Chp. 55: Evacuation of Afghanistan

Kabul, Afghanistan

Kabul International Airport

Airfield

May 27, 2021

It was morning and after a couple days of travel, the students all made it to Kabul International Airport. The students were all looking around the airfield as Afghan civilians were boarding onto several planes and five Atlesian Airships with Atlas and British soldiers escorting them. Floating high above the airfield was the U.S.A.S. Monty Oum and six more Atlas Airships. The students soon walked up to Winter Schnee, the Ace Operatives, Penny Polendina, Cade, Private Henry 'Steel' Simon, Sergeant Cassandra Rogers, and Sergeant Alex Barker.

"Everyone, listen up! I'm sure you're all aware our objective is to evacuate this city. Here's how this is going to go; You'ra all going to be split into three teams. One will go to Bagram Air Base, the second will go to Jalalabad, and the third will go to Gardez," Winter explained.

"The following teams for Bagram are RWBY, NDGO, SSSN, and GRMA, along with Cade, Clover, Harriet, Qrow, and I," Alex said.

"The following teams for Jalalabad are JAAR, GUVV, BRNZ, and CFDT, along with Penny, Marrow, Winter and I," Cassandra said.

"The rest will go to Gardez alongside Elm, Vine, and I, until everyone is at the airport," Steel said.

"Are there any questions?" Winter asked.

Nobody spoke, and after a moment, Winter gave out her order.

"Then let's move out!"

The students all split off into their groups to their assigned tasks.

Charikar

Bagram Air Base

A half an hour had passed as three Atlesian Airships escorted by four Mantas and six Atlesian Dropships were arriving at Bagram Air Base. The Mantas descended and landed onto the airfield as the airships followed in and landed as well. Teams RWBY, GRMA, SSSN, and NDGO, and Cade, Clover, Harriet, Qrow, and Alex, along with several Atlas and British soldiers all boarded off of the Mantas. A large crowd of civilians all then ran up and gathered around the airships. Team GRMA all looked at the crowd more closely for a moment and grew surprised to see that most of these civilians were Americans.

Allen ran up to Alex as the marine turned his head to face him.

"Sir, most of these people here are American," Allen informed.

Alex turned his head to look at the large crowd all around them and then realized that most of them were all Americans. He runs up to a bystander as he turns his head to face Alex.

"Excuse me, but what are you all doing here? Shouldn't you all be back on U.S. soil by now?" Alex asked.

"We would be but the military had left a few days ago and left us behind," he answered.

"Not just us, but also millions of dollars of military hardware and equipment as well," another person next to him added.

Alex showed no visible reaction upon hearing that these people had been left behind, but internally he was furious that President Biden would recklessly condemn all these Americans and leave behind a lot of important equipment to the hands of the Taliban. He knew was going to have to report this to Keaton when he got the chance.

"We're going to get you all home today," Alex said.

Jacob, Kelly, and Ricky, alongwith Team RWBY all ran up to Allen having overheard that these people were left behind.

"What the hell?! All these people here were left behind to die?!" Ricky asked.

"Keaton and General Ironwood aren't gonna like this," Jacob said.

"Those two are gonna have a cow over this!" Kelly said.

Jacob turned his head and watched as Team NDGO started to help the evacuees board onto the airships. Everyone turned their heads to Jacob as they noticed he was watching Team NDGO.

"Jacob, remember that you're not gonna do some to NDGO," Weiss said.

"Even if they are useless bitches," Yang said.

"I'm not gonna. I just don't understand why that pack of stuck up bitches are here," Jacob said.

"He's right. NDGO hates non-Vacuans, this is a volunteer mission, and overall they're basically Shade Academy's version of Team CRDL. Minus the racism. So why are they even here?" Ruby asked.

"They were forced to join in on this mission," a new voice joined.

The two two teams turned around to see Cade who had been listening to the conversation.

"What do you mean, Cade?" Ricky asked.

"Team NDGO has shown zero signs of empathy for innocent lives and prefer to turn tail and run to save themselves. Director Gordon forced Team NDGO to join on the mission to hopefully soften them up. And if they didn't then they would not only be kicked out of the UHL, but also expelled from Shade Academy," Cade explained.

"And Team NDGO didn't want that, so they had no choice," Jacob said.

"Maybe this will teach them to be a lot more nicer," Ruby said.

The crowd around them suddenly started screaming and panicking. Teams RWBY and GRMA looked around wondering what was going on.

"What's going on?" Kelly asked.

"The Taliban! They're coming!" one of the bystanders yelled.

Upon hearing this, Qrow ran forward and turned into his corvid form and flew up into the air. He looked down below outside the base were several trucks filled with Taliban militants driving up the road heading towards the base. Qrow flew down and turned back to Human form and landed in front of Clover.

"They're driving up the road," Qrow said.

Clover turns around to face everyone around him.

"Have the AK-200s ready! Everyone get into positions! And get these people on board and out of the area" Clover shouted.

Everyone scrambled around the airfield as the civilians were scrambling on to the airships. The Dropships flew overhead as its hatch doors opened up. The AK-200s all jumped out from the Dropships and landed outside the walls of the base as they aimed their guns at the oncoming Taliban. The watchtowers had a couple Atlas and British soldiers on them. Teams RWBY, GRMA, and SSSN and several other soldiers were setting up barriers to cover all around the airfield as quickly as they could, in case the Taliban breached the outer walls of the base.

Everyone soon took cover and readied their weapons and waited for the Taliban to arrive while the civilians were still boarding onto the airships. The Taliban stepped out of the trucks and as they did, one of the Taliban soldiers readied an RPG-7 and fires a rocket at the outerwall blowing a large gap in the wall. As the rest of the Taliban started to open fire, the AK-200s, and the Atlas and British soldiers on the towers began to open fire upon the Taliban.

Jalalabad

Meanwhile over Jalalabad, Three Atlesian Airships, four Dropships, and six Mantas were flying over the city looking for a place to land. Team CFDT and JAAR, and Winter were looking down at the city from the windows.

"Where are the airships gonna land?" Britney asked.

"Yeah. There seems to be no large open space for them," Jesse said.

"I don't know. Let me ask Penny and see what she thinks," Winter replied as she then placed her fingers on her communicator. "Penny, can you see if there is a place to land our airships?"

Outside the airships, Penny was flying alongside them as she looked down at the city below. She looked around for a moment and then noticed a stadium closeby. Penny placed her fingers into her communicator and spoke into it.

"I have spotted a stadium down below. But it can only house one Airship," she informed.

"Copy that. We'll have to evacuate all these people one airship at a time," Winter replied through the communicator.

One of the Atlesian Airships descended downward and was barely able to land inside the field of the stadium. The Mantas flew down and then makes their landing outside of the stadium. Teams JAAR, CFDT, OBSA, BRNZ, and GUVV, and Marrow, Winter, and Cassandra, along with several other Atlas and British soldiers all board off of the Mantas as Penny then made her landing closeby. Soon after hundreds of Afghan citizens gathered with their bags, all eager to get out of the city and away from danger.

"Please make your way to the Airship in a calm and orderly fashion!" Cassandra spoke to the crowd through a megaphone. "We have two more Airships ready for you once this one is filled!"

As the Afghan civilians started to board onto the airship, an explosion was heard far out into the city, catching everyone's attention.

"What was that?" Jason Vine asked.

"That better not be who I think it is," Justin Vine said.

Winter turns her head to Penny.

"Penny, fly up and take a look," she ordered.

Penny takes off from the ground and flies up into the air. Penny turns her head to see where the explosion came from. Penny zooms into a street to where the explosions were heard and sees several a large battalion of Taliban soldiers along with an escort of trucks with mounted 50 caliber machine guns and explosives. And they were heading to the stadium.

"What do you see?" Winter asked through her communicator.

"Incoming hostiles with trucks and heavy weaponry. They're on their way to the evacuation point," Penny informed.

"Penny, see if you can slow them down until defenses are set up," Winter ordered.

Penny flews down towards the Taliban as they continue to make their way to the stadium. She readies Floating Array and powers up a laser blast. The Taliban then finally looked up and see Penny flying down towards them.

"شیطان (Demon!)" one of the Taliban soldiers shouted, pointing up at Penny.

The Taliban began shooting at Penny as she wheeves away from the shots made at her. She fires a laser blast from Floating Array at the Taliban, incinerating most of them and destroying a couple of their trucks.

Gardez

Meanwhile flying above the city of Gardez were six Mantas, six Dropships, four Air Buses and three Atlesian Airships. Inside one of the Mantas, Team JNPR and Rin, Ronin, Liberty, and Steel were looking down at the city below and couldn't find a place for the Airships to land.

"So what's the plan on evacuations?" Ronin asked.

"Yeah, because there is no place for the Airships to land," Jaune added.

"We're going to have to get these people up on the airships by loading as many as we can on the Air Buses, then sending them up to the Airships. We'll repeat the process until we have all the civilians on board," Steel explained.

"That might take a while," Pyrrha said.

"We'll just have to make due with what options we have," Steel said.

The Mantas and Air Buses descended down in the city as they soon landed into the city's highway roundabout. Teams JNPR, CFVY, ABRN, CRDL, and FNKI, and Rin, Ronin, Liberty, Elm, Vine, and Steel, along with several other British and Atlas soldiers boarded off of the Mantas as they were all greeted by hundreds of panicked Afghan citizens with luggage in their hands. A British soldier hands Steel a megaphone as he then speaks through it to the crowd around them.

"Please board onto the airships in a calm and orderly fashion! We will be making several runs back and forth to get you all evacuated!" Steel informed the citizens.

The civilians started to board onto the Air Buses as everyone else started to set up defenses.

"Set up blockades around the area!" Elm ordered.

The Dropships hovered over the roundabout as the hatch doors opened. The AK-200s jumped out of the Dropships and landed, then marched over to their positions for defense. As the teams of students and a few more soldiers were setting up barriers for cover, a couple gunshots were heard from far away. Everyone grew silent for a moment as they soon heard battlecries and more sounds of gunfire. They looked down one of the highways and noticed the Taliban with trucks slowly approaching towards them. The civilians started to panic, even more so as the Air Buses started to take off to drop off the first batch of people to the Airships.

"Get into positions! Hostiles incoming!" Steel shouted.

A few British and Atlas soldiers took cover and pointed their guns at the oncoming Taliban, while Teams CFVY, CRDL, and FNKI stood behind them all waiting for the Taliban to arrive.

"You wouldn't happen to know a tune for this, huh?" Neon asked Flynt.

"I don't know that anybody does." Flynt replied.

Author's Note: Just a handful of chapters to go. So I have decided to have them released every Saturday and Wednesday.