"Sorry for the delay." Zeldri finally reached the command room. Annika was shifting around uncomfortably as the image of a man in his late thirties was displayed on the main monitor.

"It's alright, Commander. My call was unannounced, so a little delay is understandable." Despite his stoic expression, Ivan spoke in a calm, almost friendly voice. Zeldri immediately understood Annika's anxiety as having an unknown FSB agent being friendly towards you was a sign of trouble.

"Well, now that I'm here, what can I do for the FSB, agent Ivan?"

"The bureau would like to contract the services of Griffin & Kryuger, along with you specifically, for a special retrieval mission we're planning."

"Retrieval mission?" Zeldri stood next to Annika in front of the holographic display table that currently showed a map of the Mountain. "Do you need extra guards, or...?"

"No, this mission will be entirely handled by you and a team of dolls you'll be taking with you." Upon seeing Zeldri cock an eyebrow he continued, "The bureau is currently unable to do a proper retrieval as most of our teams have their hands tied in some form or another. So, we'd like you to be the ones to do it."

"...Very well." Zeldri's hand tightened its grip on his forearm crutch. He already didn't like this. There was no way the FSB was unable to do this kind of mission themselves. "What are the details?" Where's the string attached?

"Your objective is as follows..." Ivan tapped at something off-screen, and the holo-display table in front of Zeldri pinged as it received files. Opening the file caused the display to shift as it went from showing a map of the Mountain to what appeared to be a massive facility. Zeldri felt a lump form in his throat as he stared at the complex. It only took a second of him viewing the display to realize what it was as there was a massive logo inscribed onto the main building. "You are to send a team to infiltrate the old Sangvis Ferri HQ and retrieve an asset the FSB wants back. The site was abandoned after the Butterfly Incident, including by Sangvis themselves, so we don't expect you to run into any resistance. But, the site is very out of the way which is why we've waited this long to finally send someone to retrieve the asset." Ivan's face was unreadable, but his eyes were analyzing Zeldri's every move. "You'll likely only need a small group of your dolls for this, just in case."

"..." Zeldri kept himself in check and made sure not to show any outward disapproval. "Will transport be provided? We're also very out of the way from that place since we're in the Urals."

"The bureau cannot spare anything for this mission, Commander. You'll have to find your own way to the old Sangvis HQ." Ivan started to idly scratch his chin as he faked being deep in thought. "Flying would take too long, and there aren't many well-kept roads, anymore. I think your best bet would be to travel with your dolls by train. Despite the times, the Neo-Soviet Union has kept her rail lines in top shape." He stopped rubbing his chin and gave a warm smile to Zeldri. "I'm sure you can find a line willing to take you and your dolls to where you need to go."

"..." The meaning behind Ivan's words was obvious and proved Zeldri's suspicions. The FSB was keeping tabs on everything he was doing. Though, this was also a good thing as it confirmed how they were doing it. Ever since its discovery, Zeldri made sure that any mention of the train on sub-level four was kept to only word of mouth. There was not a single mention of it anywhere in his reports, or communications going outside of the Mountain; except for one. MDR had posted about the train on the Griffin forums three days ago. Originally, Zeldri was going to have the post removed when he saw it while in the city but decided to let it stay up as a test. It was the only indication that they had opened sub-level four, and just three days later he had the FSB calling him with the implication of using it. They obviously knew of the MDR line's reputation and were probably tracking her posts on the forums and filtering for his MDR specifically. "Let's hope we find a line willing to lend a hand, then." Zeldri played along with Ivan's implications while not admitting anything openly. "Does one of the files you sent have a description of the asset we'll be looking for?"

"Yes, you'll have a description as well as the last coordinates we have of its location within the facility. However, due to the Butterfly Incident, we don't know if the asset was moved, or stolen by scavs."

"I'll have my team go to its last known location and start searching."

"Very good." Ivan gave an approving nod before continuing, "We look forward to our asset's safe return, Commander. I'll be in touch." The main monitor became dark before switching back to displaying an overview of Zeldri's echelons.

"..." Annika was still fidgeting nervously.

"...And, I just got back, too." Zeldri gave an annoyed sigh and turned towards the exit. "Looks like you'll need to hold down the fort for a while longer, Annika."

"...Yes, I guess so." Annika loosened up a bit seeing Zeldri so relaxed. "Who will you be bringing with you for this mission?"

"Well," Zeldri said as he opened the sliding door to the command room, "No time like the present to see how well they work together." Annika gave a respectful bow as Zeldri left and went to find A-545 and her team for their first mission.


"You know, this whole train's probably been bugged," Horris was leaning back in a chair as he faced Zeldri. They were currently in the passenger car of the Mountain's train. Though, calling it just a 'passenger' car would be an understatement as it was more of a FOB (Forward Operating Base) stuffed into a train car. There were a few small rooms for the crew to sleep in, but most of the car was dedicated to a large room with computer terminals that lined the walls. In the center was a large table that had a holographic display top similar to the one in the Mountain's command room, but a bit smaller to fit in the car. Wires ran along the ceiling and were tied together so they wouldn't hang and swing as the train moved. Zeldri was seated across the table from Horris as he couldn't stand very well with all the bumps and small tremors of the train.

"The equipment's probably bugged for transmissions," Zeldri idly replied as he went over the documents Ivan had sent him one more time. "Speaking of, did you find anything while getting this thing running?"

"I didn't really look for bugs," Horris admitted with a shrug. "Be lucky all the engine needed was a good deep clean and some fresh diesel. Train parts are, for some reason, really hard to come by."

"Military trains use different parts than commercial ones for security reasons." Zeldri had ridden a train like this before during his service years.

"Doesn't that ruin the whole point of easy-to-repair, interchangeable parts theory?"

"Which is why there are so few. Even the KCCO only has a couple and we had some pretty beefy units at our disposal." He chuckled as he reminisced out loud. "Kinda wish they left me an Argo."

"I don't think even your father would be allowed to misplace an Argo." Horris waved his hand dismissively at the air. M7 approached the table and set down a cup of coffee in front of each of them. "Thank you, M7." Horris took a long sip of coffee before continuing, "So, I know it's a bit late to ask, but why am I coming with you on this?"

"It's been almost two days and you're only asking that now?" After receiving the mission from Ivan, Zeldri gathered A-545's team, Horris and M7, along with SVD's team and set out for Romania. Zeldri rolled his eyes as Horris gave an innocent shrug. "Because, lest you forget, you overstepped your promise of just repairing the train."

"What do you mean?" Horris sounded insulted by Zeldri's accusation.

"I asked you to repair the train, not somehow link SVD's echelon to it!" Horris, as Zeldri was reminded, was a man that enjoyed tinkering with things. So, when SVD's echelon was hounding him about when the train would be ready and if they could ride it he came to the logical conclusion to link them all to the train as a partial imprint to make them happy. Imprinting a-dolls onto vehicles wasn't anything new as many luxury car manufacturers would often sell package deals for people to get a new car along with their own chauffeur. The a-doll would be linked to the car providing them all the knowledge of the vehicle as well as its current running condition. It was the civilian version of Persica's Imprinting technology, at least according to Horris.

"It's not like it harms them!" Horris countered. "They still have all their usual t-doll benefits. It's just now they can effortlessly drive a train. This is something that could only work because they're an echelon since something as large and complex as this train requires multiple dolls to operate."

"...Ugh." Zeldri sighed as he took a long sip of coffee. It had a pleasant warmth to it.

"Besides, having them drive and run the train means you get to keep this even further under wraps, right?" Horris set down his cup and his eyes wandered to Zeldri. His tone was friendly, but there was a sinister edge that laced his words. "You can use this train for your little spec ops team while having drivers you can trust."

"..." Horris had a point. Human staff could easily be bribed, but his t-dolls? They were already predisposed to be loyal to him, and he'd been working on his image with the dolls since he started. It was getting to the point he was starting to trust his t-dolls over his human staff. "Stop making me think weird thoughts."

"Is it weird when it's the objective truth?" Horris finished his cup and M7 came over with a pot and refilled it. "Despite what most people say; I'd trust M7 with my life over a human any day." A warm smile crossed M7's face at the sign of trust. "While dolls can be hacked, yes, it's a lot easier to get a human to betray you than a doll. Humans don't have firewalls."

"Our morality and ethics are our firewalls."

"Oh yeah?" Horris scoffed as he gestured to the holographic display in front of them. "Why don't you ask the staff of Sangvis Ferri how well that worked out for them?" A-545 and her echelon were waiting in a stand-by state so the only ones awake in the car were Zeldri, Horris, and M7 which made Horris' lips a little looser than usual. "The Butterfly Incident was such a massive cluster-fuck of greed and overlapping plans to counter other overlapping plans. Military, Bureau, and Griffin all coming together, and for what? Just so someone could fuck it all up for their own gains."

"...I never liked those conspiracy theories, Horris." Zeldri's tone shifted and he glared at Horris. Official reports say the Butterfly Incident was a failed operation to arrest a man named Lycoris. Everything went south, however, when the Sangvis Ferri Mastermind awakened and began the AI rebellion after Lycoris activated it as a last spite against his pursuers. Zeldri wasn't inclined to disbelieve those reports, but the internet started thinking up a storm of conspiracy theories that could take days, or even weeks to sift through.

"It doesn't matter if you like it or not," Horris leaned forwards and put his arms on the table. His voice became a low, gruff whisper despite them being alone. "You were just tasked with digging through the rubble of the biggest conspiracy to hit the internet in a good while by one of the major players of that day. Make sure you're ready for whatever your dolls find in there, Командир (Commander). And, make no mistake, you will find something; especially considering this asset the FSB wants." Horris' eyes wandered down to the table and the document he'd opened detailing what they were after. "There's no way this is as insignificant as first glances would seem."

"...Your concern is noted." Zeldri leaned back in his chair as he, too, looked over the file of their target. "And, that's exactly why you're here."

"You want me to take a crack at it before handing it over to the FSB?" Horris' fingers lightly tapped against the displayed file as he mulled over his thoughts.

"Nothing obvious, just a copy of any data that might be left," Zeldri said as he took out his commander's tablet and started tapping at it.

"And, here I thought you loved and trusted your country?" There was a hint of mockery in Horris' tone as he chuckled to himself.

"I do, but I'm not blind enough to get yanked all the way to Romania without wanting to know why." Zeldri gave one final tap to his tablet and A-545's team came online.

"Mmmmmmm! That was a nice nap." MDR gave a big stretch as she came back online. "Though, I would have loved to have seen the whole journey for our training trip. Hehehe." Zeldri had MDR post that he and A-545's team would be doing some field exercises in joint with the FSB in the northern Urals for a while which would be their cover for his absence. That was the story Ivan wanted them to spread. "This actually feels really cool being a secret agent!"

"That only goes so far as we can keep it, MDR." A-545 gave a reminder to her teammate which got an approving nod from Mondragon. "No posting until we get back."

"Geez, you learning from Mondragon's gotta be the worst way for you to grow," MDR bemoaned and rolled her eyes.

"Is that so?" Mondragon countered as she couldn't let someone like MDR trample on her pride, "If you carried yourself to a higher standard, the Commander might have picked you to be our leader's mentor."

"Hoo~?" A devilish grin overtook MDR's face as she returned Mondragon's glare. "Wanna make a bet on that?"

"..." AR-57 silently stood next to A-545 as she watched her teammates squabble. It was quite lively which made for some nice background noise as she went over the kits she'd prepared for everyone.

"Enough." While Zeldri didn't mind a lively team, he needed them to focus right now. "We're almost at the AO. AR-57, get everyone set up for insertion."

"Roger." Since this mission was on such short notice, Mondragon, MDR, and AR-57 were only at two dummy links each. MDR had more dummy links, but they were 'lost' in the vents somewhere and Zeldri didn't want to wait for them to be found. A-545 was still too new which meant she had no dummy links, yet. "Since our deployment costs are of no concern," AR-57 said with a hint of glee in her voice, "I packed only the best." She set down a large backpack she'd been given and started doling out equipment to her teammates. "For A-545, I brought some AC4 suppressors for both her rifles, some APCR high-velocity ammo, and IOP's T4 exoskeleton."

"T4?" Zeldri was looking over the kit on his tablet as AR-57 was going through it. "Why not the X4?"

"While there is a slight lethality drop due to the T4's hydraulics," AR-57 explained with great enthusiasm, "It's because of those hydraulics that I picked them for our leader. I caught a little of how she fought in the solo course Mondragon had her do and I believe maximizing her movement capabilities should take priority. She can more than makeup for the small lethality drop with her dual-wielding capabilities."

"Hmm," A-545 hummed to herself as she clamped the exoskeleton around her legs and plugged the cables into slots on her waist to connect it to her system. She instantly felt lighter when it booted up and did some test squats to get used to it. "I approve."

"I'm glad." AR-57 dug through her backpack again. "For Mondragon, I brought a VFL 6-24x56 scope, some M1022 sniper rounds, and your old camouflage uniform. Even if we'll be inside a facility," she could already feel a question from Zeldri so AR-57 answered the unspoken question, "The scope increases recognition of and decreases time-to-target vital points. She can always use her integrated HUD (Heads Up Display) reticle for closer targets."

"...Right." Zeldri momentarily forgot that t-dolls had built-in HUDs that allowed them to hip-fire their weapons with minimal accuracy loss.

"Me next! Me next!" MDR was getting excited at the high-grade accessories everyone was getting and was squirming with excitement for her turn.

"For MDR, I found the BPR4 & SRM6 suppressor kit in our armory."

"Yes!" MDR instantly started installing the kit to her gun. "I saw this puppy on the forums and had to get my hands on it, one day!"

"You'll also have APCR high-velocity rounds, but these are 7.62mm while A-545's are 5.45mm; so don't get them confused or try and share ammo!"

"I got it, I got it," MDR waved her hand dismissively as she finished installing the suppressor kit.

"Lastly, you'll have an X4 exoskeleton since you can't compensate for the lethality hit like our leader can."

"Fair enough, so long as you protect me."

"With my gear, I should be able to. I have an AC4 suppressor, some ILM hollow-point rounds, and a T4 exoskeleton. I'll do my best to draw any fire while you all pick them off. I also have flashlights we can attach to our weapons since there's probably no power in there."

"...I still don't get that stupid restriction," Zeldri complained to himself as he tapped at his tablet. "How does equipping a PEQ contradict a suppressor?" AR-57 could only give a shrug as she didn't know how to answer.

"Kinda wish we could have the PEQs," MDR mused, "Better for hitting targets in the dark."

"Assuming we encounter any hostiles, right Commander?" Mondragon clarified as she finished putting on her cloak.

"Right," Zeldri nodded as he brought everyone's attention to the holographic display of the complex, "Hopefully this will be a simple retrieval op where you either get the asset, or we report it as missing and return to the Mountain. The tracks go into a rail yard that connects to the factory, so we'll be inserting you there. A-545, your team will scour the factory for the target while SVD's team remains with the train. While I'd love for this to go smoothly, this is an FSB sponsored operation, so proceed with caution." His eyes wandered down to the file that overviewed the operation. "Let's find our butterfly."