FG42 prepared to breach the empty apartment, taking a position next to the door. Taking a moment, she listened intently for any movement. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to scan the room for any life signs or hear signatures, but at least when she got in her cameras wouldn't see her. Slowly, she reached for the door knob, turning it to check if it was locked. The knob turned completely, allowing her to slowly push the door open. With a frown, she entered, machine gun at the ready as she pointed it towards all of the places in the apartment where someone would take cover to fire at her from. She couldn't help but notice noises coming from one of the bedrooms in what should be a vacant place. She moved slowly towards the bedroom, allowing her to identify what exactly the noises were. It sounded like a couple of very passionate teenagers who broke into an apartment to enjoy their night.
With a smile, FG42 braced herself by the door to listen for the perfect time to interrupt them. If she was going too barge in, she wanted to have a little bit of fun with it. It only took a moment before the two were in the heat of their moment before FG42 kicked the door, the force of her kick smashing the locking mechanism and swinging the door wide open. The two lovers yelled at the sight of a uniformed tactical doll aiming a machine gun at them while they were in such a vulnerable state. FG42 couldn't help but recognize the girl as the receptionist that worked the front door of the building, explaining why the two of them were able to break in here. "Get the fuck out!" FG42 yelled, waving her machine gun around. She kept her finger off the trigger with the safety engaged, but they didn't need to know that. "I said get the fuck out!"
The two lovers scrambled to wrap themselves in whatever sheets they had and made a run for the door, stumbling around in their makeshift togas to hide their bodies. FG42 chuckled to herself as she watched them run away, locking the front door behind them and taking up a position by the window. She was too high up to get any serious aim out of her weapon, but she could at least squeeze off a few rounds to let them know she was in this apartment. Looking down, she noticed the gathering collection of armed men and Sangvis Ferri dolls. If she had a grenade, she'd happily toss it down on them if she thought it would get their attention. Instead, she settled on smashing the window with the butt of her weapon, raining glass down in the street below. With a shrug, she started throwing furniture down to them as well, hopefully getting their attention. She hoped the others were having as much fun as her.
Confused, MP40 watched as the random assortment of chairs and lamps rained down in the blockade below, endangering everyone below. While it certainly got their attention, it was putting too many people at risk. A wooden chair falling from this height would kill a human, no matter what they were wearing. MP40 had settled on a much more subtle method of tripwires and flash grenades. The first humans through the front door would be greeted by a blinding flash and a deafening sound that MP40 gladly turned her hearing off to avoid. Even if one of the Sangvis Dolls came first, the effect would be similar, giving her the upper hand. She had all of her spare magazines laid out before her, but she sighed and settled in keeping them in her side bag. The humans and Sangvis were using energy weapons, cover wouldn't last long under that kind of barrage.
MP41, however, was setting up shock mines across the hall. While potentially fatal to humans, it would no doubt serve as quite the boon when it comes to disabling their advanced weapons and armor. Even the SF dolls would collapse under the might of a strong electromagnetic pulse. Of course, all of their traps would only last for them so long, they weren't ready to hold this position. The exact team layout was built around the idea of storming a single building while remaining mobile; this was the opposite of what that. While FG42 was an efficient gunner, she was better equipped for faster movement and taking positions. If they were expecting a prolonged battle, they would have brought one of the two MG sisters instead. With a sigh, MP40 remembered that those two were no doubt enjoying themselves on their requested time off at some reclaimed beach territory.
The couch pillow exploding next to her in a puff of fire and polyester pulled back to reality. Looking behind her, she realized she was perfectly exposed to sniper fire. She scrambled for cover, ducking into the bathroom to hopefully avoid any further retaliation. She swore to herself as she overlooked this issue, realizing she could have endangered the mission due to her negligence. She decided to warn the others of this threat as well, but the sound of the Commandant firing back at the rooftop assailants made her think twice. Still, it didn't help to be thorough. "Commandant, we have snipers on the other buildings."
A second shot rang out. "SF Jaeger models from the looks of them." The Commandant responded back.
"They're trying to keep us from the windows." FG42 garbled through, her rainfall of household debris having come to an end now that she had to take cover. "I can't possibly imagine why, I haven't even touched the couch yet."
"They don't want us to see what they're up to." MP40 surmised, slowly poking her head out of the bathroom to see if the snipers were going to take a shot at her. No shots immediately, but she wasn't going to get her head blown off risking it. Instead, she prepared herself for whenever someone kicked down her door.
StG44 and Kurtis took cover behind the counter from sniper fire, while the Commandant did her best to counter them. The two of them tried to avoid eye contact, keeping their heads down as they let the expert handle the long range combat. Judging by how badly Sangvis Ferri wanted Captain Adelhard to fight them, even Kurtis had to watch himself. He seemed more concerned with wanting to speak to her, however. Regrettably, she also wanted to explain herself to him before losing her chance to; but there were more important things for her to worry about at the moment. She reached up onto the counter and grabbed the knife block they had, handing Kurtis the biggest knife available. Holding the blade, she handed him the knife. "Sangvis Ferri dolls are incredibly disposable and have relatively accessible cores that can be damaged by a knife. Aim for the center of the chest and push in and up." Once he took the knife, she pulled her bayonet blade from side and pointed on her own chest where he should aim.
"And what if they're human?"
She frowned at that sentence. StG44 could probably kill a human with her bare hands if she felt so inclined, but she knew better that's to attack people for no reason. The humans in this city could be reasoned with if she felt so inclined. "Talk to them." She reassured him. "They're trying to kill me, not you."
The answer didn't seem to help. "What are you going to do then?"
StG44 wasn't sure, fighting and killing humans wasn't something she was trained for. Truthfully, she would have to wait and see what would happen, possibly waiting for an order from the Commandant on what to do. Although, she would probably burn out her neural cloud trying to figure out the morality of such a concept. Of course, she was already given an order on what to do. "I disable them," she explained carefully, "that way we can talk to them."
"You say that like you've done this before."
It was a loaded question, and she would have to tread carefully. "I was made by humans," she explained, "to fight for humans. None of us were ready for this, we're just making it up as we go."
"How much of working with me did you make up?"
StG44 would have preferred if he just stabbed her. Short of handing over her entire neural cloud for him to peruse at his leisure, she didn't have an exact answer. "I don't know," she admitted, "this whole thing is new to me."
Kurtis sighed. "It's not in your programming, I know."
His cold response was everything she needed to know. Something inside her sank, but she was in no place to deal with it now. The two of them sat in silence, the sound of sniper fire from Kar98k the only music for them to enjoy. That was until the dull sound of a contained explosion echoed through the walls, followed by the sound of gun fire. MP40 frantically shouted something on their comms channel about ropes and the windows, but her warning was cut short by the sound of fighting from that room. "They're on the damn roof!" The Commandant shouted. "They didn't want us to see them roping in on our sides!"
The sound of the window breaking in the penthouse was more than enough for StG44 to spring into action. Using the counter as cover, she aimed down range of where the noise came from. The door to the infiltrated bedroom was kicked open from the inside, which was followed by a small metal cylinder spewing smoke. Unfortunately, thermal optics were not an available upgrade for any of the dolls, putting them at a severe disadvantage. Instinctively, StG44 slung her rifle over her shoulder and grabbed her bayonet to use as a knife. As smoke filled the room, she knew there wasn't much she could do to defend herself, but she also knew that her internal core would certainly give her away as a tactical doll. Holding her knife at the ready, she backed into the wall, making sure the men invading the room would only be in front of her. They yelled for her and the Commandant to put their weapons down and to surrender, but quickly that was cut off by the sound of a scuffle.
Trying to vent the smoke, StG44 followed the wall until she reached a door, opening it to allow the smoke more room to dissipate into. She also found a switch of an overhead ceiling fan, adding air flow to the venting. As her vision cleared, she saw the Commandant struggling with a single armored human. He had her pinned to the ground, the two of them exchanging blows as they swung at each other. Even though the soldier was wearing a helmet, she could recognize the captain's chevrons emblazoned on his shoulder. StG44 jumped to help, trying to wrap her arms around Adelhard's neck in a choke hold to incapacitate him. However, the helmet and armoring around the neck made it difficult to get purchase, allowing him to throw his back and smash the back of his helmet into her face. She staggered back, not expecting to receive a hit like that.
Adelhard climbed up to his feet and turned to face StG44, pausing for just a second as he processed who she was. After a moment he charged straight into her, pinning her between his forearm and a wall. She realized as she tried to push back that the captain's armor must have a powered exoskeleton installed, giving him strength comparable to a military grade doll. StG44 had no hope of breaking his grip, but she could at least fight dirty. She delivered a swift quick right to his groin, which despite being protected by armor was still enough to cause him to loosen up enough for her to push him off. While an unarmored man would be crying in pain, the world war veteran Adelhard was able to quickly recover and deliver a swift right hook to the still recovering StG44. Before he could bring in his left fist for a follow up, the crack of a rifle report was enough to bring the fight to a pause.
The Commandant cycled her bolt and chambered another round, this time aiming down her sights at the back of Adelhard's head. Her chest heaved as she breathed in and out to keep her core cool, but her gaze had no such issues staying cold as ice. "We have two options," she spoke calmly, trying to remain civil despite the recent brawl, "you can take a moment and listen to what we have to say, or you can explain yourself to the army when they show up."
Silence. Adelhard took a moment to process the statement, trying to not provoke a bullet to the head. "Where's my son?" He finally spoke, showing what he really cared about.
Kurtis stood from his hiding place behind the counter. "What did you do?" He asked his father.
Adelhard took off his helmet to speak to his son face-to-face. "I came for you," he explained, "I was told you were in trouble."
"I'm talking about the damn shady deals!" Kurtis put the hard drive of evidence on the counter. "The army is coming to arrest you."
"It's true," The Commandant explained, "G&K was hired to investigate Sangvis Ferri deals with this city by the government. They've mobilized an armored division to replace you and your men. We brought your son in to talk to you so you could surrender peacefully, but Scarecrow caught on and tried to pit us against each other to waste time."
Adelhard's knuckles cracked as he made a fist out of sheer rage. "So that bitch played us like a god damn fiddle and is going to let the fucking army come and blow us all away."
"Why did you do it, Dad?" Kurtis asked, keeping his distance from his father.
"The damn government is the reason we had to turn to Sangvis Ferri in the first place!" Adelhard snapped at no one in particular. "They keep all the guns and tanks and dolls to themselves to patrol their pretty green zones and let us squabble in the yellow zones! Scarecrow's deal was the only way we'd ever be able to get this place rebuilt and under control."
"And she made you dependent on her by having her dolls covertly create situations where you'd request more munitions from her." StG44 added. "One of which actually tried to hurt your son."
Adelhard gave an exasperated sigh as he pulled a radio out. "Everyone, false alarm, stand down. We're closing up shop. The army is on their way and there are better ways to commit suicide. Someone shut down the SF mainframe. I repeat, everyone needs to stand down."
Adelhard sat on the floor as he processed all of his choices. Kurtis walked over and sat with him, knowing his father was trying to do the right thing. Everyone stood in silence for a moment, the tension in the air slowly going away. The moment was ruined by the buzzing sound of a hovering Sangvis Ferri Scout drone out on the penthouse balcony. Kar98k and StG44 both turned to face it, weapons drawn and ready. The Scout, however, did not fire on them; instead it spoke to them. More accurately, it served as a medium for someone else to speak instead. "It's a shame our working relationship had to come to an end so soon Captain." Scarecrow's cold voice came at them like a tidal wave of venom, washing over the penthouse and drowning them.
The captain stood to argue with the drone, grabbing the Ripper SMG he had strapped to his back. "Listen here you cold hearted bitch-"
"Please Captain, I'm not your late wife," the voice interrupted him, "for your sake, you never should have made a deal with me in the first place. Of course, just like your dead wife, I'm going to leave your fate to be decided by the army. I will allow you to provide entertainment for myself, of course."
The voice died as Adelhard opened fire in the Scout. The flying drone fell to the ground with a clang, but it was quickly drowned out by a cacophony of other noises. War had returned to the city of Schaf as the Sangis Ferri dolls and machines opened fire. The defense systems on the city walls turned their guns to the refugee camp, blasting people who were already struggling to get by. The underground warehouse where the SF Mainframe was being stored opened up, slowly berthing the Manticore into the city, it calmly approached the penthouse building, crushing its way through the streets around the city park between them. At this rate, there wouldn't be a city left for the army to save.
