"Don't stop running! Use your dummies as shields!" A-545 spearheaded her team's retreat as they exited the factory. Their main bodies were in the center while their dummies formed a circle around them. The infected dolls kept their primary focus on assaulting the train, but a few were taking notice of Team One and attempted to intercept them.
"Oh my~," MDR nervously remarked as she leapt over the falling body of her last dummy link, "So this battle situation really is disadvantageous? Should I share it?" She took out her cell phone.
"If you have time for pictures, you have time to return fire!" Mondragon chastised.
"To fall on our first mission so my comrades could escape?!" MDR dramatically swooned as she gunned down a doll that peeked its head out at them. "This would make a fantastic story on the forums! Don't stop me!" Reaching into her pocket, MDR pulled out a small drone and tossed it in the air. "I wonder how many followers I'll get after this?" The drone unfolded its rotors and quickly made its way to A-545. Blue light emanated from the drone as it kept pace with the assault rifle t-doll and enveloped them in a temporary shield.
"Спасибо (Thanks)!" A-545 felt a surge of processing power flow into her evasive systems allowing her to keep fighting despite having no dummy links. Her body had taken quite a few bullet wounds, but Maxim had designed her to be able to take heavy hits and keep moving as a single unit so the damage didn't seem to faze her. The train was slowly pulling away from the platform it had stopped at as it began making its escape. SVD's team was doing their best to suppress the dolls closest to the train and allow Team One to get close to the rear car.
"Живо (Quickly)!" Horris returned to the rear car and was waiting with M7 to help Team One onto the train. Since Zeldri wouldn't be much help lifting with his bad leg, he was taking potshots at the infected dolls to help SVD's team in suppression. A-545 was still affected by MDR's skill and, thanks to that and her exoskeleton, leapt onto the train from the ground by herself. She immediately pivoted around and reached her hand down to her teammates. "Come on! Up you go!" Horris grabbed MDR's hand and hoisted the t-doll onto the train.
"Woah!" MDR wasn't expecting a human to be able to lift her with such ease and lost her balance landing face-first onto the floor. M7 grabbed AR-57 and pulled her up. A-545 grabbed the asset from Mondragon's back while Horris ran over and hoisted Mondragon up. To save time, any dummy links remaining were deactivated and left behind as they were out of time.
"They're on board!" AK-47 was hanging her head out the window of the engine and watched until Team One finished boarding. "Punch it!"
"Hold on!" SVD set the train to maximum speed. The engine violently lurched forward at the sudden command and loudly roared as it picked up speed.
"Inside! Now!" Zeldri yelled as he helped MDR to her feet. They weren't safe, yet.
"Congratulations!" Zeldri was walking over to A-545 when the voice of the black-cloaked woman entered his ears. She was sarcastically clapping. "That was your first mission with them. Not the most elegant ending, but still a win." She gave a shrug. Zeldri glared at her as he helped A-545 and Mondragon pick up the asset to bring inside. "In any case, I'm glad this is over. We have too much to do to be wasting time; especially on a lackluster try like this." While the infected dolls were still attempting to give chase, their systems were starting to fail, again, and none of their shots were even close to hitting. Even still, Zeldri kept his guard up and glared at the black-cloaked woman. "Ahahaha," the black-cloaked woman couldn't help but laugh, "Oh come on, have I even let you dow-!"
"!" As the train exited the compound, it didn't wait for the gates to fully open and rammed through them. The ram shook the entire train, and Zeldri lost his footing near the edge of the car. Adrenaline poured through Zeldri's body and time seemed to slow as his brain kicked into overdrive as he fell backwards off the train car.
"Commander!" The black-cloaked woman's entire demeanor instantly shifted to one of shock as she reached out her hand to grab Zeldri and stop his fall. But, when she went to grab his hand, her own hand simply phased through his. Like a ghost that wasn't really there. "!" Time seemed to slow even further. The black-cloaked woman's body started to get distorted by static and image fragmentations before seemingly dissolving away like smoke being swept away by the wind. Zeldri was left to look towards the sky as he fell backwards. In the distance, he saw dark shapes falling away from the aircraft as it made its pass.
"Commander!" A-545 instantly reacted and grabbed Zeldri's hand; snapping him back to reality. AR-57 also rushed over and the two t-dolls pulled Zeldri to safety. "Are yo-!"
"Inside!" Zeldri didn't have the luxury to think. Everyone rushed inside the command car and sealed the door just in time for the world behind them to erupt in balls of fire. Twenty air-to-ground missiles impacted around the compound engulfing the old Sangvis Ferri HQ in fire and smoke. The infected dolls outside were instantly vaporized by the blasts. Smaller buildings were wiped away while larger ones were torn apart and had their materials thrown into the air as part of the ensuing dust cloud. The underground sections of the complex, which had already suffered damage earlier, collapsed as the Earth violently shook from the explosions.
"WOAH!" MDR fell to the floor as the shockwaves from the bombs pelted the train threatening to derail it.
"Steady! Steady!" SVD and her team desperately held on while trying to adjust the train. If they pulled the brakes, the sudden halting would definitely derail the train stranding them in Romania and possibly fatally injuring the Commander and Horris. If they increased speed, the wheels might lose their grip on the rails and also derail the train. Her echelon was using all their processing power to make adjustments to the train's speed on a millisecond scale while attempting to not fall over from the shaking.
"Wha-," Simonov faltered, "I didn't lose on purpose this time." The immense processing strain was too much for her digimind and she was forcefully shut down from overheating.
"Блядь (Fuck)!" SVD cursed as it was now more difficult to keep going with one less team member. But, the rest of her echelon held on. And, thanks to their efforts, were able to weather the storm without derailing. The shaking subsided as the train sped away from the ruins and the plumes of smoke that now hung in the air.
"Sevastopol Ground, Ластик (Eraser) Zero Olga Shura Four, we have an unidentified train leaving the A.O. Request permission to follow, over." The Russian pilot spotted the train while he was turning the aircraft.
"The hell were people doing in that place?" his co-pilot muttered as he took a glance out the window.
"I don't know, but we don't have anything to deal with them, so let's just follow for now."
"Ластик Zero Olg-" The transmission suddenly cut off. The pilot and co-pilot looked at each other with concerned expressions.
"Hm." After waiting a few seconds, the pilot grabbed his radio. "Sevastopol Ground, Ластик Zero Olga Shura Four, repeat last, over."
"Ластик Zero Olga Shura Four, Sevastopol Ground, wait one."
"Wait one?" the co-pilot repeated in disbelief, "What's there to wait fo-"
"Ластик Zero Olga Shura Four, Sevastopol Ground," the transmission cut him off, "Disengage and return to base, how copy?" There was a hint of fear in the operator's voice.
"..." The cockpit of the TU-160M3 was silent as everyone onboard instantly knew what was happening. "Ластик Zero Olga Shura Four, roger, returning to base," the pilot followed the order without question. They had stepped in something they weren't supposed to.
"Fuckin suits," the co-pilot cursed as the TU-160M3 broke off from following the train and headed back to Sevastopol.
It had been a few minutes since they left the old Sangvis HQ. They took a quick stop to check the train for damages but found only minor scratches and dents from thrown debris so they continued their journey back to the Mountain. A table was cleared in the command car's main room and the asset was placed on it. Looking over Team One, Zeldri saw how beat up they were. Bullet holes riddled most of their clothes with A-545 being in the worst shape; her winter coat now only came down to her ribs and it was missing its right sleeve and hood. Her Lynx helmet's visor was cracked and Zeldri counted two bullet impacts on it. "You all get some well-deserved rest. When we return, I'll make sure you're all fully repaired and get you some new clothes."
"You can fix clothes too?" AR-57 smiled as she looked at her tattered appearance, "That's great!"
"Your consideration is appreciated, Commander," Mondragon said and gave a bow.
"I call top bunk!" MDR instantly ran to the sleeping quarters to claim her spot.
"Will you be alright, Commander?" A-545 gave Zeldri a concerned look and glanced at the asset on the table.
"I'll be fine," Zeldri reassured her and patted her on the head. "M7 is here, and I'll be holding onto the asset's weapon, so it'll be fine. Get some rest."
"..." A-545 squirmed a bit under Zeldri's hand but didn't try to get away from the head pat. "Okay." She gave a respectful bow and followed her team to the crew quarters to power down and 'sleep' the rest of the journey home.
"So," Zeldri asked when they finally left, "Can you activate her?"
"I can." Horris started plugging wires into the asset's ports to hook her up to the train's computers. "I've taken extra precautions against an electronic warfare attack, as well as cut off the train's network from the rest of the world. If something does try to attack us, it won't be able to go anywhere." Horris' hand hovered over a button on a computer console and he looked to Zeldri.
"..." Zeldri took a deep breath to refocus his mind before giving a nod to Horris. "Do it." With the press of a button, the screens around them started displaying lines of code, and various prompts as Horris probed the asset's digimind.
"Hmm..." But, as time went on, nothing happened. No attack occurred. No infection spread. There wasn't even a trace of it left in their digimind. "Was it a single-use?... No... How could it infect in the first place if it was?" Horris started talking to himself as he sifted through the data. But, no matter how hard he looked, all traces of any kind of virus were gone. "...I'm gonna fully boot them, now. M7?"
"...!" M7 gave a nod and stood close to the asset, just in case. As the boot command went through, the asset spasmed once before calming down. The lenses in her eyes adjusted to the light which allowed Zeldri to see her iris' were actually designed to look like stars. Though, the bullet hole in their head was still off-putting.
"..." The asset blinked a few times as they tried to focus their vision. Their fingers and feet twitched as she was testing her systems. Her voice sounded far younger than Zeldri was expecting when she spoke, "...Where...am I? Why can't I...?" She brought her left hand up to her face to see why her eyes were having trouble focusing and felt the hole in her head. "..." The world sounded weird like it wasn't coming from her ears. Once her eyes focused enough for her to tell what was around, she slowly sat up and saw a microphone sitting next to her with its wire plugged into a slot on the back of her neck.
"Apologies about that." The asset's eyes shot over to Horris as he spoke. "Your audio sensors are too damaged to be of real use, so this is a temporary solution until we can get you repaired."
"..." There was a moment where the asset's face was unreadable as if she was debating something in her mind. But, the moment passed and the doll was overtaken by a cheerful demeanor. "It's fine! It's fine! Thanks for giving me even this so I'm not left in complete silence, sir." She beamed a smile at Horris which caused the man to puff out his chest.
"Not at all, my de-AGH!" M7 yanked Horris' collar as he seemed to almost be flirting with the t-doll. She narrowed her eyes at him. "I was just being nice!"
"Be nice on your own time," Zeldri commented which brought the asset's gaze to him. Zeldri caught a brief look of fear in her eyes that was quickly buried beneath a smile. Her eyes scanned Zeldri but paused on the Griffin & Kryuger logo on his commander's hat. She also took a quick look at her weapon which Zeldri was still holding.
"Thank you for retrieving me, Commander." She scratched the back of her head and gave a tired chuckle. "I thought I was a goner for sure."
"You recognize me as a commander?" Zeldri kept his face from showing any tells.
"Of course! I'm with Griffin, after all," the asset said and tried to stand up, but her bad vision and lack of proper hearing caused her to lose balance, so she decided to remain sitting on the table. "UMP40, making an appearance!" She proudly declared while giving a salute. "Commander, I will replace all those outdated girls for you!"
"...I see." She looked rather odd giving a salute while having a bullet hole in her head, but Zeldri was more focused on what she said rather than what she was doing. By her own introduction, she was a Griffin t-doll, but he knew she ran a Sangvis Ferri OS, and the FSB was claiming she was one of theirs. Zeldri could already feel the urge to smoke a cigarette rising. "It's a pleasure to have you, UMP40." He walked over to a console, still holding UMP40's weapon, and re-enabled the network. As soon as the train reconnected to the net, a communication request came through. "Looks like the FSB wants to talk."
"...!" Zeldri deliberately let his employers slip and glanced behind him to UMP40. He caught the panic in her eyes that she desperately tried to hide. "Co-?!" Before she could speak, Zeldri accepted the communication but denied video access.
"Commander Zeldri?" Ivan's voice came over the speaker of the command car. "I thought the worst when you were still dark. What's the status of your mission? And, why can't I see you?"
"The asset... Is nonoperational." Zeldri turned to UMP40 and put a finger to his lips. Her eyes widened in surprise by his act. "My team was able to find the body, but it was badly damaged from the Butterfly Incident. Their power was completely gone, which wiped any data they had in their digimind and returned them to a factory default state."
"...I see." Ivan's voice was completely controlled and he waited for Zeldri to continue his report before speaking further.
"As for why you can't see me, I'd like to ask you the same thing." Zeldri's tone harshly shifted and anger bled into his voice. "After all, my equipment is damaged from that bombing run that almost cost me and my team their lives! What the hell was that!?"
"..." There was a long pause. Perhaps Zeldri had crossed a line with his accusation? It didn't matter since he was far too angry to care if he hurt the FSB's feelings. Eventually, Ivan spoke, "That was an error."
"An error!?" Zeldri slammed his fist against the table causing everyone to jump. "Had I been a second slower, a fucking second, we wouldn't be having this conversation, Agent Ivan! If this asset was so important to you, then that's a pretty big fucking error to make!" Not even Horris had seen Zeldri like this in all the time he'd known him and he slowly backed away. M7 stayed by UMP40's side like she was told, but was now thinking she might need to stop Zeldri instead of 40. UMP40 silently watched from her spot on the table with an unreadable expression on her face.
"Indeed it was," despite Zeldri's rage, Ivan kept his voice calm, "Which is why we will be looking into why that bomber was there. For now, just worry about returning to the Mountain."
"...And, the asset?" While Zeldri wanted to chew Ivan out more, he had other things to worry about.
"Keep it." Ivan's words caused Zeldri to pause for a moment. "What we wanted was the data, not the doll. But, if that data's gone then it's just a normal t-doll, now. Since you're with Griffin you can probably find some use for it in your war against Sangvis Ferri."
"..." Zeldri figured this was some kind of bribe to keep him quiet. Though, bomber aside, him keeping UMP40 was way too easy. But, he knew he wasn't in the right state of mind to calmly discuss things with the FSB, so he decided to end things here while he could still control himself. "Thank you for the gift, Agent Ivan." And, with that, Zeldri cut the transmission.
"..." The people behind him were silent as Zeldri leaned heavily against the computer console. He gave a soft chuckle and looked over at 40.
"Welcome aboard, UMP40."
"To think he would pull such a blatant lie like that on the bureau." Artyom was standing next to Ivan in their command room back in Moscow and heard the whole thing. A single tear rolled down his cheek. "I raised that boy well."
"Is that something to be proud of, sir?" Ivan asked as he let out a sigh he'd been holding in. "Shouldn't we be endearing him to us?"
"My son's already loyal to Russia and the Union, Ivan," Artyom reassured the agent. "The bomber was just meant to put a little caution in his mind which may be needed for the days to come."
"As well as that t-doll?" Ivan looked back over the file they had of UMP40.
"A doll specializing in electronic warfare is a rarity, nowadays. In truth, I was considering requisitioning Agent Angelia's little '404' team for Zeldri if UMP40 wasn't there or operational, but this outcome is much cleaner."
"We've put a lot into fortifying the defenses of the Mountain." Ivan didn't like how much was being put into that place. Especially since Zeldri wasn't an agent of the bureau.
"That place holds the future of humanity, Ivan. Or, at least, a possible one."
"..." Ivan hated when Artyom talked like that; it made him sound like a religious nut job.
"That said..." A chill went through the room as something dangerous weaved its way into Artyom's voice. Ivan felt a lump form in his throat. "I raised my son well. I know my son more than he knows himself. I know how long it would've taken him to complete this mission with a margin of error of five minutes, or so." Artyom slowly put his hands behind his back as he stared at a screen displaying the Sevastopol airbase. "Which is why I had that bomber scheduled to annihilate the base five minutes after he would have already left the base. Far enough away to see the explosion and get the message, but safe. This begs the question why the bomber was there early, does it not?" Artyom turned on his heel and started leisurely walking to the door to leave. As he passed Ivan, Artyom's voice went low while still holding an almost jovial tone. "I want teams in Sevastopol within the hour. The base is to be locked down and all staff involved in the operation accounted for as well as their families. I want to know who just tried to kill my son."
"...Yes, sir." Ivan shuddered as Artyom passed him. It was at times like this that he missed working under Chief Zielinski instead of Artyom. That man could instill fear into someone with only a few words, and he had the power to back it up. Ivan recalled Artyom had been one of the minds behind, and ground leaders of Operation Tradewind that helped end the third world war which is why Zielinski brought him into the FSB. The CIA in the States had a nickname for him that the Union adopted upon Artyom's request as a constant reminder to the world of who he was; Artyom Vanya, the Breaker of Rome.
