AR Team

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Complete AR Team in Girls' Frontline: Doll's Song.

“	Ultimately, victory is all that matters – everything else can be sacrificed. How very characteristic of the AR Team. — Dandelion commenting on AR Team.	”

AR Team (AR小队), short for Antirain Team, is an elite Tactical Doll team formed in 2061. Though members of the team have more volatile emotions and lesser individual efficiency than other elite T-Dolls due to their personality quirks, the team still has high operational performance and has a greater degree of autonomy than others. ^AR M4A1M4A1M4A1, ^AR ST AR-15ST AR-15ST AR-15, ^AR M4 SOPMOD IIM4 SOPMOD IIM4 SOPMOD II, ^AR M16A1M16A1M16A1, and ^SMG RO635RO635RO635 were all part of the team at some point, with all members receiving the prime directive to protect M4. Before RO, members of the team are also not able to backup their Neural Cloud like other dolls.

Story

Origins

^AR M4 SOPMOD IIM4 SOPMOD IIM4 SOPMOD II tells ^SMG RO635RO635RO635 stories from AR Team's past.

The members of AR Team were created by Persica with the neural imprint derived from the brains of clones of Lunasia von Oberstein. Persica acquired the brains after the clones were created and sent to attack Griffin & Kryuger bases by William von Oberstein as part of his plan to entice Persica into recreating Lunasia's mind. Persica was aware of William's plans, but could not resist the temptation of creating the first Neural Cloud derived from a human brain. ^AR M16A1M16A1M16A1 was created first, then ^AR ST AR-15ST AR-15ST AR-15 and ^AR M4 SOPMOD IIM4 SOPMOD IIM4 SOPMOD II, then ^AR M4A1M4A1M4A1. ^SMG RO635RO635RO635 was designed based on the team's training data some time around the Butterfly Incident in late 2061, but Persica made her go through a period of "enrichment" before adding her to the team, where she served as a police Doll and then as leader of Team Palette.

During the first test activation of M4A1, Persica elected to use the data of a well-known weapon for her Imprint, the M4A1 rifle, and subsequently used weapons of the same design family to create a sense of sisterhood in the team. It would take some time for M4A1 to function reliably and be put in command of AR. In the meantime, Persica deployed M16A1 to take part in Operation Butterfly to protect Lycoris' life. The mission would fail and M16A1 become infected with an early strain of the Parapluie Virus. AR Team's first exercise was a disaster due to M4's lack of strategic and fighting skills, but she eventually became a reliable, if sometimes too indecisive command doll. Persica eventually loaned AR Team to Griffin & Kryuger.

In 2062, the team was deployed for several retrieval operations in Sangvis Ferri territory in order to secure all of Lycoris' research data. Unknown to anyone, OGAS consciousnesses were growing among the members of the team, spreading from M16's Neural Cloud after her infection during the Butterfly Incident.

Against Sangvis Ferri

^AR ST AR-15ST AR-15ST AR-15 takes ^AR M4A1M4A1M4A1 to safety after KCCO's attack.

During a mission at Safe House 3 in Area S09, they encountered heavy resistance from Agent and were forced to disperse. They were led by Angelia at the time but she had AR Team's memories of her wiped, only leaving them with a vague sense of familiarity when they met again. After the retreat, AR Team members were recovered one by one by the Commander, starting a long history of collaboration and trust between AR Team and the Commander. The team lost AR-15 during a new Sangvis attack: she had previously been infected by a new Parapluie virus and launched a suicide attack on the local dummy of the Sangvis Mastermind. M4A1 was soon after temporarily put out of commission by another attack by Mastermind, who damaged her Neural Cloud and her role as team leader was filled by Persica's latest addition to the team, ^SMG RO635RO635RO635.

AR Team then lost a third member during their last data retrieval operation at Sangvis Base 0 when they had to leave M16 behind, which M16 and Persica had secretly organized in order to capture critical information for M4's recovery at the cost of infecting M16 with a new Parapluie. After her successful reactivation, and carrying a deep thirst for revenge against Mastermind and for the power to prevent losing any more members of AR Team, M4 extracted SOP II and RO from their search of M16 in order to participate in the joint G&K-KCCO assault on Sangvis Ferri. During the mission, Elisa repeatedly pried into M4's Neural Cloud and RO tried to use electronic warfare countermeasures to protect her, but a KCCO team led by Captain Yegor attacked SOP II, ^RF Carcano M1891Carcano M1891Carcano M1891 and ^RF Carcano M91∕38Carcano M91∕38Carcano M91∕38 when they tried to stop them from disturbing RO, then shot RO in the head with a handgun before abandoning the shell-shocked M4. During the Great Retreat, M4 was recovered by Task Force DEFY, which had previously also recovered and rebuilt AR-15. SOP-II also managed to survive KCCO's attack, make field repairs and recover RO's Neural Cloud before joining the fleeing Griffin forces, setting up a two-members AR Team again during the Belgrade events.

Against Paradeus

^AR ST AR-15ST AR-15ST AR-15 enters ^AR M4A1M4A1M4A1's Neural Cloud to save her from the Isomers.

M4 and AR-15 also operated in Belgrade under Task Force DEFY and they joined back AR Team at the end of their missions. By that time, the voices of OGAS had emerged in the Neural Clouds of M4, M16 and AR-15, but only M4 enabled her OGAS to influence her goals and actions. The four-members AR Team joined the Commander in the mission to secure the Starfish installation in the Paldiski Submarine Base in Estonia. M4's OGAS helped the Griffin forces to pass through the contaminated city of Tallinn, and gained a physical form by taking over the discarded body of Nimogen. M4 would name her Dandelion, though Dandelion's loyalty laid entirely in herself, and to some extent in M4, rather than in AR Team. At the start of the Paldiski Base battle, AR Team and Squad 404 were sent as vanguards, with AR Team tasked with taking control of the nearby shore guns to provide artillery fire against the attacking KCCO forces. After wrestling back control of the shore guns from KCCO forces with the unexpected help of Sangvis Ferri units and taking out the KCCO's armored train, AR Team then joined back the main forces of the Commander and were temporarily put under the command of Angelia to fight against KCCO's Sinner mechs.

However, with the plan to flood the base in seawater ongoing and the appearance of M16, M4 ordered AR Team to retreat so she could confront M16 and prevent Elisa from using the Starfish alone, as the only one able to counter the electronic attacks from M16's OGAS. While the rest of AR Team rescued the Commander from KCCO soldiers after they planted the explosives on the base's sea valves, M4 and Dandelion prevailed over M16, then stopped Elisa from fusing with the Starfish. To save them from the flooding of the base, M4 coalesced with OGAS and triggered a Reverse Collapse, transporting them to Tarot Paradise. In this Relic space, M4 and M16 encountered AR-15, RO and SOP-II from another world line where M16 had died in Paldiski and M4 in Frankfurt. The alternate AR Team had returned to Paldiski to enter Tarot Paradise after receiving a message from the mysterious Leinad Kcaj, who asked to help create a world line where everyone in AR Team could survive. Leinad Kcaj was in fact M16, who recovered the message from the alternate AR Team before sending it back in time for them to find, creating a paradoxical time loop.

Berlin events

M16A1 stops Morridow from abducting M4A1.

Now down to three members again, AR Team continued to operate under the Commander's orders and followed them to Germany, where they were ordered by Griffin Lyons to locate Machlian, a suspected Paradeus VIP, in the village of Bonhsdorf. Along with Dandelion, Squad 404 and Squad Griffin, AR Team used Machlian's intel to prevent Paradeus terrorist bombings around Berlin. They then investigated a Paradeus plant used to produce an anti-ELID serum, but this was a trap set by Morridow. With inhibitors preventing Dandelion from using electronic attacks and several high-ranking Nytos on site, Squad Griffin was destroyed and AR Team was nearly wiped out until Squad 404 destroyed the inhibitors, enabling M4 to take remote control of Dandelion. M4 had met with the incomplete Lunasia in Tarot Paradise and temporarily merged with her to gain the power to alter causality, in order to save the Commander.

Using her new powers, M4 eliminated the Paradeus forces and captured Morridow before conducting repeated electronic attacks on her mind when AR Team's physical interrogation failed. While Morridow's intel enabled Griffin's forces to investigate Paradeus' Project Cocoon, M4 also insisted on “saving” Morridow and refused to talk about her own situation, though she was confident that AR Team would continue to grow with each challenge they were faced with. While AR Team and the Commander's forces tried to prevent a shipment of Iaso's Boxes from leaving Berlin Airport, Morridow attempted to abduct M4 but was stopped by M16A1, who had been deployed in Berlin and temporarily joined back AR Team while waiting for further orders. M16 also claimed that the person who had saved them at the Paradeus plant was not M4 but something else. She then left soon after to carry her own mission on behalf of StateSec, who had recovered her in Paldiski after she left the Tarot Paradise.

AR Team indirectly took part in the defense of the Area S09 against KCCO when Persica took remote control of the team's dummies.

Battle of the Dead Sea and Frankfurt

^AR M4 SOPMOD IIM4 SOPMOD IIM4 SOPMOD II and ^SMG RO635RO635RO635 escape the destruction of Avernus.

During Operation Aeneas, AR-15 remained with the Commander and Dandelion as a bodyguard while RO and SOP-II took part in the assault on Avernus as Squad Umbrella. M16 also took part in the battle under StateSec's command. RO managed to find and resuscitate Angelia, who requisitioned more troops for Operation Muromets. AR-15 joined the fight in Squad Taraxacum, protecting Dandelion. After realizing that her intervention from Tarot Paradise in Berlin had only slightly extended the Commander's life, M4 accepted to merge with Lunasia in order to create a world line where all of her loved ones would survive. She awakened as Lunasia in the Lake of Cognition. When Dandelion connected to the Evangel Axis in Avernus, she made contact with Lunasia, who left her with a cryptic warning. All AR Team members successfully left Avernus before its destruction, though SOP-II suffered over 90% body damage.

Member

• Persicaria (director)
• ^AR M4A1M4A1M4A1 (second-in-command)
• ^AR ST AR-15ST AR-15ST AR-15
• ^AR M4 SOPMOD IIM4 SOPMOD IIM4 SOPMOD II
• ^AR M16A1M16A1M16A1
• ^SMG RO635RO635RO635 (ex-leader of Palette Team)

Gallery

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  The original AR Team, from left to right: ^AR M4 SOPMOD IIM4 SOPMOD IIM4 SOPMOD II, ^AR M16A1M16A1M16A1, ^AR ST AR-15ST AR-15ST AR-15 and ^AR M4A1M4A1M4A1.
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  Release trailer still.
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  June 2023 Login Screen.
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  In Cartesian Theater.

Trivia

• Though all members of AR Team use weapons based on the AR-15, ^AR ST AR-15ST AR-15ST AR-15 wasn't the first member of the team to be created, it was ^AR M16A1M16A1M16A1. Other Dolls with weapons based on the AR-15 are in the game but are not part of AR Team, such as ^AR AR-57AR-57AR-57, ^AR CM901CM901CM901, ^AR SCRSCRSCR, ^AR R5R5R5, ^AR BeowulfBeowulfBeowulf and ^AR AR-18AR-18AR-18.
• The logo of AR has the numbers 3, 15, 12 and 20 on it in reference to the four letters of the weapons manufacturer Colt.
• The full name of the team, “Antirain”, is a foreshadowing of the importance of the Parapluie (French for “Umbrella”) virus in their story.
• AR Team has a terrible reputation of being cold and brutal soldiers sacrificing other dolls for their missions. Though this isn't true, AR Team does tend to keep a distance from their Dolls colleagues at Griffin.
• Before their overhaul in January 2017, the four original AR Team members were so subpar that some players scrapped them even though they couldn't be recovered. They were added for a limited time as map drops during the 'Echo' AR Squad Emergency Rescue Operation, and M4A1 and ST AR-15 were also obtainable during the Singularity event. Index recovery has since been added to the game.
  • In Cartesian Theater, players were given the chance to acquire a duplicate of an AR Team member by using a Corrupted Heart Mask, acquired by beating the final boss in Hard mode.
• The only AR Team member to receive a costume outside of Neural Upgrades within the first four years after the game was released was ^AR ST AR-15ST AR-15ST AR-15 with the Literary Girl costume. The rest of the team received their first costume outside of Neural Upgrades with the Rabbit Wonderland costume series during the game's fourth anniversary in May 2020.
• The furniture Magrasea Classroom - Classroom Shelf prominently features the letters “AR”.
• A concept art shared by Lowlight on Weibo in February 2016, during Girls' Frontline's third beta, shows a sixth AR Team member with features similar to SOP-II, along with what appears to be an early concept for the Commander or Angelia. There is speculation that Lowlight reused parts of this concept when working on Arknights:
  • The hood of the top character is similar to the one worn by the Doctor.
  • Like the conceptual sixth AR Team member, W shares SOP-II's black clothes and light hair with red highlights. Moreover, W is also a sadistic soldier and she carries an M4A1 CQBR Mk18 on her back.

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  AR Team tiles pattern before the overhaul.
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  Concept-arts by Lowlight.
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