The BMPs of the Misfits PMC rolled toward their intended target:A nearby local village, rather obviously. It was an open town, a beautiful place that more-so resembled a vacation resort than your normal village. Indeed, that was basically what it was. Situated right next to one of the least steep slopes of the Vale Mountains, a slope currently covered entirely by snow, though no skiers were present.
The town was on alert, rather obviously. Its defensive turrets and combat systems were entirely operational and that signalled just the kind of issues the little town was facing:A large horde of Grimm had been spotted coming in, meaning the troops of the Misfits were gonna pass straight through the town and engage.
As they rolled through, Vic and Ves looked around at the people waving at them from the windows. Kids and families, elderly folk who probably ran the place, even some Huntsmen and Huntresses who'd come here on break without their firearms. The blonde girl looked upon the beautiful cabins and the nice restaurants and seemingly welcoming vibe of the walled-off skiing town and Victor had seen this. He smiled and said, "Could make for a nice honeymoon town," only to see his wife-to-be-blush, face red from the nose to the ears, her fox ears twitching and tail wagging.
The rest of the squad, male and female, laughed heartily at that little bit while she leaned in for a hug. He smiled, content with the situation as he kissed the top of her head, then paused as he saw a young man walking by the vehicles, dressed in a suit. He hummed, raised his hand to show the BMPs to hold, then jumped down and asked, "You mister Blanc?"
"That I am," The man nodded, arranging his on white hair. He extended his hand and asked, "And you must be one of the Misfits' 'central command', Victor, right?" to which the Romanian nodded and shook his hand. He smiled, arranging the smart-looking glasses on his face, then said, "Welcome to the White Heavens Resort town. Apologies for taking you and your fine soldiers all the way out here."
"Nonsense," Vic smiled as Ves joined him, a smile on her face. He said, "We're here to help."
He chuckled and said, "Of course. Keep your vehicles rolling if you wish," to which Victor nodded and waved to the drivers and crew. One of the soldiers hit the top of the driver's hatch on the front BMP and it lurched forward, rolling and billowing smoke. The two walked with the man as he said, "These Grimm appeared out of nowhere. A large horde, but made up of mostly normal Grimm… Mostly. Beowolves, a few Creeps and a pack of Boarbatusks. Should be no problem for any force with Aura and combat vehicles…"
"But?" Vesna asked, raising a brow and tilting her head, her ears tilting to the side. There was always a but with these things, Ves thought to herself as she cradled her Kalash. Vic snorted at that while the man stared at her with confusion. She shrugged and told them, "There is usually a 'but' in any kind of conversation like this, no? The bad news you wait to give to the ones you hired."
Mister Blanc smirked and said, "Your wife is a sharp one."
She blushed, while Vic, though he was slightly red in the face, too, smiled and said, "I know. One of the many many reasons I'm marrying her," before he grabbed her hand and pulled her close, giving her a peck on the lips and causing a slight yelp, followed by a happy giggle and a lot more tail wagging. The troops on the BMPs cheered loudly at that, while mister Blanc laughed, nodding in approval. The Romanian then asked, "Right, so… Bad news?"
"Correct," Blanc nodded, though he still kept smiling, "A very combative Alpha Beowolf is leading the packs. It is more heavily armored than your standard wolves and a lot more aggressive, but that's not the worst of it. He is a smart one, old enough to have terrorized this place while I was still a baby in my mother's arms."
"You look pretty good for an old man if that's the case!" A Russian female rifleman quipped, garnering a few laughs and whistles out of the girls. She giggled and called out again, "Looking for a wife?! I like living by the mountainside, long walks and I'm one hell of a shot with a rifle! I cook decently, too!" and that got even further laughter out of the gang.
Mister Blanc chuckled again, waving it off, and said, "The Headmaster certainly didn't lie about you all being a lively bunch," before nodding and stating, "I am turning forty-five within a few weeks, if you care to know," as if he was trying to put a timeline on how strong that Beowolf was supposed to be. Truthfully, probably very. It was the genuine first time they were facing capable Grimm.
"Not that old," Vic quipped, "But yeah, we heard older Grimm are smarter…"
"Indeed," He replied, nodding his head, "And he may also be impatient to deal with us. Seems like we've really been a thorn in his side for far too long," and he stopped in front of the northern gate. In the distance, the howls of the beasts could be heard, alongside their various other screams and noises. The BMPs rolled out and moved each to one side of the Gate while the troops dismounted and began digging in.
The Huntsmen present raised brows upon seeing seemingly well-trained troops approach and one of them commented, "Looks like they finally sent those weird guys and girls from the New Military over," as he leaned his weird Warhammer/high-caliber shotgun combo against his shoulder. A pair of soldiers dismounted from the trucks with KS-23 shotguns.
Vic shot back, "You'll laugh at one of us. Wait 'till you see a wall of guns in action," before slamming home the belt for his PKM and pulling down the top cover. Team RWBY and team JNPR had been training them in utilizing their Aura to a degree that was semi-acceptable for Huntsmen-in-Training to wield, but they needed to have a chat with the Professors about it.
The man snorted derisively and asked, "The hell are you gonna do with those peashooters?"
Vic was about to reply, but Ves did first, walking up beside him and stating, "It's not the peashooters you have to worry about," before pointing at the BMPs' turrets. She told them, "Thirty Millimeter rapid-fire autocannons and anti-tank guided missiles. We take care of the small fries, they shoot the bigger Grimm," with a smirk.
The man seemed to take a moment to register the hardware properly, then blinked and scoffed, shutting up and mumbling something that caught Vic by surprise. "Faunus whore" he had said. The Romanian scoffed, walked over to the Huntsman and, before he could so much as ask what the hell he wanted, he threw the man over his head, pinned him to the floor and pointed his sidearm at him, much to his buddy's protests.
The Romanian then said in a cold tone, "I'm going to have to ask you to either repeat that or apologize to my fiance," while putting the barrel of his gun right between the man's eyes. He grit his teeth, eyes wide, then looked to his buddies, both of whom raised their hands and shook their heads. One of them was married, visible by the band on his finger, while the other seemed to simply not want anything to do with it.
Vic, with little care, hefted the man up by the strap of his own vest, turned him to face a surprised Vesna, then ordered, "Go ahead," while his pistol remained firmly in his grip. The man, hands raised, looked at the blonde girl, who stared, a bit surprised. The squad Lieutenant approached, but didn't intervene, obviously trusting the Romanian.
He swallowed, then said, "I'm sorry," before gritting his teeth as the Romanian tapped his shoulder with his finger. He sighed and said, "I'm sorry for calling you a whore," while Vic noticed the strange tattoo on the side of his neck. A crossed-over paw symbol, probably meaning some sort of terrorist. Ves smiled a little, walked up to him and showed Vic to let him be. The Romanian did and, before either he or the bastard could react, Ves delivered a pretty perfect kick to the space between the man's legs.
He crumpled like a can in an industrial press, while his two buddies chuckled. Vic nodded in approval, while Ves leaned over and replied, "Apology accepted," completely jovial and all smiling. The Troopers and Lieutenant cheered again, while Victor holstered his pistol. As he walked up to her, Vesna whispered, "You didn't need to make a scene… But thank you…" and she smiled.
He smiled back and nodded, stating, "Sure, I did. Can't let some dickhead shit-talk my wife, can I? Plus, the whole unironic racist thing with that tattoo," and he tilted his head toward the man's neck. Vesna nodded. She'd read about the Natural Order a while back. He told her, "We're only joking among ourselves, right?"
She giggled, then nodded as she watched the man stumble to his feet. The two returned to their unit while the Natural Order member grumbled something. One of his buddies said, "Ya kinda had that coming, Dom. You really should get rid of that frickin' tattoo and the attitude unless ya wanna wind up actually dead."
"Yeah, yeah," He grumbled, walking over and sitting down.
It wasn't long before Nightfall came. The Grimm hadn't attacked yet and the Misfit unit had managed to set up a few defensive positions around the Gate while the turrets overhead scanned the trees for any hostile movement. Vic leaned forward in his foxhole, pressing his shoulder into the stock of his PKM, one hand slipped through the hole in the stock while the other firmly tightened around the grip.
He heard the BMPs' engines rev quietly. The turrets began to traverse left and right, scanning for targets, the 40mm grenade launchers attached to the tops already aimed up at an angle to allow them to arc rounds in. Thermal sights were probably on and, provided Grimm had thermal signatures, they'd spot them in the dark.
Most of the squad also had Night Vision goggles on, meaning they could see when the enemy was coming. It was honestly no surprise that one of the more elite units of the Old Russian Military was armed with some of the best equipment available, Vic thought to himself. He looked over to the right, at the three Huntsmen and saw all three of them were about as tense as the unit.
The man that had recently shit-talked Ves looked at him, too, but he didn't seem angry. He waved at Victor, to which the man waved back. Before long, the man stood to his feet and slowly walked over, jumping into the foxhole to be on the same level as Vic. They were about the same height, too, with both being well-built.
He spoke, "Sorry about that back there… Old habits die hard. Mixed with one hell of a bad day."
"Hey, you apologized and got your comeuppance for it from both me and her," The Romanian replied, keeping one eye down the road. He then asked, "Bad day?"
"Significant other broke up with me," He shrugged, "Anger management issues, she said."
"Aaah," Vic snorted, "I get it, then," before turning toward him fully and stating, "No reason to be a dick about it… But also not a reason for me to put a gun to your face. I and Vesna went through a lot before we found each-other, so it hit a nerve…" before pausing. As the shrubs rustled ahead, the Huntsman and him immediately went on alert.
The Huntsman gave him a pat on the back and nodded in understanding, apologizing via a hand signal. Vic gave the OK hand signal and showed him to get to his guys, before making sure he had a round in the chamber and shouldering his LMG. One of the two BMP gunners reported, "... Hostiles have Heat Sigs. Counting about a dozen mobiles ahead…"
Ves slid into cover and raised her rifle, her NV off. Faunus night vision capabilities seemed to have come with the transformation, Vic thought as he watched her slide down the safety to the semi-auto mode. As the team listened, the entire place going dead quiet save for the whir of the turret motors and the tracking systems of the defense turrets, the thumping of a stampede reached them.
The very ground began to shake as the Grimm force drew closer, the Gunners of the BMPs having already identified the hostiles downrange and aligned their guns. When the first Grimm arrived, the Lieutenant called over radio, "Fire at will," and the rippling thunder of about two dozen firearms, plus two autocannons, filled the air.
Green and red tracers arced downrange while the 30mm autocannons ripped through trees and bushes in bursts. Grimm were caught with their pants down, several of the forward most bipedal lizards, the 'Creeps', falling over or outright exploding into black muck and shattered bone as the fireteams laid them all low.
The autocannons ceased fire the moment Ves lifted her hand, then looked around and mumbled, "Just Creeps…" before radioing, "Check flanks," and gazing up at the tall slope next to them. She knew the Grimm, if they were led by a smart one, would try anything to get to them. And indeed, she saw the first few silhouettes of some of the larger Grimm.
She aimed her rifle, with the other soldiers next to her quickly following suit, before she lit up the cliff's edge, nailing a beowolf with a burst that all went into the lower part of its mouth. Its siblings, however, soon jumped down with loud roars. The Huntsmen, having seen them coming down, dodged out of the way, with the hammer-gun wielding bastard swinging it fast and hard. One of the lanky Grimm wolves took the strike against the side of its head and roared in anger.
One of the soldiers toting a KS-23 joined in, blasting the monster with a Barrikada slug that tore its head clean off its shoulders. Racking the pump and dumping the expended round, he let the Huntsmen, one of whom had a pair of swords that could merge into one and another with a high-caliber combat shotgun that also seemed to shift to the form of a bladed staff of some kind, dance with the others.
The left-side BMP swiveled its turret about and the 40mm grenade launcher atop it opened up. Distant, thumping explosions filled the ears of the team, with Vesna calling out, "They're trying to flank us!" as she watched some larger Beowolves appear, these ones visibly armored. Was there more than one, or…
The other BMP soon redirected its fire toward them, rounds striking and tearing limbs off of some of them as they moved forward, but their white-clad forms continued to advance, the black manes underneath revealed more with each impact of their rifles' bullets. Three collapsed when Vic laid down a long, heavy burst of machine gun fire.
"Coming from all sides!" 'Dom' spoke, swinging upward and smashing a Grimm's skull in, "The bastards are trying to fucking overwhelm us!"
"Well, it's sure as shit working, blyat!" A female soldier carrying a PKP Pecheneg called out as she lifted her MG and fired right up the slope, striking several of the larger Grimm that were trying to charge them down. She yelped, feeling herself get knocked to the floor, pausing as she saw multiple Grimm boars charging them like freaking cartwheels.
One had pinned her down and roared at her, trying to impale her with its long tusks. She drew her pistol, grit her teeth and put it under its exposed chin before squeezing the trigger five times. Its head exploded with each round and it collapsed off to the side, starting to dissipate. The woman lifted her PKP back up, shouldered it and let it rip as she was laying on her back, swearing and screaming.
… From among the crowd of Monsters, the next Beowolf appeared. Vic was standing and firing his gun up at the flanking units above when he felt the air knocked out of his lungs and his gun out of his hand. He staggered, feeling himself pinned against the wall, then gasped as he saw the giant monster staring him down.
It was one-eyed, its armor scarred by years of battle. The spikes on its back were longer than those of its siblings, more neat and tidy. It had armor all across its body, almost resembling the plate of knights and it even had much longer fangs. Its breath reeked of death as it stared the young man down and it cocked its claw back to try and strike him.
He grit his teeth, lifted both of his legs and kicked it back, feeling his boots strike the thick bone plate on its chest. It let go of him just enough for him to roll out of the way and draw his pistol. He fired at it and watched the 9mm rounds dent the bone plate. It swung its hand and struck two more soldiers, sending them flying back, then lunged Victor's way again, jaw wide open.
The Romanian lifted his arm to guard his face, then felt the teeth latch down onto his aura-covered limb and felt the alien monster wrench him to the right, throwing him with his back against the BMP so hard it bucked. He grit his teeth, sensing his Aura shield had taken a hit, before lifting his pistol and firing at the Grimm again.
He dropped the spent magazine and watched it lunge at him again, swinging with its open claws at him and catching the armor of the tank. The claws were sharp enough to leave marks on the armor plate and the monster, fast enough to dodge the turret that was swinging over to meet it. It then swung toward the Huntsmen, hitting the one with the hammer with a backhand, then swinging about and thrusting its claws into his chest.
The Aura and his armor plate took the brunt of the hit, but it still visibly knocked the air out of his lungs. A second slash with the claws ripped into his Aura and drew blood. His buddies were quick to reply, though, bullets and sword swings causing the Monster to stagger back while the turrets of the BMPs tried to traverse and shoot it without shooting each-other.
Vesna stepped up as she saw it was about to grab the guy again, aimed her rifle and let loose a volley of bullets, rounds sparking off its back. She dumped a spent magazine onto the floor and watched the monster curl up and pounce toward her, only to yelp as she saw Vic slam into it, stopping it dead in its tracks.
It sprung back up to its feet and roared in anger, preparing to attack again… Moments later, the Thirty-mils ripped into it. The 30mm APDS rounds tore through the armor plate, ripped its limbs apart and cut through its body and form. The Troops all fired upon the beast, focusing it down. Spent casings of all calibers piled high on the front lawn of the village.
Moments after, whatever was left of the monster collapsed, dead and starting to dissipate into black smoke. Ves lowered her rifle, then breathed a sigh of relief and ran over to Victor, noticing that he was limping a little. He laughed awkwardly, stating, "Thank God we came here with two BMPs," before giving thumbs up to the crews.
She smiled, then looked over toward the Huntsmen, all of whom were being tended two by medical staff. The two approached them, with Dom giving a nod to them and saying, "Thanks for the backup… I think we'd have been screwed without you guys coming over," as he scratched his cheek. He told them, "Small warning… I left the Natural Order for one major reason. Somebody is arming the extremist elements right now."
"... Why tell us this all of a sudden?" Ves inquired, shifting her rifle over onto her back.
He shrugged and said, "You're gonna be dealing with the repercussions of them getting equipment back in Vale. I left because I heard our leadership say they're planning to duke it out with the White Fang presence there and the guns they're getting from their 'benefactors' are gonna be one hell of a boon… They wanna cause some major problems for Vale for some reason."
Vic murmured, "We found Kalashnikovs marked with Izhmash iconography in the White Fang's care as well," before asking, "Do you think they'd be arming the Fang as well? We found a cache of weapons way back in November at a White Fang base we raided together," to which the man perked up. He nodded, showing it was possible.
"We should probably let Sam and the others know," Ves told him, then said to Dom, "Thanks for the warning."
"Welcome," He replied…
The girl sighed deeply, then looked back, watching the Lieutenant already lift her Scroll up to send a message to Sam. She and Vic then exchanged glances, before both of them paused as one of the stars in the sky flickered weirdly. They looked up, noticing that one of the stars was weirdly moving and flickering, multicolored.
The moment they turned to see it, it shut off its light beacons. They blinked, with Vic utilizing a pair of binoculars with his NVGs to look up. Ves said, "That's an air asset of some kind," in a murmur, "Looked almost… Familiar," before she pulled out her own binocs. The two stared up at the craft, noticing the only thing visible was the reflecting light of the town on glass.
Vic took his NVGs off and looked on, peering through the binoculars at the strange form while Ves gasped and called out, "Drone…!" which caused several of her own Russian comrades to stumble, drawing the shotguns and loading buckshot into them. She looked at it, stating, "I can't make out any markings on it from here…"
"... I don't need to," He stated, noticing the two diagonal rear wings and the lower, perpendicular third, the propeller and the silhouette of the aircraft. He blinked, lowered his binoculars and said, "That's a fucking Reaper…" to which Ves gasped. He grinned and stated, "It's an MQ-9! Holy shit!" before seeing everyone else look for it in the sky.
As it drew closer, Ves stated, "I can see it now! It's…! It's got US Markings! US AIR FORCE!" and she beamed, "But it's unarmed! Looks like a scout flight!"
"IR strobe," Vic mumbled, then started looking through his vest. He scoured through his pocket and said, "I'm gonna start up an IR Strobe! Someone get me a long-range Radio, maybe I can bounce a signal off of it!" and he pulled out the IR strobe. A small device that was only visible on infrared and Night Vision cameras, which most MQ-9 Reapers were equipped with for both targeting and scouting.
He hit the on button and pulled down his own NVG, before scoffing and pulling them back off as he grumbled, "Yeah, it works!" and lifting it high. Ves peered through the binoculars and saw the camera dome visibly adjusting to lock onto it. Vic, meanwhile, got a long range radio and set it to the right NATO frequency, before lifting the transmitter up and speaking, "SKY-EYE, SKY-EYE, SKY-EYE, BE ADVISED! BLUFOR on the ground, Country ID:ROMEO-OSCAR, acting with new BLUFOR unit, Country ID:ROMEO-FOXTROT-ROMEO! We're Friendly! I REPEAT, WE'RE FRIENDLY!" with excitement in his voice.
The Drone… Wiggled for a second. Vesna laughed happily, then watched the Drone bank away to the left. Dom, concerned by that and the sudden cheers of the Russians, asked, "You guys know what the hell that thing is? People reported seeing it fly before at night, but thought it was some sorta Atlas vehicle they lost…"
"Nah," Vic smiled, "That's one of ours… It's…"
"How did NATO even get here?" One of the Russians asked, but Vic shook his head, still smiling. They watched the Drone vanish in the sky and knew that their signal had been caught by its transmitter, at the very least. It would've probably been garbled and a lot more questions were coming, such as how a Drone like that was even flying here.
It mattered little for now… There were more Friendlies on the Planet…