From what started as a simple exercise quickly turns into a panic filled situation.
There's KCCO in the woods.
I practically leap out of my seat, only for RO's hand to snap up and grab my wrist.
"Wait."
"Wait?!"
"We need to be careful." RO looks at me balefully. "Running out there headfirst is going to get us killed."
Commander Kylie rubs her temples. "Of all the times… Hadwin, the dolls trust you, yeah?"
"Of course!" Sop answers for me, crossing her arms and standing up proudly.
On my other side, RO nods in assent.
Commander Kylie nods to herself before standing up. "Okay. We're going to keep this quiet. Hadwin, grab 4 or 5 stealth-oriented dolls and head to this group of KCCO to the east, scout out exactly how many were dealing with here. I'm going to grab my own echelon and head out to the group on the west."
"Okay."
"If you get intercepted by the other commanders, tell them that you're going out with a standard patrol. Don't tell them we found these." She taps the screen.
I almost ask why not before my brain catches up with my mouth.
Because someone put them there.
"Got it." I stand up, RO and Sop standing up with me. "Do we have explosives?"
Sop gives me a curious look as Commander Kylie raises an eyebrow. "I suppose. Don't take too much, it'll slow you down."
I nod. "I'll be back."
"Godspeed."
"Same." I leave the room, Sop and RO hot on my heels.
"Hadwin, I'm going to work with Commander Kylie." RO turns to me, talking in a whisper. "I'll keep an eye on her just in case."
"Good idea. Who do you think I should bring with me?"
"Just make sure they're from the group from this morning. No random dolls." She hesitates. "Maybe DEFY?"
…I really should have thought of that. "Thanks, RO. You're a lifesaver."
She shakes her head as a wry smile crosses her face. "Don't die out there."
"I don't plan on it."
She turns around and heads back towards the command center to rejoin with Commander Kylie.
Sop keeps pace with me as we continue towards the doll barracks. "So, can I come?"
"Why wouldn't you?"
"I'm… I'm not too good at the whole stealth thing." She admits. "I'm good at ambushing things, but not sneaking around for long periods."
"Well, look at it this way: If something goes wrong, you'll be along to make sure we all survive. Sounds good?"
"Yeah!" She pounds her fists together. "I can do that!"
"Actually, now that I think about it, why don't you head to the warehouse and grab some explosives? I'll go grab DEFY and meet you at the eastern border of the camp."
"If Kalina lets me. I've been banned from using explosives since the Graettel job."
I'm not gonna ask. "Tell her I need them and they'll come out of my paycheck or whatever."
"Alright. See you!" She turns and bolts towards the warehouse.
I pick up the pace myself, nerves hitting and telling me to hurry up, hurry up, despite the very simple fact that my brain keeps telling me that this really isn't that urgent.
I mean, yeah, having KCCO forces right outside the base is extremely disconcerting, but then the attack happened Monday night. If they were going to attack, they had all of the past two days to do so.
It's not likely that me hustling is going to manage to be the difference between me catching them off guard or not, but rushing does increase my chance of mistakes.
I force myself to slow down a bit. Okay, so… I'm going out there to scout them and possibly plant some explosives.
I have SOPMOD on the mission and I also want DEFY.
I should probably bring more than three dolls though, just in case…
My train of thought is cut off as I open the door to the doll dorms, only to find two dolls staring each other down.
15 and 416.
15 notices me first. "Hey, Hadwin-"
416 also turns to me. "Tell her it's my turn tonight."
My brain blanked even as some words were halfway out of my mouth. "...What?"
"It's my turn." 416 reiterates.
"Nobody said you get a turn." 15 retorts.
I stare at the two for a second, only barely realizing that behind them they- rather, we have an audience. MDR's got her phone out. I choose to ignore everything and go back to my original reason for being here. "Do either of you know where DEFY is?"
"They're upstairs." A softer voice comes from beside me, and I turn to see G11. "Why?"
"I need them for… a thing." I hesitate. "Can you call them down?"
G11 nods sleepily.
"What do you need them for?" 416's eyes narrow. Commander, I am-"
15 rolls her eyes, cutting 416 off. "Commander, can you…" she trails off, glancing around. "Where is RO and Sop? You're supposed to be under guard."
…Oops. "Right, they had urgent business."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah."
"Then I-"
416 cuts off 15. "I volunteer."
They glare at each other and I pinch the bridge of my nose. I don't want to deal with this right now. "Fine. You're both with me."
They both look at me in surprise, back to each other, and then back to me in mild annoyance, as if to say 'I meant only me.'
Well, too bad.
AK-12 and AN-94 come down the stairs quickly, AK-12 finding my face in the relatively sparse crowd.
"Commander?" AN-94 asks curiously as she comes to a stop in front of me.
"I need you two to come with me." I inform the two Russians.
AK-12's eyes open just a crack, appraising me before nodding. "We will follow."
416's eyes narrow. "Commander, what's going on?"
"…Not here." I glance meaningfully at MDR.
"...Ja, not here."
I feel a tug on my arm and turn to see G11. "Can I come too?"
"…Sure." G11 and 416 belong to a stealthy group, so it should be fine.
Probably.
I turn and lead the group out, the other dolls in the dorm watching us go.
Once outside, 15 turns to me. "What's going on?"
"We discovered some KCCO outside the base." I say quietly. "We're going to go investigate."
"Why the secrecy?" AN-94 asks.
"Because these KCCO have been sitting in wait just outside the base since Monday night." I continue speaking quietly. "Which means someone told them to stay there."
The implication isn't lost on the dolls. Well, maybe G11, but she doesn't seem to care much. Or really be paying that much attention, judging by how closed her eyes are.
"Who else is going?" 416 asks.
"SOPMOD." I answer. "Other than her, nobody. I don't want to cause a stir."
"Right…"
AK-12 turns her head in my direction. "Commander, are you going out there without a weapon?"
I look down at myself and curse quietly. Right, I don't have a pistol on me since it's currently evidence.
"You should also get the exo suit." 15 comments. "You shouldn't leave the base without it."
I frown. I don't know if I can use it since Aleah won't be assisting me… it can't hurt to try.
"I'll lend you my pistol, Commander." 415 pulls her sidearm off of her thigh holster.
I look down at the gun, then at her, my lips quirking at the edges. "Just don't point it at you, under pain of death?"
"That would be appreciated, ja." I can see the edges of her lips curling ever so slightly. She also hands me a few spare magazines.
I check that it's loaded as we arrive at my room. It is, thankfully. I quickly slide on my tac vest, grab the linker and the radio, before stepping up to the exo suit.
I really hope this works…
I plug the Linker into the exo suit and pull it on, then reach out so the suit can wrap around me.
The metal wraps around my arms and legs, the Linker reading out a whole bunch of text that's probably important, but I'm not able to read it fast enough to actually get anything out of it.
Once it's done obscuring my vision, I take a tentative step forwards.
The Exo suit subtly assists me moving, not randomly jerking my leg forwards.
I take a few more steps to confirm, then decide that this'll do. It feels slightly different from when Aleah was helping me, but I suppose I should just be grateful it works at all.
"Okay." I tuck 416's pistol into the vest and throw the Griffin coat over the exo suit. It's not gonna hide it from any real inspection, but it might make it less obvious. "Let's go."
"Commander, should I call UMP 45?" 416 asks as I lock the door behind me and start heading for the east side of the camp.
"No… wait, yes." I turn to the tall doll. "Tell her to get her sister and for each of them to pick one of the male commanders and make sure they don't do anything funny."
"Ja." Her eyes glaze over.
"What about Commander Kylie?" 15 asks.
"RO's watching her."
"Good." 15 checks her own weapon and apparently finds it satisfactory. The rest of the dolls follow suit, checking ammo and apparently finding it satisfactory.
"Hey Commander!" I glance to the side to see SV-98 jogging up to me. "What's going on?"
"Not much." I turn to her. "Just… going out for a patrol."
She glances at the five dolls behind me, particularly at G11 who's clearly geared up for combat. "Right, patrol." She nods to herself. "Okay, well, good luck!"
Something about the way she says that strikes me as odd. "Uh…" I reach my hand out and stop her. "...What are you up to at the moment?" I can feel the eyes of the rest on my back, asking me 'what the hell are you doing?'
"Oh, I'm going to report back to Commander Ricardo. I just got back from a logistics mission."
"Right." I nod. Exactly what I don't want to happen right now is someone reporting me leaving the base. Now that's not what she meant, but if she mentions it… "Well, I think you work too hard. How about, you take a small break and go grab something to eat?"
She gives me a perplexed look for a few seconds before she seems to realize something, once more glancing at the group around me. "Oh. Um, yes! As long as I have orders that allow me to take a break before I need to report in."
"Well then, I hereby order you to have a nice, long meal and get yourself cleaned up before reporting in. It wouldn't do to show up in front of a commander dirty, hungry and tired."
A small smirk crosses her lips. "Of course, Commander." She throws me a salute before happily walking off towards Springfield's cafe.
"Looks like we've got a time limit." AK-12 muses.
"At least we can measure it in minutes and not seconds." I turn and keep moving forwards.
Sop's already on the edge of the clearing, talking with an unfamiliar doll. She looks up as we get close and ends her conversation abruptly to head over to us.
The other doll follows her over and stands there with a hand on her hip, surveying the group I have arranged behind me. "Oh, this better be good."
I glance at Sop, who stops in front of me and does her best to put on puppy dog eyes. "Commander, Bren keeps harassing me!"
"She's been loitering at the edge of camp with a satchel full of explosives." The doll identified as Bren crosses her arms. "I had a perfectly legitimate concern about what the hell she's doing."
"She's with me." I state. "I told her to get the explosives."
"Sure." Bren taps her foot. "But, why do you need explosives for what she keeps insisting is a regular patrol?"
...Ah. "We've got to clear some obstacles." I draw an excuse from an old story I read once. "Gonna need the explosives to clear them out." I hope that my mental association of the KCCO units being obstacles is enough for my face not to reveal the lie.
"Uh huh." Bren stares at me for a few seconds. "Well, I guess if you're going to need them." She shrugs. "Just don't stand there looking like you're getting ready to bomb something next time."
"Hear that Sop?"
"Yeah, fiiine." She rolls her eyes. "This wasn't even my idea…"
Bren continues on and I make eye contact with the six dolls following me.
They're all ready for combat.
I turn back into the forest. "Okay, let's go."
It's exhausting work, to be honest. Sure, nobody's firing at me, I'm not dropping buildings on myself or running around base, but sneaking through a forest is hard.
Every step seems to set off a firecracker as my boot finds a twig or a particularly crunchy leaf. The dolls around me move without a sound, clearly much better at this whole 'silent' thing. I don't know if it's practice or just something they can do as dolls, but at one point I had to stop and calm myself down after I stepped on a particularly loud stick.
Eventually, we came across the path that the KCCO units had plowed through the forest, knocking down trees as they passed through. It certainly will make it easier to track them down, but once on the path there's no cover.
I turn to AK-12 and AN-94, both of whom have their face masks pulled up. AK-12 has her eyes open, but the glow of her eyes is muted in the early evening light. "Okay, it's probably a bad idea to just follow the path straight to them-"
"We'll take the far side." AK-12 interrupts me. "I recommend 416 and 15 take this side and we can approach silently and report back."
I hesitate, not wanting to send them forwards without me, but nod my head. "Yeah, please do that." I turn to 416 and 15. "Is that going to be a problem?"
They glance at each other, then back to me before shaking their heads.
"Good. Once you all know what's going on, come back and get me."
"Roger." AN-94 readies her weapon and DEFY sprints across the cleared path as 15 and 416 head off in the direction of the KCCO troops.
"Soooo…" Sop purses her lips. "We're just gonna stay here?"
"I'm too loud, and you said so yourself, you're not that good at stealth." I sit down on the side of a tree the KCCO units had plowed down. "Leave it to them for the initial scouting, and if we're needed, they'll come back to get us."
G11 sits down beside me, her gun held at the ready. "I'm good at stealth too. I could've gone."
"Well, I still need two dolls to guard me at all times, right?" I smile at her.
She gives me a look, but a smile crosses her face slowly. "True. And this way I can sit on your lap again!" Before I can stop her, she pops up and sits down on top of my legs.
Sop sits beside me, setting the bag full of explosives on the forest floor. "Hey Haddy?"
"What's up?"
"Um…" She tilts her head as if thinking very hard about what to say. "...Are you... dating 15?"
"Uh…"
G11's eyes open and she looks up at me. I start to protest Sop's choice of conversation in front of G11, but Sop plows on. "I looked it up since RO wouldn't tell me anything. It seems like sleeping with a guy is something you're only supposed to do when you're dating, but the search results were kinda incomplete for some reason."
"...Ugh." I pinch my brow. "Sop, there's a difference between sleeping with someone and… sleeping with someone."
She frowns at me. "Is this like that keyboard thing? Two things with the same name?"
"It's…" I glance down at the doll in my lap, who for once doesn't have half lidded eyes. She must still be in combat mode. "It's not that simple. Look, I promise I'll tell you later-"
"That's what RO always says, but she never tells me!" Sop stands up and starts pacing.
"Okay then, I promise to tell you as soon as we're not in combat." I insist. "Not in front of-"
Sop gets right up in my face faster than I can react. "Really? You promise?"
I can feel my stomach twisting like I ate bad meat, but I nod. What have I gotten myself into?
G11 snorts. "You two are funny."
"Still, you haven't answered the question." Sop crosses her arms and glares. "Are you dating 15?"
"I… don't think so?" It ends up as a question. "Look, I know she likes me in some capacity, but I'm haven't actually talked with her about-"
"Then why is she sleeping with you?" She demands.
"Fine! Yes, we're dating! Is that good enough for you?"
I hear a crash behind me and I realize that my voice has become kinda loud. I slowly turn around to see 15 and 416 staring straight at me.
"I-I-I-..." 15 has dropped her weapon and seems to be stuck in some sort of loop.
416's face is somehow paler than usual, her gloves squeaking with the force she's applying to her firearm.
"You really need to learn to focus on missions." AN-94 says and I whirl back around to see the two DEFY dolls have snuck up in front of me. "We could hear you chatting all the way over by the KCCO units."
My blood runs cold. "Oh, fuck."
"Don't worry." AK-12 sits down on the log and I realize her eyes are shut. "They're inactive for the moment."
"...For the moment?" I echo her words.
"Yes." 416's biting tone states from behind me. Right behind me. "They're currently in power save mode."
I glance back carefully.
416's expression is murderous and 15's still staring into the distance, her gun on the ground.
"R-right." I gulp.
G11 suddenly burst out laughing and falls sideways out of my lap.
416's face goes from wide-eyed hate to confusion. "Worüber lachen Sie?"
"Er versucht nur, SOPMOD zu stoppen, 416." G11 wipes the tears from her eyes. "Sie stiehlt dir nicht den Ehemann."
I glance at Sop, who's poking something with a stick, then at AK-12 who's snickering behind her hand, and then at AN-94 who just sighs.
"Dammit." I grumble. "I don't speak German!"
"Well… if it's like that." 416 pulls herself together. "Anyway, Commander, you should come take a look at what we found."
AK-12's eyes open back up and we're suddenly back in serious mode. "She's right, Hadwin. Follow me."
I poke the Aegis unit with the barrel of 416's loaned pistol. "You're sure they're not on?"
"Oh, they're most certainly on." AK-12 turns to me.
I freeze in place, the barrel of the gun still in the Aegis' face.
AK-12 continues, clearly enjoying my panic. "They're just not paying attention to the outside world, as it were."
"...But they're on?"
"Yes." She flicks the hull of a Cerynitis. "Waiting for a wake-up order. Thankfully, it's nothing we produce on a regular basis, or they'd already be up and about."
I frown. "But… shouldn't they have passive sensors?"
"...They do." AN-94 raises an eyebrow. "They're just off."
"...But they're passive." I turn to the protégée. "So why would they turn them off?"
"You do know the difference between active and passive sensors, right?" 416 glares at me.
"Of course!" I state, but realize that maybe I don't, as I got my info from video games. "I-it's… Active systems are like radar and passive systems are like vibration detectors, right?"
"Active sensors are anything that sends out a signal that it expects to get back." AK-12 says. "Radar is an active system, and so is sonar. They both send a signal out and time how long it takes for that signal to bounce back."
AN-94 picks up the explanation here. "Passive systems are anything that doesn't send out a signal. Human eyes are a passive system, only absorbing light from the surroundings. This is why you can't see in the dark."
"Doll eyes are a passive system in daylight, but when we turn on night vision, our eyes emit infrared light to help illuminate our surroundings, turning our eyes into active systems." 416 expands on AN-94's words.
"...Okay, but-"
"Haddy, passive sensors still need electricity. They probably shut themselves down to preserve power." Sop drags a still hardly functioning 15 behind her. "Unless we send them a signal they can process, their cameras are all off."
I allow myself to relax slightly, but I can't shake the unease of being so close to the KCCO units.
"Hadwin, there's something you need to know about these KCCO." AN-94 and AK-12 step in front of me. "As I probed one of them to ensure they are actually dormant, I discovered that they have a backdoor installed into their programming."
"Eh?" I give AK-12 a confused look.
"It means a different person than their intended controller can control tem." AN-94 says quietly. "We're both capable of seizing control of a few of them each, but with how many there are here…"
I glance around as she trails off, taking in the roughly one hundred units scattered around the clearing. If there's another hundred on the other side of the base, that would be one nasty surprise. "Would waking up a few of them wake up the others?"
"Probably." AK-12 nods.
"Okay…" I turn to Sop, who's set her catatonic sister on a tree stump along with her weapon and is walking towards me with the bag of explosives. "Sop, give those to me."
She hands me the bag and tilts her head. "What're you gonna do with them? There's way too many of the bastards out here to blow 'em all up."
"I'm still working on a plan." I peer into the bag… "This really isn't that much."
"Kalina wouldn't give me more than that after… um, well, I'll tell you some other time." Sop laughs nervously.
"I guess." I pull a pack of the plastic explosive out of the bag. "AN-94, AK-12, how many of the KCCO units can you each handle?"
"I can handle up to four." AN-94 responds quietly.
"I would assume roughly the same." AK-12 stands straight, looking around with her eyes closed.
"Does it matter which ones?"
"No." Surprisingly, this comes from 416. "IOP dolls only have four dummy connections. Sangvis dolls allow for more connections based on processing power, which is why the ringleaders are able to control lots of smaller units at once."
"...Ah." I think back to my brief stint with Gager, Beak, and Architect. "I guess it makes sense."
"Personally, I recommend taking control of a few Dactyls." AK-12 points to the ground and I look down to see a roughly meter square robot that almost looks like a four legged crab. "They're mine layers."
"I see." I continue to look around. "I'm going to take a quick look around. Please keep your eyes open in case they start to move."
AK-12 smiles at me and nods, her eyes firmly shut.
I roll my own pair and turn to walk in among the KCCO units, hands firmly on my weapon, just in case.
"W-wait!" 15 grabs my shoulder. Her face is beet red, but at least she's no longer mentally fried. "I'm going with you."
416 steps up on my other side, her own face stoic.
"Okay, let's go then." I shake my head and continue on.
For the most part, the KCCO forces consist of Aegis, Cyclops, and Cerynitis, with more specialized troops scattered throughout. There's the aforementioned Dactyls, smaller crab robots that lay mines, some Centaurus with compound bows with, according to 416, explosive arrows, an Orthrus, which looks like an oversized robot dog, and then lastly…
"What the hell is this?"
"This is a Kratos." 15 takes a deep breath as we stare at the 5 meter tall monster. It's got a shield and a sword, has legs like a centaur, and looks like it could probably crush me without noticing. "They're not fun to fight, but they're hardly the worst the KCCO has to offer."
"Well, considering the Hydra…" I muse aloud.
"There's also the Minotaurus." 15 shudders. "Those really suck."
"Have I seen one of those?" I ask in confusion.
"Nope. Pray you never do." 15 shakes her head.
"Last time we encountered one, we were forced to turn away." 416 comments.
"Really?" I find that hard to believe, but…
"Yes. We barely escaped." She turns to me. "They have large energy attacks. It's not advisable to stand and fight them unless you have a very good reason to."
"Noted." I look back up at the Kratos unit. "Is that sword anything special, or-"
"It's too big to be called a sword. Massive, thick, heavy, and far too rough. Indeed, it's a heap of raw steel." 15 sounding like she's quoting something as she checks her weapon once more. "Also somewhat outdated. They're effective in clearing heavy units from the battlefield, but in case you haven't noticed, Griffin and Kryuger doesn't actually have access to tanks."
"I did notice that." We have APCs though. I turn to the two of them. "So, I'd like both of your opinions on something."
416 nods, 15 tilts her head slightly, and all of a sudden I see a significant resemblance between Sop and her.
"I came here with the assumption that we'd be scouting and maybe blowing things up." I heft the bag on my shoulder for emphasis. "Since they're not active, we probably have an excellent opportunity to wipe out a lot of them before they can react."
"Ja, this is a golden opportunity."
"What's your point?" 15 prods.
"Well…" I scratch my head. "I care about you two and I don't want to put you into a situation you can't fight your way out of. D'you think we should head back to base and try to get more support first, or just try to take them on with who we already have?"
...Maybe I shouldn't have included that first part. Both of the paler dolls have red faces, though 15's is a lot brighter. Thankfully, neither of them appear to be about to lock up.
"I can handle them." 416 raises her weapon. "I shall be your sword."
15 eyes 416. "I think we can handle them." She says to me, "Might be a bit sketchy unless we have a solid plan for dealing with the larger units."
"I think I have an idea." I nod. "Let's go back to the others."
The two fall in a step behind me, each one off one shoulder. I've noticed these two have a habit of doing this whenever we're going somewhere. It reminds me of bodyguards, which is probably what they're doing, but sometimes I wish they'd walk beside me…
I halt in place and they both pull up next to me, where I resume walking. When they start to drop back, I once more slow down until they catch up. At this point, they seem to realize I want them to walk beside me, and they maintain pace with me all the way back through the rows of KCCO units.
G11 looks up as I approach. "Hey, he's back!"
Sopmod turns around and grins. "Haddy! Didja plant the explosives?"
"Not yet. I actually had an idea." I glance around. "Where's AK-12?"
"Right here."
I spin around to find the tall Russian literally right behind me, to the point I have to crane my head back just to meet her eyes.
Eyes that are open and staring straight into my soul.
"A-ah…" I gulp, stepping back to get a small bit of distance. "Right… Uh, I wanted to ask a few things about the KCCO backdoor."
"Okay." She closes her eyes and the smile returns to her face. What the fuck was that about? "What would you like to know?"
"Do you think you could take control of one of them and stop it from waking up the others?" I ask.
"Possibly. What do you have in mind?"
I take a deep breath. "Okay, so you said those Dactyls have mines in them, right?"
"Yes." 416 confirms.
"Can you target one and keep it from waking the others while Sop takes it apart?"
The dolls look at each other, and after a few seconds, I realize they're in Level 2. Having a decently long discussion judging by the fact I could notice the length of time at all.
Well, aside from 15. She steps up to me and pokes the radio on my shoulder absentmindedly. "So… um…" Her face flushes once more. "Did you mean what you said earlier?"
Inferring from her blush… "Okay, I was just saying that to get Sop off my back." I look her straight in the eyes. "However, if you want to talk about it when we get back to base…" I leave it open for her.
She nods. "Okay. Back at base."
"And we need to make sure there's a base to-"
"We can do it."
I turn to find AK-12 and Sop looking my way. Sop's got a grin that almost splits her face in two.
"You can?" I sigh in relief. "Awesome. Okay, please do me a favor and start disassembling one. We're gonna use the mines to supplement our explosive supply. While you two work on that, can the rest of you help me set up these explosives?"
416 and G11 take a pack of the plastic explosive, 15 takes her own bricks (Sop gives her a look that I can't interpret), and AN-94 and I head towards the back of the group of KCCO, towards where the Kratos and Orthrus reside.
"So, where do you think this will have the most effect?" I ask the quiet woman at my side.
"I don't think this quantity of explosives can realistically hinder either unit." AN-94 informs me.
"...Why didn't you say that earlier?" I give her a look.
"You're in charge here. My job is to follow orders."
"Okay, see, that might work if I knew what I was doing." I point out. "As it stands, I'm just walking around with a bunch of explosives like an idiot."
"Still, you're the Field Commander."
I shake my head, but internally I have to remind myself that I do technically outrank… most of the T-dolls back at base. I'm not in charge of anyone from 404, despite 416's insistence, and DEFY is an entirely different group. It's a bit hazy when it comes to Anti-Rain…
"Let me put it this way. I'd rather you saw me as an equal." I turn to face her directly. "I'm not really that good at the whole 'commanding people' bit yet. I'll take criticism gladly, as long as you're not just kicking my teeth in for fun."
She squints at me. "Why would I do that?"
I shrug.
"I understand." AN-94's expression remains neutral. "I will provide whatever insights I deem relevant." She pauses a fraction of a second. "With that amount of explosive, we could likely disable one of the two units if we target a joint."
"Good idea." I turn back to the large dog and the centaur robots. "Now, which one should we disable…"
"If I may, I think we should disable the Kratos unit." AN-94 provides. "It's a melee unit, so it would feel the effects of being crippled most acutely."
"Sounds good to me." I pull out the explosive and walk up to the monstrous unit. "So, how do you know about this backdoor?" I ask as I unwrap the white brick.
"AK-12 and I were scanning for active signals, and when we didn't find the KCCO's standby frequency, we knew something was up. I probed their defenses and found a communication port that was left open that is normally closed on active KCCO units. For all intents and purposes, these KCCO units have been reverted to a maintenance state."
"Huh."
"This shouldn't be possible on the battlefield, to be honest." Her eyes flick around, keeping watch on the area. "That's why we referred to it as a backdoor. Someone who's very good at hacking had to set this up."
Is she talking about 45? I bristle slightly and AN-94's eyes narrow again as she notices me.
"What are you implying?" I keep my voice even.
"I'm not implying anything. I'm stating a fact." I can't help but notice her weapon is being held ready to snap up to her shoulder and fire at a moment's notice.
"I already told you, 45's not the cause of this."
She blinks. "I know. I'm pretty sure it was Paradeus who installed this back door, or more specifically, our traitor."
Ah. Yeah, that would make sense. "Right… sorry." I take a deep breath to calm myself, and she also relaxes slightly.
Then again… she didn't rule out 45, she just said it was the traitor who installed the backdoor.
Well, I'll drop it for now. For now I have to get this damn explosive onto the limb-
"Hadwin!"
AN-94's hand grabs my uniform and jerks me back, throwing me a good three meters through the air before I land on my back. I stare up at the forest canopy for the briefest of moments, considering the stars floating in my vision, before the gunfire starts.
I scramble to my feet even as the assorted KCCO units start to wake up, weapons arming as they turn to find us-
Off where Sop and AK-12 were working, a large detonation rocks the forest, and most of the KCCO units turn to face in that direction, assessing the danger.
This gives AN-94 a chance to grab my arm and pull me along as she fires behind herself at…
The Kratos and the Orthrus units are already online, the Kratos unit brandishing its sword as its shield blocks all of AN-94's fire.
"AW FUCK!" I yell in frustration, finally getting my feet under me and moving under my own power as the exo suit starts earning its keep. I pull my pistol out of my chest rig, but after a few bullets glance wildly off the nearest Cyclops, I realize how futile this is going to be. The cyclops raises it's shotgun-
AN-94 pokes her own firearm against it's head and blows it off, catching the gun and swiftly presenting it to me.
I take the gun, glance at it for a split second to confirm its functionality, and raise it up to my shoulder, taking aim at the next unit in line, and firing.
The Aegis unit falls over, disabled.
The gun has a lot more kick than the M16s I've been using, and without the exo suit, I would have probably lost my balance. As it is, the suit keeps me upright and running.
More explosions go off in different directions and I have to assume that's 404 and 15's handiwork. The KCCO are splitting off, choosing to focus on whatever's nearest-
A freight train slams into my back and I'm once more sent flying, this time hard enough that I bounce a few times before coming to a stop. The Linker pops up with all sorts of scary red boxes and realize I've gotten the wind knocked out of me. Also, I think the exo suit's been damaged, judging by the smell of electricity and the heat I can feel on my back.
If I hadn't been wearing the exo suit, that would have been my spine.
I struggle to take in air as my diaphragm refuses to cooperate, unable to even consider getting to my feet. I crawl over to the shotgun I had confiscated and pick it up before turning to see what had slammed into me.
The Orthrus stands right where AN-94 and I had been, it's maw open and a shield of green energy being projected outwards to protect itself from AN-94's weapon.
AN-94 is firing her weapon one handed, accuracy not needed this close to her target, and with her other hand she withdraws a grenade from her belt and pops the pin with a thumb. She tosses the grenade at the shield and it bounces off, exploding into a cloud of smoke.
For a fraction of a second, AN-94 is hidden from view. Then, the Linker outlines her in a thin orange line, and I can see her turn my way.
I desperately try to get to my feet, but my legs feel really heavy.
She gets to me and hauls me to my feet by my collar, then sprints away from the Orthrus.
My legs still aren't working correctly, but I grit my teeth and push them to work as hard as they can. With my earlier workout, they're screaming from the exertion.
A cyclops raises its firearm and I stop running to take aim and fire the shotgun.
This time the recoil doesn't catch me off guard and I'm able to quickly sight in a new target and fire. And another, and another.
An Aegis unit starts running at me and I draw a bead on it, brace for the recoil, and pull the trigger.
Click
"Ah, shit."
I toss the shotgun to the ground and pull out my pistol, but the Aegis is already right on top of me.
I brace for the incoming punch, but the Aegis unit is knocked aside by a flying tackle from SOPMOD.
As the two fall to the ground, Sop's already digging her claws into the Aegis' armor ripping it off and poking her other hand into the body cavity of the unit and ripping out the wiring. The Aegis twitches disturbingly as Sop guts it.
I quickly look around and spot a new shotgun on one of the Cyclops corpses I had generated. I scoop it up and pull the spare shells off its shield. That's an odd place to hold them, I think, but I'm sure there's a reason.
I slide two shells into the loading chamber and the rest go into a pocket on my tac vest.
"Sop!" I yell at the gleefully tearing girl. "Let's go!"
She looks at me, her face still a rictus grin of pure excitement, but she blinks and seems to come off of it, looking around at the combat still going on. She grabs her gun from her sling and stands up, weapon already sighting around.
I aim the shotgun at the next approaching enemy-
416 and G11 sprint into view, G11's weapon spraying bullets past me in bursts. 416 has out her smaller grenade launcher, firing a grenade in an arc that crashes down in a cluster of Cerynitis that had been positioning themselves to fire at us.
I turn to see what G11's been firing at and find the Orthrus had started charging past the smoke shield AN-94 had put up only to be stopped by G11's fire.
G11 continues to pin the Orthrus down as the two 404 dolls join SOPMOD and I.
I take aim once more and destroy a Cyclops that had gotten way too close as I was distracted, scooping more ammo off of its shield.
Sop and G11 start running towards the Orthrus as 416 takes over pinning it in place, her grenade launcher tucked away and her namesake weapon raised to do some work. I stand next to her, firing the shotgun as fast as I can, reloading any chance I get.
I don't see it, but I can hear the Orthrus' shield pop, followed shortly by a yelp and the grinding of metal.
Twisting around, I see that the Orthrus had tried to bite into G11 with it's large metal serrations.
She responds by placing her weapon on its eye socket and pulling the trigger.
The Orthrus dies quickly, and Sop and G11 return to our little huddle as 15 runs up. The edge of her jacket looks even more singed than it had before and I guess that she was a bit closer to the edge of the explosion than she wanted to be.
I load a few more shells into the shotgun as the dolls around me take out any threat in the immediate vicinity.
Then, all of the gunfire stops.
It takes me a few seconds to realize why, being so hyped up and looking for targets. The reason is that there simply aren't any targets remaining.
"Is it over?" I ask, realizing I'm panting with exertion.
"Not exactly." AK-12 walks into view, the Kratos following her like a massive puppy, clearly under her control. "The KCCO got the wake up signal, so we have to assume the ones on the other side of base also are awake."
I nod, noticing AN-94 also moving up with a few of the Dactyls following her in the same way that the Kratos is following AK-12. "Do you think Commander Kylie wiped them out?"
"I doubt it." Sop frowns. "RO told me that she didn't bring that many dolls with her."
"Fuck." I turn and try to walk over to another downed Cyclops to replenish my ammo, but my legs suddenly refuse and I topple over, only to be caught by 416. I realize that it's not just my legs, the exo suit is actively fighting me. I hadn't noticed during combat.
"His exo suit's busted." 15 grimaces. "The legs clearly aren't getting any power like that."
"The Orthrus charged him and knocked him over." AN-94 reports.
Several of the assembled dolls shoot glares at the mechanical corpse in question.
"Hadwin's going to slow us down if he's fighting the suit." AK-12 points out.
"I can stay behind and fix it up." Sop offers. "There's plenty of scrap around."
"You'd be more useful to us on the front line." 15 snaps. "We need to get going."
"Go ahead." I wave them forwards. "I'll catch up."
"Wait." 416 turns to the others. "I have an idea."
G11 starts to look nervous and I wonder if, after 416's last plan in the forest with the cars, I have the same expression...
Lemme tell you, riding on the back of a Kratos isn't fun. It's clearly not built to be ridden, and each galloping step sends a shock up my spine.
Or, maybe that's actual electricity. Sop's right behind me, cannibalizing a Cyclops for parts on the go as she tries to repair the damage to the spine section of the exo suit.
On either side of the Kratos, AK-12 and AN-94 run flat out, with the Dactyls bringing up the rear. 15 and 416 are leading the charge.
G11 is, somehow, sleeping on the back of the Kratos in front of me. I'm keeping a grip on her shoulders so she doesn't fall off.
We made it to base in less than five minutes, but those five minutes felt like forever.
There, we're greeted by Bren, S.A.T., Ithaca, and AEK… who are all aiming at us until they realize the Kratos isn't a threat.
My heart did jump into my throat seeing four weapons pointed at me from dolls that are ostensibly friendly.
"Done!" Sop suddenly announces and I move my leg to find the exo suit is cooperating again.
"Thanks Sop." I slide off the Kratos, G11 waking up long enough to slide down herself before collapsing into 416's waiting grasp. I turn to S.A.T. "What's the situation?"
"There's some KCCO reported on the western side of the base. Commander Kylie's apparently out there, trying to stall them as they march towards us."
"We're here because she said that there was more on this side." AEK gives us all a once over. "I guess we don't have to worry about that, huh?"
"Not anymore." 15 nods. "We're heading to the western side of the base."
"We're gonna join ya!" AEK smiles. "The more, the merrier."
Bren sighs, but doesn't throw up any objections.
We draw more than a few looks, ten dolls, a human, the Kratos, and three Dactyls sprinting at top speed through the middle of the base.
As we run, a pink-haired woman draws even with me. "Hello, Commander."
"Hey Aleah." I give her a smile despite myself. "Wanna join the party?"
A grin that shows way too many teeth appears on her face. "Sounds like fun to me."
As we near the western border, Commander Kylie's forces burst from the treeline, MP7 and RO both firing behind them as they run, providing covering fire for the rest.
My brain leaps into overdrive and I start looking around for cover.
"Negev, Bren, AEK! Get behind those sandbags! Shotguns, with me! DEFY, take the KCCO units and stall the enemy." As I speak, S.A.T.'s shield rolls over me.
416 and G11 moved to the side, hiding behind an APC that had been being prepped for a mission.
15 and Sop charge forwards, making it further than any of the rest of us to cover their retreating teammate.
AK-12 manipulates the Kratos forwards, galloping it into the trees.
AN-94 sets the Dactyls laying mines as soon as Commander Kylie makes it back to the edge of base.
She collapses behind a crate and I rush over to make sure she's okay.
"T-thanks." She pants. "Wasn't sure we were going to make it."
"You okay?" I ask.
She nods slightly. "I'll be fine."
I pat her shoulder and stand back up, preparing the shotgun.
S.A.T., Ithaca, and I line up in the empty space between the APC and Anti-Rain's position. RO joins her sisters and the rest of Commander Kylie's squad is regrouping and preparing to fire.
In the forest, there's an explosion that draws everyone's attention.
AK-12 had recovered the explosives I had dropped when the KCCO units woke up and strapped them to the shield of the Kratos when I was being helped onto its back. The shield will help direct the energy somewhat, depending on when AK-12 ends up detonating the charges.
The dirt kicked up by the detonation makes it above the trees in places, but I can't see anything more, like if it was effective or just a waste of explosives.
AK-12 turns to me, her eyes open. "Kratos unit has been neutralized."
"Good. Get to cover."
She nods.
One of the dolls with Kylie walks up on the other side of S.A.T, holding a shotgun. She's obviously taking the initiative and joining the front line seeing the rest of the shotguns up here.
"Hey." I call out. "What's your name?"
The short girl turns to me and tips her police hat. "Super Shorty."
"Field Agent Hadwin. A pleasure."
She nods, loading her gun and racking it.
I brace my own weapon, trying to keep my breathing steady and waiting to spot anything coming out of the forest.
I wasn't prepared for thirty Cerytnitis to step out at once, formation tight to present a solid wall.
All around me, gunfire erupts. Most of the bullets ricochet off the front paneling of the Cerynitis', but the fire laid down by the Machine Guns tears through the armor and takes out a few of the marching bots.
The holes in the enemy formation are quickly closed, however, and once the Machine Gun's initial volley ends, they press forwards with impunity.
At least, until they reach the mines. Only one of the mines catches a Cerynitits, sending the unfortunate unit several meters into the air with it's directed charge. That must have been an anti-tank round. The rest of the KCCO halts in place, planting their feet and readying their cannons.
Then, three Orthrus leap over the wall of armor at full tilt.
Anti-rain takes the one on the left, DEFY the one on the right, and in the middle…
Well, it's just us shotguns.
Ithaca plants and starts dumping the entire tube into the Orthrus, the robotic beast electing to skid to a stop and throw up it's shield.
At least they're predictable.
Once Ithaca's weapon runs out, I take aim and fire. Pump. Fire. Pump.
I repeat it a few times before the gun clicks empty.
S.A.T. starts firing as I reload frantically. I don't know how much punishment that the Orthrus can take and I'd rather not find out it was more shells than I had in my gun.
The Machine Guns open fire once more, tearing through the Cerynitis ranks again. Where a Cerynitis falls, a Cyclops invariably peeks through the gap and darts returning fire.
The bullets ping off of the shield S.A.T. had provided me, but I realize that with all of us tied up with our own targets, only the machine guns are available to fire at them, and they're mostly focusing on the Cerynitis
Then, much to my relief, I hear the distinct BOOM of NTW's rifle, and one of the Cyclops units disintegrates. M200's distinct sound rings out shortly after.
Glancing at the roof of the nearest building, I can see Tokarev and NTW lying down and picking off targets. Dunno when they joined, but I'm grateful they made it. I can only presume M200 is also on the roof.
Super Shorty pulls the trigger on her weapon three times in rapid succession and the Orthrus' shield finally collapses with the same sounds as before, while I take the opportunity to unload in the ugly machine's face.
Once the light leaves it's eyes and it stops moving, I mutter "And stay down."
Before I can thoroughly enjoy our victory over the beast, the Cerynitis line fires and one of the rounds shreds through S.A.T.'s shield around me, as well as the bubble around Ithaca. The round sailed past me, but Ithaca was able to deflect the round upwards, where it spins, arcing through the air to land much too close to the machine gun nest. I can hear AEK yelp as the round comes down.
Glancing to the side, Anti-Rain has taken down their own Orthrus and DEFY is well on their way to ending their opponent.
"404!" I yell, not sure where G11 and 416 actually are. "Flank!"
I almost jump as 416 and G11 leap down from the building where NTW and tokarev are set up. They waste no time sprinting off to the side, presumably to find a good flanking route.
A round flies right past my face, and after a split second of surprise, my cheek starts to burn. I touch my cheek and my fingers come away bloody.
Right.
S.A.T.'s shield is down.
I turn and fire randomly at the KCCO forces on the other side of the line of mines. My weapon isn't exactly effective at this range, but it can't hurt.
The machine gun's third volley starts and the KCCO forces once more start whittling down.
Then, as I watch, Ithaca's stomach is blown apart, the shotgun's surprise on her face as her torso collapses to the ground.
My stomach immediately twists, but I don't have the chance to check for her core.
S.A.T. steps in front of me. "Commander! It's not safe up here!"
"Move back to the APC!" I holler back over the roar of gunfire.
We slowly back up, Super Shorty also following our lead. As we retreat behind the APC, S.A.T. drops her shields, and I realize she's panting slightly.
"Maintained the shields for too long?" I ask.
She nods shortly.
"Okay. Cool down." I peer around the APC. "They're not advancing for the moment, we can take a second to think."
I key my radio. "Hey, 15?"
"Yeah?!" Her response is terse, which is honestly to be expected.
"Can you break off and try to flank?"
"Not at the moment! Fighting off a whole platoon!"
"Understood." I glance around the battlefield, and truly everyone is heavily engaged. Fascinating, the difference between ambushing a group of KCCO makes and attempting to defeat them. We have so many more guns now, but since they're firing back and organized, it's taking a lot longer.
Closing my eyes, I consider who I can call in for backup. There's only two dolls I can think of off the top of my head and neither of them are really that good in a firefight, being more cyber-oriented.
"Fuck."
"You said it." S.A.T. agrees.
I glance back towards the center of the base and realize that Commander Kylie is talking to a group of dolls I've never seen before. After a few seconds, the group of dolls set up a tube at a shallow angle, and one of them sticks a small rocket into the tube.
As soon as she does, the tube shakes violently as it launches the mortal shell in a graceful arc and slams down on top of the KCCO formation. As an added bonus, two more of the Cerynitis are pushed forwards onto mines, removing them from the equation permanently.
As I watch the mortar team prepare another shot, I hear renewed gunfire and turn around again to see that 416 and G11 had made it to a flanking position and had started to shred through the enemy ranks.
This has the effect of lightning the pressure on the front line, allowing our dolls to start pushing harder.
I step out from behind the APC as the remaining KCCO units crumble under the combined fire of the T-dolls.
As the echo of the last bullet fades into silence, there's a brief moment of nervous tension.
Then, AEK whoops and leaps to her feet. "FUCK YEAH!"
Just like that, the tension of the fight is broken, and everyone starts relaxing.
Well, most everyone.
I walk over to Ithaca's corpse and gently roll it over. I eventually find the core in the mess of cables and computers, and I'm relieved to find it intact.
After I recover her core, I look around to see if we have other casualties.
Aleah's lost an arm, but she's still awake and talking. One of Commander Kylie's dolls is missing the left half of her body, and her core is hanging from it, but it looks intact.
After a minute or so, NTW appears with Tokarev and Mk23 beside her. In her arms is a limp M200.
I ran up to her, and found that a round had gone right through her jaw.
"Okay…" I verify again that everyone else is accounted for. "Anyone else get shot?" I ask.
NTW shakes her head. "Only these three."
I hand the two cores to Tokarev. "Please take these to the repair bay and make sure nobody can tamper with them."
She curtseys, takes the cores, and carefully cradles them as she walks towards the repair bay with about half of the assembled dolls.
All of a sudden, my legs give out from under me leaving me to slide down the side of the APC. I realize that I'm shaking again and hug myself to try to calm myself down.
S.A.T. crouches down beside me. "Are you okay?"
"Y-yeah…" I shake my head in contradiction to what I said. "N-nobody's dead…"
She sits down next to me, her shoulder touching mine. "No, it looks like everyone made it out this time. Congratulations, commander."
I laugh, but it's still pretty shaky. I don't even know why I'm shaking. Nerves? Adrenaline? Relief that everyone's alright?
AN-94 and AK-12 walk up to me, sitting down facing me.
AK-12 smiles. "Good job, Hadwin."
"T-thanks." I swallow to wet my throat. "Are you two okay?"
"Doing better than you." AN-94 leans over and brushes my cheek, which is really starting to sting. Then, her hand moves to the arm opposite of S.A.T., hovering over-
"OW!" I hiss as her finger brushes the gouge I hadn't ever registered in the commotion. A bullet must have grazed my arm.
"Looks like it's back to the infirmary for you." AK-12 stands up and offers me a hand.
I take it with my uninjured arm, and she effortlessly pulls me up. S.A.T. stands up, brushes herself off, and turns to me. "I'll be heading to the repair bay to provide a helping hand. AK-12, AN-94, please take care of the Field Agent."
"Of course." AN-94 nods. "Commander, follow me."
I grin ruefully at her choice of title for me and follow her lead, once more heading to the medical ward.
Two hours later, I found myself in the garage, in the crumbled section we had used for the last meeting. I've stored the Exo suit in my room, seeing as I'm hopefully done with combat for the day.
UMP 45, UMP 9, 416, G11, NTW, Aleah, RO, M4, 15 and AEK are in various positions around the room. S.A.T.'s still helping in the repair bay, so we don't have anything from her, but 416 had thought to bring some protein bars. It's at least something.
"Nothing suspicious." 9 shrugs. "Until the explosions went off, Commander Ricardo was filing away reports. The only contact he had with anyone else was his adjutant, who went to fetch SV-98 since she was late. They didn't make it back before the explosions went off."
45 unfolds her arms and stands up. "I was unable to pinpoint where the originating signal was broadcast from. Similarly to 9, I detected no suspicious behavior, unless you count him and Welrod flirting in morse code."
Flirting in morse code?
RO speaks up, derailing my train of thought. "I was with Commander Kylie, and as far as I can be certain, she did nothing to send the signal. We were examining the KCCO units when they suddenly started up." She hesitates. "I suppose she could have initialized the local units with a short burst transmission, but given how close we were to dying and that the signal came from the base as well, I'm inclined to say she didn't do anything suspicious."
I rub my temples. "But that doesn't make sense."
"I think we have to consider that whoever it is, they've got an accomplice." AK-12 enters the conversation. "After all, Hadwin saw the person who shot Commander Gentaine talking with someone else."
"Did anyone see anything else?" M4 asks.
Everyone shakes their heads.
Frustrated. I turn to NTW. "What's the situation in the repair bay?"
"All three dolls, M200, Ithaca, and M99 are currently undergoing calibrations. All three of them were deleted from the backups, so it's a good thing their cores were intact."
I exhale a breath I didn't know I had been holding.
"And Hadwin, how are you?" 15 asks.
"Two bullets made contact." I shrug. "One of them barely scratched my cheek, the other took a chunk out of my right arm. It'll be fine. I'm more worried about Commander Kylie. She got a bullet lodged into her left femur."
"She'll be on her feet in a day or so." M4 nods. "So, what did we actually get out of today?"
"Our traitor is capable of putting backdoors into KCCO units." AN-94 supplies.
"We need to work on our patrol routes." AEK comments.
"Sleep is hard to come by in Griffin bases." G11 grumbles.
"We removed the immediate KCCO threat." RO rolls her eyes at G11's statement. "We'll be safer for the immediate future."
I agree with RO in principle, but despite it only being 2000, I can feel my eyes getting heavy. 416, who is standing on one side of me, jabs me with a finger to wake me up.
"Okay." M4 pinches the bridge of her nose in frustration. "Hadwin, RO, good job getting everyone organized today. Everyone, good fight. You're all dismissed."
45 saunters over to me, tapping my chest silently on her way out the door.
Most of the dolls start to file out, only a few remaining behind, looking like they want to chat.
One of them is 15, predictably. 416 also hangs back, along with Aleah.
Let's see… I turn to 416 first. "What's up?"
"Did I do good today, Commander?"
I give her a tired smile. "Yeah. You performed with excellence."
She smiles. "Danke, Commander." She leans in as if she's going to kiss me, but stops after glancing to the side and seeing 15 and Aleah. "See you tomorrow."
"Yeah. Sweet dreams." I reply, before realizing that she's not going to have dreams-
Aleah steps in front of me. "How was my performance?"
I think back to the battle on the west side of base. "I'll admit straight up that I didn't see you much, but I saw your bullets tearing through the Cerynitis, so I'm gonna say that you've been a massive help."
She nods. "Thank you." She glances at 15 out of the corner of her eye. "I'll be at your room later if you need me."
She exits, and then there were two.
I pick my teeth with my tongue as I attempt to formulate my thoughts.
"So." 15 clears her throat. "About what you said earlier."
"Right." I turn to face her, somewhat reluctantly. It's not because I'm afraid of what she's going to say… I'm just trying to make sure I don't say anything wrong.
Well, and I'm nervous as all hell. I've never really talked about dating with someone seriously before.
"I realize you just said that to stop Sop from being a pain."
"Yeah..."
"But, you told me that…" Her cheeks flush slightly. "That we could discuss it further here."
"Yyyyyyep." I blow air out of my lips. "Okay, this is probably going to sound awkward… So, I realize that you, and several other dolls on base have some significant amount of interest in me." I shudder as a slimy feeling starts to settle on my thoughts. "I would say that I like most of you, and you especially are very important to me-"
Both of our faces are getting redder by the minute. I hope against all hope that nobody's recording this.
"-so if you'd like to start dating, I'm not gonna say no." I swallow my saliva.
15 fights through her own embarrassment to speak up. "I-I'd like that."
"You might need to protect the both of us from 416. And 45." I close my eyes and can already imagine the trouble I'm about to get into.
"W-well…" She hesitates. "D-do you like them?"
Silence for a few seconds. "I'm not going to say I hate them." I pick my words very carefully. "But if you're asking if I'm just going to suddenly stop caring about you-"
"No, that's not it." She looks like she's getting frustrated, but I'm not sure if it's with me or herself. "You're already in a relationship with 416 and... 45, aren't you?"
"416 'just' stole a few kisses." I assure her. "45… well, it's complicated."
"And you'd throw those away for me?"
I take a deep breath. "...Yeah."
She nods to herself. "Yeah, that's the kinda guy you are." She steps up close and wraps her arms around me.
I return the gesture.
We stand like that for a few minutes, just comfortably embracing each other. I suspect her face is still bright red, but then again, so is mine.
"I don't think you should."
"Hmm?"
"I don't think you should throw out those other relationships." She clarifies.
"But-"
"Shush." She taps her finger to my lips. "I… I don't really like the idea of not being special to you, but I don't mind if other girls are special to you too."
"...Are… Are you sure?" I look into her eyes. "That's… kinda weird."
She shrugs. "I just want to be happy with you."
I pull her into a hug again as I think, my brain going at a hundred miles an hour, but only repeating a single phrase.
'What the fuck just happened?'
"Your heart's beating really fast." She comments after about a minute.
"Yeah."
"Excited, or nervous?"
"Little bit of both."
She pulls herself away slightly, just enough that we can look at each other comfortably. "Um…" She bites her lip. "Can… can I get a kiss?"
I pause for a second, then lean down and meet her lips with mine.
"Hey 15! Haddy!" Sops voice comes from around the corner. "M4 said you were in here… What are you doing?"
I'm busy rubbing my face to try removing the blush (Largely unsuccessfully, judging by the heat at my hands) and 15 is staring at the ceiling.
"Nothing." I respond, probably a little too quickly.
Sop narrows her eyes, the blood red light menacing in the darkness. "Well… If you say so." She doesn't sound very convinced.
"What do you need, Sop?" 15 asks.
"Oh yeah. M4 said she needed you for something, 15. She didn't tell me what, just that it was kinda important."
15 sighs and turns to me. "I'll see you later, then?"
"Yeah." I give her a warm smile. "Later."
Sop tilts her head, but doesn't say anything as 15 turns and leaves.
"Well, I guess it's starting to get late." I comment. "Given how little sleep I've been getting recently, I should probably turn in."
"Okay, let's go." Sop grins.
I pause. "Huh?"
"You said you were gonna tell me some stuff about sleeping tonight." Sop reminds me, her eyes narrowing. "You said you weren't gonna back out."
I raise my hands in defense. "Of course! Sorry, I just forgot. I have… other things on my mind at the moment."
Like 15, 416, and 45.
Oh, one of those dolls is gonna straight up murder me…
"Okay Sop, follow me." I reluctantly wave her to come along with me.
She skips along like someone told she's getting ice cream and we exit the broken garage structure.
"Oh. There you are."
For once, 45's voice doesn't completely startle me. I turn around to see her leaning on the entrance to the garage, arms crossed and a grin on her face.
"Hey 45." I nod to her.
She pushes herself off the wall to follow me as Sop and I continue moving towards my room. "I need to talk to you about something important." She glances at Sop. "Are you busy?"
Sop laughs nervously. "Nah, um, I'll go ahead. See you in a bit, Haddy." She continues walking as I stop and turn to 45.
"Am I interrupting something?" 45 snickers.
"Kinda." I lean on a nearby wall. "I'll take the distraction though. What's up?"
"Well…" She hesitates. "The traitor has to have at least one, but maybe several accomplices."
"Yep, we've established that." I tilt my head much like Sop. "What's your point?"
"I've spent a lot of processing time pouring over personnel records, seeing who could be an accomplice and who couldn't due to circumstance. One way or another, I've cleared most of the base's personnel."
"That's… good?"
"It would be, but because we know they have to have help, it's likely that they have control of several dolls."
"...Oh."
"Do you remember how SV-98 was acting before the bomb went off? I think she knew something but was commanded not to say anything to you. She tried her best to get you out of the area, if you recall, but since we lost her entire morning with the partially deleted backup, we can't order her to tell us what she was doing or who told her about the bomb."
I nod. "Maybe she's the one who set it up, too. Otherwise, why would she know about it?"
"Exactly. She's likely an unwitting assistant at this point." 45 looks around to see if anyone's in the area. "Though, we still don't know who is controlling her."
"Well, if it's not you or me, it's one of the three commanders." I point out. Nobody else has the authority to command dolls. Well, M4 and Commander Gentaine could, but-"
"Not worth considering, right." She nods. "There's one more that I hadn't told you about due to… reasons."
I stand up straight. "Really?"
"Yeah." 45 looks me straight in the eyes. "Aleah."
"...Seriously?"
"Yes." She raises a hand and starts counting off. "First, she joined right after we raided a Paradeus base. Second, she was found as the only active doll in a doll trafficking building owned by Paradeus. Third, she's potentially had a lot of influence on you and your actions through the Linker. Fourth, that same Linker connection would give her access to everything you are thinking about, and would be very valuable information considering."
I bite my lip. "I… I don't think Aleah ever told me to do anything."
"Regardless."
"Do you really think she's the traitor?" I ask.
"It's a possibility. She hasn't shown any of the traits of an infiltration Neural cloud, but she could just be a very good infiltrator."
"Has anyone ever told you your mind is twistier than a knot?"
"You're the first one to say it to my face." She smiles. "Well, first one who gets to survive the experience."
I snort.
"In any case, Aleah wasn't being monitored today, being the only real possibility that wasn't being looked at."
I sigh. "Yeah, I'll keep it in mind."
She places a hand on my shoulder. "It's just a possibility. It's not good if we ignore potentials when we're still losing dolls."
"Right." I take a deep breath. "Okay, I'll keep it in mind."
She nods and I get up to continue walking back to my dorm.
"So, what were you doing with 15?" She asks as I get past her.
"...Um." I turn back to her. "So, I said something while we were in the forest earlier and she wanted some clarification."
"I see." Her evil grin is out in force. "What was it? Something about dating her?"
"...Yes." I grumble. "If you know that much-"
"It's much more fun to force you to admit it out loud." She steps right up to me and pokes my chest with her finger. "That's all I have for now. Enjoy your talk with SOPMOD."
"Sure…" I sigh. "See you, 45."
"Gute nacht." She smiles before turning and fading into the darkness.
"...I'm gonna assume that means 'good night' and not 'you fucking cheater'." I mutter to myself, before turning back towards what will invariably be a very awkward conversation.
My mind runs at a thousand miles an hour trying to find some way out of the conversation, but… well… I promised her I'd talk to her about it. I'm really trying not to break my promises, regardless of how likely the other party is to rip my head off in a rage.
Which would suck.
As I approach my door, I take a deep breath. This is probably how parents feel talking to their children about this kind of thing, right? Super embarrassed, just wanting to get it over with, but also realizing it's necessary?
"Hey Haddy!"
I turn to see Sop walking up. I don't know how the hell I beat her here, but she's excitedly skipping up to me.
"Hey Sop." I open the door with my keycard and step aside. "Ladies first."
She nods and steps inside, immediately peering around and finding herself a spot on the bed.
I step inside, close the door, and sag down into my computer chair, feeling none of the cheer evidenced in the excitable doll practically bouncing in place.
Once she's looked around a bunch, she turns to me. "So, you told me that you can 'sleep with someone' and you can 'sleep with someone.'" Sop opens the conversation with all the grace of a dump truck. "Is this like that keyboard thing?"
"...Yes. Ish." I sigh. "Okay, look, I'm really uncomfortable talking about this, so I'm going to ask you some baseline stuff to gauge just where you're at."
"Uh… Okay." She sits up straight and stares straight at me.
"When you talk about dating, what do you think of?"
Sop blushes and fidgets slightly. "Ah, well… stuff like kissing and hugging and going places together."
I nod, afraid of that. Makes sense, but- "So, what about sex?"
"Eh?" She freezes in place and her cheeks almost turn the color of her eyes.
"Sex. What do you know about it?"
"A-ah, um… It's… it's something two people who are dating do." She looks confused. "From some of the things UMP 9 said, maybe you have to be naked?"
"Yeah, okay." I take a deep breath. "So, sleeping with someone is either sleeping next to someone, like sharing a bed because there aren't enough or just sharing a blanket because you're on a battlefield. The other is sex."
Silence as she processes that. "Uh… so, what exactly is sex then?"
Yeah, shoulda seen that one coming.
"Not sure what exactly it's like for dolls, but it's how human children are made. It's also supposed to feel pretty good, or so I'm told. Look, you remember those, uh, womb force things?"
"Yeah?"
"That."
She stares at me for a full minute. I almost start waving my hand in front of her face in case she crashed, but before I can actually try that, she bolts to her feet, face turning even redder. It's a miracle dolls can blush that hard. "W-w-w-what?!"
"Uh-huh."
"But you're not supposed to show your privates-"
"Then what would be the point of the wombforce?" I ask rhetorically.
Sop once more freezes entirely in place. "B-but… how-"
"Don't ask me specifics." I hold up a hand. "I'm not an expert, this all makes me uncomfortable, and I'm sure someone else has a better idea, like Persica."
"..." She sits back down on the bed, and suddenly I'm very glad she hasn't filled in all the mental holes in her knowledge. "Why are those two phrases like that? They're so close!"
"Humans really like innuendos." I state dryly. "I swear, half of the language is designed to cause misunderstandings."
Her expression grows haunted. "Wait, so when I told the group that 15 slept with you-"
"-Everyone assumed it was sex, yes."
"I… I don't know what…" She trails off. "Why can't I search for 'sex' on the internet?"
I blink. Well, that explains a lot. "Maybe your sisters didn't want you to know for some reason? Or maybe Persica." I guess. "In any case, you don't have to worry about it unless you want to start dating someone." I hesitate, before plowing forwards. "Or, well… remember Commander Jakoby?"
"Yeah?"
"He was probably after sex, trying to take advantage of you since you're not… well versed like the other dolls seem to be." I shrug. "That stuff that made you uncomfortable was probably supposed to be a lead in."
"...Ew." She shudders and her expression actually looks kind of afraid. I've never seen her look so small. "Ew. Ew ew ew."
I sit back to give her as much space as I can and purposely stare into a corner.
"I… what…" She mumbles to herself. "But why did he suggest…"
After she doesn't say anything more in the minute or so, I risk turning back to her. "If you'd like to leave, I get it-"
She shakes her head. "N-no! I'm just… thinking." She blinks. "Y'know, suddenly a lot of what Jakoby was doing makes sense."
"At least he's dead now." I grumble. "He sounds like a complete prick."
"Yeah." She fidgets some more. "So that's why 15 told me not to let him touch me like that."
I have to guess, but- "Yep."
"S-so…" she trails off for a few seconds. "When you were saying you were dating 15-"
Oh boy.
"-does that mean you were actually having sex?"
"Nope." I shake my head. "Just sleeping under the same blanket. She seemed distressed and asked to sleep in my room, so I let her." I scratch my head. "Which, mind you, isn't normal but I'm starting to think nothing about T-dolls is normal." After that earlier conversation, which certainly hurt my head-
"Huh." She tilts her head to the side, and her face starts to pale back down from 'tomato'. "Okay, I guess that makes sense." She kicks her feet back and forth. "I still don't quite get the link between being naked and the wombforce though. I get that it's how a doll can surrogate a child cuz it says so on the packaging, and you said sex is how you make babies, but-"
"We're not going down that route." I cut her off. "Ask your sisters."
"But-"
"Look." For the first time since entering my room, I manage to look her in the eyes properly. "I really think you should have a woman explain this to you, and not a guy. Maybe even a human woman, but definitely not a man."
She frowns, probably judging to see if I'm trying to renege on my earlier promise. "Well, okay. But if nobody else will tell me, you need to."
I wince. "Please, spare me."
She stands up. "I need to go think about some things. Maybe talk to M4… Um, goodnight, Haddy."
"Goodnight, Sop."
She steps outside and the door shuts behind her.
I shudder and hug myself tightly. God, that sucked. It was worse than I imagined. Why did I agree to that? Why would anyone ever agree to tell anyone about-
BANG
It takes a second for my brain to catch up with my ears, shifting from my previous embarrassment to combat mode.
Because I'm fairly sure, that was a gunshot.
I quickly check 416's pistol that I hadn't yet returned, stumbling as I try to get out of my chair and trip over my own feet.
BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANG
The shots are incredibly loud and right near the room.
I get back to my feet and practically throw myself at the door.
Locked.
I try the lock, but despite the click, it doesn't open. I hit the lock again and I get the same result.
Is… is it broken?
I grab with both hands and try to twist, but the knob only starts to warp under my weight, the mechanism refusing to budge.
"LET ME OUT!" I roar, but the knob remains stubborn.
I let go and realize that if the door isn't working anyway-
I slam myself into the exo suit, throwing on the Linker and connecting it into the exo suit with record speed, which sets the suit wrapping itself around me a lot faster than it had last time, perhaps because of my urgency conveyed through the Linker. More gunshots are fired behind the door and my hands start to shake with adrenaline.
Now, I once more head to the door and try the knob.
My fingers, enhanced by the suit, dig into the metal and I can feel the mechanism start to give.
But, after a fraction of a second, there's an opposing force.
...Someone's trying to keep me in here.
The realization hits me like a tonne of bricks and I start to see red.
I draw my pistol and start firing through the door, ignoring how much the ringing in my ears worsens with each shot.
The bullets are getting through, the holes letting in some of the light from the lampposts illuminating the outer walkway. Through the holes, I see some long hair.
It's too dark and too brief to get a good glimpse but it's a lighter shade. Maybe pink or blonde?
My pistol runs out of ammo, and I snarl at whoever's on the other side of the door. I almost punch the door, but I realize I'm about to pulverize my fingers to dust before I can slam them down. Instead, I ensure my elbow is adequately protected and rear back to strike the door with the metal cup around my joint.
The first blow rattles the exo suit, the door being harder than I had really expected. I only open a fist sized hole. I rear back and hit the door again, this time expecting the shock. The hole is now big enough that I could theoretically reach through, but I decide it's probably not a good idea to stop it there.
I strike the door once more, and this time I can see outside well enough to see that whoever had been outside the door is now gone.
I grab the knob and it turns easily.
I throw the door open, fumbling for a new magazine for my pistol and loading it up. The shooting had stopped for a few seconds, but I'm still likely to need the weapon.
The Linker illuminates the area around me, going into an infrared mode.
I cautiously peer around the corners, trying to see which way the person holding me is headed, but both hallways are deserted.
I open the door fully, but aside from the crumpled bullets that had hit the opposite door there's nothing. The other door is looking worse for wear, though there's no holes.
Judging from the lack of blood, hydraulic fluid, or corpses on the floor, I have to assume I didn't hit anything.
Okay.
BANGBANGBANGBANG
I turn to follow the sound, sprinting as fast as the exo suit can assist me.
I don't have to go far, though.
I skid to a stop just after rounding the corner out of the hallway, seeing two figures.
A set of red eyes glares at me in the dark, the outline of a familiar doll standing over a prone form. Her weapon is raised to fire.
I crash to the ground as she opens fire bullets tearing through the night and illuminating the firing figure and the corpse on the ground.
Standing is Aleah- no, Negev and on the ground-
For a second, my brain refuses to accept what I'm seeing.
Then, I raise my pistol and start firing.
Negev seems genuinely surprised, her aim jerking upwards as she steps back, then stops firing to jump behind a stack of crates.
I scramble to get myself into some cover, then poke my pistol around and start firing at the crates.
Negev starts returning fire, but only a short burst before she quits. She can't possibly be out of ammo, right?
My ears are still ringing from all of the gunfire in enclosed spaces, and with my adrenaline pumping so hard, it takes me a few seconds to see the incoming call notification.
Negev.
I answer it, taking the time to reload.
In the video feed, she has her hands up, gun discarded, and is standing over the crate giving me a clear shot. She's saying something, but I can't hear her. I would guess due to the tinnitus, but I'm fairly sure it was just the rage.
I step out, a good ten meters between us, my pistol leveled at her core.
She's again saying something, her eyes wide and her face worried, but I still can't hear her.
I squeeze the trigger.
Just as I do, something slams into me from the side. It tackles me to the ground, knocking the weapon out of my hands.
I get my arm under my assailant's armpit, wrap my arm around their back, and try to throw them to the ground. My assailant goes down, but drags me with them.
We roll around in the dark, me trying as hard as I can to elbow and knee the person as hard as possible, they try to grab my limbs.
Eventually, they succeed in grabbing my hands and they start trying to pin me to the ground.
I push back with all my assisted strength, snarling at the pair of acid green eyes-
The strength leaves my arms as I realize I'm fighting 416, and she slams my arms to the ground, not expecting me to suddenly stop resisting. She collapses on top of me for a brief moment before springing back to her feet.
Wait, why is 416 and Negev working against- No, figure that out later.
I pant, the brief explosion of activity taking much more out of me than I expected. I can see 416 mouthing some words, but I can't hear her either… So, she's not trying to kill me, at least.
Her expression changes from furious, to confused, then to concern as I continue to stare at her blankly, waiting for the world to make sense.
Eventually, she points to her ears.
I shake my head, and she starts shouting something else that I still don't catch, though I swear I heard the barest hint of her voice over the ringing in my ears.
A communication link opens up, and I realize that now both Negev and 416 are connected to me through the Linker.
"Commander, what are you doing?!" 416 demands. "You almost shot Negev!"
"She killed-"
"She killed nobody! She was trying to shoot the schlampe that shot-!"
"I… Oh, fuck."
She huffs and offers me a hand, which I accept. I turn around to see Negev still standing over the corpse.
My breathing is still labored as I step forwards to confirm what I had seen, my mind still refusing to see it for what I know deep down to be true.
SOPMOD lay lifeless, face towards the sky, bullet holes in her frame. Her face is untouched, but-
Her core is completely gone.
Not shot to bits, but actually gone. Like someone ripped it out.
All the strength leaves my legs and I collapse to the ground.
Sop doesn't have backups. If I don't have her core-
"No. No, no no nonononono-"
416's arms wrap around me and she squeezes me so hard the exo suit creaks. This squeezes all the air out of my lungs, and I have to gasp for breath.
"Commander, stay with us!" 416 orders. "We need to go after them!"
"I…" I can feel my mind clearing with one very specific thought rising to the surface.
KILL.
"You're right." I stand up, grab my borrowed pistol, and turn to 416 and Negev, who had been standing silently to the side. "416, you said there was someone else?"
She nods.
"Go after them." I turn to Negev, who stands ramrod straight, weapon held low. "You don't move until I figure out if this was your fault." I snarl.
She nods once curtly, then freezes in place, still as a statue.
I check my pistol is loaded and open a call to M4.
The green and grey doll answers with "Hadwin?"
"They got SOPMOD."
The expression of rage on her face is something that would haunt my nightmares for weeks to come.
Moments later, the bases' alarms start up, and the hunt is on.
Author's notes:
I apologize for my lateness with this chapter. I was busy putting my car into two anime shows/conventions two weeks in a row, and driving from NY to Texas and back took a lot of time and energy.
I've got one more show coming up in two weeks and then I'll probably be back to my normal schedule.
Beta notes:
We have all the time we need in editing chapters, but for now,
The Hunt begins...