Welcome to Chapter Eleven! This time, Ian gets started on repairing the base, and then assembles a search party to find M1895 and P38, as well as clues to his old squad's whereabouts. I decided to do this as I was wondering whether or not I should introduce the other starter HGs before 1-4 or during 1-4. I decided on before.
I saw some stuff from episode 12 and I'm very glad that they were somewhat faithful to the game (ie. M4A1 actually seeing what AR-15 did.) Bit of a shame that there weren't any retreating Griffin Dolls or Sangvis units firing on them.
Anyways, who knew that a cover-based game would be so much fun? I ended up using Game Pass on my Xbox to get the first three Gears of War games, and I've had a lot of fun with it. I don't have any plans to write a Gears of War story, though (although I may end up doing some set in Horde mode or Versus).
Story-wise, since I figured that it wouldn't be too high-risk, I decided to have Ian actually go on the mission with the Dolls he selected, and finally, since it'd spice things up a bit, Kamalov and Shi Jun are getting added.
I was going to post this along the debut chapter of a prequel story set in World War 3, but I'm having trouble with that, so I'll post it a little later.
Finally, I have a new poll on my profile concerning this story.
I hope you enjoy this, even with the flaws the story has.
Sector 09 Base
Neo-Soviet Union
July 5, 2062
Commander Ian Becker
Ian shot up from bed with a start, M17 in hand and a cold sweat running down his face. As he gathered his bearings, he realized that his handgun was pointed directly at G36's head, the maid's expression only slightly fazed at being held at gunpoint.
"Are you alright, Kommandant?" she asked as Ian lowered his pistol, exhaling sharply.
"Bad dream." he replied, hurriedly holstering his handgun.
"I seriously doubt that. Normal bad dreams don't cause you to act like you did just now, and our last Commander behaved very similarly to you."
She was right; when bad dreams rolled around, it typically wasn't about witnessing or reliving the deaths of everyone you cared about, or being the sole survivor of a search and rescue mission gone wrong. He was only willing to share the second bit, though.
"I had a nightmare that the mission I plan on launching today went totally wrong and everyone was killed while I was helpless to stop it. Don't worry about it, G36, I'll be fine."
That answer seemed to appease the maid, although her expression was one of skepticism.
"I see. The extra funds you requested have been added to the base's account, by the way."
"Good to know." Ian said, getting out of bed and getting dressed. "I ought to use it to fix the base and upgrade Kalina's setup in the data room."
"Maybe you should use it to buy some ammo. The last two missions left us with very little ammunition reserves, so if you still want to carry out that operation you mentioned, then we need more ammo."
As much as he hated to admit it, G36 was right. Sector 09 really needed some more ammo if it was going on back-to-back operations again.
"Fuck. I'll get us some ammo."
An hour later, the funds were added to the base's accounts, and Ian began to look at things they could get for the base. One thing was stuff for the data room, including a new data bank for new T-Dolls' backups and a new computer for Kalina.
The ginger had once again pointed out that she had a 1980s'-era computer, and that even a computer from the early 21st century would improve her productivity, so he had found a good setup that wasn't too expensive, but was a great improvement over the one she had.
Next up was construction materials. The café seriously needed rebuilt, and the dorms human service personnel occupied needed rebuilt as well, so with Kalina's help, he picked out some quality building materials, as well as a special resin that sealed up holes in buildings (and when dried, it easily absorbed small arms fire.)
In terms of ammo, Kalina knew where to get it.
"Don't worry about ammo; I'll just call Komandir Kamalov and ask him to send us some." she told him, dialing a number into the holotable as she nursed her aching head, a byproduct of her foolish decesion to get blackout drunk. "Base 737 has a lot of ammo to spare."
"Base 737? Where's that at?" Ian asked a little dumbly.
"Sector 09 is one of the only Sectors with multiple Griffin-owned FOBs." she explained. "This is Station 794, the most important of the bases."
Kalina pulled up a map of the entire Sector, with the three FOBs highlighted in gold. Base 794 was located in the eastern section of the Sector, while 737 was a bit more western. Finally, a base titled 601 sat firmly in said west.
"The one on the left's been active for a long time and is run by a man named Shi Jun. 737 is ran by a newbie named Feodor Kamalovich Kamalov."
Ian faintly remembered a tall Asian man with black hair and glasses from somewhere, but he couldn't put his finger on it.
"Ahh."
Kalina groaned in pain as she called Base 737, continuing to hold her head.
"Accept AK's drinking contest, she said, it'll be fun, she said..." the ginger groaned.
The line picked up and the hologram of a burly blonde-haired Russian man with a large moustache who was wearing a Griffin Commander's uniform appeared.
"I didn't expect you to call again so soon, Kalina." he said. "If you're wondering how I'm doing, then I'm okay."
"That's good to hear, but that wasn't what I was asking."
"In that case, what do you need?"
"We just got a new Commander recently, and we're starting to run actual missions again, so we need ammo. Do you have any to spare?"
Kamalov's projection stood there in thought for a moment, then he spoke again.
"May I talk to him?"
Kalina looked to her boss, only to see him shrug in a "eh, whatever" manner. Taking that as a yes, she replied.
"Yep."
She stepped aside, allowing Ian to take her place.
"So you're Station 737's Commander. Kamalov, right?"
"Da. And you are..." Kamalov asked.
"Ian Becker, Station 794's newest Commander." he replied. "I just got here three days ago."
"So you're even newer than me?"
"Yup. Anyways, HQ's having me run some high-priority missions for them, and the base is low on ammo, so do you have any you could spare?"
The burly man thought about it for a good few moments, then he finally replied.
"What do you need, comrade?"
Kalina gave him a list of the needed ammo types, then he voiced them out loud in order.
".45 ACP, 5.56x45, 7.92 Mauser, 9x19 Parabellum, and 30.06."
Kamalov nodded, writing them down on a list and giving it to an off-hologram adjutant.
"I can get some spare ammo sent to you, but the 7.92 and 30.06 may take a bit. Is that all?"
Ian thought on it, then it occured to him that he ought to know his colleagues better.
"No. I'd like to talk to you some more, so we can work together more efficiently. And of course, we're always stronger together."
The other Commander nodded again.
"I agree with you. Let's talk."
"So you were with the American army?"
"Yeah. I'm sorry if anything I did caused you any trouble."
"It's fine. I was away from Moscow when the attack happened, so my family wasn't in harm's way. Either way, it wasn't as if we lost, so I'm not too angry."
Ian was rather surprised at how accepting Kamalov was of him, despite having invaded his homeland ten years previously, but he ultimately decided to change the subject.
"Okay. So what kind of Commander are you?" he asked.
"I've taken a liking to heavy firepower, so you can expect to see a lot of MG-based Echelons."
"Good to know. I don't really have that many Dolls, so I'm not too sure about that. Although, how well-recieved are you by your staff?"
Kamalov thought about it for a moment, then he replied.
"They're fond of me, and I always make sure to treat them right. Is it the same for you?"
As far as he knew, only M1911 and Kalina had positive thoughts about him. He wasn't too sure about the others.
"They like me well enough, but two or three days isn't enough to know for sure. I actually plan on looking for one of their missing teammates today after that ammo arrives."
"Ahh. Good luck on that."
"Thanks. Ugh, I'm gonna have to go. It was nice to talk to you, Kamalov."
"Same here. We'll talk again soon, yes?"
"Yeah. See you later."
Ian hung up, then sighed. He had a lot of work to do.
Kalina
"Okay, easy does it." Kalina told the truck driver as he parked his vehicle, careful not to bump into anything. When it finally stopped, a pair of Dolls exited the vehicle and opened up the back, jumping in and picking up a large crate of ammo.
They exited the truck and set the crate down, fetching the other, smaller crates from the truck and setting them on the larger crate.
Reaching towards the clasps on one of the smaller crates, the ginger opened them and lifted the lid, pleased to find a large quantity of 5.56x45 rounds. She performed a similar check on the others, finding the other ammos the base needed in them (with the large crate holding multiple boxes of the heavier ammo.)
"Spasibo!" Kalina called out in thanks as the truck left, having dropped off its cargo. She raised her tablet and called the Commander, watching him appear on her screen.
"That ammo just arrived, sir!" she chipperly told him.
"That's good to hear, Kalina. Get it inside."
"Understood."
Commander Ian Becker
Standing in the equipment room, Ian fished out all of his old gear from the Army and put it on, pleased to find that the equipment still fit him, most impottantly his Operatinal Camoflague Uniform, an older uniform design but one that worked much better than the ACU from the early twenty-first century, and his gasmask. After getting his helmet and headset put on, he grabbed some STANAG magazines for his M4A1 and began to load them as the Dolls he selected for the mission entered the equipment room; M1911, AK-47, MP5, and Springfield.
"What's going on, Commander?" M1911 asked when she saw him in his uniform and armor.
"Are you seriously planning on coming along?" AK-47 asked as well.
"The areas I plan on searching aren't heavily contaminated, and it's only scattered Sangvis patrols and bandits around here, so why not?" the Commander replied lightly, slipping a magazine into a pouch.
"But it's too dangerous!" MP5 protested.
"Yeah, isn't it our job to fight so you humans don't have to?" M1911 inquired.
"I know it is, but I've never fought alongside Dolls before, and I've still got a lot of fight left in me, so I reiterate, why not?"
"I'm sure the Commander can handle himself, you two." Springfield told the two Dolls as she loaded a stripper clip.
M1911 looked like she wanted to protest more, but remembering that he was her ranking officer, she knew it wouldn't do any good. She instead pulled out two Griffin patches and placed them on Ian's right shoulder and vest, below the US flag patches.
"There." she hummed before she went to gather some ammo for her weapons. "At least that'll keep the occasional Russian Army patrol from shooting you on sight. That is, if they pay attention to it."
Ian then inspected his shoulder pad and vest, internally pleased that the Griffin shield actually fit amongst his other patches quite nicely.
After loading the rest of his magazines, he turned to watch the other Dolls load their guns, his eyes lingering on the Americans the most. They interacted as though they had known each other for their whole lives, which reminded him of his old squadmates Jack and Laura.
Springfield eventually noticed his gaze, although she seemed unbothered by it, and she simply continued to converse with M1911, the blonde Doll aiding her with loading her ammo.
"You know it's rude to stare, right?"
Cut off from his staring, the Commander turned around to see Kalina standing behind him, holding a box of recordings in her arms and rolling her eyes at him.
"Sorry. What's that you're holding?"
"Recordings the old Commander made. I thought you'd like to listen to them after your little sortie." the ginger replied simply.
That caught his attention.
"Sure. Put them in my office for later." he told her.
"Yes, sir. And good luck, alright?"
He simply gave her a thumbs-up in response as she left and the Dolls finished loading up and gathered up behind him, ready for combat.
"Well, this is gonna be fun."
Now sitting in a Humvee (for the first time in years, he noted,) Ian cradled his beloved service rifle against himself as his subordinates entered the vehicle and closed the doors behind them. Ian found himself sitting beside M1911, who hummed a little tune as she sat beside him, with AK-47, Springfield, and MP5 sitting in front of him.
"You've got some serious guts, Commander." the driver called out with a Slavic-accented voice, the patch on his arm that of the pre-NUSSR Ukraine. "Between the radiation, bandits, and Sangvis, I wouldn't wanna be out here fighting."
"It's just a simple search. We might not even need to fight in the first place." he replied cooly.
"Alright, then. Where to?"
"I want to check the local farm first."
"Understood, sir."
The Humvee's engine turned, and the vehicle soon rolled out, leaving the garage and passing through the gate, which had been opened for them by a serviceman in a security booth.
It occured to Ian that this was the first time he'd gone on the field in ten years, despite a few conflicts he had with bandits earlier on in those years of solitude. Laughing to himself internally, he looked out the window to see the vehicle enter the forest, the tall trees sandwiching them almost instantly and giving off a strangely serene atmosphere.
He rather liked the feeling.
They passed through the forest at a steady pace, careful to avoid any potential traps or ambushes, and after a minute or two, they could see the destroyed Sangvis outpost from a previous operation off in the distance.
"Hey, look, it's that Sangvis outpost we destroyed a couple days back." M1911 said to Springfield, who looked out the window to see it.
"Most impressive." the veteran Rifle replied as she saw the derelict structure.
"And if you can believe it, AK got MVP status in that mission." Ian added his two cents.
"Cool, right?" the aforementioned AR asked.
Springfield nodded, keeping an eye out for any danger. As the Humvee continued through the forest, the air grew silent as they approached a small, worn-out farm, left alone by both the war and Sangvis but claimed by nature. The mutated plants on-site also indicated higher levels of radiation in the area.
"Careful, sir. This is a Yellow Zone, so fetch a gas mask before you get out." the driver warned as he stopped the vehicle and put on a gasmask. The search party took that as the signal to get out, fetching their gear and leaving the vehicle, their feet hitting the dirt and dirtying their boots or shoes slightly.
Having taken note of the contamination before the warning, Ian quickly put on a gas mask before leaving the vehicle, slowly entering the premises while being followed by the rest of the party, who looked like they were ready to fire on anything that moved. Moving in a single file line, they swept through each dusty area at a slow, steady pace, carefully combing through the farm and paying attention to everything around them as to not get surprised by a potential enemy.
One time, MP5 had stumbled on a decaying human corpse, causing the little T-Doll to cover her mouth and gasp "Mein Gott." in horror, but other than that, there was nothing noteworthy.
Now descending on the farmhouse, the team moved to any entrance possible and prepared to perform a syncronized breach upon the Commander's signal.
Now flush against the wall next to the back door, Ian readied his rifle, M1911 backing him up, and after he was sure the other T-Dolls were ready, he gave the signal and broke the door down, entering the building along with AK-47, MP5, and Springfield, who was wielding an M1911 instead of her rifle, which was slung on her back.
Once everyone was inside, they searched the looted, worn-out living room for hostiles and quickly determined that it was empty, aside from rats, so they spread through the rest of the house, with Ian going upstairs with M1911 and the others checking the other rooms. Quickly noticing the strange substances splattered on the walls, the Commander decided to move slower and quieter, careful to not provoke a potential radiation-corrupted creature that may have been upstairs and have to mag-dump his gun into it.
After reaching the top of the stairs, he was greeted by a simple hallway with three doors on the sides and end, the walls bearing multiple holes punched through them and similarly splattered with fluids.
"1911, take point." he ordered.
"Yes, sir." the blonde HG replied, moving ahead of her superior and checking the first room. After a moment when silence was all that reigned, he followed her, entering the room to see an empty bedroom, the drawers in the dresser emptied and all valuables taken from them.
"Empty." she voiced his thoughts perfectly, brushing past her boss to reach the second room.
After giving the signal, the two breached it, once again greeted with emptiness. Finally, they shut the foor and approached the third room, which held the telltale smell of death and decay. There was definitely something here.
"You ready?" Ian asked, switching to his pistol.
"Yes, sir."
The two carefully opened the door and peered inside, weapons out— only to see a withered corpse of a farmer laying on a messy bed, its hair falling out of its head and its skin swollen and covered in green specks and patches of thickened skin. A bloody hole was located in the side of its still-soft head, and a worn-out pistol was in its empty hand, a spent casing on the gunk-covered floor.
"Oh my God!"
M1911 looked like she was ready to vomit, her synthetic skin pale and her eyes wide. She was obviously used to seeing corpses, as shown on the second operation, but not ones like this.
"Suicide." Ian noted calmly, keeping his distance from the body. He was trying his hardest not to retch at the sight, though, but he also noted its state with a scrutinizing gaze.
The farmer had contracted the Eurosky Low-Emission Infectious Disease, or ELID, a highly lethal virus caused by exposure to Collapse Radiation, a substance released by a catastrophic incident in China thirty-two years previously. If he had not killed himself, he would have become a mutated monster after two days, horrifically disfigured and only capable of killing others without remorse (had he survived the mutations themselves).
T-Dolls couldn't catch it, but exposure to heavy radiation could erode their systems quite badly, and ELID-irradiated creatures were grotesque things, even when they were dead.
"Nothing down here." AK-47 reported. "And what was that scream just now? Is M1911 okay?"
In response, Ian looked at the girl in question, who had left the room to avoid looking at the corpse and was starting to regain color to her deathly-pale skin.
"That's gonna be in my mind for a good while." she murmured, rubbing her eyes as to try and clear them of what she just saw.
Same here.
"Yeah, she's fine. We just found the body of a ELID farmer in here. There's dried puddles of sickness everywhere and she damn near threw up. I don't blame her, though."
"That's gross. AK out."
As the AR cut the line, M1911 turned to Ian, pinching her nose to keep the smell out.
"Can we get out of here, sir?" she asked quietly.
"Yeah."
The trip back to the Humvee was a quick one, with M1911 retreating the fastest thanks to a desite to get the hell away from the dead ELID.
Poor girl. I don't think she's ever seen an ELID-infected guy before. Hell, I've seen quite a lot of 'em and I still get disgusted by the sight.
They all returned to their seats without saying a word, with Ian placing his hand on the horrified HG's shoulder to comfort her just a little bit.
"What happened?" the driver asked, concerned.
"She saw an irradiated corpse." the Commander replied calmly. "In her defense, it was very disgusting."
"Got it. Where next?"
"The old city. There's a lot of places a Doll could be hiding out over there."
"Yes, sir."
Now in the town, the search party once again got out of the Humvee and entered the city, sticking together due to the likelihood of an ambush in the town.
Ian took the lead, eyes and weapon dead ahead while AK-47 and MP5 kept their attention to the left and right of the line. M1911 protected the rear with her black pistol and a ballistic shield she pulled from the Humvee. Springfield opted to hang back and provide covering fire with her rifle, in case they encountered any hostile contacts.
Throughout the search, Ian could feel eyes on him and his team, and as he moved through the town, he faintly heard footsteps shadowing his team's footsteps.
His suspiscion paid off as they passed through an alley, when they were fired on from the rear.
"Contact!" M1911 yelled as she deflected the bullets, firing at their assailants herself as her teammates backed out of the death tunnel. She didn't hit anything, but she wasn't trying to in the first place. All she needed to do was force the attackers into cover.
After exiting the alley, AK-47 and MP5 took cover at the edges of the buildings that formed it, opening fire on the enemy, who Ian identified as human bandits, dressed in drab, worn-out garb and wearing gas masks.
Of course it's the steeeotypical post-apocalyptic wasteland scavenger. he groaned in his head.
With M1911 blocking any shots headed their way, the ex-soldier fired two bursts into the alley, striking a gunman in the arm and forcing him to drop his weapon. As his buddy pulled a grenade, a few rounds struck him dead center in the chest, ending him instantly before he pulled the pin.
Popping back into cover, he quickly rolled towards the right, avoiding their retaliatory shots and ending up with MP5 in her cover spot, allowing him to note just how tall he was compared to her.
"I'll take your place here. Go around and flank them." he told her quickly, sticking his weapon around the corner and firing blindly, faintly hearing a grunt of pain on the enemy side a moment later.
"Jawohl!" the Doll replied, going around the corner and activating her energy shield, easily absorbing the rounds sent her way. As he reloaded, Ian heard her empty a magazine's worth of ammo, then he heard two bandits hitting the ground and the others attempting to go around the building to flank his team, only for 30.06 rounds to strike them down in an instant.
"I told you I'd have your back, Commander." Springfield said through the comms, her tone coveying that she was smiling.
"Thanks."
As he peered around the corner, the Commander saw MP5 quickly shoot the beaten gunmen in the head, confirming the kills and leaving only one alive for interrogation.
Under normal circumstances, T-Dolls would suffer a complete and utter collapse of their Neural Cloud for killing a human, but Ian had quickly authorized the team to harm anyone who attacked them first or were confirmed members of hostile factions when he learned that, preventing such a melt-down from happening.
The lone survivor tried desperately to crawl away from MP5, only for her to grab his collar and drag him to her team with minimal issue, and the sight of the childlike T-Doll dragging a fully grown man without a problem was a quite ridiculous one, even though Ian knew that T-Dolls had more strength than humans.
"Please, don't kill me!" he pleaded as he was unceremoniously dropped to the ground, his captor crouching down and tying his hands together.
"Well, you tried to kill us, so what's stopping us from doing the same?" Ian asked cooly, pointing his rifle at him. "Unless you happen to know where a T-Doll armed with a P38 or an M1895 is."
"I don't know of any Dolls like that!" the man replied a little too quickly.
"He's lying." M1911 shook her head, having picked up on how quickly he responded.
"I swear I'm not!"
Ian sighed. He had dealt with many liars throughout his life, even in the Army, so he knew when a guy was lying to him, like right now. That didn't mean he'd shoot him right away, though.
"If you tell me where those Dolls are, I'll let you go." he offered calmly. "If you give me a false answer, though, I will kill you."
The man weighed his options, then deciding to be honest, he replied.
"We captured those two Dolls a week ago to sell their parts, but they escaped a day ago during the evening, before we could do so. I didn't lay a hand on them, but as for the others, I can't say the same."
"He's telling the truth." the HG notified.
"Okay, do you have any clue where they could be?" Ian asked next.
"They were heading to the old military outpost in the forest to the west, but a large garrison of Sangvis Dolls control it. I doubt they're still alive, but they could be hiding out somewhere nearby."
Ian looked to M1911, who nodded to him in confirmation.
"One final question: have you seen any American soldiers passing through here recently?"
"Nyet."
M1911's nod caused a small wave of disappointment to wash over him, but he didn't let it take hold of him. Looking back to the bandit, he was torn between killing him or keeping his word. Mercy didn't do him well in the past, and it was his group that endangered P38 and M1895. But it was likely that Sangvis would kill him later on anyway.
"You can go now, on one condition: you will only attack, salvage, or sell Sangvis Dolls or machines. Don't you dare touch Griffin personnel or any human settlements that are left, or we will not hesitate to kill you. Are we clear on that?"
"Da."
"Release him." Ian ordered, and MP5 cut his restraints.
The man wasted no time in running off, recovering his rifle and not turning back towards the Griffin team that killed his friends. Sighing, the Commander then decided to call for the Humvee driver.
"This is Commander Becker, requesting pickup."
Now back in the Humvee, Ian passed the location of the old military outpost (which Springfield knew of) to the driver, telling him to go there.
"Got it, sir."
As they left that area of the old city, Ian looked back on his team. Fortunately, nobody was harmed and M1911 still had her ballistic shield. As for himself, he wasn't injured, either, and he hadn't been infected. Fortunately, the outpost was in a lower-radiation zone, so he had more time to patch his mask up if it was damaged in any way.
His mind drifted back to the missing Dolls, remembering what the bandit said. Seeing how crafty Griffin's Dolls were, they could still be alive, but what were the chances that they were traumatized? Pretty high, unfortunately. He had no idea how PTSD manifested in T-Dolls, but AK-47 proved that it was quite similar to humans, at least for her.
But that was achieved from the attack on the base with a side of survivor's guilt, not capture and potential violation at the hands of scummy bandits.
Before he knew it, they had arrived at the old military outpost, which looked old enough to have belonged to the Ukrainian Army. True to the bandit's words, the outpost had quite a few Sangvis Dolls in it. There were other buildings around it, which were also being used by Sangvis forces.
"Hey, can you hear me?" a familiar feminine voice spoke in Ian's ear, courtesy of the headset on his head.
"Is that you, Kalina?" he asked.
"Yup. I'm done with my work for now, so I decided to take your usual place, sir."
"How is it already my usual place? I've only run two missions from there."
"I dunno. Anyways, Helian just called us."
"Shit. Did you tell her I was busy?"
"Da. She's waiting for you to get back."
"Great. Can you let me think for a minute?"
"Yes, sir."
The Commander pulled out a pair of binoculars and took a look at the outpost, which was being patrolled by numerous Sangvis Dolls, including ones that wielded mid-range rifles and had gunmetal grey helmets that covered everything but their noses and mouths. Other than that and the lack of armor plate sockets on their leotards, they had the exact same bodies as the Ripper.
These Dolls were called Vespids, and they served as the backbone of almost any Sangvis unit.
The garrison itself wasn't too big, but even a squad of Sangvis Ferri T-Dolls could decimate a battalion's worth of troops back in the war, and Ian had no intention to fight them, even with T-Dolls of his own.
"How are we gonna take on that many Sangvis? If we were alone, then it'd be no problem, but we've got the Commander with us..." M1911 monologued to herself as he scouted the outpost.
But what if we snuck in? Sangvis has got to have something on P38 and M1895.
"What if we snuck in and hacked into their database? If those Dolls passed through here anytime recently, then they'd have something we could use."
Through those beautiful blue eyes of hers, Ian could see the gears turning in M1911's head, likely calculating the plan's odds of success.
"How would you do it, sir?" she asked quietly.
"Which one of you are good with computers?"
M1911 looked to her teammates, who all shook their heads.
Shit.
"Don't worry about that, sir." Kalina told him. "Just get a Doll hooked up to their database, and I can look through it."
"Is that even possible?" he asked.
"I'll use the Zener Protocol to do it. Kalina out."
Ian then looked to his T-Dolls.
"Who's in the mood for some stealth?"
Tactical Doll M1911
M1911 remained completely silent as she passed by a pair of Rippers, sneaking into the base with MP5 at her side to cover her when she plugged herself into Sangvis' systems.
Currently hiding behind a wrecked truck, they patiently waited for the Vespids keeping watch to move away from the truck so they could proceed. After what felt like an eternity, they finally walked away.
After making sure no eyes were looking their way, M1911 quickly left the cover and slipped behind a crate of supplies, with MP5 following suit.
After waiting a few moments, they passed by two more enemy Dolls and the two reached the target building, which had a single Ripper guarding the structure.
"Take her out." M1911 told MP5 over Zener.
Without any response, the tiny T-Doll shot from their hiding place, drawing her knife and burying it into the Ripper's Core, a brief look of surprise on her porcelain face before she died. MP5's feet hit the floor and she then prevented her kill from hitting the floor, carefully setting her down behind the wall so she wasn't found by hostile forces.
Given how good a Sangvis Doll's hearing was, M1911 was surprised that they didn't hear the commotion.
The blonde slipped into the building next, shutting the door a little. As she approached the Sangvis console, her white-haired companion took position behind the door, her weapon at the ready.
Here goes nothing... she thought as she pulled a cord out of her pocket and plugged an end into the back of her neck, plugging the other cord into the console. She shuddered as a strange, but not entirely unpleasant sensation traveled through her body, signaling a successful connection.
"Miss Kalina, I've established the link." she signaled.
"Great work, Miss 1911. This'll probably take a few minutes to do, since I haven't tried this before." On the other end, M1911 could hear Kalina sigh.
"I'm starting now."
Not even a moment later, the T-Doll immediately felt her head get used as a computer, involuntarily groaning in discomfort as Kalina fought against Sangvis' firewalls, the conflict causing sharp flares of pain.
And then as soon as it began, it stopped.
For a moment, M1911 thought Kalina had failed, but then she heard the ginger exhale in relief, and on the monitor, the words Access Granted appeared, followed by a list of files.
"There we go."
After scouring the files and finding the camera footage folder, Kalina poked through it, soon finding a recording from the previous day that was a little after the time given by the bandit, around the morning.
It was recorded through a Vespid's eyes, starting with a basic patrol. So far, there wasn't anything special happening, and M1911 began to worry that this was a waste of time when two T-Dolls, clad in grey and white uniforms, passed by the Vespid, in a hurry.
It had wasted no time in opening fire on them, and the blonde gasped in horror as a plasma bolt struck the white-clothed one in the back, forcing the grey one to pick her up and carry her to a nearby shed, the Vespid in hot pursuit. The last bit of footage was a round striking the Vespid in the head, and the footage ending.
M1911 promptly took the cord out of the console and her neck, storing it in her pocket. She then contacted the Commander.
"Commander, I know where they went, but M1895 was shot in the back and she might be dead."
Through the comms, she heard her commanding officer swear under his breath.
"Okay, get out of there before Sangvis finds you." he ordered.
"Got it."
M1911 tapped MP5's shoulder and told her it was time to leave, leaving the building and carefully sneaking past the encampment to her allies, who were patiently waitjng for her.
"You said you know where they went?" the Commander asked as he lowered his binoculars.
"Yeah. They were holed up in an old shack about a couple miles away. I don't know if they're still there, but I'm sure P38 would leave a clue to her location if they're not." the blonde replied.
"I suppose so. Kalina, do you know about any small buildings a few miles away from the outpost?"
"Hang on... there's a shack about two miles north, and there's a friendly signature in it!" the ginger reported.
This seems fishy...
"That seems a little suspiscious. What do you think, 1911?"
"It could be P38. It could be another Griffin Doll. Or, it could be Sangvis, setting a trap." she answered.
"We should still check it out. I'll get the driver."
As the Commander called the driver, M1911 set down a camera that faced the Sangvis outpost, setting it to recording. With it linked to her Digimind, she would know if the outpost's Dolls moved out when the shack was checked on.
Commander Ian Becker
Sitting in the Humvee again, Ian and his Dolls were heading to the suspicious shack in the northwest.
In all honesty, he fully expected it to be a trap (likely a bomb or a detachment of Sangvis), but he had to check and be sure.
"Hey, 1911."
"Yes, sir?" the blonde asked.
"Do T-Dolls have any kind of bomb-detecting software on them?"
"Military ones do, but retrofitted A-Dolls like us don't. I did bring a sensor with us, though." she replied, pulling a tablet-like device out of a go-bag and testing it.
"That a sensor?"
M1911 nodded as AK-47 checked her gear, an unusually sharp look in her eyes as she checked her equipment. The others did the same, with MP5 checking her shield generator, a triangular black device with a smaller blue triangle in the middle.
"Alright, we're coming up on that shack. I'd scan it first to see if there's a nasty surprise in it for any visitors." the driver told them.
"Thank you, Captain Obvious." AK-47 replied sarcastically, causing the driver to groan at her.
Ian paid them no mind, his gaze settled on the shack. It was a quaint little place, weathered by time and damaged, but if it held Station 794's lost Dolls, then he needed to know.
The Humvee stopped at last, and the team got out of it rather hastily, with M1911 grabbing both her shield and the sensor.
Unlike at the farm and in the city, M1911 took point, as her shield would block the brunt of a potential explosion and leave her friends safe. Replacing her pistol with the sensor, she scanned thd house with it, remaining silent as she performed the scan.
"No explosives, but it looks like place is rigged to alert the military outpost if we so much as knock on the door." the blonde HG reported.
"So we're not getting in there without Sangvis knowing." AK-47 said.
"Yup."
Ian went ahead and approached the door, pulling his M17 out as he approached it. After checking the door (and seeing a deadlock above the knob), he fired a round to the right of the deadbolt, destroying the bolt. Busting the door open, he laid eyes on a T-Doll who had dark brown hair that was tied at the end with a pretty face akin to an idol's with magenta eyes. She wore a German Luftwaffe soldier's uniform (with a skirt, because of fucking course it was a skirt) and was suspended in the air by chains.
He wasted no time in shooting the chains, breaking them and causing her to fall. Rushing forward, he caught her and set her down gently, next to an unmoving blonde T-Doll in a white uniform. To his dismay, a hole was burned straight through the blonde's small chest, marking her death.
The grey-uniformed Doll looked up at him a weary gaze, barely able to muster the strength to say anything.
"W-who are you...?" she asked in a scratchy voice.
"I'm your new Commander, and I'm here to get you back to base." Ian replied, handing her a weathered handgun, which looked to be a Walther P38.
"W-why are you out here? Sangvis alarmed the compound!"
"I know. That's why we're gonna place a trap of our own. Come on, let's go." The uniformed man made to pick P38 up when she pointed towards her friend with an unsteady hand.
"We can't leave Nagant behind." she told him solemnly as he stopped.
"I won't. AK, take M1895 to the Humvee."
As AK-47 went to pick up the dead HG, Ian followed through with picking up P38, carrying her to the Humvee. After setting her in the seat, he let AK-47 set M1895 down beside her and then turned his gaze to the shack.
"The Sangvis at the outpost just started heading this way!" M1911 reported, the news giving the Commander an idea.
"Wait, what if we went to the outpost while they're gone and planted bombs in it, so when they returned, they'd get blown sky-high?"
M1911 pondered this over the course of seven seconds.
"That might work." she told herself. "But I didn't bring— never mind, the outpost had C4."
"Everyone back in the Humvee! We've got one last stop to make!"
After going around the Sangvis attack force (and leaving a tracker behind for it so they still thought they were there,) they arrived at the old outpost in record time. This time, only M1911 and AK-47 got out, finding the crates the explosives were kept in and pulling them out, planting them in and around the building to ensure as many enemy casualties as possible. Finally, they pulled the outpost's supplies out of harm's way so they could extract them later.
"Get those girls back to base." Ian had ordered the driver as the others got out.
Now hiding behind a tree, he held a detonator as his allies retreated to cover, guns out and ready to eliminate any hostiles that survived the initial explosion.
After a few minutes' time, the Sangvis Dolls returned to the base, likely pissed that they missed their prey. As they checked the building for enemy presence, they ended up in the radius of every last charge Ian's team planted.
And that was when he triggered the trap.
The outpost and the area around it burst into flames almost immediately, the concussive force blowing the walls out and sending pieces of Sangvis Dolls flying in all directions.
The only survivors were a pair of Rippers and a Prowler.
At once, the Griffin operatives opened fire on the Sangvis units. While the Prowler and a Ripper were destroyed, the other one rolled out of the way, ending up behind a tree. However, not even an advanced military Doll could escape Springfield's accurate shooting, the violet-haired Doll hitting the ground with a hole in her head and her red eyes wide with surprise.
"Nice shot, Springfield." Ian commented as he checked for survivors, M1911 joining him and popping an extra hole into Ripper #1's head.
"Thank you, dear." the brunette woman replied, smiling at the compliment as she emerged from cover. "For a human, you're rather accurate with your shots."
"Thanks. I spent a lot of time in the range and the combat sim. Anyways, we should get back with those supplies." Ian then turned on the comms. "Kalina, we've located P38 and M1895, along with some much-needed supplies, and we're now awaiting extraction."
After a moment of silence, Kalina's voice filled his ears.
"You found them? That's wonderful!" she cheered. "Ahem, I mean, that's good to hear. Your exfil will be there shortly, sir."
"Got it. Commander Becker out."
As the line was cut, Ian leaned against a tree and reloaded his weapon, M1911 soon joining him. Neither of them spoke, content with watching MP5 and AK-47 talk about doing something to welcome their formerly-missing allies back to the base while Springfield came up with a good dish fof it.
"That was fun." the HG said after a minute of silence.
"Yeah, I guess so." the dark-haired man exhaled, taking a sip from his canteen. "Did my predecessor fight alongside you?"
"No. He didn't want to enter the field again after he lost his leg, but he did everything he could to keep us safe otherwise."
The response reminded him of the box of tapes Kalina found, causing him to turn to the HG.
"Kalina found some of his old audio tapes earlier today. I'm gonna check them out when we get back. Wanna listen to 'em with me?"
M1911 thought about it for a moment.
"As much as I'd like to spend more time with you, I need to be there for P38, seeing as M1895 is..." she trailed off.
"It's okay, I understand. I'll try to get her a new body as soon as I can. You do have them backed up, right?"
"Yeah, they were."
The two said nothing to each other for the rest of the time they waited for extraction, and even then, they kept silent as they entered the Humvee and rode back to base,
In M1911's case, she was worried for P38, given how badly she may have been affected by her captors.
In Ian's case, he was too busy thinking of how he'd get another body for M1895, as well as what his predecessor had put into those tapes of his.
Hopefully they would prove to be useful.
Finally! I've been writers' blocked for far too long! In the end, I was able to write 7k words worth of content. Easily my biggest chapter written.
M1911's use of a ballistic shield was inspired by Welrod using it in the fifth GFL 2 PV, and one of her lines is similar to one of Marcus Fenix's lines in Gears of War. I wonder if you can notice it.
I'm not sure what I should do for Origin Story, but I've got a solid plan for this story's next chapter.
See you at Chapter 12!