Welcome to Chapter Three. This is honestly the earliest I've ever started a major plot point in a story. Anyways, Ian arrives at Sector 09 and gets acquainted with everyone. Enough said.
Also, I have the challenge of writing the character I always portrayed as a civilian as a soldier, but not making him an absolute hardass, either.
It is time to venture onto the Girls' Frontline, comrades!
(Concerning German T-Dolls like G36, I don't know how I should write dialogue in a German accent, so it'll be written normally, but the accent is indicated the first time the German speaks.)
EDIT: I am going through with a full rewrite of each Recollection: Beginning in order to bring them up to my current quality standards and make things more consistent in general.
Sector 09 Base
Neo-Soviet Union
July 2, 2062
Ian Becker
It took way too long to reach Sector 09. When the helicopter finally touched down at the helipad after hours upon hours of flying, night had fully fallen, and a beleaguered Ian was unreasonably tired. All he wanted to do was find the nearest bed and pass out like a champ— which was weird, considering how long he could normally stay up and be active. But once again, a lot had changed since he was in service of the United States Army.
It didn't help that an irradiated storm caused him to have to wear a claustrophobic old PMK-2 gas mask for the majority of the trip.
However, whatever professionalism he had left and sheer habit were enough to keep him awake. At least, until he handled any initial business he needed to before doing so. Then he went to bed and hoped his subordinates didn't kill him in his sleep.
What? Even after two months with Griffin he didn't trust them entirely, and he didn't know if M1911 was even in this base.
With that in mind, the newest Commander to join Griffin and Kryuger slowly and carefully removed his PMK-2 gas mask, got out of the UH-60 Blackhawk, and set off at as brisk of a pace as he could manage down the dirt road as the guys who took his luggage rushed ahead to place it in his quarters.
The Sector 09 base he was sent to had certainly seen better days, from what he could tell, the forestry-encircled base bearing numerous damaged buildings and in a somewhat barebones status, something he noticed when he passed by some worn, battle-damaged exterior garages and saw some human mechanics and staff shutting the buildings up for the night, having not spotted him yet. Not that he had plans to be spotted by anyone yet, mind you.
Holding a map of the base in his hand, he almost robotically went east and followed the route it showed to the main building's interior, where most of the main infrastructure was located based on the map (seemed like a bit of a flaw since US Army installations had numerous different buildings to make use of.) At the very least, his new credentials functioned properly, allowing him to bypass the door scanner with a simple display of showing the dumb AI in charge of the door his ID card.
As the door opened he walked through it and entered the bulding with a hum, soon being greeted with the ultraviolet lighting of a decontamination room— the familiar hue of the blacklights comforting and reminding him of traversing through the same rooms back at the "Sanctuary" forward operating base back in the War.
Walking into the room, he gladly allowed himself to be sprayed with the decontaminating mists and walking ahead through the next door, the hallway within shrouded in darkness and cluttered with ripped-out wires and old, unused machinery as he walked through the long hallway.
A minute later he left the long hallway and finally entered the main building after wrenching a creaky door open and going through it. The lobby room was quite expansive, but what was once polished to a shine and bustling with activity was now caked in dust and barely fixed-up after some kind of attack, and the servicemen in grey uniforms were merely getting the room shut down for the night, not even wanting to tackle the main parts of the mess in the room.
Leading this cleaning crew was a blonde T-Doll that was wearing a literal maid outfit and holding a clipboard. Thanks to his (short) time in the academy, Ian wasn't so lost as to why the Dolls had such... unproffessional or outdated clothing, like the Japanese T-Dolls' outfits he saw in the sims or the WW2-era uniforms worn by T-Dolls using WW2 weapons, but the maid outfit was still quite incredulous to him.
As he approached, she gave a satisfactory nod to the crew after their cleanup work was finished, dismissing them to their quarters before turning to the forms to retreat to her own dorms.
"Oy, mind helping me out, miss?!" he called out, causing her to turn around and see him.
Her squinted blueish eyes temporarily widened when she recognized his trench coat and arm band, but after shaking her head they returned to normal as she briskly marched up to him, clearing her throat before she spoke.
"So you're the new Commander?" she asked him in a thick German accent when she stopped, standing around a foot away from him.
"Just got here." he replied honestly-- and tiredly. "You in charge?"
"No, Fraülein Kalina is, but she went to bed just a few minutes ago. Is there anything I can help you with?"
"Where are my quarters?" the Commander promptly replied, tired as hell and ready to just pass out.
"Aren't you holding a map, Herr Kommandant?" the T-Doll maid asked him, reminding him of the fact as he looked at the map in his hands and causing him to sigh ruefully.
Right... I just made an ass out of myself in front of some of the staff. That's gonna be rich.
"Sorry, I spent a whole day on that damned chopper and all the waiting took its toll on me." he apologized tiredly.
"It's fine. Anyways, by the sound of it, you're likely going to fall unconscious, so allow me to help you to your room."
"I'm fine, but thanks for the offer." Ian quickly dismissed her, not wanting to be seen by whatever staff was left outside their dorms getting carried by a Doll without even having a scratch on him.
He referred to his map again, following it almost robotically to his quarters, with the maid Doll following him in case he did fall and incidentially making him feel quite uneasy as he entered the long network of hallways.
As he took a bend to the left, he passed by a simple door marked with a yellow smiley face patch of all things, quickly dismissing it as the room of that Kalina girl the maid mentioned, and after he passed by it he found the automatic door to his own quarters next to it. Stifling a yawn he once again pulled his keycard out of his pocket and carefully swiped it at the scanner, unlocking and opening the door with a hydraulic hiss.
The walls of the room within were a very nice burgundy color, with black carpet and a queen sized bed with dark sheets marked by a Griffin shield on it. A large wooden desk was placed flush against the wall to the left of it, a stack of empty papers neatly placed on it with pencils and pens in a cylindrical container next to it. Finally, a spare trench coat was hanging on a coat rack next to the door for him to use the next day, and another beret hung from it as well.
Notably, his luggage was taken care of beforehand, the servicemen that handled it having hauled it out to the dorm and stacked it up in a corner much faster than he had gotten there and making him quite thankful for them being there.
"Ah, home, sweet home." he said, admiring his new bedroom with tired eyes as he walked around it. Yawning, he removed his coat and placed it on his rack, then he took his boots, red beret, and tie off, setting them down and casting a glance at the bed, tempted to just fall onto it and clock out. Despite the thought, though, he couldn't help but place one last entry into his journal before going to bed, and the lamp at the desk was left on already, so he hauled his stubborn ass over to the desk and sat down in the cushioned chair, pulling his journal out of a bag and opening it up to the last entry he'd made in it.
Extracting a pencil, he put it to the paper where he left off and began to write.
'The graduation concluded after what seemed to be forever, and I've finally gotten to Sector 09. The trip was far too long and an irradiated storm didn't help matters at all.
So far, I've only met an unnamed maid-type Doll, and the base was shutting down for the night, but based on the notes they gave me there are a lot more staff members I'll have to get acquainted with.
It is a frontline base, after all.
Anyways, I'm tired as hell, and I wanna get some sleep so I'm going to end it here.'
Closing the journal and putting the pencil away, Ian turned the lamp off and climbed into his bed, grabbing his gun from his belt's holster and slipping it under the pillow before allowing himself to pass out in record time...
BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP—
THWACK!
"Fuck off, you damned clock..." a recently awoken Ian grunted as he smacked the dismiss button on the clock, sitting up and stretching out with a loud yawn. Slipping out of his bed, he soon rooted around one of his bags for a spare uniform, grunting when his ACUs were the first thing that greeted him and quickly pushing them aside before he saw what he was looking for: a spare button-up shirt, necktie, and black pants.
Quickly changing into the three garments, he pulled a pair of mahogany-colored boots on and then stood up, setting his sights on his spare coat and pulling the garment off. As per his preferrences, it was of the longer variant that went past his knees, and the patch of the famous First Infantry Division was sewn onto the left shoulder, in the same place as the the patch on his ACU jacket.
Slipping it on, he soon buttoned it up and secured it with his belt before retrieving his M17 from under his pillow and holstering it in the holster he'd attached to the belt, before he finally put on his beret and a set of black gloves, promptly leaving the room to see just what he was dealing with in the bass.
As he had actually managed to sleep well the previous night, he was able to find his way around without much trouble to his relief, and after passing by an open door in the hall he soon saw a group of servicemen eating breakfast in a mess hall. Exhaling as he passed by, he quickly stopped at a room that was marked as his office and was about to enter it when he saw the blonde maid Doll again, her short, but shapely stature notable as she passed by.
"Hey, miss." he quickly called out to her to get her attention.
"Wha— oh, guten morgen, Kommandant." she greeted, approaching him once more with long, purposeful strides. "I didn't expect to see you awake so early."
"Eh, my old job dictated that I get up real early..." Ian casually replied before he remembered something. "Oh, I never got your name."
"G36." the T-Doll replied. "Would you like a tour of the base?"
Looking around the entrance to his office, Ian mentally debated on the idea, but decided that getting a tour wasn't such a bad idea in the long run— although going alone with a Doll he barely knew seemed like a dumb idea despite having done the same thing two months ago after he nearly killed M1911 out of sheer paranoia.
"Yes, please."
"Right this way." G36 then instructed, heading into the lobby.
A few minutes of walking through the base later, the two stopped at the entrance to the inactive depot-like room that succeeded the decontamination room Ian used last night, with G36 telling him what its purpose was and clearing his confusion up about it.
"That is the Expedition room, officialy known as the Forward Basecamp." she had explained curtly.
"Forward Basecamp, huh?"
"Ja. Once we get enough reconstruction done here, we can venture out into deeper territories and map them out, coordinating them from here and storing whatever goods they find here as well. However, we barely have enough staff to perform even basic combat missions and logistics support, courtesy of Sangvis Ferri."
The anger in her voice at the mention of Sangvis Ferri didn't go unnoticed by him.
"What happened?"
"Our base was attacked three months ago, and we lost almost all of our staff, including our old Commander. Because of that, we had to shut down some of the base's facilities in order for us to focus on repairing the more vital structures." G36 told him, regret lacing her voice.
So that's what they meany by "emergency hire," since I was a replacement for this other guy.
"Damn. How did you guys stay afloat after that, having lost your Commander and staff?" the Commander asked, looking back at the decontamination room entrance in the back of the hallway.
"Fraülein Kalina was quite helpful during that time. She has been serving Griffin for years, and after losing the Commander, she took over in his place and worked tirelessly to help us get back on our feet." the maid explained, turning to the door leading back to the rest of the base.
"Come, there is more to see, Kommandant."
Next up was a destroyed café, and it was a mess.
"This is the base's main café," G36 explained, as if the broken bar, the destroyed coffee machines, and the punctured ceiling weren't enough, "but Sangvis' artillery destroyed it during the attack."
Looking around the broken, dusty café, Ian had a momentary flashback of fighting through a café just like this one back in Berlin. Quickly shaking it away, he then cast a momentary glance at the bar, which was literally broken in half and caving inwards, then to the floors and ceiling that were barely holding in place, then to the blocked-off kitchen in the back of the café..
"This place is gonna need a lot of work put into it." he finally said, sighing as he imagined the money that would have to go into it before turning to G36. "Any other rooms get hit like this?"
"The Command Room. It was their first target and due to the use of artillery it was leveled completely, but over the course of three months it was rebuilt from the ground up." she replied ruefully. "The dorms are located underground, so ground forces were sent to attack them, which led to the loss of a lot of our combat units. Only two of the dorms are intact at the moment because of it, and they're at a very barebones state."
"So I not only got over half of the typical training curriculum cut off, but I also got sent to a base that's completely FUBAR...?" he asked himself. "Although at this point, it's both Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition and Fucked Up By Assholes in the Rear..."
"That's a lot more accurate than I'd like to think... This way, there's more to show you."
Ad G36 left the café, Ian swiftly followed the maid out of the door, wondering if things could get any worse for the base than what he'd seen up until now.
"Of fucking course it had to get worse."
The dorms were definitely in worse condition than the café. Rooms three to eight were filled to the brim with destroyed furniture, dead Sangvis and Griffin Doll bodies, ashes, blood, coolant, oils, and more, with their doors blocked off with debris and a horrible stench of rotting flesh and burnt material prevalent throughout.
Dorms one and two were still operational like G36 told him, but they were quite literally just interior warehouses with some cardboard boxes and an ammo box as furniture, and absolutely nobody was inhabiting them.
"I personally have no idea why Sangvis attacked the dorms since they typically don't to that, but in doing so, they ensured that we hardly have any space to house the T-Dolls, much less our human service personnel." G36 explained. "They killed many of us off by doing that, human and T-Doll alike."
"No quarter given, huh." Ian muttered to himself, remembering the NUSSR's attack on the US Army's base of operations in Poland during 2050. "I'll try to get the base repaired completely as soon as I can."
"That sounds wonderful, but we're spread too thin for any kind of operations—"
"So let's cut SF back." the veteran cut her off, already thinking of ways to improve these people's living conditions and stop the rogue androids' advance. "I'm here now, and even though I'm not fully trained, I'm pretty sure they won't be expecting for Sector 09 to have gotten a new Commander so soon. Although... how many T-Dolls do we have?"
"Including me, we have about seven Dolls." G36 answered promptly. "Three of them are scouting out the local forest and the city of Seredyna-Buda, I'm here, and the other three are on standby."
"Okay. Let's finish up here and go see them. I need to know who I'm working with here." he told the blonde maid.
"Verstanden. I'll notify them."
Leaving the dorm complexes with G36, he looked back at the wrecked rooms and thought about just how bad it was when the attack occured.
After walking through the halls for a minute again, Ian stood in front of a hydraulic-doored room marked as the Command Room, which even from what he could tell on the ouside, looked much newer and pristine compared to the rest of the base.
Then again, Sangvis Ferri had apparently shelled it to hell and back with artillery three months prior to his arrival.
"This is the Command Room, where operations are organized and executed. Fraulëin Kalina and the other Dolls should be in here, getting ready for drills." the blonde maid told him.
"I understand." Ian said before using his keycard to open the door, the two halves sliding out of the way to reveal a blue-lit room and causing four sets of eyes to settle their gazes on him.
The first one in the room was an M1911-model Doll, but before he could ascertain if she was the same one who recruited him, her face immediately brightened up upon seeing him, and for the first time since being sent to this wrecked base in the middle of a forest, something felt alright for once.
"Mr. Becker!" the only Doll he trusted in Griffin greeted, unapologetically cheery as she stopped in front of him. "You made it!"
"I sure did, although you should call me Commander, now." the new Commander told her with a small smile, giving the short girl a few headpats before walking into the Command Room and taking a look around it, noting the large holographic display table that dominated the center of the room, the monitors displaying numerous camera feeds on the walls, the numerous rifles hung on a weapon rack, and of course, the room's other occupants.
The first new one had long, lions-mane-esque blonde hair with a pair of fierce sapphire eyes and a bright red beret on her head. She wore clothes that were reminiscent of a Cuban guerilla fighter, with white gloves, a worn red scarf, a sort of green bikini top to cover her large bust, brown ammo pouches on her stomach and a bag on her waist, black shorts with jungle-camoflagued fatigues attached to them, and knee-high black boots. She had an AKM on a sling hanging off of her neck and a bottle of vodka in her left hand.
He wasn't sure if it was just him, but she seemed like a typical Crazy Ivan to him.
The second one was very childlike, with silvery white hair, big blue eyes, a red beret (that seems to be a trend at Sector 09), a cute black and white dress with a small red necktie and a big red bow on the back, black pantyhose, red shoes, and a full-sized MP5 variant with a collapsible stock.
One thing that would always fuck with his head was the fact that Dolls with children's bodies were being sent into battle by Griffin, but that may have been the intended purpose. That, and humanitarian relief efforts would benefit by having Dolls that acted like children.
The third one was human, unlike the two T-Dolls in the room (T-Doll skin was just a bit too perfect, and their irises had a distinctive, yet subtle design to them that set them apart.) She had fiery orange hair that was tied up into a ponytail on the left side of her head, blue eyes (and shapely curves) like the AKM Doll, a pair of black sunglasses sat on her forehead for safekeeping, a beige jacket bearing Griffin's logo on the left shoulder she left open to counter the summer heat, a white button-up shirt she also left partially opened, exposing a rather dangerous amount of of her generous cleavage along with a black, lacy bra, a red bow in place of a necktie, a belt with pouches attached to it, a short black skirt, mismatched stockings, dark brown work boots with black toes, and Oakley Assault Gloves (a favorite of COD: MW3 and Battlefield 3's US forces.)
Good thing she wasn't in a true military organization, because the sheer amount of offences her style was committing in the US Army's outfit regulations would have caused his Sergeant Major to get an aneurysm on the spot. The Commander, though? He didn't mind it all that much.
As he carefully appraised the PMCs in the room, the three merely stared at him curiously, like appraising him as well until M1911 decided that the silence was too awkward and grabbed his arm.
"This is Ian Becker, Station 794's newest Commander!" she introduced him to the three, the mention of the station number making him raise an eyebrow. "Oh, that's the base's name, sir."
"Gotcha."
After being introduced, the curvy ginger woman chose to approach him first, a sort of liveliness to her step as she stood in front of him and saluted.
"Welcome to Station 794, Komandir!" she said in a Slavic accent not unlike the one he adopted when using his aliases, a lively look on her pretty face as she shook his black-gloved hand. "My name is Kalina, and I'm honored to be your logistics officer! These two ladies are AK-47 and MP5."
The AKM (or AK-47, if one didn't pay heavy attention to firearm detail,) approached him next as Kalina walked away, offering her white-gloved hand to him.
"I'm AK-47, and I'm honored to serve under you, Boss— mind if I call you that?" she said, shaking his hand a lot more aggressively than Kalina did.
"Nah, go ahead." he told her, letting go of her hand.
As AK-47 left to return to her position, the MP5 Doll went last, skipping along in a very M1911-ish manner and offering her small hand to him in greeting.
"MP5 here! I may be short, but I can handle anything Sangvis can throw at me!" she said in a high-pitched German accent, a determined look on her round face.
He then shook her hand in greeting, only to feel the little Doll nearly crush it with how much force was applied.
Shit, she's a lot stronger than I thought... he winced, the muscles in his neck temsing but no sound leaving the ex-soldier's lips. However, after noticing his discomfort, MP5 quickly yanked her hand back, apologizing in an instant.
"It's fine. I just didn't expect you to squeeze so hard." he told her reassuringly.
"Anyways," G36 said, getting everyone's attention as MP5 returned to her position, "Kommandant Becker came here to aid us in containing Sangvis Ferri in this Sector, as you may have guessed, so I expect the utmost respect out of you three."
"Yes, ma'am!" M1911 replied enthusiastically, popping off a quick salute.
"So... does he have a plan to deal with them?" AK-47 asked next.
"I just got here last night, so not yet." Ian told the Doll dryly. "Anyways, I'm going to try and get the situation under control once I get the hang of things, but for now, I need to see what you're all capable of."
"Speaking of that, I was organizing a drill just now..." Kalina told him, pointing at the holotable in the center of the room as it displayed a training zone of sorts on it.
"Oh, you were?"
"The Dolls need training just like the rest of us, sir. Anyways, come here."
Feeling his arm get taken, he didn't protest as the attractive Slavic girl dragged him to the holotable, then stopped in front of it and let his arm go.
"Uh, I know how to operate the holotable, Kalina." he told her, placing a hand on the edge of the device he carried out all of his training simulations with back at the academy.
"I know. There's just a few things I need to tell you about the girls." Kalina replied, and he couldn't help but agree with her on that.
"Yeah?"
"Firstly, AK-47 model Dolls tend to have improperly seated or faulty Fire Control Cores, so don't get angry if Miss AK underperforms in the upcoming drill."
"Fire Control Core?" he asked, only vaguely remembering it as he didn't pay much attention to its explanation in the manual the academy provided him.
"It's a module that supplies A-Dolls with all relevant information pertaining to a single weapon, as well as general combat tactics and a specialized aiming module. In other words, FCCs turn A-Dolls into T-Dolls."
"Ahh. I ought to have her examined when I can." Ian told her, looking to the Doll in question as she started to chat with M1911. "I can't afford to have any defective Dolls in my roster. Not when things are as bad as this."
"I know. Speaking of... I'm sorry you got sent here while we're in such a bad state, and that you couldn't finish training like you should have been able to." the ginger haired apologized, looking to him.
"Don't blame yourself, Kalina. You worked hard to get the base in shape again, and I'm sure you could've gotten more done if you had more time. But there's nothing we can do about it except move on." he advised. "Besides, I can complete my training here, right?"
His words calmed her down a little, and before she could reply to him she then remembered that she was organizing a drill.
"Oh, this is where the drill's taking place." Kalina pointed to a small section of the northern part of the forest surrounding the base, highlighted in light blue. "The area's already set up for many different exercises, but I was setting up a standard training exercise when you came here."
"Good to know. Carry on with it, I want to see what they're capable of."
The newbie Commander looked towards his new T-Dolls and addressed them. "You three, get your shit ready and head out to the drill site. I'll brief you on the way."
"Yes, sir!" the three yelled in unison, leaving the room to carry their new mission out.
As he watched them head to the armory to get supplied with ammo and other equipment, he reflected on everything that had occured over the past months, and that the lack of a tightly-regulated schedule like the US Army's One Station Unit Training and a shortened curriculum would certainly bite him in the ass in the operations to come, the idea prompting him to ask his new logistics officer about it.
"Hey, Kalina."
"What is it?"
"Do you think I'll be good at this? Being a Commander, I mean." Ian asked the girl. "I was apparently 'emergency hired,' so I never got to go through the full training course, and I don't think I really acted the way I should with the Dolls..."
"Sir, the only right way to act is being yourself. They like it best when you're being honest, you know." the woman told him matter-of-factly.
"I figured as much." Ian sighed, looking back down at the holotable. "But what about on the field? I know I kinda got past the sims, but in reality, I've never been a commissioned officer like this, so I don't know how I'll be able to lead them as well as I need to, and the professionalism I had back in the Army's kind of eroded, in a sense."
"Hey, don't be ridiculous. If you got past Griffin's rigorous entry exams, then you obviously have potential— potential that I'll help you realize. Besides, you passed the US Army's basic training with pretty high ratings, and from what I hear, it's pretty difficult itself. Not to mention you survived the European Front and the NUSSR's NATO witch hunt for eleven years."
Surprised at her knowledge of his service record, was about to ask her how she knew about it, but as he was going to do so, M1911 explanation of how she found him came to mind.
"Griffin sends out T-Dolls to scout for potential recruits, then Logistics scans all existing databases for the individual in question. We found you in the US Army's database, and they figured that sending a T-Doll that was built in the US would put you at ease."
Oh, yeah. This girl's the head logistics officer for the base. Doesn't really seem like it, though. Too carefree in my opinion, and she lacks any semblance of professionalism.
"Oh, yeah... And here I am getting lectured by a little lady who looks like she's only in her teens." Ian shook his head with a small smirk on his face.
"Hey! I'm twenty-three, just so you know!" Kalina corrected him, bumping his elbow.
"You're only what, four or five years younger than me?" he asked, looking at her again and seeing a mock-irritated look on her face, her arms crossed over her chest. "Wow. What else should I know about you?"
"Oy, Boss." AK-47 coughed over the comms, interrupting their little moment. "Weren't we supposed to get briefed by you? Or are you too preoccupied at the moment?"
"Right... Understood."
"So... ready to start your your career off, Komandir?" Kalina asked, placing a hand on the rookie Commander's shoulder.
"Yup." Feeling a little more confident, Ian looked down at the holotable and pulled the map up, where a chibi form of M1911, marked "Echelon One," was now located on the map, leaving one of the garages and heading out of the Station's perimeter. "Alright, ladies, let's get this over with."
I'll be covering the tutorial mission next chapter, because honestly, I need to get the other stories' chapters done. Either way, as a newer GFL player, I need to get referrences fot a lot of stuff, so don't get mad if I get things wrong.
I have a better mobile device now, but for some reason, somebody saw fit to give me a supervised account instead of letting me use my own, so no GFL until later. Even worse, I'm gonna miss Dual Randomness. At least Shattered Connexion's in the permanet events list, now.
See you around!