"She's a beauty, ain't she?"
The other engineer turned from his work to face the other who made that comment.
"You always say that to every rifle model we make." The first engineer laughed, coughed, then spat out some phlegm out of the back of his throat onto the steel floor of the factory.
"Untrue, my dear Rosencrantz, only for the best ones."
"Your dick is talking, Guildenstern," Rosencrantz blandly stated, looking back to the cores inside the T-doll which required much focus, and less of Guildenstern. Guildenstern didn't seem to hear Rosencrantz, and instead caressed the face of the T-doll in progress on the table, eyes closed and unresponsive to the engineer's touch.
"Ah, what delicate and perfect beauty. Such a shame we were not meant to be together, my dear. If this were to be the fresh morning of a mid-spring sunny day, your eyes would be fluttering open to my touch, and we'd embrace to remind ourselves of the fact we are together, and nothing could possibly break our iron bonds to each other. Ah, it's such a shame our circumstances do not allow-"
"Guild, stop monologuing and help me," Rosencrantz interrupted, without taking his eyes off of the cores which required the steady hands and razor focus only an I.O.P. engineer had.
Guildenstern blinked to get rid of his starry-eyed moment of pleasure and helped Rosencrantz out with the delicate job. Several hours later, the job was done. Both engineers let out simultaneous exhales and stepped back to inspect their handiwork.
"I'd say, Rosencrantz, that was a good job we did," Guildenstern breathed out. Rosencrantz could only nod his head back with agreement.
After a few minutes of basking in the relief of having done a good job, Rosencrantz darkly chuckled and wondered, "I wonder which lucky son-of-a-bitch is getting her tomorrow."
"Indeed, Rosencrantz."
The face of a newly-finished IWS-2000 model had no response to either man's comments.
Chapter 1: Reboot
"Commander!"
Silence.
"Com-man-der!"
A grunt.
"We have a new shipment of T-dolls! Do you wish to come out and greet them yourself?"
A pause, then another grunt.
"Oh, alright then. I'll let you know if anything interesting happens!"
A final affirmative grunt, then silence. Kalina sighed.
"I wonder when Commander is going to finally come out of his darn office. He's been so moody lately," the usually-chirpy logistics officer grumbled.
As she moved throughout the command post, the continuous talk and bustle made the place seem more similar to an IKEA rather than anything even remotely military-related. Continuous laughter and chatter permeated through all the halls, everywhere well-lit and casting a warm light over all its inhabitants. Kalina got a good whiff of an appetizing aroma steaming from the kitchen, which was already beginning to draw in several nearby. She, too, was almost caught by it as well before she reminded herself of her job.
"Right, the newcomers, gotta greet the newcomers first before I can chow down on Springfield's cooking, just a few minutes, you can hold on, Kalina!" The mouth-watering aroma slowly dissipated, and soon Kalina arrived at her destination.
"Hello there, everyone!" Kalina announced as she swung the door open. Four pairs of eyes stared back at her. Kalina looked through her catalogue of T-dolls with the faces in the room.
"Let's see… meh… meh… decent… HOLY MOTHER OF JESUS!" Kalina ran out of the room, all of her papers thrown aside as speed down the hall she came from.
"... What was that all about?" one asked, after a pregnant pause. The rest shrugged their shoulders.
"COMMANDER! COMMANDER!" Kalina yelled, knocking on the door to the commander's office.
Silence, then a grunt.
"You got something good today!"
Silence, then a more interested grunt.
"I. O. P. has delivered! We got a IWS-2000!"
A flurry of rustling, thumping, and hoorays ensued from within the office, and within moments, a somewhat portly but jovial man stepped out of the office in perfect uniform, albeit a bit rumpled, and with a dash of cologne.
"Kalina!" the man announced.
"Y-Yes, sir!" Kalina saluted, rather dazed by his sudden transformation from a toad to a man within minutes.
"Lead me!" he announced, pointing his index finger towards the metaphorical horizon, then dashed towards the general direction of where he assumed they would all be, without awaiting Kalina's response. Kalina shook her head to get her composure back, then gave chase to the surprisingly very fast commander, hot on his heels.