"Commander?" Kalina stuck her head into the office. He looked up, eyes shadowed by the low light, before a wave of a hand brought the lights back up a livable level. She still didn't know how he coped with working in low light, but also hadn't found the guts to ask.

"Another weird delivery?" Resignation, with a tinge of amusement colored his tone. They'd had this conversation far too many times now, and Kalina wasn't sure how to feel

"No. Or, not exactly." Kalina shook her head. "Just a message this time." She held out the envelope. "A letter?" Just for a moment, she seemed to be looking at a different person, as his eyes darkened, a brief flare of fury and fire vanishing just as fast as it appeared. Why a simple letter would produce that reaction she couldn't say. "No sender, no return address?" Taking the envelope, the Commander pulled a pocket knife, opening it and reading quickly.

"Just arrived with the newest shipment?" She nodded, watching the swirling emotions. "Huh." It takes Kalina a moment to realize that she was witnessing the rare act of her boss being completely stumped. His mouth worked without forming words, eyes darting side to side as he thought, leaning back in the chair, hands folding as he did so.

"Good or bad news?" Kalina ventured the question, unsure if it would be of any use. If nothing else, she'd have something good to add to the gossip on base.

The Commander hummed, focusing in on her again. From the look on his face, Kalina couldn't pick out many answers. "I don't know. For now, I'll venture that it is at least, not a bad thing."

Kalina debated with herself for a moment, as pointing out how this was entirely out of character for him seemed like a dangerous road. "If you say so."

A pause, his expression softening a bit. "Kalina, you can tell my head is up my ass."

"I could." She agreed, recognizing the tease for what it was. "But that means I'd need to know it actually is up your ass more than usual." He laughed, shaking his head.

"Point." Setting the letter down, the Commander quieted again. "This is merely a request to keep someone in mind if I have anything that needs doing." He tapped the page. "If you have time, look into this 'Seir' for me. I know who she represents, but not a thing about her."

"Should I ask who she represents?" Kalina figured it couldn't hurt to ask. "And a place to start." A look told her the first part wasn't going to happen.

"Best guess, Austria, possibly Slovakia." Kalina scrutinized him for a second, before resisting the urge to throw up her hands. How he came to that conclusion she didn't know, but if she asked the answer would undoubtedly be infuriating.

-Faded Glory-

Honey Badger didn't really expect the entire base to turn out to this little get together. They were loosely organized by Echelons, with the notable exception of KSG, and the human staff. KSG, simply being missing and the human staff gathered in the corner talking in low voices. A few other pairs had formed, PP-2000 and Ballista were chatting in the back, and AK-74M was talking to M16.

"You've gone and done it." Alfa nudged MG4 in the side. To Honey Badger's surprise there wasn't a sharp retort, or even a major visible reaction, instead MG4 shrugged, without a verbal reply. "I can't decide if she's mad at you or not, you know."

"She's not." MG4 shook her head. "Well, maybe a little, but it's the annoyed she gets when she has to do extra work, even though it's the sort of work that she does best." Honey Badger wanted to ask how MG4 knew that, as well as what it even meant, but she got the feeling that she'd be told to

"Maybe." Alfa shook her head. "That's the thing about her, isn't it? You'll never know, until you do."

SRS, mercifully, asked the question so Honey Badger didn't have to. "What do you mean?"

"KSG." Alfa hummed, eyes flickering over to the two of them. "Perfectly calm, right up until she's not."

"It's quite funny." MG4 didn't sound like it was funny, but Honey Badger wouldn't question it. Then again, all of them had a weird sense of humor. She caught SRS's eyes, the sniper mustering only a shrug.

"Then again, she's mellowed out." Alfa's smile struck Honey Badger as fond. "Can you imagine?"

"Mellowed out?" SRS asked again.

Both the other dolls nodded. "Quite a bit. You'll get to hear, I'm sure."

Before Honey Badger could ask what that meant, KSG and the Commander entered the room, locked in a discussion about logistics and patrol schedules. It all sounded quite boring, but a short glance around revealed every set of eyes locked on the pair, who completely ignored them. This continued for a minute, before MG4 cleared her throat, cutting off what might have been a fascinating talk about rations.

Eyes flickering to the room at large the Commander's lips thinned. "Submit the plan and I'll look it over." Smoothly melting away, he might have pulled it off except that KSG glared at him the whole way.

"Typical." KSG took a moment to assess the rest of the room, meeting each set of eyes in turn. "Right." A deep breath followed, and for the first time, Honey Badger felt like she was seeing her superior genuinely uncomfortable in a situation. "Because an individual," She threw a nod towards the Commander, "Decided to go digging through everyone's life, I may have elected to hijack an idea of MG4's to prevent a greater mess than already exists."

"Meaning?" Honey Badger could tell some part of this was rehearsed, given how swift the question came.

That idea was reinforced by the fact that KSG didn't seem to think about her reply. "Meaning, given the makeup of this group, it's better if we clear the air about who we are, and what we've done at least at a basic level, so that there aren't misunderstandings." She looked to MG4. "I may have co-opted a thought of MG4's."

"And I would like the record to show I object." That might have been the closest thing to active dissent Honey Badger could recall seeing from MG4. When no one came to her defense, the smaller doll waved a hand. "The thought occurred to me while having a routine argument with that one," She pointed at Honey Badger, "That as soldiers we do a lot of telling, and not a lot of explaining."

"We never noticed; I assure you." PP-2000's tone had exactly the right level of sarcasm. SV-98 seemed to mutter something, and Groza elbowed her.

The faint hint at MG4's amusement died a swift death. "There is no need to pretend, PP-2000." No one else found a snappy remark.

MG4 looked at her, and Honey Badger got the feeling some unspoken conversation happened, based on the way KSG shifted. "With that in mind, I took a bit of an informal poll of the Echelon leaders, and we unanimously agreed that before all of us old soldiers start going on about our youthful misadventures and whatever else, we owe some answers from you." Turning, KSG drew every eye in the room to the Commander.

Honey Badger saw the surprise flash across his face. Leaning against the counter at the back of the mess hall, the man seemed intent on blending into the wall, but under all the attention drew himself up. "A unanimous poll." Mismatched green eyes swept the room. FAL cocked her head with a little smile, while Groza shrugged in a way that seemed to convey no sympathy at all. M4 looked more uncomfortable with the attention but didn't back down, surprising Honey Badger. "I feel as if you are stretching the meaning of the word, no?"

KSG crossed her arms, straightening her shoulders, and her jaw setting to give her a far sterner posture. "We all agree that you knowing everything about us and us knowing nothing about you is a crock, and I am electing to interpret that as unanimous agreement that we aren't going anywhere until the score is a bit more even.

Honey Badger got the feeling that something else was going on here, beneath her personal notice, if all the shifting and staring were anything to go by. Some sort of power struggle, one that KSG seemed to win, if the halfhearted reply meant anything. "Well played, Staff Sergeant"

"It was a group effort." KSG shrugged, dropping into a seat beside MG4. AK-74M snorted in disbelief. Honey Badger risked a quick look but couldn't pick out anything from the other doll.

Putting on a look of resignation, the Commander pushed off the counter, the motion pulling all attention to him. Not for the first time, Honey Badger wondered at how he could switch from being almost invisible to commanding attention. "My life flirts with the maudlin and the classified, and those stories in the middle are hardly light, but if possible, I will answer your questions."

Again, that must have meant something to the soldiers, as Honey Badger could feel MG4 shift, and see KSG roll her eyes. Groza spoke first, perhaps in another arranged event, or perhaps just by coincidence. "How much of what you've told us about yourself is a lie."

To his credit the Commander did a better job of acting like he was thinking about something than Honey Badger could. His finger beat against the countertop, eyes drifting in consideration. "I can't say as I recall stating a direct untruth."

"Lies of omission then." Honey Badger had to admit that Ballista mastered a cutting tone over all others, and that it drew her attention. She didn't know Ballista well, but there seemed to be some sort of anger there. Everyone seemed to be expecting the Commander to deny it, but he held Ballista's eyes without any denial.

"And you wonder why I called you a slippery bastard." While amusement was most prevalent in KSG's works, Honey Badger could feel the steely undertone. Honey Badger recognized it as the same as when KSG stepped in after Alfa was yelling at her. It signaled that KSG was both serious, and not willing to budge on the matter.

Fortunately, the Commander didn't seem inclined to argue. "Never denied it."

An uncomfortable silence followed that admission. Honey Badger could see that everyone was trying to work though the casual admissions involved there. Eventually, FN-49 found a more mundane question to ask. "What did you do after the fighting stopped?" Anticipation flared in the collective group.

"Left the Army the moment my contract was up, and turned into yet another deranged European hermit, wandering and doing odd jobs." That didn't seem to fit the image of the man that Honey Badger had, nor was it terribly informative. "Eventually got hired on by the West Germans." Perhaps spotting that everyone wanted more information he kept going. "MoD contract work, in various forms."

"Wait-" Honey Badger rounded on MG4.

Luckily, her inability to find good words didn't matter. "If we ever crossed paths, I don't remember it." Waving off the idea, MG4 took a second to elaborate. "If he was a contractor, we wouldn't have had many chances."

"Wouldn't have happened." The Commander confirmed that. "They kept me running around, making friends and enemies. Not much time or reason to mingle with the Bundswehr. I kept up the trend after I left that post. Wander, work, leave."

"Sounds like you were a bit lost." SRS put the question more gently than Honey Badger might, even if she completely agreed. "Without a purpose."

"I suppose I was." A bit of a rustle followed that admission, as the man shifted in place. "The war left me tired, and more than a little purposeless." All attention, human and Doll alike remained glued to him. "I knew only what I had done, but also that what I had done was terrible." Looking from soldier to soldier, his eyes softened, a sort of wry amusement growing. "We soldiers did unspeakable things. Forced to charge into helpless positions," A look to Groza and SV-98, "took and held hostile ground, only to be bludgeoned back again," A nod to the Belgians, "Sent to die without sufficient support and then asked to support an impossible defense." He looked at KSG and Ak-Alfa. "Or, committed to brutal last stands." He looked at MG4. Honey Badger couldn't help but notice that not one of them refuted him. That seemed to suggest that he wasn't exaggerating, which was a worrying thought. "We carried those experiences forward."

FAL spoke first, weighty, and direct. "Yes."

"An accurate assessment." Meanwhile, Groza's words were softer, grim even.

Honey Badger expected an equally succinct reply from KSG. Instead, her squad leader released a long breath. "Fuck you. Sir." All levity was gone, the words laced venom.

A thin smile danced on his features, as if finding humor in the words. "I'll pass. You're already spoken for."

"Wise." KSG nodded, settling into a chair, before asking her own question. "Who were you before the war?"

Why she asked that, Honey Badger didn't know. What did it matter who he was before? "Ian Blackwood, disgruntled Ohio native."

"Were you always a soldier?" Ots-12 jumped in, eyes wide and eager. That question seemed even less important, and if Honey Badger did her math right, there wasn't time for him to have not been.

"Mhm." A nod, the Commander's eyes seeming to slide out of focus for a few seconds. "I wanted out of Ohio as fast as I could get, and the Army was a good bet. Got my degree, ship out to boot three days later?" Pausing, he visibly counted the days mentally. "Yeah, three days."

"As any sane person should. It's Ohio." Alfa chime in. Surprisingly, she looked to be relaxing into the situation, perhaps helped by the more comfortable topic. Or, one that she could indulge in mockery of.

"Now now, Ohio set a river on fire, that counts for something." Despite the encouraging nature of her words, KSG did not appear to feel setting a river on fire to be a good thing. For her part, Honey Badger thought that sounded awesome and she needed to go find the details after this meeting was over. "Although that's about the only thing it has."

"Eh, thought they had some sports teams or something." By now, surely everyone else in the room had picked up on the fact that Alfa was having some fun, if the shifts in expressions Honey Badger could pick up on where anything to go by. "I recall our gunner going on about how 'the Browns are gonna win it all this year' every year."

"Typical delusional Browns fan." All attention returned to the Commander in an instant. "And I will not be accepting critique from Floridians. I'd rather set a river on fire than be known for having every half naked mad person armed with a lizard." Honey Badger started to ask how someone could be armed with a lizard, and what being half naked had to do with it, before she thought better. There were limits to her curiosity.

Alfa and KSG engaged in an obvious silent war for who got to speak, which it seemed Alfa won, if her smirk, and KSG's eye roll were any indicators. "Florida has character, Commander. Ohio is simply a large misshapen blob on a map." Even with such an easy bait, the Commander didn't bite.

"The merits of my home state aside." He looked about the room. "Further questions?"

"How did you end up with Griffin?" Leaning forward, elbows on her knees, and almost vibrating from eagerness, Five-seveN beat everyone to the punch. A good question, but probably had a boring answer. Or at least, he made the answer feel boring.

"Having friends in unique places, with unique ideas." Exactly what Honey Badger expected, heck it might have been boringer than she expected.

"More detail, Commander." Unsurprisingly the Belgian wouldn't be settling for such a boring answer.

A performative roll preceded the detailed reply. "Kryuger goes out of his way to try and snap up soldiers, Western and Soviet alike. As Griffin expands, he wants people able to handle more than just basic PMC work, as well as the knowledge base to deal with hostile environments, overseas postings, and whatever other nonsense that man has dreamt up. Those efforts got Ex-Soviets, but there are a few like me running about."

"I don't know much about the military and soldiering, but you seem to be someone who should be at a more important post than this one." SRS's question got several others nodding. Honey Badger didn't quite see where she was coming from, but half the point of this was that she didn't know how those things worked so maybe that made sense. "Surely?"

The Commander could only shrug, half-smiling as the question sank in with the others. Surprise seemed to be the biggest thing, while Honey Badger could see the squad leaders reevaluating SRS. "Kryuger was more insistent than usual that I be posted here of all places, so I can't say as I know. But it's worth considering that the same logic applies to everyone here, perhaps more obviously FAL. Someone should be kicking themselves for letting her group slip away."

"We hardly slipped away." Shaking her head, FAL took all attention to herself. While her smiles suggested she knew something you didn't, this time Honey Badger was certain of it. A quick look around didn't help, as Groza had locked up tight, and KSG remained her usual self. "They let us go, without so much as a protest."

"As I said. An oversight. Perhaps, someday, they will find the fool, and he will answer for his foolishness." The Commander didn't seem willing to back down on that point, if the set of his jaw was anything to go by.

"Perhaps." Five-seveN took over, as FAL's lips thinned. "We did what they asked, and then gave us what they said we would get in return. A purely transactional interaction."

"They could have been a lot worse to us." FNC agreed. "They tried to treat us okay." Tried. Honey Badger all but felt the change in tone in a single word. "We weren't thrown in to die."

"We were also promised a whole lot more help than we got." Ballista countered. That felt like the 'arguments' her team had, about various silly things.

"Also true." And FAL took control before it spiraled out of hand. "We spent our war first invading East Germany, then occupying Berlin." Her eyes drifted to Honey Badger's teammates. "We originally waited for American troops before crossing the border into Poland but…" FAL trailed off.

"By the time American got there, there wasn't a Poland to defend." Lena, surprisingly, spat out. KSG and Alfa stiffened, and the air grew heavy. Something that Honey Badger didn't understand shifted in the room, and she did not like it. Before they danced around the past, but now, some old grudge was on the table.

Honey Badger couldn't claim to be any closer to understanding just what about the past made MG4 and the others upset with her desire to have a little fun with things, but she could say for certain that she didn't want to end up like everyone else where, being chased around by regrets and terrible things in the past. Or if she ended up that way, at least she wanted to have the guts to just say it outright. Not this dancing around the point crap.

There was a soft crunch. Honey Badger's attention snapped to KSG, and the crossbar on the back of the chair that she had crushed in her first. All eyes whirled to her, none of the tension gone, only temporarily redirected.

Honey Badger found her voice first. "KSG?" The material sundering appeared to have caught KSG off guard, her eyes flickering between her chair and her hand in bemusement. It seemed to have caught KSG off guard, if the bemused look on her face was anything to go by.

"Hm?" Shaking

"What…what was that?" Honey Badger's voice wavered. Instinctively she knew that question to be the wrong one, but she couldn't find a better way to phrase it. KSG did her best to put on an air of confusion, but Honey Badger knew what she saw. "That." Honey Badger jabbed a finger at a broken chair. "Lena made her comment, and you started staring off into space, and then-" She repeated the motion. "That."

"Things tend to explode when crushed." Now that Honey Badger knew KSG was hiding it, she would get her answer.

"I know that. But you don't tend to crush things."

"Pardon?" Her Echelon leader's eyes narrowed. That might have been a good cue to shut her mouth, but Honey Badger wouldn't be a coward.

"Come on, KSG, you're basically emotionless. I don't think I've seen you surprised ever. It's the basis of the whole comedy thing you and Alfa have going, and that works great." Well, great might be relative to understanding the joke but Honey Badger would worry about that later. "So, what the hell was that?"

Perhaps she'd just kept digging with every word spoken. "Just because I don't show it doesn't mean I don't feel." A warning coated those words, reinforced by the way KSG straightened her shoulders, rising from her hunched posture to one that took up more space, Honey Badger's limited sense of danger screaming. "Alfa and I do not have 'a comedy thing going'."

"You sure? She's all sarcastic and snappy, and you're the deadpan reaction. Sounds like a comedy act to me."

KSG took several seconds to consider her next words, eyes drifting around the room. Every set of eyes, human and Doll met hers, and, Honey Badger realized far too late, carrying varying degrees of emotion, and various layers of implications. "I wish I had your naivete, Honey Badger, I truly do."

"The hell you do." Even Alfa lost her joking words, replaced with a grimness that, well it fit, but Honey Badger wouldn't tell her that.

"I am inclined to agree with her, that doesn't sound like something you'd actually do." Surprisingly, Five-seveN agreed.

The look itself could have killed the intent behind it promised worse than death. MG4 caught KSG's eyes, and Honey Badger caught the subtle nod. "Fine." Looking across the rest of the gathered humans and Dolls, KSG seemed to steel herself. "We can talk on the other side of the ocean for a while." Another minute passed in unsteady quiet before KSG found her voice again. "Early in the war, we Marines got sold up a creek."

Honey Badger realized that whatever she thought about KSG being emotionless before, it had been nothing compared to now. No inflection, a perfectly even spacing of words and syllables, and an absolute lack of any cues on KSG's body changed the atmosphere immediately.

"Our deployment got through, but the Army got slowed by the brief war for the Atlantic, and greater deployment issues after the bombing. We were promised heavy armor, artillery, everything else. None of that arrived, and we rolled off the ships and received orders to deploy immediately. Within weeks we were scrounging supplies off our allies, our enemies, and everyone else. Rumor had it that the Army finally landed, and the Airforce was starting to arrive, but for those of us out front, those things were distant, and unlikely to arrive fast enough."

"Rumors that reached Soviet Command." 74M of all people spoke up. Like KSG she didn't give much hint as to her feelings from tone or body language. "Who made it clear, they had run out of patience for the American resistance."

KSG's sharp nod confirmed that aside. "We knew it was coming. The tenor of the fighting changes, with Spetsnaz behind our lines, in our faces, and the artillery barrage stepping up repeatedly." For the first time, a small wobble entered KSG's voice. Her hand, still clenched in a fist shook. "Sleep became a luxury reserved for the wounded and dead, as the living had to be ready to fight the next Spetsnaz attack, or the next offensive. We dug new fighting holes daily, and it wouldn't be long before a corpse was there to keep use company."

Her eyes weren't empty, Honey Badger realized. No, a storm swirled beneath them, fueled by fire and fear.

"We threw them back." The façade broke with those rasping words. KSG's fingers uncurled, and then her fist clenched harder than before, straining her faux skin white. "They'd attack, and break. We ran short of anti-tank missiles, so we sent a group around the flank to hit a Soviet supply hub. Half of them didn't come back, but those that did brought enough missiles to last a while." The pause swallowed everything, leaving no room to interrupt. Everyone else seemed engrossed or unwilling to speak up. "It started with bombs."

"Started." Honey Badger regretted her question, but there was an implication there.

"Nearly forty minutes of bombs." KSG's lips thinned. "It might as well have been forty days. The tanks were rolling forwards under a rain of artillery before we could so much as count the dead."

"From a distance we could hear all this begin." Alfa spoke up this time, a sudden reminder of what Alfa had done in the war. "The screams of the dying serenaded us the entire approach."

Giving her a grim nod, KSG kept going. "We gave ground. Prepared retreats, fighting the entire way."

"Command prepared for that." 74M again. "Third time fell back, they'd worked out where the defensive line would be, and we were waiting."

"Dropped into a fighting hole. One side, I had my platoon Lieutenant, other side, pair of Soviets." KSG carried on, not realizing that 74M had spoken. Honey Badger had a sinking feeling in her gut, eyes flickering between KSG and her clenched fist. "He shot one, I hit the other with my gun. Didn't have space or time for a knife. Didn't die." KSG's fist clenched harder. "He didn't go down, so I…" KSG trialed off, then uncurled her hand, revealing a thin film of black on her palm, her skin punctured by her nails. Breathing felt hard, Honey Badger searching the rest of KSG for something to soften that implication.

She found nothing.

"We arrived, rolled them back into the Marine's lines." Ak-Alfa took up the thread. "We thought it was a good joke that the Soviets ran towards us and not the Marines, until the first time one of the dismounted infantry got his head bashed in by a jumpy Marine."

"We talk a lot of shit about the Army." More measured, KSG seemed to be drawing to her story's conclusion. "And they deserve the majority of it. The darkness of her eyes spread to the rest of her, a specter that hung over the room. "There was no time to make our peace, no time to mourn, or say last words. Just fight, and fight, and fight, and fight. That was the reality on the ground. We fought and clawed for every bit of life, and often, only survived because someone else," A nod to Alfa, "did the same." Honey Badger swore she saw a tear in the corner of KSG's eye, before her Echelon leader returned her calm exterior. "I had done terrible things, Honey Badger, in the name of saving my own hide. Of saving the lives of the men fighting alongside me. And I have watched dozens of those men and women recklessly charge into danger, drunk on invincibility, only to be shown the truth with lead. An experience I do not believe is unique."

"Oh." Honey Badger struggled to fit that into her mental image of KSG, or her image of any of the soldier types, as they nodded in agreement. MG4's story about some walking around the corner to receive a 30mm to the head rang truer than it had in the moment.

"The thing you need to understand Badger, is that what you see now, is shaped by our experiences, in one of the most destructive conflicts in human history. As soldiers and as Dolls growing in the post war environment. The things I see, when you go gallivanting off without a care in the world, is a man volunteering to run between two points, and spending almost ten minutes listening to him screaming and dying, because going to him would bring us to the same fate."

"I sent probably thousands of dolls to their deaths, and they went willingly." For sure a grim sentence, Groza seemed unusually calm. "There was no subtlety, only sheer force of arms. We would break Poland with our guns or our corpses, to quote one of my superiors." That sounded horrifying. "There were a few who showed up like you."

"Mercy killing was expressly forbidden." Perhaps unnecessary to prove the point, but SV-98 never missed a chance to prove her point. "We aren't immortal, and just rebuilding in a new body doesn't make the feeling of dying go away." The sniper tapped her elbow. "There are days I wake up, and I have to remind myself I have legs, because my brain still remembers spending quite a bit of time without them."

"I don't suppose that is why you forget your mental filter?" PP-2000's wry tone earned a few uneasy chuckles from the non-soldiers and more hearty laughs from the soldiers.

Groza shook her head. "Alas, that appears to be a factory defect."

SV-98 flipped off the pilot and glared at her superior. "You are one to talk."

"While Groza's taste in women can be considered a defect, I would argue that it's less of a hindrance than enjoying the taste of your own boots." Ballista fired back. More general laughter floated around the room, uneasy as it might have been.

"Least I come from a country that can win a war with the Germans."

"Fifty percent is hardly a winning record." Ak-Alfa beat everyone else to the jab. SV-98 flipped her off too.

"As amusing as watching SV-98 get abused is, we are getting a bit off topic." With the tension broken, Groza pushed them back towards the path.

"So, you mean you want to explain how we're screwed in the head?" SV-98 snapped. Honey Badger didn't expect that, given how close those two seemed. Only FAL spent more time attached to Groza, after all.

"Not entirely, but I am aware that our actions can be confusing, and it may help to avoid the sort of problems we have previously run into." Deflecting questions fit Groza's usual way of things, even if deflecting SV-98 seemed strange.

"It is nice to know more about all of you." SRS piped up from the side. "We know there is this great shared experience in your past, but if you talk about it, you use vague terms, and talk about the effects, as opposed to the events themselves."

"I've seen a lot of reports." OTs-12 took up the speech, sending a grateful look to SRS. "But I don't really know."

"Are you sure you want to find out?"

All eyes snapped to the Commander. He sat on the counter, legs crossed, leaning forwards on his knees. Honey Badger didn't even remember seeing him move. "Meaning?"

"Just what I said." His eyes darkened. "You aren't going to tell me that you won't see KSG differently, knowing that she has, and could, turn a man's head into jelly?" Honey Badger saw the white-haired doll twitch. SRS opened her mouth to object, eyes darting to KSG, who met the stare. The sniper didn't seem to have expected that, as she looked away, expression telling it all. "I don't say it to judge."

"You say it to have new blackmail material." FAL seemed to grudgingly respect that, or perhaps she was simply mildly disgusted.

"If you were not my subordinates, yes." Such a blunt admission seemed to catch the entire group off guard. The Commander rolled his eyes. "I don't see why that revelation is a surprise to any of you."

"Commander, you are a cagey man, so having you just admit to something so damning is always a surprise." Restrained glee characterized that response from Five-seveN, but the sudden relief on KSG's face is what drew Honey Badger's attention the most. When she caught Honey Badger looking, it vanished, she'd seen it. "Everything you do has at least three layers, a plan, and a backup plan."

"Et tu?" He shot back, sending Five-seven into a fit of giggles. "I've hardly been so flattered in my life."

"If that is your idea of flattery, I've got some questions." For the first time, one of the AR team spoke up, M16 smirking at the Commander.

"It's not as if someone is going to flatter me any other way." He shot back, and immediately the awkward feelings returned. "We're drifting far afield of the point." Following his look to FAL and company it wasn't hard to figure out what he wanted.

"Odd as it sounds, we seem to have had the least eventful war of anyone here." Surprisingly, at least to Honey Badger, it was Ballista who started off. "We were brought into service early, as part of the push into East Germany, and we would be part of operations in the north of Germany for the duration of the war, including the eventual push back. Our leadership was serviceable, if frequently killed by snipers, artillery, and so on."

"Were you in Berlin?" MG4's asked the question, with just a hint of actual pity. That didn't sound right to Honey Badger, as MG4 didn't seem to pity anyone, person or Doll. Her expression revealed nothing, and the question obviously meant something to the Belgians.

Five nods with varying degrees of shakiness followed.

"I'm sorry." MG4's eyes dropped. She seemed to chew on her next words, before they came out in a rush. "They never told, did-"

"Yes." The single word could have cut steel, sharp and hot. "Not what they deserved, but yes."

"Good." MG4 slumped, in obvious relief.

"Care to explain for those of us who don't speak implications and military history?" AR-15 snapped from the corner, wilting when everyone looked her way.

Clearing her throat, FAL waited for complete quiet before speaking. "Dolls, unless specifically ordered as such, cannot disobey orders. Our Neural Clouds physically cannot take the strain." They all knew that. "That includes orders that we know are wrong, unethical, or otherwise."

"General 'Imitating the Soviets can't backfire on me' has been removed from command over occupied Berlin. His replacement will be arriving in due time." Alfa sounded like she was quoting, even if the name had to be wrong. "Never did get a formal replacement, did they?"

"We wouldn't know, we got moved up to replace German units on the front." Five-seveN shrugged. "Unfortunately."

"Five-seveN." FNC jabbed her in the side, without visible effect.

"What? I rather wanted to see the look at his court martial." A pause. "Although what we got was an acceptable compromise."

"And what was that?" M16 set down her whiskey to lean forward attentively. "If I'm understanding you correctly, not sure much short of a bullet to the brains is acceptable."

"Watching him realize that our mandate to follow orders cut both ways, and that if another ordered us to tell the truth, we were forced to do so." Five-seveN's eyes were sharp. "And that we still had the ability to act of our own volition."

"There is a certain degree of satisfaction in watching a piece of trash get what they deserve." FAL sounded as if she enjoyed that knowledge quite a bit.

"And you've been together ever since?" That detail seemed to shock M4 more than anything preceding it, based on her tone.

"Yup!" FNC nodded. "FAL's the worst big sister ever, but she takes care of us." FN-49 nodded along.

"Seems like a low bar to clear." For the first time, Fleur spoke up. "Taking care of you, that is." Several others nodded along.

"Maybe." FNC's shrug said she'd never thought about it.

"If you haven't noticed, we're a bit of a mess." Ballista filled the void FNC's indecisiveness left. "If there is one thing all of us Dolls have in common, it's that we tend to only have each other, at various points." Honey Badger could see a lot of nods at that, even, surprisingly, the AR team. "Having one person who shoulders the problems that come up, and finds the solutions, that's important. Not all of our Neural Clouds can take that kind of abuse." Eyes were all on Groza and FAL, the obvious examples of that in action.

"Hang on. How's that work anyway?" The thought occurred, and Honey Badger didn't think she'd get a better chance to ask. "Sure, some of us have more robust 'brains' than others, but it can't just be that, can it?"

Aleksander, then Lena, Kalina and Fleur all shrugged. The Commander hummed, then shook his head. "That's a question for IOP and its subsidiaries. Exactly how Neural Clouds word, or any of that is well beyond my field of study."

"Don't think they give out degrees for being a dick." SV-98's mumble carried in the silence, and despite a hissed warning from PP-2000 she didn't back down.

Fortunately, the Commander completely ignored that. "Analytics and data science."

-Faded Glory-

"That went...well. I think." Aleksander spoke first as the Dolls trickled out of the room, some obviously more affected by what had been discussed than others.

"No death, no stabbing, no threats to lives, yes, it went well." Ian snorted. "Then again, you'll notice they subtly steered the conversation to make it so."

"They're quick." Lena shook her head. "Certainly, an enlightening talk."

"Not for him." Aleksander jabbed a finger in Ian's direction. "How much of that do you already know?"

"About half." Closer to two thirds if you included speculation that had been proven right, but admitting to less would likely earn him some points. Or at least, not annoy his human staff.

"What was all that about Berlin? Everyone seemed to treat it as some big thing?" Ian knew that had been bothering Fleur since it came up, and frankly he'd expected her to ask for more information from the group.

Ian sighed. "Berlin is a major event. When East Germany fell, and we occupied Berlin it was initially a peaceful affair. For all the East Germans hated our guts, we were about to fight and die killing Soviets, and my understanding is the locals figured that they'd let us murder each other, then kill whoever was left. Eventually of course, that changed, and protests broke out."

"Protests." Aleksander frowned. "I recall a lot of 'protesting' back in the late 20s. Or are we using American definitions?"

"Yes." Ian winced. "They started out peaceful, and truthfully they stayed that way. But, the person in charge got nervous and started clamping down. Protesters kept protesting, and force started being used. Tear gas and water cannons first, eventually military dolls were in the streets."

"They opened fire." A low hiss, as Aleksander came to the correct conclusion.

"They did. Started a riot." Ian still didn't know what the man who gave that order thought would happen. Alfa's nickname had been accurate. "To the surprise of no one."

The Ukrainian took a shaky breath. "And..." All eyes trailed to where the Belgians have been sitting.

Part of Ian wanted to let that stand unanswered, but it would be best to soften the blow. "They had no choice. As some of the first Dolls into the field, Western leadership had not yet realized the weakness of the system that bound them to orders, and even if they had, crafting new base orders took time. Rumor has it that Marines took a good week to solidify the new orders they handed out to Dolls like KSG to prevent that sort of thing from happening again."

"I see."

"Yeah." Ian didn't know what else to say. The event happened; they couldn't avoid that.

"So, you got what you wanted then." All eyes turned to Kalina. "There's no way he's doing this if there wasn't a plan.

"Somewhat." Kalina had him dead to rights even if Ian didn't want to admit such publicly. "If nothing else, it should smooth some ruffled feathers." Hopefully. Or, it'd be a new mess, but that sort of mess Ian understood better. From the looks none of them bought that line, which meant he needed to move things along. "With everyone here, I'll tell you the same thing I told KSG: baring a world ending emergency we are not engaging in major ops for the foreseeable future. We've got new Dolls on base to acclimate, problems to solve, pilots to try, paperwork to solve, and none of that is getting done if we're constantly neck deep in it. Higher ups seem on board with the idea."

"So, that means we're finally going to get that drink?" Smirking a bit, Aleksander crossed his arms.

"Could." Ian nodded. "I owe you lot a drink, and if you two," He nodded to Kalina and Fleur, "Want a break, now's the time."

Fleur frowned. "You expect that much excitement?"

"I'm planning for it, with the hope it never happens."

"Might be nice to go tell my parents I'm not dead actually." Fleur admitted, and Ian had to hide his smirk. It was always nice to let someone else come to the conclusions he wanted without any prodding. "Even if I'm not sure how welcome I'd be in the city."

"Take a couple of them," Lena jerked her head towards where the Dolls had been sitting, "With them, nobody is going to give you crap. Or if they do, they're in for a while of problems."

"Maybe." Fleur turned to Ian, who struggled to hide smug delight.

"Would need to ask them, but that does provide an avenue for some problem solving."

Fleur's eyes narrowed, immediately worried. "That being?"

"M4 and company are sticking around, per orders from on high. Which is fine, but it means we now have a bunch of extremely green Dolls and an Echelon leader who is the polar opposite of the three we've got, personality wise. Need a way to get them on the same page that isn't a firefight."

"Right, sending a teenager to go visit her parents with four elite Dolls for an escort is a good bonding experience." Lena did nothing to hide her skepticism.

"Team bonding, gives Fleur a chance to meet her parents, probably won't cause an international incident." Ian ticked off on his fingers. "Makes it downright tricky for anyone to try and browbeat me into going back on my word about downtime and gives us time to finally have our drink. Sounds like a series of wins to me."

"You have a weird idea of winning, Commander." Kalina shook her head, but to Ian's ear she sounded more amused than chiding.

"I do." He pushed off the counter. "It's gotten me this far, so I see little reason to change now."

AN: Apologies for this one taking so long. Life happened, and MS, so I've been fairly busy. Bit of a downtime chapter, insomuch as this qualifies as downtime.