Val turns the metal card over in her hands several times, inspecting the details on it while listening to the other girl explain its use.

"This is your access keycard. It will get you pretty much anywhere you need to go in the base - the armory, the dining hall, your personal office, your dorm, what have you. Try not to lose it if at all possible because it may take a day or two to make a new one. But I don't anticipate that will be an issue."

I just want to go to bed. I need a nap.

"Hey, I'm so sorry to interrupt you. What's your name again?"

The girl in the brown army jacket stops talking, brushes a stroke of blond hair away from her face, and looks at Val.

"The name's Kalina, but you can just call me Kalin for short. Your logistics officer."

"Thank you. I apologize. I'm horrible with names. So this is my keycard?"

"Correct. It also functions as a company credit card. Any purchases you make for official use are linked to this card."

Purchases. Of course.

Without warning, a knock sounds at the door, almost spooking Val. Kalina initially ignores it, but as the knocking persists, Kalina sighs and stands up. Val watches as the logistics officer opens the door to reveal a male commander with curly light brown hair standing outside the office.

"Ellis, good afternoon. Is something the matter?"

"Helian wants to see you in the briefing room ASAP. Abrams's echelon just recovered M4A1 and both her and Helian are waiting to see Dr. Ryzen."

Kalina mutters something under her breath before nodding. "Thanks for letting me know."

"No problem."

Ellis takes his leave, and Kalina gestures in Val's direction.

"Come on. We can finish paperwork later. This takes priority."

Kalina leads Val down the hallway and takes several turns before pausing outside a room at the end of the hall. Tapping her knuckles against the door, Kalina waits until the door is opened from the inside to step through and wave Val in.

"Dr. Valerie Ryzen?"

The speaker is a middle-aged woman with a stern gaze and a monocle sitting on the left side of her nose, dressed in the now-familiar uniform of a G&K commander. Next to her stands a girl in her late teens clad in a green sweater and a skull bandanna tied loosely around her neck. A dark green stripe runs through her jet-black hair, which comes down all the way to the girl's waist.

The older woman continues talking as the girl - who Val instantly recognizes as a tactical doll - stands quietly by her side.

"I am Officer Helianthus, executive director of Griffin and Kryuger PMC. You may call me Helian. Dr. Ryzen, this is tactical doll M4A1, the commander of Anti Rain Team. M4A1, this is Valerie Ryzen, your new adjunct."

M4A1's eyes widen at the last sentence, just as Val freezes in surprise.

"A-adjunct?" M4A1 turns to look at Helian. "I can't give orders to a human! You never told me you'd be..."

Helian holds up a hand for silence.

"M4, this is not your call to make. In fact, it's not mine to make either. But this is where things currently stand, so we will work with what we have and leave it at that."

"Understood."

M4A1 turns her gaze onto Val. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Val nods and holds out her hand to shake. "A pleasure to meet you too, M4A1 of AR Team."

A pleasure? No, this feels so weird. How would this girl react if she knew I contributed to her fire control core - no, don't think about it. Now isn't the time to be thinking about such things.

M4A1 stares at Val's hand for a few seconds before gently taking it. Her touch is as soft as her voice, and as Val gently pumps her hand up and down, thoughts begin running amok in her head despite her best instincts.

This girl is so soft... how is she the commander of an elite doll squad?

Helian gestures at the table sitting near by. "Now that preliminary introductions have all been made, please take a seat so I can explain exactly what the objectives of this arrangement will be. Kalina, please leave and shut the door behind you."

Val takes a seat at the marble-top table as Kalina obeys, leaving her alone in the room with Helianthus and M4A1.

"Both of you look quite surprised, and I will admit that was not unentirely by design. Both of you were simply given orders to come here with little to no extra background given. What you are about to hear is intended for your ears only, and I expect you to keep it that way."

"Understood," Val says.

M4A1 merely nods as Helian continues.

"Based on our analysis of the recent uptick in deadly conflicts with Sangvis Ferri, as well as already tried strategies that did not pan out the way we wanted them to, Mr. Kryuger himself has made the decision to authorize a human agent to be embedded directly into Anti Rain Team, effective immediately.

M4A1, you are a capable commander, but you have only been in combat for a few months to this date. As a doll, you are only able to do so much despite the unique nature of your digimind. Given that our strategy has shifted from merely repelling Sangvis attacks to collecting data on their forces and leaders, we decided to bring in someone who could potentially provide us with insider information on SF technology."

"And that would be you?" M4A1 glances sideways at Val.

Val looks up at Helian. "Helian, how much can I tell her?"

"As much as you can would be preferred." Helian leans back in her chair and nods at Val.

"I'm a former IOP consultant with a doctorate in computational chemistry who developed a lot of the fire control technology in IOP dolls. I also did a stint with 16LAB directly under Persica. My mother was one of SF's human employees who got wiped out by their AI when... you know. She was a technician in a research lab working on new materials technology. I received my doctorate from the same university where Sangvis Ferri used to recruit a lot of their researchers from back in the day: Gehenna College of Science and Mathematics."

"I'm sorry for your loss," M4A1 murmurs quietly.

Val sighs. "Don't be. Can't do much about it now can I?"

"You're doing us all a great service," M4A1 says in the same soft tone. "I look forward to working with you."

Helian takes out a Manila envelope and slides it across the table.

"Dr. Ryzen, this is for you. It contains information on the rest of Anti Rain team, whom you will be working with in addition to M4A1. And before you ask, the rest are not here because they are missing and must be recovered. That will be your first mission. You are to accompany M4A1 and assist in her efforts to recover the remaining members of Anti Rain: M16A1, ST AR-15, and M4 SOPMOD II."

Val takes out the contents of the envelope, revealing photographs of each member of the team attached to documents detailing further information about the tactical dolls of Anti Rain. She takes a few minutes to read over the papers before looking up at Helian.

"When does this mission begin?"

Helian gestures to M4A1. "Ask her. She is your commander."

Val nods and shifts her gaze to M4A1.

She looks... a little uncomfortable, I might say. I wonder why that is, but I'm not in a position to cast doubts on her abilities.

"So, M4A1. When does this mission begin?"