Chapter 5: The Better Angels Part 2
Ever since the first incursion in Pittsburgh, it had been one outbreak after another. Not just America, but across all Terran nations. For the Valeans, it was a once in a lifetime event, and an opportunity to wipe out as many Grimm as possible while making a new ally.
For the Americans, it was a fiery crucible in a fight for survival that they weren't prepared for.
In an act of desperation, America paved the way for Valean huntsman to work alongside American forces in an effort to restabilize the country. If the Americans had one advantage, it was that they simply had too many large cities to invade all at once.
Cities such as San Diego, Phoenix, and Pittsburgh fell to the hordes within hours. Others like Fort Worth, Chicago, Atlanta managed to hold out against the initial onslaught. Their citizens armed and prepared. Some of them even since the Cold War. And strangely enough...Las Vegas, Boston, and Seattle were left untouched.
For team STRQ, this would be an adventure into new lands they had been so anxious about.
The bullhead flight was long and uneasy. The only you could hear was the muffled whine of the engines from inside the cabin, and the only thing you could see was the light pouring in through the canopy windscreen.
These "Americans" had their own fighter craft, alright. "Eagles" and "Falcons" Raven had heard from their latest information on them. But now, even they didn't even bother escorting their foreign guests. They were all too busy being deployed against the Grimm.
She knew all too well she had to be judicious with these new arrivals. Her tribe had prepared her since she was but a little girl to be able to take out Remnantian warriors, but these new people would certainly throw a wrench in her tribe's plans.
But that wasn't for her to worry about right now. Right now it was her duty to protect the team and complete the mission. As for what the mission was, they were being deployed to a place called "Salt Lake City" in a region known as "Utah."
Apparently, this city had once been the capital of the region, now nearly a ghost town, save for the remaining police and militia.
And the Grimm.
Team STRQ was being sent as reinforcements to an already ongoing battle near the downtown area of the city. The local militia had run into a Grimm offensive and was in need of backup, lest they be overwhelmed and eaten. It was up to Raven and her team to save the day.
Soon, sounds of flak and distant battle cries, both human and Grimm, could be heard. As the side doors to the bullhead slipped open, warm conditioned air escaped out, only to be replaced with chill windy air that whipped through the entire team's hair, waving it back and forth.
Streams of incendiary tracers hurtled to the sky the greet the circling nevermores. There were only two of them, but despite the locals best efforts, they simply weren't strong enough to bring them down on their own.
Without hesitation, the Branwen sister lept from the bullhead, screaming towards the ground at a speed most would consider suicidal. Adrenaline rose as the sound of rushing air screamed in her ear. Using the momentum built up in her dive, she simply sliced through the unprotected neck of one of the nevermores, severing it.
Still, even faster she dove. The second nevermore was too far off to her left for to actually get it. Her team would have to take care of that. Some of the men below looked up. Shock and awe adorning their faces at the sight of their newest savior.
Who was she? They wondered. Why had she come here? Where was she from?
It didn't matter. She was apparently on their side, and the battle was still raging, they would have to worry about that later.
As Raven landed, the deafening sounds of a cacophony of gunshots and explosives invaded her ears, as well as the cries for a medic. Used gunpowder and the smoke of dying Grimm flooded her nostrils. Tracers screeched past her directly into the charging horde. The bullets fell some, but they seemed to just keep coming. For just the hair's split of a second, she just sat there and took in the sights and sounds of the fight for survival.
Soon she was joined by the rest of team STRQ. Together, they landed just in front of the horde. Together, they sliced, slammed, cut, and punched their way through the black,
white, red onslaught.
Raven slashed through a pair of creeps that had been unfortunate enough to land in her path. Qrow hacked and cleaved through some beowulves like a farmer in a ryefield on harvest day. Tai mowed down some Ursi with his shotgun, while Summer cracked the skull of a boarbatusk against the pavement with her mace.
Together they began to turn the tide of the battle.
Now they had really gained the Militia's attention. Some of the impromptu soldiers even stopped firing to watch them fight. Others rose out from behind cover to join the third-year students in their charge against the beasts.
AAAAAAARRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
With no warning, a Basilisk barrelled through the other Grimm at great speeds before punching straight through the American's defensive line. As it did, two unfortunate fighters were caught in its path and swallowed whole. Basilisks were a class-4 worm-like creature that were the size of a bus and had a habit of lightning-quick charges before going underground.
Which was exactly what this one was trying to do now.
Before any of team STRQ could react, the Grimm was buried. Now it was a deadly game of subterranean cat and mouse. Qrow and Raven fell back on their training. Scaling some of the destroyed skyscrapers to get clear of the enormous worm. Now the odds were one against many as the Basilisk had foolishly wiped out the rest of its own Grimm during its reckless charge.
However, the rest of the civilian fighters stayed on the ground, unsure of what to do against the underground abomination.
As she looked back, a realization hit Summer like a hammer. The rest of them weren't getting to high ground because they didn't know how to counter it. She called out to warn them at the top of her lungs.
"Hey! Get to some high ground before that thing comes back! Hurry!" She screamed.
Immediately, they clambered to gain height over the street. But it was too late.
AAAAARRRREEEEEEEE
The Basilisk shot out of the ground like a rocket, taking the life of another unfortunate fighter with it. In flash, Raven had dashed through the outer flesh of the worm, injuring it but certainly not putting it out of action. Just as she did, Americans opened up on it.
Rifle, submachine gun, and pistol round did little to harm the creature as most of the bullets simply bounced off or didn't penetrate enough to cause any real damage.
It turned on her, using its massive black tail to slam the Branwen sister into a light pole, bending her spine backward. Back into the ground, it went.
"Raven!" Tai called out from atop a pile of concrete rubble. Anxiety and worry filled his entire body as he ran towards his incapacitated comrade. As he neared the smoke and dust created by the fall, he could hear the annoyed grumble of a very much still alive Raven beginning to rise from the ashes. In an instant, his worry was replaced with relief.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
"Of course I am. Now let's get back to the others. We have to take out that Basilisk or else we're finished."
Meanwhile, The soldiers had fanned out into the few buildings left that hadn't been destroyed. Whereas they had been on the street defending their home a minute ago, now they occupied windows and balconies across the street.
"What're we gonna do Summer?" Qrow wondered.
Summer looked around all across the street, from the destroyed restaurants and beauty shops to the militia hiding in the old rundown warehouses, to a bag lying in the middle of the street. One of the militiamen had been carrying it with them when the Basilisk had taken them. The bag had a bright triangular symbol adorned on its side.
A symbol that Summer recognized all too well.
'Caution: High Explosive'
She turned to Qrow. "I have a plan! Just cover me if it pops out again!" She commanded.
Summer lept from the building to go for the pack. Much to her expectation, again the thing sprouted out of the ground. Again the police and civilians pumped it full of lead. Again the Basilisk rushed towards Summer. The monster's jaws open wide as it loomed over the white-cloaked huntress.
Summer nabbed the bag, but it was too late, the monster was already right on top of her. There was no way for her to get out in time. She looked up only to see the hideous inside of the creature's mouth. It had prepared to dive straight into the ground and take Summer with it. In that moment, she could see the shock on Raven's face. She could hear Tai screaming at her to move.
She could even see Qrow mid-dash in a futile effort to save her teammate.
She closed her eyes and accepted her fate. Would the team be able to complete the mission without her? Even if they did, would they be able to keep moving forward without her? In her final moments, Summer prayed that they would.
BAM
It was the loudest sound Summer had ever heard.
She looked up just in time to see a white-hot fireball pass over her head. It slammed directly through the Basilisk faster than Summer could blink. Grimm smoke flew everywhere like entrails as the mysterious object sliced through and shattered the entire anatomy of the monster.
AAAARRREEEeeeeee
And thus, the Basilisk slumped over, dead. It was only a moment before it vaporized into an oily black gas before disappearing off the face of the planet forever. The blast of hot air that followed nearly knocked the cloaked huntress off of her feet.
What in the Gods was that?
Swiveling her head, she caught sight of a smoking barrel the size of a telephone pole. And attached to it, a beige behemoth made out of metal. "Southstar" was muraled onto the side of its hull. It was an intimidating sight to look at, even if she had no idea what it was.
Soon, more of these machines ventured out from behind the rubble and smoke of the battle. The hatch opened from the first colossal machine opened, and out popped the head of a soldier.
"Whoa…." Summer exclaimed. In awe of the machine.
"Hey! You guys are part of team STRQ, right? That foreign spec ops squad?" The soldier called out.
"Uhhh….well yeah! I guess that's us!" Tai called back.
"I'm Captain Auburn of the 881st Tank Battalion! We got rerouted from Kaysville when we heard you guys needed help!"
The rose huntress pondered on this for a second. So that's what those things were called. Tanks. No one on Remnant had anything quite like it. If they weren't in the middle of a war zone, Summer might have stopped to admire it.
All well. She'd just have to do that later. For now, it was time to link up with their newest friend.
"Thanks for the help! Can you help us clear out the rest of the area?"
"Understood!" The captain called out.
And so began the battle to retake Salt Lake City.
The sky was a sickly blackish purple. Dull. Hopeless. Mauve hued crystals dotted the terrain growing out of the ground like hellish mushrooms. Black frothy soil oozed across the land like molten tar. The only sign of civilization in this wasteland was a massive castle that stood like a spire for as far as one could see.
Within the castle, one could find a very intrigued, very observant woman watching the events of the invasion of America unfold. Although…"woman" may not have been the right word. This being was something far more sinister than just that.
A small black squid-like Grimm no bigger than a basketball floated just in front of her, giving the being a birds-eye view of not just one area, but several all at once. A light smile creaked across her face as she watched the carnage unfold.
In some cities, her forces were pushed back by the spirit and resilience of those wretched humans. In others, her wonderful creatures of darkness had run through their defenses like a tidal wave.
But she was smart enough to know the beginnings of a losing campaign when she saw one. The humans were starting to organize once more, and when they did, her job would become much more difficult.
"Seer? Tell our Grimm to pull out. I've seen enough." She spoke to the floating orb-like creature.
As if on cue, Grimm everywhere began to retreat out of the entire country all at once. This of course, prompted the humans to give chase. It didn't matter. Her creatures could disappear into the forests if she wanted them. The humans who were foolish enough to venture out too far would be turned on and devoured easily.
While it was an interesting development, even she had no idea where these entirely new continents had materialized from. How strange. Perhaps she would send some of her possessed geists to act as spies. Perhaps she could find an answer with enough information.
For now, though, her job was done. It was time to watch from the shadows and see what develops.
"Make no mistake, Ozpin. Even with these new humans. Nothing will stop me." She murmured to herself.
One way or another, she would have her justice.
Oh wow, this story got revived after a whole 6 months of it being dead. Why?
Because ASNL is dead and I got bored.
Honestly, I didn't really like how this chapter turned out, but hopefully, we'll get into something more interesting in the next few chapters