Girls' Frontline Fanfiction: Tsar of the Mountain

Only Fools Rush In

"You're...the Griffin commander?" Scarecrow eyed Zeldri suspiciously. She'd never heard of a commander coming to the front line before; especially one that was injured like Zeldri was. But, judging by the shocked expressions of the t-dolls, this truly was their commander. This only led to more questions... "To what do I owe the disdain of meeting you here?"

"..." Zeldri took a few steps away from the Tigr and towards AA-12 before he was stopped by Scarecrow's drones getting in front of him. Their integrated plasma guns were primed but held their fire. "Pioneer Reconnaissance Doll Model SP65, codenamed Scarecrow." He faced the Ringleader who gently hovered above the ground roughly fifty feet away from him. "As a doll focusing on intelligence gathering, I should be asking you that same question."

"Congratulations on doing your basic homework." Scarecrow was having some of her drones scan the horizon for additional Griffin troops. Surely their commander wouldn't come to the front by himself with only that truck, right? "But, you lose points for walking into your death, human. You and your forces are outclassed." She put more power into her repulsers and hovered a bit higher than normal so that she would be looking down on Zeldri as their conversation continued.

"Is that why my single team, who wasn't at full strength, was able to wipe out your forces?"

"..."

"You're by yourself now, Scarecrow. You're outnumbered. So," he offered the briefcase to one of the drones that were near him as he spoke, "I've personally come to discuss the terms of your surrender."

"...!" Was this human well and truly insane? First, he surprises her with his unconventional tactics that took half her forces before the battle began, and now he speaks of her surrendering to him? "...You have the gall, human?"

"...Commander?" AA-12 tried to get up, but Zeldri held up his hand for her to stop.

"Just wait there a bit, AA-12. This will be over soon. Also," he turned his attention back to Scarecrow, "That's 'Commander Zeldri' to you, Scarecrow." Zeldri forced the briefcase onto one of the drone's front fins. Scarecrow's sensors weren't detecting anything dangerous within the briefcase, all it was doing was transmitting a GPS signal. The drone returned to Scarecrow's side and she opened the briefcase to find exactly what she scanned; a GPS transmitter. She cocked an eyebrow at Zeldri.

"And, this is?"

"Insurance."

"Insurance?" She dropped the briefcase to the ground and scoffed at him. "Are you truly sane human?"

"Completely," Zeldri said before he heard someone stifle a laugh from behind him. The black-cloaked woman was leaning on the hood of the Tigr with her hand over her mouth trying to contain her laughter. Zeldri ignored her. "You have two choices here, Scarecrow." Now that the drone had returned to Scarecrow's side, Zeldri continued walking towards AA-12. "You can either surrender yourself to us and be taken prisoner. Or, you can be destroyed."

"Hmph," Zeldri's gall was starting to amuse Scarecrow, "Do you always start off your negotiations by attempting to kill the other party?"

"If you're destroyed, then I don't need to waste time negotiating." A sound answer Scarecrow could respect. "Now, choose." He stopped walking as he placed himself between Scarecrow and AA-12. There was a crater in the ground in front of him from an explosion that happened a long time ago.

"I choose neither, human." Scarecrow brought all her drones to her side and aimed them at Zeldri. "I choose your death."

"...I figured as much." Zeldri silently mused to himself.

"Comma-!" AA-12 tried to speak but suddenly received a message from Horris of all people. As she read the message her eyes went wide. "YOU IDIOT!" AA-12 and her dummy link frantically scrambled to their feet.