A War for Three

by caryalaciniosa

Two years after the Butterfly Incident, the struggle between Griffin & Kryuger and Sangvis Ferri continues unabated. To many, the countless IOP androids employed by Griffin are merely a tool. But even T-dolls have true warriors, worthy of the highest praise. The stories told here are but a few of such individuals.

2. SuperSASS Chapter 1

It was cold, it was loud, and it was gritty.

"NEW WAVE!" shouted M590.

SuperSASS crawled back to the edge of her hole, weapon in hand. Sangvis artillery had scooped out great craters in the battlefield; SASS had taken shelter in one such crater. Sangvis fire zipped overhead as she set her rifle on the edge and peered over. Sangvis units swarmed across the ground like insects, pouring over corpse and debris alike in a mad rush. Skirmisher units loped ahead of the rest, their mounts propelling them across the ground with surprising speed. SASS spied M590 lurking in a depression only twenty meters ahead, ready with weapon in hand. RFB, Ingram, and Grizzly were likely in similar pits, hopefully close.

SASS's radio crackled to life.

"New orders from the Commander," said Grizzly. "We're falling back to point Yelena, effective immediately. Leonid Echelon will reinforce us there, over."

"This wave is almost on us," said M590. "What's to say we won't be coming in shot to shit? We need to hold position and do our best to stave them off."

"No arguing with Commander's orders," said Grizzly. "Get ready to move on my orders. Ingram, ready smoke."

M590 muttered a word of dissent, but said no more. SASS saw Ingram pull herself up to the edge of her crater, dangerously close to the incoming Sangvis wave. The doll pulled several smoke grenades from her belt in preparation for Grizzly's order to move. Sangvis may as well just push through it, thought SASS. She took aim at the Sangvis frontrunner, tracking the enemy doll. One shot would topple it from its mount…

"MOVE!" shouted Grizzly. SASS caught a glimpse of Ingram lobbing her grenades at the Sangvis troops before the ground in her crater exploded in a geyser of dirt as her dummy links burst up out of hiding. The same occurred in M590's, and likely in Grizzly and RFB's. SASS ordered her links to do the same.

After freeing themselves from the dirt, the duplicates joined SASS in a mad dash away from the Sangvis front line. Stray shots whizzed by as the enemy dolls fired wildly, unable to aim in the thick smoke.

"They've broken the smoke line!" reported Ingram. SASS heard the rip of the doll's submachine firing away at the Sangvis who'd exited the smoke.

"Keep going," said Grizzly. SASS tapped into her GPS to see that her leader was alongside RFB in the run to Yelena point. M590 was close to SASS, and Ingram was bringing up the rear, continuing to throw smoke grenades when the opportunity presented itself.

SASS could see the slope to Yelena point just ahead. Grizzly and RFB were scrambling up the side of it, kicking loose dirt and rubble down the side as they went. SASS broke into a flat sprint towards the foot of the hill.

"Snipers!" said Ingram, catching the bulk of Sangvis fire from her position at the rear. SASS heard a sharp crack of a rifle round moments before she felt a pinch in the nape of her neck – a telltale sign that one of her dummies had been hit and destroyed.

M590 had begun scaling the slope, slinging her gun over her back in order to use both hands and feet in the struggle to get up. She had configured her body shield to cover her back as she climbed, and Sangvis fire peppered the metal as she went. SASS envied such a defense at the moment, herself exposed to the hail of bullets shot by the enemy.

The climb up the slope grew steadily more difficult. Once SASS had cleared the large chunks of structural rubble, the rest of the hill was only dirt and pebbles, extremely difficult to find good footing in. The doll resorting to kicking hard so as to make footholds, slowly but surely making her way up. RFB had gotten into a firing position at the top and begun returning fire to the Sangvis units, picking off the leading dolls with pinpoint accuracy.

"ARTILLERY!" shouted Grizzly. The air rumbled with the drumroll of gun batteries firing. M590 doubled her speed, and SASS made to do the same, struggling to find solid ground to grip onto. Ingram threw the last of her grenades and dashed for the hill, jumping up onto the wall of a ruined building and leaping as far as she could up the hill – still falling woefully short of the other two.

SASS looked back just in time to see the foot of the hill explode behind Ingram as the barrage slammed down. Chunks of concrete and desiccated T-doll corpses were thrown up into the air along with a wave of dirt, obscuring her view of the incoming Sangvis units in a barrier of orange flame, black dirt, and grey smoke.

"Move it!" shouted Grizzly. SASS was close enough to hear her voice without the radio. M590, now short a dummy, hauled herself over the sandbags and behind the barricades. SASS could see Grizzly's head at the edge, hand ready to help her up. She put on a burst of speed, mere meters from her goal…

The top of the hill exploded as the second round of Sangvis artillery thundered down from the heavens. SASS ducked just in time to avoid the blast of dirt, sandbags, and T-doll body parts thrown over the edge of the hill, but the shockwave flung her body into the dirt, and only by digging the butt of her rifle in did she avoid sliding back down to the bottom.

"YOU'VE REALLY DONE IT NOW!" screamed Ingram. "DIE, SANGVIS SCUM!"

SASS opened her mouth to protest, but Ingram had already leapt off the side of the hill and back into her own smoke. The doll watched the swirling fog and intermittent muzzle flashes for a moment before she turned back forward to finish the climb.

The top of the hill was a mess. What was once a Griffin strongpoint had been reduced to a crumbling building, exposed rebar imprisoning the broken husk of the once-operational sensor equipment within. Defensive positions had been blown apart, sandbags and spilled ammo boxes littering the ground. Smoke billowed up and disappeared in the night sky, obscuring the field of stars above. SASS glanced over the edge of the hill. No Sangvis had yet emerged from the cloud of smoke below.

"Where's Ingram?" asked Grizzly. SASS turned to see her team leader kneeling next to one of her duplicates, the dummy bleeding profusely from shrapnel wounds.

"She… uh…"

"Alright."

Grizzly lifted the extra magazines and pistol from the dummy link, sticking them into her belt. SASS glanced over at the destroyed building, where she could see a few bodies sprawled across the ground, some crushed by rubble. RFB and M590 were struggling to lift a piece of concrete off of an intact RFB duplicate, grasping for a fallen rifle.

"Wh… what're we doing?" asked SASS.

"Defending the hill."

"It's blown up!"

"We had an order." Grizzly looked at SASS disparagingly. "I know that this is your first time running with us. Probably your first time on a battlefield this big. But we've got to fight."

RFB and M590 shuffled over to the other two.

"RFB, SASS, take firing positions on the edge," ordered Grizzly. "M590 and I will stay behind you and nail any Sangvis who get by."

"Grizzly-chan, this is too much," whined RFB, dragging her feet. "Can't we just call it a night and retreat?"

M590 gave RFB a push in the back. "Sangvis will be on us any minute. Try not to get killed."

SASS looked around. Two of her dummy links had made it up after her – another one had been shot by Sangvis units before reaching the top of the hill. RFB had only one. Five guns would not be able to hold a hill against a horde of Sangvis troops. Grizzly knew that. They would die… at least, everything since their last neural cloud backup. SASS's stomach twisted at the thought.

She took position next to RFB and aimed down at the foot of the hill. Grizzly and M590 stood behind both of them.

"Where's Ingram?" said RFB. SASS bit her lip.

"Here they come!" shouted Grizzly.

The Sangvis units stormed out of the smoke and up the hill. RFB let loose with a hail of fire, and SASS joined the cacophony of rounds. She squeezed the trigger… and squeezed again… and again…

There seemed to be no conceivable end to the Sangvis units. The new ones simply walked over the corpses of the old, stomping them into the ground as they advanced towards the hill. At first, the slope had proven difficult to climb, but the Sangvis dolls, unperturbed by the failure to scale it, kept at it.

"I'm out," said RFB, throwing her empty rifle down at a Sangvis. Her dummy had been nailed by an enemy sniper, coolant running thick from the head wound. SASS pulled the trigger as fast as she could in an effort to stop the flow of Sangvis troops. She could not tell how many times she had to reload – only that she had to. She could not hear Grizzly's shouts, only the crack of her rifle, and the snap of Sangvis return fire zipping past her ears.

SASS gradually realized that she had reached her last magazine. Sangvis units were still coming in droves, and they had nearly reached the top of the hill when Grizzly seized SASS by the uniform and pulled her back, throwing the doll far away from the edge.

"We'll take it from here."

Time almost slowed for SASS. Grizzly drew the second pistol she had taken from her fallen dummy just as the first Sangvis doll crested the hill. M590's barrel exploded in a fiery burst of buckshot.

The fight was quick, though brutal. Grizzly and M590 fought like cornered animals, smashing in skulls and breaking body parts whenever they were close enough to forego firing their weapon. When they did fire, however, it was only when necessary, and with deadly precision, saving as much ammunition as possible. Bullets shattered bone and buck flayed open skin in a forge of orange muzzle flashes and explosions.

"BURN IN HELL!" screamed Grizzly, throwing herself at a bayonet-wielding Sangvis guard unit. The guard raised its shield to block her shots and thrust its bayonet forward–

"Hhhhuuurk-"

She raised her hand and emptied the rest of the pistol's magazine into the Sangvis doll, and the two collapsed to the ground, moments before the next horde of Sangvis swarmed around them. SASS watched, mouth agape, as M590 fired off round after round into the dolls surrounding her, a ring of corpses steadily growing around her.

Unlike Grizzly, M590 died without a word. The barrel of her gun was still smoking when the Sangvis units turned to SASS, starting across the ground. She raised her rifle and tried to fire, but found herself out of ammunition. Not even a heroic death, she thought. Her end would be with her back against the wall, riddled with bullet holes and nothing to show for it.

The Sangvis were almost on top of her when a series of explosions rippled across the hilltop, throwing Sangvis dolls everywhere in a fresh hail of shrapnel and debris. SASS glimpsed a series of crimson- and black-clothed figures swarm around the rubble and descend upon the surviving Sangvis. The air thundered with the crack of rifle fire, fully automatic, bright muzzle flashes illuminating the carnage.

SASS climbed to her feet as the figures advanced towards the edge of the hill. More of them appeared out of the night and joined the advance, steadily pushing the remaining Sangvis towards the slope. SASS started walking towards the disabled dolls left behind them – she had to find Grizzly, see if she was still alive.

Her team leader was buried beneath a copious amount of Sangvis corpses. SASS slowly pushed them off to expose the one that had impaled Grizzly. The fall had driven the bayonet further through her torso, nearly separating it from her legs.

"Koff… SASS…" Grizzly had slowly turned her head to face SASS, jaw tight from pain. "Sorry you had to see that… it gets messy sometimes…"

SASS stared at Grizzly. Her leader was covered in Sangvis synthetic blood and dirt, face blackened from smoke, hair singed from soot, forearm seared a blistering red by the artillery barrage explosion.

"The neural cloud won't be up to date," said Grizzly. "Here…" She reached down to where the bayonet wound was and buried her hand in the hole, grimacing in agony. SASS stared as she extracted a small, pill-shaped object, dripping with coolant. "Combat data recorder," she said, holding it out to SASS. "Give it to me when the battle's over."

SASS took the device and put it in her pocket. "What about RFB and M590?"

"Tough shit. Combat drone footage can suffice for them," said Grizzly, her spiteful laugh quickly turning into a hacking cough. "If you ever see Ingram, tell her she needs to show more self control. She'd've been more useful up here…"

Grizzly looked up at the night sky. "Nice view to die by." She turned to look at SASS. "I know it's bad, but–"

SASS felt several things happen at once. A hot blast from a bullet rushed past her ear, just as Grizzly's eyes widened and she grasped for the pistol she no longer had. SASS turned to see a Sangvis doll stumbling through the mud towards her. SASS had no weapon, nor did Grizzly; the Sangvis had leveled its gun at SASS and was about to fire a second shot when it was taken to the ground, tackled by another figure. SASS glimpsed the shimmer of a knife blade in the figure's raised hand before it slashed down. The Sangvis doll, grasping at its attacker, went limp.

SASS pushed herself back into a sitting position. The figure climbed off of the dead Sangvis and approached her, placing the knife into a sheath.

"Fireteam Grizzly?" it asked, holding out a hand to SASS.

"Yes… ma'am," she said, standing up and getting a good look at the face of her rescuer. It was a doll with long, flowing pale pink hair, the red side cap on her head matching the black-red sailor's uniform, eerily similar in shape to SASS's own. "I… Grizzly…"

"Dead by now," said the other doll. "Are there any other survivors from your echelon?"

"Ah… Ingram might still be down there… Are you Leonid Echelon?"

"No, Leonid was taken out by a Sangvis ambush. We're Hunter Squadron."

The other doll seemed almost distracted as it spoke, eyes almost constantly flicking left and right. SASS blinked in confusion.

"Hunter…?"

The doll, who had been staring behind at the now-distant gunshots, looked back to SASS. "Yes. The commander rerouted us here when Leonid was intercepted and you were assaulted. I guess we didn't get here fast enough, though. You said Ingram's still down there?"

"M-maybe, it's not like she made radio contact…"

"All right. Well, just sit tight. Tokarev!"

SASS twisted to see a white-dressed T-doll saunter over to the other two from where she had been inspecting the hilltop battlefield. She smiled warmly at SASS.

"Make sure she isn't shot by any Sangvis we missed," said the pink-haired doll. "I'm going to find StG44 and the others and see how it's going."

The pink-haired doll stepped over a Sangvis corpse and knelt down, picking up an immense rifle nearly as tall as she before starting off at a brisk run down the hill. SASS watched her bound away towards the battleline.

"Sorry if she's a little intense," said Tokarev. Her voice was soft and unassuming, a far cry from the clipped tone of the other doll.

"Who…" managed SASS, still shaken from the battle.

"NTW-20. She's the team leader." Tokarev looked around the hilltop. "Lose your gun?"

"Uh… it's by the body…"

Grizzly gone. M590 around somewhere, buried under Sangvis corpses. RFB shot dead. Ingram gone berserk. SASS wondered what the chances were of her surviving. Slim to none? She had been about to die when Hunter Squadron arrived, and about to die again when NTW-20 intervened. She had been spared explosions and bullets, and had no feats to show for it. She, the FNG, as Ingram put it, had been the only one to survive the battle.

When she had first been reassigned to Fireteam Grizzly from Team Thompson, SASS had been reassured that there would be little difference between the difficulty of the missions they were sent on. But an unexpected Sangvis offensive in the area had led to her unexpected deployment on an unexpected mission on an unexpected battlefield. It was like nothing she had ever experienced.

"Are you alright?" asked Tokarev.

"Y-yeah…"

"Shell shock, then. Take deep breaths. You should sit down somewhere…"

Tokarev looked about for a clear space to sit down, but SASS had already drifted back off into thought. The squad members would be rebuilt quickly, though they would lack any memory of the battle, excepting Grizzly, once SASS gave her the data recorder. RFB, M590, and Ingram would be none the wiser to the fates they had met on the battlefield, at least until someone else told them about it.

Voices heralded the return of the other dolls. They seemed to take the hill much easier than SASS and the others had – perhaps it was less of a task when one was not being pursued by a horde of Sangvis troops.

"That's this wave finished," said NTW-20. "The Commander says there's a carrier on route to get us back on track."

"Any idea how the rest of the battle's going?" asked one of the other dolls, this one in clothed in crimson.

"No, and we won't find out for a while…"

"Who's this?" asked another, looking straight at SASS.

"One of Grizzly's."

"Huh… shame she's dead, I would've killed to meet her."

"I know, right? Fire-walker, they say… damn. Well, maybe I'll catch her at the bar later."

The other dolls in the squadron devolved into banter as NTW-20 returned to SASS and Tokarev. "There'll be a separate carrier to take you back to base. Tokarev, get a handle on the others and make sure they're ready to move out when the chopper gets here."

She seemed ready to turn away from SASS and walk back with Tokarev, but instead kept standing there.

"I never got your name."

"S-SuperSASS."

"First mission?"

"This big, yeah…"

NTW-20 crouched down a little to look SASS level in the eyes. Too short, she thought. "How many of these Sangvis did you kill? Don't try to remember, just check your internal records."

SASS felt about in her memories to access the battle records. "Sixty-three."

"Good number for a rookie to something like this. With e-"

A navy-uniformed doll seemed to materialize out of the night air next to NTW-20. "Herr, the chopper's nearly here."

"Voetsek, I'm talking."

The other doll tutted and turned away. NTW-20 looked back at SASS. "I've got to go. You're out of the S17 base, right?"

SASS nodded mutely.

"Drink much?"

SASS furrowed her brow.

"Doesn't have to be liquor. Just head to the café after the debrief."

SASS nodded again. The chop of helicopter blades was audible in the distance. NTW-20 patted her on the shoulder.

"That's my ride. Take care."

"With the successful defensive and counteroffensive, Sangvis has been repulsed from Khariton sector, and their Ringleader vanquished. Congratulations to Fireteam Grizzly, Leonid Echelon, Chrysanthemum Team, Hunter Squadron… "

As the debriefing drew to a close, SASS joined the horde of battle-dirtied T-dolls flooding out of the briefing room. Unlike the briefing she attended prior to the battle, the debriefing was boring, anticlimactic, and depressing above all. The chilly, unforgiving battlefield was replaced by a holographic blue map, dispassionate in its reporting of the events. The veteran dolls at the briefing had talked amongst themselves half the time, inattentive to a recap of what they already knew, but SASS and the precious few newer members who had survived to go to the debriefing were listening with rapt attention to what the presiding T-doll had said. The briefing room was only half full, however – the dolls being repaired and rebuilt would be given a recording of the debrief after they left the repair bay or construction suite.

Commander Kerr herself had been unable to attend, purportedly busy with a special meeting all her own, so she had been replaced by her adjutant, Type 81. SASS had failed to spy NTW-20, Tokarev or any of the other members of Hunter Squadron – not that she would be able to recognize the rest of them anyway. The pitch-black darkness of the battlefield had left her virtually blind to anything that wasn't directly in front of her, so she had no clue as to what the other members looked like.

NTW-20 had told her to head to the café after the debrief. SASS had visited the café in S09 while she was in Team Thompson, since Thompson drank fairly regularly, but no one on Grizzly shared the same characteristic – except Ingram, though she frequently drank alone. SASS started down the hallway towards the café. A great variety of dolls walked the wide corridor, a few of which SASS recognized from when she had visited the range – a good deal more she didn't know, and it occurred to her that, with the current offensive over, she ought to get out of her quarters more and meet more dolls that weren't from her fireteam. They weren't the best conversation partners… Grizzly and M590 spend inordinate amounts of time training and discussing battle strategy, RFB was a gamer who rarely left the television, and Ingram was chronically depressed when she wasn't actively fighting anything.

"Hey! SASS!"

SASS looked back to see Thompson and M1911 approaching from behind. "Thompson," she said, turning around to greet them.

"No salute?" Thompson crossed her arms. SASS opened her mouth in embarrassment for a brief second before Thompson clapped her on the shoulder, grime-covered hand leaving a dirty mark on SASS's sailor uniform. "Just giving you a hard time. How's the new squad? Where's Grizzly? Didn't see her at the briefing…"

"She, uh… needs to be built again."

Thompson nodded slowly. "Didn't make it, then. I'll have to give her a hard time next time I see her. How was the battle for you guys? M1911 here says she got 50 kills with one gun alone, but I'm having a hard time believing her.

"I only said that because M9 was around," said M1911. "I don't think she's learned her lesson from her fuck-up a couple months ago, so maybe some hyperbole will put her in her place."

"True," conceded Thompson.

"I got sixty-three," said SASS. Thompson raised an eyebrow.

"Target-rich for you, I guess. Commander Kerr had us running down one of the ringleader's dummies. Could've used you on that one."

"I… don't think I would've been too helpful. I almost died on my mission."

Thompson sniffed. "Well, tough luck. Ingram fare any better? Or did she…" Thompson mimed fingerguns at SASS.

"Yeah. She did."

"Idiot," muttered M1911. "You think she'd learn not to."

"Personality defects," said Thompson.

"She wasn't at the debriefing," said SASS. "So she might be in the construction queue with the others."

"So RFB and M590 were out too? Shame," said Thompson, grinning all the same. SASS was aware that she held certain dolls in contempt for their higher positions. "RFB seemed promising."

"She's not a failure," said SASS, going to the defense of her teammate. Thompson wasn't there when it happened. "It was the same for all of us."

"Perhaps," Thompson said nonchalantly. "Regardless, good job with the kill count. Where you headed next?"

"Café."

"Not getting a drink, are you?"

"No, meeting someone."

Thompson chuckled. "Well, enjoy that. I'm off to get cleaned up. You probably should too."

SASS stared down at herself as Thompson and M1911 sauntered away. It was true. Her uniform was muddied, as were her arms and likely her face. Dirt was packed under her fingernails and caked in the crooks of her elbows, grit behind her knee pads and up under her skirt. SASS calmed herself with the reassurance that everyone else was just as dirty and continued on to the café.

The café was quiet, and SASS suspected that most of its frequent visitors were being rebuilt or repaired, or perhaps attending debriefings or combat simulations. Springfield smiled at her from behind the bar, putting away her cleaning rag and waving to SASS. "Hello there!"

"Hello," said SASS, taking a seat on one of the barstools.

"Can I get you anything?" asked Springfield.

"Nothing right now, I'm… waiting for someone."

SASS cast a glance over her shoulder. PPSh-41 and PPS-43 sat in the corner cradling drinks, and SV-98 sat alone with a cocktail glass, but the café was otherwise empty. Muted guitar chords played over the radio, and glasses clinked from the countertop behind the bar where Springfield was busy washing them. SASS picked at a scratch on the bartop.

"Deployed in the defensive?" asked Springfield from the sink.

"Yeah."

"Do well?"

"Ah…" SASS bit her lip. How could she explain what happened?

"It's all right," said Springfield, turning off the faucet and wiping her hands on a dry towel. "I didn't do too hot my first time either. That was a long time ago…"

SASS kept her gaze to the tabletop. It wasn't her first time, that was the thing, and she had performed so well with Thompson during that contract a few months back. M9 had been quite annoying back then, but she would have much rather stayed with her than seen Grizzly impaled before her eyes. It just wasn't fair. Type 81 had extended the commander's congratulations to Grizzly's team at the debriefing, but was it out of pity? SASS told herself it wasn't, but the thought gnawed at her psyche anyway. Pity for what was nearly a complete massacre.

"You know, I've heard some others say that cranberry juice is a good drink to have right after a battle," said Springfield.

"I'm fine, really."

Springfield looked at SASS dubiously. "It's not good to bottle that stuff up."

SASS covered her eyes with her hands. "Ah… it'll be alright. I just need some time… and maybe sleep."

"That's understandable."

The door to the café squeaked open. SASS heard footsteps and slowly lowered her hands just in time to see NTW-20's face fill her gaze as she slid onto the barstool next to SASS.

"You walk fast," said SASS, astonished that NTW-20 had covered the floor so quickly.

"I have long legs," said NTW-20 matter-of-factly. "Howzit? Want a drink?"

"Uh…"

"One cranberry juice and an amarula for me," NTW-20 said to Springfield, who nodded and disappeared into the back room.

"So it's true about the cranberry juice," said SASS, her gaze already returning to the table. NTW-20 shrugged.

"It works for some people. Have you already tried it?"

"No."

"Well, I guess we'll find out if you like it." NTW-20 reached behind her head and brushed her hair back over her shoulders, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. SASS set her chin in her hand, and they both sat in silence until Springfield came back with their drinks.

"Could use a little more of it," complained NTW-20 upon seeing the small glass Springfield had served the amarula in.

"Here's the whole bottle," said Springfield in exasperation, placing the rest of the liquor on the countertop. NTW-20 grinned devilishly.

"Isn't that a bit much?" asked SASS.

"I can afford getting drunk after a defensive like that," said NTW-20, downing the glass quickly.

"What did you do, anyway?"

"Saved you."

SASS frowned. "Besides that, I mean. You were barely mentioned at the debriefing."

NTW-20 slowly licked her lips. "Ah… classified, I think."

"How can something be classified? We're all fighting Sangvis Ferri together."

"Remember Parapluie?" said NTW-20. "It's stuff like that the humans worry about. But, I don't really think that you're going to be reporting anything to Sangvis, or get the Parapluie virus." She set her glass down and poured out more of the cream brown liquor. "We were taking care of the ringleader leading the assault."

SASS looked up from the bar at NTW-20. "So… why didn't I know who you were?"

"We're just not a mainline echelon all of the time. Kerr keeps our existence on the downlow, and none of us are from S17 originally anyway. The only reason we met is because Leonid echelon had been intercepted. We were on the way to the ringleader's last reported position when the commander ordered us to salvage your position so the Sangvis breakthrough didn't reach past point Yelena."

"I see…"

NTW-20 took another sip of her drink, then gestured toward the glass of cranberry juice Springfield had set in front of SASS. "Try it."

SASS took ahold of the glass and raised it to her lips, taking a gulp of the ruby red liquid. "Kind of bitter…"

"...and?"

"Not bad, I guess."

"Looks like it's a winner!" proclaimed NTW-20.

"I-I didn't say I liked it," SASS said defensively.

"Either you hate it or you don't," explained NTW-20. "And you evidently don't hate it."

SASS frowned again. "That seems a bit extreme."

"It's just like that, I guess."

They both went quiet as NTW-20 finished the second glass, though this time she merely pushed it across the table, neglecting to refill it. SASS ran her finger up and down the side of the glass of chilled cranberry juice, rubbing at the condensation on the side. The guitar chords from the radio twanged out an unsavory tune, and PPSh-41 coughed from the corner.

"So," said NTW-20. "I did have a reason for asking you here, besides getting you to like cranberry juice.

"I don't like it," SASS said under her breath, though NTW-20 seemed not to hear.

"I looked at your record and saw how you were with Thompson. It's… hello?"

SASS looked up and saw that NTW-20 had been looking at her while she was speaking, and felt a blush rising out of embarrassment for her disrespect. "Sorry…"

"It's fine," said the T-doll, her lips giving way to a small smile. "I wanted to talk about you."

"Me?" said SASS, who now felt as red as the cranberry juice.

"Yes. I think you're an exceptional T-doll."

"Exceptional?"

NTW-20 frowned slightly. "Well, I don't mean that you're a protagonist or anything. But, the point is, you're a good marksdoll, and I think you can be better. With training."

"Does that mean you want to teach me?"

"Well… yes," said NTW-20, suddenly looking away. "Not long-term or anything. I just want to get you on the road to progression. You've got a good gun and a good eye."

SASS quickly sipped her cranberry juice to buy a few seconds' time. Training? Improvement? She liked things the way they were. Just so long as she wasn't deployed in a battle like that again. NTW-20's offer was kind, certainly, but hard to understand. Maybe she was just trying to be nice to the doll she'd rescued.

"I appreciate the offer–" began SASS.

"No declining," said NTW-20. She stood and set a gloved hand on SASS's shoulder. "Just take my word, and at least give it a shot. Range 5, tomorrow morning?"

"...sure," SASS said slowly.

"Superb," said NTW-20. "See you there."

SASS furrowed her brow at the word and almost made to stand too, but NTW-20 had already snatched the bottle of amarula and crossed the floor to the exit. Stupid long legs, SASS thought.