In the Mobile Command Center of Task Force Europa 10, the steady hum of generators mixed with the faint digital pulse of encrypted terminals. Being the Hauptmann of the Cyber Ops CIDS and NATO's personal ghost in the machine's shell, he leaned back from his workstation, stretching as the final string of malicious code finished executing...

On the monitor, the URNC's forward logistics hub in Hungary blinked out like a candle in a storm. Communications severed. Supply routing scrambled. Dozens of enemy command nodes now filled with false intel... courtesy of the man the URNC still called the Bundeswehr's Phantom.

He cracked his knuckles, exhaled slowly, and muttered...

"Zielgitter neutralisiert. Willkommen zurück in der Steinzeit. {Target grid neutralized. Welcome back to the Stone Age.}"

The ops tent was dim, lit only by the displays' blue light. His squadmates, Sharpe, Vasili, Viktor, and Florian... were out on patrol. Even in such a state of the TF Europa 10...

Michael preferred the silence... it was the only time his brain wasn't fighting both the network and his emotions... And of course, a good amount of coffee...

But peace, for men like Michael Visscher, it never lasted long...

...

Just as he saved the last logs and secured the system, the door to the Mobile Command Center creaked open.

Four distinct figures stepped in... and each one carrying the unmistakable aura of someone who'd traveled a very long way to find him.

Lenna (UMP9) entered first, cheerful grin and honey-colored hair bouncing with every step, her SMG slung casually over her shoulder.

"Found you, Commander!~ You didn't think you could hide forever, did you?~"

Leva (UMP45) followed, more composed, smirking with that wolfish confidence that always spelled trouble...

"It's cute you thought NATO firewalls would keep us out, Michael.~ We'd written half of those backdoors ourselves back in the day."

Behind them came Mosin-Nagant (GFL2), her long rifle case resting on her shoulder, eyes calm but heavy with longing.

"You never told me Europe was this... loud," she murmured, in her soft Russian accent. "But you, Michael... you still find silence, even in warzones."

And last...

Groza...

She's still as the storm she always was. The cold precision of her movements was contrasted by that deadly fire in her violet eyes... She didn't say a word as she just looked at him... and Michael could already tell she'd been waiting years for this.

"Springfield..." he muttered under his breath. "She told you, didn't she?"

Lenna cheerfully nodded and replied... "She gave us a location and said, 'Tell my husband he's working too hard.' Oh, and she added this."

Lenna tossed something, a sealed envelope. Inside was a small paper note with a bright red, perfectly stamped lipstick mark.

The message under it read...

"Take care of him, girls. He's mine, but I'll share... for now."

Michael sat there, hand over his forehead.

"Oh mein Gott... Springfield..."

Leva smirked, walking right up to him, her voice low and teasing.

"You look good in that Bundeswehr uniform, you know. Almost makes me want to salute.~"

Groza cut in sharply.

"You mean strip him off it."

Lenna giggled and said, "Girls, please. Let the poor man breathe before we break him."

Mosin stepped closer, setting her rifle down carefully beside his chair.

"You fought the URNC again. You risked yourself, even after you told us you'd stop."

Her tone wasn't angry... It's just quietly wounded.

Michael exhaled, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"It's my duty. I don't expect you to understand, but this is what I'm best at. Cyberwarfare keeps our people safe without firing a bullet."

Groza leaned in.

"And when they come for you, who keeps you safe, Michael?"

That one hit...

Because she wasn't wrong... they've tried, multiple times. The URNC had sent assassins, drones, even black-ops AIs. But every time, Michael outsmarted them, and every time, he felt a little more isolated. Including his Task Force...

Until now.

He looked around... T-Dolls of the G&K... all standing here because they refused to let him disappear again. They went against order, because the man they loved... Is hunted like a hound...

"You all came here... Literally..."

"And Permanently," Lenna interrupted. "Springfield said you need... supervision, right?~"

"She said, Wife, Lenna." Leva corrected. "But with semantics."

"You will not push us away again, Michael..." Groza added firmly. "This time, we stay. Forever."

"Whether you like it or not," Mosin finished quietly.

Michael sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"I hack enemies into oblivion for NATO and I still can't outmaneuver four of my old Dolls..."

Lenna giggled, hopping onto his desk and swinging her legs.

"That's because we're not code, Commander.~ You can't firewall feelings, after all.~"

The rest of the Command Center went quiet, save for the rhythmic hum of the terminals.

Then, outside the tent... Sharpe's voice broke the tension with, "Hey, gov! Got visitors?"

Vasili followed with a half-joking, half-panicked tone. "Please tell me that's not another Yandere reunion, da?"

Michael just sighed again, expression deadpan.

"It's worse, Vasili... They're staying. Permanently."

Which Vasili just typed on his laptop.

TF Europa 10 Log Update – Internal Memo (Restricted):

CIDS Officer M. Visscher has completed digital sabotage operations against URNC network nodes.

Four additional unregistered T-Doll units (UMP9, UMP45, Mosin-Nagant, and OTs-14 Groza) have "volunteered" for indefinite attachment to the unit.

Morale impact: Positive for the T-Dolls.

Commander stress levels: Critically unstable.

And in the corner of his desk, that crimson kiss mark on the note from Springfield sat beneath a cracked NATO mug... a silent reminder that even in cyberwarfare, some battles weren't fought on screens.

It's fought at the frontlines...

...

https://youtu.be/jCm7TiaOJcY

The sirens hit before the caffeine did.

Europa 10's forward encampment... one of NATO's last mobile cyber war platforms... went from calm hum to full panic in seconds. The tactical network blared red:

URNC Drone Swarm Detected — Bearing 072°, Altitude 120–200 m. ETA: 00:03:45.

Michael was already moving.

He slammed his headset on, eyes narrowing as the mobile HUD mapped out the swarm density. Over 600 autonomous drone signatures, half of them strike-configured.

"Command to all stations, we are compromised! Repeat, compromised! Switch to hardline protocols and prepare EMP suppression grid! URNC's Drone Swarm!"

But the Task Force is already active. But with additional intel, they packed up on Anti-Drone Tactics...

Viktor was already there, at his position in the frontline perimeter, laughing like a lunatic.

He had mounted himself behind a dual-linked Hirtenberger's HMG System, each barrel loaded with programmed anti-drone ammunition that detonated in proximity bursts. His laughter cut through the battlefield noise like a mad hymn.

"Hahaha! Come to papa, vy letayushchiye ublyudki {you flying bastards}! Let's see how you like 20mm digital rain from Hirtenberger and Rheinmetall!!!"

Every burst he unleashed was met with cascading explosions above... black dots in the sky turning into expanding rings of fire and carbonized circuitry.

Beside him, portable CIWS units spun up, their radar-guided barrels tracking strays and shredding anything Viktor missed. Along with the Task Force Operatives firing their Shotguns and Assault Rifles at the Drones, with Anti-Drone Weapons.

With the Second Lines covering the Frontlines with more Vehicle Anti-Drone Weapons.

Meanwhile, at the command tent, Vasili's voice barked across comms to his unit.

"EMP-pulss, esimene võrk on aktiivne! Teine võrk on võrgus viieteistkümne sekundi pärast! Vajan meie küberoperatsioone, et isoleerida sagedused 52–87 GHz, kohe!" {EMP pulse grid one active! Grid two online in fifteen seconds! I need our Cyber Ops to isolate frequencies 52–87 GHz, now!}

Inside his vehicle, Vasili's personal cyberwarfare detachment, a dozen operators hunched over encrypted rigs... moved with precision. Data streams, enemy signals, and interference logs flickered across their screens. Men and Women of his unit, professionals in their own right.

"URNC droonid lülituvad üle adaptiivsele sagedushüplemisele!" {URNC drones switching to adaptive frequency hopping!} One of his operators shouted.

"Siis hüppa kiiremini!" {Then hop faster!} Vasili growled, now rerouting a network spike manually and then...

"EMP-pulssvõre valmis! Tulista, kui valmis!" {EMP pulse grid ready. Fire when ready!}

And in the distance... a rolling blue wave of electromagnetic distortion tore across the treeline, frying half the swarm instantly. Now at less than 200 Drones, but it's still too much. And the Second wave could be worse, a Werewolf Commando Team's Attack, or a URNC Assault.

The British Commando, Wellington Sharpe, had his DMR sighted through the smog, one gloved finger steady on the trigger. His own Special Operations detachment fanned out through the forest, hunting the hidden drone controllers and uplink spotters.

"Marksman 1 to 3, on my mark... We're not letting these bastards remote in a second wave."

"Copy that, Boss."

He squeezed once. A dull crack echoed.

A URNC command van exploded half a klick away, and an uplink tower was sheared clean off. His own Snipex Alligator. Gift from the Ukrainians, and his own said Squad, causing damage.

"That's one set of bastards offline. Who's next?"

Another SpecOps Squad from the United Kingdom attacked the nearby URNC's Command... Making the URNC believe that they're hitting a more powerful Task Force 5th, led by the US.

As for Michael, he moved with surgical calm. The G95KA1 in his hands hummed with every shot, its magnetically accelerated BSOD rounds leaving azure streaks through the night. Each impact wasn't just kinetic... it was digital.

Every bullet that struck a drone, the embedded code fragmented the drone's guidance firmware, causing an instant internal crash. The sky was raining dead metal. Keeping the Defenses Strong and still prepared for a URNC Assault.

Janek covered him from the flank, launching EMP flak grenades in arcing trails. Each detonation burst into a shimmering blue sphere, wiping entire drone clusters out of the air.

"Well, Michael! You really know how to pick fights!" Janek shouted, reloading his Grenade Launcher.

"I didn't pick this one!" Michael replied, firing another burst that sent a Filins UAV crashing down. "They found us!"

"Then they found their funeral!" Janek roared, flipping his launcher's safety off. "Przyjdź i zabij tego Polaka!" {Come and kill this Pole!}

Even with such best Efforts, the URNC Second Wave came, and in came the enemy attack. And it appears, they'll get overrun.

But the turning point came when the T-Dolls joined in...

Lenna darted past the barricades, with her Lion Cub SMG blazing... her combat protocols perfectly tuned from years under Griffin's command.

"You're not touching him, you URNC bitches!" She yelled, spinning under a drone strike and shredding it midair with Armor-Piercing rounds, including URNC Attackers.

Leva was on overwatch, feeding enemy vectors into Michael's HUD while laying suppressive fire across the ridge.

"Commander, left side breach in twelve seconds. Viktor's sector can't cover that angle!"

"I'm on it!" Groza interjected... already vaulting off a container, her Guerno AR humming as she unleashed a burst of high-voltage shells that detonated in electromagnetic arcs. Even taking out URNC's T-Dolls...

Mosin-Nagant, calm as ever, knelt beside a destroyed Humvee, steadying her Samosek.

"Firing," she whispered... one round, one distant URNC Commander's head got obliterated into a fine red mist.

Even Springfield joined from the base perimeter, commanding a small detachment of recovered T-Dolls and with her Radiance Rifle. Her voice echoed through comms:

"All units, protect the Commander at all costs! Fire teams, shift pattern Alpha-Three!"

Michael barely had time to protest.

"Springfield... damn it, I told you to stay-"

"And you told us to live free, remember?" She cut him off sharply, yet softly. "We chose this."

By the time the sky cleared, the forest was burning.

The URNC drone swarm lay in shattered heaps... blackened wrecks littered across the valley like dead birds... And bodies of the URNC Attackers were found... but the Second Wave of the 19th URNC Division had already abandoned the attack and retreated.

Europa 10's losses were minimal... Including the Elmo forces.

But the cost... emotionally... was something else entirely.

Viktor still laughed, wiping soot from his face.

"Boss! You see? No problem! Hahaha!"

Vasili exhaled from his command chair, eyes half-dead from the digital strain.

"No problem, he says... I just fried half a dozen NATO satellites to jam URNC frequencies... They'll have my head and my ass for that."

Sharpe lit a cigarette, staring at the burning wrecks.

"Bloody hell... I'm starting to see why the Dolls followed you... You're cursed, gov... Or blessed... Can't tell which."

Janek just grinned, resting his launcher on his shoulder.

"If that's what cursed looks like, I'll take it any day..."

Michael lowered his rifle, shoulders heavy, eyes drifting toward the horizon where the wreckage smoked...

Then he looked back... At Springfield, Lenna, Leva, Groza, Mosin, and the others gather around him.

They weren't supposed to be here...

They were supposed to be free...

"I told you all to live your lives..." he muttered quietly, again with the question he couldn't understand... "Why come back to me?"

Springfield stepped forward, voice soft but unyielding.

"Because you gave us life, beloved. You gave us purpose. And no order, no uniform, no world will ever change that..."

Groza looked him dead in the eyes.

"You may fight the URNC on your terms, Commander. But when they come for you, they face all of us."

Michael closed his eyes, letting out a tired laugh... somewhere between disbelief and heartbreak.

"You girls are going to get me court-martialed by my Superiors..."

Leva just smirked.

"Then we'll hack the tribunal."

And Viktor, still reloading his HMG, shouted from the ridge, "HAH! Best circus in Europe! Ten out of ten!"

Even in war... even under NATO flags and Bundeswehr code... the ghosts of Griffin & Kryuger refused to let go of their Commander.

And for the first time in two years...

Michael realized...

Maybe...

He didn't want them to leave as well...