May 10, 2064
7:20
Between the two pilots, Expulse was definitely the heavier sleeper by a decent margin. Not to say that Maven was a light sleeper, but once the WSO was out, he was out cold until his body got sufficient sleep.
Or until the alarm clock went off.
And especially after yesterday's busy day involving a one-on-four dogfight with some rather eccentric pilots flying with the most questionable team composition that either of them had seen, followed up with an urgent close air support mission at the request at the local government that could have gone more smoothly, Maven and Expulse were more than happy to pass out on their beds.
So it was surprising for the WSO when he found himself waking up before the alarm went off. And despite the shorter sleep duration, Expulse felt more well rested than he usually would. He wasn't too sure how that made sense and it was far too earlier to begin thinking about high level topics such as that.
It was only after he rubbed his eyes out of habit and tried rolling out of bed to go the toilet that the WSO noticed there was some extra weight in the bed with him, and it felt like it was hugging him. Somehow it only now registered in his head that there was another lump besides him, so someone was in his bed. And judging by the how much the bed compressed, it was definitely a T-Doll, which raised several alarms at how or why one of the dolls would break into their room and end up getting into bed with one of the pilots.
Expulse raised the blanket enough for him to see who was clutching around his waist, and his assumption was right. A T-doll with a red beret, a red scarf and a light blue dress… that was open in the middle, revealing a translucent camisole that did exactly nothing to hide the black panties the T-Doll was wearing.
Who the shit even came up with that fashion design?
He tried to unwrap the T-Doll's arm from his waist to no avail, her grip was too firm for his flimsy human arms to break. Expulse tried the next best option of just poking the doll's cheek to wake her up, but the only response she gave was a content smile with a small blush before snuggling up closer to the WSO.
Was she that touch starved or something?
Who even designs a robot to be touch starved if that's the case?
The faint echos of an old man's deranged laughter played in Expulse's brain for a moment before he momentarily gave up trying to get the touch starved doll with no modesty off of him. He would wake up Maven, but the WSO doubt he would wake up either unless he shouted like some drill instructor from hell (he wasn't particularly interested in destroying his vocal cords this early in the morning) and he was too far away to physically shake Maven awake, which left him with one option.
Expulse sat up, grabbed the pillow from behind him and held it up above his head as a makeshift melee weapon.
"REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"
And with a shriek that put banshees to shame, the WSO proceeded the smack the T-Doll's face multiple times with the pillow.
While Expulse certainly didn't have the strength to actually cause a T-Doll harm, his repeated swings with the pillow along with his impression of a tea kettle was sufficient enough in startling the poor android into releasing her grip on the WSO and then falling out of the bed with a rather large thump, which was enough for Maven to rouse out of his slumber—somehow staying asleep through Expulse's shouting.
"It's fucking…" Maven took a moment to find his phone to see what time it was. "Seven Twenty five, what the fuck are you screaming like child who stubbed their toe—"
The pilot saw Expulse still holding the pillow up as if he was using a sledgehammer and then saw the scantily clad T-Doll on the floor who had woken up now and was swapping her gaze between the two aviators with an increasingly intense blush on her cheeks.
"Yeah nah it's too early for this shit. Your problem buddy."
Maven promptly fell back asleep without further elaboration.
The WSO and T-Doll were somewhat surprised and impressed with Maven's ability to fall back asleep on command just like that. The Doll however felt eyes drilling into the back of her head and slowly turned around to face Expulse who was more than ready to start assaulting her with the pillow again.
"Ehe I can explain." She put her two pointer fingers together.
Normally this would have been a cute sight but Expulse was less than amused. "You got five seconds."
"W-well uhh—" The Doll fumbled over her words due to the short window of time she was given.
"Four." Expulse started counting down.
"Okayokayokay the other dolls were talking about you two and I really wanted to meet you myself but I'm usually on night duty and uh-uhhh—"
"Came into our room and somehow ended up in my bed." Expulse finished for her.
"…yes?"
Yeah it really didn't sound good when said out loud.
Expulse sighed and lowered the pillow, sparing one hand to massage his temples.
"Name?"
"Eh uh 9A-91! Don't… don't hate me for this…" The T-Doll now known as 9A-91 practically pleaded.
He would be lying if he said it wasn't tempting to pick up the doll (or drag her, androids were probably heavy as hell), toss her out the room and be done with it. Maybe see if Gentiane would allow him to place claymores by the door as a 'security measure', though he severely doubt he would be able to convince Maven or Gentiane in to going along with that plan.
With a long sigh he finally gave 9A-91 an answer. "I don't hate you for something that's…. honestly it's not a trivial matter but whatever, I doubt the dork over there will care that much either." 9A-91 looked visibly happier as she heard she didn't get on the aviators' shit list.
"However, do this again and I will file a restraining order on you." Expulse threatened. Although he wasn't sure if that was even possible. Worse case scenario he could probably bribe Kalina.
"…Understood." 9A-91 responded, head hung down in shame.
"Okay, cool." Expulse nonchalantly replied. "I need to take a piss, and you need to get out of my room. Now."
The T-Doll got the message and spared no time in rushing out the room.
With that issue now taken care of, Expulse could now move onto dealing with the issue of answering nature's call. Before that however, the WSO grabbed the pillow he used to assault 9A-91 and walked over to Maven who was still sound asleep—as if nothing during the last couple of minutes happened—and whacked him repeatedly with the pillow as he did to 9A-91.
"The fuck gives asshat!?" Maven sputtered out after being rudely awakened.
"It's seven thirty five lardass, wake up." Expulse said with no emotion is his voice, but inwardly he was gleaming with mild amounts of sadistic joy.
Now that Maven was awake, he threw pillow back onto his bed and headed straight for the bathroom to take care of his urgent business.
"Asshole." Maven grumbled out as he dragged himself out of bed.
Waking up to a cute girl in your bed? Threatening said cute girl with a restraining order for being in your bed? Waking up Maven by slamming a pillow into his face?
Yep, a good morning as far as Expulse was concerned.
The two aviators went through the motions of a somewhat normal morning routine, skipping out on the less essential parts. Since neither of them expected to see combat today, they opted for more casual and comfortable clothes; loose pants, a t-shirt and zip-up hoodies. The bed hair mixed with the rather unprofessional clothing choice made the two fighter pilots look more like college students who just woke up from a hangover.
Nevertheless the duo made their way out of their dorms and onwards to the cafeteria for the most important meal of the day, breakfast. The mess hall was lively as usual, with a lot of familiar faces at their own tables, eating whatever they ordered for breakfast and chatting about whatever.
The place was larger than the cafeteria back in the sector 09 base so the aviators didn't have much problem finding a table for themselves, of course they decided to choose a rather large table to sit at despise only being two people. Springfield noticed the two and flashed them a quick smile before going back to tending to the other dolls with the assistance of G36.
The pilot duo sat in silence as they waited for Springfield to get to them. Expulse occupied himself with his phone while Maven was still somewhat in the process of waking up. Their relative peace and quiet came to a quick end as a hand on the shoulder brought Maven back from the thousand yard stare he fell into. The hand belonged to no other than Grizzly who gave the pilot a smile. Behind her was the rest of her squad, namely M590 and M82.
"Jeez Mav, looks like you just rolled out of bed." Grizzly said with amusement, running a hand through his hair and messing it up further. "You got room for three more?"
Maven surprisingly didn't have much issue with Grizzly ruffing up his hair, probably due to not all of his neurons being active currently. He gave the T-Doll a wordless thumbs up and scooted over to make space with Expulse following suit. Grizzly unsurprisingly sat next to Maven with M590 taking a seat next to Expulse and M82 sat next to Grizzly. Maven was thankful that him and Expulse managed to snag a large table, still able to have enough space despite having two dolls on his side of the table.
"So…" Grizzly started, getting the attention of both the pilots. "What was with the scream of bloody murder earlier?"
Grizzly along with M590 and M82 stared at Maven with great interest, who in turn stared Expulse which shifted all the attention onto the backseater.
To which Expulse cleared his throat. "So does a white hair girl with a red beret and blue dress that shouldn't count as clothing ring a bell?"
"Ah."
Apparently the description was all explaining the dolls needed which made Maven and Expulse shoot each other concerned looks.
"Is this a common occurrence with her or..?" Expulse asked.
Grizzly took a second to think about to frame 9A-91's 'tendencies' in the least disparaging way possible, which in and of itself was cause for concern.
"…She's just a slight bit needy and obsessive." Grizzly eventually answered.
"Doesn't the commander practically barricade her door and any windows because 9A kept trying to break in her room?" M590 interjected.
A robot breaking into your room at night. That sure was painting a great and lovely wholesome image in the minds of Maven and Expulse. They both seriously considered sleeping with loaded firearms underneath their pillows.
"Ehe you're not wrong with that." Grizzly rubbed the back of her neck. "9A doesn't mean any harm, maybe a bit too forward but she just wants some attention, that's all."
"Uh huh." Expulse replied with a healthy amount of skepticism.
As that conversation came to an end, Springfield conveniently came by with two trays of food meant for the aviators and handed them out accordingly before taking squad Grizzly's orders and walking back off to the kitchen area. Maven and Expulse wasted no time digging into their breakfast.
Once again, what looked like ordinary food that anyone could put together in a couple of minutes tasted like high end professional cooking. They really should ask what Springfield puts in her cooking. Squad Grizzly started conversing amongst themselves as the two aviators ate, although it was mostly Grizzly and M590 talking with M82 only speaking when directly asked something.
Springfield came back not too long after, balancing three trays of food with ease and handed them out to Squad Grizzly. Much like the aviators, the trio of dolls spared little time with getting the food into their mouths.
Maven finished his breakfast rather quickly and idly watched the dolls converse with each other, his gaze eventually landing on Grizzly as she ate her breakfast. Honestly, had no one told him, he wouldn't be able to tell that Grizzly—or by extension any of the other dolls—weren't human. All of their behavior and mannerisms were practically indiscernible from actual meat and bone people.
Grizzly eventually noticed that Maven was staring at her rather intently, inadvertently making her blush just a small bit.
"Something on your mind Mav?" She asked, playing off the mild bashfulness she was feeling.
"I forgot you were a T-Doll for a moment." Maven answered, not noticing how M590 and M82 stopped talking to listen in.
"Ah? Well aren't you the flatterer?" Grizzly was taken aback for a moment. "But we're still dolls at the end of the day."
"Er… I'm not joking though." Maven clarified. "If no one had told me, I would've assumed you and everyone else were humans. Granted, humans with very… eccentric fashion tastes but still. I'm sure Expulse would agree."
The WSO nodded his head in agreement and gave a thumbs up as he finished up his breakfast.
"The backseat nerd agrees with me, don't see why you lot being robots should change how we see or treat you." Maven finished.
Sure he had his reservations initially, bit hard not to when a not insignificant amount of wars back in his world could be traced back to people messing with technology they really shouldn't have. The science fiction books that had artificial intelligence as an antagonist he would occasionally read didn't help either. But after having interact with a decent amount of the dolls, Maven couldn't honestly say there was much difference between him and them.
Despite what he thought was a rational conclusion, something with his response must have been off because squad Grizzly was giving him weird looks and he swore the chatter of nearby dolls also went dead quiet.
The silence was almost suffocating for the pilot as he tried to figure out what he said wrong, fortunately Expulse broke the atmosphere with a cough.
"Uhh Gentiane said that we would be getting the shit we ordered— er, requested today, right? I think we should go get that out of the way while it's still early." Expulse told Maven, subtly giving them an out to leave the area.
"Right, let's sort that out." Maven agreed, more than happy enough to get out of the awkward situation. "Uhh see you three later…" He awkwardly said to squad Grizzly before taking his leave with Expulse, ignoring the looks of the nearby dolls who overheard their conversation.
"Jesus Christ, shit went south real fuckin' quick there Mav." Expulse said as the two aviators power walked outside towards the airfield and away from any judgmental stares.
"Yea no shit." Maven snarked back, unhappy with how a pleasant breakfast quickly took an uncomfortable turn. "Did we really say something that out of pocket?"
Expulse took a couple of seconds to recount the last couple of minutes, trying to recall if either of them said something that would warrant such a standoffish response. "No not that I can think of…"
An uncomfortable thought crossed Maven's mind. "Unless…"
"You said something Mav?"
"Just a theory but I'm guessing that other than Gentiane or anyone else that works here, dolls aren't exactly welcomed amongst humans." Maven elaborated.
"…Huh that didn't really cross my mind." Expulse said while absentmindedly rubbing his chin. "But it makes sense. I would also be weary if half of my coworkers were robots that passed the uncanny valley."
"With some of the people we have to fight with, I would welcome the robot overlords." Maven grumbled out.
Expulse snickered and was about join in on trash talking previous wingmen who were as useful as primitive video game AI, but the two aviators were interrupted by the distinct sound of the F-15's engines starting up.
The front seat of the cockpit was occupied by a ruby-eyed girl with messy neck length brown hair who was on the shorter side in terms of height running through the F-15EX's start up procedures with ease as if she was a veteran pilot of the aircraft. She only went as far as to power on the main display before bringing up the HSI page and weapon stores menu.
Where before the pilots had to settle with using the inertial navigation after completing the alignment due to a lack of GPS data, the girl set the selector to In-Flight Alignment which would provide better navigation quality as well provide better guidance for JSOW and JDAMs.
"Well, is it working?"
Another girl with yellow eyes and gray hair that faded into black towards the tips called out as she stood next to the front of the aircraft where some of the side panels had been removed, exposing the internals.
"Seems good so far, going see about the weapons now." The girl in the cockpit replied back.
"The sooner this is done the better." The gray haired girl mumbled to herself, closing her eyes while absentmindedly pulling out a box of Pocky from her jacket.
There were a couple of weapon racks nearby the jet with various ordnance of the air-to-ground variety, with the common denominator being that all were GPS guided weapons. The innermost wing pylon on each wing was equipped with an AGM-154C Joint Standoff Weapon with GBU-38s along the fuselage.
The brunette selected both the AGM-154C and GBU-38 from the weapon stores menu, starting the weapons' own alignment process.
Having watched the two girls for a minute, the pilots came to the conclusion this was the specialist that Gentiane mentioned yesterday. Though that implied a singular individual and not two, not that either were complaining.
Both of the girls were cute.
Maven cleared his throat which went unnoticed with the engines in the background despite the throttle being at idle. "I'm guessing you two are the extra support we requested?"
The 'sudden' appearance of the two pilots somewhat startled the two girls, the gray haired one more so than the brunette who quickly got over it.
"Yep! Earhart, professional pilot who loves the sky, reporting for duty!" The brunette now known as Earhart replied eagerly with a beaming smile.
"Correction; she's the support, I'm just here to install the upgrades." The gray haired corrected with notably less enthusiasm, pointing towards the exposed internals of the jet.
"What she meant to say is 'Hi, my name is Croque, Svarog's best mechanic!'" Earhart said with a bit too cheerfully. "She's bad with people so please don't hold it against her." She continued, embarrassing the gray haired girl now known as Croque further.
"Hey no! I'm not bad with people, I just uh choose to keep to myself…" Croque rebutted unconvincingly as she trailed off towards the end.
Expulse in specific stared at Croque for a couple of seconds.
"Yeah she's a mechanic alright, would fit right in with the other nerds we had back the air force."
Something about being indirectly called a nerd ticked off the mechanic. "Oi, do you need me to correct that head of yours with my wrench?"
"Ohh noo, don't bonk me miss shut-in NEET!" Expulse further taunted as he fake sobbed with a shit eating grin. "Please don't knock me to the ground with your wrench and then step on me—"
"SHUT UP ALREADY!"
Maven and Earhart watched as Expulse evaded Croque's wrench all the while the two continued to trash talk. The pilot prayed that neither would somehow set off one of the bombs.
"That's the most social I've seen her been with a stranger." Earhart idly commented.
"Is she that bad with people?" Maven asked with a hint of pity, getting up on the nearby step ladder to better converse with Earhart.
"Kinda yeah, even with her closest friends she can be a bit… cold."
"Huh…" Maven wasn't sure what to say to that. "That aside, I take it you were testing the GPS systems before we interrupted?"
Earhart blinked before sheepishly laughing. "Oh yeah we were doing that. Speaking of which—" She took a quick look at the main display, the weapon stores indicating both the JDAMs and JSOWs' alignment quality were good for combat use. "—It's fully working now!"
"Oh nice, it was a pain in the ass to work without it."
"Heh, I can imagine." Earhart agreed. "Shame that isn't an issue for me."
"Oh?" Maven raised an eyebrow.
"Yep! Us E-Pilot's can navigate just fine without any satellite signals." Earhart said proudly.
"E-Pilot?" Maven questioned before the implication hit him. "Oh shit, you're a doll."
It was Earhart's turn to look confused. "You mean you couldn't tell?"
Maven could sense this was likely going to end up as a repeat of this morning's breakfast at this rate. "Nope, wasn't really thinking about that to be honest."
The aviator was waiting for Earhart to stare at him as if he said some major bullshit like the dolls earlier did. To his surprise the E-Pilot gave him an approving gaze. "Always nice to see a human who doesn't look down on dolls."
"I gather that's the normal response people have."
"Mostly yeah." Earhart confirmed. "Fortunately I haven't seen too much of it due to my line of work, but I've heard stories from other dolls and it isn't pretty."
"In any case, doesn't matter to me or the dumbass down there—" Expulse offhandedly flipped Maven the bird, still in the middle of his spat with Croque which showed no signs of stopping. "—all the dolls so far have been mostly nice."
Mostly, AR-15 was pretty abrasive back at the firing range. G36 was very standoffish and hard to approach but she seemed nice past the cold exterior. There was also AK-12 who… was a character to say the least.
That could be excused with how they all looked, which Maven suspects was done on purpose for that very reason of making the dolls easier to interact with.
"Careful to not fall head over heels there lover boy." Earhart sniggered.
"…I said that last bit out loud didn't I." Maven sighed and adverted his gaze.
"Yep." Earhart bluntly said. "But you're not too bad looking either, though you got a good amount of competition." The E-Pilot gestured towards the side.
It was only then Maven noticed that there was a new jet in the parking area next to their F-15, namely an SU-35S Flanker-E with a gunmetal gray finish and what looked like Svarog's logo on the vertical stabilizers. While he was an 'enjoyer' of the Osean jets—the F-15 in specific along with the F-14 Tomcat and F/A-18 Super Hornet as well—he would be lying if he said the Sukhoi jets didn't have their appeal.
Maven whistled in approval. "SU-35 I take it?"
"Yep, good guess." Earhart gave him a thumbs up. "Not my favorite but it's grown on me."
Maven nodded his head before he realized something wrong.
"Wait how did you know how to start up an F-15 if you're trained with a SU-35?"
A smile so wide it was borderline shit eating appeared on Earhart's face. "Part of being an E-Pilot, we don't need to be retrained to operate different models of aircrafts."
Maven needed a moment to digest that information. He and Expulse happened to be fast learners when it came to operating fighter jets but even they needed a couple of weeks to fully adjust after upgrading from the old F-15Es to the EX. And this doll in front of him could pick up any plane or jet she wanted like it was a video game.
This wasn't even remotely fair.
"They got robo pilots that don't need to waste time learning new aircrafts?" Expulse paused as he overheard the information Earhart dropped. "It's actually over for us Maven—ACK" The WSO barely got to finish his sentence as Croque took advantage of Expulse being distracted.
"Hmph."
Seeing the WSO rightfully get wacked for teasing the mechanic was enough to break Maven's uncomfortable train of thought. "Nice going there Expulse."
"My balls." Expulse flipped Maven the bird while using his other hand to massage the area he got hit with.
"You want to get hit in your balls?" Maven raised an eyebrow, exaggerating his voice as he twisted his WSO's words. "Damn man, didn't know you were into that stuff."
"You will not see tomorrow's sun rise."
Even Earhart couldn't help but snicker, the behavior between the two was a novelty to her. She had a feeling she was going to like this new tenure of being these two's wingman. Especially so when judging by the WSO's early concerns, the two of them also shared a passion for aviation. Perhaps not as strong as hers but definitely enough to hold a decent length conversation.
With a smile on the E-Pilot's face, one of her hands found themselves on Maven's shoulder, grabbing the pilot's undivided attention.
"So I was never given a proper tour of the place y'know…"
Maven couldn't help but nervously laugh. "Uhh… I'm one of the last people you should be asking, still not sure where everything is myself either eheh…"
That wasn't an issue for Earhart. "Guess we'll both learn something then."
Maven was starting to become a bit concerned with how easily these dolls could sway his mind. "Alright, alright we all can get lost trying to figure out where stuff is."
Earhart's smile grew wider. "Sweet, let us clean up here first and then we can go yeah?" She brought her fist up.
He couldn't help but reciprocate the gesture with a smile of his own. It was probably just him seeing things but Maven swore her eyes brightened up when he fist bumped her back. Considering everything that had transpired up until now, it was most likely something to do with the whole human to doll treatment that he was only now being made aware of.
But that could wait, he's got an upbeat pilot, anti-social mechanic and a WSO of questionable intelligence to show around.
The group of four spent the next hour and a half walking around the temporary base, mentally mapping out where everything else as best they could—though this was less of an issue for the two dolls. As to be expected from what was an old airport, there wasn't too much that was noteworthy. The few points of interest was a makeshift firing range and another room with combat simulation rigs.
Perhaps Maven could get Earhart in on a dogfight simulation.
Most of the other dolls at this time were either on patrol, helping Kalina with logistics or making use of the firing range, however there were the odd few who weren't on cycle for patrol or logistics, nor were they in the mood to train their accuracy. Those dolls didn't seem to pay the four much attention, except that for a split second Expulse but mostly Maven could feel their eyes directly on them before they went back to walking to wherever they intended on going.
Probably due to the two being dolls as well, Croque and Earhart picked up the slightly strange behavior directed to the two aviators. Once out of earshot of any prying ears, Earhart walked up beside Maven and gave him a light nudge on the shoulder.
"Soo what's up with the weird looks, you two do something?"
Maven sighed, he was hoping two or so hours would've been enough for this to die down. "Maybe, maybe not? I'm not too sure."
The E-Pilot's only response was to raise an eyebrow.
He knew his uncertainty would only raise more questions. In the interest of not losing someone he would like to keep as a friend, Maven took a quick glance at his watch.
"It's about to be time for lunch. How about we head over early and I can give you a quick run down?" Maven suggested.
Earhart narrowed her eyes for a second before dropping the serious look in favor of smile. "Yep, sounds good."
"This is why I dislike interacting with people… always some gossip or drama…" Croque mumbled out, not one for dealing uncomfortable social situations.
"You say something?" Expulse asked.
"Shut up pervert."
It was a quick walk to the cafeteria which currently was pretty barren since the group of four had shown up rather early, the smell of freshly cooked food permeated the space which meant that they would have to wait a bit longer to eat lunch. For Maven and Expulse's peace of mind, they snagged a table in a corner to keep a low profile from prying eyes.
"So… gonna spill the beans now?" Earhart asked expectantly. "Rude to keep a girl waiting, flyboy."
Maven sighed and with the occasional interjection from Expulse recounted what happened during breakfast, doing his best to remember what was said to clear up any possible misconceptions that the two dolls could arrive at.
The whole explanation only took around five minutes to get through as there wasn't much that really happened in the first—which wasn't helping the pilots figure out what would cause the dolls to start looking at them weirdly.
Croque slightly raised an eyebrow after hearing the whole story but otherwise gave no reaction. Earhart on the other hand stared at Maven with the same narrow gaze she gave him earlier.
"…Something wrong or..?" Maven managed to get out, starting to sweat a little under the pressure.
The E-Pilot Doll continued this for a couple more seconds before completely dropping the act with a laugh, confusing the pilots and earning a sigh of exasperation from the engineer doll.
"You're way too lively sometimes…" Croque mumbled to herself.
"Jeez should've seen your face haha." Earhart said, much to the annoyance but also relief of Maven. "But don't worry about it, probably just not used to someone seeing them as humans if I had to guess. Neither I or Croque here are quite qualified with this."
"Hey, why are you speaking on my behalf?" Croque said with annoyance.
Earhart stared at her for a second. "You barely interact with anyone as it is, always cooped with some work project or those robot animes you watch way too late at night."
"I should obliterate you with a wrench for that..!"
Before Croque could enact her retribution upon the pilot doll for that comment, Springfield had stopped by, ready to let the group choose their lunch from today's menu. The four were so caught up in their conversation that no one had noticed the other dolls arriving in the mess hall. As a result they needed a minute to decide what to eat.
After everyone had decided and gave Springfield their order, the rifle wielding T-Doll flashed them a smile and walked off back to the kitchen area. With nothing else to do other than to wait, the four went back to conversing over whatever came to mind.
That didn't last for long as the group—specifically Maven—was interrupted by someone clearing the throat in an intentional manner. He turned his head towards the source of the noise and was greeted with the sight of GSh-18, although considering he was sitting down and she was standing up, it was more accurate to say the pilot was greeted with the sight of GSh-18's ample chest.
'Not the time Mav.' He had to mentally tell himself.
Now looking up at GSh-18 herself, the T-Doll in question seemed to be in a good mood if her smile was any indication. She also didn't give him or Expulse the thousand yard stare that the other dolls had given them.
"Hi, got room for one more?" GSh-18 said leaning in closer to Maven. The pilot didn't miss how her tone was just slightly too nice for his liking.
"May the lord have mercy on us…" Expulse mumbled quietly enough so that no else heard what he said before scooting to the side, allowing Maven to scoot and make space for the handgun wielding T-Doll, which she happily took.
Earhart and even Croque with her lacking social skills could sense that something was off with the aura of the field medic doll and decided to stay quiet for the time being.
"So it's been a bit, how are you two doing." GSh-18 asked the two aviators, ignorant or uncaring to how the two were noticeably on edge.
"Uhh, been doing alright I guess?" Maven said, unsure what the correct response would be.
"Bit tired from yesterday but also fine here." Expulse added in.
GSh-18 hummed in response, nodding her head as she took the information in.
"Good to hear. You two did have a long day yesterday so it's natural for you to be tired." GSh-18 said, still sounding unsettlingly nice. "Speaking of which, how did yesterday's mission go?"
The two aviators blinked.
"Uhhh…"
"Didn't do anything stupid and unnecessary that would be harmful to yourself, right?" GSh-18 asked, the sickly nice tone gone and her hair casting a shadow over her eyes had the two pilots sweating.
"Errr… not really, no." Maven answered. "Nothing beyond the usual strain."
"Mhmmm." GSh-18 was unconvinced with the pilot's response.
"No seriously, all we did was fly in circles and drop bombs, probably the least taxing mission we've had in a while." Expulse added. She didn't have to know about the part where they almost got shot down by a missile or how the transfer flight from the Sector 09 base to Belgrade turned into a one versus four fight, the latter wasn't even part of yesterday's mission, just happened in the same day.
The medic T-Doll stared at the two for a bit longer before finally relenting. "Hm if you say so, but still remember to stay healthy and not unnecessarily harm yourselves!"
Maven and Expulse mentally sighed in relief, spared from a potential lecture from the handgun wielding T-Doll for now.
It was around this time that Springfield came back with the four's lunch, but in a rare display of surprise, she was caught off guard by the plus one to the group.
"Ah." She handed out the food before apologizing to GSh-18. "My apologizes GSh, I wasn't aware you would be joining the four here."
'So she isn't omnipotent.' Maven mentally noted.
"No worries Springfield." GSh-18 waved her concern away. "I already ate before coming here."
"I see… but cup noodles or instant ramen isn't a healthy substitute for a full meal."
GSh-18 froze up as her rather unhealthy eating habits were exposed just like that.
"Hey wait hold on now. So you wanna lecture us about muh health and safety when it's our job to do shoot missiles and fly in circles under seven Gs, but it's completely fine for you to wolf down instant noodles like you're a broke artist?" Expulse wasted no time going in for the kill, mildly agitated with the hypocrisy but mostly he just wanted to get back at the medic T-Doll.
The jab at the end struck a chord with GSh-18. "I'll have you know I'm NOT a broke artist, in fact my manga is number one on the popularity poll!"
"Er actually, 'Is this Cute and Gorgeous Angel Really My Commander?' is currently holding the top position." Springfield interjected sheepishly.
"AGAIN!? GOD DAMMIT!" GSh-18 slammed her hands on the table, startling Earhart and Croque while Maven and Expulse were mostly used to the weird behavior quirks that every doll seemed to be cursed with. "I swear when I get my hands on the shitling behind that trashy shoujo slop I will—"
GSh-18's manic rant was prematurely ended as a hand was placed on top of her head and started patting her hair. Maven knew it was a gamble using this method to calm a robot capable for snapping his arm off in an instant, but it was a gamble that paid off as the T-Doll quickly calmed down as a result and lightly slammed her head into the table while let out a groan of frustration.
"It's going to be okay, just have to gather some new materials and it'll all be daijoubu haha…" GSh-18 mumbled out.
Springfield let out a nervous laugh and scratched the back of her neck sheepishly. "I probably shouldn't have told her that, but she would've found out sooner or later. Do take care of her please."
"Uhh sure, will do." Maven answered with a thumbs up.
Springfield bowed and left to tend to the other hungry dolls.
"Is uh… is this type of stuff a regular occurrence here?" Earhart spoke up after a moment of uncomfortable silence.
"You mean to say not every T-Doll is overly 'eccentric'?" Expulse asked in disbelief at the implication.
"…Point taken."
"Bah who cares, I'm eating." Croque interjected before digging into her lunch.
The other three felt a hunger pang hit and decided to also start eating, albeit with a bit more tact than the engineer doll.
Eating was somewhat of a challenge for Maven this time around however due to that he couldn't rest his left arm in a normal position. When he tried to pull his hand away from GSh-18's head, the doll grabbed his wrist and forced back onto her head for more headpats. A couple of days ago he would've considered this bizarre behavior, but the pilot was used to the dolls having various quirks now so it was just a mild inconvenience.
Soon enough they all finish their lunch, no complaints as to be expected from Springfield's cooking wizardry.
"Man that hit the spot." Expulse couldn't help but say out loud as he slouched back in the seat.
"Yeah no kidding, and you two eat this well everyday? I'm jealous." Earhart replied.
"I mean you're working here for now no? You're going to have this three times a day as well." Maven pointed out.
"Oh yeah right."
Expulse snickered. "Anyways, we got anything on the itinerary flight lead? Because I could go for a nap about now."
"Uhh pretty sure we have nothing urgent to take care of." Maven shrugged. A nap did sound nice he had to admit.
"Good, because I'm going to need you two." A new but familiar voice came in from nowhere.
The pilots turned towards the voice who belonged to none other than the pink haired T-Doll of the AR team; ST AR-15.
"What." Expulse bluntly said with confusion.
"Training. Both of you, now." AR-15 answered with an equal amount of bluntness.
A groan was the WSO's only response. Maven on the other hand didn't mind too much, putting some shots down at the range was a decent way to kill the time since they had nothing else to do. Though he shot a look towards the other two dolls present.
"Don't worry, we have to go add some modifications to my jet anyways." Earhart answered.
Croque who was happily silent up until this point made her confusion known. "What, I thought doing the two's jet was all for today."
"Pretty sure we were told that we would have to modify my jet as well for cohesion."
Croque groaned loudly. "What does a girl have to do to watch her anime and build model kits in peace?"
Maven—who still hand his hand on GSh-18's head—gave the field medic T-Doll a shake to bring her attention back.
"Hmm? Yeah I have to go reclaim my rightful position on the manga polls." She answered as she sat back up and stretched her arms. "…Thanks for the headpats." She muttered out quietly enough so only Maven would hear.
The pilot gave her a thumbs up and one last quick pat on the head before letting the T-Doll leave.
Maven got up with some resistance and was ready to follow AR-15 to the range. Expulse needed a bit of convincing however which came in the form of AR-15 telling him to get up before yanking the WSO to his feet without letting him react.
"My fuckin' arm!" Expulse hissed out. "How do you expect me to hit anything if you pull that kind of shit on me?"
"Should've gotten up faster." AR-15 replied with no remorse.
"You didn't even give me time!"
The pinkette didn't dignify the WSO with a response and started walking off, Maven quickly getting the hint to follow her.
"Man this shit blows." Expulse groaned before catching up to his fellow pilot.
"Ah we meet again Maven and Expulse."
"Why the fuck is this shit stirrer here?"
Turns out that AR-15 had not dragged the two pilots to the firing range as Maven had expected but instead they were in the combat simulation room along with AK-12 and AN-94 from squad DEFY.
"Ara, you seem displeased with my presence." AK-12 said with her usual arrogance. "I thought we had developed something last time we were together."
Expulse turned to Maven. "I don't like this doll Maven, its smug aura mocks me."
"I'm an 'it' now? Truly you need lessons on how to deal with a maiden's heart." AK-12 said with feign hurt.
"I swear on the golden king I'm going to take your rifle and shove it up your—"
Expulse was cutoff by AR-15 clearing her throat loudly, signaling to everyone to shut up and get their shit together, mainly Expulse and AK-12 since Maven and AN-94 hadn't done anything besides a mutual nod acknowledging each other when they came in.
"Okay, with that out of the way, here's the quick rundown." AR-15 began explaining what exactly the four would be doing, though DEFY had already been made aware beforehand. "You two will be going up against squad DEFY in a close quarters environment. Objective is to eliminate the opposing team, how you go about this is up to you. Three shots to anywhere on the body will count as an elimination. Since you two aren't dolls, the damage feedback will be adjusted to feel like airsoft or paintball if you two have done those before so don't be scared of getting shot at. Any questions?"
"What equipment will be using?" Maven asked.
"You'll be able to choose what you want when you load in, turn the top of your forearm towards yourself and a menu will come up. Anything else?" AR-15 answered.
"Uhh yeah I got one, why the hell are you throwing us into the wringer like this against these two no less? We're going to get our asses wiped!" Expulse spoke up with noticeable frustration.
"It's more practical than just shooting at stationary target drones, you'll have to think about other factors such as tactics and positioning as well." AR-15 concisely explained.
"Don't worry, we won't go all out on you." AK-12 chimed in as well, but it was hard to take her at face value with the tone of her voice.
'Uh huh sure you won't.' Expulse thought to himself.
"If that's all then you two should know how to use the simulators. First team to win six rounds wins the entire match and then we'll stop for today." AR-15 clarified before shooing the four off.
The pink haired T-Doll did have to come back to assist the two pilot's with equipping the gear correctly, unlike DEFY squad, they couldn't just stick a cable in them and magically switch to their subconscious or whatever a neural cloud's level II would be equivalent to.
When they got the machines fully working, the pilots found themselves in what looked like an exact one to one copy of the firing range and armory in the Sector 09 Base. Only thing that was missing was a digitized version of Kalina stopping Expulse from using the fun toys.
Maven remembered AR-15's instructions and turned the top of his forearm towards himself, and despite knowing what would happen, it was still surprising to see an actual projection of a menu appear in front of his eyes like he was in some VR game.
Oh wait, he is in one.
That aside, the menu in front of him displayed various categories of firearms to choose from in a tablet styled user interface such as handguns, submachine guns, carbines, assault rifles, sniper rifles and then 'other'. Top left was a checkbox to ready up and proceed to the actual simulation, and on the top right was a search bar to save time finding a specific weapon or equipment piece.
Maven was curious about the 'other' category but that would have to wait for another time. There was also another category for attachments, but maybe he should choose a firearm first. He was tempted to go for the AN-94 since that was pleasant to shoot… and the doll was pleasant as well. But Maven felt that it would be more appropriate to train with his actual rifle. After around a minute of deliberating, he settled on using his real life weapon.
He mentally thanked whoever added the search bar so he wouldn't have to go searching for wherever the GAU-5A would be. Though sadly it seems like that wasn't available to choose from judging by the lack of search results as an emoji of a sad face with a thumbs down.
If a GAU-5A wasn't available, then he could just go with the weapon it was based off of; an M4 carbine if he remembered correctly. He typed M4 into the search bar and there were two results; an M4A1, and M4 SOPMOD II. The mental image of the dolls bearing the same name came to mind first before the actual weapons did.
Is this how the brainrot starts?
Either way, Maven chose the M4A1 and the weapon manifested itself in his right hand along with having a with two slots for rifle magazines and then another two for handgun magazines, the former already having two loaded magazines of 5.56 ready to go. Neat.
As for a sidearm, he didn't put too much thought into it since the odds were that he would get murked by the elite T-dolls before he had a chance to even reach for his pistol. Maven ended up choosing a CZ-75 for the sole reason he remembered it being the choice of a certain tanned individual from one of those mangas he used to read, and along with the sidearm manifesting itself in a holster on his right leg came two additional magazines holding seventeen rounds of 9mm in the remaining two slots on his mag carrier.
Attachment wise, Maven just went with whatever looked familiar from the video games he played which ended up being just an EOTech and a suppressor. He contemplated grabbing a foregrip as well but decided to go with C-Clamp gripping the gun instead.
In the end, the pilot had a customized M4A1 carbine as a primary and a CZ-75 as a secondary, each with three magazines totaling for ninety rounds of 5.56 and three magazines for the CZ for fifty one rounds of 9mm.
His gut feeling was saying he wasn't even going to get through a single magazine before AK-12 or AN-94 donk him in the head with a 5.45 bullet.
With his equipment sorted out, Maven turned around to find his wingman who happened to also be done with his loadout, although his choices seemed less well thought out…
"A P90 and a… Glock?" Maven asked with evident confusion. "That's the full auto one isn't it."
"Yeah." Expulse bluntly said with no hint of shame. "The funny SMG has a laser so just run up and hip fire the fuckers. Easy."
Maven needed a second to process that statement.
"I don't think that's going to work against them if they're truly elites—"
"Nah nah trust bro." Expulse put a hand on his flight lead's shoulder to reassure him. "The more unorthodox the strategy, the more likely they won't expect it." The WSO tapped his forehead as if he said something profound.
"…Okay, sure." Maven did not feel reassured whatsoever, but a tiny part of him wanted to believe Expulse's methodology would actually end up working. "You ready then?"
"To get our asses bent over? Yep!" Expulse gave an enthusiastic thumbs up.
The two pilots checked the ready box on their respective menus and the Sector 09 armory they were in momentarily glitched out before being replaced by what seemed to be a cargo boat with a bunch of shipping containers—some of which could be entered—placed in specific manner that felt very reminiscent of arcade shooter games. Visibility was also poor with the weather being stormy, the only light sources being the various spotlights around which only properly illuminated some of the arena.
Something the two also noticed was that they also had some form of a heads up display in the form of a minimap in the top left of their peripheral vision which displayed the arena with a fair amount of detail along with Expulse's position. They also noted that their were spawned in a corner, and considering that the arena is symmetrical in design, it was reasonable to assume DEFY would be placed in the opposite corner.
With that info, Maven started pulling a very rudimentary strategy to win against the two elite T-Dolls out of his ass. Unfortunately what little he could conjure up was interrupted as the voice of the grumpy pink hair T-Doll of Anti-Rain came in through his and Expulse's ears as if they had a headset on.
"One last thing I forgot to mention, DEFY will be restricted to using semi-auto to level the playing field somewhat. Good luck." With those last words, AR-15 left the two alone and a ten second countdown showed up on their HUD.
Expulse scoffed. "That would make me somewhat comfortable but I'm pretty sure they can do whatever the hell the equivalent of macro abusing is."
With only a few seconds left, the two quickly made sure their gun was loaded and the fire select was set to automatic.
"So uh I got a basic strategy, I'll rush down this lane and flank them while you do the same in the other—" Maven started explaining but the moment the countdown hit zero, Expulse immediately started sprinting away, fully intent on running and gunning. "—way…"
His plan could still be put into motion as he intended so he wasn't too fazed and proceeded to mimic Expulse, a key difference being Maven power walked instead and actually brought his gun up to aim down the sights, ready to dump a mag into whatever moved.
It only took a few seconds until he heard a flurry of shots being fired from the other side of the arena. Despite the poor weather, Maven could still make out his WSO's unhinged laughter. If he had to guess, Expulse's brain-dead strategy of just blindly rushing the T-Dolls actually worked on AK-12. Either way he won that exchange, giving them the advantage.
That was until he heard a triple volley of shots being fired followed by Expulse's arrow on the radar suddenly dropping off. Using that info, Maven quickly started moving towards the WSO's last position, crossing through the middle of the arena.
He didn't like to admit it, but the pilot was fairly nervous and jumpy right now—which might be an aid for his reflexes—going one-to-one against presumably AN-94, especially given the lighting conditions. A flashlight attachment would have been very welcome.
His heart momentarily stopped when he saw the blonde haired T-Doll of DEFY cross his vision right where Expulse had died, still looking straight ahead. Maven wasted no time pulling and holding the trigger until the full thirty rounds of 5.56 had been emptied into AN-94, who unceremoniously fell down to the ground.
Maven was too busy already ejecting and slamming in a new magazine into his M4A1 that he didn't notice he actually won against AN-94 and by extension won a round. He had to mentally thank AR-15 for her earlier training back in Sector 09 despite how abrasive she was, since she did show him proper form which did wonders for recoil management.
His vision faded to black before being placed back in a different corner this time, along with Expulse back from the 'dead'. The WSO shot him a thumbs up with an approving grin and Maven couldn't help but do the same.
Maybe if they kept pulling stupid bullshit, they might have a fighting chance.
They got their asses handed to them.
Expulse's tactic of rushing and catching DEFY off guard only worked once and the dolls were fully anticipating it from then on. Neither of them had any idea how tactics or strategy worked in a gunfight, and unfortunately Expulse's claim of 'having no strategy means the enemy can't make a counterstrat' didn't hold true, at least not against the two elite dolls.
On some occasions they were able to eliminate one with admittedly very stupid maneuvers. Expulse camped inside a container and was lucky enough to have AK-12 cross his line of sight, only to be shot in the back by AN-94.
In a different round, in a moment of pants shitting fear, Maven instinctively went prone and managed to hit AN-94 the required three times to the legs in what he would later remember being called a 'dropshot'. His minor victory didn't last long as AK-12 found him before he could get back to his feet and emptied her pistol into him.
Regardless of the few eliminations both of the pilots got, the final score was still six to one for DEFY. Not a total defeat but still pretty bad.
The two pilots were more than happy to get out of the simulation machines and on to the nearest chair by the end of it, looking more worn out than when they had gotten into them.
AR-15 on the other hand looked mildly impressed. "I'm not going to sugarcoat it, it was really mind boggling watching the two of you do… whatever the hell that was, because sure wasn't a coherent plan at any point."
Both pilots looked even more drained as the pink hair dolled laid into them for their bad performance.
"But you still managed to win a round against state-of-the-art T-Dolls, even by elite standards, along with the odd elimination here and there." AR-15 added on, which somewhat boosted the moods of the aviator duo.
"You're much better at handling a firearm than before, at least when you're not firing from the hip like a moron." Her gaze fell onto Expulse who gave a nervous chuckle in response. "Regardless, we'll go over basic strategy next time, probably with RO."
The two didn't even bother thinking about the future training, too exhausted currently to care. Also hungry, they were in the simulation for a while, it had to be time for dinner.
"That's all I have, you're free to go."
The pilots didn't immediately leave, taking a minute to rest up. DEFY stopped by them as they were leaving however.
"I must say, that was one of the more interesting battles I've had in a while. Well done at keeping my interest you two." AK-12 said while patting the two pilots on the head.
AN-94 was more courteous and professional. "All factors considered, you two fought well." The blonde finished with a nod of the head in respect.
Maven gave her a thumbs up in response. With those parting words, DEFY left the room. The pilots spent another minute resting before getting up and stretching their limbs. As they were about to leave, AR-15 interrupted them.
"Hey uh…" The pink haired doll started, tone a lot softer than what either pilot were familiar with. "Both of you did better than most untrained soldiers would, so… good job."
Maven and Expulse needed a second to process the rare moment of AR-15's soft side, the lack of response making the doll more nervous by the second.
"Yeah… your training back in S09 helped as well so thank you..?" Maven was unsure how to reply, lest he accidentally anger her.
AR-15 gave a small smile for a brief second. "Glad it could help. Now really, go get something to eat."
Oh yeah, they really could go for some food now.
The two waved her goodbye and left the room, heading straight towards the cafeteria. Unfortunately the world had other plans as G36 who was rather frantically searching for something or someone spotted them and speed walked over.
"Guten abend herr Maven, herr Expulse, I apologize for the inconvenience but Gentiane has requested your presence in the command center now."
"What." Expulse bluntly replied. "What do you mean with that?"
"Something requiring your area of expertise came up." G36 elaborated.
Both of the pilots instantly knew what that actually meant.
"Look, we're starving right now. Can she spare a couple extra minutes for us to grab dinner and then join her?" Expulse tried bargaining.
"…Understood, not an issue." G36 replied before leaving the two and heading back to the cafeteria to assist Springfield.
Maven and Expulse stood their for a couple of seconds, the latter broke the silence first.
"The fuck kind of mission could she have for us now?"
It's been like 4 months since I last posted a chapter and the F-15E module still hasn't released for DCS yet ED and Razbam keep saying soon™ on twitter, malding so hard rn.
That aside, whew this chapter was kind of a slog for the most part to get through despite being able to write in my 2nd favorite waifu and other interactions which in a vacuum I did have fun writing. Probably on me for making these chapters densely packed.
Although for everything past the initial wake up scene, I was running mostly on very vague notes which gave me a lot more room to write whatever came to mind at the time. That being said, that is what I initially did when I started writing this fanfic and as a result the first two chapters were complete ass so apologies if I quality dipped in comparison to before.
Tangentially related; if Earhart's mannerism were inconsistent, felt off, or otherwise bad, that's because I have zero idea how she behaves in a normal conversation since as of writing this she has literally no story relevance in Project Neural Cloud (and afaik, outside of the 2nd valentines/white day event which isn't on global yet, this is still the case.) Mica please, I beg, some more attention for my literally whos.
And now on a completely unrelated note, I only just realized it's been a year (and a couple of weeks) since I first started this story, time flies I guess. Anyways, I'll see you around when I drop the next chapter at the end of Q4 lmao.
Until then, take care and thank you for reading.