1700, Feb 13th, 2062
The city of Chisinau had seen better days.
Admittedly they hadn't been recent. Still, even to Cano's eyes she could see things had degraded quite a bit since the city's heyday. Right on the border of the Romanian Exclusion Zone, the effects of collapse radiation on the land had caused the once proud city to be reduced to a shell.
The population was a scant few ten thousands, with most living in and around the city center. Repurposed highrises had been repaired with whatever materials the locals could get on hand, so many were a hodgepodge of stone, brick, steel and wood. They had been largely abandoned by the rest of the NSU, and they knew it. Despondent art littered nearly every vertical surface, murals and tags decrying their government and situation.
Still, despite it, farmers and scavengers still thrived in the environment. Cano, alongside ump9, were wandering the open markets that ran along the old main street. Live music was being played somewhere further down, and throngs of people moved about the market. Children dashing between stalls as they played, dogs barking at one another as their owners tried to separate them, hagglers negotiating with shopkeepers over the prices of ears of corn or wheat bundles.
There was a supposed Griffin presence in the area too -a small base less than two klicks from the edge of town. However, she suspected that they would not be making contact.
Once again, the team had split up, everyone tasked with some critical objective in town before they left. Cano, paired with UMP9, was to gather a list of supplies in the markets, asking around for AR-15 as they did. 416 and G11 had been sent off to a scav group's HQ, for much the same purpose, while Rs and 45…
Cano frowned. Those two hadn't actually mentioned where they were going.
"Something wrong?" 9 asked, leaning forward as they walked along so she could inspect Cano's face.
"Just wondering about Rs and 45…"
"Ah," 9 said, " Well, they're probably off doing something unsavory. Kidnapping, torture, stalking, ya know."
Cano grimaced, "I don't think Rs would resort to that… is 45 really like that?"
9 grinned, "Well, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit." the doll straightened out, "I honestly have no clue either tho, but with 45, that's not that weird."
"Yeah?"
"Yep! Is Rs not like that?"
Cano pursed her lips, "well…"
"Heh, that tells me all I need to hear," 9 said.
"No it's not like that…" Cano began.
9 slapped her on the back, cutting her off, "Riiiight, sure sure."
"Your sister seems to always pair off with Rs though," Cano mused.
9 shrugged, "Prolly doesn't really trust her, wants to keep her close."
Cano cocked her head, "Why wouldn't she?"
"45 doesn't trust anyone really. Probably the same reason she always pairs me with you. Keep an eye on you two. It isn't personal, trust me."
Cano smirked, "Asking me to trust you, despite admitting you don't trust me?"
"45 doesn't trust you two. I never said anything about me."
"So, do you?"
9's face twisted into a smug grin, "No. I just didn't say whether I did."
Cano couldn't help but laugh. She reached out two arms as if to snatch up the doll into a hug, but whiffed as 9 ducked and began to scurry away
"You little shit!" she cackled, playfully chasing after 9.
Their shopping list was quite extensive, mostly foodstuff like canned foods and calorie dense foods that wouldn't rot quickly. Beans, crackers, jerky and the like, but also some more odd items such as marshmallows and fruit. Thankfully, the local grocer had recently gotten a resupply so the two of them managed to find every item on the list.
They'd also been given a bit of an allowance, told they could spend it how they pleased. It wasn't much, just a few thousand rubles, but enough to get a few things. They did have to be mindful of weight though, already each of them was carrying a full combat load with their weapons, sidearms, and ammo. Plus their solar chargers and thermal-optical camouflage cloaks. Sadly only 45, 9, and Rs had brought an exoskeleton to help with the load.
In the end they settled on a couple small things. Cano grabbed a spool of yarn she could use in the sewing project she'd brought, plus a couple sacks of cashews which she'd taken to snacking on recently. 9, for her part, had bought a small stash of chocolates and canned wine, which Cano used as an opportunity to tease the doll for.
Once their shopping was done, they proceeded to their rendezvous. At the center of town was an old bar, one famous in the city for its live music and cheap beers. It seemed a popular place, and as the sun was setting Cano found this to be true from the line forming out front.
Eventually they did find their way in. Throngs of humans clogged their way. 9 and Cano, with their heavy packs and groceries in hand, struggled through the crowd in their search for their comrades.
"Yo!"
Cano turned to the sound of the voice. Rs, 45, and the rest of 404 were seated around a booth table, a total of six golden yellow beers in pint glasses set around the table. 9 and Cano wove their way over, and collapsed into their seats, the weight on their shoulders finally able to be let off.
"Find anything?" Cano asked, "Where were you two?"
"Ah, lotta places actually. Important thing though, is we got footage."
"Oh?"
45 smirked, and as she did a file was uploaded to the team net. Cano, curious, opened it to find a series of video files. None were more than a few seconds long each, shot from dozens of different angles, but each showed Ar-15 on screen. In most she was walking, the cameras capturing only brief glimpses, but as she viewed the full set Cano noticed a few locations she recognized from earlier.
"She left town less than two days ago," 45 said, "she took the road headed south, which would bring her right into ELID territory. We asked around, and apparently there's only two routes anyone sane would even consider travelling in that direction.
"North of Hincesti, or towards Odessa right?" 9 asked.
Rs nodded, "Yeah, you guys found something?"
One of the vendors they'd bought from had known a fair bit about the roads in that direction. Apparently he'd been sourcing his fruits from Odessa, and had made the journey there several times in the last year and so knew much about the dangers present. Contamination from old Soviet collapse projects in Moldova had brought ruin to much of the old republic and its neighbor to the south, and the people living here had long since learned to live around the hell their ancestors had created. Alongside the western US, what remained of East Asia, and the Baltic, northern Romania remained one of the most collapse contaminated places in the world.
"Not much," 9 shrugged, "Unless she went towards Odessa, she'll have to go along the northern routes for a long way. Too much Collapse south of there."
"Yeah that sounds about right," Rs replied, leaning back into the booth, "Even for her, heading due south is pretty much a no go. Either she goes towards Odessa, or she follows that road for a couple hundred klicks."
Rs' face turned down. On the team network, a map of the area was shared from her, with the two routes indicated highlighted alongside a sampling of old settlements in the area. Cano took a moment to study the virtual map, noting the endless waves of hills and plains that marked the area, with more interesting terrain hundreds of kilometers away in all directions.
"Well, let's talk logistics. First off, I'd like to follow the roads as much as possible, but of course we'll have to worry about the patrols from SF overflying," Rs began, her eyes sneaking over towards 45 in a questioning look.
"Nope," 45 replied, taking a sip from her beer, "9 and I can keep SF off us. But that does bring us into something important…"
45 leaned forward, taking a moment to meet Rs and Cano's eyes in turn, "... You two need to stay off network."
"Kay…?" Rs replied, "I figured we'd be going radio silent on this."
45 shook her head, and as she did Cano noticed the others of 404 matching her tone in various gestures.
"No. We'll be on network. The four of us can use an OGAS based shell, SF won't be able to tell us apart from their own signals easily, but we just don't have the time to get you two on one. So you'll have to stick to verbal only."
Cano was surprised. Comms in SF territory was always an issue when on patrols. Despite its excellent encryption, Zener based comms were easy to tell from OGAS based ones. It was like shining a spotlight over themselves when trying to penetrate SF lines. An OGAS shell would solve that, but she'd never heard of anyone in Griffin even attempting to use such a thing.
"Huh…" Rs said, leaning back in the booth, "well, okay. Sounds good to me."
"We can keep SF off us so long as we're careful. The roads are fine," 45 summarised, "So, which way should we go?"
Rs took a moment to consider. On the network, she was tugging the map around and studying a variety of landmarks and former settlements along each way. In reality, her face was a mask of concerted thought. Cano could only guess at how she was thinking. Humans could be so confusing.
"Parva…" she muttered.
The map snapped to the location. It was a small town, far off in the Romanian parts of the Carpathians. It had last been inhabited two years prior. One of those to whom SF had struck the death knell with their rebellion.
"Parva?" Cano asked, "did 15 say something about it?"
Rs frowned, "Must have. I don't really know why, but I think that's where she's headed. At least broadly."
"Alright. North it is," 45 concluded, "thats a long way though."
"We have the rations," 9 added, "Guess that justifies the shopping list."
"No kidding," 416 jutted in, finishing off her own beer.
"Well, here's another question for you four. How fast can you charge on solars, and how often will we need to stop to use them?" Rs asked.
"About eight hours or so, assuming clear skies. With the weight we're carrying… we'll have to stop every 4 days if we're going at a march," 45 answered, "Though admittedly Myself and G11 are the limiting factors there."
"I can add another two days on that at the same pace," 416 added, "I've got the best batteries afterall."
"Okay," Rs nodded, "Given the kind of weather I think we can expect, a full charge will take longer than 8 hours. I'm assuming you all charge better at Level II sleep like us, so I say we break it up a bit. Say, every 10 - 15 hours, we stop long enough to get our levels up to at least 60 % and get some shut eye, using either solars or rations depending on when and where.
45 nodded, "I'm not opposed, though won't the stopping and starting slow us down?"
Rs nodded, "A bit, but it'll keep energy levels up and let us sleep more regularly. Should we run into trouble, we'll be in a better state on average."
"Makes sense. You're expecting trouble?"
"If we do run into any, we'll need to be ready, its gonna be just us out there."
1530, Feb 14th, 2062
Ar-15 lay within a small thicket of brown, barren bushes, a thermo-optical cloak draped over her body and a long winding wire running from the back of her neck out of the bushes and into the open beyond them. The cloak and bushes did the job of preventing detection, and the wire was affixed to a solar charger a little ways away from her, its panels spread to collect what little sunlight was to be had in the dreary weather.
In her vision, a faint number hovered. Her power status was quite low, just above a quarter. It was slowly ticking up, percent by percent, as the minutes turned to hours. Soon it would be enough to get to tomorrow morning.
Ideally, she'd like to take the rest of the day to recharge, there were still many hours of daylight left, however, she could not afford to.
They might catch up if she did.
She wasn't sure who it was yet, SF, Griffin, or just some hopeful scavs, but there was definitely something following her trail. She'd seen them in the distance, creeping along after her.
They weren't gaining on her for now though. Like her, they needed to recharge. Plus, on a few nights she'd spied the flickering light of a distant fire, so she suspected they had a human or two in their group. Most nights she managed to gain a sizable lead on them, yet come day they would close the gap once more. For now, it was stable, but one mistake may change that, and there were plenty of ways for her to make a mistake.
The region was alive with SF signals. Once she'd gotten through the worst of the yellow zone south of Chisinau, the air had exploded with them. Patrols, relays, passing trains and distant outposts all pinged away on their network, unconcerned if anyone was listening. She'd expected it though; SF only moderated their signaling near the borders, but further in they threw caution to the wind.
This was a good thing, it meant she could quite easily pinpoint SF units from extreme distances and route around them. She'd used similar tactics last time she'd been behind the lines as well, however it also meant that non-OGAS based signals would stick out blatantly. So far from the border, with nothing but SF signals on the air waves, any transmission she made on Zener or even just from a cell phone was very likely to be seen and triangulate within moments. There may not be a bloodthirsty Executioner waiting to pounce in such an event, but Sf could still muster swarms of drones and dragoons to investigate such an occurrence.
Not that she had anyone to contact anyway.
It seemed her pursuers were aware of this too. Thus far she'd detected nothing on the airwaves from them, at least nothing she could distinguish. Either they were using low power OGAS based transmissions, or they weren't transmitting at all. The latter was certainly the more likely case, but she couldn't fully discount the former either. Indeed, if they were using OGAS it had to be SF chasing her, but then why was it just one small unit, and not anything else?
However, if that was what was going on, this was a much more dangerous situation. After all, it would mean that there could be other elements nearby, coordinating with the main group, but undetectable to her. The fact she'd seen them at all could all be a trap meant to keep her from watching her flanks.
15 frowned, staring up at the droll gray sky.
It was possible. Unlikely, but possible. But if that ringleader was leading them…
She rolled onto her side, staring into the depths of the bushes that ringed her hiding place. In the distance, beyond the branches, the hills, the forests and mountains, she could hear something. It was far off, barely audible, but she could hear it. A beat.
There was definitely a rhythm to it, but it wasn't a constant drum beat. Sometimes it was a fast roll, other times a more deliberate melody of thumping. She'd only noticed back at the Griffin base, before she'd been taken. At first she thought it was machinery, an AC or something, or perhaps their dorm neighbors making noise. But she kept hearing it. During Soccer, during dinners, during training. It was always there, always just barely audible. Most of the time she ignored it, but then, in that cell with all those scanners, it was all she could hear.
She thought she was losing it. She had to escape, had to get out into the open air, and find the source of it. Rs had come to talk at some point, but 15 hadn't been able to really listen. She'd been so focussed on finding ways out of there…
You're welcome. The voice was painfully familiar.
15 rolled her eyes. It was back.
"I don't recall saying thank you, Operator. I know you're the one doing this."
Hmmmmm? Is that so? You were the one who decided to escape after all, I merely provided the way out.
"Uh-huh, assuming I'm even really making the decisions. Are you the one calling me? Where am I going, where are you?"
I don't know.
15 jerked up, annoyed now, "HAH!? What do you mean you don't know. You're the one doing this."
I only know what you know.
"And how do you know what I know? How are you in my head?"
…
"Hmph, you were smarter before…"
Yeah...
15's face twisted into a disbelieving scowl, "You're admitting that? Openly, to your enemy?"
I'm not your enemy.
"Tch, right… "
The sounds you hear are not coming from anything I'm doing, I think. Someone is calling you.
"If not Sangvis, then who?"
I did not say it was not them. I don't know who it is.
"Are you really Operator? Shouldn't you know?"
The voice did sound like the doll, and even talked like her a bit. Though it's not as if 15 really got to know the ringleader. The Griffin techs had told her she was infected with something, they'd shut all her access ports to prevent its spread. She figured that had something to do with the drum beat, and was how Operator was talking to her, albeit neither should still be possible with her ports shut as tight as they were.
Nothing should be able to get in or out wirelessly, and yet clearly something was.
… I dunno.
15's brow furrowed, "You say that a lot. Are these more mind games?"
Maybe.
"Helpful," she sighed.
15 poked her head a bit above the brush. The area was hilly, dotted with scraps of brush and trees along the rolling hills. Sprouts of grass peeked up from the mud and dirt, adding hints of green into the otherwise bleak and brown terrain. At the base of the hill she sat atop was a small road, cracked and worn pavement studding the ground.
No sign of her pursuers.
OGAS signals clustered in the middle distance, rapidly approaching. 15 quickly spotted the source on RADs: a small squadron of Scout drones buzzing along about 10 meters above the road.
She ducked back into cover, drawing the thermoptic cloak over herself until only her eye was exposed, staring up at the sky.
Right on time, a buzzing drone zipped past overhead. The angular black body tilted slightly down to allow its front mounted camera eye, and the plasma repeater mounted atop it, to scan the ground below.
15, her electronic signature reduced to nearly nothing, stared up as it went over. Her body had been reduced to a nearly powerless state as she did everything in her power to avoid detection. Her stolen Thermoptic cloak would camouflage her from the air, but it was tucked over enough to let her watch the sky. SF scouts were only smart enough to recognize humanoid forms, without any other tells of her presence, they wouldn't detect her.
Worst case, her rifle was in reach, leaning up against the bush nearest her.
Assuming it is SF calling you, would it not make sense to make contact with them now?
15 bared her teeth, "I ain't letting them have their way with me. I'm gonna see what's causing that signal, and blow it to hell."
So you aren't defecting?
"no. "
Then why not have Griffin help?
"Because…" she paused, "nah, fuck you. You wouldn't get it."
If you say so…
Another pair of drones zipped past, their whining engines rising and fading as they passed overhead. From the noise and signal density she figured there were another three yet to pass by. The scout drones flew in echelons of three to four, spread out with a few meters between each to improve their coverage. They usually patrolled along main routes such as the road below, searching for scavs or Griffin patrols that may have penetrated the border.
15 wondered whether this group was looking for anything specific.
Once more the buzzing approach of a drone grew in her ear, and she waited with a mute, bored expression to watch it fly over. It's buzzing like a horde of cicadas in summer as it neared.
Then it cut out.
15 jerked for her rifle as the sound of the engine cut abruptly, but failed to make it as a dog sized hunk of black metal crashed into the bushes she was hidden within.
"GAH!" she yelped as about 80 pounds of jagged aluminum dive bombed into her hiding spot. The drone struck against her lower body as she tried to move, glancing off her shins and knees as it tumbled over her.
Branches and dust whipped up in its wake, and, prodding wood and metal pulling at 15's clothes and skin as she tried to recover. She reached out for her rifle, pinned by the heavy drone, and just barely managed to snag the rifle strap and reel the weapon in.
As the dust settled, rifle now cradled in hand, 15 was shocked to find indeed the Scout drone itself was now laying atop her. It's black painted panels and SF logo on its side plainly visible up close for study. Acting on instinct, she did her best to bring her rifle inline, but couldn't get a good position as the drone was right atop her. Yet, she also realized quickly it wasn't necessary.
The drone was dead. Its little camera dim, the LEDs normally lighting its form darkened, and its body showed no signs of life on rads.
"The fuck…" she muttered, eyes wide with bewilderment as she stared at the now inert hunk of metal.
weird.
15 couldn't help but agree.
With grunt, 15 managed to raise a leg and kick the drone off, its heavy body tumbling into the nearby bush and snapping a number of branches in the process.
Peeking out from her hiding place, 15 quickly got a sense for what had happened. All the drones were down. Two more lay in ruins nearby, and the first three were well up the road in a similar condition. None appeared to be externally damaged, at least other than what falling from the sky would cause, yet they all appeared to have gone down at the same time.
"EW," she muttered, her eyes narrowing. There was no other explanation that fit, unless SF command decided to spontaneously decommission the whole squadron mid-flight. An EW attack could render the whole group inoperable for a time.
But who, and how? G dolls generally needed physical contact to initiate EW on an SF system. To do it wirelessly would require transmitting in an OGAS format. Outside her immediate area, SF traffic remained normal. If a doll connected to a ringleader or network node, they could shut down SF units remotely, but in such a case why not take down all the units in the AO?
No. This was a targeted attack. These drones were probably the intended target.
15 turned north, looking out over the hills and vegetation dotting the landscape. She couldn't see her pursuers, by her estimations they would be closing in, but should still be beyond visual range.
Was she being watched?
15's eyes narrowed. Something felt off. It was quiet, really quiet now. Her body tensed, expecting a bullet to come zipping for her at any moment whilst she scanned the area.
Yet her sensors yielded no signatures. Just trees and bushes, hills and mud.
It stopped.
15 furrowed her brow, "What stopp-"
She froze. The voice, operator, was right. The beat was gone. It was quiet.
The time was around 3AM. Together Cano, RS, and 404 had been on their march for nearly three days, marching along the main road leading out southwest from Chisinau. Thus far they'd managed to avoid contact, 45 making good on her words from earlier.
Now though, it was break time. A flickering campfire sat in the middle of the road, brilliant against the dark of the night and casting dancing shadows against ground and hilly embankments than ran along both sides of the road. This was a new development, the previous times they'd made camp hadn't featured a fire, merely MRE chemical heaters.
"Are… we sure this is a good idea?" Cano asked, standing just a few feet from the edge of the flame's light.
In her hands, she clutched a bundle of dried out sticks and twigs collected from nearby trees and bushes. She had a good collection, it'd taken a good twenty minutes to collect it all and she'd gotten her thermal cloak ripped up a bit by the underbrush, not to mention her boots now weighed about twice as much from all mud now caked on them.
Standing just at the edge of the fire's light, she could've been mistaken for the ghost of a long dead Napoleonic soldier.
Seated by the fire, cloaked in her own thermoptic cloak, Rs turned and flashed a reassuring grin towards her.
"It's all good, we're only gonna be here for a couple hours after all."
"Yeah but, shouldn't we be worried about light discipline? Won't we be seen?"
"We're in a depression," Rs said, "and miss 45 over there can tell us if any SF come sniffing around."
"Ja~" Cano heard 45 call out from across the flames, "I'll shut them down if they get too close too."
"You can do that?" Cano cocked her head.
45 and 9 were seated on the far side of the fire, both huddled together beneath their own cloaks like they were a pair of large camo pattern blankets. 9 was busy digging into a pair of cans with her knife, a greedy look on her face, while 45 looked to be basking in the warmth of the flames.
"Pretty much. As long as we don't get jumped 9 and I can handle any patrols that get close."
"Oh. that's helpful," Cano muttered, "But, still. SF might not be the only thing out here."
"Maybe." Rs snuck a hand from her cloak and yanked at Cano, her fingers snagging at the rips in her cloak and pulling her down, "That's why 416 and G11 are on watch."
Cano let herself be pulled down to the cool asphalt, her cloak flaring out around her as she came to sit beside Rs. She placed her bundle of sticks by the fire, and Rs selected a few to toss into the fire. The flames snapped and crackled as the new fuel was added, dancing a bit more vigorously before they took the new additions.
"Besides, we can cook easier with a fire," Rs added, "Speaking of, craving anything?"
[Charge: 67%]
[Estimated time remaining: 75 hours]
"I'm okay. I won't need power for a bit, we should save it."
Rs made a face that told Cano she was unimpressed. Cano knew what she really wanted, she wanted to eat together, but even with how much extra rations they'd packed, there was only so much. After all, humans couldn't survive off solar chargers, she could.
" Lame…" Rs muttered, "Fine. Then how about this?"
Rs reached over to her pack, set aside nearby, and began to rummage through. A few moments later she retrieved a clear bag with small white puffs within. She held it up to the fire light, and smirked at her, as if she knew she'd already won.
Cano rolled her eyes, "Fine. But only one."
"Geil. 45! Can you call the other two down for a minute?"
"Kay~" 45 replied.
Rs' next move was to snag a couple of the smaller, sharper branches Cano had retrieved earlier, and after ripping open the bag, began to spear some of the marshmallows on them. She made six total, placing two of the sweet treats on each branch.
"I said just one."
"One stick," Rs said, "starting toasting."
She handed Cano two of the branches, before grabbing another pair and getting up. She wandered over towards 45 and 9, handing them each one. They seemed a bit surprised at first, but 9 snapped them both up and shoved one into 45's hands. 45 took a moment, staring at the branch and the marshmallows as if she'd never seen one before.
Shortly after, before Rs could return to their side of the fire, another pair of ghostly figures emerged from the gloom. 416, with G11 in tow, joined them by the fire, the latter all but collapsing to the ground by the flames while the former stood idly, watching them with narrow eyes.
"What's this about?"
"Want some?" Rs offered, extending a branch towards her and G11.
Each doll took the offering, G11 beginning to toast her's while 416 stared at the branch with a look of mixed confusion and annoyance.
"Why would I?" 416 answered, seemingly offended by the offering.
"It's good for morale," Rs said, sitting down beside Cano. She was closer to her than before, and a moment later Cano felt a little tug pull her closer to Rs.
Cano let herself be pulled in. She leaned gently against her friend's shoulder while keeping the two sticks in hand from falling into the fire. After a couple moments of adjusting and pulling her cloak over her fully, Rs reached out and took one of them from her.
"My morales fine," 416 grumbled, handing her stick to G11 beside her who greedily snatched it up.
"Okie miss kommando, whatever you say," Rs said.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Rs pointed towards her, specifically at 416's jacket peeking out from her thermal cloak where the words 'Kommando Spezialkrafte' could be seen, "That."
416 looked down at it, "What's wrong with that? I admire them."
Rs' face twisted a bit, "I mean, they're fine I guess. You weren't in?"
A slight red tinge blossomed on the silver haired dolls face, and Cano could see Rs had just hit a sensitive spot. Immediately her mind went to damage control, not wanting Rs to make things worse, but 416 spoke before she could.
"No." she growled under her breath, "I never had the chance to."
"Mmm," Rs shrugged, "Well, you didn't miss much. I mean, if it were the GJK I'd understand…"
Cano rolled her eyes and nudged her with an elbow, "Quit teasing the poor girl. It's good to have role models."
9 snorted from across the fire, "Sounds like Rs was hoping she'd be 416's role model."
"Nah, I was just saying she could do better," Rs replied.
416 glared down at Rs, her eyes studying her from head to toe before settling on Rs' knit black hat and its embroidered flower, "You were GJK?"
Rs, not in a rush to answer, pulled her marshmallow out from the fire and inspected it for a moment. It was a nice golden brown, a bit on the lighter side, and had begun to melt down the stick a bit.
"I was once," Rs answered as she plucked a marshmallow from the branch, "Before Griffin. We and the KSK had a bit of a rivalry."
Cano was surprised Rs answered. She expected her to deflect or change the topic, not confirm directly. Then again, there was the question of how 9 even knew about it. There must be something else going on.
"Which unit?" 416 asked.
"1st Battalion, outta Reichenhall."
416, after taking a moment to consider, set her rifle down beside G11 and sat down. She wrapped her cloak around herself much as the rest of them had done, but didn't take her stick from G11. Instead, she stared at Rs with inquisitive eyes.
"You're not what I would've expected from them," 416 said.
"No? Did you think I'd be more like you?"
"I thought you'd take things more seriously. A fire? Marshmallows? Even with precautions, it's an unnecessary risk."
Rs frowned. "This isn't a war kiddo. It isn't good to be so wired all the time. We're only staying long enough to cook and warm up a bit. Low risk, and in my opinion…" she yanked a marshmallow off the branch and stuck in her mouth, "...High reward," She finished, the words coming out a bit muddled from her chewing.
"Why did we stop at all then? Wouldn't it be faster to keep moving and use solars in the morning?"
"It's fun! Gosh you're so serious 416," 9 giggled.
"There's nothing wrong with taking things seriously."
Rs shrugged, "There's a time and place for it, but no need for it all the time. Sometimes, it's okay to let your guard down for a couple minutes and toast marshmallows with your friends."
"None of you are my friends."
"Awwww c'mon 416," 9 cried out, clearly struggling to hold in her laughter, "I know you like us~"
"Yes 416. We are friends…" 45 added on, a sinister smirk on her lips.
416's jaw turned up in disgust, "Gottverdammt. Was habe ich getan, um das zu verdienen…?" she muttered.
"Kommen Sie hiiiiiiier, Vier Sechzehn…" 45 crooned to her, leaning out from her cloak to gesture as if she wanted a hug from the doll.
"Ich würde lieber für Schrott verkauft werden," 416 growled, which earned a snorted laugh from Rs.
416 dug herself a bit deeper into her cloak, and contented herself to watch the others for a few minutes while they continued to cook and eat their marshmallows. 9, on finishing her own branch, went back to preparing a meal for herself and 45 with the can's she'd been working on, while Rs ripped open an MRE. It was a spaghetti and beef meal, obvious from the slightly stale smells coming from the little pot Rs set to cooking near the fire.
Cano pulled her marshmallow branch away from the flames, admiring the now crispy charred exterior of each of them. She bit into the first of the two, breaking through the outer layer with a satisfying crunch before her teeth dug into the gooey mass inside.
"Good? Rs asked off handed.
"Si."
"Good."
Rs leaned in a bit closer to her, watching her MRE cook. She was warm, warmer than usual even.
"I'm going back on watch. I know you guys don't care if we get jumped, but I'd rather not die a preventable death," 416 announced, getting up and dusting herself off.
"Thanks 416~" 45 said lazily, "Try not to kill too much wildlife up there."
"Whatever."
Rs got up, rifling through the MRE's plastic outer shell and pulling out a small packet of crackers.
"Yo, Kommado," she called, tossing the crackers over towards the doll.
416 caught them with one hand, looking at them briefly before nodding towards Rs. Without another word, she retrieved her rifle, readjusted her Thermal cloak, and disappeared back into the darkness.
Cano followed her for a little longer with thermals, tracking the parts of 416's body not concealed beneath the cloak as she made her way back up the embankment that surrounded the road. The doll settled in near the crest, plopping down before disappearing entirely, presumably as she completely covered up beneath her cloak.
"What's her deal?" Rs asked.
"Oh, it's a long story," 45 began, her voice sounding slow and drowsy as she spoke, "She left her former employers under… less than friendly terms. She took it poorly."
"Ah, fun. You guys met after that?"
"Ja. Along with the narcoleptic one," 45 replied, nodding towards G11. The little doll was fast asleep beneath her cloak, marshmallow sticks picked bare and laying on the ground between her and the fire.
Rs grabbed her meal off the fire, and after blowing on it a few times to cool it, began to chow down on the meal. Cano had to admit, it did smell good. While not her favorite MRE, having not eaten since Chisinau she would've devoured it without a thought. Indeed, she almost asked Rs for a bite a couple times as her friend ate, but ultimately decided to abstain.
Once she was done, and had finished off the rest of the MRE's contents, Rs huddled up against Cano. It wasn't long before her eyes began to droop, and Cano found herself supporting more and more of her weight. Across the fire, she noticed 45 actually doing much the same, while 9 was carefully putting away the remains of their own meal.
"Wake me in an hour, we'll move out then…" Rs mumbled.
Cano put a hand against her friend's head, slipping them under her hat and tangling into her hair, "Will do, sleep tight."
2300, Feb 14th, 2062
They weren't SF, of that 15 was now certain.
She'd gotten a look at them, albeit briefly and from afar, a few hours prior. There were maybe half a dozen, definitely armed, but otherwise it was difficult to makeout details. What she could say is that they didn't move like SF, too much independence, none of the uninspired columns marching. Likewise they weren't garbed in the vibrant pinks and purples typical of SF, but drab colors that didn't stand out much in the dark and against the backdrop of the muddy hills, and a well dispersed formation akin to those G echelons marched in. She'd only gotten a glimpse from miles away, she'd been lucky to see anything at all at that range, but it'd given invaluable intel.
In the hours since, she'd managed to put quite a few miles between herself and them. She was sure they were slower than her, but they seemed to have less need to stop and recharge.
The night was cool, about 1oC or so, just barely above freezing but not a problem for her. Without protective gear she was rated to well below. It did contribute to some discomfort though. The lingering stiffness around her joints, fingers especially, that she couldn't quite shake now matter how much or how fast she marched. The Thermoptic cloak helped a lot, but unless she completely buttoned it up, it still let a good bit of the cold air in. Sadly, speed was of the essence and sealing the cloak would hinder her, so she'd just have to deal with it.
Really though, she was just thankful for the road. All she had for shoes were her flats, which were decidedly not ideal for marching through the thick, frigid mud that piled up beyond the confines of the cracked pavement.
Mud for miles in every direction, made worse by the occasional rain passing over and eternally gray sky. Even now clouds covered much of the night sky, allowing only the brightest stars and a waxing crescent moon to glimmer faintly through the cloud cover. Even in Night Vision it was hard to see. With the poor light and confined to the road by the mud, she had little choice but to speed along blindly, hoping the humans' who'd built this path had made it to last.
She grit her teeth. There was little choice.
[Warning: Radiological Hazard]
The warning flashed in her vision briefly, 15 silencing the alert in her system on instinct. She'd grown weary of the constant warnings appearing frequently, her body trying to warn her of the growing amount of collapse radiation polluting the area. It was far from her limit, but it was an oddly sharp increase in the ambient amount.
15 came to a halt, standing dead center in the road and waiting for a moment, listening to her surroundings. The road was in a depression, so she couldn't see very far, but she could hear quite well.
Problem?
"ELIDS," she hissed.
There was no mistaking it. The sounds of groaning and shuffling feet.
15 moved off the road, careful not to make too much noise, and scrambled up the side of the depression before coming to rest at its top. She hunkered down there, nestling into the muddy earth and concealing herself beneath her cloak.
Sure enough, less than a hundred meters away off the side of the road was a pack of shuffling ELIDs, visible plainly on thermals. Mottled silicized green flesh, stretched tight and hardened like a carapace over their once human forms. There were maybe fifty of the things, shambling along almost in parallel with the road, their feet leaving long trails of footprints in the mud behind them.
No problem for her. ELIDs couldn't smell out dolls, so as long as they didn't see her she could sneak past without issue. Her pursuers though, they might have more problems.
A cruel grin crept across 15's face. She could make it worse.
Carefully, 15 brought up her rifle. She centered her weapon onto the nearest one, and flicked off her safety.
The suppressed report came out as a dull snap, the bullet ripped through the creature's skull and sent it stumbling into the mud. A testament to its toughness though, the ELID did manage to weather the hit and turn a hateful glare her way. The others turned to face her as well, and even from that distance she could tell they were riled up. 15 rolled back and slipped back down the hill as a chorus of furious roars sounded from the horde. She needed to make herself scarce. Now.
She was back on the road and well out of sight before they ever made it to the road, the mud and the creatures' mutations slowing them long enough for her to disappear. Now though, they would be left searching the area for her, and if she were lucky, her pursuers would run right into them.
For miles, she kept up the pace, jogging along the cracked pavement and finding herself actually enjoying the cool night air.
The bliss lasted all of about half and hour, when a familiar, dull thumping slowly began to return, coming from somewhere far away.
"Lovely," she growled.
At least you won't get lost.
"If it hadn't come back, I might've been able to go home."
After how you left? I dunno if Griffin would tolerate that.
15 pursed her lips, but didn't reply. Operator, or whoever this was, wasn't wrong. Even if it'd stopped, there wasn't any 'going home' in her cards anymore. If she went back, all she'd find would be a set of steel manacles and an observation table…if she were lucky.
Still, there was the question now raised of how and why it'd stopped. Clearly it was directly related to the SF scouts being disabled earlier, which she was sure had to have been the result of an EW attack. Normally It wasn't possible to do something like that wirelessly without using an OGAS based signal. Albeit, she had done that before, once.
15 let out a small, tired breath.
Whatever this signal she was hearing had to be related to SF somehow, perhaps an OGAS signal that was still able to get through to her despite her ports being closed. Evidence pointed towards her, likely due to the malware the Griffin techs had talked about, being able to connect with OGAS networks now. However, she was pretty sure that she hadn't been the cause of that attack on the scouts, so who?
The distant chattering of rifles echoed over the hills, causing 15 to skid to a halt and look back towards the North. Shots, in bursts of twos and threes ripped away.
"Looks like they found the ELIDs…" she muttered.
The ELIDS would have been about ten klicks back by now. That was closer than she'd hoped for, but hopefully that problem would take care of itself now.
She listened to the battle for a while longer, pondering who they were and what their presence meant. The reports were from firearms, not SF plasma weapons, so she was now quite certain that her pursuers weren't Sangvis. However, that raised more questions than it answered. Griffin dolls could explain it, but to perform an EW attack of the kind she'd seen they would have to directly interface with an SF network node. That though would not go unnoticed by SF, as the attack apparently had, not to mention 15 should've been able to detect the changes in SF network strength that would've resulted.
But who else would care to chase her?
15 clenched her jaw.
The rifle reports began to slow, going from what sounded like a group to just one lonely weapon firing. It trailed off for a time, before finally coming to a halt as well. The fight lasted about five minutes total.
Are they dead?
"I wouldn't bet on it," 15 scoffed.
15 turned back. She needed to move. Now that the signal had returned, she could tell it was closer. She had alot more ground to cover, at this rate she was likely to hit the Carpathians within a few days. She suspected that whatever this signal was, it would be found within those distant peaks. The thought of it put a feeling of unease in her, with each step in that direction she took, the urge to turn around and flee grew.
"Whatever," she muttered, readjusting her rifle on her shoulder, "What's the worst that could happen."
She was pretty sure she knew, and she supposed she was okay with it should that happen.
"Hey," Cano began, tapping 9 on the shoulder, "Can I ask you something?"
It'd been a good five hours since they'd broken camp, by now the sun had risen up over the horizon and was bathing them in the bright golden rays of early morning.
9 snuck a curious look back, "Sure? What's up?"
Cano leaned in a little closer, minding her pace so as to not trip either of them up. "How did you know Rs was GJK?'
"Hmm? Oh, 45 told me," 9 said, "I guess she found out from G 's dossier on her."
Cano's brow furrowed, "I didn't think that would be on that…"
9's head cocked, "Is it a secret?"
Cano looked over towards Rs, "No but… well, she keeps her cards close to her chest about her past. I didn't think that sort of thing would be on Griffin's records."
"Mmm, well I dunno. I didn't see it myself, 45's the only one good enough to view them."
"...oh," Cano took a moment to understand the implication of the statement, "Does she know anything else?"
"Ehhh, just that she joined in fall last year at Kryuger's direct recommendation. Oh, and that you recruited her. At least that's all she told me."
"Right…"
9 punched her gently in the shoulder, "It's just a background check, we're not planning to sell the info. Wouldn't do to have you two know about us but we know nothing about you."
Cano frowned. Did she trust 9 was telling the whole truth? It made sense why 404 would've looked into them after their run in with Dier, but she couldn't be sure if this was all they knew. G dossiers were internal documents, and could go into detail about a doll's pasts and capabilities. She'd known Rs had one, albeit a forged version to benefit her undercover identity, but she'd never seen it personally.
"Ah, so you don't trust me after all~" 9 chimed. Cano found a triumphant look on her face as they marched along. She must've picked up on her concern.
"I didn't say that!"
9 raised an eyebrow, "No? Then you wanna tell me what you're worried we already know?"
Cano bit her tongue, and looked away, "no…"
"Heheh, I win~" the doll sang.
The teasing did little to calm Cano's worries, but she also came to realise that Rs had likely already known this. After all, she'd not been caught off guard by 9 knowing about her past affiliation.
"Well, as long as you don't try and sell it off, I suppose it's okay," Cano said, folding her arms, "And we know where to find you if you do."
"Oh I wouldn't be so sure~" 9 said with a smug look, before her face straightened out and she glanced back towards 45, who was currently at the tail of their column, "and I doubt 45 would do that. She's got a soft spot for Griffin, though she'll never admit it."
Cano looked over at 9 inquisitively, "Did she ever work for us?"
9 shrugged, "Dunno. I guess like Rs, she holds her cards close. Though…" 9 shuffled over closer, leaning over towards Cano to whisper, "She and 416 did seem to be familiar when we first recruited her, and 416 was Griffin before so…"
Cano opened her to reply, but was cut off as a hand suddenly came to rest on her shoulder and 9's.
"What ARE you two chatting about? Not gossiping about me I hope, 9." 45's voice was like a cold snap. Cano was convinced for a moment that the words themselves had formed frost in the air itself.
"Eh! N-n-no, sis!" 9 stammered, scurrying forward away from them, abandoning Cano with 45.
Cano dared not look back at the doll, who's hand remained atop her shoulder. She kept on walking, eyes wide, hoping 45 would leave soon.
"You know…" 45 began, her voice soft, "9 does have a habit of talking too much. If I didn't know you better, I'd say you were taking advantage."
"No, never," Cano replied nervously.
"Mmm? Well, if you do have any questions about us, please just go ahead and ask me. I promise, I won't bite."
Cano wasn't sure if she believed that, but she nodded nonetheless. 45's hand came off her shoulder, and the doll slunk away from her. Cano still dared not look back for several minutes. When she eventually did, she found 45 back in place at the rear, though before Cano could look away, the doll shot a coy smile in her direction. Cano tucked herself uncomfortably into her cloak at the sight, trying in vain to hide from the doll's gaze.
She tried to distract herself from her. They were making good time, even as burdened down by their kit as they were. A big part of their pace was due to the road, the old highway carving an easy path through the mud and hills.
[Warning: Radiological Hazard]
A shift in the wind sent a wave of cool air brushing into Cano's face, and the warning that appeared in the vision alongside it brought her pause. Her eye's shot to the head of the column, to Rs, cloaked in her Thermoptic cloak and black beanie. She halted in place, her head tilted slightly upwards into the wind. A moment later her fist went up.
The column came to a halt. Cano dropped to a knee and turned to face their flank, unslinging her rifle to scan the embankment. Shortly after, 45 came jogging past her, running up to the head of the column. From the corner of her eye, Cano watched her join up with Rs.
The rise in ambient collapse radiation brought them up into a mid-level yellow zone. It was a sharp hike from what they'd found so far, but it wasn't unexpected. What she was more worried about was Rs. Cano knew she had some resistance to collapse, but humans famously did not mix well with the stuff.
9, who was just to Cano's right and watching the other direction, cleared her throat, "Hey, they want you at the front."
"Copy," she replied.
Cano hauled herself up off her knee and made her way up to Rs and 45, 416, G11 and 9 folding in their formation behind her to keep their security tight. She caught up the to head of the formation, and plopped back down on a knee on Rs' left side, opposite 45.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"ELIDs," Rs answered her, "Somewhere upwind."
"Range?"
Rs shook her head, "Dunno. Close enough."
"What do you need from me?"
45 turned towards her, a thin, false grin on her face, "Well, you have the best eyes of us. We were hoping you could find them."
The doll flicked her head towards the roadside embankment to their north-west. It was about eight meters up, rising at a shallow grade.
"Alright," she sighed. Cano unslung her pack, setting it on the ground beside Rs before scrambling up the hill. Rs and 45, having set down their own bags and heavier gear, trailed behind her, following her path up the muddy slope.
She came to rest at the top, peeking over the edge and scanning on multiple spectra across the terrain beyond. The area was marked with hills and depressions, with a scant few clusters of trees in bushes around. Far off, barely distinguishable from the haze of the horizon, she could see a distant mountain peak.
"Got them," she announced. 45 and Rs had barely had to settle down beside her when she spotted the distant pack of ELIDs shambling over the terrain.
They were about a klick away, shuffling around in a group of about thirty or so. They seemed to be attracted by something in that area, something keeping them from moving on. The beasts weren't particularly smart, and often just wandered around endlessly.
Rs, on her left, brought out a pair of ranging binoculars, adjusting the zoom on the device.
"Looks like there's something in the middle there…" she muttered.
Cano sharpened her own eyes, magnifying her sight to its limit. Sure enough, there was some object amidst the ELIDs, one which looked like a body.
"A corpse?" she asked.
"Ehhh, if it were human they would've ripped it apart," she muttered.
"Could be SF. Maybe some poor Jaeger that got jumped?" 45 offered.
"Maybe. Doesn't really look like an SF doll though. Not much purple."
45 shrugged, "Army maybe?"
"Maybe…" Rs began, "We should go see."
"Eh?" Cano started, snapping her head over to look at her in surprise, "No, we shouldn't"
Rs got to her feet and dusted off the mud from her cloak, "It'll be fine. You two wanna come?"
45 made a polite smile as she shook her head, "Your friend didn't pay me enough to die like that. No thanks."
"Mmmkay, suit yourself. Cano?"
Her mouth hung open, staring at Rs and trying to see if she was joking. Eventually, her friend must've figured her answer was no, and began to work her way down the hill.
"Donna Idiota!" she cursed. Cano dragged herself up and raced after her.
On catching up, she then proceeded to try and talk Rs down from this stupid plan. ELIDs were not to be taken lightly, and getting close could set them off. Worse, they could pick up her scent. If that happened, they would struggle to lose the pack's pursuit. Yet, no matter what she said, rs wouldn't be deterred. By the time they got close, Cano had given up trying to dissuade her.
"Stay close," Rs muttered as they grew close, boots struggling with each step through the thick mud, "And stay quiet."
Cano nodded hesitantly. She hated this, she really really hated this. She'd seen what ELIDs could do to a doll, and had heard the humans often fared far worse. ELIDs would attack a doll, but lose interest soon after, with humans this was apparently not the case. Rs began to move towards the ELIDs, the mud sucking at her boots with each step yet she seemed to not even notice. The noise caught the beast's attention though, rotten heads turning towards them.
Cano went to raise her rifle, but Rs, without turning back, raised a hand.
The ELIDs approached closer, Cano taking a couple steps towards her friend. She tried to follow as closely as possible, rifle leveled at the ELIDs as they began to meander over towards them.
It was odd, she thought. Even this close, they should've been more aggressive. ELIDs would attack anything that moved, trying to infect it with their disease, and dolls were no exception. In fact, Rs' presence should've done more than set them off, but incite them. ELIDs could smell a human from far off, and would instinctively move towards them and attack, and yet they seemed to regard the two of them with more curiosity than anything else.
Cano turned her attention back to Rs, and her eyes widened as she saw a slight sickly pallor creeping across her skin. The color seemed to be draining slowly, the skin tightening a little around her features. It was then that Cano noticed the detected collapse radiation beginning to seriously spike, the local levels creeping into the Red little by little as they closed the gap between them and the ELIDs.
"Rs, are you okay?" she whispered.
Rs slowly turned back, and Cano's heart sank. Her friend's cheeks were notably sunken, the color gone from them and the flesh around her eyes was dry and tight like sandpaper. Her eyes themselves were bloodshot, the veins an unnatural greenish purple. The ambient collapse was peeking into the red range now, lethal for any human to linger in.
And yet, Rs smiled.
"I'll be ok. I was built for this."
Cano's brow furrowed as Rs refocussed back on the horde. A few of the nearest ELIDs shambled near, taking unsteady steps through the thick mud towards RS and herself. They seemed to be studying them, sickly green eyes peering out from their sunken sockets and appraising the pair.
Then the nearest leapt out towards RS, Cano immediately swung her rifle for it, but was just a moment too slow. Before she could intervene the beast latched onto RS, causing her to stumble a couple steps back, and bit down onto her shoulder.
"RS!"
"Quiet!" Rs yelped back with a strained cry, "It's fine!"
Cano took an awkward step towards her, ripping her foot free of the mud and trying to reach out towards her. The ELID's jaws remained clamped onto Rs' shoulder, its clawed hands latched on and gripping at her head and side.
Yet, Rs did little to resist. She only did what she had to in order to not topple over into the mud, pushing back a bit against the ELID and bracing her body as best she could. The servos of her exoskeleton, affixed to her legs and hips, whined as they assisted in the effort. Before Cano could even get close enough to try and pry the thing off though, it suddenly went limp and slipped off of her into the mud. This left Rs gripping at her shoulder, wincing as her hand grew sticky with dark blood from the wound and staring out at the rest of the horde.
"Rs, RS!"
"Quiet!" Rs hissed, "You'll set them off. They're more agitated than I thought."
"I- huh? Are you okay?!" Cano finally managed to reach her, bracing Rs' body against her own and adding a hand atop the injury.
"I'll be fine, shut up!"
Cano did as she was told, though refused to cease fussing over Rs. She managed to pry her friend's hand off the wound to let her see, and was unhappy with what she found.
A hunk of her shoulder was gone, presumably in the ELIDs jaws, and the raw flesh and muscle beneath welled with blood and torn sinew. For her part, Rs seemed to be weathering it, and was still trying to shake her off her. Cano, ignoring her attempts, retrieved the medikit from Rs' backpack and began to sterilize and bandage the wound.
"What is this?" Cano muttered as she applied antiseptics and antibacterials to the site, spreading the gelatine like substances over the jagged flesh. She noticed the bleeding beginning to slow considerably as she worked, Rs' nanites getting to work alongside her.
"They think I'm an ELID, and you by extension."
"How?"
"I sort of am one right now. If I absorb enough collapse it fools them."
"Not all of them it seems," Cano chided back.
"Ehh, yeah it's hit or miss sometimes. If they're agitated they may not care."
"Mmm," Cano hummed.
The bleeding had stopped completely, and at the edges of the injury, pale pink flesh was starting to appear. Cano figured this was again due to Rs' systems efforts. She'd never seen what it looked like before, but she knew that the nanites could rebuild surprisingly large chunks of the woman when needed, though it did come at a cost.
"How long can you keep it up? Isn't collapse radiation dangerous at these levels."
"Not too long," Rs said with a pained strain to her voice, "But long enough. Come on, lets hurry this up."
They pressed their way through the crowd, the ELIDs now no longer even looking their way but starting to resume their aimless meandering of the area. They quickly made their way to the center of the group, and found the object of their search.
"I'll be damned…" Rs muttered, kneeling down beside the body, half submerged in the mud, to inspect.
It was a vespid, which in and of itself was not a surprising find in SF territory, however this one was markedly different from the ones Cano was used to. It was clad in NSU army fatigues, or what was left of them after the ELIDs had torn it apart, complete with a tactical rig and a small backpack. Physically it looked much the same as the one they'd found at the informant's den, lacking the usual SF kit, but still undeniably of the same type with its short purple hair and features identical to the SF regular series.
Rs plucked something from the uniform that she held up to Cano. It was a name patch, normally affixed to the left breast pocket of NSUAF service uniforms.
"0121, Vira. They named it…" Rs muttered. She knelt down and inspected the doll a bit more closely, picking through its rigging and gear, "This is modern kit."
"You're sure?"
Rs nodded, brushing a now listless ELID aside like it were an annoying child in her way. She retrieved a nearby item from the mud by the ELID's feet, a rifle. It was black and gray, with a long LPVO scope affixed to the top and a strange Ak style magazine jutting out at an angle from its base.
"This's an AN-94 M," Rs announced, brushing some of the mud off and turning over the weapon in her hands, "Pretty uncommon. I think they only started handing them. "
"That could still be from before…" Cano began, her words trailing off.
"Unlikely. KCCO and VDV are the only ones getting this right now. I believe the KCCO only just received their first batch a couple months ago. This's new kit, really new."
"Does either group still use Sf dolls?"
Rs shook her head, "Not that I'm aware of. The army claims to have scrapped their whole stock when SF went rogue. Seems this wasn't universal though…"
"Do you think this has anything to do with the other Vespid?"
Rs pondered it for a minute before answering, "Maybe. Could be a unit using SF dolls still."
"What happened to the rest, do you think? Maybe the ELIDs got them too?"
"This poor this was probably a sacrificial lamb. Bait for the ELIDs, running and firing away to draw them off while the rest of the unit sneaks away. Not uncommon tactics."
"Ohh…" Cano said. She felt oddly sad at the thought. They had named this doll after all, yet had sent her off to die in their stead.
Rs unsheathed her knife from her rig and moved back over towards the dead doll, "We should probably get it's core to 45. May have something interesting."
Cano nodded, "Okay. Should we check for lifeboats?"
Rs paused, her knife hovering a couple centimeters above the Vespids upper chest.
"Yeah, go ahead and check."
Cano, careful not to get into Rs' way as she began to slice into the Vespid's chest, began to fleece the doll's pockets and rigging for a data lifeboat. She found plenty of ammunition and magazines for its weapon, and a couple grenades which she set aside, but no pods. Next, Cano produced her own blade and proceeded to cut the doll's backpack off its body, pulling the brown canvas bag out from under it.
Within she found a myriad of items, including another box of 5.45 ammunition, a standard army solar charger, and a gun cleaning kit. In a bundled pack at the body was a field maintenance kit with some spare parts and repair tools. It was all fairly standard, with one exception: at the very bottom of the bag, tucked away neatly beside the repair kit, was a simple black baseball cap. It bore no markings of any kind, but did not appear to be an army issued item.
"Anything?" Rs asked.
Cano looked over to find her friend looking over with two bloodshot eyes. In her hand she now held the Vespids main core, a small rectangular device about the size and shape of a deck of cards. Around it was a small chain, with a pair of dangling dog tags hanging from it.
"Uh, just this," cano said, holding up the hat and grenades, "no life boat. Did she have those?"
She pointed to the tags.
Rs nodded, "Yeah. just the army issue ones, they only have her service number. The hat is odd though, that's definitely not standard issue."
"That's what I thought too."
"Well. Let's take this stuff back. I would like to recover the rest of this, but we can't carry it all."
Cano nodded, looking down at the doll once again. Rs had made a fairly clean removal of the core, just a few small cuts that would barely be noticed, especially compared to the mauling the ELIDs had given the doll. Hunks of the it's synth flesh were outright gone, and its right arm was nowhere to be seen. It seemed a sad fate, even for a largely mindless SF regular.
Rs groaned as she got to her feet, "oh I'll be happy not to do this anymore."
"Can you make it back?"
"Oh yeah, I'll be fine. Might need to crack open another MRE though."
"Just don't go through it all too quickly. We may have a long ways to go."
Rs gave her a tired look, "Yeah, probably."
Cano struggled to her feet, the mud gripping at every bit of her it could and trying to keep her down. Rs offered a helping hand, helping to free her from the mire. Together, they made their way back through the horde of ELIDs, and broke free back into the muddy fields beyond them.
In the distance she could see UMP45 still up on the hill. Doubtlessly she had been watching the whole time. Cano wondered what she thought of the display. Rs waved over her head as they got closer, and 45 returned the gesture. The wound on her shoulder had closed completely, and as they moved Cano noticed her skin start to return to its natural pigment. Her eyes took longer, but before they even started to climb up to 45 they'd returned to their normal color as well. The ambient collapse was back down to a low yellow level.
"Well, that looked like fun," 45 comments as they got within earshot, "You ok?"
"I'm fine!" Rs replied with an energetic thumbs up, "Poor thing was just spooked."
"Right…"
"Brought you a present though. It was a Vespid, but not an SF unit I don't think. Here."
Rs handed 45 the core, though kept the tags and stuffed them into a pocket. 45 took the core in one hand, her head tilting curiously as she stared at it. No doubt she had already accessed the device and was sifting through the data within.
"Oh. interesting…" she muttered, before blinking and refocusing on the two of them, "lets get down. We should discuss this with the others."
Notes:
O-Kay. this is a long one so thanks for bearing with me folks! at the end, its 11,400 and some change words, which in hindsight I could've probably split in two. But, hey, we're here now so who cares. GFL2 and ZZZ are rapidly becoming consuming. Anyway, Despite some small delays I am on track to get done what I wanted this year! probably two more chapters before its up, one's already partially written so we're chugging along.
As for the chapter. Well, we're gonna get a bit into the weeds here. Rs has a whole ass backstory that I'm only touching on here, but long story short in case I don't get to it, the OG reason for her getting the augmentations she has was in response to the worldwide Collapse disasters. the nanites and some bio augments were designed to resist Collapse infection. later mods let her handle ELIDs as we saw here. Besides her, we are also gonna be getting more 45 stuff too! her and 9's relationship is a fun one to write, and I want to add more to what we see int he early game. Since (for times sake) we'll be skipping the events of Deep Dive, and probably AW and some of the chapter 7 and 8 content, I need to include much of their story in other places. the cores of each of those events will be retained tho, dont worry. 45 is probably my fav of the main characters, so she'll be getting some love.
Finally, 15. As with M4, i'm accelerating and advancing her OGAS infection, but with the caveat of Operator's involvement. Plus, I always felt like this part of the story, between her escape to the fight with Alchie and Eliza, was just a bit empty. She goes on about how she'll make SF pay, but then just drops off the face of the earth for a while before magically reappearing. I hope I can add more to it, maybe make the eventually showdown a tad more interesting as a result, tho we'll see.
Anyway. Thanks for reading! If you've any questions or just wanna talk feel free to leave a comment. Each one I get might just get the next chapter arrive a day sooner :)
