Finale

"Doll's rights have been a slippery slope since the moment they started appearing in our homes. At the end of the day, they're still subservient creations made in our image. Yet, here we are still trying to perfect the design and make them as indistinguishable from us as possible. So why can't we grant them the same respect we would our fellow man? Those who we would create to walk alongside us."

-Doctor Vincent Parker, a key figurehead in the Doll's rights movement.

S09 BASE, MAINTENANCE BAY

"OH, YOU FUCKIN' BIIIITTTCH-"

Hatch went slack-jawed as Dozer's HUD was replaced with a giant blinking "Error" screen.

The commander quickly disengaged the VR pod's safety locks with a series of pops before stumbling out and onto the concrete maintenance bay floor. Hatch rubbed his eyes with shaky hands as he tried to come back to his senses. "M-Mike, what the hell just happened?!"

"Exactly what I said could happen." Smoke from Michael's pipe pillowed from behind a nearby computer station as the engineer rapidly tapped away at a keyboard, his eyes scanning over lines of code. "We got jammed."

Hatch cautiously got back to his feet with shaky limbs as he attempted to regain control of his body. "I get that, but how? You're supposed to be the tech wiz!"

"I can't prepare for every eventuality," Michael responded matter of factly before blowing a few puffs of smoke.

Hatch braced himself against the pod as he stretched his limbs. "Okay, that's great. So how long do we have?"

"That depends on how quickly you get over to the CP and coordinate with the dolls. I can't do anything from here until the doll is back online."

"Goddamnit!" Hatch slammed a fist against the pod.

Michael paused from his station and looked over at Hatch with a raised eyebrow. "You're not the only one who wants them back here, but throwing a tantrum and smacking my instruments is not only childish." The engineer focused his gaze. "But it gets me angry too. So ruck up and go do your job."

Hatch swore under his breath and took a swig from his flask before storming out into the knee-high snow outside.

Deep in the heart of the town, the dolls of Echelons Two and Three fought a battle of attrition against an unwavering enemy. For every enemy doll that went down five more took its place and the old school building was beginning to fall apart trying to weather the onslaught. The line was slowly starting to break and Hatch's dolls knew it. All they could do was carry out their last orders to the best of their abilities.

From the back of one of the classrooms, Zas slammed the lid to an empty olive drab container and shook her head. "Resupply completed, we are now bingo on reserves. Echelon leader egressing back to position!" Zas left the box behind to regroup with her team, keeping her head down as energy fire hissed through the air.

G36 ducked down behind an overturned desk with a less than amused expression. "No more ammo? Splendid, I suppose we should use harsh language and the butts of our weapons next?"

FNC had been loading more armor-piercing rounds into one of her empty magazines when she heard the bad news. "No more ammo?! Oh, we're done for sure!"

"Ah for Pete's sake quit your bloody bellyaching!" A dirt-covered Spitfire looked over at the distressed doll and pointed at the red-stained bandages wrapped around her face. "I'm missin' a bloody eye and you don't see me fretting. We'll get through this, I know it!"

"We will be fine FFC, now get back to your post." Zas focused on the enemy outside as she continued to dispatch doll after doll with the concentration of an automated turret.

Suddenly, a stray plasma bolt fizzled through the air and impacted Zas's shoulder. Zas grit her teeth in pain as she recoiled from the force of the hit. Upon eyeing the damage, Zas's temper flared. A black hole had been burned into her skin, exposing the steel of her endoskeleton.

"Damnit!" With vengeful eyes the doll quickly scanned the chaos beyond and found the individual who had dared to wound her, a Ripper. Within moments a grenade was sent through the air and impacted the Sangvis doll head-on, catching a few others in the detonation with a whump. Zas stuck up a middle finger as bits and pieces of doll rained down. "Nobody damages my frame!"

Another one of Zas's subordinates, PP-19, ducked down behind the wall they were taking cover behind and worriedly looked over at her comrade.

"Tovarisch Echelon leader Zas, are you alright!?" The doll used her nonfiring hand to brush a few strands of white hair out of the way of her soot-covered face. "Do you need repairs?"

Zas waved her concerned comrade away with a dismissive hand. "I'm fine! Get back to your position and focus fire on the enemy! I want these shits stomped out, use the incendiaries if you need to!"

PP-19 nodded solemnly and hurried back to her position, unhooking some grenades all the while. Zas ducked back down to reload as energy fire pockmarked the concrete window sill she had taken cover behind. She swiftly knocked her empty mag out and rocked a new one in before popping back out to snapshot a few Rippers down below.

"Echelon Two lead, this is Three lead. Are you okay? Do you need any help!? I just saw your vitals go a little crazy over the net." The concern in G41's voice was audible even over the sounds of chaos, thanks in no small part to the Zener system.

"I'm fine, just a grazing hit." Zas eyed her wound as her HUD displayed a few blinking red images of Echelon Three. "I could ask the same of you though."

G41 sighed. "PPK lost an arm to a Vespid and Springfield isn't doing too well either. A Jaeger took a potshot and left a nasty hit in her chest harness. FN49 is picking up the slack despite the fact that WA is...well, you can probably hear her." Zas could just barely make out the sounds of an enraged Wa in the back. "I can tell, I do not pity whatever is on the receiving end of her anger." Zas shook her head. "I'm going to try and reach the CP. Keep up the fight over there 41, we will manage this."

"You too Zas, let's all get back home to our commander!" 41 cut the signal as Zas changed frequencies. "CP this is Echelon Two lead. Things are not going so well here, what's the status on support?"

No sooner had Zas finished her transmission, Kalina was already responding."Echelon Two lead, this is Kalina. The Predator is currently out of Hellfires but is remaining on station for observation. Mozzie is also doing the same but promises they'll be back as soon as they can. Oh, and Commander Hatch has a few things to say." There was a sound of rustling accompanied by yelling as Kalina dropped off the net.

Zas's look of confusion was mirrored by other dolls listening in. "Hatch?"

"Echelon Two, Zas. This is Hatch. Dozer is down. I repeat, Dozer is down. My signal to him has been cut off and Echelon One is currently engaging Hunter."

"Say again Commandant, Dozer is down?" Zas listened on incredulously.

"That's an affirm. As far as I can tell he's still combat capable, but I have no way to get him back online from here. Intruder blocked the signal. What's the status of your girls?"

"Not good. We are low on ammo and the others..." Zas's voice trailed off as she looked back at some of the mangled dolls doing their best to man their respective positions. "...I will not lie to you commandant. I do not know how much longer we can hold. Why hasn't the super-duper doll team finished Intruder yet?"

"I don't know, I can't reach them over the net. It's likely Intruder blocked their signal too. All we can do is hope and hang on-shit. Look Zas I gotta go, Echelon One needs me!"

"Commandant Hatch wait!" Before Zas could give a proper response, Hatch cut the signal leaving her there with the rest of her team against the enemy. Zas closed her eyes and took a deep breath before rejoining the battle. "Even far away you still impede my progress with him, Calico. Our competition will have to wait." Zas managed a sly smile as she lowered her goggles down over her eyes. "Just try not to get scrapped, the competition for our commander must go on."

"All that bluster! All that bravado! Where is it now, trash!?" Hunter yelled as her black and red form darted around the dolls of Echelon One. The Ringleader laughed as she effortlessly dodged Echelon One's weapons fire, her pistols responding in kind whenever a doll tried to break free from cover.

Calico tucked her head back behind a dumpster she and Thunder were taking cover. Next to them, Dozer's massive frame sat slumped against their makeshift cover. Meanwhile, Specter and MP40 did their best to deal with Hunter.

"Ben are you seeing this?! How are we supposed to handle this?!"

Back at base, Hatch watched the drone's vidscreen with a furrowed brow. "Yeah I'm here. What's going on with Dozer, has he rebooted yet?"

Thunder reached down and tapped on Dozer's head repeatedly. "No, it's like someone found his off switch and flipped it."

"Take his core out and reinsert it then."

Calico raised an eyebrow as she started disengaging the various locks and safety pins on Dozer's chest harness. "Really Ben!? He's not a video game system, do you want me to blow on the cartridge too?"

"He's military-grade kit Calico, it's dummy-proof. Just fucking do it!"

"Shit shit shit!" Calico swore as she quickly took out Dozer's core and clicked it back into place. Calico and Thunder watched in anticipation, hoping for some sort of miraculous scene where Dozer would spring back up and help the team take Hunter down.

"AI CORE DETECTED, BEGINNING STARTUP PROCED-"

Calico slammed her fists on Dozer's chest. "Screw the theatrics, just boot up!"

Dozer's visors pulsed red for a few moments before the doll responded. "...WARNING, UNEXPECTED SHUTDOWN DETECTED. REBOOT PROCEDURE WILL TAKE LONGER THAN NORMAL WHILE PREVIOUS INFORMATION IS RESTORED. ETA…"

A loud buzzing sound reverberated from within the military-grade doll as Hunter and the two SMG dolls continued their battle beyond. "...ONE HOUR."

"An hour?!" Calico grit her teeth and balled her fists as she started slamming on Dozer's chest repeatedly. "WE….DON'T...HAVE….AN….HOUR!"

"If you try to reboot him any sooner than that, he's going to get up and start targeting all of you equally." Michael came over the net with the same calm and collected demeanor he always had. "You ever wonder why video games tell you to not turn off the console while they save? Now you know."

"Okay Mike, so now what do they do." Hatch responded with rising anger. "Get turned into scrap?!"

"Calm down and let me finish." Michael cleared his throat. "This 'powerup' Hunter has, it's not permanent. Have you ever heard of overclocking a computer?"

"Yeah, I'm not a stranger to gaming." Hatch responded matter of factly.

"Well, same thing. You get a boost in performance, but at the cost of increased strain on the system itself."

Thunder raised an eyebrow. "So we just outlast her? How long would we have?"

"Minutes, maybe less the more you force her to push her frame."

Hatch cracked his knuckles. "Got it, so it's attrition then. We know a little thing or two about that."

"Good then, put it into action. I expect all of you to return home tonight, Browning out." Michael quickly cut the transmission, leaving the dolls of Echelon One and their commander to deal with the new threat.

Calico slapped a fresh magazine into her weapon as Hatch spoke over comms. "Okay girls, let's bag this fucking speedster."

Intruder ran past a squad of confused looking Vespid and pointed behind her. "Don't just stand there, stop them!" The command and control member of the squad nodded before leading the squad into an alleyway towards AR team. Now all the Ringleader could hope to do was delay her pursuers long enough for Hunter to come to her aid. Intruder looked behind her, hoping for some miracle to arrive to her aid. Instead what she got was the sound of gunfire being exchanged followed by a very irate M4 leading the rest of her team out of the alley the Vespid went down.

Intruder grit her teeth and opened up her HUD. "Hunter, answer me dammit! I'm out of reinforcements, where the hell are you-" Intruder's sentence was cut off as small arms fire began to whistle through the air around her. AR team was within effective firing range now, there was no shaking them this time. Intruder grit her teeth and tried to stifle a scream as a few stray rounds impacted her legs and threw off her balance. The Ringleader looked down and eyed the damage to her frame. Nothing debilitating, but the mess of dark holes in her porcelain skin and the fluid pouring out of them did little to fill her with confidence.

"Stay away from me, trash!" Intruder stopped and turned around to let off another volley of cannon fire at the pursuing members of AR team. Massive shell casings ejected out of the side of her weapon as she arched her shots left and right in a sweeping motion. This did little to halt AR team as the dolls simply rolled into cover and found different avenues to approach the Ringleader from. To make matters worse, Intruder could only see three members of the team out of the original four: M4, M16, and STAR.

SOP, the mad dog of the pack, was off her leash and Intruder had no idea where she was.

Or rather, she very quickly found out, as a signature appeared from behind on her HUD at an uncomfortably close range.

"FOUND YOU!"

Intruder barely had time to heft her still firing heavy weapon around when she felt the cold steel of SOPs prosthetic hand dig deep into her left shoulder, tearing synthskin from her endoskeleton. Intruder yelped in pain as she kicked her heel back and sent SOP flying into a trash can.

Intruder looked at her fresh wound and eyed the glistening metal beneath it, her free hand hovering above the mess of skin and steel. "You...you animal! How dare you!"

SOP bolted back onto her feet and grinned sadistically as she waved the skin in her non-firing hand. "I just wanted a hug. Now you went and made me mad! The doll unfastened a jagged looking knife from her plate carrier and licked the end of the blade with a sadistic smile. "I'm gonna enjoy carving you up!"

"You'll be dead before you get the chance!" Intruder raised her weapon and spooled up the barrels with malice in her eyes. "I've always hated you the most."

"The feeling's mutual! SOP, eyes!"

At the sound of M16's voice, Intruder's world was engulfed in bright light. Blinded, Intruder screamed in pain and rubbed her eyes in frustration, only to get the wind knocked out of her as she was knocked to the ground.

The impact of the blow caused Intruder's senses to do a hard reboot, allowing her to regain her senses. When she opened her eyes, she was greeted with a less than promising sight. All of AR team had her surrounded with weapons raised.

M16 chuckled. "You done running? Have any more lackeys to throw at us?"

Intruder readied her weapon in defense and eyed the various members of the team. "You've been so focused on me. What about your friends? Any minute Hunter and my forces will finish them off and come to assist me~." The Ringleader gave a coy smile. "This changes nothing, the endstate remains the same."

"That's a bold assumption." M4 scoffed as she lowered her bandanna. "You have no idea what the Commander and his dolls are capable of, but even then. They have nothing to worry about."

"Because we're gonna tear the command and control module out of you!" SOP interjected as she pointed her knife. "No module, no dolls!"

Intruder glared and shifted into a combat stance. "You think you have me cornered? You're wrong."

"We'll see about that." M4 raised her bandanna back up and snapped her fingers, beginning the one-sided fight in earnest.

"Schiesse! Specter, she's right on top of you!" MP40 raised her weapon and fired a burst at the blur that was rapidly descending towards her teammate. Specter barely had time to look up and roll out of the way before Hunter impacted the ground. Puffs of snow and dirt were sent up from the concussive force and created a natural smoke screen that enveloped the two SMG dolls.

"Crap, where did she go?!" Specter's eyes changed color as her vision switched over to infrared, her world plunging into varying shades of red. MP40 did the same as she began to scan the dust cloud, her weapon moving from left to right in wide arcs.

Calico instinctively grabbed Thunder's hand and brought her weapon up. "40, Specter. Talk to me, what's going on?!"

Hatch rose up from his chair next to Kalina and raised his arms at the vidscreen. "She's trying to pick you off one by one, huddle up before she-"

Too late, no sooner did Hatch send out the warning Specter cried out as she was riddled with plasma fire. The doll's body convulsed as the shots found their mark, pocketing her torso and limbs with deep scorch marks. Before the doll could hit the ground, MP40 was already catching her and throwing an incendiary at the location the plasma fire came from.

Back at base, Hatch slammed his fists on the desk as he watched his dolls try to carry their incapacitated comrade back to where Dozer was. With Specter out of the fight, Hatch was running out of options. Kalina could only sit there and try and comfort her commander as best she could as Hatch tried to salvage a potentially helpless situation.

"Calico, cover MP40's retreat. Sweep in arcs, don't give Hunter room to maneuver! Use the flames as a natural wall and force her around it. Thunder, you're the ace in the hole. Wait for Hunter to stall out and hit her!"

Thunder gripped her pistol tightly and Calico's hand tighter. "When will I know to do that?"

"On my signal, trust me on this." Hatch responded with a reassuring voice.

Calico and Thunder nodded before standing side by side and coordinating their fire. Though Calico's weapon lacked the rate of fire necessary for suppression, her natural accuracy more than made up for that shortcoming.

Hunter laughed from beyond the wall of flames as her lithe form dodged around small arms fire. "So you saw through my trick, cute! But I think you're forgetting that I'm way out of your league!"

"Only temporarily, soon as you're out of juice you're dead meat!" Calico retorted as she continued to try and tag Hunter.

Hunter laughed again before jumping through the flames. "Is that so?" The Ringleader smiled at the Griffon Dolls as energy coursed through her circuits. "You won't be around long enough to find out." The Ringleader quickly picked up speed and dashed towards MP40 and Specter, kicking up snow behind her as she got closer. "Now to finish the job!"

Hatch watched with rising anticipation as the Ringleader made it halfway to the rest of the dolls. Throughout the battle, he had noticed a pattern to Hunter's attacks. Hatch waited for Hunter to leap into the air and begin her descent on MP40 and Specter, the opening he had been waiting for.

"Thunder, now!"

As Thunder took aim on the airborne doll she finally realized what Hatch had been trying to do: Wait for an easy target. With Thunder's targeting computer applying lead and elevation, the shot was akin to trying to hit a clay pigeon.

Thunder fired, her weapon emitting a near-deafening boom as the massive .50 round cracked through the air and punched clean through Hunter's torso. The impact of the round coupled by the fact she had been hit at all forced a bewildered look on Hunter's face as she was promptly swatted out of the air, impacting the snow below with a crunch.

Back in the control room, cheers broke out amongst the staff members as the base enjoyed its newest victory. Even Locklear could only look on smugly as she gave a few claps, her assistant K11 joining her.

"Bulls-eye." Hatch lit a cigarette and smiled before leaning back in his chair. Next to him, Kalina looked at the vidscreen then back at Hatch with her mouth agape. "Wow, that was perfect! How'd you think of that?"

"She's still a doll Kalina. Dolls are a lot like humans in that they're creatures of habit. They're just a lot more rigid with things due to programming." Hatch took another drag. "Our speedster friend over here was quick on the ground, but the moment she went airborne she was a sitting duck. Did you see how many times she was doing flips and jumps? I don't think there was an attack she didn't lead or finish without acrobatics."

Hatch cracked his knuckles and leaned back in towards the screen. "Good hit super shot. I knew you could do it. Calico, tend to Specter as best you can and get ready to redeploy, I'll have Doogan come and scoop you guys up." Hatch glanced at the multiple blinking red status symbols. "This battle is far from over."

Calico sighed in relief and gave a thumbs up. "Copy that Ben, thanks for the help back there. Calico out-"

"You're right, this battle is far from over."

Everyone in the ops center including the dolls went silent at the sound of Hunter's voice. Calico quickly turned around and aimed her weapon at the now standing Hunter. Black fluid trickled from the wounded Ringleader's mouth as she ran a finger around the hole in the side of her chest.

"That was a good shot. Lining me up like that and waiting for me to make my move. Someone did their homework." Hunter pointed at Thunder. "I'd almost be impressed were it not for the unyielding feeling of rage I have right now."

Calico stood in front of Thunder, her hands starting to shake slightly as she tried to mask her disbelief. "You've got to be kidding me, that was .50 BMG."

"If it's any consolation. I won't be up for much longer, the damage has been done." Hunter paused as information passed over her HUD. "And it looks like Intruder won't be with us for much longer either, but that's fine. I don't care if I win at this point, in fact. I never did in the first place."

Hunter glared. "I just want you to suffer the same way Executioner did and I have just enough juice left to make that dream a reality!"

"I-impossible." Intruder repeated the word over and over as she attempted to move her mangled body through the winding alleyways. The Ringleader weakly dragged her half-empty assault cannon behind her. It had taken her every bit of cunning just to get away from AR team. She had always known it was going to be a one-sided fight, but her own fear prevented her from wanting to go to the cloud. She had never been dismantled before. Worse yet, AR team purposefully let her escape. To let SOP have her fun.

Suddenly, Intruder heard footsteps followed by SOP's giggle to her left and down one of the dark alleyways.

"Stay away from me you freak!" Intruder hefted her weapon and fired into the darkness. Her weapon only sustained fire for a few moments before the belt went dry. The barrels continued to spin and vibrate as Intruder's eyes went wide with fear. No sooner had she ran out of ammo a voice came from behind her followed by a hand gripping her shoulder.

"I...found...you!"

Intruder's body erupted into pain as something sharp and jagged punched through her chest. Coolant poured out of the Ringleader's mouth as she dropped her weapon and surveyed the damage to her chest. There, in front of her eyes and covered in her own fluids, was SOP's mechanical fist holding her core.

Intruder weakly brought up a hand and tried to grab her core. "N-no."

SOP brought her mouth to Intruder's ear and whispered. "Pretty isn't it? It'll make a fine gift for my new commander I think. After what you put his girls through I think he'll display it somewhere, like a trophy." SOP couldn't help but giggle in delight. "Oh I bet he'll praise me so much! I can't wait!-"

SOP paused and brought a free hand to her headset. "What, aw c'mon big sis. I was just getting to the good part. What? Echelon One's in trouble? Why didn't ya say so, let's go help them!"

SOP gave Intruder's core a squeeze and ripped it out through her back, causing the Ringleader to slump to the ground face first. "Okay no more playtime. Bye bye trash! Next time we fight I hope you'll put up more of a challenge!

With that, SOP ran off to join her sisters leaving a now lifeless Intruder to stay buried in place.

"They're breaking in, stand your ground!" From down a long hallway and behind some makeshift cover, Zas slid another grenade into her launcher right as the first line of Aegis tore through the barricades at the front door. Zas and the remaining dolls poured everything they had into the door as the horde of Sangvis began to funnel into the building. Outside, Doogan's helicopter continued to provide CAS* in an attempt to stimmy the tide, but to no avail.

This was it, the last stand. The dolls of S09 weren't going down without a fight though and they continued to put up stiff resistance.

A91 rummaged through her plate carrier's pouches before sighing."Shiit, I'm out of grenades. Well, girls, it's been fun. Off to the cloud we go!~" The doll took a long swig from her flask and prepared for the end.

"I won't let them get their filthy hands on Springfield! I won't, I won't, I won't!" Wa yelled as she continued to plink at anything dangerous that was foolish enough to expose themselves to her.

Then, just as the first Aegis reached the dolls' position, everything stopped. All of the Sangvis dolls halted in place and drooped their heads as if their switches had suddenly been turned off. A few of Hatch's dolls exchanged puzzled looks before FN49 raised her rifle above her head in jubilation. "We won! Victory is ours!"

All of the dolls immediately burst into celebration. Against all odds, they had survived, done what very few other bases had ever done. The celebrations were short-lived however, for there was still one team in need of assistance.

The dolls quickly packed their gear and stuffed anyone they could into the remaining MRAP before speeding off to Echelon One's location.

Before Calico could squeeze her handgun's trigger, Hunter had already fired. Plasma fire impacted Calico's weapon sending it spiraling out of her hands. Disarmed, Calico was helpless as Hunter quickly followed up with crippling fire to her legs.

Everything happened so fast that Calico didn't even have time to yell in pain as plasma fire burned into her endoskeleton.

"Calico, hang on!" More concerned with Calico's safety than her own, Thunder immediately rushed to her friend. Only to grunt in pain as Hunter closed the gap and buried her knee into Thunder's gut. The impact of the blow slammed Thunder into the dumpster Dozer was leaning against. Before Thunder could even hit the ground Hunter was upon her once more, yanking the doll up by the hair and letting her hang from a clenched fist. Thunder screamed as Hunter carried over to Calico and dug her heel into the crippled doll's chest with a sadistic grin that stretched from ear to ear. Calico could have broken the Ringleader's leg were it not for the pistol aimed at her face. "You b-bitch! Put her down!"

Out of ammo and still burdened with Specter, MP40 could only watch in horror as Hunter gloated over her "victory."

"I had originally intended to do something like this, but all of you proved to be a little more tenacious than I had expected." Hunter gave Thunder's hair another tug. "I could've easily sent all of you to the cloud, but that wasn't' a luxury you gave Executioner."

Thunder reached out to the still unresponsive Dozer with a free hand and called out weakly. "D-dozer help me."

"What's that? Calling out for help?" Hunter gave Thunder another good shake. "You're gonna have to speak up, maybe he'll hear you then. Go on."

Calico grit her teeth in indescribable rage. "I swear to you with all that I am, we're going to make what we did to Executioner look like a children's arts and crafts project after we're done with you."

Hunter laughed. "Ooh, scary. Trying to get under my skin again? Won't work, I'm beyond that old trick now." She returned her attention to Thunder. "Now then, go on. Scream to your friend, scream to whoever you want."

Thunder remained silent.

"I said, scream!" Hunter shook Thunder by her hair prompting the doll to scream out again. This time with tears running down her face."Big brother, please! Help me!"

Hunter wrapped her finger around her pistol's trigger. "LOUDER!"

"PLEASE HELP ME!"

Hunter was about to torture Thunder further when suddenly the shrieking sound of metal rubbing against metal ushered forth from near the dumpster. Hunter's eyes went wide as she looked over at the source of the noise. There, staring right at her, was Dozer. The doll's visors pulsed a dull green for a few moments before turning a bright crimson.

"HOSTILE DOLL IN THE A.O. THIS UNIT IS MOVING TO ENGAGE."

"No, hat's impossible! You're supposed to be offline!" Hunter's eyes went wide as she pulled the trigger to her pistol. "I will not be denied my vengeance by a walking trash heap!"

Click, nothing. Hunter didn't have time to register confusion before Calico was snapping her ankle and pushing the now weakened Ringleader off her. Thunder dropped to the ground and brought her hands to her hair in pain, tears still streaming down her face as Dozer slowly got back up to its feet.

Calico crawled her to her friend's side and got up on her knees before wrapping her arms around the distraught doll. "Shhh, it's okay now. It's over Thunder."

She turned her head towards Hunter with a look of disgust. "For us anyways." Calico began to shake as anger took over her. "You won't be anything more than a stain on the ground once Dozer's done with you."

"Not like this!" Hunter tried to crawl away as Dozer began stomping over towards her, its massive hands outstretched like a bear getting ready to maul some unfortunate victim. Out of options, Hunter reached for her other pistol and brought it to the side of her head. "You won't get the satisfaction!"

Click again, nothing. Hunter's eyes turned back to their normal green color as she looked at her empty weapons then back Dozer.

Now upon her Dozer picked Hunter up by her neck and stared at her for a few moments, its visors continuing to pulse red as it scanned over Hunter's vitals. Once Dozer was done figuring out what made Hunter tick, it began using its free hand to start tearing off anything it deemed was necessary to Hunter's existence. Hunter's screams and the sickening noises that followed were heard by the rest of the GnK forces long before they rendezvoused with Echelon One. When they finally got there, all they could find was a crippled doll team and an Aegis covered in black fluid.

Back at base, Hatch and the rest of the command staff sat silent for a few moments as they tried to comprehend what had just happened. With shaking hands Hatch lit a cigarette and took a long drag before resting his head on Kalina's shoulder.

"Mike, get maintenance on stand by. We're gonna have a long night."

Yeah, sorry for the wait. Not a particularly long chapter, but with all the stuff going on right now it was a little bit of a pain in the ass to find time to write. I think I'm finally back on a semi-normal schedule, but we'll see. Too early to say for sure. I hope everyone's been staying safe and healthy and thanks for having the patience to wait for this chapter.

I also noticed a jump in activity in my favorites and follows. To all my new readers welcome aboard. Try not to pay any heed to my old projects, they've evolved as much as I have lol.

Terms used

CAS: Close Air Support