“Today’s test will be graded simulated missions. You will be given objectives to complete just like you would in a normal combat sim mission. You will be graded on how well you perform while in the missions. You will need ten points to pass and the mission must be completed. There are two ways to gain points. The most common way is enemy kills. I warn you now though if you get more deaths than kills you can lose points. For you meathead that means that every enemy death in the positive, you get an extra point. The opposite is also true. If your deaths are greater than your kills you will lose a point for every death that's above your kill number. Kill four enemies but die five times that a negative point against you. The only other way to gain points is to win an objective.” The drill instructor explained to the company.

“You will be given three missions to choose from. If you fail a mission or get less than ten points in the first mission you may choose to do another mission but the points will not carry over to the next mission. If you fail that mission you may do the last mission but if you fail the last mission you will fail Basic. You will get E-points and credits from these missions but if you fail to do enough to pass the test you will receive nothing. That also means if you pass the first mission and want to do another you may. If you complete the mission you get the rewards from both missions. Questions? No? Good.” The instructor said not caring if they had questions or not.

“One more thing.” The drill instructor said turning around to face the company. “Just like in a real sim you are all too low level to be part of a Named Platoon so to reflect what you will face once you leave here this is a solo event. You will be assigned to a platoon with random soldiers from other Bastic Training companies. Good luck.”

The drill instructor led Freya’s group from the barracks in a direction they had never been before. The path led to several small buildings with console trees set up in front of the buildings. Freya knew from her downloaded information that the console trees would be the place where they would pick their missions. The small buildings were sim gates where a person would be transported to a lobby to get familiar with their new squad or platoon depending on the mission. From there they would be transported to the sim mission.

The drill instructor had them fall out and pick their missions. The company dissolved into a crowd as people went to the console trees. Freya picked the tree farthest to the left because it was the least crowded. The console trees were just a pole sticking up from the ground with five computers attached to it. She knew that until she ranked up she had to use the trees to find missions. It was annoying but understandable. The Marines never gave anything away. You had to earn it.

She found an empty console and placed her hand on the screen. The console auto-identified her and the missions appeared on the screen. The first mission was a search and destroy mission where she would be a member of a platoon that would be sent into a jungle environment. The platoon would be searching for a suspected enemy division that was in the area. The job of the platoon was to act as bait and get the enemy to attack. Once the enemy took the bait, command would send an artillery barrage to end the enemy. After the barrage ended they would be tasked to search and kill any survivors that survived the barrage. The mission had three objectives and the completion task was to survive the mission. The reward was two E-points and one skill and one mod point. There were no respawns

“That is either a very easy mission, or a very bad one.” Freya thought to herself as she swiped up to see the next mission.

The second was to defend five machine gun nests for ten hours at night. It had five objectives and a single completion task that told her that one of the machine gun nest had to survive and be operational after the full ten hours. The terrain was listed as a forest on a mountain. The reward was the same as the first. There was one respawn available.

“Five objectives are nice.” Se thought to herself as she swiped upwards again to see the last mission.

The last mission was to clear a town of suspected enemies. The mission had ten objectives and a completion task of clearing five houses. The reward was the same as the last two missions. There was four respawn available.

“Ok, the hardest seems to be the search and kill mission. It has only three objectives so to pass I need seven kills. With no respawns available means that it's going to be really hard.” She thought to herself. “I should do the hardest mission first so that if I fail the mission it won’t be so bad to pass the other two.”

With that in mind, she accepted the first mission and was told to enter lobby 7. She looked around at the small buildings and found one that had a big blue seven on the door. It was on the opposite side from where her console tree was located. Shaking her head she made her way to the building.

As she passed the building she examined them. They were all identical except for the numbers written in blue on the airlock like doors. Beside each door was a blue control panel that people were touching to open the doors. She couldn’t see what was inside the buildings because as soon as the door opened up a really bright blue light appeared preventing anyone from seeing inside the room.

She found her building but instead of entering the building right away she had to wait her turn. She was the fourth person in line. They had to wait for the person at the front of the line to open the doors. Then they had to wait until the door closed before the next person could go. Freya found it impossible slow even though she only had to wait for about a minute. She hated how they had to manually open the doors by placing their hand on the lock. It just seemed so inefficient. Finally, it was her turn and she entered the lobby.

“Finally.” Someone muttered as Freya found herself in a locker room. She looked around at the coed crowd that was waiting for her. She was the only one not in her battle gear. She hurried to the closest locker and equipped her battle armor. The armor she got wasn't really armored just a set of hard to rip camo uniform. It wouldn’t stop a bullet let alone a laser from penetrating it. The stupid armor didn't even have any ballistic shielding on it. The helmet she was issued didn’t even have night vision. She was suddenly glad she hadn’t picked the ten hour night mission. She hadn't even thought about night vision being needed when she was reading the mission specs. She just assumed that they would be issued some.

“Ok, we need to get organized. If no one has any problems I would like to lead this one.” A male recruit said standing by another airlock like-door. When no one said anything he continued. “I’ll take that as no. Alright anyone have any idea on how the patrol line up should go?” Again no one said anything.

“We are going to need someone to volunteer to be on the point position. This is my second mission so I rather it not be me.” The recruit platoon leader said. For the third time, no one spoke up. Freya was still processing the fact that the man was on his second mission. “Did he fail the first one or is this just for points and credits?” She wondered to herself.

“How about you.” The recruit platoon leader said pointing at a small skinny guy near the door.

“Hell no, man. I already failed two mission already. I need to pass this one.” The small man said.

“Ok, has anyone already passed their mission yet? If you did, can you please take point.” The recruit platoon leader said desperation plainly showing in his voice.

When no one said anything Freya sighed. “I’ll do it. This is my first mission. I still have two left.”

“Thanks!” The recruit platoon leader said relieved.

Taking the point in a mission like this was almost guaranteeing that she would fail the mission. The point position on the patrol was the most dangerous position as it was the forward most person on the patrol. The person on the point position was the one most likely to stumble into the enemy first and because of that he or she was the one who was most likely to die.

Once she picked up the point position everyone volunteered for a position in the patrol soon afterward. She made her way to the door and they all lined up behind her in their patrol positions. She placed her hand on the door lock and waited for it to open.

“Keep your distance and don’t bunch up. Ten meters between people. Stay off paths and don’t go kill crazy. Objectives come first before kills. Objectives give everyone points while kills give points to a single person. If I go down the person behind me is in charge. If he’s dead then it goes to the next person down the line.” The recruit platoon leader said as the door slowly opened.

“Move out.” He commanded and Freya stepped through the door and found herself in a jungle. She looked back and saw the door looking out of place in the brush. She could see the others in the lobby waiting to walk throught the door. She kept on walking forwards so the other could exit the door.

“It’s bigger on the inside.” She muttered with a smile. She raised her rifle up and crouched down. The jungle ended right about fifty feet from the door. She paused by the end of the jungle and looked out. In front of her was a wide open field of grass and mud that was maybe four times the size of a football field. The thick green/yellow grass rose to about her knees. She could see a bunch earthen rises about three feet tall breaking the field up into somewhat neat squares. On the top right of her field of vision, a small circular map floated on her HUD showing her the path the platoon needed to follow which was right out in the open and across the huge field.

She looked back as the platoon filed out of the door and took cover in the jungle. The recruit platoon leader looked around to make sure everyone was ready and he gave Freya the signal to go. She nodded to him and looked around at the field again. With a sigh, she headed out into the grass and mud.

She could hear the crickets chirping in the grass and the occasional bug fly by her head. She crouched as low as she could as she walked across the field. It must have rained recently because the mud was mostly water and her boots made a lot of sounds as she pulled them out of the mud as she took a step. She kept her eyes scanning the grass looking for movement or anything out of place.

It's a lot like hunting back home but I have a bunch of very loud people following me." Freya thought to herself with a small weary smile.

She could feel the heat beat down on her as she walked towards the first earthen berm. She paused when she got to it/ Leaning on it, she inspected the other side of the berm. Nothing looked out of place so she rolled over the berm and got to her feet and kept on going. In front of her, there were two more berms then jungle. To her right, there were a few berms between her and the jungle. To her left was a large muddy river. She scanned the area with her eyes wondering when the ambush would take place. There was no way there wouldn’t be an ambush.

She looked back behind her at the strung-out platoon. She smiled and shook her head as she turned back around. They were leaving way more than ten meters distance from her and the next person. She looked to her left towards the large river. She wondered if the enemy would have boats.

She got to the second berm and rolled over it. She quickly got to her feet and looked around not stopping her slow walk across the field. There was nothing on the other side of the berm but more grass and mud. She started looking in the jungle in front of her wondering if the ambush would happen in the jungle or right before it.

She was picturing enemy soldiers hiding behind huge ferns in the middle of the jungle when the she heard the sound of a wall of gunfire in front of her. She dove forward trying to find cover in the grass. She landed and some of the muddy water splashed up into her face. She ran her hands over her face to wipe the water off her face as bullets fly over her head sounding way to close.

She hugged the ground as close as possible. She could feel the bullets flying just over her like hot insects. She aimed her gun blindly at the noise and started to fire through the grass. “Stupid piece of ….” She cursed angrily as her gun jammed. She pulled the slid back and ejected the jammed bullet and released it back into position. Fear pounded through her and she quickly started pulling the trigger.

The first objective met. The second objective, survive until the artillery ends. Time to artillery two minutes.

Freya cursed again as the blue box appeared. “How the hell am I supposed to survive for two minutes like this.” She thought to herself. She was raising up her rifle after she reloaded it when a bullet landed very close to her left.

“That didn’t come from in front of me.” She thought in near panic. She turned to look right and saw some the grass jerk violently towards her.

“Were getting ambushed from both sides.” She thought in fear as she started to fire towards her right blindly. She fired a few rounds to her right before she turned her rifle towards her front and fired the last few bullets in her magazine.

She reloaded and kept up the suppressing fire to her right and front. Behind her, she heard someone crying out in pain. Someone had gotten hit. She knew that the clone bodies had a lot fewer pain receptors than a normal person did but they could still feel pain. The pain was supposed to be only twenty percent of the human normal but from the screaming coming from the person who was hit, she was not sure if the military had lied to them.

“Does getting hit hurt that badly?” She wondered in fear as she struggled to pull the magazine out of her gun. It somehow got stuck.

Once she got it unstuck she raised her rifle up to start shooting again but she heard a whistling sound. Frowning she wondered where it was coming from and why it was getting louder. About two seconds after she heard a loud explosion to her right. “Mortars!” She thought in horror.

The one whistle became several whistles as the mortars came falling all around her. Dropping her rifle she curled up into the fetal position and hugged her head. Every time the mortar hit she could feel her bones shake inside her body. She screamed in fear but the sound was muffled as the explosion rocked the very ground she was lying on.

The explosions stopped just as they had begun, suddenly and without warning. Freya opened her eyes and looked at the timer in the left-hand corner of her field of vision unbelieving. They still had a little more than a minute left until their artillery started firing. She grabbed her gun but didn’t fire. The battlefield fell silent.

“Retreat!” someone yelled behind her.

“No!” She called out as she turned to look behind her but it was too late. She could see someone from the platoon get up and start to run away. Two more people got up to follow him. They all died as the sounds of gunfire returned to the battlefield. She stared at where they had fallen. They didn’t fall like in the vids, shaking as the bullets hit them but they fell down as if they were being held up by rope and someone had cut that rope. They simply dropped.

She felt the fear change into anger as she realized that one of the people who turned to run was their platoon leader. He had just failed his second mission. He should out of the Marines for being a coward. Cursing in anger at the stupid people, she turned around again started firing in front of her. She had no idea where the mortars had come from but figured one direction was as good as the next.

She fired her rifle until it ran dry then reloaded. Raising the gun again she pulled the trigger again. Each time she pulled the trigger she cursed at something. First, it was the stupid recruit platoon leader that was stupid enough to blow his cover and get killed. Then she cursed the stupid people who got up to follow the cowardly platoon leader. She didn’t pause in her cursing as she reloaded and started to fire again. She was still firing when the next blue box appeared telling her to take cover the rounds from the artillery was inbound.

If she thought the mortars were loud but the artillery strike was ten times as loud. Unlike the mortars, there was no sound before the rounds landed. One second there was just the sounds of gunfire then there was the loudest thunder she had ever heard. The she felt herself being bumped upwards as the ground shook. She dropped her rifle again and tried to cover her ears but her helmet got in the way. If it wasn’t really hard to take her helmet off and she would have ripped it off her head to cover her ears if reason had reared its ugly head. She knew better to remove her only protection against shrapnel that was flying around. The pain in her ears was like someone was stabbing her eardrums.

Objective two has been met. Survive the artillery barrage. The third objective: search the area around where the artillery had landed and kill anyone who has survived.

Freya looked at the blue box in shock. “I survived that?” She thought in surprise. She was even more surprised when she looked to the right of her field of vision and saw colored in red kills: 4 in her HUD.

“I killed four people?” She asked herself in surprise. “How? When?”

When she didn’t get an answer she shook her head. “Can’t lay in the grass all day.” She muttered out loud. Behind her, someone giggled. She popped her head up above the grass line and looked around then ducked her head quickly and waited. When there was no return of gunfire she stood up ready at any second to drop to the mud again.

She looked around in amazement. The jungle in front and to the right was gone. In its place was a forest of broken trees and dirt. She lifted her gun and looked behind her to see if anyone else was getting up. She wasn’t the first person to stand but she was really close. The rest of the platoon slowly got to their feel.

“Everyone on your feet.” Someone close to the back yelled. It was not the recruit platoon leader.

“I’m hurt.” Someone yelled out.

“Me too.” Another person yelled out.

“Can you finish the mission?” The new recruit platoon leader called out.

“No, I’m injured.” The second person yelled out.

“If you got the ‘wait for medivac’ message then your good. If you didn’t then you will fail the mission if you don’t get up and complete the mission. If you didn’t get the medivac message then the Monarch thinks you are not injured enough to need a medivac. You better get up and complete the mission or get a fail.” The new recruit platoon leader yelled out.

“I got the ‘wait for medivac’ message.” The first voice yelled out. “I got hit in my leg. Got a tourniquet on it but I think I lost a lot of blood.

“You need anything?” The new recruit platoon leader asked as he walked up to where the first voice was coming from.

Freya saw a new figure stand up. He was holding a bandage to his neck. He started walking cursing the Monarch. Freya chuckled and turned around and started walking towards the destruction that the barrage had left of the jungle. She stopped by the berm and looked over it to the other side. About ten feet from her was a wounded man. He was looking at her with his gun laying beside him.

She lifted her gun and fired before she even thought about it. She pulled the trigger a few times. It wasn’t the first time she shot something. Back home hunting wild animals was an important survival trait if a person wanted to survive the winter. It was, however, the first time she shot a human even if the human was only a digital fake human.

The first bullet shook him. The second and third bullet dropped him on his side. He didn’t react to the rest of the bullets that hit him. She only stopped firing at him because she ran out of bullets. The red kill count beside her turned to five.

The rest of the platoon dropped where they were at when she started to fire her rifle. They only stood up when she reloaded but didn’t fire. “We good?” The new recruit platoon leader asked.

“Yea,” Freya said a little shaken. In her head, she knew she still hadn’t killed anyone but a sim person but still she felt like she did. She scanned the area again before she climbed over the berm and started walking again.

She reached the edge of the jungle a few minutes later. Looking around she spotted bodies everywhere. Some were in pieces and all the bodies looked like they were painted in black. Freya shook her head and walked on only to stop as she saw a man with no legs tried to crawl away. She raised her gun but didn’t fire. She watched him frozen unable to move as he crawled away.

The sound of gunfire behind her had her spinning around with her gun at the ready but the man behind her lowered his gun. He looked at Freya as she lowered her gun. “Sorry needed the kill.” He said sheepishly.

Freya gave him an evil look before she turned around again to explored the area. She spotted another wounded enemy soldier. He was reaching for his gun so Freya killed him before moving on. The platoon spread out on either side of her in a line and started to walk through the area. Every once and while she heard gunfire but she was starting to recognize the difference between the enemy gunfire and her own platoon gunfire.

Once they swept the area that had been in front of her they turned north to where the second barrage had taken place. It was just as bad as the first place the only difference was that she didn’t spot any injured nor did she hear any gunfire. Frowning she made her way through the devastation.

She started hearing voices in front of her when she was halfway through the barrage area. She held up her hand to stop the platoon. She motioned that she heard talking then pointed at the direction where she heard it. She crept forward slowly trying to be as quiet as possible. The voices were coming from just outside the barrage area in the jungle. She pushed her way slowly through the brush until she came saw them.

It was a camp. There were tents and ammo boxes placed all around the camp. The people in the camp were mostly distracted with the wounded in the camp. There were still a lot of people with guns running around. She turned back to her platoon then motioned for them to come and look. Looking at what was left of her platoon she was startled to see how few they were now.

The new recruit platoon leader came up beside her and looked at the camp. He turned to her and crossed his finger over his neck telling her the people needed to be killed. He motioned for everyone to spread out in a line then wait for his signal to fire. He took a few steps away from her and raised his rifle. Freya looked away from him and raised her rifle as well. She sighted down her gun at a man who looked in charge.

The new recruit platoon leader fired his gun and the rest of the platoon fired with him. Freya reloaded her gun four times before there were no more targets. Her red kill count was now flashing eighteen.

You have completed the last objectives, kill all the survivors of the artillery barrage. You have successfully completed the mission. Please return to the lobby.

“We should collect the loot.” One of her platoon mates said pointing to the boxes of weapons and ammo. Everyone in the platoon looked at their leader who nodded. Freya shouldered her rifle and picked up a box.

“We will split all the credits so don’t be picky.” The new recruit platoon leader said as two people were arguing over a large box that was beside a very large tent.

There was a new landmark where they were supposed to go on her HUD map. Freya waited until everyone had at least one box and headed to the new waypoint. Less than a minute later she spotted the door left the simulation. It opened automatically as she walked towards it. She stepped into the light.

You have completed the mission successfully. You are awarded two E-points. You are awarded one skill point and one mod point. Completed mission 10 Credits. Looted Credits: 2 Credits

Bonus 1: For volunteering for a dangerous assignment you are award two E-points. You are rewarded one skill point and one mod point. 5 Credits Bonus 2: For the highest kill count you are awarded two E-points. You are awarded one skill point and one mod point. 1 Credit.

Congratulations you have leveled up.

Congratulations you have leveled up

Congratulations you have leveled up

Congratulations you have leveled up

Status Screen

Name: Freya O’Malley

Rank: Recruit Level: 3

Template: None

Enlisted Points: 7

Credits: 18

Skill Points: 3

Mod Points: 3

Wetware Mods

Health:

Level: 0

Health Regen:

Level: 0

Strength:

Level: 0

Perception:

Level: 0

Agility:

Level: 0

Dexterity:

Level: 0

Memory:

Level: 0

Processing speed:

Level: 0

Skills

None

Hardware mods: None

Warning Mod and Skill assignments locked until seen by a counselor.