The white cat happily purred as it rested on the doll's lap, enjoying the sensation of the machine's fingers as it stroked its fur. The two sat looking out the window, letting the winter sunlight bathe them both in warmth. The cat had, through trial and error, discovered where it was and was not allowed to travel in search of food and shelter. As tempting as the birds living in the one window were, the cat had learned the hard way not to disturb the animals that dolls were protecting. Over time, the cat established a tentative truce with the other dolls, and more importantly with the human chef. The cat knew these were not humans, they lacked the proper scents and tastes, but the cat also did not care what they were. Having found a safe place to settle down, the cat was more than happy to stay here. Still, every day it would watch through the window as the little birds flew in and out of the office window on whatever business that birds do.
The cat had taken up residence with one of the blonde dolls with the blue uniform. The doll would allow the cat to follow her to the cafeteria, where they would both find a meal and a table. Like the cat, the doll would sit and watch the other dolls go about their business. The doll would observe them out of idle enjoyment, getting a laugh out of their various quirks and squabbles. Sometimes the cat would accompany the doll to the shooting range, but would stay at a distance because of the noise. Still, the cat was fascinated by the rapid fire boom stick and its capacity for destruction. The cat was awestruck out of fear for what it did not understand, but so long as it was not a threat, the cat would show no fear.
One day, however, there was a new chef in the cafeteria. The human man was gone, replaced with a stranger with black hair and a new scent. She paid little attention to the cat at first, earning the ire of the little beast. However, the cat stayed away, observing the stranger out of curiosity. The doll commander soon entered, looking to converse with the new cook. "Getting all settled in Addy?" Kar98k asked, a friendly smile on her face.
Addy smiled back, speaking with a foreign accent. "Oh yes, thank you for asking, Kommandantin." She was cleaning some vegetables, getting ready to cook something for the dolls later.
"Good to hear it," Kar98k looked around at the cafeteria, "the girls can be a bit of a handful so let me know if any of them give you any issues." Pierre had no issue with the motley crew of dolls, but he was also a veteran of the Third World War. Addy, daughter of a fancy German scientist, had no such experience with Tactical Dolls. While it hurt to lose Pierre, Kar98k understood his reason for quitting. She was more than happy to see him off as he went to care for his terminally ill mother, knowing that he was doing something important.
"I'm sure I can handle them." Addy reassured her. Only time would tell if that was confidence or bravado.
Kar98k had a relieved look on her face. "I'll leave you to it then, have fun!" She left Addy and the cafeteria behind, heading to the maintenance bay to deal with an urgent request from Fredrick. She had hoped it was a replacement for her damaged core, which had been overheating more so than usual after taking a hard blow in the chest from Scarecrow. Her core was not something that could easily be replaced, seeing as she needed a specialty one due to the issues she had already been having. The curse of being an advanced model was beginning to weigh down upon her, and she at least hoped that any further experiments would learn from her problems. If there was anything to learn from humans, however, it was that they seldom learned from their mistakes.
Arriving at the maintenance bay, Kar98k could hear the loud metal music before she even opened the door. Walking in, she found Fredrick hard at work making some sort of strange contraption from surplus doll parts nobody on base required. Seeing as he was too busy to acknowledge her, she made her way over to the stereo system and turned the music off. Immediately he looked up from his project and turned around in surprise. "Oh good, you're here." He finally noticed.
"What's this mess?" Kar98k asked, not understanding what device he was working on.
"I was bored and decided to take some of the old crap we don't use and see what I could make." Fredrick flipped a switch on his creation and bolts of energy began to travel between two exposed wires on it. "They call it a Jacob's Ladder and it's about as dangerous as it is pretty."
Kar98k raised an eyebrow. "What purpose does this serve?"
"Fun." Fredrick watched his creation for a moment before shutting it off and acknowledging why he wanted to speak to her in the first place. "Now, we need to talk about a few things; let's start with daddy's little girl in the cafeteria."
"What about her?"
Fredrick dropped to a whisper, "I think she's a Rossartrist."
Kar98k hadn't considered that possibility. Rossartrism was a political movement that gained heavy traction after World War 3, with a good portion of the western countries of Europe and America adopting its tenets and beliefs as they rebuilt their nations. Many people, however, distrusted the belief that the world would be better off uniting under a single coalition group, seeing as many people still suffered and died in yellow and red zones despite the adoption of Rossartrism. The new Soviet Union was one such opponent of the belief, sticking to the age-old methods of socialism to rebuild its constituent nations. Conversely, Germany, where Addy was from, actively promotes the belief to other nations and communities. While this information wouldn't cause too many issues with the dolls on base, who care little for racial and political machinations beyond those that directly affect themselves, it would cause issues with the locals. "That's a pretty big accusation," Kar98k said, "what makes you believe this?"
Fredrick sighed. "Rich family girl that never stepped out of a German green zone bragging about her super successful father? If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…"
"These sound like you're making assumptions." Kar98k stated. She didn't care for the petty human politics that plagued their society, and she didn't want the humans bringing her dolls into it more than they needed to be.
"I know better than to talk politics with a woman that can handle a knife better than most soldiers."
"Is this what you called me down here for?" Kar98k crossed her arms, ready to leave.
Fredrick went to grab his tablet. "Partly," he made a few taps before showing her the tablet, "I found something interesting while analyzing your neural cloud." Part of Fredrick's job was to record and analyze data about Kar98k and the other's neural clouds to use as research for the command module experiments. He was instructed to not inform them of the analysis to provide untainted test data, a fact that mildly distressed him once the data started to show multiple abnormalities. During the last mission, a subroutine in Kar98k's neural cloud showed a quick spike in use as it activated from dormancy and has continued to remain in an active standby state. Pulling up the records of the mission, it seems as though the subroutine activated during her conversation with Scarecrow. "I'm not sure what it's intended purpose was or when it was actually supposed to activate, but judging by its current state I'd surmise that Scarecrow might have activated it prematurely."
"How would she have known?" Kar98k asked, wondering what else was laying in wait inside her head.
Fredrick shrugged. "I don't think she did, it was probably just a pure accident. If I had to guess, it made you want to agree with something she was talking about, but your system still registered her as an enemy and therefore refused to accept it."
Every time she thought about the idea of reuniting the people of the yellow zones with those living inside the walls, something inside her did resonate. Did someone infiltrate her upgrade process, or was this a later addition? More importantly, was what it was originally intended to be. "Can you shut it down before it becomes a hassle?"
Fredrick looked around and whistled. MP41 popped out from behind a set up of welding equipment. To this day, she has managed to amaze Kar98k with her ability to turn up out of practically anywhere to spy on any and everyone. "Ah, Commandant, it's a pleasure to see you here."
"Smiles, I need you to help me track down anything else for me to work on while I'm in there."
MP41 gave him a confident smile. "Of course, anything for my Commandant."
Kar98k, locked down on level III of her neural cloud, the deepest subconscious she could get before death, began to dream. She sat alone in a movie theater as all of her memories played on the screen at once. Everything was playing as the film projector played, the sound of its rotating reels accompanying the sounds of the memories. She saw everything from the day she was activated to the moment she fell asleep for the current operation. It was all playing, all together before her. She could concentrate on one while still watching a million others, all on a movie screen for her to watch. She considered maybe eating some popcorn.
Suddenly, a stranger entered the theater. Kar98k didn't recognize the woman, barely able to recognize who she was. Her long white hair concealed her face in the theater well, until she turned to walk down the aisle and sat next to Kar98k. It was herself, but also not. Part of her still seemed to have the faux human look, with skin and hair, but other parts seemed to be a slew of exposed doll robotics. She was wearing a long black dress, however, instead of the usual uniform. Kar98k reached out to touch the woman, but found her hand caught in a powerful grip. The new woman turned and looked her in the eye, her cold expression suggesting she was more of a machine than any doll. It moved its mouth to speak, but no words came out. She was silent, but something about her and the way she moved still scared the doll.
Kar98k stared in horror at her doppelgänger until a gunshot rang out. The woman looked down to see a bullet had ripped open her chest, human blood leaking from the projectile's entry point. The woman lost equilibrium and collapsed into a pool of blood, splashing all over the seat, floor, and Kar98k. MP41 stood on one of the seats in the row before her, weapon drawn as she smiled. "Unwanted programs have been destroyed, Commandant, no need to thank me."
Kar98k sat on the repair bench, feeling exposed wearing nothing but the paper gown. More importantly, she felt like there was a gap somewhere in her system. It felt like there was a bullet hole in her body, but she was completely solid and unharmed. How deeply rooted was this mystery subroutine, and what effects would it have on her in the future? Fredrick promised to keep this information between them, seeing as it probably wasn't a mistake that it was there in the first place. "Now if you excuse me, I have to sort through a pile of crap they sent me to get the team all sorted out for a big operation Griffin is planning."
"That's the first I'm hearing of this." Kar98k found it strange that her engineer would hear about a mission well before she would. "I really hope my replacement core is included in this."
"All I know is it's a joint operation with the military." Fredrick explained. "They only sent me the specifications they would like any mechanized forces to meet in order to qualify for the mission."
"Perhaps there will be a meeting about it later." Kar98k hopped onto the floor, feeling a bit wobbly in the knees. She could feel her core straining to maintain itself even now, and she wouldn't be surprised if this new mission pushed it over the edge.
"I wouldn't hold your breath," Fredrick waved his hand in dismissal, "the army will acknowledge you when they feel like it. You're not the Chief Commander in charge, odds are they'll tell you where to land and leave it at that." He had a point, Griffin should consider itself lucky the army would even bother to consider them a part of the operation at all. While it would be a great chance to earn some respect from official bodies, it was more likely that the army would use them as fodder and take all the credit.
Kar98k started to get herself properly dressed, checking her uniform as she went. For some reason, she felt proud to be wearing it again. The hole she felt inside seemed to fill as she looked upon her clothes, almost as if she had remembered who she was. There was a lot of work to be done if they were going to prepare, but she was confident in her team's ability to carry out whatever was thrown in front of them. Whatever mission was given to her next, she was more than ready to face it; so long as her team would stand by her.
