The Pride of Echelon 3

The Hunters

"You ordered them to do what?" Shouted Mister Koenig. "And you're sending them to do it tonight?"

"That's what I said, Mister Koenig. Repeating what I have said for the third time won't change my dialogue, nor will it change my mind. Hopefully you of all people would understand that." Said the Commander.

"I do understand that sir! I'm still flabbergasted by why you're doing this! How do you even know if she is a defector or not?"

"Mister Koenig! The timing between her escape and the brutal slaying of our Dolls couldn't have been closer! We aren't talking about minutes we are talking about mere seconds! Have you even read the report?" Yelled Kalina. "I'm starting to doubt your own position here."

"With all due respect Kalina, I have read the reports from front to back. But-"

"So you also see the significant time crunch between the two? As Uzi tried her hardest to break free from her room F2000 decided to lay waste to the first targets she could get her sights on! And you know where she was heading? To the repair room, where Uzi was!" She added. "There is a great deal of correlation here! How can you not see that?"

"Because planning between T-Dolls requires actual communication between two channels, as in face to face contact! And as far as I know these two characters haven't even spoken to each other! Even though these dolls are the latest model they are not equipped with the neural cloud capable of that kind of communication! Only certain elite dolls with unique upgrades can do this and as far as I know we are cheap so we can immediately throw that out of the picture!" Said Mister Koenig, slamming the table in front of him. "Don't test me woman! I went to college!"

"Enough! Both of you!" Yelled the Commander. "I do not care whether it was planned or not, I have already sent the request out to Echelon 3 to execute the order. This useless arguing and bickering here will not persuade me to change my mind."

"So wait, not only are you sending a squad out to kill Mini Uzi, but you're sending out her former squad to execute her?" Asked Mister Koenig. "You're sending her friends to do off her?"

But the Commander didn't answer his question, he just continued to stare at his disciple. For Mister Koenig, he didn't need an answer. He could see the answer within the Commanders eyes.

"What is wrong with you?"

"Watch your tone Mister Koenig." Snapped Kalina as she pointed her finger at him.

"No really, what is your problem? Do you know how demoralizing that is going to be for the team? Being sent out to kill their friend?" Said Mister Koenig as he walked closer to the Commander.

"It is a direct order given out by me, they will carry this out. I made sure that their leader completes the objective."

"Oh yes, I'm very aware of that. I am very very aware of that. I heard everything of your little pep talk with Grizzly. What the fuck did you do to her?" Yelled Mister Koenig. "What did you do to Echelon 3!?"

"Mister Koenig! You haven't been given clearance to ask that kind of information! I advise that you stay in your lane and-"

"Kalina! Why are you defending this person? Out of everybody here you should be just as worried about them as I am! Directives, classification, clearance, ranks, all that can go to hell in my opinion! Why can't you see that Kalina? Where is your sense of humanity?!" Yelled Mister Koenig at the top of his voice. "I thought you gave a damn!"

Kalina glared at the young cadet as she took his verbal punishment towards her, no other words came out from the logistics officer. She just hugged tightly to her pad and quickly broke eye contact with the man.