"We were shocked to receive another statement from the Americans just two hours after their last statement…"
Today was just like any other late Tuesday night, or it was supposed to be if it weren't for the American intervention, Qrow sat on the sofa of his temporarily assigned dorm room, turning up the volume of the speakers. As he poured himself a glass of whiskey, he was technically not allowed to drink here, but eh, he didn't care.
"In this statement they claimed to have successfully rescued the hostages and captured all eliminated all remaining Branwens, however, inside the Town Hall, particularly in the basement, they made a disturbing discovery."
Qrow watched intently, he'd been allowed to rest by Ozpin, and now that Raven was somewhat stable, he thought he might as well take the opportunity to relax and unwind, but no matter how much he tried to, he simply couldn't keep himself away from the news.
This, after all, did concern the fate of a tribe he used to call family, he hated them nowadays, but that didn't change his morbid curiosity.
Pictures flashed on the screen; a dark room lit only by the flash of whatever camera was used to take these images. Dead bodies. Dead bodies everywhere, all blurred of course, but it was very easy to tell what was behind the attempt at censorship.
"Bodies piled on top of bodies." Then came pictures of living people, their faces blurred by large black bars. On their bodies were various lacerations, bruises, burns, some of them lacked limbs, fingers, toes. "Images of survivors showing evidence of torture, with multiple confessions from both the victims and captured perpetrators of this torture as well as rape."
Qrow had seen many horrible sights in his time as a huntsman, just yesterday he had just been treated to sight of his charred, limbless, sister, but here the images he saw were disgusting, and he hated to know he once shared a space with some of the people who perpetrated this, that his own sister had led these people and probably instilled these values into them.
"Fucking Raven." He said to no one in particular as he took a sip of his whiskey.
"However, this was not done only to satiate the Bandit's base urges, this was done deliberately attract grimm according to the Americans and according to multiple recorded confessions."
Then played a short clip of a bandit stating their intent before Lisa Lavender returned on the screen.
"Now, the Americans claim that they will face an estimated twelve thousand grimm. They shared thermal images of a forest mere hours away from Shion." Then two separate collaged images showed on screen, a sea of white, the thermal signatures of the grimm. "If true, this would make it the sixth largest recorded grimm horde in history, putting it above the swarm that overran Mountain Glenn. The Americans promise that their troops will keep Shion and its citizens safe."
Qrow remained there, eyes glued to the hologram. Twelve thousand? That was unbelievable, a downright doomsday event heading straight for a small town in Anima, and from what he'd heard from Ozpin, the Americans only had a couple hundred guys over there. They were dead there were no two ways about it.
Strategy Center, MOB Juno
2330 hours
46 hours after the American intervention
"They're sending bullheads with camera crews?!" Kirkman practically screamed at his PR staff member. He wanted to apologize, but such a revelation was so unprecedented that he couldn't hold back his emotion.
"Y-yes, sir, I urged them that it wouldn't be safe, but they wouldn't budge. I guess they're willing to risk their lives if it means more viewers."
Kirkman dismissed his staff member as he simply looked around the situation room, a hectic place even with how late it already was, people all over coordinating surveillance, talking over each other as they communicated with the men stationed at Shion.
Add to that news crews would now be on the scene filming the whole ordeal. Granted, he had no reason to stop them, the airspace wasn't exactly owned by the United States, and they would be afforded a small amount of protection by the avengers on the ground, if they died it wouldn't on his hands, but the public might not see it that way.
This wouldn't be the first-time news crews or aircraft had filmed American operations, such a thing was commonplace, it happened in Mogadishu, in Basra, in Baghdad, no matter where they went, unless it was an explicit no fly zone, or no media zone, there would always be media, even in an active battlefield.
And now a potential failing of the armed forces was going to be aired.
This was not to say that he believed that the forces on the ground would be wiped, far from it, this was not the worst case of US forces being pinned down and attacked from all sides, Mogadishu was a far better contender for that title, so was the Battle of Munchon in the Second Korean War.
Unlike both those battles however, the OPFOR were grimm, they didn't have firearms, they didn't have the mortar crews and RPGs that the Libyan mob at Mogadishu had, nor the swarms of tanks that the Chinese had, no, they simply had numbers.
But these numbers were cataclysmic, should his forces have infinite ammo, and significantly more maneuverability this wouldn't be a problem, but they didn't, they were being attacked at all sides and as such would have to be firing constantly at all sides. They would persevere, that much was clear to Kirkman, they had mortar crews, a dozen LAVs, four huntsmen, ammo to last hours of constant fighting, and a battalion's worth of the best fighters America had to offer.
'Winning' wouldn't be a problem, it's the prospective casualties that was the problem, Mogadishu all things considered could be thought of as a victory, but those 18 deaths shaped how the Clinton administration fought its interventionist conflicts the coming years and eventually caused a withdrawal of troops, in this day and age, those back home were absolutely averse to American deaths.
While he was confident that the troops in Shion could hold their own and eventually beat back all the grimm, there was the issue of: how many would die? How many would lose a limb? How much of that would be filmed?
So right now, what was of utmost concern to Kirkman was getting the needed help to those troops, which he was working on.
He was in the strategy center in the first place to help coordinate with his counterparts at Travis AFB to get KC-10s sent over, luckily his appeals to President Bennington were successful, but with caveats, those aircraft would take a while to arrive, having to take longer routes to avoid Chinese airspace they had been enroute for the past four hours and he had no news on when their arrival would be.
He looked over a table, a large digital BLUFOR tracker atop it, his fellow officers looking over it too, his COMMS head on a computer nearby ready to give orders to Burton as soon Kirkman spoke.
He observed the map, the grimm largely would be coming from the North and the West, the plan was top have main defensive positions set up, a first delay position with HESCO and proper defensive placement, if overrun they would pull a fighting retreat to a second delay position simply made of dug up fighting holes, should that be overrun, God forbid, they would have to fight within Shion itself.
The men stationed on the south and east were made up of skeleton crews, no LAVs or mortars, only Strykers and Humvees, but he saw an opportunity as he looked over the BLUFOR stationed in these areas.
"Chang, radio to Burton this- "
It was late, near the middle of the night actually, classes had ended six hours ago, usually at this time the dorm room Team RWBY would be a loud mess of Ruby and Yang playing a couple rounds of Shadow Fighter 3, Weiss complaining about the noise as she studied, and Blake just reading quietly in the corner.
Instead, the room was filled with a tense atmosphere centered around a certain blonde. Ruby laid on her bunk, laying on her side, taking occasional glances at Yang.
Blake, while still reading a book, could not help but do the same, Weiss was doing her homework but could barely focus, she'd hate to admit it but she had grown used to the usual noise, and now the silence had just become uncomfortable.
Yang sat upright on her bed, staring at an old picture. Her expression was unmoving, no tears flooded her face, without a frown, nor a smile, her eyes affixed only on the printed image held between her fingers. Only Ruby recognized that particular picture, but everyone else knew what the contents may have been.
"Yang…" Ruby called out to her sister, getting no response. "It's gonna be- "
"I know she was a bad person, Ruby." Yang cut her off, her eyes not moving away from the photograph. "Doesn't change how much it hurts to know she's gone."
"I know..." She of all people knew what it was like to lose a mother, Yang too, and she had just experienced that feeling twice, and on top of that she had deal with the knowledge of her mother being a horrible person.
"And now I never get to talk to her…" Her eyes filled with tears, that slowly began to fall onto photo "And here straight from her stupid mouth why she did what she did." A sob, she threw the picture aside as Ruby jumped down from her bed, sitting next to Yang who was now wiping her tears, the rest of the team gathered around to attempt some form of comfort towards their hurt teammate.
The news about the death of Raven came while they were in class. They had only heard about after they reran the news on projectors during dinner time at the cafeteria.
This news came just barely after they had left Cooperwick, having received another piece harrowing information there, information they'd barely even truly tackled or brought up to any relevant authorities.
But they needed to tell everyone, how the Americans had been lying for so long. But for now, they had to console their one member.
Recent events seemed to only galvanize Yang, a mix of so many emotions within her. Without a word she stomped over to Blake's side of the room, opening a drawer and pulled out the flash drive in her hand containing the evidence Fubuki Shiro had about the Americans.
"This doesn't change anything." She finally spoke "Let's bring this to Ozpin in the morning."
Forest, 5 Kilometers West of Shion
0430 hours
51 Hours after the American Intervention
Coco smoked her third cigarette in the last twenty minutes, the buzz of it was relaxing, and took her mind off what was about to happenin less than an hour, as she took another drag in quick succession, she got a sinking feeling in her stomach, one that made her visibly and audibly gag, then bend over a little and wretch.
"Coco!" Velvet ran to her out of concern and started rubbing her back.
"Told you, you shouldn't smoke that many cigs in a row, gimme that." Jackson nabbed the cigarette from between Coco's fingers and began to finish it up himself.
"Eh, you can't blame her, I was like that too during my first combat deployment." Edwards chuckled.
"This isn't… our first..." She said in between wheezes. "You guys really aren't nervous right now? That's twelve thousand grim out there!"
The marines and corpsman looked at each other, Jackson chose to speak "I mean yeah I'd say we're pretty nervous, but I know that smoking so many cigarettes that I puke to cope isn't really gonna help." He chuckled.
"You're smoking one right now!" She pointed out.
"Yeah, well I can handle it." He smirked.
Coco rolled her eyes, the nausea subsided as she inspected Gianduja, the American's latest resupply included ammo that fit Gianduja, apparently using whatever substance it is they used in their bullets for it to pack a punch, still, it was only 800 rounds, the belts having been hanged or wrapped around her shoulders and waist. She'd still need to conserve ammo.
As Coco looked around her, she noticed the defense the Americans had set up, the units were spaced a good distance from each other, but the fellow marine units were still visible in the distance, the defenses were a lot more condensed than they were before. The soldiers stood behind something Jackson called 'HESCO'.
Velvet, just stared at the trees ahead, the grimm not yet visible, she had spent two years in Beacon at this point, even longer training in combat against grimm and even then, this would be by far the largest horde she had faced. No amount of training would stop the fear welling up in her mind, and while they were doing a good job at hiding it, it looked like the marines were much the same, she could tell because they were joking around a lot less.
Behind them they heard the familiar sound of the Humvee rolling down in the mud.
That was another problem, this terrain was extremely slippery and messy, the rain from the night prior had turned the grass moist and the dirt muddy, the lower area of her leggings had already been stained brown by the mud and she could feel the thick moisture seeping in, it was not a great feeling.
From outside the Humvee came turner who had driven back to the American base to pick up required supplies.
"Yo guys! Check it out! They gave us the good shit." He walked around the Humvee and to the trunk.
Everyone gathered around Turner as he popped the trunk. Belt ammunition that had been coiled around, a machine gun, and what looked like rocket launcher.
"Damn, they hit us with an M240B and a SMAW? One of each! Wow!" Beltran said sarcastically.
"Fucking H&S and their bullshit, really expecting us to hold down our positions with only one of these per squad." Turner crossed his arms.
The two students of Beacon had to wonder what was special about these weapons, though it seemed the marines were unsatisfied.
"Ey man, Marines make do, more firepower is still more firepower." Jackson tried to placate his team.
"Yut." Remarked many of the men.
Jackson then looked at Turner "Set up and man the M240." Then he turned to Turner "You handle the SMAW. too" They did as told. "Guzman, I want you on the fiddy cal up on the Humvee."
"Si, you got it boss man. I mean being the gunner is already my job, but I definitely had to be reminded."
Jackson rolled his eyes at the sergeant's jab and simply looked on at the forest and at his men.
Turner had swung the SMAW onto his back and laid the bipod upon one of the lower HESCO containers and aimed forward within the tree line.
*Snap*
Velvet had taken a picture of the SMAW which the marines looked perplexed at but didn't bother to ask, this would have been the third time they'd seen her do this since she got to Shion, and they weren't told anything by command about not letting her do it.
She fiddled around with the camera, Coco was checking the chamber on her minigun.
The whirr of the few sentry-drones they had above them could be heard.
"(COMMS) All units, this is Hazard, be advised, surveillance has tally on the grimm four klicks due west."
"Shieeet." Edwards pocketed his e-cig. "They gon' come at any minute now."
Three hundred meters behind them they could hear the distinct *plunk* of the mortars firing.
"Ey man, I heard those VNN guys are sending some bullhead to film us, wonder when they're comin' out here." Beltran remarked.
"Really? Woo yeah, I'm gonna be showing off some real elite marine shit." Turner cheered
"Dumbass, they'd be way too high up to know who's who." Jackson responded
Turner feigned a disappointed sigh.
Coco pointed at Jackson "Come on Jackson, you gotta let a guy dream!"
The sky around them flashed red almost a dozen times a second as they heard the screeches of Nevermore. The American anti-air apparently. Regardless, it had begun.
Coco readied Gianduja, aiming it from behind one of the barriers. Velvet simply stared, hands shaking a little.
"Relax, girl." Jackson looked Velvet, a chambering a round into his M4 "You have a better chance of surviving this than us." He smiled as the sounds of explosions greeted them in the distance, the mortars having landed.
The mortar crews started screaming at each other to get the next salvo ready, and indeed it came. Crashing upon the land, this time sounding a bit closer, the dust kicking up in the distance now visible to the naked eye.
Then they saw it, still far, but nonetheless visible, the lack of sunlight making it difficult to distinguish each other making them look like an entire wave of moving black terrain amongst trees.
The first to sing were the machine guns, as mortar fire continued to crash upon the horde, cutting down their numbers steadily but for every dead grimm another living one took its place, it was endless. But the mortars were endless too, firing at a sustained rate.
Then their surroundings seemed to brighten. The marines wielding carbines simply stared ahead.
"Illumination rounds! Woo that's a fucking lot of them." Turner said with a slight hint of concern as he stared at the now clearly seen sea of black just three klicks ahead.
"Take positions!" Commanded Jackson "Wait till they close into range before firing."
The men crouched behind the HESCO, laying their rifles atop them as they aimed down at the sea of black, explosions rocking directly ahead of them that barely slowed down the horde.
"Coco gets your ass ready to fire! I want none of you closing in to fight melee, got that?!"
Nods. Coco Got to the right of the HESCO, Gianduja unfurled and ready to fire.
Through his night vision Jackson could see his surrounding light up in gunfire, as both his squad and the other squads and other MSOTs all around began laying machine gun fire. Behind him, Guzman was also firing in small bursts with the GAU.
Turner fired the M240 in bursts as the Grimm continued to close in regardless of the mortar fire raining upon them. The explosions from the munitions killed dozens of grimm each and every salvo though, almost ignoring the armor plating of the alpha grimm amongst them that were there.
The sky flashed red a few more times as they could see the distinct light of the laser beams from behind them firing at something unseen above and in front of them.
Then the LAVs between the marine squads started shooting at the Grimm, on this side there were only four of them, but they made quick work of the grimm, creating an almost solid wall of bullets that crashed down on the sea of grimm, their numbers at the front dwindling steadily but not stopping.
It seemed as though every marine in every sangar decided to no longer bother firing their weapons in bursts, including Turner who was using the M240 to its full ability now.
"That's two klicks! Green light on the M4s! Coco, start shooting!" Jackson screamed.
Coco gave a nervous smile at Jackson "You got it!" As she fired upon the grimm, as did Jackson, Turner, and Edwards.
With LAVS, M4s, machine guns, sentry-drones, and Coco's minigun firing upon the front of the grimm, and with mortars hitting the rear, the grimm were no longer making any ground, but for every one killed, two more replaced it, and sooner or later someone would have to reload, or someone would have to stop firing to not let their weapon overheat.
But for now, good progress was being made. Jackson, made his first reload of the day, having to pause sustained fire for a short few seconds as he released his spent mag and inserted a new one.
Beltran and Edwards followed suit, continuing to fire after they reloaded. Turner then stopped shooting, performing a barrel change on the overheated receiver of the M240
Sentry drones were raining gunfire from the sky, their guns being seen from the ground as they glowed from overheating, being seen as almost pure specters of white on the marines' NVGs.
The grimm were still making ground but slowly, now being a klick and five hundred meters from their delay position, the marines, and two huntsmen in training would last, for now.
0500 hours
Hill One
52 Hours after the American Intervention
Nearly a hundred rangers spread out across the camp fired down upon the grimm advancing uphill, they were at an advantage being on good, high terrain, and with all kinds of fire raining down on the grimm from small arms to mortar fire, but the grimm's numbers were still absolutely ridiculous, it was never-ending.
At one particular unit, six rangers were gathered behind a HESCO barrier, their charge, Fox, with them as they fired on the grimm.
Ramirez was using an M2 Browning, shooting down 50 caliber BMG down onto the grimm.
They made quick work of the grimm, the monsters not making any ground as they attempted to continuously push up hill, not even the elite few alphas being able to break through the wall of heavy fire.
As they fired, Ramirez heard a small explosion unlike that of a gunshot to his right, he looked over to see the gun portions of Fox's had exploded.
He simply stared at his broken weapons.
Ramirez stopped firing for a second "Sorry man, those probably weren't rated for the pressure our ammo fires at."
Fox gave a regretful and quiet nod as he just stared at the grimm, with Ramirez continuing to fire, all the huntsmen had been given the order of not charging in to fight melee to avoid friendly fire incidents and to only do so defensively.
The marine LAVs guns had been firing constantly for the past half hour, their guns were glowing red, Ramirez had to respect such a system, powerful and capable, he really needed to thank those marine loaders and gunners, they must have been going through hell feeding that machine bullets and aiming the gun at the grimm.
The LAVs would occasionally pause fire to let their barrels cool down, as did many of the machine gunners on Hill One, but the constant pausing didn't mean a stop in the overall fire, one LAV, or one machine gunner pausing to reload or to stop overheating would mean there were still at least a few other of their kind firing down on the grimm.
The grimm, also being slowed down by the terrain couldn't make ground even with the Rangers having to constantly reload.
He had to wonder how the marines on the west were faring considering they were fighting on more even ground.
*EEEEEEEEEEEE*
All thought was cut off by a high pitch screech that game from within the forest, no ranger stopped firing, but all were startled, the sound, or whatever made it having created a small shockwave with that screech alone.
The rangers of Hunter 2-1 could feel their ears ringing. The gunfire had obscured it, but amongst the waves and waves of grimm, was grimm of large proportion, a horse, attached atop it was the perverted and deformed visage of a demonic humanoid.
It broke through the liens of grimm, ignoring the shrapnel of mortar fire, ignoring the bullets that rained upon its body, nothing seemed to stop it.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!" Came the panicked yell of Dunn.
"Holy shit! Kill that thing now!" Ramirez yelled at his squad mates as he fed a new belt into his M2.
He pointed the M2 to the right, where the grimm was coming from, it was on a steady course towards Hunter 1-3
Fox stared on, panicked.
The… thing was closing in fast, rushing forwards despite the hale of bullets and mortar.
The wall of bullets from the ranger were redirected, no longer firing equally and dispersedly amongst all the grimm, but instead focused primarily on the demonic looking grimm, but nothing stopped it.
It closed in, at 600 meters, machine guns rattled on nonstop. 400 meters, a single mortar found its way to land atop the head, smoke blew out from its now damaged appendage, but it simply screeched as it ran forward, not slowing down. Then it came, at 100 meters.
Its arm extended, stretching past any natural proportions, 100 meters turned to 0 as the hand grabbed at a ranger, too fast for anybody to react. Its spindly fingers wrapped around the unfortunate ranger's body as the arm lifted up a few dozen feet in the air, and came crashing down, the man's squad mates dove out of the way, a few being successful. Dust kicked up and a low rumble came.
The demonic grimm did not stop, it kept rushing forward, but just as it was about to break through the ranger lines.
*SCHWING*
A massive sword flew by, cutting the arm clean in half.
Dunn looked over as… Atsubashi? He remembered his name was, came running by, the sword flew around, changing course and returning to him.
The grimm let out a pained, deafening yell. As it ran towards the huntsman in training.
"Keep firing at the grimm! Fox! Let's handle this" He yelled at the top of his lungs, the shock from the rangers went away as they returned to firing upon the waves of grimm.
Fox nodded as he ran at the demon, the gun part of his weapon may have been dead, but it still functioned as a blade, the two of them held the weird grimm off.
Ramirez's eyes lingered on where the arm had crashed onto for split second, the arm faded away, revealing a dead ranger that was once in its grip, his body crushed and mangled, and another dead or unconscious ranger nearby.
He paid no mind to it, erasing the emotions welling up in his mind for now and focusing on the fight, firing upon the grimm with his M2.
The temporary distraction caused by the demonic creature had interrupted the constant stream of fire from the rangers and few LAVs, causing the swarm of grimm to get closer, though not by much, not enough for the rangers to have to retrograde to their second position of delay.
Fox got under the grimm, a rare nuckalevee, he swiped with the bladed edge of his weapons at the heels, causing it to stumble down, using this opportunity, Yatsu jumped up, bringing Fulcrum up, with one powerful swing downwards, he beheaded the grimm.
They broke the rules, they were told not to engage in melee, but they believed this was a needed breakage of those rules if it meant less American soldiers died, as Yatsuhashi landed, he had to avert his eyes from two corpses, their aura likely not standing a chance to the nuckalevee's powerful attack, he closed his eyes in respect, the two returned to rear lines.
"American forces can be seen fighting a hard fight below as endless stream of Grimm assault them from the north and west, the situation is looking dire, but the area, seems, at least for now secure."
Cinder watched with an elated stare at the new report, perhaps this was what she needed, the gratification of watching the Americans fall after all they had done to her plans was something she could look forward to in the coming hours. What with Adam struggling to gain new members in the White Fang and the Doctor continuing to take a long amount of time on his new weapon, he would simply have to have faith that the Americans would soon meet their match somewhere in this world.
Lisa Lavender talked from whatever studio she was in in Vale while live footage at Shion taken from a bullhead played beside her, it looks absolutely chaotic, the sun had slightly risen revealing the sea of blocks amongst the greenery of the forest as gunfire rained upon it.
A box showing footage of General Ironwood then expanded next to Lisa Lavender, probably taken from his airship. Likely bringing him as an expert on military matters.
"What say you, General Ironwood? Do you believe the Americans can hold their position and fight off the grimm?"
Lisa Asked, with a short pause after the question before Ironwood answered.
"That's a good question, Lisa, as with all battles, what matters is supplies, and with how the Americans have been fighting the grimm for an hour now and the grimm don't seem to be letting up any time soon, it depends on how the Americans choose to use what limited supplies they have, but as of right now they have been doing commendable job."
"Commendable my ass, sooner or later they're gonna get overrun, look at Ironwood's face, he knows he's talking out his ass." Came the comment from Mercury as he too watched the report while relaxing from his bed. "Either they run out of ammo, their guys get tired, or the grimm just get too much, nobody can handle that many."
Cinder didn't comment, instead choosing to watch.
"I see." Lisa responded "Now, if I may ask, what are your personal opinions on the American strategy here?"
A pause, then Ironwood nodded "We can see from the footage that they have made two primary defenses, but they have no soldiers on the second rear trench line, Atlesian strategy would dictate that a frontline of soldiers would advance on the incoming grimm in standard firing line while a rear line remains in the trenches."
Indeed the American strategies were very different from what had she had seen, using a mix of vehicles, deciding to hold lines, using weird explosive cannons from rear lines, all without advancing in line which was known of most militaries."
"One thing I can commend, however is their use of artillery, these cannons that fire at a high arc, they've chosen to position them at areas where they can bring direct fire support on all sides, but overall, their strategy would be very different from how Atlas would address the defense of Shion, but I cannot comment on its effectivity until we see its results."
Cinder smirked, a politician's answer. Regardless, perhaps the Americans had truly bitten of more than they could chew, and even if they did succeed here, their entanglement at Anima would serve as a distraction from her own machinations, machinations which had been destroyed by the Americans and were now in the process of restructuring.
She had managed to wrangle Adam to calm down, with help from the Doctor who had convinced him of staying patient to inflict the most deaths on the Americans as possible.
Things had crashed and burned after 'Operation White Death' for her, but things were slowly beginning to come back to form, the Doctor may be constantly delaying when his work would be finished, but at the very least he had results, and always insisted that they could be better.
She also now knew that Raven was a Maiden, meaning there were two confirmed maidens under Beacon's care, within her reach, perhaps there was something she could thank the Americans for, after all, they brought a second maiden right to her.
But then again, she'd have to cause much chaos in Vale for that to happen, but now with Torchwick and his accomplice gone, and with the White Fang currently recuperating, that would have to wait, she'd have to rely on the Doctor for now, lovely, not, that man was deranged, even Cinder could see that.
His claims of being from another planet and having fought the Americans before were absurd but she obliged him only because his work was so effective, he was able to boost the explosive yield of the train bombs that never got used by a factor of three, and was now developing a powerful weapon that according to him would change the nature of combat on Remnant forever, but he was taking increasingly long to do it.
Even though she doubted his claim of fighting the Americans before, his hatred of them was of no doubt, she could imagine she was probably somewhere in Sienna's base right now, watching this report with much delight.
Lisa returned to speaking "Thank you, General." They both nodded as the General's box disappeared from the screen.
"Now onto the current situation of the defense, some analysts claim that American fires have been visibly waning over the past hour, whether this be due to a lack of ammunition, energy, or some other factor, is unknown, we are attempting to contact citizens of Shion on the ground for their commentary of the situation but it appears connection is impossible."
Suddenly a nevermore appeared on the camera, rushing at the bullhead of the crew that was over Shion, then a massive red beam flashed over it for half a second, the nevermore's head now gone.
Lisa's reporter face did not wane, but there was a slight twinge in her eye after seeing that, and with almost comedic timing, she continued her statement "We would again like to thank the Americans for allowing VNN aircraft passage and for defending them in the skies."
Forest, 5 Kilometers West of Shion
0600 hours
53 Hours after the American Intervention
*BOOM
A mortar munition crashed upon the Ursa Alpha that Jackson had been taking aim at. He could almost feel the shockwave, the blasts from the mortars were inching dangerously towards danger close.
The grimm were getting closer.
An unavoidable fact, the grimm never ended but ammunition did, the mortar crews were beginning to slow down their rate of fire to conserve ammo, the main guns on some LAVs had stopped firing altogether, now opting to use their auxiliary arms.
Some marines, Jackson being one of them, was down to their last couple magazines.
The avengers never stopped firing though, that was a good thing. The danger of aerial grimm was one less thing to worry about, they ran on some weird power generators that never ran out as long as they kept being fed fuel.
The situation in the air did nothing to save the situation on the ground, however, as the grimm inched closer, the marines could finally begin to hear the manic growls and roars of the many grimm that were assaulting their positions, sooner or later they would have to pull back.
After an hour of nonstop shooting, the position was still held. Holes blown through grimm courtesy various bullet calibers, shrapnel from mortars ripped through them in the dozens, the advance never stopped.
"Shit, man!" Turner said while shooting "Is this what the fucking nazis felt like when the reds just kept coming?!"
"Shut up and keep shooting!" Jackson ordered.
Both forgetting the two people not from Earth who were standing next to them, now wondering what the nazis were.
Coco used her minigun to rain bullets upon the grim, it was extremely effective.
Velvet on the other hand felt rather useless as Coco absolutely refused to let her use her weapon.
The hail of bullets and mortars did little to stop the advance, the grimm were getting dangerously close, they were less than 600 meters away from the marine lines now, which meant the mortars slowly came to a stop to avoid danger close fires.
"Fuck! We need them mortars!" Edwards yelled
"They're gonna give the order to pull back any minute now! Be ready!" Jackson shouted near the top of his lungs. As he fired off a couple shots at a beowolf
"(COMMS) Retrograde! I repeat, Retrograde!" Came the booming voice of the captain of the MSOT
"Rear lines people, keep engaging!" Reminded Jackson.
The mortars came to a complete stop as the grimm went completely past danger close distance, the mortar crews beginning to head into their Humvees and pull back to the second battle position.
The LAVs held strong, covering the retreat of the marines who began filing into the Humvees, shooting at the grimm as they did.
Coco joined the LAVs in holding the position, firing her minigun, a smile on her face at seeing the grimm fall and die.
With the slowed fire from every conceivable fighting element, the grimm were advancing faster and at heavier numbers than before.
Jackson popped the trunk of the Humvee open to which Velvet and Beltran hopped in. Every other Marine entered, with Guzman already manning the gun and shooting at the grimm.
Turner ran by and roughly threw inside the M240 and the SMAW, the SMAW landing on Velvet's foot, she let out a yelp.
"Shit, sorry! You good?"
An annoyed look briefly passed over Velvet's face before saying "Yes! I'm fine."
Jackson then look at Coco who was still firing at the grimm, the other squads had already begun retrograding in their Humvees, with the LAVs already maneuvering to leave He stomped over to her.
"Coco, what the fuck are you doing?! Get back here, we're getting outta here!"
"We got Megagoliaths! Two of them!"
Jackson then looked at the direction Coco was firing, his eyes adjusting to the dark and the flashing muzzles of Coco's minigun to see two massive mammoth-like grimm charging at them at high speeds, Coco's rounds seemed to do little damage, only sparking off of the boney armor of the grimm.
Earlier, massive armored grimm like these were dealt with through a combination of fires from the LAVs, mortars, or SMAW fire from the squads, but with all of these elements now being inactive or in the process of leaving, these things were free to keep rushing in. And at the speeds they were heading they would interrupt the retrograde in no time, potentially jeopardizing the defense of Shion.
"Shit!" He turned back towards the Humvee. The other squads and MSOTs were already well on the way towards the rear perimeter, they were the last squad in the old frontline. The megagoliaths darted past the other grimm, at the speed they were going, they would catch up not only to his Humvee but the other vics too. Those megagoliaths had to be stopped or at least slowed down until the other units could get to the perimeter.
"Turner get the SMAW!" He yelled to his subordinate, who then picked it off from the trunk and sprinted forward next to Jackson.
"Coco stop shooting! We need to adjust fire!" He tapped Coco on the shoulder, the grimm were less than 400 meters away now.
"Why?"
"Just do it!" He shouted, Coco stopped shooting as Turner knelt down, placing his thumb on the SMAW's secondary trigger, and out his eye over the sights.
"Take the left one out!" They only had one round. With this, they could only remove one megagoliath, but it was better than nothing.
He ignored the yells of his unit commander coming through his earpiece asking him where the unit is.
Turner fired the tracer round, which hit nothing.
"Again! Adjust left!" Jackson saw the round miss by a little to the right. Turner fired again; the round glanced off the boney head of the mammoth grimm. "Fire!"
Turner then bulled the primary trigger, shooting the thermobaric round straight at the grimm, it exploded, but they did not have the time to wait for the smoke to clear to confirm the kill.
The grimm were less than 200 meters away now.
"Good shot! Let's move!"
All three began making the sprint to the Humvee, with Turner discarding the SMAW. Coco hopped into the backseat. Jackson ran back and slammed the trunk to a close before hopping into the passenger seat.
Turner followed, getting behind the wheel and reversing as the grimm closed in to just a hundred meters, he floored the gas pedal and sped away.
Jackson then finally responded to unit command "2 actual, this is 2-2, identified two threats to maneuvering operations to our six, one unconfirmed kill, how copy?"
"(COMMS) Copy 2-2, you pulled some shit there, what's the status on the second threat, over?"
Jackson peeked his head out the window and looked behind him, groups of grimm in the hundreds or thousands running forwards, some trying to reach the Humvee to no avail, by now the smoke from the SMAW shot had cleared, but he still could not spot the other megagoliath from the hectic mess of trees, grimm, and gunfire from the Humvees. He pulled his head back into the Humvee and spoke into the microphone.
"Unknown. Relay on the net a possible threat to the retrograde, over."
"(COMMS) Wilco. 2 out"
Once again, he peeked his head out the window to try and find the second megagoliath, only to return with nothing sighted.
"Velvet, Beltran, see if you can't spot anything from back there, if that second goliath catches up to us before an LAV or something can come help, we're done."
"(COMMS)All Fox vics, maintain dispersion."
Their Humvee would have a hard time following this order as they were still a good half klick behind the other Humvees.
The sun had just begun to rise joining the constant gunfire in illuminating the battlefield.
"Shit sarge!" Came the panicked yell of Beltran. "Big boy's coming at us! Fast!"
Jackson peeked his head out again to confirm, and indeed there it was, the huge mammoth-like monster now barreling towards them at ridiculous speeds, catching up quick to their Humvee, closing the distance in short seconds.
"Motherfucker." Jackson grumbled. He turned around to face the driver "Step on it, Turner!"
"Waaay ahead of you, sir." He shifted gear, the Humvee picked up some speed but was still being chased steadily by the Megagoliath now made angrier by the shots from Guzman's gun which left small but noticeable cracks on its armor.
Jackson got back inside, speaking into his microphone as he did, he switched the radio frequency to Company CO's "This is Dagger Bravo, be advised, we have a megagoliath at full charge on our six, requesting support from the LAVs, over."
"(COMMS) Copy 2-2, stay on your course to the rendezvous point, Dagger Bravo out."
Turner let out a mocking laugh as he drove "Man, the Major really just went and told us to go unfuck all this ourselves."
Jackson ignored him, letting out an annoyed groan in place of a reaction, he peeked out of the Humvee again. With his URGI he aimed at the giant grimm, angling his barrel upwards, he fired a 40mm grenade right at it, it exploded, the thing run straight through the smoke, completely unfazed. The other marines had followed his example, the ones who could peeked out their windows, firing at will at the grimm.
The megagoliath was fast, very fast, easily outrunning all the other grimm, its frantic stomping now in earshot of the marines. They did everything they could, firing at it with their guns, shooting grenades, nothing stopped it.
"H&S really fucked us by not giving us extra rounds for the SMAW, huh? Edwards got back inside as he reloaded his weapon.
The megagoliath continued its charge, now being at point blank range from the Humvee. Its breath now being heard by everyone peeking their heads out.
"You out of rounds, Coco? Right about now would be good to start shooting that thing." Jackson asked.
Coco shook her head, herself, slightly peeking her head out every now and then "No, I used up all of Gianduja's rounds earlier." Jackson, once again let out a sigh, one of many. "We need to get out of here, even I don't know If I can handle a megagoliath on melee."
"You think?!" Came Turner's sarcastic remark.
"Guys, I have a plan!" Velvet yelled out from the trunk seat. Everyone promptly turned to her causing her to shrink a little at their stares. In her hand was her… camera box? Coco seemed to be the most shocked of them all though.
"The hell is that gonna do?" Edwards let out a chuckle amidst the rather dreadful situation.
Velvet just continued to stare at Coco, who eventually nodded, earning a smile from Velvet "Mr. Beltran, open the trunk please."
Beltran then looked incredulously at Velvet, ignoring the use of 'Mr.' "Huh? Why?"
"Just do it! Please!" Everyone had to stare wide eyed a little, that must've been the first time she asserted herself throughout her whole time here.
"Do it, Beltran." Jackson commanded.
Beltran wordlessly pulled the release lever on the trunk and pushed the door, causing the trunk door to fly open, hanging by its hinges atop the Humvee, offering a full view of the megagoliath from within the vehicle to the whole squad, it was now practically at spitting distance.
Turner let out a morbid chuckle "Holy shit we could be fucked, people."
"Take that thing down!" Was the panicked yell of Coco.
"I don't know what you got planned, girl, but holy shit it better be good." Edwards remarked.
Velvet smirked to herself as she set her camera box beside her and held her hands forward, the box then projected multiple beams of light into her hand which slowly formed into a tube-shaped tool, as it took form, every marine recognized it immediately.
Was that a god damn SMAW?
Everyone save for Coco stared silent and dumbfoundedly as Velvet, with perfect form, one only earned through weeks of training on that specific platform, placed the light weapon atop her shoulder, her eye perfectly placed behind the sight, almost like she was just another marine ready to fire a SMAW.
Without needing any instruction, she pulled the primary trigger letting lose a projectile also made of light straight at the megagoliath, exploding, there was no smoke, but they saw a hole be blasted into its elephantine head, leaving it a mess, the Humvee shook from the blast, but they were otherwise left completely unharmed, did the light leave no shrapnel?
"Holy shit! What the fuck was that?!" Turner, for the first time since landing said in abject shock, without sarcasm or mirth.
Coco stared satisfied at Velvet who closed her eyes and smiled, clearly proud of what she had done.
Beltran promptly then grabbed the trunk handle and closed it.
Edwards shook his head, smirking, then chuckling, he looked at Velvet "That was some good shooting, Velvet."
Jackson gazed upwards at Humvee's ceiling, smiling, a slightly manic laugh eventually escaping his throat. "Ho. Lee. Shit. I don't what the fuck that was, but God damn, you saved our asses." He brought his head back down and leveled an approving look at Velvet.
Turner gripped hard on the steering wheel and began pulling and pushing in excitement "Wooo! Fuck yeah! You, my friend just earned yourself free drinks the moment we get out of this shit."
Velvet continued to smile proudly but shook her head "I'd have to pa- "
"Sh sh sh sh." Coco promptly turned around and put her index finger over Velvet's mouth.
Jackson tapped onto the radio. "2 actual, this is 2-2, threat has been eliminated, continuing to rendezvous point now."
"(COMMS) Good shooting, 2-2, 2, out."
Jackson let himself relax if just a little bit as their Humvee finally caught up with the others. It was almost done, just a little more work.
After another minute and a half of driving they finally reached the next perimeter and were welcomed by the sounds of mortars firing once again.
The perimeter was less refined, in place of HESCO and specific nests for machine guns, it was just dirt roughly dug up, but it didn't need to be very refined as the next phase of the plan was soon to come, they just needed to cull the grimm even more.
The Humvee drove over the dirt placements and came to stop a few hundred yards from the other vehicles.
They exited the Humvee, and immediately got into position.
The marines laid prone, scanning the area waiting for the grimm to come into effective range again as the mortar crews behind them simply fired off volley after volley.
Turner ran up to the back of the Humvee, popping open the trunk and grabbing the M240 as a he did, his M4 hanging at his chest from a strap as he remembered something, he jogged up to Velvet, startling her.
"Yo, Vel." Velvet stared at him in shock, seeing as he had used a nickname, but listened.
"Yes?" She quirked an eyebrow.
"I saw how you handled the SMAW, you pick up on things like that by just watching us?"
Velvet nodded intuitively "Yes, it's my semblance."
Right, her superpower. "Think, you can handle one of these then." He used his eyes to point and looked at his M4 then looking back at Velvet.
"Uhh." She seemed to shrink a bit at the suggestion "I think so."
"Can't you make another one of those light copies then?"
Velvet shook her head "They last less than a minute, I won't be much use." She rubbed her shoulder.
"Don't be like that!" Come with me, Turner started walking towards the other marines, M240 in one hand, bipod in the other, Velvet trailed behind him while Coco looked on curiously.
"Jackson! Mind if I give Velvet here my M4? Extra firepower." Velvet looked at turner, eyes wide, surprise evident.
Jackson turned to look at Turner, then at Velvet who only smiled nervously at his stare. He thought for second, she did save them back there, and all she'd really be doing was firing at the grimm, there was no harm in it.
"Sure, why not?"
Velvet's nervous smile turned into one of glee as Turner unholstered his M4 and put the strap over Velvet, as he walked over to his position set up the M240.
"Hey! I don't get one too?" Coco jeered as Velvet received her rifle.
Jackson smirked but didn't bother to look at her, simply staring through is rifle's sights waiting for the grimm in the distance to get in range "You had your chance when we gave you like 3 belts of ammo for your minigun. Plus, we don't got any extra, Turner only gave his because he's handling a machine gun anyway." He reached into his pocket. "This is your fault for not conserving ammo." He added sarcastically as he finally found what he was looking for in his pocket.
Coco pouted with crossed arms, clearly disappointed at now not being able to shoot anything, ah the spirit of a true, honorary, marine.
Her emoting was cut off when a small black box fell at her feet, large text reading 'Marlboro', a green lighter landing next to it shortly after. "You can stand there and smoke, let the big boys do the work for now."
Coco's face instantly brightened upon seeing the pack of cigarettes and the offer from Jackson, she picked it up as well as the lighter, she walked forward, got in the space between where Edwards and Jackson were laying prone in the grass, and sat cross legged staring at the killing field where the grimm would soon be.
She put a cigarette up to her mouth and lit it, taking a drag as she did.
Edwards smelled the smoke immediately and gazed at the source, simply smiling and turning his focus back on the field.
Jackson chuckled "Fuckin' addict."
Coco pointed at Jackson with her index finger "Hey, you started this!"
Jackson just smiled "Yeah, yeah."
The grimm slowly got into range, mortar fire raining upon them as they did, the first guns to fire were the LAVs in small bursts as they were now lacking the ammunition they once had.
And after a few minutes, the M4s too sang their song of fire and death, Velvet, laid prone, getting dirt on her bodysuit as she fired small bursts of 5.56 at the incoming grimm just like a trained marine.
Soon this would all be over.
0634 hours
Situation Room, MOB Juno
Kirkman stared at the large digital screen in front of him, four RQ-4 Global hawks watched over the battle as it happened, two screens in particular interested Kirkman.
The first being one that watched over the western perimeter where Marine Raiders were fighting a good fight against the grimm, they were not afforded the advantage of high ground and bad terrain for grimm like the rangers in the northern perimeter, but they had lots of ground to maneuver, and they did just that, pulling a successful retrograde.
Which led to his interest in the second screen, the rangers of the southern front. Those on the North simply had to hold their ground, but for the ones on the south, Kirkman had other plans. He had communicated with the HQ element of Task Force Shion this plan, and the go signal was the grimm entering the kill box of the Marines that had just retrograded
There were only a few rangers on the south, the 230 soldiers of Charlie company, they were not armed with LAVs or Humvees like the men in the north or west, only a single Stryker. But with how few grimm were coming in there, they barely had to defend.
He watched the video feed, now showing those ranges begin rucking their way northwest, towards the marine's position, they had about a kilometer to trek before they reached their objective which was itself a kilometer southwest of the marines.
Many in the situation watched in bated breath at what was happening.
But Kirkman had confidence in this maneuver. The retrograde of the marines meant that the perimeter on the west now sat a little behind the ones on the north and south.
Meaning the grimm assaulting the west had just been funneled into a position perfect for a flanking maneuver.
The rangers moved with their one Stryker towards the North, save for a single platoon who remained on the southern perimeter.
The first two hours of defense had culled the swarm of grimm to about half what they once were. As they moved, he heard footsteps to his right, he looked, to see the taller figure of Elijah King who was now too staring at the screen.
"Gotta tell you, General, I was not expecting this mission to be this much of a success."
Kirkman gave a slight frown at that, just continuing to stare at the video feeds. "Earlier I got word of two rangers dying on Hill One, an extremely unique an expected grimm had caused them, during the initial defense a marine died by being dropped from a thousand feet by a nevermore that had gotten past AD due to the sheer swarm of Aerial grimm." Kirkman acknowledged the deaths that had been caused by this mission "This might be a success on every level strategic and tactical, but knowing those men died the way they did makes me feel a little guilty as this whole thing was something I insisted on."
He knew such deaths were a risk and maybe even an inevitability, but he'd been on the ground once just like those men so that slight pang of guilt he'd been trying to numb was unavoidable.
"I wouldn't worry too much about that, General, this is your job. And hey, you were right, the people of Remnant are loving this, just passed by your public affairs office and found out some news agencies are calling you a hero, VNN's live news segment down there is doing God's work. I'm sure this would have an effect back home too."
Kirkman smiled at that, he was right, then again there'd always be that large and vocal sector of the American people who didn't like the nation's foreign, and now, interplanetary or interdimensional entanglement.
The reveal would be happening in just two days now.
The video feeds now showed the rangers having reached their target and have begun shooting at the grimm, now opening a third front for the grimm swarm, and making the job of defending Shion significantly easier for the marines in the west.
"Sir." He turned to look at an operations officer on his right in front of a computer screen, headset now hanging around his neck.
"ETA on the package is 15 minutes."
Forest, 2 kilometers west of Shion.
0655 Hours
The various MSOTs continued taking shots on the grimm, their ammo now starting to finally run dry, the rate of fire of all elements on the ground had begun to slow significantly, from the mortars, to the LAVs, to the marines on small arms.
Velvet's M4 suddenly stopped firing, she released the magazine, seeing nothing within, she looked to the pile of magazines that Turner left her and found them all to be empty as well. "Mr. Turner! Do you have another magazine?"
Turner, who was in prone, firing his M240 in bursts patted himself down "Nope! I'm out!"
While the Rangers in the south had opened a third front and had significantly lessened the rate of grimm coming at the marines, them running out of ammo would still be a near death sentence without a resupply.
Edward's M4 then clicked to a stop as well "Shit I'm out too!"
"Man, we really could be fucked this time." Turner laughed as his M240 ran down to the last round of ammunition.
"I think you're gonna have to take that back, Turner." Turner squinted his eyes at Jackson for what he had said, Jackson for some reason had stopped firing, and was looking at the sky.
He looked up.
"Holy shit! They're early! Let's fucking go!" He yelled.
"Wha- "Coco, cigarette in her mouth questioned before she herself look up to see a low-flying formation of more than a dozen aircraft, a mix of C-17s and C-130s in the distance of the sky. "A resupply?!"
"Not just that." Edwards chuckled as the flight of C-130s and C-17s passed by, a single C-130 trailing behind them and seeming to hover over the battlefield above the marines.
Music could be heard playing from loudspeakers installed on it.
"Don't pull the thang out, unless you plan to bang~ Bombs over Baghdad."
Those were the opening remarks to everyone on the ground as hellfire rained on the swarm ahead of them, smoke, explosions, the whole nine rocked and shook their world, deafening the two girls not wearing ear protection.
Killing the grimm in the hundreds each salvo, a mix of high caliber rounds rained from over a thousand feet at the grimm outside of danger close distance from the marines or rangers.
The marines on the ground continued to fire but cheered and laughed in celebration as the grimm were discarded in great numbers, Velvet and Coco simply stood there in shocked awe.
"FUCKING GET SOME!" Turner yelled out.
"WHAT IS THAT?!" Coco found it in her to ask, the cigarette dropping from her mouth.
Jackson fired his last round as he picked up the cigarette Coco had dropped and began smoking it without a care in the world, simply turning back and smiling at the carnage in front of them.
"That, my friend, is the work of an AC-130."
Outkast's song continued to play as the grimm were turned to dust by the AC-130 above.
"Man." Turner shook his head in gleeful awe "Kirkman prolly sucked the dick of some staffer at Travis AFB to get this done." The other marines laughed at his quip. The other two just looked on, both appreciating and standing in fear at the mass of explosions about a mile ahead of them
"Sucked two dicks probably there's should be another AC-130 helping out over at hill one." Edwards continued.
Jackson stood up, dusting the mud and dirt off his gear "Pack up boys, we're done here, 173rd airborne's got it from here."
He turned back, staring at the hundreds of troops paradropping over the plains in the east.
VNN
Breaking News: American success at Shion
0800 Hours
"After more than three days of fighting, the Americans announce the success of the defense of Shion, we watched earlier, live as the desperate troops at Shion were relieved by power American airpower and a resupply and reinforcement of hundreds of soldiers."
Ozpin watched with Glynda, Ironwood, Winter Schnee, and Qrow on a large screen in his office, the VNN news report on the American intervention of Shion.
"As much as I am happy, they were successful at protecting the innocent of Shion, the hero worship the media seems to be doing of the Americans leaves a bad taste in my mouth. "Glynda remarked.
Ozpin shook his head, perhaps there was merit in cooperating more with the Americans, he might not agree with their methods, but sometimes they did do acts like these.
"Glynda, be more optimistic, thousands of lives have just been saved."
"In a press release on their website, they have revealed pictures showing military and civilian alike at Shion celebrating, General Kirkman is expected to make an official announcement later today, intending to elucidate further on their operation."
Yang put on a shirt, a forever frown remaining on her face,
Blake grabbed the USB stick on the desk, now even more galvanized to expose the Americans, they have good men, but at the end of the day they were also liars.
"You guys ready?" Ruby voice was quiet, clearly nervous at what they were about to do, her only response from her team being nods.
"After being asked for a statement by Mayor Lavender Stone, she told our correspondent, quote 'I am eternally grateful for the what the Americans have done today, I've met with many of their people, officers and down to the lowest private, and they are good people. They all fought valiantly here today and saved the people of Shion.'"
"Bah!" Screamed out a cowled man in a dark room. He rolled his eyes and shook a fist. "Good people… Good people…" His accented English confusing those standing guard outside the room.
"Well… They did invent the greatest activity known to man." He cackled to himself as he brought the welding tool down on two pieces of metal, making sure the sparks didn't fall onto his limited-edition shoes, one of the few things he brought over here on Remnant.
The report continues as he kept talking to himself "I will come to you Americans soon." Another cackle.
"Yo." The cowled man turned to see a white-haired boy and his green haired accomplice.
"Cinder sent us over to ask for an update on the Yellow."
Thrax wiggled his finger "These things take time, I am growing the spores as we speak. Yes… Yes… More time, patience is key here, boy."
"Well, tell that to cinder, she can't wait."
The man clicked his tongue and turned back to his welding. "And tell your Cinder again, that it took me MONTHS to build refineries good enough to purify my toxins because you people on this backwards planet do not have the infrastructure, she wants quality toxins? She needs to give me a quantity of time."
He could hear the woman mumble "Again with that alien stuff."
"What are you making?" Mercury felt the need to ask now.
"Oh it's a piece for a game I'm sure you'll love, simply a project I have been working on while waiting for my beautiful spores to grow. I believe it will change the landscape of Remnant as a whole."
Mercury shook his head, turning around to leave, Emerald followed him. "Fucking insane." Was the last thing the cowled man heard. "We'll tell Cinder what you said, she'll probably come by here herself soon."
"They will soon understand, Michael, they will soon understand." He kneeled down to give his shoes a pat.
Plains east of Shion
2100 Hours
Velvet fiddled around with Camera's settings, the marines sat by idly by the fireplace, singing a song she did not know.
"And she doesn't know who I am~ And she doesn't give a damn about me~" They all sang in rough unison, just staring candidly at the fire "Cause I'm just a teenage dirtbag baby! I'm just a teenage dirtbag baby!"
The marines finished up their song as Velvet perfected the exposure setting on her camera "All done!" She waved. The marines promptly stood up and got into various poses, most of them just standing straight, but Edwards did a double bicep flex, Turner held up a middle finger, and Jackson did finger guns to his head.
Velvet pressed a button on her Camera which now stood on a tripod, it was set to snap once and develop a photo twice.
Velvet ran to the squad of marines gathered around a campfire, all looking at the camera, she sat next to Coco on the grass while the Marines stood behind them.
"You have five seconds! Keep your poses!" She said happily, she simply smiled and gave to peace signs when she suddenly felt a hand pat her on the head.
*Snap*
Immediately she turned a touch red and turned around to see Turner laughing "you got scared from that, brah?"
Velvet then immediately frowned, grumbling as she walked to grab the two polaroids that fell from the Camera.
"Huh, so it works like a normal Camera too?" Beltran asked to which Velvet nodded.
She looked at the polaroids, Velvet's smile had turned into a face of shock instead while everyone else was smiling just fine, unfortunate.
But she was happy, at least they had a physical thing to remember Shion and by proxy, these marines by.
In two hours a bullhead would arrive that would pick Coco and Velvet up. After hearing this the Marines decided to hold a goodbye 'party' for them, but they decided to do it outside in the plains where many other marines and rangers were drinking and eating MREs because the bars in town had been packed by their fellow servicemen.
"Aight, drink up!" Edwards had finished shaking the 5 gallon water dispenser that he had mixed with various juices and alcohol.
Jackson distributed some plastic cups "Burton gave all marines and rangers the go ahead to celebrate and drink some hooch, said we deserved it."
Turner filled up his cup "Yeah, let those 173rd guys do all the work defending and shit, bout time we reaped our rewards."
The rest filed up their cups, taking sips here and there.
Coco gave the mix a taste, a 'Blue Lagoon' Edwards had called it "Where'd you get the ingredients for this."
Edwards took a drag from his e-cig "Man I pulled up to a bar and tried to barter a bottle of vodka and curacao with some cigarettes, but the barmaid there insisted on giving them to me for free, called me a hero and everything." He cringed.
Turner chuckled "Dawg, you shoulda showed her Big Black Behemoth as payment instead."
The marines let out a tired laugh, Velvet snickered, a hand over her mouth.
"Ey, I'm married man, just happy I came outta this alive, I'm not as sex starved as you, man." He pointed at Turner who threw his hands.
Coco lit a cigarette from the pack which Jackson let her keep, she took a drag, taking a sip of the drink right after. "Man, I'll miss you guys, most fun I had on a mission in a while."
Jackson grinned "Oh, don't get all sappy, this is supposed to be a good time." Jackson took the pack and lighter, lighting himself a cigarette as he set both the items back down next to Coco.
Coco shook her head, another drag "This is the most excitement I've had on a mission in a while, you guys sure know to make killing things a fun activity."
"Yut yut!" said Turner.
Velvet nodded, her cup only half full "Mmm, I agree, I hope Yatsu and Fox are alright though."
Coco took a stip from her cup "Check the group chat, they said they're in a bar with the ranger guys."
Turner lit his own cigarette "Hehehe, your teammates are prolly getting laid tonight."
Velvet went a little red while Coco beamed "Hell yeah!"
Jackon leaned back a little "But yeah you're right, originally I thought working with guys from Beacon would be a drag, but nah, y'all were cool, saved our asses a few times too."
Coco gave a mock salute "That's what we're here for Sarge!"
Velvet then handed one of the two polaroids to Jackson, whose eyes widened a little at the gesture. "One for you and your squad to keep… for memories."
"Ey, thanks." Said Jackson as he pocketed the polaroid.
Velvet lip quirked up into a genuine smile to the marines "I hope I get to work with you all again."
And so they all continued drinking well into the night, the marines eventually bid farewell to their temporary compatriots, with her low tolerance, Velvet gave a tearful drunken mess of a goodbye to the marines as she boarded the bullhead.
This battle from the beginning to the end would be remembered by the Marine Raiders of Dagger Bravo for years to come.
Shion slept easy that night, no more Branwens, no more grimm, just the occasional shot or explosion of American arms.
The Battle of Shion finally came to a close.
Ahh that arc is done, the next chapter will have small time skip. Anyway yes, I hope you all liked how this concluded and went down.
To anybody who watched or read Generation Kill, I hope that Teenage Dirtbag scene did something for you, I think most fans of it already know the news, but Evan Wright died. This news hit me hard cause I'm a big fan of his work and GK is a big inspiration for Operation Forging Steel, so I thought it'd be fitting to leave some sort of tribute at least. RIP Evan Wright. And to anybody who hasn't watched Generation Kill, do yourself a favor and do it.
Anyway a certain a character has finally made his appearance, and he is now canonized to be a big fan of a certain game kinda like how Osama was a big fan of Volleyball, thanks to Hart and CommonwealthFlip on the discord for their very funny ideas on this. I had a blast writing this chapter, but of course if there are problems or anything or you just wanna say whatever, as always please tell me in the reviews
Monster King: Thank you king.
MArinchap: Yeah I wanted to show that the Branwens at least had a strategy.
Octavio Constant: You'll see what happens to the Branwens on the next chapter. As your other point, well other people like the convos, this isn't meant to just be generic RTS fic, I want their to be good characters and good relationships between said characters.
Just a craz-man: Thanks
Guest: Yeah Ozma/Ozpin made some really dumb decisions in his past
MaiFlower73: LMAO. Hope you liked this chapter bro.
Afgt: THANKS BRO. That is true, dust still can have its merits.
Maglad: Thanks, and there was no need for footage no more, VNN clipped the whole thing live.
Roy4: Well something about Americans and being pinned down, as I pointed out in the chapter itself, they fight like hell and have good strategy, the battle of Mogadishu as I stated was arguably a worse situation and they came out with 18 fatalities of the hundred or so men that were pinned down which was still seen as a disaster. You also make some interesting points here, and yes, RWBY has just now leaked the story.
Guest: You'll see what happens to Raven.
Vmoneywashere: And indeed it escalated! Thanks for reading and as always thanks for the good work on the TVT!
Toyamasu: Oh yeah… You're right, lol.
Warmachine324: And thank you! For reading.
Gunfighterxy76: There are casualties! Interesting skit you have there, and you're right about CFVY they have certainly built a rapport with the Americans.
Stormwolf16: Edwards is alive! Let's goo death flag evaded. As for your point on casualties, refer to what I said to Roy4 a few lines above, the Modern American Military fight a good fight when pinned down and have built a lot of their strategy and doctrine on taking as little casualties as possible, there are no single engagements in modern American military history in the past few decades that have had casualty figures that rate half a battalion gone. Even then, the 10 or so fatalities ive had here is already considered high by American military standards, Mogadishu had 18 fatalities and that was considered a disaster.
Cyrycist: Generally, I refer to real life for strategy and outcome.
Nightshade213: Thanks man, and as Ive said to you on the discord, nah ROTR and other mods are too wacky and zany on tech and geopol that I cant add them.
lalaineann-ramiro: Nah, lol. That trope is so overdone, even IRL there are stories of soldiers/marines getting mad at the boot ass dude playing ride of the Valkyries on their Humvees. Generally playing music on the field is done as a fear or annoyance tactic on the enemy or to bolster the soldiers' morale, but playing Ride of the Valkyries for psyops has kinda become a thing associated, at least within the military, with 'motards' as they're called.
Second Fox: Thank you, here's 1 more for ye!
As always, thanks for reading, see y'all soon (hopefully).
