so you'll see us soon."
"Oh fuck!" Nora shouts, pointing towards the grey humvees. The air defense turrets in the back of the humvees, each armed two rocket pods, capable of firing four Stinger missiles in rapid succession, activate, extending from the base platform and angling towards the sky.
"What the hell, the humvees are empty!" Yang says.
"They can be controlled remotely," Blake says. "Get explosives on them now!" Nora runs over to one and starts slapping plastic explosive on the door as the rocket pods stop moving. The jet engines are getting closer.
"Foxhound 1-3, break off your attack now!" Ruby shouts.
"Too late, Hunter, we're on top of you. You got those AA trucks, right?"
"There!" Jaune shouts, pointing at the sky. Bursting out of the clouds are dozens of F15, F16, and F18 fighter jets in vic formations. They're low in the air and not up to full speed. The AA turrets immediately point towards them.
"Nora MOVE!" Coco shouts, aiming her minigun at the humvees. Nora plants the last C4 pack just as the rocket pods open fire.
"FOXHOUND GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!" Ruby screams.
All of the rockets are launched within seconds of each other in plumes of white smokes. They stream through the air, their white tails curving as they approach their targets.
"Oh shit!" Foxhound says. A few of the jets begin to break formation, but it's too late.
All 32 of the Stinger missiles reach their targets. Like a bad fireworks show, the white streaks end in almost three dozen fireballs, and the remaining metal carcasses are flung to the ground.
Many of the surviving jets panic, veering to the side suddenly, and colliding with other jets, breaking off wings, stabilizers, exposed armaments, and cockpits. Some of the planes collide with each other completely, with nothing remaining, other than fire. As the half burning planes spiral out of control, joining the targeted aircraft on their journey to the ground, parachutes of the lucky ones deploy, and the even luckier pilots, that survived the carnage unscathed, break what's left of the formations, turn around, and head home.
The Hunters on the ground stand silently, watching the horror show before them.
After a few minutes, when the wreckage has reached the ground, the survivors are out of earshot, and the ejected pilots are out of sight, Nora takes out the detonator for the C4, looks around, and presses down on the lever. The humvee ignites instantly, the metal jumping a couple feet into the air before slowly melting. The Hunters turn towards the three remaining humvees. Without saying a word, they all raise their weapons and open fire.
Most of the humvees are cut up by Coco's and Nora's heavy ordinance, but the small arms of most of the Hunters do plenty of damage on their own. No one bothers shouldering their weapons; hip firing is about as effective as is needed in this instance.
Ruby fires and reloads as quickly as she can, almost double the rate she usually goes, putting holes straight through both doors of the humvee. When Crescent Rose clicks, she ejects the magazine, and slams in a new one before the original reaches the ground, and repeats the process. Someone, Ruby doesn't notice or care who, lobs a grenade towards the humvees. She quickly spots and shoots it, igniting it midair, blowing out the windows of one of the rapidly decaying vehicles.
Coco focuses her efforts on only one of the humvees, practically cutting it into two. By the time it finally explodes, Nora's MGL and the group's handheld grenades have destroyed the other two.
The Hunters stand down, watching the flames rise.
"Well…" Yang says.
"...We fucked up," Ruby says.