07/22/2024

2200 hours

Imerovigli, Santorini, Greece

Ralph picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"It's me," the voice from the other end stated. Ralph recognized it as his foster father, Mr. Asterid.

The commander stared out at the black Aegean Sea that spread out before him as he rested his arms on a guardrail on the edge of one of Santorini's cliffs. "What is it?"

"I've got bad news, I'm afraid. The company has learned of the existence of the nuclear weapons."

Ralph perked up in alarm. "Really? How?"

"I've got no clue, but it's not too surprising given G&K's vast information network."

"So they know the real reason why I wanted to go on this mission?" Ralph summed up, a slight edge of frustration creeping into his tone.

"Actually, no," Mr. Asterid replied to the contrary. "They've assumed that you really do just want to find the AR Team, and that you yourself don't know a thing about the nukes."

"That's good, I guess… So what about the nukes? What's G&K doing about them?"

"That's the real issue. They've sent Squad 404 on a covert operation to locate the nuclear weapons."

Ralph recalled the UMP sisters back at HQ. They seemed cute and harmless enough.

"So… We just have to find them before 404 does?"

"Yes, but it's obviously not going to be that simple. I assume you don't know about 404?"

"I met the UMP sisters before, but other than that, no," Ralph admitted.

"To put it simply, they are a special forces squad that Grifon uses for secret operations. The AR Team may be the face of G&K, but 404 is just as important. They do the 'dirty work,' so to speak, which means that if you get in their way, I have no doubt that they'll dispose of you regardless of your status as a G&K commander."

"So it's like that, huh," Ralph smiled. "Well, then, surely they can't complain if I dispose of them if they get in my way?"

"They are no pushovers, Ralphie. Don't take them lightly."

"Of course. So, where are they now and what are they doing?"

"I just told you that they are a clandestine group. Even I don't have access to that kind of information. However, you can probably assume that they have no less information than you do, and so they are most likely somewhere nearby."

"And I guess they'll be keeping an eye on me too?" Ralph asked.

"That wouldn't surprise me. You and your squad are the ones who have 'officially' been assigned the mission to find the AR Team, so 404 will want to make sure you don't accidentally discover the nuclear weapon secret while you're at it."

"Hm… All right, I see how it is. Rest assured, they won't be getting their hands on those nukes before I do."

"Good. Well, that's all, then. I'll contact you again if I have any further information."

Mr. Asterid ended the call. Ralph was about to put his phone away, but then he remembered that he hadn't contacted his official coordinator since he left HQ, so he put in some numbers and held his cell phone up to his ear.

"Hello? Ralphie?" Kalina's voice responded from the other end of the line.

"Yep. We're on Santorini now," he told her.

"Oh, good. Did you get any leads yet?"

"Yep."

There was a short silence after that.

"... Um, okay then. You're not going to give me specifics, but things are going well still?"

"Yeah. Don't worry about us," he said.

"That's great and all, but I still need to write a report and submit it to command," Kalina told him. "You really haven't given me much to go off here…"

"And who exactly are you submitting that report to?" Ralph asked, now wary about divulging too much information to G&K.

"Helian, I think? Why?"

"If it's just Helian, then she won't mind a short report," Ralph said.

"What! Do you even know your sister at all!?"

Ralph smirked. "If she gets mad, just let her blame me. Not like she can do anything from all the way over there."

"But -"

"Kalina. The information I have is very sensitive, and so it can't fall into the wrong hands."

"You don't trust me?"

"'Course I do."

"Then why -"

"Oh, cheer up. At least you're not in Thailand anymore," Ralph cut her off.

Kalina sighed audibly. "Okay… Just tell me if something important happens, all right?"

"Yeah, sure. See ya."

"Oh wait, one more thing. Commander Kinkaid was looking for you back at HQ."

"That old bastard? What the fuck did he want with me?"

"I don't know. He wouldn't say."

"All right, well fuck him. I'm not under his command anymore," Ralph said. "Is that it?"

"Yeah. Bye."

"Bye."

Ralph ended the call and pocketed his phone, then began heading back in the direction of the hotel.

07/24/2024

2000 hours

Athens, Greece

Sitting down on the steps outside of the Parthenon, Ralph spit out a stream of tobacco as he waited with his gun leaning against his shoulder. The T-Dolls in his squad were more alert than he was, and they stood at the ready with their weapons primed to go at any time.

Ralph pulled out his phone and checked the clock. "Should be any minute now."

Sure enough, as soon as he said that, a jeep could be seen driving up the path to the Parthenon.

Following WWIII, the Greek government, like most other governments, had become much weaker, disorganized, and decentralized, and so the protection and preservation of historical sites such as the Parthenon had fallen in importance. The government had still managed to station some night patrols around the Parthenon to protect it from vandals or nosy tourists, but they had easily been paid off by Gregorios' men and therefore were not present, allowing Ralph and his T-Dolls to await the arrival of the Americans alone and undisturbed.

"Shall I shoot the driver, sir?" Kar98k asked as she walked up to Ralph, her red eyes focused on the approaching jeep.

"Nah, let them come. We'll stick with the plan and just mow them down as soon as they exit the vehicle," Ralph said.

He wasn't too worried to begin with. As he expected, he and his T-Dolls outnumbered the Americans, and so the Americans wouldn't be able to do much when Ralph's group unexpectedly opened fire. Ralph had thought about concealing his squad and then ambushing the Americans more traditionally, but he figured the enemy might get suspicious if they drove up to the Parthenon and found that there was nobody there. The Parthenon itself also didn't offer much cover, so it would be difficult to hide anyway.

The jeep rolled to a stop in front of the ancient structure, and five figures got out of the car. Three of them were soldiers more or less along the lines of what Ralph expected, and they wore black body armor and helmets and carried M4 carbines with them. The other two, however, were different. The first was a young man with fine black hair and a handsome face, and he wore an expensive-looking white suit. He didn't appear to be armed, and he wore a confident smirk and had his hands in his pockets. Finally, the last was a woman with tan skin and white hair who wielded a shotgun.

"Looks like that girl may be a T-Doll," Ralph said quietly to Kar98k. "Fire at will, but as we discussed beforehand, leave the leader alive. Should be obvious which one that is."

Kar98k nodded, then raised her rifle. Cued by this action, the other T-Dolls followed suit.

The well-dressed young man's cocky expression changed to one of confusion, but the shotgun T-Doll seemed to know what was happening. She stepped in front of the man protectively, but there was nothing she could do at this point. The hail of bullets that came from the guns of Ralph's seven T-Dolls put an end to the lives of the black-clad soldiers, and a flurry of shots hit the enemy T-Doll, sending her to the ground. The suited man held his arms in front of his face as he braced for damage, but no bullets came his way. Slowly, after all the dust had settled, he lowered his arms and glanced apprehensively at Ralph's group.

"W-What is this?" the suited man demanded with a trembling voice. "I thought we had a deal! Y-You're making a terrible mistake by doing this!"

The T-Doll who had been shot clutched at her side, which was now stained red, but she managed to recover her shotgun with her free arm. However, before she could put it to use, a bullet hit her hand, causing her to cry out in pain and drop the weapon.

"Better not," AK-12 cautioned as she let her empty magazine clatter to the ground after firing that shot.

"D-Did she just shoot with her eyes closed?!" the suited man sputtered, panic spreading through his face.

Ralph sighed as he stood up and unsheathed his machete. He personally didn't even need to fire a single shot during the whole affair. With his T-Dolls following closely, he walked up the suited man and the injured T-Doll.

"What's your name?" Ralph asked.

The man spared a quick, fearful glance at the machete. "They didn't tell you?"

"Hurry up and answer," Ralph growled.

"Okay! I'm Major Chittenden of the US Military… Now who are you? You're not with the smugglers, are you?"

"So you're the major?" Ralph raised an eyebrow. "Damn. You look around my age."

"A lot of the officers in the military are young nowadays," Chittenden said, still wary of Ralph's weapon.

"And who might that be? She's cute," Ralph pointed his machete at the T-Doll on the ground, who looked back up at him with hateful eyes.

"M590, a T-Doll. I assume those women with you are the same," Chittenden answered.

"Yep. You really screwed yourself over by coming here with so little security," Ralph gloated.

"Hmph. My deal with those smugglers wasn't exactly legal, so I couldn't bring a lot of people with me," Chittenden said. "But you never answered my question. Who are you?"

"I'm not obligated to answer shit," Ralph replied as he jabbed his machete in the direction of Chittenden, causing the major to flinch. "But I do have some more questions for you. Firstly -"

Ralph and his T-Dolls turned around in surprise as they heard footsteps moving towards their location. They raised their weapons at the intruders, but the T-Dolls quickly frowned in confusion as the newcomers switched on their identifying modules, signifying that they were Grifon T-Dolls.

"Well, we meet again, Commander Ralphie," UMP45 smirked as she led the rest of Squad 404 towards the group.

"Oh? 404," Ralph returned her smirk. "What are you doing here?"

"About that… We were ordered by HQ to take charge of this mission from you," UMP45 explained. "Sorry for the short notice, but I see you've done good work so far, sir."

The SMG T-Doll spoke with an air of confidence and authority that made her seem like the commander as opposed to Ralph, which sort of annoyed him.

"Huuuuuh? I never heard about anything like that," Ralph said, feigning ignorance.

"You remember what we told you back at HQ? 404 is a secret squad, so our missions aren't exactly public knowledge," UMP45 simply replied. "Now, then, we'll be taking charge of those prisoners."

Chittenden, M590, and Ralph's T-Dolls watched the proceedings with a mixture of interest and perplexion, as none of them knew why and how Squad 404 had so suddenly appeared at the Parthenon.

UMP45 took a step towards Chittenden, but she was stopped when Ralph spit a red stream of tobacco right in front of her, barely missing her boot. UMP45 turned to Ralph with a dangerous smile.

"Sorry, but we're going to need to see your authorization before we hand over anyone to you," Ralph grinned devilishly.

"You can contact HQ later and confirm our mission. As for now…"

"Mm, nope. That's not good enough for me," Ralph decided, his grin growing even wider. "How do I know you're not trying to trick me? These prisoners will be staying with me for now."

"Perhaps a bullet will change your mind, sir?" the one with the HK416 assault rifle said to Ralph, annoyed.

"Come on, Commander Ralphie! Don't make this hard," UMP9 smiled at him.

"Why is this taking so long? I wanna go home…" the final, tired-looking member of Squad 404 complained lethargically.

Ralph smirked, unperturbed. "So now you're threatening me, huh? It's clear that you're not operating with G&K at this point. Sorry, but I'll have to ask you to surrender your weapons to us."

"Really? I would like to see you try and take them," UMP45 challenged.

"Do you not see how vastly outnumbered you are here?" Ralph held out his arms and gestured to his seven T-Dolls.

"But they wouldn't fire on other G&K Dolls, would they?" UMP45 countered with a glint in her eye.

"If you're threatening my life and the success of our mission, then sure they would."

As if to prove his point, Ralph's T-Dolls raised their weapons again and aimed them at Squad 404, albeit reluctantly.

Excellent, Ralph grinned with satisfaction. If I had told my T-Dolls what Mr. Asterid had told me back in Santorini, then maybe they would have believed what UMP45 is saying. But now that Squad 404 has just come out of nowhere, threatened me, and demanded to take control of the hostages? T-Doll AI won't let them just blindly believe 404 and prioritize them over their commander's orders or the mission directives.

UMP45 glanced warily around as Ralph's T-Dolls kept their barrels trained on Squad 404.

"... You'll regret this," UMP45 finally said. "We'll leave you alone for now. That's the best you're going to get from us."

"Aight, then fuck off," Ralph replied, victorious.

The members of Squad 404 begrudgingly made their exit, with HK416 and UMP45 glaring at Ralph while UMP9 merely giggled to herself and G11 yawned.

"You sure you should be making enemies within your own company?" Chittenden asked with a smirk after 404 had left.

Ralph's response was to slam his elbow into the American major's nose, knocking the man to the ground.

"Sorry, I don't like it when my prisoners talk back to me," he said, smiling cruelly at Chittenden, who was rolling around on the ground and clutching his bleeding nose.

"Sir, I hate to say this, but treating Squad 404 like that probably wasn't wise," DSR-50 cautioned.

"Let me worry about that. You just follow my orders," Ralph simply responded. "All right… Now back to what we were doing before we were so rudely interrupted. It's time to interrogate these fucks."

Ralph lifted Chittenden back up to his feet and slammed the major up against the side of the jeep.

"Tell us where the fucking nukes are," Ralph growled in his ear.

"Where did you take the AR Team!" AR-15 interrupted, jamming her gun in Chittenden's face.

"You know about the nukes?" Chittenden raised an eyebrow, ignoring AR-15 for the moment.

"Yeah. Now, the location," Ralph pressed, brandishing his machete.

Chittenden's eyes betrayed a hint of fear, but he endeavored to maintain his composure. "I don't know. None of us know. The AR Team has it, which is why were hunting for them."

This caused AR-15 to lose her temper. "Where are they!? I asked you a fucking question!"

"I don't know! Jesus!"

"You lie!" AR-15 declared with a snarl, then slammed the butt of her gun against the jeep, inches away from Chittenden's head.

"All right, let's calm down," Ralph pulled AR-15 back by the shoulder. He then turned to Chittenden. "Sorry, but I'm going to have to agree with her; I think you're lying. If you don't tell us their location, then I'm going to flay the skin off your face with this machete."

"W-Wait, I know where some of them are," Chittenden hastily amended. "We've captured the ones by the name of M16 and M4A1. They're at our safehouse.."

"Where?" Ralph pressed.

"Where's Sopmod?" AR-15 then asked. "The final member of the AR Team. Where is she?"

"That's the one we're missing," Chittenden answered. "And it turns out that she also happens to be the one who holds the location of the nuclear weapons, as well as the launch codes. Don't ask me where she is, because we've got no clue."

"Can't you just torture her location out of the two you captured?" Ralph asked, drawing a glare from AR-15.

Chittenden shook his head. "We already tried that. No matter what we did to them, it seems they don't know -"

"If you hurt them, I'll kill you!" AR-15 roared angrily at the major.

"Please stop interrupting," Ralph sighed. "Anyway, Major, we're going to need the exact coordinates of that base as well as the name of it. Also, I'd appreciate a count of how many soldiers, T-Dolls, and armored vehicles you have there."

Chittenden smirked. "Surely you can't expect me to reveal all that."

"Oh?"

Ralph struck with his machete and cleaved off the right hand of the major, causing Chittenden to yell and let out a stream of curses.

"How about now?" Ralph grinned as he leaned in close.

Chittenden was far too busy groaning in pain to answer.

"Great. You ruined it," AR-15 spat bitterly as Chittenden writhed in agony.

Ralph turned to the M590 T-Doll, who was still bleeding on the ground. She flinched a bit as he fixed his hungry gaze on her.

"What about you? You've been there before, right?"

She looked away. "I… I don't -"

Ralph frowned as he kneeled down beside her. "Listen carefully… If you don't answer me, I'm going to penetrate you with this machete, then dismember you like I did to your commander, then gouge out your eyeballs, and then I'm going to throw your corpse off this mountain."

M590 trembled slightly, but she wore a resolute look nonetheless. "... Go to hell, you scum."

Ralph stood back up, then kicked her hard in the side where she had been shot. M590 cried out as she screwed her eyes shut and cringed.

"I think I'm going to enjoy this," Ralph grinned demonically as he watched the T-Doll's face darken with intense pain.

"All right! Holy shit, I'll tell you!"

Ralph was interrupted by Chittenden's shouting from a bit further away. While he was busy with M590, AR-15 had taken Chittenden and held him over the precipice of the mountain they were on, threatening to throw him down and onto the Greek streets, a fall that would undoubtedly kill him.

"Heh. Looks like you got lucky this time," Ralph smirked at M590, who had recovered enough to glare back at him again. The commander laughed and spit tobacco in her face before heading over to AR-15 and Chittenden.

"They're in Bangkok," Chittenden continued, throwing a wary glance at Ralph as he approached.

"Bangkok?!" AR-15 almost dropped the man. "What?! We were just there!"

"That's impossible. We combed the entire Sangvis camp and interrogated their commanders and found nothing," Kar98k said.

"Do I look like a Sangvis, you Nazi bitch?" Chittenden replied, apparently regaining some of his former bravado. "Of course Sangvis Ferri wouldn't know where we took the AR Team."

"Where in Bangkok are they!" AR-15 demanded, shaking the American major.

"Jesus, calm down! They're in an underground warehouse called 'The Cage,'" Chittenden quickly told her. "You can only access it through a secret passageway underneath the temple called 'Wat Arun.'"

"Right underneath our base camp?" WA2000 exclaimed with surprise.

"Damn. We were so close the whole time," AK-12 noted as she shook her head.

"So there you have it," Chittenden said. "Now let me go. That's all I know about it, since I've never been there myself."

"Tell us how many soldiers you have stationed there," Ralph ordered.

"Are you deaf? I just said I don't know any more," Chittenden spat.

"Well, then you're useless now, aren't you?" Ralph grinned. "I think I should chop off your head with this machete."

"W-wait! I have value as a hostage!"

Ralph laughed. "You're pretty desperate not to die. But sure, I guess we can keep you as a hostage for now."

The commander turned to his T-Dolls. "We're taking this fuck and that M590 T-Doll back to Headquarters with us. After a quick stop there, we'll be going straight to Bangkok."

07/26/2024

1200 hours

G&K HQ, Moscow, Russia

Ralph sat on a soft bench in the hallway in front of one of the entrances to the G&K labs, waiting. After dumping off Chittenden to security, he took the M590 T-Doll with him to the labs and specifically asked for Persica. He then relayed his request to override M590's command structure to Persica, and the engineer told him to come back in an hour after she took the captive Doll inside the labs with her. So now, here he was.

Sure enough, in a few minutes, the doors slid open and Persica emerged.

"The operation was successful. We changed her command protocol without altering her memories," Persica informed him. "Are you sure you want to leave in the part where you threatened to penetrate her with your machete, though?"

"Oh, I forgot about that. Well, whatever. If she has to obey my commands anyway then it shouldn't matter," Ralph decided. "So did anyone ask why there was a new T-Doll in there?"

"Nobody ever asks about what's going in my lab. Probably because they don't want to know," Persica shrugged.

"I see. Any idea when M590 will be back in action?"

"Should be sometime soon. I'll give her a Grifon ID and send her up to your room when she's done," Persica answered.

"All right. Thanks again for the help."

Ralph then left that wing of the base and headed back towards the main area. He didn't exactly know why Persica agreed to help him, but ever since he had come to G&K, she had always been nice to him. It was weird because everyone else always complained about how secretive and unsociable Persica was, so he didn't understand why she made an exception for him. She never gave Ralph any hints either, but judging by the way she acted around him, he thought that she may have known about him even before he came to G&K, which was even stranger because the vast majority of that time had been spent in the African bush. He knew she had some sort of ulterior motive as most people did, but he just couldn't figure out what it was.

Well, whatever. I won't look a gift horse in the mouth, he settled.

Ralph made a small detour towards the main lobby on the way back to his room. Technically it would be faster to take one of the elevators he passed by to the second floor, but he wasn't in any particular rush and he liked the look of the modern, open-space lobby anyway. When he got there, he observed AK-12 and AN-94 in conversation with a couple of Spetsnaz officers. The fact that there were Russian military personnel around shouldn't be too surprising given that HQ was located in Moscow, but even so, the Russians tended to leave G&K alone. It was rare for Russian officers or soldiers to enter the HQ complex.

The four Russians stopped their conversation when Ralph approached. AK-12 tracked him with her bright violet eyes as he walked by, and he felt like they were definitely talking about something secretive given how abruptly they ceased talking when they saw him… Though he didn't even speak Russian, so it wouldn't matter to begin with.

I'm kind of curious now, he thought, but something about AK-12's stare made him mind his own business. Besides, if they were discussing it right in the middle of G&K HQ's lobby, it couldn't be that amazing.

Ralph returned to his room and planned to take nap in case they had to fly out tonight. However, when he entered and began taking off his shoes, he found DSR-50 and WA2000 already in there for some reason. WA2000 had taken out his red G&K-issued blazer from his closet and was trying it on.

"Heh. How do I look? I bet I look more like a commander than our shitty one ever did," WA2000 boasted, her eyes closed and a smug smirk on her face, evidently not having realized that Ralph entered the room.

DSR-50 glanced over at Ralph with a worried look, and her silence finally made WA2000 open her eyes and recognize what was wrong.

"Ah!" she cried out, hurriedly taking the blazer off and throwing it on the bed. "What the hell! Why are you sneaking up on us like that!"

"Um, you're in my room," Ralph pointed out. "And why the fuck were you going through my closet?"

Before WA2000 could come up with an answer, a knock sounded on the door. Ralph turned around and opened it, wondering if it was another one of his T-Dolls.

Instead, he was greeted by a pair of cold green eyes.

"I am HK416," the girl greeted. "Do you remember me?"

"Oh, yeah, you're that 404 bitch," Ralph nodded.

416 glared at him. "And you're that fool of a commander who defied us in Greece."

"You're not my boss, so I didn't 'defy' shit. Bye," Ralph replied, moving to close the door.

The silver-haired Doll stopped the door with her fist. "I'd be careful if I were you, sir."

"Is that a threat?"

416 smirked confidently at him. "No. Just some words of advice. Be careful."

She then walked away.

"Tch. Can't believe she came into my own room and threatened me," Ralph shook his head. "And you two just stood there and watched, huh?"

"What did you expect us to do?" WA2000 frowned at him.

"Maybe you should jump her in hallway or something. Rough her up a bit," Ralph suggested.

"Um, sir, Squad 404 are nominally our allies," DSR-50 pointed out in an exasperated tone.

"They sure don't act like it," Ralph sighed.

"Aren't you the one who turned on them first?" WA2000 reminded him.

"Eh," Ralph waved that off as he sat down on his bed. "I'm going to take a nap. You two are free to join me if you want."

"Ew, I'll pass," WA2000 crinkled her nose. "Let's go, DSR."

"Sweet dreams, sir," DSR-50 smiled at Ralph before leaving with WA2000.

All right, finally some time to rest, Ralph thought in relief as he closed his eyes. Hm. That 416 cunt really annoyed me, but whatever. I'm sure she's just being a pain in the ass because I humiliated her back in Greece.

But even so, Ralph resolved to be wary of her. She had the eyes of a killer, and even in her regular movements, hints of lethal practice could be seen under the surface. All G&K T-Dolls were built for combat and were excellent soldiers, but it was a whole different thing to have experience in addition to that. By now, Ralph had realized that the whole of Squad 404 were no pushovers, and that he really did need to watch out for them.

Just as he was beginning to drift off to sleep, another knock rapped at the door. With a defeated sigh, Ralph got up and answered it.

"Tactical Doll, Shotgun-class M590, reporting for duty," his newest visitor said with a salute.

Ralph grinned at her. "All repaired now, huh?"

"Yes. All systems have returned to functioning at optimal levels," M590 answered stiffly.

"And you're all right with fighting under my command now?"

"If those are my orders," she said, though she had an uncomfortable look on her face that gave away her true feelings.

"Oh, don't worry, you'll get used to it soon enough," Ralph told her, resisting the urge to laugh at her expression. "Did Persica give you a room to stay in?"

"No, sir."

"Really? Fuck," he scratched his head. "Well… You can stay in my room."

M590's face turned to one of horror.

"Relax, I'm not going to do anything to you," Ralph smirked. "Just rest in here until I can find you a new room, if we even stay here long enough for that to be necessary."

"If you say so, sir." She reluctantly followed him inside the room. "What do you want me to do right now, then?"

"Uh… I'm going to take a nap, so I guess your only orders for now are not to kill me in my sleep," he said. "If you're bored, take a book off the shelf or watch TV or something. Good night."

"But it's the afternoon," M590 muttered as she sat down on the sofa, standing her shotgun up against it.

"Did you say something?"

"... No, sir."

07/27/2024

0500 hours

Bangkok, Thailand

The T-Dolls and Ralph sat in the holding bay of a G&K helicopter as it descended upon the city of Bangkok at dawn. It was a cloudy day, but there was no precipitation as of yet.

The group was the same as usual, except that OTs-39 had been conscripted by HQ for guard duty again, leaving her unavailable for this mission. However, M590 had come along to replace her, so they were no worse for manpower.

Ralph himself was glad to have taken a nap yesterday because they had to leave HQ at night in order to fly out to Bangkok again. Right now, he was occupying himself by watching Kar98k, who sat across from him. The German sniper was trying in vain to fight off sleep, and her head dipped as her red eyes were slowly dimmed by drowsiness.

"Is she going to be all right for the mission?" WA2000 asked, evidently looking at the same thing he was.

"You T-Dolls need less sleep than humans, so probably?" Ralph guessed. "Maybe she's just not on guard right now since we're still not at our destination yet."

As if hearing their words, Kar98k suddenly snapped her eyes open and sat up straight as a rod.

"I-I wasn't sleeping!" she tried to say when she noticed everyone staring at her.

"You should do what I do and have your eyes closed all the time. That way no one can tell if you decide to take a quick nap," AK-12 advised.

"Sir, can you go over the mission directives one more time?" M590 asked Ralph.

"I guess. Why, you nervous?" Ralph wondered.

M590 blushed. "This is my first mission with Grifon & Kryuger, and I did not go on any intense combat operations with the US Army either…"

"Oh. Well, you'll have fun today, then," Ralph smiled. "But anyway, just to state it again, the mission today is to locate and extract the T-Dolls known as M16 and M4 from the AR Team. First we need to find the Cage, which is the name of the facility where they are being kept, but thanks to our good friend Kinkaid, who is back here now, we do have some idea of where it is. So first we're going to meet up with him and our old pals from the base, and then we will go into more detail about how we're going to assault the Cage. Any questions?"

AR-15 raised her hand. "I want to kill those bastards who are keeping them in captivity myself. Leave them to me."

"That's not a question, but okay."

"I'll make them regret ever messing with the AR Team," AR-15 vowed, clenching one of her fists.

"Mmhm. Anyone else have any insightful comments like that to make?" Ralph asked with a small grin.

"Are snipers really going to be of much use?" DSR-50 asked. "It seems like it is going to be an enclosed space…"

"Hm… I don't actually know the layout of the place, so who knows," Ralph shrugged. "Anyway, you can use a sidearm, right? You're more durable than a regular human, so you'll be useful regardless."

AK-12 leaned slightly outside, getting a good look at the ground as her silver hair swayed in the wind. "It looks like there is a large crowd gathered to greet us. Some combat robots as well."

Ralph took a look too. "Oh, yeah. G&K did increase the budget of this base after we took Bangkok, so that's probably why we have robots here now. I didn't know we were popular enough to draw such a big crowd, though."

"At least we know we have a lot of allies here to help us assault the base," Kar98k said.

The soldiers on the ground made way for the helicopter as it landed in the city. When it finally touched down and Ralph and the T-Dolls exited, they found Commander Kinkaid waiting for them, still wearing his mask and combat fatigues.

"Ralphie. We meet again," Kinkaid greeted.

"Indeed we do. Quite the welcoming party," Ralph noted.

All around Ralph and the T-Dolls were mercenaries from the old Thailand base, along with some new faces who Ralph didn't recognize. There were also some large biped combat robots equipped with big guns near their shoulders awaiting them.

"Yes," Kinkaid nodded. "Though I'm afraid this is no welcoming party."

All the soldiers and robots suddenly aimed their weapons at Ralph and the T-Dolls.

"Wait. What the fuck?" Ralph frowned.

Kinkaid stepped forward. "I told you I knew where the Cage was, and I will show you to it. However, you will be entering as prisoners. Prepare yourselves."