Girls' Frontline Fanfiction: Tsar of the Mountain

Operation: Broken Butterfly

"Yes, you'll have a description as well as the last coordinates we have of its location within the facility. However, due to the Butterfly Incident, we don't know if the asset was moved, or stolen by scavs."

"I'll have my team go to its last known location and start searching."

"Very good." Ivan gave an approving nod before continuing, "We look forward to our asset's safe return, Commander. I'll be in touch." The main monitor became dark before switching back to displaying an overview of Zeldri's echelons.

"..." Annika was still fidgeting nervously.

"...And, I just got back, too." Zeldri gave an annoyed sigh and turned towards the exit. "Looks like you'll need to hold down the fort for a while longer, Annika."

"...Yes, I guess so." Annika loosened up a bit seeing Zeldri so relaxed. "Who will you be bringing with you for this mission?"

"Well," Zeldri said as he opened the sliding door to the command room, "No time like the present to see how well they work together." Annika gave a respectful bow as Zeldri left and went to find A-545 and her team for their first mission.

***

"You know, this whole train's probably been bugged," Horris was leaning back in a chair as he faced Zeldri. They were currently in the passenger car of the Mountain's train. Though, calling it just a 'passenger' car would be an understatement as it was more of a FOB (Forward Operating Base) stuffed into a train car. There were a few small rooms for the crew to sleep in, but most of the car was dedicated to a large room with computer terminals that lined the walls. In the center was a large table that had a holographic display top similar to the one in the Mountain's command room, but a bit smaller to fit in the car. Wires ran along the ceiling and were tied together so they wouldn't hang and swing as the train moved. Zeldri was seated across the table from Horris as he couldn't stand very well with all the bumps and small tremors of the train.

"The equipment's probably bugged for transmissions," Zeldri idly replied as he went over the documents Ivan had sent him one more time. "Speaking of, did you find anything while getting this thing running?"

"I didn't really look for bugs," Horris admitted with a shrug. "Be lucky all the engine needed was a good deep clean and some fresh diesel. Train parts are, for some reason, really hard to come by."

"Military trains use different parts than commercial ones for security reasons." Zeldri had ridden a train like this before during his service years.

"Doesn't that ruin the whole point of easy-to-repair, interchangeable parts theory?"

"Which is why there are so few. Even the KCCO only has a couple and we had some pretty beefy units at our disposal." He chuckled as he reminisced out loud. "Kinda wish they left me an Argo."

"I don't think even your father would be allowed to misplace an Argo." Horris waved his hand dismissively at the air. M7 approached the table and set down a cup of coffee in front of each of them. "Thank you, M7." Horris took a long sip of coffee before continuing, "So, I know it's a bit late to ask, but why am I coming with you on this?"

"It's been almost two days and you're only asking that now?" After receiving the mission from Ivan, Zeldri gathered A-545's team, Horris and M7, along with SVD's team and set out for Romania. Zeldri rolled his eyes as Horris gave an innocent shrug. "Because, lest you forget, you overstepped your promise of just repairing the train."

"What do you mean?" Horris sounded insulted by Zeldri's accusation.

"I asked you to repair the train, not somehow link SVD's echelon to it!" Horris, as Zeldri was reminded, was a man that enjoyed tinkering with things. So, when SVD's echelon was hounding him about when the train would be ready and if they could ride it he came to the logical conclusion to link them all to the train as a partial imprint to make them happy. Imprinting a-dolls onto vehicles wasn't anything new as many luxury car manufacturers would often sell package deals for people to get a new car along with their own chauffeur. The a-doll would be linked to the car providing them all the knowledge of the vehicle as well as its current running condition. It was the civilian version of Persica's Imprinting technology, at least according to Horris.