1847.

29 minutes after sunset.

Bullets exchanged, pistol loaded with a new set of bullets. These ones aren't fake.

"COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP. THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING."

My brain has stopped processing thoughts rationally, everything's a confused jumble that clouds my thinking. The floating thought that I can't afford to lose my head right now is just another in the swarm of thoughts.

404 betrayed me.

I'm alone against trained police officers.

They may have Paradeus units with them.

I can't reach Star.

Star. Her face jumps to my mind. "Don't die." She told me.

Yes, that's it. Don't die.

What does that entail?

I shove aside all unnecessary thoughts. There's time to break down later.

First goal, get out. This is a pattern warehouse, but I doubt the larger cargo doors are powered, and when I passed them earlier they were closed up. So, that means my option is either through the front door or up.

Looking around, I could theoretically climb to the gash in the wall by climbing on one of the crates, but I have no idea if I could climb down on the other side. Up further, there's a bunch of skylights and a catwalk, but the ladder is half gone, the bottom part broken off or rusted away or something.

The front door is the stupid option. I'm almost certain that's where they'll have to come from, unless there's an option around the side. I saw a loading dock earlier, but it looked sealed.

So… not looking good.

I don't exactly know what they're using weapon-wise either. I never paid any attention to it. I know that they have numbers, at least a few dozen people in all likelihood. Likely the police too, since they're announcing their presence. This close to the wall, the loudspeaker might even be audible inside the wall if anyone's listening.

Still, I also have to consider that there might be Paradeus units in the mix. The news said they are being introduced to combat unrest, and I know for a fact that this right now would qualify.

Given all of that, I decide on my course of action.

I'll hide.

There are crates around everywhere and mostly non-descript. I doubt they're going to search all of them. It takes me a few seconds frantically looking around to spot one that's open and large enough for me to fit inside.

It's open on it's side, the wooden panel removed so whoever opened this crate in the past would be able to remove its contents. Still got some plasticky packing material inside of it, which I hastily remove and stuff on top of the crate. There's packing material everywhere, it shouldn't stand out.

I hope.

I climb inside, careful not to disturb the packing material on top. Once in, I carefully grab the panel and slide it so only a few centimeters of gap is visible. I can't physically close it better, the back of the panel is rough but doesn't have hand holds. The bottom is placed slightly out so it doesn't tip over, leaning against the upper frame of the box.

They know I'm in here. UMP 45- at the thought of her face my blood starts to boil, but I mentally stamp it down- UMP 45 probably told them I'm in the warehouse. So they're not going to be searching the offices as hard, if at all.

For now, that's a sensible next step. Getting out the front door isn't likely to be a good idea, but I don't really see any good alternatives. Breaking my leg trying to get down from the roof isn't appealing.

Maybe I can force them to not be near the entrance? If I had a bomb, I could set up near the entrance… actually, if I had a bomb I'd make a new hole in the wall and go that way. Nothing in my bag is likely to be useful in creating an explosive though, as far as I'm aware.

Could I disguise myself? I only entertain that idea for a fraction of a second before discarding it. I look nothing like any of them, and how would I get a uniform?

I'll have to cause some sort of distraction though…

An idea begins to form, but before I can fully lay it out, the door leading into the room squeaks loudly, announcing the presence of more people.

"Hadwin! We know you're in here!" Someone shouts. "Come out with your hands up!"

I take a few deep breaths at the crates and start to catch light from the flashlights the police are using to search the warehouse. Just from how the beams shift around and suddenly swerve side to side, I can tell roughly four of them went left and three went right at the first T junction inside the room.

"Kid, we know you're in here. Give yourself up!" Comes another shout.

For the barest of moments, I consider it. I could give myself up… That's the second worst option, after painting a target on myself and running around screaming 'shoot me!'

If I was in this situation a week ago, I'd be giving up. No knowledge of Paradeus means I wouldn't doubt the police would do their jobs and even if I got in trouble… Dad's a lawyer, he'd try to get me out.

Now though, I'm likely to be shot on the way out anyway. Even if it didn't, getting captured means trouble for G&K and MP Panagos, which means I'm likely to be left out to dry. I have no clue what they would do to me as a prisoner either.

In other words, fat chance.

As I continue to cower in a corner of the crate, a beam of light sweeps over the crate and it's panel, the corona on the rough wood outlining the gap I left and light trickling in. I keep my breathing as even as possible, slow in, slow out.

Two sets of legs walk past, brief flashes of movement through the crack. I strain my ears, but I can't tell if anyone else is also in the hall from my position in the back corner. Maybe if stepped closer to the crack, I could see-

"Samaras, you stay here." One of the two who just walked past asked. "I'm checking out this aisle."

"A-firm. Don't go too far."

"No shit."

I hesitantly creep towards the gap to confirm. The officer, Samaras I assume, is moving his flashlight around, examining some old shelves and the boxes on them. He gets tired of doing that soon enough and leans against a different crate, lazily scanning around.

He's not facing me.

I could use this time to take him out. One less set of eyes looking for me.

He's almost certainly working for Paradeus.

I grip my pistol in both hands. I've never fired it with a suppressor on, but it should be quieter than a normal shot, right?

Okay. This guy, see, he deserves to die. He's complicit.

My breathing gets noticeably harsher as I psych myself up for this. The pistol jerks as my hands quiver, nerves quickly ruining any chance I would have had at a shot.

Why? A small corner of my brain rounds on the rest of me. You've killed before. This should be easy.

I had no choice last time.

Do you have a choice this time?

I don't know.

Are you willing to risk it?

I hesitate a second more and raise my weapon again. This time, my hands don't shake.

A red dot appears on the side of his head and the slide racks back with a lot less force than I was expecting. A faint clinking sounds from where the metal casing hits the wooden floor of the crate.

"Huh? What was that?" Samaras starts sweeping his flashlight and gun around, suddenly on high alert.

Son of a-

I left the training round in! When I reloaded, I didn't cycle the slide!

Samaras walks towards the crate slowly, light swinging side to side. "Hadwin? If that's you, come out!" He calls.

"You see him?" Someone else yells.

"No, I heard something though." Samaras calls back. "He must be in this area."

"Dammit, hold on a moment." Heavy footsteps come from where his partner had disappeared around the corner and then the aforementioned partner shows up. "What did you hear?"

"Like, I don't know, a shell casing hitting the floor? No gunshot though." Samaras sounds like he's frowning.

"So, metal bouncing then." His partner grabs his radio. "Everyone check in."

The buzzing on the radio is too indistinct for me to make out.

"Everyone is accounted for. Did you find any brass?"

"No… Maybe I was imagining things. Kinda… spooky in here."

"Oh, no you don't." Samaras' partner raises his voice slightly. "I get enough of that from Yiannis."

"I'm not saying it's a literal ghost, it's just fucking creepy."

"Fine then." The partner, who upon reflection does sound kinda familiar, starts looking around. "Well, which direction did you hear it from?"

"That way."

"Okay."

Two sets of footsteps start walking in my direction and their flashlights continually sweep across the opening. I carefully, quietly step as close as I can to the wooden panel hiding me from sight. Hopefully they won't see me if I keep myself as close to the panel as possible without bumping it…

"I don't see anything." The partner says. "Let me check in, see if anyone else found anything."

Samaras starts pacing back and forth, his light occasionally finding its way into the box.

Slow, calm breaths. Calm breaths are quiet. I want to close my eyes, but I'm afraid I'll miss something.

"Hey, apparently, the other guys found weird bullets scattered around on the floor all around the warehouse. Looks like some homemade training dummy rounds." The partner reports after a minute. "That's probably what you heard. Might've kicked it yourself."

"Nah… Someone was practicing out here?" Samaras asks. "For what?"

"Well, there was a warehouse raid last night..."

"But we set that up the day she got back! How would she be able to know where we were planning on setting up?" Samaras asks. "It's almost like… Oh shit."

"What?"

"I think we have a traitor."

The two are silent.

"I get where you're coming from, but this is kinda… I don't think the bosses are sloppy enough to allow that."

Samaras' voice grows more urgent. "But, it makes sense! If you consider that Hadwin and his robot buddies are always a few steps ahead of us, then the only logical solution is that we have a leak, right?"

"Maybe." The other man is silent for a while. "That, or we're being set up."

"Don't even go there." Samaras pleads. "Hey, let's just finish looking around and leave, okay? I wanna leave."

"If Hadwin's not here, that means the deal's off, so we're gonna be busy anyway. Let's hope we find him soon so we can go home."

"Agre-OW!"

With the loud thump of a boot hitting wood the panel covering the opening slams into the crate. I jump, but any noise I made once startled is covered by Samaras' cursing.

"What the hell!" His partner yells.

"Stubbed my toe on the freaking crate!" Samaras grits out. "Didn't see the door wasn't attached-"

The panel, now standing on its end after being kicked in, loses the fight against gravity and falls to the floor with another bang.

For a second I look up at the two in horror, my goggles almost flooded out by their flashlights, currently pointed at the door panel. Still, enough light is reflecting up that any second-

"Huh?" One of the flashlight beams hits me in the face, overloading the goggles.

I raise my weapon and fire blindly, four shots in their general direction.

The weapon is supposedly suppressed, but it's certainly loud enough to alert the entire warehouse, given the sudden amount of yelling. I even can make out the reverb of the rounds as the sound bounces off the walls. I rip the goggles off my head and hold them in my bracing hand as I look around in the near darkness.

One body.

I scramble over and grab the flashlight, turning it off, and setting it back. I already have one if I need one. No reason to have more things that can blind me. Also, with the light off I don't have to see the person underneath me.

Which way did the other person go?

I don't really have a chance to check. All of the flashlights are off, and while I can hear whispers floating around all of the voices are indistinct.

I need to move. I choose to move towards the front of the warehouse, sliding the goggles back on now that the lights are off. I keep my gun up and ready. At this point, I should expect them to shoot on sight.

Remembering my lesson from this morning, I keep to a crouch, my legs burning as I keep myself low to the ground. Toe first, toes are springy, heels are hard.

In a moment of irony, I realize I'm doing the same thing I was doing minutes ago, stalking a warehouse looking for targets. Only this time, I'm going to be killed if I screw up, not zapped.

Just as I'm about to round a corner, I hear footsteps coming down the aisle. I quickly look around, but there's no open crates. The only place to hide is between two shelves, but that's not gonna do much if they turn on their flashlights.

Actually, why did they turn them off? Maybe they have NVGs too? Maybe just so they don't give their position away.

In any case, I press myself into the gap, left side first so my right hand can still point the gun if I need to.

An officer comes around the corner, a gun of some sort in his hands. Maybe a submachine gun? Not something I'm familiar with, but that's not saying much. He doesn't appear to have any type of night vision aid, and his flashlight is clearly off.

I watch, breathing as shallowly as possible while the man moves past.

He completely fails to spot me as he passes, so I carefully start prying myself out of the gap. Once free, I check nobody's following him directly, and then raise my weapon once more. One shot to the back.

PAFF

The man crumples to the ground backwards, hiding the wound from sight. More footsteps start echoing around the warehouse, impossible to locate where they're coming from. I swoop up next to the corpse and grab both his gun and the two spare magazines before I hear the faint noises of his radio.

I trace the wire from his ear to the box at his belt and turn on the screen to see that it has a similar frequency setting to mine. I reach my own radio and tune it to their frequency.

"Andino! Report in!" There's a pause. "Shit, he got him."

"How? Isn't this some random kid?!"

"He's probably been replaced with a robot, T-1000 style."

"Cut the chatter! Get eyes on target, NOW!"

I continue to walk around the warehouse quietly, one ear listening to the panicked radio chatter and the other listening for footsteps.

I manage to get down another few twisting aisles before there's more gunshots.

The shots glow brightly even around the edges of my goggles and yelling can be heard even without the radio.

"Stop shooting! Friendly fire!"

"Fuck, Hatzis is down! We need a medic!"

"Everyone, retreat! You're just going to get picked off in there." The voice, presumably dispatch or whoever's in charge right now, is audibly gritting his teeth. "Can't trust those damned robots to do anything, even provide the bare basics of information-"

I ignore the rest as I find another crate, this time with an open top and climb in as quietly as I can. There's no roof panel, but it's about a meter and a half off the ground. They're not going to spot me immediately.

Sure enough, the sound of retreating footsteps slowly fades down to nothing, the remaining police leaving. One or two sets of feet hurriedly move past my hiding place, but I keep my head down.

"Okay, we need to regroup. Any luck getting those lights on?" More voices on the radio. I can't tell who's who, so I just focus on the words for now.

"No, this part of the grid's been dead for years. We're working on a generator. What's the status on the NVGs?"

"Section five has 'em. We're on the secondary mission."

"You've got to be kidding me."

"Is everyone accounted for?"

"Only two missing are Samaras and Andino. I think they're both dead."

"Can confirm Samaras is dead. Saw it with my own two eyes."

"You didn't get him?"

"I was too busy ducking bullets and the asshole managed to shoot my flashlight, breaking it. I couldn't see him."

"Cut the chatter! If you want to talk, take it offline!"

The radio goes quiet.

So, now I have a little bit more time.

While I do have a hiding spot, it's not really that good. All it would take is someone tall enough to see into the box and point a flashlight in and I'd be toast. So, I need a distraction.

If only I could convince them I had already gone!

Maybe I could leave a trail of, I don't know, magazines leading up the larger stacks of crates, start banging on the rear door and hope they hear that and check it out.

Or…

I unsling my backpack and pull from it one of the many items 45 have stuck inside.

A grappling hook.

I don't know how to climb a rope. I don't know if I can even throw it properly. However… they don't know I can't use it.

I quickly hop out of the crate with the backpack zipped shut and slung back over my shoulder and grappling hook and rope in my hands. I leave the new weapon behind, I'll have to come back for it.

I look around the catwalks and find a place with a lot of metal railing. I quickly untie the bundle of rope and loop it in one hand. I've seen one like this in movies and I mentally cross my fingers that those movies weren't all style and not useful.

I start swinging the hook around, twirling it faster and faster before releasing it.

The first shot goes right into the wall with a loud clang.

The second goes up, but not nearly high enough.

The third, hits the underside of the walkway.

Each time, the hook crashes down to the floor, making more noise as it clatters to a stop.

I curse to myself as the radio starts receiving more signals. "Anyone hear that?"

"What?"

"Sounds like there's some sounds coming from the back of the warehouse."

"Check it out. Be careful, Hadwin's been firing."

"Roger."

Okay then, last try before I move onto something else. I twirl the hook once more, sending it upwards-

It arcs onto the platform, tines hooking the railing and staying. Perfect.

The rope is dangling a meter off the ground, so it's easy to imagine someone more sturdy than me climbing it. I'm not even going to try.

"Status?"

"Nothing back here. Maybe he was trying the back doors?"

"Keep your eyes peeled. We can't let him escape."

"Roger."

"Hey, the generator is hooked up! We have lights!"

"Well, get them on. I want us back in there ASAP."

I scramble back to my second crate. I have to hide until they decide I left. Hopefully with the noise and the grappling hook, they'll assume I left that way and call off the search.

An electrical buzz starts up as I reach the crate. I look up just in time to see the lights overhead flicker to life in sporadic bursts, some of them shooting sparks and two downright exploding, years of disuse catching up to them as someone forces them on for the first time in a long while.

A few of them finally come to full intensity, illuminating the warehouse to a level that my goggles can't tolerate. I quickly take them off and stuff them into my tactical vest and jump back in the crate, careful not to land on the new gun. It would suck to shoot my own leg off.

Seconds later, the doors slam open and lots and lots of footsteps come into the warehouse. I flatten myself to the bottom of the crate and cross my fingers, listening to the radio chatter.

"Hey, Look! There's a rope dangling from over there!"

"Shit, did he get away?"

"Hold on, the guy out back said he didn't see anything. Hadwin couldn't have escaped by the fire escape."

"Yeah, nothing this way. I'm standing under it."

Uh-oh.

"So, he's hiding again?"

"Seems like it."

Shit. Shit shit shit SHIT-

"MOVEMENT! Movement of the roofs! He's on the roofs!"

The officers start cursing and turn to leave the building.

"Do you have a visual?"

"One individual, headed east-northeast along the warehouse roofs!"

...Who?

I climb out of the box as the door to the office area slams shut, carefully looking around for anyone who decided to stick around.

There's two.

One of them is attempting to climb the rope, and the other is standing below him.

Well, if I'm going to leave, now's the time to do it. I was gonna try to recover the grappling hook, but that seems like a bad idea right now.

So, I quietly sneak my way to the door, edge it open so it makes little noise, and make it as far as the front door before I see anyone.

They're all running around, nobody seems to be looking at the door… it's mostly obscured by a few vehicles, including a police medical transport, where a bunch of people are crowded around. I wonder if the guy laying on the gurney is the one who was shot inside.

Not really my problem, though. Those bullets were intended for me. Still, since everyone is distracted…

I look around and spot one of the police vehicles, currently devoid of occupants. I sneak over to it, making sure everyone's busy, and then do something monumentally stupid. The keys are in the vehicle, so I gave access to all of the car's systems.

I open the trunk of the car from the lever inside the cab and head to the back. The trunk is full of random junk. Doesn't look like anyone opens this on a regular basis, at least. I climb in and carefully close the lid behind me.

Once it latches, I relax, turn off my goggles, and close my eyes. I'm not safe yet, but maybe, just maybe, I'm on my way. I'm so tired though...

As uncomfortable as lying down on a pile of tools is, I still fell asleep in the trunk of the car. The last few days I've had barely enough sleep, and it looks like my body told me it had enough.

I wake up when the vehicle's engine suddenly switches off, startling me awake. I check my phone to see it's about eleven at night.

Four hours.

Well, they didn't find me, so that's a good thing.

I wonder where I am. I slept through the journey, so I don't have a reference frame. Hell, maybe I haven't moved yet, but the guy who owns this car just started it up to warm it up. I'd get out to check, but-

Oh wait, I have their radio frequency.

I turn my radio on, and… nope, the radio was already on. I never turned it off. It's low on battery now. No chatter from the police. Maybe that means the missions' over?

I mentally note the frequency for later, before switching it to the one I share with Star.

"Hey, Star?"

"H-Hadwin?! You're alive!" She responds almost immediately.

"Yeah… got caught up in a trap."

"Where are you?" She sounds panicked. "I'll come get you!"

"Not sure exactly… I'm currently hiding in a police car, though. Only place I could think of to hide from them for a while." I stuff the stolen weapon inside my coat, where convenient straps hold it in place, sliding the stock into a retracted position.

"Well… be careful getting out."

"I will." I take a breath. "Are you all okay?"

"Yes. Right after you left, Paradeus started sending troops in through the gate, and we had to go into hiding. We barely managed to hide. Hadwin… there's a lot of Paradeus units around."

"Really? Shit." I fumble around the trunk lid for the release lever. I find it after a few seconds, and rest my finger on it. "So, can you tell me where you are? My radio's running low on power, so I need to find you quick." I yawn. "And I need to find my parents, my sister, and Echelon 11."

"Well… we've not had contact with them." Star informs me. "We've been radio silent. I'll send you some coordinates once I have them."

"Wonderful."

"...Hey, Hadwin."

"Yeah?"

"I don't think we're gonna win this one."

I pop open the trunk, carefully maintaining my grip of the trunk lid as I peek around. I immediately recognized the police building in front of me. I'm inside Sector 3, inside the police vehicle lot.

It shouldn't be too hard to get out of here… though, I never really paid attention to the security camera locations so I might have to be more careful than I expected. "Why not?"

"Well, either we let Paradeus take over, or we fight them, hopefully destroying them, but… the public already thinks that Paradeus is on their side, right? How are we supposed to flip this?"

"I don't know." I glance around and realize the best way is to hop over the chain link fence. "We'd have to expose Paradeus, and… well, we're already on thin ice, we brought T-dolls into the city."

"We've been given an exception." Star sighs, and I faintly hear Sop on the other side of the line. "Sop just got me an address."

She rattles off a street, and I confirm it before she continues. "T-dolls are allowed to operate here as long as they don't take up permanent residence and they register their reason for visit. Otherwise, how do you think we got past the police after our battle Thursday morning?"

"That's… yeah, I forgot about that." I scratch my head, before taking a deep breath and climbing over the fence.

"Still, most humans don't like us here so it's better if we pretend. Still, it doesn't help our case that we're androids. We'll have to prove that we're actually the good guys and the Paradeus faction is just trying to subvert them."

"Huh… that's gonna be hard."

"Depends. I'm sure UMP 45 can put something together."

I land on the outside of the fence and get my bearings really quick. Star and Sop are about 10 minutes away by foot. "Well, about that, here's some bad news-"

I recount what had happened as I walk, finishing the story just about as I arrive at her location.

"404 works for the highest bidder, huh? Never should've trusted those creepy dolls with anything important." Star says bitterly. "Well… Come in, the door's unlocked."

I push open the door only to be blasted off my feet.

Sop lands on top of me. "Haddy! You're back!" She grabs my shirt with her hand and claw and buries her face into it. "I was soooooo worried!"

"We all were." I look over to see M4A1 and Star- 15, walking out of the building. M4A1 smiles slightly. "We're going over plans now."

"Plans?" I ask.

"We're going to mount a counteroffensive." 15 nods. "We don't want Paradeus here, and if we blow them up, they may decide it's not worth it. It'll be hard to get rid of them without public opinion being against them, but we're going to have to leave that to MP Panagos."

"Okay." I glance down at the girl still stradling my chest. "Can you let me up?"

"Hmm? Oh! Sure." Sop hops up.

"Right now we have two objectives." M4A1 states. "We need to consolidate our forces and we need to destabilize theirs. The entire time, we need to keep our noses clean."

"At least, as clean as we can." RO635 emerges from the building. "We're already cop killers, so we better find a compelling argument for them being corrupt as well."

"This entire thing is messed up." I grumble to myself, dusting myself off from Sop's attack. "I'm assuming we need to 'consolidate our forces' before we do the other thing?"

"Correct." RO635 confirms. "First up, we need to get the two groups of Echelon 11 to join us. I was going to break radio silence once we got in contact with you or 404, but now… maybe using the radio is a bad idea."

"I don't even know where P90 and S.A.T. are." I point out. "SV-98 and Tokarev are on top of a building somewhere, but the other two are somewhere in my sister's general vicinity."

"Yes…we're going to have to... search." M4 pauses mid-sentence for a bit. "RO, maybe you can break into the security cameras and look around?"

"I can try." The beleaguered doll's shoulders sag slightly. "I mean, UMP 45 made it look easy, so I should be able to, no problem, right?" The sarcasm in her voice is noted by all, and promptly ignored.

"In the meantime." M4 turns to me. "We're going to discuss some strategies for-"

My phone rings.

Everyone looks at me and I hesitantly fish out the device. Unknown number.

I suddenly recall that Commander Gentiane had warned me I can be tracked through this. I should have probably turned it off… but I might as well answer.

"Hello?"

"Hadwin?" Commander Gentiane's voice comes through the phone.

"That's me."

"You're okay, good. I need you on standby at 0700."

"Okay?"

"Get Echelon 11, Anti-Rain, and 404 presentable as possible, and I'll have you standing with us during MP Panagos' speech. We're going to reveal Paradeus' actions during her final election speech and you'll be running security."

"Yeah?"

"Yes. Lay low until tomorrow morning and I'll give you new instructions around 0500." She hesitates. "I heard from some sources that the police are looking for you. I'd suggest you go to a friends' house if you can."

"Well… I have a few problems with that whole plan." I caught her up to speed of 404's betrayal and everything else that happened tonight.

"404 switched to working for Paradeus… Okay, we'll deal with that later. Make sure to get Echelon 11 back and then lay low. Try not to get into any firefights, we don't need to cause any damage to our representation right now."

"Roger."

"Good luck, Field Agent." She signs out and hangs up.

I stare at the phone for a moment before tucking it back into my pocket. If the police or Paradeus was tracking it, I'd have been discovered in the car trunk. I'll risk it for now. I relay Commander Gentiane's orders to M4 and RO. "That was Commander Gentiane. We need to recover Echelon 11, but then we need to stand by until morning. She wants us at the speech, and not to be causing trouble before then."

"So, mission one is unchanged. Still, we need to get everyone together." M4 sighs.

"I have an idea, since I don't even know where to start with the camera thing..." RO635 says, and then starts elaborating.

In the end, we went after SV-98 and Tokarev first. We know exactly where they are and I figured that they could help search for the other two.

What I didn't really take into account is that the person who set up SV-98's positions was UMP 45 herself. It's only once we're standing on the street, outside the hotel, glancing around at the nearby rooftops that I realize something's wrong.

I may not have remembered the locations 45 pointed out on a map, but M4A1 and RO635 sure did. RO's simple plan for getting SV-98 was to stand outside the building that Mom and Dad are in and hope that either the sniper or spotter would notice us and come down to us. In any case, RO was sure she could locate any T-dolls in the area visually even if SV-98 and Tokarev were hiding.

"They're not here." I groan. "Of course they're not here. Why would they be?"

"Maybe they moved?" Sop wonders aloud. "There's other viable sniping spots."

"I doubt they would do that. It's rare for a T-doll to abandon their duty." RO635 states uneasily. "Hadwin, do you remember what you ordered them to do?"

"I…" I think back to my conversation with the two of them before leaving the house. "I ordered them to watch over my parents."

"It's unlikely that they've stopped trying to do that… What could have caused them to move?" RO glances up and down the empty street.

M4A1 looks at the building behind us, the hotel. "I would suspect that either they had to move because they were discovered… or your parents moved."

"They might not be here at all." RO tucks her arm into her jacket to grab the hilt of her weapon.

"Hadwin, we should go check." 15 turns to me. "Let's head inside, ask the receptionist."

"I'm pretty sure they're not going to just tell us." I respond.

"Do you have some sort of ID on you?" M4A1 asks. "You can prove you're their son and ask about them."

I fish in my pockets for my wallet and pull out my driver's license. "I do, but-"

"Hurry that up. The sooner we know what happened the sooner we can react."

I hesitate a moment longer, but button up my coat and head inside, the automated doors parting as I step into the posh lobby.

"Certainly a step up from our last hotel." 15 comments dryly.

"I doubt any of the rooms are filled with guns though." I respond.

The receptionist looks in our direction, confusion evident on her face.. "Um, What are you doing out? There's a curfew set tonight."

I look at 15. She shrugs her shoulders.

"Well… nevermind." She recovers from her confusion. "Are you checking in?"

"No, sorry." I step up to the counter. "Do you know which room Damian and Velma Galanis are staying in?"

She gives me an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry sir-"

"I'm their son. Here's my ID."

She looks at it. "...I'm not supposed to divulge that kind of information."

"But…" my brain stalls.

"Please?" 15 asks. "We're supposed to be delivering his dad's medication and we weren't given many details."

The receptionist bites her lip. "Well… let me check." She punches some things into her computer, then frowns. Taps a few more keys, stares at her screen for a second. "Er, you said Damian and Velma?"

"Yes."

"We don't have anyone here by that name."

"I… I see." I bite my lip.

"Did they check out recently?" 15 asks.

"No, nothing in the past twenty four hours. I'm sorry."

"Thanks for your help." I turn back to head out to the street.

Once the doors close behind us, M4A1 steps up to us. "No luck?"

"Nope. Looks like they were never there." 15 confirms.

"Hadwin, where are the other hotels in Sector 3?"

I give them a look. "Sector 3 isn't that big." I point to two other buildings across the street, one of which was supposed to be the vantage point for SV-98 and Tokarev. "Those two are the only other two."

"Check them while we're here. Might as well cover our bases." RO635 orders. "M4, we need to consider other locations in case these don't work out."

"Do we want to risk using the radio?" M4 asks as 15 and I head across the street, RO's response masked by distance.

We checked both of the other two hotels, but got the same answer each time. Not there, and haven't been there recently.

In other words, we're clueless. By the time we get back to M4, RO and Sop, the three have grim faces.

"No luck?"

I shake my head.

"We're going to try to contact SV-98 and S.A.T." RO turns to me. "It's likely that Paradeus already knows we're going to look for them, so it's not going to give anything away."

"We just have to be careful not to give or get locations. If either group is near your family, we can't risk Paradeus locating them." M4 continues. "We'll need to communicate a meetup location without actually sending it."

How do you communicate a location to someone without telling anyone else listening in? I push my tired brain to think up a solution. "I… I have an idea on doing just that."

"You do?" M4 looks in my direction. "Okay then, how do you intend to do that?."

I set my radio to the previously used frequency. "Hey SV-98, S.A.T., come in."

"Commander?" S.A.T.'s voice sounds worried.

"What's going on Commander?" SV-98's voice is more neutral.

"We have… um, a situation." I hesitate.

M4 cuts in. "Don't say any locations. Radio is likely compromised."

"I… yes, of course." S.A.T. responds. "Orders?"

"Meet at L's place. Make sure to bring everyone." I say. "We'll talk there."

"L's…?" Her voice is confused for a few seconds. "Oh. OH! Roger."

"We'll be there, Commander." S.A.T. affirms.

I turn off my radio, noting that it only has about ten percent battery, but you never know how accurate that number is.

"'L's place?'" RO635 asks.

Sop's eyes light up. "OH! I got it!"

I give her a look. "Really?"

"P90 told me about your friend you met, Lucas! She said you went to his house earlier."

"Well… yeah, that's right."

"Yay!" Sop cheers. "Let's go!"

"That's actually pretty clever." RO635 mutters. "In the future, we should pick designated meetup points and give them code names."

"But where is Lucas's house?" M4 asks, ignoring her teammate for a moment.

I sigh. "Farther than I want to walk, but I don't think we have much choice."

It takes an hour before we get to Lucas' house. Normally, it would have taken half an hour on foot, five minutes in a taxi or bus, but as we head deeper into the heart of the city, police patrols became more frequent. Even more worrying, the patrols are more and more frequently augmented by Paradeus units.

The receptionist had mentioned a curfew and it looks like most of Sector 3 got the memo. The only ones out on the streets are us and the police patrols. Even the bar area we crossed through was completely closed, despite only being one in the morning.

Undoubtedly, the other two groups are going to have the same troubles, but I realized partway in that since I had no idea where anyone was, I don't know how long they were going to take. I may end up sitting in front of Lucas' building for hours.

Thankfully that wasn't the case.

When Anti-Rain and I arrive, the lights are on in his house. That's unusual enough, but when Sop suddenly perks up and exclaims "Yay! S.A.T.8 and P90 made it here already!" I realized what had happened.

I don't even get the chance to knock when Lucas opens the door. "Hey bud."

"...Hey."

"Come inside, Chloe and Belle are here."

I follow him inside and into the living room, where P90 and S.A.T. are. P90's sitting on the couch, S.A.T.'s standing in the corner. Lucas' parents are sitting across from P90, glancing at me in worry as I show up.

Lucas' parents were really nice to me growing up, so I have a lot of respect for them, and I feel guilty for waking them all up.

"I'm really sorry I woke you all up." I say, turning to S.A.T. "I told you 'at' not 'in', right?"

"Well," She shifts nervously. "You did, but there was a patrol coming down the street so we had to hide."

P90's strapped head to toe in combat gear and S.A.T. has her shotgun tucked into the crook of her arm. They would've been really conspicuous.

I turn to Lucas' mom and repeat my apology. "Mrs. and Mr. Vassos, I'm so sorry for waking you both up. Thank you for giving my team and I shelter."

"Think nothing of it." Mrs. Vassos says. "I was surprised to see two women armed to the teeth, but Lucas told me they were your friends."

"Yyyyep." I glance at Lucas who grins.

"Hey, I'm not gonna turn down anyone in need… by the way, I haven't met your other friends yet?"

I step to the side to allow them into the living room. "This is Madison, Star, Rose and Sophia."

Sop grins, showing off her long canines. "Nice to meet you!"

Mr. Vassos recoils slightly, but waves back reservedly.

"Hey, Hadwin, what's going on?" Lucas asks. "There's large white robots patrolling around and there was some weird stuff on the news a few hours ago."

I pause before I start responding. "Weird news?"

"Yeah, the Mayor made an announcement that he's planning on joining this Paradeus group you were talking about."

I blow my lips out. I mean, yeah, I already knew that, but now the rest of the city knows that too. "Well, sounds about right."

"Didn't you tell me those guys are terrorists?"

"Yeah, they blew up my workplace…" I trail off as I notice that Lucas is just leading me to answer questions for his parents' sake. They're listening to me with rapt attention. "I've been informed that they've destabilized at least one city recently, Belgrade."

"They were behind Belgrade?" Mrs. Vassos asks.

"So I've been told."

"We'll help you if we can." Mr. Vassos says. "You've got a good head on your shoulders, Hadwin."

I wanna retort, but Sop interrupts. "Yeah! He's a really good commander!"

"Field Agent." RO635 corrected.

I turn and raise an eyebrow.

"Ah, I was correcting Sophia." She turns to Lucas' parents. "Hadwin is a Field Agent, but he acts as a commander enough that we call him that."

"I see." Mrs. Vassos responds. "Looks like you're doing well for yourself. I was worried that you were getting dragged into something unsavory, but all of these women seem like upstanding people."

P90 blinks. "But I'm sitting."

I can't hold a straight face. I break down laughing, all of the tension leaving me in a rush. Lucas snickers at P90's joke, and I think even 15 has a faint grin. It wasn't even a good joke, but it really helped.

"Okay." I say once I catch my breath. "I'm sorry to trouble you like this, but can we wait here until the rest of my group has the chance to arrive? Our communications are probably compromised and I don't want to contact them if I don't have to."

"You can stay the night if you like." Mrs. Vassos replies. "We can fold out the couches… there's eight plus you?"

"We really shouldn't impose-"

"Hadwin, we've known you for how long now?"

I sigh. "Ten years?"

"After all that time, do you really figure we're the kind of people to kick someone out into the cold?"

"No." I sigh. "Well then, no need to get me a bed." I shake my head. "I'm not gonna be sleeping. I have to get ready for tomorrow."

"Nonsense!" Mrs. Vassos insists, already getting up. "Lucas, can you grab some of the spare blankets?"

"Of course, mum."

The Vassos' go about making the house ready to house nine uninvited people and M4 sidles up to me. "What's wrong?"

"I don't like taking advantage of their kindness." I mutter to her. "I don't want to get them in trouble."

"I see. Well, it's a good offer."

"That's why I'm taking it. By the way, you all get first pick for beds. I'll take whatever's left."

"Are you sure?" She asks.

"Yeah." I stretch. "I'm gonna go talk to S.A.- Belle for a sec."

"Okay."

S.A.T. is in the corner, standing as usual.

"Hey, Belle," I begin. "What's going on with my sister?"

"Oh! Before we got your message, she was with her friends having a sleepover. We did find her in the end, she's not too far from here actually." S.A.T. tilts her head. "Um, the scarred one's information wasn't exactly helpful though."

"Yeah… I'll catch you up on that later." I say. "Anyway, thank you. I'm gonna help with the bedding now."

"Of course, Hadwin."

I head after Lucas, who's busy wrestling with a cabinet. "Need a hand?"

"Hadwin? Oh, yeah, that'd be great. Grab the other side."

We lift the cabinet and shuffle it awkwardly a meter away from the wall. Once it's set down, I turn to my friend. "Why are we moving furniture?"

"Crawl space storage." He points at a door that was concealed by the cabinets.

"Oh." I start helping him pull out blankets.

"So, what are you guys up to? Must be pretty serious if you're violating that curfew order."

I laugh bitterly. "Half of the reason for that order is so they can hunt me down, I think."

"Seriously?"

"I…" I look behind me, the T-dolls are currently busy elsewhere getting ready for bed. "It sounds like Paradeus was looking for me in particular for whatever reason. They had me lured to a warehouse outside the walls, and I barely escaped."

"Whoa."

A small sarcastic smile crosses my face. "I guess I've become a thorn in their side pretty quickly."

"Are you guys going to be okay tomorrow?"

"I… I think so? I need to hash out the details with the rest of them." I jerk my thumb over my shoulder.

"Alright. Can I sit in on the meeting? I want to know what's going on."

"I'll ask M4-er, Madison."

He gives me a look. "M4?"

"Codename." I grunt. "Sorry."

"Alright. I'll wait for your word."

By the time Lucas and I grab a few bundles of sheets, SV-98 and Tokarev have arrived, none the worse for wear. They're in the middle of giving a report to M4 when we show up.

Tokarev splits off and steps up to me holding her arms out for some of the sheets. I hand her a bunch, and she immediately starts spreading them out, some on the couches and three on the floor to serve as padding.

As we lay the sheets out, I whisper to Tokarev. "Hey, did you find my parents?"

"Da? They were where UMP told us they were, nyet?"

"They weren't where she told me that they were." I grumble. "Went looking for them, couldn't find them."

"Oh. Well, I have their location. I'll give it to you later."

"Thanks, Toki."

She smiles up at me, a smile that could light up the sun. It's kinda dangerous, to be honest.

Once I'm done setting everything up with Lucas and Tokarev, I look around to notice all of the T-dolls are changed into the clothes they've been using as pajamas. I don't have a change of clothes…

Mental note, pack a change of clothes next time.

"Hadwin?" RO635 steps up to me in her blobby grey attire.

"Yeah?"

"Once SV-98 and Tokarev are changed, we need to plan for tomorrow."

"Right." I scratch my face. "Hey, Maddy, come here for a second."

M4 takes a second to react, looking at me inquisitively. I nod to her and she gets up from her seat and walks over. "What's up? And 'Maddy'?"

"I- that's not important." I shake my head. "Would you two be okay with letting Lucas into the meeting?"

RO635 looks over her shoulder at Lucas, who's currently talking with the super excited Sop about her arm. "Why?"

I shrug. "He asked. He's probably just trying to make sure who knows what's going on."

"He might be working with Paradeus."

"...If he is, we're fucked." I shiver. "He's the nicest person I know. If Paradeus can get to him, then they can get to anyone."

RO ponders this. "Well, if you can trust him."

"We need to tell him we're dolls first though." M4 says.

I give her a look. "Why?"

"I contacted Commander Angelia when I was in the bathroom changing." M4 says. "We have our orders for tomorrow and I don't want to be dodging around things."

I chew on this. "I trust him."

"Okay." RO shrugs. "It's your job to tell him though."

"Alright." I walk over to where Lucas and Sop are talking.

"-function of the arm allows it to be easily removed." Sop pokes something around her shoulder.

"That's really neat. I-" Lucas notices me. "Hadwin, what's up?"

"If you wanna participate, I'm gonna have to let you in on a secret, but I don't think you'll like it." I'm hedging my words just in case he's just curious and not really serious about joining in, but-

"Yeah, lay it on me."

I take a deep breath. "Okay. G&K, you know, my PMC, mostly hires androids."

His eyes go wide. "Seriously?"

"Yes." I continue slowly. "I'm an exception, because humans are needed as a precautionary measure since they're incapable of completing some missions on their own."

"Well, it's good that you're not an android I guess." He chuckles. I watch as the gears turn in his head for a second before his head whips around to look at Sop sitting beside him. "Wait, don't tell me-"

"Yep. All of them." I say, cutting off his next question as well.

"Um… Haddy, were you supposed to say that?" Sop asks nervously. "M-Madison might get mad."

"She approved it." I reply.

"Sophia, you're an android?" Lucas asks incredulously.

"Heh… um, yeah." She shrinks down a little bit under his intense gaze.

"Wow. But, you have blood flowing in your veins, and you breathe."

"W-well, we're made to look as close to humans as possible to not cause that canned canyon effect." Sop elaborates.

"Uncanny Valley? Yes, I see."

As I had thought, Lucas immediately got over his shock and started with a barrage of questions that Sop eventually stops being able to answer to his satisfaction.

"Hadwin! He's asking too much!" She cries, leaping out of her seat and hiding behind me.

"Well, we need to start our briefing anyway." M4 interrupts. "It's almost 0130."

Lucas joins in as we circle up for a meeting.

After a few seconds of silence, RO sighs. "We really need to get Hadwin a linker."

Morning comes way too quickly.

I had one of the pads on the floor, and despite the relative discomfort, it's the best sleep I've had in a week.

Even if it was only three and half hours.

Commander Gentiane will be picking us up at 0645 to bring us to the parliamentary building where a final debate will be held before the elections open.

When I finally open my eyes to stare at the ceiling, there's some light filtering in from the window on one side. Sun's not up yet, but the sky's more grey than black.

Well, I better get ready. I get up-

Scratch that.

Having failed to get up due to both of my arms being pinned, I glance to either side.

Sop has one of my arms, and Tokarev has the other. They're both awake as well, looking up at me as I try to assess my situation.

My conclusion?

I glance back down at the two dolls that have a hold of my arms. "Please let me go?"

"Mmmm… nah. It's cold in here." Sop says.

"Nyet." Tokarev states simply.

"Hey 15- Star, give me a hand." I ask the pink haired girl, who's sitting on the edge of the unfolded couch and pouting. I switch to the more familiar form of address just in case the Vassos' are listening.

"Don't want to."

"Please?"

"No."

M4A1 steps into the room, lookin very refreshed in her usual combat gear. "Sop, we need to look presentable, and that includes the Field Agent. Let him get dressed."

"Fiiiiine." Sop reluctantly sits up.

That's one. "Tokarev?"

She heaves an exaggerated sigh. "If you insist."

"Thank you." I sit up as she lets go. "Okay, time to get ready."

I quickly change into my uniform, tweaking the position and hang of my beret until it looks like what the commanders wear. I quickly ironed the uniform jacket where sleeping in it while in the trunk of a police car had made major creases. I also made sure to grab my radio, freshly recharged while I was sleeping.

Once I'm ready, I look around at all of the assembled dolls. "Everyone presentable?" Everyone's wearing their combat uniforms… which I wouldn't call fancy dress, but whatever. I would've expected Echelon 11 at least to wear the nicer clothes I got them yesterday morning.

"Of course." P90 says.

"Locked and loaded." 15 says.

"I can't believe we have to sit in the background of some stupid meeting." Sop mutters loudly enough for everyone to hear.

"Shush." RO635 chastises Sop. "This will determine what happens to the sector. It's important."

Sounds come from outside the room and we all turn to see Mr. Vassos coming down the stairs. "You're all up early." He yawns. "I thought you'd all be in bed until at least nine."

"We're gonna be on TV!" P90 says. "And we've gotta be there at 0700."

"Well, I'll make sure to watch the news." He says.

"It's sure to be interesting." M4 tells him.

Mr. Vassos looks at the nearest clock. "Well, I was going to make breakfast, but you'll be gone before it's done."

"I appreciate it." I tell him. "But you've done so much for us already."

"Well… Good luck." He says.

"Thanks." M4 responds.

"We'll need it." RO635 mutters.

In only a few minutes, an actual limo drives up outside the house, and Commander Gentiane steps out.

"There's our ride." I say, and the dolls start filing out of the building, careful to keep their weapons as out of sight as possible.

Right before I leave the building, Lucas comes thundering down the stairs. "Yo, Hadwin!"

I hold up as he slows his pace so as not to have him kill himself by tripping or something. "What's up?"

He looks at the Limo. "Be careful out there, okay?"

"Yeah, of course." I raise my fist and he bumps it. "You too, if anything goes wrong-"

"Lock the doors and hide." He repeats the advice M4 gave him last night. "I got it."

With that, I leave and head down to the limo.

I nod to Commander Gentiane as I get in and she motions for me to sit across from her, in between 15 and P90.

"I hear you've been busy, Field Agent." She starts, crossing her arms.

Uh-oh. I know that tone. "...Yeah, kinda."

"Thankfully, you haven't done anything egregious, so we should be fine." She pinches the bridge of her nose. "I really need to have actual formal training for you so we don't need to have talks like this."

"Hey." I shrug. "After this meeting, we'll have plenty of time."

She raises an eyebrow. "You intend to stay on?"

"...Uh." I blink. "I think I'm in a little too deep to be asking that at this point."

"Nevertheless." She reaches out a hand. "Welcome to Griffin and Kryuger. I look forward to working with you."

"Likewise." Despite myself, I grin.

I remember that brief moment of elation two hours later wishing I could get it back, as Mayor Mavros continues to drone on and on about making the place better and things.

At first, it's an interesting look into what Paradeus is promising, but it quickly just becomes like any other politician speech, way too long and full of promises that won't be kept. I didn't really pay attention to his speeches before, but it seems like aside from basically handing Paradeus the keys to the city, he's gonna try to keep the status quo.

It's fairly boring to listen to him drone and the only reason I don't pass out on the spot is Commander Gentiane jabbing me in the ribs every so often.

Across the way, I can see the man from Paradeus sitting with the rest of Mayor Mavros' contingent. He's looking straight forward, his posture rigid. The rest of the people over there also look very… politics-y.

On our side, we have some of those types of people, but we also have lots of teenage girls. In addition to Anti-Rain and Echelon 11, there's actually another set of T-dolls present, the ones working for Gentiane these past few days.

AK-12, I have met before, and I was told that the doll that practically clings to her is AN-94. In addition to them, Echelon 3 appears to be present. A pink haired doll named NTW-20, P7 the nun, a lanky grey haired girl with a long rifle named M200, a serious looking girl with one gold pistol and one black, NZ75, and an unassuming pistol named Type 92.

By the time Mayor Mavros' speech finally comes to an end and it's MP Panagos' turn to speak, I feel like the auditorium is asleep.

She flicks the mic, causing a screech to echo across the room.

Well, that certainly worked. Everyone's paying attention now.

"For those of you who don't know, My name is Thea Panagos. I've been serving as a member of parliament for the past few years, and… I was going to give you a speech based on accomplishments I've made in restoring our lovely homeland to the state it is now, but instead I have something of great importance to bring to your attention."

The projector turns on, splashing an image behind her. It shows the burned out warehouse team 404 and I assaulted barely twenty four hours ago.

"Thirty hours ago, this warehouse was demolished. Someone planted and detonated plastic explosives there, and I wanted to find out who that was seeing as the building blew up with both the evidence of an illegal robot smuggling ring and about half of my old security staff. The corpses have been positively identified by their dental records and the three survivors are currently in medically induced comas at the moment, but they are all clearly members of my staff."

The picture changes.

I blink. It's clearly from over the warehouse before detonation, with the hostages tied up.

"I had some operatives in the building that night to try to rescue my subordinates, who had gone missing two weeks prior. They found them and also found evidence of robot trafficking, commonly referred to as doll trafficking after the almost ubiquitous use of A-dolls outside the walls of this city. For reference, the dozen or so young ladies behind me are all T-dolls, the soldier version of dolls."

All of the Dolls stand up and salute as one, before sitting back down. The crowd visibility becomes more nervous on both sides of the aisle.

"Unlike the dolls being trafficked, these dolls are here legally. Did you know that Mayor Mavros has instituted a policy that allows dolls to work in the city as long they don't take up permanent residence? In any case, they're here legally, unlike those in the following photo."

Another picture, this time of the doll chop room, me in the frame, looking really creeped out. UMP 45 must have given this to Gentiane before she went rogue.

"Hadwin, a young man from this very Sector, was recently recruited by my current bodyguards, a PMC from outside the walls. He was there that night and, unfortunately, was unable to secure the hostages due to what appeared to be the interference of several corrupt police officers."

More photos slide past, clearly from various members of team 404.

The crowd that are not part of our faction are muttering among themselves, the murmur of the crowd growing to a point that Panagos has to cough to get attention back.

"We obtained a list of imported dolls and also from the footage we have a partial list of accomplices." She continues once the crowd quiets down. "We'll not go into that now, but it would interest everyone that two very specific names are listed in this datapad as driving this trafficking ring. Those would be Ellis Mavros, and Anisim Zaytsev. One is your mayor and the other is the current man in charge of Paradeus in this area."

She lets that sink in for a moment. Commander Gentiane leans in towards me. "Be ready for anything."

I nod.

One of those from the Mayor's camp raises his voice. "This is all manufactured!" He cries. "This is all baseless!"

"Of course you might think that, but we also have something a lot harder to fake. Doll memories."

The screen switches to a video.

At first, there's nothing remarkable about it. It's a ceiling, and there's barely any light shining on the camera.

A female voice (Heavily distorted) says, "Lift up your goggles for a minute. I need to turn on the light."

The light turns on in the video and two figures appear.

UMP 45 and Me. Though, 45's face is distorted. She's really hiding her tracks huh.

With the light on, you can see the two of us approach the camera. UMP gives her nihilistic speech about ending up in a scrapyard and I embarrass myself by almost having a panic attack.

Contrary to last time, the crowd is silent until UMP 45's hand reaches over and the footage cuts out as the core is removed.

I didn't know the doll was recording until last night, when I gave RO635 the core and she started probing it. She managed to pull this off the core, and we had an emergency meeting with Gentiane and Angelia. Eventually we decided to use this as a bombshell.

"Now, I can prove this recording is real. Doll records are very difficult to fake due to data density and all of the attached metadata. I will be providing this publicly for scrutiny after this session is over. I am confident it will stand up to examination, as my team pulled it out of this, which you can see in this photo."

She goes back to the photo of me next to the partially disassembled doll on the table and holds up the doll core.

"You can see that this core we got the information off of can be seen in the photo. However, we want to show one more thing."

The video suddenly rewinds, and the lights go off in the video, before coming back online, two very distinct faces in the frame.

Anisim Zaytsev and Mayor Ellis. I look over at Anisim as his composure finally breaks and he scowls.

"With this information, and some corroboration evidence including the attempt on my life by the units from Paradeus that he brought into this city called Rodeleros on Tuesday, I call on Ellis Mavros to explain himself." She concludes and the entire room turns to the Mayor.

Mayor Mavros starts to panic, his eyes bulging out of their sockets. He looks around, like a caged animal, before rounding on Anisim. "You… You promised me this wouldn't get out!"

Dead silence. I lick my lips, which had gone dry in the tense atmosphere.

Anisim sighs. "I was hoping we could do this peacefully, but my hopes for you were too high."

Before anyone can react, he pulls out a handgun and splatters Mayer Mavros' brains across the front row.

That's when the screaming starts.

"EVERYONE GET DOWN!" Commander Gentiane roars, loud enough that I bet it could be heard outside the building.

Dolls spring into action, weapons pulled out and aimed.

I draw my pistol and spring to my feet myself, pushing the shocked politician seated in front of me sideways and down to the floor. That'll be safer for them if bullets start flying.

From behind me, I hear M4's voice. "Commander, he's getting away! I can't get a clear shot!"

"Take your team and go after him!" Gentiane yells.

Each member of Anti-Rain rises from their seats and sprints across the room to the exit Anisim had apparently taken in the confusion.

Meanwhile-

I spot two policemen who had been stationed as guards near the exits drawing guns, and they start aiming in our direction.

"SV! Rear door!" I scream over the din of panicking crowds.

She immediately whips her rifle around, spots the targets, and pops them, two quick shots that spray blood onto everything behind the two former men.

Commander Gentiane leaps over the rail as if to chase after Anti-Rain, but instead grabs MP Panagos and pulls her to her feet. "MP, we need to get you to safety."

AK-12 and AN-94 follow Gentiane into the center of the room, their eyes open and on the swivel, tracing the movement of the crowds.

As they move to another exit, Commander Gentiane hollers to me. "Hadwin, use 11 and 3 and get ready for incoming forces!"

"Roger!" I turn to the two echelons. "Let's go! Get to the foyer. We need to set up before Paradeus arrives!"

We go to the doors, encountering more and more resistance as the crowd thickens. It gets to a point where I swear there's people trying to push us back, but a wave of my firearm forces people to move aside.

I finally get to the front of the building, I realize what happened.

Outside, about thirty Paradeus units are arrayed, covering the street. More of the Paradeus transport vehicles can be seen behind the arrayed platoon. They're already here, we're too late.

A few people had tried to run outside already. Their corpses lie charred and still on the long, 60 meter ramp leading down to street level. For now they're not firing at the front of the building.

As far as I know, there's no side entrances that lead anywhere other than right out front. This building is built into the wall of the city… Which means that Anisim probably has a route outside the wall, some secret route. I hope Anti-Rain can catch him.

In the meantime though, there's hundreds of panicking people pressing forwards.

I turn to S.A.T., who looks worried. "This is bad."

"No shit." Says P90 from my other side. "What are we going to do?"

"We need to stop the people in here from running outside, first of all."

"Commander, you need to get their attention." S.A.T. says. "We need to stop them from doing anything rash."

"But how?" I ask, panic rising.

"I… don't know." She shakes her head.

"I-" I look around at the panicking people. I'm one of them right now. Panicking. I'm not thinking, and I really should start.

I don't have a choice. I mentally shut down everything I can. Just… act like Gentiane!

I raise my firearm and fire two shots, causing more screaming, but it dies down as I stand on some decorative table that had been positioned in reception. "Attention everyone-" I really wish I had RO's megaphone- "Please back away from the front of the building. In case of a firefight, you DO NOT want to be here." I point to someone close by. "Do you know if there's a safe room or a shelter in here?"

"N-No." He stammers. "There's the treasury though."

"A vault?" I ask and he confirms it. "Well, that'll be safer than standing here, likely reinforced. Everyone without firearms training, get down there, get inside if you can, and DO NOT lock yourselves inside. I don't know if anyone can get it back open. Jam something heavy in the door if you must."

They all look at me like I'm crazy.

"NOW!" I snarl, and wave my pistol. "Everyone who has firearms training, stay here!"

Most of the people start pressing back through the doors in a panic.

"Holy-" P90 looks up at me in awe.

"Hadwin's so cool." SV-98 looks star struck.

Irritation rises. "Stop it. Keep an eye outside." I grind out, before suddenly noticing something.

Andre.

I see Andre, guiding some people back into the main area, out of the foyer.

I turn to Tokarev. "Toka, right next to the door. Police officer."

"Da?"

"He's working for Paradeus. Grab him for me."

"Rodzher."

She zips into the crowd, blue bow weaving gracefully, quickly to the police officer. The man's face suddenly contorts in pain and he falls behind a crush of people.

I wait a few more seconds before Tokarev reappears, a small smile on her face as she drags the man, who's practically screaming and clutching his legs, both of them bleeding profusely.

He looks up at me with wide eyes as Tokarev tosses him at my feet. "H-Hadwin?"

"Andre." I say. "Funny, wasn't expecting you to be here." I level my pistol at his head.

"W-Wait!" He holds his blood stained hands up. "I- I didn't realize!"

"You blew up a bunch of hostages. I watched you plant those explosives." I retort.

"I know, I know, b-but…" He looks down the barrel of my gun. "I know that you won't believe me, but I really don't wanna be a part of that shit! I had to, or they threatened to throw me and my family outside the wall!" Tears start to form in his eyes. "Please, don't kill me." His voice is barely a whisper. "I thought Paradeus was going to help us, but they just shot him!"

I look around. All of the T-dolls, hell, all of the remaining people are looking in my direction. Security guards, police officers, and even two civilians with firearms drawn.

Okay, calm down. I turn to the crowd. "Anyone here a doctor or nurse, or at least know how to bandage a wound?"

One of the guys timidly raises his hand.

I point to the man bleeding profusely. "Fix him up. He'll be an important witness later. In the meantime-" I address the crowd, once again standing up straight. "You all have to stay here and defend this foyer."

"Who the fuck are you to give orders?" Someone yells. "I don't know who you are, aside from being on the traitorous bitch's side of the fence!"

The crowd parts and I get a good look at the guy. Older man, balding, from his comments was working with Mavros, or at least against Panagos.

"Look, I'm just trying to-"

"And, you're working with those robots! You're working with the enemy!" He turns to the crowd. "Why are you letting him call the shots?"

"Hey." NTW-20's voice is lower than I expected it to be. "You wanna walk outside?"

"Of course not! Nobody's stupid enough-"

"So!" I cut him off. "You guys are the second line of defense. Me and the robots are going to see how much damage we can do, by walking outside. When we're down, you're up."

"Seriously?" P90 looks up at me. "We're going out there?"

"Yeah." I look down at her. "Better back up your neural clouds while you have the chance."

P90 blinks, but doesn't argue. The T-dolls all freeze up a little bit, eyes fixing in place and giving thousand-meter stares.

I turn back to the crowd again. "...Does anyone have access to the armory? Right now would be a great time to have more ammo than we can carry on ourselves."

Silence.

"What?"

"You're going out there?" One of the security personnel asks, voice incredulous.

"Well, yeah." I turn to him. "Someone's gotta do it. I guess if you're volunteering-"

Another of them holds up some keys. "I have the armory keys…" He says hesitantly.

"Great. Please take some people there and bring as much stuff forward as you can."

"...Okay." He says. "Uh, Rog, come give me a hand will you?"

The rest of them start sorting themselves, checking their weapons and talking to each other. Good. They'll be here.

I turn to face the front of the building behind a pillar so I'm not in view of Paradeus. "H-hey, S.A.T.?"

"Yes, Commander?"

"Please hide me from view for a second while I have a panic attack."

"...Hmm?"

All of the terror comes flooding back and I cover my head with my hands, breath increasing its rate to hyperventilation levels.

"Commander? Can I help?" S.A.T. looks around worriedly, but everyone else is busy preparing at the moment.

"I'm, uh, I'm s-sorry." I start to shake. "I j-just tried to p-pretend to be C-Commander Gentiane because I knew we needed to do something and I stuffed myself in a box and-"

"Slow down, Commander." S.A.T. orders softly. "What box?"

"I had to jam… like, part of me, somewhere else. I… I don't feel like it was me saying those things!" I do my best to slow my breathing.

"Don't worry, Commander. It's okay, it happens. You don't have to worry about it." S.A.T. soothes. "It's a mix of adrenaline and a narrow focus. Just come here, you can relax a little." She smiles, one arm wrapping around my shoulders. "Just a little though. We still need you to lead us into battle."

"...Right." I take a deep breath. "Thanks, S.A.T."

"Any time, Commander." She gives me a soft smile.

I give myself the time to take one more deep breath before steeling my features once more and turning back to the crowd. "Hey, SV, what is Paradeus doing out there?"

"Uh, it looks like they're just waiting for something?" SV shrugs.

"Okay. We'll head out to greet them if they don't make a move soon." I sigh. "I hope Anti-Rain is having better luck."

"Who knows?" NTW-20 says from right beside me.

I turn to look at the doll. "Hello?"

"Hello, Commander." She responds. "Can you please tell me where I am to position myself?"

"There's no internal access to the roof." I mull over the problem in my head. "Can you set up here? You should have decent sightlines and we're like three meters above street level."

"I can." She points to a spot. "I'll be here. Position the bigger things anywhere in this cone-" She mimes a cone with her hands. "-and it'll die."

"She means it too." NZ75 says. "She's an anti-material rifle."

"Anti what?" I turn to the serious-looking doll.

"Anti-Material. Designed to take out tanks and other armored vehicles."

"Wow." I turn back to NTW-20. "I'll certainly do that."

She nods.

SV-98 raises her hand. "I'll plant over here on the other side.

M200 looks at me. "I'll… set down near the middle?"

I turn to the remaining dolls. NZ75, Tokareav, P7, Type 92, P90, and S.A.T.8. "NZ, P7, Type 92, stay up here and aid the rifles. Also, keep an eye on them." I jerk my thumb over my shoulder. "Report suspicious behavior." I let my scowl grow. "You're authorized to put them down if you need too."

"Yes sir." Type 92 responds curtly.

"Yay!" P7 turns around and starts scanning the people as if looking for an excuse.

"If it comes to that." NZ75 replies.

I turn to SV-98. "You're authorized to put down P7 if she becomes too much."

"Wha- HEY!"

I ignore the nun and turn instead to the remaining three T-dolls. P90, S.A.T., and Tokarev. "Ready to draw some fire?"

"As ever." P90 grins. "All backed up."

"I'd rather not need the backup." S.A.T. says. "But I'll be out there."

"I will be a dancer in the wind." Tokarev waxes eloquently.

I pull the gun I had grabbed yesterday from under my jacket and load one of the magazines into it. How do I chamber a round though?

"Uh, Commander, where did you get that MP5?" P90 asks. "It looks kinda beat up."

"It's an MP5?" I look at the weapon more closely. "I grabbed it from a police officer."

"Riiight." She reaches over and pushes a tab on the side of the gun and the bolt slides forwards. "There's a safety too." She mentions.

"I know where that is." I protest, but she just smiles.

I turn to look outside. Paradeus is doing… something. I don't think I want to find out.

"Plan 3." I state, indication of how I want us to proceed based on our conversations last night. "Okay, let's rock." I aim my new weapon at the floor-to-ceiling pane of glass and pull the trigger. The glass fragments and I dash out, a blue haze enveloping me, P90 and S.A.T. as we run out.

Three rifle shots rip through the air, each distinct enough to tell their owner from sound alone.

As my feet hit the gentle slope to the ramp down to the Paradeus units, P90 fires up her hologram generator and duplicates each of our forms, and we all start scattering. P90 and Tokarev quickly take the lead, my untrained body and S.A.T.'s natural slowness means the two of us lag behind a bit.

The first few volleys of rifle rounds rip the Paradeus front lines to shreds, but even as the first wave falls the second wave is already climbing out of trucks and preparing a secondary wave.

The leading wave of Paradeus units opens fire, plasma slamming into the energy shield S.A.T. has set up around us, and several of P90's clones are taken out even as she aims her weapon to take down selected targets.

This first wave is all Strelets and thinning by the moment, but I still manage to catch how Tokarev starts to bob and weave gracefully, tracing a path around and in between the enemy troops. As she passes by, they invariably start leaking crimson. Before long, the white and blue dress she favors is bright red and black from where all the blood that's soaking in.

S.A.T. and I are running for the nearest trucks and I unload on the first with my MP5 when I finally make it into range, bullets spattering all around, some of them even hitting the windshield of the vehicle, which is my target. Disable the drivers, get around back-

Beside me, S.A.T. crouches for a split second, launches herself a good meter and change into the air, spinning to whip her leg around in an arc-

Her leg comes down with a massive impact, destroying the hood and punching the engine block through the frame. I see it crash to the ground under the vehicle.

S.A.T. doesn't let the opportunity go to waste, leveling her gun and firing twice, One round for the driver's side and one for the passenger's side.

She never lost that peaceful smile.

For a moment, I just stare at her, having witnessed what must be the coolest thing I've ever seen someone do, heel drop an engine and win.

Then, one of SV's shots whizzes past my ear and slams into a Strelet that had just rounded the corner. "Commander, battlefield!" She cries through the radio.

"Admire the italian later!" P90 yells.

Right. Combat.

I carefully round the back corner of the truck, weapon aimed and ready to fire. The strelets in the back of the vehicle turn to fire at me, but I spray them down with bullets before they can get any rounds off.

S.A.T. clears her own vehicle, and I look around.

Behind the first two vehicles is a second gap of about ten meters and then four more trucks parked nose to tail in a semi circle in an effort to focus everything to one area.

Another shot comes from NTW's rifle and I see a hole open up through an engine block of one of the trucks.

A little more of this, Paradeus loses all mobility. Not sure how much that helps, but it's gotta be helping somehow, right?

Suddenly, a bunch of forms leap over the trucks, landing on their spiked legs.

Rodeleros.

Their laser cannons swivel to target S.A.T. and I, but P90 swoops in from one side, Tokarev from the other. P90 spawns a whole host of new holograms, forcing the Paradeus units to re-target. Tokarev weaves in between their spindly legs, striking out and crippling them. I raise my MP5 and aim so I don't hit any of the P90's (Don't know which is real myself) and S.A.T. blasts two of them away before they get their shield oriented correctly.

Once the shields are raised, a wave of sniper fire splashes like a lead rain on the force shields. M200's and V-98's targets eventually go down, but NTW's shot punctures the shield and the Rodelero in one hit.

"Okay, we get out of here, I want one of those." I say.

I reload after ducking back behind the truck, S.A.T.'s shield protecting us from incoming fire.

The Rodelero's rear cannon still terrifies me, and I spend as much effort as I can to dodge the sustained blasts from the weapon.

By the time I finish reloading, Two more of the Rodeleros are down, and I aim at the last few.

"Incoming!" M200 yells.

Suddenly, two more trucks crash into the ones on the back line, punching a hole through. The fronts are fucked up in the process, but then Strelets literally shred through the side of the truck with their plasma weapons and suddenly we're heavily outnumbered.

P90 grabs my collar as she bolts, dragging me off my feet even as the new arrivals start firing.

"Commander," SV-98 reports over the radio. "You have even more trucks incoming. Looks like they're bringing in all the units they spread out over the city."

P90 drops me off behind the first line of trucks, and I see Tokarev and S.A.T.8 pinning themselves to the other truck.

From up above, the snipers continue to rain hellfire.

"H-" I choke on my own breath, my lungs working overtime with all the effort, both physically and mentally. "Hey, NTW, hold off on firing on soft targets. Save your rounds for something large."

"Roger."

NZ75's voice comes over the comms. "I just finished with an inventory check of the stuff brought out of the vault. Looks like we have plenty of 9mm luger, a bunch of 12 gauge shells, a whole tonne of 5.56, some 7.62x54R for SV, and the stuff P90 uses… none of the special stuff for M200 or NTW."

"Well, M200, you should also hold fire. Help SV-98 and take down anything harder than a Strelet."

"Yes, Commander."

S.A.T. looks in my direction. "Plan?"

I peek out around the front of the vehicle, blasting a few Strelets. I curse as I load my last Mag in. "Plan is to hold them here until we have to back off because we ran out of ammo." I curse as a plasma bolt rips past my head. "S.A.T., can you-"

I look back to see S.A.T., or rather, S.A.T.'s corpse, on the ground, the entirety of her head ripped clean off.

My brain halts, only a small portion of it remembering that she's backed up, she's not really dead-

P90 jabs her hand into my ribs. "MERDE! Get a grip, Commander! We can't afford to stay here!"

I stuff the panic down. "Right." Oh, Oh shit. No shields. "P90, get ready to spam as many holograms of yourself as you can. Also, make sure you have the spare processing power to go invisible. Tokarev, see if you can get S.A.T.'s core out."

"Got it!" P90 loads another mag into her weapon and sprays bullets downrange. I peek that way myself and see more Rodeleros joining the fray.

"Rodzher, Kommandir."

NTW's rifle reports once again, and one of them drops immediately.

Worryingly though, they are steadily advancing despite their losses.

"Core retrieved." Tokarev reports.

"Snipers, cover P90's retreat!" I order, turning to P90. "Weave your holos around, stay invisible and walk slowly. Have the last one to get hit stick around like it's really you. Tokarev, use the distraction to get yourself outside of enemy lines, provide us some advanced recon."

"What about you, Commander?" SV asks.

"I have a plan."

P90 goes invisible and five holograms of her start tearing around, plasma and laser blasts crashing into them one by one as P90 walks up to the front door.

I spray my bullets back, trying to keep the enemy in check as P90 advances.

SV-98 and M200 are raining hell down on anything foolish enough to try to step forwards. Tokarev disappeared in the time it took me to look away and look back, and I'm hoping that's a good sign.

I take a deep breath and then step onto the bumper of the truck, then the hood, carefully scaling the steep, smooth windshield. Once on top, I flatten myself down and poke my radio. "Anyone following me?"

"Nobody's tracking. They're moving as if you're still in the front." SV-98 reports.

"Okay. P90, when you're up there, grab some ammo and come back."

"I need to let my hologram emitters cool off for a moment first, or I'll fry." She replies in a strained voice. "I'll have it back down in ten seconds."

"Make it twenty." I say. "Any sign of Tokarev?"

"She got past the encirclement, but then I lost her." M200 reports. "She's pretty stealthy despite being bright red and cyan."

"Good." I cross my fingers neither she nor S.A.T.'s core get into any trouble.

I watch the tops of the tall Rodeleros as they circle the truck only to find me not there.

For a second I lie there, hoping against all hope that I don't get spotted.

"Hey P90, is this how you felt that day at the hotel when Paradeus attacked?" I mutter quietly.

"Something like that." She replies cheerfully.

"I could really use more ammo right about now." I complain.

"We'll get you it in twenty." Comes a familiar voice.

"...M4?"

I risk raising my head to look at the front of the building as four Assault rifle T-dolls burst from the interior shadows, 15 dual wielding firearms, Sop running low to the ground, and M4 and RO moving more normally.

Sop suddenly straightens up, raising her rifle's barrel and launching a grenade up and over my head to slam down on the Paradeus units. I slide down the truck cab again as 15 runs up to me.

"Here you go." She hands me three new MP5 magazines. "I saw you had this and grabbed the magazines from the armory."

"Thank you." I say, tucking the two spare into my vest. "Did you get the target?"

15 shakes her head. "He escaped to some underground tunnels."

"Fuck!" I yell, rounding the corner and unleashing my anger on the enemy.

I feel like I might as well be empting the sea with a bucket for all the good it seems to be doing.

I duck back into cover.

SV-98's voice suddenly breaks in. "Good news, Commander. I've been running the calculations, and I think there's only one or two more trucks before the local Paradeus forces are exhausted."

"That is good news." I reply. "M4, hear that?"

"I'll believe it when I see-" M4 begins, before getting cut off by M200.

"UHLAN! RUUUUN!"

Faster than I would have thought possible for something the size of two SUVs parked side by side, a tank painted in blue and grey barges in, batting aside the dead trucks.

M4's voice roars through the radio. "NTW, M200, dump everything you have! We need that down!"

Sop aims another grenade and lets loose, this one arcing high and slamming down on top of the tank.

A tank which is preparing to fire missiles, Sop's grenade detonating on top of the tank and doing nothing of real note.

"SCATTER!" I order.

Anti-Rain and I sprint away from each other, the missiles decimating the former frontline trucks.

I risk a backwards glance as I run, and a lump of despair builds in my throat. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me!"

The tank has a force shield! How the hell are we supposed to fight that?!

Rather than advancing past the newly created debris the tank retreats, swiveling its cannon to track… me.

RO grabs my collar in much the same way P90 had earlier, but in contrast she drags me all the way up to and inside the building.

All of the men I had ordered to prepare to fight are still there, maybe minus a few, but the majority stayed. There's now crates upon crates of weapons and ammo from the armoury sitting on the floor since they brought it up.

"How…" I catch my breath. "How are we supposed to fight that? It's quick, strong and it has force shields." I glance back the way we came and see the tank just sitting there.

Waiting.

"Commander Gentiane, come in." I hear M4 say out loud.

"Copy, M4."

"We have an Uhlan."

"...Only one? Where's its partner?"

"It has a partner?" I say incredulously. "What, do they pair bond for life?"

"Kinda." 15 walks up to me with a worried look on her features. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, why?" I turn down my radio as I turn to 15.

She points to my upper right arm, which upon closer inspection is lacking the cloth of my uniform. Or the undershirt. In fact, it's missing a good chunk of flesh as well, but I can't feel anything. I can't really see the extent of the damage, but I don't think I want to right now.

"Well, I didn't feel it, so it's not that bad." I reply to her. "Anyway, what was this about there being two tanks?"

"They're called Uhlans. I've never seen only one before, it's partner must be somewhere else." 15 bites her lip. "If we only have to deal with one at a time, I'm all for that."

"Still, how do we deal with it?" I look out the window. "Armor that deflected Sop's grenades, It's fuckin' fast and it also has that super annoying shield that everyone has."

"Not everyone." 15 sighs. "Juuuust everyone from Paradeus."

"Who else do we fight?"

"Do you want a list, or…?"

I shake my head. "Maybe later. Right now-"

"Commander?"

I turn to see NTW, who's standing next to me sullenly. "Er, NTW?"

"I have twenty rounds left." She informs me. "I'm fairly confident I can take the Uhlan out, but not when it still has it's shield up."

"So… if I can get the shield down, you can take it out?"

"Yes." Her head nods sharply, her eyes determined. "You give me an opportunity and I'll take it."

"How long do you need the shield down for?"

"Well… if I have a few handguns helping me aim, maybe thirty seconds? It shouldn't recharge as long as I have help hammering it."

M200 steps up to me. "I can assist. I have about thirty or so rounds myself." She gestures to her weapon. "Not as powerful as NTW's rounds, but it should be able to help keep the shield down."

"Okay, that's good." I chew my thumb a bit. "Still, we need to get the shield down and immobilize it."

"If we can de-track it, that would lock it in place." RO635 steps up next to me. "Sop still has a few grenades left, and if we can sneak up to it, we can destroy one of its tracks."

"Yeah!" Sop bounces up. "I'm fast and I'll arm the grenades as I sprint up."

"Will the shield block that sort of attack?" I ask those crowding around.

"No." 15 assures me. "Force shields block anything under or over certain speeds. Sop's fast, but not that fast. Also, the shields are only in the front, the tracks aren't covered."

"Okay, so we can immobilize it, probably, and can also likely take it down with anti-material rifle fire… just gotta deal with the shield."

"Volume of fire can do it, but way more than what we have here." RO informs me. "If we had HOC support, they would have special shield buster rockets we could use."

"What I wouldn't do for an RPG right about now." I grumble. Let's see… I doubt it's going to turn around and wait for us to blast it, like we've done with the Rodeleros before. Volume of fire... Sop's grenades weren't that effective and besides we need them to keep it still.

I look back out the window. "No buildings to bring down on top of it." I laugh to myself quietly. No buildings taller than two stories anywhere within the sniper's line of sight. I don't think we can rig those vehicles around it to explode and I don't think Sop would get the time to rig it either. There's no trees around to chop down and crash on top of it. Technically, there's telephone poles, but those are relatively lightweight, being made of aluminium, not good for crushing things.

I look around at the assembled dolls. "Well, while I'm thinking, P90, I'm assigning you to work with Sop. Your job is to cover her as she gets in close enough to destroy the tracks."

"Affirmative." She grins.

M4 steps forwards. "Field Agent, Commander Gentiane says she finished securing the downstairs vault. We have two more joining us in a minute."'

"AK-12 and AN-94, huh? Do they have magic shield deletion powers?" I ask sarcastically.

"No, but they're very high spec dolls." M4 informs me. "Good at infiltration especially."

"I… don't see how that's useful here." I shake my head. "What are you getting at?"

"Well, I was thinking about having them sneak out of the compound and start hunting down those police officers that are working with Paradeus. If we get them now, we may be able to interrogate them."

"...Yeah. Go ahead and order them to do that then."

"That's a bit…" She trails off.

I look out the window once again. The Uhlan is still sitting in place. Above it, some local birds have returned to the area, landing on the electrical wiring above the Uhlan. It's pretty peaceful right now, since the shots have stopped.

Suddenly, a thought strikes me.

"Hey." I turn to face the T-dolls. "Do any of you have cutting tools? Heavy duty, enough to cut through a pipe, say."

"I have my knife." 15 says, "But it's not sharp enough to cut through metal."

"I'd advise against trying to cut open the Uhlan with a can opener." RO gives me a look.

"I say do it!" Sop cheers.

"I'm not trying to cut open the tank." I say. "Well… SV, how accurate can you hit a target?

She tugs at her scarf nervously. "Well… I can hit a person a kilometer out if they're not moving."

"Can you hit an unmoving target at a tenth that range, multiple times, within a few centimeters?"

"...Yes." She looks very confused. "If I couldn't do that, I would be less accurate than a submachine gun."

"Hey." P90 grumbles.

I turn to M4. "Between you, 15 and RO, which of you would be the best suited to sneaking around and pushing something heavy?"

"Probably 15." M4 responds. "What's your plan?"

"Well…" I turn to her and 15. "It goes like this-"

A minute later, AN-94 and AK-12 come out of the doors, moving at a fast pace towards me.

"This plan is stupid." 15 complains.

"I like it." P90 says. "We'll call it Operation Icy Hot."

"That's a dumb name." M200 replies. "I think we should call it-"

"It doesn't matter how bad a plan it is, a bad plan can be better than no plan." RO looks away. "Sometimes."

I ignore the rest of their comments

AK-12's eyes are open and fixed on me. The other humans in the hall visibly recoil as she passes them, gripping their weapons tighter. As AK-12 steps up to me, she straightens her spine. "We're at your command, Field Agent."

I glance at M4, who just looks back at me. Well, guess I'm in charge right now.

For some reason.

"Okay, I hear you two are good at, um, stealth stuff?"

"That's correct." AN-94 says quietly.

"M4 had the suggestion that you head out and capture the police officers that are likely in collusion with Paradeus."

"Sounds like something we can handle." AK-12 continues to stare directly at me.

"Right. Well, we're about to launch our assault on that Uhlan. I'd be happy if you'd be willing to charge in with us to provide more covering fire."

"Might I recommend we go in first?" AK-12 responds. "We are very good at dodging incoming fire."

"We have smoke grenades too." AN-94 produces a few round canisters. "They're designed as escape devices rather than actual smoke cover, but they might be useful."

"Okay, just make sure not to get them in the way of this sight line." I move over to where SV-98 is setting up and point at her target.

"Da. We will be careful." AK-12 nods. "When do you want us to go?"

"In a moment." I look at Sop and P90. "You two have the longest path. You go right behind these two."

"Got it!" They chime in unison.

"15, you're going to head out with us and split off once we get close."

"Roger."

"RO, M4…"

"I'm not used to playing decoy…" M4 smiles. "But it seems like it's a new trend for the leaders to be right in the line of fire."

"I'm just surprised you want me on distraction duty." RO grumbles. "I'm more useful organizing people."

"I know, I'm sorry." I try to be apologetic. "But we're down three other decoy dolls and I want to increase our odds of survival."

"Oh, I know. Just not happy about it."

M4 claps her hands. "Alright! 30 seconds!"

Everyone gets into position.

I grip the handle of my MP5, taking a deep breath. I really, really hope this works.

15 steps right up next to me. "Ready, Hadwin?" She whispers.

"Ready, Star." I respond in kind, then glance down to look at the new, second gun she had been dual wielding alongside her normal AR-15 earlier. "What's that?"

"Insurance."

"Yeah, but what is it?"

"It's a-"

"Phase one, Start!" M4 calls, cutting Star off.

AN-94 and AK-12 launch themselves out of the front of the building, the Uhlan immediately attempting to track them as they spread to either side, running far faster than a human should be able to.

Because they're not.

A single second later, Sop and P90 run out, already peeling off to sneak around.

SV-98's weapon jerks as she starts her barrage, the bullet making a loud ringing noise as it impacts its target.

She cycles the bolt on her weapon and fires again.

None of the Handgun T-dolls are supporting her, they're needed for phase three for NTW and M200.

I look at the three members of Anti-Rain that are lined up with me. "On my mark."

AN-94 and AK-12 disappear in a puff of smoke.

"Mark!"

We run out, heading into the long ramp down to the street. Once more, unto the breach.

I refrain from firing my weapon. I don't know where the Uhlan is and it shouldn't know where I am either. Doesn't stop the others, 15 even making up for my lack of firing with her second weapon spraying rounds everywhere.

SV-98's shots continue to rain down on their target, a steady staccato of reports punctuated by the metallic ping of her finding her target.

Still, the Uhlan hasn't fired it's main cannon. It must not have a fix on anyone yet.

Over the radio, Sop's voice comes through. "I'm in place!"

"Wait for us to draw the Uhlan closer!" M4's voice comes through. "It needs to be in position!"

"SV?" I call.

"I'm trying! 7.62 isn't designed for this!"

"Just keep me informed!" I skid to a step as a gust of wind blows away my smoke cover and the Uhlan rotates it's cannon in my direction. "Aw, shi-"

15 tackles me from the side and the cannon blast sends the two of us careening down the slope head over heels. 15 holds me tight, protecting my head from slamming into the pavement.

By the time we come to a stop, we're about ten meters from the end of the slope.

"You okay?" I ask.

"Clearly. Are you?" She states, already struggling to her feet. "Get up, we can't afford to stay here."

M4 and RO fire their weapons uselessly against the shield of the Uhlan and start circling around as if to flank it from the other side as the Uhlan is forced to prioritize them.

I climb to my feet and scramble after 15. She's breaking off slightly, heading to the objective.

So I just need to keep it distracted-

"MORE MISSILES!" I holler, noticing the missile pod opening once again.

I don't even bother looking at where the missiles are heading, I duck and run towards the nearest truck hoping that the large object will provide some measure of cover.

As the missiles impact all around me, I curl into a ball behind the front tire.

I haven't really been hit by that much shrapnel up to this point, but this time, I'm not so lucky. A fragment of the concrete is launched right into my shinbone and I can feel the bone shattering.

"FUUUCK!" I bite my tongue to keep from screaming further.

"Commander?!" Several doll's voices come through the radio in a panic.

"I'm- fuck, I'm fine, don't worry about me right now! M4, is the Uhlan in position?"

"Yes!"

"SOP! GO!" RO orders.

I can't see it from my position, but a few seconds later, I can hear an explosion, Sop and P90 cheer over the radio. "It worked!"

"Retreat back!" M4 orders. "P90, follow everyone else back into the building. SV?"

"One more shot-"

From my position, I can see the bullet spark as it hits the base of the electrical pole, 15 standing off to the side a bit. The base of the pole has been chewed through by SV-98's constant barrage and it's already starting to lean.

"Hey, 15?"

"Ready." Her voice is steady, unlike my own.

"Drop it."

She runs up to the pole, and with the strength she has access to as a T-doll, she shoves the pole hard, bracing against one of the previously disabled Paradeus trucks to topple a pole onto the Uhlan.

A pole that has several live wires on it that are currently right above the tank.

The pole falls too slowly for my liking, but it crashes down out of sight on target as I wanted.

Sop cheers again. "YES!"

Another shot comes from 98. "Uh, commander? Shield's not down!"

What? I crawl, gritting my teeth against the pain, to peek from around the truck.

The wires.

They had snapped, and I can see one end sparking. It's a mere half a meter from the metal of the Uhlan.

"It missed?" Despair wells inside of me. "But…"

"Nobody touch it!" RO yells. "That will kill your processors in less than a cycle. Hadwin-"

"I couldn't reach it if I tried." I cut her off, glancing around. Wait, we could use- "15! Grab the hood of one of the trucks and throw it on the wire!"

"On it!"

I look back and see her ripping the hood off the vehicle she had used to brace herself and then running a few steps and chucking the metal sheet like a frisbee.

It lands true, and the Uhlan's turret suddenly stops rotating. Sparks fly between the metal and the tank; there's still a gap but the electricity is clearly arcing to the vehicle.

SV's next test shot ping's off the metal plating.

"LIGHT IT UP!" RO yells.

For the next thirty seconds, a veritable hail of lead cashes into the front of the Uhlan, shredding it to bits, putting hole after hole into it.

When the gunshots die down, silence returns.

One more shot sounds out and P7's voice comes through the radio. "Last person to shoot it gets the kill, right?"

I can't help but chuckle as NTW groans.

"Be careful of the Uhlan, it's probably still electrified." M4 advises. "Let's gather everyone up."

"I'm going to need some help." I groan. "I think my shin's broken."

"I've got him." 15 says, already moving my way.

"That was soooo awesome!" Sop cheers. "I want Hadwin to make all the plans!"

"At least there was no exploding building this time." 15 says as she arrives next to me, squatting down to see my leg. I roll up the leg of my uniform and she grimaces.

"What are you talking about?" P90 joins in the chat. "The building thing was super awesome! It should be a sport, running from collapsing buildings!"

"Hey RO, can you see if you can get the power shut down? I don't care if it's by calling someone or by turning the grid off remotely yourself." M4 interrupts. "I want that issue dealt with before someone dies."

"On it." The beleaguered doll sighs.

"M4, Commander's shin is shattered." Star scoops me up in a princess carry and turns to the building. "I'm carrying him inside for first aid treatment."

"Got it. Hey, NZ, Type 92, ask the humans if they have medical equipment." M4 orders the two handguns.

"Of course." Can't tell which of them it was over the radio.

"Hey, does anyone know what that helicopter overhead is?" SV calls out.

"Looks like it says news." NTW responds. "Huh."

I look up at 15's face which now that I can see it better has a slight blush on it. "Thanks, Star."

"Of course, Hadwin." She smiles slightly, her eyes soft. "Funny, your freezer experience really came in handy, didn't it?"

"Mental note: Carry around a taser for Uhlan shields." I smirk.

We're halfway up the ramp when suddenly SV-98 yells. "SECOND UHLAN!"

What?

15 spins, allowing the both of us to see as the second tank rolls in, speeding up to ram the first one out of the way. It's shield flickers as it makes contact, but it holds, and the other tank is knocked out of the way.

The new Uhlan levels its gun at Star and I.

We're in the open.

We gave it all we had just to get here and… There's more.

"This isn't fair." P7 whimpers and I agree internally.

Behind the tank, two more Paradeus trucks roll up and start dispensing Rodeleros and Strelets. The new units arrive and start fanning out around the Uhlan.

"Well, Hadwin." Star says in a monotone. "I guess if I had to die, I'd rather it was here than in some random forest somewhere."

"I'd rather not die at all." I grumble.

In the distance, the bell from an old church starts clanging, indicating that it's noon.

Suddenly, the Rodeleros turn and start firing at the Uhlan. The Uhlan starts firing back, but it doesn't manage to bring them down before it becomes still.

As soon as it does, the Rodeleros turn on the Strelets and then each other. The last one hops forwards and a three round burst of bullets from off to the side finish it off.

"What just happened?" I ask.

"RO, was that you?" Sop asks.

"No. I'm not that skilled." She sighs even deeper. "Which means-"

"Well, well, well."

15 turns to face the newcomers arriving from around the side of the building, scowl on her face even as my blood begins to boil.

UMP 45's evil grin is in full effect as she and the rest of 404 walk up casually. "Need a hand?"

Author's note:

This is the end of the first arc, out of approximately four planned as of now. Updates may be a little slower as I make sure that the next arc is internally consistent and flows nicely. I hope you're enjoying the story up to this point, and there's more coming. Please look forward to it.

Apologies to my Beta, ever patient with my constant errors and searching up obscure bits of lore.

Beta's Note:

Yeet! -A certain beta reader who had to suffer through any spelling/grammar mistakes he makes