Welcome to Combat Exercise II, Part Two! This time, Echelon One and the elite Soviet Fireteam Bodark are to perform a joint training exercise together.
About AK-74M's squad, I typically don't make OC Dolls as there's already a vast choice of characters to do but I couldn't find enough modern Russian guns with attitudes a military would accept, so that's where AKP-44 came from (for her weapon, it appeared in Raid I and is pretty much the KN-44 from Black Ops 3.)
So... I tried putting together a voice recording for some stuff to do on YouTube... but I sound horrible on recording, so I gotta figure out how to avoid that happening so I can actually do anything voice-related.
To CCTReconli: Glad you enjoyed the chapter, and MW2 has so many parallels to GFL that it's not even funny, so it was only natural to feature it. Also, nobody said AKP-44 would join Carter's KCCO...
And before the exercise itself starts, here's the AK interactions I couldn't add last chapter, and also Happy (late) Valentines' Day.
(Alert: Despite being drawn by LIN, SCAR-L is not flat. She just wears baggy clothes— her new BP skin shows this well in the damaged art.)
New Soviet Army-owned Training Facility, Kaluga Oblast
Russia, Neo-Soviet Union
July 13, 2062
Tactical Doll AK-47
Fifteen Minutes Earlier...
Gunfire rang out through the outdoor firing range as AK-47 and AK-74M practiced their marksmanship under the shade of the roofed stalls, a stoic AKP-44 watching them practice with her arms folded as they conversed during the performance.
"So what's your new Commander like, 47?" the younger sister asked, reloading her rifle.
"He's a good guy to all of us, doesn't dart around the bush and always gives it to us straight— hell, he even goes out on the field with us if it's not too high-risk so he can look out for us." AK-47 replied, satisfied with her new boss as she put a few more rounds on target.
"Isn't it dangerous to go out on patrol for an officer?"
"Yeah, but he's a former infantryman, so good luck trying to get him to leave that life behind." the mercenary chuckled.
"Why must Americans be so stubborn...?" AK-74M asked exasperatedly, shaking her head.
AK-47 shrugged, knowing full-well that almost all the Americans in their base were almost completely unable to change their mind once it was set on something but unable to answer why they were like that.
"Anyways, your Commander told me you eliminated two Ringleaders earlier, is that true?"
The blonde nodded, refusing to think of the full events of the costly Operation Safeguard as she replied to her sister.
"Blew one up with an anti-tank grenade and tried to bring her in before she self-destructed, then I blew another up by luring her into a metric fuckton of C4, then the bitch taunted M4 about her sisters 'cause she wasn't dead yet so me and M4 turned her head into scrap."
The idea that a gentle-looking flower like M4A1 executing a defeated enemy in cold blood seemed to disturb her soft-spoken sister, although considering the NUSSR's own ruthlessness she ought to have been used to it thanks to her years of service.
"Perhaps we misjudged her..." she murmured before opening fire on her target again.
"Yeah, you did." AK-47 replied as her gun clicked empty, prompting her to reload it. "How's it been on your end?"
"Good. AKP's getting ready to try and get into selection for the KCCO, PK's still annoyed that Colonel Antonov wants her to get a spotter, and SVD's trying to surpass SV-98 in marksmanship. Me? I'm doing perfectly mine where I am, although it's a bit boring without the mountain of missions we had back in '61."
"Eh, maybe things'll change. As for me, I wound up becoming a mentor to Howa over there," the older sister said, pointing to the Doll in question, "1911, Springy, and MP5 got killed by Sangvis and had to get repaired and rebooted with backup data, our Commander got tasked with reuniting a lost spec-ops team, G36 is still grieving and I've had a hell of a time with it all."
Lowering her weapon, AK-47 sighed as her sister laid a hand on her shoulder, the military Doll's face much softer than she typically saw it as she replied to her.
"I'm sorry it's been that way for you, sestra." she said sincerely, looking back towards the observation platform as the officers on it barked directions at M4A1 while she ran the course.
"It's fine, 74M." the older sister replied, holding her hand out to stop her sister from saying anything again. No point in hearing something parroted by everyone she knew.
"If you say so..."
"AKP, you're up!" the Commander yelled from the platform, prompting the Soviet squad leader, who'd stayed entirely silent as she oversaw their shooting, to wordlessly grab her rifle from the table next to her and run towards the starting line of the time trial course.
"What's her best time in the course?"
"Twenty-nine point five seconds. She typically has it switched up to make it harder to predict, although by the sound of it, it's still left with M4A1's layout." AK-74M replied as she looked towards the course itself.
"That a problem?"
"It's a basic set-up, and she's far too familiar with it, so she knows every target's placement already."
"I see. Hey, didn't they say we'd be doing a full-fledged exercises today?" AK-47 asked, reloading her rifle again.
"We will be, just give it some time."
And that's what they did, practicing their marksmanship for about thirty-three seconds until the buzzer that denoted the course's end sounded and they saw AKP-44 walking ou of the course, rocking a new magazine into her rifle as her squadmates and Commander commented on her performance, the younger Dolls gushing the most over it.
"They really haven't seen a Doll of her caliber before, have they?" AK-74M asked, rolling her eyes at their behavior.
"Me and 1911 are the only old-timers that came here, and M4's honestly not too terribly different from us in performance."
"That is... problematic, to say the least..." the military Doll murmured, looking towards the girl in question as she watched AKP-44 leave the course, visibly stung by her record being beaten.
"Blame that crazy doctor Persica for it, she's the one that kept her all sheltered and shit." the blonde mercenary replied, hanging her rifle on its sling as the Commander called them all, a similar signal coming from Colonel Antonov as the older man rallied the members of Fireteam Bodark to him. "C'mon, let's go."
Leaving the range she quickly ran up and rejoined M1911 and the others, with AK-74M rejoining her fireteam and informing her leader of her performance.
"Did you see how fast she was? There were times where I couldn't even see her clearly!" MP5 gushed.
"Not to mention her shot placement! How is she not in the Spetsnaz?!" M1911 added her two cents.
"The Spetsnaz GRU only accepts the best of the best, and 74M told me she's trying to join the KCCO at the moment, anyways." AK-47 explained to the pair, more knowledgeable than the others on the NUSSR military due to her connections with AK-74M.
"KCCO...?" FN-49 asked slowly.
"Elite Soviet special operations forces." the Commander suddenly cut in. "They're comprised of the very best soldiers the Neo-Soviet Union has to offer, and their robotics are another beast entirely compared to SF. In fact, they are not even a part of the Spetsnaz GRU and are considered an entirely different force from them, plus they even got a holiday dedicated to them back in the Russian Federation days."
"Interesting..." M4A1 murmured, closing the distance between her and the Commander to the point that there wasn't even a foot of space between them.
To AK-47's humor that notion seemed to tick M1911 off, jealousy practically radiating off of the HG as she stared the AR Team leader down.
"Jealous, old friend?" she teasingly asked over Zener.
"She hasn't even known him for a week and she's already clinging onto him like a schoolgirl on a hot date!" the HG replied, incensed.
"He's probably the one thing she's even remotely familiar to so far, and I still think she blames herself for getting you killed, so cut the girl some slack."
"I will when she gets off of him!"
Shaking her head in amusement at M1911's ranting, the blonde AR turned to look at AK-74M as they walked into the building ahead of them, then she turned to M4A1 and opened a Zener channel to her.
"You do know 1911's trying to glare holes through your head, right?"
"She is...?"
"Yup. She's jealous that you're next to the Commander."
"Why...?"
"I think she's in love~"
"Shut it, Commie." M1911 cut in irritably, glaring at her next. However, all it succeeded in doing was making the AK Doll laugh, knowing that she was especially bugged when she started using stereotypical insults like "Commie."
However, nothing would beat her swearword-laden, impassioned blow-up when she walked in on Grizzly and Cheeto's little "get-together" on that one anniversary night. She still looked back on that moment fondly, remembering her exaggerated body movements, "creative" dialogue, and how her cheeks were a bright, near-luminescent red the whole time.
Before they knew it though, they had reached an equipment room chock-full of ammo and equipment, and with that the Soviets directed the group to their respective places.
"Ready up, we had this exercise prepped just for you." Sergeant Gruzinsky told them, pointing to the ammo crates. "Commander, the observers' room is that way, and Griffin Echelon One, gear up and go through that door."
"Yes, sir."
"Understood."
As the Commander went up the stairs with the Soviets the Dolls all approached the ammo crates and started opening them up, grabbing the bullets out of them and beginning to load their magazines with them.
"You have no idea how hard it was to get our hands on 7.92 Mauser and reduced powder-load 7.62x51 NATO." AKP-44 told them as she loaded 5.45x39 bullets into an orangeish magazine. "Of course, there's factories producing retro ammunitions like that so the 7.92 was easier but that kind of 7.62 is one of a kind, especially since only one gun uses it to my knowledge."
"W-Well, the creators were trying to compensate for recoil by doing that, and they successfully made it the only 7.62 battle rifle you could shoot full-auto..." Howa 64 feebly explained before beginning to load the ammo in question into a magazine.
"Ugh, will it legitimately kill you to have a standardized weapon that doesn't have fifty or more moving parts and a one-of-a-kind ammo type?"
"Considering the laws governing PMCs and our own money problems thanks to the whole Sangvis thing, it's harder than you'd think. Of course, one could remedy that by putting Dolls with matching ammo types in the same Echelon, but there were plenty of surplus WW2 and Cold War weapons available." M1911 explained, flashing her silver handgun for the team leader to see.
"Ah, like the gun that literally refuses to die off." SVD languidly commented, slotting a loaded magazine into an ammo pouch.
"You can't keep a good thing down. Why do you think there's militias and bandits still using AKMs?"
"Or Mosin-Nagants." AK-47 added her two-cents, rocking a fresh magazine into her weapon before putting spares into her bandoilers, just as the intercom came to life.
"Attention Griffin Dolls, this is Sergeant Gruzinsky of the Soviet Ground Forces speaking, and I'll be in charge of your live-fire exercises today. The gist of your current operation is this: a mere day ago, a friendly Doll carrying vital intel on Sangvis Ferri was taken captive, and after your Commander located her signal, you have been sent to save her. The arena is already set up for the exercise and a hostage is in place. Be warned: that hostage is a sentient, fully-functioning Tactical Doll, so failure to exercise caution with your shots could be quite catastrophic."
M4A1's eyes widened at the news, and she couldn't help but react unpleasantly to it.
"Hang on, another live Doll?!" she asked incredulously, looking up at the speakers on the wall. "How are they even okay with that?!"
"Because at the end of the day, that's their purpose." the Sergeant replied coldly. "Anyways, you have five minutes to gear up before the exercise starts, so get to it."
M4A1 looked like she wanted to argue the case, but AK-74M chose to de-escalate it, placing a soothing hand on her shoulder and calming her with naught but a glance.
"Understood, Sergeant." the brunette said as opposed to what she must've originally planned before returning to her ammo crate. "How can he be so cold about using Dolls like that...?"
"The Soviet Army doesn't treat its Dolls as well as Griffin does, so don't expect every soldier you meet to greet you in kind." AK-74M replied softly, stuffing her magazines into her chest rig. "In fact, you should be lucky that you weren't insulted or harrassed by anyone here."
"So why do you want to stay here, Miss 74M?"
"If you want to be formal, call me Corporal."
"So... why then, Corporal...?" the elite asked again.
"Firstly, I've visited a Griffin base before, and honestly... it was a bit too much for me. No proper order or discipline, everyone dressed like it was a cosplay club and not a PMC base, the noise was worse than an entire platoon firing their rifles at once, etcettera, but secondly, I've never known life outside the Army, and it's where I want to be..."
"So we simply ignore the soldiers' remarks and move on." AKP-44 remarked herself, stashing some flashbangs on her person. "You Griffin Dolls are much better off compared to us, but she's right: the majority of your ranks lack discipline and even proper training in some cases, and you're clearly underperforming as a result."
Having been on the recieving end of many remarks on her performance AK-47 easily kept calm, knowing that she'd improved greatly the last time the Soviet military Doll evaluated her skills. For the most part nobody had anything to say about it, even M1911, although she was sure M4A1 had sighed ruefully.
"I apologize for the Sergeant's coldness girls, but you've got more important matters at hand. Right now, I need you to perform at your very best today, because I'm not about to let the company down after we've done so good so far. Kapiche?" the Commander suddenly told them through the intercom.
"Kapiche." M4A1 told him, shaking her horror about a live Doll being the hostage away in favor of whatever confidence she had.
"Good. The enemy is armed with low-powered stun guns like the target drones we use, as to minimalize the chance of permanent damage infliction, but that's no excuse to be any less careful. Be warned: you've only got five minutes to secure the hostage after you start, so don't fuck around and don't cause trouble for Fireteam Bodark."
"Understood, sir." M1911 replied in lieu of M4A1, who had finished loading her gear up and was waiting at the door to deploy. "Who all is ready?"
AK-47 raised her hand along with MP5 and Howa 64, who'd also grabbed stun grenades for use, although it took a bit for FN-49 to follow suit, her weapon fully loaded and spare ammo stacked into her pouches.
"Commander, we're ready!" the Echelon leader called out to the Commander.
"Got it. Commencing operation in three, two, one..."
As soon as the Dolls heard the last syllable leave his lips they ran down the hall to the double doors there and opened it, filing into the shoot house one-by-one until they were all standing in the grey-floored room, surrounded by plywood structures with numerous cameras in place to record the exercise.
"Alright, you've got five minutes! 1911, take AK, Howa, and M4 with you and cover the west side of the course. AKP, take 74M and MP5 and go east. FN-49, SVD, PK, provide covering fire for the teams and make sure you don't kill the hostage by mistake." the Commander instructed through their comms.
"You heard him, on me!" M1911 called out on Zener, causing AK-47 and the other Dolls assigned to the HG to form up on her while the markswomen and MG took perches around the back of the compound behind a concrete wall, mounting up like campers loved to do on MW 2019's Shoot House map, and AKP-44 grabbed her team and proceeded eastward, soon disappearing around a corner.
Going through the open doorway on the west side whilst keeping her head below the walls and other obstacles the blonde made sure not to alert any potential enemies nearby as she followed her leader, a waypoint placed over the target building but not on the hostage themselves.
"Watch it, you've got a pair of hostiles just ahead of you, both wielding rifles." the Commander warned, and when she stopped at the warning and chanced a look above the tire stack, she saw two hostiles in dark clothes with steel-grey helmets on, clearly meant to impersonate Vespids.
"Will anyone see us if we knife them?"
"SVD and FN-49, but that's all."
Nodding towards AK-47, M1911 drew her combat knife and approached the left-side Dummy, crouched low as the Russian followed suit and took a place behind the Vespid, and with naught but a glance they acted, darting up and blocking off the hostiles' mouths as their knives pierced their Cores, purple coolants escaping the wounds as they withdrew their knives and escaped into the shadows of the building behind them, dropping their kills off before proceeding towards the objective.
"Move it, we've only got five minutes!" the HG called out before proceeding out of the plywood building, crouched low once more as she stalked another pair of pseudo-Vespids as they slowly walked towards the target building.
"Watch it, there's about eleven hostiles surrounding the target building and they have two snipers on the rooftop." SVD warned over Zener as the white-painted plywood structure came into view, about seventy feet away from them and swarming with hostiles. "Your best bet will likely be to eliminate all the hostiles present as quickly as possible, before they can react, and then go for the VIP."
"Affirmative, tovarishch." AK-47 replied, following her leader as another enemy patrol passed by their position, styled like Rippers and wielding the appropriate weapons.
"We're in place, Griffin." AKP-44 notified them, and she indeed saw her team's IFF markers about thirty-seven feet away from the building through a wall of crashed cars, the snipers soon marked on their HUDs with inverted red triangles. "Hide behind that supply truck and be ready to engage on my mark."
"Yes, ma'am."
Closing the distance between them and the truck in question, they essentially flattened themselves against the vehicle, drawing their weapons and aiming them at a group of Rippers who were guarding the front entrance to the building, their forms slightly reflected off the smooth floors.
"Four minutes, step on it." the Commander suddenly warned, a timer in her field of view showing 3:59 on it and ticking down at a steady pace.
With thst in mind barely a second had passed when gunshots reverberated throughout the shoot house and three of eleven hostiles dropped dead, then the psuedo-Jaegers followed suit, tumbling off the roof and onto the ground as the rest of the enemies sprung into action.
Before they could fire any shots off, the four Rippers were quickly dispatched, AK-47's weapon bucking harshly against her shoulder as her target was killed.
"Watch it, you've got numerous hostiles on your six!" the Commander called out, causing the Dolls to reposition as golden particle bolts flew towards their previous positions and other hostiles took cover behind them, Rippers rushing ahead while Vespids provided covering fire.
Returning fire during her move AK-47 forced a Vespid into cover and disrupted a Ripper's balance enough for FN-49 to land a hit into her head, SVD and PK mopping up anyone who was exposed to their sightlines.
The ones smart enough to stay concealed from both ends soon returned fire towards M1911's team as the AR jumped over a concrete barricade, crouching behind it to fire upon the hostiles as four more of them left a prep room, peppering their overwatch with plasma fire and forcing them to fall back from the wall, then joining their pinned allies as they emerged from cover and made a push towards them.
"MP5, draw their fire! 74M, don't let them get close!" AKP-44 ordered, firing on them from behind a stack of tires.
"Da, mem, serzhant!" her second-in-command yelled as MP5 darted forth and activated her shield, absorbing the enemy fire easily as the other Dolls capitalized on the Dummies' distraction, M4A1 quickly repositioning to get a better sightline atop the same roof the Jaegers were killed on and Howa 64 scanning the area for further reinforcements.
Reinforcements that came from in the target building, blindsiding the Griffin team as they barely dodged the enemy fire but a bolt hitting AK's chest and sending a sharp jolt of pain through it, a rough yell escaping her as she drew her Makarov and retaliated against them, each shot hitting its mark in the Dummies' chests as M4A1 fired into their heads from above and finished them off.
"There goes our S-Rank." she grunted over Zener, reloading her pistol as M1911 threw a flashbang at the enemy units firing on AKP-44's team. blinding them and allowing the Soviets to eliminate the last enemies.
"Area clear! Griffin, cover the western entrance and breach the house on my signal!" the red-eyed military Doll ordered, taking position at the eastern doorway while the support units took new positions to account for the enemy potentially coming up behind them.
"Scan the room, Howa." M1911 quickly instructed as she took position at the wall, AK-47 and the other ARs stacking up either behind her or on the other side of the door like M4A1 did after dropping down from the roof.
As the golden wave encompassed the area, about five hostile units were detected in the house, along with one friendly unit apparently tied to a chair, being interrogated by one of the hostiles based on their body language.
"Ready..."
Checking the ammo count in her rifle AK-47 decided she had enough for a breach and set her fire selector to semi, her allies doing the same andprepping flashbangs as the other team undoubtedly followed suit.
"Now!"
As M1911 opened the door slightly the two flashbangs prepped were tossed into the room, then after they detonated, they bust the doordown and filed into the room, the enemies inside having no chance as well-aimed shots to the head downed them— even the one that pulled the VIP up as a shield was struck down by M4A1 with a headshot before it could fully pull her up.
"Clear!"
Approaching the VIP, who was a female Doll model clad in clothes reminiscent of one of the more practical outfits worn by Griffin forces, AK-47 watched as M4A1 cut the rope binding her hands together and gently pulled her to her feet, AK-74M giving her a pistol to use before looking to the front entrance— which had a pseudo-explosive booby trap in it.
"Good thing we avoided the front door."
"Two minutes and thirty seconds, people!" the Commander suddenly warned, prompting AK-47 to take a glance out the door and see a set of fresh troops, who were being fired upon by the support team to cover the main teams' escape.
"Griffin, keep the hostage safe and move to the exfil point!" AKP-44 ordered as she departed the building, bringing her team with her.
"C'mon, you're with me." M1911 said as she grabbed the hostage by the arm and left the building, M4A1 and Howa 64 going ahead of her to draw the enemy's fire away from their leader.
After looking at the timer and seeing 2:11 on it, the veteran AR Doll sighed under her breath and charged after them, hoping her bull rush wouldn't get anyone "killed."
Tactical Doll M4A1
"Watch it, you've got extra hostiles northeast of your position, over!"
"Blyat, barrel overheated!"
"M4A1, provide cover fire for us!"
"Got it...!"
Bringing her rifle up and firing towards a cluster of hostiles coming from the northeastern side of the AO, M4A1 watched in her peripheral view as AKP-44 pulled the pin on a flashbang and tossed it towards the enemy, blinding them for SVD and FN-49 to finish them off before downing an incoming Ripper Dummy with a quick shot to the head that would either make AR-15 proud or jealous.
"Be advised, you've got hostiles coming in from the east!" SVD warned, the warning punctuated by a gunshot that wound up perforating a Jaeger Dummy's head.
"Understood!" the elite called out, reloading her emptied weapon before mopping up a Vespid FN-49 wounded, the VIP doing her best to fight alongside them by providing covering fire for the team.
At the forty-foot mark, another wave of enemies came in from the southeast and southwest doors, only a warning from the Commander keeping them from being blindsided by the hostiles as a result. Clearing them out, M4A1 managed to kill two of them before a Ripper flanked her and pulled her weapon out of her hands, a yelp of surprise leaving her as she barely blocked the follow-up attack.
"Shit, M4!"
Before anyone had the chance to help her though, the idea of AKP-44 ripping into her for allowing herself to require saving entered her mind and a sudden rush of determination prompted her to reach for her M9 with her free hand and draw it, firing into the Ripper's gut as soon as its barrel was leveled with it.
Reclaiming her lost weapon from the dead Dummy her respite was disrupted to a stun bolt to the back, a sharp pain not unlike a real plasma bolt lancing through her body but not lasting too long, causing her to flip around and repay her shooter in kind, a 9x19 Parabellum bullet lodging itself within a Vespid Dummy's head through its visor before she holstered it and continued to follow her team.
"You got a minute and thirty seconds left!"
Now at the twenty-four foot mark a pair of hostiles opened fire on them from inside a pair of plywood buildings, prompting Howa 64 to highlight them with Forewarning and allowing SVD to kill them through the thin walls, a shuffling of cloth on her end of the Zener link revealing that she'd moved from her spot.
MP5 readily accepted the low time remaining, activating her shield and tossing an RGO impact grenade at the cluster of hostiles coming from another deployment door, the explosive hitting the frontmost Dummy and destroying all of them in one fell swoop, then she burst forth and mopped up whoever was left between them and the exfil point.
"The pathway's clear! Move up!" the tiny German yelled as her shield went down, plasma bolts coming from behind them promptin the team to hurry up and rush forwards to reach the zone, PK trying to keep the hostiles suppressed as her group followed them to it.
Despite that there was a fairly long distance between them, and none of the Dolls on the support team were CQC experts, the knowledge prompting M4A1 to hide behind a wall and fire off bursts of gunfire at the hostiles to ease the pressure on SVD's team.
At fifty seconds, the team was only twenty feet away from the main group and the VIP was at the exfil point.
At forty-five seconds, that distance had closed to ten feet.
At forty seconds, the teams reunited and a final salvo of grenades disrupted the nemy forces enough for AKP-44 to grab the knob to the exit door and yank it open, the Dolls wasting absolutely no time in rushing into the room and shutting it behind them, ending the exercise.
"Is that it...?" M1911 panted, leaning against a wall in the dark room.
"Should be. VIP's intact and none of us were eliminated." AKP-44 replied, barely fazed as she stood tall.
"I've seen better, but I've also seen much worse..." the voice of Sergeant Gruzinsky blared through the speakers in the walls, commenting on their collective performance and confirming that they completed the exercise. "Well done, Griffin."
"Thank you, Sergeant..." M4A1 replied breathlessly, sitting down as well.
"You're welcome, M4A1. Keep it up and you might just reach AKP's level."
A bit of envy rose up in her at the thought of the stoic Soviet as she checked her subordinates' conditions, but she buried it in favor of standing back up and walking towards the exit so she could go to the Commander.
At the very least they succeeded, she thought as she re-entered the equipment room and turned to the stairs leading to the observation room, slowly walking up them and seeing as the lighting shifted from a somewhat yellowish tone to a cooler one while she ascended the stairs, commotion in the equipment room revealing that the others returned to it as the brunette reached the door, a single gloved hand reaching up to knock on it.
"Come in, it's open." a Slavic-accented voice said, and she opened the door to see the three officers in the facility standing in the room, holding tablets that displayed the results of the operation on their screens as they noticed her.
"Good to see you, M4." the Commander greeted kindly. "Nice work out there, by the way."
"T-Thank you, Commander..." the shy girl muttered, turning to the Soviets as they sized her up.
"You're welcome. Here, look at this."
Handing her his tablet, M4A1 carefully took it and looked at the results, satisfied to see that she didn't suck and at least compared pared well against AK-47.
Then again, if the stories about her in the past had any inkling of truth to them, then that wasn't too terribly good.
"I guess I did alright...?" she muttered to herself.
"You did perfectly fine, kiddo." the Commander told her. "It's hard to improve if you're not confident in yourself, you know."
"Right..."
Handing the tablet back to him, she walked to the display in front of her and looked down towards the training area they'd just wreaked havoc in, dead pseudo-Sangvis scattered everywhere and one of the deployment doors shredded by an RGO impact grenade.
"Colonel, how much would it cost to repair the Dummies that were destroyed...?" she asked out of curiosity.
"That's for us to worry about, but we typically use salvage from actual Sangvis destroyed by Griffin troops to make the repairs. That way, the environmentalists can't bitch at us for not recycling." Colonel Antonov joked, causing Sergeant Gruzinsky to laugh and Commander Becker to chuckle.
"If only we could do something to make the Human Rights Party shut up as quickly." he muttered, and M4A1 instantly remember the support mission she'd undertaken with him a day prior on their way back from destroying a Sangvis outpost.
And knowing how much they hated Dolls, she guessed that they didn't mind the salvagers and bandits that commonly kidnapped and scrapped Dolls for parts all-too much.
"B-But why do they hate us so much...? Corporal 74M said the Army wasn't too fond of Dolls, but at least they're treated somewhat decently..." the Doll asked hesitantly.
"A multitude of reasons, M4A1." Sergeant Gruzinsky replied. "Some of them are angry that their jobs are being stolen by them (despite the fact that our population's quite low and we need automated assistance,) some of them live in fear of other Doll manufacturers following Sangvis Ferri's example, the list is endless."
"What about you, Sergeant...?"
"I keep to myself." the soldier simply replied. "My squad and Bodark get along well and we'll go to Moscow to wind down sometimes, but we typically maintain professional relations."
Looking back towards the Commander she saw him looking through something else on that tablet he had before stopping on it and speaking up.
"Since you mentioned them, are there any Sangvis installations or anything you want taken care of?" he asked clearly, prompting the Colonel to approach him and pull up a map of Sector 09, pointing out a rather large base in the region.
"It's a rather large production site that has been active for almost a year." he explained. "It's been a thorn in both our organizations' sides for a long time, and it's about time for someone to put it out of commission, don't you agree?"
Zooming in on the region, he soon began to look at it more extensively, murmuring to himself as he noted each of the base's defenses and its layout, as well as its manpower levels.
"Who's in charge?" he then asked out loud.
"We don't truly know, but we believe it's a Sangvis Command Unit." Colonel Antonov replied. "The highest-ranking unit we've seen though is an SP721 Hunter model."
As the photo on the display changed M4A1 tried to get a better look, only to find herself unable to do so thanks to the officers' collective height.
"Looks like the Sangvis that destroyed a Griffin outpost we saw on patrol yesterday..." the Commander muttered to himself. "Dual handguns, ridiculously-high evasion capabilities, adept in laying traps... Sounds like a pain in the ass."
"She is. This suka alone has taken the lives of hundreds of my soldiers, and that does not bode well with me. Destroy her, and I'll be sure to reward you handsomely."
She could easily see the gears turning in his head even without eye contact, and he soon gave a reply.
"I'll take both contracts. Got a feeling it'll line up with finding AR Team, anyways." he said. "I'll need time to plan a raid on that facility, though, given its size."
"Take your time, Commander, although I would like it destroyed at least within the week."
"Understood. Anything else we ought to see?"
"Da. Follow me."
As the Soviets left the room, M4A1 felt the Commander gently grab ahold of her and follow suit, leaving the observation room behind to partake in whatever other exercises were in store for them.
Four Hours Later...
After spending the next four hours training nonstop, it was safe to say that the visitors from Station 794 were beat, although the Commander was more mentally taxed than physically. Despite that, M4A1 still had something she had to do, which was why she was in the communcations room trying to hail the AR Team with the NUSSR's high-end comms equipment after recieving permission to do so.
"Come on, come on, pick up, pick up..." she muttered as she dialed in another channel, having failed with the last one, and with how long it was taking, she was fully prepared to fail again— only for a link to be established at last.
"Finally...!" she cheered to herself, waiting for someone to speak on the other end. "AR Team, this is M4A1, if you can hear me, please respond!"
"Nice timing, M4. A second later and you would've missed me." the deep, somewhat masculine voice of M16A1 replied with a chuckle. "And judging by your signal, you found a frontline base, well done."
"I'm actually at a military base at the moment for joint training exercises, but I did find a Griffin frontline base. But enough about me, what happened to you, M16?!"
"There's just a couple SF units near my position, so I'll have to log off soon."
"What about the others?"
"We got split up when I had to bring up the rear, but last time we got into touch they were sitting tight somewhere in the nearby city, at the eastern districts."
"Seredyna-Buda?" M4A1 asked anxiously, remembering the Commander's comment on it being a Sangvis hotspot.
"Yup. Don't worry 'bout me, get AR-15 and SOP-II first, got it?"
"I-I do..."
"Good, just— fuck, I gotta go. We'll talk soon, 'kay?"
"Okay, bye..." she muttered as the comms went quiet, leaving her alone in the comms room.
While the knowledge that Anti-Rain's other members were alright was comforting, the fact that AR-15 and SOPMOD were in Seredyna-Buda was very distressing, and the team had split up an entire week ago, so who knew when that could have changed.
"I have to tell the Commander this...!" she decided, shutting the comms equipmemt off and quickly running past a Soviet soldier that was coming to check on the gear by the looks of it, intent on getting an operation to find her two sisters in motion as quickly as possible.
I feel that this chapter didn't flow as well as I would have hoped, but oh, well, shit happens...
Anyways, I'mma go ahead and add BF3 and BF4's soundtracks to the "total banger" section of my musical sortings, particularly the BF3 Theme and Solomon's Theme (BF3) along with the Theme for Kjell and the "Warsaw" theme (BF4.) Now I really wanna play Battlefield 3...
Additionally, I've started another chapter for GFL: ADL, and while I'm not spoiling the Rifle it features, it'll be set in one of Griffin's anniversary parties, so please look forward to that.
I'll see you at the next chapter!