A/N: Well, this chapter was supposed to be longer, but at almost 10,000 words and only at what I've projected to be the half-way point, I've elected to split it into two parts.
Here's hoping I can have Part 2 out semi-timely.
Somewhere in the Former Nation of Ukraine, URNC Territory, 2087...
The snow crunched under M4A1's feet as she sprinted away from the distant voices behind her. The pocket that held her spare magazines now sat empty - she was low on ammo. Alongside that, there was the matter of her body...No HUD, no reinforced endoskeleton nor hydraulic muscles that could bend solid steel, no Fire Control Core, no subdermal body armor. Everything felt heavy, slow, clunky, and getting shot even once could mean the end of her.
She reached the cemetery gate, throwing it open to rush outside to freedom, but was greeted by a firing squad of blinding flashlights.
"Drop it, now!" A voice commanded.
The former T-Doll quickly spun, tearing back inside the cemetery only to be greeted by the squad of cops that had been chasing her. They leveled their firearms onto her as their perimeter guard encircled behind her.
M4 froze in place, her arms stretched out to the side, her heart racing in her chest as her pursuers shouted around her.
"Put your fucking hands up!"
"Fuck it, shoot this cop-killer bitch!"
BANG
An officer's head suddenly burst into a shower of crimson as a loud crack echoed from the darkness, sending the lifeless body crumpling over into the snow. The cop's partner spun towards the source, only for another shot to serve him an identical fate. M4 threw herself to the floor as a rapid storm of precision shots followed, picking off the officers surrounding her one by one, their corpses thudded into the white landscape and slowly stained it red.
M4 breathed shakily as her heart continued to race, slowly peaking up from the ground to catch sight of her savior stepping into view.
The woman's white mane fluttered in the howling wind, contrasting with the pitch black of her armor as her right arm held her rifle skyward. As she stepped closer, M4 could make out the familiar face, and the set of closed eyes that nonetheless seemed acutely aware of their surroundings...
DEFY's lone wolf.
"AK...12?..."
Present Day...
The squad's sights trained on the bulkhead doors as the rumble of the freight elevator reaching the foot of the shaft reverberated through the wall. The team they had sent topside had dropped out of contact, and if the elevator was coming back down in spite of that, it could only mean one thing...
The bulkhead began to grind open, smoke pluming from the opening as a screen of it hissed out of a cluster of grenades. However, this being an elevator...
"Fire at will!"
The Strelets unleashed a hailstorm of bullets through the smoke, the roar of their guns shaking the corridor.
"Flush 'em out!"
The squad's grenadiers began to toss frags through the smoke, thunderous blasts gusting the smoke in every direction.
"Cease fire!"
The guns died down, steam rising from red hot barrels as silence filled the hall.
"Check it!"
A group broke off from the squad, stacking at the doors still clouded with an impenetrable haze before rapidly filing inside.
The elevator was empty...
Before they could even process this, a sequence of several loud clatters pounded the floor around them, and the sounds of something small and metallic rolling around...
"SH-"
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM
An apocalyptic storm of shockwaves rocked the floor as the squad blasted into an amalgamation of severed parts.
Ropes reeled down, M4A1 and AK-12 emerged upside-down from the top of the door. In a flash, their guns erupted in a rapid series of precise shots. The Strelet's visors shattered almost in tandem with one another as shots whizzed through one after the other.
"The hallway's clear, come on down." M4 relayed.
The sound of ropes reeling down filled the shaft as the rest of the teams descended onto the platform. Their boots thudded onto the elevator, and they deftly detached themselves from their lines.
Unhitching from the rope, the Commander turned to the bulkhead as his hand grabbed his carbine from his sling. "We don't have long before they send another squad over. You all know what to do, get into your teams and move it out. M4, grab their frequency."
The team leaders nodded, and began to quickly fall into formation - all except for Ange, whose gaze lingered on DEFY as they moved off down the separate corridor.
"Ange, come on." The Commander tugged at her arm. "Let them handle it."
Ange let out a reluctant grumble, turning from AK-12 to the Commander's formation, where M4A1 and 404 awaited...
A few minutes earlier...
"RO, look, I know this isn't pretty - none of this is supposed to be, but it needs to be done. If 12 has her own motivations for finishing the job, then so be it. We can't afford to hesitate, not with what we've gotten ourselves into now." The Commander placated as he walked alongside RO, making their way to the freight elevator from the upper catwalk.
"I know that, Commander, but...I've never seen her like that. Something's gotten to her, Commander, and I'm worried..."
"Look, I'll talk to her and make sure her head's still in this, but I need you to stay focused as well. We're going to be flying blind down there, and I need you at a hundred percent, got it?"
RO took a deep breath and nodded slowly. "Yes, Commander..."
As the Commander and his adjutant drew nearer to the impromptu staging area near the elevator, the sound of Ange shouting became audible.
"12, this is personal! I need to see her for myself!"
"If she knows you, that's all the more reason to keep you away! She's probably been expecting you!" AK-12 retorted.
Seeing DEFY's Commander and Team Leader getting into it, the Commander and RO sighed in unison. They turned to each other, holding out their fists in an unspoken agreement. Their hands bobbed up and down in sync to the count of three...
The Commander drew Rock
RO drew Paper
The Commander grumbled, hesitantly stepping forward towards the arguing women.
"It doesn't matter, I'm going in there!" Ange resolved
"Ladies..." The Commander tried to begin.
"The hell you are! I'm not putting you in danger again!" 12 continued as if the Commander didn't even exist.
The Commander hissed out an exhale. "If you would just-"
"I need to confront her myself, 12. I have a score to settle, and I'm settling it myself."
12's eyes shot open. "Ради бога, Анна, вытащи свою голову из задницы и перестань вести себя как супергерой!"
"Я принимаю решения, а не вы!" Ange shouted back.
The Commander grumbled in frustration as the two continued to yell at each other in Russian.
"-хуже АК-15!"
"-непокорная заноза в заднице!"
The Commander's frustration boiled over. "Shut up! Just, shut up - both of you!"
The two women finally fell silent.
The Commander continued. "We don't have time to debate this kind of thing, and we don't have enough people on our side to take unnecessary risks. We're splitting into three echelons - Ange, M4, and I will ride shotgun with 404 as they search for the Command Center. DEFY and the rest of AR will cause as much havoc as they can in the meantime and divert their attention away from fortifying the control room while we slip around them. Once M4 is inside, we'll take control of their security, narrow down the locations of our targets, and isolate the enemy resistance as much as we can."
"And Meitner?" Ange raised.
"If anybody has a shot on her, they are cleared to take it. Interrogate her if you can, but she can not leave this facility alive no matter what. We're going to be the most wanted criminals on the entire continent once this is done, so we have to assume that if anybody here goes to ground, then we lose them for good. Is that clear?"
Ange let out a sharp breath before giving a curt nod.
"Then let's not waste any more time. One way or another, Paradeus dies here, and it dies today. Secure the sublevels and neutralize all contacts, but Doctor Meitner is the principal objective. M4, 12 - rope up."
Back to the present...
"All elements, be advised - Echo Zero has gone offline."
"Command, this is Echo Seven, proceeding to last known."
The Strelets' footsteps echoed through the corridor, their exchange sounded through the comms as the squad's steps urgently hustled straight past the dark side passage. As the footsteps faded from earshot, M4 discretely peered out, her rifle trained on the direction of the steps before motioning with her head that it was clear.
404 quickly filed out, UMP 9 took the lead. The doll flipped down her visor, reacquiring the EMF signatures of the security camera's wiring to follow it to its source. As the Commander emerged behind them, M4 quickly took her place in the near him in the formation, hovering close by as if ready to shield him at a moment's notice.
It didn't take long for another storm of gunshots to break out from behind, the exchange only lasting for a few brief seconds before falling silent once again.
All squads still showed green on the Commander's HUD.
M16's eye glanced over the bodies. Noticing one of the Strelets' visors untouched by gunfire, she raised her weapon and fired two shots through the faceplate.
"So, is the plan to just keep blasting our way around and keep the attention off of the others?" SOP asked over Zener.
"That's the plan. Merry Christmas, SOP, blast anything that's wearing white." M16 replied.
"Please try to remember what I've been telling you about crossing the lines of fire." RO sighed out. "We're in tight quarters now, their numbers advantage won't mean much in here, but that applies to us too, and we're stretching out repair materials as is."
"At least the tight hallways means no Doppelsoldners or Uhlans." STAR added.
"We still need to watch for Nytos. If they've sent one up to meet us at the entrance, there's probably more guarding anything important." RO pumped her 870 repeatedly, ejecting the unspent buckshot cartridges. "...I hope it's just their B-Team that's left." She grabbed a handful of steel slugs from her belt, dexterously lining them up into a straight line before shoving them inside the tube in a single stroke. Filling up the tube with seven slugs, she slipped another slug inside the chamber, then pressed one onto the lifter mechanism and closed the bolt over it.
Cautiously proceeding, SOP moved to a turn in the corridor...
"Targets spotted!" A Strelet's voice shouted through his helmet speaker.
Reacting with light-speed, SOP loosed an HE from her M203.
The warhead slammed directly into a Strelet's torso, vanishing him into a cloud of red mist as the grenade detonated on impact. A powerful shockwave knocked the survivors off-balance, their screams drowned out by the deafening blast as the earth shook, the lights above flickering into darkness and giving way to strobes of muzzle flashes as smoke and shrapnel filled the air. SOP lurched to the opposite wall as M16 rounded the corner in her place, both of them unleashing a raging torrent of automatic fire that sent sparks flying from their targets' armor, shards of shattered glass showered from their visors, plaster chunked off the walls and dissipated into a cloudy mist.
The last Strelet fell, the final gunshots and their adversaries' garbled screams faded into silence as the last cluster of spent casings rolled onto the floor.
SOP cautiously advanced down the ruined hallway, the corridor clouded with a haze and littered with debris.
Suddenly, one of the fallen Strelets lurched upwards, grunting in exertion as he tried to tussle for the doll's weapon.
Out of all the AR Team members to try this on...
SOP's eyes flashed with glee, her lips wrenching into a smile. Close Quarters battle - her favorite.
Her servos fired on all cylinders as she effortlessly spun the operative straight into a wall fast enough to reduce him to a blurry white streak - the sheer speed he was thrown with almost enough to G-LOC him as he was slammed into the concrete. The wall cracked behind him, kicking up a cloud of dust as he was embedded into it, blood splattered the inside of his visor as he spewed a gush of crimson from his mouth. SOP's metallic arm vanished into a red blur as it smashed through the visor at lightning speed, a sickly squelch silenced his tormented gurgle as the back of his helmet deformed outwards.
"AH-HAHAHAHA" SOP cackled with ecstatic glee as she withdrew her hand from the shattered visor, its digits dripping with crimson as the body spasmed in the wall's newly minted man-shaped indentation.
One of the Strelet's radios suddenly crackled to life. "All elements, this is Command, Cerberus-5 has flatlined. Intruders have breached the holding area."
"Command, this is Viper-2, we're taking contact in the Research wing!"
"Roger Viper-2, diverting reinforcements to your location."
The sounds of weapons firing in tandem with his cut off abruptly one by one, the squad leader watched Viper-2's EKGs flatlining one after the other on his HUD. With nobody else for his assailants to focus on, a storm of bullets tore at the corner he hid behind, sending him reeling back from the blinding shower of sparks. As he retreated backwards, however, he suddenly felt the burning hot tip of a muzzle press directly underneath the back of his helmet and against his spine. He barely had time to register what was happening, let alone question how she had managed to slip past the whole squad...
BANG
The lifeless corpse tumbled forwards, falling out from around the corner and thudding to the floor.
AK-12 wiped the splatter of blood from her face, faint streaks of crimson staining her ivory skin. "Keep moving. We don't have time for this trash." She stated bluntly, signaling 94 and 15 to fall in.
AN-94 felt a pit forming in her stomach as she observed AK-12's demeanor. It wasn't the first time her squad leader had dropped the confident, carefree attitude she typically wore - 12 could be cold, calculated, and ruthlessly efficient when the situation called for it, but this time felt different. 12 hadn't been the same since rejoining DEFY after the Avernus, 94 could see that, even if 12 had been trying to double down on her usual antics to mask it. Now that she had slipped into serious mode, she wasn't just cutting off her emotions to view the situation with rationality, it was as if there was something caged within her cold demeanor that she was just barely keeping in check...
More footsteps pounded the floor ahead as more Strelets rushed down the hall.
"Contacts!"
"They wiped out the whole squad!"
12 and 94's rifles snapped to ready. Rapid 2 round bursts of 7N39's slammed into the Strelet's faceplates in rapid succession as 94's sights jumped from target to target. AK-15 didn't even need to divert her attention from guarding the rear before the last had fallen.
Lowering her weapon, 12 trudged onwards. "We're still far from Meitner's position. These people barely count as fodder."
A set of sealed doors stood in their way, AK-12 didn't even have to tell AK-15 what to do next. The team's brute smashed her fist between the doors, folding back the metal as if it was a sheet of paper before wrenching them aside. 12 and 94 promptly filed through the gap with their rifles raised.
The sound of panicked breathing...
A labcoat clad man with a set of spectacles tried to discretely peer around the cart he had hid behind to see the cause of the commotion.
Tried.
12's open eyes snapped to the man's terrified face as he rose, his hands raised into the air.
"D-Don't shoot! I'm just a lab worker! I don't have a gu-"
BANG
The shot from 12's rifle tore straight through his head, her sights followed the body as it crumpled to the floor, coming to a rest on his crown before squeezing off another shot.
A terrified shriek betrayed her next target's position, 12 veered to the far side of the hall before training her sights around the next corner. She caught sight of a woman's back, her dark ponytail swishing in front of her white labcoat as she tried to run away.
Two shots from AK-12's namesake to the base of her spine put a stop to that. The woman slammed to the floor as if her lower half had disappeared out from under her, a shrill wail echoed through the hall as a deep red stain permeated both sides of her white coat. 12 advanced onto her pray, kicking her over onto her back with her boot to look at her face.
Not Meitner. Doesn't matter.
A final shot erased the horrified expression from her face, the blood mixing in with her tears.
The door to a lab lay ahead. DEFY cautiously advanced towards it, before a blow from 12's boot wrenched it from its hinges. 12's Wolf's Eye scanned the room, picking up numerous signatures from behind the island table.
"Polizei! Stehen Sie mit sichtbaren Händen auf, dann passiert Ihnen nichts!" 12 yelled out.
Slowly, hesitantly, the scientists began to rise with their hands raised.
"Jetzt in die Mitte des Raumes!" The doll followed up.
The scientists shuffled to the center of the room, their faces laced with anxiety as they kept their trembling hands raised high.
Once the last scientist had left their hiding spot, DEFY's weapons raised and fired into the crowd, the bullets tearing through them as they helplessly scrambled and tumbled backwards.
12 nodded to AK-15, who advanced on the pile of bodies and emptied the rest of her magazine into them.
As AK-12 moved to exit the room, the faint sound of a breath caught her attention. She stopped in her tracks, the room grew dead silent. She slowly advanced on the source of the noise to a desk in the room. As her feet stopped at the edge, she heard another breath. Raising her rifle, she began to bend downwards. The breaths grew more audible, crescendoing into whimper as she kneeled down to peer under the desk.
The scientist hiding under it scrambled back into the wood, his eyes widening in terror as they locked with the T-Doll's. "NO! NO!"
His hand extended out in front of him in a fruitless attempt to shield himself, only for it to explode into a bloody pulp before his eyes as his chest erupted in paralyzing pain, his cries for mercy dissipating into a screeching whine as the oxygen was forced from his collapsing lungs, before a final shot cemented his closed-casket funereal.
"Command to ALCON, intruders are progressing further into the facility. They cannot be allowed to reach Laplace's Lab or the Prisoners."
As the Strelet Commander clicked off of the comms, the vent cover above suddenly cracked open, the noise drew the attention of the guards inside the Commander Center. With their attention turned to the sound, a small cylinder suddenly clattered down from the vent.
A blinding light and ear-splitting concussion erupted from the flashbang. The doors to the Command Room suddenly swished open, M4, G11 and 416 burst inside, rapidly tapping off shots and sending the disoriented operatives thudding to the floor almost simultaneously.
"Clear." M4 called out.
The Commander and Ange briskly moved into the room from outside. The vent cover on the ceiling slid all the way open, 45 and 9 dropped down one after the other.
The Commander quickly turned to M4. "M, door."
"On it." M4 nodded, her vision focused on the Door's panel before it let out a harsh buzz. The doors slammed shut, the panel turning red to display a lockdown warning.
"River, what do we got?" The Commander turned to 45, who had immediately begun observing the main terminal of the Command Room.
"We've got access to the security systems from here, doors too. I can override the locks and seal off all exits to the facility."
"Get on it."
45 nodded, and began rapidly tapping through the commands on the console. "Done. Even if they try to call an evacuation now, they'll just be herded into dead ends."
"That's one problem taken care of. I don't suppose there's controls for shutting down these Strelets, are there?"
"There's nothing on here about issuing orders or shutdown Commands, either it's a separate network, or..."
"They're not being mind controlled." 416's voiced sounded from behind as she pulled the helmet from one of the dead strelets. "No ELID silicification or cybernetics on any of these guys."
"These are their elites. It makes sense that William and Laplace would want people with their wits about them protecting them...What about the Nytos?"
"That won't work." Ange shot down. "They're not controlled by computer systems, they're controlled by Paradeus's localized simulation of Zion. Nobody but William or Meitner would have access to that."
"And since William's dead..." The Commander began.
"Already on it." River nodded, beginning to cycle through the security cameras. "But can't the princess here do something about the Nytos with that brain parasite of hers?"
"Not unless they open up a port I can jack in through, and the only reason they'd do that is to try an EW attack against one of us." M4 replied as she watched the monitor cycle through the various feeds throughout the facility, when suddenly something caught her attention... "Hold on, stop- stop!" She yelled. "Go back, go back."
The Commander's expression turned puzzled as he looked at M4. "What is it? What's do you..." The Commander's voice suddenly trailed off as the screen displayed the camera feed in question. "What the hell..."
The klaxons blared endlessly, the red siren lights strafed across the walls of the corridor as ST AR-15 and RO635 took point, cautiously creeping up to the set of double doors at the end of the hall. Peering through the glass windows of the door, they found the adjacent hallway completely barren. Their guard didn't drop an inch, the dolls exchanged looks as RO readied her shotgun, STAR's hands tensed around the grip of her PDW as well as the P226 in her offhand.
Exchanging a nod, the dolls knocked the doors open. Immediately at the sound of the doors opening, two Strelets emerged from opposite doorways. A blast from RO's shotgun shattered the faceplate of one in an instant, blowing him back into the doorframe as the volley meant for his target unloaded into the ceiling. STAR's PDW jumped to the opposite Strelet, hosing him down promptly with a burst of rapid fire.
Hugging opposite walls of the hallway, the two advanced cautiously through the haze of plaster.
A shadow in one of the windows lining the wall caught RO's attention. Blasting off another slug, the window shattered and sent glass raining to the floor as a Strelet lifelessly slumped onto the frame. STAR shuffled along the wall to the door leading to the room, kicking it open and turning her PDW inside, only for a Strelet to quickly round the corner of the hallway. Hearing the steps behind her, STAR's pistol snapped to the Strelet's helmet, slamming a .357 into its faceplate and wrenching its head back before quickly following up with another shot through its exposed neck.
On the opposite wall, RO quickly advanced forward, only for a burst of rapid fire to send her dashing forwards as the wall behind her splintered and chunked into dust. STAR quickly turned her PDW around the corner, spraying down RO's attackers as her teammate regained her bearings, blasting down the remaining strelets with a barrage of slugs.
RO topped off her 870's tube as STAR swapped magazines, they continued forward.
"Command, this is Cerberus-One, the intruders are after the prisoners! We need reinforcements now!...Command, do you copy?" A Strelet blared from the other room.
M16 and SOP advanced behind STAR and RO, 16 quietly pulled a flash from her belt and flipped it in her hand and met RO's gaze. RO acknowledged with a nod.
The flashbang's pin dropped to the floor as it flew through the air, hooking off of the wall and bouncing further inside until it detonated on impact with the floor. The team charged in, a hailstorm of their combined gunfire ripped the room and its defenders to shreds.
When the last shots died down, the team advanced upon the sealed door that they had been guarding.
RO's eyes turned to the glowing red panel. "This security...they really locked this door down."
"The question is, were they trying to keep us out, or keep something in?" M16 pondered.
"Whatever it is, the electronic security on this panel is top of the line, even M4 would have trouble cracking this. I'd need to go into Level II to know for sure, but it could take several-"
CRASH
RO turned to see M16 slam her fist into the crack of the door, the metal warping and twisting as she wrenched the locks out of their seats, and wrenched the door open.
"Sangvis really aug'd you up, didn't they?" STAR remarked.
"Regretting not letting Elisa snag you back in '62?" M16 teased.
"And have to hang out with those Ringleaders twenty-four-seven? I'd rather blow myself up."
"We know." M16 deadpanned.
"Tch, let's just get in there." STAR hissed.
Making their way inside the room, the first thing that caught the AR Team's attention apart from the strong smell of stale coffee was the radiant glow of a blue stasis field. The shimmering wall was hard to see through, but the figure inside was familiar enough that it didn't take much guesswork...
"Oh, hell no..." STAR grumbled out.
"Nice to see you too, AR-15." Dandelion greeted sarcastically from behind the forcefield.
A sudden thumping caught the team's attention, their guns snapped to a desk in the corner of the room as a pink-haired woman slowly rose from behind it, the familiar cat-eared headband instantly recognizable to the AR Team.
"Miss Persica?..." RO's gun lowered as she uttered the name.
Persica nodded slowly, her eyes gazing over Anti-Rain. "You're all here?...You came?"
RO nodded, her hand moving to her earpiece. "Commander...We have a situation."
"We know, RO...We're in the security room now, I've got all of you on camera." The Commander affirmed.
"The Commander's here, too?" Persica asked.
"Patch her in, RO." The Commander ordered.
RO nodded, handing Persica an earpiece.
"H-Hello? Commander?"
"Miss Persica, care to explain what you're doing inside of a Paradeus facility?"
"Well, after you disappeared off into the wasteland while the URNC was seizing G&K and IOP's assets, I wasn't left with a whole lot of options."
"And you thought Paradeus was one of them?"
"No, but when men with rifles storm your apartment in the middle of the night and 'ask' you to work for them while pointing said rifles at your head, the word 'No' kind of gets expunged from your vocabulary for a minute or two."
"And they grabbed Dandelion, too?"
"Griffin used her as a bargaining chip to facilitate the 'peaceful acquisition' of Paradeus and its assets." Persica affirmed.
"Fucking hell, have they gained access to any relic sites?"
"No. Dandelion convinced them that she had been locked down by 16Lab and only I could issue commands to her. She took a big personal risk to ensure that they didn't get anything out of her."
"Such a pity...All that pain and suffering, and it's like you people hardly remember that I even existed." Dandelion mockingly lamented from her cell.
"A-And what are you doing here, anyways? Do you realize what you're doing?!" Persica interjected.
"I do, and if they were trying to probe Dandelion, that only reinforces that it was the right choice."
"We were working to sabotage them discretely, hold them back at key junctions!" Persica defended.
"Well, now you get to help do it openly."
"B-But if Griffin finds out that your dolls are here with you-"
"That's already taken care of, Griffin's not calling the shots anymore. Find some place to keep your head down."
"What about her?" M16 motioned to Dandelion's cell. "Are you sure we can trust her?"
"She's had more than plenty of opportunities to kill us by now, 16. Take her with us."
STAR let out a sigh as she turned her gaze to the forcefield's control panel. "...Do we have to?...Have to, have to?"
"Open the door, Star." The Commander reaffirmed.
Grumbling, Star tapped the control panel, the display chiming positively before showing a green light. The field dropped, setting the OGAS free.
"Good girl~" Dandelion teased.
"Shut up." STAR growled.
"16, SOP, stay with Persica and Dandelion and keep them out of trouble. Star, RO, head back over here and link up with M4, then rejoin DEFY and push on Meitner's labs."
"On it, Commander." RO replied.
"H-Hey, RO..." Persica began as RO started towards the door.
RO turned back to Persica. "Hm?"
Persica hesitated. "...Never mind, just be careful out there."
RO nodded. "Always."
STAR in tow, she briskly moved out of the room.
"FOR GOD'S SAKE, GET THIS DOOR OPEN! IT'S OUR ONLY WAY OUT, THEY'RE COMING FOR US!"
"I'm trying! The door's not responding, my code's not working!"
The crowd of scientists clustered in the hall leading to the emergency stairwell as the panel to the door buzzed harshly with each attempt to open it. Another scientist shoved the one trying the panel aside, trying to input his code instead only to be met with the same result. His blood froze solid as his heart raced in his chest, the realization setting in that the other guy wasn't just doing it wrong, and they really had hit a dead end.
"W-What do we do?! They're killing everyone! There's got to be a way out! We can't be locked in, we can't!"
"Just, calm down! Let me think!"
"Those fuckers, they left us to die! They locked us in here to die!"
"There's gotta be a way to override it, maybe-"
Footsteps. Heavy footsteps.
The squad of white-haired T-Dolls rounded the corner, with their rifles raised. The scientists felt their hearts pounding between their ears, liquid fire surging through their veins as their heads grew light.
Time was up.
Run? Reason? Fight?
Before any decisions could be made, the first shots erupted, the deafening roars of the firing squad's rifles drowned out the screams of their first victims. Some froze in terror and merely waited to be cut down, others rushed behind their colleagues, fruitlessly attempting to shield themselves only to have the high velocity rounds rip straight through the flesh of their 'shield' and serve them an identical fate.
The ones all the way in the back pounded and clawed at the door, bending back their nails as they tried to claw into the door's gap and somehow pull open the blast door that would require a feat of herculean strength to budge so much as an inch, crying out as they used all the strength they could muster. It was all for naught, explosions of pain barraged their torsos, sending their innards splattering onto the door as the slumped against it, sliding down in a crimson trail.
Dropping her rifle to its sling, AK-12 yanked out then pin of a frag and tossed it onto the pile of corpses and writhing bodies, the subsequent explosion shaking the corridor as it blasted the corpses beyond recognition.
"All of these dumbass scientists, and not one of them's fighting back...Pathetic." 12 spat.
"12..." 94 uttered under her breath.
"This bloodthirst is unlike you." AK-15 remarked.
"What's it matter to you? Bloodbaths are your specialty, and you've got a perfect hunting ground right here." 12 asserted. "You can eat until you've had your fill, kill anything that moves, nobody to stop you or cry foul. Isn't this what you've always wanted?"
"...There's nothing desirable about this."
"Aw, is the mighty AK-15 getting cold feet?" 12 darkly mocked.
"I was designed to turn the tide of insurmountable odds. This?...These men are unarmed, trying to run away, trying to beg for their lives..."
"They are terrorists and butchers. Them choosing to spend their final moments as sniveling cowards is of no concern to me." 12 crassly dismissed. "Come on, we're wasting time. We're getting closer to Meitner, I can feel it..."
Back in the Command Room, M4's frame sat slumped in a chair as her neural cloud jacked into Level II on the control center's computers. The Commander tapped his fingers on the consoles frame, waiting intently for some kind of update. 416 and G11 posted security on the center's doors, G11 let out a loud yawn, beginning to nod off. Noticing G11, 416 let out a sigh, grabbing a mug from the desk she was positioned behind and hurled it at the sleepy doll's head, the impact immediately causing her to snap back to attention.
"Commander, I've found the map of the facility." M4's voice came through the Commander's link.
"Can you get it on the screen?" The Commander asked.
The Commander was answered by the map appearing on the main screen.
"Alright, cross reference this with the subterranean map of the Green Zone..."
"Already on it...I've got something we can use, tagging it."
The Commander sighed with relief. "Forward this to the other teams...STAR, do you copy?"
"I'm here." STAR's voice replied.
"Extraction plan A is a go. Keep some C4 handy."
"Understood."
"M4, can you find anything else in the system? Anything that points to what they were doing down here or what the URNC intends to do with it?"
"Nothing so far. It's probably a separate network. I wouldn't expect much until we get access to their main data servers."
"Probably somewhere in the labs..." The Commander surmised.
"I'll do one last sweep and come back out, but I don-"
A wave of static suddenly drowned out M4's communication.
"M4?...M4, do you copy?"
Inside cyberspace, the world of code and data streams dissolved into a blank, almost blinding white. The files M4 had been browsing vanished out of sight, leaving her alone with just a single one in the corner of her eye, the egg of protected data glowing enticingly.
"Looking for something?" A mocking, haughty voice resounded through the blank space. "The real treasure is right in front of you...all you have to do is take it."
M4's eyes narrowed as she gazed upon the egg...and the white-lipped python coiled over it. "Trying to lead me into a trap that obvious?"
"I prefer to think of it as a gamble, darling. After all, where's the excitement without risk? What I have here is something nestled very deep in this system, something hidden to all but its rightful owners...Laplace wouldn't want prying eyes discovering her...insurance, would she?"
M4 sighed dismissively. "And you're just going to offer that right up?"
"We're both taking quite the bet, aren't we? Either you take the most deeply buried secret in this entire facility...or I get to be the one who brings your smoldering core to Mother."
"So you know who I am..."
"That I do, miss Lunasia. Mother is so, so disappointed by your insolence..."
"You must not know me very well, however..."
The python cackled. "I know that you're foolish enough to think you can steal the Hydra's treasure without paying your due."
"My due, huh?"
"You've caused us quite the trouble, you have quite the due to pay..."
M4 took a deep breath, her eyes locked with the snake's. "...I do owe something to you...something to every last one of you...I've owed it for a long time." M4's avatar raised her rifle. "I'll give you what you're owed...down to the penny."
Back in reality, the Commander tried to reestablish contact with M4, only for the sound of laughter to blare from the Command Center's monitor. The Commander and the dolls turned to see the image of a woman on the screen, shiny blonde hair underneath a gaudy hat that matched a raven-black dress that contrasted with her pale screen.
"So you must be that Commander that had Father in such a tizzy. It is so pleasing to make your acquaintance, and you even brought us Lunasia - how kind of you~" The woman mocked.
"Cut the shit, where's M4?" The Commander growled.
"My, straight to the point, are we?~ The world doesn't respect men like you enough, Commander. Unfortunately, your M4 has taken after you in believing that she can bet against the house. I wouldn't waste your time fretting over her safe return."
The Commander wrenched up from his chair, the swivel chair flying backwards as he stormed over to M4's frame. "I'm pulling her out of there!"
"You can't just yank her out from Level II!" UMP 45 cried out. "You'll corrupt her core!"
"That won't be necessary, Commander." M4's voice suddenly came out of the Nyto's mouth.
"W-What?!" The Nyto's eyes suddenly widened at the foreign voice that left her mouth.
Suddenly, her hand began to twitch and spasm, before falling completely out of her control. "N-No!" She cried out, seizing her unruly hand by the wrist, trying to hold it back as her arm slowly curled towards her face. "I-Impossible!" The Nyto Elite wrenched back into the shelf behind her, as she wrestled with her own hand, the objects littering it bounced and rattled, spilling to the floor around her as she bashed herself against it as her hand continued to move closer to her face. "GET OUT! GET OUT!" She continued to shriek. "You can't do this! I am Madam Hebe! I was chosen by Lady Laplace! I WAS CHOSEN! I-"
"Silence, bitch!" M4's voice growled from the Nyto.
Hebe's hand suddenly ripped free of her grasp, wrenching into her open mouth and curling around her lower mandible. The cybernetically enhanced hand began to tighten as Hebe's eyes widened. She pulled and tugged, trying to wrench it free to no avail as her hand tightened harder and harder.
Locked out of switching off her pain sensors, a muffled, agonized wail began to resonate from her, the whites of her teeth began to crack, the roots tore from their socket and ripped through her gums as her hand compressed further.
"MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMNNNNNNNN!"
The muffled shriek resounded through the monitor. Even 416 and G11 were all but forced to turn from the door to see the source of the commotion.
Hebe dropped to the floor as the sound of crunching bone filled the air, her lower jaw warping and contorting as bones began to splinter through the skin. She thrashed wildly as tears leaked down her face, her feet smashing against the wall hard enough to dent it. Stars and spots sprinkled her vision, growing more and more dense as the pain became unbearable, her head grew feint. A sudden jolt of adrenaline from her an override in her system denied her the mercy of unconsciousness, however, and snapped her back to full awareness of her predicament.
The hand began to pull back, muscles and ligaments began to tear audibly, her cheeks began to split, the ivory flesh erupting into a flow of crimson as her shrieks reached a crescendo. With a guttural rip, her lower mandible tore from her jaw, her screams echoed through the room as her voice was freed. The Nyto continued to thrash, her hand pounded into the floor, leaving cracks and craters in its wake, her legs hammered the wall with dents.
Hebe's possessed hand dropped limp as her voice gave out. She could only gaze upon it in shock, a barely human sounding shuddering whine emanating from her torn mouth as she pressed her back against the wall.
Suddenly, the hand twitched back to life, instantly lurching straight towards the opened up channel of her mouth and wrenching itself down her throat. Hebe's pupils narrowed into dots as her eyes shot widen open, gurgling and gagging as her arm slithered down her throat like a burrowing snake. The smell of blood permeated from within her, her neck bulged as her esophagus strained, rips forming and spreading wider as the hand curled into a fist. She could only silently thrash about, her airway completely blocked off. She smashed the back of her head against the wall as she tugged at the unruly arm, her thrashes and pulls growing gradually weaker as her strength left her body.
Eventually, the thrashing stopped, the eyes glazed over lifelessly as the body gave up its fight, curling up falling limp.
Back in the Command Center, M4's eyes opened as her frame stirred back to life. The team's eyes fell upon her silently as she stood from her chair.
"Target neutralized." She declared coldly.
A stunned silence fell over the group, still reeling from the prior display.
Finally, the Commander spoke. "...Are you alright?"
"I got something from her VCI, but it's encrypted...Assuming it's actually something valuable and not just an empty decoy, I'll need time to decrypt it."
"Worry about it later. Paradeus knows we're in here now, it won't be long before they scramble a team to take this place back. Shut down the security systems, plot a route to where Meitner's held up, open the doors that can lead a team there and lock off any other routes reinforcements can take to head them off. Once STAR and RO get here, we'll demo the system and rejoin DEFY."
The door to the laboratory flew from its hinges, making way for DEFY as they stormed into the room. 12 was greeted immediately by a sight that made her coolant struggle to cool down her core.
A woman hooked up to a myriad of tubes and monitors lay inside a room surrounded by one way mirrors. She recognized it instantly - a sensory deprivation chamber...Just like back there.
Her gaze turned to the two doctors nearby, their hands raised as they slowly backed away.
12 advanced on the female doctor, the terror on her face intensifying as she closed the distance.
The scientist let out a yelp as 12 seized a fist full of her hair and slammed her face against the glass of the chamber, her MP443 pressed against the back of her head.
"The code. Open it." 12 ordered lowly.
"Y-You can't!" The scientist stuttered out.
"Your life depends on it." 12 asserted.
"T-The process is ongoing! If you remove her at this stage, she won't survive!"
The hammer of the Grach drew back with an audible click.
"I-I'm telling the truth, there's nothing I can do to save her!"
"I believe you." 12 stated bluntly.
BANG
A gush of crimson splattered against the glass as the women slumped to the floor.
Her colleague yelped, stumbling back at the sight of her face getting blown across the glass. Realizing his impending fate, he bolted straight for the door as fast as his legs could carry him - but not fast enough. The overpressured 7N31 ripped straight through the back of his head, his mad dash turning into a limping stumble as a crimson tide flowed down over his eyes and down his face. His hand clumsily reached up to the source of the searing ache on the back of his head, lightly tracing the sticky cavity that had formed before his knees gave out from under him. A dull, lulling sigh emanated from his mouth as he lay crumpled on the floor. 12 merely gazed upon the man in disgust, watching the final machinations of a body whose mind had been destroyed, operating solely on reflex alone. She raised her foot, the servos in her knee fired powerfully as her boot crashed down onto its head, the hollowed out skull caving like an eggshell. Her foot slammed down again onto the amalgamated mush, and again, and again, a low, enraged growl reverbing from her throat.
AK-12 stumbled back out into the hall, her coolant pump racing to keep up with her neural core. Images flashed into her mind as she found herself bracing against the wall...
The deprivation chamber...
Hela's labs...
Pandora...
Frankfurt...
An Opera house...
Her gun raised to Ange's face as it gazed mockingly up at her...
This wasn't right. That didn't happen...why was she seeing it?
Were these dreams?...Why were they so vivid? Why were the feelings attached to them so familiar?...
12 seethed in rage as she shoved herself off the wall.
"12!" 94 ran up to her, reaching out to steady her.
12 wrenched her shoulders free of 94's grip. "I'm fine!"
She lurched herself forward, briskly advancing further down the corridor, down the route the Commander had forwarded to her...
"Fall back! Fall back! Protect Laplace at all costs!" A Strelet's helmet microphone blared as she rounded the corner, a squad of them rushed away from her through a door at the far end of the hall.
More trash...
12 rolled into cover at the opposite corner as a torrent of suppressive fire hammered the edge. 94 dropped to a knee and leaned out to return fire, AK-15 following suit and leaning out over her head. Their shots hammered the defenders' armor before they could shift their fire away from AK-12, crashing through their faceplates and thinning the herd.
The ones left standing continued to suppress as they began to break off and file through the door. "They're closing in! Close the door and cut the power!"
An alarm began to blare as a bulkhead began to descend from the ceiling at the far end.
Get out of my way...
12 engaged her cloak, vanishing into a shimmering blur as she bolted around the corner, charging past the last defender's suppressive fire.
"12!" 94 cried out over Zener.
12 paid no heed. The bulkhead continued to close, drawing closer and closer to the ground as she sped towards it.
The last defender tried to break contact and retreat through the door, but a shot tore through his thigh. His weight instinctively shifted from his wounded leg, trying to hobble and stumble the rest of the way, only to crash down into the doorway.
The bulkhead continued its descent unabated. 12 broke into a slide, skidding across the floor and over the indentation for the door's teeth, into the corridor they were hoping to seal off.
Unaware of the cloaked T-Doll next to him, a Strelet tried to pull his wounded comrade clear of the descending blast door. 12 sprung forward, wrenching his arm out of its socket before locking him into a chokehold, shielding herself with his body as she turned him on the rest of his squad.
The Strelet caught in the doorway struggled to crawl the rest of the way, but could only fruitlessly try to hold up the thick blast resistant door as it descended upon his chest. A blood curdling scream resounded from his helmet's microphone, almost immediately cut off by the guttural crunching and cracking of his ribcage being compressed into his spine.
12 wrenched the Strelet just enough to let the muzzle of her rifle clear his waist, firing upon the rest of his squad at the end of the hall. As they scrambled to take cover, 12 ripped the pin off a grenade on his uniform, and hurled the helpless operative clear of their cover. The Strelet scrambled to unlatch the grenade from his uniform as the interval between beeps grew shorter and shorter. The beeping reaching a crescendo, the Strelet made a last ditch effort to roll onto his front to take the brunt of the blast, but had only rolled halfway facing his comrades when the grenade detonated...
The blast rocked the corridor, silencing the return fire with a deafening thunder. 12 encroached upon the bodies, one of them twitched on the ground - its right arm obliterated by the blast, his guts bulging out through the torn panels of his armor over his abdomen, his face visible through the shattered visor, his eyes glazed over in shock. 12 casually leveled her rifle at the gap in his visor and finished him off as she strolled towards the panel they had been positioned at - a fire axe embedded inside the breaker.
"12, report your status." The Commander's voice came over her Zener.
"I've reached the inner sanctum of the labs, Meitner isn't far." 12 reported.
"94 reports that you've been cut off from the rest of your team."
"They were too slow. Paradeus locked down this entrance and cut off its power. No way to open or override the door from either side."
"Copy, I'm sending Star your way and opening up a new route to you. Hold your position until reinforcements arrive."
12 sighed under her breath. Grabbing a fresh magazine from her pouch and switching out the old one in her rifle, she began to advance onwards.
"12, do you copy? I said hold your position."
The Commander watched as 12's signature began to advance further along the tactical map. "Damn it, 12, hold for reinforcements!"
Hissing angrily, Ange switched on her communicator. "Your orders are to hold! Do not enter those labs!...TWELVE!"
No response.
Her fist crashed down onto the table she leaned over. "That bitch!"
The Commander let out a deep breath as he braced over the console. "Okay...Okay...We've done all we can here anyways. Let's trash these controls and link up with 94."
"They will link up with AN-94. You're going with M16 and SOP." M4 corrected.
The Commander sighed. "M4, we don't have time for-"
"I'll make time. I'm not letting you put yourself in more danger than necessary. 404 can link up with AR-15 and RO while I take you and Ange to Persica and Dandelion."
"Like hell I'm sitting cooped up in a corner. I'm going after 12." Ange asserted.
M4 shrugged. "I don't have my dummy links, so I can only wrangle one of you. Now, Commander, are you going to walk with me to M16, or do I have to drag you? Remember - I'm stronger than you."
The Commander let out a sharp grumble. "River, how's our exit looking?"
"We've got a window, but we need to move now." 45 replied.
"Alright, Kai, brick these consoles. M, open that door."
416 nodded, turning her weapon on the Command Center's controls and firing into them.
Exiting the room, the teams began to separate, Ange following 404.
"You're really serious about going out there?" The Commander called after her. "Let me remind you that these guys aren't out to capture you anymore, they're cornered and they won't be playing nice."
"I'll take my chances." Ange dismissed.
The Commander sighed as he watched her fall in with 404 and disappear down the corridor, he turned his head aside to M4. "Stubborn little bitch, isn't she?"
"Cut off the intruders! Don't let them regroup!" A Strelet barked.
"Keep them busy until Razor gets here!"
Shots echoed throughout the corridors as ST AR-15 and RO635 charged ahead. M995's from STAR's SR-16 chewed through her targets' armor, tearing away at the material until it drilled a path into their flesh. Bullets sparked into the walls as RO dashed ahead of their trajectory, her 870 blasted holes through the Strelets' armor and felled them on the spot. Her ammo-counter hit zero as the last shell flew from the ejection port, she raised her Noveske from its sling and resumed firing as she closed the gap, the +P+ rounds sparking from their armor and knocking them off balance.
RO dashed into a slide as a volley of shots flew over her head, she fired a burst of rounds that nailed the faceplate of one of her attackers. Closing the distance to the last man standing, she grabbed him around the waist and threw him to the ground with her superior strength. Rapidly raising her gun, she fired a burst of rounds underneath his arm and into the the side of his torso before she seized him by the helmet, dragging the armored material up to expose the base of his neck before she blasted two rounds into his cortex.
Standing back up, RO grabbed a fresh magazine, clasping it against the used one as she released the catch and switched it into the magwell with a hearty click.
The two dolls had only gotten to the next junction when a hair-raising shing caused them to freeze in their tracks. RO's sensors didn't pick up any impending danger, but something within her neural cloud never the less compelled her to leap backwards - a decision that turned out to have been made in the nick of time as a shower of sparks carved a red-hot gouge into the spot where she had just been standing.
The Silver-Haired Nyto had darted into the center of the junction with blinding speed, her golden eyes glowing in the dim light as she turned to the two dolls, her longsword glimmering faintly as she brandished it.
RO's eyes tracked Grig as she stood before her, training her gun on the Nyto as she and STAR steeled themselves for the inevitable fight. "Commander...We have a problem."