"Someone get that fire out!"
"We have injured over here! Medic!"
"They're breaking in!"
"...Ugh." Helian tried to focus, but her vision was blurred and the world wouldn't stop spinning. The last thing she remembered was talking to Zeldri before an explosion rocked the room and knocked her off her feet.
"You alright?"
"Huh?" After a few seconds, Helian was able to stop the world from spinning and looked up to see Zeldri kneeling over her with a pained expression on his face. "Z-...Zeldri?!" Zeldri was currently holding a rack of rifles that fell over and was stopping it from crushing her. It was still full which made it extra heavy.
"Can you mo-!" Zeldri tried checking on her again but stopped when Helian suddenly reached up, grabbed his Makarov from his holster, and leveled the gun past Zeldri's head. With her free hand, she covered Zeldri's ear so the shots wouldn't completely deafen him. "!" Glancing over his shoulder revealed the falling corpse of a Vespid that had tried to enter the room which Helian quickly dispatched. Looking back at the woman beneath him, Helian held a dangerous look in her eyes as she glared at the Sangvis corpse.
"Zeldri! Mrs. Helian!" Sara and Anto rushed over and helped lift the arsenal rack off Zeldri's back. "Holy fuck! This is heavy!" With their combined strength, the three commanders were able to lift the rack up where it rocked back into place.
"Thanks," Zeldri breathed a sigh of relief. Now, both his leg and back hurt. Though at least he wasn't unconscious so he figured that was a plus. "Now-"
"Samuel, fight fires! Kelly, secure the room with your team!" Helian wasted no time in getting the panicked commanders under control as soon as she stood up. She handed Zeldri his gun back before moving to the various groups of people to get a status report.
"No rest for the wicked," Zeldri sarcastically stated as he cracked his back to relieve some of the soreness.
"If you wanted an easy life, this is the wrong line of work."
"!?" The three commanders spun around at the new voice that approached them, one they all knew.
"Mr. Kryuger!?" Anto gave a salute as Kryuger approached them.
"Sara, Anto, assist Zeldri here in securing our perimeter." While Kryuger kept his voice under control, a wave of obvious anger bled through. He was none too pleased about having his secret base being ambushed.
"Yes, sir!" Sara and Anto spoke in unison and gave a salute.
"Get our front gate secured so no more can pour into the facility." Kryuger addressed Zeldri and gave a nod to his still functional commander's tablet.
"We'll see it done," Zeldri gave a salute before turning to leave. "Let's go."
"..." Kryuger watched the three commanders leave before taking a moment to observe his surroundings. Helian had restored order to the various commanders and was mounting a defense with those who had dolls. Those commanders who didn't have dolls under their command worked to provide temporary first-aid to anyone that was injured. The all too familiar smell of burning metal and cracks of gunfire echoed around him through the base. It had been a long time since he'd personally felt like picking up his gun to fight. "Hmm." He hummed to himself before walking over and kneeling down next to someone who was lying unconscious on the floor. Taking out his spare side-arm, he softly poked their shoulder to get a rise from them. "Enough sleep, rookie."
"...?"
"You're in luck," Kryuger motioned to a rifle lying next to the person, "Only a rifle fell on you, not the entire arsenal. The name's Kryuger. Executive Officer of Griffin." While he didn't crack a smile, his tone became a bit jokey as he added, "I'm sure you've seen this face on our newsletters so often you must be sick of it. Can you still fight?" He offered the side-arm to the person. "We've been ambushed, Commander. Ensure your own safety first. Then mount a resistance to fight off Sangvis' advancement and make sure reinforcements are in position."
"...!" The sector 09 Commander nodded their head in understanding and took the pistol.
"You better realize my ability as the old soldier of the Empire era!" Nagant yelled at the advancing Sangvis units as she gunned down a Ripper squad.
"Keep them pinned!" StG44 yelled as debris sprayed the air next to her and the Earth shook. "More Jaguar rounds, coming in! Stay in cover!" StG44 and her echelon were making their way back to the facility when Sangvis attacked which meant they took the brunt of the first assault wave. They were using a toppled metal guard tower as cover, but they couldn't stop all of Sangvis' forces from entering the base with the sheer numbers difference they were facing. M2HB couldn't keep up and had to carefully pick her targets as she was running out of ammo.
"Tch. I lose to this kind of enemy...?" AA-12 was down to a single dummy link as she tried to give her team additional cover. She was even hoisting up some of the bodies of her downed dummy links, as well as those of her teammates, to try and soak some of the incoming plasma rounds.
"Just a little longer!" Their dummy links were getting whittled down. "I'm sure the Comma- SCHEIßE (CRAP)!" StG44 had only taken her eyes off the line for a second, but that was all the Aegis needed to leap out from behind cover and close the distance.
"Leader!" AA-12 dashed over and got in front of StG44 while raising her shields. The Aegis didn't care and brought down its mace hard. "F-...FUCK!" AA-12's already weakened shield buckled under the direct strike of the Aegis and its mace impacted her torso. The shotgun t-doll was tossed aside like a ragdoll. She slammed into one of the downed watchtower's twisted legs which twisted it further with the force.
"Get it!" Galil and her two remaining dummies tried to take the Aegis down, but they were on its shielded side so all it did was slightly move its arm to negate her fire.
"Fall damn yo-" StG44's rifle clicked empty. "...!" Her eyes went wide as she watched the Aegis bring its mace back up for another strike. Its three red eyes were uncaring as it stared down at the t-doll.
"I'VE~FOUND~YOU~!" Only for a pink-haired t-doll to leap from out of nowhere and grapple onto the Aegis. She didn't even use her M4 SOPMOD II rifle as she flexed her metal hands menacingly. "Louder..." She brought her hand down hard and her fingers pierced through the Aegis' reinforced face plate. The metal skeleton of the doll groaned as the t-doll ripped the Aegis' head off sending sparks, oil, and coolant spraying everywhere. "Let your voices cry out even louder! AHAHAHAHA!"
"?!" StG44 wasn't sure how to take what she was witnessing. But, fear felt like the appropriate response.
"Yo, need reinforcements?" A t-doll with an eye patch and wielding an M16 joined the defense line and started taking out Sangvis dolls.
"You're... the AR-Team?!" It was impossible not to recognize them as M4 and AR-15 caught up to M16 and SOP-II. StG44 let out a sigh of relief. "We'll gladly take the help."
"No need to get nervous." M16 flashed a confident smile at the battered dolls. "Just calmly follow us."
"Attack!" M4 pointed forwards as she relayed her Commander's orders. And, in a move that sent a wave of relief through the systems of StG44's echelon, t-dolls began pouring out of the facility all taking points and repelling the approaching Sangvis forces.
"Storozh (Watchers)! Come in, Storozh!" Zeldri's voice rang over their comms.
"Commander!?" A smile took over StG44's face as she heard her commander's voice.
"We've secured the interiors and re-established comms. How's it looking out there?" There was a pause as Zeldri looked over his tablet. "How's AA-12!?"
"Oi..." AA-12 groaned as she shakily got to her knees. A massive gash across her stomach exposed her internals, but there didn't seem to be any fatal damage. "Don't count me out so easily like that."
"Then don't snooze on the job," Zeldri retorted. He smiled knowing that if she was good enough to back talk him, she was okay. "I almost took a bullet because you slept through them entering the base."
"It would've fixed your attitude," AA-12 shot back. The ridiculousness of her commander relieved some of the stress on her emotional module. "I can still fight!"
"No," Zeldri replied, "Your echelon's already done more than enough, fall back to the gate and meet up with Commander Anto and Commander Sara's echelons. We're on defense duty."
"We'll move immediately, Commander," StG44 answered before AA-12 could voice her complaints. "Storozh, moving to the gate."
"..." Zeldri stood staring out the window of a building that overlooked the gate to the base. Sara and Anto were next to him both on their tablets keeping up with the various updates that were pouring in. They'd won the day.
"Looks like the sector 09 commander's done it again," Sara idly stated as she read the latest update. "The AR-Team's destroyed the command post Sangvis was using, so we're no longer on high alert."
"We should still keep our girls by the gate, for the time being though," Anto added as he set down his tablet and took a sip of water from a water bottle.
"Agreed." Zeldri leaned against the windowsill as he looked around the base from his vantage point. "...I don't like it."
"What?" Sara asked and walked to stand next to Zeldri.
"The leak." A while ago, Helian had informed everyone that the base's location was revealed from a data leak. Presumably, this leak was from a t-doll.
"You don't believe that...right?" Anto nervously looked out the window at all the t-dolls gathered within the base. "Sangvis has to have hacked the information from our systems. Or, maybe they were keeping an eye on all the commanders and noticed the large movement of so many people?" He tried to sound convincing, but even he didn't fully buy his own words; as much as he wanted to.
"I wish life would be that kind," Zeldri mumbled as he looked to echelon Storozh, his girls. In the downtime after the sector 09 commander repelled the invading Sangvis forces, Zeldri had sent them to receive emergency repairs at the base's facilities. Everyone was back at full strength, but was that a good thing? Zeldri trusted his t-dolls. He had grown to trust every doll on his base with his life. And, now he learns that a t-doll possibly leaked vital information to Sangvis? "...Блядь (Fuck)." Zeldri lit a cigarette in annoyance.
"They might've captured a doll?" Sara mused as she opened the window to let the smell out. "Forcefully put a backdoor into their system to fish for anything good, and send her back to us without the doll even knowing?"
"Maybe," Zeldri remarked as he took a long drag of his cigarette, "That'd be a lot easier to handle than the alternative."
"..." Neither Sara nor Anto wanted to think one of their dolls willingly betrayed them.
"Hope-"
"A moment, please."
"Mmm?" Zeldri, Sara, and Anto leaned out the window as Helian emerged from the main building and approached some of the commanders and t-dolls that had gathered outside. She raised her voice so all could hear.
"I have a very important announcement to make." She waited for a second for everyone to quiet down before proceeding, "After the screening procedure, we have discovered a t-doll that has been processing an abnormal amount of information."
"...!" Unease rapidly spread through the ranks. A t-doll had betrayed them? While many of the commanders looked shocked, none appeared more shocked than the t-dolls themselves. None of them even dared to dream of betraying Griffin or their commander, yet there was one who did. Helian waited for the murmuring to subside before she continued.
"The t-doll is, in fact, a member of the AR-Team."
"...!" Zeldri watched as the members of the AR-Team's faces all fell into shock, especially M4A1s.
"Tactical doll AR-15 of the AR Team," Helian looked to AR-15 as human security staff walked up and flanked her, "When scanning our database, we found a substantial anomaly in the server traffic you generated while uploading information. We are shutting down your communications module. Security officers will now escort you to the confinement room for further screening."
"...No," Anto's words sounded broken as he whispered them out. Sara remained silent as she continued to watch the scene unfold.
"This can't be!" SOP-II shouted with a look of anger and anguish on her face. "There must be some mistake!" The security staff exchanged a nervous glance with one another as they knew full well what SOP-II was capable of.
"Calm down, SOP-II. You're just a t-doll." AR-15 attempted to calm her teammate and diffuse the situation. "We can't disobey orders no matter how loud you yell."
"..." Zeldri carefully watched AR-15. She willingly allowed her rifle to be taken, and obediently followed Helian and the security staff. She didn't shout her innocence to the sky. She didn't reveal any hidden colors and attack. She followed orders.
"So," Sara sighed heavily, "Not even the fabled AR-Team is without fault?"
"I wouldn't be so hasty," Zeldri replied, "As hypocritical as it sounds coming from me."
"But, Mrs. Helian just confirmed that AR-15 was leaking info."
"Yeah, and AR-15 also didn't shoot her on the spot." Zeldri tapped his cigarette out the window to remove the built-up ash.
"...And?" Sara was getting confused. Zeldri figured espionage wasn't her forte, so he explained his reasoning.
"If she was a willing traitor, then her plan is stupid." Zeldri gestured to the base around them. "Defecting during the chaos of Sangvis' attack would have been the best thing to do. She could've gotten Kryuger as well as Helian, eliminating Griffin's high command, as well as a bunch of commanders. But, she followed her commander's orders, helped secure the base, and even pushed Sangvis out of the region. There's also the fact she willingly let herself be de-armed after it was revealed it was her." Zeldri flicked the dead cigarette out the window and gave a sigh. "So, she at least didn't defect."
"But, what about the leak we know for a fact is real?" Sara looked down at the remaining members of the AR-Team as they came to grips with their situation.
"Maybe you and Anto are right?" Zeldri idly mused as he watched the last of his cigarette's smoke disappear into the air. "Some new backdoor that was planted into AR-15."
"While it was a nice idea," Anto hesitantly added, "AR-15 was never 'captured' by Sangvis. While she did go missing for a while, it was revealed that she was hunting Hunter. When would it have been uploaded to her system?"
"Maybe during a field repair?" Zeldri let his mind freely think and talked out loud. "Maybe a part she used for a quick fix was bugged? I read she also had her comms offline until they linked back up with the rest of the AR-Team. Maybe a-...!" Zeldri's words caught in his throat to force himself from speaking the thought aloud. "...Nevermind."
"...?" Sara and Anto raised an eyebrow at him.
"Endlessly thinking won't fix what we can't do anything about." Zeldri diverted the conversation away from the topic. "Whatever the hole is, I'm sure once Persica is made aware she'll give it her all to close it."
"Oh definitely," Sara laughed, "I can already imagine the absurd amount of coffee she's gonna intake pulling all-nighters for this. The AR-Team's her pet project, after all."
"Right," Anto perked up at the change of mood, "Mrs. Persica will undoubtedly fix this mess in no time. So!" He clapped his hands together to get Zeldri and Sara's attention. "Once we're given the go-ahead to leave, does anyone fancy a stop at my base? PPK's got me hooked on this new green food I'd love to share with you both."
"..." Truly, Anto was a man who thought with his stomach. Sara smiled, but replied, "I'll have to pass. I promised my P38 and MP40 I'd buy them cake mixes when I next went out, and I can't keep pushing it off with excuses anymore. So, I'll be heading into the city after this to buy some for them."
"A shame, but understandable. What about you, Zeldri?"
"...I'll have to pass," Zeldri said as he looked back out the window. "Since I'm all the way out in the Urals it'll take longer for me than anyone else to get back to their base. I've probably got a lot of paperwork piled up since I brought my adjunct and I'm sure Annika is about ready to throw it all in my face."
"Ah, the woes of living far away," Anto dejectedly proclaimed, but quickly perked back up. "Bah, it's no matter. I'm sure we'll have another chance to see each other again. Perhaps when this whole thing is over?"
"Grabbing a victory drink and meal?" Sara smiled broadly, "Count me in."
"...Yeah," Zeldri chuckled at the thought and looked to Anto. "If you're paying, that is?"
"Offer an invite without being willing to pay? What sort of scoundrel do you take me for?" They all gave a laugh that cleared the air. "Well, for another time, then. It's been a pleasure, Commander Zeldri." Anto gave a salute and stood as straight as he could before taking his leave to meet up with his t-dolls.
"The same goes for me," Sara said and stretched out her hand for a handshake. "If you're ever in the neighborhood, feel free to stop by. I'll have my Springfield whip up some drinks for us."
"I'll have to take you up on that if given the chance," Zeldri smiled and shook Sara's hand before watching her leave to meet up with her own dolls. "..." Zeldri was left alone with his thoughts and turned to face out the window once more. His idea that he kept to himself from earlier crept back into his mind. He would need to have a serious talk with a certain someone when he got back to the Mountain.