'The payment is acceptable. Restate the mission objectives.'

**The analysis data of the device is the priority. Secondary is, if possible, safe recovery of the device. Tertiary is termination of anyone who knows how the device functions.

'And the commander?'

**[REDACTED] is typing…

**...

**Expendable. Terminate if he falls under the tertiary objective.

'Affirmative.'

**I look forward to further business with you.

**[REDACTED] disconnected.

UMP-45 unjacked from the console, diligently packing away her cables and tools within one of the bases' many tool-boxes, ensuring that she left everything exactly as she had found it. With the base preparing for mobilization of no-less than four squads, no one had noticed 45 quietly returning from the communication's relay with tool-box in hand. She left it in a nondescript locker within the engineering storeroom before making her way to the quartermaster.

"Ah, Fourty-five! Kalina put these aside for you-" Super SASS had lit up the moment 45 walked through the door. The bright and eager doll, operating as Kalina's assistant for the day, pushed the cardboard box full of the requisitioned supplies through the small opening in the bandit cage.

"Thank you." 45 signed off for the supplies, and hefted the box, but paused a moment. SASS's violet eyes were wide with awe while watching her.

"Are… are you really going on a mission with no dummies?" The young T-doll was star-struck. For G&K dolls, a sign of veterancy was displayed with how many dummies you could link to, a mark of prowess to be able to command four other shells as a human officer would command a fire team. To actively forgo dummy-links for a mission was to rely purely on skill that the digi-mind had acquired.

It was a sentiment that gave UMP-45 pause. Despite their frames appearing the same age, UMP-45 felt older. Much older. She was looked up to by the younger models on the base, by the inexperienced still running simulations and logistics. As much as she loathed interacting with the other G&K dolls, 45 felt that, as the mature one, she should at least be cordial.

"Dummies come with downsides. They eat processing power, are hard when you need precise control, and drain resources." 45 spoke matter-of-factly, "For example, would you want to supply me with four more sets of this?"

"No, not particularly." SASS grimaced, looking at the contents of the box one last time. Non-lethal kit meant hostile action against humans. It was a mission that a doll wired for such a kind-hearted personality would suffer from the most.

"Dummy's don't make or break your combat effectiveness, but you will get there eventually, so try not to think about it. You do good work, SASS." The words felt hollow coming from 45, but the quartermaster doll brightened up anyways, distracted from the grim turn of the conversation.

"Good luck on your mission!" SASS waved her farewell, to which 45 smiled back.

When the door shut behind 45, what could have been considered a smile had melted from her face. She made for her squad's dorm instead of the assembly room.

"Sis is back!" A auburn haired, twin-tailed doll leapt from the couch, eyes twinkling as she dashed to 45. "What kind of toys did you bring me?" UMP-9's grin was wide, faltering only a moment when their neural network sparked to life.

'Our line secured?' 45 pinged her sister.

'Of course, sis.' 9's response was snappy, 'No one from the base is snooping.'

"Where is Four-sixteen?" 45 frowned, sliding the box onto the table, 'New mission.' Even as words left her voice box, the second conversation over their closed network pinged back and forth.

"I'm here." An ashen haired doll growled, trying to pull the fourth member of their team from bed, 'Send the data packet. Maybe it will kick Eleven's processor awake.' 416's voice over the neural network was just as hostile as it was in the meat-space.

"G-eleven is not here right now... Please leave a message." The small doll thudded onto the floor, but her eyes remained closed. Even when 45 started passing the transcripts from their client, the little sloth pinged back 'G-eleven is not here right now… Please leave a message.'

It earned the small doll a swift, but gentle kick from 416.

"Rubber rounds? Tranquilizers?" 9 had started scattering the contents of the box across the table haphazardly. 'Human targets? Why not just let us go lethal?'

"Rubber rounds? Really, what is the commander up to?" 416's face had curled from a look of frustration to disgust as she left 11 for the floor, instead making her way to the table. 'Non-lethal rounds. What is this mission?'

"And what is this?" 416's words both in the network and out of her mouth snapped at the exact same moment that the doll held up a box of rubber bullets, the side printed with '5.56 caliber'.

"Uh… rubber rounds? Duh." 9 had already dumped her box of rounds out upon the table, quickly loading up a few magazines. They weren't supposed to have any equipment in the dorms, but 9 had convinced the commander to let them at least prep certain things here- given how difficult it was to move G11 sometimes.

"I see that, but why do I have rubber rounds?" 416 shook the box at 45 before pointing an accusing finger at the sleeping G11 that had rolled just the slightest bit closer to their conversation, "Why doesn't she get rubber rounds?"

45 took the firestorm of words from the belligerent 'elite' doll, smiling all the way through it, which only angered HK416 more. With a dismissive shrug and smug smile, 45 pointed out the obvious, "No one from the past invented caseless rubber ammunition, or bothered to store the data for it. By all means, if you can invent and manufacture non-lethal caseless rounds within the next five hours, I will gladly have Eleven carry them and you can be set back to lethal for the mission."

The bullets rattled in their box as anger caused the mechanisms in 416's arm to spasm. 'I am a weapon-'

'Yes yes, I know, a perfect weapon.' 45 dismissed, "The commander's mission requires us to carry non-lethal methods." - 'The client's mission requires us to carry lethal ammunition anyways. Even if the commander doesn't clear us for lethal methods, switch to live-fire rounds after we secure him.'

416 was taken by surprise for a moment, before realizing that such a reaction had no place for the outward verbal conversation they were projecting to the cameras.

"You don't want to disappoint the commander, right?" 9 smiled bright, placing her second finished mag on the table, "I personally wouldn't."

With unintelligible grumble, HK416 plopped herself down at the table, grabbing an empty STANAG magazine from the box and getting to work as well.

"We're operating beside the commander?" 416, for once, showed genuine interest despite efforts to try and hide her excitement as she diligently clacked each bullet into place.

"Check the mission data." 45 set out the rest of the equipment, before stooping down over G11, "Hey, 11, if you wake up and run prep now, I'll let you sleep from whenever you finish to whenever the chopper lands." When the young doll stirred slightly, 45 knew that the hook was in. Now to reel in, "I'll even make Four-sixteen wear the cat ears again." She whispered.

G11's eyes snapped open, wide and ready. Mumbling under her breath as her systems shook off the throttling of sleep mode. The replica of young girl dragged herself from the floor and to the table where everyone else worked. With no magazines to load, she went about ensuring that the tranquilizers were set for the average size and weight of the humans they would meet.

Now that their verbal conversation began to flow normally, 45 sent the message over the network, 'Switch yourselves to casual conversation modes. Four-sixteen, you can keep being set to 'grumpy' if you wish.'

416 shot a look that would have struck a human dead, preferring to remain silent to not give UMP-45 the satisfaction. Three connections pinged from the network, all tapping the packet set out by 45.

'That is a big payout.' 9 chirped, 'For such a simple mission. I thought we'd have to assassinate someone again.'

'The device in question-' 416's thought process had started, but 45 had anticipated the usual doubting from her.

'Classified to only my digi-mind, unfortunately.' 45 sent a pulse of what could have been considered a shrug by human standards. It was met by instant resistance by 416, again expected as well.

'And how exactly are we supposed to analyze the objective if we don't know what it is?'

'Because Forty-five has to do it.' 9 already knew the drill. Her loyalty was unshakable, after all, 'Why else would it be classified to her?'

'The contract… tertiary…objective...' To everyone's surprise, G11 very much was in the conversation, 'They want to limit… y'know… who knows.'

'And the commander?' Both 416 and 9 sent at the same time, equal amounts of concern in both of their impulses.

'We secure him and guide him away from the target device. He will most likely be near it when the field goes down. Keep him occupied while I scan and secure the device.'

'Simple enough, we have to clear the warehouse anyways for the IOP contract.' 9's message had a dismissive, nervous energy to it. Of course her concern for an organic she saw as 'family' would give her programming pause.

'Two mags of non-lethal is all we'll need. Usual pairs, during phase one only the non-lethal weapons are to engage, if we need to engage at all.' 45 met no resistance to the plan yet, aside from 416's obstinance around non-lethal munitions. 'That means the second partner should secure the prisoners with the tranqs and zip-ties.'

'Tranquilizers… oh, for humans though…' G11 had, during the few seconds this conversation was taking place, uncapped one of the tranquilizer pens, holding the needle-end up and ready to punch down into her leg.

'If you must use lethal force, move the body and mark it for clean up.'

The mission was going to be nothing but a crude improv game for Squad 404. With no intel to work from and the constricting rules of engagement meant that they would have to play it completely by reaction alone. 45 hated not having a plan, but they were the only squad that was capable of such a task.

"I'm set!" 9 slapped her hands on the table, making the the loose rounds jump and rattle in their trays. She stuffed the magazines into her jacket pockets, "I'm going to go talk to the commander now! See you-"

'Nine. Don't get comfortable here.'

It was a cold message. One that, if UMP-45 had a human heart, would have made it skip. The way her sister froze, those chocolate eyes of hers going wide with dread.

"-in the assembly room." 45 finished 9's words for her, letting her sister quietly turn and run down the hall without hesitation.

"I'm done. Can I go back to bed now?" G11 had arranged the pens in stacks of three, a set for each member.

"You have to prep your firearm and it's ammunition, you little gremlin." 416 latched onto G11's cheek just as the young doll hopped from her seat. Dragged by the cheek, G11 let out dry, false sobs. She looked to UMP-45, eyes ready to release the closest thing dolls had to tears. It had no impact on 45, at least not in the way her sister's expressions did.

"As Four-sixteen says. Head to Assembly and at least prepare your weapon and ammo. We're departing on chopper six, so just buckle in and nap there."

When her cheek was finally released, G11 scurried from the dorm, leaving the two clashing personalities alone in the silence.

'Outlived the usefulness of this base?' 416 eyed her team leader while still silently loading a magazine, though now slower than before.

The immediacy of neural-net communications only made the silence drag painfully long.

'We can't stay in one place too long.' 45 double-checked G11's work before grabbing matching sets of zip ties, neatly placing small bundles with the pens, 'The bug takes time to do its work. Be ready to leave by then.'

'So all that talk to 9 about a home was a lie.' Normally 416 would relish in catching UMP-45 in a lie, but for this time it was soberingly serious. Even with all of her disagreements and mistrust of the squad's de-facto leader, HK416 knew the purity of the relationship between the two UMP sisters better than anyone else. The ramifications of this lie would be… well she didn't want to think about it.

'I'm going to miss having an actual G&K repair facility.' Externally, 416 let out a sigh, packing the final bullet into her last magazine, 'It's your call. Personally, I wouldn't mind taking orders from a human for a bit longer.'

"See you at assembly." HK416's voice was a cold as the steel magazines she stuffed into her belt. With no other words, she too, took her leave, even turning the dorm light off before the doors quietly shut.

And there in silence, UMP-45 sat in the dark, the only home she had ever known.