The Mobile Task Force - Chapter 2: Beginner's Luck

"A rather pitiful result, I might say," A voice from behind Katana 2-Charlie noted, "I thought you were supposed to become one of the elite."

"I'm sorry, ma'am," Katana 2-Charlie quickly responded. She just completed her first combat simulation after being activated; the results were less than stellar.

"Don't give me that crap," the voice snarled into Katana 2-Charlie's ear, "You are a machine designed for war—a T-doll. I expect you to act like it!"

Katana 2-Charlie frowned, standing rigidly upright.

"This is Sangvis Ferri, not some children's daycare," the voice condescendingly continued, "You're sole purpose is to fight, and if you're not strong enough, you don't deserve a place here."

"I- I understand," Katana 2-Charlie muttered, "I will try to become stronger."

"No, I don't think you understand," the voice sneered, "There is no try. Only the strong get to survive. This is the harsh reality of the world you exist in. Got it?"

"Yes ma'am!" Katana 2-Charlie exclaimed, trying to keep a stiff upper lip.

"Are even you listening to me?" the voice asked, "Can you even hear me?"

"Huh?" Katana 2-Charlie asked.

"Can you hear me?" the voice asked, "Hey, Katana 2-Charlie!"

"W-what?" Katana 2-Charlie stammered.

"Wake up!" the voice shouted into her ear.

Suddenly, Katana 2-Charlie felt someone shaking her body. For a moment, she felt as if she were in freefall. Her eyes snapped open. She was lying on the ground.

"Jesus Christ!" a small doll with short black hair tied into twintails exclaimed, her hands grabbing onto Katana 2-Charlie's shoulders. "I thought you were gone for good!"

"Whuh- huh? Where am I?" Katana 2-Charlie stammered, holding her head as she sat up. She was in some sort of a dilapidated building; the smell of machine fluid and smoke filled the air. Propping herself up with one arm, she looked around the room, seeing several fodder dolls scattered on the ground in various states of damage. One of the Vespids was stumbling towards the front door, its clothes stained with orange machine fluid. A piece of rebar haphazardly jammed vertically up a hole in its torso, supporting its body in place of its severed spine. Faint gunshots echoed in the distance.

"Did you get hit so hard that you forgot what was going on?" the other doll asked. Katana 2-Charlie took a closer look at the doll. She was Dagger 2-Delta—nicknamed Maddie—the doll in command of the tattered village defenders. Her shoulder-length black hair was a mess, with small pieces of dirt and rubble clinging on to it. Red-orange machine fluid stained her gloved hands; a T-doll repair kit hung from the side of her waist. There was a hole on the left side of her ballistic skirt, and upon closer inspection, Katana 2-Charlie noticed she was moving around with a slight limp.

"I- ugh…" Katana 2-Charlie muttered to herself, "The battle… We were disembarking from our airlift… There was a mortar strike… And then…"

"You got slammed into a wall pretty hard by the concussive blast," Maddie completed the sentence, "I don't see any visible damage, though, which is good."

"I see. I- Ow!" Katana 2-Charlie gasped as Maddie suddenly peeled the synthetic skin over her left clavicle open, revealing a data port which Maddie inserted a cable into.

"Sorry," Maddie noncommittally said, "I just have to run a quick diagnostic before I can send you back into the fight, stay still."

"The battle…" Katana 2-Charlie repeated, still recovering from her daze. She couldn't connect to the battle network due to the system diagnostic Maddie was running. As Katana 2-Charlie waited, she looked around the room again. There was one other wounded MTF member—seemingly unconscious—lying on the ground. She looked young, maybe in her mid-teens, and her short purple hair stood out like a sore thumb against the grey rubble and dust she was lying on. As Acre looked down her body, she made out a pair of bent red glasses on the floor beside her torso. It was only then when she noticed the girl was missing half of her left leg.

"Dagger 3-Charlie, her name is Sophie," Maddie stated, motioning to the unconscious doll, "Took an HMG round to her thigh, fucked her up pretty bad."

"I see," Katana 2-Charlie muttered, "The battle, what's the situation out there?"

"Talk to Kia, she's the one organising the defence right now," Maddie curtly replied, "Suffice to say, it's not good."

"Katana 1-Alpha, this is Katana 2-Charlie, reporting in," the purple-haired doll announced over the encrypted radio channel as she darted from building to building, moving west towards the frontline.

"Ah, Katana 2-Charlie, welcome back!" Kia cheerfully replied, "How are you feeling?"

"I'm undamaged, if that's what you're asking," Katana 2-Charlie responded, "I'm ready to fight."

"Good, good," Kia nodded, "Oh, by the way, I never caught your name."

"I don't have one," Katana 2-Charlie bluntly responded.

"…What?" Kia questioned.

"I don't have a name," Katana 2-Charlie repeated, "You can refer to me by my systematic designation."

"But… It's a sort of rite of passage for new dolls in the MTF," Kia explained, "Surely you must've thought of something?"

"I haven't," Katana 2-Charlie plainly stated, "I don't care."

Kia fell silent.

"Anyway, we're wasting time here," Katana 2-Charlie spoke up again, "Let's end this battle for once for all."

"Yeah… about that…" Kia trailed off.

"About what?" Katana 2-Charlie questioned.

"Look, uh, I'm sending you the updated map right now," Kia said as she shared her tactical map via datalink. "Katana 2-Charlie, move to the marked position and pick a spot overlooking the north-south main intersection."

"Understood, I'm-" Katana 2-Charlie said before suddenly stopping. "Wait, what the hell? Where are the annotations for the assault?"

"There is no assault," Castle grimly replied into the radio, firing a burst into a distant window, suppressing a Griffin doll. "It's been cancelled."

"Cancelled?" Katana 2-Charlie asked, bewildered. "What do you mean cancelled? What about the mission?"

"The situation has changed," Kia sighed, "After our insertion, Pegasus 3 did a flyby over the hill. Turns out, Griffin has about two more squad's worth of infantry congregating beyond it. Plus, a good portion of our fodder was damaged or destroyed during the mortar strike, so we aren't really in a position to go on the offensive."

"God damn it!" Katana 2-Charlie cursed, running up the stairs in the building she was tasked with holding. "So what now? Are we just gonna sit around and do nothing while Griffin prepares to attack?"

"It's our only option," Kia responded, "We're gonna dig in and hold out for as long as we can. Archangel's gonna be personally leading another group to come rescue us early tomorrow, so…"

"Are you kidding me?!" Katana 2-Charlie protested, "If Griffin really does have that many dolls behind that hill, then the time to strike is now! We'll catch them by surprise, and we'll use our momentum to punch a hole through their lines and force them out of the village!"

"Look, Katana 2-Charlie, I really don't think that's feasible," Kia argued, "We aren't Dagger division. There's just too many of them."

"So what if they outnumber us?" Katana 2-Charlie argued, "We're better than Griffin! We're better armed, better trained!"

"That may be so for Castle, but I certainly don't have what it takes for an intense assault of that degree." Kia admitted, "Besides-"

"Well I do too!" Katana 2-Charlie interrupted, her voice dripping with conviction. "If you really believe in me, then let me prove myself to you!"

"Katana 2-Charlie, that's not the point," Kia shook her head, "It's not that I don't trust in your abilities, but I'm just trying to play it by the numbers here…"

Katana 2-Charlie punched a wall in frustration, her reinforced skeleton and synthetic tissue smashing straight through the wooden plank. She couldn't believe what was going on; her first combat mission had been completely derailed by the unforeseen circumstances, and now they stood to lose the entire village altogether.

"You know, Kia," Castle's voice appeared after a while, "It could work."

"You too, Castle?" Kia sighed, "Are you sure about it?"

"Well, not sure, per se," Castle explained, "But have you seen Katana 2-Charlie's recent combat scores? They're all off the charts."

"Yes, I've seen them," Kia admitted, "Katana 2-Charlie's performance even eclipses that of many Falchion division members, but…"

"But what?" Katana 2-Charlie demanded, "We are T-dolls, this is what we were made for!"

An uneasy silence spread over the communications channel as Kia contemplated her options. Scattered gunfire continued erupting from across the defensive line, neither side seemingly ready yet for decisive action.

"…Fine, I guess it's worth a shot," Kia finally decided, "Although I'm still not fond of the idea, perhaps I'm being too conservative in my estimates."

"Hell yeah!" Katana 2-Charlie cheered, "We're gonna go show the world what the Mobile Task Force is made of!"