A/N

Couple things up here, I've got definitions of certain words at the bottom if you don't understand what stuff like ROE, BDA etc mean.

Also implied torture at the end of the chapter, just a heads up about that.

Also if any are wondering why I have British Apache's and not American when it's a US task force all I will say is to look up something called Jugroom Fort.

That's all up here, enjoy. ^_^

Chapter 3

The six pilots, four British and two American all walked into the hanger that was off to the side of the army base that was secluded for special operations done by the different Special Forces that were in this theatre.

The two American pilots were used to this sort of thing while the British pilots were not, however when they were directed to a small briefing near the entrance and saw three women in the room, two standing by the table and the other leaning against the wall in the corner.

Ruby watched the pilots coming into the room and stopping at the table looking at her, this was her indication to start.

"Hello and thank you for coming, my name's Bob, next to me is Bob and the person against the wall is Bob as well." Ruby spoke not revealing their true names as was standard with Special Forces.

"I've asked you here because we are planning an operation to take place at 0100 hours which is 27 hours away."

Letting it all settle Ruby showed them the map, "Myself and my team will be deploying in an hour to recon the area and conform the location of a high value target at this location, your roles are to provide support when we engage the enemy. I will be the JTAC and Commander on the ground so I can provide clearance for Danger Close, most of the fire will be Danger Close from the Apache's."

Ruby watched as the pilots took in the information, especially the Apache pilots who were new to this sort of operation, "The A-10's will be heavy support and for clearing targets which are either too big for us or don't have the firepower for. My call-sign is Panther 1 and that is the one I shall be using, I'll leave you to my second in command to answer any questions."

Pausing for a second Ruby added, "Ah sorry I almost forgot I would like the Apache pilots to have the reserve flight on stand-by as well for either a relief if the operation drags on or as an escort for our evac, we have two MH-60M Black Hawk's flown by Task Force 160, to deploy once they receive our signal, they should take about 20 minutes to arrive from the time of the signal to where the attack is, in that time we could be assaulted so I want you all to remain ready for quick supporting fire but otherwise that is all."

Nodding to Yang, Ruby turned around and walked out of the room with Neo who moved from her place against the wall to follow Ruby out.

Task Force Beacon had been watching the town since the night before and now they knew the support was behind them and was sure the village held their target, it meant it was their time to move.

"Alright let's move in, clear building to building until we get to the target building, air support is standing by."

Most of the team went to the surrounding houses in the village while, Ruby alongside Weiss and Yang both went towards the main house they were watching.

As they arrived to the door of the target building they heard gunfire from across the road, followed by Ren's voice going, "Red, we've found nothing. All the buildings are empty."

Ruby thought for a minute, empty? They saw people moving around and saw their target in this building and were sure no tunnels were inside as well.

"Keep searching the buildings, we'll breach the target building and we'll find out after." Ruby informed her team.

Ruby gave a thumb up to her teammates as they set up a breaching charge on the door while Ruby replied to everyone, "Go loud."

Ruby threw a flash bang once the door exploded inwards, and as soon as the flash went off she rushed inside with her weapon raised.

Her suppressed M4 fired two bullets, making two soft pops as the bullet entered an insurgent's brain that had a weapon raised towards the door.

Once they'd cleared the room they found another door leading further back and they kicked the door open to find their target sitting behind a desk, waiting for them.

Flanked by Weiss and Blake, Ruby started to approach the figure behind the desk.

"Ah you must American's trying to kill me." Cinder Fall's silky voice spoke to Ruby.

Before Ruby could respond back her radio blared to life as two voice screamed at once, "MAN DOWN." And the second voice, "CONTACT"

Ruby looked over to Cinder and just saw her smirking at her, causing Ruby to walk up to her and hit her over the face with the butt of her rifle, knocking her out.

Two minutes before, other side of the village.

Jaune, Pyrrha and Yang had just finished clearing the final building in the village and were looking around the house trying to find anything to show where everyone had disappeared.

Jaune saw a small crack in the wall next to a bookcase, so looking closer he leaned in and pushed the bookcase to the side.

As the bookcase fell he saw a long tunnel leading down and out of the village itself, calling out to his teammates he said, "Guys I've found something."

While he waited for his teammates he leaned forward to try and get a better look when something came flying out.

A bullet had hit Jaune in the chest, knocking him over and onto the ground just as Pyrrha came around the corner.

Pyrrha rushed over to Jaune, pulling him by his body armour out of the of the tunnel entrance, screaming into her mic "MAN DOWN"

While Pyrrha pulled Jaune out of the way, Yang who held one of the teams two M240L machine guns moved in front of the door and started to fire the heavy gun down the tunnel, bracing against the heavy recoil.

"CONTACT" Yang screamed into her mic seconds after Pyrrha, her voice almost drowned out by the noise of her gun.

Pyrrha checked Jaune for a wound but didn't find anything, but saw a bullet lodged in his body armour, just in front of his heart.

Breathing a sigh of relief Pyrrha brought her rifle up and started to fire down the hallway alongside Yang as she spoke to Ruby, "Red we found a tunnel, taking fire from people inside me and Gold are returning fire."

"Seal the tunnel up, that goes for every tunnel you find." Ruby responded back while she was dealing with Cinder.

Pyrrha looked at Yang making sure she heard before getting a block of PE4 out of her webbing, setting it up and connecting the control for a remote detonation she threw it down the tunnel, both her and Yang moving away from the tunnel entrance.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE" Pyrrha screamed as she hit the detonator.

The resulting explosion collapsed the tunnel and shot out rock and dust from the tunnel, once it was secured Pyrrha told Ruby, Jaune situation, "Red, Kid was hit but his body armour stopped the bullet, he's ok just the wind knocked out of him."

It took a few moments before Ruby responded, "Copy that, we've secured our objective but having problems with extraction I want everyone looking for tunnels and also setting up explosives around the village."

Once she heard everyone confirm they heard her orders, Ruby went about talking with the air support, "Ugly 2-1, repeat your last I didn't copy."

The British pilot told Ruby what he said before, "I've got a massing of armed insurgents about two miles from your location, currently they are just massing so we cannot engage."

Annoyed at the restrictions even though they all knew why they were massing, "Copy that Ugly 2-1, keep watch over them."

Not bothering to wait for a response Ruby quickly started to speak to the other pilots, "Hog 1-3, are you seeing the massing of insurgents?"

"Eyes on Panther One, though I'm in the same boat as Ugly call signs, ROE doesn't clear me to engage."

"Copy that, I want you and Hog 1-4 to do a show of force over the top of them and see their response."

"Copy that Panther One, commencing show of force."

A show of force would be a low flyby from an aircraft to warn insurgents on the ground that the next flyby would be a bomb.

Next Ruby started getting set up on the rooftop with her sniper, as were the others who had snipers were setting up and the rest of the team were in the process of setting explosives as traps.

"Overlord, target acquired requesting." Ruby started to speak but was interrupted.

"Break break, Panther One we're being called off station to respond to troops in trouble, leaving your AO"

Ruby couldn't get a chance to respond as the Apache's had already gone, leaving only the A-10's which themselves were going to be running low on fuel soon.

Cursing under her breath Ruby spoke, "Overlord, objective complete, need extraction we have a large enemy force massing and we need to go before they arrive."

"Panther One extraction unable to be launched at current time." A calm and stoic voice informed Ruby of the bad news.

"Why can't they be launched?" Ruby asked, avoiding proper protocol.

"No Apache cover available and they can't fly without top cover."

'Shit what happened to the relief?' Thinking for a minute Ruby realised what happened, they took both sets of Apache's for other troops who were engaging enemies.

"Copy that Overlord." Ruby said, informing her team to set up for a long engagement and getting those explosives ready.

"Hog 1-3 what are the armed group doing currently?" Ruby asked the pilot above.

"They seem to be planning and waiting around for something Panther One." The American pilot informed Ruby.

Thinking it through for a couple minutes as Ruby looked through her scope, checking around the village to see if anyone other then her team were around.

"Hog 1-3 I am clearing you and hog 1-4 to engage the massed armed group, I believe them to be in response to my team and believe that an attack from them is imminent, are you happy to engage?" Ruby asked the pilot, while it wasn't completely in keep with the ROE she needed to clear out that force if they were to wait in the village.

It took a few minutes before the pilot told Ruby his answer as they were clearly discussing it between the two of them.

"Panther One, we'll engage target but we need your initials before attacking."

Ruby smiled as she heard that and watched her team all get into defensive positions around the target building having set explosives traps around the village.

"Hog 1-3 I want shooter-shooter runs, I want CRV7 rockets fired onto the largest mass, with Hog 1-4 following up with a 30mm strafe to clean up those who avoided the blast."

"Copy that Panther One, shooter-shooter rockets and 30 mike-mike strafe. Setting up run."

As the pilot set up his attack run, Ruby warned everyone of what was going to happen and to prepare for a response.

Almost a minute later the pilot came back on saying, "Tipping in."

"Initials are Romeo Romeo, cleared hot." Ruby spoke back.

"Romeo, Romeo, in hot."

As the first aircraft dove into it's run, Ruby and her team all heard the fizzing sound that came with the rockets firing and could just faintly hear them hitting the ground.

The second aircraft showed how the aircraft earned its reputation, the large 30mm Gatling type cannon fired leaving a loud trailing sound.

'brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrzztt.'

Ruby saw the smoke and dust rising from the ground through her scope as she waited to hear the BDA.

"Panther One, BDA got lots of little pieces scattered around but run looks ineffective I repeat ineffective, looks like even more have started to climb out of whatever hole they came from."

Ruby heard what was said thinking, little pieces means dead bodies or at least wounded bodies either way it helped but hearing that it was ineffective didn't help at all.

"Copy Hog 1-3, are you able to do a second run?"

"Sorry Panther One, we've reached bingo fuel we've got to RTB sorry and good luck Panther One."

'Shit' Ruby didn't want to hear that, but knew she couldn't control it but now she needed the Blackhawks in even more.

"Overlord we have no air cover and a large enemy force heading towards us, we need extraction now!" Ruby said tensely trying to get something done.

"We're trying to find some air assets to escort Hunter in but there are none available at this time Panther One."

"Copy that Overlord." Ruby said not completely convinced but couldn't argue because they couldn't do anything about it.

Ruby and her team waited for another ten minutes hearing the same thing from command every time Ruby asked for extraction and in the end they were attacked.

The three snipers, Ruby, Weiss and Velvet kept the insurgents from getting closer and the traps that were littered around the village made them careful but it didn't stop them at all.

After twenty minutes of fighting and with no extraction in sight Ruby tried two different things, first she managed to contact the pilots of their extraction directly.

"Hunter 1, this is Panther One do you copy?" Ruby asked hopeful they were listening.

"Panther One this is Hunter 1, solid copy."

Ruby didn't have any time to celebrate as a bullet flew past her head, causing her to fire with her sniper hitting the insurgent in the head.

"Hunter 1, we are in desperate need of extraction, are you able to launch?" Asking hopeful again, Ruby knew they were in a better position to find out.

"Wait out Panther One." Came the reply as she could only guess they were finding out.

A few minutes later and a lot of gunfire Ruby heard a reply, "Panther One we are not cleared to launch, we have no top cover so they won't let us launch."

"Copy that Hunter 1, wait out."

Next Ruby changed channel to speak to command again, "Overlord I request once more that our extraction is launched."

"Sorry Panther One we are unable to launch at current time."

"Overlord, if Hunter call signs launch that will be against direct order correct?"

"That is correct Panther One." This time the voice was stern as her answer was given.

"Copy that, I'm activating the contingency plan. Launch Bone 1-1."

This earned a few moments of shocked silence from the radio operator on the other end but she still got a response, "Copy that Panther One, Bone 1-1 is launching now and will be in your AO in Two-Zero minutes."

"Copy Overlord." Ruby cut off the connection quickly knowing she didn't have much longer to wait and decided to do something stupid.

"Hunter 1, you still there?"

"I read you Panther One."

Ruby smiled slightly, these pilots were seconded to Ruby's team and thus under her command in a sense, but what she was going to ask was risky.

"Hunter 1, as I said before we are in need of extraction, I ask if you can launch without top cover and extract us, it will be against orders from Command, however the choice is yours I will protect you in anyway I can."

Ruby didn't hear anything back and assumed they were talking about her suggestion, considering there were six of them she knew they would all have a view on what to do.

In the time it took Ruby to get a response another fearful call came over her radio, "MAN DOWN"

Hearing those two words made Ruby freeze up slightly, but training kicked in as she started to fire more to suppress the enemy.

"Who's down?" Ruby asked as she killed another insurgent.

"Maple has taken a bullet in the shoulder, T3 she'll be fine for the moment." Ruby breathed a sigh of relief as Jaune informed her that the injuries were not that bad, yet.

"Hunter 1, we have a T3 wounded and I don't think it will be our last wounded, I need your answer now!" Pushing for an answer, even though she didn't want to.

"Panther One we will launch, we will be with you in two-zero minutes." The pilot replied, the faint noise of helicopter blades.

"Copy that Hunter 1, and thank you." Ruby said back.

Now that they had extraction, they only had to fight for a further twenty minutes and hopefully they would all get out ok.

Within ten minutes, almost half of the team had been either hit or nicked in someway, shape or form, Ruby was amongst these numbers having a bullet fly past her head just skimming her cheek, drawing a line of blood.

"Panther One, this is Bone 1-1, I am seven minutes out, how copy?" A deep booming voice spoke straight into Ruby's ear, shocking her slightly as she forgot about the bomber.

"Bone 1-1, Panther One I read you, have you been briefed?" Ruby asked the pilot.

"I have Panther One, will call closer to time."

"Copy Bone 1-1." The plan was if they were unable to get out or in and they knew Cinder Fall was there they planed on dropping twenty-four Mk-84 JDAMs with a 2000 lb payload each. The payload was enough to level a small town, so the small village would be more then enough to level the whole village.

As they further fought, pushed back to the target building and two houses just outside, they were able to hold off the insurgents and avoid any more injuries as a call came through.

"Panther One, this is Hunter 1, we are one minute out."

"Copy that Hunter 1, it will be a hot extract, I repeat LZ is hot."

"Copy Panther One." The pilot cut the radio as he focused on flying.

Ruby on the other hand was getting everyone ready to move to the LZ, Blake and Weiss were the two ready to handle Cinder Fall, by either carrying or dragging her towards the helicopter, while this was happening everyone was doing a fighting retreat to reach the edge of the village where the LZ was located.

As they all reached the edge of the village, they all took cover behind walls and a couple went inside a building and onto the roof to carry on firing, everyone running low on ammo by this point.

Once the first of the two helicopters landed and half of the team piled inside, including Blake, Weiss, Cinder, Pyrrha, Jaune and Velvet. They continued to fire from the helicopter to cover the second one landing.

Once the second helicopter landed everyone left on the ground started to fall back slowly to climb inside, but before Ruby moved from the rooftop an RPG fired and hit the wall just below her, causing her to fall forward and hit the ground, hard.

Dazed and unsure for a minute, Ruby's hearing slowly came back to shouts from her teammates to get up and get to the helicopter.

Running Ruby got out of the house and onto the street, watching insurgents shooting towards her and the Blackhawk, however the bullets were poorly aimed and they missed her but bounced off the helicopters armour.

Rushing towards the helicopter Ruby didn't have time to fire back as she carried both her weapons in her hands, once she reached the helicopter she was quickly pulled in by her sisters strong grip, and immediately the craft started to rise up from the ground.

"Panther One, Bone 1-1 requesting clearance." The deep voice came over the radio.

Ruby had got her senses back enough to understand what was being said and quickly replied, "Cleared hot, I repeat cleared hot."

Luckily the helicopter was far enough away to avoid the explosions but they would still feel the shockwave.

The bomber dropped all of its bombs on top of the village, from end to end. The thumps of the bombs hitting the ground and then the explosion as they exploded echoed and drowned out any other sound, and the shockwave caused the helicopter to bounce slightly, but the pilot was able to compensate and flew them expertly back to base.

Two hours later.

Ruby and her team had just finished their debrief, with Ruby's being longer then the others and the fact she was getting shouted at for disobeying orders but they understood why she did it and chose to ignore it because everyone got out ok.

That wasn't what annoyed her however, as soon as they landed Neo was waiting there for her and she was firstly, annoyed at her for disobeying orders for launching the Blackhawks, but also extremely worried about her being hurt.

This was unusual for Ruby, normally her sister worried yes but anyone outside of family was weird to her, which didn't stop Yang from teasing her about it later on.

Now however she was cleaned and had food inside of her, now for what would most likely be the worse part of her day, and it was barely 7am in the morning and she felt she could sleep for a whole day.

It was time to interrogate their captive, Cinder Fall.

Ruby headed to closed off section of the base and showed her ID to the guards outside it, and she went through to a building at the back of the compound, which held captives each room itself was soundproof so no one could listen in to what was happening.

Ruby met Neo outside one of these buildings, where they spoke a little of what they were going to do and how it would all play out before entering the room.

Cinder Fall was tied to a chair with a small desk in front of her, she looked alright but a doctor had attended to her earlier when she first arrived here, checking the damage Ruby had done with her rifle butt, which luckily wasn't that bad.

Entering the room, Ruby stood against the wall and to the side, while Neo went right in front of Cinder with the desk in the way.

"So Cinder, would you like to tell us where your leader, Adam Taurus is hiding out?" Neo asked with a soft voice, trying to make it easy on Cinder.

"I don't know where he is." Cinder replied, venom entering her voice as she spoke.

Neo shook her head in response, "Everyone in the intelligence community knows that you know where Adam is located, please just make this easier on us." Almost pleading with Cinder to cooperate with her.

In response Cinder just spat at Neo's face, chasing the short girl to flinch back and wipe the spit off her face.

Neo however didn't look angry, just sad as she nodded to Ruby, and pulling out a pair of fabric scissors.

Ruby frowned not happy that they had to do this, but they needed to get the answers from Cinder and quickly if only to prevent what intelligence was telling them of an imminent attack.

Ruby picked up a car battery and a number of jumper cables, bringing them over to the desk sitting in front of Cinder and Neo.

Neo however was busy cutting Cinder's red dress off, exposing her whole body to the cold air inside the room.

Ruby set up the jumper cables and put the two together, generating a small spark, speaking for the first time since entering the room Ruby says, "Last chance Cinder, tell us where he is and we won't have to do this, and you get a fair trial in the US."

Cinder started to look slightly worried at the actions the two women were taking but remained strong, "I won't tell you where he is."

Ruby and Neo both sighed, annoyed at what they were forced to do, but they knew the needs of the many outweigh the needs of a few.

A/N

Call signs plus other things I have used, (This is mostly from reading military books, namely 'Fire Strike 7/9')

Ugly (2-1, 2-2: Apache (UK)

Hog (1-3, 1-4): A-10

Hunter (1 and 2): Blackhawk helicopter

Bone (1-1)" B-1B Lancer Bomber

ROE: Rules of engagement

AO: Area of Operation

BDA: Battle damage assessment

Bingo fuel: lowest fuel before they need to return to base.

RTB: Return to base

LZ: Landing Zone

CAS: Close air support.

T1- means serious injury and if you don't get that person into an operation room within an hour (golden hour) the chances of them surviving are very slim.

T2- means serious injury however is able to wait a short time before transport.

T3- Walking wounded, is able to wait for medical attention.

T4- Dead.

Ok so two other notes, I have two chapters planned out but as of right now I haven't even started it and as I'm going back to college tomorrow I'm not sure when I'll be writing, and also in a week and a half it's my birthday so I will have hopefully a number of models to paint and build ready for a game with my friends that I have planned in about half a month. (Warhammer 40,000 for those who are curious) So updates for this story and Suffering in Silence are up in the air, as I don't know when I will be writing. Sorry.

Second note is about the implied torture stuff, which clearly happens. Now my view on torture is more or less how Ruby and Neo react to it, I don't like it whatsoever but I also understand the need of such a thing to happen especially if there is a chance of a 9/11 or 7/7 level terrorist attack and torturing someone to find out about it and stopping it, well I am not against it.

I don't enjoy writing that, or any sort of thing where someone gets hurt in ways of abuse, bullying or in this case torture, if you've read Silence the story I'm collaborating with a close friend. I'll be honest I haven't written the parts where Neo gets hit or hurt, because I'm a little uncomfortable with doing so, so I won't be writing stuff like that in any of my stories.