The dreaded day had arrived, and the commander piled into a cramped helicopter along with the rest of his echelon and the racks of their dummies. None of the girls had any trace of worry or anxiety on their faces, and in fact M14 seemed even more energetic than usual as she patted the empty seat next to her in chopper.
"Commander!" She shouted in glee, even over the thunder of the helicopter's rotors. "We're really going to win it, aren't we!?"
"Use your microphone, Fourteen." The commander motioned for the rifle doll to place her headset on. Even inside of the transport chopper, the sheer cacophonousness of the beast posed a threat to the delicate auditory sensors of both human and doll alike.
"S-sorry commander!" M14 fumbled her headset as the helicopter lifted off, much to the amusement of the rest of the team.
"Commander." FAL turned her gaze towards him. In any other place, it would be a soft, affectionate expression, but once FAL was in work mode, she stayed that way. She had a question loaded and ready, but hadn't quite pulled the trigger.
"Why are we facing an echelon more than double our efficiency rating?"
Everyone turned to stare at the doll who dared question the commander's decision. UMP 45 simply shrugged, not shackled by the same sense of respect as everyone else.
"Commander Obolensky wanted to experience what it was like to face a competent opponent. After all, Sector E-zero-two is quite pacified." The commander stretched the truth with a grin etched so confidently over his frustrations. "He so graciously volunteered me as his opposition."
"Combat efficiency-"
"-is just a number." He interrupted NTW-20's sudden doubts, "Based on metrics derived from IOP's stock data." While the commander hated using harsh tones with the dolls under his command, there was one thing he couldn't abide by from his subordinates- human or otherwise.
"You are more than what someone else quantifies. Right?"
"Right!" 9 was the first to cheer, causing everyone to wince at the volume she kicked out through their headsets.
"For all we know, this could be an exercise designed to change our metrics." FAL suggested, reaching out to calm 9.
"Or to increase our base model's ranking!" M14 jumped in again, practically bouncing off of 9's excitement, much to FAL's displeasure.
What was the point of this? The commander wasn't in the know, and thankfully his girls hadn't pressed him further than their own speculations. Command was tight-lipped about it, the only hint he had was that it was an exercise contracted by IOP- and that some of their top representatives would be there.
"Girls, can you take it to neural network, please? Radio discipline." If a call was to come in over the comms, he needed to hear. More importantly though, their chatter was making it hard to think, to speculate on just why on earth they were on this helicopter right now.
And all the while, the commander hadn't ignored the fact that there was a pair of golden irises that had not once looked away from him.
He thought it best to just ignore it. UMP-45… something about her was… off, at least since they had boarded. Was it because she had doubts based on her own assessment of the plan but didn't wish to speak up? Did she just uncover something from her recon data that they had missed? It wasn't until touchdown at the training site did she even blink.
The door to the helicopter slid open. FAL placed a gentle hand upon his shoulder as he passed by her.
"Give them hell." He said before disconnecting his headset from the radio. The commander waved a small farewell as he dashed from helipad, the prop-blast pushing him towards the pyramid-like facility whether he wanted to go or not.
On-site staff was a mix of military, IOP, and civilian contractors, though it was a Griffin representative that had collected him. It was easy enough to navigate the facility, he didn't need a red-coated intern pulling him along like a damn tourist.
"Here, commander."
The poor intern even opened the automatic door for him. A deep sigh escaped the commander at the most inopportune moment- right when his superior had approached to shake his hand.
Helianthus was not, as the commander had come to know, a pleasant person, and a handshake was a big step forward. The small, forced smile had quickly melted off of her sharp features. She retracted her hand, diligently adjusting her monocle.
"Right, well-" She spun on her heel, almost slapping the commander with that long ashen braid of hers as it whipped from one shoulder to the other, "The commander of Area F-zero-two." She motioned for the commander to stand at attention front and center before a gathered committee. Aside from Helianthus, there was only one other representative from G&K- and the sight of whom had caused the commander to break into a cold sweat.
Berezovich Kryuger sat at the center of the observation deck, practically looming over the whole hologram table with arms crossed as he quietly assessed the man who stood before him. To the CEO's left, Helianthus's empty seat, to his right, two civilians in white lab coats. Though they didn't bear any company markings, they were most likely IOP… though the commander found it hard to not fixate on one of them. A disheveled woman, looking nothing like a respectable researcher or frankly, a responsible adult in any capacity. Were those… cat ears?
"Right then, commander. I hope you have something up your sleeve." The cat-woman flashed a grin that made the commander's fists clench behind his back. The tablet in her hand glowed in the dimmed light, clearly showing the echelon he had chose to field as she tapped it gentle against the side of her temple. She leant forward, sensing that there were words trapped in the commander's throat, "You look like you have something to say?"
"I have supplementary data that needs to be-"
"Is it relevant to your set-up?" Helianthus had taken her seat, giving the closest thing the commander had felt to an icy dagger to his throat.
"No, ma'am."
"Then it can wait until the after-action report and data consolidation." Helianthus dismissed the thought, pointing off to the side of the room, "Blue-for has been waiting to begin the preparation and deployment phase."
The commander followed her gesture to what he first thought was a side room or a closet- in actuality it was more akin to a booth, like a recording studio or some such. There was a large window, to which the commander saw that Vikor Obolensky was scowling at him through.
"Is there anything you need of us?"
The commander snapped back to the cat-eared woman, whose Cheshire grin only seemed to grow wider. It was like she knew what he wanted to ask, but dared not in front of his superiors.
"No."
"Right, take your station, then." Helianthus motioned for the commander to step into a room, mirror opposite of where Viktor was. It was a small, cramped space, nothing at all like the command room back on the base. Multiple displays run from both observation drone, satellite, and up-link information for dolls. The information overlay displayed the map of the area, much in the manner that he was used to when her ran operations back home. Pulling the map to the primary display revealed that much of the area of operation was greyed out- only highlighting the designated BLUFOR and OPFOR landing zones, mimicking the decreased visibility of a night mission.
"Limiting the drone's visibility." He mused, "Is secrecy of the opposing echelons so vital?" When the commander attempted to move the drone, it wouldn't push past the known area. Most likely the drone would be limited, at least until the opening of the exercise.
Stupid, nothing at all like a real combat situation. It made the man frown- what was the point of this?
"Is there a problem, commander?" Helianthus' voice crackled through an oddly out-of-date intercom, the harshness of it causing the commander to jump.
"No." The commander tried to straighten out his frustrations. Were they going to be watching like this was some spectator sport?
"Commander?" Her voice crackled with the frustration that was clearly readable on her face. She motioned for him to press the faded white button next to the speaker.
The thing clacked, forcibly resisting him, "No."
"You may run your preparations for deployment. Flip the switch to the other side of the intercom when you are ready."
Without another word, the commander flicked the switch and took his seat, much to the confusion of both Helianthus as well as Viktor. Through the dirty, clouded window, the commander could watch his contemporary go about his own room, messing with the consoles and displays, mouth moving but no words to hear. Every once and a while, a glare and a confused frown towards the commander or Helianthus.
Helian seemed equally flummoxed, but she did not ping the commander again. The Griffin administrator simply crossed her arms with a displeased scowl, turning briefly to exchange words with the other observers.
The commander settled into his seat, after all, there was nothing else to do but adjust the drone's camera and wait for the chopper to touch down in the landing zone.