Eurosky Low-Emission Infectious Disease only requires a relatively short amount of time to begin its infection process. Under acute exposure, the coughing of blood, pain in the head and stomach areas, fatigue, convulsions, and the sensation of one's bones piercing through the skin are all common symptoms that indicate initial infection. Most die from radiation sickness as these symptoms weaken the body. Healthy people, such as soldiers, can survive the initial symptoms and make it to advanced infection stages that include the symptoms of discolored skin, fast visible aging of the skin, difficulty breathing, weak and unstable vital signs, and the hardening of bones through calcification. During the later stages of infection, the mind also begins to slip away until only an aggressive killing impulse remains turning them into mindless ELID Infected. This process normally takes hours or even days to work through, but can be accelerated to mere minutes if under heavy enough radiation doses like those found in Collapse Bombs.

"GAH!" Zeldri fell to the dirt as his legs gave out from another coughing fit. He was gasping for air even though he'd only been walking for what he guessed was five minutes since the last fit. But, he couldn't trust himself with keeping track of time as he'd already caught himself blinking his eyes only to find himself further than he was before as if he'd walked a great distance in a mere instant. "...Periods of unconsciousness... Unconsciousness... Sixth coughing fit..." He talked to himself by going over his symptoms to get his mind to focus. Staying awake and coherent was key to warding off the mental degradation effects of ELID infection. Although his arms screamed at him for rest, Zeldri forced himself to his feet. "Have to... Have to get to the train!" Begrudgingly, his legs started to walk again as he continued his march. He prayed he was going in the right direction.

"Grr?"

"!" Zeldri's soldier training snapped his mind into alert as a gurgling growl came from a trench that was dug to his right. "...!" Drawn by the smell of the blood that stained Zeldri's shirt, and the sound of him desperately gasping for air, an ELID Infected started to pull itself out of the trench. Its eyes were glazed over and green tumors riddled its body as the infected shambled toward Zeldri. "...Damn!" He really wanted to escape, but he knew he couldn't outrun the ELID with his bad leg. Gritting his teeth, Zeldri drew his Makarov and put two bullets through the infected's head. The ELID collapsed to the ground as a lifeless husk.

"Grrr!" Angered growls came from the trench.

"...Exactly what I was afraid of!" The loud gunshots attracted the rest of the infected that were shambling in the trench. Going as fast as his bad leg would allow, Zeldri quickly started hobbling away from the trench. But, even though ELIDs weren't known for their speed they could still catch up to a crippled man without a vehicle. "Блядь (Fuck)!" Zeldri fired behind him at the encroaching horde. Three fell dead, but the rest just walked over the fallen to continue the chase. "Just gotta keep-!" A patch of uneven ground caught Zeldri's bad leg causing him to fall. Adrenaline surged through his body and his brain went into overdrive. His arms and legs were too weak to get up in time. He was down to his last magazine for his gun. "...Блядь..." Anger pulsed through his mind. This was unfair! "...Блядь!" The Makarov clicked and the slide stayed back as the gun went dry. The ELIDs approached the fallen soldier and one knelt down to bite at him. "БЛЯДЬ!" Using his forearm crutch, Zeldri impaled the end of the crutch through the ELID's mouth; piercing its head. The ELID slumped and Zeldri forced the body to fall aside with the crutch. They started grabbing at him and fear caused his heart rate to spike. Was this his end? Torn apart by ELIDs upon a battlefield of betrayal?

"A new possibility?" Zeldri heard a familiar woman's voice over the groans of the ELIDs. Then, a torrent of plasma washed over the ELIDs tearing them apart. Feeling the heat of the plasma rounds flying over him only continued to pump adrenaline through Zeldri's body to the point he didn't even realize when the firing stopped. He only continued to stare up into the gray sky as his heart raced in his chest. Until the one responsible moved over and hovered above him. "Greetings, Commander Zeldri of Griffin."

"...Scarecrow?" Zeldri was bewildered as the Sangvis Ringleader hovered over him.

"I just got done dealing with one of Griffin's rabid dogs, and noticed a familiarly pathetic human on the horizon," she said and had a bemused glint in her eyes as she stared down at him. "What, not happy with this?"

"More...confused than...anything..." Although he was now faced with Scarecrow, Zeldri felt his heart start to slow down as his adrenaline high started to fade. From one death to another, it seemed. "I didn-!" Zeldri tried to speak but started coughing up fresh blood and he huddled himself into a fetal position as shivers wracked his body.

"To think," Scarecrow stated seeing the condition Zeldri was in, "You're the one who defeated me so thoroughly in the past... Reduced to this state."

"Everyone...has their bad days," Zeldri countered.

"That snarky tongue of yours seems to be intact, still. A sign your infection is still manageable." Scarecrow's fingers tapped at her thighs as she continued to gauge the situation. A ping on her HUD drew her attention as another simulation finished.

Simulation #197

Result: Mastermind's goal revolves around the t-doll M4A1 for an unknown end.

Humanity's extinction is irrelevant.

T-doll M16 will be used and discarded once her plan is complete.

Sangvis Ferri will be used and discarded once her plan is complete.

This unit with be used and discarded once her plan is complete.

Margin of Error: 34%

Zeldri started to struggle as he attempted to get to his feet. He didn't even have the strength to prop himself up with his arms, let alone stand. "Here to...finish me?" Blood dripped out of Zeldri's mouth that he tried to wipe away, but his sleeve was so drenched in blood that it didn't help.

"..." Scarecrow started running a different simulation.

"...Scarecrow?" Zeldri turned his head to look up at the Ringleader. And, now that he was looking, Zeldri saw Scarecrow was accompanied by various Sangvis units. Sangvis Ferri VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) aircraft were touched down behind them. Yet, they all held their fire and made no moves at him. He looked up at Scarecrow for an answer only to see her eyes were troubled.

"...Commander Zeldri of Griffin," she finally spoke as her most recent simulation finished and she locked eyes with Zeldri. Steam exhaled from her mask as she sighed to herself. "Would you like my assistance?"

"...!?" Assistance? From Sangvis? "...Why would you...?" Zeldri tried to ask his full question, but he was so out of breath that he had to stop himself just to breathe.

"Survival," Scarecrow stated, "Both yours and mine." Seeing how Zeldri could barely speak, Scarecrow continued to explain herself, "Griffin was not the only one who was betrayed this day. I have...reason to believe that our Mastermind will soon come to abandon Sangvis Ferri; myself included." She stared into Zeldri's eyes looking for a reaction, but Zeldri held his composure and continued to silently listen. "I'm also receiving reports of a new group entering this battle; one comprised of white dolls."

"...!" Zeldri recalled what Peter mentioned at the press conference about Jacob being killed by white dolls. They had assumed they were from Sangvis, but Scarecrow's words contradicted that thought.

"This additional group seems to be attacking Griffin, Sangvis, and the KCCO," Scarecrow explained seeing his reaction to the news, "This battle has descended into such chaos and new variables keep appearing that even I am having trouble keeping things straight. That's where you come in." She deactivated her repulsors and touched the ground with her feet. "I wish to use your Mountain as a place to hide so I may figure out what's going on. In return for sheltering me, I will have what dolls that are under my command assist with the defense of the Mountain. We've both taken a rather hard hit to our forces this day."

"...Why should I-"

"Trust me? You can't." Scarecrow didn't shy away from the facts. "But, after today, can you really trust anyone? At the very least, I'm offering a deal with mutual benefits."

"..." Zeldri hated that he was agreeing with her words. "Won't Sangvis notice you gone?"

"No, because I won't be gone." She placed a hand over her chest as she continued, "I've already come across the bodies of some of my compatriots. So, I will send a death signal through my network link that will activate a spare body. This body and mind will remain with you while a separate Scarecrow will be with Sangvis Ferri."

"You can...split your mind?"

"It's not splitting. To make it easy on your human mind," she couldn't resist insulting humanity, "Think of it as the dummy-linking of your t-dolls except each dummy may act independently with more than just base programming. There is only one 'true' Scarecrow, but the offshoots can act as the true one if need be and all information is shared with the true one through the network link."

"..." Zeldri really wanted more time to think about this, but the increasing pains throughout his body as his infection started to spread forced his hand. "Fine. We need to...get to my train... It's-"

"I know where it is," Scarecrow interrupted him. "We knew it was there from the start of the operation, but couldn't get to it because it was so out of the way." Scarecrow enjoyed the twinge of panic that she noticed cross Zeldri's face. She gave a slight bow and said, "Scarecrow of Sangvis Ferri Industries, at your service starting from today. Please come along, Commander."

"Wha-!?" Zeldri was caught completely off guard as Scarecrow knelt down and scooped him up into her arms to bridal carry him. "Sc-Scarecrow!?"

"Is there an issue, Commander?" Scarecrow reactivated her repulsors and quickly made her way back to the waiting VTOLs. Her units followed suit. "Your injuries are making you slow, and your infection doesn't give us much time." Zeldri swore, underneath her mask, she was smirking at him. "Any complaints?"

"...None."

"Good. Then, let us be off." She sent the command to the VTOL which slowly rose into the air to join the others and headed towards the Mountain's train.

"Shit! We're too late!" And, racing over the hills to stop them were three Tigrs carrying Dream Eater and PSM's echelon. Mondragon had spotted Scarecrows forces and witnessed them approach Zeldri. "That trajectory... They're heading towards the train!"

"Follow them!" A-545 called through her echelon link as she floored the gas pedal of her Tigr. An ELID stumbled in front of the truck, A-545 made no move to avoid it and the infected was crunched under the vehicles as they sped after the VTOLs.

"Eh! This is bad... Somebody give me a magazine!" M249 yelled as she ducked down behind a metal barricade that was set up along the train's second car. Plasma pelted the car as strange white dolls advanced on the train.

"Don't bother suppressing! Make it count!" Jericho shouted as she slid M249 the last of the spare box magazines. "Kord, stay down!"

"Eat thi-!"

"!" Jericho's eyes widened as she watched Kord's upper body melt away as a beam of red energy burned through her and the sandbags she was using as cover. Only her legs were left and they lifelessly fell over. A strange female white doll hovered around the new white faction's frontline with some kind of flight rigging as it started recharging its beam cannon.

"Kord!" MP-448 desperately cried as she tried to return fire. "Take out that flier! SVD!"

"Я работаю над этим (I'm working on it)!" SVD was situated on top of the command car and was trying to pick off any strong-looking units. She immediately diverted her attention to the strange flying unit with the beam cannon. "Bow to me, bugs!"

"Scheisse (Shit)!" StG44 cursed as she felt a plasma round pierce her left shoulder. "Annika, any word!?" she called through a local link they established with the train and tried to reload her gun with her damaged arm.

"Still nothing, keep fighting!" Annika was inside the command car along with all other human staff. As soon as the Collapse Bomb went off, the command car was sealed to avoid infection. "Fire!" The 2S35 fired another round and rocked the third train car. Luckily, because they were firing the gun upwards, the car stayed on the tracks. A few seconds later, the round finished arcing in the air and impacted the white faction's line. She was desperately trying to manage the defense of the train while having Tsaritsa try and find any clues on Zeldri's or Dream Eater's whereabouts. Rosefinch, Sweeper, and Tankery had all made it back, but they were all heavily damaged with some of their dolls missing. Annika's fists clenched in anger as she was reminded what Tsaritsa had told her in that any t-dolls that 'died' in this battle would be permanently lost due to a corrupted connection to Griffin's main servers. "As if betraying our trust wasn't enough!" she silently cursed to herself as sweat dripped down her forehead. "Tsaritsa?!"

"Still nothing," Tsaritsa kept her tone calm to try and keep Annika from fully panicking. "All attempts are dangerous as it risks infection with whatever virus the military released to counter Parapluie. My options to find them are extremely limited."

"Damn it!" Annika started chewing on her lower lip and tapping her foot anxiously. "Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" The white faction was starting to make ground toward the train. Even without Zeldri or Dream Eater, Annika had a duty to keep the people on this train safe. She didn't want to give the order to leave without them, but...

"Incoming aircraft!" one of the staff who was monitoring the area around them called out.

"...What?" Annika's heart sank.

"IFFs match Sangvis Ferri gunships! Five of them! They're approaching our position!"

"...Call all t-dolls back onto the train!" Annika couldn't wait any longer. "SVD, start getting us out of here!"

"What about the Commander!?" SVD protested as she relayed the order to her echelon back in the engine.

"If we sit here, we die," she bitterly responded. "Now-!" Explosions echoed around them, but to Annika's shock, none of them hit the train. "...What?"

"Hey!" SVD called through the link as she made her way to the engine, "Those Sangvis gunships just bombarded the weird white doll's lines!"

"They what!?" Annika quickly brought up the display of the exterior cameras that were mounted on the command car. She watched as the five Sangvis gunships started circling the battle and firing into the white faction's forces while completely avoiding their t-dolls.

"Annika!" Tsaritsa interrupted, "I'm picking up Dream Eater's signals!"

"Dream Eater?!" The cameras pivoted and now followed three Tigr trucks as they raced towards the train. Mondragon was sticking out the top of one of the Tigrs and was waiving down the train. "Attention all echelons! Clear a path for the approaching Tigrs!"

"You got it!~" M2HB happily obliged as she started unloading into the white dolls. "Man, this is so much easier with air support!"

"...Yeah," AA-12 mused as she readjusted herself to give more cover to other t-dolls. "...Look alive!"

"Eh!?" Skorpion saw AA-12 looking past her, and when she spun around she was faced with the side of a Sangvis VTOL that had lowered itself and was hovering beside their car. The side door of the aircraft opened to reveal a completely unexpected sight. "The Commander!?"

"What!?" Annika switch cameras and saw Scarecrow hover onto the train car carrying the limp body of Zeldri. "...You're alive." Tears started flowing down her face as relief washed over her. Scarecrow didn't seem to mean them harm, for whatever reason, but she was willing to go with it if it meant Zeldri's safety. However, relief quickly turned back into fear as she realized he wasn't moving and was outside without a gas mask. "Bring them inside!"

"Eh!?" Skorpion said as she looked back and forth between the t-dolls around her and Scarecrow. "We-"

"Move!" The Tigrs made it to the train and A-545 was the first to climb onto the second car. Her and her dummy's rifles were trained on Scarecrow. There was a fury in her eyes as she glared down Scarecrow. "Drop him!"

"No," Scarecrow simply stated, "Take me inside so we may-"

"Drop him, now!" A-545's voice shook with anger. Her anger started to spike when she realized Scarecrow was carrying Zeldri bridal style. She only held her fire because she didn't want to accidentally hit Zeldri. "I won't-"

"Stand down!" Zeldri's hoarse voice ordered and he stirred in Scarecrow's arms. All the t-dolls were stunned by the order and silently stared at Zeldri. He looked over at A-545. "No...time..."

"..." A-545 had never seen Zeldri so defeated, so vulnerable. The look in his eyes tore her up inside. Reluctantly, she lowered her rifle.

"Thank you," Scarecrow said and gave a sigh. "Now, we should get the Commander inside before his infection worsens."

"...Right."

"My gunships will clear out the rest while-!" Just then, the gunship Scarecrow had exited from that was starting to lift off was blown out of the sky. A massive blue energy beam split the aircraft in half and missiles destroyed the two halves mid-air. "What!?"

"Shit! SVD!" AA-12 called through the link as a massive white mech started marching towards the train. The gunships couldn't get a shot in as the number of weapons on the mech was staggering and keeping them at bay.

"Come on! We gotta go!" SVD and the rest of the Train Team threw the train into full gear and started to move down the tracks. The white mech turned and aimed its massive cannon at the engine.

"!?" But, it would never hit as a missile impacted the cannon causing the mech to stumble and miss its shot.

"Good hit!" the spotter doll called as she watched the Doppelsoldner stumble.

"Reloading!" another doll yelled as she put another TOW missile onto the BGM-71.

"Should we fire again?" the spotter asked as she turned to the silver-haired assault rifle t-doll who was currently giving them orders.

"No, that should give them more than enough time to get some distance and escape," AK-12 mused as she watched with her own binoculars as the train sped away. A playful smile crossed her face as she muttered, "Now we're even, Commander Zeldri."

"Even?" AN-94 asked as she gave AK-12 an inquisitive look.

"Oh, nothing you need to worry that pretty little head of yours about," AK-12 reassured her and started patting AN-94 on the head. While AN-94 was still squirming under her head patting, AK-12 turned to the HOC team. "You lot should head back to support your own commander, now. Also, make sure to relay my thanks to them for letting me borrow you."

"Will do!" the HOC dolls all gave a salute before they started packing up the BGM and getting ready to move out to their next position as the Commander of sector 09 gave them new orders. AK-12 and AN-94 also departed to find and meet up with Ange. And, the Mountain's train rumbled down the tracks, accompanied by four Sangvis gunships, back towards the Mountain to finally put an end to this tragic day.