"General."
At the sound of Ben's voice Kirkman finally snapped out of his groggy state, it was finally time for them to begin their presentation in their quarterly briefing on Operation Forging Steel, this would be the first, yet Kirkman already knew that he was going to hate it.
"Our time to shine." Ben smirked before standing up and heading to the podium, Kirkman following.
In attendance were many people of great importance, firstly were some of his fellow generals, Townes, Granger, and Alexander. Then around four or five military researchers. His best friend and the current National Security Advisor, Herman lynch, the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, General Ironside. And finally, the president of the United States himself, Charlie Bennington.
They both went to their respective podiums, a large screen behind them, the controls to said screen were on their podiums, though they probably weren't going to use them.
"Guess I'll start." Right after Kirkman said that, Ben finally put away the drinking flask.
"As you all know, we have been doing our share of work over on Remnant, if you've been reading our monthly reports, you'll know that our first major priority of establishing a base of operations has succeeded, though there were and still are many complications that have arisen in our efforts to do so. Particularly, with a certain terrorist group. I'll give you an operational update on our little war with the White Fang: we are winning."
A few faces in the room lit up with a smile at his last line.
"Our visit to Beacon on August 8, approximately three weeks ago, did not succeed in its goal to convince, councilman and Headmaster of Beacon Academy, Ozpin."
At that, a few faces soured.
"Though we failed in that, it does not mean we failed in our overarching goal of detaining members of the White Fang, we already have the necessary information from the many insurgents we have already detained." Now for the interesting part. "The problem is, the information points to most of the terrorists to be hiding in two places, Vale, and an abandoned settlement southeast of Vale, Mountain Glenn."
Those who were not already briefed on this were astonished. And if he looked closely, he could see Ironside laugh when he said the word 'Hiding'.
"Now, as most of you know, the White Fang in the past few months has been collecting Dust, a mineral that Mr. Steele here will discuss soon" Ben with feigned glee, waved his hand.
"For what purpose they collect this dust is unknown. But we do know that they have been transporting most of it to their base of operations in Mountain Glenn."
Kirkman still remembered when they got that out of one of the White Fang. The CIA had sent over a few Agents who were apparently great at interrogation, they only asked for a dim room and some privacy. When they were done, the White Fang member had to be stitched up.
He still remembered the dull look the leader, 'Woods' gave him and Burton as he exited the room
"He broke." He still remembered his words.
Kirkman then noticed Granger with a half-raised hand. He pointed at him.
"Why don't you just send some Auroras with bunker buster bombs then?"
"We don't know where in Mountain Glenn they are, the insurgents we got were those who chose to stay in or around Vale rather than go to Mountain Glenn, and apparently they don't know exactly where it is."
Granger didn't need the rest of Kirkman's answer, he knew how expensive it would be to level an entire city with bunker buster bombs just to get at one base.
"Now, on that note, we will soon be sending a team of Delta Force Operatives along with a team of Marine Raiders who are affiliated with the CIA to interrogate an individual who may have information on the whereabouts of the White Fang within Mountain Glenn."
"CIA?" Townes asked. "Why're the CIA involved?"
Lynch and the president gave each other a look.
"We believed it was finally time to involve them" Lynch answered Townes.
The president turned towards Kirkman "And if I'm not mistaken General, you got your information of the White Fang whereabouts through the interrogation by some CIA agents, correct?"
"Yes, Mr. President." Kirkman then returned to his discussion. "If our intel serves us right and Mr. Jason Bane does have information on the Mountain Glenn base, then rest assured we will eliminate it immediately."
Kirkman trusted the information that was handed to him, the prisoner that snitched said that Jason originally went to the Mountain Glenn base a month ago, but transferred back because he got scared of all the grimm.
He then turned to Ben who was starting to sift through his notes.
"Now onto, the scientific side of things, Ben, take it over please."
As Ben started to speak, Kirkman drifted back into his thoughts.
He wasn't sure if he could fully trust the effectiveness of the team he had sent on the mission. He had already seen how effective Team Metal was, but so far all he had seen of the SOG team was their skills in Interrogation. But according to the CIA, the team was some of the best they got, he trusted that they were. Since nobody could afford to send off any more tier one special forces units. After Team Metal, JSOC wasn't willing to send any more Delta Teams, they were probably busy cleaning up what was left of the GLA.
He was informed prior to the briefing that the President was already making plans make Remnant known to the public in a few months, as there was ever growing suspicion from Congress on the sudden shift in a large portion of the budget towards a highly classified Operation.
This meant that the more inhumane methods that they had used over the course of Operation Forging Steel would have to cease within the base. He couldn't afford some journalist finding records on the kind of tests they did at the research facility, or the interrogation methods that were used within the detention center to get information at times. The PR fallout would be massive. Which was why he already began erasing the records.
Though, if interrogation methods didn't happen in the base and were unrecorded, then the risks were mitigated.
Strategy Center, MOB Juno
1932 hours
Team Metal were in a room in the Strategy Center, a large table in the middle, with the map of Vale and the surrounding areas on it. They've been prepping for this mission for weeks, they were supposed to raid a building with another Delta Force team, but apparently the General couldn't negotiate a deal with JSOC. So it made no sense to them why they were still called to the Strategy Center as if they were still going to do the mission.
Surely they weren't going to raid an entire building filled with around thirty terrorists, that would be too much, even for an elite Delta Force team. Sure, they raided an entire base just a month ago, but they had air support and it had already been significantly weakened from the F-35 and F-22 strikes.
They all were already fully geared up, anticipating the soon to come mission.
Suddenly the imposing figure of Colonel Burton walked through the doors of the room, with four men in civilian clothing in tow, though there was a slight outline of body armor under their clothes. The Colonel was holding a large duffel bag with him
"Good evening, gentlemen." The colonel greeted.
Team Metal all stood up and saluted the Colonel. He saluted them back.
"As you may have figured, we're pushing through with Operation White Arrow. Even with JSOC not handing us a new Delta team." He gestured to the four men. "The CIA though, was more than willing to send a few of their boys."
One of them, the taller bearded one in a black t-shirt brought his arm forward to shake Sandman's hand. Sandman looked at his hand for a brief second before reciprocating.
"Frank Woods, call sign's Yankee 1-1" He said in a not so friendly voice.
Another raised his hand. "Alex Mason, Yankee 1-4." Slightly shorter, with a more trimmed beard, Alex Mason sounded a lot less aggressive than Woods.
"Joseph Bowman, Yankee 1-2." The shortest one of them spoke.
Then came the next, who was the most interesting looking, wearing an eye patch and boasting a handlebar mustache. "1-3, Grigori Weaver."
They could hear the slight Russian accent in his voice, and given the name, they knew he didn't come from the US.
The Colonel continued speaking. "They just came in a couple days ago, Woods is their leader, he'll be taking command during the mission, their handler gave me operational control of them for the duration that they are here. You'll be working with them in the mission, mission details have also changed, it's no longer an extraction."
Team Metal was surprised, what was the point of the mission now if it wasn't an extraction?
"You see, the high-ranking White Fang are tough to break, so far only one officer has ever given up information under non violent means. And now General Kirkman has put a complete ban on enhanced interrogation methods within the base since he doesn't want to risk a PR fallout once this whole thing goes public. That said, you do it outside the base, and we so happen to not record the details of what went down, then we wouldn't be risking any PR fallout."
Team Metal caught what he meant, though none of them specialized in interrogation, so how exactly would they interrogate the man on site? Was that what the CIA team was for?
"SOG Team will be handling the interrogation."
That answered the question.
Burton lifted up the duffel bag on his hand and carefully placed it down on the table.
He opened it up, inside were multiple suitcases tightly packed together, he got them all and placed them on the table as both teams approached.
He opened one of the suitcases, revealing six normal looking firearm magazines
"These will be your gear, since Vale has noticed that we aren't using dust, we're gonna be using these, made by the eggheads at the research facility, using mostly gravity dust instead of fire, they're about as good as Earth bullets, but a lot more expensive. We specially made them for this mission."
Alex Mason picked one of the magazines up and started examining it. It looked like any other standard STANAG 30 round magazines, except it was white, he examined the rounds inside, it had a purple tip, signifying that it was a special bullet.
"Now each round costs around forty dollars, we spent a lot of money on these, even more designing them, so you better make each shot count."
Mason put the magazine back into its original place as Burton closed the suitcase.
They all knew why they were going to use dust rounds instead of gunpowder. It was to avoid the attack from being found to have been done by the United States, since apparently the Remnant natives had discovered that they weren't using dust in their rounds.
"Now, let me go over the plan one more time. You'll all be flown twenty klicks from Vale's walls, there's an SUV there that has your other needs for the mission. From there, you'll drive normally into Vale, once you reach the target neighborhood, we'll have a Cyber Team inject a worm into their system's power grid to knock out all power in that region."
They knew that most Faunus had the ability to see in the dark, this was mostly to disable any security cameras in that region.
"You'll rush in, eliminate any opposition, find the target, interrogate him, leave no witnesses, get out and then drive to the extraction zone. Got that?"
"Yes sir." They all unanimously said.
"Good, now, remember, this is an extremely important Operation, you fuck up in any way; leave a witness, get compromised, or get killed, and this entire operation…." He waved his hand around the place. "…Is in jeopardy. You all have a few hours to prepare, you leave at 2300 hours."
The Colonel left the room, for the two teams to prepare.
Woods pulled out a marker out of nowhere. "So…" He put his hands down on the table and looked at it. "Where do we start?"
Sanus, 20 kilometers north of Vale.
2319 Hours
Operation White Arrow
As the Black Hawk descended in the clearing, the eight of them exited the helicopter. And approached the large 8-seater SUV in the middle of the clearing.
"This our ride?" Truck asked while carrying two cases, one with the weapons and other equipment, and the other, smaller one, containing the ammunition.
"Yep." Bowman, who was carrying his own suitcase, approached the vehicle, he pressed a button on the keys and the back compartment opened.
He looked inside, just enough space. He placed the larger cloth case containing his gun inside. The rest of the squad did the same, putting the larger ones in first, stacking them on top of each other before placing the smaller suitcases on top. There was a total of four large cloth cases, each containing two M4A1s, and a few grenades.
Bowman opened the door to the driver's seat and put they keys in ignition and twisted; the car came to life. "Get in."
Everyone got in. Woods sat next to Bowman. Greg, Sandman and Mason all sat in second row of seats.
Frost dumped the two duffel bags he was carrying onto the in the trunk before he and the rest sat down.
The Black Hawk took off, leaving the eight men alone in the clearing, with nothing but a paved road in front of them
Their temporary leader, Woods, turned his head to look at the rest of the men. "Alright boys, we're on our own, just act normal and we should be good." He turned back around and tapped Bowman on the shoulder as he started to drive.
They were all wearing civilian clothing, wearing nothing but their Kevlar vests under their clothes, and their sidearms attached on their sides, they were relatively concealed and given that that the route they had picked had no vehicle searches and just had a simple payment gate made it so that they could pass safely without much suspicion.
This wouldn't be the first time Team Metal had done a mission in civilian clothing, but it would be the first time they did a High Value Target based mission in civilian clothing. But for the guys in the CIA, it probably would not have been their first, but they had found something interesting in their files.
"Woods." Grinch called out.
"Yeah?"
"Files said you guys are in the marine raiders, that your cover or something? Or is that classified?"
"Not classified, just a bunch of bureaucratic bullshit."
Grinch didn't seem satisfied with the answer.
Mason opened his mouth to speak. "We were offered to work the CIA back in 2013 which just so happened to be when the GLA started making moves in the Middle East, both MARSOC and the CIA were swamped, all the paperwork slowed to a halt."
Greg with his slight Russian accent Mason's statement. "We were already under operational control of the CIA and SOG by then, but on paper we're still Raiders, they only just got the process for the on-paper transfer a few weeks ago. So, for now, we're still technically raiders."
This was another thing confused them, Grigori or 'Greg', was definitely Russian but it was clear that he had been at least *working* with the US for a long time.
This time, Truck decided to speak. "And what's your story, Weaver? You defect from mother Russia?"
Greg nodded. "Yes, I was born in Moscow, my family defected to the United States when I was a six."
That explained why his accent was only slight and why he preferred to go by 'Greg'.
Frost watched the scenery provided by the window, as trees were speeding past his vision. The road was dark, almost pitch black, the only thing lighting up their way being the moonlight and the SUV's headlights.
"Man, this thing handles real good." Bowman enthusiastically whistled.
"Must be the dust engines." Mason pointed out. "Or could just be the way they build their cars.
"They got holograms, jet-based dropships, mercenaries with superpowers and they can't even take out a few domestic terrorists." Weaver laughed
"I mean, they don't even got vehicle searches, just identity confirmation, a pay only toll gate and that's it, welcome to Vale. No wonder we're dealing with their problem for em'."
Mason chuckled. "Hell, they don't even want our help."
"Sucks for them." Bowman put more force on the gas pedal, seeing as there were no other cars ahead, going over the speed limit wouldn't be a problem, they were getting close anyway.
"Any grimm around these parts?" Truck asked.
Having studied the place for weeks before being deployed to Remnant, Woods answered.
"Huntsmen guard these parts real good, they're deployed around the walls just to make sure people exiting or entering within a certain distance from Vale don't get killed. But once you go farther than that, you're on your own."
"What's that distance?"
"Nothing exact, but based on what I've read, around a four, five miles?"
"So we were outside the safety bubble?"
Indeed, the drop-off spot was twenty kilometers or around twelve miles from Vale's walls which meant they would've been outside the protection zone of the huntsmen.
"Yep, but our own people got that covered."
Sandman scratched his bearded chin as he spoke. "Mission's been in the making for weeks Truck, they've been preparing every single detail for all those weeks."
The car made one more turn before it was finally a straight road. Bowman pulled out his navigator device, and looked at it.
"Four more miles. Woods, prep the cash."
Woods reached into his pocket, pulling out a red leather wallet looking object, with a few multi colored cards sticking out of it.
"They got some weird wallets." Truck pointed out.
"Even weirder money." Woods pulled out a pink colored one then two green colored ones.
Truck noticed the weird sheen that were on the cards, they weren't paper, they were plastic.
"If you were wondering, the estimated conversion rate is one dollar being worth around 1.5 lien, meaning we're only paying eight bucks to legally enter a nation, they just ask for I.D., and that's about it."
Woods handed the cards to Bowman. In the distance of the straight road, they could make out the silhouettes of some of the taller buildings in Vale, with the moon shining behind them, and directly ahead of them, were the so called 'Entrance Stations.' Bowman slowed down to meet the speed limit.
Steering the car towards cash lane, he continued slowing down the vehicle as they approached the gate. This was the moment of truth, the others simply stared on. Truthfully there was nothing inconspicuous about the Vehicle, the only problem would be if they suddenly checked what was inside the bags in trunks.
Or if they were asked to step out and have their sidearms and combat knives be exposed. As well as the solid vanadium steel handcuffs they all had.
But the payment went down without a hitch, Bowman handed the woman in the booth the money and the forged I.D., and they went on their way. They were in Vale, the next part was driving through Vale,
This was when interest finally overtook the group, even the stoic Woods was looking all around. Glancing all around they took in the look and atmosphere of the city.
"Feels like we never left the US, huh?" Mason looked at the many buildings that surrounded the road.
"Nope, there's no traffic, no random trash on the sidewalk, and we're cruising on the left instead of the right. Feels pretty different to me." Most laughed at Bowman's quip.
Vale was definitely similar to any urbanized area on Earth, but different in many ways as well. Though the lack of traffic was done on purpose, Command had specifically chosen a route with very little population density, meaning they were going to have to travel a bit farther than if they were simply to take the freeway.
Most of the buildings already had their lights off given how late into the night it already was.
Grinch looked around, awestruck at the lights from the larger buildings in the distance, far away from the residential area they were in.
"To think this entire place is powered by magic crystals."
It was true, this entire world had fully relied on a single source for pretty much everything, electricity, vehicular transport, flight, guns, though the guns were quite weak.
"Not magic." Mason clarified. "Sure, as hell looks like it though."
The CIA had been privy to some information surrounding the mysterious crystals that were found on Remnant. Studies from the lab showed that the crystals themselves contained some sort of new element that was mixed into its chemical composition.
Though as far as technicalities went, that was all they knew, but the director of the CIA and a few analysts were supposed to attend a debriefing with General Kirkman and Benjamin Steele in Washington. So that should provide more information.
BOOM.
Suddenly, a massive explosion(?) rocked the area around them, then a set of massive sounding bangs sounds came to their left, and from a road to their left, burst a towering metal figure. Bowman slammed on the brakes.
"What the fuck?!" Woods yelled.
Luckily, it didn't seem to be coming for them, rather, it turned to the road ahead of them, and started running that direction, for what reason, they did not know.
Sandman winced at the familiar sight. "Isn't that a- "
"Atlesian Paladin. I think I even saw the White Fang insignia on it." Weaver finished. "Don't even think about trying anything, we don't have any anti-armor weapons with us, let's just continue with our actual mission."
Woods nodded and tapped Bowman to signal him to keep going.
Bowman put pressure on the gas pedal as he steered to the right.
Nearly twenty minutes as they silently drove through the now quiet streets of Vale, all thinking about the close encounter they had with a White Fang owned Atlesian Paladin. If they had driven just few feet forward, they could've ended up right in its path of destruction.
What was it chasing after anyway?
Bowman pulled out his navigator, taking one look at it, he spoke. "We're close, 'bout a minute more."
Woods looked back at the men in the back seats. "Alright, we're getting close, state your callsigns. Yankee." Woods started.
"Spider." Bowman was next.
"Redeye." A fitting callsign for Weaver, considering his lack of an eye.
"Sierra." Mason pulled out his beretta and started to inspect it.
"Sandman."
"Grinch."
"Truck."
"Frost" This was of course one of the rare occasions wherein Frost ever spoke.
Woods smirked, as he looked back ahead. "If you get captured, remember your RTI and SERE training, don't let em get anything out of you."
The general look of the area changed from when they first entered Vale, the streets were dirtier, the buildings were smaller and looked a lot less stable, the roads had visible cracks on them. Buildings were densely packed together and had all visibly aged.
These were of course the slums of Vale, where most Faunus lived due to those in the main parts of the city not accepting them.
This was not where they were stopping by though, Bowman continued driving, eventually coming upon a long straight road leading to seemingly nowhere. He drove.
They were looking for one building in particular though, it was about a half mile away from the rest of the slums. Bowman continued driving for a few seconds until they finally came upon it, a two-story L shaped office building. The lights were off, which meant that the worm had worked.
Which was good, as they were not allowed to communicate back to base, simply due to the fact that the radio interception technology of Remnant was still unknown. Though the squad did have a scout drone tailing them which was how the cyberteam got the cue to deploy the worm.
The scout drone also served a secondary purpose, to make sure the target didn't attempt to escape the building while they were raiding it, if Command spotted a heat signature attempting to leave the building, they would be notified by a simple ping on their communicators.
Bowman did not park right in front of it though, he drove a bit ahead of the building, a good four hundred meters away, he parked the vehicle.
"Let's go." Those were all the words that were needed.
Truck brought his fist up in front of Grinch, Grinch lightly tapped it. Grinch then did the same with Frost, who then tapped his fist back. This was it.
They all exited the car. Bowman and Woods were already out. They opened up the trunk.
"Gear Up."
Bowman and woods both grabbed two large cloth containers and placed them on the ground, then doing it again for the rest.
Frost opened up one of the cloth containers on the ground, revealing two M4A1s with reflex sights and foregrips already attached. They even had infrared red target lasers attached to them, as well as suppressors. There were also three flashbangs and two grenades extending to the length of each gun above them.
All this equipment was painted white. This, combined with the fact that they were almost in full civilian clothing would make it harder to correlate that they were Americans if witnesses were to testify.
Frost grabbed the gun and the grenades, while Grinch picked up the other. As the others around them got their own guns, Frost walked over to one of the suitcases containing the magazines, he opened it up, taking the first magazine and jamming it into his rifle, it was now loaded. He grabbed the rest and started placing them into the many satchels on his pants. He then slung the rifle's sling over his shoulder.
Grinch and Sandman then took out the two duffle bags that they had brought with them, they opened them up, showing multiple helmets that were painted white with night vision goggles attached to them, Frost took one and strapped it onto his head.
"You ready?" Woods's M4 had a different attachment, instead of a forward handling grip, he had a KAC Masterkey door breaching shotgun. Since they couldn't pack any frame charges or hydraulics, this was their alternative.
"Yeah." Sandman stood straight with his M4 at the ready, his own M4 having a holographic sight.
They had all been given the privilege to request what specific attachments they wanted for the mission, Truck had a grenade launcher and opted for an iron sight. The other SOG agents seemed to have the same M4 attachments as Frost and Grinch.
Everyone started throwing the now empty cloth bags and suitcases back into the trunk before Bowman closed it up and locked the car.
"Alright, let's move."
Everyone nodded, they started heading towards the target building in a light Jog, they finally spotted it.
"Check the windows."
They pointed their guns at the window, making sure there were no White Fang peeking out.
"We're clear." Sandman then ran to the door of the building; Woods went to the other side.
"Night vision on, Sandman, when I breach the door, toss a flashbang in."
Sandman prepped his flashbang. The others pulled down the goggles directly in front of their eyes, they were now seeing green.
Woods aimed the shotgun attachment directly at the door handle, where the bolt would likely be, Woods pulled the trigger as loud bang shot through the ears of everyone nearby. Sparks, and miniature chips of wood flew everywhere. Woods back kicked the door; this was it.
From the side, Sandman tossed the flashbang in, and after a full second, a muffled explosion could be heard on the other side, this was their cue, Sandman and Woods went in first, large room, what looked to be an accounting desk on the left, there were four White Fang, all disoriented. They picked their targets, and fired.
Their bodies collapsed onto the ground as Frost and Truck rushed into the room
Frost trained his sights on the Fang behind accounting desk, he pulled the trigger, letting three bangs echo into his ears before releasing. The first shot seemed to be enough to break through her forcefield, the next bullet embedded itself into her shoulder, and the third and final bullet found its way into her skull.
Her body slumped over onto the desk, blood spilling from her head, pooling onto the floor.
"Hey! What's going- "Sandman turned his head to meet the two assailants coming from the hallway to their left, only for them to be shot as blood sprayed from the new holes introduced into their bodies, courtesy of Weaver and Mason.
A figure then came down the stairs. "What the fuck is- "
Everyone fired at him, absolutely brutalizing the man's formerly living body.
Bowman and Grinch stood guard at each side of the stairs making sure nobody went downstairs alive while the six advanced deeper into the hallway.
Mason came across the door to a restroom, he looked to Woods who then nodded.
While the others pushed through, Mason focused on the restroom door, he took cover to the side of the door, with one strong back kick he broke through, he swiftly got in front of the now open doorway, he went in, quickly checking his right, then his left-
Suddenly, a man with a massive red knife rushed at him, the man slashed once at Mason's head, Mason instinctively ducked to the left, the man's forward motion made him hit the restroom wall. Mason took this opportunity to guide the target laser towards the man's body. He then squeezed the trigger.
The man let out a pained yelp as the second round broke through his aura and hit his back, no doubt piercing the skin, the third round sheared through his spinal cord, the man fell on the ground, as Mason's fourth shot hit the wall.
The man was on the ground, wheezing heavily. "Please… let me live." He said in between pained breaths.
Mason ignored his pleas, he aimed down his sights, training them on his head, he pulled the trigger.
"All clear!" Mason shouted. He moved to exit the restroom.
"Looks like nobody else is on this floor." Woods yelled back.
All eight were now in front of the stairway, everyone above no doubt expecting them now.
"Grinch, Spider, take point." The two wordlessly detached themselves from their cover and started slowly making their way upstairs while the others followed. They reached the split landing when they noticed the opening at the top of the stairs, an open pathway, no doubt White Fang on each side waiting to ambush. Bowman, took flashbang, pulling the pin, he threw it. It bounced off the wall ahead of him, and onto whatever was on the right side of the open pathway.
"What the- "BANG
Bowman and Grinch ran forward, the others behind them did the same. They faced the open pathway, they went in, they looked at each side, back-to-back, Bowman on the left, Grinch, on the right.
On each side was a member of the White Fang, who were probably waiting to ambush before Bowman's flashbang. Both were easy shots, they both aimed towards the heads of the White Fang, shooting them directly in their heads, the proximity, and force of the bullets, causing the heads to almost explode.
The bodies hit the floor, what remained of their faces now bloody gulches.
There were two more on Bowman's side, they had already recovered from the flashbang, their guns were trained on him and Grinch, Bowman shot first, hitting the woman on the left on her stomach multiple times, before he and Grinch took cover behind the stairwell as the man shot his gun.
Sandman was now at the front. Listening closely to the footsteps, the man was attempting to take the offensive, he was running at the stairwell, he let the footsteps grow closer and closer until the distance of the footsteps were enough for him, he came out of hiding. The man, not having time to react, was not ready for Sandman coming out with his gun pointed at him
Sandman's M4 blasted multiple bullets at his target, they all hit the man's chest and torso, the man coughed out one last time before his lungs were effectively turned into swiss cheese once his aura broke. He fell on the floor, blood pooling.
Everyone finally ran into the hallway, to the right was the hallway's end, a single door was there, with the words 'Security'. Above it, this was the surveillance room in this office building before the White Fang took it over.
To the right were two more doors, one had 'Maintenance', the other one lacked any such labels, it was likely one of the actual office rooms of the building.
The hallway went further, before taking a turn to the left, they needed to make sure that part of the hallway was also empty.
Grinch, and Bowman, having already taken point earlier, took initiative, they aimed their guns forward as they quickly walked towards the turn.
Grinch took cover behind the corner, Bowman behind him. He then stepped forward and aimed his sights at whatever was on the hallway.
"…Nothin' here." He called out
Woods tilted his head forward in understanding.
The two waked back to the position of the others.
Woods and Weaver then walked over to the maintenance room, taking cover by each side. Bullets pierced through the door, whoever was behind it was desperately trying to shoot Weaver and Woods, but what the White Fang didn't know is that it was standard procedure not to stand directly in front of a door during a door breach.
They let the bullets stop, the person on the other side had evidently emptied their clip. Weaver took this as an opportunity, he stepped forward and aimed his gun at the door, unleashing a hail of bullets at it.
"AH!" Hearing the pained yell on the other end, Weaver stopped, kicking the door in, only to find a Woman on the ground, numerous bloodied holes on her neck and chest.
The room itself wasn't even a room, it was more of a closet, with a few shelves with some rags and other materials.
"Clear." He said with a nod.
"Alright, move on to next- "Woods was cut off by the 'Security' door on the right blasting open, revealing a White Fang member brandishing a long dagger and rushing at Frost who was closest to the door.
Frost was caught by surprise, unable to react properly, he let go of his gun as the man came closer. As the blade was inches from his throat, Frost grabbed the man's arms, and pushed back. But the man kept pushing and pushing, with his aura enhanced strength, the blade came closer and closer to Frost's throat, then the left side of the man's head exploded with a spurt of blood.
Frost looked to the left to see Truck aiming his gun at his direction. All eyes were on him
"You good?"
Frost simply nodded his head.
He and truck moved to check the Security room, around four desks with computers and a few filing cabinets, other than that, there was nothing else inside.
"Clear!"
Frost, ignoring his brush with death, walked over behind Sandman, who with Woods was preparing to breach the next room.
From the side Woods once again pointed the breach shotgun right at the doorknob. He pulled the trigger, another blast echoed throughout the building, wood chips flew in the air as Woods back kicked the door, pulling his leg back as fast as he could, he brought his hand forward in a stop signal, before any of them could rush in.
Gunshots from the White Fang within the room then flew from the open door.
He knew it, he and the others had studied the blueprint of the building earlier, the next two rooms were big, thus it meant that there were likely more White Fang camped inside than the other rooms they had encountered, meaning those inside would be a lot more confident in their ability to kill them, and thus more aggressive.
He took a grenade from his pouch, grasping the lever tightly, he pulled the pin. "Frag out!" Woods's tone was whispery, so he wouldn't alert hose inside of the grenade he was gonna throw. He lightly tossed it through the open entrance. At his word the entire squad backed away from the doorway.
Two seconds passed, the White Fang seemingly ignoring the fact that a grenade had been thrown at them.
BOOM. Smoke kicked off from the ground and blasted itself through the open door. The sound of wood falling and hitting the ground accompanied the resonating screams of the men from within the room. Everyone then rushed into the room, Woods and Sandman came in first.
There were multiple people on the ground, two were standing up but looked to have been staggered, Sandman shot at the one closest to him, his aura likely having been severely damaged by the frag.
The rest of the squad shot the ones on the ground before they could regain composure. With this, they finally surveyed the rest of the room, it was around twice the size of the security room, filed with many desks and weird hologram-like computers on them.
"Damn, they got them sci-fi computers." Truck waved his hand around the 'Screen'. He pushed; his hand went straight through.
Truck snapped back to focus.
"Last room. Target should be in there, remember, do not kill the one with the special mask" Woods went back to the hallway.
"Metal, we'll handle this, you go around the place, make sure nobody's till breathing." Mason told the Delta team.
Sandman nodded. "Grinch, Truck, stay here and check, Frost and I will look around downstairs."
Sandman and Frost started walking back to the stairs.
Yankee team went out of the room and took a left turn onto the next hallway, this was the final door.
They started moving to breach, but then a dinging sound came from their radios, the same dinging sound that was supposed to happen if an unknown heat signature was detected exiting the building.
"Shit, someone's trying to escape!" Woods ignored standard procedure, standing right in front of the door, he grasped the Masterkey and aimed it directly on the handle of the door.
"(COMMS) Frost and I are moving to intercept!" Sandman's voice came from the radio.
Woods pulled the trigger on the Masterkey, the door blasted forward from the force. Woods and Mason went right in, immediately there were three White Fang, two of them aiming their guns at them, while another one was running at them with a red sword in his hands.
Time appeared to slow down for them. Mason fired his gun at the one on the right, not even letting the man shoot, as he bullets hit, his body was wrapped up in a green glow before blood spurted out from his chest. He moved his gun towards the one on the center, and shot straight at him too, the first bullet hit his arm, forcing him to let go of the sword and spread his arms apart from the force, leaving his chest and torso open. Mason opened fire, and he was killed almost instantly.
The first thing they noticed upon killing all the White Fang in the room was the broken glass window behind all the computers.
'Shit!' Wood internally screamed. He and Mason ran at the windows, looking right through, he could see the White Fang member running away towards the empty road. He pointed his gun at him, doing his best to aim towards the legs, but this was no guarantee that they wouldn't accidentally kill him.
Then he noticed, Sandman and Frost close behind, running towards the man, actually catching up. Woods and Mason lowered their guns.
Sandman caught up to the men and tackled him, he punched him on the side of the head. He grabbed the back of the guy's head, pulling back he slammed it onto the pavement, repeating again and again. With each slam, the man made a grunting noise indicating he was in pain.
"(COMMS) Target secure! Aren't you, you little shit?" Sandman slammed his head on the pavement again as Frost walked over to cuff him.
It was time for interrogation.
Seven Minutes Later.
Woods punched Jason one more time, a faint white glow developed over him, it had taken awhile to break his aura, but this was finally it.
"L-look man, I just make plans, I don't-"
"Shut the fuck up! I don't care about your rank or what you do, you see, we already know that. Jason Bane, former receptionist turned job planner for the White Fang, whose too much of a pussy to actually those jobs. Promoted because of one lucky raid on an SDC Freight Train."
They were in the security room; they had decided to perform the interrogation here. On each corner of the room stood Mason, Weaver, and Bowman. Team Metal were keeping watch outside as well as making sure everyone else was actually dead.
"Now, I only want to know thing, where is the Mountain Glenn base?" His gravelly voice clearly intimidating the man.
As soon as the words left his mouth, Jason's face evidently paled.
"I-I don't know what you're talking abou- "Woods slammed his fist onto his face. The man's head was thrown back at the sheer amount of force, before Jason could even turn to face him, Woods did it again, this time punching him on the right, earning him a pained groan.
"Bullshit, we know you were transferred there, too chicken shit to stay because of the grimm though weren't ya?" He pulled out his old marine combat knife and pointed it right at the tip of Jason's nose. Fear was ever present in his eyes as they stared at the knife's edge. "So where is it?"
"They'll kill me if I tell you anything!"
Woods slashed his knife right under Jason's eye. Jason writhed, but the cuffs kept him to his chair.
"And I'll kill you if you don't tell me."
Jason struggled in his chair, wiggling his arms and legs, trying to loosen or break the cuffs and rope that kept him in place, but it was pointless.
"I-Isn't this illegal in Atlas, you'll all go to pris- AAAAAAAH!" Woods had stabbed his knife straight through Jason's hand, twisting it around to increase the pain.
"In case you couldn't tell, dipshit, we ain't exactly Atlesian. We're American through and through."
Jason grit his teeth, he was in agony, Woods then pulled the knife out. "No… that's impossible."
"And let's just say Kirkman's getting tired of the White Fang's bullshit." Woods flipped the knife into a forward grip.
"Now, I want a fucking address, otherwise you're gonna have to say goodbye to ever being able to jerk off again." He held his knife in front of Jason's face.
"I… I don't know-" Woods didn't let him finish, he stabbed his knife through the other hand, twisting and wiggling it within the cut he had made. "I. Want. An address." He growled
He let go of the knife, he reared his fist and smashed it onto Jason's face, he pulled back and used the motion to slam it once again onto his head.
"They- they- just flew us there! I don't have an address, please! Just stop!"
Woods did not stop, he punched him in stomach, kicking all the air he had within out, getting him a few coughs out of the guy.
"Then what do you know?"
Woods smashed his fist against his face again and again.
"IT'S UNDERGROUND!" He wheezed. "It's underground…"
Woods scoffed. "That doesn't exactly help if we don't know where it is."
"I swear…that's all I know." His voice was weak, clearly both tired and in pain.
"Redeye!"
"On it!" Weaver went up the window, and using his elbow he shattered it, picking up one of the glass shards, he walked up to Woods and handed it to him.
"Maybe this'll jog your memory." Woods tone was menacing, he held the shard in front of Jason's face as he gave Weaver a look.
Weaver grabbed Jason's Jaw and the top of his head. He pried his mouth open. Woods forced the glass shard with his right hand, before quickly smashing his left fist onto his face. Then using his right hand to do the same.
Jason coughed again, smaller glass shards and blood came out of his mouth.
Weaver stared down Jason. "We can do this all day; we got a lot more windows."
Tears seemed to finally start streaming. "I DON'T KNOW!" He whimpered through each word. Woods reared his fist. "N-N-NO! I'll tell you!" Woods didn't put his fist down. "I-I think I saw rails? I think it's in some sort of subway."
The SOG team all gave each other looks, this checked out. Before Mountain Glenn was overrun, they were making a subway system that was supposed to extend all throughout the city. This project was put to a halt when Mountain Glenn was flooded with grimm. But Woods was not satisfied with this answer. He pulled out his pistol.
"In case you can't tell, the subway network is pretty big. So I'm gonna need a little more than that."
He cocked his pistol and aimed it straight at Jason's head.
"Uh-Th-There was a forest! Yeah!"
He pushed the pistol against his forehead making Jason's eyes squint. "Entire place is surrounded by a forest, Jackass."
"That's all I have!"
Woods clicked his tongue and holstered his pistol. "Redeye." On command, Weaver went over to the broken window and grabbed another broken shard. He gave it to Woods.
"No! No!" Woods shoved it into Jason's mouth and started repeatedly punching him, each punch he could almost hear the crunching of the glass within his mouth. Woods ignored Jason's cries and pleas and continued his assault for longer, but eventually stopped.
Woods could tell that if he knew much more, Jason would've told him at this point. His mouth was bleeding heavily, shards of glass were sticking to his bloodied White Fang uniform His head was drooping to the left.
Woods grabbed his head.
"Please… that's all I know." He sobbed "That's all I know." His whimper weakened.
Woods threw his head back, this was it, he would have to live with the sub-par information he had received. He pulled out his pistol and aimed it straight at his head, placing his finger on the trigger.
Jason's eyes widened with nothing but dread in them. It was as if he could sense that Woods was really going to do it this time.
"No!"
Woods pulled the trigger. A singular gunshot resonated within the room. His body slumped over, blood dripping from his head.
"Cleanup time boys, leave no evidence of torture."
To those who don't know, SAC/SOG or just SOG is the paramilitary arm of the CIA. And yeah I added the OG Black Ops crew, though I took a few creative liberties with their stories.
Also, though I do love the reviews, I think I might be foregoing answering some of your questions as some of them broach into spoiler territory.
Monster King: yes
whatsupman: Hope you're looking forward to more.
Shashenka: Like I said in a previous response. The US is still relatively new to remnant so they can't just have agents integrate into society like that without arousing suspicion. Though the CIA does come into play here, as you've seen with the SOG team.
Dragoon725: Yes, the naval forces are currently off the table, just *Currently* though.
VGBlackwing: The Fall of Vale wasn't entirely on Ozpin though, practically everyone played into Cinder's hands.
Just a Crazy-Man: Whoa
Crazzytony: If you read the story description, yes, China will come into play later on, and I might throw in the Russians from the RotR mod in.
vmoneywashere: Sadly US-China relations aren't very good at the moment, which you can see in Generals.
Night199596: I mean considering that they left on not so amicable terms, no not really.
Peroroncino: Again, can't make promises on updating soon, life is a busy bitch.
Janny092: In all reality, I really can't think of any such area wherein the Atlas military is better than the United States. Androids? They're weak as fuck. Giant Mechs? They're weak as fuck and are nowhere near as good as your average modern American tank. Medical sciences sure, but that doesn't really fall under military capabilities. Atlas is a superpower only because it is pretty much the only major power at play here, by definition it is also a superpower cause all the other kingdoms suck ass.
Rama alif: Here it is.
Warmachine324: Kaboom.
Insightguy: Oh yeah, the generals are gonna be popping over soon enough, and they're defniely gonna be crazy eccentric like in the games, especially the now Chief of the Joint Chief of Staff, Ironside. Also, sadly I probably won't be adding that many major tech units from other C&C franchises, I want to keep the feel of United States Generals faction rather than it just basically turning into the GDI/Allies with extra steps.
Guest: Maybe
Guest: Honestly the fuck even is the Vale police force, they got a terrorist group runnin' around and they have a lot of evidence to act on it, yet they do jackshit.
Guest: Yeah, could y'all maybe stop with the 'What if GDI' cause I believe it's already made clear that this story is in the Generals universe.
Guest: Yes
Guest: Ozpin's eyes will definitely be opened.
Konstantinsen: Funny, you actually guessed the overarching subject of this chapter. And Yeah, I remember how big Abu Ghraib was, I remember it being all over the news when I was like 4, and I don't even live in the states.
Guest: From what we know, Atlas is the only nation with a proper military.
Potatatoto: "Fleet of Airships" literally has like a couple hundred, maybe a thousand. While the United States IRL has literally both the first and second largest air forces (US Air Force and US Navy.) And just think about how much aircraft the Generals US has. The "fight ballet" probably works because all the important people can move at the speed of sound, and given Remnant's average bullet velocity, it's no wonder how they probably dodge said bullets.
Guest: Interesting idea you got there.
Guest: Maybe
a.n.s.n.a.: Just like any other living thing with sentience.
Nyetman123: I actually do have an idea for those M203 launch flashbangs. Actually the Paladin in canon has a 120mm cannon, but for this story I changed it to have a 125mm cannon, because if it was just 120mm then it would basically just be a Crusader/Abrams with a laser defense module.
Quma25: Yeah I agree, the way RWBY handled Ironwood was straight up stupid, like it was clear that he was already going off the deep end by the time Volume 7 came, but holy shit they basically turned him into some criminally insane motherfucker, being paranoid does not mean being literally an insane dude who wants to kill his own citizens. And I hope you like this chapter too.
Guest: Yeah, I guarantee you, if Grimm weren't here, Ozpin's precious "Peace" would not exist.
Guest: I already included the F-35 in chapter 5 when they attacked the base, I mentioned the words "f-35" and "lightning II".
Guest: Forgot to actually put it, but it was a B-1B lancer in my head.
Just Bob: As I mentioned before Remnant bullets = weak. So although the Barret M82 is stronger bullet-wise than Crescent Rose, what makes it deadly though is Ruby herself. Haha yeah, though to the Remnant people, the standard rifle might look sleeker, to us here on Earth we know that rifle design is absolutely abysmal.
Wolves567: Later on.
Ramireztheloyal: Hoho the White Fang ain't shit compared to the GLA.
Gunfighterxy76: Nah, I probably won't include that Obsolete mech. Reason? Well, like I said on a previous review response, I want to for the most part keep the C&C Generals United States feel without muddling it with a bunch of tech from other franchises. Another reason? Well it's unnecessary, I included the COD characters because I need soldier characters for those on-the-battlefield chapters. But for the mechs, I have no reason to add alien mechs to the American arsenal since as I've already discussed, the Paladin is more than enough.
CaptainWarhammer: I myself also can't wait to write when the US shows their full might. Here's the Brrrrt Brrrrt chapter you were wishing for! Hope it's good. For the naval units, see my response to Dragoon725.
Aight, see y'all in the next update, which hopefully will be sooner than later.