Girls' Frontline Fanfiction: Tsar of the Mountain

Russia's Infernal Breath

Nagant took the lead as the group of t-dolls followed the main tunnel further into the Mountain. Their footsteps echoed around them, and their flashlight beams scoured the path ahead. "According to the map," StG44 spoke as she went over the file in her digimind, "We should be coming up on a vehicle bay that has a stairwell leading to the other levels."

"Can't we take the elevator?" AA-12 quietly moaned.

"I doubt it's operational," StG44 replied in a stern voice. "And, before you ask, no, you can't stay here to 'guard' our exit."

"Tch." AA-12 clicked her tongue in annoyance.

Nagant, not wanting to have her leader get into another argument with AA-12, spoke up to change the topic, "I see it." The dolls entered a room with a high ceiling making the emergency lights that dotted it practically useless. However, what took the dolls completely by surprise was what their flashlights revealed was inside the room.

Galil's eyes widened in disbelief as she slowly walked in, "Aren't those military vehicles?" Still parked in their spots were rows of different military vehicles. There didn't seem to be any order to them, and it looked like they were put here haphazardly. "Why would these still be here?"

"Probably because they're all broken," Nagant said as she pointed to the nearest vehicle, a Vityaz DT-30P. "That one doesn't have any tracks, and some of the wheels are missing. And, I'm pretty sure I see one of the trucks over there missing the entire engine."

"So, they're junk?" Galil tilted her head to the side as she looked at her teammate. Nagant nodded her head.

"Aw~" M2HB bemoaned, "And here I was hoping we could use their firepower to further tear Sangvis Ferri to pieces."

"Focus," StG44 refocused her team. "We can report the vehicles to the Commander once we get the power back on and resurface. We lost signal about halfway through the tunnel, so for now all we can do is continue the mission." Getting back on track, the team crossed the vehicle bay and came upon a locked bulkhead door with a keypad next to it. Punching in the code they got from Zeldri, the keypad chirped three times before the door unlocked and slowly swung open to reveal a dark stairwell that went both up and down. "Hmm?"

"What is it?" Galil asked as she saw StG44 looking rather confused.

"According to the files we have, this main floor should be the highest floor of the base."

"Then...where do those stairs go?" Silence overtook them as the team all looked up the unaccounted-for stairwell that ascended into the darkness above. Not even shining their flashlights up allowed them to see where the stairs went.

"Let the Commander worry about things like that," AA-12 passed her gawking teammates and started taking the stairs down. "Let's just find this power source so we can be done. I want to go sleep." StG44 let out an annoyed sigh as she followed suit. Since they were only told to recon the lowest level, the team purposefully didn't check the other levels they passed as they continued descending. Eventually, they reached the bottom of the stairwell and were faced with another bulkhead door. But...

"Hey," Nagant said while pulling on the collar of her shirt, "Does anyone else feel kind of warm?"

"Yeah," Galil said as she punched in the code, but this time the door didn't automatically swing open so she reached out to push it. "It is kinda wa-OW!" Galil's scream echoed in the stairwell and she leaped away from the door.

"What's wrong?!" StG44 rushed to Galil's side.

"It burned me!" Galil unclenched her fists to see that the synthetic skin on her palms had been singed off. The group looked to the door and heard a soft sizzling noise.