Children of the Night - Chapter 2: Make a Point

"Sabre 1, this is Sabre 4. I'm in position," Swiss whispered over the encrypted communications network. The small doll blended into the foliage of the forest, looking at a building complex just past the treeline. From the records, the structure was a distribution centre repurposed as a military warehouse during the Third World War. Swiss assumed, then, that the complex was now being used by Griffin in a similar capacity in their conflict against Sangvis Ferri.

Swiss picked up her binoculars and focused in on the location she was mere minutes ago: an electrical transformer beside the building complex. Although it was in view of the building, it was left unguarded save for a chain-link metal fence. The small lithe doll, then, had no problem slipping in and out like an ephemeral breeze in the night. Her eyes fell upon the explosive charge she hid beneath the transformer.

"Sabre 1, come in, over," Swiss repeated, "Night Eyes?"

"What?"

"Are you sure about this?" Swiss questioned, "Are you really going in there all by yourself?"

"Yes."

"But-" Swiss objected, "It's too dangerous!"

"Have some more faith in her," Dazzle advised, "We all have our roles to play. She knows what she is doing."

"I know, it's just-…" Swiss sighed before trailing off. Night Eyes was often as stubborn as she was talented, and once she sets her mind upon doing something, there was little anyone could do to stop her. Granted, however, she was almost always able to pull off whatever insane plan she had in mind, but that didn't stop Swiss from worrying all the time.

"Sabre 2, Sabre 3, report," Night Eyes ordered.

"I need a minute to finish setting up," Dazzle replied, settling herself into a small outcropping which looked over the warehouse.

"I'm ready," Sapphire quietly reported. She was hidden in the treeline beside a bend in the road that led up to the warehouse. If anyone wanted to get to the building using the road, they'd have to get through her first.

"Wait, you should let me come with you!" Swiss urged, "I've set my charges already! I can-"

"No," Night Eyes sternly replied, "Stay back and hold the perimeter. Cover the other two's blind spot."

Right as Swiss was about to continue her objection, Alchemist's voice appeared over the secure channel.

"Hello, ladies~" Alchemist greeted the dolls with an eerily casual tone. "How are your preparations coming long?"

"We're ready," Night Eyes replied without hesitation, "Give the order."

"Actually, I have some additional news for you," Alchemist continued, "As it turns out… the Griffin Commander isn't making a visit to the warehouse you're at right now."

"What?" Night Eyes demanded.

"He's not there," Alchemist nonchalantly repeated.

"You tricked us!"

"Now, now, that's quite an accusation you're levying against me," Alchemist snickered, "Do you have any proof to back that claim?"

"Cut the crap, Alchemist," Dazzle interrupted, clearly also unhappy. "What's your play here? We can leave right now if we want to."

"There was no other way to get you people out of your nest," Alchemist derisively responded, "Look, there's something I need you to do."

"Like I said, we don't answer to you," Night Eyes vehemently shot back, "If this is so important to you, why not come and do it yourself?"

"Well, I have important things to do on my end too, you know," Alchemist replied, "You are Sabre team, the purported most powerful night-fighting force in all of Sangvis Ferri. Surely you-"

"Just tell us what you want already," Dazzle cut her off, sighing.

"There is a hard drive in this warehouse, the kind that looks like a briefcase," Alchemist finally explained, "There are some important data in that hard drive that is vital to the war effort. I need you to capture that hard drive for me."

"What in that hard drive that's so important?" Dazzle questioned.

"It's a compilation of the results from Griffin's latest field exercise," Alchemist stated, "As you probably know, the human Commander in this sector has been quite a bit of an… nuisance. Imagine if we got access to his entire play book!"

"And why should we believe you after you so blatantly lied to us?" Dazzle demanded.

"I told you the reason behind my dishonesty already; there's no reason for me to lie you anymore," Alchemist replied, "Besides, you're already there. Surely the mighty Sabre team isn't scared of a small side mission for dear Alchemist?"

"You're disgusting," Dazzle muttered.

"Come on now, we're all on the same side here, aren't we?" Alchemist replied, pretending to plead.

"Night Eyes, what are we going to do?" Swiss asked after a moment of silence, "Are we still doing it?"

"Don't let this asshole influence you, Night Eyes," Dazzle warned, "We-"

"We're doing it," Night Eyes calmly interrupted, her voice bereft of emotion.

"Huh?" Dazzle asked.

"I'm glad you eventually came around," Alchemist said with a smile.

"Let me be clear with one thing," Night Eyes retorted, "We're not doing this for you, Alchemist. I couldn't care less about this 'hard drive' you're talking about."

"Oh?" Alchemist asked, raising an eyebrow.

"We're going to prove a point," Night Eyes replied, gazing at the warehouse from within the treeline. Her body blended formlessly into the pitch-black surroundings, save for a pair of yellow eyes which glinted like a pair of candles in an endless void.

"…It's time to remind the world who Sabre team is."

RFB walked down the stairs towards the first floor of the regional depot. She yawned as she reached for the stairwell door; she had stayed up all night doing paperwork for the new shipment that arrived and was dying for a break. She walked towards the front lobby for a cup of coffee. Although she didn't technically need caffeine as a doll, the act of drinking it still felt refreshing in a way, even if it was just a psychological effect due to her programming.

"Jeez, I'm so done with all the admin stuff!" RFB exclaimed as she pushed open the door to the lobby, rubbing her eyes as she greeted the handful of dolls in it. A logistics team just arrived at the place, and it seems they've just finished unloading their cargo.

"Oh hey, RFB, what's up?" Glock 17 lazily called out from the reception desk, "You done with the admin stuff yet?"

"Nah, man, shit's more complex than the Exilium 2 crafting system…" RFB replied with a sigh as she walked over to the fridge, "I still have a bit left over, gotta finish it before tomorrow."

"Well, technically, today is tomorrow…" Glock 17 cheekily replied, looking at the wall clock.

"Screw. Off."

"Um, hello, RFB?" one of the other dolls—Karabinek wz.29—greeted RFB, "I heard you're leading this place now?"

"Hey Panakeia," RFB replied, smiling at the pink-haired doll who seemed to appear out of nowhere. "I'm just temporarily here until M1014 gets back from the conference."

"Ah, so you're just in charge for now then," wz.29 concluded, forcing a shy smile.

"In charge? Of a graveyard, maybe, haha!" RFB joked, "How about you guys? Y'all just came with the new shipment, right?"

"Yeah…" wz.29 answered, "We ran into some… issues… on the way here, so we're staying here for the night."

"I see, I see," RFB acknowledged, "Well, we're happy to have the company. This old warehouse is pretty run down, so good luck have fun making yourself comfortable, haha..."

"Thanks…?" wz.29 replied, not understanding the reference.

"Anyway, did you happen to bring any new games with you?" RFB mischievously inquired.

"Again with asking people for free games!" Glock 17 shouted from across the room.

"Shut up!"

"Ah- uh, I'm sorry! We didn't bring any games with us, I think…?" wz.29 stammered, "We mostly brought some new materials for Dr. Persica's lab… And some medicine."

"Ohh, stuff for the lab, huh?" RFB asked, "So like, are you transporting new CPUs and stuff?"

"Something like that? It's mostly server equipment," wz.29 replied.

"Tell her about the neural backups we brought!" MP41 interrupted as she fished through the refrigerator.

"MP41!" wz.29 admonished the doll, raising her voice slightly.

"Neural backups?" RFB asked, tilting her head.

"Uh, there's really not much to say about it…" wz.29 muttered.

"Sounds interesting," RFB noted, "What exactly are they?"

"Um… They're just… neural backups…?" wz.29 answered with a shrug, "They are physical backups of neural clouds… The hard drive kinda thing is filled with a couple of dolls' neural cloud backups, like… It looks kinda like a briefcase? I'm sure you've seen them before."

"Oh, I see!" RFB eagerly nodded. "So it's like, a portable version of the big servers Persica has in her lab?"

"More or less, I guess," wz.29 replied, sighing. "I'm sorry, it's somewhat confidential stuff, so I'm not sure if we should really be talking about it right now…"

"Aw, relax, what could possibly go wrong?" RFB grinned, "It's not like some monster's gonna suddenly walk through the front door!"

"Watch, some monster's gonna walk through the front door now!" Glock 17 teased.

"As if!" RFB retorted, blowing a raspberry at her partner.

"Speak of the devil…" An unknown voice suddenly appeared from the front entrance. "…and she doth appear…"

"What the…" RFB muttered as she and the rest of the dolls in the room turned towards entrance. A strange doll had suddenly appeared in it. She was clad in black, had black hair, and wielded a pitch-black assault rifle; it was as if she was wearing the darkness of the night itself.

"Who the hell are you?" Glock 17 questioned, tensing up. She couldn't detect an IFF signal from the strange doll, and she didn't recognize the doll's appearance either. A disturbing thought suddenly flashed across her mind—Sangvis Ferri?

"Who I am is irrelevant…" Night Eyes—her identity unbeknownst to the Griffin dolls—muttered as she casually strode to the centre of the room, "None of you will live to remember me anyway."

"…The fuck?" RFB whispered to herself as she and the others raised their weapons at the intruder. The doll just stood there, seemingly unfazed by the Griffin dolls pointing their guns at her. "Who do you think you are? You're outnumbered and surrounded, you know that?"

"Surrounded?" Night Eyes asked, her voice not revealing a hint of fear. "All I'm surrounded by…"

The building complex shook from a nearby explosion. In the blink of an eye, the entire building was plunged into darkness.

"…Is fear and dead dolls."