As the night went along, Kar98k's respect for maid dolls continued to grow. She had only been posing as a hapless maid in a large city high rise building for a few hours, but already she wanted to burn the place to the ground. Her first and foremost complaints started with the absolutely ridiculous outfit they asked her to wear, making her feel more like a lady of the night than a member of a professional cleaning staff. She was no stranger to a skirt, but the fabric was too loose and frilly for her personal liking. If anything, it attracted too much attention to herself as people ogled her and her outfit. Worst of all, the maid that she borrowed the uniform from had kindly informed her that if she didn't want to blow her cover she would just have to deal with the flirting. Dolls that tried to stand up for themselves quickly found themselves reminded of their place in society, despite their proven capabilities. All that Kar98k could do was push around her cleaning cart and hope she had the self control to not break her cover.
Agent Peter, as he had called himself, was supposed to give some sort of a signal to let her know when to break her cover and return to action. He had been working with the Brigade ever since FG42 tried to turn Kar98k over to Paradeus, and he has spearheaded this operation to overthrow the branch that supplied their local forces. In truth, it pleased Kar98k to know that she was finally able to strike back at faction for once, and to get the opportunity to bloody their nose back instead of constantly stand on the back foot. He had converted one of their VIP rooms into an impromptu office, allowing him to work on his State Sec paperwork away from the myriad of distractions provided by the girls. While he seemed to keep a professional distance from the girls, he was at least polite enough to be concerned about their well being. While not as involved as Fredrick, he had sat down with Kar98k to get an assessment of their relative strengths and weaknesses and how best to use them. While the current operation was oddly outside of their typical wheelhouse, it was the best that he could make of it.
What concerned Kar98k the most was Peter's interest in Angel. Capturing one of them was almost unheard off, the mixture of human brain and computer making it impossible to shut down one without killing the other. Those that had been captured would often be "liberated" by Paradeus, usually through a covert assassination mission that left State Sec with less than what they started with. Angel was a pariah, having voluntarily changed sides with no repercussions. While compartmentalization in their command structure limited her knowledge to whatever had been known about the Brigade itself, she was at least able to share some insights that have helped understand the mysterious organization. Even information as mundane as her own inner workings were invaluable to understanding how best to combat the Nytos. Fredrick, however, had posed the important question of what else that information could be used for. The Soviets did not have a solid track record for benevolence when it came to science. With the recent revelations pertaining to FG42 and Paradeus, they had no reason to give the State Sec agent their full trust.
This current mission required Kar98k to put a decent amount of trust in Peter and his skills with planning. He had selected each team member to perform a specific duty, ideally setting off a planned chain of events to bust a Paradeus cell. If the girls did their jobs right, then Kar98k wouldn't be walking into the lion's den to die. So long as Paradeus didn't pull any tricks, then everything should go smoothly and without issue.
Pushing her cleaning cart along the hallways of the high rise hotel, Kar98k nervously checked her internal clock. They had already figured out which room Paradeus was most likely using as their operations center, the entire cell operating across multiple rooms on that floor. What worried her was wether or not a Nyto was commanding the operation. Using information that had been gathered from one of the other teams, Peter had guessed that there were at three of them in control of the entire operation. They had yet to be spotted entering or leaving any of the supposed Paradeus rooms, and almost all of them refused entry by the cleaning staff. If she came knocking, there was no telling what she was going to find behind the door.
One floor down from where Paradeus was, Kar98k wasted her time organizing the cart. She was getting sick of doing the maid work and would rather just storm the command center now. She honestly wasn't sure if she could take it anymore, when someone walked up behind her. "Excuse me," they asked, "but are you new here?"
The man was wearing a suit, but he had loosened his tie and ditched his sports jacket for the night, no doubt trying to relax. Playing her part, Kar98k bowed in apology. "Yes sir," she tried to not grind her teeth in anger, "I'm still learning."
"Well you never replaced the sheets in my room, and I'd rather not reuse these ones after last night." He looked down on her, upset for some reason or another. If he was just another rich business type looking to flaunt his wealth or status again, she was going to snap.
Holding back a snappy comment, she smiled at him and bowed again in apology. "Please forgive me, sir," she tried to not gag on her own words, "I shall correct this mistake right away."
She had recognized this man, and knew his room was fine. Just in case he tried to give her trouble, Kar98k made a mental note of her safety precautions. Firstly, Peter had given her a badge that should allow her to flex the State Sec authority around. Most people knew to back off when an agent was on business, especially since State Sec has a habit of shooting before asking questions. This reminded her of her second safety net, her rifle hidden in the hotel maid cleaning cart. Despite being over a hundred years old, that didn't stop humans from being intimidated by a gun waved in their face. While most everyone in the building currently thought she was just another useless doll, once the shooting with Paradeus started they would see her differently.
Feeling his eyes burning a hole through her back as he followed her back to his room, something that made her feel incredibly uncomfortable, Kar98k made sure that she could easily access her rifle before things became too unhinged. The man refuse to look her in the eyes whenever they spoke, focusing on just about every sexually oriented part of her body instead. She would rather be scrapped than serve as his personal plaything, but for now she could only grit her teeth and prepare for self defense. Thanks to the upgrades Fredrick made to her a while back, she was almost certain she could defend herself from him if he got too touchy.
As part of the cover job she had been given a keycard that could unlock all the doors in the hotel electronically, a dangerous tool if a doll was every compromised. Fortunately for the hotel security staff, Kar98k had no interest in petty thievery from anyone that wasn't her enemy. Unlocking the door, she hesitated to give herself more time to think about what she was doing. As disgusted by this event as she was, she knew she could bring an end to it any time. At this point, she had to wait until they were alone in his room so as to minimize chances of him blowing her cover. Regrettably, she had to put up with him for just a few moments longer. While the man standing behind her grew ever more discomforting, she was almost relieved to receive and electronic message from Peter. Someone was here to meet directly with the Nytos leading the Paradeus op, and she had to use her cover to get into that room.
Firstly, she needed to deal with the hand on her ass. Kar98k didn't need to jab her elbow into the man behind her, but damn did it feel good to give it to him anyway. Her hope was to maybe make him think twice about the next he tried to take advantage of someone, but as she turned around to chastise him, he threw himself at her. He went to grab her wrists, but found that she was not a meek and helpless civilian model doll. As her tried to push her into the room, she used the still locked door as leverage to push back into him. This allowed her to pin him across the hall, trapping him against the wall. This fight was effortless for her, a small warm up before she went to fight a real enemy. This man was not a soldier, or a spy; he was a scumbag civilian that tried to use her as an object. As punishment for slowing her down, she finished the fight by delivering her knee directly into the man's groin. He dropped, clutching himself in pain as she barely exerted herself. Kar98k reached into the breast of the maid outfit, pulling out a State Sec badge that Peter had given to her. "You just interfered with an investigation," she stood over him as she spoke, "next time consider asking."
Kar98k left him on the floor to soak in his disbelief, happily pushing her cleaning cart to the elevator. Checking the message that Peter sent her, the person they were waiting for had arrived and would soon be coming up to meet with the command of Paradeus. Time would be limited as Peter worked to stall him in the hotel lobby, but she wouldn't be alone once she was inside. Kar98k was mildly concerned about the next step of the plan, but she knew that if push came to shove then she could handle herself. Riding the high of beating up a slimeball, she had a smile on her face as she rode the elevator up a couple floors. The real work was about to begin.
As the elevator doors open, she expected to be met with an oppressive atmosphere or a hail of gunfire. Instead, they dinged and opened as usual, opening up into a similar looking hallway with similar looking doors. Behind any of these doors contained agents for Paradeus, each one working their own nefarious schemes and criminal acts. Kar98k was alone as she stepped out into the hallway, skeptical as to wether or not she would be able to efficiently defend herself with just a rifle alone. There was no guarantees what horrors lay in wait, each Nyto being its own monstrosity. Angel was unable to share any information about them, FG42 was the one in charge of the operation and was therefore in touch with other groups.
At that thought a pang of regret for the lost doll rang through Kar98k, remembering the photograph of her body resting in a ruined city still burned into her mind. There was no justice in her death, and no respect either. Paradeus had abandoned her once she outlived her own usefulness to them, leaving the future of the brigade itself up in the air. Kar98k had seen corpses and dead dolls before, but there was something surreal about that kind of death for a doll. One could always be reawakened from a backup, or at the very least restored from some sort of factory standard. However, when a doll is a arrested all traces of their neural cloud are seized to prevent some form of escape. Her neural cloud was lost, and her body dumped like yesterday's garbage; it was a finality that dolls just lacked the capacity to understand. It was equivalent to a religious human having the concept of an afterlife shattered, the cold reality of life closing its tendrils around the brain and heart. Having a personal connection with the doll only made things worse, no matter how tentative it was. FG42 would live on in the memories of the Brigade, but even memory could be deleted. Angel was right when she said that the doll was damned to be forgotten.
Reminisce aside, Kar98k tried to focus as she counted the numbers on the hotel doors. She had her own issues to be concerned about right now, otherwise she'd be the next corpse for State Sec to sift through. She slowly pushed the cleaning cart down the hall, tense and on edge as she approached the door that supposedly was where the Nytos made their command center. Hanging on the door knob was a sign asking to not be disturbed, usually meant to inform cleaning staff that the occupants were in the middle of something sensitive and important. Kar98k quickly took the sign off and threw it down the hall, knocking on the door to summon the beast. There was a pause, no doubt as the Nytos debated answering for her. Perhaps they even peered through the small hole in the door, making sure she wasn't a team of State Sec agents. The sound of the door lock being disengaged was followed by the door's latch clicking open. Slowly the door opened, and Kar98k found herself face to face with one of them.
The girl was the spitting image of Angel, but with a focus on the color black instead of white. She also lacked many of the mechanical additions, a sign that she was perhaps more human than most others. Her expression lacked any sign of emotion, even her eyes were as empty and dead as a corpse. Behind her, Kar98k could see one more girl like her, and another was facing towards the large picture window. All three were wearing black robes that didn't leave much to the imagination, another major difference between them and Angel. Her outfit, and that of the other combat types, was much more open and revealing than the kind that these Nytos wore. "May I assist you?" Even her voice was cold and distant, devoid of any kind of emotion.
Kar98k tried her best to put on an accent just in case. "I am here to do the clean." She tried to her best to fake a smile.
"We asked to not be disturbed." The Nyto glared a hole through her.
"There was no sign." Kar98k insisted, hooping they didn't notice that she had removed it.
The Nyto looked at the door, then back at her in stoic disbelief. Before she could speak, she was interrupted by the one facing the window. "Let her work, sister." Her voice was familiar; but as she turned around to speak, Kar98k realized that this Nyto looked exactly the same as Addy had.
Kar98k bowed and went to move the cleaning cart into the room. Unfortunately, the Nyto at the door stopped her, insisting that she leave it in the hall. Not wanting to make a scene or expose herself too early, she begrudgingly agreed. Hidden in the cart was her rifle, which was also her only lifeline if she ran into trouble. Sure, she had a knife hidden in her dress, but getting too close to a Nyto was akin to suicide. Combat training with Angel had proven just how effective one could be up close, and she was on the lower end of their combat rating. Some of the higher ranked Nytos were reported to have almost supernatural abilities, possessing equipment and abilities considered far outside the realm of possibility for any normal being. Now Kar98k was walking straight into a hotel room full of them, armed only with a knife and a spray bottle of bleach. She didn't even have enough time to mix in some ammonia to try and gas the Nytos.
The room itself was very large, clearly designed for a small family that was on a vacation. There was more than enough room to maneuver in the event of a fight, and mich of the furniture could easily be used as cover during a gun fight. The Nytos were ready to defend themself, and it wasn't too much to assume that they had a decent number of tricks on hand if things got too dicey for them. They were accommodating enough to Kar98k to leave the front door open, allowing her to at least enter and exit to access her cleaning cart in the hallway. Entering the bathroom, one of the Nytos stood and watched over her as she worked at cleaning, no doubt ensign that she did not remain unsupervised. Kar98k was beginning to suspect that her cover was more than just blown when someone else entered the hotel room. Unable to watch, she could on,y listen as the Addy doppelgänger greeted him. "Mister Kiril," she said, "to what do we owe you for this unexpected visit?"
"Cut the bullshit," Kiril sounded upset, like he was trying to contain an unbridled rage, "you know exactly why I'm here."
The sound of the front door being closed and locked was more than audible to Kar98k, even from the bathroom. She could only keep cleaning as they held their conversation, trying to listen as intent as she could. "I'm afraid you have me at a rare disadvantage." Not-Addy replied.
"You undercover fucks tried to kill me and my son!" Kiril shouted, a shake in his voice.
There was a noticeable pause. "That seems most peculiar," the Nyto remarked, "what would cause that sort of action?"
"State Sec has been crawling up my ass because of whatever you creeps have been paying me to deliver!" Kiril cleared his throat, a sign he had been raising his voice more than he was use to. "All it took was one of those government thugs to pull out a badge and then everyone started shooting."
There was another pause as all the Nytos exchanged glances. "Well, our agents would never fire unless they believe they had good reason to blow their cover," she explained, "otherwise the doll in our bathroom pretending to be a maid would never have made it this far."
Kar98k stopped working once she realized she was exposed. None of the Nytos moved to apprehend her, but she new her minutes were numbered. Clutching the spray bottle of bleach, she quickly came up with a plan as she waited for the Nyto standing vigil over her to finally move in. "Are you suggesting that I'm a rat?" Kiril sounded offended.
"All of your kind are filthy rats," the Not-Addy spoke, "carrying your filth and disease to corrupt the good and natural world. You are pests to be exterminated, both you and the government. You build your individual empires on the backs of the helpless and wage your wars, killing only the innocent. Our relationship was meant to be with the lesser of two evils, but if our sister had exposed herself then to us that means you're not as trustworthy as we had hoped."
"You don't get to act high and mighty," Kiril was furious, "you betrayed me at the first hint of trouble, and now you're going to do it again! You almost killed my son!"
"We are the instruments of your own destruction," the Nyto kept calm, "we respond based upon your actions. You are the one that tried to kill your son, not us."
Before Kiril could respond, something heavy slammed into the front door. Everyone turned to look, giving Kar98k an opportunity to better position herself to see what was happening. A massive white blade has pierced through the cheap wood of the door, it's curve pad blade being used to yank the wood and open the door the hard way. The Nyto standing guard by the door backed away, clearly afraid to stay so close. In the rest of the hallway, the sounds of other doors being broken down could be heard, State Sec finally running a raid on Paradeus. The blade pierced again, being used to yank out more of the door and weakling in it even more. Finally, the door exploded inward as someone threw themselves through it, splinters and wooden chunks flying through the air. Angel had finally arrived, having changed into the crimson red Griffin coat and beret Kar98k had given her. "Good evening, sisters." She greeted the other Nytos as she stood straight with her scythe.
"We we're informed that you were given over to State Sec," Not-Addy sounded surprised, "we had assumed it was for interrogation or dissection."
"Griffin was kind enough to accept me as one of their own." Angel kept both her hands on her scythe, ready to swing at a moment's notice.
"So you're the commander's cover?" Not-Addy asked. "Here I was hoping she had come to give herself over peacefully."
Kar98k quickly stood, drawing her knife from wishing the maid dress and spraying bleach into the eyes of the Nyto watching over her. The black haired girl stumbled back, clutching her face as the cleaning solvent burned at her vision. Apparently, she really was more human than Angel. Kar98k stepped foreword and threw her arms around the Nyto, putting knife to its throat and holding it hostage. "Someone had to gamble their life to even the battlefield." She made sure that the Nyto hostage was well secured just in case.
"So they used you as bait?" Not-Addy laughed. "I wondered why you of all the dolls were sent to meet us. Your neural cloud is one that we're most familiar with after all."
"You confidence will be your undoing." Angel answered, taking a step forward.
"As it will be yours." Three needle thin blades dropped from Not-Addy's sleeve and into her hand, catching them between her fingers. Taking a step back she tossed all three of them across the room in a single sweeping motion. The first implanted itself straight into Angel's wrist, forcing her to use her heavy scythe with one hand. The second was aimed at Kiril, and pierced through his neck and implanted itself in piece of furniture behind him. He fell to the ground, clutching his bleeding wound. The final blade implanted itself into Kar98k's arm, which was wrapped over the chest of the Nyto she was holding hostage. She found herself painfully pinned to the Nyto now, allowing her to use the slowly dying girl as a shield as she advanced forward.
Angel, only using one hand, swung her scythe at the remaining Nyto to no avail. With her awkward hand situations she could only force the other half-doll to back away, her damaged wrist keeping her from swinging her blade in an effect manner. Luckily, StG44 was also part of Angel's part of the team; and had joined the combat situation. Firing a three round burst, she down the first Nyto and aimed at the Not-Addy. Another three needle blades were hurtled across the room. The first was aiming for Kar98k, but hit the Nyto she was holding as a shield instead. It implanted in the girl's face, killing her instantly. The second blade missed entirely, a sign that she wasn't able to get as accurate of a swing. The final one implanted into StG44's shoulder, causing her to miss as she fired another three round burst at Not-Addy. Two of the shits impacted the massive picture window, causing it to form a massive spider web of cracks. The third bullet do hit the Nyto in the chest, causing her to stagger back.
Despite everyone's injuries, they advanced on Not-Addy, causing her to stumbled even closer to the window. She could throw more blade, but she knew that she couldn't hit all of them in a tense situation like this, especially while she was wounded. All she could do was prevent her own capture. Glaring at Angel she growled "Father will come back for you."
"I await for that moment." Angel stood tall and proud, her mechanical wrist hanging limo at her side.
"We'll be waiting for him." Kar98k added, giving Angel a glance to let her know she wasn't standing alone.
Not-Addy looked disgusted at the notion that she could be put into such a compromised position by individuals that she had assumed were beneath her. Despite their injuries, the her Griffin foes advanced upon her. Tempted to throw more blades, she decided there was only one more thing left for her to do. Bleeding from the bullet wound in her chest, and her pride broken to pieces, she threw herself through the glass window.
Peter stood over the remains of the Nyto, smoking a cigarette as other State Sec agents and police officers carried out the few Paradeus goons that were smart enough to surrender. They had thrown a sheet over her broken body, but it didn't hide the cracked pavement from where she hit the ground. The hotel would need to get that fixed, but at least it would be on the Soviet Union's dime. While they failed to capture any of the Nyto's, they were at least able to retrieve a massive amount of data that wasn't able to be deleted. With only a few minor injuries on the Brigade's part, the mission was a resounding success.
He took a puff from his cigarette as the paramedics wheeled out Kiril, who was barely conscious from his wounds. Peter trotted over, wanting to have a word with the man before they took him away. "I'd like to thank you for your roll in this."
"As your bait?" Kiril hissed at him, struggling to speak with all the bandages on his neck.
"We were able to retrieve a lot of their weapons and armor they were having you ship," Peter explained, "you probably saved a lot of lives by helping us."
"Let's hope my son sees it that way." The doctors hefted him into the ambulance, burning him to a nearby hospital.
He had a point, they could have lost him. A person like him would prove to be invaluable while dealing with groups like Paradeus, but they had to tread carefully. Cooperation of any kind would be a death sentence for him, so it would be best to keep him at a distance for his own personal safety. Besides, Peter understood what it was like to work a dangerous job and worry about your family's safety. He was at least smart enough to use a fake name to protect his.
The commander sat over by one of the squad cars, having retrieved her own coat from who knows where to cover up the maid outfit she had spent the operation wearing. Apparently, she was tired of being teased by StG44 for the ridiculous outfit. Peter didn't understand these dolls, having seen other G&K dolls running around in much worse than that. Still, they were able to hold their own against Paradeus while most human agents still struggled. Peter doubted wether or not he would have been able to hold his own once those needles started flying. Rather than ask himself useless hypothetical questions, he instead considered himself lucky that everything went off as well as it did. What interested him, however, was what that one Nyto had said about 'Father' coming for them. It was always a thought in the back of Peter's mind every time he reported about Angel and her status as to how long she would remain a factor. Could she continue to be trusted, or would her sisters finally come to take her home?
