Welcome to Combat Exercise II, Part One! Ian recieves an assignment from Helian regarding advanced training ops with the Military and has been instructed to bring Echelon One and M4A1 with him.
So... I can't wait 'till my birthday since that's when my supervised account goes unrestricted and I can post the mountain of fanarts (both digital and hand-drawn,) self-made memes, and other things I've got onto Reddit, as well as return to the Frontline and give Sangvis Ferri hell. Of course, because the art has evolved over the course of a year or two there'll be quite the change in art style (although I'm very fond of my current style, shame I can't show you it right now.)
As for why I'm not putting out chapters quickly enough I only have 6 hours and 30 minutes, give or take, to use my tablet per day until my birthday, and I'm not able to min-max the amount of words I can write in a small amount of time every single day or I'll burn out and go on hiatus for a couple months (plus, no WiFi connection, my old phone getting shot up because a sibling stole it too much, and a bumrushed move really fucked me over in the long run during 2022,) so please bear with me some more.
By the way, the IOP Wiki now has high-res renders of Kalina and Persica in GFL 2 (which is awesome,) but unfortunately for me, Kay-Kay's suit jacket includes a fucking URNC pin on the left lapel, which of course implies that she's in the URNC and thus fucks over my little headcanon for GFL 2 bigtime.
Goddamnit, MICA, you really know how to break our hearts, don't ya?
And this goes double for UMP45's character song "Clandestine Memory," by the way. God, I nearly cried just listening to it, it was so somber.
(Note: the C's in KCCO are pronounced as the letter S due to letter C being a letter S in Cryllic, the type of text Russian is based around.)
Station 794, Sector 09
Ukraine, Neo-Soviet Union
July 13, 2062
Tactical Doll M4A1
"AAAAAAHHH!"
Shooting up from her spot on Commander Becker's bed with a start, M4A1 frantically darted her head in every concievable direction as she took in the room around her, her breathing fast and shallow as she realized that she was safe in his bedroom, not in the hands of the enemy surrounded her dead sisters.
"You alright, M4?" a concerned masculine voice asked, and she had to suppress an anxious jolt as her new handler set his hands on her pajama-clad shoulders and turned her to face him, the lack of light in the room making her have to squint to see him without her NVG lenses on.
"Y-Yeah, I'm okay..." she feebly replied, not fooling him in the slightest.
"Doubt it. Don't worry, I get nightmares too." the Commander told her calmly, letting go of her. "If you need someone to talk to, then I'm right here."
"R-Right..."
Looking to the bedside table she faintly saw the numbers 4:35 on the pre-WW3 digital clock present, the fact that she'd woken the Commander up so early making her feel bad for ruining his beauty sleep.
"Sorry for waking you..." she apologized to him, looking down towards the bed.
"It's fine, I couldn't sleep either." the ex-soldier admitted, getting off his bed to turn his desktop lamp on, the amber light from it soon filling the room and allowing her to see him in greater detail. "Anything you want to have to try and get back to sleep?"
"I'm not sure..."
"I could get AK to lend you some of her liquor if you want." he offered, pulling up a PDA from his desk before she made a request.
"Mn, could you hold me... for a bit...?" the brunette asked shyly, cheeks reddened and her gaze averted.
The Commander made a thoughtful face, cupping his chin and thinking about something in his head (probably the wrath he'd incur from M16A1 if she ever learned) before shrugging and rejoining her on the bed, wrapping his arms around her slim waist from behind and pulling her against him.
"This good?" he asked calmly.
"Yes." she admitted with a blush.
"Good to hear. Want me to sing you a song?"
She wasn't sure what he had in mind, but she nodded anyways, slowly relaxing in the Commander's arms.
"Alright, I'm gonna go with 'Over The Rainbow' by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole." he told her. "Calmest song I know that isn't in a video game, by the way."
"It's okay, please start."
"Alright..."
Starting the song off with simple vocals, the older one amongst them sang in a calm, peaceful voice that was so unlike the much harsher one he used in the field it was like it was a different person entirely, but given that it was "the calmest song he knew," it was to be expected.
"Somewhere, over the rainbow..."
"Way, up high..."
"And, the, dreams that you dream of..."
"Once in a lullaby-y-y, y-y-y..."
"Somewhere, over the rainbow..."
"Blue birds fly..."
"And, the, dreams that you dream of..."
"Dreams really do, come true-ue-ue, ue-ue-ue..."
"Someday I'll wish upon a star, wake up where the clouds are far behind..."
"Meeee, where trouble melts like a lemon drop..."
"High above the chimney top..."
"That's where..."
"You'll find me, oh..."
While he wasn't the best singer in the world his voice was by no means bad, her earlier tensions melting away as she listened to the soothing song resonate throughout the room.
"Somewhere, over the rainbow..."
"Bluebirds fly..."
"And, the, dreams that you dare to..."
"Why, oh why, can't I-I-I, I-I-I...?"
"Someday I'll wish upon a star, wake up where the clouds are far behind..."
"Meeee, where trouble melts like a lemon drop..."
"High above the chimney top..."
"That's where..."
"You'll find me, oh..."
"Somewhere, over the rainbow..."
"Way, up high..."
"And, the, dreams that you dare to..."
"Why, oh why, can't I-I-I, I-I-I...?"
Resuming the vocals the song began with the Commander kept a careful look at her expression as she enjoyed his singing, a blissful look decorating her face as the song ended and she sighed in contentment.
"How was that? I actually haven't sang anything in years, so I think I got a bit rusty." he admitted softly, looking her in the eye.
"It was great, Commander..." M4A1 replied honestly, smiling softly. "Thank you for singing it to me."
"You're welcome, M4. If you're anything like me, then you're probably not getting any sleep after that, so why don't I find something we can do to pass the time before we've got to work?"
"Um, what do you have available?"
The Commander cupped his chin in thought, listing off things he had available to him in his head before he decided on something.
"Kalina left her Xbox in here for us to play splitscreen MP after work hours, so we could make use of it right now."
While that sounded great, there was one problem: M4A1 had never touched a gaming console in her admittedly short lifespan, and according to that Kalina woman he'd been quite the avid gamer even during the War, so the idea of getting her ass kicked by a veteran gamer was distinctly unappealing.
Sensing this, the dark-haired man simply chuckled and patted her shoulder reassuringly.
"Don't worry, if it's your first time gaming I won't take us to PvP right away." he told her reassuringly. "So, you in?"
Without the fear of utter humiliation in the way her answer was a bit obvious, eager to try something new.
"I'm in..."
For the next couple of hours they played Modern Warfare 2's Special Ops mode, first starting with The Pit training area to get her familiar with the game's weapons and movement, he then took her to some actual missions, including one set in the post-disaster Chernobyl, a snowmobile race down a mountain, a showdown on the Golden Gate Bridge between US Army Rangers and the Russian Federation's VDV, and an action-packed defense mission around a fictional Burger Town joint.
Despite her relative newbie status M4A1 performed decently well during the missions, falling to Attack Dogs and ghillie-suit snipers numerous times but bearing good accuracy and reflexes in general, her indecisiveness shining in those two and a half hours and giving the Commander a good demonstration of what he needed to fix in her operating paradigm.
But for once her mind wasn't plagued by the thought of her stranded team, and of course she was glad that her first interactions with a human that wasn't Persica or Helian were actually good ones, considering how unused to social encounters she was.
And unfortunately, all good things had to come to and this occured when someone knocked on the bedroom door.
"It's unlocked, come on in!" the Commander called out as he paused their game, watching as the door opened and M1911 skipped merrily into the room.
"Good morning, Comma— w-wait, what's M4 doing here?" the blonde HG spluttered as she noticed the pajama-clad girl sitting cross-legged next to him.
"Persica told me she had to be in my bedroom until her team was found." the officer replied cooly. "Good morning, by the way."
"Um, w-we didn't do anything lovey-dovey or anything...!" M4A1 squeaked, hurriedly darting her head back and forth between the Commander and M1911 as she tried to reassess their closeness.
"I expected that, and if you say anything about us bein' together you're getting bonked on the head." the latter one replied, pointing a finger at her.
From behind her position at the door the elite could see MP41 standing behind her with her camera and notepad out, a cheeky grin on her face as she watched the scene go down. Without even thinking she hurriedly grabbed her wireless controller and chucked it at the snitch, striking her with a clean headshot and knocking the batteries out of it as the Gestapo wannabe toppled to the ground, slightly concussed.
"Nice throw..." M1911 trailed off as she turned to see MP41's downed form. "And I thought I told you to be careful, dumbass!"
"Scheiße..."
"Bruh, imagine getting whacked with a controller." the Commander chuckled mirthfully, facepalming before turning to his older subordinate. "Anyways, am I needed at the moment?"
"Yes sir, Helian wants you to put M4 through live-fire exercises with us for more advanced training." she replied dutifully. "She's waiting to speak with you in your office at the moment and I told her I'd get you, so you gotta go."
"Got it, we'll be there in five. Dismissed." the Commander responded, getting out of the bed and grabbing a spare set of clothes, picking out a spare outfit for M4A1 as well before throwing it to her.
Catching it before it hit her she followed him out of bed as M1911 left the bedroom and picked through it, happy to see everything in place, especially the skull-patterned scarf M16A1 had given to her after she'd returned from a solo operation.
"What's this, Big Sis?"
"Scarf I found. Belonged to a soldier from the War, I think."
"Oh... Um, won't it clash with what I'm wearing?"
"Nah, it'll look great on you. Here, lemme put it on. See? Now you look just like a fearsome US Special Forces operator."
"Guess so..."
"You seem awfully attached to that scarf, M4." the Commander suddenly said, already dressed up with the exception of his coat, beret, and gloves. "Was it a gift?"
Returned to the present day M4A1 immediately started changing clothes, shedding them as quickly as possible before slipping into her ribbed leotard, then getting started with her other clothes.
"Y-Yes, from M16..." she replied hastily, pulling her black shorts up her legs before tying her jacket around her waist and getting her boots on. "She thought it belonged to a soldier from the War."
"Huh. Wonder if it was Matheson's..."
She didn't know who this Matheson was, but she soon figured they were a member of the Commander's old squad and tied the scarf he'd mentioned around her neck, pulling her green armband up her arm before sticking a small radio into the gap between it and her arm and putting her headset on.
"Alright, I'm ready to go." she told him as he got his necktie on— or struggled to do so, muttering about having "spent the last two months putting neckties on" as he did so.
"Good for you, but you think you could help with this?" he grumbled to her.
Suppressing a giggle she approached him and quickly tied the black necktie up properly before helping get his coat on as well.
"Thanks." the dark-haired man told her, patting her head in thanks and making her blush. "Let's go."
And without further ado he put his beret on and wrenched the door open, stepping out and holding it open for her to follow suit, shutting it once she did and starting towards his office at a brisk pace.
Commander Ian Becker
"How was your first day at 794, M4?"
Sitting in his office as Helian asked M4A1 about her first day at his base, Ian absentmindedly drummed his fingers on the desk while the timid girl gave her reply, propping his head up with his other arm as well.
"It's good here, miss Helian, and the Commander's very friendly and understanding." she replied, smiling at him not-so-discreetly. "Although, have you seen anything on my sisters?"
"Unfortunately not, but the Sangvis battlenet would be crawling with activity if any of them were captured." his direct superior replied with a sigh. "We've got every frontline Commander we've got looking for them at the moment, however, so don't get worked up over it."
"That's good news, but 1911 said something about a live-fire exercise you wanted me to do." Ian cut in.
"I recieved your report on M4A1, Commander, and I agree with your assessment. Of course, Persica might be a bit iffy on the idea of additional training but she desperately needs it. The Army's lending us one of their training facilities to use in return for securing their hardware on the 11th, so you should have plenty of resources to make use of."
"A military training facility?" he asked, wondering how the soldiers onsite would feel about having Griffin operatives using their facilities.
"They're fine with it, and they've got a dedicated Doll team to aid your efforts as well." Helian explained. "This is also a good opportunity for you to recieve advanced training in commanding operations, especially since you've taken on the task of reuniting the AR Team."
"Sounds good to me. When will we depart?"
"0900 Hours. The facility is in the mainland, about a hundred-fifty miles away from your base, and your pilot already has instructions to get there. Dismissed."
As the hologram of his boss dematerialized, Ian sighed to himself and turned to M4A1, standing up.
"I do not want to be around those bastards again, but their non-human-wave tactics do work surprisingly well." he told her before picking up his PDA off the desk. "Go find Echelon One and bring them to the helipad, I'll be right there."
"Yes, sir." the beautiful Doll replied, snapping a quick salute before leaving the room, drawing his eye the whole way out.
I really don't get paid enough for this shit.
Approaching A Military Training Facility, Russia
Neo-Soviet Union
"So um, do you know anyone here or are we going in cold?"
Now en route to a military training facility in the Kaluga Oblast, the group (which consisted of Echelon One, M4A1, and the Commander) were riding in one of the Blackhawks and awaiting their arrival, the sky overcast as it always seemed to be in the NUSSR and the wind a little strong. Furthermore, the Dolls had traded their outfits for Flecktarn, OCP, Jietai (Japanese Flecktarn,) and EMR uniforms, a Griffin shield marked on their load-bearing chest rigs as well, as he'd wanted them to look as professional as they could to impress the Army.
"I did a job for Colonel Antonov two days ago, and according to Helian the squad he sent for us to assist is also onsite." Ian replied to M1911's question. "I don't like that I worked with them in the first place but I at least found MP41, M500, and MG3 there."
"Huh."
Suddenly AK-47 perked up as if she remembered something good and snapped her gloved fingers.
"My sister's in this facility at the moment, so you guys get to meet her when we get there!" she told them elatedly, suddenly grinning like a madman as the prospect of seeing her family rang in her head.
"You on good terms with her?"
The sole Russian amongst them nodded readily.
"Good idea to get us in uniform, by the way, she hates bright colors and impractical outfits."
"I.E. miniskirts and dresses." Ian said knowingly, looking at the ones who wore them on a daily basis.
"Hit the nail on the head, Boss." she chuckled before also giving her teammates a glare as well.
Considering you're the only one on your team that even wears something other than a skirt, I'm sure you know that, too.
"It's a bit stiff, though..." FN-49 mused, tugging at the collar of her own uniform jacket from in her seat as she was clearly unused to it.
"Shouldn't happen too often, 49, I just want the Army to not think of the company as some kind of insane asylum." he replied to her comment.
Why's the dress code here so lax, though? This is a private military contractor, so you'd think the employees would wear stuff that's more sensible on the field.
"Hey, uh, why is the dress code so lax in the company?" he asked out of curiosity. "You'd think that a PMC would have a proper uniform of sorts for its combat personnel."
"Griffin does a lot of pro-Doll stuff in its marketing, PR, and general life, so not making the Dolls wear a uniform all the time helps them feel a bit more free than they would otherwise." M1911 explained readily. "Also, Sangvis can detect IFF tags from a good distance away so camoflague loses its usefulness against them and skirts are commonplace because we can have a free range of motion with our legs as opposed to pants."
"Makes sense, although in my experience, proper uniforms suggest that a group is organized and has the resources to outfit all its personnel with a single— fuck, I just remembered we're fielding firearms from the 1940s and older, and my squad alone had four different cartridges in use, so that's a bit of a moot point."
"What cartridges?"
"5.56x45 was the most common, though Shi Jun and Seth used 7.62x51, Jack, Matheson, and Jordan had .277 Fury, and our handguns all used 9mm." he explained. "Russians were in the same boat, with 5.45x39, 7.62x39, 7.62x54R, and their own 9mm cartridge in play."
"About other Dolls' outfits, M16 told me once that Persica's very... 'pent-up,' and that her stress slipped into the second-gen Dolls' programming to some level, whatever thst means..." an OCP-clad M4A1 timidly commented, making every other Doll in the Blackhawk look at her incredulously.
"Pfft..." Ian stifled his laughter while facepalming. "That's way too believable..."
Makes sense that the crazy catwoman can't get some action so her repression leaks into her creations as a result...
"Ouch, and Kalina says that Helian's the one that never gets laid." AK-47 added, shaking her head in disbelief.
"Too bad I don't know anyone who'd stick his dick in crazy..." M1911 added with a merry chuckle.
M4A1 looked like she was totally lost about what they're talking about, the fact that she'd likely been shielded from that part of life oh-so-obvious as the pure maiden merely raised an eyebrow in confusion.
Persica, you better not make me ruin her innocence. he thought in his head.
"Oy, we're about to land, so be ready to deal with those assholes as soon as you step out!" the pilot, an American if he wasn't mistaken, called out from his seat.
"Affirmative!" he called back, looking towards the ground at the large compound below them, internally dreading his next encounter with the Neo-Soviet Union's armed forces.
"Ah, Commander, we meet again!"
Yeah, someone shoot me please.
As soon as they landed Ian's dreadful fears came true as not only Colonel Antonov was present on the helipad, but also the leader of the squad he worked with on the 11th.
"Yeah we do, Colonel." he replied, shaking the officer's hand and once again feeling an overpowering desire to kill him— the importance of preserving Griffin's image and livelihood holding it back.
"So this is your new blood, eh?" a balaclava-less Sergeant Gruzinsky asked, his rough-looking face and dark eyes in full view as he pointed to M4A1.
"Spec Ops Doll M4A1, I'm just her handler for now." the Commander replied neutrally.
"Spec Ops? She doesn't look like the kind to be in a special operations unit, frankly."
"First, don't judge a book by its cover, and second, she's in possession of highly experimental technologies I cannot disclose to you, as well as an experimental Neural Cloud." he told the Sergeant, revealing only what Helian told him to reveal if asked about it before lowering his voice. "Third, you're right, she shouldn't even be on the battlefield."
Thankfully M4A1 was ignoring his comments on her, simply in awe at the size of the compound as soldiers and Dolls alike rushed through the courtyard to keep the area organized.
"So that is why she's here, no? Helian told the Colonel about her situation, so come with me, Griffin." Gruzinsky told him, turning tail and heading towards the compound entrance, his squad and the Colonel following suit.
"Everyone stay very close to me." Ian told his Dolls before he followed the Sergeant towards the building, sighing in frustration over his judgement of his girls.
"So here, we have a state-of-the-art training simulator, intended for simulating specific operations and special circumstances, as well as training against the forces of Sangvis Ferri."
Walking past a set of high-tech simulation rigs that must've cost a fortune to acquire, the group followed Colonel Antonov's ensemble through a simulator room, which Station 794 had never possessed in its lifetime despite simulators being in use since 2049, and were watching as numerous Soviet soldiers made use of them, their ponts of view displayed on the screens.
"Wonder how much of the money that bought this stuff could've gone to the people in your other territories." the Commander said in a tone that only M4A1 and M1911 could hear, as both of them were huddled beside him as per his orders.
"Imagine how much ammo and resources we could save by getting a simulator built in the base..." Howa 64 mused out loud, watching a Soviet log off a simulator for his buddy to get on it.
"Probably a lot."
Looking back towards the Soviets he saw the door ahead of them open and a four Doll team step out, clad in EMR camo and load-bearing gear as their mil-spec frames were bullet-resistant already.
The leader had pale blonde hair in a low ponytail with reddish eyes and sharp features with a highly professional air about her, and to his concern she was almost as tall as him, the AKP-44 (5.45 variant) in her hands equipped with a PSO-1 4x scope and a side-mounted laser sight. The two horizontal bars of a Sergeant sat squarely on her shoulders to denote her position and her sleeves were rolled up to reveal that she was a bit muscular under her uniform.
Her direct subordinate had platinum-blonde hair that was hanging to her waist with blue eyss, a soft face, and a slim frame. She was a much more comfortable height than the AKP-44 Doll was, and an AK-74M with (to his confusion) an EOTech holographic sight hung from a sling. A red beret sat on her head and she had a cloak secured around her neck.
The MG of the team had hair that seemed like pure silver flowing behind her, pure red eyes, a voluptuous frame (looks like the NUSSR maintained some level of consistency in their tastes, Ian thought humorously,) a height rather close to the leader's, and a PKM machine gun hanging on a sling as well. Her uniform included a modified 6B45 collared vest and a backpack to store ammo in, unlike the others.
Finally, a shorter girl with snow white hair in a ponytail and hazel eyes stood behind the rest, a sniper's hooded shawl wrapped around her shoulders and an SVD in her hands.
Immediately the AKP-44 snapped a crisp salute at Colonel Antonov, her subordinates following suit before he put them at ease.
"This is Fireteam Bodark, a Doll team serving under my command." the Colonel explained to his guests. "They commonly fight alongside my human forces, and they will be aiding you in training M4A1 from time to time, including today."
"Pleased to meet you, Bodark." Ian told the squad as a whole, approaching the team and holding his hand out, allowing the AKP-44 Doll to shake it.
"AKP-44, pleased to meet you, Commander Becker." she greeted curtly, her voice a bit gruff.
"Did Griffin get the gun-as-a-name thing from the Army?"
"Da. Director Kryuger was in the MVD before Griffin." AKP-44 replied to his question before pointing to the platinum-blonde behind her. "This is AK-74M, my second-in-command."
"Pleased to meet you, Commander. I hope my sister hasn't caused much trouble to you." she greeted, confirming her identity as AK-47's younger sister.
"She hasn't." he said honestly, indicating AK-47 herself as she waved. "Actually, she's been performing very admirably as of lately..."
That caught her attention, causing her to raise an eyebrow at the Doll in question as she spoke with M4A1.
"Really?"
"Yup. Downed two Ringleaders back-to back over the past week." he told her, causing her to nod in newfound admiration for her elder sibling. "Anyways, uh, pleased to meet you, PKM."
"Just PK will do." the voluptuous MG Doll told him stiffly, seemingly bothered by his mere presence as they shook hands.
"She's not good around people, so don't take her stiffness too harshly." the SVD Doll told him before offering a hand. "SVD, at your service."
Shaking her hand, he turned towards the Colonel and addressed him, asking about what was next.
"Of course, follow me." he said, going through the same door Fireteam Bodark entered through while the other Soviets followed suit, Ian motioning for his own units to join him as he left the simulator room as well.
"Here we have one of our live-fire training courses and the first one you'll be using today."
The place in question looked so much like the "Stay Sharp" course from Modern Warfare 3 it wasn't even funny to him, the futuristic theme of the place and the Sangvis-imprinted metal targets the only things to throw that notion off, as well as the Soviet flags waving proudly in the grounds.
"It wouldn't happen to be a speed-based course, would it?" Ian asked as he looked at the layout of the course, a firing range with the target drones Griffin often used right beside the starting point much like the Special Ops mission the course looked like.
"What makes you think that, Griffin?" Sergeant Gruzinsky asked as he took his place on the platform overlooking the course.
"I made use of a course like this recently." he replied, not revealing that it was in a video game. "M4 did too, which helped me identify her flaws better."
"I understand, and yes, it is. Speaking of, you want her to go first?"
"Yup. M4, you're up! Weapon tables are to the right of the starting line!"
At that statement M4A1 hurriedly rushed down the platform and towards the weapon tables to gear up, grabbing spare ammo for her two weapons before standing at the starting line.
Watching as the Colonel turned a warning signal on to show the course was active, he soon addressed M4A1 when the Soviet officer gave him instructions for the course.
"Okay, your goal is simple: eliminate every hostile target in the course in one minute while minimizing civilian casualties." the Commander said through the loudspeakers. "Anyways, it'll start the moment you step through the line, so it's on your go."
"Understood!" the AR Team leader yelled up to him, slotting her magazines into her ammo pouches before performing a weapons check on both weapons, moving to the white line as AK-47 and AK-74M practiced at the neighboring firing range, AKP-44 watching them as they did it and the gunfire from their respectve rifles ringing throuh the area.
Meanwhile everyone else stood upon the elevated platform to watch the elite's performance, bullet-resistant glass surrounding it to keep them from taking a bullet by mistake and cameras throughout the course ensuring they had a full view of the course and thus could enjoy every part of the show.
Then, after she took a moment to steel herself M4A1 shot forth, ready to do her best.
Tactical Doll M4A1
"First set of targets, take 'em out!"
As the two targets popped up with one on a wrecked LAV (Light Assault Vehicle,) M4A1 brought her weapon up and effortlessly took them out, her nimble feet carrying her past the eliminated targets and past the LAV, a second set of targets appearing with a civilian present on one.
Marking it as a friendly she quickly fired two more bullets at the hostile targets' painted heads, sending them to the ground as the machinery moving them shifted with the hits and she took note of her magazie count, twenty-six out of thirty rounds remaining in her magazine.
"Around the corner, move it!"
Going aroung the barrier the two targets were behind she was greeted with a two-storey building, hostiles inside the windows as well as on the roof much like in The Pit she ran with the Commander, the thought making her more comfortable than not as she targeted the simulated Jaegers in the upper floor, eliminating them with two quick shots before taking out the Vespids in the lower ones and the door, a harsh bell ringing at the successful clearing.
"Inside the building, move, move, move!"
Running inside she saw a long hallway with a flight of stairs at the end of it, and as she made to enter it a Ripper target swung into view, blocking her path forward.
"Don't bother shooting it, just punch it!"
Following the order she clenched her robotic hand into a fist and slammed it into the target, denting it with the force and and pushing it out of the way, allowing her to proceed.
"Up the stairs, move, move, move!"
Going down the hallway and up the stairs, she was greeted with multiple targets shifting side-to-side, including one or two civilians, and she quickly put down all the enemy targets before proceeding— a harsh buzzer sounding after a shot.
"Watch your fire, there's civilians onsite!"
Confused as to why he said that she looked down at the eliminated targets as she passed by and to her irritation saw a civilian target behind one of her kills, collateral damage thanks to bullet overpenetration. Running out of the building regardless she rounded the corner to see a bridge between her and a building, two Dinergate targets pushing forwards across the bridge while two more targets popped up at the sandbags in the middle of the bridge.
Rushing forwards she took the Dinergates down and then turned to the other targets— her gun clicking empty after taking out the first one.
"Just switch to your other weapon, it's faster than reloading!" the PA called out when she attempted to reload.
Suddenly reminded of her pistol M4A1 let her rifle hang from its sling and drew her M9A1, taking out the other target and running past the downed Dinergates as a second-to-last set of targets popped up, two on the rooftop and one on the ground.
Much like the beginning of the course she prioritized the rooftop enemies before taking out the ones on her level, the double doors to the building swinging open to permit her entry and allowing her to rush in— only to see something very weird: a man in uniform being taken hostage by a Dummy dressed in purple and black in an attempt to recreate a Sangvis Doll.
However, she only hesitated for a milisecond before her M9A1 was leveled and a round tore through the Dummy's head, ending the exercise as its dead body hit the ground.
"Ahh, thanks for not taking my head off..." the freed man said as he sat down on the desk behind him.
"W-Why are the Soviets putting actual people as hostages in a training exercise? What if I'd missed?" the elite asked concernedly, causing the man to laugh.
"It's fine, I'm just an A-Doll intended for training assistance." he explained, pointing to a tag on his uniform to show that. "You're not the first one to ask me that, by the way."
"Oh."
"Forty-five seconds and a single count of collateral damage. I know you can do better than that." the Commander said over the loudspeakers. "Get back here so another one can have a go."
Yelling an affirmative out she ran out of the building and all the way back to the platform, nearly tripping on a couple of the downed targets but reaching her goal nonetheless snd stopping in front of the Commander, who was inspecting her results on a monitor.
"You got 100% accuracy on that, nice work, but those forty-five seconds could easily be cut down on and you could avoid civilian casualties entirely if you're careful enough, but that shot on the Dummy in the end was quite clean." he told her, making her feel a little better about her performance.
"Thank you, Commander..."
"Now... Could you put AKP-44 through this? I wanna see what she can do." the Commander inquired to the Colonel, watching his expression carefully before he nodded.
"AKP, you're up!"
Tactical Doll AKP-44
Sranding at the starting line with her gear already loaded up and ready to go, AKP-44 looked towards the observation platform to see that mercenary Commander watching her with a weird sort of focus, along with the "elite" T-Doll he brought with him as she nervously drummed her fingers on the railing of the platform.
Of all the Dolls that could have wound up as an elite, how did someone like M4A1, who was much better fit as a housewife or something like that, get picked as one? She did perform decently well on the course and the stories she'd heard about her painted a picture of an at least capable operator, but that careless count of collateral damage and her hesitation to shoot the hostage-taker were things the soldier had never done, even when she was new to the NSGF.
Then again, Griffin and Kryuger was known for taking in civilian Dolls with painfully-clear problems and even literal mental health issues before giving them FCCs and then sending them to the frontlines.
However, despite her confusion over the PMC's strange practices, she still remembered that she had a job to do, the thought prompting her to draw her weapon, take a deep, calming breath to steady herself, then shot forwards with the force of a bullet.
"First set of targets, go, go, go!"
Setting her weapon to semi, she brought it up and put a pair of rounds directly into the targets' heads before a second even passed, rushing past the weecked LAV and seeing the next three targets pop up, appropriately taking only the enemy ones out like she did the first two an leaving the civilian unhurt as she rounded the bend and came face-to-face with the two-storey building.
Aided by her familiarity with the course, the blonde immediately shot down the upper-floor targets and then struck down the lower-floor contacts with practiced ease before rushing into the building, gripping her rifle's buttstock as the melee-only target appeared, swinging it at the slab of metal before the PMC Commander could tell her what to do and seamlessly passing by, going up the stairs with lightning-quick steps and reaching the second floor with fourteen and a half seconds ticked off the clock.
Raising her weapon AKP-44 immediately shot the same target M4A1 collateralled that civilian with and targeted the rest of them, striking them down and passing by them as sh left the building, the sun shining down at her as the Soviet Doll rounded the corner and brought her gun up to bear, two 5.45x45 rounds finding themselves puncturing the Dinergates befee they even moved more than five feet.
Going forth she took out the targets behind the sandbags with well-placed shots befor the second-to-last set appeared, prompting her to shoot at them as she ran by— a single shot missing to her annoyance as it barely missed its upper floor target but corrected by a follow-up shot that left her rifle's magazine empty.
As she burst through the door her handgun was already in her hand and leveled as the Sangvis-imitating Dummy she'd killed so many times before brought the hostage A-Doll up to as a meatshield, only to get the same fate as all the other targets and crumple to the floor with a hole in its head, ending the exercise.
"Thanks for not taking my head off, AKP." he breathed out, sitting on the desk as her results popped up in her field of view, showing her final time of 32 seconds.
I know I can do this faster, but for now it should give that FNG a goal to shoot for... AKP-44 thought as she turned around to leave the course, wanting to see the looks on the Griffin representatives' faces at her performance over them.
Commander Ian Becker
"That was insane..."
Watching as the red-eyed Bodark leader left the course with a thirty-two second run (although only a 97% accuracy rating) and no civilian casuslties, Ian suddenly felt quite bad for M4A1 as she sighed to herself, her significantly worse performance visibly stinging at her while she watched the military Doll clear the course.
Safe to say, the difference between a retrofitted civilian Doll like AK-47 or M1911 and a full-fledged military android like AKP-44 was quite apparent, her movements fluid and masterful unlike most Dolls he'd seen— only second to the special forces Dolls other NATO nations built using stolen blueprints back in the War, and her brutal efficiency as she gunned down each and every target was almost frightening.
"As you can see, this is the level a mil-spec Tactical Doll like M4A1 should be at, so you better work hard to get her there." Sergeant Gruzinsky told him matter-of-factly. "Also, you need to tell whoever's in charge of her to stop being so overprotective. I get that she's being raised from the 'ground up' in a way but it's a little hard to develop the right way if you're being sheltered your whole life."
"Yeah." he agreed with him before looking to the Colonel. "Anything else to make use of?"
"Yes, Commander, come with me." he said before leaving the platform and rallying both his Doll squad and his human squad to him, heading towards a greyish building marked with the NUSSR's coat of arms above the entrance.
Doing the same with his own Dolls he followed them across the ground with his own girls in tow, awe and jealousy adorning their faces as they spoke of AKP-44's performance.
"Did you see how fast she was? There were times where I couldn't even see her clearly!" MP5 gushed.
"Not to mention her shot placement! How is she not in the Spetsnaz?!" M1911 added her two cents.
"The Spetsnaz GRU only accepts the best of the best, and 74M told me she's trying to join the KCCO at the moment, anyways." AK-47 explained, more knowledgeable than the others on the NUSSR military due to her connections with AK-74M.
The stylized imperial eagle logo of the WW3-era KCCO flashed in his mind at the mere mention of them, uncomfortable memories of his experiences with them resurfacing in the process.
"KCCO...?"
"Elite Soviet special operations forces." Ian replied, suppressing his anger at them in favor of re-earning his old "Google" nickname. "They're comprised of the very best soldiers the Neo-Soviet Union has to offer, and their robotics are another beast entirely compared to SF. In fact, they are not even a part of the Spetsnaz GRU and are considered an entirely different force from them, plus they even got a holiday dedicated to them back in the Russian Federation days."
"Interesting..." M4A1 mused, sticking so close to him that they were practically joimed at the hip and drawing M1911's eye to them, jealousy (weirdly enough) manifesting in her features as a result.
Jealous about something, 1911? he thought humorously as he passed through the doorway of the greyish building— which apparently contained indoor shoot houses, gunfire ringing out as Soviets soldiers conducted live-fire exercises around them.
"These facilities should be very useful to you, Commander." Colonel Antonov told him from up front. "Please make full use of them during your visits here."
"You're speaking as if I'm gonna be here more than once!" he called out to the Soviet officer thanks to their distance.
"I don't mind if you use the facilities here, as long as you're willing to aid us in return from time to time."
While he wasn't fond of doing more jobs for the Soviets the idea of having access to a top-of-the-line facility was nigh-irresistible, especially since his Dolls could directly learn insider knowledge on Sangvis Ferri from the army that used to field them.
"Sounds fair..." he decided as they entered a prep room, ammunition crates neatly stacked along the wall with numerous weapons lining another wall, a red arrow pointing to a door with the words В зону живого огня (To Live-Fire Zone) above it, a separate door leading to an observation area.
"Ready up, we had this exercise prepped just for you." Sergeant Gruzinsky told them, pointing to the ammo crates. "Commander, the observers' room is that way, and Griffin Echelon One, gear up and go through that door."
"Yes, sir."
"Understood."
Following Antonov and Gruzinsky through the other door he traversed a couple short flights of stairs before reaching the observation room, a place full of monitors showing different rooms in the shoot house from the various cameras in place.
"Over here, Griffin." the Sergeant addressed him, waving him over.
Approaching the area he couldn't help but feel apprehensive as he stopped in front of the monitors, the lack of friendly units near him making itself known.
"Relax, I don't bite." he told him before looking towards the monitors in front of him, keying the intercom to address the Dolls. "Attention Griffin Dolls, this is Sergeant Gruzinsky of the Soviet Ground Forces speaking, and I'll be in charge of your live-fire exercises today. The gist of your current operation is this: a mere day ago, a friendly Doll carrying vital intel on Sangvis Ferri was taken captive, and after your Commander located her signal, you have been sent to save her. The arena is already set up for the exercise and a hostage is in place. Be warned: that hostage is a sentient, fully-functioning Tactical Doll, so failure to exercise caution with your shots could be quite catastrophic."
A live T-Doll? Damn, you know how to incentivise a team.
"Hang on, another live Doll?!" M4A1 freaked out on the other end. "How are they even okay with this?!"
"Because at the end of the day, that's their purpose." the Sergeant replied coldly. "Anyways, you have five minutes to gear up before the exercise starts, so get to it."
"Understood, Sergeant."
Although Ian himself felt a bit troubled by the Soviet's coldness towards his Doll he didn't tear into him for it, being smart enough not to argue with a Soviet soldier about how Dolls should be treated while an officer was present. Still bothered him, though.
"Oy, it's game-time, Griffin." Gruzinsky told him and snapped him out of his thoughts, tossing him a wireless headset. "Colonel Antonov wants to see how you perform as an officer first-hand, so don't disappoint him."
"Got it." he replied, putting the headset on before turning to the monitors, pulling up the files relevant to the exercise. "I apologize for the Sergeant's coldness girls, but you've got more important matters at hand. Right now, I need you to perform at your very best today, because I'm not about to let the company down after we've done so good so far. Kapiche?"
"Kapiche." M4A1 told him, shaking her horror about a live Doll being the hostage away.
"Good. The enemy is armed with low-powered stun guns like the target drones we use, as to minimalize the chance of permanent damage infliction, but that's no excuse to be any less careful. Be warned: you've only got five minutes to secure the hostage after you start, so don't fuck around and don't cause trouble for Fireteam Bodark."
"Understood, sir." M1911 replied in lieu of M4A1.
Pulling up the overhead view of the place, he immediately started to search each and every inch of the display for areas he could use to his advantage or area that enemy units could position themselves at for maximum coverage of each choke point created by the layout of the shoot house, marking them down in his head as the Doll squads geared up in the armory.
There was something he wanted to clear up, first, the thought prompting him to turn to Sergeant Gruzinsky and address him.
"Sergeant?"
"Yeah?"
"Who do you act so harsh towards us?" he asked him, remembering how he behaved during the raid on the smugglers' den. "If we're gonna be running into each other often, I don't want there to be anything screwing up our cooperation."
In response to the question the weathered-looking soldier turned to him and sighed, holding his face in his hand before he replied.
"Old wounds, I guess." he admitted. "I wasn't very happy to hear that a former US soldier was gonna be working with me and my men, and I'm sure you felt the same about working with me."
"Yeah, you bombed my homeland." Ian told him.
"And you invaded my capital." Gruzinsky shot back seamlessly. "But hey, what the fuck can we do about it except for move on?"
"Right? So... what gave you the idea of using IOP Dolls in the Army after SF went Skynet? Why not Svarog's models?" the Commander asked, referring to a heavy industrial manufacturer that dated back to the Russian Federation.
"The Cyclops is a scary motherfucker to be up against, but that goes both ways, and the Army didn't want its troops terrified by the Dolls they were supposed to be working with, so IOP mil-spec T-Dolls were sent to us for combined human/Doll forces instead."
"Makes sense. Although I wouldn't really know too much about those kinds of divisions since my unit never had Dolls in it."
"You seem rather fond of your own T-Dolls, though."
"Sergeant, I'd literally been on the run for ten-to-eleven years, without any social contact for nine of those years, so they don't bother me all too much, not to mention they're so different from Sangvis I actually didn't feel anything off about them the first time we met." he readily replied.
The Sergeant looked like he was about to say something else, but a callout from M1911 interrupted him as she reported her readiness.
"Got it." the Commander simply replied to his team leader, taking his place at the command console and mentally preparing himself for the imminent exercise. "Starting the operstion in three... two... one."
Much like with FNG I, I decided to split this chapter into two parts as well due to an overwhelming amount of content (as well as a lack of a one-on-one conversation between the AK sisters.)
(Google is a nickname commonly given to soldiers who know a lot about a subject, by the way.)
Also, I might be able to get Origin Story back on track since I got some advice on what to do for it, so look forward to that if you're SAO fans. Otherwise, here's my monthly reminder that I haven't scrapped GFL: War yet, but thanks to the sheer level of research I need to make it work, as well as translations for the Russian voicelines in the Russian parts of the story, it's gonna be a long time before I post it.
Also, please check out empty (@HerobrineHunter) and his 3D GFL animations (search empty gfl on YouTube's search tab to find him, he has a pic of G3 MOD 3 as his profile pic.) Similarly, Dokutah Shikikan's GFL, Azur Lane, and Arknights videos are well-constructed and quite entertaining. His profile fic is an portrait of AK's Doctor with GFL Commander's gas mask and AL Commander's hat.
Anyways, I'll see you at Part Two!