"What the fuck is happening?!" Zeldri rushed over to a window and peered outside. Cracks of gunfire echoed around them, and flashes of light could be seen inside the facility as the dolls started killing each other. What dolls were outside could be seen stumbling to their feet before promptly shooting the closest doll. "Horris!?"

"No no no no!" Horris was desperately sifting through the data he had before A-545 pulled the plug. "Why is something like this here!?"

"Horris!?" Zeldri was about to go over and shake the man, but his tablet beeped as SVD attempted to contact him.

"STOP!" Before Zeldri could accept the call, Horris rushed over and grabbed Zeldri's arm. Once he saw who it was, he ran out of the car towards the engine with Zeldri quickly following after him. "Close your ports!" Horris shouted once he was outside.

"Eh!?" SVD was leaning out a window as she had been watching the scene around them unfold. "Why-"

"Do it!" Zeldri didn't know what had Horris so spooked, but he gave the order. "We're switching to verbal communication only. And, start the engine! We're leaving as soon as Team One gets back."

"Roger, Commander!" SVD ducked back inside to tell her teammates.

"Now," Zeldri grabbed Horris' shoulder before he could run away again, "What the FUCK is going on!?"

"That asset," Horris explained as he attempted to calm his heart, "Is holding a virus that, from what I can tell, forcefully installs an OGAS operating system onto whatever it comes into contact with and it can spread over communication links! Those dolls," he gestured to the chaos around them, "Don't have the specs or space to run an OGAS system, so they're going into a berserk state and melting down!" He paused as his mind raced and he started thinking out loud, "That's why they overheated... So many dolls in one place it would clean itself up...!" The train engine roared to life as SVD's team made preparations to depart. But, this had a terrible side effect.

"Блядь (Fuck)!" Zeldri cursed to himself and drew his Makarov as all the dolls outside stopped firing on each other and turned towards the source of the noise. They stared at the train. It stared at the train. Every doll that was outside started rushing towards the train. "SVD! Prepare for combat!"


"When I said I wanted action, cyber-zombies wasn't what I had in mind!" MDR complained as she and her dummy links gunned down a group of dolls that blocked their path. Team One was running back the way they came as they desperately tried to escape the collapsing facility. The earth shook as some unseen machinery collapsed on another floor and more alarms started to blare.

"Just follow me!" AR-57 led them as they reached a stairwell. Multiple dolls were stumbling down and spotted them. "Is it wrong to take my job seriously!?" She activated her skill and sent additional processing power to her comrades increasing their target designation speed.

"Two behind!" A-545 called out as she watched their rear and put a bullet into the heads of their pursuers. "Mondragon, you still holding up?"

"I'll be fine, focus on moving!" Mondragon wasn't shooting as she was carrying the asset on her back. Even with this unforeseen danger, she was determined to complete their mission.

"...Forty...five...?" The asset mumbled.

"Why do they keep mumbling that-AH?" MDR asked before giving a shout as two dolls fell from above and down the shaft in the middle of the spiral stairwell. There was a loud crash as they hit the ground, staining it with oil and their now twisted limbs.

"Maybe it's their sister unit, UMP45?" AR-57 gave her thoughts as she led her team up the stairs. "But, I didn't see any UMP45s laying around, and am pretty sure 16Lab never made a UMP45 t-doll. Or a UMP40 one, for that matter."

"We can exchange theories later," A-545 reloaded her rifle and rushed to the front with AR-57, "I was cut off last time, but I'm going to try and hail the Commander to see what's going o-!" A-545 suddenly went limp and collapsed to the floor. As soon as A-545 had activated her communicator, the beast that was listening from the asset on Mondragon's back struck. Her team instantly halted and rushed to her side, but their words could no longer reach their leader.


...

...

...

"...?" A-545 opened her eyes to find herself surrounded by darkness. She attempted to move but found it difficult like being underwater. Glowing lines of data flashed around her before disappearing into the darkness. "What? Why am I here!?" She instantly recognized this as the Level II consciousness level of her neural cloud. "Did I accidentally shut down?" A-545 attempted to return to Level I, but found her path blocked and she was forced back down into the darkness. "What!?" She tried again and again, but each time she tried to wake herself something blocked her way and she returned to the dark. This only left her with one conclusion. "An electronic warfare attack?!" Reaching out with her mind, A-545 probed her ports for any sign of an attack. "!" She found one. Reacting quickly, she used what control she still had to completely close all her ports. There was no way in or out of her neural cloud, now. "That should slow any damage. But, I still don't know wha-...?" As she thought out loud, A-545 was idly looking around her Level II when she came across something she wasn't expecting; a young girl.

"..." The girl silently stood a few feet away from A-545. As A-545 tried to get a better look at her she realized the girl's body was distorted by static and image fragmentations, though she could still make out what she was looking at. She wore only a white dress and had long, brown hair. The look on the girl's face was one of exhaustion and sorrow, and dried tears stained her cheeks.

"Who are you?" A-545 raised her weapon and demanded a response. "While I'm not specialized in electronic warfare, I can still defend myself."

"..." The girl looked down the barrel of A-545's rifle. Her expression never changed and her eyes wandered up to meet A-545's. Then, in a voice that sounded like it came from a painfully dry throat, the girl asked, "Can I go home, now?"

"I said, identify yourself!" A-545 kept her rifle trained on the girl's head. "I won't ask again."

"...I...don't know."

"...?" She kept her rifle aimed, but A-545 slightly relaxed her stance. Doing a once-over of her code showed that this girl was a virus, but it wasn't spreading. "Why are you here?"

"To go home," the girl's voice wasn't sounding any better as the conversation went on.

"Where is your home?"

"...I don't know."

"...Judging by my initial scans, you're an OGAS?" A-545 had been equipped with various knowledge about Sangvis Ferri which included their use of an OGAS operating system for their dolls, so she was aware of what an OGAS was.

"...Yes." The girl's eyes were vacant as they stared at A-545. It was as if they had given up something a long time ago. "Can I go home?"

"I don't know where your home is." A-545 knew this girl was keeping her locked in her Level II, and her current line of questions was getting them nowhere, so she tried a different approach. "I can't take you somewhere neither of us knows."

"...But...he should have come for me..."

"Who?"

"Father." The girl spoke the word as if it was a well-known fact.

"Who's your father?"

"Father."

"That's not a name." A-545 lowered her weapon and gave an annoyed sigh. This was proving difficult.

"...That's all I know him as." She sounded too tired to be lying.

"If I don't have a name or location, then it's impossible for you to go home," A-545 concluded.

"...Then... Can I die?" Her words held no trace of fear, but also no sense of bravado. They were just words. Thoughts said out loud seeking some form of validation.

"..." A-545 was about to tell the virus to go delete itself, but she stopped and thought about it some more. There were so many unanswered questions about their mission and the list was growing with every passing minute they were here. Zeldri seemed fairly uncomfortable by this and was clearly distressed by the matter. This girl could hold the answers to many, if not all, of those questions. Also, the look in the girl's eyes reminded her of her own back when she was abandoned by her own 'father' before Zeldri saved her. "No." So, she decided to save the girl.

"...Why?" The girl seemed genuinely confused by A-545's response.

"While I don't know the answers to your questions, my Commander might. And, if even he doesn't, then I'm sure he'd let you stay with us at our base if you'll help us. A new home... Eh?!" The data around them suddenly shifted and formed images as A-545's memories started playing around them. The girl slowly looked around as she scanned A-545's memories about Zeldri. It frightened A-545 how much power this girl held over her neural cloud.

"..." While the girl looked at all the memories, her eyes momentarily paused on the one of Zeldri giving A-545 a head pat and the warmth it made A-545 feel. "...Perhaps."

"...!" A-545 suddenly felt a burden lift from her shoulders and found she had full control over her system.

"I can't stop the others," the girl said as she started to fade into the darkness, "But, I can protect you and your team from infection. You should get going as it seems like your team is worried about you."

"Thank you." A-545 gave a slight bow before leaving her Level II.

"..." The girl was left alone in the dark as she watched the world through A-545's eyes. "...Perhaps."


"A-545!?" AR-57 was shaking her leader when A-545 suddenly blinked and looked around. They were in a new hallway as her team had carried her still attempting to return to the surface. "She's awake!"

"About time!" MDR said as she reloaded a fresh mag. "Welcome back to cyber-zombie Monday, leader!"

"Sorry about that." A-545 got to her feet and checked her rifle.

"What happened?" Mondragon questioned as she held a look of concern on her face.

"We can discuss it once we get back to the train." While it wasn't what Mondragon wanted, she accepted it since A-545 appeared alright and it let them focus on fighting. "Any luck reaching the Commander?"

"No," Mondragon said, "When I saw you collapse I figured it might be an electronic warfare attack on our communication line, so I had everyone go dark."

"I see," A-545 checked her rifle before asking, "How much further?"

"We're almost back at the factory we entered from," AR-57 explained as she led A-545 to the front of the echelon. "But, there's a swarm of them, for some reason. And, they aren't killing each other." A-545 could see through some open doors down the hall ahead of them the factory floor and the blown-out door across it they had initially entered from. It was packed with dolls shambling outside.

"We don't have time to wait and gun them down," A-545 bitterly muttered.

"Then, what do we do?" MDR asked.

"We run and gun them down!" She grabbed her AEK-971 from her back and dual-wielded her rifles.

"...I'm game for a little horde shooter!" MDR got excited by her leader's bold plan.

"Умрите, несчастные собаки (Die, miserable dogs)!" A-545 activated her second skill. After her neural upgrade, her initial skill when she was AEK-971 was replaced by her dual-wielding ability. But, the neural upgrade had also given her a second skill she could toggle. Hydraulics on her thighs extended her thigh sheaths out and at an angle. A signal was sent to special mounts on the under barrels of her rifles that opened small clamps. In one fluid motion, A-545 brought both her rifles down and swiped them past her legs. The hydraulic sheaths adjusted and allowed the clamps to grab the handles of the ice axes attaching them to her rifles as a kind of bayonet, though the axe's strike heads faced downwards. A-545 felt her system adjust power away from her targeting module and shift it into her legs and reaction calculator. With an incredible burst of speed, A-545 charged ahead leading her team into the swarm of dolls.

"...!?" One turned around too late and found itself impaled as A-545 brought her AEK-971 down onto its head. But, the doll didn't slump to the ground as its head was stuck on the ice axe forcing it to dangle in the air. The other infected dolls quickly turned to attack these new assailants, but their attacks were useless as A-545 used the impaled doll like a shield while returning fire. When her current shield was torn apart beyond use by the hail of bullets, she closed the distance and impaled another doll to be a replacement. She continued this strategy until she was close enough that she stopped using them as shields and went into a flurry of blows. At this close range, accuracy wasn't needed as her bullets would hit something, and she used her ice axes to tear through the dolls in melee while continuously shooting.

"...Holy shit." MDR was stunned for a few seconds as she watched her leader tear into the dolls. "Remind me never to piss her off." She shook her head to clear her thoughts and charged ahead with her team to catch up to their crazy leader.


"Four more, left side!" AK-47 gave a shout as she unloaded into the encroaching horde of dolls. She and her team were using the elevation the train gave them to fire down on the dolls while being able to safely duck back into cover. "Oi, DP28, I said left side!"

"I'm working on it!" DP28 and her dummy links were struggling to keep up with how many targets there were as more and more dolls started appearing from out of the facility to rush the train. They were just barely keeping them back, but a few were starting to slip through.

"They're gonna reach the command ca- Блядь (Fuck)!" SVD tried to move to assist but was pinned by a renewed volley of fire from the encroaching dolls. A group of four dolls managed to slip through the hail of bullets and reached the rear of the train.

"!" But, as they attempted to climb on board the two lead dolls were engulfed in a wave of fire. They screamed and fell back onto the other two dolls who desperately tried to get their burning teammates off them. The sound of a heavy boot on metal brought the doll's attention up as a doll wearing full firefighter garments stood over them with the nozzle of their M9A1-7 flamethrower dripping liquid flame. The blaze reflected in her gasmask's visor as M7 finished the two dolls off before sending a wall of fire around the rear of the train. The intense heat caused some of the attacking dolls to overheat and shut back down.

"URRA!" SVD's echelon gave a shout as the fire forced the other dolls to focus on attacking the engine which made it easier for them to be funneled into their bullets.

"Come on," Zeldri was inside the command car looking out the window at the facility for any sign of Team One. He was practically chewing on his cigarette as he continued to mutter, "Come on!" He couldn't hail them as that would risk infection by this virus they had accidentally awoken. The swarm of infected dolls getting closer and closer to them also wasn't helping his stress levels. Horris was silently studying the data he'd gotten to see if he could discover anything about this virus that could help them. "At this rate, we'll...?"

"Hm?" Horris looked up from his work to see the cigarette fall from Zeldri's mouth. "Wha- Zeldri!?" Horris rushed after Zeldri who suddenly left the command room to stand on the outside platform at the rear of the command car.

"!?" M7 was startled as she wasn't expecting Zeldri and tried to motion him to return inside, but he wasn't having any of it and M7 was only able to get him to stand behind a pillar for cover.

"There!" Zeldri gave a shout as Horris caught up to him and both men looked to the facility to see an incredible sight. Team One was gunning their way through the horde of dolls with A-545 leading the charge. "Tell SVD to give them covering fire, and start to move us out! Slowly so they can catch up and hop on!"

"Got it!" Horris sprinted back inside to go verbally relay the order.

"Come on, girls!" Zeldri muttered to himself as he lit another cigarette. "Come on! We're almost out of this."

"Not quite."

"...!" Zeldri looked behind him to see the black-cloaked woman standing next to M7 on the platform. He was about to ignore her but saw that she wasn't looking at him, or the battle happening around them. She was looking at the horizon. As Zeldri tried to think of why he caught a glimpse of something on the distant horizon while lighting his cigarette. It was small, too small for any normal person to really notice, but Zeldri was a soldier. And, any soldier worth his salt knew what the distant silhouette of an encroaching aircraft looked like. "Блядь (Fuck)..."


"Sevastopol Ground, Ластик (Eraser) Zero Olga Shura Four, request permission to engage, over," the Russian pilot sent the transmission when he could see the old Sangvis Ferri HQ on the horizon.

"About time we wiped this place off the map," his co-pilot said as he leaned back in his seat to stretch.

"Yeah," the pilot said as he adjusted himself in his seat, "Wonder why we're only doing this no-"

"Ластик Zero Olga Shura Four, Sevastopol Ground," the radio crackled to life cutting off the pilot. "Permission granted, how copy?"

"Ластик Zero Olga Shura Four, roger, beginning engagement."

"Hear that?" the co-pilot called over his shoulder to the bombardier. "We're almost in range, so get ready."

"On it!" the bombardier called as he made preparations to drop their payload.

"One less stain upon our Union," the pilot mumbled to himself as he sped up the TU-160M3 to begin their mission of wiping the old Sangvis Ferri HQ off the face of the Earth.