StG44 tried her best to disguise how frustrated she was at the moment. There were too many red flags going off in the back of her mind at the moment, and all of them had her thoughts racing around at the speed of light. On the last operation, MP41 had recovered a Sangvis Ferri supply route that ran through a yellow zone to a human settlement. Coming from an operations facility up north, the SF ringleader Doll Scarecrow has been sending weapons and supplies to this particular city. The reason why is currently unknown, but judging by SFs overly negative sentiments towards humanity this all came as quite the shocking revelation. While a separate team also working for G&K was being dispatched to scout the facility in the north, this particular echelon of the brigade will be performing an undercover operation to discover why this location was being supplied by SF.

That's where StG44's issues with the operation began. For a Doll, impersonating a human was no easy feat. Dolls had been designed from the ground up to look and feel like humans, but their personalities and mental capacity was always slightly below that. More importantly, Dolls were always limited by their directives installed into their neural cloud. While Kar98k had many of these inhibitors removed, allowing for her to think much more freely, the rest of the Brigade was still forced to follow strict directives. Add onto the fact that dolls typically had stronger personality quirks than the average human, they found themselves holding the perfect recipe for a failed mission with no escape. For example, StG44 severely doubted her ability to pass off as human. While visually she could play the role of a young adult woman, she knew her personality would have her sticking out like a stain on a white shirt. Still, this hadn't stopped Kar98k from slapping some fancy new plain clothes on her and telling her to play the daughter of a very rich man.

There was also the incredibly major risk of getting caught. Not only do dolls have a difficult time pretending to be human, those that do try to impersonate or replace humans find themselves on the wrong side of the law. There weren't many laws specifically made for dolls, but human impersonation is the single worst one. A doll could find their neural cloud being erased, effectively killing them. More importantly, any backups could be traced down and destroyed as well. Ceasing to exist is the greatest fear for a being whose physical body can easily be replaced like an outfit. Every doll fears being restored from a backup, losing their memories and any personal growth they might have made. Being erased was a fear akin to execution, and everyone in the echelon was risking death.

Even while StG44 was willing to play the role of a wealthy businessman's daughter, she was not prepared to have to travel around a filthy yellow zone city. Most of it was reclaimed and resettled after the war, with a wall erected to keep out any undesirables. Built mainly in the residential and commercial zone of the old city, the humans worked hard to try and take back what they lost from the radiation. Beyond the wall one could see cranes trying to rebuild various regions of the city. However, outside the wall was what really got StG44's attention. Looking out the bus window at the shanty town of refugees, it was hard to imagine why humans were so afraid of dolls trying to replace them; who in their right mind would want to live like this? Humans who have been abandoned due to an unsafe level of collapse radiation fight and squabble for scraps, the few respectable members working in the factories and farms outside the city wall for some sort of payment. A lot of them bore similar burn scars as Fredrick, and for a second StG44 made a mental note to ask him about it. However, too many more people seem to be dying a slow and painful death, their bodies slowly hardening until they become shambling zombies at the silificated tendrils of the collapse.

As the bus approached the wall, armed guards could be spotted patrolling the walls, accompanied by automated defense systems. Judging by the silhouettes of the rifles and weapons, they were definitely of SF make and model. They seemed to be tracking the bus, and from the looks of the main gate and the region surrounding it and the wall, it wasn't unreasonable to assume that riots were commonplace. The bus drew to a halt in front of the gate, the bus driver speaking over a radio to the guards. Nervously, the echelon looked around at each other, hoping the bus driver never picked up on their plot. A horrific grinding sound signified the opening of the gate, and the bus slowly lurched forward before coming to yet another stop on the other side. As the gate began to close, a group of men in hazmat suits approached the bus and began to scrub it down with chemicals. The bus was a transport model built after the planet became a radioactive dirt ball, so the inside was properly sealed against what was referred to as "acceptable" collapse fluid fallout exposure.

Once the bus was scrubbed and rinsed, the bus doors opened as a heavily armored man climbed on board, an SF Ripper SMG in one hand and a clipboard in the other. Looking at the clipboard, he took off the helmet and took a deep breath. His face was rugged and worn, no doubt he was a veteran of many battles. Flattening down his sandy blonde hair with grey along its edges, he addressed everyone on the bus. "Good afternoon, I'm Captain Adelhard. Welcome to the wonderful city of Schaf."

Adelhard took a look at the clipboard again. "I understand that the lovely Mrs. Kreszentia's husband is making a considerable donation to the city's treasury in exchange for her safety, so I'd like to personally introduce myself to you."

Kar98k, putting on her best act, made a sort of sweeping gesture as she stood in her fancy plain clothes. "And I would love to personally introduce you to my beautiful daughters, for whom we are doing all of this in the first place." She motioned to StG44 and MP41, "Steffi, Mine, introduce yourselves to the nice soldier man."

"Of course mother." StG44, as Steffi, stood and did a curt bow. "A pleasure."

"Hello there." MP41, as Mine, simply responded by taking Adelhard's picture.

Adelhard blinked from the camera flash and looked back at his clipboard. "There's two dolls listed on the manifest as well?" He looked at MP40 and FG42 in the back, both of whom were dressed in a much more simple manner to the rest. Most humans didn't spoil their dolls, treating them more like property than someone with feelings.

"Of course!" Kar98k motioned for them to stand. "Please stand up and introduce yourselves!"

MP40 was the first stand. "A pleasure, sir. You may refer to me as Millicent. I've been with my Master for some time." She gave a bow and took her seat again.

FG42 took a more casual approach, standing and giving a lazy wave. "I'm Filma, I'm here to do the heavy lifting for everyone, good day." She sat back down and looked out the window, watching the humans as they did their work around the bus.

Adelhard cleared his throat. "Good to see you'll be taken care of." He looked at his clipboard again and scratched his beard. "I'm sure you've noticed, but we take the internal security of this city very seriously. We underwent a very extensive clean up operation, and lost a lot of very good men to collapse fluid radiation and worse. Currently, the city is as clean of any infection and radiation as can be, so don't be afraid to look through your basement for Christmas decorations."

MP41 raised her hand. "Yeah hi," she began her question as Adelhard acknowledged her, "are there any infected here?"

Adelhard shook his head at her question. "We've put a lot of work into trying to control ELIDS infection rates here. You should be safe as long as you stay away from the walls. Luckily you'll be moving into a nice place in a building overlooking the park in the city center." StG44 couldn't help but notice he didn't directly answer the question.

The echelon all looked around at each other. Mr. Kryuger, one of the owners of the company they were employed under, had spared no expense to make them appear as harmless as possible. Judging from how polite Captain Adelhard was being, it seems as though it was working as well. Slowly, everyone shuffled off of the bus, filing out into the gate reception area. Everyone took care to not stand at attention, or to appear too much like a soldier. The result of which resulted in all of them awkwardly shuffling about in the late summer heat as a less industrial looking bus pulled up to them. On board, StG44 silently rejoiced as she sat in the soft, clean seat cushion. Kicking her feet up onto the seat, she relaxed for the first time on this mission.

Scars of war still decorated the city, despite the humans best attempts to try and hide it. New doors and windows sit aside older and more faded fixtures, archways showing off patch marks that have not been weathered by time. Sections of the sidewalk range from fresh and new concrete to cracked and crumbled. Many of the streets have been paved over again, craters and holes filled once more. Humans and dolls walked the sidewalks, doing their best to stay out of the way of what few cars there were on the road. Even with the sizable refugee camp outside the city wall, the population was still struggling to boom back. However, judging from how few people there were compared to buildings, StG44 guessed that much of the city was still empty.

Pulling up to their temporary home, StG44 had to appreciate the work that went into ensuring the building was restored to its original glory. While much of the architecture had been repaired, a painstaking attention to detail had gone into it to make sure every little curve and corner was reproduced and restored. While not the tallest building around, it most certainly stood out as one of the more beautiful. Just across the street was the park, filled with kids happily enjoying their day running around the mostly grassy area surrounding a large pond. What the kids didn't notice was the scars the trees wore, signs that they were once used as cover in real war. This city had seen more than its fair share of the last war, and it almost made StG44 feel bad for being there.

The penthouse apartment gave a perfect view overlooking the park, the balcony giving a direct line of sight to a compound on the other side of the park. The compound belonged to Captain Adelhard and the city's paid security force. Patrolling outside the compound were clearly Sangvis Ferri model Nemeum defense systems. Men with Vespid and Ripper rifles could be seen on the streets, accompanied by Aegis mechs repainted to match the humans black and blue security uniforms. It appears there were metaphorical cracks alongside the real ones in this city, also hiding under a thin coating of paint.

Once they were sure Captain Adelhard was gone and the room was not bugged, Kar98k addressed the echelon. "Okay ladies, clearly we're dealing with professionals here." She stepped back in from the balcony and began undoing the ponytail she had her hair in. "The captain riding with us was a show of force. He wanted us to see that gun and know that every one of his men was just as much of a big and strong soldier as he is."

"If I were human I'd think he's trying to make me feel protected." FG42 said, looking inside their empty refrigerator. "If I was an illegal human I'd be worried he'd pull the trigger and leave me for the Dinergate to clean up."

Kar98k nodded in agreement. "Unfortunately for him we need to find out where he got that weapon. You don't just find recent models of SF weapons laying on the ground these days."

"How are we sure that it was a recent model?" MP40 asked. She was beginning to unload some of their surveillance equipment, hooking it up to a television in their main sitting room.

StG44 spoke up, recalling how Adelhard held his SMG. "The way he held that Ripper made it seem uncomfortable in his hands. It was a model designed for the more recent Sangvis Ferri Rippers, they don't wear much in the way of armor, especially on their wrist and lower arms. That model was not made with fully armored humans in mind."

"Precisely." Kar98k continued her briefing. "Which is why we need to confirm resupply drops from SF or a third party. We'll spend the rest of the week getting settled in and bore out any attention following us, but after that we fan out and start poking our noses around."

Everyone nodded in agreement, claiming different areas of the penthouse as their own. StG44 chose her own bedroom, placing her bags and cases on the bed. Taking a seat on the floor, she immediately pulled out her rifle from its case and checked if it was broken in any way. No doubt, the others were doing the same with their equipment. After making sure her weapon was in order, she laid down on the bed and took a deep breath. There was no going back for any of them now, especially with the Sangvis Ferri supplies confirmed. While the mattress may be soft and the walls around her painted, StG44 was more uncomfortable now than ever before. No matter how simply Kar98k described the mission for them, it was not as simple or straightforward as any of them wanted it to be. She missed when the enemy was a machine that lined up and charged at her, not a human soldier that smiled at her and told her to have a nice day. This whole situation was just one big mess, and she was stepping straight into it.