Operation Black Dawn

Mission 10 - I FUCKING HATE KIDS!

September ? - 1995/1097

Seventy-Two Minutes before Extraction

"These fucking children. I fucking hate them so much. Are you familiar with the sight of some smug-ass, self-aggrandizing, delusional, chuuni five-year-old looking motherfucker who keeps pissing you off every microsecond you hear about them, hear them, or know about them? Well, that's how I feel right now. I fucking hate children so much. I'd pay good money just to see a smug-ass kid getting shot in the arm. More than once. And I swear to God, if I have to take care of Children, I'm either going to let them eat each others' brain matter or beat them to death myself. At least this time, UNICEF won't catch me dead in my tracks."

- Corporal Jan "Hino" Kowalski, United Nations Global Defense Initiative Medic.

WO1 Pyeong Chong-woo - Chernobog, ? - Dated ?

The first thing on my mind when I shot that little bitch was just me repeatedly screaming "I HATE KIDS! I HATE KIDS! I HATE KIDS!" and resisting the urge to run up to him and pin his legs with a bayonet to kneecap him. That motherfucker genuinely looked like he deserved it, especially with that surprised face he put on once I shot his arm. Again, I have to repeat my statements regarding hollow point. These guys probably have never heard of HP bullets, considering the kid clutched his arm and looked like he was in extreme pain.

But I couldn't get more shots out as that kid somehow threw smoke down and fucked right off, and left us with a message that was along the lines of; "DIE! DIE! DIE!" like some edgy kid who just discovered that you could actually threaten to kill people. All I could say was, "CRY ABOUT IT!" and laughed maniacally. I'm pretty sure Dobermann was confused as shit but also frightened of just how crazy I was. "EAT A DICK, LITTLE SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!" Were the next set of words coming out of my mouth as I jumped out of cover, like a maniac as always, and continued my bayonet spree now that the little shit sent his army of sycophants after us.

I'm pretty sure I kneecapped one when they tried to launch an arrow at me. The guy fell down and let go of his arrow, which hit another guy in the eye, causing another person to fall back and accidentally dismember another one while flailing eyeless. And I ended the dismembered guy's misery with two quick shots to the head so he didn't have to feel anything anymore.

However, I heard a scream from one of my teammates that went a little bit like this;

"WATCH OUT!"

And then as I was turning my head, an arrow landed on my nape. Well, near it, at least. Unfortunately, it didn't deflect off my helmet, but the lucky bastard who shot it arced it properly and hit me from the unexposed parts of a PASGT helmet.

And guess what?

It did jackshit.

Sure, I felt increasing pain, but it was just a flesh wound. We've seen far worse and survived far worse as GDI soldiers. Just one arrow wasn't enough to kill us, nor one burst of an automatic rifle. Why, it'd take more than one stab to even kill me! So, I turned around, with the most angry look imaginable, and let adrenaline take control of my muscles. I'm pretty sure I jogged close to thirty kilometers an hour. That's how fucking pissed I was. So pissed I landed in front of him in just a few seconds and immediately impaled him via the neck and flailed the rifle around, decapitating him. On instinct, when I felt a presence close to me, I just turned around and slashed them diagonally.

And "them" turned out to be another one of these white-hood motherfuckers. Again. My mental state was already degrading fighting these people. I was entering an aneurysm just fighting these guys and then this thing happens? Well, I sure as hell wouldn't let these people live anymore. I've had problems with my desire to kill people for minor transgressions, well, look where I am, mister therapist! I'M HAVING THE BEST DAY OF MY FUCKING LIFE! AND I. HATE. CHILDREN!

As the adrenaline wore off, I realized that I was standing out in the open. I was practically within arrow range, and boy was I. There were also these fuckers who looked like vagrants, but they carried some of the most terrifying weapons I would've seen as a civilian. And they were all heading towards my allies. So, I didn't take the chance of letting them lose and retreated back to cover... Buuut not before taking several arrows to the back portion of, well, myself. Some pierced, some didn't. But they did jackshit to my overall combat ability. Even if I was bleeding so much that I'd be able to make drinks out of it.

I hobbled towards cover, joining that Dobermann gal in defending. I made my dramatic entrance by vaulting over a car and tripping, and then immediately getting back up within a split second.

I aimed my rifle at the fuckers who'd just decided to mess with, well, as you said doc, a mentally unstable pilot. I applied range time into this, as I immediately transitioned from crazy-ass man stabbing people with bayonets into an accurate and precise sharpshooter. These guys were also clearly afraid... Wait, what do you mean you want me to start elaborating on 'those guys'? Okay, fine. They're "Reunion" from what I heard from Dobermann and co. What, you want me to actually call them Reunion? That sounds like the name of a veteran's support group, not terrori- Okay, fine. I'll call them those.

Anyway, the Reunion bastards threw everything at us. Probably because their leader, Mephisto, was a whiny little dick-shit and threw, well, let me list them off; 1. Dogs. 2. Slugs. 3. Homeless-looking bastards. 4. Regular-ass grunts. 5. Drones. Annoying ones. The Dogs and Slugs took a bit more HP to defeat, but the Homeless-looking bastards and the regulars? Dead due to HP's effectiveness against flesh targets. The drones just needed like two shots to kill. I'm pretty sure I shot like, six of them already.

"Doc! How's your accuracy lookin'?" I yelled out towards the guy, the Doctor, who accompanied us. He turned to me with a smile on his face and his hands on the trigger.

"Looking great!" He responded before returning to shooting at the Reunion bastards. I had to hand it to him. For a doctor, he was great at shooting these Reunion bastards. Or, maybe, hear me out, he wasn't a doctor. Either way, the guy deserves a medal at the firing range.

"Keep firing! They won't stop coming!"

"Got it! To everyone else, continue assuming defensive stance!"

"ROGER!"

Shots continued to ring out through the city as the guys who accompanied me started assuming an entrenched stance. With the occasional shot missing or failing to penetrate, I just simply had no qualms with murdering whatever these Reunion bastards threw at me.

"DOC!"

"WHAT?!"

"MAG!"

I tossed a 5.56 magazine at him, the magazine being caught nearly immediately as soon as it nearly landed towards him. He loaded it and pulled the charging handle rather quickly. The guy probably worked with guns, now that I think about it.

"Alright, now keep shooting!"

I kept my guard up as I turned my head back to face these Reunion bastards and... well, you've already heard me talk about how much I want to tear them from limb to limb, so I'll cut it short here and say that whatever I had done, I had done so with precise accuracy and a lot of reloading. But, even I was starting to feel tired from all this gunfighting and nonsense like that. I wanted a way out of here. However, even though I did have my radio with me, I was, at the time, not sure if I had a signal or not considering, well, I just crashed. I really doubted that I'd have enough signal. And if I knew Global Operations HQ was out, I'd be even more pissed than regularly since I barely had any support. Not even morale support.

And our support took their sweet time coming towards us. Probably because they were also dealing with other bullshit that accompanied this dumbshit 'moving city'.

"WHERE THE HELL IS NEARL?!" The Doc asked, popping out of cover and retaliating at the occasional Reunion grunt accompanied by a sudden burst of rifle fire.

I turned my head and was about to answer that question, when... well, you're the one examining my state after this whole shebang, doc. My head obviously didn't look good.

I got fuckin' shot in the head with a crossbow. By some asshole who accompanied the dumbass kid. Who, by the way, looked like he was crying.

But yes, after I got fuckin' hit in the head with an arrow, my only logical bodily reaction was to fucking fall down. My head absolutely hurt like shit. And this wasn't the first time I felt like this.

I got shot in the head once by a stray bullet from a Nod Minigunner. Normally, here, head trauma was enough to kill them apparently. But back home, I've survived worse shit.

Ah well, my brain matter spilled out of that hole anyways. And onto the ground it goes 'splat'. During that experience, my head felt like it was dizzy as shit. You know that feeling when you want to wake up, but can't? That's how I felt. My entire body was pinned to the ground by itself as the headache and tiredness overcame me. It looked like I was dead from an outside look, but boy oh boy, let me tell you that it wasn't death that'd gotten to me. Just morning blues.

Now, hold on, Hino. Let me take a break first. I'll continue what happened later.

Instructor Dobermann - Chernobog - Dated ?, 1097

Dobermann recoiled in shock as their ally, who joined them probably out of convenience, was hit directly in the forehead with an arrow. The Medic recoiled in fear. The Doctor was startled, and everyone else reacted in stunned silence as the one soldier they met had just taken an arrow to the head. And stumbling back, he fell down. Arrow still poking through his head. He was dead.

And Dobermann didn't do anything about it. Not that she could, really. It wasn't exactly something she had expected.

"Fuck!" The Doctor yelled, reloading his ammunition. While RI had no real information about that... Warrant Officer, they were certainly shaken by his extremely sudden death. Just a few minutes earlier, he was on the verge of tearing apart entire hordes of Reunion fighters by himself, combined with the already-constant attacks by the RI operators. If he would've survived, Dobermann would've been conflicted calling him a Vanguard operator or a Sniper operator.

But that debate's irrelevant now that, well, the Warrant Officer was dead. If there was one thing Dobermann wasn't, it was squeamish. But just... she had no idea why this one stuck with her. At least for now. She'd probably had forgotten it under normal circumstances. Dobermann continued lashing out at enemy forces with a whip, with the Reunion horde falling one by one.

But, that wasn't about to let them give up. Mephisto had his ego ruined by the Warrant Officer interrupting him rather rudely. But, in Dobermann's opinion, it was well-deserved and funny. At least, when she came back to base, she thought it was funny. But, on the operation, she was fucking infuriated by his actions. If only because he was enraged and sent out an entire army group of reunion grunts back at them.

The Doctor's rifle stopped firing, much to the exasperation of the Doctor. As well as Dobermann. She stared almost slack-jawed as he inspected his rifle.

"SHIT!" He said, frantically pulling at the charging handle.

But then, the Doctor removed the magazine, and pulled the upper receiver open in one swift maneuver. But she did note that she saw him swiftly unscrewing parts of it. Probably the things that held it together.

The Doctor yanked a bullet casing out, and tossed it on the ground before putting the upper receiver back and re-attaching the magazine.

And when the Doctor ended by pulling the charging handle,

"I DON'T KNOW HOW THE HELL I JUST DID THAT, BUT LET'S GO WITH IT!"

The Doctor continued firing. Occasionally hitting a Reunion drone or a grunt in the process. The Doctor had undoubtedly great skills with a firearm, Dobermann noted. Maybe he had some experience with firearms. Maybe he just copied everything from the Warrant Officer. Who knows.

But Dobermann was certain for sure that the Doctor wasn't a Laterano. And neither was the Warrant Officer. She never found out if he was Infected or Laterano. It would've taken her a bit.

The Warrant Officer put up a hell of a fight before he went down, though.

And that inspired her, gave her a spark of an idea: use the Warrant Officer as a martyr and get his death to make the rest of the operators fight back. Sure, they didn't know him, but he fought well, and losing a warrior like that in the blink of an eye was just a bit too unfair.

"COME ON! KEEP AT IT! THAT MAN FOUGHT WITH US AND WE'RE JUST GOING TO LET HIM DIE IN VAIN?! KEEP FIGHTING! KILL THEM ALL!" Dobermann shouted. She was basically pulling words out of her ass at this point, but seeing that people actually started to ramp up their effort in fighting, for example, the Medic starting to treat faster and the Doctor reloading faster. She smiled, and she just had to keep ramping up her messages.

"THAT MAN DID NOT DIE IN VAIN! FOR HIS DEATH, WE WILL TAKE DOWN FIVE MORE REUNION GRUNTS THAN THE LAST ONE!" Dobermann shouted. They barely knew him, but Dobermann's insistence on fighting to make sure he didn't die in vain was a very heartwarming gesture, at least to some of them. The others were confused and some were slightly pissed that Dobermann cared about some random vagrant who joined them, but they did agree that the prospect of killing more Reunion grunts was pretty appealing.

Terrorist Mephisto - Chernobog - Dated ?, 1097

Mephisto, for all he could, watched in shock as despite killing the man who offended him, the Rhodes Island operators still refused to go down, and were fighting even harder. Snarling as he continued to order man after man to keep attacking them, he just stared and watched as they continued getting cut up to pieces the moment they approached the RI operators. Faust knew how to take care of this, he always did.

But, no matter how much Mephisto threw at RI, it just wouldn't be enough. In theory, this would have worn them down and opened them up for attack. In practice...

"WHY AREN'T THEY DYING?!" Mephisto shouted, throwing a temper tantrum as RI continued to rip and tear through his own forces. All because of that fucker with the tan uniform. He was a nuisance at first, just being one of the few RI operators crazy enough to fight in close-combat. Then he shot him. In the middle of his speech. Mephisto's ego didn't take it well and was trying to spite him continuously after. He succeeded in killing him... but that just motivated the remaining RI to fight harder. Mephisto, really, pulled off one of the worst blunders available.

He tried to recoup this, though.

"CASTERS! MOVE TO C7!" Mephisto shouted, eagerly awaiting his Casters to use Arts on the RI stonewall. He expected a slaughter, that they would be killed instantly and he would come out victorious, to give out a monologue.

What he instead got was his Casters being torn to shreds by the other fucker with a gun. Presumably the leader of the RI group.

"FUCK!" Mephisto shouted, stomping on the ground. Still angry at such a loss. And he wasn't aware that it was going to get much worse from thereon.

As Mephisto stomped on the ground, his forces were starting to show signs of failure... in the form of getting charged and disoriented by a new enemy. One that he really should have expected, but did not, mostly because he was busy being a cry-baby and trying to get back at the RI rather than actually forming a competent battle strategy.

"What-"

"AAAAAAAAA-"

"OH SHI-"

These statements permeated through the air as Reunion forces were simply shoved out of the wayside by reinforcements. Mephisto's anger raged as his attempt at a well-formulated plan fell apart due to that one fucking guy with a tan uniform. That.. one... single guy...

Ruined everything. He ruined everything for Faust, he ruined everything for Mephisto. Simple plans don't survive contact when the enemy is brave and bold, unfortunately.

And as RI cheered on, Mephisto scowled.

RI finally got their reinforcements, and they weren't as disorganized as Mephisto liked. He rarely had to concede.

And he'd like it kept that way.

Instructor Dobermann - Chernobog - Dated ?, 1097

"You guys sure took your sweet time. I even had time to relocate the civilians." The voice of the cavalry stated. Dobermann smiled for the first time. There was Nearl! Dobermann retorted, feeling more vindicated than ever. "Sure, why don't you go make a vegetable omelette while you're at it?" She smirked as she talked about one of the worst foods on the menu of RI's canteen. Vegelettes. She hated those things, and so did Nearl.

"Oh come on!" Nearl also retorted, bashing a Reunion man to death with her shield. Her response made Dobermann appreciate the horrid taste more. Even if it was just because she threatened people into eating it.

"Hit 'em harder! Don't let 'em regroup!" The Doctor shouted, motioning his hand to the Reunionites, and thus, got Nearl to charge in like an angry rock that had only the option of murdering these fuckers in mind and nothing else. Dobermann snickered. Nearl really did like getting into dangerous situations, and coming back out of them covered in bruises.

"Miss Nearl!" Amiya was pleasantly surprised by the arrival of the cavalry. She knew Nearl would arrive, but not in this fashion. Oh, if only that poor girl knew. If only.

"I'm here. I'm glad you're safe." Nearl turned around to face Amiya, smiling, before she tore the head off a Reunion grunt by bashing his head with the shield. She turned around to speak to Dobermann. "Using the signal flare was judicious. Seems like you were all in tough times." Nearl then turned around to face the Doctor, who stared at her back as he reloaded his firearm.

"And you must be Doc."

"That's right." The Doctor nodded.

"Radiant Knight Nearl. At your service. Your chariot has arrived."

Dobermann couldn't see it, but underneath the hood, the Doc had the most shit-eating grin on his face.

After all, it wasn't all the time where he could shoot like they were trapped in a barrel.

Terrorist Mephisto - Chernobog - Dated?, 1097

"What's with these people..." Mephisto's eye twitched as he observed that another one came to replace the tan one in sheer annoyingness. The tan one was defiant enough to challenge him during a speech. Now this fucking Knight dared to challenge him?! Mephisto wouldn't have it. He would have his revenge. He would have it. He would come up on top, and they would fall! They should!

"SHOOT HER!" Mephisto shouted, and motioned for Faust to shoot at her in general. Mephisto wouldn't have it. He wouldn't get interrupted. He would have his chance to destroy the RI operators. Once and for all. Then he'd be free to do whatever he wanted! It was only natural that he succeed! Just natural! Or, at least, in his deluded mind it was. In reality, Mephisto's mind was slowly being clouded by the desire to show off. To get his revenge. Mephisto was blinded by hate, and it was only natural that his blinding would screw him in the worst ways possible.

As Faust took the shot, he expected the shot to take out that woman. But instead, she blocked it with her shield. The first time someone's done that. At all. Mephisto and Faust stared with wide eyes as she put her shield up.

"Take another shot! Now!"

Faust nodded, and was going to reload his weapon to send another shot to the woman when he got chills. Almost as if something he forgot to deal with would come back to bite him in the ass. He hesitated, fearing that something would come back to prey on him for his poor decision-making. And as sweat broke, Faust began to pressure the trigger. Oh-so-slowly.

And then only to flail and miss as bullets whizzed by his head, nearly knocking him, or just nearly hitting him. He stumbled on his ass, and retreated as other bullets began to follow him.

He never got a good look at who returned fire, but he did know that it came as a surprise.

And of course, Mephisto screamed in rage as Faust was forced to flee. For the first time, he conceded. And bolted away. Without manpower to support him, and without any more assets to throw at his enemies, he was left helpless, and thus, ends the coward's appearance to RI.

At least, for now.

WO1 Pyeong Chong-woo, Chernobog, Dated ?, 1097

I stopped heaving after I expended some more ammunition to the location of that goddamn Sniper. I just gathered enough strength after recovering from my arrow wound to the head and finally got up, only to be greeted by a sniper attempting to shoot somebody. Now, I was basically a patient just fresh out of the hospital bed. And oh boy oh boy let me tell you that every time I recovered from headshots like these, my entire body would usually be in mind-numbing pain, but considering it was an arrow and not a bullet, I basically had a more mild form of headshot syndrome.

The entire contingent of people I were with... well, they turned around and saw me. Standing there. Alive. With a hole in my head. That was still leaking when I just woke up, by the way. And all of them had the widest fucking eyes I've seen. Now, apparently, here, I gathered that they didn't exactly have ways to survive headshot syndrome. Because here was the aftermath of me merely speaking something towards these people.

"...Sorry, I had a headache." I just gave the only things I could say and rubbed the back of my pilot helmet. What I expected was the people to shrug it off and continue. What I got however was something along the lines of...

"How did you survive that?!"

"I-I saw you die!"

"...How is that possible?!"

"YOU'RE FUCKING BLEEDING FROM THE HEAD! HOW ARE YOU ALIVE?!"

I was initially confused with these questions and was thinking with half a brain missing, so I just gave a really blunt response for a bit as I had to do something. I really didn't like to speak with half my brain missing, so I had to go fix that. "Hold on, give me a second." I just said as I casually began to turn around, grab a piece of... you know, the grey matter, and turn around to jam it into the hole the arrow pierced. I felt my brain recovering now that the matter was back where it belonged. I expected that to be the medical procedure, but uh...

"WHAT THE FUCK?!"

"EW!"

"HOLY SHI-"

I saw one guy vomit, and the rest looked like they just rejected their lunch. Being the asocial idiot I am, I merely answered with a shitty joke. "Sorry about that. I was collecting my thoughts." I said as I finished putting the last of my gray matter into where it belonged. Yeah, in hindsight, Doc, I really acted like an idiot there. Even with my brain missing, I still fucked up basic interaction with, you know, basic people.

"WHAT ARE YOU?!" The Doc, the guy I handed a gun to, shouted as he pointed it at me, aaaand everyone else followed by pointing their weapons at me. In my defense, I just lowered my gun, and put my hands up. "I suppose you want answers about where I am from," I said, and I sighed. "Put the weapons down, then I'll talk. If not, I'll just take my words to the grave."

To my surprise, the Doc lowered his gun first. And everyone else lowered their own melee weapons.

"Right then, my first question. How the hell did you just... take that?!"

Oh boy, that's how I knew I was in for a day.

At least it wasn't with Drill Sergeant Dornan.

Author's Notes:

SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT Yeah I'm late. Sorry about that. School, Procrastination, and general other events of real life fucked my writing time. I'm finally beginning the end of the prologue and the start of the other parts of canon. Expect Canon to "slightly" derail itself even more as I throw GDI and Nod's antics into the story. Speaking of, I'm going to actually attempt to establish the background of the lore through some more notes. I have a whole religion drafted for Nod that I want to experiment with, and surprisingly it's Moderate and not Kane-Worship. I can keep my promise on that.

Also, the reason that the Warrant Officer survived was that I'm taking inspiration from Command and Conquer gameplay. Simply put, a simple burst doesn't exactly kill them, and it'd take a bit more than one arrow or one bullet hitting the head to kill a C&C-verse human. Bear in mind, I'm trying to adapt C&C logic such as infantry tanking AP rounds and taking more than 1 burst to kill a minigunner.

Happy summer (in Arizona), and I'll see you all in the next chapter! Seey'all!