Ch.2
Never Ending War
"Whoever rules Eastern Europe will rule the Heartland, whoever rules the Heartland will rule the World Island, and whoever rules the World Island will rule the world."
- H Mackinder, "Democratic ideals and Reality" (1919)
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- UNKNOWN -
"Was it worth it you idiot?"
That was his voice, he looked around, nothing existed
"Did you think you would be alone? Was your death worth it you fucking coward?"
Wall strained his body to move, but it wouldn't. As if the nature of God himself was holding him in place, forcing him to listen to the berating.
"You died ALONE and FOR NOTHING! For dolls!? For some plan to make that shit hole great again?!"
The voice grew louder, if pain was a concept in this hell, this was it.
"Alone…alone, you could've died hundreds of TIMES BUT YOU DID IT ALONE!"
"I'm…not…alone." He finally spoke out, every fiber of his existence gnawing against him. His voice, his own voice, had changed. It wasn't the voice he was used to, it sounded horse and dry.
"You are not alone?" The voice barked back.
"None of that means anything, none of that changes the direction your throttling towards. It doesn't fix the sleepless nights or suffocating thoughts. I am alone. You are alone."
Faces, so many faces. Why did they go through his mind? He knew them all.
SSgt Daniel Jimenez, his best friend, dead. Cpt Richard O'Donnell, the man who saved is life in Beijing, dead. MSgt Naomi Taylor, his wife for a day before dying in Tripoli. More faces, his family, his friends, his brothers of a war long past.
He was alone. He was alone in the most terrible way a human could be, for no one was there with him.
The dark thoughts that permeated his brain night after night, somehow negating the grey matter that filled his skull, had finally cracked him.
"I am not alone!" He screamed at the top of his voice, like a child being separated from its parents.
"You are."
Then the world shattered.
Wall nearly shot out of his Medical Bed. Only to be brought down by the agony of wires and devices attached to him.
Panic, for the first time in years, overtook him. His head thrashed around as memories of his death, and presumed afterlife, came rushing back. He looked at where the stub of his arm should be, only to find some piece of nearly human looking machine attached to it.
He screamed in rage, as if his voice would quake the world and end it all.
For a final peace, is all he truly, in the darkest depths of his mind, with the voices and horrors, wanted.
Release from the hell came quickly, three doctors and several nurses flooded the room. He was dead set on ending them, whatever afflicted him would surely subside if he could just overtake the thoughts.
Before he ever made a move, his body went limp. The last memory of this life, if he was alive, was that of a familiar face holding him, and laying him back down. He couldn't make the individual out, every speck of his calming brain devoted towards recognition, but all he processed was a single tear.
Then the abyss returned.
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- UNKNOWN -
"So, is he fixed?"
Two figures set in a dimly lit room.
"From what he was before, or what happened during that fight?"
The man who asked the initial question lit a cigarette and took a drag, holding in the smoke before exhaling.
"He was fine before, now, how is he? Can he keep moving on?"
The other man sighed, his figure still all but cloaked in the darkness, "We've fixed him up, if G&K wants him? Well… he'll work fine enough."
Another drag, "Good, G&K already requested his employment, this will make the job a lot easier."
"If he'll do it that is."
"He'll do it, he has nothing else, this is his all."
"The others would say tha-"
The second man was cut off.
"I could care less what they would say, spies and espionage are their forte, let me do my job, Red and the other three have collected more in a month than the others, and Mr. Trident?"
The second man, Mr. Trident, looked to meet the eyes of the leader of the Big Six. "Yes sir?"
"Make sure the ELID devices are ready in Moscow, time to make the Soviets bleed a little."
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G&K HEADQUARTERS / S01 / 30JUN62 0550 LOCAL
Wall flexed his new arm. He watched as silent mechanical whirrs stirred the processes, his arm doing the exact movement he wanted. His arm hadn't been the only causality, his left lung had taken shrapnel, his heart was now weaker from that experimental clotting device, and now his voice would permanently sound like he once had throat cancer. Several other things were wrong with him, but he could still function.
He was sitting down in his newly acquired bed. One 'issued' to him by G&K following his honorable discharge from the Legion, and subsequent talks of employment by G&K. His time being bed ridden and forced physical therapy had taken over a month and some change.
His original job, from his true employer, was still in place. In fact, it was them who initially handled the funds to G&K for medical assistance, seeing as he was never actually a member of the Legion. Three weeks ago, a man known only as 'Pine' had met him in his old room. "Your still on the team, keep up the good fishing and all, uncle wants to see some good catch's soon alright? Oh…You'll be going to a new creek soon, don't dirty it up."
Again with the coded words and hidden meaning. "You haven't been burnt, you are still under contract, keep with the original mission, you will accept G&Ks employment, we've taken care of your previous." They had killed Band at some point, probably while snooping around the Hospital undetected, they were good at that. That tier of individual and all, the actual trained assassins, the literal grey men. Wall was never that, he was just good at getting lucky and having things fall in his lap. Oh boy, the things that fell in his lap.
A knock at the door broke his train of thought, he looked over at the blandly painted piece of metal that acted as his entrance. "Come in."
A young man, dressed in the regalia of a G&K officer, opened the door. Light bled in, Wall had to squint his eyes for a moment, he had forgotten how dark he had left his room
"Mister Wall? Miss Helianthus is ready for the meeting. I can escort you to her office if you'd like Sir."
Wall pressed up off his bed, he had been ready for three hours now, sleep was suddenly harder to come by.
"Yeah, if you can man that would be nice, haven't had the chance to get the lay of the land."
The young officer gave way at the door, waiting for Wall to pass through, "She also requested for you to change into G&K attire, but I figured not to bother with that." He said with a small smile.
Wall let out a curt laugh as he walked past the man, then watched as he closed his door. He was wearing the last set of clothes he had, a very faded odd combo of multi-cam pants and teal long sleeve shirt, the writing and graphics on it nearly invisible. "Yeah, I'm not into the whole black and red scheme, surprising that it's the fashion choice for the area, considering history and all." He stuck out his hand, "What's your name brother?"
The young man smiled and shook Walls hand, "Jack Donnie, Junior Commander, just call me Jack Sir."
"Feel free to call me Wall then Jack, no sir's or any of that shit." The two shared a laugh before Jack lead him to Helianthus office.
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G&K HEADQUARTERS / S01 / 30JUN62 0610 LOCAL
Helian's office was large, as one would expect of the second in command of G&K. Expensive wood furnishings stood out from the rest of the complex, the room felt like it was its own little cozy cabin, save for the Woman staring at Wall. He was currently sitting in the most comfortable office chair his ass had ever felt. He gave off an overly relaxed presence, his right leg over his left, hands in his lap fingers interlaced, leaning back slightly. He looked Helianthus directly in her eyes, his head cocked slightly to the right, "Well then, are we just going to look at each other for the next hour?"
Helian matched his unique style of stoicism, "I'm trying to gauge if you're the sort of man I want."
"Well, I'm widowed so I guess I'm free."
That broke her stare, "I did not mean it like that," she said sternly, then realized the weight of what he had said. "I'm sorry for your loss Mr. Wall" She broke her gaze for just a moment, he counted that as a win.
"It was during the war, its fine, stuff happens for a reason I guess." He uncrossed his legs and leaned in. "So then, this employment opportunity, whatcya got for me?"
Helian snaped back to him, reached for a folder on her desk, and tossed it to him. He caught it and started to read through its contents, mostly contractual obligations and benefits from the company.
"Since your Honorable discharge from the Foreign Support Legion, you are seemingly unemployed now. As such I would like to offer an Opportunity to work for G&K, and myself specifically." She looked at him, "You are listening right?"
Wall didn't look up from the contents of the folder, "Yeah, please continue, good at this stuff."
She raised an eyebrow and did as he asked, "You will work and answer directly for and only to me, continuing your previous job as a Liaison. In which I mean I will be sending you base to base for training and recommendations. Lack of prior war veteran Commanders is starting to show, and I need my people ready for a fight when it comes."
Wall finished the contents of the folder, a portion of it atleast, and looked up at her.
"Sangvis Ferri is its own threat, we can deal with that relatively effectively on our own, though your experience with dolls is appreciated. People though, that's its own War, we have many vets in our human security force, but they aren't as talented as you."
"I wouldn't consider myself ever talented ma'am."
"Don't call me ma'am," she said with what sounded like venom. She picked up another folder and waved it around. "This, along with your actions at Valley, state otherwise." She opened the folder and began reading its contents. He knew what it was, and found himself slightly surprised she was able to get her hands on it.
"Thirteen Aerial Achievement Medals, Silver Star, lots of that stuff…" She flipped through some pages. "Fought in every theater, China, Vietnam, Canada, most of Europe, the push into Africa, survived the nuke in Britain…" She looked back over to him, "I wanted to make you a Commander honestly, but from some of the survivors at Valley, they said you wouldn't want to do that."
"They'd be right too, I can handle small groups of people or my bot's, never had my hand in tactical control for situations like that." He paused for a moment, then continued, "More so meaning your companies weird choice of combat unit."
She placed the folder down and leaned in, "Ahh yes, your issue with our dolls. Which apparently isn't that much of an issue because two of them call you Grandpa correct?"
He snorted, "Yeah okay you got me some of them aren't too bad, activated the inner parent inside me, still doesn't dissuade the fact its weird making dolls that look like young girls."
"Persicaria can be thanked for all that, she can also be thanked for that." She pointed at Wall's new arm. "Your government paid for it, but she the brain that made it all work, probably the best prosthetic in the world."
He looked down at his arm and brought it up, flexing it like someone would do after a good gym session, "She could have atleast mimicked some vascularity, I mean she matched sizes and all, but common…" he looked over at Heilian, who had a less than pleased look on her face.
"Anyways," she started, and cleared her throat, "Are you interested?"
"Oh yeah I'm in."
"Its fine if you'd like some time to think on it, we can accommodate you…wait…your…in?" She stammered at the end.
"Yeah, it seems fun and all, I'm not gonna wear any of those uniforms you guys like so much though, and Id like a good team of people to move with if that's acceptable."
She smiled for the first time today, "Both terms are mostly very acceptable. Your team, well, I have some Dolls that have already volunteered if and when you accepted the contract."
Wall adjusted himself in his seat and waved with a free hand, "Woah woah, I'll take some Aegis or Angels, but I cant take a team of Dolls with me, I don't know the command and control network their programmed with well enough to-"
This time she cut him off. "Don't worry, we've upgraded them to be utilized through your neural implant, you can do everything the same as you did before, should be an easy transition."
He shook his head, "I just accepted the Job too oh Jesus." He placed his head in his hand "Ok what else do you got for me, boss."
"Welcome to Griffin & Kryuger Mister Wall, now let's go over some of the finer details of your employment and duties…"
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G&K HEADQUARTERS / S01 / 31JUN62 1146 LOCAL
By the time Wall was done with his employment conversation with Heilianthus, his new boss, he had wished the Crimean insurgents that had been behind the attack of FOB Valley had killed him. That intel had come to him his second week post-surgery, apparently Ottoman Oligarchs had funded the Insurgents in hopes of opening a front for Sangvis Ferri's. How and why was someone else's guess, the Ottoman Empire came back in the mid 2040's and had been sticking their fingers wherever they could.
Now his wasted time went towards rules, regulations, the ins and outs of the company. The tedious in-processing G&K pressed him through reminded him of his first year in the USAF, when it was still the largest and best Air Force in the world. Fingerprints, Pictures, contract signing, weapons and uniforms issue, return of terribly designed uniform and forced procurement of actually useful clothes. An entire day and some odd change wasted away pissing off his new fellow employees by getting the things he needed because he didn't have time to wait for 'acquisitions' and correct 'funding'.
"Kalina, I swear on my God's holiest of holy names if I could shit bricks of Gold and give them too you I would, but I can't, and I need a fucking weapon because I have to leave in an hour."
Kalina, a young woman and supply specialist, laughed heartily as she leaned back in her chair, hugging Walls new weapon. "You put some of our most expensive equipment on a single rifle and expect to just take it with you like this is the wild west?"
"Wow I thought we would have some type of bond between us after Valley Kalina, I mean we met each other like twice before hand, that pretty much makes us best friends."
"Yeah, my sleepless nights and this nine thousand dollar," she held up Wall's rifle and placed it down on the desk, "weapon system are not worth that bond."
Wall frowned and tapped on the desk lightly. "Aye look at me." Kalina didn't listen, she was staring down at his gun. "Kalina." Wall said louder this time, she jerked up and looked at him.
"What's up?" She said, her features and mannerisms started showing, all tall tale signs of someone with mild PTSD.
"That shit was fucked up, I know," He wiggled his new prosthetic arm, "I've been through alot of shit in my life and I see young me in your eyes right now. He grabbed a chair and sat himself down, getting level with the Kalina.
"If you need to talk, I'm here, if you don't wanna talk with me ill get someone you know. If you need to cry, then go do it but I need you back, G&K needs you back, because you're the only name on anyone's lip with it comes to this job, because you're the best." He leaned onto the desk that separated them.
"You went through some rough shit and still made it out alive. I can't promise everything will be the same again, because it probably never will be. But what I can say is that you are ok, you made it out, and you have people who can help you if you need it. You are not alone, you never will be, alright?" He reached over and grabbed her hand, "You'll be alright, don't bottle it up."
She savored the moment, letting the conversation sink in. "Alright." She sniffled as she took her hand away from his, then pushing his rifle over to him. "I think I needed that, when you come back," she looked him in the eyes, "Can we talk about it some more, or just anything? Juan, Heather, Kyle…they are still there, I'm going to visit them next week for a supply run and help Juan…Commander Juan, with some stuff."
Wall dragged his weapon over and stood up. "You know it, and if I can't make it back, please give me a call, or else ill call you to see how you're handling it alright? Sound good?"
The young girl smiled and stood up, "Sounds good, thank you, really, if you need anything else, well, keep it under the five-k range alright?" She stuck out her hand.
Wall grabbed it and shook, "Next time ill shoot for thirty-five thousand, maybe we can get me a Raider."
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
The two laughed.
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G&K HEADQUARTERS / S01 / 31JUN62 1210 LOCAL
Wall had set himself on a wooden box, leaning his back up against a hanger on the bases flight line. He lit up a cigarette and took a drag. He blew out the smoke and looked around they busy tarmac, aircraft and maintainers went about their jobs and duties. Two squads of dolls were off to the right of him, they were talking amongst themselves, which was fine by him.
Station 794, Sector 9, Commander Gentiane. This would be Wall's newest assignment, well his new fake assignment atleast. His original purpose was still just to collect intelligence, and his new position was going to make it a bit easier. He knew other assets were in the company, but he was the only one in his current position. His new job would be fun though, just teaching people how to fight and utilize tactics involving dolls more effective and efficiently.
He opened on the dossier of Commander Gentiane, a great deal of it was marked out in black ink. If he really wanted, he could request the information from the Big Six, though not everything in the world was available to him. Twenty-two, three squads, experienced for her age, marksmen, certified little bird pilot, HALO cert'd, graduated top of her class in the G&K officer course. The list went on, over all Gentiane, on paper, was a hitter and knew what she was doing, but uploaded combat logs showed, to the decerning eye, a lack of unit cohesiveness. How combat dolls lacked cohesiveness was baffling, but Wall put it on the 'unique personality' portion of their programing.
He took another drag from his cigarette, flipped to the next file he on hand, and went over his 'personally selected' team. An old HH60W started its decent and touched down, one of the doll squads pressed towards it and geared up. Wall looked back down at the files. Ak47, M200, and IDW were his new team, he would have chosen actual people, or actual combat units, but atleast he knew these three. How effective the weapons combination of the team would be with his specific mission set was going to be, well, he wasn't going to worry about it now. He flipped the page and went over their upgrades, he would be able to have all the same effects and doodads he had with the Aegis, once he actually connected with his team.
Speaking of his team, he closed his file and looked at his watch, recovered from the battlefield and stripped off his blown off arm, of which could in fact not be reattached, how unfortunate. The watch was an old Seiko, his fathers, its faded body still worked perfectly despite the numerous warzones, just had to ignore the lingering radiation. He checked the time, 1220, his team was supposed to meet him, well, now. The HH60 was taking off, its engine and rotors now at their peak pitch, he stood up and tucked the files into his ruck, grabbed his gun and bag, and was about to go find his flight with or without the dolls.
Either his age was starting to catch up with him, or he had lost his touch on reality since that last battle. Regardless, as soon as he turned around to walk off, he was brought down by what felt like the force of God. His rifle spalled out of his hand, and he fell hard back onto his bag, he felt the sensation of another human holding onto him. Without looking, he grabbed his knife and was about to stab the soul out of whatever assailed him. He stopped as he met the eyes of IDW, his knife not even a hair lengths away from what would have been between her third and fourth ribs.
The HH60 was now overhead, the small doll was saying something, tears were in her eyes. He looked past her and saw M200 clutching her weapon, she looked like she was crying too. Next to her was AK47, her head was lacking the bullet hole he has last saw her with. She was smiling, it looked like a genuinely happy smile. The bird flew its course, and Walls hearing returned to him, the sound of a crying war machine came over him. "We thought you died!" IDW yelled at him, gripping him as tightly as she could. He sheathed his knife and hugged her back, 'I'm going to be babysitting robot children while fighting against God knows what' he thought to himself as he looked at the doll and smiled, 'if I wasn't fucked before I'm fucked now.'
"Not dead yet little gun!" He released IDW and rubbed her head, "Why you crying so much?! I've been alive for like a month and some change! Y'all even knew about joining up with me before I did!" He said jokingly, trying to lighten the mood.
"But we haven't seen you the whole time," M200 spoke up, wiping some tears off her face, "We were worried, and after we heard Commander Band died, we just thought…" the doll started to cry again.
AK on the other hand held her smile the whole time, "Don't need no green, though I got some to spend, in the end-"
"All I really need is a friend yeah yeah I know the thing" he pointed at the two crying dolls, "Help me out with these two."
AK chuckled as she pulled IDW off of Wall. "It's been a good minute, thanks for protecting me after I got downed, real guardian angel you huh?" She winked at him.
With the crying doll pried off him, Wall was finally able to stand up. He grabbed his rifle and decided to sling it, better that than have it fly away, again. He took a good look at his mostly sobbing team, the modification wasn't just to their OI or whatever, but to their entirety. All three were in uniform, some form of black multicam, all had plate carriers with personalized setups, all had go bags, and each's weapons were modified. AK had a suppressor and what looked like an old M68 on some rails, IDW also had a suppressor and some form of red dot, M200 had a suppressor aswell, along with a RDR on top of her scope. To his legitimate surprise all the dolls had handguns on their hips.
"Okay okay, we all had a good cry session today guys, but I can't have my team of high-class hitters sobbing over an old man." He walked over to M200 and IDW, he held them both lightly by the shoulders. "I'm still here, collect yourselves, now, alright?" The two dolls took a moment but did as their team leader commanded.
"We will talk nitty gritty once we are on the bird and in route to seven nighty-four, but for now I need to uplink with you guys, ok? I've read over the files, I assume everyone knows what's going on right?" He was met with three nods. "Okay the let's get this started."
He pressed on his neruolink, a small hatch opened, he pulled out a USB and plugged it into what looked like his neck. "Alright let's get it done then." The dolls turned around, M200 and AK lifted up their hair to expose their necks, IDW didn't have to. He went down the line, pressing the backs of their necks and slotting the USB up. Each time he received a downlink of the Doll he connected with, tactical and system health data, weapons and munitions, environmental analytics, the list went on. Each doll was like a walk talking C2 node. He was actually impressed by the amount of information each doll held and processed, every ounce of data was useful, if not to him, to someone else.
"Ok, lets do a test real fast like, yall ready?" He asked.
"My head feels weird." IDW said.
M200 rubbed her neck, "Was I supposed to see your childhood?"
AK's eye twitched, "ya dolzhen ubit' amerikantsev."
Wall's eyes widened. "Ok, no, and no, and uh, don't do that." He looked at the three, closing his left eye for a moment to make sure he didn't just destroy the dolls.
Then the three started to laugh, it took him a moment to realize they had just pulled a fast one on him.
"Ok then, fuck me! Yall got me good. Did yall plan that out?"
M200 Smiled, "It was my idea, I thought…thought you would like it."
"He actually looked worried for a second! Grandpa does care!" IDW chirped out.
AK was about to join in on the rabble when Wall initiated his mute protocol. All the dolls' reactions were different from not being able to talk. AK looked at her hand, M200 held her throat, IDW looked like she was trying to yell.
"Well, that works!" He said, "Stop panicking and talk, with your heads, think of who you want to talk to, and then say what you want to say."
'TURN IT OFF' – IDW
'I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG' – M200
'WILL THIS READ OUR MINDS OR JUST WANT WE WANT TO SAY' – AK47
Wall terminated the protocol, "Lots of different fun stuff to try ou-" he caught a punch from M200, "REAL FUN stuff to try out." He showed off the new strength of his arm by hoisting the doll into the air. While that new arm was strong, the rest of the body couldn't really handle the weight. He could feel his shoulder wanting to disconnect from its socket as the 250lbs doll swayed around.
"Big strong man picking on a little doll, tale as old as time." A voice called out from behind him.
Wall dropped M200, who proceeded to punch his plate carrier as he turned around. He rubbed the impact site off as he looked over at whomever called him out. A tall woman, almost picturesque to the style of classic American bimbo. "Yeah, a tale even older is when strange busty ladies approach a man from behind."
"That wasn't even funny." She quipped back, now just several feet away from his team.
"And I wasn't making a joke, is what I would say if a joke didn't land." His three dolls lined up beside him, almost like a gang ready to fight.
"For an old guy you sure do try and act like your young." She posted out a leg and crossed her arms, obviously trying to stick her chest out more.
"For a Doll you sure do act like a se-" He was stopped by a rough nudge from AK.
"M2 Stop antagonizing our team lead, its his first day on the clock and he's like, almost nearly dead in human years." AK said as she walked up to M2 and gave her a hug.
"M2?" Wall said, almost legitimately surprised, "Your what some designer imagined when they thought of our most holy and old heavy?" he relaxed his posture, rested a hand on his weapon, and slapped IDW on the shoulder and pointed at M2. "Hey you know, I fucking lit some guys up with a fifty in China, fucking din-"
IDW cut him off with a punch to his side, he was getting tired of that.
"No more slurs grandpa! They are rude!"
M2 laughed at his seeming lack of control over his team, "Ok ok enough weird jokes and parental matters there grandpa. I'm your gunner for the day, your bird is across the way." She pointed over her shoulder and towards a very modified UH1Y Venom, the aircraft was practically a relic at this point. A Crew Chief, and who Wall assumed was the pilot, were doing a check over the airframe. One side had a mounted '50, while the other had a single rocket pod. That Pilot, he seemed familiar.
"Hey CHUCK!" Wall yelled out, ignoring whatever M2 was going to say next.
The Pilot turned around and looked for whoever called him out, saw Wall, and mouthed some profanity.
"Holy fucking hot dicks ladies its Chuck Farin." He said as he walked away from his team
"Who's Chuck Farin?" AK asked to M2
"Well, my pilot for the day, shall we go see this reunion?" She asked the three now left behind dolls. They all nodded in agreement.
"Is that God damn Matt Wall?!" Chuck jogged over to the Wall.
"Chuck fucking Farin!" Wall and Chuck hugged for a moment, before letting go and patting each other down.
"Last fucking time I saw you-"
"Was when Guam fell!"
"God damn Chuck it's been nearly ten fucking years brother man how the hell have you been?" Wall looked his old friend up and down. Chuck was a college man from old Texas, and the poster boy for any recruiter's wet dream. Tall, perfect hair and jawline, almost every single thing about him screamed 'greek god,' even though he was well into his forties by now. Most of the men Wall knew from the war were dead, but a very small portion still lived, and it seemed Chuck was one of them.
"Damn little man you know I been, came out this way four years ago, G&K paid better than the military, not like they were gonna keep me anyways, only wanted me for the eye candy."
Little man, Chuck was the only one who called him that, and not just because he was a great deal taller.
"Yeah fucker you win the Medal of Honor the states tend to want you not dead in the worlds worst war." Wall put an arm around his old friend and called over to his team, "Hey guy- oh." They were standing right behind him, he pointed towards chuck, "This guy right here? Best fucking Pilot in the whole fucking United States Marine Corp," he slapped Chuck on the chest, "Most handsome too, and I'm not even gay."
M2 Had her arms crossed, "Ill attest to that."
Wall pointed at her, "Don't be fucking weird, this guy is about as war hero as someone can get, me and ol'Captain Farin here go way back, it's a blessing to fly under him, legend says…well…" He looked Chuck in the eye, he just shook his head, "never mind what legend says."
"I kinda want to know what legend says actually." AK said.
"Legend says its time we get on the fucking bird and leave, I'm on the clock and G&K doesn't pay me for being late." Chuck said as he patted Wall on the back and pressed his arm off him. "Seven Ninety-Four is at the edge of my endurance range, three hours and some change east southeast, and even with all the fancy new fuel and shit, well, I aint too keen on hard landing in some Serb filled woods with ol'Wall here alright?"
Chuck turned towards the crew chief, "Let's get this bird up Viktor!" He turned towards M2, "Little lady if you're my gunner, your stick is all set up, check it out now." Then he looked over to Wall and his team, "We can chat more on the ride little man, ill give you the new deets on the station aswell."
Wall shrugged, "Alright guys, you heard the man," he waved his team onto the Venom, "Get set up and ready for the flight," M200 and IDW were already doing as he requested, AK was still standing next to him.
"I dig the new voice by the way," She said as she leaned onto him, "Also I'm not a fan of flying, so ignore me If I look like I'm a bit on the worried end of things"
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ANGELS 3 / S04 / 31JUN62 1340 LOCAL
The flight out to 794 was taking is time, IDW and M200 had both decided to fall asleep, or rather conserve their internal batteries. The Dolls could stay active for a long time, about as long as an Aegis could despite their smaller size. M2 had been enjoying her time talking back in forth with Chuck, though it was more like one sided flirting. AK had been silent for most of the flight, the initial brief on what everyone was going to be doing once they were on the ground was the last time she had spoken up. The David and Clark refurbished headsets the crew was wearing for the moment would have picked up on her voice if she had said anything.
'YOU ALIVE?' Wall sent her over his neurolink
She looked over at him, the two had been sitting beside eachother.
'I KNOW YOU DIDN'T MAKE US, OR UNDERSTAND HOW WE WORK, BUT CAN I ASK YOU SOMETHING?'
He raised an eyebrow, he wasn't expecting something even slightly serious in nature out of this particular doll.
'I WOULDN'T BE A VERY GOOD TEAM LEAD IF I DIDN'T LISTEN MY PEOPLES WOES'
'IM SERIOUS'
Wall dropped his curious look and nudge the doll with his elbow.
'WHATCYA GOT?'
'CAN YOU TELL ME WHY MEMORIES OF A WAR I WAS NEVER IN RATTLE MY HEAD ANYTIME I HAVE TO BE IN A HELICOPTER?'
PTSD was an ever-present threat, some idiot at IOP even designed these dolls to need real human interaction so they wouldn't go bat shit crazy.
'ITS SOME DESERT' AK continued to send messages, 'IM IN AN OLD HIND, I KNOW IM WITH RUSSIANS, KIDS REALLY.' She crossed her arms and tightened her grip on her sleeves, 'EVERYTIME, EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. WE GET SHOT DOWN, AND ITS HELL.'
Why anyone would program the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan into a Doll and make it seem like they were its own memories baffled Wall. Or was it something else? A quick check of AK's internals showed everything in the green, except the "stress" meter. Was there something deeper to the issue? Did the inner mechanisms of the digi-mind or whatever cloud-based brain utilized by the dolls have a major fault? It wasn't his job to figure that out, and as much as he wanted to figure it out, he really didn't care.
'DON'T THINK ON IT TO MUCH' Was all he could manage, 'REAL OR NOT, ITS' He was at a legitimate loss for words.
AK eased her grip and looked up at him, "You good boss?" any concern of her own issue was gone as she looked at the blank face of her team leader. Wall wasn't there, he was looking out the side window, whatever reality he was in was thousands of miles away. AK bent forward and leaned to look at his face, "Big man, wooohoooo," She waved her hand in his face. M200 and IDW 'woke' back up, M200 yawned and saw AK grab Wall by his shoulder.
"What's wrong with Grandpa?" She said with a hint of concern.
Chuck looked back over his shoulder, "Everything alright back there?"
Regardless of the hoarseness of his voice, or the sound of the helicopter and the airflow around it, Walls next words were loud enough for everyone In the cabin, "FUCKING MISSILE!"
As soon as he yelled it, the venom's MAW blipped red and started sounding off its constant beep, the automatic countermeasure system activated and spewed out its combination of chaff and flares. Chuck reverted back to his training and dived, trying his best to have the bird reach the tree line to hopefully avoid another missile. As the helicopter banked hard the people inside were thrashed around for a moment. Wall tightened his harness, "Fasten you fucking belts!" He yelled out, M200 and IDW following his orders immediately, albeit with some concern. AK was fumbling with hers, the previous conversation about being shot down was affecting her.
Wall mumbled some curse and batted her hands away, tightening her harness on his own.
"Oh fuck! Brace!" M2 yelled out, Wall saw her duck behind her gunner's port.
Another stream of flares and chaff, then an explosion. The helicopter was racked with shrapnel, Wall watched as his helmet caught a piece of super-heated metal heading for his heart, and was glad he and took it off prior. "Status!" he yelled out, "Good!" came from IDW, M200 was leaking coolant from her left arm, "It hurts a bit, but I'm good!" AK was holding her harness tightly, shaking, she didn't say anything.
"Awh fuck," He grabbed AK's head and rotated it, looking into her eyes, "IDW patch up M200!" he let go of AK, "Chuck you hit?!"
"Still alive! Checking t's and p's! Y'all good?!"
"Mostly, M2 you up!"
"I'm sitting down so not technically!"
Wall ignored M2's joke, he instead forced commanded AK's mental state, reverting her back to her 'normal' manner. She gasped, clawed at the throat for air, then started crying. She looked at Wall and started punching him, hard. "DON'T. EVER. FUCKING. DO. THAT. AGAIN!"
He grabbed her hands, almost struggling against her strength, "The fuck is wrong with you?!"
She tore away from him, "You just tried to fucking reset me you ass!" She wiped away her tears and started to collect herself, "I thought we were friends! Why would you do that?!"
He was confused, besides forcing her normalization, he didn't do anything along the lines of a reset. "I didn't try to reset you, I don't even know how!" That was a lie, he most certainly did, "You were fucking frozen, so I unfroze you!" He glanced over at the other two, IDW had patched M200's arm but it would probably require actual repairs, now both of them were staring at him. He looked back at AK, "I don't know what weird fucking feedback loop that did to you, but I need my fucking 2IC not stroking out in the fight, when this shit is landed, I'm running a check to see what the fuck happened."
He shook his head and looked away, feeling the hard stare of the angry doll, he turned back to her, deciding to play the part. "I am your friend, and I'm your team lead, and your my fucking partner, if what I did fucked you up, I apologize and Ill figure out why it did that, but if we go down I need you alright?"
AK's face softened, she looked away, "Its fine…"
'God fucking, I wish that missile would have killed me' He thought to himself.
"M200 you good?" He asked the wounded doll, wanting to move on from the awkward conversation. The coolant leak had stopped, and some form of gauze was now wrapped around her arm. She rubbed the wound and smiled, "I'm ok grandpa, thanks for worrying!"
"Chuck what's the status?" He asked the pilot, "We gonna make it?" he moved his headsets mic closer to his mouth and looked at his old friend.
"Well," chuck started out as he flipped two switches above his head, "We aren't bleeding fuel or oil, some of my radionics are fucked though, yeah…" He turned back to look at Wall, then smiled, "Lady luck aint forsaken us yet brother, we'll get there."
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STATION 794 / S09 / 31JUN62 2110 LOCAL
A forward squad belonging to Sangvis Ferri were the ones that had shot at Wall's team. That had been radioed to them before they had landed. A specialized squad and been sent to take them out, and it seemed like a ringleader was in change. G&K won the fight with only some busted lips and bruises apparently, best part was the fact that the Sangvis goons had intel that the helicopter was carrying something important. Hopefully the fake leak would become some cause of concern to G&K staff, but Wall had found the entire fact of the matter pretty funny.
Now the safety of an actually defended and armed base surrounded them. Station 794 was built on a hilltop near the old border of Ukraine and Moldova. The base itself was circular in nature, concrete walls and HESCO's surrounded the perimeter and automated turrets kept a watchful eye on the areas below. The interior of the base was simple, a garage with four aged up armored Humvees', a simple FARP for helicopters, and then a complex C2 node. The rest of the facility was 20m underground, some relic of the Ukrainian-Russian war of the early 2020's. Once basic introductions had been made, and Chucks helicopter had been refueled and tended too, Wall made time to go and meet with Gentiane.
When they arrived, she had been out on patrol with some of her dolls. Oddly enough she was regularly the only human at the station. Her team composed of MP5, MG3, FN49, FNC, G36, MP446, C96, P7, M1919A4, M14, PPSH41, Skorpion, and another variant of MAC-10 that wasn't absolutely depressed. His team had started to make themselves at home, AK had gotten into a drinking contest with MG3, IDW had went off somewhere with Skorpion, and M200 was being tended to by M14, the two knew each other from a previous base and seemed like friends. MP5, M1919, and G36 had gone out with Gentiane, and were bound to return any moment now.
Wall on the other hand had no one to talk to, he had pressed back the conversation with AK and was going to run diagnostics tomorrow. It had been a long day, or a long month, and he wanted to smoke. So he fell into his vices and found himself outside and sitting in a spare chair next to the bases ECP, which actually had a vehicle trap this time. He exhaled the menthol flavored nicotine and looked into the night sky, or atleast what he could see, the perimeter had lighting and polluted the great beyond. Despite the numerous turrets, the outside of the base was relatively quiet, just a low hum of each gun scanning its assigned sector.
The cigarette had gone out now, Wall looked over the butt then tossed it to the ground. He stamped it out with his boot, pulled another smoke out of his carton, and lit it up. It had been seven years since he last smoked a cigarette, he wasn't too sure why he had picked the old habit back up. He didn't dwell on the thought for long, between having part of his body replaced and having to command a group of robotic teenage war machines, he decided that the vice was worth it, not like it could fuck his voice up or anything.
In the distance, down the dirt road that lead into the base, Wall heard a group of people approaching, namely a very distinguishable female voice. With a huff, he pressed himself out of his chair and walked into the center of road, directly into the light. He was still in his full kit, minus his helmet, which he replaced with an old maroon hat with a big V on its front. With one hand still on his rifle, Wall took one last long drag off his cigarette, then tossed it into the dirt in front of him.
"Commander Gentiane!" He yelled out, only now did the fireteam come into visible lighting. They halted, seemingly surprised, G36 ever raised her weapon and pointed at him.
"Who the hell are you?" Gentiane called back out.
"Special Agent Markos Donavon, Attaché to the Sangvis Ferri unit known as Dreamer"
The other three raised their weapons, a single laser painted his chest, barely moving.
"Bad joke I take it?"
"Who the FUCK are you!" Gentiane yelled this time.
"Matt Wall, I was sent here by Miss Heilianthus as an advisor and trainer, I like to assume a message was sent, or a call or something, telling you Id be here?" he slowly raised his hands above his head, maybe the joke went a bit too far.
"Prove it fuck face!"
He pointed to his go back that had been leaning against his chair. "My orders are in the bag, I can grab them if youd-" He was cut off by a very German sounding woman.
"Quiet scum!" She lowered her voice, but Wall still heard everything. "Commander I will check the bag, please stay here.
"No, ill check it, you three cover me and make sure he doesn't move."
The three dolls responded with a collective 'roger.'
Gentiane didn't have a standard uniform for her dolls, and it showed when the three got even closer. Gentiane herself didn't even have on a good uniform, instead she had opted for a duty set G&K black and red fatigues. The four approached him slowly, the dolls moving fluidly around their Commander, adjusting their weapons accordingly as she walked past them and slowly opened his bag.
"So does anyone want to tell me why a child is pointing a MP5 at me?"
The small doll in question mumbled something.
"Say some dumb stuff like that again old man and ill run you down nicely." M1919 said as she waved her machine gun up and down, gesturing her threat.
"Ohho I bet you would too…" Wall said back as he waved his hands around slowly, his arms still in the air, he looked over at Gentiane, who had found his files and was going through them. "Everything seem to be in order there ma'am?"
She didn't respond for a moment, she kept flipping through the files. Once satisfied, she tossed the folder in the chair. "Lower you weapons, he our new teacher." She stepped near Wall, and he lowered his arms, she stuck out her hand, he took it and shook.
"Nice to meet you Mister Wall, sorry for that." Her face was stern, almost a copy paste of Heilian.
"Rough joke for rough times, I apologize, glad to see your people look like they know what they're doing."
"We do know what we are doing, Vollidiot" G36 spat out.
"36 That's enough."
Wall laughed, "Das letzte Mal, als ich einen Deutschen gehört habe, der mich angerufen hat, war, als wir Ramstein zurückgenommen haben."
G36 looked shocked, "Du sprichst Deutsch?"
"A little," he said with a shrug, "It's been a long day, let's say we head downstairs and introduce ourselves? My team has already been intermingling with yours."
Gentiane smiled and patted Wall on the back, "sounds like a good idea teach."
"Don't call me that."
"Yes teach," the three dolls said in unison.
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Okay okay, lots of talking and explanation of whatever this story is supposed to be. Next chapter will probably have action in it, I like to think atleast. Or is that a bit too cliché at this point? Do you guys want more world building or something else? I doubt that will stir a response, but anything helps.