April 21, 2064
7:30

"Warning, warning. Missile alert-"

A groan emanated from Maven as his phone alarm went off, his hand taking a couple of attempts to find the phone and make it snooze, allowing the pilot to sleep for a bit longer. Not much longer that is as the alarm harassed the pilot's ears again after five minutes. The alarm successfully did its job as Maven finally decided to drag his corpse out of the warm and comfy embrace of his bed, making sure to dismiss the alarm this time. He considered changing the alarm to something less obnoxious, but it worked too well at waking him up.

Maven laid still on the bed, staring up at the bunk above him as the memories of last night started coming back to him. Grizzly was way off her rockers, clearly had something too strong for her… robo mind? Which led to some mildly questionable actions, all of which involved clinging onto him like he was some teddy bear.

He should inquire how robots could even get drunk later.

Then there was that MDR doll at some point who dragged him and the unconscious Expulse into a selfie for… reasons he honestly didn't want or need to know. Helian said she was going to have Grizzly show them this 'Level II' place where Grifchan is and he had a gut feeling he wasn't going to be the happiest pilot once he sees what goes on there.

And then there was the case of a hyper active dog who he swore was trying to rip his arm off. Granted, she seemed very enthralled with their F-15, which Maven would normally be more than glad to indulge, but he also liked having a functional arm to use for various things.

Shaking those memories out of his head, the aviator sat up and stretched both of his arms and then his neck, letting out an extended yawn as he loosened up his joints. He sat still and looked straight ahead for a couple of seconds as his brain finished booting up. Maven swore he heard the startup sound for his computer play, but quickly dismissed it as another one of his 'moments'. The events of last night was still taking a toll on him as sluggishly got out of his bed and stretched his legs, a couple of pops following soon after from his joints.

It was also now he realised the bed adjacent to him was unoccupied. Highly unusual behavior for his backseater who he didn't doubt loved his beauty sleep more than he did his family. Maven double checked the time on his phone, wanting to make sure he somehow didn't wake up at midday like he was back in his high school days.

'7:36.' He noted.

Definitely no way Expulse would be awake and doing anything remotely productive unless told to, which Maven knew he wasn't. The excessive brain usage this early in tandem with his body and mind still recovering from last night, the pilot was about to fall back asleep right then and there, making him come to the conclusion that it would be best to freshen himself up in the bathroom.

He went over to the closet and was pleased to see to see that there were a bunch of clothes left for the two. A bunch of blank t-shirts, a couple of sweatpants, some underwear and a lot of socks, nothing fancy or formal, much to the pilot's liking though the amount of socks provided was eyebrow raising. That aside, he went over to the bathroom door and opened it, only to be greeted with his missing backseater, head face in the toilet bowl.

Expulse, who surprisingly wasn't asleep turned his head to face his flight lead and gave a haphazard two finger salute, clearly out of it and looked like he had seen much better days, his hair disheveled beyond the normal bed hair and his face was paler than than the white underwear Maven was holding.

"Christ man, you look like hammered shit."

"Tell me something I don't know." Expulse fired back weakly.

"That downing an entire shot of whatever the strongest drink available is a bad idea?" Maven coyly raised an eyebrow.

"I hope you stub your toe, jackass." The backseater flipped him the bird, though he would quickly face the toilet bowl again. "Ah fuck me."

"Expulse?"

The aviator in question didn't respond this time. His stomach was reenacting a miniature version of the invasion of Gracemeria, and much like the real world event, his desire to keep the contents of his stomach inside his body lost. Expulse's body flared up harshly, disorientating the pilot even further for a brief moment before he finally hurled.

"…I'll get us something light for breakfast…" Maven said as he turned away, The audible sounds of puke exiting his copilot's mouth was making him lose his appetite.

The only sign of acknowledgment Maven got was a weak thumbs up.

He walked out of the bathroom, closing the door gently, leaving the WSO to do his 'business' in peace. Maven stared at the clothes he was carrying, taking a moment to think before deciding he could just take a shower later. He swapped out the underwear slept in and threw the new clothes on, leaving the old pair on the couch, making a mental note to ask about laundry. And with attire checked off on the pilot's mental to-do list, he left the dorm and made his way to Springfield's café.

The dolls must not linger around for long once they finish eating, Maven thought to himself, the café was noticeably less crowded than it was yesterday, only a couple of dolls spread out around the room, thankfully none of them took notice of him.

Well one did but it was to be expected so he wouldn't even count it.

Springfield gave the pilot a wave before shifting to a more curious expression, probably wondering where Expulse was. Maven took a seat at one of the tables for two, not needing to wave over Springfield as the doll in question was already on her way over.

"Late good morning to you." She gave him her usual smile. "Is your copilot sleeping in?"

Maven snorted, not expecting the jab at his wingman. "Nah uh, he has some business to sort out."

"I presume the drink was too much for him?"

"Yep." Maven popped the P at the end. "Well I tried to warn him but anyways, I think it would be best if we both had some sort of breakfast that's light on the stomach."

"Something light hmm?" Springfield put a hand to her chin and closed her eyes. It was a cute sight seeing the normally omnipotent (to Maven at least) doll be stumped for a moment. It was short lived however.

"Alright I'll see what we have." Springfield replied. "Anything else you would like in the mean time?"

Now it was Maven's turn do be thrown in thought for a moment.

"Uh, how about non sparkling water and something for a headache?" He said, making sure to include that qualifier in his request. The pilot could not comprehend how any sane person could enjoy such a disgrace in beverages.

Springfield smiled politely and nodded her head. "Alright, I'll be back soon with your breakfast then."

The brown-oranged haired doll walked off and went back to behind the bar counter where she would work her dark voodoo android magic on making the best food the pilot had tasted. With nothing to do now and no means of distracting himself, Maven slouched back in the seat and began zoning out. This would have been a great time to reflect back on the events of the past couple of days, but right now? Maven's head was emptier than a room filled with everyone that's had a crush on him.

A familiar figure stumbled into his peripheral vision, snapping the pilot back to reality. Expulse had managed to drag himself out of the toilet and to the café, taking a moment to spot Maven and sluggishly walked over before unceremoniously stumbling into the seat opposing his flight lead. He was still looking worse for wear albeit not as much of a mess as before.

Maven chuckled at the state of his backseater. "Still alive there buddy?"

"No." Expulse replied plainly, slumping onto the table and laying his head into his arms. "I do not wish to be right now."

The pilot snorted lightly at Expulse's behavior. "Cheer up mate, I asked specifically for something to help with your headache."

"Lovely." The WSO replied in the most deadpan tone he could muster.

"Alright alright, I'll stop talking now." Maven shook his head with a smile.

Springfield had just finished up prepping a light breakfast for the two and walked back over to their table with a tray in hand.

"Ah, I see mister Expulse has seen better days." She teased, placing the tray on the table and handed out small plates. Only two slices of toast were on them, not exactly a breakfast but still food in their stomachs. Alongside the minimal breakfast was a glass with normal water and a cup with some tea of sorts.

The backseater grumbled something incoherent in response to Springfield.

The doll merely chuckled at the backseater's response. "Hopefully the ginger tea will get him back to normal."

"Hopefully, I don't wanna have to deal with this all day." Maven huffed in amusement.

Springfield smiled and walked off, leaving the two pilots to themselves to eat. It was significantly quieter than yesterday, neither speaking to each other, silently eating away at their tiny meals, albeit Expulse was a bit sloppy with his movements. It didn't take long for them to finish their food. Maven started taking sizable sips from his glass, noting that the water was a lot colder than expected, but it helped him wake up more.

Expulse on the other hand stared at his teacup for a moment before grabbing it and drinking it all in one go, multiple audible gulps were heard. With the grace of someone with a hangover, attempted to place the cup back on the table, his arm fell to his side and the backseater slouched back in his seat.

"…You uh, didn't even take time to enjoy it?" Maven asked with an eyebrow raised.

Expulse merely nodded his head.

"Did it at least help in someway?"

The WSO gave it a thought for a moment. "I don't know what black magic she put in that, but my headache's fading away real quick- ah." His sentence was cut short by the oncoming yawn he had to get out, not even bothering to cover up his mouth.

"Just feel groggy as shit now though." He said as he rubbed underneath his eyes with his thumb and index finger.

"Well, better that than a hangover I guess." Maven chuckled. "Don't use this as an excuse to go back to binge drinking shit."

"No promises."

The pilot sighed, he rather not have to take a trip to the hospital because his backseater couldn't resist the urge to down hand sanitizer.

"Your alcoholism aside, what are we going to do today?"

Expulse stared at the ceiling in thought for a couple of seconds. "Dunno. Isn't that your job to figure out?"

A look of pure exasperation covered Maven's face. "You could at least pretend to care."

"Fine fine uh." Expulse looked like he was actually putting some thought into this now. "Maintenance?"

"Gentiane said she would have the dolls do that for us now."

"…Check up on the dolls doing maintenance?" The backseater shrugged. "You know, make sure they don't, I don't know… put the missiles on backwards or something?"

Maven only stared at his copilot.

"There's a non zero percent chance?"

"Fine, we'll check up on the dolls." The pilot conceded with a groan.

"I mean, there isn't too much for us to really do."

Expulse made a fair point. At this point, it had only been two days since they arrived, with today marking the start of the third. Gentiane hadn't given them some schedule to follow either so it was safe to assume they were free to do whatever they want. Within reason of course, It probably isn't a smart idea to do fly-bys and other maneuvers that belong at an airshow.

"Ahem, are you two done?"

The two jumped a bit, too deep in thought to notice that Springfield had came back.

"Oh, did I interrupt something?" She asked.

"Nah, nah it's fine. And yeah we're done." Maven said, although not before finishing his glass of water in one go.

"Hey, weren't you just on my case for drinking shit in one go?" Expulse asked accusingly.

"There's a difference between a plain glass of water and something like tea, you dork." Maven shot back without missing a beat.

Springfield silently listened along with a smile as she took their plates and glasses from the two, finding a good deal of amusement in the aviators' banter.

"What kind of snob response is that? Are you going to tell me there's some etiquette that I need to follow as well?"

"Yes." Maven simply replied, merely just to get a rise out of his copilot.

"I give up." Expulse exclaimed, already regretting his decision to start this side conversation already.

"Glad to see my tea worked for mister Expulse here." Springfield smiled, plates and glasses in hand. "Have a nice day gentlemen." She gave a tiny wave with her hand and left the two.

"Gentlemen huh?" Expulse snickered a bit. "Didn't think I'd hear someone refer to us as that."

"I know right?" Maven chuckled before sighing, his mind going back to his previous train of thought. Sure they could slack off and do nothing, but that would get boring really quick unless they found some form of entertainment, and he wanted to wait at least a week before he started being a slob again.

The pilot snapped his fingers as an idea came to his head, startling his backseater.

"We should hit up the gun range."

Expulse seemed slightly skeptical. "But aren't we fighters first and foremost?"

"Are you telling me you don't want to go put some lead down the range for shits and giggles?" Maven deadpanned.

His idea was genius! They'll probably have access to a bunch of firearms that isn't given out to the standard military and it doubled as both a way to kill some time and 'training' so they weren't being complete dead weights.

"Okay okay fine you nerd." Expulse raised his hands and gestured for his flight lead to calm down. "I guess we don't have anything else better to do. Just keep your pants on."

"Could've been more enthusiastic about it but at least you agree with myself." He pointed out smugly, before his mind processed the rest of what Expulse said. "Hey wait, what are you implying with that last part!?"

The WSO only smiled in response, smugness oozing out of his expression. "Dunno, you tell me?"

The two started laughing at how ridiculous they were being. They calmed down after a minute and sat in silence for a moment, not quite feeling ready to get up and go just yet. Movement in Maven's peripheral vision caught his attention.

A black haired doll wearing a knitted sweater underneath a yellow hooded coat and black skirt along with some rather eye catching socks came in to the café. She scanned around the room, presumably looking for someone until she locked eyes with Maven and started walking towards where the pilots were sitting. Upon closer inspection, he could see that one of her hair strands was dyed white and her eyes were heterochromatic.

It was only until the doll coughed that Maven realised he was staring at her.

"Nice to meet you, Maven and Expulse. You can call me RO635." RO635 introduced herself.

"Hi, nice to meet you too." Maven replied back.

Expulse gave a lazy wave. "Hey."

"Anyway, I believe Gentiane mentioned that she would have you two get familiar with Level two, right?"

Maven recalled the commander saying something vaguely on those lines yesterday during their debriefing. "She said something about it."

RO635 nodded her head. "Good, I'll be helping you with that. I take it you're done eating so follow me now."

The two pilots stood up and followed the doll in front of them.

Expulse grinned and leaned over to Maven. "Bet you're disappointed it wasn't Grizzly?"

"Shut your trap Expulse."


The trio ended up back in the warehouse and storage area wing of the base, thankfully not for another maintenance session. Instead RO635 had given the two what looked some sort of VR headset, except there were a lot more cables at the back which didn't bode well with the pilots. It also had it's own battery brick connected which the aviators assumed they would have to carry on them if they wanted to use the headset.

RO635 could see the apprehension on the two. "I assure you it's not as...unpleasant as it looks."

"Yeah I'm not sure if I believe you on that." Expulse replied, eyes still staring at the headset. "And I still have no idea what this 'level two' business is or how it necessitates… this death trap looking thing."

RO635 sighed, perhaps if she explained it properly, the pilots might be more willing to try.

"Think of it as… level one would be your conscious state, like we are right now. Then there's level three which is our base layer which contains our personality and other innate traits. And level two would be like an in between..?" RO635 wasn't sure how to phrase it to the pilots.

"So this level two is similar to when we're dreaming or something?" Maven asked, somewhat understanding what the doll said.

"Yes in a sense."

"Oh." Expulse said, catching on now. "...And I guess all of those cables tap into our brain to bring us to this level two?"

RO635 nodded her head. "Yes, does that ease your concerns?"

The two still seemed unconvinced.

"Well, in the event that something uh… fails, like forced ejection or something, would that cause permanent damage?" Expulse asked.

"I believe there's fail-safes in place to prevent any brain damage from occurring." RO635 replied. "At most you might have to deal with a bad headache and maybe impaired vision for a couple of hours."

Maven sighed and picked up the headset with both hands, staring at the front of the it. "Guess we've done more suicidal shit than this before."

"I'll assist you with setting it up." RO635 said, moving beside the pilot.

Expulse let out an extended groan. "If this goes wrong, drinks are on you for a week."

With the help of RO635, the pilots were setup with the headsets in the manner of minutes. Both of them would note that it was a highly uncomfortable sensation having wires and electronics this close to the brain, but not painful at least.

"So do we just pull the goggles down and turn it on?" Maven asked

RO635 replied with an affirmative hum. "I'll greet you two on the other side, don't worry."

"Alright then, here we go." Maven said to himself.

The pilots pulled down the goggles and switched the power on. There was a brief spike of pain at the back of their heads before their vision was swarmed with pixels of various different colors. The acid trip thankfully didn't last too long before their vision started clearing up.

Maven was greeted with a rather sizable room. There was much to it however, a simple table in the middle, a sofa off to the side with a TV screen opposing it, there was also a balcony area of sorts outside. The most interesting piece in the room was a full length mirror that was next to the couch. The simulation had pretty much copied his appearance one-to-one, though curiously enough he was also dressed in his flight suit which he wasn't going in.

The pilot's focus was taken away by the unannounced arrival of RO635 and Expulse. The former looking the same as she normally did and the latter also in a flight suit like him.

Expulse gave Maven a wave. "Yo, this is shit right out of those movies and animes man."

He noted that there were also name tags above the two, RO635 unsurprisingly just used her regular name. Expulse on the other hand.

"Agreed but uh… your name tag?" Maven pointed above Expulse's head.

"What's wrong with it?"

"Do I really need to explain how questionable 'Cougar' sounds?" Maven replied exasperated.

Expulse merely shrugged.

Maven decided it would be best not to further inquire.

RO635 cleared her throat, ending the aviator's banter. She assisted Maven with setting up an avatar and a customizing his virtual room, to which he opted to keep as they were now. He did decide to switch his name tag.

"'Bloodless Mute'?" Expulse snickers. "Alright, subtle."

Maven merely gave a knowing smile in response.

"Alright, if you two are okay with your current appearance I'll connect us to the main network now." RO635 said.

Both pilots gave her a thumbs up.

The room faded out into black in a pixelated manner before a new area faded back into existence before their eyes. The trio were now in a bar similar to Springfield's café, except that this one was much larger.

"This is the main hub world on level two" RO635 began explaining. "On your left arm there will be a wrist screen. There's various options for going to different areas and avatar customization from earlier."

Both pilots were doing a cursory scan through the various options and menus on the screen.

"Man, never would've thought something like this would be a possibility." Expulse said to himself.

Maven chuckled. "I know right? Closest thing to this was that one VR game thing that was more for socializing." He took a quick look around the area. "Come to think of it, this place looks awfully familiar."

"Are we free to go look around?" Expulse asked RO635.

RO635 found it odd that they were asked her for permission. "Yes, I'll still be with you just in case you need help."

"Neat."

The three began exploring this bar which judging by the windows wasn't really connected to some outside area, just floating around in some dark navy blue colored void, giving off the illusion that it was late at night. Many dolls were scattered around the place, some the two recognized, but most of them remained unknown. It didn't help that practically all the dolls had some type of name tag that wasn't their gun. There was the standard booth area with many tables for four, a bar counter with several bar stools, and a back area which had a massive mirror… for some reason. A lot of dolls were just sitting in front of it, talking about whatever came to mind. Neither of pilots understood it but decided not to question it further.

There was more to explore, such as hallways that led to the bathroom and a set of stairs that went upwards, but that could wait for another time.

"So RO." Maven started before pausing quickly. "Can I call you RO? The numbers are a bit of a mouthful."

RO635 nodded her head.

"Right so, Gentiane said something about Grifchan I think, what's that about?"

"Ah that." The doll's expression shifted a bit. "Grifchan is an anonymous forum where the dolls can post and reply… anything they want really."

"Judging by your expression I'm guessing there's more to it than you're telling us?" Expulse asked.

"...The threads there sometimes are questionable at best."

The two aviators looked at each other for a moment.

Expulse broke out into a devious grin. "I think I know what I'm going to be doing in my off time now."

"Try to keep it mostly tame." Maven said, although his facial expression portrayed a different story.

RO635 didn't say anything, but internally the behavior of these two right now were concerning to say the least. The bar melted away as the group connected to the Grifchan section of level two. Upon loading in, Maven and Expulse realised that their names were replaced with a randomized eight character string of letters and numbers and their avatars were changed to a similar getup to what Gentiane normally wore, except it was much dirtier and both had a gas mask on.

Grifchan itself was… well the pilots weren't really sure what they were expecting the place to look like, but a huge hotel with vibrant colors wasn't on the list.

"I suppose this wasn't what you were expecting?" RO635 said, taking the aviators out of their stupor.

They turned to face the doll, only to realise she was now some type of robotic dog with a yellow coat of paint and a megaphone where the tail should be? Every minute spent here was slowly draining the pilots' sanity.

"Well when you describe the place as a forum board with a bunch of questionable threads, I don't exactly picture a lavish hotel." Maven replied, still in awe of the surroundings.

Maven and Expulse sore they heard a snort come from the t-doll.

"Anyway, you should have a new option labeled as 'Catalog'." RO635 began explaining. "Under that you'll see all the active threads in order of most popular."

The pilots tapped the Catalog icon on their wrist display, a column of threads were projected in front of them.

"Holy shit." Expulse muttered.

He lifted his hand, hesitating for a moment before making an upwards swipe motion. The list of various threads scrolled downwards in response.

"I feel like I'm in some sci-fi movie, damn."

Maven on the other hand, while impressed with the advances in technology, was more focused on the contents of the thread. At the very top was one about the last operation, with the header image being a photo of their F-15EX in the air giving close air support.

He expanded the thread, looking at the various responses. One reply in particular garnered a lot of attention, the attached file was a short video of their engagement against the SU-35. It started shortly before the flanker shot off the first missile. Most of the following replies were more or less gushing over the dogfight, equating the fight to an action movie. The comparison made Maven smile a bit.

He quickly lost that smile however as he saw the second most popular thread. The header image was Grizzly latching onto him when she was drunk last night and the title wasn't any better. More suspiciously, unlike most posters who were just named 'anon', this one was posted by someone named 'Bullpupmeister69'. Maven didn't have to scroll through it to figure out what it was about.

"Hey, what has you in a grumpy mood-" Expulse leaned over, sensing his flight lead's saltiness.

Only to start wheezing once he saw what Maven had open.

RO635 looked concerned and walked over to the two pilots.

"Is something wrong- oh."

She lost her words after seeing what Maven was staring at.

The pilot in question turned towards RO635 slowly, clearly tired despite his avatar visually remaining the same.

"RO, how do we leave level two?" He spoke with a calm tone.

Too calm.

"…There's a logout button on the main menu."

Maven wasted no time returning to the main menu on his wrist display, his avatar quickly fading out of level two as he logged out.

Expulse finally got his shit together and logged off as well, with RO635 doing the same.


"My god." Maven exclaimed, all but ripping the headset off of his head once he was fully out of the virtual world.

To his surprise he was still in the same position he was when he went in, standing up. He thought his body would've gone slack and collapse onto the floor or something, but it didn't.

His attention was drawn away from that little revelation and towards the wheezing of his copilot.

"Man you really don't like people shipping you with Grizzly, huh?" Expulse said with a shit eating grin as he also took off the headset.

"One, don't call it shipping. This isn't some half-assed self-insert fanfiction." Maven held up one finger as he began ranting.

"Two." He held up a second finger and paused for a moment, thinking of the correct way to phrase his thoughts. "Dude it's just weird. It's been like what, three days? And you and now some others are already trying to hook me up with someone. I may not have been in a relationship before but I don't think that's how they work."

"Actually." RO635 suddenly added to the conversation, startling the two pilots who momentarily forgot she was with them. "T-dolls build relations much faster with their commanders compared to human to human relations."

"But I'm not their commander!" Maven pointed to Expulse. "And even if I was, shouldn't that apply to this nerd over here as well!?"

"Hey!" Expulse exclaimed, but went ignored.

RO635 slightly lost composure. "About that…"

Maven decided it was enough and started walking out of the depot.

"Yeah no, it's too early for this." He stopped by the door. "Come on Expulse, we're going to make sure the dolls don't somehow accidentally launch a sidewinder or something."

Expulse sighed and looked over to RO635.

"Ignore him when he's cranky, thanks for showing us the level two stuff though."

RO635 nodded her head. "It's fine."


After their adventures in cyberspace, the two aviators headed towards the airfield to check up on who ever was in charge for handling and maintaining their aircraft now.

It's important to have someone to blame when something goes wrong after all.

As they got closer to where their jet was, they could make out four individuals, dolls judging by their eye-catching outfits. A blonde wearing a duster, another blonde with much longer hair and some weird triangle hair pieces, a doll with turquoise hair done up in twin tails and wasn't exactly wearing much, interestingly enough she was sat away from the jet and the various armaments lying around. Then there was M82 who the pilots recognized.

M82 saw the pilots walking over and momentarily stopped what she was doing to give the pilots a wave, catching the attention of the other dolls.

The two waved back.

"Hey M82." Expulse greeted. "Got shafted with maintenance duty?"

The pink haired dolled nervously laughed but waved the backseater off. "It's not that bad."

"If you say so." Expulse glanced at the other dolls looking at him and Maven. "So, you going to introduce us to the rest of your mates here?"

"Oh Right, um." M82 was flustered for a moment. "That's Galil, G3 and over there is Micro Uzi." She pointed at the dolls in question who all gave a friendly smile in return.

"And why is Uzi in a timeout corner?"

"She almost dropped a molotov onto a missile." G3 answered.

The two pilots snapped towards the twin-tailed doll, much to her embarrassment.

"H-hey… At least I didn't actually drop it?" Uzi was poking her fingers together and averted her gaze from the two.

"Ignoring why she even had molotovs in first place." Maven finally spoke, glancing around and only counting four dolls. "Shouldn't there be five of you?"

Echelons seemed to be composed of five dolls so where was the last member-

"Heya." A voice came from behind.

The aviators turned around and were greeted with the missing fifth member, a shorter doll with her hair done up in buns and with sunglasses wearing quite a bulky outfit. She even had a gas mask on her hip.

Wait do dolls need oxygen?

"Project 90, reporting for duty!" She said, holding out her hand for a handshake.

Maven went to reciprocate, only for his hand to phase through her.

"What?" He scrunched up his face in confusion as he tried to hold her hand again, still phasing through.

"P90, stop messing with them please." Galil said.

"But it's fun, look at this!" The one P90 somehow became five out of thin air.

The pilots' confusion only grew, with a slight hint of fear seeping in.

The five P90s then disappeared, followed by laughter. The two turned around, greeted by P90 laughing as she came from around the jet.

"Haha, very funny." Maven deadpanned.

P90 waved him off with a smile. "You should have seen your faces."

Both pilots sighed at the doll's antics. How were they supposed to know that dolls can just conjure up holograms like that.

P90 walked over, stretching out her hand for a handshake. "P90, at your service. For real this time."

The two shook her hand, actually feeling it this time.

"So, that aside. Are any of you bored yet?" Maven asked.

"Well No one is allowing me to do anything!" Uzi piped up, still agitated that no one would trust her with handling anything.

Expulse gave her a look. "I still don't know how you thought that having improvised explosives around missiles was a remotely good idea."

"H-hey!" Uzi pouted. "I take my time to hand craft my molotovs! Calling them improved is an insult!"

"Whatever you say." Expulse replied dismissively.

G3 thought for a moment. "It may not be the most engaging of work but it's to help you two fight and protect."

"It could be worse." Galil muttered out. "I'm just happy there isn't too much stuff to move around."

"You do have quite the bad case of butterfingers…" G3 replied.

"Hey! It's not that bad!" Galil retorted, mildly offended.

"I didn't mean any offense!" G3 quickly added.

The two aviators watched the interaction with amusement. For androids they were near identical to humans. It makes them wonder why AI was used purely as a tool for war back in their world.

M82 muttered something that Maven picked up on but didn't comprehend.

"Did you say something M82?"

The doll looked startled for a second before shaking her head.

"No, nothing."

He raised an eyebrow at her behavior. "You sure?"

M82 sighed. "I just want to be useful that's all."

Maven couldn't help but feel pity for the doll. He closed the distance and gently patted her on the head. M82 looked up at the pilot, confused and mildly flustered at the gesture but soothed at the same time.

"Don't worry about that, alright? You're making yourself useful right now."

The doll blushed a bit and muttered out a thanks.

Expulse felt his heart warm at the scene, quietly proud at his flight lead for calming the doll down.

"YOU TWO!"

Maven and Expulse jumped at the loud voice that sounded ready to throw some hands. They turned around and were greeted with short black haired doll who was wearing some type of field medic outfit. Her appearance wasn't their top priority right now, but rather the pure anger radiating off of her.

"Uhh… hi?" Maven meekly said.

The doll said nothing and turned to M82.

"Do you need these two right now?"

M82 hesitantly shook her head.

With that, the medic doll grabbed the two by their wrists and quite literally dragged them off. The two were reminded that the dolls were still androids and were much stronger than them.

"H-Hey some help please?"

G3, Galil and Uzi continued to act as if they heard nothing, P90 gave them a wave and M82 looked paranoid for the two pilots, sadly too nervous to actually do anything. The two pilots were dragged into what they assumed was the medbay were forced by the doll to take a seat on some chairs.

"You two are the worst, you know?" She really was not happy with them.

Maven was unsure how to handle the aggravated doll.

"Uhh what exactly have we done?" He raised his hands, trying to placate the doll.

"That stupid stunt flying that's what!" She yelled. "The human body is not meant to withstand that much force for that long!"

The pilots glanced at each other.

"...It's kind of our job? We've done harsher maneuvers and we're alive-"

"THAT'S NOT AN EXCUSE." The doll interrupted Maven and then turned to Expulse. "AND YOU!"

"Me?" Expulse was confused on why he was being singled out now.

"GETTING DRUNK ON AN EMPTY STOMACH, WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU!" The backseater shrunk under the rage of the small t-doll.

Before he respond, she had already gotten out of his face.

"But it's fine though." The doll said unnaturally calm. "You two just need to be educated."

Her tone at the end sent a shiver up the aviators' spines. She left for a moment and came back with a laptop, propping it up on table in front of the two. To their horror there was a presentation loaded on the laptop.

"Let's begin shall we?" She said, tilting her head and giving off what would normally be a cute smile.


Maven and Expulse lost track of time around the fifteen minute mark of the lecture, their brain cells slowly shutting off the longer it dragged on. All of this was information they already knew before and they were very well aware of the risks and potential health complications that came with flying.

Though oddly enough, even when pulling 8+ Gs, neither of them really felt the forces hit them.

"So, any questions?"

It visibly took a couple of moments for the two register that lecture was finished, blinking a few times to restart their brain as if they had just woken up. Not wanting to suffer for any longer, the pilots shook their head.

"Good, I take that you won't do anything stupid like that again, right?" Her tone was sickly sweet.

It's not like they really had a say in the matter, but she wouldn't be pleased with that for an answer.

"Right?" A shadow was covering her eyes now and her smile was too wide for their liking. She pulled out two syringes from one of her pouches. "I'll have to take matters into my own hands if you don't."

"U-uhhh." The two were panicking for answer as she got closer.

"Okay okay okay." Maven hurriedly said, putting his hands up, making the doll pause in her steps. "We won't do crazy maneuvers or any other… uh, things that will put our health at risk unless absolutely necessary."

"Mmmm that's not good enough." She stepped closer.

"Come on!" Expulse exclaimed. "We're at war no? It's not like we get to make that call or not!"

The doll stopped and mulled over the backseater's words for a couple of moments before sighing, the shadow looming over her eyes disappeared. She supposed he did have a point after all.

"Fine, you have a point." She relented, putting the syringes away to the pilots' relief. "But, only when absolutely necessary! Understood?"

"Yes ma'am." The two saluted out of instinct, earning a small chuckle out of the doll. They lowered their guards now that she looked calmed down. That would prove to be a mistake however as she walked closer to Expulse. The backseater leaned away as she got up in his face, though unable to lean back any further due to walls existing.

"However what you do have control over IS NOT GIVING YOURSELF ALCOHOL POISONING!"

Expulse covered his ears at the volume she was yelling at.

She grabbed him by the chin and forced him to look at her in the eyes. "If I catch wind of you puking your guts out over something like this again, I'll make sure you learn. Understood?"

The backseater rapidly nodded his head.

"Okay, good." Her sudden tone shift from deathly serious to bubbly gave the two pilots some serious whiplash.

"Now that aside, I should've said this earlier but name's GSh-18! Resident medic, I complete my tasks with perfection!" The doll finally introduced herself, oozing with pride.

"Maven." He pointed at himself and then at his backseater who was still too disturbed to respond. "Expulse."

"Oh trust me, I already know your names." Maven didn't miss the threatening undertone.

He nervously laughed. "So do you need us for anything else then?"

"Nope." She shook her head. "That was all, go eat now."

Maven turned to the analog clock that was over the entrance. It was a couple minutes into lunch.

"We'll be on our way then…"

The two pilots got up and made their way out the medbay-

"Wait hold up." GSh-18's voice rang out before they could leave.

Maven and Expulse turned around, the doll looked flustered for some reason.

"I know I just yelled at you two but uh, I do have a small request."

Maven gestured for her to continue.

GSh-18 cleared her throat. "So, I run a side business of making manga. But I've been stuck at second place in the popularity polls for a while now. If… if isn't too much trouble, maybe could tell me about your previous missions and I could make a manga based off of that?"

The two aviators turned to each other. Thinking back on it, warfare back where they came from would probably make for a good story. And with legends such as the Demon Lord, the Razgriz, Mobius 1, movies or video games could definitely be made based off of them. Even with lesser known stories like the Southern Cross or their own Angel of Emmeria, GSh-18 would have more material to work with than she would know what to do with.

"We'll be willing to share some stories." Maven spoke. "Though we aren't particularly interesting, there are some legends that would make for better stories."

GSh-18's eyes lit up to a comical degree.

"Yes alright!" She pumped a fist. "Guess I might cut you two some slack in terms of your stunt shows in return, but only a little bit!"

Good news for them, they weren't actually planning on stopping with their stunt maneuvers. Though they would never vocalize that out of fear of GSh-18 magically appearing behind them.

"Heh, good for us." Maven gave her wave. "We'll be on our way then."

GSh-18 gave an affirmative hum in response.

The two aviators left the medbay and headed for Springfield's café. Maven noted that Expulse was quiet ever since GSh-18 got in his face. He nudged the backseater, shaking him out of whatever thoughts he was having.

"Yo buddy, still alive there?"

Expulse wordlessly stared at his flight lead for a solid ten or so seconds before glancing back at the medbay and then back at Maven.

"I think I'm gonna have nightmares tonight."


Thankfully, their lunch was a rather peaceful and undisturbed one, the doll related shenanigans were on pause for a moment. Expulse had calmed down enough from GSh-18's warning to enjoy his food, courtesy of Springfield of course. After making sure to give their express thanks to the doll, the two finally headed to where Maven wanted to go earlier: the range.

His reason for the trip was half for actual training in the event the two would need to fight boots on the ground or if they had to eject behind enemy lines, and the other half was just an excuse to use firearms he would otherwise only be able to use in video games.

The Griffin shooting range was scarcely populated again, only four other dolls present, one of which was RO635 judging by the yellow jacket. Her back was facing the two pilots as she appeared to be coaching another doll who had what looked like a wi-fi router on her head? They gave her the benefit of the doubt and assumed the weird head piece had some practical use.

Not wanting to disturb the group, the two kept their distance and headed to the booth where the quartermaster should be. To the surprise of the aviators, a familiar orange-haired individual was in the back, opening a can of some energy drink.

"Kalina?" Maven asked, just to make sure it was her.

She turned around and held a finger up, chugging a whole can before throwing it in a nearby bin. "Yeah?"

The two leaned to the side and saw more energy drinks behind her.

"...It's not as bad as it looks." Kalina sheepishly replied, not having much strength as there were visible bags underneath her eyes.

"That aside, any chance we could use the guns?" Maven pointed to the firearms on the wall behind her.

Kalina nodded. "Just for today or to lease?"

"Wait, we can keep them?" Expulse butted in, interest clearly piqued.

"Lease, not keep." Kalina emphasized.

Expulse waved her off. "Close enough."

The overworked and sleep deprived woman sighed, deciding it wasn't worth the trouble, and gestured for the two come back with her. Maven and Expulse couldn't but feel giddy inside as they saw a large variety of firearms ranging from 19th Century to current day. Expulse gravitated towards the machine guns, specifically to the higher caliber ones. A sinister chuckle was barely audible from the backseater.

Maven on the other hand went towards the assault rifles, a marginally more practical choice considering their line of work. There were the usual AR platforms, AKs, and everything in between, though he swore he heard a degenerate chortle as he looked at the bullpups. He wasn't the most well versed in firearms, barely knowing any outside of the popular ones in what few movies or games, so he was going with whatever looked interesting. His eyes finally locked onto a gun that made him raise an eyebrow.

It looked like some type of AK, similar enough in structure, but there were too many differences for it to be a part of the family. Most notably were the 'unique' iron sights, the upside down barrel assembly with an interesting muzzle and… a canted magazine? That last one really raised an eyebrow. Maven was too intrigued to ignore it, picking up the all black assault rifle, inspecting it further.

"Oh you're interested in that?" Kalina's voice rang out from behind Maven.

"Yeah uh." He eyed the gun again. "Interesting... AK this is."

Kalina winced "...That's an AN-94 not an AK"

"AN-94 huh?" Explained why it barely resembled an AK.

"Well if you're interested, you can give it a try down the range and see if you like it or not."

Maven looked at the assault rifle again, particularly at the barrel. There had to be an explanation for why this gun was so weirdly designed.

"Yeah I'll take it."

"Alright give me a sec." Kalina grabbed a couple of empty magazines and a box of ammunition for Maven and handed it to him. "It uses 5.45x49 and takes AK-74 magazines so if someone else happens to be using a 74 or any rifle that uses the same magazine, you can ask them for their ammo."

"Huh, neat." Maven took the magazines, stuffing them in his pants, and took the box of ammunition in one hand with the assault rifle in the other.

"Hey, Kalina, can I have this?" Expulse asked from behind.

Maven looked over her shoulder and immediately wished he didn't

"Expulse, what the hell."

Kalina sweat dropped. "Do… do you really need an MG3?"

"Uhh it's the one that shoots very fast, right?"

"Y-yes but—"

"Cool, I wanna use it then."

Maven sighed and left to set up in one of the unoccupied firing booths.

"Hey wait!" Kalina called out. "Aren't you going to talk him down!?"

"Sounds like a 'you' problem, Kalina."

The pilot grabbed ear protection and set down the AN-94 against the wall in the booth, setting the box of ammunition on the counter in front and started loading up the magazines. It was rather mundane, his brain switching to autopilot as he kept sliding bullets in one by one, once again pondering on the unanswered questions of life.

Such as why is the A-10 still in service.

Maven moved the box aside once he was done loading up and dialed in the target for fifty meters. He picked up the AN-94, rocking a magazine in and racked the charging bolt back. It took him a couple of seconds to find where the fire select was, expecting it to be on the side like on an AK model. The iron sights weren't anything like an AK either, more akin to the irons on a MP5.

After getting accustomed to the abnormal features of the rifle, Maven changed into a firing stance that he learned thanks to Grizzly. With a deep breath in, he focused all of his attention on the target ahead, minimizing his arm sway, all the while gently squeezing the trigger.

A loud bang followed by a push of recoil against his shoulder.

He pulled the trigger again, another bullet shot out.

Maven repeated this motion until the rifle clicked empty, too deep into the zone to keep count of the amount of bullets. He broke out of his firing stance and inspected the gun, the recoil was significantly lower than what he was expecting, his GAU-5A kicked noticeably more—although it wasn't a lot—and the calibers seemed similar enough in size.

"Amateur."

Maven turned around and was greeted with one of the dolls he saw earlier; lilac jacket that's seen heavy use, a camisole with some type of plating over it and light pink hair done up in a pony tail. He moved one of cups of the ear protection back behind his ear.

"Sorry?"

The doll looked unimpressed. "You heard me correctly."

She walked up and dialed the target range back to zero. Maven thought he did well enough all things considered, sure it was a far cry from the dolls' aim—most of the shots landing on the outer rims—but none of them missed.

"You just barely kept on target." The doll continued. "This won't cut it in an actual fight."

Maven blinked. What she was saying was technically true, but he thought he deserved some slack. His job was to fly multi-million dollar fighter jets and shoot multi-million dollar missiles at equally expensive enemy jets, not shoot guns that were comparatively smaller than the internal cannon of his F-15.

"Hey I only recently started shooting again, cut me some slack."

"The enemy won't care about that."

She made another fair point, but still, she wasn't pulling any punches.

"Well this is a shooting range, not a battlefield."

"Which means you should be training more." The doll eyeballed his current firearm of choice. "And with a weapon that's actually suitable for your job like a sub-machine gun or a PDW."

"Yeah, I know that." Maven had to take a deep breath in to keep his calm, she was really getting irritating with her demeanor. "But you'll have to excuse me when my main job is to fly planes, not shoot guns."

"And what about when you're stuck behind enemy lines?"

His grip on his rifle was tightening up. He was really wishing he was with Grizzly or even M590 or M82 right now. They could at least word their feedback in a way that didn't make him sound like a dunce. It wasn't like he signed up to be a field agent or something, so was it really fair to judge him the same way as a ground combatant?

The doll sighed and walked over. "Whatever, it doesn't matter."

"First off" She pointed towards the fire select. "Set it to burst."

Maven raised an eyebrow. First she pretty much insults him and now she's giving advice?

"Burst? Why?"

"Because it shoots two bullets in rapid succession, which will help your accuracy."

He stared at the gun, as if expecting some type of explanation. "Two bullet burst?"

"Uh, yeah?" The doll confirmed.

"Sorry, other than my own bailout weapon, my knowledge of guns comes from games so I thought it was a three round burst."

Paying no attention to the disappointment radiating off the doll, he switched the rifle to burst as instructed and got back into his shooting stance—

"Wait, let me correct some things."

The doll moved his legs slightly and bent them just a bit more than they already were. She stared at how he was holding the rifle for a couple of moments—much to Maven's discomfort—before she finally decided he was holding it fine enough and set the target for fifty meters.

"Also, don't try to compensate for recoil." The doll added on at the last second. "It'll affect your accuracy."

Maven shot her a look.

"I know, it only applies with this gun so trust me on this."

The pilot took a breath in and focused on the target, gently squeezing the trigger once again. The gun recoiled into his shoulder as the shots were fired out. Immediately Maven felt something was off.

"Wait, that was a burst?" It felt the same as when he shot in single fire.

"Yep." The doll replied, crouching down and picking up two bullets. "That's why I told you not to compensate for recoil."

"Huh." For as abrasive as her personality was, Maven had to admit that she knew what she was talking about, though one thing wasn't adding up.

"You sure know a lot about this gun." He scanned her over quickly, noticing she was carrying resembled heavily kitted out M4A1s. "Yet you use the M4—"

"AR-15." The doll interjected, her demeanor soured within milliseconds. "ST AR-15. Don't mix it up again."

"...Understood." He wasn't in the mood to get a verbal lashing. "That aside… how do you know this much about a gun that isn't yours?"

AR-15 lightened up slightly. "One, dolls can still use guns that they aren't imprinted with, just with less efficiency."

Imprinted? Maven was mentally cursing whoever came up with these T-dolls and the amount of terminology associated with it.

"And two, a temporary partner was imprinted with that gun so I picked up on a couple of things from her."

Maven gathered that imprinting meant that the dolls could use their gun with higher proficiency or something. Maybe it was perhaps that the rifle particularly intrigued him, but he wanted to meet the doll that this gun belonged to.

"So that's where you went off to, AR-15." The familiar voice of the SMG wielding T-doll rang out as she walked over to the two.

"Got curious about who else was here." AR-15 replied. "Ended up spending more time than I wanted to."

Maven winced a bit at her rather harsh words. RO635 only sighed. "You really need to work on social skills."

AR-15 tutted. "Should've seen his results before I came." She left with that.

"She's usually not this bad I promise." RO635 tried reassuring Maven.

After the last ten or so minutes, the pilot would be hard-pressed in being convinced. "...I'll believe It when I see it."

"That aside… you were training I presume."

Maven nodded his head.

"...With an assault rifle?" RO635 raised an eyebrow. "You do know a sub-machine gun or PDW or even a carbine would be more suitable right?"

"Yes I know." The pilot groaned. "But it looked cool and it's pretty need with that double tap burst thing."

"As long as you're aware." The doll said with a sigh, opting to ignore his weird phrasing for the AN-94's hyper burst. "Your partner should be here no?"

Maven may have forgotten about his backseater for a moment, not that he would admit that though.

"Last time I saw him he was getting awfully giddy over the machine guns."

RO635 took a moment to reply. "The what."

The racking back of a charging bolt was audibly heard by the two.

A loud bang was heard followed by a loud exclamation of "FUCKING HELL MY HAND!"

After being denied to use any machine gun on the grounds that he wasn't responsible enough and would endanger everyone around him, Expulse decided to go for the next thing on the power scale and got a Desert Eagle, chambered in .50 Action Express of course because bigger bullet is better, or at least that was the logic he was going with. He wasn't expecting it to kick as hard as it, evident by his current situation.

Maven quickly power walked into the adjacent stall and was greeted with his backseater on the floor in the fetal position holding his right wrist.

"Jesus christ man."

"Don't just stand there, get me some help god dammit!"

Maven turned to RO635. She got the message and kneeled next to the incapacitated pilot, inspecting his wrists for any serious injuries.

"...Nothing that'll require medical attention." RO635 said, earning a sigh of relief out of the two pilots. "Just don't do anything strenuous with your hands for the time being."

Maven chuckled. "GSh would murder you if she caught wind of this."

"Shut up." Expulse weakly replied.

"Huh, guess I have to apologize for calling you an amateur." AR-15 said, startling Maven for a moment as he didn't hear her approach.

"RO, STAR, where did you—oh hey it's you again!" Maven turned to the newcomer, his nerves froze up for a second once he saw her face. It was the doll that was way to interested in his plane.

There also another doll with her, wearing mostly green and black with a green stripe in her hair and carrying what he thought was definitely an M4.

"You didn't answer my questions last night!" She pouted. "I wanted to ask about ideas I had for your flying metal thingy!"

"SOP, not really the time." The green stripe said, mildly exasperated at her behavior.

"Why not M4?" She tilted her head just like a curious dog would and then saw Expulse on the floor, clutching his wrist and then the Desert Eagle nearby.

SOP pointed at the handgun. "Did he really?"

"Yes, yes he did." Maven replied flatly.

SOP couldn't resist laughing, making Expulse groan in embarrassment.

"Look it was stupid in hindsight but I didn't think it would be that bad!" The backseater tried defending himself. "I'm willing to bet all of you would crash a jet on your first try without proper training!"

All the dolls turned to each other for a moment then back to Expulse.

"You do realise we have access to the internet and could just look up everything right?" AR-15 asked.

Expulse 'gently' banged his head against the floor in response, wishing to be anywhere but here right now.

"Maybe they should use the combat sims instead?" M4A1 suggested. "Damage doesn't transfer over from Level II."

"Wait you guys have combat simulators?" Maven snapped towards M4A1.

"Yeah?" AR-15 replied, raising an eyebrow. "You've been to Level II, it's not that far-fetched."

"Fair enough." She had a point, though he would need assistance for that.

RO635 must have read his mind. "I'll show you it tomorrow."

Maven gave her a thumbs up in response.

With Expulse clearly needing some rest, he thought this was a decent enough point to leave off with. He walked over back to his booth and picked up the AN-94 and the box of ammunition, stuffing the magazines back into his pants. On his way back to Kalina. a rather interesting thought crossed his mind, it was maybe asking for too much but if it could be done, it would significantly help him and Expulse. Maven walked back to the group who were also packing up. With a grin he approached SOP and nudged her with his leg.

"Hey, you seem to be good with making things right?" Granted her ideas from what he could remember were at best questionable and at worst downright illegal.

She tilted her head. "Yeah, why?"

His grin widened even further.

"Alright so it involves my jet…"


So this took a lot longer than I wanted to, but I like to think that 10k words for this chapter makes up for that.

Also finally revised Chapter 1 and 2, should be better in quality (I hope) so check those out.

Anyways, I should start planning out next chapter some time soon lol.