Equality under their Gaze

M1 Garand: Large Meeting, Small Talk

A/N: As I said before, I guess, this story never had a huge priority, which kinda answers why it's been more than a year after its last update (to be fair, most of my fanfics had been a little abandoned as of late). Unlike other series I haven't really delve into Girls' Frontline lore or background aside from lazily playing most main storyline events (with a huge gap in the middle), which is part of the reason I'm sticking to a very small scale, unlike my other stories which often portray a large events which affect the whole world.

Disclaimer: Girls' Frontline belongs to MICA Team (I think). I'm just doing this for fun and I get no monetary compensation from it.

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Chapter 3
Large Meeting, Small Talk
M1 Garand

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Several days later...

M1 Garand stared from the sidelines at the room full of people clad in red coats and white shirts, her synthetic eyes scanning the entire area time and time again as her audio modules tried to filter the constant sounds of nails tapping on the wooden table, shoes quickly tapping onto the floor, clothes protesting as their users fidgeted in their seats, and bones cracking as necks, shoulders and fingers moved around, their owners growing increasingly annoyed as time went by. After her 6th scan in the last half hour yielded no new information she focused her attention on the discussion, eyes and ears centring on the figure standing in front of the table, an older woman with a stern face and a monocle.

"... all in all, Operation Vector had a positive balance. Out of the twenty government officials, only two died, another was wounded, and more than 60% of the escort force was still operational. A third of the retinues never even had contact with the Sangvis, which helped a lot with the angry deputies who came demanding explanations for the three casualties they had."

A tired murmur of acceptance swept through the room. M1 Garand noticed that many of the humans present showed signs of fatigue, be it bags under their eyes, shifting attention, much more relaxed postures when compared to the meeting's start, and a general low noise that she couldn't pinpoint from a single source, likely the result of several people taking notes (or pretending to), ripping papers, writing either on paper or in the electronic tablets, and several more similar occurrences.

On clear contrast to their commanders, the T-Dolls around the room stayed mostly still, a few shifting around their position or changing their equilibrium from a foot to the other, but still just a silent overwatch for the most part. Garand doubted many were actively taking notes, at least not without pause through the entire meeting. There was also the fact that, while the central table with the commanders was illuminated weakly by the screens in the wall behind the presenting woman and the projections in the centre, the T-Dolls were on the sidelines, completely covered in darkness. There wasn't any window in the room, but even if there was one, the fact that they were underground erased any possibility of sunlight coming at them.

Was it even daytime already? She consulted her internal clock: barely a few minutes 'till seven, so technically already daytime. For Garand, the time of the meeting probably had a lot to do with how tired the attending people seemed, and while the lady in charge appeared much better, she was still showing signs of exhaustion. With that analysis, she realized that she had once again stop paying attention.

One of the base's employees, another T-Doll, she noticed, approached the woman in question and said something to her ear, prompting her to cough on her fist and attract the attention of everyone present.

"We'll take a break now and meet back here at seven thirty to resume at seven thirty-five. Commanders, there's breakfast served in the lobby." The commanders stood up from their seats almost in unison, the most tired ones taking a few seconds longer to get to their feet. "You are dismissed."