Chapter 9: Meet the family, they're unstable
Ok, that should do it, Monsieur Owen."
Owen watched as the Doll finished stitching up his stab wound.
"That's some damn good needlework Miss Ribey, and trust me, I've had my fair share of stitches." Owen said as he flexed his fingers and looked at his arm.
Ribey gave him a gentle smile, "I can believe it, from the stories I've heard."
Owen raised an eyebrow, "Stories?"
Ribey nodded, "Oui, specifically from G36c and Uzi."
"Oh man, I almost forgot about those two. How are they doing, are they here?" Owen asked, concern coloring his tone.
"All things considered, they were a lot better off than you were." A voice said from the entrance of the medbay.
Ribey and Owen both looked towards the door and saw Kalina standing there with two cups in her hand. She made her way over to the pair.
"Bonjour, mademoiselle Kalina." Ribey greeted.
"Good morning Miss Ribey, how is your patient? Will he live?" Kalina asked as she took a sip from one of the cups.
Ribey looked Owen in the eyes before speaking, "I am afraid the Monsieur is in worse shape than even myself." She turned back to Kalina, "I regret to inform you that we must order a replacement Commandant for his small Outpost."
Kalina shook her head sadly, "It's a damn shame," she looked him over, "any last words before we cart you off to the incinerator?"
Owen nodded slowly, before looking up at the Logistics Officer, "Delete my browser history, wipe my harddrive, and don't let Persica have my body."
Ribey giggled, and Kalina broke into a grin.
She handed him one of the cups, "One last drink before Valhalla then."
Owen raised the cup in salute before taking a drink. His taste buds were met with absolute perfection. Almost as if an angel descended from the heavens and bestowed a singular gift upon the wretched earth. The gift was this cup of the most divine coffee he had ever tasted. It almost brought a tear to his eye.
"Yo, this is some serious gourmet shit." he said.
Kalina smirked, "Poetry."
Owen met her stare, and took another drink.
She rolled her eyes and turned to Ribey, "So he's all good?"
Ribey scrolled through her tablet, "Oui, so long as he contacts me if there is any sign of infection around the area."
Owen nodded, "Will do, thanks for the help Miss RibeyRolles."
Ribey gave him a polite smile, then left, pushing her IV tree in front of her as she did.
"Come on dead man," Kalina said, "The Commander wants to see you."
Owen frowned, "I wanted to check in with my team, make sure they're ok."
"Don't worry, I checked before coming over here, they're all going be fine, even the ones who were abducted." She informed him.
Owen nodded, then swung his legs off the table and stood, "Lead the way."
He followed Kalina as she navigated the halls to Gentiane's office. Kalina raised her hand to knock but paused as a wicked grin spread across her face. She turned to Owen and put her finger to her lips in a gesture for quiet, then gently pushed him away from the door. She then slammed the door open and announced, "Put your porn away and hide your undies, you dirty bachelorette, there's a gentleman present!"
Owen watched as a pen flew past Kalina's head and bounced off the head of a random passer-by. The guy rubbed his head, shot a dirty look at the offending doorway, and hurried off.
"Kalina, I swear to Christ, I will make you write combat reports for a month straight!" Gentiane's voice said.
"Go ahead and come in, Owen!" Kalina said loudly.
"Fuck, no not yet!" Gentiane cried in alarm.
Not knowing what to do, Owen took a sip of his coffee and watched Kalina torture her Commander.
"Don't just stand there Kalina, help me!" Gentiane hissed and Kalina disappeared into the office, Owen then heard the sound of doors being opened and closed, and things being shoved around. As he was waiting, a woman in a faded red Griffin coat almost walked into him, she shot him a glare and kept going.
He was about to say something when Kalina's voice rang from the office.
"The Gentleman caller may ente-er!" She sang out.
"What the shit, this is your office?" Owen asked in astonishment.
Gentiane stood in front of her desk, looking slightly winded.
"Owen, so nice to see you. Why are you here?" She snapped.
Owen raised an eyebrow, "Uh, Kalina said you wanted to meet me?"
Gentiane glared at Kalina, who stared at the ceiling, trying to stifle a laugh.
"Miss Kalina, you may go, I will deal with you later, Owen, have a seat, there is a few things I wanted to go over with you."
Kalina skipped out the door, and Owen sat, taking another drink of coffee, "So what's up?"
Gentiane stared at his cup, "She didn't even bring me any." She said mournfully, before shaking her head. Then it was down to business, she tossed a thick manila envelope onto the desk, his name was scrawled on it in black marker.
"First off, I understand your enlistment was a rushed job to get you to Outpost 17 as quickly as possible." She pointed to the envelope, Owen picked it up and pulled the papers out, on the front was a checklist.
"That's your in processing packet. We can handle everything you need here at my base, so I would appreciate it if you ticked off all the boxes on the checklist inside before you run off and back to your Outpost."
Owen groaned as he flicked through the pages.
"I know it sucks, but if you want to get paid, you'll do it. Stop by finance, supply, medical, and the armory."
"Yes mother." Owen said as he shoved the papers back inside the envelope.
"Smartass." She shot back, then changed her tone.
"I also wanted to congratulate you for your work last night. We had heard rumours of a new doll trafficking ring in the area, but hadn't been able to track down any leads. Imagine my surprise when I got a report that Griffin's newest commander not only found them on his first day, but had taken them out with no support, and no complications."
He shrugged, "They were sloppy, Garand was able to slip away and track them down, I'm just glad we're able to get everyone out of there."
Gentiane nodded, "Speaking of everyone you rescued, one of the Dolls that was captured by the group was an SF model."
"No shit?" Owen asked in surprise.
Gentiane nodded, "Yep, her system had been wiped, she's essentially a clean slate." Gentiane leaned forward, a gleam in her eye, "And here's the kicker, her SF markings had been removed the same way as the ones you found last month."
Owen frowned, "So that group was responsible for the attack on the Outpost?"
Gentiane shook her head, "I don't think so, we looked through a laptop one of your Dolls, MP-40 I think, nabbed. On it we found correspondence from someone named Scarlet."
Owen drained his cup and placed it on the desk, "Let me guess, this 'Scarlet' placed the order for combat dolls."
Gentiane nodded, "So far as I can tell."
Owen closed his eyes and leaned back with a sigh, "And that means there's someone running around, armed with combat dolls, and the resources to supply them. They're growing, they're operating in my area, and I've got fuck all to fight them with."
"Well..." Gentiane's tablet chirped, cutting her off. She picked it up to read the message she had received.
"Ah shit." She muttered, then she stood up quickly and made her way to the door, then she paused, "Your dolls are currently in the guest dorms. Chow's at eighteen hundred, make sure you get that shit done. See ya."
With that she left.
"That would be good info if I knew where the dorms were." He complained to no one.
- The Dorms -
"So, this Commander Owen," SVT asked as the Dolls from the Outpost lounged around the dorm's day room, "does anyone know anything about him?"
Makarov shrugged as she played with one of the kittens Garand had rescued, "He seems competent enough, though he likes going on missions with us, so he'll probably die soon."
The other dolls nodded, "He also acts like he actually gives a shit what happens about us." Garand said, "As soon as he found out G3 and her team were captured, he launched a mission right away."
"What was it he said?" AK-47 asked, her arms behind her head as she lay on the floor, "His first day on the job, and someone was already starting shit with his teams?"
MP-40 nodded as she passed out cups of coffee for everyone, "He seemed really upset that someone was trying to hurt Miss G3, not to mention I heard from Ribey, while I was in the cafe, that he kept asking about everyone who was injured, including Uzi, Miss G36c, and even yourself SVT."
SVT frowned at that, Makarov gave her a wicked smile, "Still want me to put in for your transfer?" She asked the sniper. SVT remained silent.
"We're very short handed right now," Sig pointed out, "especially with everyone else gone."
SVT looked at her in surprise, "What do you mean?"
Silence settled over the group, "We're pretty much all that's left." Nagant said quietly, "after Commander Zhenka disappeared and Miss M3 left, well..." she trailed off.
"No one wanted to stay, and there was nothing any of us could do to stop them." SKS finished for her.
The air grew heavy as they sat in silence, "It hasn't all been bad though, we did get one new recruit!" MP-40 said, her cheerful tone only coming across as slightly forced.
"Oh?" SVT said.
MP-40 motioned across the room where Nines lay by herself, facing the back of a small sofa, "Miss Nines came here with Commander Owen!" she lowered her voice in a staged whisper, "I heard she shacked up with him for an entire month."
Nines felt gazes burning into her back and her face blazed red. She pretended to snore, but she felt someone lean against the sofa, "Well, well. New girl has secrets, eh?"
The voice leaned in closer, "I know you're not asleep." It whispered in an evil tone.
"Yes I am, go away." she replied, annoyed.
"Hmmmmm, no!" The voice said as the owner grabbed Nines ankle and drug her off of the couch.
"Ack!" Nines yelped as she was dragged off the sofa. Uzi and Nines rolled around on the floor, Nines tried to scramble away as Uzi tried to restrain her. Uzi emerged victorious, straddling Nines and raising her hands in victory.
"I won!" She cheered, then pointed down at Nines, "You're my prisoner, now confess your secrets!"
"I don't have any!" Nines cried out in protest.
"She lies!" Nagant said, "She's seen him naked!"
Uzi looked at the blushing Nines in surprise, "So did you!" Nines said defensively.
Every head, save Makarov, turned back to Nagant, who waved her hands in front of her, "Only briefly, by accident!" She pointed a finger at Makarov, who was laying on her stomach, playing with a kitten.
"I'm not an old pervert, I didn't see anything worth seeing." She said as she wiggled her fingers in front of the kitten, who pounced on them.
"Nooo, don't betray me!" Nagant wailed.
Uzi ignored Nagant and looked back down at her captive, "So," she began, her face giving off a wicked gleam, "have you done the deed yet?"
"Yeah Nines, did ya?"
The room went dead silent. Slowly, all of the heads turned to the door, where Owen stood, a giant grin on his face.
"Evening ladies," he said, then nodded his head to Uzi and Nines, "Actually, it looks like Uzi has already claimed Nines as her own, what do you think Miss Spectre?"
Spectre stepped into the doorway, next to Owen a smirk on her face, "I have to agree, Commander Owen, Uzi seems to have planted her flag."
Uzi gulped and scrambled to her feet, Nines laid on the floor in defeat. Owen walked past the group and over to Nines. He stood over her, and nudged her with his boot, she glared daggers at him.
"How could you, after everything we've been through." He teased.
With that, he held out his hand and hoisted Nines to her feet. She wordlessly sat back on the couch and continued trying to set him on fire with her mind. Makarov stifled a laugh and continued playing with the kitten.
Owen sighed and surveyed the room, everyone under his command was in here, plus one he didn't recognize. The new Doll scrutinized his every move.
"You must be SVT, a pleasure to meet you."
She gave him a curt nod, but remained silent. Owen studied her closely and she met his gaze without blinking.
After a moment, he turned to his adjutant. "Miss MP40, is everyone here?"
"Ja, Commander Owen."
"Alright then, everyone listen up." He turned and froze.
There, lounging on the furniture, without a care in the world, was his team. Not the T-Dolls, but his old squad. DuLaney, Perez, Lazinsky, and Jenkins. He closed his eyes, swallowed and opened them again. This time, as he scanned the room, everything was back to normal, no dead teammates, just a group of dolls, waiting to hear what he had to say, his gaze lingered on Nines for a moment, who was giving him a look of concern.
"Um..." His voice trailed off, his mouth dry.
Nines opened her mouth to say something, but Makarov cut her off.
"I think," Makarov interjected with a smirk, "Dear Commander is trying to say he's glad your team is safe, Miss G3, and that we all did a good job getting you back without any further complications."
Owen nodded and gave a cough, "Yeah...yup, you got it."
G3 gave him a warm smile from her chair, he returned it with a forced one of his own.
He cleared his throat and made a show of checking his watch, "So here's the deal, we're going to be crashing here for the night. Chow's at 1800 hours, and I've got a few things that I need to do. So y'all just hangout and relax, you've earned a little bit of down time. But just so everyone is in the loop, starting tomorrow, we're going to be busy as hell getting our outpost up and running."
He flashed everyone a thumbs up and tapped SVT on the shoulder as he turned to leave, "You, come with me, you're going to help me not get lost."
SVT glanced towards Makarov, who nodded ever so slightly. She stood and hurried after Owen. After the two had left, the Dolls resumed chatting amongst themselves. AK-47 magically produced a clear glass bottle, full of an equally clear liquid. SKS cheered and grabbed the bottle, taking a deep pull from it before passing it back to AK-47. Makarov saw this, and let her kitten run off to play before standing up and stomping over to the duo. A look of irritation on her face.
Nines sat on her couch and watched Makarov berate the two dolls, then looked at the other dolls in the room. G3 was still sitting in her chair reading a cooking magazine and petting a sleeping kitten. Uzi and Nagant were huddled together, Nagant was telling a story and moving her hands very excitedly. Sig and Garand were playing poker, Sig had a smug look on her face, while Garand chewed on the tip of her thumb and stared hopelessly at her hand of cards. Spectre sat on her own, a set of earbuds in.
"Here."
Nines looked up in surprise to see MP-40 standing there holding a cup of coffee, a warm smile on her face. Nines accepted the cup with a nod of thanks. MP-40 sat next to Nines and watched the group with her in silence.
A few awkward seconds ticked by and Nines couldn't think of anything to say.
Finally she held up her cup, "This is really good, thanks." She muttered.
MP-40 beamed at her, "Of course, I'm glad you like it!"
"Um, yeah."
MP-40 gave her a knowing smile, "It's hard adjusting to new groups isn't it?"
Nines felt embarrassment growing from her stomach, she nodded slightly.
MP-40 stretched her legs out, and looked at the ceiling, a smile touching her lips, "That's ok, I was the same way before I came here."
Nines stared at her in surprise, recalling when she had flung herself at Owen because he had appointed her his adjutant. MP-40 saw Nines' face and let out a small laugh.
"I know, I know," she said half chuckling, "You can't tell, but I was very shy at first, I could go days without saying a word to anyone."
"I bet I have you beat, if I had stayed underground any longer, I could be classified as a pharaoh." Nines quipped without thinking, then snapped her mouth shut. "I'm sorry that was rude, Owen must be rubbing off on me." She said quietly.
She was surprised to hear MP-40 tried, and failed, to hide a giggle, "No, I should be apologizing to you, but yeah, I can guarantee you do, your pharaohess."
Nines felt a grin form and fought it, then saw MP-40 tried to do the same. They both erupted in a fit of giggles. Every time they stopped, one of the girls would snicker or snort involuntarily, and the giggles started again. It was a dumb joke, but it was the first time Nines had laughed like that in forever.
They finally quieted down and MP-40 spoke. "I know we've been busy since the two of you arrived, but I wanted to officially welcome you to our little family." She said, with a smile still on her face.
"Family?" She asked.
"Yup!" MP-40 replied, then nodded to the scene before them.
"I've been here the longest, excluding Makarov, so it's easy to think of everyone here as my family. It really hurt in a lot of ways when everyone jumped ship, but..." MP-40 faltered a little, but she recovered almost immediately, "But now we have you and Commander Owen, things are looking up for the first time in a long time!"
Nines frowned, "Were things really that bad before we showed up?"
MP-40 stared at her cup a long time before answering, "Commander Zhenka was not a...great Commander." She said in a hushed tone.
Nines waited for her to continue.
"He took over after the Commander before him was transferred to a more active sector. Zhenka was fresh from the training academy. He was a cold, uncaring man but," MP-40 gave a small shrug, "He knew how to play the system. M3, his adjutant, had to fake performance reviews and morale reports to send to Headquarters, and tell them everything and everyone was great."
Nines took another drink, not speaking.
"He kept sending Dolls out with almost nothing in the way of supplies and eventually..." Her voice hitched a little, "Eventually M3 had to...had to start covering up causality reports, either by saying it was desertion, or just not reporting them at all." She wiped a tear off her cheek, "It was hell, M3 was...she was my friend. She looked after me when no one else would and..."
MP-40 wiped her face with her sleeve and stared back down at her cup, and began turning it in her hands.
Nines didn't know what to do, so she awkwardly patted MP-40 on the shoulder. She wanted to say something, but couldn't think of anything, she had never been in this situation before. She looked around to see if anyone else had noticed, they had. To her surprise, the room had gone silent, listening to MP-40 talk. She saw the faces on the group's faces range from blank masks, to anger, to sorrow.
MP-40 continued talking, still turning the cup, "The lies, the deaths, the lack of support and having to pretend every single day that everything was ok. I watched her crumble under it all and it..." She trailed off, then looked at Nines, tears falling down her face, "It broke her."
G3 came over and sat on the other side of MP-40, and wrapped an arm around her. When it was clear MP-40 couldn't continue, G3 offered a sad smile towards Nines.
"We're happy to have another Dear Commander, but, understandably, we're all a bit skeptical of him." Makarov announced, her voice icy.
Nines looked over to her, but saw that same stoney expression she always wore.
"However," G3 countered, flashing an annoyed glance at the other team leader, "Having someone competent and dependable will certainly help, and rescuing my team definitely helped, at least in my eyes."
"Competent...and... dependable?" Nines muttered thinking about the time she spent with Owen in the hotel. She fought down a grin.
"I knew it," Makarov said, "Look at her face, he's incompetent."
The dolls gave a few chuckles, MP-40 included.
Nines winced, "Not really incompetent, just..."
"A moron?" AK-47 supplied helpfully.
"A few crayons short of a full box?" Spectre asked.
"Not the sharpest knife in the drawer?" Garand added.
This went on for a while, the dolls all thinking of ways to call Owen an idiot. The heavy atmosphere was gone, replaced with a room full of cheerful dolls yelling insults. Nines looked at MP-40 and smiled wide, the other doll giving one in return.
"I told you, we're a weird bunch." She told Nines.