Dolls of the Red Zone(Girls Frontline)

Chapter 16 - An 'Escape'

When Ayako finally found her way outside it was chaotic at best, the surrounding base had begun bustling with movement and activity as forces were replenished. She still looked out of place, even with her new look she caught several glares from many units, though there weren't any ringleaders she could see for now. 

That stopped being the case when Alchemist exited the building she had just come from, looking for something or someone. 

Alchemist: Liberator, transport's on the roof.

Ayako turns to face Alchemist, still with a hatred for her new name, but she can't show it, so she just looks for a quick way up, nothing distinct she can see, but it is only two stories and there are several overlooks and balconies. 

So she does what clearly any reasonable person would do and sprinted at the building, jumping and kicking off to grab onto one of the balconies, then doing the same thing again to get onto the roof, she didn't know where the stairs were after all. 

It drew a lot of attention, rare to see a doll just casually scale a two-story building in a matter of seconds after all, Alchemist even remarked the relative oddity to herself. She knew the stairs were quite literally right around the corner in the building. 

Pulling herself up to the roof, Ayako sees some sort of VTOL rotor aircraft, doesn't look to be armed nor heavily armored, likely just for quick transport missions in place of a helicopter. 

She heads over to it, seeing as it is the only vehicle on the roof, and is actively spinning up in preparation to take off so it only made sense. Upon arrival there wasn't anyone else there, no crew, no SF fodder, no ringleader, nothing. This was a bit surprising, since she'd expected at least some escort to ensure she doesn't immediately try and swap sides again. 

Her thoughts are cut off by a message coming through OGAS from Elisa:

Elisa: Transport's yours, it'll fly itself where you need to go, just jump in.

And so without bothering to respond, assuming Elisa will be watching her no matter what she does, she jumps in and takes a seat, finding relative comfort in the seats. The door then seals and the engines get louder while it lifts off the ground, Ayako finds comfort in the peace and relative silence, the engines were loud sure, but could just be tuned out after a while. 

She spent some time just staring blankly into space while thinking about her plans to get away from SF, and mentally preparing herself for engaging SOP and the rest of AR team if it came down to it. She knew at best she had a couple of seconds of opposing SF forces before Elisa would override her control, so hopefully it wouldn't come to that and Elisa would keep her promise. 

The flight took nearly an hour with Ayako sitting in silence the entire way there, she had begun scratching some of the color off of her shield with a knife, the exterior layer was just paint after all. Additionally, she removed the front-mounted lights to make a far less distinct shield, leaving a mostly black shield with some silver-metal highlights where red used to be. 

The VTOL eventually started descending and slowing in order to land, Ayako then stood up and approached the door which should open once it touched down, since there was no visible handle to grab. 

Mildly unexpectedly it opened as soon as it didn't have any horizontal movement while still descending, but Ayako didn't need to wait for it to hit the ground, she hopped out at about ten feet and landed, and as soon as Ayako hit the ground the VTOL stopped, the door closed, and it turned to return to the base she had come from. 

Greeting her on the ground was a smirk she knew all too well now, Dreamer was staring her down with silent smugness. 

Dreamer: You know I was told you'd look a bit different but I have to say I like this look better.