Companion

“How the hell did you manage to bring a Doll all the way over here?”

“Someone over at logistics owed me a favor, it was about time I took it”  and I'm actually impressed he managed to pull this one off. There weren't that many Dolls around this region, after all, we didn't get hit that hard with ELID nor became a major conflict zone during World War 3. around here they became somewhat of a niche, occasionally used by foreign construction companies or Security firms, or butlers and bartenders for the rich.

“Couldn’t you ask for some men?”

“I did my best, truly. But I just happen to be friends with some of the guys that handle supplies and equipment, and they had a spare Doll in stock” Honestly that’s quite impressive. In almost every single part of the world, T-DOLL’s are organized into a platoon sized unit, commanded by a single human and fight as frontline units. But down here T-DOLL’s are very scarce, so instead of frontline actions they are usually used as support units like mechanics, ammo bearers, sentries and the like. Artillery guys love them, a 155mm gun manned by T-DOLL’s can fire all day long without slowing down a second, so of course they will do anything to get their hands on any DOLL they can get and they mostly get them when they ask for more. That’s why it’s so rare to see them here as a frontline unit.

“That robot is the most expensive piece of tech in this post right now, I hope I don't have to tell you to take care of it.”

“I never commanded a DOLL before, aren’t I supposed to be qualified or something?”

“My friend said it’s not necessary for handling a single doll, they can think for themselves quite well, they just take orders a bit more literally, like having your own yes man. Now go to the armory and pick it up. I'm almost done with your briefing”.

That didn’t help, sure I came across a DOLL here and there back in Buenos Aires but this is the first time im put in charge of one, there’s gotta be one or two things I should know, now that I remember Nahuel was kinda into Droids as a hobby, he’s got to know something.

I leave the Headquarters and move between the dugouts, awkuardly passing in front of the infirmary again while trying not to think too much about it. I reach the armory, I move the metal sheet that acts like a door and enter the dugout. Here we store all the ammo, rifles and all the tools needed to maintain the roofs and barbed wire. Good thing Nahuel is the organized type, everything neatly organized in improvised shelves he made himself. And there he was, the man itself, typing into a computer connected to my would be partner who is sitting at a table. The DOLL was a female model, it resembled a girl in her early 20s with shoulder length grayish hair, pretty good looking to be honest. She’s either asleep or turned off completely, already in our BDU which is a good start.

“Hey Nahu, i can see you’re busy”

“Yup, been working on her all morning, she should be almost done, just checking if she has all the proper protocols and IFF done. got paraguayan import marks on her, gotta be sure she won’t jump on us the moment i boot her up”

“So she’s from Paraguay?”
“Like half the Dolls in the Region.” he goes, still fixed to his monitor. “Even now most of the Dolls that we got were captured from Paraguay, mostly abandoned and sometimes salvaged from several bodies. we just have to factory reset them, wipe their memories and they're good to go to fight on our side. Luckily for us seems like that was done already, a couple of months ago in fact. Looks she’s been on our side for a while, Got most of the military software installed, hell I think this is some tank operation software here, anyway, I think we can go ahead and start her up”

Of course she comes from Paraguay, they got hit the hardest with ELID decades ago and now half their country is uninhabitable, they imported quite a lot of Dolls and droids in an effort to clean toxic areas and reconstruction. Despite everything it wasn’t enough, a refugee crisis soon emerged and nobody wanted to take the displaced, all the surrounding countries closed their borders sparking a huge political tension. It was a matter of time before Paraguay decided enough was enough, and invaded several surrounding countries in what is currently known as the “Second Paraguayan War”. using T-DOLL’s as its main advantage, it advanced and captured several regions of Brazil to the East, and most of the province of Misiones and Formosa from Argentina. Argentina and Brazil formed an alliance almost immediately,as if doing it for old time's sake, and organized a counteroffensive to stop the paraguayans. Brazil stopped them just outside Sao Paulo while we managed to push the paraguayans to the point of crossing the Parana river into their Territory. But that was the interesting first half of the war, now with Paraguay adopting a defensive strategy and the alliance stretching too thin to keep pushing into Paraguay it is now a conflict of who will call it quits first.

“Alright, she’s booting, let’s see what we got.”

And as he just said that, the T-DOLL lifted her head and started to scan the room, and of course noticed the two soldiers she had in front of her.

“I believe we’re not in Misiones anymore”

“Nope” nahuel says with a smile “welcome to Paraguay. What’s your name and capabilities?”

“Sofia, Standard Tactical Software and medical protocols are active”

“Good, run a diagnostic”

“Understood ... .All systems have been working correctly ever since my last diagnostic, well, except for the battery...”

Nahu turns his head from the Doll to me “Yup, the battery got quite a bit of mileage, really could use a replacement if I had a spare. she'll have limited autonomy, way less than normal, i’ll say 48 hours max… Shit worst case scenario she could shut down if she consumes too much power, like taking a sprint with a fully loaded backpack”

That’s not great, I really don’t want an expensive piece of tech shutting down on me in the middle of an op, and I still have no idea how to actually use it.

“Ok, give me a rundown of how to handle a T-DOLL”

“Well, there’s not much to it, they just do whatever you tell them to do. Tell her what formation to use, what targets to engage and keep her updated on the ROE you wanna run with her and they’ll do exactly that” as Nahu walks away from me he starts to disconnect all the cables that connects the Doll to his computer

“Alright Sofi, that’s good enough, this guy here is Leonardo Castells. He’s your new Operator”

“A pleasure to meet you Leonardo, im standing by”

“Leo’s fine..uh..so that’s it?”

“Yup" says Nahu, while tapping the Doll's shoulder "now the doll’s yours unless I tell her otherwise, you see I registered myself as the owner, and you are a authorized operator”

Nahu approaches the weapon rack, almost empty since everyone is manning their posts, the only thing left is a couple of old FAL’s we keep as spares and of course…

“Here, here’s your rifle, all cleaned up from yesterday” as he hands my FAL. In comparison to the others mine’s better well maintained, and fitted with an LPVO and a bipod attached to an aftermarket M-LOK handguard and a suppressor, All roughly painted in black and green colors.

“uhh..Leo..hope it’s not important but do you mind if we gave her David’s gun?” I was never the kind of person to relate items to people, if he never brought that up I probably wouldn’t even care but now..there’s a mixed feeling of giving it to her. Just now comes all the memories of how David really loved his rifle. Always tried to clean it up himself, sometimes going on about “how the best rifle a soldier could ever ask” whenever we talked about guns, I never got that part, I personally hate the FAL for it's weight, specially after using an M16 once. His setup is fitted with an ACOG with an RMR and a suppressor and is pretty much the second best rifle in the rack. Now I have mixed feelings of giving his rifle to someone else, but at the same time I really shouldn't give her one of the spares, damm things are probably not even zeroed.

“Yeah, it’s fine. Might as well give her a good iron” I say, trying to sound like I don’t care.

We get her loaded up, we find a carrier and a helmet that fit her and I load my gear myself, a standard infantry kit and a backpack with supplies for 3 days, and as i was finishing adjusting my rig and almost set myself out, Nahu approaches me.

“Ah yeah, one thing you do need to know. T-DOLL’s prioritize the life of their human operator. She will catch any bullet headed your way if she could, so don’t try anything stupid or else she will do something more stupid to save your ass, best to let her take point if you can”

“Thanks nahu, i’ll keep that in mind” i say, good to know i think. Not that I'm the kind of guy to take risks, just some really bad luck from time to time.

As we move throught the trenches to where the liuetenant there’s a worry in my mind. I hope he knows this should be a very simple mission, and an expedition lasting 48 hours isn’t unheard of but if things go badly we have even spent 4 days behind enemy lines. This better be a single day patrol otherwise i could have a problem, and i'm sure it’s gonna somehow be my fault in the end.

My thoughts are interrupted when the girl behind me taps my shoulder

“Leo, is this your first time seening a DOLL?”

“Not really, I'm from Buenos Aires, it really wasn’t that strange to see Dolls in the city, it’s just this is my first time being put in charge of one. How about you, you’re used to being a civilian right? First time in the front?”

“Not really, i was in a tank regiment before this”

“Really? How come you ended up here?” I find it strange her regiment didn’t repair her right away, Dolls are valuable after all.

“I got damaged, and they found a replacement before they could repair me”

“Huh, how about your previous owners?” you hear stories of people growing attached to dolls all the time, news channels love to talk about them

“I'm sure they’re doing alright, maybe i’ll get a chance to contact them one day”

“Sure, let’s hope so”

You know, from time to time you heard that Dolls can be pretty awkward, but she seems the quiet type, at least by how she talks. She talks in a slow soothing voice like she’s indoors, but a bit of a tired tone to it, if a tired android is even such a thing.