Chapter 19 – Encounter

"Uuuuu…" Ringleader Destroyer watched as the Griffon dolls wrecked her cannon. She nervously played with her hair. "Dreamer and Architect are gonna be furious."

"Oh, most definitely." Alchemist entered the room, covered in blood. "One compound has been cleared. If you weren't such an idiot, that big, shiny target would be rubble by now."

"How am I the idiot?! Architect told me cannons had to be in a row!" Alchemist chuckled and began activating a clean dummy.

"You're an idiot for listening to an idiot."

"I just think their Commander is way strong." Destroyer punched the console and sobbed. "What are we gonna do~?"

Alchemist's dummy stepped down. It turned off the bloody dummy and smiled. "You should leave before the commander captures you." She grabbed a new set of weapons and turned to leave.

"H-hey! Don't leave me! Where are you going?!"

"Who? Me?" Alchemist sighed with bloodlust. "I was never here." And she vanished.

USP and M1911 stumbled past the cannon and into a clearing. PPk was already waiting for them, looking much much worse off then them. Half of her left arm was missing, and one of her legs had buckled in on itself. USP slumped down against a tree and called to Bryant. "C-commander… one down...but, I don't know i-if w-we can handle another one…"

"Don't worry, I've got a plan for that. You did very well, so you can take a breather…" his voice trailed off as he tapped away on a console. "There is - was - an evacuation heliport nearby. If you can get there, I can send the resupply truck here on base." He sent over the coordinates before signing off. USP willed herself to her feet. M1911 and USP grabbed PPk and helped her along towards the mark on their map.

The dolls made it to the heliport shortly before sunset. The sky was still a pale blue as tinges of red and purple dotted the horizon. Perfect for one last shoot-out. They radioed Bryant, who sent the resupply truck to their location. The rest of the team opened their last pack of rations and waited. The noises of battle began picking up again, with an increased amount of SF fire. Probably reinforcements. That did not bode well for the 'Ghosts of Eden'.

The truck slowly rumbled to the heliport. Bryant was helped out of the vehicle by a T-Doll, then he got to work on repairing the dolls. The new doll was a JS05 Sniper. Very powerful. JS05 handed out fresh clothes to the damaged dolls. P38 was gone. But with JS05, their firepower did not decrease as much. Spare dummy units hopped out of the back and synced with the main units still standing. A welcome relief. More bodies meant more bullets.

There was a brief lull. Something had changed. No gunfire. Power was cut from the island. The Jupiter cannons powered down. "Sangvis system shut down...I'm not seeing any activity from their ground troops." Bryant sighed.

"Thanks USP...let's pack up and-"

"Commander, broadcast on a public channel. It's for you." JS05 motioned to a pair of headphones for Bryant. He put one side to his ear.

"I'm impressed, Bryant. A shame it ended so soon." The voice said. Bryant remained silent. "When I first contacted you, I was worried you had changed. But now, I know I shouldn't have doubted. You're still just as annoying as before." USP looked in the distance. The human guerillas were rushing over the hill towards them. The G&K team would be in danger soon. "Still, you dont want a history lesson. So…"

The voice changed. It was clear; free from the warping and static. "Thank you for bringing all these lovely targets into one place." There was movement at the forest edge. A blur of white and black shredded through the line of approaching humans. Five of them dropped to the ground. The advance stopped. Everyone paused to watch as Alchemist wiped the fresh blood off her weapons.

"Dear God...it's a Ringleader."