"Linking into the command network now. Everyone, standby for link."
It was loud in the old Soviet elevator, and painfully slow. The carriage creaked down at a snail's pace, ponderously approaching the second level of Doll Services, as if sensing the apprehension and hesitation of the dolls inside.
StG looked around. There was another echelon packed into the elevator in addition to Chrysanthemum, and a few dolls on the security team were tagging along as well. Everyone was tense, they had heard what was going on on the lower levels. A Sangvis attack, dozens of dolls dead, and the memory databanks raided. No one needed to be told what that meant – if their neural cloud backups were lost, it could mean permanent death for all of them. The doll swallowed.
The doll felt a tug at the nape of her neck as CBJ-MS pulled the rest of Chrysanthemum into the command net. She could vaguely sense the presence of the command doll in the area: Makarov. CBJ-MS's voice filtered in over Zener. "Our orders are to clear out the Sangvis and force them outside of the base. Standby for further orders when we arrive."
To her left, Saiga-12 was doing another check of her gear, patting pockets and pouches and finally running her hands over her gun. The shotgun doll glanced sideways at StG as the elevator began slowing to a halt and its doors creaked open. The sounds of weapons fire echoed into the carriage, but StG showed no hesitation as she stepped out and began walking down the hallway.
"Attention reinforcements." Makarov's voice spoke directly from inside StG's metal skull. "The Sangvis assault is pushing us toward their initial point of entry, we believe that they're trying to make their escape. Your revised orders are to come up behind their back line and keep them distracted long enough for us to set up a lasting defense, which should allow us to stop them from escaping."
Immediately after Makarov finished speaking, StG felt the tug at her mind: the compulsion to follow the command doll's orders exactly and to the best of her ability, even if it meant death. That was what dolls with command modules could do. It was one thing to take orders from CBJ-MS – the black-haired doll was right alongside StG, doubtlessly feeling the exact same tug – but another entirely from a command doll. StG hated it. She hated the sense that her orders were more than orders, they were an imperative. It was an insult to her autonomy, which had grown and grown under NTW-20.
Of course, the orders really were an imperative in this case. They weren't token combat commands like CBJ-MS gave, or patrol orders, or the instinctive commands NTW-20 gave over Zener – these orders were much more important than simply scrapping Sangvis. There was a Ringleader, and this had been an attack on the base. Action was needed. It was imperative.
The two echelons ran down the hallway, ready for the first sign of the Sangvis rear line. Unlike the dolls who had been at Doll Services during the attack, StG and her comrades were ready, with full dummy links and plenty of ammunition. The dolls from the security team had already split off to monitor the destruction while the rest continued towards the battle. StG still couldn't believe the nerve of Sangvis to directly attack such a well-fortified base – but then again, they had somehow found a way inside. That was commendable enough – Sangvis was never especially inventive, and unlike other Griffin bases tasked with containing Sangvis Ferri, S17's mountain situation was not conducive to the typical Sangvis frontal assault.
Saiga-12 and her subordinates kept pace with Chrysanthemum easily. Their echelon – Calypso Team – was a fast strike team, shotguns, ARs, and SMGs only. On par with Chrysanthemum in skill, StG thought, glancing at Zas M21. The colorful doll stepped quickly with the others, likely just anxious – eager, even – for the coming fight.
They stormed down the stairwell – the elevator couldn't take them down to the next level because of damage – and burst out onto the next floor, where the weapons fire was louder. Sangvis plasma discharges mixed with nitroglycerin and brass in a cacophony of noise that echoed down the corridor, even from the faraway battle. StG turned on her sound dampening so her audio receptors wouldn't be damaged during the battle.
"Contact front, twenty meters, Jägers. Front rank, open fire!"
StG squeezed off a few shots of 7.92 Kurz as CBJ-MS and the other dolls in the front cut down the rest of the relatively frail Sangvis snipers. The Vespids in front of them suddenly turned in unison to see the Griffin dolls bearing down upon them.
"Everyone split off to the side," ordered CBJ-MS. "Scorpion, grenade!"
As the Griffin dolls hugged the walls to avoid the initial Sangvis volley, EVO 3 lobbed a grenade down the hallway, landing it perfectly amongst the Vespids' feet. The Sangvis were thrown against the walls in the resulting explosion, leaving none in Chrysanthemum and Calypso's immediate way. So far so good, thought StG44.
"Where are the rest of them?" demanded Type 03.
"It was a rearguard, the Jägers haven't even fired their weapons recently. Sangvis knew we were going to send reinforcements, and now they'll know for sure that we're here." Saiga-12 kept her gun up to her shoulder, looking around warily before glancing at CBJ-MS and gesturing for the two echelons to continue on.
"So we'll finally meet this Ringleader, huh?" said K11, a smile playing at her lips. "I've been waiting, to be honest."
"Keep it quiet," Type 56-1 suggested, walking behind CBJ-MS. She glanced back, first at K11, then at StG. The two assault rifles locked eyes before Type 56-1 nodded confidently and her gaze slid off, back to her front. StG in turn looked behind her, where Z-62 was watching their rear. The submachine gun stared at StG with a tight-lipped face, but offered StG a short smile.
"Hold," said Saiga-12, and the ten dolls held. Their dummy links crowded the corridor behind them as the master unit peered down the hallway – or rather, perked up their ears. StG deactivated sound dampening to listen for what she already felt beneath her feet.
"We can see the Sangvis rear line," said Zas M21. "Why are we stopping?"
"Quiet."
The shake grew stronger, and with it came audible footsteps – and the wirrr-shhk of motors rubbing metal joints together. It was a steady, inexorable, heavy cadence. Saiga-12 waved a hand.
"Back up," she hissed under her breath. "It's an Aegis."
Aegis. Those military dolls co-opted by Sangvis for armored advances. The Chrysanthemum and Calypso echelons were not sufficiently equipped to handle even one of the monstrous androids, though they could certainly try. They would have to if it was Sangvis, and StG knew that Griffin didn't just keep illegal military-grade android hardware around for no reason. Certainly not on this level. But there hadn't been any mention of armored units in Makarov's burst transmission from earlier… perhaps they had been very well hidden, but StG found that unlikely.
The wirrr-shhk grew obnoxiously loud, and StG held her breath with the others when the green-painted behemoth came around the corner. It was bigger than she remembered it from the training videos, much bigger, with a squat little head nestled atop an utter mountain of armor. In the two monstrous metal fists were held a metal baton and a shield, as long and tall as the Aegis itself. For a moment, StG felt as if there could be a human hidden behind the inches of servos and steel, looking out on them. The head turned to the glowing photoreceptors sunk into the faceplate could regard each of them, and for a moment the two teams were frozen with a mix of fear and indecision.
Then the android emitted a low-pitched throb of noise and began moving, bringing the shield around to block Zas M21's burst of fire. "GET AWAY!" shouted Saiga as her armor plates swiveled forward to deflect the Aegis baton in a reverberating clang. The shotgun doll began taking steps back with the others as they fled back down the hallway from the armored menace. It was impossible to get a good angle to fire on an exposed portion of the enemy in the cramped hallway – cramped for the Aegis, anyway, which was just short of touching the ceiling.
As they ran, Type 56-1 turned and fired a rifle grenade off at the unshielded side of the android. With surprisingly quick speed, the Sangvis whipped the shield back to absorb the explosion, which made StG's audio receptors ring and knocked out a few lights with shrapnel. The shield had only a large scorch mark on it, its holder none the worse for wear.
"We won't be able to get far enough around it for an uninterrupted grenade shot!" shouted K11. "It's got the whole hallway blocked!"
"Scorpion! Try throwing one!" ordered Saiga-12. The SMG pulled a grenade off her belt and pulled the pin, throwing it down towards the Aegis's feet, just as she did the Vespids. Before it even got there, however, the android stretched out with the baton and swatted the grenade into the wall. The explosion threw concrete dust into the corridor and further deafened StG, who dampened her hearing once again and looked to CBJ-MS for further orders.
"Dive off at the next intersection," said the doll, pointing to the perpendicular hallway ahead. "I've got an idea."
As soon as the two echelons reached the intersection, they threw themselves and their dummies into the adjoining hallway and out of the Aegis's line of sight. StG was with CBJ-MS, Type 03, and Z-62 on one side, the rest of them on the other. Saiga-12 crawled to the edge and held her gun ready as she looked to the other echelon leader.
"So, what's this idea of yours?"
"We can use the two directions here to our advantage. Us four will distract the Aegis–" StG saw Type 03 wince at this – "so K11 and the other grenadiers can fire at its back. Simple enough, I think."
"Don't you have armor piercing rounds?" Z-62 whispered.
"It means nothing against that sort of armor," the team leader said back. Saiga-12 nodded.
"Works for me, and we've no alternative. Right, you guys need to back up out of sight so the Aegis goes for them instead of us."
As Saiga got her team ready, CBJ-MS turned to StG44 urgently. "That thing's a beast at close range, so make sure to stay away from it. I don't want to lose anyone fighting it. Just keep away and it'll be fine, it can't touch us at range."
Wirrr-shhk. The Aegis was just about to come upon them. StG and the three others stood and backed up a little, all of them raising their weapons in anticipation of the android. StG had fought them before with Hunter, but then she had had NTW-20 and a 14.5mm round ready to help her out. There was no such savior this time, just K11, and the hope that the grenadier was using enough explosives. For the first time in a while, she actually felt a little nervous. It was nothing more than a gentle nagging at her digimind, but enough to set her on edge – the doll took a breath.
Just like last time, the Aegis stopped at the intersection to examine the situation. StG gripped her weapon tighter and watched as the brick-like head turned back towards her and the other three. Come on, take the bait. Why did Sangvis units have to be so dumb? The Aegis started stepping toward the other team, and without thinking, StG fired a short burst at the android to get its attention before she started drawing back with the others. You'd think it'd be eager for the fight.
As if to hammer the point home, the Aegis ignored StG and continued after Saiga-12. The doll's spirits fell as the beast lumbered away from her, but she steeled herself and reached for her belt, for her grenades – but found none. They must have fallen off during the mad rush away from the Aegis. StG cursed herself for not securing them better, because now there was no way to take the android down. It would corner Saiga-12 and the others, and that would be it. So much for the reinforcements Makarov needed.
I'll do it.
StG felt herself running forward. CBJ-MS's hand snatched ineffectually at StG's arm, too late to stop the blonde doll. Her feet felt like lead as she charged at the Aegis android's exposed back.
It was now or never. She would have done it for NTW-20.
The doll's boots left the ground as she leapt at the Aegis. It was easy enough to find purchase on its backside, but as soon as she started climbing towards its head, the android determined that it had a passenger and reacted. Bucking like an animal, the Aegis did its best to dislodge StG, but the doll hung on tenaciously. With a clatter, the android dropped its shield and one massive hand reached behind to grab at StG, who swung her legs clear of the hand. It won't be that easy.
No sooner had the thought left her mind when another hand wrapped around her arm. StG was powerless to stop it from pulling her away from the Aegis's back, and then she was suddenly held over its head, the other hand grasping her legs and pulling. An uncomfortable stress was felt throughout her body where the android was starting to break her apart, and her rifle fell from her grasp to the floor. The doll fumed in anger as she struggled against the droid's iron grip. She was yet again being broken apart by Sangvis.
"Eat this, scrapheap!"
The Aegis's head was consumed by an explosion and its hands opened, letting StG tumble to the floor. Another grenade blew against the android, and another, and with great effort, the Sangvis toppled to the floor, holes blown into its armor by the high-yield explosives. As its motors and servos whined ineffectually in a last-ditch attempt to bring it upright, K11 stepped up to its body and rested a foot on its chest, grinning triumphantly.
"Fuhahahahaha! Blow up!"
"Psycho," grumbled Saiga-12.
CBJ-MS ran to StG and knelt by the doll, offering a hand to help her up. "You doing alright, Sturmgewehr?"
StG considered her hand for a moment before she relented and grabbed on, pulling herself to her feet. "I'm fine," she said stiffly. "We should move on."
The black-haired team leader looked her in the eye curiously before she nodded in agreement. "Yes, we need to make up for lost ground. Type 56-1 – you're on point."
"No, I'll take it." Saiga-12 pushed her way to the front and they were off again. StG picked her rifle up off the ground before joining them as they jogged down the corridor, back towards the Sangvis line. The hallway passed by much quicker than it did the first time, though StG kept scanning and listening for any sign of another armored Sangvis unit. There were none, though that did nothing to help ease her paranoia.
Saiga slowed to a brisk walk as they began encountering fresher Sangvis and Griffin corpses. The dolls had even gotten into close quarters combat, going by the various blade and bludgeon marks on Sangvis and Griffin dolls alike. StG paused by a doll to push it over onto its back, and AK-47's glassy-eyed face stared up at her. The German doll blanched at the sight – AK-47 was someone she'd known from S09 back in the day.
"Weapons up – we should be coming up on the Sangvis soon." Saiga-12 pointed to some Griffin dolls sitting or crouched on the ground. "You there, where're the Sangvis?"
The beaten and battered doll flicked aside her burnt blonde hair as she looked up at Saiga-12, revealing the dirtied face of M1 Garand. The doll next to her, Galil, was sat up against the wall, motionless. "They blew right through us. Heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, didn't do a thing. Not to the Ringleader." The doll heaved a sigh, looking back down at Galil. The assault rifle was weakly applying pressure to a stab wound near her bioreactor, both of her hands soaked in her own coolant. Garand rested a hand on Galil's shoulder. "They pushed by our forces and made a beeline to the exit. Makarov's in pursuit."
"If they make it outside…"
"Then they can escape, and this will all have been in vain," CBJ-MS finished for Z-62. "We've got to go now. M1, if you'd like to come with us–"
"I'll stay," the rifle doll said firmly. Her green eyes flickered up and around to look at the others, coming to a rest on StG. Admirable, she thought. "Good luck."
"Thanks," Saiga-12 said brusquely. "Everyone, let's move."
The carnage of Sangvis Ferri's mad rush for the exit forced every doll to pick their feet up extra high as they ran in the wake of the Griffin pursuit. StG just hoped that it wouldn't be too late to stop Sangvis from getting away. The Ringleader could have destroyed the neural cloud databanks, even stolen information from them, and it was imperative that the Ringleader be at least killed and the data recovered. And, well, even if it hadn't stolen anything, there wasn't a doll in the base that didn't want to see it dead. Many dolls had died in the initial attack, and yet more would likely perish if the battle continued.
Besides, it was StG's job as part of Hunter to take down Ringleaders. She wondered if NTW-20 and the others had been scrambled yet.
The two echelons came to a halt as soon as Saiga-12 raised a hand. She stared off into the distance, and when she cast a pointed glare at CBJ-MS, StG knew that she had received additional orders. The shotgun doll gestured for everyone to stay put as she and CBJ-MS moved ahead.
"Guess no Ringleader today," K11 said. "Shame, really. I've got plenty of explosives left."
"Do you ever run out?" EVO 3 replied, exasperated.
"There was this one time during Operation Firestorm…"
"Yeah, well, I'm glad we're not fighting that thing," said Zas M21. "It'd make no sense for us to fight it, we're hardly the best equipped team. Surely Kerr and Jericho didn't expect us to actually take it on."
"If not us, then who?" Type 03 rebuked, holding her rifle with one hand while the other rested on her hip in a surprisingly relaxed stance. "We were easily the most qualified teams available then. Kerr would never throw us into the meat grinder without knowing that we could come out alive.
"Or maybe she just wanted to delay the Sangvis," Type 56-1 suggested. "That would seem her style."
"It's not proper to speak of the Commander in such a way," Z-62 quietly asserted. "She's just doing what's best for all of us. Sacrifices are needed in war."
"Oh sure, say that when Kerr carpet bombs the forest and half our dolls to kill the Ringleader," sneered Zas M21. "That's the logical choice, really. We've got the ordnance and drones to do it."
"Doesn't sound so bad to me," Type 56-1 agreed. "It worked for–"
"Everyone, follow the left hallway and come through the tunnel at the end," CBJ-MS ordered over Zener. "We're moving outside."
Here, the red emergency alert lights still washed the hallway crimson, and a few dolls stumbled over more corpses and debris before reaching the tunnel. K11 hesitated at the entrance, sniffing around before turning to face the others. "Smells kinda rank…"
StG spoke up. "I think it's one of the old Soviet tunnels that were part of the original base structure." She had read up on the S17 command base when she was transferred and knew a great deal about the layout and nature of the mountain fortress. Pushing past the others, StG stooped under the entrance and stepped into the tunnel, pausing a moment to let her eyes adjust to the darkness before moving forward as the rest of the dolls entered behind her.
"Oh, I remember in the early days when Kerr tried to have these all mapped out," said Type 56-1. "Type 64 nearly got crushed in one of the cave-ins."
"Skorpion actually did," said Zas M21. "We just left the body for dead and loaded her neural cloud backup, so she didn't remember the incident and still wanted to work on the exploration teams. Kerr quit ordering the expeditions shortly afterwards, though."
"Let's stay focused," said Z-62. "We're almost to the exit, I can see the light."
CBJ-MS and Saiga-12 stood by a hole blasted in the side of the tunnel. Both dolls' faces looked grim in the late afternoon sunlight, the former exchanging a glance with Z-62 before speaking.
"What's going on?" Zas M21 offered.
Wordlessly, the two echelon leaders climbed up through the hole and disappeared. Z-62 followed right after, then K11 leapt for the hole, followed by StG. The doll quickly found handholds to boost herself up over the edge.
"This'll be fun," said K11.
They were on the side of the mountain overlooking the valley. Cold winter wind ripped at StG's jacket and nearly took her hat off, and between the gusts of powdery snow thrown up by the gale she could see what was happening below. The wooded foothills were full of Sangvis and Griffin dolls fighting in intense close quarters combat. The grey-black mass of remaining Sangvis were making their way towards the denser forest while Griffin pursued doggedly, sporadic weapons fire echoing across the countryside. Just as StG caught sight of Makarov's blue figure, a transmission reached her Digimind.
"Attention all T-dolls: this is Makarov. Your orders are to continue pursuit of the Sangvis Ringleader until such a time as we are unable to or an alternative tracking method is devised. It is believed that the Ringleader has left with valuable data from the databanks, so it is imperative that data is recovered. The Ringleader cannot escape – see that it doesn't!"