The bus ride to the naval base was mostly quiet...

Not.

Rage and Cheese were screaming sea shanties at the top of their lungs to the point that it was almost deafening for anyone sitting next to them.

Red hadn't told them why they were heading to the base, even though he himself had no clue why his informant had decided to pop into existence after three years.

Red (mumbling): "Fucking bitch better have some tea..."

Pine: "You say something? I can't hear over those two."

Cheese/Rage: "WHAT DO WE DO WITH A DRUNKEN SAILOR!?"

Red: "They're getting louder on purpose."

Reaper: "What!?"

Red: "THEY'RE GETTING LOUDER ON PURPOSE!!"

Pine: "I STILL CAN'T HEAR!!"

Rage/Cheese: "WAY HEY AND UP SHE RISES!!!!!!!"

Everyone: "SHUT THE FUCK UP!!"

Red simply slammed the brakes on the minibus and watched as Rage flew out of his seat and bounced off of the windshield.

Rage: "Well that was fuckin' rude!"

Red: "It got you to shut up didn't it?"

Rage: "Since when the fuck were you allowed to make good points!?"

Red: "Since I got behind the wheel!"

Cheese: "... Sorry guys."

Reaper: "Don't apologise."

Cheese: "I'm not talking about that."

Reaper: "What are you- OH GOOD GOD!!"

Cheese: "EHEHEHEHEHEHEHEH."

Red: "THIS IS A MINIBUS, NOT AUSCHWITZ!!"

Rage: "The difference being?"

Pine: "GET A WINDOW OPEN!!"

Meanwhile, in one of the far back seats, Calli was hanging her head out of a window.She was feeling slightly ill and the weebs' shenanigans weren't helping. Especially after getting gassed.

After another hour of screaming, shouting and general crimes against humanity, the group arrived at the base. They received a few stares from passing soldiers as they fought to regain their breath, because apparently Cheese had to drop a few more gas grenades on the road.

Red then turned to the group.

Red: "Right, I've gotta go see my CO and our informant. I'll have one of the soldiers take you to the cafeteria. Do NOT destroy anything. Rage, I see you eyeing up those tanks. DO NOT."

Rage just rolled his eyes before making a mental note to steal the armour plating off of the tanks.

Red then called a soldier over and had him lead the weebs to the cafeteria. The group waited around while Smol occasionally flashbanged one of the soldiers with some rather horrific images. A few soldiers looked over at him with some rather intense glares while Rage and Cheese polished their firearms, of which there were many. To put it in a list, they were rocking:

One M134 minigun, heavily modified for Cheese's personal use in both human and bear form.

Seven L85A2 rifles

Eight Glock-18 handguns

Three Mk14 rifles

One L96A1 sniper rifle

One KSG slug shotgun

Two Taurus Raging Bull Revolvers.

And of course...

One RPK-16 light machine gun.

So yeah... These idiots were packing heat, and that was just the basic weapons. Rage's little experiments had yet to make any sort of appearance. Though he maybe put a few too many laser sights on a P-90.

Anyway, the group chilled out in the cafeteria until the PA system called for a briefing to start. The weebs nodded to each other before grabbing their gear and heading to the briefing room.

Upon their entry, they saw who Red's informant was.

Calli: "Oh no."

???: "Oh, heya, Calli!"

AMELIA "TIME TRAVELLING GREMLIN" WATSON

Red was stood at the front of the room while everyone took their seats, Cheese elected to sit on somebody's shoulders because fuck that guy for no particular reason.

Red: "Alright! As you may all be aware, this is Amelia Watson. An informant that's been aiding us in dealing with supernatural threats. Do not remind me of that one incident that gave me PTSD, I SWEAR TO GOD!"

As the room was silent, everybody could hear the gremlin laugh emanating from Amelia.

Red then continued.

Red: "As is the case this time, we've got another potential threat. I'm sure you all remember our excursion to the island where a scientist was doing some rather fucked up shit."

There was a collective nod from the other soldiers as Cheeses blood ran cold. Smol shuddered as the island was mentioned, both of them having been on that island when it was liberated the first time.

Red: "Turns out there's another island. This one seems to be focused less on biological splicing and more on bio-weapons and robotics. From overhead scans of the island we've seen some rather heavy fortifications, which is why we're bringing the big guns along. Those seven among your number are complete and total idiots. However, they're idiots with enough firepower to level a small continent without much effort. As such, my personal fleet will be leading this mission, as such I've already sent orders to my subordinates and they'll be meeting us at the island."

Rage: "I'm betting Kaeya's gonna be too drunk to give a shit."

Red: "... While that may be true, I have every faith in Jean to show up."

Rage: "Oh yeah... about that..."

Red's eye twitched in annoyance.

Red: "What did you do?"

Rage: "You remember that virus I was working on?"

Red: "..."

Rage: "Barbara may or may not have come by and accidentally infected herself, so Jean's having to take care of her while she recovers."

Red: "... you have ten seconds to start running."

Rage: "WITH PLEASURE!"

https://youtu.be/WTWyosdkx44

everyone did a double take as Rage just ceased to exist with a single doot.

Red: "... Forgot he could do that."

Calli: "You tend to forget these things at your age."

Red: "I AIN'T THAT OLD!!"

The room soon erupted with laughter as Red fumed.

Soldier1: "I mean, lets be honest. You certainly act like you're in your fifties."

Red: "ADMIRAL! I'M BEING BULLIED!!"

Everyone: "And?"

Lord-Admiral: "Your fleet, your problem."

After a few minutes of pure bullying, it was back to serious business. Or about as serious as you could get with a group of idiots with enough firepower to end the galaxy.

Red: "Alright, to round this off, you'll be given forty eight hours to get squared away. Check your ships, gear rations. Prep any land vehicles we may have and tell Kaeya to sober up. Dismissed. Now I've gotta deal with Jean overworking herself AGAIN!"

Pine: "SIMP!"

Red: "Silence, short-stack."

Cheese: "Let's not get banned on twitch, yeah?"

Rage: "V I R G I N !"

Cheese: "RAGE, NO-"

*this account has been banned on twitch.tv, for further details please go fuck yourself with the nearest lamppost.*

Anyways, moving swiftly along. Red had to remain within his office in the base for quite a while as the others helped get everything loaded up. Rage and Cheese helped with the heavy lifting while Pine helped with a small amount of admin work. Calli and Ame just chilled out and laughed at the weebs.

Smol mostly helped with checking all of the gear was secured on the ships while Reaper helped the engineering team.

Eventually the other captains showed up. Kaeya was basically being dragged by Jean while Diluc just laughed. Amber, Lumine and Aether also showed up with Paimon, Fischl, Venti and Lisa.

Jean: "Apologies for being late, everyone. Barbara's still recovering from that virus."

JEAN "OVERWORKED NUMBER 2" GUNNHILDR

Diluc: "Ya couldn't have picked a later time?"

DILUC "RED WINE RETARD" RAGNVINDR

Red: "Sadly no, we've got less than forty eight hours to prep so get a move on."

Kaeya: "My hangover isn't gonna like this one bit."

KAEYA "LIVES BY THE BOTTLE" ALBERICH

Diluc: "Suck it up, Elsa."

Kaeya: "I'm boutta throw hands if you keep callin' me that!"

Red: "Back off, both of you. Kaeya, there's painkillers in the med-bay."

Kaeya nodded before heading off to the med-bay to get himself something for his hangover.

Jean: "Sounds like this is serious if you need all of us here."

Fischl: "If one is too ignorant to see the seriousness of this particular-"

FISCHL "WALKING, TALKING MONOLOGUE" VON LUFTSCHLOSS NARFIDORT (AMY)

Rage then proceeded to dink Fischl in the head with a wrench from the other side of the ship.

Rage (distant): "CROSSMAP, BITCH!"

A few soldiers could be heard laughing as Fischl pouted while rubbing her head where she got hit. Aether had to try his best to stop himself from laughing out loud. Lumine stood with Jean and Red as they went over the mission brief while Paimon avoided Cheese as he tried to put her in a pot.

Cheese: "C'MERE!!"

Paimon: "PAIMON ISN'T EMERGENCY FOOD!"

PAIMON "EMERGENCY RATIONS"

Cheese: "NOT WITH THAT ATTITUDE!!"

Pine then showed up with some new reports for Red, obviously because she was a mage herself, she caught the attention of Lisa.

Lisa: "Ara? I'm glad to see you're still being so diligent, Pine."

LISA "KEEP ALL "CUTIES" FAR AWAY" MINCI

Red: "Yeah, sure... "diligent." That's definitely a word..."

Pine: "Shush, boomer."

Red: "Imma get the belt in a minute."

Pine and Lisa just laughed as Aether and Amber helped load munitions, almost breaking their backs in the process. Meanwhile Venti sat drinking and playing his lyre at the front of the ship.

Aether: "Hey, Venti! Could you, like, GET OFF YOUR ASS AND HELP!?"

AETHER "MALE GUDAKO"

Amber: "I think he's too drunk to care at this point."

AMBER "NOT USELESS"

Venti: "eheh... I can see two of everything."

VENTI "DEADBEAT TRAP GOD" (BARBATOS)

Lumine: "WHAT DO YOU MEAN, 'EHEH!?'"

LUMINE "THE QUIET KID"

The others laughed as the supplies continued to be loaded onto the ships.

That night was spent in the barracks. However, sleep was the furthest thing from Cheeses mind.

He sat on top of one of the radio towers watching everything going down below him.

Soon, he was joined by Reaper.

Reaper: "Nervous?"

Cheese: "I guess so. Feels kinda daunting, going back to that freak's facility."

Reaper: "This'll be a different one though."

Cheese: "I know. But there might still be some experiments like Smol and I left there."

Reaper nodded his head solemnly before Smol joined them.

Smol: [Boomer said to get some rest. Shit's gonna get real since we're ahead of schedule.]

Cheese: "Got it. What's everyone else doing right now?"

Smol: [Pine's reading, we're up here, boomer's turned in for the night and I don't even wanna think about what Rage is doing.]

Reaper: "Hey, did we ever find his old file?"

Cheese: "Nah, I tried looking for it but he's got that shit on max security. As in, Runes, Traps, Mechanisms, Everything. That shit is on lockdown."

They gave a small chuckle before getting down from the tower so they could turn in for the night when they heard the sound of a blowtorch.

Moving over to investigate, they found Rage standing over a workbench that had firearm components littered all over it. He was eerily quiet as he put random components together.

They agreed not to disturb him and left him to it.

The next morning, everything was coming together smoothly. Weapons were loaded and neatly arranged on racks. Vehicles were also loaded onto the ships including some new prototype tanks and aircraft. One of which may or may not have been due to some serious fuckery on Rage's part.

Red oversaw all the supplies as they finished being loaded onto the ships. The command crew that was on duty through the night had to report several "ghost related incidents."

Blame Rage for that one. Nobody knows how he managed it, but he somehow unleashed a horde.

As the last few crates were loaded and the last aircraft were positioned in the hangar, Red gave the command for everyone to group up for a last briefing before they set out.

Everyone stood at attention, aside from the five retards in the crowd and the gremlin. Calli wasn't even there, she was asleep. 

Red: "Alright. As was mentioned in the previous briefings, we're gonna be facing potentially heavy resistance when we get to the island. As such, we'll need to start with a bombardment from the ships as soon as we get within firing range. As was reported, we've seen heavy AA turrets and some rather large looking cannons. So, ground force, stick to your teams and we'll be home sooner than we think."

Rage then decided to take all the professionalism and throw it in the trash.

Rage: "So make sure your insurance covers losing a few limbs and don't send the black guys out first, cuz we all know they'll die first."

Red sighed in annoyance while a few other soldiers laughed. He then turned his attention to a map of the island.

Red: "Strike teams Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie will be leading the assault of the northern section of the island. Delta, Echo and Foxtrot will handle the south. Mine and Jean's ships will be bombarding from the west and east. If you need bombardment then call in the coordinated or send up a red signal flare. Only use the flare if your comms gets knocked out."

Looking around, the weebs could see the strike teams noting down where they would be going before the briefing was dismissed. Each of the teams was huddled together as they discussed their plans.

Cheese: "Alright, I just did a weapons check. We've got maybe six thousand rounds of ammo between the five of us."

Rage: "Rookie numbers. I'll make more."

Pine: "I should stay on the ship. Barrier magic might come in handy here."

Reaper: "I- I'll stay here too."

Everyone looked at Reaper with a deadpan.

Reaper: "... What?"

Everyone: "... Tsun."

After a while, everyone got ready for the anchor to be raised. Rage stood in the holding bay where the anchor was usually stored before he heard the order to raise it over the P.A. system.

He smirked before manually yanking that bitch up, a loud thud against the hull told Red all he needed to know.

Red: "... *sigh* Someone get me some tea! I'm gonna fucking need it."

The ships had finally set sail and the island was the target. But someone else already had her eyes on whatever was in there.

End of Chapter.

Next Time: Island Assault.