Well here is the chapter for combat! Took some time but here it is.
There's some references that you might recognize in there with a surprise twist.
Hope you enjoyed this new chapter! :)
Flashback
The new team walks into what seems to be the command center of the base as it looks like most of the assembled team leaders are there.
They took notice of 6 T-Dolls, including Grizzly MkV of Echelon 4, surrounding a table with what seems to be a holographic image of a village surrounded by two hills. There was also an orange-haired individual, presumably a logistics officer of some sort, sorting through reports of some kind.
They, excluding Kalina, immediately turned their attention towards the door in which the commander entered with the new team. Their entrance was received with mixed reactions from narrowed glares, curiosity to even reserved expressions.
Even though this isn't the first time seeing them, Grizzly raised a smile and waved at them. At least there is someone that can recognize them in such a familiar yet foreign place.
It was quite confusing and concerning to see dolls wearing civilian to semi-civilian clothes. Not exactly something to wear before going off to a military operation or even a mission. Despite this, they seem experienced enough to know what they are doing and lead their squad.
"Ah, you must be the new team. Welcome to Sector 09, I am Type 95 of Echelon 3." The seemingly calm but mesmerizing voice spoke. Her white/blue costume is quite formal for a service uniform, almost too formal for one.
Raising her eyebrows at the implication, "So you have heard of us?"
One of the dolls with light blue-ish hair and has the appearance of a mafia spoke up, "We were debriefed of your arrival yesterday. Our boss told us about getting a new gangster, I'm Thompson by the way."
'I don't think gangster is the appropriate word to use.' He thought of this while he unconsciously moved away from the gaze of his dolls that is towards the newcomers. Nobody wants to be in the middle of a potentially hostile stare-down.
Hellgun countered her, "Is this how you treat your new guests? Hmm? Because if so, I am not impressed at all."
"Oh~? So you do have balls." Thompson grinned at the new guests, hoping to get a fight out of them. The others try to stop or discourage her from continuing on as it will not help build good relations at all.
Hellgun tries to make a move towards her but is immediately stopped by Bolt Pistol. When she looked at her team leader, all she could get from her was a disapproving head-shake. It made her stop in her tracks and scoff at the bait.
Thompson rolled her eyes before looking at them disappointed, "Girls, it's just how I call any newcomers. No need to get your panties in a twist."
A sigh of annoyance can be heard, a blonde T-Doll in a maid uniform can be heard, "Mein gott. Apologies for my colleague's behavior, I am Frau G36 of Echelon 2."
'Who in the Emperor's throne wears a maid costume on a battlefield?' Came the thought of the scion who shakes her head in disapproval of the assembled bunch. It almost feels like a makeshift mercenary group rather than any semblance of a proper military.
'O Emperor, give me the strength to stop myself from trying to open fire on these idiots.' The scion internally prayed, whether or not the Emperor actually listens to her.
All she can hope is that she can weather this circus and somehow get out of this. If she somehow was able to fake her own death, she could probably try to run off without getting noticed.
"Anyways, moving on to not waste time. I'm RO635 of the AR Team and this is one of my sisters, ST AR-15." She gestures to Star as the doll waves at them tentatively.
"One of your sisters?"
Seeing the conversation into a personal one, there came a reluctant answer from Star, "...Yes."
"Well, who are they?"
"SOPMOD II,... M4A1 and M16A1." Ro spoke before softly muttering the last two.
"Speak louder, we can barely hear your mutterings. Unless you have something to hide..."
Ro stated the last two names as if she were egged to do so, "M4A1. AND. M16A1!"
The room went quiet after that as if the atmosphere changed suddenly. The dolls surrounding the table had their facial expressions turned bitter or sour, almost as if something bad happened between them and the mentioned dolls.
She calmed down but took a deep breath as if letting it out is hard to do. Beside her, Star looked down from the mention of the names.
'Did something between everyone and the two named dolls? They must've had quite a complicated history judging by their facial expressions.' Internal disputes between regiments or even between allies isn't uncommon, whether it be pride, orders or other reasons. There will always be disputes no matter how infuriatingly annoying or unnecessary, they may be.
While a suspicious mind would question the sensitive topic, it'd be wiser to drop it as it will only worsen. Something that Volleygun does not do so as the teammate beside her, Hellgun, immediately covers the scion's mouth with her gloved hands before she speaks a word.
Volleygun will remember that.
"Quiet down, glory girl. Can't have you spouting frak now." The Cadian grenadier whispered to her now.
Dismissing her teammates' look of muffled anger to avoid confrontation, "I believe that we don't have any questions and we may proceed to the mission now." She said with a tone that implies no more questions.
The scion just angrily huffed at getting silence just to avoid letting her say her piece.
"Right..." Thompson cautiously moves on from the topic, trying to avoid saying too much that doesn't need to be said.
On queue, the table hologram activates and shows a remote village in between two hills, covered by forests. A good vantage point to create a kill zone since the two hills overlook the village.
"A village in the middle of nowhere? I wasn't expecting to be stationed in that village." Bolt Pistol remarked as she crossed her arms.
95 corrected her, "Oh no, you won't be stationed in the village. We decided earlier that your team would provide overwatch from one of the hills."
The Steel Legion raised her eyebrows at it but the commander interjected before she could say a word.
"To expound on what she said, your team will be positioned near the edge of the hills to scout and create a crossfire. When the coast is clear, you will advance towards the city to mount up a defense."
"Sounds like a decent plan but who will be in the village and what will they do?"
"ST AR-15 and Dandelion will be in the village to investigate the site. I do not know if there is anything we can find but reports indicate a small contingent of Paradeus units in the area."
"Who is this Dandelion? She sounds like a shady individual." Hellgun questioned before a smug-ish yet curious voice went off in her head.
"Oh my~, this neural cloud is quite complex and so is your weaponry. I wonder who would take their sweet time making you, surely not Persica."
Alarms were raised in her head as she immediately raised her weapon at the 'intruder', "Who is there?! Show yourself!"
As she points her weapon to whoever infiltrated her mental defenses, her teammates also immediately raise their weapons as well. The implication that an entity, whether it is human or not breaching into their neural clouds is something that is unacceptable in any matter.
The rest of the echelon leaders snapped out of their shock then jumped into action via raising their weapons at them. Weapons aimed and prepared to shoot should the opposite side start shooting. In response, the team aimed their weapons at them. Even their leader brought out her chainsword to send a message.
A full blown Mexican standoff.
"Hey, Hey! Calm down, we can talk so just lower your weapon." Thompson intervened with little tact as she continued to aim her weapon at them.
Unsatisfied with the answer, "Why should we? You that could've been hostile just breached into my head and you want us to stand down, really?"
"Well, neither is pulling out your weapons and shooting the 'intruder' will make it any better." RO635 using her megaphone on her right hand while her weapon is holstered on her left hand, "So please just stand down so we can explain it to you."
All while the chaos was still ongoing, Type 95 turned to Cayden with the look of concern and worry.
From the other side of the table, Cayden placed his head on the palm of his hand at the. He should've seen this coming, especially with Dandelion fooling around doing her own thing without any care. While charisma is something he lacked, he still needs to regain control of the deteriorating situation in front of him.
A loud voice comes out from him, "Lower your weapons and stand down. All of you, everyone enough."
Both echelon leaders and two of AR team members stood their ground at the order regardless of being aimed at. Meanwhile, the team in question, also stood their ground even if they were outnumbered in the room. "I said, both parties stand down. I will not tolerate violence under my command nor in this HQ base. If any of you are planning to settle any differences, do it in the simulation room." To his credit, his subordinates backed down and he saw the other team lower their weapons.
"I will make this clear, I apologize if one my subordinates has caused distress for your team. I wasn't aware of the true nature or your behavior in general."
They eye him briefly with varying emotions before the team leader stepped in front, "Very well, we will concede for now. However, do take into heart that while you may have authority in this base, there are lines that you should not cross regarding us." Forgiven but not forgotten. "The least you can do is admit that you were in the wrong, you will need to keep a leash on your subordinate."
He sighs in relief for one incident avoided, "I'll... talk to her."
"Although, me and my team were expecting more from this 'PDF'."
Confusion swept over his face, "PDF?"
"You don't know what it means? It stands for Planetary Defense Force."
"Never heard of them. But you must be referring to this planet's military force. Well, whatever is left of this world."
"Yes,... wait, huh? What do you mean whatever is left of this world? Are you telling me that a half or more of this planet has gone to frak all? And what is this planet?"
Cayden glanced at his echelon leaders for help, some of them are willing to fill in the details that he may miss. He also turned to RO and Star for assistance. RO agreed as she is willing to help in the debriefing despite earlier confrontation. Star refused as she doesn't have a precise account of the details of the outside world other than what's already obvious.
"Well,..." He turns to them and prepares himself for the worst, "I hope you are prepared for the bad news."
Sometime later, 1:00 PM
Two T-Dolls were currently overlooking a village from the foot of the hill not so far away. The village is surrounded by two hills that are littered with forests. They are currently scouting the surrounding area and are providing overwatch for ST AR-15 and, much to their annoyance, Dandelion.
This modern village would look beautiful if only it did not look like a ghost town and no living soul around. It did not help that there were dead bodies lying around in there with crates nearby as if someone or something took them all down.
It is midway under investigation by Dandelion and her 'bodyguard' ST AR-15. They are looking around for any possible survivors, anything to salvage or to understand from this incident. Unfortunately for them, they got their answer in the form of Paradeus as there was evidence of their presence before they arrived here. From the crates bearing the symbol of Paradeus to the large slash marks that could've been from a scythe user.
The two dolls were the Kasrkin and the Catachan. They are crouching behind the trees to avoid detection by sight. Although, their cover will only last as long as they don't start shooting nor were they detected by enemy radars.
Thankfully, they used their own personal comms channel to communicate with each other.
"Hey." Hellgun called her teammate to do some small chat.
Jet stopped scanning to look at her teammate, "Yeah?"
"Getting used to the new environment?" She uses her binoculars to scan the environment.
Jet ponders, "Almost, the place looks familiar to me even if it's a far cry from the usual environment that I'm used to, at least from what I remember."
She continues to scan the environment regardless of , "Hmm, don't get too complacent about it. Our new enemies will take advantage of that and catch us off guard."
"Oh. Uh... yeah. It's not good to bring down the team by a small mistake. Also, have you spotted anything?"
"So far? Nothing in sight yet. Let me check my auspex scanner." She takes out a her auspex scanner to get a better reading of the environment, who knows if the enemy could be just hiding somewhere. She activates it and scans its new environment for precise readings.
Getting partially impatient at the lack of proper targets for the Catachan's explosives, "Anything yet?"
"They haven't shown up yet, most likely still marching up to the village but they are taking their time."
"So the enemy decides to delay the inevitable, how annoying." She grunts at how long she needs to wait for an enemy to get into her sights.
Hellgun warns her, "Patience, it does you no good to let your emotions overwhelm your thinking in combat."
"Yeah yeah~, where are the other two? Shouldn't they be scouting as well?"
"Let me check." She activates her comms in her helmet, "Bolt Pistol? Volleygun? Is everything going alright there?"
There was a pause for a moment as their comms received the message.
"This is Bolt Pistol speaking, we are still active and responding over."
"Anything that is within your radar or sights yet?"
"No hostile signs yet on our end."
"I do not like this at all." She scoffs before sending another message, "Update us if you two caught sight of the enemy then relay it to the rest of us and our 'allies'."
Good thing that they have their own comms channel otherwise it'd look like they are plotting something that would make them be hated.
The answer of the sergeant is crisp and "Affirmative."
She closes off her comms before going back to scouting.
"So nothing on their end?" She guesses.
Hellgun sighs, "Nada. Nothing on their end."
"Tsk. All this waiting is making me itch for a fight. I swear this 'Earth' doesn't have many enemies to offer. And this planet just happens to be teeming with ELIDs or whatever their equivalent to Nurgle's poxwalkers is."
There is no response to the statement as it is true in this current predicament. Waiting for the enemy can be nerve wrecking for the average soldier especially when it is too quiet.
Jet turned her attention to the sharpshooter of her team, "Anyways, what do you think of our current situation now?"
"We're on an alternate Holy Terra but with no support. It is in a state of constant political turmoil and half of it has become a new Krieg but with a touch of Nurgle. ELID and Nurgle's touch aren't the same, but they might as well be the same."
"So the average day of being deployed to some random world, but it gets interesting?"
"Doubt it, this PDF equivalent doesn't know anything about the Emperor or any Imperium related information. However, they are at least competent enough to know that they can fight. If their records of a victory against a rogue military faction says anything."
Unbeknownst to them, someone is watching them through the scope of their rifle. Two T-Dolls were watching Hellgun and Jet from a distance, one using their namesake weapon, IWS2000, the other standing behind her, Thompson.
Thompson hiding behind a tree trunk decides to mess with the Austrian sniper, "What're they doing?"
IWS slowly turns around to face Thompson, lowering her rifle.
She answered back in an aggravated tone, "What?"
"I said, 'What are they doing now?'"
Her frustration rises after the same question is asked, "God damn, I'm getting so sick of answering that question!"
Thompson raises both of her hands in defense, "You have the fucking anti-material rifle, I can't see accurate shit from here. Don't bitch at me because I'm not going to just sit up here and play with my di-"
IWS interrupts her rant before going off in her own rant, "Okay, okay, look... they're just standing there and talking, okay?"
She pauses as her tone and anger rises, "That's all they're doing. That's all they ever do, is just stand there and talk. That's what they were doing the entire time, that's what they were doing when you asked me five minutes ago. So, five minutes from now, when you ask me, 'What are they doing?' my answer's gonna be, 'They're still just talking, and they're still just standing there!'"
Both fell silent after IWS' rant, it's been a while since they've seen each other. Thompson's antics grew on her despite how annoying it can get.
As if Thompson isn't done messing around, "...What're they talking about?"
"..You know what? I fucking hate you." IWS gives up on her and goes back to scouting with her rifle.
Back to the previous duo
Her eyes narrowed on the binoculars as she spotted a sizeable scouting group wearing white armor that happened to be moving closer to the abandoned village, "Is that them?"
Catching on with what the sharpshooter said "Wait, you found the enemy?"
"Possibly and they are currently approaching the village from the north. Looks like a scout group of some sort."
"Then what are you waiting for? Relay the message to the rest, they need to be alerted of incoming hostiles."
"Understood." She turns on her comms which alerts all the Griffin T-Dolls in the area and the base comms, "Be advised, we located a possible scouting group up north approaching the village. Prepare your positions. Is that the enemy that we will have to fight?"
There is a pause in the comms channel until it cackles with Cayden's voice speaking up.
"That is correct. Hold your fire, do not engage them just yet. Wait for them to reach their destination so we can have the upper hand in catching them off guard."
There was an indignant complaint from comms, possibly that of K11, "Oh, c'mon!"
"Don't worry~, you'll get your explosions soon enough. If we're not the ones getting shot at or end up dying, that is." Grizzly, for what is worth, calmed her down. How reassuring.
The rough voice of Thompson can be heard, "Ladies, no one is going to fuckin' die here if we do this shit right. Cover each other's backs and don't get cocky. Yes, that includes you rookies or whatever you call yourselves. Don't try anything funny or I'm coming to beat your asses after this."
Not bothering to dignify her with a response, the Steel Legionnaire rolled her eyes before switching to her team's comms.
"You know what to do, we're moving up to the closest edge of the forest and set up where we are. We'll move into the village after the two echelons sprung their ambush. Ensure that our VIPs are safe and secured then clear out the remaining scouting party, understood?"
The responses came back unhesitatingly, "Affirmative!" "Understood." "Got it!"
Bolt Pistol opens up comms to their VIPs as they reach their waiting point, "This is Bolt Pistol to ST AR-15 and..." she paused before mentioning the other in a very forced tone, "...Dandelion, are you two in position?"
The two that heard were about to answer back. The team leader really hoped that the former would be the one to respond and not the latter. Her patience with Dandelion grew thin after the first meeting, her voice and her way of speaking annoys her to no end.
Thankfully, it was ST AR-15 who answered the hailing team. "I hear you over, we just finished looking around the place. Why did you hail me?"
"Prepare yourselves, you got an enemy scouting group of Paradeus units heading towards your direction. I suggest that both of you look for a place to hide so you can spring an ambush with the other two echelons providing overwatch. We will time our advance so as to not get pinned by friendly fire."
"I know what I'm doing. No need to inform me for that, captain obvious. Just get ready to move up when it is clear."
With that confirmation out of the way, Katrin turns off her comms and then they all move towards their waiting point.
Volleygun voiced her concern because of the rude remark, "You should have scolded her for answering back with that disrespectful tone. No matter what title she can have or earn, she's still a bloody PDF and therefore she should have given us more respect."
"Your assessment is correct, they're just a planetary defense force for all I care. However, I'm not giving her the satisfaction by responding back. After all, I'm not wasting my time with someone who thinks that they are better or is very prideful. We have a different job and a mission to do, don't you think?" Not her best attempt at humoring the scion, given how they don't usually care about what other regiments think, but it's probably enough to give her someone to look down on.
Seemingly satisfied with the explanation, the scion decided to not answer the question nor ask even more questions.
"Bah, whatever. Frak her if she wants to hate us all the way to the warp. As long we do this Emperor's teething job then everything else doesn't matter."
All they need to do now is to wait for the signal.
In one of the small buildings inside the village
After finding a spot to ambush, Star sets up her namesake rifle and aims at the entrance of the village. Good thing that she hid in a shaded area of the abandoned building that conceals her. She won't shoot until they get inside for Paradeus units to be under fire from her left.
"Do you think it was right of you to respond to them like that~? They might get the wrong impression of you~." A smug voice came from her left side.
An angry mark appears on Star's forehead as she confronts Dandelion, "And who are you to talk about having a bad impression? You literally probed their neural clouds without warning. Now look at what you did, they hate you."
Dandelion shrugs the accusation thrown at her, "Can't stop a mind full of curiosity from discovering new things, am I not wrong~? After all, new things come with new opportunities~."
"Does the word 'consequences' mean anything to you?"
"Nope~, I want to know more, including the unknown variables."
"Why do I even bother to defend you? Just go somewhere to hide, please." She stops talking to the parasite and turns on her Zener Network.
"Make sure to find a house that has lights flashing~, I'll be there~." Dandelion winks at Star before going invisible.
She clenches her fist before she opens up her comms, she contacts the two echelons providing long range fire for her. "Hello? Echelon 1 and 4? Are you still there? Please respond."
There was static in the comms until two different but familiar voices responded back.
"We're still alive." "Everything is okay here."
Releasing a sigh of relief, "Do both of your echelons still see the approaching scouting group? They need to be able to provide overwatch from the trees at the hill."
"Don't worry about us, we already set up positions with the rifle ladies comfortable and prepared to shoot at the targets they can see. You deal with the targets that we can't see."
"I'm set, awaiting orders to shoot."
Both sharpshooter and echelon leaders stayed quiet after confirmation of each other's positions to await the order to open fire.
The commander opens his comms to initiate the surprise attack, "Open Fire! Weapons Free!"
With not a moment to spare, Star and the rifle dolls opened fire on the Strelets that were out in the open. The AR, SMG and HG dolls that were stationed there took potshots whenever they have the proper distance to engage them.
Some seconds before the ambush
A small group of strelets with three rodeleros support reached the middle of the abandoned village, weapons ready to execute any stragglers or fight to It was quiet the last time Paradeus left this village, grabbing all able potential soldiers and children. They left no survivors to ensure that their secrets, ones that haven't been exposed yet, to be hidden a bit longer.
However, the higher-ups wanted to ensure that nothing is left alive or worth salvaging. Their objective is to destroy any data and torch the whole place. Backup should arrive if there is any strong resistance that could occur at any point.
A sweep was performed and detected no living life forms within the village. A random strelet relayed sweeping data to the rest of the group.
"01010100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110110 01101001 01101100 01101100 01100001 01100111 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100011 01101100 01100101 01100001 01110010 00101110." (This sector is clear.)
Not a moment too soon, numerous sounds of gunfire can be heard from their north and east. Four strelets were put down immediately from sniper fire with five more getting lit up by assault rifles and machine guns.
"01001110 01001111 01010100 00100000 01000011 01001100 01000101 01000001 01010010 00100001 00100000 01001110 01001111 01010100 00100000 01000011 01001100 01000101 01000001 01010010 00100001" (NOT CLEAR! NOT CLEAR!)
This is the last message relayed to the higher-ups before it was hit by a bullet from AUG. It didn't have a chance to take cover or return fire.
The rest recovered to return fire in the directions that the gunfire came from. The rodeleros that were unharmed in the ambush, split up to attack. Two of them rushed forward to pursue the lone sharpshooter while the other provided fire support.
Back to Star, minutes after the ambush
Burst of rounds were fired from her Spike's Tactical Pipe Hitters 8" SBR secondary as she barely evaded the laser beams coming from the rodeleros' beam lances. Her coat ended up taking the hit instead, leaving it halfway scorched. She still keeps on sprinting and running from her would be determined assailants.
She manages to move out from her ambush point. However, she is now in hot pursuit by two rodeleros at high speed and a few strelets that broke away from the main group. This forces her to run and gun them as they will catch up if she doesn't.
Using the range to her advantage, she switches to her main weapon and fires at one of the rodeleros with a short burst. It slows her down and makes it easier to be caught up by her pursuers but it allows her a window of opportunity to make accurate fire on the rodeleros. Most of the rounds hit one of them which manages to stagger and damage it but barely slows down.
Switching back to her secondary and running to keep distance from her pursuers, she kept firing at the damaged target until her SBR ran out of ammo in that magazine. One lucky bullet managed to hit the damaged rodelero straight to the head causing it to fly wildly before crashing.
One down, one more to go.
Either out of rage or spite, the remaining rodelero fired its beam lance at her without warning.
From this, Star dodges the beam a second too late which causes the beam to hit parts of her right arm. This burns a good portion of her right jacket arm and right arm, which exposes the wires and her mechanical right arm.
Partially grunting from the pain, she reloads with her secondary. Thankfully, her right arm is still functional.
"Hey, where the hell are you four? I got a bogey on my tail and I won't be able to dodge the next hit." Her words came out with noticeable exhaustion and with a tinge of desperation.
Her calls were answered immediately by the Steel Legionnaire, "We're nearing your position, take a left of the house at the T-junction ahead of you. Don't slow down!"
Catching on with what she said, Star sees the aforementioned house ahead and runs faster despite it burning her battery much faster. Reaching that point, she immediately took a left turn and was greeted by four figures running up to her.
Those four figures are the team that overreacted in the HQ and they were there to rescue her. She ran past them to turn around and ready her main weapon in the direction they were facing.
The chasing rodelero took a left turn to continue pursuing and was met with a fusillade of laser beams, courtesy from three las weapons. It staggered and partially faltered from the lasfire.
"Take aim and fire!" The Legionnaire barked which intensified the fire as she added her bolt pistol shots to the fire. Unwittingly, Star also fires her weapon at it.
As if not yet going down, the rodelero makes one last attack and prepares to fire a laser beam at them. Despite the amount of sparks and damage on the chassis that the rodelero is showing, it will not go down easily without a fight.
Catching notice of the attack, "Everyone, scatter!" Came the shouts of Star to the team before she moved away from the firing lane
Taking heed of her early warning, another order was given. "Disperse and seek cover now!"
The fire team dispersed and took cover behind anything that could shield them from the laser beam. It came and eradicated anything within its firing angle lane. It was much more potent that it damaged the structure of nearby houses.
After 15 seconds of firing, it stopped. Probably from exhausting too much of its main power supply leaving it nearly drained.
The opportunity presents itself, finishing it off is prudent.
Peeking around the corner and seeing the rodelero kneeling on the ground, "Kasrkin! One blast of plasma at our relentless foe!"
"On it!"
The specialist grenadier switches from her main weapon to the plasma gun and sets the gun on supercharge.
She aims at the kneeling target and pulls the trigger, "Karking eat this, you scrap heap of metal refuse!"
A distinctive hum sound came first before a plasma ball flew from the gun with a thrum sound. It hits the rodelero in less than a second as it did not have the energy to attempt to dodge the hot ball of plasma. It burned and incinerated from the ball of plasma exploding after getting hit.
A good portion of the chassis was burned and so did the person piloting it. Nothing is left of the rodelero that can be worth salvaging.
Everyone except Star moved out of cover and back into the streets to check for any more hostiles that may come around. They were all covered in dust or soot from the particles being thrown everywhere in that laser beam attack.
Unlike the others, ST AR-15 was still in shock at the end result of the plasma blast. It was true that she saw the damage that the plasma gun can do but seeing it in person hits differently.
Soon, Bolt pistol contacts HQ while the Catachan is patching up a reluctant Star with whatever cloth can be salvaged. The others kept guard in for the temporary respite.
"This is Task Force Echo Delta-7 to HQ, we have rescued one of the VIPs, ST AR-15, and she is currently being treated for injuries."
A collective sigh of relief can be heard from the commander, "Thank god. How badly is she wounded? I need a sitrep."
"My teammate is reporting burns on her right arm which is exposing some wires and her mechanical arm. Other than that, half of her jacket, coat or whatever is burned."
The leader in question can hear the sound of someone recoiling from the chatter. "Sir, is everything alright over there?"
Immediately responding after breaking from his face of grimace, "No no no. Everything is alright, I just didn't like hearing the news." It could have been worse. "Anyways, her arm okay?"
Another person joined in the conversation, it was ST AR-15. "I'm alright, my right arm is still functional but any more damage to it and it might fall off. It's being patched up by a cloth for now."
"Huh, resourceful. For now, I want you to search for Dandelion wherever you hid her before you were chased. Avoid direct combat for now, just focus on finding her but keep your guard up. Do I make myself clear?"
Gritting her teeth at not being able to join combat, "U-Understood."
Comms went turned off as the rest of the team excluding Star nodded to each other. Not understanding what they were doing, she stopped them. "Wait a second."
The Steel Legionnaire turned to her, "What is it?"
"What are you going to do now?" She critically eyed their leader, who knows if the dolls that saved her become her enemies tomorrow.
Taking off her gas mask to speak without her filtered voice, "Yes, we will be temporarily splitting up this team to continue the mission. You, me and Hotshot Volleygun will find wherever you hid this 'Dandelion' before your pursuit. Miss Hellgun and Lascarbine over there will provide supporting fire to our allies firing from the tree line."
From where she pointed at, sounds of explosions and heavy gunfire proved that there is still a fight ongoing.
Star nodded at what she meant but she still has one more question that lingers in her neural mind. Turning towards her 'medic', "Why..."
"Hmm? What do you mean 'why'?"
"Why did you patch me up or bother to rescue me? You could've not patched me up and finished the rest of the mission, so why go that far for me?"
Her 'medic' replied back in kind, "Normally, I ain't caring about some toy soldier like you. To me, you're just a toy soldier like her but more tryhard than anything." She points to her teammate who rolls her eyes from being set as an example. "However, since you're my VIP, I'm not fancied in not taking part of the glory and most importantly, the duty to serve. So, don't you fuckin' die, otherwise I'll boot your sorry Terran ass back to life."
Taken back by the insult and threat, Star almost challenged her via going for her hidden knife but stopped when the doll in front mimicked her. The difference is that
The demolitionist takes out and brandishes her Catachan knife to prove her point. It was large, sharp and looked quite sturdy.
Grinning savagely caused her to instinctively inch away, "Now, shall we proceed? We ain't letting people wait on us."
BOOM!
Was the sound that came from her anti-material rifle. IWS has just taken down another strelet that was aiming for AUG.
A unit of Strelet isn't dangerous but when there is a large group of Strelets supported by a Rodelero, they can be quite a pickle to handle for a single echelon. However, that large group has been whittled down to a few units left with a rodelero. The latter proved to be a challenge as it has been dodging sniper fire and
Two of Echelon 4's members, K11, P90 and Grizzly moved closer to take out the nearby strelets while AUG stayed behind to shield IWS2000. Grenades from K11 were shot out to take out those in close proximity. While, P90 summoned holographic clones to evade incoming shots as she ran and strafed the living fuck out of the strelets that focused on her holographic forms.
Thompson and BAR M1918 took care of the ones they could reach. The former even got to throw her knife at the head of one plus threw punches when they get too close. Her shield barrier sparkles every time she gets shot. The latter covered Thompson's advance as the both of them drew closer to the enemy.
"Move up, ladies! We got Strelet units to destroy." She reloads her SMG as she moves up along with the others who are keeping up.
The rodelero and remaining strelets drew their fire at the advancing Griffin Dolls. They know that their destruction is imminent, they'll just have to take one with them.
"Fuhahahahaha! Blow up!" A maniacal laugh was heard at its left.
With that it starts looking for a suitable target that cannot dodge easily, it locks the target at K11. It starts charging its beam lance and moves away from the line of sight of the snipers while still making sure it still has line of sight. This forced the rifle dolls at the back to relocate to find a better spot to shoot it.
"Shit! K11, get out of there!" Was the shout of Grizzly MkV i
K11 was taken out of her battle lust when she heard the shout of her team leader then heard the sound of a laser weapon ready fire. She turned to the source of the sound and widened her eyes in fear at the rodelero aiming at her. Before she could try to move or evade it, it fired its laser lance at her.
"Oh Shi-"
She went for blocking the beam with whatever she can shield herself with, but it was no use as she was knocked back into a wall. It stopped firing at her after a few more seconds.
"NO!"
"K11!"
"FIRE AT THAT DAMNED MECH!"
Everyone that could see the rodelero opened fire with relentless fury and anger. It prepared to fire again
K11's unconscious body slumped on the side of the wall after it slide down from the impact that did not make it stuck to the wall.
She returns to consciousness after a few seconds. She can hear multiple warnings and errors going off in her neural mind. Right arm burned off to the point of non-functionality, damaged batteries, loss of motor function on her legs and so on. Even a part of her face was burnt off exposing the slightly heated endoskeleton behind her face.
She realized one thing.
This doll body is past the point of making any repairs possible.
Her weapon is now completely broken from how damaged it is.
She weakly looks at her allies who were fighting off the rodelero and the few strelets that it has. All the while, she could only watch and feel helpless at the situation. It felt like the Paldiski Submarine base mission all over again. She mentally cursed herself for not reacting sooner.
What she doesn't know is that there is a strelet that is separated from the rest. It inched closer to deliver the killing blow on her. She turns to the sound and sees the lone strelet aiming at her, she then closes her eyes to await her end.
However, it never came as it was interrupted by someone roaring and the sound of a collision. She slowly opened her eyes to the sight of the Jet, easily wrestling the rifle out the hands of the surprised strelet. She took out her large knife and started to stab it at the front of its glass frontal mask in anger. There was a lot of strength at the stabbings that went straight through the back of the helmet with ease and did not damage her weapon. A black liquid splattered on Catachan's face and clothes as she kept on stabbing the already dead strelet.
She stopped stabbing and checked around to see if it was dead. Satisfied with her work, she catches her breath, cleaned her knife and used whatever cloth she had to clean her dirtied face.
The Catachan turned to the very damaged K11 who was in a state of hesitant fright after watching it getting brutally stabbed. She moved forward to K11 and double-checked her, "Were we too late? The two of us just came from the other side."
She couldn't answer the first question but she had to know about her next statement, "Two... of you?"
"Yeah, me and her." She points at Hellgun, who was aiming and firing her plasma gun at the cornered rodelero with steady fire to prevent overheating the weapon. It was getting struck by gunshots from an angry set of dolls and plasma blasts of an steadily advancing grenadier.
Thankfully, the latter stopped after her 2nd shot as to conserve ammo and to avoid overheating the weapon. The last thing she needed to happen is the weapon to go into a meltdown and getting consumed in cloud of super-heated vapour.
An angry shout came from P90 and she emptied her entire mag while tears fell from her eyes, "This is for K11, you hunk of junk!"
By the time everyone stopped firing, nothing was left of it other than melted metal and a very badly burned chassis. Such anger is quite potent.
When all is done, everyone near the remains of the rodelero ran towards K11 except Hellgun. Grizzly and P90 ran even faster to their severely damaged teammate. Hellgun was ignored nor thanked in that moment as she wasn't the priority of their concern.
She slowly turned towards Lascarbine and walked towards her. Neither made any attempts to talk to each other as they turned to the display in front of them.
"No no no no." Was the panicked voice of Grizzly at closing on K11's damaged form.
Next came P90's scared and uncertain voice, "Please be there! Please be there!"
The signs of K11's slowly dying doll body can be seen with K11 trying to move her functional but damaged left arm. The dolls around her can see K11's eyes starting to dim a bit which is a bad sign.
"Is her core still salvageable?" Came the suggestion of Thompson, who didn't want to consider it but they'll have to do it either way.
The three of them proceeded to open up her internals for the chance of her salvageable core. The internals were just as badly damaged as the externals but surprisingly her core remained intact.
Without saying anything and trying to stay sober despite the situation, the trio carefully extracted her core so it won't get potentially damaged further. This in turn, made the rest of her body stiff then powered down after her core was disconnected from the rest of her body.
Thompson made an attempt to console her fellow echelon leader, "This ain't your fault, Grizzly. Don't blame yourself for this."
"I should've warned her sooner." She clenched her fist to hold off from letting her emotions take over her.
"I know but right now, all we can do is stomach it and give her old body a send off. It's the best we can do before we leave. There ain't anything left here that's worth getting other than the dead."
"You two, please shut up!" The two leaders turned to a sour P90, "I don't want to hear the two arguing about whose fault it is, can we just have silence for this?"
The two dolls that weren't near K11 watched and heard the whole conversation with unreadable faces. They knew that in death does duty end but here? That doesn't apply especially when their cores are salvageable and it can be placed into new bodies. Still though, a proper burial could have been appropriate.
"Shouldn't you give her a proper burial? A warrior still needs to be respected no matter culture, you're doing her quite a disservice." The sharpshooter pointed out something she's observed.
Grizzly stood back up and looked at them straight even with tears in her eyes, "W-Well, we do bury them but not almost every time. We don't get to do that when we need to hurry. And as much as I hate to admit, this is one of these times."
"How is this considered as one?" Hellgun eyed her critically.
Thompson interjected, "By now, they could be sending reinforcement. They ain't gonna let their scouting group getting wiped out go unnoticed. And I'm biased, I ain't liking the way this place breathes."
"Let's see what HQ has to say this time."
"Fine." Gizzly fiddles with her communicator before activating her comms, "Hey commander, the Paradeus scouting group has been wiped out."
A sigh of relief can be heard on the other side of the call, "How about casualties or damages?"
"We lost K11 but we managed to recover her core."
"Damn it!"
"The rest have varying degrees of injuries from some minor to severe." She quickly glances at Thompson and P90 as a quick check up. "Other than that, we're covered in soot or dust."
"What about the rest? It's been radio silent on their end as of now."
"None of us heard anything from the lone sharpshooter and her 'support' team. Probably radio silent on their end to avoid revealing their location."
"Hmmm, fall back in the meantime. I don't want to get too much of Paradeus' attention here."
Thompson interjected the comms, "Wait boss, we're just gonna leave them? I ain't liking the overbearing sharpshooter nor the nosy punchable face, but leaving their fate in the hands of strangers is too risky for my taste."
"Well, if you want to find them, they shouldn't be too far." A pause in his statement, "But do you really want to go that far for those two?"
"Would the rest of the squad leaders, excluding Grizzly, still have doubt in them? I would fuckin' say yes."
"In that case, feel free to go and find them. I'm not responsible for explaining to your squad why you haven't returned."
She spots her squad closing in so a frustrating groan comes out of her mouth, "Fine, I ain't leaving them for this but we aren't done with conversation yet."
BAR showed up as well as Springfield, M14 and M1 Garand. The three rifle dolls were in various degrees of expression upon catching up with BAR. Tired but with a small smile, giddy and concerned expressions respectively.
"Did something bad happen?" BAR concerningly asked as she spots her team leader's not-so-pleasant facial expression in that call.
Thompson pulls out a cigarette and lit it, "No. Nothing bad happened earlier."
"Uh huh." BAR continues to scrutinize her
She turns to the 2nd squad arriving so that she doesn't have to look at BAR's glare. BAR frowned at her attitude but lets it go for now.
The latter will have to get her answer from her team leader or through Cayden.
Hoever, when IWS 2000 and AUG showed up, they didn't have the same expressions as the others. The former felt extremely worried, while the latter had a face full of stoic grimace. They immediately rushed towards Grizzly and P90 based on their neural radar.
When the two reached the others, the sound of a large rifle dropped to the dusty ground could be heard by those nearby. AUG held her assault rifle even tighter as her grimace worsened.
They saw K11's core held by Grizzly with a lot of care despite tears falling from her eyes.
The sounds of UH-60 Black Hawks helicopters arriving overwhelmed the whole scene.
Sometime later
The sound of a roaring chainsword that is cutting through a strelet's moderately armored torso can be heard in the background.
The wielder of the melee weapon is huffing after taking effort in cutting through the armor. The chainsword didn't go through its torso easily as the Steel Legionnaire hoped it would. It still did the job despite the end result being messy with black liquid going everywhere.
Sounds of multiple rapid firing laser beams can be heard at a close proximity. She deactivates her chainsword as she takes out her bolt pistol. She then shoots the halved strelet at the head to ensure the killing blow but it did leave a sizeable dent blast mark on the floor with parts and liquid being spread out from the middle of the blast.
Not that anyone would mind it as no one is going back to this place or are all dead.
She arrived at the scene of Volleygun and ST AR-15 clearing out any remaining Paradeus units in the area. The former was sidestepping left and right to dodge some of the shots that were targetting her while the latter moved from cover to cover. Thankfully, the latter is using her left arm for firing her weapon, or else she'd damage her right arm even further.
Volleygun has taken some hits to her carapace armor, most of them didn't seem to penetrate her armor. However, there were some minor grazes that exposed her damaged artificial skin. Minor as they were, she would still need to get repairs done after this.
They may need connections need to be established to ensure a way to survive on this lost world. After that, who knows what will happen.
"Over there." Star points at the small house at the adjacent street that seems to have flashing lights behind a curtain. "I remember that she said that she'd be in a house with flashing lights."
The machine gunner eyes the house being pointed at, "Then we must hurry."
All three of them sprinted towards the designated house, all the while they kept their guard up. Who knows what might happen.
All them stack by the walls preparing to enter until the scion gave a suggestion, "Can you enter from the back? The two of us will enter through the front."
She assesses the house for any entry points, "It is doable for me. I can manage with close quarters."
The HG doll leaves the front porch before moving towards the back entrance where there is a door that opens inward. All three ready themselves until, "Breach!"
Sounds of two doors being kicked open were loud and so were the footsteps of dolls entering the house checking each room.
"Clear!"
"This room is clear!"
The last room that hasn't been checked is flashing bright light underneath the door. All three of them stood next to it before opening the door to reveal that Dandelion was playing around with a device. She hid it away in the commander's coat for further use.
A tone was said that brokered no arguments, "We're going now!"
They all moved to an open field where they contacted for pick up and waited for their transport.
Dandelion attempted to open her mouth to speak but the team leader intercepted it before she could say anything.
"Not. One. Word."
She opted to giggle with smugness instead which annoys everyone.
"How have you not done anything to her, at all?" A question directed to ST AR-15
"Trust me, I'm not the only one who tried but she doesn't care either way."
"Then you have not tried or done anything enough yet."
Deciding that sarcasm was the best way to answer back, "She's a weirdo with her own agenda. Do you think that she'd care if we tried to get in her way by being a roadblock?"
"I'm assuming a no but can't any of you at least, keep an eye on her?"
"Easier said than done, when we can't access her head but on the other hand, she can easily do it without any difficulty." Star points out.
A snicker came out of Dandelion at the current predicament. This causes the two Imperial dolls to groan hard.
Thankfully, the sounds of a helicopter approaching can be heard. All of them except Dandelion waved at it. It moved closer to them before landing.
The sliding doors open up to them to reveal their two other teammates onboard ready to pick them up.
The team demolitionist gestured to them to hop in, "What ya waiting for? Get in. The rest ain't gonna be waiting for you a lot."
All four of them boarded the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. The last doll who boarded in, closed the sliding door before signaling the pilot to leave the place. There is nothing left of this village that is worth salvaging. Nor will any attempts to rebuild it will happen anytime soon. All this place can do is let nature reclaim what has been lost.
The last thing that they cam across was a hastily buried grave with rocks on it. When the three dolls except Dandelion asked the other two, they were given with the facts of what happened. None of them liked the news but it is what it is. Real life tends to be very cruel no matter who it targets.
The trip back to the base was very quiet other than the occasional questions answered by the pilot, who wanted to break the atmosphere.
This day could've gone better for everyone involved.
Well well well, that really could've gone better but it didn't. I wonder who is to blame :)
Anyways, that's the first combat mission for the team. As for the rest, who is to say that they got off easy.
Bonus points if you understooed what are the references in this chapter are.
Hope you enjoyed the, combat, bantering and some drama. I'll see you guys later.
Random though for the day: "A broad mind lacks focus."