Chapter 25 - Following the Trail
Ursula looked at the mission map once more. Normally she'd be happy to see SF corpses littering a battlefield. But the way they had been destroyed warented some extra attention. Torn to ribbons, sometimes beaten with their own limbs. Monsterous gashes. Bite marks. It made her throat and stomach tighten. SAR put a hand to her mouth. "Who….or what did this?"
"I have no idea…it's ridiculous." Ursula thought for a second. "No human or doll could have done that." SAR agreed.
"At least, not without taking casualties. I doubt even the military could do something like that." M4 and Helian connected to the Command Room. Ursula linked everyone together and shared the information. M4 was quiet for a moment.
"Commander Ursula," she said while pointing to a spot on the map, "Can you zoom in on that Vespid unit?" Ursula did. The image was blurry and pixilated, but M4 nodded slowly. "I think that Vespid is missing an eye." There was a beep and Bryant connected to from the hospital.
"Definitely missing an eye. Good catch, M4." He muttered. He took a slow breath. "USP is operating in the area right now, per Commander Ursula. I'll have her check the bodies again." Ursula shook her head.
"Okay….and how is this important?" She asked, more than a little frustrated.
"M4 SOPMOD II likes to take trophies from SF she kills. Especially the eyes." M4 said with a disgusted shudder. "I wish she wouldn't, but I can't be helped, I guess it's just how she is."
"Are you saying one doll did all this?" Helian looked at Ursula.
"The AR team are top-of-the-line dolls. Each one is a rivals to an SF Ringleader. Together, they are nearly unstoppable." Helian shrugged. "Or, so Persica says." Bryant chuckled.
"I believe it," USP said. A static image of the doll popped up next to Bryant. "The damage is consistent with the AR teams declassified combat reports." There was some muffled gunfire in the background. "However, we found a stray Griffin IFF signature. It is moving away at high speeds. Permission to follow it, Commanders?"
Bryant and Ursula both turned their gaze to Helian. She nodded. "Granted. Let's hope the doll knows about M4 SOPMOD II."
"Alright then, Commanders. I'm off."
"Good luck, USP. Keep the others safe."
"Don't worry. It'll be fine." She said with a smile. She disconnected and called the rest of her team to her. "Okay then. Let's go find our missing doll."
They dispersed and began the search. USP couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. She inched closer to the signature, carefully avoiding disabled SF troops. There was a biological signature nearby, also following the Griffin team. USP stopped. The biological signature stopped. She turned towards it and paused. She slowly raised her gun.
"Commander...I think...there's-"
"USP...if they are armed, you have permission to kill them." Bryant said coldly.
"Bryant," Helian interrupted. "You don't have that authority. USP Compact; defend yourself if you must. Do not use excessive force."
USP nodded and took aim. "I am a Tactical Doll under the command of Griffin & Kryuger. Come out with your hands up!" She called out as she inched closer. The other dolls surrounded the hiding spot and waited. USP gave the signal to advance. As soon as she lifted her hand, several grenades landed at their feet. There was a flash of light and everything was quiet.
Some time later, USP went through her emergency restart. Several key systems were offline, either fried by the EMP or still rebooting. Bryant had increased their EMP hardening, and that decision paid off. She slowly adjusted to the area.
They had been dragged inside a ruined building. Half the roof had caved in, and the other half was rotted away. Several humans had SF and Griffin dolls rigged up to machines, their insides exposed. They were picking at parts, pulling out valuable ones and tossing them onto a pile. She heard muffled words, but couldn't quite understand.
They came to her and put something on her head. "This one's good." The one said, before kicking USP on the side of the head. Anti-Android scavengers, USP assumed. Or they acted like them at least. They put the device up against another Griffin doll. They picked her up and began to discect.
Gunshots echoed outside. All activity inside switched from scavenging to fighting. Everyone drew their guns and waited. A few seconds later, a hail of bullets tore through the rubble, shredding everything inside the building. USP lay as still as she could until the gunfire stopped.
Her vision still hadn't full adjusted, but she noticed a doll in gray and white enter. She looked around and spotted USP. Just as she went to make a move, there was a flash of movement. A black doll ran in and slammed something into the back of the white doll's head. More gunfire came from the other side.
The white doll turned to face her attackers, so USP jumped up and took her chance. She grabbed a dropcloth from off the ground and threw it over the white doll's head. The black doll came running in from the other side and slammed into the blinded doll, knocking her over and into a heap of parts.
"Whooo! Take that!" The black doll said while giving USP a high five. The pink doll lowered her gun and ran by.
"Let's go! She won't stay down for long." The three ran off, with the enemy close behind. The pink doll began speaking, but USP couldn't understand. She started lagging behind. Her legs gave out and she tumbled forward. The pursuing doll jumped over USP and kept running after the other two. By the time USP had finished her diagnostics, they were gone.
USP sat up and gently slapped her cheeks until her systems came back online. She could move, communicate, and see now. Her combat systems were mostly offline. Sensors were down, so she was running 'blind' at this point. There was a communication outpost nearby that she could use to contact the Commander. But was it safe?
USP continued on towards the outpost. The compass was online, so it made following her map a little easier. She found the outpost soon enough. It looked...unsafe. something felt off. But, she needed help. Or at least let Bryant know what happened. She entered and began fiddling with the equipment. She knew how to set it up... mostly. But she hadn't done it by hand since the production tests.
"Commander...this is USP...I'm stranded by outpost...uh…" she looked around, and didn't find any form of designation. The outpost was barely functional, so it made sense in a twisted way. "Can...can I get some back up?" She asked politely.
"USP, this is Ursula. Bryant deployed a search team an hour ago, then promptly passed out." Ursula sighed. "The team is north of your position, searching for the rest of the AR team."
"Oh! Good, I'll join them and help. I'll see you then, Commander Ursula." USP ended the call and put her hands on the console. "Uuu...this is impossible...how much north? How many dolls?" She didn't even have a weapon. There were a lot of discarded griffin weapons nearby, however. USP felt sick at the thought of grave-robbing. But it was better than dying.
She went outside to scavenge. Most of the handguns were not compatible with her etching, but at this point it was irrelevant. With her combat systems offline, she'd be mostly dead weight. At least she could manually aim. She finally found a weapon that suited her. She smiled happily and collected the leftover ammo. She was so caught up in her preparations that she didn't hear the heavy footsteps behind her.