Just downloaded this game like 3 weeks ago and I'm seriously hooked onto the story, so I'm finally taking a jab at this against my better judgement.
Griffon & Kryuger Headquarter, Conference room.
A spacious but dimly-lit room, with the only source of light was from the large holographic projector which also doubled as a table. Standing at the very end with his arms crossed, the CEO of Griffon & Kryuger PMC, Berezovich Kryuger shows a stern and stoic expression while being briefed on about the newest report.
"Sir, the report just came in. It's about the T-Dolls unit that has the intel we need. Our recon team has tracked down their distress signal and believe they are in hiding near the border of District S09. Because of recent Sangvis Ferri's activities in that area, they were forced to pull out to avoid open conflict, thus unable to pinpoint the unit's exact location." Standing next to him was a woman with long grey hair and a monocle on her right eye, Helianthus – his personal secretary and second-in-command.
"Are there any Commander currently stationing in the area?"
"None, sir. Most of the new enlists have already been dispatched to support our main force, with the rest can barely be considered novice. To put it simply, we lack both the manpower and the mean necessary to pull off this rescue operation."
"…"
"Then it's time we call them in."
"Sir?" Helian asked back instinctively. Kryuger then entered the search command on the keyboard as the projector switched from the holographic landscape of District S09 to displaying two ID cards of whom she had never seen before. What's more, the two ID cards were stored inside an entirely separate and locked folder, not from the Staff body or any other PMCs affiliated with the G&K.
"They may not be the most well-known in the industry, but when it comes to getting the job done, they're ace among aces."
"And given the situation, they're arguably our ace in the hole."
In an unknown area, deep underground.
Judging from the surrounding architecture and the signs on the wall, the place seemed to be an old Russia nuclear shelter and base of operation. This place probably had seen better days, yet despite that most of the equipment is still in working condition and there are even traces of someone living down here. Just like anything Russia-made, they're built to last for at least decades.
Since there are only two people living in this massive bunker, partly to preserve energy for other purposes partly because it was unnecessary only the important sectors like the Command Center were working at full power, whereas the rest were running at minimum energy consumption enough to keep them in working condition.
In the Hangar where the combat vehicles for both land and air engagement were being stored, a man lied under the L-ATV doing maintenance while two small drones assisted him with the various tools lying around. In the background, a classical jazz was playing until it was interrupted by the ringing of the internal comms phone.
Noticing that, the man pulled himself out from under the car and wiped the oil off his hands with a towel before walking over to the phone on the wall. He has short dark purple hair, with a tall stature and well-toned muscle but what stood out the most was his left arm. A mechanical arm. With each movement, the alloy surface glinted off the light, making the many scratches and scars visible.
"Hey Chief, we got a new contract." When he picked up the phone, the voice of another man came from the other side of the line.
"What's the content?"
"Retrieval mission. Drop-off point is-" there was a clear sense of hesitation in the other voice before coming to a sudden stop.
"You're not gonna like this Chief."
"What? Don't tell me-"
"Drop-off point is G&K HQ. So…yeah, the client is probably you-know-who."
One could audibly hear the sound of the record being jammed, despite the fact that the music was being played from an iPad.
"Great, what does that old coot want this time."
"Well, only way knowing is to hear it from his mouth."
"Goddamn…Alright, gear up. Let's get this over with and see what he has to say." After much reluctance, the man called Chief finally made his decision. Both then hung up and went to make their respective preparation for the mission.
Half an hour later, District S09.
"So what or who exactly are we supposed to retrieve?" sitting on the co-driver seat, the Chief asked while double-checking on his gears.
"A unit of T-Dolls in hiding somewhere in District S09. Our job is to extract and escort them back to G&K, but 'somewhere near the border' is all the info they have on target's location. The contract also came with an attachment, a triple-encrypted radio frequency specifically for T-Doll's central unit. Probably to let the target know we're sent by their employer and to avoid eavesdropping." On the driver seat, the other man relayed the detail of the mission to the Chief.
Ruffled blonde hair tied back into a low tail. From their sitting posture, nothing much could be said about their height but they both seem to have the same muscle mass with him being a slight bit slimmer.
"Near the border, huh…There's a SF outpost about two klicks ahead. We'll gather more intel from there."
"Roger that."
Even without any prior knowledge about them, with just a glance at their gears and how well-prepared they are, these two are more than just 'know what they're doing'. Shortly 15 minutes later, they have arrived at an abandoned human settlement where the SF outpost should be. Getting out and hiding their car away, the two split out to cover more ground faster.
Donning a lightweight exo-suit, the blonde man swung the huge weapon case over his shoulder with ease and quickly found himself on the roof of a two-stories apartment. He then pulled the ballistic goggles dangling around his neck onto his face and switched on the scan function. It was around 3 in the morning, and with this settlement being abandoned everywhere was a complete blackout, except for one location.
Straight north half a klick away from his current position was what appears to be the town hall. The SF occupying this area must have moved in and repurposed it to be their Command Post. Very dense enemy activity there, along with several troops on patrol. Each troop consisted of two to three Rippers accompanied by a group of Prowlers which shouldn't pose that much of a threat, although the few Jaegers perching on the other roof can be quite problematic.
"Chief, you copy?"
"I copy, go ahead."
"Four patrol troops and three sniper nests, Command Post is half a klick up north with very tight security. Shouldn't be too hard. I'm sending the data over. Go get'em, Tiger."
"Data received. Good hunting, Eagle."
Ending their comms, the blonde man, alias Eagle flipped open the two locks on his weapon case and pulled out a peculiar looking sniper rifle. A straight-pull bolt-action rifle with a side-mounted magazine but the design does not belong to any known rifle with the same configuration.
Eagle then deployed the bipod and got into firing position. With both the sniper scope and the goggles being digital, they can work in tandem and share the gathered data with each other, enabling Eagle to be both a sniper and his own spotter.
"Now then, let's really get down to work."
On the ground.
Hiding in the shadow, Chief alias Tiger was waiting for his chance to make a move while checking on the data sent to him. According to the data, there's a total of four patrol troops forming an area 500m in diameter around the Command Post. Since they are consisted of only Rippers and Prowlers, their pattern would be completely monotonous. The moment all the snipers are taken out, he will move.
And as expected of his partner, he works fast. Not even 5 minutes and all three sniper nests have been neutralized. Taking that as his cue, he got out of the building he was hiding in and made his way toward the Command Post.
With Eagle as the sniper and scout, Tiger took on the role of the infantry. To compliment for his role and his preference of being up close and personal with his enemy, he was cladded in a full-armor exo-suit and sporting the Origin-12 shotgun. Covering his face was a black visor with six sensors, three on each side where the eye should be. The entire visor serves the same purpose as Eagle's digital goggles, scanning and keeping tab on the changes of the surrounding environment, with the data gathered being displayed in a form similar to a HUD.
Under the cover of the night, Tiger moved swiftly from one cover to another, making nary a sound even when wearing full heavy armor. When he was only 10m away from the Command Post, he quickly got to an elevated position to scan the building.
Large group of Rippers and Vespids guarding the perimeter, with several more on the second and third floor. A single mistake even smallest can and will put this place under red alert, and things could only go downhill from there. Luckily, their 'eyes and ears', the snipers had already been taken out in advance and they still have the element of surprise.
"I'm going in. Eagle, are you in position?"
"Peeking right over your shoulder, Tiger. Already got my target, too."
Tiger then stored the gun on his back and switched to a combat knife. Climbing over the wall, he crouched down and approached a group of two Rippers. Grabbing one the Ripper by her face, a strong electrical shock was released from his mechanical arm, frying her CPU immediately. He then followed up with the knife and stabbed the other Ripper right in the center of her chest, where the Core should be.
At the same time, Eagle was watching another unit of two Rippers and one Vespid moving toward Tiger's position. Keeping his breathing and heartbeat in check, he waited patiently for his chance. And there it is, when the unit came around the corner, one of the Ripper and Vespid was perfectly lined up.
Shot fired, the AP round cleanly pierced through the Vespid's CPU and the Ripper's Core, with the remaining one also got taken down with a knife to her chest before she could even react. Such synergy and precision.
Just like that, more than half the perimeter guard along with ten Vespids inside the Command Post were eliminated in the span of ten minutes. Right now, Tiger was hijacking into their main computer to find any intel that could prove useful in pinpointing this unit of T-Dolls.
"Got something. Record shows a fire fight broke out two days ago in an old industrial area just south of here. From the map, it looks rather big so plenty of place to hide there."
"Yeah, but there should be a search party in that area right now. Even if our target is hiding, we need to hurry."
All data of importance was downloaded and the coordinate of the industrial area was sent over to Eagle. They go the intel they need, and the enemy have finally noticed that something was amiss with their network so it's high time they make themselves scarce.
"You go on ahead, something about these data still bugs me."
"Got it. Don't go too wild now, Chief." Eagle then ended the comms and made his way back to the car. Just as he left, Tiger then also escaped from the building and followed another set of coordinate to a 'storage' hidden somewhere in this settlement.
"What else was you bastard hiding here…"
District S09, southern industrial area.
Arriving at the destination, Eagle stopped the car and began tracking down the target. Through his goggles, all kind of tracks became clear as day, even the ones that were intentionally erased could not go by unnoticed. But, how can he know which track to follow if they are littered everywhere? The trick to that is quite simple, really. It's knowing the differences.
For ease of production cost, SF's T-Dolls are mass-produced from the same mold with each classification differ slightly from each other in armament, like the Ripper and Vespid. Whereas their target, the G&K T-Dolls or just any normal T-Dolls are their own unique entity. So what he needs to follow, are footprints that stood out from the rest.
Indoor combat would be unavoidable here, so this time he brought along with him the OTs-03.
The footprints led him deeper into the industrial area, and after a while he came across the scene of the fire fight from two days ago, along with the SF search party currently scouting the area. Three Jaegers, and a shitload of Dinergates.
From one of his pouch, he pulled the pin of two EMP grenades and lobbed them at the Dinergate swarm, taking out all of them instantly. The Jaegers then turned around to intercept, but the moment they managed to bring up their rifle, he had already put a bullet each in their head.
Just like with the footprint, he continued looking for tracks that stood out from the rest, and finally knelt down to pick up a spent cartridge.
"7.9 Kurz, an AR." When he scanned the cartridge, the track led toward the building just up ahead of him. Talk about hidden in plain sight. After making sure that there is no hostile left in the vicinity, he intruded himself into the building, and as expected the host wasn't very welcoming
"I wouldn't take another step if I were you." From the shadow, a girl with dark purple hair done in twin braid stepped out with her run readied. An Ingram MAC-10, she must be one of the T-Dolls they're tasked with retrieving. Her clothes were rather torn and the skin on several parts had started falling off, revealing the mechanical structure inside.
"Are you the G&K T-Doll who sent the distress signal?" Eagle asked.
"What's it to you?"
"Your boss sent us to bring you back." He then reached into his chest pocket and took out an earpiece with the encrypted radio frequency downloaded into it.
"To believe me or not, you can decide that after contacting them. Now I'll leave this here on the ground and step outside because whatever your boss wanted to say, they clearly didn't want anyone else hearing it. My car will be waiting for you just outside so take your time." Eagle then turned around and when he was about to leave, glanced back over his shoulder.
"And you can tell the other two it's fine to let down their weapon now." His words caused the two in hiding to unconsciously let out a groan of surprise, for they were sure that their cover was perfect. The dark purple haired girl was also dumbstruck, but she ignored the other two and picked up the earpiece. When placed on her ear, the frequency then transmitted itself into her CPU and after finding a match signal, communication was finally established with G&K.
Outside of the industrial area.
Returning to the car, Eagle lit a cigarette while he waited for the G&K unit. The column of smoke rose up into the sky, even when the wind caused them to sway, they persisted and continued to rise higher and higher. The clock ticked 5:03 and the carpet of night had slowly made way for the first light of day.
It was then, when the G&K unit approached him. The girl who confronted him just now walked in front, with two other walking behind, a girl with pink hair also done in twin braids albeit longer who was supporting another girl with long blonde hair due to her leg not working well.
"Just now you said 'us', but I don't see anyone else." The girl, named Ingram after her gun, asked from the back seat.
To gain better affinity and greater efficiency, the system called ASST was developed by the 16LAB, allowing a Doll to 'bond' with the weapon, achieving complete mastery over it. But to put it bluntly, the moment a Doll was given a gun, they have taken up the name of their gun and forsook the old one, they themselves have become the weapon.
"He's taking care of the SF outpost occupying this district. We'll be picking him up on the way back to your G&K HQ." Eagle then hit the pedal and started driving. For the whole ride, the trio said nothing more and stayed quiet. Probably because they still haven't trusted him yet, but when he looked into the rear view, all three were already sound asleep. Letting out a small sigh, Eagle then took extra care to not run into the bumpy part of the road. Then after stopping by the settlement to pick up Tiger, the two set off to G&K HQ.
"So, what else did you find, Chief?" when Eagle asked, Tiger showed him a small data disk.
"Something big. Pretty sure this data is what he really expected from this mission."
"Well, if you think about it, it probably wasn't on a whim that we were contracted. He knows how we move, he knows the way we work, he knows we will more than get the job done. Scary how he knows about us more than we do ourselves."
"Goddamn old coot, if you want people to work give them the intel that they can actually work with." Tiger grunted before shoving the disk back into his pocket.
The sun had risen up from behind the horizon, the car kept rolling on the road and the return of the T-Dolls unit was welcomed by the dawn of a new day. When the clock ticked 6:15, they have finally arrived at G&K HQ.
"Looks like they're back, and right on time, too." From the longue on the third floor, Kryuger said after seeing the L-ATV coming into the courtyard.
"Sir, if I may ask, just who are they exactly? How do you know we can trust them?" Standing next to him, Helian asked, still unsure just who exactly are these two men, if even the boss of the world most renowned PMC held them in high regard.
"We don't. Trust is relative. What we do know, however, is that they're not our enemy. An independent unit, unaffiliated with any PMC, move in accordance to only their own creed and principle, just like beast on the hunt."
"And the name they stood by, the name known to only a few, was..."
Chapter 1: Predator Unit (Part 1)
So, as mentioned, against my better judgement of should not write two series at once, here we are.
After the next chapter, I'll continue with AL then the update will be one chapter of each.
Hope you had a good read, and since I'm still fairly new to the story, feel free to send me feedback either in the review or PM if I've got something wrong about lroe and stuff.