Glad to see you all again, well not see you but you know what I mean, this one took a hot minute, I blame my beta reader/co author, and the other project I'm working on, and college, and work, and everything other than myself
GOW
"When your talking giant ant's? Are you saying the size of a dog, a horse, a Grimm?" Vernal asked, her eyes sparkling in wonder.
"The size of a car. Some even bigger and just as tough. The solider ant's could deflect small arms fire while resisting most laser weapons. Plazma is the only for sure way to take them quickly without risk of injuries. The biggest of all was the Ant Queen, the length of three cars and just as tall, able to take any form of fire power including heavy explosives. Its spit was acidic and could melt armor or even stone if enough of it was coated to the surface. Plus she could shoot it at you from a distance," Navarro's hands were opened wide as if to provide scaling to the gargantuan size the Ant Queen was.
"How the hell did you get out of that alive?" Vernal was at the edge of her seat. She had never heard of this place called 'Kanses' or this country called the 'United State of America'. She was confused on how no one's heard of them considering how rare it is to have stable villages let alone cities in Remnant, someone should have heard rumors about these places, at the least. Then again she was being raised in the Branwen tribe where education and a rumor mill wasn't really a thing.
"If you asked my second, Miles, then he'd say I survived by pure luck. If you asked my peer Colwell then he say I survived cause death can't take me even if he wanted to. If you ask me, my will to fuck over the damn ant kept my heart beating long enough to use my sidearm and blow a hole straight through her eyes directly into her brain. The best thing I could do considering she had me in her jaws." He explained lifting up his shirt, pointing at two deep scars perfectly horizontal near his gut, cut deep into his flesh about a third of the way through his body. Vernal stared in awe at the wound, and further curious on the stories of all the other scars the man had.
"Bad. ASS! You just blew the bitchs brains out, just like that!? What about her guards? If she was a queen then she had to have guards!" Vernal shouted excitedly, her language causing Navarro to flinch slightly.
"Oh she had them. After killing her those guards were understandably pissed. The three of them charged me as I was still in the queen's jaws, trapped. I pumped a stimpack into me before reloading my Plasma Defender. I managed to get a few good shots in hitting one of their antennas. It started freaking out and attacked one of his friends but the other one kept going. Before I could shoot the bas-the bug chomped onto my arm. My grip was tight so I never lost my gun. Instead I squeezed as many rounds as I could melting him from inside out. Now the bite didn't get through the armor but the acid that came out of my gun did, plus now my arm was trapped in its mouth! I couldn't get my gun out and the last ant, the one that survived the little friendly fire, started coming. I had no guns but I still had my machete, but it was strapped to my left thigh. So, I forced my body, cutting myself deeper into the queen's jaws and sliding my arms skin off to bend to the side to reach it. When I did it just got to me leading to a melee, with one arm, no ability to move, against a giant royal guard Ant. Luckily, it was wounded on his neck so I let it closer so I could put my machete into its neck and sever its spine." Navarro paused, taking a breath, running out air from his story.
"Did you!?" Vernal demanded, needing to know how the story ended.
"I wouldn't be here if I didn't." Navarro finished with a smile before lifting his right arm pointing at the large discolored portion of skin that started from his index and thumb down to his lower wrist.
"Fucking. EPIC. How long were you stuck there?" She asked, not being able to imagine being trapped under hundreds pounds of giant ants, deeply wounded, and burning and not just wanting to end it all early.
"Hmm. I think ten, twenty minutes? When I killed the Ant Queen all the ants in the vault went crazy and started attacking them, full suicide style. Honestly, considering how many there were, which was over two hundred if I remember the count correctly, I'm surprised I wasn't there for an hour. Though that shows you the skill and effectiveness of the brigade back then." He said with a smile, one that Vernal recognized. A sad smile, one filled with fuck ups. She remembered the same smile on her dad before his head got cut off.
"What brigade? What even is a brigade, anyway?" Whatever it was, if it made him sad it was probably something ultra brutal and fucked up!
"It's a military term denoting the number of men in a single group. Sort of like how a squad is around fourteen people and how a battalion is on average eight hundred people. A brigade is around three thousand. I was a part of the Canine Brigade, though our numbers never reached that degree." Navarro explained, making Vernal frowned.
Really? It was just a fancy word for a group of chumps? Lame, why the hell did he see-
"Wait, you said was. You're not a part of them anymore?" She questioned, her mind spinning with interest. Did they all die horrifically and he only survived? Did they kick him out cause he was too soft. Did he kill them all cause they thought he was soft?
Navarro, she noticed, was hesitant. His brow furrowed and mouth twitching open and closed.
"Canine Brigade does not exist anymore. Its numbers have divided itself into two squadrons. One is called the Devil Dog's led by General Dylan Colwell. The other is called the Knights of Round, or just Knight Squadron for short. They are led by me." Navarro finished giving her a pointed stare.
"Why were you being such a pussy about that? You had me thinking about way cooler stuff. So, what your the leader of this squadron whoopti fucking do! They're not here right now so what are they good for?" Vernal brashly remarked, not understanding why he was being so sketchy about it. At her words Navarro smiled, which made her scoff.
"What are you smiling at?"
"Just the fact, despite your circumstances, you are still a child at the end of the day."
The fuck!? What's that supposed to mean?
At his words Vernal stood up from her sitting positions on his bed and walked towards, entering his personal space in an attempt to intimidate.
"Who the hell are you calling a kid?!" Vernal yelled at him.
"You, evidently." Navarro responded, the small smile still playing on lips.
"I'm not a kid! I've already raided and stuff! So by the law of the tribe I'm an adult!" Vernal's words had a visible reaction on Navarro's as his face shifted to a frown.
"You have? Did you harm anyone? Kill anyone?" Navarros asked, his voice laced with sadness.
"N-No, the more experienced raiders beat me to it but I still went so by tribe law I am an adult!" She said, flustered at being caught in her half lie.
"Good, it's getting late, you should go back to your tent," Navarro said, relief clear in his voice. Vernal scoffed but nodded all the same.
"Fine!" She growled, leaving the tent, stomping as she went
"You're welcome back any time!" Navarro said, as he opened the tent's flaps, the cool night air cooling his face as he frowned. The girl was still young and impressionable. Already the indoctrination runs deep and he wasn't sure he could fully undo it but if he tried nothing could he even look himself in the mirror?
Letting out a sigh Navarro looked up, his eyes passed the shining stars and then went wide.
"What the-"
GOW
"The flying fuck happened to the moon?" Colwell said, the battle was long passed and scout teams were all being deployed in search for the missing general, the ones in the base however had another concern.
"Our scientists are working on that right now, they're doing tests but the prevailing theory is that somehow we're not on earth anymore." Autumn said to the assembled generals,
"Another world? You sure the Zetan's didn't just destroy the moon while we weren't looking just to fuck with us?" Bruja asked.
"While I wouldn't put it past those little green bastards to do something stupid. Destroying the moon is not something I see them doing. Besides, it wouldn't explain those weird mutants, I've never seen anything like them before. Assuming that we are in some other world, the question is can we go back?" Colwell said.
"Elizabeth is sending someone over now to report the current findings and explain the rest of the tests they're conducting." Autumn said.
"And our chief scientist isn't coming herself because?" Bruja asked.
"She's still running the tests General." A feminine voice said from the door, the generals turned to take her appearance in, she didn't stand out too much, long brown hair tied in a braid slightly below average height and a lab coat covering her body, she gave a shy smile to the generals upon realizing she was the center of attention.
"Ah Megan, good to see you again." Colwell said with a smile.
"Um, Megan is my sister, General I'm Samantha." She said with a blush.
"Of course, sorry it's been awhile since I've seen you two and we have a lot going on right now, though if you want I'm sure I'll have time for us to get reacquainted later." Colwell said with a sly grin.
"I wouldn't mind, though I'm also going to be rather busy with the research we're doing." Samantha said with a suggestive smile.
"Speaking of research, what do you have for us?" Razz interrupted, annoyed at Colwell's blatant philandering.
"Right of course, the leading theory Elizabeth has is that when you activated the SHIELD protocol the mountain teleported to some other world, not only would that support why the moon is, um, broken, but the star's alignments aren't matching any known star charts we have from our records, we've also been doing rad detection around the base and it appears that the surrounding area has a lack of radiation."
"Hang on, are you saying not only is the sky weird but we don't have any radiation in the surrounding area?" Cornagi asked.
"That appears to be the case, we have equipt some of the search and scout teams with Geiger counters meant to log their findings with a request to test the surroundings every few minutes but with what we've seen so far we're not looking at a world like we know it."
"Thank you for your report, you're dismissed." Autumn said, she nodded and gave a quick wave to Colwell before leaving.
"This is insane. There's no way the old war government would make a defense protocol that would take us out of the country, much less the planet." Razz objected.
"I'm not as sure, if the continent would be obliterated in nuclear warfare it would make sense that they'd want to stay in a position where we would be able to rebuild." Cornagi replied.
"Then they'd have to have some way for us to get back right? There's no way they'd ever just ship us away from America with no way to return," Bruja asked
"The entire point of the enclave is the rebuilding of America after the war, there has to be some way for us to get back or this wouldn't make any sense." Autumn mused.
"Simple speculation won't help, the best way to get answers is by learning about the protocol that caused this." Razz said.
"Unfortunately I am unable to find any information on the program on any of the Enclave's servers, I fear we may never have full information on the SHIELD protocol." Eden said.
"It doesn't make sense, why was SHIELD in Raven Rock if President Eden can't find anything about it." Cornagi said.
"Even if it doesn't make sense we're stuck with this mess for now, if we're in a new world then I want the scouts doubled. Have them look for any locals,along with finding Navarro, considering we are another planet I doubt they would be friendly or be on speaking terms. As a secondary objective, find any fertile farmland, water sources, and edible vegetation, make sure they are carrying the G.E.C.K testing kits." Autumn said.
"We're going to need a better perimeter too, monster or mutant. I'm not letting those things close to our home again." Colwell said
"I can agree to that, we have to build a forward defensive line. Metal walls, turrets, robots patrols, we need to build a fortress around our mountain. All in favor of orders and suggestions being laid out thus far?" Autumn asked, every general in the room quickly voted yes.
"5/0, unanimous, this may be adjusted when General Navarro returns, none the less, all measures will be passed," Eden announced.
"You know, we still don't know what other threats could be out there. I propose that once the perimeter wall is completed we divert engineers towards the completion of Liberty Prime to better protect ourselves and combat our enemies." Colwell suggested.
"He's not wrong, we just had an army on our doorstep and we could use the extra firepower." Bruja agreed.
"Oh please, we know you've been trying to get that scrap heap operational since you took it out of the pentagon, I'm not even sure it'll work much less that it'll protect us if push comes to shove we should keep our resources to development of infrastructure." Razz said
"I see your point Colwell, but Razz is right and we don't have materials to spare right now so our first priority is getting ourselves sustainable, which includes foods surplus and a full perimeter encampment around the mountain, before we can work on any of our other projects." Autumn said
"As much as I'd love to see Liberty Prime throwing football-nukes onto mutants, you know how much I enjoy big guns, Colwell. Autumn is right. We need to get in a better position before we can afford to put our limited resources into a project that wouldn't provide stability or sustainability," Cornagi said
"A vote of 2 to 3 general Colwell's motion to put resources behind the reconstruction of liberty prime has been denied, this may be adjusted when General Navarro returns, is there anything else you would like to discuss before this meeting is adjourned?" Eden spoke.
"Just one more thing, how go's cleaning the containment floors?" Autumn asked.
"Cerberus, Kraken, Argos and Greyhound are leading soldiers through them and keeping things on the up and up. I'll make a trip to visit some of the scientists after the meeting and head down there to finish up since I'm not allowed to join the search teams for Navarro," Colwell said with a scowl.
"Good to hear, I want the base fully operational as soon as we can manage it." Autumn said, ignoring the sour mood Colwell had.
The general in question gave a quick nod before getting up and leaving the room.
"Are we just going to ignore the fact that he's going to go have sex with a random citizen in the middle of a crisis?" Razz asked, annoyed.
"It's Colwell, that's what he does." Cornagi said.
"He's stressed, gotta blow off steam somehow." Bruja agreed with a shrug.
GOW
Navarro, finally finished removing redundant or, potentially, self-destructive pieces of damaged armor, is now on rewiring. His hand moving frantically from one wire to next to check for damage.
"I need to get back to Raven Rock. We need to figure out what those damn Xeno's are up to." He muttered to himself.
His thoughts were interrupted by the opening of his tent flap, turning around quickly he saw a familiar face.
"Settling in well?" Raven asked.
"Well as I can be," Navarro replied, glancing at her occasionally as he messed with the wires.
"I hope Vernal didn't bother you too much, children get curious about things that they don't know." She said, taking a seat on his bed.
"She was fine, a bit rougher than I liked but considering her upbringing I'm not surprised. Sharp though, notices small details well. ." Navarro said.
"That she is, she's got more potential than that too, why the next raid we do I think I'll let her take point," Raven said, Navarro freezing at her words.
"Like you said, she's sharp, she should be able to keep herself alive and lead the way for the rest of the tribe. It's not like there's anyone who could fight back in any of the nearby towns." Navarro kept still so Raven continued.
"It'd be a great way to prove her worth, her strength, as only the strong and able earn their place here. She's been coddled enough." Navarro's eyes were staring at Raven, focused on her solely. The little smirk on her lips didn't escape his notice.
"If you want a test of strength, fight her yourself and see how she stacks up. Having Vernal lead the charge or even direct a raid wouldn't really prove anything." Navarro explained to her, fully turning to face her.
"Oh? Well I suppose you'd have more experience about this, wouldn't you. I wonder how many tests you've had to take to prove yourself." Navarro's stomach sank at her words.
"What?" he asked.
"Nothing, it's just so obvious how military you are. I should have noticed it earlier with how vicious your bite was but by then I wanted to see if your bark matched and so far I'm not as impressed." Raven waved her hand, acting as if her words meant nothing
How does she know? I made sure no one was around the tent when I was with Vernal. Hell, I should have seen her shadow, at least. It was nightfall by the time I mentioned my position in the Enclave. There was plenty of light outside to cast her figure.
"Moving on, I think I'll take you up on your suggestion. I'll test Vernal myself, see how strong she's gotten since the last time I've beaten her. However, being the one who now has left the leading position in our raid empty I believe it falls on you to pick up the slack. We'll discuss further tomorrow as we look over the maps for potential targets. See you later." Raven left with a wave and large grin on her lips.
"Well shit." Navarro muttered.
He was confident that Vernal wouldn't understand the significance of his position as an officer of the Enclave and she didn't. Laughing it off as being some bigwig who needed help. Not realizing how lucrative it would be to ransom him or use him as a bargaining chip. Thankfully, even though Raven somehow discovered this, she seems more intent to induct him into her tribe than use him. Which was good.
He really didn't want to get mini-nuked to oblivion.
Enclave doesn't negotiate with threats and they don't leave any potential information leak unplugged.
GOW
Ozpin stood, like usual, In front of his window staring out at his courtyard. His guest shuffled in place at the sight of this unsure if she should interrupt whatever he was thinking about.
"Um, you wanted to see me, Oz?" She asked.
"There's been a change in plans, we're not sending you to Vacuo anymore." Ozpin said,
"Why? Is Salem pulling out of the area?" She asked.
"No, I'm having Theodore send additional teams to the area to combat her advances, I'm sending you to Mistral, there has been an observed surge in Grimm activity on their southern coast that I want investigated, the CCT towers are also picking up an odd radio wave disturbance in the area that may be related to this occurrence."
"So you want me to find the source of those waves and the surge in Grimm? Piece of cake."
"Hopefully it will be, I'll have a bullhead ready to transport you to Haven in a week, Qrow was already on the continent and will meet you there."
"Aww, that's sweet of him but I'm sure I'll be fine without him."
"Maybe, but reports have shown the Branwen tribe has been sighted close to the area and Qrow didn't want you to go alone in the event they might be involved."
"Hopefully we'll have time for a family reunion after the mission, I have some words about child care I need to have with Raven."
"I'm sure you do, but the mission comes first, Leonardo will be waiting for you upon arrival as well, you three will investigate the Grimm activity and the radio waves, if Salem is setting up a station in the area, destroy it."
"You can count on me Oz, whatever's out there is as good as gone."
"And it should go without saying Summer but if the Branwin tribe is involved with her."
"Then I'll take them out and bring Raven back here to answer for what she's done."
"Good, make sure you're prepared and enjoy the time with your family." Ozpin said, Summer Rose gave a quick nod before walking out of his office.
GOW
Well, that happened, back to writing chapter 6 I go
hope you enjoyed and can't wait to read your comments on the story or in the discord 5B4kC2qSG3