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.

18. Battle of Shion: Day II

Command Center, MOB Juno

2026 hours

20 hours after the American intervention

"You're telling me you can't provide just a two more KC-10s?" Kirkman clasped his hands atop his desk. Looking at the face of General Granger on his PC monitor. "I am telling you, Granger, just a two more refueling aircraft will be more than enough for the troops in Shion."

"I'm sorry, Kirkman. We need all our refueling aircraft here, your best bet is contacting Washington and seeing if they can send you one from out in the mainland, or you can try your luck speaking with the man himself." The Air Force general shook his head, disappointed.

Such a development was understandable but no less frustrating to Kirkman. President Bennington had recently imposed a no-fly zone in hopes to weaken the Syrian Regime, as part of one of his many foreign policy related campaign promises, as such most American military installments in the middle east that held aircraft were relegated to imposing the no-fly zone.

While he could take Granger's suggestion and request for KC-10s from the mainland United States or Alaska, that could take up to fifteen hours before they got to Kostanav, that wasn't even considering how long it would take for his request to be processed. It was better than nothing though. He ended the call with Granger and called in a member of his staff to start up the communication process with Washington, no matter how long it took, he needed to get as many reinforcements over there as possible, the surveillance reports from the drones hovering over the village and nearby areas were not looking good.

He stared down at the open envelope and took out the printed photographs within, staring down at the almost sea of black just under 250 miles from Shion, at the speed they were moving it would take around 30 hours for them to reach the town.

It was strange all things considered, he'd read all the reports sent back, he'd watched the footage of the grimm moving towards Shion, they were already dealing with groups of grimm every hour. But the sheer amount of them moving to Shion in those two particular hordes. was unprecedented, impossible almost, not in his four months here on Remnant had he seen anything quite like it.

Such a small town having this much negative emotion was ridiculous. Sure, there was an active hostage situation, but many of the town's citizens were saved, many of the injured treated, reinforcements had just arrived, one would think that the grimm horde 200 miles away would at the very least lessen, but no, it was growing, every minute, new grimm joined the pack, he had to wonder why, and even more so, either this situation needed to be solved before those grimm arrived, or he had to get reinforcements to his men as soon as possible.

---

Shion

2100 hours

21 hours after the American intervention

"You get anything yet?" Allen asked Fox.

Fox simply shook his head garnering a sigh from Allen. "Man, the Colonel said you could help us too."

"Yeah, I thought you got telepathy or something." Dunn leaned on a wall and crossed his arms.

"Relax, gentlemen." Foley cleared his throat "Is there a problem, Mr. Alistair?"

The men were gathered outside the Shion town hall, alongside the rest of the Hunter 2 platoon. They had been standing still for the past hour since arriving here waiting on Fox to give them something, anything, about hostages inside. The rest of their squad was off in other parts of the road keeping watch of movement from the town hall, as were the other rangers that were here.

Suddenly a voice was heard by the three men from within their heads, it was a strange feeling, but one they were slowly getting used to.

"I can feel the minds of the people inside, but I don't know their contents, I can't tell if they're a bandit or a villager, if I open a channel to talk to them and it's a bandit they'll know you brought someone with a telepathy semblance and they might get violent with the civilians."

Huh, at least he was smart enough to think about that. But that made the job significantly harder, this wasn't going to be as easy as planned after all.

"My efforts in the past hour aren't for nothing though, I've counted the exact number of people inside."

Oh, now that was interesting, the three hostages they had received gave eyewitness accounts of about a hundred civilians and about a dozen bandits, but those weren't very reliable there always could be rooms they didn't see, people they thought were civilians but were actually bandits and vice versa.

The men listened to Fox intently, well if listened was the right word, they simply stared at Fox, his mouth unmoving as they all heard the voice in their head.

"I count 122 minds inside."

"Alright, I'll report this to the captain, he'll get the word out to Colonel Burton."

Interesting, if their estimate of 110 civilians was right that meant 12 bandits, a very high number. Foley then pressed the button on his radio.

"Wait, before you report that, there is some other concerning thing I have noticed, but it's just a hunch."

Foley let go of the pressure on the button as he looked Fox in the eye "What is it?"

"There are 36 people in the basement."

Foley nodded, interested, but unsurprised, they already knew the town hall had a basement, the mayor and her surviving staff said as much, it was large, had 3 main rooms being the laundry area, the kitchen, and a common room for staff.

"There used to be 41 just an hour ago. And I only sensed one person going back upstairs"

At this the three people he was communicating with almost jumped in surprised. Up to this point the only reasons the Rangers hadn't stormed the damn place was because there was a common understanding between them and the hostage-takers that they wouldn't harm, or at the very least kill the hostages, but this changed everything.

"Mr. Alistair I will report this- " Foley tried to bark out but was once again stopped by the head voice

"Again, this is just a hunch, sometimes I have a hard time detecting the mind of a person if they are asleep, and since it's already night, these five people might just be asleep. But I still think this is something to keep watch of, I will keep observing."

Foley relaxed a little, but just a little "Alright, I'll report to the Captain immediately what you found, along with the disappearance of five people in your telepathy, but I'll make sure to mention that sleep problem too." Fox nodded.

Foley pressed and spoke into his radio, this time uninterrupted, as Fox closed his eyes and faced the direction of the building, likely trying to see and count minds again.

Allen and Dunn each shared a look, they scooted away from Fox, just out of earshot.

"Dunn, you buy that?"

Dunn pursed his lips as if in thought before shaking his head "Nope, I know for a fact that not a single American guy has gotten a good wink of sleep since dropping off here, and we're probably the most exhausted of the bunch, those hostages have been sitting on their asses all day and are dealing with the nerves of you know, being hostages, how the hell do four of them just sleep like that?"

Allen shrugged "I don't know man, maybe they're kids, those things could sleep through anything." This earned a smirk from Dunn as Allenn continued "But you gotta remember, we're trained for this kinda thing, you know, working for hours or days straight on barely any sleep, those guys are prolly exhausted in their own way."

Dunn tilted his head "Yeah that's true. But think about it bro, how long were we here before mute brown Bieber over there showed up." He stuck a thumb in Fox's direction, Dunn snickering in tow "For all we know they already killed a bunch and we're only finding out now cause Fox is here. And why the basement? Just so happens to be the most soundproof place of the whole building, where nobody can hear them execute someone."

"With a gun we might hear it."

Dunn then pointed at a small pile of weapons that had been gathered up nearby "Look at that stuff man, half these people are on some medieval shit, my bet? Once we get in there and get to the basement there's gonna be civvie heads rolling on the floor and we wouldn't have heard it."

Allen shook his head in disgust "Man… I sure hope not." He stared back up at the second story of the town hall "And I sure hope to shit we at least get those hostages out so we can leave ASAP, maybe once that's done that huge grimm thing is gonna stop heading our way. Buuut I'm really sure you don't wanna wanna leave ASAP. You still probably wanna chum up with the mayor's assistant." Allen smiled; Dunn rolled his eyes.

"Fuck you, man."

---

Outskirts of Shion

0200 Hours

26 hours after the American intervention

"OUCH!" Velvet watched as Jackson woke up and immediately grasped his face which had just been slapped by a chuckling Sergeant Guzman "The fuck, man?!"

"That's an hour, man, sorry, not my fault you weren't wakin' up when I was shaking you. My turn."

In the background the giggling of two girls could be heard from around a campfire.

Jackson sighed, frustratedly getting out of the back seat of the Humvee, letting in his assistant squad leader who immediately passed out, snoring loudly. The squad of men and two women had agreed to allow each member an hour of sleep, who got to start was decided by arm wrestling matches. Coco won, of course this was only because Jackson and Edwards were tired, there was no way they lost to a scrawny looking woman, they were holding back, for sure, yes. In fact, and even if they allegedly gave it their all and still lost, it was Coco's aura enhanced strength that was the reason.

It had to be remembered that this woman did carry a suitcase that could transform into a weapon that looked like an M61 Vulcan. Edwards had asked if he could try lifting it, the man had to get into a deadlift stance to even move it up, yet they saw this girl swing it around earlier while fighting grimm.

Velvet was no slouch either, beating both Turner and Beltran in the arm-wrestling matches, only losing in an almost even match with Guzman. She too held ridiculous physical feats, fighting grimm while doing kicks and flips.

Edwards had taken second place while Jackson had taken third, after Guzman was Velvet then Turner, then at dead last was Beltran, poor guy.

Jackson took in his surroundings. At his front were Turner and Beltran who were laid in prone near the sandbags, looking over the plains in their night vision. The group had a slightly advantageous position, their 'camp' being over a small hill that gave a couple dozen feet of elevation.

During his hour of sleep, he hadn't been woken up once by the sound of gunshots, which was unbelievable considering that when it was Edwards' turn to sleep he was treated to being woken up twice by Jackson and Guzman firing at some pig looking grimm.

To his left was Edwards, Coco, and Velvet. The SARC was quietly preparing three MREs, likely one for each of them. Velvet was sitting by the fire, hugging her knees, and Coco was cleaning her suitcase gun with a rag.

"Movement, 12 o'clock!" Called Beltran

BANG! BANG! BANG! Three gunshots rang out from the rifles of the two men. Gunshots in distance came at the grimm too.

If Velvet remembered correctly, the marines called it.

"One Ursa." Said Beltran. "Nothing else out there." More gunshots could be heard firing far away, this was a normal occurrence, the whole town was being besieged by grimm, and in the whole perimeter marines were stationed, some with 'LAVs'.

And just as they thought whoever would sleep next was safe, Jackson looked over the Humvee, hoping to see a shocked, combat ready Guzman, but instead he was more shocked to see the Latino still snoring.

"That guy's a fuckin rock when he's out." Jackson snickered, walking towards the campfire, sitting down cross legged next to Edwards.

He could hear the sizzling of the water from the MREs Edwards was preparing, the SARC had began roughly shaking up two drinks with two hands, they had no cups on them which they'd have to be drank straight from the plastic.

"Man, grimm's such a gay ass name." Turner suddenly remarked while continuing to stare down his sites. He got some stares from Coco and Velvet, confused ones. Edwards simply continued making the MREs while smirking, already knowing how the Corporal liked to handle tension.

Jackson scratched his chin, deciding to play along with the Corporal's antics "Yeah? Why is that?"

"I mean, come on, these things are destroying entire fuckin' cities, killing the best of the best kingdom's got to offer, and top of all that they're these big mysterious monsters' people barely know a thing about! And they're called grimm? Fruity ass shit. Who named these things?"

Velvet's bunny ears suddenly perked up at the question.

'Cute.' Jackson simply thought.

"We're taught that its modern name was coined by Prince Osborn of the Vytal Kingdoms 400 years ago from the old Vytalian word of 'ghrem' meaning anger." She held her pointer finger up as she spoke.

Coco smiled at her teammate who paid attention in class, she mouthed the word 'Nerd' earning a slight scowl from the faunus. She and Velvet were then handed their shaken drinks by Edwards, both saying 'thank you', both the drinks being tropical punch. She mouthed the word 'Nerd' earning a slight scowl from the faunus.

Jackson thought about what Velvet had said for a second, why 'anger' of all things?

Turner let out a single laugh "Ha! Yeah? Well Prince Osborn and his little kingdom was fruity as fuck, and his name for these big scary monsters? Really? Anger? Coulda named them something more appropriate, dude, like I don't know… Black Behemoths or some shit, hehe." He laughed at his own attempt at a name, realizing how bad it was too, this itself garnering a chuckle from Coco and Velvet.

"See? You couldn't think of anything better." Coco said, taking a long sip from the bag holding the tropical punch, she was quite thirsty.

Edwards then wiggled his finger and clicked his tongue "Tch, tch, tch, and you're forgetting one very important thing, brother."

"Yeah?" Turner could be seen smiling from his prone position, seeing what was coming.

"'Black Behemoth' is already what they call my dick."

"PFFFT!" The campfire began to flicker as liquid spewed from Coco's mouth danced upon the firewood. The conscious marines laughed out loud alongside her while Velvet simply turned a shade of red, they did not know was possible.

"Really, dude? I was pretty sure it was called the Black Dwarf." Jackson quipped.

At that, Edwards waved his hand down "That's Beetlejuice man, come on."

Jackson laughed with Coco and Velvet tilting their heads in confusion, wondering who that was.

Edwards distributed the now done MREs, beginning to dig in to his own.

Velvet looked down at the food packet, then at the spoon in her hands, altogether it did not look very appetizing. She had already eaten the snack portion of the meal before this, consisting of some sort of apple cake thing which was alright, beef sticks which were almost disgusting, and a blueberry pie that was actually pretty good, there was also a weird circular flat bread that Edwards called a 'tortilla' it had barely any flavor whatsoever.

The main course being, according to the packaging, 'Southwest Style Beef and Black Beans with Sauce' what did 'Southwest' even mean? Did they mean Anima? As far as she knew, the cuisine of that region of Anima did not use much beef since it was quite hard to herd cattle in a desert.

Velvet gave it a sniff, her nose was graced with the pleasant smell of spices and meat, she got her spoon and put it inside the packet, grabbing a chunk of beef and some beans, she bit down and was surprised that it tasted good.

Jackson noticed her reaction; he was preparing his own MRE now, he smiled at her "Put some of it in the tortilla and fold it."

She did as instruct, taking a bite, noticing the textures meshed well with each other.

"Back home we call that a taco." Edwards remarked

Jackson smirked "If Guzman was awake, he'd be all 'You call that a taco?' then go on a rant about how the Mexican kind is better."

"What's a Mexican?" Coco perked up, eating from her meatball marinara MRE.

Jackson took a second to answer "Uh- it's a – Mexico's a town south of the US, Guzman immigrated from there."

Coco nodded. Velvet seemed to simmer in her thoughts, people were Immigrating to the US? When about four months ago nobody had even heard of them, though she supposed it was possible that a town near the USA were able to communicate with them while leaving the rest of the world in the dark about them.

But still, for all of Remnant to be unaware of them and for them to be this advanced…

"It must be really convenient to be able to have a meal on the move like this." Velvet said before taking another bite from her beef filled tortilla.

"You're telling me ready to eat rations aren't a thing to you guys?" Jackson queried, eating a handful nuts from a bag of trail mix.

Velvet shook her head "Huntsmen usually eat at whatever town or villages they are in, or if they're not near any settlements, hunt game."

"Huh... I guess that makes sense since from what I hear huntsmen work on their own or in small groups." Jackson grasped his chin "What about that Atlas military then, they have no rations?"

"They do." A nod. "But not like this, it's just canned goods from what I know that are cooked for a group." She had lived in Atlas during multiple points of her life, encountering and learning much about their military. The American military had a very unique approach to their military rations, being able to provide to the individual and only needing some water, a novel concept.

"They're still on C-Rations and shit, I see." Edwards chuckled.

Velvet tilted her head

"Ah they're like an old type of ration America used… also canned stuff."

Having finished his meal, Edwards threw the MRE packaging to the side and pulled out his e-cigarette, taking a few puffs, he looked at Coco who had just finished eating her food too. "Wanna try? Seemed like you handled the cigarette pretty well after the first few puffs, you should have no problem with this."

Coco smiled "Why not?"

Velvet facepalmed, what was it with these marines and offering them smoking products. This was another thing she was curious about, the American military culture, it was so… free. Compared to the Atlesian soldiers she had seen, they were all about discipline and order, the Americans on the other hands were on the complete opposite of the spectrum but seemed very competent when it came to battle, she stole a glance at Turner and Beltran who had their sights constantly aimed on the field in front of them.

Coco took the e-cig, taking a puff and inhaling a second time, then blowing the vapor out without coughing.

"Good job!"

She handed the e-cig back "What flavor is that? It's pretty good, tasted like bubblegum."

Edwards nodded "Yeah, bubblegum ice cream."

Ahead of them Turner good be heard bursting into a slight laugh "Grown ass man liking bubblegum flavors."

"Fuck you, Turner." Edwards said returning to puffing. "If I'm gonna destroy my body, I might as well do it with something that tastes good dawg, fuck that 'manly' shit."

That was ironic coming from the most muscular man in the group.

"Is that why you ordered a cosmopolitan at the bar the other day?" Edwards elbow checked the cackling Jackson in the rib earning an "Ow!"

Velvet chuckled at the antics, perhaps these American troops alright, even if they were a bit, no, very vulgar.

"I always wanted to ask you guys? Why'd you join the military?" Coco threw the MRE packages aside, looking at Jackson and Edwards.

Jackson took a bite from his food "I don't know why'd you guys become huntsmen." He pointed his spoon at them.

Coco squinted her eyes "Hey I asked first! It's just a bit weird seeing guys like you in the military.

It was Jackson and Edwards turn to look confused. Velvet moved to support Coco's statement.

"Well until America showed up, Atlas was the only standing military in the world, and usually people who join the military do it because they feel a sense of duty to Atlas and are usually very professional and orderly…" She muttered that last part, noticing too late what she was implying. "No offense."

"None taken. Something you should realize is every man and woman in the armed forces has a god damn personality, I don't know what they do in Atlas to suppress that, but it doesn't sound very fun."

Edwards nodded as the two men in overwatch called out a grim spotted and shot at it. "One of the few good things about being in the military is the social aspect, Atlas already has robots, they don't need their servicemen to be robots too."

Coco laughed quietly at that "True. Anyway, if me and Velvet say why we became huntsmen, will you guys say why you became soldiers- ah I mean marines?" She could already see the two men ready to correct her until she did so herself. The two then nodded.

Coco swung Gianduja's suitcase form onto her lap, it was a tad bit lighter since she had chosen not to conserve ammo when the marines had ordered them to attack the grimm earlier in the evening.

"I just wanted to shoot things, and grimm are the best things to shoot at, they're big and evil, so I thought hey, if I get to shoot things and protect people, that's like the best job ever!" The marines present smiled at that.

Coco then turned to Velvet, who shyly looked down "Well- I always wanted to make the world a better place… My family moved kingdoms very often, and everywhere I went I saw the problems grimm caused, since I was a child, I always wanted to help these people, so I signed up to combat school to become a huntsman."

The marines nodded at that, seemingly appreciating their goals.

"How noble." Edwards smiled genuinely.

Jackson similarly smiled "Our turn. How about we start with Turner. Turner!"

"Yep?" It seemed their resident Overwatch had begun smoking a cigarette from his prone position.

The genuine smile on Jackson's face had turned to a mocking, sarcastic one "Why'd you join the Marine Corps?"

Turner took a drag from his cigarette, letting out the smoke as a smirk graced his lips, he turned around, looking at the group, and said with an almost dead serious voice "Pussy."

The two huntsmen in training stood stark still.

"WHAT?!" They said in unison.

---

Qrow stumbled into Ozpin's office, flask half filled with whiskey, having already finished the other half, he had yet to change out of his clothes since the afternoon before, it was already past two in the morning, but he really couldn't, having sat by his sister's side most of the day before, only stopping to go out and refill his flask with any alcoholic drink he could get his hands on.

The whole gang was here Ozpin, Glynda, Winter, Ironwood

He got in front of the desk, Ozpin simply stared at him, face near emotionless, Ironwood shot him a scowl, while Glynda and Winter's faces scrunched up.

"You smell disgusting." Winter pinched her nose.

"That's 12 hours of sitting on my ass all day and drinking, what'd you do, ice queen? Chum it up with the general in your little air ship?

She crossed her arms… "It's far better than drinking myself to death."

Qrow then looked at Ironwood "What's she even doing here, Jimmy? I don't think this conversation we're about to have is something she should be a part of."

Winter took a step forward "I'll have you know that- "

"Lieutenant- "Came the commanding voice of Ironwood "Please return to the fleet."

Winter opened her mouth in shock, but didn't say a word, simply standing straight, saluting Ironwood and stating, "Yes, General." Disappointment seeping through her voice as she left.

As the elevator doors closed, Ozpin finally spoke. "Qrow, how is Raven? The last news I received is that they finished surgery on her three hours ago."

"Yep, she's stable." The surgery earlier was to amputate her leg which was charred and infected beyond saving, also to remove shrapnel that had peppered her body.

Qrow had seen a lot in his two and a half decades of being a huntsmen , but how Raven looked upon arriving from her portal was among the worst things he had ever seen, every part of her body was in a horrendous state, limbs and appendages blown off, charred areas of going down to bone, parts of her skin being somehow melted, wounds that were leaking puss and blood, not to mention the smell that assaulted his nose when she arrived, it almost made him puke, it was a mix of burned flesh, infected wounds, and chemicals.

Qrow didn't know whether he loved or hated his sister, it was probably a mix of both, sure she had betrayed him, and went off to be one of the evilest people on Remnant but at the end of the day they were family, and had been through it all together, seeing her in that state… did not make him feel good.

He made it a point to stay by her side while she was under Beacon's care, he hadn't even gone to visit his nieces again yet which he had promised them the day before, he had to give some excuse about Ozpin sending him out on a mission since Raven's stay in the CCT's medical ward was to be kept a high-level secret.

He could see Ironwood staring at him, a mix of emotions on his face that Qrow couldn't really decipher. "Out with it, Jimmy. I know you're happy she's like this." Glynda and Ozpin raised an eyebrow.

Ironwood feigned surprise "I don't know what you mean." Qrow squinted his eyes at the man, Ironwood then sighed "I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little happy, but the point stands that the spring maiden was also possibly hit by this attack, hence my frustration."

Qrow took a swig from his flask "Don't get me wrong, it'd be a good thing for Remnant if she just died during surgery, I know that. I hope you guys just understand why I feel off about it."

That earned him some a few understanding nods. "Now, why'd you call the whole gang here, Oz?"

Ozpin had bags under his eyes, having not slept for almost 48 hours at this point "The Americans have sent us footage of their strike on the Branwens. Glynda has already watched the footage with me, I gathered you and James to watch it as well. They claim it was taken from their surveillance drone which watched over the attack."

Ozpin did not look happy, he had to wonder just how bad this footage was.

He pressed a button his desktop, the holographic screen opened and inverted itself to face Qrow and Ironwood, who then watched. The footage was in high definition black and white.

"Thermal cameras." Ironwood said under his breath.

That seemed to be the case, the footage depicted what looked to be the Branwen Tribe's home, a few human shaped white figures on the ground. In the corners of the video feed were various numbers, one of the sets of numbers seemed to show time, reading '00:14'.

At that precise time, the entire camp suddenly burst into a cloud of dust from sort of explosion, the trees surrounding the camp shaking violently, debris could be seen kicking off from the massive cloud of dust.

"Holy shit." Said Qrow.

Qrow had seen this all in-person when he watched the attack at Mount Glenn, but to see it all again, even on film was jarring.

Ironwood simply stared, eyes wide, the dust had barely cleared showing that most of the buildings had been leveled.

Not a minute passes when dozens of bright balls of light descended upon the encampment kicking up more dust and causing more smoke.

"That's just like their demonstration here at Beacon three months ago!" Ironwood realized.

Ozpin nodded with his hands clasped under his chin "Yes, Kirkman referred to it as white phosphorus cluster munitions, a sort of incendiary agent."

That made sense, that same attack had cause a small wildfire in the emerald forest. And it had been used on the Branwens, that was what likely caused the charred and melted skin on Raven.

Ozpin rewound the footage to the start "This footage was sent to me after I asked for details on the attack on the Branwen camp, he explained it to me but said it was an abridged explanation and a more comprehensive one will be given to news agencies by his staff soon."

Glynda scoffed "Grabbing for attention as always."

Ozpin did not respond "He said that the first set of explosions were four two-thousand-pound bombs from two 'F-35s', two of which landed almost exactly on Raven's tent." He fast forwarded the video to a now still image of the impact of the bombs.

"That means he dropped over eight thousand pounds of explosives, that much destruction is not possible with that much fire dust." He just stared, shocked at the destruction.

Qrow crossed his arms "But they don't use dust."

"What's an F-35?" Whatever this was Ironwood needed this, such a weapon that could drop bombs that heavy and be unseen was something he absolutely wanted.

"I asked the same question; he said it would be explained in the press release he talked about." He cleared his throat and fast forwarded the footage to a still of the white phosphorus attack "Anyway, the next set of explosions were, as I said, the incendiary attack which Kirkman explained was to further cripple the Branwens and to ensure that… in his words… they would be gone for good."

"But they're not." The other Branwen said solemnly. "He didn't know about Raven's very convenient semblance."

"The rest of the Branwens however." Ozpin sighed "Most importantly, the spring maiden, if she isn't already dead, she will be soon, without medical attention if her injuries are anything like Raven's she will be dead soon" He rubbed his temples and let his head dip down.

Ironwood stepped forward "You already have a team from Beacon there, send them to Branwen camp, see if they can investigate."

Ozpin shook his head "It will take them hours or days to trek there from Shion, and especially after what they saw at the Indigo offices I really don't know if I want to send them to another traumatic sight if Raven's condition is any indicator of what the others looks there."

Ironwood narrowed his eyes at Ozpin "It's their duty as huntsmen, if they can't even handle a few dead bodies, how can they call themselves- "

"You were shaken too when you saw her, James." Glynda had cut in.

Ironwood grit his teeth, feeling insulted at that remark "So what? That does not stop me from committing to my duties, eventually these students will have to experience these kinds of things when they become true huntsmen, and what happens if the Spring Maiden dies because of our lack of action?"

Glynda raised her voice "And what if she is already dead and we are simply sending these children on a pointless dangerous mission to trek through miles and miles of grimm filled wilderness, unescorted, where in the end all they will find are brutalized bodies and nothing else, it's been years since we've even seen the Spring Maiden we don't even know if we can identify her anymore let alone with injuries she may have now."

Ironwood's fist balled up "You don't know that! If you just- "

"Enough!" Ozpin yelled, silencing the two's bickering, his hands now unclasped and set flat on his desk "We won't reach anywhere by arguing like this. James is right, we need to act somehow." Ironwood smiled triumphantly, while Glynda simply started shocked at Ozpin "But Glynda is also right, sending CFVY on this particular mission would be cruel, I'll tell Leo all about this and implore him to send someone, surely he'll know the importance of saving a maiden." Glynda sighed in relief.

"I think we're overlooking one very important possibility." Qrow finally spoke, a slight frown on his face, the others looked at him with curiosity "What if Raven's the Spring Maiden."

Glynda rolled her eyes "Qrow, you're drunk, I think you it would be best if you just went to bed."

"For once, I agree with Glynda." Ironwood nodded.

Ozpin simply stared at Qrow, waiting for him to continue, seemingly intrigued by this theory.

Qrow shook his head "Think about it, the Americans did this attack specifically to kill her, Kirkman said himself that two of those first bombs landed right on Raven's tent. I saw those American bombs in action with my own eyes at Mount Glenn, I don't know about you but taking that much explosive power head on and living seems impossible, not to mention that white phosphorus stuff."

"True, but Raven is quite strong, even by our standards." Ironwood argued.

Glynda nodded "Yes, she was tied with Summer Rose for the highest scores in all combat related subjects during her time at Beacon, she was known for her relatively large aura reserves, that could have helped her survive."

Qrow, again, shook his head "You don't understand, these were direct hits, direct, maybe I'd believe she survived normally if she was just in the vicinity of those bombs, but two hits right on her tent and she's alive seems a tad bit crazy… Unless she was a maiden, and I think Oz here agrees."

Everyone then looked at Ozpin who had been quiet during this debate.

"Being a maiden augments your soul, and therefore your aura, it's why Amber is the way she is." He recalled the unfortunate case of the girl currently in the CCT's underground labyrinth "A fractured soul because a part of it, her power as a maiden, is gone, aura is projected from a person's soul, a soul that is strengthened by the powers of a maiden. Raven's aura reserves could be far higher if she truly was a maiden."

Glynda's jaw slackened a bit in surprise at what the headmaster was saying "You can't seriously be considering- "

"And I know my sister." Qrow cut her off "You're seriously telling me that you all believed her when she randomly contacted us the week the Spring Maiden ran away from Haven, saying she'll keep her safe?"

Glynda stepped back, seeming to realize something in this moment.

Qrow continued "I wouldn't blame you all really, I believed it too, I guess this was right before she did all the village destroying, we all still believed that the arrogant but caring member of Team STRQ was in there somewhere, I wanted to believe my sister was still in there. But here we are, ten years later after the Spring Maiden disappeared, and since then she's massacred villages, hunted down huntsmen, you really wouldn't put it past her to kill a kid?"

Everyone now stayed silent, taking in what Qrow had just said.

"She's obsessed with power; you all remember the kind of shit she'd say about the weak and strong in her literature essays."

"So what do we do with this information?" Ironwood asked.

"We wait for Raven to awake, we will ask her ourselves, until then I will contact Leo for an emergency mission to identify the Spring Maiden dead or alive at the Branwen camp ruins. The Americans have no idea Raven is alive and here at Beacon, I feigned ignorance when I contacted Kirkman, simply stating that I wanted to know what happened to the Branwens, nobody is to find out Raven is here, not even her daughter or husband." Ozpin looked at Qrow, but this was addressed to everyone "Understand?"

"Yeah."

"Yes."

"Yes, sir"

Ozpin stood up and began walking to elevator, followed by the rest. "Good, James see if you can't send your own reconnaissance from Argus over…" Their conversation continued as they entered the elevator, unaware that from the very start they were being listened to, nearby a girl in a dorm smiled for the first time in awhile at the new possibilities.

---

0230 hours

South of Shion

26 hours after the American intervention

"So all I'm saying is, it's a completely valid reason to join the military, look, my duty, like any good marine, is to kill lots of people and fuck lots of bitches. Especially foreign chicks." Turner ranted, a hint of sarcasm gracing his voice.

Velvet looked at him, terrified at what he was saying, Coco was on the verge of bursting into laughter, the conscious marines around him were already in a light fit of laughter.

Turner smirked, his jovial rant continued "I've been able to do lots of the first part, but very little of the second part! First time I was deployed I was sent to a place with lots of good pussy, but I was on the job all the time, basically zero libo! I was there for six months; you know how many times I got to fuck? Once! Absolute bullshit!"

Velvet blanched at his statement, what was wrong with this man? And why were the other marines just laughing it off, sure it seemed like Turner was being sarcastic, but he had to be at least slightly serious about what he was saying, right? She looked at her teammate who was just laughing with the other marines.

"My next deployment, I was sent to a place with zero identifiably good pussy, women were covered head to toe, couldn't see shit, fucked zero times." The two huntsmen in training had to wonder where such a place could be. "So that's right, my grand total body count on deployments after six years in the Marines? One, fucking one."

It had to be the water, yes, something in the American water made their people bloodthirsty and horny. Velvet thought. But maybe this was just how marines were, were their army just like this? Was the culture just different?

"Six years?" Coco inquired "How old are you?"

"24, baby!" He yelled.

"Wow, you guys are young." Coco said.

Velvet was in a slight amount of disbelief, sure, some of these men looked young but to hear they were only six years older than herself was surprising.

"Well, Turner's the youngest one here." Jackson said. "Turner's actually not all that young for a marine, we're Marine Raiders, special marines. You need to have been in the corps at least four years to be in the Raiders, usually your active service ends at four years, so everyone you see around you has either extended their contract or reenlisted into active service."

That made sense, if Velvet remembered correctly, Atlesian soldiers also had a contract for active service which usually ended after ten years, the American contract was substantially shorter, but she guessed they just had different cultures of work. But she pondered what exactly a Raider was.

"What makes the Raiders special?" She then promptly threw her hands up nervously "N- not to say you aren't special I just want to know what's the different between raiders and the normal marines."

"Ha!" Everyone turned to turner "Word of advice, Lola Bunny, there is no such thing as a normal marine." He got some smiles from the marines and corpsman.

She could tell, also what was a Lola Bunny?

"Well raiders are just marines with extra training and qualifications." Jackson then proceeded to give an actual explanation. "We can operate in very small units, do special recon, some other shit. Higher pay too." 'Yuts' followed the last statement.

"So why did you become a raider? Sounds like a hard job." Velvet supposed higher pay was in it of itself was a very good reason, but these men seemed like the type to have more reasons than money, especially after Turner's rant.

"It sure the hell is, but yeah this kinda relates to Coco's question, everyone's got their own reasons, mine? Well it's related to why I joined the Marines the in the first place, I had no other place to go." Jackson stated, garnering him some stares from the two students "Wasn't really good at anything by the time I was in my senior year in high school, straight Cs all around, and I had no idea what I wanted to do once I graduated."

The two Beacon students were familiar with high school, generally after primary school you had the opportunity to either go to high school or combat school which was just high school with added combat subjects. It was interesting to see the Americans had come up with a similar system.

"So when the recruiter came by to class talking about all the benefits of being in the marine corps, I thought, 'ey I have nothing better do anyway, might as well' and I did, signed up the day of my graduation. Liked being a marine enough, so I thought I'd make it a career, extended my contract, worked to get into the Raiders and here we are. This is my…" He looked up to think "Eleventh Year in the Marines."

That was… interesting, at least it was a far better reason that whatever Turner's was, and it seemed as though Jackson liked his job.

"Dude, you must be old as hell!" Coco feigned shock.

Velvet sweatdropped at her leader's rather insensitive remark "Coco!"

"Hey!" Jackson in turn feigned offense. "I'm only 29, Edwards over there is the oldest."

"Mhm." Edwards responded flatly. "But I have less years in service than Jackson. This is only my seventh year in active service, I'm 30 though."

"How does that work?" Coco responded.

"Reenlistment. I want to be a doctor, but my family couldn't afford to put me through college or med school, serving means the government helps you pay off your tuition, so I joined the Navy as a hospital corpsman." The two girls of CFVY gave him confused looks "Oh uh, Marines don't have their own medics, so the US Navy provides marines with medics, called hospital corpsmen."

"So you're not a marine?" Velvet asked to which she received headshake from Edwards.

"Anyway, I signed up on a three-year contract when I graduated high school, got out, went to college, met a girl and we hit it off, got married after four years. She also wanted to go to med school. But if we pooled our savings we could only pay for one of us to go, I insisted she do it, so I rejoined the Navy, this time on a four-year contract so I can pay for med school once I'm out.

"Aw." Velvet cooed "That's so considerate of you!"

"More like so gay of him!" Sarcasm seemed to be the only tone that Turner's voice was capable of "Imagine going back to military cause of a girl, word of advice guys and gals, don't get married, it'll only hold you down. Look what happened to our buddy Edwards here." Edwards smiled at the jab "If he never got married, he'd be living my dream of seeing hot chicks in a morgue instead of sitting out here in the cold ready to die."

Laughs from all around came, except from Velvet. Velvet caught her lip bending upright at that, she had to stop herself though, if she became accustomed to this marine humor, it wouldn't bode well at all for her once she returned to Beacon.

As the laughter died down, Coco eyed Edwards "Wait… If you were on a three-year contract before, then a four-year contract now, and this your seventh year, are you on your last year?"

They watched as Edwards took a drag from his e-cig, a smokey sigh escaped his lips "Yep, was supposed to get out four months ago. Navy decided to not let go of me just yet though so I'm still in active service for the next errr… five months. Which is pretty bullshit." He deadpanned, a quiet frustration in his tone "I ain't see my wife in a year."

He got a pat on the back from Jackson. That was depressing to hear, sometimes it got difficult to remember that these people had lives too, one saw so much of the Americans in the news in the past few months, it was hard to relate to their people through a screen, but here Velvet saw the reality of it all, they all had a past, a purpose, different ways of coping, loved ones waiting back home, just like everyone she knew.

She could sympathize with the marine, dearly hoping that he would soon meet his wife again.

"Why would they call you back?" Velvet timidly asked.

"All this Rem- "Jackson suddenly cleared his throat which cut Edwards off, for a second Edwards just sat there "The White Fang happened. Command saw it as enough of a threat to delay our end of active service. Well at least I got tiiiiiny raise." He emphasized tiny.

The two girls felt like they were hiding something with that exchange, but neither of them decided to press further.

"Well… I hope you're able to see your wife soon." Velvet gave Edwards a warm smile, which Edwards reciprocated.

"Yeah, then you can put a baby in that bitch." Turner quipped causing the marines to chuckle lightly for the corpsman's smile to grow.

"That's the plan, alright." The corpsman reciprocated.

"(COMMS) Bravo, Bravo, come in, Bravo." Jackson's Lieutenant Vasquez's voice blared out from Jackson's radio

Jackson grabbed the radio "This is Bravo actual."

Another thing Velvet was impressed by was their use of radio communication and how organized it seemed to be, she wondered if Atlas had a similar system, she only ever got to study their soldiers from a distance

"(COMMS) Overseer has allowed 25% overwatch for all squad level units at the perimeter for 0300 hours, let your men get some sleep, over."

Jackson squinted his eyes at that.

"Copy, Dagger, interrogative, are we authorized to use the GAU-19 on the Humvee?"

What did GAU-19 mean?

"(COMMS) Negative, stick to small arms."

Disappointed faces washed over the awake marines, a sigh coming from Beltran.

"Affirmative, over and out." Jackson clicked the radio

"What did all that mean?" Coco asked.

Jackson stood up "Good news is most of you can catch some sleep, command has allowed 25% overwatch meaning only two of us have to watch over the camp for the next three hours, probably because the grimm haven't been that heavy yet, bad news is we're still not allowed to use the big gun on the Humvee because command wants us to conserve ammo for heavier equipment."

"Why is that a bad thing?" Velvet felt the need to ask, right now would be a good time to conserve ammo.

"Eh, it's just in case we spot stronger grimm, command wants us to conserve ammo on the fiddies in case the big horde gets here before we get out. Meaning if a beringel or a deathstalker come by, we're stuck to using our M4s" He slapped the gun on his chest "Or we can radio in for someone to come by with an LAV but god knows how long that would take."

"You got us!" Coco said enthusiastically

"Yeah, and you're outta ammo." Said Edwards.

"I don't even care anymore, I just wanna catch some sleep, dude." Turner complained.

Jackson nodded "Alright, I'll wake Guzman up, we're most recent to sleep, we'll take overwatch, rest of you can take a nap for the next three hours."

"Yes!" Coco's fist pumped in the air while Velvet gave a worried smile.

Only two people per squad on the whole perimeter keeping watch? While the grim threat thus far wasn't all so bad, with only lightly armored grimm coming for them, it still did not feel right lowering the level of protection to this extent, then again it would be good for the men to get sleep for them to perform at peak capability.

"Thank you, Jackson." She let go of her thoughts and simply slid her back to a tree alongside Coco, already letting the exhaustion take her.

---

0700 hours

Shion

30 hours after the American intervention

"No matter what you say or what you do~ when I'm alone I'd rather be with you~" Dunn bumped his head as he sang a song acapella. Around him rangers were talking amongst themselves.

Over the last eight hours the 75th Ranger Regiment element of the mission was a mess, Fox had pulled an all nighter and had noticed more suspicious activity, number of people on the upper floors would decrease, before being brought down to the basement, then coincidentally Fox would no longer be able to detect them after a few hours.

Evidence wasn't entirely conclusive, but it seemed to be enough to spook the guys at Hill One, Bravo company were getting sent to reinforce the perimeter since they were done doing clearing operations, having already accounted for every house, the units that weren't were stuck doing guard rotations in the village or waiting around the Town Hall, the latter being the job assigned to Alpha company, Charlie Company was rotated to be the one holding down Hill One.

Even the no nonsense Sergeant Foley was getting sick of the waiting, having already taken the opportunity to take a nap inside one of the houses, Ramirez did the same, the only ones who chose not to sleep were Dunn and Allen, be it because of the just didn't want to or because of the mix of nerves, caffeine, and nicotine running through their bodies.

"Yo, Dunn! Get up, man." Speak of the devil, Allen called out to the ranger laying on a torn tarp.

Dunn didn't bother to sit up "Too tired~ What's up?"

"Resupply dropped in twenty minutes ago." He took out a green round tin from a satchel, opening it and putting one of its contents under his lower lip, he offered the tin to Dunn who obliged, feeling the effects almost immediately.

"I heard; they got us some porn mags at least?" He would just use his phone, but there was no Wi-Fi out here.

Allen shot back a goofy smile "Nope, but they dropped over some D-boys."

At this Dunn shot up, the exhaustion being sucked from his body "No bullshit? Like CAG guys, those D-boys?"

Allen rolled his eyes "No, I mean Dick-boys, those D-boys, who else do I mean jackass? SAS too."

Dunn stood up, shooting a middle finger at Allen at the same time.

"No fucking way, dude. I mean I know this thing is getting pretty heated, but who knew they'd be bringing out the big boys. Does this mean we get to sit back and relax now?"

Allen shrugged "Don't know, man. Captain just said to round everyone up and he'd debrief the company at Park Point so we should get Sarnt and Ramirez out here."

"Aight."

They walked into the building that Ramirez and Foley were sleeping, a three-story structure of Japanese or was that Chinese? Architecture. They talked as they made their way up.

The sky flashed a bright red multiple times, indicating the Avengers at Hill One were making quick work of aerial grimm.

"I hear they actually landed the C-130s this time, C-17s couldn't land though, field is flat but grassy, they still had to airdrop their payload, mostly supplies, three C-17s, three C-130s. First C-130 had some raider unit they scrounged up from Kazakhstan and the SAS guys and Delta guys I was talkin' about. They also started to cas-evac our heavily wounded."

"Makes sense." Dunn spat out the Zyn in his mouth "You can fit more guys in C-130s if they don't gotta carry parachutes, so what're in the other ones?"

"From what I hear? Strykers loaded with more Rangers from Delta Company."

"Damn, they ran out of LAVs?"

Allen shrugged once again "Maybe."

While the Stryker ICV was a very capable vehicle, the LAVs had served instrumental in the defense of Shion against the grimm, had it not been for the LAVs capability of easily destroying heavily armored alpha grimm or the more unique variant of grimm that were tough, though he did hear that guy Yatsuhashi was a monster at dealing with those two beringels that came up at Hill One, in Dunn's opinion if it weren't for the nine or so LAVs on the ground right now, they'd have been overrun way before those huntsmen guys came by.

So the fact that they brought in Strykers now was strange.

They finally reached the room Ramirez was sleeping in.

They barged in, seeing the snoring soldier covered in blankets.

"Yo! Wake up!" yelled Allen.

Dunn then brought a hand "Hold up, lemme try something."

He pulled out his e-cig, taking as long a drag as he could, he squatted down and got up close to Ramirez's face, he blew all the smoke into his face right as he began snoring, the PFC inhaled quite a lot of it, bringing him into a coughing fit and waking him up.

"What the fuck dude?!" Yelled Ramirez as he hastily sat up amidst the fits of manic laughter from the other two rangers.

"Captain's calling us to Park Point."

"You could'a just woken me up like a normal fuckin person." He frustratedly put on his helmet and stood up, grabbing his URGI as he did.

"We still gotta wake the Sarge." Allen pointed with his thumb to the room adjacent to the open door.

Ramirez nodded, they didn't bother to knock, simply walking inside, Foley slept flat on his back, mouth open, helmet still on it was a funny sight, Dunn took out his phone to record.

"Sarnt be sleepin'." He whispered as he filmed the Sergeant. The two behind him snickered quietly as Dunn grabbed the sergeant arms wiggling it around still filming, the sergeant made a snorting sound as he awoke, he saw the phone pointed his way and simply sighed, he sat up.

"Alright, alright, why did you wake me up?" He grabbed the URGI laid sideways on the ground.

"Captain's calling us up."

Foley wordlessly got up and started walking, likely grumpy. They followed, getting out of the building, walking alongside other rangers towards the park, not everyone in Alpha company which was stationed around the Town hall was walking though, it seemed only a select few squads were doing so, notably all from Hunter Platoon.

The walk was a short five minutes, only about two hundred yards from the town hall. They reached the park which had been converted to a small outpost, camo nets covering crates of ammo, food, and other supplies.

At the center were the rangers who were gathering around was a table, behind that table were a three familiar faces, Fox, Colonel Burton and Captain Dillard, as well as the head of the rangers for the task force, Major Riley, but a little behind them to their right, gathered around a large board with unfamiliar maps attached to them were ten men, six of them wearing what looked like Crye G4, with the other four wearing Army OCP, likely making them the SAS and Delta Force guys.

"Holy shit, they look badass." Allen remarked as he eyes the ten men, one of SAS wore a Balaclava with a skull imprint, other men wore full beards, one guy had a mohawk. Among the delta there was a guy in a full mask, their weapons were fully kitted. Allen gave a whistle as he eyed the equipment of the Delta Force operators "HKs, experimental NVGs, and camo on literally everything."

Dunn rolled his eyes, having gotten tired of the favoritism Delta Force, even amongst SOF, got in both equipment and being able to do operations back during the war with the GLA, Dunn was in the minority though, it was no secret that most rangers and servicemen in general saw the men in Delta Force as superhuman.

Dunn and Allen stood in the middle of the group of forty rangers gathered in front of the table.

"Alright gentlemen, I called you all here because there is an important announcement to be made by Colonel Burton." The Captain nodded at the Colonel who began to speak.

"The reports from Mr. Alistair over here paint a very bleak picture, over the last thirteen hours, he would routinely lose the ability to detect people from the basement, this is evidence to suggest that the enemy has begun executing hostages." He paused, crossing his arms "Now, even if this weren't the case, there's two huge hordes of grimm coming from the north and west set to arrive in about fifteen hours that put it in our best interest to resolve this situation as soon as possible"

Nobody dared speak, but most of the Rangers were beginning to catch on.

"Behind me are operators from the British SAS and our very own Task Force Green, they will lead an operation to rescue the hostages within the Town Hall and to kill or capture the Branwens inside. Captain Price will discuss the details."

At that, an older looking man with an ashy brown beard and wearing a boonie in place of a helmet stepped forward. He was SAS as indicated by his gear and the flag patch on his shoulder.

"I'm going to need you all to pay attention."

---

"…so they're gone? It's all gone."

"Yeah." Qrow confirmed, not bothering to mince words for his sister, he always did hate that tribe.

Qrow stared at Raven's face, Ozpin who was next to him to the right of Raven's bed simply gauged for a reaction from Raven. She had been awake now for around twenty, over that time she didn't speak a single word until now. It was in response to Ozpin informing her of the attack the Americans did on the Branwen camp.

Qrow was expecting a lot of things from his sister in this moment, for her to lash out, scream in anger, hell, maybe even cry for the first time in ages. But instead, she just laid there, staring forward, not making a sound.

"What about Vernal?" Her voice matched her expression, almost completely emotionless.

"Who?"

"I sent a third of the tribe on an attack on Shion. What happened to them?"

"The Americans got to Shion in the nick of time, killed most of everybody, the survivors took hostages and Kirkman's boys are dealing with them as we speak."

No reaction from Raven.

She didn't look as horrific as she did when she collapsed into Ozpin's office from her portal, it had been exactly one day since then. Even though it had already been 24 hours, with the amount of blood she lost and injuries she took, the fact that not only was she alive but that she had recovered this fast was evidence to Ozpin and Qrow's theory.

Even with her current living state, her body was a shell of its former self, her right arm and leg were gone, her body was covered in bandages, the right side of her face covered in gauze and cloth. The only skin that was shown was on her right arm and the right side of her face, even then there were patches that were obscured by gauze. She smelled like disinfectant.

A drop, the sound of a drop, it was faint, but with how silent the room was, it was noticeable.

Qrow was surprised to see the one visible eye of Raven tearing up, a steady frown growing on her face. Neither Qrow nor Ozpin bothered to console her.

"What happened to the spring maiden, Raven?" Instead, Ozpin chose to pop the question, to which Raven didn't answer, simply continuing to stare at the foot of her bed, tears slowly flowing from her visible eye.

"Raven, it's important the spring maiden is accounted for- "

"I'm the spring maiden." She finally stated, a furrow growing in her eyebrow.

Qrow breathed a sigh, he was already expecting such a revelation, but that didn't make knowing it any less shocking, and angering.

Ozpin simply clasped his hands, resting his chin atop them, staring coldly at Raven.

"You killed a child." came Ozpin's icy voice.

"It was mercy!" She spat out, her voice faltering "She ran away from your people, we found her, she accepted us."

"Then you killed her." Qrow continued

"She would have a target on her back her whole life since she had those powers, and she couldn't defend herself, for years I trained her personally, but she never learned, so I did what was necessary. She was weak, and she would suffer for it if I hadn't done what I did."

Qrow scoffed "Always with that weak and strong shit, huh, sis? I'm sure it makes it a whole lot easier when you pillage towns and kill kids."

"I do it for the family, Qrow! Our family! I did everything in my power to ensure our survival!" Raven glared at Qrow, a small flame shooting from her eyes, indicating her maiden powers were flaring up, it seemed Ozpin was readying his cane already for a fight.

"Yeah? Where did that lead you? Where did that lead your family?" Those few words were all it took to placate Raven, the glare turned into a shaky stare, as she looked back at the foot of her bed.

The brewing silence had been abruptly ended when a sound came from left of the two men, the door to the infirmary room was swung open by none other than Glynda Goodwitch holding a scroll tablet.

"Ozpin." Her expression was, frantic, almost surprised. A demeanor that put everyone in the room, especially Ozpin, on edge. "You have to see this."

She paid no attention to Raven and walked over in front Raven, pressing a button on the wall mounted hologram projector. It switched on to a kid's cartoon show, Glynda fiddled with it until it reached the VNN news channel, showing Lisa Lavender with a generic background but with 'BREAKING NEWS' scrolling by at the bottom border of the screen.

"What's going on?" Qrow finally asked.

"Just watch" said Glynda, walking a few feet away from the projection.

"…Shocked to find a press release being sent by the Americans to our email. Attached, were various images, a video, and a written statement; these images will be shown as the statement is read. But be warned, the following may be disturbing to some viewers."

"What?! The Americans specifically asked that I do not leak the story to the press." Ozpin exclaimed

A male voice of a different reported then read out the written statement as images flashed on the screen.

"On the morning of October 1st, three days ago, our surveillance systems picked up movement from the Branwen Tribe's camp towards the direction of the village of Shion."

Images on the screen flashed on the screen, taken from what looked to be a thermal camera, showing the heat signatures of a hundred or so people leaving a large encampment.

"Immediately the United States coordinated with Shion's leadership to create a plan of action, days later, such action was taken, while the attack could not be stopped, American forces intervened in the attack."

The image then changed to what looked to be body camera footage, audio from the video clip was also playing, the sounds of men talking, engines of vehicles blaring.

Lisa Lavender's voice once again took over "The footage being shown now was called 'Ranger bodycam.' It depicts what looks to be hundreds of American forces entering the town of Shion and fighting the Branwen tribe raiding party who are seen attacking the citizens of Shion."

The footage cut to the man taking the footage being behind three other men in a ruinous town as they had their guns aimed forward. Suddenly in front of them, a woman with long bright pink hair was burst from the windows of one of the buildings, a large gash on her chest, she laid on the pavement, still breathing

"What the (beep)!"

Immediately everyone had their guns trained on the window, a large man wielding a mace the size of his body jumped out, immediately, everyone gunned him down, as this happened the man was immediately blurred out to censor the damage on his body.

The footage ended as the male voice returned

"Many civilians have been accounted for, with a staggering 192 dead bodies being recovered."

Photos flashed of the blurred-out corpses of civilians on the roads, a few of them looked like children.

Qrow sent a side eyed glare at Raven.

"This makes no sense, why would Kirkman just willfully show all of this?" Ozpin asked, almost rhetorically.

"Maybe he wants to control the narrative while he can, make the US out to be the hero."

"That was already guaranteed when the situation was done, why do it now while hostages are still at peril?"

Wordlessly, Raven watched.

"Unfortunately, while our forces were able to wipe out the majority of the Branwens, a small segment of them took hostages and barricaded themselves in the town hall. While waiting for this situation to be resolved, surviving civilians have been brough to a large campsite north of Shion where our forces are aiding the injured, caring for the civilians, and protecting them from the grimm."

Images flashed of a lady with a mohawk on a balcony, below them were three civilians with their hands in the air surrounded by many US troops with their guns pointed at the woman.

"Vernal!" Raven suddenly yelled.

The image that followed was American soldiers cooking what looked to be a stew in a big pot as a long line of Shion's civilians lined up. Then images of American medics in a large tent tending to bloody civilians laying in cots.

"We have enlisted the help of Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon Academy, and he has committed medical aid and a small huntsman force."

"Heh, at least he mentioned us." Qrow smirked

"As we speak, the hostage situation is still ongoing, with US Marines and US Rangers working tirelessly to protect and save Shion's citizens."

Lisa Lavender then continued talking "The written statement then concludes with a message to the public, stating- "

The male voice returned "We would like to assure the public that these hostages, and Shion as a whole will be saved. The menace of the Branwens will be ended, and justice shall be brought to the victims of their decades long onslaught on the continent of Anima… Now onto further news on the American claim about the 'air strike' on the Branwen camp."

---

2200 hours

Forest South of Shion

45 hours after the American intervention

Lightning struck, having been heard loudly from within the Stryker.

"Shit!" Truck jolted in shock.

"What? You scared of a little bit of lightning, mate, ha-ha." Gaz mockingly smiled.

Truck didn't dignify him with a response and simply checked the magazine of his HK.

Frost did the same, but it was quite hard to move his arms around to check on the account that they were ten fully kitted men in a vehicle meant for nine. The smell of cigar smoke filled the air as Captain Price finished up the last of his stogie, the ash dropping to his trousers and to the floor of the vehicle.

"Hazard, this is Chariot One, we have eyes on the drainage pipe half a klick ahead, seems to be surrounded a pack of Ursai, permission to engage?" called out the Ranger driver of their ICV.

"(COMMS) Copy, Chariot One, you have a green light to engage, get to position immediately after."

Outside gunfire began to overtake the hearing of the men inside.

"Lima Charlie, out."

The gunfire continued for a minute, as the motion from within came to a stop. "Green light." Was the simple statement of their driver.

Soap stood up and pushed the Stryker's door open with his foot, it slid down slowly. One by one, the multi-national group dismounted into the heavy rain.

They all gathered around Price, who finished up his cigar, throwing the remnant to the wet, grassy, ground.

"Right, we take the lead here, Rangers back in town are waiting for us, so let's not waste any time, do your radio and equipment checks now, I don't want any failures once we're in the drainage pipe."

They did as told, some of them crouching down to check radios, guns, and other equipment. The mission was simple, enter the drainage pipe that connected to Shion and enter through the maintenance manhole inside the worker's common room in the basement.

This was SAS and CAG's job because neither the Mayor, her assistant, or any surviving town hall workers knew how the manhole worked, only that it was in the common room under a rug and that it was rectangular. So, with them, they brought multiple implements typically used to open manholes.

With a single entrance, they would have to enter one by one, almost single file which was very dangerous in the event they were immediately surrounded by hostiles upon entry, this was why they were chosen for this particular job.

The rangers on the other hand would have multiple points of entry, one platoon on the ground floor breaking through windows and doors, while another platoon split and entered through the second-floor windows using assault ladders, thus insuring as few civilian and friendly casualties as possible by overwhelming the OPFOR with attacks from every conceivable angle.

The equipment check was over almost as soon as it started, Price gave a nod. The men brought down their night vision goggles, latest model PSQ-42 optics.

"Let's go."

The ten men started running towards the drainage pipe, some carrying equipment. Frost held a mini portable hydraulic cutter just in case the drainage pipe was covered with a grate. Ghost was holding a folding tactical assault ladder in the event that there was no way up the manhole.

The ten reached the drainage pipe which emptied directly into a river, with some space afforded between the pipe and the river which was raging at a high tide due to the storm.

Price tapped on his earpiece as he saw the men finish up "Hazard, this is Bravo Six we're entering the drainage pipe."

"(COMMS) Copy that, Bravo Six. Be advised, our telepath has picked up an increased number of possible hostiles in the basement, he says he now detects 32 minds."

"Roger that, Bravo Six out."

The ten eyed the space between the river and the drainage pipe, the high tide and heavy rain made it so there were a few feet of water both between the two and within the pipe.

"Well, we're already wet, aren't we?" Soap quipped as he took point, the other filing behind him. The water was knee deep, and as they entered the drainage they had to bend down to accommodate for their height.

The eyed their surroundings, the water was steadily flowing outward, making movement a little harder, fortunately the Drainage pipe wasn't very narrow, meaning they didn't have to walk single file.

"Metal grate up ahead." Soap stated.

"Good thing we brought those cutters?" Wallcroft looked at Frost up ahead.

Once they reached the metal grate, Frost took point, using his hydraulic cutter on each metal support.

As they cut, lightning struck, the light illuminating their surroundings from behind, revealing the long corridor ahead of them, water flooding in from the storm drains a thousand yards up ahead, meaning that would be around the point they would reach the underbelly of Shion.

As Frost finished up cutting the supports, Sandman and Grinch went ahead, grabbing the grate at different points, they lifted it up as it fell, the other moved aside as Sandman and Grinch carried the grate aside, setting it down behind the group.

"Move up." Price ordered. They jogged through, being slowed down by the increasingly heavy flooding.

"Should've fucking packed SCUBA gear too, eh?" Ghost frustratedly complained.

The water was nearly up to their waist now, the drainage pipe ended as they entered a larger sewage system that intersected into different points, it was much larger meaning the water was dispersed and the area was less flooded.

The squad went straight ahead.

Truck took a big sniff "Smell that air."

"Smells like shit." Sandman said garnering a few laughs.

Their night vision made them privy to some morbid details within the sewage system, body parts that were small enough to fit through the storm drains had been brought in due to the rain, chunks of flesh, limbs, one head, they had bloated due to the water with corpse wax having been formed.

"Nobody's used the loos here in a while… What we're smelling is pure unfiltered death." Price remarked.

They sped up their advance. "(COMMS) Bravo Six, what's your sitrep?" The voice of Colonel Burton blared through their earpieces.

"About two hundred meters from the objective, closing in fast."

"(COMMS) Affirmative, Hazard out."

They reached the drainage pipe leading directly to the manhole, it was smaller than the one they entered from, rather than bending down, they had to crouch to get through.

"Shit, it gets tighter." Truck said, he was 6'1 and 220 pounds, physically the largest of the group, he would have the hardest time getting through.

Gaz shrugged "Least it's dry."

Soap, who was taking point, got to work going through, smiling as he did "Tight and dry, just like- "

"Don't say it." Price cut off his squad mate as he himself pushed through the pipe.

The rest of the group followed through

"Keep a low voice, we're getting close, they might hear us from here." Soap whispered.

After a short few minutes of crawling through the pipe, they reached a small cavity, enough to fit four people. Above them was a rectangular manhole cover.

Soap got out, then Frost, then Ghost, then Roach. The others had to remain crouched in the pipe.

From here the sounds of the thunder and rain were muted close to a point of silence. From above they could hear the sounds of the room overhead, talking, too muffled to make out any words, but it was clear there were people directly above them, meaning as soon as they opened the manhole they would likely be attacked.

On the concrete wall directly under the manhole were metal rungs, meaning they didn't need their assault ladder, the cover was a recessed type, it had a hinge on the bottom that let it be open from below.

Soap took the crowbar attached to his hip and with one hand put it on the metal hook at the top of the rectangular manhole cover, he signaled for Frost, Ghost, and Roach to have their guns pointed at the top.

"AHHHHHHHHH!" Came the shrill cry of a woman above them, making a few of the squad jolt in surprise, muffled sobs followed, pitiable words they couldn't understand, then a gunshot.

Soap wasted no time, he nodded at Captain Price who then whispered into his earpiece "Green light."

Soap yanked on the crowbar pulling the cover down, with a loud metallic swing, whoever was above them definitely heard that.

They waited a few seconds, observing the open manhole, there was a rug covering the space ahead of them, sounds of panicked screams above them, the Ranger assault likely having begun. Soap started to climb up the iron rungs to cut at the rug when it was suddenly pulled aside. Everyone held their breath.

A head peaked through, all three men who had their guns trained fire, leaving the man who looked through headless.

"What the fuck?!" Came from above.

"GO! GO! GO!" Screamed price.

As rehearsed, Roach threw a flashbang through the manhole, with Ghost throwing an M83 smoke grenade. Soap quickly ascended the ladder, followed by Frost.

Soap immediately trained his guns in front of him, two staggered hostiles ahead, he fired his gun the aura broke on the first man, the bullets penetrating his head and chest. A shot to the woman to his right cleared her aura, a second one ender her life, the bullet going straight through her heart. He heard the familiar sound an HK416 firing behind him, friendly, meaning his squad mates had gotten up.

They had the complete advantage of night vision, something noted by command was that the Branwens they engaged on their first day, meaning here, at nighttime, in the basement with barely any light except a few noticeable candles, they had the advantage.

He scanned the area, the whole team had gotten up, above them, very muffled gunshots, the rangers probably.

The squad looked around, around a dozen civilians huddled around the walls, looking malnourished, tired, many shaking, some of them with torn clothes, bruised or wounded skin.

"Please! No more!" Cried one. Grinch looked over, he was blindfolded, wait no, there were bloody patches over where his yes would've been under the blindfold, he had to radio that in for a medic to check later.

The hostiles in the common area had been cleared, five of them.

They ignored them, they had to clear the rest of the rooms first, three more to go.

Wallcroft stood steady, he would remain to make sure none of the civilians were hostiles in disguise that would attack the others as they turned their backs.

The nine formed up on each side of the door in the common room.

Ghost took point, in front of him, Sandman. Sandman back kicked the door, it forcefully swung open, gunshots erupted, puncturing the wood and hitting the civilians huddled along the walls a few meters in front of the door, one appeared lifeless, another was close to it.

"YOU'RE DEAD" Came a gruff feminine voice, likely whoever was shooting.

"Shit! Get away from there!" Loudly commanded Soap towards the civilians on that wall, they followed, shakily moving away as the gunfire continued.

Wasting no time Ghost threw flashbang through, as they heard it explode, they filed through. Shooting at anybody holding a weapon.

Four tangoes spotted.

Sandman popped one in the head twice

Ghost broke down the aura of one, before alleviating the bandit of his throat.

Price spotted a guy grasping at his foot, burns on his boot, probably where the flashbang had landed, he shot at him, his head exploding both ways.

Truck, Roach, and Soap zeroed in on the same woman, staggering back, she held two circular blade guns, she was the one who shot through the doors, both of them fired, everywhere on her body she was shot at when her finally aura broke, there was no spot left clean, bloody orifices introduced into every area of her figure.

Soap walked over and crouched down to examine pile of bodies at the end of the hallway. The others looked

"Civilians." he said in a grim tone, eight of them had been piled roughly atop each other, blood seeping through the slit throat of the one at the top, a fresh kill. A few of the bodies were naked.

"Shit." Was all Truck said

But they had to ignore all this for now.

Price then looked at everyone "Sandman, your boys take the room on the right, we'll take the one on the left, Roach you stay-"

BANG! On the far end of the hallway, a large man burst through the door the SAS men were supposed to breach, wielding a massive wooden club with barbed wire wrapped around it, he ran at the nine with his club in forward grip. Everyone fired at him, his club broke apart, as did his aura, his body and head being littered with bullet holes as his body fell down with his forward momentum sliding his mangled corpse just a few a feet away from Frost.

A few shrieks and cries came from the civilians near all the bodies, but they were ignored.

"Stick to the plan." Said Price "Roach, you stay here."

As ordered the SAS men rushed to the far door, which was now open, Ghost threw a flash bang into the doorway.

"Clear!" yelled Soap.

"Grinch, Frost take point. I'll ready a flashbang." ordered Sandman

This was the storage room, if they remembered the blueprints correctly, they didn't know what to expect but were prepared, nonetheless.

Grinch and Frost stood with their weapons ready at opposite sides of the door.

Truck, with one swift motion, kicked it in, Sandman threw a cooked flashbang which exploded as soon as it hit the floor. Grinch and Frost filed in, Grinch was the first to spot the outline of a person taking cover behind a stack of plastic crates, the barrel of his gun sticking out. He shot straight through the crates, destroying his aura and killing the man.

As the rest of Metal Team came in, they were no longer greeted by any tangos.

"Clear!" Shouted Sandman.

Strangely, the storage area was quite empty a single metal rack with a stack of plastic crates which the bandit had been taking cover behind. To their right were men and women, something tying their arms behind their back, clearly crying and shaking, they were stripped naked.

They walked around the plastic crates which had largely obscured the other side. To find the man holding the weapon to be completely naked himself, except absent from his body were any injuries. On the other end of the rack was a girl with green her arms bound by a ripped cloth to the metal support of the rack, she was stripped from the waste down, with her shirt lifted up above her chest.

She was alive, but clearly out of it, simply crying, unable to speak even though she was not gagged, letting out unintelligible blubbers.

"These sick fucks." Was all Grinch could bring himself to say.

Sandman shook his head with a pained sigh.

Truck looked around, a few of the people here dead, slit throats, gunshot wounds to the head.

BANG!

A bursting sound came from outside. The civilians yelled in surprise as Metal Team rushed out, they saw Bravo Team on the other side, ready to fire at tangos as well.

Only to see the familiar sight of rangers descending the basement steps.

The man at the lead brought his gun down and took few glances at his surroundings.

"Fuck happened here?"

---

One hour later.

"It's over man, it's all over, none of you are getting out of this."The shady looking man with ashy blonde hair laughed as he stared down Colonel Burton.

He was sat on a metal chair opposite of Burton, the rain made pitter patter sound from outside the tent they were in.

"Your tribe as you knew it is dead, you're one of twelve survivors who were smart enough to surrender, I don't know why you're so cocky." The Colonel deadpanned

"Those guys? I didn't give a shit about them, didn't give a shit about Raven, I liked the sticks of being in it with them, they made life easier, I mean look at me, I'm a fucking coward! I surrendered to your guys in tears." He laughed maniacally to himself. "But none of that fucking matters! Cause if what you said is true and that Raven's dead as a doornail, then we're all gonna die here anyway."

The Colonel stared perplexedly at the man "What do you mean?"

CRACK!

Thunder, again.

"You don't get it do you?" He gave a nervous smile "That shit you found in the basement wasn't just cause we wanted to hurt some people and get our rocks off, sure that was part of it, brothers know how many rounds I went with some of the girls there. Vernal even chopped the dicks off some of the guys hehe, was crazy to- "

The man then noticed the grim stare the Colonel was giving him and cut himself of.

"Point is, we thought Raven was coming to help us once she saw we were taking a while to report back, so we wanted to give her a helping hand, make it easier for her, so we set up that basement to be the biggest attracter of grimm on the face of Remnant."

The realization washed over Burton, but he didn't show it, of course, this was why there were two hordes of Grimm that suddenly changed their course of migration and started making their way to Shion in the thousands. The ungodly things they were doing in that basement was to attract them.

"We set up rotations, some people would get their turns in the basement, others stayed upstairs made sure nobody tried to escape, Vernal would pick which villager would get to go down there."

The Colonel promptly stood up, he'd already heard enough, he exited the tent, the rain soaking into his uniform looking over at the ranger outside. "Put him in with the others." The ranger nodded before committing to those orders.

Burton began walking over to his command tent, already knowing what came next.

He entered, inside were five people. The mayor's assistant was working on a pile of papers by a desk, but nearby was a large round table with a map of Shion and its surrounding areas, surrounding it were marine Major Buckley and army ranger Major Riley, the three of them comprised the major commanding officers of Task Force Shion. The mayor was also at the round table.

"So, he say anything?" Major Buckley asked, the bags under his eyes dark and heavy, his skin pale, having coordinated Marines while himself having had barely any sleep.

"Even if he did, I doubt the plan changes, does it?" Major Riley was in the same condition.

"You'd be right." Burton said, taking his own position by the table. "But now we know the grimm hordes coming are intentional, the things they did in the basement was to attract grimm, makes sense now why the RQ-4s just saw two whole groups of those damn things just change course and just start heading for Shion."

A sigh came from Buckley "Fucking savages."

"Nothing changes. That's the decision we all made with the General six hours ago. We stay here and fight." Burton placed his hands atop the map.

Originally the next resupply after the Strykers and other infantry had arrived was to begin evacuation upon the arrival of the next set of C-130s, but when it had become increasingly obvious that the grimm would get to Shion before everyone could evacuate because of the shortage of refueling aircraft, both Kirkman and Burton thought it best to remain. As evacuating what troops they could would drastically lessen the firepower of the remainder that had to fight the grimm.

In light of this, Kirkman instead sent another resupply with all the ammo that could be asked for, medical aid, and two more LAV crews.

"Soon, I'll give the order for the civilians to head back to their homes. The grimm are coming from the west and north, they stay here at Hill One and they're goners. Buckley, I want your marines west, 50% of our LAVs stationed there, overlapping fire lines, you know the drill."

A nod from Buckley.

"We don't want to leave our southern and eastern flanks empty though, there's still gonna be grimm coming from there, more rangers than marines out here, so Riley I want you to dedicate a few Ranger platoons to hold the south and east, have the strykers be on QRF down there too. Rest stays here in Hill One at the North, we're already dug in pretty well, Buckley the other 50% of the LAVs go here."

Nods from both.

The pitter patter of the rain drops hitting the tent only grew louder, this wouldn't bode well for the terrain they were going to fight in the next day assuming it even stopped come the morning. The grimm was estimated to arrive in six hours. They would stay and fight.

Burton rubbed his face with his palm, sighing as he did "Buckley, you got cigarette?" He knew that strategically this was the right decision, but it didn't change how bad the situation was.

The marine stared at the Colonel, perplexed "I thought you didn't smoke, sir."

"I do now." He deadpanned, Buckley wordlessly took out a red pack handing it to Burton who picked out a stick, the Major lighting it for him, he took a drag. He was not a religious man either, but he thought his next statement would be appropriate "Tomorrow, before dawn, we're going to be facing off an estimated twelve thousand grimm, God be with us."

---

Yo! Unfortunately, I'm in a bit of a hurry to get this chapter out since I'll be leaving home for a good few hours and I wanted to get this out since it's already done anyway so I don't have time do the review responses just yet, but I'll do them and edit them in once I'm home.

But yes interesting developments here, American forces may just face their first true significant challenge on Remnant, Coco and Velvet befriending the troops, yatsuhashi fuckin shit up, Fox doing some real good work.

I hope you all enjoyed, next chapter finna be lit, I promise. see y'all. Come join the discord, link's on my profile.

As always, thanks for reading.

---

Edit 21/06/2024:

Julis123489: Thank you.

InfinityGamer104: Oh I'm keeping it alright!

Monster King: Thank you, king.

Wolves567: thanks, and here's a new chapter.

Laezi: Indeed she did

Panzerkampfwagen6: Maybe

Doom King of Lavtveria: I hope you're still looking forward and like the current developments!

vmoneywashere: Good work as always on the Tvtropes page, thanks, and here's the new update.

Krannesca: Hope the friend like it lol

Octavio Constant: Nope, there's more! It's all still SNAFU up in Shion.

Nukeblast81: What do you mean by "intermediate stories", if you mean in the sense of like what I'm doing with the Marine Raiders, then I don't think that's as possible, it's kind of the Raider's jobs to interact a lot with the locals, very important to their mission of FID anyway, SAS is more direct action and recon oriented. Also Qrow's reaction is here, Raven's situation is being kept hidden by the Oz gang tho, so everyone else on Remnant, including America, thinks Raven is dead.

Just a Crazy-Man: nice.

Major Simi: indeed.

Konstantinsen: Well Raven is recuperating right now over at Beacon, she predictably did end up going to Qrow. Funnily enough (or unfunnily, idk), I took direct inspiration from the Fedayeen Saddam in writing the Branwens and their treatment of civilians, fitting how Vernal met her end after a prolonged standoff with the Americans as well. And ye FFN been weird lately.

Amir200: Thank you for reading.

AniVnz: Greetings! No promises, LOL! I did try crossposting on AO3 but I got lazy so rn the AO3 version is sitting at just 4 chapters, lmao, maybe one day I'll come back to it. Thank you as well for reading.

Servermeta: I do be livin'

Afgt: Thanks, thanks. As for Atlas that depends, Dust is clearly an inferior propulsion fuel, and Remnant's world is so reliant on dust that even IF Atlas somehow did start using alternative methods of fuel they'll have to be playing catchup with Earth who's had 200 years of using these methods of fuel on our vehicle. Atlas also has no idea how to design Planes, tanks, etc. Look at today's countries who have other nations for reference and can maybe start their own fighter programs, everyone still buys American, European, Russian, and Chinese jets, very few countries have a legitimate domestic fighter program because they're so scientifically perplexing to make and also very expensive, and I don't think Atlas has the money or aerospace ability that those 4 places have.

Gunfighterxy: And you were right about a new News Segment! The other perspectives will come later, as for your question on mod units, prolly not, no, I've answered that question before, but my intent with this story and Earth tech is Generals Real Life, and those mods are usually too advanced or change geopolitics up to a cartoonish level. Thanks, see you on your next review too

Egor1: huh?

Onyx Gabriel: I mean even before this chapter Ive shown other Generals, I've shown Alexander and Granger, I've also mentioned Thrax might be on Remnant, so yes.

Enriks-Da-Writer: It's a cliché cause it kinda makes sense, knowing her prideful self I doubt she'd pull up to Yang or Taiyang when she's in trouble. Hopefully the polish you are seeking is here. In the case of Army base in World War Z that was a full army base with a division sized troop there, and even though, yes, most vets will tell you that the mil tactics in World War Z are bullshit, the point stands that they had the advantage of firepower, here in Shion it's a less than Battalion sized troope. Anyway, hope you likes this second part!

Guest: Thanks

Mr. SUS: Happy belated birthday!

Stormwolf16: Indeed this is the case, and things are just getting worse on the battlefield, but the US do be getting lots of Hearts and Minds through this. Day 2 is here and it's very interesting.

Sky8est: Nah they were able to stick to their morals.

Anyway, thanks again for reading, tell me what you think in the reviews, me is out!