Chapter 12: The Devil You Know Kidnaps The One You Don't

- S09: Northern Perimeter Watchtower -

- Start of the defense of S09 Base -

Springfield stretched out with a yawn as she neared the end of her watch. The shooter's chair that was in the watchtower was uncomfortable no matter how she adjusted herself. She tried to distract herself with thoughts of what she would do when she got off. Dinner was well underway which meant she would need to hurry back when the rotation happened and get her cafe prepped for the after dinner crowd.

She smiled at the thought of trying out a new recipe for crepes FAMAS had emailed her in exchange for her famous apple pie recipe. As she stared off into the forest and continued to plan her evening, her eyes caught a glimpse of movement. She frowned and opened a comms channel.

"Defender 2, this is North Tower, do you have anyone patrolling by me?"

"Negative Tower, we're at Checkpoint Charlie, you got something?"

"Standby."

Springfield picked up her binoculars and scanned the tree line, at first everything looked clear, then she saw someone running behind the trees.

"Defender 2, I've got eyes on someone moving in the northern tree line."

"Copy that North Tower, I've got a team moving to investigate."

"North Tower copies."

An explosion shook the tower and Springfield had to grip the railing to keep from falling over. She spun around to see what had happened, and saw the antenna farm collapsing. An alarm started to blare over the base PA system. She saw people start running to the farm.

She remembered the movement she saw earlier and turned back to the tree line. Multiple figures dressed in black combat uniforms were running towards the perimeter fence. She raised her rifle and peered through the scope. They weren't Sangvis, they were human, and they were sprinting towards the fence with explosives in hand. She tried to pull the trigger, but her finger was frozen in place outside of the trigger guard. She willed it to move with every fiber of her being, but it would not budge.

"Son of a bitch!" she cried out in frustration before switching the Command Frequency.

"I have human contacts trying to breach the perimeter, I cannot engage without authorization!"

Static.

"Dammit!"

Springfield did the best she could. She shot at the ground in front of them. As close to their head as she dared, and if she saw someone approach the tower, she would shoot directly behind them, but she couldn't kill them, not without authorization.

Springfield looked around for any friendlies, but saw none. Another explosion rocked the base.

After that, Springfield heard a whistling noise overhead a split second before a deafening explosion right behind her. The watchtower lurched backwards and with a metallic screech, started to fall. Springfield braced herself as best she could as ground rushed up to meet her.

- 25 minutes later -

Springfield groaned in pain as she sat up and let out a hiss of pain. She looked down and saw a piece of metal sticking from her leg.

"Ah."

Springfield grasped the hunk of metal, wrenched it out with a jerk and let out a grunt of pain. As she stood, her leg buckled, as it struggled to support her weight. She sat down and clicked her tongue in annoyance. She surmised that the piece of debris had damaged motor function in her leg. She began looking around the wreckage.

"Aha!"

She spied a straight section of metal rebar and held it against her leg. After giving a satisfied nod that it was a proper length, she tore a few strips of her jacket off and tied the rebar securely to her bum leg. She tried standing again and found that she now could, but it was still difficult and hurt like a devil. She turned off the pain receptors to the leg and began searching for her rifle. She found it nearby, and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw it was one piece.

Springfield limped over to her rifle and picked it up. She gave it a quick function check and visual inspection. A pang of sadness shot through her when she saw a deep gouge in the side of the stock.

"You're banged up too huh?" she said as she patted the top of the receiver, "That's okay, we can still fight."

Springfield straightened up and took stock of her surroundings. The battle had moved away from the perimeter and closer to the main compound. Springfield had been in this situation before, she had fought in Germany during the war. A lot of bases fell there. She hoped the defenders would hold. She didn't want to live through that again.

Springfield's radio came alive, "Any station! Any station! This is STG-44! I'm in the northern storage shed and have been cut off from my exit! I have a wounded Defender here that requires immediate aid! I am deep in the red on ammo!"

"Speaking of Germans." she said to no one before responding to STG-44s hails. "STG-44 this is Springfield, I'm on my way to assist."

Springfield oriented herself and started hobbling towards the storage shed. Hopefully STG-44 would still be alive when she got there.

- S09 Command and Control -

Gentiane's eyes were glued to the drone feed of her base. Her teams had managed to hold the defensive lines around the main complex and air field, and the enemy's initial momentum was starting to give. Things were finally starting to swing back her way.

As if fate wanted to knock her down a notch, a burst of random gunfire echoed through the building.

She sighed. "Who do we have left in the building?"

Kalina glanced down at her tac pad.

"We have three teams left inside. Defender Team 4, which is helping guard the armory and down a member, Defender Team 9, who is currently in the motorpool and down half their team, including the leader, aaannnd Defender Team 11 who is patrolling the central corridor and at full manning."

Gentiane nodded, "And Owen's team?"

Kalina shook her head, "No one from his team has checked in since they found Ribey. We lost two teams over there, don't forget. Maybe they've gotten hit too."

- S09 Medical Bay -

Owen stayed by MP-40s body, staring into her one lifeless eye. His brain spun in a loop of bitter self hate. He had let her down, gotten her killed, just like everyone else who had been on his team before. It was only a matter of time. He was a shit leader and a shit soldier. He had thought it before, this just proved him right. He knew how he could stop himself from hurting others. He wanted to do it in the hotel, but Nines was alway there, stuck to him like a fucking parasite. He looked around, she wasn't here now though. His eyes went to his Walther, still strapped in its holster with a full magazine.

The thought of Nines made him pause. She helped him, made sure he was okay.

'Quit being a coward, do it.' a small voice in his head told him.

He needed to get back to his team, they had work to do.

'They can survive on their own. They don't need you.'

He needed to get them to the armory.

'You'll only get them killed, just like you got MP-40 killed, just like you got everyone else killed, because it's the only thing you can do right. You're a worthless piece of shit.'

The door opened and Makarov entered the room. Owen shook his head and buried those thoughts deep, deeeeep down. He looked back to his sidearm, he could deal with them later.

- S09 Medical Reception -

- 5 minutes prior -

G3 stood over Makarov, looking down at the wounded doll like she was trash.

"Pathetic."

Makarov glared at G3, who broke into a grin.

"Har har, very funny. Help me up, you heartless brute."

G3 held out her hand and pulled Makarov to her feet. Makarov winced as she stood. She shot a glare at the pile of bodies at the other side of the room.

"Bezdomnyye pezdy." She spat out.

G3 clicked her tongue, "Language."

"You don't speak Russian." Makarov pointed out.

"No, but I know you well enough to know that you've said something particularly rude."

"Cyka."

"See, that one I do know, dummkopf."

Makarov allowed herself a smile as she looked around, she saw everyone but Owen and MP-40 "Where is our dear Komandir and the smaller German?" She asked, "Did they slip away for some post combat activities?"

G3's face fell, Makarov knew the look, "Who?"

"MP-40."

"Where?"

"In the med bay."

Makarov reached out and gave G3's shoulder a quick squeeze before she made her way to the doors that led to the medbay. She stopped briefly to check on Garand. SVT was busy tightening a strip of cloth around Garand's leg.

"I'm still good to go." Garand said when she saw Makarov looking at her wound.

"I know you are." She said before she continued on.

Makarov opened the door, and saw Owen standing by MP-40s body. She noticed a look in his eye, one that she had not seen in a Komandir in quite some time. Regret, sorrow at losing a comrade, and self loathing as said Komandir turned inward on his or herself. She was glad to see that he cared about his dolls, but there was a time and a place to mourn one's decisions in battle. Then she saw Owen's gaze shift to his side arm. She moved to stand next to him.

"It is tragic to lose a comrade in arms, da?"

Owen nodded but said nothing, she continued, "But sadly, it is not uncommon. Especially for one who has been in this line of work for quite some time."

"She was scared, said she didn't back up her memories." Owen said quietly.

Makarov nodded, "She was helping everyone get everything ready for the trip home, she told me she would do that later."

"Guess she never did."

"Nyet, I suppose not, she hadn't backed up her neural cloud in a long time, before we met you."

Owen stared at her body, and remained silent, Makarov continued, "So it would be very unfortunate if her Komandir's sidearm accidentally discharged and killed him. She wouldn't remember him and he wouldn't be around to reintroduce himself."

Owen let out a grunt, "That obvious?"

Makarov tsked impatiently, "I have been around a while and worked under quite a few Komandirs, I know the look. It doesn't benefit anyone if you sit here dwelling on what ifs and self doubt, there's still work to be done. If you want to die, I'm sure the enemy will give you plenty of opportunities to do just that. Until then, I need you to at least pretend you're still holding it together."

"Did you just sort of politely tell me to get my shit together?" Owen asked.

"If that's how you want to take it."

Owen was quiet for a long time before he spoke again, "Yeah, you're right."

The doors opened again as Nines and AK-47 entered the room.

"Of course I am. Now let's go, once we're done here we can see about doing a core retrieval on our unfortunate friend. With luck, her neural cloud won't be fried." With that Makarov turned and left.

Owen looked down at MP-40 one more time, and turned to the two remaining dolls, "Is what she said true?"

AK-47 shrugged, "As long as her core is intact, Da."

"So we have a chance to get her back?"

AK-47 nodded, "Usually we just use our backups, but it can be done."

"Don't forget, the same thing happened to Uzi when the Outpost came under attack." Nines chimed in.

"That was different," Owen pointed out, "One of Gentiane's helo's had supplies on board to help her out."

"If only there was some sort of repair bay nearby that we could take her..." AK rubbed her chin thoughtfully before fixing Owen with a stare.

"Ah...right, go tell G3 to get the teams prepped to move."

AK nodded and left, but not before giving Owen a reassuring nod.

He sighed and turned to Nines, "How are you doing?"

"I'm good."

"Good."

"Are you okay?" Nines asked in return.

"Not even fuckin close, but I'll deal with it later, one way or another." Owen stared off. "Hey Nines..."

She turned to look at him, waiting for him to continue, but instead Owen stood and put his helmet back on.

"Ah, forget it, I'll tell you later." He said as he secured the fastener, "Come on, we need to figure what the fuck is going on in this dumpster fire."

Owen made his way to the door, and paused. He took a deep breath and stepped into the reception area. His team looked like hell, but ready to fight.

"Makarov, give me the rundown, what's our status?"

"SKS, Spectre, and Uzi has taken damage to the torso area, Garand was shot in the leg, AK, SVT, Sig, and myself are fine," Makarov paused, thinking, "Oh and the worthless old hag stepped in front of a bullet, and got her toe shot off."

Nagant held her foot up proudly, her shoe was stained red and had a hole in it, "I deserve a medal, I've been grievously wounded!"

Owen gave her a thumbs up, "I'll write you up for a purple toe after we're done."

She beamed, Owen turned back to Makarov.

"How's ammo?"

"I myself am down to my last magazine." Makarov said, she looked around, "the others are either empty, or on their last few rounds.

"Half a mag!" AK reported.

"Seven rounds left." Nines said beside him.

"I'm out." SVT muttered.

"I'm at half a magazine as well." G3 replied.

The rest of the team reported that they were the same.

Owen shook his head in frustration, "Fucked on ammo then, anyone out of the fight completely?"

"Other than our unfortunate adjutant, nyet."

G3 clicked her tongue and shot Makarov a glare.

"That's pretty cold of you." Owen deadpanned.

"And yet, Komandir, you were the one stabbing at dead bodies like a heartless robot."

Owen opened his mouth, and closed it, "I don't remember..."

He turned to Nines, she nodded.

He shook his head, "I'll deal with that later, I need to check in with Gentiane."

He opened the comms channel, "Misfit this is Monarch."

"This is Monarch, where the hell have you been?"

Owen told her about the enemy team.

Gentiane swore, "How's your team?"

He looked around, "We're fucked." he said into the headset, "Over half my team is wounded and everyone but me is almost black on ammo."

"Then get your asses in gear, and move yourself from the fucking med bay to the Command Center now. Monarch out."

"Well she's in a particularly fine mood." He said.

"Your channel is still open, dumbass." Gentiane spat.

"Whoops."

"We're ready to go." G3 said.

Owen's headset crackled back to life, he groaned at the ass chewing Gentiane was about to continue giving him.

"Hello? Hello? Miss Forty? Um, this is Olena and I need help. I don't know where big brother is and a lady put me in the closet with the radio and told me to hide."

"Olena? It's Owen, where are you?"

"Owen?"

"I'm Miss Forty's boss. Where are you so I can come help you?"

"I'm in the closet."

'Fucking kids.' he thought.

Owen took a deep breath and counted to three, "Where is the closet Olena?"

"Where big brother works."

Owen turned to look at the corridor leading to the repair bay.

"Okay Olena, stay there and be quiet, I'm going to come get you, okay?"

"Okay, but how long? I have to pee."

Owen had smiled at that, "Not long kiddo, see you soon."

"Okay, the lady told me to turn off my radio so that juice doesn't leak out of it. So I'm going to do that now."

Owen frowned, "What lady?"

But Olena was off the air.

"Monarch, did you get that?"

"Yes Misfit, I did. Why is there a kid in my base?"

"It's a long story, I need you to send me some back up."

Silence.

"Monarch, did you copy?"

"Yeah, I did. These fucks tried to make a run at my armory, I've sent my last reserve group over to mop them up."

"Copy that, I'm sending my team your way then."

"The corridor between you and the Command room should be clear, move your asses though."

"Copy that, Misfit out."

Owen turned to his group, "Get moving." He said and turned to the repair bay.

"Where do you think you're going?" Makarov asked.

He turned back to face them, "I'm not letting anything happen to her, she's here because of me."

"Ah yes, I could see how you dying because you ran off to be a lone wolf, would be of benefit to her." Makarov said, "We're coming with you."

"I'm not dying, and you're not going anywhere except to the Command Center and helping Gentiane."

Nines tried to say something, but Owen cut her off, "Most of you are wounded, and the few who aren't need to carry Ribey."

He turned to look at Nines, "And unless you can magically pull a full loadout of ammo out of your ass, you would be a liability if you came with."

Nines glared daggers at Owen, before walking over to one of the bodies and scavenging a combat vest and an AN-94. She did a function check, swapped in a fresh mag, and continued to glare at him.

"I thought you couldn't use any other weapon than yours?" Owen asked, wondering if he missed something.

"We can," Sig said hesitantly, "But we're not as proficient with it, our fire control systems are only really compatible with our issued weapon."

"So what," Owen asked Nines, "your plan is to accidentally shoot yourself in the foot while you fumble around with a new gun?"

Without taking her eyes off of Owen, Nines expertly dropped the mag, cleared the chamber, grabbed a new mag from her scavenged chest rig, slammed it home and chambered a new round in less than a second. She raised an eyebrow at him. Owen blinked and turned to Sig.

"Yeah... normally we can't do that." Sig clarified.

"Fine, Makarov, G3, look after everyone, make sure they get to the Command Center."

The two team leaders nodded, "Don't worry, we'll make sure the kids will behave themselves." G3 joked.

Makarov groaned, but said nothing.

Owen nodded, "Be careful, I don't want to lose anyone else."

"Aww, you do care!" Uzi joked.

"You do know that the rest of us backed up our neural clouds, right Komandir?" SKS said.

"I don't give a shit," Owen snapped, "From this point on, you act like you don't have a neural cloud."

Spectre put a hand to her chest and acted confused, "Wow, so that's what affection feels like."

"He's such a softie." Garand agreed.

The rest of the dolls ooohed and awwwed.

"Shut up and get moving, all of you." Owen grumbled.

"If it wouldn't be too much trouble," Ribey spoke up from the stretcher, "I would very much like to be taken to safety."

"You heard the lady, move your asses," He flipped his NODs down and turned to Nines, "Come on, you show off."

Nines gave a triumphant grin and followed him as he stepped over the bodies and into the corridor leading to the repair bay.

- S09 C&C -

"Good news boss! I just got a hail on the emergency channel, help is on the way!" Kalina called from across the Command Center.

Gentiane kept her gaze on the drone feed, planning her next move, "Who is it?"

"An echelon from Sector 15 and a fire team run by the big man himself."

She looked at Kalina in surprise, "Kryuger is on his way?"

"Yup!" Kalina said cheerily.

Gentiane looked back at the drone feed, her converted gunship had just completed a gun run on an dug in enemy position. Owen's Hind followed up with a rocket salvo. She frowned.

"Hey Kalin..."

"Yeah boss?"

"Our gunship is out doing runs, yeah?"

Kalina looked confused, "Yeah, of course, so is Owen's, you're literally watching them."

Gentiane looked at Kalina, eyebrow raised. It took a second, but Kalina caught on.

"Oh, ooooh shit, we're not supposed to have those are we..."

"We are not."

Kalina raised her hands in an 'oh well' gesture, "Maybe he won't notice?"

Gentiane looked back at the screen, the Hind landed at the air pad where a fuel truck and several ammo crews raced to get it back in the fight. She saw a group of enemy attackers try to bull rush through the weak defensive line but were cut down, the attackers fell back to regroup.

Extra Defender teams moved to engage, but left another section less guarded. A second group of attackers tried their luck but were also repelled, just barely. She gritted her teeth, it looked like the enemy caught their second wind.

"It may not matter soon anyway."

- S09: Northern Perimeter -

STG-44 was, in fact, still alive. Springfield could hear gunfire coming from the small shed as she drew close. She took a moment to scout out her surroundings. There were no good vantage points for her to utilize and the only decent cover was a patrol truck that was used by the base defenders. As she moved close she saw that it had been hosed with machine gun fire, the dead occupants still inside, then Springfield saw a group of enemies moving around the side of the building.

She braced herself against the bullet riddled patrol truck, and took aim at one of the attackers that surrounded STG-44s position. She fired and moved to the next. She settled her crosshairs over the target and fired.

Instead of the target's head erupting in a pink mist, sparks flew and the enemy dropped and began to twitch sporadically.

"I see, interesting." Springfield mused as she adjusted her aim to another target, and fired again.

The next round ripped through another attacker's neck and Springfield saw blood spray out. It was only after she needed to reload, did the enemy realize that they were being attacked and reacted accordingly.

Springfield had to awkwardly bend her leg so she could duck down and avoid the incoming fire. This allowed STG-44 the opening she had been looking for and she dashed out of the maintenance shed, throwing a grenade, and firing as she went.

The grenade detonated, taking out a cluster of enemies and STG-44 maneuvered behind the group that were focusing fire on Springfield, who was still loading. STG-44 threw another grenade and opened fire while it was still in the air.

Half of the group turned to engage STG-44 when the grenade detonated but STG-44 was on the move again. Springfield, meanwhile, struggled back to her feet and resumed fire. STG-44 joined in, and after a few moments, the two dolls had secured the area, for the time being.

"Miss Springfield, thank you!" STG-44 cried out in relief once the shooting stopped.

Springfield nodded, "Of course, I'm glad to see that you're unharmed."

STG-44 nodded and motioned to Springfield's leg, "Ja, but I see you aren't so lucky."

Springfield gave a warm smile and waved her hand, "I've survived worse."

STG-44 shook her head, "Nein, we must get you to the repair bay immediately, it's too dangerous to continue on with your leg in this condition."

Springfield motioned to the storage facility, "I heard on the radio you were helping a member of the defense team."

STG-44's face fell, "He um, didn't make it."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Springfield replied in earnest.

A grenade exploded nearby caused STG-44 to jump, followed by gunfire.

"How much ammo do you have left?" Springfield asked.

"Three magazines left, why?"

Springfield opened a comm link, "Any station this net, this is Springfield, I have linked up with STG-44 on the northern perimeter and are ready to assist any nearby units."

"You are not ready to assist anyone, with your leg like that you trottel!" STG-44 hissed.

Springfield gave her an apologetic shrug, "I can't just sit out while the base is still under attack."

STG-44 was about to say something when the radio cut her off.

"Springfield this is Defender 6-4 at the airfield we're getting hit hard over here and would love some help, if you're in the neighborhood."

Springfield looked thoughtfully towards the hangars in the distance, "We're on our way."

"Copy that, be advised the enemy is trying to push from the east and the south, recommend you avoid those areas."

"Understood."

Springfield looked at STG-44, "Come on, let's go give them a hand."

STG-44 looked like she wanted to argue but kept her peace. They moved as quickly as Springfield's leg would allow.

As they drew close to the hangars they could see figures darting back and forth in the setting sun. STG-44 raised her rifle, then lowered it and swore quietly.

"Sheisse, I can't tell who's who." She whispered.

Springfield looked to the control tower and saw that it, to her dismay, was destroyed. Not far however, was a guard tower that was still intact. She slapped STG-44's shoulder and pointed to the tower.

STG-44 saw what she was pointing at, nodded, and started moving as quietly as she could. Springfield limped behind, keeping an eye out for enemies.

Once they were at the base of the tower, STG pointed to the supply box that was still locked. After checking that there wasn't anyone near them, STG struck the lock with the butt of her rifle until it broke.

Once open Springfield breathed a sigh of relief. Inside were multiple small ammo cans, each one contained an emergency supply of ammo clearly marked in different calibers. STG-44 slung her rifle behind her back and grabbed two cans, one for each of them. With her hands full, STG-44 motioned to the tower stairs with her head, then looked pointedly stared at Springfield's leg. Springfield smiled and waved a dismissive hand. STG-44 nodded and let Springfield lead the way up the steps. Once they reached the top, the dolls cracked open the ammo cans.

As STG finished topping off her empty mags, Springfield scanned the area with her rifle. The tower was high enough that she could get a view of all of the Defender's positions with the exception being behind the row of hangars. Fortunately, in a morbid way, one of the hangars were on fire, which made it easier to see that area as night started to fall.

She opened a comm link "Defender 6-4, this is Springfield, we're set up in the watchtower by the air control tower, I've got eyes on all areas except the hangars."

"Defender 6-4 copies, we've already got the gun truck over there. The enemy is hitting hard everywhere, no need to call targets."

"Springfield copies."

She peered through her scope, found her first target and fired.

- S09 Repair Bay Corridor -

Owen and Nines moved as fast as they could without making too much noise. So far, however, they hadn't seen anyone, hostile or otherwise. Owen was beginning to think that the enemy had moved away from the area when he heard a gunshot.

Owen froze and listened, he heard the sound of multiple sets of boots heading their way. Owen looked ducked into one of the side rooms, with Nines ducking into the adjacent one. Owen looked around the room and saw an office desk at the far end. He ducked behind it just as he heard the boots stop in the hall outside.

"Are you sure she went this way?" A voice asked.

"You were the one who said you saw her take off down this way." A second voice replied, annoyance in his voice.

"Well, now I'm not so sure."

"Big fuckin surprise there."

"I don't see you finding her mister super sleuth."

Second Voice let out a sigh, "Why the fuck do I get stuck on guard duty with your dumb ass while everyone else gets to be on the assault teams for the Command room."

"Because it sounded like they actually had to shoot at something and you're too much of a pussy to do anything other than freeze up when bullets start flying." First Voice snarked.

"Whatever, let's head back, the boss will be pissed if something happens to that doll while we're gone."

"Maybe I'll be the thing that happens to the doll." First Voice said dreamily, "She's a hotty with a body and no brain."

Owen slowly moved out from under the and towards the door as the two men moved away.

"I wouldn't advise it," Second Voice admonished, "Berlusconi got handsy with her and she broke his arm."

"Ah, I'll just show her the goods."

"She'd probably just break that toothpick you call a pecker in half." Owen said as he moved behind them.

"Yeah no shit," Second Voice chuckled, then, "wait, who the fu-"

Owen fired two shots from his pistol and dropped both the men. He waited to see if anyone else would show, and when no one did he moved into the room Nines had taken shelter in. To his surprise, he saw her holding Olena in her arms.

"Oh hey," Owen said, "you found her."

"Alien!" Olena screamed and hid behind Nines, "Shoot it! Kill it!

Owen flipped up his NVGs and let Olena see his face in the emergency lighting that filled the room, "Oh, you're human.."

Nines nodded towards an open door in the back of the room, "She wedged herself under the shelves in that closet over there."

"I hid really good!" Olena bragged, apparently now fine with Owen, she reminded him of a puppy.

"You sure did," Owen agreed, "Do you still have to go to the bathroom?"

"Yup! Miss Nines said I was really grown up for holding it in so long though." Olena informed Owen.

He looked at Nines, a grin on his face.

"What?" Nines asked, defensive.

"Hm? Oh nothing, I just didn't realize you were so good with kids." He told her.

Nines blushed and mumbled something about reading maternity books a lot.

Owen shook his head, grin still on his face and opened a comm link, "Monarch this is Misfit, you copy?"

"Yes, Misfit, I copy."

"Two questions, first did my team make it in there okay, and second, does the Command Center have a bathroom in it?"

"Your team is here and I can't help but notice you're not with them." Irritation in Gentiane's voice gave way to confusion, "And yes, we have a bathroom here, why?"

"I'm sending a time sensitive asset your way." He informed her.

"You're sending me a time sensitive asset," she repeated, her voice swinging back round to irritation, "This involves my bathroom how?"

Owen looked at Olena who was starting to do the pee dance, "The kid's still gotta pee Monarch." He said.

What he got was silence in response.

"Mon-"

"Yes, Owen, I copy." Gentiane said through gritted teeth, "Bring her here. Now."

"Copy, Nines will escort her back now."

"No Owen, you. Bring your ass to the Command Center, now."

"Why Miss Gentiane, are you propositioning me?"

From the background, he could hear Kalina cackling.

"NOW OWEN!"

Owen winced as his headset squealed into his hear from the feedback, "Jesus fucking ow."

Nines frowned at him and placed her hands over Olena's ears.

Olena grinned, "That's a bad word! The Ringleaders are going to come kill you!"

'What the hell was Alexander threatening this kid with?' Owen thought.

Gentiane started talking again, "Owen, you're not a soldier anymore, you're a Commander. You can't go around putting yourself at risk like this."

Nines nodded in agreement, Owen shot her a look, "The ATS Doll has been captured, Mariya is still out there and so is Alexander. I'm going to get them back." He said to both parties.

"Why?" Nines whispered.

"We literally have teams for this shit like this, I'm looking at two of your teams right here and guess what? They specialize in combat ops!" Gentiane yelled.

"Fine, we're on our way." Owen snapped into the headset, Nines' eyes lit up when he did.

A pause, "Thank you Owen." Gentiane said.

"Yup." Was all he replied and cut the link.

"Okay," he said, "go ahead and take the gremlin back before she wets herself and I'll be back once I find the rest of our lost baby ducklings."

He gave Nines a thumbs up and turned to leave but Nines grabbed his shirt sleeve and held it, he turned back confused and saw her looking at the ground. Olena looked up at her worried.

"Nines wha-"

"Why?" She asked.

"Why what?"

"Why won't you go somewhere safe, why won't you let me protect you?" She looked at him, tears in her eyes, "Why do you keep trying to die?"

Owen froze, he didn't know what to say. Nines grabbed him and pulled him into a hug. Between all of the combat gear they had on, and the fact that Owen was absolutely terrible at reading emotions, it was the most awkward hug he ever had. He patted her shoulder a few times trying to comfort her.

"I mean," he frowned, looking for the right words, "It's my job."

Nines shook her head, voice a whisper "No it's not, not anymore. Your job is to lead dolls like me in combat, not to keep sending us away when it gets dangerous."

"I have members of my team still out there, and a kid that needs to be taken somewhere safe. This place is still full of bad guys and times running short, I need someone I trust to escort the kid back."

He hugged her back, "That's you, as soon as you get her safe come back here and find me okay?"

Nines stepped away, and wiped her eyes, "Okay."

She looked hard at him, "Just don't die on me, okay?" She finally gave him a small grin, "It's kind of my job to protect you."

He grinned, "Come on, a Ringleader couldn't even kill me, I think I'll be fine."

Nines just rolled her eyes and took Olena by the hand, "Come on little one." She said.

Olena waved to Owen, "Bye Uncle Owen, see you soon!"

Owen smiled and waved back, "See ya kid."

"I don't think he's gonna die," she told Nines as they walked back to the Command Center, "I think you're just being rude."

"She really is." Owen said just loud enough for them to hear.

Nines' middle finger went up as they walked away. Owen grinned again, he couldn't remember the last time he had this much fun on a mission.

He flipped his nods down and jogged toward the repair bay. He stopped when he saw a flash of red in one of the doorways ahead. He slowed his jog down to a walk and brought his rifle up as he approached the doorway.

Once he was close he moved inside quickly, gun up looking for targets, and plowed straight into something.

"Ow, hey! Watch it asshole!"

Owen scrambled backwards on his butt trying to get his gun up. He finally saw what was yelling at him, a woman with dyed red hair, and a worn looking Griffin Commander's jacket. The name tape read Zhenkov.

Owen got to his feet and held out his hand, "Shit, my bad."

"Get the fuck away from me, you're not taking me alive!" The woman pulled a baton out and, with a flick, extended it.

"Whoa whoa!" Owen said with his off hand up, "I'm a Commander with Griffin!"

She looked at him confused, then looked down at her own uniform, then back to him, "You're not wearing the uniform."

"I'm not big on wearing red in a firefight."

She raised an eyebrow, "I thought the Commander of this base was a woman."

Owen nodded, "She is, I'm in charge of an Outpost."

The woman's eyes lit up, "The one at the edge of the Dead City?"

"Yup, that's the one." He replied.

She lowered the baton, "I'm Lilly, Commander in training for Griffin and Kryuger, nice to meet ya!"

Owen motioned to her coat, "Uniform's a bit faded for someone in training, don't you think?"

She looked down at it again, playing with the lapel, "It belonged to my brother, it was an old one he gave me before he... y'know..." She trailed off.

"Oh, uh, yeah, that sucks." Owen said.

She gave him a weird look before she grinned at him, "Happened a while ago, I'm over it."

She looked around, "So are you headed to the Control Room?"

Owen leaned out the door to scope out the hallway and make sure it was still clear, he was getting impatient. He'd wasted way too much time having a conversation with someone every five minutes.

"Not quite, I have to round up some lost members of my team first, then I'll head over.

He looked over at her, "The way should be clearish now, if you want to go ahead."

"You're making sure your teams are safe, as in your dolls?" Lilly asked, confused.

Owen shrugged, "Two of them are dolls, the other is just a regular dude."

She grinned, "That's so cool, you're actually trying to make sure your dolls are safe!"

Owen frowned, "Yeah, like I said they're my team."

"Well, I'm coming with, you look like you need my help."

"What, no, go to Command." He said annoyed.

She brought a finger to her lips and shook her head, "Nah, this looks like more fun."

"Fine, but if you get your ass shot off that's on you." Owen said.

- Airspace over S09 -

Colette fired a rocket into a vehicle that was being used as cover by a group of attackers. She grinned as the vehicle erupted into a fireball, it lifted off the ground and slammed back down in a heap, bodies could be seen surrounding the wreckage.

"Good hit Archangel, enemy presence around the main building is down to manageable levels for the ground teams. Airfield is still hot, reposition there and take over for Animal while he rearms." Sauron ordered.

"Copy that."

Colette spun around and flew towards the airfield. She saw the other helicopter and formed up on Animal's flank. She followed the gunship in as it set down on the tarmac and ammo as crews began reloading its guns she peeled up and away. She was about to enter a defensive circle when a fireball erupted just off to her left.

"Fuel trucks been hit! Animal, get clear of the ramp!"

"Copy th-shit, I'm getting some vibration in my pedals." Animal announced.

Colette angled her bird to get a better look at Animal. As it was trying to lift off she saw a massive chunk of the top of the tail boom missing, causing the tail rotor to sag sharply as the Blackhawk tried to lift off.

"Animal your tail's fucked, set it back down now!" Colette cried into her headset.

Before Animal could do anything, the boom separated from the fuselage, dropping the tail rotor back onto the tarmac and digging out bits of concrete. The fuselage briefly lifted up before falling back to the earth, the main rotors contacting the ground and spinning the fuselage before coming to a rest by the ruined control tower.

"Animal is down!" Sauron cried.

"Fuck!" Colette yelled.

- S09 Command and Control -

Gentiane watched in grim horror at the drone feed as her gunship hit the ground hard, ground support crew started sprinting towards the downed helo. She saw the enemy combatants push the attack.

"Monarch, this is Sauron."

"Go ahead, Sauron."

"We have five minutes of fuel left, we were supposed to go in after Animal."

Gentiane took a deep breath, all they had left was Owen's Hind, "Find a safe spot to set down and stay there until we give the all clear."

"Copy that, setting her down now. Sorry Monarch."

"You did great, Sauron, stay safe."

"Komandir Gentiane, if I may?" Gentiane turned to see Makarov standing by her watching the feed, her face giving no trace of emotion.

"You may."

"I suggest sending us to the airfield." She said calmly.

Gentiane shook her head, "Owen will be back soon, we can go over where to deploy you then."

Makarov let out a dry laugh, "Nyet Komandir, I'm sorry to say you've been misled."

Gentiane was about to argue when the doors opened up. She turned to see Nines running in with a squirming Olena in one arm, her scavenged rifle in the other, and her namesake on her back. She looked around frantically before seeing Gentiane.

"Bathroom!" Nines cried out.

Gentiane pointed her in the right direction and Nines sprinted that way, Gentiane turned back to the doors and expected to see Owen come walking in. Instead the doors closed again.

She clenched and unclenched her jaw, "Kalina, what's the status of the interior of the compound?"

Kalina tapped at her pad, "Armory reports all clear, Motor Pool was hit the hardest in the initial attack, but they're reporting all clear now. Fire teams are moving from defensive ops and are beginning sweep and clear ops to remove any remaining hostiles."

Gentiane nodded, "And the exterior?"

Kalina pointed to the Drone Feed, she saw three gun trucks exit the Motor Pool and start mopping up any hostiles they found.

She turned to Makarov, "Go."

Makarov nodded and made her way back to Owen's teams. She briefly spoke to G3, the two team leaders split their teams up, and left quickly. Gentiane opened a comm link, she was going to murder Owen if someone hadn't already beat her to it.

- S09 Repair Bay -

Owen moved quietly into the repair bay, rifle up and moving in a smooth arc as he scanned the room. The only thing he saw was a single figure sitting on a stool at the back of the room. Lilly sauntered in behind him. He rushed over and saw the ATS doll sitting quietly, her hands bound in heavy duty metal shackles and her face an expressionless mask. As Owen approached she turned her head slightly to look at him.

"Good evening Sergeant Owen, I am happy to report that my passive observation data has been downloaded as per protocol."

Owen nodded, "That's good to hear uh... " he didn't know her name, did she even have a name?

"My designation from my previous unit is Freya, would you like to change it?" The ATS doll, Freya, asked.

Owen shook his head, "No, that's a good name, give me a combat analysis."

"Please stand by while I scan combat systems." Freya said and closed her eyes.

As Owen waited, Lilly came over and sat down next to Freya, "Who's this?" she asked.

"One of my dolls." Owen replied.

"Ooooh," Lilly said as she poked Freya's cheek.

"Please refrain from touching me." Freya said, eyes still closed.

"Sorry..." Lilly whispered.

Freya's eyes shot open, "Sergeant Owen, you have a Combat Neural Link installed, would you like me to sync to it?"

Lilly eyed him curiously and he shrugged at her.

"Sure, go ahead."

Freya nodded, "Please stand by."

"She likes to make you wait, doesn't she." Lilly teased.

"Yeah she re-MOTHERFUCKER!"

"What's wrong?!"

"Ah- fuck my god damn head!" Owen dropped to his knees and ripped his helmet off.

"It appears that there is a compatibility issue with your Neural Link, please stand by while I correct it." Freya announced.

A fresh wave of white hot pain erupted through his brain and shot down his spine. It was all he could to keep himself from passing out. Far away he could hear Lilly calling his name, but the pain kept shooting through his body in waves. He tried to move to find his gun to either shoot himself or Freya and make the pain end. Without warning the pain went away, like someone had flipped a switch. Owen lay on his back, panting and covered in sweat, his vision blurry.

"Neural Link has been re-calibrated and field synchronization is now successfully completed Sergeant Owen." Freya said.

Owen weakly lifted a hand and flipped her off as his vision began to clear.

"Jesus, are you okay?" Lilly asked.

Owen sat up and rubbed a hand over his head and looked at her, "Does it look like I'm...whoa, the hell?"

He frowned and began swinging his head and looking around at random spots in the room, blinking constantly. Lilly stood up and backed away from him.

"Freya?"

"Yes Sergeant Owen?"

"What the fuck is going on with my eyes, I can see in the dark and there's numbers and circles and shit floating everywhere."

"Nothing Sergeant Owen, I activated your enhanced combat link, which provides you with an internal heads up display and an enhanced vision package. I have also noticed your Neural Link was negatively affecting your emotions and calibrated accordingly."

Owen stood and shook his head, Lilly started to speak but Owen just lifted a finger, "Just...give me a sec?"

After taking a few deep breaths and straightening his back, he turned to Freya, "Okay, turn off the heads up display."

"Are you sure that you wish to turn off the heads up display?" Freya asked.

"Yes, I am very sure."

"Do you wish to deactivate the enhanced vision package as well?"

Owen shook his head, "No, keep that on, is there a way to have that automatically adjust?"

Freya nodded from her seat, "Affirmative, your vision will appear normal until you enter an area that is entirely devoid of light, at which point your vision will automatically adjust to IR."

"Neat." Owen said, grinning at Lilly and pointing to his face, "Peep my robot eyes."

Lilly slowly moved her hands to cover herself, "You don't have x-ray vision, do you?"

Owen looked to Freya.

"You do not." Freya answered.

The sound of a pistol shot from the far corridor drowned out Owen's complaint.

Immediately he picked his rifle up and pointed it in the direction of the sound. They could hear the sound of a body falling and someone working the action on a rifle. Owen's finger hovered over the trigger, but no one came into view.

"Identify yourself!" Owen barked out.

"Owen, is that you?" A female voice called back.

"Yeah, is that you Mariya?"

Mariya stepped in to view, an M16A4 in her hands, "I can't believe you're still alive."

"Hi Mariya, it's good to see you too!" He said sarcastically.

An explosion rocked the building before she could reply.

"What the hell was that?" Lilly asked.

"A helicopter just crashed at the airfield. I assume it belongs to this base." Freya said.

"How do you know that?" Owen asked.

"I'm patched into the drone in orbit." Freya told him.

"You can do that?" He asked.

"No one said I couldn't." Freya said.

"Fair enough." Owen said.

"Owen, we really should move to the Command Center." Lilly said, sounding nervous.

"Who the hell is this?" Mariya asked, pointing the rifle at Lilly.

"Easy there killer, she's a stray I picked up." Owen said.

"You just happened to find a stray woman in a Commander's jacket in the most heavily occupied section of the base?" Mariya looked at the M16 in her hands for a second, "Formerly occupied." She corrected herself.

Lilly glared at Mariya, "For your information, I'm really good at hiding."

"Speaking of hiding, Mariya, did you hide Olena in that closet?" Owen asked

The doll nodded, "Yeah, after her brother got knocked out by those goons," she jerked her thumb behind her, "He's in a closet back that way."

"Is there anyone else in a closet I need to know about?" Owen asked.

"Just some bodies I stashed so I wouldn't alert anyone before I finished cleaning house." she informed him.

"First off, stop stuffing people in closets," Owen said, "Second, make sure you tell someone about the bodies before they start stinking up the place."

"Assuming we get out of here." Mariya deadpanned.

"Which is why we need to go to the Command Center." Lilly announced.

Owen ignored Lilly and looked at Freya's hands, "We also need to get those cuffs off of you, I'll see if I can't find some bolt cutters or something. He told the ATS doll."

She looked down at her bound wrists and jerked her arms apart, snapping the chain that held them together with ease. She then made a fist with one hand, and ripped the shackle off of her wrist with the other, dropping the twisted metal at her feet. She repeated the process with the other hand.

"Oookay, that works too." He said.

"Holy shit." Mariya said in awe.

Freya looked around the room, "Be advised Sergeant Owen, enemy presence has been detected in the vicinity."

Lilly gave her a worried look, "We should really get to the Command Center."

"No shit, the whole base is under siege Freya," He replied as he bent down and retrieved his thrown helmet in time to hear Gentiane yelling at him over the comm link.

"Hello again Monarch!" he said cheerily into the mic.

"Owen, where the hell are you?!"

"I'm in the repair bay, it's mostly clear now by the way. I also found the ATS Doll, Mariya, oh and that lost red head...what was her name...Lilly." he informed her patiently.

"Who the hell is Lilly?" She snapped.

"That Commander in training you have at the base?"

There was a pause, suddenly, he felt very nervous.

"Owen, there is no Commander in training at this base."

Lilly started giggling, Owen frowned and turned to her. She winked at him and pulled a communicator out of her pocket.

"Thank god I got found out," She said, "I hated acting like some dumb ass Griffin Commander."

"Not nice to name call." Owen told her.

She flipped him the bird and spoke into the communicator, "I have the secondary and tertiary objective in custody, send the Doppelganger."

- Airfield Watchtower -

Springfield watched in horror as the Black hawk crashed near her tower, a bullet whizzed past her head, forcing her to duck down. She saw STG-44 had followed suit and dropped a magazine she was trying to load into her weapon. Springfield picked the magazine up and handed it to her. STG-44 nodded a thanks and finished reloading her weapon. Springfield reloaded her own rifle and as she closed the bolt, noticed red on the bolt handle.

Puzzled, she looked at her hand and saw it was slick with blood. She looked over to STG-44, the doll had braced her weapon on the railing and was firing off handed. Her right arm hung limply to her side.

"You're hurt!" Springfield cried out, and rushed over to help.

STG-44 gave her a grim smile, "So are you, Trottel."

Springfield forced STG-44 to sit back down, took what was left of her jacket off and wrapped STG-44's arm in it.

"Quite the pair of crippled gunfighters we make." Springfield joked as she worked.

"Ja, and I hope we don't have any more injuries, you're running out of clothes." STG-44 pointed out.

Springfield looked down and realized she had been wearing nothing but a tank top under her uniform jacket, "It was warm when I started my watch." She said defensively.

STG-44 smiled, "Just don't let the defense teams see you like this, you know how they get."

"Hush you." Springfield said and shouldered her rifle, just in time to see what looked like every enemy combatant swarming the defensive lines. She could hear the gun truck firing behind the hangars.

"Defender 6-4, they're charging!"

"No shit," came the panicked reply.

"Bisenti look out, that guy has a det pa-" An explosion cut off Defender 6-4.

Springfield looked down and saw dirt settling over one of the main defensive fighting positions. Once the dust had settled she saw the remains of dolls and men. Attackers swarmed the survivors. Springfield's movements became methodical.

Fire. Work bolt. Adjust aim. Fire. Again, and again.

The roar of rotors overhead announced the arrival of another helicopter, the Hind from another base. It fired rockets and guns into one group of attackers, moved to the other side of the airfield, and repeated the process only to fly to another section of the airfield and do it again.

Springfield watched in awe as the pilot made the ancient helicopter dance across the sky. But even it couldn't keep up with the amount of attackers that had suddenly shown themselves.

"Where are they coming from?" Springfiel growled in frustration.

"I have no idea, there weren't this many earlier!" STG-44 cried out in equal frustration as her bolt locked back.

Springfield ducked back down to reload when STG-44 slammed into her back, causing them both to fall to the floor of the tower. She tried to get STG-44 to move, but the German doll just let out a weak groan. Springfield finally maneuvered herself from under STG-44 and saw a tight group of holes in her chest.

"STG!" Springfield cried out.

Another burst of gunfire pinged off of the watchtower, missing Springfield by inches. She swore and flattened herself as best she could.

"Sniper's down, move up the tower and get that gun set up!" A voice called from the ground.

She could hear boots running up the tower steps, she laid perfectly still, aiming her rifle at the top of the stairs. A man ran into view with a large machine gun over his shoulder. She fired at his chest and the man slumped to the ground dropping the heavy gun.

"There's another bitch up here!" Another voice yelled.

Another man ran around the corner and opened fire. Springfield felt the impact of the rounds hitting her chest and shoulder. She gritted her teeth and fired again. The rifle barked and the round went through the top of the man's head, carving a little valley in his skull. She ejected the round and saw her rifle was empty. She drug herself back to the ammo box to try and reload.

A clanging noise was heard and she felt something hit her boot. She looked and saw a grenade roll towards her. She grabbed it as fast as she could and threw it at the stairs where it bounced off of the hand rail and down the steps. An explosion was heard followed by screaming. She tried to wake up STG-44 but it was useless, she picked up STG-44's weapon, but it was empty, she dropped it again.

She grabbed some rounds from her ammo can and loaded another ten rounds, probably her last ten. She heard shouting from the base of the tower. She shoved the bolt forward, then attached her bayonet.

"Come and get me."

- Exterior of main compound S09 -

"A little late to the party aren't you?" One of the Defenders asked the Dolls as they made their way outside the main compound.

Makarov glared at the man, "We were busy cleaning up the enemies that managed to sneak past you."

The man glared at Makarov who shook her head and turned back to the other dolls.

"So we're in agreement then, Garand, SVT, SKS, the Old Hag, and myself will set up in the remaining guard towers around the airfield and take out the enemy marksmen that have set up in the area, AK will go with your team and circle behind the hangars, link up with the defenders there, then sweep and clear the area." Makarov ordered.

G3 nodded, "Ja, looking at the drone feed, that gun truck will be an asset while we clear the area."

Makarov nodded agreement, "Let's get started."

"Owen's gonna be proud of us when we save the airfield all by ourselves!" Uzi crowed.

Makarov snorted, "We're only there to clear the way for reinforcements, apparently there's a Command doll in one of the helicopters."

Garand flashed a grin, "We won't let them steal the glory."

Nagant nodded," Da, I could retake this base with my eyes closed."

G3 cleared her throat, "I'm sure you can Nagant, but perhaps it's time for action, not words."

"My thoughts exactly." Makarov said as she motioned to her team to start moving, "See you at the airfield."

G3 nodded, rallied her team, and sprinted towards the hangars. They moved quickly through the base, killing what little resistance they found. It really did seem like all of the enemies were concentrated on the airfield. G3 briefly wondered why, sure the airfield was important, but the Command Center is the heart of an entire Sector. She shook her head, this wasn't the time for such thinking.

As her team neared the airfield, they could see the fire from the burning hangar. She moved her team in the shadows behind the row of hangars. They saw a large group attacking the fighting position, but the gun truck was doing a good job keeping them suppressed. G3 maneuvered her team to the attacker's exposed flank. The gun truck went silent as the gunner reloaded. Once they were in position, she gave the order to fire.

AK-47 let out a whoop and tossed a grenade before the team unloaded on the enemy. Spectre and Uzi sprinted in close, darting between enemies, firing as they went. G3, AK-47, and Sig, walked slowly towards the attackers, firing as they went. The enemy combatants' rear flank collapsed and tried to retreat towards the fighting position, just as the gun truck opened fire again and mowed them down.

"Who the fuck is out there!" A female voice called out.

"Friendly T-Dolls from Outpost 17!" G3 shouted.

"Wait...G3?!"

Spectre perked up and sprinted towards the truck, shouting as she went, "M2 is that you?!"

The rest of G3's team followed, and as they drew close they could see M2 hop down from a truck with her namesake mounted on the back. She opened her arms wide and scooped Spectre up in a bear hug, and spun her around.

"Holy shit, I never thought I'd see you guys again!" M2 said happily.

"You know you can't get rid of us that easily!" Uzi said.

AK-47 nodded, "It's true, and we're back and better than ever!"

G3 looked around the defensive fighting position (DFP). Bodies were strewn out everywhere, draped over sandbags, or slumped against the truck. She looked at M2, her brow furrowed.

"Are you the only one left here?" She asked.

M2 set Spectre back down and looked around with sorrow on her face, she nodded after a moment, "Yeah, these fucks hit us hard. Took out everyone."

She heaved a sigh, "But they died fighting, and from what I hear, every position got it this bad."

G3 walked over and wrapped her in a hug, "It's good to see you M2."

M2 gave a chuckle, "You too, ya kraut."

G3 pulled away, a smile on her face. She motioned to the truck and started speaking in a fake southern accent, "How about we saddle up and get some payback."

M2 grinned, "Sounds like a great fucking plan!"

AK-47 let out another whoop, "We're gonna fuck shit up!"

- Airfield Watchtower -

- Springfield -

Springfield waited with her rifle trained at the top of the steps. They would come for her any second, and she was going to take as many as she could with her. She heard shouting.

"You should know better than to try and attack a seasoned vet like me!"

"Shoot that little fucker!"

"S"yest' der'mo i umeret!"

Five gunshots rang out in rapid fire, followed by, "SKS you're clear, let's get up the tower!"

"Da, spasibo Nagant!"

"For the Motherland Comrade!"

"URAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Springfield had to run a system check to see if her auditory system had sustained damage. It hadn't, which confused her, and that was the only thing that stopped her from shooting the pink haired T-Doll standing at the end of her rifle. She let it fall and laughed.

- SKS -

SKS ran up the stairs and as she reached the top, was met by the end of a rifle with a bayonet attached. It took her a full second to recognize Springfield, instead of a friendly doll with a warm smile serving coffee. She was in a torn tank top, covered in blood, leg bent at an odd angle with a wild look in her eyes. She dropped her rifle and laughed.

"Are you okay?" SKS cried out as she dropped to a knee beside her.

Springfield nodded, but tried to bring her rifle back up as Nagant made her way up the stairs.

SKS put a hand on Springfield's weapon, "It's okay, she's a friend."

Springfield let out a shaky breath and nodded again.

SKS looked to Nagant, "Help them."

Nagant nodded and went to work while SKS got set up in the tower and started sighting in targets.

"SVT and myself are in position, SKS and Garand check in." Makarov said over their team comms.

"Garand is in position."

"SKS in position."

"Ground team has cleared the hangars of hostiles and are loading up the gun truck. Pick targets and fire at will."

The crack of rifles could be heard around the airfield. It was all the answer Makarov needed.

SKS saw a truck speeding from checkpoint to checkpoint, firing as it went. She grinned as she saw AK-47, Spectre, and Uzi firing out the back as the truck sped by enemies while M2 pivoted the machine gun and fired at enemies in the front. She heard the roar of rotors as Colette's Hind continued to dance around the airfield, then it suddenly dipped it's nose, and sped off.

Guess she has somewhere to go. SKS joked to herself as she continued firing at enemy positions.

- Airspace above S09 -

"Archangel this is Monarch, be advised, flight of two friendly Black Hawks are entering the airspace from the North to drop off reinforcements."

"Copy that Monarch, I'll keep an eye out for them.

Colette looked north to see if she could see the other helicopters, but they were still too far away.

"Archangel, this is Monarch again, I have an unidentified Black Hawk inbound from the east flying low and fast. 10 clicks east of your position, could be additional support, but it's not responding to my hails. Put eyes on it for me."

Colette nosed her bird down and sped off to meet the other helo.

"Copy that, I'm on my way."

She skimmed over the top of the forest, eyes scanning in front of her for nav lights, a rotator beacon, a shadow on the skyline or any other sign of the other aircraft. She didn't see anything.

"Monarch, can I get bogey dope?"

"Archangel, target is tracking at five thousand feet above ground level on your nose."

Colette looked at her instrument cluster, she was at four thousand seven hundred feet.

"Where the fuck are you?" She asked out loud.

She saw a black speck appear in front of her.

"There you are."

She pulled the Hind up and turned in a wide sweeping arc to slowly close the distance with the other helicopter. It finally got close enough for her to form up next to it. It had Griffin markings on the side. She looked over and saw the pilot glance at her and push the Black Hawk harder. She matched it's speed and switched to the universal comm channel.

"Unidentified Black Hawk, this is Archangel, do you copy?"

"Unidentified Black Hawk, this is Archangel, if you are having comm problems and are unable to transmit, squawk ident and ascend to seven thousand feet, I will escort you in."

The pilot spoke into his headset, but Colette heard nothing and the helicopter flew straight as an arrow. She switched her frequency.

"Monarch, he's flying Griffin colors but not responding to my hails, something seems off about this guy. I still have guns if you want me to smoke him."

"Archangel do not engage, just follow and report."

Colette let out a sigh and eased behind the Blackhawk to follow it.

- Forest near S09 Base -

In a small clearing in the forest east of S09 base, an SA-19 self propelled anti aircraft gun sat dormant under camo netting. It had been parked there the previous night as an insurance policy in case the ground teams couldn't take control of the Griffin airfield when the disguised Black Hawk arrived. While it was missing its surface to air missiles, its two 2A38M 30mm guns were fully loaded and the teams had spent the past twenty four hours running drills to make sure they would be ready at a moment's notice. The plan was to have the Black Hawk fly directly over them both to and from the base. The four man crew had been primed and ready before the first mortar fell on Sector Nine's base.

"Ground-Hammer, this is Doppelganger, do you copy?"

"Doppelganger this is Ground-Hammer, send traffic."

"I'm coming in hot with a Griffin Hind on my tail. I need you to take care of it for me."

"Copy that Doppelganger, we'll roll out the red carpet."

"Send a few my way to make it look convincing."

"We'll fire a burst in front of your flight path, so bank left before you're over our position to avoid friendly fire."

"Copy that Ground-Hammer, see you in 90 seconds."

"Ground-Hammer copies."

The crew flew into action, and in thirty seconds the net was off, the radar was set to stand-by, the barrels were pointed up, and the SA-19 was ready for action. As soon as the crew commander saw Doppelganger, he ordered a short burst to be fired. The guns roared and the green tracer rounds fired so fast it looked like a laser beam cutting through the night.

- Colette -

Colette saw the Blackhawk bank hard just as a green light flashed in front of her. A high pitched screech warbled through her headset warning her of a radar lock. She immediately shot off her chaff and flare dispensers.

"Son of a bitch!"

She banked over the clearing and saw the SA-19's guns tracking her as she banked hard and pulled back on the stick. The gun's radar ignored her countermeasures and continued it's track on her bird. The cannons roared to life and, thanks to the reflexes only a Doll could have, the rounds missed her cockpit and ripped through the fuselage of the Hind. Warning alarms blared in her ears as the Hind struggled to stay in the air. The engine screamed it's protest at trying to work after taking so much damage. Colette saw her oil pressure drop to zero and her engine temperature skyrocket.

"Stay with me girl!" She cried out, trying to coax anything she could from her baby.

For a brief moment, she managed to straighten herself out, which was all she needed. The SA-19 was in her sights and she let the rockets fly. She couldn't see if she hit her target as the Hind dropped like a brick and slammed into the earth.

- S09 Command Center -

"We just lost all offensive air capability." Kalina said as she stared at the screen.

Gentiane slammed her fist down on the table before holding her breath and counting to three, "See if we can get anyone out there to rescue the pilot."

"Will do boss."

- S09 repair bay -

"Lilly, please tell me you're just doing some weird, fucked up prank." Owen said as he slowly turned around.

She grinned at him. Owen had dated enough crazy chicks to know that grin. This was not going to end well.

"Ah shit." He said, "Light her up!"

Mariya opened fire as Lilly dashed to the side. She adjusted her fire as she tracked Lilly but the rounds missed and instantly Lilly was on Mariya, punching her in the chest and sending her flying across the room.

Owen fired as well, his rounds hitting her in the back. She shrugged it off and leapt towards him. Owen swore and backpedaled as she sailed through the air. Before she could reach him, Freya jumped in front of him, grabbed Lilly's arm with one hand, her throat in the other, and choke-slammed the fake Commander onto the ground. The tile floor cracked from the force of the impact.

Owen sidestepped Freya and fired a burst into Lilly's chest. Lilly rolled back and kicked Freya in the chest with both feet and leapt to her feet. She ran towards Owen again before Freya could recover. Owen fired until the mag ran dry, he saw holes open up in Lilly's chest, but they didn't bother her at all.

Lilly stood in front of Owen, a crazed grin still on her face, "Hi there." She said as she yanked the rifle out of his hands.

Owen kicked Lilly in the stomach, sending her staggering backwards. He stepped forward and delivered a flurry of punches, trying to disorient her. Freya sprinted from behind, grabbed Lilly by the hair and threw her across the room.

Lilly stood up and started cackling maniacally.

"Hell yeah!" She shrieked.

Mariya had recovered and darted forward, knife in hand and stabbed it between Lilly's shoulders. The redhead spun around, picked Mariya up by the throat and kicked hard enough that Mariya slammed into the ceiling. As she fell back down, Lilly kicked her across the room, again.

"You stupid bitch." Lilly laughed.

Freya moved forward again, sending a haymaker to the back of Lilly's head. Lilly stumbled forward and tried to spin around to meet Freya, but Freya grabbed Lilly's arm and slammed her back down. Not letting go of the arm, Freya calmly started pounding on Lilly's chest. Owen could hear a sharp crack after the third stomp. Lilly grabbed Freya's ankle with her free hand, and flung Freya away. In an instant, Lilly was back up and running towards Owen again.

Once again, time slowed for Owen, and Lilly was moving at a normal pace instead of at mach fuck. Owen pulled his pistol and fired into Lilly's face. A round hit her just right, causing her head to snap backwards and her feet to fly out from under her. Owen dashed forward and kicked her as hard as he could in the crotch. It made her stumble a little. Freya grabbed Lilly and threw her as hard as she could through the wall, and into the night.

Lilly recovered and stood up, hand over her eye, that same wild grin on her face.

Owen stared in disbelief.

"Well kids, time to wrap this up, it's been fun, but I got places to be."

A Blackhawk with Griffin markings landed on the grass, six men in grey uniforms armed with beam rifles jumped out and formed a semi circle around Lilly.

She grinned and pointed at Owen, "Soft target!"

One of the men let his rifle hang and raised what looked like a bright blue pistol at Owen and fired. Owen felt something hit him in the arm. He looked at the arm in confusion and saw a silver dart sticking out of his bicep. It started to glow blue and he could hear an electrical crackle as the dart sent a shock of fifteen thousand amps through his system. His body locked up and he dropped to the ground, he couldn't do anything but lay there and stare at the sky, then noticed words flashing in the middle of the night sky.

+Electrical Surge Detected+

+Neural Combat Link Disabled+

+Prosthetics Link Disabled+

+Calibrating+

Freya sprinted out of the building and towards the attackers. She grabbed the forearm of the man with the blue pistol, with a flick of the wrist, she snapped the arm in half. The man screamed and dropped to the ground.

"And there's the other!" Lilly cackled, "Hard target!"

Freya ducked under a punch from Lilly, unclipped the fallen man's rifle from it's sling, and jumped back from the group. She landed directly in Owen's line of sight, and took a firing stance.

'Nice ass.' Owen idly thought as he stared upwards, still unable to move, though he thought he could wiggle his toes if he tried hard enough.

Freya fired five times in rapid succession. He heard five bodies drop and assumed she had taken out the rest of the fire team. An electrical crackle filled the air and Owen saw Freya get wrapped up in a net and fall on top of him. Her head hit his and Owen saw stars and pain wracked his body as the electrical net zapped them both before it cut off.

+Electrical Surge Detected+

+Neural Combat Link Disabled+

+Prosthetics Link Disabled+

+Calibrating+

Owen inwardly sighed as he felt Freya's body lift off of him and he could see Lilly heave Freya over her shoulder before she bent back down to grab Owen by his chest. She picked him up like a suitcase and hauled him to the waiting Black Hawk before throwing them in. She hopped in behind them and the Black Hawk lifted up and away from the base.

Once airborne Lilly sat Owen in one of the jump seats then ripped the net off of Freya and rammed a silver rod into her gut. She then squeezed the handle and the rod crackled to life causing Freya's body to occasionally twitch.

Lilly looked over to Owen, the grin still on her face, "Can't have our little murder doll running loose this high up, can we?"

Owen glared at her, but that was all he could do.

She grinned and pointed to the hole that used to be her eye, "You shoot my eye out and get mad at me for kicking both of your asses?"

She punched Owen in the gut, "You should be grateful I didn't kill you."

- S09 Airfield -

The battle for the airfield was almost done. The enemy was collapsing like a house of cards and kept trying to maneuver away from the base and towards the treeline, Makarov's sharpshooters harassed the rear elements that tried to cover the enemy's escape. Gentiane kept her teams constantly moving to the right and left of the enemy retreat, slowly trying to cut them off and surround them completely.

"Incoming Black Hawks!" one of the Defender's shouted.

G3 looked up to see two UH-60s settle into a hover at the edge of the base, directly in front of the enemy's retreat. Ropes dropped from the sides and dolls began fast roping to the ground. She noticed one doll with a green stripe in her hair glancing nervously out the side of the helicopter, before she pulled up her facemask and roped down.

"All ground teams at the Airfield, it's time. Get these bastards the hell off of my base."

G3 saw M2's gun truck speed toward the helicopters, and even from here, she could hear AK and M2 laughing whooping with glee. Firing the whole time. She allowed herself a smile, they were almost done here. A bullet whizzed past her head and struck one of the nearby base Doll's in the shoulder. G3 clicked her tongue in annoyance and shot the man. Not done yet.

- Clearing in the woods near S09 Base -

Colette groaned and shook her head, trying to get her vision to refocus. She looked out of the canopy and saw three blurry shapes approaching her, she closed her eyes, smacked her helmet with her hand a couple of times, and opened them again. That did the trick, now she could perfectly see three men with guns walking towards her with guns.

"Shit."

Colette grabbed the AK-74u she kept strapped in the cockpit, checked the chamber, and tried to open the door. It was wedged shut. Colette swore and braced herself before putting a boot to it. The door fell to the ground and Colette wanted to cry.

They hurt her baby, they were going to pay. She jumped to the ground, and brought the gun up, only to see the three men lying on the ground. She blinked and looked around.

"This one is still alive." A voice behind her said.

Colette whirled around, and brought her weapon up, only for it to be smacked away. Standing in front of her was a black haired brown eyed woman in what Colette thought to be a weird maid's uniform? A suit? She didn't know. She didn't care. What really had her attention was the three massive gun drones that hovered around her and aimed at Colette's head. Colette raised her arms and let out a nervous chuckle.

"Sorry I shot a rocket at your AA gun?"

"Don't worry, the AA gun wasn't mine, though I will take an apology for shooting me with a rocket last time we met." Another voice said.

Colette snapped her head to the sound of the voice, from the treeline stepped a tall woman with flowing white hair, one eye that glowed an intense gold, the other behind an eye patch and, in Colette's humble opinion, way too slutty of an outfit.

Alchemist fixed her with a stare "Hello again Miss Pilot, how are you?"

Colette looked at Alchemist, the drone guns, the glaring doll behind the gas mask, and finally her poor baby, "Honestly, I've had better days."

Alchemist let out a laugh, "I'm sure you have, I saw what happened." She flashed a predatory grin, "Want to watch it happen to someone else?"

Before Colette could ask what she meant, Alchemist nodded towards the other doll, "They're almost here, make sure they don't get away, Scarecrow."

The other doll, Scarecrow apparently, nodded and pointed what looked like a baton used for choirs to the sky, her drones shot into the sky just as they heard the beat of helicopter blades.

- Airspace of S09 -

+Calibration Complete+

+All Systems Restored+

+Electrical Disruption Dissipated+

+ERROR: NEURAL LINK CANNOT BE COMPLETED WITH DOLL+

Owen kept his eyes closed, and waited. He heard Lilly and the pilots arguing, then he felt wind whip through the cabin of the helicopter as someone opened the side door. With everyone distracted, he took his chance. Lilly was leaning out of the door, looking at something in front of the helicopter.

Owen burst forward, grabbed the spike that was lodged in Freya's stomach, and stabbed Lilly in the back with it. Once Owen saw her tense up, he kicked the spike as hard as he could and watched her fall out of the helicopter. He looked around and saw a Griffin multipurpose emergency kit strapped to the back of the bay. He grabbed it and made his way back to Freya.

She suddenly sat straight up and stared at Owen, "Orders, Sergeant Owen?"

+Neural Combat Link Re-established+ flashed in front of his eyes.

He pointed to the hole in her stomach, "Shouldn't we patch you up first?"

Freya looked down, "Nothing vital was damaged, repairs are unnecessary at this time."

"Yeah bu-" He was cut off as large caliber rounds ripped through the helicopter.

The pilots tried to maneuver away from the fire, and Owen was thrown out of the side door. He looked down and saw a clearing. He had no parachute.

Gory, gory, what a helluva way to die.

"Airborne!" He yelled, then he looked down and saw a woman with white hair, an eye patch, and...massive landing pads waiting directly below him, with arms outstretched and a smile on her face like Christmas had come early.

"SHIT!" He yelled just before she caught him bridal style.

He struggled out of her arms and got to his feet.

"Darling, you're here!" She grabbed Owen again and pulled him in for a hug, burying his face in her chest as she rested a hand on his head, he was only dimly aware of the sounds of a helicopter crash.

Alchemist was surprisingly warm, and soft, and smelled oddly of strawberries. Actually, this wasn't that ba- no. Focus Owen. She's a ringleader hellbent on the destruction of all mankind.

She hugged him the way he had seen other guys hug their wives when they came back from deployment. Maybe she wasn't hellbent on his destruction after all. How could something so warm, so soft, be so evil? Maybe Sangvis wasn't so bad, he should put in an application-

"What in the hell are you doing?"

Owen jumped away from Alchemist and turned around, "Colette?"

"Hands off the slut!" She shouted.

Alchemist laughed, it was a nice laugh, Owen thought.

Something came bursting through the treeline and into the clearing, Scarecrow's drones moved to intercept but it leapt around them and landed beside Owen. To his surprise, it was Freya, holding an energy rifle. Apparently riding a Black Hawk to it's crash site wasn't a big deal for her.

"Is she hostile?" She asked Owen.

Owen pulled his arm away and cleared his throat, he looked back at Alchemist who was looking at him like...actually he had never seen that look before. It terrified him.

"Uh..."

"Of course I'm not, I would never hurt my darling." Alchemist said in a hurt tone.

"Last time we met, you bounced me off the walls like a tennis ball and then you stabbed me with poison. I almost died." Owen pointed out.

Freya went very still, Owen noticed her weight shift slightly.

Alchemist rolled her eye, "If you recall, your friend over there blew me up with rockets, and you shoved a grenade in my mouth."

Her eye lit up and she brought a finger up to her lips, "Actually until the explosion, that was fun."

"Freak." Colette said.

Owen frowned, "About that, how are you still alive?"

Alchemist waved a dismissive hand, "Oh Darling please, I have duplicates of myself everywhere. Not even Agent can keep track of me."

Scarecrow moved next to Alchemist, "She's coming."

Alchemist's entire demeanor changed, now she looked like the evil murdering psychopath he remembered.

"I hate to cut this reunion short Darling, but I have work to do. With that her and Scarecrow leapt into the trees and out of sight.

"Yeah, don't worry about me or anything, I'm just a pilot who crashed her fucking helicopter, I'm fine." Colette said next to him.

Owen shook his head, and turned to her, "Er...yeah uh...sorry."

Colette glared at him for a second before punching him in the shoulder, I'm just fucking with you, but for real, she's not your type.

Owen raised an eyebrow, "What is my type?"

Colette motioned to herself then winked at him, "You already know."

Owen laughed, and finally took stock of their surroundings, he noticed the wrecked SA-19, and Colette's Hind that was missing it's blades, full of holes, and smoking.

"Busy day?" He asked.

She sighed, "You have no idea."

With a sigh they both fell to the grass, Freya moved to stand next to them.

"Who's this?" Colette asked as she pointed to the silent doll.

"ATS Unit designation Freya under the command of Sergeant Nathaniel Owen."

Colette whistled, "That's a nifty toy."

"I am not a toy."

"I'm just-"

"-I am not a toy."

"Okay okay, you're not a toy."

Freya turned to the treeline, "Enemy approaching."

The group heard cackling coming from the trees.

"Fuck me sideways." He groaned.

"Later, I promise." Colette purred.

"We need guns. Now." Owen said, ignoring her.

Colette held up her retrieved AK-74, "Owen looked at it, then at her, That's it?"

Colette shrugged, "Dude, I'm a pilot, not a walking armory," her eyes lit up, "Actually I AM a walking armory!"

She ran over to the Hind and tried to lower the rear door. It was stuck. Owen could hear energy weapons fire and more cackling in the trees.

Owen pointed to the door, "Freya, fix it."

Freya walked over and ripped the door off.

"STOP HURTING MY BABY!" Colette screamed.

"Sorry, but we're running out of time." Owen said as he stepped into the Hind and was surrounded by all of the ordnance they had used on the SAR mission for G3 and her team.

He grinned, "Thank you MP-40."

He found his shotgun strapped in and loaded it with slug rounds. Everything else was ammo for guns he didn't have access to. He exited the Hind just in time to see Scarecrow's body fly into view and hit the ground near him. Owen saw the spike he had used on Lilly before the crash.

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck." He said out loud as he walked over and removed the spike. Scarecrow's eyes shot open and she leapt to her feet. Her drones shot towards her from the trees. She looked at the spike in Owen's hand, then to Owen. He dropped it and held his hand up.

"Go easy, I'm not here to hurt you." Owen said.

Scarecrow's eyes went back to the spike, then back to Owen.

"Thank...you. "She said flatly.

"Oooooh Scaaaarecroooooow. Where are ya, you weakling?"

Owen looked over to Freya, "Hide in the Hind, hit her when I give the word, Colette you stay there until we're done."

Freya nodded and darted off, Colette looked at Owen hard, before she followed.

"You should go as well. Alchemist will be upset if you die." Scarecrow told him.

Owen looked up at the night sky, then to Scarecrow, he grinned.

"I dunno, Seems like a good a time as any to die, don't you think?"

Scarecrow gave him a blank stare, "I see why she shows interest in you, you're both very similar."

Owen frowned but said nothing. They stood in silence until the rustle of leaves announced Lilly's arrival. She looked at Scarecrow, her good eye glowing red.

"I found you and...you? You're alive?" She looked at Owen in confusion.

Owen shrugged, "I get that a lot."

Lilly laughed, "Excellent, I'm going to rip out your fucking spine after that stunt you pulled."

Owen grinned at her, "Come over here and try it bitch."

She darted forward and Owen remained where he stood, a grin still on his face. Scarecrow's drones fired at Lilly as she ran.

"Freya! Now!"

Freya sped out from the back of the Hind and stopped in front of Owen. She adjusted her footing and ran at Lilly, who slowed in surprise. Freya clothes lined her. Lilly went down hard. Owen sprinted forward, shotgun in hand. Once he got close he aimed at Lilly's chest, and slam fired as fast as he could. The first slug just dented her chest, but the second and third actually did damage.

"ENOUGH!" Lilly roared.

She grabbed Owen's leg and threw him at Freya who jumped back to catch him. Lilly leapt up just as Scarecrow ran at her with the spike in hand. Lilly dodged Scarecrow's lunge and wrenched the spike from her grasp. Lilly spun it around and stabbed Scarecrow with it, causing the Ringleader to drop again. Lilly turned back towards Owen but froze, her one eye open in fear.

From behind him, Owen could hear clapping.

"You're quite the scrapper now aren't you, Lilith?"

"Alchemist..."

"Yes, I've been tracking you for a while now, and I have to say, you've been very busy haven't you."

Lilly/Lilith shook her head and glared at Alchemist, "You're not taking me back there."

Alchemist came to a stop next to Owen and Freya, he looked at her face and felt his blood run cold.

"Oh, that's where you're wrong, dear Lilith. See, I have questions for you, and I will get my answers." She stated.

Lilith turned to run, but Alchemist was on her in a flash. She slammed her foot down into Lilly's back, and pulled a small device out of a pouch at her waist. She bent down, whispered something into Lilly's ear, Owen could hear her whimper in fear. Alchemist then shoved the device into the base of Lilly's neck, causing the doll to go limp. Alchemist hoisted the new captive over her shoulder, she turned to Owen and pointed to Scarecrow.

"Darling, could you help her out again?" She asked sweetly.

Owen nodded, and removed the device. Scarecrow shook her head and tried to stand up, but stumbled. Owen moved forward to steady her.

"You're such a gentleman." Alchemist said.

"Thank you again." Scarecrow whispered.

Owen nodded but said nothing.

"Well, we must be going," Alchemist hefted Lilly/Lilith. "I have a lot of work to do, plus Scarecrow is going to need some repairs." She blew Owen a kiss, "See you soon Darling!"

With that, they vanished into the night.

Owen shook his head and walked back to the Hind.

"Hey Colette, it's safe now!" He called out, then muttered, "I think."

"I uh...might need some help, I got stuck behind these ammo crates trying to hide." Colette called back.

Owen shook his head and stepped inside, "Where the hell are you?"

"Behind the crates you idiot, you have to climb over." She snapped.

"Oh."

He climbed over the crates and was met with a very naked Colette laying on an emergency blanket. She winked at him, before grabbing him by the front of his vest, and dragging him down behind the crates with her.