RWBY Modern Warfare

Chapter 36

It'd taken several minutes for everyone to recover from the surprising end of the previous mission in the game, but once they got started again everyone's eyes were glued to the screen. The USMC logo spun for a bit before the map popped up, the smoldering wreck that used to be a city easily visible even as the camera zoomed out.

Yang was still just downright amazed. "Damn. Just how far away can you 'see' a blast like that?"

Weiss didn't even need to think about it. "I don't think any aircraft on Remnant could fly high enough to 'not' see it. Though maybe, if you somehow managed to end up on the moon, you might get far enough away that the damage doesn't look noticeable."

Weiss noticed Blake smirking at that and groaned. "Let me guess, Strangereal has people land on the moon."

Her smirk widened at that. "Oh they've got 'plenty' of stories that just grab the possibility of space travel and exploration. Not all of them connected with one another."

Whatever Weiss' reply might have been was cut off as the map was replaced by the SAS logo and Nikolai's voice rang out.

[Nikolai: The man is a coward, Captain Price. Al-Asad would never sacrifice himself.]

Ruby practically growled at that. "Oh, so it's alright to let everyone who 'believed' in you die, but..oh I am 'really' looking forward to taking that guy down!"

[Nikolai: There is a safehouse in Azerbaijan that Al-Asad has used in the past. I am sending you the coordinates.

Price: Understood Nikolai. Gaz, assemble the team. We're going to Azerbaijan.

Gaz: Yes sir. I hear it's lovely this time of the year.]

Yang chuckled at that. "Yeah, so lovely we highlighted part of the map to make it look like a sock puppet."

That made the others chuckle for a bit.

Soap finished checking his assault rifle, more than satisfied with its current condition as a man less than ten yards away from the squad used a light to signal them. Why the guy needed to use light signals when they were close enough to read his nametag, Anatoly Voroshilov, was a mystery but it wasn't Soap's call.

Price started moving forward to their contact as he said, "There's Kamarov's man. Let's go."

[Blake: You know, that would have made more sense if it looked like the SAS were hiding, not just crouching near a random bit of road.

Yang: I'm more annoyed at the naming scheme here. Come on, it's like they're just randomly throwing syllables together.

Weiss: Don't worry, he doesn't look like he's going to be a recurring character.]

Anatoly and Price got close enough to practically touch heads, still crouching as they whispered to eachother..over the radio..in plain view for anyone who might happen to stare in their general direction. "Al-Asad is in the village. The Ultranationalists are protecting him."

"Perfect. Move out."

And with that, Bravo Six began going down the road. Part of him wondered why they were approaching the village from a direction where there were so many active street lamps, it kind of undid a good amount of the advantage they might have had attacking at night. Then he started to hear screaming in the distance. Panicked screams, with gunfire to highlight them.

Gaz was just as confused as Soap was. "What the bloody hell's going on up there?"

Anatoly sounded almost bored as he replied. "It's the Ultranationalists. They're killing the villagers."

[Blake: 'Why'?! If this place is supposed to be a usual safehouse for this guy than anyone who lives here probably already works for him!

Weiss: Yeah, they're just hammering in the fact that they're the bad guys now. Seriously, do we even need them to pull crap like this after everything else we've seen them do?]

Gaz scoffed at that. "Yeah well not for long they're not."

As the squad advanced up the hill, it was hard to say who opened fire first. Hell, Soap couldn't even see who everyone else was shooting at. All he could see in that direction was they were getting close to a two-story house. There were Russian voices, based on the tone of voice soldiers, but 'that' sounded like it was from their left, and no one else in the squad was even looking at the church in that direction.

Still, the building everyone else was shooting at was easier to get to. Groaning at the fact that whatever attempt at stealth was completely out the proverbial window, he veered to the right of the building, hoping to find an entrance. What he found were two enemies across the street and rushing forward, guns blazing.

[Ruby: Is it just me or do they seem a 'lot' more accurate when running around than we are?

Weiss: Why do you care? You're still shooting them down quickly and arguably your aim when stationary is even 'more' unfair.]

Part of Soap couldn't help chuckling at the fact that he was taking cover behind a dumpster while dealing with the next bit of garbage. The other, well, it was too busy shooting at the enemy and paying attention to where they were coming from to really give a damn about little details like that. And there were 'plenty' of enemies to pay attention to.

They just kept coming regardless of how many bodies he dropped. At first he was pleased that the enemy was fighting so stupidly in defense of this village..then he started wondering why the hell they just kept pouring out of the building. By his second reload he was downright worried the enemy was going to just swamp them due to sheer numbers.

[Ruby: Really? 'Really'?! We're dealing with 'another' constantly large group that'll just keep coming?!

Yang: What's the matter sis, starting to feel a little overwhelmed?

Ruby: No, just..it feels more like something to make the game feel longer. And considering how much of it feels like they're trying to really put you in a whole new world, that trick just feels..I don't know. Out of place?]

It was around the point a rocket flew by his head so close he could feel the wind from it he decided the dumpster was no longer a good bit of cover. Not if the enemy was going to keep coming at this rate. Now, maybe it wasn't the smartest idea, but he saw a door to the building on his left just in front of the dumpster. So he burst out of his cover for a few seconds, then started strafing towards the door as he kept shooting.

Luckily Gaz came out the same door he was moving towards, so Soap didn't get a humiliating load of bullets to the side while he was focused on the front. And once he got inside it looked like the rest of the squad managed to secure the first floor of the first building while he was busy dealing with the horde in front of them. Still, the building wasn't completely secure.

While the rest of the squad held the entrances to the building against the absurdly large enemy force, Soap switched to his shotgun and moved upstairs. A man tried rushing to the bathroom as he came up. One shot and he was torn apart.

[Yang: Yikes, bad time to need to take a crap there, buddy.

Blake: Considering that bathroom doesn't even have a door, I wouldn't trust that toilet anyway.]

Someone tried catching Soap off-guard from a room to the right, another shot, and he was done. Quickly reloading the two shells he'd spent, Soap checked each room up there. Nothing. Not even any sign of whatever civilians were being attacked before the squad got to the village.

Gaz's voice went over the radio. "Building clear, no sign of Al-Asad. Move on."

[Weiss: Wait, I thought we started this attack because of dying civilians.

Blake: I get the feeling they were going to attack around now regardless just to grab that guy, the civilian massacre was just extra motivation.]

Exiting the building on the side that was facing the church, switching back to his assault rifle, Soap noticed that there was only a bare few enemies in this direction. All the others were focused on attacking the squad from the northwest. And since one of the buildings they had to clear was southwest, that made the trip over to the next building all the easier.

Still, the enemy wasn't 'completely' stupid. Bullets started flying from behind a small wooden fence on top of a hill, and Price quickly gave an order. "Soap, call in air support on that building!"

[Ruby: There's only a handful of guys over here, and if the air support is as brutal as usual? I really want to save that for more than a handful of guys.]

It was a little awkward to completely ignore his commanding officer as he shot two of the enemy just outside the building. As he got to the top of the small hill and paused to decide which entrance to try using to get in there, bullets seemingly from nowhere slammed into him. He didn't have any time to react, at best he just had time to turn and see the man crouching near the side of the building with his gun blazing before Soap hit the ground limply.

{"Teamwork is essential, it gives them other people to shoot at. – Unknown}

[Weiss: And let that be a lesson to you. Just because things 'look' easy doesn't mean it's actually going to be easy.]

"Building clear, no sign of Al-Asad. Move on to the next one."

Soap rushed out of the building, switching to his assault rifle by the time he got to the bottom of the stairs. Heading to the southwest, shooting the lone enemy just in front of the church, he charged straight for the next building.

"Soap, call in air support on that building!"

With that Soap pulled out the designator and stared at the building.

[Weiss: Okay, now 'I' have to say there's something a bit off about this mission compared to some of the others. We put away our weapon and there's a..very wide and absurdly bright yellow light that 'definitely' isn't some kind of laser designator pointing at..

Ruby: It's a red light now. And that light..isn't moving now that we've pulled our gun out and started moving around again.

Yang: Cut them some slack. If this was supposed to be 'completely' realistic do you think the guy with no aura would heal that quickly?

Weiss: I'm not asking for realism. It's just..kind of inconsistent with how much attention to detail they give.

Ruby: Yeah, gameplay and story differences are one thing. Making a mechanic that feels out of place with the rest of the game's style? Little hard to ignore.]

As he called in the air support, the distinctively Russian pilot came in over the radio. "Mosin two-five here, we're on the way. Standby for air support."

Unfortunately he couldn't just stand by. The enemy was starting to react to the fact that the squad was on the move. Troops started to come down the street to tear into them, both in front and from the right. Shooting down a few of the bastards, Soap went into the church for cover. Unfortunately taking cover, while good for staying alive, did nothing to help gain ground.

It was hard to say just how effective the helicopter really was. It was definitely hitting the building with rockets and cutting down enemies with its miniguns, but..well, the building didn't seem to take any damage and the enemy infantry just kept on 'coming'! They didn't even bother trying to take cover from the gunship ripping them apart.

[Ruby:..you've got to be kidding. Why were we even 'given' the option to call in a helicopter if it's just going to 'barely' slow these guys down?!

Blake: Well they're slowed down, that's better than before. Go for the building now.]

Usually when a helicopter starts attacking a building the defenders are the ones who start to get frantic. But Soap charged at it, taking down three enemies on the outside before he switched to his shotgun and went through the door on the far left. A man standing next to the door took the blast right to the face, losing his head before he even knew Soap was there. A second man to the immediate right had a little more time to react, moving to bash Soap in the face with the butt of his rifle. He took a shot to the gut for his trouble.

A third came from a door on the other end of the room, managing to land a few hits on Soap. His shotgun veered off target for his first shot, not even touching the enemy. His second shot was on target, though it only staggered the bastard.

[Yang: What.]

A third shot took him off his feet, but the enemy wasn't dead yet, sitting up slightly as he drew a pistol. The fourth shotgun blast finished him off, but out of sheer paranoia Soap emptied the final two rounds before starting to reload.

[Yang: No, seriously, what was that?

Ruby: Oh I have 'no' idea. Why 'was' that guy so much more durable than the others? It's not like we were that far away! It's not like shotguns just lose their effectiveness if you're an extra few yards away!]

Just as Soap started to reload, a very distinctive noise chilled his blood. A very unmistakable bark.

[Blake: Oh come on!]

As if the animal was waiting for the absolute perfect opportunity, it zipped over the body of the absurdly determined Russian and leaped on top of Soap, gnashing for his throat. It was only due to sheer reflex that Soap was able to catch the dog just before that happened and snapped its neck. Getting up on his feet, seeing as Captain Price entered the room with him, Soap groaned when he heard the next radio transmission.

"This is two-five. We have to refuel and rearm. We will not be available for some time."

[Ruby: But he barely did anything! Why is he leaving!

Blake: Well the help he gave was enough for us to make some progress, that has to count for something, right?

Weiss: Speaking of count, just how many of these buildings 'are' we going to have to clear?

Ruby half-jokingly whimpered. She'd only just gotten their character into a second building. And it didn't feel like things were going to wind down anytime soon.]

Author's Note: Yeah..been a while since I updated this story. Again. Sorry. Still, I haven't given up on this story yet. It's just..more prone to writer's block for me for some reason.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the update, and hopefully I can push myself to have another update within the month.