So very far away
Chapter 1
Earth
27th April 2017
London-England
Colonel 'Red Crown' of the Specialized Assault Group felt like her lungs were on fire as she pelted down the road, bullets whizzed and buzzed by her head or slammed into the asphalt or concrete around her, she dived into cover thankful for the respite as she lifted her gun above her cover and blind fired at where the bullets came from, she lowered her weapon and tried to raise her squad on the radio again.
"White cloud, this is Red crown do you copy over." No response, save for the usual static feedback.
"White cloud come in over" no response, she put the radio back on her webbing as a hail of bullets slammed into the cover shielding her.
"Damn it" she cursed as she peeked around cover in time to see 3 enemy soldiers advancing towards her, she ducked behind cover again as they raised their weapons and fired sending chips of concrete and asphalt into the air. Red crown waited for a lull then popped up and fired of a three round burst from her recently developed MK 92 assault rifle, the bullets hit home, two burrowing into the flesh of one soldiers neck rupturing his jugular and severing his spine, the other flew off and pinged off a metal lamp post that had somehow survived the intense battle going on around it. The other two soldiers ducked behind any cover they could find and returned fire forcing 'Red Crown' into cover, thinking quickly she pulled a fragmentation grenade off her webbing pulled the pin and launched it to approximately where one of the enemy soldiers was taking cover, a cry of 'GRENADE' was heard before it went off and a pain filled cry was heard, a guttural snarl of rage was heard following by drumming footsteps Red Crown rolled to the side as the last enemy soldier vaulted over her cover and rammed a sword into the spot she had just been. Looking up she got a look at her enemy, he seemed human but she knew he wasn't he was a Jaeger, German for hunter, a sub species of humanity which has been at war with human kind for some time to become the dominant species on the planet. They were easily recognizable due to the fact that they had a pair of horns, unique to each individual, on the top of their heads and their faces were marred with unexplained markings, they were generally stronger and faster, but they lacked intelligence, they were not stupid by any means but they were definitely less smart than the average human, this led to their equipment and tactics being subpar to their human counterparts, but their speed and strength made up for this short coming, to a degree. Red Crown raised her rifle and fired of a quick three round burst one to the head two to the chest putting the Jaeger down for good.
"This is Lit Candle to Red Crown do you copy."
"Loud and clear, sitrep"
"Pinned down with Shadow Cat at the kings cross station, Requesting assistance."
"Confirmed, I am Oscar mike ETA, 3 mikes out." With that Red Crown cautiously made her way to her squad mates.
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War, war is something that mankind is intimately familiar with; from the moment the existence of sub-species Jaeger was discovered in 1890 mankind has been fighting them for dominance of the planet, whether it be small skirmishes of 10-30 men between on their borders or full blown continental conflicts stretching across countries, involving millions of men. War has always been present on the blue-green world, it wasn't until 1930 due to a breakthrough in their more advanced technology mankind began to push more rapidly into Jaeger territory, conquering the rest of Europe, The North of Africa, and parts of Asia, but it always came at a terrible price, thousands and in some cases hundreds of thousands of men were killed, wounded or captured in the capturing of each country. Time and again peace was sought, but it never came always slipping through their grasp like sand. Mankind's efforts to exterminate the so cold 'Jaeger menace' gained ground when they conquered Australia and most of the pacific Islands in 1990. That's when the Jaegers launched a massive counterassault from their Strongholds in the Americas and Conquered most of Western Europe in a blitzkrieg style offence, it took many lives, resources, and lot's of back and forths over 2 decades but now Mankind was about to push the Jaegers out of Europe once again. This is the setting in which we find Reaper 2-2 a squad of 4 young soldiers about to embark on the most unbelievable adventure of their lives.
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Earth
27th April 2017
London-England
Red crown came to the intersection which would take her to her squad mates when she stopped; she raised her rifle to a shop front, could have sworn I saw something.
"Flash" came a voice from in front of her, active cloak thought Red Crown.
"Lightning, identify yourself."
"I'm offended boss" The figure de-cloaked to reveal White cloud, her pristine white mark IV combat armor deactivating it's adaptive camouflage system to reveal to the soldier it was hiding.
"Good to see you White cloud, why didn't you answer your radio?"
"Was maintaining radio silence while shadowing a group of Jaegers, they're moving to kings cross, any idea why?"
"Lit Candle and Shadow Cat are there. We need to hurry they're pinned and if the Jaeger's they're facing now get reinforced they won't stand a chance.
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Earth
27th April 2017
London-England
Lit Candle reloaded her MK 120 SAW as bullets slammed into the concrete arch she was using as cover, she knew that the enemy was going to overwhelm her soon but she wouldn't go down without a fight. Her squad mate Shadow Cat reloaded her MK 24 sub machine gun and let loose a volley down range, a cry was heard as an enemy soldier joined the tally of the dead.
"We can't hold much longer candle, we need to pull back."
"We pull back and those civilians in there are dead meat." That was why they were fighting for this seemingly unimportant land mark. Kings cross station, which had been closed and decommissioned for years was housing a large group of human civilians; if the Jaegers got to them they would either be killed or put to work in the forced labor camps. Lit candle raised her weapon and fired a barrage of rounds down range causing a number of Jaeger's to duck their heads lest a bullet find a nice home in their heads. Lit candle ducked her head down as a Jaeger sniper fired a round that narrowly missed her head.
"Fuck, we need help now or we ain't getting out alive." Then there was the signature loud cracking sound of a MK92 assault rifle as it fired its powerful 50cal Beowulf at whatever poor sap it was aimed at, and Lit candle only knew one person who used that powerful rifle.
"Red Crown's here at least," this statement was followed by the barking of a MK14 assault shotgun and the pained cries of dying Jaegers.
"White clouds with her" commented Shadow cat as she sent another volley down range. Lit candle looked over her cover and saw her squad leader and mate attacking the Jaegers from their unprotected flank, the squad of 8 Jaegers quickly whittled down to none under the combined fire of Reaper 2-2.
The 4 soldiers regrouped under the arc which Candle and Shadow were making their stand, the distant sound of gunfire, shouts and explosions seeming another world away as the squad mates…as the friends reunited once again.
"Good to see you're still alive ma'm"
"Thanks Candle, have to thank the new shields on this armor for that, titanium-steel plating may be good armor, but the shields are always nice to have."
"I hear that, what's our next step?"
"Command wants us to move in on a Jaeger command post about a click north of here, scuttlebutt has it that there's a HPT there, and command would like them gone." The other members of reaper 2-2 nodded in agreement and gathered their equipment, before leaving candle went down to the civilians telling them they were safe for now and to try to stay as quiet as possible until friendly forces could get to them.
With that the 4 soldiers quickly made their way through the burning streets of London to fight another battle.
They reached the CP in about 20 minutes and were rather suspicious of what they found, the CP was there, but it was deserted the Jaegers who had been there having long since left.
"What's the verdict ma'm, bug out or do a little snooping for Intel?" questioned Cloud
"We need to know where the HPT went, move in but stay on guard." The 4 soldiers cautiously advanced on the CP, their weapons twitching this way and that at the slightest hint of any kind of activity. They reached the main tent and still nothing, Crown opened the tent and heard an audible click, her blood froze as she saw what was in front of her.
Placed dead in the centre of tent was the corpse of a fell SAG soldier who was holding a bomb, a thermobaric bomb to be exact and it's timer was counting down to zero.
It was at 3
"Shit" was all red crown could say before the bomb reached Zero and exploded killing her and her friends in an instant.
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"GAAH" Red crown gasped as she shot up looking around wildly as she became accustomed to her surroundings. She was laid on her back in a clearing, in a forest, she reached out for her rifle which she instantly grabbed and raised to her shoulder, scanning the surroundings with the help of her helmets HUD; which possessed thermal, sonar, heartbeat monitor and motion tracker. The area was clear save for the unconscious forms of her teammates, standing up slowly to make sure that nothing was broken she walked over to Cloud and gently shook her awake, the woman's eyes shot open in shock as she sat up right.
"Red crown, where… where are we? I thought we died."
"So did I, help me wake up the others. We need to determine where we are and what we should do."
"Yes ma'm"
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In a location currently unknown to reaper 2-2 a middle aged man was watching them on a screen. He had silver hair and wore a dark green suit with a scarf wrapped around his neck, a coffee mug in one hand and a cane in the other his face set in a thoughtful expression, he observed the 4 heavily armed, and armored, soldiers as they regained consciousness after suddenly appearing a flash of light. Curious and suspicious about how they got here and why he wanted them brought in to answer a few questions, and he had just the team in mind. Picking up a phone like object he dialed the number of his long time friend.
"Glynda, I need you to do something for me."
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Reaper 2-2 were slowly making their way through the thick forest that they had found themselves in, it had been 14 minutes since they had woken up in the clearing and they were eager to find out where they were and why the hell they were here.
They were walking through another clearing when they heard a snap in front of them, instantly their weapons were up and pointed to where the noise came from.
"Who's there, identify yourself." A figure emerged from the tree line, a blonde haired woman wearing a formal business suit like attire with a purple cape flowing behind her. Her emerald green eyes peered though her glasses at the 4 soldiers in front of her.
"She's not alone" came Shadow's voice over the helmets internal comm. link, the other soldiers immediately switched to thermal and saw 4 figures trying to stay hidden in the foliage.
"Who are you and how did you get here." Questioned the woman in an authoritive voice, the 4 soldiers looked to each other briefly before Crown decided to answer.
"Who we are is not your concern, as for how we got here we don't know." The woman seemed to consider this for a moment before nodding slightly and looking back at Crown.
"Fair enough I must ask you to accompany me to beacon, Professor Ozpin has a few questions for you." Immediately the soldiers aimed their weapons at Glynda.
"Sorry miss, but we're not going anywhere with you until we know what the hell is going on, for all we know you could be a Jaeger conspirator" the woman seemed puzzled at the Jaeger comment but did remarkably well at hiding it.
"I must insist." The 4 figures emerged from the tree line, 4 girls who looked immensely familiar to the 4 soldiers.
One was short and pale with black and red hair and silver eyes, she was wearing a gothic themed skirt/corset all in red and black with black tights and red and black boots, she was holding a massive scythe over her shoulder.
Another was slightly taller but paler, she had ice blue eyes and platinum blonde hair, she was wearing all white her jacket, tiara, shoes everything was white, she was pointing a rapier with a revolving cylinder near the handle at her.
Another was taller with darker skin, she had a bow on her head, amber eyes and long wavy black hair, her attire mostly black with a bit of white and had a hint of purple at the bottom of her tights. She was holding what looked like a cleaver in one hand and a katana in another.
The last one was the tallest, she was tanned with lilac eyes and long golden hair, she was wearing a revealing mix of leather clothes and armor with black fingerless gloves on her hands, slightly less visible under the yellow gauntlets covering her hand and some of her forearm and judging by the barrel it was also a gun.
Crown stared at the red head, Cloud the white themed girl, Shadow the black ninja, and Candle the blonde.
"What is your name?" Crown asked the red haired girl suddenly, she seemed surprised but complied almost on instinct.
"Ruby Rose." Crown felt the breath freeze in her lungs, before she decided to do something crazy.
Her hands reached up to her helmet there was a hissing as it came off her head, revealing a woman, her face was weathered but still beautiful, her silver eyes seemed energetic but also slightly hallow, her red and black hair came to her chin and she had a thin scar going from the tip of her mouth to the bottom of her ear lobe.
"My name is Colonel Ruby Rose, of the Specialized Assault Group… and I don't think I'm on my own planet anymore."
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BAM how do you like that, please read review and tell me what you think.
Till next time