When Scarecrow asked Kar98k to wait for her signal to begin taking out the signal jammers on Juliet's cathedral, she imagined something subtle to draw attention while still remaining incognito. Instead, a trio of car bombs exploded while two Manticores blasted their way out of the garages they were hiding within. Taking that as the signal, Kar98k moved to the window of the abandoned building she posted herself up in. She had a clear line of sight on two of the jamming pillars, while G43 was located on the other side of the cathedral to take down the other two. Aiming down scope, she got a close look at the pillars themselves. While the spinning ring was most certainly a defining feature, the large blue gemstone resting at the top of the object was more interesting. The pedestal it rested upon also appeared to be its smallest, and possibly weakest, target location. Kar98k had made more difficult shots, so taking two of these down would be a simple task for her.
In classic human tradition, she took a deep breath and pulled the trigger as she exhaled. While airflow was completely unnecessary for her, it still felt right to operate her rifle as it was over a hundred years ago. Recoil was also a non-issue for her, allowing her to watch through her scope as the bullet impacted into the signal jammer. The thin neck that held the crystal pedestal was torn apart, and the spinning ring collapsed as the pillar itself fell to the ground. Taking that as a success, Kar98k repeated the process for her second target, watching as it fell to the streets below. Weapons fire echoed as Scarecrow began to reclaim the Sangvis Ferri forces. Realizing that it wouldn't be long before they were drastically outnumbered, she called G43 on an open channel for a status report. "I'm still reading those pillars as operational," she began to question, "how's it going over there?"
"I can't seem to get a good angle," her voice sounded distraught, "I can't afford to keep missing shots."
Scarecrow, who was monitoring their channel, surmised that "the pillars must be jamming your ability to target them."
Kar98k had considered this as a possibility, but had hoped it wouldn't be an issue. If this really was a trap set for them, it would make sense that they would use their neural cloud scans as a way to manipulate their ability to fight back. With the full purging of her neural cloud from the inhibiting code, Kar98k was able to easily hit her targets. G43 hadn't received the same treatment, meaning she wouldn't be able to reliably hit the target. Unfortunately, this also meant that the rest of the echelon was severely inhibited by the pillars as well. They needed to be destroyed, but there was no way that Kar98k would be able to travel to the other side of the cathedral undetected. "G43, I need you to share your visual link." She ordered, thinking of a quick plan.
Soon, her vision was now joined by G43's, seeing from both sets of eyes. She instructed G43 to try and take aim, but her vision seemed unable to reliably focus on the weak point of the pillar, why she was unable to remain steady enough to draw a bead. "Did you upgrade to a smart scope?" Kar98k asked, hoping the answer was yes.
"Of course," G43 replied, "I figured it would get more use than the night vision."
Kar98k breathed a sigh of relief. "I want you to connect me to the scope and get it aimed as close to the target as you can, then close your eyes and listen to everything I tell you to do."
The vision that was shared with G43 switched from her eyes to a view from her scope, giving Kar98k an almost first person view of the rifle as it got as close to the pillar as it could. Using the targeting, Kar98k instructed the now blinded G43 through the small movements she needed to make to get the scope in the perfect location to fire. Moving her arms in small, varying degrees, Kar98k was able to get G43 to aim her scope completely blind. As the trigger was pulled, Kar98k watched as the pillar was hit, the crystal top practically exploding off of the top. They repeated the process for a second time, taking down the last pillar. "Thank you, Commandant," G43 thanked her, slightly ashamed, "I'm sorry I couldn't do it."
"It's alright, it's not your fault." Kar98k wanted to reach out and give her a reassuring hand on the shoulder, but she hoped her tone of voice would convey that message for her.
"I'm sorry to interrupt," Scarecrow came on the channel once more, "but I believe the trap has been sprung."
Additional weapons fire echoed across the city, more than anything Scarecrow had brought with her. Explosives could be heard, missile barrages raining upon targets and locations. The White Faction decided to reveal themselves, their hand being forced onto the playing field. Of course, this greatly complicated things, as their technology put them leagues above that of the Brigade. While Sangvis Ferri might have them outgunned, this was going to be tough for them. "Do you think you can give them a hard time?" Kar98k asked.
"More than you ever could." Scarecrow answered. "I do recommend eliminating Juliet, she may be their central control."
Before Kar98k could respond, the room she had posted up in found itself occupied as the locked door was kicked down. She spun around to face her visitor, the business end of her rifle being the only thing between her and her new guest. The man wore a full body suit of protective armor, the white metal plates sleeker and more streamlined than the bulky plates that most military's outfit their troops with. In fact, it seemed incredibly similar to the reports of basic White Faction troops. Despite his helmet covering his entire head, the blue polarized visor managed to glare at her while a synthesized voice bellowed from speakers for her to surrender. This order was accentuated by him waving a submachine gun at her of unknown construction. His attempts at intimidation failed, with Kar98k yelling her own orders for the man to back off. The two shouted back and forth for a moment before she finally concluded that this was going nowhere fast. She pulled the trigger before he did, her bullet shattering his visor and splashing blood from the impact.
Inspecting the body, the face underneath the helmet was horrible twisted and scared from collapse exposure, his blood more a consistency of filthy ichor. Disgusted, Kar98k moved to the door to make her grand escape. As she approached, a second soldier stepped in and slammed the butt of his weapon into her face. The force of the blow was more than she had expected, killing her forward momentum and cause her to stagger back. She tried to recoil and strike back, but another blow to her head made her stumble further. Kar98k swung her rifle into his center of mass, but he almost seemed to absorb the blow. Not only was the man wearing a suit of advanced armor, but it was a safe guess he was also a victim of ELIDS. No doubt whatever suit he was wearing limited the pain of his infection, Turning him into an ultra tough powerhouse that could absorb attacks like it was nothing. Kar98k needed to get creative to deal with him at close range.
Given enough time, she could think of something incredibly inspired. Time, however, was not on her side. Kar98k settled for a tactical roll, diving and rolling out the door to make her get away. The White Faction soldier fired at her as she ran, but his aim left much to be desired. The thought crossed her mind that he wasn't shooting to kill, wanting to capture her for whatever nefarious purpose they had in mind. Unfortunately for them, she wasn't planning on being tortured any time soon. As she ran through the halls of what she had assumed was an old apartment building filled with squatters, more of the soldiers tried to ambush her. Those foolish enough to attack her at range found themselves shot, while those that tried to tackle her were dodged as she ducked and weaved through the halls. However, one of the soldiers, a larger man with heavier plate armor, blindsided her. Slammed against the crumbling wall, he pinned her against it as she dropped her rifle. Kar98k tried to punch and kick him off of her, but he held his position thanks to his heavier metal plates negating any blow she dealt him. It was like she was caught in a vice, trapped as he held her in place for the others to arrive.
Unfortunately, his strength and durability played against him, and the wall he pinned Kar98k into cracked and collapsed. The cheap construction gave out, sending both of them tumbling into the next room in a blizzard of dusty drywall. She tried to use this opportunity to push him off of her, but he quickly wrapped his arms around her tight. Trapped in a bear hug, she flailed her legs as she tried to wiggle free. He finally had her trapped, unable to escape as they struggled together on the ground. As footsteps approach, Kar98k's struggles only grew in intensity, unwilling to be a prisoner. Their visitor, however, was not wearing white armor or white robes; the man holding Kar98k loosened his grip as Scarecrow grabbed him by the leg. The man let go of Kar98k as he tried to prevent Scarecrow from dragging him to her. She kicked him onto his back, expecting to be able to hold him down with just her foot.
The man grabbed her ankle with both hands and pulled, forcing Scarecrow to her knees. Taken aback, she immediately went to grab his throat with both hands. He grabbed her wrists, trying to use his power assisted grip to free himself. Kar98k, watched in horror at the scene as the man tried to struggle free from the grip of the killer machine. His helmet masked his strangulation, suffering in silence as the emotionless machine squeezed the life out of him. He pounded on her arms and sides, trying to get her off of him, but his blows were nothing compared to the hold she had on him. "Leave us, Doll Commander." Scarecrow instructed as she continued to suffocate the man.
Not wanting to stay and help either constituent, Kar98k scrambled to her feet, grabbing her rifle so she could attach her bayonet to the end. On her way out, she noticed thatScarecrow brought some of her troops to clear the building of the rest of the White Faction ambushers. Somewhat surprised, Kar98k slowly made her out of the building, pushing past the Sangvis troops as they entered. Outside, combat still raged as the rest of the troops fought with each other across the city. It seemed they had dragged out a number of potential ambushers, executing the white armored soldiers. Looking over, she watched as a couple of Vespid models dragged an armored man out of a run down office building, throwing him to the street as he kicked and struggled against their grip. As he tried to climb to his feet, a Jaeger sniper on a rooftop put a shot through his visor. Meanwhile, a hastily erected barricade was established at the end of the street, with Sangvis Ferri troops taking up firing positions.
Kar98k soon noticed that MP40 was waving her down, following in the shadow of one of the Manticores as it made its way to the barricade. Kar98k jogged over to her captain, ready to get an assessment of what was going on. "Scarecrow has her troops convening around Juliet's Cathedral," MP40 explained, maintaining a good watch over the Ringleader, "unfortunately the White Faction is circling in as well."
"What are we looking at for troops?" Kar98k asked, wondering how much time they had to work with.
MP40 shrugged. "Scarecrow keeps counting more troops crawling out of every nook and cranny, but the heavy weapons and vehicles seem to be few and far between as of now."
Kar98k breathed a sigh of relief at that. From what she had read, the White Faction possessed some frightening weapons and armor. Massive walking machines decorated with missile pods and machine guns, brutal mechs tearing apart barricades while fast moving tanks smashed through rubble. Griffon was swinging well above its weight class when it came to the new group; having Scarecrow on their side for now only made things more fair. "Has any of the team run into any trouble gathering at the Cathedral?" Kar98k was curious if she was the only one that had been ambushed or not.
"Negative ma'am," MP40 answered, nervously glancing at the sounds of heavy weapons fire at the barricades, "everyone is prepped and ready to breach."
A frown found its way onto Kar98k's lips at the news. If she was the only one that was ambushed, then that meant a member of her team had given her position away. While she could t rule out Scarecrow's role in the plan as well, it was still a dagger in heart to know that someone she thought she could trust would do such a thing. Unfortunately for her disappointment, the sounds of the barricade falling apart distracted her. One of the White Faction's few tanks had smashed through the barricade, allowing troops to pour in. The Manticore that had been coming to reinforce the position swiftly unloaded its grenade launcher, blasting men to bits as the tank rolled through the explosions. Realizing that armored combat was well outside their range of expertise, MP40 and Kar98k let the tanks have their scuffle and retreated to the entrance of the cathedral. Their team had assembled on the steps leading up to the heavy double doors where StG44 was attaching explosive charges. "Scarecrow reports that no SF units are inside for her to control," MP40 explained, "odds are that it's just more armored troops as Juliet's guards."
"I can't wait to meet her," Kar98k said with a snide tone, "44, how much longer before we're in?"
"This is delicate work." StG44 verbally brushed her off.
"You're just scared you'll blow yourself up again." FG42 laughed at her joke, alone.
StG44 turned her head, ready to make a threat in response. Kar98k, recognizing the issue as it developed, spoke first. "That's enough," she said with a stern tone, "we blast the door and that's it."
The last thing that she needed to deal with right now was any issues with the group's cohesion. It was bad enough that their enemies had data logs detailing their entire neural cloud network, as well as a full dossier on their personality and capabilities. Their enemy knew every detail of their mind and bodies, and they didn't even know if Juliet was human or not. Scarier still was Scarecrow's possession of this information, making Sangvis Ferri aware of a definitive weakness in Griffin's security. Everything was starting to line up against Kar98k, and she began to worry about the morale of the girls; all she could do was put on a straight face and try to keep them in check until they could fix everything. The timer on the satchel charge was set for thirty seconds, giving everyone enough time to take up positions outside the blast radius. They stacked up outside the soon to be open door, making sure to prepare for anything. MP40 took the point position, tossing a grenade into the foyer once the doors blasted open. She led the echelon into the cathedral, followed closely by FG42. Kar98k and G43 were right behind, better suited for long range combat. StG44 watched their backs, preparing for any attempts to flank their line. Together, as a single unit, they made their way over the broken doors to begin their search.
Scarecrow watched from an overhead rooftop, amused as the Griffin dolls played soldier. Her professional dolls ripped through the shanty town the human refugees called a city, grabbing possible White Faction soldiers before they could suit up. Her weeks of searching through message logs and phone calls had finally paid off, revealing who was a sleeper agent or not. This also enabled her to disarm multiple devices that had been set up to "scuttle" the city and prevent capture. Numerous improvised collapse bombs had been built and hidden in the city, which were set to explode if Juliet or the White Faction ever deemed them necessary. It was a curious precaution, but considering their relationship with the Paradeus cult it made a surprising amount of sense. After all, they seemed to enjoy recruiting humans that were infected with ELIDS with many of these soldiers being victims of the Collapse based disease as well.
Scarecrow had learned a lot, but it was up to the Griffin Doll commander to be her eyes and ears inside the Cathedral. Overseeing the battle was going to take up much of her processing, especially considering the sighting of those robed half dolls moving about. Their leadership capabilities were impressive, but arrogance was their crippling weakness. Scarecrow almost relished the thought of putting one of them in their proper place below her. Sensing a presence approaching behind her, she turned to face them. "Speak of the devil," she thought aloud, one of the robed half-doll girls approaching behind her, "have you come to die?"
"Your existence is a stain on our great plan," the girl spoke with a monotonous tone that made even Scarecrow sound expressive, "I have come to remove you."
Scarecrow chuckled to herself, amused as the half-doll hefted her oversized sniper rifle weapon at her. "I find your confidence admirable," she said as she began to wave her drone command wand, "unfortunate that the odds are stacked heavily against you."
"We shall see, machine." The half-doll pulled the trigger on her weapon, firing a blast from her weapon that should have melted a whole through Scarecrow if she didn't dodge out of the way. With a wave of her wand, a half dozen of Scarecrow's gun drones flew out from the sides of the building and began performing fly by attacks on the half-doll. Despite her strange and inefficient peg leg design, the half doll moved at an impressive enough speed to avoid the drones, but this was precisely what Scarecrow wanted. Having performed this same maneuver on the Griffon Doll Commander, the half-doll also approached Scarecrow to get the gun drone assault off of her. Interestingly, she also seemed to be moving in a very similar manner, reaching for a blade the same way that Kar98k did. While their weapons were different, Scarecrow realized that the half-doll must be using recorded combat data from her battle with the Doll Commander.
Deciding she didn't want this battle to end in a similar manner, Scarecrow moved in to attack the half-doll rather than stand and wait for her approach. The half-doll stabbed forward with her combat knife, using her momentum to carry the attack forward. Scarecrow sidestepped the stab, using her own advance to deliver a punch to the half-doll's face. She stumbled from the blow, her human face bleeding from her nose and mouth as the Ringleader's attack rattled her vision. Scarecrow pressed the advantage, backhanding the half-doll as she tried to recover from the attack. This time, however, the half-doll grabbed Scarecrow by the wrist and tried to pull her closer. The two found themselves locked together, each trying to pull in an opposite direction. The half-doll smiled and stopped pulling, allowing Scarecrow's use of force to smash the two of them together. The half-doll's combat knife drove itself straight into Scarecrow's stomach as they hit each other, but Scarecrow didn't reel back like the half-doll had hoped. Instead, Scarecrow grabbed the arm of the half-doll that was stabbing her, gripping the metal augmented hands of her partially human opponent.
Scarecrow began to squeeze the half-doll's arm, crushing the metal that was meant to increase her combat abilities. The half-doll struggled against this grip until Scarecrow let her go, allowing her to stagger back as she nursed her now broken hand. Scarecrow, undeterred by her own wound, stood proudly as she felt her synthetic blood stained the stab wound in her torso. She grabbed the knife and yanked it out of her, her face flinching from the pain of it despite her attempts to try and ignore the immense pain. "A lucky hit," Scarecrow gloated, "but your resistance is futile against me."
Scarecrow walked towards the half-doll, who simultaneously tried to back away from her. The half-doll was showing the fear inherent in most humans in the presence of an emotionless killing machine, a fact that Scarecrow was more than willing to take advantage of. She forced the half-doll to the edge of the rooftop, forcing her to decide whether it was better to plummet or face Scarecrow in combat. To her credit, the injured half-doll decided to face her death with bravery and haphazardly charged Scarecrow. She was met with the knife that she had used to Scarecrow, with it driving into her stomach this time instead. Her skinny human torso, almost starved, provided no resistance to the blade as it drove into her. Scarecrow even registered the sound of blade scraping bone as its upward facing point scraped against her ribs. The half-doll stood for a moment, her human brain unable to register the attack for a moment. A myriad of emotions swirled within her eyes, a mixture of pain and fear as she realized just what was going to happen. "This was the only outcome for an abomination such as you." Scarecrow whispered as the half-doll collapsed onto the ground.
It was curious that the half-doll had tried to fight her the way that she did, perhaps they expected less from her? The fight began in a similar manner to her fight with Kar98k some time ago, and she had been going easy on the Doll Commander. It was entirely possible that the records from that fight were used to prepare for her attempted assassination. This fact disappointed Scarecrow, knowing that Griffin's data about her was so unflattering. Investigation of the half-doll simply exposed just how thin and modified her human portion was, a further sign of her weakness before a true mechanical being. Based on information gathered about her and ilk, her black robes denoted her lower standing in the White Faction. Therefore, she was merely an advanced foot soldier to the white robes reapers that no doubt hid across the battlefield. While Scarecrow was more than prepared to face them, it was entirely possible that their real goal was the capture of the Doll Commander. Seeing this as a possibility, Scarecrow knew she couldn't let this happen if she was to completely stamp out her enemy.
