(16:02)
"If my math's right, and it's always right, they should get to the depot in half an hour."
Hsu grunted as Garand reported her calculations, nursing another cup of coffee that had been hand-delivered by Springfield herself. The doting doll's team was still lazing about in the cafeteria, waiting for the world to make a break for the helicopter pads. In the lull, Springfield had decided to bake yet another batch of pastries and a fresh pot of coffee. Something that the Commander begrudgingly took.
To be fair, he couldn't help himself. The riflewoman's baking skills were inhuman.
Garand rested back in her chair, spinning her green beret around on a finger. She was munching on a slice of banana bread that her teammate had also brought along, looking like the happiest girl on the planet.
At least, until she saw the look that Hsu was giving. She swallowed the bite that was in her gob. "Something wrong, Commander?"
"...Just find it strange, seeing a robot eat." Hsu admitted, taking another reflexive sip of coffee. "Seems like there's no point."
"Oh, there is." Garand said, pointing towards her stomach with a free hand. "Compact bio-reactor. It generates electrical energy from what we eat and drink. Not really efficient, but we can usually get a day's worth of power from… I think about four meals?"
"I take it you've all got taste sensors too, seeing how much you're enjoying that." Hsu deducted, to which Garand nodded happily.
"Yep. And let me tell you, this stuff is so good. You want a bite?" She asked, sticking her hand out to offer what remained. Hsu shook his head, turning to see that M1987 had tripped over something again.
Seeing the chance to have something resembling a casual conversation with her superior, Garand segued on the topic.
"You don't know much about dolls, it seems." She began.
Hsu shrugged, keeping his focus on the live-feed. "Most of the dolls in North America are Sangvis."
"Yeah, I remember. The shop I belonged to before Griffin was in Boston." Garand explained, picking at her teeth with a fingernail and flicking a crumb out of a crook. "Most of the stuff we worked on was cars, but they had me put some Sangvis bots back together again. Mostly dinergates, though."
Hsu chuckled as he drank. "Every kid still wants one as a pet."
"I'd want one too, if they the ones out here didn't try to kill me." Garand observed, finishing off her snack and spinning around again in her chair. "...Y'know, I could always tell you about the dolls Griffin uses. We're all from the same company."
The Commander turned back to face Garand, the offer ringing in his ears. It wasn't a secret that he knew very little about I.O.P or the dolls they produced. If anything, he'd learned more over his short time in Sector 09 than he would've ever found out back home.
"How much're you gonna sass me over my questions?" He asked, still reeling from the third-degree the doll had handed him.
Garand took a finger, crossing over where a heart was supposed to be in her chest. "No sass, I'll be nice."
The man took pause, thinking the offer over. But against his apprehensions, he decided to give the girl one more chance. See if she really wanted to 'be his friend' as she so passionately put earlier.
"Alright. Let's start with some quick ones." Hsu primed. "Do you sleep?"
The android made a 'so-so' motion with her head. "We've got a sleep mode. That's what we do at night while we recharge. But we don't have any dreams or anything."
"You do this on some kind of stand, or…"
"On a bed, hooked up to a charger. We can do it standing up, but it's not really comfy."
"Wait, you guys get uncomfortable? What?"
"Yeah. We've got full sensory perception. Sight, sound, smell, touch, taste." Garand assured. "It's all simulated. But… I think it's pretty close to human senses?"
Hsu made a sour face, recalling how the woman had acted when she'd been injured. Full senses also meant they also felt pain. Muted, compared to humans, but still there.
"Seems like that'd have a lot of drawbacks." He said.
Garand shrugged, fixing her beret back where it was supposed to be. "If you're going to try and replicate humans,you're gonna get some of the drawbacks."
"A bit inefficient." The Commander commented, though the idea made Garand chuckle dryly.
"Really. Building us to be exactly like the most adaptable, intelligent, dominant species on the planet is inefficient?" She said.
The man tried to come up with a reasonable countermand, but couldn't. She had a logical point, humans were the most advanced life form. At least, as far as he was aware.
The two continued to chatter on about different topics. Most of which was Garand bringing Hsu up to speed about how the base used to operate before his arrival. All the dolls seemed to be glorified forklifts, lugging goods too and from the transports at the base. This entire depot seemed to be the heart of supply, not just for the civilians of this sector, but for all the munitions and goods being sent to Griffin's frontline.
Though Hsu still didn't seem to understand that. Why they were fighting so many Sangvis dolls still eluded him greatly. His briefing informed him that combat operations would be minimal at this posting, so he wasn't informed about who the enemy really was. Just that they used Sangvis tech.
Not that it was much of concern to him. His job was to watch over this sector, and this sector's main problem was bandits and transporting ammo. Everything else was just a distraction.
"There any upgrades the base needs?" Hsu asked, refilling his mug with the pot of black gold that Springfield had left behind for him.
"Yes. Yes, yes, yes." Garand repeated, over and over. "There's so many problems here."
"Like…?"
"Like how all our resources are sunk on the airport." She explained, going over to the console and typing in a few commands. The live-feed from the patrol team was cut, replaced by the security recording of the base. Namely, the communal section where everyone lived.
The human dormitories resembled that of a military camp. Bunk-beds lined up from front to back, same design and shape. Little personal space was designated to each individual employee. Common rooms were strewn out next to living quarters, but it looked exactly like how he remembered living on a forward operating base.
Those were not the fondest years of his life, and he wasn't keen on subjecting others to them.
"Assad and Kalina basically ran this place before you came." Garand explained, before swapping the feed to the engineering department. He hadn't been to the room since that first day where he'd met Khan. Getting a proper look at everything, he could see that much of the equipment seemed outdated. Workbenches laden with tools that were older than the War, and not many spare parts to go around.
"Griffin doesn't give us that big of an operating budget, so they cut corners where they could." Garand explained, before swapping to another feed to show the airstrip. Another set of helicopters was taking off, along with a small plane landing on the runway.
"Where do the dolls stay?" He asked, not having seen.
Garand laughed sheepishly, rubbing one of her arms. "We're… in one of the hangars. Kalina put some money aside to give us a few beds. It's better than nothing."
Hsu nodded, processing the information. He wasn't really sure on what exactly would make them feel comfortable. Though, judging from all the experience he'd garnered over his time here, a normal dorm would probably suffice.
"...I'll have Thirty Six schedule a meeting with the Sub-Director." He promised, the words seemed to make Garand's face light up with hope. "Anything we can do in the meantime?"
The T-Doll scratched her cheek, pondering what could be done on the cheap. "Well, I know none of us've gone on vacation in a long time. Been a while since I've gone back home."
Hsu huffed, delving back into his coffee. "Who knew a robot could get homesick."
"Blame my programming." Garand snarked back, deadpanning.
"Gladly." The Commander promised, before setting his cup down again. "Once we get through the growing pains, I'll see about personal leave."
The android sighed with relief, resetting the screen to the team in the field with the same smile she wore while eating Springfield's gift. For all his eccentricness, Khan was right about one thing. The Commander did seem to listen when she spoke. Her initial fears were… mostly cleared now.
Maybe, just maybe, things were going to get better after all.
(16:32)
They'd heard the gunfire on the approach, but none of the dolls had expected such a sight as they approached the fuel depot.
Within the walls was still an ongoing firefight. Bandits throwing rounds at whatever had intruded upon their safe haven. The ringing of kalashnikov fire and sound of hand grenades created a symphony of war that G36 had never heard before in her life. It sounded terrifying, almost as loud as the moment when the bombs had fallen upon her first owners' home.
Following the Commander's directives, the team held back. Waiting until the battle subsided, before they pressed into the breach.
At the front gate, two bodies lay with gaping holes in their chest. Smoke poured out from the wounds, flesh burned to the point where no blood sept out. Scorchmarks and bullet holes caked the walls as they advanced deeper into the heart of the bandit outpost, along with the bodies of raider after raider.
"This was a massacre." G36 hummed under her breath, gun aimed steadily towards the front while the others fanned out to her sides.
"No survivors. Particle rifle residue all over." StG commented, running one of her gloved hands over a scorch-mark. The clean-freak gagged at the smell, before quietly wiping the soot off on PPsH-41's shoulder.
The small Russian tensed up, but said nothing in defiance. All five dolls kept marching onwards towards the central storage units. Many of the fuel-tanks were riddled with bullet holes, flammable gasoline seeping out onto the cracked concrete.
As they approached one of the central buildings, voices could be heard conversing inside.
"You're more cunning than I expected, for a piece of Griffin trash." A harsh voice spoke, the hum of electricity vibrating out of the room. "A week of tracking you, and still you resist?"
"All I… all I did was give you a possible location…" Another voice responded, out of breath and clearly in pain.
"All you've done…" The former spoke again, before the sound of a rushing current pierced through the air. "...was stall for time."
Screams of anguish echoed through the area, making PPsH-41 whimper involuntarily. G36 pointed to a broken window-pane, then waved for StG to check.
As the older assault rifle wielding doll poked through to see, she was greeted by the sight of a doll in all black. Two dark twintails of curled hair hung over a combat suit. A gasmask covered a good portion of her face, but it was clear this was the ringleader they were searching for.
At her feet, a blonde done lay like a wounded deer. Two probes were lodged in her back, red coolant seeping out of the wounds. She wore a tanned vest and a blackened eyepatch, though her look was a scruffied mess. Dirt and muck caked her, clearly showing it had been a great deal of time since she'd been to a maintenance room.
"Scheisse! Skorpion! Zhat's Skorpion!" StG whispered rapidly.
"What!?" PPsH-41 snapped over comms, moving towards the main door with all due haste.
"Prepare to breach. Stack on both entrances." G36 ordered.
"Negative. Hold and observe." Hsu countermanded, making each of the dolls twitch as their command protocols were overridden.
"Kommandant, with all due respect-" G36 began.
"We're already contacting Command, Thirty-Six. Do not intervene without my order." The man reiterated.
"But-" G36 began to protest, before realizing it was futile. Complain as she could, she couldn't go against an order from a human commander. The programming in her fire-control core disallowed Griffin dolls from ever disobeying a human's directives, for better or worse.
In this case, for the worse, as she heard the captive android scream again as another thousand volts punched through her system.
"Poor thing…" The ringleader crooned as her captive spasmed from the residual shock. "You're trying to protect your friends, but they've already left you for dead."
"Th-hat's… not true…" The doll mumbled, trying to push herself up. "Th-they'll find me. They promised they'd come b-back for me."
The interrogator scoffed, floating down so her feet touched the red-stained tile. "Then let me remind you, you pathetic hunk of junk-"
Another jolt of electricity, shorter than the last. But enough to send the blonde doll slamming back into a prone position.
"Your 'friends' are the Anti-Rain team. Cold, highly efficient, elite dolls." She informed, leaning down to grab her captive by the hair and drag her into the sky. "You are the team leader for a bunch of mass-produced Eye-Oh-Pe filth."
"M-my teammates are not filth!" The android protested vehemently, using what strength she had left to swing out her fist to smack her kidnapper. The strike made contact, with the Sangvis doll's head snapping back.
Hissing, the ringleader threw her subject back onto the ground with harsh force. "Yes, they are! That's why the AR team used you! Because you're expendable!"
"Zhis is getting out of hand…" StG commented, keeping her position so her feed could record everything that was going on. She felt sick to her stomach, just sitting here and watching such barbarity. But that's all she could do, sit and watch.
By the door, PPK was having the time of her life. Clearly the only person who seemed to be enjoying this showing, even more than the person doing the interrogation. G36 snarled at her, but it did little to subdue the doll's mania.
M1897 put a hand on PPsH's shoulder, trying to comfort her panicking new friend. "It's OK, Papashaw. W-we're going to do something. I know it!"
Meanwhile, back within the building, the Ringleader took to the air once more. She dusted her hands cleans, scoffing as Skorpion once again tried to come to her feet.
"Tell me where Em-Four is, and I'll be kind." She promised. "I'll leave you here to rot like the trash you are, just as your companions have done."
Skorpion didn't respond, merely looking up at her torturer with abject loathing. Something that made the Sangvis doll roll her eyes, seeing such a pathetic creature look at her with hatred. Or as close to hatred as a robot could feel.
"Your emotions are fabricated lies, Griffin dog." The android hummed. "Just like the location you gave me. So, I'll ask you, one last time…"
Skorpion screamed again as both probes reactivated. A violent blue electric current overtook her whole form. At this point, StG was forced to avert her eyes. M1897 fixed her bayonet, while PPsH began to reach for a grenade on her hip.
G36 was about to speak up, before Hsu's voice came in once again.
"Smoke her."
Finally given permission to let loose, G36 and M1897 ran in with their weapons at the ready. The younger doll held her shotgun at the ready, firing a salvo of slam-fired rounds from her shotgun at the ringleader. Two of the shots hit home, buckshot smacking against the ringleader's backside. Still, the target was able to speed behind a set of cover.
"Papasha, PPK, secure the wounded!" G36 ordered as she made a run for where the gothic Sangvis had disappeared to. Though the moment she turned the corner, she was greeted by nothing but air.
"How in-." She began to say, before the radio crackled to life.
"She's running into the next section of the depot!" StG44 informed, G36 noticing that the other assault rifle wielding doll's IFF was moving away from their position. "I'm hunting her down, help Skorpion!"
"On your own!? Are you insane!?" G36 questioned.
"I'll be fine! Focus on what's in front of you!" Was the only response. Just as G36 prepared to order her back, the radio cut off.
"Oh, she did not just hang up on me!" The Captain fumed, watching the target of her ire's marker blink further away.
For a team leader, her team didn't seem to let her lead them.
(16:59)
StG44 paced through the line of garages, rifle at the ready.
The android knew that running off on her own was a poor idea. Abandoning her newfound squad-mates was nothing short of insubordination. If she had been in charge, anyone who did such a grievous and selfish act would have been sent to cleaning detail for weeks.
But right now, she didn't care.
Though she was never particularly close with Skorpion, she knew the doll well enough. In Sector Five, both had shared plenty of time together when being briefed by her former Commander.
Skorpion was loud, prideful, believing she was some kind of aristocrat. But she was a fair leader, and someone who was loyal to a fault to Griffin. That loyalty extended to her friends, and more often than not she'd try to make friends with anyone she met.
It was her idea to help that strange group of dolls that had hailed them over the radio. She did it out of the kindness of her heart, even though they were supposed to be returning from their outer patrol. Seeing her on the floor of that building, spasming, being subjected to such unholy amounts of pain…
This Sangvis piece of trash was going to pay.
The path she was moving down was rather narrow, her left and right being flanked by storage units. Inside were ramshackle rooms, clearly marking this area as the living quarters for the bandits who inhabited it. Many of these beds no longer had owners, even more suffering brought on by these genocidal Sangvis.
The sound of rattling made StG spin about, leveling her sights in the direction of the disturbance.
"You. I know you." The Ringleader crooned from her position. Still hidden, but close.
"You're one of the other dolls that fought Agent." The voice continued, tone dull and analytical. Robotic, to the point that it even put StG on edge. "Didn't she put a round through your skull?"
StG scoffed, trying to pin down where the words were coming from. She began to continue her pace, trying to source the projection.
"Hm… I wonder if your memories are intact." The gothic android continued to muse, the monologue keeping up with the Griffin doll's advance. "Maybe you'll be more… cooperative. Yes, cooperative."
"Lich mein arschloch." StG44 answered, trying to goad for more time to triangulate. It sounded like the voice was coming from all around her. As if she was being surrounded. But there was only one of these hostiles…
...Unless she'd recalled her dummies.
A beam of light shot through StG's arm with the thought, pain flaring right before she dove into one of the storage sheds. Immediately, she burst through the rear exit, then ran further down the pathway into another ramshackle room. There, she hugged herself close to the wall, holding in the urge to scream as she lay prone next to a pile of used candy wrappers and empty beer bottles.
Of all the bandits that had to infest this area, why couldn't they be the slightest bit sanitary?
The doll laid there, still as the dead, trying to think of her next move. Whatever Ringleader this was, it was dangerously fast. Judging from what she'd told Skorpion, she was likely some kind of tracker or scout. Which meant that she would be far better at a game of hide and seek than StG.
She had to bait this ringleader out into the open. Somehow.
(17:12)
G36 was beside herself in worry and frustration.
She was still in the central building, on guard while PPK and PPsH-41 tried to revive the still unconscious prisoner they'd spontaneously rescued. M1897 covered the opposite door, while she oversaw the complex from a higher level. Off on the far side of the depot, she could still see StG44's IFF. It had… stopped moving. And even though her renegade's power signature was online, the sharply dressed grenadier was still refusing to hail her calls.
Meanwhile her two youngest members were beside themselves in panic, and the situation was so grim even PPK had toned down her snide remarks.
"She's fine, but she's hurt." Hsu's voice rang in her ears, a direct connection coming up between herself and the Commander's commlink. "You holding yourself together?"
G36 hissed, lowering her voice to not cause further chaos with the others. "Where have you been!? I haven't heard from base since you told us to engage! Why did you let Fourty-Four sprint off!?"
"She's your team-member. You won't learn how to lead if I micromanage your responsibilities." Hsu explained, cracks of fatigue seeping into his voice. "As for why I've been gone, Corporate is hounding me. When I sent them a recording of what that freakshow said, it was like an alarm went off. They've already tapped into your feed, I've got Garand distracting them so I can talk to you."
The maid huffed, but was grateful for his presence nonetheless. This whole situation was truly unlike any she'd heard of before. Even if this was her first time in active combat, even she knew that this wasn't how most missions were supposed to go.
"Didn't answer my question." Hsu reminded.
G36 tutted her tongue, but spoke her mind in spite of her self-consciousness. "Did I make the right choice coming here, Commander?"
She could hear the man snort over the radio. "Never second guess yourself in the field. Get home alive, learn from what happened later."
"You sound so sure." She observed, wishing she had that same level of confidence. Maybe then she'd truly be a leader, not just someone who shouted orders.
"...I wish I was better than this." She admitted quietly. "My friends deserve better. A leader who knows what they're doing. Like Thompson, or you."
"Stop." Hsu quickly snapped, the edge in his tone making the T-Doll jump. One of the rare instances that the man showed emotion, slight as it was. "...The first time I led people into a fire-fight, it was a mess. I froze up. I panicked. I almost got people killed. You want to know how I learned to be a good officer?"
"More than anything." The doll answered honestly.
"I wanted to be. So I did, and I made it my goal to make sure everyone came back." Hsu told her, the man sighing as he seemed to think back onto his past. "...It didn't always turn out that way. It's war, people die. But I learned. And every mission I learned more, and more. I'm still learning now."
The android bit the side of her cheek, internalizing the message. "Can you… show me what you've learned?"
Hsu chuckled darkly, not responding right away. The silence was more deafening to the android's sensors than anything else she'd heard all day.
"I can't give you all the right answers. Just tell you which ones I know are wrong." The Commander told her. "But one thing I know is this, you want to be a good leader. That's why I know you'll be one."
The doll laughed softly, looking down at her firearm as she could feel a blush dust her cheeks. "...You really are a kind man, Master Hsu."
"Whatever you say, kid." The Commander responded, dodging the compliment like it was a live grenade. It only made G36 laugh once again, a bit louder this time.
Right as the far side of the fuel depot erupted into a fireball.
(17:26)
The fireball had been larger than what StG had anticipated, but she would take what she could get.
One shot from her rifle-grenade had done the trick. A chain reaction of explosions had kicked off from the detonation of a single gas tank, sending flames and smoke soaring into the sky while she had hidden behind a concrete wall further away. Once she peaked around, the destructive doll saw that much of the previously built up area was now leveled.
The charred carcass of two androids were sprawled over the pavement, one of them still ablaze in ignited gasoline. As she walked up to get closer, the tailor still couldn't properly identify them as dummies or the central mainframe.
Though she got her answer rather quickly.
A bolt of light pierced through her leg from behind, knocking her clear off balance and onto her side. The blonde's hat toppled off onto the ground, and she could feel the oil slick start to seep into the fabric of her clothes. Immediately she seized up with how dirty she became, stifling a scream of fear.
Then, a hum filled her ears as someone hovered over her.
"Clever, for a rat." The Ringleader spat, her cold visage staring down at her new captive. "Unfortunately for you, I know how to spring a trap without falling for it."
The Ringleader grabbed StG by the collar, then hoisted her up into the air. The Griffin doll's green eyes only inches away from the Sangvis' yellow irises.
"You didn't think I'd use my dummies as bait, did you?" She mocked, tilting her head. "It was simple, really. I just had to make it look like they were caught in the initial blast. Then you'd come scurrying out to investigate."
StG44 didn't respond, instead focusing on the two IFF markers that were coming up behind her. Green dots, Griffin dolls, likely G36 rampaging over to find out what kind of mess she'd created. And when they arrived, all that would happen is that this Sangvis scum would use her as a living shield.
That couldn't happen. She wasn't going to put more dolls at risk for her own ego.
She dropped her rifle, the old weapon clattering to the ground as she feigned surrender. Pleased, the ringleader continued to monologue about her 'intellectual and mechanical' superiority. Like every other Sangvis doll StG had ever had the displeasure of fighting, this one loved to talk.
As the markers came closer, StG's thoughts focused on how she was going to apologize for storming off on her own. Explaining why she did it wouldn't excuse her actions, but it was the bare minimum of what needed to be done. Now that her anger had subsided and rationality had soaked back in, StG did feel truly sorry. She'd promised to support the new leader, and then promptly abandoned her on a quest for payback.
The maid didn't deserve that. She was a kind doll, and someone StG did look forward to befriending.
Plus… she was pretty cute. Even if she glared all the time.
"FOURTY-FOUR!" G36 hollered as she rounded the corner, flanked by none other than M1897. Scarecrow glanced over, hesitating at the 'surprise' arrival of two more Griffin T-dolls. Her vision shifted to the two new threats, and her levitating cannons all turned to aim at the oncoming maids.
Which gave StG just the opening she needed.
The doll pulled at her boot, removing the long dagger she kept hidden there and thrusting it into the stomach of her captor. As the ringleader's eyes bulged from the sudden shock, she twisted the blade, ripped it out, then thrust it once again into her form.
Yelling in pain, the ringleader released her prize before darting off for cover once again. G36 opened fire, emptying an entire magazine before cursing as the robot escaped once again.
StG groaned, grabbing her hat off the ground and looking at the oil slick it had been absolutely drenched in. Souring her face, she put it back on her already messed up hair, grabbed her rifle, then went back to her two allies.
As expected, G36 shot a glare her way, but lifted a hand to her ear. "Kommandant, we've re-established contact with Fourty-Four."
"Is she combat effective?" He asked.
G36 looked at the ash and diesel covered tailor, letting her speak for herself. Humbled, StG reactivated her comm-link and spoke.
"Sturmgewher here, I can fight." She assured.
"Good. Now, find that bitch." Hsu demanded.
No more needed to be said, the three dolls all sprinted in the direction that their quarry had escaped.
It wasn't too difficult to track their target. The two blade-wounds she now carried left her leaving a trail of purplish liquid that was clear as day. It led back into the depot, heading towards where PPK and PPsH were still attempting to revive Skorpion's chassis.
As they moved, Hsu began to feed them information.
"The Sub-Director told me about this doll, it's not the first time she's appeared." He explained quickly. "Sangvis Pioneer Model Sixty-Five, codenamed 'Scarecrow'. The Soviets commissioned her prototype at the end of the war, new generation recon asset."
"Anything we should look out for?" G36 asked as they continued to sprint.
"Other than those guns of hers, nothing." Hsu assured. "She doesn't seem to be much of a straight combatant. Get in close and subdue her."
"Subdue?" G36 questioned, not sure if she heard right.
"Helian wants her brought in for interrogation. And honestly, I wanna grill her myself." The Commander told them. "Can you do it?"
"Ja wohl!" G36 promised, moving into the central courtyard with the others at her flanks.
As the three Griffin dolls moved into the open, a hail of fire poured out from the gasoline line. Scarecrow could be seen hovering above the smoke, using the black smog as concealment to skirmish with her pursuers.
The girls each jumped behind an abandoned transport truck, avoiding the withering assault just barely.
G36 turned to look at StG44, then nodded her head in the direction of Scarecrow. "Sprenggranate! Raus, raus!"
"Gerne!" The other German said, loading another thirty millimeter shell into the muzzle of her weapon. Whipping around from the other side, the doll fired the high explosive device right underneath where the doll was hovering.
Metal shards shot up as more of the pipe was destroyed, prompting Scarecrow to fly down and continue her fire from behind another intact part of the fuel-line.
As StG loaded a magazine of live rounds into her weapon, G36 then turned to the shotgunner of the group.
"Ninety-seven, listen carefully." She began. "Fourty-Four and I are going to suppress her. I need you to rush her down and finish this."
The small American gulped audibly, the bayonet at the end of her weapon rattling while her pet shuttered atop her head. The taller blonde leaned down, putting a hand on her shoulder and staring her junior dead in the eyes.
"I believe in you, Jesse. You can do zhis. You will do zhis." She said, giving M1897 a reassuring smile.
The shotgunner nodded slowly, then swallowed her fear and prepared herself for a long run. Meanwhile, G36 and StG44 prepared themselves on the opposite side of the vehicle.
"On my mark." G36 ordered, lifting three fingers. "Three… two… one; SUPPRESS!"
Both the elder dolls rolled around the corner, opening fire and returning their own storm of lead in the direction of the ringleader. As the Sangvis' shots came to a screeching halt, M1897 began to sprint with all she could in the direction that G36's tracers were flying. When one of the cannons hovered above the gas line once again, she deftly fired a shell, shattering it to pieces.
Then, when she reached the line, the android jumped high. Soaring well over the pipe and through the blackened smoke that poured into the sky.
As Scarecrow looked up, she could see the small blonde aim the muzzle of her weapon down. In mid air, M1897 slam fired three more shells downwards. Pellets tearing through the air and smashing into the ringleader's body, shattering her gasmask and cutting her down to earth.
M1897 fell down with a thump, shoulder first, then looked up to see Scarecrow's damaged form twitching and sparking from the damage she had wrought.
"I… I did it…?" She asked no one in particular, before a goofy smile spread all over her face. "I did it. I did it! I beat a Sangvis doll!"
The small android jumped for joy, beside herself with joy. Even her blobby pet was enjoying itself, dancing and waving it's flags around.
Moments later, G36 and StG4 ran up to the scene. StG immediately went to the crippled ringleader, leveling her rifle right at it's now damaged head. G36 gave M1897 yet another smile, then waved for her to come close before activating her comm-link.
"Package secure, Kommandant! We have her in custody!" She told the man.
"Fantastic." Hsu said, G36 able to picture the same smile that he'd worn this morning in his room vividly. "Can she talk?"
"Let's find out." StG muttered, before sending a jackboot into Scarecrow's side. The doll howled in pain, then began to hurl insults at the 'Griffin jackals' that surrounded her. M1897 took a position opposite of StG44, reloading her weapon before also aiming it at the ringleader's torso.
"Pull up your holo-projector, we want to get a better look at this." The man requested. G36 then turned to face their prize, tapping the side of her head as her irises digitized.
From her right eye, a projection came out. Nothing at first, before the pixels began to materialize two figures. On the left was Hsu, arms crossed over his chest as he glared down at this one robot that had been giving him such a headache for the past few hours. She'd single-handedly managed to ruin the contract he'd set up with the Governor, and the cash revenue he needed.
On the right, Helian's form appeared. The monocle wearing woman was of a similar disposition, though clearly more wrathful. After watching over the recording of Skorpion's 'interrogation', the Sub-director had every intent of pulling this doll apart to find out just what made Sangvis tick.
Whether or not she was awake for that, the Scot hadn't decided yet.
"Sadistic animal." Helian spat out, loathing in every syllable.
Scarecrow tried to push herself up onto her elbows, but was promptly kicked once again by StG44. She crumpled back onto the cracked concrete, sprawled out with her arms and legs splayed haphazardly. Purple coolant dripped from the side of her mouth, and she could feel her power drain from each part of her body.
"Hmpf." She said, looking at the two humans in red before her. "So… this is how it ends for me."
"Better ending than you deserve." Helian assured. "You lost the battle. You've almost lost your life. We verified the information Skorpion gave you was false."
"False…? Not entirely…" Scarecrow commented, groaning slightly. "Griffin dolls don't have such advanced digiminds…"
"...What are you getting at?" Helian questioned, something that only seemed to make Scarecrow amused despite the pain.
Smiling, the ringleader explained. "I know how your artificial intelligence works, human." She informed, chuckling as Hsu looked on perplexed. Helian remained stonefaced, keeping her glare steady.
"When these jury-rigged 'Tactical' Dolls lie, they simply throw some random data on top of the truth, then shuffle the sequence." Scarecrow continued to explain, looking to her left and right at her guards. "Digging into a neural cloud gave me enough bits of truth."
M1897 gasped, grip tightening on her shotgun. An action that only seemed to increase Scarecrow's mirth.
"One just has to collect and analyze different sets of false intel. Then you find common factors." She said, looking back to Helian and Hsu. "The real answer."
Hsu watched on, clearly the outman of the group. He had no idea how the A.I for Griffin functioned, he wasn't a programmer.
But judging from the snarl that Helian now wore, Scarecrow was probably right on the money.
"How on God's earth did you know about this?" She interrogated. "Who the hell are you!?"
"Heh. Just a lowly T-Doll from Sangvis Ferri. A real T-Doll." Scarecrow mocked. "Not like these maids and personal assistants Griffin 'converts' into fighters."
She then dropped the amused façade, looking upon the two organic begins in the crowd with nothing short of abject disgust. "I'm not a tool that bows to human will. Do you understand, cowardly humans? Holed up in your bases somewhere, only daring to reveal yourselves through holograms?"
Hsu hummed, looking at StG44. He then nodded his head at the ringleader, tapping his own wrists. Helian was still seething, but rolled her eyes and waved a hand.
"Whatever. Your operation has still failed." The Sub-Director assured, before she waved her hand up as a signal. "And no matter what you do now, you won't live to tell the tale."
At that moment, G36 also brought her rifle up. The maid flicked her safety off, aiming her weapon and getting ready to execute the Sangvis android.
Yet all Scarecrow did was tut her tongue, tilting her head again. "...Actually… I am telling it. Sequence number eight-three-five-four, nine-two-six-six, zero-two-three-three. Which should be… Em-Four's current coordinates."
At that moment, a red signal flashed in Scarecrow's eyes. The doll laid back, looking up at the sky as a beep began to emit from her form. "Good luck, Executioner…"
"Wh-" Helian said, before realizing what was about to happen. "Cover! Everyone, cover!"
Both of the holograms zapped out, with G36 going on a knee from the sudden shock to her neural cloud. StG cut and ran, not wanting to get caught in the blast after surviving everything that had happened prior.
"Miss Gretel!" M1897 said, before lunging towards her Captain.
It was the last thing they heard before the deafening boom.
(17:51)
"Thir…"
"..Si…"
"Thirty Six! Thirty Six, where are you!?"
As G36 began to stir once again, she could hear someone faintly yelling her name.
She was still in the process of rebooting herself after being knocked offline for heaven knew how long. Sound was the first sense to return, but then came the others. Touch, namely the heavy pressure she felt against her chest.
Her vision was then filled with diagnostic notices and operational screens, showing her current status. Minor thermal damage, a few lacerations across her legs, but nothing extreme. The explosion hadn't immobilized her, so the reason why she couldn't move must clearly be because she was pinned by something.
The maid tried to recall what had happened before her consciousness had been stolen. Capturing the Ringleader, Helian's interrogation, the explosion…
...M1897.
As her vision came back, she found M1897 sprawled over her chest. The younger doll had tackled her to the ground, the sudden impact likely having sent her internal processor into hibernation. But she was awake now, and at least one of her teammates were accounted for.
But as her vision fully cleared, she saw the full scene of what was before her.
M1897's lifeless eyes staring back, with several large shards of shrapnel lodged into her back. Red having long since spilled out and dried, and the small android's IFF signal having gone dead ten minutes prior according to her logs.
"Ninety-seven…?" G36 asked, sitting up and cradling the American doll's lifeless form in her hands. Her blue eyes were muted, pupils gone entirely. The clothes on her back had been burned off and artificial skin perforated.
"Ninety-Seven? Ninety-Seven." G36 began to ramble, shaking the now empty shell. "Jesse? Jesse, wake up. Wake up. Wake up, damn it!"
"Thirty-Six!" StG44 yelled, footsteps rushing through the smog. As the other German arrived, she found an absolutely despondent G36 still desperately attempting to revive the young girl. "Oh God…"
Seeing no other option, G36 pulled apart the paneling on M1897's back. It was a desperate attempt, but she could at least salvage the child's A.I core. If they rushed it back to base, they could still save her consciousness.
But when she took the panel off, it was shown that the metal had torn straight through that as well. The girl's 'heart' had been shredded to pieces. She'd likely died the moment the explosion had gone off.
"No." G36 said, pulling her hand back and looking at her pupil's deadened expression again. "No, no no no…"
"We need to go." StG quickly said, going on a knee next to the delirious maid. "Papasha just radioed me. They heard trucks pulling into the front gate. We need to call for evacuation."
G36 remained responsive, merely cradling the small girl's body in her arms as she kept staring. Frustrated, StG grabbed G36's chin and pulled it so she would face her.
"Do you want her to have died for nothing!? Well!?" The tailor yelled, jabbing a finger in the direction where their remaining teammates were. The sound of engines was clear, now. Along with the yells of shrill and enraged Ukrainian that certainly did not belong to anyone of Griffin.
"...We can still save Skorpion. But we need to go. Now." StG reaffirmed, glaring into her leader's eyes with a fury that could only be held by someone who had seen this too many times before.
Realizing the situation they were still in, G36 slowly nodded. She stood up, looking to where her rifle was still laying on the concrete. She then looked to the doll in her hands once again, before laying her down and grabbing the weapon.
"...I'll call Hsu. Leave her here." G36 ordered, bringing a hand to her ear before walking off back towards the central compound.
StG44 sighed, before giving the dead doll one final glance. She muttered an old prayer her owner had once said, hoping there was someone above who would listen. Even if they were just robots.
The two then left, sprinting to regroup with their remaining comrades.
