Operation Forging Steel

by licklicklick123

An American general goes to a new world with the simple task of setting up a military base, but this taskturns out to not be so simple, when creatures of the dark, otherworldly human life, terrorism, and possible war come into play.

12. White Death

Strategy Center MOB Juno

1513 hours

Kirkman stood up, walking to the podium, he brushed his suit with his palms to smooth it out. He took a deep breath.

He stepped up to the stage, looking upon his audience, officers, fellow Generals, and a few of the new NATO forces. Behind him, a computer screen displaying a map of Sanus, zoomed in towards the area of Vale, Mountain Glenn and the two American bases.

This was just like when he hatched the plan to destroy the GLA base at Kostanav.

"Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen." He smiled. "Today I present to you one of the greatest opportunities to grace the United States and its allies in the short history of Operation Forging Steel. A chance to finally eliminate the group which has been hellbent on murder and destruction, so much so that they have shed American blood." His anger seeped through the last sentence.

He gauged the reaction of his audience, many nods and affirmations of agreement.

"But… those emotions are tomorrow, for now, I will simply show you the battle plan." He tapped around on the controls on the tablet that was on the podium.

The map behind him now showed four insignias of the United States Armed Forces all surrounding Mountain Glenn. The screen zoomed into Mountain Glenn. Four square shapes appeared on the map, with tubes connecting them to each other. Two were at the north side of Mountain Glenn, the other two were on the south.

"These are the Objectives, the four train stations that were built prior to Mountain Glenn's collapse. Thanks to information from our CIA agents, we were able to focus our efforts on one particular station that is directly connected to Vale, we were able to prove that this Train Station is indeed their main base of Operations. It will be referred to as 'Fang One' and the other stations as 'Fang Two, Three, and Four' respectively."

Kirkman tapped on the controls, as different labels appeared on all four squares, each corresponding to the order they were in.

"Though it is believed that they will launch their attack on Vale through Fang One. We have reason to believe that they also use Fangs Two through Four as barracks and storage facilities. Aurora Alphas provided by General Granger will be deploying bunker buster bombs on Fang Two as it is believed that it is being used as a barracks and thus may contain the brunt of their forces, if the bunker buster bombs themselves don't kill everyone inside the train station, it will likely experience structural collapse, which will then kill everyone."

The screen behind him then showed graphics of explosions happening over Fang Two. "We will also be bombing the subway tube leading to Vale, this is so they can't escape to Vale using it."

"We know through tracking that Roman Torchwick resides in Fang One, our main Objective is to capture or kill Roman Torchwick, code name: Orange, preferably capture, and take any intact documents from his office in Fang One, thus we will not be bombing Fang One. Fangs Three and four will also not be hit by the bombing sorties, bunker buster bombs could cause structural collapse in the underground station, and that could hinder troop movement."

He pressed a few buttons, an insignia on the screen disappeared, what took its place were graphics of artillery cannons "So instead, we will be using precision artillery strikes on key points in Fangs Three and Four, making sure not to hit the roads."

The monitor showed graphics of the building on top of Fangs Three and Four being bombarded.

"Through the tracking code that we have implanted on Torchwick's scroll, we'll be able to track his movements. So we'll be careful not to hit him if he attempts escape as the attack is occuring, instead we'll drop in the Task Force early to attempt capture."

Kirkman paused, letting what he said sink in. "But if this does not happen, after the Auroras have completed their sorties, and after the artillery barrage, Task Force Redding will advance, starting with the 1st Marine Raider Battalion from the Marine Raider Regiment, they will advance using these roads." Three roads were highlighted with red streaks.

Task Force Redding was named after one of the Marines that were killed during the White Fang's attack on the US. The Task force consisted of mostly soldiers from the Marines, Army Soldiers, and those from the 75th Ranger Regiment, but it also had the SAS team that the British Army sent, as well as Team Metal of the Army Combat Application Group, or Delta Force.

"They will eliminate any resistance that may still be there and secure the area, the 1st Marine Raider Regiment is also responsible for locking down Fangs Two and Four and not letting any survivors from the bombing escape. At the same time, the 20th Infantry Regiment, aided by 37th Armor Regiment will advance on Fang One using the roads surrounding Fang Three and secure the area, aiding the Marines in their goal of disallowing escape."

The screen then showed three of the insignias advancing onto their respective objectives.

"Once the flanks are secure, the 75th Ranger Regiment aided by tank crews also from the 37th Armor Regiment will advance through the middle."

The final Insignia on the screen moved to Fang One.

"Special Forces of Task Force Redding will plant charges on the known three entrances of Fang One, blasting large crevices into Fang One, allowing for easy entry. They will enter, eliminate all hostiles, capture or kill Torchwick and secure his office."

Kirkman breathed in, he tapped on the controls once more, the camera zoomed out, the insignias and squares on Mountain Glenn disappeared. The four insignias then appeared near Cooperwick.

"The attack will use FOB Cooperwick as its jumping point, as we speak, all designated units will soon start moving to their positions outside Mountain Glenn. During the offensive, they will be supported by Raptors, Lightning IIs and Thunderbolt IIs for close air support. Though this will not be preferred, as the structural integrity of all the train stations are low, so airstrikes might cause cave ins, which will be detrimental to our forces."

The insignias on the map again disappeared, this time showing them at FOB Cooperwick, this was their current location.

"Though airstrikes are not preferred, our troops will not be alone. They will still be supported from the air by stealth upgraded Comanches from General Granger." He eyed Granger who was standing at the back, giving him a nod.

Even though he and Granger didn't have the best relationship, he was definitely willing to give him many of his troops, likely because he wanted to field test the new point defense lasers of his Comanches.

He didn't mind though, any extra help was good, Townes was even in charge of tactical control over Task Force Redding.

He had yet to see the capabilities of the SAS team that the British Army had sent. Though Major General Macmillan assured him they were the Finest among Hereford's Finest.

He had the pleasure of working with the SAS during the Second Korean War, they were right there fighting alongside Delta Force deep behind enemy lines. So the fact that the General had told him that the squad was the finest amongst the finest was reassuring.

"We will be monitoring mission progress through command-and-control aircraft, spy drones, and from radio contact from soldiers on the ground."

It was starting to feel like he never left his station on Earth, same old mission briefings, same old military offensives.

"Operation White Death will commence tomorrow at 0700 hours. That is all." He stepped down. And walked out.

---

FOB Cooperwick

1522 hours.

"Alright boys, nice seeing you again." Townes walked in.

All of Team Metal saluted, Bravo Team simply stared on.

"Always a pleasure, sir." Sandman addressed his former commander.

"Now as you know, we're all gonna start moving to our position at Mountain Glenn come nightfall, travel should take 0400 hours, and we should be there an hour or two before midnight."

Townes pulled out a notepad and started flipping through the pages.

"I've calculated every variable, once you get there, there's gonna be setting up of barbed wire, tents, field hospitals, and all that other stuff, should take another two hours so you'll have lots of time to plan…" He paused "There has also been a change of plans for you two specifically."

He referred to the two teams in front of him, who were now intrigued. "You will not be going with the rest of Task Force Redding."

Even the stone-faced Captain Price was surprised at those words.

"Uh, what do you mean, sir?" Sandman felt the need to ask.

"I Just got off the phone with Kirkman, he gave me the go ahead for you to use a special entry point into Fang One."

Price stepped forward "What special entry point?"

"We just recently discovered another entrance or exit for Fang One, this was very recent, just a few hours ago actually. Satellite spotted a few guys exiting from an area we haven't seen yet. Kirkman can't exactly mobilize another regiment now to lock down that region."

Townes went to the keypad and started displaying the satellite image of the exit, a blue square appeared on it, a second image popped up, showing a zoomed in photo of the entrance or exit.

"Aurora bombing sorties should start at around 0500 hours, the ten of you will be deployed here the moment the bombs start hitting, your job is to make sure nobody escapes through it. It could also be a good tool for a pincer maneuver, while the rangers attack from the front, you guys can hit it from the back." He laughed at his own joke.

A few nodded in agreement, though none were amused.

"Question, General." Price half raised his hand.

"What is it, captain?"

"There are six thousand troops assaulting Mountain Glenn, you're telling me you can't spare a couple dozen to join us?"

The Delta Team was surprised at Price's mildly crass manner of speaking towards a general, but Bravo Team had already gotten used to his behavior.

"Mountain Glenn is massive, Captain, I know you've studied the maps, we need every single corner of our attack safe and secure, and we need every man for that. And like I said, the op happens tomorrow, we can't delay it so that Kirkman can get another regiment ready for deployment."

He then pointed at the two teams.

"We chose you ten because, as the former commander of Team Metal, I know for a fact that they are the best of what Delta Force can offer. And I'm told you are the best of what the SAS could offer."

Gaz laughed. "Damn right, we are."

Price nodded, he was not all too satisfied with Townes' answer, but it would suffice.

"Looks easy enough." Price walked to the screen. "Sandman."

Sandman responded to the sudden calling of his callsign. "Yeah?"

"Your boys know their way around a sniper rifle?"

"We all do, Captain,"

Price nodded. "Good."

The rest of the teams paid attention as Price started laying out his plans.

"We can have snipers perched up at these buildings over here, making sure nobody gets out. When the rangers rush in, we can rappel down and breach. I assume our goal is still to capture or kill Torchwick and secure his office?"

"That is correct."

Ghost was the next to step up. His masked face staring down the General. "What about air support, sir? Will we be getting any if there are more of em than anticipated?"

"Yeah, no train stations under there, so there won't be as much risk for a cave in. You'll be given compact laser designators, but keep in mind, if the airstrikes hit anywhere close to the entrance, debris might cover it up. Then you can't use it anymore, so if you're gonna need air support, I suggest it not be used on targets close to the entrance."

"Understood."

"You have the whole day to plan, I suggest you get to it, if you need any special equipment or if you have any suggestions just tell, I'll be here in this office. You are dismissed." He waved them away, as the two teams filtered through the metal doors, ready to plan their next mission.

---

The campfire's flames barely lit up the faces of the still awake members of Team RWBY, none of them being able to catch the embrace of sleep.

"Is this really what it's gonna be like when we finally become huntresses?" Yang asked rhetorically.

They had just finished a discussion on what it meant to be a huntress, but she still didn't like the fact that she was currently lying down in what was essentially a massive grave the size of a city, that and it was possibly a criminal hideout too.

Blake breathed out a sigh. "Apparently. But like Weiss said, it's our job, if sleeping here means we get to help people, then so be it"

Yang turned over to face Blake. "I mean, are we actually helping people though? We've been here almost a day and we haven't found anything yet."

Weiss lightly slapped Yang on the leg. "Be patient." Weiss pulled her hand back. "We'll find something eventually, and even if we don't, Vale will know to stop diverting resources to investigate Mountain Glenn, so we'll have helped either way."

What Weiss said made sense, but it would still be a lot better if they found some evidence of criminal activity, just so their trip here wouldn't have been for nothing.

"Yeah, you're right." Yang went back to laying down on her back. "Still hoping we find something though."

"Me too." Weiss and Blake unanimously said.

They all relaxed, letting sleep finally take them.

Hours later…

A thundering sound awoke them all, it sounded like the sky was being ripped apart, it was… familiar.

Ruby was the first to groggily get up, hearing Zwei's barks.

It was loud, but at the same time it sounded distant. She looked past the buildings; the others finally got up. The sound was coming directly in front of the building they were sleeping in.

Yang yawned "What's that?" She didn't receive an answer.

The sound came closer to them, as it did, it dawned on them what it sounded very similar to.

She was almost immediately kicked out of her groggy state. "It sounds like…"

"The American aircraft." Blake finished, furrowing her eyebrows. What were they doing here? Did they suspect criminal activity too?

Weiss crossed her arms. "Maybe they're doing reconnaissance? After all, it would make sense that Vale isn't the only one to have suspicions on Mountain Glenn."

"Yeah…" She narrowed her vision, as the thundering sound came closer.

"Be weary, children! If your assumptions are correct, we might just encounter American forces!" Oobleck walked up from behind, startling them a little.

The sound drew unbearably close, it was almost deafening now. The sound suddenly then panned behind them.

All of them then looked to where the sound was now coming from. Peering through the large hole within the ruined building they were in, they saw that the sun had barely risen.

BOOM.

Their attention to the sound was then taken by the multiple sets of explosions that had shaken their world. The blasts were just a short distance behind the building they were in.

The sound of the explosions was actually deafening. They covered their ears as the sounds reached their climax. They all staggered back at the sudden shaking that came after the explosions.

"What the heck?!" Yang shouted, as her ears started to ring.

Through the fiery plumes of smoke and ash, they could hear the tumbling and crashing of concrete. They could make out the outlines of entire buildings collapsing within the smoke.

"What's happening?" Weiss spoke through the pain that was introduced to her ears. "Was… that the Americans?"

Blake brought down her arm, which she had instinctively brought up when the smoke kicked up. She looked at the slowly dissipating smoke. She had a feeling in her gut, that the mysterious Nation was responsible for this.

Once the smoke finally cleared, they could see the piles of rubble where buildings once stood. Oobleck's trained eyes, and Blake's faunus ones could tell that multiple large chasms had also opened up at the site of the blasts.

The thundering sound of the aircraft was slowly starting to disappear.

Ruby slowly removed her hands from her ears. "Are they gone? Should we check out what happened?"

Oobleck brought his hand up in a stop sign to Ruby. "No, I can see chasms that have opened up, the explosions likely hit where the Mountain Glenn underground transport system once was, if we go there, we might risk falling right through."

But just as soon as the thundering sound of what they assumed were American aircraft had left, it was replaced by another.

Oobleck looked at his students. "They may be returning! We have to flee!"

He took the lead, jumping through the hole in the building, onto the empty streets, the rest of them, including Zwei, followed.

They ran through the streets, ignoring some of the grimm that occasionally dotted it. Then the thundering sound once again reached its peak, and a deafening blast filled their ears once again as they continued to run. Smoke kicked up towards their direction, filing their surroundings. Their ears started painfully ringing once again.

They slowed down to a light jog, as the area that they were in started to quake, Oobleck, brought his sleeved arm up to his nostrils, it acted as a very crude filter to all the dust.

Though the others lacked such an instinct, they all inhaled the smoke and dust, Weiss and Ruby entered a coughing fit.

They all looked behind them, to see the building they were in no longer than thirty seconds ago covered in a fiery ball of smoke.

Adrenaline took over as an overwhelming sense of dread filled the group, the desire to live kicked in, they ignored the pain in their lungs and ears and bolted the other direction.

Through all the sounds of their running and buildings crashing, Blake could hear the faint echo of people screaming, though she wasn't sure if she was hearing things because of the panic.

Weiss's heel hit a pebble, she lost footing and fell on the ground, she rolled around, coming to a stop as the thundering sounds of the aircraft once again lessened. She felt the helpful hand of Yang pull her arm up, she stood up with Yang's support

"Get up! We have to keep going!" Weiss nodded as the two of them trailed behind rest of the group which was a little ahead of them.

Then the thundering sound came back again. They all braced themselves for the ensuing explosions, and they came, but this time, it was much further back.

As he continued to run, Oobleck assessed that perhaps they were not the intended target, but that did not change the fact that they were still possibly at death's door.

They ran and ran, never slowing down once, for minutes as they ran, they anticipated a fourth set of explosions, but it never came. They were safe… probably.

Regardless. They finally stopped, taking a minute to breathe.

"What… was... that?" Yang said through pants.

Blake straightened herself, her breathing still heavy. "The Americans." She knew it in her gut. She wondered if this was what that survivor from the base attack a month ago felt. Was this what leveled the entire White Fang compound?

"I'm starting to think that too, Ms. Belladonna." Being the experienced huntsman that he was, Oobleck wasn't as phased by the running as team RWBY, but even he was tired.

"But why would they…" She paused, wheezing a little. "Attack us? Did they declare war on Vale or something?"

"I don't think we were the target, Ms. Xiao Long. If we were, that third set of explosions would've either have been much closer to us, or possibly have even killed us."

Team RWBY all paled at the notion.

"Like Ms. Schnee has stated, it is possible they have found evidence of criminal activity here as well, and have come to… solve it."

Blake then remembered the faint sounds of screaming she heard, her eyes darkened.

"So they blindly bomb the place?!" She yelled. "So they kill every single criminal here without even thinking about it?!"

She was pained to imagine the probable hundreds of White Fang that had died from the explosion. Even if they hadn't, all the rubble would have definitely crushed or suffocated them to death.

"Now is not the time to complain, Ms. Belladonna!" Their professor loudly proclaimed. "Right now, we must return to Beacon and report what has happened to the Headmaster."

Oobleck pulled out his scroll, tapping his contacts, only for the shapes on his screen to appear with the text 'No Signal' under them.

"New order of business, students! We must find an area suitable enough to contact Beacon!"

They all pulled out their scrolls as they brought them around looking for a signal. All of them pacing around the streets, though none were able to find a signal.

Ruby defeatedly put her scroll down. "I got nothing."

Yang pocketed her scroll. "Same here."

"Me too." Weiss let out a tired sigh.

Blake simply stared on.

"Alright, students, we shall head north, hopefully we can catch the CCT Tower's signal the further north we go."

Everyone nodded, but then it dawned on all of them what else was north of their position.

"But wouldn't that mean- "

"We would have to go back to where we were 'attacked'." Oobleck finished Yang's sentence.

Again, all of Team RWBY paled a shade lighter.

"Do not fret, I do not hear anymore explosions, I believe they have stopped their assault. I believe we are not that far away from it, we should reach it within approximately fifteen minutes of walking!"

Just as the Professor said this, Blake's ears then caught something; she could hear multiple loud blasts in the distance.

Her bow twitched. Nobody else seemed to hear them. Everyone began wearily walking north, following Oobleck.

She ignored it; she must have been hearing things… Just like when she thought she was hearing things when she heard those screams. She got sinking feeling in her gut, though she quietly continued walking with the rest of the group.

BANG!

Their vision was filled with smoke, and they felt hundreds of sharp objects pepper them throughout their bodies, they hurt. It was an explosion, but it was different from the ones from before, it was smaller, less fiery, but it shot out those sharp objects that almost tore straight through their auras.

"It's happening again." Weiss whispered, her eyes holding nothing but fear."

BANG! Another one, not two seconds after the last. But they couldn't see this one, yet they heard the now familiar sound of a building collapsing a short distance away from them.

"RUN!" Oobleck yelled, as he started sprinting down the road, Team RWBY following.

Then BANG, a third explosion rocked their world, hitting the large apartment building right next to them. They stepped back from the sudden amount of force that rattled their balance, but this pause in movement was a mistake.

The building itself was collapsing in on itself, and they failed to notice it, but when they did, it was too late.

They watched as huge amounts of concrete started falling their way, unable to dodge, they could only stare at the falling debris just a few feet above them

"OOOOOH SHI- "Yang never did get to finish that sentence.

---

Camp Glenn

0553 hours, 7 minutes before H-Hour

Operation White Death

The camp was busy, soldiers everywhere sprinting to their positions, tanks and Humvees driving around.

Amongst the ordered chaos, a marine, Corporal Beltran, set up a camera timer, setting it at five seconds and pointing it towards his MSOT, the basic unit of the marine raiders. He pressed the shutter release button and ran towards the Paladin.

The rest of the platoon were looking at the camera, some making poses, others simply smiled while holding their guns to the side. A few of them were standing on top of the Paladin tank, Sergeant Davis was even sitting on top of the cannon while doing a strong-man pose.

The camera's shutter closed with a snap. Everyone stayed in their position for a second before walking off to the camera. Corporal Beltran grabbed the polaroid that was being printed, and lightly shook around his hand to let it develop. The rest of the marine platoon watched on.

The photo finally developed, showing all thirty-six marines in perfect clarity.

Lt. Vasquez abruptly grabbed the polaroid from the Corporal's hands, he smiled. He held the polaroid up high.

"Alright men, after this mission, I want to see everyone on this photo back here, alive and well."

"Tall order, lieutenant!" One of the marines joked, leading to a few laughs.

Their platoon had the most reason for wanting to fight the White Fang, they after all, were the unit that was attacked a month ago during the United States' first contact with the White Fang. They were caught by surprise, and in the firefight, three marines were killed in action.

They sought revenge, and this was finally it.

Vasquez handed the polaroid back to the Corporal who pocketed it.

"Now, I know that the bastards that killed Redding, Johnson, and Boetticher probably died at the D-boy raid, but that doesn't mean we still can't take revenge on their associates."

The marines nodded in agreement, some started making adjustments to their equipment for the oncoming offensive.

"So let's go out there and give them hell! Oorah?"

"Oorah!" The entire platoon unanimously shouted; some held their guns up high as they shouted. They were ready

Every single marine ran to the Humvees they were assigned to and entered; some manned the machine gun on the roof. The Humvees along with the tanks and LAVs started moving out.

Microwave tanks were originally supposed to be deployed, but after Kirkman reviewed the plan, he realized the Microwave Tanks may affect friendly troops especially in such a compact urban setting, so the plan to include them was cancelled.

Their job was simple, their MSOT was part of the larger Fury Company whose job was to move with armor through the large road on the leftmost side of the overall Marines area of attack.

Vasquez's MSOT was tasked to move with Dagger Team in Humvees until they reached Objective Blue, a large set of city blocks, connected by roads too tight for tanks that would be perfect for White Fang elements to use as routes to ambush them.

They would be one of many platoons tasked with clearing out these alleyways. Once they cleared Objective Blue, they were to regroup with the rest of the Fury Company, and continue their advance, eventually meeting with the other marine Companies once they reached Fang Two.

Inside the moving Humvees, the marines were confidently bantering, they were told that bullets here on remnant were weaker but still had potential to injure or kill, they were also told that their only semblance of armor, the Atlesian Paladin, given the nickname 'Roach' to avoid confusion with the M1A4 Paladin tanks, were incredibly weak. Command told them to remain cautious, but at the same time they made it sound like the easiest mission of their lives.

As the marines looked at the scenery of the city they were entering, they saw that half of the buildings had collapsed with smoke billowing at their tops, they were likely hit good by the artillery barrage, but a lot of the buildings were still mostly intact.

Bodies were everywhere, both dead and alive. Those who were still alive and wounded were taken back to camp to be processed

Their vehicles were going at low speeds, to make sure they weren't passing over any insurgents that might bite them back later.

Shots then erupted from a second story window of one of the intact windows.

"(COMMS) Two story building, three o'clock!" The Tank commander to the Paladin in front yelled.

The Paladin's gun rotated to the right; the gun aimed upwards at the gun that was pointed down at the.

"(COMMS) Affirm. HEAT on the way!"

Four seconds passed.

"(COMMS) Fire!" The tank commander shouted.

The earth shook from the powerful 125mm gun of the Paladin as the shell hit the closed window, turning whoever was behind it into a fine red mist, and the window into a large hole surrounded by debris.

"(COMMS) That's a hit!"

"(COMMS) Alright boys, we're reaching the hot zone, get ready to exit your vehicles" Vasquez's voice boomed through the radio.

Sgt. Paul Jackson inspected his M4, taking a quick peek through the red dot sight, making sure everything was working, he detached the magazine, checking the rounds inside before putting it back in. This would be his first proper offensive since they won the war against the GLA.

Then three consecutive bangs were heard within the Humvee, it was Lt. Vasquez knocking on the Humvee doors.

All eight men within stepped out, except for the man on the machine gun and the man driving it.

They had arrived just outside objective blue, they would have to fight their way through it.

Loud gunfire erupted everywhere, marines rushed to cover, the sentry drones deployed by the vehicles flew up to the rooftops and started picking off White Fang who had fired on their position.

More gunfire then erupted from the windows and the holes in the ruined buildings.

Every single tank in the convoy started targeting specific parts of the buildings.

Their cannons sang, a cacophony of bullets and tank shells resonated throughout the streets. Concrete fell from the new openings torn through the buildings. Every single terrorist hiding behind cover was silenced by the powerful guns of the paladins.

The marine infantry picked off targets in more open areas, mostly those who were taking cover behind buildings that were barely still standing.

The windows on the buildings within the area were now massive holes in the building. The effects of the artillery from early in the morning were only exemplified by the tank fire.

From behind a parapet, a single surviving White Fang soldier, shakily holds her rocket launcher. She stands up, resting the back onto her shoulder, and aiming it directly at one of the six behemoths down on the ground, she fires…

Only for the rocket to be destroyed by a laser.

A sentry drone spots the terrorist and fired its rotary gun.

After the quick, yet bloody (for the White Fang) engagement, Fox company, having taken no losses, pushed forward. With tanks and LAV-25A3s at the lead, and Humvees at the back. The marines who were ordered to exit their vehicle, walked on sidewalks, clinging tightly to the walls of the ruined buildings they passed.

They were approaching a crossroad, the road, one went straight ahead, the other veered right, with a dead end at the end of it. Jackson's squad would end up having to clear this street as planned, with help from an LAV.

Jackson and his squad stood behind a corner, waiting for the LAV to push into the street. PFC Beltran and Corporal Bailey ran to the other side, on a different corner.

The LAV-25's wheels rolled forward and made a turn, then started rolling through the street. The man on the auxiliary machine gun pointed at windows and rooftops on the left, as the buildings on the right had collapsed second stories from artillery fire.

"I see nothing by the windows!" The man on the gun yelled.

The buildings looked to be mostly stores, as there were big square openings by the doors which likely used to be windows.

Gunshots then came from the broken first story window on the red building to the left.

"Tango left!" Jackson moved into position to shoot. As did Corporal Beltran.

But before they could shoot at whoever was firing through the window, The LAV aimed its main gun, the fearsome M242 Bushmaster 25mm autocannon, straight at the window.

Beltran lowered his gun. "Oh, they're fucked." He remarked.

The gun fired, the rounds tearing straight through the thin concrete and wood that made up most of the building, shooting holes right through, and almost certainly killing everyone inside. The man on the auxiliary cannon also started firing at the approximate position of the assailant. They stopped shooting.

Nobody from inside the building fired back, the hail of bullets from both the machine gunner and the auto cannon having likely killed whoever shot at them.

The doors of the LAV opened up, revealing eight more marines, who went out to search the building that was shot at by the LAV.

The stepped on broken glass and chipped concrete as they entered the building

Then two men, wearing White Fang uniforms vaulted over the ruined walls of the building on the right, holding very long red swords, they were running towards the LAV, clearly aiming to kill the machine gunner while he was looking somewhere else.

Jackson, already being in position, aimed down his sights, leveling the red dot over the attacker's body and fired three consecutive shots, every single one hit leaving the terrorist on the ground with massive cavities on his head. He didn't stop firing, anticipating the second attacker to run into his gunfire while he was running. Jackson was right

The attacker fell over in a frontal motion, falling flat on the ground. Beltran fired at him while he was laid on the ground, not giving him the chance to get up.

The machine gunner looked back, and immediately realized what had happened.

Jackson's team ran forward, to inspect the ruined building they had come from to make sure there weren't any more adversaries.

"Yo!" The machine gunner whistled to get the squad's attention. "Thanks for the assist." He said before turning back to his gun.

Jackson simply nodded.

Jackson and Sergeant Peralta were the first to look upon the destroyed building.

They looked at the ruined building, it was practically a pile of rubble with some broken walls or a few odd pillars of cinder blocks still standing.

Then from one of the broken walls at the very back came gunfire. Jackson watched as a bullet impacted Peralta's vest, he summoned as much strength in himself, he grabbed his subordinate and pulled him aside, just in time, as the bullets started impacting the ground where the private previously was.

Peralta's eyes were wide, but he was still alert. Jackson inspected Peralta's vest, it impacted his stomach, but it didn't go through. The private coughed a bit.

"You good?" The sergeant asked.

He coughed again. "Yeah…"

"Can you keep going or do I have to call a doc?" The rest of Jackson's squad started running to their position.

"I can keep going." With a moderate amount of pain coursing through his abdominal region, the private stood up.

Wasting no time, Jackson stood for cover behind the corner, the rest of his squad behind him. He took a grenade from his satchel and pulled the pin before throwing it from behind cover at the direction the shots had come from.

Three second passed, then BANG! He heard a pair of screams.

Jackson, Beltran, and Davis all stepped out of cover. One of them was already on the ground, burn marks all over him bloody splotches all over his body, if he wasn't dead, he was definitely out of the fight.

The other one was stood up, staggering backwards but not surrendering, she had a small pistol pointed at them. The three marines trained their sights on her, three different sets of gunfire were laid upon her, it was a quick but gruesome death.

Jackson tapped on his earpiece. "Street's clear!" He looked at the near dead man on the floor. He radioed for a medic to collect the injured.

With those words, the company continued moving forward. As they pushed, they continued to meet resistance. Though the combined force of the two hundred marines in the company and multiple armored vehicles was enough to crush any resistance in their path.

Until they came across a four-story building, leading to another street that was near another crossroad, whoever was on the rooftop was laying down rocket fire on the marines.

It was heavily fortified, boarded up windows with gunfire coming from the small holes that were bored into the concrete. Tank fire could handle them, but the rocket troops at the rooftops were a different story.

This was Objective Blue, the area wherein the artillery didn't do much damage, as such it was expected that they would meet the most resistance here.

The infantry took cover behind the armored vehicles, being unable to spot their targets, the smoke being trailed from the rockets lowered their visibility.

The tanks couldn't get a good angle on the rooftop, and the sentry drones would be at risk of getting destroyed by the missile fire.

The defense lasers of the Paladins were making quick work of the missiles, but sooner or later they would overheat and have to cool down.

Lt. Vasquez took it upon himself to solve their predicament. As he was stood behind the cover of an M1A4 Paladin with sparks from the gunshots that were impacting its armor, he spoke into his radio.

"Command, this is Fury, requesting immediate air support at our position." He peeked out of cover, before shooting at the building to no avail.

He waited for command to patch him to the nearest Comanche.

"(COMMS) Fury, this is Hammer 3-1, we received your request for support, we got a positive ID on your position, we're comin' in hot from the southeast."

They could hear the powerful rotors of the Comanches coming in from the southeast, the marines looked behind them to see a pair of Comanches coming to their position.

"(COMMS) Got their positions!" The Comanches closed in on the target building, and unloaded their rocket pods on the boarded-up windows and walls. Their guns fired at the rooftop. Entire pieces of the building fell as the Comanches continued their barrage.

One of the rockets missed and struck the building right next to it, creating a large gap on the doorway.

Fiery pieces of concrete and metal spewed from the building, the Comanches finally stopped.

It was eerily silent, except of course for the rotors of the helicopters and the engines of the tanks.

"(COMMS) Anyone left down there?" 3-1 asked.

"(COMMS) Don't think so." His wingman answered.

"(COMMS) 'Right boys, good luck, we're moving out."

With that, the two Comanches flew away back to the company they were originally assigned to.

But with the fortified building out of the way, it was time to clear out Objective Blue.

Lt. Vasquez's platoon ran to the left side alley entrances, while other squads went to the right.

The vehicle convoy and the other marines temporarily halted their advance, waiting for the other marines to clear out the objective, if they didn't, they'd risk taking fire from both sides, and rocket fire from opposing locations was not preferred, even for a convoy of six Paladins, three LAVs, and numerous Humvees.

The plan was to breach the buildings from the back then kill all assailants within.

Jackson pushed out of cover and looked straight down the alleyway, there was a single man there with a bladed weapon, the moment he spotted Jackson, he ran at him.

He didn't bother aiming, with basic hip fire, he took down his opponent, he watched the terrorist collapse and fall onto the ground under his gunfire.

He watched as the rest of the platoon finally reached their positions

There were to different alleys on the block, Vasquez and Sergeant Edison took cover on the left one, while Griggs was on the right."

"Jackson, you go with Griggs's squad, clear every single building, I'll take Edison with me and take this one." Vasquez commanded Jackson to go with Staff Sergeant Griggs to assault the alleyway right next to Vasquez and Edison's alleyway.

Jackson and Griggs nodded. They looked down the pathway, it was relatively wide for an alley, there were windows everywhere. They could see that the alley was closed. Ending at the windowed building at the end of it.

Jackson and Griggs cautiously walked down the alleyway with their guns aimed forward.

"Separate into fire teams, and search the buildings!" Griggs commanded, with that, the twelve marines under his command separated into groups of three, they all went two different doors on each side of the alleyway, kicking in, shooting the doors, they used whatever means under their disposal to breach.

They heard no gunshots, the buildings they entered were likely empty, Griggs and Jackson's squads pushed on, they noticed a space in the alleyway up ahead, likely where smaller cars parked.

Jackson ran forward, he was right, in the space, a broken down a gray car was stuck there. He saw the heads of two White Fang poking out, they weren't completely within cover, they seemed to hear him though, they stood up to shoot.

Jackson and Griggs pointed their guns at them while they walked, slowing down slightly to allow for more accurate aim.

Jackson squeezed the trigger on his M4, while Griggs did the same M249 machine gun. releasing numerous bullets upon the now completely visible White Fang, the spray of bullets tore through their aura and bodies, blood spraying everywhere from their now open skulls.

Jackson reloaded as he, his squad, and Griggs walked forward.

In front of them were two half walls and a fence gate, barring them from the building at the end of the alley, but there was one more building they had to search.

"Davis, Beltran, with me." Jackson commanded, both Davis and Beltran followed him. He placed an explosive breaching charge on the door knob, everyone stood back

The charge blew up, opening the door wide, Davis entered first, the first thing in sight was a staircase leading to the second floor.

A large man then ran down the staircase, with a massive battle axe. He ran at Davis, the axe held up high. He took him out with two shots to the head.

He lowered his gun, Jackson and Beltran entered, looking down at the burly man on the ground with two holes on his head.

"They keep using melee weapons." Davis remarked.

"Yeah, I don't get it too." The sergeant admitted. "Even if they do have forcefields, wouldn't it be better if they kept at range, makes no sense to rush in with a sword if a gun's available."

"Maybe they think it's cool" Beltran joked, making Davis and Jackson laugh.

"Alright, no time for chit chat, search the second floor." His subordinates nodded. "I'll take point"

Jackson led the fire team up the stairs, they looked around, only two doors, one was slightly open. Jackson kicked it in.

Nobody. "Clear."

There were also windows that directly overlooked the road their company was supposed to take.

Onto the next. It was locked, he no longer had any explosive breaches, neither did his squamates.

"Back up, I'm kicking it in." He whispered, not wanting whoever was possibly inside to hear. He shot at the door lock, before back kicking the door from cover. Jackson, Beltran and Davis all rushed in, seeing a single assailant, but before they shot…

"Hold your fire! Hold your fire!" Jackson shouted, though the others already noticed.

Their 'assailant' had her hands up. Her sword was on the floor, she was shaking heavily.

"Please! Don't kill me!" Tears started flowing. "Taurin made us fight! Please… Please…" Her words were starting to turn into tearful blabbering.

Taurin must've been the tango they took out downstairs.

"Davis, take her back to the company." Davis nodded, taking the lady away, she was to be put into temporary custody within one of the Humvees until a perimeter was set up.

"That's our first capture of the day."

They exited the building, afterwards, searching the final building, it was completely empty. The alleyway had been mostly devoid of enemies, he wondered if the squads assaulting the alleyways on the other city block encountered more resistance.

There was one final door inside the building, He was with Corporal Turner.

Turner kicked it in, it led to Balcony, four tangos, crouching behind the parapet, holding rocket launchers and guns, waiting to ambush. None the wiser at the two marines that had entered from behind, bullets ripped through their bodies.

Turner and Jackson looked around, to the right of the Balcony they could see their company, around a hundred meters away.

"Sir, alleyway's clear."

"(COMMS) Good, return to the company, we just finished clearing stuff up on our side too. Other squads finished up as well, we're movin' out." Vasquez said through the radio.

He and Turner were just about to do so, then as they looked over the balcony, they noticed movement within one of the buildings just across from theirs. It was from a shop window, what looked like three targets crouched under it.

"Turner, use your SMAW, I'll direct fire."

The Corporal pulled out his SMAW loading in an NE explosive round. He aimed using the scope down at the three assailants, before he could fire the rocket though, he had to make sure it would hit, he pushed the secondary trigger on the SMAW, a 9mm tracer round exited the weapon.

Jackson watched where it hit, it hit the bricks right above the window.

"Lower!"

He pushed the secondary trigger again, and again, it hit brick.

"Lower!" Jackson said once more.

The corporal pushed the trigger, this time the window broke, signifying that the Corporal was aiming just at the right place, but now the ambushers had noticed them.

Jackson wasted no time. "Target! Fire!"

Turner pulled the primary trigger, the NE thermobaric rocket exited the SMAW, a rocket capable of collapsing small buildings, and it did just that.

The explosions instantly incinerated the three tangos within the building, but also caused a large part of it to collapse in on itself, crushing (literally) any chance of survival.

"Woo! Hell yeah!" Turney smiled.

Just as they finished the vehicle convoy started moving again, as the shapes of dozens of marines filtering out of the alleyways came to meet with the company.

"(COMMS) Devil dogs, this is Overseer, our scout drones appeared to have picked up a roach four hundred meters on the road ahead of you, can you confirm?" That was the sound of General Alexander. She claimed that they had spotted an Atlesian paladin up ahead.

The vehicle convoy once again slowed to a halt.

"(COMMS) Yep, we picked him up in thermal, it's a bit far, but it's closing the distance fast." The tank Commander of the lead Paladin, 'Warpig' responded.

In fact, if Jackson focused enough, he could hear the loud continuous metallic stomps in the distance.

"(COMMS I think it's trying to move in for attack, we'll try to pick him off before he can reach us." There was a pause. "Gunner! Load Sabot!"

But in the fifteen seconds that this exchange happened, the Paladin was just up ahead, it skidded to a halt.

"Oh shit!" Turner yelled. It was massive, with huge guns for arms. They actually felt scared for once, as did the Tank Crew.

The shoulders on the mech suddenly opened up, revealing rocket pods, they all fired at once, directly aimed at the Paladins. The point defense lasers on the six Paladins made quick work of the missiles, none of them hit.

Then the mech's arms pulled up, a few machine parts on it moved, the guns were about to fire, they could only imagine what kind of damage those guns would do to the Paladin, the loader was not yet done loading in the APFSDS round, and he was working under pressure.

Turner took it upon himself to load in another NE explosive rocket to fire at the roach before it could shoot the Paladin, but it was too late, the guns on the roach fired, two pure blue bursts of energy hitting the Paladin's frontal armor directly.

Doing immensely… nothing.

The tank was pushed backwards, one of the track links were damaged, but apart from that, the tank was still largely operational.

The tank crew burst into laughter; the gun was done loading "(COMMS) Fire!" The command was given. The gun on the Paladin shot a depleted uranium penetrator travelling at over four times the speed of sound.

A thunderous crack echoed throughout the battlefield, as the round shot straight through the roach, leaving a gaping hole where its head area used to be. It fell onto the floor.

"Huh. For a second there I was actually worried." The corporal laughed.

The sergeant just stood there in shocked disbelief at what had happened. He heard movement to his right, he instinctively pointed his gun at what had come next to him on the balcony.

It was a crow, it had landed on the ledge, its flapping wings must've made him think they were footsteps. He lowered his gun.

"Let's go back, corporal."

The tank's track link would end up having to be replaced before they could move forwards, but this was to be the last major engagement for the Fury Company, they reached Fang Two with little resistance. Eventually meeting up with fellow marines.

The combined total of over a thousand marines began setting up a perimeter, and doing patrols around the area, A few Ranger squads came by to help, as their mission into Fang One wasn't until later.

"Yo." A ranger, by the name of Corporal Dunn called out to Jackson, as all around them, marines, and soldiers from the Rangers started laying barbed wire everywhere and setting up a perimeter, to make sure nobody gets out.

Some were even rappelling into the large crater of the Train station, since apparently there were some survivors from the Aurora strike.

Jackson was sat on a park bench, drinking from his canteen. The Corporal was simply relaxing, something about the Rangers not having to rush into Fang One until a perimeter was set up

"What?"

"You find any roaches while you were out here?"

"Yep. Just one though" He took a swig from his canteen, before closing it.

"We found four. Man, those things were a lot weaker than they looked, one of the tanks shot through two of em at the same time, they were lined up, then boom! A single sabot was all it took to take em both out. One of our guys even destroyed one with a Javelin."

Jackson agreed, the Paladins were basically like multi-purpose Bradley vehicles, except they were weak.

"You guys take any casualties?" Dunn asked.

"Our company? Nope, except for two injured. I heard White company did lose a guy."

"Ah shit." The ranger sat up. "How?"

"Internal bleeding, got hit in the head, bullet didn't penetrate but it crushed a blood vessel, they couldn't save him."

Dunn tightened his mouth and looked solemnly into the distance as soldiers continued doing their jobs.

"What about you? You guys lose anybody?" It was Jackson's turn to ask.

"Rangers? Nope, but the 20th did. Friendly fire."

For an operation of this scale, just two killed in action was very good, but it wasn't done yet.

"We still gotta rush into Fang One in about half an hour, so you never know."

The Rangers, Delta force, and SAS still had a job to do, Jackson was disappointed that the Marine Raiders didn't get to assault Fang One as well, in his mind, the Raiders were equal to the Rangers.

"Bark! Bark!"

A dog? Dunn and Jackson looked in front of them. There was a dog, with black and white fur, it looked like a corgi.

Dunn walked over to pet it; the dog graciously accepted.

But then it ran off to the side.

"Rude." Dunn quipped.

But it didn't fully run off, it kept looking back at Dunn and Jackson, and barking as if wanting them to follow it. Some of the soldiers setting up the perimeter began to take notice.

"Does it want us to follow him?"

Jackson stood up. "It's collared, so he's someone's pet. His master was probably White Fang that got caught in the artillery or bunker buster bombs, I mean we are between Fangs Two and Three." He looked behind the bench he was previously sat on, seeing the massive sets of craters caused by the bunker buster bombs and collapse of the train station.

"But he's going away from the crater." Dunn observed. "Should we follow? Not like I got anything better to do while waiting anyway."

Jackson nodded. "Least we could do is show him to his master who I doubt is alive."

Dunn stood up, and together they followed the Corgi, it led them a little away from Fang Two, and a little deeper into Three, around them, soldiers curiously watched the two men from different service branches following a dog.

A few yards above them, a crow flew over them, that meant there were very likely dead bodies where they were headed.

The dog led them around the place, eventually down a wide road, where a few squads of marines were talking, it led them to a building. The entire second floor of said building having collapsed, either from artillery fire or tank cannon fire.

There was a massive pile of rubble, right in front of the building, likely from the collapsed second floor. The dog stopped, it sat down and barked, before going to the largest piece of rubble and pawing at it.

Dunn and Jackson gave each other a look. They each let go of the rifles they were holding, letting them swing wherever they had them attached to. Together, they grabbed an edge off the concrete slab, and pulled back. It collapsed onto the ground a very loud crash.

One of the marine squads ran over to them.

"Whoa! Whoa! What are you doing?" One of them walked up close to the two of them. He was a gunnery sergeant based on the shoulder patch, which meant he outranked Jackson.

"That dog led us here." He pointed to the corgi. "We think his master's under this pile of rubble, so it's either an extra body to the pile or a new prisoner if they're somehow still alive."

The sergeant clicked his tongue. "Alright, we'll help you out. Come on boys." He signaled to the two men he was previously talking with.

The five of them pulled off the smaller pieces of rubble that were revealed, eventually Private McCallan pulled off a piece to reveal a hand.

"I think I found something!" He shouted to the four men who were still lifting, but before they could do anything about it, the dog ran forward, bit the hand, and pulled back, with immense strength the body was being easily pulled out.

"Holy shit! This dog on steroids?!" The private was shocked at the display of strength the dog had displayed by easily pulling a human being around five times his size.

Speaking of the human being, it was a blonde teenaged woman, she was neither wearing the White Fang mask or the uniform.

"Shit… She's probably a civvy." The sergeant crouched down to the dead or unconscious woman's level, and brought his fingers down to check her pulse.

A crow dove down on him, before he could, it started cawing, clearly agitated.

"The fuck?!" The sergeant shooed the crow away, before putting his fingers on the girl's neck to check her pulse.

"She's still alive…" Instantly, he pulled out his radio. "We need a medic down here ASAP. We found a possible unconscious civilian, over."

She had a dislocated elbow, and she had a few wounds and marks. Corporal Dunn walked over, he had some experience, he levered her elbow back into place.

"Don't have a kit, we gotta wait for the medic to patch up the rest of it." He referred to the many small to medium sized cuts and grazes all over her body. "Might need to get a tetanus shot too."

The dog sniffed the blonde, he whimpered a bit before running back over to the pile of rubble, digging through the smaller pieces as it could now dig through the smaller ones better than it could the big piece from earlier.

"You're master's here." The gunnery sergeant shouted at the dog as if it could understand, but the dog kept digging.

"Shit, maybe there's more…" Jackson walked over to the dog and helped it dig, the others continued digging through the rubble on their side.

"Yup..." Dunn and Jackson pulled the girl out, a bow was loose upon her head, showing a set of cat ears. "This one's definitely gonna need a tetanus shot." Dunn eyed the rusty iron rod going straight through her thigh.

"Don't pull it out, she's donna bleed out even more if you- "

A Humvee pulled up, with his squad mates inside. "Corporal." Sergeant Foley whistled from the open window; Ramirez was on the wheel. "It's time."

"Ah shit, it's showtime, you sure you guys can handle the rest?"

The marines nodded at Dunn's question and watched as he got in the Humvee.

It drove off, leaving the rest of the marines to deal with digging through the wreckage to possibly find more bodies.

"You sure that one ain't White Fang?" A private asked. "She's got cat ears, and she's wearing white."

"Even if she is, she's injured and unconscious, not like she can fight."

They continued clearing the rubble, finding more and more bodies, all of which were miraculously alive, but were all also unconscious.

Corporal Baker laid down the body of a short girl wearing all white. "Jesus, they're wearing dresses and heels on a fuckin' battlefield."

"Corporal, the people over here have forcefields and animal parts, and you're talkin' about them wearing heels?" The gunnery sergeant, now named 'Keating', laughed.

The medics also arrived and started patching them up. They called in a Chinook with medical supplies to bring the injured back to base, ETA was two minutes.

They then got the last body, or what they assumed was the last one, as most of the rubble had already been cleared. It was an older man, green hair, a thermos attached to his trousers.

He had the least number of injuries of the bunch, while the others had cuts and scrapes, hell some even had some parts of their limbs crushed, this guy had nothing, except maybe a few bruises.

His eyes suddenly burst open, staring straight at the three men looking down at him, he sat up, startling the three. Out of instinct, the three trained their weapons on him.

"Don't do anything stupid, buddy." Keating placed his finger on the trigger.

He turned to Keating. "…Where are my students?"

---

Outskirts of Mountain Glenn, 3 hours earlier.

0429 hours

2 hours, 31 minutes before H-hour.

Two Black Hawks fly over the decrepit buildings of Mountain Glenn. Each carrying special forces units of two allied countries.

They were taking the long route, they flew from FOB Cooperwick to the outskirts of Mountain Glenn where they would land, that way, the White Fang don't hear them coming.

The sun was just barely starting to rise, it was still mostly dark out, that would usually serve them well on a normal operation, but in this case, most faunus had night vision, so the only reason they were coming in this early was to synch their attack with the aurora bombing raid.

"Overlord, this is Soar 2-2, we have a visual on the LZ. ETA thirty seconds." They could hear the pilot's voice, they looked out of the helicopter to see what looked like a roundabout road

"(COMMS) Copy, 2-2." Townes's voice blared over the radio.

Sandman adjusted his visor, from his seat he looked out to the other Black Hawk which contained six soldiers of the 22nd SAS Regiment.

Truck pulled the open bolt on his Mk 48 machine gun, then released it as he pushed.

"Ten seconds." The two Black Hawks started to slow down, coming to a hover right above the roundabout.

"Green light! Go! Go! Go!" The pilot shouted, the ropes dropped, team Metal rappelled down the ropes.

Grinch's boots were the first to hit the ground, he immediately went into a crouching position, and aimed down the sights of his Mk 22 ASR, searching for any possible targets in the region, as the others hit the ground, they did the same.

"(COMMS) Alright, we're heading out, good luck boys. We'll be on standby for evac."

The Black Hawks flew back the direction they came

The men slowly and cautiously walked through the roundabout, scanning their surroundings as they went. Every single one of them, except for Truck and Roach were armed with sniper rifles. The two would act as heavy gunners if snipers didn't work.

"Looks like we're clear." Price slightly lowered his L115A3. "But we got a long way to the objective, and we better get there 'fore the bombs hit. Place is just a klick ahead."

Price used hand signals to tell everyone to move forward. They moved through tight spaces and alleyways. Making sure not to go through any open spaces.

They were slowed down by the weapons they were carrying, even those with snipers still had MP5s for CQB, but they were making good progress getting to the objective, and they still hadn't encountered any White Fang.

They also has a lot of other equipment which slowed them down, ropes, grenades, sidearms and other paraphernalia that marginally slowed them down.

They passed through a very tight alleyway, where only one of them could pass at a time. Ghost took point.

He cautiously walked forward, the other followed through, he stopped as he reached the end of it, he peeked his head forward, and looked to the right, then the left.

"Heads up, grimm nine o'clock, looks like one'a those werewolves."

"Permission to engage, sir?" Gaz asked.

"Negative, let it pass. We don't want to make noise before we get there."

Ghost continued to watch the beowolf, it seemed to walk down the road and out of sight behind a building. He looked back to the other men and gave them a nod, he pushed forward as the other followed, this time down a wider alleyway.

"Man, this place gives me the creeps." Truck whispered as he vaulted over a fence gate blocking the alleyway.

"Hmph, you shoulda seen Pripyat."

As they walked down the city with sniper rifles and urban camo, Price's mind was taken back to the last time he was on a mission, very similar to this, the assassination Nigel Niabroneb, a Jordanian microbiologist who turned out to be Doctor Thrax's mentor.

He still remembered the intense mission in Pripyat that almost led him and his mentor to their deaths, though it was still considered a success, he still remembered the sight of Niabroneb's head popping under the force of the anti-materiel round.

The danger in Mountain Glenn was much more different though, while in Pripyat, him and Macmillan had to evade GLA and separatist Russian forces, here the team had to evade hundreds of grimm and the possibility of a White Fang soldier spotting them.

The ten men pushed on, getting closer and closer to the objective, passing by any grimm on the way. Getting spotted was not an option, getting spotted by a grimm meant they would either have to somehow run away, or fight back, fighting back meant making a noise. And because they were deep in enemy territory, they didn't want to get caught without the element of surprise.

"Should just be another three hundred meters." Price checked his compass, making sure they were still going west. Once Price confirmed the direction, they kept moving.

But right as they were about to enter the next alleyway, Soap spotted what was at the end of it.

"Two tangos up ahead." They were just standing there. Soap brought his rifle up, putting his line of sight directly on the two in front him.

"Soap, don't shoot, we're too close to Fang One, you'd be alerting the whole bloody neighborhood."

"Yeah, I know." Soap steadied his aim. "Just trying to get a better look." He confirmed they were White Fang; he could see the outline of their masks from behind. He also noted there was no way to get around them from inside the alleyway.

He brought his rifle down. "We have to use the main road on the left, no way around em from here."

Price sighed. "Alright, let's get this over with."

The team of ten moved down the road to the left, Wallcroft peaked from behind the corner, seeing nothing he nodded at the team behind him and they all went down the main road. IT was unsafe, too many vantage points around them, and the area was too wide, but they had no choice.

They advanced through the road, and once they got past the area where the duo of White Fang was, they went straight back to using alleyways.

With that, they finally reached the objective. Three buildings, each of varying height.

"'Right, let's split up, head to your assigned places and start setting up, we got about ten minutes before the Auroras come here, make sure to clear your surroundings." Price switched to his MP5 as he was about to enter what was possibly a building infested with White Fang.

Thankfully, all three buildings were clear. They were all in position.

Price and Soap were perched up on a high-rise building, an entire city block away from the entrance point, this was a good vantage point for sniper fire, but it didn't earn them that good of a view of the entrance point because of the many building that covered up the view in certain spots. But their job wasn't to lock down the entrance point.

No, they were to provide sniper fire in case White Fang assaulted the flanks of those whose job it was to actually lock down the vantage point.

That was the job of those in the two buildings two hundred meters ahead of Soap and Price's.

Frost, Sandman, Truck, and Grinch, were all on the right building, Truck was acting as both the spotter and the heavy gunner.

Wallcroft, Ghost, Roach, and Gaz were on the left, just like the other team, they had a spotter who acted as the heavy gunner, Roach.

If White Fang suddenly started pouring out of the entrance in the dozens, or if White Fang started hitting them from the front in large numbers, the heavy gunners were there for the job.

Price picked up his radio. "Sandman, your boys good to go?"

"(COMMS) Affirmative, everything's set up."

Down in the left building, Roach loaded in the magazine, he inserted the belt of bullets into the machine gun and hit the bolt. He nodded to roach as he extended his bipod and took aim at the entrance.

They were on the fourth floor for a four-story building fifty meters south of the entrance point, the only things 'obscuring' their view were a few trees and crumbled down small buildings.

All of them were prone, aiming with their respective weapons down at the entrance.

"(COMMS) You see anything down there yet?" Captain Mactavish's voice was heard through the radio.

"We've confirmed a bunch of hostiles down there, place looks like Camden on a bank holiday, nobody's coming out of the entrance yet though, they're all just walkin' around." Ghost adjusted the scope on his rifle.

The entrance was really a modified basement entrance, it was a large trapdoor right in front of what looked to be a town hall, it supposedly led to a tunnel network going directly into Fang One.

The rest of the area was mostly open, it was like a courtyard.

"Bloody hell, it's the GLA all over again with all this stuff about tunnels." Gaz adjusted his aim, putting the reticle right above the head of a White Fang agent talking to his colleague.

"Now we just wait for the bombs, right?" Wallcroft, who was aiming down his own rifle, asked.

"Yep." Ghost answered back.

And as if on cue, they heard the familiar screeching of supersonic aircraft start closing in.

"That's them." The four watched as the White Fang on the ground seemed to be startled by the sudden sound, they all looked around and started pacing all over the place looking for the source of the sound.

For a few seconds, it was all they heard, the screeching of the Auroras flying through the sky, almost invisible to the naked eye because of how high up they were. Then came the bombs, huge explosions collapsed buildings just under a kilometer ahead of them.

This was their cue, all the White Fang in the courtyard staggered back in startlement, some shouted profanities in surprise.

Then the sniper fire rained on them.

Both the Delta Force and SAS team fired volley after volley of sniper rounds at the disoriented White Fang, cutting down their numbers steadily

Heads exploded, limbs flew off left and right, terrified screams were heard even from all the way up in their vantage points. Most of them died with one shot, the size of the rounds coupled with the fact that they were travelling at almost three times the speed of sound made it like the bullets were simply tearing through paper with regards to their aura.

But some of the more stubborn ones refused to die after the first or even second shot.

Then most of them exhausted the round capacity of their magazines, meaning it was time to reload. There were still at least twenty of them down in the courtyard, as the snipers were reloading, Roach and Truck each opened fire with their machine guns, killing the droves of White Fang.

If they knew there were gonna be so many of them they would have all brought LMGs instead of just Truck and Roach.

Every single White Fang Member was still in a mixed daze, as the next Aurora sortie came down on Fang 2, it masked the sound of the two soldiers firing their machine guns.

The masked sound mixed with the fact that they were hiding in semi hidden vantage points made it hard for the terrorists to pinpoint their exact locations. The panic also didn't help.

"(COMMS) Delta! You got a couple guys runnin' along right of your position, it doesn't look like they're attacking though." Soap's voice alarmed them, there was a short delay. "Got em."

"(COMMS) Heh, they must've been running away." Price chuckled. "(COMMS) Keep shooting, we better make it clear that they aren't getting away from the bombs from that exit point."

So, it continued, for ten minutes, the two squads down below rained hell on the courtyard as Price and Soap picked off any individuals that got too close for comfort to the buildings.

Then Soap spotted something on his scope. "Price, we got three hostile left, looks like they caught us."

"Don't worry, we left some presents for them, remember?" Price casually picked off another hostile closing in on Team Metal's building.

Soap watched as the three individuals went out of sight, then he heard an explosion. Those were the claymores they left. They had left a bunch to account for their forcefields.

"Soap, check it out, make sure they're actually dead." Price pulled the trigger on another assailant.

Soap nodded, he stood up, leaving his L115A3 with it's bipod extended on the ground. He equipped the MP5 with its stock attached to a sling on his hip. He went to the fire exit of the decrepit building and rappelled down the rope he and price set up. Once he got down, he immediately got into a crouching position and scanned his surroundings.

Seeing nothing, he ran to the entrance point of the building as distant gunshots echoed all throughout.

The large open entrance door showed burn marks all around, he could see two bodies. Two? He saw three. He ran in, his gun at the ready. Only to find a single hostile, grasping his sword, holes torn all throughout his body, he was faced away from Soap, staggering towards the stairs that lead to the floor of his and Price's position.

Even so close to the end he still stuck to the mission, Soap didn't know whether to think of him as stupid or brave. Either way, he sped up the inevitable with three shots to the head.

He tapped on his earpiece. "Price, it's done."

"(COMMS) Good."

He ran up the stairs to meet back with the Captain and continue with their sniper support.

Down in the courtyard, the entire place was littered with the bloodied bodies of White Fang, it was a complete massacre.

Frost spotted one, his head was peeking out from behind a pillar of the Town Hall like building. He adjusted his aim for distance and windspeed, this was a difficult shot to make, with only a bit of forehead showing itself.

Frost pulled the trigger. Blood splattered on the wall behind the pillar.

"Good hit." Sandman muttered as he fired his own shot.

Then suddenly the trapdoors of the entrance point opened, there seemed to be a single man who had opened it up from the inside, but from the darkened area behind him, there must have been more waiting to rush out. Roach and Truck didn't wait, they immediately shot into the entrance point with their machine guns, not letting anybody exit from it.

There was nothing left, everyone either escaped somehow or was dead, nobody was exiting from the entrance, probably out of a well-placed fear of getting shot at.

It was unknown to them, but this would be eventually known to be the day that ten special operations operators from SAS and Delta Force took on over sixty members of the White Fang.

It was clear to them now that there was no escape, everyone who was smart would stay inside, they'd be semi protected there, at least until the Ranger attack. But anyone who tried to escape from the back would get hit by machine gun and sniper fire from SAS and Delta Force, anyone who tried to escape from the front through Fangs Three and Four, would get hit by the artillery barrage that would soon come.

And so, they waited, as the Aurora bombers finished their sorties, and as the Artillery barrage happened, for hours they stayed there, laid down in prone, carefully watching their surroundings for any bit of movement, grimm occasionally walked by, but never seemed to notice them.

They heard distant gunshots and tank fire of the invading American forces, as well as saw Comanches flying by and back.

Occasionally some of the 'dead' on the ground just turned out to be unconscious and tried to crawl away from the kill-zone, but their efforts were crushed by the snipers, some of the grimm even sniffed out those who were unconscious and finished them off.

"(COMMS) You boys still in one piece?" Overlord asked over the radio.

"Close enough." Price puffed out a bit of smoke from his mouth, as he threw away the burnt cigar. They had been sitting there watching for at least two hours at that point.

"(COMMS) Be advised, the Rangers are making their move soon. T-minus ten minutes"

"Mm." Price folded back the bipod on his sniper, and slung the rifle onto his back and stood up. "How'd the invasion go?"

"(COMMS)Three casualties, but the force of them reached all the objectives with stellar results. Even took down multiple mechs."

"Good." Price spoke into the radio. "Alright, round up boys, time to hit the base." He nodded to soap as they both walked to the fire exit, they rappelled down the rope and started sprinting to the buildings of the other two teams.

The two watched as Team Metal rappelled down their own building, they met up with them as they touched the ground.

The other members of Bravo Team also met them.

"Alright, you all remember the plan?" Soap asked the squads.

"We break in, kill everybody in front of us, meet the rangers, then take down Torchwick and get to his office." Sandman answered.

"Good."

They ran towards the open entrance, it was open, they made sure to keep to the sides, and not stand directly in front of it. All those wielding sniper rifles couldn't afford to bring other heavy weapons so they stuck with MP5s, but MP5s didn't have as much stopping power as rifles did, and because they were fighting humans with force fields, it was all the more dangerous. Which was why Truck and Roach were to take point, because they held the heavy guns.

They waited.

"(COMMS) Go." A single word from Overlord was all it took; Truck then threw in a flashbang. The entrance was lit up by its explosions. Truck and Roach ran in first, while the others followed. It was a hallway, wide enough to fit around three people moving the same direction.

Nobody yet, they pushed deeper into the hallway that angled itself downwards, it was long and dark. The group put on their night vision goggles, they could now see clearly, but there was nothing up ahead.

But after a minute of walking through the damp, leaky hallway, they could see a bright light with their night vision, that meant there was a source of light at the end, they took off their night vision goggles, seeing the end of the hallway, with a light shining.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Three massive explosions, then gunshots.

"Must be the rangers." Grinch looked at Price.

"Yeah, let's move!" Price commanded.

They all entered into a jog towards the end of the hallway, as gunshots and screams of terrorists could be heard on the other end.

They burst through and scanned their surroundings, they were standing on a tall ledge, down below were what looked like buildings and a single long rail.

On the other side there was a massive hole that soldiers were pouring through, on the ceiling was another hole Rangers were rappelling down using ropes, and right beside them was another opening which Rangers were also pouring from.

Ahead of them, down by the rails, Roach and Truck spotted three White Attempting to run, but one seemed to stop and raise his hands up above his head. Truck and Roach fired at the two attempting to flee. Accidentally grazing the one who had surrendered.

As this happened, Sandman and Price noticed two more terrorists with longswords rushing in from the left, with their MP5s, the two men, stopped in their tracks, but the weaker 9mm bullets of the MP5 made it take awhile to eliminate the hostiles.

The rangers continued to take out all White Fang within the subway, they were all caught by surprise, the sudden explosions and breaking in of the troops leading to mass panic within the ranks of the White Fang, some surrendered, many attempted to flee or fight back. Those who fought back were met with shots to their heads.

"You guys the D-boys and SAS?" Amongst the fighting, four Rangers ran up to the two squads. The lead, an African-American man with a shoulder patch that indicated he was a sergeant, walked up to Sandman.

"Yeah, where's Orange?" Sandman answered as he looked to the left, the rail led farther into the tunnel, a lot of the rangers seemed to be pushing into it.

"No clue, we're still waiting for command on that, but there's only one way ahead."

Then the radio blared. "(COMMS) Orange is in Fang One! I repeat, Orange is in Fang One! Keep heading east."

East was where the rail was headed to. "Guess you were right."

The rangers started going down the staircase that led to the rail path. "Hold up." Price told the ranger team.

"What?" The sergeant asked.

"How about we stay on this ledge, and move using it, it's good high ground."

"You're right, alright team! Push forward from this ledge!."

The three teams pushed on the ledge, taking down White Fang as they went.

They watched as a terrorist fired down on the soldiers from the building below them. The now named Corporal Dunn, laid down fire from his M4 on the terrorist.

Price was right, this was good high ground.

They kept running on the ledge, as rangers below pushed on. It seemed that Bradley Fighting Vehicles were lowered into the subway and were advancing alongside the troops.

Rangers also sabotaged the track to make sure a train couldn't escape using them. But if the Train tried to escape using the tracks on the other side, they would meet the caved in subway tube

"(COMMS) Orange is trying to escape through the caved-in subway line leading to Vale, he reached a couple hundred meters inside, he's stopped moving, the rubble likely stopped the train's movement."

"Ha! fucker thought he could use the train." Gaz laughed as he ran with his fellow soldiers, they met a dead end, what was in front was the subway tube Torchwick probably used.

The teams jumped down on the roof of a building, before using its staircase to go down to the level of the rest of the rangers.

The Bradleys couldn't Fit through without being able to turn back around.

"(COMMS) Do not advance through the Subway Tunnel, we'll be sending in more rangers above the subway tube, we'll have them breach while you push in. Stand by."

"So, we just wait, huh?" Ghost let out a sigh.

Over eighty rangers just stood there, guns aimed right through, the train could be barely seen just ahead of them.

Grinch then switched to his sniper rifle, and aimed down his sights to look deep into the subway, his rifle had a Leupold Mark 4 LR/T scope, that allowed him to up to 10x magnification. He saw a few individuals hopping off.

"I see them!"

At his word, everyone else wielding marksman rifles aimed down the tube and took potshots at everyone outside the train. They had nowhere to take cover except by going back inside the train, which most of them did upon seeing their comrades fall down and die from intermediate range marksman fire.

"(COMMS) We're sending them in to breach! Metal Team, Bravo Team, Hunter 2-1, Hunter 2-2, Striker 3-4…" Command continued to list names of squads. "You are tasked to Breach."

There was a look of disappointment from all the ranger squads that weren't called.

But before they could be given the order to move in, something crashed in front of them in the subway tube, a roach.

The giant mech tumbled forward, running straight at them.

A duo of rangers, one wielding an AT4 crouched down in front of the tube, the other one directed fire. The AT4 shot out its payload straight at the mech. It exploded, along with the mech.

"(COMMS) All designated units, move in!"

The seven squads named all rushed into the subway in squad column formation, they heard another massive explosion, this one coming from behind the train, that must be the other angers tasked with attacking, as they got closer to the train, they saw no sign of anybody moving out.

They reached the train, so did the other rangers, nobody was stepping.

Sandman tapped on his earpiece. "Overlord, I think they're trying to lure us in."

"(COMMS) Yeah, I assumed that, don't worry, I had the rangers pack a surprise." Townes's voice sounded almost jubilant.

Two ranger teams from the cave-in started scanning the closed metal train, they then identified something, some of them seemed to be holding large metal canisters.

One of the rangers laid one down as they continued scanning the train cars.

Ghost walked up to one and read the label on the canister. "Phenacyl chloride." He read out loud. "That's a type of tear gas." He muttered. It was one of the more dangerous types too.

Townes was authorizing the use of tear gas, that's why the rangers were scanning the train, to look for a ventilation system, and they did. This was illegal, but as long as this was kept a secret, nobody had to know.

They all watched as a few rangers started connecting the gas canisters to the ventilation system. Two rangers laid out a few green boxes, opened them up, revealing M50 gas masks.

"Put em on." The ranger then proceeded to pick one up and put it on his face.

The other ranger squads each picked up a gas mask and wore them, as did Team Metal and Bravo Team.

"It's set up!" One of the rangers on the ventilation system gave a thumbs up.

Captain Bradley stood up on the now empty gas mask box. "Alright, I want all of you ready to breach each door! We'll have teams set up hydraulics to breach. Hunter 2-1 I want you on that door!" He pointed to the door at the leftmost side of the train. "SAS, I want you on that one." He pointed to another door; this one was at the frontmost train car. He kept assigning teams to doors as the gas did its work.

Some of the train cars had no doors and would have to be entered through from within the train itself.

They could hear banging on the metal, as well as coughing from within the train. The gas was making its effect.

Bravo Team and Team Metal were also supplied with better weapons than their MP5s, though roach and Truck kept their machine guns.

Team Metal stood on their side of the train car, opposite to Bravo Team. A man with an electric hydraulic walked up to their door and started working on opening it up. The other doors were also being broken through by hydraulics.

"Poor sods probably don't even know what tear gas is." Gaz was right, Kirkman had studied it, Remnant had not yet developed the use of chemical agents in warfare.

The man on the hydraulics finally burst the metal door open, immediately two terrorists ran out, coughing and wheezing, they were restrained by one of the ranger teams, the other doors on the train then also burst open, allowing both the gas and some desperate terrorists to escape.

Bravo team and Team Metal rushed into the car, there was nobody inside left, they moved to the door which automatically opened, the tear gas slightly obscured their vision, most of it collected to the floor though. Phenacyl chloride was combustible, flashbangs weren't an option.

Sandman and Ghost simply rushed in, four hostiles, three of which were bent and leaning on the walls, gasping for proper air, another one still had enough coherence to have his pistol aimed at the door, but in his pain, he completely missed Sandman's head, a deadly mistake. It cost him his life.

The other three heard the gunshots, but put their hands in the air at all the soldiers that rushed in.

Seeing the three surrender, Price turned to Wallcroft. "Lead em out." Wallcroft took the three new detainees and led them out of the car.

"(COMMS) We have a situation! We found Orange! But they got Andrews hostage!" Sgt. Foley's voice was heard clearly through the radio

"Shit!" Ghost said out loud.

"Where?!" Price shouted onto his radio.

"(COMMS) Third car from the front!"

"Third car from the front?" Soap's face morphed into one of realization "That's the next car over!"

Soap and Ghost immediately took point and rushed through the door leading to the next car.

And they saw them, three rangers, two of which were aiming their weapons at a short pink-, brown- and white-haired girl of short stature, she had a blade right over the throat of a fourth ranger. Her eyes were red and clearly tearing, snot was dripping from her nose, the tear gas had taken effect.

Corporal Dunn had his weapon aimed at Roman Torchwick, Orange himself. As the remainder of Team Metal and Bravo Filtered in, they all aimed their guns at the two.

Corporal Andrews looked at Ghost who had his sights aimed on the girl, his eyes, even through the gas mask had both fear and determination, he gave Ghost a nod.

Ghost nodded back and pulled the trigger, the bullet sailed through the air, finding it's way into the girl's right temple, only for her to shatter into a thousand pieces, and as did Roman Torchwick.

"What the fuck?" Almost everyone thought or said the same thing.

"(COMMS) They're out here! I repeat! Orange is outside the train!"

---

Sheesh, this chapter was definitely one of the long ass variety, like goddamn over 14.8k words! This is definitely the longest chapter I've written; I hope you guys like it as much as I do, cause goddamn not only did I have tons of fun writing this, but I also loved reading through it.

Tell me what you think of this chapter, personally, I loved it, but if not, go ahead and trash me! (Not too hard though)

Alright, now onto reviews:

Monster King: Also awesome

VGBlackwing: Nah, the US has vested interest in capturing Torchwick.

Dedelldm: No not really, free time for me in the past month has surprisingly been increasing, contrary to what I originally believed, so DW, I'm good mentally and physically out here. As for other franchises, sorry you don't like them, but I hope you still enjoy the story, as for implementing more? Like I said, I will be including Ace Combat squads for aerial units eventually, apart from that no concrete plans yet. As for DM replies, I've noticed that when I tried this, people really don't read their PMs, so I've resorted to this instead.

Crazzytony: I hope you liked it!

Vmoneywashere: Thanks! You'll see, and soon…

Whatsupman: hahahhahahhahaha: Also, as mentioned previously, operations of this scale rarely ever conclude with 0 casualties.

ChronoHyperion: Aww, thanks! I've actually done research on electro-magnetic reactive armor, but the others are new to me. I'll definitely check them out and see if they can be implemented here.

Konstantinsen: Hope the Mountain Glenn Op met your expectations, and believe it or not, I hadn't even watched Gate before I wrote this story, didn't even know it's plot. Just had a reader point it out to me on a PM after like chapter 8-ish and was surprised at the similarities. I thought it was pretty cool, but I overall felt like it leaned on the harem trope a bit much for a military anime. And also, again, don't worry! I'm taking care of myself as best I can, and I'm balancing writing this pretty well with my other responsibilities (in my opinion)

Guest: Hope it was epic enough.

Guest: "We get dirty and the world stays clean."

Guest: Hahaha, get ready for the future chapters bud'

Guest: Doctrine is still pretty much the same, except maybe the US takes the enemy less seriously (for now at least)

Guest: I mean, let's be honest here, based on what we've seen, Vale Police is dogshit, but yeah you're right, the huntsman academies really didn't do a good job of prepping the kids for the real world.

Guest: Well said.

Quma25: Yeah, originally this chapter was supposed to happen right after Operation White Arrow, but I thought major action right after major action was a bad idea, and I thought it was time to finally make a proper filler, so thanks for the feedback on it! Good idea.

Gunfighterxy76: Hope you liked Bravo Team's role in this! Also great feedback on everything! Really love it when you guys delve in to deep details of what's happening in the story. As for the XM29, I probably will just stick with the M4 carbine as the main battle rifle, with occasional inclusions of other weapons, this is because, one, it was cancelled, and two, I'm not a big fan of its design (sue me!) I've also really been itching to add the microwave tank, soon, soon…

FuryRoad: Really? Haven't really noticed much hate for it… Maybe I'm just in the wrong circles. Like I said before, I won't be including any more CoD characted anytime soon, there're enough as is. And I'll try!

Guest: I responded to a similar review to this, and the answer is no, Generals 2 was cancelled, that and the EU only became what it is there because the US somehow collapsed. And like I said before, I won't be using content from other C&C franchises unless they are actual real life things. And I'd personally say that the HK416 is better than the FAMAS, it's being replaced for a reason.

The-Killer40513: Atlas strategies do be dumb.

Ramireztheloyal: So true, and I'll try!

CaptainWarhammer: I'm not withholding ships because I want this fic to be overly serious (Benjamin Steele exists), but because ships make no sense at the current point of the story. And thanks for the feedback! The Schnee Squadron suggestion is brilliant! Navy stuff may or may not happen, we'll see ;)

MaxHD2490: I'm pretty sure I've made this clear, but just in case anybody else is still confused. This is a C&C Generals based fan fic, not Tiberium universe, not Red Alert, and I've made clear that I won't use elements from those universes as they are either too advanced or will muddle the tone too much.

TheOutCast1o1: Thank you! And I do have other plans for cultural exchange.

Guest: Pretty big, I guess.

Warmach1ne32: AHHH I really wanna add the microwave tanks and avengers, but with all that was happening in this chapter, I couldn't really fit them in well, but they'll get their share of the spotlight soon!

New Vegas: No, sorry, but you misread, Prince Assad was killed. And sorry, but the image of GLA riding grimm makes me laugh too hard, but no, the thing is, Salem is the only one who can directly control the grimm, GLA can't do that.

Guest: I'd actually argue that the F-22 is a more accurate comparison than the F-15EX, because the F-22 was originally supposed to be the main air superiority fighter until the shift into COIN, and yes, the Comanche is the main heli.

Tell me what you think of the chapter! See y'all next time!