2001, Jan 31st, 2062

"Rs, what are we doing?"

Seated across the table from her, M4 fidgeted in her seat. Rs couldn't help but smile at the rather adorable display of discomfort, watching as the doll's green eyes would nervously flick between the door and the small glass of whiskey before her.

"Take it easy kiddo," She replied, taking a sip from her glass of cherry wine, "try to look like you're having fun, blend in."

M4 glanced around the rest of the bar, perhap searching for clues on how to blend in from the rest of the 'patrons'. In reality, Tepes' men had filed into the room and efficiently turned a low energy, empty bar into a lively venue, complete with a sharply dressed bartender doll handing out drinks and a musician setting up a guitar.

They put on a good show, no doubt helped by the copious amount of booze flowing from tap to glass.

Still, there was a nervousness in the air. This was at best a delaying action, a farce to hopefully hold a potential problem at bay. At worst, this would become a set from a certain Taratino flick within moments.

M4 took a nervous sip of her drink, "Will this work?"

Rs shrugged, "Only one way to find out."

"And if it doesn't?"

"We improvise."

"They're coming up," Sounded Cano on comms, "Ten grunts on perimeter, three on approach."

Rs cast a casual glance out the small window beside her. She knew Cano was perched somewhere atop the white walled building on the far side of the street, but she couldn't make her out through the murk.

"Any dolls or heavy weapons?" Rs asked.

"Nothing on Rads, and all small arms."

"Copy, enact radio silence."

Rs cast a casual glance towards Tepes, waiting at a table near the door and chatting with a couple of his men over a glass. The pair met eyes, and she gave him a nod which prompted him to stand, just as a trio of sharp knocks rapped against the wooden door.

"State Security! Open Up!" Shouted a gruff woman on the far side.

Despite the merriment, a ripple of silence washed over the bar. However, with a calm confidence Tepes flashed a grin, "Keep to your drinks, I'll speak with our guests."

Rs raised her glass in a good luck toast before downing another gulp.

"Good Evening Missy. Did the Captain send you?" Tepes greeted on opening the door.

"Are you the owner of this establishment?" The woman, the apparent leader, asked. She was tall, well built and had an AN-94 variant over her shoulder, likely the N version. Short brown hair and dark, almost empty eyes all contributed well to the appearance of a Statesec officer.

However…

"I am."

"May we come in?"

So polite. So very un-Statesec like, especially for a young line officer. Perhaps things had significantly changed post-war?

"You may, though I would ask that you leave your weapons outside and you behave yourselves."

The woman narrowed her eyes, "That will not be possible."

"Well then," Tepes scoffed, "I'll need to see a warrant."

"Tch," The woman grunt, nodding her head to the lackey to her left, who dashed off no doubt to acquire whatever flimsy excuse they had.

"So what's this about?" Tepes asked.

"We received a report that illegal activities were taking place on these premises."

He cast an amused glance back at the seemingly legit bar, which was recovery from their initial anxiety well. The musician was even tuning his guitar and testing his microphone.

Rs hid her smirk behind her glass.

"Well, I've not noticed anything like that here. Are you sure you have the right place?"

"Quite certain."

"Well, if you insist. Out of curiosity, what sorts of activities are we talking about?"

The woman to the left side of the leader produced a datapad, "Doll trafficking, smuggling, drug distribution, and bribery, to name a few."

For a split second, Rs thought she could see a bead of sweat form on Tepes' face. However, he seemed to notice what she had as well shortly after.

The way the two grunts had spoken was off, as if Russian was a second language to the pair, or like they were two dolls with older language processing programs. The tone was off, delivery stilted, so on. The body language too, was increasingly off from what she would expect. Typical interrogation tactics like this would involve getting close, almost bullying for answers, and using weapons as a show of force.

Instead these 'Statesec' officers seemed almost timid, not nervous per se but rather unwilling to act aggressively. Quite different from the usual Statesec playbook.

A small part of her twitched as the datapad holder shot a quick, pointed glance in her direction that very nearly caused her to reconsider. Both She and M4 had been quickly assessed in that small moment.

"Rs?" M4 asked, noticing her slight surprise but ignorant of the reason.

"Keep watch for any signals, especially any doll networking ones," She whispered back.

The woman in question turned back as footsteps could be heard crunching in the snow beyond the door.

Statesec was a far cry from its KGB glory days, hampered as it was with regulation, red tape, and restriction via warrant. However these could be mitigated by a few different methods, including keeping warrants on hand during scenarios like this so that momentum could be maintained, something which this officer had failed to do.

So when the lackey returned, paper warrant in hand, Tepes' counterplay was already in play.

"Here," the leader grunted, handing him the warrant.

The man took the paper, gave it a quick skim, then turned around to find an offered cellphone in the hand of one of his men.

"Ah, excuse me a moment," He said with a grin, before raising the phone to his ear, "Ah, yes, Good evening Captain, sorry to keep you waiting. See I have a couple young ladies here on my doorstep claiming to be yours. Something I should know about?"

Rs watched their reactions closely. The two on the left didn't show much, including the apparent leader, however the furthest to the right, the one who'd shot that glance at her earlier, there was something there. A slight tightening around the eyes, her jaw clenching just a little bit.

"Ah, I see. Yes, just a moment."

Tepes covered the receiver of the phone with his palm, "The good Captain is asking for your name and badge?"

Ah, so perfectly innocent in the delivery. However, they all knew the game was up. Regardless of the situation, Statesec would not tolerate imposters and she had no doubt they were rallying as they spoke.

Their guests would no doubt be thinking the same.

The lead tensed. A delayed reaction, quite slow as well. She then sighed, and took a step back.

"No need. I'll speak with him once we're back, sort this out. I apologize for the inconvenience."

M4 tensed now, a barely stifled reaction that both Rs, and the woman eyeing them up noticed. Said woman turned slightly towards them, sending alarms ringing in Rs' head.

"Cano break silence, standby for targeting."

"Uh, okay? Standing by."

M4 shot Rs a concerned glance, however she was far too focused on staring down the woman to care. Dark, almost purple eyes met her own Hazel ones in an unblinking staring contest.

Tepes also noticed, his warm smile frozen still on his face as his eyes locked onto the sudden threat.

"Target, from your perspective, left most tango, max confidence."

'Max confidence' referred to the activity level of Doll Fire controls. Essentially, the higher the 'confidence', the better the targeting accuracy would be, but also the higher both the Thermal and EM signatures would be. Further, if this data were being transmitted, it would be more vulnerable to intercept at higher levels.

"Okay? They'll see me though."

"I know. Transmit targeting data."

"To who?'

"Open channel, just transmit."

The lead had paused, almost unnaturally, in a half turn just as she was getting ready to depart. The other doll, she was fairly sure now that she was a doll, continued to stare her down. Eyes barely moving, but seeming to scan right through her.

Rs clenched her jaw. The bar was silent.

Then the doll turned away as Cano began transmitting data on Zener channels.

She didn't release her held breath until Cano sent an all clear message.

"Fuck…" She sighed, "M4 did you pick something up there?"

"I- yes," M4 said, still flustered, "I picked up a brief networking signal from the girl staring at you just now."

"So she was a doll then?"

"Well, I didn't see anything on Rads but…"

"But?"

"She definitely transmitted an OGAS signal. Short range, but the encryption was definitely a recent OGAS generation, like what Sangvis uses."

OGAS. Like M4 said, Sangvis uses an updated form of the old encryption protocol for their communications, though they didn't invent it. Since it originated in the old USSR as part of their management systems, versions crop up here and there.

"M4. Like what Sf uses, or the same?"

M4 squirmed, "It's very similar, but there are a few differences in the encryption."

"Does it match any other protocol we have on record?"

"No. Sf's 'Eliza' 8.54 variant is the most similar. "

That's an issue. That specific variant was made by the old Sangvis Ferri Manufacturing for their products, and their products only.

"What was different, specifically?"

"Uhm," M4 fidgeted, "a few of the outer encryption layers were reinforced, and there was no sender key. "

That's it? Outer layer encryption is easy to alter, and she herself made a habit of sending no key on Zener unless there was zero chance of intercept. Keyless transmissions were a Sigint staple of third world war doll operations.

Rs glanced at Tepes, who was happily grinning by the door and having a drink. It seemed his men were celebrating another victory, toasting their leader and laughing.

The guitar began to be plucked, and a smooth voice began singing. Not in Russian, nor Ukrainian, but Rs recognized the language as Romanian. An older song by the lyrics, one singing of pretty girls and young men working all day and playing all night.

Tepes appeared to notice Rs' gaze, and after making his excuses waded through the crowd to her.

"Ah, all's well that ends well, no?"

The sounds of revving engines outside added a small accent to the statement. At least two vehicles flashed headlights through the glazed windows, before turning to leave.

Rs took a sip of the cherry liquor before her," I'm not so sure. Those were certainly not Statesec."

"No, they were not."

"Hmm?" M4 hummed, "Who would impersonate Statesec? Why?"

"A good question, young lady," Tepes said with a smile, before turning to Rs," Any ideas?"

"Yeah. Sangvis."

She'd whispered that, leaning in and letting just a couple flicks of fiery anger into her eyes.

"Sangvis Ferri…?" Tepes glanced back on the now closed doors, "You're sure?"

"No, it may be a fluke. We detected an OGAS encrypted signal from the chick on the right."

Tepes was quiet for a while, perhaps pondering the implications, perhaps worrying what may happen to him. Neither side was particularly bright. If SF could waltz into the city as they have apparently done, avoid detection, and organize on the scale they had, they were not nearly as contained as Griffin and the army believed. Now that Tepes had been seen with two Griffin dolls, he was likely to be considered as a part of their side, placing a target firmly on his back.

"How could Sangvis have gotten into the city?' M4 asked, filling in for the question the rest of the table was wondering.

"I'd like to say they simply snuck in, but-" Rs began.

"With the equipment and numbers they possessed, bribery is more likely," Tepes concluded.

"Or they have a mole somewhere in the system."

All uncomfortable options.

"More trucks incoming, Statesec markings, ETA five minutes."

Rs set her glass down, "Well old friend, I believe I ought to take my leave. Your friends will be along shortly."

Tepes smiled, genuinely this time. The pair stood, clasping hands over the table, "Be well comrade."

"I will."

"That's about it. We sicced Statesec on them, but we haven't heard anything yet."

In the dimly lit TOC, Matt frowned as he listened to the tail end of Rs' report. The night had proven fruitful, but the stinger was troubling. Rs didn't need to tell him the implications of possible Sf presence in Chernivtsi, he could piece that together himself.

"Well, let me know how things develop, and say hi to your new friends for me."

"Haha, will do sir. We're en route to drop the kid off, then we'll start heading home. Expect us in two and a half hours."

"Copy that, I'll leave the lights on. Out."

With that, the connection was severed.

"Sounds like she was productive," Kalina mused, "I'm a bit jealous."

"Well, we can check another Ar girl off the list, I call that a win."

Kalina sighed, "At least I don't have to go over even more combat reports."

"Yes yes, though speaking of which I've been thinking about hiring an A-doll to help you out full time. Interested?"

Kalina eyed him with a hint of concern, "Do we even have that in the budget?"

"I'm sure we can twist another doll's worth out of Helian once we tell her we got Sop."

"Just one?" Kalina asked, cocking her head.

"Now you're thinking," He chuckled.

The clock ticked off in the corner, striking 8:30 at last before the second hand continued to tick past.

"Ahhhh," Kalina yawned, "I'm hungry."

"Go on ahead, I'm gonna sort through some more things."

"You want me to send some food for you?"

"Mmm," he nodded, "Yeah, whatever Springfield recommends."

"'Kaay," the girl chimed as she stepped out.

Matt shook his head with a grin as the door shut, though it died as he glanced down at the map below him.

S09 from orbit. Updated just a few hours ago too, a real treat as something like this would cost Griffin a real pretty penny to make. Snowy forests and fields stretching on for miles and miles, broken up once in a while by a few scant gray monoliths of abandoned human civilization.

The base was visible too, a little gray bastion in the sea of white and brown.

Updated maps like this were good for more than just navigation and reference though, given the high resolution and semi-3d mapping qualities of the camera that'd made this, this was an invaluable intel tool. Roads, buildings, changes in scenery, this could all indicate one thing or another, from radiation effects to SF movements. He'd be at it for hours, pouring over this new project for any little detail that might merit investigation.

Or he would have, were it not for the doll who rushed in through the door.

"Commander! I brought you some food!" M14 announced, attempting to hold up the tupperware with one hand like a high society waitress as she strode towards him.

And failing, as expected, as the doll quickly lost balance and began fumbling for the container. Matt watched on in muted amusement at her desperate, but vain attempt to prevent the inevitable.

Thankfully, it seemed Springfield had the foresight to secure the food tightly, as nothing came spilling out once the tupperware did come clattering to the ground.

"You okay?" he asked her as M14 sheepishly picked herself up.

"Yes sir," She said, "Here."

She handed him the box. The contents were mashed and mixed, smearing the clear lid with reds and whites, but it still appeared edible.

"No worries," He said, patting her shoulder, "Just be careful."

Her eyes regained their light, creasing at the corners as she nodded vigorously, "Will do!"

"And thank you for the food," He added, setting the box down and resuming his study.

M14 seemed to begin to leave, but paused for a moment as she observed him. Matt noted her slowly lean in closer towards him from the corner of his eye, until her hair began draping over the map.

"Whatcha doing?" She asked eventually.

"Studying."

"What?"

"New map."

"Ah."

She began stalking around the table, eyes locked on the map. Matt watched with hidden amusement as she would lean in and out, then scratch the side of her face in confusion.

"Are you…looking for something?" She asked.

"Anything worth looking for."

"Like what?"

Matt opened his notebook, running down his short list of finds.

"Here," He pointed to a small white blotch surrounded by trees, "the lake's frozen over, we should do a survey to check it out."

"Uh, okay?" She cocked her head, "Why?"

"It feeds into the Prut, or used to, but was dammed up as it's in a yellow zone. If the dam was frozen in just the right way, it may begin to leak when the thaw comes and irradiate the river."

M14 clearly didn't get it, which was fine as it wasn't likely to be her job anyway. A more detail oriented doll would be ideal.

"Commander, I've a report from a tower guard," interjected G36's voice from the command table, its tone icy.

"Send it," He answered immediately.

"One of our tower sentries says she may have spotted movement past the wire sir."

His eyes narrowed, " Specify."

"Range is about 200 meters to the east, other details unknown. Apparently a motion trigger caught something briefly."

He glanced back at the map. There wasn't much out east of the base, little more than forest and moors. Perhaps a curious bear or lost scavenger?

"Put a scout group together, check it out."

"Ja sir."

M14 was still scanning over the map, intently too. Her eyes were unusually focused now.

"Sir?" She asked, placing a finger against one part of the image and zooming, "What's this?"

It took him a moment to recognize it from the air, but that angular frame was unmistakable, even half covered by the trees. Green armor, spider-like legs, and the unmistakable unslung railgun.

"That appears to be an AMPP-2," He said, "Reds nicknamed it 'Mantikora', or Manticore. I wonder how it got there…"

It was way southeast, far from any trails, army bases or highways. Well, bases he knew of anyway. The model which this appeared to be was pretty old, third world war vintage, and had limited range even when they were new. It wasn't likely they'd simply wandered there from afar.

"There's more," M14 said, moving the image to reveal another one not far off and also partially concealed beneath the trees. The pines were dense, not quite enough to hide it apparently but it would make moving those things around a real pain.

In fact, a couple pines had apparently been knocked down a little west of there.

"Update, Commander."

"Send it G."

"Survey team is reporting nothing so far, alth-"

G36 abruptly cut out, in sync with a rumbling thump which shook the ground they were standing upon.

"G?"

No response, the line was dead. He barely had a moment to process that however.

Something struck the building, as the stout Soviet concrete groaned and shook Matt off his feet. M14 stumbled as well, quickly rushing over to help as yet another blow fell.

Smoke filled the room quickly, and the power died, casting them into pitch darkness.

"14, send out an alert, get everyone armed and linked now!"

"Eh- yessir!"

Power flickered back on, and he instantly began setting up for combat. Cameras activated, data streams to the dolls began, and M14's repeating combat alarm began to play on comms, though he quickly muted this.

Doll's were rushing towards the armory. Echelon 6 was out in the garages performing maintenance, convenient, so he had them mount up a pair of trucks.

G and her recon team were all gone, and both east side towers were down. Camera feed showed hordes of SF dinergates pouring through a series of breaches in the concrete wall, and blue flashes in the murk which sent rounds hurtling into the base.

He winced as yet another round struck the building.

Regulars began to stream in now. His dolls weren't going to keep them out, they couldn't arm fast enough and most of the existing guards were down. They'd lost the choke points, so now the weight of numbers would tell.

"All units in main, assemble at the entrances and keep the enemy out."

It was about all he could do.

The drive home was proving pleasant. Surprisingly so actually, as Rs found herself humming along to the old song Cano had playing on the radio as the doll drove. It was Italian, a language she admittedly barely spoke, but the beat was catchy and lyrics repetitive.

M4 was seated in the back, next to the rather large containment box Sop was housed in. The doll had her hand resting atop it, which from the angle would've been a bit uncomfortable to maintain, but she didn't seem to mind.

Actually, if that shining smile was any metric, she was properly pleased with the situation.

"Cozy back there?" Rs asked her.

M4 nodded vigorously, almost childlike, "Yes! Very!"

"Haha, okay good to hear. Sop doing alright?"

"Mmm," M4 nodded, "She's sleeping now, but we were talking about what I've been up to earlier."

It'd been a couple hours, so that made sense. They'd really kicked Dier out of the Humvee rather than drop him off before tearing off into the evening. They'd known there was no way to get home before dark, unfortunately, and now they were driving on an otherwise pitch black road with only the headlights to illuminate their passage.

It was a bit uncomfortable.

Still, it appeared that SF was a no show, probably having cut their losses and run, so it should be smooth sailing.

Should.

Hopefully.

Rs grimaced. Hope? Was that all she could rely on? Sangvis was proving to be incredibly dynamic, their strategies a fluctuating mix of old and new, East and West, aggressive and passive. It made prediction damn difficult, especially with the different Ringleaders.

Sf had hopefully run away. Hopefully understood that a Griffin QRF was no more than ten minutes away in this area, that they themselves were heavily armed and ready for a fight.

"Ey," Cano chimed, smacking her shoulder, "lighten up."

"Eh?"

"Don't 'Eh?' me, quite being so sour over there."

Rs wobbled a bit in her seat on receiving a light hearted smack from her, the motion effectively resetting her brain. Paranoia, that's all those feelings were. Typical, probably heightened by the night's events.

Thankfully Cano was damn good at sussing these things out with her. Rs smiled inwardly, and cast a long gaze out into the deepening darkness, letting her mind wander to brighter pastures.

Weirdly she never minded the night, the dark. Especially out in these more distant backwaters, away from the light pollution of the cities. Stars shone brilliantly down from above, casting most of the sky in dazzling sparkles that stretched so much further than her poor mind could comprehend. One patch was hidden though; a slightly darker patch of night, clouds most likely, obscured them to the west.

Beneath the pale starlight and waning moon, just the barest hints of glittering snow and shadow wreathed pine could also be seen.

M4 yawned, stretching her arms above her head in a rather cutesy motion.

"Tired kiddo?"

"Mmm, a little. "

"Go ahead and take a nap then, you've had a long day," Rs told her, reaching back to ruffle her hair. The doll leaned her head against Sop's box, her eyes closing and seeming to drift off into sleep within seconds.

Rs was envious.

"You gonna join her?" Cano asked, turning the music down.

Rs leaned back into her seat, "No, not quite yet."

It was peaceful, quiet. A nice change of pace. Small streaks of snowflakes began impacting the windshield, their crystalline shine just barely glowing in the headlights a split second before impact and making it seem as if they'd come from nowhere.

Forecast was for some light snow for the next couple hours, then picking up into a bigger storm that'd last until around 0200.

In the distance, growing brighter and brighter as they approached, were the soft yellow lights of the Griffin Checkpoint which lay on the road. Meant as little more than a minor check on smuggling and a show of force, it was staffed by only two frames.

They passed by the rickety old checkpoint house, waving to the two doll frames within as they rumbled past.

In the mirrors now, the lone bastion of Griffin control quickly faded back into the murk, the darkness and falling snow seeming to grasp and smother the lights before they got even a hundred meters.

"How cold is it now?" Rs asked offhanded, mostly wanting to fill the silence.

"Should be about ten below. Why, wanna walk the rest of the way?"

"Nah, just wondering. Looks damn cold out there."

"Mmm," Cano hummed in agreement, "Gotta love this time of year."

"Yeah, I've had enough cold for one lifetime."

Cano smacked her shoulder, "Now you can work on two."

"Huh?" She said, "What's that even mean?"

The doll shrugged, grinning a stupid grin, "Dunno. What do you think, grandma?"

She rolled her eyes and mumbled, "...not that old."

"Uh-huh, keep telling yours-"

In an instant, everything seemed to explode. Glass and biting cold air tore into the cab, blinding Rs with the sudden rush. The Humvee lurched off to the road, jerking unnaturally and with far too much energy.

Her body was violently jerked around as the truck was thrown onto its side, then tumbled off the road into the dark snowfield. Metal screamed and groaned as the engine's furious roar filled her ears.

Her vision sparked as her head struck the window beside her, the feeling of warm, sticky blood welling out from the impact. Darkness faded over her, closing around her mind.

She tried to push back, but her body refused to allow it. Her mind fought a losing battle against that onrushing darkness, but the heavy weight, the exhaustion, the pain, it wrapped around her and smothered her to sleep.

Notes:

Well... I have no excuse this time

Anyway, This chapter was originally going to be two, encompassing three fights that were, in hindsight, not that interesting. I scaled back the base attack quite a bit here, cut out the barfight entirely where the fake Statesec group would attack, and had much more happen during the ambush on the road. In the end, I think its better for it, especially as it'll let me use more elements found there in a coming fight.

Anyway, hope y'all enjoyed the new year, and if you don't know I also put out a Christmas special. It's linked to this series.

Oh and a note on the Manticore. ABPP-2 is just an acronym for 'autonomous infantry support vehicle' in Russian, which is what role I believe NSU doctrine would've had it play. Basically a walking gun to accompany footmobile infantry and give them heavy direct fire support. Modern Russian acronyms are quite descriptive, from T for tank, BMP for Infantry fighting vehicle (In russian), and so on, so I figured that the acronym for this thing would be equally descriptive and went from there.
I imagine this was probably a very specialized weapon, given that the underslung gun, railgun or not, makes it a poor Arty platform and it appears to lack self defense weapons so would need infantry support to be effective. It would also be waaaay to slow to be a good MBT, and would be way more vulnerable to mud and too tall in flat areas. Given the design, maybe it was built originally for alpine combat? It also looks like an older variant of a Hydra, but with an SF railgun added, so it makes sense to me that'd it be war vintage equipment SF scrounged and modded for their uses.

I'll try and fit the other Military SF uses into a more realistic doctrine too, but we'll come to that later
Till then, take it easy