Story/Summary

"I can't sleep yet, I still have work to do..."

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This is an overview of the main plot points and beats of the story of Girls' Frontline in order of release.

Episode 1 - Awakening

A new commander in the Private Military Company Griffin & Kryuger takes their functions in the base of Area S09, in a region threatened by the rogue Tactical Dolls of the company Sangvis Ferri. They meet their logistics officer, Kalina, and are quickly assigned by G&K's second-in-command Helian to counter a sudden enemy deployment. The Commander's forces capture an enemy ringleader, Scarecrow, who self-destructs before they can interrogate her. Scarecrow learned the position of SF's target, the T-Doll M4A1, and entrusted her capture to another ringleader, Executioner.

Episode 2 - Echo

After the Commander's forces spot M4A1 and Executioner, G&K command, impressed by the Commander's previous performance, places them under Persica, a scientist from IOP. Persica is the creator of M4A1 and her squad, the AR Team, who had been collecting data in SF territory. Persica orders the Commander to find and assemble all members of AR Team.

The Commander manages to track down M4A41 and help her defeat Executioner. However, G&K command suspects that Executioner was able to track down M4 efficiently because their network has been breached.

Episode 3 - Silence

During the Commander's counter-offensive, M4A1 is reunited first with M4 SOPMOD II, then with ST AR-15, who let herself be captured by the ringleader Hunter to infiltrate SF's command system. AR-15 dodges the question when M4 asks her how she performed the hacking.

Episode 4 - Message

The Commander is tasked to assist the extraction of a covert team called Squad 404, who was investigating the site where AR Team got separated, then confront the ringleader Intruder. Meanwhile, a member of Squad 404, HK416, tracks down the last missing member of AR Team, M16A1, seeking revenge. M16 beats 416 and brings her back to Squad 404, and 404's leader, UMP45, warns M16 that Sangvis Ferri is preparing a major operation.

Episode 0 - Seed

With AR Team now assembled, M4 explains to the Commander how they got separated.

A month before, Persica deployed AR Team to the site called Safe House 3 in Sangvis Ferri territory. Their mission was to recover data from SF's main scientist before the T-Dolls uprising, the late Lycoris. When AR Team breaks into the database, they are attacked by the powerful ringleader Agent, who was waiting for them to crack the database's password. To complete the mission, AR Team decided to scatter to split the SF forces in pursuit.

Episode 5 - Kindling

The data recovered by Squad 404 has reveals that Sangvis Ferri is preparing an operation called Plan Parapluie. G&K's CEO Kryuger summons the Tactical Commanders to a secret base to convene on a counterplan, but their location is leaked and SF troops commanded by Destroyer and Dreamer launch an attack to take down G&K. Kryuger leaves the Commander in charge of AR Team, warning that M4 is of special importance. The attack is eventually pushed back and the source of the leak is revealed to be AR-15, who had previously been infected by SF's Parapluie virus back during her fight with Hunter. AR-15 runs away to track down the SF ringleaders herself, and leaves behind information to let G&K counter Plan Parapluie.

Episode 5.5 - Operation Cube

During the campaign against Destroyer and Dreamer, G&K hires Squad 404 to investigate a jammer in Area S06. They fight against Hunter, then Executioner, who are under the command of Ouroboros, a new ringleader who lacks the camaraderie of other ringleaders. Squad 404 exploits Executioner's loyalty by exchanging information about Ouroboros against Hunter's remains, which allows them to escape the explosion of the trapped jammer. Overconfident that her trap worked, Ouroboros is cornered by 404 and abandoned by Agent. 404 walks away with the intel recovered on Ouroboros' corpse, but 45 has unknowingly been infected by the same Parapluie virus as AR-15.

Episode 6 - Comet

As AR Team and Squad Negev do battle against Alchemist in Area S08, AR-15 kidnaps M4 on behalf of the Sangvis Mastermind. Both are interested in uncovering the reasons behind M4's creation, but M4 herself doesn't have access to this data and Mastermind orders AR-15 killed and M4 captured. The G&K Dolls retreat before the massive approach of SF troops, but AR-15 remains behind and takes down Mastermind's local body in a suicide bombing. AR-15 left a message for M4, where she bares her heart about hating her at first, due to her prime order to protect M4 conflicting with her ambition to become a respected Tactical Doll, but eventually came to admire her abilities for leadership, even if she was imperfect. While M4 is left mourning, Mastermind struggles to understand why AR-15 sacrificed herself for her friend.

Episode 7 - Partner

After the battle in Area S08, the Griffin Dolls are quarantined in Area S05 while 16Lab is developing measures against the Parapluie virus. Loss and boredom have amde M4 very irritable, but she's forced to return to her usual self when Mastermind attacks the detention center. She manages to break into M4's Neural Cloud, but she's saved by Persica's latest T-Doll, RO635. M4 is left in a catatonic state by the electronic attack, and RO temporarily takes over as AR Team's leader. RO demonstrates her abilities during a punitive operation against the ringleader who assisted Mastermind, Dreamer.

Neural Upgrade story - ST AR-15

It's revealed that following AR-15's suicide bombing against Elisa in Episode 6, Angelia hired Squad 404 to collect AR-15's mangled remained before transferring her neural cloud to an upgraded body as an addition to her team, Task Force DEFY. Despite her reticence to act under orders again, AR-15 joins DEFY to find out what she's worth without AR Team.

Minor Event - Maze Guess

At some unstated point in the past, AR Team carried Operation Viper under the command of Angelia. Persica finds that the team's performance was much higher than their specifications should allow, and she decides to run a controlled experiment to determine the source of the discrepancy.

While AR Team is facing increasingly difficult versions of Operation Viper by relying on Angelia's command patterns, two control groups go through similar ordeals. The first control group is made of average Griffin and Kryuger T-Dolls who receive no instructions, but decide to confront the test to demonstrate their pride even when competing against the elite AR Team. The second control group is made of underperforming T-Dolls, but are placed under a commander candidate who refuses to consider their performance a done deal.

At the end of the tests, all three teams manage to defy Persica's expectations due to the influence of human commanders. Persica's experiment comes to an abrupt end when Angelia bursts into her lab to free her team and force Persica to sleep.

Episode 15.1 - The Summer Garden of Forking Paths

The towers of Avernus crumble as the "Expedition" to the Dead Sea comes to a close on October 23rd, 2064. William has been captured, but the main objective, saving Angelia, couldn't be completed. The Earl demands that the Commander turns William over to the Stasi, but they refuse, fearing that the Earl's plan was never to destroy Paradeus, but only to control it. Since her return from Avernus, Dandelion has been acting as if in a daze, and she cryptically addresses Erma, saying that she'll soon have "something" to give her. As a weary Commander is about to interrogate William and the Elmo landship makes its way outside the Dead Sea, all Dolls aboard suddenly crash, and when they come to, Dandelion, the Commander and William have disappeared.

Erma and AR-18 are contacted by another Hume Doll, who asks them to come to Frankfurt so they can enter the Summer Garden in Erma's mind and find the necessary information to save the Commander from Paradeus. Going ahead alone to Frankfurt, Erma meets the Hume Doll Stevens M520, who was once Erma's friend but now resents her for breaking a promise Erma has long forgotten through her many resets. Erma also meets Natalie, who was once Hume's maidservant and was the one who called 520 and Erma to Frankfurt to execute Hume's will by activating the Great Palace, a special location within the Summer Garden. In the Great Palace, they're joined by another former friend, the Doll who observed the lives of Hume and his Dolls from inside the Summer Garden, Stevens M620, and start exploring the memories they can now access to search for Hume's legacy.

Revisiting the memory that caused Erma to seek the Colt Express, they first learn that Hume earned funding by lending his credibility to the Fox Sisterhood, a criminal syndicate specialized in scams led by the Ponzi sisters, Maggie and Catherine. They also learn that Hume was caught in a Relic incident centuries ago, which stopped him and Misha's aging process, and granted Hume the ability to sink several lifetimes' fortunes into "Project Pilot Whale", his quest to emulate the human brain based on "GRCh38", or "Spring", the revelation he received at the same time as the incident. While Misha actively took part in steering mankind's history, Hume sought to preserve the scientific purity of his research until his lack of funding eventually forced him to rely on the Sisterhood for funding, and to publish every update of his paper "Human Intelligence Research" on the black market. By sharing his paper, Hume hoped someone would succeed where he couldn't, and got his wish when Laplace bought it and conducted the Holy Grail Project, which eventually led to the creation of Nytos.

As 520 grows impatient, she reveals her personal objective in the search for Hume's legacy: she wants to use Hume's own technology to resurrect him, then force him to give her back all of her memories that he deleted so she can feel complete. They find three springs deeper in the Summer Garden, labeled "Lunasia", "Nadia" and "Erma", and entering Erma's, they find "the King" of the Great Palace, Erma's base layer, which is the source of her ability to retain memories through resets. Erma needs to fuse with the King to gain complete control over the Summer Garden and acquire Hume's legacy, but she realizes that the memories about herself and Hume she's been searching for are only making her unhappy, and she runs away so she won't remember more.

Erma is stopped by Natalie, whose real identity is revealed to be Catherine Ponzi. Executing Hume's will was only a pretext for Catherine to force Erma to merge with the King, in order to resurrect her dead sister Maggie. With 520's help, Erma starts destroying the Summer Garden, but they're forced to flee down the Nadia spring, which takes them to the Lake of Cognition due to both constructs being based on GRCh38's template. They meet the minds of Sana and the Nytos killed in Avernus, who're waiting for Lunasia to save them. Erma, who had been feeling powerless to make a positive impact on the world, finally decides to merge with the King to become the "future Erma", one of the three entities along with the "complete Lunasia" and the "false Nadia" capable of reaching Nirvana. With this power, Erma sets Sana free and destroys the Summer Garden and herself, ensuring mankind can never misuse the full power of GRCh38. Passing the information about the Nadia and Lunasia springs to Dandelion, she entrusts her friends to destroy them.

The consequence of the destruction of Erma's spring is later felt by the Nytos during Zero Charge.

Episode 15.2 - Cartesian Theater

After M4A1, M16A1 and Elisa were caught in the Reverse Collapse phenomenon at the end of the Paldiski Incident, they wound up in Tarot Paradise, an esoteric space where an entity called Laplace's Demon and its Fae lackeys brought Dolls from multiple world lines and forced them to take part in a battle royale to find an adequate sacrifice to allow the resurrection of Lunasia.

M16, who has been given the powers of The Wheel of Fortune, is found by the Fae of Wands, who informs her she'll be able to find M4 if she kills other Dolls and collect their tarot cards. The same occurs with Elisa, who's designated as The Hanged Man by the Fae of Pentacles. Elisa summons Scarecrow and grants her the Major Arcana of Death to search for M4 and collect cards, but Scarecrow is defeated by alternate versions of ST AR-15, RO635 and M4 SOPMOD II, respectively designated as The Star, Justice and The Fool. The alternate AR Team is also searching for M4: in their world line, M16 died in Paldiski, then the Commander and M4 were killed during the Battle of Frankfurt. Following intel from a mysterious "Leinad Kcaj", they returned to the Paldiski Starfish to enter Tarot Paradise, where world lines converge, and alter the past.

As the battle royale goes on and the Faes plot against each others to support their chosen champions, M4, designated as The World, awakens in what appears to be a reproduction of Lunasia's family life with her strict and sickly mother, and her temperamental genius little brother William. Lunasia is the only person who unconditionally supports William despite his hatred for the rest of the world. Everyone around M4 insists that Lunasia, a transdimensional messiah who can save the world from violence and decay, is her true identity and her memories as M4 are delusions. M4 slowly assumes her new role until she doesn't recognize AR Team.

M16 and the alternate AR Team defeat Elisa but are attacked by M4, and SOP-II is killed before they can use Leinad Kcaj's Wheel of Fortune card to make M4 recover her senses. AR Team kills Laplace's Demon, who uses its final strength to summon Lunasia, and Tarot Paradise reverts to its original appearance, revealing that they are inside one of the springs previously discovered by Erma. Lunasia, who aims to become a savior despite being dispassionate about the world, orders AR Team to sacrifice themselves so that M4 can become complete and surrender her mind to her, becoming a perfected vessel. To convince them to comply, Lunasia let M4 temporarily borrow her reality-altering powers so she can save the Commander, leading to the events at the end of Mirror Stage and Poincaré Recurrence. M4 laments that her willingness to be sacrificed always causes others to be sacrificed with her, and AR Team accepts to be sacrificed to resurrect Lunasia, if she can save the Commander.

The awakened Lunasia briefly makes contact with Dandelion when she investigates the Lake of Cognition during the battle in Avernus, leaving a strong impression. M16 awakens in a liminal dimension in possession of The Wheel of Fortune, realizing that she herself is the Leinad Kcaj who guided the alternate AR Team to Tarot Paradise, creating a time loop as one of the methods she used across many world lines in her quest to save M4. M16 eventually awakens in the physical world, having been recovered from the ruins of Paldiski by Havier Witkin, and accepts to work for Statesec, leading to her rescue of M4 during Poincaré Recurrence and her fight against RPK-16 during Slow Shock.

Episode 15.3 - Zero Charge

After finding the empty Elmo outside the Dead Sea, Romy Riefenstahl returns to the Stasi's HQ in Frankfurt. She recalls all senior agents to take part in the upcoming National Defense Council, but many arrive late due to a police operation slowing down all incoming traffic in Frankfurt. Agent Q has brought back Colonel Dupieux from the Neo-Soviet border, and Romy orders her to interrogate him about the origins of Statesec's investigations on Shaw. Romy also reveals that Evangelist, the German agent who was supposed to let Dupieux through the border, and also the person who recruited Nemhran as a double agent and enabled her to access the Bee Sting System, has been killed. Evangelist's authority over Bee Sting is transferred to Q, marking the return of Bee Sting under the Stasi's complete control. Dupieux reveals that Shaw's file is a complete fabrication, since everyone who knew about Shaw's past was killed by an unknown party when she disappeared in 2062. The only remaining clue is that Shaw's sister, Sofya, was related to the Pandora Anti-Relic Organization. Soon after, Shaw's body is found in the morgue of a Moscow hospital, two years after her disappearance.

Embla, the person resulting from the fusion of ^MG RPK-16RPK-16RPK-16's Neural Cloud with Angelia's body, is enjoying her new human life in Frankfurt. She compares her situation to a Faustian pact with the devil. Morridow, in charge of monitoring her, is frustrated to see Embla enjoy the emotions and self-indulgence she hates in humans. On a walk on the Eiserner Steg bridge, Embla is attacked by ^AR AK-15AK-15AK-15 and flees, only leaving her with the clue that her motivations are contained in her new name: Embla Petrovskaya. When AK-15 relays the information to ^AR AN-94AN-94AN-94, 94 explains that Petrovskaya was Shaw's real name. Task Force DEFY is the first Statesec force in Frankfurt, but they are limiting their activities due to ^AR AK-12AK-12AK-12's unstable emotional state. 12 is blaming herself for giving RPK-16 authority over DEFY back in Berlin, and is disgusted by her current body, a Paradeus creation that she had to use to escape the destruction of Avernus. AK-12 finally snaps out of her rut after M16A1 announces that DEFY must pick up ^MG Stevens M520Stevens M520Stevens M520 to prepare for the upcoming operation, and calls her unworthy of leading DEFY in her current state.

On Paradeus' side, Nemhran is taking stock of their available resources after the loss of Avernus. Nemhran herself, Bramedb and Morridow are the last Paradeus command units since the defeat at Avernus, but Laplace leaves the execution of Operation Cocoon to her, as Laplace wants to focus on her final experiment now that the "key" has manifested. Before the Nytos can complete their preparations, they remotely feel the destruction of the Lake of Cognition (due to Erma's actions at the end of The Summer Garden of Forking Paths) and flee when AK-15 launches an assault on their temporary base. DEFY next infiltrates Frankfurt's White Zone to gather data about Shaw's past, and finally confront Embla in the Alte Oper opera house, where she intends to put on her "All Hallows' Eve" show and publicly reveal Paradeus' technology to the world to gain popular support. Bramedb ensure that the events of the theater are broadcast in the city, but right after claiming to be immortal, Embla allows AK-12 to kill her, ruining Paradeus' show of strength.

A flashback reveals that RPK is not originally a Doll, but Shaw's AI assistant Nadia. Shortly after RPK was created, she witnessed Shaw's assassination, but didn't reveal it to the rest of DEFY while she investigated the identity of the murderer. RPK eventually learned that Shaw's technological advancements aimed to replace the use of Relic Technology, which she deemed to be a Pandora's Box. Her ideal conflicted with the plans of the world's leaders, who had her killed. In Bremen, the Earl secretly contacted RPK and ordered her to infiltrate Avernus and steal Paradeus' technology, causing RPK's betrayal. RPK used her unconventional neural cloud to save AK-12 from the attack on DEFY's safehouse in Berlin, and transported her all the way to Avernus so she could take the role of Koleda. After undergoing the surgical operation planned for Lunasia as a test run, RPK became an imperfect Relic key by assembling the three necessary elements for using Nirvana: a connection (through the Evangel Axis), a vessel body and a powerful AI mind. She used her power to go backwards in time, access Tarot Paradise and take the identity of Laplace's Demon, orchestrating the events of Cartesian Theater.

Neural Upgrade story - AK-12

After the discovery of Shaw's body, funeral wakes take place in Moscow and Frankfurt to honor her contributions to engineering. Wandering alone, a despondent ^AR AK-12AK-12AK-12 reflects on her past with her creator, and with Angelia, the commander who taught her the weight of taking human lives. This was part of Shaw's main disagreement with Angelia, as Shaw considered that Dolls should be free of emotions and considered Angelia an oppressor for teaching them.

Soon after, AK-12 confronts the "gift" left for her by ^MG RPK-16RPK-16RPK-16: a copy of Nadia, the AI that was used as RPK-16's base. AK-12's current body is the most advanced Doll frame ever created, originally made by Paradeus for RPK-16. However, RPK had no interest in it, instead aiming to take over Angelia's body, and RPK instead asked Morridow to give it to AK-12, leaving the "gift" inside. AK-12 starts deleting Nadia, treating her as the last trace of RPK's existence, and Nadia pleads for her life, arguing that she's not the same as RPK. AK-12 hesitates, but eventually goes through deleting Nadia when she starts mocking her in the same fashion as RPK did.

With Nadia contained, AK-12 finally returns to DEFY's safe house with a pack of vodka. ^AR AK-15AK-15AK-15 attacks her for killing RPK-16 in her place and the fight takes the same turn as their first duel, except it ends before any of them is hurt when ^AR AN-94AN-94AN-94, having served the vodka to their individual preferences, invite them to drink. Putting aside their grudges, DEFY toast Shaw, Angelia and their future, but only AN-94 toasts Nadia.

Episode 15.4 - Angular Gyrus

Following the explosion of the Alte Oper, announced as a Doll terrorist attack, the city of Frankfurt imposes the Interim Regulations for Doll Security, which prevents the Elmo Dolls from entering the city to search for the Commander. ^AR AR-18AR-18AR-18 receives a message for the Commander sent by Nele, who is asking to meet the Commander to investigate the impersonation of Professor Gray. Pretending that the Commander is merely busy, AR-18 asks Nele to first use her family's status to help the Griffin Dolls enter the city. Nele obtains access permits from her cousin Meyer, enabling Squad 404, AR-18, Hertha and Cross to join ^AR Stevens M520Stevens M520Stevens M520, M16A1 and Task Force DEFY.

Next, while Paradeus is distracted by attacks on several of their bases by DEFY, and by the appearance of fake data about a new edition of Hume's Human Intelligence Research, Squad 404 infiltrates the Bee Sting System to find the Commander's location. During the mission, ^AR HK416HK416HK416 reveals her intention to take over as Squad 404's leader, as ^SMG UMP45UMP45UMP45 is becoming more and more swayed by her emotions. They manage to find the coordinates, but are attacked by Nemhran as they pull out and 416 is secretly infected by a virus prepared by the Nyto in charge of Frankfurt, Hebe, who's impersonating a former movie star and friend of Nele's family. Since the Commander is held in the White Zone, Nele is tasked to reconnoiter the grounds. Nele enters the White Zone to visit her grandfather, former Minister of Health Vogt with whom she's not in good terms, and runs into agent J who shows her around. Before J can catch on to Nele's plan, the White Zone is breached as the Commander escapes their prison.

All the while, the Commander had been into Lunasia's custody in a house of the White Zone. Because the personalities and memories of ^AR M4A1M4A1M4A1 and Dandelion are blended with Lunasia's, she's been rejected as imperfect by William, who is using her to monitor the Commander as a bargaining chip. Lunasia's mind is unstable and she acts both kind, possessive and cruel towards the Commander, who responds by testing her limits. Lunasia eventually admits defeat when she refuses to cut the Commander's throat and let them go, and the Commander kidnaps her. The Commander, the Dolls and Nele, along with the captured Lunasia and J, escape the White Zone with DEFY's help, but 416's virus activates during the escape. To prove herself worthy of leading 404, 416 doesn't attempt to escape the virus, instead managing to extract some data from it before it corrupts her Neural Cloud.

The data reveals more about the connection between Morridow and Machlian. Both of them, along with a third Nyto called Badbsca, were part of Project Cocoon in Frankfurt. Cocoon was Paradeus' plan B in case Laplace's research proved fruitless: it entailed the capture of individuals with partial immunity after identifying them with Iaso's Boxes, and the integration of their mind in a framework that would let them be reborn every time they are killed, another iterative approach to the creation of a fully-immune individual. When M4 bargained with Morridow in Berlin, she taught her a way to absorb Machlian and Badbsca and attain the perfection she sought. With the destruction of the channel to the Lake of Cognition by ^SMG ErmaErmaErma, Project Cocoon has become critical for Paradeus to build a secondary channel, and they activate the Iaso's Boxes hidden in Frankfurt.

Episode 15.5 - Isolation Forest

On 3 November 2064, after being freed from the White Zone, the Commander prepares the operation to counter Project Cocoon. The Commander also intends to eliminate Paradeus' leadership, Laplace, William and “Father”, whose real identity is Rudolf von Oberstein, and gives the remains of Gray to Nele so she can reanimate her under the Commander's control. Nele admired Gray and wants to take revenge on Paradeus for defiling her corpse and public image.

Meanwhile, Q puts Amaris in charge of investigating Project Valkyrie, which should reveal the ties between Paradeus and Rudolf Oberstein. Romy Riefenstahl and Germany's Supreme Leader maneuver to ensure the support of Gilda Ulrich in the upcoming Rossartrist world, while simultaneously coordinating with Paradeus to enact a plan called Coronation Storm. Following the Earl's advice, the Commander seeks to cooperate with the Stasi to take down Paradeus. Riefenstahl already trusts the Commander enough to have returned Task Force DEFY's neural cores back to them in Berlin, and destroying Paradeus is advantageous to hide the past dealings between them and the German government. The Commander regains property of the Elmo as a result of the deal. Amaris is diverted from her investigation to assist Nele, along with ^SG Stevens M520Stevens M520Stevens M520. Amaris and M520's strong personalities clash, but they bond over their complicated relationships with their dead sisters, respectively Aliana and ^SMG ErmaErmaErma. During two days of continuous work, Nele pours the knowledge of Hume, Persica, Lycoris and Shaw into the creation of a new type of biological AI, resurrecting Gray under the Commander's orders.

Lunasia dreams of her past as the “Holy Maiden” of a cult led by her mother. The entire cult except her died in a mass suicide. After awakening, Lunasia connects psychically with a remote Nyto to speak with William, who claims that Lunasia herself asked him to resurrect her, though she doesn't remember it. Laplace forces Lunasia's mind to enter another test subject, and also claims that Lunasia asked to make her into a “miracle”. Lunasia has a flashback to her first encounter with Laplace, where Lunasia declared she hated humanity enough to become the cause of its destruction. Lunasia doesn't recognize her own past self, and after being sent back into the body still into the Commander's custody, she threatens to commit suicide if she can't talk with them at once.

While the Stasi intercepts the shipments of Iaso's Boxes leaving the country to be delivered to the KCCO, the factories producing the bombs are easily located due to their abnormal resources consumption, as Paradeus is scrambling to complete Project Cocoon. The Commander deploys Squad 404 and Task Force DEFY to sabotage them, the Stasi publicly declare that they dismantled a terrorist operation led by General Carter, and the Commander returns the captured J to the Stasi. The operation leaves Nemhran and Hebe with just enough bombs for their plan, but they also need to securely transfer Laplace and the Cocoon that will serve as Lunasia's vessel to the White Zone for the final surgery.

By using Gray to distract Hebe and Bramedb, and with the help of Morridow as their mole, the Commander drives Laplace into a trap and Task Force DEFY seizes the Cocoon, though they find it empty. Drawing a connection between the Cocoon and the nature of Daybreak Squad, both created by Laplace, Amaris understands that Lunasia's resurrection is still not complete. With Erma already dead and Nadia sealed by AK-12, Lunasia is the last entity capable of completing Laplace's plan. Meanwhile, Nele confronts Laplace to understand why she betrayed Gray. Laplace is adamant that the lives she sacrificed were to further humanity's technological evolution and that she feels no guilt at all, and even perceives in Nele, who successfully operated on Gray, her real successor. Laplace makes a last demeaning call to William, ordering him to follow her surgical procedure exactly as to not ruin her life's work. William reveals that he cooperated with the Stasi to assassinate Laplace, and intends to resurrect his sister his own way. As Laplace is giving Nele the password to her research, Nele shoots her multiple time.

Nemhran warns Oberstein of Laplace's death, and soon after, missiles start striking Frankfurt.

Other events include:

• After the incident of the Alte Oper, the Pandora anti-Relic organization's chairwoman, Styx, publishes a propaganda video denouncing Shaw as a Relic supporter, against the wishes of Pandora's members. Styx is revealed to be a Paradeus sleeper agent.
• It is revealed that Laplace left the United States for the Neo-Soviet Union with her daughter Sana, abandoning her ex-husband. This led to the family meeting Angelia, and to Sana's death during the 2050 Beilan School Shooting.

Episode 15.6 - Convolutional Kernel

As Neo-Soviet bomber planes enter Frankfurt's air space, General Carter announces that he's attacking the city while simultaneously running a coup in Moscow in a bid to eliminate the politicians attempting to create the URNC. Dubbed "Coronation Storm" by Paradeus, the attack purposefully targets every public work needed for emergency services to function, in order to sacrifice the six million inhabitants of Frankfurt to power the final resurrection of Lunasia, who escaped the Commander's custody. The Commander and their Dolls scramble to save civilians from the bombardments and create a corridor to nearby cities to allow medical supplies in, but their efforts are frustrated by attacks of increasing cruelty over four days.

Using the state of war, Romy Riefenstahl makes a demonstration of authority and takes charge of the defense of the city while rooting out the spies Carter planted to weaken them. GDR Chairman Groß attempts to convince Rudolf von Oberstein, Paradeus' leader, to call off the attack, but he refuses. He is later gruesomely killed by Morridow just as the other ministers voted to strip him of his position, while the Earl secures an alliance with his son William to take control of Paradeus. Foreseeing Rudolf's failure, Nemhran relinquishes her authority as the top Nyto and let herself be killed by the automated security of the Bee Sting System while uploading unauthorized documents about Paradeus, intending for the Commander to find them. The last surviving Nytos, Morridow, Bramedb, Hebe and Styx, decide to keep following William, hoping that Lunasia will have a place for them in the world she's planning to create.

Meanwhile, Amaris and Nele take refuge in the Johanes Gutenberg University metro station. Nele is still shaken by her encounter with Laplace, and questions whether she should still study medicine after committing murder. Her doubts dissipate after she feels compelled to help the other refugees in need of medical assistance. When the Commander brings medicine to her temporary clinic, she gives back their gun and pledges to only wield the instruments of a life-saving doctor, like her mentor Gray. When Carter commits suicide after the Neo-Soviet army invades his command center, Coronation Storm comes to an end. The Commander contacts Kryuger and confesses that they weren't as certain as they claimed during their previous discussion about their chosen path, but that the struggle in Frankfurt reawakened the core belief they inherited from their senior when they were forced to study as the Suvorov Military School as a war orphan: fighting to protect the weak that politicians and generals consider expendable.

With emergency services taking over relief operations in Frankfurt, the Commander is free to focus on dealing the final blow to Paradeus. The Earl fails to dissuade them again and instead lets Havier handle them with an ultimatum: if the Commander doesn't give up on destroying Paradeus, Havier will activate IOP's Nidhogg Protocol, deactivating nearly every Doll under their command. The Commander still refuses to back down and Havier grants them a last favor by staggering the protocol's activation over 12 hours. Following the clues left by Paradeus during Coronation Storm, the Commander and their rapidly diminishing troops confront the surviving Nytos.

After convening with the surviving members of the government, Groß announces the creation of the URNC, claiming it is necessary to reinforce international collaboration against terrorists like Carter and to control the threats posed by Doll technology. During Groß's speech, a leaked document reveals that the URNC is sponsoring loosened regulations around Doll research, allowing successors to Paradeus to appear. Disregarding her personal safety, Nele broadcasts the document as well as the evidence of Gray's impersonation and the existence of Nytos, immediately becoming the target of the GDR's state security agencies. She's saved by Amaris, J who betrays the Stasi to protect her, and her grandfather who uses his authority as a former minister to call off her assassination. Later, Kryuger provides fake identities to Nele and J (who now uses his real name Kevin) so they can return to a quiet life.

The Commander's troops eventually prevail over the Nytos before facing the fully resurrected Lunasia, who has become the key to Relic Technology and can easily deactivate any Doll. However, Lunasia is only interested in confirming the Commander's ideals instead of fighting. Lunasia relates how she was used by her mother as the central figure of a death cult as a child, then by her father and the previous “William” as an experimental subject, which led her to seek the power of Relics to destroy mankind. It's revealed that “William” is a title worn by underground scientists and the real name of Lunasia's brother is Ballard von Oberstein, who inherited the name “William” only because Laplace herself rejected it. Lunasia reveals that Angelia's decision to sacrifice herself was based on the knowledge of alternate worlds shown to her by RPK-16 at Avernus, which demonstrated that the best outcome required her death.

Finally, Lunasia reveals that for the Commander to accomplish their true goal of destroying “William”, they should kill Nele, who inherited and embraced this role in other worlds. The Commander refuses, having confirmed earlier that the Nele from the current world repented from killing Laplace and devoted herself to medicine. With this decision, M4 wins the bet she made with the other personalities inhabiting Lunasia and takes control of her body and her powers, intending to commit suicide to deny mankind access to the Relic key, and promote the current world to objective reality, though she can't act against Ballard due to the other personalities seeking to ensure his survival. Sharing a last moment together, M4 and the Commander steal a tank and break into the White Zone before the vehicle explodes. The media announce that a Doll named Dandelion captured the Commander before self-destroying. Later, M16A1 attacks Ballard von Oberstein during a ceremony where the URNC rewards him for purportedly contributing to Frankfurt's defense, severing his left arm.

Episode 15.7 - Roche Limit

After hearing the announcement of the Commander's death, Kalina urgently leaves the hospital and flies to Frankfurt to investigate the Commander's whereabouts, knowing that the official reports are false due to Dandelion not actually being a Doll. She breaks into the warehouse where IOP stored the deactivated Dolls and manages to reactivate ^HG TokarevTokarevTokarev. The harshness of her shutdown by the Nidhogg Protocol causes random malfunctions in Tokarev's neural cloud and makes her relive her past at Griffin, especially how the Commander improved the Dolls' living condition when they arrived at Area S09 and earned their loyalty. After finding hints of the Commander accessing the Elmo, Kalina requests Kryuger's help to enter the White Zone, but he refuses. Instead, Havier helps them enter the White Zone, where they sneak into the area where the tank exploded.

Tokarev finds that the explosion was much too powerful to be normal, that there are high-end Doll bits left in the tank, and that the Commander is likely wounded but alive. Kalina also finds the Commander's ripped-up coat and faints from the shock. After Kalina recuperates at a nearby hospital, they investigate the city's medical network to find if the Commander received treatment for their wounds. Combining Tokarev's hacking abilities and Kalina's social engineering, they track down a medical truck whose existence was erased. Receiving the help of ^SG Six12Six12Six12, ^AR CZ-805CZ-805CZ-805 and ^RF C14C14C14, they follow the traces left near the truck to an underground bunker dating from the Cold War. They're attacked by security automatons, and the Dolls sacrifice themselves to let Kalina enter the bunker.

Inside, Kalina is reunited with the Commander, who reveals that the security system wasn't triggered by her, but by the approaching military troops who soon break into the bunker. Havier reveals that he only helped Kalina so she would lead him to the Commander, who surrenders and leaves Kalina behind. Kalina is about to be killed by a surviving security automaton when ^SMG UMP45UMP45UMP45 intervenes and rescues her. Two unknown parties discuss countering the plans of a traitor using a promising youngster.

Episode 15.8 - Virtual Pair

During the last fight of the Commander against the Nyto commanders, William completes Lunasia's surgery but is knocked out by an explosion before he can witness her awakening. He relives memories from his past, when he was still Ballard von Oberstein.

In his youth, Ballard was an sensitive child genius who couldn't process why humans felt hatred and used violence. His sister Lunasia asked him to help her create a world of peace and order, and protected him when their family ignored him. On one occasion, Ballard helped Lunasia save a puppy who had been tortured by hooligans, who became their own dog, Little Bill. These events caused Ballard to develop a deep devotion for his sister. When Lunasia was killed by the experiments of their father, Rudolf von Oberstein, Ballard petitioned his father to let him operate Paradeus, since Laplace was only interested in her experiments. Ballard immediately used his authority to attempt to conceal Lunasia's body, but Rudolf easily saw through him and took the body away. Ballard broke into his father's laboratory, and found that Lunasia had been dissected and her brain preserved into slices for Laplace's experiments. Developing a psychotic trauma with hallucinations of his dead sister, Ballard stole brain slices and a field surgery kit, but was pursued by his father's men. As he fled in the woods around Frankfurt, Ballard was saved by a young huntress called Nita. Manipulated by visions of his sister, Ballard decided to prove his worth to his father in order to stay in control of Paradeus until the day of his revenge. Ballard murdered Nita and used the surgery kit to turn her into the first Nyto prototype. The only subject who ever came as close to his sister as Nita was Machlian.

Coming to after the end of the battle in Frankfurt, William is taken under the Earl's protection, but believes that his surgery failed because Lunasia left with the Commander. William accepts to continue Laplace's experiments for the URNC's benefit and to take part in an awards ceremony to confirm his place as Rudolf's successor, but he's attacked during the ceremony by M16A1, who crushes his left arm. Despite his wound, the Earl urges William to meet with the recently captured Commander so they can try to find an entente. The two exchange taunts until the Commander claims that Lunasia said she has repudiated William, enraging him. Laying bare his ideal of a world purified for his and his sister's exclusive use, the Commander confirms that they will ever remain William's mortal enemy.

After the meeting, Lunasia herself calls William on the phone, begging him to abandon his murderous goals and return to the gentle child he was, but William rejects her plea, saying he's no longer a naive child and will decide what's best for her. William visits his family's manor with Little Bill, which life has been extended and body transformed by William's experiments. As he communes with a vision of Lunasia, William is attacked by one of his Stasi guards, Mona, but is saved by Little Bill and Grig, whom William hastily repaired. Growing to hate Dolls and pinning the assassination attempt on the Commander, William declares open war.

Meanwhile, the Commander is attacked by a Nyto assassin just after William leaves their meeting, and is saved by Task Force DEFY, while M16A1 meets with Squad 404 and Kalina. With the help of Dandelion, the Commander positions more assets in Frankfurt to completely corner Ballard and ensure that the Earl cannot use the legacy of “William”.

Episode 15.9 - Quantum Fluctuation

The event presents several timelines deemed failed by Lunasia, as they were observed by Dandelion:

• If the Earl had enforced the Nidhogg Protocol instead of Havier Witkin, the Commander would have launched an assault on William's underground White Zone lab with very little forces to lead a suicide bombing, resulting in their death and the deaths of AR Team, Task Force DEFY, Squad 404, ^AR AR-18AR-18AR-18 and ^SG Stevens M520Stevens M520Stevens M520.
• If Kalina didn't fall ill with ELID after the Paldiski Incident, she would have come to Germany along with the Commander and AR Team to find Machlian. Kalina would have acted as social grease, persuading Machlian to trust the Commander earlier, and even convincing Angelia to trust Machlian's intel. The Commander and Angelia would have worked together to disarm the Iaso's Boxes and survive Gray's attack at the mansion. However, they would then have attempted to approach Rudolf von Oberstein during the Unity Day party, and been killed by a strategic missile strike against the building. Having spent more time together, the Commander and Kalina would confess their love to each other before dying. In other timelines, the Commander fears that people close to them inevitably die and they keep Kalina at arm's length for this reason.
• If William had failed to create Lunasia, the Commander would have easily killed him in the underground White Zone. Disappointed, the Earl would have let German law take its course, and the Commander would have been tried as a murderer and endured torture in prison. Initially satisfied to have destroyed Paradeus, the Commander would later be visited by a Nyto, revealing that their sacrifice was in vain. After the Commander's disappearance, in a Frankfurt under Paradeus' complete control, J, Squad 404, Task Force DEFY and Stevens M520 would have led an assault against Paradeus' underground lab to save or avenge the Commander, only to find that the Earl had put Nele in charge of Paradeus. With enhanced Nytos deadlier than ever and Amaris modified into a T-Doll so strong as to overpower even ^AR AK-15AK-15AK-15, the attacking force would have been utterly wiped out.

In the core timeline, it is revealed that Lunasia/M4A1 prevented the Commander from killing William after the successful White Zone assault so they would avoid the disastrous timeline described above. The Commander's capture by Havier during Roche Limit was a strategy to infiltrate Dandelion into the URNC's systems. After surviving the Nyto's attack in their hotel room, the Commander is invited by the Earl to the TV show Celebrity Meeting, hosted by Shadowless, to perform as the hero of Frankfurt and recite Rossartrist messages. The Commander has the unwelcome surprise to be interviewed alongside William, but Shadowless goes off-script and pressures William to comment on Nele's revelations, about the URNC authorizing formerly illegal research, giving the Commander the spotlight.

Meanwhile, Kalina, M16A1 and Squad 404 infiltrate one of Paradeus' remaining factories, now under the control of the Earl, and allow Dandelion to infiltrate its systems, which leads her to William's hideout: the former Oberstein research institute, where William discovered Lunasia's remains years ago. Escaping the hotel with Dandelion's help, the Commander leads the plan to completely eliminate Paradeus : while themselves, Task Force DEFY and M16A1 will attack the Oberstein institute, Kalina would lead Squad 404 and the rebuilt ^HG TokarevTokarevTokarev team to destroy the eight remaining Paradeus factories. Because of Persica's meddling, AR Team cannot take part in the final battle.

Dandelion perceives a timeline where William actually ran away from the institute and warned the Earl so he could capture the Commander, but consider it an extremely unlikely event since William is just as determined to kill the Commander as the Commander is to kill him. She also perceives another timeline where the Commander attacks head-on and their forces are wiped out by William's traps and overwhelming amount of troops. But in the core timeline, M16A1 makes a detour by IOP's warehouses and reactivates the Dolls shut down by the Nidhogg Protocol so they can take part in the attack. Dandelion perceives one last failed timeline where Grig assassinates the Commander just before they can reach William, but she prevents it herself by taking over Tokarev's body and saving the Commander.

When the Commander and Dandelion confront William, Dandelion takes control of his Nyto White bodyguards, forcing William to reveal his trump card: a “perfected”, loyal and combat-ready version of Lunasia, holding only the memories that William deemed necessary. However, Dandelion subdues her by confronting her to her nature as one of the many clones of Lunasia, and eventually absorbing her into her own gestalt mind, first constituted with the Isomers back in Tallin (during Shattered Connexion). With William finally helpless and Paradeus' data and facilities all destroyed, the Commander shoots him and confirms his death. Taking back control of her body, Dandelion makes the Commander promise to never investigate the power of Nirvana that Lunasia has been using, as it is too dangerous for humanity to control.

Old Man Mikhail, who had been assisting the Commander (presumably through M16A1), calls to confirm the destruction of Paradeus, then asks the Commander to keep their part of their deal by taking the Elmo and leaving without taking anyone with them. The Commander's only request is that the Griffin Dolls are to be granted complete freedom. Writing a letter to the Commander, Tokarev explains how, when Griffin & Kryuger was restructured, all the T-Dolls were offered the choice to join a PMC or return to civilian life, but also had to sign an agreement to never seek or meet with the Commander again. Tokarev believes that the strong bond between the Commander and the Dolls will allow them to meet again regardless.

In a call between the Earl and the Commander, the Earl expresses his regret that the Commander would choose exile and give up their chance to change the world, and the Commander replies that they can't make the world better by continuing to act as the Earl's pawn. The Earl assures the Commander that they will be involved again in the future. This is the same phone call that takes place in the prelude of Girls' Frontline 2: Exilium.

In the epilogue sequence, a mysterious lifeform takes control of William's corpse.