The holotable hummed to life as MP40 started it up, its projection casting a cyan glow on the faces of everyone in the room. Hovering above the table was the image of Helian, who crossed her arms and cast her gaze downwards – it occurred to Makarov that Helian probably had a lot of experience talking down to Griffin commanders. Kerr certainly didn't seem intimidated.

"Vice-Director," she said calmly.

"Commander Kerr. Report."

To her credit, Kerr didn't show any sign of annoyance at Helian's brusque tone. "The Sangvis raid has been repelled. Our efforts to prevent the Ringleader from escaping detection, however, were stymied when it shot down one of our helicopters with a SAM. The launcher has since been captured, but we are still unsure of where Gestalt may be hiding. Our intelligence teams are still on the case."

Helian's hands went to her belt. "So you have had no progress."

"I wouldn't quite put it that way, marm."

"Well – your sector has been afforded a considerable amount of resources. Results are expected."

"This isn't a Ringleader we know much about, and even if it were, it certainly doesn't fight in any way we are trained or prepared to deal with. Dr. Schuhart is working day and night to understand Gestalt and what it does, but it is not that easy. This isn't an item from the Sangvis product catalogue."

"I see. I take it you are taking measures to counter further raids and solve this problem?"

Makarov raised an eyebrow. They had nearly lost an echelon of dolls and two human pilots in the helicopter crash, and had actually lost a portion of the neural cloud backups in the raid, not to mention all the material damage and the morale issue after the attack. Didn't Helian understand that Kerr – the whole command team, actually – were working with one hand behind their back? She almost made it sound like the solution would be intuitive – that's preposterous, Makarov thought.

"Of course, marm." It was not lost to Makarov that Kerr had at least twenty years on the other woman and just as much extra experience in command. The Commander held her hands behind her back in a relaxed, but attentive stance. "I've already begun increasing the dolls assigned to search and destroy duty, and there's a unit formulating a plan to neutralize the Ringleader as we speak."

Helian made no reaction. "I trust that it will be a good plan."

"The unit is one of my best. You have my word."

"Very well. What of the neural cloud backups? You mentioned in the last report that they may have been compromised."

"It is confirmed that the Ringleader made off with a great deal of backups," Kerr said, a brief expression of displeasure contorting her face. "Damage to the databanks was major, and though they can be repaired or replaced, it will take time. At least several dozen dolls are without a neural cloud backup and face permanent death if their mainframe is destroyed.

"You have a plan for this, too?"

"I am working with my command staff to determine a way to keep these dolls safe while also recovering the stolen backups at some point, if Sangvis still kept them intact and uncorrupted. If worst comes to worst – we could lose many seasoned dolls permanently."

Helian's mouth tightened, but she made no other indication of her feelings on the matter. "Is there anything else you would like to report?"

"No, marm. I'll certainly contact you if I have anything important enough to relay."

"See that you do."

Helian disappeared in a buzz of holographic particles. Immediately after, the command room dissolved into a crowd of low, conspiratorial muttering as the mixed human-doll command staff talked amongst each other about Helian's call. Makarov had her own thoughts on the matter, but neglected to share them with anyone.

"How can Helian expect us to just win?" Contender said to MP-448.

"Well, I for one agree with the Vice-Director. Even if she doesn't understand the scope of our problems exactly, she's not wrong." The other doll sniffed and crossed her arms. "And she knows that we'll figure it out. That's why she's so expectant."

"Well then, I can't wait to hear your brilliant solution," Contender scoffed.

"Attention, please." As the Commander began speaking, Makarov finally stepped forward from where she was standing in the back and took position with the rest of the senior dolls around the holotable. Kerr waited until everyone had quieted and she had their attention before she continued. "MP-448, report on your investigation."

"Ma'am. My team has located the entry point for the Sangvis raid: a tunnel dug one point three kilometers to the southwest of the mountain, in the foothills. It appears that the old Soviet tunnels extended farther than we originally thought, since the Sangvis tunnel only needed to go two hundred and seventy meters before reaching the existing system. After that, it appears they worked their way up to the Doll Services level and busted into the base proper through there."

"I said we ought to have mapped those tunnels all the way," Jericho said, the righteous tone in her voice matching her told-you-so expression. "This wouldn't have happened if we did."

"Oh yes it would've," Python rebuked irritably. "Don't be such a–"

"Regardless of the what-ifs," Kerr broke in, "it will need to be corrected. MP-448, draft a plan to pick up where we left off on the tunnel exploration and find some volunteers to do it. Makarov, what's your after-action report on the raid?"

Everyone looked at her expectantly. The helicopter crash had been quite the fiasco and lost Makarov a lot of confidence amongst the rest of the command staff, but the doll was assured in her reasoning and quickly put aside her worries about the other dolls.

"Debris analysis confirms that it was a Волга, or Guideline launcher that took down the helicopter. As we already know, the launcher has been captured and its missiles added to storage. Lieutenant Salmela, we will soon need additional permanent space for these weapons, since the munitions storage room is already full and the helicopter hangar is only a temporary storage space."

Evert Salmela, the logistics officer, nodded silently at her words. He was a capable logistician, and Makarov knew that she could trust him to finish the job.

"As for Grizzly's report of the encounter with Gestalt, we can only attribute it to the Ringleader deciding to remain in the area because of the helicopter crash. We now know that it is elsewhere, so perhaps it was just looking to take down another echelon."

"How encouraging," K5 said. She had been one of the dolls killed in an earlier encounter, and Makarov knew she had a powerful aversion to Gestalt. "It was operating alone, wasn't it?"

"...to the best of our knowledge, yes."

"Okay, I can buy that, but I don't get how Grizzly's entire echelon and two humans managed to escape Gestalt without even being noticed. Isn't that a bit suspicious?" Python put both hands on her hips. "I mean, this Ringleader can't be that dumb."

"You never know with Sangvis," Jericho grumbled.

"They don't have Parapluie," MP-448 said. "They were checked."

"Yes, well, maybe there was something else," Jericho suggested.

Python narrowed her eyes. "You don't mean…"

"Yes, those two dolls. If they helped Grizzly's team, it could mean they're doing something else out there."

Jericho was speaking of OTs-12 and SV-98. They had all but disappeared after their one message had come to the command team, and after that MP40 had been hard pressed to find any sign of their presence. But with Threat Level Schuka the normality nowadays, no Griffin doll could be outside of the base without permission– so the only individuals who could have helped Grizzly's echelon were OTs-12 and SV-98.

"They should be brought in," Jericho was saying. MP-448 shook her head.

"That's a bad idea. What if they were carrying a dormant form of Parapluie?"

"If so, why did Grizzly and the others make it back just fine? Or maybe they didn't."

"Don't suggest that!"

"OTs-12 and SV-98," Kerr began, speaking loudly to bring everyone's attention back to her, "will be left alone for the time being. If necessary, an attempt will be made to find them and bring them back into the fold, but it's not our priority at the moment. Searching for two functionally MIA dolls is something that can be done later. Now, let's move on to our plan to deal with Gestalt."

"Oh, is this going to be good enough for Helian?" K5 sneered. Kerr ignored the doll.

"I know some may not like it, but the Vice-Director does have a point. To prevent any more surprise attacks, we will have to take a more aggressive approach in dealing with Sangvis. This will likely mean putting more echelons in the field at one point or another. Makarov has succeeded in capturing or disabling nearly all known SAM launchers in the sector, but Sangvis could still pose a threat to our air units."

"All the more reason to not pursue," Jericho said. "Commander, I know I advocated for an aggressive approach before, but with a large part of our force compromised, I'm not so sure about going against an enemy that is so… unknown."

In the blue light of the holotable, Kerr's normally statue-like face took on an eerie look of tiredness and finality. Makarov couldn't help but feel sorry for the human – as sorry as an android could.

"We don't have a choice," she said, straightening up and studying the map of S17 now on the table.

"We always have a choice." Jericho reared up in a similar stance as if trying to assert her own authority as executive officer. "We can chose to take a defensive stance."

At this, Welrod Mk II leaned in, not a little angry. "Take a defensive stance?! I don't know about you, but I'm not so ready to let this Sangvis… thing, pick us off one by one. I say we fight. We can do it, the dolls will want to, so why not?"

"You'll just get us killed," said K5 from her spot behind the senior staff. "Don't think that just because you're too damn hotheaded to be reasonable means that everyone else is the same. I'm not so ready to die in a pointless battle!"

"I'll side with that," Contender added. "Who wants to throw their life away for a lost cause? I'm making my choice!"

"Enough."

Everyone quit speaking when Kerr opened her mouth. Makarov snuck a glance at the other dolls – most of them had stopped mid-sentence, their eyes turning towards the Commander. Kerr could give them rank, give them positions, give them power – but she was still the one in charge, no matter what. They all had to listen.

"We don't have a choice. Now – I know that a defensive posture is theoretically better, but in our current situation we can't afford to wait for Sangvis to come to us. We're not going to win by weathering continued assault. Gestalt is the root of it all: find it, kill it, and we're done. A decapitation strike. To some of you this will seem rash or illogical – well, it's the way it's going to be done, no argument."

Makarov recognized the principle from her own study of tactics. Decapitation strikes were meant to remove a country or military's leadership, often both, and given how Sangvis relied on the OGAS protocol, it was particularly effective against SF. Kerr seemed to be confident enough to pull rank so it was done, but Makarov had her reservations about actually being able to track down and kill Gestalt. It was a ghost, and she knew – firsthand, now – that it would take more to kill than just a few well-placed shots.

"Commander," she began. "I see the merits of the idea, but I'm sure I speak for the others when I say that our ability to actually deal with Gestalt itself is dubious at best."

"I've got a plan for that," said NTW-20. Makarov turned her head to the left just as the pink-haired sniper worked her way in between Kerr and Makarov, dwarfing the Russian doll with her immense height. The Hunter. The Commander had told the command staff at their last meeting that she had tasked NTW-20 to form a plan of attack for Gestalt, and it seemed that the doll finally had something to show.

"NTW-20 has devised a method through which Gestalt may be contained and eliminated," Kerr explained. "Please give her your full attention."

Makarov studied the doll's face as she spoke. It was blank, not a hint of any emotion shown from under a mask of discipline. NTW-20 spoke in the clipped tone of a professional. "We know that Gestalt is residing somewhere within this circle–" here she used the interface to overlay a red circle on the map "–according to our last intelligence report. Our top priority is keeping Gestalt contained, so if we deploy echelons along these two phase lines, using the mountainside as a natural barrier, we can stop it from slipping away while my team goes in for the kill."

Obviously, some were not pleased. Jericho, ever the skeptic, crossed her arms judgmentally. "And how will echelons spread that thin keep Gestalt contained?"

"They won't, not on their own. But if we keep a few echelons on standby with HOCs ready to provide fire support, we can support any section of the line Gestalt pushes."

"And your team can handle it?" Contender asked.

"We've handled every Ringleader so far," NTW-20 replied, exuding that natural confidence so many elite dolls tended to do. "This one will be no different."

"I doubt that," Makarov replied automatically.

"We don't have a choice," Kerr reiterated, "unless we carpet bomb half the sector."

"Once we pinpoint the Ringleader's location, several teams can clear local Sangvis forces while Hunter remains on standby. Once it's clear, we head in, clean house, and then it's up to the general combat echelons to see to it that the remainder of the Sangvis forces are taken care of." NTW-20 straightened up as she finished, assured that her plan would work

If Makarov didn't know better, it almost sounded easy.

"I won't pretend that this is a foolproof plan, but I'm not going to wait for Sangvis to come to us, nor mount a massive offensive. I want everyone on the senior staff to analyze the plan and determine any shortcomings or potential gaps, and we'll discuss it at the next meeting."

Nobody looked pleased, but nobody raised any objections either. Like Makarov, they had mulled it over in their Digimind and come to the same conclusion.

"Dismissed. Makarov, in my office."

Makarov caught a glance from Jericho as the other doll stepped away from the command table. Most of the command staff had been giving her looks of anger or distaste after the Sangvis raid. She knew why: nobody liked her command decisions. They thought the chase after Gestalt was folly, and now that they knew the Ringleader had stolen data they were infuriated that Makarov had made the right call after all. It had even been approved by Kerr beforehand.

Even though Kerr hadn't so much as pointed towards her adjutant, Type 81 was already in the Commander's office by the time Makarov entered after Kerr. She looked around the room reverentially as she came to a halt in front of the Commander's desk, gazing around at the decorations. The office was ridiculously well put together, even by the Russian's dolls standards, from the shelves of obscure reading material to the big G&K emblem on the back wall, flanked by Kerr's many decorations. Dimly, Makarov recalled that it wasn't really modest to display one's commendations in such a way, but she did acknowledge the effect it had on morale and on how the Griffin troopers, both human and doll, perceived Kerr.

The Commander had gone to one of the shelves and was busy inspecting one of the titles on it. Makarov couldn't get a look at the lettering from her distance and in the dim light from the floor and table lamps Kerr had turned on, but she continued observing the Commander to see if she could get any hint of what the woman was doing. Androids were easy to read, humans less so, but Kerr was quite enigmatic, rarely showing any emotion besides mild approval or displeasure.

NTW-20 seemed much the same. Makarov had known the elite hunter since her arrival in S17 – she had even been there when the rest of that squadron showed up in the hangar – but there was still so little she knew about the tall sniper. The rumors, however, were well-known: that NTW-20 had been leading the squadron when a rockfall in S16 killed a company of dolls, that Hunter Squadron's members were all failed applicants to some elite doll unit, that Type79's metal arm was Sangvis tech. Those could be lies, but it was certain that StG44 had beat up a few Griffin dolls in the hallway over a month ago. Makarov had even seen her walking to Kerr's office alongside NTW-20 a while after and remembered how angry she felt. Who feels the need to beat up other dolls? she wondered. Commanding was her area of expertise, violence was something else entirely. A programmed instinct.

Kerr suddenly turned around and stood behind her desk, crossing her arms across her chest. "At ease," she said, and Makarov stood at rest. The Commander stood still for a few long moments more before finally speaking again, taking small paces back and forth. "This reminds me very much of a situation I was in during the war. Not the tactics, of course, but the arguing. Dolls are more courteous than humans, at least, but that isn't saying much. The unit I was attached to was debating a plan of action, and it was only when the commanding officer made an executive decision that something got done. Discussion is good, but choice is essential."

"Komandir?"

"A decision needed to be made."

The Commander's eyes were focused entirely on Makarov as she spoke, as if trying to impart something more important to the doll.

"They don't have to like it. They don't have to agree with it. They have to understand it. All that matters for now is that orders are followed. And I think the troops will agree."

The troops. Kerr had always referred to the dolls in the base as troops. Callous and shrewd and distant and authoritarian she may sometimes seem, but she always treated the android soldiers like people, for better or for worse. Makarov liked that.

"What do you think?"

Makarov was surprised at the question. "Well, er, I concur. Nobody is content to sit idle, and I believe that the dolls are… motivated, shall we say."

"Good." Kerr looked back to the shelves. "Unwilling fighters never do as well."

There were morale issues inherent in androids with such a high level of intelligence as T-dolls, Makarov acknowledged. Dolls that didn't want to fight did perform worse than their compatriots, and while they couldn't disobey orders, they certainly made it difficult to give them. Unwilling dolls sent a negative feedback through the command net that interfered with Makarov's commands just enough to be noticeable. A motivated unit, on the other hand, was generally more efficient and capable.

"I'd like you to take command of the escort force going in with Hunter."

Makarov stood very still at those words. "I beg your pardon, ma'am."

"You and Welrod, I think. Pick four – no, three echelons to participate in the escort. I'll ensure that at least one HOC unit is attached to your force. Welrod will be in the field to oversee it, but you'll be in the command center. Now–" Kerr held up a hand. "I know you may feel inadequate for the position, but you handled yourself well during the raid and have demonstrated quite the ability in the past. I'll be right in the command center with you."

"I still feel obligated to decline–"

"You can't decline an order." Kerr smiled just a tad. "Determine your echelons and a battle plan and report to me tomorrow."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Now return to your duties. There's a lot left to be done, as I understand it. Dismissed."