[admin override] Force-boot systems...
…
…
[sleep override] - denied.
[sleep override] - denied.
**[Noisy Boss] Touchdown in 1 minute, wake up.
**[Big-Sis-416 :)] WAKE UP, YOU LITTLE GREMLIN.
'Uwa~'
Though G11's eyes opened, the process hadn't quite booted yet. Sometimes she could get away with pretending to be awake if she-
**[:3] Up and at them, G11! I won't hesitate to play [ rooster:aaf] on repeat until you boot yourself.
'Ugh… nooo… please. I'm awake.'
'I will rip out your damn twintails if you do that over the net again, Nine.'
G11 blinked, the dull green glow of the helicopter's interior slowly winking into existence before the dull thumping of the rotor-blades slowly hummed into her sensory data. She hugged her namesake firearm closer to her, like a child clutched a teddy.
"Ready for drop." The pilot's voice came over the radio frequency, the side door trundling open, giving the occupants a terrifying view of pointed treetops streaking by like teeth on a power saw.
And, far more uncomfortable than having people poke around in her head, it was cold. 11 wanted her blanket.
"It's not touchdown yet." G11 complained over the radio, "Why did you wake me up?"
"I ordered her to."
G11 squinted in the dark, only to be met with the grin of their commander standing patiently by the door. Internally, she sighed.
"Touchdown in ten seconds."
The chopper thudded and bounced, the muted clicks of their harnesses, the push out the door. Only a quick gear check before G11 found herself being held in place by HK416 as the prop-blast of the departing helicopter threatened to throw her to the ground. Violence and cacophony gave way to the simple tranquility of an unmarked clearing in the woods.
Three-quarters moon, pale but with its own warmth. It would have been like a fun camping trip if they could just unroll some sleeping bags. If they had sleeping bags. G11 grumbled quietly to herself, still clutching her weapon like it was a doll, while the others readied for combat.
"Think of it like a lovely night hike in the woods." The commander seemed to understand G11's affinity for the night, gently patting the small T-doll on the head as the team prepared to move out.
"I'll take point, commander!" 9 had already rushed ahead to the edge of the clearing, sniffing about for a trail like a hunting hound.
It was all so…
So boring.
Radio silence, sound discipline, light discipline. All G11 had to listen to was the shuffle of her feet through the dirt and the occasional hoot from the dark. Every so often, 416 would tap her, as if to check to see if she had gone into sleep mode again.
Perhaps she could tinker with her sleep process again, see if she couldn't develop a more convincing sleep-walking mode.
Forest and back-wood trail eventually gave way, thinning until the signs of clear-cutting became obvious. Uniform stumps dotting the run up to the target facility. Sangvis Ferri hated the environment just as much as they hated humans, apparently.
UMP-9 threw up a fist, halting their column. She made all manner of excited motions, all too fast for G11 to understand. Instead, the tiny doll sidled up to a stump and sat down. 9 was probably going to scout ahead, alone- meaning that G11 could shut her eyes for a little-
"Don't you dare." 416 hissed in her ear. The ashen-haired bully of a teammate grabbed G11 by the cheek, pulling her to her feet before gently shoving her forward.
"Your eyes are the best out of us. Look." 416's whisper was like the lash of a whip, and 11 scurried to the front of their column just to simply get away, but the abrasive doll followed her. G11 grimaced, expecting 416 to hover over her like some caretaker, but instead the self-proclaimed 'elite T-doll' went prone in the dirt and grass beside G11. She had flipped up her magnifier, peering out towards the facility in question, before darting her electric green irises to G11. 416 motioned with her chin for G11 to do the same.
The hum of chopper blades in the distance, just off of the wind. The other teams had dropped closer than 404 had. Why?
More specifically, why couldn't they have dropped closer, saved an hour of walking?
"No movement yet." 416 whispered back to the rest of the team.
G11 didn't know what H416 was expecting; perhaps some human to come out the front and investigate the noises in the distance? No, past that flimsy chain link fence, all they were staring at was a windowless, grey warehouse wall; large cargo door, small side door, lacking in the aesthetic tastes that human designers would have come up with. Utterly nondescript and unworthy of attention; which was probably why smugglers would hide there.
"Give the other teams fifteen to set up in positions." The commander whispered so that the others could hear, "We'll advance to the red-line where your team will stand-by."
G11 wanted to go into sleep mode. She wouldn't miss anything- they were staring at a concrete wall, and she had doubts that there would seriously be anything happening outside.
"The red-line has no concealment." 416 grumbled, "I can see through the fence right now."
"There's no observers…" G11 yawned back, passing her crosshairs over the roof- the only point of observation the warehouse would have with no windows out. No one was silhouetting themselves against the moonlight, so either no-one was there or they were actually smart humans.
"Cameras." 416 whispered back, noting the detail that 11 hadn't bothered to point out. The little half-domes no bigger than a balled fist that ringed the perimeter wall- 416 probably saw them, but didn't have the zoom or focus to see that inside of those little tinted domes, the actual camera lenses were not moving.
"Won't… work. The EM field…"
"I-I know that." 416 huffed quietly, her stabbing glare focused completely on 11 once again, "But it bears note for when the field goes down, doesn't it?"
G11 shrugged. Automated alarms or not, if they moved fast enough the internal security probably wouldn't have enough time to boot back up- if it even booted at all.
"Is it clear?" Both dolls went rigid, startled by the commander's proximity.
"No movement."
"Then we push up to the red line."
The commander went first before any had a chance to protest, moving low and towards whatever defilade or irregularity in the terrain that they could find. Only the moon lit the way for them, their one way of navigating, and yet their greatest enemy as the moved through open ground.
They could feel the field's effects as they approached the fence. At first it was a tingling sensation to the epidermal interface, then it started to send a quiet, hissing white noise into the digi-mind.
For G11, it was pleasant, like when when her extraneous process started shutting down before switching to sleep mode. The others though, they look far more irritable at it. The bolt cutters came forward from someone, 11 didn't care as long as she wasn't the one carrying them.
"You know the plan. See you soon." The commander scurried through the newly snipped gap in the fence, low-running his way through the empty parking-lot of a no-man's land. G11 wished that he had a neural connection so that she could point out that, unfortunately, he was completely visible… at least to her eyes.
But none of the other girls seemed to care, instead focusing on gathering around 45.
'The plan was to follow the commander's way in when as soon as his signal broadcast went out.' The image of the warehouse perimeter flashed over the network, 'But we'll know as soon as the field is down. He entered from the north, we will circle to the south and make entry there.'
G11 frowned, but no one noticed. Why was everyone making things more difficult? Half the team on non-lethal, landing so far away from the objective, not using the same point of entry…
"There's strategic reasons to everything." HK416 whispered, watching G11 out of the corner of her eye, "And never a clear-cut correct answer to why. Even more so when a human is in charge."
"But…" G11 mumbled, "I thought humans wanted things easy. That's why I liked them commanding."
'We'll measure the field's strength as we move. If its a uniform dome, it can help us approximate the center.' 45 rolled her eyes, motioning for the team to hurry along.
'If it's uniform.' 416 snapped over the network even as she pulled G11 to her feet.
'There's the cynicism. Welcome back, 416.' 45 hadn't even bothered to wait, taking off with 9 into the darkness.
"She promised me that she'd make you wear the cat ears again." G11 hefted her rifle, scurrying off as quick as she could away from the fuse she had just lit.
"W-what? She did-"
G11 could hear 416 starting to fume-
'UMP-45 YOU SAID WHA-'
**[sleepo-beepo] disconnected…