Archangel - Chapter 4: Unbroken Resolve

Acre's brief moment of exaltation was cut short as a bullet flew past her face, sending her diving for cover. They weren't out of the woods yet, and until their reinforcements actually arrived, the situation was still as dire as ever.

"Castle! With respect, did Archangel bring enough help?" Acre questioned, now seeing the new enemy markers on her map transmitted after Archangel's fly-by, "They outnumber us 3 to 1!"

"Then it is an even fight," Castle replied calmly as Archangel roared overhead, the coaxial machine gun on her cannon firing down at the hapless Griffin dolls.

A few Griffin dolls managed to close in on the Castle's team and sporadically engaged them. However, they were disorganized and unable to make any headway in their attacks. Just then, however, Castle heard a click emanate from her rifle; she had finally expended her last round of ammunition.

Without any more bullets suppressing her position, a Griffin doll on the other side peeked out from her corner and aimed her rifle at Castle. Before Castle could respond, a grenade flew past her face and hit the Griffin doll square in the chest, obliterating her.

"Holy shit!" Castle exclaimed. Looking back, she saw Dagger 1-Bravo walking towards her with her MX assault rifle raised and pointing at the enemy. Behind her followed another SFMTF member and an assortment of fodder units. As they moved in front of Castle and the 2 others, they knelt down in an arc, forming a shield between the survivors and Griffin.

"Talk about an explosive entrance," Acre remarked, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Falcon, take the fodder and kick those motherfuckers outta the cemetery!" Dagger 1-Bravo ordered, gesturing at the HK417-wielding doll that came in with her.

"Got it, Sal," the girl replied, before advancing with the fodder units.

As the sounds of gunshots echoed from up ahead, Dagger 1-Bravo turned around and faced Castle, giving her a quick salute. "Long time no see, gimme a SITREP, Castle."

"Fuck, I really thought I wasn't gonna make it this time!" Castle laughed, "We're, uh- I'm outta ammo, and Katana 2-Charlie is hurt. Oh, and Sophie's hurt too."

"I- I'm fine," Sophie asserted, "I can keep fighting."

Right afterwards, Sophie keeled over and unceremoniously fell face-first into the dirt. Castle rushed over to check on her; the bullet earlier penetrated her battery, and the leaking acid seemed to have eaten through a vital cable. "Her battery's shot," Castle reported, "Shouldn't affect her neural cloud, at least."

"Well, that just happened," sighed Dagger 1-Bravo. "Look, I don't got any of your rifle's ammo on me, and miss newbie here isn't really in fighting condition either," she continued, "Here's a pistol, you two just hunker down while we do the rest, yeah? I think you earned the rest."

Castle caught a pistol that Dagger 1-Bravo threw to her. "Thanks, guess we'll have to take you up on that offer," Castle smiles, "Take it easy out there, Salamander. Try not the burn down the entire village, alright?"

"Hmph. No promises," Dagger 1-Bravo laughed as she waved dismissively, already walking towards the battle.

"Now what?" asks Acre.

"We do what Salamander said," replied Castle, "Sometimes the most helpful thing you can do is to simply not die. Her team just cleared out the first street ahead, pick up Sophie and let's find a house to shelter in. If you really want to help, I guess you can help share some of the computational load once we're there. But for us, this battle is over."

Archangel turned her head backwards looking at the former Griffin mortar emplacement. "All units, this is Archangel, enemy mortar position neutralized," Archangel declared, beginning a slow turn back towards the hill, "Scimitar 1-Delta, you're cleared to advance towards the hill, I'll cover your approach."

"Understood Archangel, we're rolling," Scimitar 1-Delta replied, stuffing her binoculars back into her sack. She made her way back to the Qilin light strike vehicle driven by Lancer 3-Bravo, climbing into the turret ring and behind the mounted DShK heavy machine gun. A vespid and 2 jaeger units were already mounted in the Qilin.

"Alright Lancer, punch it!" Scimitar 1-Delta ordered as she undid the safety on her machine gun. The Qilin's engine roared to life as the light strike vehicle emerged from a patch of bushes, speeding towards the Griffin-held hill. Scattered shots flew past the Qilin as it bounced across the uneven dirt until another pass from Archangel sent the Griffin defenders diving for cover.

Back at the Griffin base, sounds of frantic shouts emanated from the radio in the command room. "Tactical doll Welrod hailing Griffin command!" a voice shouted over the sound of heavy gunfire, "We are under heavy assault! Multiple Sangvis elements converging upon our position! We are facing imminent defeat, please advise!"

The Commander's hands were balled into fists and planted on the table. Beside him, Kalina was desperately scrolling through her tablet, searching for any intel that could be relevant to the situation. What the hell was going on? he thought to himself, I thought we more or less secured the village already? There weren't any massed Sangvis forces reported nearby, so how did they appear so quickly?

"Kalina, where are the last known locations of the Sangvis ringleaders?" the Commander asks.

"Well, we've tracked Alchemist to sector S08, and Intruder was spotted by Makarov's squad the other day…" Kalina responded, "But given the circumstances and context, there shouldn't be any ringleaders operating in the area, unless…"

"Welrod," the Commander firmly spoke into the radio, trying to calm the beleaguered squad leader on the other side, "Can you estimate how many enemies are you facing? Their composition?"

"It's… it can't be more than 30 dolls!" Welrod's bewildered response filled the command room, "I- I don't know how, they're much better organized that we expected! I've never seen anything like this before!"

"It's the Mobile Task Force," Kalina muttered.

"Welrod, consolidate your forces," ordered the Commander, "I'm going to redirect Fal's team to your posit-"

"No, no, no!" shouted Welrod, "Do NOT send any aircraft towards our AO! Sangvis Ferri has complete air supremacy in the area, and-"

"Say again, Welrod?" the Commander cut in, "What do you mean Sangvis Ferri has 'air supremacy'?"

"They have a fucking plane!" Welrod cried out, "No, I mean, it's a… It's a doll, I think, but- Holy shit it's coming back!"

"Welrod! What's going on?!" the Commander demands to no avail as a series of shouts and cries erupt over the radio, followed by a sudden and lasting silence.

"Welrod? Come in! Respond!" the Commander ordered as he desperately tried to re-establish contact with the Griffin forces. He looked down and realized he was leaning onto the table with his fists, his knuckles having gone white.

"Kalina, tell Fal's team to break off…" the Commander muttered, looking at the tactical map, "I want you to divert whatever recon units we have available, I need eyes on the situation."

"U-understood," Kalina stammered as she made the corresponding gestures on her tablet.

The Commander finally unclenched his fists, rubbing his temples with one hand as he attemped to digest what just happened. This "Sangvis Ferri Mobile Task Force" seemed to represent a complete deviation from the regular Sangvis tactical doctrine, favouring small, mobile groups of T-dolls with an emphasis on force multipliers. And of course, there was also that "flying doll" Welrod mentioned earlier… Suddenly, his job seemed a whole lot harder.

"Kalina," the Commander sighed, "Any idea what this 'flying doll' is?"

"Yes, Commander. I've cross-referenced the files we have on hand from the other sectors," Kalina answered, "it is undoubtedly the leader of the Sangvis Ferri Mobile Task Force: SFR-001 'Archangel.'"

"Archangel, huh," the Commander grimly murmured as he closed his eyes, thinking. "Archangel. That's a name I will not forget."