?
M4A1 let out a small, frost ridden breath as she let her head lay against the cool splinter-ridden wall behind her. She considered herself lucky that morning, having found a hunting lodge way out in the middle of nowhere, even if it was decrepit and rotting. Shelter was shelter afterall.
Birds began cooing and chirping happily outside, and the occasional gust of wind rattled the trees. Early morning rays were beginning to shine, casting shadows in the room through the broken glass window nearby her. Golden sunlight touched the ground a little ways away, a rare blessing this winter.
M4 leaned forward, retrieving a small cylindrical object from her pack. It was about the size of a soda can, though much heavier, and from one part a long thin wire emerged and was wrapped around a notch just above the base.
She unwound that wire and slipped it behind her neck, pressing the head into a matching slot at the bottom of her skull. Then she placed the object in the sun.
A second later it sprung out, the sensors detecting the sun and unfolding a small set of solar panels from the top. Power began flowing into her, sending warm tingles down the back of her spine.
Words flashed into her vision. 10 hours, 22 minutes, 18 seconds. That's how long it would take to reach full charge at the current rate. Of course that was at best a rough estimate, changes in the sunlight's angle and energy, the weather, and how much she moved would all affect it.
She fully intended to soak up whatever she could get, power was life, and it was limited these days.
"What are we doing?" A voice asked.
M4 laid her head back once more against the wooden wall and shut her eyes, internally setting her body into sleep mode.
"Don't ignore me."
She proceeded to ignore her errant thoughts as best she could as her primary functions went to sleep. Her senses still picked up data, and she was aware of her surroundings, but her power draw was much lower.
"You and I are the same, yet you don't acknowledge me. Why?"
"Why would I need to acknowledge myself?"
Unsure why she'd just answered her own questions that she asked herself, M4 chose to ignore her wandering thoughts. She'd been rattled ever since they'd raided that safehouse, she just needed to calm down. She'd been hearing that voice, her voice, talking and chiding her ever since.
"It's odd isn't it? Big sis never talked about this happening to her."
Persica had said her mind was a little different though, M4 chalked it up to just another oddity in her design.
"Persica knows best, right?"
Of course she did.
"Why are we stuck in this situation then? This was all Perisca's idea wasn't it?"
It was her fault more like. Her mistakes had gotten her team into trouble, forcing them to split up for her sake.
"For the mission's sake."
Right, the mission's sake. All to get some random data off a black box in the middle of the mountains. Sangvis wanted it, Persica wanted it. That's why this happened.
"What could be worth this though? Living like a rat, scurrying around at night just because the day is too dangerous."
It wasn't her place to ask that. She did what she was told, that's all there was to it.
"How disappointing."
M4 felt a little prick of hurt at the comment. Disappointing? This was her purpose, all dolls' purpose. As a T-doll she would fight and die where she was told to, and took some measure of pride in it.
…
Nothing. M4 roused herself from sleep just to grip her forehead tightly in a frustrated gesture. The voice, her voice talking to her, saying things she never would.
She tugged at the follicles in her head, pulling at strands of hair without knowing why.
A buzzing broke her train of thought. Faint, but growing, it sounded like a mix between a high voltage wire and a swarm of bees.
"Tch, dammit," She cursed, scrambling to reel in her solar charger before withdrawing into the shadows of the room. Her carbine came out a moment later, pointed right for the window.
The buzzing grew louder and louder, before a shadow passed over the window.
A small group of angular looking drones passed into view shortly after, and came to a hover within view. M4 shuffled out of line of sight, hoping they'd not already seen her.
A part of the buzzing grew more distinct while the rest grew faint, it took on a more electric hum than even before. M4 squeezed her grip a little tighter as a small shape partially poked through the window.
Carefully she slipped in behind a nearby piece of furniture as the sensor head began turning her way. Her eyes darted around, trying to decide on an escape route if she was spotted. It was a one room lodging, blessed with barely a few pieces of furniture and a door beside the window.
The buzzing grew louder, the scout drone pressing in against the window frame as it tried to search every little nook and cranny of the small space. M4 waited.
The drone must've realized it was simply too large, and withdrew back. However M4 could hear it still buzzing around, seeking every possible angle on her hiding space.
Ten, fifteen, twenty minutes passed. The buzzing grew indistinct with the sounds of wind and birds outside, to the point she was unsure if the drone had left or not. Still she stayed hidden.
"What a fine rat we are."
"Not. Helping," M4 muttered.
"What would help right now?"
She didn't bother answering, instead peeking through a gap in her cover towards the window.
"Dammit," She hissed, "go away."
The stubborn drone stayed right where it was however, hovering in near silence a couple meters from the window. Thoughts ran through her mind, hundreds of potential moves she could take, but none seemed good. Engage and risk detection, attempt network disruption and run the risk of detection. If she fled she'd be in the open during daytime, likely a death sentence. If she stayed she may be pinned down and stuck with nowhere to go.
"Why don't we just wait this out?"
"No, there might be grunts on the way."
"Why would there be? They don't know we're here. Unless you think Sangvis Ferri wastes time clearing this building everyday."
"Why is the drone there then?"
At that moment, M4 felt the buzzing gain tone. A quick glance outside showed the drone was slowly starting to rise out of view and turning away.
M4 sprung into action, lining her weapon up on the thing as its sensor node was pointed away. With a squeeze of her trigger, a single suppressed shot sent the hapless drone falling to the ground in a great plume of snow.
"Well, that's an interesting choice. We know what comes next, so hurry."
M4 dashed to the door, kicking it open and sprinting out into the snow filled forest beyond. She quickly found the drone, scooping up its remains and dashing off into the trees.
She found cover in a dense thicket of bushes about a hundred meters from the house, still within visual range of the place. Dumping out the drones remains onto the ground, she began picking through it with her combat knife.
Meshes of wiring and hardware she was all too familiar with at this point made up the scout's interior, however she had a very specific target in mind as she began ripping out wiring and circuitry.
Located at the back of the chassis, behind what little armor plating was present in the drone, was a small orange box which M4 ripped from its housing on sighting it. Quickly she found the relevant port on its face, and jacked herself into it.
Data flowed into her, entering her mind and reading out the drones' last moments before she began overwriting it.
"Perhaps blame a local hunter?"
Not a bad idea. M4 quickly altered the records in the drone's black box, then unplugged and jammed the thing back into place. A few more small changes here and there to the arrangement of the damaged chassis before M4 closed it up and emerged from her hiding place, drone still concealed within the bushes.
There was a motion warning. Her senses picked up dozens of fast moving objects closing on the hut.
She glanced around. About a hundred and fifty meters away, part way down a gentle slope to her north, there was a large rocky outcropping. She made for it, sprinting for all she was worth down the hill before sliding into a slit between two boulders.
A swarm of scouts passed overhead a minute later, but they were no longer her main concern.
Without warning, what seemed to be a meteorite slammed into the ground right where the drone was concealed. Snow and branches flew out in all directions, erupting in a cascade that blinded M4 to its source for a moment.
Then, a tall figure emerged from the snow plume, clad in all black and wielding a door sized meat cleaver that passed for a sword. With long black hair and a jagged crown of antennae sprouting from her head, the Sangvis Ferri ringleader 'Executioner' had arrived.
2100, Jan 8, 2062
"14," Rs sighed, looking at the guilty looking doll, "We talked about this."
M14's golden eyes were averted and cast downward, her now tangled twin-tailed hair almost dropping like a puppy dog's tail. Around her the rest of the third Echelon stood, Nagant looking equally as disappointed as Rs, while Wa and Cano seemed more sympathetic.
"Sorry…" M14 whimpered.
"What was it this time?"
"Famas, she-" 14's hand clenched tightly, "She's just so full of herself."
Rs shook her head, "That's no excuse to go picking fights."
"We weren't picking a fight!" M14 protested, "It just…escalated really quickly."
"You're half the problem you know. I won't deny Famas is prickly, but you're the only one who this happens with."
M14 glanced away again.
Rs extended a hand and patted the doll's shoulder, "Look, just try not to antagonize her, or get riled up if she tries to get at you. Defuse, don't escalate."
"-'ll try," M14 mumbled.
Rs nodded, then felt a tap on her shoulder that caused her to glance back at Cano,
"Yeah?"
"Commander's asking for you, Staff Meeting."
"Ah," Rs said, glancing at her watch, "Shit I'm late."
She quickly got to her feet. As she did Nagant and Wa gathered a bit closer around M14 and began softly speaking to the doll.
"Can you handle her?" Rs asked Cano, nodding the M14.
Cano nodded, "Yeah I'll watch her. Have fun."
Rs nodded and made for the door. She made sure to wave to the pink haired doll just before slipping out of the halls. A blonde doll dressed as a maid was standing across the hall, leaning against the door to First Echelon's room.
"All good 36?" Rs asked.
G36 nodded curtly, "Famas is cooling off, Vector and PP are watching her."
"Okay. Neither she nor M14 are allowed to leave on their own tonight."
"Ich verstehe," 36 answered, "Bist du in ordnung?"
"I'm fine, meeting time."
Staff meetings were held in the TOC, which was what her and the other section leads had decided was the best place to hold the weekly meetings due to the abundance of projection equipment and how available information was there. It was also convenient as the room was about dead center of the main building, so no one would have to go too far to reach it.
For her, it was a trip down one flight of stairs and through a couple meters worth of hallways to reach.
"Sorry I'm late," Rs announced as she slipped in through the metal sliding doors, "14 and Famas were at it again."
That earned a groan from the three others already in the room.
"No one's damaged are they?" a man with a pair of thin glasses in the far corner of the room asked, "I only just got up."
"No Damek, no need for repairs," She reported as she snagged on of the man rolling chairs that lined the edges of the room, "only hurt feelings."
"Any winners?" an orange haired girl asked.
"Nope, we managed to break it up before it was decided."
The girl, Kalina, sighed a bit and settled back into her chair, "Those two are always so much trouble."
Rs settled down at one end of the table they were all seated around, "Yeah, well, I'm working on it."
At the center of the table, the third cleared his throat and stood. He was dressed in a white button down and black slacks, and looked about twenty years older than the rest of them, "So long as it doesn't affect them in combat, I'll trust you with it."
"Thank you boss."
Her boss and the base commander, Matthew Reyes, was an older guy. He was only a year younger than her at fifty one, though unlike her it showed. His clean shaven face was pocked and worn, with graying hair laying in a mop above soft brown eyes.
"Anyway, now that we're all here, let's get started. Rs?" the commander said.
"Right," Rs said, "Well besides our resident troublemakers the dolls are doing well. We're up to date on maintenance and the range scores are pretty good all around."
"How's our special training going?"
"1911 is showing some improvement, but it'll be a while yet before she's proficient."
"Good to hear," he said, nodding, "Dam?"
Damek leaned in a bit, a steaming mug in his hands, "Yeah, well like she said maintenance on the doll's is up to date. Kinda nice that we've not had any new girls lately, teams in a good rhythm with what we've got. Likewise Helo's and trucks are looking good, though the Chinook is still down."
Matt turned to Kalina, "Any word on replacement parts?"
She shook her head, "Prices are bad at the moment. We'd be paying almost as much as what the full helicopter cost just for the new compressors."
"That bad huh?"
She nodded, "Yeah, sorry."
"S'all good, just keep your eyes open for a change. Never know when you'll get lucky."
Kalina nodded, and Matt turned back towards Damek, "Anything else?"
The man nodded, "yes," he then turned to Rs," I checked over the simulation this evening, and it looked good. We can go ahead and get your upgrades hooked up tonight."
She cracked a grin, "About time man, how long will it take?"
"It was looking like about ten minutes at the lowest for the install, and we'll be needing a doll for calibration afterwards."
"Cano then. Okay yeah, let's go ahead with that."
"Cool, I'll get set up while you grab her."
After a quiet moment, Matt spoke up, "Alright. Well I don't want to keep you two too much longer then, however there is one major thing we need to cover before that. Kalina, the briefing?"
"Right."
The girl got up from her seat and strode over to the wall mounted screen, flicking it on and turning around as the display glowed to life. Displayed on it were four photos, each labeled with G&K crests, names, and a few other bits of relevant Information.
"Helian called earlier with a tasking, we're to join into an S09 wide search for a black ops team of Elite T-dolls on loan from IOP by the name of 'Team Anti-Rain', or the AR-team for short."
Rs studied the four faces on display, finding them to look more like college students than Elite T-dolls. M4A1, ST AR-15, M4 Sopmod II, and M16A1. They also seemed to share some facial features, and the names atop that suggested they were all of the same model line.
They seemed familiar, M4 especially but Rs wasn't entirely sure what from. The shape of the jaw, her hair, it rang a bell from somewhere.
"M16 is a part of this?" Damek spoke up.
"You're familiar?" Matt asked.
"Somewhat. She was Persica's golden child back in the day, and I happened to have a couple chats with her. Last I heard she was on loan to Statesec."
Kalina glanced down at her datapad with a confused look, "says here she's with us."
Damek shrugged, "It was a while ago, the contract probably ended."
"What's your read on her then?" Matt asked.
Damek took a sip from his mug, "Funny, chill. I always caught her at the bar with a pint. I do know she was considered Persica's best work to date when she first rolled off the line, which was a couple years ago."
"High praise," Rs commented.
"Mmm. The other three I don't know. Though from the names I'm guessing they're iterations on her, probably as competent if not more."
"Well the leader, M4A1, is the priority target," Kalina continued, changing the display to show one of the more southerly parts of their AO, "From what we know they encountered a large SF force in this grid zone, engaged in a short fight with the assistance of some other Griffin dolls before fleeing north."
"We've no fix on them after that?" Rs asked.
"None. Bear in mind this occurred nearly a month ago. We're only being tapped now as we've begun seeing increased SF activity approaching our areas of control. I guess Helian thinks they may be getting close."
"Why wouldn't they try to communicate? If they were keeping track of them that far out they must've had a long range set." Matt asked.
"Could be fears of interception. Might be trying to get close enough that we'd stand a chance of getting to them before Sf before sending us anything," Rs said, "Or something's blocking them."
Matt nodded, "makes sense." He then turned to her, " What would you be doing in their place?"
Rs shrugged, "Don't know what their place is, depends on the mission and disposition of the Sangvis pursuing them. Still, the fact that we have a priority target makes me think it could be a retrieval. In that case either all four rush the border, or I'd have split the team in two and have one doll escort M4 to us while the other two draw off pursuit. Best chance of getting the package through."
"So you're thinking two dolls, attempting to sneak through and another two running interference?"
Rs nodded, "It's what I'd do if I didn't think all four would make it, and assuming I'm right about their mission."
"Dam', thoughts on this logistically? How fast do you think they could move in a day?"
The engineer pondered for a moment, "Their batteries are good for at least 120 hours, likely more, on a full charge. No doubt they'd have packed a solar charger and rations so they should have the range to make it, but they'd need to recharge often."
"Weather's not been great, it might slow them down if the solars can't get a charge," Rs commented.
"Certainly. Tough to make an estimate but if the pursuit is heavy they won't be moving fast for similar reasons."
Matt nodded, rubbing at his chin with two fingers as he paced around the table, clearly in thought.
"We need to make our presence tell," he said, "Let's turn up the aggression, pressure SF from our side and give the Ar-team something to work with."
"Recce patrols?" Rs suggested.
Matt snapped his fingers her way, "Yes, but fully linked up and ready for a fight. Deep penetration into Sf territory, occuring at regular times."
"It'll cost us some readiness, but as long as we keep the QRF rotations intact it should be manageable."
"I'll draw from the garrisons and tasking echelons then. Combat stays here, business as usual for them. Kalina," he continued, turning to her, "double our ammo reserves for the dolls in question, I'll get you a list. "
There was a little flash of excitement in her eye as Kalina, humming a victorious little tune, pulled out her tablet. Matt glanced back at Rs and Damek, both of whom were clearly about ready to take off.
"Anything else?" He asked.
Both shook their heads.
"Alright, get goin then. I wanna hear good things once you're done."
Rs descended the dimly lit stairs, stepping deftly down into the dank bottom floor of the main with Cano following closely behind.
There was a cold bit of dread in her chest, gripping her and growing with each step. She'd been all excited before this, but now…?
"Hey, you okay?" Cano asked, "You seem tense."
Rs shrugged, "I'm resolved to it."
"But this is good isn't it? You'll finally get hooked into Zener, don't have to keep making excuses to the girls why you're not."
"Yeah, yeah that's all great," Rs said, "just not looking forward to the process."
"Why's that?" Cano asked, cocking her head.
"Ah- you'll see. It's not a comfortable experience."
At the bottom of the stairs, their destination was visible. An unassuming metal door, labeled in Russian and English 'Doll Repair and Maintenance'.
Rs trudged over and scanned her badge against the scanner, and the door slid open a moment later.
The Repair bay wasn't ever referred to as such by the base residents, instead it held the dubious title of 'the den'. The reason was obvious once one stepped inside, as the lights were nearly all off, casting the space in near total darkness. Further the floor was scattered with food wrappers, parts, wires, cables and who knows what else all across it.
It functioned as Damek's office, and in many cases the main workspace for his staff, a pair of whom were currently passed out on the far wall. Damek himself was buried under a mountain of paper and sipping at what must've been his second or third cup of coffee that evening, a dozen monitors casting him in blue light.
"Hey," Rs greeted the engineer, noticing her arrival.
"Hey, ready?" Damek said
"As I'll ever be," She grumbled.
"Cool," He said, before rolling his office chair over to another table and snatching up something.
"Here's this, as ordered," he said, offering to her a couple small gel capsule pills.
Rs snagged them without a word, downing the lot before trudging past his messy nook through another door way into the repair bay proper.
This area was kept somewhat clean, though cables still snaked across the ground the food boxes and random clutter was (mostly) absent. Along one wall there were six hospital style beds, each with a large clawlike apparatus which resembled an industrial crib hanger dangling above it in a retracted state.
Rs strode over towards the nearest bed and came to a stop beside it. Then she pulled out a thin black strip of cloth with a small silverish coin sized disk at the center, which had a UDC port embedded on one face.
She slipped it around her neck, adjusting the disk until she felt it sort of snap into place along the back of her neck, at which point she fastened the two loose ends together around her neck.
Rs then hopped into the bed, retrieved a long UDC chord from the bedside, and slotted the thing into the disk's port.
"Damek, I'm hooked up," She called.
"Okay, gimme me a minute."
"Alright, just warn me before you start."
Cano stood nearby the bedside, looking a mix between excited and supporting.
"Ready!"
"Alright," Rs let out a breath, "Send it."
She waited with bated breath as lights at her bedside flicked to life. Beeping began sounding from all over the lab, and she was alerted to an influx of data coming in from the chord.
For a moment, not much happened. Then she felt as if her body had begun to shift like a wave.
"Fuck-!" Rs grunted through gritted teeth as a feeling like liquid metal wove itself way under her skin. Writhing and wriggling around just behind her left ear the wave had turned into a violent scraping, burning sensation.
Her nails dug trenches into the bed rails as she clung to them bitterly, using every fiber of will she had to keep them clung there and not flailing wildly. Her eyelids squeezed shut so hard she could feel them pressing into her eyes, squeezing into her skull like they were trying to escape out the other side.
"Rs?!" Cano gasped, "Are you okay?"
Rs felt a hand grip onto her. With all the will she could muster she pried open her eyes and met Cano's concerned gaze.
"N-ever better," She managed.
"What's going on?"
"-urts. Be fine," she grunted as the pain began pressing inward to her skull.
Little strands seeped out from the center of it, stretching back around her skull, wrapping around its base before disappearing into the little cold void beneath the connector. Sweat welled up on her brow and soaked through her shirt as her body began burning up.
Cano gripped her hand dutifully, something which Rs did appreciate despite the uselessness of it. Nice to know she was there.
Each of her breaths was labored, wheezing and deliberate. Her focus being set squarely on keeping each one even and deep so she wouldn't pass out.
" Halfway there," Damek's voice announced from around the corner, "hang in there,"
"F-Fuck you Dam!" Rs said, raising a shaky middle finger.
"Don't shoot the messenger!"
Cano squeezed her hand a bit tighter, " Should we stop?"
"N-no, be worse leaving i-it half done. Should be improving soon."
Thankfully, mercifully, the pain began to lessen half a heartbeat later. The outer structures had been constructed, prioritized as Rs had requested back when she and Damek had first started this project months ago. It hurt the total install time, but helped immensely with the pain.
As such the near molten sensation began to fade into a lingering phantom pain, while the writhing trails being forged through her were reduced to tingling strands. Her skin cooled and breathing slowed as the pain lessened too.
"Ah that's better," She gasped.
"What… was that?" Cano asked, "When you said install I was expecting something a little more… surgical? And why were you hurting so much?"
Rs gave the doll a curious expression, "Kruyger didn't explain?"
Cano shook her head, "No, don't think so."
"Nanites. Basically they go all around me and fix me up when I get hurt, but they can also be used to build new things. In this case a transmitter and connections to my BCI."
"So they can auto-repair?"
Rs shrugged, "Basically, as long as I have the calories and compounds present in me that they need, they can repair or replace damaged tissue or hardware, even from aging. But it makes a lot of heat, and installing new hardware hurts like hell. "
"Oh, that's what those pills were."
"Yep, copper, gold, and titanium for the wiring and transmitter."
"Why's the install hurt so much?"
"Dunno, Sanis never gave me the same reason twice and pain killers only took the edge off. Luckily I've not had to do this too many times."
"Huh," Cano said, eyes wide and mouth hanging a bit, "H-how? Why? When have you done this? With who?"
Rs grinned, "that, I'm afraid, I'm not at liberty to say."
"But the other stuff-?"
She shrugged, "I talked with the people who gave me all this, they said that the system was considered a loss and outdated, but the program involved with it isn't."
"Oh. wait, are there more like you?"
Rs pointed a knowing stare at Cano.
"Right, right, sorry."
Cano began circling around her, eyes wide and unblocking as she took careful measured steps in a half circle around her. The doll stared at roughly where the center of pain had just been.
"That's so weird," She commented, "You're glowing on Rads and thermals."
"Oh yeah? Never seen what I look like with the system running like this."
"Yeah it's like little blue grains of sand…" Cano said as a thoughtful look came over her. Rs could swear she could see the doll processing some thought in real time. She couldn't help but watch on in amusement as the girl was thinking, her mind conjuring a mental image of a buffering wheel spinning above her head.
"Oh!" She said a moment, the thoughtful mask breaking, "When we first met. You were glowing just like this all over! I thought it was really weird at the time, but you've looked like a normal doll since so I kinda forgot."
Rs stuck a thumb at Damek still sitting behind his observation glass, "That one gave me some reference on how to fool Rads like that, but yeah that's what was happening then. I was really messed up, so they were working overtime."
"You can control them?"
"To an extent. Mostly it's a bunch of different programs running which decide what they do, but I can turn on or off certain programs."
"That's so cool. You're like a cyborg."
"Mmmhmm. I'm honestly surprised Kruyger never said anything about this, he told you almost everything else about me."
"Maybe he didn't know?" Cano said.
"He knows a bit about it. It is why he thought this whole thing with me might work."
Cano paused for a moment, before slowly opening her mouth "Oh, that makes a lot of sense."
"What did you think the reason was?"
"I… didn't?"
Rs shook her head, "You never questioned why I can pass as a doll?
"I mean, I kinda forgot. Whenever you bring it up I have a moment like 'oh yeah, she's not a doll'," Cano replied, looking a mix of earnest and embarrassed.
"Okay then, dork."
Suddenly the beeping halted in the room, catching Rs' and Cano's attention. Both glanced over to Damek, who looked up at them with a grin.
"Done?"
"Should be. Cano, could you do a network search?"
"Sure," Cano said, "Oh hey, I see her now."
Damek did a double fist pump into the air, almost launching himself from his seat with excitement, "Lets go!"
"I take it it worked then."
Cano smiled, "Looks like it, you're displayed on the Zener network now."
"Fun. How do I use it?"
"Oh," Damek said, "there should be an interface for you, do you not see it?"
Rs furrowed her brow, "What on my BCI interface?"
"No it should be visual."
Rs gave him a confused look, "Ha? I'm not a doll dumbass, I can't see things that way."
"No," Damek said, "I know. Look I talked with a couple buddies and they got me in touch with a doctor who knew about stuff like this. Basically, you'd be hallucinating an interface I designed based on what the dolls see."
Rs scrunched her brow up further, "why didn't you mention that before?"
"I don't know, you were busy and I forgot. Just try and start the program, it should be under the main program."
"Okay…" Rs said.
She searched around internally in the newly added systems, a process more akin to searching for objects in a dark familiar room than a google search, but did find them eventually. She started turning on the various programs not already running.
"Oh," She exclaimed as something flashed into her vision. A symbol, the G&K crest, followed shortly by a loading bar that quickly stretched across her vision. The vision hung in place, not centering as she glanced around the new interface.
"Working?" Cano asked.
Rs glanced at her, turning her head, and the interface turned with it. On centering her sight on Cano, data began sprouting out from her, including an interesting option tree, reading 'message?'.
Rs selected the option.
"Uh, is this working?" Rs thought.
"Oh, HI!" Cano's voice answered, despite her lips not moving. The voice sounded like normal, except that it was coming from inside her head.
"This is… strange."
"You get used to it. It's really convenient at times."
"Hope so. You'll have to show me all the tricks."
Cano grinned, "Oh I will. However…" She glanced at Damek, "You gave her human permissions dummy."
"Huh?" Rs said as a look of embarrassed realization came over the engineer.
"Right, I forgot. Sorry."
"What-?"
Cano glanced back, "You're labeled as human on the network. Luckily it'll only show to those you directly connect with for now. If you hopped onto the main S09 network then everyone would see it though."
Rs turned a glowering eye at Damek.
"I forgot okay! It was a convenient outline to get you the relevant command permissions. I was planning to modify it to read as a doll with human level order hierarchy but I forgot."
"Can you fix it?"
"Yeah yeah I can, gimme five minutes," he grumbled, pouring himself back into his monitor.
Cano smiled, shaking her head," He really needs to sleep more."
"Yeah," Rs scoffed.
"So," Cano continued," can I show you some other cool stuff?"
A shining grin came over the doll, one so earnest Rs could feel her enthusiasm radiating through the air to her. Cano's body seemed almost vibrating with excitement, jittering and rocking where she stood.
"Pfft, of course. What's first?"
Notes:
hey all, welcome back. Hope finals and life is going well
Anyway, I made changes... interesting ones I hope. For M4 in particular, her scene is completely new and I added in proto OGAS voice so she can talk to someone while alone. In lore this is technically possible, but both think they are one in the same.
Also, I hope the install scene helped clear up a few things about RS' 'condition'. I'll be expanding on it and other things as we go. til then, cheers!