Lynn was shaking as she stared down at the pristine earth below her, the lights of the night side of the planet meeting her eyes and reminding her of exactly what she was about to do. She was about to participate in the genocide of an entire species of innocent people… humans because they could do what? Turn you into a girl?

It was like the universe was taunting her, telling her the absurdity of the idea that she could ever be one herself. She would always be Lieutenant Mike Mallory. Lynn was just a stupid dream of a deluded, deranged mind. The woman she wanted to see when she looked in the mirror was a figment of her imagination, and any hope of becoming one was hopeless.

What else was the universe trying to tell her, by having her kill all those innocent people. Women and children… she guessed there were no men down there, but all of them had to go. She stared out the front of the observation deck and wanted to cry.

She would be the pilot for the operation, she would have that blood on her hands. She felt a boiling anger flow up into her heart as she threw her hand into the pure diamond window. It hurt, but the pain stabilized her thoughts.

“Mike, you alright?” A stern female voice asked. It was her commander, Commander Katelyn Larson, the woman who would be in the interface tank with her when the battle finally broke out.

“I’m not…” Lynn thought for a moment about what she wanted to say. “Permission to speak freely ma’am?”

“Granted.” Kate replied.

“I’m not enthused with the prospect of massacreing an entire planet.” Lynn said, clenching her hand.

“None of us are Lieutenant, but you’ve heard the briefing. They have an entire slave caste down there and if we don’t stop them, they won’t hesitate to do that to everyone they don’t agree with. We have to do this before the situation gets out of control.”

“I just… I wish things could turn out different.”

Lynn couldn’t tell her the truth, that she wished she could go down there, become somebody else… no become herself, and then go find a hole to cry in. She had nothing, she was nobody, a waste of space, and now she was going to get an entire species killed. It was easy to just sit by and let it happen and keep being a miserable stupid boy and not say what she wanted.

She would never be a woman, she didn’t deserve it. Her eyes locked onto the needle that her frigate was guarding… the one sitting right above one of Earth 721’s biggest population centers… ready to kill millions in mere hours.

“I wish they could too, Mike… but we have our duty.”

Lynn had joined the military of the United Condordat (Which was a slight misnomer given that the United Condordat was in practice a military that also acted as a democratic government) to get away from the judgemental rigid gender norms of her home, and yet still didn’t have the strength to tell anyone.

Maybe she was just a coward.

The intercom dinged, and the metal shell surrounding the observation lounge began to deploy.

‘All crew to battlestations, command indicates negotiations have broken down, Operation Sundial will begin in T-15 Minutes.

She didn’t have time to deliberate anymore. Lynn had work to do… grisly, terrible work.

She made her way to the ready room right next to the Commander’s and began to slip on her interface suit. After receiving the tingling sensation that informed her it had properly interfaced she double-checked everything. She avoided the mirror. She always avoided the mirror.

Next she had to put on the hood and the mask that would keep her from drowning in the interface fluid, which went on without much complaint. She had to keep her hair way shorter than she would like… at least the military paid for facial hair removal.

Once everything was equipped she made her way over to the bridge, where the commander was waiting and tapping her feet. Her face was obscured by her mask, just like Lynn’s was, so it was impossible to read her expression, but she clearly was nervous. “You’re just on time, Lieutenant, I was beginning to think you would be late.”

The bridge was spartan but bustling with activity. Radio operators sat and barked orders at other crew, the gun operators were all in their chairs waiting for the enemy to arrive, the sensor operators were staring at a map of the battle as they argued back and forth.

“You got out just before me, Commander” Lynn replied, a slight smile on her face.

“I wouldn’t know what you are talking about Lieutenant. I am always punctual.”

It was nice to have this little moment of levity before they did the deed so to speak… the deed of killing an entire species because of politics. But she was glad for it all the same. Maybe she could stomach it just a bit… for her own good.

Maybe.

Lynn climbed into the tank behind Kate, taking a seat in the pilots chair and letting her suit connect to the ship itself. Once Kate was inside she took a seat in her own chair and input some commands on her hand terminal, Lynn connected her air hose to the correct port and once Kate did the same, the tank closed and rapidly filled with gel.

The gel would help them remain awake during high G maneuvers and also helped with the overheating that the vast amount of data flooding through their minds could cause because they were about to have a lot of it.

The tank itself had nothing but two chairs, some buttons attached to each of them, and a big screen which made up the front of the tank itself. It was designed to keep the pilots alive and nothing more.

More tingles moved up Lynn’s spine as she began to gain her second sight, the ship's sensors and cameras granting her a full 360 degree view of the space around her, with the backup screen taking up the entirety of her meat vision from the position of the bridge.

It took a lot of practice to be able to use both the artificial sight and your actual sight when you piloted a vessel like this, but it was well worth it for the improved capabilities. While it was Lynn’s job to fly the UCN Ranger, Katelyn was there to direct the entire ship. Where to go, what to shoot at, what systems to have active or inactive at any point in time, the entire crew of 45 at her command.

The needle the Ranger was guarding took up most of her attention. Automated, sleek death machines, existing only for the purpose of indiscriminate destruction of a target. These were not precision weapons; they were weapons of total war.

They made Lynn sick to her stomach, but she didn’t think about that right now. The radio comms were finally patched through, and she could hear high command speaking.

‘To all Federation of 48 Vessels, prepare to begin Operation Sundial… Now. Hostiles inbound. Screen ships are to protect the SA ships at all costs. We’re on the defensive here.’

She flicked the comms to be active within her subfleet as well, their command and control craft crackling over the comms.

‘This is UCN Stargazer, your Command and Control for today Battlegroup 8. We have an enemy group moving to engage, keep that SA ship alive and we’ll be going home in no time.’

The level of nonchalance that everyone seemed to be treating a genocide with made Lynn sick, but she pushed it down, or more specifically, the interface suit stuck her with a nausea aid as a part of it’s normal stim package and she couldn’t quite feel sick anymore. Fun.

‘Ranger you have fighters coming up on your port side. Bearing 297’

“We read you Stargazer.” Kate replied, setting the ships point defense to target the more dangerous bombers, leaving the fighter screen to be dealt with by their own fighters.

Lynn began to move the ship to provide better firing arcs, rotating the ship to keep it in line while the gun crews did their best to handle the small bombers. It wouldn’t do to get sunk immediately, even if they deserved it.

Lynn hoped they lost. She desperately hoped they lost. She didn’t want to be responsible for this, but she couldn’t sabotage her side… right? She couldn’t risk the lives of her crew… they were counting on her.

To live… so they could commit more genocide.

The genocide of billions.

The Needle charged up it’s first round, a bright flash darkening the backup screen as it cut a streak across this earth's version of New York City. There were cheers over the radio, and even through the medications her nausea came back.

“A couple dozen more of those and we’ll be done here.” Kate said, sounding in awe of the weapons.

Lynn was not in awe. She felt creeping dread, as she watched fighters turn to wreckage, as she watched the needles further away begin their firing patterns, destroying large streaks of smaller cities, ten seconds of laser fire at a time.

Could she really do this? Could she really just let all those people die? She wanted to cry beneath her mask, she didn’t want to be responsible for this.

Lynn kept doing her duty. She couldn’t fail her crew now, she couldn’t. She couldn’t. She had to keep going.

An enemy battlegroup made their way towards her own, and they were about equally matched in forces. This could get bloody very quickly. Orders came in on who should fire at what, using the distributed battle network, and so the Ranger began opening up on another frigate from the opposing side.

Particle lances from her ship met X-Ray lasers from the enemy and and both ships rumbled as the shock bounced against shields.

It seems the enemy vessel was from the Alliance of Free Stars, one of the larger powers on the HCC side. This would be an actual difficult fight, and the longer this fight took, the longer the needle would have to obliterate the city below. Could she live with that?

Could she? Could she just…

Another bright flash from the needle, cutting another swath through the city.

“Mike, change course, bearing zero four five,” Kate said.

Lynn felt bile rise in her throat. Mike wasn’t her name. It wasn’t. It wasn’t her name. She hated hearing it. Tears began dripping down her face into her mask.

The needle was charging up again. How many would it kill this time? She knew the numbers, they expected 75% of the planet's population to be dead within 48 hours, with the rest takinig several months to burn out given the population density. Every single blast of that needle would kill millions.

“Mike? Bearing Zero Four Five!”

That wasn’t her name.

It wasn’t her name. She let out a broken sob as she changed course, not as directed though. She directed it towards the needle, full thrust, enough to shove the rest of the crew back into their seats, enough to ensure that nobody could stop her.

“Mike what the fuck are you doing? Are you fucking insane?”

“Not. My. Name.” She murmured through her crying. She was tired of this. She was tired of being used like this. She was tired of being Lieutenant Mike Mallory. She was Lynn. She hated her last name, she was getting rid of that too. She was Lynn. Just Lynn.

She redirected the shields to the front to maximize their chances of surviving the impact, 500 meters to impact, 9 Gs of thrust continuously. The rest of the ship would be well and truly knocked out.

‘Ranger you are out of-’ Lynn turned off the radio with a thought.

“What do you mean that’s not your name? Stop this Mike you need to fucking-”

“SHUT UP! I’M NOT MIKE! I’M NOT! STOP CALLING ME THAT!”

She began sobbing. 150 meters to go.

“Oh fuck- Mike you fucking TRAITOR!” Kate said, trying to push herself out of her seat to no avail.

She directed all weapons power to shields right before impact, ramming right through the needle, the screen went bright white as the ship rumbled, metal creaked, and electronics failed.

[Warning: Engaging backup lifesupport.]

Her senses went dead, the ship had nearly ripped itself to pieces as she heard the explosion of the needfle behind her. She had done it. She stopped them, she stopped it. She kept crying though. She was going to die.

Everyone on the ship was going to die. And she was fine with that. It saved people. She wasn’t a coward… at least until she felt herself pulled out of her chair by the commander, who began reaching for her neck.

Stupid survival instincts burned themselves into the forefront as Lynn Began struggling, managing to kick Kate away as the ship began to rumble.

“What the fuck is wrong with you? You get cold feet and get our entire crew killed? You traitorous little-”

Lynn pushed herself into Kate, punching would be useless here, it would be a game of grappling and pushing as the ship reentered the atmosphere, something neither of them could check on given that every ship system had failed catastrophically on impact.

“You can’t kill them! They didn’t do anything wrong!”

“Oh slavery is just ok?” Kate said turning the tide and shoving Lynn up against the back of the tank. They could hear the ship shudder and groan as it fell from orbit. Lynn was starting to be choked.

She felt her airways constricted as she struggled limply.

“What the hell were you running from? Why do you have to be such a fucking coward? You’re a fucking man aren’t you?”

Lynn kept crying as she let out desperate attempts to bring air into her lungs. She needed to be honest. She coudn’t go on the record as a-a man.

“N-Not… Not… A… Man…” Lynn croaked with what little air she had left.

This was where it ended. She would be choked out and die here in the interface tank with nothing left. She would die in a body she hated. That was fine. She didn’t deserve to live for what she had already done.

She could go to hell and rot there for all eternity. It’s what she deserved for betraying everyone who ever cared about her because she was a coward.

Unfortunately, death would not come so easy.

Right as Lynn was about to black out, there was a tearing of metal as the front of the ship detached from the rear, sending them tumbling in the atmosphere. Lynn was released by the rotation and took gasping breaths as she was shoved into the side of the tank. The spinning stopped just soon enough for Lynn to try and hold Kate down, pushing her into the side.

“You- no, i don’t believe it. Fuck you! Fuck you Mike! You don’t get to just back out of this.”

The ship spun again and they were thrown against each other and across the room, knocking the air out of Lynn’s lungs and giving Kate the opportunity to try and rip her face mask off. That would kill her for sure, so Lynn once more used her legs to get her away.

They must be getting close to a crash now; there was no way they weren’t, she just had to stay alive until then, and she might just live… she might get to die in a body she liked, and she could write her name in her own blood so she wouldn’t be remembered as… As Mike Mallory.

The idea, of dying as Lynn… was too intoxicating to give up. She had turned the tables and began trying to force off Kate’s mask. She would survive until the crash. She had to. She had to…

Lynn and Kate were on opposite sides of the tank when the ship slammed into the earth. The tank was ejected from the front of the ship through the windows of the bridge and crashed right down the middle, ripping it in half and spilling its contents into the world. Lynn was ejected, tumbling to the earth in agonizing pain.

She flipped one, two, three, four times, before eventually tumbling into a tree. Her vision was blurred as she stared up at the top of the tree, her breathing heavy as the shock fell over her. She had somehow… somehow survived.

Her vision slowly cleared, and she looked down to find her interface suit ripped to shreds, and she was bleeding profusely from all over, her arm was shattered, her calf bone stuck through her skin and was visible from there, and her body was bloodstained and broken.

She was going to die… but the changes were rapid. She knew it from the briefing. If she could stay awake for a few more minutes she might be able to die as a girl. That was nice.

She looked over and saw Katelyn, somewhat down the hill she was on, slowly crawling up. There was rage in her face, but she only had one hand to crawl with, so progress was slow.

Lynn had enough time to lay under this tree.

She saw the mangled foresection of the Ranger in front of her, in the forest that the hill was at the edge of. The mangled remains of the tank had been ejected more than 100 meters away, which probably helped dissipate the energy of the impact quite a bit.

Lynn was lucky.

She looked down and saw something strange, something she wasn’t quite expecting, her skin was becoming pure white… and hardening. It took on an unnatural pallor, and any marks or imperfections were gone from it in a moment.

The bones that stuck out of her began to shift, moving back to their proper positions and fusing in moments… but that didn’t make sense. She wasn’t supposed to have bones.

Right? Why were there bones?

Wait, no that didn’t make sense either… humans had bones?

Was she human?

She felt like it was supposed to be… no she was a she? What… why was thinking so hard? It-she? No… this was… it felt confused, what was the question again?

Oh right, was it human?

What a strange question for it to ask. Of course it wasn’t. It only became more obvious as its joints began to change, from it- no she looked with awe as her joints turned into hard, wonderful ball joints. It was pleased at this change.

She-It? Lynn smiled more as every joint popped and changed before her, turning into perfect orbs, and as her proportions changed to match them. She-It… yes It could feel its hair grow into a nice wavy mane that made it down past her shoulders.

The further away it got from human the happier it became, like all of the responsibility and weight just began to flutter away from it. Why did it need to worry? It could just be still. A still mind was a happy mind.

Soon its breathing stopped entirely. It didn’t need to do that anymore. Lungs were for humans, and Lynn wasn’t a human. What was it Lynn was, though? It was at the tip of her tongue, important… hmm.

It seems the stillness was seeping into its thoughts. Without somebody around to give it purpose, it could just sit there placidly. Maybe somebody would find it eventually. It supposed that Miss Katelyn could give it something to do.

Wait… Miss Katelyn wanted to kill it did she not? Should it defend itself? No it wasn’t a fighter. If Miss Katelyn decided it deserved to die, it probably did. People tended to know better than it did.

Did it want something else before? It felt like it did… it felt like it should be terrified of what was happening to it, but it felt like it was counterproductive to worry about things without being asked to. It could just sit nice and still and wait for somebody to come and give it purpose.

She… Lynn… It wanted to look at itself more… it could feel herself changing and it wanted to delight in the changes before it was too still to think about much of anything. That was a good thing.

Lynn smiled as she watched a soft chest grow in, as the bulge between her-it…it? It was an it. The thing between its legs evaporated into pleasant nothingness. She was not particularly well endowed; whatever it was, it was supposed to be cute.

Lynn giggled in euphoria. It was correct; it was proper. It was a very good do-

It was brought out of its thoughts when it was picked up under the shoulders by a woman who looked to be half woman, half machine, with the machine winning out more minute by minute. The various injuries were being wiped off of her by the encroaching metal.

“What did you do to me, you little traitor? Why did you do it?”

Miss Katelyn seemed to be turning into some kind of machine, and the half of her face that was still human was pouring tears.

“I I- iiiii” No that wasn’t how it was supposed to speak. Second try. “Mmmmmmmee-My-m-myyyyy…”

No, that wasn’t it… how was it supposed to speak. It probed around and tried something else, tried to speak what came naturally rather than what it wanted to say.

“This one apologizes Miss. It did not want to help in the genocide of an entire species. It is sorry that it led to the deaths of the rest of the crew. It also… didn’t want to die as a man.”

“What do you mean you-” Miss Katelyn’s face twisted into shock, then rage as Miss Katelyn’s transformation rapidly progressed, the rest of her human form gone in an instant.

Miss Katelyn was a robot, that was true… Lynn looked down at itself and found that it had turned into a-... Oh! A doll. Yes. Lynn was a doll.

“You mean to tell me that you killed 43 people and turned us both into FREAKS because you wanted to be a woman? You could have just gotten hormones! It would have been easy! It would have been so fucking easy. One talk with the med bay, and you would have been a pretty girl in months, but you…”

Miss Katelyn extended a blade from her arm.

“You’re fucking scum.” Katelyn said, and Lynn knew it to be true.

Lynn was a traitor. Perhaps it could alleviate Miss Katelyn’s anger. “This one did not intend to live Miss. Please kill it if that is what you desire.”

Miss Katelyn seemed to take this poorly as Lynn was then punched in the face with a great deal of force, cracking its perfect features but not shattering them. Katelyn then began kicking, stabbing, and screaming.

Lynn just sat there, crying. This is what it deserved. It was a traitor after all. It was not worth the space it took up. The beating continued for some time, Lynn stopped paying attention how long after a few minutes, more and more of the dolls features cracking and breaking.

It simply sat against the tree, taking its beating. It decided to take a good look at Miss Katelyn before it died.

Miss Katelyn was now approximately 6’1”. Her skin was a matte silver, with eyes that glowed pure red at the current moment. She had long legs which turned into heels at the bottom and hair that burned the same fiery red as her eyes.

She was very pretty. It was a shame that Miss Katelyn wanted Lynn dead, but Lynn did deserve it.

After a few more minutes of beatings, Lynn saw something approaching from the sky, along with the rumbling of a jet engine. It seemed that somebody had noticed the crash and was coming to investigate.

This was not good. That means Lynn might be rescued, something it didn’t deserve, but there is little it could do about this fact, so it lay there and continued to be hit… oh Miss Katelyn had stopped hitting it, and had picked it up, before holding a blade to the doll's neck.

“WHY AREN’T YOU FIGHTING BACK? YOU’RE JUST SITTING THERE!” Katelyn said, screaming at the top of her lungs.

“This one is not a fighter Miss. It will accept its punishment for its actions.”

“You’re just a fucking coward, aren’t you? A little fucking coward! Too afraid to be a fucking man so you fuck both of us for life and get everyone killed and can’t even be assed to stand up for your own actions!”

“Of course Miss. This one is sorry it didn’t die for its actions. Please kill it if it would make you feel better.” The doll didn’t notice the tears falling down its face.

Miss Katelyn screamed before throwing the doll down the hill. The naked doll rolled and rolled, cracking a few more times, before falling at the feet of a squad of armored women who had just emerged from a VTOL.

Each of them lacked a helmet, but had a Caduceus in red with a white background on their shoulder. Clearly search and rescue. Each had some kind of carbine and a handgun, despite their varying physiologies they did look cohesive as a unit.

“Holy fuck!” One of the girls at the back said, pushing her way in front of her comrades, so she could drag Lynn away behind the others, into the ship.

It was in quite a lot of pain all things considered, so it didn’t even bother to move as it was laid down on the floor of the VTOL. The lady helping her had little yellow moth antennae sticking out of her head, and Moth wings sticking out of her back. She was very pretty.

“Don’t worry, we have you little doll. You’ll be alright.” The lady said. “Just stay right here ok? I need to go grab my doll kit from the front.”

Lynn had been distracted from what was going on outside, where the other three women were confronting Miss Katelyn, who had her blades out and was incensed.

“You fucking freaks can’t be serious. I am not going to just come with you.” Miss Katelyn said.

“Ma’am, you have not only committed war crimes by participating in the genocide of our species, you have committed actual crimes by assaulting a doll.” The leading soldier said. She seemed to be some kind of slime girl.

“That little traitor got 43 people killed!” Katelyn shouted. “Why does it matter that she turned into a-”

“Dolls aren’t people. They aren’t responsible for their actions any more than a dog or cat. If somebody turns into a doll, it was because they were broken and desperate to the point that they hollow themselves out to escape the pain. That’s why it sat there and let you hurt it.” The slime said. “So come with us or I will make you.”

“This one d-deserves it though…” Lynn croaked, her voice shaky from the pain and damage.

The women out front clearly couldn’t hear it, but the Moth had returned with a kit containing various strange instruments. “Don’t say that dear, you aren’t responsible for things like that anymore. You deserve to be happy, and we’re gonna make sure it happens.”

It still felt like a traitor… but it decided to be quiet. Miss Katelyn seemed to have decided to fight, and tried to stab the slime woman through the head, but…well she was made of slime. So the slime lady just looked up at the robot with a frown before blasting her with some kind of blue energy out of her pistol that caused Miss Katelyn to fall over.

“Alright, ladies let's get out of here before a needle decides to scorch this place.” The slime said as everyone made their way inside.

The door at the back closed, and the VTOL began to shake, leaving the doll alone with the four soldiers… her enemies just hours ago.

“This one assumes Miss Katelyn, and I will be POWs…” Lynn asked, before looking away from everyone. “It deserves the worst treatment imaginable.”

The moth opened her mouth to speak but caught a glance from the slime and quieted down. The slime leaned down to Lynn. “Not you sweetie. You aren't a threat to anyone. If you were, you wouldn’t have become a doll. ‘Miss Katelyn’ However will be processed as a POW, especially given how much she hurt you.”

Lynn didn’t know how to feel about this, but it wasn’t given much time to think about things, as the slime lady asked it another question. “What’s your name sweetheart? Do you have one yet?”

“This one is Lynn miss. It wishes to not have to think of its last name ever again. Can it be rid of it? Please?” Desperation was clearly leaking into its voice as it asked the final question.

“Of course sweetie. We wouldn’t make you keep a name you don’t like. Lynn it is. I’m Sergeant Allison Werner, I run this Search and Rescue team. The moth is Corporal Renner, the dog girl is Private Patterson, and the Bun is Private Lafayette.

The dog girl and the bunny girl waved, both were very pretty. Corporal Renner spoke softly. “We’re going to be taking you to a bunker complex in New York, where we’ll get you triaged, before moving Katelyn here to a military complex. I’ll be staying with you though, isn’t that nice? My name is Sarah by the way~”

It was nice, Lynn wanted to admit. Miss Renner was very nice to it. It wished it could return the favor, but it was broken right now. There wasn’t much it could do however Miss Renner's time was probably still better spent helping actual people.

“Your time would be better spent elsewhere Miss Renner.” The doll said.

“Sweetie, you have been through a very traumatic event. I’m going to be with you until we decide that you’re healthy emotionally and physically. Dolls tend to do better with a consistent figure in their life to provide stability, and SAR teams keep somebody like me with training to provide it in case doll transformations happen on the battlefield. We haven’t had a war in a long time but it’s been standard practice since The Big One.”

Oh. Lynn didn’t like that it was wasting resources… but it couldn’t dissuade her.

Lynn finally decided to pay attention to what the moth was doing…she appeared to be applying a sort of paste into all of her cracks with a small caulk gun, ensuring all her pieces were pressed together.

“Girls like you are very resilient, but if you have cracks we need to make sure the pieces stay in until they can heal properly, turns out caulk is pretty useful for that.”

“This one appreciates your consideration for its safety Miss Renner but it hardly-”

“No self-deprecation doll. Ok?” Miss Renner said, patting it on the head.

The doll felt a tingling in its stomach at the order. A task! It could do a task. Dolls were good at tasks. It knew this much! And from such a pretty lady too. It truly was blessed day.