CHAPTER 22: OPERATION CORNERED ANIMAL

1700 Hours, October 29, 2557 (Military Calendar) / Unknown System, Planet Remnant, Continent of Sanas

The Master Chief remarked at the unexpected size of this compound. There were far too many White Fang here; according to the intel he was going off of, this was supposed to be a place with a platoon-sized element at most There were enough Faunus to be a company-sized element. Something about this seemed off.

Perhaps the terrorists were quicker to reorganize and regroup than he initially thought. Most of its members were civilians who had joined the ranks. As far as he could tell, few had military training of any kind and fewer still had huntsman training. That meant none of them would pose a threat to him or his team. Although it would be tedious, he could kill them all single-handedly. Thankfully, a hasty plan had been worked out.

Because he was expecting heavy resistance, he was armed with firepower in mind. He had his trust MA5C with him and for crowd control purposes, he was bringing in the M7057/Defoliant Projector. In wartime, flamethrowers were considered highly controversial weapons. Even if an enemy was not killed, severe burning, scarring, and disfigurement were guaranteed.

However, the spartan was not concerned about such things. Whatever would help him destroy or demoralize the enemy was all fair game. His initial surprise came as he brought the heavy weapon to bear and unleashed a torrent of flames upon a group of unsuspecting terrorists. The intense flame immediately engulfed them, resulting in screaming and guttural roars of pain. After less than ten seconds, they fell to the ground.

A few others close by began to cry out for reinforcements. Temporarily dropping the flamethrower, John snapped up his sidearm to fire rounds into the head of three. His aim was on-point and he was rewarded with three KIA. When he did a rapid sweep to confirm no immediate threats, he picked up the M7057 and resumed the assault.

As he had come to learn over the past few weeks, weapons on this world possessed very little effect on his armor. Despite the seemingly outlandish manner in which Remnant's weapons were deployed and the seemingly unexplainable nature of how they worked, they were archaic by their nature of usage not to mention primitive, even when comparing firearm capabilities.

The Master Chief had to remind himself that these people were barely surviving in their world. The fact that they could not even get into space meant he had little to worry about in terms of weapons technology that posed a significant threat. Still, arrogance gave way to complacency. Complacency would turn into a loss of vigilance. He would not fall into such a trap, even if his fighting odds were extremely good.

The armored man saw one attempt to flank him from the side, a foolish move given that his motion sensor saw the enemy prior. In response, he swung the flamethrower with inhuman speed to smack into the side of the smaller foe. He then brought the weapon down to crush the body of the female Faunus, the sound of bones collapsing ensuing.

A shotgun blast echoed close to him. Xiao Long was in her element with the M90. She had become proficient with the weapon enough that was less a separate piece and more an extension of herself. Her expression was one of enjoyment, something that struck the team leader as odd, but it motivated her to do the job.

Belladonna meanwhile inspected the targets he had torched. For those that were still alive, she put one in the head to end it for sure. Her weapons were sufficient enough, but she needed better weapons, something he was reluctant to give her despite her still-growing dependence on him. He would evaluate at a later time.

The spartan saw a group approaching with weapons. In their panicked state, leadership seemed to be nonexistent. He swiftly tossed an M9 into the midst with practiced ease. Two bounces later, an explosion sounded. Six were within the 5-meter killing range, seven were within the 15-meter casualty-producing range.

With such a large group concentrated in a relatively small area, John relit his flamethrower and torched all of them, alive or dead. They screamed in agony, but he ignored their suffering.

From his peripheral vision, he saw Belladonna engaging a group of four in CQC. She dissected one from shoulder to hip. She did a backflip, sweeping one's legs from under him before stabbing him center mass. She then swung her blade in an underhanded arc to cut off the arm of the third before decapitating her. The fourth appeared shaken, a mistake that would cost her as her legs were cut from underneath her, followed by her throat.

Xiao Long was to his nine o'clock, doing what he could only describe as a dance. She fired at point-blank, creating a hole in one, then adjusted her grip and used the butt of the weapon to stun one before lining the barrel up for another kill. One tried to take her from behind. She intercepted with her own hand, then shotgunned him in the chest, blowing the man back. Another came from her side, which was too obvious, then he was down.

The Master Chief refocused his efforts on the motion of a much-larger group heading their way.

"Consolidate on me." The spartan ordered the two females.

They both moved to him on instinct. The three of them huddled together, back to back to back.

"Not bad, kitty kat." Xiao Long fed more shells into her M90 as she spoke. "Keep this up and I might not have to kill you. Your brothers and sisters can do that for me."

Belladonna's answer was simple. "They are not my brothers and sisters."

John did not move to silence them, only tilting his head to indicate that he had heard their brief exchange, then it was right back to the action.

However, before they could reengage, a sniper round appeared, cutting through three of them, granting instant deaths.

Rose. The Master Chief noted the direction and angle of fire. She's in position.

Two more shots came, both of them connecting square in the chest. Now all the terrorists were scrambling trying to figure out where the enemy sniper was, a terrible decision when the enemy in front of them could now attack freely.

The spartan used a combination of his armor and his augmentations to give himself a burst of speed to get himself into effective range for the M7057. The distracted Faunus was too late to stop a wave of intense flames to cascade over them. All they could do was absorb the pain and respond appropriately by crying out in agony. None of them had an aura, so they all pitched forward or backward, trying to put out the fire.

Those that weren't consumed in the flames were silenced with a shot to the chest and to the head, courtesy of Belladonna and Xiao Long.

"GET THE FUCK UP HERE!"

"HELL NAH! I AIN'T DYIN' LIKE THIS!"

"FOR THE WHITE FANG!"

"FUCK THE WHITE FANG! I'M OUT THIS BITCH!"

"STAND AND FIGHT!"

"THAT THING'S A DEMON!"

"DON'T RUN, YOU COWARDS!"

There was chaos everywhere as the remaining White Fang went their own way. Leadership was losing control of its people and that made all of them easier targets. Some were fighting back while others were running away.

Out of the corner of his eye, John saw a grenade tossed their way. He dropped the flamethrower, caught the grenade, and tossed it back to its point of origin. He then snapped his M6D to execute three headshots in quick succession.

He brought up his hard light shield, quickly checking his suit status. Finding no faults or otherwise critical issues, he brought the barrier down.

Xiao Long swapped her shotgun for the M319 and began laying down accurate fire on those who were stupid enough to bunch up. Despite her trigger-happy nature, she did well to maintain situational awareness of himself and Belladonna.

Speaking of their Faunus POW, she was using her unusual weapon to snag and entrap targets for one-hit kills. Her speed, maneuverability, and agility were respectable. Her style was clearly a holdover from guerilla training courtesy of her former comrades. Still, he was tracking her movements easily, even at a glance.

She has a good foundation for her combative ability, but when faced with a stronger opponent, she's liable to break under pressure. The Master Chief made a few mental notes to himself. That will need to be fixed.

A part of the spartan's mind told him that he was losing his bearing; the fact that he had even entertained the notion of training an ex-terrorist went beyond aiding and abetting the enemy. It was a betrayal of the morals he upheld and the loyalty that he had for the UNSC. He had been creating to root out and destroy terrorism.

His visor met Belladonna's golden eyes.

He motioned for her to regroup on him, only her.

She did so without missing a beat.

Halo - - - RWBY

1721 Hours

Ruby fed another magazine into her weapon, then picked up her weapon to move to another spot. Although none of the White Fang were even close enough to detect her let alone attack her, she wasn't about to chance giving her position away Snipers were always supposed to be unseen; that's what made them so dangerous.

Quickly, she scanned her surroundings. There weren't many trees around and the rocky terrain was difficult to get situated in. Although her armor was ideally suited to this terrain thanks to the more subdued colors, she wouldn't be too hard to find if a person stood a few meters away. Her camouflage game needed work.

The sniper girl hastily made her way to a decent position of fire, between an outcrop of large rocks that could hold her weapon and keep her profile low. Once she settled in, she began to dial into her scope.

She wasn't using any of the enhanced sights for this mission, nor had she used any others. The conditions of this terrain didn't require her to do so. Apparently, the White Fang wasn't smart enough to consider breaking up their human-like profile or wearing any sort of clothing that reflected the environment they were in. Basically, they all might as well be obvious walking targets.

Ruby spotted another, took a quick breath in, then squeezed the trigger. The weapon jerked back from the recoil, but she had mastered how to control it despite her small stature. Her aim was on-point and she landed the shot on the neck of the Faunus who collapsed and began grasping his neck in vain to attempt to stop the bleeding.

Another female Faunus tried to assist, a stupid move which resulted in another round striking her square in the side of the head. The former huntress hopeful snorted at this poor error in judgment. The girl must've had a close connection with the dude that was about to bleed to death. Oh well, combat didn't give a shit.

Another dead dude wasn't paying attention to where he was going and tripped and fell on the still-alive neck-bleeding guy. The silver-eyed teenager took her shot and the bullet connected center mass. The body collapsed unceremoniously on top of the two she had just dispatched. She forgot him and moved on.

Ruby noticed a large jet of flame nearby and she instantly knew that it was the Master Chief along with Yang and Belladonna. They had probably wiped out at least half of this company-sized element. They were making decent headway, but they weren't done yet. They couldn't let a single one escape.

On instinct, she aimed and pulled the trigger. This time, she managed to kill two. The first one took the round to the abdomen while the second behind her was struck in the thigh. They wouldn't be getting up let alone fighting anytime soon.

She let out a small breath, shifting minimally to ensure that she hadn't lost any mobility in her body in the event that she needed to pick up at a moment's notice.

The sniper quickly fed another magazine into her weapon, then pulled the bolt back, then allowed it to ride forward. She was back on the prowl.

Ruby once again shifted to another position, this time on top of a massive flat boulder. There she set up to wait for her next target. For the uninitiated or for someone who looked at her work from the outside, this routine would be boring. For one, she wasn't in immediate danger, meaning that there was no extreme adrenaline rush or stress coursing through her body. And secondly, she was simply taking shots at targets who couldn't stop her.

What wasn't so obvious was that she was having to maintain situational awareness all the while doing her job. With no spotter to work with her, she was having to be extra paranoid about her security all the while laying down accurate sniper fire on the enemy as her team advanced further into the complex. If she had help, she could more easily focus on her job.

Alas, beggars couldn't be choosers; this place was too fortified and there were too many people for her to take out efficiently, hence the frontal assault that was being conducted with her providing support. It wasn't the action that she wanted, but none of that detracted from the importance of her job.

Ruby was focused and when that happened, it would take the all-clear signal for her to snap out of it. Failure for her to keep her head on the swivel could result in injuries or the death of her team. The first time she had taken a life, she had come to understand death more than she could ever have as an aspiring huntress. That could be her, that could be Yang, and it could be Belladonna.

The Master Chief?

The silver-eyed girl couldn't see it happening. The man was something else entirely and She was willing to bet lien that he could take on a whole army himself and somehow come out on top. He was just that good in her eyes and even though she knew that her opinion of him was biased, there was nothing on Remnant that had convinced her that he couldn't do this job just as well by himself if not better. As far as she could see, training them and looking after them was something he was doing for other reasons she didn't know.

The sniper pulled the trigger in rapid succession, allowing two anti-armor rounds to pierce five targets collectively. Even with her talent as a sharpshooter, she marveled at her handiwork. Crescent Rose could've never had that kind of stopping power, although she had never tested the weapon out on actual people due to her previous self not wanting to hurt people let alone kill them.

Before Ruby could proceed to take another shot, she heard something. It was the sound of consistent paces or footsteps. That didn't make sense to her; there were no enemies outside these walls.

Then she remembered that there was one other enemy that she had to be mindful of.

An Ursa tried to cut her down but she was small enough to simply roll out of the way, but she had to abandon her SRS99. She instinctively brought out her sidearm and took aim, taking a moment to realize that a major had tried to get the jump on her. No wonder she hadn't sensed anything immediately. This one was sort of smart.

But not smart enough to beat her. She already knew how to kill this thing.

The teenage girl triggered her semblance, using her speed to zip around the back of the enemy, then slide between its legs. Using momentum, she kicked herself up and brought the barrel of the M6D right under the chin. Then she emptied the weapon into the Grimm. The HE rounds cut through its head and exited out the top. Then she got herself out from under before it collapsed. A few seconds later, it scattered to the winds.

That wouldn't be the end of the battle. Wherever there was a Grimm major, there were swarms of toddlers too.

Ruby keyed into the radio. "Alpha 1-1, this is Alpha 1-2, over."

"Alpha 1-2, this is 1-1. Send it." Despite the weapon fire that could be heard, the Master Chief was calm.

"Be advised, Grimm are approaching the AO from the southwest. I'm looking at a group of a dozen. I'm disengaging to secure our perimeter, how copy?"

"Roger that. 1-3 is en route to your location to assist with security. Be advised, the compound is scrambling. White Fang may be attempting to escape. If you see any, deal with them, highest priority."

Well, that made her job a little harder, but then again, it wouldn't be challenging if it was easy. If one thing hadn't changed since joining up with the Chief, it was her desire to push the boundaries of combat.

"Understood, 1-2, out."

Quickly gathering her main weapon, she braced herself to fight the oncoming pack.

Ruby fired, the anti-armor round penetrating through the skull of one and through the neck of another. She transitioned to another target in milliseconds, discharging the last round in her current mag.

With practiced ease, she swapped her empty mag for a fresh one, pulled the bolt back, and let it go forward.

The silver-eyed warrior could see more than a dozen incoming, but none of the scared her. They never did before because she was a naive girl who thought she could take them all. Now, she was scared of something much more deadly than the Grimm.

With luck on her side, one round managed to kill three, a lucky shot to be sure, but she would take whatever she could get. She began to take off in a run, all the while monitoring her aura levels.

Humans and Faunus are scarier than these guys.

RWBY - - - Halo

1802 Hours

The Master Chief had peeled off to deal with one section of the compound. He had ordered the two of them to deal with another section, what looked to be munitions and other important equipment.

Yang wouldn't say that she was thrilled to work with Belladonna like this, far from it, but maybe a break away from the big boss would help the kitty kat stop being so attached to the hip with him. Seriously, she was trying way too hard to get into his good graces. Trauma and brothers and sisters dying were weak excuses.

But she was pulling her weight, that much couldn't be ignored. Also, she did possess value beyond being a POW and a willing fighter in their ranks. Of course, her being in the midst of combat wasn't conducive to keeping her safe, but that served a purpose as well. She was known in the White Fang and her betrayal was all worth it when the faces of these wannabe revolutionaries twisted at the sight of her.

Beyond that, the blonde brawler didn't give a shit about these people. Personally, she was indifferent to the Faunus. Their suffering wasn't any of her concern and their successes weren't any of her concern. The White Fang was fighting the only way they knew how which she supposed was all they could do.

Still, nothing changed the fact that they were all about to die and the heavy weapons specialist was getting a kick out of it all. She had never thought that in her wildest thrills, she would get high off of the death of others. Ruby might pretend that none of this affected her, but it did. She seemed to have this thought process in her mind that didn't seem to stop looking at all this death and chaos.

Yang didn't bother thinking about it all. Sure, most of these Faunus probably had lives, friends and family, goals and aspirations, but she didn't care. All she cared about was getting her kicks with the adrenaline of combat. If a few people kicked the bucket along the way, she didn't have any sympathy for them. They simply didn't want to live as much as she did, otherwise, she'd be the dead one and they'd be still alive.

Cruel as she might sound for taking such a stance, she didn't see that stance changing anytime soon. It was a change that was looking to stick around for a long time. Killing other people had that effect, although, for most other people, it seemed like such an act leaned more on the negative side of things.

But if there was one person who might be even worse than her was kitty kat Belladonna. That girl was absolutely ruthless against her own kind. If the blonde teenager didn't know better, she would say that the ex-terrorist hated her former comrades.

Yang fired her M90, receiving a satisfying sound of a hole being made in the enemy and then the body collapsed to the ground. She swiveled to decapitate another, only receiving a click from her weapon

"Fuck." The setback was annoying, but she wasn't panicking.

She moved to feed more shells. One female Faunus tried to take advantage in the momentary lapse, a bad mistake because the combat junkie was a hand-to-hand specialist and this chick with a death wish was just a grunt. A simple smack with the butt stock had her down on the ground and a stomp on the neck was the end of that.

She sidestepped one with a knife, disarmed him, then drove the knife into the side of his head, not sparing him another look as he fell to his knees. Another attempted to jump her from behind, but she was stronger. In response, she dug her legs into the ground and stayed there, then kicked from behind before firing one of her shells. A bloody pool resulted.

It felt different fighting in armor. While the extra weight wasn't anything too tough to deal with, it made her movements a little bit sluggish, although not enough for anyone here to take advantage of her slightly slower state.

That being said, whoever made this thing clearly knew what they were doing. Yang would never call herself an armor advocate. Agility and mobility were her thing, but she could dig the big, dark, and scary vibe. Even with the brief glances of emotions from the White Fang, she could see that they were scared shitless of her appearance.

But compared to the Master Chief, she was nothing. She wouldn't admit it to anyone, but that man put the fear of the gods into her.

Another brandishing a sword went for a downward strike, only to receive a kick in the balls, then a shotgun barrel to the head, and then a boom.

Some bad bitch with wolf ears ran headlong into danger with a firearm meant for longer engagements.

…how did that make any sense?

Whatever, the armor-clad blonde simply disarmed and swept the legs from under, then blasted the chest wide open.

"Have a nice trip." Yang felt herself grin behind her helmet.

A bad guy with two daggers trying to act gangster went for her neck. She brought her weapon up to defend, then countered with a buttstock slam to the side of the head followed by the blood blossoming from the stump where the head was a second ago.

A wisecrack seemed called for once again. "See ya next fall."

She was distracted and a dude much larger than herself was able to get the jump on her, slamming into her and actually forcing her back. The brawler got her head back in the game, taking aim with her weapon.

Then a black ribbon tied itself around the neck of the target, who was then promptly lifted up. With his air supply being cut off, he began to suffocate, all the while struggling to free himself with no success.

The blondie merely proceeded to take his head off, prompting the body to collapse to the ground. Some of his blood scattered and found itself on the BDU's of the shotgun-wielding teenage girl.

"Fuck, that's nasty," Yang said to herself but continued to scan for more enemies. "Not too shabby, kitty kat."

Belladonna merely gave her a blank look. "...thank you."

Maybe this girl wasn't so bad after all. At the very least, she was pliable, which made things a hell of a lot easier.

"You good?" Yang gazed at her temporary partner.

Belladonna shook her head. "No, but I'll live."

"Hurry up, we still got bad guys coming out."

"Right."

The two of them hardly spoke to each other let alone trained with each other, but like it or not, they were the only ones that could be relied upon right now. No doubt they were superior to these White Fang cannon fodder, but quantity against quality was still an ongoing debate.

"Slingshot me." Yang noticed a wave approaching them.

Belladonna gave her a look. "What?"

"Kidding." Yang grinned. "That's stupid."

An explosion went off nearby, prompting the two of them to seek cover behind a piece of equipment.

"How are you on ammo?" The brawler began taking stock of her count.

Kitty frowned as she counted. "Down to two mags."

"Good enough." Yang looked over her cover. "Got a crazy idea."

There was enough cover for her to advance and assault the enemy. She was the only one with the firepower to cut a dent in their ranks.

"You cover me." The blonde motioned her helmeted head to her desired direction of travel. "If you shoot me, I will fuck you up. We clear?"

Belladonna nodded. "Crystal."

"Good, on my mark." Yang waited a moment. "...now."

The cat Faunus began shooting her weapon. "Covering!"

"Moving!" Yang got up and began to sprint to the next piece of cover.

Using her aura to enhance her speed, she slid to cover, all the while firing her weapon. At the range they were at, it wouldn't do much except wound at best.

The shotgun maniac attempted to return fire, only to receive a click.

"Fuck." Yang returned to cover to correct her weapon.

Pulling hard on the forend, she noted the shell ejecting from the weapon, then went to raise her weapon up again to find her next target, which was literally a guy right in front of her barrel.

There was a moment when two sets of eyes stared at each other.

Then she pulled the trigger.

Another bloody stump where a head used to be followed.

"Fucking dumbass," Yang growled.

This was taking more than a minute and frankly, these guys weren't even trying to come up with more creative avenues of attack. They had one of two things going for them. Either charge at the enemy or shoot them with no accuracy.

Whatever. They'd be dead soon, so it didn't matter.

Halo - - - RWBY

2300 Hours, October 30, 2557 (Military Calendar) / Unknown System, Planet Remnant, Continent of Menagerie

"We have all that we need." Corsac looked over the evidence. "Convincing High Leader Kahn should not be a problem."

Fennec regarded the video and image feeds. "Such barbarism against our brothers and sisters should be paid back appropriately. Atlas will get a taste of their own medicine."

"Agreed, however, there is no proof that Atlas is behind all of this." Corsac pointed to one image feed. "Although Atlas has the best standing military in the world and their ranks can be ruthless in battle, this amount of brutality is not typical of them."

Fennec's ears perked up. "How do you mean, brother?"

"Atlas plays by international law. Deaths in battle need to be as… painless as possible." Corsac placed his hands behind his back. "Despite the kingdom's stance on military might, they have to at least appear like they're complying. Perhaps there are instances of barbarism here and there, but largely speaking, they are not in the business of brutalizing their enemies like this."

Fennec nodded. "Then how can you be sure that High Leader Kahn will accept our plan to kidnap the Schnee heiress?"

"Because she cannot possibly deny that we are being unjustly attacked and because she has no proof either, she will have to make someone the scapegoat." Corsac stared into the candles surrounding them. "Furthermore, her position demands that she take action and she cannot sit idle for long. Sooner or later, someone will have to become a target. Why not make it the most obvious one?"

Fennec digested that response before asking another question. "And the rest of our brothers and sisters? How will they respond?"

"They will fall in line. I have already laid the groundwork. As we speak, rumors are already being spread about Atlas's supposed crimes. Whether they are true or not is irrelevant at this time." Corsac sighed lightly. "We will not be denied and once Weiss Schnee is in our hands, our enemies will not be able to pretend we do not exist."

For a moment, neither of them spoke, simply soaking in the events that were to come. It would certainly become much busier in the White Fang once the SDC lost its precious future inheritor, but such drastic action was less a question of 'if' and more a question of 'when.'

"A shame that Brother Adam will not live to see his vision completed." Corsac's expression was tight. "He knew what was to come."

Fennec drew in a breath. "Were it not for him, the White Fang no doubt would have broken long before now."

"Perhaps he would have become the next High Leader." Corsac looked to the ground. "He certainly entertained the idea before. Regardless, send word to the branch in Mantle to begin preparations. We must aggressive and swift and there can be no mistakes."

Fennec turned to walk out of the room. "I shall take my leave. There's much to be done."

Soon…

Now we're getting somewhere. It took a while, but we got there. We're getting to the part where y'all were wondering if RWBY was going to happen. Well, now it is. Once they assemble, who knows what can happen?

Thoughts on this chapter? Reviews and feedback are appreciated.

Thanks for reading.

Never forget those who lost their lives on this day, twenty-one years ago. Never forget the first responders who paid the ultimate sacrifice to save lives.

May the fallen rest in peace.

America remembers.