Welcome to Chapter 33! Here, I go through all the character stuff (and flashbacks) I couldn't add to Defense Planning I, and prepare to write Defense I.

So the 3rd CBT for GFL is about to be released (or already has been, if I post this late, and I posted this very late) and they've already released some new GFL 2 pre-release content for us to chew on, including some old friends of ours who got new makeovers, numerous returning Dolls, Commander avatars at last (male one has a warrior's wolftail while the female's just Gentiane,) and some very familiar hostile units...

EDIT: CBT 3 has ended, with middling results, I'd say. Gacha's Genshin/PNC-like, and an energy bar's in place to prevent one from grinding too much, but the gameplay's improved (no "That's XCOM, Baby" moments anymore,) the new graphics/character models are awesome, and the animation/story quality are top-notch as always. Commanders will also be recieving customization, weapon attachments are getting reworked, and changes are being made to the Dark Zone/Tarkov mode.

The second Reverse Collapse demo, though, fares better. Various quality of life changes have been made, including UI changes, new items have been added, a small prologue explaining the story was added, and a whole new level/"wait, what the fuck did I just play through?" moment was added between 1-1 and 1-2.

Additionally, I am so terribly sorry that I haven't posted anything new in five-six months (excluding a basic status update,) but I've had a horrible time of things (and I was sick as a dog with COVID-19, a virus I had successfully dodged for 3 whole years, but hey, I wasn't killed by it, so fuck you, COVID) and I haven't been motivated to write anything in a long time. Hopefully this makes it up to you.

Note: Battle buddies are official partners in a US squad or platoon whose job is to watch each other's backs and ensure they stay mentally healthy. It's very good for ensuring good mental health, good combat performance, and sexual assault prevention, but it's disastrous if one of the battle buddies in a pair dies.

Unrelated P.S.: Ezio, man, he's such a freaking goof asking his dad if something's wrong when he beat a bunch of guys up, stole their money, slept with a girl, and caused her dad to send guys to kill him (started playing Assassin's Creed II, by the way.) Unfortunately for him, the Templars are a thing.

Station 794 Lobby, Sector 09

Ukraine, Neo-Soviet Union

July 13, 2062

Tactical Doll AK-47

March 28, 2062

"A-91, where are you?!"

Running through the rubble-filled, flaming hallways of Station 794, AK-47 and MP40 darted from room-to-room, clearing out Sangvis troops whenever they were encountered, but even though the enemy's numbers actually looked to be getting lower, their own numbers were pitifully low too, with only eleven T-Dolls active and only fifteen human employees remaining, including Kalina, who had been trying her very hardest to coordinate a defense but was quickly being overwhelmed as she wasn't formally trained like their now-dead Commander was. And worst of all? A-91 was nowhere to be seen, and their comms were jammed.

"Contact!" MP40 suddenly yelled as a pair of Rippers turned around a corner, firing from her hip and scrapping the Sangvis units with a hail of 9x19 Parabellum rounds.

A Vespid was also with them, but with the tight hallways constricting the android's movement there was no way it could dodge AK-47's own fire, going down with a severely damaged head as the two Griffin Dolls passed by it.

"Okay, we're close to the dorm complexes, so keep your eyes peeled, AK." the German SMG warned as they stopped at the staircase leading down to the dorms, where the two factions fought ferociously for control over the base's sleeping quarters.

"Got it, I'll cover you." the Russian replied, and after making sure nobody would shoot them in the back, the pair slowly descended the steps, carefully looking for the opposition as the sounds of intense combat reached their ears from the bottom of the steps.

"Shit, man down!" someone yelled, and when they reached the bottom of the stairs they saw at least twelve hostile units in the outer halls, firing into one of the dorm rooms while also taking fire from the defenders themselves.

Unfortunately for the Sangvis Dolls there, there were two other Griffin Dolls they hadn't accounted for, and soon, a pair of lit Molotovs burst at their feet and set them ablaze, allowing AK-47 and MP40 to strike them down in the blink of an eye. However, there were more than that, and they soon found themselves under fire from other units down there.

"Damn it!" her ally yelled as she opened fire again, tanking a couple hits but downing a fresh batch of Rippers before her magazine clicked empty, forcing AK-47 to take her place so she could reload safely.

As she shot at the Vespids hiding in the doorways, she identified dorms seven, nine, and four (haha, real funny) as enemy-occupied ones when she saw them running out of them, then into the other dorms, and after dropping the Vespids firing at them from those doors, she reloaded her rifle and turned to dorm seven as MP40 shot down the steps to the dorms, using the dead Sangvis as cover while her AR companion fired at the incoming hostiles from the occupied dorms, missing them but keeping them on their heels as the Griffin operatives closed in.

"A-91, are you in here?!" she called again as she fired upon a hostile Doll, but nothing but gunfire answered her, even as MP40 killed two more Sangvis from her place on the bloodstained floors and darted to another body for cover.

Following suit, AK-47 quickly grabbed ahold of a dead Sangvis as yet another Vespid appeared from dorm four, allowing the dead hostile to eat up every round shot at it as she rushed through the hallway, ramming into the hostile before she executed her with a knife to the throat, before MP40 drew two incendiary grenades from her belt and pulled their pins, throwing them both into the occupied dorm room before ducking behind the wall next to the door.

Following her example, AK-47 pulled and armed an M67 frag grenade given to her by M1911 from her bag and threw it into the room as well, before repositioning to avoid the shrapnel from her ordnance when it blew up.

And a few seconds later, it detonated, sending Sangvis parts flying everywhere within the dorm, clearing it out but rendering it uninhabitable. From where she was, gunfire was still quite audible from one of the higher-numbered dorms and Sangvis forces were rushing into the eighth and tenth ones.

"Dorm number four is clear!" MP40 called out towards whatever Griffin forces were still alive.

"Has anyone seen A-91?!" AK-47 added, shooting at a Vespid as she ran out of dorm nine.

"Check the Data Room!" a survivor yelled at her, prompting her to turn towards dorm nine throwing a grenade into dorm nine's doorway as she headed towards the dorm complex's exit— only to suddenly be fired upon by another Sangvis Doll, a particle bolt striking her midsection and causing her to fall to the ground, barely having enough thought to immediately fire on the hostile before she fired any clean-up shots.

Watching as a Ripper collapsed to the ground from about seven 7.62x39 rounds to the chest, she then tried to get onto her feet again, faltering a bit due to the pain coursing through her damaged torso but still managing it, even as MP40 rushed to her side with a repair foam canister.

"Fuck, this is slowing me down..." she muttered as she tried to push her ally away, but the German wasn't so easily deterred, quickly shoving the canister nozzle into the impact site and squeezing the button— the fierce burn of the repair foam forcing a pained shout from her bloodstained lips as it entered her first truly serious wound since the attack began.

"Okay, that should hold, just don't do anything stupid, okay?"

"Yeah, sure, can we go now?"

MP40 grumbled at her blow-off, but let go all the same as they rushed to the Data Room, hoping there would be something left to save.

Present Day, Five Hours Before Nightfall...

Station 794 hadn't seen as much activity as it was seeing at the current moment since it was attacked back in March. Servicemen were running back and forth to get supplies transferred to where they needed to go, Dolls of all types were standing guard and coordinating preemptive defense efforts, and the air was alive with chatter pertaining to the upcoming defense of the base.

And nobody was more incentivized by it than AK-47.

"Oy, you two, get that damned machine gun in place already!"

"What the fuck are you doing sitting here, mudak?! Those barriers aren't gonna place themselves, you know!"

"That landmine is more exposed than a stripper on a pole! Make sure it's at least six inches under the ground or you'll find my boot parked up your ass!"

After hearing the news of Sangvis' upcoming attack, the blonde Russian had wasted no time in getting her ass in gear and getting the defenses ready for their advance, the memory of the previous attack fresh in her mind as she barked about every obscenity she could think of at the servicemen to get them moving and assisted with the more difficult things that needed to be done, as per the Commander's orders to be a supervisor for them.

And speaking of work, she'd gotten so engrossed in it that she was completely ignorant of the outside world as she oversaw the defenses being set up in the lobby for the Commander, which was quite the far cry from her old days in Griffin.

"Didn't know you were a drill sergeant, AK." someone commented from behind the AR Doll, and it was only the fact that no Sangvis Doll had animal features of any kind that M500 didn't take a 9x18 Makarov round to the chest from how quickly she whipped around to shoot whatever startled her.

"Whoa there, cowboy!" the Shotgun exclaimed as the Russian recognized who she'd held at gunpoint, a quick "sorry" leaving her lips as she holstered her Makarov PM.

"You better be."

"The fuck do you want?" AK-47 snapped at her, returning to her work.

"Someone's got their panties in a bunch..." M500 commented tensely as she lowered her hands.

The AR didn't reply as she scoured the lobby for slackers or something that called for her assistance, then referred to the tablet in her hands as it had a list of tasks displayed on it.

"Oy, I need you two to get that doorway fortified ASAP!" she called out to a pair of guys that entered the room from the courtyard.

"Yes, ma'am!"

As they moved to follow the order she once again referred to her checklist, noticing that the guys rigging the Forward Basecamp with traps needed more mines, and she soon found a couple of guys to get those mines to them and beckoned them to her.

"Go to the armory and get some tripmines for the Basecamp, now!" she ordered, waving them off and looking around the lobby again for slackers.

"What are you doing anyways?" M500 asked, not quite done with bothering her.

"I was told to oversee the defense setups by the Boss." she replied, brushing the dog-girl off as she looked through the checklist.

"And I was asked to check on everyone to see how they were doing, and you look like you're in an absolutely foul mood."

"Didn't know that, Captain Obvious..."

She heard the Shotgun sigh annoyedly at her rudeness, but she didn't care about that, instead noticing that they needed an MG emplacement on the rooftops and assigning one of the Dolls to help with that.

"What is your problem?" she then asked, following her as she attempted to walk away.

"Did you not just spend thirty minutes planning on how to thwart a massive assault on the base?" AK-47 finally told her, lowering her checklist in frustration as she stared down the stubborn Shotgun Doll.

"Did this happen before?"

"It did, and do you know what happened when they hit us the first time?"

In response to the question, M500 predictably shook her head at the AR Doll, who then explained what happened the last time Sangvis Ferri attacked Station 794.

"We lost our Commander in the opening attack, we lost all but a handful of our human employees, and we lost all but seven Dolls— including two of my closest friends, and I got to watch one of them die right in front of me."

"But what about their backups—?"

"They specifically targeted those." the veteran cut her junior off, remembering her anguish as she ran into the Data Room to find Sangvis troops firing on every data server they could find— and that the one containing her and A-91's backups was already smoking and perforated with plasma burns. "Lost her for good because of it."

"Damn... I'm sorry, AK..."

"It's fine." AK-47 said, although she knew that her junior could tell that she just lied.

"You're a terrible liar, you know that?"

"Never was a good liar. Maybe if I was, then I would've been able to convince G36 that I didn't set her dorm room on fire."

That made the dog-girl raise an eyebrow in surprise.

"Look, she stole me and A-91's liquor, and we weren't about to let that slide." the Russian defended herself, throwing her arms up in a defensive manner and causing M500 to have to stifle a laugh.

"Pfft, wow..."

"Anyways, what kind of plan did you cook up with the Boss so we don't die in this place?"

"A pretty good one. Of course, it counts on the enemy not attacking early, but the Commander called on three different Commanders for help, and they all sent a bunch of stuff here to help us out."

"Who are they?" AK-47 couldn't help but ask.

"Kamalov from 737, Shi Jun from 601, and Helianthus from Griffin HQ." the Shotgun dutifully replied, causing AK-47 to freeze up for a moment.

"Hang on, HQ's helping us?" she then asked incredulously, raising her eyebrow in confusion. "Three months ago, they wouldn't have given two shits about us."

"Perks of being AR Team's new home, I guess."

"What about you, or your team, is so goddamned special that three of my friends had to die just so you could be safe and sound within our walls, huh? Why does every-fucking-body bend over backwards for you when shit goes sideways but leave everyone else to suffer when shit hits our fan, huh?! Why in God's name did those fucking bucketheads take an interest in you, and why do we all have to pay for it?!"

And we have AR Team now, so now they have to care about us...

"Either that, or Helian likes our Commander enough to go this far— that's what 601's CO thinks, anyways." M500 shrugged, not sure about it what she heard.

"Think she wants the 'D?'" the Russian asked dryly.

"Maybe."

Considering the rumors circling around that Helian was still a virgin, combined with Kalina's rumors that she went on mixers every weekend, that was more likely than one would like to imagine.

"Disregarding Helian being thirsty, what kind of offensive are we looking at?" AK-47 then asked, returning to the upcoming assault on the base.

"They wanna hit us hard and fast, before we can call for any help, so they'll likely just hit us from one or two directions with everything they've got."

"Their numbers?"

"About 400 units, along with some Jaguars and possibly Nemeums." M500 replied dutifully.

"Typical. They use mortars to pummel our defenses, then send in infantry to mop up everyone else, but at least that's less than what we were hit with back in March." the AR Doll told her junior. "How are we gonna deal with them?"

"HQ lent us FN Squad to deal with the Jaguar teams, and anti-materiel Rifle Dolls will be around to shoot down any Nemeums or armored units they see."

Given that FN Squad was one of Griffin's best elite Doll teams, that was great news to the AR Doll, who began looking around the lobby for more work to do.

"What's your job?" she then asked, stopping her observing for a moment.

"I'm in the quick response teams. Basically, my job is to plug whatever holes Sangvis punches into our defense before they can get too many troops into the perimeter." M500 explained, causing AK-47 to shake her head.

"I know what that is, I've been active since 2055 and serving Griffin since 2058." she told her, causing the dog-girl's eyes to widen for a second.

"Holy shit, you're an old gal..." she murmured, as Dolls could only live for twenty years before their memory caches were full— unless they got an expensive Neural Upgrade to boost their memory cache limit.

"Eh, 1911 and Springy are a good couple years older than me. Anyways, what are they all sending to us to help?"

"Multiple Echelons, mortars with illumination and HE shells, some automated turrets, MGs, etc."

"Sweet..."

As they were talking, two of the newer-hired servicemen soon ran up to the two, and AK-47 turned to them with a flat expression to ask them what bullshit just occured while she was speaking with M500.

"What bullshit just happened?"

"No bullshit, ma'am, we just need a reassignment." the first guy explained.

"Why...?" she asked skeptically.

"We did the jobs you gave us already." the second guy told her in response, and the Doll soon verified this with a look at the security cameras before referring to her checklist once more.

"Good work. Mm, Sten needs help reorganizing the armory so we can store the new supplies, so get to it." she told the two, who quickly saluted and ran off to follow their new orders before she turned back to her ally. "Anything else to note?"

"We're gonna be putting a bunch of mines around the base to halt their advance, and the enemy has a Command Post in use to coordinate their units." the Shotgun replied. "However, it's likely going to be a couple miles away, so it might not be the best idea to go after it unless we can locate it early on..."

"Yup. Anyways, our best bet would probably be to—"

"AK, one of the explosives we were planting detonated prematurely!" a soot-covered servicemen suddenly yelled, running up to the pair.

"What the fuck do you mean, 'detonated prematurely?!'" AK-47 asked threateningly, her icy glare fully locked onto the human employee.

"Not sure, I think it was one of the mines that backfired." he explained hurriedly. "Anyways, it set stuff on fire in the Forward Basecamp and we need your help to put it out!"

"Cyka blyad."

Sighing, the AR passed her tacpad to M500 before she followed the serviceman out of the lobby, ready to clean up whatever stupid mess that got made in the defunct Basecamp.

Tactical Doll M1911

July 13, 2057

"Hold the line! Don't let the bastards gain any ground!"

Ducking behind a concrete roadblock set up in the pathway, the blonde-haired ex-security Doll clad in ACUs clutched her M45A1 in a death grip as round after round smacked her cover, waiting for the revolutionaries to let up for at least a moment so she could fire back at them.

The worst part was that it hadn't even been this way until an hour ago, when she and her mixed Doll-human squad of eleven were just patrolling the outskirts, talking about whatever bullshit crossed their minds, yet here they were with three of their number down and a horde of bloodthirsty revolutionaries descending upon them.

Emerging from cover, the Doll took aim and fired at the nearest hostiles, her shaking hands causing her to miss all but one bullet, which caught a hostile in the skull and killed him instantly, splattering his blood across the wall he was stood by as he died.

Ducking back into cover and cursing her luck, she quickly ejected her magazine and reached for her pouches to replace it, scrambling for a fresh magazine as a round struck one of her human squadmates and sent him tumbling to the ground, clutching the bullet hole in his lower shoulder to try and staunch the bleeding.

Unfortunately, that was all it took for an enemy fighter to cross the barriers and execute the downed soldier before he moved onto the rest of them.

However, he'd forgottem to account for the retrofitted A-Doll crouched next to the man he'd just killed, and he paid for it— and the other American citizens he killed— dearly with a .45 ACP to the skull, dropping dead in an instant as his killer turned her attention to the other rebels assaulting the depot.

Firing three more shots, she was happy to at least hit two of her shots, dropping the revolutionaries that took the bullets before ducking back into cover to avoid their retaliatory shots.

"I need more ammo over here!" someone called out, and the Doll seamlessly chucked an ammo bag at the soldier in question, popping up to return fire again even as the enemy killed another squadmate.

Popping up from cover again, she popped another hostile with a single bullet to the skull, then she fire at another pair as they ran towards their weakened defenses to bypass them, cursing as she heard the signature click of an empty magazine and saw her slide lock back.

"Screw me!" she cursed herself, hurriedly reloading her handgun as fast as she could manage even as a man with a strange-looking vest on himself ran towards their flank with something in his hand, and as soon as the slide of her M45A1 shot back into place she fired a round squarely into his skull, causing him to tumble onto the ground— and suddenly explode, knocking the Doll to the ground with the shockwave thanks to his close distance.

Trying to get back onto her feet, she pointedly ignored the ringing in her ears as she restored her balance and cleared her glitchy vision the best she could, but it was nowhere near fast enough to prevent the revolutionaries from capitalizing on her sector's weakened state, and she soon caught a pair of bullets to the chest for her efforts.

Tumbling to the ground again, she could only watch in vain as the rebels broke through the Army's defense at last, mercilessly slaughtering the worn-out defenders while she lay immobilized on the ground, bloodred coolants leaking onto the concrete under her as she tried to put up one last act of defense, sluggishly raising her handgun and trying to get a bead on at least one of the revolutionaries.

Unfortunately, these ones weren't as sloppy, and she once again got shot for her efforts, hitting the ground much quicker than she got off of it as an enemy fighter approached to claim her life.

The last thing she saw was the muzzle of his rifle, then her world turned to a blackened, empty abyss with the pull of a trigger.

Present Day...

Four Hours Before Nightfall

Currently stationed outside to help coordinate defense efforts in the Commander's stead, M1911 was quite busy, and with the first batch of troops freshly deployed, it was up to her to deal with getting the new blood ready for the fight ahead.

"Oy, you up there, M14?!" she called out to one of the watchtowers, where an M14 Doll was stationed, and soon, the twin-tailed girl in question popped her head out from the observation post.

"We're here, miss!" the Rifle called out with a wave, prompting M1911 to look around for the other person M14's "we" indicated.

"Who else is with you?"

"Just M9!"

Goddamnit...

"Alright, where's the squeaker?" the HG asked dryly, knowing just how annoying M9 Dolls could be thanks to dealing with one earlier in her career.

"Hang on, is that Granny I hear?"

The second that high-pitched, haughty voice reached her ears, the blonde's eyes dulled significantly, and if she were human, she would have most certainly gotten some grey hairs, for this was the very same M9 who torrmented her for a solid year at Griffin's Washington DC HQ before she finally begged enough to get transferred to a base in Europe and escape her.

And now she had followed her here, too? Guess there really was no running from the past.

"How have you been, squeaker?" she asked in the same dry manner she asked M14 with earlier as the dimunitive blonde stuck her head out. "Still fucking shit up and insulting older Dolls like it's nothing?"

"Still going on about how you 'won two World Wars?'"

"I was in three World Wars, actually, but the third was technically a draw and that's just my gun's history, not mine." M1911 shrugged nonchalantly. "But at least I actually served in the Army, unlike your sorry ass who spent her time fighting it and everything we stood for."

"Only so you could kill your own countrymen—"

"M9, shut the fuck up." the HG cut her rival off, her hand wrapped firmly around her handgun's grip as she pulled it out of its holster slightly. Thankfully, the sqeaker took the hint and backed down, knowing just how low she'd just stooped to get at her rival and how stupid it was to piss off such an experienced Doll— especially one who had been her enemy once upon a time.

"So uh, what are you now...?" the red-eyed Doll asked hesitantly even as M1911 let go of her pistol's grip.

"Frontline Combat Echelon One's Leader." she replied curtly, placing her hands on her hips.

"Hang on, you're an Echelon Leader?!"

Internally chuckling at her rival's disbelief, the blonde merely nodded in response.

"You sure as hell aren't..."

The casual comment seemed to irritate the squeaker a bit, but she kept her mouth shut, thankfully. Last thing she needed was another crack about what she did in the Second Civil War.

"Anyways, is there anyone from your batch I need to be talking to?" M1911 asked, changing the topic.

"Um, the Commander told our MP40 to go find you because you knew more about the base than she remembered." M14 replied, shrugging her shoulders.

"Remembered?" the HG repeated, confused by M14's wording.

"She got killed by something, and her backups were destroyed, so IOP had to restore her from partially-corrupted data found in a heavily-damaged Core, so she lost a lot of her memories as a result."

No way...

Much like the majority of 794's old roster, MP40 had been one of the many victims of Sangvis' purge of their backup data, and because of that, she'd assumed that the SMG was gone for good like so many of the others, so the idea of her alive and kicking once more was completely foreign to her.

"Y-You can't be serious... MP40 died here for good..." M1911 muttered disbelievingly.

"Apparently not, because we've had a semi-amnesiac MP40 with us for months, now." M14 replied.

"She's quite strict, too!" M9 called out, causing her rival to cup her chin in thought.

"Sounds in-character, but that's just a preset character trait in her model's Neural Cloud..."

"Anything else you need, M1911?" the Rifle in the watchtower asked, stopping the HG's denials that MP40 had somehow survived both her Core's destruction and the backup-data-purge conducted by Sangvis Ferri and reminding her that she needed to speak with the other new Dolls that came to the base.

"Oh yeah, I gotta find those other Dolls and explain the situation to them." she reminded herself.

"Uh, you haven't even told us yet."

Mentally hitting herself for allowing her hatred of M9 to override her objective, the Doll quickly sent M14 the general strategy she was to follow before waving goodbye to find the other Dolls she needed to speak with.

All she hoped was that she and M9 weren't going to interact that much from that day forwards.

Tactical Doll MP5, Lobby

Three Hours Until Nightfall...

MP5 liked to think she didn't have the capacity to really hate something. As a former childcare Doll, she was programmed to be as encouraging and kind-hearted as possible, without any room for negativity or hatred, to the point that she didn't even hate Sangvis Ferri, just view them as an enemy to fight. So why was it that she was currently feeling the compulsion to get out of her current position and as far away from her current position as fast as she possibly could?

"It's so good to see you again, Ida!"

It was of course, "Big Sis" Vig/StG-940 and her suffocatingly-tight hugs.

"H-Hey, let me go, my entire Echelon's watching!" MP5 yelled embarrassedly, trying in vain to escape the East German's tight grip to no avail while the rest of Echelon One— and G3, a.k.a. Leah— watched it happen with confused expressions— except for Leah, of course.

It didn't help that she was being smothered by those damned milk jugs of Vig's, too.

"Is she gonna be alright...?" she heard M1911 ask carefully, and to her horror Leah replied to her question rather nonchalantly.

"Vig does this all the time with any small-framed Dolls she meets, and she knows sone restraint, so it's fine..." she told the team, causing MP5 to groan angrily at her— even if her face was almost completely obscured.

"Damn you, Leah!"

"And now we know why MP5 wants bigger tits." AK-47 commented dryly, knowing full well of MP5's self-consciousness.

Thankfully, Vig had the sense to let her go, allowing her to breathe easier and glare angrily at her enviously-curvier coworker, who instead went to greet her other teammates.

"Oh, hallo, I didn't notice you there, Leah!" the blonde greeted, pulling the introverted blonde into a tamer hug.

"It's good to see you, Vig..." she told her coworker, hugging her back for a moment before the former childcare Doll broke it off, remembering her personal space. "Anyways, this is M1911, Ida's team leader, and the others are AK-47, FN-49, and Howa Type 64."

Indicating M1911 as she prepared to back away from Vig in case she went to give her a bone-crushing hug, Leah watched as she instead held her hand out for the HG to shake, prompting the Doll to carefully extend her hand to shake it.

"Don't worry, you aren't like me, so she won't crush you in a hug like me." MP5 advised over Zener as her leader shook Vig's hand, pleasantly surprised that she was being more civil to her than MP5.

"What the fuck is her deal with lolis, eh? Do I need to get her sent to the gulag or some shit?"

"She was a childcare Doll before Griffin, so she just loves children and childlike Dolls..." the white-haired SMG replied irritably. "Basically, as long as you aren't my size, you're in the clear."

"And because of that, you want a better frame so she stops harrassing you." M1911 noted as she let go of Vig's hand and allowed her to meet AK-47.

"And so people will take me seriously for once!" MP5 grumbled in irritation, causing M1911 to laugh as AK-47 introduced herself.

"I'm AK-47, but just call me AK for short." the team's only Russian said as she went to shake Vig's hand.

"StG-940, at your service~" the East German AR replied as she shook her hand. "I trust you've been good to Ida while she's been with you?"

"Yup." the oldest Kalashnikov Doll assured. "Excluding the Ringleader encounters, nothing's happened to her over the few months she's been here."

"Ringleaders?"

"SP65 Scarecrow and SP524 Executioner." M1911 replied tensely, the memory of watching her own death from AK-47's point of view in Operation Safeguard rearing its head, undoubtedly. "And I was the lucky gal who got killed by Executioner just a couple days ago."

"Ida too?" Vig asked carefully.

"Right before 1911." AK-47 told her next, sighing heavily.

"Verdammt..."

Before the Doll could say anything else, a new team of Dolls suddenly entered the lobby from the decontamination hall, the primary Support Echelon of Station 737 quickly making their presence known with their predominantly white color schemes, stylized winter uniforms, and old Soviet weapons.

"That would be 737's Dolls..." MP5 muttered, enviously glaring at DP-28 as she led the group through the lobby.

"Oy, quit being jealous, we've got work to do." M1911 reprimanded, whacking MP5 on the head with her hand. "Good to see you again, DP!"

"Likewise!" the MG replied in kind, shaking her fellow leader's hand.

"So, did you bring anybody else here with you?"

"Yes, please say hello to Makarov PM."

Looking past the MG, the white-haired Doll noticed a petite Doll with wild white hair and red eyes clad in a blue uniform, her tall hat increasing her height by a good few inches but her short stature without it ensuring that MP5 wouldn't be alone in getting smothered by Vig.

"Don't you dare touch me, you German dog." Makarov warned with her pistol drawn as Vig went to greet (and innocently smother) her, almost instantly crushing her spirit as she moved closer to the other Soviets.

"Aww..."

"Where are you going?" M1911 asked the Echelon as they beelined for the elevators.

"To the rooftops to help coordinate the defense of this place." Makarov replied loftily. "And if that dog tries to touch me again, I will shoot her."

"What's her problem?" Vig asked, likely not used to such hostility from someone of Makarov's posture.

"She was the personal assistant of a Political Commissar." AK-47 replied irritably. "Me and 74M met her once, and we both think she's a posh little suka..."

"Political Commissar...?" MP5 asked questioningly, unfamiliar with the term due to spending her civilian life in Germany.

"Basically, they're political officers who make sure all the soldiers in the Soviet Armed Forces are thouroughly indoctrinated and loyal to the Party." M1911 replied casually. "Naturally, the United States lacks them, but thanks to the nature of the Bolsheviks' revolutions, they had to make sure nobody had White Army sympathies or anything that could cause trouble down the road, so the Bolsheviks created the position of Commissar to keep everyone in line and loyal to the government."

"Didn't know you knew much about them." AK-47 commented to her friend.

"I also know a lot of them got killed during World War 3." the HG added simply, before pulling a map of the base up. "Anyways, everything's looking good so far, but it looks like Vig's needed at the eastern perimeter."

Nodding in response, the childcare Doll snapped a playful salute before leaving towards her designated location, then M1911 noted the next needed Dolls.

"MP5, G3, AK-47, you're needed for perimeter security, in case our favorite brainlets send guys out early."

"Shit." AK-47 cursed, grabbing ahold of her rifle from it place hanging off her shoulder. "On me, you two."

Bidding her leader farewell, MP5 followed her other senior towards the exit with Leah following closely behind, her steps carefully measured as she strode towards the front door.

"Hey, Leah."

"Hmm?"

"Do you think we'll survive this...?" MP5 asked uncertainly as she walked behind AK-47.

"Of course, we've made it through far worse, schwester." the soft-spoken blonde assured her, reminding her of the numerous incidents they'd been through since they joined Griffin.

"I hope so..."

Passing through the decontamination hall to get outside, the dimunitive Doll couldn't help but feel like everything would go to hell once the enemy began their relentless march on Station 794 once again, but for the sake of everyone counting on her, she didn't let it bother her too much, and simply marched on like everyone else undoubtedly was.

Tactical Doll M1903 Springfield, Station 794 Rooftops

Two Hours Until Nightfall

"It's going to be dark soon... We have to hurry."

Stood atop the rooftops of Station 794's main command building, Springfield carefully scanned the skies for enemy drones of any kind, careful not to let the setting sun blind her as she did so, the few 30.06 bullet casings scattered around her feet telling of the Scouts she'd already downed.

Accompanying her were the Dolls of Station 737, as well as a LWMMG Doll, as they carefully watched over the courtyards in case Sangvis decided to pay them a visit early, and with Station 601's care package and reinforcements due any minute, they would most certainly be joined by their numbers.

"Commander, be advised, we have an incoming supply truck heading our way." LWMMG suddenly warned, and Springfield looked to the ground to see a Griffin-owned supply truck rolling towards the gate rather carefully, and she could easily hear Mosin-Nagant guiding the truck through the minefield laid down by her compatriots.

A slight hum in the air broke her thoughts and alerted her to an aerial drone of sorts, and in the blink of an eye she'd both targeted and destroyed a Scout with unmatched accuracy accumulated through years of constant combat, the Sangvis drone crashing down to the ground with a clean hole through its optic as the graceful Rifle pulled her bolt back to release the spent cartridge.

"And that's what, twenty?" she murmured as she checked her ammunition reserves, noting that she only had twenty-five rounds left to spare before she closed her bolt, sending a new round into the chamber.

Soon, though, the door to the roof opened up and allowed an unnamed individual to step onto it, causing Springfield to turn her head at a sharp angle to see M500 carrying an M2 mortar onto the rooftops, not even bothering to say a word for her as she set the ordnance onto the yellow X-marked station set up for it.

"Did the Support Echelon get here as well?" the Rifle Doll asked, causing the dog-girl to nod at her as she stood up.

"I'll be back in a minute." she told her before running back to the elevator to get down again.

And true to her word, in about a minute (or rather two) she and five other Dolls had returned, the second mortar held comfortably in her arms.

It was clear that these Dolls were 601's Support Echelon members, but the only one that had any interest to her was the wine-haired sniper leading them up, a warm smile gracing her face as she saw her junior again.

"Hello, Wa-chan~" she greeted, immediately catching the elusive WA2000's attention nigh-instantly as she stepped out of the elevator. "Have a good trip here~?"

"Huh— oh, it's you." the sniper muttered, looking to the other Dolls that came with her a they began to set up in their indicated locations. "Spare me the teasing, and where do I need to go?"

As much fun as it was to poke fun at WA2000, they both knew they had a job to do, which was why the Rifle Doll refrained from playing around with her junior and focused on the mission.

"Over there by that corner, overlooking the forest east of our position." she replied, pointing towards the southeastern corner of the main building they were stood on. "You'll have Miss Lem to back you up as well, so don't worry about getting shot up when they start their assault."

Nodding in response, WA2000 immediately took position on the rooftop, laying down onto a mat laid down for her and setting the bipod on her rifle up, sighting her optic in, then getting comfortable in her post.

Activating her Zener Network, she soon called the Commander to report the Station 601 Dolls' arrival and the mortars' placement.

"Good, FN Squad and those sentry guns should be here in about an hour, and I've sent a team out to patrol the perimeter outside the minefield." the Commander replied once she made her report, prompting her to pull her binoculars out to look at the outer perimeter to see AK-47, MP5, and G3 combing through the forests to try and find any Sangvis troops that may have been sent to probe their defenses.

"I see them." she then told him, lowering her binoculars. "How long will they be there?"

"Shouldn't be too much longer, they've already been out there for almost an hour."

"Understood. Anything else?"

"They already found snipers scouting us out, so be careful. Commander Becker out."

As the comms died out, Springfield looked to the rest of the rooftop as the Dolls on it either fine-tuned the mortars' aiming positions, scouted out the area outside the base, or steadily gave new orders to the staff in the dimunitive Makarov's case.

However, there was only one Doll she wanted to speak with on the rooftops, and soon her feet carried her to WA2000's position as she finally got her rifle zeroed in and set up.

"What do you want?" she asked quietly, trying not to upset her focus too much.

"I just wanted to see if you were doing okay back at 601."

"No, it's pretty much SNAFU over there, with my Commander being an idiot who refuses to leave me alone and my teammates being in the same boat. Can't they just leave me alone to do my job?"

"Cut them some slack, I'm sure they just want to get you to be more sociable to them."

"A Doll like myself does not benefit from being a social butterfly, Springfield." WA2000 told her, reminding her of the deadly background her junior came from.

"But being able to behave properly would suit you well in reaching your target, wouldn't it?" Springfield told her. "Say, if you had to infiltrate some kind of gathering, you'd stick out like a sore thumb if you avoided everyone like the plague, so being able to socialize with other partygoers to avoid suspicion before you seamlessly slip to your target and eliminate him would be a useful skill, would it not?"

"A useful skill, ja, but a skill Welrod is more suited to, no doubt."

She couldn't help but agree with the sniper's assessment, knowing just how effective the ex-spy in question was.

"But still, you ought to be a little less reclusive in your downtime."

WA2000 had no reply to that, settling for a grumble as she peered through her scope down into the forests, joined by Mauser C96 as she pulled out a pair of binoculars to survey as well.

"What about you, Springfield? How are you doing here?" the wine-haired Doll then asked her after a moment of silence.

"Fine. I got killed a couple days ago during Operation Safeguard protecting Howa 64, but otherwise, things have been good for me. Lots of new Dolls are coming here and stopping by the Café, we're building our base back up little by little, and our new Commander's shaping up to be one of the best we've ever had."

"Is that so?"

"Mmm-hmm. So why do you stay at 601, if you hate it there so much?"

Again, WA2000 had nothing to say at all, confirming to the Rifle that she didn't hate it there after all.

"Never mind."

Motion in front of the pair alerted her to an unknown bogey, and with the agility and accuracy built up from years of service Springfield brought her ancient rifle to bear and pulled the trigger, sending a 30.06 round straight through a Scout, causing it to crash down to the ground in a graceless heap.

"Good shot..." C96 told her in awe, watching as Springfield rechambered a round into her rifle.

"And that would be number twenty-one... AK, what's your status?" she said as she turned her comms on to address AK-47.

"I'm on my way back, you see anything strange up there?" the AR requested.

"Just some Scouts, trying to get a peek on our defenses."

"Of course. Anyways, me, G3, and MP5'll be back in base soon, so make sure we don't get shot in the back, okay?"

"Don't worry, I'll make sure you get back safely."

Turning the comms off, Springfield looked through the forests surrounding the base with her binoculars to (barely) see the three Dolls in question trekking through the trees and stepping around the landmines they planted in the forest, the darkness of the dusk obscuring their figures due to the distance.

"Hey, Springfield?"

Looking downwards, the Rifle saw her junior looking up at her intently from her prone position, as if she wanted to get something off of her chest.

"Do you remember the day that we first met?" she asked quietly, not wanting C96 to hear her.

"I do. You were even snappier than you are now, and I couldn't even speak to you without you snapping and on one occasion, attempting to stab me with a knife."

She remembered that little fiasco, where WA2000, fresh out of her old job as a contract killer for West Germany, suddenly attempted to kill her due to a part of her old programming being triggered by something she had asked about her. Given her service in the Second Civil War where she saw two years of bloody conflict, she easily countered the assassin's attack, although during that little cat-fight, a "conveniently-placed" box on the floor caused them to tumble and fall to the floor, laying chest-to-chest and unknowingly giving the Commander at the time quite the view.

"I-I was literally advised to have a plan to kill everyone I meet!" WA2000 hissed in response, trying to brush the incident off. "And you were poking into classified information!"

"You were also advised to be polite and be efficient." the brunette countered, and right afterwards, a new voice spoke to them.

"Guess which one you weren't." Mosin-Nagant suddenly cut in, causing the two to look at her as she readjusted her position.

"I was not talking to you, Kommunisten!" the wine-haired sniper snapped at the Soviet, before turning back to Springfield. "Anyways... I just want to thank you for helping me get through those earlier days and acclimate to Griffin... and, I hope I wasn't too much of a bother to you then..."

"You were never a bother to me, dear Wa-chan." the brunette told her, before leaning in and pecking WA2000 on the cheek in a friendly manner— nigh-instantly turning her into a spluttering, red-faced mess, a loud squak answering the senior Rifle as she tried to hide her flushed face from everyone else.

"Y-You are such a dummkopf..." she grumbled at her, embarrassed. "B-But, th-thank you, for not thinking of me as a burden..."

"You're welcome~" Springfield giggled lightly, before shouldering her rifle again and peering down its sights into the forests below. "Also, if you need to get a break from 601 from time to time, you're welcome to come on over here, anytime."

"I'll consider it..."

"Excellent. Anywho, we've got a job to do, so let's not disappoint our Commanders, okay?"

Saying nothing else, the two women simply retook their stations, ready to do their absolute best when the gates of Hell finally opened and they were knee-deep in all of it. They only hoped they'd make it through the night.

Kalina, Station 794 Back Entrance

Approximately One Hour or Less Before Nightfall...

Steadily guiding the supply truck to its destination while making sure they didn't trigger any traps they'd set up, Kalina (who was armed with her AKS-74U but had it hung on a sling) walked backwards at a steady pace as she used hand signals to guide the vehicle to a safe parking spot, the back entrance to the building cluttered with barricades and what not to block off Sangvis Ferri's advance.

Giving a thumbs-up when the vehicle was in the right place, she watched as the engine was shut off and the doors to the truck opened to allow numerous men to get out, two of them carrying a modified M134-turned-sentry gun by its two ends as they went to place the beast of a weapon in its proper position and another approaching her.

"Ma'am, you need to sign this." the man told her, handing her a clipboard, and as she went to sign the document with the provided pen, snuck a momentary sneak peak downward.

Typical. she thought to herself, amused as she signed the document and gave the courier his clipboard back.

"Here you go, we've got the sentry gun positions marked with yellow crosses around the base, but don't wander outside the courtyard, or you might get yourself blown up."

"Well, we wouldn't want that to happen, would we~?" the man shot back, causing Kalina to giggle before sending him away wordlessly.

As the other men came back to grab another M134, Kalina's comms crackled to life in an instant.

"Miss Kalina, be advised, we have a Griffin helo touching down on the primary helipad." one of the servicemen advised. "WA2000 says it's safe, but we'll check it out before it opens it doors up."

"Understood, I'll be right there." the young woman replied, directing a fellow servicemen to assist the truck's personnel in getting the supplies moved before heading back inside to get to the helipad.

...

Making it to the helipad, Kalina quickly took note of the fact that the sun was almost completely set, casting the base in darkness— a darkness the enemy would use to its advantage— as it disappeared under the treeline, and soon turned her attention to the five sharply-dressed Dolls stepping out of the black UH-60 Blackhawk and onto the helipad as some servicemen pulled Dummy pods out of the helo.

The leader of the team had extremely long blonde hair in a right-side ponytail held up by a blue ribbon with a good bit of hair sticking off the other side of her head, warm blue eyes that carefully appraised the base she was to defend, pale skin, slim shoulders, and an extremely curvy body squeezed into a small white dress with a bra built into it that showed off her cleavage quite well, a black cropped jacket with a blue armband on the left sleeve, an FN pin on the lapel, cross-shaped zippers, a red handbag, a kukri sheathed on the small of her back, a single stocking with three symmetrical vent-holes in it, and black flats with blue bows on them, matching ribbons on her ankles and a small pouch strapped to her right thigh. The scoped, silver-furnitured FN FAL she held was a dead giveaway to her identity as the elite FN Squad's leader, as well as the fact that she was the only one acting like a leader in the group.

Her second in command, on the other hand, had similarly long silver hair in a standard ponytail held up by a black bow styled after bunny ears, a triple-four-pointed-starred pin sat in it as well, while gold eyes glared at the team's leader and a pout formed on her small lips. She wore a frilly sleeveless blouse with a black ribbon under a full-sized black jacket with a red ribbon tied around the right sleeve and said sleeves slipping off, a short black skirt with a pouch on it and old Chinese internet emojis on the hem of the blouse, a red belt with FN's logo in gold on it that poked out from the blouse, and black flats, with a strap containing a holster for an FN Five-Seven handgun on it.

The third member of the team was much more modest compared to the others, with short silvery hair and gold eyes, but with a taller frame than her HG lookalike. She wore a white blouse with a mildly-low-cut collar to show her more modest cleavage, a black jacket like her fellow squadmates but with a red line on the hem and the sleeves not slipping off, a black skirt with a red belt featuring a more modernized FN logo on it, a tan bag containing spare magazines, and thigh-high heeled boots with a single stocking on the left leg. She carried an FN Ballista sniper rifle system in her right hand while a falcon rested on her left shoulder and had a more disconnected look to herself compared to her allies.

The fourth member had long, bushy blonde hair and blue eyes with a shorter height than her allies, and wore a two-toned red/black sleeveless top with a silver trim, a matching hat with a silver shield badge bearing FN's logo, a black skirt with a red underlayer and black ammo pouches on the belt, long, black/red gloves with silver lines leading to the hands, thigh-high stockings connected to garters, and black boots with red heels, toes, and upper cuffs. She wielded an FN F2000 assault rifle and simply provided overwatch for her team with a set of binoculars.

And the fifth member of the team? There was only one Doll Kalina knew who had honey-brown hair, violet eyes, a curvy frame, and dressed in blue.

"Oh, howdy, Kalin!" Grizzly Mark V greeted when she saw her, using her preferred nickname.

"Good to see you, Grizzly!" the ginger greeted back, waving at the Doll as the permanent FN Squad members noticed her.

"So this is the base's logistics officer?" FAL asked the HG, who quickly muttered an affirmative, then appraised Kalina. "Gosh, that outfit is a mess, and it has zero class whatsoever!"

"Says the one dressed like a hooker." the brunette Doll snarked at the Belgian elite as Kalina grumbled at the attack on her fashion tastes.

"I think I rather like my 'genki girl' style, thank you very much." she muttered, clutching her tablet tightly.

"Don't worry about her, she just has terrible fashion sense." the Five-Seven Doll told her, earning a "hey!" from her leader. "I'm Five-Seven."

"Logistics officer Kalina, pleased to meet you."

As they shook hands, FAL chose to approach her as well, holding her hand out for the ginger to shake once she was done with Five-Seven, the contrast between the AR's soft, bare hand and the ginger's rougher Oakley-clad hand apparent as they exchanged names.

"Where do we need to be, Miss Kalina?" she then asked, getting straight to business.

"On standby to search for and destroy enemy artillery emplacements in about an hour. I believe the Commander might want to meet you as well."

"Ahh. Leave it to us." FAL told her, before gathering her team up and leaving the helipad, thus leaving Kalina to report their arrival to the Commander.

"Kalina, status report." he beat her to it, asking about her situation.

"HQ just dropped off those sentry guns and FN Squad's onsite." the ginger dutifully replied. "I'm having some of the Dummies they brought set up the sentries, and the other supplies they brought are being stored away."

"Good. It's almost showtime, so hurry it up and get back here."

"Yes, sir. Kalina out."

As she turned the comms off, she was immediately treated to the helo pilot carrying a clipboard and pen, awaiting her sign-off on his cargo.

"Give me a second." she said as she grabbed the clipboard and quickly signed the form on it before handing it back to the man. "There you go."

"Spasibo." he replied before settling in his bird again, and allowing the young woman to head back down the ramp towards the base.

...

After getting past the explosives and traps planted by the servicemen and Dolls defending the base, Kalina found the door to the Command Room open already, with Five-Seven holding a tripwire she'd undone up to let the logistics officer in.

"Thank you kindly." she told the HG as she stepped by her and into the room itself, setting eyes on a fully-kitted Commander as he discussed his plans with FAL, the Doll offering her own insight on their course of action when he wasn't speaking.

"Oh, there you are, Kay-Kay." he greeted once he noticed her.

"Had to get past the traps we set. Anyways, everything's in place, and assuming nothing went wrong, we've got about an hour or two left to spare." she reported to her boss before grabbing a ballistic vest from the racks on the left-side wall.

"Good work. From what our sattelites show, Sangvis hasn't made any indication that they're making their move early, so we do have that hour. Anyways, you and your team are dismissed, FAL."

Nodding in response, the elite Belgian rallied her team and wordlessly departed the room, waiting to replace the tripwire until all their members were safely on the other side of the door, replacing the wire and leaving as the hydraulic door shut on its own, the traps set up shown on the interior side.

"So, what do you think of FAL and her team?" she asked him as the silence set in.

"Mmm, she's kinda stuck-up, and I can't help but feel like she was a prostitute or somethin' like that, given how she dresses, but she's got a good eye for strategy snd she does care for her team..."

"Five-Seven says she just has bad fashion taste, and yet she wasted no time calling my outfit 'classless.' Well, maybe it's not high-fashion or whatever, but it suits me just fine!"

"You're lucky it wasn't Sergeant Holland or one of the other officers I knew who insulted your outfit." the Commander smirked at her before turning his gaze to the map he'd had projected. "Sure, Shi Jun probably loves that he can freely look south, if you get my drift, and Hanover would just calmly tell you to find something more professional, but if Holland, the Sergeant Major, or the guys in charge of my old base saw you? Hoo, ten bucks say you'd go deaf within the hour, and this is coming from a guy who got to hear endless artillery fire and gunfire for a whole month, by the way."

"They sound like a bunch of hardasses." the ginger remarked.

"Trust me, they are. Or were, I dunno what happened to them all after the Moscow operation failed." he added regretfully. "The two NCOs are probably dead, and the higher-ups are probably sat safely somewhere in DC without a care in the world."

"Typical. That's why I hate military officers so much." Kalina said, sighing as she removed her jacket to put on her vest, revealing that her button-up shirt was short-sleeved in the process. "Use the soldier, disregard the veteran, as they always say. Anyways, anything you want to discuss before the Gates of Hell open?"

The Commander waited a good long moment before he replied, turning to her as he spoke.

"I'm pretty sure there's nothing I can do about improving the plan, but assuming we end up dying here, it might be good to get some shit off our chests."

Seeing as the Commander had opened up to her before about his past, even if it was just a little bit, it only felt right for her to do the same, the thought causing her to nod in response to his statement.

"First things first, what's up with the company's slogan, 'a shining beacon in a brave new world?' Isn't it a bit tall for a mere PMC?" he inquired first, a basic, very non-personal question in general.

"I think it belonged to an old political party at first, but Kryuger repurposed it into what it is today..."

"Going from an old political party to a group of gun-toting mercs... I remember that old slogan now."

"What was it about?"

"The people who used it followed an ideology called Rossartrism, the belief that humankind would never recover from this whole Collapse mess unless it got over its grudges and formed a single world government that ran on global cooperation and equal resource allocation. A child's dream, surely, but one many people believed in. The slogan was meant to represent how they would lead the world to prosperity through their enlightened beliefs."

"Oh, I see..."

"So how'd you wind up with Griffin?" he asked next, drumming his fingers on the table.

"It's a long story..." the young woman trailed off, causing her Commander to take a look at his watch.

"Well, we've got an hour before all hell breaks loose, so fire away." he told her, causing her to take a deep breath, then begin her story.

"For starters, my early life... kind of sucked. Sure, my parents loved me with all their hearts, but with the War in full swing, life in Moscow was downright miserable, and oftentimes we'd wind up with nothing to eat because the supply shipments never reached their destinations. But even then, we always found ways to make ends meet."

She felt tears well up in her eyes as one of the worst moments of her life made itself known, but she chose to push them down, until at the very least she could finish her sad tale.

"But then, three days before Moscow was attacked, numerous riots broke out all over the city, and my mom and dad were coming home from work, and at the end of it all... they were just... gone..."

Despite her attempts to keep them from flowing, her tears managed to make themselves known anyways, silently dripping down her face as she retold the tale of her parents' deaths and causing the Commander to wordlessly draw a tissue from a nearby box to give to her. Taking it and drying her cheeks off, she willed herself to continue her story anyways.

"A-After that, as well as the attack on Moscow, my life quickly went down the gutter, and before I knew it, I had already been forced to take up petty crime to make ends meet— pickpocketing, delivering unmarked packages for shady characters, and o-other things..."

"And somewhere around then, you found Griffin?" he asked her after she refused to speak any further, causing her to shake her head in response.

"No, Kryuger found me..." she replied, the wording also enough to tell him what she meant. "It was at dawn, I think, and I had been huddled up in this old jacket with some bloodstains on it because it was cold and my clothes had been tattered, but that doesn't matter. What does matter was that the 'Hero of Libya' showed pity to me, a little street rat who stole from hardworking people just to survive, and offered me a place in his company... Well, Griffin was much smaller than it is now, nor was it as famous, but despite that, the thought of honest work, of never having to spend my days living like a rat ever again, it was irresistable to me, so, I took his offer..."

Commander Ian Becker

"...and now you're here."

When he suggested that he and Kalina share some stories from their pasts before the attack on 794 commenced, Ian most certainly didn't expect to learn just how screwed up his chipper logistics officer's pre-Griffin life was, when he only asked how she wound up with Griffin. Honestly, he felt bad for bringing those memories to the forefront of her mind.

"And now I'm here." the young woman confirmed softly, looking down at her gloved hands as a tear slipped down her eye.

"Damn. For what it's worth, I'm sorry you had to go through that." the Commander told her, carefully pulling her into a hug.

"It's okay..." she told him in response, a faint smile curling at her lips over the concern he showed. "Thanks to Griffin, I have a place to call home, people to call family... and most importantly, a purpose..."

Purpose. It was something he'd lacked for years, ever since German reunification ruined his plan to cross the Iron Curtain and rendevous with Bundeswehr forces on the other side. And as it turned out, he wasn't the only one to find a new purpose in Griffin, the thought making him wonder just how many of its employees had been social outcasts or just plain unlucky in life.

"Purpose, huh...? Think I found mine here, too." he told her, looking down at the girl in his arms fondly.

"You have...?"

"Yeah. Get rid of Sangvis, give the people of the Soviet Bloc the safety their government should be giving them, then go home and find whatever's left of my family."

"I'm glad to hear that..." she replied softly.

He initially didn't have anything he wanted to say, instead opting to run the sides of his fingers along the side of Kalina's head, gently stroking her silky hair with his gloved hand for a bit before he let go of her altogether.

"Anything you want to know about me, then?" he asked her.

"Mm, how come you were so friendly to us from your first day here? Griffin staff from Sector 07's primary base reported that their Commander attempted to have their emotion modules removed for the sake of 'operational efficiency—'"

"What the fuck did you just tell me?!" Ian cut his logistics officer off, facepalming in response to her words when she repeated then. "If I make it out of here alive, you and I are gonna have some words, buddy..."

I get that the Dolls you commanded were of the inhuman variety, but that does not give you an excuse to rip the emotion modules out of the humanlike ones!

"Anyways, to answer your question, I once worked with a Doll team before, back in World War 3."

"You did...?"

"Yeah. Back in 2050, my squad and others from Charlie Company were tasked with providing support for some kind of spec-ops team from the 75th Ranger Regiment, called Daybreak."

"So you're saying you worked with Daybreak Squad, as in, the very best Doll team the United States had to offer?" Kalina asked incredulously, showing that Daybreak Squad's notoriety had reached international levels.

"The very same, I remember just how much our people talked about them back in the day. Of course, I don't think we were supposed to come into close contact with Daybreak during our operation, but I don't have a good track record when it comes to things going as planned, so we ended up having to be right behind them to hold off a sizeable formation of very pissed off Soviets." the Commander told Kalina as he recalled the memories of his time in Poland, where those operations took place. "Nobody was killed, thank God for that, and despite what one might think, I got along with Daybreak's members pretty well after that, and the rest of my squad were friendly with them to an extent. Always found it funny how Sophia was jealous of Aliana, though..."

"Aliana?"

"The leader's name. She was this cute blonde lady, wasn't the best at socializing, but I think that's what let us bond like we did, since we were both kind of awkward outside of professional matters." the veteran told his subordinate, causing him to reach for his phone and pull it out of his pocket, going to the gallery, them to an album titled "WW3-era Stuff" and looking for a good picture of him and Aliana.

A picture he soon found, tapping it to bring it up to fullscreen before showing it to Kalina. Standing prominently on the left side was his younger, grime-coated self, clad in his ACUs and in full kit while he grinned madly and made a peace sign with his gloved right hand. To his left was a beautiful blonde woman with a beanie on her head, orange-tinted shooting glasses to cover her blue eyes, her hair in a bun, and an ACU setup with the signature kit of a US Army Ranger, a customized SCAR-L hanging off a sling to contrast the Private First Class' trusty M4A1. Unlike him, she was more reserved than him, but her gentle smile betrayed her true feelings in the moment, while a slightly ticked-off Sophia glared at her slightly from behind them.

"Hang on, is this that Sophia girl you mentioned?" Kalina couldn't help but ask, pointing at the soldier in question.

"The one and only." he replied to her. "Sweetest person I ever knew, unless you were a Soviet, and she was practically the team mom of Charlie 3-1— that's our squad designation, by the way, or rather, Sarge's designation. Her family took me in when my mom and dad died, and we both joined up for the same reason— revenge."

"What happened to Sophia? Could she still be alive—?"

"No."

The atmosphere changed instantly as he cut the ginger off, uncomfortable memories forcing their way back into the forefront of his mind as he mercilessly crushed her optimism.

"What do you mean...?"

"She died a long time ago. Right in front of me, too." he continued quietly as he shut his phone off and set it down, minding his voice lest he snap at Kalina again. "You see, we were betrayed in Kiev, by one of the Ukrainian officers who we were supposed to be helping, and he sold us and the militias out to the Soviets in exchange for a position within their government. So he was nice and safe back in our main base, while the Soviets were systematically wiping out every last resistance cell and US Army foothold in the eastern sectors of the country, and I got to watch as my closest friend was struck down— then I got to completely fail to save her..."

He was still regulating his tone as heavily as possible, but that didn't stop his pain from making itself known, from how slowly he spoke to how his shoulders were slightly slumped down as he leaned on the holotable.

"I remember everything that happened that day. Every word spoken, every bullet fired, every life taken. I remember how she collapsed like a marionette with its strings cut when that soldier shot her, how I couldn't do anything to stop the bleeding, but more than anything, I remember the last words she ever spoke to me."

Ukrainian Liberation Front Safe House

Kiev, Ukraine, Late 2050

"Whoops... looks like I fucked up bigtime..."

After dragging her to a secluded area within their compromised safe house in Kiev, a civilian-disguised Ian— a Private First Class in the US Army— quickly ripped away at his wounded friend's shirt buttons, hurried in his attempts to get to those wounds and patch them up, even as gunfire sounded off right outside their door— a sign that the Ukrainian rebel that had followed the pair to guard them was undoubtedly fighting at the moment.

"Don't go saying shit like that, Soph." Ian barked at her as he pulled her white button-up shirt open, wincing sharply as five different bullet wounds came into view, closely grouped around her midsection and all bleeding profusely.

"Oh fuck, this is bad..." he muttered, before he immediately got to work, pulling his belt off to make use of it as a makeshift torniquet and wrapping it around her torso, making sure to place it an inch or two above her wounds and tighten it as much as he possibly could to ensure the bleeding would at least slow down, ripping a pained yelp from the redhead's throat.

Unfortunately, she had already spent enough time losing blood to become pale and sickly-looking, and whether because the damage done was too severe or he didn't secure the belt right, it was still bleeding enough to threaten her life.

"Shit, shit, shit..." he muttered to himself, his admittedly terrible first-aid capabilities coming back to bite him as he only knew what he learned back in his One Station Unit Training.

"Is it not stopping...?"

"Uh, it's slowed a bit..." the Rifleman quickly lied, immediately applying pressure to the wounds with both his hands. "You're going to be okay, I promise..."

"...that's kinda hollow, isn't it...?" Sophia snarked weakly, shaking her head ruefully. "That's what the hero always tells his partner when they're about to die..."

"Oy, don't talk."

"Like that'll do anything, I'm already fucked..."

"Nasha ochered' razryvayetsya, potoropites'!" the rebel outside their door yelled at them in Russian (as Ian understood it, but not Ukrainian,) punctuating her statement with a salvo of gunfire undoubtedly aimed at the Soviets.

"K vrachu, bystro!" Ian yelled back at her, before returning his attention to Sophia, pushing down on her wounds desperately and feeling her warm blood seep through the gaps between his fingers. "No, no, no, no, no, no...!"

Again, because he didn't have enough time, good enough medical expertise, or the right equipment, there was virtually no way to save her, and because she'd lost so much blood already, she'd be joining his parents sooner than later— a fact he was acutely shown as she nearly passed out from losing so much blood.

"Hey, hey, HEY!" the Rifleman shouted as he gave her cheek a quick slap, preventing her from falling unconscious as fresh tears began to stream down his face. "We're gonna get you some help, so don't die on me now!"

"N-No, you need to go..." the redhead muttered, trying in vain to push him away so he could save himself— an idea he was NOT on board with. "I'm not gonna let you die because of me..."

"Fuck that shit, I ain't leaving without you, and that's final!" he shouted at her, maintaining pressure on the injury to no avail.

"L-Look at me, Ian..." the nearly-dead soldier slumped against the wall in front of him ordered, causing him to look at her bruised face, her teeth clenched as she endured the pain she was undoubtedly feeling. "I'm not gonna live to see another sunrise... so listen closely..."

The Private First Class complied, and as soon as she was sure he was listening to her, she made her final requests to him.

"Promise me... that you're gonna live through this... and win this fucking war, got it...?" she breathed out, her breathing labored and her voice weak. "And when it's over... find your sister, and get your life back on track... Can you do that for me...?"

Doing his best to maintain his composure, Ian nodded to her quickly, shaking like a leaf in the process as his closest friend struggled to remain conscious.

"Y-Yeah, I got it..."

"Good..."

Then, with the last of her strength, she grabbed ahold of his jacket, pulling him forwards until her bloodstained lips crashed against his own, thouroughly surprising him with the action and causing him to freeze up in the process. However, as soon as the moment began, it abruptly ended, with only one thing being said to him as Sophia Autumn finally succumbed to her wounds and her body fell limp beneath him.

"Thank you... and goodbye..."

Present Day

Station 794 Command Room

"Reinforcements from the Army eventually arrived, but they were too late to save anyone but a few of us. Thankfully, the Ukrainians learned of their guy's betrayal and they took care of him before we lost all our bases— as in interrogated him then executed him via a firing squad— but even then, they were far too slow to get to him before he sold us out, we were cut off from our bases in Poland and Germany, and the first friend I ever was dead, without any chance to do anything about it..."

Wiping unshed tears from his eyes with his sleeve, the Commander turned his head away from Kalina, who had looked like she was two steps shy of pulling him into a bone-crushing hug, looking back to the holographic map on the holotable as he let out a long sigh.

"As you know, to win a war, you need resources, good strategy, support, and time." he continued quietly. "We had the strategy, but with our loss of the Ukraine bases and our 'coincidential' loss of NATO support, the rising of Rossartrism back in the States, and bullshit with the higher-ups, we naturally were unable to take Moscow and force the Party to surrender. So when we were ordered to retreat, a good bit of us were ordered to cover the retreat, and guess what side I was on?"

Kalina said nothing, but he knew she understood what he meant anyways.

"I spent eleven years running after that. My original plan was to cross the Iron Curtain by posing as a German, then reunite with the Bundeswehr and get a plane ride back to the States, but I was unable to get there before the Reunification happened..." he told her irritably, his bitterness flaring up a bit. "When I tried, I got ran out of the country almost instantly... So I spent the rest of my days living in the wilds or in less-developed Green Zones, keeping my identity a secret and moving places constantly while putting my trust in no-one."

"That couldn't have been good for your mental health..." the ginger told him softly.

"It wasn't." Ian confirmed flatly. "I even considered eating a bullet a few times, but something always made me stop at the last second... I dunno why, considering how little I had to live for in those days— I mean, I let my battle buddy* die, we practically lost the War, both my paternal and adopted families were dead, and I was out of work in a hostile country that was all-too happy to use POWs as slave labor. I'm not exactly religious, you see, but all I can guess is that there was a reason I had to keep living, some divine plan I needed to partake in later in life."

Knowing full well ending up at Griffin was probably caused by divine intervention and not mere circumstance, he couldn't help but let out a sour little laugh.

"Damn shame I had to lose everyone I cared about in the process..."

There was the bone-crushing hug. Her solid armor plate got in the way of it, but there was no mistaking the intent behind her action as her arms wrapped around him and tightened, or as she leaned her head on his chest and she closed her eyes sympathetically.

"I'm so, so sorry that you had to go through that..."

"It's fine—"

"No, it's not...! Nobody should ever lose as much as you did...!" she tearfully declared, hugging him tighter.

No, nobody should ever have to lose their parents and surrogate family to ELID and war, have to rush through artillery fire and kill fifty or more human beings simply because their flags were different, have to witness their own army be torn apart by machines, or spend eleven whole years trapped in Europe with no way home and a certain union of Communist states out for their blood, but that's exactly what happened to him.

And look how I turned out...

Silently returning the hug, he finally let the tears roll, streaming down his cheeks and silently dripping off of them and into Kalina's hair as he rubbed her back soothingly. Normally, he had reservations about getting too close to people like this, but the people here just seemed to have a way of worming themselves into his heart that made it impossible not to do so.

And now he was in danger of losing them all not even a month after meeting them.

"It's okay, Komandir, let it out..." she told him, holding him tightly as he shed his tears and let his sorrows drain away in her embrace, the nostalgic feeling he got one he couldn't shake.

Unfortunately, all good things had to come to an end, and soon, a series of quick knocks resounded on the door, causing Kalina to reluctantly disengage from their embrace and walk to the automatic door, undoing the tripwires and shutting off the motion-triggered traps before pressing a button on a small keypad to make the door slide open— revealing M4A1 and M4 SOPMOD II on the other side, the former still wearing her ACUs.

Quickly wiping away the tears on his face before they saw them, the Commander collected himself once more and faced the two AR Team members as they entered the Command Room.

"What is it, M4?" he asked the team leader.

"You told us to report back to you when we completed preparations for the defense." M4A1 told him. "So, we're reporting back."

"You really know your stuff, Commander!" SOPMOD complimented cheerily, taking a look at his map to see the defenses from his point of view. "Unless they sent more Sangvis heading this way, this thing should be a piece of cake!"

"Doubt it. I don't exactly have a good tract record of 'things going to plan,' you see." Ian told the excitable Doll who had nearly ripped his arm off trying to get him into the Blackhawk to extract him out of the base. "But sure, if they don't deploy more troops than you saw, then we're good."

"Commander, what do you want us to do...?"

Looking to M4A1, he readily gave his reply to her.

"Get into a helo with SOPMOD, don't get shot down, and scout around for a possible Command Post while relaying any enemy artillery positions you find for FN Squad to take them down, we discussed this."

"R-Right..." the timid Doll murmured, looking at the map like SOPMOD was with a thoughtful look on her face. "Are you sure this will hold, though?"

"We spent an hour discussing this, M4." he told her reassuringly. "I'm sure it'll hold."

"Should you make sure everyone's in position, then, so nobody's caught with their pants down?"

Nodding in response, the Commander quickly opened comms channels to each defense section in play.

"Eastern perimeter unit, what's your status?"

"Some of us are kinda tired, but we're still in good condition, sir." M1911 replied, sounding somewhat strained.

"Go get a Monster or one of those energy bars IOP makes for y'all, then. Rooftop defenders, status?"

"Stellar, Commander. Be advised, I'm seeing a build-up of enemy units on our eastern flank." Springfield warned him, giving him a live feed view to let him see Rippers and Vespids slowly trickly into position at the edge of their territory.

"Got it, means the show's gonna start soon." he replied. "Western perimeter?"

"We're quite eager to face the enemy." Type 56-1 replied.

"That's enough for me. QRF 1, what's your status?"

"Ready to spring at a moment's notice, Commander." M500 replied.

"Good. QRF 2?"

"Top-notch, and ready to kick some ass." Cheeto replied, no longer in his garage as his combat skills were needed and not his driving ones.

"That's what I like to hear. Interior defenders?"

"We're good, but the newer hires are a little nervous." Luka replied to him.

"Give 'em a pep talk, then. FN Squad, status?"

"Ready to execute the mission, Commander." FAL replied loftily on her end. "Just waiting for AR Team to do their thing."

"Got it. M4, SOPMOD, that's your cue." he directed to the AR Team members before returning his attention to the holotable. "Makarov, status?"

"Ready to help you command our forces to victory, Comrade Commander~" the imperious HG Doll told him.

"Alrighty, then. 601 Dolls?"

"All of our field assets are accounted for, over." WA2000 curtly responded.

"Looks like we're all good. Everyone hold position and do as your section commanders tell you. Commander Becker out."

Shutting off the comms link to each channel, he looked up to see that SOPMOD had left the room, but M4A1 had remained in the doorway, looking like she wanted to tell him something.

"What is it?" he asked her, prompting her to speak.

"I just wanted to tell you that... i-if we don't make it out of here... then, I'm very glad to have met you..."

Before he could say anything back to her, she quickly crossed the distance, planted her lips on his right cheek, and kept them there, thoroughly freezing him up and causing his eyes to widen quizzically.

Jesus, woman, how fast did you fall for me? he couldn't help but wonder as the timid AR Doll broke off the kiss and stepped back, red in the face as she left without a word, a small trail of steam billowing from her ears and showing just how hot her face got.

"Looks like someone's getting popular~" his logistics officer sang, snickering. At least she wasn't the jealous type.

"And she literally only knew me for three days." he added as he rubbed his cheek absentmindedly. "Then again, there's nothing saying you can't fall for someone in the matter of a couple days— or two months, for that matter."

"Oh, like 1911?" Kalina knowingly pointed out.

Naturally, he knew the girl had to be in love with him to some degree, seeing how clingy she got if another girl huddled up next to him (M4A1, in general) or kissed him on the cheek (AK-47, after he made her feel a bit better about herself.) Although, unfortunately for her, he didn't really feel the same, only seeing her as a good friend who helped him get a job at Griffin, and he was also not keen on the idea of dating a subordinate— even if Griffin and Kryuger allowed it for some reason.

Sure, he and Sophia may have been a bit too close for his Sergeant Major's tastes, but they were the same rank, and neither of them were officers, so they felt that the only harm there could be was the grief one would go through if one died— and Sophia had certainly died.

"She really can't hide it, can she?" he commented, returning to the holotable to scan for hostile signals— although signal jammers were likely in place to prevent that advantage from being utilized. "In any case, I can't exactly date her, since that could cause complications for our professional relationships."

"Yet the biggest hardass we ever had let himself get engaged to a subordinate."

Suddenly remembering that Prokhorov had indeed been in a relationship with G36, he chose to ask about the legality of such a thing.

"Is that even legal?"

"It is, surprisingly enough, but HQ prefers not to hear about it and you need to maintain a clear line between your professional and personal lives." Kalina replied. "I think that first bit's just because Helian's still a virgin and she gets all green with envy whenever she hears about her subordinates enjoying their own relationships, though."

"Huh." he hummed, taking the information in.

So if he wanted, he could legally date anyone here... Yet, even without the legal trouble in the way, it seemed like quite a bad idea, as fraternization with those of different ranks was banned by militaries specifically because they didn't want anyone getting special favors or have officers hesitate to send particular troops out to the field because they liked them for unprofessional reasons.

Although seeing as most Dolls could be brought back to life, that last bit wasn't so troublesome. And so far, everything about the company excluding Sub-Director Helianthus and Director Berezovich Kryuger (who he hadn't met yet) was anything but professional.

He could easily see why AK-74M prefered the New Soviet Ground Forces in that regard, and he was sure Aliana liked the US Army for the same reason.

"As uh, intriguing as that info is, we've got more pressing matters at hand." he reminded Kalina— just as a distant explosion went off on the outskirts of the eastern base perimeter.

"Rooftop defenders, report." the Commander quickly ordered, wanting to ensure that explosion was indeed caused by the enemy.

"The enemy's bombarding our eastern perimeter!" Springfield reported dutifully, just as plasma-based explosions went off in the eastern courtyard, missing the defenders by a good bit but causing the ground to shake and some of the Dolls on the ground to shake with it.

"Eastern perimeter Dolls, status report!"

"Bastards missed us worse than Church." a cheeky M1911 replied from her dug-in trench, referring to Red vs Blue's one and only Leonard Church, who was prone to having very terrible aim.

Then again, he does show why bipods are put onto anti-materiel rifles in the first place.

"Haha. Brace yourselves and get ready, if they're bombing us now, it means you're about to be knee-deep in hell." he told her. "M4, FAL, are you in the air yet?"

"Yes, sir!" M4A1 answered for both of them. "We've got the general coordinates for those Jaguar shots, but it looks like some of them... misfired...?"

"Misfired?" Ian quickly asked, raising an eyebrow. "Care to elaborate?"

"One of the crews' Jaguars launched a payload that landed right in front of itself." FAL replied loftly. "At this rate, you may not even need us to take the mortar crews out, seeing as they can do it themselves well enough~"

That instantly caused the Commander to chuckle heartily, shaking his head at the Doll's statement.

"I doubt they're all impotent, so keep your eyes peeled for other launches." he warned. "M14, SASS, you two see anything?"

"We can't see too well in the dark, Commander, so we don't know." M14 replied, that weird habit of using plural pronouns making itself known again.

"Got enemy infantry moving into position around the northeastern perimeter, waiting for a signal to attack, by the looks of it." SASS replied, the sounds of mortar impacts perservering despite their apparent misfires. "And seeing as they're bombarding us at the moment, that's gonna happen sooner or later."

"Figured."

Looking at the clock, he was annoyed to see that it was just 7:45, about fifteen minutes before 8:00, which meant they were attempting to pummel them with mortar fire a little bit before they attacked, not only during the attack. Then again, that's what common sense would dictate, and he knew Sangvis had the resources and battery power to spare.

However, he'd anticipated they'd do this (plus, Jaguars couldn't do much against reinforced structures like the main building and watchtowers, unlike the vastly more powerful Nemeum,) so he wasn't too bothered by this. So with that in mind, he gave his troops a general reminder to dig in and stay put before referring to his map.

Thankfully, it looked like FN Squad was already en-route to one of the mortar positions, which left him one less Jaguar group to worry about, although there were still more to worry about, as well as possible Nemeums and whatever troop types got deployed to destroy Station 794. He had a good plan, though, so that wasn't as much of a worry, he felt.

Basically, the plan was this: keep Sangvis Ferri away from the main building through the use of landmines, M2 mortars, and home-made bombardier drones, while using QRFs, ambushes, snipers, and traps to deal with anyone who gets inside the outer walls. Additionally, use two separate strike forces to neutralize enemy artillery (FN Squad) and the enemy Command Post/Ringleader (AR Team plus some human commandos from HQ to bolster them, if possible,) and abuse the shit out of ambushes/traps for those lucky bastards who get inside the building.

Pretty sound plan on paper, but no plan survived first contact with the enemy, so naturally, he would have to improvise and exploit Sangvis' weaknesses as much as possible if he wanted to survive and beat them.

Oh, and avoid dying in the opening strike, too.

"Are you okay?" Kalina asked him, noticing his furrowed brows as he looked at the map of Station 794.

"Yeah, just going over things one last time." he replied offhandedly. "You?"

"As fine as I can be..." the beautiful ginger replied, sounding a bit off.

"I doubt that. Hey, if we make it out of this alive, I'll take you someplace nice when I can. Deal?" Ian offered kindheartedly, causing her to brighten up a bit and gain a cute little smirk.

"Better hope you have deep pockets then, because I'm the kinda girl who likes to be spoiled~" she purred as she took her station at the table, making him wonder if it would end well for his wallet.

Filing that into his "don't know" category, he instead thought to what he did know: that the next few hours would be his hardest ones at Griffin yet, and that there was no running from it. For the sake of everyone he ever cared about, no matter their current status, a part of him could only hope he would be capable enough of getting through the night.

The other part, on the other hand, looked forward to every last second of this fight.

After six lonh, grueling months, I present to you my latest GFL: R chapter. After this, I get to finally write about the actual assault on Station 794 that constitutes early Chapter 03 and focus on my new projects, like the GFL: Recollection rewrite project, GFL: War, SAO: Origin Story Redux, and the SAO: Wolfpack of the Frontlines story.

Thankfully, my tablet will lose its asinine restrictions this October, meaning I will have a lot more time to write, draw, and whatever other shit I gotta do.

Also, for those who put out ADL commissions for me, sorry I haven't finished any of them, but I don't have the time to do so for the most part, but after this October, I'll be putting more progress into it. (A VSK-94 commission's pretty close to done, so look forward to that.)

I'll see you next chapter!