Chapter Text
“-ore installation complete, combat module installation complete. Personality module installation complete.”
“And she’s awake. I.O.P.’s finest Tactical Doll yet.”
“... Tactical Doll?”
“Yes, T-Doll, for short. Your combat and independent thinking modules are the finest we’ve created.”
“The finest ones…”
“You’re the best of the best. HK416, that’s your name. Remember it well.”
“The Military’s already really happy with you and you haven’t even left the testing phase. New records for all of them, including the new combat simulations and with remarkable accuracy too. Congratulations.”
“Nothing less would’ve been expected from the best.”
“Yes, you’re truly the best, HK416. In fact, you’ll be transferred to Sector 03 tomorrow. They’ve already assigned you a Commander. Make a good impression.”
“My mission results will do that for me. Now, recalibrate the shooting dummies once more.”
“So, you’re the new recruit! What’s your name? I’m 1911!”
Despite having an excited blonde T-Doll bouncing in front of her, 416 only looked at the corridor’s walls. The National Security Agency’s headquarters were much different from the ones in I.O.P. despite both being closely related. These were more… lived on. Somehow the same gray steel walls seemed cozier and warmer.
“Where’s the commander? I have an inquiry regarding my role in this base.”
“The commander? The commander should-”
“You don’t need to consult the commander. You’re with me, rookie.” A deep voice, a far cry from the squeaky 1911 in front of her, rang from one of the nearby doors. 416 turned to see a brunette woman with a few blonde bangs and most of her hair tied in a single braid.
“M16-nee san! You’re home early!” 1911 ran to her side to greet her.
“Yeah, Persica had me come back when she found out she was coming in.”
“And you are…?” 416 raised an eyebrow. Despite being a comrade, she could not help but to keep her guard up.
“I’m just another T-Doll like you-”
“She’s 16Lab’s Elite Tactical Doll, M16A1! She’s the best marksman in the Sector,” 1911 happily introduced M16 for her.
“... Thanks, 1911.” M16’s sarcasm flew right over the blonde’s head, as the smaller T-Doll simply nodded with great enthusiasm.
“Tell me how Sector 09 was! How were the T-Dolls over there? Was the Commander handsome? Or was she pretty-”
“Hey hey, I promise I’ll tell you all of that later,” M16 put a finger on top of 1911’s lips and smiled. “I’ve gotta walk the rookie over there and have a chat with her.” 1911 simply nodded, her eyes still sparkling with excitement. “... in private.”
“Oh, okay! But you better keep that promise!” A simple nod satisfied the handgun T-Doll and with an enthusiastic wave she left the other two before disappearing around a corner.
“Phew. Some T-Dolls have way too much energy.”
“You’re supposed to be an Elite T-Doll? I fail to see how,” 416 deadpanned as she looked M16 up and down. Her appearance was messy all over, simply wearing a tank top, one of her socks was not pulled up properly and her rifle was haphazardly slung over her back. 416 secured her grip on her own rifle without thinking about it.
“Oh, loosen up, rookie. We’re home.” M16 flashed a charming smile and walked up to 416, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and pulling her close.
“Don’t. Touch me,” 416 hissed. “And don’t call me rookie.”
“Have you been in any combat missions?”
“I’ve ran through countless combat simulations which cover any kind of-”
“Then I’ll keep calling you rookie, rookie. Now, come on, let me show you around.” M16 let go and began to walk at a brisk pace. 416 knew voicing a complaint would do nothing for her, at least not until she knew her way around this base, so she silently complied.
“Here’s the mess hall, and here’s a tip for the mess hall: stay outta the way of the shotgun T-Dolls. It becomes a warzone when they arrive.”
“Hey,” 416 called out and stopped walking. Once M16 turned around, 416 gave her another glare. “Why did you say that I’m with you?”
“What, can’t I be hospitable to a rookie?” M16 shrugged nonchalantly. The fact that her cold gaze did nothing irritated 416 even more.
“You’re my new partner, HK416. Persica had me come back from 16Lab to meet you.”
“You could’ve said that from the start and we could have avoided this confrontation,” 416 huffed and started to walk again.
“You call that a confrontation?” M16 raised an eyebrow and chuckled. She had to wonder what she calls combat if this was a confrontation.
“So, where are you taking me now? Have we not seen everything already?” 416 had already started to memorize the layout of the base, or at least whatever was important. The briefing room, the range, the commander’s office and the simulation chambers.
“Our dorm, obviously. You don’t plan to sleep in the mess hall, do you?”
“ Our dorm? We’re sharing living quarters?”
“Of course we are, rookie. We’re partners,” M16 looked back and smiled a smile that made 416 think twice about raising her objection. “Be thankful we don’t have to sleep in one of the spare dormitories.”
“Spare dormitories?”
“Yeah, they’re for 10 T-Dolls and they all sleep in a room that shouldn’t fit 10 people and have bunk beds that are too uncomfortable for humans.”
“Sounds like I.O.P.,” 416 said with a faint chuckle.
“See? You should do that more often,” M16 suggested
“Do what?”
“Smile.”
“Please, don’t make me gag.” 416 shook her head and crossed her arms.
M16 rolled her eyes and smiled. "Keep that up and you won't be making many friends here."
"I'm not here to make friends, I'm here to complete the missions I'm assigned to," 416 huffed.
M16 sighed and shook her head, she hadn't met such a stubborn T-Doll as 416 before, but at least she could not say that this would not be interesting.
“Hey, get up.”
M16 groaned loudly when the lights of the dorm lit up and she quickly put an arm over her eyes to block them.
“Ugh… what time is it…” M16 mumbled.
“It’s 500 hours.”
“It’s too early, go back to bed.”
“Nonsense. It’s the ideal timeframe to start activities. Now get up and take me to the shooting range.”
“I already showed you yesterday where... “ Yawn… “... Where it was.”
“... Take me there. I forgot.”
M16 was silent for a moment before slowly removing her arm and letting her eyes adjust to the brightness of the room and taking a good look at 416. She was standing right next to her bed. The glare of the lights above her made it difficult to see but… was she blushing? The moment M16 stifled her laughter, 416 turned around.
“Fine fine, I’ll take you there, rookie. Let me get changed and then you show me what you can do.” M16 sat up and raised both of her arms in the air, stretching them and letting out a groan. When she looked back at 416, her face was beet red and she quickly left the dorm.
Oh, right. She should not sleep topless now that she had a roommate.
“... and once you finish inputting the amount of training targets, press this button to deploy them. This other button button resets them, and press this one to finish.”
“Were the incessant yawning necessary for the explanation?” 416 asked as she deployed a single target.
“No one in this base is green enough to wake up at 5 in the morning to practice their shooting,” M16 said and let out the longest yawn yet.
“And you’re the Elite of this place? Incredible…” 416 mumbled as she checked on her rifle one last time before turning off its safety and taking her stance. Taking a deep breathe, she took aim of her gun and-
“Oh, and don’t be stupid enough to use that grenade launcher here. That’s what the simulation room is for.”
416 let out her breathe. Taking it in again, she pressed the stock of her rifle against her shoulder and-
“You have your rifle on full auto, so watch out for the recoil, rookie.”
Closing her eyes and doing her best to ignore the nuisance distracting her, 416 repositioned herself and aimed once again before-
“It’s still in full auto, are you-”
“Could you shut up for a moment? I can’t concentrate!” 416 lashed out, shooting a glare at M16. She was doing a poor job of hiding the fact that the lack of guilt in M16’s expression was only pissing her off more.
“And do you think you enemy will? Come on, rookie. Don’t let me distract you this badly. I’m just talking, what will you do when bullets are flying your way, your cover is being blown bit by bit, and you know that grenades will eventually start to be thrown to flush you out?” M16 got a step closer with each point, until she was right next to 416. “What will you do then?”
416’s glare never left but she did take a half step when the other got right next to her. Groaning, she pushed M16 back, took position in a fraction of the time she had taken before and immediately started shooting at the target.
“You’re missing half of your shots! If you’re the best of I.O.P., then T-Doll standards are the lowest they’ve ever been! Fire in bursts, don’t hold down the trigger! Fully exhale and then shoot!”
“If you’re so Elite, why don’t you show me how it’s done!” 416 had enough of M16’s lecturing, lowering her gun and slamming the console to deploy a second target. M16 stared at her for a couple of moments before smiling and swinging her rifle from her back to the arm.
“If you insist, rookie, I’ll show you how to shoot like a professional.”
416 crossed her arms and watched as M16 walked to the booth next to hers. M16 released the safety of her rifle, steadied her breathing as she took aim and started to fire in bursts. She only stopped when the rifle clicked once the magazine was out of bullets; taking a step back, she smiled at 416. Not a single bullet had been off target.
“Now, will you take my advice, rookie ?”
She hated to admit it, but M16 had done everything she just had not to prove that she was an Elite. Back at I.O.P., the only distraction she had during training were the eyes of researchers through cameras and viewing windows, and now simple bickering was driving her crazy.
“... fine. I’ll take it… into consideration.”
“Well, that’s a good start, at least. Now, first of all change your firing mode to single-fire, you’ll accomplish nothing with fully automatic. And for your stance…”
It took 416 what seemed forever for her to readjust her stance, her weapon and even her breathing before she could start pulling the trigger of her rifle, and another eternity to go through a single magazine. Once M16 seemed satisfied with her corrections, she remained mostly silent as she watched 416’s accuracy improve progressively.
“See? You’re hitting most of your shots now. It might take you a few hours, even days, to get used to this new stance but-”
The sound of multiple quick gunshots silenced M16, realizing that 416 had switched to burst-fire. “I’ve already adapted to it.” 416 had paused only to speak, and immediately resumed shooting. She went through most of her magazines before stopping, taking a step back and appreciating her new shooting pattern.
“Nice shooting, rookie.” M16 whistled, getting next to her partner and patting her on the shoulder.
“Thanks. Yours was impressive as well,” 416 reciprocated.
“Well, we’ve been here for almost three hours, and I think it’s time we get some well deserved breakfast. How does that sound?”
“That sounds… good. Yes, let’s go.”
“Hey, rookie.”
416 let the recoil of her last shot settle down completely but didn’t stop aiming at the training target. “What?”
“We have our first assignment,” M16 waved a booklet with a large red stamp on it reading ‘CONFIDENTIAL’. The document was enough to get the German riflewoman her attention as she finally put down her weapon. 416 was glad that her wait had not been another day longer before she got her first mission.
“And what is it?”
“It’s confidential .” M16’s joke was only met with a greatly unamused expression from 416. “We’re going into enemy territory. Scout ahead for the main echelons before they move in.”
“Details on the opposition?” 416 inquired as she closed the distance between them to take a closer look at the mission document, which M16 relinquished.
“Small military T-Doll presence. We shouldn’t run into any problems,” M16 explained and began to go through the details of the assignment as 416 read the document. “We’ll be dropping off at 2100 hours here, 15 klicks from the enemy position so our LZ isn’t compromised,” she explained and pointed at the map attached with the briefing. “We’ll walk our way in, check the perimeter and find a vantage point to overview the rest of the territory.”
“Extraction?”
“Same place as the LZ, at 0400 hours.”
“Tonight?”
M16 raised an eyebrow and smiled. “Of course it’s tonight. Nervous?”
“For a recon mission? Don’t be ridiculous. I simply asked to see if you knew,” 416 humphed and hoisted her rifle over her shoulder. “Let’s go get ready,” 416 added before walking out of the shooting range.
“... it’s only 11am.” M16’s voice fell to deaf ears and she sighed dejectedly. Well, might as well get it out of the way now.
“Shouldn’t we have brought suppressors?” 416 asked as she looked at her rifle as they made their way through the forest. Her assault rifle had been equipped with a holographic sight and a laser module, while M16’s only has the latter attachment.
“HQ doesn’t expect us to engage the enemy. Hopefully we don’t. And besides, I’d rather have the laser than a suppressor,” M16 said as she tapped on the only attachment on her gun.
“Why does your gun only have space for a single attachment anyway-”
M16 stopped right in her tracks and signaled an open hand to 416, who promptly stopped talking and stopped walking.
“We’re here,” M16 mumbled as she pulled on the strap of her rifle to move it from her back to her hands. “I’ll take position. Remember, don’t engage the enemy.”
416 nodded and followed M16 as she approached the enemy position, a large village that had been abandoned upon the start of the Third World War. An enemy faction had started to move its T-Doll forces in, most likely to establish a forward command node.
“Keep your eyes peeled, rookie,” M16 whispered as she lead them to one of the buildings on the edge of town. 416 wished she could drop the stupid nickname during their mission, but she knew better than to banter in the middle of enemy territory. They could already see squadrons of T-Dolls walking down a street in the distance. That single squad easily outnumbered them 1 to 10, looking like four fully Dummy Linked military T-Dolls.
As they moved through the alleyways between the forlorn houses, they had spotted a couple of squadrons walking down the streets of the village. Their numbers were not too impressive, it seemed that they were also scouting the place. The lack of variety of guns between squadrons only proved that theory more, as all the discernable T-Dolls were all carrying weapons no larger than sub-machine guns.
“Well, it doesn’t look like they’re doing much right now…” M16 mumbled as she peeked at an enemy echelon down the street.
“We’ve almost covered the entire perimeter of the village. We should report to HQ,” 416 suggested as she kept overwatch on her partner’s 6.
“No, we still need to get to a vantage point and see the rest of this place. They might have something else in the center of town,” M16 said as she began to look around. “Look, we can go in there,” she suggested, pointing at a five story building not too far from their position. An apartment building at one point in the past, 416 presumed. The German riflewoman nodded in agreement and, taking one last peek at the squadron she had been spying on, M16 led the way to the building.
The entrance of the building was in a sorry state, the once sliding glass doors were no more than a frame with broken glass beneath it. The dilapidated building could have been comfortable living quarters for entire families, but in its disrepair, 416 could not even imagine that vermin would find it suitable. Nature had been very unkind throughout the years, with most of the floors and walls covered in dried out moss. Every appliance had a thick layer of dust and all the wood in the furniture was rotting. Once they made sure the first floor was clear, they headed to the next floor. The stairs were thankfully made of concrete, so the flooring should not creak nor give in to their weight.
Once they reached the fifth floor after going through each level, M16 headed to an apartment that faced the center of town. Both T-Dolls stepped out onto the balcony that covered the entire level of the building, M16 took out a pair of binoculars to inspect the rest of town.
“See anything?” 416 asked as she tried to discern anything out of the ordinary. The veil of darkness did little to help, she could only see as far as the next street from the apartment building.
“Seems like they’re gathering at a park near the center of town,” M16 mumbled before handing the binoculars to her partner. 416 spotted the park in the distance, about 10 blocks away from them. There were several T-Dolls in the process of clearing out a large space of the park, presumably to establish a landing zone.
“Take cover,” M16 whispered and hid behind one of the many pillars on the balcony, 416 following suite. “Listen.”
416 put away the binoculars and kept quiet. For a moment, she could only hear the beat of her core, but soon she heard footsteps and talking. That was… too close to be on the ground. A squadron of T-Dolls must have gone into one of the neighboring building’s roofs. The radio chatter was close too, so it must be the one in front of them. From the little chatter she could hear, 416 discerned that they must be doing the same as them, getting a higher view of the village.
“We need to move,” 416 said and was move out before M16 stopped her.
“No, we need to report to HQ,” she said as she began to rummage her pack for her radio.
“We’ll move out and then report to HQ,” 416 made an addendum and tried move again, only to be stopped once more.
“No, we won’t reach HQ. We need to do it from here, we have the best signal from here.”
“Fine! But do it quickly, and then we’ll heading out of here.”
“I know, I know,” M16 hushed her partner. “Where’s this damn radio…” the American T-Doll cursed as she kept rummaging through her belongings. 416 grew suspicious when she started hearing a foreign sound in her partner’s bag. A sound that nothing in their mission equipment should be able to make. It sounds like a-
“Found it!” M16 silently cheered herself and pulled out the radio from her pack. The moment she did so, a glass bottle flew out of her pack and fell to the balcony floor, making loud clinking noises as she did.
Both M16 and 416 stared at the bottle of Jack Daniel’s whiskey on the floor in disbelief before gunfire started to pin them down.
“Why did you bring that to the mission?! ” 416 asked at the top of her lungs as she pressed her back on the pillar she had hiding behind.
“Tch…” M16 cursed under her breath as she tried to take a look at their attackers. Curse their luck, it was two echelons shooting at them from the roof of the building in front of them.
“Why did you bring alcohol? Are you stupid?!”
“It was supposed to be after our recon, okay?! To pass the time while we waited for extraction!” M16 justified her contraband and tried to reach for the bottle but a bullet whizzed right in front of her hand as she reached out.
“I have no idea why I actually let you convince me that you were some sort of Elite T-Doll!”
M16 tried to reach out once more for the bottle but right as she was about to get it, a stray bullet hit it right in the middle, sending glass flying in every direction and spilling the hard liquor on the dirty balcony floor.
“Fuck it! Return fire, rookie!” M16 yelled out as she started to fire back at the T-Dolls on the opposing building.
416 took the opening her partner made with her suppressive fire to take aim. She had to hit dead center of their formation to take out every single T-Doll in that roof. Once she had it lined up, 416 pulled on the frontmost trigger of her gun, shooting a single grenade from its launcher. The explosive curved down and hit the enemy position, leaving a huge explosion and then a smoke screen following it.
All enemy fire ceased and once the smoke cleared out, none of the T-Dolls remained standing.
“Nice shot, rookie.” M16 whistled before checking on her bullet count.
“So much is obvious, isn’t-”
416 was cut short as a loud siren began to ring across the entire village. 416 pulled out the binoculars once again and looked at the park in the distance.
“Their entire force is moving out of the park. Towards us.”
“Shit,” M16 cursed as she snagged the binoculars from 416’s hands to confirm it. Military T-Dolls were no joke, they came equipped with the absolute best modern technology could give them. They only stood a chance against the T-Dolls on the other roof because they had the high ground and were perfectly bunched up for 416’s anti-personnel grenade. “We need to get out of here,” M16 put away the binoculars and turned on the radio.
“HQ, we need evac ASAP. We had to engage the enemy… what? Ugh, okay. Fine. We’ll be there.” M16 put away the radio and let out a loud groan.
“What? What did HQ say?” 416 frowned, it could only be bad news.
“We won’t get evac in town. We gotta head back to our landing zone. Now, let’s get out of here before they come in swarming this building,” M16 cracked her neck from side to side and made haste to take point once more.
As they ran down the stairs, M16 stopped right as they reached the second floor. The sound of glass being stepped on crunched through the walls of the building. M16 produced a flashbang from her belt and showed it to 416 before pulling out its pin and throwing it down the stairs. Once a light flashed, both of them ran down the rest of the stairs and opened fire on an entire echelon of stunned T-Dolls.
M16 cursed when her gun clicked with a jammed bullet case and several enemies still stood in the lobby of the apartment. She could reload her gun but she would only manage to take down one or two more before she got gunned down, and she did not have the time to run through them either. Reloading her gun was the better option of the two, but before she could pull out her empty magazine, the remaining enemies were blown to smithereens by another grenade.
M16 felt a single pat on her shoulder and she turned to see 416 expending the empty case from the grenade launcher and sliding a fresh explosive into it.
“Come on, let’s keep moving,” the German riflewoman said and took point this time. M16 nodded and followed her partner’s lead.
The two riflewomen found no remaining opposition as they made their way out of enemy territory. It seemed that all the units in their proximity had gathered in the first floor of the apartment building and the rest of them were too far away from them to catch up. They made it without a hitch to their evac point, where a helicopter was already waiting for them for extraction.
“Wasn’t that exciting?” M16 bumped 416 in her shoulder as they boarded the helicopter.
“What happened to ‘no engaging the enemy’?” 416 raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms.
“Aww, c’mon! We came out alive, we did the recon we were asked to, and it would’ve made for a boring story if we didn’t shoot a bullet or two.” M16 sat across 416 and cheered with a big smile, one that was hard to not be infected by.
“I… guess it was exhilarating,” 416 mumbled and smiled a little.
“That’s great to hear, 416.” M16’s smile turned into a more calming and reassuring one.
“What happened to the rookie name?”
“Well, you finished your first mission. I’d say that’s enough to graduate you from rookie school. You even cleared out two entire squads of military T-Dolls!” M16 cheered again, this time patting her in the lap. “Let’s celebrate once we get home, alright?”
416 smiled again and nodded, brushing her hair behind her ear.
She also saved her ass back there with those grenades. M16 had to remind herself that she was not alone anymore.
“Hey, uh… let me handle the report, alright?”
“So you can leave out your little contraband alcohol? I don’t think so.”
She was not alone anymore, for better or for worse.