Everything about this operation made Kar98k uncomfortable. Despite meticulous planning and more than enough training, certain factors were in play that simply did not make her feel this operation would go over smoothly. First was the rainstorm playing hell with sensors, the thunder making it difficult to listen intently for enemy movement. Mud always made for an unsafe battlefield as well, and there was an over abundance of it in the ruins of this town. Rain, and water in general, was not something Dolls liked to be around for too long; no doubt the entire team was going to need a thorough check up once they returned to make sure none of them sprung a leak. On top of that, there was always the concern of rain affecting their weapons effectiveness. The cool night air and chilly rain wasn't much of a concern for Kar98k and her rifle, but no doubt the machines with their overheating barrels would run into some heating and cooling issues.

Secondly, it being night time was always a major problem. Night vision gear wasn't stock standard for repurposed civilian model Dolls, just as nobody ever produced low light scopes or heat sensors for their weapons. What didn't help was that Sangvis Ferri liked their black paint and outfits, which might as well be camouflage for this posting. Kar98k and her brigade were hunting blind, relying on the various lights placed around the remains of the town. The scene of a skirmish during the War, this town found itself abandoned thanks to its reclassification as a Yellow Zone. A small stroke of luck, the weather and low visibility made the ruins of this town a great place for Kar98k and her team to advance on their target.

Their target, however, was the third issue. This SF outpost serves as both a checkpoint, and refueling depot for vehicles that have been traveling in and out of the secured sector. Someone was transporting something out of SF territory, and they are apparently letting it happen. To think that they would be allowing their weapons, Dolls, or mechs to be handed out to humans despite their very strong disdain for humans, seemed suspicious at best. No doubt the Doll-first rogue corporation was up to something, and whatever it was smelled foul. All the Brigade needed to do was break into the central mainframe and grab a shipping manifest or some sort of evidence of what was going on. This is where the difficulty comes from, one of them would have to leave herself vulnerable as she accused the mainframe electronically. Not only would they be down a member, and set of eyes, during this time, the operation would be at its most risky.

Kar98k slowly splashed through the mud, reaching the bottom of a large water tower. Looking up, the tower's occupant didn't notice her approach, allowing her more than enough opportunity to slowly climb up the wet rungs of the metal ladder. Careful not to make a lot of noise, Kar98k made sure her rifle was slung over her shoulder and tightly secured, climbing well over the rooftops of buildings as she would claim it for her own command post. Reaching the top, she carefully planted herself on the metal walkway without drawing attention to herself, pulling her rifle's bayonet knife to take out the two sniper Dolls positioned on the water tower. She snuck up behind, taking a good look at the back of the doll as it scanned the town below for any intruders. The camouflage cape the Jaeger sniper wore made it difficult to get a good aim with the knife, but Kar98k quickly put a hand over the Jaegers mouth and drove the knife right in the doll's back, roughly between where a human's shoulder blades lay. It's power supply critically destroyed, the Jaeger went limp in Kar98k's arms as she dumped the deceased doll over the side railing.

Slowly making her way around the water tower to the other Jaeger, she nearly bumped into the doll as it spun around to begin a patrol route. Catching both of them off guard, Kar98k moved quickly to disable the Jaeger before it could raise an alarm or fire off a shot. With a quick flick of her own wrist, she swiped the sniper rifle out of her way, stepped in with her right foot and brought her nice straight up into the chest cavity, a fatal blow for both Doll and human. Luckily the Jaeger was designed for long range combat, otherwise things would have gotten a lot louder. Throwing the corpse over the side, Kar98k took up a sniper position, surveying the ruins of the town for the rest of her team. Breaking radio silence, she called out to the rest of them in code, just in case anyone managed to pick up on their comms channel. "Wolf leader in position, everyone else howl."

First to respond was MG34. "Mama and papa wolf are in position and ready to rain holy light down below." She was taking up position in a church tower with her sister, MG42. Both machine guns had a perfect position to suppress and overwhelm any SF force that tried to disturb the mainframe hacking. More importantly, they were nearby the forested park that Kar98k was in, allowing her to provide suppressing fire with the office building that G43 should be getting herself settled in. However, G43 was not the first to respond, instead MP41 spoke up first. "Wolf pup in position and ready to hunt. Also, Commandant, you better hope I was the only one that saw you up there."

"Wolf pup," Kar98k snapped, "don't give away positions." She wasn't sure if she should be impressed or frightened at how MP41 was able to see her from so far away while in the bombed out ruins of a cafe.

With a sigh, she signaled G43 to respond. After waiting a few minutes, there was still no response. Concerned, she focused her scope on the three story office building and tried to look for signs of trouble. Most notable, was the massive Manticore assault mech that SF had positioned as the over watch ringleader for this area. Coordinating all of the units in the town, the four legged, medium weight tank could easily erase them from existence using its main gun. Also armed with a grenade launcher meant to wipe out multiple groups of infantry, it could level any building in this town in seconds. Unfortunately for G43, it had taken up a recharging position right in front of the office building she was supposed to be in. Looking over the front of the building, Kar98k saw a flashing light, signaling in Morse code that G43 was receiving messages but could not respond. "Understand lone wolf." Kar98k responded. "Radio silence from the second scout position for now, but break silence during engagement."

MP41 spoke up. "Maybe she could do something about that Manticore."

"Wolf pup, just shut your mouth and get into position." Kar98k pinched the bridge of her nose. "Also, give me command visual access so I can see what you're doing."

"Ah, so now you're interested in what these eyes see." A second vision pulled up, allowing Kar98k to see through both her own eyes, and MP41's. It would take some getting used to MP41's shorter height, but having vision in more than one place was indispensable in a covert operation such as this. MP41 slowly moved through the old building, which looked like a restaurant with some apartments above it. MP41 carefully stepped over chairs and debris, trying to reach a staircase up to the apartments above. She stopped, looking out the window for patrol movement. Ducking behind an overturned table, she waited. At this moment Kar98k wished she had audio as well. Looking down at the building, she could see a couple of the wheeled SF drones patrolling outside. "Is it just a patrol?" MP41 asked.

"Looks like it," Kar98k responded, "keep watch for anything upstairs, no doubt the mainframe is guarded."

MP41 pulled out a little camera, no doubt intending to use it to watch the patrol pass without peeking outside the table. She sat and waited a moment, watching her camera feed display for herself. After the patrol passed, she packed up her camera and returned to the mission task at hand. Reaching the open doorway, she did the same camera trick to peer around the doorway for trouble. Kar98k had to hand it to her, this operation might go off smoothly. While MP41's ingenuity was something to behold, it only made her wonder just what else she was capable of.

MP41 slowly made her way up the stairs, no doubt trying to prevent creaking floor boards or setting off trip wires. She held the wooden stock of her submachine gun close, preferring to not keep it in her hands and at the ready to free up her hands to use the camera to look around corners and in doorways. Looking down the hallway, she noticed one of the apartments was open, and moved in to investigate that one first. Using the same camera trick, she peered around the corner. "Commandant I've found that juicy mainframe," MP41 reported, "but it's guarded by two Aegis."

Kar98k swore to herself. Aegis were too heavily armored for MP41 to even hope to pierce with her smg, and their riot shields and close energy maces made them deadly at such close range. "Is there a way you can try to hide from them?" Kar98k asked, unable to see what MP41 saw on the camera.

"Aye Commandant," she replied, no doubt smiling as she worked out a plan, "I do have an idea, but I'll need to cut my feed so I can dedicate more power to the task."

"Kill the feed." Kar98k kept her rifle trained on the building, watching for trouble or patrols.

MG42 spoke up. "She's probably doing what she did when she tried to get pictures of big sis trying on swimsuits."

"She got me from a really bad angle too." MG34 scoffed into the comms. "I do not look that fat in a two piece suit."

"I totally thought you looked good in that red one though, sis."

"Aw thanks 42, I like that one too. Plus I think it matches yours."

Kar98k interrupted the riveting conversation. "Save the comm chatter for something important, please." With a sigh, she tried to concentrate again. There was really no point in keeping up the façade of radio code names, was there?

"I'm, uh, in position." MP41 finally got back. "It's a tight squeeze under here but they won't see me."

"May I receive a video feed again?"

"Negative, Commandant. You won't be able to see much from under the kitchen sink." MP41's small stature definitely came in handy at least. At this point, however, Kar98k had completely given up on radio secrecy to hide their positions either. If any SF were listening into their communications they no doubt would have tuned out long ago during the swimsuit conversation. "I'm ready to begin the remote hacking procedure."

"Understood." Kar98k looked over to G43's hiding spot and saw her trying to signal using flashing lights again. Quickly translating the Morse, G43 seemed to be telling her to watch the Manticore. It was rising from its charging position, perhaps to begin its own patrol soon. "Everyone keep your eyes open, they might catch on once she starts."

Rain kept pouring down as they waited, watching patrols move back and forth up and down the streets. So far it seemed they were none the wiser. Still, Kar98k couldn't help but shake the feeling that something was going to go wrong. Everything seemed to be going too well, there was going to be a disaster soon and she knew it. However this was taking too long, and there was no way of knowing if MP41 needed help in case of an emergency. She needed someone closer to her position, and she needed it before the Manticore started moving. "G43, I want you to make your way MP41s position before she sets off every electronic alarm in the area." There was no acknowledgement besides a few lights flashing back at her. "And be careful, I don't want you getting caught."

Ten excruciating minutes later G43 reported in. "Two aegis are still standing watch over the mainframe, no sign of MP41."

It shouldn't take this long to hack into a barely guarded mainframe. Something was wrong and Kar98k knew it. "Try and see what you can do to get their attention and pull it from the room."

"Understood, I think I know wha-"

MG42 interrupted the plan, whatever she had to say being more important. "Manticore is on the move!"

"Everyone stay calm and hold their position. Do not draw any attention to yourself." Panic set into the back of Kar98k's mind as she looked down her scope, watching as the Manticore took to the streets. The massive, lumbering mech stood out about as much as an elephant would, making it easy to spot. Its much more heavily armored front was facing towards Kar98k, as was its massive main gun that was slung underneath its bulk. As it stomped along, it came to a stop outside the mainframe building where MP41 and G43 were currently inside. "G43, MP41, I need to know what is going on inside there now."

G43, having heard the giant approaching outside, was frightened beyond belief. "I don't know, it was quiet and then it wasn't and now I don't know."

MP41 broke her silence. "You should see the look on your face right now, you're so scared."

G43s frantic voice developed a hint of anger. "What? Where are you? We need to get out of here and you need stop playing around!"

"I'll show you the picture later." No doubt Kar98k was going to end up confiscating another camera MP41 shouldn't have. "I have the data we require and I may have a plan to get out of here Commandant."

Finally, some good news. "Let's hear it."

"Just give me a distraction."

Kar98k waited a moment, wondering what MP41 was going to do. There's no way any of them had the firepower to destroy the Manticore. Perhaps they could damage it, but it was designed to take a lot of blows from much heavier weapons. No matter how she looked at it, the mission seemed to have gone belly up and was waiting to be split open. Unfortunately for Sangvis Ferri, Kar98k wasn't going to go without a fight. She took aim with her scoped rifle and tried to search for weaknesses. Before taking the shot, she would get that distraction for MP41. "Ring the church bell girls." Kar98k instructed her team in the church. "Just make sure you don't get spotted."

"Aye Commandant." Now it was MG34's turn to be afraid. Soon after, the church bells rang like a Sunday morning, signaling to the ghosts of the town to come to their religious mass. Only this time, the religious and faithful were replaced by the many various drone units of Sangvis Ferri. Even the Manticore turned to face the ringing bells, no doubt scanning for targets. This was its mistake, as Kar98k now had a perfect view of one the Manticores scanner eyes, which were usually protected by the heavily armored front legs. Squeezing the trigger, Kar98k scored a direct hit on the eye. While it was only damaged to a slight degree, it was more than enough to cause the Manticore to begin its lumbering march to the water tower in search of its attacker. Thunder cracked overhead as Kar98k worked the bolt of her rifle, preparing another shot. Taking aim again, she tried to aim for the massive underslung gun on the Manticore in the hopes of hitting something that might disable it. This time, unfortunately, the bullet deflected off the heavily armored exterior, only succeeding in pissing it off even more.

Fully aware of its attackers position it marched, the smaller dolls and mechanical drones of Sangvis Ferri moving towards the ringing church bells. "MP41 you have your distraction, now whatever you're going to do, I recommend you do it right now." Kar98k slung her rifle over her shoulder and poised herself to try and escape. As the Manticore approached, the rain kept coming down on all of them. The stage was set, the band was ready to play.