Lisa Lavender considered herself to be a good journalist, she knew how to get a scoop, she had many sources and connections that allowed her to get a good idea on what was relevant in the world. She also considered herself to be a good reporter, VNN was the #1 most viewed television news source for a reason.
But even she wasn't expecting much when she opened an email that was sent directly to the Vale News Network from one 'eaglefucker1776 '. The usual protocol was to delete emails coming from such questionable places, but she took the liberty of sifting through every single message which had led her to many things good and bad.
But the message she received from eaglefucker1776… It was possibly the best information she'd received from a single message in her entire career as both a journalist and a news reporter. It was a simple message, saying the United States was interested in conducting an on-site interview with them at Mountain Glenn. Granted, she had scrutinized this email heavily, who wouldn't scrutinize an email coming from one with such a vulgar name.
It came with an attached video of General Kirkman himself saying that reporters of the Vale News Network were invited to meet with 'High Ranking Individuals' of the United States at their camp near Mountain Glenn. The entire network conducted a mass search of the video everywhere on the internet, showing no results, meaning that it was authentic and original.
The next part of the message contained coordinates to a random spot a few miles off Vale, telling them to bring a small camera crew and one to two reporters.
So here she was, driving inside a large van with the camera crew that she had personally picked out.
This was a risk, she knew it, this could have all been one very elaborate prank, but with how little reliable information there was about the United States, she was willing to take any risk to report on them, especially in an on-site interview in one of their military camps.
That not even mentioning how much the viewership to the network would be affected, the numbers would skyrocket. And hopefully she would be promoted for taking the initiative.
She watched as one of the men started fiddling with his camera.
"Is everything alright?" She asked.
"Yeah, I just need to…" He breathed as he started twisting at the lens with a device. "Replace the lens." He continued.
The van continued to make a turn down a freshly paved road. They were already miles from the bubble of safety surrounding Vale, this wouldn't be the first time she would venture outside safety for a scoop though, but something about the situation made her even more weary. As the van got deeper into the paved road, they could make out a clearing at the very end of it, with shapes and a loud humming noise that could be heard from within the van.
And as the van neared the end of it, they could see what exactly was in the clearing, three large shapes right next to each other, two of them reminded her of bullheads with propellers, while the other one was a lot thinner, and had a propeller at the top. about two dozen men in green uniforms who all had what looked to be guns aimed outside the clearing as if protecting everything within the clearing. And at the center was a tall bald man in a similar green patterned uniform.
The van slowed to halt, before a grunt in her crew cautiously opened the doors. He pulled as the doors came open. They slowly stepped out, none of the soldiers looked at them, the only person looking their way was the tall man.
"Good afternoon, I assume you're Lisa Lavender." He spoke with a deep baritone voice. He held a welcoming smile, but that didn't change the tenseness of the situation.
Lisa stood at the front of her crew, she did her best to hold a dignified stance and to not show the intense uneasiness she felt. "Yes, I am. And you are?"
He still kept with the unnerving smile. "Colonel Ernest Burton. Aide-de-camp to General Kirkman." He brought his hand forward, offering a handshake.
Aide de camp? What did that even mean? She recognized 'Aid' and 'Camp' but with the words stuck together with 'de' in the middle, she didn't at all understand what it meant. He was also Colonel, which if her knowledge served her right, was the rank right before General in the Atlesian military, did they just copy the ranking system of Atlas?
"A pleasure to meet you…" She questioned whether to address him as 'Colonel', 'Ernest', or 'Burton'. "Colonel." she chose. She gave a smile and accepted the handshake.
Through her peripheral vision she could see a few of the soldiers glancing at her.
The Colonel pulled his arm back, and gestured towards the bullhead on the right with opened bay doors. "Please, come in, we'll be heading straight to Camp Glenn."
Camp Glenn? She had so many questions, most importantly the question of whether or not it was a good idea to head inside the bullhead as suggested, she was starting to regret her choice coming here, those glances from the soldiers were not helping. She nervously looked back at her crew looking for any sign of approval, they were equally if not more nervous than her.
She looked back ahead. She slowly nodded to the Colonel, it was too late to back off now, given how many soldiers were here it would probably have been more dangerous not to take that offer. The unnerving smile on his face grew. Her fingers were starting to tremble, she was more on edge than ever.
She inched forward, taking a step at a time towards the bullhead, her heel hit the bay door of the bullhead, a metallic clank resonated through the silent clearing, startling her a little, she could hear her crew slowly following.
"No need to be nervous, we'll keep you safe."
Either the Colonel had a sick sense of humor or he failed to understand just how intimidating the situation currently was.
With a gulp she sped up the doors and entered the bullhead. She and the crew were now inside. It was surprisingly spacious, the interior reminded her of a metallic tube, seats on both ends. She looked out to see the Colonel do some hand signals, she heard dozens of footsteps with soldiers suddenly running to what was probably the other bullhead. The Colonel himself walked inside the bullhead Lisa and her crew were in.
He was immediately followed by four men, possibly his personal bodyguards. Unease was in the air.
She and her crew took a seat, as did the soldiers and the Colonel.
She heard a sound as if the wind was being chopped up, likely the propellers on the aircraft, they lifted up and were now in the air. It was quite loud.
Silence overtook the group; nobody spoke for a few minutes as they flew through the skies of Remnant. Then the Colonel broke the conversational silence.
"I don't see broadcasting equipment on you. You aren't going to be filming live?" He spoke louder to compensate for the noise.
Lisa was caught off guard by the question. "Uh- no, we'll be taping it."
She built up the courage to ask a question. "When will we get to see General Kirkman?"
The Colonel gave her a deadpan look. "You won't."
Her eyes widened.
"The General's a busy man, he sent me to do the interview for him, don't worry, I'll be able to answer all your questions."
She felt a tad bit of disappointment, but this was clearly someone who was important to the infamous General, and she would be, as far as she knew, the first non-American to take a step into an American property and interview who she assumed was a high-ranking American officer, so this trip was shaping up to still be very worthwhile.
She took the time to observe the Colonel and his entourage. The four of whom wore masks that almost completely covered their faces, two of them even covered their eyes with weird looking sunglasses and goggles. They had unique helmets that looked different from the other soldiers guarding the clearing. They had a different air to them.
The Colonel was certainly unique, he wore a uniform of a similar color to the one Kirkman wore on his first appearance in the news, except it was short sleeved and didn't have any markings, it was a simple green shirt with camouflage patterns. On it were 'Burton' and 'US Army' written atop each breast pocket.
As time passed by, she ran out of things to observe, she finally took in the awkward yet threatening silence, the only thing not silent being the propellers. They must have been in there for around twenty minutes
A very faint chatter could be heard on the pilot's side of the aircraft.. They were probably talking to the Colonel through his earpiece.
"We're getting there, just a bit longer, ETA five minutes." The Colonel pulled out aviators from one of his breast pockets, he put them on. "I suggest you start prepping to film, lots of good footage once we land"
He was helping them? Nonetheless, Lisa took his advice, she tapped her cameraman on the shoulder, who then fumbled with his equipment, trying to get it ready for the landing. The same went for the one in charge of handling said equipment who was setting up a microphone, and going into his backpack to get other pieces of equipment.
More time passed as the crew finally finished setting up. The propellers started slowing down as evident by the sound, they could feel the descending motion. The Colonel's entourage were the first to stand.
The cameraman was about to stand up too, but was held back by a hand from the Colonel. "Let them out first."
They touched the ground, the doors opened, the soldiers jogged out, and Colonel Burton gave them the thumbs up. He stood, as did the others, the camera was rolling, the microphone was picking up audio.
As they descended down the loading bay style doors, a blast of light hit them, they could finally see the very thing so many in Remnant were desperate to see an American base, and it blew her expectations away.
Hundreds of soldiers filled their immediate surroundings, some were doing exercises, some were firing their weapons in some sort of shooting range.
A behemoth of a vehicle suddenly barreled down the road in front of them, startling them, it had a massive pole sticking through it, the cameraman inwardly scrutinized himself for not panning over to take a video.
Overhead four aircraft suddenly came to view and with a thundering boom flew right past them.
Lisa stepped back from the sudden noise, but composed herself once more, and looked upon the massive 'camp'. If this was just a camp, what constituted a fort to them?
Colonel Burton stepped forward, just out of view of the camera, his boots making a crackling sound with the gravel on the ground.
"…Welcome to Camp Glenn."
Cinder paced around the room, a glare fixed on the floor as she just walked around, her two cohorts being too afraid to speak, they knew when it was not the time to make snide remarks, Cinder was not in the mood for any of that.
The news channel blaring throughout the room, it was night, evening news was playing, and as expected all they were talking about was the attack.
Just a single day had passed since the attack that shook the world, something that did much more than just disable a White Fang logistics facility, it was an attack that would absolutely cripple the White Fang's reach and capabilities in and around Vale, an attack that had thrown not only a wrench into her plans but also doused it in fire dust and set it aflame.
"…The United States just hours ago released its official fatality report on the White Fang, 628 dead due to combat, 181 dead due to grimm, friendly fire, and other causes, putting the total number of dead at 809."
The sound of Cyril Forest, VNN's evening news reporter could be heard.
Cinder clenched her fist. Mercury walked over to the scroll projector, about to turn it off.
"Stop." She growled at mercury. "I want to hear this."
Mercury sat back down.
"Over 1900 wounded, according to the press release made by the United States, the number for both dead and injured are still being counted, due to certain areas currently being inaccessible without special equipment. The total number of injuries is staggeringly in favor of the United States, who, if their words are to be believed, only lost six men and had thirty-two injured."
"Oh, that can't be real." Emerald shook her head. "That place had at least a couple thousand White Fang in there, how could they only lose six guys?"
Cinder spoke. "It doesn't matter. Even if the Americans lost a hundred while attacking it, we still lost many more White Fang. Adam will now be hesitant to push through with our plans." Cinder's clenched fist started to tremble as the room's temperature increased by a degree or two.
"But there still has to be at least a few bases left, right?" Mercury tried to justify still being optimistic.
Cinder didn't answer. She knew all hope was lost for the White Fang's Vale branch. Out of over 3000 members at the start of the year, 400 had gone missing searching for the American base. Around 300 died during the attack on the White Fang Base, a further 200 dying from other confirmed direct combat with Americans. Dozens have disappeared from different towns and villages under mysterious circumstances, and now this. Their membership had been halved, and that wasn't even counting the hundreds that deserted out of fear.
Those altercations with Team RWBY were nothing compared to this.
She hadn't fully recognized the Americans as a true threat, but now… This truly put a stop to her plans.
Without the White Fang at its full strength, they wouldn't have an invasion force large enough to attack Beacon, and any potential recruits would now likely be too scared to join after seeing what happened to the White Fang at Mountain Glenn.
She was thinking many things at the same time, she knew that she needed a large force to take on Beacon, she didn't care what the Doctor said about his work in progress project being more than enough, her group and the White Fang as it was were nowhere near enough for the task of taking out Beacon with the Atlesian military, huntsmen, and now the United States ready to take them out.
She knew Adam would no longer be willing to work with her as is, he would be too hellbent on destroying the Americans, he wouldn't sit back and listen to her plans any longer. The only thing that would work was a promise to take down the Americans, not a false promise too, as they were the first legitimate threat to her own plans.
"So…" Emerald nervously stepped forward. "What happens now?"
Cinder had but one honest answer to that question, but she didn't want to say it out loud. 'I don't know.'
All she knew was that things had to go back on track, or else all her hard work from the very day she left that hell she was stuck in would be for nothing. And it all rested on defeating the Americans.
"It makes no sense!" Ironwood was in his office, his lieutenant standing beside him as he looked over the pictures Qrow had taken of the attack.
"How were they able to attack all of Mountain Glenn like this?" Frustration was clear in his voice as he viewed the picture.
It was taken from a high angle. Qrow was likely on top of a building or hill when this was taken. Vehicles were rolling down the streets, dozens if not hundreds of men rushing down alongside them, aiming their guns everywhere. It was incredibly disorganized, yet if they were to be believed, they had achieved a complete victory with these tactics.
The streets and buildings of Mountain Glenn were clearly ruined, even more ruined than they already were. He needed to know more of their tactics, and how they could even succeed with this much chaos in their movements. Qrow had called it "Organized Chaos" Every soldier had a purpose, yet they were moving about the place like they had no purpose.
Common protocol here was to march in an organized fashion and eliminate any opposition that appeared, but that wasn't what was happening here, it was like they had a completely different doctrine to them.
Even that preemptive strike that Qrow talked about made no sense, how could those guns fire that far? And how could they be so powerful? Team RWBY had come back along with Professor Oobleck, but they had to rest before questioning could happen, but based purely on the photos, those guns and aircraft clearly did something.
But he needed more information.
Beep
It came from his left. There was a glowing light within Winter's pocket, it was her scroll. She pulled it out, unfolding it, she viewed the contents.
"Sir. The Americans are doing an on-site interview with VNN, it's playing on the news right now."
Ironwood couldn't believe what he was hearing. An on-site interview?
"What do you mean by on-site? In Mountain Glenn?"
Winter tapped on her scroll. "It appears to have been done at their base near Mountain Glenn."
That means it was the same camp Qrow had said they set up. He immediately pressed the power button on his hardlight projector, a very large hardlight screen popped up on the opposite side of the room, he went to a live streaming of the VNN news to watch the report.
He looked to Winter as the livestream started to load. "Winter, take notes."
"Yes, sir." She went to a different desk and opened up a computer, readying to type down whatever she deemed necessary.
The video finally appeared on the screen, showing Lisa Lavender.
"…Surprise when two days ago, we received an email from an anonymous source, we decided to investigate it, bringing us to an unmarked location near Vale where we saw this…"
The screen was taken over by a video feed of Lisa Lavender stepping out of a vehicle out to what looked to be a clearing within a forest, was this their base? And was it really that short a distance from Vale that it just took a short drive?
"This was where we met with one, Colonel Burton, a supposed Aide-de-Camp to General Kirkman."
Ironwood was even more intrigued, the video cut to showing Lisa Lavender speaking with a taller Bald Man in a green uniform. Ironwood did not recognize the term 'Aide-de-Camp'. Around them were a small force of soldiers who had their sights trained on the surrounding greenery.
"We were told to enter the aircraft."
The news reel continued as Lisa and her crew entered the bullhead-like aircraft that was in front of them.
Ironwood's face held visible worry. "This is bad."
However, Winter did not know why her superior was concerned "How so, sir? Should we not allow the news media to interview Americans from this point forward?"
"No, it's just that this proves that Qrow was right, they're able to get troops so close to Vale without us finding out, and if Qrow was right about them moving thousands of soldiers outside Mountain Glenn, that would mean they can move armies without us knowing." The concern grew on his face as he continued watching the news.
This was indeed concerning, because it meant that if the Americans had their sights on Vale, it would already be too late by the time any point of authority found out about American troop movement.
Even them being able to move a small force of soldiers was already very worrisome, he of all people knew that even just a squad or two could do wonders, reconnaissance, special operations, assassinations. This meant that it could be a very real possibility that the Indigo Offices massacre was perpetrated by the Americans.
But he eventually dismissed these thoughts, after all, one would require identification in order to actually enter Vale.
After a short minute of Lisa talking over the footage of them within the bullhead, the footage eventually cut into a few minutes later as the audio faded back in, it sounded like something was chopping through the air, the familiar sound of the American bullheads when they arrived at Beacon all those weeks ago.
"After a short flight, we landed at their base…" Short flight? That was concerning, how short was this flight? If these American bullheads were of similar speed to their own that would mean that the American base was closer than they thought.
"We were escorted out where we were met by the sight of their camp."
The footage cut into a scene where the soldiers around them rushed outward, the previously dark view of the camera was taken over by a flash of light as the audio came in, the chopping came to a slow halt, metallic footsteps came from the camera crew stepping out into the open, the camera returned to focus as Ironwood and Winter finally saw something that had been coveted by politicians, generals, and civilians alike… Or almost saw, as Colonel Burton blocked the view of the camera.
He then stepped to the side as the camp came into view. And it was shocking.
A large paved road was right in front of them, with different turns and intersections. There were hundreds of soldiers, all doing various tasks, some were in a shooting range firing from guns of all shapes and sizes, others were jogging, doing push ups, sit ups and other exercises. Some were simply chatting with each other on the sidelines.
Then on the road in front of them, a massive vehicle came into view, rolling down the road in complete view from the camera, it was the exact same as the 'Paladins' in Qrow's photos.
Then before Ironwood or Winter could even make a comment, a sound exploded into whatever audio capture device the camera crew was using as above them came four aircraft flying so fast that they disappeared the second they appeared. They were the same ones from when they visited Beacon.
"All these things happening at the same time…" Ironwood trailed off.
"What is it, sir?"
"This isn't just an interview, this is a demonstration, they are putting all their power on display to show the world just how strong they are."
"It's an intimidation tactic." Winter realized
"Exactly. And I'm guessing the interview is only going to hammer down the point that they are a force to be reckoned with." Ironwood remembered the original reports the Americans sent, was that another strategy too? To show off the fact that they lost so little in a battle that completely devastated the White Fang, so that the general populace would start questioning Valean authorities over their incompetency with the White Fang when the Americans seemingly did so well?
Because that was exactly what was happening. All around Vale, huntsmen, the Vale Police Department, even the Atlesian military were all being ridiculed, all because the Americans did what they couldn't, in certain circles, the Americans were even being lauded.
Ironwood almost couldn't believe it. If he was right, it would be like every move they pulled was part of a well curated plan that had been set in motion from the very damn start. From the most obvious military operation, to what was essentially going to be a well marketed press conference.
"We were welcomed by Colonel Burton, after which he requested us to switch off our recording equipment as he led us through the base."
The video cut to black and went to footage of the group inside an office-like room.
Ironwood was hoping for them to state that they continued recording in secret, but they seemed to have been intimidated by the presence of that many soldiers and the colonel himself, or they didn't want to ruin the chance of them being invited to the base again, either way, it was a missed opportunity.
"Colonel Burton then presented a flash drive which contained a video of General Kirkman himself presenting and explaining the attack on Mountain Glenn. He asked that we watch the video before proceeding to ask questions about the attack, these were the contents of the flash drive."
The video transitioned to General Kirkman, in the same type of uniform that he wore to Beacon. He simply stared at the camera for a short second.
"This is it." Ironwood remarked, watching closely.
The infamous General was standing straight, behind a podium with a triangular symbol on it, a familiar symbol of a white bird wearing a blue and red shield on its back. Behind the General were two flags, both of which were strewn down due to gravity, but the shapes and symbols on them were still clearly displayed. One was the same set of stars and stripes worn by all their soldiers, which was likely their flag used to symbolize their nation. The other flag was blue, the center had the symbol of a hawk or an eagle perched atop a shield, the words "United States Central Command" around it.
"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, it's no secret that the attack on Mountain Glenn has shocked and confused many, and it is because of that that I have decided to give everyone a complete rundown on why we did it and the strategy behind how we did it."
"Isn't this a mistake? Showing their strategies and tactics for the world to see?" Winter asked.
"Perhaps it's to show us their strategic superiority, but I'm not so sure myself."
"Unfortunately, due to previously set obligation, I will be unable to answer any questions that you may have after this video is shown to VNN, but I have left Colonel Burton in my stead to answer those questions." After a short pause, he continued. "Now let's begin with a complete briefing of the operation."
The General then moved to the left, the camera followed him, now there was a board with an image on it. Words on the top left read: '18 September', below it were numbers arranged in military time that read: '0500-0700'.
The image on the board was clearly a map of a large portion of Mountain Glenn and the surrounding areas.
There were multiple squares of different colors in and around Mountain Glenn. The first group were blue squares, with undiscernible white shapes within them, there were many of them south of Mountain Glenn on the map, within mountain Glenn were four areas highlighted in yellow, in and around them were red squares.
The two Atlesians discerned that the blue squares symbolized American forces, while the red were White Fang, the yellow highlighted areas were likely objectives.
"Now, before we get onto the actual operation itself, I believe it's important for me to explain why we did this in the first place, and of course its effects."
Ironwood heard of this from Ozpin, apparently the White Fang was planning a massive attack on Vale, though none of the proof Kirkman showed was very compelling. But this was certainly problematic, if he told the world that the attack happened to stop the White Fang from attacking Vale, the American would be made to be bigger heroes than they were already made out to be by the public.
"Through the incredible efforts of our special forces and our intelligence sectors, we were able to determine an attack planned by the White Fang, an attack on Vale that planned to utilize the ruins of the Mountain Glenn subway system to create chasms at the very center of Vale, one that would allow for the entry of hundreds if not thousands of subterranean grimm."
There it was, but even the public wasn't that stupid, they were going to want proof, and not just the testimonies of those captured at Cooperwick, that wouldn't be enough. Then Kirkman pulled out something from under the podium, a set of papers, he laid it out on top of the podium.
"These are copies of the documents of their plans to attack Vale from various White Fang bases as well as the personal office of Roman Torchwick." Ironwood and Winter's eyes widened. That was certainly much better proof. Kirkman then pulled something from his pocket, a flash drive, he showed it to the camera. "And this is a recorded confession from Roman Torchwick."
The two Atlesians went slack jawed. Roman Torchwick of all people? Confessing to crimes? Torchwick had been arrested several times, all he would give to authorities was a snarky smile and a wink when questioned, but the Americans had an actual recorded confession? What did they do? Regardless, with that, the hearts of the people would definitely be swayed.
"Now let's get on with this, shall we? On the morning of September 18…"
Raven Branwen was many things, warrior, bandit, murderer, but what she was not was weak. She had spent her whole life earning her place amongst the strong, and she was willing to use that strength for the needs and wants of her tribe exactly as she had done now.
The ruins of a once thriving town surrounded her. What was once a population of over seven hundred capable men, women, and children were reduced to a few wounded survivors huddles up in basements and attics, soon to be found by her men, only to be killed, raped, or sold off to the black market.
Some would say her actions were unnecessary, but as far as she was considered, this was the simple order of the world. The strong culling the weak. So, she was surprised when she heard the news of the United States, a self-proclaimed nation, causing much trouble for the White Fang, an organization which had eluded destruction by Vale and Mistral's authorities for decades.
They even paraded around their almost complete destruction of the White Fang as part of some sort of noble cause, but she knew lies when she saw them, and this was one of them. Just like any leader, this was simply done to advance their interests, she didn't care what Kirkman had to say about just causes and an attack on Vale, those were simple side-effects of his plan.
"That concludes the strategic and tactical overview of Operation White Death, a complete success."
The General Finally finished drawling on and on about the operation.
The holographic screen flickered a bit. This was to be expected, one of her men inadvertently hit the televisions' projector module when he beat the bartender to death against the wall with a baseball bat.
"This something to worry about?" Vernal leaned against the bar counter, near where Raven was sitting.
Raven struggled to answer, even she had to admit that the Americans taking back Mountain Glenn with such little casualties (if the slides were to be believed) was impressive. So she decided to answer realistically.
"Sanus is their playground. We are… unlikely to face them."
"But what if we do?" Vernal seemed to catch the fact that she had avoided answering the very obvious question.
But right as she was thinking about the right way to answer, the video feed of Kirkman seemed to stop and was replaced with Colonel Burton.
"Colonel Burton then offered to do an interview with us. We asked him several questions, many of which he refused the answer, here were the ones he dignified with a response."
Raven started to clean her weapon while casually listening to what was being said on the news. Vernal seemed to look to her for an answer to her previous question, seeing as Raven ignored it though, she decided to move on. Vernal knew better than to annoy her.
"Where is Roman Torchwick?"
"He is currently incarcerated at our detention center." He curtly responded
"For him to snitch like that, they must be beating the guy senseless." Raven heard one of her men say.
"Or they have something on him, blackmail, loved ones…" Vernal insinuated.
"Ha! Like he'd have loved ones."
"Does the United States plan on taking the fight to the White Fang in Mistral, or even Menagerie?"
'A good question, a better one would be if the US could handle that.' Raven thought.
"As of now, no, we are aware that the White Fang is divided into different segments, all being under some vague control of a regional leader, some of which being more aggressive than the others, the Vale branch of the White Fang is thus far the only branch to have shown aggression towards us. But if the other branches choose to avenge their comrades, they're free to do so, but they will be met with the same force that met the White Fang here."
Impressive answer, but it was clear he was showing off. Raven finished cleaning the blood off her sword, and took out her sharpening iron, she ran it across the blade in a back-and-forth motion.
"What 'business' is General Kirkman currently involved in that prevents him from being with us today?"
"Business that involves our future endeavors in various sectors."
"Would you care to divulge information on these… future endeavors?"
"Of course, one of these endeavors involves the fact that we have noticed that many smaller towns and villages in Remnant are unprotected, we have built alliances with a few villages, benefitting them with our protection, and benefiting us with deeper relations with the outside world. We plan to do the same outside Sanus, specifically in Anima as we hear the Bandit Tribes there are quite vicious and are making trouble for the- "
Upon hearing those words, Raven put too much pressure on her sharpening tool, causing a loud metallic hiss to deafen her surroundings. She was taken aback.
Looks like they were going to have their answer sooner than expected.
Green Gap research facility, MOB Kostanav
2300 hours
Two days since he had left for Washington DC for his meeting with senior officials, General Kirkman was exhausted, between long talks with the director of the CIA, Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Secretary of Defense and other high-ranking officials, and the near 14-hour flights to and from DC, the General really needed a break.
Unfortunately, he wasn't going to get one, because as soon as he stepped in the portal, now codenamed 'Green Gap', it was back to work, he had already communicated the results of his talks with the senior officials to Colonel Burton and other important figures back in Remnant, but this wasn't enough, he would have to discuss concrete ways on how to execute the plans that were made, of which there were many.
The General mustered up the energy to walk through the portal, and what greeted him was Colonel Burton, holding a folder in his hands.
Great, more papers to read through.
"Welcome back, General." The Colonel gave him a salute, Kirkman did the same.
"Good to be back." He walked forward, initiating the trip to his office.
"Did VNN run the news story?" He asked as he walked.
The Colonel gave him a nod. "Yes sir, including your speech and Torchwick's confession."
"Did it have any effect?"
"A lot, many are calling us heroes, councilman Don Forest from Mistral called us…" Burton opened the folder, reading its contents, he continued "The best thing Remnant has seen since hardlight dust."
A politician supporting the US? That was certainly a lot better than people of the general populace supporting the US. This would mean someone with actual power liked them. That said politician was from Mistral, the kingdom on a continent they had taken interest in.
"Though sir it should be noted that he and his followers are known to be racist against the faunus, so him supporting us might give out the wrong impressions."
Ah, there was the caveat.
"Any support from people who aren't racist?"
"Other than your average citizens, most people in power have kept quiet. A couple celebrities have said their piece though, mostly from either interviews or from social networking sites." Kirkman almost laughed at the notion of celebrities. "A popular Valean actress named Scarlett Drab said she was happy to see action finally be taken against the White Fang. Willis Creek, a musician from Atlas called us 'badass'. A few more are included in this report." He closed the folder and wiggled it in his hands.
Kirkman nodded, celebrities, while holding no actual power do hold a lot of sway on the opinions of people. And while these positive opinions were good to hear about, he was sure that there were at least a few dissenting opinions.
"Any negative reactions?"
"Clancey Sky, a political commentator said that we are warmongers."
Unsurprising, he couldn't count the number of times he heard that comment back home, justified or unjustified.
The Colonel continued "Robyn Hill, a popular huntress, said that we used too much force and that the fatalities for the White Fang prove it."
"Robyn Hill?" Burton nodded at Kirkman's question "That name's familiar, is she that woman from the Happy Huntresses group we tried to get in contact with?"
"Yes, sir. She's slated to run in the next Atlas Council elections."
That was not something he wanted to hear, if she, a person with negative opinions on the United States, became council member, it might be detrimental to any future operations involving Atlas.
The pair finally reached his office and as they stepped in, they gave a salute to the guards outside. Kirkman fell onto his seat as the Colonel laid out the report on his desk. He would make a mental note to read that later.
"Alright, now about my meetings back in DC. The CIA agreed on the money laundering operation."
After taking Mountain Glenn, they had found a lot of money, in stores, homes, old banks, many of which was still up to date, the Kirkman wanted to use that money for trade and other possible operation, the problem was that Vale and other Kingdoms had their own version of the IRS and he had no experience with money laundering, hence why he turned to the CIA.
"Do they have a plan?"
"They want to plant agents in Vale, establish some sort of business to launder the money we found at Mountain Glenn through. The money will go straight to our other operation which was the focus of my meeting with the President and Joint Chiefs of Staff. They really want dust."
"And they agreed on your plan to use the abandoned mines near Mountain Glenn?"
"Yeah, the problem is we can't use contractors from back home since they don't even know about Remnant yet, so we're doing a joint operation with the CIA, they'll get natives to work at our mines and use that laundered money to pay them."
"Won't we have to hire guards to protect them? Those mines are surrounded by Grimm. Last I checked the Armed Forces aren't allowed to protect commercial interests."
"That's where the CIA comes in again, they want to make a whole private military company made up of natives who will be trained by troops provided by us."
"A PMC?" Burton was surprised to hear those words.
"That's not all, since the money we found at Mountain Glenn probably isn't enough, they want to also establish a dust business to ship dust around Remnant to make some money on the side to help pay for it all as well as to ship dust back to Earth. Protection of said shipping will be done by that PMC."
"But don't we want dust for ourselves as well? Won't trading off a lot of it mean we don't get as much for research?"
That was a valid concern, but at this point that was all off Kirkman's hands, all the higher ups approved of the mission, they assured him that dust would still be delivered to Earth in a steady fashion.
That was the point of all of this after all, for all this time they had been using money from mercenary contracts to purchase, they couldn't let that get out of hand, if news of that got to the public, the fallout would be horrible. The Armed Forces, at least officially, were not allowed to act as mercenaries.
They needed to find a way to get dust without any of those very public contracts, with the dust company, at least according to the CIA, they could ship dust back to Earth without any illegality. Anybody with a brain would likely be able to tell how suspicious the whole thing was, but they wouldn't be able to do anything.
"They say we will, I have my doubts but we aren't the lead in this particular operation, we just provide assistance. They're sending a couple more of their officers here soon. They'll start immediately. Our job is to secure Mountain Glenn, we lead an operation in that regard."
"We've occupied it for a week now, sir, we have a camp just outside, isn't it already secured?"
To Kirkman, it wasn't completely secured just yet, even though they cleared out most of the White Fang an unprecedented amount of grimm came in the wake of the attack, attacking from the outskirts of the city or even using the old sewage systems to surprise unsuspecting patrols, causing multiple casualties, and three fatalities. Bigger grimm were coming too, a Raptor doing a low altitude patrol spotted a massive herd of elephant-like grimm, likely goliaths heading the way of Mountain Glenn.
That same herd had been spotted moving away from Mountain Glenn before the attack, maybe there were merits to grimm being attracted to negative emotion, cause what else could warrant them moving back there?
"No, you know what it's like down there, you've read the updates from staff."
From a number's standpoint, the occupation was damn successful. Usually at this stage they would see a soar in casualties, but this wasn't the case. Overall, it was still unsatisfactory though, troops were exhausted, morale was low from constantly having to fend off surprise attacks from never-ending streams of grimm, it was like the GLA again except it was big black animalistic creatures instead.
Nevermore had started coming in meaning Avengers had to be deployed to slice them up, directly occupying the city was starting to become more and more costly.
Kirkman was thinking of pulling out of the city proper once they got all the necessary materials and just have the troops stay at the camp, but he recognized the strategic importance of Mountain Glenn, an abandoned coastal city, close to dust mines with untapped potential, and most importantly it was right below Vale, occupying it permanently would be a big affront to Vale's leadership. 'We held it when you couldn't', a symbolic victory on their front, maybe they could even move in with natives, or possibly in the future, citizens from Earth.
A city with old seaports that could once again be put to use especially for that CIA operation.
It was why he proposed a plan to the Joint Chiefs, as well as the Secretary of the Navy, one to establish a naval base at the Mountain Glenn region, to finally have an American presence on Remnant's seas and oceans, military bases also tended to allow the surrounding area to be easily secured,
But that would mean unfortunately occupying Mountain Glenn for longer while the Navy gathered the necessary materials.
"You've read the plans to build a naval base there, right?"
"I thought that wasn't going to push through
"It is now, we're also getting a few legacy navy assets, but they definitely won't be legacy here. Anyway, how did the transfer go?"
"All five, students, and teacher were successfully brought back to the custody of Vale."
"Did anything interesting happen?"
The Colonel eye twitched, Kirkman could almost detect a sense of annoyance from him. "Not exactly, we just set up a meeting somewhere outside Vale, Ozpin, General Ironwood and Glynda Goodwitch were there along with… A woman."
"A woman? What's so special about this woman?"
"Well, she appeared to be the sister of Weiss Schnee, she also happens to be an officer in the Atlesian military, and she was very angry with me, I'm pretty sure she would've pulled out her sword on me if her General didn't stop her."
That was a funny scene to imagine, a woman talking Burton's ear off.
"Apart from that, nothing else happened, they were boarded onto their bullheads they were off."
They finally reached the doors of Kirkman's office, they went in as they both took a seat opposite from each other on Kirkman's desk.
Now Kirkman wanted to bring up a topic they both had been avoiding discussing since he had stepped through the portal. A piece of information that had shocked and brought him to silence after speaking to Blake Belladonna.
"Now, about the Doctor." Kirkman brought up the name of a White Fang leader which had eluded them for a long time, and the mood of the room suddenly dipped. "We both know what or who it seemed to be Blake was referring to. Insanity, constant laughs, never showing his face unless masked, the usage of strangely colored toxins on victims."
"But he died, sir, you were promoted because of it. Operation Black Gold, it's your biggest achievement aside from dealing the final blow to the GLA. You saw what happened to his base. That whole place was leveled, we even found his body."
The Colonel had personal experience, he was there, he fought during Operation Black Gold, he was one of the soldiers assaulting the compound.
"And you know for a fact that we never could identify that body. We don't know any of his family members, so DNA was ruled out, nobody ever saw his face so that was also gone. Our only piece of evidence was that it had the same clothes as him from his last broadcast, he could've easily put his clothes on some random volunteer and escaped before or even during our attack."
"Then how could he have gotten here, it took the combined power of two whole cold fusion reactors to power the Green Gap, the GLA doesn't even have anything close to that technology."
"I… don't know, but it's time we start seriously considering that Doctor Thrax might be here in Remnant.
haahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhhahaahah FUCK. Well fuck me in the ass and call me your little whore cause this chapter took a reaaaaal fucking while, and I'm sorry. I swear I've been working on this on and off since November of last year but a mix of personal and technical problems made progress so god damned slow that progress may as well have not existed. Anyway, besides that, I apologize that you waited so damn long for what is essentially an uneventful expositional chapter, but the next ones (which I finally have time for) will be very eventful, nonetheless I hope this at least lived up to the wait even a little bit. Now that the tiniest sliver of free time came into my grasp I kinda pulled an all nighter on this one and I am very sleepy, but I'm way too hyped to get this chapter out now just to make you all think this is an April fools joke when in fact it's not HA! So because of that, this chapter lacks a little polishing, which I will fix.
Anyway, 4 pages worth of reviews were posted while I was gone, and responding to every single one here will bloat this chapter to proportion that will be unreasonable, so, sorry, I can't respond to them on this chapter (I will on the reviews of the next one though), but know that I have read all your reviews, seen all your concerns to my well-being, and don't worry, I am fine, alive, and happy, I just have been extremely busy with multiple things in my real life which have decided to hit me all at once, but I'm a little good nowadays
Thanks for all the love, now imma say all the greetings for shit I missed while I was gone.
Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Happy Valentines! Happy 1 year anniversary! Happy Saint Patrick's day!
Hope you all have a good one, see you in the next chapter! Which I promise and hope to fuck won't take nearly as long.