Welcome to Patrol I, readers! After accepting a contract from HQ Ian decides to bring M4A1 and an extra team of Dolls with him so they can evaluate her combat capabilities, as well as work on her leadership skills.
Like I said last chapter, SOPMOD won't be introduced in this chapter, or even this day in the story, which'll give me more time to compose that scene when the time comes. I have also released a new forum to talk about the Recollection and so you can help me improve upon its flaws, so the link will be in my profile on the site if you wanna check it out.
To HECU Marine: I have suffered a grieeeeevious wound!
To Culture-Hunt3r: Thanks! Just be on the lookout for other twists and turns on the way to success!
To Paranoid Android 64: Her affection's very low indeed, and M4A1 should never have to suffer for HQ's red tape.
Anyways, please enjoy the chapter and don't forget to leave a review!
Station 794 Armory, Sector 09
Ukraine, Neo-Soviet Union
July 12, 2062
Commander Ian Becker
Now clad in his OCP uniform and geared up with his old equipment Ian was now helping M4A1 gear up as well, his smart phone sat on an ammo crate of 30.06 with a live feed opened up to show Shi Jun on the other end, the two conversing about his last op. Besides them, AK-47, Howa 64, MG3, MP41 and M500 were also present, gearing up for the upcoming mission and talking amongst themselves.
"I heard from Wa-chan that you lost some of your girls, and I just wanna say that I'm sorry you had to go through that." the 601 Commander told him as he loaded some magazines for M4A1 while she cleaned her carbine's internals out on the workbench.
"It's not like they're gone for good, you know..." he grunted back, slipping one last bullet into a thirty-round mag before setting it down next to their owner, grabbing another magazine to load for himself.
"Doesn't make it hurt any less." Shi Jun advised.
"Right. I suppose it might happen enough times that I'll stop being affected by it, seeing as this is a frontline base and all, but damn does it suck..."
Looking back to the elite he was assigned as handler for he was glad to see that she was done cleaning her weapon, the built-up residue in the ejection port and around the barrel gone and her suppressor completely replaced as she reassembled her weapon and stored it, reaching for the magazines he'd set down beside her and storing them in the ammo pouches under her jacket.
Similarly the team members chosen for the patrol had finished gearing up as well, with M500 picking up an M9 from the wall and retrieving a couple magazines for it while the others watched, causing him to realize that M4A1 lacked a sidearm.
"Hey, do you have a pistol on you?" he asked just to be sure, earning himself a shake to her head.
"W-Well, I'm not Imprinted to both my carbine and a handgun, so who bother with the latter...?" the brunette replied demurely.
Another thing I'm glad the top brass did: giving all soldiers secondary weapons. he thought, rubbing his M17's grip affectionately.
"Well, they're not exactly hard to use, and you need something you can easily maneuver in a tight space or a backup in case you jam your gun or run out of ammo, so why don't we go ahead and get you a sidearm?" the Commander told her, causing her to nod her head and follow him to where the others were, sorting out their weapons and choosing secondaries of their own, as per Station 794's combat doctrine.
"Hey, M4 here needs a pistol, so mind helping her pick one out?"
"Sure, I've got just the thing." AK-47 replied after sizing M4A1 up, lifting a Beretta M9A1 from one of the racks and handing it to her. "Beretta M9, standard-issue sidearm of the US military for about 40 years before the M17 replaced it. That one in particular is the M9A1, an improved variant of the original."
Ian watched as M4A1 inspected the pistol in her hand, gripping it to get a good feel for it before aiming down the handgun's sights, just like he had done with his in the firing range less than an hour ago.
"It feels a bit rugged, but the sights are rather clean and unobtrusive, so let's go with this one." M4A1 replied after a moment, soon accepting a holster for it and strapping it to her leg with Howa 64's help, the Japanese girl's face neutral as she strapped it to her.
"There, it's secure, now you just need pouches for spare ammo." she said, standing back up and grabbing a bag with enough space to fit a few pistol magazines in it from a rack.
"T-Thank you both..."
"It's standard doctrine for combat personnel to carry a backup weapon on the field." Howa 64 explained curtly. "But you're welcome anyways."
The curt, stiffish tone was certainly odd coming from the rookie, and Ian couldn't help but notice how out-of-character it was for the girl as he watched her store her magazines and grenades in her chest rig then leave the armory without a word.
"Something happen to her earlier today?" he asked himself, thinking of what made the reserved girl just run off like that.
"I think her Neural Cloud's a bit of a mess after everything she'd experienced so far." AK-47 told him despite not being asked. "I'll keep an eye on her just in case she does something weird later."
"Thanks." he said before turning to the rest of his selected team members. "Let's go, everyone!"
Tactical Doll M4A1
Despite all the months she's been in service M4A1 could confidently say that she'd never worked with a human in the field until now, the Commander weirdly at-ease at the prospect of going out and fighting as he checked his gear, his expression hard as stone and his motions experienced as he rode in the Humvee next to her, AK-47 manning a mounted M2HB machine gun and the others riding with them in the passenger seats, Howa 64's face neutral while MP41's was a bit excited, M500 in a similar boat.
How can the Commander be so composed, even when faced with a powerful enemy like Sangvis Ferri...? she asked herself as she watched the commanding officer inspect his weapon. From what Miss Persica told me, Sangvis Ferri nearly tore the US Army apart in 2047.
"Something on your mind, M4?" he asked idly, looking up to her thoughtful expression with a sharp gaze.
"You seem very composed and at ease, but from what Miss Persica told me about America, its army feared Sangvis Ferri..." she explained.
"In the beginning, maybe, but I've got nothing to fear from them. Not after Berlin..." the Commander simply replied, looking out the window of the Humvee.
"Besides, their targeting modules are a bit too easy to fool if you're experienced enough." AK-47 added. "While cover is always the way to go, evasion will work if you're out in the open. Just ask MP5— when she gets back, of course..." she added after apparently remembering the white-haired German's state.
"I guess I will..."
"So is this a special job or what?" MG3 asked curiously, loading her machine gun up.
"Just a patrol job to secure the areas near the base." the Commander replied. "Figured it'd be a good way to get the new blood acclimated to this kind of work."
Looking out the window herself, M4A1 couldn't help but think of her lost sisters as the Humvee rumbled slightly, of how they were still in the wilds and being forced to fend for themselves. Rubbing the right ear of the headset given to her she contemplated attempting to call out for her sisters again, but there was no guarantee that they'd pick up on her calls.
Suddenly, the vehicle came to a stop in a somewhat plain area, only some crashed cars and trees dotting the Ukrainian countryside as the sunlight illuminated them, partially hidden by the few clouds in the sky but still visible.
I feel like overcast weather would be better so the sunlight won't reflect off our weapons. she thought as the Commander opened his door and got out.
"Alright, this spot's good enough. Everyone get out!" he called out, opening the other doors to let everyone else out before withdrawing a pair of binoculars and scanning the area around them.
Taking heed of his words M4A1 unbuckled her seatbelt and slipped out of the military vehicle, grabbing her rifle and checking it instinctively while the others did the same, a golden wave eminating from Howa 64 as she performed a scan of the area.
"No hostiles detected, Shikikan." the Japanese girl notified, causing her superior to turn their way.
"Figured. Here's another part of the job you're gonna get used to: just walking along and waiting for hostiles to show up." the Commander told them. "Seems safer than combat, but in reality it's quite tense since you don't know when hostiles will show up, if at all."
The AR Team leader immediately took note of the information, watching as the ex-soldier went on ahead and made a twirling motion with his finger, rallying his team to him with a hand-signal. She and the others immediately joined him as he went down the hill, searching the area for evidence if enemy movement or hostiles that somehow dodged her ally's scan.
"I'll take point, Boss." AK-47 volunteered, waiting for him to nod before brushing past him and taking his place, ensuring that he didn't take the first hits if a firefight broke out.
Steadily they traversed the area, checking the cars for any valuables and constantly on the lookout for enemy presence or evidence of their troop movements, and after a couple minutes passed by the brunette came to a realization.
This is going to take a while, isn't it?
True to her observation they had easily patrolled the fields for a good long hour, finding next to nothing useful during their patrol as they shifted from the relatively open fields to a tight forest, leaves and twigs cracking under their feet as the trees broke up the sunlight that shined down on them.
"So far, we've found nothing..." MP41 noted, analyzing the grounds ahead of them with her sharp gaze. "Is it possible that those Sangvis have left the area, Herr Kommandant?"
"That's entirely possible, but I'm not taking my chances out here." the Commander replied neutrally. "Howa, scan the area."
The golden wave washed outwards again, highlighting the forest as it pushed past them and through the trees.
"No hostile presence." the Japanese Doll reported stiffly, stepping over a thick root that protruded from the ground.
"Understood. Be on your guard anyways, it's way too easy for the enemy to scramble their signals."
With that in mind the Dolls simply followed him while ensuring they didn't get ambushed, a couple hundred meters of forest left to comb through.
"Damn..."
After leaving the forest they soon found themselves approaching a destroyed Griffin outpost, numerous dead Griffin Dolls outside the charred, three-room building and ridiculously clean plasma shots through their bodies. The sight sent shivers down everyone's spines, but AK-47 seemed the least affected by it, simply approaching a bidy to inspect the wounds inflicted.
"I don't like this..." Howa 64 confessed as she examined a body, her rifle set on the ground as she checked the Doll's core. A look at her weapon revealed her identity as a Spectre M4 Doll, a clean hole burnt through the shapely SMG Doll's head with her pale violet hair parted to the living Doll could see it better. "Too clean for standard infantry, and it's not powerful enough to be from a Jaeger..."
"Think it's a Ringleader?" the Commander asked, stood next to the outpost entrance.
"Likely, but I'm not familiar with the model that did this."
"Not good." AK-47 commented, gently turning over a dead ARX-160 Doll and wincing at the shot put through the petite AR's Core. "Think she's still here if it is one?"
A golden wave eminated from Howa 64 once more and M4A1 scanned the area herself using her own frame's environmental analysis tech (despite it not being as potent as Forewarning,) but they turned up with nothing, not even infantry.
"We're clear for now." the former said as the Commander emerged from the building with a hard drive in hand.
"I managed to salvage this from in there, but everything else was charcoal." he explained, pocketing his find. "Let's take some pictures for the report and get out of here."
With that being said the group took pictures of everything in and out of the outpost and immediately left the destroyed building, the lifeless eyes of the dead Spectre Doll burned into her memory as they marched on.
"Alright, we're getting pretty close to Seredyna-Buda, so be on your guard."
As the city of Seredyna-Buda loomed in the distance the makeshift squad became much more alert than usual, eyes alert as they searched for hostile infantry units in the fields next to the overrun city, the clouds in the sky thickening and the sky soon turning overcast as they neared it. Having been informed the city was a Sangvis Ferri hotspot just a day prior, M4A1 was also on-edge, scanners running nonstop as she scanned for hostile presence.
"So... what're we gonna do if we don't find enemies here?" M500 asked, nervously darting her head left and right.
"Return to base and report the lack of hostile presence, then go out and search another area." the Commander replied. "Given the openness of this area we might wind up getting shot at from distances like 200 or 300 meters— at least, that's the typical engagement range between two infantry squads barring a large-scale battle, or in the Middle East."
The idea of fighting enemies from hundreds of meters away immediately caused M500 and MP41 to share a nervous look, their weapons being designed for close range coming back to bite them in the ass while MG3, the three ARs, and the Commander were much better equipped for such combat.
"We'd be screwed if someone shot at us from that far away..." M500 vocalized that thought perfectly, her head on a swivel as she walked along.
"At least there's half-decent cover here." AK-47 said from up front, indicating the wrecked vehicles, potholes from explosions, and a few sparse trees.
Without even being ordered to Howa 64 performed a scan on the area, a golden wave washing over them and reaching out to its 125 meter range— just as someone outside that range fired at them, a distinct pop followed by a loud crack as a round landed a few feet away from AK-47's foot, her eyes immediately darting to the impact site as dirt puffed up from it— and then three more shots followed, confirming that they were indeed fired at them.
"About time someone shot at us!" she yelled, pointing up a hill to the general direction the shots came from, marking a 198-meter distance between them.
"All units, take position and return fire!" the Commander ordered, taking cover behind a nearby tree as his subordinates followed suit, hitting the ground as they dug in.
M4A1 quickly found herself in a similar boat, diving into a hastily-dug pothole with dirt thickly piled up in the front as makeshift cover as the unidentified enemy fired upon them, the other ARs opening fire without hesitation.
Peeking her head up from cover she immediately brought her rifle up, flicked the selector to semi, and fired a couple shots in the general direction, her EOTech's limited zoom level preventing her from seeing as far as the Commander, who had a 4x ACOG on his weapon instead. Whether her shots landed or not, she didn't know, but what she did know that MG3 had set up behind a fallen tree with MP41 acting as an assistant gunner, and with the enemy's general direction located nothing was stopping the MG from opening fire, raining hot lead onto the enemy as MP41 pointed out targets and helped feed the ammo belt into her weapon.
"Anyone have a visual on them?!" AK-47 yelled, firing at the enemy from behind an overturned car.
"Negative!" Howa 64 yelled in response, readjusting her aim slightly as she returned fire.
"Human combatants, looks like a bandit gang!" the Commander reported, ducking back into cover to reload. "No MGs or snipers!"
"Hey, I've got one pinned down!" MG3 yelled, marking the last known position of the shooter she had pinned and causing the others to fire on their position, M4A1 soon spotting another hostile pop up to try and attack them.
Without a hint of hesitation she positioned her crosshair a bit above his head and fired a couple of shots at the enemy, said shots reaching him a second later and striking him down, blood spilling from the wounds.
"I got one!" she reported, firing at MG3's mark— and freezing when the gun stopped firing.
Turning it to the side the elite groaned upon seeing that the rifle jammed, a spent casing stuck in the ejection port in the classic stovepipe fashion. Pulling the charging handle back as she dropped into cover she pulled the casing out with her hand and let the charging handle go, smacking the forward assist for good measure and ensuring a proper feed.
Reemerging from cover she fired a couple more shots before the gun stopped firing again, thankfully due to an empty magazine.
"Reloading!" she yelled, quickly replacing the magazine with a new one as a couple shots hit her cover, which thankfully held as she slotted a fresh magazine into her rifle and pressed the bolt release on the side of the weapon before shouldering it with a right-handed grip for precise shooting and returned to the fight.
"Target down!" the Commander yelled, returning to cover to reload after his weapon clicked empty.
"Got one!" AK-47 also reported, still having ammo left to suppress the enemy.
Keeping fire superiority up the ARs and MG3 continued to fire upon the enemy positions uphill for a good fifteen minutes, soon managing to take out another enemy and potentially wounding another before their gunfire slowly stopped, although the brunette wasn't sure of it thanks to her teammates firing so many rounds so quickly.
"Cease fire, cease fire!" she yelled over the gunfire, putting her hand up and invoking her Command Protocol to get the others to stop, the Commander catching on and giving her an odd look but ultimately choosing to listen for enemy gunshots heading their way.
However, when all they heard was nothing, she risked a glance out of her cover to see that no hostiles were present, and to be sure of it she pulled up a holographic map of the region loaded with up-to-date sattelite imagery and invoked a scan, seeing the enemy signatures falling back to somewhere safer.
"The enemy fell back, Commander, we're clear!" she called out, releasing a breath she didn't know she was holding before looking back to the map to see more enemy signatures a couple hundred meters to the southeast— this time, of Sangvis Ferri origin. "Also, there's a group of Sangvis in the southern sector of Seredyna-Buda, occupying what looks to be a building of sorts..."
"Might be a Command Post, or they're using it to survey the region for the rest of the AR Team." the Commander guessed, standing up and checking something on his armpad before looking up at them again. "Yup, Kalina just confirmed that it's a Command Post, and it's sending out some patrols at the moment, so they've only got a couple sentries in the place."
"Aw hell, we didn't even bring explosives!" AK-47 lamented, facepalming. "And everyone says I'm always prepared."
"It's fine, AK." M4A1 assured, patting her arm gently before turning towards the Commander.
"You did pretty good, M4." he offhandedly complimented before calling their driver, his mind on the mission at the moment. "Hey, we've got the location of a nearby Command Post in the city and we need transport, ASAP."
"Ay, ay, ay, give me a sec, Commander." the driver replied over the comms, the rumbling of his engine audible.
Turning the comms off the officer immediately twirled his finger in a "form up" motion, and they immediately complied as the Humvee rolled back around to pick them up.
Commander Ian Becker
Now restocked with the ammo reserves Luka had stuffed in his vehicle and riding into Seredyna-Buda proper Ian offhandedly cast a look at the other members of his team, who thankfully had no injuries on them but were discussing the basics of combat in urban environments to M4A1 as she listened intently, clearing out as much residue from her empty weapon as she could without disassembling it thanks to a jam occuring in the previous firefight.
"While open fields can be very treacherous to fight in a lot of the time there's nothing worse than fighting in a city." AK-47 was saying. "First of all, you gotta worry about IEDs and shit stuffed in the streets, then you gotta take bandits and other human combatants into consideration, since you could literally be shot from any window, any street— hell, they even come up from the sewers and start shooting!"
"And we have to go into it..." the brunette murmured, staring at something intensely, although Ian couldn't pinpoint what it was.
"Don't forget that Sangvis has a pretty big foothold in the place, too. At the very least M500 and MP41 are a lot better off in the streets and the same hiding places and cover spots that make urban combat so shitty make it equally advantageous to you."
"It helps to have some kind of scanner suite as well, such as my Forewarning module." Howa 64 added, ensuring her battle rifle was clear of foreign particles as it was very hard to clean. "I'm not sure if you have anything like it or not, though."
"It's alright..."
"Also helps if your Imprint isn't a long-barreled battle rifle with a ton of internal parts in it." she added, pointing to M4A1's much shorter weapon. "It's pretty much the only thing I hate about my rifle."
"Um, okay..."
"Oy, we're about a hundred meters away from the objective, so time to get out!" Luka yelled from his seat, stopping the Humvee close to the multi-story building the enemy set up shop in.
Opening the Humvee door Ian immediately left the vehicle, his feet hitting the ground as his allies followed suit, the streets cluttered as always with overturned/wrecked cars and dead bodies that stank enough for him to smell them from about thirty feet away.
"M500, MP41, take point." he ordered the dog-girl and the snitch, who immediately got ahead of him to form the vanguard of their group as they started their trek through the streets of Seredyna-Buda, the scenery awfully familiar to him thanks to his wartime operations in Ukraine. "M4, stay right behind me."
"Y-Yes sir..." the cinnamon roll replied, closing the distance between them as they passed by the dead civilians in the streets.
Unlike in the fields there were many places to be shot at from in the city, causing the squad's heads to be on a constant swivel with M500 holding a scanner to look for traps with and MP41 using her camera's zoom as an impromptu scope to look for snipers.
Smart, using your camera like that. he thought as they reached an intersection, stopping at AK-47's warning as she pointed to the piled-up vehicles in the intesection.
"Howa, scan the area." the Commander ordered, crouching a bit lower than normal thanks to his height, which exceeded all of the Dolls present and made him stick out even more than even the girl with bright-red leggings or the one in a Gestapo uniform.
After a moment of silence passed the Japanese girl made her report, face troubled.
"There's units designated as 'Dinergates' hiding in and under the wrecked vehicles, along with standard infantry units hiding in the sewers..."
"Aw, hell." he swore, remembering the drones from his time in the Academy. "Any way to avoid it?"
"Hmm... they've got cameras mounted on the buildings but I've marked them for the others to see, so we could shoot one and run past before they deploy..." Howa 64 replied hesitantly.
"The distance between us and the target building is about seventy-two meters, but they've got all kinds of defenses surrounding the building, including snipers." M4A1 added. "I could run a scan for nearby friendly units to hail for assistance but that might not work."
"Do it, we don't have all day." he told her. "Howa, how many Dinergates are there?"
"About thirty-two in this batch."
Shouldn't cost us too much ammo then.
"M500, spring the trap. MG3, MP41, open fire on my mark."
"Jawhol." MG3 replied, mounting up on a car while MP41 stood beside her, aiming into the intersection while M500 walked into the intersection with her shotgun out— right before the ex-soldier saw a blur move away from the area, then a mere milisecond later the horde was unleashed.
Bearing a squarish grey/violet chassis akin to a toaster with four stubby legs, a single purple optic in its "face" and a small, but potent laser cannon on its back, the Dinergate was meant to perform light scouting work and completely overwhelm enemy positions with sheer numbers, the latter function in play as the toaster-like robots crawled out of every nook and cranny in the plethora of wrecked vehicles in the intersection before locking onto M500 and immediately locking on to her.
"C'mon, bring it!" the dog-girl yelled as she quickly backpedalled, firing each and every shell in her tube at the horde and hampering their movement as they attempted to shoot her— their weak targeting systems ensuring that they never hit her as she reached a somewhat safe distance and they fell into the Germans' lines of fire.
"Open fire!" Ian ordered, bringing his rifle up and flicking the selector to auto before MG3 and MP41 let it rip, 7.62x51, 5.56x45, and 9x19 Parabellum rounds tearing the weak drones apart with trivial ease and quickly reducing them to scrap, a couple of them getting close enough to fire only to get put down by M500, who'd reloaded her shotgun in the time it took to destroy the other Dinergates.
"Enemy reinforcements!" Howa 64 yelled as a trio of Sangvis Dolls emerged from the manhole about twenty-one meters ahead of the intersection, consisting of a Vespid and two Rippers with a pair of Scouts following them as they took cover behind some cars.
As if that could save them... the Command thought as he flicked his selector back to semi and fired the rest of the magazine at the Vespid, hitting her through a sedan's weak exterior and destroying her, the mid-range rifle issued to her flying out of her grasp as she fell dead.
"M500, MP41, move up and flank those tangos!" he ordered as he reloaded his carbine from behind a car's engine block (the only part of a car that can block bullets of any kind.)
"Yes, sir!" the Shotgun yelled as she and MP41 rushed ahead, firing suppressive shots as they rushed the enemy. After ensuring his wespon fed properly he emerged from cover to shoot at the remaining Rippers, just as three more Sangvis showed up from around the next building and started firing on the rest of his squad, having heard the commotion from nearby.
"Is everyone alright?!" he called out as plasma bolts whizzed past him.
"Da!" AK-47 replied, throwing a Molotov at the new arrivals before drawing her rifle to fire on them.
"Howa, how many hostiles are present?!"
"Seven! They may think we're a random patrol, though!" the Japanese AR yelled as she killed one of the enemy Dolls. "Scratch that, six now!"
Forcing a Vespid to take cover inside obe of the buildings with about ten rounds of suppressive fire the ex-soldier immediately turned on his radio to give orders to his troops.
"CQC Dolls, continue harrassing the enemy and give us an opening!" he yelled, moving to a pile of crates from an overturned truck. "M4, flashbang!"
"Yes, sir!" M4A1 yelled, letting her rifle hang from a sling as she pulled out a flashbang grenade and pulled the pin, throwing it towards the enemy squad as some of their members emerged to open fire.
Even without seeing it he knew the grenade went off a moment later, with M4A1 and Howa 64 reporting two successful kills each and AK-47 reporting one. Emerging from cover he trained his rifle's reticle on the heads of two Rippers and fired two shots at each of them, killihg them with almost pituful ease.
"They really are a lot weaker than before..." he remarked as M500 slammed into a Ripper and toppled her before crushing the fallen Sangvis' head under her boot, ending the engagement with a brutal finale.
"Area clear!" she yelled, rejoining her team and ignoring the purple coolants on her boot as she stopped in front of them.
"Anyone hurt?!" Ian yelled again, looking to each squad member for injuries.
"None of ours, but they'll be feelin' that asskicking for weeks." M500 replied jovially. "Damn, it feels good to be fighting again."
"How long did those bandits have you?" AK-47 asked.
"Only a day, but before that I'd been put to logistics duty for a month and a half." the Shotgun replied with a sigh.
As interesting as it was to hear about his subordinates' pasts, they still had a job to do, the thought prompting Ian to rally his troops to him so they could finish it.
"Good to hear that nobody's hurt but we're not done yet!" he called out, performing a quick check on his rifle. "M500, MP41, you know the drill by now!"
As the two CQC Dolls nodded in confirmation and moved to the front to resume the mission, Ian couldn't help but think of how different this was to the kind of combat he did in the War, of how different yet familiar his enemy was.
Ugh, I should probably stop overthinking this and just get the job done, I've got people counting on me. he thought to himself, resigning himself to the mission and just marching on with the rest.
"So much for just a couple sentries."
The team soon reached the target building, which was a simple two-storey office building, but unlike all of his operations so far, a new player for Sangvis was on the field.
Bearing violet twintails and an armored collar with pale skin and her eyes covered by a visor Sangvis Ferri's Guard was clad in arguable one of Sangvis Ferri's skimpiest outfits, consisting of a steel-grey armored bikini top with a black mesh layer under it that showed off her toned stomach and a similar bikini bottom with armor plates over the hips, her legs bearing much heavier armor than her older sisters and her left shoulder bearing a grey pauldron on it. While the bladed pistol in her hands was a bit weak for a Sangvis weapon the shied on her arm was a much more urgent problem they'd have to take care of.
Who the fuck even designed them anyways? he asked himself, memories of evading the units during his ten/eleven year exile surfacing as he appraised them from afar.
The two defensive units in question were currently stationed at the service entrance to the target building, shields sat on the ground in front of them with their hands holding it upright as they stared unflinchingly towards the exterior of the building, Jaegers a floor above them and looking for targets to perforate with Rippers and Vespids on the first and second floors patrolling.
"I count at least twenty hostiles in total, and those Guards could be quite bothersome..." Howa 64 noted, carrying a pair of binoculars in her hands as she scouted the area. "According to my scans, they've got two more Jaegers and Guards on the opposite side of the building, with an alarm wired to go off if we get detected, so attacking this position head-on would be akin to suicide."
Taking the information in stride the ex-soldier looked towards M4A1, who was seemingly busy with something.
"Anyone nearby we can get aid from?" he asked.
"There's a squad of Griffin Dolls patrolling nearby, but they're assigned to Station 737, whose Commander is still active." the elite reported.
Kamalov's girls, huh?
"He'll understand. Tell them we need assistance for a search-and-destroy operation."
"Yes, sir. Griffin combat Echelon, this is Tactical Doll M4A1 of the AR Team, acting under Station 794's command. We are currently attempting to assault a Sangvis Command Post, but it's too well-fortified to attack directly. We were hoping you could provide a diversion or aid us in the assault so our forces can carry out our mission, so if you are in a good position to assist, please do so!"
"Of course, comrade." DP-28's mature, sensual voice replied over the comms. "Tell your Commander that Komandir Kamalov sends his regards and wait for my signal."
"I will, thank you for assisting us."
Turning the comms off, M4A1 turned to look up at him and put up a thumbs-up, signaling her success.
"Now we wait for them to do something unusual enough to warrant a response..." Ian murmured, watching as the enemy forces continued their patrols and waiting for a signal to attack.
A signal that came two minutes later, the loud crack of a Mosin-Nagant going off twice in a row as the Jaegers toppled to the ground, killed with clean shots to the head, and then the rest of the horde realized what happened, a Ripper pointing towards the general direction the shots came from as Mosin-Nagant revealed herself from behind a barricade, a detonator in hand as she flipped a bird at the hostile forces and clicked it.
Suddenly, something behind or inside the base exploded, creating a loud boom as debris and dead Sangvis were thrown around by the explosion and Sangvis immediately diverted troops to check it out and prepare to defend against an attack from the other side of the base.
"Now's your chance, comrades! Commence the assault!" DP-28 ordered as she and RPD threw off a pair of grey cloaks and charged into battle, setting up behind a car's engine block and open fire upon the enemy.
"You heard her, weapons free!" Ian yelled as he emerged from cover at last, opening fire upon the machine horde as 737's MGs kept them occupied.
Alongside him the ARs joined in the fight as well, focusing on the Guards as they shielded a team of Vespids from enemy fire but hitting their shields seven shots out of ten.
"Watch it, they're throwing a grenade!"
"Enemy Doll on the move, keep some fire on her!"
"Target down!"
"I'm taking some serious heat over here!"
"Howa, get that heat off of Mosin!" he ordered, causing the AR to turn left and strike down a trio of Vespids who had the Russian sniper pinned down behind some rubble. With the sniper now free she could now act more efficiently, eliminating a Guard with a single precise headshot and exposing the Vespids behind her somewhat.
"M500, get those tangos away from the building!"
"You got it!" the Shotgun yelled as she jumped from cover and bum-rushed the nearest enemy, smashing her head against the wall of the building and splattering coolants and oils across it before shooting a Ripper dead-center with her shotgun and reducing her to scrap.
Firing on another enemy Ian groaned when he felt his M4A1 jam on him, causing him to duck down and quickly clear it with a simple magazine removal and pull of the bolt, the damaged bullet falling out of the magwell and allowing him to replace the magazine and chamber a new round.
"Commander, the enemy Command Post has sent a distress signal to all nearby units!" M4A1 warned, firing back at the enemy from behind a pillar of sorts.
"We gotta get up there, now." he said. "M4, throw smoke on my mark."
Pointing towards the front entrance, he saw the girl nod in understanding as he got into position for a mad dash into the structure, accounting for his gear's weight and his own speed as he estimated the time it'd take for him to reach the entrance before finalizing his calculations and gave the order.
"Mark!"
On his order the smoke canister flew through the air and landed in the midst of the Sangvis defenders and dispersed its payload, quickly obscuring the area in a thick grey smokescreen.
"All friendly units, avoid firing into that smoke until I tell you to!" he yelled as be bolted from his cover, crouched a bit low to avoid the enemy's fire as M4A1 followed suit, shooting at anyone who dared to target them as the battle raged on around them and the three MGs applied suppressive fire to the enemy positions, an explosion nearby nearly throwing them off their feet before they reached the smoke cloud, pudhing the Sangvis Dolls aside and dropping an armed M67 frag at their feet as they emerged from the smoke, heading straight for the stairs to the next floor.
For some reason nobody was there to try and stop them, but as they reached the top of the stairs a wire snapped— and Ian knew exactly why when a shockwave emitted from a grenade pinned to the wall and M4A1 yelped as she fell limply to the ground, her systems disrupted and leaving her unable to move with his tacpad similarly disrupted.
Then as if he was acting on pure instinct he reached out arkund the corner and grabbed the barrel of a Vespid's rifle and pulled, tearing the weapon from its owner's grasp as his combat knife found itself buried in her chest, the blade torn out as he flipped her body around to serve as a meatshield against her comrade, plasma bolts tearing into the body as he sidestepped the enemy and struck, a quick response from the Doll only delaying her demise as he punched her in the face with his off hand and released his arm from her grasp, his knife burying itself in her eye less than a second later.
"M4, are you alright?!" he called to his disabled ally just as metallic footsteps clanked against the ground and he turned around to see a Ripper approaching him at Mach One.
Unfortunately for her he knew exactly how long it took a Sangvis Doll to raise her weapon and fire, and as the volley of plasma bolts flew harmlessly past him a volley of 5.56x45 flew straight into her chest and head, striking her down instantly.
"So much for the 'dominant species."' he mocked with a wicked grin, his mind shifting to the real reason he was up here and reminding him of his mission.
Briefly forgetting about M4A1 he ran around the corner to see the Command Module sat in an unused office cubicle and withdrew two M67 frags from his vest and pulled the pins, tossing one with each hand and retreating downstairs, grabbing his ally by the arm and pulling her limp frame over his shoulders as the grenades exploded, rocking the building as the floor under the Module was blown out and nearly knocking him over thanks to the weight M4A1 added to him.
As the enemy Dolls collapsed to the ground with nothing to command them he couldn't help but laugh in both relief and triumph, laying M4A1 down on the ground next to a wall so she could recover safely.
I can't believe that shit worked...!
"Herr Kommandant, what just happened?!" MP41 called out to him as she and the rest of his team ran up to him.
"Enemy Command Post neutralized, and M4A1 got EMP'd." he explained curtly, standing back up.
"Is she..." Howa 64 trailed off, the question that died on her tongue obvious.
"I-I'm fine, just have to reboot fully..." the disrupted girl murmured, looking weakly up at him. "That was crazy of you Commander..."
"One doesn't go through a war without his sanity being affected at some level." Ian replied offhandedly, looking to DP-28 as her team approached him. "Spasibo za pomoshch', tovarishch!"
"Pozholustya." the scantily-clad MG said back with a nod. "We will handle the reinforcements, Komandir. You should return to base."
Given that he felt like a truck ran him over thanks to lifting M4A1 up like he did and fighting multiple SF Dolls in CQC, he couldn't help but agree with the busty Doll.
"Yeah. Luka, we need an exfil." he said after turning his comms on.
"Is the mission over, Commander?"
Looking around the devastated area, chock-full of dead and disabled Sangvis and reduced to rubble, he breathlessly gave his reply, unable to wait until he got home so he could get some rest and check on his friend's status.
"Yeah, it is."
So six days this time, whoo...
About the long-distance fight earlier in the chapter it was based on a video of American soldiers fighting in Afghanistan, with the gun jams coming from a similar video about an ambush by the Taliban.
Ian going full CQC on those Sangvis was inspired by Titanfall 2 where you can whack the absolute shit out of a Stalker or Spectre with just your fists, and the moves he pulled on them with his knife were inspired by Battlefield 4's knife animations.
Anyways, I'll see you next chapter!