"Ready?"
"Always, boss." Truck responded.
The four of them looked up at the portal, the massive green portal with the green light in the middle, scientists and researchers crowded the room.
"Let's go." Sandman began to walk forward.
The others followed. Sandman stopped in front of the green light, before putting a foot through, feeling nothing but a slight change of temperature in the new environment his foot was in, he entered, the others followed. What met them was a massive white room made of steel.
But right in front of them was General Thomas Kirkman himself, widely regarded to be one of the best generals in the armed forces. He gave them a smile
"Welcome gentlemen, I am General Kirkman, and I'm sure you've already been briefed of the situation."
Truck relaxed a little. "Woo yeah, alien worlds, alien life, getting attacked, all that."
Kirkman laughed. "Yes, while that is a very abridged version of the situation, I believe it is somewhat accurate. Did General Townes inform you of your mission here, uhh Sandman?" He looked at Sandman, wearing his US army uniform, wielding an ACR and sunglasses covering his eyes.
"Yes, you need a special operations team to take down the people who attacked you."
"Correct, and would you say your team is suited for the job?"
"Yes sir." Sandman's tone was confident, he was indeed confident in his team's ability and skill.
"Good, now please come with me." Kirkman signaled them to follow him, there was a door on the right, Kirkman went through it, and team Metal followed, as they walked, Kirkman began to talk.
"After being attacked, I issued requests for many things, jets, helicopters, materials, missiles, ammunition, even a cyber-team, though the cyber-team hasn't arrived yet. The attack on the marines happened two days ago, and so far no strange activity has been noted from the compound we followed them to."
Kirkman paused, as they walked for a little more.
"We already have multiple jets ready to take off and do airstrikes on the compound as soon as they are given the order, but we haven't done that yet, we've been waiting for you."
Team Metal stood quiet, but they wondered why they would need an actual team on the ground when they could easily level the base, as they could swear they saw dozens of cruise missiles through a window. But other than that they saw white phosphorous bombs, napalm, cruise missiles and many more.
"Now I'm sure you've noticed all the different weaponry we have here, those only arrived recently, I requested them after realizing that we may have to go to war with the massive cities we encountered. You may ask why I don't use all this weaponry to completely destroy the base. Well, it's because the researchers want live specimens of this alien life, and the marines want someone to interrogate."
"So we're going to take one back alive?" Grinch asked
Kirkman nodded. "One is the minimum, but it'd be best if you can take multiple, preferably of different sexes."
Grinch and Truck winced a little at that.
"Don't worry, we won't be doing any human experimentation or anything of the sort, the scientists simply want to compare differences between a live alien and a human, then the marines will do some interrogation. They, after all, have been wanting revenge since what happened before."
A woman in a lab coat hastily walked past them.
"I would like to ask though, what's been going on in the outside? I haven't been getting much news."
Truck was the first to answer.
"Nothin' much, China's desperately trying to get as much info on American bases as they can by taking what's left of the GLA. Tensions are building up in Korea, there might be a third Korean war soon enough."
"We might be able to make up for what happened in the second Korean war." Grinch replied in a joking manner.
Ahhh yes, the second Korean war, lasting from 2007-2008 where general Alexander got her name and fame. Though the US had many early victories, but it wasn't until China amassed a massive army and field tested their Overlord Tanks that the American backed South Koreans began to lose tremendously. It was a massive embarrassment for the US, in fact it was in direct response to the Overlord that the US made the Paladin tank, thought it wasn't as powerful as the Overlord, it did its job and did very well against missile based units, the Paladins ended being the spearhead to the American counterattack.
The Paladin had a 125mm cannon, as well as a point laser defense system which can take out multiple missiles before having to cool down for a short amount of time, making it more practical than the Overlord. But when the two faced each other in a one on one tank battle (which was highly unlikely), the Overlord would beat the Paladin.
The second Korean war made the US spend even more on military development and soon in terms of military tech the US would be completely unmatched, by the end of it, General Townes and General Alexander were both working on a laser defense system which can take out IRBMs, ICBMs, and the such, if that program is successful, China's nuclear weapons arsenal would be then obsolete-
He had been lost in thought for too long, he hadn't realized that they already arrived at their destination, it was the door to the outside, he opened it, and went out, Team Metal followed.
"Whoa." came from everyone except for Frost, there were raptors being transported, ordnance being wheeled away, ammunition and more.
But that wasn't what impressed them, that was common place in nearly every major base they've been to, no, what impressed them was Juno itself, the grass was green, the sky was blue, clouds were fluffy and white, the air was the same, and most importantly, they weren't dying and convulsing on the ground.
"Welcome to Juno." Said Kirkman
"It's exactly like Earth."
"Indeed it is, now, follow me."
They follow Kirkman as he continued walking, the sounds of men screaming orders, wheels rolling and engines on the move filled their ears. Suddenly an M1A3 crusader tank barreled past on the road next to them.
Frost looked at it.
After the crusader passed Frost could see many tomahawk launchers being loaded with tomahawk missiles
They passed a large B-3 bomber being taken out of the hangar.
They reached a building, team Metal immediately recognized the building, it was a strategy center, Kirkman opened the large doors and they all entered.
The walked to the operation room and all heads turned to meet them.
"This is Colonel Burton, he'll be with me on overseeing your mission." Kirkman gestured to a tall bald man in military uniform, he looked professional and strict.
"What do you need us to do, sir?" Sandman asked
The Colonel simply turned around and faced a large screen behind him showing what looked to be a medium sized base with multiple buildings and concrete walls surrounding it, at the front was an opening with an iron gate.
"It's simple, a Chinook will transport you there, while that is ongoing, Raptors will destroy the wall behind the base allowing for an opening, Lightning IIs will then strike at what we assume are a barracks and ammunitions facility, to allow for lesser reinforcements." a red square appeared over two buildings on the screen.
"Two Comanches will be there for close air support, once you drop in from the Chinook, you'll simply take at the very least one of them alive and bring them back to the Chinook. You will leave and we will then level the base with a carpet bombing."
That explained the B-3 bomber being prepped earlier.
"You all have an hour to prepare and review the plan, we've designated a room here in the strategy center to allow you and your squad to do some of your own planning."
Team Metal nodded their heads as an officer walked up to them to lead them to the room where they would be staying at for the next hour.
"So." Kirkman turned to Burton. "Do you have any news on the city?"
"Well, our drones spotted multiple unidentified flying objects going all around the city, we assume they are some sort of aircraft."
Colonel Burton pressed something on his remote and pointed it towards the screen, it now showed an overhead image of the city, a square appeared over certain spots of the image, as zoomed in versions of the spots on the squares appeared. There were a few weird looking objects in the air, they were white, had what appeared to be wings that extended, at the end of these wings were weird cylindrical winglets. There was also some form of tail extending to the back, at the end were what looked to be stabilizers.
It looked like some modified version of an Osprey
"We've observed them doing vertical takeoff and landing, they appear to be advanced."
All the more reason to fear them, if these aliens had access to technology that was far more advanced than theirs, then a couple cruise missiles and planes wouldn't suffice, which made it a good thing that he had recently requested for three more B-3 bombers. Granted, those bombers and the two ones he currently had wouldn't be nearly enough to capture or even the city in the event of a war, but it was a start, and at the current point he was on, a particle cannon or nuclear weapons would be overkill.
Right now they are not even sure if these white masked individuals are in any way related to those in the city.
He set up meetings in the futures with the other generals to request some of their materials, like Alexander's EMP missiles, Aurora Alphas and upgraded Particle Uplink Cannon, or Granger's King Raptors and Stealth Comanches, or even Townes' Laser Tanks, all were tools that would make him capable of defending the base if war were to break out.
But they were already taking necessary precautions, within the week, they were going to launch multiple satellites into orbit, thus allowing them to properly observe Juno without the excessive use of drones or spy planes, more and more ordnance and equipment was also arriving at the base, further equipping them with the ability to fight back against these aliens.
A cyber team is also going to arrive soon, since if the world is at a comparative level of technology to the Earth, then it would make sense for them to have computers or some large computer network like the internet, So cyber team would be useful when getting information out there, that is if they could decipher whatever language they spoke here.
The marines who were previously attacked claimed that they heard the men and woman they fought shouting in English, but Kirkman and many others doubted, they likely only heard it due to the shock of the situation, or mistook them for speaking English.
But he had enough to think about, for now he had a mission to oversee.
Juno, 34 kilometers southwest of the base.
1201 hours.
Team Metal were all currently in a Chinook helicopter, the side doors were open, and the sight of two Comanches tailing them could be seen.
"Approaching the LZ, ETA three minutes." The pilot said
Sandman looked to the rest of his team
"Alright, let's go over the plan one more time, we'll go in quick and fast, try to keep it all under a few minutes, go in, Frost and Truck will knock a couple out while Grinch and I will cover the two of you."
Everyone nodded
"Now remember, these guys got some sort of forcefield, so shooting them at vital parts is okay, but once you see the forcefield break, avoid lethal attacks on the people we want to take."
They all nodded again
They got the gist of it, they were able to meet Lieutenant Vasquez and his team of Marines before departure and they gave them all the advice they could, granted they only ever had one engagement with them, but that was enough to them the most experienced in that regard.
"One minute."
Overhead they could hear something soaring through the sky with a thunderous boom, before fading into nothing.
"Must be the Lightning IIs." Truck remarked.
A minute passed before another thunderous boom echoed overhead.
"And there goes the Raptors." This time it was Grinch who spoke.
"Aliens must be scared shitless."
Truck laughed. "No shit."
They could hear the thunderous sounds come back, the jets must have hit their target already.
"Thirty Seconds."
Sandman turned to look at the rest of his squad. "Lock and load boys"
Frost did an ammo check, he was holding a standard M4A1 with an ACOG. A USP was holstered to his side, he brought down his goggles from his forehead to his eyes and stood up from his seat.
Grinch did the same, for this mission he was carrying an Mk14 with a rifle optic. He stood up behind Frost.
Truck held an Mk46 light machine gun with ACOG sight, he was planning on doing some heavy damage. He walked in front of Frost, as they could feel the helicopter start descending.
Sandman was the last to stand, he stood in front of Truck, readying his ACR with a red dot sight. He placed his sunglasses over his eyes and readied himself.
"Five Seconds."
"Why do you always have to wear those?" Truck asked with a sarcastic tone
Without a hint of sarcasm in his voice, Sandman answered. "Style."
The Chinook landed. The doors at the front opened and they all rushed out, above them the Comanches were still flying at the ready/
The Chinook flew back up and went away
"We'll be coming back at your signal, good luck, out."
They were in the middle of some sort of forest, right in front of them was a clearing, with a large compound surrounded by a concrete wall, but the wall had a large breach.
They could already hear the shouting of the compound's occupants. Suddenly bullets starting coming at the two Comanches.
Sparks flew from the metal hull of the Comanches, but no damage was done.
"Take cover by the wall."
Sandman held his ACR with one hand, while with his other hand he counted.
Three
Two
One
"Go!"
They all went away from there cover, immediately seeing dozens of uniformed individuals, they weren't expecting Team Metal, Truck fired his machine gun, the rest fired upon them with their own guns. A hail of bullets struck the aliens.
The rocket pods on the Comanches fired on the large group of aliens as well.
Just like what Vasquez said, flashing lights of different colors came as they were hit, but after that the blood started to flow. Some were hit in the head and were killed instantly, others were hit in the chest and torso, but they all started to bleed.
Limbs flew from the explosions caused by the rockets of the Comanches, blood sprayed out and painted the ground in a liquid crimson.
In front of were two groups of metal barrels, close to each other. Team Metal spread out and took cover behind them
Grinch peeked his head out. The smoke began to clear, and the outlines of more uniformed individuals coming from a warehouse near the ruins of a barracks.
"Warehouse, right side!" Grinch fired twice at one of the silhouettes, the first shot broke their forcefield, and the second shot blew their head up.
Grinch went back behind cover.
"Any survivors?" Sandman asked with a loud tone.
Truck peeked his head to left, the smoke completely cleared, he saw a few of the downed individuals breathing, in fact one of them was quickly crawling to his allies.
"A couple, but I don't think they'll make it."
"Damn, we went a bit too hard." Sandman was angry, now they had to take the risk and attack the ones coming from the warehouse.
"You think?" Grinch smirked
Suddenly someone started firing at his head, the bullet luckily missed, hitting the barrel instead.
"We're taking fire!"
"(COMMS) We see em, multiple individuals from a large two story building to the left, we're moving to fire, over." The Comanche descended slightly and went in front of the large two story building, before unleashing a torrent of bullets at it.
"Roger, Owl 6-2. Owl 6-1 we need you to assist with the hostiles coming from the warehouse." Sandman spoke into his radio, while poking his head over to see the warehouse, and indeed there were currently six hostiles in the field firing either at their position or at the Comanches, while more were coming out from within the warehouse.
They could hear the guns and rockets, they assumed it was Owl 6-2 firing at the two story building building
"(COMMS) Understood, Sandman, what do you need us to do?"
"We need you to fire at the warehouse entrance to stop more from coming out, we'll attempt capture while they're distracted."
"(COMMS) Roger that."
The Comanche descended a little and immediately started firing its guns and rockets.
"Frost, Truck, try to grab one, Grinch and I will cover you."
"Alright."
Frost reloaded his M4, and looked to Truck. "You ready?" Truck asked
Frost nodded.
Truck pulled out a flashbang, letting it cook for a second before throwing it above his head and into the field full of hostiles. He heard the bang accompanied by the rockets and machine gun of the Comanches firing at their respective targets.
"Let's go!" Truck shouted. Frost and Truck vaulted over their barrels
They ran forward, ready to meet their opponents.
There were around six of them, four of them were holding swords, the two ones holding guns and rifles were immediately shot at by Grinch and Sandman, the forcefields broke in a few shots and the bullets penetrated their skin with ease.
The last four sprinted towards them, the one farthest at the back had his forcefield broken, he stumbled backwards before a bullet penetrated his skull. Frost and Truck continued, three more, they were near point blank range.
Truck aimed his machine gun forward, it was aimed at the three men and women running at him and Frost, he squeezed the trigger, the bullets sprayed out, Truck let go, he made sure to only fire for two seconds, and it worked, he watched the lights flash amongst all of them.
A bullet struck one of them in the head. Frost aimed down at the remaining two's legs as they ran at him and Truck, and he shot them, they fell down.
"We got em!" Truck shouted into comms.
The two Comanches pulled away from the areas they were initially targeting, and moved to support Truck and Frost as they walked up to the bodies of the aliens.
They stepped closer and closer to the downed men, they reached them, Frost looked at the face of the person, noticing long blonde hair, and a significantly non flat chest, this was probably a woman, they really weren't lying about them looking like humans.
She was downed but still conscious as evident by the fact that she was trying to grab hold of her sword which fell right next to her, Frost crouched slightly and butted his rifle onto the side of her head, cracking her mask and knocking her out, he grabbed her from the back and arms and lifted her over his shoulders.
Truck got to the other downed man, this one was actually a man, which meant they met all the criteria except for maybe the part about it being best if they were uninjured, but a couple shots in the legs and a concussion wasn't too bad. He was still breathing, and clearly attempting to crawl away.
Truck was about to knock him out with a butt to the head as well, but he suddenly turned over and looked him in the eyes.
"Damn… You." He said in between grunts of pain.
He spoke English. This was a complete surprise, Truck had to register his words.
"You speak English?"
"What the hell… is an English?"
Truck shook away his shock and knocked the stock of his gun onto the guy's head, breaking the mask and knocking the guy out.
He lifted him up and followed Frost as he had already began carrying his alien back to their defensive position, he could see the barrel of Grinch's Mk14 sticking out from the side of the metal barrels.
They got close as gunshots began to hit the sand around their feet."
"(COMMS) We're seeing more of them coming from inside the two story building, we're moving into fire, over."
The Comanche moved over to the position of the men coming out and fired its machine gun.
Frost and Truck got to where Sandman and Grinch were.
They laid down the bodies by the metal barrels.
"I already called in the chinook, get those bodies, we're going back behind the wall." Sandman gestured to the bodies of the woman and man
Frost and Truck picked the bodies back up again, and followed Sandman and Grinch as they started quickly walking behind the wall, they were fired at once again.
The Comanches silenced those gunshots with their own.
They went through the hole in the wall and crouched behind it. Laying the bodies there, they could then see the Chinook about to land.
Its wheels touched the ground, and the door opened, Sandman and Grinch were the first to enter, then followed Frost and Truck with their cargo. Frost and Truck dropped the bodies onto the seats as a medic walked over to tend to their wounds. The Chinook lifted off, and flew off into the other direction.
FOB Juno
1222
Colonel Burton put down the headset
"It was a complete success."
Everyone in the room began to cheer, much like how the room was when he beat the GLA.
"That's good." Kirkman breathed a sigh of relief. "So no one was injured?"
"None, sir. They were able to take two live aliens, one female and one male."
They had been watching the mission from a drone recording the whole event in the sky, but it was unclear from that high what was going on, they could only see dots on the screen moving around and bigger dots, being the comanches moving around as well.
But F-35 and F-22 strikes and the ensuing destruction was made very clear, the ammunitions facility especially made a really big boom.
Kirkman relaxed in his seat. "The scientists will be happy." He then stood up. "Order the B-3s to begin their carpet bombing, I don't want a single building left standing."
"Yes, General."
Colonel Burton spoke into the microphone. "Start it."
Seconds passed, based on the drone feed it didn't look like they were evacuating, Kirkman expected some form of attempt to leave by now which would be silenced by the incoming carpet combing, but for some reason they stayed, like they didn't expect them to come back.
Minutes passed.
The room was filled with trepidation, anxious as to the success of the upcoming bombing
Minutes more passed
"(COMMS) TOT ten seconds." He could hear the Pilot's voice amongst the chatter of everyone in the room.
Then black shadows darkened the ground below the drone, and black shapes started coming into view, it was the B-3s, they were flying side by side at a high altitude, they passed right over the base, Kirkman could see outlines of the bombs drop. They hit the ground and with a thundering boom, the base was pulverized in mere seconds.
The walls fell, the buildings were decimated, by the end of the bombing, nothing was left of the base. It was a haunting yet beautiful sight.
Dust and smoke filled the surroundings as the B-3s moved away.
The cheers began again
"(COMMS) That's a hit, we're coming back around to return to the base."
Kirkman stood up and walked to the microphone, pressing the button, he spoke. "Good Job, Sparrow Squadron."
"(COMMS) Thank you, sir."
Kirkman was happy to say the least, this was the first major military operation to happen I Juno and it was a complete success, a celebration was soon to come, he would be giving Team Metal, and Lieutenant Vasquez's Squad of marines awards soon, they deserve it.
An officer walked up to him and put his mouth near Kirkman's right ear. "General. Team Metal has returned."
Kirkman nodded his head and looked to everyone in the room
"Well I'd like to talk with the men who made this success possible, so I'll be leaving."
It was 7:30pm, the sun had set, and the shattered moon had taken its place, the branches and leaves of the trees were swaying in the light breeze of the early night. It was Thursday and Classes had just finished a few hours earlier. Team RWBY were all situated in their dorm, all doing different things.
Weiss was studying on her desk, Ruby was playing Ninja Battles 3 with Yang on their scrolls, and Blake was doing what she always does, reading a damn book.
Just the day before they had resolved to investigate the White Fang, which they would be doing tomorrow, they had barely done any planning, but being the procrastinators that they were, they would cross that bridge when they get to it.
Yang pressed a button on her scroll controller and ended the game.
"Guess, I'm still better than you sis, better luck next time."
Ruby's arms slacked and she groaned with a slight pout on her face. Yang put down the controller and jumped onto her bed, seeing Ruby and Yang's game finished, Weiss decided to speak up.
"Hey, did you hear, people on the northern side of Vale said they could hear explosions."
Blake's bow perked up and focused a little of her attention to what Weiss was saying.
"You mean, the shopping district?" Ruby quirked an eyebrow at Weiss
"I prefer to call it the commercial district, but yes."
Yang sat up from her bed and looked at Weiss. "So… What about these explosions?"
"I don't really know, I just read about it on the internet an hour ago, because of all the reports, they sent a group of huntsmen north to check it out a few hours ago."
"Huh, I wonder what could've caused that."
"What's more interesting is that there is a significant amount of White Fang activity being reported in that area."
This was when Blake stopped reading, she still had the book over her head as she was lying down, but her focus was now on the thing the other girls were talking about.
"Hm. Blake, you know any bases around there?" Asked Yang.
Blake put down her book. "I think so, I remember hearing from Ad- Someone that we have a base somewhere in the northeast."
It took a while but it clicked, someone might have attacked the White Fang base. She sat up immediately.
"Someone could have attacked the base." Ruby suggested as if it wasn't already the most obvious thing in the world.
"As if that isn't the most obvious thing in the world." Weiss had a snarky tone.
Ruby was insulted "Hey!"
Yang looked at Weiss "You think Atlas had something to do with it?"
"No, last I remember, Atlas isn't allowed to conduct any military operations on Vale Territory."
"That's on paper."
"Well if they were going to conduct any covert operations without letting the Vale council know, they certainly wouldn't use something as obvious as a big explosion." This time it was Blake that answered
Yang looked to Blake "We don't know what happened, maybe the White Fang fought back with some sort of big powerful bomb."
Weiss stood up from her desk and walked to her bed and sat down, then she answered Yang. "Well if the White Fang had access to bombs powerful enough that it could be heard all the way in northern Vale, then I'm pretty sure we'd all be dead by now."
Blake was annoyed at Weiss' assumption that White Fang would even use such a weapon, her eyebrows furrowed as she looked to Weiss with a look that suggested she wasn't very happy with her.
"The White Fang isn't full of bloodthirsty monsters, they wouldn't just use a weapon like that." Her tone was starting to increase in volume.
"We don't know that, do we?"
"I do!"
"Can you guys stop fighting?" Yang stood up and put her arms up on each side trying to calm the situation.
"How can we, when she's such a-"
"Guys." Blake was cut off by Ruby. "The huntsmen… They found something."
"What?" Everyone asked at the same time.
Ruby was looking at her scroll with a concerned look, everyone was now paying attention to her. "The base… It's gone."
"What do you mean, 'It's gone'" Blake asked with a skeptical look.
"I mean like it's gone! The huntsmen found the base but all the buildings are destroyed, the walls are rubble, and… and…"
"And what?" Blake walked up to Ruby.
"A lot of the White Fang there are… dead."
"What?" The question was then again brought up by everyone.
"Look."
Ruby showed her scroll to everyone, it was a news article, and in the middle of the page was a picture of the base, everything really was gone, it was all rubble, and sprinkled all across the image were many spots that were blurred out, which were obviously censored corpses.
Everyone got off their beds and walked to Ruby. Yang's eyes were widened, even Weiss was utterly shocked, sure the people in the White Fang weren't entirely good, and of course she hated them, but to kill so many of them? That wasn't something she was entirely comfortable with either.
Blake especially was mortified. How could anyone do something like this? To kill other human beings, even if they were faunus, or even if the world did brand them as terrorists. And as someone who was part of the White Fang for a majority of her life, she sympathized with them, she lived, fought and ate with them after all.
Though she left for moral reasons, just for them to be mercilessly struck down like that… It disturbed her to no end.
She took a step back and put a palm on her head. She slumped down on the wall, Yang walked up to her and put a hand on her back in an attempt to comfort her.
Ruby pulled back her scroll and began to scroll through it, trying to find anything that may possibly lead to more information about it, Weiss watched her as she did it.
They scrolled for a minute before Weiss pointed out something on the screen, it was video, and it had a red bar on its side that said 'LIVE'
"Breaking News: White Fang base attack survivors interviewed." She read the title aloud. Blake was still on the ground, but with the new piece of information, she stood up, Yang helped her up and they both walked up to Ruby and Yang.
Ruby tapped on the video and hit play, she laid down her scroll on an end table between the two bunk beds, it projected a hologram.
They all watched in silence.
"-tsmen and Huntresses were surprised today when they investigated the source of the explosions being heard this afternoon in Northern Vale, and found the ruins of the base along with the bodies of many fallen White Fang operatives"
The image they saw earlier was shown on the hologram, seeing it just minutes earlier didn't diminish how jarring the image was. The image disappeared and what took place was the upper body of the reporter.
"Many suspected Atlas responsible for this, but Atlas has denied any responsibility for this attack, many believed this claim was false until the huntsmen interviewed some of the very few survivors of this attack, this is what one of them had to say:"
All of team RWBY inched closer to the screen as a new video popped up, showing a beaten and battered Fang Operative, her mask was gone, her clothes were torn, and she had bruises everywhere, parts of her arms and legs were bandaged up. She was sitting on a chair, by a table, opposite to her were a pair of police officers.
"What happened earlier this day?" The police officer took a seat.
The woman shifted a little in her seat
"A little before noon, I was just in the warehouse, sorting through some ammunition that was going to be transported to the ammunitions facility near the barracks, when we heard a massive explosion, I ran outside, and the barracks, and ammunitions facilities had massive holes blown through them, they were practically ruins at that point."
Team RWBY was perplexed. How can something strike so fast and escape right after attacking? Not even Atlas had a single ship in their fleet that could do something like that.
"When noon came, we were attacked... by a group of men in green uniforms, they had two of these weird looking bullheads too, and the men had powerful guns that broke our auras in just a few shots. Th- they didn't even hesitate to kill us."
"Those monsters." Blake whispered, Team RWBY agreed with her, sure, the White Fang were criminals, you can even call them terrorists, but to them at least, killing was way overboard, and it was clear that with the hesitation in her voice, this girl was probably new to the White Fang.
"What about the bullheads?"
"The… bullheads were even worse, they had these rockets and guns that could mow down a dozen of us in seconds, I watched one clear an entire building in actual seconds, they were terrifying."
"Where were you when these men attacked?"
"I was outside, I was right there when the wall suddenly blew up, and I swear I could see these weird birds in the sky flying away right after it happened, but that's when the men struck, they shot all of us while we were distracted, I was hit twice, the first shot broke my aura, the second… almost killed me, it hit me in my stomach, and I just laid there, hoping they didn't notice I was still alive, I laid there surrounded by the dead bodies of my friends."
Ruby hit pause, to process everything.
"What kind of people would do something like that?!" Blake was almost shouting.
"To take a human's life… especially that much…" Weiss couldn't find words to finish her sentence.
"They could've stopped when they broke their Aura, but they didn't." Yang's hands were balled up in fists, grasping so tightly that her nails were starting to dig into her skin.
"Why would they even do something like this?" Ruby was also disturbed by this, what could bring a human being to take another human's life, and to this degree.
"And what kind of weapons can do any of that? Bullheads that can clear entire buildings? Birds that destroy those buildings in a split second disappear as fast as they came?"
Nobody seemed to be able to answer her
"Should I continue it?" Ruby asked, knowing that everyone else was getting more and more uncomfortable by the subject of the video."
"Yes." Blake surprisingly was the one to answer.
Ruby pressed the play button, as the hologram continued to move, it skipped to the part that was currently live.
"-that the bullheads had rockets, was it them that destroyed the base?"
The police officer clearly looked uneasy as well after what the girl had said, but he continued to question her.
"No, it was something much worse that destroyed it, and killed most of us."
They all walked closer to the hologram, they watched as the girl's eyes seemed to darken, she was remembering something awful.
"I don't know what happened next, but my aura was starting to regenerate and heal me. The next thing I know, a brother picked me up and brought me to into one of the warehouses that weren't affected by the attack, they tended to me, and told me that the men had left and had captured two of our own, they left in a third bigger bullhead."
"What does this have to do with the destruction of the base?"
The girls were angry.
That was a very insensitive question to ask, the girl was already giving them information, and she was clearly dredging up traumatic memories, the least he could do was to care a little bit.
"Around fifteen minutes later, we thought, everything was done, we thought that they just did that to capture some of us for information, and that was the end of it… But then these big black shadows in the sky appeared, I couldn't tell exactly what happened, since I was as just near the opening of the warehouse but next thing I know, I hear loud explosions, the warehouse imploded around me and I went unconscious under some rubble."
All of their eyes went as wide as dinner plates
"How…" Were the only words that could come out of Weiss's mouth.
Blake was angrier than ever, and she was just about to burst when,
The video ended
"The situation is still new, and more interviews are being conducted, but we here at the Vale News Network are sure to-"
The video cut and it went to static
"What's happening?" Yang asked.
"I don't know. Bad WiFi?" Ruby took her scroll and started lightly tapping it with her fingers to see if that would fix it.
Weiss looked at Ruby with an annoyed face. "Like that's going to help-"
The hologram came back, this time showing a man, looking to be in his mid-forties, he had brown hair, green eyes, and was wearing a dark green uniform, and on it were multiple symbols and badges.
He was standing behind a podium, on the podium was an insignia of some sort of bird with its wings spread, it had a red, blue, and white shield behind it's back, it's torso was covered by what looked to be golden armor with a star on its middle. A sword was striking through the back of the shield.
Behind the man was what looked to be a green screen effect of a weird looking pattern, horizontal red and white striped, on the top left was a blue square with numerous stars across it.
"Who's he?" Yang asked.
Blake's eyes eased, her attention was turned from the atrocities that had been committed by the men in green uniforms to the man who had seemingly hijacked the news broadcast
"I… don't know."
"I think we're about to find out." Weiss stared at the screen, as did Ruby.
The man opened his mouth
"My name is General Thomas Kirkman, and I was responsible for the attack on the White Fang Compound."
Hey, looks like the cyber team arrived, sorry this chapter took so long, between writing for my other story, and life happening, I didn't have much time, but I got this out as soon as I could. Hope you like it!
Argorok: I'll try :)
Bruhmeister935: Hope you like this chapter just as much as you liked the last one.
quma25: Yeah, don't worry, I have a full plan worked out on how the technology, military, and strengths of both worlds will play out in the event of conflict.
nyetman123: I included IRL tech and COD characters because from the very start, this was never meant to be pure Generals, I needed some gaps to be filled in and I can't just use what Generals gave us, so I'm sorry if that irks you a bit. As for the part about the paladin, I think the capture of the GLA base in Chapter 1 shows that the Paladin will be taking on that role. And of course, let me tell you now, Kirkman will have no mercy to those that oppose him.
Guest: I think this chapter answered that question.
Monster King: Awwww, thanks 3
Thanks for all the reviews and thank you all for reading! See you all next time.