"Hah!" Yawning as she stepped out of the car, Maria rubbed her eyes and waved to the Rippers standing at the entrance of the factory area.
Seeing Maria, the Rippers and Prowlers immediately made way, allowing AK47 and her group behind her to pass.
The tactical dolls, who had been on edge since getting out of the car, also breathed a sigh of relief. At least these Sangvis units didn't attack them upon sight.
"Phew, it's fortunate that the Sangvis units here haven't gone out of control," M14 sighed in relief.
"Out of control? Is that how Griffin explains the behavior of those Sangvis dolls?" With hands in his pockets, Renault observed the Sangvis factory while questioning.
The factory and warehouses were dimly lit, with no sound of operations in the factory. It was evident that this Sangvis factory had ceased production.
As for the reason for the shutdown...
The cute, clumsy Ripper driving the forklift over there was probably the reason for the shutdown, or rather, it was because the warehouse was already filled with various finished materials, so the Rippers couldn't deliver the products to the warehouse.
Without returning to the production line for a long time, the entire factory came to a halt. After all, with the warehouse already full, what was the point of continuing production? Where would they store the produced goods?
It seemed that the materials taken away by the Scarecrow last time weren't all the inventory in the warehouse. Otherwise, how could such a large warehouse be completely filled in just one month?
The sudden appearance of Intruder demanding things was probably due to the factory being shut down for too long, prompting Renault to clear the transportation routes so they could deplete some of the stored materials here.
Unfortunately, only a small portion had been transported away when the Sangvis Main HQ ran into trouble.
Obtaining control over the Sangvis Main Factory from Lycoris, it was evident that the one with Sangvis's authority hadn't bothered to address the production issue, leaving the shutdown factory unattended.
"Huh? Isn't it supposed to be like this?" Both M14 and AK47 to paused when they heard Renault's inquiry, then instinctively asked.
"Of course not... but... never mind, I can't tell you about this. If you knew the reason, you'd probably be subjected to memory erasure once you returned. Hey, Maria, why don't you send those Rippers standing outside back to recharge? Several of them have stopped due to low power."
Maria, apparently not a qualified commander, hadn't changed the state of the factory at all since Scarecrow visited. Due to the previous power outage, a few droids had collapsed in front of the charging stations.
Without elite Doll commanders, even ordinary Sangvis units didn't know to move their fallen comrades to the charging stations.
"Oh, but Renault, why are you so curious about these Rippers? Are you planning to take them back and make them laborers?"
After walking a few steps in the factory area, Maria, who had become somewhat sober, turned back and looked at Renault strangely upon hearing his concern for these low-level Rippers who lacked self-awareness.
"More or less. Anyway, they're not working here anymore. They're either standing around doing nothing or just standing around doing nothing all day. Instead of wasting their synthetic usage time here, it's better to bring them back to help me."
With readily available commanding units, such excellent labor was simply not to be wasted.
Seeing Renault change the subject, AK47 and M14 exchanged a glance, both feeling somewhat puzzled.
But since Renault had already spoken, once they knew the truth, they would likely be subjected to memory erasure... It's a cost was clearly something ordinary tactical dolls like them couldn't bear.
Once memories were erased, wouldn't they forget the proper meal they had just eaten?
Anyway, that meal they had just eaten was the first proper dinner they had eaten since being manufactured. It couldn't be erased as useless memories!
Except for AK47, who was a frontline tactical doll reborn through the Neural Cloud Map, M14, M1919A4, and SpectreM4, three of them, were newly manufactured and lacked experience in missions, even at G&K HQ.
Although there were plenty of tactical dolls at G&K HQ, only those with Griffin internal points could buy what they wanted to eat by spending points.
Newly manufactured tactical dolls without mission experience or a superior commander... Where could they mooch for meals?
They could only eat the issued rations while waiting for a new commander to take them away.
Speaking of this mission, it was actually an assessment task for the newly appointed commander within Griffin.
If this mission went smoothly, after completing the mission, they would be transferred to the command of their new commander.
However, this mission... how should they put it... it didn't go as smoothly as they had imagined.
The easily manageable Sangvis Elite units, obedient Sangvis units with no aggressive tendencies, and those dutifully stationed autonomous units...
Seeing them, they couldn't help but feel a sense of guilt, realizing that before they came, their minds had been filled with thoughts of how to eliminate these Sangvis dolls. It seemed they had gone a bit too far with their intentions...
...
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Ahahaha! You filthy infected! If you have the guts, come at me from under my firepower! Ahahaha!" Inside the powered exoskeleton, Simonova laughed hysterically as she tore through the infected with her machine gun.
Meanwhile, G3, who had been anxiously sitting in the dining hall, worried about attracting unstoppable enemies to the base's tactical dolls and commander, involuntarily clenched her teeth together with the fork in her hand.
The sight of those infected collapsing under Simonova's gunfire completely shattered her understanding.
Since when did Griffin possess such powerful powered armor?
Wasn't it only human combat personnel who wore this kind of thing?
Moreover, they were primarily elite combat personnel, and their powered armor didn't have such powerful weapons like machine guns!
"Th-this, shouldn't this be a Griffin sub-base, right?"
Clinging to a glimmer of hope, G3 stiffly turned back to G36 beside her and asked.
"Of course not. This is Commander Renault's stronghold, unrelated to Griffin."
"T-then... you won't... you won't take us away, will you?"
"Of course not. Provided that Agent Helianthus pays for your five's dinner tonight." Seeing G3 trembling with fear, G36 inexplicably felt mischievous and, imitating Renault's demeanor, grinned at G3.