The command line was ringing, and the commander let the little light flash there for a moment before finally realizing that he had no adjutant to answer for him. In a panic, he pulled up a second display, frantically trying to answer the call. He cursed loudly, trying to remember what G36 had told him about running dual monitors when Helianthus's face popped into existence upon it.
"Status on the attack." Helian was a mask of pure neutrality. It had taken a month of two, but eventually his superior had come to ignore how often the commander cursed, not batting an eye to the frustrated swears that frequently answered her calls. At the least she had realized that the curses were not aimed at her.
"I have Echelon Four and Five on the ground, with Echelon Two and Six on standby." The commander double checked his side monitor to make sure everyone was safe. "M-Four was insistent on leading the final push." He confirmed his confidence, all displays green across the board.
"And she has sufficient support?"
"G-Thirty-six and Thirty-six-c are in her echelon, they'll keep her and SOP-Two safe. They are with some of my best."
Helianthus seemed to relax somewhat, though that only seemed to frustrate her more. She was already upset with just how casual the commander was being. Despite warming up to him the past few months while in-sector, she still clearly hated how confident he was despite the risks.
"I have Echelon Two circling just outside the AO ready to hot-drop in close. If M-Four needs to pull back, they will have cover. Even a Ringleader wouldn't walk into that volume of fire." The commander checked the drone cameras that sat at stand-off distance, anticipating the route of attack M4 would take her team on. He had moved his other echelons into place to distract for her, but the final thrust would by M-Four's to decide when. In the little time he had gotten to know her, the AR doll was soft-spoken most of the time, but when it came down to finding her team-mates she was incredibly direct.
"Hunter is not to be taken lightly, commander."
"I know. We are moving to cut off her reinforcements so that M-four's team can strike the killing blow."
"Persica wants assurances."
"And I can give her my utmost. With the exception of Team FN, most of my top soldiers are on the operation." The commander couldn't quite understand why Helian was being so paranoid about this mission, after all they weren't her soldiers about to face down a Ringleader. He had sent the battle plan and troop roster- that alone should have been enough to placate Persica. Then again… this was a mission that careers hinged upon.
"M-Four is cleared to abandon my soldiers if she assesses that she is in danger." The commander made clear that his professionalism came over his feelings, but Helian's doubts still lingered.
"And the other dolls in the echelon… they are aware of M-Four's importance?"
"G-thirty-six will sell herself dearly if it is for M-four." The commander mumbled. His trusty adjutant had bonded quite well with the soft-spoken leader of the AR Team, something about her personality being the same as G36's "little sister". Both 36 and 36c insisted to be placed on the mission.
"I must get back to monitoring the battle, ma'am." The commander gestured to his primary display. Despite Helianthus's frown, she silently nodded and terminated her feed.
The commander let out a massive sigh of relief now that there was no one to hear it. He hated talk about having to sacrifice his girls for the sake of the mission.
M-four's team had circumvented the town that hid Hunter's command facility while Fourth and Fifth echelon disrupted enemy formations across the river to the east. The commander dispatched a supply chopper for when they had cleared a new LZ, making it appear as if the primary threat was coming from the east. So far, Hunter had taken the bait.
M4's command line opened, her portrait popping up on the commander's display as she spoke.
"Commander. We're almost to the facility, there's a defensive force in the way though… I don't think we'll be able to sneak around them."
He knew what M4 was asking. While she was an excellent fire-team leader, she still lacked the top-down look at things.
"You're clear to engage them. Just strike fast and push into Hunter's command center before she can redirect any more troops. Thirty-six-"
G36's portrait popped up alongside M4's.
"Yes, master?"
"PKP's team is on standby. I'm granting you authority to call them in if you think it is necessary."
"Affirmative, master. It shall not come to that." Though the portraits were static, the commander could not help but imagine his faithful maid quietly bowing- in fact he would not be surprised if she was bowing on the other side of the line.
"Good luck, M-Four."
"T-thank you commander! We won't fail!"
Something still didn't sit right in the commander's gut, like he had forgotten a key piece of information- a variable that had fallen between the cracks…
He tapped Echelon 5's comms.
"Status?"
"SF is attacking us at the new LZ. We're holding the line though!" MP5 was ever chipper, even as the familiar pops of her namesake weapon came through the communication line.
"I'm directing Four to help break your encirclement. Sit tight."
"You bet, commander!"
The line switch was as simple as tapping a few keys, but still he missed G36's ability to predict and switch for him without a word spoken.
"Fourteen, cut south-east across the bridge- double time it if you can. MP-Five's team is being surrounded there."
"Roger, commander!" The energetic veteran's portrait was static, but the commander had the sense that she was saluting on the other end. Even as a sniper unit, he had faith that M14 and her team could handle themselves in the close-to-mid range fights as long as they engaged the SF units from the outskirts of the town.
That sinking feeling again. Instinct was not something to ignore. He looked at the map, tracing the last few minutes of movements. His echelons had thrust south on the eastern flank, making to capture the bridges and town there- to create the perception being that Griffin wanted a foothold to assault the actual facility with. In actuality, his teams were supposed to be the reinforcements once M4 found Hunter.
SF had reacted how he predicted, moving aggressively against his units across the river while ignoring the forward deployment of M4's team, letting them silently move west without any units to intercept. It was almost like the backdoor was purposefully left open… and now the reinforcement echelons were bogged down it seemed increasingly suspect that that were the case.
Was it a trap to lure in M4?
He hesitated a moment only to have M4's line suddenly opened up again.
"Commander! The SF dolls inside of the facility are turning on each other. They've gone berserk!" She sounded somewhat confused and in shock, and indeed on the ground it must have been a confusing sight.
But from the command seat, all of his previous worries had been dashed. Even if it was a trap, something clearly was wrong. Unless this was some devious strategy that only an artificial intelligence could decipher, now was the time to strike.
"Go! Push for Hunter and neutralize her before her guards recover! She's probably alone now!" The commander ordered where M4 hesitated. The team-leader channel stayed open for just that split second longer, but he was sure that he heard a grunt of determination from M4.
He commandeered a drone. Now that the bases's defenses were in disarray, he could fly the drone in closer without worry of it being shot down.
The picture was clear: someone had sabotaged the SF network from the inside. Sangivs dolls were firing on one another at random, but certainly not as if they were under direct command. They moved erratically- jerkily- not completely subverted by whatever program had taken hold. Still, there weren't that many dolls that were capable of such a feat, and somewhere in the depths of the commander's heart he hoped it was them.
"Thirty-six, overclock yourself now!"
The command signal from M4 buzzed, shifting more of G36's processing into her aiming imprint. Her system could sustain the level of stress for roughly ten seconds, and in those ten seconds, every single one of her shots was focused to inflict maximum damage. The rifle thumped into her demure shoulder with 36 using the predicted recoil of it to shift her aim-point to a new target. Another bullet cracked the skull-casing of the Guard unit. In her heightened state, she would thin as many SF units as she could for the sake of her little sister-
"C! Now!"
G36's little sister dove from her hide, clashing nearly in hand-to hand with the unit of Sangvis Guards, tying them down. Even in her overheating state, 36's emotion module panged with distress seeing her sister enter the line of fire, at least until C had activated her shields.
With the enemy units focusing fire on C, M4 revealed the trick-
SOP-II fired a grenade right in the middle of the pack, shredding the SF dolls while the shrapnel bounced harmlessly off of C's translucent blue dome.
Four more seconds of overdrive- 36 was in single-fire mode, yet the speed in which she tapped the trigger nearly matched her full rate of fire. Every bullet found a vulnerable part; head, leg joint, arm-joint… whatever was available to disable the target as swiftly as possible so that when C's shield finally fell, there would be no doll left to hurt her.
"We're pushing!" M4 dove forward, the way clear to the facility.
"Big sister, are you okay?" C looked back, waiting for 36 to catch up. The maid silently nodded, motioning for C to keep up with M4.
In actuality, G36 was anything but okay. She hadn't pressed her damage focus that hard in over a year, and hadn't checked her parameters to see if she could run at that level with her recent combat reinstatement. She exhaled what heat she could from her system before jogging forward. Though her master had said the path was clear, 36 sent her dummies to push the flanks, sweeping to make sure the team wouldn't be caught by surprise. It was her specific mission to make sure that miss M4 was safe- one that required her to lay down her frame's life if need be. They had barely pressed through the facility gates when the network buzzed with activity.
'Contact- CONTACT!'
The panic in M4's message spurred 36 to go faster, despite her still trying to vent heat. How disgraceful she must look, huffing and puffing as if she were out breath as she sprinted forward- but self-consciousness was not in 36's programming. Maid protocols did not exist when she was in combat.
'Command; Team M-four in contact with Hunter!'
36 pulled her dummies in as she moved, sending them to points of possible contact as she moved to rally with the team.
"Thirty-six, move!" M4 screamed from behind a shipping container, popping her corner to try and fire off a suppressing burst.
G36 had only an instant to dive into the dirt as a burst of energy cracked and sizzled over her head. Before a follow up burst could hit her, 36 rolled out of the way and into cover.
"So even civilian dolls have reflexes." Hunter laughed through the team's radio channel, "Good good, I do hope you can keep up."
36 picked out the movement, the SF Ringleader making effortless dashes and leaps between cover, taking shots at whatever doll presented herself. It was a level of performance beyond even the most top-specced T-doll. M4's commands to the team were an attempt to set up a noose, but every time they got their dummies into position, Hunter had slipped the snare using her absurd movement.
'We can't use fire-and-maneuver tactics if she keeps moving like that.' M4's frustrations hadn't turned to panic, luckily, but it was clear that she was quickly exhausting her options.
'We can call in PKP's team.' 36 suggested, while taking a burst at a fleeting Hunter. She barely managed to duck as bolts from Hunter's pistols sizzled the concrete barrier she used as cover.
'Hunter would cut them down at the LZ before they could set up.' M4 motioned for 36 to push the left flank with her dummies, 'We need to force her into a crossfire.'
"Is this the best M-Four can muster?" Hunter taunted over their radios, "I had heard such wonderful things about her when I tortured her little friend. How disappointing."
'Or we slow her ability to move.' C's suggestion seemed to resonate with everyone on the neural network.
'Tear her legs off? Why, I would love to.' SOP chimed in, taking the moment to try and maneuver closer as Hunter displaced once again.
'SOP, when she's jumping around like that can you predict where she'll land?'
'I can try!'
'After I clear you, put a grenade where she'll land the next time she jumps.'
The only response to the plan was an disturbingly excited buzz over the network.
'C, I need to to expose yourself with your shield for a moment while we move. Draw Hunter's fire.'
"Miss Thirty-six." M4's expression was stern, though her words polite despite the duress she had expressed just moments ago.
"Yes, Miss M-four?" 36 looked back as the pair ran with their dummies to the area where M4 had highlighted on the network. It was clear why M4 was speaking in material-space; so that C wouldn't worry about her older sister- she was about to suggest something dangerous.
"I'm going to need you to use your damage focus program again." M4 spoke cautiously, knowing full well G36's limitations.
"You are in command." 36 smiled warmly, knowing full well that a doll like M4 would never maliciously endanger subordinates.
"R-right. If Sop's grenade slows Hunter, you should have a window to attack."
"And you as well, Miss M-Four." G36 smiled as they dashed into position, "Your systems are better than mine, after all."
'My shield is fading, going to cover!' C announced. Everyone on the network had shifted according the the image M4 had projected.
"Oh my oh my. You think I don't see you there?" Hunter stooped to take the leap towards a new firing angle on 36c, who was still trying to break contact behind a low concrete barrier.
M4 had sent the engagement permission just fractions of a second before 36c's shield broke.
"I'll break your fucking legs!" SOP screamed with a mix of joy and anger punctuated by the thump up her 40 millimeter- the exact moment that Hunter's feet had left the ground. The Sangvis ringleader tried to twist herself mid-air, to shift direction or cover herself as the high-explosive detonated just inside of her trajectory. The blast sent her sprawling away from her landing point, though the ringleader managed to land arms and feet first- like a cat peppered with burns and shrapnel.
'Now!' The command impulse from M4 was joined to the overclocking of her weapon imprint. 36 took the signal, activating her own focused targeting despite her systems overheating.
Rifle fire from their dummies peppered Hunter, but it was the mainframes that struck true. M4's rounds repeatedly cracked off the reinforced frame of Hunter's skull, battering the ringleader's sensors this way and that from their impacts. G36's rounds slammed home into Hunter's arms, taking the ringleader's upper-body support out from under her, making her crash face-first into the asphalt.
Bullet scarring on the skin turned into dents, and dents tore into holes as M4 and G36 continued to aim for the same points of impact even as Hunter attempted to try and scramble away; at least until another grenade blast sent the white-haired Sangvis sprawling again.
This time, she did not get up.
Before anyone had even stopped firing, SOP-II descended upon the prone ringleader, savagely tearing at the doll's legs. IFF signals criss-crossed over the network, all screaming for ceasefire, and every single doll was forced to watch as SOP snapped Hunter's leg at the knee-joint before they could even register to look away.
"I told you I would!" SOP cackled as she dragged the ringleader face to face with her, "Why are you smiling about it!? Huh!?"
It was as SOP said- the frame of Hunter was smiling, despite the sheer amount of damage it had taken. Chunks of metal and circuitry torn from the face, punctures in the torso leaking conversion fluid and oil, legs joints shattered… Hunter rightfully should be suffering frame-death shortly.
"H-H-HOW CUTE." The broken mouth of the Sangvis doll moved, but her voice crackled over their radios as the rest of the team closed in on the ringleader, "ARE- ARE- ARE- GRIFFIN DOLLS SO S-S-STUPID THAT THEY THINK I ONLLLL-LY HAVE ONE FFFFRAME?"
SOP looked pleadingly to M4, who gave her sister a simple nod before turning to move deeper into the facility. G36 tried to follow- to avoid what she knew what was going to happen next, but her systems had locked up and required her to vent excess heat. As she fell to her knees, her younger sister hesitated, moving back to pick her up.
'Go with M-Four, I'll will bring SOP after I cool.' Was all 36 managed to ping out to her sister before she started suffering stuttering.
G36 also didn't want her sister to see what would happen when SOP grabbed the ringleader by the jaw, gripping the upper and lower parts of the mouth as a child would prepare to tear open a present. 36 had closed her eyes, but her system stuttering prevented her from fully shutting off her auditory sensors. The only relief from the sickening tearing sounds was that it came in sporadic and choppy as she began to reboot her auditory system. Still, she felt a slight chill when her hearing sizzled and hissed with the sound of Hunter's mocking tone.
"I can die a hundred times, a thousand times, and you still won't win." Though confident, Hunter's voice seemed weaker- detached.
'She's trying to upload herself to a new frame.' SOP sneered within the neural network as she hurls aside the disjointed jaw.
'We'll find her. Stay with Miss G-thirty-six until she can move again.'
SOP let out a signal that could be interpreted as huff of annoyance, but 36 tried to ping her objection to the order. Time was of the essence-
An explosion rattled the facility, so violent that it tore through the roof, casting shards of concrete and metal bits into the air. SOP had grabbed G36, slinging her over her shoulders as she ran for cover from the miniature meteorites that began to crash to the surrounding earth.
'M-Four! M-four!?'
'We're fine, SOP. It came from deeper in the facility-'
'Commander what was that?!'
The network had come to life in a flurry of confused pings and worry, only settled by an image flashed from a command drone's camera. A crater in the facility, the image of another white-haired doll frame shattered by whatever had caused the detonation.
The image zoomed, another figure emerging from the ruin to inspect the body. Pink haired and fair- certainly not a Sangvis Doll. She raised an assault rifle and put three rounds into what was clearly another sprawled out Hunter frame.
'That's STAR! We found her we found her!' SOP's murderous rage had completely flipped, an excitement so infectious that even G36 felt relieved.
'Change of objectives; regroup with STAR before we sweep for the remnants of Hunter.'
"Scrap sweeping for Hunter." The commander's voice came over the radio just as 36 regained her full faculties. "The other echelons are reporting Sangvis units are going dumb or deactivating. Hunter's command signal is gone."
"Then we won?" SOP hadn't bothered to say it in the network, but she excitedly turned to 36, who managed to get back on her feet. With hands still covered in conversion fluid, SOP-II excitedly grabbed on to 36 and shook as she cheered, "WE WON!"
'Change of objectives; regroup with STAR and egress to extraction point.' M4 kindly updated the mission as a reminder, perhaps aware of SOP's early celebration. It had done little to damper the elite doll's excitement, and G36 managed to calm the energetic SOP-II before she shook something loose.
"I will secure the landing zone." 36 managed to smile despite the shocks to her system, "You regroup with your teammate."
"A-Okay!" SOP gave 36 a thumbs-up, but paused herself mid-run, turning turn back to G36. Suddenly timid, SOP looked over G36 before asking, "Are you sure you don't want to meet her too?"
"We will have the whole helicopter ride to introduce ourselves." G36 bowed slightly, consciously trying to ignore the cleaning programs that were in a flurry over the stains on her uniform.
"Um…" SOP hesitated, putting a fluid-stained finger upon her chin- a mockery of the innocence of such a gesture, "A-are you okay, Thirty-six?"
"I am. Thank you for your consideration though, Sop-Two." G36 turned her attention to the damaged dummies that they would need to collect, "You should reunite with your friend."
SOP gave a tentative wave, backing away from G36 as if the maid were going to pounce on her if she showed her back before taking off in an excited sprint towards the facility.
"Damage assessment, Thirty-six?" The commanders voice came in crisp and clear over her radio. He was calm. Not excited... but certainly not worried anymore. G36 straightened herself out, just in case the commander's drone was watching.
"Loss of six dummies within the echelon, no mainframe damage-"
"I can see all of that." The commander interrupted in a reminding tone.
"Right." G36 hesitated. Her programming always made her interpret the literal first. Over the last year or two with this commander, she had gained far more nuance, but still it was hard to shake her primary programming.
"My systems suffered from severe overheating…" 36 began, knowing full well that the commander would worry shortly, "As such I performed sub-optimally and was unable to complete the mission as initially set-"
"And the others?"
"Miss SOP-Two still exhibits highly aggressive and self-destructive tendencies in combat, though they seem to be less pronounced when in the presence of her AR Team peers."
"And M-four?"
36 paused, not out of hesitation of what she had observed, but to give the commander more time to scrawl his notes to IOP.
"Sufficient in command. Miss M-four did not panic, nor did she break morale when unexpected events occurred. However, she still hesitates to make decisions when not under fire."
She could hear the quiet grumble of the commander, muttering under his breath as he scritched and scratched his notes with pen and paper. The paradox of M4A1 was something that was between the commander, Miss M4, and 16Lab. G36 was just the observer.
"I'll send the data right away and see if we can get some answers." The commander sighed. It was in relief, according to the empathy program G36 came with, but she had come to learn that there was a greater depth to human emotions in something as simple as a drawn out exhale. She had also come to learn that the sigh was the commander's unofficial sign that formalities had ended.
"And we'll see about updates for your systems or hardware. Are you still set on being put back on combat duties?"
G36 had already begun dragging the scattered remains of dummies lost in the firefight, creating a small pile near where they could land a helicopter. Even if combat duties only entailed this macabre work, G36 felt confident enough to answer;
"As long as my sister is in the field, I will take the field as well." Her words were unusually proud, sparked by her emotion module. It was her decision- not her programming, not because she had been ordered to.
"And C? Is she-"
"I have not done a scan of her digimind's stability, but she performed admirably against Hunter." 36 could feel something within her systems warm pleasantly as she spoke praise of her little sister, yet she hesitated for a moment.
"I must request that you condone her taking unnecessary risks. Even with her shield technology, I insist that she not be used for such precarious tactical maneuvers in the future."
Something in the commander's grumble struck her, a quiet smile involuntarily pulling onto 36's lips. It had nothing to do with what she had said- thankfully- but there was something going on within the command room that she suddenly felt as if she were missing out on.
"Master… do not tell me that everything in the command center is falling apart without my presence?"
"W-well, not fallen apart but…"
"I understand, master. Worry not, I will be home soon." 36 grabbed onto the leg of one of her own dummies, unceremoniously dragging it to the growing pile.
"We- we will be home soon." G36 corrected herself, spying the group of dolls emerging from the Sangvis facility, abuzz with a familiarity and excitement that G36 couldn't help but smile at.