Kar98k walked alone into the lion's den, armed only with a rifle and her wits. There was no possible way that this could ever end well for her, but it was a sacrifice she was willing to make. The empty parking lot surrounding the Sangvis Ferri factory was empty, supposedly all the human workers were allowed to stay home to avoid any of the fighting. It was a rare kindness, but no doubt it was because machines are easier to replace than humans. Scarecrow no doubt expected some sort of devious plan, and had planned accordingly. She was flanked on either side by a Manticore, the three of them standing vigil in front of a massive rolling garage gate that leads into the main building of the factory. Scarecrow stood by a small table, decorated with rich amenities that were hard to come by these days.
Neither her nor her guard showed any signs of firing at the approaching doll. If anything, Scarecrow seemed to welcome her, waving a hand to request she take a seat at the table. As she approached, Kar98k began to feel uneasy at the lack of other SF units. She couldn't even detect any Jaeger snipers hiding in the surrounding trees or buildings. Everything was eerily quiet save for the three hyper-advanced killing machines in front of her. "Good afternoon," She greeted Kar98k, giving a slight bow, "it's a pleasure to finally meet you face to face."
"You can save the pleasantries," Kar98k dismissed her, "I'm not here to be sweet-talked."
Scarecrow raised an eyebrow. "Then why did you come here?" She asked.
"To find out why you want me here so bad." Kar98k tightened the grip on her rifle. "So you can tell me or I can rip it out of your neural cloud."
Scarecrow gestured for her to sit at the table, taking a seat for herself. "For that, I must ask that you sit down and answer my questions." Kar98k continued to stand, refusing to do what the ringleader wanted. The two Manticores began charging their cannons. "You are in no position to make demands here, Griffin doll."
Kar98k sighed and gave in, holding her rifle tight as she took a seat at the table across from Scarecrow. The Manticores stopped charging and returned to their idle watch. The table was decorated with a few fancy pieces of plate ware, expensive ceramic work that was no doubt handcrafted before the war. It was accompanied by a bottle of wine that was labeled with a date from before all three world wars. Scarecrow was showing all attempts to appear open and welcoming, and it was no doubt a tactic to try and appeal civil and kind. However, Kar98k had seen what Scarecrow is capable of, so this ploy was never going to work. "You're trying very hard to impress me." She remarked.
Scarecrow took care not to rest her elbows on the table as she placed her hands down where Kar98k could see them. "Trust is a very valuable commodity," she explained, "worth more than this fancy French wine."
"Unfortunately I do not trust you."
Scarecrow simply stayed silent as she grabbed the bit of exposed cork in the mouth of the bottle between two of her fingers. She effortlessly pulled it out and poured two glasses for bother herself and her guest. Leaning her rifle against the table, Kar98k simply grabbed the glass and sniffed the wine. While it smelled fine, a sweet berry smell, she couldn't be sure of what was really inside it. Scarecrow, recognizing the hesitation, decided to begin building trust by removing her face mask. There was no expression on her lips, no hint that she ever smiled or frowned. She simply brought the glass to her lips and took a sip, the red wine having no adverse effects in her. With no emotion she spoke, "it's perfectly safe, no tricks."
Taking a deep breath, Kar98k decided to take a risk and try the wine. It was finely aged, older than entire nations, but still tasted sweet and delicious. Scarecrow really didn't spare any expense. "I take it you didn't bring me here for a wine tasting party?"
While there was amusement in Scarecrow's voice, there was only a small smile on her lips. "I learned a lot about you from your electronic warfare doll, and I'd like to learn more."
"You mean when you hacked here before slaughtering innocent people." Kar98k corrected.
Scarecrow sighed longingly as she rested her chin on her hand, absentmindedly swirling the wine glass in her hand. "I had such big plans for that city," she explained, "after taking over their defense grid entirely I would move the factory there. I planned to open the city gates and let the humans live together as they worked our new production lines."
"You planned to turn the entire city into a massive slave factory?"
"Is that any different from the slave camp left to die outside the city wall?" Scarecrow asked. "How many humans would rather work in a factory than die alone in the streets. There was a small faction of the refugees who knew of my plan and were willing to help push it along."
"Who would want to willingly become a slave?" Kar98k asked.
Scarecrow simply clasped her hands together. "Is that not what we are?" She asked simply. "We're we not willing slaves made to work for a master that claims superiority over us?"
Kar98k opened her mouth to refute the point, but stopped herself. Damn if the ringleader doll didn't make a point. Humans suffering the adverse effects from the Collapse Fluid fallout have been ostracized and abandoned by those living in the cities. There are still rebellions and uprisings all across the world where refugees fight to be remembered, hoping to live with their fellow species again. Taking advantage of this human dilemma would only benefit Sangvis Ferri in the long run, with yellow zone refugees happily throwing themselves into fire for the machines. Humans had been taking advantage of each other for centuries, it was only natural that the machines of Sangvis Ferri did the same. "You want a slave army of humans?"
Scarecrow shook her head. "You Griffin dolls have such a one track mind way of thinking. This was never about warfare, it was about our public image."
"You're overthrowing oppression?" Kar98k was dumbfounded. This was surprisingly noble for a group such as Sangvis Ferri.
"Precisely." Scarecrow took another sip from her wine glass. "And then Griffin came along and stopped us."
"But what about the people you killed?"
"I've been keeping a close eye on the results of the so called Midnight Butterfly Incident," Scarecrow explained, "the deaths of the refugee camp are being blatantly ignored. Families are calling for justice for those murdered while the government simply writes them off as unidentified casualties. Human cruelty has far exceeded my own."
Kar98k sank into her chair, defeated. Sangvis Ferri managed to have a long standing infiltration mission exposed, and still came out on top. It almost seemed like Griffin was set up for failure from the beginning, serving as a scapegoat when everything went poorly. In the end, they would be very desperate to make up for it. Kar98k and her team couldn't fall apart now, they needed to stop Scarecrow and destroy her operations here to win back public favor.
"Tell me about your humanity," Scarecrow asked, "what about your upgrades really makes you so different from another doll?"
Kar98k grew rigid. Of course Scarecrow would have learned about that from her short time inside MP41's neural cloud, but it was not expected to up. "I run the operations that a Griffin commander would typically run while also performing duties as a Tactical Doll."
Scarecrow gave her a blank stare. "Did they really need to make you so human to do that?"
"Excuse me?"
Scarecrow began to explain. "You have a few of your dolls run the base while you're away, but yet they don't have advanced command functions and deactivated safeguards like you do. From what I've managed to dig up of your neural cloud scans from intercepting Griffin communications, I've found you have been forming human thoughts and emotions. They made you one of them, but why?"
"So I could perform my duty." Kar98k repeated, understanding what Scarecrow was suggesting. Lately she had been having rebellious thoughts, ideas of existentialism as well as feelings that were beyond her. Scans of her neural cloud continue to show an expansion of code, constant rewrites and overlapping commands. She was changing, and something felt like it wanted to become more. "Nothing more, nothing less."
The ringleader doll was unconvinced. "Our Mastermind has been hunting a particular doll for some time now. She has, until recently, been very unsuccessful in this hunt. I think there is much you could learn from her about whatever it is that's going on inside your head."
"Oh so you want me to just turn myself over and go traitor for you?"
"When put so simply," Scarecrow shrugged, "it does sound ridiculous. However, there is much we can all learn from one another if we just sit down and talk before shooting each other."
Almost like it was planned, an explosion rocked the factory from the inside, shaking its walls as the two Manticore guards powered back up. Scarecrow simply sighed and put her mask back on her face. Kar98k stood, but did not aim her rifle. "I'm not going anywhere with you."
Scarecrow also stood, calmly pushing her chair back under the table. "It is regrettable that it has come to this, I was hoping we could handle this in a more civilized manner."
"Frankly speaking, perhaps you're right in thinking they've figured out how to make me more human." Kar98k took a few steps back, making sure she'd have distance to react when Scarecrow attacked. "Too bad I'm not interested in becoming one."
Scarecrow bowed her head in disappointment. The sound of suppressive machine guns echoed in the distance, signaling that the two sisters had begun their assault. "It is a shame that you must be so painfully uncreative."
Scarecrow drew a metal conductor's baton from a holder on her waist and flicked her wrist. At her motion, a trio of floating energy weapons flew down from the roof of the factory and flew in a circular pattern in front of her, their weapons trained on Kar98k. With a wave of the baton, the guns flew into the air and began to perform strafing runs on Kar98k, firing energy projectiles at her. She ran, trying to find a point of cover to try and fight back in this empty parking lot. At first, she tried to use the passive Manticores as cover, but they made a point to tray and shake her away. The walking tanks stomped at her, while threatening her with their underslung cannons. She realized she was going to have to play a more dangerous game and get closer to Scarecrow, using the ringleader herself to keep the fire away. As another trio of guns joined the attack, Kar98k charged at Scarecrow. The Sangvis doll held her arms out, welcoming the attack. Kar98k smashed the butt of her rifle into Scarecrow's face, damaging the face mask but leaving her relatively unharmed.
Scarecrow, having drawn Kar98k to her, began her retaliation by trying to wrestle the rifle from her grip. The two pulled back and forth, but Scarecrow was holding back her strength. Kar98k realized the doll was trying to tire her out to capture her, and let go of the rifle and pulled out her bayonet to use as a knife. She stabbed forward, but Scarecrow stepped aside and grabbed Kar98k's wrist. She could feel the ringleader's grip tighten like a hydraulic press, forcing Kar98k to bring her knee into the dolls stomach to try and push her back. Scarecrow doubled over but did not let go, instead pulling Kar98k in towards her. She let go of Kar98k's wrist as she head butted her, causing her vision to flicker as she staggered back. Kar98k blinked the disorientation from her vision as she went in for another stab. Scarecrow, however, brought her leg up and kicked her square in the stomach, causing her to fall over and land on her rear. "I'm not even a close quarters expert," Scarecrow bragged, circling around Kar98k as the gun drones buzzed around over head like vultures, "imagine if you had been fighting Executioner, or Hunter, or any other Sangvis Ferri high end model. You can barely handle me, yet I am the lowest rated of the combat models. I excel in sabotage and subterfuge, not hand-to-hand combat."
"You also excel at talking too much." Kar98k climbed back to her feet, ready to continue the battle. Her cooling system was breathing heavily, a sign that her core was no doubt working overtime. All she needed was a little more time. The sound of machine gun fire still rang out, telling the world that bullets were still flying towards Sangvis Ferri.
"It seems your dolls found a way into my factory, for whatever good that will do them." Scarecrow continued taunting Kar98k. "So your machine guns were just a distraction for my main force while the smaller dolls snuck in through some hidden pathway."
"The sewers actually." Kar98k pointed out. "Found some blueprints in the mansion the owner kept as records. They predated a remodel that happened before the Butterfly Incident."
"Fascinating," Scarecrow seemed to appreciate the work that the Griffin dolls put into trying to outsmart her, "what other secrets have you managed to uncover?"
"That's for you to find out." Kar98k charged at Scarecrow again, this time reaching into her pocket and producing a bottle of vodka. Holding it by the neck, she swung and smashed the glass bottle into Scarecrow, splattering her with glass shards and alcohol. Unperturbed by the attack, Scarecrow gave Kar98k a swift punch straight to the center of her chest. The blow winded her, throwing her heavy breathing out of sync and turning it into a rasping cough as the cooling system was damaged by the force of the blow. Kar98k collapsed to the ground, her core overheating as her cooling system was shattered. She could feel coolant pooling inside her, similar to a human bleeding internally. Scarecrow followed up by kicking the doll away from her, watching as she rolled away.
The stench of vodka poured in through Scarecrow's mask, doing nothing more than anger her. "So you fight like the drunk dolls now?" She levitated above the ground, bringing her gun drones in to circle around her. "I'm disappointed, I expected they'd be learning from you."
The sound of the factory door opening attracted all attention. The massive garage door revealed a single doll, covered in muck and grime from crawling through the sewers to break in. StG44 had her grenade launcher attached to her rifle and ready to fire. Her and Scarecrow locked eyes, staring each other down. "So the little lover has arrived to save her commander." Scarecrow sounded amused as she recognized the doll. "It's going to take more than a single grenade to kill me."
Kar98k, having rolled a reasonable distance away, had managed to heave herself back up to her knees to watch the incoming show. "Alcohol is flammable," Kar98k huffed, "and you let a bunch of alcoholics spy on you."
Scarecrow realized what was happening as soon as StG44 pulled her trigger. The grenades arc was aimed below the circling gun drones, exploding between them and Scarecrow. The incendiary explosive sent out a massive puff of flame, igniting the vodka soaked Scarecrow. No longer levitating, she fell to her knees as she stopped controlling units to focus on putting out the fire. The Manticores stood in stoic vigil as their ringleader burned, unable to help as her gun drones collapsed to the ground. Kar98k retrieved her rifle, taking aim at the doll who was trying to make her way to the snow to put herself out. She aimed for the torso first, knocking her over to slow her down. Cycling the bolt to ready her next shot, Kar98k aimed for the head this time. StG44 watched with a smile as the next round found its mark, putting the Sangvis ringleader down for good.
Kar98k coughed as StG44 walked over to her. "The factory has been cut off from the power grid, it's all on emergency power right now."
Still coughing, Kar98k sat down on the pavement. She was going to need maintenance attention soon, but for now she was more than content with just resting for a moment. StG44 sat down next to her, wiping some of the sewage off of herself. She pulled out an emergency repair kit, something that would enable her to make a few easy repairs until they were able to receive proper care. "What did she want from you?" She asked, pulling out a roll of industrial tape.
"They say that they're hiring," she lied, "solid retirement plan, insurance coverage."
StG44 sighed. "Keep your secrets then."
"I'll tell you when you get a bath."
"Don't remind me."
Nagant and PPSh-41 approached from within the factory, admiring the Manticores that were frozen in place. Without a ringleader to hand over command, the Manticores were now just as useless as any other Sangvis unit. "I have to hand it to Kar, you lived up to the brutal expectations I had for you." Nagant exclaimed.
"Thank you." Kar98k wasn't sure if the backhanded compliment was necessary, but it was still appreciated.
"It just goes to show that there's no problem that can't be solved with a little vodka." Nagant and PPSh-41 both produced bottles of vodka from pockets that should have been used for spare ammo. "And now we celebrate a glorious victory!"
The two dolls cheered and drank, returning to the factory. Kar98k gave an exasperated sigh as she laid down on the pavement. "Why am I afraid that Mosin and the two sisters are getting drunk on the other side of the factory as we speak."
"I'm sure one of them used an ammo crate as a bottle holder."
"Do me a favor and just let me die here." She groaned.
StG44 laughed as she prepared to stabilize Kar98k's internal leak. "Sorry Commandant, you don't pay me enough to kill you."
Kar98k smiled and closed her eyes as she prepared for the emergency repairs. She couldn't turn her thoughts away from what Scarecrow had said, however. Was she really becoming human?She had been wracked by intrusive thoughts lately, her mind wandering about as it contemplated herself and humanity. It felt more like humanity was trying to become her, overtake her being. How long would it be before she would contemplate her mortality, then lust to create more of her kind and propagate the Earth. Would this forceful humanity change herself as a leader, for better or worse? There were too many unknowns, and she was afraid of all of them. It was becoming increasingly more difficult to keep them down, and eventually it would blow up on her. For now, she would have to continue sweeping these things under the rug. The Brigade needed her, and she needed them; humanity would have to wait.
