Nikolay: Ghm... *Sigh*
Doctor: Don't worry you will grow accustomed to it, be thankful that not that much time has passed for your brain to rewire its nervous capabilities so getting used to your new arm will be a bit more tedious but easier
Nikolay: I know, I didn't go to the front and spend 2 years in an academy doing medicine and tactical advising...
Doctor: Hm?
Nikolay: Nothing, nothing
He said dismissing his whisper and looking at the doctor who came today to monitor Nikolay to see how his newly implanted cybernetic arm was holding up plus the renewed neck and jaw stabilizers seeing the old ones he got were kinda outdated by now.
Nikolay: So I'm guessing by your previous statements it's gonna take me around probably a month or two to grow fully accustomed to the new arm?
Doctor: Really good approximation sir, and indeed it will take you around one up to three months, not two, but in the end, it all depends on your routine and environment so make sure to take it easy and not overwork yourself at all
Nikolay: Hm... What about my rest after these operations? I still feel a bit sore but I can definitely feel that I'm able to follow my daily life
Doctor: I would advise you to rest for today and the rest of this week, however, that is up to you seeing the implants on you and operated body parts shouldn't affect your overall efficiency or cognitive capabilities, do be warry that if you start feeling tired all of a sudden or are having some difficulties with following your life you should definitely go back to resting and tracking your vitals
Nikolay: Alright, keep my routine light, got it doc
Said Nikolay raising a thumbs up to the doctor with his new, mostly metallic, arm and hand. The doctor nodded with a small smile and noted something before resting the clipboard underneath his armpit and storing his pen inside one of his pockets.
Doctor: I will take my leave now then, the car is probably waiting for me, have a good day and take care mister
He said and excused himself from the medical room in which Nikolay laid on a medical bed, the door however wasn't completely closed as he couldn't quite hear the distinctive slapping sound it made when being completely closed, a boot poking through the almost closed door reopened it wide again revealing Raisa who looked at Nikolay with a blank stare while she leaned her body against the door frame to prevent it from closing.
Raisa: You, breakfast, quickly, now, then, reunion with a commander, after
She said loud and clear for him to hear, Nikolay rolled his eyes, as he inhaled sharply and looked back at her.
Nikolay: Not a single, congratulations papa on your successful operation! or anything?
He said remarking the statements meat with a childish feminine voice almost the same one he uses when teasing Alisa.
Raisa: I will start congratulating you when your old ass starts dying and actually stops work loading me like a mule because of his own selfishness
Nikolay: Tch, kids with their phases and being rebellious to their cores...
·····
" And now about time upcoming next Jump, by Kriss Kross, and remember you are listening to channel 99 of--"
Fang: Can you turn that shit off, please
Said Fang sipping her coffee, Ann looked over at her and raised an eyebrow as she kept listening to the radio while preparing herself a drink.
Ann: Why? I thought you liked the 90's vibe
Fang: My head hurts like crazy so please jump from that Kross and get that Kriss up your own ass
Ann: ... You didn't sleep and drank all night after forcing me to watch those scary movies with you didn't ya?
Fang: ... No...
Ann: You definitely did... Why the hell force me to watch them with you then--... Awww don't tell me you wanted someone to keep you company and you weren't actually trying to mentally break me
Fang: Shut the hell up you boomer looking ass! Ow ow ow... Ah...
She said grabbing her head and burying her face back into the cup of coffee.
Ann: Aww I have such a cute little sister
She said approaching her and shaking her head around gently to tease her, obviously, Fang tried to resist, and as soon as she saw the chance bit her thumb.
Ann: AH! You fucking cannibal trogolo-looking-ass
Fang just hissed at her and reached for the radio to turn it off and then buried her face on the table.
·····
Raisa: ...
Nikolay: Hm, I should have heated the water a bit more...
Nikolay was peacefully having his breakfast, Raisa sitting by his side and looking down at his new arm, almost as if she analyzed it, or rather she was a bit weirded out that Nikolay didn't ask the medics to cover it up with synthetic skin.
Nikolay: *Sigh* My jaw feels weird with the renewed stabilizer... I think I had enough breakfast let's go and have that reunion done with
Raisa: Eh? Oh yeah, go ahead I will clean up and catch up to you later
Nikolay: Hm, alright, thank you, Raisa
Said Nikolay getting up and patting her on the head for a short moment before walking away, his doll's confusion growing a bit bigger as she didn't expect the arm to feel so natural to the touch, or maybe she wasn't sensitive enough to feel the difference, either way, she shrugged that off and quickly cleaned up after Nikolay to catch up with him as soon as she can.
·····
R4: *Yawn*
R5: ...?
R4: ...?
R5: *Shrugging*
R4: ...~
Both sisters on guard duty just interacted with each other sometimes, without really needing words to convey their messages, both of which also had their bodies leaning against the complex walls as they hid from the sun's blazing rays while on their guard duty. Their peaceful silence however being broken rather quickly not long after as a vehicle started driving towards the gate, the Humvee from yesterday.
R4 stood up correctly and raised her hand from her weapon to signal the vehicle to stop, which it did, slowly but surely stopping right in front of the boom gate, at that point the door's glass in which the driver sat getting lowered to reveal the same MP-7 doll from yesterday.
MP7: Yo
R4: Guten Tag Besucher (Good day visitors)
Said R4 as she reached from her small clipboard and looked at the notes on it, and then at her watch, making sure they arrived at the accorded time period.
R4: Hmhm, all clear
R5 nodded and simply used her electronic warfare module to connect to the boom gates and raise them up for them, the Humvee swiftly after driving right into the base as the boom gates started descending after it and closing the only vehicle entrance in the base yet again.
MP7: *Whistling* Not a bad looking place, looks like a university to me more than a military complex
SASS: You say it because of the plaza?
MP7: Kindaaaa, where do I park Julian?
Julian: I'm guessing right in front of the main building, I'm seeing some parking spots there
MP7: Near that motorbike?
Julian: Yeah
·····
Nikolay: *Sigh*
Raisa: Hm?
Raisa looked down at Nikolay, sitting beside her looking into the nothingness as he waited for Julian to come to this meeting room, Raisa analyzed him curiously and in the end, stared again at his new arm, maybe he was uncomfortable with the new arm? She thought, unconsciously worrying about him already even though she scolded him not so long ago, and actually, that might also be the origin of his sigh and tired look but she quickly shrugged off that thought and rolled her eyes, then looking around the room till her eyes settled on the clock hanging on top of the door that leads into the room.
Raisa: Hm...
Nikolay: Oh right Raisa, have you informed the R sisters about their maintenances?
Raisa: Hm? You mean their internal revisions or the reunions you want to have with which one individually?
Nikolay: Both
Raisa: Yes and no, I still can't properly find R1s so she is the only one unaware of you wanting to meet up
Nikolay: R1s huh? *Sigh* Talk about following bad examples...
Raisa: Hm? Do you refer to yourself, Nadya, or myself?
Nikolay: To myself
Raisa: Why is that?
Nikolay: Because I'm kinda a ghost also, I should scold her if this new attitude of hers is because of my influence
Raisa: Heh, yeah you are a total Casper Nikolay
Said Raisa with a sly giggle as she kept her posture straight and unmoving from standing still beside him, only her face displaying that change of humor. Nikolay rolled his eyes and scratched his chin, realizing he still had his mask on he started to take off the straps and as soon as it detached from his face he just placed it beside him on top of the table.
After that, before he could relax further the door was knocked twice, before revealing R5 who peeked inside and stared at Nikolay.
R5: Kommandant (Commander) you got visit
She said before straightening herself and opening the door, holding it open while the commander and her escort doll entered the meeting room, R5 stopping the other 2 dolls from entering and signaling to them to wait outside with her. SASS and Hk33 glanced at Julian, who nodded back at them to let them know it's alright, and so the door was closed behind them leaving inside only Raisa and Nikolay with Julian and her assistant P38.
Nikolay: Take a seat they won't bite
He said seeing how they stared for a bit too long without doing anything.
Julian: Oh yeah sorry just got startled by you well leaving your face uncovered
Said Julian sitting down on the other side of the table and her assistant beside her who nodded at her statement also.
Nikolay: *Sigh* Does it matter now? I have been on a breathing apparatus for about a week in your base, face uncovered, and your medics and the auxiliary ones from the G&K main base also seen it, I'm pretty sure now that all G&K now knows that, that "Vagabond" looking commander is just a tired and overworked office worker look alike, not like I can hide it when it has been spread so much
Raisa: Ghm, ghm you can rumble about your life later Nikolay
Julian: Uh-hm, well yeah makes sense and your... uh... daughter is right?
P38 nudged Julian strongly who straightened her sitting posture and awkwardly corrected herself.
Julian: As-Assistant!
Nikolay: *Sigh* You are not wrong with any of the two so no need to worry, but now, what is that you want to talk about?
Julian: Right, first of all, is about the puppeteer and the incident associated with it...
Nikolay: Oh my what a surprise
He said with great sarcasm and rolled his eyes, Raisa quickly got him back on track with a quick not subtle at all nudge right into his shoulder. Julian after seeing this swiftly turned her gaze towards P38.
Julian: See? I'm not the only one--
She said before getting the same treatment that Raisa gave to Nikolay, both commanders quickly concentrating before receiving a major punishment and so started the meeting for real now.
Nikolay: I see, so what's the deal with it? Is it about the other commander? Did my girls do something I haven't been informed of?
Julian: No, it's more about the aftermath of those events, a week after that specifically
Nikolay: Go ahead
Julian: As you can imagine after that... We could say, poorly ended operation and realizing we have been tricked into their leftovers, I have sent some of my teams to try and find out and follow the trail of the puppeteer, and fairly recently we got news from them
Nikolay: I can already tell what were the reports just from your face
Julian: *Sigh* Yeah we didn't find any solid trail and all the blurry ones that have been inspected and followed just lead into a dead-end in SF territory or some random plain or hill across Ukraine's countryside
Nikolay: Hm, I could have imagined an outcome like this, to be honest... But why is that you decided to comment on this to me in person?
Julian: Well that's the thing I wanted to get to now, seeing how it all ended up, how we basically lost them in the mist and how we essentially destroyed all potential threads inside G&K territory without making a big fuzz of it... I have come to the conclusion that we are gonna put this incident under the rug
Nikolay raised his eyebrow and stared at Julian, Raisa kept her face straight and just looked down at Nikolay and analyzed his body language, clearly seeing how he excitedly tapped on the floor with his foot, all this unseen from Julian's side other than Nikolay awaiting further explanation and his assistant spacing out.
Julian: And to further explain this decision, it all lies on G&K itself, it was already complicated enough for us to organize that messy operation without raising alarms across the whole company, and now our hooks have no more power to them seeing the mission to find out the missing team was in the end solved and my reports to Helian were sent out, our momentum has died out in my point of view, the other factor would be my discontent with dealing with such a threat at times like these as G&K is preparing for a new whole big operation itself into Sangvis Ferri, and such a scenario doesn't really leave me any other option to forget about this and focus my time and effort into main war efforts
Nikolay: Hmhm, very good points, but you don't need to worry, I wasn't even gonna continue with those puppet things anyways as soon as you dropped that topic down
Julian: Oh that's a relief-- Wait what?
Nikolay: You dragged me into it, I lost an arm, as soon as you would have stopped pulling I would have dragged myself out of it, square and simple
Julian: ... *Sigh* At least you are truthful... Well it's still a relief that you are accepting that defeat of ours
Nikolay: It was just this? You came here in person to try and persuade me of it if I didn't accept your decision?
Julian: Well... Yeah
Nikolay giggled and made small hand movements to indicate to her to calm down.
Nikolay: Wasn't really necessary, but good foreplanning for the unexpected Julian, I know when to admit defeat, I wouldn't have liked to dig further into this puppet matter
Julian: That is somewhat reassuring in this situation
Nikolay: Hmhm, oh by the way, if it isn't bothering you, could I have a copy of all the documents associated with the puppeteer matter and the training chips you used to get your squads ready?
Julian raised her eyebrow and glanced at P38 who stared back at her and nodded at her letting her know it should be okay to do whatever she wants right now.
Julian: Could I have a bit of context on why you want all that? More importantly, what are you gonna do with it?
Nikolay: Oh, yeah it sounded a bit suspicious saying this after literally agreeing to drop the puppet matter, well let me explain, as you could have seen while on that operation my troops are somewhat, lacking the experience, to say the least, and as you can expect all that its great training info, well would be for my dolls, just my inner circle is trained greatly while the others are really lacking behind being a big gap between them in terms of combat effectiveness, I think you can see where I'm going with this
Julian: Yeah no need for further explanation, we will happily lend you a copy of the intel and some other misc training intel we got laying around if logistics permit us
Said Julian looking at P38 who inhaled and gave a side look to Nikolay and his adjutant.
P38: We will try and send you a copy of everything aforementioned by my commander in a helicopter, however, we can't specify nor confirm an estimated day as said before we have our hands quite full with organizing ourselves for the upcoming major operations
Nikolay: Hmhm *Nodding* I don't have any haste, so take your time it just training material for my girls after all
P38 nodded, not so long after, both, she and her commander excused themselves from there, outside as the door opened the group was escorted out by R5 who stood guard with the other two dolls of Julian.
The footsteps outside slowly but surely faded out and as soon as they were gone Raisa saw how Nikolay stopped foot tapping, which made her snap out and redirect her stare directly at him.
Raisa: Sharpening your tongue already as early as morning?
Nikolay: Hm?
Raisa: Was it really necessary to lie to her so boldly?
Nikolay: Huh? Did I lie?
Raisa: "I wasn't even gonna continue with those puppet things anyways" "I know when to admit defeat, I wouldn't have liked to dig further into this matter" "My troops are somewhat, lacking the experience" "I don't have any haste"
Nikolay: The last one is true however
Raisa: *Sigh* I hate how I know to tell when you are lying or not
Nikolay shrugged off and took back his mask.
Nikolay: That's a very good skill to have, I bet you can detect the most expert lair by this point Raisa
He said mockingly and got up adjusting the mask afterward to his face. Raisa rolled her eyes and just inhaled and exhaled deeply before walking to the door.
·····
Julie: She looks grumpy
Alex: She probably is
Ann: She is
Fang: Shut the hell up I ain't deaf!
Ann: Just deactivate your ears then
Fang: ... You fucking smart ass bitchy looking tho-- ... Wait... Wait a second, have you fucking told the two already?
Ann: Hm?
Fang: The yesterday thingy!
Ann: Oh yeah
Fang: Wait for real? When did you even have time to do that
Ann: I unlike someone went to sleep at a normal time to actually sleep and didn't get drunk to forget the scway gwhost mowies
Fang: Aigh, I'mma just, keep laying here on this sofa and, fucking die
Julie: *Whispering* Yesterday thingy?...
Ann: The operation given to us by Nikolay
Both Alex and Julie let out an ooooh of understanding as they finally connected the dots, their moods quickly changing as well as they realized what were they talking about.
Alex: Hm... We can't get any more support other than training and extra resources, right?
Said Alex looking at Ann who sighed and nodded before walking up back to their kitchen counter and sitting down on one of the stools near them.
Ann: We can only get airlifted and dropped off at around 5 to 10 km away from the suspected zone, and we will only have ourselves as our allies
Julie: Hm... At least it's said we gonna get adequate training before the operation has to be done...
Ann: I'm more surprised that both of you accepted doing this thing, to be honest
Both sisters looked at Ann, quite confused as they also sat down seeing this is gonna go for a good while or maybe not, either way standing there in the middle of the dorm, near the sofa where their other sister grumpily rested wasn't all that comfy.
Julie: Why is that?
Ann: Ah well, I really thought you two would be discouraged to get into a thing like this after what happened
Alex: ... That we failed our first major operation doesn't mean we are useless and cowardly ya know Ann?
Ann: Oh no, no I didn't mean it like that, I meant more, like, you two wouldn't like to know anything else about this puppet problem, ya know seeing we got the opportunity to just deny and pass the role down to someone else and all that
Julie: That's pretty much sugar-coating your previous statement Ann
Ann: I'm bad at words, leave me alone
Julie rolled her eyes as Alex took the leftover bottle on the table and poured herself some vodka into the still unwashed from the previous drinking time glass, taking a quick and rapid glup from it, leaving no more than just a lot of droplets inside of it, she left it back where it was and looked at Ann.
Alex: Yeah try to fix it now, anyway, that ain't the point now seeing we all agreed on this, what about the paperwork?
Ann: Oh right, I have to still discuss something with Nikolay so we can take our time with it
Alex: Great
Fang: Oi Alexxxxxxx, pass me that bottle ya just drank out of...
Said Fang, her sisters looking back at her as she popped half of her head from the sofa and stared at her sister with tired eyes.
Alex: You really wanna blackout again?
Fang: You had a glass thooo
Ann: *Whispering* I think she just wanted to join in the conversation and felt sorry for yelling obscene things at us
Fang: Ann fuck off you British-sounding backstabbing cunt!
·····
Nikolay: Hmhm hmhm hmm hmh, alright everything done here, you can sit down on the couch R5
Said Nikolay as he finished humming a melody and also extracting a copy of R5 memories, the same exact process that was done to R6, and as such, R5 did the same as R6 at first, stretched out a bit, and sat on the pod for a bit of time before regaining her senses completely and walking to the couch signaled to her by Nikolay, and as before R5 waited patiently for Nikolay to get back to her while he tried to quickly finish with storing her memories into the security of this network.
R5: I think R6 had a chat with him also... She seemed sad after that... Will I also get reprimanded?... Ahg, this is so frustrating to now know what he is gonna do, I don't wanna get slapped, not again... But I mean, he hasn't touched us with bad intentions anyways, I think I'm just overthinking again like with R3... R3...
Nikolay: Alright
She quickly snapped out and just now realized Nikolay was sitting in front of her with phone in hand, just seconds after a message popping up on her HUD requesting a connection, which she although a bit scared accepted. Nothing happened apart from her systems telling her Nikolay's phone connected to one of her modules.
Nikolay: Well with this and that running it we can start, so R5
R5: ... Yes?
She said now a bit confused, that feeling adding itself over the rest. Nikolay gave a glance at the phone which like the previous time with R6 monitored R5's overall emotions. Seeing it worked properly and didn't need any calibrations Nikolay dropped off the mysterious tone of this conversation's starter and looked at R5.
Nikolay: I hope your sister hasn't told any of you about this and I hope you also don't to them after we finish, but this is basically to talk
R5: Talk?...
Nikolay: As you to me, me to you, take it as a therapy session yeah?
R5: Therapy... For what? I'm fine...
She said with a not so sure tone of voice about her final statement, this also being displayed in her emotions which were still and are going to be monitored by him throughout the whole session.
Nikolay: Your tone of voice says otherwise, and, mainly for you, two things
R5: ...?
Nikolay: The fight you had with your sister R3, and the overall discomfort going on with the rest of your sisters
R5: How did you know about R3...
She said doubting herself a bit now, thinking she could hide some things, however, that he knew about R3 and wasn't even there that night made her confidence, as little as there was, about pulling quickly through this dissipated, he probably already knew everything, maybe it was the time to let go and talk out about everything she thought, but then her other side of her mind quickly slapped her back into doubt making her remember the words of one of her most trusted commanding officers from her time in FAK, "If you show your emotions while your vulnerable you will be made a fool, and such action will not only make you a fool but those emotions also weak, a weak fool".
Nikolay: I just asked around and collected info, not details, I know only the face of the stories, most of them that is, I will let you know though... I won't force you into this, if you don't want to do this, then we shall now and you can go on your merry way right now
R5 was even more doubtful now, Nikolay wasn't her enemy, but she also just couldn't really trust him, she heard a lot of things from her sister's experiences with him, she for certainly knows he is a good lair and to an extent, a good persuader, be it for bad or good, but still, something deep inside her just wanted to take out all of what she has been bottling up, be it doubt, fear, sadness, happiness or her blankness.
R5: ... I... I will just do a few minutes I guess...
She said not really knowing if she made the right choice, but for once she decided to choose something that wasn't influenced by anyone, just her own choice without any pivots from others, not a single look back to see what would of R6 done here or what would have talked about R2s here.
Nikolay: Hm well, just let me know when you want to stop then, so how about I start out with a question and you follow up with one of your own, you can always also just say to me to continue, or well invert the roles if you so please
R5: I would prefer you to start off first I guess...
Nikolay: Hmm... Well let's start with the easy one then, how has your day been?
R5: ... Its, its been good enough, I just did guard duty and well, had breakfast...
Nikolay: Hmm, would you like for me to reduce your guard duties?
R5: What? No, no no no, no, no... It's fine... It's just, blank I guess, guarding I mean, it's not the most exciting thing...
Nikolay: Okay then, as long as you ain't overworking yourself nor feeling unhappy
R5: Yeah, don't worry about that...
Nikolay: Your turn
R5: Eh?
Nikolay: You want to ask me anything R5?
R5: Oh... Uhm, no... I prefer to skip
Nikolay: Hm again that's okay, so I will start getting into a bit more complicated stuff, such as, how are you feeling about this, this new life outside FAK and all is what I mean
R5: Hm
R5 just hummed as her emotions totally settled down for some reason, she just stared blankly at the floor, perhaps calming herself down to think about the answer to that question, the room fell into a deep silence as R5 kept thinking, her emotions finally starting to change around which Nikolay noticed as he was giving glances to his phone once or twice a while.
R5: I'm... indifferent
She said bluntly, Nikolay raised his stare at her and looked into her eyes, she seemed serious about it, and her emotions somewhat let him know about it also.
Nikolay: Indifferent in what way may I ask R5? Overall, you don't mind your new environment, or the current situation is just put simply into words not bothering you?
R5: Overall
Nikolay: So overall, do you know why are you feeling like this or you prefer to not talk about it?
R5: ... If I know why I feel like this... No, I don't know Nikolay, I really don't...
Nikolay: Hm, so you feel indifferent about everything nowadays but don't really know why, is what we are getting out of this then?
R5: Yes, that's what we getting out of it...
Nikolay: Hm, and have you thought about that this may be correlated to the fight you had with your sister?
R5: What? No! It can't be, it just can't
She said suddenly coming back alive from her somewhat plain responses, Nikolay finally was starting to get her hooked into speaking freely and confidently.
Nikolay: If may I ask, why do you think that can't just have any correlation at all? Often when we are sad we just don't want to do anything and don't mind anything, it could be that you are sad about that fight happening, or you much like R2 don't mind these types of lashes?
R5: I... No, I, It just can't be her... She, she was right with everything, I just didn't see it clearly before I guess... No what do I mean I saw it from the start that happened but I couldn't wrap my mind around it, or... I... I overdo sometimes...
She said her voice suddenly going back to monotony as she realized she got pumped up and almost spilled everything out in one go. Nikolay however hummed, analyzing her as she spoke, that was a good start he just needed to know how to get her comfortable talking, and then he could rile her up so she can express herself out freely without any stoppers in between them but that seemed to be a hard task seeing how hesitant she was about this and preferred to just stay in the middle ground.
Nikolay: Hm, well don't worry we got a lot of time if ya wanna continue that is, so take it easy
He said and smiled at her.