"Team One, entering the compound," A-545 declared over her radio as her team crossed the rail yard and entered the factory through a blown open loading bay door. They hadn't blown it open, it was an old scar from the Butterfly Incident; one of many that stained the facility.
"I still think we should have a team name," MDR idly complained as she helped Mondragon and her dummy links up the steep step into the loading bay. "Team One is so boring."
"The Commander said he was still considering a name," A-545 replied as she flicked on her flashlight and scanned the room. "We also still need a fifth member for a full echelon, so we'll likely get our name when he finds our final member."
"But, that could take ages!" MDR, and the rest of the team, flicked on their own flashlights and followed after their leader.
"Complaints don't make things come any faster, MDR," Mondragon chastised.
"...It might," MDR quietly muttered as she lazily looked around the room they were in. "Man, this place got trashed." There were bodies littering the floor around them and the catwalks above; both dolls and humans. Bullet holes and plasma burns scared the walls and floors telling the story of a fierce battle that continued past the doors they were headed to and into the rest of the factory. Some forklifts that were nothing more than burnt-out husks sat with their cargo still on their lifts. Freight cranes mounted to ceiling tracks hung eerily above the factory's floor. No fires burned as they had long since been snuffed out. Only the dark, and silence were left. MDR took out her phone and started taking pictures.
"Is now the time for that?" A-545 questioned. She wasn't chastising MDR but sounded genuinely curious.
"Duh," MDR replied as she took some shots of one of the burned-out forklifts, "Gotta capture the memories of our first mission; even if it's a boring one."
"Hmm." A-545 didn't think of that. Many of the other dolls back at base had hobbies they enjoyed, but A-545 couldn't think of one she had. She decided to look for one when this was over. But, the mission came first. She approached and opened a door that led into a dark hallway. This one only had a few bodies in it, so a marginal improvement from the factory floor. "Let's move." A-545 motioned forwards and her team fell in with lights trained down the hall.
"It hasn't even been a minute and they've already found proof," Horris bitterly chuckled to himself as he and Zeldri watched the team through their optic cameras that were displayed on one of the monitors that lined the wall. When Zeldri didn't respond, Horris continued, "Don't act like you don't see it, too." He rewound the footage of MDR since she was the one looking closely at their surroundings. "These people weren't all killed by plasma."
"..." Zeldri continued to keep his silence as the footage played again. Some of the dead human staff had clear conventional bullet wounds. And, what was even stranger, so did most of the doll bodies. Sangvis Ferri was a company that pushed for plasma-based weapons and all their dolls were equipped with such. So, if no Sangvis doll had conventional bullets and these dolls were seemingly killed by conventional bullets then that only led to one conclusion.
"Sangvis didn't do this, they killed each other," Horris spoke Zeldri's thoughts. He heavily leaned on the table as he stared at Zeldri. "Didn't that official report say Sangvis were the ones who cleaned house?" While he was enjoying discovering the conspiracy, Horris left it at that since the look on Zeldri's face was enough to scare even him.
"...Drag me all the way here for this?" Zeldri bitterly muttered as he continued to watch his team's movements and scanned the photos MDR was taking. "Блядь (Fuck)."
"It's like a mini-vacation!" The cheerful voice of the black-cloaked woman came from over Zeldri's shoulder. He glanced over his shoulder to see her sitting on one of the computers watching the video feeds. "Sightseeing through history is a nice way to spend an evening." Her eyes glazed over for a second as she watched the screens. She reminded Zeldri of a woman looking over an old photo album, for some reason. She softly chuckled before quietly saying to herself, "Ah~, if only..."
"...?" Zeldri cocked an eyebrow at that but said nothing. If she wanted to act weird then that was fine so long as she didn't interrupt the mission. A sly smile crossed her face.
"...Say," Horris brought Zeldri's attention back to him, "What's their objective point, again?"
"What?"
"I got some interference just now on my display. The entry's blank now, so I want to make sure it didn't mess up anything else. What was their objective point?"
"...?" Zeldri looked down and saw that some of the text on his display was also messed up. "Wait, what just happened!?" He was still getting information on A-545's echelon, but some words appeared to be missing.
"Some interference," Horris repeated in an oddly spoken manner. It sounded like he had spoken a full sentence, and someone just took the words in the middle and played them back. "I want to make sure it didn't mess up anything else. What was their objective point?" His words repeated.
"...Um." Zeldri checked his tablet and, thankfully, all the information was still there. Doing a quick check revealed that A-545's team was headed to objective point Zulu Three. "They're headed to Z-"
"Commander." A-545's voice suddenly came over the speakers mounted on the table as she used her communicator to hail the FOB.
"Wait one, A-545, I have to-"
"Are you alright, Commander?" A-545's voice remained monotone despite her concerned words.
"...What?"
"You activated your comm-link but weren't saying anything. Are you alright?"
"He's probably tired from all the long hours." MDR's voice came over the speakers as she joined in the conversation. Yet, her voice also sounded monotone despite holding her normal inflections. "Are you getting enough sleep, Commander?"
"I-"
"Proper rest is important to your continued work ethic, Commander," Mondragon joined in. Her voice was similar to the others.
"...I'm getting-"
"If you don't we'll worry about you, Commander," AR-57 said in a monotone voice.
"Please be careful, Commander," A-545 reminded.
"I'll...try?" Zeldri wasn't quite sure where this was coming from. Did he leave his communicator on while talking to Horris? It didn't appear like he did? He...wait...what was he doing? Wasn't he talking to Horris about something? "Sorry," Zeldri said as he looked at Horris, "What were we talking about?"
"Hm?" Horris looked up from the displays he was watching. "I thought you didn't want to talk about conspiracy theories?"
"No, after that."
"After?" Horris tilted his head to the side in confusion. "I don't recall saying anything after."
"I-..." Zeldri went to speak but felt a tremor run through his chest that stopped him. He coughed a few times as it felt like something was in his throat. The back of his head hurt. "...Nevermind." Now that he thought about it, Zeldri couldn't remember, either, so it probably wasn't important. Horris gave a shrug and went back to watching the video feeds like nothing happened. And, things resumed.
"...Tch," the black-cloaked woman silently clicked her tongue in annoyance.
"Geez, how many bodies do you think we'll find?" MDR took more pictures of some dead humans and deactivated dolls. They were slowly making their way through the winding corridors of the facility as they found a stairwell that descended down into the depths of the old Sangvis HQ. Not even the emergency lights were on, so their only sources of illumination were their flashlights which cast eerie shadows as they passed over corpse after corpse that lined the battle-scarred hallways.
"Are you taking a picture of every little thing?" Mondragon complained.
"Documentation is important for secret agents!" MDR said with a hint of glee in her voice. "Besides, the Commander said to keep radio chatter to a minimum during the operation, so I'm making sure he gets all this for later." She took a picture of a sliding door that looked like it was torn open. A deactivated doll's body lay in the middle of the room beyond in the center of a circle of dead humans. "Though, some of this is even 2spooky4me."
"..." A-545 understood the need for a clear radio channel, but not speaking to Zeldri and being far away didn't sit well with her. The last time they'd spoken was when she declared they were entering the facility, and that was just her giving a short update. She shook those thoughts from her head and checked the tracker for the coordinates Ivan had given for their objective. "We're almost there. It looks like an assembly facility is up ahead where we should find our target."
"Time to see if the scavs beat us to it," MDR said as she put her phone away, for the moment.
"Nothing else was taken," AR-57 spoke her thoughts as the team approached a large metal sliding door that led into a massive room. "Not even the weapons of the dolls were taken. This place looks untouched since that day."
"Then, our first mission can be a success!" MDR beamed a wide smile.
"Seems that way," Mondragon admitted as she slightly relaxed.
"Kinda boring, though," MDR joked, "Part of me wished to fight something."
"What would we fight here?" A-545 asked.
"Hmm," MDR tapped her chin as she thought it over. "Well, since we're in a factory, what about a massive Sangvis robot! Like a massive Dinergate!?"
"...That could be cool," AR-57 admitted as she thought about a massive Dinergate crushing skyscrapers. "What kind of weapons would it have?" She was getting excited about the concept of such a large weapons platform. "Maybe massive rail guns?"
"And missiles!" MDR was giddy with excitement. "Lots of missiles! And a massive beam that shoots out of its eye like in anime!" She imagined it for a moment before giving a laugh. "But, I doubt even Sangvis would do something ridiculous like that."
"ACHOO!"
"...Did you just say the word 'achoo'?" Agent raised an eyebrow at Dreamer who was rubbing her nose.
"I feel like someone just bad-mouthed me...I'm gonna go find Destroyer."
"..." Agent could only internally sigh as she watched the psychopathic Ringleader leave the command room to find her favorite test subject.
"...Yeah." AR-57 gave it some more thought before brushing the idea aside. Once inside, everyone shined their lights around the room to try and get a scale of the place, but the beams of light from their flashlights didn't hit any wall or ceiling. From what they could see, metal crates and carts were scattered around the floor in makeshift barricades with deactivated dolls leaning against them. Some had bullet wounds, while others appeared to have no injuries at all yet still lay silent. Team One's footsteps echoed down the room as they continued their march.
"It should be..." A-545 walked past a stack of crates as she spoke to herself, but her words trailed off as she rounded the stack. "...Here." The t-dolls shined their flashlights into a clearing on the floor and illuminated the corpse of a doll lying on its back. The doll wore a black business-style dress with a green jacket over it. A radio was attached to a belt that came off the bandolier which was used as a hook point for their weapon, though their gun wasn't attached to it. Their long, grayish-brown hair ran off their face and was parted by a bullet hole that went through their forehead. Dull, yellow eyes blankly stared at the ceiling and didn't react to their lights. A UMP40 lay discarded next to the doll. A-545 activated her radio. "Commander, we have visual confirmation on the objective." She gave a hand sign and her team surrounded the corpse to form a perimeter. Even if there was no danger, she wanted to make sure she led them efficiently.
"Copy. Begin secondary objective."
"Roger, beginning secondary objective." A-545 knelt down next to the corpse and turned it onto its side. Brushing their hair aside, A-545 found some connection ports on the base of the doll's neck. From one of the pockets in her pants, she pulled out a connection cable and plugged herself into the corpse. "Data extraction: commencing. Are you receiving, Commander?"
"We're receiving, A-545, continue extraction." A new window appeared on the table's flat display as A-545 copied the contents of the doll's memory onto the train. There was quite a lot considering Zeldri expected the worst. "And, here I thought a bullet to the head would ruin any data. Or, their battery would've died along with all the data."
"If their brain was in their head, yeah," Horris chimed in as he started scanning the data A-545 was sending. "The head is where most doll's optics and sensors are stored which doesn't leave much room. So, their core is stored in the chest area since they don't need lungs or hearts to live which provides ample room. As for power," Horris tapped at a window and read something before continuing, "Since she's been completely offline this whole time, she could theoretically still have power for another year or so." He continued scanning the data before glancing up at Zeldri. "Could you have A-545 partially boot the doll?"
"Would it even boot?"
"It should." Horris took one of the files and 'tossed' it to Zeldri's side of the table. It displayed a diagnostics of the doll. "As I said, it wasn't a fatal wound. The system looks like it was under immense pressure from something which was causing it to overheat. The bullet to the head just gave enough shock to force a system shutdown. But, theoretically, the doll's just waiting for a boot command to come back online. We know it has some juice left in it since the data's still here, so might as well turn it back on."
"An overheat?" Zeldri repeated back Horris' words as he mulled them over in his head. He activated his communicator. "A-545, partially reactivate the asset and continue to send data."
"Roger, Commander." A-545 wasn't equipped for cyber-warfare, but a data extraction or reboot was simple enough that she could do it alone. She sent the signal for the doll's reactivation and followed its boot sequence.
"There we go," Horris said as he cracked his fingers and started sifting through more data. "Now, what did...Что за (What the)-?" His jaw slightly hung open as he stared at the display windows. One of his hands slowly moved to his chin and started scratching his beard.
"What's wrong?" Zeldri didn't like it when a man of Horris' stature was surprised by something.
"The FSB said this was their asset, right?" His eyes never left the code he was staring at.
"Yeah?"
"...Then why is this doll running a Sangvis Ferri OS?"
"...!" Zeldri pulled up a copy of the window Horris was viewing. While he didn't know much about doll digiminds, he knew enough to recognize when his train's computer was having trouble reading data because of architecture incompatibility; at least that's what some of the warnings were saying. Many doll companies used proprietary operating systems for their dolls to lower the risk of breaches, and Sangvis had been no exception. While there was enough similar overlap to allow a Griffin doll, like A-545, to send a boot command, there wasn't enough for much else. The strings of this mission were starting to reveal themselves and tangle together. "Can we still view it?"
"Partially," Horris admitted as he started tapping away at his keyboard. "I won't be able to view everything due to hardware incompatibility, but raw data I can look at. Now if-..." Horris' words trailed off as he seemed to spot something. "What is...ZELDRI!" Horris shot up to his feet which sent his chair crashing to the floor. A look of panic had taken over his face. "Don't activate that doll!"
"A-545, abort boot!" Zeldri wasted no time and instantly called off the secondary objective. But, it was too little too late as the signal that was never meant to see the light of day again burst through.
"...!" A-545 yanked the connection cord from the doll which interrupted the boot sequence leaving them in a partially booted status.
"Oi, what's-!?" MDR was about to ask what was going on, but the sound of machinery coming online interrupted her. Overhead lights began powering up to fully illuminate the room. Warning lights and sirens began to blare as the facility churned to life once more. The heavily damaged machinery desperately tried to move, but much of it buckled under the weight of its age and damaged parts causing the facility to shake as massive parts of assembly lines exploded and collapsed. Team One instinctively closed their perimeter around A-545 and the asset with their guns trained outward. It wasn't the various shakes or factory machinery that concerned them, but the corpses that began to move.
"...!" A-545 watched in horror as the deactivated dolls that scattered the floor slowly started to move and force themselves up. But, something about them was seriously wrong. Their movements weren't as precise as a doll should've been. They were sloppy and slow. Lumbering. Broken. As the dolls rose and picked up their weapons they took a moment to contemplate what was happening. Then, when It figured it out, the facility was filled with the deafening screams of pain. And, still screaming, the dolls began executing each other. The Butterfly Incident resumed right where it left off.
"..." From her place on the floor, the asset's half-closed eyes weren't fully online which made the world appear blurry. The noises around her were distorted and muffled as her audio sensors were also damaged. It was a world she never thought she'd return to. This hell of an existence. She could feel someone's presence near her and saw a blur kneeling next to her, but couldn't make out who it was. Meekly, the asset forced out words as she attempted to move. "...Forty...five...?"
