It's been so long since the last time I had a writer block, and I do not miss this feeling at all.

Chapter 3: Scarecrow in black and Puppets of war

With the successful rescue of the last missing T-Doll, Skorpion, the Predator Unit has officially completed their mission and concluded their contract. After delivering the T-Dolls back to G&K, the two had returned to their base on the same night. In reality both missions took only a day and a half, but mentally they felt it was much longer than that.

There's the offer with Kryuger still. Think it over carefully, he said. He had told Eagle not to accept any new contract for the time being to sort things out and plan the next course of action, but that plan in itself also went to waste when morning came.

"Oy~, Tiger, Eagle! You two home? Hurry and open up or simpler yet, just tell us where you hid the key around here."

"Ask them if they're under the carpet or the potted plant, although I see neither around."

"Ingram, Skorpion! That's not proper conduct when visiting someone's house for the first time! Your attire is all crooked up! Here, let me fix it for you."

"StG, I don't think that's what you should be reprimanding them about…"

Standing in front of the giant blast door, was the T-Dolls unit which had joined them on last night rescue mission. Ingram was slamming her fist nonstop on the internal comms like it was some kind of doorbell, Skorpion looking around for any nook or cranny that could be a potential hiding spot for a key which the door they need to enter required none, StG being her usual self looks and cleanliness comes first and PPSh as the only one with common sense.

Inside the Command Center, Eagle stared at the monitor screen blankly while Tiger was already rubbing at the presence of their visitor.

"Now this is a case of unexpected guest if I ever saw one." Being called while in the middle of his morning hygiene routine, Eagle stated the situation calmly still having a toothbrush in his mouth.

"This place is not supposed to be one to have visitor, expected or not." Having only just woken up because of the siren going off, Tiger stared at the screen with half-opened eyes.

"So, do we just ignore them? They might get bored and go back after a while."

"Doubt so. They don't know the location of this base so the fact that they're here can only mean a certain someone sent them as messenger."

"Good point."

"I'll listen to what they have to say first. Not like I can go back to sleep or do anything else with all this noise." Tiger then stood up and left to open the door. Being left behind, Eagle scratched the back of his head and muttered.

"Guess I'll go with something fancier this time for breakfast then."

After the giant blast door was opened, the T-Dolls then entered as the elevator took them down to the garage. To the T-Dolls which have only appeared about 30 years back, this was their first time inside an underground base which predated even the world war that they fought in and possibly even their creator, a relic from a time when everything was much simpler. So when the set of light brightened up the place, their eyes flashed with excitement and fascination.

"Ooooooh! This place is freaking huge!" yelled Skorpion in excitement.

"Quite a nice place you got here." Sitting on the handrail and facing away, Ingram said casually while completely ignoring the fact that she was the one who rudely demanded entry.

"And in what shape or form does it looks like a place to have guest?"

"Don't be so stiff now. We're actually here on a mission so think of it as an unofficial meeting rather than having guest over. And while we're on the subject of guest…" Ingram, still sitting on the handrail, then leaned all the way back into an up-side-down posture to look at Tiger who was…topless. In the back Pah-Pah-Sha was already covering her face with both hands, StG didn't know where else to look whereas Skorpion was completely indifferent.

"Is your attire right now really the proper conduct a host should have? Honestly, I know we T-Dolls are modeled after human but at least show some restrain."

"No thanks to a certain someone who keep smashing the comms line like it was a doorbell." Tiger retorted, the veins on his forehead almost popped. Their nonsensical bickering kind of just went on and on and only when Eagle came down to break it up to them did they stop.

Today breakfast, egg toast with ham and black coffee, hot cocoa for the guest.

"Now, you came here on a mission. What kind?" sitting at the table, Tiger took a sip of his coffee and cut right to the chase.

"A new contract, of course. As for the content, Ms Helian will fill you in on that." On the other end, Ingram took out two earpieces and placed it onto the table. Same model as the one given to her during the first rescue mission, with the same triple-encrypted radio frequency but slightly modified to be compatible and accept human's brainwave rather than T-Dolls' central unit.

"She's currently awaiting your contact. Communication will be established once your brainwave is scanned."

Following her instruction, Tiger picked up an earpiece and placed it on his ear. The procedure was immediately carried out as the earpiece scanned for his brainwave, data-referenced with what was installed beforehand and a communication line was established. From the earpiece's integrated projector, a holographic projection of Helian appeared before his eyes.

"Greeting, Mr Tiger. I believe Ingram has already filled you in the basic details."

"She did, but before all that I don't remember requesting a wake-up service."

"Time is of the essence for us so a forceful method was deemed necessary. Now, as for the contract in question. What I'm about to tell you are Level 1 classified information disclosed only to G&K personnel, so please pay attention." The holographic projection then switched to displaying the image of a girl or rather, a T-Doll judging from the strange looking machines floating around her.

"Model SP65 call sign 'Scarecrow'. She's the main target this time. According to the intel we gathered from Skorpion, she knows the specific objective of SF recent attacks on District S09. The goal of this operation is to capture and obtain her memory module. Unlike the previous missions, this time we're facing a Ringleader."

"Basically the SF's equivalence of G&K Commander then."

"Function and authority wise, yes. To put it into perspective, they're like an ant colony with the Ringleader being the queen."

"But even ant can be dangerous when they come at you enmassed, and now even the queen has decided to take matter into her own hand."

"Correct, and this is where your unit comes in. For this mission, your main objective is to act as a guerilla unit, culling down the enemy numbers and when the situation required, provide additional firepower and divert their attention away from G&K troops. Any question?"

"Plenty, but I'll hold back for now. When will the operation begin?"

"The operation will begin at nine sharp. Once you've arrived, we will have one last briefing so I suggest making all the necessary preparation before then and make haste. I'll be seeing you then, Mr Tiger." Communication ended.

"So, what do you think?" having observed for the entirety of the conversation, Ingram's lips curved into a mischievous smirk.

"About?"

"Ms Helian, of course. She may look cold and a little bossy, but is actual a very nice girl. What's more, she's still single."

"Not sure what I'd do with that kind of info."

Finishing his coffee, Tiger stood up to go make preparation for the mission and signaled Eagle to do the same. Many questions hung on his mind, but he had decided to put it all aside for now and focus solely on what's in front. It is a soldier duty to carry out his mission, and it is a mercenary job to fulfill their end of the bargain. However, he will have his answers at the end of all this.

District S09, G&K Forward Operating Base.

The moment they entered the base's vicinity, they could felt the hustle and tension in the air as the entire staff body, both human and T-Doll alike was busily moving about, carrying out their respective task. A major operation is about to begin so such sight is understandable.

In the main hangar where the briefing will take place, the maintenance crew was performing one final check on the equipment, making sure they are in perfect working condition. On the battlefield, even the smallest detail can make all the difference, sometimes even save one's live so they're working on the double to make sure all their comrades return home in one piece.

Heading inside while trying to cut through the sea of people, they managed to arrive at the briefing on time. Gathering around a large hologram table was about ten other T-Dolls, with Helian being at the very front.

"So you've arrived Mr Tiger, Mr Eagle. And right on time at that. Good, we will now begin the briefing." On her command, the hologram table then displayed the tactical map of the area of operation.

"This is Sector 6 of District S09, where our battle with Scarecrow will take place. There are a total of three locations where we can drop off our Echelons, two to the north and north-west direction near the airport, one just outside the residential area to the south."

"Echelon 1, Echelon 2, you will make your way toward the target from the airport, deal with all occupying force on the way and apply as much pressure to them as possible. Echelon 3, you will take the route through the residential area then await further order from there. Are we clear?"

"Yes, Ma'am!"

"Good. Also, allow me to introduce you all to our support Echelon this time. Mr Tiger and Mr Eagle, they will be joining us as a guerilla unit so count on them when the time comes."

"Looking forward to working with you!" including Ingram's group, a total of fifteen T-Dolls all greeted in unison, completely overwhelmed all the noises around them. Even when their exosuit has a sound dampening function, the duo was still slightly taken aback.

"Alright, all troops move out! Commence, Operation Uproot!"

8:57, drop-off point of Echelon 1 and 2.

Sector 6, originally an agricultural area under G&K's jurisdiction, after SF's recent attacks the residents had all been evacuated and the place is now completely overrun by their troops. Atop the control tower near the runway where two of the drop-off points are, five Jaegers had set up a sniper nest to keep watch of everything in 1km diameter.

Unlike normal T-Dolls, these things are machines designed to kill in the truest sense. They do not show mercy nor do they take time question their target. If you're registered as an enemy in their database, they will put a bullet in your head at the first chance they get. Still, just like a machine they're good only and only at what they're designed for.

As their guns were trained onto the surrounding, the door gave a small creak and was pushed slightly opened. Without any delay, the five Jaegers turned around and emptied their entire magazine toward the door. The door was instantly shredded into pieces and the Jaegers initiated the reload sequence. At that moment, an EMP grenade rolled into the room and paralyzed all five of them.

The one aspect that SF lose out on normal T-Dolls and especially on a human being, flexibility. For normal T-Dolls, their DigiMind's neuro pattern is unique only to themselves, enabling each doll a certain extent of independent thought and free will. Whereas, SF T-Dolls in favor of quantity over quality utilize a cluster network system where every doll is linked to a central server, typically the Command Post, where feedbacks are sent to and directives are issued from. While this method does allow large-scale coordination and information share between all linked unit, it doesn't change the fact that their patterns are extremely monotonous and easily exploitable.

Pushing what's left of the door aside, Eagle entered the room and took out all five Jaegers with only a handgun. Following that, he dragged one of them next to the terminal and hacked into her CPU through the port on her nape. Using the control tower's antenna to boost increase the search range, he scanned for other SF troops' signal in the surrounding area using the Jaeger's own signal to avoid being retraced.

As expected of an area with a Ringleader presented, security is a lot tighter with most of them setting up ambush rather than going out on patrol. Scanning completed, he then called the choppers in.

"This is Eagle from control tower. Enemy snipers have been neutralized, but there are several troops laying in ambush near the fields and in the storage area just beyond the runway. Sending data over now, will proceed to culling down their number."

"This is Echelon 1, copy that! Thank you for your support."

"This is Echelon 2 approaching the drop-off point. Remember to leave some for us!"

Now that the runway has been cleared off eyes and ears, the G&K can safely land and engage the enemy troops. Now, things will start to get hectic. Climbing onto the very top of the control tower, he laid down and readied his sniper rifle. First target of elimination, the ambush troop in the storage area.

"First target, over about 150m away. Calculating wind speed and bullet drop…"

"Taking shot."

Bam.

Shot fired. The .50 round escaped from the barrel with an ear shattering sound and flew toward its target. Inside a barn on the second floor, a Ripper lying in wait took the shot right between the eyes without even knowing what hit her.

"Remaining targets are on the move, adjusting…Taking shot."

Bam. Bam. Bam. Bam. Bam.

A total of six rounds for one magazine, and a total of seven dead Rippers. Reloading a new magazine, he aimed his gun toward the crop field and did the same thing. But this time, the enemy was able to retaliate.

Right after he took the first shot, a flock of Scouts came flying toward him from the barn. With high mobility and always attack in large group, the Scouts are a sniper's worst nightmare. Seeing them coming from afar, Eagle knew that it was his cue to move.

As soon as they were within range, the Scouts simultaneously hailed down a rain of lead on his position. Grabbing onto the roof, he swung himself back into the control room and ran for the stair. His assailants then split into two groups, one continued the pursue and one ambush at the end of the stair.

Then as soon as the first group turned the corner, they accidentally crossed by the laser of a trip mine and met their doom. At the bottom, the second group had already set up an ambush from every possible angles, making even moving difficult let alone dodge their bullets.

Shortly 10 seconds later, Eagle came running down the stair and bolted straight for the door. The Scouts then dived down and filled the entire place with bullets. Seems their ambush plan was a hit…or a miss?

The bullets all went right through their target and hit the ground instead. Only then did they realize it was a decoy hologram, and what they didn't realize was that a C4 charge with the timer counting down from 5s was dropping down from above.

Southern residential area, Echelon 3 drop off point.

Echelon 3's team composition:

Handgun: M1895.

Submachinegun: MP5.

Rifle: Mosin-Nagant, FN-49.

Machinegun: MG3.

After the chopper had taken off, they began to make their way through the residential area. With a single leap, Mosin-Nagant and FN-49 had landed on top of a building and continued their advance by jumping from rooftop to rooftop. On the ground, M1895, MP5 and MG3 weren't losing in speed either for each of their stride easily covered more distance than even a professional athlete.

Deliberately travelling through the smaller roads to avoid being detected, the group soon reached the intersection on the other side of the residential area. Peeping out from behind the wall of an alleyway, MP5 scanned her eyes on the surrounding and spotted one group of Prowlers.

"Uuu~, there's at least a dozen of them out there." She cried.

"Calm yourself, junior. They're just Prowlers and we still have the element of surprise." Standing next to her M1895, being the most senior of the group contrast to how her appearance suggests, reassured.

"Mosin, FN, you see anything else from up there?" the girl with braided blond hair wearing a red beret and the leader of the group, MG3 radioed their spotter.

"At least a few Vespids and Jaegers hiding inside the building across from our position. Might be more waiting somewhere considering we are this close to the Command Post." Mosin responded while looking down her scope.

"Uuu~, I don't feel so good in my stomach." FN groaned.

"Focus, everyone. Here's the plan…"

As the Prowlers stood guard and formed a barricade on the main road, the Vespids and Jaegers hid themselves on the third floor of the department store. The battle then kicked off with MG3 poking out from the alleyway and just started unloading on the Prowlers.

Being the lowest ranking of the machine group in both firepower and mobility, the Prowlers simply stood there and took the barrage head on, with the few that managed to survive also started returning fire. With MG3 gathering their attention toward her, MP5 and M1895 then ran across the street to get to the department store.

The Vespids and Jaegers in hiding, seeing two easy targets then popped up from their covers and readied their gun, but it was them that was the easy targets. On the roof of the opposite building, Mosin and FN who were ordered to stay low until the commotion started then began to eliminate the enemy in hiding the moment they popped up.

"And here comes your elder's valuable feedback! You better listen or face your punishment!" adding the finishing touch, M1895 and MP5 who managed to sneak into the building in the chaos had come up from behind to perform a pincher attack on the remaining enemy.

Their ambush plan went downhill faster than expected, but no matter for they have already completed the designated objective. One of the surviving Vespids, with all her might crawled next to the window and pointed her gun up high.

"No, stop!" knowing what she's going to do next can't be anything good, MP5 immediately shot the surviving Vespid but was a heartbeat too late. The signal was already shot into the sky, now it's only a matter of time before other troops start swarming to their location.

"Everyone, regroup! Enemy reinforcement will be right on us at any minute!" MG3 shouted which was then interrupted by the sound of several explosion coming from the south-east direction. Mosin and FN who were still on the rooftop immediately aimed their scope at that direction to get a grasp on the situation.

"MG3, I'm detecting a lot of commotion toward the south-east direction! It's possible the enemy's reinforcement is currently engaging with a friendly unit!"

"Then we gotta go and help!"

Residential area, southern outskirt.

Even from afar, the sound of gunfire and explosion was still relentless which made it even more unnerving. The enemy troop they've just eliminated was by no mean small in number, and they only managed to take them down in one fell swoop by knowing their formation beforehand and using that to their own advantage. If it was a direct confrontation, then no way they could have come out unscathed.

Sprinting at full speed, Echelon 3 quickly arrived at the intersection on the other side of the town. As soon as they turned the corner, the wrecks of three Prowlers came flying and crashed into the building on the other side of the street. From the direction where those came from, taking on an entire SF squadron was a single man.

Lugging around a shield even bigger than himself as if it's weightless, just by putting it before him Tiger easily blocked every single bullet that came his way. Then with the shield still up, he bolted forward his enemy at an incredible speed like a bulldozer and with a single bash, sent them all flying like ragdolls.

With the nature of heavy duty equipment being unwieldly and well, heavy, a single piece usually requires at least a two-man crew just to operate them, Tiger's exosuit was designed and built from the ground up to completely negate all these aspects.

Fitted between the outer armor and the innermost shock-absorbing material was an entire layer of carbon nanotube muscle fibers, granting the wearer immense strength to easily wield even the biggest of gear while also enhancing their mobility and flexibility to not feel like a deadweight during deployment and actual combat. Then by installing the two additional prosthetic limb units onto the back which can be controlled easily by linking them to the central system, the suit completely negates the need of a second crewman to operate any piece of heavy duty equipment. A complete opposite to Eagle's exosuit which spec'd entirely into mobility and stealth with its integrated optical camouflage and decoy hologram.

The G&K T-Dolls were completely dumbfounded at what they are witnessing. It took five of them with coordinated attack to wipe out a similar group of enemy, yet right here it was only a single man. Snapping back to reality first was Mosin-Nagant when she saw two Scouts sneaking up behind Tiger while he was currently busy with the Rippers in front.

"Aiming, fire!" firing two shots in quick succession, the Scouts were immediately dealt with. But because of the situation she did not consider her position thus her shot ended up attracting the attention of another group of Scouts. Maintaining the current defensive position with the shield, Tiger turned around as the right arm on his back reached the handgun and provided covering fire for Mosin and FN.

"You three in the back, move up! Prepare to mount a counteroffensive!" he shouted into the radio and reloaded his shotgun with a 30-round drum magazine. Using the same tactic, he charged straight at the enemy to gather their attention while also taking down everything on the way with a combination of shield bash and shotgun.

"Let's go, everyone! We can't let this chance slip by!"

A few minutes later.

With the last of SF troops eliminated, Echelon 3 finally have the entire residential area under their control. In the north also, Echelon 1 and 2 had cleared out all occupying force and are already in position. Now, the troops defending the Command Post is the only obstacle left standing in their way to their objective and victory. Now, begins the final battle.

"Combined assault, commence."

"For a bunch of pathetic and obsolete scrap, you all sure are persistent." Deep inside the forest, standing on the roof of an old abandoned facility of unknown purpose, Scarecrow muttered while observing the battle unfolded with disdain.

"I must say, you have effort…" with a wave of her hand, two squadrons of Jaguars which were put on hibernation to avoid detection then woke up from their standby status and locked onto the approaching Echelons. A simultaneous discharge, dozens of mortar shells rained down on the G&K and exploded violently, in a blink of an eye leveled a large section of the forest around the Command Post.

"…but alas, it's all futile." From elevated ground, she looked down on everything, everything is no more than a stepping stone or mere bugs to her. As Scarecrow raised her hand and about to send out a second mortar strike, a bullet pierced right through the middle of her palm.

"What!?" Scarecrow exclaimed. She looked toward the direction where the bullet came from only to see the G&K T-Dolls, still alive and well, taking out the remaining of her troops. On closer inspection, most of them took very minor damage like scratches and slight bruises. Then as the smoke cleared out and the areas of impact became visible, turns out all of them are only close hit and not direct ones. Turns out someone had popped a chaff grenade beforehand, causing the Jaguars' sensor and radar to malfunction leading to miscalculation in the ballistic trajectory.

"You obsolete scrap…" feeling greatly annoyed, she muttered under her breath then leapt down from the roof. Commanding the three drones floating around her, she decided to fight the G&K herself despite not being a combat model. On the command of her wand, the drones combined with the surviving Scouts all flew up into the air and rained bullets down from above. With the trees being their only cover gone, the G&K's advance was impeded and that in turn bought enough time for Scarecrow to rally the remaining troops.

But as soon as the remaining SF troops managed to regroup, a barrage of machinegun fire came from behind and got rid of them for good. Unlike Echelon 1 and 2 with their fancy chaff grenade trick, Echelon 3 survived the mortar strike on a more straightforward method. The moment they saw the mortar coming, Tiger held the shield up with all four of his arms and used it as a literal umbrella against the hail of mortars.

Once again, Scarecrow was careless or simply too arrogant to factor the survival of her enemy into the equation. Under the combined assault of multiple G&K Echelons, the Sangvis Ferri Ringleader, Scarecrow was defeated.

The operation now entered its last stage.

Upon interrogation, they discovered that Scarecrow had managed to deciphered the coordinates of an important G&K T-Doll currently on the run from the intel given by Skorpion, which was supposed to be false. Somehow, Scarecrow knew about the AI structure of G&K T-Dolls and deciphered the information based on the pattern.

"This is classified information on AI programming, how could you know about it!" Helian, appearing through hologram shouted in disbelief.

"What…are you exactly…?"

"Just…a lowly T-Doll, from Sangvis Ferri. Yet, different from those tools surrendering their will to humanity. Do you really understand…you lowly, coward human…who can only hide in their base and only showing up via hologram." Upon saying that, Scarecrow did not even bat an eye at Tiger who was standing right nearby and definitely in no shape or form resemble a T-Doll.

"Whatever you say, your operation has failed. No matter what you've learned, there's no way you could tell the others."

"Oh but I've already did. Procedure identification number…8364…9266…0223. The rest…is up to you. Farewell, then…" bidding her goodbye, Scarecrow detonated the explosives hidden on her body, intending to drag her enemy along to the otherworld.

Somewhere at the edge of SF held territory.

"Man...I should have liked her earlier. But at least for now, there is no obstacle between us..."

"M4A1, which corner are you hiding in? We paid quite a hefty price just to find you so don't disappoint me."

So after reading the official manga, I really like the idea of T-Dolls being the super soldier archetype not only in combat skill but can also zip around the battlefield with just a leap instead of the ingame normal running, so I'll be using that from now on.