Chapter 6: Comet
During the search for AR-15, a larger jamming area is found by Griffin and Kryuger’s Team Negev. As they try to investigate, a new Sangvis Ringleader named Alchemist reveals herself and goes on the attack, starting a large-scale battle between SF and G&K over control of the sector. In hopes of finding AR-15, the AR Team investigates deeper into the jammed area, being separated from everyone else in the process. As the commander helps Negev hold off the attack, M16A1 finds an unconscious SOP II, and realizes that M4A1 has gone missing.
The POV changes, and we see M4A1 reliving her very first memory after being made. AR-15 approaches M4 and says ‘I’m here to pick you up… To bring you to meet the others. Your friends.” M4 says that she doesn’t know of any friends and AR-15 responds, “In that case, I’m your first friend”
As M4 wakes up, she sees that she’s been tied up by AR-15, who asks who M4A1 is and why the SF mastermind is so interested in her. M4 cannot answer. Back in her memory, M4A1 asks why AR-15 seems so sad. She says that she isn’t unhappy, but that she hasn’t been given any order to smile, and asks if M4A1 will give her that order.
Waking up again, M4 is remotely contacted by the SF mastermind, who has been poking through M4’s memory. The mastermind questions why M4 was made, but she is still unable to answer. Unfortunately, this means that the mastermind will need to use force, and she tells Alchemist to take M4 from AR-15 and to kill everyone else. M16A1 is able to reach the commander, and with his help drive off Alchemist and find M4. AR-15 goes to confront Alchemist and kills her with the help of SOP II, who is all too ecstatic to see her friend again. But AR-15 says that there's something more she needs to do, and orders SOP II to protect M4. With Alchemist destroyed, the SF forces seem to be in disarray, but the mastermind is already here, and is raging at Alchemist’s failure and AR-15’s refusal to hand M4 over. In M4’s memory, we see her reject AR-15’s request to be ordered to smile. M4 says “This...is not what friends should be…I will keep waiting. Until the day you willingly do so”
Back in the present, M16A1 confronts AR-15, threatening to knock her out if that’s what it takes to bring her back. But AR-15 says that she can’t go back because of Parapluie, and is planning to confront the mastermind herself and save as many Griffin dolls as she can. As M16A1 begins evacuating everyone, AR-15 storms into the SF command center to confront the SF mastermind and reveals that she has lined the building with explosives. Unfortunately, this is only a remote controlled dummy of the mastermind, and not the real deal, but AR-15 can’t care at that moment as she still needs to save everyone. Raising the detonator, she shouts “Go to hell, Sagvis scum!” and sets off the explosives.
As she’s being taken to the helicopter, M4 wakes up next to M16 and asks where AR-15 is. M16 can only say that “She made her choice” and M4 sprints off back towards the battlefield. As she rushes toward the building in the center of the field, it explodes and M4 is only able to look on from the distance and ask ”why…” Soon after, M4 receives one last video message from AR-15:
“You know, M4A1, the first time I set eyes on this world, I was buzzing with thrill and curiosity. I'm not just any mass-produced T-Doll fabricated by IOP. I'm an elite developed by 16Lab itself. My biggest wish was to carry out many noble orders and make friends with many strong T-Dolls. Back then, I thought as long as I worked hard, I would become a shining star. But soon enough, my order came - I am to obey your command, and be forever shackled with the AR Team... The dumb and loud SOP-II, devil-may-care M16, and you, who can never seem to make up your mind... From that moment, all my possibilities were obliterated. I hate all of you, but I was powerless against my order.
But no matter. It actually doesn't matter, 'cause I just have to keep talking and doing things, and you'll end up needing me. No matter what you're like, as long as you need me, as long as I can rediscover my worth, I'm okay... In self-abandonment, I have always been exploiting your kindness and doing such horrid things... I'm so sorry. Only at the moment when I must leave you...did I realize my wish had been fulfilled long ago... I feel wholeheartedly glad...of every single person we've met, and every single thing we've done along the way... Which is why I must do something, so long as I can buy even just one second for you guys, so long as I can save one more companion...
It isn't much of an atonement since it's not face-to-face, but surely you'll still accept it through this video feed... M4A1... I have finally paid off what I owe you, haven't I? That is my final wish. With that, I no longer owe this world anything, right? But I can't stop thinking about how you'll burst into tears when you see me, the wimp that you are...
...I've been under the command of such a spineless weakling all this time... Seriously, how many times have you dragged me down? I really should hate you, shouldn't I...? Sadly, the time has come for us to part, M4A1. There's no time to keep such petty scores. You may feel sad; you may feel angry... You may remember me; or you may forget me... Whatever the case, just let this memory give you strength and make you even stronger... Well...take care, my friend...”
It is hard to describe just how much this scene impacted me the first time I saw it, and how much it continues to impact me whenever I return to it. This is truly the turning point of the story, and the midway climax of arc 1. This is no longer just a story of an AI uprising and a commander who's been tasked with stopping it. It is also a tragedy, through and through. The tragedy of the unknown could be felt earlier, but this moment is almost the exact showcase of what I mean.
It is already a tragedy in the regular sense, a friend must betray their team because of circumstances outside their control only to sacrifice themselves to save everyone, while finally giving M4 the smile she waited so long for. And yet, the event is made all the more tragic by so much of what we don’t know. Who is M4A1 really? What is Parapluie? And just… why? Why is Mastermind so interested in M4A1? Why couldn’t we save AR-15? Why is any of this happening? AR-15 mentions, albeit briefly, that she herself is searching for the truth. She wants to know why M4A1 is special, she wants to know what Parapluie is, and she wants to find out what the Mastermind is after. We are given hints to these answers. M4A1 is an elite T-Doll made by Persica at 16Lab. Parapluie is a T-Doll virus that affects their neural clouds. Mastermind wants to capture M4A1 because she’s special. AR-15 didn’t believe she could return to Griffin, and she left in order to find the truth. But these answers aren’t complete. There’s obviously something more to all of them but we don’t know what, and in the end the only thing anyone can do is what they need to protect the people they care about. And in AR-15’s case, she wasn’t able to find the answers she was looking for either. The only thing she could do was sacrifice herself to protect her friends from any enemy over a conflict she knew barely anything about. To die for reasons you don’t understand… is a truly tragic thing.
Chapter 7: Partner
In the aftermath of the battle, all the T-Doll’s involved have been quarantined while Persica finds a way to counteract the Parapluie virus. Unfortunately, this also makes the remaining members of the AR Team sitting ducks to be attacked by the SF Mastermind again. Despite their (and The Commander’s) best efforts, they are unable to stop the Mastermind from infiltrating the base. Inside, we see her knock out every single doll in mere seconds with an unknown electronic attack, all except M4A1. With the lights destroyed, the mastermind’s “tiny figure” approaches M4 and grabs her in a tight embrace as M4 can do nothing but scream.
On The Commander’s end of things, he comes into contact with a new T-Doll named RO635. RO was a member of the AR Team who has a standard neural cloud, but had left after a falling out with AR-15 during training. Coming back, Persica has equipped her with a megaphone and electronic warfare module to help her fight Parapluie and the SF mastermind. Just before the mastermind leaves with M4’s body, RO manages to wake up the remaining dolls and drive off the mastermind. Everyone seems to be saved, but M4 is entirely unresponsive. It seems like the mastermind has put her in a coma, and no one is able to wake her up. It hurts everyone to know that there is something wrong, yet unable to know why or how to fix it. With a new way to fight Parapluie, the quarantined dolls are released and the remaining AR Team members band together to find a way to save M4.
Chapter 7.5: Arctic Warfare
Some time later, Persica has managed to partially repair M4’s neural cloud, but she remains comatose and the imprint that let her wield her gun has been severed. While M16, SOP II, and RO are flying back to base from visiting M4 in Persica’s lab, their helicopter is shot down with a cannon by the Sangvis Ringleader Architect and her knight Gager. Team 404 is sent in to rescue the AR Team members, but they also encounter a few other stranded T-Dolls in need of rescue, including M1887 who has found a way to repair herself using Sangvis Ferri parts.
Despite their implied antagonistic past, UMP45 and M16 are able to work together, with RO acting as a de facto leader to help everyone get out. But due to her inexperience, she ends up needing to rely on UMP45, whom M16 warns will only do what’s necessary to complete her mission and probably won’t save M1887. Taking this caution to heart, RO is able to find a way to save everyone. At the end of the operation though, UMP45 goes to shake RO’s hand, and almost immediately she can feel her memories of the 404 Squad begin to slip away as UMP45 explains that her memories would’ve been erased back at base anyway along with everyone else. There is a reason Squad 404 is called “Those Who Don’t Exist”
It might not seem like much happens in this chapter, but the most important thing has to do with Architect, who actually surrenders to Griffin after Gager is defeated. Out of all the ringleaders we’ve seen so far, Architect is the most unique, not harboring any sort of hatred or animosity towards Griffin in particular. Rather, it seems she just enjoys big explosions and doesn’t really care about this whole conflict. After she gets imprisoned, it’s also revealed that Ouroboros’ core (basically her brain) was captured by Squad 404 and brought back to Griffin after Operation Cube.