Operation Forging Steel

by licklicklick123

An American General goes to a new world with the simple task of setting up a military base, but this task doesn't seem to be so simple, when creatures of the dark, otherworldly human life, terrorism, and possible war come into play.

17. Battle of Shion: Day I

"Yo. Wake up, man." He felt his shoulder being roughly shaken.

Staff Sergeant Paul Jackson was shaken awake by Corporal Roemar Beltran. "Wh- What?"

His eyes adjusted to his surrounding, ah yes, he was sat in a C-17 alongside a hundred other marines, nervously awaiting the signal to stand up and attach their D-bags to the static line and make the jump.

"Major just said 20 minutes ETA till jump."

At that, he practically jumped, the drowsiness had left his body. "You waited that fuckin' long to tell me, dude?" The last time he was awake the Major had said three hours ETA, he'd been asleep roughly two and a half hours.

The corporal simply shrugged "I don't know, man, seemed like you needed it."

He leaned back into his seat, around him marines were doing equipment checks, some completing them already and putting their M4s back into their zipper bags and attaching them to their uniforms.

He couldn't believe just nine hours earlier he was giving a tour of American military equipment to some teenage girls, but sometimes, this was just what the job entailed, this would be far from the first time he'd been called on short notice for a very risky mission.

It had been quite the long flight, almost six hours since they took off from Juno, just a few hours earlier they had gotten word that the bandits would reach Shion before the F-35s did, meaning the marines and rangers would end up having to intervene.

He was nervous, that much he couldn't lie about that, but he wasn't scared, there was a difference. This would be his first mission on Remnant that didn't have the complete backing of the US military machine. Should they need evac, support, or reinforcements, it would a take a minimum of six hours for anything to get to continent, they had a measly nine total vehicle, three LAVs, four Humvees, an avenger, an Oshkosh, and to top of it all, their ammunition would be limited to the couple tons of supplies brought within the pallets of a single C-17.

They had also been warned that the bandit tribe was very likely to be more experienced than the White Fang, having existed as an aggressive, and brutal force for decades now, but that didn't change anything, he had a job to do.

Damn did he need a smoke though, a Zyn, a nic patch, anything to calm his nerves, luckily every guy in his MSOT had a stash of at least one of these, he himself had a pack of Marlboro blacks on him, he just had to wait till they got on the ground.

Around him other marines who had been sleeping were beginning to wake up, some were chatting amongst themselves. But most were just checking on their equipment.

"Hmm hmm hmm mmm."

Beside him, Staff Sergeant Griggs was humming the Marine's Hymn while checking his SAW. Seeing as he had nothing else to do, he sang it as Griggs hummed.

"From the halls of Montezuma to shores of Tripoli…"

Corporal Beltrain joined him. "We fight out country's battles in the air, on land, and sea." They sing together.

They all probably looked like the biggest boots on the planet right now, but that didn't matter, it was something to do instead of just sitting on his ass and getting nervous. Marines around them, heard them, deciding to join them.

"First to fight for right and freedom-" Even more joined now.

"And to keep our honor~ clean." Came the chorus of over thirty marines now. They were loud enough for the whole plane to hear them, many chuckled at the antics but they joined in nonetheless.

"We are proud to claim the title of United States Marine!" Almost every marine in the C-17 sang the final line to the first verse, Griggs was smiling ear to ear at what he had started.

"OU tFfds flags TGunfuRledfds FGG." Came the garbled mess of the marines, it seemed like a lot of them hadn't memorized the hymn past the first verse. The singing turned into massive collection of laughter, even their major was laughing.

Just like that, the nervous air around everyone had disappeared, they all were now openly talking with their fellow marine, acting like they were not on a risky mission.

---

"Please don't go home, just yet! We still have more surprises for you" The Mayor of Shion shouted out from her place on the stage, she did her best to smile, around her food stalls were packed with people lining up. Others watched her on stage.

But she noticed a few people making there way to village, they all shared the same features, they had elderly with them, kids who were ready for bedtime and more, it was just reaching midnight already, she couldn't blame them, but it was crucial they stayed, if they came back to town, plain and simple.

A few people turned back around when they heard her say she still had surprises. She really didn't. The excuse she made for everyone to come to the campsite was an impromptu night-time festival, she paid a dozen different people to set up stalls, but because it was extremely short notice she had to pay them exorbitant amounts, the coffers of Shion that were once lined with nearly a million lien was reduced to nearly nothing just to set this all this up, she had a raffle planned for 12am for someone could win fifty thousand lien, multiple games, and more. She absolutely needed everyone to stay.

The perks of this being a festival meant that even the kids wanted to go. But absolutely nothing would make every single man, woman, and child in Shion drop whatever they were doing and attend, she had people sign an attendance form on entry, and after having her assistant count it, only around 70% of Shion's population had attended, amounting to just over 800 people. She had visibly identified at least a hundred of them go home already as the night grew late, so there were even less now who could be saved. She even had the majority of the village militia remain in Shion proper to at the very least slow down the Branwens.

It still broke her heart that at least 400 of her citizens would be left the wolves, and now she could see a few people beginning to leave the festival, she couldn't have that.

"If you leave now, you'll miss all the prizes you could win at the raffle, just wait twenty more minutes!" She breathed a sigh of relief as a few of the people who were leaving turned back around.

"What's that?" She heard a citizen say, he was looking to southeast of Shion.

The campsite was a little less than a mile from Shion, situated on a relatively tall hill where one could get a beautiful site of all the places around it, forests, plains, and most importantly, Shion itself. The same Shion where if one were to look east of it, eerily close to the town now, you could see the familiar lights of torches.

Her eyes widened, her stomach churned, those weren't Americans, the General's aide had told her his troops would be coming from the sky. Those were the Branwens.

Her assistant, Sky, seemed to realize this fact, she practically ran up to the mayor. "Where are the Americans!" She loudly whispered.

The mayor could barely speak, her rate of breath reached a peak, as sounds around her began to muffle, her sight began to Blur.

Screams could then be heard in the distance as the torchlights reached the town. The Americans estimated that about a hundred Branwens were sent, there were exactly 32 village militia.

Around her the festival goers screamed in return, all seeming to immediately understand what was happening.

"I left my kids there!"

"My mom's in a wheelchair at home. I need to get back."

Some tried to come back to the village to protect whatever family or friend they had but were immediately body blocked by some of the few militiamen that were here at the festival.

The mayor collected herself from the panic attack that was almost beginning to take hold her, right now her people needed her.

"Everyone calm down! Now is not the time to return to the village, you will not Survive! Stay here!"

A man pushed through the crowd, a dagger drawn, he looked the mayor in the eye. "And just let my family die?! Are you fucking insane, ma'am?!" His voice laced with a mix of panic and anger.

He ran away from the crowd trying to bust through the line of five militiamen who were blocking the exit to the campsite, many people joined him, but many remained frozen fear, simply staring at Shion as the screams only grew louder.

And then, with no warning, a high-pitched roar came from the sky above. Everyone looked, all with fear. All but the mayor and Sky, both knowing what this meant. Seconds passed as the roar grew louder, they could now see three large shapes just above the clouds.

They were fast, faster than any bullhead she'd ever seen, they went past the campsite, and just as they did, shapes came out one by one from the bullhead like structures, it soon became a spectacle of hundreds of circles dotting the night sky.

"Help is on the way!" Yelled her assistant, straining her vocal cords, she pointed at the shapes that destroyed the nothingness of the night sky "Those are the Americans! Please just stay here!"

---

Plains of Anima, 1.2 Kilometers from Shion

0032 hours, Western Anima Standard Time

Jackson just about stuck the landing, his feet hitting the grassy ground. Immediately he worked on detaching himself from his D-bag, he unzipped the bag containing his M4 and holstered it. He looked behind as more soldiers started hitting the ground, as did LAVs and Humvees, and a single Oshkosh truck. He brought down his night vision goggles which every man on the ground for this operation was equipped with.

Already, he could hear the distant sounds of battle, screams, gunshots. He hadn't been in this kind of atmosphere since the war with the GLA, this would be his first true urban combat experience involving civilians since then too.

"Round up!" He heard the voice of Major Buckley call out in front of him.

He jogged forward, as did every other marine, forming a large group, they all listened intently.

"Alright, we don't got much time here, I'll just run over the plan one more time."

He cleared his throat "Alpha and Beta companies of the rangers are gonna split up, Alpha company is gonna link up with the civilians at Hill One."

Hill One was the codename given to the campsite north of Shion.

"They'll set up medical tents, establish comms with Juno, and get a perimeter set up, they'll also start transporting our supplies back up there. Beta company is taking Shion with us, platoon callsigns are Hunter 1 through 4, our job is to retake the village, kill or capture every hostile encountered, round up the villagers, get back to Hill One and wait for evac. Oorah?"

"Oorah!" Was the quiet yell of every marine, some Rangers behind them joining the yell jokingly. The major jogged behind them and hopped into one of the LAVs.

They would be accompanied by the LAVs for fire support, the Humvees and LAVs were to be used as not only extra guns but also to help transport the wounded, civilian or not, Jackson the second use would not be something that was needed.

Any surviving and able civilian they encountered was to be rounded up and told to group up at the plains where the marines and rangers began their assault, there was an MSOT that would remain there waiting for civilians to protect and eventually bring to Hill One.

The rangers loaded up into their Humvees, they would end up being the ones who got use the majority of them since they wouldn't have LAVs. The marines, in turn, only got three Humvees.

"(COMMS) Separate into MSOTs, fan out twelve meters, line formation."

They did as was ordered; Jackson took his position front of the formation for his team.

They were moving at a relatively fast pace, jogging lightly, behind them the LAVs and Humvees rolled past them, keeping at the pace of the infantry. They only had two LAVs, meaning they had to rely on the urban environment for cover. Ahead of them was a thin tree line, the border between the grassy plains and Shion itself.

"This is crazy, man." To his right, Leonard Edwards, the SARC assigned to his squad, shook his head.

"We've been through worse, we can handle this."

"I am chill, just been a while since we done this kind of thing. But hey, I'm always ready to pop a cap in the next fucker and help a brother out if he needs it."

Jackson smiled at that; every marine knew to respect the medic.

They had been running for a few minutes now, distant explosions rung out, those must've been the F-35s doing their sorties on the Branwen camp.

They reached the tree line, causing the formation of the teams of marines and rangers to break down just a little. The screams only grew louder. They were getting close; they could see houses just a few hundred meters ahead.

"The fuck they are doing here for them to be screaming that much?" Grigg's eyes narrowed.

"Those civvies are going through hell right now, boys, our job is to rescue them." Vasquez simply looked on.

They had studied the maps of the Village prior to leaving MOB Juno. The bandits were attacking from the eastern side of Shion, they would be coming from the same direction the bandits were, hopefully they could catch the bandits by surprise.

There were two large roads going straight through the village from the east, designated as Pave 1 and Pave 2 respectively. Rangers were supposed to take their Humvees along with two MSOTs from Assassin company and assault through Pave 2. The remainder of Assassin Company along with Devil Dog Company, the company Jackson belonged to would assault Pave 1 with assistance from the LAVs.

They finally breached the tree line, the houses were just in front of them, the screams were in earshot. In front of them lay Shion, bandits ran amok, rough looking men and women killing without recourse. Already, the bodies of innocents laid on the pavement in varying states of dismemberment.

"(COMMS) All Units, you are clear to engage any individual carrying a weapon." The voice of Colonel Burton rang through in his earpiece, that was the go ahead.

He could see just that, people holding weapons, the LAVs barreled through the road that was Pave 1, but not shooting. Around him shots rang out as his fellow marines started taking their shots at whoever they assumed to be a bandit. Bodies dropped to the ground; heads were turned to gory messes.

Buildings burned around him, bloodied bodies, the scent of blood and burnt flesh entered his nostrils, an unfortunately familiar sensation to Jackson.

"United States Marines! Drop your weapons! Drop your Weapons!" Commanded Vasquez, however, nobody seemed to comply."

A man with a mohawk who was stabbing a man to death paused and looked to his comrades.

"Shit! The fucking Americans are- " Before being promptly gunned down by a dozen different marines.

Jackson spotted a man with a machete chasing down a woman holding a baby.

That man would be his first kill of the operation, a new crevice introduced to his skull. The woman he was chasing fell to the ground, eyes widening at the sight of her dead chaser. Jackson ran up to her, shots still ringing from both hostile and marine.

"Ma'am that's not a safe place to freeze up! Get up now! Get to some cover! We're here to help." The woman, still panting, slowly nodded, inching away from the dead body of her attacker before running the direction the marines were coming from.

"(COMMS) Devil Dogs, check windows!" The major reminded the Marines. The bandits likely broke into the houses to loot and kill, but now that the Americans were here, they were using the homes as vantage points.

This was to be a slow advance, they knew this. They had to check every building in the way of the road, the goal for now was to simply stagger the bandits, push them back, advance till the village center where the town hall was located, and set up a base of operations there before then clearing every single other building in the village.

They rushed through the road, firing at any hostile they saw, processing civilians as they did, they were to be dealt with later. He made sure to check the windows as he did, they unfortunately did not have time to clear houses one by one like they did at Mountain Glenn.

BANG! In front of him a marine fell, his helmet rattling as he did.

"REEVES!" Yelled the man's squadmate.

Jackson looked to the direction where the shot came from and saw a hunting rifle peeking out from a two-story home.

The LAV's gun turned to fire., mercilessly gunning down the second story with its main gun, punching a huge hole into the building and turning the man firing at them into a bloody mess.

Jackson ran towards the marine who had been shot, two men had already gathered around him, one of them a SARC, there was no blood on his helmet, but he looked unresponsive, his eyes were open but unmoving.

"Jackson, focus up! His squad will handle it!" Called Vasquez, he was right, it still didn't feel right seeing a marine seemingly die like that, and it seemed like Vasquez felt the same, the look in his eyes said it all, but the Lieutenant knew they couldn't lose focus now.

They continued pushing down the road, firing as they went, as their first and hopefully only fatality was loaded into a Humvee to be brought to Hill One later.

"(COMMS) Start clearing the damn buildings!" Shouted their major, this was the plan after all, the advance would momentarily pause every 300 meters to allow the clearance of buildings, meaning between them and the town center, they would make two stops to clear buildings.

Orders were then given by every MSOT commander to form up into squads and to pick buildings to clear out.

Within minutes eight marine raider tactical squads were ready to burst into their building of choice while the remainder remained outside to defend against attacking bandits alongside the Humvees and LAVs.

Jackson's team formed up in front of a pagoda-like building, likely a home, it was two stories, its entrance being a closed sliding wooden door.

He took point, ready to open the door for the rest of his squad to rush in, usually he would have someone in his team prepare a flashbang, but they were disallowed the use of those for room clearing for the risk of civilians getting hurt.

With Jackson's squad lined up behind him and in front of him, he grabbed on the door handle and slid it open at full force, causing the frame to shake, he rushed in, the fourth other men in his squad did the same, their guns trained on every inch of the room, nothing.

It was a living room, with a kitchen area nearby.

The squad did a continued search of the room, walking fast with their guns aimed forwards around the area, minding the furniture and other things.

"Clear!" Finally, Jackson shouted out.

There was set of wooden stairs leading up the second floor. He ordered his squad to continue upwards.

They walked up the stairs, as they did, Jackson shouted "United States Marine Corps! If you are armed you will be assumed hostile, we're here to help, please drop your weapons!" They all reached the second floor.

Again, the second floor appeared empty, but there were two separate rooms, again with closed sliding doors.

"Edwards, Turner, with me, we'll take the left door, Guzman, Beltran, take the right."

As ordered, they separated and formed up on their respective doors. Jackon slid the door open quickly, and rushed inside with Turner and Edwards behind him, hearing the other pair do the same.

Immediately Jackson noticed a tall naked man by a bedside holding what looked like a machine pistol aimed directly at Jackson. Every armed man in the room opened fire. The man was hit an uncountable number of times in the chest, neck, and head, his aura breaking, as did his body, bleeding heavily from every bullet hole.

Jackson was hit twice on his Kevlar, he felt a small flick on his chest, a small caliber dust round barely penetrating the Kevlar, but it did damage the cloth layer.

The squad then continued aiming around the room, to make sure there was no other hostile within. There was a dead body, a man, likely a civilian, he was laid down on the floor in front of the bed.

"You good?" Asked PO2 Edwards, the SARC, having heard the sound of the bullet hitting his Kevlar.

"Yeah, barely felt a thing."

"He was fuckin' naked dude, gnarly." Corporal Turner laughed, holding a smile, Jackson had noticed this too, the man they had shot's pants had been pulled down, revealing his parts to the world.

"Why though?" As they discussed, Guzman and Beltran jogged up behind them.

"We heard shooting, you got a hostile?" Guzman spoke.

"Yeah, dude had his dick out too." Turner chuckled. "Didn't know we weren't the only ones who did combat jacks." At his quip, many of the marines laughed, except Edwards who simply stared at the bed where the bandit had been standing by.

"I don't think it was a combat jack, guys." He spoke in a quiet tone, but one just loud enough to be heard by the others.

They all stared at what Edwards was looking at, on the bed was a torn set of panties, near the dead civilian was a pair of shorts that looked like they had been roughly thrown.

Quickly, Jackson ducked his head, looking down under the bedframe, the other marines crouched down to look.

And there they found a woman, tears streaming down her face, breathing in sobs, set down in prone under the bed, as soon as she saw the marines, she let out a breathless yelp. The night vision goggled allowed them to see her features even in the dark, she was a faunus, dog-like ears over her head, she was naked from the waist down.

The marines stared on in shock, Edwards being the only one to speak. "Don't worry ma'am we're here to help, please just come out from there."

Edwards offered his hand, the woman didn't budge, simply continuing to cry "I'm not here to hurt you ma'am so please. "He said in a pleading, genuine tone "We're about to keep pushing into the town, if you don't come with us now, you'll be left here, it's dangerous, you'll be protected if you come with us.

The woman then hesitantly and slowly reached her pale hand out to Edwards, it was trembling. Edwards pulled her out and pulled her up as he stood, they both now stood up. The woman's legs were particularly shaky and looked to have blood dripping down from between them.

Edwards stepped forward "Ma'am I'm gonna need to check you." A shake of the head and she backed away from the man "Ma'am I'm a trained medic." She only continued shaking her head. She had the right to refuse help, and it was understandable. "Alright, but if it gets worse don't be afraid to tell anyone."

"You want to put on some clothes?" Edwards gently asked, with the woman nodding she walked over to the pair of shorts, she froze upon seeing the dead civilian, having likely been a loved one, her shaking grew, she turned her head away and quickly grabbed the shorts.

Jackson wordlessly turned a dial on his radio and pressed a button "Mystic, this is Devil Dog 2-2 Actual requesting for immediate escort of an injured civilian, over." Mystic was the callsign of Major Buckley, however he likely wouldn't be speaking with Buckley himself, instead with whatever comm officer Buckley had in place.

"(COMMS) Request received Devil Dog 2-2, Lancer 3 is on standby to receive the civilian, over." The radio blared out, Lancer 2 was the rear LAV.

"Copy, Devil Dog 2-2 out."

The woman was done dressing, Edwards spoke "Alright, now let's walk down the stairs, you can do it slowly if needed. They led the woman downstairs, nobody daring to speak aside from Edwards who gave words of encouragement as the woman shakily walked down the stairs, stumbling here and there.

They eventually got out of the building, marines gathered around LAVs leading a couple civilians inside, one of them looked gravely injured, there were SARCs waiting inside each LAV to treat the injured ones, Jackson looked to his left, seeing about a dozen civilians walking to the direction of the planes, those were the uninjured ones.

The squad led the woman to rear LAV which already had its door open, showing a SARC bandaging up a massive gash on the leg of a man, while another man who appeared to be knocked unconscious, but breathing was sat on the opposite side of the LAV. Edwards guided the woman to sit next to the unconscious man.

He hopped out of the LAV, and the door was then closed.

"Jesus." Turner was the first to speak "Wish we shot that guy in the dick now."

"Shut up, Turner." Jackson sighed.

The advance finally continued.

Jackson scanned the area, there was a space between buildings where two men holding melee weapons were running to their position.

Jackson and Corporal Beltran shot at them, breaking their aura, and killing them.

The push to through the city was slow, methodic, and constant. A bandit spotted? Shot. Peeking through a window? Shot. Running towards the marines? Shot. Running away from the marines? Shot. For some reason nobody was surrendering.

They stopped again, buildings were searched, the one Jackson's squad had searched turned up empty, but again a few civilians were rounded up, the able ones told to walk to the plains, the injured ones moved to LAVs and Humvees. There were a few bandits held up in the buildings searched, fortunately no marine was killed or injured in these clearing operations.

They reached an intersection on the road, on both sides of the main road waited two groups of bandits, who all immediately fired at the marines as they approached, one marine taking multiple hits to his Kevlar, and a final to his knee, his leg went limp as he fell to the ground. His squad mate grabbed him and wrestled him behind cover.

The remaining marines at the front took cover behind the lead LAV.

A bandit holding a battleaxe ran at the marines behind the LAV. Jackson aimed with his ACOG sight, shooting three times, the first two breaking the bandit's aura, the last one going through her midsection, causing her to fall down at the feet of the marines taking cover behind the LAV.

They killed her. The LAV brought hell to bandits, a single shot from its massive gun being the only thing needed to break their aura and kill them, it fired in a fan pattern, killing every single bandit that tried to shoot it.

Vasquez shook his head as he passed by the incapacitated marine, his knee looking bloodied. One dead and one injured in just an hour of fighting, this was not good.

The night was suddenly illuminated by a bright red flash. Jackon looked up to see the familiar sight of a laser. That was probably the Avenger shooting an aerial grimm.

"Shit." Said Griggs. "That means they're coming.

Jackson nodded "But those are the aerial kind, of course they'd get here fast, will probably be a while before we have to deal with the ones on the ground."

The lead LAV shot ahead of the marine company, it had apparently spotted a group of bandits running.

They continued advancing. More and more it seemed like the bandits were no longer staying to fight, rather choosing to run the opposite direction of the marines. Jackson wondered if it was because they were scared.

It had been more than an hour now since they began their push through the village. They were almost at the village center now. They were supposedly close to the town hall now, if the Bandits were smart, they would have grouped up here and set up a final line of defense against the combined advance of the marines and rangers.

But instead of seeing bandits firing at them from the windows at the village center, or from behind the covers of the half-walls that surrounded the town hall, when the Americans reached the village center, it was almost dead silent.

"Holy shit is that it?!" Yelled Sergeant Guzman, as chatter filled the marine company. They were confused, had they really already finished of every single bandit? What of the ones earlier they saw running, maybe the rangers got to them, but that would make no sense, because they had also just reached the village center.

The major had radioed in to

"(COMMS) All Units be advised, reports from command state that thermals from FAC surveillance showed multiple hostiles moving inside the town hall three mikes ago. We'll have to clear it." A pause "Do not shoot at the windows yet, we've been informed that there are civilians inside the town hall."

"Shit." Said the now disappointed Turner.

The major hopped out of the LAV and spoke with the major commanding the rangers who had just arrived. Members of both service branches then began set up a perimeter around the town hall, occasionally shooting at stray bandits who weren't able to retreat within.

Marines around them were not liking this, they frowned, swore at this, a very risky clearing operation, a massive building filled with bandits, they had just watched one of their company men die and were still reeling from that, but there was no time to complain.

The doors to the town hall then swung open, out came three people, all three crying and shaking, one man, one woman, and one child. They had their hands up.

From the darkness within came two bandits, one holding, a pistol, the other, a rifle. Aimed at the civilians.

Every single soldier and marine pointed their guns.

"Easy there." Loudly called a feminine voice. "There are more inside, people of Shion I mean. And there are more of us too." It come from above them, at the town hall's balcony stood a woman with short hair, wearing a ripped shirt, red shorts, and arm guards.

"You shoot at us, or step one foot in that garden." She talked about the front yard of the Town Hall. "We kill everyone here." She spoke in a sardonic tone, but it was clear she was not happy about how the situation developed, wearing a frown on her face.

The soldiers and marines did not let up, keeping their weapons pointed at the bandits. Jackson could see the face of his major, clearly unsure of what to do, nobody expected the situation to turn into this. These bandits were smarter than they expected.

"We'll give up these three to prove we got a lot more inside."

"Go ahead." A blonde bandit holding a submachine gain told the three, who then walked towards the Americans, hand still the in the air. The soldiers directly in front of the three, lowered their guns as the family approached them.

But they were cautious, these men had fought terrorists before, they weren't against strapping bombs to civilians before handing them off to American soldiers.

"Search them." Said a squad commander. The rangers then patted them down.

"All clear, sarge."

"You have a choice, you know? You can all just leave." The woman simply stated before turning around and going back inside the town hall from the balcony.

---

It was 5:30am at Vale, or just reaching the time at Vale. Ozpin had finally been granted communication rights with the Americans, having, in the last 15 hours since he had been informed by Goodwitch, been rejected by whoever was handling communication on the end of the Americans. But finally, on this very early morning, wherein he had yet to sleep, the call to communication had been accepted.

He was in the control room of the CCTS tower, waiting for Kirkman to appear on the video feed. He had already taken his own course of action with regards to Shion, at this point he just wanted to clear it up with Kirkman to make sure the man would not order the death of his students.

The screen flashed white, before showing Kirkman in his usual outfit, and in his usual room, once again surrounded by many men on desks and computers. Even with how early it was in the morning, the General did not look the least bit haggard.

"Good morning, headmaster." The general was the first to speak.

"To you too, General." Ozpin simply stood, looking at the large screen depicting Kirkman staring back at him.

"Let's get straight to the point, why did you ask to communicate with us? And if my Cyber-team is to be believed you have relentlessly attempted contact…" he trailed off, seemingly looking somewhere other than the screen "Twenty-seven times in the last fifteen hours."

Ozpin's eyes narrowed, so the Americans were aware of his attempts at contact and had simply rejected them. No matter, that annoyance was for later to addressed.

"I am aware of your intervention on Shion, General."

The General's expression remained unmoved, but Ozpin noticed a twinge in his eyes "And… you're here to tell me to stop and that killing bandits is wrong?"

Ozpin sat both his hands atop his cane, shaking his head "No, I have realized a long time ago that convincing you on that particular moral quandary is impossible, in fact I'd like to commend you for your selfless decision on this matter."

At this, the General finally visibly expressed his emotion with lightly tilted head and narrowed eyes, almost confused "Is that so?"

"Indeed. Bandits run rampant in Anima and have been the cause for the utter destruction of hundreds of settlements on the continent since the Great War. While I might not agree with your methods, helping a village about to be destroyed is a noble cause I can get behind."

Ozpin let one hand off his cane and reached for the mug on the desk below the screen, taking a sip from his coffee. This was a genuine thought, he had been overseeing the protection and hopeful salvation of Remnant for over a millennium now, and it hurt his old soul to see human life be destroyed so flippantly, and it hurt more to see it be done under the likely orders of his former student.

The confusion left Kirkman's face "That's… surprising, but I assume you didn't just contact me to tell me that you agree with me for once, did you?"

The headmaster set the mug back down, he needed that coffee, the exhaustion was starting to get to him "Bandits are relentless, General, especially the Branwens, I know their strategy, how are your men fairing against the grimm?"

The General seemed to ponder for a moment, straining in thought, as if wanting to hold back, but eventually relenting "I will explain as is, however I trust none of this will reach the media, headmaster, more eyes on this will just inconvenience everyone."

Ozpin nodded, everyone in the control room of the CCT knew that any information communicated in the room was to stay there, and there would be many problem if they were to broadcast the situation of Shion to the greater public, emotions would run rampant, which meant grimm, especially if the news was negative, which based on the grim look coming to Kirkman's face, was the case.

"It has been roughly six hours since American troops intervened at Shion, at first our troops made good progress throughout the town, aiding civilians, and eliminating any bandits in the way, but the remaining bandits have taken shelter in the town hall with an unknown number of civilians and have taken them hostage. Grimm have begun assaulting the town, as such, troops have set up a perimeter around the town, but we're stretched thin and the grimm seem to only be growing in number. We have a temporary base at a campsite nearby where we're treating injured civilians and where we're holding civilians that were not in the initial assault of the bandits."

Ozpin just about came close to letting go of his cane in shock, the situation was more dire than he thought, and hostages?

"Why don't you just break in?"

"We can't risk attacking the town hall and having the bandits shoot freely at the hostages in retaliation, this is something we've dealt with before. The mayor's census tells us that the population of Shion is exactly 1313, we've accounted for 952 surviving civilians, injured or well, and 186 dead bodies."

Ozpin grimaced at that, what a tragedy, Glynda, who was sat next to him, listening in, looked on in shock, 186 dead? Killed by the Branwens in a short period of time. Such a loss of innocent life was not surprising, yet that didn't change how tragic it was.

"There could be more of either." Kirkman continued "Dead and alive that are unaccounted for, we have a few units actively searching the town. But the data states there are possibly 175 civilians being held hostage by Branwens, the ones let out in a gesture of 'good will' by the Branwens say that they saw many Branwens inside, numbers change per witness, but it's between fifteen and twenty."

Ozpin simply stared on, letting Kirkman continue.

"We are making preparations to send reinforcements and more supplies as we speak, but our ability to send men and material across continents is limited."

Ozpin could see why, it was already impressive how the Americans were able to field enough soldiers and material to thwart a bandit assault, he could only imagine how much dust- or whatever it is the Americans used for their aircraft, was needed for such an operation.

"So, out of a mutual understanding, and want for what's best for Shion and its citizens, and the reason why I opened up communication in the first place is that I want to state that any help is appreciated headmaster."

The headmaster was brought to surprise Ozpin did not think for a second on considering this, he wanted to help "What do you need?"

"Medical supplies mostly, most of what we're sending over now is in the form of ammunition, as the troops on the ground are running low on it, but our medics are also tending to nearly a hundred wounded from the bandit attack, and also tending to wounded soldiers of our own."

Ozpin nodded "I can field a few bullheads to bring over any medical supplies needed, please just send a list, I can send doctors and other professionals too, if needed. It could take up to eight hours for them to reach the continent, however."

Kirkman waved off the concern before nodding "That would be appreciated."

"If you would like, to help relieve the grimm problem, I can also send huntsmen. All professional level huntsmen of Vale are currently busy on their own missions, but I'm sure I can gather at least a team of students."

The shock on Kirkman's face was visible, eyes widened, brow jumped "Huntsmen, headmaster? And students of Beacon at that? What are you trying to get at?" The shock then turned to suspicion as he wrinkled his eyes at Ozpin.

"I am not trying to 'get' at anything, General, at the end of the day it is your choice, you said yourself that we both want what is best for Shion and believe me my students are the best at what they do when it comes to grimm. Even just one team will help alleviate the problem, if just a little, please consider the offer."

He was genuine, if the American troops truly were stretched thin and were having issues dealing with the increasing numbers of grimm, no doubt due to the negative emotions brought about not only by the surviving citizens but also the hostages, then they needed people trained specifically to deal with grimm, not the soldiers trained to kill people that seemed to comprise the entire American military.

Kirkman sighed, as he tilted his head, looking down "Excuse me, headmaster, give me a moment to discuss with the others."

Others? Interesting.

"Go ahead." The camera feed cut off, as audio also went silent on the end of the Americans, but the transmission remained open, meaning Ozpin only had to wait.

"Who can we send? What are you thinking?" Glynda suddenly spouted out.

"Glynda... We both know the predicament those villagers are in as of right now, the fearful survivors likely worry for their loved ones held hostage and are mourning those they lost, the American troops themselves likely have their own feelings of the situation, this is all ripe for a major incursion of grimm, Kirkman himself said they weren't able to send many troops and are stretched out, they need our help."

"We're stretched out too." Glynda began "All of our professional Huntsmen are out guarding the city, our professors are busy with preparation for the Vytal festival, most are on the Amity Colosseum to make inspections, the only students who are rated to go on missions without a huntsman escort are our third years and fourth years, and they're all out on missions outside Vale and won't be back until the next week."

"Then we send the second years." Ozpin narrowed his eyes at the empty screen.

"Are you seriously suggesting sending them without a professional?" Glynda's voice raised.

"This would not be the first time they will be out at mission Glynda, and I have trust in my students' capabilities, they will also be aided by the Americans."

Glynda opened her mouth, but before Glynda could make a rebuttal, the camera feed came back on, showing General Kirkman.

"I have spoken with my… contemporaries, and we have agreed to allow you to send your students to Shion, under certain conditions." He spoke in a monotone voice.

"What conditions?"

"Your students, and the doctors you send, will follow our directions to a tee, this is our operation, we appreciate the aid, but we would prefer if they not committed actions that jeopardize the mission."

A reasonable request, however- "I will not allow you to order my students to kill, General."

Kirkman simply nodded "Yes, they will only be used to eliminate Grimm and possibly to aid in search and rescue of civilians, I can promise you that."

Ozpin nodded "Alright."

"One more thing, whoever you send, I want their records, I want to know their semblances, weapons, etcetera. This is needed so those on the ground can assign them to the right mission and stratagem."

"Unaccep- "

"I accept." Glynda moved to speak, but was cut off by Ozpin, she gave him a disbelieving look. "I will send the aid as soon as possible."

"Alright headmaster, thank you. That will be all."

But before Kirkman could end the transmission, Ozpin spoke "One more thing General, this is the reason I asked to speak with you in the first place."

"What is it?"

"Did you encounter Raven Branwen in Shion?" He needed to know of her condition, according to Kirkman the town, except for the town hall was successfully taken and nearly cleared of bandits which made the chances of Branwen herself and possibly the Spring Maiden being dead. Unless they both found their way inside the town hall.

"No." A sigh of relief came from both Goodwitch and Ozpin "But between a couple thousand pounds of ordnance and a white phosphorus cluster bomb, she is most likely dead."

---

Her eyes blinked open, everything was a blur, and even as her vision finally began to adjust, a lot of it was just smoke, but fires and ruins could be made out here and there in her peripherals, the sun was staring down at her right above, it was daytime.

The first sensation Raven felt upon waking was a gnawing pain to her right side, in fact her whole body hurt like hell, but the pain on her right side was particularly bad, even certain areas on her face had a burning sensation to them. Why was this? She was laying on her back and couldn't find the energy to twist her neck to check, her right leg also hurt quite a bit, again, why?

Oh yes, her home had been attacked…

They were attacked! Suddenly, Raven sat up, causing a migraine. All she remembered from the attack was hearing a roar from the sky before being deafened by an explosion and having her vision be turned to black. She used her left arm to support her as she tried to stand, she stumbled as she tried to move her right leg, it barely followed her want to stand, her left leg did though. She stood up, albeit having to practically drag her right leg.

She finally got a good look at her surroundings, her breath hitched at what she saw, every single tent or structure that once stood was reduced to ash or debris, around or piled up on the debris were the scattered remains of her tribesmen, her family. Most of them were dismembered, some didn't even have the dignity of having recognizable corpse, a lot of them were burned black.

No spot of what was once her home was left clean, if there wasn't debris there was a body, or at least some remnant of what was once a person, be it blood, organs, or limbs.

She wanted to scream out profanities, but her mind couldn't seem to formulate words and rather, sorrowful garbles were all that came from her mouth.

Very little logic formed in her mind from here, simply a mix of anger and grief, wanting to do away with whoever did this to her family, she moved to draw her sword, but when nothing came, she was perplexed, then she remembered the searing pain on her right, she looked over at her right arm, or at least where her right arm once was, only to see a blackened stump

At this, she no longer reacted, she had seen so much that the knowledge of her losing her arm was no longer something very noteworthy to her. Instead, she simply walked forward, or at least simulated walking, her right leg barely moving, looking down she saw a chunk of the flesh and muscle on her right thigh gone, she could see down to the bone, again parts of the wound were black.

As she limped slowly down her destroyed home, she took in her surroundings.

"Aughhh, hyughh…" a sound came to her left. Incomprehensible groaning.

Raven looked to the source of the sound, only to see the huntsman they had captured before, he was still in the big iron cage they had left him in, or at least what used to be the big iron cage, it was in pieces now, many of those pieces had impaled themselves into the huntsmen, he was also missing a few fingers, toes, and other appendages. He suffered from severe burns, blackened wounds, red skin, his eyelids were so red and damaged that he couldn't even open them.

But he was alive… Her family was dead, and this sorry excuse of a huntsman was alive.

She limped towards him at a faster pace, he was going to die, if not by whatever had attacked their tribe, it was going to be by her hands, there was no way her family died, and this… this afront to everything she stood for would get to live. She didn't have the energy to beat him to death, but she'd sure as hell grab a sharp looking plank and stab him in the throat.

The huntsman seemed to hear her, and was attempting to back off, whimpering as he did, but he could barely move his arms and legs, only managing to inch away from the irate Branwen.

But as she was a mere few yards from her latest kill, she tripped, stray pieces of debris, a set of broken wooden plank had caught her foot. She ungracefully fell to ground, onto her right, then onto her stomach, a massive jolt of pain shot up, she groaned.

She felt… liquid, she was bleeding, from the stump on her shoulder, the fall had opened up the wound that had once been otherwise clotted up or healed partially by her aura. She could feel her consciousness waning as this happened, her consciousness was already weak the moment she woke, but this was different.

She was going to die like this, she knew it, she needed to do something somehow. Transform? No, it was likely her avian form would also suffer from a lack of limbs, her semblance was her only option, could she go to Vernal perhaps? No, it was very likely they were also attacked. She didn't want to think about going to Taiyang or Yang. She had one option left. With the little strength left in her she used her left arm to open a portal.

The red hole in the air emanated a slight buzz, it was just a few feet in front of her, she crawled, with just her left arm, using her left leg to assist herself in pushing her barely living body.

But she could feel that with each tug, with each push of her leg, she was losing strength, her vision was once again beginning to blur, and for the first time in years, she felt fear, she was about to die, and there was nothing she could do about it, but push.

Her left arm reached through the portal, on the other end she felt cold smooth tiling, she continued to pull, only to feel a pair of hands grab her arm and drag her through the portal. Her whole body was now on the cold tiling.

"Raven?" She heard above, a gruff familiar voice, call her, but she couldn't say anything back, she heard a set of footsteps, multiple footsteps from multiple people, strange, she wanted to push herself up to look at who else was here, but she couldn't, rather, as her vision only continued to blur, it then returned to black.

---

Shion

1542 hours

15 hours after the American Intervention

Private First Class Ramirez calmly slid open the door to this next house they were searching, it was one story and looked pretty run down.

He entered the home, followed by Corporal Dunn, and Sergeant Foley, the rest of the squad waited outside in their Humvee.

There was a dead body at the door, it was accompanied a weapon, a machete, this was likely a bandit. Meaning whoever lived here had killed them.

"Whoever did this could have run outside or is still here, stay frosty, gentlemen." Commanded Foley

The three paced silently around the room, aiming their guns wherever. It was a tidy place, contrary to how bad the home looked from the outside, all things considered, a classic living room with Asian characteristics, a kitchen nearby, some extra sliding doors that probably led to a bathroom or a bedroom.

"Looks clear to me." Dunn remarked. Ramirez could agree, but the sergeant was looking down somewhere.

"Not so fast, corporal. Look here." He held his gun up close to his chest as a he inspected a part of the floorboards. There was a square perforation, and a small indentation at the bottom, likely a handle.

"Looks like a cellar." Dunn stated.

"Yep." Ramirez simply added.

"We should clear the other doors before we head down there." was the curt statement of Sergeant Foley. "Ramirez, Dunn take that door, I'll take this one."

"Right."

"Affirmative."

The rangers had begun clearing every house in Shion about three hours earlier. After the initial assault, Burton had ordered the marines to set up a perimeter around Shion, Alpha company of the rangers set up a perimeter and did other things at Hill One, while Beta company did house clearing at Shion, as well as some cleanup.

Both rooms were clear, they gathered up around the basement. Ramirez had offered to be the one to lift it up, with Dunn taking point. Ramirez crouched down and sunk both his fingers into the handle, lifting it up, it was surprisingly light.

Dunn and Foley saw the darkness ahead, they both pulled down their NV goggles. Ramirez lifted the cover further before setting it aside, he too pulled down his goggles.

"US Army Rangers, if there's anybody down here, please surrender yourselves!" Foley yelled in a commanding tone.

There was a set of ladder type staircase leading down, a stone wall on the right. Dunn walked down slowly and looks right, dozens, if not hundreds of barrels were stacked atop each other in columns, taps adorned the fronts of each of them. This was a wine cellar. They slowly stepped down, training their sights around the room, Dunn finally touched the hard concrete floor of the cellar.

He turned and took a step forward, the space between the columns ahead of him appeared empty.

Then he heard a barrel roll and crash to his left, only to then see a small girl with large buffalo horns on her head brandishing a knife, rushing him, everyone hesitated to shoot, Dunn let go of his rifle as she approached, opting to grab at her hands instead, she was too short to reach his throat anyway.

He grabbed her hands and wrestled away the knife, now in his hands, he quickly popped it inside a satchel on his vest, causing the girl to gasp and wince as Dunn brought his hand up as if to slap her. Only to receive a pat on the head between her horns, she looked no older than ten.

"We ain't here to hurt you kid." Dunn kneeled down. She stared surprised at Dunn as he patted her head "You got a name?"

She rubbed her one eye, probably puffy or something from crying. "Laurel."

"Okay, Laurel. I'm Corporal Dunn. You got parents?" She shook her head. "You live with anybody?"

Ramirez and Foley simply stared, dumfounded at the spectacle of Dunn apparently being good with kids.

"I live with big sister Lily."

Dunn continued to speak as Foley radioed in the finding of a civilian child. "She protected me from a bad man last night, but then he left to call help, he hasn't come back."

"We could've found him earlier, but we need to take you somewhere else, it's not safe here, you might see your big sister where we're gonna take you."

The girl's eyes lit up with just a little bit of hope. "Really? Where are you taking me."

"To the campsite up at the hill, you might know it." She nodded along.

"Alright, let's go." He started to walk, Foley and Ramirez went up ahead of him "Shit." He muttered under his breath, luckily quiet enough to not be heard by Laurel. "Ramirez, Sarge."

They stopped and turned to look at him "Yeah?" said Ramirez.

He got up close to the two of them, whispering. "Move the body." They both immediately understood, they jogged up the stairs, he heard a series of thuds and grunts coming from the two men.

"What are they doing?" Laurel asked.

"Just cleaning up." Dunn smirked and let go of his gun, letting it hang from his vest. With his left hand he reached into a pocket on his uniform, pulling out an e-cigarette, he took a hit, letting it flow down to his lungs before exhaling. Then he felt the little girl grab onto his right arm, causing him to stop taking a second hit out of shock.

"We're done here Corporal!" Shouted the Sergeant.

He pocketed the e-cig before slowly going up the stairs, little child next to him attached to his arm. As he reached the outside of the cellar, his two squad mates eyed him, Ramirez almost laughing at the sight of him and the girl, snarky bastard.

He brought his NV goggles back up as they were no longer needed, he looked once more at the girl, he could now make out details he once couldn't with night vision, like her light green hair.

Dunn led her out the door, she shuddered at the puddle of blood where the body once was, it's good thing they moved it, wherever they did.

He led her to the Humvee, where two more of their squad mates were waiting outside, having idle chatter. When they saw Foley, Ramirez, and especially Dunn, they couldn't help but laugh.

Dunn brought the girl to back trunk component of their specialized Humvee, she was supposed to sit there alone, with Dunn manning the 50. Cal, but she begged and pleaded to have Dunn sit next to her, which Foley was apparently okay with.

The drive back to Hill One was awkward to say the least, Laurel fell asleep on his arm, and stayed that way for the twenty minutes it took to reach Hill one.

His vision eventually filled with trees, there was nobody else on the road heading to Hill One. It made sense. He got on his phone, it read '3:58pm' he looked up to the sky, the reinforcements should be arriving in a bit.

According to Colonel Burton's briefing, it wouldn't include a strike package of F-35s, but rather three C-130Js, which was great, more supplies and men to fit. Right on cue, the shapes of parachutes started appearing in the sky.

They needed this relief, Marines were handling the perimeter around Shion and were dealing with a total of nearly a hundred grimm per hour, some sections were out of ammo, and had to pull back to Shion proper or Hill One, both were largely under Ranger control.

On their first day, the Americans lost three soldiers, one raider, two rangers, all happened during the initial assault. The injured numbered at twelve, a mix of grimm and bandit, mostly from the marine's side since they held the perimeter. If Dunn had to guess why they took a relatively high number of casualties it was because they didn't have time or resources to soften up the target with airstrikes or artillery, rather they came in with zero support, in relatively small numbers, and with little ammo.

To say that the aid and reinforcements currently dropping from the sky right now was much needed was an understatement. The reinforcements and aid included two more LAVs and their crews, an extra ranger company of roughly 100 soldiers, a company of conventional marines, also numbering at about a hundred or so men, ten Humvees, and quite a lot of ammo, food, and other supplies.

Dunn personally couldn't wait for more tents, right now there were 900 people on Hill One and there were only enough tents to house 200. They weren't allowed to sleep in their homes at Shion since the marine lines around Shion were tenuous at best as a result of them being stretched, low on ammo, and low on vehicular support, that and the grimm seemed to be far more focused on attacking the village than they were Hill One.

The Humvee finally reached Hill One, it was cramped, civilians everywhere, some lined up to eat the food a group of rangers made, others simply gathering in crowds to complain to an officer or whoever else they could complain to.

At the commotion, Laurel woke up, seeing her surroundings, her eyes lit up in hope once again, perhaps hoping her sister was somewhere here.

Hill One was pretty big all things considered, encompassing over half a square mile of camping grounds, but housing over 900 civilians as well as the hundred or so rangers who were here was a bit unrealistic.

They eventually reached a certain larger tent; this was where the mayor was.

"Come on, kid." said Dunn, he opened the door of the trunk, helping Laurel down the Humvee.

Sergeant Foley hopped out of the passenger door and walked up to the mayor's tent flap.

"Go with Sergeant Foley over there, he'll help you find your sister." Dunn pointed at his officer.

The only people needed for this particular procedure was their commanding officer and the civilian they found.

The girl seemed to be hesitant, but eventually did so, walking up to Foley's side, Foley stared at Dunn. "You can come with us Corporal."

"What?" Dunn asked, his face scrunching up in confusion. This was their first civilian found since the Rangers began searching house to house, but he was pretty sure some random corporal wasn't needed here.

"I feel like little Laurel will be more at ease if you go with us." The girl in question did not agree, but her eyes simply looked up at Dunn.

"Uh- alright, I guess?" He walked with Foley and Laurel.

Foley pushed open the flap to the mayor's tent, expecting to see the mayor, but instead was greeted by the back of a… marine, and another guy, looked like a Civilian? The marine in question was speaking to a pretty young blonde woman in a shoulder cut white dress sitting behind a metal table, multiple papers and books stacked on it. The marine's voice was familiar.

It wasn't unusual to see marines back here at Hill One, sometimes they came by for resupply, but why would a marine have a civilian with him? They didn't do house searching.

Then the two men turned around, Dunn's eyes widened in surprise to see that it was none other than Sergeant Jackson, well, staff sergeant now.

"Oh, Dunn!" Jackson smiled, he brought his fist up which Dunn bumped in return.

"We just saw each other a couple days ago, dude, it's destiny." Dunn chuckled

Jackson then eyed Laurel who was between Dunn and Foley. "And it seems like it's your destiny to be messing around with little girls, if I didn't know better, I'd think you were a pedophile." he whispered that last part.

"Oh, fuck you!"

"Language, corporal" Said sergeant Foley, oh wow, reprimanding him, but not the guy who joked he was pedophile, well to be fair, Foley only had power over him and not the marine.

Said marine was snickering "Anyway, gotta go. Nice meeting with you, stay safe out there." Jackson walked away and patted Dunn on the shoulder.

The woman on the desk who was watching this all unfold seemed rather amused at the display.

Foley simply stepped forward "We're here to bring a civilian."

"I can see that." the woman said, she gently smiled, her tired but bright blue eyes then fell on the kid, then to the corporal, causing Dunn to jump a bit. "Why are there two of you here?

"Uhhh- It's cau – cau" he stuttered though words.

"The kid grew a liking to Corporal Dunn." And was then saved by the sergeant.

"Yeah, that."

The woman then went up to the kid. "Hello, what's your name?" She gently asked.

"Laurel."

"Do you have a last name?" The pitch in her voice was elevated.

"Baum."

The woman's eyes widened as if coming to a realization "You're Lily's sister? She always used to help with the gardening at the Town hall."

For the first time in a while, Laurel smiled, nodding profusely "Yeah! Is she here?"

The blonde then frowned "No, we haven't found her yet." The kid in response looked downtrodden.

"But we'll find her eventually, just keep hoping, I'm sure she's okay, for now I'm gonna assign you to stay with the other kids."

Both Dunn and Foley winced at what the woman said at the start, it was never a good idea to set hopes that high, finding her sister was likely, but alive and okay? That was a different question entirely.

"Excuse me though miss." Foley began "Isn't the mayor supposed to be handling these civilian assignments?"

"The mayor is currently in a meeting Colonel Burton and some officers from your army, so she left me to speak with all of you. I'm her assistant, Skye."

Foley nodded "Sergeant Foley, nice to meet you" He brought his hand forward for a handshake.

She reciprocated. "And you are…" She once again eyed Dunn.

And again, did he jump "Corporal Dunce- I mean Dunn." Foley could almost be heard snickering, the woman, in turn, simply smiled at his missing of words. They shook hands, her hands were soft.

"Please bring this girl to area 3." Sky smiled.

The three made their exit, seeing Hill One somehow become more hectic as Humvees rushed in from the east, and soldiers and marine alike piled in, looks like the reinforcements had arrived.

They walked up to their Humvee

"So how was it?" PFC Joseph Allen asked casually from the driver's seat, while smoking a cigarette.

"Looks like our gunner is in love with the mayor's assistant."

A slight blush crept to Dunn's face as his whole squad looked at him in disbelief.

---

A stomach groan emanated throughout the once quiet interior of a bullhead, it came from a certain rabbit faunus now grasping her stomach and looking down in embarrassment. Well partially quiet, Coco was snoring pretty loudly.

"Hungry?" Yatsu had asked.

"Sorry, I don't fly very well." She had to bear with flight sickness the whole 8 hours they were here, she had planned on catching a little sleep but was unable to, so she sat strapped on her seat, wanting to vomit for a quarter of a day.

"It's fine, no need to apologize." Yatsu stated as Fox quietly nodded beside him.

Well, something else made her want to puke out her breakfast, and that was the extreme amount of pressure, nervousness, and just overall fear she felt going into this. Noy only was she going for a mission, but it was also on a continent she despised, and cooperating with people she both didn't know and was afraid off.

To just about everybody she knew, the Americans were enigmatic, showing up one day, destroying the White Fang, visiting Beacon, taking a city, helping out villages, starting up a radio show. Now here they were intervening in a bandit attack for reasons unknown.

But the point stood, they would be helping people, both the Americans and her team, so she did her best to swallow down the fear she felt going into this.

"Ten minutes." Said the pilot of their bullhead.

"Oh my." She whispered to herself; she must have not been paying attention the first few times he said how long they had.

She sat idly remembering all the things the headmaster had told her team before they departed.

They were to follow the American's orders when it came to how they were deployed but they had the right to refuse orders if it meant they had to kill people, that last part was very worrying, almost as if Ozpin suspected that might happen.

She checked her scroll; it had just turned 6pm. According to Ozpin which came from Kirkman was that the tactical head of the operation would them on the ground upon landing, Colonel Burton apparently, the man who was on the VNN news interview, a week or two ago. He seemed pretty scary.'

All things considered; it was rather unbelievable that in less than two weeks after promising to deal with the Branwens did the Americans have to deal with them.

"Sixty seconds!" Said the bullhead pilot.

Coco's snoring came to an abrupt stop as they all felt the motion of the bullhead's altitude coming down, her head slowly nodding up, blinking as she did.

They then felt the bullhead hit the ground, causing everyone's heads to jerk up, the muffled sounds of men yelling and talking came, as did the sounds of other bullhead engines.

They all looked at the pilot, alright "You're free to leave." He gave them a thumbs up.

Fox was the one to stand, walking over to the handle and pulling it open, revealing the grassy land ahead. Two bullheads were on each side of their bullhead, hopping out were a few doctors, while what looked to be American soldiers were taking carrying crates of medical supplies somewhere, other American soldiers were hauling large pallets into big trucks.

At the center of it all stood a tall bald man kitted up in the same gear as the other soldiers, they recognized him as Colonel Burton, next to him was a shorter, younger, brunette woman in a business suit. The two were looking straight at them.

CFVY stepped out of the bullhead, after a few seconds it took off.

Burton and the lady walked towards them. Burton approached, Fox who was on the leftmost side of the group, he was taller than him by an inch or two but was decent few inches shorter than Yatsu. Burton brought up his hand in a handshake gesture, Fox accepted.

"Colonel Burton, he stated." He then moved to shake Coco's hand, who also accepted.

"Coco Adel." She smirked "That one over there is Fox." The mentioned man nodded.

Then he shook Velvet's hand "Ve – Velvet Scarlatina, sir!"

Coco held back her laughter, but her smile gave her amusement away. The colonel did not react. He simply moved on to Yatsu.

"Yatsuhashi Daichi." He firmly shook, the colonel just nodded. He stepped backward. The woman then nodded at them.

"I am the mayor of Shion, thank you all for coming to help, I wasn't supposed to be here, but I wanted to see the faces of those who would be helping defend out village."

So, this was the mayor, that made sense, she looked quite haggard, bags under her eyes, a pale face, and her voice was raspy, yet she still made the effort to come all the way here to greet them, that was commendable.

"I… apologize for the mess." Said Burton "We just received reinforcements and resupply thirty minutes ago, we're still processing all the supplies and equipment. That explained the strange mix of vehicles, crates and pallets that surrounded them.

They didn't know if they should respond, this was the first time they spoke to an American.

'He's just a normal person.' Velvet felt the need to remind herself.

Burton then turned his back "Follow me, it's time we head to base, and you all get your assignments."

The mayor followed, as did CFVY. They walked for a short white, passing soldiers loading supplies into trucks, they could see some soldiers bringing the doctors into smaller looking vehicles with a gun on top.

In the distance, gunshots could be heard, but not from the direction of Shion, rather, south of their positions, must be the perimeter set up against grimm described by Ozpin.

They eventually got closer to a vehicle that looked similar to what the doctors were being loaded into, two of them. The mayor got into the rear vehicle.

The vehicle ahead was a bit different from the others, as it had an open trunk.

"There's not enough space inside for all five of us and a driver, we need two people willing to sit in the trunk?"

Yatsu and Fox stepped forward. It was settled there, Yatsu and Fox were put into the back trunk, Colonel Burton sat himself on the passenger seat while an unnamed soldier was at the driver's seat. Coco and Velvet sat beside each other at the back.

The ride was quiet, they followed a paved road that went uphill, it was a bit bumpy.

"So what do we do here?" Coco finally asked.

"You've been informed of the situation here, right?"

A nod from Coco.

"Then you'll know we face two main problems. The first is the hostage situation, which we're still adjusting and making plans for, we have no idea if the hostages are alright, our only evidence that they're still alive is that the soldiers around the town hall occasionally see people by the windows, but they could just be bandits."

"Why don't you just rush in?" Coco crossed her arms.

"There are an estimated twenty bandits inside along with a possible 200 civilians, if we just busted in without a care in a world, we risk the bandits just opening fire on the civvies and causing unnecessary death."

"People do that?!" Velvet nervously asked, she couldn't believe that was a thing that was possible, she'd read about the horrible exploits of the Branwens before but to hear about it as an actual possibility that could happen near her was surreal.

"People evil enough to take civilian hostages are generally evil enough to kill them, ma'am. So right now, we're getting help from the mayor and those who frequent the town hall to draw up a layout of the town hall, once that's done, we're gonna set up a team for breach using a method that ensures the least risk to the hostages."

That was clever, Velvet had to admit, she didn't even think about finding out the layout of the town hall first, the bandits would lose their advantage of having a better understanding of their surroundings that way. But she also felt that delaying things further might just make things more dangerous for the civilians, did they even have enough food and water there to last them the day?

"Our second major problem is the grimm coming from all directions, mostly concentrated on the areas surrounding Shion proper, our forward elements have already taken multiple injuries mostly due to a shortage in ammunition which has been solved thanks to the resupply, but we'll run out again soon enough. The grimm are also getting worse and worse in numbers most likely due to the hostages."

That made sense, the hostages were likely feeling a mix of fear and hopelessness, emotions which attracted grimm.

"There are massive grimm concentrations near Shion that have been observed to be making their way here, the intent is that we'll be done and out of here before that happens."

What would that mean for the villagers though? Then again once the hostages were free and were no longer feeling fear, perhaps the grimm would then go away?

"We were sent information on your abilities, traits, and synergy, and have made assignments with those in mind, Fox with his telepathy will be sent with our Rangers down at Shion, we'll see if he can communicate with the hostages. Yatsuhashi who is described to be good at taking down heavily armored grimm will be stationed with rangers at Hill One's perimeter, Hill One being our base by the way, there is a small group of beringels that are expected to reach our positions in 0200 hours. Coco with your minigun and Velvet with your specialization in smaller scale combat will be stationed with marines on the southeast of the Shion perimeter, they've been dealing with swarms of beowolves and ursa."

Coco and Velvet frowned their team would be separated, but at least it was pragmatic, it did make a lot of sense for them to try and get fox to communicate with the hostages, and Yatsu was pretty well equipped to deal with grimm like a beringel, still, it was unfortunate for them to be separated, but they had no right to complain, Ozpin's orders were clear, they were to follow every American order short of taking a human life.

The vehicle they were in eventually reached a crowded campsite, tents everywhere, some tents being setup up by soldiers. Some soldiers doing what looked to be maintenance on certain vehicles and more. Civilians were everywhere, crowding the entire area, some were sat on the floor, chatting, some were eating, others were lined up outside tents.

Every solider was doing something, be it working on vehicles, helping with supplies, or accommodating to Shion citizens, it was a very different scene from the Camp Glenn report where many American soldiers were sitting around idly by, talking, doing exercises, somehow this felt more hectic.

The vehicle suddenly then stopped in front of a large tent, this was probably the command tent, but in front of the tent was a group of soldiers with slightly different uniforms from the ones around them, they were standing by outside a vehicle much like the one they were in right now except the trunk was not open, but rather enclosed, some of them smoking, some of them chatting. All of them were equipped with the same guns except for one of them.

"I see the marines are already here." Burton remarked.

If velvet remembered correctly the marines were who they were to be assigned to. Velvet had to wonder what the difference was between marines and other troops.

One of the 'marines', a darker skinned man around the height of Coco smoking a cigarette eyed them, he was standing at the center of the other marines who were talking amongst each other.

Colonel Burton left the vehicle from his passenger seat, walked over to Velvet's side and opened the door for them.

"Come on out." He said, Velvet followed, scooting out of the vehicle, followed by Coco, the colonel then walked around the car and opened the trunk for Fox and Yatsu. "You two still have to wait for the squads I assigned to take care of you, come inside the tent and just take a seat at the bunch. He pointed to the large tent they were stopped in front of.

Fox and Yatsu nodded. They stepped out of the trunk, both of them looking at the two girls.

"Stay safe." Yatsu lightly bowed.

Fox repeated Yatsu's sentiment telepathically.

"Gentlemen." The colonel spoke towards the marines.

The marines suddenly stopped what they were doing, any conversation they might have been having was ended, any cigarette they were holding was thrown to the side, and they simply stood straight staring at the colonel.

"Sir." Said the one who had been looking at them earlier.

"These two are under your care." Burton gestured to Coco and Velvet.

Coco simply stared at them, looking at the marines up and down. Velvet gave a shaky smile with a wave, garnering a reaction from a few of the marines who did their best to hold back their smirks in the presence of the colonel.

The marine nodded.

"Watch out for these two, stay safe, and good luck." The colonel finished succinctly before heading to the command tent.

Coco and Velvet then awkwardly stared at the marines, who all relaxed upon seeing the colonel exit.

"Well let's skip all the formalities, yeah?" The marine who had spoken to Burton casually said "I'm Staff Sergeant Jackson, commanding officer of Devil Dog 2-2. That's Corporal Beltran." He pointed with his thumb to a shorter marine a little taller than Velvet leaning on the hood of the vehicle. "Our driver and resident smartass Corporal Turner." He then pointed at a marine wearing a smile at the jab.

Some of the marines started bringing cigarettes again, one of them brought out what looked to be a really thick scroll. He then pointed at that marine while looking straight at Velvet.

"Our Latino gunner over here pretending to use his phone but is actually taking a picture of you is Sergeant Guzman."

Velvet instinctively recoiled in embarrassment, a blush creeping to her face while Coco let out a "Pfft."

"What the fuck dude? I'm just playing candy crush!" He then showed his device apparently called a 'phone' to the others and displayed on it were a set of candies and a score counter, every marine except Guzman chuckled at this.

"Kidding, we all know the real perv here is Petty Officer Edwards." He nudged another dark skinned marine next to him with his elbow, he looked bewildered at Jackson's comment, why was his rank different?

Ray stood straight from learning on the vehicle "Yeah, we all saw you try and check that dog girl earlier." He laughed as he popped a cigarette into his mouth. Coco and Velvet eyed Edwards incredulously.

"Fuck you mean bruh? I'm a medic I'm supposed to check her!" He said, playfully offended. "And I'm married!" An interesting fact.

"Yeah right." Turner lit the cigarette. "Like that matters." Turned rolled his eyes with a cheeky smile.

"Aight." Jackson cut the banter "That's the squad, who are you two?"

Velvet almost jumped as all the attention suddenly came to her and Coco, she struggled to find the words, luckily Coco stepped forward, Velvet looked at Coco gratefully "I'm Coco, leader of team CFVY, and that's Velvet, cutie of team CFVY." Velvet stared blushing at her team leader, betrayed.

"Hehe, aight, hop in in the Humvee, bout time we get back on perimeter."

What was a Humvee? That line of thought was answered when everyone started going inside the vehicle.

"Oh shit!" An expletive suddenly came from Jackson's mouth, these marines were very vulgar "I forgot, we need to decide who has to sit in the trunk."

Jackson walked around the Humvee and popped the drunk, showing an enclosed space behind the backseat with barely any space and no seats, it would be very uncomfortable to sit here.

"Ey, I'm the driver, I'm out." Said Turner, smoke coming out of his mouth as he spoke.

"Gunner here, so am I." said Guzman.

"And I'm the CO, I vote myself out." Jackson garnered some annoyed looks. The choice then fell upon Edwards, Beltran, Coco, and Velvet.

"I vote the two shortest people." Edwards raised his hand.

That made sense, the shorter people would likely have the less hard time sitting at the back, Velvet thought, pleased by this suggestion. Only to realize she was with Beltran for the two shortest people amongst the for, with Coco standing at six-foot and Edwards being a bit taller than her. Velvet herself being five-foot-six with Beltran being about two inches taller than her.

"It's settled then." Beltran deadpanned, clearly displeased with the turn of events, which Velvet couldn't help but feel offended by.

They all got inside their respective parts of the Humvee. Jackson sat on the passenger seat at the front, Turner at the wheel. Guzman manned the gun, with Coco and Edwards below in the back seat, Velvet sat with Veltran in the trunk, her bunny ears folded against the Humvee's low ceiling.

"Play some music!" Shouted Beltran

"On it!" Jackson yelled back.

Tapping sounds could be heard at the front as synths eventually started to blast. The car started and they were on their way, driving down the direction of Shion, they were likely gonna pass within the city before driving to the southern perimeter.

"Sun is down, freezing cold..." The music continued as Velvet fell into thought.

Velvet was rather impressed, for the increasingly grim situation currently going on, these marines were acting very casually, joking amongst each other, talking idly, imparting in their vices like smoking and playing games. Velvet saw this as very different from how huntsman teams usually were during missions, the atmosphere with these marines was a lot lighter despite the situation being quite heavy.

This was also far from the image she had known of the average military man, the stoic, quiet, but competent Atlesian trooper, she had to wonder, with these American troops lacking the first two qualities, would they be competent?

"Made this here with all the ice on in the booth…"

In fact, the marines were even singing along to the song playing, a song quite unfamiliar to Velvet even though she had listened to her fair share of American music, it sounded very different any music she'd heard before, using less melodies in the vocals and more rhyming.

"What is this stuff?" Coco asked to the marines who all were singing along.

Edwards stopped his singing to look at Coco "It's rap, specifically trap music, but I think America Radio hasn't gotten to this point of our music yet, y'all are still on Michael Jackson and shit, right?"

"Oh yeah, Michael Jackson, I love Beat It!" Coco confirmed which Edwards laughed at.

"DJ! Queue up some MJ next!" Yelled Edwards earning a thumbs up from Jackson.

That was interesting, Edwards used the words 'gotten to this point' implying that there was still a whole part of their music they haven't seen yet, well the Americans had been hidden for nearly a hundred years after the great war, they probably had a lot of culture to show before reaching their current point, hence why this 'rap' felt so out of place to what Velvet had heard from the Americans up till now.

After driving down the hill for about two minutes they reached Shion, which had a sparse number of American soldiers, they seemed to be going in to houses, searching them.

"Why are they going into houses?" Velvet quietly asked Beltran which could be scantly heard on account of music blasting from the front with three of the marines singing along to it, Beltran seemed to have heard her though.

"They're Army Rangers, some of the ranger squads have been given the job of clearing every house in the village to check for more civilians or bandits."

That made sense, at least the Americans were thorough.

"Are they almost done with all the houses?" This earned a shrug from Beltran.

"She's in love with who I am…"

They passed by what looked to be a park, a dozen or so American soldiers gathered around, they were bringing weapons to a large pile of weapons.

"Those are bandit weapons, we've been ordered to gather them up where we can." Beltran already felt her question coming it seemed.

"What are you gonna use them for?"

"We do this kind of thing with enemy weaponry, we store them, sometimes we sell them to allies, other times they get scrapped for parts."

"The bandit prisoners were just okay with you getting- " She stopped as she staired outside the back window, eyes widened.

"What was that?" Beltran asked, seeing as she wasn't talking any anymore, he simply returned to nodding along at the music.

It was here that Velvet was reminded of the grim reality of American combat, their right outside the vehicle, quickly getting farther and farther away, on a sidewalk by the park they had just passed, was a dead body of a bandit woman, bloody spots riddling her body, a terrified expression forever stuck on her face.

Velvet instinctively turned away, the sight had pushed up memories she wanted to forget, she then looked at the Americans, the ones at the front seats especially, they had to have seen that, yet there they were, smiling, singing the music, bumping their heads with both of them singing. Just how desensitized had they become to killing that they could just pass a dead body and not care?

She then looked at Coco, but Velvet couldn't tell if she saw that, as Velvet could only see the back of her head.

She tried to push the thoughts away from her mind as the familiar tune of Beat It by Michael Jackson came on, after a few minutes they left the confines of the Village and reached a plains-like region with some trees that dotted the landscape

Another minute passed as they drove before coming to a stop. All the marines promptly exited the vehicle, the guy on the gun suddenly came down by squatting exiting from the door Edwards left in, Coco also opened her door and hopped out. Beltran had opened the trunk doors.

Velvet jumped out and observed her surroundings, it was starting to get dark, the sun already setting, her faunus senses were helping her though. She saw here surroundings clearly, near a large tree there were sandbags piled on top of each other to form mini walls, spaces ion between these walls for some reason.

"Alright this is our spot; we basically just wait out here for grimm. Beltran set up the mortar." Said Jackson as he pulled out a black cigarette pack, he opened it and put one in his mouth. What was it with these marines and smoking? Then she remembered the body she saw.

'Maybe it's how they cope?' She tilted her head in thought.

Jackson caught her staring, as he held the open pack to her. "Want one?"

Velvet waved her hands frantically "N- no!"

"Sheesh, it's just a cigarette, girl."

Turner crossed his arms and looked at Jackson, a cigarette in his own mouth "Maybe she doesn't want Marlboro blacks, that's hoe shit. Real ones only smoke reds." He laughed.

Velvet did not understand any of these terms.

"Shut up, Turner." Jackson rolled his eyes as he lit his cigarette.

"Look at you smokers, ruining your bodies." Sarcasm leaked out of the voice of Edwards as he pulled out an e-cigarette.

"Can I have one?" Came the sudden voice of Coco, extending an open palm to Jackson.

"Coco?!" Velvet indignantly shouted at her leader.

"Relax, Vel, we don't get to do this kind of thing back at Vale." Coco adjusted her sunglasses.

That was true, smoking was not allowed at Beacon, that and they weren't old enough to buy tobacco products, but that didn't mean Coco earned the right to forsake her health like this.

Jackson happily obliged, letting her have a pick at a cigarette. Why was Jackson even allowing this? This was not becoming of a responsible adult. Jackson lit Coco's cigarette.

She took a puff, and then coughed up a storm, smoke coming out with each cough. Edwards, Jackson, and Turner all laughed at her; she was wheezing now.

"How the hell do you start coughing from the blacks? This stuff is smooth. You weak as hell, girl." Jackson said, taking a drag from the one in his mouth.

"Fu- " A cough "Fuck you!" She threw up a middle finger, which Jackson smiled at.

Velvet panicked at seeing this, was she really insulting the people who were in charge of them right now? Oh no.

Jackon then promptly patted Coco on the back "You'll fit right in!"

Coco seemed to take another drag, this was one more successful, she let out the smoke from her lungs without coughing earning her a few performative claps from Jackon, Turner, and Edwards.

"Uh, guys, we got tangos south!" They all turned to Guzman who was looking down a pair of binoculars.

Indeed, in the distance they could make out the shapes of a few grimm closing the distance.

"Alright, let's see what you girls are made of! We have to conserve ammo anyway."

---

Glossary of terms:

MSOT: Marine Special Operations Team, the basic unit of MARSOC consisting of a command squad and two tactical squads, think of it like the marine version of an ODA.

D-bag: A versatile military backpack that's often used for parachutes.

FAC: Forward Air Control. Self explanatory

Aaaaaand Cut! Hope you all liked this chapter, got it out in just 2 and a half weeks, impressive, no? I'm surprised there's still so many of you reading even after the year and a half long layoff, thanks for sticking to this story! Anyway I promised I'd respond to everybody, so here it is! (Well there's some caveats, as usual I can't respond to the ones whose response will be spoiler!"

4dv1ct0r14m2017: Raven certainly did not like the feeling of a JDAM or two.

Onyx Gabriel: Indeed it did, quite literally.

Octavo Constant: Thank you for reading. I agree, I'm actually quite competent in academic writing, and in proofreading said writing, but for some reason I'm not able to apply the same skills in my creative endeavors, which is why I have an announcement at the end.

Matteodile2001: Thanks bro!

Warmachine324: Here it is!

Gunfighterxy74: Good to see you still out here reading! I also did not like her handling come vol 9.

StormWolf16: YOOO, WELCOME BACK TOO. Send me a link to your fic, Im interested in reading all sorts of military fanfic bro. Onto your thoughts on the current operation, well you'll see how it all unfolds soon.

Ryouhaku13: LETS GOO

PersonLatinoamericaComun: Culture shock indeed.

Ramireztheloyal: Your name 'loyal' is accurate bro, nice to see you out here still reading. And thanks! As for the suggestion on villains, I plan on keeping villains to only RWBY villains and Generals Villains. As for the satellites, that's an interesting idea, I'll see what I can do. Aaand for the third point, America will eventually form its own huntsmen fighting doctrine, for now though they haven't been given the shock of directly facing a huntsman without overwhelming support like they had against Roman and Neo. The fubuki thing will be explained soon, not now, but soon.

Some Guy: Uhhhh, I've only been writing this story for 3 years bro…

PanzerkampfwagenVI: OG!

Harissontuck: thanks!

Marlancox: unfortunately not, bit too danger close.

Guest: lmao

: hope you ain't itching no more, cause here's the next chapter!

AFGT: I hope you think that this new chapter is still good that this story remains a gem in your eyes bro.

Vmoneywashere: ayyy, you're still out here! Thanks for the TV tropes again, that thing brought on a surprising amount of readers. Five eyes will show up one day as hinted on chap 13, thanks for the offer btw!

Ravenguard0009: Well I hope you like how the op ended up turning out.

Nukeblast81: I AM BACK LETS GO! Anyway Idk how you didn't notice but there's COD operators literally everywhere in this story lmao, Team Metal literally has a whole introductory scene dedicated to them in the first couple chapters, SAS team from COD also showed up for the Mountain Glenn op bruh. Thanks for adoring this fanfic!

IIIArmaliteIII: Ironside is the chairman of the Join chiefs, Kirkman is the Supreme American Commander of Remnant.

I GOT AN ANNOUNCEMENT: I am in desperate need of a Beta lmao, I have a good grasp of the English language, I swear, I just make a lot of typos and errors and happen to be really bad at proofreading my own work when it comes to creative writing, if any of you offer Beta services, or can hook me up with someone who can offer Beta services, please do so, thank you.

Anyway, that's all tell me what you think in the reviews, also join the discord, it's growing nicely and it's pretty fun, link's on my profile.

As always, thank you for reading, see y'all on the next one! :)