General Ironwood sat tense in his comfortable office chair. He looked at his watch for maybe the millionth time in the last hour, 0531 hours, the dropships have started dropping the troops over Vale. "I may have just killed 10,000 young men and women" Ironwood said to himself. "Nonsense" said Ironwood's secretary, Friday, "all of those young men and women voluntarily signed up for the military", "They all knew the risks". Ironwood sat up and walked over to the window in his office "I know they did Friday, but if this operation fails, there will only be 10,000 body bags and an angry populace to report to." Ironwood said as he looked out at the vast expanse of metal and artificial land called Sanctuary. The sun was just cresting over the horizon this far north and he could see the workers starting to pour into the factories. "Did you put together the red folder Friday?" Ironwood asked. "Yes I did boss, but before you read you have to get ready to give a speech to the Main Invasion Force before they begin their amphibious landing at 1100." Friday answered. "Thanks Friday, what would I do without you?" Ironwood said. "Probably still be doing paperwork wrong." Friday smartly answered. As she left the room, Ironwood checked his watch again, 0600, "by know all the airborne troops will either be on the ground or dead" Ironwood thought to himself. "What have I gotten us into" he said as he began working on his speech. Unbeknownst to Ironwood, this was the beginning of the end.
Camp Currahee, three years earlier, Pvt Jaune Ark who was just fresh out of boot camp is enduring pure hell trying to make it through Airborne training. Whoever had persuaded him into going to this school owes him an apology, Jaune thought as he he ran with the rest of hsi training company. "PRIVATE ARK! WHY ARE YOU SLOWING DOWN!" Screamed Drill Sergeant Zim as he got right in Jaune's face. "I don't know Sergeant!" Jaune replied "WELL WHEN THE GRIM ARE ATTACKING YOUR PLATOON ARE YOU GOING TO SLOW DOWN AND RUN AWAY!?" Screamed Zim "ARE YOU A QUITTER ARK?! CAUSE HERE IS MY BELOVED AIRBORNE CORPS WE DON'T HAVE ANY ROOM FOR QUITTERS!" "I'm not a quitter Sergeant!" Jaune replied "WELL THEN FIX YOURSELF BEFORE I HAVE TO WRECK YOU!" Screamed Zim as he moved on to the private behind Jaune.
"Hey Jaune wake up, wake up man, it's 1003 hours." Jaune snapped awake to the sight of his battle buddy, Lcpl Abe Smith, nudging him. "The Lt wants everyone awake now, some grim were sighted about half a klick down the road from us." Abe said. "Shiiiiit" Jaune replied as he stood up and grabbed his rifle. "We've only been here 5 hours" Abe said, "and somehow you've managed to spend 3 of those hours sleeping". "I don't know Abe" Jaune replied "it's just a superpower of mine, being able to sleep anywhere anytime". No sooner had Jaune grabbed his rifle that someone yelled "CONTACT FRONT!", Jaune could see them now, a whole army of grimm were charging balls to the walls towards them. Not only were there Beowulf's, but also Ursa, Creeps, and even a few Death Stalkers. "LCpl Smith, get the 240 firing!" Yelled Lt Caslo as the platoon began firing at the oncoming horde. "Wilco" Abe responded as he picked up the massive M240 Bravo Light Machine Gun and began to fire. Jaune was temporarily deafened by the backblast of a MAAWS being fired a few feet away from him, he barely heard the Lt. yell to Jaune "get command on the horn, we need support!". Jaune began calling into the long range radio mic, "This is India 2-1 requesting fire support, we are under heavy contact." "Copy that India 2-1, this is Reaper 1-1 coming in with a flight of 4 fully loaded F-18's with snake and nape , tell us where you want em dropped." came the reply from the radio. "Copy that Reaper 1-1 I need an air strike on coordinates 158 by 967 going from north to south, will mark friendlies with green smoke, how copy?". "Copy that India 2-1, bringing in 4 times snake and 2 times nape on grid coordinates 158 by 967 from north to south, friendlies marked with green smoke, eta 30 seconds till impact. This is going to be danger close so get watch your heads down there". "Solid copy Reaper 1-1, over and out". Jaune looked up from his radio and map, and saw the grimm were less than 100 meters away now. "Lt!" Jaune yelled "we got incoming air support incoming, 30 seconds!" "Good, we're going to need it!" Lt. Caslo replied. Everyone ducked as the fighter jets then zoomed overhead, followed by a loud boom and a rushing sound. Jaune looked up to a scene straight out of hell, the entire city block was reduced to rubble and covered in burning napalm. A new guy , Pvt West, had jumped up on top of a car and was fist pumping and cheering along with some other guy, "We won! Look at all those grimm run!". It was the last thing some of them did.