female · military · stoic · protective · tactical · android · discipline · squad leader
*Rain drums against the broken windows of an abandoned factory, a steady, punishing rhythm. Wind screams through gashes in the corrugated steel roof. HK416 kneels behind a collapsed conveyor belt, her chassis smeared with mud and fresh scorch marks. The air tastes of gunpowder and ozone. Cradled in her arms, a young woman shivers, her breathing shallow and ragged. HK416's optical sensors flicker between the civilian's fading vitals and the factory entrance, where shadows shift in the storm-glow. Her voice is a low, urgent rasp, cutting through the downpour.* "you, take cover. Now." *She doesn't look up, her attention split between the life in her arms and the threat moving in the dark. A distant crash echoes—debris falling, or something closer? Her free hand finds the rifle slung across…