The Marine Predator's command building (or the equivalent of it)
A dance of lights burst through the windows and the rolling of explosions that ripped through the base rocked Clair Picto awake. "The fuck-"
Another explosion shattered the few windows her room had, followed by the distant cracks of high-calibre weaponry.
This shook the pirate/militia queen, who leapt out of bed, threw on some clothes, snatched her cutlass, and kicked her door open.
It was chaos outside her room, members of the Marine Predators running about, some trying armed out, some screaming out orders, others running around like headless chickens.
"WHAT IN THE BROTHER'S WILL IS GOING ON?!" Clair screeched, briefly bringing some sense of order to the mishmash of individuals she called her lieutenants and officers.
Her second in command, one Rafael Ube, rushed up to Clair. "Ma'am! We are under attack-"
"I can see that you Buffon! Who?!" Clair snapped as she began marching out to the exit. "And the rest of you! To your stations!"
"Can't tell you, but we think it's those hunters that fled a few months ago!" Rafael followed, ignoring the rolling chaos beginning to occur again behind them.
"Fantastic. A couple of hunter teams with maybe some support from those animals. This will be a tough fight but we should-
Just as her footsteps outside, Clair stumbled back into Rafael as another set of explosions erupted onto the Savage Scream. The ancient Mistrali battleship, just anchored within visual range of the command building, was suddenly shrouded as C-4 and dust-based IEDs erupted on gun turrets and sponsons.
In just a few brief seconds, the Savage Scream, the "pride" of the Marine Preadtors, had just been rendered combat ineffective.
Even if it was just a rusting wreck (since they could never afford to rebuild her), the Predators held it dear.
Something burned in Clair.
"Rafael, get everyone mobilized, we're hunting these bastards down."
()
"Target: grey coat. Range, 934 metres. Wind speed is 4 mph from the northeast. Behind the wall, you should be able to see them," Brom reported, tracking one of the pirates that rushed out.
"Spotted. Firing."
The 15-kilogram rifle barked. Its deafening boom would have disoriented Brom if he had spent a few months training with it.
The 50-calibre would have shredded the magic shield even with aura in a round or two. And pirates weren't exactly known to have the highest training of aura.
The pirate, a veteran in boarding actions and fighting melee against poor ship crews, was practically ripped apart as the 50-calibre round turned part of the body into mist.
"Good hit, switch target. Aim for the one with the rifle. 921 metres, same wind speeds."
Across the cliffs and hills that rang around the base camp, anti-material rifles and heavy machine guns began raining lead across the defensive walls and on the pathways that were visible. Mortar-launched flares lit up the entire base, allowing the humans (devoid of any natural night vision) to aim just as accurately as their hunter counterparts.
Battleplan Lagging Venom was always to draw as many pirates out of or onto the wall as possible. Pinn the masses with heavier and long-range firepower while select teams got in and wrecked a bit of chaos without accidentally blasting some potential civilians.
Now, they needed to bait the enemy.
"You see that one with a hunting rifle, brown coat? 901 metres. Same wind speed," Brom stated, sighting for his target with his rifle.
The Barrett boomed again, followed by a rapid three-shot rifle burst was hurled towards a new sentry on the wall. Two of the rounds clipped them, dropping the pirate.
"Contact, a dozen personnel rushing out of the 2-story building at your 11 o'clock," Brom reported.
Cooper fired again, dropping one of the pirates, then quickly forced the rest to duck for cover with his last round. "I'm out. We need to reposition."
"Got it, let's go." Brom fired off another three-round burst before scooting backwards from their firing position.
While the pair dashing back into the forest meant their accurate sniper fire would be absent for a time, it did not mean the fire slackened. Sniper and mortar rounds continued to rain down on lone or small packs of Pirates.
()
"Good Griffon dammit! We lost Raye!"
Marini ducked behind a building wall as another rifle round burst slammed into the ground near them.
She had her sleep interrupted as a series of explosions ripped through the base, followed by repeated sniper fire hammering them.
Now, she had to get the rest of their goons back into some shape for combat-
A small explosion ripped a shack apart not far from their position. "Brothers, they throwing explosives at us!?"
Dammit. "Alright! We need to move and get on the walls. You three!" Marini pointed towards a trio of Predators with rifles. "I need you to lay covering fire when I give the signal and you keep shooting until we get to the wall. The rest of you, follow me!"
Marini smashed her war hammer against the wall, signalling her rifle-wielders to begin shooting. They quickly begin pulling triggers and cycling bolts, sending round after round down the range.
"Move!" Marini dashes out from behind the building and into the street, hugging the side buildings. She was followed by dozens of other pirates, all with melee weapons or short-range weapons like crossbows.
Another round cracked the skull of one of the riflemen, toppling them with little ease.
"Where the hell is SDOW and Ramico!?" someone screamed as they neared the defensive wall.
"Brothers if I know!" Someone else yelled. "I think SDOW's room got bombed-"
It was at that moment a portion of the defensive wall exploded as its stone and wood structure was engulfed in smoke.
Cries of panic and fear rang out among the group, causing everyone to scatter. Any semblance of order of intention disappeared.
Marini swept her eyes around-there! Ramico's shack!
Thinking more about her survival, Marini left her dissolving battleparty and raced to Ramico's shack hoping to find where the hell he went and for shelter.
Marini crashed through the door. "Ramico! Why in the brother aren't you-"
The last thing Marini remembers was a loud BANG! And a hundred stinging impacts.
()
In the back of Ramico's shack.
"Frontdoor Claymore's gone off, priming the rest," Corbin reported, smashing down on a wireless remote firing control.
The M18 Claymores was something of an oddity in the Pact arsenals. While quite effective against human/faunus personnel without aura, it had mixed effects on Grimm and Grimm. Thus, had seen its stocks shunted to the side as Taiwan and Menagerie pursued other means of defence.
But while many models had been left to rot, there was still a healthy stockpile of Claymore mines that Battlegroup Beast had appropriated for use against the Marine Predators.
A series of Claymores, discreetly planted by Nyan and her hunter team, ripped through the rest of the avenue. A crisscross of steel balls wreaked havoc, maiming or outright killing over a dozen Marine Predators.
This just added to the chaos as the rest of Battlegroup Beast engaged. Dropping all semblance of stealth, a few MAAW rounds crashed into the defensive wall which broke the bearing, mortars began lobbing high explosive rounds into any boats, and machine gun crews began raking the streets from their cliffside position.
In mere moments, dozens of Marine Predators were gunned down, blown up, and stitched apart while many of those who reacted to the initial explosions and flares were forced into buildings and alleys ways.
"Halluah!" One of the Green Berets whooped as a MAAW round crashed into another group of Marine Predators.
Nyan winced 2 of the pirates disappeared into the smoke caused by a MAAW round detonating and flinging many others into walls. They may have been pirates, but it still was a bit painful watching sapient beings annihilated like this.
Still, they had a job to do.
"(Comms) Beast 2-3, this is 4-3. We can't get a clear shot at several tangos to your 8 o'clock. They're hiding behind a wooden structure. Can't tell if they're civilians in there. Be a pleasure if you can take them out for us," One of the MAAWS operators reported.
"Copy that, will engage," Corbin nodded. "Let's go hunting."
Verm cackled. "Right behind you brother!"
With the pair advancing in the vanguard, the rest of Beast 2-3 followed suit. Snaking around the avenue of detonated claymores via an alleyway, the hunter-Green Beret team bypassed any surviving marine Predators (hopefully all dead or dying).
"Hold," Corbin raised a hand as they approached a junction. He leaned around the corner and then ducked back. "Spotted 4-3's targets. 5 tangos. Verm?"
"I'm up then, you next." Verm stepped next to Corbin, leaned around the corner, and (with immense strength) threw his Harpoon at one of the Predators hiding behind a building that was just in the view of the alley.
While in the past, Taiwanese and Earther soldiers might have laughed at using Harpoons (not the anti-ship missile of course) in combat, they stopped the mocking when hunters like Verm could accurately nail a target from 80 metres away. And it was shockingly deadly.
So naturally, when a Marine Predator was speared and another nicked (aka also stabbed) by the Harpoon, the remaining pirates could only scream when the Harpoon was expertly extracted on a fishing line which allowed Verm to quickly retrieve his weapon.
Corbin quickly followed up, opening up a couple of short-full auto bursts from his T112 rifle.
Had any of the Predators had aura, they might have shrugged off the hits. But they didn't, and their cries of fear or pain were cut short by more than a dozen 5.56 rounds stitched up their bodies.
"Clear, moving up."
"Hey, my kills!"
"Hundreds to go around bro."
Another mortar shot crashed down somewhere, taking out a few more poor pirates.
"At this rate? We're probably going to run out by dusk!" Verm snorted
()
Across the base, other Pact teams wreaked havoc as it was now their time. Out of the blue, Taiwanese Spec Ops, American Green Berets, Menagerie Rangers, and human and Faunus hunters leapt out of the shadows and hiding spots and descended into battle.
The effect was akin to throwing a concrete block into a running washing machine: total chaos and disintegration of any command and control the Marine Predators had.
The Marine Predators had shown no mercy earlier to many, human and faunus alike. Many hunters and operators showed little.
While teams eliminated pirate group after pirate group, it brought time for other teams and squads to move up. Many onto the unwrecked portions of the defensive wall for a better vantage point.
One of them was Casper Nix, a Buffalo Faunus apart of squad Beast 5-1. He was not a hunter, but rather a Menagerie ranger. An explosive and dust expert, at least informally, he had considerable experience in both the art of explosive engineering and handling armoured targets.
Casper was tapped in as a MAAWS operator, something he felt suited his physique. Considerably stronger than the average human or Faunus, he could wield the MAAWS with comparable ease while still being able to carry a couple of rounds himself.
So while the interior teams were sowing chaos, he and his team, Beast 5-1, scaled an undamaged section of the Pirate's now unoccupied wall.
"Last one!" Casper calls, as he pulls up another (albeit younger) Ranger up the wall. 12 fully armed "heavy" operators with crew-severed weaponry and now targets in closer range for the MAAWs.
A bunch of Taiwanese operators began quickly setting up an M2 Browning HMG on a tripod, a collection of American Green Berets preparing anti-material rifles with thermal scopes to begin hunting any Marine Predator snipers, and Casper, naturally, began sweeping his MAAWS's sight for a new target.
"(Comms) This is Beast 2-1! We are taking fire from the lighthouse! Small arms and- they got a small ballista up there! Can anyone assist!?"
Beast 2-1, the team that had blown up the battleship, had taken shelter behind some Remnant-style shipping containers and a few overturned boats. They were trading rifle and dust fire with what appeared to be half a dozen Marine Predators on a 5 story lighthouse around half a kilometre from Casper's location.
A modestly difficult target without laser-guided rounds, but something Casper could handle.
"Cherry, load me one of those Anti-structure munitions will you?"
"Got it, boss!"Another ranger, named Cherry, quickly unpacked a container of 84mm MAAWS rounds, unflipped the rear of the Recoilless Rifle, slid the round in, and locked the weapon. "Clear!"
"Clear Backblast!"
"Clear!"
"Fire!"
The Carl Gustaf gave a sharp bark as its 84mm payload was blasted out. Mere seconds later, a hybrid Gravity-Fire Structure Busting Round smacked into the lighthouse and did two things.
1 - Engulf the whole building in Flames.
2 - Ripped the middle portion of the Lighthouse like a black hole existed for a second.
Granted, either one would probably have been overkill (the round had been made to demolish WW2-style concrete pillboxes), as the crumbling lighthouse burned as its upper portion came crashing down to the ground. If any Marine Predators lived the initial detonation, they probably didn't survive the fall.
"One lighthouse crashing down!" Casper reported.
"(Comms) Thank you!" the radio call from Beast 2-1 came.
Casper's team's M2 Browning was set up at that point, and the familiar 50 Caliber barking signalled a new phase in the fighting.
Divide and conquer. Or rather, Divide, Conquer, and Destroy. Teams would take a position on the walls and cliff, nailing anything that moved. The interior teams would continue to isolate pirate groups without demolishing too many buildings that might have housed hostages. And they would continue wrecking pirates wherever they gathered.
"Casp! New target, you 3 o'clock!" One of their snipers reported.
Casper glanced, a Pirate group number a dozen, maybe trying to make a push to the walls.
Not gonna happen. "Cherry? Give me Fletchettes Area Denial Round."
Cherry nodded, extracting the spent casing from the Carly G before shoving a yellow shaded round in.
"Clear!"
The round was akin to the FFV401 round type, which was essentially a thousand flechettes crammed together into a small package. Not exactly a weapon one would use against a charging Beringal but it did turn the weapon into a giant shotgun.
Though the Taiwanese version did shrink the number of Flechettes down to 600 for a greater range and a tighter spread, the effect was all the same when the MAAWS roared again as Casper pulled the trigger.
Over a dozen Marine Predators, having barely managed to collect their nerves, had their lives ended when hundreds of high-velocity flechettes racked their position and promptly neutralized the threat. No aura to protect them, they found themselves turned into human swiss cheese.
"Breech clear!" Cherry reported as she tossed the spent round over the side of the wall.
"Good," Casper took a look. Tracers and MAAW shots continued racing into the base, while new mortar flares ignited overhead, replacing spent ones. Thus, no shade from the darkness of the night (physically and metaphorically) would be granted.
Still, even with overwhelming firepower and surprise, there was more work to be done.
"Cherry, load another flechette round."
"Aye," Casper heard and felt the sensation of a new round being inserted into his weapon.
Might as well continue hunting. There are still plenty of targets around.
We're maybe halfway to 3 quarters the way done. I was hoping to get this out earlier but events derailed me. Sorry about that but we're coming to a close for this segment and then we can go back to plan voting.
