Author's Notes: Hello everyone! Happy New Year! 2020 may have had its ups and downs, but we've made it through to the end hehe.
Summer Triangle is going to be the fourth story of the Tasteless series. It takes place a few months after Star~! Anchor Interven-chan and follows WA2000 and her crew of merry dolls: the Starseeker Team! Though they have been successful thus far, the Starseekers face problems that are resting just below the surface - from things left unsaid to problems left untreated. The mantle of leadership will also grow heavier for WA as the Starseekers face off against their most devious opponents yet, in a land so far away from home!
Will they find their stars - and bring Springfield and FNC home?
There's only one way to find out!
I hope you folks enjoy this story and I invite you to join me on this journey as well, hehe.
Cheers,
Elias
Summer Triangle
Italy or Bust
May 27, 2063 - Before The Dawn
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Outskirts of Krvavi Potok Yellow Zone
A lone four-wheel cargo truck drove through the dusty stretch of a rough provincial highway and kicked up a thick cloud of dust in its wake. It drove at a steady pace and was illuminated every so often by the sparse lamps along the road that flickered from time to time.
Inside of the driver's cab, an old man with mechanical prosthetic arms and an artificial bionic eye sat behind the wheel. He had one hand on the steering wheel and another on the knob of the radio console to his right.
A younger man whose face was covered in scars and exposed stitches from old wounds sat beside the elderly driver and grumbled,
"Keep your eyes on the road, Bojan . We'll miss the rendezvous point if you don't."
The driver, Bojan, ignored the youngster's complaints and continued fiddling with the radio knob. Static crackled on the radio speakers before it finally caught on to a stable frequency. Western pop music started playing and brought a smirk to the old man's lips.
"Finally, the radio works!" Bojan cheered, "That means we are close, Kolya ."
With one hand firmly on the wheel, Bojan parted the tarpaulin curtain behind the cab and revealed the cargo hold of the truck. There, two T-Dolls with long blond hair were seated on makeshift seats: a lithe Russian doll with kindly blue eyes and a musclebound American doll with bright red ones.
The Russian doll had a pensive expression on her face while the American simply looked bored. However, when the Western pop started playing, the American perked up.
"Oh! I know this song." The American announced with stars in her eyes, "That was the one that the crazy Gentiane was singing when she was drunk back then! You remember that feast, right, Nagant?"
Mosin-Nagant, the Russian doll, groaned at the American's remark, "You know, I sort of wish that we didn't sign up for that peacekeeping mission at 56586, M2HB. I mean… that's why we're in this mess right now."
Mosin-Nagant's blue eyes then turned to the elderly driver looking at them and hissed, "What do you want, old man?"
"Oh, I just wanted to check up on our passengers." Bojan smiled at Mosin-Nagant and reassured, "We've been traveling for more than a week now after all. The two of you have been mostly silent since we picked you up in Soviet territory."
"Well, M2HB and I aren't exactly happy about our situation, mister." Mosin-Nagant shrugged and argued, "We were Griffin dolls - adjutants of our respective stations - but we were disgracefully discharged!"
"Hey, Rooskie - it's not all that bad." M2HB folded her muscular arms and countered, "I mean, the two of us met each other at that mission. Plus, we were fired at the same time so we get to travel together!"
Mosin-Nagant face-palmed at her friend's remark, "I mean… you're not wrong, but I still think this is a net loss for us, you know."
Bojan chuckled at the agony of the two dolls then promptly reassured, "The two of you are in luck. There is a large demand for dolls in the West right now - especially in Green Zone cities like Trieste, Italy. Reconstruction efforts have been ongoing since the Third World War ended twelve years ago. Hardy ex-Griffin dolls will surely find their way there."
A frown grew on the Russian doll's lips as she grumbled,
"I didn't think I'd leave my nice little office job to do manual labor in the West… We have Construction Fairies for that! At least, my Station did..."
M2HB, however, reached over to the Russian and took her hand. She then gallantly offered, "Don't worry, Ruskie ! I'll make sure to work twice as hard so we can have a comfy life in Italy!"
Mosin-Nagant's face flushed red and she sheepishly lowered her head as she conceded to the American, "P-promise?"
M2HB grinned without a second thought and answered, "Promise!"
Bojan smiled at the intimate scene and then turned back to face the road. He then gave the younger man a sidelong glance and whispered,
"They're still in good spirits. They don't suspect a thing, Kolya ."
"Good." Kolya snorted and hissed, "For a moment, I thought that you were warming up to those tin cans. After all… you understand our 'arrangement'."
"I've been in this business longer than you, Kolya . Keeping the marks in good spirits is important." Bojan smirked with his wrinkled lips and promptly reminded, "This isn't my first 'arrangement'. You have to take your feelings out of the equation - or else you die."
With that, Bojan handed Kolya a magazine of assault rifle ammunition. Through the slits of the magazine, Kolya saw the blue tips of the ammo as they were illuminated by the faint moonlight.
Young Kolya nodded and took the magazine. He then fitted the magazine into an AK-74U carbine that he had at his side and cocked the gun as quietly as he could.
As he was doing this, he caught a glimpse of a pair of vehicles parked in the sand dunes to the right of the rural highway. He held his carbine close and remarked,
"Right on schedule. You crazy bastards are more efficient than you look."
Bojan craned his head and looked up to the sinking moon in the distance as he replied,
"We just happen to be on the right side of history… or at least, our clients are."
He then got his foot off the gas pedal and let the truck gradually decelerate on its own. When they approached the parked vehicles, Bojan turned the wheel and drove the truck off of the highway.
"What the…?" Mosin-Nagant gasped as the cargo hold started shaking much more than it did on the highway. She then parted the tarpaulin and complained, "Oy, old man. The Italian border should still be a few hours away, what are you…!?"
Before Mosin-Nagant could say anything else, however, Kolya pointed his AK-74U and barked,
"This gun is loaded with EMP rounds, dolls. If you don't want to get short circuited, shut your traps and sit down!"
M2HB and Mosin-Nagant froze up in their seats and their faces went pale white. The Russian's eyes saw the blue-tipped ammo in the carbine's magazine, so she staggered back in disbelief and stammered, "T-that ammo is experimental. How did you bastards get your hands on that much…!"
Kolya pointed his gun at Mosin-Nagant's core and threatened, "No questions! Sit down!"
"I'm sorry, you two." Bojan then glanced at the two dolls through the rear view mirror and apologized, "This is the end of the line. You won't be going to Trieste tonight - or ever. Your employers wanted to get rid of you, after all."
Mosin-Nagant's shoulders dropped down and she started to weep.
The once placid M2HB, however, saw her grieving friend and roared, "You bastards tricked us! We have contracts! Griffin has to ensure that every doll dismissed would be given safe harbor - not sold off to scrappers for money!"
Bojan scoffed and promptly corrected, "I almost feel sorry for you. Griffin isn't some monolith of goodness like you dolls are made to believe. Your Commanders were wolves among the sheep who weren't afraid to bare their teeth. Not everyone who smiles warmly at you is a friend. That is the world we live in."
"You should be thankful that we didn't ice the two of you in Poland!" Kolya growled and pointed his gun at M2HB this time, "Our clients want fresh dolls that were recently decommissioned - and a fried neural cloud drops your value to scrap metal. The less damaged your components, the better for us - but I won't hesitate to pull the trigger if you try anything funny."
The truck then came to a halt and Bojan turned off the engine, ending the cheerful broadcast of Western music from the radio. All the while, Kolya kept his gun pointed at the captive dolls.
Bojan opened the back of the truck and gestured to the dolls,
"Come on out you two and put your hands up. Nice and slow. Present yourselves to your new 'owners'."
Kolya scowled at the dolls and waved his gun, quietly ordering them to do as Bojan said. M2HB and Mosin Nagant had no choice but to oblige.
The dolls kept their hands up and disembarked from the rear of the truck. They landed on the grainy sand of the southern Yugoslavian badlands and saw a dozen bandits armed with guns waiting for them. Two of the bandits manned heavy machine guns mounted on the backs of pickup trucks.
Blinding headlights were trained on the two of them, making it harder for them to see anything beyond the silhouettes of the bandits and their weapons. Despite that, one of the figures there stood out from the rest.
That figure wore a peculiar white hood adorned with a strange crest and looked at them with keen interest.
"So what do you think?" Bojan announced as he sauntered over to the figure's side, "They're I.O.P. dolls - models 39 and 77 - in pristine condition. They were both adjutants of their respective stations, so their Command Modules are deactivated but intact."
The figure nodded without saying a word and turned away. That was the signal for a handful of bandits to swarm M2HB and Mosin-Nagant and bind them with doll-proof restraints.
Mosin-Nagant was subdued easily while M2HB struggled as hard as she could. She managed to shake away one of the bandits, but was eventually forced to the ground and caught in a dogpile.
M2HB's face was buried in the sand while the bandits put on her restraints, forcing her to thrash around and gasp for air. Memories of the unfortunate mission that she and Mosin-Nagant took part in, the ill-fated Operation Unsavory, resurfaced in her digimind.
"I don't want it to end like this…!" She pleaded to no one, "Not after I got to see the Ruskie again…! Please!"
Then, all of the sudden, she heard the loud crack of a rifle from the distance - followed by the unmistakable whiz of a bullet through the scene and the tearing of flesh.
The bandits that had piled on top of M2HB got off of her, letting the amazonian doll pull her head from out of the sand. However, her hands were still restrained behind her back and her feet were bound. Her movement was restricted, but she still looked up to the scene of unfolding chaos.
She saw bandits taking positions behind their vehicles while the machine gunners opened fire on the distant sand dunes. All the while, the old man Bojan and his apprentice Kolya hid behind their own truck. M2HB's eyes then saw the miserable soul that had been shot.
The white-hooded figure laid lifelessly on the sand and his clothes were stained with crimson red blood.
Moments later, the distant sniper rifle fired again. M2HB saw one of the machine gunners get knocked out from his perch. The second one followed not long after, stoking the panic of the rest of the bandits.
While the bandits attempted to shoot at the well-hidden sniper, the sand around the rendezvous point started to shift. A white-gloved hand then shot out from the sand dune and tossed an unpinned grenade towards the bandits.
Sweat started to form on M2HB's brow as she recognized that peculiar grenade. She promptly jerked sideways to shield Mosin-Nagant with her body and shouted.
"Flashbang!"
A deafening blast of light and sound caught the bandits by surprise and disoriented many of them. The shifting sand dune then eroded and revealed a figure wearing a desert pattern camouflage cape that wielded a heavy-looking wood stocked submachine gun. She craned her head back, shook the dust from her blond hair and promptly shot at the bandits who were still standing.
A few paces behind the SMG doll, two more sand dunes shifted as the barrels of two distinct assault rifles decked out with high-end night vision scopes and suppressors poked out. Those two guns fired in short disciplined bursts, covering the SMG doll as she charged the ranks of the bandits.
Kolya and Bojan cowered behind their truck as they wondered what in the world was going on. The younger Kolya clicked his tongue and pointed his carbine at the rampaging SMG doll.
However, before Kolya could pull the trigger, a third assault rifle fired loudly without a suppressor from behind him. Three shots struck his arm in quick succession and the AK-74U slipped from his fingers.
Kolya turned around to face the shooter who blindsided him, only to find the culprit already sprinting towards him. He didn't get a chance to get a good look before the shooter shoved him against the truck with the assault rifle. The shooter then retracted the gun and knocked Kolya out with an elbow to the face.
Bojan panicked and tried to make a run for it. He ran as fast as his mechanical prosthetic legs would take him, but the shooter still managed to tackle him down to the ground right in front of M2HB's face.
M2HB looked up and saw the distinct maid uniform that the shooter was wearing. The long golden blond hair adorned with a frilly maid's headdress flew in the gentle breeze. That maid straddled Bojan from behind as the stubborn old man refused to back down.
All of the sudden, the maid reached under her frilly skirt and pulled out the bayonet for her assault rifle and held the blade close to Bojan's throat.
"It's over, Bojan the Reaver. You and your clients are surrounded!" The maid roared, "Give up now and the Yugoslavian authorities might give you a life sentence instead of death."
Around them, the bandits who were still standing threw away their guns and raised their hands up in the air. Bojan defiantly turned his face with great effort and demanded, "Who in the world are you…!?"
The made, however, didn't answer and held the blade of her bayonet closer to Bojan's throat. She then spat, "You're not the one who will be asking questions here."
With that, Bojan snorted and let himself get handcuffed. The rest of the ambushers proceeded to apprehend the bandits as well and then set aside the bodies.
M2HB watched the maid doll with awe and observed her profile with keen interest. Her eyes met with the maid doll's deep blue.
"Hey… I know you. You're that doll… from that prison!" She then remarked to the maid and drew her attention, "And those other dolls with you… they're the ones that we…! But I thought that..."
A set of footsteps traversing the sandy ground reached M2HB's ears coming from behind, followed by the cocking of a revolver. M2HB closed her eyes and curled up into a ball out of fear. Then, she heard four revolver shots and then felt the restraints on her hands and legs come loose.
Finally free from her chains, M2HB turned around and saw a doll with long, wine red hair and bright red eyes. She was holding a .38 Detective Special revolver in her hand while wearing a high-precision sniper rifle on a sling over her shoulder.
"What a coincidence." The red-haired sniper then holstered her revolver and smiled as she spoke, "To think that we would meet again here of all places - so far away from home."
Mosin-Nagant turned around as well to see her savor, but she gasped, "WA2000…? Did Station 56586 organize our rescue?"
"We're not part of Station 56586 anymore, Mosin-Nagant." WA shook her head and corrected, "We're your friendly neighborhood mercenary dolls doing our part to keep everyone safe."
Mosin-Nagant lowered her eyes in disbelief, "Mercenaries… huh?"
"That's right. We're mercenaries: the Starseeker Team! Greatest crew in the business!" WA nodded and folded her arms with pride, "Our client dispatched us to apprehend Bojan the Reaver and his crew and to secure their hostages - but we didn't think it would be the two of you!"
"We don't have time to chat, Walther-fraulein." The maid doll then stood up from straddling Bojan and gave WA a sidelong glance, "Our job isn't done yet. Or do you want the nosy handgun doll to shout at us again?"
WA chuckled at the maid's seriousness and then conceded.
"I guess you're right G36." WA sighed. She then turned towards M2HB and Mosin-Nagant and offered her hand, "It's also part of our job to make sure the two of you reach Trieste, Italy. That - among other things. We can make it there by first light. Shall we get going?"
To Be Continued